"Who do you say I am?"

On the way to the villages around Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say I am?"

The disciples told him that some folks said he was John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets.  Then Christ asked, "But what about you?  Who do you say I am?"

--  --  --

Ever asked a friend, "What do you think about me?"

You're likely to get answers like, "Oh you're my best friend" or "I can always count on you" or maybe even "I wish I could be a friend like you."

But there's a world of difference between asking "What do you think about me?" and asking, "What do you say about me?"  Because sometimes what our friends tell us they think isn't quite the same thing as what they say.

Especially behind our backs, when our friends don't think we'll ever hear it.  

--  --  --

So let's go back to the beginning: Christ didn't ask his disciples, "Who do you think I am?"  No, Jesus already knew what they thought.

Instead, he asked his disciples what they said about him ... when they weren't within earshot.  When they spent time with unbelievers.  When they were grumbling among themselves.

Or on Friday nights when they felt like "getting their sin on" ... and didn't think he was around to see or hear it.

Now imagine Jesus asking all his disciples, 

"What about you?  Who do you say I am?"

It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak."

-  2 Corinthians 4:13

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

- Romans 10: 9-10

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven.

- Matthew 10:32

DJ's Prayer

I used to help David Jolley make videos for church ... so I hope he won't mind if I "edit" this post from his blog:

My Prayer

This is how today influenced me…
I need release from myself.  I need vision from you to see circumstances and people the way that you do.  I want to be more like you.  I want to love my wife with the passion and power that you do.  i want to understand that the more i want to love and protect my family, you want it more.  

You are never the one that has failed my family, i am the only one that does that.  Please help me take myself out of every situation so that I don’t distract others from you.  Humble me.  Teach me to trust myself less in every situation.  Teach me to lead selfishly.  Teach me to lead in the way that will indirectly impact my family by what change occurs in me.  Burden me with being humble and free from myself.  Break me.  

i pray for purity of me and my family.  i can’t lead my family if i can’t follow your cues.  Cripple my pride and teach me forgiveness.  Burden me with your will.  Continue to remind me how unworthy i am.  Show me YOUR power and let me rejoice in Your success. The eyes through which my children see the world are a result of my example.  The total service and submission to my wife is my responsibility.  Lord, kick my a[ttention]. 

Others can learn from my pain. I want you to take what I think I can control.  My process is weak to your concern. Let me lead with my silence and not my voice.  I want to have release instead of a grip. i can only speak if i stop talking. You spoke me into existence with the breath that protects me. i can only impact others by them seeing your grace.  i walk today heavier than i did yesterday.  The more confidence i have in myself, the less you can depend on me.  

If i don’t cross paths with the devil everyday, i am going in the same direction he is.  i am what use to be and You are the future.  Flesh, pride, and circumstances are a reference of how small things are in the scheme of time. You speak into me only what you can trust me with.  Monitor my thoughts and filter my words.  

i stand accountable for the environment i create that my family lives in.  Make me walk away from those I distract.  Give me opportunities to fail so that i can learn.

The BarackBerry

Yes, Barack Obama will get a BlackBerry — after some government spook agency puts in an ungodly amount of encryption (and maybe some back doors so they can listen in). Last week, it was looking like Obama would not get to keep his BlackBerry for security reasons. Separately, incoming White House lawyer Cassandra Butts had told his staff that they would not be allowed to use IM, with each other or with reporters. - source

E-mail has long been treated with suspicion by the Secret Service because of fears it could be hacked into by foreign espionage agencies, or that sensitive information could reach the public domain via a single mis-stroke of the "send" key.  There are also concerns that mobile devices such as BlackBerries, which contain built in GPS technology, could be hacked into, revealing the president's location within a few feet.  

Writing on his blog for the Atlantic magazine, Marc Ambinder reports that the National Security Agency has approved a $3,350 smartphone -- inevitably dubbed the "BarackBerry" -- for Obama's use.  The exclusive Sectera Edge, made by General Dynamics, is reportedly capable of encrypting top secret voice conversations and handling classified documents. - source

Get your own Edge here.

The Faith Hobby

Church isn't just for Sundays, prayer isn't a private act of self-fulfillment or empowerment, and professing faith in Christ isn't an option to be set aside for our convenience .

2000 years ago, many of Jerusalem's religious leaders believed in Christ, yet they were afraid to confess their faith for fear of being booted from the synagogue.  Getting 86'd from the temple wasn't just a disgrace ... it was personally embarrassing, socially humiliating and professionally decapitating.

