Aye… I’ve not posted in like a whole week… I’m sorry. <hangs head in shame> It was a busy time mind you, I didn’t just ignore everything on purpose. I had to travel to OK over the weekend, and I’ve been worked a little over so I could leave early on Friday. Just excuses. Let me just say, Congratulations Joshua and Micaela, who were married last Sat. The ceremony was fun and thoroughly enjoyable. The folk music was an excellent choice, the message was apt, and I especially liked the way you demonstrated your respect for authority by having your…

Farther In and Deeper Down a resurgence in expository preaching. While I was in Africa, my mission was to teach a group of preachers, lay people, and attentive Christians how to study scripture. The idea was that we, the missionaries, could preach all day long but when we leave, who would do the work? If we could train Ugandans to study scripture, then Ugandans can reach the Ugandan people with the Truth. They could discover the Truth for themselves, and that carries far more power than our standing over their shoulder. The key to any successful Christian life lies in…

I think I should comment on my choice of quotations, and perhaps offer some explanation as to why I chose it. Let me first say that I know nothing of Kahlil Gibrain, and thus the quotation from my point of view could be drastically out of context. If your are a reader who happens to know about him, my apologies. The reason why I chose the quote was that the idea that those of us who follow Christ, follow in the footsteps of divinity, and like the quotations says, we have nothing to fear from derision. The Apostle Paul said…

I felt contemplative and rather bored Saturday evening. It had been a good day mostly, but I was still feeling a little empty. I walked over to the borders by our apartment, and spent the evening reading DareDevil comics. A Christian musician was playing to a small crown in the coffee shop. Somehow it was encouraging to see another Christian there. Over the past couple weeks it seems like I have been assaulted with different ideologies. The very foundations of my Christian faith were questioned, and I was confronted with a multitude of systems that cried out that they were…

I am going to take a small break, expect no posts till next monday. Until then.

I was sitting at my computer, falling asleep, wishing I had an excuse to go home. With no such reason presenting itself, I trudged through the rest of the day. Thing was it was only Thursday and I felt horrible. Friday I called the doctor and made an appointment which gave me a reason to leave early, and after spending two and a half hours in the doctor’s office I went home. You see, I had this infection. Not a serious one but a painful one that caused these sores to pop up, and I had one on my thigh…

I have finally sucumbed, and downloaded Mozilla 1.0 for testing purposes. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised by the speed at which it renders a page. It is noticeably faster than IE, and does a much better job than Opera or Netscape. Which is a little odd, considering that Mozilla and Netscape both use the same rendering engine Gecko, and look very much the same. They must use different versions of Gecko, because there are some small differences. But, as far as speed is concerned, its the fastest browser i’ve used recently. Bravo to the Mozilla team.

Paul Huse has been asking questions on his blog recently. Today he posed these questions: Is the US a Christian nation? Has the US ever been a Christian nation? What does the phrase ‘separation of church and state’ mean to you? What does religious freedom, as outlined in the Constitution/Ammendments, mean to you? Is the United States a Christian nation? The US has never been a Christian nation, at least in the strict sense of that statement. The United States is a republican nation founded on principles that were first defined in scripture. Does that make it a Christian nation?…

Blogging on the news This British news site is running a contest to see who is teh best blogger among its readers. The prize is 1000 pounds, and of course notoriety. I think that this kind of trend is smart, considering that blogging is one of the ‘movements’ of todays web and will be around for a long time. Not to mention the potential blogs have for realizing what the net was concieved for, mainly the free distribution of knowledge. This article on how blogs have helped those with Alzheimers, helps point out one of the key uses and benefits…

must post… ok, here’s news. I’ve added commenting so have at it all. i also made some small modifications to the design, note the addition of the ‘::’ seperators instead of the ‘-‘ at the bottom of the posts. i know, i know… small stuff, but i’ve been despondent lately, and a little at a loss for what to do about anything in general. oh well.

I have a favor to ask of all you who read this blog. I have a friend who needs prayer, in fact I have two. I can’t tell you their names, or even the nature of the trials, but suffice it to say that they are our Christian family and they need our support. Please pray for them, God knows the thoughts and intents of their hearts, and the heighth and depth of their struggles. Thank you in advance…

Tolkien inspired me to begin writing poetry. It was his mastery of language, and the beauty of the poetry in Lord of the Rings, and his idea that we were sub-creators that gave me a vision for it. My first poem was inspired by the metric used by Theoden on the Pelenor fields. In the chapter titled, ‘The Ride of the Rohirrim’, Theoden utters these stirring words. Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered a sword day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride…

After 18 years, I have discovered the exact day upon which I was saved. I’ve always known it was sometime in the fall of 1984, but today I was able to get a hold of the church I was baptized in and they happened to have kept records that far back. October 2nd was the day I was saved. My brother and I were saved at the same time and that following sunday, the 7th, we went forward, and on the 21st we were both baptized. I’m coming up on my eighteenth birthday spiritually speaking. Wow.

Two notes… first, Paul is Back and blogging again. It seems he was suffering from a deluge of work and responsibility. It seems as though my alma matter is graduating into a University and that requires loads of new marketing and public relations propoganda. Well carry on Paul, you’ve always done good work, and I for one am looking forward to seeing what you come up with this time. The other thing is that some people have wonderd why I listed only four reasons instead of five earlier. My response is that I could not, after posting number 4 come…

Ok… i’m trying to learn how to use XML-RPC and i find it frustrating that i don’t have my own webserver, cause it seems like all the languages that allow you to make those kind of calls are not the kind i have access to. phooey

Last night, i had friends over just to visit, whom I get too see only rarely. My friends having been recently engaged and looking forward to being married, the conversation naturally turned to things of that nature. They good naturedly reminded me of some rather offhand comments I had made, quite jokingly of course, about what a wife is good for. I think they took me seriously. So I was called upon to defend my self and was posed a question, ‘What are the top five things that are most important about a wife.’, this in the context of why…

There were bagpipes sounding throughout the office today… oh yes, bagpipes. Chuck plays in a bagpipe band here is Saint Louis, and works here at the office. The occasion of a visit from our Irish president provoked the honor. It was enough to stir the Celtic spirit and flame the fire that burns deep in every Celtic heart.

The airconditioner was on when I woke up this morning. The temperature in the room was just cooler than comfortable, and I tossed around in my bed until I realized that my brother had turned it on during the night. I got up and turned it off and went back to bed. I woke up later to the alternating beeps from our alarm clocks. A little foggy still from the intrusion of reality on my dream infested mind, I got up and turned mine off, went back to bed and repeatedly told my brother to turn off his. I went…

Its always nice to see another person join the weblogging community. Meet Addison , a kid in my chuch who is enthusiastic about the web. I encouraged him to use his web site to blog. So surf on over and say hi, and please feel free to send him some advice and comments about bloggin, web design, and what not.

Over the last few days, my church has been having a family conference. We have one every year, and from friday thru sunday we have a speaker give messages themed around the family. Tonight is the last night of the conference, and the sermon Bro. Moore chose was titled, ‘Patience, Please Don’t Eat the Seed Taters’. The crux of the message is good things come to those who wait. I personally struggle very much with this issue of patience. It seems as though I can not see past the next few days, and I have a hard time putting off…