Wood Stove Hernia

This evening I finished installing a wood stove insert into our downstairs fireplace.  We decided to make the investment now, to save long-term on our heating costs in winter which can be dramatic.  Two of the guys from church came over to help me unload the stove from the back of the truck, and into the house.  There's a reason why they used a forklift to place it in the truck in the first place - the stove (empty) weighs almost 500 pounds.  I've never lifted anything so heavy - pound for pound - in my entire life.  I knew we were in trouble when we pushed it to the edge of the truck bed, counted to three and lifted . . . and nothing happened.  After a few scary moments of nearly crushing a hand or a foot, we managed to get the stove through the basement door and onto the carpet where we could push and pull it across the floor to the edge of the fireplace.  Another hernia-popping lift and we had it onto the hearth, and finally into the fireplace.  I thought it would be a simple process to drop the round liner down the chimney, hook it up and voila! We're heating with wood.  After cutting out the metal damper we did manage to get the liner down the chimney, but to actually get the top of the stove to hook up to the bottom of the pipe required knocking bricks out of the back of the fireplace.  Anyway, we're now enjoying a MUCH warmer basement, and the temperature upstairs has increased by around 4 degrees.  Of course, the stove doesn't run by itself all night - it has to be stoked or re-lit around 4 am.  Now we just need another two or three cords of wood.

We started our first Wednesday evening Bible study last week, and we had 11 people show up for the first in a teaching series from the book of John.  I was encouraged, and I hope the more in-depth Bible study will meet a need that has been expressed by a number of people at the Journey.  This week it's the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, which leads to the most famous Bible verse of all - John 3:16.  While I was doing some research for the series I came across a You-Tube video from a movie that was made of the entire book of John.  What a gold-mine!  I love to add video clips to any message if it will help people to understand, and here I have a potential source of clips of every significant event that John recorded in his Gospel.  The whole purpose of the mid-week service is to dig deeper than we can do on Sunday morning, and those who come on Wednesday are usually not new believers.  I've learned some new things about Nicodemus while preparing for this week, and I'd love to give it the title of "Jesus and Nicodemus... say what?".  I didn't realize that the Jews of Jesus' day - as well as today - believe that when a pagan converts to Judaism and is baptized, that they are "born again" to a new life.  But Jesus gave the term a whole new meaning.  So here's Nicodemus - a Pharisee, teacher, religious authority and leader of the people being told by Jesus that he also needed to be born again.  No wonder he was incredulous - if Nicodemus couldn't be sure of salvation, then who in the world could?  I found a great quote that describes why Nicodemus might have come to see Jesus in the first place:

" Suppose you are a renowned pianist, trained by the finest concert pianist the world has ever known. When you perform, crowds gather to listen. Everyone hails you as the master in your area of musical expertise. Now suppose some young man comes along who grew up in the Ozarks and who never had a piano lesson in his life, but simply taught himself to play on a broken-down instrument in his grandmother’s house. When this hillbilly musician comes to town, his talent is discovered, and people throng to hear him perform. When he does, tears come to the eyes of those in his audience. You too listen to him play. You, better than anyone else, recognize in him a musical genius that you have never had and that you never will. When you hear him play, you wish you had his abilities. I believe this is the way Nicodemus must have felt about Jesus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee who is at the top of his field. Not only is he a member of the Sanhedrin, he is the most renowned Bible teacher of his day—the “Billy Graham” of first century Jerusalem. Yet when he hears Jesus teach, he hears the answers to questions that have bothered him for years. He watches the crowds as they listen to Jesus, and he knows he has never held the attention of an audience like Jesus does. Jesus speaks in simple terms, but His message has great power. Nicodemus observes the miracles Jesus performs, knowing he has never performed so much as one miracle. By nearly any standard, Nicodemus does not hold a candle to Jesus."

Seems like a plausible explanation to me - Nicodemus just wanted to meet this young "genius" himself to ask a few questions - but Jesus was way ahead of him.  When Jesus tells him that he, too, had to be born again, I can imagine his response being, "Say What?".  Should be fun on Wednesday.

__________________________

Mike has been putting out feed to attract the deer this winter, and he gave us a whole bag of it.  I put several piles of grain leading up to the rocks behind our house, and I'm hoping to convince the deer or elk to climb up where we can see them better.  Once the snow comes and grass becomes harder to find, I think we'll see more wildlife coming around.  When the guys from church went to the hardware store they asked the cashier what kind of grain would attract the deer.  She said, "Well, you're not supposed to feed the deer ... but off the record, I would use this kind."  I love it. We'll see if it works.