With the time of the kick-off of the Super Bowl in the middle of church services, and not having the luxury of a tivo or some similar device, I missed the first half of the game. Not a big deal. I was hoping to make it back in time to see The Who play at halftime. We came home right at the end of their performance. Oh well. But that at least meant I got to see the whole second half. My prediction for the outcome was half right. I guessed the Saints would score 31 points. Unfortunately, I picked the Colts to score 34 (instead they scored 17). It was weird watching it this year. I can't really explain it, but it didn't feel like the Super Bowl. It was a good game in any case.

And what's a Super Bowl without commercials?
- I guess the much talked about Tim Tebow commercial aired in the first half because I didn't see it. Maybe it will show up on Youtube eventually.
- The Census 2010 commercial was a colossal pile of steaming horse manure. I mean really. The government's going to spend $3 million of our tax dollars to run an ad in the Super Bowl for the Census (which is ridiculous in itself), then they produce a nonsensical ad like that. All the calls by the American people to cut wasteful government spending, then they do that. I really think they were mocking us. I'm not even kidding.
- The Audi Green Police commercial really disturbed me. More about that on my other blog.
- I thought the funniest one was the Doritos samurai commercial. Second would be the VW commercial, mostly because of Stevie Wonder at the end.

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Looking for some brainstorming help. I'm trying to make a list of instructions in the Bible about our spiritual lives that use a financial analogy. I'm not so much looking for instructions about finances, but instructions where the financial is a metaphor for the spiritual. So far I've got...
- The value placed upon the soul (Mt. 16:24-27) -- worth more than all the world
- Buy the truth & sell it not (Pr. 23:23)
- The pearl of great value (Mt. 13:45-46)
- "Buy from Me gold refined by fire" (Rev. 3:18) -- self reliance vs. reliance upon Christ
- Lay up treasures in heaven (Mt. 6:19-21)
- Gains & losses (Phil. 3:8) -- count all things as loss to gain Christ

Any other ideas?

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Have you heard this one before? When Paul wrote to the Romans, he wasn't condemning homosexuals for engaging in sexual relations with those of the same sex. He was condemning heterosexuals for practicing homosexuality.

Yeah, someone's actually used that to try to defend homosexuality. I wrote more on that here on Plain Bible Teaching.

Sunday morning I began teaching 1 Peter for the adult Bible class. It's for a study of 1&2 Peter and Jude. Naturally, since this was the start of a new study, I've been busy the past couple weeks getting ready for it. Before going to bed Saturday night, I studied some more, just to review what we would talk about the next morning. As usual, I felt like I hadn't prepared enough. But I knew I had to go to bed.

So that night I had a dream that I was teaching a Bible class. It wasn't the same setting as real life (building & members), but instead it was me and 8-10 others sitting around a table. In the dream, I was to begin teaching 1 Peter (surprise, surprise).

To begin the class I started reading aloud through Philippians 1. Why? I don't know. But in the dream it made sense (at first). I read about halfway through the chapter when my thoughts started distracting me -- Why was a reading Philippians 1 to start a class on 1 Peter? After I got distracted, I lost my place. So then I spent what felt like 5 minutes both trying to find my place and trying to figure out what I was doing. All the while, I could feel everyone's eyes on me. The longer it took, the more nervous I got. Where was I? Why am I reading this? The other people's eyes kept burning holes through me.

Then I realized something: I hadn't been reading from Philippians 1. I had been reading from Ephesians 6. No wonder I couldn't find my place. I was halfway relieved, but still didn't know why I wasn't reading 1 Peter 1.

Fortunately, in the morning in real life, I began our study of 1 Peter in 1 Peter. And, as usual, I had actually over-prepared.

President Barack Obama has become known for his reliance upon a teleprompter for all his speeches - whether he’s addressing Congress or speaking to a classroom of school children. Most of the time the tactic is helpful in giving the American people the impression that he is a well-polished speaker. But from time to time, it has been the cause of some embarrassing moments for the President.

One such moment came tonight during Obama’s first State of the Union address. A typo in the President’s speech caused him to refer to his address as the “State of the Onion.”

Unfortunately for the President, this was not a single error, but occurred each time the word ‘union’ appeared in the speech. At one point, he attempted to cite a phrase in the Constitution, expressing our need to work together as Americans to “form a more perfect onion.”

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, who gave the GOP response to the President’s speech, mocked Obama’s mistake. “Many comparisons can be made between former President Jimmy Carter and current President Barack Obama. The first was a peanut farmer. The second, we learned tonight, has aspirations of being an onion farmer.”

The White House quickly issued a statement to the press about the error. The statement read: “We regret the unfortunate oversight that resulted in the President’s use of an incorrect word in his speech. We strive to hold ourselves to a higher standard than that of Microsoft Word’s spell check feature. We have acted quickly and have already dealt with the matter. The speech writer who is responsible for the mistake will retain his job, but has lost his exemption from the health care reform legislation that the President hopes to sign into law later this year.”

A senior aide to the administration indicated that the President recognized his misstatement when it was pointed out to him after the speech. He says that Obama plans to apologize to the American people just as soon as a statement is prepared for him to read.

I.M. Cirius
Plain Punditry

In my last post, I listed some goals for the new year. One of them was to have my sermons done before Saturday. I want to have that day to catch up on things and work on other projects. Sometimes I feel a little detached from other preachers, particularly from those who don't need to work a full-time secular job. I imagine my life as quite different than theirs - busy with other things during the week, then Saturday is the sermon-writing day. But maybe that's not the case.

