Meet Danny D. – our crazy cocker spaniel. Danny D. has been a part of our household since he was a puppy. I brought him home as a surprise for my wife while I was away at a Doctor of Ministry residency. He is a high-spirited, energetic, goofy, affectionate furball of fun. When I picked him out of the litter back in 2002, his tail was wagging faster than a jackhammer, and he wouldn’t stop licking my hand. Six years later his tail is still wagging, and he hasn’t stopped licking. We sometimes call him “the tongue with fur.”

On Tuesday Danny escaped from our backyard. Old man winter had worn down one of the pickets in the fence. Danny found the opening and made good his escape. He was not wearing his collar, and so he had no identification. He has escaped a couple times before but always came back. This time, however, the afternoon wore on, and he did not return. We walked the neighborhood for hours calling his name to no avail. Night came, and Danny had still not returned. We have three boys in the house who love Danny D. to pieces. Needless to say, we all went to bed very sad and concerned.

There were only three reasons we could think Danny hadn’t returned. Either he was lost and couldn’t find his way back, he was hurt and couldn’t come back, or someone had picked him up. I called animal control in the morning as soon as they opened. They had not received any reports of a missing dog. Thankfully, they also had no reports of a dog being hit by a car overnight.

I took the morning off from work and made up 250 “Have you seen our dog?” flyers. I walked around the surrounding neighborhoods and left a flyer in every door. It was cold, wet and raining. Meanwhile, my wife posted a flyer at the local Stop ‘N Shop. I came home for lunch and then headed back to work. Still no word on Danny D.

About 3:00 in the afternoon I finally got a call. The woman on the other end said she had our dog and that he was safe. I asked her where he was, and she said, “Chicopee.” I was flabbergasted. Chicopee is twelve miles away from our home. It is on the other side of the Connecticut River and on the other side of Route I-91, a major highway. How in the world could Danny be in Chicopee?

She explained that she and her friend saw Danny running around a main road and stopped, concerned that he might get hit. They called him over, “Here boy!” and Danny, ever the friendly dog, came bounding over and jumped right into their car. They looked for identification but couldn’t find any.

As it turns out, Danny was not even a thousand feet from our doorstep, but they had no way of knowing whether he was close to home or wandering far away. Rather than put him back out on the street, they very kindly brought him home to Chicopee and took care of him for the night. The next day they checked the bulletin board at the local Stop ‘N Shop to see if someone had left any information. Sure enough, they saw our flyer there and called me on my cell.

I immediately drove to Chicopee to pick up Danny D. I thanked them so much for taking care of Danny and also for contacting us. A dishonest person might have kept the dog for themselves. She explained that she had just lost a dog of fifteen years the month before, and she couldn’t imagine not getting the dog back to his rightful owner.

Danny D. and I hopped into the van and drove back home where we had a joyful reunion with the rest of the family. In the meantime, I patched up the hole in the fence and put his collar back on. One adventure at a time is plenty for me – and hopefully for Danny D. as well!

Click here for the follow-up post: Parable of the Prodigal Puppy

Look out Google Sky. Here comes The WorldWide Telescope. Here is the description from the WorldWide Telescope home page:

The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground and space telescopes in the world for a seamless, guided exploration of the universe.

WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine™, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.

And here is the reaction from Dr. Roy Gould of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics:

“The WorldWide Telescope takes the best images from the greatest telescopes on Earth … and in space … and assembles them into a seamless, holistic view of the universe. This new resource will change the way we do astronomy … the way we teach astronomy … and, most importantly, I think it’s going to change the way we see ourselves in the universe.”

The WorldWide Telescope will be available free of charge to anyone with a computer in spring of 2008. Coming soon to a computer screen near you!

Related posts:

• The Size of the Earth Compared to Other Objects in Space
• Our Place in God’s Creation
• 2007 Astronomy Pictures of the Year
• Google Earth Looks to the Sky
• Wikisky – Fun with Stars

Last month I blogged about my memories of the Great Blizzard of 1978. So I thought it would be fun to make a list of the various severe weather and seismic events that I have personally experienced. I have been through blizzards, earthquakes, hurricanes and tropical storms, but no tornados (yet?). Here are the five main events I have experienced so far in my life.

