April Greetings

I have no issue with remembering the Lord's death at Easter or his birth at Christmas. Weought to be mature adults and mature Christians to understand the extras we participate in have no relation to Christ. If you want to die eggs and send the kiddos out to hunt them down more power to you but it is not of Christian origin. Just isn't for me. 

Does it really bother you all that I disregard the secular traditions that are practiced with our religious holidays and focus on the essentials?  I've never said ya'll going o hell because you don't like KJV, die eggs, or teach Santa.

The Pharisees were "Religious Attorneys".

They Cut, Dissected, and Interpreted the Scriptures, then wagged their fingers and passed judgement on those who did not fall into line with their teachings.

The only people that I am aware of whom Jesus rebuked were the Pharisees (and Satan, but he's not a "people").

I am not calling anyone a "Pharisee", but only saying that I try to go out of my way to not emulate them.

I guess there's a fine line there somewhere. I agree with Claymore that we're not to be modern day Pharisees, but I also believe that we are to help bring those around us up to higher standards when we can. NOW, we're not always right in what we think, so I believe that it's good to keep in mind that we're called to sharpen each other like "iron sharpens iron". Which one is "better"? Neither all the time, but either sometimes. Jesus is the rock that we should all go back to to really sharpen our sword! Everything else is just keeping the rust off. In my mind that puts things into perspective when I go into a disagreement with someone on anything outside of my life and death beliefs; Jesus is God's son, Jesus is the only way to heaven, etc.

I don't really have an opinion on eggs. I never understood the bunny aspect, but I guess I assumed the dyed eggs represented Jesus taking on the sins of the world and then pealing them represented when he arose white as snow. But I never studied it...

I like what Paul said. If it convicts you then don't eat it. Yet don't put your convictions on others as they may not have that conviction.

Coming out of a cult that is wrapped up in legalism and do's and do not's. I like Pauls way so much better.

Again if we get into the leagalisms then you can no longer say Monday, Tuesday and so on... months of the year.. yup so many things that it would make one almost useless.

I also think when you have kids it makes you stop and think of the fun your cutting out for your kids. I know I had a bunch cut out for no real reason other than someone elses conviction. It's a sad thing to me. So many years of no Christmas....it's a pagan holiday.

Mark Jones

Phillip Gross wrote: I never understood the bunny aspect

Bunnies have a very powerful lobby, and they always seek to expand their influence and power. After all, if one can attack a president and get away scot-free, that says something.

When one shares a conviction don't ASSume I am putting that on others. 

The bunny is an animal that represent a fertility goddess because of its high rate reproduction. The coloring of eggs has its roots in human child sacrifice, the eggs were dipped in human blood to gain her favor. 

We can celebrate the resurrection and remember his death and even celebrate his birth without all the other foorahrah without being labeled a pharisee or Satan. Jesus never cared for the traditions of the elders either. 

Can Easter and Christmas be exciting times of the year without the non essentials that are allegedly so much fun that I am "warping" my future children's minds by depriving them?  

I much prefer to know the truth of something and make an informed decision. Unfortunately, most people are sheep and tend to follow the one ahead of them. They get angry if their illusions are shattered or even questioned. 

Philip, I agree in our quest to be anti-pharisee we could end up like many mainline churches that accept gay clergy. I mean barring gays is so legalistic...  At some point we draw the line, we all have a line somewhere.

I have been there Dan.  Had the book tshirt and the bitterness.  When we are hiding eggs with my 2 AG Pastors and my 4 Term AG Missionary at their home...were not doing any of those things your talking about.  We are sharing family time laughing and watching our children take a basket and gather candy in plastic containers that resemble a egg.  Nothing more precious than to see your granddaughter that is 2 years old open one and say Crookers for crackers and CANDIE for Candy.  Precious times for sure.  All the time giving God praise and thanking Him for what he did at the Cross for us.  

I can take Christmas and Birthdays and using the Bible could paint anyone doing those things as pagans.  I know better because we are not doing what they did back then.  Even though we are doing simulair things..it's not for Pagan reasons.  It's for family, fun and to God be the Glory. It's whats in your heart that matters.  

Mark Jones

RRCmdrBennett wrote:When one shares a conviction don't ASSume I am putting that on others. 

The bunny is an animal that represent a fertility goddess because of its high rate reproduction. The coloring of eggs has its roots in human child sacrifice, the eggs were dipped in human blood to gain her favor. 

