"I am a Ford, not a Lincoln." - Gerald R. Ford

Title? (there's really only one)

We started out at Starbucks for their wifi, our Sunday a.m. routine. I used it to watch instructional videos about slaughtering and butchering goats. It's early; I expect I'll be doing this in late September or October, but if there are things I need I should have them on hand and be familiar with them. I learned I'll need:

• A Butt-out
• A gambrel
• A gut-hook knife
• A skinning / butchering knife
• and a few other minor things. 

Note: those links aren't necessarily the specific items I'll get, just examples of the tool. 

One of the videos I watched was made at a training center in Florida for believers going out to do aide work in underdeveloped countries. I *think* the purpose of learning how to kill and butcher a goat was because they might need to do that for their own purposes. Any place with goats to kill would know how to do that task. In fact, one of the guys taking the course was from Uganda and had done it "lots of times". 

I need to learn all the cuts of meat so that when it comes time to cut up the carcass I do it correctly and get the most/best pieces of meat ready for the freezer. Our budget doesn't allow for "cuts" of meat, unless hamburger counts as a cut. We have a set of steak knives, but I don't know why. I need to learn where a brisket, a sirloin, and all those other things come from and how to get them off the carcass. 

(Or Itzhak, but we're choosing not to think of it like that.)

From there to church. UFC is in the process of a staff restructuring and the guy who was doing music is shifting over to a missions position where he'll coordinate the many mission trips the church organizes. (heavy sigh) He's in Haiti on a six week trip to...??

In his absence Dave, the youth guy, is responsible for the worship music. I appreciate his work. His choice of songs reflects a vertical focus with a good mix of traditional and contemporary. 

The pastor is working through 1 Thessalonians and this morning was in the last paragraphs of chapter four. Interesting. He's a dispensationalist to the degree that he recognizes a Rapture, Tribulation, Second Coming, and Millennial Kingdom in that order. But he used passages from the Gospels to explain the Rapture and closed saying we should be prepared "just in case" we do go through the Trib. 

And he had those believers who have already died both coming down from heaven and going up from their graves to meet the Lord "in the air." (That comes from misunderstanding the Greek word anastasis, translated "rise".)

The good news: I don't think anyone will have any problematical outcomes from those inconsistencies. Mostly because nobody cares that much about eschatology (though they certainly should!). In fact, methinks what's needed is a sermon(s) on the negative effects / benefits of a neglected / developed understanding of the Bible's teaching on future events. 

This afternoon I finished digging the holes for the 10' 4x4's that will support the aforementioned gambrel, watered the berries, and watched some of the Wimbledon matches I missed yesterday. We also watched some of today's Tour De France stage which included an ugly, crash going down a steep winding road at 45 mph that left two riders with broken collar bones and hips. 

Our pastor has repeatedly used the illustration of a pyramid with three layers to show the kinds of biblical teaching UFC recognizes. From the bottom: essential, important, and personal. The essential truths have to do with salvation and are not negotiable. The important things are truths the Bible talks about in significant quantity but about which serious Christians legitimately disagree. Practical truths are those about which they disagree and are clearly minor in terms of the amount or clarity of Scriptural teaching. He put eschatology in the important category.

Interesting.