Old Friends

I am currently in search of two friends from my years in San Diego: Dan Desmarais and Jim Kraeger. If you bump into them at Starbucks, or in a church service, will you please let me know? Also, if either of you read this, will you please confirm that I have your last names spelled correctly? It's not "Desmarias" or "Krager" is it? No, I didn't think so...

Keeping track of friends is important to me. I've moved a lot, and value the friendships I've made in different cities. Below is a post I wrote for my other blog, but thought I'd duplicate here. It's about Jim. The very best New Year's Eve ever was spent in my apartment living room, praying with Jim Kraeger.


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This is a Bible I used for a handful of years in the early 1990s. These were particularly formative years in my Christian life and in my growth as a Bible student and teacher.

I call this the "Jim Kraeger Annotated Bible" because a friend at that time - we'll keep him anonymous but call him "Jim" - would often say things that I wanted to remember, and so I scribbled them in the back of the Bible.

Like this:

click to enlarge

Below are the four primary Kraeger quotes. I can't guarantee they weren't lifted from various Puritans (he was a diligent reader), though I generally attribute them to Jim:

1. "Without love, our duties are as burdensome to God as they are to us."

2. "Christ drank a cup of wrath without mercy that we may drink a cup of mercy without wrath."

3. "The prayer that moves God is the prayer that moves me." (NOTE: I have found this to be experientially true, though I bet some would disagree; would love to discuss sometime.)

4. "There are three categories of Christians: those who give Jesus place; those who give Him prominence; and those who give him preeminence."

I am currently trying to track down Jim Kraeger. If you know where he is, send him this way!