What We Need

He knows what we need: http://awaken2008.com/blog/?p=33

What somebody else says we need :-)
http://www.greg-and-sue.com/2008/03/07/straight-preaching-on-bible-translations/

Are Catholics in a False Cult?

The current candidate flap has it that one of the frontrunners received an endorsement from a fundamentalist: John Hagee. This evangelical San Antonio pastor (of a church of 19,000 members) has a TV show (seen and heard weekly in 99 million homes), places an emphasis on prophecy and support of Israel, and has allegedly referred to the Catholic Church as a “false cult system.” (I don't know why I should use the word “allegedly,” you can watch it on YouTube.) Politics is not my gig, but before you decide what category to put the Catholic Church in, consider this.

BBC News reports that the current Pope, Benedict XVI, is giving plenary indulgences to every Catholic that will visit Lourdes (southwest France) from now till December 8. He says it will lessen their time spent in purgatory.

I am not making this up! http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7131088.stm You can redeem this coupon in honor of the 150th anniversary of the Blessed Virgin Mary “allegedly” appearing to a peasant shepherd girl there (sorry, no YouTube for this one).

Conveniently, the Pope has opened direct air service from Rome to Lourdes. What if you still can't go? The Pope assures us that if you pray at any place of worship dedicated to the Madonna of Lourdes (hey, isn't there a “Lady of Lourdes” Catholic church down by Gregory Blvd?) then you can still have your indulgence. Oh wait! That coupon was only good from Feb. 2-11th. It's already expired! Holy crap.

The Pope will take advantage of his own offer when he visits Lourdes in September—although I didn't think Popes needed indulgences. Hmmm.

The decree was signed by American Cardinal J Francis Stafford, who is head of the Apostolic Penitentiary. Holy crap again! As if purgatory wasn’t enough, they have a Penn run by the apostles!

What is an indulgence? Indulgences were made infamous by Martin Luther because they were being sold (instead of gained the old fashioned way—by being earned). To quote the BBC: A plenary indulgence offers full pardon of the temporal punishment (suffering in this life or the next) due to sins already forgiven in confession.

Wait, I’m confused. Already forgiven, yet still being punished for them. Maybe we should consult the Enchiridion of Indulgences (it’s sort of like the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Dungeons & Dragons; or maybe more like the Monster Manual). I think what it really shows is that like a lot of false cult groups (Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, etc.) they use Christian terminology with unbiblical meanings.

Allow me to illustrate that accusation. According to catholic.org, “forgiveness of a sin is separate from punishment for the sin. Through sacramental confession we obtain forgiveness, but we aren’t let off the hook as far as punishment goes.” Whoa, Batman! I believe the Bible would classify that as holy crap.

How does one get an indulgence? Catholic World News (and they should know) says it is when you participate in a mass (where God is cannibalized) and complete certain usual conditions (sacramental Confession, Communion, prayer for the Pope’s intentions, and the absence of attachment to sin. Holy crap, missed it again!). Sometimes partial indulgences are granted just for praying. The standard prayers for the Pope are one Our Father and one Creed—though you’re free to substitute other prayers (just in case you wanted to know). Even making the Sign of the Cross has a partial indulgence attached to it. Don’t ask me what percentage a partial indulgence is, or how much longer you will have to suffer in purgatory if you don’t take the full one or I will send you to the apostle’s prison.

Actually, some pious acts and holy prayer recitations did carry an indication of time like “300 days,” “two years,” “a day after doomsday.” Just kidding on that last one. (This is only on really old prayer cards and books, because they changed the Enchiridion in 1967, since Protestants were calling it a cult system.) So a good Catholic will now only tell you your temporal punishment will be reduced as God sees fit. No guarantees that the coupon is actually worth what you are paying in airfare. (If you read the fine print, their web site says, “it's quite possible that even evidently good people, who seek plenary indulgences regularly, never, in their whole lives, obtain one.” Holy crap!)

Who decides what indulgences to give? The Pope. He decrees them.

What is purgatory then? You're asking good questions. Purgatory is a kind of spiritual waiting room for people who are not good enough to go directly to heaven, but not bad enough to go to hell after they die. Since they have not earned their way in by accumulating enough merit during this life, they must suffer more in order to purify their soul of residual sin.

