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Cybersalt News
Sunday greetings, everyone!
I just realized that every Sunday mailing this year has gone out with 2023 in the title. I am very disappointed in you, Raul el Perro!
There was no mailing last Chicken Thursday as I was pretty preoccupied catching up on work after moving a client's web sites (totaling about 600 gigabytes in size) from their old server to my company. On top of that last week marked the completion of updating another company server that the Cybersalt Site is hosted on. Boy, was (and is) my brain tired from all that technical work! Later today I will definitely be enjoying some downtime when I go out for Pokemon Community Day with my daughter and son-in-law!
Today's video share is a collection of POV Videos of NASCAR Crashes. Come to think of it, they kind of remind me of what it its like in my brain lately while I try to keep up at work!
Click Here to Watch
Enjoy the rest of today's digest!
~ Pastor Tim
Addicted to Thinking
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.
I began to think alone - "to relax," I told myself - but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time. I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself.
I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly we are doing here?"
Things weren't going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.
I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, "I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
This gave me a lot to think about.
I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."
"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver.
"You think as much as college professors, and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently, and she began to cry.
I'd had enough. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.
I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors... they didn't open.
The library was closed. As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.
Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting.
At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's."
Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.
Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.
One-Liner #1822
If you're ugly and sad, buy a fishing boat and just be ugly.
"Be a Billionaire!"
and Help
Refugees and
Persecuted Christians
Contest
There once was a sweepstakes that offered a shopping center as first prize.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled the contest illegal, since everyone knows you can't win a mall.
Quote #2257
"The most important Christians are not the ones who preach great sermons and write great books, but the ones who pray, and pray, and pray some more, sharing the quiet but effective victory of Jesus over all that defaces God's creation."
- John Piper, Lent for Everyone
Retirement
My partner and I pulled our police cruiser up behind a car stopped on the shoulder of the highway. We got out and asked the driver if we could help.
No, he replied, there was no trouble; he had just stopped to look at a map.
When we turned back, we noticed that his German shepherd had jumped in the open passenger-side front window of our car.
"You may think there's no trouble," I smiled, "but your dog obviously thinks he's done something wrong. He's in our patrol car."
He laughed. "He probably thinks you've come to take him to work," he replied. "He's a retired police dog."
Featured Illustrations are items well suited for illustrating or inspiring a point in a sermon, speech, or devotional. Funny, moving, or perhaps even graphic, the point of them is the point you make with them.
Rev. James Snyder, God's Penman, writes . . . .
Why Does Monday Have To Follow Sunday?
The older I get, the more I wake up not knowing what day it is. That is particularly true on Mondays.
My favorite day of the week is Sunday. I enjoy attending church, fellowshipping with other Christians, and, of course, the Sunday worship services. I enjoy Sunday morning and evening like no other time of the week.
Since I became a Christian about 65 years ago, I have only missed a Sunday service when I was sick or had some emergency. Sunday is the most important day of the week for me, and it has been for years. I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
Read moreThe Cybersalt Digest is a ministry of Pastor Tim and Cybersalt.
A new missionary recruit went to Venezuela for the first time. He was struggling with the language and didn't understand a whole lot of what was going on. Intending to visit one of the local churches, he got lost, but eventually got back on track and found the place. Having arrived late, the church was already packed. The only pew left was the one on the front row.
Easter egg hunts are proof that your children really can find things without Mom's help.
A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
"The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies."
The Sunday School teacher was speaking to her class one morning and she asked the question, "When you die and go to Heaven...which part of your body goes first?"
I must confess that I do have a liking for critters of all kinds. I enjoy feeding them out on the back porch, and boy, do they come hungry for their treats.
ADULT:
I wonder what the part of my brain that used to store people's phone numbers is doing now.
What do you do if you're ever attacked by a circus?
"Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?"
I recall a time when my son was about 18 months old. I had him strapped into a backpack and was rushing to catch the bus. Apparently I mis-stepped and fell down an entire flight of stairs (13 to be exact). I was bruised and bleeding and had torn my jeans ... but my main concern was, naturally, for my child.
1. How Dogs and Men Are the Same 
When you dream in color, it's a pigment of your imagination.
"But everyone who lined the streets had a different reason for waving those palms. Some were political activists; they’d heard Jesus had supernatural power, and they wanted him to use it to free Israel from Roman rule. Others had loved ones who were sick or dying. They waved branches, hoping for physical healing. Some were onlookers merely looking for something to do, while others were genuine followers who wished Jesus would establish himself as an earthly king. Jesus was the only one in the parade who knew why he was going to Jerusalem – to die.
Little Rodney, 4 years old, walked down the beach, and as he did, he spied a matronly woman sitting under a beach umbrella on the sand. He walked up to her and asked, "Are you a Christian?"
Like everybody else, I face problems almost every day. Or maybe I should say, my problem faces me.
The two ladies were sitting in the living room, waiting for their hostess, who was slightly delayed. The daughter of the family was with them, on the theory that she would keep the visitors occupied during the wait.
It seems unfair that the people who want to go to bed have to put the people to bed that don't want to go to bed.
"Cemetery workers always work the graveyard."
"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor."
The more generous we are,