Blogotional

Dadmanly gets it when it comes to the Pope's recent Islamic comment kerfluffle. There is a certain humor to it, kind of like me saying, "I'm not fat."

Seriously, you need and expert for this?!

Now this I want to see on CSI!

Look out Lowell!!!!!!!! You're not gonna like this. That's my Article VI blogging partner, Lowell Brown, The Hedgehog.

"For some people, hearing voices in their heads is a positive experience," - Could it be because they're nuts?

Ugly cars -- Beautiful cars -- Drop-dead gorgeous car: (and it's all mine!)

I love corn, you have no idea how much I love corn, and yet, it appears to be an envirionmental problem. Becasue we can;t report on anything in a positive light, that would break the laws for journalism or some such nonsense.

Reason Number 1,234 as to why living here is very, very weird.

And you thought "dumb blond" was a sterotype - here is evidence to the contrary


Related Tags: Pope, Islam, corn, cars, joke humor, wisecrack

At the kind suggestion of a reader we will now take a look at the teams that partnered with the "unteam" known as The Defenders. We will start with one of the more interesting developments in the history of comics - the Squadron Supreme.

They began life as the Squadron Sinister (see the Avengers cover above) and but, as is typical for so many, they ended up as good guys, though on an "alternative earth." Those in the comic know have always gotten a huge smile out of the SS. You see they are essentially a TOTAL rip-off of DC Comics Justice League of America. You must remeber that Marvel and DC have been, since the early '60's, locked in a deadly battle for comic publishing supremacy. In the initial appearance of the Squadron Sinister - pitted as they were against Marvel's uber-group The Avengers - it seemed like a classic case of poking fun at the competition.

Needless to say the characters, while direct superpower analogs to the JLA were just lame. One must remember that that Marvel burst on the scene in the early 60's by adding depth to their characters. No longer was it set-up the conflict, change into costume, protect the secret identity

and beat the bad guy. With Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, et.al. superheroes gained a humanity not previously experienced. Making the SS characters just flat cardboard was a way of rubbing salt in the wound.

But there may have been far more at play than just a little friendly ribbing between houses. This guy seems to think the SS, as it evolved, had a political message. He may be right, but I am not sure its the politics he thinks it is. DC, being much older, and much better established, at a lot at risk when it starts mucking about with its characters, thus the editors were slow to make the kinds of changes that Marvel had wrought. So does the SS have a "libertarian" message? Yeah. probably, but not about national politics, but about comic book editorial policy. For a while, guys wanted out of DC and into Marvel if at all possible. They wanted the creative freedom Marvel represented.

This may be the most "inside baseball" of these posts I have ever done. Next week we will look at another team that worked with the Defenders - one of my favorites, but one that has never really caught on witht he comic public - The Guardians of the Galaxy.

Related Tags: comics, comic books, superheroes, Squadron Supreme, The Defenders, libertarianism

From the Introduction to the book A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (part of my continued reading into Mormonism for my blog - Article VI)

One simply cannot understand the Latter-day Saints, and certainly cannot understand their perspective on Jesus Christ, without at least some understanding of their origins. The population of the United States doubled in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. It was a time of revolution, what some historians have called the "Second American Revolution," a time of upheaval, of movement - social, political, economic, and religious. It was the age of Restorationism, an era in America's history when men and women read the Bible, believed its story and message, and sought for a return to "the ancient order of things." Many longed for the reestablishment of primitive Christianity and to enjoy once more the spiritual gifts and divine outpourings that had once graced the ancients.

The Beginnings

Brigham Young expressed the feelings he had had before he encountered Joseph Smith or the Latter-day Saints: "My mind was opened to conviction, and I knew that the Christian world had not the religion that Jesus and the Apostles taught. I knew that there was not a Bible Christian on earth within my knowledge." Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of the Church, said: "I did not join any church, believing that the Church of Christ in its true organization did not exist upon the earth." Willard Richards, later a counselor to Brigham Young, became "convinced that the sects were all wrong, and that God had no church on earth, but that he would soon have a church on earth whose creed would be the truth."

G.K. Chesterton said

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. [Chapter 5, What's Wrong With The World, 1910

I'll leave it to you kind reader to figure out my point here. But here's a hint: We reap what we sow.

Related Tags: origins of apostasy, disattisfaction, faith, transformation, Church

I'm-a Gonna Be On The Radio! Monday and Tuesday 9/18 and 19 - 5PM eastern 2PM pacific on the program Prime Time America - listen here - just click the listen live button.

A reason to vote Republican - Leading Democrats make no sense whatsoever.

Finally, an environmental movemment I can support unreservedly.

The Boar's Head Tavern at work? Ask them!

Now I'm ticked - George knows I would have loved this, and yet, no invitation. The story was obviously written by a musical idiot, carefully identifying Fats Domino like he was a Vegas lounge singer and Herbie Hancock's "Watermelon Man" like it was the first time anyone ever heard it.

For the record - Chernobyl is not a "city" - it's a power plant - Pripyat is the nearby city. That David got it wrong is understandable, he's not been there. That the Russian site with the great pictures did, must be a translation error.

A list of churchs I will never attend - couldn't get past the signs. (HT: If I Should Fall From Grace...)

So, you can't use it for a drain plug? I'll remember that next time I take a bath the size of the solar system.

Sometimes the UK press doesn't get us. The Evangelicals they site here are largely not "traditional Republican voting" Oops!

The problem with the prophetic.

Try not to laugh to ironically. Speaking of which, looks like acid rain could solve global warming. There's the horns of a dilemma for you.

Related Tags: politics, beer, dog poop, Chernobyl, environment, joke, humor, wisecrack

If you are a fan of the BBC Sci-Fi/Comedy series Red Dwarf, this will make you laugh very hard. If you have no idea what I am talking about it should still bring a grin.



Here's a bonus vid for those that still don't get the joke.



Related Tags: humor, joke, Friday Humor, Red Dwarf

We live in an amazing world - the breadth of information, methods of information distribution, and topics, specialties, concentrations abound. Isn't it great that we can decide what we like and pursue it to depths we never dreamed about.

There is a problem with that; however. Much as "everything looks like a nail when you are holding a hammer," so when we are interested in one thing, we tend to view everything else through some sort of filter formed by that interest.

