Doug Van Pelt

The Great Exodus.39

Is Sam Phillips' album, Martinis & Bikinis, her best, or what? I think I'm skipping a great concert tonight, by the way. It's Norma Jean, The Showdown, Haste The Day, Children 18:3, and MyChildren MyBride. It's a super-killer lineup. I have to go, but I just got back from an 8-day trip and just wanna chill. If it was in Austin, I might feel the same way after a long day back at the office, but I'd no doubt go. Adding on 90 minutes each way to get to San Antonio and back...makes me think I'll skip it. I saw all of those bands at least once this summer. Levi has lost all the respect he had for me.

In Exodus 39, we read more about the priestly garments. It's amazing the care that went into these garments. I wonder if they were made once and never replaced ... or if new ones were made over time. I wonder if it got smelly or ragged as the years went by. They were skillfully-made garments, that is for sure. It's neat to see that the breastpiece had 12 stones on it -- four rows of three stones each. Ruby, topaz, beryl, turquise, sapphire, amerald, jacinth, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, onyx, and a jasper. Each were mounted in gold. Each stone represented one of the 12 sons (or tribes) of Israel. I wonder how well all those tribes got along. Did they compete against each other? "Who's going to get to such and such city first?" Or, I wonder if they played games like soccer or something.

Moses inspected the garments and, when he saw they were made according to what the Lord had instructed, he blessed them. I wonder if all of this came down to one person hearing the Lord (like Moses), or if several people heard an audible voice...? I bet it was one guy, and everyone else trusted that he indeed had heard from the Lord. If so, that's not too unlike today, where each one of us has the ability to hear the Lord and talk to Him as a friend. Sometimes I wish I heard an audible voice, but the times I "hear" God talking to me, like a thought in my head, it's almost hard to doubt that it's God.

[The ears of a psychologist just perked up somewhere]

Hearing God has got to sound crazy to someone that hasn't had the experience. If fascist atheists ever take over the power structures of our culture, I'll wish I hadn't typed these words. I'd hate to get arrested for believing something. I'm glad that most people in the world are turned off by the concept of "thought police."

Hardcore Horror

Okay, so I'm on vacation and I get a link to a news story and there it is... A picture of a friend of mine staring at me wearing his orange prison coveralls. It's really just a head and shoulder shot, but it reaks of a prison "booking" photo. He doesn't look happy. He looks healthy and in good shape; which, for not seeing this old friend for several years, was a good sight. But the news was gnarly and quite horrific...at least in the "this is my friend and he's in big trouble" kind of horror. It's not like he murdered seventeen teenagers at a summer camp in the woods or anything, but it's a sex crime and judging by the accusations in the article, he's in big trouble.

It's kinda weird how sometimes news like this is reported with little to no regard for this person's privacy, rights, or family members' feelings. But the thinking is (I guess): 'When you abuse and deny the rights of others and violate them, then you no longer deserve any rights.' There is a point there, and perhaps public shaming is effective as a deterent to certain crimes... I guess the article just seemed to cross the line and get too graphic.

Knowing my friend and his past and his flesh's ability to dive into wickedness, this doesn't surprise me that it could happen. That he was married and had a kid the last time I saw him and his life is now so drastically changed for the worse is a shock, but the depravity of man is nothing new or too shocking to believe.

One point in all of this, of course, is that you sometimes need to keep yourself from being shocked or at least showing it. For example, if someone comes to you to confess something, he or she might have picked you to trust their secret with because they're hoping you won't freak out on them and react in a foolish rush-to-judgment. So, if someone confesses something "ugly" or whatnot, it's good to be able to remain calm and remember that you're dealing with a human being ... and that love is more powerful than any sin.

Now, there is a context for harsh words and confrontation and all of "that," but a scenerio of confession and brokenness is probably not the harsh, yelling and confronting time and place. I like to think of God as being someOne Who never panics. Things may get gnarly and He might have yelled at Moses or in front of him, but I don't think He ever lost control and hit the panic button. I'm not saying stoicism is the best way. I'm just saying that not reacting out of knee-jerk emotion and/or fear is usually more harmful than helpful.

Now, back to my friend. Wow. This is the guy that fasted and prayed for me that Summer a long time ago. He actually wept over the condition of my soul. He cared about me and God kinda used him to help draw me back to Him. I was like a prodigal son that 'came home' to the Father, and this friend was like my guide. It's a trip that he's (apparently, judging by the accusations of the crimes he was busted for) not walking with Jesus and letting his love for God rule his life and everyday actions. It hurts to see a close friend harm themself ... and it's a disappointment to know of the joy of the Lord and to think that your friend is possibly rejecting this Person called Christ and/or His joy ... or somehow walking in a period where his heart is not close to God the Father and not being obedient to that trusted Guide/Savior/Heavenly Father.

