Face Time

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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"A Nazirite vow separates her/him for the Lord."

Numbers 6

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    Face time is about more than Carly and Donald.

    Just deciding to go ZZ Top, Duck Dynasty, and semi-Nazirite, they came to mind.

    Knowing their spat will enable others to comment on how others look, as if those speck-inspecting and self-righteous-navel-gazing kinda people need any encouragement to be judgmental from standards coming from anyone/anywhere but Jesus by the book, I'm ready in a Biblical kinda way to let 'er grow and ignore the ignorant and rude.

    Besides, ever since Borg was shorn, somebody's gotta put down the scissors.

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    My sister is an entrepreneurial hair stylist in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

    Now I've had facial hair since about second grade; and about a decade or so ago, my sister said, "Bobby, you're bald!  Deal with it!  You look like your head's upside down!  Either shave off your facial hair or cut it down to a goat or something!"

    I did.

    And now I'm goin' ZZ Top, DD, and semi-Nazirite.

    I expect scorn but I will not be shorn because I don't...

    If you're one of those entitled folks mentioned above, you can/will be the judge.

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    Annnnnnnd I do not care what others wear or how they dye or comb or cut or don't cut their hair or how much ink they put on their bods.

    O.K., I think corrective combing is kinda funky in a self-consciously pathological kinda way.

    BTW, I learned not judging appearances from the Bible.

    There are so many quotes about Him carrying more about what's in the heart than on the...

    If you don't know that, bone up!

    Really, it's kinda sad when people who say they know God don't even know what God has said.

    You know, maybe you don't if you haven't been reading, we'd have a lot less arguments in these little religious clubs aka franchises aka denominations about, uh, "issues" if folks would just get acquainted with what God's already concluded for us about 'em in Jesus by the book confirmed by common sense.

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    Getting back to face time, I think of people - and I think God thinks this way because I've been reading the book and especially paying more and more and more attention to the red letters - as snowflakes.

    Every snowflake is unique and beautiful in its/His own way as created by God who creates everybody unique and beautiful in their/His own way.

    Have you ever read about that imago Dei stuff in Genesis?

    Do it!

    Then you won't be like Donald on Carly and people like Donald on their Carlys as if they have any divine right to...

    Simply, let's say divinely, everybody's beautiful in her or his own way by design.

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"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderful made."

David

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"Before you were born, I knew you.  Then I made you.

I knit you together in your mother's womb."

God.

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Blessings and Love!

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Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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Scratching the Surface

of

Lies

 Dr. James I. McCord, President of Princeton Theological Seminary from 1959–1983 and President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, went home to Jesus in 1990.

Our Lord shared many blessings of knowledge and wisdom through him; and I will never forget what he said about ministry, stewardship, and lying.

During the 1976 General Assembly of United Presbyterians in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. McCord challenged five young seminarians on the fifth floor of the Hilton Hotel: “Do something for Christ’s sake!  I don’t care if you succeed or fail.  Just do something for Christ’s sake!”

He often recalled the woman who complained to him after a sermon: “All you ever talk about when you preach is money.  All I ever hear from you is, ‘Give, give, give.’  He responded, “Have you ever heard of a better definition of Christianity than give, give, give?”

He told us, “Never lie!  You don’t have to reveal everything that you know or think.  But never lie.  You can tell people that it’s none of their business or that you’re not comfortable talking about it now or that you may talk about it at a later date or that you may never talk about it.  But never lie!”

Actually, those cherished memories are all about telling the truth.

Truly, truly, truly, we love God by loving like Jesus according to the book or doing something for Christ’s sake and we give in gratitude for what/who He gave (see John 3:16-17) and Jesus said the father/source/starter of all lies is satanos: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (see John 8:39ff).

So now you know the inspiration and kinship of liars.

People who love Jesus by the book are dedicated to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Back on February 3, 1980 in Woodstown, New Jersey, my buddy Paul Watermulder told Cub Scouts, “Lying is out.  Little lies, half-truths, and pretend stories are out.  They will not make you happy, because God does not like them.  No matter how much it hurts, God likes the truth best.”

I think of the mother who asked Dwight L. Moody how she could help her children to stop fibbing.  Moody answered, “Start calling them lies.”

John Calvin linked lying with the 9^th commandment (“You shall not bear false witness!”) and said breaking it was “evilspeaking.” 

He wrote, “To sum up: let us not malign anyone with slanders or false charges, nor harm his substance by falsehood, in short, injure him by unbridled evilspeaking…hateful accusations arising from evil intent and wanton desire to defame.”

In other words, lies come from the pit of hell.

Truth is heavenly.

That means liars are…

Ouch.

Nobody wants to go there.

It’s true.

Honesty is the best policy…and prescription for harmony with God.

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Blessings and Love!

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Don't Kill the Umpire!

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    When I served as a league representative, VP, and P of Rock Valley [Junior] Tackle Football, I learned a few things.

    It won't be too long before parents and fans are banned from attending games.

    Mommies and daddies hate coaches who don't recognize their babies on the bench are the next Walter Payton or Lawrence Taylor. 

    Referees are always against "our" team.

    Maybe that's why I like to sit in the press box these days as a Bucs sports correspondent for the BDR.

    Truth is the overwhelming majority of sports officials, except for those unfit basketball and football ones who can't keep up with the plays anymore and have to make calls about fifty yards from the action, do an exemplary job of keeping the rules so our athletic contests don't turn into a circus of savages.

    In my lengthy experience with RV[J]TF football and as an avid/addicted fan for longer than Pete Girardin has been alive, I've concluded there are more problems with parents and fans than officials and coaches.

    I've concluded, with few exceptions, officials and coaches do a much better job at their jobs than too many parents and fans do at theirs.

    Baptismal promises come to mind.

    O.K., most parents and fans are fine; but I've learned there are more miscreants among parents and fans than officials and coaches when it comes to sports; and those miscreants are close to ruining "games" for the, uh, players.

    Everybody would benefit from reviewing the red letters in the big rule book.

    Anyway, I've also discovered some interesting parallels between pastors and 'em; and you can interpret the preceding video for yourself.

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    1. Go back to the video and interpret it in its multi-layered meanings.

    2. Thankless!  When's the last time that anybody threw an appreciation day, night, or month for 'em?

    3. Everybody second-guesses sports officials and pastors; but I like Moody's retort to someone who bantered and moaned about how he did things: "I prefer how I do it to how you don't do it!"

    4. They're paid to be abused.

    5. Considering their training, responsibilities, and #4, they're underpaid.

    6. Related to #3, they don't like Monday morning quarterbacks; or people who remind 'em of 1 Timothy 3:6.

    7. If God had not called 'em, they'd have quit long ago.

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    In short, unless you're one of those armchair types who know more than anyone about anything, don't kill the umpire!

    Or else.

    If someone doesn't enforce the rules, we will return to a planet of the apes.

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Blessings and Love!

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