Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

I am sure there are a lot of people that are concerned about my reliance on the Bible to discern right from wrong, to confirm the existence and true nature of God, or for a myriad of other things that I need to have operating in my life for successful living and an abundant life. I can understand their concern because I had those concerns about people as well. I always hung around God and the Bible but never really made a stand on it or anything that it proclaimed. I guess when I finally came to and realized that the Bible is exactly what it purports to be I realized that I shifted my reliance on my reason and perspective to the Bible. After realizing that it scared me that I had not done it sooner. I may be delving into places that I have no business venturing into, but I just may share same concern that people have about me and my reliance on the Bible to them and their reliance on their reason. Both are unbridled and unapologetic and both our reason and the Bible have their genesis ...

Will has had a friend over yesterday so that they could play, go to Awana, and sleep over into today. Well, we have had a lot of snow lately and the boys got a hankering to go outside and play in it. They had just started when I arrived home from work. After we got some things around for dinner my wife decided to watch my two sons and Will's friend playing in the front yard. She was concerned at the scene. There they were diving on each other, hitting each other with the sleds, pummeling each other with snow, and laughing their fool heads off while they were doing it. By her own admission my wife has said that she grew up with a sister and was not well-versed in the ways boys play. I, on the other hand, growing up with three brothers know the ins and outs of the boy brain that thinks: "Here is someone hurtling down the hill on a sled. I can either get out of the way, jump on him, or chuck the sled that is in my hands at him." Two out of the three alternatives would be att...

I am singing a new "song of the month" with Northridge Church on Sunday mornings and it is hard for me to get through without being overwhelmed with emotion. I am not sure if any of the other former Catholics in the congregation have the same feelings that I have when I sing the refrain: Christ has died Christ has risen Christ will come again I have a hard time not weeping. I would like to think that it is because of the beauty and simplicity of this "mystery of our Faith" but I think it has more to do with how thankful I am that God pursued me. He caused me to be born into a family with parents that loved Him dearly. They kicked my butt out the door on Sunday to gather with the church and worship Him. The sacrificed mightily so that I could learn about Him from kindergarten straight through 12th grade. They made sure I got to vacation Bible school...even when the only alternative was the Lutheran church down the road or the backyard Bible club on Florence Avenue. T...

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10 I am not a still sleeper. I am always flipping this way and that and have to contort my body in all manner of various positions so as not to overly disturb my wife while doing said calisthenics. I fear that when I am the most still is when I am buried six feet deep in the pine box that I may be graced with on the way down there. In other words, when I am dead. And that's the issue. I would much rather Psalm 46:10 say "Breathe deep and know..." or "Fold your hands across your chest and know..." for that would be much more comfortable for me. I do like the restoration that sleep brings and would like to do that more often. I would also rather the Psalmist to have written "Once you're dead and gone you'll know..." but the command is for the here and now isn't it? Crud. Crud. Crud. I don't like to die. Not that I wouldn't mind exiting this world and being with God, but this whole dying to mys...

The men's room in the building I work with is fraught with danger. There is an unwritten rule in the relationship that exists between men that you always put one urinal between you and the person next to you when using the facilities...if it is at all possible. Well, our men's room has three urinals on each side of the entrance to the "toilet area" so you would think that this would not be an issue. It is. You see, when we enter the "toilet area" in our restroom one needs to turn to the right or left and these turns are blind. If one were to turn to the right, for example, and there was already someone using the middle urinal, you're stuck. You need to honor the commitment you made to the right side of the aforementioned toilet area and suck it up...it will be a long relief session. Usually turning to the right is the best option because the only "hands-free-flush" urinal is to the left. Right in the middle. This by far is the most popular urin...

I have been in the habit of reading through the Bible in a year for the the past five or six years and it has been great. There is nothing like digesting the book of Obadiah and having all of the preceding books impacting my understanding of it. Looking at God from the different perspectives that the men and women that inhabit the whole of Scripture is an amazing thing. I think that I have been changed by it as well. I have been a little more deliberate, this go-round, with making sure I do not skip a day in my reading. There have been times when I go to bed at midnight and have had a sense of urgency with doing my daily reading in the Bible. I was a bit too lax last year and found myself 7, 10, or even 14 days behind in my reading. I am determined not to let that happen again and, so far, it has worked out all right. Granted I just finished Matthew and have only read through Chapter 30 of Exodus along with 28 Psalms, but there is just a different attitude that I have now in comparison...

I will be the first (and not the last) to admit that I do not have a scientific mind. No matter what my experience is and no matter how many times people say the opposite I still think that when I jump in the air while in a moving airplane I should be slamming into the back wall of said plane. Not only does this make sense to me in my mind, but it would be colossal fun. Maybe that's why I want it to be true.