• Blizzard of 1969 (February 22-28, 1969) — This one has also been called “the 100-hour storm.” I was only 6 years old at the time, so I don’t remember much about it. I was living in Wenham, Massachusetts. I remember it seemed to snow forever, and the snow was piled up sooooo high on either side of the driveway. The history books say it was about 32 inches of snow.
• Blizzard of 1978 (February 5-8, 1978) — I was 15 years old, still living in Wenham. This blizzard dropped 55 inches of snow in our area over a period of three days. No cars were allowed on the roads for a whole week. And of course that meant no school for a week either!
• Whittier Narrows Earthquake (October 1, 1987) — I was living in Burbank, California serving as youth pastor by day and working as a recording engineer by night. (And attending seminary somewhere in between!) On the day of the earthquake I had been working in the studio all night and was trying to finish off a mix when the quake suddenly hit at 7:42 a.m. It felt like a train came barreling right through the middle of the studio. The quake was only 5.9 magnitude on the Richter scale, but it was one of the most terrifying things I ever experienced. Years later I would still jump if a heavy truck drove by causing the house to shake for just a second.
• The Perfect Storm (October 27 – November 1, 1991) — Yes, this is the storm that was featured in the book and movie by the same name. We were living in Beverly, MA at the time. My wife, Rose, had just given birth to our first child the month before. To be honest, I don’t remember much about the storm. I think we were too distracted with a newborn in the house. I remember walking around the neighborhood afterwards and noticing some large trees uprooted, but that was about it. Years later I would read the book, The Perfect Storm, without realizing at first that I had actually been in it!
• Hurricane Andrew (August 24, 1992) — This was the big one. We had recently moved to Homestead, Florida, the town where my wife grew up. Our firstborn son was now eleven months old. The storm hit early on a Monday morning, the day I was scheduled to begin teaching Bible at a Christian School. Andrew ranked right up there with the earthquake on the terrifying scale. After the storm passed, it took us three days just to chainsaw our way out of the driveway. It was one month before classes began at the school, and two months before we got our electricity back. You can read my wife’s account of the storm here.

How about you? Do you have any severe weather or earthquake stories to share?

Related posts:

• Blizzard of 1978 – 30 Year Anniversary
• Remembering Hurricane Andrew
• 10 Worst Disasters of the Century

Discerning Reader now has a new page where they will list upcoming Christian book release dates. This looks like a great resource for Christian book lovers to see what’s up around the corner in the Christian publishing world. Here is the link: Christian Book Release Dates

Justin Taylor shares about Martin Luther and his marriage in the article: Love and Marriage: Luther Style. Read about Luther’s earlier bachelor life and how he helped his future wife, Katie, escape from a convent in a fish barrel. Find out 20-year-old Katie’s response when Luther tried to set her up with a 60-year-old teacher. Learn about the shortest engagement on record: proposed to and married on the same day! (June 13, 1523) Consider the following four lessons Justin shares drawn from the Luthers’ legacy of love and marriage:

1. Martin and Katie didn’t put their hope in marriage; they put their hope in God.
2. Martin and Katie didn’t marry each other because they were infatuated with each other; instead they grew to love each other because they were married.
3. Martin and Katie viewed marriage as a school for growing in godliness.
4. Martin and Katie enjoyed the God-given gifts of life and marriage unto the glory of God.

It’s a fun article. Be sure to read the whole thing.

Ben Witherington has posted a response to Early Doherty’s book, The Jesus Puzzle: Challenging the Existence of an Historical Jesus. Darrell Bock also worked through a lengthy set of responses last fall.

• Click here for Ben Witherington’s response.
• Click here for a round-up of links to Darrell Bock’s responses.

Check out the new behind the scenes video for the upcoming movie: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Behind the Scenes: “Prince Caspian: Return to Narnia”
(Video length: 2:46)

Countdown to Caspian:

Click here for more Narnia and Caspian related posts.
Click here for Narnia sermon series.

