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Archive for April, 2009

Christmas – the year I was 14.  My brother and I both received a rectangular package that year.  We tore into them and found that we were the proud owners of Daisy 880 BB/Pellet guns.  This model would shoot either BB’s or .177 caliber pellets.  BB’s as a repeater and pellets single loaded.  They were duly packed up and included in our luggage upon the family’s return to Brazil, along with a generous supply of BB’s and a few pellets.  Back in Brazil we found that the national brands of pellets were as close to useless as one could imagine.  They were simple cup shaped pellets with skirts reminiscent of a gypsy queen – all ragged and uneven.  About the only use I found for them was to load four or five in the barrel at once and proceed to shoot them as a shotgun.    10 pumps and they’d give a satisfying THUMP on the side of stray mongrels without breaking the skin.  But I digress. Read the rest of this entry »

⁴ Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:4-5

²³When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. I Peter 2:23-25

Today a carnal gospel is being preached around the world.  Time after time I hear people declaring that God wants us to be prospered in that which is disappearing, that He wants us to be rich in that which will be destroyed.  Today, Saturday of “Holy Week” here in Colombia, we are awaiting the celebration of Christ’s resurrection which we will have tomorrow.  As we transition from remembering how He died and was buried to celebrating His return to life we have time to reflect on the simple question: “Why?” Read the rest of this entry »