Random Thoughts from a Fish

Dave Black on "13 Things your Greek Professor Won't Tell You"

2010-10-01T10:05:00.004-06:00

I saw this first on the B-Greek reading list. It comes originally from what a B-Greeker called Dave Black's Non-Blog. Dave Black does not use blogging software, so there is no way to get permanently to this particular post. His general site is here, but this link will just get you to whatever happens to be at the top of his site.

Here is what Black wrote:

The latest issue of The Reader's Digest has an interesting article entitled "13 Things Used Car Salesmen Won't Tell You." Here are "13 Things Your Greek Teachers Won't Tell You":

1. Greek is not the only tool you need to interpret your New Testament. In fact, it's only one component in a panoply of a myriad of tools. Get Greek, but don't stop there. (You'll need, for example, a Hebrew New Testament as well.)

2. Greek is not the Open Sesame of biblical interpretation. All it does is limit your options. It tells you what's possible, then the context and other factors kick in to disambiguate the text.

3. Greek is not superior to other languages in the world. Don't believe it when you are told that Greek is more logical than, say, Hebrew. Not true.

4. Greek had to be the language in which God inscripturated New Testament truth because of its complicated syntax. Truth be told, there's only one reason why the New Testament was written in Greek and not in another language (say, Latin), and that is a man named Alexander the Great, whose vision was to conquer the inhabited world and then unite it through a process known as Hellenization. To a large degree he succeeded, and therefore the use of Greek as the common lingua franca throughout the Mediterranean world in the first century AD should come as no surprise to us today. I emphasize this point only because there are some today who would seek to resurrect the notion of "Holy Ghost" Greek. Their view is, in my view, a demonstrable cul-de-sac.

5. Greek words do not have one meaning. Yet how many times do we hear in a sermon, "The word in the Greek means..."? Most Greek words are polysemous, that is, they have many possible meanings, only one of which is its semantic contribution to any passage in which it occurs. (In case you were wondering: Reading all of the meanings of a Greek word into any particular passage in which it occurs is called "illegitimate totality transfer" by linguists.)

6. Greek is not difficult to learn. I'll say it again: Greek is not difficult to learn. I like to tell my students, "Greek is an easy language; it's us Greek teachers who get in the way." The point is that anyone can learn Greek, even a poorly-educated surfer from Hawaii. If I can master Greek, anyone can!

7. Greek can be acquired through any number of means, including most beginning textbooks. Yes, I prefer to use my own Learn to Read New Testament Greek in my classes, but mine is not the only good textbook out there. When I was in California I taught in an institution that required all of its Greek teachers to use the same textbook for beginning Greek. I adamantly opposed that policy. I feel very strongly that teachers should have the right to use whichever textbook they prefer. Thankfully, the year I left California to move to North Carolina that policy was reversed, and now teachers can select their own beginning grammars. (By the way, the textbook that had been required was mine!)

8. Greek students think they can get away with falling behind in their studies. Folks, you can't. I tell my students that it's almost impossible to catch up if you get behind even one chapter in our textbook. Language study requires discipline and time management skills perhaps more than any other course of study in school.

9. Greek is fun! At least when it's taught in a fun way.

10. Greek is good for more than word studies. In fact, in the past few years I've embarked on a crusade to get my students to move away from word-bound exegesis. When I was in seminary I was taught little more than how to do word studies from the Greek. Hence, I thought I had "used Greek in ministry" if I had consulted my Wuest, Robertson, Kittle, Brown, Vincent, or Vines. Since then I've discovered that lexical analysis is the handmaiden and not the queen of New Testament exegesis. Greek enables us to see how a text is structured, how it includes rhetorical devices, how syntactical constructions are often hermeneutical keys, etc.

11. Greek can cause you to lose your faith. It happened to one famous New Testament professor in the US when he discovered that there were textual variants in his Greek New Testament, and it can happen to you. When the text of Scripture becomes nothing more than "another analyzable datum of linguistic interpretation" then it loses its power as the Word of God. That's why I'm so excited about my Greek students at the seminary, most of whom are eager to place their considerable learning at the feet of Jesus in humble service to His upside-down kingdom.

12. Greek can be learned in an informal setting. The truth is that you do not need to take a formal class in this subject or in any subject for that matter. I know gobs of homeschoolers who are using my grammar in self-study, many of whom are also using myGreek DVDs in the process. If anyone wants to join the club, let me know and I will send you, gratis, a pronunciation CD and a handout called "Additional Exercises."

13. Greek is not Greek. In other words, Modern Greek and Koine Greek are two quite different languages. So don't expect to be able to order a burrito in Athens just because you've had me for first year Greek. On the other hand, once you have mastered Koine Greek it is fairly easy to work backwards (and learn Classical Greek) and forwards (and learn Modern Greek).

Okay, I'm done. And yes, I'm exaggerating. Many Greek teachers do in fact tell their students these things. May their tribe increase!

Now who wants to tackle "13 Things Your Hebrew Teachers Won't Tell You"?

The Touch of the Master's Hand

2010-09-07T13:21:00.002-06:00

My heart is heavy this afternoon. We have just lost a colleague due to a moral failure. Our faculty is already minimized, with a dear brother on sabbatical, and a couple on medical leave. Others, already overworked will have to pick up the slack.

In our "in house family meeting" our president told a story which I will reproduce here, that highlights God's knack for taking a bad situation, and transforming it. The story is kind of like the well known poem by Myra Brooks Welch, "The Touch of the Master's Hand." I will link to the poem, but will not cite it.

This story was knew to me. I used Google to trace the story. It has been published in a number of different places. I'm not sure where our president, Matt Proctor, found it. Most recently, it was published in a book by Lenya Heitzig and Penny Rose titled Live Deeply: A Study in the Parables (David C. Cook, 2009). I'll quote from that book (pp. 136-137):

Over a hundred years ago in a Scottish seaside inn, some fishermen were relaxing after a long day at sea. As a serving maid walked past the fishermen's table with a pot of tea, one of the men made a sweeping gesture to describe the size of the fish he claimed to have caught. His hand hit the teapot, sending it crashing against the whitewashed wall, staining a large area. "That stain will never come out," the innkeeper said. "The whole wall will have to be repainted."

"Perhaps no." All eyes turned to the stranger who had spoken. "What do you mean?" asked the innkeeper. "Let me work with the stain," said the stranger. "If my work meets your approval, you won't need to repaint the wall." So he picked up a box and went to the wall. Opening the box, he withdrew pencils, brushes, and some glass jars of linseed oil and pigment. He began to sketch lines around the stain and fill it in here and there with dabs of color and swashes of shading. Soon a picture began to emerge. The random splashes of tea were transformed into the image of a magnificent stag. The man inscribed his signature on the painting, paid for his meal, and left.

"Do you know who that man was?" the innkeeper said in amazement. "E. H. Landseer!" Indeed, the famous wildlife painter. Sir Edwin Landseer had visited the village.

God sent Jesus to take the stains and disappointments from our lives--not merely to erase them, but to turn them into a thing of beauty. Will we be like the religious leaders and reject Him as the cornerstone of our faith, or will be gladly accept Him as one who can transform our lives into a masterpiece?

For the unknowing, like myself, Sir Edwin H. Landseer was a famous British wildlife artist in the 19th century.

May God turn the ashes from this situation, toward His greater glory.

10 Chapters a Day

2010-08-17T15:20:00.003-06:00

Have you ever gotten to the point where you want to read the Bible in a systematic way, but have fallen behind? Over the years, I have read the Bible through using a variety of systems. After using each system for a while, I find that I begin to lose interest.

Let me try to explain what I mean. If one begins in Genesis, reading straight through to Revelation, it takes forever to get to Jesus. One tends to bog down in the Old Testament. I love the book of Genesis, but I usually don't tell people to begin reading there. They'll get lost for certain through Leviticus and Numbers.

I have used a Chronological Bible, which is not the same thing as reading from Genesis to Revelation, but has some of the same problems, as it takes so long to get to Jesus.

I have also used a system where one reads a portion from the Old Testament (except for Psalms and Proverbs), a portion from Psalms, a portion from Proverbs, and a portion from the New Testament, every day, so that one will finish reading the entire Bible in a year.

How much must one read each day to finish reading the entire Bible in a year? About 3 chapters, more or less, per day.

Whoa, this post is titled 10 chapters a day! If one reads 10 chapters a day, one will read the Bible through quicker than one year--but it is SO EXCITING!

The drawback I mentioned to reading through one of the systems described above is that it takes too long to get to the good stuff. Last week I cam across a "10 chapter per day" system. I have been using it daily for the past week, and it has been exciting.

It was developed by Professor Grant Horner, who teaches at The Master's College in California. You can begin it at any time, and it just keeps coming at you. Basically, you start reading in 10 different sections of the Bible, reading one chapter in each of the sections, each day. The sections are as follows:

Gospels
Genesis - Deuteronomy
Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Hebrews
1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timoty, Titus, Philemon, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-2-3 John, Jude, Revelation
Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
Psalms
Proverbs
Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 -2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
Isaiah - Malachi
Acts

That way, you read a WIDE variety of Scripture every day, and you get the good stuff every day! At the end of the year, you should have read the gospels about 4 times, the Pentateuch about twice, the epistles 4 or 5 times, the books of Poetry (other than Psalms and Proverbs) nearly 6 times, the book of Psalms more than twice, the book of Proverbs nearly every single month, the books of OT History nearly twice, the OT Prophets nearly twice, and the book of Acts more than 12 times.

Does that sound exciting? It requires a little more reading time than the other systems mentioned above, but it is great! If you would like to see Professor Horner's own description of the system (PDF file), which includes a sheet with bookmarks that can be cut out to use in your Bible, click here.

If you decide to give this system a try, drop me a line to let me know how YOU like it.

Reflecting on OCC's Greek Program

2010-06-04T08:07:00.002-06:00

I've been teaching NT Greek at OCC for a number of years now. I have enjoyed co-teaching with my advanced Greek professor, Kenneth L. Boles, at both the 2nd year Greek level, and 3rd year Greek level. When I started teaching Greek, I taught 1st year students for a number of years. The last several years, however, I have spent my time teaching more advanced students. I hope someday to get some more whacks at 1st year Greek as well as teaching the advanced level students.

At any rate, this reflection has its roots in a conversation that I had earlier this year with one of our graduates. He went on to do some graduate study at a rather prestigious graduate school. He took a Greek proficiency exam, and needed to take a leveling course in Greek, as he did not show himself to be proficient in NT Greek, despite studying Greek at OCC for 3 years! OUCH!!

He took his leveling course in Greek, and was able to continue on in his Greek studies at the prestigious graduate school. Once he got into the courses that he should have been taking, he saw that he could read Greek far better than most of the people in the course. The reason for his reading proficiency is because that is what we foster in our advanced Greek courses. In other institutions, advanced Greek courses teach the intricacies of Greek grammar, but students don't learn to read Greek.

For the past several years, in our 2nd year Greek classes, we have used Daniel Wallace's The Basics of New Testament Syntax, which is the abridged version to his Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. We attempt to expose students to all of the categories, while at the same time getting them massive amounts of Greek reading. Our 3rd year Greek classes consist of massive amounts of reading, talking about the grammar that surfaces from our reading. For example, my 3rd year Greek students from the 2009-2010 school year read the following in Greek: Mark, Romans, 1-2 Peter, Jude, and Ephesians. We spent some time the last week of the semester reading some Patristics.

Seumas MacDonald, an Aussie who authors several blogs, has a post today on his blog, Compliant Subversity, along these same lines. In it, reflecting on the tendency at seminaries to emphasize grammatical categories in their 2nd year Greek classes, says:

I’m not sure this is the best use of a 2nd year Greek education. Let’s at least acknowledge the fact that Greek speakers rarely looked at a genitive and asked ‘what category of the genitive does this fall into?’. Did they sometimes do that kind of in-depth analysis of their own language? Certainly, as we do in English sometimes when disambiguating or arguing over complex or unclear words. But not in our everyday discourse. Far better, I contend, that we spend 2nd year Greek studies trying to get students deeply into reading Greek qua Greek, and far less on memorising 183 uses of the dative.

I agree with him wholeheartedly.

Do You Text? Interpret This:

2010-05-19T07:17:00.002-06:00

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl

no1 b4 me. srsly.
dnt wrshp pix/idols
no omg's
no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
pos ok - ur m&d r cool
dnt kill ppl
:-X only w/ m8
dnt steal
dnt lie re:bf
dnt ogle ur bf's m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

My colleague Gary Zustiak shared this with me. I believe it is taken from the current issue of Reader's Digest.

Logos Bible Software Scholarship for Bible College Students

2010-05-18T06:11:00.001-06:00

OCC Students (& other Bible college students): Logos Bible Software has had a seminary scholarship program for some time. They just released a new program, offering scholarships and Bible software to undergraduate Bible college students. The recipient could be you! Check it out!

Appeared on their blog this morning: click here.

We're Praying for Chile

2010-03-01T14:13:00.003-06:00

Chile was devastated by one of the strongest earthquakes in history early Saturday morning. 25 years ago (almost on the same weekend--last weekend before the school year was to begin), Santiago was struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale (as a comparison, the January earthquake in Haiti was 7.0).

This quake, with an epicenter near Concepción (the 2nd largest Chilean city), registered 8.8 on the Richter scale. Only the 1960 earthquake in Valdivia, CHILE measured larger (9.5 on the Richter scale). We are praying for Chile, and are very concerned about many friends in the VII Region of the country.

This music video is making the rounds on Facebook. The music is sung by a Christian duet (man and wife) called Tercer Cielo (3rd Heaven). The song, titled Yo Te Extrañaré (I'll Miss You) appeared on their album titled Hollywood (2008). The song, together with images from Saturday's earthquake, moves me to tears. Knowing that many of you do not understand Spanish, I wanted to help you understand the lyrics to the song.

Please remember to pray for Chile.

It is for calves, and I like it in frozen form (perhaps with strawberries) . . .

2010-02-14T08:00:00.001-06:00

I did not write this. The author's name is Mark Lightman. But I liked it . . .

Μαρκος τοις δυναμενοις αναγιγνωσκειν Ελληνιστι. Χαιρετε, ω φιλοι! Πως εχετε; Εγω Μαρκος καλως εχω.
Σημερον ὁ τοπος του Μαρκου «γαλα» εστιν. Γιγνωσκεις το ρημα «γαλα;» γαλα ποσις εστιν. Πινομεν γαλα. Γαλα λευκον εστιν. Εκ βοῶν γαλα εστιν. Μαρκος χεει το γαλα επι των «fruit loops» αυτου. Το γαλα εστιν «2%» ἢ «1%» ἢ «4%» ἢ «skim.»
Τοις ανθρωποις ὑγιειαν φέρει το γαλα. Αλλὰ γαλα και ωφελιμον εστιν προς το μανθανειν την γλωσσαν Ελληνικην. Την αληθειαν λεγω. Ουκ ψευδομαι. Εγω Μαρκος λεγω υμιν οτι γαλα βοηθήσει υμιν μανθανειν την Ελληνικην.
Γαλα γαρ «ακρωνυμον» εστιν: γ-α-λ-α.
γ-γραφε
α-ακουε
λ-λαλεῖ
α-αναγιγνωσκε.
Μαρκος λεγει: μικρον γαλα καθ’ ημεραν. γραφε Ελληνιστι και ακουε Ελληνιστι και λαλεῖ Ελληνιστι και αναγιγνωσκε Ελληνιστι. Ποιουντες ταυτα παντες ημεις προκοψομεν.
Ερωτῶ ουν σε: γαλα εχεις;
χαρις υμιν.

I haven't blogged for a very long time . . .

2010-02-07T07:54:00.002-06:00

I thought that the next blog I would post would be a reflection on the movie Avatar. I still haven't written that one down.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. In my e-mail this morning was a very thoughtful reflection on attitudes of Christians towards sports. It was written by my Chilean friend, Fernando Soto Dupuy, who ministers on the west coast. He recounts how he grew up in a church culture in Chile (different from the one in which we ministered), that viewed a Christian's participation in sports as an indication of carnality. I once led a Bible Study in a home in Chile, shortly after having my nose broken playing basketball. At the end of the Bible Study, my Chilean colleague asked the woman of the home to dismiss our meeting in prayer. She came toward me, put her hands on my head and began to pray for me, casting out the demons of sports. That shows a prevailing attitude of a certain Christian sub-culture at the time in Chile.

At any rate, Fernando's reflection was based on personal experience, and on an article titled "Sports Fanatics" by Shirl James Hoffman, published in Christianity Today. I know that most of the readers of this blog are more proficient in reading English than Spanish. You can access the article by Hoffman by clicking on the link.

Some of my readers will appreciate Fernando Soto's essay, titled "El Cristianismo el el deporte competitivo". If you read Spanish well, you may enjoy reading it. I know that I did!

A Christmas Greeting for Decent People

2009-12-23T17:41:00.001-06:00

I received this greeting via e-mail. Perhaps you will enjoy watching it:
http://bit.ly/6kzdbP

On the "Intolerant" Exclusivity of Christianity--Is it "arrogance" or is it "revelation"?

2009-12-22T21:01:00.004-06:00

I am a graduate of Columbia International University (Columbia, SC). One of my favorite professors there was Dr. William Larkin. He has written a number of books on the Biblical message as it interfaces with divergent cultures.

I recently received the December 2009 letter from CIU's president, Dr. Bill Jones. In it, he shares a portion of an op ed piece in the State newspaper, as Dr. Larkin responded to another writer's thesis, that "a variety of paths lead to the same Divine Truth."

Christians who believe that the Bible is the very Word of God sometimes appear to be intolerant. John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 are rather narrow. If a Christian accepts Scripture as revelation, such texts do not allow for much wiggle room.

I liked the portion from Dr. Larkin's piece so much, that I wanted to share it here. In his introductory letter, Dr. Jones said, "What better time to discuss the exclusivity of Christianity than at Christmas."

Here are the two main points from Dr. Larkin's article:

1.) Exclusivity is revealed in the Old and New Testament.
God has a salvation plan with a universal scope. God’s call to Abraham clearly
communicates that universal scope: “in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Joel’s invitation, repeated by Peter and Paul (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13), echoes that opportunity: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

In the Old Testament, at the very heart of covenant obligations, is exclusivity. In the first two Commandments God commands “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall make no carved idols” (Exodus 20:3-4).

