At the Steak n Shake

My first to ever eat at a Steak n Shake occurred this past weekend in Augusta. Seeing they were proud of their burgers, I gave it a try.

Christ is Coming

The people walking in darkness
    have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
    a light has dawned.
You have enlarged the nation
    and increased their joy;
they rejoice before you
    as people rejoice at the harvest,
as warriors rejoice
    when dividing the plunder.
For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,
    you have shattered
the yoke that burdens them,
    the bar across their shoulders,
    the rod of their oppressor.
Every warrior’s boot used in battle
    and every garment rolled in blood
will be destined for burning,
    will be fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  
Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

Isaiah 9:2-7 

 

This just might be too much

It was his first time at Whataburger, but who else would capture it with a photo? 
In other news, I ordered a #25 (honey butter chicken biscuit with hashbrowns), added a sausage egg and cheese taquito, coffee to drink.

Christian, do you love?

The past few Sundays the pastor at my church has been covering the topic of love through 1 Corinthians 13. It has sparked quite a discussion in my own mind on the importance of love.

First, I think it is important to understand the type of love that Paul is writing about in Corinthians. The Greek word he uses is agape, the same word for love as used to describe the love God has for us, such as in John 3:16.

While this word may not be rooted in Christianity, it has certainly become important in Christianity. The term agape is quite commonplace in Christianity and is understood to be a freely given godly love.

Now it is important that the love we share is the same love that is given to us. As we know from Jesus, the two most important commandment are love. Love your Lord with all your heart soul and mind and another is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. We see the most important commandments from God are to love. To love him and to love our neighbor.

We know we are to love, for it is a commandment. We also see that John tell us in 1 John 4:19 that we love because God first loved us. Because of our sin, we cannot understand or even begin to love others as God loves. But when we turn to God and understand and freely receive his love, we can then share his love with others.

So we know that we are to love with the same love that God gives us, but what does this love look like? Paul tell us.

According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, love is:

• patient
• kind
• does not envy
• does not boast
• is not proud
• does not dishonor others
• not self-seeking
• not easily angered
• keeps no record of wrongs
• does not delight in evil
• rejoices with truth
• always protects
• always trusts
• always hopes
• always perseveres

These are not easy things, but Paul tells us they are most important. As he writes in the same chapter, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Now we know as Christians the importance of faith. Our understanding of salvation is based on it. Yet more important is love. More important than our promised future, our hope in Christ, is love. This love that we received from God and are called to share with others.

Without love, we are nothing. For how can one receive God's love and not love others if he is in Christ?

Wishing to always be there

This song by John Anderson is about a trucker missing important moments in the life of his children due to his job and wishing he was there.

While I'm not a trucker, this song is certainly applicable to those of us who have jobs that take us away from our family for long periods of time.  No amount of preparation time can prepare my family or me for the separation.  It is my duty, but the sacrifice is shared by my family. 

I'll be home as soon as I can.  It will be a while, but my family will always be on my mind and in my prayers.  I look forward to hearing all the stories of things that happened while I was gone.  I wish I could have been there.

To the flag

With the Olympics on, we get to hear the US National Anthem a lot, as obviously our athletes are the best.  Many people don't think the Star Spangled Banner should be the anthem as it is a hymn about our success in war.  Others say it is too hard to sing.  We have had several examples of how it is hard to sing.





Now some say America the Beautiful should be the anthem.  I would be OK with that only if the only authorized version was Ray Charles.

Mind your manners in the drive-thru

When you pull up to the McDonald's drive-thru, a voice says welcome and offers you an item.  Shortly after, a different voice comes on and welcomes you and takes your order.  Never wanting to be rude and ignore the first voice, I always say "no." My wife says that I am rude and a "no thanks" would be better. We often wonder if anyone hears our response to the first voice anyway.

Last night I made a late night run to the Mickey D's for dessert.  As I pulled up a voice said "Welcome to McDonald's, may I take your order?" Why, yes, yes you can, and I gave my order.  Then a different voice came on, "welcome to McDonald's, may I take your order?" The recorded voice got me for once. But I don't think anyone even heard it.

This is normal, yes?

I'm sure it is perfectly normal to take pictures of fastfood restaurants and your food, yes?  Surely any expatriate Texian understands pictures of Whataburger!

Tried out the new menu, #16, the grilled chicken melt, sub honey mustard, add jalapenos, add shake.  Much better than the old grilled chicken sandwich but not as good as an ol fashion Whataburger.

Looking forward to my next visit to Whataburger, which will probably involve more photos...

Stand up!

This situation took place in Sunday school several years ago at a United Methodist church. The normal Sunday school teacher was absent and asked the District Superintendent to substitute. If you are not familiar with the structure of the UMC, the DS is the representative of the Bishop on a district level. If that doesn't help, the DS oversees the pastors of all the UM churches in the local area. So, the DS is an ordained United Methodist pastor.
In the class we were spending a couple of months doing question and answer.  The 3 questions I remember from this Sunday were "is baptism required for salvation;" "how were the Jews in the Old Testament saved;" and "is Jesus the only way."

