This is real! It's a Frilled Shark. Scary, huh?Think you had a bad day? A 78-year old German woman went in for knee surgery. Somebody mixed up something and instead of a new knee she got a new anus. I do NOT make this stuff up; I just report it! Read it for yourself: German Surgeons....
Aren't you glad I spend time finding these must-read stories so you don't have to?
Speaking of must-reads, in last week's TIME magazine they have a string of one-page articles grouped under the title, "Ten Ideas Changing the World." The one that caught my attention was #10: "Re-Judaizing Jesus." It says that Christianity (the article cited Rob Bell as an example) is re-discovering the Jewishness of Christ, that he lived in accord with and taught his followers to live in accord with the Mosaic Law.
Well, duh!!
Who knew mid-Acts dispensationalists were now cutting edge? Apparently we haven't been doing a real good job of communicating.
Yesterday I worked outside all afternoon and then played 9 holes. I knew I probably wasn't drinking enough fluids, but I don't like to stop when I'm working (they're paying me an hourly rate) and I quickly went through the bottle of water I put in my golf bag.
Today I was reminded what it feels like the day after you get dehydrated. More accurately, when you're still dehydrated. Not so good.
I picked USC through the third round. I'm toast.
I was thinking today about our Easter service at the park Sunday. It's going to be pretty modest! A gal is coming to lead music; a trusted friend says she's really good. She'll lead us in four songs done in two sets. Todd will read Scripture, Josh will pray, and I'll preach. That's it.
At first I felt like this was pretty lame. But as I was reading through the Gospel narratives this morning I decided that I prefer it this way.
I have often told couples who come to me for pre-marital counseling that wedding ceremonies never get smaller. No matter what they have in mind for their ceremony, as the wedding gets closer that ceremony will get bigger and more complex. I warn them that if they don't draw lines and learn to say "no", soon they'll find that they are serving the ceremony, not the other way around. The best, most moving weddings at which I've officiated have been the simplest.
Maybe we've let Easter services get out of hand. Maybe we've turned them into such productions that people go home talking about the choir number, how great the room looked with all the flowers, the drama...instead of the resurrection. The medium overshadows the message.
I understand and can sympathize with the motivations. An event as powerful and significant as the resurrection deserves a powerful telling, a pull-out-all-the-stops service to mark the event. But at some point production values and the demands of pulling it all off overrun the core truth. People leave impressed with the telling instead of the story.
A group of 11 humble Galileans and a few women spent that Sunday as elated as they were depressed 24 hours earlier. They must have talked non-stop, eaten eagerly and laughed easily. They wore the same clothes, ate the same food and did everything else as they always did. Except all they could talk about, the only thing that interested them, the sole focus of their day was Christ's resurrection from the dead.
I don't know how things will go Sunday, but as much out of necessity as from planning, the focus will be on that resurrection. And I'm glad about that.
________________________
We don't know what the disciples did Saturday, but because it was the Sabbath they couldn't do much. Couldn't travel any significant distance, so they undoubtedly stayed in Bethany. Were probably so depressed that conversation seemed pointless. They may have had short exchanges about the events of yesterday, but it served no real purpose to rehash that humiliation.
Mostly they just waited for the Sabbath to end so they could go back to Galilee and try to pick up the pieces of their lives.
Aren't you glad I spend time finding these must-read stories so you don't have to?
Speaking of must-reads, in last week's TIME magazine they have a string of one-page articles grouped under the title, "Ten Ideas Changing the World." The one that caught my attention was #10: "Re-Judaizing Jesus." It says that Christianity (the article cited Rob Bell as an example) is re-discovering the Jewishness of Christ, that he lived in accord with and taught his followers to live in accord with the Mosaic Law.
Well, duh!!
Who knew mid-Acts dispensationalists were now cutting edge? Apparently we haven't been doing a real good job of communicating.
Yesterday I worked outside all afternoon and then played 9 holes. I knew I probably wasn't drinking enough fluids, but I don't like to stop when I'm working (they're paying me an hourly rate) and I quickly went through the bottle of water I put in my golf bag.
Today I was reminded what it feels like the day after you get dehydrated. More accurately, when you're still dehydrated. Not so good.
I picked USC through the third round. I'm toast.
I was thinking today about our Easter service at the park Sunday. It's going to be pretty modest! A gal is coming to lead music; a trusted friend says she's really good. She'll lead us in four songs done in two sets. Todd will read Scripture, Josh will pray, and I'll preach. That's it.
At first I felt like this was pretty lame. But as I was reading through the Gospel narratives this morning I decided that I prefer it this way.
I have often told couples who come to me for pre-marital counseling that wedding ceremonies never get smaller. No matter what they have in mind for their ceremony, as the wedding gets closer that ceremony will get bigger and more complex. I warn them that if they don't draw lines and learn to say "no", soon they'll find that they are serving the ceremony, not the other way around. The best, most moving weddings at which I've officiated have been the simplest.
Maybe we've let Easter services get out of hand. Maybe we've turned them into such productions that people go home talking about the choir number, how great the room looked with all the flowers, the drama...instead of the resurrection. The medium overshadows the message.
I understand and can sympathize with the motivations. An event as powerful and significant as the resurrection deserves a powerful telling, a pull-out-all-the-stops service to mark the event. But at some point production values and the demands of pulling it all off overrun the core truth. People leave impressed with the telling instead of the story.
A group of 11 humble Galileans and a few women spent that Sunday as elated as they were depressed 24 hours earlier. They must have talked non-stop, eaten eagerly and laughed easily. They wore the same clothes, ate the same food and did everything else as they always did. Except all they could talk about, the only thing that interested them, the sole focus of their day was Christ's resurrection from the dead.
I don't know how things will go Sunday, but as much out of necessity as from planning, the focus will be on that resurrection. And I'm glad about that.
________________________
We don't know what the disciples did Saturday, but because it was the Sabbath they couldn't do much. Couldn't travel any significant distance, so they undoubtedly stayed in Bethany. Were probably so depressed that conversation seemed pointless. They may have had short exchanges about the events of yesterday, but it served no real purpose to rehash that humiliation.
Mostly they just waited for the Sabbath to end so they could go back to Galilee and try to pick up the pieces of their lives.
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