I know. Fulton Sheen and the Knights of Columbus tell you it’s a doctrine full of comfort for the believing Catholic. Cultic and false? Certainly holy crap.

Life in the Blender

If you could read my mind love
What a tale my thoughts could tell
Just like an old time movie
About a ghost from a wishing well
In a castle dark or a fortress strong
With chains upon my feet
You know that ghost is me
And I will never be set free
As long as I’m a ghost that you can’t see

—Gordon Lightfoot, 1969

There are unseen prisoners in our community. It is the children of dysfunctional families. Like ghosts, they are chained in childrearing nightmares from which they feel they will never get free. And they never will, as long as they are the ghosts that we won't see.

But don’t lose hope. The greater majority of families described in the Bible are just like families today: blended. Parents, singly or with a partner, are raising children from multiple biological relationships. Most families in the Bible were not strong nuclear configurations.

It goes back as to Abraham, the father of the faith. He had numbers of children from three wives. Most of the children were a “second family” raised after Sarah died. But during Sarah’s lifetime he sired a son from her servant. This led to issues later on.

Jacob was married to a cross-eyed lady he didn’t love, but she kept having kids for him. So he loved Rachel, but had sex with Leah. Desperate for children (even if they were adopted), Rachel let Jacob sleep with her servant girl. Afraid that she would lose her lead in the son-birthing competition, Leah did the same with her own handmaid. So now Joseph (the only normal one among the kids) grows up in a household with stepbrothers from multiple women. The oldest brother has an affair with his father's concubine.

As American philosopher Elbert (not L. Ron) Hubbard pointed out, “Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.” Or to say it another way, the difference between genius and stupidity is that there are limitations on genius. Stupid goes forever.

But God is faithful, and the word of God not only addresses these relationships without condemnation, but shows us Bible principles that will redeem them. So when it comes to blended family function we have one word: don’t wreck it, redeem it by reconciliation. Watch!

Use a 3G Strategy
A. Grieve loss
B. Grant forgiveness
C. Get on with life

If you are parenting from the position of the blender remember, relationships with stepchildren develop slowly. And adding the Ex makes life complex. So how do we

Handle-Up on Blended Family Business
1. Carefully and prayerfully pick the person you are going to parent with

Hello somebody! Wake up before you lay down!

2. If you are married to the biological mother or father of some of all of your kids, use Bible principles to make that marriage work

When 25 percent of children are born out of wedlock (as is the case in the Anglo community), that’s a problem of epidemic proportions. When closer to 70 percent are born out of wedlock (as in the African-American community), that’s a pandemic of biblical proportions because it blocks the human and social reservoir of wisdom between generations. It handcuffs kids as soon as they are born. The result is that while more than 1 in 100 Americans is imprisoned right now (1.6 million in Federal lock-up and over 700,000 in local jails), 1 in 36 Hispanic men are, and 1 in 15 black men are incarcerated. So today an average of $1 billion per state is spent on “corrections,” compared with only $11 billion total 20 years ago. All of China, with over 1.3 billion people, only has 1.5 million people in jail. Sounds like “corrections facilities” don’t, and blame must be laid at the foot of the fathers that conceived kids but did not raise them.

3. If you are now in a blended family, view it providentially and perfect it biblically

Endure the hardness, because you are being supported by God’s providence. That means, since God’s providence has eyes, God is on your side, adjusting his actions in response to your reactions. You won’t get that last statement till day after tomorrow, so I'll just go on.

4. Activate God’s providence by prayer (read Isaiah 57:15)

Prayer will enable you to persevere because it allows you to gain perspective.

5. Since love is irresistible, responding like Christ (with meekness and humility) will seal the spirit of your home and set the pace for perfecting your parenting

You are called to be an image-caster in the home. God uses the specific problems you are now facing to call you to Christlikeness, and force you to change. Either get soft or be broken so I can give you

Some Strategies for Success
A. Advance as a team

There is competition and comparison enough. If everybody on your team won’t advance with the team, then you advance with Christ, and the two of you will make a majority.

