I love Robin Williams

I know I have been on a roll lately with my post but I couldn't help repost this article for some to read it you haven't. Robin Williams is so right when it comes to politics.

Politics Suck!

The Sporting Report

SPORTS ARE BACK. Man I love football. I was talking with Crystal the other day and just expressing my love for the sport. I love little league football, high school football, college football, and pro football. I just love football. I love football as much as my bother-in-law loves pie and that is saying alot cause he really likes pie. But two notes on some sporting news

First, HOW ABOUT THEM VOLS. Man they are rolling. The had the one little hiccup on Florida where fulmer pulled a Johnny Majors and tried to sit on a lead but now with Florida being the #2 team in the land it sure makes that one point loss and the fact that we should have won that game look alot better. Also we put up 51 on UGA this weekend. The stingy defense of the dawgs couldn't stop Ol Smokey come round the bend. All I have to say is "in David Cutcliff I trust."

Second, Far be it from me to jump on the side of any hot headed, better than anyone else NFL player but I have to take up for T.O. today. I watched that game and boy what a game. Now T.O was Teed off about the game and I don't blame him. Drew Bledso couldn't get have hit T.O with the ball if he was as big as the broad side of a barn. TO had single coverage all day long and he only caught 3 passes. Now I know T.O.'s history but lets also give the guy some credit because the news that has been made in Dallas has mostly been the media blowing it up. The Media is horrible about going for the jugular when they can get away with it. T.O. is selfish but he has been handling this year with stride...he hasn't bad mouthed the coach or the QB...YET so give him some cred because when you get one on one coverage and you are 6" taller than the corner just throw up the stupid pigskin and let Terrell Owens bring it down.

Finally, how about them Colts. Pulling another one out of their rear ends. The titans pretty much beat them the entire game and didn't win. O well. Tony Dungy said it right..."we have yet to play our best game." That is scary when you beat the teams they have beat and haven't played your best game yet. Peyton(the former U of Tennessee stand out) is the best QB in the league right now...PERIOD.

This has been the sporting report

Part 2

Its seems as though I have made some people upset with my previous post about Religion and Politics. Maybe I took to harsh a tone or something like that but I get really upset at people in this country who want to take the history of this country out of context. I believe context in all situations has to be taken in to account or else history is not relevent.

Now to those people I might have upset with my comments I am sorry. My frustration should not have been so openly seen or "heard" thru this blog. My justification for my points is the fact that to many christians worry about what the federal, state, or local government is doing and no worrying enough about there own walk with the Lord Jesus. That is bearing false witness when we aren't living what we profess yet we expect other too vie legislation and governmental laws.
All i can think about with reference to this is the laws of the old testament and that bugs me. Jesus fulfilled the law not created more of it. Either way I hope this post clears up a few things.

I pray that all who read this and know me know that my desire in life is to be living sacrifice for Christ Jesus. I hope that my perspective is pure and that I put Christ first in my life, others second, and myself third. I shall do as the law of the land is set before me. I will vote, pay my taxes and obey the laws of this wonderful country and I hope that I become an example of Christ in this world with out having to become "aligned with one political or governmental view".

Religion and Politics!

I am probably going to get in trouble for posting this but it is time for me to put my 2 cents in to this discussion. With the upcoming election and political wheels in full motions people from all sides of the pulpit and pew in churches are getting involved in to political scene. Some democrat some republican. I personally don't really care for all stances of either party because parts of each party are correct. Thus to quote one of my favorite comedians, "What is the similiarity between the two(Democrat and Republican), the fact that they are both wrong!"

Now as I was reading this morning on my news sites and blogs I came across this article on CNN from the very intelligent and informed Lou Dobbs. (Article)This is a very respected and respectable man but in his article he claims that is wrong for the churches to endorse a political candiate. I AGREE WHOLE HEARTEDLY. But Mr. Dobbs makes the same arguement about why that I have heard a hundred times and it is wrong!!! He says the first amendment is there to keep the government out of religion and religion out of government. Now this is true but only partly. For someone as smart as he is surely he knows and has researched the history of this but incase he hasn't let me put it plainly with this next paragraph.

Why did the pilgrams leave England? For religious freedom! That is it. They where being told my Henry the 8th that they had to become church of England and that they had no freedom to worship how they choose but only as he saw fit. Thus they came to America. Now in the consitution it does not say " Total Seperation of Church and State" it doesn't even say "seperation of church and state" at all. It says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This was to keep the government from making a State Sponsored church!!!! I am completely for that and if you are under the impression that the United States should make Christianity the religion of the country you are WRONG! Period and if you don't like it I don't care!

