Those Traps

Sunday Night at the Rock and Roll Church,
by Pat Darnell

We have settled on a church. Brazos Fellowship has three services in the mornings and one at 6 PM. Last Sunday we attended the evening service. There is a rock and roll band on stage every time. Reminds me of... well it's all new to me. My tweens love it. (HERE)

Our pastor is good about bringing "visual aids" to the pulpit. Pastor William, "Will" for short, this time he brought out a cart. In the cart hidden from us was a "varmint trap."

He explained that he had asked Academy for a "Bear Trap," but they only carry Varmint Traps. Then he told us today's topic is about how traps are set for us on a daily basis. Then he sat down and forced open the jaws of the trap with his feet, set the firing mechanism and placed a chunk of ham on the trick arm. So he set it up on top of the cart, sprung and primed, and awesome.

Pastor Will described a host of problems that lead many to falling into traps. The common thread to all those situations had the element of temptation.

The story is his to tell, so I need not tell the whole thing here. And you guessed it: his sermon led to his pushing on the pressure plate with a long stick, and its exploding the ham shank in all directions, pieces landing like Gallagher's smashed melons.

My point today in telling this is that as Pastor Will went about telling the various angles of the scriptures and how traps are set by the temptations, including fight or flee adrenaline reactions of us the prey, he waved his hands too close to the primed trap, for my comfort.

Finally, I had to look down and away. I could not take the vision of him getting too close, or accidentally setting off the elements. Even my blood pressure started rising. I worked into a sweat just sitting and waiting the inevitable, unable to watch.

I am a worry wort, born and bred, no lie it was discomfiting. Please join me in watching out for temptations' traps: I think it is important to look for the traps, and to actually ask Jesus right away to move them away from my hands and feet, and all extremities of my wife and kids, and puppy; in context of last Sunday evening... in a building on the Parkway, in a little town in the middle of America. A ham shank and a bear trap... lesson learned -- is funny, huh?

Was Naming your child Dweezil...

... Maybe just a little ahead of its Time? by Pat Darnell

Of course it is. Frank Zappa is a Mother of Invention who took things into his own hands often. He developed from his childhood in a very delightful way. I like to think of him as a happy child, with asthma, and a great outlook on life. Is the Name of the Year 2008 "Dweezil" this year? (by Brian D. Holland. July 27, 2007; Dweezil Zappa Interview)



NO.

American culture ..dominated by politics in past year, and according to Laura Wattenberg, baby-naming business was no exception.

The 2008 Name Of The Year Dec 7th 2008 | By Laura Wattenberg
Wattenberg, author of the book The Baby Name Wizard and founder of the website of the same name, tells ParentDish that this year's Name of the Year might come as a bit of a surprise. When she invited readers of he Baby Wizard blog to contribute nominations for 2008 Name of the Year, many votes were political.

So what was the big winner?

Joe.

Joe the lumberjack, Joe Six-pack, Amtrak Joe Biden, and, of course, Joe The Plumber. Joe made a huge come-back this year. (Wattenburg, Laura; 12.07.2008, Retrieved HERE)

In honor of all us Step-dads, I would like to think this year's one is Joe the Carpenter, the step-dad of Jesus.

I love the search for good Water

Good Water

I was preparing to wrap it up with a smile but decided to tough it out just before I turned off the computer but a hiccup made me hit the button twice and it re-started. So yes, no, maybe, I don't know! But I love the search for good water.

June 18, 2008 5:25 PM Stephen Muttly the Funk Dood

if Christ ate the fruit he would be just the same as us. he starved and strifed himself dictionary words are brought about with thees and more so's. If we look behind the basic misconception. Jesus was the same disciple as Buddha and Mohammad. He applied different principles for each society. Nowadays people lose reality of the true intent of religion. Offer faith and hope ful ness. I spilt the split image of a flawed system. Writing is flawed in the sense of containment. Biohazard words on pages say the same thing. REalize the true definition of history past promises. Math an extended ham mockary. Science does not provide comfort to your dying world. Literature is initially flopped. REad Write and Rhythm it Right. Or get Left Behind. Let what happens be and search for the outer limits. Solar your polar cold and heat it up like global warming hit home. The ozone is hairsprayed to death. Take a shower and slick back your lick. This is something that I need to say to make a new slither into the mind and make the forward progressed. Thank You for reading this I hope it was blessed. No more tests unless I can figure them none the less. Stephen Muttly the Funk Dood. Peace one Bob Marley. Hit it up.

