Murder Mystery

2 Peter 1:5-11

"5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

My friend Casey and I were talking on the phone yesterday and the Lord had reminded her of this passage of verses in 2 Peter. She was telling me how He showed her that before anything you have to have faith first. If you don't first have faith, you can't add any of these things in that you may desire. They build upon each other. And faith is the gateway. "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because we first must believe that HE IS and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." (Somewhere in hebrews, you can tell how much I've read my bible lately.) This is really good stuff, just thought I might share.
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Last night I went to an italian murder mystery wine dinner, which in itself is an oxymoron. When you are trying to figure out "who dunnit," too many glasses of Vallipocella is not going to help you catch the murderer. So Jimmy was the one who invited me to come to the murder mystery.. Emily and I walked in, and I was half expecting to be in a setting where everybody is neatly sitting in their seats, theatre style, with their "ONE" glass of wine, carefully checking their "killer card" and voting at the end. I thought everyone would delicately be slicing in to their roasted chicken and green beans while quiet conversation about the suspected felon was engaged. Was I right? OH NO. It was an interactive Italian potluck murder mystery, where you are supposed to dress up like the mafia, drink too much wine, eat too much orzo salad and bruschetta, and blackmail all the actors for gold coins which in turn, causes you to be the winner. It was straight up mob style, and about the best night I've had in weeks. Within 20 minutes of being in there, one of Jimmy's new friends had been decanting a great bottle of Amarone, and filled my glass up. By the end of the night, Jimmy and I were sucking the helium out of balloons, and saying"hey buddy, wanna go pick some snowberries?" AND the kicker. Jimmy's new friend, Ronnie, came up to me with a gift bag and a $70 bottle of Amarone. He said, "Go home and have a nice night with your boyfriend or girlfriends." I smiled, and thanked him. If he only knew! All in all, I had me a blast...