VinceArter.com

Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

(I originally posted this on Facebook only one day after my little brother Christopher Allen Arter, Sr. (age 40) passed away.)

I was thinking this morning and started doing some study on a verse that is sometimes controverisal. John 11:35 “Jesus wept.” Some comentators would say that this had little to nothing to do with the death of his friend Lazarus. It means in the Greek he “shed a tear” or “quietly / silently wept”. I believe it was in signifcant part because of the those around him and Lazarus.

In the previous verses He was upset. He groaned. This could have been partially for those around Him but also as being upset at the lie of death (As Matthew Henry puts it). He knew what was to come. I’m sure some will hit me with contraries like he was mad at their unbelief or such but I love how J. Vernon McGee puts it: “…His sympathy was for the living. He knew what He was going to do for the dead. “Jesus wept.” While John’s Gospel is written to show us the deity of Christ, here Jesus is shown in all His humanness. He even asked where Lazarus was laid because He was so human. And here we can see the way God feels at a funeral today. He mingles His tears with ours. He groans within Himself. I get a little impatient with Christians who say one must not cry at a funeral, but one must be a brave Christian. Death is not pretty; it is a terrible thing. Jesus wept!”

In Henry’s Concise Commentary he states, “Christ’s tender sympathy with these afflicted friends, appeared by the troubles of his spirit. In all the afflictions of believers he is afflicted. His concern for them was shown by his kind inquiry after the remains of his deceased friend. Being found in fashion as a man, he acts in the way and manner of the sons of men. It was shown by his tears. He was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. Tears of compassion resemble those of Christ. But Christ never approved that sensibility of which many are proud, while they weep at mere tales of distress, but are hardened to real woe. He sets us an example to withdraw from scenes of giddy mirth, that we may comfort the afflicted. And we have not a High Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities. It is a good step toward raising a soul to spiritual life, when the stone is taken away, when prejudices are removed, and got over, and way is made for the word to enter the heart.”

John Wesley had this to say on verse 35 this catches so much in both these statements, “Jesus wept - Out of sympathy with those who were in tears all around him, as well as from a deep sense of the misery sin had brought upon human nature.” Wow. He sympathized with those around him but he cried because he also knew what caused it. Sin.

Albert Barnes (who I don’t often read) stated, “Sorrow at the death of friends is not improper. It is right to weep. It is the expression of nature and religion does not forbid or condemn it. All that religion does in the case is to temper and chasten our grief; to teach us to mourn with submission to God; to weep without complaining, and to seek to banish tears, not by hardening the heart or forgetting the friend, but by bringing the soul, made tender by grief, to receive the sweet influences of religion, and to find calmness and peace in the God of all consolation.”

As I’ve studied this all morning I think the Believer’s Bible Commentary sums it up well, “Verse 35 is the shortest in the English Bible. It is one of the three instances in the NT where the Lord is said to have wept. (He wept in sorrow over the city of Jerusalem and also in the garden of Gethsemane.) The fact that Jesus wept was an evidence of His true humanity. He shed real tears of grief when He witnessed the terrible effects of sin on the human race. The fact that Jesus wept in the presence of death shows it is not improper for Christians to weep when their loved ones are taken. However, Christians do not sorrow as others who have no hope.” (See 1 Thess. 4:13-17 on why that is.)

Dr. John MacArthur takes a slightly different take on this that He was really weeping over sin which causes death (physically and spirtualy … which I can see) but I truly also believe (as the other commentators have stated) that an element of Jesus’ humanity that yes sin has caused this aweful thing and conflict called death (that He was about to… Read More conquor no less) but that He was compassionate to those around Him and for the effect that this had brought … someone He loved had died and he was about to show the greatest physical sign up to that point that He is God. And yet he wept.

I don’t know if any of this little commetary has helped anyone but it has helped me today as I’ve studied this once again after losing someone very close to me who I really loved. Chris was (and is) my brother and I love him. A part of me died with him (literally too for those that know he had one of my kidneys since 1986). I will miss him but know… Read More he doesn’t miss me. He has the answers now. He knows for SURE God is in control in His sovereignty so he has nothing to worry about. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I just wanted to share some thoughts. E-mail me any time if you don’t want to post comments here: vince@vincearter.com. God bless you all.

Are you on a diet? Having a hard time forcing yourself to do the right things? I am … and I am. For awhile I was using the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s LiveStrong.com site to track what I ate and what I did each day. Believe it or not you don’t give yourself enough credit for what you do each day exercise wise. You would be suprised how quickly things add up.