HT: NarniaWeb

Palm Sunday is next week. Last year for Palm Sunday I preached a narrative sermon re-telling the events of Palm Sunday from the donkey’s perspective. Click here to read the sermon:  Straight from the Donkey’s Mouth.

Yesterday’s message in the The Road to Jerusalem series was called Jerusalem: The End of the Road or Just the Beginning? The message was taken from the Parable of the Ten Minas found in Luke 19:11-27.

This parable is the last recorded teaching of Jesus before he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Jesus told it “because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.” (Luke 19:11) The disciples thought that Jerusalem was the end of the road for them. Jesus now tells them it is just the beginning. He has work for them to do. We looked at the main characters in the parable and who they represent, and then drew the following five lessons from the parable:

1. Christ will return as King over all

Christ himself will return. He will not send some representative in his place. He will not come just as a spiritual presence in the world. His return is different from his resurrection, and it is different from the giving of the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches the visible, personal return of Jesus Christ.

2. When Christ returns there will be an accounting

God shares his resources with us; he gives us gifts, and he expects us to use them for his glory. He gives you your life and tells you: “Put this to work until I come back.” The disciples thought that Jerusalem was the end of the road, but it was really just the beginning. When we walk with Christ to the cross, and die to ourselves there, it is only the beginning, for then we are finally set free to live a life of service for him. Then we are finally able to produce good works through his Spirit that will have lasting value.

3. The greater your faithfulness to Christ, the greater your reward

There are many passages in Scripture which teach that there will be rewards in heaven. So what will these rewards be? The greatest reward will just be the satisfaction of seeing Christ glorified through our lives, seeing people who have come to salvation, people who were helped along the way, a life lived to the glory of God.

God’s rewards far exceed any service we can possibly give to him, especially when you consider that even the little we have to begin with is a gift from him! God’s rich rewards are just another example of God’s incredible grace. This should be a great encouragement to us. Be faithful to God in even the smallest of things, and he will reward you greatly.

4. A true believer will yield spiritual fruit in his or her life

The third servant produced no fruit. He tucked the mina away in a cloth and did nothing with it. It’s not that he used the mina wrongly or for wrong ends. He just didn’t use it at all! The master took his mina away from him and gave it to the one who had ten minas. Applying this spiritually, we could say: “Everyone who bears fruit for Christ will be given more, but the one who bears no fruit, even what he has will be taken away.” It’s a sobering thought. If you are not living for Christ, if you are not producing for him in this life, then all that you have, all that God has given you, all that you have worked for will be taken away. Nothing will last. Nothing will be saved.

5. Those who do not submit to Christ will be condemned

The subjects in the parable hated the king. There are many who do not follow Christ today who would claim that they do not hate him. But Jesus said there is no middle ground. You cannot serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.

Man’s rebellion against God is summed up in the subjects’ words: “We don’t want this man to be our king.” You cannot rebel against God without consequences. The parable ends on a somber note. After dealing with the three servants, the master speaks, “But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them — bring them here and kill them in front of me.” (Luke 19:27) Those who do not submit to Christ will be condemned on the last day. There will be no excuses, no defense, no escape.

CONCLUSION: Jesus and his disciples were at long last approaching Jerusalem. The disciples thought it would all end there. The kingdom of God was going to come with power, and they would enter into rest. Jesus told this parable to correct their thinking. Yes the Kingdom will come fully when Christ returns. In the meantime we are to work and to serve, to use the lives God has given us for gain, to allow Him to work through us to His glory. Jerusalem is not the end of the road — it is just the beginning.

Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Mark D. Roberts shares some public prayer “bloopers” in his post: When Your Prayer Doesn’t Come Out Quite Right.

The Encyclopedia of Life. “The Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world.”

Jason Robertson shares the greatest question ever asked by the devil. “The great question of the Book of Job is not ‘Why do the righteous suffer?’ but ‘Why do people serve God?’ Would you serve God if there were no blessings attached? What if God were to show you no mercy? What if there were no heaven? What if there were no hell? Would you still serve God? Why or why not? The Devil asked a legitimate question.”

