Monday, April 30, 2007

Anyone Interested?

Anyone interested in picketing some picketers? We want to make sure the UK graduates know this day is about THEM and not about a hateful non-Christian message!! :)

Anti-gay church to picket graduation ceremony at Rupp
by Alice Haymon
Issue date: 4/30/07


In an effort to convince Kentuckians of America's damnation, members of an extreme religious organization plan to picket UK's graduation commencement ceremony on Sunday.The protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan. will be holding signs displaying messages such as "America is doomed," "God hates fags" and "Thank God for the shooter," in reference to the Virginia Tech attacks, said Shirley Phelps-Roper, a church representative. They have been peacefully picketing around the nation for the last 16 years because they are opposed to the message American Christians generally teach - the lesson that God loves everyone."We are trying to help this nation connect back," Phelps-Roper said. "These children have been taught defiance against God, and now these children are dying. That's why the shooting at Virginia Tech happened."The same group was in Kentucky at the end of December, protesting at a military funeral in Stanton. Before picketing UK, the group plans to picket the Kentucky Derby on Saturday."We've had a lot of dealings with Kentucky of late, and we know they're in some trouble," Phelps-Roper said.After hearing rumors of this demonstration late last week, UK administration met with Lexington Police, UK Police and Lexington Center administrators to set up a plan that will maintain order, UK spokeswoman Kathy Johnson said.The group will have a designated area outside Rupp Arena where it can protest out of the way of pedestrian traffic. Lexington and UK police will be present to keep things from getting out of hand."This group is not confrontational in and of itself, but they will try to get a response from people around them," Johnson said. "We would hope people would focus on the commencement and not the picketers. This day should be about the graduates, not about the picketers and their message."The message the group brings is one that will offend a lot of people, including homosexuals - who the group targets - and Christians who have a different interpretation of the Bible, said Susan Matsubara, the student director of UK's OUTsource."The group thrives on attention and they get it through their hateful message, which the media covers and chooses to acknowledge," said Matsubara, a gender and women's studies and political science senior. "The commencement is about the students, we should focus on the 2007 graduates and their accomplishments instead of allowing this disruptive group to destroy our day."The same group protested in Lexington in 2002 when the Cathedral of Christ the King baptized triplets who would be raised by two gay men. The Lexington community rallied against the protest at the Lexington Arts Place in a Hate-Free Lexington rally."Any hateful group or ideology can negatively impact a community, but that's why it is so important for our community to come together and show our strength and solidarity against hate," Matsubara said.Although there is nothing definite planned, Matsubara said there probably will be a response to the protest. She predicted it will be a celebration how the community can unite against hate.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

My Grandpa's Life

Again - Apologies for the blog and not personal emails, but I really just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone for your prayers, thoughts and cards this past week. It is much appreciated - I really needed it! ;) My grandpa Carl was my last grandparent to pass away, which made it especially difficult for everyone in my family, including my dad who lost his last parent. However, it was wonderful to be able to go home to Kansas City and spend time with the family during our mourning and celebration of grandpa's life. I was able to participate in his service, but just to a small amount, which was probably a good thing. I read scripture and also lead a prayer that we said in unison, that he had written. I was really appreciative to be able to participate to the extent to which I did. I'm afraid that if I had agreed to do the eulogy or something else that I would have had to write myself, I would have agonized over whether or not I had done it justice.

Regardless - click here if you would like to view his obituary, or the "guestbook" of the many friends and family, he had quite a life! He was my biggest fan when I told my family I would be headed to seminary, so it makes me want to succeed and do my best all the more, and makes the stress of catching up on my school work even greater! Ah! But it is with great thanks and appreciation for the prayers and support from my friends and family like you, that I know I can do it! ;)

My Dad gave the eulogy at the funeral, and although you may not want to read it because you don't even know my grandpa, it's quite interesting to read some of the things my grandpa experienced in his 94 years... such as, my grandpa lived during the terms of 40% of US Presidents...or witnessed the widespread use of the telephone, from the "shared" and "community" phone lines, all the way to recently cable telephones!

Here it is....