I would say that his teaching was heretical.  I like the term heretic because it is so charged and we never use it. It is used very commonly in older writings, but I guess it has gone out of vogue for today's Christian.

While answering the first question, the pastor claimed that that baptism was not required for salvation by using the justification that Jesus made no mention of baptism when talking with Nicodemus. When he said that, I interjected saying "Jesus told Nicodemus that one must be born of the water and the spirit," which is straight from the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus (John 3.) You will recall this because Nicodemus laughs and says "Must a man reenter his mother's womb?" Jesus didn't find Nicodemus funny. Nicodemus, when I meet you in Heaven, I'll shake your hand and give you a wink to acknowledge your joke. But I digress. The DS's response to my quote of scripture was "No he didn't." Not wanting to belabor the point, I did not respond.

For the next question, the DS said that the people of the Old Testament were not saved by Jesus. To this remark, I responded that they were. He once again reinforced that they were not as Jesus had not died yet. Turning to the Bible, I pointed out in both Hebrews and Romans that Jesus' death was indeed for the sins of all people of all time. I used Hebrews to illustrate that they were saved by faith into a promise that was not fulfilled in their time nor did they understand. I further more demonstrated from Hebrews that the animal sacrifices did not erase sin but were an overseer until and a foreshadow of the sacrifice of Christ. He stood fast to his denial of this. Continued discussion led to his third claim about the way to Heaven.

To answer the third question he said that belief in Jesus was only required for Christians to be saved. If you were not a Christian and believed in a god, you would be saved. I immediately responded to this claim with a "that is false," while collecting myself to respond to this heretical claim. I sadly, though most appropriately, did not announce him as a heretic in class nor order a fire to be stoked by the blood of the heretic. I further responded to his claims that Jesus was not required for salvation by using the perhaps most famous sayings of Jesus, John 3:16 and John 14:6. The DS stood by his claims and as he did when supporting all of his claims, never used an iota of scripture to support his claims.

After class, two members of the Sunday school class stopped me and thanked me for standing up against the pastor. A compliment never desired in church!

I am all for the free exchange of ideas.  However, when you engage in this free exchange of ideas, I think it is important that you support your ideas. Most appropriately in a Christian church would be to use a Bible. I further believe that if you are a United Methodist pastor, you must support and teach the basic theology of the United Methodist Church, which is common with most Christian churches. Teaching that Jesus is not required for salvation and that Jesus' death was not for all people is clearly against the theology of the United Methodist Church and the Christian Church, as found in the Articles of Religion (including Article I, V, IX) and Confession of Faith (including article I, II, IV, VII, VIII, IX) (UMC Doctrinal Standards.)

To false teachings in the church, I responded by directly confronting the source, the pastor. This should have never happened.  One would expect a pastor in a church to not only know his scripture, but to teach and believe the very doctrine of the church.  But when this does happen, we must be vigilant to stand up for the Truth. The most important part of the gospel is that Christ died and rose from the dead for all of us and sits on the throne in heaven at the right hand of God the Father.  The last place one would hope it would be attacked, but a very important place the Truth must be found, is in our own churches.

In your own backyard

In my neighborhood there are two neighborhood parks.  One is a pond and my kids love to go play by it.  The other I had never checked out until the other day. Turns out it is a cemetery.

Junior Author

My 5 year-old son drew a picture and dictated the story to me.

The aliens were on the planet first.  They found someone to eat with and they were very good friends and they love to play together.

A chip off of the ol' block

Son, 2012

Dad, 1983

For unto us a child is born!

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.


Today, my 3rd child was born.

Living it out

I've written a few times about living a simple life:
John Wesley's thoughts on living simple
Giving everything away
The life we have if we do give it away
And Dierks Bentley's song Better Believer.

Throughout those writings, I never come to the conclusion that we should give up everything physically.  Others have had different conclusions.

Here is a guy who is living quite the simple life. Suelo has given up all he owns and is living off of love and generosity.  Quite an interesting experiment.  Here is his introduction from his blog profile:

I've been totally without cents since Autumn of 2000 (except for a couple months in 2001). I don't use or accept money or conscious barter - don't take food stamps or other government dole. My philosophy is to use only what is freely given or discarded & what is already present & already running (whether or not I existed). I don't see money as evil or good: how can illusion be evil or good? But I don't see heroin or meth as evil or good, either. Which is more addictive & debilitating, money or meth? Attachment to illusion makes you illusion, makes you not real. Attachment to illusion is called idolatry, called addiction. I simply got tired of acknowledging as real this most common world-wide belief called money! I simply got tired of being unreal. Money is one of those intriguing things that seems real & functional because 2 or more people believe it is real & functional!

