the Way thru the Crowd

By the 'Way' I refer to Christians
By the 'Crowd' I refer to Culture

Christians are called out of the worldly system, but then sent back into the world. In other words, as we walk the narrow path, we are surrounded by the broader culture. How should Christians relate to culture? I think there are 4 main ways we often do this:

Adapt to the culture
Boycott the culture
Cultivate the culture
Destroy the culture

Which should we do most often? Should we relate in different ways to different cases? Are any of the ways always wrong? What do you think Jesus most often did?

True Confessions of a Shop-a-holic

I guess this title is a bit of a misnomer, since I’m not really a shop-a-holic, and I don’t have anything to confess about it. Hfrmph.

I’m NOT a fan of shopping (especially around the holidays) because of the large crowds. For some reason, it makes me feel claustrophobic and I have to get out… You’ll recognize me at Wal-mart as the lady carrying 45 pounds of products to avoid using a cart (because if you have a cart you can get trapped in).

In case Matthew comments, I want to make the distinction that I’m not a fan of “shopping”... but I am a fan of buying things. I think I don’t go crazy with it... Usually I have a list of where we are going and what we are getting so it can be fast. I might occasionally add something fun… but it’s usually groceries and items for church. : - )

I was hoping to become a shop-a-holic this past weekend, however, because one of my favorite things was occurring in mass amounts all across the county…. Garage Sales!!

I have a love-hate relationship with garage sales. On one hand… they are my adventure. Throw me in a room with a bunch of people talking about their hunting trips and how many deer they came home with, and I’ll pipe up with a story about the time I found a child’s rocking horse for only three dollars… in perfect condition too!

On the other hand… I abhor them. On the few occasions that I have dared to organize one, by the end of the weekend I am tired, sunburned, cranky, and have a fistful of cash much smaller than what I would have gotten had I just stayed at work. I usually also develop a facial tick from dealing with people arguing with me because I am selling a $35 item for $1.00, and they’d “really rather pay 50 cents.” Argh!!

Anyways.. I missed my chance because of the mites (who, thank the Lord, have not come back yet!). Don’t worry, though… June 6 is the TOWN-WIDE garage sale. There is hope for me yet.

~Katie

Mighty Mites

Katie & I have survived our first huge fight as a married couple. It wasn't a fight against one-another, but a fight against mites. It's amazing that such small creatures can cause such big problems. Here's the story:

Over the windy winter, a wooden board covering a spot for an air conditioner was knocked off the exterior wall. In early spring some birds made their nest on the newly exposed ledge. These birds woke us up to beautifully annoying music every morning since then, but we soon found out that their music was the least of our problems. Sunday when we got home from church we noticed some extremely tiny things on our dishes near that area of the house. It soon became obvious that this was not a small band of lost travelers, but a fleet making a home invasion. Some quick internet research connected these critters to the birds outside. These were bird mites.

From 12:30 to 11:30 pm we did our best to fight the mites (with the help of family). The birds were removed (there were either 3 or 4). The area was sprayed and dusted with things bad for all life but humans). The inside was sealed. All dishes were examined and washed. The whole area was shop vacuumed. Clorox was used in unprecedented proportions. And actually, despite the negative prognostication from the bird mite websites, we won the battle (and hopefully, the war... please don't let me jinx it). We have not seen a mite in the apartment for about 24 hours now.

Of course, maybe the remaining ones are just too tiny to see, ugh :)

History of Katie

A While back I changed my blogger screen name to TMNK (short for 'The Matthew Never Knew'), but an artist sent me an email saying he had full legal rights to the abbreviation (his stands for 'the me nobody knows'). Last week at my blogs annual meeting, we (my blog and I) decided to seek out a guest contributor to make up for my laziness in posting (and my writer's block). But alas, Obama was supposedly too busy so I ended up asking my wife Katie. So from now on, even though I'm not to use the abbreviation TMNK, you can think of it as short not only for 'The Matthew Never Knew,' but also for The Matthew-N-Katie. Of course, that isn't a complete thought, but it's the best I could come up with.

