{"id":8540,"date":"2011-02-15T02:39:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-15T02:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8540"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:36:25","slug":"day-94-muppets-book-sell-but-apparently-not-today-and-ignorant-opinions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8540","title":{"rendered":"Day 94 – Muppets Book (Sell – but apparently not today!) and Ignorant Opinions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I am sitting in the Borders Bookstore cafe in Greenwood after a visit to Half Price Books.\u00a0 I pulled a couple of extra books today to sell – like this great Muppet coffee table book – and then drove the 45 minutes to HPB.\u00a0 You know how much they wanted to offer for two tubs full of books?? Sixteen dollars!\u00a0 Unbelievable! I was insulted!\u00a0 The Shakespeare book alone\u00a0is worth more than that.\u00a0They made the offer; I repacked my boxes and left with my books.\u00a0 I could get more than that by selling them for fifty cents apiece at my upcoming garage sale.\u00a0I also hear there’s a website called Booksintocash, but I haven’t had a chance to check it out yet. I can’t close this so-far-uneventful blog entry without relating one of the most ignorant statements I’ve ever heard in my entire life.\u00a0 (And when I say “ignorant”, I am being diplomatic because I really want to say “moronic”.)\u00a0 Just across the coffee shop from where I am sitting was a youngish couple (mid-20s I guess) who seemed to be at the getting acquainted stage of a romance.\u00a0 She had quite a loud mouth and seemed rather confident of the correctness of her opinions, especially when she got onto the topic of religion.\u00a0 Here’s how the “conversation” went: Loud woman:\u00a0 “Oh, I’m a believer, I just don’t go to church.” Man:\u00a0 “Mmmhmm.” Loud woman:\u00a0 “I don’t think church is necessary – organized religion and all that.” Man: “Mmm.” Loud woman:\u00a0 “Someone once pointed out a powerful fact that really struck me…” Man: “Oh?” \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Here it comes!] Loud woman:\u00a0 “Yeah, my friend pointed out that Jesus himself never did any of his teaching inside a church.” Man:\u00a0 “Hmmm.” (Deep in thought, apparently.) Loud woman:\u00a0 “He did his teaching outside … and that’s where I really feel most connected to God.” I really should have said something, shouldn’t I have?\u00a0 Should I have pointed out that technically her friend was absolutely correct since the church didn’t officially form until after the death and resurrection of Christ and then the coming of the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 Or that the first church buildings didn’t appear until about 300 years later? Or should I have pointed out that her friend was essentially quite mistaken, since the church is simply a gathering of believers,\u00a0and thus\u00a0anytime and anywhere Jesus addressed the disciples, he was essentially speaking in the midst of the church? More importantly, should I have informed her on how Jesus did in fact speak in the “church” of his day?\u00a0 His first official sermon was in the synagogue of Nazareth where “He stood up to read, 17<\/strong><\/sup> and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a018<\/span><\/strong><\/sup> \u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is on me,<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0because he has anointed me<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to proclaim good news to the poor.<\/span>He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and recovery of sight for the blind,<\/span>to set the oppressed free,<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a019<\/span><\/strong><\/sup> to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favor.\u201d<\/span> \u00a020<\/strong><\/sup> Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21<\/strong><\/sup> He began by saying to them, \u201cToday this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 (Luke 4) Rich Stearns, President of World Vision, calls this\u00a0Jesus proclaiming his\u00a0mission statement.\u00a0 It’s the work He was sent to accomplish and it is the work He\u00a0has called the church – His Body! – to join him in. Sadly, it seems to me that the coffee shop woman is not really all that far removed from many churchgoers in her attitude toward religion.\u00a0 Consider this: her basic operating assumption is that faith is exclusively something between her and God\u00a0and is much more about self-fulfillment than self-denial. May God forgive the church when we neglect to gather together (Hebrews 10:25<\/a>!) or …\u00a0just as bad …\u00a0are content to be pew potatoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am sitting in the Borders Bookstore cafe in Greenwood after a visit to Half Price Books.\u00a0 I pulled a couple of extra books today to sell – like this great Muppet coffee table book – and then drove the 45 minutes to HPB.\u00a0 You know how much they wanted to offer for two tubs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8542,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8540\/revisions\/8542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}