B. Avoid bashing the step-parent

C. Arrive at negotiated solutions by walking to the center from the extremes

Don’t put yourself out on a limb, paint yourself into a corner, or put yourself on the ropes. Stop making extreme demands or drawing a line in the sand. Don’t insist based on “principle;” just argue for Bible principles. Leave demands and ultimatums to God, because he is the only one who can enforce them.

D. Acknowledge that rules imposed without relationship breed rebellion

Reach your child’s heart before you impose structure. And whatever you do, don’t lose control and go out of control because someone else won’t let you control them. Instead, get in your prayer closet, regain your composure, and do nothing until you have trusted God by faith to show you what to do in the situation that will make you more like Jesus.

E. Appreciate everything until further notice (which will not come until a day after Doomsday)

F. Appeal to your higher authority when they disrespect your authority

Parenting is tough. The difficulties are many. You are not immune to pain. And it is in the midst of your weakness that God desires to make his strength known.

The Gap Fact

Is there a gap between Gen 1:1 and verse 2? Charles Taylor with Ken Ham’s AnswersinGenesis organization says no (see http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v18/i2/replenish.asp).

Let’s consider some common objections to the gap fact.

Objection 1. Romans 5:12 that tells us that it was through Adam that sin entered into the world. God made the world perfect and He called it good. If there was death, destruction and sin underneath all that He made, the foundations, it would not have been good.

Answer 1. We know that "by one man sin entered into the world" refers to the fall of the human race (see verse 19 in the same chapter).

Satan had not only already entered into the world in Genesis, but even entered into the Garden of Eden, and he had fallen prior to that. As far as that goes, Eve—one woman—fell into sin before Adam did. This is another way we know this phrase refers to Adam's fall and his passing-on that sin line when he had children. To get technical, it might not be incorrect to say that sin entered "the world" after Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and forced to till the land in Gen 3:23.

Satan had obviously already fallen when he showed up as the serpent to Eve, or else he could not have tempted them. So under the "foundations" of the world there was already sin in the universe.

Even now, after the fall of Adam, there are still things God calls "good," and we are far removed from the original creation. As a matter of fact, Deut 32:4 and Ps 104:14-17 are true right now, after the fall. God still calls his work perfect, even after the fall into sin and the curse. So the fact of Satan's fall and a cataclysm in the universe would not prevent God from calling his creative acts in Gen 1 "good."

Objection 2. It is kind of like Calvinism. The people who believe it insert their views into passages of the Bible or read the Bible with that view in mind. So when they read the word replenish, and don't consider that the Hebrew means "to fill", they read into it... "Ah ha! There's another proof that there was a Gap.”

Answer 2. Well, Satan fell someplace. It may have been before Gen 1:1 or before Gen 1:2. So Rom 5:12 and Gen 1:31 do not prevent it in either place. It could have easily happened between Gen 1 verses 1 and 2 in order to provide an explanation for why the earth was without form and void, and dark after God created it.

So rather than reading any "view" back into these verses, I simply count on the consistency of God and compare scripture with scripture. The only other place the earth is "without form and void" is in a context of divine judgment (Jer 4:23,26) whether interpreted as being originally spoken in prophetic foreview or not.

Objection 3. The people who made up the gap theory were people who desperately wanted the Bible to match up to science and that is their way of making it happen.

Answer 3. Seeing the gap between verse 1 and 2 was normative dispensationalism for decades.

I do not believe anyone can substantiate the statement that those people (Scofield, Haldeman, Grant, Chafer, Pember, Unger, and others) were in any way "desperate to make the Bible match up with science." That is simply slander. I don't believe anyone has shown a citation from any writing or any of their preaching where they said that. And to read that motive onto someone who takes the gap interpretation is simply wrong. I don't know any of them that believed in a local flood either (although there may have been, as there are today even among "creationists”), and I would say I am pretty familiar with their writings.

Objection 4. An examination of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) shows that the word was used to mean ‘fill’ from the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries. In no case quoted in these five centuries does it unambiguously mean ‘re-fill’.

