So, I was at a car dealership on Friday (my check engine light kept coming on and you have to get your car in Texas inspected once a year and they won't even inspect it if this light is coming on) and I noticed this large truck that announced its mobile shredding service. I laughed about this when talking to one of the guys in the service department. He said that they had to attend this one seminar about once a year to learn all about the latest privacy laws and how to stay out of trouble. I thought it was so funny that a business like "mobile shredding" would even be around -- much less make money and be a necessity for some. "We'll bring our giant shredder to you!"
I guess a car dealer has so much private information on customers that they can't just buy a few shredders at Office Depot and be done with it. On the way home, it dawned on me how much companies all over spend on people's thievery and general sin nature bad choices. It's just crazy that so much money and effort is spent just trying to prevent sneaky people from stealing and ripping other people off. If I had to spend hard-earned HM money on crap like that, I would be pretty frustrated and angry.
While this kind of frustration could lead to self-righteous snobbery (which is sin), it is a shame that we have to be careful in so many ways not to be taken advantage of. It's nice when small children can live in confidence inside a "safety zone" that keeps them away from malicious behavior. You hate when that "bubble" is broken and you have to explain to them that there are predators/wolves/"bad people" out there that hurt innocent people.
I've heard that the "barbershop quartet" has origins from the Welsh revivals, where policemen had time on their hands due to many changed lives due to revival and God's Spirit moving upon people and crime being reduced. That would be interesting to investigate.
I had lunch with a friend (we'll call him "Mike" to protect his identity) on Friday and he brought up how he noticed that some churches focus on the identity of believers in Christ as "saints," while other churches seemed to narrow to an extreme focus on an identity as "sinner."
It brings up some interesting topics, like "What happens at the moment of conversion? What does it mean to be a 'new creation?' Does one's heart change at conversion (that moment of being forgiven of sin by God by accepting/adopting/appropriating/receiving the sacrificial/substitutionary death of Jesus in our place)?"
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at June 4, 2007 12:14 AM