More BIG IDEAS and FOUR WORDS

January 15th BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1: Dinah and the Men of Shechem: On the next Jerry Springer!
-Talk about hitting a man when he's down.
-I resisted using the phrase "hitting below the belt."

BIG IDEA #2: Scary line: Hamor (Shechem's dad) who says that he really does want her and then invites them to: " . . . settle among us; the land is open to you. Live in it. Trade in it, and acquire property in it." (Seems like temptation has used the same words in my own soul. the seductive allure to come over here "and lie with me" to steal the line from Potiphar's wife.)

BIG IDEA #3: Notice that the men of Shechem are "attacked" by Levi "while all of them were still in pain."
I'll bet this is ONE time when someone lying on the road hurting would not have minded if the Levite had "passed by on the other side." :)

January 16th BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1: gotta love these geneology passages! (for some of us we see them and say "Yeah! Catch-up day!"
-There ARE often neat things hidden in geneologies.
-If nothing else, God knows our names.

January 17th BIG IDEAS:
-Ah . . . my favorite Old Testament story.

BIG IDEA #1: One of the KEYS that always sticks out to me is that Reuben tries to "save" Joseph by throwing him into a pit and then had in mind going back to rescue him. Teens need to learn that having it both ways just does not work. Reuben went along and suggested a compromise that still hurt Joseph but he must have wanted to save face with his brothers.

Ever suggested "throwing someone in a pit" (metaphorically) to your friends even though you really did not want to hurt a person, but needed to look cool to others??

BIG IDEA #2: Judah and Tamar: On the next Jerry Springer.

(or maybe this would be better for MAURY and one of his " 'Who is my baby's daddy?' SPECIAL episodes")

. . . either way, if they made a Genesis movie, no teen would be old enough to see it.

Today's FOUR WORDS: (the Joseph story is full or them. for those who don't know what I mean by "four words" see the last dated entry . . .

a. "YOUNG MAN OF SEVENTEEN" (in other words, listen up teens)
b. "HERE COMES THAT DREAMER!"

January 18th BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1: Joseph is 30 when he begins his "ministry." So was someone else we know whose life looks a lot like Joseph.

BIG IDEA #2I love the meanings of the names of his children: Manasseh "forget" and Ephraim "twice fruitful" This is what God does for us.

Today's FOUR WORDS:
a. "With me in charge" I LOVE this. Notice how many times it says Joseph was in charge or in this case HE says it to Potiphar's wife as a reason why he cannot sin against God. Then look at his life. Did it EVER look like he was in charge: in a pit, hated by brothers, in jail, accused or rape, etc. but somehow he maintains that HE IS IN CHARGE.

b. "TELL ME YOUR DREAMS."
c. "I CANNOT DO IT." (but Joseph adds that God will give the answers)

January 19th BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1: Reuben begs Jacob concerning Benjamin: "Entrust him to my care." (Oh yeah. THAT has been working REAL well.)

REALLY BIG IDEA #2: Notice how Judah pleads for Benjamin: "If the boy is not with us when I go back to my father and if my father WHOSE LIFE IS CLOSELY BOUND UP WITH THE BOY'S LIFE . . . " I LOVE this. Is this true of me and my daughters??

BIG IDEA #3: Joseph says that he was sent ahead by God to save them "as a great band of survivors" (Does this describe US, our church, our yotuh group?)

January 20th BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1: "I will go down to Egypt with you and I will surely bring you back again." THIS is the message of the bible and the rhythm of ALL of our lives.

BIG IDEA #2: Sons of Benjamin: Muppim, Huppim and Ard (Okay, no one EVER give me a hard time about Daisy Sue, Anna Belle, and Lila Mae)

January 21st BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1:"The scepter will not depart from Judah."

BIG IDEA #2: Clearly THE BIG IDEA from Joseph seems to be: You intended it to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is NOw being done (emphasis mine), the saving of many lives." (ONCE AGAIN this seems to foreshadow another dreamer and prince among brothers)

Today's FOUR WORDS
-"HIS BOW REMAINED STEADY"
What a GREAT description of the life of this once "young man of seventeen." Iwould love for THIS to be on my tombstone. Any teen guys reading this: Wow, do I hope this can be said of you as the "archers" around you hurl arrows at YOU.

January 22nd BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1: "God heard their groaning and remembered His covenant . . ." and said another way later on . . . "I am concerned about their suffering, so I have come down to rescue them . . . "

There is only ONE story. (and it is repeated throughout this great plot)

Today's FOUR WORDS:
-TAKE OFF YOUR SANDALS (you will have to ask me why I love this phrase so much. It would take too long to type.)
-PLEASE SEND SOMEONE ELSE

January 23rd BIG IDEAS:

BIG IDEA #1:LaGard notes that "Pharoah avoids God through procrastination, compromise, and insincere repentance" . . . WOW, so if youth ministry does not work out for me, I appear qualified to lead Epypt.