In the New Testament, Jesus and His followers taught exclusivity in terms of salvation accomplished and applied, though they asserted it should be offered to all. While Jesus said to make disciples of and teach all nations and ethnic groups, He also said, “I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

At CIU, we do not debate Christian exclusivity. Our doctrinal standard centers
on the person of Jesus Christ. In fact, we only admit students for degree
candidacy who affirm this Scriptural truth. Christian exclusivity means that much to us.

2.) The source of Christian exclusivity is revelation, not arrogance.
Left to ourselves, we are those blind individuals feeling various parts of the elephant and coming to our conclusions about God’s truth. But if God’s message is that He has provided one way of salvation, then the exclusivity of
its truth claim is not a matter of the “fundamentalist” Christian’s desire to be right, but of humble obedience to the Good News he has received.
It has been said that sharing God’s exclusive message is simply “one beggar telling another where to find bread.” Admittedly, we can hold to this exclusivity in arrogance, self-righteousness and smugness. But this is not the stance Jesus commended—or commanded. Throughout His ministry, Jesus challenged such attitudes among the religious leaders of His day. A quick scan of the Gospels
reveals this.

Jesus IS the reason for the season. We live to know Him and to make Him known.

The Passing of a Friend and Former Colleague

2009-12-19T11:59:00.008-06:00

This week a friend went home to glory. Charlie Williams, long-time coach at Ozark Christian College passed away this week after a sudden illness. We went to his visitation last night, and attended the funeral this morning. It was very well attended (an understatement indeed!), which is a testimony to how many lives he touched.

Bud Clapp and Randy Gariss officiated. Bud's message was taken from John 4, perhaps a strange text for a funeral message. In his message, he compared Charlie's simplicity as a coach, always sticking to the fundamentals (the ABCs) of the game, to Jesus' approach to the Samaritan Woman in the text.

He emphasized that in the text, Jesus (as did Charlie, in his life), stuck to the ABCs, by

Making himself AVAILABLE to those that really had a need.
BATTLING over things that were really important.
Remaining COMMITTED to the will of God in all things.

College Heights played last night versus Diamond High School, and lost. The guys on the team wanted to play for Coach Williams. You can read the newspaper article about their defeat, which also pay tribute to Coach Williams, by clicking here. An earlier tribute, "Williams Left a Gentlemanly Mark", written by The Joplin Globe's Jim Fryar, is available here.

The video below was recorded from KODE TV (ABC affiliate) channel 12 local news on December 16.

The Obituary:

Charles R. "Charlie" Williams, age 67, of Carl Junction, MO passed away at 8:55 p.m. Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at Freeman Hospital West in Joplin following a sudden illness.

Charlie was born September 27, 1942 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and moved to Carl Junction in 1985 from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was a graduate of Midwest Christian College in Oklahoma City, and received his Master's Degree from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. Charlie servied in the U.S. Army, and then served 20 years in the Army National Guard. Charlie was employed as the Athletic Director, Men's Basketball, and Baseball Coach for College Heights Christian School in Joplin. He previously served as the Athletic Director, Men and Women's Basketball Coach, Women's Volleyball, and Baseball Coach at Ozark Christian College in Joplin. He also assisted with the Women's Basketball program at Missouri Southern State University and Crowder College. Charlie was a member of the Joplin Sport's Authority Hall of Fame, and the Missouri Basketball Coach's Hall of Fame. He led several of his teams to National Championships in various sports.

Charlie married Kim Wright August 17, 1979 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and she survives. Additional survivors include a daughter, Trisha Gage, and husband Harrison, Carl Junction, two sons, Charles R. Williams Jr., Webb City, MO, and Cody Williams, Carl Junction, one sister, Patricia Self, Claremore, OK, and one grandson, Gaven Williams, Carl Junction. He was preceded in death by a sister, Betty Burks.

Spanish is "¿Cómo Estás?". That's nothing you eat! We're doin' business here.

2009-11-01T06:23:00.004-06:00

3 things made me write this post:

Over the last couple years we've incurred LOTS of medical expenses at Freeman Hospital in Joplin.
Since July, I have eaten only healthy foods, in order to lose weight and improve my overall health.
I also have an innate interest in language.

The confluence of all of those factors make this spot for Freeman Hospital very interesting. Good job, Freeman!

Roger Powell Update

2009-10-25T15:16:00.002-06:00

Roger Powell is playing in the Spanish Pro league. He recently came back from injury, and played in just his 2nd game today. He led his team with 14 points, as they were defeated on the road. Final score: Real Madrid 73 CB Murcia 66. Here are some video highlights, including one of Powell's dunks.

Sports from a Christian Perspective

2009-10-11T14:23:00.003-06:00

On the way to my activities this morning, I caught part of Focus on the Family's weekend program, and heard Del Tackett, founder of the Truth Project, talking about an incredible high school football game played almost a year ago in Grapevine, TX.

The game made some national news. Rick Reilly of ESPN The Magazine wrote about it here. I made a note to myself to look for information on the story, and located Del Tackett's story, "Cheering for the Underdog."

I also found this youtube video. Read the stories and watch the video. I think you will be blessed.

Frustration!

2009-10-07T15:07:00.002-06:00

The AT&T Customer Service (sic) Representative asks, "How can I make you a satisfied AT&T customer today?"

After about 4+ hours on the phone, unfortunately, I have to answer, "Sorry. You should be able to, but obviously you cannot!"

We have been AT&T phone customers (land-line) for over 15 years, and DSL customers for about 5 years. The plan was to drop the land-line and use their new product, DSL with no phone. We were to lose the phone service yesterday (10/6), with the DSL service continuing seamlessly. It did not happen. We lost both phone and DSL service. Their explanation was that the "order fell out of the system". Their solution was to make an entirely new order and wait another 6 days for activation. Yesterday I was told that a manager had authorized expedited service. Today they could not find the "new" order made yesterday, and made a 3rd order, for activation on 10/13.

Tomorrow morning, our local Cable company will be installing a cable modem for internet service only. It is nice to walk into a company, see a real person, and see how they do their best to provide customer service that is worth providing.

Eric Juan Phillips

2009-10-02T07:49:00.002-06:00

Eric Juan Phillips Tomlin, an MK from Santiago, CHILE is in the running to be Chile's entry in the prestigious music festival in Viña del Mar.

His entry would be a song written in 1975 by Buddy Richard, a Chilean composer whose real name is Ricardo Roberto Toro Lavín. The Chilean public is allowed to vote via text message. It's a pretty good song. Here it is:

My Little Lady Ambassador

2009-09-23T14:38:00.002-06:00

Here is a photo of a little OCC Lady Ambassador--Ruthie A. Ayelén Fish, Class of 20??

She's beautiful, isn't she?

Woohoo! E-mail from Zondervan!

2009-09-22T07:46:00.002-06:00

Last month the rumors were alive at Logos Bible Software about an important contract that Bob Pritchett had signed. Logos users were speculating (and hoping), that Zondervan would cease and decease in their crazy idea that they could sell their books in electronic format better than Logos.

Every time I have attended a Logos event for Bible College and Seminary profs, I have asked the same question, "Are you making any progress with Zondervan?" The Logos people would smile and say, "You know, we used to say that we publish electronically some of the best books in the world, from A to Y!"

This e-mail notice came to me this morning from Zondervan:

Zondervan is discontinuing its Pradis® line of software. Technical support will continue until June 1, 2010 . Zondervan content can be found on multiple platforms and across many devices from e-book readers such as the Kindle and Sony Reader, to mobile devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry. In 2010, new software titles will become available for use with Logos Bible Software.

I Have a Granddaughter

2009-09-13T20:30:00.002-06:00

Ruthie Ann Ayelén Fish (Benson), born September 13, 2009 at 7:09 PM (Central Time).

Proud parents: Gregory and Emily Fish

Proud grandparents: David and Rose Fish; Van and Tammy Benson

7 lbs. 20 inches long.

Ayelén is a Native South-American (Mapuche) name that means "to smile" or "joy".

Emily's Grandma Went Home

2009-09-10T20:57:00.002-06:00

WEBB CITY, Mo. — Shirley A. Sweeten. In loving memory of the matriarch of our family, Shirley A. Sweeten. To a woman that no one ever believed was 72 years old, due to your year-round tan, fashionable purses, ring covered fingers and the most stylish high heels in town. To many you are well known for the Elvis Presley collection in your office, to others for the combined 46 years of hard work as company manager for The Don Roderique Insurance Agency and Jasper County Mutual Insurance Company of Carthage, and to many as a proud member of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.

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To us, you are the foundation of our family. From June 4, 1937, to September 8, 2009, you brought to those around you strength, logic, determination, love and security. So many times, your opinion has become fact. We take comfort in the unshakeable faith in God that you taught us, and know that He must have had some projects in heaven that required your tenacity to get them done. We send our love through you to those that have gone before you, your parents, Joe and Ruth Leonard (Gramps and Granny), and your brother, Floyd. We know your sister, Reva Jean, and your lifelong friend, Sono, are comforted to know you are together. You have always been the heart of our family and we will take with us the lessons you taught us throughout your generous and productive life. So, for now, we express our love and respect, and look forward to the day we see you eternally so you can remind us once again what you never let us forget. “Love you More.”

Your loving husband, Keith, your children, Tammy, Russ, Darren, Van, Jill and Christina. The pride of your life, nine little Indian girls, who called you “Grandma”, Emily, Valery, Holly, Julia, Jessica, Stefany, Jenna, Hannah, and Madison. And to those that called you “GG”, your great-grandchildren, Nathan, Arianna, Elijah, Addelyn, Samuel and Ruthie. We all love you so much, but know you love us more! We as a family invite you to attend visitation from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Hedge-Lewis Chapel and graveside services at 2 p.m. Friday at the Carterville Cemetery with Rev. Jim Carter officiating.

Memorial contributions are requested to the College Heights Christian School Scholarship Fund in care of the funeral home.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the Hedge-Lewis Funeral Home, Webb City.

Does History Repeat Itself?

2009-09-03T06:29:00.004-06:00

What George Santayana said is often misquoted: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." [Santayana, George. (1906). The Life of Reason or the Phases of Human Progress: Introduction and Reason in Common Sense. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 284]

You may read the entire book on Google books if you like.

Shortly after the presidential election, Time Magazine published an issue with Barack Obama on the cover, depicted as the new FDR of the "New New Deal." Some of the similarities are eery.

Last year I read The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes, and blogged about it here. Now, nearly eight months into President Obama's administration, it is easier to see the parallels. I was not alive during FDR's New Deal, but the people who lived through that period, have told me a story that coincides with Schlaes' viewpoint, that it was not the spending that revived the US economy, but rather our entrance into World War II.

Though the graphic of the 1934 cartoon from the Chicago Tribune is now clean, it is easy to spot the similarities between then and now. My thanks to Chuck Johnston for pointing out this cartoon.

Logos Bible Study Magazine, John Piper, and Free (Logos Format) Book

2009-08-14T04:51:00.000-06:00

Free Bible Charts from Rose Publishing

2009-08-10T07:25:00.001-06:00

If you look at the very bottom of this blog, you can see a graphic about free Bible Charts from the Rose Publishing Company. Sign up, and every week you will get an e-mail from them, allowing you to download a high quality PDF Bible Chart. Thanks to my colleague Terry Chaney for first pointing this out to me.

Un Poco de Cordura, Por Favor--Una Reflexión Acerca de Honduras

2009-07-01T21:55:00.008-06:00

De partida, quisiera pedir disculpas de mis lectores que no sepan leer el castellano, los cuales seguramente forman la mayoría de los lectores de mi blog. Creo que este es el primer blog que he escrito en castellano. Lo escribo como un ejercicio para ordenar mis pensamientos. Me parece que muchos han reaccionado ante los sucesos en Honduras sin enganchar la materia gris entre los oídos. No quiero ser culpable de tal cosa. A la misma vez, sospecho que las noticias que se divulgan llamándose noticias objetivas, estén empapadas de tendenciosidad. Sí, me he vuelto cínico a esta etapa de mi vida. Los cosas no son siempre lo que parecen ser.

Cuando yo era joven, me fui a Latinoamérica. Llegamos a Costa Rica el año 1976. Fue allí que escuché de la Teología de la Liberación por primera vez. Fue allí que leí el libro del uruguayo Galeano, Las Venas Abiertas De Latinoamérica. (Este fue el tomo que Hugo Chávez le regaló a Barack Obama, en español, en una cumbre hace unos meses atrás.) Fue en Costa Rica que me di cuenta que no todos aman al norteamericano de Estados Juntitos. Estando allí, empecé a buscar la objetividad en vez de la tendenciosidad, leyendo todo lo que encontraba de la izquierda hasta la derecha, para ir formando una idea de una visión equilibrada de los acontecimientos.

Saliendo de Costa Rica, nos fuimos a Chile. El régimen de Pinochet estaba recién comenzando. Para conseguir visa en el Chile de Pinochet, tuvimos que firmar una declaración que no íbamos a activar en la política, orden que acatamos hasta el día de salir de Chile. Claro era, en aquellos años, que no existía la libertad de expresión. Algunos hermanos nos habían comentado cómo eran las cosas en 1973. Después de entrar en la confianza de la gente, empecé a escuchar de los abusos del régimen militar. En 1978, Thomas Hauser escribió un libro titulado The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice. El libro fue publicado bajo el título de Missing en el año 1982, para coincidir con la película homónima del cineasta griego Costa Gavras. Creo que fue Susan Casey que consiguió una copia del libro Missing, lo cual estuvo vetado en Chile. Llevaba el título Missing, así que el régimen de Pinochet estaba por lo menos en su noveno año. Me acuerdo que yo leía ese libro vetado en mi casa en Maipú, casi escondiéndome bajo las frazadas, por miedo de lo que pudiera pasarme si fuera sorprendido leyendo el libro subversivo. Un tiempo después, Rosa y yo estuvimos en Mendoza, Argentina, y fuimos a ver la película Missing, prohibida en Chile, pero dada en los cines argentinos. La vimos en uno de los cines grandes de Mendoza, con aproximadamente 2.000 personas. En el aire se sentía que la mayoría de los espectadores eran chilenos.

Con el paso de los años, los que antes tenían miedo, lo iban perdiendo. Recuerdo las primeras protestas, cuando a cierta hora, todo el pueblo tenía instrucciones de hacer sonar sus cacerolas. Vivíamos en la calle Luis Gandarillas de Maipú en ese tiempo. Me acuerdo que a la hora señalada, todo Santiago brotó en una sinfonía cacofónica (¡qué oxímoron!) de cacerolas. Mi hijo, Grégory, era pequeño aun. Me preguntó qué pasaba. Le expliqué que la gente no estaba conforme con el presidente Pinochet, y que expresaba su inquietud por la situación haciendo sonar sus cacerolas. Me preguntó que por qué yo no lo hacía. Le expliqué que yo no era chileno (aunque de verdad me sentía, y hasta me siento un poco chileno), así que no iba a participar activamente en la actividad. Él me dijo, "Tú no eres chileno, pero ¡yo sí!", y partió a buscar una cacerola para participar en el evento chileno.

En los años que siguieron, mis hijos les dirían que cuando atravesábamos Santiago en el auto, era lo más común que sintonizara la Radio Cooperativa, pues era la emisora que más noticias daba de la oposición. Cuando mis hijos alegaban que querían escuchar música, yo replicaba, "Yo compré el auto. Yo compré el radio de auto. Yo voy a decidir qué sintonizar." Y escuchábamos Cooperativa.

Escribo todo esto para dejar constancia que no soy derechista empecinado. Trato de mirar los polos extremos de una situación para formar una opinión más equilibrada de la realidad. En cuanto a la epistemología, me satisface lo que algunos han llamado el realismo crítico, con un buen toque de ortodoxia cristiana (especialmente como se expresa en los últimos escritos de Paul Hiebert).

Muy bien, pero ¿qué tiene esto que ver con la situación en Honduras? La semana pasada, algunos hermanos que estudiaron en Ozark y que hacen ministerio en Honduras empezaron a solicitar oración por el país. Esta crisis que se conocía en Honduras pasó casi desapercibida en mi país. Por seguro que toda la atención de los canales de noticias en Estados Unidos enfocaba casi nada más que la defunción de Michael Jackson. El domingo pasado, en mi clase de Escuela Dominical (clase compuesta de guatemaltecos, mexicanos, colombianos y gringos que quieren hablar el idioma del cielo), oramos por la situación que atravesaba el país, sin saber que ya (a la hora de nuestro estudio) el presidente Manuel (Mel) Zelaya Rosales había sido exiliado (¡en pijama!) a Costa Rica.

Me da mucha pena cuando hay golpe de estado en cualquier parte del mundo. Durante gran parte del resto de día domingo yo trataba de conseguir alguna noticia a través de la televisión norteamericana. Era casi imposible. Desde entonces, he tratado de ver a los noticieros en Univisión o Galavisión, donde dan importancia a los sucesos en Latinoamérica. Quisiera buscar el punto de equilibrio. Sospecho que la noticia que se da comunmente a través de los canales oficiales demuestra parcialidad, aunque tenga un barniz de objetividad periodística.

La condena internacional a la acción del nuevo gobierno de Honduras se dio a conocer rápidamente. Vimos una cumbre de presidentes en Managua que condenó severamente el gobierno golpista. Entre los mandatarios presentes en Managua estaban el venezolano Hugo Chávez, el cubano Raúl Castro, el nicaragüense Daniel Ortega, y el mismo hondureño Mel Zelaya (que ya no vestía pijama). La condena tenía una voz unánime, ¡pues un militar no tiene derecho de intervenir en un gobierno que haya sido electo en forma democrática! Y yo me pregunto acaso no queda ninguna persona pensante que no vea la ironía. Chávez intentó un golpe de estado en contra de un gobierno democrático en 1991. Ortega era uno de los jefes que emergió de la Frente de Liberación Sandinista, una acción para-militar en contra del dictador derechista Anastasio Somoza en 1979. ¿Y acaso es necesario hablar de los Castro? Me parece casi risible que aquel trío defienda el proceso democrático.

Ahora, el mandatario estadounidense Barack Obama condenó enérgicamente lo sucedido en Tegucigalpa (igual que la Hillary Clinton). En contraste, Obama tardó varios días en hacer una declaración acerca del proceso electoral en Irán. Ya van cinco días desde el arresto de Zelaya, pero no han hablado de muchos muertos. En los primeros cinco días de protestas por la elección iraní, hubo decenas de muertos. Obama observa de lejos, casi sin comentar lo de Irán, pero se apresura para secundar la enérgica condena de Chávez, Ortega, y Castro. ¿Por qué será?

