Toyah

We had a great Christmas vacation. One of my cousins lives near Colorado Springs, and as we Texans take every chance we can get to go to the mountains, about 30 of us made the 16 hour treck to Colorado, most of us driving, for Christmas. Bekah and I actually spent the week before traveling in New Mexico and Colorado, taking a little extra time in Ruidoso and Santa Fe to ski, shop, and sightsee. It was a nice break, and though the Rockies were cooler than home, the weather was sunny and pleasant.
Bekah was sad to be away from her family, but we're supposed to have our Christmas with her family later this week, so all's well.

My brother and sister will be visiting us for New Year's Eve and some Blue Haven friends are getting married down the road in Canton, so the weekend will be a reunion of sorts. And then we will watch football. And Texas will win the National Championship.

We hope that all of you are happy and well, and are blessed abundantly in the new year.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Hook 'em Horns!

Most probably won't care about this, but the Letter of Apology blog, which focuses on the world of white-collar crime, is authored by an acquaintance from law school and relates in many ways to my present occupation and interest in politics, and so I'm mentioning it here.

A bad pun, but an interesting story: Limbo, an Afterlife Tradition, May Be Doomed by the Vatican in NYT.

So Bush is under fire for this "domestic spying" business. It doesn't bother me one bit. At least they are looking at people who might actually have something to do with terrorism. I flew to Florida last spring and was searched on the way there and on the way back. What a waste of resources. The Bush administration helped save the Brooklyn Bridge and London from being bombed. Next time you see a seventy year old lady taking her shoes off in the terminal think about what things are REALLY contributing to the fact that we haven't had a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11/01 (i.e. everything that the media gives Bush a hard time about).

unfortunately i have to work tomorrow. however i do get to go home for christmas. i will be spending the holiday with the family in columbia...except for saturday when i will go to cleveland to watch the browns strike a harsh blow to the playoff hopes of the steelers. i think there will be a group of 8 of us, and it should be a good time.

-last night i rented a couple of movies. one of the dvd's didn't work....very annoying....but the dukes of hazzard were ready to roll. it seems that the unrated version replaces a couple of drug references with sex references. evidently drugs are more acceptable than sex? i am not sure. i do know that someone was trying to cover my eyes during the college scene.
-i look like an utter hill-jack again with my tooth broken off. there is also a crack in my other front tooth, so the dentist (i finally made an appointment down here after 3 years) wants to do full crowns for my front two teeth...i am currently eating a chocolate cookie...here's to dental health, eh?
-one of my coworkers was talking about the california death penalty situation. she is from california, and was upset (but more so about the other death row inmates that have been there longer...'why the hurry for this guy?'). she loves jamie foxx, and he did a movie about tookie. it was a fun little debate...then she started reading more about tookie, and was saying stuff like, 'jamie left that part out,' or 'bad tookie!'
-i saw a quasi-celebrity this week. jarrod from subway annoys me on tv, but he seems like an ok guy when not reading a teleprompter about sandwiches with NO CHEESE...bob dole thinks he's a doofus.
-i took a nice nap today during my lunch hour. ready to work....wait.....ready to go home.

I must give my blog congradulations to the Guvernator. I was very pleased to see his refusal to give into the many liberal talking heads, or asses depending on who's speaking, and not pardon this Tookie Williams. Arnold has not been doing so good with the popular opinion in CA of late, see his referendums for evidence. I thought perhaps he would cave to the cacaphony of pleas for the life of Mr. Tookie. He did not, he held strong on his death penalty stance for the 3rd or 4th time, I believe.

Now, what absolutely FLOORS me is the incredible sympathy and cries for mercy for this Williams guy. I heard the Rev *snicker* Jackson say how incredibly disapointed he was that the Guv. would sacrifice this poor humanitarian's life for political reasons. I nearly choked. In fact, it was right after seeing that on Fox that I ran to my computer to write this little entry.

