Timothy's Thoughts

D o you think we’ll make mistakes in heaven? We know that in our glorified bodies we won’t sin anymore, but mistakes are different than sin. Here in this life, mistakes are a tool by which we learn. If we never made mistakes, we would do everything we do well, but there are things we would never attempt. I don’t know of any Bible passage that says we won’t make mistakes, but I think some people assume that is the case. We don’t know much about how life will be in our glorified bodies, but we do know a little about some of the people who visited heaven and returned. Those people did make mistakes. One mistake was falling down to worship an angel. I don’t expect that any of us will make that mistake more than once, but angels are impressive creatures and it’s understandable why someone would make that mistake. But let’s suppose we had no ability to make a mistake in our glorified bodies. If we don’t have complete knowledge, then that would make us nothing more than robots. If we have the...

M y mother told me about a novel she read. This particular novel is one she didn’t care for. I think I understand why. In what she told me of the book, the main character was the granddaughter of the governor. Of which state I’m not sure. In any case, the governor was the bad guy and because of what he did his granddaughter was put in danger. Without having read the book, I’d like to say that I believe the problem is that the archetype is messed up. A governor’s granddaughter is very similar to a president’s daughter. In that archetype, the president’s daughter is given special treatment. They don’t have a role in government, but as Daddy’s little girl they get special access. On the down side, they have a tendency to get kidnapped. That is because they’re an easier target than the president and the president is tempted to do give in to any and all demands to get them back. The book Mom read had it messed up because making the governor the villain removes the special access of the gra...

Y ou will find a lot of articles online about website design. They come in the form of blog post and these article posting services that are found throughout the web. Most of these articles won’t provide you with any earth shattering information. You may glean something from reading them, but the main reason they are there is because all of these guys developing websites and selling website templates are trying to build a platform. Being the experts on the subject that they are, they know that one way to get people to visit their websites and blogs is to get as many links as they can. In part, it can be done using a blog, but the article publishing services also help because they all pass these articles around like a virus. I’m often surprised to find something I’ve written show up on a website I’ve never visited. I’m going to offer a couple of pieces of advice here. Unless you’re trying to promote yourself as a website design expert (selling web design services or have written a book...

A s I was reading a bag of Lay’s chips the other day, I saw a phrase that they put in bold so it would stand out. Farm-grown potatoes. Really? Sometimes I wonder about these marketing folks who write the copy on the products. Just where do they think they’re going to get potatoes if they aren’t farm grown? I can’t imagine where the other guys are getting their potatoes. You think Pringles is stealing potatoes out of someone’s garden or something? I wonder how many gardens that would take. Let’s see—if you have a couple of rows of potatoes in your backyard, you might get a couple of bushels. I’m not sure how many bushels Pringles processes in a day, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot. If that’s what they’re doing, I bet they drive around in a Lay’s truck. If you see a Lay’s truck in your neighborhood being driving by a guy wearing a Pringles shirt, guard your potato patch.

O ur church has begun using EasyWorship presentation software during our worship services. The price isn’t bad, $379 for a site license, and from what I’ve seen of it, it has some nice features. I haven’t been actively involved in using it during the services, but in case you haven’t noticed, when you take on the task of being the church webmaster you are taking on the task of being the church’s computer helpdesk too. I suspect that as we see churches use more and more technology that we’ll see more of that kind of thing. I won’t say we’ll keep calling ourselves church webmasters in the future, but most medium to large sized churches will have a go to guy for technology. They may have a whole team of people. Anyway, the reason I got pulled in on the EasyWorship thing is because we’ve been using Power Point to put sermon notes on the screen. For that to work, EasyWorship has to import the Power Point presentation so that the projectionist can select which slide he wants on the scree...

I don’t lack for ideas. Some are better than others, but I can hardly see anything and not get some kind of story idea from it. But my favorite so far has been retelling the story of Hosea in a modern setting, which I did in For the Love of a Devil . Hosea’s life story is just one of those stories that works so well for that. Granted, it is hard story to read, but it worked very well. I would like to try that again with another Bible story. In some ways, Judges seems like an ideal place to look for a story like that, and yet it is less than ideal. The thing about Judges is that the protagonists of are flawed individuals who are used by God, but only after much persuasion. Then after he used them to accomplish his purpose, many of them make bad choices. We sort of like seeing happily ever after stories in which a flawed individual learns from his mistakes and changes his life. Another problem I have with Judges is that these are primarily war stories. The people were oppressed becaus...

L ately, it seems like the in thing is to have books about broken Christians and how they have grown in their faith. The books that come to mind are books like Blue Like Jazz and Evolving in Monkey Town (Not that I can convince myself to read either one.). We’re in an odd position because instead of listening to people who have done their homework, studied the Bible and developed answers to the tough questions, people are turning to people who are still seeking answers. That’s not to say that we must have all the answers before we write a book, because none of us have all the answers. The thing that is so dangerous about this situation is that people are making the assumption that just because they personally don’t know the answer to a question, other people don’t have the answer either. For example, Rachel Held Evans has raised questions about Genesis 1 and 2. She isn’t the first and won’t be the last, but she also makes claims that other people don’t struggle with doubts about wh...