Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor
A few years back I was struck by a revelation:
I use the same word to describe how I feel about cheeseburgers and to describe the Creator God of the Universe.
That word would be: "awesome". In fact, I use awesome to describe a lot of other things as well: computers, movies, automatic doors in vans, Mac products, books, experiences and trips, etc. I sometimes use it even if I don't really mean it. How can that be right? How can I describe how I feel about God accurately?
In Job 25:2 we read: "Dominion and awe belong to God." Awe belongs to God, and is due him and to no one else. Especially Five Guys. That causes me to pause and re-evaluate the language that I use to describe a cheeseburger! My prayer and dilemma is perfectly summed up in an old David Crowder lyric:
I need words
As wide as sky
I need language large as
This longing inside
And I need a voice
Bigger than mine
And I need a song to sing You
That I've yet to find
(You can hear the song by clicking here)
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 11, 2010
Christmas Presents, Bill Cosby and the Gibeonites (The Sneaky Blog)
Nathan Stam
Children/Communications Pastor
Describing me as a sneaky kid would be an understatement. Case in point: I knew all of my Mother's secret hiding places for birthday and Christmas presents, and there were many. I would wait till she was asleep and then slip out of my bed to either the crawl-space or the laundry room. With stealth-like precision I would tear a little of the wrapping paper away so that I could catch a glimpse of what treasure lay inside. Could it be a new Transformer? I would then try to arrange the present to make it look like there was no rip in the paper or that it had ripped itself naturally when it was set down in its hiding place by my Mother. I'm telling you, I was bad! And I was good at it.
It reminds me of the one Cosby episode where Bill Cosby sees that Claire has baked a cake and he proceeds to partake of said cake while little Olivia watches in amazement. He then tries to cover up the missing piece by adding paper towels and spreading the chocolate icing to make the cake look whole again. Here's the clip in all of its sneaky hilarity!
Speaking of sneakiness, there were some inhabitants of Gibeon in Joshua's day that were downright deceptive. They took sneaky to a new level. Joshua 9 talks about how the Gibeonites heard how Israel had taken down Jericho and Ai and decided (wisely, I think) that they did not want to be obliterated. So, the Gibeonites put on their old, patched up sandles and pretended to have come from a far away land. Israel didn't consult God and established peace with them and made a treaty to let them live (when they really should have killed them all). The Gibeonite's sneakiness saved their lives, and they eventually became woodcutters and water carriers for the people of Israel. Not high profile work, but better than being permanently wiped off the face of the earth!
Children/Communications Pastor
Describing me as a sneaky kid would be an understatement. Case in point: I knew all of my Mother's secret hiding places for birthday and Christmas presents, and there were many. I would wait till she was asleep and then slip out of my bed to either the crawl-space or the laundry room. With stealth-like precision I would tear a little of the wrapping paper away so that I could catch a glimpse of what treasure lay inside. Could it be a new Transformer? I would then try to arrange the present to make it look like there was no rip in the paper or that it had ripped itself naturally when it was set down in its hiding place by my Mother. I'm telling you, I was bad! And I was good at it.
It reminds me of the one Cosby episode where Bill Cosby sees that Claire has baked a cake and he proceeds to partake of said cake while little Olivia watches in amazement. He then tries to cover up the missing piece by adding paper towels and spreading the chocolate icing to make the cake look whole again. Here's the clip in all of its sneaky hilarity!
Speaking of sneakiness, there were some inhabitants of Gibeon in Joshua's day that were downright deceptive. They took sneaky to a new level. Joshua 9 talks about how the Gibeonites heard how Israel had taken down Jericho and Ai and decided (wisely, I think) that they did not want to be obliterated. So, the Gibeonites put on their old, patched up sandles and pretended to have come from a far away land. Israel didn't consult God and established peace with them and made a treaty to let them live (when they really should have killed them all). The Gibeonite's sneakiness saved their lives, and they eventually became woodcutters and water carriers for the people of Israel. Not high profile work, but better than being permanently wiped off the face of the earth!
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