Etz's View of the World

Memories from Mom

Recently my mother was diagnosed with ALS, more familiarly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Her form seems to be rather aggressive. She’s gone from no symptoms in September to needing a walker and wheelchair presently. So please keep my family (especially my mother and father) in your prayers in the months to come.

The reason I bring this up is that lately she’s been sharing with us some of the entries from her journals that she has been keeping over the years. This was something I was unaware that she has done and has been a pleasant trip down memory lane. The good, the bad and the ugly.

Growing up, my dad (the eternal pessimist) always said, “You need to plan for the worst, so when things work out right, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” You see, he is a retired structural engineer. His job was always to plan for the worst case scenario.

Take, for example, this from my mom’s memories:

Monday February 25, 1974

First day of sectional tourney today and “Kid Day” at school – show school spirit and dress like a kid…At supper table Bob said “Hope you win tonight” Me – “What a time to change tactics”. Denise – “Yeah, it makes me nervous.” Bob – “Well I don’t expect you to win, just hope you do.” They felt better. They did win the game 70 – 65 over Wayne.

It’s quite ironic that a few years ago he was voted the “Optimist of the Year” from the Optimist Club that they belong to. Though in this regard I tend to take after my mom, his outlook has been quite beneficial from time to time.

My mother, on the other hand, is the epitome of the eternal optimist. One thing theme that has run throughout her memories is how much she has been blessed by the Lord. No matter what the situation (again, the good, the bad, and the ugly), she sees the hand of God working through the situation to ultimately benefit our family. She truly believed in Romans 8:28 (ESV) “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” It’s an outlook that I have not had at times.

Looking back through her memories, I can indeed see how God’s hand has moved through the history of my family, how He has guided, protected, and kept us all in His hands. Maybe it’s time that I start up a journal. Looking back, I know that I too will see God’s hand at work in our lives.

Pearls Before Swine

The dirty little secret of optical media

I have run into this issue previously with CDs. I haven’t done much with DVDs as of yet so I haven’t seen this. So watch what you burn and make sure you have other backup options.

My preferred backup option is Windows Home Server. It backs up my desktop and my laptop. I then have important files backed up from the Home Server to an off site location. How are you doing backups? Have you checked your CDs and DVDs to see if they’re still good?

Technorati Tags: Windows Home Server,CD,DVD,Optical Media

Your important photos and files are all backed up on CDs and DVDs, so you’re safe. Right?

Think again.

The dirty little secret of optical media
Ed Bott
Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:08:50 GMT

New Blog for Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church

I started a new blog for our congregation. The desire is that it will become a place for my members and others to go for information, to ask questions and find answers. I may cross post from time to time. But if you’re interested, stop by and give it a gander. Make some suggestions. Ask questions. We’ll see if it takes off at all.

Oh, by the way, it’s called The Shepherd’s Staff and is located at www.shlcfayettemo.com. See you there!

Why Faith Healers Suck

I have always been a fan of house. Now Wilson’s getting into the act. Well, he has been for quite some time, but this one I just loved. Quite frankly I’ve never seen the attraction to people like this. I’ve always equated them with the WWF. It might look cool, but how gullible do you have to be?

Let’s see, it’s a post from July and I’m just now reading it??? I’ve got to start doing a better job of posting.

http://housemdiv.blogspot.com/2008/07/why-faith-healers-suck.html

Perhaps I should repent for such crude language, but my vocabulary leaves me when I see articles about faith healers.

When asked to present evidence of the healings, (Todd) Bentley promised to give "Nightline" the names and medical records of three followers who would talk openly about his miracles. He never delivered. Instead, his staff gave "Nightline" a binder filled with what he says are inspiring miracles, but with scant hard evidence. It offered incomplete contact information, a few pages of incomplete medical records, and the doctors' names were crossed out.

The saddest thing about our poorly catechized populace's desire for temporal miracles is that these kind of miracles are not the greatest thing Christ has done for us.
And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven." And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he then said to the paralytic—"Rise, pick up your bed and go home." And he rose and went home. -- Matthew 9:4-7
Never mind that the "miracles" Bentley offers don't even work. To dust our bodies will return, so why seek to fix your body at the expense of your soul?
We are all broken. Sinful. Undeserving of eternal life. The forgiveness of our sins by the death of Christ is much more valuable that fixing what ails us, no matter how much we suffer right now. Our suffering is temporary, a blink compared to the time we will spend with our Father in heaven.
Our pain and our sin has been borne on the cross. At the last day the dead will be raised, incorruptible. Our ailments will be gone. God will have no part of imperfection, and we will be perfect, clothed in righteousness. That's something Bentley could never offer.