Yes, Jackson and the wacky left'os are now wailing away in desperation at the loss of a kindred brother. MY LORD FOLKS, TOOKIE WILLIAMS FOUNDED ONE OF THE WORST GANGS IN AMERICA, not to mention the brutal murder that he is actually being put to death for.

Now, it is not my intention to write a defense of the death penalty here. No, my point is that the left is willing to use ANYTHING OR ANYONE for political gain. People thought the Cindy debacle was bad, and the Left's use of a grieving and confused mother was not something to be proud of. But this time, wow, this time the Governer of California is being accused of using someone's life for political gain. That is really like saying that Arnold murdered this man. Now, Mr. Williams aparently did have a change of heart in prison, and even wrote childrens books against gangs. Logically therefore Arnold has a duty to spare him and by not doing so he has sacrificed this poor champion of the black cause for his own political gain, right?

Anrold did exactly the opposite. He stood to lose much more by not pardoning this man than by refusing to do so. Would he really lose his base by pardoning him, in CA of all places? I think the answer is obvious. By standing firm he does risk losing any of the moderate african-american voters that might have voted for him. So one more time, well done Arnold! And Jesse Jackson - you and the other nuts should be ashamed of once again turning the truth on its head and selecting for your champion-martyr a convicted murder and founder of one of the scurges of society.

The boys at the Dale keep the Tecmo tradition alive. They just finished up the playoffs at they sent this report of the action. I am still on the e-mail list and it gives me a huge kick to hear that these kids waste their time the same way we used to.

we got dumped on yesterday with major snow from about 2pm till 11 or so. the terrible part about it was that my 30 mile drive home from work took TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!! granted, this was a particularly naughty snow storm....but seriously, people...we had snow just a few months ago....remember? the news talks about how much salt and how many trucks are out, and then they complain about lack of budget during the last few storms in feb/march...duh.

Today is an important anniversary: the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Ordinary Everyday Christian blog has the American and British public response to the attack posted.

Roosevelt: "Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory."

Churchill: "There shall be no halting, or half measures, there shall be no compromise, or parley. ...Only when the earth has been cleansed and purged of their crimes and their villainy shall we turn from the task which they have forced upon us, a task which we were reluctant to undertake, but which we shall now most faithfully and punctiliously discharge."

I've just finished the Fishers of Men evangelism-training program. My local church invited the Fishers of Men to come to the church and teach their method of evangelism to those members who volunteered to attend. It's a ten-week program (eleven counting graduation) that meets once a week for two and a half hours and includes homework which Fishers of Men estimates to take at least an hour a day. So it's a large commitment for a church.

Fishers of Men is a program intended to address what is without doubt a serious hole in the church: a lack of training for Christians so that they are both willing and able to teach Christianity to those outside the church. The program challenges Christians and holds them accountable, requiring seven studies with a non-Christian by the end of the course in order to graduate from the program. Graduation consists of receiving a certificate that one is a "Fisher of Men" and receiving a fishhook-shaped pin, signifying both our Christian calling to teach the world, and that we are "hooked on Jesus" as our salvation, and the salvation of the world.

On the positive side of the scale, Fishers of Men challenged me to go outside of my comfort zone and specifically ask non-Christian friends of mine if they wanted to study the Bible. The weekly classes went over evangelism methods, modeled after proven sales methods, of how to get people interested, how to keep them interested, and how to teach in such a way that it reaches them. To that end, the Fishers of Men suggest, among other things, asking "open questions," developing the ability to actively listen, and working to present yourself in a spirit of humility, not as the master in a master-pupil relationship.

