Comfortable, Well-Fed, Happy and Well-Liked: the Woes of Luke Chapter Six

We read Luke chapter 6 and I found it quite convicting...So... Cathy and I read the Bible to each other. I suggested we go through Luke, then Acts. We read Acts chapter six the other night, and due to my misplacing of my PDA, I had to find my leather bible, which is a New American Standard Bible. Cathy uses the New International Version as her translation of choice. So, this reading was more interesting than others.

I was reading a section to Cathy, and in the NASB it reads:

24 "But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full. 25 "Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. 26 "Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

While I was reading this, I thought to myself, "I'm rich, and I feel comfortable. That can't be good." I also thought, "I am well-fed right now, too." Finally, I thought, "Hm... I laugh often, and many people speak well of me."

It got me thinking, so I read Matthew chapter 5 the next day and found a few differences. Matthew speaks of the poor in spirit, and of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Matthew also has a few other "blessed are you" entries, and no woes. Luke chose to focus on a few blessings and included the contrasting woes.

Luke wrote to Theophilus, whom I assume was fairly well-off. I feel fairly well-off, even though money is tight. This has caused me a great deal of introspection. I am wondering, am I living according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ? It is not a question I like to ask myself... but I am awfully comfortable... where is the trouble the Jesus promised I would have the grace to bear?

As a curious sidenote, for comparison, the NIV reads:

24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.

Pretty similar to the NASB, huh? The difference between the NIV, the NASB and others comes from how they divided the sections.

• The NASB includes 6:20-44 as one section called The Beatitudes. The woes are in the first paragraph, which includes 6:20-26 and has the blessings and the woes.
• The NIV has a section entitled Blessings and Woes from 6:17-26. The woes are part of a paragraph from verse 23-26, with an apparenty relation to the blessings of the previous paragraph.
• The NLT has a separate section entitled Sorrows Foretold from 6:24-26.
• The Message includes 6:24-42 as one section called Give Away Your Life with the woes displayed poetically as one paragraph in 6:24-25.

Video Blogging & Fun with Google Maps

I'm eventually going to post some video blog entires, and maybe some longer audio blog entires. If you are interested in video blogging, Google has some plans for video uploads.

I'm also every interested in the efforts at Ourmedia by Internet Archive & Creative Commons (along with others). Ourmedia is offering free, permanent storage and a blog of sorts. Warning: this site is still in the early alpha stages of development, so it is not for the feignt of heart.

When people have too much time on their hands, they find Disneyland, Orpah and the Space Needle on Google Maps. For a whole lot more, try the Google Sightseeing blog.

Recover your lost Blogger posts

My good friends lost a post the other day due to a Blogger "oops." I thought I would share a tip, and offer some hope...

1. I tend to author my posts in a text program, like wordpad, and post them into a post.
2. When an error has occurred in the past, I can usually press the "back arrow" button on the top of my web browser and get my text back. I copy the text and try again (see next point).
   
3. When I go to publish, I always click on the Edit menu and click "Select All" to select my entire post, and then click on the Edit menu and click "Copy" to back up my text before publishing. If I lose it, I just paste my posts in.
   
4. Blogger knows this has been a problem and is working on a "recover post" feature.

Happy Blogging!

Updated 04/14/2005: Google has got the "recover post feature" working now.

Interesting Weekend

Oliver gets a new accessory... a nice shopping trip... Cathy & I spent a relaxing evening withough the benefit of electrical power...Cathy and I went shopping this weekend. We went to several markets geared toward the organic lifestyle, and we went to CostCo, too. We actually had a great time shopping; somehow, I was unusually jolly.

I like to think I have the superpower known as "observe the obvious", as demonstrated by this photo...

When I asked why I would purchase this bar of soap, I was offered a coupon. :-)

The VZs gave Oliver this nifty doggy harness. He loves it, and Cathy prefers the harness due to the ergonomic nature of this form of restraint.

We did not have electrical power from Sunday at nine in the evening until 7:35 Monday morning; all other forms of power in the Jones family, such as cuteness and cerebal clarity, remained constant during this period.

It was a peaceful night. I had previously read a book, "Better Off", which touted the benefits of rejecting artificial and techonolical means of extending our dialy activities, from transportation to daily work and even to light sources. The author advocated allowing the circadian rhythm of day and night to regulate our waking and sleeping, as well as our working and playing.

Cathy went to the store to purchase some conventional collections of wax with a compustible nylon centers in order to shed light upon our (seemingly more so) humble abode. While she was away, I began to realize an enjoyment of darkness; there was a peacefulness to having no lights to hide the moon and the stars. The dog and cats didn't mind it a bit, and human activity seemed subdued. As I basked in the quiet, I relaxed. It was rather romantic and calm-inducing to go about our evening by candlelight. It was also invigorating in a fundamental way to master the element of fire and harness it for illumination.