His blog Moneyless World chronologs his life without money.  Quite an interesting read.  Check it out.

Golden parenting

Being a parent isn't easy.  I surprise myself when my parenting actually works.  Today's lesson was sharing.

After church, my son got 2 mini cinnamon rolls.  By the time my daughter got to the table, they were all gone.  She asked if she could have one, he said no, and she got mad at him.  We talked about the golden rule.  How demanding from someone isn't right nor is not sharing.  I encouraged him to make the right choice.  Despite my talk, he said he didn't like it when people shared with him and ate both rolls.  I didn't force him to share, just that I was disappointed.  When she got upset with him, I reminded her that just because someone is mean to us, we can't be mean back.

When we got home, he asked if he could play with her pogo stick.  I reminded him he said he didn't like it when people shared their things.  He acknowledged he was wrong and apologized to his sister and even cited the golden rule.

A lot of teacher and parent guides mention giving choices to allow the child a way out of a bad situation.  They usually don't mention what to do when they still choose the wrong way. 

In this case, he later remembered what he had been taught and came back.  But what if he makes a wrong choice and never returns to his upbringing? 

The Bible does teach to teach your children the way to go so they will know when they are older.

It is a tough balance, allowing freedom while trying to teach character.  Choosing the right way isn't the end goal, but them choosing God in their heart.  Obedience to me isn't obedience to God.  It keeps them safe today, but they will soon be on their own.  Our character development must be centered on God so that they can have the freedom that He truly gives.

Sharing would have been nice so that I didn't have to hear them fight.  But perhaps he learned a better lesson by receiving grace.

Only you

Answers

In a post a couple of years ago, I wrote about three questions a pastor asked me.  They were, Where are you in your walk with God; what do you struggle with; what can the church do for you?  Here were my responses from then.


1) Where are you on your walk with God?

This is hard to say. I can say where I have been, but it is hard to say where I am.  I became a Christian when I was 15.  I say became because that is when I feel that I made a decision for myself to follow God, though it was certainly guided by my upbringing.  After becoming a Christian, I continued to be involved in Bible studies and taught a few Bible studies in college.  My knowledge and understanding of God and His teachings continue to change as I spend more time in His word.  In college, a lot of my beliefs were challenged.  Not in a way to say they were wrong, but challenged in that I didn't have Biblical support for them. They were just what I was taught. Through out college, I began to dig deeper into the Bible, learning how to study it and apply it to my life.  I feel that my beliefs today are firmly planted in scripture.  Where I am right now, I guess I feel like I am not sure. I am close to God, spend time daily in the Word and in prayer, do a better job of being a Christian day-by-day, and am constantly striving to be a better Christian.  Not to brag but perhaps to help me see that I am on the right path, I have had numerous people say things that indicated that they knew I was a strong Christian.  I feel I do a much better job now of talking about God outside of the Church.  I will elaborate more on this later.  I think perhaps having my blog has helped as it has given me a place to write my thoughts and be comfortable with them. I think I am much better at writing than talking.  As far as where I go in my path? I have a desire to pursue nursing and use this skill in the mission field, perhaps Africa.  But as for my personal relationship with God, I feel like I lack a mentor or leader or someone who has gone before me who can help me on my path.


2) What do you struggle with?

Obeying God and being content with my life

Obeying God

Not in the black and white issues of not sinning. I sin, daily even, but I do not struggle in that as much as I do in following God's will in my life. Here is an example
When I was in high school I had an album of Ross King called Sullivan's Flaw. I loved the entire album except song number 10, Up To Me. The song talks about how he comes in contact with lost people everyday, people in need of Christ, but doesn't tell them. He instead tells God that He shouldn't leave that up to him because it isn't the best use of his gifts.
I didn't like this song because it seemed to call me out! To me it was saying, "Go tell others about me!" I certainly didn't like the tone of that.
But then I found the answer! The answer was in the words of St. Francis of Assisi. "Always preach the gospel, use words if necessary." That was the answer! I didn't HAVE to tell anyone! After all, I am preaching it without words! Yes! This will save the lost and free the pressure God was putting on me to go and actually tell others about him.

