Book Lover's Diary: Dick Van Dyke

Dick Van Dyke: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business

2011

A Memoir

Foreword by Carl Reiner

I'd say 6 out of 10? Depends on what you're looking for. I love Dick Van Dyke, despite his having what might be the worst name in the world if you think about it? (Don't.) Very easy to read. Traces how one thing led to another, and how timing and persistence helped him score early. A comedian and song-and-dance guy if needed, but also was on Diagnosis: Murder for TEN YEARS. Fun reading to see how this contact and that one and this play and that act and all like that sort of lined up for him, and how he got past his failures.

My goal now is to see "Mary Poppins" again, one of the great all-time pieces of cinematic entertainment.

OK! Onward ...

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Life-Altering Principles ('Mentor' Series)

(my notes from Dr. Chris' Sunday morning effort, 2/10/12)

1 Timothy 2: 1-8

1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.
8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.

1. God Wants Everyone To Be Savedvs. 4 "(God) who wants all to be saved..."
vs. 2 -- asks prayers even for Nero, who'd killed Christians, and prayers for leaders everywhere, including in Ephesus where Timothy was pastor.

Understanding God's Will
1. God's Absolute will -- all will die and face judgement, Christ will return, etc
2. God's Permissive will -- do i have mustard or ketchup? you can decide!
3. God's Perfect will -- our choices, where we respond to him or now

2. Salvation is Found only In Christvs. 5 -- "there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ

Christ must be RECEIVED...
John 1:12: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children ...
Rev 3:20 -- Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me...


3. He Paid the Full Price for Our Sins
vs. 6

4. What Do We Need To Do?a. let these soak in from our heads to our hearts
b. Pray a lot for people (vs. 1 -- "FIRST, PRAY...")
c. Make sure you've crossed the bridge, come to an 'experienced knowledge (v 4) of the truth...

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Book Lover's Diary

My bad. Books read this year. In order since January. Rated on a corny scale of 1-to-10, with 10 being the best. Sigh...

Voyage of the Dawn Treader
C.S. Lewis
6
Part of the Narnia deal. It's good!


Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Last Comanche Tribe
S.C. Gwynne
6 --- The first half of it's a 9. Lot of things I didn't know about the (typecast?) Indians of the Plains, such as, before the Spanish got there -- no horses! Fast horses changed the ol' ballgame.

The Killer Angels, Michael Shaara, 8.5 --- Read it for the second time, first time in 15 years. Three days at Gettysburg. Won the Pulitzer, I think in 1977

The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest, Steig Larson. ------ I'll give FIRE an 8 and HORNET'S NEST a 6.5. I saw "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" at the movie and my spousal unit, who read the book, suggested I skip the book if I wanted because I knew the characters now and all like that. I am saddened that the author is dead (at only age 56?), and one reason is that this character, the Dragon Tattoo girl, was a neat (not the word I'm looking for -- intriguing? really interesting?) character I'd never met before. Neither of these books were 'sensory,' but both were good good good stories that zipped along. These are 600-750-page books, but they are hard to put down. My opinion.

Midlife Manual For Men, Arterburn/Shore. 6... Obviously, if you are a girl or a young man, no need to read this. I don't like the way these guys write but the advice/suggestions are good to hold you accountable and make you think and I'm glad I read it.

The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Lawrence. Won't rate this. Brother Larry was a monk, a guy who mainly worked in the kitchen, about 600 years ago, give or take. You can read this in two or three hours. It's a beautiful thing. Brother Lawrence was a stud.

The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbauch, 7. Getting a lot of good reviews for a first-time novel but a lot of bad ones too; more good than bad. I liked it. I understand why some people would give it poor marks but ... I liked it. Don't want to read it again, but very glad I read it. And pieces of it are spectacular. Uses baseball as a backdrop, and a small college set in the present.

Death Be Not Proud, John Gunther, 1947 is when it was published, 6.5. ... A memoir by Gunther, a well-known journalist of his day, of the death of his son from a brain tumor. The battle lasted 15 months; John Jr. died at age 17. Only about 200 pages, includes diary entries from his son as well as the child's letters to his mom and dad and friends and doctors, both before and after he was sick.

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Stay The Course ('Mentor' Series)

(My notes from 1/29/12 message from Dr. Chris, fbc ruston)

1 Timothy 1:1-11
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
2 To Timothy my true son in the faith:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

1. Hang In There
v. 3 "urge you to stay in Ephesus"

With fatherly compassion (defines 'urge') .. Paul asks Timothy to "take up residence" -- to stay.
Paul testifies later that he himself stayed: "I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith..."