BIG IDEA #2: Pharoah says: "Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" (ANY teen who asks this question (and I could name a few in our group right now) should keep reading AFTER this question is asked. God always seems to come up with an answer to this one. :)

BIG IDEA #3: The people did not listen to Moses "because of their discouragement and cruel bondage." The same thing keeps us from listening to our parents or mentors.

BIG IDEA #4: Pharaoh gives a strange answer when Moses asks when he wants him to pray for the removal of the frogs: "Tomorrow" ??? Imagine singing the song from "ANNIE": "The FROGS will be gone TO-MORROW, bet your bottom dollar that TO morrow, NO MORE FROGS!" I love to go to Disney and visit "TOMORROWLAND" but that was where Pharoah LIVED.

BIG IDEA #5: God says a neat thing with the plagues: "I will make a distinction between my people and your people." Can the same thing be said of US today in the plagued culture in which we live???

Today's FOUR WORDS:
-"LET MY PEOPLE GO" (this is the cry of GOD through Moses, and through every leader whose heart is burdened by the bondage of those in slavery) Do I have this heart? Do you? What does God want YOU to be let go from?

January 8-14

Back to the BIG IDEAS . . . (remember these are the ONE thought that really takes root in my mind during my reading of the Daily Bible during this year)

SIDE NOTE: I am beginning to make initial notes for a book I hope to write someday. It is called "FOURWORD" and look at the story of God in FOUR WORD segments. From now on, on most days, I will end each BIG IDEA with my FOUR WORD selection from that day (and not necessarily with any explanation). No specal significance to the number four, but I like distilling the BIG PICTURE into a snapshot . . . so be looking for the four words as you go fourword (forward).

January 8th
I love Sarah's line: "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me." Sarah always gets a bad wrap or "laughing."

It wasn't: "Um, God, no you can't."
It was more like: "Um God, oh no you didn't!"

Big Idea #2 from 1-8:
If I ever do go back to school and pursue a degree in Conflict Resolution, I will start an organization called "Beersheba" (from the name that means "Wll of the Oath") when Abraham and Abimilech diffused a potentially explosive situation.

FOUR WORDS: "and it is small"
Lot runs to Zoar (meaning "small"). Selfishness leads you to a place called small.

January 9th
1. Notice the two times Abraham says "Here I am." . . . and imagine how glad he was to hear it the second time.

2. I love how Abraham says to the others with them on the journey as he and Isaac begin their hike: "We will worship and then WE will come back to you." That is either FAITH or saying something something and hoping that God was eavesdropping.

FOUR WORDS: "On the third day": Isaac experiences his own resurrection of sorts on the thrid day . . . foreshadowing another three day victory over death

"The Lord will Provide" (the name of the mountain given by Abraham)

January 10th
Abraham's servant was looking for a woman for Isaac and said to himself, "I will say Please may I have a drink?' and if she says 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too.' then she will be the one God has chosen."

Guys, this might be a good strategy for those of you who are in the market.

. . . then the servant "watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey sucessful." (another wise strategy for those of you who date)

January 11th
1.Jacob comes out grabbing his brother's heel. His name (Jacob) means "deceiver."

So he literally WAS pulling his leg.

2. More arguments over more wells . . . named Esek ("dispute") and Sitnah ("opposition") andfinally a third well -Rehoboth ("room"). Eventually God makes room.

January 12th
No real BIG IDEA other than that I am glad MY brother and I get along.

January 13th
1. So when Jacob wants Rachel but is given Leah and sleeps with her and seems surprised . . . how do you NOT know you are sleeping with the wrong person???

2. I love the meanings of the names of the sons of Jacob. In their meanings, I see my entire journey with God. They are like a timeline for all of us. Go back and check it out. For those with a Daily Bible, you can find the meanings in the bottom margins.

January 14th
1. Jacob wrestles with God. Now THIS I would have watched on American Gladiator.

I still find it impressive that you wrestle with God and only LIMP away.

I realize I need to stay caught up. No one is going to read this.

Sunny Days Sweeping the Clouds Away

Okay, more on the Daily Bible in the week to come. Yes, I am caught up, but keeping up with reading AND maintaining a BLOG with is like raising three daughters AND having a new puppy in the house . . . I mean just as a hypothetical example. :)

. . . anyhow, just returned from speaking in Tampa so as I catch my breath, I will simply reflect on the current poll (coolest sesame street character) . . . which has (at this writing) 21 hours remaining. I am glad to see Cookie Monster winning . . . and NO I don't put the poll choices in he order I prefer them.