I can almost picture those well-dressed leaders, maybe they were like deacons, standing huddled together on the parking lot before the synagogue service with their camels (the transportation kind), shrugging to each other, "I mean sure I believe, but like, membership has its privileges ... like being fed and bossing the High Priest around ... and I kinda like keeping my private side to myself, ya know?  Besides, what difference does it really make?"

And then they put their church faces on and marched inside to play pious in front of each other, keeping their faith hidden and private ... because they loved praise from men more than praise from God, and couldn't turn loose of their old, comfortable lives.  Faith was their hobby, not their conviction.

Wonder how many changed their minds after the resurrection?

For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

- Romans 10:10

Whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

-Matthew 10:33

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

- Romans 6:24

... so God must not either? (updated)

Our culture is vexed with the notion of "Choice."  We're encouraged to Have It Your Way in every respect  ... even if that means being disrespectful.  Go ahead, express yourself!

Who can say you're wrong?  Everybody's personal opinion is as worthwhile and valid as anyone else's.

After all, since everything's relative it's your right to chose anything ... from choosing whether to add bacon to your burger, to use profanity in public, to lie if it's convenient, to have sex outside of marriage, to kill an unborn child, on down to whether or not God exists: It's Your Choice.

Folks therefore feel empowered to choose what God said, and often take this approach: "I already know what I like, and since I'm basically a smart, hard-to-fool Good Person, that gives me a pretty good handle on what God's like."  

Their reasoning goes like this:

- I don't see anything wrong about being gay, so God must not either.

- I don't think people go to hell if they don't accept Christ, so God must not either.

- I don't think tithing applies to the New Covenant, so God must not either.

- I don't like organized religion, so God must not either.

- I don't think my private sins are a big deal, so God must not either.

- I don't know what happens when you die, so God must not either.

- I'm not sure Jesus is the only way to Heaven, so God must not be either.

But here's the kick in the gut:

- I don't like people acting like they've got all the answers; arguing with me about salvation, about what's right and wrong, and about what to believe ... so God must not either.

Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, 
       to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. 
       Does the clay say to the potter, 
       'What are you making?' 
       Does your work say, 
       'He has no hands'?

- Isaiah 45:9

I HAVE to think this ...

(Wednesday Boating Humor)

We like to think our bodies are solid, but they're actually not.

The reason is simple: if an individual atom was the size of a football stadium, the nucleus would be about the size of a quarter ... and its electrons would be zooming around the upper decks.  Meaning, there's a whole lot of empty space inside an atom.  See?

So theoretically, probability says that if you kept trying for about 5 billion years, on at least one attempt all the atoms in your body would line up perfectly ... and allow you to walk right through a solid brick wall.  Amazing.

--   ---  --

After three days of effort, I finally managed to install two new electric outlets in Calypso's helm.  The first day's progress came to a screeching halt when I dropped one of the outlet screws onto the deck, and couldn't find it.

The second day's attempt faltered when I dropped one of the outlet cover screws ... and couldn't find it either.

Losing two successive screws on a flat, unobscured 4-foot square fiberglass surface isn't just frustrating: it's maddening.  I spent 90 minutes doing the actual install, but wasted 4 hours looking for screws.

Where could they possibly have gone?

I mean, it's like losing a marble inside a shoe.

--  --  --

I can sleep more easily now, after figuring out what happened: the screws' atoms were perfectly aligned with all the empty space in the fiberglass deck's atoms, which permitted both screws to fall straight through the deck ... and into the dreaded bilge.

Falling into The Bilge raises all sorts of puzzling new issues about warping space/time dimensions, most of which are too scary to discuss here.  I think it's sufficient to say those two tiny screws are probably rolling around now on the lavatory floor of Oceanic flight 815.  In which case they'd be LOST forever.

At least, that is, until tonight's season 5 premier.

A strange new sound

Woke up in the dark this morning to a sound I'd never heard before.

No, it wasn't mermaids and it wasn't the mysterious moaning known as the Bloop ... or even whale songs: it was ice pressing the fiberglass sides of my boat.






Kinda reminds me of Beneath the Icy Floe; go figure.

A song that sticks

But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.

- 1 John 2:5-6

Snow Day

Your airplane

- from 10:30 AM, Sunday

We're learning new details about last week's Hudson River crash of a US Airways jet enroute to Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Turns out the co-pilot was flying the aircraft during takeoff, but immediately after impacting a flock of "big brown birds" at around 3200 feet and losing both engines, the pilot took control of the airplane and announced to the co-pilot, "My airplane."

The co-pilot acknowledged, "Your airplane" ... and handed off control to his superior.

Then pilot Chesley Burnett Sullenberger successfully executed a miracle: the engine-out water landing of his Airbus 320 ... without losing a single soul on board.