Why Faith Healers Suck

Great Post by Father Hollywood

Father Hollywood hits the nail on the head in this post as he talks about the Office of the Holy Ministry. Here's what he has to say in part:  

Little children instinctively seem to understand that the pastor, the preacher, the one who is always talking about Jesus, the one who wears churchly vestments, stands in the front of the church, and makes the sign of the cross - is somehow inextricably linked to Jesus.

Maybe this is why our Lord says we must become as little children to inherit the Kingdom. When we get older, many of us no longer see a man in persona Christi, but rather a hireling, a functionary, a guy with a job. We begin to see the minister not for who he is and for Whom he acts (ontologically), but rather for what he does (functionally) - and then we are quick to posit that anyone else can do the same job. We begin to see ordination as nothing more than a quaint little ceremony and the ministry as merely a function that can be carried out by vicars, "lay ministers," DCEs, and lay elders. After all, lots of people are "ministers" who have a "divine call" - not just "ministers of religion - ordained" (as the bureaucrats would say).

I've run into this problem from time to time, both within the LCMS and from without. I've really run into it now that I'm a worker/priest. Too often my Call at SHLC is viewed as "another one of your jobs" as if it was on par with what I do the rest of the week.

Read what Father Hollywood has to say. He says it much better than I do.

Getting Back Into the Action

I haven't posted on this blog very often. With everything that's been going on, I've opted to spend more time with the other things in life. But now things are beginning to slow down, so I'll try and post a bit more often.

So what's been going on? Well, not much, and quite a bit. The kids are all continue to shoot up. Josh is approaching 6', but still is barely over 120 lbs. He just finished his third year in cross country lettering for the third time as well. When you watch him running, it seems that he's so much smaller than those he competes against. His track coach still has high hopes for him saying that Josh won't really be grown into his body until he's in college. I'm quite proud of the way he fights through the wind and the hills and his continued improvement. Now he's starting basketball and hopes to get some play time on varsity this year.

Rachel seems to be topping off at 5'8". She just finished softball with the second highest batting average on the team (she got beat out by 0.003 for first). She has improved greatly over her previous year and is doing quite well. This year you can tell that she is much stronger, especially after her back surgery almost two years ago now. She has also started basketball which continues to be her favorite sport.

Zach just finished his first year of middle school football. He was the quarterback and did quite well. The varsity coach was quite impressed with his arm and how he handles himself under pressure. Carolyn doesn't handle herself quite as well when he's under pressure, but his team was fun to watch this year. They ended up 4-2 for the season with one of the defeats going to a team who's seventh grade is bigger than Zach's whole school. Zach has also begun basketball practice. There's 23 or so kids who went out for the team this year and Zach will be part of the team that goes to all the games.

Becca is now taller than Zach (much to his chagrin). She played some softball this summer and has also started playing basketball. (Can you tell that we'll be running all over the place again this winter?) She's looking forward to being able to play sports for the school next year where she wants to play volleyball as well as basketball.

Carolyn and I continue with our current employment. She's been at ABC Labs in Columbia for a bit over a year now. She's been quite busy, putting in quite a few hours making deadlines, but she enjoys the work and the people she's associate with. I've been with Central Technology Services for over a year as well and continue to enjoy my work as well. I'm also still pastoring the good people at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Fayette, Missouri part time.

Well, that's what's been going on. As you can see, we're usually quite busy, but that keeps us out of most trouble. :)

The Wittenberg Trail

This morning, before I headed out to prepare for the church, I was looking around at various blogs. One thing that I noticed on the side of several of the blogs was an advertisement for the Wittenberg Trail. I can't tell you a whole lot about it at this point, but I'm running into names that I haven't seen a quite a while. The first comment I received on my Home Page was from Ste Emily. I fondly remember "conversations" I had with her when I was a young, um, er, new pastor. I learned much from her and have missed the conversations we have had. I'm looking forward to touching base with many old friends.

More on KFUO

It seems that something is afoot at the Synod once again. If you go here you can view a financial report from KFUO for both the AM and FM bands. It looks like someone has been cooking the books to justify the removal of Issues, Etc.

Radio Silence

I was saddened to hear that the Synod, in it's infinite wisdom, decided that "Issues, Etc." would be removed from the broadcast waves. It is not around here, so I tended to listen to the  podcasts. I'll miss the banter and solid theology that was promoted there. If you want to hear what the Wall Street Journal has to say about it, go here.