When did the Gecko start working for Geico?

Ok, I'm going to prove that I do indeed watch TV (mostly very old reruns), but I've been wondering this for some time. There were all the commercials where the Gecko was trying to get people to stop calling him when they wanted Geico auto insurance. Then, suddenly, he got the employee of the month award and has been with them ever since. He seems quite a bit happier this way, but I'm confused!

The gospel of John

We've been studying John lately so I've spent more time reading it. Interesting things pop out when you read something thoughtfully a couple times. Today I was noticing the prominence of water in this gospel:

Water in the Gospel of John

Chapter	Description
1	John's baptism (compared with baptism with the Holy Spirit)
2	Jesus turns water into wine
3	Nicodemus: need to be born of water and of the Spirit
-	Mention of baptising by John and Jesus (or his disciples)
-	Questions about purifying (done with water)
4	Baptizing by disciples of Jesus
-	Jacob's well and the living water (which is the Spirit)
5	Pool at Bethesda, used for healing
6	Jesus walks on water
7	Jesus tells all who thirst to come to Him and drink (water is the Spirit)
9	Blind man receives sight when he washes the mud that Jesus placed on his eyes
10	John the Baptist, where he baptized, and his testimony are mentioned
11	Mention of purification (verse 55)
13	Jesus washes the disciples feet

So we'll see if I can make sense of these references at a later date.

Stuck??

Seems like my life is on hold sometimes. You know, when I was young I had all these great plans for what I could do. I always wanted my parents to be more involved in church work. Just think--I actually wanted to be a preacher's kid. Then I was convinced that God was calling me to the foreign mission field. My mom wisely didn't argue even though every mother's instinct in her screamed "No!"

So what happens? I try to move to Denver and God says "No." I can't even relocate to Milwaukee. I only wanted to go to college in Florida and just didn't have a peace about it. The only foreign country I've been in is Canada (although that can be rather foreign). So here I am, living at home in the same area I've been since 7th grade.

But I'm not stuck--although I tell myself I am when I feel like having a pity party. For some reason God has placed me here. I wanted to do big things for Him. He wants me to stay put. Does God really have a use for statues?

On the other hand, it makes sense. If I go off and do great things--well, I is the operative word. I accomplish something. Big deal. But when I'm somewhere where I can't see the big picture...then God starts to work. If I stay where He puts me, He can accomplish something through me.

Besides, if I ran away, who would do my work here? Who would befriend my friends? Who would minister to those I meet each day? Who would teach my students--not just music but all the little things that invariably get taught on the side? Who would be here?

Because sometimes it's just the being that counts. Not being great. Being willing. Being holy. Being present. My just sitting and being--not saying and doing--made one individual so uncomfortable that I was asked to leave. Can God use a statue? If that statue is faithful to Him, yes.

God called Abraham to tend his herds and just believe that 400 years later God would give his decendants the land. He called David to stay in the fields for years. He called Aquilla and Priscilla to keep on making tents. I have a calling, too. (Eph. 4:1) And that's what I'll do.

In the harvest field now ripened
There’s a work for all to do;
Hark! the voice of God is calling
To the harvest calling you.

Does the place you’re called to labor
Seem too small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He’ll not forget His own.

Are you laid aside from service,
Body worn from toil and care?
You can still be in the battle,
In the sacred place of prayer.

When the conflict here is ended
And our race on earth is run,
He will say, if we are faithful,
“Welcome home, My child—well done!”

Chorus:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown—and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ Name.

by Kittie L. Suffield

Maybe slightly illegal but...

Normally I try hard to avoid breaking copyright laws. I have to respect the rights of the authors to their material. With the state of our country, however, I hope I will find forgiveness if I re-post an article on this site. I'm afraid if I just put the link up, no one will read it. Please do take the time to glance at what follows:

http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | New York

In a parallel universe called "What if . . . "

by Kathleen Parker

President-elect John F. Kerry's rise to the nation's highest office came as little surprise following almost four years of remonstrations against President George W. Bush for his bizarre attack on the defenseless people of Afghanistan.

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran, was the right man for a nation outraged by the Bush administration's pre-emptive war, which, it now seems clear, was based on highly speculative intelligence that Saudi Arabian-born terrorist Osama bin Laden was planning an attack on the U.S.

Absent absolute proof of such an imminent attack, Bush's Sept. 10 bombing of Afghanistan earned him international condemnation and, in all likelihood, an indictment in coming weeks. United Nations (U.N.) Secretary-General Kofi Annan, appearing last night on Larry King Live, said the U.N.'s International Criminal Tribunal likely would bring charges of genocide against the president.

Bush also faces federal charges at home for his baseless arrest of 19 foreign nationals, many of them native Saudis, whose "crime" was attending American flight schools. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has joined the American Civil Liberties Union in a joint suit against both Bush and former Attorney General John Ashcroft, charging racial profiling, unlawful arrest, and illegal search and seizure.

Kerry's campaign mantra - "You go to war because you have to, not because you want to" - clearly resonated with Americans as they tried to make sense of Bush's September 10 attack on Afghanistan. Neither the president, nor National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza Rice convincingly defended their actions during the recent "9/10 Commission" hearings, which Congress ordered in response to public outcry.

The commission's purpose was to try to determine what compelled the president to launch a war against Afghanistan. What kind of intelligence suggested that such an act was justified?

The main target of the attack was bin Laden, friend to Afghanistan's brutal Taliban regime, as well as al Qaeda training camps in that war-ravaged nation. Al Qaeda, an international terrorist network, has been blamed for numerous attacks on U.S. interests, including the USS Cole bombing, which killed 17 sailors.

Even though Bush's military campaign was successful in ending the oppressive Taliban regime, bin Laden apparently escaped and al Qaeda continues to flourish.

Some intelligence sources speculate that bin Laden's operatives may be trying to secure weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Even though Saddam continues to send money to the families of Palestinian terrorists and is believed to have programs for developing WMD, Kerry says he is committed to containing Saddam through continued sanctions and the U.N. oil-for-food program.

In any case, experts say that intelligence about Saddam's WMD program are just as speculative as was the intelligence that prompted Bush to attack Afghanistan. The man credited with sounding the alarm on bin Laden and al Qaeda was Richard Clarke, a counterterrorism expert who has served four presidents, including Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton.

In a January 25 memo to Dr. Rice, for instance, Clarke urged immediate attention to several items of national security interest: the Northern Alliance, covert aid, a significant new '02 budget authority to help fight al Qaeda, and a response to the USS Cole.

At Rice's and Clarke's urging, Bush called a meeting of principals and, after "connecting the dots," decided to wage war against Afghanistan. What did the dots say? Not much, in retrospect. Apparently, the president decided to bomb a benign country on the basis of "chatter" that hinted at "something big."

With no other details on the "big," and by weaving together random bits of information from a variety of questionable sources, Bush and company decided that 19 fundamentalist Muslim fanatics would fly airplanes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on 9/11.

Under questioning by the "9/10 Commission," Clarke denied that his memo was anything more than a historical overview with a "set of ideas and a paper, mostly." The bi-partisan commission concluded, therefore, that Bush's "dot-connecting" had destroyed American credibility and subjected the U.S. to increasing hostility in the Arab-Muslim world.

Last week, Saddam Hussein and Palestinian leader Yassir Arafat joined French and German leaders in condemning Bush and urging American voters to cast their ballots for regime change in the U.S. Kerry was the clear response to that call.

In a flourish of irony and the spirit of bon vivant for which president-elect is widely known, Kerry gave his acceptance speech from Windows on the World, the elegant restaurant atop the World Trade Center's Tower One.