Richard Craver

The world we live in … and the world to come.

Lil Wayne, the philospher

Written By: admin - Apr• 14•12

Recently a quote attributed to rapper Lil Wayne has been going around Facebook. It goes:

“I gotta die with money cuz I wasn’t born with it”

What is worrisome is that some take that as their life statement, an end goal for their lives. Is money important? You better believe it. I’d rather have some than not have any. But I don’t believe that is the goal of my life, it’s certainly not a philosophy I would hinge my life and eternity on.

I was reminded of one of my late uncles that used to jokingly say, “I was born bald, fat and toothless; and I plan on dying that way too”. Sadly during his last days he wasted away badly due to cancer, so I suppose he got the bald and toothless part right.

So what is your life goal? When you are gone, what will you be remembered for? Back to Lil Wayne for just a moment, the opposite would be to die without money.  This reminds me of the man Job from the Old Testament book named after him, for a time it appeared he would die poor and penniless. Too often when we talk of people in the Bible we use the term “Bible Character”. Let me remind you that they were not ‘characters’ like in a play or a movie, they were real living, breathing people that walked the face of the earth as we do. The reason this is so significant is that we can learn from them. Learn from their victories and, yes, their failures and tragedies. That is one of the reasons that we can trust the Bible’s accuracy, it doesn’t just whitewash over the failures of those written of in it’s pages, it tells of their shortcomings and struggles. Shortcomings and struggles just like me and you.

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My Long Weekend

Written By: admin - Mar• 25•12

There are a lot of things I do in life. But what I do for a living is work on cars, Acuras and Hondas in particular.  This weekend I got to spend some quality time with my own car. My daily driver is a 1992 Accord EX with 450,000 miles on it.

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Mr Rogers Theology

Written By: admin - Mar• 18•12

I recently heard a story on the radio of how Fred Rogers once gave a tidbit of advice to a young MTV executive. It was this, “Deep and simple always triumphs over shallow and complex”.

As I reflected on that simple little statement I realized how much truth is in it and I recalled watching an ‘educational’ channel a few nights before trying to ‘explain’ how our earth and the other planets got there moons. It was an hour long indoctrination into how the universe, which we are told is ever expanding, could suck little rock and gaseous particles into the magnetic fields of the planets and over millions of years the globs of space debris made moons. Or the opposing view that meteors smashed into the planets at just the right angle and speed so as to not bounce off into space or head-on in such a way as to drive themselves into the very core of the planet, or maybe meteors hit the planets and caused the planets rotation to wobble and sling off a portion of it’s own mass into it’s own gravitational field as a moon. Sounds pretty complex to me.
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Some Great Old Southern Gospel Music

Written By: admin - Feb• 29•12

My first experience with Christian music was with the Bill Gaither Trio in the 1970′s. Back then they were called contemporary, but they were part of what became known as Southern Gospel music, which is interesting since the Gaithers hail from Indiana. Not exactly southern they way most people define southern. But there is no denying that they paved the way for Southern Gospel to make the turn from the starchy quartets of earlier days. Not a thing wrong with quartets at all, the Gaithers just brought a much needed sparkle to the genre.

One of my all-time favourite southern gospel quartets has got to be Gold City. I had the opportunity to see them live at my former church, Temple Baptist in Lewisville, NC. Brian Free was still the tenor of the group and I have to say that the radio does no justice for his vocal range and God-given talent. Anyway, here are a few of Gold City’s songs that I came across tonight. Wonderful music of praise and exultation.
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Where I Belong

Written By: admin - Feb• 19•12

This is a group that has come of age in the past few years. When I first heard of them about 10 years ago, they were a little too rock and roll for my taste.

What’s interesting to me is that a one of the former guitarists, Paul Bowden is the brother of a young lady that was in our choir before she married and moved away. Great sound and message.

What Contemporary Christian Music Should Be (IMHO)

Written By: admin - Feb• 18•12

In my last post I was lamenting that state of Contemporary Christian music. It seems to me that the main thing, worship, has been forgotten and too many churches use music that we hear on the radio, well, because it’s popular. The missing point is not the popularity in the music industry space, but the worship of the Saviour. But I’m not going to leave that point on a negative note. No, I’m going to show what I believe is music that inspires worship.

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The Main Thing Is That The Main Thing Remains The Main Thing

Written By: admin - Feb• 16•12

I have been asking myself more and more recently, exactly what is Contemporary Christian music these days? I remember going with my mom to the see the Bill Gaither Trio back in the 1970′s. That was contemporary Christian music for those days. I recall Stryper and Petra in the 80′s, I didn’t really like them, to me it was head banging rock. But I did like Sandi Patti and Amy Grant. Of course I’m old enough to recall Amy Grant touring with the Gaithers.

Today the Christian Music genre has become a bit more complicated. What we call contemporary might be sub-categorized into Praise & Worship, Christian Rock or whatever else. And to my dismay, I’m finding that much of it is no longer singable by the majority of Christians today. No really, most of the new contemporary Christian music cannot be easily sang in churches. Too many would be worshipers stand and listen to a band each Sunday rather than engaging in worship themselves.

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Is Anything Made In The U.S.A.?

Written By: admin - Jan• 31•12

I recently had cause to go shopping for a new shovel. Nothing fancy, just a plain round nose shovel with the intention of digging up a dying tree. As usual I don’t automatically reach for the least expensive, and certainly not the most expensive, I tend to evaluate purchases based on value and my perceived fitness for a task. In this situation I won’t be using the shovel daily like a landscaper for instance, but I don’t want junk either.

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Is It Profiling To Want To Be Safe?

Written By: admin - Jan• 21•12

I have always been somewhat of a homebody. I like the area I live in and have not ventured far from home. The furthest north I have been is northern Pennsylvania; the furthest west, just into Tennessee; the furthest south is a tie between Savannah and Metro  Atlanta. I grew up in the rural outskirts of a small city and have had no desire to go to a big city like New York, Chicago, Tampa, Los Angeles or Dallas. If I believe half of what I see on television shows about those cities, why would I want to go there in the first place?

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On The Mend – Part 2

Written By: admin - Jan• 20•12

It’s been a week since I wrenched my back working on the Civic Hybrid. I’m doing mostly better, yesterday morning was painful, maybe it was the classic ‘I slept wrong’ syndrome. Right now it’s OK.

Civic Hybrid Battery Module

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