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Lessons From A Sick Dog

My daughter called me a couple days ago and informed me that one of our dogs was listless and wouldn’t eat, or even wag her tail. Something was obviously wrong with her.

Boxer (Not Lila)

A year and a half ago, we adopted a boxer named Lila. She’s a great dog, but being four years old at the time, we’ve had to re-train her a bit in order to fit into our household. She’s a smart dog, and she learns quick. But sometimes we still deal with old habits, like this week.

When my daughter called me, I told her to keep an eye on Lila, and if she acted sick, to take her outside. At lunch I headed home to find out that she was still miserable. I took her out for a walk, and she threw up several times while we were outside (I know, that’s gross).

I didn’t understand what was going on until that moment. Lila had just thrown up more birdseed than I could possibly imagine.

After some further searching, I discovered that Lila had somehow managed to gain access to our garage, where she had eaten a significant amount of birdseed for our outdoor feeders. I don’t know how much she ate, but it definitely wasn’t good for her. She had gotten into something that she shouldn’t have gotten into.

The truth is that I do the same thing all too often, and I’m sure you do too. We tend to get into things we shouldn’t, and they are not always healthy for us.

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Coffee Break – 04.25.2016

Your Monday Dose Of Inspiration

On this day in history: In 1684, a patent was granted for the thimble. In 1859, ground was broken to begin the Suez Canal in Egypt. In 1901, New York became the first state to require license plates for cars. The fee was $1. And in 1928, a seeing eye dog was used for the first time.

Coffee Break

Handcrafted Espresso – Hungarian coffee cinematographers Kavekalmar have made a beautiful video about making espresso. These guys have made other videos that are pretty incredible. This one is no different. Enjoy.

Barnacle Geese Jump Off A Cliff – Nesting on cliff faces to protect their young from predators, barnacle gees have one of the toughest survival strategies of all. This link leads to a video that shows this crazy phenomenon.

Heat Sensitive Mug Displaying The Northern Lights – This is just one of those things that needs to be shared. Simply because it’s awesome. I think I want one of these for my office…

A Map Geek’s Tour Of The World – We live in a strange world. This brief video shows just how the world is interconnected in ways that we don’t usually realize. It’s very fascinating to know some of the facts highlighted here.

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Developing Consistency In Your Bible Reading

One of the toughest areas of my spiritual life has traditionally been consistency in my Bible reading. It seems like it’s easy to slip away from this habit over all the other spiritual disciplines. And we can’t let that happen.

Developing Consistence In Your Bible Reading

Finding consistency is our spiritual habits is critical. But it’s not something we think about too often, if at all. We just kind of take it for granted, unless it’s missing, and then we notice, and we wish we could do better. But we don’t know how.

The Importance Of Consistency

The Bible is our primary source for knowing God and his will for our lives. He has written his love letter to us, in the form of the sixty-six books of the Bible. And, if we want to get to know who he is, and what he desires for our lives, that is where we will find it.

You learn a lot about God from spending time with him. And you get to know him better personally as well. He has opened himself to us through his word, and we can see his heart, his character, his love and much more.

And, the better you know the message of God, the better you understand his mission: to seek and save humanity. And you can see your role in that.

Unless we are reading the Word of God on a consistent basis, we won’t have a handle on these things. Reading daily will help you and I understand God better, know his Son more fully, and see his will more clearly.

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Book Review – Four Views On Hell

Four Views On HellAs a minister, predictably, some of my favorite books to read are theological or doctrinal in nature. And, most of the time, I particularly enjoy those that seem to be controversial in nature, reading them to help define and clarify what I believe, in support of what the biblical texts state themselves.

And the topic of hell has been very controversial of late, with such authors as Rob Bell and others rejecting the traditional concepts and unveiling new and unorthodox views.

In that regard, an updated version of a volume dedicated to examining several of these views seems appropriate. An older edition of this book exists, but this new, updated version is clearly in need with the flavor of evangelicalism changing over the years.

This book, Four Views On Hell, is a part of the Counterpoints series, and provides, as expected, four differing views of hell by four different authors. Each author presents an essay promoting his view, promoting and defending it, and is followed by a brief rebuttal by the other three authors. This occurs four times, with a final summary by the editor to wrap it all up.

Coming from a conservative, traditional church background, my studies have primarily been along only one trajectory of the four listed here. So it was refreshing and enlightening for me to be able to see alternative views presented and explained. I have not changed my position, and still land firmly in the traditional camp, because I feel that the Bible bears this out specifically. But I did find it quite interesting to follow the thought process of some of these other viewpoints.

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Coffee Break – 04.18.2016

Your Monday Dose Of Inspiration

On this day in history: In 1775, American revolutionaries Paul Revere, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott rode though the towns of Massachusetts giving the warning that the Regulars were coming out. Later, the phrase “the British are coming” was attributed to Revere even though it is unlikely he used that wording. In 1906, San Francisco, CA, was hit with an earthquake. The original death toll was cited at about 700. Later information indicated that the death toll may have been 3 to 4 times the original estimate. And in 1924, Simon and Schuster, Inc. published the first “Crossword Puzzle Book.”

Coffee Break

The Chemistry Of The Perfect Cup Of Coffee – While Mental Floss is hardly the authority for finding the perfect cup of coffee, this video that they share does give some insights into the chemistry reactions that help make coffee, well, coffee.

Portable Pencil Sharpeners – As a pencil fanatic, having the right pencil sharpener is critical. But having one small enough to toss in a bag when you head out is also important. Joe Thorn reviews several different options, and his thoughts are spot on. Here are the two I carry with me and keep on my desk.

Photos From Inside A Captured WWI German U-Boat – This was the beginning stages of underwater warfare, and it was not easy. Modern submarines are much easier to live within compared to this. Crazy!

Frozen Soap Bubbles – Who knew that this could be so beautiful? It’s really rather mesmerizing to watch the frost crystals form.