One of the endless discussions of the death of Steve Irwin included Phillipe Cousteau - who was with Steve at the time. Phillipe simply could not help himself but to bring us "the important environmental issues of our time." Irwin's death was not about Irwin and his family, it was about wildlife, the environment, and.... I admit these are things that Irwin cared about, but a human tragedy is a human tragedy and it does not need a political cause to make it important.

Worse, it says that in the minds of these people. people that are supposed to be his closest friends, they need the context of the cause to relate to him - he exists for them only in that context - it is the context that assigns him value, not himself. That's a shame.

Then I got thinking about this as it relates to those of us of faith. Some of us love theology. Some of us love building the institutions of the church. Some of us love feeding the poor. Some of us love [Insert you preoccupation here].

Problem is, we often let these preoccupations set the context for the value of our faith, of others, and more, our Lord. Arminians and Calvinists draw battle lines as if our eternal souls depended on which one was right. (Although in this case, the Calvinists have it dead nuts on ) Liberals and conservatives act as if politics is the key the the Pearly Gates. (insert "conservatives are right" wisecrack here) And so it goes.

Now bear in mind, it is not that any of these things are trivial, or worthless, or anything like that - it is that we have to be smart enough not to let them define the context in which we view everything else.

I want to be smarter than that.

Related Tags: specialty, context, knowledge, prejudice

Related Tags: Illuminated Scripture, Corinthians, Love Chapter

OH NO! - EL NINO Last time there was an El Nino they blamed everything here in Southern California on it, from spilled loads on the freeway to increased levels of illegal immigration. If we are going into an El Nino winter - look for apocolyptic visions of global warming and nuclear weapons.

The socialism of the global warming movement is becoming more and more nakedly apparent. Speaking of which - Dadmanly nails it on the creeping socialism rampant in much of the world and incresingly here at home.

South Asia - land of Fakirs and completely arbitrary "miracles." This is worthy of Pravda.

Speaking of global warming and fakirs. They here compare apples and oranges - atmospheric isotopic data fro 1978 on with "ice record data back to the 17th century. It's like measuring your car's velocity with a radar gun and then a ruler/stop watch - you're gonna get different answers!

Ok people -- PEOPLE! Pets are nice, but they are not, I repeat not substitute children. This is a crime against humanity and pets everywhere.

That is gonna leave a mark! By the way, in this man's opinion - that should be a death penalty offense.

The parable of the sower and the seeds and the importance of the unspoken presentation of the gospel. My question for Mark - how can a blog make an unspoken presentation of the gospel?

There has got to be a "player to be named later" in this deal.

I wanna play!

You can elect him governor, but you can't civilize him. Of course, this is California - what could it hurt?

Tonya Harding must be off her meds again.

Related Tags: El Nino, global warming, socialism, weird, pets, parables, blogging, joke, humor, wisecrack

It's that time of year again - students are starting classes, most have been there for a week or two and the great drop/add is on-going. I am always amazed at that phenomena - students radically changing class schedules just after they get the syllabus. Though often not spoken, the reason is usually, "Woah, that's a bit more than I bargained for."

I find there are two kinds of students in the world, those that seek to get through a class, and school, and those that actually seek to master the material. The former is quite common and the later exceedingly rare. Sometimes I wonder if that is what Jesus was talking about in that parable He finished with

Matt 22:14 - "For many are called, but few are chosen."

This sort of self-sorting process has been the case with education and with the church for a long time. After all, Jesus also said

Matt 7:21 - Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.

I am not prepared to decide who is who, but I do wonder if that does not say something about how we are supposed to do church.

In the academic world, particularly in smaller schools there is a way to tenure besides "publish or perish" - it's have popular classes, and popular classes are usually easy classes. How fondly I remember my college Russian - "If you get A'ssss in 'pyochemistry' how can I give you less that 'Bp' in Rrrrussian?" (Sorry, that's as close as I can approximate the Estonian accent in writing.) I answered half the final in German and along came the B. My prof figured out how to keep his teaching gig - there was a language requirement and he designed his class to appeal to those of us that really hate languages, but still need to fulfill the requirement without mortal harm to the ol' GPA.

I wonder if we don't do that with church. We become so concerned about trying to get everbody to fulfill the "requirement" that we neglect making sure "the students" actually learn anything. But worse, given the scriptural quotes above, I wonder if the consequences of that are not a bit more extreme than the crib course in college. I wonder if those "B's" we pass out really will be interprested as passing grades. Worse, I wonder if we'll get to keep our jobs in light of that fact?

Another utterance of Christ comes to mind

Luke 9:23 - And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

That sounds to me like we have to master the subject, not just get a passing grade. Maybe it's time to buckle down a bit.

Related Tags: mastery, passing grade, teaching, depth, Christianity, church, faith

Boy, it sure is a good thing there are no dirty politics in California. Sometimes I hate this place. Captain Ed comments -- As does Laer.

Finally, a place I don't think I'd want to find a snake.

Serious consideration of what I acknowledge has become, though I find myself incredulous that it has, a serious issue. I guess when we have so much, we have to create a crisis where none exists.

What are you doing September 19? I hope whatever it is, you'll talk like a pirate.

There must be a fine line between "moderate" and "nutter" at the Examiner.

How not to do evangelism.

Fascinating - but it raises an interesting question to me. Can scientists even be said to have "a message"? Scientists simply seek reality - A message is what others make of it.

Kewl!

A LOTR musical? The very thought makes my ears bleed.

Karma or stupidity? I'm all for the later.

Related Tags: California politics, snakes, animal rights, evangelism, politics, science policy, jokes, humor, wisecrack

Regular readers of this blog know that I have a political blog as well - Article VI Blog about religion and politics, specifically about the potential Presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney, a Mormon, and a highly credible candidate. I blog there with a partner, a Mormon, known in blogging as The Hedgehog, Lowell Brown.

My motivations for doing the blog are twofold, First, I am attracted to Romney as a candidate. It is way too early to make a decision about who to vote for, but I like they guy, have met him personally and still like him, which is often unusual for candidates. The other reason is that I think too close a mixture of religion and politics will do far more to hurt the church tha it will the government and right now, I think we may be getting a bit too close - especially when there are whispering amongst evangelicals that they could not possible vote for Romney becasue he is - shudder - a Mormon.