Here's a brief history of Katie being mentioned by name on my blog
1. She was complimented for her work on the 30hr Famine in February 2007
2. Her 4 golf scores were recorded in June 2007
3. When I fasted the internet that June, she and I hung out
4. She finished last in our 2007 MOST Golf outing
5. We rode down to Family Camp together in July 2007
6. We watched Henderson not climb a wall during camp
7. I announced that Katie was my girlfriend on September 8, 2007
8. I called her 'my super girlfriend' on October 4, 2007
9. We wrote a song together that same month
10. I said I was glad she was sick in December, 2007
11. She hated all my ideas to rename coffeehouse
12. Katie almost got us killed in March 2008
13. We went to see Monster trucks that same month
14. In May, we almost died again, but not really
15. I posted a pic of Katie & I at her mom's wedding
16. I beat her in golf in June 2008 too
17. We went to the Drive-in in late June
18. We enjoyed Family Camp again in 2008
19. We went to Niagara Falls a bunch last summer
20. She finished 2nd in MOST golf, much improved!
21. In October I announced our engagement!
22. In November I explained why we picked 12/31 to get married
23. This January we returned from our honeymoon
24. Later that month, she forced me to get the mark of the beast
25. Even later that month, I described our routine
26. She secretly taped me singing, I posted the video in February
27. I spoiled my birthday present... again!
28. In March we went on a pastor-spouse retreat
29. In April she helped me have a really bad day
30. Yesterday, she typed her first post on my blog

So there you have it. You are now all caught up on the blog history of Katie.

The other side of The Matthew Never Knew

Greetings, all! This is Katie Rose here, Matthew's "favorite" wife. As I'm sure many of you have noticed, Matthew has been very lackadaisical with his blog posts. I'm sure many of you have also noticed that he tends to blame ME for that... first I want to assure you that is not the case! At least twice a week I pester him about not having anything interesting to post on his blog. In an effort to stop my "nagging" (can it be called nagging if we've only been married for 140 days????) Matthew has decided that I will be responsible for posting on Wednesdays since he "really only has something to post about on Monday's and Fridays."

That means, folks, no more hopefully clicking on your "Matthew Never Knew" link day after day, only to discover the same post about American Idol or his recent Bible Study (not to say your Bible Studies aren't good, sweetie!!!) from the week before. You don't have to thank me, but, you know, it would be rude of me to turn down a gift. Just so you know.

At this point, Matthew hasn't laid down any rules for me with this, except that my first post had to be about my favorite 3 TV shows. So, like the good, dutiful wife I am:

1) Hogan's Heroes*: I was a TV Land kid. Yes, some of you may scoff and say you remember watching shows when they first aired..... my response is thank you for being the trial audience, so when I watched TV, I got to see the best of the best. For some reason, Hogan's Heroes became my favorite. Last year Matthew bought the entire series on DVD for me. My husband rocks. (Note to audience: These are free-will compliments; I am not being forced)

2) The Office**: I love the sarcastic humor in this. Sometimes, though, it is painful to watch when Michael is embarrassing himself. I can’t wait to start watching this season’s episodes.

3) There is a four-way tie for 3^rd place:

- Bones: Yet another show I didn’t get to see yet this year, but it’s not my fault! The fall was crazy with getting engaged and planning a wedding, so those 3 DVR’d episodes turned into 10, and then 15… and then something happened to the DVR and they were all erased. I am very anxious to find out what happened. From the commercials I see, it was good.

- Eureka: Normally, I don’t like Scifi shows. But I really like the lead character, Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) and the cross between his intelligence and his “dumb jock” attitude.

- Chuck: This is a new show, and I recommend you watch it when it comes back on next season!! Chuck is adorable. I think he has a lot of qualities that remind me of Matthew… if Matthew was a computer nerd that worked at Best Buy and had a college roommate who was a spy that turned Matthew into one and he was secretly working day after day to save the free world……

- How Clean is your house: This is a BBC show that I don’t know how I got hooked on, but I started by watching episodes on YouTube. Then we got cable.. and then eventually a DVR! So now I record several a day and watch them when I can. It is very sad and disgusting how some of these people live; I don’t recommend eating while watching it. BUT, it has some good cleaning tips/remedies, and if I’m not in the mood to clean, I certainly am after watching a couple episodes!!! Matthew is upset that I have over 50 saved on the DVR right now... but I just want to point out that it’s the ONLY thing on the DVR, so I’m not wasting space.

