Illusory Follies

Rev. Rayburn preached on Mark 3:31-35 this last Sunday.

And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

It’s interesting to note that Christ mentions specifically the “doing of his will” as being what makes a person a member of His spiritual family. He doesn’t mention believing here but doing. It must have made an impact. Both of Jesus’s brothers, probably confused at the time that Jesus told them this, later understood and wrote fairly strong words that put the doctrine of grace into perspective.

James 2:14

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

Jude 3b,4

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Interesting stuff… It’s neat to realize that the particular circumstances that led to the convictions that James and Jude held were probably the rather dramatic event in Mark 3. Yes, it’s inspired, but it somehow feels so much more human when you see these things.

Had some fun with Photoshop and thought I’d show the progression of work. It’s not very impressive (blending a picture into a background, but it was fun.

“Our earth is degenerate in these latter days, bribery and corruption
are common, children no longer obey their parents and the end of the
world is evidently approaching.” –Archimedes, 210 B.C.

Real Life Quote from Diane:
“It really doesn’t have to be square to the bejare, cohware, bare, cazare!”

NB: We’re not exactly sure what this means, but I believe the intent was that I was being too technical about something…

Ho hum — back in D.C. for business. Hopefully this week is more productive than last — I really don’t feel I got much done this last week.

Not too much new here. This post is basically useless. I have things I want to do. I have things I need to do. And also, I have things I know I’m not going to have time to do. I’m too tired right now to go into details of the different items and which category they fall into.

However, faithful readers of this [Editor's Comment: pathetic] blog, will be happy to know that I may at a future point dazzle you with my continued ramblings of various technological wonders. Such as getting a cellphone that works. Or something.

Enough for now,

Okay, so the whole “updating daily” thing worked for two days. Yeah — it’s not as easy as it looks. More later today — I have to get work done today but felt I should at least post something for you die-hard Illusory Follies readers in order to give you some amount of encouragement. Also, if you see me, remind me to update this page later today. I may forget.

I spent most of the afternoon wandering around Boston. Overall — pretty nice. Here are some pictures.

The swan boats in the Public Gardens

Some office builds from the Boston Public Gardens

View of the downtown from the Charles River

House in Beacon Hill

Downtown shopping area

A church in Beacon Hill

Phone booths in Chinatown (complete with Chinese people!)

This entry is about blogging. I’m annoyed because I use this blog far less often than I thought I would or than others expect me to. It’s not very much fun to visit someone’s website that talks about things if they never update it. The thing is, my best thoughts for blog entries come to me while I’m driving on I-405 (weirdly, they almost always come to me somewhere between the Bothel and the Bellevue exit). I don’t have Internet access until I get home (about 1 hour or so later) so I never get to them. I’ve had a lot of cool thoughts (really! cooler than this one!) that (alas) the world will never hear of.

I know you all are missing out, so what should I do? Should I make time each day in my “schedule” (har har) to blog? Is that stupid? Is blogging in general worthless and stupid? Is it like having a journal (which sounds classic and sophisticated) but just more modern? What’s the answer?

My family has been in the house hunting process for a bit now. It’s an annoying market in the South Sound area and we’re definitely not getting a “deal” on anything we’ve considered (but at least it’s better than the D.C. market). What’s been amazing is how much guidance we’ve received from God on this. I’m normally much more of the type of guy who considers a decision, weighs the pro’s and con’s, prays that the right decision is made, and plunges in. However, with houses it’s been a lot more nerve-wracking. It’s a huge amount of money, it’s very hard to determine what you’re getting and what it’s really worth, and it’s also very hard to tell if you like a place.

So far, we’ve successfully avoided getting two different houses. The first was very nice in many ways but they didn’t take our initial offer (which was barely shaving anything off of what they were asking — about 2% of the total cost). I liked the place but was concerned that the price was too high. We sort of “let the fleece out” and determined that if they took our first offer, we would go with it. They didn’t and we backed out. The second house was just this weekend. I didn’t like it quite as much but the price seemed good (certainly relative to others on the market). It was also an ideal place to start with a new family and it really was quite beautiful. Just prior to putting an offer down (our agent was literally driving over to our place) the listing agent called to notify us that the sellers had decided to not sell their home at this time (some sort of family crisis). That doesn’t happen very often…

I guess people could look at these events as just coincidences (even unfortunate coincidences since we didn’t get “what we wanted”!) but I very strongly disagree. It’s obvious to me that we’re being Guided and I’m confident that we’re going to get what God wants us to get.