At Article VI, we limit ourselves almost solely to politics, we try to avoid theology as much as possible. But that does not mean I'm not doing some reading. Just finished a book - How Wide The Divide - in which scriptural scholars, one Mormon (Stephen Robinson), one evangelical (Craig Bloomberg), discuss the differences and similarities in belief. They end the book this way:

On the one hand, we jointly and sincerely affirm the following foundational propositions of the Christian gospel as we both understand it.

1. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one eternal God.
2. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is both the Son of God and God the Son.
3. There is no other name and no other way by which any individual may be saved other than through Jesus Christ.
4. Jesus Christ suffered, bled and died on the cross to perform a substitutionary atonement for the sins of the world.
5. Jesus Christ was resurrected on the third day and raised up in glory to the right hand of God.
6. We enter into the gospel covenant and are saved by the preaching of the word and by the grace of God.
7. We are justified before God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
8. We are progressively sanctified by yielding our lives to God?s Holy Spirit, who enables us to obey God?s commands.
9. All the gifts of the Spirit manifested in the New Testament church continue in God?s church today.
10. The Bible is God?s word and is true and trustworthy within those parameters that the Chicago Statement on Inerrancy and the eighth LDS Article of Faith share.
11. Jesus Christ will publicly and visibly return from heaven to establish his millennial kingdom on earth.
12. The God of heaven is a God of love, and those who desire to be with him must also seek to be motivated in all their relationships by love.

On the other hand, the following important issues continue to divide us.

1. Are the Old and New Testaments the sole inspired, authoritative canonical books that God has revealed to guide his people, or should the Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants be included as well?
2. Does God the Father currently have a physical body or not?
3. Was God at some point in eternity past a human being like the mortal Jesus, or has he always been the infinite Supreme Being?
4. Can exalted humans one day share by grace all the attributes of God or only the so-called communicable attributes?
5. Is God a Trinity in essence or only in function?
6. Do the classic early Christian creeds accurately elaborate biblical truths about God and Christ, while admittedly rephrasing them in later philosophical language, or have they so imported Hellenistic concepts into their formulations as to distort biblical truth?
7. Is ?justification by faith? or ?justification by faith alone? the more appropriate summary of the Bible?s teaching on that topic?
8. Do good works function solely as a response to God?s gracious act of saving us, or do they also determine the level of our eternal reward?
9. Do people have a chance to respond to the gospel after death or not?
10. Is heaven, the abode of the ?saved,? subdivided into three degrees of glory or not?
11. How serious are the consequences for each of us if one belief system turns out to be wrong and the other turns out to be right?

We remind our readers, in closing, that there are numerous areas of doctrine we have not discussed at all, so that our views on those topics will not appear in either of these lists. Still, if any among either Evangelicals or Latter-day Saints are surprised to discover that those on the other "side" can honestly assent to some of the twelve joint affirmations listed above, or still incorrectly insist that they do not, we shall have succeeded in establishing the need for this book. That we can readily formulate a list of eleven important disagreements establishes the need for even further dialogue. As we have repeatedly stressed, we can only hope that such dialogue may be characterized by speaking the truth to one another in love.

It was a fascinating read, and I'd love to discuss it in detail with the right people, but they are kind of hard to find on this issue. I must also comment they did leave one extremely important issue undiscussed that to my stick-in-the-mud Presbyterian mind is the real bug-a-boo and that is the view of prophecy, although it was covered to some extent in their discussion of canon.

Bottom line is this, to my mind the Mormons have missed the mark on several issues, but they are not engaged in any heresies that have not been a part of the church historically almost since its inception, they represent a unique combination of those heresies, but hey.... The church has been debating these things for cenutries and centuries. In essence they are way out not-strict-trinitarian pentecostal arminians. That makes them wrong, but it does not make them an evil cult bent on worldly conquest or destruction.

What makes the average Christian "afraid" of Mormons is not theology, it's history. Well, history is just that, history - the past. I have but one single concern about the Mormons and that is, given their adherence to present-day prophetic utterance, what is to prevent highly controversial historical practices from re-emerging at the whim of the current prophet? My Mormon blogging partner assures me it will never happen, and is gathering for me materials to show the institutional doorstops they have to prevent it from happening, I'll be fascinated to see that.

That said, one thing I know will help prevent those practices from re-emerging, and that is beginning to include them in the dialog with us traditional Christian types. They want to be known as "Christians" though they readily admit they do not hold the creeds that traditionally define Christians. Fine, let's extend them the title "non-creedal Christian" and seat them at the table with us. Within our ranks there are huge divergences of thought on a large variety of matters - Mormons are not so divergent, at least not anymore.

When it comes to matters temporal - values and behavior, frankly I think they are better at it than most of us, and they have much to offer us in that department.

The time for "cultic" status for Mormons is at an end, they are way different - agreed - but so are the Orthodox and Roman churches and all but the whacko-right are willing to include them in our dialog.

Related Tags: Mormon, Christian, dialog, cult, cultic

Al Mohler on the recent Baylor study on religion in America.

"If I know your image of God, I can tell all kinds of things about you." That profoundly accurate statement was made by Professor Paul Froese... [emphasis added]

Once again, Al does not think through what he says.

Deut 4:25 - "When you become the father of children and children's children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the LORD your God so as to provoke Him to anger, [emphasis again added]

We are nt supposed to have images - they automatically limit God.

ABOMINATION Making an ugly dog both unhappy, and uglier.

Pork Fat Rules I'm pretty sure Emeril Lagasse was behind this.

Cool - animated superheroes do look a bit wimpy.

This hurts to read. Raw sewage is real pollution. But the people fighting the pollution - they want to re-terraform everything. How about just putting in some quality sewage treament and letting it heal itself? No, what am I saying!? - That would be reasonable, and not nearly controlling enough.

I present this picture from Centcom, just because our military has the coolest toys.

This is beyond stupid.

I like this Pope - a lot!

Good court decision on the money, wrong reasoning. Although, they should probabaly take the child away from the woman for its own mental health.

This would be funny in a movie - but I'm not sure about reality.

Most elaborate homework dodging ruse in history.