We can celebrate the resurrection and remember his death and even celebrate his birth without all the other foorahrah without being labeled a pharisee or Satan. Jesus never cared for the traditions of the elders either. 

Can Easter and Christmas be exciting times of the year without the non essentials that are allegedly so much fun that I am "warping" my future children's minds by depriving them?  

I much prefer to know the truth of something and make an informed decision. Unfortunately, most people are sheep and tend to follow the one ahead of them. They get angry if their illusions are shattered or even questioned. 

Philip, I agree in our quest to be anti-pharisee we could end up like many mainline churches that accept gay clergy. I mean barring gays is so legalistic...  At some point we draw the line, we all have a line somewhere.

you guys are getting a little heavy for the greetings thread   

Had a busy week. ended up with 42 hours at the end of Thursday, so I got Friday off    nice 3 day weekend

ccm2361 wrote:you guys are getting a little heavy for the greetings thread

But in three days, it will be May, we will have a new thread going, and this will be relinquished to the Dustpan of the Archives.

(Kind-of an appropriate resting place for a thread that gets a bit testy.)

Claymore wrote:

ccm2361 wrote:you guys are getting a little heavy for the greetings thread  

But in three days, it will be May, we will have a new thread going, and this will be relinquished to the Dustpan of the Archives.

(Kind-of an appropriate resting place for a thread that gets a bit testy.)

Or I could split it into its own topic and we can discuss it till Jesus returns... Haha. If I got too testy I should have added, "bless their hearts".

On a lighter note I have completed my first week as Dairy/Frozen Supervisor. The store mgr and the asst mgr over Fresh Zone completed a tour of dairy with me on Fri. The tour went well. My store mgr's style is to use the tours to train the MS over a dept to be able to improve it ourselves. He doesn't just hand out notes to do this or that and asks open ended questions to get us thinking of what to look for. 

I learned several things that products are designed with a color scheme to easily catch our eye and separate their products from the competitor's line up. I actually taught him that scanning the price tag doesn't help when using scan to set. He was impressed I knew that. My asst mgr chimed in I was the best stocker they had from overnights. Feedback from my Zone MS was The store mgr was happy overall wih dairy. We'll probably tour frozen next week. Today all my MS "super powers" finally kicked in so I can manually order and reduce price points on soon to be expired merchandise. My email access is back. For some reason since Thurs a week ago I couldn't login to it. I think there was an outlook exchange upgrade that screwed it up. Half the people I explained it to said regular associates don't get an email and others say yes. I had emails sitting in my box from 7 yrs ago. I also have been getting recall emails and job offers since I passed the MS assessment test. Having the email account allowed me to inform management of our progress and keep my old MS aware of what he needed to do on my days off. I know that sounds odd to be managing your boss. Even though it was addressed to my old MS he taught me if I send emails to CC the entire chain of command up to store mgr. I used it to get myself in their crosshairs for promotion.

It's going to be a great month! A even greater year! Growth is on it's way!

Amen to that!

We had tornadoes rip through the area today.

Since we have the only full/finished basement in the family, our home was the "rally point".  Thirteen people in all, ranging in age from 7 to 80.

We had microwave, refrigerator, and watched the weather on TV.  The local Weatherman had to call for evacuation, as a tornado swept through Tupelo.

To see the video, go to the link & click the "play" arrow on the weather man.  They were just switching on "backup" power as this video begins:

About 3/4 way into the video, there is about a 5-second hesitation, but it picks up again.

Also, you can hear the noise from the tornado increase, as they leave the studio:

http://fox10tv.com/2014/04/28/tornardo-forces-meteorologist-to-evacuate-station-on-live-tv/

wow!   
glad you guys came through it all right

Yeah.  Today the weatherman predicted more of the same, so we had another Basement Storm Party.

However, nothing other than some threatening clouds and a bit of rain.  Oh well, better safe than sorry.  There was at least 1 fatality 40 miles to our west.

We're not in Mississippi anymore...

There's no place like home...

    
been very rainy here. I got soaked yesterday, delivering to grocery stores. brought in quite a few soggy boxes

Just got back from district council. On our way there on Monday, we were driving through fresh snow. The plows threw 4" off 30 miles of freeway just before we got there.   

Bumping 80 degrees with moist air.

(Plenty of fuel for the Tornadoes.)