When this happens to someone you know, it gives you pause. It also is a time where you realize you have no control over the person (like you did at any time anyway...) and that you have to "let go" and leave them in God's care. At this point, your prayers are like intercession. There's some cool principles in that word.

I like to think that if anyone is bent out of shape over another person's behavior, that if this bent person would bend their knees and use that twisted energy to pray for, call out to God for, and possibly even align your heart to the place where you'd almost ask God "to switch places" with 'em. I think that's an extreme concept and I'm not advocating actually telling God that kind of thing, but approaching that point with that kind of love is powerful.

It's ironic that a very memorable quote in this regards came to me from this friend who's now in trouble. He was my roommate in my college years for a time and I was getting on him about something. I was probably trying to be a caring but rebuking friend about some behavioral thing or something. He told me something so simple and profound, though. He said: "Why don't you be very quiet about my problem around me; and very LOUD about my problem with God?"

Wow. I want to live that kind of motto.

Random Friendly Tech Questions (or RFTQ's)

1. Does anyone ever travelled and used Outlook to receive (but not send) emails ... and seen 0 items in their outbox, but yet their Outlook S&R details show the program attempting to send 1 (or multiple) emails? When I see this, I suspect that my notebook has been compromised and some virus is using my computer to send emails out (probably using my address book, the dumb program) without my consent/knowledge/permission... That's kind of weird. And since the ISP I'm using isn't likely to like my smtp settings and thus not send anything in my outbox, so I keep my outbox empty (and use another web-based program, like gmail) to send emails.

2. Does anyone use Windows Vista and see their local hard drive fill up with many many gigs of information/space ... not know exactly why it's going from 9.9 gigs free to about 2 gigs free in a few days -- days that do not involve adding 7 gigs of info to the hard drive...?

3. Anyone use Vista and know how to get the explorer windows (showing hard drive content) to open up with the same view (like details) with the same tabs (like date modified, type, and size) each and every time? I'm tired of seeing my explorer show me "ratings" and "track #" and "artist" (and other such music-related file tabs)...?

How to pray for HM, things that frustrate us, or just complaining (maybe call it a "fine whine")

First of all, today we went to Universal Studios and it was a really fun place. My daughter and I went on the Simpson's Ride, which was a motion simulator based around a nefarious character that was out to kill Krusty and the Simpson's. It was a chair that seats about 8 to 10 people, which moves up an down on springs and hydraulics (I guess), but the movements are synchronized with the giant video screen you're seeing in front of you. It was about the most amazing ride I've ever been on. It was all virtual, but you really felt like you were tipping over near vertical, sideways twists, steep climbs and freefalls. It was awesome! It was so realistic that I got dizzy and motion sick. Wow.

I've ridden a simulated roller coaster ride in a Gatti's Pizzaland arcade before, but this was that times 1,000. Total sensory stimulation. Totally rad.

Secondly, back to the HM website... It seems that some spam robots have re-discovered our site in a big way. I'm having to "close" the comment field within a week of posting a new article or post, so if you want to leave a comment, you should leave it early on after it's posted.

My long-term plans for this are kinda complicated. We use a very old version of Movable Type. Upgrading to the latest version of Movable Type would alleviate a lot of these problems, because cocmmenters would have to type in the letters randomly displayed visually, which keeps robots out. The problem with this is the newer versions of Movable Type require an upgrade to the perl language that the site uses. Our first attempt to upgrade this perl language caused massive failures on the site and we scrambled to fix it and revert to the older version. So, the long-term solution involves re-building the entire site from scratch on another server (or another virtual location on our server) and then switching over once we have transferred over all the content. You have to admit, we have a lot of archived content, so that's a large task.

So, that's something that frustrates us that you could pray about for us. We need wisdom. We also have a terrible next to awful ISP situation at our office out in the country in Taylor, TX. It's pathetic. To solve it I might have to get a 50 foot pole/antenna installed at the HM Ranch. It costs a lot, plus it's kind of a huge thing, with guide wires going in three directions and basically taking over a backyard. A few months into the new fast internet should make me happy to pull that trigger/make that commitment, but from this side of the situation, it's like, 'Oh man. I wish there was a better option.'

We are planning on hitting the beach in San Clemente tomorrow. I've never been to that beach, so I'm looking forward to that (as well as scoring a San Diego Chargers "Pocket Pro" micro helmet. Sometimes. it's the little things...)

Beverly Hills Chihuaha

I couldn't help it ... it ran out in front of us, whump, whump, whimper, gasp.

Waking up in Hollywood, getting dressed for an all-day trip to Universal Studios. We'll learn how movies and tv shows are made. I haven't been to this place since my sophomore year in high school, when our English class went there on a field trip. It should be even funner these days.