Related Tags: Mohler, images, idols, environment, pollution, military, joke, humor

You've seen it in the side bar for a while, Blogotional is participating in 2,996 today to remember those that died. The lovely Mrs. Blogotional has written our tribute:

Not long after 9/11 I purchased the book "Portraits 9/11/01", the collected "Portraits of Grief" from the New York Times. I was hoping to find a way to somehow connect with all those people who had perished that day. I would read the small paragraphs, that tried to encapsulate a life and I would know that each small paragraph encompassed a world. Now for the tribute offered today on Eileen Flecha I turned once more to my "Portraits" book and other tributes on the Internet.

Eileen it said, always wanted to be punctual and instead of going early to vote that day, she chose to arrive at work on time and leave voting for later. She lived with her mom and step dad in the Kew Gardens section of Queens and worked for Fiduciary Trust in the South Tower. Eileen?s fiancé Ivan Perez worked in the same building a few floors above Eileen, he also perished. They were to be married in July. They were in the process of choosing a home and Eileen's parents had purchased furniture in anticipation of the new home. Eileen was a Yankee's fan and a horror-movie aficionado. She also showed her strength of character as reported by her mother to Fred Carroll, Daily Press.

Her mother tried to persuade Flecha many times after the 1993 bombing to find a job outside the World Trade Center. Flecha refused, telling her mother she had not raised a coward. Telling her mother the terrorists won if she ran. Mother and daughter spoke by phone shortly after the airliners crashed into the World Trade Center. Flecha cried, she told her mother to take care of her step dad if she didn?t live. "This is my daughter," Morris said. "She made me proud to be her mother."

Other tributes mentioned that she was a caring, supportive co-worker and warm and caring sister.

There really aren?t adequate words to talk about the loss to families and friends of those who died on 9/11. Loved ones were with them in the morning, and then they were gone that evening. At the end of a Newsday piece about Eileen Flecha, by Jennifer Smith it mentions the family dog, Hannibal. "Hannibal", it says, "sleeps in her bedroom at night and by day stands sentry at the front door, waiting for his mistress to come home from work."

We remember Eileen Flecha today.

Eileen was engaged, and her fiance also died on that fateful day. His 2996 tribute is here.

Related Tags: 9 11, 2,996, remember, memorial, Eileen Flecha

Related Tags: cartoons, catblogging, Aggie, Flash

Remember...

Remember this too! Although it is bringing YouTube to its knees



You know...when the government pays for science instead of the market, you have to create false markets to test what people want.

I made a joke about the giant earthworm last week. Cheat Seeking Missles gets to the bottom of thestory and finds out its not so funny.

Climate Change is bad because?...

Man did not make this stuff...Agood earthquake could have brought it up on its own...So, how come if its released in a drilling accident it's man-made pollution? COuld it be becasue there is someone to sue? Just wondering?

And now, a YouTube clip that is just plain funny and not overloaded! (HT: Mere Orthodoxy)

I do so hate it when the press has no idea what they are talking about. A clock, no matter how sophisticated does not "define" time - it just measures it. IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!

More people to sue.

Misplaced priorities churches should care about, oh I don't know...JESUS!

Who knew they existed?

Uncultured Philistines!

Insert your own unliked relative joke here.

Related Tags: 9-11, memories, rememebering, WTC, attack, pollution, global warming, environment, science, joke, humor, wisecrack

This may be the best thing my friend Rick has ever written. AMEN!

OH PLEASE! Shouldn't the gospel stand on its own? Speaking of which - there are religious expressions and then there are zoning laws.

With beavers coming up third in the parlimentarian elections for aquatic mammals.

Evidence is emerging from Africa that colours were being used in a symbolic way perhaps 200,000 years ago, a UK scientist working in the region claims.

Comics - the oldest art form!

What can't we make a competition out of?

This guy got me in trouble last year when I was in Sweden. No one there actually says "Bork, Bork, Bork," which lead to several embarassing moments



Speaking of YouTube - leave it to the Navy. Airshow fans know the Navy's Blue Angels do it with a bit more flash than the Air Force's Thunderbirds, but who knew the NAvy have a close order marching drill team, with a lot of flash. The Marines are still better, but those flashing bayonets...



Well, there goes the plan to infiltrate the terror groups with highly trained pets.

Now this is evangelism!

Related Tags: abortion, the gospel, evngelism, video, joke, humor, sarcasm

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

NORMAN MACLEOD, the eminent Scotch preacher, was born at Campbeltown, in Argyleshire, in 1812. In his preaching he departed from the rigid conventionality of the Scottish Church. His large vision and broad culture gave unusual distinction both to his writings and to his pulpit oratory. He was conspicuous for philanthropic efforts, and frequently held evening services for workingmen. He distinguished himself by his popular Christian writing and by his pulpit oratory. He was practical and manly, of godly nature, with extreme adaptability, and greatly esteemed by Queen Victoria, who made him her Chaplain in 1857. He died in 1872.


Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. -- John 17:20,21.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come!? The hour was indeed come for which the whole world had been in travail since creation, and which was for ever to mark a new era in the history of the universe. The hour was come when, having finished the work given Him to do, He was to return to His Father, but only after ending His earthly journey along the awful path on which He was now entering, and which led through Gethsemane, the cross, and the grave. At such a moment in His life He lifted up His eyes in perfect peace, from the sinful and sorrowful world, to the heavens glorious in their harmony and soothing in their silence, and said, "Father!" One feels a solemn awe, as if entering the holy of holies, in seeking to enter into the mind of Christ as exprest in this prayer. Never were such words spoken on earth, never were such words heard in heaven. I ask no other evidence to satisfy my spirit that they are the truth of God than the evidence of their own light, revealing as it does the speaker as being Himself light and life, who verily came from God and went to God.

But let me in all reverence endeavor to express a few thoughts, as to the general meaning of this prayer, with reference more especially to that portion of it which I have selected as the subject of my discourse.

The one all-absorbing desire of our Lord, as here exprest - the ultimate end sought to be realized by Him - is that God might be glorified as a Father, and that by the world seeing His love revealed in sending His Son into the world to save sinners. "God is love," but "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we might live through him" - a love which, when spiritually seen and possest by us, is itself life eternal; for "This is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent;" but "He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love."