Now granted the words of Francis of Assis required that you were actually living a life of righteousness. I was doing that, after all I went to church every Sunday and often times went to Wednesday night bible study. Sometimes I even wore a Christian shirt to school! Surely this was living the gospel with life! You didn't have to do anything, just look the part, right?
The song finally made sense. It wasn't wrong for the guy to tell God to not leave the task of telling others about Jesus up to him. In fact, it was a prayer! God, you see, I am not good at this. Find someone else. I will just "live it." I am not good with "words."
Well that worked well until the next time I heard the song. So I started programming my CD player to play all the songs on the album except song #10. This worked well until song #9 ended. Unfortunately, I had heard the album in its entirety enough times that my mind would automatically go to song #10 after #9.
Well surely there has to be some Biblical support for my stance. Surely God understood when others said "Hey, I will do anything you want, but I won't do that." Oh here it is, Moses! In Exodus 4:10, Moses speaks to God after God calls him to go and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and worship in the desert for 3 days. Moses says "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." Yes! A great example for me to use before God. You see God, I am just not a good talker. Remember when I was a kid, I couldn't even say my R's! How am I suppose to talk about Christ when I use to say "Chwist" as a kid! Well, God responds to Moses' plea in verse 11 and 12. "The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." Well, the only solace I could find was that at least he was talking to Moses and not me. But Moses doesn't give up. Moses begs God again in verse 13, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it." Surely God will understand Moses and my's plea! Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth." OK, so God got pretty upset with Moses, but at least he got out of having to talk, right? Well, no. As we read Exodus, we see that both Moses and Aaron have to do quite a bit of talking and a lot of work. That isn't important when I was 16 years old. I had the example I needed. I don't have to preach the Gospel, it's not my gift! Find someone else!

Then in Mexico, I talked. I had gone to Tuxpan, Mexico on a trip with my church to work on building a church and to operate a vacation bible school for the neighborhood. One night, after we had finished our work for the day, I was walking the streets around the hotel with a friend. Two Mexicans walked up asking if we were Americans. We said yes and one of them proceeded to tell us that he worked oil rigs out of Galveston and was back home on leave. He wanted to talk to us to practice his English. We visited with them on the street just outside our hotel for a few minutes before one of the adults on the trip came out to let us know it was time for evening devotion. She saw the men and told them we were Christians. They responded that they understood and oddly enough, I invited them to join us for evening devotion in the hotel. Afterwards, we invited the two men to have cokes in the hotel restaurant. I was visiting with one of the Mexicans while my friend visited with the other. I pulled out a bible track I had in my pocket (afterall, just carrying it is preaching the gospel without having to talk, right?) and shared it with the man. After we talked about, he said he wanted to take it with him so he could check a few words in the dictionary. The next day, while walking the streets, the Mexican and I crossed paths. He thanked me for sharing the gospel with him and that he really appreciated it.

So I did it! I spoke! I did it once I can do it again, right?

Well, that was that for the next 7 or 8 years. Silence returned to my mouth. I continued to skip over track #10. I have just recently begun openly speaking the gospel. I am not sure what caused me to finally start talking all the time. Perhaps God's spirit finally urged me enough to follow God. Perhaps I was tired of never hearing the gospel preached in public and in church that the Spirit used the opportunity to get me to begin talking. I am no longer afraid of opening my mouth and letting the gospel come out.

The words God told Moses still ring true. He will be our words. It is He who speaks. It is He that allows His word to go out to the masses like a sword. It is He who will teach us what we should say at that time. All we must do is trust and open our mouths.

Being content

In my own life, I am far from the person that I want to be. I often feel that I am in constant struggle against myself. I relate to Paul when he writes that he does the things he doesn't want to do and doesn't do what he wants to do. I am very happy with my friends. I couldn't ask for anything better with my friends than to wish for more time with them. I have friends that are always there for me and are willing to do anything for me. They care for me and seek for ways to help me be a better person. Materially I lack for nothing. I already feel that I have way to much stuff. I would love to be able to fit everything I owned into two boxes. Having too much stuff does not appeal to me. I am content with my friends, I am content with my possessions, but am not content with my daily living.

Because I am not content with my daily living, I often dream about living in another place or time. A much simpler life appeals greatly to me. I often dream what my life would be like if I lived hundreds of years ago. If perhaps I lived in grandparents generation. Or even if I lived in a remote area. Or is I was married.  To me, these dreams are an acknowledgment that I am not content with my life.

3) What can the Church do for you?

Accept me as I am, provide sound, Biblical based teachings and studies, and social activities.

Accept me as I am

Just about everywhere I go, a commonly asked question is "are you married?" It is certainly understandable but it always seems that I am disappointing them when I say that I am single. It seems the only people happy about me being single is my boss because he can deploy me without it affecting my family.  During a professional evaluation, my appraiser actually asked me is I was dating anyone or if I wanted help meeting some of the single teachers at the school I taught at. When I visit back in places I use to live, I am often asked this. When I talk to my family, they always ask if I am "serious" with any of my friends who are girls.  I visited a church in Midland once and a gentleman who turned out to teach the singles sunday school class came up to me, introduced himself, and said "are you single?" It was refreshing to get to answer yes for once and not feel like something was wrong! Once I was at a science teacher meeting for the high schools in my district. I had prepared a few handouts and a teacher from another school commented "figured you were single since you had all this extra time." I was speechless. One Sunday in Midland I was not at church since I was out of town. My friend who is also in the choir with me missed the first service, but arrived for the second service. Since she was not at first service, someone asked where she was. Someone else then quickly asked where I was, insinuating an obvious connection. Luckily the choir director jumped in and set the record straight. It is as if there is something wrong with being single!

