Big Bugs exhibit at the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Columbus Ships at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Columbus Ships at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Selena exhibit at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
Butterfly in the xeriscape at Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History
By the aquarium under the Harbor Bridge is an observation deck. Now the observation deck is closed because they installed a radar on the 2nd deck, but it is still a cool area to go watch ships.
M/V DHT Cathy passing under the Harbor Bridge
M/V DHT Cathy exiting the port of Corpus Christi
Pushing over the Harbor Bridge
For New Years Eve, the Mrs. and I went to Bleu Bistro for their New Year's Eve dinner.
Afterwards, we went next door to the Havana Club, where the most exciting thing was the giraffe art.
What visit to Corpitos would be complete without a visit to the Selena Memorial?
Our trip home brought us through Baton Rouge around lunch where we ate at Zapata's, a good Mexican restaurant.
That night brought us to Mobile where we spent the night then toured the USS Alabama and USS Drum.
For dinner, we went to Foosackly's, famous for chicken strips.
The next day found us in Columbus, Georgia, where we ate a magnificent lunch at Minnie's Uptown Restaurant. A great cafeteria style lunch, my favorite of the entire trip.
My first visit to the Steak n Shake was OK. The shooters were cheap, but the shake was good. Tried the Santa Fe burger this time. Quite delicious! And kids eating free means they can have a shake for desert.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