All "religion" accordingly, all good, all righteousness, peace, joy, glory, to man and to the universe, are bound up in this one thing, knowing God as a Father. Out of this right condition of love to God, must necessarily come our right condition towards man, that of love to man as a brother with special love, the love of character, to Christian brethren. Such a religion as this was never possest as an idea even by the greatest thinkers among the civilized heathen nations; far less was it realized by any. Whatever knowledge many had about God, they knew Him not as a Father to be loved and trusted, and therefore obeyed. When St. Paul addrest the Athenians, he could find such a thought exprest by a poet only, who had said, "We are also His offspring." It is only in the line of supernatural revelation of God to man, as given to and received by Abraham, "the friend," and perfected by Christ the Son, that this knowledge of God has been possest by man. But even among those to whom this true revelation was given about God, how few truly knew Him!

The want of this religion, whatever else might exist that was called by that name, was the complaint made by God against His people of old, "They do not know me!" "They proceed from evil to evil," He cries, for "they know not me, saith the Lord." "Through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the Lord;" and again: "Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." (Jer. 9:23,24.)

This was the sorrowing cry of Christ, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee!" This was His joy, "I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me!"

But if Christ desired that His Father's name should be glorified, how was this to be accomplished? By what medium, or means? Now I would here observe that God's method of revealing Himself to man has ever been to do so by living men; and the Bible is a true record of such revelations in the past. Christianity is not the philosophy of life, but life itself; and is a revelation, not of abstract truth, but of the living personal God to living persons as His children, whom He hath created to glorify and enjoy Him for ever. The first grand medium of this revelation is the eternal Son of God. The very essence of God's character being love, He did not exist from all eternity with a mere capacity of loving, but without an object to love; like an eye capable of seeing light, but with no light to see. The object of His love was His Son, who from all eternity responded to that love and rejoiced in His Father. This eternal Son, when manifested in the flesh, revealed His Father directly, so that He could say, in all He was, and in all He did, and, in a true sense, in all He suffered, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father;" and men could say of Him, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;" "The glory of God" was "in the face of Jesus Christ." Again, He had also, as the Son of Man, glorified His Father; and, by His reverence for, confidence in, and obedience to, Him, and by His joy in Him, had indirectly revealed what he knew God to be to Him and to all as a Father. "I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." Such was His finished work. But something more was yet to be accomplished. Ere He descends to Gethsemane, He desires anew to have the joy of revealing a Father's heart by revealing to the world His own heart of love as a Son to that Father. Hence His prayer, "Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee." He does not prescribe the new circumstances in which His long-tried and perfect filial confidence and love as a Son were to be manifested. With the absolute consecration of true sonship He leaves these circumstances to be determined by His Father. Now, as on the cross, He commits His spirit, as a little child, into His Father?s hands. He desires only that in any way, by any means, He may have the joy of showing forth the reality, the endurance, and the triumph of His Sonship. His Father may fill His cup according to His own will, the Son will drink it. The Father may permit a crown of thorns to be placed on His brow, and every conceivable horror of great darkness from the hate of men and devils to be cast over Him like a funeral-pall; He may be rejected by all His brethren and by the Church and by the State - "Amen!" He cries. Let His body be broken and His blood shed, He will give thanks! One thing only He prays for, "Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee!" As a further end to be accomplished, He prays that He may have the joy of making others share the same divine love and joy, and therefore adds, "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

But while He as the Son was to be the first revealer of God the Father, He was not, therefore, to be the only revealer. He was the firstborn of many brethren in whom the same love was to be reproduced, and by whom the same high duty was to be performed. If the light of the glory of God shone directly in the face of Jesus Christ, that light was to be transmitted to those who were to shine as lights in the world, that others seeing them might glorify the same God. For now, as ever, God in a real sense manifests Himself in the flesh. Hence our Lord 's desire that His brethren should, as sons, reveal the Father, like Himself the Son. He says accordingly, "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Sent whom? Not apostles only, but those also who should believe through their word; not ministers of the Church only, but members also; all, in short, who were qualified to convince the world that God was a Father, by convincing it of this truth, that God had sent His Son to save sinners - the "faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation."

But the question is further suggested, What is this qualification? What is this which men must possess in order to accomplish Christ's purpose of inducing the world to believe? What is this evidence of Christianity which they are to present to the eyes of unbelieving men, by seeing which these are to know and glorify God as their Father in Christ? We reply, it is the oneness of those who are to be ambassadors from God and fellow-workers with Christ. "I pray for them," He says, and not for them only, but "for them also who shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me."

Now this leads me to consider more particularly the nature of this oneness which is essential for such a successful mission as will convince the world of the truth of Christ?s mission from the Father. What is meant by this oneness, or this union?

We are guided in our inquiry by three features which characterize it. First, It is a oneness such as subsists between Christ and God; secondly, It is a oneness which can be seen or appreciated; thirdly, It is a oneness which is calculated from its nature to convince the world of the truth of Christ's mission.

Now there are many kinds of union among men, which, however wonderful or excellent, may be set aside as obviously not fulfilling these conditions, and not such, therefore, as Christ prayed for. There is, e. g., the unity of an army which marches as one man, implicitly obeying its commander even unto death and without a question. Yet, however grand this is, and however illustrative of the character of good soldiers of Jesus Christ, it does not fulfill the conditions specified. Nor does the wonderful unity of a State, which makes and imposes laws, proclaims war or peace, administers justice, and executes its judgments. In neither case is there any union such as subsists betwixt God and Christ; nor such as is in any sense adapted to convince the world that God has sent His Son to save sinners. The same may be alleged of any outward and visible unity of a body of men which might be called a Church. Its organization might be as wonderful, and its members as disciplined, and its power as remarkable, as those of an army; it might be held together like a state by its laws and its enactments, its rewards and punishments, and might energetically advance until it possest the dominion of the world, and attracted such attention as that all men might marvel at it; its members might assent to all the details of a creed however large; the same rights and ceremonies and modes of worship might be repeated throughout all its parts; and it might be able to continue its organized existence from age to age, yet it would by no means follow that any such system, however remarkable, possest that inward spiritual unity desired in Christ's prayer, no more than the compact unity of Brahminism does, nor the still mere extraordinary unity of Buddhism, with its temples, its priesthood, its creed, its rites and ceremonies, continuing unchanged during teeming centuries, and dominating over hundreds of millions of the human race. May not all these and many similar unities be fully and satisfactorily accounted for by principles in human nature, altogether irrespective of the fact of a supernatural power having come into the world to which their origin or continuance is owing? For there is a oneness in the churchyard as well as in the church. There might be a oneness of assent amongst a deaf multitude with regard to the beauty of music, because determined by the fiat of authority, but not as the result of hearing and of taste; and the same kind of oneness of judgment as to the beauty of pictures, on the part of those who were blind. Unity alone proves nothing, apart from its nature and its origin.