Now let me address christians on this quickly as well. We "vote our morals". Well guess what, your morals transend a party. Democrats want to help the poor with more government programs. This is a very christian act. Replicians want to help protect marriage. This is a very christian act. Neither of which provide salvation! Thus politics is not the place for our morality to work thru this country. That is not to say your should not vote because you have an obigation in my opinion to do so but you can not legislate morality. That is impossible and it not the place for it. Morality, and better yet Christian morality, should be seen only thru JESUS CHRIST! So the next time someone the the Christian right tells you to vote for one canditate because they are the moral one tell them they are wrong. Jesus needed no government in his time on earth to expand his kingdom and not time after that either. No law will help this country come to know God any quicker. That can and will only be accomplished by God's will working thru the hearts and minds of his people.

Sin is at your Door Step

This morning on the way to work I was listening to the Truth for Life radio sermon. I sometimes listen to this on my way to work because it does tend to put me in focus on my way to work. But this morning was really intresting to me. It was title "Why good people do bad things."

"Humans do bad things because we make bad decisions." Now I really like this because some people want to make that old statement , "The devil made me do it." That is a load of hogwash. Satan has no power in thie world other than what we give him. Now he did go on to say that other factors are in effect, like the pleasure of sin. Lets face it sin is appealing and if we try to say it isn't then we aren't reading from the same bible.

This sermon was basically about personal responsibilty. One of my biggest problem in our culture, the Christian faith, and in our work is that we as human beings try to put the blame on someone else. But that is is just a pathway to sin. If you flirt with it enough you will be burned. Same applies for all sins, sexual impurity, anger, envy, etc. So remember sin is pleasureable and appealing, "knocking at your door step", but thye choice is yours.

Meebo Me

Ok I am now on board with the testing of a really cool product, or so I think. Meebo is a all in one HTML/web based chat client for the major chat services, ie. AIM, YAHOO, GTALK, etc. But the cool feature about it is that it also has a plugin that you can post on your website/blog that allows people to talk to you when you are signed in. I want to encourage anyone who reads this to send me a chat and let me know what you think about it. Please change your name at the bottem of the chat client so I will know who is talking to me.

When did I become a Geek!

Ok I must confess.....I used to get really REALLY mad at the stupid best buy Geek Squad. It gave IT people like me a rap as a geek just because I work in the IT field. I hated the thought that I was a geek because I didn't feel like I was one. I guess that goes back to high school because no one in high school can be cool if you are a geek. But then I really thought about that and I was not cool either so it was a failed attempt anyways.

Well I think now my opinion has changed. The other night I was driving to watch a play with my wife and some friends and I received a phone call from a family friend. He was having some problems with his computer and accessing the internet. So while driving I started talking with him and troubleshooting the problem. After about 10 minutes I was able to find the problem and give him a detailed list of steps to resolve this issue. Ok some of you might ask the same question he did...."How do you know all this?" I mean I could literally see the desktop and the icons and telling him what to do. At that moment it hit me.....either I am incredibly gifted at what I do or I am a GEEK!. Well I don't think I am incredibly gifted because I know a lot of people who could, can, and do the same things I do. Thus the only other solution is I am a GEEK!
This all got me thinking thus I had to find the definition of a geek and I found this at dictionary.com

"A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept."

I guess the definition sums it up...I am a partial geek but is that any better in the eyes of the world than a regular geek?

Ministry vs "Church Ministry"

OK This is a very personal post for me and I am really searching for answers so if you have some input please post. When I was 17 I "accepted a call to ministry on my life". Now at the time I thought that might be Church ministry, aka Youth Ministry or something like that. But over time I came to realize that the Lord had not called me to that type of ministry. He called me to ministry for my life. Now I realize that is a little hard to understand so I will go a little further in depth.

In college I began to realize the Lord had gifted me in the area of computers. Programming, hardware, support, etc. I love to work with computer, ticker with them, and enjoy educating myself about them. Then over time it became apparent to me that a job in the field of computers was not "ministry" and was afraid that the I was being disobedient to the "calling" I had received. But was I really?

This was a struggle for a while in college until I got my internship with the KY Baptist Convention. I then began to realize the calling God had placed on my life. I am performing that ministry everyday by serving those in this building and providing computer support to them. But that is where things then get a little gray for me.

Is there a difference between being a Church Staff and being in minister? A lot of people I talk to say yes but I am not sure what I think at this point. I view my job not as a job but a ministry and if you aren't sure what I mean I will say it this way...I view the KBC as the body of Church and I view what I do as the legs of the body. The ministers here are the head and arms. So please give me your input.....Am I am Minister or not?

