Thursday, August 7, 2008
We're off!
The van is packed. The kids are dressed and already standing by the door. Just one more time for everyone to "try" to go to the bathroom, and we're off!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Road Trip
We are all getting to bed early tonight, anxiously awaiting our road trip tomorrow. There isn't a person in this family that doesn't enjoy a road trip. (Except maybe the dog.)
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Love Your God With All Your Mind
I want to write something about the book that I just finished. The title of the book was Love Your God with All Your Mind and it was written by J.P. Moreland. I say I want to write something about this book, but I am just not so sure what to write.
The book started out quite interesting. It had a great premise and the author put the thoughts together in a very systematic, logical fashion. It was well researched and contained several great quotes and supports for his argument.
I am not going to attempt to summarize this book, but here is the gist of it: (Is "gist" a real word?) Intellectualism and the cultivation of the mind is an essential part and a core value of true Christianity. In other words, true Christianity and its faith includes reason and rational thought, it does not stand in opposition to it.
I agree with this basic idea. I get bothered by those who pass off the Christian faith as something for the dull-witted, like anyone who believes the Bible is some kind of back-woods redneck who hasn't been enlightened yet. I can be an intelligent, rational human being and believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the Jesus Christ really came to this earth in the flesh and died on the cross for the sins of humanity and that this earth was created in 6 literal days without evolution from species to species over long periods of time. These beliefs don't fly in the face of rational thought, they complement each other. I would go as far as to say that true rational, logical thought will lead straight to God, and the Bible is full of examples of Christ and the apostles reasoning with the lost in order to lead them to faith. I encourage rational thought, I am not afraid of it.
I am over-generalizing my thoughts here, so don't critique me too much.
The problem that I had with this book was two-fold. First, the guy was too wordy. He took 200 pages of small print to say what he could have said in 100 pages of normal text. Second, the book began to feel more and more like a rant. With a greater frequency, he began to use phrases like, "I think..." or "I believe..." or "Here are some suggestions that I would like to make..." as the book progressed. It was just getting to be a little too pompous for my taste.
So, I am recommending this book... sort of. Maybe you could call it a recommendation with a disclaimer.
The book started out quite interesting. It had a great premise and the author put the thoughts together in a very systematic, logical fashion. It was well researched and contained several great quotes and supports for his argument.
I am not going to attempt to summarize this book, but here is the gist of it: (Is "gist" a real word?) Intellectualism and the cultivation of the mind is an essential part and a core value of true Christianity. In other words, true Christianity and its faith includes reason and rational thought, it does not stand in opposition to it.
I agree with this basic idea. I get bothered by those who pass off the Christian faith as something for the dull-witted, like anyone who believes the Bible is some kind of back-woods redneck who hasn't been enlightened yet. I can be an intelligent, rational human being and believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the Jesus Christ really came to this earth in the flesh and died on the cross for the sins of humanity and that this earth was created in 6 literal days without evolution from species to species over long periods of time. These beliefs don't fly in the face of rational thought, they complement each other. I would go as far as to say that true rational, logical thought will lead straight to God, and the Bible is full of examples of Christ and the apostles reasoning with the lost in order to lead them to faith. I encourage rational thought, I am not afraid of it.
I am over-generalizing my thoughts here, so don't critique me too much.
The problem that I had with this book was two-fold. First, the guy was too wordy. He took 200 pages of small print to say what he could have said in 100 pages of normal text. Second, the book began to feel more and more like a rant. With a greater frequency, he began to use phrases like, "I think..." or "I believe..." or "Here are some suggestions that I would like to make..." as the book progressed. It was just getting to be a little too pompous for my taste.
So, I am recommending this book... sort of. Maybe you could call it a recommendation with a disclaimer.
Monday, August 4, 2008
I need a break...
The biggest reason this summer flew by is my lack of time off. I went straight from working at the school to working at the moving company. Then I have only taken two days off from the moving company. One Friday for a short family trip to Chimney Rock, the other was a Tuesday because I had the flu. Add in the hours that I have worked at the church, and it has been packed with work.
Now, here it is a Monday, and I am back at work at the school.
Fortunately I am going to take a short vacation starting this week. I am starting with a little family reunion in Gatlinburg, TN. Then I am going to visit more family in Indiana and Illinois. We are then taking a little trip up to Chicago for son #1's 10th birthday.
But do you think that I am going to leave all that work behind? Oh no. I will, of course, be bringing some of that school work with me. Mostly books that I need to read, but work none-the-less.
Hey boss, when is break time?
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Missed Blog Posts
I haven't been blogging much lately, but I have had plenty of ideas and situations that have come my way that would have normally been blog worthy. Since I have been too busy working to blog, I thought that I could still do a post of potential posts... titles and short descriptions...
