unspoken words on untouched ears

hidden truths which have become mourning

for yesterday is complete and unshifting

and today cannot stand in its place

nor speak those words to touch those ears

for tomorrow may contrast today

and so reveal the wisdom of silence

seeing how salvation was given through...

unspoken words on untouched ears

This morning after working out I was walking past the food court area at Baylor and smelled the aroma....and it reminded me of my grandmother's kitchen when my brother and I would sleep over and I'd wake up to her making eggs and bacon and pancakes and all sorts of good food!   And then I started remembering all the time I spent up there...how my grandmother would bake cookies and for some reason when she got hooked on her television, we could walk right past her (as long as we didn't cut in front of the television) and grab cookies off the tray...after she had told us that we needed to let them cool and we'd only be allowed two each and the rest would go in the fridge for later.  So, when she'd disconnect with her tv she'd look at the tray and half a tray of cookies were gone and we're in playing video games like nothing happened.  HA!  My brother and I were little devils! 

Then that reminded me of one of the little boys in the nursery....not even two years old...who use to take one of the chairs in the room (with the room barely being 20' x 20') and slowly push it over to the counter without anyone noticing...and he'd get up on it and grab the bucket of animal crackers and grab a few and get down and go eat them!  Usually we'd catch him on the chair grabbing the cookies (and mind you I'm not a bad leader...but having 10 kids for two leaders is a lot to keep track of!) but one day I looked over and saw him scoping out the room to make sure that none of the leaders would see him and then he'd push the chair a little and walk away....haha!  I always think of my brother when I see him......

Child                                 Devilish level                       Number of spankings received
                       (1-10 w/ 10 being extremely devilish)        (ratio 1:1,000 )

Dave                                  10                                                        4
Tim                                      5                                                  3,000,000

Life's not fair, eh?

My favorite story of revenge on my devil brother David is one that my mother will probably learn for the first time.....along with all of you...so count yourselves blessed.  When my brother and I would be home alone after school we'd often wrestle and it'd get out of hand and we'd start trying to hurt each other (I regretfully admit that most of the time it was me taking my frustration out on my brother) and as soon as I saw him getting that look of rage in his eyes I'd push his nose to the side and it'd bleed.  He had a very sensitive nose and so it'd bleed from the slightest touch.  So, one time it started bleeding so we'd stop and he went into the kitchen to go to the bathroom off the kitchen and there's a screen door right next to the bathroom with a white curtain across it and he sneezed blood all over it to make my job difficult.  So, I see it as I'm cleaning the trail of blood into the kitchen (which I always had to do when I made him bleed so my parents wouldn't find out) and I say to him, "Dave, you realize that Mom and Dad are not dumb enough to think that you seriously had to sneeze just as you passed by their white curtain, do you??"  So he walks away in contemplation and within ten minutes he was at the curtain taking it down to wash it.  HAHA!!!!    

My brother isn't a Christian and he's struggled with the idea of Christianity but one thing that I'm grateful that God has overcome in my life as a Christian is my anger problem and resultant physical side on my brother....I just hope one day the Holy Spirit will use that change in my life to reveal the truth to him of the power of Jesus.  Since I was born again in 1999, I can honestly say I never hit my brother out of anger again.   That hardly puts me up for the "Best Brother" award....but we trust each other a lot more now than we did when we were kids! I'm grateful for that. 

It's amazing the path you start down and expect to finish on and the one you actually find yourself on when you're done typing on xanga!

Our IM convo at 1:15 AM

third jiktps: and oh.......my Belkin device was made in your home country
third jiktps: California
Avery: haha
Avery: thanks for chosing it.
third jiktps: hahahahhaha

must read Saturday's post to understand this one...

People all over the world...join hands....start a love train...love train!

Today I got my wireless card....and I'm somewhat computer illiterate so I had to have Avery work on it for a while...and at one point I was sitting there working on it with him looking over my shoulder and he pointed something out.

Me (at the computer typing away): ...
Avery (over my shoulder): "Look, it says 'Thank you for chosing Belkin.'  That's a big-name company and they don't know how to spell." 