La acción contra Zelaya originó en la Corte Suprema y en el Parlamento de Honduras. Fue el Congreso, no una junta militar, que nombró a Roberto Micheletti presidente. Los del nuevo gobierno insisten que no hubo golpe de estado. Los militares dicen que actuaban para imponer una orden judicial. ¿Era golpe de estado, o no? ¿Era como el golpe chileno del 1973, o no? He visto declaraciones escritas por jóvenes chilenos, comparando lo sucedido en Honduras con el golpe chileno del 1973:

k vola en Honduras? Otro Pinochet!

Algunas pancartas de los manifestantes hondureños que se han visto por la televisión están de acuerdo:

¡No a Pinocheletti Dictador!

La pancarta es interesante, pero la situación en Honduras dista mucho de lo que pasó en Chile. Una noticia que salió hoy (jueves) informa que Micheletti está dispuesto de adelantar las elecciones para elegir un nuevo presidente. La dictablanda (según Pinochet) chilena duró 16 años, y si no fuera por la declaración de Fernando Matthei, captada por cámaras de televisión del mundo entero después del plebiscito del 5 octubre del 1988, Pinochet podría haberse quedado muchos años más. Un amigo mío, pastor bautista en Cerrillos, me dijo que un hermano de su congregación era guardaespaldas de Pinochet, y le había dicho que si no fuera por la declaración de Matthei, habrían hecho un auto-golpe esa misma noche, para permanecer en el poder, aun con la victoria del No. Claro es que la nación de Honduras enfrenta una situación no contemplada en su Constitución. Pero a mis ojos, me parece que a ellos les importa mucho más un proceso constitucional que lo que les interesaba a los de la junta militar chilena en el 1973. Será interesante ver qué salida hacia la democracia encuentren.

En mi estimación, vamos a tener que esperar para ver lo que pretenden los que asumieron el control del gobierno de Honduras. Es una lástima cuando las fuerzas armadas de cualquier nación asuman el poder. Los que se oponen a los golpistas van a decir que la represión ha sido brutal. Los que los apoyan van a decir que están resguardando la orden pública, nada más. La verdad está por verse.

Una de mis ex-alumnas está en Honduras ahora mismo, y su estatus en Facebook lo dice todo:

Confundida. Oren por Honduras.

Quiero unir mi petición a la de ella: oren por Honduras. No crean todo lo que se diga en los medios de difusión. Jesús les dijo a sus discípulos: "No juzguen por la apariencia, sino juzguen con juicio justo." (Juan 7:24, Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos).

El Señor Jesús sigue siendo Señor. Ten piedad de nosotros, oh Señor, conforme a tu misericordia.

A Chronicle of the Birth of Gregory Robert Fish (Father of Ruthie Fish)

2009-06-24T22:55:00.012-06:00

Explanation about what follows: I wrote the following journal in a Microsoft Word document before coming to my Blog site. This evening, there will be a baby shower for my daughter-in-law, Emily (actually it is for her daughter Ruthie, who will be born in September). As part of a Native-American tradition, those who attend the shower are to take a bead for each of their children. The beads will be strung as a necklace (?) that will be presented to Ruthie at a later time in her life. The participants are also to write a story about the birth of their own children, to be gathered together in a notebook. I enjoy writing much more than Rose does, so she asked me to write something about the birth of Greg. Charissa is mentioned here as well, just as a comparative ease or difficulty of the two childbirths. Kim is not mentioned in the story. I am just too verbose. I did not have time to write about her birth. That will have to come at a later date. She is one of the three readers of this blog, so I wanted to put the disclaimer up front. Kim, I may not have written an account of your birth, but your older siblings will not have the privilege of making a cross-country road trip to Las Vegas next month. You also are very much loved.

A long time ago (December 2, 1980) in a land far, far away from southwest Missouri (Chile, South America), Gregory Robert Fish (McGill) was born. His parents were eager for his arrival. Unlike the birth of his older sister, Charissa, this time his mother’s mother (Mary Ruth McGill) would be present to help the inept father with the household chores, and to help take care of her daughter.

By the way, though, it is not relevant to the story of his birth to include a short mention of the birth of his older sister, Charissa, but as I contemplate the pangs of childbirth that women experience, Charissa’s birth was a proverbial piece of cake, compared to the birth of Ruthie’s father. You see, when Charissa was born, neither of the parents had a clue what giving birth to a child in a far-off land was like. They were both over-cautious, nervous, and called the doctor at the drop of a hat. When Charissa was about to be born, Rose spotted a little earlier in the day, and off they ran to the clinic. Dr. Stacchetti, an Italian doctor who migrated to Chile after years of practice in Italy (and who always reminded us of Robert Young’s character, Dr. Marcus Welby), assured us that the birth was imminent, but not to worry. “Enjoy your day; go to a park; take a nap; go to a movie! I imagine that I’ll see you here tonight.” I don’t remember if we went to a park, or took a nap, but I do remember going to a movie. We saw a World War II movie, Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977). I don’t remember much about the movie—only that it chronicled the atrocities of war in a tremendously intense way. It was a benefit that the movie was so intense, because Rose was in labor during the entire movie, but because of the intense images of war, did not realize it. The movie ended (we were seated in the balcony), and as we stood up, her water broke, and we flooded the theater (that was an example of uncalled-for hyperbole). I must assure you that now we were really spooked. We drove from the theater directly to the clinic. Rose was checked in (she was already dilated about 5 cm), and I had to run home to get the suitcase that we had packed earlier for the clinic, but which was not in the car. I made it back to the clinic, and about an hour and a half later, Charissa was born. We barely had time to practice our Lamaze-inspired Yankee Doodle breathing. Piece of cake!

Not so her younger brother! The first childbirth was easy. We really had no problems. The second pregnancy was afflicted by many problems. Several months before Greg was born, Rose started leaking amniotic fluid. Dr. Stacchetti recommended bed rest for several weeks. Her mother left her home (at that time in Ft. Myers, FL) to come to Chile to help out. She also suffered edema in the ankles, and high blood pressure. It was described as pre-eclampsia. Because of her condition, a date was set at which labor would be induced, should Greg not have decided to come naturally. The edema and the hypertension were pregnancy-related problems, and would be resolved as soon as he was born. He was at full term (I should hope so—He weighed 9 lbs. 12 oz. at birth!), but was not showing signs of coming on his own. We checked into the clinic, and the IV drip to induce labor was started. Rose was in induced labor for about 15 hours. I don’t think that VCRs had been invented yet (maybe Betamax was in existence, but not for poor people like we were)—we could have used an intense war movie to take her attention off of her hard labor.

The labor went on and on and on. Progress was very slow. The pains were intense. Now, it should probably be stated that though Rose’s mother was in Chile, she was not present for any of this. She was on the other side of the big city, taking care of Charissa. So we had been doing the hard work (actually I had been doing the hard waiting; Rose had been doing the hard work), and her mother was with Charissa on the other side of town. We had paid nearly $1000 (a year in advance!) to get a telephone in our house, but at the time it had not been installed. During all that time, we had no way to let Rose’s mother know what was going on. Her labor went so long and hard that they almost decided to shut it down in order to wait for the next day. But, late in the evening, she started making some progress, and they decided to continue it. She was doing great!¹ Now, I must make a comment about the Lamaze method. We read the books. We practiced our breathing. It was our intention to use the methodology, and for this child (just as Charissa) to be born without the use of anesthesia. Greg’s birth process needed some kind of kick-starting, but once she got going, she was going so well, that they sent the anesthesiologist (there in case he was needed) home. After all, it was after midnight! Life has taught me that Murphy is right more times than not—“If anything can go wrong, it will.” All I can say is that they never should have sent the anesthesiologist home. We left her room upstairs, to go to the delivery room downstairs. The contractions became more and more intense. They were so strong she was begging for an epidural. That’s when we found out that Dr. Stacchetti (also working off of his memory of the piece of cake delivery of older sister, Charissa) had sent the anesthesiologist back home. He was called back in. She was really in need of the epidural at that time. The good doctor arrived, got prepped quickly, prepared the epidural, and administered it. Rose’s reaction? The pain was gone. Almost immediately, she went to sleep.

That’s when things really got crazy. I was there, and these are my recollections. I am the father who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true (for those who are not Bible scholars, that last statement borders on plagiarism, adapted from John 21:24). She was fully dilated. Greg was ready to be born. I was exhausted. She was sleeping. The doctors were screaming. “Wake up! Wake up! You’ve got to push!” We threw water on her face. One of the doctors even slapped her in the face. She woke up enough to push, and out came our baby boy. He had been in birth position longer than was optimum. The neonatologist was on hand, and they rushed Greg off to the other room. I’m not sure what they did to him, but it saved his life. Rose was exhausted. I was pretty tired too. I was usually the one to talk to the doctors, since I was more conversant in technical language Spanish. The neonatologist came in and told me what had happened. His problems were because he had been in the birth canal, ready to be born, for a longer period of time than what was good for him. His APGAR rating at birth was only 2. They said about the only thing he really had going for him was a strong heartbeat. He recovered very quickly, as his 5-minute APGAR rating was up to 9. When the doctor came in to talk to me, I heard the words, but was too tired to understand. Basically all I understood that night was that there were some problems, but that he was going to be all right.

Now, there is one more pertinent detail. We were well within the first decade of the right-wing military dictatorship, and the country was still under a toque de queda (curfew). It was too late for me to go home to tell Rose’s mom what had happened. My best option was to sleep for a couple hours, then get up at the crack of dawn when the curfew was lifted (5 AM?), and drive across town with the news. I slept a few hours, got up, and crossed Santiago. There was very little traffic out as I drove across the city. The next day, I would have a cogent conversation with the neonatologist and comprehend how serious the situation had been. At 5 AM I remember reflecting on what had happened as I drove. Nearly thirty years later, I can produce the same emotion. I was overwhelmed by an incredible sense of God’s blessing. Through tears of thanksgiving I sang praises to God. My son could have died, but he would be all right. God indeed was good to us.

¹
During the past year, she has been battling with breast cancer, and I (the husband of Rose and the father of Greg) have been amazed at her strength. She has bounced back from her surgeries with incredible speed. She is a strong lady. I love her!

Goliath and the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament (Logos Bible Study Magazine)

2009-06-23T04:47:00.000-06:00

Fun Day at Silver Dollar City

2009-06-22T09:00:00.007-06:00

It just turned out that way--this year I celebrated my birthday on Mothers' Day, and it turned out that Fathers' Day was the same day as our anniversary--34 years! We've had quite an interesting year, as now we are a Cancer Surviving Family. We celebrated by going to Silver Dollar City in Branson, with our daughter and her husband, and the two older grandsons, Nathan and Eli. It was a pleasant surprise to find out that fathers were granted free entrance to the park with the purchase of another adult ticket, so the trip was cheaper than I thought it would be. I posted more photos on my Facebook profile.

Trivial Pursuit for a not-so-Trivial Matter

2009-06-20T09:44:00.003-06:00

Last night we went to the Carl Junction Christian Church to participate in a fund-raiser for MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). We were invited to play (and also to pay for playing) a Trivial Pursuit-like game. Since we have lived outside of the U.S. for much of my adult life (still more than half of it), there is a lot of U.S. trivia that we don't know.

However, my son-in-law, Steve Robinett, is one of the best Trivial Pursuit players that I know, so when we were asked to participate in this event, we recommended him (Sorry, Steve). People from the church put together teams of 7-8 people. There were 8 such teams. Ours was composed of:

Ralph and Cindy Shead (our former Chilean missionary colleagues, and members of the Carl Junction Christian Church)
Steve and Charissa Robinett (our son-in-law and daughter)
Doug and Carol Reed (colleagues of Shead's at LATM and former missionaries to the Dominican Republic)
Us (David and Rose Fish)

Each person put in $10 (for MOPS) to play. Then they also "sold" strips of 5 stickers (for an additional $10 for MOPS), as mulligans to put on the answer sheets for questions we did not know. At first they said you could only use 1 sheet of 5 stickers for the whole game, but at half-time, they allowed each team to purchase 1 more strip. After the eighth round, they again allowed teams to buy an additional strip of 5 stickers. Our team bought 3 strips of 5 stickers ($30 more for MOPS), and we used all the stickers but one (14 in all). Did I tell you that we dominated the game? We got down to the last round, and we had 4 stickers left, and only 10 questions. There is no way that the 2nd place team could have caught us.

All in all, we played 10 rounds of 10 questions from 10 different categories. The questions were read, and each team wrote the answers to the questions. Since we won the entire tournament, our team was awarded $120 (more than what we paid to play, even with our mulligan strips). We gave that prize money back to the local MOPS group.

I can't remember all of the categories, but some of my favorite categories were:

"Word" up (for which all questions were Bible-related--we did pretty well on that one)
The Pros of Prose (authors of famous books--Carol Reed was very helpful in this area, since she is a school teacher)
Sports-related category (Steve and I pretty much carried our team in this area)
The Small Screen (a category taken from TV shows--I was thankful for some questions from the Andy Griffith Show)

We had fun, and since we gave back our "prize" money, the local MOPS program probably raised about $600. Now, may God bless the mothers and the workers of that program! I observed some of the MOPS program at our own church, and I think that I am best suited for helping MOPS as a Trivial Pursuit player, not as a babysitter!

A fun time was had by all. Thanks, Cindy, for inviting us.

Surprise! Surprise! 3G Service in Joplin, MO

2009-06-15T15:46:00.002-06:00

I have had a 3G phone for over a year. When I have gone to larger cities (Tulsa, Kansas City, St. Louis) I have taken advantage of the chance to check my e-mail from my phone. The rumor on the street was that our market (Joplin, MO) was to get 3G service sometime this year. Frankly, I did not believe it.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when I looked at my phone today, and saw the 3G symbol in the visor. Woohoo! See the screen capture. The 3G is just to the left of the time.

For the Love of a "Cuh-Fuh-Luh" Truck

2009-06-10T16:17:00.018-06:00

We went to Indiana last weekend, to participate in a Memorial Service for my father-in-law, Robert F. McGill. My son Greg and his family arrived Wednesday night, so he and his two older boys, Nathan and Eli, made the trip with us.

Nathan will turn 7 years old this week, and Eli is 5. They had a great time in Indiana. We stayed at the home of some dear old friends, Jack & Barb Norton. A railroad track runs behind their home, and the trains were visible. Both boys have been Thomas the Train fans for a long time, so seeing real trains from the back yard was special. On Saturday morning, I overheard Eli talking to his mother (who stayed back in Joplin). He said, "Things here are just great! I wish you could be here with us!"

We had the most fun, however, on the return trip. We (the adults) were tired, and perhaps a little punchy, which made our trip back across the Mississippi River that much more fun. We (the adults) were concerned that the boys could see the Gateway Arch, or perhaps the Mississippi. Their (especially Nathan's) attention was on something else.

Now, I must try to set the scenario. Both Nathan and Eli are reading. Eli (5 years old) reads some from a Dick and Jane Reader. Nathan reads quite a bit, and usually can sound out words that he does not know. That's where the "Cuh-Fuh-Luh" truck comes in.

The Cuh-Fuh-Luh truck is actually a CFI truck (Contract Freighters, Inc.), based out of Joplin, MO. CFI was purchased recently by Con-Way Truckload. Con-Way Truckload moved their base operation to Joplin. In fact, Emily's parents live directly behind their massive office. There are literally hundreds of Cuh-Fuh-Luh trucks visible at all times.

When Nathan sees "CFI", he sees it not as a "CFI" but as "CFl" (capital C, followed by a capital F, followed by a lower case l). He would be a good Hebrew scholar, as he has no trouble reading things that have no vowels, such as C-F-L. He just read it phonetically, adding in the most common vowel sound in American English, the schwa sound (שְׁוָא). Thus, CFI becomes CFL, which becomes Cuh-Fuh-Luh!

So, back to the story. We were coming back across the Mississippi River, and wanted to point out the Gateway Arch, the river itself, Busch Stadium, etc. But, those things held no interest. Nathan was thrilled because a Cuh-Fuh-Luh truck was behind us. When I started to pull away from it, he told me, "Grandpa, slow down. I want to see the Cuh-Fuh-Luh truck!", followed by "Grandpa, you're driving too fast! Slow down so the Cuh-fuh-Luh truck catches up with us again!"

Greg got out his digital camera, but the battery was weak. Nathan wanted to take a picture of the truck. As Greg passed the camera back, Aunt Charissa took a photo of both boys (Eli and Nathan) with the truck in the background. Then Nathan got his hands on the camera. We weren't sure that he knew what he was doing. At one point, he told us that he was shooting a video of the Cuh-Fuh-Luh truck. Nathan took the bottom photo. The truck looks far away (I was driving too fast!), but if you click on the photo, you will be able to see that it really was a Cuh-Fuh-Luh truck.

I will never look at a CFI truck the same way.

Hugo Chávez Jokes that Obama is More of a Leftist than are Fidel Castro and He

2009-06-04T09:38:00.003-06:00

About the nationalization of General Motors: Hugo Chávez calls Obama Comrade, and jokes with Fidel Castro that they better be careful, or they will end up on Obama's right side.

Link from Yahoo News in Español:

"Oye, Obama acaba de nacionalizar nada más y ni nada menos que la General Motors. ¡Camarada Obama! Fidel, cuidado y nos quedamos a la derecha", bromeó el líder izquierdista mientras supervisaba la construcción de unas viviendas en una ciudad dormitorio cercana a Caracas.

For one opinion of what to expect when the government runs a car industry, check out Ion Mihai Pacepa's article in the Wall Street Journal, "What I Learned as a Car Czar."

The World Will Only Snicker

2009-05-31T15:05:00.002-06:00

An OCC student posted a link to this article, posted as an editorial piece in the English language version of Pravda. It was written by Stanislav Mishin, and published earlier on his blog (be certain to read to the very end if you want to understand the title of this entry):

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite tv dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives. They care more for their "right" to choke down a McDonalds burger or a BurgerKing burger than for their constitutional rights. Then they turn around and lecture us about our rights and about our "democracy". Pride blindth the foolish.

Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America.

The final collapse has come with the election of Barrack Obama/ His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.