I slept rather well Sunday evening, and rose early with the sunrise to deal with traffic.

Fanny is TIRED!

Fanny is TIRED!
Posted by: leeandcathy.

Fanny Mae is looking awfully tired!

Check out satellite photo Google Maps!

Now this is cool... http://maps.google.com/ now has a new "Satellite" feature.

I already liked the neat overview map they that showed your driving directions from point A to point B, but now you can get a satellite photo view instead of a computer rendered map. That's cool because you can zoom in to your destination and note some landmarks near point B.

I was already considering using Google Maps as my default mapping engine (I am quite fond of MapQuest as well), but now I am truly sold.

For someone else's take (they were also impressed), see this page.

Getting old!!

I'm getting old, I think. Last Wednesday I hurt myself by pulling a muscle in my back. I've been making funny groaning sounds every time I've picked something up or gotten out of a seated position since. Cathy's been patient and understanding, except for one incident.

I found a blond hair in my moustache on Saturday and showed it to Cathy. She had the audacity of claiming it is a gray hair instead! Suddenly it all came together, and I felt like I got my wake-up call: "you're getting old, Lee" says the message.



I love my job, by the way. It isn't my dream of full-time ministry, but hopefully that will come in the next several years. I'm patient, I'm preparing and I'm waiting.

A blesssed weekend of friends, food & felines

RV trouble for friends... Cathy making progress with depression... the cats are settling in... Lee feels insignificant, and blessed...We checked with our friends, the Van Zwienens, and they are partially arrived in Texas. They had a little RV trouble, so I'm now fairly confident that our Florida trip will be late in May.

Cathy and I had the pleasure of dining with our friends this Sunday after church. A combination of St. John's Wart and a short sleep cycle due to daylight saving time (that's right, no "s") caused Cathy to have a short but sleepless night. She was quiet; I slept through her insomnia.

Cathy is dealing with fatigue and depressing thoughts via excercise, supplements and (together now) devotions with me. We're reading the Gospel of Luke to each other. It's neat how you come across new discoveries reading to each other.

Our "kids" are doing great! Malachi is behaving more like herself now. Oddly enough, Zechariah has started playing with Fanny Mae! This is absolutely amazing, since Zachy-Pooh always kept to herself prior to her surgery. She is truly recovered now! Cathy pointed out that we have a cat for every room. Zachy-Pooh prefers the living room, Malachi likes the office, and Fanny lounges on the bed. I feel very blessed. Considering that our combined lives are still an insignificant speck in the history of the world, let alone the universe, I feel truly blessed.

Speaking of feeling small and insignificant... I get introspective and look to the stars when I start feeling small. Here's a beautiful photo of the blue marble we spin around on from NASA's Visible Earth site.

Daylight Saving Time this weekend

It's time to "Spring forward, Fall back"

During Daylight Saving Time, clocks are turned forward an hour, effectively moving an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Remember to change your clocks forward on April 3rd at 2 A.M. local time.

In other words, set your clocks one hour faster when you go to bed on Saturday. Otherwise, you'll be late to the service this Sunday.

Many fire departments encourage people to change the battery in the smoke detector when they change their clocks, because it can be so easy to forget otherwise.

Daylight Saving Time, for the U.S. and its territories, is NOT observed in Hawaii.

Cats, Remodeling and Devotionals

One of our cats, Malachi, has gotten really skitterish these last few days. I think something scared her while she was in the living room, because now she won't hang out in that room. She'll only ride on my shoulder through there. I managed to coax her out of the bedrooms when I got home, but she only hung out in the kitchen until some noise sent her running back to the bedrooms. Just a few minutes ago I got her to sit near me in the living room, but another cat rustled a paper bag and sent Malachi running for the bedrooms again.

I am usually quite content with my life; I suppose even now I am, except that I am a little stressed out. The remodeling is still far from complete; we don't have counters (and won't for at least six weeks), we don't have a kitchen sink (doing dishes in the tub), we don't have a shower (we take baths since the bathroom walls are incomplete)... argh!

It usually doesn't bother me. As long as my loved ones are safe and happy, I tend to be quite happy, myself. But I am becoming more convinced that Cathy cannot bear to stay employed one minute longer than necessary, and I cannot change that right now, or even for a couple more years. If she survives the two years, then maybe we can move to Georgia or something, and Cathy can quit working outside the home.

As a matter of fact, one day this week I work up singing a little ditty:
(to the tune of Down in the Valley)

I love my kitties
I love my wife
I love my doggie
I love my life

These are my kitties
This is my wife
This is my doggie
I love my life

Cathy and I started reading the Bible to each other in an effort to draw closer to each other and by drawing closer to God. Neither one of us like the pre-formatted devotionals, so this seems like the best idea. I wonder what other couples do for their quiet times if they don't want to follow a devotional?