What makes a Great Man? Some might say that a man’s greatness is measured by his wealth, a single major life achievement, lots of headlines or numerous titles either before or after his name. But, I don’t think a man has to have a bestselling book written about him to be called Great. To me, a great man is one that lives a life filled by good examples and the highest morals while positively impacting the lives of a lot of different people along the way.

By this measure, and many others, our Dad, Carl Phillips, was a Great man. He was solid like a rock and a great living example of humanity. Always willing to lend a helping hand, a warm heart and a tender ear. He always stood up for what is right and was one that held his ground when it came to doing the right thing. One of his frequently heard by-lines was “Just use common sense”. He was resilient, fair and above all consistent.

In honor of Carl Phillips today, it seems appropriate to recall and celebrate some of his life attributes that made him who he was… Carl Phillips, son, brother, uncle, husband, Dad, (I called him “Pop”), Grandpa, Great Grandpa, Great-great Grandpa…and trusted friend.

He was a remarkable person who lived in remarkable times. He is a classic example of the “Greatest Generation” coined by the newscaster & author, Tom Brokaw, in his book of the same name. I did a little research about the significant events and developments that occurred during our Dad’s lifetime. Even a short list reveals some astounding historical events that he has seen or experienced since the year of his birth–(just listen to these)

The widespread use of telephones, mass produced cars and machinery, first manned airplane flight, sinking of the Titanic, 2 cent postage stamps, talking movies, construction of Fenway Park in Boston , Woman’s Suffrage, the Great Depression, Social Security, 40% of all US Presidents (17 to be exact), the addition of four new states into US statehood, the first transatlantic flight, two horrible World Wars, countless national conflicts and regional wars, two Russian Revolutions, air conditioning, transistors, ball point pens, sneakers, the atomic bomb, television, credit cards, the extinction of polio and small pox, breaking of the sound barrier, the four minute mile, computers, space travel, a man on the moon, a tripling of the US population…(whew) I could go on and on.

In his adult years, he was a living history book which impressed nearly every one he knew. Just after Mom passed away in 1993, he agreed to accompany Pat, Laura and I on a vacation to Washington DC. Of course, we spent quite a bit of time touring the Smithsonian Institute. If you’ve ever been there, you may recall that the American History pavilion has thousands of notable classic American artifacts such as Betsy Ross’ first American flag and thousands of relics that paint a picture of early America. Repeatedly, Dad would point out to his young and amazed 11 year old granddaughter, “Laura, …I used to ride in a car just like that one over there and my uncle had a farm tractor like this one here”. He provided for Laura, and many others, a priceless living connection to American history that no textbook could ever achieve.

He was born in 1912 on a small family farm in southeast Kansas. He came from a long line of modest dirt farmers. Countless times, he fondly recalled many stories of the simple life growing up on the farm. You could almost feel the hot summer sun in the fields, the dust from the dirt roads and the chill of the night during a walk to the outhouse. He and his four siblings attended a nearby one room country school house, Pleasant Hill School. Some of the mainstays in his early farm life were a tiny two-bedroom farm house for a family of seven, outdoor plumbing, kerosene lanterns, a wood burning stove, dirt roads and a lifetime of love and warm memories. Until he was an adolescent, the family got around only in a horse & buggy. Later as an adult, he had these little ridges on the top of his head. He always explained them as “buggy tracks” caused by when he supposedly fell out of the family buggy as an infant and got ran over. I think he said he was in fifth grade when he was allowed to ride Goldie, the family horse, to school. He was just a boy during World War 1, but he remembered neighbors and family friends that went “over there” to fight the Great War, some never to return.

He and Mom met at their county high school in the 1920’s. Their first date was an ice skating party on a local farm pond. Mom must have been quite a catch for Dad. Her high school senior yearbook listed her desired future occupation as a “necking teacher in the school of experience.” Neither one of them ever offered an explanation on just what that meant! He, and much later his three sons, all married their high school sweethearts. The Great Depression was in full swing when they first lived and worked in Manhattan KS and then followed job opportunities to Kansas City where he spent the last 70 years of his life.

