the tindog coffeehouse

A few weeks ago, I wrote about John Chapter 6, about how thousands of people had begun to follow Jesus, not because of who He was or what He had to offer them, but because all they saw was some guy who could heal their diseases and give them food.

Many of those people didn’t hang around for long.

Jesus told the crowd that instead of seeking another meal, which would just leave them hungry again later, they should choose the “bread of life” (v. 35).  He told them to eat His flesh and drink His blood, which would lead to eternal life (vv. 53-58).  Naturally, these cryptic commands only confused His followers, and almost all of them left.

I know how I would’ve felt to see everyone desert me.  I would’ve felt like a complete failure, worthless and rejected.  I would’ve wondered, “What did I do wrong?  How can I get them back?  Maybe give them some more food, heal some more people, do some awesome magic tricks?”  Because that’s our human nature.  We want to be loved, we want to be accepted, we want to be respected and adored.  And had I been Jesus, I would’ve done anything at that moment to keep those people from walking out on me.  Anything.

Thank God I’m not Jesus.

Verse 64 says that Jesus knew from the beginning who would stay and who would go, and it’s pretty obvious that these people were never in it for the long haul.  They didn’t care about who Jesus was.  They didn’t really care whether or not He was the prophesied Messiah, the Son of God, the One who would in a short time willingly give up His life for their sins.  No.  All they cared about was their own immediate needs and wants, and when the food ran out, when the going got tougher, when the cost of following Jesus became greater, they were out of there.

So my question to you is simple: Will you stay, or will you go?  If you’re already a Christian, you’ve already made the decision to give your life to Jesus Christ, and you’ve asked forgiveness for your sins and asked Him to be your Lord and Savior, will you continue to stick with Him, even when it’s tough and even when you don’t know where He’s leading you?

And if you’re not a Christian, if you’re wondering if this Jesus guy is who He says He is, will you keep seeking answers?  Or will you walk away because it just looks too hard?

As I read back over this passage, I wondered whatever happened to the people that left.  Did any of them ever return, or did they walk away from Jesus forever?  I’ll never know.  But I know that at least for me, I can choose to stay.

Previously:
In the beginning…
Who are you following?

Historian John Steele Gordon (author of the excellent An Empire of Wealth, which I’ve quoted from a couple of times) has a great op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, explaining the (flawed) Liberal mindset in American politics:

[T]he liberal paradigm divides the American body politic into sheep, wolves, and would-be shepherds. The shepherds must defeat the efforts of the wolves. …

Not only does the liberal paradigm not even come close to agreeing with the social and economic reality on the ground today, worse, it has largely congealed into a political religion, especially in the nearly 30 years since Ronald Reagan shifted the nation’s political center of gravity, just as FDR had done 48 years earlier. Since liberals care about the sheep, all who disagree with liberalism must not, making them morally inferior if not downright immoral. Thus the nastiness in American politics is largely on the left. Whatever you think of Sarah Palin, her treatment in the liberal press was ugliness personified. …

But in a world where a majority of Americans work at white-collar jobs, have high-school and college degrees, own their own homes, and hold financial securities in their own right, the so-called wolves are now a majority. If liberals don’t begin to take that fact into account in formulating policy, the Obama administration will not only be an unsuccessful liberal administration, it may well be the last liberal administration.

Previously:
Lucy Van Pelt, Liberal
The problem with fairness

The city of Arlington and Jerry Jones kicked a bunch of people out of their homes to build the $1.15 billion monument to ego known as Cowboys Stadium.  The city (with the approval of voters) also raised the sales tax a half percent to help pay for it.  So you’d think that Arlington high schools (particularly Lamar, whose students were those that lost their homes to Jerryworld) would be the first in line to play their football playoff games there.

Wrong.

At least initially, only bidistrict games between the 5-5A and 6-5A districts will be played there.  That includes schools such as Euless Trinity, Colleyville Heritage, Grapevine, and Southlake Carroll.  District 4-5A, which includes Arlington Lamar, Arlington Bowie, and Arlington High, is out of luck.  At least part of the reason, it seems, is because it’s too expensive.  (Naturally.)

As an alumnus of Lamar, this really ticks me off.  When I was in high school, we went to the playoffs every year, playing ten games at the old Texas Stadium over the course of the three years I was there.  I remember being in the marching band and marching out of the tunnel for the first time into what was the biggest stadium I had ever been in (which of course is nothing compared to the monstrosity that replaced it).  I remember catching a glimpse of Troy Aikman on the sidelines one game and feeling honored to stand where the heroes of my childhood once played and coached:  Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, Drew Pearson, and of course Tom Landry.

The current generation of Arlington students should have the opportunity to make the same memories.  Instead, they’ll be on the outside looking in while their wealthier neighbors are given preference.