Self inflicted pain

This title pretty much sums up the triathlon experience. Many of you may be aware that this weekend I competed in a triathlon. Crystal and I have been training for about 5 months. The training went very well and it was an over all good experience. I learned a lot about myself and the differences between different athletic events. I was a swimmer and trained a lot for my sport. I will confess that I did not train as much for this as I would have trained for a conference championship in swimming but none the less I trained a good amount.

So the results are in......I FINISHED. This was my goal from the beginning. Now I am my father's son and my competitive nature took over and I thus even though I finished and I was HAPPY about that I was unhappy about my place of finish. I finished 41st out of 96. So I was in the top 50% of the field but I think with more training, a little better bike, and better practice of transitions I could easily improve this finish. But either way I am very happy and proud that I can say I finished.

Now I started this post by calling this event self inflicted pain. This is a true state and it was the most athletic event pain I have ever experienced but.............I am HOOKED. I can't wait to start training again and Crystal and I will be competing in a triathlon in bowling green on Labor day. I will post the distance and splits below from the event

Swim 500 meters (approximate) = 6 min 29 sec
Bike 12.5 miles = 36 min 45 sec
Run 3.1 miles = 26 min 12 sec
overall transition time = 3 min 25 sec

Overall time 1 hour 12 minutes 49 seconds
Overall place 41st!!!

I am in Shock

I had heard on the news that a vaccination had been found to prevent HPV. If you don't know HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that "can" cause cancer. Ok I understand the want to prevent cancer but this is absolutely crazy. I have a sure fire way that will prevent the spread of this type of cancer. It is call don't have sex if you aren't married and if you are going to then at the least don't have unprotected sex PERIOD. This vaccine is 99% effective, well with abstinence or not having unprotected sex is 100% effective. Now I would not be on a soap box about this except for one thing. The government "could" make this a requirement for all girls and boys who wish to be admitted in to public schools!!!! So we have gone past the diseases that kill themselves, such as polio, to required vaccinations for things that "can" turn in to a disease that kills! The government would be over stepping its bounds if it required this for kids. See this article below if you are interested in this at all.


HPV Article


** Addition to Original Post **
I best be stating something about this post. I am not against a vaccination that will help with the reduction in cancer but what I am against is the government telling me that my kids, when I have them some day, they have to have this vaccine because they "will" be having sex. I hope and pray that my children will adhere to the teaching of Jesus Christ and keep themselves pure and holy for the spouse that God has put on this earth for them. It is my responsibility to teach them this lesson and do all in my power to prevent harm from coming to them. What requiring this vaccination will do for parents is undermine the lessons they are trying to teach with regards to purity and holiness. Do I not have a right to not have my authority undermined by the government? Please if you read this start a little fire in your circles about this....

How Great is Our God

There are times when our days are crappy and there are days when our days are great. But I just came back from lunch and as I walked in my office this song was on the radio. Now normally this would not be a big deal but I could almost have sworn that I turned off my radio for lunch. If I didn't, which is possible cause I am not claiming a miracle or anything like that, this song playing was divine intervention. No matter how bad or how good my days are he is still the Name above all names. He is great to you, to me, and to the world. I don't care if you don't believe me because someday, all be in maybe judgment day, you will realize how Great is Our God. Thank you Jesus for loving us.

"The splendor of the King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice
All the earth rejoice

He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God

Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end
Beginning and the end

The Godhead Three in One
Father Spirit Son
The Lion and the Lamb
The Lion and the Lamb

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God

Name above all names
Worthy of all praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God "

Dilbert Cartoon

I love dilbert and just had to share this.

Idiot on ESPN

Ok I have been absent from the posting world for a few weeks. Mainly because I didn't have anything good to write about. Not a lot is happening in my life that is really worth talking about. The only thing in the past weeks that has happened is that Crystal and I celebrated our two year anniversary. BUt in the grand scope of things we are going to be married for 50 + years, baring good health and fortune, so 2 is not that huge of a deal. so i was sitting at my desk this afternoon catching up on the news and sport when I can across an article on ESPN that just ticked me off.

Idiot on ESPN

If you read this article you will find a guy who expects something out of the NBA that the NBA is not going to produce. Lets think about it.....do you think high school kids want to be Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, LeBron James, Shaq or do you think they want to be Jason Terry or Tony Parker. People don't watch the NBA for team play. Lets face it, we watch the NBA for the ENTERTAINMENT. If this guy is so concerned about "team play", which i don't see how you can say no team play is on the Miami Heat because they heat the "Team" in Detriot, watch College sports. Professional sports are not about team. They are about individual and money. I don't care what anyone says. It is entertainment. So I think Wade hitting 20 ft jumpers and slashing to the basket and dishing to a big dunk for Shaq is awesome and what the NBA is about and should be about. I won't go off about Jordan era bulls but lets look at the Bird Celtic's or the showtime Lakers. They where entertaining and good basketball. But in the concept of team they lacked compared to most college basketball teams. So this Idiot wants the NBA to become college basketball and limit guys like Wade, James and Bryant. Hey jerk! we, the younger dreaming generation, love these guys and what they do.