Tim Challies interviews Tampa Bay Rays shortstop, Ben Zobrist. “I do sense an increased responsibility as a Christian athlete in our culture, because our culture exalts performance so much. There are many kids and adults alike who dream of being in our shoes. I believe as a Christian athlete, we are called to use that highly respected platform to deflect any praise to Whom it really belongs and to help people see beyond the glory of a man-made game or ballpark.”

Tia lists 15 ways churches can serve third culture kids. “Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are children who grow up in a culture other than their parents’. Their ‘home’ culture is the first culture; their ‘host’ culture, the second. And they live in the middle, the ‘third’ culture. TCKs include children of missionaries or other international workers. They face unique struggles in their lives of transition. It’s our privilege as the body of Christ to provide care for them as they join with their parents in God’s call on their lives to be overseas.”

Gene Edward Veith discusses the neglected doctrine of vocation. “The doctrine of vocation is the theology of the Christian life. It solves the much-vexed problems of the relationship between faith and works, Christ and culture, how Christians are to live in the world. Less theoretically, vocation is the key to strong marriages and successful parenting. It contains the Christian perspective on politics and government. It shows the value, as well as the limits, of the secular world. And it shows Christians the meaning of their lives.” (HT: On Earth as it is in Heaven)

Jim Elliff encourages the church towards a more spontaneous and genuine evangelism. “Nothing is more discouraging than evangelism. The mere mention of the word strikes fear in most people. If it is my goal when speaking in a church to make all my listeners uncomfortable and convicted, all I have to do is say, ‘evangelize!,’ and the guilt quotient rises as fast as the heads drop. Beads of sweat appear on the pastor’s brow. It is the great undone command, and none of us like to be reminded of it. In my view, much of our fear comes because we’ve made evangelism too difficult and confusing.” (HT: ekklesia)

Don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour tonight for Daylight Saving Time. I forgot one year and arrived late to church the next day – and I was one of the pastors! (Click here to read about it: “The Thief”)

The Blogiversary Bash continues!  Click here to sign the guest list.

One of the nice things about blogging is that it really is a cooperative effort. Bloggers regularly share information with their readers by linking to other blogs. So, in keeping with the whole “Let’s celebrate the first year of the blog” theme, here are some of the sites that have been kind enough to link to me over the year. I invite you to look over the list and visit some of these sites. (I hope I got everyone. If you linked to me and I left you out, please let me know, and I will be glad to add you to the list.)

168 hours
33:6:8
3Dsound
4Simpsons Blog – Eternity Matters
Ancient Hebrew Poetry
Between Two Worlds
Blog Contests on the Net
Blogging Expertise
Bob Krumm
Bradley Wright’s Weblog
Challies.com
Christians in Cinema
Contest Beat
CROSS-eyed
Dead Theologians
Dekodet
Desiring God
Digg
Don Surber
Eclexia
Engage the Culture!
Eric’s Blog
Every Square Inch
Faith Church Blog
Families-R-First.com
Gloria Filiorum Patres
Good Brownie
Gospel Prism
Hackman’s Musings
Hope It Is
In all things…God’s glory
Jo’s Boys
JollyBlogger
Journey in Intercession
KenPierpont.com
Knightopia.com
Kummeropolis
Laura Williams’ Musings
Like a Tree Planted
Mike’s Noise
Monday Morning Insight
Mutant News Annex
My Blog Contest
Neatorama
Not Conformed Thoughts
Notes from the Trail
Of Preference and Principle
OpenBible.info
Pastor Steve Weaver’s Blog
Photographic Memory
Ponder This
Practicing Theology
Preach the Word
Provocative Church
Purgatorio
Reformed Chicks Blabbing
Reformed Faith: Salsa Style
S Anand
Semper Reformanda
SF Signal – A Science Fiction Blog
Smart Christian
Steadfast & Immovable
Submit Your Contest
Targuman
Thinking Out Loud
Wide Margins

More Blogiversary-related posts:

• 1-Year Blogiversary Bash!
• One Year Ago on the Blog
• First Year Blog Stats