So there you have it… my life- er, my tv story. I hope it wasn’t too long or too boring. If it was… feel free to blame my husband.

See you next week!

*Hogan's Heroes gets the number one slot based on the fact that I watch it over and over and over again. If I could only watch one TV show for the rest of my life, this would be it…

** or this would.. I haven't gotten to watch them over and over yet, so it might be the better choice.

Idol #1

I thought Adam won the night (remember, this does not mean I liked him better, it means I thought he did the most to improve his vote count) by a slight margin. I think the key will be WHO votes. If Danny's leftovers vote, they'll almost certainly vote for Kris instead of Adam. This would give Kris a big advantage. But Adam is considered the favorite. I think it could go either way. While I like Kris, I don't think I'd really make it a point to listen to his music (nor would I listen to Adam). I'm going to guess that most of Danny's fans just won't vote at all, so I'll predict that Adam wins.

The Top 3

There are 3 TV Shows that I love: Seinfeld, Frasier & The Office. Seinfeld is my favorite show of all time. Frasier is currently second. The Office is the wild card. I haven't seen any episodes from Season 5 yet (Katie & I are waiting for the DVD's to come out), but The Office has the potential to move up to the number 1 spot depending on how the next seasons go. It's really a question of where The Office will end up on my list? Will it stay in 3rd? Move up to 1st or 2nd? Move down?

Idol #3

Katie & I watched Idol after our small group meeting tonight. I don't think the judges picked good songs, but I enjoyed the songs that the participants selected. Here are my stats:

33 Adam Lambert (213)
32 Danny Gokey (198)
32 Kris Allen (198)

So, as you can see, Danny & Kris are tied up for 2nd which makes a prediction extremely difficult. Personally, I like Kris best out of the remaining three, but I think Kris will go home. That being said, nothing would really surprise me.

1-3 John

Below are my handouts from a 17 week series through 1st, 2nd & 3rd John

The Faith vs. Science Error (1:1-2)
The Head Knowledge Error (1:3-4)
The Optional Holiness Error (1:5-7, 2:3-6)
The Denial of Sin Error (1:8-2:2)
The New Wind Error (2:7-11)
The Split Ministry Error (2:12-14)
The Love for World Error (2:15-17)
The Antichrist Error (2:18-27)
The Untransformed Life Error (2:28-3:10)
The No Assurance Error (3:11-24)
The Believe Every Spirit Error (4:1-6)
The Lack of Love Error (4:7-21)
The Failing Tests Error (5:1-13)
The Failing Prayer Error (5:14-15)
The Sin that Leads to Death Error (5:16-21)
The Chosen Lady (2 John 1)
The Faithful Friend (3 John 1)

NT use of OT

For the past couple of years I have been trying to find a book that didn't yet exist. Now it does and I have it. This book is a thorough (over 1000 pages) commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament. I have longed to have a 1 volume resource like this and so far it is proving very helpful. I may be the only one excited about this, so forgive me!

Idol #4

Katie & I watched Idol after the LBA meeting tonight. It was Rock night (not our favorite) and here are the results (I added some points for their duets):

34 Adam Lambert (180)
30 Allison Iraheta (164)
29 Danny Goakey (166)
28 Kris Allen (166)

So, as you can see, this is the toughest week yet. Adam seems to be safe (but I thought he was safe last week too, so you never know). I think Allison is safe, because she's a girl. It's really between Danny and Kris; tough call - if I had to pick, I think Kris will go home.

1400 Wings

This is, apparently, my 1,400th post.

One fun thing about marriage, so far, is the exchange of favorite TV shows. I had Katie watch shows like Coupling, Ned & Stacy, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, Quantum Leap, Newsradio & The Office. Katie had me watch Hogan's Heroes... (I realize now that this is very one sided)... and Wings.


We just finished watching the final season of Wings. I had seen a few episodes here and there in my youth, and to be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to watching anymore of them. But we did. And I ended up liking it. I'd say it got better and better (even the finale was good, which is saying a lot compared to most finales). I have a theory that maybe ANY show you watch enough becomes likeable. I'm not sure that I LOVED Wings, but it ended up being very likeable. I wouldn't buy it, but I am glad we Netflixed it.

So what are we working on now? I dream of Jeannie & Cheers.