Ravens/Patriots - Monday Night Football

Guess who I'm taking to a football game? My best friend for the last 20 years, my wife! She's brushing up on the rules so she'll understand what's happening. Don't try to get the code off these, they are especially protected and only allow us to enter the stadium. By the way, the tickets are for the Patriots game; I wonder if they will still be undefeated by then, and the Ravens will knock them off?

Shower The People You Love With Love

Shower The People You Love With Love, How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You, Going to Carolina, but not Our Town from the movie Cars.

I've long appreciated the music of James Taylor, although I only own one song, from the movie Cars, and he didn't sing it at the concert on Saturday night. Thanks to friends who weren't able to attend, my gentlewoman driver daughter and I went to see him in concert at the Siegel Center at VCU.

Oklahoma City

I've had the opportunity to visit Oklahoma this week for the first time. I've counted the number of States in the US I've visited, and I'm now up to 43. I was within 6 miles of the OK border in 1984 when traveling through Texas with the Continental Singers, and now I've finally arrived! I didn't know it could get so cold and rainy here. God is answering my prayer for rain, and I guess I need to be more specific and ask for it east of the Mississippi! It was about 45-deg and rained about 1 1/2 inches by yesterday evening when my coworkers and I ventured downtown to the city. I'd not paid any attention to the weather report, so didn't have a long sleeve shirt, but I did have my raincoat!

Before dinner at Mickey Mantle's in Bricktown, we toured the Oklahoma City Memorial. It's no secret what evil can enter into the heart of a man when seeing face to face the chairs that represent the people who died here. It was an act of pure evil for a man to plan and execute such a violent plan. I can empathize with those who lost loved ones here on that terrible day. I hope and pray that a greater good is being experienced these 12 years later.

Greek temples

This was as close as I could get to the ruins from the Greek temple located near the south coast of Sicily, Italy. My Italian work associate who grew up near here brought me after work, and the museum was closed. We could only view it from a distance, so best I could, I set my camera on the roof of his car and captured this shot.

The temple which used to be was from about 2500 years ago, and obviously did not stand the test of time, the standing seam metal roof customary in our time is long gone. I don't know that I'd enjoy the pew seating without a brick wall to block the sometimes harsh Mediterranian winds. I imagine that the reason it didn't survive was because the congregation didn't possess the one item in this world that is eternal, the Word of God.

Well, as a member of Ironbridge, I did my homework and visited Ironbridge.org to schedule my time to Fill God's House with His Word. As we do this, I'm sure that 2500 years from now, and if God taries, Ironbridge will not be a museum, lacking a roof, that is closed on a Wednesday night!

Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

God's Creation

I love this photo of the Giant Panda at the National Zoo in Washington. A friend's daughter took this photo who I'm envious of because the Pandas were never out the days when I visited. The photo is a reminder to me of how God created the animals according to their kind. My faith in a Creator God was challenged today at the local book club as we gathered to read the book, The Making of the Fittest, by Sean Carroll. The local group is a little 'left leaning,' so I expected some macro evolutionists would be present, and I'll loose no pride in saying that this group is more intellectual than myself. The writer went to great length to support the notion of an old universe; a chance that anything can happen; and that because we are here among the living creatures possessing DNA; that evolution must have occurred as Darwin theorized. I was asked by the group leader, what to me was more important to me, my believe in the creation, or my belief in the redemption (of Jesus); and my initial response was, redemption. The inference was that the credibility of Christians wanes as deep held beliefs in both are maintained, because in the view of science, the creation story (as told in Genesis) is an alogory. I'll maintain that our God is both Creator and Redeemer; in my view, the universe He created is complex in its nearly infinite dimensions to the cosmos; and is equally complex in the microscopic dimensions of the DNA molecule of life, and the proteins and amino acids that support that life. I believe that even if the world were 4.5 billion years old, that would not be enough time for chance to reveal what we observe in this one photo.

Genesis 1:24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Washington Monument

Ripstickin' at Dick's

Dick's Sporting Goods gave us a little taste of heaven here on earth; where us old men could have a little fun together, climbing the rock wall and testing out the new ripsticks. In the video you can see my friend trying out the new skateboard like ripstick. If I had shown the video of his son riding it, it would have appeared like a promotional video as he turned circles around the store. For us who've had a hard time standing on a skateboard with 4 wheels, try this new one with only 2! The trick is to wiggle the back wheel by twisting your foot and ankle, it gives it a kick... My friend asked which one I thought they should get, red or blue, and of coarse, I said, red! (livethered.com) Dick's sold it for a 10% discount because

We climbed the rock wall together, 40 or 50 ft high; I climbed next to my daughter. She got to the top first, and seriously thanked me for not passing her on the way up, because she may have become disheartened. I was simply thinking of my little girl's feelings, so I took it slow.

While our wives and other kids hung out, shopped and etc, we played 2 on 2 basketball, into overtime with the G's overcoming the H's with 3-pointer from downtown. We also toured the Petersburg Battlefield, ate well, and wasted a little bit of ice cream!

Kindergarten buddies!

I have a kindergarten buddy coming to visit! I betchya can't guess which two we are - we are next together in the photo. We've been friends for almost as long as our mothers were friends. We've been a lot of places and have met new people since then, but there's no one who knows you like an old friend, except the Lord Himself. I like the Steve Green kid's version of Proverbs 18:24, where the kid mistakenly hears the verse that there is a friend who "stinks", then is corrected by Steve that there's a friend who "sticks." A good friend hopefully doesn't stink, but really sticks together. My friend is bringing his wife and two of their 5 kids. His wife has been a good friend to my wife which has made our friendship doubly blessed.

Proverbs 18:24 There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.