Here’s a little early history of The Master’s Table. My wife and I, before our daughter was born, got to spend Christmas 2007 in Germany. She had grown up in Germany (army brat, not a German citizen) but had not been back in 20 years. She actually lived in West Germany before reunification. We visited for 10 days, arriving early in the morning on Christmas Eve and coming home January 2, 2008. I don’t take “vacations” and knew ahead of time that I would be confined to my in-laws home much of the time. I had never been on a 12 hour flight. So one of the things I did to prepare was to load up my 2nd gen. iPod Nano with every iMonk Radio and Coffee Cup Apologetics podcast available at the time. That’s why the iMonk Radio archive page contains episodes 48 – 81. They were downloaded, listened to, and forgotten about for a period of time. We had been living in Oneida, KY, and working at the same private boarding school as Michael Spencer since 2003. I was aware of the Internet Monk website and sometimes commented, but we saw him pretty much every day. He was a real person and the OBI Campus Minister before I encountered the Internet Monk and his online persona. I never felt compelled to start my own blog… until I spent 10 days listened to the podcast. That made me feel like I had some things to say.

Here is a post from back in 2014 titled Six Years at the Table. Michael passed away in 2010 and in 2012 we moved from Kentucky back to Georgia. There was a period of inactivity on the blog and some personal turmoil as I struggled with making a career change. The blog has settled into a routine and I have pastored a small SBC church since October of 2014. Blogging was still up and coming when I got on board but is no longer the latest thing. Facebook and Twitter I can do but I never launched a podcast or YouTube channel, which is what it would take to grow an audience. TikTok for the glory and honor of God sounds about as ridiculous to those in my peer group as Christian blogger probably did to Michael’s 21 years ago. Michael served in small rural community and the proliferation of the Internet gave him a national, perhaps international, stage. I serve in a small rural community and am probably happy here in a way that he would not have been. I pastor a small church, sit on a small city council, and my roles in the local Baptist association and ministerial alliance make me well known all over Gordon County. You Can’t Go Home Again is that title of a Thomas Wolfe novel published in 1940. It’s not Bible and not true for everyone. My mission field is the place I grew up. And for those of you still reading blogs, I’ll check in two or three times a week.

We are not seeing the beginning of World War III. Putin is alone and to fight WWIII Russia would need some allies. No other country is backing the invasion of Ukraine. His own people are being arrested by the thousands for protesting the war while nations around the globe stand in solidarity with Ukraine. He may yet kill thousands of innocent civilians and cause a nuclear disaster; I’m not saying everything is fine. What I’m saying is I don’t see the rise of the Soviet Union on the horizon, more likely the fall of Vladimir Putin. He is choosing to go out in a blaze of glory, either from his political career or possibly his life. Pray for the people of Ukraine as well as everyone in Europe, including those in Russia. This is not their war and not even the Russian military believe in this fight.

Facebook Memories showed me this post just yesterday from 2014. Very timely.

This post is from 2020, DO NOT change your clocks in the morning. Before churches stopped meeting in person we were looking for ways to avoid contact and stop the spread, remember? It’s a shame this never really caught on.

Sell by Mario? No, that milk is dated March 10 which looks a lot like Mario when abbreviated in all caps and why March 10th is Mario Day. I love being able to report these things early instead of after the fact.

I have been hiking at Kennesaw Mountain State Park many times. The historic sites and trails connecting them spread out for miles. This parrot shell has been moved to a bunker where it will be counter charged – code for blown up – at a later date. A few debates have broken out online over destroying the artifact instead of of disarming it and displaying it in the museum. The bomb squad claims it is nearly impossible while dozens of social media experts claim it can easily be done with no danger to life or limb whatsoever. In either case they took lots of pictures.

It took two men to hold the camera but they didn’t even need a bathroom mirror. It was a more civilized time. I don’t know who need to hear this, but if your phone has a front and back camera you don’t need to use a mirror either.

I was going to share a 5 minute summary of the Paralympic Opening Ceremony. You can still watch it but only by visiting YouTube. The video owner, NBC Sports, will not allow the video to be embedded at any other location. Here is a link. The Paralympics and Special Olympics are two separate organizations officially recognized by the Internal Olympic Committee. The Paralympics started yesterday and will run through March 13th in Beijing.