HARMLESS THOUGHTS

It bothers annoys alarms me that I would even have to go down this path... that I would even have to try to explain that it is wrong to kill babies. I find it frightening. Almost a month ago I was talking to my sons on the way home from school about life, the universe, and everything. (And I have to tell you, we have some great conversations on the way home. There just isn't anything like rolling down an old highway in a big old Chevy pickup truck with your boys. ) Anyway, Number One was asking me about which candidates I would vote for and why. He had heard some of the names the previous day and was wondering about this. So he asked me if I was going to vote for Barack Obama. I thought about it for a moment. I really did. He doesn't know all that much about Republicans and Democrats, so I wanted to give him some solid understandable answer, so I replied, "Well. Mr. Obama believes that if a woman doesn't want her baby that she can just kill it..." That...

I could never... NEVER... vote for any candidate for anything if that candidate was not clearly pro-life. I am not much of a politically minded person, but that issue settles everything for me. I equate the killing of unborn children with any other of the numerous genocides that have taken place throughout history. They are the same at their core. Someone, somewhere decides that a certain group of people are expendable and that society would be better without those people. So that someone decides that it would be OK to kill those people. It is a disgusting state of things when a country gets to that point, but it is the natural outcome of the humanistic philosophy that our children are constantly being indoctrinated with in the public school system. It blows my mind, seriously blows my mind, that I am even typing this post. It seems so obvious to me. I would just as soon vote for a Nazi or a Communist as I would vote for someone who believes that individuals have the right to ch...

I am editing some old posts, so if you use a reader to follow this blog, you may see some old post showing up. I am considering eliminating all personal names from my blog. This seems an overwhelming task, and it would make more sense to just start a new blog. I don't know what I am going to do yet, but I started the process of editing these old posts.

(Given in no particular order...) I am tops at something! I had to take the Praxis Test in math, in order to get my SC State teaching license. I was really worried about it for a while, and especially when I saw the study materials. It covers every area of math that is offered at the highschool level: Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Probability and Statistics. (And I may have left something out.) I spent several days at Barnes and Noble, drinking some coffee and studying the practice books. It was well over a hundred dollars each time you took the test, so I knew that I couldn't afford to fail it. On the day of the test, I told God all of the details and what would happen if I didn't pass. And even though He already knew, he patiently listened to my requests. I was sitting in the room, waiting for the test and listening to the other teachers in the room. Most of them were talking about how many times they had taken thi...

I have a new favorite lunch food. It might look like your ordinary peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but don't be fooled by its appearance. That might be peanut butter, but it isn't jelly that is in that sandwich. It is a wonderful substance called nutella © . The label describes it as " The original, creamy, chocolaty spread ." Basically, if you make a peanut butter and nutella sandwich, it tastes like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup © . I wasn't for sure about the chocolate on the bread at first, but it is wonderful. In my house I call it the Peanut Butter Cup Sandwich. I don't know why I am sharing this with you, but hey... its a blog and people have shared much more pointless information than this!

Alright. I need to tell you a story. I already told everyone that I know in the flesh, but my blogging friends, I am sure, would like to hear this as well. I was coming home from school last Thursday. It was just me and the boys in the truck, and we were delving into some deep conversation... as boys in pickup trucks tend to do. We were discussing what it means to be saved, and my five-year-old was asking all of the questions, trying to wrap his mind around it. In the process of trying to explain this miracle, I merged into the story of Nicodemus, when he came to see Jesus at night. My oldest, had been quiet through most of this, but when I mentioned that Nicodemus had been confused about the "being born again" part, Number One says, "... I am not confused anymore." "No, you're not." I responded. "You have understood this stuff for quite a while haven't you?" And he has. He has been able to answer all of the questions for a long ti...

I have heard many people recently, with their warm fuzzy feelings, use phrases like, you know its "...the time to show our faith in Jesus as Lord." They say it so casually and flippantly. It rolls off their tongues or clicks off their fingers as they type it on their blogs or their e-mails. The question I have is this... Do you even know what you are talking about? James, the brother of Jesus, started his walk on the earth with no faith in Christ. He may have thought that he had faith in God, but as Christ walked this earth, it was put to the test. He didn't believe in God's living word. After Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected, James became a believer. He became a prominent leader in the church, and wrote the book of James. You will be hard-pressed to find another book that pictures faith the way James does. He says things like this, "What good does it do to say that you have faith if you don't have any deeds? Can that kind of faith even ...

I thought that this was really good. Very interesting ideas being presented. (Thanks to Rick )

Somebody already beat me to this idea , but I am going to go for it anyway. I have never done the 'read through the Bible in a year' thing. I have wanted to, have never gotten around to it, but I am going for it this year. I am using the ESV's site to tackle this. I subscribed to their One Year Tract plan through Google Reader , that way it is dropped to me on a daily basis, and I don't feel like anything is lost by reading it electronically. I started on January 1st, and the first week has gone really well. I am really hoping to be consistent with this, not so that I can say that I did it, but because I believe that God's word is what it says that it is. I believe that it is living and powerful. I believe that it is sharper than any two-edged sword. I believe that it will pierce me. So, I read it, and I want to read all of it this year. But back to my idea... I thought the other day that I should randomly post some thoughts here from my Bible reading, an...

Susan Wise Bauer writes history books. She is very good at it. The school I am at uses her books titled, The Story of the World for several of their history courses. I read her blog as well. It is titled The History of the (Whole) World . I was going through my Google Reader to see if anyone had posted any New Years posts, and I ran across hers . Her family had been watching the Twilight Zone Marathon that plays every New Years on the SciFi Channel. In her last picture you could see the TV and she says that the first person who could identify the episode would get a free autographed book. I knew it. Now I am getting a book! Autographed! She gave me the option of which book I could get. I chose the book titled The Well Educated Mind . I had been wanting to get that book anyway, but now I am getting it free.

Have you ever heard anyone talk about showing faith like it is some sort of fuzzy feeling they get. Some hard circumstances come along, and they want to move on, but they don't want to completely expose their lack of concern for God's ways, so they begin talking about having faith in "all of this." They speak of it like it is the thing that helps them to keep a stiff upper lip. James says that faith is shown in good deeds. Faith is demonstrated in action. You can say that you have faith all you want, but if you don't have any works, HA! That isn't real faith at all. It is some sort of distorted dead faith. Faith is not keeping a smile on your face and hoping for the best. It is actually Loving your enemies. (That is following the true definition of Love. Not just some sort of feeling, but acting for their good.) It is being patient towards people. It is showing kindness towards all. True faith produces aggressive good works. Sometimes people talk ...