politics test

OK, some of my friends from Baton Rouge were taking this test and I was surprised by their results so I had to go take it too. It seems that alot of the people I knew back there were Democrats which really surprises me. Anyway, here are my results.

You are a Social Conservative (16% permissive) and an... Economic Conservative (80% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Republican Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

time flies

Wow! It's amazing how quickly time can pass by. I blinked and realized that 10 days had passed since I last posted anything to this blog. The last couple of weeks at school seemed to get much more intense. The pace really picked up in Greek and I had even more reading to do so I just haven't had much time to spend posting.

Looking back over my posts since we moved I realized that I haven't posted anything about our new church. We joined Highview Baptist Church here in Louisville. This church is doing some amazing things here in the city. It is a well established church that has been on the south side of town for a number of years. About five years ago they decided to start a second campus on the east side of the city. They started it with 80 people. In February of this year when they moved into a brand new facility on their East Campus that original 80 had grown to about 650. Bro. Kevin (the pastor) told me this evening that we had over 1380 in attendance this past Sunday. He also just announced that we are making plans to possibly start a third, fourth and fifth campus at different areas around the metro area. And we are also partnering with other churches to help plant a church in Manhattan. The Lord is truly working at Highview to spread the kingdom.

Also, for those of you that aren't in Baton Rouge, and don't know about this, the pastor at my former church resigned not long after we left. As you may remember, there was a power struggle going on in the church between two different factions, one that didn't like the path of change that the pastor was following and one that supported him no matter what. There were things done wrong on both sides and there is a huge need for church discipline to be applied to some of the ring leaders. Anyway, Bill realized that the church was becoming too polarized around him and he resigned and started a new church plant in Ascension Parish. Things seem to be going very well. People are coming and really getting involved. He tells them from the outset that if they want to come and just sit in a service and then go home and not get involved they are in the wrong place. That's what he was trying to get people to realize at Parkview. God bless you Bill! I pray that God would use you and everyone else at Graceworks in a mighty way to reach people in Baton Rouge and the surrounding area with His love.

One final note. If you've visited here in the past you may have noticed that the Google search box is gone and the Google ads have been replaced. I simply wasn't happy with the control that Google gave me over the advertisers so I'm trying out a different company. Bidvertiser lets me view every ad before it is placed on the site and accept or decline it. With Google I just had to check the site and if there was something I didn't want (which turned out to be most of it) I could block those ads, but it would take a while for them to drop out of the rotation.

Well that's it for tonight. Hopefully it won't be quite as long before I get another post up here.

Officials clash on people returning to New Orleans - Yahoo! News

It seems that Ray Nagin, who so publicly whined and complained about what he saw as a lack of response on the part of the federal government after Hurricane Katrina, is now ignoring the advice of the federal officials he so desperately wanted. Mayor Nagin is encouraging residents to return to the areas of the city that were not severely damaged by the disaster. However, the head of the federal recovery effort, Vice Admiral Thad Allen, says, that after consulting with the EPA and CDC, the timeline given by the mayor is at best ambitious. This is especially true in light of the fact that there is another hurricane readying itself to enter the Gulf of Mexico. (See story here) Ray Nagin wants it both ways. He wants the federal government's help to get him out of a crisis, but now that the immediate danger of the hurricane is gone and the flood waters are receding he wants to do things his own way.

Some great observations about the blame game

Many in the Main Stream Media (MSM) are villifying President Bush in their reports on Hurricane Katrina and coming just short of actually claiming that he caused the storm itself and sent it to wipe out the city of New Orleans. A friend of mine sent me this great article that points out some very basic truths that the MSM and liberals in general need to realize.

it's been awhile

OK, so I've let my posting frequency slip quite a bit (not that it really matters since there's no one reading this blog besides me anyway). Things have been hectic this past week or so. LOTS of reading, a quiz in Greek (every Friday), my first paper due, trying to get together with my accountability partner so my Spiritual Disciplines class, plus the kids have been getting sick, and I'm still looking for a job. Actually, hopefully the job situation will be taken care of soon. I'll post more about that when I get more details.

There are so many things I want to say about the media coverage of Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath but if I put everything down, I'd be typing all night long. To begin with, I'm sick and tired of hearing the liberal media say that the federal government and the military did not show up on the Gulf Coast until 4 or 5 days after the hurricane hit. FEMA is a federal agency and they were there from day one. The Coast Guard is a branch of our military and they were there from day one. That's it. End of story. You CANNOT continue to say that the military and the government were not there. They were. Move on.

