The Book of Static, it's not

When I was a kid, I thought the preacher was teaching from "The Book of Axe" and assumed the name was somehow derived either from the violent political climate back in "Biblical days," or from the manner of Paul's execution by the Romans.

So I was surprised by what I found when I read the book as an adult.  The book reads so much like an adventure story, on several levels, that I might have named it "The Book of Adventure."

More reasonable folks might even have suggested the name "The Book of Action" because the text is so descriptive and vivid in its narrative of the first few years of Christ's church.

Persecutions, shipwrecks, daring escapes, stonings, miracles and life-changing conversions are all there.  Enough action and edge-of-your-seat excitement to make a feature film ... and three sequels, for a start.

It's the kind of excitement that, if ushered into many of today's contemporary church services, would need to be "toned down" a bit ... to "maintain the reverence of the service" ... or squelched with some other legalistic conforming, because Excitement don't belong in this church.

We like our Bible stories dusty and quiet, you see.  So they don't interfere with or much impact our lives as we like living them.

Also included in Acts, significantly, are frequent updates on the numbers of people Preached and Reached for Christ.   And descriptions of what the first believers' excitement led them to accomplish through, and by obeying, the Holy Spirit.

Maybe the title "The Book of Acts" sounds like Acts are something that happened a long time ago, back in Bible Days, that's over and done-with today.  

Hmmm.  Can't help wondering what our churches would be like today if Acts had originally been titled The Book of Action and Eternal Excitement instead.

Lightning Rod?

Ed Young's Sex Challenge

(CBS/ AP) The pastor of a Dallas-area mega-church challenged married congregants during his sermon Sunday to have sex for seven days in a row -- and says he's practicing what he preaches. 

The Rev. Ed Young, 47, says he believes society promotes promiscuity, and he wants to reclaim sex for married couples. Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages, he said. 

"God says sex should be between a married man and a woman," Young says. "I think it's one of the greatest things you can do for your kids because so goes the marriage, so goes the family." 

-source

DSC

About 40 minutes ago the DSC (Digital Selective Calling) alarm sounded on my GPS.

It's gone off 3 or 4 times over the past few months since moving here, but tonight was different.  Tonight the call registered an MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identities) number; MMSI is a unique number assigned to a unique vessel; reason enough to start thinking this call was real ... and not a false alert.

I called the Coast Guard on the VHF and reported the vessel's coordinates and MMSI.  Right away they were back on the air with an alert for any vessel in the area, about 15 miles away, to respond to Rosie's distress.

Then just after 9 PM the DSC alerted again with the same GPS coordinates.

Makes you wonder what's happening out there.  And about how quickly things can go badly, badly wrong.

Go Mike Go

Wow.

At 16, he's the youngest person to ever sail around the world.

Solo.

Showing the Love

Oh yes when there's something we want, we know just how to show our love?

By writing a check, slapping down a credit card, applying for a new loan ... or otherwise financially oligating the future to satisty ourselves in the moment.

How does God show His love?

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

- 1 John 4:9

Variable Conditions

(humor)

Seems like about two weeks since I've been able to receive a wifi connection lasting more than 4 seconds, which makes adding new posts here almost impossible.

But that's gonna change soon.

See, I found a 220-volt 500-watt USB wireless booster card that promises the ability to connect with any unsecured hub within 1500 miles.  And it comes with a handy 50-foot whip antenna, too.

Stay tuned: more updates on my USB-ham radio experiments as they occur.

Friday fotos

Got these images around 10 AM this morning ...

Barney bites reporter

Call it "Election Reaction"?

Video here.

How did we get where we are?

Spiritual ennui.

Election Results

The "law of unintended consequences" (also called the "law of unforeseen consequences") states that any purposeful action will produce some unintended consequences. A classic example is a bypass — a road built to relieve traffic congestion on a congested road — that attracts new development and with it more traffic, resulting in two congested streets instead of one.

This maxim is not a scientific law; it is more in line with Murphy's law as a warning against the hubristic belief that humans can fully control the world around them. Stated in other words, each cause has more than one effect, and these effects will invariably include at least one unforeseen side effect. The unintended side effect can potentially be more significant than any of the intended effects.  - wikipedia

Never A Perfect Weekend

First, the good:

Florida spanked Jaw-ja 49 zillion to 10

South Carolina is whupping Tennessee 21-0 at halftime

Then, the weekend Spoiler:

Clemson defeated Boston College 27-21

Now I'm going to bed.

Herculean Effort & Perseverance

 This morning I finally tired of seeing 1350 [literally] Unread Messages sneering from my InBox and deemed it was time to take effective action.

Took about two hours to sort and scan through the message headers but now they're all where they belong.  Now that it's done, I practically feel as invincible as Hercules.

On the other hand, Hercules probably stuck with DOS.