Filled with the Holy Spirit

This past Sunday, our church had a farewell party for DF and family. I had the honor of sharing a few words on be-half of the church. Just the day before, I got to spend precious time w/ Swan and his family! As I began writing the farewell to DF Saturday evening, it occurred to me to use the concepts learned from "How to Study the Bible" sessions: Observations/Context/Content/Conversation. As well, in the Hebrew Scriptures we saw many examples of chiastic structure, so I threw that in as well.

I opened with some observations, but then got to the chiastic part. Here's my outline of that section:

A = Blessed to have a wonderful founding pastor in Sonny.

B = Sonny concluded his ministry at Hope in 2005.

C = Anytime a pastor moves on it is hard on the ministry, and even harder at a personal level.

D = Loved Pastor Sonny and his family.

E = How could we find a pastor and his family that we’d love just as much?

F = 2005 outlook was rotating guest speakers- not ideal for the teaching ministry.

G = End of 2005, the Lord brought the answer: guy w/ a weird name with his loving wife, and amazing children.

F' = 2006/2007 outlook- 3x/month consistency through books of the OT, then the NT.

E' = How did we find a pastor and his family whom we love so very much?

D' = Love Dorman and his family.

C' = What joy to find our pastor, but, now, it is hard to part ways as God is re-directing.

B' = Dorman concludes his ministry this year, 2007. But it goes on…

A' = Blessed to have Dorman be our pastor.

As I reviewed my outline, it struck me how hard it is to remember where I am in the structure when actually speaking without glancing at my notes!
My central point is that it is the Lord that brings the pastor to His church.

Then I re-called the first sermon delivered by the apostle Peter in the book of Acts, Acts 2:14-36, which DF outlined* for us in his sermon. Peter's sermon is a 10 point chiastic w/ the tenth ('J') point repeated:

J = that He(Jesus) was not abandoned to Hades.
J' = nor did His flesh see corruption

So the main point of Peter's sermon is that Jesus' death on the cross was not final, but that he resurrected!

In my head, I knew Peter was filled with the Spirit but now I know it in my heart. Just a week before, Peter cowered in fear. Now, he not only spoke boldly, but spoke in an incredibly structured way to highlight the central point, and the sermon was on-the-fly: he had no notes, and no preparation! I wonder if it even occurred to Peter at that moment that his sermon was in chiastic form. Filled with the Holy Spirit, indeed!

References:
* Outline of Acts 2:14-36 is from Poet & Peasant and Through Peasant Eyes pg 65,66. Dr. Kenneth Bailey.

LOST Season 3 Finale

Update May 31: Season 3 will be coming out on Blu-Ray December 11! Woops, never mind!

**SPOILERS **

Best Moments (will re-order this to be chronological)

1. Charlie sacrifices himself: Emotional moment, I nearly cried! Also, the prophecy of his death was really handled well. We kept guessing to the very end when we finally realize that Des' prophecy will come true exactly as he said.
2. Flashforward! Wow. Love it. The producers have said all along that they know where the story is going and that they aren't making this up as they go. No better way to prove it, in the here and now, than to start showing us the end point. Or specifically, what's after the end point- after they get rescued.
3. Anything Ben says: Although these last few eps have shown cracks in his methods, we can never tell if he's lying or telling the truth. Most remarkably, he's been able to manipulate people by telling them the truth. Amazing.
4. Jack beats Ben to a pulp. Wow. Catharsis baby. That scene could've run a little longer.
5. Penelope: Totally didn't expect her to pop up on that transmission. LOST has trained us to never trust anything, so we never knew if Naomi was the real deal-fine. But Penelope just showing up was exciting. Also, she finds out that Desmond is alive on the island!
6. Hurley saves the day: Nice build-up to his heroism as no one wanted his help.
7. Juliet kisses Jack: SHOCKING!
8. Jack tells Kate "I love you": WOW WOW.
9. Beach Trap for the Others: Felt good our guys finally had the upper hand, if only for a fleeting moment.
10. Sawyer kills Tom: "That was for taking the kid off the raft." Wow. Not condoning what he did, but that moment really put us in the mind of Sawyer. Following, the look on Juliet's face spoke volumes. I think she fully realized what a fine line she is walking by betraying the Others, joining the Jack-camp, yet her true motivations are still in doubt. She must be thinking, "I could end up like Tom."
    
11. Jack tells Kate why he didn't kill Ben: Like Sawyer, this moment really let us into the mind of Jack. On one hand he's the leader and hero of the group, on the other we see how on the edge he is. *shudder*
12. Rousseau meets her daughter: Sweet tender moment.
13. Sayid uses his feet to break neck of an Other: b@d@55!
14. Rousseau, "This is my home now" and Ben, "What do you have to go back to?" both to Jack:

Big Questions
(In no particular order)

1. Who's in the coffin? When Jack is standing next to it, you can tell that it is a small coffin- it wouldn't fit someone his size; therefore is it a child? If we ignore the size, my guess is that Michael, who betrayed his friends, is in the coffin.
2. Who are these people on Naomi's freighter?
3. Does Jack actually see the flashforwards in his mind? Or is it just for the viewers? Likewise for the flashbacks, are the characters actually recalling their past?
4. Has Jack been pretending to cozy up to Juliet to get information out of her?
5. Who's "he" that Kate refers in the final scene?

Core 2 Duo Angels Inside

At the Stonestown Galleria this past Sunday, while G was doing some shopping, the boys and I did this:



Intel and Dell had a green screen setup in the middle of the mall. Not many people were doing it, but I thought this would be a nice surprise with Mother's Day coming up. As you can see, the boys hadn't warmed up yet, so they weren't as rambunctious as I'd hoped. Half-an-hour later, we got the video on a 256Mb flash stick to keep!

By the way, Conan O'Brien visited Intel HQ while his show was in the City last week. It's pretty funny, though Intel doesn't come out looking so good. His visit to Lucasfilm and ILM is pretty good too.

Large Scale Integration

LSI Logic's "large scale integration" of Agere Systems recently closed and now we are the new LSI; the "Logic" has been dropped. When I told G, she immediately remarked, "So is it illogical now? What's wrong with being logical?" My story is that it is similar, to FedEx- no one called them Fedaral Express, so they changed their name. Same here, everyone just says "LSI."

Here's the old LSI Logic (left) and the new LSI logo:








What do you think?