Bag of Randomness

Screenshot 2015-07-26 at 5.19.48 PM

  • While I wait for delivery for my new lawn mower battery, I thought it would be a good time to sharpen the blade.  To my surprise, I found a local place that will do it for just eight bucks, which I think is beyond reasonable.
  • As if it isn’t already hard enough get around Dallas without paying a toll – LBJ East freeway project needs some tolls, planner says
  • Mulder and Scully holding Mulder and Scully Lego figures.
  • I don’t know much about hip replacement surgery, but I was surprised to see Jerry Jones walking around training camp yesterday after his surgery on back on July 21.
  • Our former governor has challenged Trump to a pull-up contest – “Let’s get a pull-up bar out there and let’s see who can do the most pull-ups,” said Perry, once an Air Force captain, when asked by a reporter if he had any message for Trump.
  • I’m just not an outdoors person and hunting isn’t for me, but I don’t have any issue with those that do hunt responsibly.  The dentist that’s in the news for shooting a protected lion in Zimbabwe is stating that he thought he was doing everything legally, and pointed the blame at the local professional hunter guides and is claiming ignorance that he didn’t know they lured the lion from protected land by tying a dead animal to a vehicle and driving to unprotected land.  But the dentist, Walter Palmer, has a shaky past that includes sexual harassment andIn 2008, he faced prison time and eventually was placed on probation after admitting to making a false statement to a federal agent in connection with his hunt of a black bear in Wisconsin. Palmer shot a black bear in 2006 about 40 miles outside the zone where he was licensed to hunt, and then lied about it to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent, claiming he shot it in the correct zone.  Palmer was ordered to pay $2,938 in restitution and was placed on probation for one year, court records show.”
  • Taco Belle
  • Dallas Establishments With Top Gross Alcohol Sales For June 2015 [updated link]- Gexa almost pulled in a million.
  • GIF – Tug-of-war between one horse (a Belgian horse, I think) and about 20 humans.
  • My father would often say, “Holy mackerel kingfish.”  It wasn’t until after his death that I learned it came from Amos ‘n’ Andy, and that it was actually, “Holy mackerel, Kingfish.”
  • DaughterGeeding has long been aware that her mother has a glass eye, but for several reasons, WifeGeeding has held out removing it in front of her.  However, yesterday DaughterGeeding asked her mother to remove it, and she obliged.  I recorded the moment if you are interested in how a mother would talk to her five-year-old about such a thing.  If you are sensitive about such a thing, the camera is far enough away that you can’t see any detail of the eye or the ocular cavity.
  • I had a friend that was a pastor’s kid, and his father would burn the SI swimsuit issue and allow him to watch Spaceballs only with the volume turned off.  He was also barred from watching any Rated-R movies, until Oliver Stone’s JFK hit theaters because it was “educational”.  I don’t think he did much research about the film, but then again, that was before the Information Super Highway was at our fingertips.
  • Infographic – Wedding Dresses Through Time
  • Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was the guest on ‘The Daily Show’ last night to plug her latest book which is about LBJ.  Oddly, I think it’s only going to be an e-book.  She mentioned that it was LBJ who encouraged Nixon to have a tape recording machine in the Oval Office because it would be hard to recall things and remember what frame of mind you were in twenty or so years after an event, and this would be important for U.S. history.
  • Kearns has an interesting history with LBJ.  She was a White House Fellow during his administration and involved in the anti-Vietnam war movement.  She wrote an article which laid out a scenario for his removal from office regarding his conduct of the war which appeared in the New Republic, and she was later assigned to the Department of Labor.  After his presidency, she lived at his ranch and helped (some say ghostwrote) with his memoirs.
  • Rick Springfield was a guest on Kimmel last night and participated in a funny recorded skit about the origin of “Jessie’s Girl” in which he dressed up like he was in 1981 again.  In the skit, his drummer is named Jessie and his girlfriend is there when Rick comes up with a new song, and Jessie doesn’t handle it well.
  • Christina Applegate was also a guest on Kimmel and a clip of her chugging an entire pitcher of beer in the new Vacation movie played.  She admitted that in reality the pitcher was empty and the beer was just CGI.  Is nothing sacred any more?
  • There’s a news story going around about a man who cut off his own manhood to stop pleasuring himself and many are falling for it, but it’s fake, so don’t you fall for it.
  • Girls Scam ISIS on Social Media for Travel Money
  • Mom Throws Dream Party for Personal Injury Lawyer-Obsessed Toddler
  • I wonder if the bat-signal was used for roadside service – Batmobile breakdown leaves traffic chaos on Ontario highway
  • Imagine a life in which you could no longer eat – Utah Teen Discovered He’s Allergic to Food — All Food
  • Good info on the upcoming Batman v Superman movie, but beware of minor spoilers.
  • How Brisket Conquered The BBQ WorldThe once lowly hunk of beef has eclipsed pork and ribs to become the power-player in the ‘cue circuit.
Posted in Personal | 7 Comments

