Fishing

I got to do some fishing this week. Will Heflin (one of our members here at Mt. Dora) took me out on his boat. We fished in Lake Eustis. Didn't catch anything. Didn't even get a nibble - probably too hot. Wil took me through one of the canals (Dead River) to Lake Harris. Then back again to Lake Eustis and through the Dora Canal to Lake Dora. The Dora Canal was quite long. It felt like a typical Florida stream. There were Cypress trees everywhere with Spanish Moss hanging down. There were also Blue Herons around every corner. One of them had found a fish (he certainly was better than we were that day). Will also pointed out a bird (don't know the name) that spends most of its time drying out its wings. They just stand there with wings spread waiting for them to dry. The best part was seeing an alligator. It was a baby - probably 2 or 3 feet. But it was swimming across the canal in front of us. Cool.

Speaking of fishing. I heard a sermon one time where the preacher contrasted commercial (ancient commerical) fishing with modern lure-type fishing. The purpose was mainly to suggest that anglers today rely on the latest fad to catch fish and so a lot of preachers (and members interested in evangelism) use too many fads. I suppose he's right in some way. But you could also say that ancient commercial fishing drags a net and the fish have no say in the matter. That wouldn't be good in evangelism!

Acutally I would like to see community fishing explored. This involves a village where some of the men go out and catch fish for the community. I think that is a great image where fishing is thought of as a community effort. The effort feeds the whole village. Evangelism certainly is a church community effort and the effort benefits everyone in the church. I know this is not what Peter, Andrew, James, and John did with their families but I don't think we are ever going to get a perfect picture of what "fishing for men" means. Perhaps we can take a bit from each image and put them all together for the imperfect picture of evangelism in this day and age. Maybe more on that later.

Fizzle

Wow, our first hurricane. Actually, it was a tropical depression. I don't know why it's called a depression, cause the folks here in Florida are celebrating and they are not depressed by Ernesto. It rained some last night and then again this morning. I was indoors most of the day so I didn't see much outside. I don't think it did much so I didn't miss a thing. There was a lot of activity because of the storm. I read that Lowes sold 30,000 bottles of water on Monday. That's a lot. I guess our meteorologists have to warn us because if they don't then everyone is mad. Yet, all the stores where goods are sold that will benefit people during a hurricane made out well. This was a little like a coming snow storm in Jersey. People go out a buy supplies as though they were going to be stuck inside for days. Oh well.

I was thinking today about original sin. I don't know why but I was. I 'm not sure whether or not Adam and Eve passed on some genetic predisposition to sin or not. Of course it would explain why everyone sins. However, the problem isn't really in the doctrine of original sin but rather in applying the doctrine. Once you come up with the doctrine then children (actually infants) are suddenly lost. Yet the Scripture requires faith to be saved. If a child cannot believe then whether or not they have original sin doesn't matter, God has placed them in a safe position. Instead religions have to change baptism (really immersion - Romans 6:3-6) to sprinkling to accommodate infants.

Then of course there is the thought that people are so depraved by original sin that they cannot even respond to God, so religions come up with the quickening of the Holy Spirit before conversion. The quickening supposedly makes it possible for the sinner to respond. Yet in Scripture God requires humans to respond to him. Humanity walked away from God of their own free will, so Scripture seems to indicate that God wants us to come back of our own free will. That makes sense to me. This false application is like forcing someone to love you. Surely God doesn't do that. I don't see it in Scripture.

So that's my theological thought for the day. It was a good day. I like being here. I hope God allows us to stay for a long time.

A picture from our vacation last year in August. I really like this photo. The only thing that would make it better is to have Pat and Trey in it. Pat took the picture and Trey was in Arkansas. Oh well.

We're in Florida!!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted but here goes. We now live in Mount Dora, Florida. It is a fascinating town. It is part of what is called the Golden Triangle (Mount Dora, Eustis, and Tavares). It is located in Lake County. There is a reason the county is called Lake County - there are 1,400 named lakes in the county (let's see . . . if I start fishing today, and fish every day it will take me almost four years to fish every lake . . . hmmmmm, that sounds like a plan!). Florida itself has 7,700 named lakes (wow, if I extended my fishing to the entire state . . .).

We have emptied all our boxes that have the stuff we wanted to put in the house. However, our garage is still rather full. It may take awhile to get completely settled but we are moving in that direction.

The congregation has received us warmly. They are a friendly bunch with a good sense of humor. This is enough for now. I will post more later.