Then there's this whole racial thing. Why is it that anytime something happens in this country that warrants extensive media coverage Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, or someone has to stick their nose into it and claim racial discrimination? We've actually had some idiotic people trying to claim that the government broke the levees in New Orleans on purpose to oppress the poor blacks that live there. Come on! How can any sane person truly believe that our government would intentionally endanger the lives of so many, and intentionally destroy one of our major cities? Yes, it is true that the majority of the people affected by the flooding were poor and black. But let's look at the demographics of New Orleans. According to the 2000 Census nearly 70% of the population of the city of New Orleans is black and almost 30 percent of the population was below the poverty level (one of the highest of any major city). With statistics like that, yes, the majority of the people affected are going to be poor and black. Complaining about it is like complaining about a tornado hitting somewhere in Mexico primarily affecting Hispanics. Duh! That's who lives there, so that's who is going to be affected. Let's stop pulling out the race card whenever anything happens. We can't change the way the statistics read now. We can however change things and make them better in the future.

OK, I guess I'm done ranting for now. There's much more I'd like to say about the left-wing media but I need to get to bed.

Surreal

That's the only way I can describe what is happening on the Gulf Coast. Seeing places that I know and love in New Orleans and Biloxi either under water or totally gone is nothing short of surreal. Even after growing up in south Louisiana and living through hurricanes and the aftermath that goes with them, I cannot even imagine what it is like to be living through this. Honestly many of the pictures I've seen remind me of Sarajevo, Bosnia. There was an area in Sarajevo that had been nicknamed "City of the Dead" because the houses there were so mangled from the house to house fighting. It nearly brought me to tears when we were driving through there and I saw children playing soccer in front of an apartment building that was riddled with holes from bullets and mortar shells. But that pales in comparison to what I have seen going on in New Orleans and the Mississippi coast. It looks like a war zone.

We've spoken with friends in Baton Rouge who said that the population of the city has doubled with all the refugees. There are reports there of violence at gas stations. One of our friends told his wife that he didn't want her going to the gas station because people were waiting for women to swipe their credit cards, then attacking them and stealing the gas.

This is all evidence of the fact that this world is stained by the taint of sin. No matter how much secular humanists try to tell us that people are naturally good at heart, times like this show that our natural state is one of selfishness and sin. We need to pray not only for the physical and temporal safety of those on the Gulf Coast, but for their spiritual and eternal safety that can only be found through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Pat Robertson's Comments

Last night we had the 700 Club on as we were getting ready for bed and heard Pat Robertson's call for the assasination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. I was utterly shocked to hear this statement come from a man who is a leading conservative Christian. Many Christian leaders have called for him to retract his comments and I add my small voice to that call. I agree with Mr. Robertson in that President Chavez presents a serious security risk to this nation if he is allowed to continue along the course he is currently on. However, assasination is not the answer to this problem. There are numerous other courses of action that are open to the United States besides killing the head of state of another sovereign nation. We as Christians need to be especially careful of our words particularly when in the public sphere. We need to be sure to speak the truth in love if we ever expect the lost people of this world to listen to the message of the gospel.

what have i gotten myself into?

I just got done with my homework for my Greek class and I'm wondering what in the world I have done. Today was the second day of class and for homework we had to translate 20 sentences from Greek into English and 4 from English into Greek. This is the 4th language that I have studied formally (other than English) and I'm amazed at how quickly the class is moving. Day 1 - here's the alphabet, Day 2 - translation. Yikes! I knew seminary was going to be a big jump from what I was used to and so far I have not been disappointed. Actually, it's not too bad. It's going to be A LOT of reading, but luckily I love to read, and so far everything I've had to read has been really interesting to me. Again, luckily I'm a history geek and that's alot of what we've had to read so far for my classes.

books, books everywhere

I have a stack of books that is about a foot and a half high sitting here on my computer desk. These are the books that I will have to read for my classes this semester. Here's my schedule of classes for the fall. Anyone reading this who has been to seminary please feel free to tell me how absolutely insane you think I am.

9:00-9:50 AM Tuesday - Friday - Elementary Greek
11:30-12:20 PM Tuesday - Thursday - Intro to New Testament
12:30-1:20 PM Tuesdy - Thursday - Personal Spiritual Disciplines
1:30-2:45 PM Tuesday & Thursday - Intro to Church History
5:45-7:00 PM Tuesday & Thursday - Biblical Hermeneutics

I put all the reading assignments into a single calendar so they would be easier to keep up with. I'm not sure how smart of an idea that was. It's a little overwhelming when you look at the calendar and see assignments for 50 pages in one class, a chapter in another, 2 chapters in another and an entire book in another. Luckily on that particular day I only have to read about 10 pages in the fifth class so it's an off day :)

Classes start next Monday, or in my case next Tuesday and my first quiz is scheduled for next Friday in Greek. Part of me keeps asking "What have I gotten myself into?" But then I remember how clearly God told us that this is where He wanted us to come, and this is what He wants me to do. As long as I keep my focus on Christ and doing what He has called me to do I can do anything.

