Looked Big to Me - Tangents

Oh come on, don’t you like quizzes? I know all of you loved quizzes in school [dodges tomato]. Seriously though, only one taker? Come on lurkers, you don’t have to comment, just check out the videos two posts below and take the easy quiz. No grades here, nothing to go on permanent records if you answer wrong. Just step right up and give it a try! Answers in one of the next couple posts. 🙂

This week someone from Florida flew down to train with me on the use of the handheld computer, something that the office there was apparently never trained on for some reason. He was placed in a hotel near me, right across from my church in fact, and is riding with me all week wherever I go. I have to tell you, this guy is on fire for Jesus. Like me, he serves in children’s ministry at his church which is apparently set up slightly different from mine (and many others) so he has kids from ages 6-11. Perhaps he was sent not just to learn from me, but the other way around too. I invited him to my small group last night and when there, he didn’t just sit back and listen, but was actively engaged in the discussion. It was interesting to learn that like another in my group, he is an Annihilationist, one who believes that there is no active eternal torment for those who don’t accept God’s offer of salvation through Jesus, but instead they are simply destroyed. His children, of course, still have eternal life in Heaven. Myself, I would love for this to be true but I know I must be careful to not try to read this into the scripture if and when I study this topic in detail. One of the things I have thought is that *if* God has chosen ahead of time those He is going to save (part of the Calvinist doctrine, I’m not sure about this interpretation of Scripture), that is we can only come to Christ if God calls us, and if He calls us we cannot fail to come, if this is true then it would seem to be wholly unfair, and seemingly against the nature of God to not just deny us eternal life in heaven (more than fair for our rejection of Him) but to purposefully send us to be actively tortured by the one who was given the boot from Heaven for his rejection of God’s authority. Of course, if we do have any say in the matter as Scripture *also* seems to say, then this argument falls flat- we deserve what we chose.

Anyway, I have gotten far beyond the point of this post. So today, we joined my coworker Rene again, and we practiced with the cars Rene and our other trainee were working on. He is slowly learning, but is enthusiastic about it. In fact, he is enthusiastic about everything- a very positive outlook. Well, on our way home, when about to turn on route 14, we noticed a thick plume of black smoke rising. I didn’t think to much about it, but as we drove, an ambulance and a fire truck headed in that direction. About 15 minutes later we passed it just outside (I think) Barrington- I didn’t think it would be that far away and the area the smoke, now worse, was coming from looked really big. However, we still couldn’t see what was actually happening. We drove through the thin layer of smoke that reached the road, but that was it. I figured it would be in the news, but so far I couldn’t find anything. Well, it looked big enough for news to me. I just pray for all involved.

I also pray that my car does not need an expensive repair. The “service engine soon” light just went on today and it is in the shop now to be looked at tomorrow.