These past two weeks have been the most breath taking of all. First came the announcement of a planned redesign of the American Byzantine tax system, by the very thieves who used it to bankroll their thefts, loses and swindles of hundreds of billions of dollars. These make our Russian oligarchs look little more then ordinary street thugs, in comparison. Yes, the Americans have beat our own thieves in the shear volumes. Should we congratulate them?

These men, of course, are not an elected panel but made up of appointees picked from the very financial oligarchs and their henchmen who are now gorging themselves on trillions of American dollars, in one bailout after another. They are also usurping the rights, duties and powers of the American congress (parliament). Again, congress has put up little more then a whimper to their masters.

Then came Barrack Obama's command that GM's (General Motor) president step down from leadership of his company. That is correct, dear reader, in the land of "pure" free markets, the American president now has the power, the self given power, to fire CEOs and we can assume other employees of private companies, at will. Come hither, go dither, the centurion commands his minions.

So it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies. I am sure that if given the chance, they would happily try and redesign it for the whole of the world, too. Prime Minister Putin, less then two months ago, warned Obama and UK's Blair, not to follow the path to Marxism, it only leads to disaster. Apparently, even though we suffered 70 years of this Western sponsored horror show, we know nothing, as foolish, drunken Russians, so let our "wise" Anglo-Saxon fools find out the folly of their own pride.

Again, the American public has taken this with barely a whimper...but a "freeman" whimper.

So, should it be any surprise to discover that the Democratically controlled Congress of America is working on passing a new regulation that would give the American Treasury department the power to set "fair" maximum salaries, evaluate performance and control how private companies give out pay raises and bonuses? Senator Barney Franks, a social pervert basking in his homosexuality (of course, amongst the modern, enlightened American societal norm, as well as that of the general West, homosexuality is not only not a looked down upon life choice, but is often praised as a virtue) and his Marxist enlightenment, has led this effort. He stresses that this only affects companies that receive government monies, but it is retroactive and taken to a logical extreme, this would include any company or industry that has ever received a tax break or incentive.

The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left.

The proud American will go down into his slavery with out a fight, beating his chest and proclaiming to the world, how free he really is. The world will only snicker.

My Cute Grandson

2009-05-17T18:25:00.002-06:00

Actually I've got three (3) adorable grandsons. They recently went on a camping trip, camping out on Boca Chica beach, near Brownsville, Texas where they live. Emily (my daughter-in-law) posted some photos on Facebook. This one is my favorite, of Eli(jah) and his sand castle. He was very proud of it, and rightly so! Good job, Eli!

B-Team Commissioning Service Reprise

2009-05-09T17:25:00.005-06:00

On March 7, I wrote a piece titled "Grammar As an Emotional Trigger", which included the lyrics to a song inspired by a conversation the College Heights High School Minister had with one of the B-teamers after their survey trip. I'll reprise the lyrics here, and provide the mp3 file of the song, as sung by its composer, Beau Hamlin.

I'm not sure, what to be saying
So, I'll just start talking, maybe you'll see
The anticipation, oh it just keeps building
I don't want to leave but, I don't want to stay

It's like a mourning process, leaving on this mission
Do you know my feelings? Can you feel my tension?
'Cause, I love my family, but I know my calling
And I love my Savior, and my heart is willing

Uneasy? Yes. We're scared to jump.
But, we took the trip and we saw enough.

He's our strength. So we're going to jump.
We took that trip. And we saw enough.

People we met, faces we saw; broken buildings, torn down walls
History of war, crying for life; broken people, needing light.
We didn't see it all . . . but we saw enough.

It's intimidating, 'cause the ones before us
Never found a system, not a one they could trust

We better be longwinded, if we choose to run this
We better keep our focus, we gotta' know we're His

Uneasy? Yes. We're scared to jump.
But, we took the trip and we saw enough.

He's our strength. So we're going to jump.
We took that trip. And we saw enough.

People we met, faces we saw; broken buildings, torn down walls
History of war, crying for life; broken people, needing light.
We didn't see it all . . . but we saw enough.

Fornication is not required

2009-05-07T11:36:00.002-06:00

Though I'm a little embarrassed by the title of this blog, I will continue with this humorous post. Students (especially foreign language students) provide teachers with some laughs. I had one yesterday in my 2nd Year Greek class. The class translated the entire Gospel of John this year, finishing it last week.For this week, I had my students read and translate portions of the The Didache, particularly from chapters 1, 7-10.

Our section for class yesterday covered chapters 7-8 (English translation available here). The verse in question is Didache 7:4, which in the Greek says:

πρὸ δὲ τοῦ βαπτίσματος προνηστευσάτω ὁ βαπτίζων καὶ ὁ βαπτιζόμενος καὶ εἴ τινες ἄλλοι δύνανται.

The important word there is the imperative προνηστευσάτω, which indicates that fasting is required. The text says, "Before the baptism, the baptizer and the baptizee must fast (beforehand), as well as others who are able." The text continues with a commandment that the baptizee must fast one or two days in advance of his or her baptism.

In class, I use a data projector, and project the Greek text onto a screen, and use a laser pointer, asking students to translate the Greek into English. When I got to verse four, the student I called on said something like, "No, it doesn't really say that, does it? Is it talking about fornication?"

I don't think he is dyslexic, but his question stems from a dyslexic moment. You see, the Greek word for fornication is πορνεία
(the first four letters of which are porn, from which we get the English word pornography.) The Greek word in question here was not from that root, but was προνηστεύω, which means to fast beforehand. It is made up of the common word for fasting, and a prepositional prefix (πρό), that means before. So the first four letters of the Greek word (transliterated into English) are pron, not porn. Perhaps because of extreme fatigue, my student saw them as porn, and came up with the idea that the Didache teaches this:
Before the baptism, the baptizer and the baptizee must fornicate, and any others who are able.

No, that's not what the text says. Fornication is not required.

It's Called "Influenza Porcina"

2009-04-27T14:07:00.005-06:00

If you have seen the news today, you are no doubt aware of the problem with swine flu (influenza porcina) in Mexico, that has jumped across the boder and into the United States. Kim, our daughter, teaches school in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. I just got an e-mail from her, that said they were cancelling classes there. In reading the Mexican press, I have found that there are no confirmed cases of swine flu in the state of Chihuahua, although there are 33 suspected cases. I just read here that classes in all schools in the state are canceled until May 6. I'm not sure if that means that their school year will be extended, which could possibly affect her return date.

I sent her a note saying that we trust God, and for her to be smart, to wash her hands multiple times a day. Would you pray for her safety? I'm not meaning to be drobbedonian. I just love my daughter. For what it's worth, the word drobbedonian (as far as I know) was coined by Carl Emmons, one of Greg's classmates at Santiago Christian Academy, over 20 years ago. We're not sure what it means, but it is a useful word when you want to change someone's attitude. It is always easy to say, "Don't be so drobbedonian!"

At Least They Won Today (10-3) To Avoid a Sweep!

2009-04-26T17:02:00.010-06:00

Yesterday I was stoked to see the Cubbies beat the Cardinals. I picked up my Cardinal friend preacher, Gene McCoy at Rolla, and we continued on to St. Louis. The home team (that would be the bad guys) beat the Cubbies 8-2. I was super-disappointed. You have to admit class when you see it, though, and Albert Pujols just might be the best player in baseball today (sorry, Arod fans!). He manufactured the winning run on Friday, by stealing a base to get himself into scoring position, and later scoring the go ahead run on the next play.

Yesterday, he started the day needing 2 RBI to join a small crowd of ballplayers to reach 1000 before the age of 30. I was hoping he would be denied, but alas, he reached 1002 with one swing of the bat. Mike Shannon, the Cardinal radio announcer, who has a trademark home run call of "Get up! Get up, baby! Get up!" never even had a chance to form a letter "g" sound. Cubs Rule-5 draft pitcher David Patton sent Pujols a huge gift on his first pitch to him, a heater right down the middle of the plate. I have never seen a home run leave a ballpark that fast! The Cubs outfielders barely even moved a muscle. They knew that it was gone! I was there. I saw it! The crowd rose to its feet, as did I. But I was not cheering. It was painful.

I bought a Pujols Pack that had three Cubs games (April 25, May 19, and September 20). The next one is on a Tuesday night, right after school is out. I'm looking forward to seeing the Cubs beat the Cardinals there on May 19. I will have the privilege to take a Cub fan with me, Jonathan Parrot, from Prairie Grove, AR. Jonathan's mother used to teach at Ozark Christian College. Currently she is the Children's Minister at the Prairie Grove (AR) Christian Church. (Video available on MLB.com, taken from FOX Network TV feed).

Reflections on Brain Hemispheres and the Shema

2009-04-18T06:45:00.007-06:00

The following is a semi-edited version of the devotional I presented to the OCC Faculty/Staff Luncheon on April 17:

Shema yisra'el adonay eloheynu adonay ehad.

I'll finish in English:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut. 6:4-5, verse 4 in Hebrew, verse 5 in ESV).

I've often been thankful for the fact that Jesus added something that was not specifically mentioned in the Hebrew text. The Hebrew text lists heart, soul, might (or strength)—as Jesus quotes this text (Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27, he adds "and with your mind."

I have frequently joked that I was a forceps baby, and that the right side of my brain was damaged at birth. On the creativity scale from 1-10, I would give myself about a minus 3! I have been amazed at the creativity of my son, Greg. Anything I ever did musically came with incredible effort, by following the notes written on a page. If the notes are not written—anything can happen. Greg may not be able to read music, but he certainly does hear it. What about graphic arts? In a face-to-face competition in Bible Lands Map Drawing, I think I can beat Randy Gariss—barely! But I think all of you could "clean my clock!"

Yes, I have been happy that Jesus added the word "mind" to the Shema. I appreciated John Stott's 1973 book, Your Mind Matters (IVP Press). In it, he quotes a Canadian commentator who said, "What scares me about this generation is the extent to which ignorance is their armour. If know-nothingness goes on much longer, somebody will yet emerge from a commune having discovered the wheel." That great line was written in 1970, when I was still in high school. Methinks that in the intervening years, cognitive excellence has suffered even more. Oddly enough, technological advances have contributed to the "dumbing down of our society." Last year Mark Bauerlein published a cultural critique titled The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30). Let's see, my generation must be the most misanthropic generation in the history of the world. When I was younger, we didn't trust anyone over 30, and now, we don't trust anyone under 30. What's wrong with us?

Also, last summer, Nicholas Carr wrote an article for The Atlantic magazine. The title of his article asked the question, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Basically, Carr, while embracing and using technology, admits that it is making us stupid. I resonate with what he says:

I think I know what's going on. For more than a decade now, I've been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches, some quick clicks on hyperlinks, and I've got the telltale fact or pithy quote I was after. Even when I'm not working, I'm as likely as not to be foraging in the Web's info-thickets'reading and writing e-mails, scanning headlines and blog posts, watching videos and listening to podcasts, or just tripping from link to link to link. (Unlike footnotes, to which they're sometimes likened, hyperlinks don't merely point to related works; they propel you toward them.)

In recent months, I have done a lot of thinking about things that matter. I have immensely enjoyed teaching Anthropology again (the last time I taught it, there was a guy named Proctor in the class—he has risen quite high in the institution, while I—well I enjoy saying that I am on a need to know basis, and obviously I do not need to know!".)

But in teaching Anthropology, I have been amazed all over again by the incredible cultural diversity in our shrinking, flattened (to use Thomas Friedman's term) world. Our western culture (historically, anyway) is much more individualistic than other cultures around the world. Our western culture is certainly more literate than some cultures that are either oral or aural. But let's consider the individual or group orientation: early this semester, I asked my Life Group about what they preferred individually: 1) to be alone; or 2) to be in a group. I enjoy hanging out with people and I am somewhere close to balanced on the I/E Myers Briggs test. I don't have any problem with alone time, however. My wife, however, is wired much differently than I. She loves to be with people. The isolation of chemotherapy was a huge problem for her. But in my Life Group, I was the only person who preferred to be alone! Maybe I am pathologically anti-social.

It must be a left-brained thing. I also like technology. Well, duh! I am the pusher of Bible software. Remember back in the day, when we had pay phones in the dorms? It was a big deal when we put phones in the dorm rooms. Phones in the dorm rooms today are almost irrelevant. Better not take out the Ethernet or Wi-Fi, though. I used to say that technology is neutral, and sometimes even complained that it is not right for the Devil to use all the good stuff for his purposes. Technology, however, is not neutral. Its use does change us, or to use Carr's thought, "it propels us", perhaps to places we really did not intend to go.

Last month, John Dyer, the web specialist at Dallas Seminary, gave a workshop at the Logos Bible Software-sponsored Bibletech 2009 titled "Technology is not neutral". Because of him, I wasted an hour and a half last night watching a classic film from 20 years ago, that somehow I had missed, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." Waste of time. The only redeeming value was that the 7 day rental only cost me 99 cents.

Dyer's presentation had an image from the movie of a Greek philosopher we know as Socrates, except that these brilliant kids called him So-crates! I thought about maybe using a clip from the movie in this devotional. I was incapable of finding a redeeming clip. Instead, I went to the Loeb Classical Library, to read some Plato, specifically Phaedrus, where Socrates tells a story about the Egyptian god named Theuth, who invented letters (that is, writing). The Egyptian king, Thamus, was not impressed. Thamus said that writing, rather than making us wise, would make us "worse for the wear". In the words of Thamus, given to us by Plato, and to Plato allegedly by Socrates, he says:

This invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of the own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.

I cannot discount the power of the written word—after all, God gave us His word, in written form. I'm committed to the study and propagation of that Word. That's why I'm at Ozark. I've always liked the title to Francis Schaeffer's abridged work to The God Who is There. It is titled, He is There, and He is Not Silent. Yes, God communicates with us through the technology of His written word. But I am beginning to understand that the technology of written texts, and that many technologies we enjoy using also carry the power to effect a change in us, in ways that might not be beneficial.

Yes, to get back to the Shema, I'm glad that Jesus added the word mind. But if I love God, only with my mind, I may be guilty of "neglecting the weightier matters of the Shema". The older I get, the more I realize how important the other side (the right-brained stuff) is.

Dyer's workshop at Bibletech 2009 also pointed me to another resource: Shane Hipps' Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes our Faith, published earlier this year by Zondervan. I recommend the book. I started with the dichotomy between left and right brainedness. Hipps calls the right brain (especially those of us who are left-brained propagaters of the propositional truth of Scripture), the Prodigal Brain.

I would like to read you a portion on Brain Balance (pp. 147-148):

One morning in December of 1996, a blood vessel burst in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain. She was a Harvard-trained neuroscientist who had spent her career mapping the micro circuitry of the brain in people with mental illness. That morning, over the course of four hours, she lost her ability to walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life.

The stroke happened in the left hemisphere of her brain, which is responsible for all the functions she lost. With her left-brain muted, over the next few hours she began to experience life through her right-brain only. She describes it as a vastly expanded state of consciousness; she was fully immersed in the present moment. There was no past or future, only the now. She lost her ability to perceive the boundaries of her body and became aware of her total oneness with the energy of the entire universe. Molecules of her body mingled with the molecules of the air and objects around her. Her subjective experience was one of extraordinary peace and euphoric bliss. Not a religious person, she called that place "nirvana" or, more affectionately "La La Land."

It took a major surgery to save her life and two weeks to regain some measure of left-brain functioning. It took a full eight years to recover completely. But when she awoke, this left-brain scientist realized the incalculable value of the right hemisphere of the brain. Once her left-brain functioning returned, she learned how to establish a remarkable ecology or equilibrium between the hemispheres of her brain, which unleashed a torrent or creative and spiritual energy that had been dormant under the blanket of left-brain thinking alone. This changed her life completely. She later observed that this experience taught her more about the brain and human potential that all of her years of research.

Shema yisra'el adonay eloheynu adonay ehad.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut. 6:4-5, verse 4 in Hebrew, verse 5 in ESV).

Technology is Not Neutral

2009-04-11T07:33:00.004-06:00

John Dyer, Director of IT at Dallas Seminary, gave a very interesting talk at the recent Logos Bible Software BibleTech 2009. I'll embed a synchronized version of his lecture and the PowerPoint slides that accompanied it below. It is about 47 and a half minutes long, but it is worth the time taken to listen (and watch).

Technology Is Not Neutral: How Bible Technology Shapes Our Faith

View more presentations from John Dyer.

What do you think of this decision, Dad?

2009-04-03T19:52:00.004-06:00

Art work from World Magazine, April 11, 2009

From the start, let me make it clear that I am not trying to hold a conversation with my deceased father. I understand the Biblical injunction against trying to contact the dead (Deut. 18:11, Isa. 8:19). The title of this post is merely a literary device to get the reader's attention.

You see, my father was born and raised in Iowa. He ministered in Iowa for many years (1954-1959--that's the part that I was around for, and later in his life from 1979-1992, when he retired from full-time ministry). My mother was also born and raised in Iowa. I think that both of them were proud to be from Iowa. I lived there for almost 5 years of my life. I was a pretty happy kid there, I think. It was in Iowa that I had my first church camp experience (what I seem to remember about that was that a bottle of pop cost only five cents); it was also in Iowa that I remember my first clover-leaf exit off of an expressway. I think it was en route to Central Iowa Bible Camp, just 3 miles off of Interstate 80, west of Des Moines. In recent years, I participated with a group of students in an ad hoc club name WOI, rumored to stand for Wannabees of Iowa. I digress--back to the issue at hand, Fish!

The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a ban on same-sex marriage, upholding a Polk County District Court decision from 2007, appealed by the county. The ruling was unanimous, making Iowa just the 3rd state in the nation (Massachussetts and Connecticut are the others) to legalize same-sex marriages. It is the first Heartland state to receive such a ruling.

As a Christian who believes that homosexual unions are wrong, I am not against affording them basic civil rights. I would much prefer that their unions be labelled as that: civil unions, rather than marriage.

Perhaps what has happened in Iowa is a portent of what is coming down the pike. I can't help but wonder what my father would think!

Robert Frank McGill (1919-2009)

2009-04-03T05:49:00.004-06:00

The Arizona Republic published my father-in-law's obituary on April 1. It reads:

McGill, Robert Frank
89, of Sun City, AZ, formerly of Indianapolis, Indiana, passed away at his

home in Sun City, Arizona on Friday, March 27, 2009. Robert was born

on December 18, 1919 in Jennings County, Indiana the son of William

Henry and Jennie Lee (Dishin) McGill. He married Mary Ruth Hanes on

August 9, 1942 in Indianapolis. A devout Christian with a servant's heart,

he served as an Elder at Lawrence Christian Church in Indianapolis, First

Christian Church of Ft. Myers, Florida and, most recently, First Christian

Church of Sun City. Robert was a quiet, hardworking man with a wonderful

sense of humor. After his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, his priority was

always his beloved family. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary

Ruth McGill, 7 Children, 18 Grandchildren and 31 Great-Grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by 5 siblings and 1 Grandson. A memorial

service to celebrate his life will be held in Indianapolis at a later date.