A local pastor is brave enough to love his Muslim neighbors

Pastor Bob Roberts is a committed evangelical Christian, a barbeque-loving Texan, and head of a large conservative congregation just outside Dallas with an essential mission to plant new churches around the world.

So he’s the first to say that it’s sort of odd that his 30-year journey as an evangelical minister would lead him to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the most prominent Muslim clerics in the world. He prays with them in their mosques, “breaks bread” with them, Texas-style, at his home, and has become one of the leading Christian ministers of any persuasion in what he calls the fight against Islamophobia.

“I never dreamed I’d ever do anything like that – I had no desire to,” says Pastor Roberts, head of the 3,000-member NorthWood Church in Keller. On Monday, he traveled to the White House with other religious leaders to be briefed on the situation of Christians in Iran and the recent nuclear deal. “You have to understand my background and how we view things like that… But right now the biggest challenge in fighting Islamophobia is my tribe – the Evangelicals.”

Full Christian Scientist Monitor Article

This article reminded me of the time Columbia professor John Azumah, who specializes in Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, spoke at my church.  One that thing I took away from his time with us that made me really stop down and reflect was his comment about Muslim extremism or radicalism.  Not only does it affect the Muslim world, but it affects Christians because it causes us to put hate and fear in our hearts towards the entire Muslim world, making us extremist to a certain extent and keeps us from loving our neighbor and honoring God.  Christians really do allow the terrorists to win when they allow hate to enter their heart.

For Pastor Roberts to take the initiative to build relationships and show the love of Christ to local Muslims takes a lot of courage, especially in this area.  He’s definitely a profile in courage.

Other items in that article that I think are worth noting:

  • This month, a coalition of three Muslim charities raised more than $100,000 in a “Respond with Love” crowdfunding campaign that sought to help at least eight black Evangelical congregations rebuild after a series of fires throughout the South destroyed their churches.
  • Pastor Mark Shetler, head of First Covenant, “As a church, we just really felt that we are trying to answer the call of Jesus to first love God and secondly to love our neighbors as ourselves. And Jesus does not seem to differentiate what type of neighbor that is, so in trying to be obedient, we just wanted to engage our Muslim neighbors in conversation and build relationships.”
  • “And then they would see me disagree with imams and rabbis, but in a respectful way,” Roberts says. “It isn’t in your face.”
  • Roberts comments before starting a relationship with local Muslims, “Prince Turki said to me one day, it’s great what you do with Muslims around the world, Bob, but what about Dallas?” Roberts says. “I told him, that would be like starting a Baptist Church in Mecca. That would be a really hard thing to do.”
  • Both Shetler and Roberts say their congregations have experienced controversy and push back due to their friendly engagement with Muslims and participation in each other’s traditions. NorthWood lost hundreds of its members, Roberts says. And some evangelicals have called him a closet Muslim who is betraying his faith. “We just want to say that, hey, we might disagree with Muslims on theology, but we can still respect one another, love one another, work together on creating an environment in which people can actually feel comfortable getting to know somebody that is different from what their own background is,” says Shetler.
Posted in DFW, Spiritual | 1 Comment