On a different note, I posted a new book on the recommended reading list, Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. While I don't agree with everything Miller has to say (he is very much a part of the emergent church movement which I don't fully agree with) I would still recommend this book. He focuses alot on the biblical commandments to feed the poor and clothe the naked and how we should build relationships in order to share Christ with the lost. Plus the book is incredibly funny in places. There's one section in particular in his chapter on Money where he ends up having a shouting match with his conscience. You gotta lova a book that has the author shouting "Shut your gaping piehole!" to the voices in his head

back online

We're back online after what seemed like an eternity. It's amazing how dependent we have become on the internet. I didn't have easy access to the web for over a week and felt like I was cut off from civilization. No news, no stock quotes, no email. Thankfully the cable man came this afternoon and got us connected back to the world again. At least to the cyber-world. Well, that's about it for this installment. I know it's short, but it's late and I need to get to bed.

We're here!

We made it to Louisville after a very, very long couple of days. We picked up the U-Haul on Friday and started loading that afternoon. We finished loading and cleaning up the old apartment by about 2:00 on Saturday. Sunday we drove to Dee Dee parent's house in Tennessee and unloaded and then reloaded part of the truck with furniture that we were trading with them. On Monday we drove up to Louisville. We got here at about 3:00, picked up the keys to our new apartment and went with the lady from the office to do a walk thru only to find out that they had that particular apartment entered incorrectly in their computer files. It was a two bedroom with a den instead of the three bedroom we need. She quickly switched us into another apartment that is a three bedroom, but when we walked in the hall carpet was soaking wet. The drain pipe for the air conditioner had become clogged and condensation overflowed. They got someone in to rip out the padding and extract the water. We finally started unloading the truck at about 5:00. Since we were all already exhausted, and since we couldn't put anything in one room until the carpet dries it took forever to unload. We finally finished at about midnight.

Alright, that's enough rambling for one night. I'm off to crash in my own bed (for the first time in two weeks) in my new apartment. Good night all.

we won't be homeless

Yay! We just signed a lease for an apartment here in Louisville. We can move in here the day after we have to move out of the apartment in Baton Rouge. We've spent the last 3 days driving all over Louisville looking at different apartments, or pulling into the complexes and pulling back out again before we even went to the leasing office.

Anyway, I'm just glad the search is over. And we have plenty of room for people to come and visit (just not everyone at once OK. let's space things out a bit). I'll send out an email later letting everyone know what our new address is.

PS. Sorry if this sounds disjointed, it's been a long few days driving up here and then driving all over the city so I'm kind of out of it.

I am now jobless

As of today I am currently unemployed. This was my last day of work. Now the pressure really sets in on this move. We head north to Louisville on Saturday to begin the process of looking for a place to live and a job. If anyone knows of any computer/technology jobs or any church jobs that are opening up in Louisville please let me know.

Today was a bittersweet day for me. I have made many close friends here that I hate saying goodbye to. But I am also glad to be leaving a church that is in turmoil. It seems that every time things seem to settle down just a little bit someone has to stir things up. Some of the people remind me of a child poking a stick in an ant bed. They don't seem to care what they are doing to other's personal lives or reputations as long as they can get them riled up and make them scurry around. I pray that people would focus on God and His will for Parkview and stop worrying about rumors and whispers of rumors before God removes His spirit from the church.

I done gradumuated

Dee Dee and I just watched my online graduation ceremony from CTU. It seems kind of silly to have an online graduation, but since it was an online degree program I guess it was only fitting.

Now the online chat reception is another story. Especially when you read the claim they made in the announcement email -- "It'll be just like being there!" No. It won't. It'll be just like sitting at a computer 1000 miles away from there. Anyway, we skipped the chat reception. Now I'm just waiting for the diploma to come in the mail. And then I get to start the whole process over again at seminary.

Oh, the power of advertising!

As we were leaving our friends' apartment tonight we saw this vehicle, proudly advertising it's owner's business.

I'll just let the picture do the talking. There's really no need for comments on this one.

