HARMLESS THOUGHTS

An absolutely amazing verse: For this is what the high and lofty One says— He who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, (pause) ...but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." Isaiah 57:15 (NIV) That THE GOD, the High and Holy One, would dwell in a high and holy place... well, that just makes sense. Where else would He dwell? Surely He wouldn't dwell with... ah yes, but He does. He also dwells with the contrite and the lowly. What an amazing God we serve.

I have been reading several different books that I have started, but haven't quite had the time to finish. So, before I start any new books, I have purposed in my mind to finish these. One of the books that I am almost done with is How to Overcome Evil by Jay Adams. I have already written one post on this book titled, the other cheek , which was an eye-opening moment for me, regarding Jesus' statement about turning the other cheek when you have been struck on the first one. The book itself is a practical exposition of Romans 12:4-21 . So far it has been about our responsibilities in overcoming evil. (Hence the title.) As Christians, we have a Biblical command to make war against evil. War against evil doesn't involve evil though, it involves good. This goes contrary to the world's view of conflict. In the world we pay back evil for evil, but according to God's way of doing things we pay back evil with good. This is the only way that evil can truly be defe...

This post is a little late, but I had to post it eventually. On Easter Sunday, both of the kid's choirs performed on stage. They were both extremely well done, and they even had live accompaniment, complete with a piano, a couple of guitars, and even a harmonica! I thoroughly enjoyed the group that my older son Samuel was in, and I was even able to hold up my new cell phone and record the last little bit of their song. They were so excited and sounded awesome. I know that God was pleased with these small children. Here is that audio clip . I am sure that you won't enjoy it as much as I did (being the dad and all), but I hope that it will bless you. By the way, I have made this my new ringtone and I love it every time the phone rings.

Need help getting those weird/odd characters to show up on your blog post? Here is the perfect solution, the blogger keyboard . Just click the link and give it a whirl. I can't take credit for it. I don't remember exactly how I found it, but it belongs to this guy , and he gave me permission to host it and add a link to it on my blog. Anyway, I found it to be very useful so I thought that I would share it with my fellow bloggers.

Here is part of a paragraph that I recently read in the book, The Chase , by Jerry Bridges: If you were to say that a Christian can continue to live in sin over and over, you'd be crazy! It goes against God's plan for us as Christians. A writer three centuries ago put it like this: "What a strange kind of salvation do they desire that care not for holiness... They would be saved by Christ and yet be out of Christ in a fleshly state... They would have their sins forgiven, not that they may walk with God in love, in time to come, both that they may practice their enmity against Him without any fear of punishment." The Chase is a book that I bought for my sister for Christmas. When she finished it, she graciously allowed me to borrow it. It has been a great book so far, and has been a really easy read. It is based on another book by Jerry Bridges called The Pursuit of Holiness . This quote came from chapter 3, which is titled, Holiness Isn't an Option . This ...

Here is a news piece called, "Blooks" Are In Bloom . It has to do with blog writers that are being published, and like anything it seems any more, we had to give it a nice little name: blooks . Even though I am sure that nearly every true blogger dreams of some big publishing company finding their blog, being amazed, and asking them to write a book, I think that we can all agree that not every blog should actually be a book.

I took my eldest to the new Greenville Stadium tonight. A friend of mine had two extra tickets that he wasn't going to be able to use, so he offered them to me. They were corporate seats, so we were up on the top level. They were great seats, and we were up where all of the "rich people" sit. We had our own little room next to our seats. There was a flatscreen TV, fridge, and a waitress. (Ridiculous, if you ask me.) Almost in spite of the "rich people" seats, I decided to have a great time anyway. We did the typical popcorn and drink. Of course Samuel had to have the ice cream in the little hat. Sam caught on right away to what was going on, and we had a good time rooting for the home team, The Greenville Drive. We chanted, "We want a pitcher, not a belly itcher" and "...hey batter, batter, batter... swing, batter!" Overall a good time, and I wanted to share it with all of you.

The English Standard Version of the Bible is an excellent translation, from what I have heard. The ESV Bible RSS Feeds have several different daily Bible readings that are available. From daily verses to memory plans to reading through the Bible in a year. If you are looking for some daily reading, you should check it out. Especially if you are already using Bloglines , or another feed reader. I have already added the Verse a Day , the Weekly Memory Plan , and the Through the Bible Plan to my Bloglines . If you want an extremely exceptional blog, that features a verse a day, then you should check out Let Me Not Wander .

I was referred to this comic by Pearls and Dreams , and I just had to share it here as well. If you are any kind of blogger at all, then this comic has to really hit home.