Perhaps some of his strongest qualities came from the fact that he rapidly grew into adulthood during the Great Depression. We learned a lot about the Depression ways of life from Dad, such as learning to make do with whatever decrepit possessions you had rather than just going out to buy something new all the time. Even the folks who had jobs during the Depression learned to repair stuff rather than replace it. As a trained auto mechanic, he had a great mechanical knack of how to fix stuff…. Just about anything. Nails, tacks, screws, wire, glue, a soldering iron and an old set of wrenches & sockets could go a long way towards making something that broke a whole lot better. For many years, he was a saver. His basement workshop had 2 or 3 dozen old coffee cans and baby food jars full of rusty bolts, clamps, screws or fasteners. And he usually knew right where he had deposited one of those thing-a-ma-jigs needed to repair something. But, his fanaticism for fixing things sometimes went a little too far. He always insisted on gluing back together a shattered coffee cup or special china dish or re-wire the toaster so it could burn toast again. Not too many years ago, his old initial ring that he had worn for eons, cracked through on the back side. But rather than spend a few bucks at a jeweler for a proper repair job, he used his workshop soldering iron to repair his gold ring. When he was finished, it looked like you-know-what. But he was mighty proud that he could fix a broken piece of jewelry. I also remember a time when I was serving in the Army and while away Pat was using my old car during one of her nursing school rotations in Topeka KS. The old car broke down and Pat was terrified. She called Dad, who drove 75 miles to rescue her and he repaired the broken carburetor with nothing but a simple paper clip. He trusted his repair so much that he even swapped cars with Pat and drove my old Volvo back home to KC.

Was he a cheap-skate? No, just a guy that the Depression taught him how to get by with what you had.

He was always working on some kind of unique, home-spun project, thinking he might be able to invent something big. There was the special carburetor injection additive he invented to make a car engine run cleaner and more powerful only to have his little sideline business get trampled by the giant STP conglomerate. He was always seeking something new out of nearly nothing….like a homemade leaf compactor that he tried to make a hay-bail out of fallen leaves from the yard so he might burn them in the fireplace in place of normal firewood. One time he paid money to the local Midwest Research Institute here in Kansas City to try and come up with some kind of beneficial use of the hapless hedge tree hedge apple. After a failed project, he later declared “the hedge apple is the most worthless natural item in the world.” I don’t think he ever watched the movie “Caddie Shack”, but the Bill Murray gopher segment could have been written about him. Dad always enjoyed feeding the birds in the backyard but was incensed by the squirrels who repeatedly raided his bird feeders and scared away all the beautiful birds. For several winters, he was nearly possessed with a self-appointed mission of inventing ways to keep the squirrels out of his bird feeders. Suspension cables, creative squirrel guards, greased support posts and countless other defense techniques kept him occupied for several years. He would laugh at himself just as hard as we would laugh with him.

I share these little anecdotes about our Dad because he would want us to reflect on his lighter side as well as his more serious and productive endeavors. His priorities were always his family and the church. He was a life-long, devoted member of the Methodist church, starting with the little one room church in the country where they had to appoint their own teachers since the itinerant preacher only came around one Sunday each month. His faith in God and his commitment to service was solid and exemplary during his entire life. For many of his Adult years, he touched many lives as a devoted Sunday school teacher of either teenagers or adults. When we close today, we are going to read a prayer he wrote and repeatedly shared with his Sunday school students. Except for the church Women’s groups, he served on every church committee ever created. He always loved church dinners, except the ones put on just by the Woman’s groups. As a farm boy, he was a simple “steak and taters” kind of eater but he would never eat church casseroles because they were just “women’s luncheon food” he would say. Some of his dearest and most trusted friends throughout his life were Methodist preachers. He and Mom would often have their preacher friends and spouses over for dinner and introduce them to the sinful games of Canasta, Hearts or Scrabble.