Linux

Ok I am not a huge Linux buff or anything like that...I like what it offers but I understand and use a lot more on Microsoft than Linux. But here lately I have been testing Red Hat 9 and have grown to love it. I like the GUI for Linux and I like that I can customize it and make it what I want. One of my biggest complaints about Windows is the fact that you have to go thru a ton, or install a bunch of software to make everything do what you want it to do. With Linux out of the box you can configure the darn thing the way you like it. But a couple of things are happening or are going to happen in the near future that are going to make my use of Linux go up so I thought I would list them.

1) The Mozilla Corp. keeps on putting out a just flat out better web browser and email client than anything Microsoft offers, PERIOD! Some nut is going to say, "ooo IE 7 is so great and IE Vista is going to be even better." Well I am testing Vista and have IE Vista on it and I am not impressed...It is clunky and hard to get around to say the least in my opinion. Firefox is just flat out better. I don't use IE unless I absolutly have to and the only thing I have hit that I can't do to this post is adminstrate my companies Call Mananging system. THAT IS IT!!!

2) IBM and SUN. This partner ship means big things for Linux because both companies are rock solid and make great products. The Lotus Suite soon to be out, code named Hannover, will be running on Linux for the client and the server already runs on Linux. And now with the inclusion of an office suite built in to Lotus Notes using the open document format means a revolution is coming for Office Products. Now I will give Microsoft props here because I am testing Office 2K7 and it is really sweet. The GUI is eye candy and it is very good at what it does. But lets face it....OpenOffice.org v2 will do 95% of what MS Office will do and OpenOffice is FREE. Will since IBM will be including an Open Document format in Notes and OpenOffice is free I can see some companies who have been Microsoft locks on the office suite considering a move to OpenOffice which in its self is a BIG thing.

3)Finally GOOGLE! This company is the lovable company for IT people around the world in my book. They do alot of thing REALLY well and the things they don't they have bought. Let us take for the example Picasa. It was a great little photo program that google bought and Googlfied it. Now they are coming out with a Linux version of this program. I have heard, not 100% on this, but google does not use the microsoft os and that the majority of things they write and produce are going to be able to be used on LINUX because that are pushing for completly web based services. This will push the envolop for Microsoft.

Don't get me wrong Microsoft does some good things and they do some not so good things. On a whole MS is the best product for basic ad beginner computer users but as more people enter in to the life of computers they are going to want more flexiblity in what they do thus MS will not prosper in this type of world because they are very closed off. They want you to do it their way or no way. GO LINUX!!!!!!!

Running is different from Swimming

Ok many of you may know Crystal and i are training for a triathlon that is to happen at the end of July. we have been training now from a little over 3 months and I must say I think it is going really really well. Crystal could not run for more than 5 minutes when we started and now she is up to running 25 minutes, riding 45 minutes and swimming 20 strait. These are all big steps for her especially seening that she never has done any true cardio training in her life. She was a cheerleader in high school but they didn't do a lot of Cardio training like the way I did when I swam up to college. So I am extremly proud of where we are and if we both just finish the tri-athlon that will be a huge huge step or both of us. The tri-athlon is a .6 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3.1 mile run so it is considered a sprint but that is still a lot of stuff.

Anyways this post was not about that. This was about my learning that running is different from swimming. When I was a swimmer I was a distance swimmer. This basically ment that my body, heart, and lungs break down a lot slower in a race than a sprinter. This also means that I am no 100 dash kind of guy. I am short, stumpy, and not loaded with big honkin muscles for great amounts of power. So I signed up for a 5K (3.1 mile) run with my church this past weekend. I thought it would be a good test to see how good of shape I was in seeing that I had only been working out 3 months I was not expecting to much. Well in distance it is important to build to your race speed not to start out there. This means the 3rd mile should be your fastest mile or atleast no slower than your 2nd and 1st mile. Well I took this race out like a mad man, died on the 2nd mile and got my 2nd wind for the third mile. I did pretty well though I finished 24th overall out of about 200 and won my age group of 20-24. I ran 3.1 miles in 24:36. Not to shabby but if I had ran my own race, like I used to swim them, I would have been faster...just another learning expierence.

