The Caffeinated Christian

Dear doll packaging guy, Did you learn your trade from Houdini? Were you formerly trained by the Department of Homeland Security to restrain terrorists at Guantanamo Bay? Is that how you learned to put Elmo under wraps, by dealing with terrorists? In whatever forum you developed your craft I extend to you kudos because you are the best. Since the birth of my girls I have continually looked forward to helping the doll of choice escape from your shackles. Following a late night of “assembly required” and an early morning awakening by an excited child nothing makes me want to cuss Santa like unwinding one of your death traps. Must every Sesame Street character be removed from its carton with a Phillips head screwdriver? Is it necessary to bind “Baby May I” with a quarter mile of industrial strength metal ribbon? On the side of the box, please print clearly the tools that will be required to unwrap your victim. “Jaws of life and double A batteries” not included. Not that I dou

The Friday after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday.” What an ominous name. They say the name is due to the fact that on this day retailers move from profit loss (red) to profit gain (black). While this may be true, I believe the origins of the name are more gothic in nature, more evil and representative of something far more sinister. Black Friday is retail Hell, a day choreographed by demons. I am sure of it. On Black Friday, 11/28/2008 I entered the black soul of retail. My wife took me to Wal-Mart in Fort Oglethorpe, GA at 4:30 a.m. Maybe it is called Black Friday because it is indeed very, very dark at 4:30 a.m. But we were there by invitation, summonsed like sheep to the slaughter by a 12 pound edition of the Chattanooga Times Free Press the day before. On most days the newspaper weighs about an ounce and a half, but on Thanksgiving Day, a holy, godly day, the devil sends out invitations to death. Glossy, full color, captivating sales booklets all of them nothing but

I know I have been posting a lot of academic/Bible study type stuff lately, but honestly that is what I am most immersed in right now. More specifically I am immersed in Romans. By the end of the week I should post an article about my “Black Friday” experience. Until then I have been trying to offer some things for those of you who are really trying to absorb Romans right now. This Sunday I will be preaching Romans 8:12-25. Back in the summer I wrote a paper for a seminary class on this passage. For those who care to read it, here is the link . For those of you who have a Turabian fetish please know the grader killed me on it. In rebellion to Turabian I have not corrected those mistakes! I desire to be a man who remains 1/64th of an inch off at all times. In any event Romans 8 is an incredible passage that describes the plight of the Spirit filled soul in the midst of a sinful world. It is a crescendo in the Biblical corpus. For those who were at RBC on November 23 I am sure you were