There is but one kind of unity or oneness which fulfils the specified conditions, and that is, oneness of character or of spiritual life? in one word, the oneness of love; - for this is the highest condition of a personal spirit. It is such love as God had and has to Christ; "That the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them;" such love as the Son has to the Father, and such as He manifested to His disciples that very evening when, conscious of His divine glory, and "knowing that he was come from God, and went to God," He girded Himself with a towel and washed His disciples? feet. Hence the declaration, "The glory," that is, of character, "which thou gavest me I have given them, that they," through its possession, "may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me." Hence again His saying, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world;" and His prayer, "I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil." Such love as this, when in the soul of ordinary men, does not originate in their own hearts, however naturally benevolent or affectionate these may be. Our Lord in this prayer recognizes it as inseparable from faith in His own teaching, and from personal conviction of the truth which they themselves were to preach; for they had received His words, and had "known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me"; and so He prays, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth."

Now, if we would divide, as with a prism, this pure light of love, we might discern it as being composed, as it were, of at least two colors, or features - first, love to God, exprest in the desire that He should be known; secondly, love to man, exprest in self-sacrifice that all should share this true love. But these very features we discern as first existing in God the Father and in Christ the Son; for God desires, from the necessity of His own nature, that He should be known, and that all His rational creatures should see the glory of His character, and, in seeing it, should live. God has also manifested His love, according to the law of love, by giving and by self-sacrifice, inasmuch as He "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." In like manner, the Son desired that His Father might be known, and to accomplish this He became incarnate. He has manifested His love also in the form of self-sacrifice, in that His whole life and death were an offering up of Himself as a sacrifice unto God, and as an atonement for the sins of the world, in order that all men might be made partakers of His own eternal life in God. This, too, is the "mind" of the Holy Spirit, for He glorifies the Son, that the Son may glorify the Father, and glorifies Him in and by His true Church. Hence, wherever true love exists in man, it will manifest itself in these two forms; it will ever desire that God may be known, and will never "seek its own," but sacrifice itself that this end may be attained. In such oneness as this of mind, spirit, character - in one word, love - there is realized the first condition of that oneness for which our Lord prayed.

Secondly, this unity of character fulfills the second condition in its being such as the world can in some degree see and appreciate. Blind as the world is, it can see love in the form of self-sacrifice at least, seeking its good, even though it may not at once see in this a reve¬lation of such love as has its origin in the love of God to man. The world?s heart can perceive more things and greater things than can its intellect. The child of the statesman or man of science may not be able to comprehend the world - politics of the one or the scientific discoveries of the other; but it can see and feel the love revealed in the glance of the eye, in the smile on the lips, or in the arms that clasp it to the bosom; and in seeing this, it sees an infinitely greater thing than the politics of the one or the scientific discoveries of the other. It sees, too, in this, tho unconsciously, the love of the Father's heart which fills the universe with glory, even as its eye, when opened to a little light, sees the same light which illumines a thousand worlds. And thus can the world see the light of love. Those who are in prison, in nakedness, or in thirst, are quite able to see and to appreciate the love that, for Christ's sake, visits them, clothes them, and gives them drink. The wretched lepers in the lazar-house, into which no one could enter and ever return to the world, could see and appreciate the love of the Moravian missionary who visited them, and who shut the door for ever between him and all he knew and loved, that he might share and alleviate the horrors of his wretched brethren whom he loved more than all. Blind as the world is, it can see this or nothing; bad as it is, it can appreciate this goodness or none.

Thirdly, such a character is calculated also to convince the world that God has sent Christ to save sinners. Observe again what is our Lord?s idea of the mission which was to convert the world; it is this, that those whom He sends, even as God had sent Himself, whether as apostles or as disciples, should give to their fellow men what they have first received from their living Head, Jesus Christ. They were to give "the words" which they received from Him, and which He had received from God? they were to give "the truth" which they received from Him, and which He Himself had glorified in His life and death, that God had sent Him to be the Savior of the world. They were also to manifest that life which they had received from Him, and which He had received from God, and which in them was the necessary result of their faith. Now, it is in the seeing of this life in those who proclaim the truth that the truth itself appears worthy of all acceptation, and that God verily, who has sent His Son to save sinners, is love. It is thus, you perceive, that the mission of the Church, whether of its ministers or its members, is not only to preach glad tidings, but to show their reality in their actual results; not only to preach salvation, but to preach it by saved men; not only to preach eternal life, but to preach it by those who possess it; not only to preach about a Father, but to reveal also that Father through His regenerated sons, who themselves know and love Him. Further, the idea of a Church is that of a society whose members are united through faith in the same truth, and are in possession of the same life. Such a society necessarily springs out of faith and love, and its members cannot choose but unite outwardly because united inwardly. Our Lord assumes its future existence and provides for its continuance. A Church realizing Christ's ideal would, therefore, possess, as its creed this, at least, of believing Christ's words, and the truth that "God had sent his Son to be the Savior of the world." For "every spirit that confesseth not that Christ hath come in the flesh is not of God." "And whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." Its initiatory sacrament, that of baptism, does but express the nature of this society - viz., that its members are the children of God the Father through Christ the Son, and by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit - their character being a spiritual baptism into the possession of "God's name," which is "love."

Another characteristic of it is their possession of that eternal life which is exprest as well as maintained by the "communion" in which its members meet together as brethren, their bond of union being a common union with God in Christ and one another, through the constant partaking of Him, the living bread; eating His flesh and drinking His blood - that is, His whole life of self-sacrifice and love becoming a part of their very being. Worship in spirit and in truth is also necessarily involved in the idea of such a society; and I might add, worship, not from a command merely, but as a necessary result of spiritual character, becoming in a true sense "infallible" as to religion; but religion in this sense, that of knowing God because of its members being able to say, "We know that he dwelleth in us, and we in him, because he hath given us his Spirit, and we know and testify that he sent his Son to be the Savior of the world." Such a Church would likewise, in a true sense, have an apostolical succession that is, a succession of teachers and members who had the apostolic spirit, or the oneness as described by our Lord; for it would be able, from its possessing the Spirit of God, to discern those who were like-minded, and to select such as were specially fitted for the work of the ministry. This is the ideal of the Church.