World Magazine Blog: The award for ugliest dog goes to

World Magazine: The award for ugliest dog goes to

This has got to be the absolute ugliest living thing I have ever seen in my life. Be warned, this picture is not for the squemish.

This is an actual contest that is held in California every year to find the world's ugliest dog and Sam has won for three straight years. Take a look at the article and you'll understand why.

the longest/shortest week in the history of the world

Ever have one of those weeks that seem to both drag by and speed past both at the same time? Starting last Friday we have had a whirlwind of a week. The girls went to spend the night with my sister on Friday and Dee Dee and I left Owen with my mom and went shopping for a new laptop that evening. I found a great deal on one at BestBuy. Saturday we were doing some packing and then were invited to dinner at a friend's house. Sunday we had a single combined worship service (something that Parkview desperately needed) and then went to lunch at the house of one of our members. Monday the girls wanted to go swimming so we went to the pool that morning, came home and got cleaned up then went to my Mom's for a family lunch for the 4th of July. When that was over we went over to a friends house for a cookout around supper time. We made it home in time to watch some fireworks on TV (I know, I know, it's just not the same, but I wasn't going to fight the crowds to see the show down on the river here in Baton Rouge). Tuesday we were invited over to some more friends' house for dinner. Wednesday I ran around at lunch time and after work looking for some accessories I needed for the laptop, and then we ended up at my Mom's for dinner. Tonight, we had a farewell party at yet another friend's house with our Sunday School class since some of them will be out of town this weekend for a Chi Alpha reunion in Ruston, LA.

Whew, it sounds like even more when you write it all out like that. Looking back over the past 7 days at times it seems like it all passed by in a flash and at other times it seems like last Friday was months ago. And it's not over yet. Tomorrow at least we'll be able to sleep in, but then we have our last Parents' Night Out at the church. Dee Dee and I are going out to dinner with two of our best friends here in Baton Rouge. Saturday morning I have my online "graduation" from the master's program I just completed through Colorado Tech. Sunday we have Parent/Child Dedication at the church, plus it will be our last Sunday so there will be many goodbyes to be said. Monday Ashtyn leaves for GA Camp. Next Friday night we will get together with my family to say goodbye. And sometime in all of this we have to find time to pack up our belongings, close out our accounts, and prepare to move 12 1/2 hours away.

time is slipping away

I can't believe how quickly time is flying as our move to Louisville approaches. We pushed things up a bit, we are now leavingon the July 16 instead of July 24 but even taking into account the one week difference it seems awfully close. My last day at Parkview will be July 14, we will pick Ashtyn up from GA camp on the 15th, get together with all of my family that evening, and pull out on Saturday morning, the 16th. We're not actually moving our stuff up there yet, this trip will be to look for a place to live and to hopefully find a job. Then we'll be back in town for a couple days to load everything onto a truck and head up there for good.

It seems like just a couple weeks ago that we got the postcard from Southern announcing the Preview Conference that got this whole moving process started, but it has been just over 3 months. We are still trusting God to provide for us while we are there since we still don't know where we will live, where I will work, or how we are going to pay for school. But God is faithful to provide what we need. He has shown us so clearly that Southern is where He wants us to go that I cannot help but have faith that He will provide the means for us to do it.

the bears, or whatever they're called, didn't like me

When I'm feeling down and sorry for myself, there's no better cure than to listen to the logic of a child. It always cheers me up, and often sends me into an uncontrollable giggling fit. Especially if the child is sound asleep. Such was the case tonight when I went in to kiss the girls goodnight. As I was turning around to leave I heard Ashtyn say "the bears, or whatever they're called, didn't like me." When I looked, she was still out cold. I came down the stairs laughing like crazy and my night was vastly improved over what it had been before I went up.

the packing has begun

I guess it's official now. We're moving. We have actually begun packing. The living room is already looking pretty bare. All the pictures are off the walls, the knick-knacks are wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in boxes and the book case is essentially empty. It's funny how you never really notice all the little decorations in the house until they're gone. Sitting here right now looking at the bare walls with just nail heads sticking out it seems so spartan and unlived in. Once we leave this apartment the only evidence that we were ever here will be the nail holes in the walls.

I pray that something different can be said about the people that we leave behind. Dee Dee has many close friends who are heartbroken to see us leave. I know guys are different and don't show emotion the way that women do in situations like this, and I'm fine with that by the way. But I just wonder if I've made that type of connection with anyone here. I guess if I have to wonder about it, I probably haven't. I just pray that I leave behind more than scars on the walls of the lives of people I've come in contact with here in Baton Rouge.