One Sunday at Wesley, I went to Sunday school then church. I sat in my pew by myself as was the norm. A couple from Sunday school sat a few rows in front. The wife saw me, waved, then said "you are all alone back there!" as if I hadn't noticed. They then turned around and that was the end of the conversation. During the meet and greet session, a lady in front of me turned and said "Well if you are going to sit back there all by your self you might as well sit with us." as if it was wrong for me to sit by myself! Then on the way out of church, while in the receiving line to shake hands with the preacher, he greeted and shook hands with the couple in front of me, turned to me, leaned around me, and began talking to the daughter of the couple behind me, ignoring me and not shaking my hand much less greeting me. Now me, I am pretty stubborn sometimes so I continued to come back, but one can easily see how this could have quite a negative affect on anyone who was visiting the church.

Most churches have very little that is specifically for young singles. Think of the numerous churches with "family" in their name or call themselves a "family church". Most churches have a strong focus on families as part of their mission. That's good, but there are more people outthere than just families. I have never heard a sermon, well, at least none that I can recall, that deal with issues that are specific for people like me unless the topic is dating. Over 90% of singles my age have had sex yet this is not discussed in the church. Reassurance for those who are remaining pure while single should be an important topic in the church. Society certainly paints a picture that it is wrong to be 27 and still a virgin. In college, the church I attended had a very strong college program, but even there, the sermons that dealt with such topics were always about dating. Not very applicable for singles who are not dating.

Society is focused on not being single. Focused on how to find a date, on how to attract women, on who to marry, on how to recover from divorce, on how to love your spouse. The church does a good job on responding to this. That is great for those people. How about we also focus on how to live for God as singles? This should not be about how to honor God in a dating relationship, but how to honor God in day to day living.

Biblical Teaching

Teaching and activities that are biblical based, interesting, and applicable to my life

Social activities

The social activities could be simple like going to dinner and such, just an opportunity to meet others. I would also like to participate in mission activities with others in the church.  I think church should feel like a community.

A normal church service consists of some songs, passing the offering plate, a reading from the scripture, a prayer lead by someone, and a sermon from the pastor. This is how we most often experience church, sitting in the pew, listening to someone else, barely participating. If you were not there one Sunday, would "church" still happen?

To me, most churches seem almost like you are just attending a play or listening to a lecture. Surely we can do better than this.

I feel that Church should be more communal. We often find this in either small groups or Sunday school. At a church I use to attend, I did not find community through these things. I attended Sunday school for a short while, but stopped because the group I was with wasn't communal. Members came irregularly, the teachings wasn't very strong, the group was made up mainly of married couples with children and the social activities reflected that, and I wasn't been spiritually fed. For about 9 months, we had a bible study made up of people in my "social" group, young single adults. We met and had fellowship and bible study. We struggled in finding more fellowship activities, but we never had a staff member to help us and we were disbanded for being "too small." The small group had great potential, even if we were small, but unfortunately we didn't receive the support we needed from the church. The only place I found community in that church was in singing in the church choir. However, with the church as a whole, I felt like if I didn't attend church one Sunday, no one would really know. What I felt was worse was that the community ended as soon as the service was over on Sunday. I didn't feel like anyone was really concerned about me outside of church. I didn't feel like anyone wanted to really know me.

In Sunday worship, I do not find fellowship or community. I find myself sitting with people, but not knowing them. Hearing a message, but not having it delivered by someone who knows me and knows how it would apply to me. I want to be with people who are of a similar mind, growing together. I don't want to be passive! I want to be part of the Church, not just meeting in a church.

I feel that there is strength in the house church model because of the community it builds.

A few years ago I began attending Saturday night services at Grace Bible Church in College Station because I felt that the smaller group and the structure of the service built better community.  The first Saturday night service that I attended had Ross King led worship, a christian musician I knew. I went home to look into his current endeavors. I knew he was a pastor at Community Church in College Station as I had attended the church for a year in college. Back then, the church met at the Hilton, then in a school cafeteria on Sunday mornings. The church now meets in Grace Bible Church, on Sunday nights. In reading about the church, I found that they met on Sunday nights for dinner, worship, fellowship, and to study God's word. During the week they met in small groups for fellowship and worship. This seemed like what a church community should be like!

I was in Austin for about 10 weeks last year and attended a church that I felt has a strong community, much like I was looking for after studying about Community Church. That church is The Well in Buda. I was disappointed that I was only a part of it for a short time. Even though I was only going to be there a few weeks, they have made me a part of their community. I was invited by a person I had only met once before. Going there, I was immediately welcomed and made a part of their community. People wanted to talk and get to know me. They invited me to join their Bible studies and group activities. They made me part of their community, even though I would only be there a few weeks. They were concerned for each other and would seek out to help those in the church.  They wanted to be together.  They have community.