2. Any Of Us Can Get Derailed ...

* By what we take in, such as...

a. False doctrine -- a lot of bad teaching was going on in Ephesus (v 3). Doctrine = truths of the faith, fundamentals. v 8-11 reminds us there is no 'new' doctrine "We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. 9 We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, 10 for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine 11 that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

* Silly, trivial things (v 4 and 6) -- idle talk, minor and non-external issues

* all truth is based on God's objective, principaled truth (v 7) ... not on 'good' speakers; sincerity does not mean truth, as people can be sincerely wrong and, like concerete, mixed up thoroughly and firmly in place.

v 11 -- make sure what you hear conforms to God's truth ... is it moving God's kingdom forward? (v 4) .. people were taking in 'bad' teaching

* Good treaching causes you to love god and people more (v 5) ... the bible's bad teachers are arrogant and puffed up

b. By our lifestyle (v 19-20 -- 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. )

Guys loosened their grip with Christ; Paul warns what happens when we start to slide and get off course a bit.

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It's Only Make-Believe --- FOR REAL!!!

Got several notes this week about Bill Joyce and his band of merry men and women earning an Oscar, which he received right there on national television a week ago tonight, his smile a cartoon-like super-sized.
One of my favorites, from the appropriately named “Rose,” read: “Hot diggity dawg for a nice Shreveport boy!”
Amen sister.
Shreveport’s Joyce and Moonbot Studios co-founder Brandon Oldenburg co-produced “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. This spawned several beautiful things:
1. I grew up in a town where people stopped what they were doing and pointed toward the sky whenever a plane few over, way up there. So I am still just enough of a hick to get a funny little tingle when I see someone I actually know on a television set. The Oscar statue weighs 8-and-a-half pounds, or about a half-pound for every year, give or take, I’ve known Elizabeth and Bill Joyce. Not well, but well enough that I could not stop laughing when they called Bill’s and Brandon’s names and they walked right up there, so animated themselves with this sheer unrehearsed joy that you felt as if someone had just drawn THEM. Brandon even said as much to the newspaper in Sarasota, Fla., where he went to Ringling College of Art and Design, about what it’s like when they call your name on Oscar Night: “It’s like they dropped an anvil on your head. Stars spin around, birds are chirping and you have a goofy grin that won’t go away.” Classic!;
2. Most Oscar winners thank “the little people who made this possible.” When Joyce says it, he means it literally. This work is for children young and old. He and his friends capture the good, the hope, in reality, the parts that can easily get shut out when the rent’s due and the baby’s sick. Many franchises – “Mission: Impossible,” “Die Hard” -- take fantasy and make it seem like reality; in Joyce’s books and art and storytelling, he takes reality and expresses it in fantasy, in a story you’ve lived or felt;
3. The props for home. Check out these quotes from backstage at the Oscars:
Oldenburg: “The whole point (of the film) was to just try to get the world to recognize what we're capable of in Shreveport, Louisiana, and that there's a level of quality they can come to expect …”
Joyce: “…from the swampy lands of Louisiana, we have crawled forth with this, and it's lovely to be recognized.”
Joyce could have left for Hollywood long ago. He didn’t. He stayed home and helped bring home what part of Hollywood we needed;
4. Also backstage, the pair thanked their wives and co-workers and teachers and families, but also “The Wizard of Oz” and “King Kong” and other wonderful “make-believe” movies. You know, real ones.
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Happy Birthday to Sweeter!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

It Takes The Spirit ('From Corinth' Series)

(My notes from Sunday pm, Jan 29, 2012, fbc ruston, message from Dr Chris)

1 Corinthians 2: 6-16

6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—
10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”


But we have the mind of Christ.

What's it take ot have spiritual discernment?

1. The Spirit -- to understand the gospel (v 6-8, 10)

Eph 1:9-10 -- "He made known to us ...Jesus" the sacred secret

The 'mystery' of the gospel was not laid out entirely until Jesus appeared

v 10 -- 'God has revealed it to us through the spirit'

It takes a work of the spirit for one to fully understand the Gospel

2. It Is The Spirit Who Ultimately Brings Others To Christ,

who brings conviction and does the winning .. (John 16:8 -- 'When HE comes, he will convict..'
* Pray for the spirit to convict...

3. It Takes The Spirit To Understand The Ways of God
v 11-12 -- "who knows thuoght of man ...we've received the spirit to understand.."
* Understanding begins in my prayer closet

4. it Takes The Spirit To Grasp Scripture
13-14 -- for the saved, scripture is no longer 'foolishness'

5. It Takes The Spirit To Understand God's Leading
v 14 -- Lost people won't understand, and lukewarm Christians not filled with the spirit won't understand either
* It takes spiritual people to make spiritual decisions

6. Spirit-filled People Can Understand How God Is Working In The World
v 15-16 -- The lost can't understand tithing, going to church, serving etc...

a. Do you have the spirit
b. Are you attuned and filled with the spirit
Don't WASTE the mind of Christ (v. 16)
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