"Our relationship is pure and simple. I'm pure."

They made me sell the motorcycle when they saw this.

Actually, the final stage in the selling of the motorcycle came today...I hope.
I met A.J. Monday at the dealership in Scottsdale where they had just finished the servicing, and signed over the title. Tuesday he called to tell me that - oops - in AZ that signing has to be notarized. So Wednesday I drove to Scottsdale again to meet him at a branch of my bank so a notary could witness me sign a blank piece of paper, compare it to my signature on the title and then put her stamp on the document. Yesterday he called me from the Motor Vehicles Department to tell me that because I had started to sign in the wrong place and then drawn a line through that, the ill-tempered man behind the counter wouldn't accept it. The fact that it had been notarized didn't count. So today we met at another branch of my bank, this time between us, where another piece of paper was notarized to say that the line-out on the title was OK.
In Dante's Inferno the 4th level of hell is an eternity in a Motor Vehicle Department branch. You sit and wait for an hour, get called to the counter, only to be told by a rude and surly employee that your paperwork isn't correct and you need to start over.

Jay Leno is more than a funny guy with a big chin and a lot of cars. If you're interested in cars, manufacturing and/or cutting edge technology you gotta watch this clip:
NextEngine's 3-D Scanner

And if you saw "Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragons" or another film of that ilk you'll get a kick out of this:
Table Tennis

A couple of months ago GM got $13.4 billion from Congress because nobody is buying their cars and they are "too big to let fail." This week they announced that they've burned through that money. They'll run out of money altogether in March and need $2 billion next month and another $2.6 billion in April. But that's just to stave off bankruptcy. To get back to profitability (yeah, like that's ever going to happen) they need an additional $22 billion!
But wait, there's more!
Chrysler wants $5 billion, on top of the $4 billion it received in December.
But wait, there's more!
Consumer Reports came out with their annual survey for reliability, and Chrysler and GM finished at the bottom of all auto manufacturers world wide. Dead last. Ford did better, finishing fourth from the bottom, beating out Chrysler, GM and Suzuki.
OK, folks, let's all dig deep into our pockets so we can save these great American auto makers. They are too big to let fail, even if they're too screwed up to build decent cars.

This is a great time of year here. Afternoon temps are in the mid-70's, humidity in the teens, the desert is blooming, the air around our house is pungent with the sweet smell of orange blossoms, and birds & critters are everywhere. As I type this I'm looking out into our back "yard" (read: gravel bed) at jack rabbits, bunny rabbits and quail. I just got back from a 20-mile bike ride up into the hills and it was wonderful! Yes, we'll pay for it in August but you don't have to shovel heat.

For Valentine's Day Pam got me "The Appeal" by Grisham. I'm only 100 pages into it but it's a good and easy read.

Sunday we'll be in the second half of 1 Cor. 6, a rather startling passage.
How many sermons have you heard about prostitution?? That's the issue in this section.
More accurately, prostitution is the issue behind this section. Paul's discussion goes well beyond that topic.
I'm eager to open this passage Sunday morning (I use the word open to describe what the preacher does when he delivers an expository sermon, opening the truths of the section to his hearers). This passage is particularly intricate, and if I do this correctly the results can...should be powerful.
Greek is an amazing language, and it's no coincidence that the NT is written in Greek. God in his sovereignty chose Greek because of its power and precision. So much gets lost when it is translated into another language, especially one as limited as English. Such is the case with 1 Cor. 6:12ff. Two Greek words, sarx and soma, both refer to the physical body, but with an important difference between them. By taking note of why Paul switches from sarx - which he has used extensively up until this section - to soma, which he uses eight times in these nine verses, we get his powerful point. But unless that distinction and shift is noted the passage loses all it's punch, and may, in fact, do little more than confuse.
I'll be working without a net (notes) Sunday. This one has to come from a place inconsistent with an outline. In homiletics class we called this "extemporaneous preaching." It's not preaching w/o a proposition and outline; you MUST have those. But it's preaching w/o notes; it's all stored inside. Some sermons require a level of intensity such that notes would be a hindrance.

Can we do Sunday tomorrow?