He was truly a wholesome and dedicated family kind of guy. He was proud of his three sons, but he always had to out-think what kind of trouble we might get ourselves into. We were probably about 21 years old before we realized that Dad was also a teenage boy once. When we turned 16, he would let us drive a car if we had a job. But, he would never allow us to get a motorcycle… ”just too dangerous”. Of course, he repeatedly rescued us from our own car mishaps, or scrapes with the law, even in the middle of the night. He always wanted Mom’s place to be in the home caring for her family. He expected a hot meal every evening and always enjoyed her home cookin’…especially her special deserts (except when she went just a little too far with her new “grape pie” recipe)

He was a passionate guy. He loved his family but never trusted doctors, hospitals or evangelists. Even though he had some strong views, he would forgive hypocrites, Republicans and sons who sometimes would make dumb decisions (remind me sometime to tell you how he had to talk me out of buying a piece of Florida swampland). He was well-read and could talk about almost any subject with ease. On most any weekend, you would find him helping one of his sons warm up for a baseball game or his head under the car hood trying to figure out where that noise was coming from. Because of his early work as an auto mechanic, he was always fascinated by cars. Especially Buicks….I think he owned something like 16 Buicks in a row…”I like the ride” he would say. Unlike his sons, he was a careful driver and never had a serious car wreck in 80 years of driving. And, he could mill the heads of an old flathead V8 motor with his eyes closed.

Dad worked at trying to stay in touch with a lot of distant family members. If you ever wanted to know how so-and-so was doing, chances are he had probably just seen them or talked to them. For decades, he would make the annual trek every Memorial Day (he called it “Decoration Day”) to about 5 family cemeteries with fresh flowers in-hand. Oh, did I mention his family devotion? Many of us called him a Saint as he served as Mom’s full time caregiver during her 9 years with Alzheimer’s.

Now we celebrate the life and remember this Great man. But, we don’t want to remember him as he struggled over the last 3 months of his 94 years. We want to remember him as a great living example of the legacy he left us which was truth, trust, faith and devoted love and support. Lyle, Dave and I were blessed to have such a high quality Dad. All of you know him in your own special way. He impressed many with his unwavering set of high values and friendly demeanor. If you needed help, he was there to support and comfort you. If his sons needed a good talkin’-to, to straighten them out, he seldom held back. We are all blessed to have shared in the life of a Great Man who lived a great life during the greatest of times. We say goodbye to him as he now joins his high school sweetheart to once again enjoy her delicious lemon meringue pie. If there was ever a great example of a Great man for all of us to look up to, it was indeed Carl Phillips.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Interesting...

Now this is scientific research I can live by....
Alcohol may make fruit more fruitfulA splash of ethanol boosts antioxidant levels, researchers sayA fruity cocktail may not only be fun to drink but may count as health food, U.S. and Thai researchers said on Thursday.Adding ethanol - the type of alcohol found in rum, vodka, tequila and other spirits - boosted the antioxidant nutrients in strawberries and blackberries, the researchers found.Any colored fruit might be made even more healthful with the addition of a splash of alcohol, they report in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.Dr. Korakot Chanjirakul and colleagues at Kasetsart University in Thailand and scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture stumbled upon their finding unexpectedly.
They were exploring ways to help keep strawberries fresh during storage. Treating the berries with alcohol increased in antioxidant capacity and free radical scavenging activity, they found.Any colored fruit or vegetable is rich in antioxidants, which are chemicals that can cancel out the cell-damaging effects of compounds called free radicals.Berries, for instance, contain compounds known as polyphenols and anthocyanins. People who eat more of these fruits and vegetables have a documented lower risk of cancer, heart disease and some neurological diseases.
The study did not address whether adding a little cocktail umbrella enhanced the effects. :)

Sunday, April 15, 2007

A Little Doubt

Now I’d like to begin by playing a little game of word association. I’m really going to test your skills, because we’re going to play using Biblical characters. I’ll go easy on you though and start with some people I’m sure you’ve heard of. Let’s start with Noah…OK, Ark… and Moses….Burning Bush, or maybe 10 commandments…or maybe Charlton Heston…What about something we’ve been talking about lately…the disciples…can you name all 12? Or what if I just name them one by one…. Judas…. Betrayal…..Simon Peter….maybe rock? What about Thomas? What’s the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the name Thomas? There is little question that most of you are thinking about doubt. In fact, so many people over the course of history have associated doubt with Thomas, that we have even coined a phrase to describe him: “Doubting Thomas.”