Man I am tired of being busy

Ok one of the things I wished I had known before I got married, and this is not a bad thing or me saying I don't love being married because I absolutly 110% love my wife and being married to her, is te fact that when you are a young married you are hardly ever not busy on the weekends. I mean is college the weekends where the downtime. Now we are always on the go or doing something or being somewhere. It is crazy! Let me just give you a heads up on our schedule for the next few weeks and months
Last weekend - Brother-in-law's graduationg
This weekend - Church 5K run and Dave Ramsey Totle money makeover live event
next weekend - My parents are coming to town for a visit
then we actually have a few weekends home but I am sure I will have yardwork, building work, or something to keep me freom being lazy. this is the norm of the married young working adult. Can I be a kid again?

HOWDYYY!

I just had to get in really quick on the Presidents address to the nation last night. For the most part I agree with his points on the way to handle the aliens in this country. I like the idea of them having to pay their taxes and go to the back of the line to receive citizenship. I think the people how have come her the right way and those who are trying should b given first right of passage. But let me just say one thing.....Does anyone else feel like they where watching a robot or a puppet during that speech. I mean to quote Robin Williams(althought he was talking about Reagan)"Don't you feel like you are watching a MUPPET!!! I was seriously afraid that there was some idiot behind the camera going, 'move the arm'." I mean I can't say anything about the way I speak because I am a redneck and my language and speech prove it everyday but I AM NOT PRESIDENT!!! My wife always says we, as Americans, got spoiled because Bill Clinton was probably one the the greatest speaking president ever. I am not going to go off on the war, the fact that nothing has happened to social security, and the fact that I really feel like our president should not come from TEXAS ever again. But come on at least someone in that White House could teach this man the art of public speaking or at least maybe a class in college could do it.!!!
** this has been a rambling moment brought to you from the mind of .......ME!

Obedience

I heard a hard to receive message this weekend at church. It was about obedience! This is not always an easy subject to hear about because I can always justify my actions that I take in my own mind. I used to justify my use of alcohol because everyone I hung out with drank. But everytime I got drunk I said to Jesus that I do not love you. I may have not meant it that way but that is what I was saying. I am going to paraphrase the story that Cameron Mills told this weekend at church and let all my 2 reader, ok maybe 3, sit on it for a little while.

"What is high school all about, what do all high school aged kids want to do/be? Cool. It may not be that exact term anymore but basically that is what they all want. Cool just mean popular, which just means in with the crowd. Well after I won my second national championship ring(He was a University of Kentucky Basketball player from 96'-99')I wanted to go back to my old high school and brag. It was my moment, or so I thought, to enjoy the glory I had. I walked to walk around and just show off that ring. But I most of all wanted to see my old high school basketball coach because he invested so much in to me that I wanted him to be proud. As I walked in to the gym I noticed that the students where doing their most hated part of PE, Square Dancing. Lets face it square dancing is the opposite of cool. But as I looked out on the crowd of students on the floor I saw this one little girl out there who was not pretty, not popular, not smart, and was generally the opposite of the high school definition of what it takes to be popular. I saw this girl with tears running down her face because no boy wanted to dance with her. As I looked at this girl God spoke and said, 'Get up and go dance with her'. This was not what I wanted to do at all. It was my moment to be the popular guy, to be the guy everyone wanted to be and God was crashing my party. So i started to visualize how this would go, I would get up and walk over to the girl, lift her head and say, 'I will dance with you.' And the tear would no longer flow and all the boys would realize how selfish they where. So after my visual I got up and ran out the gym door as quickly as I could. God did not ask me if I would consider dancing with her, He told me to dance with her. Sure I could justify it but in the end I was selfish and disobedient. I said 'Jesus I don't love you enough to obey you.'

Cameron Mills

Now even thought he said to Jesus that he didn't love him, Cameron went on to say but God whispered back, "yeah but I still love you". That moment changed his life. How many times has God ask you to do something and you said no. I have done it a number of times and all that is plain disobedience. Don't be this way. Remember what Christ has done for you.....Imagine if he got to the cross and said, "nah I don't feel like it."

Before and After

Im sorry to those who care that it has taken me so long to get these pictures posted but things have been nuts around here and we had an accident with our digital camera and thus I had to scan all the images before I could post them. Anyways check out the links and tell me what you think......Little different I am sure.

Our Home Before
Our Home After

Picture of the house and Moses

Couple of pics for you all. First is a picture of the outside of our house after all the work has been done. Will be posting more photos on that a little later.



Next is probably the best picture of my dog that we have taken.