Some people say it is an investment to get to know someone because it takes time and effort. . If it is just an investment, than it does little to invest time and effort in to knowing people who you may never see again. But that isn't what we are called to do. I met a girl once at the Saturday night service at Grace. We spent some time together but since I was only in College Station a few days a month and leaving soon for Rhode Island, it was hard to develop a long term relationship. We did get to spend time together and learned about each other, despite knowing our time would be short. Shortly before I left, she said "Thanks for taking the time to get to know me."  Community isn't dependent on time.

Holiday

Today is a holiday, and one of my favorite.  It combines three of my favorite things, Texas, Texas A&M, and cocker spaniels.

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto.  Where Sam Houston and his rag tag army defeated the well trained Mexican army of Santa Anna.  Our independence was won that day.  Made famous by the battle cry "Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!" and the Yellow Rose of Texas.

San Jacinto Monument

Today is the day of Aggie Muster.  We Aggies are charged that "If there is an A&M man in one-hundred miles of you, you are expected to get together, eat a little, and live over the days you spent at the A&M College of Texas."  I spend it calling buddies from college, mustering with a local A&M group, and a few beverages to toast A&M.

Academic Building at Texas A&M

Today is the birthday of a dog, a cocker spaniel named Texas.  When I was a kid, we had cocker spaniels.  One of them was a blond female that was born on April 21, 1986.  We named her Texas.  A litter-mate of her's was named Blue Bonnet.

Texas, the cocker spaniel

Texas, Aggies, and a dog.  Sounds like a bad country song.

Go Braves

With the announcement the Houston Astros would be going to the American League, I gave up on the team I had been a fan of since childhood.  I grew up watching my heros of Bagwell and Biggio.  My first baseball game was in the Astrodome and I watched their farm team, the Hooks.  But the move to the AL, with the unbaseball-like DH was too much.

Since I live in Georgia, I picked up the local team, the Atlanta Braves.  They had always been a respected rival in the NL, stopping up many-A-time in the playoffs from earning a pennant.

Though no longer a 'stros fan, I still hold an important part of being a 'stros fan.  An undying hatred of the St Louis Cardinals and Albert Pujoles for hitting that 3 run homer in the 9th in Game 5 of the 2005 NLCS.  When the AL 'stros play the Cardinals, I will make an exception of rooting for an AL team over an NL team.  Never forget!

A step in the right direction (Part 2: Dads who aren't dads)

My relationship with the children of my now wife changed drastically while we dated and continued to change after we married.

My love for them today is unconditional. While I do not understand yet the love one has for a biological child, I do know that my love for these children is not dependent upon the relationship with their mother, my wife. While it started because of my relationship with her, it has grown beyond that to be the love between a father and his children.

A friend of mine who had two kids and I were talking about the children. He said the love would develop different for step-children than it would for biological children. With biological children, it happens in an unexplained spontaneous way. With step-children, it is in an unexplained way as well, but is not spontaneous. It takes time, patience, and dedication. Much like developing the love with your spouse requires work, so it does with step-children.

My wife was very intentional about the first interaction I had with the children. Children can quickly grow attached to someone and adult relationships do not always work out. While we couldn't guarantee we would get married at that time, we waited until we were at least on the same track.

As time progressed, my relationship with the children continued to develop. While my wife will probably always remain the one who handles certain situations, which I would handle if the children were biologically mine, they are my children and I have become their dad.

I am named after my great-grandfather. His youngest son, my great-uncle, married a woman who had two children, about the same age as my kids. My great-grandfather said that there was no step in his family and the step-grandchildren would be treated as if they were his grandchildren. I feel the same way about my children. I never use the term step-children, though by definition they are. I use the term children, because I love them as my children.

However, the children have a dad who is biologically their dad, and it isn't me. No matter how strong my relationship becomes with the children, or how much time passes, there will always be someone who can call the children his children, without ever having to explain that they are from his wife's previous marriage.

Every so often the kids will say something to remind you of that fact, that you are only their stepdad and that they have a real dad. The kids are with me all the time except every other weekend and a few hours each week. But they are always my children and I am always their dad. But I am also always their stepdad. It isn't always easy to be a dad who isn't a dad.

He beat me

I once wrote about things not to do on a cruise ship.  This guy beat me.

From ABC.

A California man will be buoyed to a jail cell for the next two months after he pleaded guilty to drunkenly dropping a cruise ship’s anchor while it was sailing from Mexico to Florida.

Rick Ehlert, 45, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., was ordered to spend four months in incarceration —two in jail and two in home confinement, followed by three years of probation. He will also have to pay a $7,500 fine and attend substance abuse counseling.

Ehlert dropped the stern anchor of the MS Ryndam as it was traveling in international waters in the early morning hours of Nov. 27, 2010. Shortly after dropping anchor, he also deployed a life buoy. Ehlert admitted to being drunk at the time, according to court documents.

