This is going to be very strange. I was pondering about some of the legislation that is before the US Congress, and thinking about the proper Christian attitude. It occurred to me that the Bible might have something to say on the matter. I went to the
Chain Link Bible and followed the “alien” links. I discarded the passages that did not apply, (e.g. “strange woman” and “foreign nations”) and this is what I came up with.…
Continue
Added by Larry on September 16, 2009 at 8:00pm —
3 Comments
These are my notes from the 2BS Podcast of
19 June 2009. The 19 June Podcast was a followup to an exchange that Brad and I had had earlier.
I had been listening to the Two Blind Squirrels podcast that Brad announced on 1 May 2009.
"Today and Tomorrow's 2BS shows
by bradmc on 01 May 2009 13:23
Mr. Coffey is a very interesting man -if you can get him to talk which I think…
Continue
Added by Larry on June 19, 2009 at 11:00pm —
1 Comment
I grew up in the church. My mother was (and remains) a devout Lutheran. I remember her taking me to church when I was quite little. I sat patiently in the pew, not really sure what was going on. But I received sound instruction in Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Bible Camp and Luther League. I sang in the youth choir and I was an acholyte. I never attained Eagle Scout, but I earned my
Pro Deo et Patria (God and Country) badge. Even when I was in high school, I'd stay out until 3 AM…
Continue
Added by Larry on May 23, 2009 at 1:30pm —
3 Comments
I promised I'd tell folks a story about my wife if I got sufficient response to
a question I asked on the Forum.
First, a kind of a warm-up while I waited for the returns to come in.
Before Brenda became a novelist she worked for a relatively prestigious newsletter put out by the
Research Institute of America, back in the day when their newsletter came out in p…
Continue
Added by Larry on April 23, 2009 at 8:30pm —
No Comments
It is important to be skeptical of what science tells us.
Continue
Added by Larry on April 22, 2009 at 7:30pm —
3 Comments
We got back from Good Friday service at our church about an hour ago. It was a somber time. The holy table is stripped of all its furnishings and draped with a black sash. In place of the usual cross we have two logs lashed together. The processional cross is draped in black. The choir processed in in silence, and a the end of the service we filed out silently in the dark.
The first scripture reading was from Isaiah 52 and 53. The gospel was the crucifixion passage from Luke. The congregation d…
Continue
Added by Larry on April 10, 2009 at 9:30pm —
No Comments
I will be observing Lent this year. I am an Anglican. We’re a liturgical church that celebrates various seasons of the church year. On Ash Wednesday we will be given this charge from the Book of Common Prayer:
"The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare them by a season of penitence and fasting. The season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism…
Continue
Added by Larry on February 24, 2009 at 7:00am —
7 Comments
This thought relates to the our ongoing study of Paul's letter to the Romans. it is tangential to that study, and so I am recording it here rather than in the study. The rubric of the study specifically forbids us from going down rabbit trails. I will present the context, and then the thought that I had.
Context
In Romans, Paul lays out the Gospel:
For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The…
Continue
Added by Larry on February 16, 2009 at 11:00am —
3 Comments
Facebook demands that you friend people you have nothing in common with except that you are both playing the same online game and you need allies, or teammates, or connections. To consummate that alliance you “friend” each other on Facebook. Folks who are super paranoid about their privacy immediately drop the friendship as soon as the connection is established in whatever game you are mutually allied. But those (like me) who are more relaxed about such matters just leave the Facebook friendship…
Continue
Added by Larry on January 11, 2009 at 7:23pm —
1 Comment
On Saturday one of our local men's clothing store was having a huge sale. We were particularly interested in the buy one/get one free sale on sport coats and blazers. My most recent purchase, is gettng big, not clownishly big, but loose enough that it looks like I am wearing somone else's blazer. We went in and discovered that I'm just about a 42 regular (American measurements, 42 inches across the shoulder) rather than the 42 pudgy that I had been wearing.
Connsonant with our new years emphais…
Continue
Added by Larry on January 4, 2009 at 6:08am —
1 Comment
We celebrated New Years Eve by visiting friends, Ann and Michael, a couple we've know for nearly 20 years. They live a little over an hour from us, so it was convenient to stay overnight at their house.