Memorial contributions in his name can be made to the American Heart

Association.

We are all richer for having known him. When all (or most of) the family would get together, he used to break out in a huge smile, and say, "Look what I started!" Indeed!

A Memorial Service will be held in Indianapolis, IN on June 6.

This is Who My Wife Wants to See so Badly

2009-03-14T07:09:00.002-06:00

Little kids are really funny at times, especially when they are REALLY tired. Here is my 3rd grandson. Rose will see him and his two older brothers Monday night.

Another Issue Above His Pay Grade

2009-03-13T12:47:00.002-06:00

This in from the upcoming issue of World Magazine.

Grammar as an Emotional Trigger

2009-03-07T20:53:00.004-06:00

I've just returned home from a Commissioning Service for a team of missionaries (oops, I forgot to call them Global Partners), composed of 3 couples and a single woman. They are affectionately called the B-Team, a name that bears some significance because of the place they are going, while at the same time hiding some of the details. For their security, I will refrain from using their names. They are all dearly loved.

During the service, I found myself becoming more emotional than used to be common for me, being the rational person that I am. I found it interesting that grammar provided my emotional trigger. We sang a Marie Barnett song that is commonly sung, but the words were changed (changing the focus) from the first person singular to the third person plural. The lyrics were intentionally changed to focus on the people the B-Team will be going to reach, at first singing in a prophetic sense, "You are the air they breathe. . ." At that point in the song, I was thinking, "Nice touch!" The emotions started coming later in the song:

You are their daily bread.
You are their daily bread.
Your very word, spoken to them.
And they, they're desperate for you.
And they, they're lost without you.

Think about it. That's the very reason the B-Team is going there. They don't even know how desperate they are for Jesus. May God bring fulfillment to our future-looking praise!

A little later in the service, Beau Hamlin, our High School Youth Minister, sang a song he had written in conjunction with one of the B-Team Members. I want to share the lyrics with you.

About 33 years ago, my wife and I were at the same jumping off place. I can remember some of those same emotions. I thank God for these young adults, for their commitment, and for what they will accomplish in His name. Soli Deo Gloria.

CNBC's Jim Cramer calls Obama's Policies "The Greatest Wealth Destruction Ever"

2009-03-05T15:53:00.002-06:00

On the NBC Today Show:

I Found an "As You Are Going!"

2009-02-26T13:56:00.007-06:00

The idea of this blog entry comes from my devotional reading in the Greek New Testament. On Thursdays, I meet with a small group of guys during what used to be one of our chapel services. In our small group today, students were asked to fill out a Student Satisfaction Survey, designed by Noel-Levitz. The survey was designed to take 20-25 minutes of our time.

I decided to read some of the Greek New Testament (off of my phone), while I was waiting. I remembered where I had left off, having finished Matthew 9, with the great passage on missions. I began reading in Matthew 10, where Jesus names the apostles, and then sends them out (Matthew 10:5). They were to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When I got to Matthew 10:7, I thought, "Eureka! I have found it! The great lost "As you are Going!". Here is verse 7, just as I encountered it:

πορευόμενοι δὲ κηρύσσετε λέγοντες ὅτι ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν.

The NIV text follows the Greek word order more closely than the ESV.

NIV: As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’
ESV: And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’

The word πορευόμενοι is a present participle, usually translated as an -ing word. For years I have heard people assert that the Greek Commission text of Matthew 28:19-20 does not command people to Go! Usually they will identify the "go" word in the passage (πορευθέντες) correctly as a participle (though they seem not to recognize it as an aorist participle), and will state that there is only one imperative verb (make disciples), insisting that the participle (πορευθέντες) should be translated "as you are going."

As I stated earlier, I have heard this for years, usually from people who trained for the ministry at a sister school. The most recent time I heard it was over a year ago, when a prominent speaker (who trained for ministry at that school), made that same comment in a message in our chapel. I asked my boss if he could explain to me why people who studied there (have you guessed that I asked him because he went to graduate school there?) insist on making that false assertion. He speculated that it may have had to do with a very popular professor in the theology department that should have paid more attention to Greek before passing on wrong information (though he probably stated it with more grace that have I).

Concerning the Great Commission text, last year I found a document written by Daniel Wallace, author of the textbook we began using this year as our 2nd year Greek textbook. Last year, I made the article available to our 2nd year Greek students. Unfortunately, the document is no longer available on the web. If you would like to receive a copy of it, I can e-mail it to you, with the annotations I made.

As I continued reading into Matthew 11, I found another construction identical to the Great Commission structure--in Matthew 11:4:

πορευθέντες ἀπαγγείλατε Ἰωάννῃ ἃ ἀκούετε καὶ βλέπετε.

No Greek translator who knows what he or she is doing would dare render that verse as follows: "As you are going tell John what you hear and see." No! The clear meaning is "Go and tell John what you hear and see."

The grammatical structure is what Wallace calls attendant circumstance. Other grammars refer to this a coordinate circumstance. Daniel Wallace describes what happens:

The attendant circumstance participle is used to communicate an action that, in some sense, is coordinate with the finite verb. In this respect it is not dependent, for it is translated like a verb. Yet it is still dependent semantically, because it cannot exist without the main verb. It is translated as a finite verb connected to the main verb by and. The participle then, in effect, “piggy-backs” on the mood of the main verb. (Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, 640)

The participle "piggy-backs" on the mood of the main verb, being connected to the main verb semantically by the word and. So when a participle piggy-backs on an imperative verb, it gets imperatival force. We join them by the word and, which does not appear in the Greek text.

So, the Great Commission text does not say "As you are going . . .", but rather, "Go and make disciples . . ." Anybody who tells you differently has not read much Greek.

The Joy of Inductive Discovery (Greek)

2009-02-24T09:48:00.003-06:00

I have been reading through the Greek New Testament once a year for the past several years. I enjoy it very much, and I think it helps me be a better teacher of Koine Greek, DUH!

This year I started off with the Gospel of John (easy), then I read John's epistles (easy), and from there went back to Matthew, at which time I will read straight through the New Testament, skipping over the books previously read.

First year students of New Testament Greek learn a couple pretty common deponent verbs as vocabulary:

πορεύομαι = I go
ἔρχομαι = I go, come

Students sometimes have difficulty with the concept of ἔρχομαι being either I come or I go. Which is it? In my reading today, included in the passage was the healing of the centurion's servant (Matthew 8:5-13). In v. 9 the centurion tells Jesus that he tells one servant to go and he goes, but to another one he says to come and he comes. Both words are used in that narrative:

καὶ λέγω τούτῳ· πορεύθητι, καὶ πορεύεται, καὶ ἄλλῳ· ἔρχου, καὶ ἔρχεται.

At least in this setting, πορεύομαι is the one meaning go, and ἔρχομαι means come. Now you ought to take this knowledge, add $3.50 to it, and be able to buy at least something at Starbuck's.

Who is "The Forgotten Man"?

2009-02-21T13:37:00.006-06:00

Late last year I read through Amity Shlaes' book, The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. The phrase "forgotten man" was used by Franklin D. Roosevelt in a radio address given on April 7, 1932, in a time of economic crisis that many say is very much like our current economic crisis. FDR said,

These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

That quote reminds me of our president's speeches during the electoral campaign, where he "made a career" of criticizing the "failed policies of the last eight years" that expect prosperity to "trickle down from the top". Rather, Obama advocates a "trickle-up" approach to economics, believing that to continue in what he calls "the failed policies of the last eight years", will result in "trickle-up pain" rather than "trickle-down prosperity". For an example of his campaign rhetoric, watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1VzBqqO_M0

President Obama seems to fashion himself after some of our highly-esteemed past presidents: Abraham Lincoln (using his Bible in the inauguration), Franklin D. Roosevelt (see Time magazine's cover from November 24, 2008), and John F. Kennedy (see Slate magazine's article from early in campaign). Obama's (Non)Stimulus Plan (parenthetical editorial comment added for effect) shares many of the attributes of FDR's New Deal, with heavy emphasis on infrastructure spending. My father lived through the Great Depression. I'd like to pick his brain about it, but I can't because he's already in heaven. I promise I won't try to get you to eat Potato Soup, Dad. Those who lived through the Great Depression that I have polled seem to be unanimous in the belief that what brought the U.S. out of the depression was World War II, not any of FDR's policies. Shlaes' book seems to agree, and offers unemployment statistics and market values to show how FDR's policies failed:

Obama's plan indeed may help the forgotten at the bottom of the economic pile. Julio Oseguedo and Henrietta Hughes are two such people (though Ms. Hughes' request was fulfilled by the wife of Republican Representative Nicholas Thompson). The reality, though, is that it is incorrect to call the person at the bottom forgotten.

In 1883, long before FDR, William Graham Sumner of Yale University used the phrase "the forgotten man". He (correctly, I believe) identifies the middle class as the truly forgotten--that the burden for trickle-up prosperity fall upon the middle class. This quote is insightful:

As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X, or in the better case, what A, B, and C shall do for X. . . . What I want to do is to look up C. I want to show you what manner of man he is. I call him the Forgotten Man. Perhaps the appellation is not strictly correct. He is the man who never is thought of. . . . He works, he votes, generally he prays--but he always pays. . . .

A and B are represented by the fat cats among our president's friends. Many of them evade paying taxes. Some of them even make it into our president's cabinet. Julio and others (represented by X in Sumner's quote) are helped, but it is always at the expense of C. As a member of C, I am in favor of helping X. But the reality is that the greatest help is not always in the form of a handout. The current administration seems not to understand that, as long as they can:
1) pass stimulus and bailout bills
2) print more money
3) reach into our pockets, and pass the bill onto our children and grandchildren

I don't like it. The economy is in a crisis, which is portrayed as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Such hyperbolic rhetoric is blatantly false. FDR's New Deal did not bring the nation out of the Great Depression. Obama's New New Deal has the likelihood of taking us into the greatest economic crisis ever. Those of us who stand to suffer the most are the forgotten ones in the middle of the socio-economic pile. We are mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren, soaking them with the sins of the fathers, to the third and fourth generation. I pray to God that I'm wrong.

Pelosi on the Urgency of Passing The Stimulus (sic) Package

2009-02-05T06:19:00.002-06:00

I can imagine that the Aflac Duck is saying "Huh?":

Is there a preacher in here?

2009-01-25T06:53:00.002-06:00

We watched this video in our Faculty Meeting on Friday. This video is rather long (about 8 minutes), but is worth watching. It is of a 5th grader, Dalton Sherman, who is addressing an assembly of 20,000 from the Dallas (Texas) Independent School District. Enjoy!

2 Bibles and 2 (or was it 3?) Presidential Inaugurations

2009-01-23T05:50:00.008-06:00

I originally planned to write this short piece a couple days ago. When I saw the video done by CatholicVote.com that I posted yesterday, this post got 'poned (if you don't understand, insert another post at the point of the apostrophe).

This month we have seen two African presidents installed (though "African American" is the proper description of one of them): President Barack Obama of the United States of America, and President John Atta Mills of Ghana. Both of them took a presidential oath with a Bible. The fact that President Obama took a do-over oath (almost secretly--citing an abundance of caution) is really an afterthought to this post. I really wanted to talk about the Bibles used.

Obama took his oath, not on the Quran, but on the same Bible that was used in the first inaugural of Abraham Lincoln. John Atta Mills also used a Bible, but when I saw the photo (click on the link just to the left to see a larger image of the photo above), I was taken back. It is an English Standard Version, which is a relatively new entry (2001) into the world of English Bible Translations. The ESV site, linked above describes their translation philosophy in these terms: we have sought to be “as literal as possible” while maintaining clarity of expression and literary excellence. The more I use the ESV, the more I like it. In fact, I am reading through the Bible devotionally this year from the ESV. If you do not have an ESV, you also can read it online at the ESV site. It was earlier this year, when reading in Genesis from the ESV, that I noted a play on two Hebrew words in the same verse that I had never noted by reading any other English Bible. I checked the Hebrew text, a sure enough, two consecutive words, built off the same root. The ESV is the only English Bible I have ever read of that text that allowed me to make the mental connection between the words in the original. Try it, you just might like it!

Life--Imagine the Potential

2009-01-22T15:30:00.002-06:00

President Obama has championed a woman's right to choose for years. Since taking office, he has been loading his agenda onto the office White House website, on which he reaffirms his commitment:

Under the heading of Reproductive Choice, the website says:

Supports a Woman's Right to Choose: President Obama understands that abortion is a divisive issue, and respects those who disagree with him. However, he has been a consistent champion of reproductive choice and will make preserving women's rights under Roe v. Wade a priority in his Adminstration. He opposes any constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court's decision in that case.

CatholicVote.com has produced a stunning video called Life--Imagine the Potential. What do you think of it?

Just for Play on Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T06:53:00.002-06:00

Today, January 20, 2009, with incredible fanfare, the 44th President of the United States, Barack H. Obama, will assume office. After my second-year Greek class takes their weekly vocabulary quiz, they will translate this:

λέγει αὐτῷ ἡ γυνή· οἶδα ὅτι Μεσσίας ἔρχεται καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ ἡμῖν ἅπαντα. ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ ὁ τοῦ Μαθθαῖου εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτήν· Ἰδοὺ σήμερον Μεσσίας ἔρχεται μετὰ τῶν νεφελῶν, καὶ ὄψεται αὐτὸν πᾶς ὀφθαλμὸς, καὶ ἄρξονται κράζειν· χαῖρε, βασιλεῦ Ὠβάμα.

A Cardinal for whom I can Cheer

2009-01-19T05:18:00.004-06:00

Kurt Warner is the man! His story was a Cinderella-story turned Phoenix-story, recounting his rise from obscurity to prominence, his fall back to obscurity, and finally, to the rebirth of his career with the Arizona Cardinals.

He played college football at the University of Northern Iowa (not really a powerhouse), was sent packing by the Green Bay Packers, and ended up throwing paper towels down the aisles of a Hy-Vee grocery store.

From there he had a shot at the Arena Football league, where he starred, which catapulted him to another shot at the NFL, making the St. Louis Rams team. When he got his shot, he made good on it, leading the Greatest Show on Turf to the Super Bowl championship. It was a feel-good story. The fact that he openly professed allegiance to Jesus Christ made it even better.

Now he's been around a long time, and is 37 years old. When the Arizona Cardinals drafted hot prospect Matt Leinart in 2006, the talking heads thought Warner's career was ebbing. In the end, it was Warner, not Leinart, who kept the QB job. Now Warner and the Arizona Cardinals are going back to the Super Bowl. Go Cardinals!

Harry S Truman and the "Get a Dog" Quote

2009-01-17T08:11:00.002-06:00

An interesting quote is frequently attributed to one of our former presidents, Missourian Harry S Truman (I understand that the initial S is not supposed to have a period after it): "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." I don't know if Truman said it or not. According Ralph Keyes' book Quote Verifier (2006), there is no hard evidence that Truman ever said it. Lots of famous quotation sites will have that quote attributed to him, for example, here, or here, or here.

Regardless, it seems that most recent presidents get a dog. I just recently received an e-mail with a link to the upcoming issue of World magazine. In it I found this Gary Varvel cartoon (Indianapolis Star) of President-elect Obama's dog:

44 Presidents Morphed to Music

2009-01-14T14:24:00.001-06:00

Sports Potpourri

2009-01-04T05:45:00.006-06:00

OCC College Football Pool. The faculty and staff at OCC participate in a college football pool each year, which is run by Terry Bowland. I usually try to make my picks, and come out a respectable distance from the leaders. Going into the bowl games (can you believe how many bowl games there are?), I was right smack-dab in the middle of the upper division. However, at this writing, I am under .500 on my bowl picks. I don't remember ever doing this poorly.

Chicago Cubs. The team that plays at the corner of Clark and Addison in Chicago (Wrigley Field) has a habit of breaking my heart. 2008 was worse than normal. I really believed the Cubs would make it to the World Series. When they were swept by the Dodgers in the playoffs, I even mentioned giving up on them. In my heart of hearts, I knew that come 2009, the Cub juices would be flowing. Right now I'm thinking (a la Ernie Banks) that The Cubbies will Shine in 2009!! Aaron Worshek, the student assistant in the OCC Learning Center(also a Cub fan), mentioned to me almost a year ago that his father travels frequently to Seoul, Korea, where Cub jerseys are sold considerably cheaper than in the U.S., and offered to try to get me some jerseys on a trip. I told Aaron that I would love to have a chance at getting some jerseys. His dad made a trip in November, and I got jerseys for the family (not for the married kids, sorry) for Christmas. You can see Rose, Kim and me with our Cubs jerseys on. Kim and I got 1984 Cooperstown Hall of Fame Collection Ryne Sandberg home jerseys (mine is larger than hers), and Rose got a current Alfonso Soriano home jersey. Thanks, Aaron.

Roger Powell Jr. In the past, I have written about Roger Powell Jr., called "The Rev" by his teammates at the University of Illinois. Roger played in the NCAA Championship game in 2004, losing to the University of North Carolina. The following year he played for a CBA team in Rockford, Illinois, winning the CBA Rookie of the Year award, which got him enough notoriety to make the Utah Jazz roster at the start of the next season. He was waived by the Jazz in January 2006, and landed in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he played for the Arkansas Rim-Rockers, leading the NBA Developmental League in scoring. The following year he played professional basketball in the Italian League, in Teramo, Italy. This season, he was on the pre-season roster of the Chicago Bulls, but was released shortly before the regular season started. He has been playing in Israel, with Hapoel Migdal Jerusalem, an Israeli pro team that competes both in an Israeli pro league, and in the European pro league. In the photo you can see the Hebrew letters spelling Migdal, which means tower. Go, Roger! Play well, and may Yeshua Ha Mashiach be seen in you, as you play in the land where he walked.