A Day in Savannah

Yesterday we took a trip to Savannah for a cheerleading competition, the Savannah Diamond Championships. We only made it a day trip, and spent most of the day at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center, but did get out in town for a few hours.

At the Convention Center, I don't recommend the bathrooms that are on the floor on the convention hall. The Men's Room was always dirty and out of soap, though my wife said that the Women's had an attendant always cleaning. The Center itself is quite nice.

Right outside the Center, between it and the Westin Hotel, is the Trade Center landing for the Savannah Belles Ferry. The ferry is a free passenger ferry with stops at the River Street by City Hall, the Savannah Marriott Hotel, and the Trade Center.

The girls loved riding the ferry, though the weather yesterday was quite chilly. We rode it from the Trade Center to River Street and back.

Views on the river

While on River Street, we stopped for lunch at Spanky's.



Spanky's is known for their pizza, so I went with the pizza burger. It was good, of course not as good as Angelo's. The service was less than desirable, our waiter was quite slow at just about everything, and they ran out of Fat Tire on tap. My wife loved her burger, and the girls enjoyed watching the container ships move up the river while eating lunch.

A stop at Savannah's Candy Kitchen and we were done with our excursion into Savannah. Back to the Trade Center for more cheer.

A night at the Raffles

I walked into a courtyard at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore with a group of Sailors and made our way to the bar. The Singapore Sling was the drink ordered by everyone, until it came to me. Not being a fan of fruity drinks, I ordered whiskey. After the first round of drinks, the bartender asked if the rest of the guys were done drinking ladies drinks and offered whiskey and rum. Indeed, the Singapore Sling is for women.

Later the bartender asked where we were from. “Georgia,” I responded. He looked at me for a moment and said “Oh, the United States,” as if he had a moment of realization. Remembering I hadn't clarified which Georgia, I confirmed his suspicion and offered further clarification that would probably upset most Georgians, except perhaps for those in the South Ossetia, “We aren't Russian.” Then, in a way of winning back over the hearts and minds of the people of Georgia, and with a sense of American exceptionalism, announced “we hate the Russians!” “Don't say that around here!” the bartender said, as his eyes quickly glanced behind me at the others in the courtyard. No KGB agents came to visit me during the rest of my stay in Singapore.

A step in the right direction (Part 1)

A year ago I was single, no children. Now I am a husband, a father of two, and about to have my first child. Make sense?

My now wife was divorced and had two children from her first marriage. When I was single, the thought of marrying someone who was divorced or had children was something I never thought of. After meeting her, I knew I wanted to consider the idea.

In considering that idea, I research books, magazine articles, the internet, and the Bible. I found little. I knew that my position, while not common, wasn't unique. Yet, I wasn't able to find anything about people in my situation. There was lots about two divorced people remarrying, but nothing about the single guy. So I figured I would write some things on the blog for those who are in a similar situation.

One of the first questions I had from when our mutual friend who set us up first told me about her, why was she divorced?

There are many reasons people get divorced, some are justified, some are not. Society typically views any divorced as justified, unless it is a politician. The Church, well, it has lots of different thoughts.

Reading online, I found several people who claimed that a woman who is divorced should not remarry because she is denying women who are single and not previously married the opportunity to be married. Others said it was acceptable if the cause for the divorce was Biblical. Others said it wasn't an issue at all.

Let's go to the Bible for the matter.

Matthew 5:31-32 says

It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Jesus gives us clear guidelines on divorce.

So if the cause of the divorce was Biblical, it can give the single man peace of mind. If it isn't? Luckily God also provides grace upon grace.

So if the divorce wasn't Biblical, one would examine if reconciliation was sought, or can be achieved. If it has been sought but cannot be achieved, has the person confessed their sins to God? God's forgiveness is for all of our sins, including divorce.

Can a divorced woman remarry? Absolutely. If it was in sin, the blood of Christ makes us new and forgives all sins.

We will continue examine other issues in the future.

Dublin Dr Pepper Blues

Guy Clark sang Dublin Blues.



I read yesterday in a Dallas Observer blog,

If you have but a single can or bottle marked "Dublin Dr Pepper," don't open it. It's a collector's item as of this very moment. That's because as of 5 p.m. today there is no more Dublin Dr Pepper: From here on out, per a settlement agreement just announced in the case filed by Plano-based Dr Pepper Snapple Group in June, the Dublin Dr Pepper Bottling Company will now be known as Dublin Bottling Works Inc. And it will no longer manufacture Imperial Pure Cane Sugar Dr Pepper at its bottling plant.

To remember Dublin Dr Pepper, here is a write-up from a trip I took with a friend of mine in June of 2009 to Dublin to tour the Dr Pepper bottling plant. The same friend from this trip.