1. Doggy ER
While clipping my dog's nails, I must have clipped into a bad nail or something. I am positive that I didn't clip it too short, but it started bleeding a little bit. I couldn't get it to stop, so after three hours of bandaging, home remedies and styptic pencils, I rushed him off to the vet. Actually, when I opened one of the bandages, couldn't find the nail, and had blood squirt over 6 inches away from the dog's foot... I knew it was time to take the dog to a professional. That, and I almost passed out twice from the sight of the squirting blood. I also almost passed out at the first home remedy. I found on several sites that flour can be used to help stop the flow, but what I ended up with was a baggie full of blood soaked flour. It was like some sort of sick blood batter.
2. Grand Central + Gizmo + old Linksys Vonage Router = free phone
I might come back later and do a full post on this one, but here is the short version: Grand Central is a free service that gives you a phone number that will ring all of your phones. Gizmo Project is a free service similar to Skype, only it uses an SIP Phone number (which is similar to what vonage uses). I used to use Vonage, so I had a wireless Linksys router with two phone ports. Once I unlocked the router so that I could input the Gizmo settings for the phone ports, I plugged in my phone and *presto* free phone.
3. feverish
I was running a fever last Monday and Tuesday. I came home early on Monday missed the whole day Tuesday. It was rather uneventful, but would normally have warranted a blog...
4. 33,480
I was working on a job a couple of Fridays ago, delivering to a second floor apartment. I had already done an office move that morning, and was going to help this over the road driver on his job. We had to shuttle the stuff (take the stuff off of the big truck, put it on a little truck, drive the little truck to the apartment because the big truck couldn't get into the parking lot), so it was like double the work. Here is the kicker: After all of the stuff was off of the big truck, and onto the little truck, the driver and his help left. That's right, he left us. I couldn't believe it. So, at five o,clock on a Friday night, me and 1 guy began toting things up to the upstairs. Needless to say, it took a long time.
The title of the post? My phone has a built in pedometer (step counter), and that is the number of steps I took that day.
--------------------------------
Well, there were a few other things that I wanted to write about as well, like books I have been reading and things I have been learning, but I am actually running out of blogging motivation already...
1. Doggy ER
While clipping my dog's nails, I must have clipped into a bad nail or something. I am positive that I didn't clip it too short, but it started bleeding a little bit. I couldn't get it to stop, so after three hours of bandaging, home remedies and styptic pencils, I rushed him off to the vet. Actually, when I opened one of the bandages, couldn't find the nail, and had blood squirt over 6 inches away from the dog's foot... I knew it was time to take the dog to a professional. That, and I almost passed out twice from the sight of the squirting blood. I also almost passed out at the first home remedy. I found on several sites that flour can be used to help stop the flow, but what I ended up with was a baggie full of blood soaked flour. It was like some sort of sick blood batter.
2. Grand Central + Gizmo + old Linksys Vonage Router = free phone
I might come back later and do a full post on this one, but here is the short version: Grand Central is a free service that gives you a phone number that will ring all of your phones. Gizmo Project is a free service similar to Skype, only it uses an SIP Phone number (which is similar to what vonage uses). I used to use Vonage, so I had a wireless Linksys router with two phone ports. Once I unlocked the router so that I could input the Gizmo settings for the phone ports, I plugged in my phone and *presto* free phone.
3. feverish
I was running a fever last Monday and Tuesday. I came home early on Monday missed the whole day Tuesday. It was rather uneventful, but would normally have warranted a blog...
4. 33,480
I was working on a job a couple of Fridays ago, delivering to a second floor apartment. I had already done an office move that morning, and was going to help this over the road driver on his job. We had to shuttle the stuff (take the stuff off of the big truck, put it on a little truck, drive the little truck to the apartment because the big truck couldn't get into the parking lot), so it was like double the work. Here is the kicker: After all of the stuff was off of the big truck, and onto the little truck, the driver and his help left. That's right, he left us. I couldn't believe it. So, at five o,clock on a Friday night, me and 1 guy began toting things up to the upstairs. Needless to say, it took a long time.
The title of the post? My phone has a built in pedometer (step counter), and that is the number of steps I took that day.
--------------------------------
Well, there were a few other things that I wanted to write about as well, like books I have been reading and things I have been learning, but I am actually running out of blogging motivation already...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Matts are great!
Thursday, July 3, 2008
I'm Sorry
I am sorry that I haven't blogged lately (for those very few readers who frequent this blog).
I have been working quite a bit lately, and sitting down at the computer just hasn't been something that I have made time for. In fact, I haven't even been checking my e-mail but once a week.
I have to be honest, it feels good to be away from this thing. I have to spend so much time on it during the school year that these few months that I have to be away from it I really enjoy.
I have been working quite a bit lately, and sitting down at the computer just hasn't been something that I have made time for. In fact, I haven't even been checking my e-mail but once a week.
I have to be honest, it feels good to be away from this thing. I have to spend so much time on it during the school year that these few months that I have to be away from it I really enjoy.
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