So Avery and I went to the gym about the same time (he had to finish some stuff up before he could go) so as I was riding a bike and watching the Mavs, Avery gets on the treadmill next to me and starts goofing off so that everyone's looking at him...and the entire time during the game he's shouting "YES" and "NO" and clapping his hands, etc......then we left at the same time and I was at the red light right in front of him so I waited the entire time it was green and then pulled away just as it was turning red......so he stops......takes a second and then runs the red light! 

We watched the end of the Mavs game.......I can't believe they lost it!  Avery predicted it while we sat and watched for half an hour after working out.  GRRRRR I wanted to go to a playoff game here this year!

Now I'm at work....it's 11:35 and nobody is online.  I guess I'll be playing Settlers of Catan for HOURS AND HOURS...wait...that's no different than second shift! Goodnight!  Maybe a Bible lesson later.....who knows!

I had plenty of time to get into the Word and I opened to Ephesians and read the whole book....and the thing I find to be most important to gain from this book (although all truth is of equal importance) is found in Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
We find here the neuter demonstrative pronoun "that" referring back to something previously stated.  The demonstrative pronoun corresponds with its antecedent while here there is no neuter antecedent.  "Faith" and "Grace" are both feminine nouns, so it cannot be specifically either one of them alone.  The only possible explanation is that Paul is referring to the whole clause as being the antecedent to the neuter "that."  So in essence he is saying, "For by grace have you been saved through faith and that (your salvation through faith by grace) is all-together not of yourselves, it (your salvation through faith by grace) is the gift of God."
Anyone that would argue that faith is not a gift of God....but is something we choose neglects to continue to read verse 9 which states, "so that no one may boast."  If there is no room for boasting in salvation, then it cannot possibly be from oneself.  If it cannot be from oneself, then faith is not an act of man but an act of God. 
My favorite verse, which often is neglected (and for those who try to memorize this section...it is often left unmemorized) is verse 10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."  It brings to my mind Romans 9 where we are called the clay and God our Potter!  It amazes me to see Christians growing and to recognize that as a means of seeing God in our lives.  This verse shouldn't discourage us from striving to do good works, but encourage us that if we try our hardest to serve God, we will be successful...since He has molded us for success! AMEN!

DTS teaches us that a poem wraps things up well (well, or so I mock them for saying although I haven't taken preaching class here yet........can't you tell? I didn't have three points! )

Christ and His Christians fools all the same
Looking for sin and telling me Who to blame
Now I am one of those fools and I worship Him too
Do they want to be like me like I want to be like You?
Have I failed or are they blind?

Life with a hole
Mind with a wall
Soul with a thirst
Body with a curse
I have not failed, I wait for grace to shine.

It's now 7 AM...and I'm back at work....I got off at 11 PM and drove directly from work (after changing in the bathroom here) to see Star Wars Episode III.  The previews started at 12:00 and the movie started twenty minutes later. 

Everyone would cheer after every preview expecting the movie to start and every time there'd be another preview everyone would boo. 

About two hours into the movie I finally got to see a movie reel burn up.....all of a sudden it started getting shifty and then it bubbled and split in half.  Everyone started screaming like they were being killed!  So the manager walks in and amazingly gets 300 people to shut their mouths....a little lady in the front could be heard in the back of the theatre! AMAZING!  So she says, we'll be getting it fixed in 5-10 minutes (took more like 20) and that they'd be handing out a free movie ticket to everyone.  So everyone cheered for that.  When they turned it back on...b/c part of it was burnt...we ended up missing two minutes of the scene where Anakin becomes Darth Vader.  People, once again, were outraged and made it known...people were yelling up to the reel room telling them to go back.  HAHA! Others were yelling at them because they couldn't hear what was going on with the movie.....I just sat there!  I'm not diehard!  We got out of the theatre at 3 AM and then I drove home...got in bed around 3:20...and woke up at 6:20........ugh

So to everyone with whom I bet that Anakin wouldn't cross over, I will be paying you off as soon as I get the money...be patient!  (*edit* I think I need to make it clear...I'm not that dumb that I don't realize Anakin must become Darth Vader since Episodes 4-6 chronologically follow 2 and 3 I was being witty!)

All I can think about today is 3 PM and my pillow!
Good day!