The Joy of a Laptop Hard Drive that can Breathe

2008-12-30T17:37:00.005-06:00

Kim's laptop has been crawling along, rather than running, which is what one wants his/her computer to do. I fought with it today, and won! It is an old Dell Inspiron, and doesn't use a SATA drive, which limits the size. I was shocked to find out that the drive that came with the machine was only 25GB, and it was full to the gills (pardon the Fishy expression). I found a 60GB drive at a good price, and set out to clone her drive. Dell had two hidden partitions (one in FAT16 and one in FAT32). I had to outsmart the machine to clone those partitions, then expand the primary partition to its max size. It is done, though.

Veni, Vidi, Vici!!!! Below are the images of her old and new c:\ drives, as evidence. Now her computer can breathe. The first image is of the new drive, and the second of the old.

9 Miles from Mexico--or "Four Nations, (Hopefully) Under God"

2008-12-30T06:11:00.005-06:00

I do not share the pessimistic views of some of my brethren about the nation in which I live. My ultimate allegiance is to the kindgom of God, but I am patriotic. You could almost say that I'm proud to be an American (even though I bristle at the ethnocentricity of our use of that term--ask me what I mean sometime if you don't understand). I'm a strong advocate of leaving the words under God (and, to a lesser degree, of the words one nation) in our pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic, for which it stands,
One Nation, Under God, Indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.

While I recognize that there are many things that are "not right" about our nation, it is still a wonderful place to live. If it were not so, nobody would be talking about the issue of illegal immigration. What is the future of our nation? Nobody knows--not even Barack Obama. A Russian professor has been predicting the fall of the United States for years, and has now fixed the date: 2010 (that's only half way through Obama's term). Igor Panarin, a Russian university professor and former KGB analyst, has even created the map. The 48 continental states become four nations, and according to that map, I will live only 9 miles from Mexico (what is now Oklahoma, according to Panarin's projection, will be part of The Texas Republic, which "will be part of Mexico or under Mexican influence"), even without moving. You can read Andrew Osborn's report of this from the Wall Street Journal by clicking here. According to Panarin, I'll be Canadian, but where I currently live is only 9 miles from Mexico!

From One of Our Favorite Places

2008-12-29T07:15:00.003-06:00

David & Rose; Jennie, Rose & Patty (3 sisters)--from a very special place overlooking Table Rock Lake.

For those tempted to put cookies out for Santa . . .

2008-12-23T06:40:00.001-06:00

You never know what might happen when you sleep.

A Pleasant Kind of Quimioterapia

2008-12-21T14:37:00.005-06:00

Maybe you don't recognize the last word of this blog's title. Quimioterapia is the Spanish equivalent of the word chemotherapy. This morning in our Spanish-speaking Sunday School class we were discussing prayer items. A pretty constant prayer request these days is for Rose, and her progression through chemotherapy. She has been skipping Sunday School, as she needs to be careful not to be around people who might be carrying germs. She has been arriving for the worship service (shortly after it begins), sneaking in to get the benefit of being there, and then sneaks out shortly before it is officially dismissed (not during the prayer time, Randy :-),).

For several weeks, we have been looking forward to the arrival of our daughter, Kimberly, who is a school teacher in Mexico. She arrived Wednesday, so it turned into a "praise item". Kim is our youngest, and so for a long time, she has been known as Kimmy, or, if we are speaking Spanish, we might refer to her as "la Kimmy." (I am aware that it is not correct to use the definite article before a person's name, but it very common in Chilean Spanish, and so we speak that way). If you pronounce her name in Spanish--Kimmy, it is pronounced in exactly the same way as the prefix to the word quimioterapia. So I was expressing thanksgiving to God for the safe arrival of "La Kimmy." My co-teacher, Phil Casey (Felipe) in Spanish, who enjoys words just about as much as I, stated, "That's a good kind of Kimmy-o-terapia, isn't it?"

I couldn't agree more. We have laughed a lot at her stories. It has been good to have her "at home." So Rose now has two types of quimioterapia:

the kind that pumps poison through her system, designed to kill any lingering cancer cells, and
The presence of our daughter Kimmy, which is the kind of therapy that is pleasant indeed.

Scripture says that children are a heritage and reward from the LORD (Psalms 127:3). Thanks be to God!

Huckabee on Ashlee Simpson (really on a more serious issue)

2008-12-16T02:04:00.004-06:00

I'm reading Mike Huckabee's book, Do the Right Thing. I'm not really certain that I had ever heard of Huckabee before the Republican Presidential Primaries. He got my attention when I heard that he was a Baptist minister. He got my attention when I heard that he had lost 100 pounds. He further got my attention when I heard him speak in the debates.I liked him, and thought he made sense as a candidate. I'm intrigued by the concept of the Fair Tax.

At any rate, I'm reading his book, which chronicles his experience as a presidential candidate who was virtually written off as not having a chance. I have not watched his new show (called Huckabee) on Fox News Channel, but I will probably watch it when I get a chance.

We spent about four and a half hours in chemo yesterday. While they were pumping poison into my wife's body, I was reading Huckabee's book. Chapter 8 is titled Let Them Buy Stocks!, and illustrates how the high-dollar candidates, particularly Mitt Romney, are out of touch with the common person's plight. During those early debates, Romney's arrogance bothered me. I don't really think it was an anti-Mormon bias on my part. His stance on the immigration issue bothered me. It might be that I have too many friends who live in fear of what might happen to them. Anyway, when I read these two paragraphs in Huckabee's book (p. 123), it caused me to laugh out loud:

Not long after, during a debate in Iowa, Mitt Romney was asked what we could do to help the economy. I stood there in stunned silence when he went into his well-prepared, programmed answer about how we needed to invest in more high-yield stocks. High-yield stocks! I wanted to scream out, "Let them buy stocks!" but knew that my wife and team and the rest of the country would probably think it a bit over the top. To this day, I regret not shouting because that moment was perhaps the single most revealing of what was wrong with our party. We had people leading us who knew the country club but not Sam's Club. They knew their golf score from last week but not the price of eggs or milk. The only thing worse than not caring about people who were struggling and barely staying above water was not even knowing they were there!

Interestingly, while I was bashed for saying it in October, by January the other candidates were lip-synching virtually the same message. It was almost as if they had been to the Ashlee Simpson School of Voice.

The reference to Ashlee Simpson was what made me laugh out loud. At least one of my readers will not know who Ashlee Simpson is. She is the younger sister of Jessica Simpson (OK, if you want to know, use Google), who was caught lip-synching on Saturday Night Live back in 2004.

Thankful for Cheap Gas--And Inaccurate Information on the Web

2008-12-10T08:45:00.004-06:00

First off, the gasoline prices have kept going down? Is that because Blagojevich was arrested? Over the weekend, Rose prompted me to fill the tank, because 153.9 seemed like such a good price. Knowing when to buy and when to wait is a bit of a funny game, but I decided to wait. This morning I filled up at 144.9. Yoohoo! It doesn't seem that long ago that we were paying close to $4.00 per gallon. My 401(k) has lost so much value I should rename it as my 201(k), but gasoline is cheaper. For that, and for so many other things, I am thankful.

I'm also thankful that not all of the information available on the internet is accurate. I'm thinking of some specific health information having to do with chemotherapy. Rose was zapped full of poison (taxotere and cytoxsan to be specific) on November 24. Since she had contracted a little bit of a cold the week before, we were wondering if they might postpone her chemo treatment, but all of the important levels were within range, so she got the treatment. We went back in for blood work on Dec. 2, and again on Dec. 8. Her white blood cell count was low on both of those dates, making her susceptible to any infection that might come her way. We have been pretty careful about trying to shelter her from anyone who is sick. The lab reports come back with 20 different reports, most of which are unintelligible to uninformed people. So . . . what does an inquisitive sort of a person like me do? I go online to try to figure out what all this stuff means.

Of all the stuff that comes back (20 categories), some are more important than others:
WBC (White Blood Cells)
Platelet Count
Absolute Grans
are among some of the more important categories.

The White Blood Cells are the cells that fight against infections, so a person with a low count of white cells is particularly vulnerable. On November 24, her WBC was within normal range: 5.5 out of a normal range of 4.4-11.3 K/uL. The value on Dec. 2 was 2.4 (below normal range); the value on Dec. 8 was 3.5 (still below normal range, but climbing).

The Platelet Count has not been a problem. On her first day of chemo treatment, we were told that they want the platelet count to be above 100 to receive the treatment. The normal range is 160-400 K/uL. On Nov. 24 her platelet count was 321. The platelet counts on Dec. 2 and Dec. 8 were 392 and 538, respectively.

The takes us to the strange category of Absolute Grans. The real term for this category is Absolute Granulocytes. Sometimes this is reported as ANC or AGC. Granulocytes are a special category of white blood cells. The Absolute Grans is a very important report. Though the normal range is 2.00-6.90 K/uL, we were told on the day of her first chemo treatment that a person has to be above 1.5 to be infused. On Nov. 24, her level was 2.15 (within normal range). This category has been one of the lowest values on her lab reports. On Dec. 2 it was 0.284, and on Dec. 8 it had actually descended to 0.271! There are other categories where her levels had risen considerably, so when they looked at the report, their explanation was that her body is working very hard to get better.

Rose has actually felt much better than her lab reports might indicate. She has been working just about every day (there are only two other people in her office, and they are pretty well spread out--plus they try to disinfect everything for her). In fact, she has felt incredibly better than what she should feel, based on something I found when I tried to figure out what this Absolute Grans category was all about.

Remember, to be infused, she needs to get to 1.5. She's got a ways to go between now and the next infustion date (next Monday). But what happens to a person with a low Absolute Grans level? Read this, and understand why I am thankful:

In some patients percentages might be misleading so absolute values of the types of WBC , i.e., the number of white blood cells multiplied by the percentage seen are valuable in diagnosing illness or following therapy. Persons receiving chemotherapy often have decreased WBC. If a patient’s absolute granulocyte count (ANC or AGC) goes below 2,000 cells, then physicians become concerned about the possibility of infection. A number below 1,000 is cause for greater concern and less than 500 usually lands the patient in the hospital.
Source: Hematology Tests from the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science.

Rose has been considerably below that level of 500 (0.500 on the scale used in our reports), which usually lands the patient in the hospital--for the past two weeks, during which the only day she did not go to work was on Thanksgiving Day itself!

That makes me very thankful! We don't really know what the near future holds. We are in uncharted (for us) waters. I'm reminded of the words from an old gospel song, written by Ira Stanphill:

Many things about tomorrow,
I don't seem to understand,
But I know Who holds the future,
And I know Who holds my hand.

Thanks be to God!

Hair Today--Gone Today--Make that "Almost Gone"

2008-12-09T10:52:00.003-06:00

Right now, I have conflicted emotions flowing through me. I've always had a full head of hair, and have never been tempted to shave my head, as some of my colleagues more prone to baldness have done. I do try to keep my hair short, as it is so much easier to take care of that way. My choice to keep my hair short is both gender-and-culturally (and sub-culturally, if you please) informed. The Apostle Paul spoke of lots of hair on a man being disgraceful, and a full head of hair on a woman being glorious (1 Cor. 11:14-15).

The most serious of Rose's surgeries took place on October 1. One week later (October 9), when she was still in recovery-from-surgery mode, ABC Television had a special Nightline episode, which featured Good Morning America host, Robin Roberts, who was chronicling her journey as a breast cancer survivor. I set the DVR to record the program. Rose was already in bed, but I was still up, so I started watching the program live. About 10 minutes into the program, they showed Robin's decision to shave her head. I started sobbing! Rose woke up about then (I wasn't sobbing loudly), and walked out of the bedroom. She knew that Nightline was featuring a breast cancer story that night, so I went back to the start of the program, and we started watching it together. Together we watched; together we sobbed.

Yesterday, Rose started noticing hair easily coming off her head. This morning, it was more pronounced. In fact, she stopped blow drying her hair because of it. She had previously set a date to meet a friend who was a former hair dresser this morning at 10:00 at a local wig shop. We had been in there before, and knew that they gave a 50% discount to breast cancer patients who had lost their hair because of chemotherapy. Rose just called me. The hair loss was sufficient to get the 50% discount, so they picked out a nice wig. The decision was made, however, to go straight to Crystal's house, to buzz off the rest of her remaining hair. As a man, I don't know that it is possible for me to understand what that means to her. I only hope that I can adequately ease her passage through chemo-induced baldness.

I will probably meet her for a bite to eat before she goes to work at noon. She'll have the new wig on her head--her new look. This was something that we knew would happen, but kind of hoped would not. As we face each day, God's grace to us is present, and we are thankful. We appreciate your prayers on our behalf. May God bless you all!

Our church has just finished an excellent 3-week study on the book of Job. You can listen to some excellent messages (especially the last two) on the church website by clicking here. From the front page, click on the link to "listen to sermons."

Addendum:

I met Rose for lunch, expecting to see her new wig on her head. She didn't cut off all her hair, but it is very short. It should dry naturally, within using a blow dryer. We'll see how long it lasts. I brought the wig home.
(Note added at 1:28 PM, Central Standard Time)

A Distinction between Modernism and Postmodernism

2008-11-18T08:51:00.004-06:00

Douglas Wilson made and interesting observation over at Blog and Mablog about the difference between modernism and postmodernism:

Modernism pretends to have the truth, but without humility. Postmodernism pretends to have the humility, but without the truth. Modernism was a bad dream. Postmodernism is the cold sweats right before you wake up. Wake up O sleeper, and Christ will shine upon you.

The reference is taken from Ephesians 5:14.

A John Piper Commentary

2008-11-14T08:48:00.002-06:00

I just finished reading a column for World Magazine (dated tomorrow) by John Piper. You can read it here. Some of my missions students will certainly recognize his name. He is reflecting on the current political scene, beginning from a text that seems almost bizarrely contradictory: 1 Cor. 7:29-31.

He uses the terms: marry, cry, rejoice, and buy. You will find them all in the text. The rest of the essay reflects on each one of those concepts, followed by a reflection: "So it is with politics."

The last several sentences are worth quoting directly, though you should read the entire article:

So it is with politics. We deal with the system, the news, the candidates, the issues, the outcomes. But they are not the great thing in our lives. Christ is. And Christ will be ruling over His people with perfect supremacy after every election and after the vanishing of every nation.

So we do not revel or retreat. Our reward is in heaven. Our comforts are great. Our task is clear. Make much of Christ, not Caesar.

Amen!

Thunder and Lightning

2008-11-06T15:57:00.003-06:00

I was awakened early this morning to some pretty noisy storms--thunder and lightning with strong winds. The weather report I heard this morning on the radio made reference to tornadic weather, in November!!!

Sorry, Kim, but this is neither a post about the weather, nor about grammar (no sentence diagrams coming). Unfortunately it is about Biblical Hebrew . . . and about politics.

President-elect Barak Obama was strongly criticized for the radical associations of his earlier life. Was he born in Hawaii? Or was he born in Kenya? What connections does he really have with Raila Odinga, who shares power in Kenya, but allegedly has designs to benefits Muslims (at the expense of Christians). All of this caused some to question how President Obama will deal with the Israel-Arab tensions.

To help him along those lines, Obama has named an Illinois Congressman, Rahm Emanuel, to be his Chief-of-Staff. Emanuel is Jewish, and his father was born in Israel. That should help ease the fears of some who fear that Obama might sell Israel into the hands of Iran.

It is fairly well known that the name Barak in languages having some relation to Arabic means "blessing." Notwithstanding what Obama himself said in his comedy routine at the Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner, that Barak in Swahili means "that one", the name Barak in Hebrew means lightning.

The Hebrew word ra'am, similar to Rahm, means thunder.

So, what we will have in the White House next January will be . . . thunder and lightning! To see those two Hebrew words together in one verse, one must look to Psalm 77:18. Below, you can see the text, with annotations from the ESV Reverse Interlinear, and lexical entries from the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament.

For Kim, who is Working in Mexico

2008-11-05T15:03:00.002-06:00

Rarely will my daughter, Kim, comment on this blog site. She did today, so I decided to honor her: Now the election is over.

I'm Glad the Election is Over!

2008-11-05T07:38:00.003-06:00

Elections are very stressful, and a lot of unkind things are said. What does the United States need to do now?

The Apostle Paul gave a very strong recommendation (is that the same thing as a command?) that seems especially fitting at this time: 1 Timothy 2:1-2.

Let's pray for our President-elect Obama!

Affleck as Olbermann--Hilarious!

2008-11-02T07:03:00.003-06:00

Last night, Ben Affleck hosted Saturday Night Live. Saturday Night Live has had a resurgence during this election season. In fact, Monday night (on the real eve of the election), all of their spoofs will be aired again in a two-hour special.

I first remember watching Keith Olbermann on ESPN. I don't usually watch MSNBC, so I am not a regular watcher of his Countdown program. I think that Olbermann would rather be seen as cerebral, rather than comedic, but Affleck's spoof was hilarious. Here it is, taken from the NBC Saturday Night Live website:

From a "Brother" Who Prefers Trickle Down Economics to Obama's Trickle Up Plan

2008-11-01T19:37:00.003-06:00

This video is kind of long (between 8-9 minutes), and comes at you pretty fast, but he says some things that make sense. The video is titled "1 More B4 11 04".

Fair and Balanced? Not!!!!

2008-10-30T13:58:00.002-06:00

Glenn Beck described Chris Matthews' reflections about Obama's Infomercial, aired on several networks last night like this:

Chris Matthews analysis of Obama's 30 minute infomercial looked more like a post orgasmic rant than a professional political commentary---talking about the 'romance' of it all. Why would Obama bother spending any money running ads on MSNBC? Obama's own commercial was less glowing than MSNBC's regular programming.

This video is several minutes long, but is revealing. What do you think?

Its name is Serratia Marcescens

2008-10-30T06:31:00.002-06:00

Serratia Marcescens is the name of the bacterium was growing in her system, before her last surgery. Though it has been noted in some surgical studies, the incidence in very low in breast cancer patients.

The good news is that with the surgery, the infection was largely removed, and she began to feel better immediately. She is taking levaquin, a proper treatment for serratia marcescens.

We will go to chemotherapy education/orientation on Tuesday, and begin the first of four cycles (every three weeks) of chemotherapy on Wednesday (Nov. 5).

We appreciate your continued prayers.

Obama in 2001 (NPR Interview on WBEZ in Chicago) on Redistribution of Wealth

2008-10-27T06:09:00.003-06:00

In Joe Biden's fateful interview in Orlando, during the question about redistribution of wealth, he laughed and scoffed, incorrectly stating that George W. was the only one redistributing the wealth. You can watch the interview by clicking here.

Isn't Senator Obama's question a potentially crushing political blunder?