Final Home Update

WE ARE DONE.....How about that for an update. Crystal and I got the house painted, the fence painted, the driveway pressure washed, the mulch laided, the bushes trimmed, and last but not least a new Bradford Flowering Pear tree planted. So as you can imagine we have worked our butts off and now I am ready for a vacation. Anyways check back later, probably tomorrow or Monday, for before and after photos of the Extreme Home Makeover Exterior Edition.

Happy Easter and a home update

Well just wanted to take this moment to wish everyone a happy Easter. Remember that we should be joyful and happy that on this day we celebrate new life. The life that was destroyed arose from the dead and thru that gave us eternal life. Thank you Lord Jesus.

Also just to update those on our extreme homemake over (exterior edition). We have the fence wire brushed, the weeds on the fence pulled or killed, the lawn mowed and trimmed, new grass seed laid, the skirting and rain shield all replaced on the house, the siding replaced(that needed be replaced), and all the wood patch work complete. We will be starting in the morning with the painting at the butt crack of dawn and hopefully if things go smoothly we will be done with painting of the house by end of Tuesday. Then we paint the fence and hopefully after that take a day or two to enjoy our "vacation". Isn't this how you would like to spend your vacation?

Blogging on hold

Aight, I know I don't have a huge fan base or anything like that for my blog but those who care starting on Thursday Crystal and I will be working on the outside of our house for about 9 days. I am going to take some before and after photos for everyone to see but during that time I will not be blogging as I will be a little busy with painting, landscaping, and repairing my house.

Windows Vista???

Ok I anybody who knows me knows that I am a tech junky. I love computers, games, TVs, DVR's and sound systems. So it is fair to say that I keep up with quite a bit of tech news. So when I found out that the newly, soon to be released for second half of 2006, Windows Vista(aka longhorn) was delayed I was not shocked. Microsoft yet again proved that they are the only company in America that can get away with putting out a half finished product and offer "Service Packs" to fix the bugs they missed and/or not meet any deadline they ever set. If anyone remembers XP was late too. I am really getting sick of this crap from Microsoft. Unfortunitly I have to use it but I don't rely on it anymore. My company uses Lotus Domino and Notes, by the way IBM is a great company who actually puts out a quality product and they are always ontime, and I have quit using Office for anything that I can get from Open Office by Sun, another quality company. So with all of this said I thought I would link a few of my favorite software packages and a couple of good blogs for anyone who cares about tech.

Mozilla Firefox(Web Browser)
A quality Microsoft Office Replacement
IBM Lotus page
From there you can download a free Lotus Notes client that will do all your email needs
A Blog about IBM and Domino

These are just a couple links to some good software that isn't microsoft. So i guess you could say I have joined the anti microsoft group. GO LINUX!!!!

Pride

Have you ever let pride get in the way of letting you do something you know you should do. The speaker at my church last weekend had a great definition of pride and humility.

Pride: Caring about what other think of you.
Humility: Caring about what God thinks of you.

That is a tough pill to swallow cause I want everyone to like me and sometime in my life I have do so at the expense of my Heavenly father.

Sporting Report

Aight I admit I have slacked off quite a bit here in the recent weeks but things have been crazy. But for once I actually heard from a few people asking me what happened so that is encouraging me a little to blog some more. This is the sporting Report volume 1 , ed 2

Basketball (March Madness Style)

Nice of Syracuse to show up finally, tough lose for UConn, and what the heck happened to my Vols. Bruce Pearl said, "We aren't playing our best basketball right now, and haven't been for some time." HELLO march is the only time that really matters. Granted the season is important and the SEC tournament is important but you better get them boys playing some ball before Thursday cause I got you to at least win one game in my bracket. Also once again Gonzaga proved why they are the most underachievers, overhyped team in the land. Before their conference tourney they probably would have gotten a 2 seed. THEY ALMOST LOST!!!!!!! And I have to give DAP where it is deserved, Tubby has the Cat playing well at the right time again in the season. I am sick of UK fans bashing on this man because he doesn't go undefeated or play Basketball the way Rick Petino plays it. Hey they win alot and are always a force in the tournaments so UK fan i got a little something for you......SHUT UP, LEAVE THE MAN ALONE, AND BE HAPPY. YOU COULD HAVE LOST IN THE FIRST ROUND LIKE UT.

Winter Olympics recap (Scooby Syle)

Rodey Rucks. End of story. The man that was the biggest hype for America in the winter games stunk it up on the slopes. Yet again America also proved where our hearts, mind, and stomachs are at. The Flying Tomato won the half pipe. Go figure that Igor Molsitiv didn't win...he doesn't smoke weed, talk like a hippy, and does have a nickname like the Flying Tomato. GO USA!!

