This is Happy Monday #511.
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It’s cold. That’s the big news where I live. Much of the deep South is about to have the coldest Christmas in decades. The last time northwest Georgia saw single digit temps was 2014. I was working with my brother in HVAC at that time. A lot of stuff broke down while other stuff froze and burst. We kept getting called away from scheduled work to answer emergency service calls. The same thing will be happening this weekend plus it’s Christmas. There are GA Power customers in our area that have been without electricity for eight hours. Pray for all those affected by the extreme cold, linemen and other emergency services, and don’t forget holiday travelers that may not make it to where they are going or will be stuck when they get there. The bright side is this will not last long. By next weekend we’ll be back up in the 60’s here.
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We may have posted this image before. That’s okay, we’ve been doing Happy Monday for over 10 years and I’ve been drinking coffee since I was 12. Some things never change. This is Happy Monday #510.
Continue readingSatur-deja Vu
Here’s a controversy we don’t get to have every year, just every 6th year or so. December 25th falls on Sunday this year. The argument is that cancelling services gives church staff a break and allows them to spend time with their families. Maybe it’s a generational thing and I’m from a previous one but… my family has always known where to find me on Sunday morning. Maybe it’s because my dad was an independant, fundamentalist, premillennial Baptist and we were at church every time the doors were opened; Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, revival, cottage prayer meeting, etc. I would no sooner cancel church services on Christmas than I would on Easter Sunday. To me that makes it extra special. There are some folks that only come to church on Easter and Christmas so that cancellation eliminates 50% of their attendance for the year. Maybe I’m an old grouch but in this case I feel like being an old grouch for Jesus.
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Satur-deja Vu
December 25th is not really Jesus’s birthday. This is not breaking news. Let’s stop pontificating on when sheep are kept in fields, whether or not it snows in Israel (it does) and making arguments for when his actual birthday is. Christmas has been celebrated on December 25th since A.D. 336, during the reign of Emperor Constantine. He made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Setting that date may have been an effort to weaken established pagan traditions, rather than following them. Hanging wreaths, decorating trees and lighting candles (and by extension strings of lights) have pagan origins. Celebrating the birth of Christ – the incarnation – is uniquely Christian. It’s not about a baby in a manger; it’s about the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. It’s about John the Baptist leaping in his mother’s womb and Mary and Elizabeth being filled the Holy Spirit. It’s about the angel appearing to Joseph and Mary and the faith it took for them to travel to Bethlehem. It’s about angels bringing good tidings of great joy and wise men traveling from afar to worship him. It’s about the deity of God being robed in flesh and walking among us. It’s about the point of contact between heaven and earth. It’s about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the first page of a story that ends at the cross… which for us is only the beginning. So don’t worry about the day. At this point the Julian calendar is off by 13 days and observant Jews probably ignored it anyway.
Continue readingFirestarter
Continue readingSo also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James 3:5-8
Happy Monday
This probably makes everyone happen except Alabama fans. This is Happy Monday #508.
Continue readingSatur-deja Vu
Wendel Dan Stockton – There were some celebrity deaths this week. Clarence Gilyard, best known for Walker Texas Ranger but also one of my favorite Christmas movies Die Hard, passed at the age of 66. Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac at the age of 79. The pic above is from a senior banquet in 2011. Dan Stockton was my principal when I taught World and U.S. History. I said a lot of personal things that relate to our family in my Facebook post because many former students and other teachers keep in touch that way. For this post let me just say that for a man Dr. Stockton wore his heart on his sleeve and it was apparent that no one cared more than he did. The lives of thousands of students and dozens of educators were changed by his work and passion. I’m reminded of a line describing Aslan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: He’s not a tame lion. Here is an official obituary.
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You have the official permission of the Council of Happy Monday to put up your Christmas tree.
This is Happy Monday #507.
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The Master's Table 