HARMLESS THOUGHTS

I have ventured into the podcasting realm. I found a free podcasting service called Odeo a while back, but I didn't give it a try until last week. I titled my podcast The Goatee Speaks and did my first recording just to see if everything was working the way it is supposed to work. Then I figured out that you can actually upload pre-recorded audio as well, so to see if that worked, I uploaded the first lesson in my Idols of the Heart series that I am teaching at my Church . Everything seems to be working really well. If you get a chance to listen to the teaching, let me know what you think. I even have the notes available if you are really interested. Anyway, thanks for dropping by.

I failed to mention in my last post that the skin grows back hat that I am wearing in the picture was purchased from my cafepress store . My dad beat me to it. He was the first person to buy something from my store. He bought one of the hats a couple of weeks ago. Anyway. Feel free to visit my store. Everything in it has some meaning to something in my life. Swing on by and pick up a hat. Later.

Yes, that is really what that hat says. It is a mover's quote . I picked it up after hearing it on several different occasions from several different movers. The quote is referring to how a mover will keep his hands between the wall and the piece of furniture that he is holding to protect both the furniture and the wall. If you bump up against something, the furniture will be protected and the wall will be protected, even if your hand isn't. That is OK though, because... you guessed it... skin grows back . I have to be honest, I really love this quote. I like passing it along to other movers. I like to tell them how to keep their hand in the right spot. After they crack their knuckles on the edge of a door or something, I like to say, "Hey, don't worry. Skin grows back ." I really enjoy saying it around non-movers as well. I like to watch the expression on their face when I explain to a non-mover the meaning of the saying. Most people give a little cri...

Have you heard of Skype ? I downloaded Skype almost a year ago, I think. I haven't used it much, because the only people that I know that are Skype users live on the other side of the planet, so when I might want to talk, they are sound asleep because it is the middle of the night for them. For the most part Skype isn't much different that any of the other Instant Messengers. They have video and voice chat options. They also have the availability to purchase credits to make and receive phone calls to regular telephones and mobile phones. Well, yesterday they announced that until the end of the year you can call any phone number in the U.S. or Canada for free ! That's amazing! Whe I received the announcement, I immediately had to try it out, and sure enough... it worked. I called my house from my computer at school. Then when I got home I had to call my own phone from my computer at home, just to talk to myself. Then I called my mom. She said that she couldn't ...

Here is a good quote that I saw on Douglas Wilson's blog. "As the ongoing problem with illiteracy in the schools continues to plague us, politicians will continue to call for more programs to fight it. Of course, some of us are a bit slow about these things. We thought that schools were supposed to be the program to fight illiteracy." (The Case for Classical Christian Education, p. 21)

This Sunday I am teaching one of the adult Sunday School classes. The class is a Biblical Counseling Class, and the regular teacher is on vacation. He asked me a few weeks ago to be the substitute teacher for him, and I gladly obliged. The topic that I was given was, The Idols of the Heart. Since he asked me to do this, I have been doing some major studying on this whole concept. I have heard this topic taught more than once, but anytime you have to teach something yourself, you want to be as fully prepared as possible. Today, I am finishing up the notes for the first lesson, and I decided to make my "office" the deck outside my house. Here is a video of my view while I work. (Don't worry, I haven't decided to add a video to every post that I do from now on...)

I am trying out the You Tube thing. I have seen it on a couple of blogs already, and it seems to work really well. I like you you can put the video right on the blog, and people don't have to go to a different site just to watch the video. Here is the first video that I uploaded. It is a video of my youngest son, who for some reason has decided that he wants to be a tiger. He has been wearing this costume around for over a week now, and has even instisted on sleeping in it on more than one occasion. When I decided to record him in it, with my new phone, my other son did the classic, "get in the shot" walk-bys. I thought it was hilarious, and wanted to share it with you. Enjoy.

I found this really cool little tool on the internet called, pocketmod . Pocket Mod advertises itself as a disposable pda. Basically it is a way to print out a piece of paper so that when you fold it in the proper way, you get a six page organizer. I have tried it a couple of times and it works really well. It has several different options for different pages. Everthing from calendars to lists to tip tables. It would work great for the person who likes to make those lists on the little pieces of paper anyway. Check out the Pocket Mod .

Thomas Watson (a Puritan) once wrote: "God is the chief good. In the chief good there must be delectability; it must have something that is delicious and sweet: and where can we suck those pure essential comforts, which ravish us with delight, but in God? In God's character there is a certain sweetness which fascinates or rather enraptures the soul." I usually think of the Puritans in a different light. When I think of them, the words like: delectability , delight , comforts , and enraptures ; aren't the first words that usually come to mind. I would probably think of words like, stuffy and sad . So this quote goes against my perception of the Puritan. The Puritans weren't against joy and happiness. That is a false perception based on these pictures we have in our heads. Regardless of perceptions, the Puritans had honed in on some deep truths. They had understood that true happiness and true joy come, not from the pleasures of this world, but from a true ...

When [Moses] relates that Rachel stole her father's idols, he is speaking of a vice that was common. From this we may gather that man's nature... is a perpetual factory of idols. -John Calvin (as quoted by Elyse Fitzpatrick in her book Idols of the Heart ) I can remember as a child thinking about the whole idol concept. (I know... weird kid, right?) I mean, who was the guy who originally thought up the idol. There had to be a first guy that did this. There had to be some guy who thought to himself, "hmm... I think that I am going to make a god." If you make your own god, how do you actually bow down to it. You know that it is just a piece of stone or some carved wood. I can understand how people generations later can live in a deceived state. Their whole lives they have been worshipping this idol, but what about the first guy. Maybe, though, his original idea wasn't to make a god. Maybe it was to bring God to himself. Maybe, he was trying to understand t...

Only three full weeks of school with one week of exams left. Amazing how fast time flies, isn't it?