I mean . . . these characters mean one thing to kids, but they mean more to those of us who have already grown up and seem to be more interested in cookies than in blue monsters hawking them (or hogging them).

So who do you think I left out as cool characters . . . and PLEASE don't list Elmo or Prairie Dawn.

Others I did not have room for but who rank WAY up there in the hip factor:

Sherlock Hemlock
The Yep Yep Yep Aliens
Snuffleupogus
The Amazing Mumford (you know . . . A LA PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICHES)

Who would YOU like to have seen on the poll?

I promise to return to the eternal questions of my Daily Bible thoughts tomorrow . . .

. . . but in my constant quest to find the truth in odd places and to follow Jesus words, "The Kingdom is like . . . " I would offer this:

A puppet is simply something that is given life (bringing joy to others) when it submits to the power of a guiding hand within.

hmmmm.

Depending on your openness to the Spirit, maybe I should consider adding YOU as a choice of coolest puppets????

eighty08

It's a new year . . . we have a new dog (Zuzu: a 4 month old Golden Retriever) . . . the Christmas tree is down and only one bowl game is left . . . well 2 quarters of it anyway.

The main purpose of my blog this year will be to record my journey through the bible. Our teens (some of them) ar committing to read through the Bible to be among 80 who will read through Scripture in '08. We did this in 2004 and set a goal of 40 and we had 57 finish. I have really enjoyed going through the Daily Bible (a bible in chronological order broken into 365 readings) for the past three years. I cannot begin to describe what a blessing it has been.

So each day (mainly for my own recollection . . . and perhaps to leave a legacy for my daughters so they can see what the Word meant to their daddy) I will try to record my thoughts . . . my own BIG IDEAS (which is what we have asked each of the teens to do as they read).

I am caught up on the reading but a bt behind in my blogging but now that I am back from the National Youth Conference (last week in Atlanta), I can begin to let the overflow of scripture pour out into these paragraphs . . .

DAY ONE:
-Did you notice the FIRST acts of God was to "separate light from darkness" and in so doing set a model fo what we would spend each day doing . . . separating light from darkness in our own souls.
-God created seed-bearing plants: they were CREATED TO CREATE. (So were we.)
-Dod you notice the FIRST command GOD gave to man. ("Have sex.") Let's not forget it was HIS idea.
-the first words however spoken by Satan: "Did God REALLY say . . . ?" (and separating light from darkness has not been easy since.)
-Adam was apparently WITH Eve when she was tempted. So why did he not protect her. This was the first example of a lack of male leadership.

My biggest questions of the day:
-What kind of animal did God kill to make the garments of skin? What kind of sound did it make as it died? Did Adam hear it? What was his response to seeing something DEAD for the first time?
-Did it really take SEVEN days? How is this possible since the sun and moon to make day and night did not come along until the fourth day?
-Were the trees created fully grown?

DAY TWO:
-The scariest phrase in most of the bible: "Sin is crouching at your door. It desires to haev you but you must master it." (yikes)
-How crazy is it that relatives from 900 years would still be coming to the family reunion??
-Can you imagine: "I rememeber what your great great great great great great grandfather used to say . . . well, here I'll just let him tell you . . . "

DAY THREE:
-God said: "Wheneve I bring clouds on the earth and the rainbow appears . . . " Apparently rainbows need clouds.
-Sam Bagwell and I laughed at the notion that some animals made it through the flood onlty to come off the ark and be sacrificed.

One Cow: "Wow, I need to stretch my legs. I can't wait to get out of here. Hey, what is that great smell? Soemthings cookin'!!!"

Second Cow: "It's dad."

DAY FOUR:
-the "plain in Shinar" becomes a place of rebellion, arrogance, and sin
-Where are the plains in Shinar in MY life? (those places where I become the focus of attention and where I seek to make a name for myself)
-What does God do when we make ourselves the "gods."
-Like with Babel, HE comes in and "confuses" us. Man, can I remember times when my fleshly plans got confused.

DAY FIVE and SIX:
-I love the name of the well "Beer Lahai Roi" (the Living One who sees me)
-I also like to think Abraham laughed not because he through God was joking but it is like when something so good happens you cannot do anything but laugh . . . like when your team makes a miraculous comeback, or when you see someone you have not seen in a long time

-Funniest Moment: Abram to Sarai: "Honey, put the walker down and let's go into the tent for a few minutes."

DAY SEVEN:
-My favorie part of this passage over the past five years has always been God saying to Sarai: "I will return to you at the appointed time next year . . . and you will have a son." When I was growing up, the phrase "at the next appointed time" was always used during a closing prayer and always meant "the next time we show up for church." I LOVE how here it means when GOD comes back to check on things!!!! When God come back to me at the appointed time, what will be different about me?