It is interesting to consider that in the other three gospels, we actually read very little about Thomas. He may be mentioned, but it’s only in John that he emerges as a distinct personality among the rest of the disciples. But even then, there are only about 150 words about Thomas.

There just isn’t much about the disciple Thomas.

Among those 150 words however, there is more than one description, but we rarely hear about the others, or even hear about anything except for Thomas’ doubt. Let’s take another look at the Gospel of John, and see what he has to say about Thomas.

In John 11, when Jesus was looking toward Jerusalem, the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Of all the disciples though, it was Thomas who said: “Then let us go so that we may die with him.” It was a courageous statement, but we hardly ever remember Thomas for it.

Our next view of Thomas is in the same story that we normally think of him as doubting, but I want to take another look at this story. We normally fail to point out that in this story, we have one of the very few, if not the only place where the divinity of Christ is bluntly and without question stated. The same story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith. Thomas’ confession in verse 28 of our passage this morning, responds to Jesus, saying “My Lord, and my God.” Thomas doesn’t say teacher, Thomas doesn’t say just Lord. Thomas doesn’t say Messiah. Thomas says GOD, G-O-D, GOD. Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. Thomas say it with conviction as if he were simply recognizing a fact, like 2 + 2 = 4, or the sky is blue, or the grass is green. Thomas confesses, you are my Lord and my God! But still, we continue to only remember the words of someone who doubts.

Unfortunately, history has only remembered Thomas for the other part of this scene that we read today. The resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem. Thomas wasn’t present, so when he finally heard about the event, it’s not surprising that he refused to believe it. Maybe Thomas was the forerunner of a modern day cynic. Maybe the news simply sounded too good to be true. I’m sure we know that feeling, things are just too good to be true. It simply isn’t surprising that Thomas said, “Unless I feel the nail prints in his hands I will not believe,” And it isn’t surprising that that we always remember Thomas for this “doubt-filled statement.” Maybe it isn’t surprising, because it’s exactly what many of us might say; had we just seen Jesus killed on the cross, and now our friends are telling us that he is alive and that they have seen him again, many of us might have doubt as well.

Heck, I’m from the Show-Me State. It’s in my blood that I don’t believe anything unless you show me. Maybe Thomas was really from Missouri?

That phrase, “the Show-Me State,” it has many myths as to how it came to be. But most of them center around the same principle. The most well known story, is that of a United States Congressman who was speaking to a group of people in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. When he stepped up to speak, he wanted to begin by questioning the accuracy of an earlier speaker’s comments. He made his questioning known by saying, “Good sir, I come from a state that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats. Your frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”

I can only imagine Thomas saying, “Your hopeful and eloquently told story does not convince me. I have SEEN Jesus die on a cross. After all that I saw him go through, after the pain of the experience on the cross, I am unconvinced that he is NOT dead. You are simply going to have to show me.”

Of all the stories surrounding the origin of the “Show-Me State” phrase, regardless of what the stories are, most all of them imply a certain “self-deprecating stubbornness and devotion to simple common sense.”

Now while I will ignore the part that just called me stubborn, I’d like to focus on the “devotion to simple common sense.” Maybe that sounds like some of us. While some of us might never have completely doubted God or our faith, sometimes it is easy for our doubt to creep in.

As we learn about dinosaurs in grade school, it was easy to let a little doubt creep in, while we wondered how dinosaurs fit in with the Bible?

Or when we hear about ALL the different animal species of the world, maybe we wonder if there ever was a boat large enough to hold ALL of those animals?

And even with the resurrection story – is it all that hard to see a little doubt? We all know the story, and know how gruesome the story can be told, it’s not surprising that someone might have a little doubt.
Some of us grew up in an atmosphere that said, to doubt was almost equal to being anti-Christian, or….pagan, even. Some of us still live in that reality every day, being questioned by other friends and family, who say that doubt, or question, proves a lack of faith. When we try to learn about or support the teaching of evolution in schools, some of us are told that we have no real faith, because we may have doubts about scientific nature of the creation stories of Genesis. We don’t doubt that they are in our Bible for a reason, that they still speak the word of God, that they still provide us with truth, but maybe it’s not SCIENTIFIC TRUTH?