Answer 4. This is an example of "bad form," as the British would say, but it is a quote from Chuck Taylor at the answersingenesis web site. I have the OED (compact edition in 2 vol, printed four pages to a page; it comes with a magnifying glass you have to use to read it).

Of the ten usages cited, the ninth is indeed "to fill up again." The source cited from 1612 does not mean this is the first time the word is used that way (they trace it from the French), but simply the first example they give.

Its example alone gives the lie to the statement that "in no case quoted in these five centuries does it unambiguously mean ‘re-fill’" (there is even another unambiguous example given from Pepys Diary of 1666!).

I understand the semantics, but it is hard to see how something could be "released" if it had not been loosed at one time previously and now bound. Same with relax (to make lax again).

The statement is made by Ken Ham's people, that the "French word remplir ...doesn’t mean ‘refill’, but ‘fill’." Hmmm? Wordreference.com French-English dictionary says that one of the meanings of remplir is to stock (in the sense of re-fill), just like with the English word. The compound form remplir de nouveau means replenish (fill again).

But maybe we should just go to a more accessible reference. Yourdictionary.com:
re·plen·ish (ri plen′is̸h)
transitive verb
1. to make full or complete again, as by furnishing a new supply to replenish a stock of goods
2. to supply again with fuel or the like
Etymology: ME replenissen <>

I simply use this as the example because it was first to come up in a Google search. Seems to me like answersingenesis people are the ones who read ideas into things because they have an axe to grind. At least, I do not feel they have offered enough examples to show that King James translators would have had any different view of the word than we do (and their comments about the French seem to me to be very suspect).

Here's another example of bias from them. "Quite clearly the idea of refilling is completely absent from the Hebrew." Well, only in the same way that it is "absent" from the English word, fill. If I say that I filled my glass, that does not preclude that that it had not been filled before. "Absent" from the Hebrew cannot mean that the idea is excluded by the Hebrew, but Ham's web site apparently does not want to admit this possibility.

Bottom line is that usage determines meaning in the Bible, because it is the self-contained mind of God for man. So you can say what you want about Gen 1:28. Gen 9:1 (same word) is clearly a re-filling. So whatever the case, at the very least it does not argue against there being a gap, and more appropriately (usage determining meaning, and with the close context of 9:1 to 1:28) would argue the other way. I'm not sure the translators would have to "convey" anything about its meaning in 1:28, since its usage in 9:1 helps define it more clearly.

Obejction 5. In any case, such erroneous theories, invented in response to the ‘millions of years’ idea, must hold to the unbiblical notion that there was death and suffering before Adam’s sin.

Answer 5. Whether there was "death and suffering" before Adam's sin is a moot point. Ken Ham has an ongoing tiff with Hugh Ross about this, because Ross places apelike hominids as existing before Adam was created in Eden—but I don't see how that really has anything directly to do with the gap issue. There was certainly sin before Adam's sin (or else there would not be a serpent). Sin brings forth death, although there was not human death before Adam's sin because of the state of innocence he was created in. Did animals die prior to the fall? I don't know, but the plants certainly did when Adam ate them!

So for someone to say nothing happened between verses 1 and 2 that is not mentioned in Genesis, is fine. They still have to put Isa 14 and Ezek 28 someplace before Gen 3:1. But to slander someone who puts it between Gen 1:1 and verse 2 instead of between Gen 1:31 and 2:1 (for example) or between 2:25 and 3:1 (or somewhere else in between), is simply wrong to do. There is at least scriptural warrant from the cross references to put it between Gen 1:1 and 1:2. Otherwise, I suppose any man can do "that which is right in his own eyes" and put it wherever he wants.

Painting Over Your Flaws

I. AMNON DESIRES TAMAR, 1-10
A. Evil Suggestion, 1-5
1. Record of mental abuse, 1-2
2. Record of psychological abuse, 3-5
B. Ungodly Subtlety, 6-10
II. AMNON DEFILES TAMAR, 11-19
A. Record of Sexual Abuse, 11-14
B. Reaction of a Sinful Attitude, 15-19
1. Record of verbal abuse, 15-17
2. Record of emotional abuse, 18-19
III. ABSALOM COUNSELS TAMAR, 20

I come to class well prepared, but most Sundays the Holy Spirit prompts me to say things not in my notes, or not part of my preparation. Some of those things are probably better than the thoughts on my outline sheets.

