There can be no doubt that the effort to clean up the air quality in Southern California since the 1960s has resulted in much cleaner air. One needs only visit one of the third world megacities, such as Manila, where the air not only is thick like smoke but stinks like…well, like the San Gabriel Valley in the 1960s! And now we have the crashing success of the “cash for clunkers” program. This will clean up the air more, if only because the new cars will be going further (10 miles per gallon) on the same amount of gas. 
I heard of a car dealer in Golden, Co. who took in a 1985 Maserati with 18,000 miles in the program. The man was happy to get $3500 for his car that was pristine wood and leather interior but frustrated him because “it didn’t run quite right.” Trading in a clunker for credit towards a brand new car, of course, means that one now has to lay out a large amount of money to get a credit which is just a portion of the outlay. What is it that would make us jump at cash-for-clunkers but prevents us from trading in our bad habits and broken down lifestyles when the real cost to us is negligible in comparison to the benefits of new life.
The Zoe Blog
- August 14th, 2009 by Pastor John
- October 4th, 2008 by Pastor John
- September 6th, 2008 by Pastor John
- July 24th, 2008 by Pastor John
- March 5th, 2008 by Pastor John
As my two younger sons, Marke and Matt, return from three weeks in youth hostels in London, Paris, Barcelona, Nice, Venice, Rome, and other cities along the way, I’m contemplating what to tell them about the last three weeks and how America is an ever-so-slightly different country than when they left. It wasn’t an attack or a natural catastrophe but we were shaken by an unexpected reality check of the most subtle variety.
Will it really effect their lives that the two largest mortgage companies in America were purchased by the Government? Is it going to matter much that a bank was allowed to fail and disolve in bankruptcy (Lehman Bros). And what have they heard while in Europe about their own bank WaMu and how it was seized by the Feds? Nor were they here when the largest single-day loss of wealth in the world’s history occurred ($1.2 trillion). What was really lost over the last three weeks?
Kathie and I had a great time pulling out our camping gear and going camping. It’s been a number of years for us since we’ve gone “dirt camping.” We were originally hoping that Marke and Matthew (my two younger sons - 25 and 22) could join us but as the date grew closer, they began to focus on their Europe trip (9/12-10/4) and getting school wrapped up. So….we decided to go anyway and it was great!
The prized sportfish Albacore show up off of Southern California waters almost every summer. But they are elusive and sometimes hard to catch. Many a casual fisherman has come back from an expensive trip disappointed or even empty handed. In fact, many boats come back disappointed as the fish move constantly and one day the catch is many and the next day the bite is shut off. My good friend Mark Fisher and I went out for two days on a trip planned since last December. The Lord really blessed our trip. Our boat caught 96 fish (20 fishermen) which was well above the dock average per boat. Mark and I had a fantastic time fishing and just taking it easy on God’s big ocean. My good friends Brad Meister and Ed Hanley went out at the same time on a different boat and they also did well. The Lord was very good to all of us. The fishing has shut down a bit now, with many boats not catching even 1 Albacore per rod. But our freezers are packed with fillets for the summer and winter and our hearts are blessed to have caught the highly prized fish.
This year’s Resurgence conference in Seattle (2/25-2/27) was a truly inspiring event. Dave Woods, good friend Jess, and I all agreed that it seemed to address most of the important issues of our day that are somewhat controversial within ministry. Mark Driscoll, the founding Pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, and John Piper, Pastor, Writer, and Theologian, were the main speakers.
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Featured Media
January 22
Life Without Shame
John 4:1-18
January 15
Beautiful Trees
Genesis 3 (Dave Woods)
January 08
He Must Increase, I Must Decrease
John 3:22-36
January 01
The Way Back Through Prayer
Ps 50:15 Mt 2:12 Co 4:2-4
December 18
Nunc Dimittis
Micah 5; Lk 2:25-32; Ep 1:18-23
December 11
21st Century Christmas Star
Ps.8; Lk 2; Heb 2
December 04
Getting a Handel on Christmas
Matt 1:17-25; Col 1:15-22; 2:8-10