But has such a Church been realized? Has there ever been a visible organized body of men who carried out this sublime purpose? Once, indeed, there was. For we perceive, more or less clearly, all these features in the early Church when it had received the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and when its members met together and "had all things in common," and manifested such sonship towards God, and brotherhood towards each other; and sent forth everywhere its public minister and its members also to bring men into the same blessed unity. But supposing the ideal had no more been realized since that time than God's ideal as described by Moses had been fully realized in the Jewish Church - yet must the ideal, nevertheless, be ever kept before the spiritual eye. For we do not produce high art by keeping a low rather than a high standard before the artist; neither can we reach to great things in the Church unless we keep a high standard before its members. It is unnecessary here to inquire how it came to pass that the Church, to such a great extent, lost this ideal as one visible society, and became so corrupt as to substitute innumerable vain appearances of spiritual realities for that which alone could satisfy a true and righteous God. But as things now are, the "Church" is broken up into various "churches" or societies, striving more or less to realize the ideal. Each society does so just in proportion as it is able to carry out our Lord's purpose as to its ministry being one in faith, believing Christ's words, in its knowing truly that He came from God to save sinners, and in its seeking, from love to God and man, to make all men know their Father, in the knowledge of whom is salvation.

But to confine myself to our own particular duties, let me remind you, fathers and brethren, of our high calling as profest ministers of Christ's Church. The cry of earnest souls, weary of their many burdens, unsatisfied with their husks, conscious of being in a distant land, and finding nothing which men can give to allay their hungering and thirsting, is this: "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us!" Now supposing an earnest spirit, seeking after the Father, comes to us as His profest ministers in order to discover the truth of what we preach, he might very naturally say, "You preach to me a Savior who came a long time ago into the world professing to save sinners, and you tell me that He is coming again at some future period to judge the world and to bestow salvation upon many; but I want to know whether there is a Savior now; or is it all empty space between that past and that future" You tell me about salvation from the suffering of sin; I ask, "Is there salvation from sin itself, without which I feel there can be no deliverance from suffering?" You tell me about a medicine that is an infallible cure for "this ineradicable taint of sin," and describe the terrible consequences of the disease to me if I be not cured, and the blessed results of joyous spiritual health and peace; but "Can you show me any person who has actually been restored from disease to health by this divine medicine?" Is all this preaching a mere idle theory of life? Or if not, where is the life itself? Art thou thyself saved? If not, " physician, heal thyself"; for until then thou canst not cure me. But suppose, further, that this same person comes into close contact with the mind of the preacher, and that the more he sees and knows it the more he discerns in the man such thoughts regarding God, such a knowledge of Him, such a love to Him, as convince him that here at least is a reality and not a pretense; suppose that the more he discerns his whole inner life, the things which give him pain and joy, the things which he desires and loves, with his whole feelings towards his fellow-men - feelings expressed in a life of action, which, in spite of infirmities and shortcomings belonging to all human beings, the questioner cannot but recognize as a kind of life he never saw before - a life, too, which commends itself, from what it is, as being the most real and the most satisfactory to reason, conscience, and heart: can anything, I ask, be more calculated to convince him of the account which its possessor gives him as to its origin, when he says, "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." "It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief." What then? What else must be the result of such a vision of true life than the conviction that God is our Father and that God is love, because it is evident from observation as well as from testimony that He hath sent His Son to save men, not in the past only, but to save them now - not to save only those who are called "good," but to save those who are the chief of sinners? If a man truly believes all this, then does he know God, and in so doing possesses eternal life. But more than this, how will his convictions be deepened if, in searching for others who may have the same life, and if, though failing to discover any one visible body of Christians that show it forth in the unity of the Spirit and in the bond of peace, he is yet able to satisfy himself that there have been, during the last eighteen centuries, and that there are now, in every church, in every land, among all races of men, among those of different temperaments, different culture, and amidst a variety of all possible outward circumstances, men with like passions as himself, who have faith in the same Lord, and are thereby possest of a true love of God and of one another?how will this, I say, deepen in him the conviction that God is a Father, because a Savior, who "gave his Son, not that any should perish, but that all should possess everlasting life." Will he not be thus led to "believe the record that God has given us eternal life, and that this life is in his Son" I am persuaded that a man of the highest intellectual culture and the greatest learning, earnestly searching after God and Christ, and the truth of Christianity, would be more convinced of the love of the one as manifested in the truth of the other, by coming into contact with one true soul which, without perhaps intellectual culture or learning, yet truly loved God and man, than he would be by all the volumes on the evidence of Christianity ever written, without such a spiritual vision of a holy life.

On the other hand, supposing that no such evidence of the truth of Christianity could be discovered in the preacher of Christianity; nay, if his character contradicted his preaching; if, while he preached love to God and man, he manifested neither, but indifference, to say the least of it, to both; if, while he preached the necessity and the excellence of the Christian life, he himself revealed its very opposite - what effect would this have upon an earnest spirit, but that Christianity was a mere ideal system unsuited to the world, a philosophy of life that might be believed in, but not a life itself that might be possest?

This want of personal character, however imperfect, yet real, may account for the want of success in the mission of the Church to convince the world, whether at home or abroad. We may give religion but not godliness; the means of grace, as they are called, but not the grace seen and exprest in the living man. We would thus hear of Christianity without seeing it; hear about the love of God, and the love of Christ as a Savior, without being convinced even by those who send missionaries to India, who, although they may individually reveal this life, yet how often are looked upon as mere official teachers; while the "Christians " from "Christendom" may, in coining into contact with the heathen, show by their denial of Christianity that it is a matter for the priesthood, not for all men; a book theology, but not an actual power working in humanity and of such persons it may be said that they have profaned God?s great name among the heathen.

