The GREAT UNCLE DAVE

It has recently come to my attention that in all of these posts I have never mentioned THE GREAT UNCLE DAVE. My mother's younger brother (he's only five years older than me) was quite an influence on the adolescent version of myself. Master-mentor that he was, he taught me the finer points of such things as flatulence jokes, prank phone calls, and Mad Magazine. Whenever I crank up Led Zeppelin, I think of him.

We haven't kept in touch as much as we should (he went off and moved to Dallas a couple of decades ago), but now that he's a regular reader of this blog, that is starting to change.

Happy New Year Uncle Dave! God's blessings to you and your family.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my blog friends. Have a great day!

It's a Wonderful Life

Showed a clip in this morning's message from It's a Wonderful Life. Now I want to watch the entire movie again. I asked the question, "What if Jesus had never been born?" This world would surely be a different place. I shudder to think about it.

Went to Wally World with Mrs. Soren after a program at the church building tonight. We're getting ready to have more family here tomorrow. I hope your Christmas is shaping up nicely.

Christmas Prank

I thought this was a hoot. You can bid for this on ebay:

You are bidding on a rare chance to traumatize a treasured friend or relative with baffling, mind-numbing, mystery correspondence from abroad. Here is the arrangement: I will be spending the Christmas holiday in Poland in a tiny village that has one church with no bell because angry Germans stole it. Aside from vodka, there is not a lot for me to do. During the course of my holiday I will send three postcards to one person of your choosing. These postcards will be rant-ravingly insane, yet they will be peppered with unmistakable personal details about the addressee. Details you will provide me. The postcards will not be coherently signed, leaving your mark confused, guessing wildly, crying out in anguish."How do I know this person? And how does he know I had a ferret named Goliath?" Your beloved friend or relative will try in vain to figure out who it is. Best of all, it can't possibly be you because you'll have the perfect alibi: you're not in Poland. You're home, wherever that is, doing whatever it is you do when not driving your friends loopy with international prankery. Your target will rack their brains in the shower. At dinner. During long drives. At work. On the golf course."Who did I tell about the time I got fired by a note on my chair?" they'll ponder, "And where the heck is Szczeczinek?" But wait, there's more. To add to the sheer confusion and genuine discomfort, one missive will be on an original promotional postcard announcing the 1995 television premiere of Central Park West on CBS. Another will be a postcard celebrating Atlanta's disastrous hosting of the 1996 summer Olympic games.Your mark will be at a complete loss, desperate for answers, debating contacting people he or she hasn't talked to in years."I know this will sound weird," they'll say, "but by any chance were you in Eastern Europe ranting about cantaloupe... twelve years ago... right before some show with Mariel Hemingway debuted?" When you decide to end the torment is completely up to you. If you can, I recommend owning up on 1 April 2008 - giving you nearly half a year of joy and a George Clooney-esque level of prankage. If you can't hold it in that long, I totally understand.

Check out the bidding here.

Beck's Book

Some friends got me this for Christmas. Yay!

Sorry about the lack of posts. I'll try to post more frequently over the holidays.

Church at Home

Awesome church service at home today.

Mom prayed.

Sissy played guitar and led worship.

Brother read Scripture.

Dad preached (although the sermon wasn't as good without "The Santa Clause" video clip)

And we had a one-cup Lord's Supper.

Snow Day

The weather is terrible today. Several inches of snow and gusty winds are a bad combo. I was up at 5:30 trying to decide whether to cancel services (something I hate to do). An elder called and we deliberated a while before deciding to cancel. Looks like several other churches made the same decision.

(update) Nearly every church in the area cancelled today. We had a Level 3 snow emergency in Leo (meaning no cars allowed on the roads except emergency vehicles), so I guess we made the right call. I don’t really know what to do with myself. Now I know what the heathen do on Sundays. I was shoveling snow and my neighbor (a county sheriff) came over and said “you shouldn’t be doing that” (what, I’m a middle-aged out-of-shape guy, digging out of 8-inch deep, heavy & wet snow, in a large horseshoe driveway — are you saying I’m a heart attack candidate?). Mr. Sheriff has a plow hooked up to his 4-wheeler and he had the snow cleared in no time. He will be getting some Open House leftover goodies later.

English Standard Version

Recently I purchased a copy of the ESV Bible. A couple of guys whose podcasts I listen to (John Piper and Mark Driscoll) rave about the ESV, so I thought I'd check it out. So far, I like what I see (I'm hoping to read through it in 2008).

For the first several years of my ministry, I preached exclusively from the New American Standard Bible (NASB). However, I started to notice that most of the people in the pews were carrying the New International Version (NIV). Wanting people to be able to "follow along" in their own Bibles, I reluctantly started preaching from the NIV, and have been doing so for about 16 years. Now I'm so accustomed to the NIV that I have a hard time preaching from the NAS (I tend to stumble over the words). My friend David Willis told me that he has the same problem.

I'm looking forward to exploring the ESV. Dr. Jack Cottrell endorsed it, so it must be good, right?

What say you? What is your favorite Bible translation?

Ya Gotta Love Red Green

A little advice for all my married and middle-aged friends (thanks for the link Gman!).