Are you talking butterfly language to caterpillar people?

Jesus Means To Enlarge Life Not Diminish It

A number of people who reject Jesus do so because they believe being a follower of Christ will result in a life which is boring, bland, small, intellectually diminished, guilt-ridden and confined.

This sets up an interesting irony because Jesus, speaking of His followers, said this: “…I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10

Bible expositors will, of course, debate the nuances of this verse but for sure it means Jesus is offering His followers a life which is full, challenging, interesting, meaningful, exciting, good and virtuous.

The mission of Jesus is not to decrease life but to enlarge it.

“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Podcast for 1-3-11

Need a few laughs?  Need some inspiration?  Check out the podcast.  Dan and Vic talk about car horns and God's work in us.  ...It will make sense if you listen!

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Becoming More Like Christ

When we are growing spiritually, our attitudes, our actions, our way of relating with others, our desires, even our perceptions of reality are becoming more like Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

My Dead Cell Phone...Ah, But The Story Isn't Over

“Well, here’s what I can do for you…” said the agent at the second phone store.

Several days prior to this conversation that I was having, I had dropped my cell phone into a glass of iced tea.  You can check out that post titled: “R.I.P. Cell Phone”, dated 12/30/09.

I went to a phone store—the first phone store—and the agent at the first phone store basically said, “Well, there’s not much I can do for you other than sell you a new phone, unless you have insurance.  Did you buy insurance?”

I said, “I have health insurance…and car insurance…and life insurance, do any of those count?”

….Yeah, I know, he didn’t find that to be very amusing, either.

The agent at the first phone store said, “Before you buy a new phone, for several hundred dollars, try this: take your phone home and submerge it in a jar of rice.”

“How does that fix a wet phone?” I asked.

“It doesn’t,” he said, “it just makes it taste better.”

Now, both of us were guilty of telling relatively lame jokes.  Apparently, the rice is supposed to draw the moisture out of the gadget and, perhaps, get it working again.  Really.  That’s the theory.  Several people verified that this was a valid idea, so, I tried the rice submersion technique. 

It didn’t work.  But he was right, I bit off a small corner of the phone and it tasted pretty good.

A couple of days later, I went back to the same phone store to ask some further questions, but it was closed.  It was New Year’s day.  There are lots of dealers for this particular phone service, so I went to another store in the area.  When I told an agent at the second phone store my story, that’s when she said the phrase that I began with, “Well, here’s what I can do for you…”

It turns out that she offered me a “one time replacement offer”.  This was not something that the agent at the first store—for the same phone service provider—offered to me.  He didn’t mention anything about a “one time replacement offer” all he ever said was that I would have to buy a new phone if we couldn’t get the current one working.

The “one time replacement offer” that was extended to me at the second store involved trading my old, non-working, phone for a new phone—the exact same model—for a fee.

I took the offer and…I’m back in business!

On my original Facebook note about this matter, my friend Janice left this comment:  “Dan prayer works even on phones,” she wrote, “I will believe with you.”

I thought about Janice’s comment as I was driving away from the phone store with my new replacement phone.  My phone wasn’t “healed”, but….it was “made new!”

“Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  2Cor.5:17

Yeah, prayer does work for phones!

NOTE:  The scripture reference above is completely out of context.  I understand that it doesn’t really apply to this story, and I’m not trying to be disrespectful to the Bible.  If you are theologically astute, please don’t get angry, I just thought it was a fun way to conclude the post.   =)