Pro Sports

Praise the Lord the NFL owner quit arguing over a couple hundred thousand dollars. They finally got smart and realized they have a great thing going with the salary cap and screwing that up would be a mistake. We still have football and I am thankful. Hey Miami is showing up on the basketball court just at the right time of the year. If they get Wade back heathly I think they got the talent to win the NBA Championship but who actually watches NBA when March Madness is in full swing.

Other sports

Hmmmm...Nothing interesting right now. If you know something from other sports post it!!!

David and Goliath

Went to church this morning and the speaker was preaching on David and Goliath. Now most of the time when you hear this you are in awe about that facts of this story and more sermons on this are more of the historical and fact based and not so much life application. Now this fits right up my alley because I really hate it when a speaker trys to make something life application that really isn't or shouldn't be life application. Alot of what we are suppose to learn from the bible is the facts and to "learn from the mistakes of the past" in my opinion. But none the less let me expand a little on what I am talking about.

David = Us
This guy made the arguement that we are David in our own war. Pick your war but you are in one on this earth. This was an intersting thought because we where nothing, like David before Goliath, but after finding Christ we are more than just a little sheppard.

Goliath = Our Sins
I don't know if i agree with this analogy because although all sins of our lives are big and they are all equal in the eyes of God that isn't to say that overcoming sexual impurity is just a easy as overcoming respecting one another. I do think there are things in this world that are "Giants to over come" but i also think there are just small hurdles as well. But never the less it was intresting where he went from here.

David's attack = Running, not walking, straight at our sins
David didn't over come his sin by walking at it leasurely. He also didn't over come his sin by running from it and acting like it isn't there. The only way to defeat the enemy is to face him and over come him not leasurely walk up to him and say, "I think I can overcome you now." NO you run up to the enemy, smack him in the face with honesty, and say, "Get behind me Satan!"

So pretty good life application lesson from a story that I had only really heard in a historical and factual sermon.

This is the Sporting Report

I am now going to start posting once a week on all sporting actions(that I care about)just because I like to talk about sports

Basketball
It appears and youthful Kentucky and Louisville are not what the Big Blue and Cardinal Red nations where looking for this year in basketball. But on a brighter note my Vols finally got that cat off their backs and one a big one in Rupp. If they continue at this rate they should get a 2 or no lower than a 3 seed in the dance.
Also in the basketball world the Pistons actually lost another game. It is so rare that it deserved a comment.

Golf
Tiger wins again. Nothing new there i don't think.


Football
My turn on the Superbore. That was probably one of the worst Superbowls I have ever watched. I love defense but it wasn't even that...it was a sloppy game and the commercials weren't up to their usual humor. For such a boring event the only thing the sporting world aka PTI and Around the Horn could talk about is the refs. Bad calls didn't affect the outcome they just gave the media somethin to harp about


NHL
Say it isn't so.....Pete Rose all over again except in a different sport. Wayne is going down on this one and that is a shame considering he is THE GREATEST OF ALL TIMES!!!

Winter Olympics
The old fart Michelle Kawn, or what ever her name is, didn't even compete in the nationals and still get to go to the game. THAT IS WRONG!!! If you get injuryed in another sport, say swimming, you don't go plain and simple. The little girl that got third at nationals get a pat on the back for preforming so well and getting nothin in return....how STUPID.

Soccer

On a lighter note....Soccer fans aren't cause bodily injury to anyone right which is almost a first!


This has been your first weekly sporting report
ed 1 vol 1 post 1 :-)

Great Sermon

At church this past weekend(I attend Crestwood Baptist Church in Oldham County Kentucky) Bob Russell, the soon to be retired senior pastor for Southeast Christian Church, delivered our message. As I have sat back and thought about it I thought this message was so simple yet so easy to miss that I just had to blog about it. The scripture passage is probably the shortest pariable in the bible.

"The Kingdom of heaven is like a tresure hidden in the field, which a man
found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he
has and buys that field"
Matthew 13:44

Bob Russell posed this in the context of our church but it is very life related as well. "Why do you serve, give, and particate in this church?" Now don't go reading in to this I am noty saying that you can earn your way in to heaven but what he did say was absolutly true. Because of the joy we recieved from Christ would you sell everything you own to see its advancement.

Let us put this in realms of Christ. Really easy to see that correlation. Jesus saw a tresure in his creation and thus "because of the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God".