These are my BIG IDEAS. From now on, I will likely just share for the day of that reading. I imagine I will not always be caught up with the reading, but I love digging into the WORD an seeing the notes I jotted down LAST YEAR and how much I have changed in what I have noticed and more importantly in what I NEED TO HEAR.

Keep reading. The story gets better.

Good Dog, Scout, good dog . . .

12 years ago, I surprised Melissa with a half black lab-half basset hound puppy (how was I to know THAT when we adopted her) following the death of her childhood dog, Cole. While "Scout" could not completely fill the void left by the dog she grew up with, Scout became ours and created a special place of her own.

12 years later, I sit here with a hole in my heart about the size of . . . oh . . . an empty collar.

Perhaps Scout is now running with Cole . . . or "Tucker", or "Zero" (both of MY childhood dogs).

Dogs don't live forever (and who knows if All Dogs (really) Go to Heaven) so I was under no illusion that we would one day get to move her house with us over to Stones River Manor, but what I was not prepared to face were the basset hound sized tears on the face of three little girls who aren't so sure that death was one of God's brightest ideas.

. . . and it didn't help that daddy was thinking the same thing.

Lila: "Daddy, why did you put those on?"

(She was pointing to the tears on MY face.)

Daddy: "So I could look like you."

Last night, I came home from work late. The look in Scout's eyes seemed to say, "Don't walk past me tonight." I sat in her chair (in the garage) and held her and then came inside. I dreamed about her twice last night. Both times she was running (something she has not done a lot of in the past few weeks). I found those dreams odd. Not now.

My dad and mom came up, and dad and I took Scout to our family farm in Decherd to lay her to rest with our other family dogs . . . the aforemetnioned "Tucker" and "Zero" (cut me some slack, I was a toddler learning to count when we got her and after mom and dad rejected "Three", "Two" and "One" as possible puppy names, I reportedly said, "There's nothing left, so that leaves . . . " (you gueesed it, and it was the name she held for nearly 119 dog years.)

I came home late from the farm, put the girls in bed, and came dowstairs and found a picture of Scout that one of the girls had cut out of a photo album and had scotch taped to the wall in our foyer.

God . . . at least let me pretend that those pearly gates are on the front of a kennel.


Anna Belle is learning to read. While Daisy has moved on to chapter books, Anna Belle is stuck with simpler books with loosely developed plots. Tonight we worked on a short sentence of our own.

Scout.

See Scout.

See Scout run.

Run, Scout, run!

What would Waylon have to say about THIS?

Seriously, "The General Lee" is in LAST place. Are you kidding me? Some of you are voting for something driven by David Hasselhoff over the great "01"??!?

(I am guessing this has SOMETHING to do with the demographics of the voting pool.)

(Thank goodness I did not put "The Ninja Turtlemobile" on here . . . if such a vehicle even exists.)

K.I.T.T. (really?)

Does anyone even know what K.I.T.T. stands for (NO googling ALLOWED)?

Dating Secret #37

Here is something to think about: (this is in reponse to some dating questions I get from time to time)
Ladies, as you date - keep this in mind: They way a guy talks about his family and especially how he talks about his mom is the best indicator of how he will treat you (one day . . . maybe not on any individual date). Studies back this up in big ways. Guys, the way a girl talks about her father is how she is likely going to relate to the guy she marries.
Do ALL follow this pattern? Of course not, but it's like saying that when you throw a ball at me, I am going to catch it with my left hand. COULD I catch it with my right hand? Yes. BUT I HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT MORE.
The way a guy (or girl) talks about their family is a guiding indicator of how they will one day relate and treat those they commit to.
It's something to think about.
So what if you don't have a relationship with your mom and/or dad? What if you live with only one parent (primarily). Again, you need to be aware that you will have to THINK a bit more as you relate to that particular sex because you don't have a pattern. It CAN be done and it can be done well, but you need to KNOW this as you journey toward that relationship. You will have to be MORE AWARE (like cathcing a ball with your opposite hand).
Ladies, the secret is that FOR THE LONG TERM: how a guy talks about his mom is how he will come to view the role of wife, mom, and mate because when the "romance" becomes reality, it is all he knows. To be honest with you, guys are not all that aware of this truth . . . and guys, you need to know that you need to find someone (I'm talking ultimately and not necessarily for whomever you ask out for this Friday night) who will be a good mother because VERY soon in your relationship it will be one of the things that matters most (although I realize that it is not tops on the list in high school perhaps.)
Bottom line for my Christian sisters: If he does not treat his mom with respect, he has no idea how to treat you with any.