Maybe doubt is a good thing? A theologian and scientist of the 19th century said, “A doubter is a person who searches for God with a thousand questions; while an unbeliever is apathetic to God.” In our day and age, a doubter struggles with God and living the godly life, and all the questions that come with how to do that, while an unbeliever may just struggle in life, struggle to pay the bills, make a way or simply live life. A doubter may struggle with questions and the search for God among those questions, but we are not unbelievers simply because we have questions.

Alfred Lloyd Tennyson also says “There lives more faith in honest doubt, than in half the creeds of any religion.”

We encounter some kind of doubt, some sort of questions in our faith all the time. Doubt is what helps us to grow our faith. If we never question our faith, our understanding of God, or something in our religious framework, then we will not grow. If we never question ANYTHING about our religious lives we run the risk of ending up stale, aching and empty. It is the questions that help us to find answers. It is our doubt that leads us to a greater faith. It may be a long, hard journey, but in the end, it is hard for a strong sturdy faith to have never encountered any kind of doubt or question. The encounter with questions is what makes a faith strong and sturdy. Some say this is how faith works. The more you doubt and question, the more you eventually come to understand, and the more you understand, the more you embrace your understanding of what that faith means in your life.

This is not to say that we all need to turn into cynics, questioning everything we encounter about our faith. This is not to say that we need to leave our faith behind and turn to doubts and questions in order to find our faith again. This IS SAYING that the doubt Thomas embodied, the doubt that Thomas represents, is not necessarily a bad thing. Since when did questions become bad? What happened to “there are no silly questions?” Since when is it wrong to admit that we don’ understand everything, or to ask God to clarify something?

Thomas’ story is not about doubt. Poor Thomas, who has been the scapegoat for some 2000 years now, Thomas did not show great doubt. Thomas was the disciple who showed great faith.
Faith is what happens when we are willing to embrace the doubts, ask the questions, and then to face the answers. Faith is believing in something that is beyond our ability to comprehend it, but it is not afraid to try, nor ask more questions and show a little doubt if necessary.

We have all been doubting Thomas’ at some point in our lives. But it is into our doubting and searching hearts where Jesus breaks in and reveals himself to us. God knows our need for a first-hand encounter. That’s why Jesus came to Thomas in a first-hand encounter and that’s why God came to us in the person of Jesus . We have been given a vision of God’s sacrificial love in the person of Jesus. We’ve been given a personal encounter of Jesus to help us with our doubts.

We have all been doubting Thomas’ at some point in our lives. We have all had doubts and questions. But it is in these doubts and questions that we open our lives to the presence of God. It is in these doubts and questions that our faith becomes stronger, that we encounter God. Thomas’ story was not told to remind us of the danger of doubt. The story of Thomas is there to remind us of what great things, what great faith can come from simply relying on our instincts, and asking a few questions
– even if that means having a little doubt.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to
people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an
observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to
Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The
following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by an East coast
resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as
informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I
have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that
knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend
the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that
Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other
specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They
claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus
21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for
her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her
period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15:19- 24 The problem is, how
do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and
female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend
of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you
clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to
kill him myself?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality.
I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a
defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does
my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair
around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.
19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different
crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of
two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends
to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all
the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? -
Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family
affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev.
20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you
can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal
and unchanging.

Your devoted fan,

Jim

Thursday, April 05, 2007

What is this world coming to?

When a minister gets murdered in her own home?

"Please pray for Snow Creek Christian Church near Martinsville, VA. Their pastor, Nancy ****, was murdered in her home on Tuesday. The body was just found today. Nancy was ordained at Grace Christian Church in Helena, AL in April 2005 and had been serving Snow Creek a little over a year and a half. The congregation and Nancy's family (mother, 2 sons, grandchild) can use your prayers.
May God grant us the hope of Easter in these dark days."

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Exciting News!

Michael and I got a puppy!!

Had some of you didn't I? ;)

Her name is Sally, she is a 10-week old lab mix. We can't bring her home until tomorrow because she still has to get spayed, but we're excited regardless!

Here are some pictures - they are sort of poor quality - but the best we could do with camera phone photos! We'll put up more later I'm sure!