Thoughts about my week

The week is coming to a close. I enjoy my work but I love the weekend with time to read, write, relax, be with my family, go to the Samson Society meeting and to church.

This week was busy and strange. There were a couple of jobs I wasn’t looking forward to and I was glad when they were over. There was a crisis at a house the day before the closing and I ended up expending a lot of energy and time for little pay.

There was the day I worked for two homeowners who represent what is good and bad about people. Both had work they needed done. One called me early in the morning to tell me that she was sick with a fever. She was on antibiotics for bronchitis but wanted to warn me and give me the option of rescheduling. I ended up going, figuring I wouldn’t be too close to her. She did her best to stay away from me as I worked. After that job I went to the second where the homeowner, upon answering the door, told me that she was sick. As I followed her around the house looking at the jobs she had to do, she continuously coughed and did nothing to contain it. I felt like I was being showered with her germs. In the kitchen I saw a box of Tamiflu and wondered just what sickness she had. Was it the flu or maybe Swine Flu?

I had to go to the dermatologist yesterday to get some suspicious spots looked at on my head. He said it’s probably more basal cell cancer but he was willing to freeze the areas to see if that will work. It’s something I’ve gone through several times before but I hate the whole process.

Today the driver’s door handle on our car broke and a crack appeared on the windshield. Both were a fitting topper to this week. Tomorrow I will get a part and replace the handle; it’s no fun crawling in from the passenger side. The handle is cast metal and prone to breaking; I have had to replace it before. The fix involved reaching up inside the door where an infant’s hand would fit better. You then have to hold a nut with the tip of two fingers and maneuver it behind other parts and try to get it onto the bolt. It usually falls off many times before success is achieved. I’m not looking forward to the job.

It’s good to recognize the things that upset me before I’m upset. Maybe I won’t sin in this if I admit where I’m at and ask God to help me. His mercy is new every morning.

I did have a nice time going out to dinner tonight with my wife Wendy. We had a good steak dinner at Rosemary’s and then went birthday shopping for our daughter-in-law. Our Friday night date is the beginning of the weekend that I look forward to.

Thank you Lord for the help you give me each day and for the adventures that will come tomorrow.

Philip

Sinner

He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, not withstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everyone must conceal his sin from himself and from their fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners!

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1954),
112

That's why I like the Samson Society. It provides a place of honest fellowship for men where anything can be said and where nothing need be held back. A place of complete confidentiality where it is safe to be transparent and where that transparency leads to healing and change.

Men, you are welcome to join us...if you dare. We meet every Saturday night for an hour then go to a restaurant for fellowship after.

Check out Denver Samson Society for details.

Philip

Happy 31st Anniversary Wendy

Today Wendy and I have been married for 31 years.

Dear Wendy,

The years have passed so quick and our family at home is shrinking. Changes come quicker than they used to.

I know at times I have been a dream come true for you and sometimes that dream has been a nightmare. Thanks for loving me through both. Thanks for putting up with a fellow sinner.

Thanks for the love you have shown to me. Thanks for being a mother and teacher to our kids. Thanks for the comfort and encouragement you give to me and for the motivation to go to work everyday. Thanks for making a home that I love to come home to.

You are everything I could want in a wife. It’s been fun hanging out with you through the years. Thanks for helping me become what God wants me to be. Without you I would never have grown into what I am.

I love you!

The modern gift for a 31st anniversary is a timepiece. That is going to make for one romantic gift. Every woman dreams about getting a clock. Good husband that I am a clock it will be. It does have its good points. We will be reminded that time passes quickly, that our days are numbered and when it’s time to make dinner. Those are good things to keep in mind.

Philip

Calvinism and Arminianism

In our last Sunday School class we touched on Calvinism and Arminianism. The context was the study we are doing in the book of Genesis and how the sovereignty of God plays out in that book.

The basic side of each view was given without bias towards either. That was good.

The wonderful thing about an honest presentation of both sides is that you soon see that both are true. Both sides have their verses that prove they are right. With proper Biblical interpretation you then see that neither side is right. When Scripture is taken as a whole we see the truth.

We should reject both Calvinism and Arminianism and accept the full truth of Scripture. It is error to take only one side of the argument and then use exegetical gymnastics to explain away the Scripture of the other side.

So what are we to do as we look at Scripture and find doctrine that seems to have opposing yet valid views? Honesty requires that we accept the whole truth and sometimes we have to admit we don’t understand it all. We can agree with the sentiments expressed in Psalm 139:6 I can't understand all of this! Such wonderful knowledge is far above me.

Philip