I have noticed in my own life that when things are going well, when everything in my life is functioning the way it is supposed to... Those are the times that my study of God's Word tends to fall to the bottom of my to-do list. I don't intend for this to happen, but reading my Bible and praying are at the back of my mind. Now, this doesn't make any sense at all. You would think that when things are going well, I would have more time and more energy to spend in prayer and Bible study, but the exact opposite thing usually happens. Oh, I get comfortable and all, and then I forget to make these things a priority. I forget their importance to my daily life. Once, when Jesus would have been hungry, his disciples offered him bread, but instead of taking the bread, he replies, "...man cannot live on bread alone, but on every word of God." Yet here I am, living on the bread and forgetting the Word. Then along comes some trial. You know what I am talking about don...

11:30pm Thursday, April 14, 30 AD to 1:00am Friday, April 15, 30 AD Garden of Gethsemane - Jesus waits for his arrest 1:00am-1:30am Friday, April 15, 30 AD Confrontation in Garden and Jesus' Arrest 1:30am-3:00am Friday, April 15, 30 AD Trial 1: Annas, former Jewish High Priest for 16 years - Jesus receives initial physical abuse. Trial 2: Current Jewish High Priest, Caiaphas, and the Sanhedrin Court - Jesus bloodied by abuse. 3:00am-5:00am Friday, April 15, 30 AD Imprisonment at Caiaphas' palace. 5:00am-6:00am Friday, April 15, 30 AD Trial 3: All the Jewish elders, including the High Priest, scribes and whole Sanhedrin. They decide to ask the Roman government to kill Jesus. 6:00am-7:00am Friday, April 15, 30 AD Trial 4: Hearing before Roman governor Pilate, who declares, "I find no guilt in this man." 7:00-7:30am Friday, April 15, 30 AD Trial 5: Hearing before Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, who had jurisdiction over Galilee. Jesus refused to answer any que...

I haven't tried it yet, but I just signed up to receive the complimentary coffee reviewer's kit from Boca Java. They have a program for Bloggers called Blogger's Fuel . I was directed to Blogger's Fuel by a blog called Coffee Swirls . I was inspired to click on the link because of my love for coffee. Anyway, whether you are a blogger or not, please feel free to click on the link and check out the coffee. Once I get a taste of the coffee myself, I will be posting my review of it. Thanks.

I finally got a new phone! It is a Sony Ericsson Z520a . It has been a long time since I got a new cell phone, and it was getting a little embarassing. Most of my students had nicer phones than mine, and mine was starting to look more and more like one of those oversized phones from the 80's. (Which, when I was in the 80's, those phones didn't seem all that huge at the time.)

A friend of mine sent this picture to me in an e-mail. It was one of those that had been forwarded on from person to person, so I can't give credit to the originator of this photo, but it looks authentic enough that I wanted to pass it on to all of you. I probably wouldn't have invested, but I sure would have liked to interview for a position.

Get it, mars rock?!? (double meaning...) nevermind. Anyway. Here is my current favorite picture of the surface of mars. It kind of looks like a face. The two dark blue spots are where the abrasion tool on the rover took some samples for study.

It finally clicked today for Sam...the joy of reading books! So far, reading has been on a demand basis only, required of him by his teacher (mommy) and accomplished through a few minutes at our kitchen table so we can move on to the beloved subject-Math. I will never understand that, but...oh well! I was straightening the house and I happened upon little boy Harmless engrossed in the comic book of his choice without prompting ! Good for you, Sambo! No, it's not the classic literature I would hope for him to read but for now, Dad's old comic books will do! (Final note- Lest you fear that this indoor hobby will turn him away from his outdoor adventures...double click on the picture and look at his feet! DISGUSTING! Boys really are gross!)

Last week I was discussing with some of my students the topic of cheating. A couple of them had been accused of cheating on a quiz and they were not happy about this kind of accusation. I wasn't exactly sure if they weren't happy about being accused falsely of the cheating or if it was just that they had been accused. Their responses didn't exactly clear this up. But the accusation did lead into an interesting conversation about cheating. I started off as a passive listener, but then I overheard one of the students in the room state plainly, "...oh, it's just the quizzes, it isn't that bad. I mean, I would never cheat on a test. But cheating on a daily quiz, that isn't wrong ." When I heard those words, everything else in the room kind of zoned out, except for this one student. Then the phrase, "...isn't wrong..." which was still bouncing around in my mind, finally came to rest right on top of my sense of reason . I snapped out of passiv...

Everything was in bloom in Washington, DC this week.