Who are you and why are you naked?

I was reading in the Gospel of Mark today and was intrigued by a few verses that I am sure I have read a number of times, but that I don't seem to remember. At the conclusion of the account of the betrayal of Jesus, we read these curious verses in Mark 14:51-52: "A young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet over his naked body; and they seized him. But he pulled free of the linen sheet and escaped naked."

Since my books are all in a crate being shipped overseas, I can't consult any of my commentaries. If anyone has any ideas about this guy, let me know. In the meantime, I will try to do a little research and get back to this in a future post.

Four body parts used to make sounds

Today I attended a fascinating session about language learning. We made all sorts of verbal sounds and discussed the way we formed each phoneme. We were introduced to a number of phonemes that are not used in the English language, and it was interesting to hear people try to pronounce them. The kicker came when the person leading the session told us that we use four body parts to make sounds. Those four are the tongue, the lips, the vocal cords, and the nose. I laughed out loud when he said this, since I am not so sure that is a complete list. I think I might use one or two other parts of my body to makes sounds...

Strange Brou is gender neutral!

Andrew over at TallSkinnyKiwi posted about GenderAnalyzer.com, a website that scans a blog and makes a guess as to what the gender is of the writer of the blog. The results for Strange Brou: 54%, probably written by a man, but quite gender neutral. Hopefully all it means is that I have the ability to write for a wide audience, and not that I have gender identity issues. But then I do have alot of pink shirts...

Some results from a few friends:
Katie - 62%, written by a woman. I am happy to know that I am married to a woman!
Shane - 64%, written by a man. Talk of money and web stuff must be a man thing.
Lyndale - 62%, written by a woman. That pink hippo with the flower in its mouth must have had lasting psychological repercussions.
Justin - 69%, written by a woman. It might be time to go buy a new tool and maybe another gun as well.
Sean - 62%, written by a man. Good to know that at least one pastor at the Bayou is a man!
Chalan - 81%, written by a man. More man than any of us!

New Poll: Am I a spiritual warrior?

The family and I arrived at FPO (training before we move overseas) yesterday, and we have quite a few things to fill out. One is a self assessment where the choices are nearly always, sometimes, and never. One of the statements to which I must apply these is, "I am a spiritual warrior." Does anyone have a clue what that means, and if you do, could you tell me if I am one nearly always, sometimes, or never.

Fun with the Hare Krishna

Last weekend Katie and I decided to take a mini-vacation to New Orleans. After lunch one day, we were stopped by a guy wearing a "Party Patrol" hat and giving away hats and such. He was a fundraiser for a local interfaith ministry seeking to feed the homeless. While his express purpose was not evangelism, but rather fund raising, he allowed dialogue so that you might end up talking about spiritual things. I inquired about who he was and he told me he was with the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.

We had a fascinating conversation. I allowed him to give his spiel, and I responded with questions and the like. The conversation took an interesting turn when each of us acknowledged that we saw this conversation as a divine appointment through which the other might come to a clearer understanding of who God is. The critical point in our conversation came when I asked him about where his hope lay. He had no clear answer, and I was able to articulate the Christian hope in resurrection and eternity with God.

While we talked, some of the other guys who were with him scrambled around to get some resources for me to read. I left with three books. This guy was really good at what he did. Everyone he spoke with gave money for those homeless meals. He had been a Krishna disciple for over thirty years. He had done the monk thing complete with chanting in the airports. He was completely sold out.

I hope that our conversation might help him along the way to faith in Jesus Christ. I also hope that I am at least as sold out to the Truth he was to what he believes to be true.

Guitar Hero for Jesus!

The night before last I had a bunch of copies to make, and at about 9:15, I ran out of ink with quite a few copies left to make. So I went to the most God-forsaken place on earth, WalMart, for a new ink cartridge. While there, I noticed that there was no one playing the display set for Guitar Hero World Tour. Since there was no one there, and I hadn't tried my hand at any of the World Tour songs, I decided to give it a try.

I was wailing on Lenny Kravitz "Are You Gonna Go My Way" when a man and his grade school age son came up. The man was impressed with my Guitar Hero prowess, and commented, "You are really good at this... you must have an XBox." My response, "No, I learned how to play at church." From there I was able to strike up a meaningful conversation. I ended up having a good chat with this guy about God and church. No decision was made, but I pray that someone else might take some time to talk with him sometime in the near future. Say a prayer for him as well.

Shoutouts go to Toyia Robinson and Justin Head for challenging me to be the best Guitar Hero player I can possibly be. You helped open up an opportunity. BTW, I set a new high score on hard on that song in the WalMart in Katy, TX.

An Athiest Who Thinks Africa Needs God

I have read many an article on missions, but none quite like this. An atheist who strongly believes that Africa needs Christian evangelism.