We picked up some Indian food, and Ann was cooking more Indian food when we arrived at their house. Ann is a great cook, and the meatballs she prepared tasted just as authentic as the carryout we provided. After dinner we went down into their basement rec room where Michael had a 52 inch digital…
Continue
Added by Larry on January 1, 2009 at 9:37pm —
2 Comments
A 2007 study[1] purported to find (and show clinically) conversational homeostasis in which overly-familiar people (such as spouses) condense their speech so much that they are actually worse at communicating novel information than strangers are, while not being conscious of this problem.
That would explain a lot of things
--------------
[1] Keysar, Boaz (2007), "
The Effect of Information Overlap on Communication E…
Continue
Added by Larry on December 31, 2008 at 7:56am —
No Comments
Last night we stayed up watching the opera,
Dr. Atomic, on PBS, through the wonders of digital broadcast TV. Our digital converter box is starting to earn its keep, as this was on the fourth digital channel of our local PBS affiliate.
Dr. Atomic is a modern opera by composer John Adams about the workers at Los Alamos and the events leading up to the first atomic bomb test, the Trinity test. It was awesome. Opera is challenging, and…
Continue
Added by Larry on December 30, 2008 at 7:00am —
1 Comment
Added by Larry on December 7, 2008 at 5:00pm —
1 Comment
During this election campaign, I have had an opportunity to examine my personal political ideology, and to question the foundations of my opinions. In the process, I've come across some things to ponder, including this:
The struggle between economic freedom and social equality is almost as old as the idea of freedom itself. Plutarch, writing about Solon (c. 639 – c. 559 BCE), the lawgiver of ancient Athens, wrote:
“The remission of debts was peculiar to Solon; it was his great means…
Continue
Added by Larry on October 25, 2008 at 3:00pm —
No Comments
Words and music by Samuel J. Stone
and Samuel S. Wesley. Public Domain.
The church's one Foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is his new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav'n he came and sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her,
And for her life he died.
Elect from ev'ry nation,
Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food.
And to one hope she presses,
With ev'ry…
Continue
Added by Larry on October 11, 2008 at 9:00am —
No Comments
Whine.
Complain.
Whine some more.
Complain.
Grump, grump, grump.
*whams head against table -- repeatedly*
Thank you. I just needed to vent. That was very theraputic. You are very kind to listen to me.
Continue
Added by Larry on October 8, 2008 at 6:28pm —
3 Comments
On Monday I helped my brother-in-law distribute food. His church takes a turn at the food one week a month. A week of meals is prepared and frozen, and volunteers distribute it to folks on the list. Seveal of the folks he knew through one or the other of his churchs. Some he met for the first time that day.
Tuesday and Wednesday we helped my brother-in-law replace the back door to his house. Even with a pre-hung door, that was difficult, tricky work.
On Thursday, A and B dropped me off at DVW…
Continue
Added by Larry on September 12, 2008 at 3:30pm —
No Comments
On Sunday we all went to the church where my brother-in-law is the pastor. It was Sunday school appreciation day, so the church was full of kids, and families. The church will hold a couple hundred people, and I didn't see any vacant pews.
There was a luncheon in the parish hall afterwards. Folks from the church grilled hamburgers, and we had chips and homemade desserts. I was amazed how many people in the congregation remembered me from when I was there before (though some of them may have con…
Continue
Added by Larry on September 8, 2008 at 12:52pm —
No Comments
On Friday and Saturday we relaxed at my sister's house and tried to make ourselves useful. My mom lives with my sister. My brother-in-law is a Lutheran minster. He saved up some work that requires three strong men. They live in Bryan, but have 20 acres in Brenham. On Friday we went out to look at the land. On Saturday I took my mom shopping, and then we helped my brother-in-law disassemble his workbench and haul it out to the utility trailer/workshop he has out at the land. I also stopped by Wal…
Continue
Added by Larry on September 7, 2008 at 8:30am —
No Comments