Honestly, I’ve never had much respect for Jerry Jones, but now I have even less.

Update, 11/10/09:
Well, it looks like I was totally wrong (although in all fairness the Dallas Morning News article was horribly misleading).  Arlington high schools will, in fact, be playing at Cowboys Stadium.  Arlington Martin and Arlington Bowie have games there on Thursday night, and Arlington and Arlington Lamar have games on Friday night.  Full schedule here, and UIL brackets can be downloaded here.

Go, Vikes!

John Hinderaker at PowerLine makes a great point about how under Nancy Pelosi’s health care bill (full 1,990-page PDF here), private health insurance is technically really no longer insurance:

Under the House bill private health insurance companies will still exist, but to what end? They will be legally prohibited from competing in any meaningful sense. They will be required to issue substantially the same coverages at substantially the same rates, changes in which must be justified to the government. They will be prohibited from underwriting insurance risks in any rational way: they must pay all bills resulting from preexisting conditions, and they will be prohibited from charging lower-risk customers lower rates.

As I wrote here, you can force insurance companies to “cover” preexisting conditions, but the resulting product is not insurance. You cannot insure against something that has already happened. It is merely a bill-paying mechanism. …

Under the House bill, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that health insurance companies are no longer in the insurance business. They can’t rate and underwrite risks, which is the essence of insurance. That’s illegal. They can’t decide to whom they will issue policies; that’s illegal, too. They can’t offer novel or innovative coverages; their coverages are dictated by law. To a limited extent they can make decisions on paying claims, but under the watchful eye of government regulators. Meaningful competition among insurance companies will be, in effect, illegal.

I’m not saying insurance reforms aren’t needed, but regulating any industry to this extent simply can’t be good.

It was 40 years ago yesterday, on October 29, 1969, that the first message was sent across ARPANET (which would evolve into today’s modern Internet).  The message? “LO”.  Yeah, it was supposed to be “LOGIN”, but the thing crashed after the “O”.

And thus was the born the inspiration for AT&T’s wireless network.  The End.

Previously:
Vanity Fair’s history of the Internet

…was including Internet Explorer 8 with it.

Hear me out.

Windows 7 has gotten a lot of praise for its improvements over Vista, both under-the-hood changes to the core OS as well as more visible changes such as a revamped taskbar and the introduction of features like Jump Lists and Libraries.  It’s not a major upgrade of Vista and certainly not perfect, but most of my complaints are minor.  For example, why is there still so much fluff (desktop gadgets, Wordpad, Sticky Notes, etc.)?  Why all the boring and/or confusing “Microsoft-isms” (Home Groups, User Account Control, Windows Live Essentials, Windows Easy Transfer, BitLocker, Aero Peek, Aero Shake)?  And why is Steve Ballmer still around?

But again, with the possible exception of the Ballmer question, those are minor annoyances.  Where I think Microsoft really missed a huge opportunity was in not killing off Internet Explorer.  I mean, let’s face it, IE is a disaster.  Sure IE8 is better than previous versions, but it doesn’t even begin to compare to Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.  It’s slower, consumes a huge amount of memory when using multiple tabs, and miserably fails the industry-standard Acid3 test.

Microsoft needs to completely ditch IE and replace it with a brand new browser built to support web standards, not worry about backwards compatibility.  Maybe even build it with Webkit like Chrome and Safari.  It would go a long way in restoring the image of Microsoft and would show that they can effectively compete with Google and Apple.  They’ve made strides with Bing, now they need to follow it up with a modern, standards-compliant web browser.

To me, Windows 7 would’ve been the perfect showcase for such a browser.  Instead, Microsoft seems to be content with the status quo, and that’s a big disappointment.

Previously:
Internet Explorer 8: Faster but no Firefox
Microsoft: Internet Explorer 8 perfect for porn addicts
Windows 7 Beta 1: Initial thoughts
Windows 7 Beta 1: The other stuff

A new report claims that the $700,000,000,000 bailout rescue plan known as TARP may have saved the economy (debatable), but it also severely damaged the credibility of the federal government:

The mixed and blunt assessment by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general in charge of oversight for the bailout fund, appears in a quarterly report scheduled for release Wednesday. Barofsky said the Troubled Asset Relief Program has come at great cost to taxpayers, to the integrity of the financial system and to the public’s perception of the federal government.

“Despite the aspects of TARP that could reasonably be viewed as a substantial success,” he wrote, “Treasury’s actions in this regard have contributed to damage the credibility of the program and of the government itself, and the anger, cynicism and distrust created must be chalked up as one of the substantial, albeit unnecessary, costs of TARP.”

Of course, the report assumes that Americans had any faith in the government in the first place, which is questionable.

There’s a reason our currency says “In God We Trust”.

