Archive for December, 2006

Wow. This picture has not been altered, nor have the names in this article been changed to protect the innocent. Sam and my twin nephews captured this runaway tumbleweed in the prairie beside Carolyn’s folks’ house.

Found a nice coffee shop at Hastings yesterday to read and study and answered the phones at Hunter Plumbing yesterday afternoon for Caro’s mom so she could go home and spend time with the plethora of grandkids at the house. Of course, that meant I wasn’t at the house with the plethora of grandchildren. Hmmmm.

This a.m., I’m at Pacific Rim, another nice coffee shop that also has Wifi, but it’s playing the most annoying techno-vomit music I’ve ever heard. I’ve gotten to listen to the young guy behind the counter complain about the owners under his breath to all the regulars who come in. Joy.

On the other hand, things are great here. We’re doing Christmas tonight, and it should be lots of fun watching the kids shred packages while the adults betray each other playing Dirty Santa. Each year is a steady reminder of aging. I remember when Carolyn and I were only dating, and everyone in Hobbs regarded me with wonder and amazement. Now my kids are the oldest grandkids, and there are no teenagers running around anymore. All but Carolyn’s 22 year-old brother have gotten married and had their own kids. A new generation is running around. In fact, Jeff (Caro’s brother) was younger than our son Sam is now when I first started coming to New Mexico… I’m old. Sniff.

Here’s a thought I’m meditating on after reading Matthew 7 this a.m. What in the world was Jesus talking about when He told people,

“Do not give dogs what is sacred;
do not throw your pearls to pigs.
If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.”

Sound off in the comments about your take on this.

For many of you in tune and in tech, this will be old news. However, for others of you, it will be new or an update. Were you aware that the burial box that was found in Israel in 2002 and declared to be James’ ossuary is still being debated as to its authenticity?

There is an excellent article detailing the ongoing saga at Wikipedia. However, as I read it, I began to come to some conclusions about the Israeli Antiquities Authority (who have now claimed it as a modern forgery). Primary among my thoughts is simply this: why would modern Jewish authorities be any different from ancient Jewish leaders? They simply cannot acknowledge the existence and reality of Jesus. Therefore, they must claim the ossuary as a fake.

On the other hand, it may indeed be a forgery. However, something smells fishy in the whole thing. There are a host of other experts aligned on the side of its authenticity. Yet the IAA apparently continues to parade its own line of experts that defend its position.

What in the world brought me to this story at this time? Well, I’m reading Elders and Leaders, and there is a footnote in it related to the ossuary, so my curiosity was provoked, and I had to do a quick Google on it.

We arrived in Hobbs today and celebrated Carolyn and my birthdays with her family. Hers is the 24th, and mine is January 5. Before the sun set, I took my twin five year-old nephews and Sam “hunting” in the prairie located out back.

During supper, we were talking about “church,” and Carolyn’s folks related that their church, Taylor Memorial Baptist, had just undergone an extensive renovation. As part of the renovation, their hymnals were removed. Sam perked up from his table, and in mid-bite said, “What’s a hymnal?”

Suffice it to say that he has little to no remembrance of his time in a traditional church. Times are a’changin.’

Just can’t wait to get on the road again
The life I love is making music with my friends
Oh, I can’t wait to get on the road again.

We’re at a LaQuinta in Weatherford, Texas tonight, heading to Hobbs, New Mexico to have Christmas with Caro’s folks. We stopped in Texarkana to eat at Chili’s, and then Caro took over the driving responsibilities. Thank goodness there were no EMP blasts anywhere between there and Dallas, or the kids would have been at a loss. Sam played with his PSP; Adelyn watched movies and listened to music on her iPod nano; Caro had my iPod connected to her cranium. Me, I was engrossed in George R.R. Martin’s A Storm of Swords.

I hope to be able to post some pics and updates from the flatlands. More later!

Well, some Macs do… Read to believe. (By the way, I have a Mac SE with a carrying case, for sale for $25,000…)

Pictures need to be seen to be believed; the original box and all manuals were included in this auction. This early 1980s 1mhz Apple II+ originally sold for $1,200. Adjusted for inflation that would be $3,000 today meaning that over the last 25 years despite being outpaced several thousand times in mhz you’d have only lost 50% of your investment.

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Not that I have any hope of getting this for next Christmas, but it’s just so stinking cool… Read about it by clicking the image.

This is what happens with a camera and a family waiting on their order at Sonic on Christmas Eve eve.

I’m going to refrain from getting into the details of why I’m posting this, but you could probably surmise it from reading the entry here. It’s become more and more depressingly clear that in our small, rural south Arkansas town, political offices are to be had without much effort. For example, in our last election, only 1400 folks voted out of about 10,000 for mayor (and there were three people running); that’s 14%. Terrible. The incumbent was defeated for no good reason. The challengers in the race really had no good reason even to run.

I tried to interview the mayor-elect for MonticelloLive a while back, and he refused an interview (after initially telling me he would grant me one), saying that he was still “learning and growing.” Hmmm. He won the election in May, but as of October, he still had no ideas as to what his plans would be once he took office. How does one win election on a platform of complaints? Oh, sorry. We have only to look to our national politics to see duplication of results.

Anyway, Dilbert creator Scott Adams says it best in this cartoon:

Wade Burleson has stirred up the waters again in an excellent post seeking to defend a biblical view of baptism from encroachments upon it by leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention. SBC churches need to wake up and reign in or replace these leaders that are very near imposing a Landmark-ish set of inflexible and unbiblical rules and procedures upon the denomination and its churches.

It’s a stellar list, I’ll have to admit. However, how do you really measure influence? These churches are either huge or have been hyped. Most of them are strong churches. However, do you ever notice that it’s always churches in urban areas that our church growth-ers enjoy pointing to as “model” churches? Me, I think there is some dynamic ministry being done in rural areas by churches that refuse to succumb to “the way we were” and simply urge people toward “the way.” Of course, I’m not biased in the least. ;)

So, my high school buddy, Mark, left a comment on one of the high school blog entries. We haven’t kept up. Shame on me. However, as I traced him down through his website, it dawns on me that he’s a lot smarter than I am. For one thing, he can program for the Mac. For another, he’s teaching in Frankfurt, Germany in April and people are paying a lot of money to be trained by him. Me? I’ll probably be sipping a sub-$1 coffee at Dad’s Place waiting for my ship to come in.

Check out churchrelevance.com.

Now if this isn’t the most education you’ve had in the shortest amount of time, I don’t know what is. Thanks to MapsofWar.

I got more than 10 excellent Mac programs for under $50 and donated to charity. Cool.
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