Pride goes before a fall?

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.
(Proverbs 16:18)

Often quoted as pride goes before a fall.

While I was walking my dog, I was filled with the typical lofty and spiritual thoughts that oftentimes fill my head on such occasions. This time, I was smuggly considering my nice new coat which one can only have gotten by having worked at Winter X Games 9. (See, deeply spiritual!) Anyway, God had gifted the ground with a light layer of sleet last night...

You see where this is going?

On a bank, where I have slipped in the past, once again I found myself on my backside; having a renewed understanding of the chill of wet blue jeans. Also, I had a pleasent thought of grass stains on a new coat.

I laughed as I got up. :-) Praise God that I only suffered some wet and dirty clothes, and an apropriate jolt to my pride (which I have often slipped on in the past).

Let me straighten out about my new coat. It was thanks to God that I had the opportunity to work at X Games, and certainly nothing that I've done made me any more deserving of a new coat.

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Words for Then; Words for Now

And to the angel of the church of the Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Head of the creation of God, says these things:

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I counsel you to buy from Me gold purified by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be clothed, and so that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. And anoint your eyes with eye salve, so that you may see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me.

To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with My Father in His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
(Revelation 3:14-22)

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The Test

I was working on a long and exacting project this weekend for truck driving school. It's called the "Log Complex" test. And it is. :-) Anyway, the test not being difficult enough in and of itself, the instructor hands us log sheets that are printed on both sides and says, that they must be completed in ink and there can be no correction fluid or correction tape used anywhere on the pages. Inevitably, at 6:00 AM Monday morning, with no more blank pages left, one side of the last page complete and 90% of the back side complete, I make a mark that is in the wrong place. A moment of panic and despair, then I try the pencil eraser; no good. I pray to God, out of desperation. Then a thought occurs, "Use something sharp to scrape the ink from the page."

Life is like that test. The examiner (God) demands perfection. However, no matter how hard we try, we can never achieve that perfection. Our own sins mark us. Thankfully God has provided a way to erase the marks of sin. The shed blood of His Son Jesus Christ is sufficient to remove all the sin so that we can be perfect in God's eyes. Yes, we still make mistakes; but Jesus is there to forgive us those mistakes from then on.

All we need to do, to receive a passing grade from God on the perfection test is repent (turn away or desire to stop our sinful ways) and accept Jesus into our hearts! He already turned in the perfect test; we are allowed to accept His score.

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The King James Only Heresy

It saddens me to see otherwise excellent Christian ministries proclaim the indefensible "The King James Bible is the (only) inspired Word of God."

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
(2 Timothy 3:16-17)

There is nothing in that scripture that mentions "The King James Version", or any other version. It was originally written in Greek. You can read for yourself what it says, and means. (Not to mention, that this is just the kind of arrogant, English only statement that we Americans are infamous for, in the international community.)

Of course, the King James Version (Revised, even more so the 1611 Version) is a bit stilted and even difficult to read and understand. Unfortunately claiming "King James only" effectly limits access to God's Word to those few who are educated in reading such rarified language. This is the exact same Heresy that the Roman Catholic Church was involved in when it refused to allow the Bible to be translated from Latin to the native languages of the people. Breaking that Heresy is, ironically, the reason the King James Bible was originally written!

I'm not against the King James Version of the Bible. I enjoy it's poetry. But when I'm studying God's Word, I check my understanding of the King James against other translations, as well as with Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries (and other resources). One free tool I like to use is e-Sword an excellent Bible study program for Windows, as well as for Pocket PC.

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Read the Manual

As I prepare to take the tests to get my CDL permit, I choose to read the book. The NC DMV has published a handbook with all you need to know to pass the written tests.

In order to prepare for life's tests, we should choose to read the book. The Creator of the universe has published a handbook with all we need to know to face life's challenges. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Better yet, He'll even prompt us with the answers, as long as we have first read them! (John 14:26)

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Truck Driving School Update

I'm doing the classroom portion of driving school. It's not rocket science, but there is a lot of information to learn. And a lot of writing to do, appearently the state requires that the school keep certain large writing assignments on hand for 2 years. My handwriting needs the exercise anyway. :-)

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Not that kind of Christian?

Do not be suprised that I said to you, you must be born again. (John 3:7)

Jesus Christ says you must be.

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Miracles

And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season, because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by him.

-Luke 23:8

Caught up in externals, desiring entertainment; the true miracle is in the heart, if one choses to believe.

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I didn't know that!

Pill v. intr. To form small balls resembling pills: a sweater that pills.

So a fleece that is pill resistant, is less likely to form pills.

Huh, I thought they had misspelled spill. Ah well, live and learn.
:-)

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A Pill Resistant Fleece Throw

For only $4.99, my local Lowes Food grocery store was offering an extra soft, warm, and pill resistant fleece throw. I'm not quite sure why a fleece throw should be pill resistant, but they had nearly a dozen of these things. If I can remember, I'll try to take my camera in to go get a picture of these otherwise normal seeming fleece throws.

In other news, I began truck driving school today. I was scheduled to start yesterday, but no one seemed to consider it important to inform me (or my immediate supervisor, either). Ah well, it doesn't seem to have caused any harm. Perhaps I should buy one of those pill resistant fleece throws for work. I don't know if that would help the communication issue any, but hey, it's pill resistant, and that can't be bad... right?

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New Pictures Posted

Winter X Games IX pictures have been posted to my Sony Image Station photo album collection. Warning, there are rather a lot of them. :-)

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Home again

The X Games are over! (You can check them out on EXPN.com.) It's much easier to breath here at 700' elevation as opposed to the 8000' elevation at the base of Snowmass Mountain. It was real fun, but It's good to be home. :-)

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Rare Snow Flamingos

I thought you might enjoy a picture of these rare snow flamingos. These rare snow flamingos live on the top of Snowmass Mountain in Colorado. They are very patient, and willing to pose for pictures, though they aren't very active.

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