As Seen On Facebook:

I'm not a huge fan of "Bumper Sticker Theology" ... you know the little cutesy sayings that people love to glom onto because they make them "feel" all warm and cuddly inside.

But every once and awhile I see something pretty good, like...

I Remain,
Pastor Steve

Dinner Out!

Amy ...armed & dangerous

Yesterday, the lovely and gracious Lynn & I drove to Des Moines to see Amy and taker her out for supper. (Along w/ a number of other errands I needed to run in Central Iowa).

The mots-operandi for these trip to the Des Moines area consist of Lynn & I making the decision to go and then calling numerous people and letting them know where we are going to eat out and whoever shows up ... shows up! Normally that group will run between 4 and 15 people.

Mom & Dad (Love this pic)

Back to yesterday ... After contacting Amy and letting her know that we were coming down. I decided to run down to visit my Mom. Lynn suggested we ask her to dinner with us. Now for whatever reason, the idea of snatching up my Mom and taking her on one of these dinner outings had never crossed my mind! (BTW, Yes, I'm aware that my Mom eats, enjoys dining out and is an excellent conversationalist!) I'm just dense!

I called my mom asked her is she would like to go to Famous Dave's BBQ with us and she said "of course"! I thought rather than overwhelming her with a ton of people on her first voyage, we kept it to just the 4 of us. We had a great time! The food was great, the conversation was even better and the top of the evening was the waitress spilling a Dr. Pepper on the lovely and gracious Lynn! Hilarious!!!

I think Mom had fun and she is even willing to go again. It will be a couple  of weeks before we get back to the Des Moines area but ... it's on now! She is officially part of the group!

A couple of note for the rest of you who are thinking ... "I never got one of those calls or I would like to get one of those calls". First, just contact me via email and your in. Second, this is normally a Dutch treat event ... I'M NOT BUYING YOUR DINNER! Nice try! Third, these outing are not for the faint of heart, just ask Pastor Nick Oliver who left his lovely wife at an Olive Garden while the rest of us drove around looking for a place w/o a 2 1/2 hour wait! What an adventure!

I Remain,
Pastor Steve

Joshua, Judges & Ruth...

I'm not sure if I've blogged about this but I need to now...

Over a year and a half ago I decided I really wanted to preach through the Old Testament book of Ruth. As I began doing some background work, it became very clear to me that to really have a handle on Ruth, you must understand the time of the Judges. So... I began doing work in preparation for preaching through the book of Judges. As I did I came to the stark realization that if you are going to understand Judges and what is happening there you need to have a working knowledge of the book of Joshua!

And so it began ... I started to walk through the book of Joshua and build the platform from which we would transition in to the book of Judges and then into Ruth.

This has been an incredible time learning from God's Word!

Joshua: Beginning with the statement that Moses is dead ... Joshua is now the leader of God's people, the Nation Israel. Joshua leads them in conquering the promised land and driving out the people. This is all going along fairly well with few set backs and concludes with the division of the land according to God's direction. Finally, there are two incredible speeches by Joshua; first to the leadership of the nation and then to the general population itself.

Judges: When it comes to preaching or even doing a Bible study, I find that most people will avoid the book of Judges. In fact, one of the men of our church was talking to a friend of his, who attends another church in Clear Lake,  and mentioned that we were beginning to walk through Judges as a church family and the response was something to the effect of he did not believe that his church would "buy into" a study like Judges!

I'm not going to kid you ... the book of Judges can be very depressing! The highlight of the book comes in chapter 1 and verse 1. Literally, it is all downhill from there to the point that at the end of the book it simple says: "...all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes."

The problem in Judges is cyclical: The people grow lax in there obedience and fall into sin - rather than repenting of their sin they just continue in it ... because of their sin and lack of repentance God brings in/allows/uses the surrounding nations to discipline Israel ... eventually the nation cries out for help (not in repentance) and God raises up a judge to deliver them from their oppressors ... Israel "follows" after God and there is a time of peace following the deliverance of the judge, but sooner rather than later the people begin to drift back into sin and the cycle repeats!

The last three chapter contain one of the most gross and disgusting accounts in all of the scriptures. As I was studying and preparing for that particular message, I seriously wondered why I ever started this book. Judges ends and leaves the reader/student of God's Word with a very uneasy concern because of a lack of closure.

Ruth: In the midst of the cesspool of sin as seen in Judges, emerges the account of Ruth. It is like a breath of fresh air or as one of the men of our church said: It's like the Friday night BBQ following just a brutal week at work; an opportunity to stop, relax and be recharged. 

The book of Ruth is set in the time period of the book of Judges. Sometime probably around the time of Gideon.

The account is not about the man who’s name was Elimelech, or his wife was Naomi, or their two sons Mahlon and Kilion. The book is really not even about Ruth or Boaz even though these are all of the main characters.

