“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.”
(Psalm 103:17-18, NKJV)

“He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”
(Isaiah 40:11, NKJV)

“For the mountains shall depart And the hills be removed, But My kindness shall not depart from you, Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” Says the Lord, who has mercy on you.”
(Isaiah 54:10, NKJV)

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
(Matthew 28:18-20, NKJV)

“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
(Acts 2:39, NKJV)

As I wait on pins and needles for the baby to arrive (due date day is almost over and still no sign of labor) I thought I would share this article. It is after all, that time of year again when the air can be filled with a lot of “BAH humbug.”

Should Christians celebrate Christmas?

I sympathize with those who want to be rigorously and distinctly Christian, who want to be disentangled from the world and any pagan roots that might lie beneath our celebration of Christmas, but I don’t go that route on this matter because I think there comes a point where the roots are so far gone that the present meaning doesn’t carry the pagan connotation anymore. I’m more concerned about a new paganism that gets layered on top of Christian holidays.

Here’s the example I use: All language has roots somewhere. Most of our days of the week—if not all—grew out of pagan names too. So should we stop using the word “Sunday” because it may have related to the worship of the sun once upon a time? In modern English “Sunday” doesn’t carry that connotation, and that’s the very nature of language. In a sense, holidays are like chronological language.

Christmas now means that we mark, in Christian ways, the birth of Jesus Christ. I think the birth, death and resurrection of Christ are the most important events in human history. Not to mark them in some way, by way of special celebration, would be folly it seems to me.

I remember I lived next door to somebody back in seminary who didn’t celebrate birthdays for their kid. The idea was, partly, that all days were special for their kid. But if all days are special then it probably means that there are no special days. Yet some things are so good and precious—like anniversaries, birthdays, and even deaths—that they are worthy of being marked. How much more the birth and death of Jesus Christ!

It’s really worth the risk, even if the date of December 25 was chosen because of its proximity to some kind of pagan festival. Let’s just take it, sanctify it, and make the most of it, because Christ is worthy of being celebrated in his birth.

There is no point in choosing any other date. It won’t work.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

Truer words may never have been spoken!

I give you just an excerpt:

Digital Penmanship in an Age of Incoherence

Digital penmanship is critical. Take the extra five seconds out of your day to properly capitalize, puncuate, and structure your sentences. This is true of text messages, instant messaging, and email; when your face isn’t present, your body of text represents attitude, your intelligence, and your philosophy of professional conduct. It’s not masculine to talk like a barbarian, nor is it graceful. So I present to you, five quick tips for maintaining professional courtesy in your digital life.

Much more in the article (highly recommended) HERE.

Yes, yes, I’m long overdue for some pictures. I’ve been too busy bemoaning the demise of our country (see the Politics topic for more info ).

So below are a few pictures, but for more, visit these three albums I just posted on Facebook:

A Few Photos of Allen
Silver Dollar City 2008
Reformation Day 2008

(yeah, we had a Black Widow in our house… NOT COOL!)

And there it is! The tower that has improved my quality of life!

I can’t actually see it from my house, but that’s just because of the trees. It’s less than a mile the way the crow flies!

I’ve had a cell phone for over five years now, and today I saw the first evidence that cell providers are actually expanding their coverage!

You see, as far as I can tell coverage has been more or less the same for the last five years with the exception that I got significantly better coverage in Fairview when I switched to AT&T;. And around the country I’ve seen some places where AT&T;is better, and some places where Verizon is better. But I have not personally seen any change or progress on either network until today.

Previously, signal was scarce at our house, and couldn’t be had at all further into Lyles. We limped along by holding the phone a certain way in certain places of the house, though my wife’s junky Samsung is considerably worse at picking up signal than my iPhone...

Well that changed today! As I was getting out of my car I noticed that, quite unusually I had full signal strength. Carrying the phone around the house, under the bed etc. I could not get signal to drop by even one bar. Apparently someone flipped the switch on a new tower.

So there you have it! Hurrah for cell coverage!