Illinois...

For all us Illinoisans...

Jeff Foxworthy on Illinois:

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Illinois.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from November through March, you might live in Illinois.

If someone in a store offers you assistance & they don't work there, you might live in Illinois.

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in Illinois.

If you have ever worn shorts and a parka at the same time, you might live in Illinois.

If your town has an equal number of bars and churches, you might live in Illinois.

If you have had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in Illinois.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE Illinoisan WHEN:
1. Vacation means going north or south on I55 for the weekend.
2. You measure distance in hours.
3. You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.
4. You often switch from heat to AC in the same day and back again.
5. You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.
6. You see people wearing camouflage at social events (including weddings).
7. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
8. You carry jumper cables in your car and know how to use them.
9. You design your kids Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
10. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
11. You know all 5 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, road construction, & It's Hot.
12. Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.
13. Down south means Missouri to you.
14. A brat is something you eat.
15. Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole shed.
16. You go out to a tailgate party every Friday.
17. You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
18. You find 0 degrees a "little chilly".
19. You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your Illinois friends. (What's not to understand???)

The DaVinci Code

Holy Grail? The Last Supper? The DaVinci Code? Gospel of Judas? Canonicity of Scripture? Gnosticism? Mary Magdalen? Dan Brown?

What is this stuff and why should I care?

On May 19th, Sony Pictures is going to release the long awaited movie The DaVinci Code. It is based on the best selling book of the same name by Dan Brown. This Ron Howard film will be staring Tom Hanks and you bet that this film will be a block buster.

Here is a summary of Brown’s novel;

“The central event of the novel is the murder of a Louvre curator, found in the pose of Leonardo’s celebrated “Vitruvian man”—a figure inscribed in both a circle and a square—which sets in motion an ingenious plot involving numerological symbolism, verbal puzzles and an alternative version of Christianity, wrapped around the legend of the Holy Grail. Brown posits that Leonardo is at the center of a secret society that has maintained a secret from biblical times, namely that Mary Magdalene, far from being a prostitute, was the rightful wife of Jesus; Mary and Jesus had a child and heirs; and finally, the heirs, whose existence threatened church dogma, were protected by a clandestine priory that counted Leonardo among its members. The novel also contends that the Holy Grail, contrary to most ideas that it was the chalice Jesus used as He introduced the ordinance of communion, was actually the pregnant Mary Magdalene, the lost vessel of Jesus’ blood. Thus, the figure sitting on Jesus’ right in Leonardo’s “Last Supper,” generally taken to be the effeminate apostle John, was actually Mary Magdalene. Since there is no object on the table that could be a grail or chalice, Brown contends that Mary symbolizes the actual grail, which is a metaphor for the sacred feminine and a form of goddess worship suppressed by Christianity.”

Too preposterous to even warrant a response, right? Wrong! People have been talking about this book, and with the movie coming out it is going to be a topic of conversations everywhere.

If our attitude towards this book is that it is ‘to preposterous to even warrant a response’ then we are going to become what the usual dogmatic, narrow-minded Christian stereotype portrays. So what do we do? Buy and read the book? Go see the movie? Wouldn’t that be supporting the whole thing?

Let me say this: I have seen 2 people in my office (of only 60 employees) with this book already. People are going to be talking and if I can not talk intelligently about this book, or if I refuse to participate in the conversations about this book, then I will be missing opportunities to show the obvious lies and inaccuracies of the book and the coming movie. I will miss opportunities to share the truth and reliability of the Bible, about Jesus, and salvation.

We need to look at this as a great opportunity to share Jesus in a nation where that freedom is slowly being taken away. For more detailed responses to questions raised in the book I suggest this book: The DaVinci Deception by Edwin Lutzer.

Great Preachers -- Tozer again

This is todays devotional from Tozer. I would not have posted this here but this, I believe, is related to what Darrell posted a couple days ago: Give it a look see...

--

May 5

Preaching: Great Preachers

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has
chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and
God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the
things which are mighty.
--1 Corinthians 1:26-27

I'm against the idea of putting the "big preachers" on tape and
playing them back to the congregations that feel they are being
starved by listening to "little preachers."

Fallacy, brethren--a thousand times, fallacy!

If we could have the Apostle Paul on tape recordings and let him
stand here and preach, he could do no more for you than the Holy
Ghost can do, with The Book and the human conscience....

Oh, brethren, I would not detract from God's great men, but I can
safely say that that's not what the church needs.

The church needs to listen to the inner voice and do something
about it! The Tozer Pulpit, Volume 1, 108-109.

"Lord, we're inundated today with 'big preachers.' And while we
appreciate their gifts and ministries, I pray today for all of
my brothers who are 'little preachers.' Help them not to be
discouraged by their seeming smallness but to be faithful
servants of Yours, declaring with great passion the message of
the Book, in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's what the
church needs! Amen."
--

National Day of Prayer

The Nation Day of Prayer is tomorrow, Thursday, May 4th.

Please take part both corporately with fellow believers, and privately in your prayer closet.
Let us not just talk about it, not just think about it, not just tell others about it, not just ask others to do it, but let us ourselves JUST DO IT!

For more information on this event check out the web site.

http://www.ndptf.org/

Happy Birthday Greyson!

My son's birthday was this weekend.

Happy birthday Son!