The account of Ruth is all about God and His sovereign work that is always going on behind the scenes. Even in the midst of what is to us one of the darkest periods in the history of the Nation Israel, God is at work and in perfect control! The doctrine of the Sovereignty of God, in my humble opinion, has to be one of the most comforting doctrines known to man!

Well, all of this to say that if God so wills, I will preach the final message in the series from the book of Ruth this Sunday. As I have mentioned to my folks at the church ... all I wanted to do was preach through Ruth and now we have come to the end.

What's Next?????

I Remain,
Pastor Steve

Received A Note from a Friend:

Got this in an e-mail, just too good not to share here.

Enjoy!

I Remain,
Pastor Steve

Scientists Discover Elusive God Particle --- Decades Long Search Concludes --- Maybe‏

"Listening to the radio can be so much fun.  The latest example occurred just a few minutes ago when I heard national news commentator Harley Carnes announce that it's not newsworthy when a deadly and prolonged heat wave, like the one we just endured, finally goes away.

The reason, says Carnes, is that no one needs a headline to let them know that it's cooler outside or that we all feel better now. Can't argue with that.  Firm grasp of the obvious for sure!

Here's another.  Anyone who has listened to or watched much news lately, has probably heard about that giant swarm containing 6,000 of the world's foremost scientists who think, that at long last, they may have actually discovered the elusive "God Particle".  Remotely akin to the long sought missing link between man and ape, the God Particle is thought to hold the secret to such things as what gives objects their mass, what holds the universe together, and perhaps most importantly, contains the potential to reveal how the universe got its start.  One currently popular theory, of course, is the so called Big Bang -- the belief that our universe began with a massive explosion.

This latest search for the God Particle involved the construction of a seventeen-mile-long underground tunnel housing a $10 billion machine known as the Large Hadron Collider.  During the past 24 months, scientists have really poured the cobs to this phenomenal new machine; repeatedly setting the shots, pulling the trigger, and analyzing the gigantic mountains of data resulting from an astounding 800 trillion warp speed, proton-to-proton collisions.  Boil it all down, sweep away the chaff, and the heretofore undiscovered God Particle suddenly emerges for all to see -- Well, not for sure; it's actually more like sorta kinda maybe.

Although their collective pulse rates have certainly accelerated, scientists say that it is still too early; that no one can know for certain whether or not the God Particle has finally been isolated.  But the events of the day are nevertheless exciting, says renowned Futuristic Theoretical Physicist, Michio Kaku.  Now there's no denying that Kaku is a 50,000 fathoms deep thinker.  He's a cool guy and is always fun to listen to.  But after hearing or, worse yet, trying to read him; I always come away feeling like his giant brain must be the size of a state fair pumpkin and that mine must approximate an anemic version of the proverbial single mustard seed.  But this time I got it.  I really did understand what he was saying -- well at least on a 'sorta kinda maybe' level anyway.

Although we can't yet say for sure that this is really it [the God Particle] there are some things we can be fairly certain of, says Kaku.  The universe did begin with a big bang, a colossal explosion [of energy?] creating a very bright light.  Regardless of the final outcome of this latest experiment, scientists feel as if they've never been closer to the truth.  Kaku summed it up this way --- If this latest effort does fall short of providing positive proof as to what actually caused the bright light explosion that was the origin of the universe, then science has "at least found the fuse".

So there you have it.  It's appears as if we may be on the verge of proving, once and for all, that the universe began with an loud noise accompanied by a bright light.  Nope; Not kidding!  Once again, a firm grasp of the obvious is almost within our reach.  But arriving at the answer didn't come easy.  Let's not forget that the latest attempt in this decades long effort took two years of work, a ten billion dollar collider, a full battalion of 6,000 scientists, a seventeen-mile-long underground tunnel and the orchestration of 800 trillion proton collisions -- give or take.

Here's more news.  For only fifty or sixty bucks [or for free on the internet] the team could have obtained a copy of the Bible and, upon reading the first few words, arrived at basically the same answer.  In addition to Genesis, they also would have received 65 bonus books for no additional cost, and would have also been able to discover how the story of the universe ends.

 

One last question.  If it does happen to turn out that this latest search for the God Particle falls short and has merely "found the fuse" to what ignited the explosion that created the universe; then exactly who was it that lit that fuse in the first place?

Final Thought:  In Genesis 1:3, the Creator God pulls it all together by commanding, "Let there be light."  I'm guessing that He didn't whisper those words and that when the universe began, the whole amazing process was very loud indeed."

Smoked Meatloaf....

I know I'm posting twice in the same day and sometimes it seems that I hardly post twice a month. But my favorite older brother doesn't do Facebook and this is the only way I can keep him in the loop!

So I'm trying my hand at Smoked Meatloaf this afternoon. This is a recipe i got from my nephew Kevin Dennis and he just raves about how good this is. Being me, I must dink with the recipe a bit adding my own twist.

Meatloaf on the smoker ... jury is out! I will be posting results as soon as I have them. until then ... here are a couple of pictures:

I Remain,
Pastor Steve