Musings on my world. . .
Hurricane Katrina has devastated Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.
Pray for those trapped and those with family in the affected regions. . . Send aid if you can to those who are supporting the relief efforts including the American Red Cross and the Texas Baptist Men who respond in crisis like this one.
C
FBC Gulfport Mississippi gutted by Katrina 2005
I’ve been thinking about this lately over the past couple of weeks. What’s my Grace Story?
Aside (The Doctors say Grandma may be able to come home Sat or Sun, please keep prayin’ and thanks!)
What’s a Grace Story? Good Question. . . A Grace Story is a personal story of God’s provision, plan, protection, patience, and or personal work in your life.
It can be as simple as the testimony of your salvation, to the daily paths He leads you on. It can be an interwoven thread of happen stances and aquaintances that working together lead you to the discovery of Truth. Whatever that story is that’s what I’m interested in. I think that’s what God is interested in. The more interested we are in how God is working and changing hearts and lives then the more desire we will have to share and to love those beautiful faces all around us. . .
So What’s your Grace Story?
later,
C
Families are a beautiful thing. . .
They give us our earliest images of hope and love if we are fortunate. They give us peace and security, saftey and provision. They love us when we are unlovable, they clean us up when we got dirty and the portrayed life daily poured out before us. . .
If we are fortunate, we live long and happy lives together. . .
Much of my life has been fortunate. . . I’m grateful for that.
Right now my Dad’s parent’s Grampy and Grandma have been married 60 years this year. They have lived in the same house on the outskirts of Dallas for nearly 20 years. They lived in the house before that for somewhere around 30 years.
The didn’t move much and have traveled very little in the past 10 years. In their earlier years they had a big RV that they drove around the country for vacations and the like. I liked the RV, especially when they took me out to the farm, I forget the name of it now, but Grandma and her sisters and the families would travel together in the RV’s and trailers and we would have a grand time swimming and such. . .
These past few years have been tough for Grampy and Grandma, struggles with various ailments, and such the passing of all but one of Grandma’s sisters, and the realization that she is one of only 2 left.
But what a life they have lived. . . a life of service and example. Not perfect just there. Grampy and Grandma have been there through every stage of my life. They were at some of my little league games, many of my soccer games and even one or two of my high school games, they were at Graduations, Birthdays and the like, they made it 3 hours east to see me when I graduated college, they were there when I said I do to my wife, they were there.
(just like Mom and Dad) 🙂
I’m grateful and fortunate to have such wonderful Grandparents. . .
Pray for my family, Grandma is in critical condition in Dallas and the doctors say she may not make it.
C
Daniel 7:9-10
The Ancient of Days:
“. . . and the books were opened.”
What’s in the book I ask? What’s that all about? Why does He sit down, what are all the people there for? Ay!!!
The Vision of Daniel (taken in forced exile to Babylon) A vision of 4 beasts then of a judgement. Tens of Thousands will be before the Ancient of Days: (GOD ALMIGHTY) and then He will sit and the books will be opened.
What might the books say? (I think they will have names) I think there will be a many books, but there will be books of the deeds of men and there will be a Book of Life (Psalm 69:28, Phillipians 4:3, Revelation 3:5, Revelation 13:8, Revelation 17:8, Revelation 20:12, Revelation 20:15, Revelation 21:27)
Will God find your name in the Book of Life?
He will if you are trusting that Jesus Christ’s death on the Roman Cross nearly 2000 years ago has allowed Him to be the substitute sacrifice for the wrongs you have committed, If you have repented of those evils and trusted Him for your Salvation (Romans 10:9-10)
Repentance: What is it? Dictionary Definition with Greek word Explanation
Salvation: What is it? Dictionary Definition
I don’t know about you but I personally am in awe of the might, power, holiness, righteousness and Love of our Lord and God. . . our Pastor has been talking about a fear of God that seems to be missing today. . . I agree the Holy reverential fear and wonder at the Awesome Majesty and Power of a mighty and all power God who created the Universe and all that is in it and still condescened to come to us as a man a lowly baby born in a manger.
Wow,
C
Link to CS Monitor Article on BPL
Could your Internet be provided through one of these?
If Senate Bill 5 LINK to TEXTin the Texas House isn’t vetoed by the Gov of Texas then it may become a reality throughout Texas. Broadband over Power Line provides one more alternative as DSL, Cable, Satellite and Dial up compete for the Internet Accessible consumer. . .
With WiMax technology brimming to be launched in metropolitan and througout the US soon, Broadband penetration in the US could finally break above its dismal 16% current threshold. . .
I can only hope. . .
C
“It’s seeing people come to church and go home alone; not knowing anymore people when they leave than they did when they came in. They leave as lonely as they came. They aren’t connected and they feel like they don’t belong.”
Ronnie Whitehead – Pastor of Fellowship Brazos Pointe Community Church – Lake Jackson, TX
Ronnie’s Encapsulates the realization of Vision
If you read the article, let me know what your Popeye moment was? I have to say that I’m not sure I’ve quite reached into and found it yet, but there are several moments that are clear.