Biden responded:

Absolutely not! What . . . the only person who spread the wealth around has been has been (sic) George Bush and John McCain's tax policy. They have devastated the middle class. We for the first time since the late '20s. 1% of the American people make over 21% of all the income in America. That wasn't the way before George Bush became president.

I feel like I'm the Aflac goose listening to Yogi Berra: Huh?

On a serious note, however, about Obama's candid views on the subject, check out this video with audio from National Public Radio (WBEZ in Chicago), from 2001:

Orson Scott Card (Democrat) Placing Blame for the Financial Crisis

2008-10-22T13:12:00.003-06:00

Orson Scott Card is a Mormon and a Democrat (we'll forgive him on both counts), as well as an accomplished author in a number of fields. Earlier this month he wrote an essay about the current economic crisis facing the United States (& the world). I heard part of it today. When I arrived back home, I looked for the original essay (October 5, 2008), and decided to place a link so that you could read it. Notice the names of those he blames for the current crisis.

Groothuis on Obama's Invitation to Osama

2008-10-20T14:22:00.002-06:00

Is Joe Biden trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? In view of his prediction that Obama would be tested by the world within the first months of his presidency, Douglas Groothuis has written a blog entry with which I agree. It is worth reading.

Obama, Harry Reid, and Joe the Plumber

2008-10-20T12:57:00.002-06:00

What exactly does Barack really believe? Why won't he practice what he preaches?

All of us have seen the video clips of Obama's interaction with Joe the Plumber. It was an edited clip. When Obama responded to his question about raising his taxes, this is the part that circulates in the film clips:

It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance at success, too. . . . And I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody.

If you want the greater context, rather than just the edited soundbite, you can find the transcript of the entire exchange here.

Yesterday, in The Caucus which is a blog connected to the New York Times, Kate Phillips related that the Obama campaign had raised a record $150 million dollars in September, shattering their record fund-raising in August. Much of that has been raised on the internet among young people, a demographic the Obama campaign has sought out frequently (based on the number of visits to our home and phone calls asking for our daughter who is teaching school in Mexico).

What does this have to do with Harry Reid or Joe the Plumber? Well, you see, in September, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked for Obama to "spread the wealth around", in order to help maintain and hopefully grow the majority in the senate, by giving aid to Democrats running in tight races. Even though Obama had $77 million sitting in the bank, he turned Harry Reid down. Mr. Obama, do you really believe that it is good for everybody when you spread the wealth around?

People on the right have made a big deal out of Obama's slip-up, about spreading the wealth around. It sounds like a socialist idea to me: "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." [Karl Marx, Critique of the Gatha Programme, (though not original with him)].

I am not really afraid of a socialist president. During the last years of the Pinochet regime in Chile, I grew increasingly tired of the right-wing dictator. Ask my kids if that is true. We lived on a steady diet of "Cooperativa" on the car radio. (Radio Cooperativa was perhaps the most anti-Pinochet radio station available, and my constant source of information for what was truly happening.) Pinochet's official party line in the free elections held in 1989 promised chaos if his official candidate were not elected. The opposition party won that election, and 3 more since then, and the Chilean economy has pretty much stayed the same course. The first two presidents in the post-Pinochet era were centrists, who were elected with the aid of the left. The last two presidents (including current President, Michelle Bachelet) are openly socialist in their outlook. They have not been able to implement their socialist agenda, because of the balance of power that exists. If Obama is elected, should he really want to implement a socialist agenda, he will likely fail.

My spiritual brothers who locate themselves further to my left are drawn to passages like Acts 2:44-45, and Acts 4:32-35. Yes, we read of such a utopian scheme on the pages of the New Testament! Such a utopian society, however, can only exist on this side of our ultimate redemption, within the context of a community of faith. It is a pipedream to think about implementing something like that within a political nation, particularly one as large and as diverse as ours, without coercion. Am I in favor of social justice? Yes, I am. Am I against the abusive oppression of the poor by the rich? Yes, I am. Historically, it is the church that has taken the lead in such works of social justice. We (the church) abdicated our responsibility in that social arena, preferring that the government take over. I am pleased to be a part of a congregation of faith that gets involved with people on the underside of society. The neighborhood around 14th Street and Pearl is called God's Resort, and the love of Jesus Christ has made a difference there.

I just am not convinced that those on the left really have an option that works. And I don't think that Obama can walk the walk as well as he talks the talk. If he could, he would have shared part of his wealth for some of his needy Democrats running for the U.S. Senate.

Sermon Series Titled "Lost"

2008-10-19T06:05:00.004-06:00

The three-week sermon series is titled Lost, but it has nothing to do with a jet from a fictitious air line that crashed somewhere between Australia and Los Angeles, as depicted on the very strange television series on Fox. No, this series has to do with how the typical American family is lost financially. Last year, my wife and I went through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and found ourselves financially. Our church will begin using some Dave Ramsey resources congregation-wide beginning in January. I'm not sure how that will work out. At any rate, the sermon series title (Lost) really does describe the financial situation of too many families.

One thing the congregation was asked to do this week, was to read through the book of Proverbs to identify verses that had to do with money, wealth, riches, poverty, etc. Since I teach a Bible School class in Spanish, I decided to do this exercise in Spanish, using the Nueva Biblia de los Hispanos, which is kind of a revision of the Spanish language equivalent of the New American Standard Bible, in Latin American Spanish.

I read through Proverbs in my Logos Bible Software version, and highlighted verses that dealt with the subject. I might have missed some, and some of the verses highlighted may not have as much to do with the subject as others, but I can go back through the text, and see the verses I selected because they are highlighted.

This blog uses RefTagger, so I can list the verses in this blog entry, and the content of each reference will pop-up on the screen when the mouse hovers over the reference. I probably won't keep the highlighting in the text of my Spanish Bible forever, but by listing the references here, I can record them for future use, and use the pop-up of the text to re-read the selected verses. I can also demonstrate how useful RefTagger is. So here goes:

Prov 1:13-14,19,33
Prov 2:4
Prov 3:9-10,14-16,18,25,27-28
Prov 4:7
Prov 5:10-14
Prov 6:1-6,26,30-31,35
Prov 7:23
Prov 8:10-11,18-19,21
Prov 10:2-4,6,20,22
Prov 11:1,4,15,18,25,28,31
Prov 12:11-12
Prov 13:2-4,7-8,11,18,21-23,25
Prov 14:4,6,11,20-21,23-24
Prov 15:6,16-17,27
Prov 16:8,16,19
Prov 17:1,5,8
Prov 18:23
Prov 19:1,4,6-7,14-15,17,22
Prov 20:10,13,15-17,23
Prov 21:20,25-27
Prov 22:1-2,4,7,9,16,26-27
Prov 23:4-5,20-21
Prov 25:21
Prov 27:23-27
Prov 28:3,6,8,11,13,19-20,22,27
Prov 30:8-9
Prov 31:11,16,18

My colleague, Mark Moore, emphasizes the political nature of what Christ came to do. Maybe he is correct. With the international financial markets in free-fall over the last several weeks, the description of Lost seems to fit the world's financial situation. The two principal candidates for president of the United States have widely different views on how to fix the problem. Frankly, I have serious reservations about both of them. I'm glad that I can trust God regardless of the outcome. My hope is built on nothing less . . .

A Reasoned Analysis of Obama's Distortion of His Record on Abortion

2008-10-17T04:40:00.002-06:00

Obama is leading the polls. He is a smooth politician. He is a likable guy. I saw his speech last night (and part of McCain's) at the Alfred E. Smith Foundation Dinner. Both he and McCain gave light-hearted speeches at the event. But when it comes to giving details about his real views on controversial subjects like abortion, Obama hides, twists, and distorts his real views. His stonewalling efforts to block the Born Alive Infant Protection Acts when he was an Illinois State Senator make him the most pro-abortion politician in the United States of America. It was amazing that the issue was kept out of the presidential debates until the third of three (a big thank you to debate moderator, Bob Schieffer of CBS, for including at least one question about this issue). I am aware of a growing number of intelligent, young, Christ-professing supporters of Obama. I have struggled to understand why some of them are walking the streets for Obama. I think I understand now--they have a different litmus test for this election. Mine is the abortion issue. Theirs is pacifism. If a commitment to pacifism is the sunnum bonum, then by all means Obama is the better choice of the two. I am puzzled, however, at just what it is that makes some pacifists so militant about their pacifism. As I write that last phrase, I have a specific militant pacifist in mind, who argues incessantly (so much so that one of my esteemed colleagues has entered the "dome of silence" on any political issue), that anybody that would or could possibly support Obama's rival in this election is a "nutjob".

Granted, there are some nutjobs out there--on both sides of this election! Not everyone taking the abortion issue as the litmus test for this election is a nutjob. Obama distorted his position on the issue when it came up in the third debate. Here is a reasoned analysis, by National Right to Life. A reasonable person should give it a read.

Roger Powell Jr. on the Chicago Bulls

2008-10-15T07:12:00.003-06:00

Roger Powell Jr. is currently on the pre-season roster of the Chicago Bulls. He may be a long-shot to make the season roster, but I'm pulling for him. The Bulls are currently 0-3 in pre-season games. When trying to see if he played in last night's exhibition loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves (I couldn't find a box score), I was able to find this video from MouthpieceSports.com:

Obama Has Extreme Pro-Abortion Views

2008-10-15T04:45:00.002-06:00

I believe the words of the title, but I did not make them up. They come from a piece dated yesterday that was published by The Witherspoon Institute in their PUBLIC DISCOURSE on Ethics, Law, and the Common Good. It is by distinguished professor Dr. Robert George, who begins with this snippet:

Sen. Barack Obama's views on life issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research mark him as not merely a pro-choice politician, but rather as the most extreme pro-abortion candidate to have ever run on a major party ticket.

You can read the article for yourself by clicking here.

I think all politicians lie to us, but does Obama lie MORE THAN THE AVERAGE POLITICIAN?

2008-10-14T15:48:00.003-06:00

How much does Barack Obama's worldview coincide with those radicals that the McCain camp is talking about? I don't think that Obama is necessarily for bombing federal buildings (like Ayers and his cohorts did in 1970), but there is mounting evidence that he is a lot more radical than he has been letting on.

(cartoon by Michael Ramirez)

Stanley Kurtz of the National Review has spent some extensive time in some Chicago libraries. He has written somewhat extensively about the ties Obama had to ACORN and Rezko. In a piece dated today, he explores the radical philosophy present in the CAC during Obama's days working to improve education in Chicago. It's an interesting read. You can read it for yourself. I wonder if any of this will come up in the debate tomorrow night.

Informed Voters--Not!!!!

2008-10-14T11:59:00.003-06:00

I heard this audio on the radio last night, as I was returning from a meeting at church. Though I would never advocate listing to Howard Sterns' radio show, this segment is priceless. He sent reporters into the streets of Harlem to ask if people supported Obama or McCain. Listen to the completely uninformed supporters of Obama:

What Tom Brokaw Left Out of the Debate

2008-10-10T09:24:00.004-06:00

I was disappointed with the questions from the Presidential Debate in Nashville. Though I understand the difficulties of a single-issue litmus test, the one issue that underscores the huge difference between the two candidates (and their parties), was completely left out of the debate.

I have written before about Jill Stanek, and her interaction with Senator Obama, dating way back to when he was a state senator from Illinois. This video shows just how radical Senator Obama really is:

Will John McCain be the Next Vice President?

2008-10-09T11:01:00.001-06:00

Here is an incredible gaffe, committed at a Joe Biden rally:

Busted

2008-10-09T06:16:00.003-06:00

I usually am able to rein in my emotions pretty well. I lost it last night, though, and was busted!

Earlier in the day I got an e-mail from from my sister, Jacque, who told me that Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, a breast cancer survivor, would tell the story of her battle with the cancer on ABC's Nightline last night. Though usually I do not watch Nightline (maybe that's why I never see bright lights when I'm in an elevator), I programmed the DVR to record it. I had mentioned it to Rose, but since it was on so late, she planned to watch it later. She went to bed earlier, but since I was still up, I decided to watch it live.

About ten or twelve minutes into the program, Roberts was talking about her decision to shave her head during chemotherapy. She was obviously fighting back the tears as her hair was being cut and shaved. When the hair was gone, she looked in the mirror and said, "I feel in control at this very moment. I feel good. I feel strong. I feel strong. I feel strong. I am--feel strong--not gonna' shead a tear." At that moment, she had reined in her emotions, but I lost it. At that moment, Rose came out of the bedroom, and I was busted.

I took the program back to the beginning, and we watched it together. Both of us were sobbing.

Thanks, Jacque!

I'm Glad God is Still on the Throne

2008-10-05T18:09:00.003-06:00

I'm kind of bummed out today, so it's a good thing that God is still on the throne! Don't worry about me. I'm not suicidal or anything. I just wanted things to be different. Let me vent through my keyboard a bit. It might be therapeutic.

Cancer.

It's a terrible disease. And it affects millions. This week, my wife had her second breast cancer surgery in less than a month. She is getting stronger each day, but it's still hard to watch. I've been reading my Breast Cancer Husband book. It is a wealth of information. Each day I hear of more people who have gone through this. Evidently, there was a family history of breast cancer in Rose's family. Just this week we were reminded of Rose's uncle who died in recent years of breast cancer. This morning at church, I spoke with a long-time friend, whose husband had breast cancer. I knew that he had a bout with cancer a few years back, but could not have remembered that it was breast cancer, had I not been reminded. The prognosis for a cancer-free life is generally good when detected early. We'll learn this week about the proper staging, and probably meet with an oncologist the following week. Many people around the world have expressed love for us. We are thankful. Hundreds of people are praying for her. We feel the support. Since returning from the hospital, we have had meals brought in. Our freezer has several meals that we'll get to later. We trust in God, but it's still hard. I had a moment yesterday, shortly before a meal was brought to us, where the tears flowed. Keep us in your prayers. We'll get through this.

Mexico.

Since my last post, we drove our car nearly 4,000 miles, down to Brownsville, TX, and spent time at South Padre Island with our son and his family. From there we entered Mexico, and went across toward the Pacific coast to see Hidalgo del Parral, where our daughter Kim is teaching in a Christian school. She took some time off from her teaching there, and returned home with us, to be present for her mother's second surgery. We are thankful that she could do that. It was difficult for her to wait for news about her mother after the first surgery. Since the second surgery was postponed, she did not have much time afterward to help take care of her mother, before returning to Mexico. Rose got home from the hospital Thursday evening about 8:15 PM. Kim came home a bit earlier, to finish laundering some things and to finish packing for her trip back to Mexico. Our good friends, Ralph and Cindy Shead, picked her up at 4:45 AM for the trip to the Tulsa airport, and on to Mexico (thank you so much!!!). It was difficult for Kim to leave so soon, but she will do well there. We saw her in action on Monday, September 22. She is involved with a great team (3 other U.S. teachers--all graduates of John Brown University). Though she would like to be here, she needs to be there. Pray for her, that she will entrust her mother's care to a klutz like me (for household stuff), and that she will know that she will be all right.

We had quite a few tears (of the three kids, she is the most emotional, I think) Thursday night late. Since the first night at home, Rose didn't sleep all through the night, we were both up to see Kim off for Tulsa/Mexico. There were a few more tears at that time. Both of us went back to bed. Kim called me from the Tulsa airport (and woke me up!) to tell me that she was at her gate, that Ralph had bought her breakfast and had stayed to make certain that she got checked in and through security, and that she was feeling much better. She was no longer crying. What I found out later was that shortly after I talked to her in Tulsa, her older sister, Charissa, talked to her. Rather than talking to her like a man (which she should have done--right! like that's going to happen!), she must have asked her how she was doing (you know, like a woman!), and the floodgates started again. Later that morning, Charissa told me how hard it was on Kim, to which (as a man, I'll have you know) I responded, "She's doing very well. I just talked to her a little after 7 AM." Charissa informed me that she had talked to her a little after I did, and that she had successfully gotten her all worked up (not her exact words, but if you are a man, you might understand my sentiments).

She enjoyed the Passion Conference in Mexico City, which ended last night. She then endured a long bus trip north to Chihuahua (20 hours long). We talked to her just a few minutes ago. She was at home in her apartment, but will resume teaching in the morning. There were 50 people from the church in Parral that attended the Passion conference, so she has already gotten somewhat acclimated to Mexico.

Baseball.

No longer can Cubs fans say, "It's just one bad century." By failing in the playoffs again, the Cubs are doomed to at least one century plus before repeating with a World Series title. Of all the years that I have been watching the Cubs, this was the best team. I'm not sure what happened in the playoffs, but all of a sudden what was arguably the best team in the National League started playing baseball like they were afraid. They were the same players, but they were not playing like they played the regular season. Joe Torre got the Los Angeles Dodgers to play great baseball. They swept the Cubs in 3 games, and were definitely were the best team in that series.

One of the most painful things about the series, however, was listening to the TBS team of broadcasters, Dick Stockton, Ron Darling and Tony Gwynn. Darling was not a bad pitcher in his day, and Gwynn was a great hitter, but in the broadcast booth, they were terrible. The Wikipedia article about Stockton has been edited in the past 24 hours. I checked it early this morning, wondering just how old he was, since he was sooooooo bad. It had a reference to the fact that his performance in the broadcast booth had suffered in recent years, specifically citing many errors he made in the Cubs-Dodgers series. Darling was also bad. When the Dodgers had runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs, Darling stated how Cubs pitcher Rich Harden really needed a double-play ball. I wondered if the Cubs pulled off a double play if the Dodgers would only get 2 outs in the next inning. They were just bad.

It is of little solace that the best team in the American League this season, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (that really is the name of the team), are in danger of being swept by the Boston Red Sox. As I write these lines, the game is currently in the 11th inning, and the Angels are threatening to score.

I have taken the Cubs off of the home page on my cell phone, and the song "Go, Cubs, Go!" is no longer my ring tone. Effectively, the baseball season has ended.

US Fiscal Crisis in an Election Year.

The financial crisis in the U.S. appears to be real, but as a taxpaying citizen, I am angered that the government is so free with my money. One party promises to be in favor of social programs designed to help lower-income people. The other party generally is perceived to advocate a smaller government. The mud slinging has been coming and going. We've got less than a month until the election. My wife is tired of it all. Her idea goes well with Rodney King's: "Why can't we all get along?"