Previously:
‘Dude, where’s my $700 billion?’
TARP is the financial equivalent of the Vietnam War

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke thinks the U.S. should try to cut its budget deficits before Asia completely destroys us with its super economy-rebounding powers.

“As the global economy recovers and trade volumes rebound, however, global imbalances my reassert themselves,” Bernanke warned. For the United States’ part, “the most effective way” to boost national savings in this country “is by establishing a sustainable fiscal trajectory, anchored by a clear commitment to substantially reduce federal deficits over time,” Bernanke said. He didn’t suggest ways to do so.

Bernanke may not have any ideas for how to cut the deficit, but I have a few suggestions.  How ’bout no more bailouts for starters?  Maybe stop buying banks, auto companies, and insurance companies?  Also, we could stop paying people to trade in their old cars.  And — call me crazy! — maybe we should abandon plans for a massive, multi-trillion-dollar health care overhaul.

Just a few ideas off the top of my head.  You’re welcome.

Previously:
The real ‘death panel’? The federal budget

I don’t want the Father, I want a vending machine
I don’t want the Father, I want a vending machine
I know what I want if you know what I mean
I don’t want the Father, I want a vending machine

– Derek Webb, “The Spirit Vs. The Kickdrum”

A lot happens between Chapters 5 and 6 of the Gospel of John.  By the time we get to John 6:1, Jesus has attracted a huge following.  At least 5000, and that was likely just counting adult males.  Including women and children, that number could’ve been 10 or 15,000.

Jesus took the time to feed them all, and He didn’t just give them each a small ration of fish and bread.  They had so much food, they couldn’t eat all of it, leaving twelve basketfuls of leftovers.

But that wasn’t enough for them.

John 6:15 says they wanted to force Him to be their king, so He had no choice but to get away.  Eventually, they caught up with him, though, hungry and demanding more food.  Here they were in the presence of the Son of God, and all they could think about was themselves.

Sound familiar?

So who are you following?  And who’s following you?  How many Twitter followers do you have?  How many friends on Facebook?  How many people are subscribing to your blog?  And why are they following you?  Why are you following them?  And while we’re at it, why do you go to the church you go to?

These relationships you surround yourself with, these various communities and social networks, are they there just to serve your own needs, build up your own ego, make you somehow feel all warm and fuzzy?

Because that’s not what Jesus is about.

Yes, Jesus met His followers’ immediate needs by hosting an impromptu fish-fry.  But that’s not why He was there.  He was there to sacrifice Himself, die so that we could have something a lot better.

The crowd didn’t want that, though.  They only cared about what they could get from Him, not about what He had to offer.

Too often, I’m guilty of the same thing.  I go to church only to get something, not to be an integral part of the body of Christ.  I get excited when I have new Twitter followers or new blog readers.  I’m happy when it’s all about me, me, me.  As if I’m anyone important.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be active online or that it’s wrong to promote your blog or whatever.  But I have to remind myself of what’s really important.  It’s not about some numbers on a web page or how many brownie points I get for having perfect church attendance.  It’s about developing a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe and showing His love to a world that desperately needs it.

Previously:
In the beginning…
A little social network housecleaning

The Dallas Morning News would like you to know that 1100 jobs have either been saved or created because of federal stimulus money.  Hooray!  They would also like you to know that Texas lost 44,700 jobs in September.

Wait, wha?

Have we gained jobs or haven’t we?

See, this is why you should never let politicians do math.

Fort Myers, Florida, columnist and self-identified Lutheran Sam Cook has taken Gators quarterback Tim Tebow to task for openly displaying his Christian faith on and off the field:

Religion – except for the “Hail Mary” pass – has no place in sports.

In Tebow’s case, he should play football and forget about us sinners for 31/2 hours every Saturday.

Somehow, we’ll survive without him displaying a “John 3:16″ Bible verse under his eyes. We separate church and state. Why not church and sports?

Actually, I think we need more athletes like Tebow and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy and OU quarterback Sam Bradford: men and women who not only live out their faith off the field and out of the spotlight but who display it in the public eye as well.

Listen, I’m not a big Florida fan, and the Tebow hype is beyond ridiculous.  But greatly I admire him for standing up for what he believes, even if it’s not always the popular thing to do.

Previously:
What number are you?

Robert Mueller may run the FBI, but evidently Mrs. Mueller runs the house.  After the FBI Director nearly fell for a phishing scam, his wife banned him from banking online.

“Just a few clicks away from falling into a classic Internet phishing scam,” Mueller “barely caught himself in time” and admitted he “definitely should have known better.”

He said he changed his passwords and tried to pass the incident off to his wife as a “teachable moment,” but she was having none of it and told him, “It is our money. No more Internet banking for you!”

Keep in mind this is the head of the friggin’ FBI we’re talking about here.  Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the Bureau, does it?

No word on whether Mr. Mueller got to keep his MySpace page.