andrew dodson

I posted a baseball roundup a while ago, but I wanted to give special mention, again, to the UK baseball team.

They are enjoying one of their best seasons in their history, currently ranked as high as #7 in some polls. With a 37-11 record, they are three wins away from their season record (40). To go with this success, they are also sitting on top of the historically strong SEC.

Go Cats!

As my mother would confirm, as a child, I was a HUGE fan of cereal. Day. Night. Whenever. I loved cereal.

As I’ve grown up (I use that term loosely), I still like cereal, but I don’t quite eat it as much as I used to. Except for the last few days.

Eggo cereal is TREMENDOUS! I can’t get enough of it. Mr. Breakfast agrees. How in the world they get syrup taste into a small bite-sized waffle, I’ll never know.

Actually, maybe I’m going a little overboard with it, but it’s some good cereal. I finished the box in just under three days. Pretty good considering the other cereals in my kitchen have been there for a good two weeks or more.

If you have some time to kill, PLEASE check out this story. You will laugh. Maybe a lot, like me. It’s very funny.
Mission: Best Buy

In my quest to settle on a favorite Bible translation (paraphrase?), I believe I’ve eliminated the New Living Translation.

Last night, Rick’s Ephesians bible study use a passage that included the word “grace” - except for my NLT. In its place was the phrase “God’s special favor.” This got my attention.

Let’s think about this…

Grace is perhaps THE MOST IMPORTANT part of Christianity. Without God’s grace, we’re back to trying to be “good enough” by keeping the law. Without God’s grace, Jesus doesn’t have to come to earth and die on a cross. I hope Christian readers can wrap their heads around this concept, if they haven’t already. If you don’t understand the impact of God’s grace on your life as a Christian, you don’t understand your salvation.

Back to the matter at hand…

I checked my NLT concordance and found only six instances of the word grace. Another word substitution included “kindness.” This astonished me. Why in the world would the editors of the NLT decide to use other words for one of the most important terms of Christianity? Other translations (and paraphrases) like the ESV, NKJV, and NIV have 20-40 instances of the word “grace.”

Up to this point, I was fan of the NLT for new believers. It’s easy to read (no “thee” and “thou” and all that jazz). It’s easy to understand. After this, though, I can’t say I’m supportive of new believers using the NLT.

As mentioned earlier, every believer needs to know the impact of God’s grace. When words like “special favor” and “kindness” are used, it’s easy to skip over them and not understand the meaning of that passage. It dumbs down the context of the message.

If you’re a NLT-user, take this for what it’s worth to you. I’ve narrowed my choices down to the ESV, NIV and NKJV.

As of this past Monday, I’ve worked at CLS for two years.

As if printing over 10,000 shirts wasn’t enough, several of the employees of CLS took Friday afternoon off to attend the Rolex Three-Day Event at the Kentucky Horse Park. I was fortunate enough to have Lori tag along (she earned a free trip for spending a Saturday helping us). Actually, she was far more excited than me. Being a former equestrian-type, she had dreamed of being a part of the Rolex.

We couldn’t have had a more beautiful day. Mid-70s, hardly a cloud in the sky, plenty of sun. Lori walked me all over the park (I’m not complaining - I told her she could call the shots), so I was pretty worn out at the end of the day. All-in-all, a great way to end the work week (thanks Dwayne!).

Plenty of pictures were taken, so I’ll post ‘em soon…

I spent a good deal of time today listening to Derek Webb while I worked. For those that don’t know, he’s a former member of Caedmon’s Call. For those that don’t know CC, they’re a well-known Christian band (no links provided because I’m too lazy to provide them, right now. If you’re curious, use Google).

What intrigues me about Derek Webb is the same thing that intrigues me about John Piper. They’re unashamed to speak the truth. They’re not afraid to make you feel uneasy about your spirituality. Here’s a sample from one of his more well-known songs:

they’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
they’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
like anyone on earth is living right
and isn’t that why Jesus died
not to make us think we’re right

when love, love, love
is what we should be known for
love, love, love
it’s the how and it’s the why
we live and breathe and die

In another song, speaking of modern churches, he says:

take out the sign, forget the meal
we’ve got a gym and a farris wheel
i swear it’s just like the country club down the block

There’s plenty of other examples, including some that might offend most Christians. I’m guilty of a lot of what he sings about, but it’s refreshing to hear. It’s good to get a wake up call through a song and not a sermon. We tend to not expect that from Christian music today.

Thanks to my landlord, I have quite a bit more daylight shining into my apartment.  Up to this point, all of my windows were covered with mid-1900’s awnings that blacked out my apartment.  During broad daylight, I would have to turn on every lamp in my apartment.  Now, it’s rather nice to get home after work, or wake up on the weekend and not have to turn on a lamp until it actually starts getting dark.  I’m sure his electric bill appreciates the change too!

Yesterday, during a great service at The Point, Rick challenged us to “Prepare for Amazing Things.”  One way in which he suggested to do this is by fasting.  I’ve never fasted before, so I’m hesitant to do it with food.  Basically, he explained that it could be anything that keeps us from spending time with God - through prayer, reading the Bible, etc.

I’ve decided to not watch TV during the month of May.  While television isn’t an extremely big part of my life, it does keep me from being productive in all areas of my life.  I’m guilty of turning on the TV in the background.  What may take 30 minutes to do ends up taking an hour because I keep stopping to catch a minute or two of what’s on.  That’s 30 minutes I could’ve spent with God.

Here goes…