On the negative side, the program is a huge time commitment for a Bible class, at an estimated eight and a half (or more) hours per week, although I did not find the daily homework to actually take a full hour every day. The questions themselves were of a simplistic nature, in the form of true/false or yes/no questions. As such, many of the questions were a waste of time to me. For example, consider questions 3408-3413 of Week 3, Day 4, which address Hebrews 4:12:

- God's word is so powerful it can judge the thoughts of your heart. (T/F)
- Is God's word powerful enough to judge the intentions of your heart? (Y/N)
- Knowing the power of God's word, I should become more concerned about the thoughts and intentions of my heart. (T/F)
- Will you pray and ask God to help have pure thoughts and intentions? (Y/N)
- Isn't it great to be a Christian and to become more like Jesus every day? (Y/N)
- I want others to experience this joy that I have in Jesus. (T/F)

I don't disagree with the conclusions that these questions clearly want the student to reach (sometimes I did disagree), but I dislike the force-feeding of this sort of questioning, and I dislike having to spend time on throw-away questions like, "Isn't it great to be a Christian?" (Is there a Christian who would answer "No" on a homework sheet like this?) I especially dislike being instructed as to when and what I should pray about; this particular question did not ask, "Will you pray right now..." but many others did.

More seriously than these problems, I was disturbed that much of the daily homework did not address evangelism at all, but rather addressed church doctrine, such as whether instrumental music in the church is right or wrong (Week 8): Fishers of Men teaches it is wrong. As Jesus and the apostles never mentioned music, or even singing, in relation to salvation, it's my conclusion that music and singing do not relate to salvation, though they do relate to worship. Therefore, it is a question that each Christian and each church must study for themselves. Given that Fishers of Men describes itself as an evangelism-training program, it should teach evangelism and leave non-evangelism questions to the local church or to each Christian.

I raised these questions and specifically the teaching on music with our instructor. His response to my first question, on the nature of the homework questions, was: "The daily checking allows students to determine each day if they are making progress or failing!" He later added, "Homework is to give you a deep understanding of the subject you will be teaching to lost souls... Lack of knowledge produces fear and members hesitate to share because of lack of knowledge."

On the question of teaching church doctrine in an evangelism class, he responded,
"I believe the church is lacking 'sound teaching/doctrine.' (I Tim 1:10; 4:6) The teachers/preacher's 'salvation' is conditional on what he/she teaches as well as the person who is taught ( I Tim. 4:16; James 3:1) (awesome responsibility)." He then asked, "How can brethren teach what they do not know? (Matt 28:19-20) After baptism a person must be taught 'all that Jesus commanded.' That includes the Lord's church and worship! (Jn 4:24)"

That many Christians lack knowledge is clearly evident, but I am skeptical that it is the job of itinerant Christians to visit other churches and teach doctrine to them, especially in a class that is advertised as being about evangelism. I am skeptical because other Christians lack the authority to say what doctrine is, except where the Bible clearly states it, or to determine whether Christians are "making progress or failing." I suspect that our instructor was correct that the church is lacking in sound doctrine, but I do not think it is the responsibility of the Fishers of Men program to fill this void. That is the responsibility of each local church and each individual Christian.

The Fishers of Men program has a goal---to teach evangelism---that I applaud highly. They recognized a need and have worked for decades now to fill that need. Jesus Christ will never have enough of such men. However, because the program goes beyond teaching evangelism and into the realm that properly belongs to the local church, or to the individual Christian, I regretfully conclude that I cannot recommend the Fishers of Men.

Parcells' 'Boys dropped another, and after humbling Tennessee, the Colts are on a roll (Dave Damiani).

Icon-o-clash
this is the kind of silly crap that amuses me at work...i don't know how well thought out the brackets are, but i like the concept.

And this was David's study, and over here we have a nice collection of Bathsheba's best pottery . . . .

i can't believe it is already december. i remember 'old' people talking about how fast time goes, and thinking they were insane. now i feel like i just blinked away a year. i will refrain (for now) from a year-in-review, but it's wild to me to think of what all has happened this year.

in more recent terms, thanksgiving was great! both sides of the family at mom and dad's on thursday, a couple of gatherings of the friends from home on friday and saturday, lots of food, very relaxing, good all around.

two of my cousins have recently had children, so there was lots of baby-centered activity. i did not partake in any diaper or crying related issues...only when they were happy or sleeping was i involved.

Nick's famous, too.