I was checking the stats for my sermon outlines blog. I get a fair amount of traffic on it and I began noticing an interesting pattern. There is typically a spike in traffic every seven days. What day of the week is that? Saturday. (see image below)



Maybe the late-night Saturday sermon-writing among preachers is more common than I would have liked to think. Kind of makes me wonder what these preachers without secular jobs do with the rest of their week.

Disclaimer: I know not all preachers do this. So this is not a knock against all non-secular-working preachers. But...

This may be a reminder for us. If your congregation pays a man to preach the gospel, ask the question: Is he worthy of receiving those wages? Or is he one that goofs off all week and then throws together a couple sermons on Saturday? If it's the latter, maybe that man ought to look for some other employment while the congregation puts their money to better use.

Many people make new year’s resolutions, intending to improve some aspect of their life. If you do this, good for you. But for me personally, I don’t tend to make new year’s resolutions. I try to be attentive to my shortcomings and areas where I have room for improvement throughout the year. When I need to resolve to do something, I’d rather just go ahead and address that issue. But, if you do your resolutions at the new year, great. If you’ve made any this year, I wish you success in keeping them.

I have, however, been thinking about the state of things now, what might come in the future, and what I want to work towards. I’ve been re-evaluating various things in my life and trying to judge them according to long-term goals. Of course, the only way to reach a long-term goal is through a succession of short-term goals.

So, with that in mind, I’ve made a list of goals for the new year. I wrote these down a couple weeks ago as a way to help me focus. I’m posting them here now as a way to make me accountable. Hopefully I can complete these things and build upon them in the future.

So... my 10 goals for 2010:

1. Pay off debt -- We’ve paid off the credit cards a couple times, then eventually let the balance build up again. This year I want to get them paid off for good. Ideally, I’d like to pay off the credit cards this year and the van next year. So that means managing money better and being more frugal. Good thing I still like Ramen noodles. :)

2. Organize the garage -- About a year and a half ago we remodeled the garage to make it into two rooms: an office and a workshop area. While I’ve been able to use it all this time, it has become very cluttered and unorganized (and was never really organized to start with). That needs to change. So I’m going to try to sell, give away, or trash the things I don’t need (which will be really hard for me, since I’m somewhat of a pack rat). But it needs to be done. I need a filing system that is better than just stacks of papers. I also need a better workspace, particularly in the office, that will be more conducive to productivity.

3. Plant a garden -- We started to do this last year but weren’t able to follow through with it. This year we try again. We need to make a plan of what we want to grow based on what we can & will use. Then we need to find out when in the spring each one will be planted, have a plot tilled, and start gardening. We may or may not try canning this year. It mostly depends on how much our garden produces. But canning will likely be a “next year” project.

4. Get ready for animals -- No, not a dog (sorry, mom). We’ve talked about getting calves, goats, and/or chickens. We’ll probably pick one of those three to start with. Getting an animal/animals will mean fencing, housing, storage. I don’t expect to have all of this ready to go by this spring. So my goal on this is to do all the necessary research and make all the necessary preparations to be able to do this next spring.

5. Build food stockpile -- Just because you never know what might happen (job loss, ice storm, natural disaster, civil war, etc.), it’s a good idea to have a stockpile of food and water. If we buy a little bit each trip to the store, it won’t be so bad. Of course, I’ll also need a place to store this. Another reason to organize & clean out the garage.

6. Bible study -- Three parts to this goal. First, I’m planning to read through the Bible (OT & NT) this year. Second, I’m going to try and have my sermons done before Saturday each week. That means picking a topic (this is always the hard part) & writing the lesson earlier in the week. Third, I’m going to start working on my long-term goal of writing a commentary on the Bible. No writing just yet, but I’m going to start with a chapter a day (5 days a week), outlining, identifying themes, noting questions & difficult passages, etc. After going through the Bible once this way, then the second time around I’ll be able to build off of what I have and make a more detailed outline. The third time through, I’ll start on the rough draft. That’s the tentative plan. If I keep up with the chapter per day schedule, I should be able to start writing the first draft in about 9.5 years. Pretty close to my original target of age 40.

7. Etsy shop -- I’ve learned to do glass etching. So far, the only projects I’ve done have either been for me or as gifts for other people. Eventually I’d like to be able to sell some of the stuff I do. Etsy’s a good place to do it. So I need to decide what kind of products I’d like to sell and set up a shop.

8. Writing -- About a month ago I mentioned that I’ve been wanting to get into fiction writing. I’m making it one of my goals this year to participate in NaNoWriMo in November. I plan on writing some other things, short stories and such, in the meantime, as well as brainstorming, so I can complete that this year.

9. Reading -- I hated assigned reading in high school. I remember reading on my own until they started with the summer reading schedules, then I had to read the school’s hand-picked books all year round. Well, I decided to start reading again. I went to the library before our trip to Arkansas, picked up a book, and read it on the trip (not in the car, I was driving), and enjoyed doing that again. So my goal is to read six new books this year. That may not seem like much to you readers, and I may do that in six months or less, but I wanted to pick a reasonable number, given everything else that’s going on.

10. Redo the kitchen -- This one is for Rachel. She has patiently waited for the kitchen to be redone (walls & cabinets painted, new countertops & sink). We have the new countertops and sink stored in the garage. We just need to get the paint and find the time to do this. Plus, it’s one more piece of clutter that can be gotten out of the garage.

So there we go. Wish me luck. We’ll see how well I did in a year.