-- -- --

When the flight deck gets busy, that's the kind of precise communication required to stay under control and keep an airplane in the air; that's how each party communicates and knows beyond any doubt whatsoever who's flying the airplane.

An aircraft can only have one Pilot-in-Command, one Pilot in charge, one Pilot who's commanding the flight: one pilot who is the final authority.

--   ---  ---

No, God is not my Co-Pilot.

God is my Pilot in Command ... because I'm not worthy to be his steward.

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

- 1 John 3:23

8:30PM was sounding good ...

Regular readers already know I'm usually shutting down lights, double-checking bilge pumps and trudging off to bed around 8:30 (no, I don't actually go to sleep at 8:30 ... I try to read for an hour).

So what I am doing up at 12:53 AM?

Because I watched this, that's why.

What makes the gospel different?

The texts of other faiths describe what the authors thought about death, life, gods and the hereafter.

But the disciples saw death destroyed, and witnessed life and immortality brought to light through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

- 2 Timothy 1:10

Still my favorite, always the One

Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.

Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave.

Shine your light and let the whole world see,
We're singing for the glory of the risen King ... Jesus

Bank Robberies Rise

Bank robberies are up in cities across the USA this year and, although the reason is unclear, the down economy is a suspect.

"The economy is driving some of this," says Chris Swecker, chief security officer for Bank of America and former assistant director of the FBI's criminal division. "We're even getting some anecdotal stuff from bank robbers."

Swecker said Bank of America analysts study the interplay between the increase in bank heists and foreclosures, credit defaults and unemployment rates.

"We haven't drawn any conclusions yet, but we are certainly looking at it," he said.

-USA Today

Hmm.  Or might it have something to do with stealing money from taxpayers to finance Federal bank bailouts?

Bank robbers wear masks; bank robber barons wear suits and ties: the thieves are on the inside.

Wonder if Bank of America will start charging its customers early withdrawl penalties per each robbery, or late fees for robbers showing up after 2:00PM?

Relativity: Hot Air & Empty Heads

Not too long ago I overheard someone confess, "Sure I know about Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  It means everything's relative."

For that person, Einstein was surely smart enough to know what he was talking about, and if The Big E said "Everything's Relative" then it certainly must be true and therefore universally applicable to Everything ... including faith: It's all relative.

Except that's not what Einstein meant by any stretch and not what The Theory of Relativity is about in the least.  At all.  

But that's what some folks want to believe any way, because thinking "Everything's relative" also means "What's right for you might not be right for me" ... which makes thinking about difficult issues easier.  Believing "Everything's Relative" or "There Are No Absolutes" thus makes it easier to avoid making firm decisions.  About anything.

Particularly concerning Faith and eternity.

Here's the Chicken Cannon

After yesterday's crash landing of USA Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson River, many pundits expressed surprise that bird strikes can bring down a commercial airliner.

In fact, at Boston's Logan Airport back in October 1960, a Lockheed L-188 crashed just six seconds after takeoff as a result of multiple bird strikes, from starlings, with the loss of 62 lives.

Wasn't long before the FAA began issuing Bird Ingestion Standards for turbine engines.

Nope, it's not part of a joke left over from Monty Python ("What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow?"): the Chicken Cannon is real.

It's used to test whether jet engines comply with bird strike safety requirements.

-- -- --

The Chicken Gun is designed to simulate high speed bird impacts.

It is named after its unusual projectile: a whole dead standard-sized chicken, as would be used for cooking. This has been found to accurately "simulate" a fairly large bird (as it actually is one).

The test target is fixed in place on a test stand, and the cannon is used to fire the chicken into the engine, windshield, or other test structure.

- from Wikipedia

Introducing ... the Fuggly

First it was the Snuggie.  Now meet the Fuggly:

15

Man found shot in SW Baltimore as vigil for murder victim wrapped up

By Justin Fenton | justin.fenton@baltsun.com

11:32 AM EST, January 15, 2009

A 56-year-old man was fatally shot last night in Southwest Baltimore, as a candlelight vigil for a homicide victim from last week was wrapping up just a few blocks away.

More than 70 people gathered in the street in front of Tomasina Degree's South Wickham Street home last night to mourn her son, Kip, 23. They remembered his love of dancing, and talked about how he had found God and was making something of his life. A youth pastor concluded the candlelight vigil with frank warnings of the dangers of gun violence.

Police said last night that it appeared the man, identified as Ronald Crosby, was shot elsewhere and drove to where he was found by police.  Crosby, who lived in the Jamestowne community, is the city's 15th homicide victim of the year.

Memo to Self: Here's a Real Time Saver

The other day I downloaded a podcast to watch on my Sony Walkman digital media player.  Trouble is, the Walkman can't play videos in the podcast format.