Even getting enough sleep! Sleep burns calories in addition to being critical for overall health. I was surprised. Anyway this is just a quick post … if you want to know more go to http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ and start tracking!

I’ve decided nothing goes in my body unless I track it. That will help me cut down on what I eat but also it is quite humiliating to see how quickly those calories add up (even if you don’t track it for long).

Good luck.

Vince

So I was watching TV today and saw the Plan B commercial (http://www.go2planb.com/)

So it sounds good right? But I have been suspicious ever since I started seeing this ad. So I decided to look further into it. I did some reading and everyone has different opinions. Then I started reading the prescriber information on the company’s website. The consumer information does NOT cover this. Now … read this! This was taken right from their website when talking about the way the pill works.

• Altering the endometrium, which may inhibit implantation

If you don’t believe me just check out their website under the prescriber information: http://www.go2planb.com/plan-b-prescribers/how-plan-b-works.aspx.

So … don’t be fooled … this pill and others like it CAN terminate a “pregnancy”. When conception happens (even before the fertilized egg implants itself) there is life. Keeping that fertalized egg from implanting so that it just “passes on through” is no different than any other form of terminating a living being.

Whatever your opinion on abortion … companies not being upfront or trying to cover what is really going on (or at a minimum not making all information easily available to consumers) is wrong. Women may think this pill doesn’t do any form of termination but according to their own data … it does. At least be upfront about what this stuff does so people can really make up their minds in a truely informed way.

Vince

My friend (and my previous boss) Scotty Schulte needed some cheering up. I love JibJab so I put together a few JibJab videos for him. Here they are.

Vince

So Elaine and I were really strapped for space in our closet (bedroom). It is a small walk-in (~5.5′x4′) and had one rod around a corner and one shelf. It was very difficult to get close in and out as well.

So we decided that one of our Christmas Vacation projects would be to rebuild the closet. We did some research on what we wanted and did some designs and the bought the parts and it took us about a day and a half to do. It took longer than we expected because we did a lot of touch up painting around the bedroom too. Projects always seem to have scope creep don’t they?

Well it is done and it looks great! If you want to see pictures you can go to the public pictures on my Facebook profile to look at them. Just go to http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=500093895&k=5WLZX5UYU55M5CDGX12ZQV.

Well happy 2009 to everyone.

Vince

Have a Nice Day
—————
(From Facebook)

1. Put your iPOD (or better yet Creative Zen) on shuffle
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds!
4. Tag friends who might enjoy doing the game as well as the person you got the game from. Read the rest of this entry »

My wife has started a t-shirt shop on Cafe Press. There are a lot of them out there but hers is unique with some pretty cool designs and more coming. She has some already out there. You can access her shop by clicking the image below.

Elaine was messing around on the net last week and found some songs our daughter did with Chris Porcelli (Vic Porcelli’s son … Vic is on the radio here in St. Louis, MO) and Mitch Leitschuh they were messing around with some Standards. Rate the songs a five. She sounds like she is from the 1930s and 1940s not the 1990s and 2000s. :-) So I’m proud of her.

You Give Me Fever - http://youtube.com/watch?v=sCSA4sJd8ek

Why Don’t You Do Right? - http://youtube.com/watch?v=nd7yKgLs7Kk

V2

Elaine got everything done for her realestate brokership. Check out the cool logo. It’s neat to see your name on all kinds of signs around town.

Well I’ve been musing the new year 2008. 2007 was a good year overall but there were struggles.

We lost our great (and amazing) friend Alex Sutherland on December 3, 2007. He was one of a kind and I’ll cherish the fact a week before he went home to be with our Lord I was able to play music with him again (and what a great time we had). That Sunday he also shared Scripture at church (NCC in Wildwood, MO) and I was able to hug him and tell him we loved him. I’ll always cherish those last moments with my “good cronie”.

Normal year of health issues and colds (and stupid seasonal allergies) … long work hours and interesting new technologies … SharePoint/MOSS 2007 baby. Server problems, new stuff, old stuff made new. Started a temporary gig with a local band. Re-organized the basement once again.

We started going to a new church (NCC in Wildwood, MO) and that has been interesting and nice. We love everyone at CFC (where we attended for 25 years) but wanted to go some place closer to home to be part of and with similar views on what we believe and where God is leading us by his Word.

Vince III is in his Junior year of college and then off the police academy. Dani is a Senior in high school and then off to university out of state. <sniff />

Well it’s been an intersting year. We are hoping for a happy (and quieter) 2008. We hope and pray for all of the best for you and your family.

Feel free to drop me a line and say “hi”.

Vince