I saw a meme of John Piper in the pulpit, his hands are all over the place, and the caption said “God created coffee for the glory of Christ.” If you are familiar with Piper it kinda’ sounds like something he would say and since it’s about coffee you will probably see the meme first thing Monday morning. I thought I’d do about 10 seconds of research and see if maybe he really said it. The tweet above is real and he linked to this article not written by Piper himself but appearing on his Desiring God website.

The Satur-deja Vu has morphed into news headlines, sports teams I follow, history you don’t see in books, true stories from real life that I want share and random funny things I come across each week on those internets. The original purpose of the first post, before it had a cool name, was to review everything I had written and posted during a particularly productive week to make sure nobody missed anything. That week was atypical; I don’t normally crank out new material two or three days in a row. This week though… I put down my thoughts, in what I hope is a concise and orderly fashion, on the nature of time. Time and Eternity outlines the beginning and end of time and then a shorter post, Time and Sin, explains that what we witness as the effects of time are really the effects of sin. I’ve debated some folks that remained unconvinced but see what you think.

A friend In Real Life came across this podcast and said he thought of me. The internet has made the world a smaller place so if you minister far away from everything this could help pull you in closer to resources and a sense of community. Here is the website which includes links to Spotify, iTunes and Google’s podcast feed.

Liz Truss has resigned after only 45 days on the job. She created tax breaks for the very wealthy which she thought would stimulate the economy. The markets tanked and the UK is now experiencing higher inflation than the United States. The market has recovered slightly since she announced her resignation. Boris Johnson (British Trump) is one potential candidate to replace her, a mere six weeks since he was ousted by a vote of no confidence from his own party. If Johnson returns things will be worse than when he left office just a few weeks ago. The next Prime Minister, whoever it is, will face an uphill battle to recovery.

Chicago is #1 for the eighth consecutive year. To be fair, Atlanta is not even in the top 10 but did move up one spot to 14 this year. Check out the complete list at Orkin’s website. The article also includes tips on what to look for and what to do to prevent further problems.

Service in the military is required of all able-bodied men sometime between the ages of 18 and 28. Many 18-year-olds graduate high school and attend university for a year or two before enlisting. Some finish their degree first. Military service could include social work, research, industrial and technical training, among other things. All the members of BTS are going to serve but they will be allowed to perform for national events while serving.

More people read and study from a printed Bible than use a Bible app or website. I expected that older readers, say over the age of 50, would be reading a physical book and that younger readers, particularly those in the 20’s and 30’s, would be online. I further predicted that more people 50 and up read the Bible and that’s why most people reading the Bible preferred printed hard copy. It turns out that even among younger readers a majority, albeit a smaller margin of majority, prefer reading from an actual print copy over a Bible app or electronic reader. There is also a lot of overlap. I read from a large, hardcover study Bible in the pulpit but do all of my reading, studying and sermon prep online. It should come as no surprise that I use Bible Gateway daily, and recommend it to others. I have a fairly large library of actual books but most of them are in my office at church; if my next pastorate doesn’t come with an office full of empty shelf space I don’t know where they’re all gonna go.

My father-in-law had this 3 lb. tub of candy corn shipped to my house. Because he loves me. I have noticed, though, that some people who never stop talking about how much they hate candy corn also get free merch. Some folks give away candy corn as a gag gift and I have one friend IRL that just got a pair of knit candy corn socks! I’m a little jealous but prefer the actual food item to promotional products.

This is my Aunt Doris and her giant tomato plants. While she is less than 5 ft. tall the tops of these plants are over my head as well. I helped her cover these to keep the frost off but their time is about up regardless. We expect highs in 70’s and lows in the 50’s for the next several days. Hopefully that will get this crop in. This plant is still putting out blossoms but at this point there are no more insects. She definitely got her money’s worth.