Last Sunday we talked about painting over your flaws from 2 Sam 13:1-20, both parental faults and imperfections left from how your parents raised you. We pointed out that

Thesis: Parenting is so pivotal and primary in a child's development that what you end up being has a lot to do with who you come from.

That is why, it takes contemplating the Lord Jesus Christ in order to become like him. Turn toward evil, and you become more like the Devil because sin erases God's original image and starts to implant another one. (It is this idea of spiritual transference that is behind the Lord's command to make disciples. Our discipleship ministry is based on the premise that Christ's character can be passed-on from one mature person to another by utilizing the Bible and the Holy Spirit's help.)

Num 14:18 The LORD is ... visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.

If children see dysfunction they will perpetrate dysfunctionality. They become a next-generation abuser. So whatever you do as a parent gives direction to your child's destiny!

Point 1. It is good for us to recognize who we are based on who we came from, and then biblically process our genetic predispositions based on whose we are and who we have become in Jesus Christ.

Get a grip on your genes. Otherwise past parental influence will become your puppeteer, invisibly pulling your strings. You've got to face your flaws in order to fix them. Don't paint over without patching, or else the dysfunction will still be there. Such was the case with King David and his kids. Let me pause here parenthetically to point out that

Point 2. We’ve got to stop our fake approach to life and start having a faith approach to life.

We've got to seek God's face for more grace to correct our genes. But that's okay, because

Point 3. God specializes in taking bad genes out of your background, and setting you up by grace to get godly results out of your foreground.

1 Sam 13 provides us with the footprints of mental (vv 1-2) and psychological abuse (vv 3-5), on the pathway to sexual abuse (11-14), verbal abuse (15-17) and emotional abuse (18-19).

We unpacked all that on Sunday, but let me just give you the answer. Any idea that is not godly should be ignored. (I just gave you the answer!)

2 Tim 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

If you do not ignore it by enduring it, Satan will bring to your attention some subtle way of getting it. Hello somebody! You have the disease of dwelling on it! That's easy to fall into, because

Point 4. Satan has an agenda to make what you have going for you be used against you.

Amnon engages in sexual dealing to try and get emotional healing. So now he ends up treating Tamar according to what he really thought of her (you'll have to go back and read the passage to get that). So let me tell you how to

PAINT OVER YOUR FLAWS
1. Something bad may have happened, but you can fix whatever you are willing to face with faith

Okay, I'm about to give you the answer again. You can fix anything you are willing to let God tell you how to think about. (I just gave you the answer!) How'd you miss that, all these years? You can fix anything you will process through the Bible and apply its principles as your balm for healing.

In verse 20 Absalom counsels his sister and says "regard not this thing." Or as the James Gang inserts into your margin, "Set not your heart on this thing.” So

2. Do not allow what happens to you to get in you, because then it cannot make a victim out of you

This is biblical counsel on how to handle your memory. Be determined that your inner man is going to take a stand and perform up to Bible principles.

Psa 143:3-6 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul; he hath smitten my life down to the ground; he hath made me to dwell in darkness, as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate. I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land. Selah.

Do the three things David says do. This is your therapy:
(1) Remember
(2) Meditate
(3) Muse (self-counsel)

Handle your mind by what you put in memory, what you meditate on, and how you talk to yourself. That will be $125, your session time is up.

If you stuff your emotions it will turn to bitterness and depression.
If you vent your emotions you are a bigger fool than the one who hurt you.
Muse your emotions, and HOLD UP YOUR END OF PRAISE!

Job 11:13,15-16 If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; …then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear: Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away:

God won't always give you the answer, but he always gives you grace. That will be another $25.

3. If you remember your name you can always rise above your shame

Neither Amnon nor Tamar is living up to their name. Amnon means faithful and Tamar means palm tree. A palm tree is someone whose longevity is based on their flexibility, and who always walks in victory, because they've turned their root into a “tap root” that has discovered invisible resources deep inside.