And this, too, may also account for the secret of success by many a minister of whom the world knows nothing: "For greatest minds are those of whom the noisy world hears least." They may not be great in the ordinary sense of the word - great as thinkers, great as orators, or great in the possession of any remarkable gifts; but they are nevertheless great in the kingdom of heaven; great because little children - great in meekness, in patience, in humility, in love of God and man, and who carry this music in their heart, "through dusky land and wrangling mart." What is the secret of their power? What but an eternal reality! The reality of a godly, godlike life obtained from God, and sustained by God, and seen in the eye, felt in the hand, heard in the words - a light of life which shines beside many a dying bed in many a home of sorrow, as well as in the pulpit. This is a kind of life whose biography will be written with the tears of the grateful orphan and widow, and of many a saved soul which remembers its possessor as its spiritual father. Such a ministry as this can no more fail than the love of God which gives it birth. Let us thank God, therefore, that such a secret power as this is within the reach of us all. We may not be men of talent, and for that we are not responsible; but we may be good men because little children towards God, and for that we are responsible: "I thank thee, heavenly Father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes."

And now, fathers and brethren, such is our high calling, to proclaim the glad tidings that God has sent Christ into the world to save sinners. Our chief authority for doing this is that we know it to be true; and if so, no one can deprive us of the high privilege and joy of proclaiming it. A glorious work is thus given us to do; we are ambassadors for God, beseeching men to be reconciled to Him, and we are fellow-workers with our Lord Himself. But this involves a great responsibility, corresponding to the greatness of our calling. For it is at once a glorious and a tremendous thought that Christ perils the chief evidence of the truth of Christianity, not upon what we say, but more upon what we are; and what we are is neither more nor less than what God knows us to be. Our preaching may, nevertheless, fail in some cases to convince the world, as it has done before; for the glory of Christ Himself was not seen by Judas. Indeed the light of life, when it shines, requires the single eye to see it. But in so far as the ministry of men, as an instrumentality, can convince the world, let our ministry be such as is calculated according to Christ's purpose to produce this result. Let it consist of those who can say, "We know whom we have believed." "We know and believe the love that God hath to us." "We testify that he sent his Son to be the Savior of the world."

But I must bring my sermon to a close.

Pardon me, my brethren, if I have appeared to address you in any other spirit than that of one who would with you confess his sins and shortcomings, and lament with shame and sorrow how much time and power have been lost never to be regained; how many gifts and noble opportunities have been neglected and perverted through unbelief and sloth, which might have been used for our own good and that of our fellow-men. Verily the day is far spent with many of us, and the night is near in which no man can work. Whatever our hands find to do must be done now or never. Let us pray that the living Spirit of God, given to all who seek Him, and whose work it is to glorify the Son, may take of His things and show them to our souls, and open our spiritual eye to see the glory of God in the face of Christ, so that we may be changed into the same glory. May we strive to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, and be enabled so to preach and so to live that the world may be convinced, by what it sees and hears, of the reality of the love of God the Father in giving us and all men eternal life through Jesus Christ His Son! May He who makes us sons of God enable us, as sons, to be glorified in the perfection and revelation of our characters, so that with our elder Brother we may glorify His Father and our Father!

And now, to Father, Son and Holy Ghost, one God, be glory, dominion, and praise for evermore. Amen!

Related Tags: Norman MacLeod, sermon, lesson

Scotwise reports on Steve Irwin's family's private memorial service. In case you havn't noticed, we are big animal fans here in the Blogotional household. Especially Mrs. B. She is a special fan of "The Crocodile Hunter Diaries" featuring Irwin and his zoo and some of his non-reptilian friends. We have been dangerously close to koala and tazzie devil pets here. Anyway, she has penned a remeberance:

Steve Irwin, we're going to miss ya!

The Crocodile Hunter sort of crept into our lives. That is if you can say that Steve Irwin did anything unobtrusively. While flipping through channels, my husband John would sometimes land on his entertaining and highly unusual show. I would usually be wandering around doing different household chores, and I could hear this exuberant man singing the praises of whatever animal, reptile, fish, he was confronting at the time. Gradually "Steveisms" crept into our vocabulary "there's a beauty, Crikey," and needing to be said with the definite Australian inflection "Danger, Danger Danger!" His ability to confront any creature, keep up a constant patter of information while doing so and his boundless enthusiasm really did set him apart. As the shows evolved and Terri, his wife, became more and more a part, all the better. She was beautiful, she was the perfect foil and it obvious she was devoted to animals and her husband. Together they made the perfect combo. So I went from just casually watching to really watching with intention. The fact that Steve "dodged the bullet" so many times and survived every type of animal attack, probably minimized the danger he was facing in the minds of his viewers. I like many viewers began to feel that he was invulnerable. The guy had crocs chasing him, venomous snakes whizzing by his head and grumpy animals of all types take their best shot without success.

We all know what happened this last week. A very freak hit from a sting ray, was the last animal encounter (or should I say fish) Steve will ever be experiencing. Suddenly and without warning the man that had faced down every type of creature was gone. As I sat at the computer late Sunday night checking latest news, suddenly it flashed across my screen, "Steve Irwin, Croc Hunter is killed". Steve, killed I thought, that can't be right, surely there?s been a mistake. But as the news filtered in, there was no mistake. Doing something that most people would have given a far lower risk factor than many of the amazing things he had done in the past, Steve had died. This likeable, entertaining, winsome guy was dead.

I found myself trying to find out details and as most people felt, was horrified at the idea that not only had he died, but died while they were filming. This too seemed predictable, but to me, but that did not lesson the sadness I felt. I saw the pictures of the flowers piling up at the Australia Zoo, and read about the reactions in Australia and around the world. Australians were going to honor him by wearing khaki on Friday. The Prime Minister of Australia offered a state funeral. Articles appeared on the web about the loss and depression kids felt who had grown up watching Steve?s shows. It seems that a guy in khaki, with a gift for communication and a love of animals had made a big impact around the globe. Realizing this made me feel better and worse. I was just like everyone else, and there was really nothing to be done feeling bad that this had happened to the Croc Hunter. He is gone.

That's just it, he's gone. Oh they'll play his reruns ad infinitum and he will continually be eulogized, but no where in the world, is that crazy, amazing, enthusiastic guy chasing some wild beast and turning to the camera and saying "Crikey, this is amazing!" Our world doesn't have very many Steve types. People who unabashedly follow their enthusiasms and make a huge difference in the lives of not just people, but animals, and do it in a way that doesn't seem heavy handed or repressive. Nope there just aren't those kinds of people around. Steve will not be running across our TV screens, and he will be missed. I would rather not draw any lessons about the manner of his death, or ponder whether it was unavoidable, it just was. So I guess it's thanks to Steve, and to his family who shared him with the world. It was a great run Mate, we'll miss ya!