Viewing our small church, in such a growing area of the Hill Country, knowing that more and more people were coming and we hadn’t kept up for more than 25 years at least. . . Knowing that if we kept going like we were going that the Church would go from stagnation to deflation and finally death. . .
I didn’t like the thought of our little Church dying. . . Let’s see what God wants to do with me, with us. . .?
Later,
C
I Cor 4:2
Indian Government officials announced the phasing out of the Rickshaw. . .
This personal transportation device relied on human power to get you from point A to B and with its tall wheels provided comfortable transportation even in the most formidable of water situations . . .
The practice is being banned on the premise that it is de-humanizing to have one person pull another around, but the driver/pullers are wondering where they will make a living without their Rickshaws. . . ?
What do you think?
Workers discover The Pool of Siloam
Well, its happened again. The Bible has been proven based in fact. . . Here on the inside cover of todays newspapers is covered a story from Jerusalem. A modern day sewer repair crew has discoverd the Pool of Siloam really did exist and they found it. Miracuously preserved and a mere 200 yards from a rebuilt pool, the actual biblical fountain where Jesus healed the blind beggar has been found.
“a much grander affair” Archealogists exclaimed about the discovery when they realized the Pool had a larger structure and construction than previously believed.
It’s good to know that Scripture is rooted in fact and history.
C
Okay just a note this is a tech post.
You know I’ve been reading about the ever popular RSS feeds and seeing them online at several of my favorite sites, including this blog! Ha ha. . . check out this rss link. But you know I never quite got the usefullness of them. I mean okay so I can add a dynamic bookmark. . . Haven’t I seen this before? Yes. . . Pointcast . . . 🙂 an early news feed service that delivered news to the desktop. . . I thought what’s the point, and if the feeds are buried in my bookmarks, (I have way too many bookmarks. . . ) When am I ever going to use the feeds?
But now I’ve found the answer. . . Thunderbird rss / atom feeder aggregate. . . Thunderbird which is a free open source Outlook Express competitor has a built in rss/atom feeder and reader built in. Now I use Outlook for most everyday email, and third parties want extra dough to add this functionality to Outlook. So my answer to them is uhh. . .”No Thanks!” I d/l Thunderbird today to add on the desktops of a couple of my works agent workstations. And low and behold I found Thunderbird has this feature built in and of course at the standard Thunderbird rate of Free/Zilch/Gratis . . . what’s not to like! 🙂
Okay so now I can see how rss feeds can be helpful. . . Here in an easy to use swoop method all my favorite rss / news /info blog feeds are integrated and listed. . . I can read the stories as I have time or skip them. . . And they are searchable. . .nice. . .
So RSS (thumbs up) I know I know better late than never right?
🙂
later,
C
Whitehouse Transcript of Embryonic Baby Adoptions
I’ve recently seen a spate of editorials criticizing the President’s stand on embryonic stem cell research. This editorial charge and large scale press coverage of Sen Frist’s public endorsement of embryonic stem cell research (in opposition to his previous stand) has led to an outcry spearheaded by many who disagree with the President’s principled decision.
His decision is based on the belief that life begins at conception. . . This is not some fairy tale but scientific fact that when an egg and a sperm unite and form the beginings of life that genetically everything that will determine the physical attirbutes and makeup of the embryo are already cemented. The truth of the matter is their are hundreds if not thousands of embryo’s created in the pursuit of fertility for our nation and the worlds couples who face infertility. . . These embryo’s have no one to defend them or what they can become, they become an easy target of a quick fix and encourage a decision based upon the basis that their life is not as important as another persons life. Because of this the President has encouraged umbilical cord stem cell research, and adult stem cell research*1 which have already proven to be viable alternative to provide cures to current diseases. This fact is often ignored and bypassed. . . But our President didn’t forget.
In the initial link you will see the transcript of an event where 81 children attended. All of these were abandoned embryo’s the off shoots of infertility treatments that would have been slated for destruction or an eternal frozen sleep. . . And yet their families choose to donate and give up for adoption these small fragile lives to couples who could not have children of their own or who desired an embryo adoption. . .
So I pause to wonder, what if Embryo 81 who was adopted and born were slated to medical research instead? The life lost, the cures unfounded and the artistry and creativity missed. . .
The question isn’t what cures can be found by embryonic stem cell research or how many lives can be saved, but what is the moral cost to our society, that allows unborn children to be destroyed before they ever had a chance in the name of scientific progress? Especially when umbilical cord and adult stem cell research is already showing the promise of cures *2
As the President summarized:
” The children here today remind us that there is no such thing as a spare embryo. Every embryo is unique and genetically complete, like every other human being. And each of us started out our life this way. These lives are not raw material to be exploited, but gifts. And I commend each of the families here today for accepting the gift of these children and offering them the gift of your love. (Applause.)”
In His Service,
C
*1 http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/03/21/australia.stemcell/
*2 http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2005/01_19_05.html