If you remember who you are in Jesus, you can rise above anything that happened to you in Adam. Handle-up on your parenting. Parent up!

Rescuing At-Risk Children

My position as President of the school board for a charter school in urban KC gives me a window on the world of at-riskedness.

AN EXPERIENTIAL EXEGESIS OF AT-RISKEDNESS
1. We are a nation with children (35 percent of our population is under 25)
2. Too many of our children are growing up without a father in the home (the 2000 census says 31 percent)
3. Kids raising kids, and kids who raise themselves are susceptible to gangs, AIDS, premarital parenthood, and at-risk of failing school

The thing that is obvious is the reason Satan and his world system has gotten into our kids’ heads is because Christians have gotten out of being overt testimonies to God’s grace in our place. The church has stopped being the church in the community. This is a shame, because God knows you’re not loving him if you are not living for him. So what can we say about setting the stage for the next generation?

1. The public policies of a church can have ill personal consequences for a community
2. We need people in church who know the Master to offer a key to the community that will open doors out of their dysfunction

Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland, also wrote another story most people have never heard of. It's a story about a padlock, just an ordinary padlock, except that it was alive. It had long thin arms and was always nervous and running in every direction like a chicken with its head cut off.

So padlock, with arms flailing, comes upon another character who stops the nervous padlock and inquires, What is wrong with you? Why are you always so unhappy and running around like you have no purpose nor idea what you're doing? Waving his thin arms over his head, the padlock replies, "I'm looking for the key to unlock myself."

Is that not the predicament of so many children in our community, who find themselves locked-up by life? They are looking for a key to unlock their hopes, their dreams, and aspirations. We’ve got to make our lives a testimony as well as making our words a witness, so that we can engage our community in a taste for God’s grace. When we do not,

3. The personal crises of parents eventuate in an identity crisis for their kids

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Not, all things are new (not past tense), but all things are become new over time as Bible principles are applied. This is the hope in walking with God. There is hope in an un-grieved Holy Ghost. The church needs to be involved in passing on an identity based in an image: the Lord Jesus.

A Word from the Major's Wife

A friend I know is an officer with the KCMO PD, and he does double duty as a Major in the armed forces. He is part of a civilian affairs unit and recently redeployed. Just to keep it real, here is what goes on when a serviceman or woman of that rank leaves to do their duty for us

Flying in Opposite Directions

This past week, I was able to spend 3 days with Chris at Ft. Bragg. I just flew home today. Chris also got on a plane and flew to Kuwait. He’ll be there for about two weeks before moving forward. He will not have a definite address until they know where they’ll be in Iraq. As of right now, even that is uncertain. He was supposed to work in Tikrit, but with the military nothing is ever definite so pray about the location of where he’ll be.

Ft. Bragg

I had visited Chris at Ft. Bragg at least 4x in 2003 while the unit was waiting for Turkey’s border to open up at the beginning of the war. I had flashbacks being on base again. I did his laundry for him, then followed him around and experienced a typical day with him.

He deals with a lot of people issues in a day! He had to release an officer from responsibility, counsel another officer, fight for two promotions for his Soldiers and stood his ground on a lot of other issues in order to take care of his personnel. I told him that many people had been telling me that they were praying for him. He said to let you know that your prayers are working on his behalf. It is a very stressful environment and they hadn’t even left the country yet! However, Chris is handling everything very well. He is a good leader. He has some very good young Soldiers under him. We took 5 of his guys out to dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. We celebrated his birthday. The restaurant embarrasses you, so the guys have good videos to bribe him in the future!

The Green Ramp

This is the location where Soldiers fly out. This morning, Chris used his last hour in the States to call his whole family – that would be 9 other siblings and his parents! He also called Hope and Andrew at their school and talked to them. Today was Andrew’s birthday. Hope’s was last week. They were very brave on the phone with him. He cried. They didn’t.

ThanksMany thanks to all of you for praying for us. It is too much to go into detail how God is working in the little things in our lives. We see His Hand in the weather condition allowing me to fly to/from NC, in an encouraging phone call at just the right time, in the way He gives us grace to deal with unpleasant people and circumstances.

They are still in the air as I write this, so pray when you read this.