June 18, 2008 6:36 PM

Challenge: Write the Moral Ending to this Story...

Hey my mostly male writers; can you reflect on how Jesus responds to women?

One day, when a seamstress was sewing while sitting close to a river, her thimble fell into the river. She cried out. Jesus the Lord appeared and asked, "Why are you crying?"

The seamstress replied that her thimble had fallen into the river and she needed it -- to help her husband in making a living for their family.

The Lord dipped His hand into the water and pulled up a golden thimble set with sapphires.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord again dipped into the river. He held out a golden thimble studded with rubies.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

Again, the seamstress replied, "No."

The Lord reached down again and came up with a leather thimble.

"Is this your thimble?" the Lord asked.

The seamstress replied, "Yes."

The Lord was pleased with the woman's honesty and gave her all three thimbles to keep. She went home very happy.

Some years later, the same seamstress was walking with her husband along the riverbank, and her husband fell into the river and disappeared under the water. When she cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked her, "Why are you crying?"

"Oh Lord, my husband has fallen into the river!"

The Lord went down into the water and came up with George Clooney; "Is this your husband?" the Lord asked.

"Yes," cried the seamstress.

The Lord was alarmed; "You have given a falsehood! That is not in keeping with how responded last time! You needed your thimble to help your husband make a living."

The seamstress replied, "Oh, forgive me. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said 'no' to George Clooney, you would have come up with Brad Pitt."

"Then if I said 'no' to him, you would have come up with my husband. Had I then said 'yes,' you would have given me all three," she explained to the Savior.

"Lord, I'm not in the best of health and would not be able to take care of all three husbands," she made clear her plan. "THAT'S why I said 'yes' to George Clooney."

Possible endings:

1 --The Lord gave George Clooney to the seamstress...

2 --And so the Lord delivered her husband back to her, only...

3 -- The Lord left her with no husband, and said "....

The moral of this story is:

The "American Question" revisited

by Rick Capotosto

Our children grow up, learn things and uncover the Ptolemaic questions we tired of so many years ago. They stick it right back in our faces, demanding answers like we did. And they grow up smart, at least they all seem to have their specialties going, backed by a lot of schooling, the internet and talk radio.

My sons know their Founding Fathers and they see the genius of it all - what took place when this nation was knit together in the 1700's. They have also seen where the propaganda breaks down and it always comes around to "slavery," the American question. Still.

Now we oldies all got tired of "the question" sometime in the late 1970's after 20 years of ugliness. Everybody did and we've been letting time work. And it has.

But the kids still want to know how come "all men" didn't really mean "all men". They want to understand how men who kept others chained and caged could shake their fists at England for subjecting them to political servitude. They need to grasp exactly where disconnect was for these wise intellectual giants between the lofty platitudes and the maintenance of their kitchens, stables and fields.

They want to know which Jesus was in their hearts, the real one, or, the impostor.

So they bring it all up again for us, scratch open the wounds of humanity anew. This is what I've learned recently in my renewed curiosity after sitting down one-on-one with several blacks and discussing this head-on:

First, I don't feel guilty anymore about any of it. It's "history" and not even my history at that.

Second, black-Americans have no interest in pinning guilt on whites. They got over that somewhere along the way too. The cry of the 60's for reconciliation has been sincerely replaced with a reasoned call for recognition.

At the heart it is a compelling plea - "understand that we don't know who we are! All that we do know is rather shameful, disjointed and fractured. We want to first be recognized as having value as a people group just like everyone, not just us but our forefathers also."

Third, the real Jesus was at work in the hearts of many back then, but far from all. They were shaking the foundation of the world -- and risking hanging & quartering -- by denouncing aristocracy as a fraud, asserting that God did not ordain one class of humans as "noble" and others "common". Though many called for going further, eliminating slavery, there were not enough of them.

I am convinced that no power or intellect on earth besides the love of Jesus can overcome bigotry in men because slavery in all forms is of Satan and only Jesus ever could or ever can stand against that slave pimp.

The French revolution was totally of "men" and ended in butchery because they could not stand against the Hater of Men without Jesus. He twisted their fine intentions into his will for more destruction.

So, this is what I tell my kids and then I listen to hear what they think. And pray for their world as I assume our parents prayed for ours. by Compostholestoy