I mentioned that this was coming up when I wrote about announcing the call to preach 30 years ago then promptly forgot about it again. Thank you WordPress. Since March 4, 2008, there have been 1887 posts (this one will make 1888), 765,014 views and 2,540 comments. I have 750 subscribers although some of those are probably WordPress accounts that are no longer maintained or email addresses that are now defunct. If you have been any part of this journey – and you are reading this right now, presumably of your own free will – I hope you have learned something, enjoyed something or at least smiled as you shook your head. I have never started a podcast or relaunched The Master’s Table as a YouTube channel; it warms my heart to know that some people still read. So without further ado let me write something for you. You may or may not have caught these items this week:
I added Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary to my bookshelf this week thanks to a generous donor. I may already have the concise commentary in one volume but have not double checked that yet. Catholics use liturgy extensively while some Protestants do and others not so much. I observed that biblically speaking liturgy is definitely worship. In the Pastor’s Notes category, be careful with your illustrations. I almost burned myself on a bad analogy about NASCAR.
The Asbury Revival may have received national attention but many had seen revival stirring already. In 2022 the numbers of baptisms in Georgia was up 12% over the previous year. We are seeing the continuation of spontaneous revival into the new year. In addition to the 42 salvations at Dudley Baptist there were 41 saved in February at a wild game dinner at Bethel Baptist in Omega, GA. In January First Baptist Church of Blackshear reported 19 professions of faith at a venison supper and another 28 that recommitted their lives to Christ. Pastor Matt Greene at Dudley Baptist said the revival was preceded by intense prayer. We don’t need to travel to Asbury to see revival, we need to each go to own churches and pray to see it there. We have all witnessed churches struggle with attendance numbers post-Covid. Keep struggling. It could be that some old growth was pruned to make way for new growth. It could be we had grown complacent and just needed a swift kick in the rear to move us in the right direction. Click here to read the Dudley Baptist story. Those closing remarks were my own, don’t hold them again The Christian Index.
Remember the Double Down? Imagine a sandwich but instead of bread you have two pieces of fried chicken with bacon, cheese and sandwich toppings in between. The KFC Double Down was last seen in 2014 but according to KFC people have been asking for them to come back. It won’t last forever but you can double down on one yourself through the month of March. Might want to double down on your blood pressure and cholesterol meds at the same time.
The new rules have already created some interesting outcomes at spring training. There are bound to be some hiccups as the regular season gets underway. Speaking of the regular season: Opening day is March 30th. There are 15 games scheduled that day. Every MLB team will play on the same day for the first time since 1968. It will be fun to see how many managers get ejected because of the new pitch clock rules enforcement.
Happy Monday features a lot of coffee memes, pics and cartoons. But those are usually funny. The infographic above is informative but there is nothing funny about learning about coffee. How do you take your coffee? Seriously, very seriously. I like my coffee so dark that it sucks a little light out of the room.
This husky pup was pulled out of the rubble in Turkey 23 days after the earthquake. The total number of casualties in Turkey and Syria combined exceeds 53,000. We were getting updates daily for that first week or two but the news coverage has moved on to other things. Finding Alex alive in the Hatay province provides a glimmer of hope, a tiny little bit of good news for rescuers that are surrounded by death and destruction every day.
That is a crinkle crankle wall, also known as a serpentine or wavy wall. Believe it or not that style actually uses fewer bricks than a wall of the same height in a straight line. A brick wall is usually wrapped around something, like the frame of a house. If you are building with just bricks then you need two layers of bricks and columns every so often to act as buttresses for support. The shape of the crinkle crankle wall provides structural support much like folding a piece of paper into an accordion shape allows it not only to stand on its own but support weight being placed on it. Using a single layer of bricks in that shape requires fewer bricks than a straight wall. The idea dates back to ancient Egypt but this wall and others like it can be found today in England, particularly around Suffolk.
What is deja vu? That clue was on Jeopardy last week and would have been the lead had WordPress not congratulated me on 15 years of blogging. That was a surprise when I logged in this morning.
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