Since this is my personal blog, I have the freedom to write what I want to write. I speak for no one but for myself. I have written previously about Barack Obama's opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. That issue alone tends to send me toward his opponent. The naming of Sarah Palin as his running mate, a person who has walked the pro-life walk, as well as talking the talk encourages me. I was glad that he passed over other potential VP candidates, who may be more open to abortion (like Joe Lieberman). I like Palin, who has weathered the attacks fairly well. She is the most anti-Washington candidate on the tickets (which is a point in her favor). The comment that Jesus Christ was a community organizer while Pontius Pilate was a governor originated from a partisan spirit. Jesus did indeed organize a community of faith, but His job was quite different from that of the current media Messiah, Barack Obama.

My concern on this matter is precisely the work that Obama did as a community organizer, and the tie that it may have to the present economic crisis facing our country. Allegedly, part of Obama's work as a community organizer involved suing banks who did not offer mortgages to lower-income individuals who normally would not qualify. Much has been written about it. Here are some terms that have to do with it:

My brother-in-law sent an e-mail today to my wife with a Youtube video that addresses some of these issues. It raises questions that I should interest concerned voters. Give it a viewing or two.

Pink Bats and Ribbons

2008-09-04T20:54:00.005-06:00

On May 11 (Mother's Day), the Chicago Cubs moved into first place. They have been there ever since, and currently hold a 5 game lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Central. On Mother's Day MLB stadiums featured a program called Going to Bat Against Breast Cancer, in which players wore patches with pink ribbons on their sleeves, and certain players used pink bats, to raise awareness about breast cancer and funds to find the cure. This program was done in conjunction with the Susan G. Komen For the Cure Foundation. Daryle Ward, the Cubs' left-handed pinch hitter specialist, had not played very well early in the season, used a pink bat to knock in a game-winning 2 RBI double in the bottom of the 8th inning to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks, and move into first place.

Being one of the most avid Chicago Cub fans in Joplin, MO (really there are a lot of us), I was pleased that they moved into first place. The pink ribbon thing was kind of cute. It was for a worthy cause. Today, however, pink ribbons are much more personally significant to me. It was only 8 days ago that my wife Rose and I went to a medical facility, and received the news that she has breast cancer. She had surgery yesterday, and is doing very well.

Yesterday she had a cancerous tumor that measured about 2 cm removed. A Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy was done (click on link to see a video animation about the process). 3 lymph nodes were removed for analysis. Right now, we're thankful that she came through the surgery well. We're thankful for many of our friends all around the world that have been lifting us up in prayer. We're thankful for the cards, flowers, e-mails, and meals that have made their way to us.

We are, however, in kind of a waiting mode. We would like to think that this cancer was discovered early, but we really don't know if that is the case. We will go on Wednesday afternoon to meet with the surgeon, and to receive the results of the lab work. At that point, her cancer will be staged, and subsequent treatment will be outlined. At this point, we believe that we are likely facing both radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Your prayers are coveted for her speedy recovery from the surgery, and for a cancer-free future.

We scheduled the surgery quickly, to give Rose time to recover, before a planned trip to South Texas where our son's family lives, and into Mexico, where our daughter, Kim, is teaching in a private school. I will preach at Central Christian Church in Brownsville, TX (3 services on Sunday morning, two of which are in English, with the other service being in Spanish).

I got a book in the mail today. It was actually recommended by one of my students whose mother has battled breast cancer. Written by journalist Marc Silver, it is titled Breast Cancer Husband: How to Help Your Wife (and Yourself) Through Diagnosis, Treatment, and Beyond. I've begun reading it, and have appreciated some of the advice. I'm not smart enough to do the right thing without adequate coaching.

Thanks once again for your prayers. We'll let you know how we're doing. It's good to know that our hope lies not in physical, social, economic, or political realities (apologies to McCain-Palin and Obama-Biden), but in our great God.

McCain Surprised Them All!

2008-08-31T19:29:00.002-06:00

I've not been one of John McCain's biggest fans, but I loved the way the news pundits were faked out by his naming of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his running mate. Though she was on the "long list", none of the experts that were talking about the VP selection on Thursday got it right. I thought the surprise was great!

Since then, I have heard the Democrat Talking Heads run her down, and the Republican Talking Heads (at least some of them) praise her. On Friday, in Dayton, she was articulate, and came off as genuine. Since my single-issue is the right to life issue, I am so glad that he named a running mate that is not only pro-life, but walks the walk as well as talking the talk.

Since the Friday announcement, I ran across this piece, where Jewish columnist Nat Hentoff recommended Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate, back in May (5-21-08). It is titled John McCain, here is your vice president. Among other things, Hentoff said this:

Because of Palin's reputation as a maverick, and her initial reduction of state spending (including pork-barrel spending), life-affirming Palin connects with voters and has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential running mate for John McCain.

She would be a decided asset--an independent Republican governor, a woman, a defender of life against the creeping culture of death and a fresh face in national politics.

In a more recent article (7-16-08) about Palin's accomplishments, Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard calls her The Most Popular Governor. Obama's supporters call McCain the continuation of George W. Bush. It is interesting that a campaign that promises change gives us a Washington insider as a running mate, whereas the alleged continuation of the status quo brings in someone who upset the GOP status quo in Alaska.

I don't know Sarah Palin very well, but based on what I've seen so far, I think it may get interesting. I'm looking forward to see how she responds to Biden in a debate. I hope he's smart enough not to say, "I know Hillary Clinton, and believe me, you are no Hillary Clinton!"

Random and Disconnected: WW, DNC, Beijing, & UNL

2008-08-26T11:45:00.002-06:00

WW: I admit it. I'm fat. I give lip service to dieting. For weeks I have been dieting, without any noticeable gains. I would go "low carb", but that just allowed me to pork up on proteins. I've had it! WW stands for Weight Watchers, and once again I am a member. Today is my 9th day. It is the most sensible approach for me, although I have become some what of a WW Nazi. I was pleased with the results of the first week. Now you know. You can hold me accountable.

DNC: Did you know? Last night the Democratic National Convention began. Michelle Obama was a headliner, and the message was different from her February 18, 2008 statement that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." Last night she made no gaffes.

Did you know? Abortion is a core "moral" value of the DNC. Jesus was not a member of the Republican Party (nor am I), and yet of the two prominent parties on the U.S. political scene, in the years since 1973 (Roe v. Wade), it has been the Democratic Party that has championed the culture of death (they would call it pro-choice). I have written before about Obama's position (tremendously erroneous in my view) on the issue. Something that happened yesterday underscores the DNC commitment to abortion. Nancy Keenan of NARAL Pro-Choice America may not be a huge player at the DNC, but her thinking permeates the party. Did you see what she said in her short speech (taken from the DNC website)?

On behalf of NARAL Pro-Choice America and our one million member activists, I am honored to be at this historic convention where delegates will nominate Senator Barack Obama as the next pro-choice president of the United States.As a former elected official from Montana, I am proud to say that my party—the Democratic Party—is a party of many faiths and backgrounds united behind these core moral values [emphasis added]: we support and defend a woman’s right to choose safe, legal abortion.

One of the incongruities of my life is to observe so many young (college age) students, many of them OCC students and/or graduates who are championing Obama's campaign. I don't understand it.

Beijing and Child Safety: The 2008 Summer Olympics are in the books. I enjoyed what little part of it I watched. Since the days of Nadia Comaneci, my daughters enjoyed gymnastics. I enjoyed watching the women's gymnastics competition. Bob Costas' asides with Bela Karolyi made for fun television. The U.S. took gold and silver in the Women's overall competition: Nastia Liukin with the gold, and Shawn Johnson with silver. Johnson is a 16 year old girl from West Des Moines, IA, so I imagine we'll be seeing more of her in the Olympics. I watched the overall competition, and when I saw Shawn Johnson, I thought, "She is really short!" Next to her, Nastia Liukin looked so tall and slender. I had to look it up. Shawn Johnson is 4'9" short. The taller Liukin is only 5'3", which in a world on normal people makes her short.

Something that I heard on talk radio (as a public service announcement) made me smile, and I think it's a good thing that Johnson is not 4'8 1/2". To paraphrase Maxwell Smart, "She made it by that much!" I believe that law states that children under the age of 9 need to be in a booster seat (buckled in) when traveling in a car, unles they are 4'9" inches tall. The public service announcement I heard on the radio just emphasized the 4'9", much like this video from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association. Now I heard the radio spot shortly after researching Shawn Johnson's height, and I had to chuckle. Could you imagine an Olympic Gold Medalist (she won silver in the overall, but gold in the balance beam) in a booster seat?

UNL: I'm on sabbatical, working on my dissertation. I have spent very little time on campus, which has been nice for a change. Writing these lines has provided some relief from that arduous labor. Once this is posted, it's back to the grind!

4 Years Ago in Athens

2008-08-16T15:46:00.003-06:00

It seems hard to believe that it's been four years, but the Olympics only come every four years, so I remember this Saturday (four years ago). I was to attend a wedding of some OCC students at Fir Road Christian Church in Carl Junction, which is easily 20-25 minute drive from our house.

I refused to leave home at the time required to arrive at the wedding on time. Why? Because the Summer Olympic Games from Athens was on TV, and Chile was playing in the Men's Doubles Match for the Gold Medal. Chile had never ever won an Olympic gold medal before, and here they were, playing for the gold. I was riveted. I knew that I needed to leave for Fir Road, but I couldn't. Now, four years later, I would just let the DVR handle it, and I would watch it when I got home. But no, I had to stay!

The fact that the groom was Mexican, and I doubted that the wedding really would start on time was a mitigating factor. We did not leave home unti l Chile had won the gold, and we arrived at the church before the wedding started, so all was well in the world. Actually, in Athens, Chile won 2 gold medals, as Nicolás Massú, one of the members of the Chilean doubles team, also won a gold medal in Men's Singles.

Why is this significant? Because now, 4 years later, Massúʼs doubles partner from Athens, Fernando González, is getting ready to play for the Men's Singles gold medal. For those who might be interested, it should be on around 3 AM tomorrow morning. The tennis events are on the USA Network, not the normal NBC channels. At that hour, I will neither be late for a wedding, nor will I be awake. I do have the DVR set to record the Olympics happenings, after which time I can watch to see if González can repeat. He will be playing against Spain's Rafael Nadal. In the semi-final, González eliminated James Blake (USA). There was a missed call that went in González' favor. Blake complained that he should have 'fessed up, and surrendered the point. He didn't, went on to win the match, and is playing for gold. Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le. ¡Viva Chile!

Kimberly's Farewell Dinner--Tulsa, August 2

2008-08-11T09:10:00.002-06:00

We went to Tulsa on Saturday, August 2, to see Kimberly off to Mexico. Rose, I and Kim went earlier, and checked into the motel that Steve & Charissa booked. We went to P. F. Chang's at Utica Square in Tulsa. The food was delicious, as was the company. Kim's been in Mexico for a week now. I just got an e-mail with photos from that evening. Here is one that the waiter at P. F. Chang's took:

2 Daughters--Each a Blessing

2008-08-08T05:48:00.008-06:00

Today is an historic date: 8-8-08. How often do you see something like that? This morning I will perform a simple wedding ceremony, for one of Rose's co-workers. This evening I will attend a wedding of the daughter of one of my co-workers. Ten years ago (on 8-8-98, which is also a pretty cool combination of numbers), our older daughter got married. That means today is her 10th wedding anniversary. I can still bring back waves of emotion when I hear the Butterly Kisses song. Happy Anniversary, Steve & Charissa!

My second daughter, Kim, is in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Μéxico. Αfter a very long trip, partially by air, and partially by land (from El Paso, TX to Parral), she has spent this week in what will be her home for the next year. Her emotions have pretty much been all over the board, ranging from What have I gotten myself into? to I think I can do this! (Photo of the girls taken with my cell phone camera at P. F. Chang's in Tulsa, on August 2)

Modern communications are a wonderful thing. It is so much easier to stay in communication today than when Rose and I (at a younger age than what Kim now is) went overseas for the first time [wise older readers are allowed to insert their favorite "back in my day story"]. E-mail did not exist back then. Air mail communication sometimes took two weeks to arrive. Cell phones may have existed, but were basically confined to Maxwell Smart's shoes. Today there are lots of options.

Skype is a wonderful thing. Last night we had a video phone call (via Skype, computer to computer) with Kim in Mexico. We talked to her, and saw her, sitting in front of her computer, for over an hour! That was pretty cool. Earlier in the evening, she had talked in the same way with her sister for about 50 minutes. During our conversation, I was also chatting (text) with her sister. Total cost for the conversation? How about FREE? Kim actually bought some Skype credit, and initiated the phone call, from her computer to our telephone (at a rate of about 2 cents/minute). We hung up, telling her that I would launch Skype so that we could talk computer-to-computer, but our DSL service hiccuped at that time, and we had to restart the modem a couple times before DSL service was re-established.

Kim has a pre-paid Mexican cell phone, but it is quite a bit more expensive to call Mexican cell phones, than Mexican land lines. It is easy to find long distance service to a Mexican land line for about 2 cents/minute, but calls to a Mexican cell phone average over 33 cents/minute. I found one service that is about 11 cents/minute, but FREE is a great price.

Charissa, enjoy your 10th anniversary! Kim, hang in there, and do your very best. I love you both!

Dad

Kim's in Mexico--It is Hot Here!

2008-08-04T15:03:00.004-06:00

I just got an e-mail from Kim in Mexico. She left from Tulsa, OK for Mexico yesterday, and in now in Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. Yesterday was the longest day of her life, and she has had a pretty good dose of culture shock already. She shed quite a few tears before leaving, and she has shed a few in Mexico. I believe that God remembers all our tears, according to Psalms 56:8, which is a good thing.

It is hot here. We have an atomic clock with an indoor/outdoor thermometer. The reading from this picture was when the outside unit was completely in the shade!

Gerald Baker on Obama's Messianic Designs

2008-08-04T04:16:00.001-06:00

I ran across this interesting video/report from a few days back. It is rather long, but very interesting . . .

Kim Goes to Mexico

2008-08-02T12:55:00.004-06:00

Within an hour we'll leave Joplin with our baby (she is an adult, and when her mother was the same age as she currently is, she lived in Chile, South America, and already had a child!), who is going to teach school in Mexico for the next year.

We'll drive down to Tulsa, where she will spend the night with her older sister and brother-in-law (alias, best friend). We will return to Joplin later tonight because of church commitments on Sunday. Friends from the Mexican school will meet her in El Paso, and take her to Hidalgo del Parral, Chihuahua, Mexico. We will visit her in Septmember. The name of the school where she will be teaching is Instituto Las Américas de Parral.

Here is a Google Earth satellite image of the city where she will be (420 miles south of El Paso, TX):

Go, Cubs, Go!!! (WGN music video)

2008-08-02T12:41:00.003-06:00

Last week the Milwaukee Brewers hop-scotched over the St. Louis Cardinals by sweeping them in St. Louis. They were breathing down the Cubs' neck, actually tying them for first place in the NL Central one week ago today. I was scared. The Cubbies won on Sunday while the Brewers lost, making the Brewers' stay in a tie for first place short-lived. The Cubs opened up a 4-game series in Milwaukee on Monday, and I was scared! The years of Cubbie events flashed before my psyche. "Maybe this is not a magical season afterall," I wavered in my faith.

The Cubs swept the Brewers in Milwaukee, putting a 5 game lead on the board (currently it is 4 games, but the Cubbies are already winning today). After every home win, Steve Goodman's song, "Go, Cubs, Go" is played over the PA system. In Milwaukee, enough Cub fans broke into the song after the Cubs won there, that it was detectable over the radio/TV broadcasts.

WGN radio produced a music video, with some of their radio personnel (and fans outside of Wrigley Field) featured. Here it is:

I'm still alive. I just haven't been blogging!

2008-07-27T06:25:00.003-06:00

I'm certain that my vast readership (the number has probably shrunk from 4 readers to 2) has been wondering what I've been doing, since I haven't blogged in such a looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg time. I'm still here. I've just been busy.

I've been:

Working on my dissertation project
Visiting with my son's family (last couple weeks of June)
Getting ready for Kim to go to Mexico for a year
Watching the Cubs get past the June Swoon, but suffering through one in July
Translating for hispanic DWI offenders
Doing some reading

On that last front, I've discovered a pretty good writer in the Christian fiction genre. I actually bought some of these books for Rose, basically because they were at reduced prices at our local Christian bookstore at the mall. She usually reads much more Christian fiction than I, but prefers Karen Kingsbury, Beverly Lewis, and similar writers. Eric Wilson does not fit that mold. I would describe him as a mix between Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. I was probably persuaded to buy the discounted tome because Dekker gave an endorsement (much like I first found Dekker because of a Peretti endorsement.) By the way, Eric Wilson is the novelizer of the Sherwood Baptist Church screenplays, like Flywheel, Facing the Giants, and the upcoming Fireproof.

Another interesting book I've been reading is Jason L. Riley's Let The In: The Case for Open Borders--Six Common Arguments Against Immigration and Why They are Wrong. Riley is African American, conservative both economically an politically (he is on the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal), but differs drastically from the ultra-right wing radio and television populists, such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and others on the immigration issue. Much of my real life is intertwined with hispanics, both documented and un-documented. What I have read so far makes sense to me.

Several years ago, when my good friend Doug Marks joined our faculty, I remember him commenting that today's students are not readers, but rather skimmers. That resonated with me at the time, because I remember asking students if they had read assigned portions of the textbook, and receiving the strange response, "That depends on what you mean by the word read." It's only gotten worse since then.

I've already admitted to you in this blog entry, that I read books. I also read online. There are a number of blogs that I check semi-frequently. One of them is by Douglas Groothuis, a professor at Denver Seminary. I just happened onto it this morning. He has a post that references an interesting article in today's New York Times: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?

An article by Nicholas Carr in the current issue of The Atlantic is titled Is Google Making Us Stupid? addresses the same issue. And finally, I just picked up a book that I had requested from the local public library many weeks ago. I got an e-mail message from the library this week, and went by to pick it up. If I don't have time to read it, at least I'll skim through it (I have my moments when I can be very funny!). It is Mark Bauerlein's The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Ages Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.

That's all for right now. It's time to wake Rose up. I spent a couple hours studying Romans 10, checked out the Groothuis blog, which prompted me to write these lines. Now it will be off to worship at College Heights, Sunday dinner with Kimberly at home (her last Sunday in the U.S.), and later on to hope that the Cubbies can begin to turn it around.

Peace to all!

DGF