The problem with using apologetics as your primary tool when witnessing is that the conversation often turns to an argumentative type discussion. Even if it is done in love, it’s sort of hard to bring someone to the cross in that context.

One of the most popular things for all the children at VBS is to guess the amount of the offering. They raise their hands emphatically—some even with accompanying noises—desperately trying to gain the superintendent’s attention. Maybe 30 or 40, all at the same time. This evening, there was a year and a half old girl with her momma near the back of the group. She didn’t know what was going on except that everyone was thrusting hands up toward the ceiling, so she just put hers up too. It was an irresistible moment.

I just got a call from Sarah! David, Beth and Phebe just left last evening on a trip, and they were supposed to be at her house in Montana within the hour. She didn’t his cell number so she called me for it. We chatted for a bit then I remembered, just as I was doing it, that I was the one wrapping up the conversation. Oops, phone faux pas…sorry Sarah. By the way, say ‘phone faux pas’ fast ten times. Bet you can’t do it even five times.

There was this article in the Eugene Register-Guard this morning about how this protest group was having a hard time because they wanted to be in Salem protesting for a change in the Patriot Act but at the same time they wanted to protest President Bush who was going to be in Portland. Choices, choices.

Here I am, being negative about liberals on consecutive days. My, my, a man has a reputation to think about. I think I’ll do a glowing testimonial on NPR tomorrow.

I once went through a course on personal evangelism with some other Christian students from college, and the book we studied from broke down evangelism styles into five categories. Let’s see if I can remember them: testimonial, intellectual…that’s all I can remember. We were supposed to evaluate ourselves and see where we fit in. I thought that intellectual was my main style, not because I’m smart, but because I am interested in apologetics and that’s where I gravitate when talking to non-Christians. My church—Brownsville Mennonite—would tend to downplay apologetics a little bit, because faith is required for a person to become a Christian, and people will simply not be dragged kicking and screaming into heaven because of philosophical arguments. I agree, though I think some intellectually honest people have come fairly close. All that to say that I find it interesting that in the space of two chapters, the Bible says Paul “reasoned” (Acts 18:4) and “spake boldly…disputing and persuading” (Acts 19:8). That word “persuading,” especially, has the idea of reasoning or convincing by arguments.

“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.” Groucho Marx.

Two torturous things: getting up at 4:30 this morning to go to work and jogging home this afternoon.

I can’t figure out why a liberal can’t pull good ratings in a nationally syndicated radio show. Last week I was working late, and I happened onto some bloke and his show on a Seattle radio station. He wasn’t all that good—I don’t think he’d be the one to go national—but his subject matter was fascinating to me. He slammed the president for being hypocritical and being an avowed evangelist. Then he brings on the president of the American Humanist Society and continues the theme, expanding to include discussion of an article (I think it was in the New York Times) that claims 83% of Americans believe in the Virgin Birth while only 28% believe in evolution. These statistics—along with the fact that the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court is refusing to remove the Ten Commandments from his court area, even in the face of a court order—were used to show that the country is going down the conservative tubes. But then to cap it all off, this guy says: “Religion is the enemy of growth.”

That is so wrong, at least where Christianity is concerned. If you look at history, it’s the Christian world view that monumentally influenced the rise of modern science and it also had a whole lot to do with some of the greatest works of art ever conceived. To say that true Christianity stymies the growth of the culture is preposterous. It, in fact, does quite the opposite. For a whole lot more on this subject, read How Should We Then Live? By Francis Schaeffer.

My little brother Justin has a very quick mind, and he’s not afraid to use it, even at his older brother's expense. He’s in my Bible School class and we were talking about Paul preaching to the Athenians, some of who were probably philosophers. This got us talking about philosophy a little bit and he brought up that little question, “Can God create a rock too big for Himself to lift?” I need to think about it a little more, I don’t think I quite satisfied him. And then he asked about the canon of Scripture and how it came to be and why we say there will never be anything else added to it. This is a subject that I need to read on, because I’ve wondered about the exact thing myself and only know a little about it. Certainly not enough to satisfy his inquisitive mind.

You know how everyone has his or her own writing style and idiosyncrasies? The chief one of my own that I’ve identified are short sentences. Yeah. I constantly fight the urge to cut my writing into many, brief parts. Look back at my entries. I think--when I’m tempted--that short sentences will make this tremendous impact. Perhaps they do. But not if you do it constantly. Then it just gets annoying. Like the writer is trying too hard. And this is not to say that I’ve found my one and only writing flaw. That’s laughable. And I haven’t even talked it over with my editorial-minded or writing friends and relative. Notice I said ‘relative’, Dorcas. Do you put that comma inside or outside the single quote? Not that I don’t have some other relatives that write well. Not saying that. I’ll stop now.

I'm in a little bit of a melancholic mood tonight.

Here's something that bothers me: books that misrepresent Christianity. I was reading a James Michener novel a while back and in the course of some exchange a Church of England clergyman says something like "Christians believe in Jesus, and He is long dead." It's like, people trust books, especially well-known authors, and when Christianity is completely misrepresented like that, seems to me it could have a damaging effect, perhaps even more so than if an author just raved about how nonsensical Christianity is. At least represent what we believe correctly. I could accept, "Christians believe that Jesus died and rose again, but I think that's hogwash." At least they've told us what Christians actually believe, instead of utterly minimizing it.

I’m teaching Vacation Bible School this week. It’ll be interesting, I’ve got 7th and 8th graders, but I think they’re all from church, no community kids. So we’ll see if we can’t have some fun and learn too.

Listen to this hopelessness: “Somebody, somewhere, love me!”

This was from the diary of the famous atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair. To me that makes perfect sense, if you’re an atheist it seems like you could fairly easily get to the point of feeling completely apart from anything resembling love. And if you got to that point, what could you do but cry out for it, desperately.

I wonder how I would respond if I, like her, felt that no one on this earth cared at all for me. Would my faith in a real God and a personal Savior carry me through? It better, because if it wouldn’t, I don’t think my faith is real. All I can talk of is my experience, and my experience is very positive as far as the support and security of a Friend Who is always there.

In other news, I like toasted cheese sandwiches. With lots of ketchup.

I want to write a song based on Judges 1, cut a demo of it, and record before the demo a voiceover saying, "Due to violent content, listener discretion is advised."

I worked all day today, and it went well until the end. Then I had a breakdown, and what's worse, due to the nature of this breakdown and because I didn't find the offending piece of metal, Monday morning sometime we'll likely have another breakdown. Don't ask. I'm hoping for the best.