The Dr. Pepper Bottling Plant in Dublin is the only place in the world that still makes Dr. Pepper according to the original recipe. You can buy Dubin Dr. Pepper there, or you can be dedicated like my brother and trade in your empty refillable 10oz bottles for Dr. Pepper bottled in Dublin.


Crates upon crates of Dr. Pepper awaiting trade-ins. The bottles aren't made any more, so my brother buys his on e-bay. He found out I was going and sent me with all of his empties to trade them in. If you buy by the case, it is something like 40 cents a bottle.

They have an old fashion soda fountain with soda jerks who make you a Dr. Pepper, or my personal favorite, the Frosty Pepper, which is like a Dr. Pepper milk shake.

After I had my Frosty Pepper and my friend had her Dr. Pepper, we took a tour of the bottling plant. The tours are $2.50/person and you get a free Dr. Pepper during the tour.

The tour takes you through the plant and describes all the equipment. It ends in the museum which houses only 10% of their Dr Pepper memorabilia.






The 6 various drinks they bottle at the Dublin plant.

It was a great day trip for us. If you are looking to get out of the metroplex for the day, this is a trip that will not disappoint, unless you are a Pepsi drinker!

How did they do that?

Recently, a US drone was reportedly captured by Iran.

Mehran Tavakoli Keshe, of the Keshe Foundation, explained how he led the effort to capture the American drone.

The Keshe Foundation is an independent non-profit and non-religious organization founded by nuclear engineer M.T. Keshe aiming to bring about new scientific knowledge, technologies and new solutions for the major global problems like famine, water shortage, shortage of electrical power supply, climate change, illnesses, where at the same time by the use of new types of plasma reactors giving the Man the real freedom of travel in deep Space.

He started by examining how many people argued that Iran was incapable of hacking the link to the drone. He concurred that he hadn't used hacking methods in bringing the drone down.

There is no Hacking , but the use of advanced space technology.

In the past in this forum and in my presentations around Europe and in my international interviews in the past months, I have explained again and again that the Keshe Foundation and Iranian spaceship program has the capability of radar blockage and capture of material in airborne condition.

The Islamic republic of Iran has the capability of capture and landing of any flying object irrespective of their size and speed as seen with capture of one of the most advanced flying crafts in these above videos and the request of so called the most advanced nation on earth for its toy back.

In this case, there has been no malfunctioning of the craft, but this has been a simple capture and landing of an object at high speed through advanced space programs.

He next examined why the craft didn't crash after being taken over.

The craft has been air-picked-up and been put down on its belly through the use of field forces.

Iran has and will protect its territorial integrity through the use of its advanced space technologies, which it has acquired through new space programme and Iran will not use this technology for aggression, but for only showing to other nations that the time of nuclear and so called western advance military technology has come to an end.

In my inputs in this forum over past years I have informed the readers of these capabilities of this new technology.

The size of the 27 meters of the craft is no problem to cover and the speed of the craft is child-play for this new space program.

He of coursed finished by praising the peacefulness of Iran.

We salute the advancement in space technology of Iranian scientists and thank them for the peaceful use of this new technology and I am sure we will see more in the coming near future how space will be a peaceful place with this technology in the hand of peace loving nation of Iran.

Here is a picture of the craft being captured.

Ground Control to Major Obama

David Bowie sang the song Space Oddity.



Little did we know he was probably singing about Barack Obama, who according to this amazing news article, has traveled to Mars at least twice.

Two former participants in the CIA’s Mars visitation program of the early 1980’s have confirmed that U.S. President Barack H. Obama was enrolled in their Mars training class in 1980 and was among the young Americans from the program who they later encountered on the Martian surface after reaching Mars via “jump room.”

Andrew D. Basiago, 50, a lawyer in Washington State who served in DARPA’s time travel program Project Pegasus in the 1970’s, and fellow chrononaut William B. Stillings, 44, who was tapped by the Mars program for his technical genius, have publicly confirmed that Obama was enrolled in their Mars training class in 1980 and that each later encountered Obama during visits to rudimentary U.S. facilities on Mars that took place from 1981 to 1983.

Their astonishing revelations provide a new dimension to the controversy surrounding President Obama’s background and pose the possibility that it is an elaborate ruse to conceal Obama’s participation as a young man in the U.S. secret space program.

Mr. Basiago states that during one of his trips to Mars via “jump room” that took place from 1981 to 1983, he was sitting on a wall beneath an arching roof that covered one of the “jump room” facilities as he watched Mr. Obama walk back to the jump room from across the Martian terrain. When Mr. Obama walked past him and Mr. Basiago acknowledged him, Mr. Obama stated, with some sense of fatalism: “Now we’re here!”

Mr. Stillings states that during one of his visits to Mars, he walked out of the “jump room” facility and encountered Mr. Obama standing beside the facility by himself staring vacantly into a ravine located adjacent to the facility.

It explains why the President has reduced the manned space program. When you've been to Mars a few times, how boring is a routine trip in a space shuttle?