Finally found two possible approaches to my situation:  

(1) Convert the files using AfterEffects CS3.  I tried a 5-second test, and though the converted file plays perfectly, converting an hour-long video would take about 15 hours to complete.

(2) Convert using a cheap-o podcast converter (which takes far less time to configure) and needs just 40 minutes to finish, instead of 15 hours (although the "converted" file doesn't work and still won't play, at all.)

So, which solution should I pursue?

Obviously #2, because it's so easy and saves so much time.

--   --   --

Now let's talk about life:

Approach #1 is surrendering totally, completely and absolutely to following God's will.

Approach #2 means going to church on Sundays, sometimes.

¿Qué sucedió ayer?

So what happened yesterday?

Yesterday I finally got to Little Havana and had a real Cuban sandwich, served with black beans and yellow rice ... with plantanos on the side. Oh, and potato and chorizo soup as an appetizer.

It wasn't exactly like the ones I remember; when I was a kid all the Cuban sandwiches were made with real pressed Cuban bread, and included a slice of peppered Genoa salami. They were probably just a little bit thicker, too ... or maybe now I've just got bigger eyes.

¡Era sí delicioso! Yes, it was delicious!

Flan de leche wasn't among the desserts, so I opted for a sopapilla instead:

Going to Little Havana’s just for the sopapillas is worth it. The crisp pillows of fried, sweet dough sprinkled with granulated and powdered sugar, and drizzled with chocolate and berry sauces, are the type of dessert you’ll keep eating even though you’re full. Scoops of creamy vanilla ice cream make the sopapillas one of Baltimore’s best desserts. - examiner.com

Little Havana is only 20 minutes away by car, but about half that by dinghy (or by boat) ... and you can conveniently tie up right outside the deck. Get directions here.

The mistake I made was in not thinking ahead: wish now I'd ordered a couple extra Cuban sandwiches to take home ... para almuerzo.

ps. Yesterday afternoon, Little Havana was installing HDTV ... just in time for Sunday's AFC Championship game featuring the Ravens against somebody else.

-- --- ---

For authentic Cuban sandwich afficionados only:

"People in Miami often talk as if they invented the Cuban sandwich, but they are pretenders to the throne. In the early 1900s, workers in Cuba brought simple "mixto" sandwiches to work or bought them at cafes. These cold-cut concoctions took on a new character in Tampa, influenced by Ybor City's vibrant mix of immigrant cultures. By the 1920s, the old "mixtos" coalesced into something more distinct – the Cuban sandwiches we know and love – an original Tampa creation.

"Tampa's Cuban sandwich is a dying culinary breed. By the time it became a recognized and revered tradition in the 1940s, the real thing was already fading fast. The true Cuban sandwich – conceived in Cuba and perfected in Tampa – lived and died with Ybor City.

"When one examines the labor that went in tomaking an old-fashioned Cuban, it is more understandable that today's sandwiches fall short so often. Like so many simple things in early Ybor City, the Cuban sandwich was elevated to an art and craft. Restaurateurs prepared every ingredient in painstaking fashion.

"Wet, cheap boiled ham and processed pork loaves give us little indication of what a real Cuban sandwich should taste like. It doesn't help that most places pile on lettuce, mayo, and tomato, which is like adding a glass of water – it dilutes the flavor. When done right, the sandwich showcases the contrast between the dry crust of Cuban bread with the rich mingling of melted fats within. The bold combination of salty ham and salami, the garlic and vinegar overtones of the roast pork, the sharp taste of pickle and mustard – are all married by the bread and subtle charm of Swiss cheese."

"Original Cuban sandwiches come from Ybor City; everything else is just a sub."

- from CigarCity.com

"One of the greatest sins in Cuban sandwich preparation is too light a press. A heavy hand on the press pushes all the juices and flavors together while still achieving the desired crunch crust. These sandwiches use no mayonnaise, lettuce, onions, bell peppers, or tomatoes; however, butter and mustard are optional. Cuban sandwiches are sold hot (pressed) or cold (room temperature).

"The most important part of a Cuban sandwich is the bread. It is not ordinary bread, but Cuban bread. Believers say that true Cuban bread cannot be found outside of Tampa or Miami. Italian bread or French bread are acceptable substitutions in other parts of the country, but they are not the same.

"Cuban bread is noted for its split or bloom down the middle of its crust. This long, crusty loaf features a tender, but not chewy, interior. Cuban bread is best when it is eaten on the same day that it is made, as Cuban bread contains lard. After a day or so, the lard hardens, and the bread gets dry." - The History of the Cuban Sandwich