I thought that thru such a simple pariable we could see the unequaled teachings of the bible. Hope this benefits someone out there.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

Crystal and I watched a pretty good scary movie the other day called "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." It is set in a court room because the priest, whom you learn more about later in this post, is on trial for negligent homicide of a freshman college girl who became possessed by demons and died. The reason he was on trial was because after lots of medical treatment Emily Rose and he decided that it would be best to forgo the medical treatments and try the route of exorcism. Now what you find out during the exorcism is that it is not just one demon that has possessed this girl but 6 and one of them is the devil himself Lucifer. Well the exorcism fails and at the end of the movie Emily says that "The Holy Mother", a catholic term for Mary the mother of Jesus, spoke to her and said that her suffering was all for the glory of God.

Now that was the very condensed version and you really should see the movie to understand better but at the end of the movie Crystal hit me with a question that I have never even thought about. Can demons possess people?

Now to start to figure this out we first must ask the question "Do demons exist?" Now I am the kind of person that likes to deal with facts and facts alone. But my facts are what I hope are biblically based so some who read this might not share my evidence but this is my post and my blog so deal with it! First I recognize the existence of God. Seeing that I believe in God then I also have to believe in his counter-positive Satan(aka "tha Devil"). I also believe that God has angels, Satan was an angel before his fall, and that satan took some of these angels with him and they became his minions(aka demons). So with this group of facts I guess I would say that I believe that demons are real so the first part of the question is answered Yes.

Now I also believe that Christ will not rule this earth until his second coming and I also believe that the Satan is "the Prince of this world" this he has some bearing on what is happening in this world. That is not to say that God isn't fully in control so you Baptist out there hold on to your pants. So the next question that was posed logically was, seeing that God is in ultimate control, would God allow someone to be possessed?

My first thought immediately was no! When I accepted Jesus Christ in my heart I was given the gift of the Holy Spirit(part of the holy trinity) to live in my heart and to be my helper in this world. With the Holy spirits presence in my life I couldn't be possessed because it would seem to be completely against the fact of the holy spirit living in me. Seemed pretty logical except two facts. One: God allowing thing to happen to his people so that the end result would be his glory. Two: What about people who don't have the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is where I am stuck and torn. If you have any insight in to this please respond because I am searching.

What a strange winter

I know this may sound crazy but what about this weather. I played golf yesterday and then Crystal and I went for a long walk today. It is sunny, warm, and nice to be out of the house but it is WINTER! How crazy.

Sour Milk Shakes

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone"
Hebrews 2:9

WOW!!! All I can say is wow and OUCH!. I mean that is wording that only our God could come up with to describe his own death. It was by grace that Jesus "taste death for everyone". If you have read any of my post you know I am a definition kind of guy and I really like the definition of grace my bible study uses.

Grace: This refers to God giving us something we do not deserve, cannot earn, and can never repay.

Now since Jesus was fully God he gave us this great gift but i want to flip it a little bit. Jesus was also fully human which means he gave himself something he didn't deserver, couldn't have earned, and will never be able to repay. If you don't know the answer is was HIS LIFE. So think about that last tasty milk shake you had from Steak and Shake and then think about it being made with Sour Milk and putting dirt in it. That is the shake that Jesus tasted and yet He still did it. He could have called the angels, whom which are subject to Him, but he didn't because of his love.

Crazy Day in College B-Ball

What a crazy day in the world of college basketball. Who would have thought that all three undefeated teams would fall all in one day. Hey get this ESPN and AP, My Vols handed your # 2 team in the land a loss. That scrappy little team beat a team who surely would have been the #1 if they had won game. So if Tennessee isn't in the top 25 after this I don't know what it is going to take. Oo and on a side note....Who would have thought that Kentucky would learn how to shoot a basketball again. Seems like them boys couldn't have thrown it in the ocean if they had been standing on the beach but hey they finally got a few buckets to fall so it is time for everyone to jump back on the UK bandwagon and put them back in the top 25 right???? He He He.

God's Grace

Well as a christian I have to post at least once on my blog about grace. Some might say talking about grace is over done but when you read God's love letter to us one could not help but see His grace painted all over it for us. Take this quote from my Life Application bible about verses 9 and 10 of Hebrews chapter 2

"God's grace to us led Christ to his death. Jesus did not come into the world to gain status or political power, but to suffer and die so that we could have eternal life("bring his many children into glory"). If it is difficult for us to identify with Christ's servant attitude, perhaps we need to evaluate our own motives. Are we more intrested in power and participation, domination or service, getting or giving"

This is one of those gut check quotes for all Christians. This goes all the way from SBC leadership and boards to the pastors of our local churches to the "walking to church up the hill both ways in 2 feet of snow on Sunday morning Christians". IF we have trouble identifing the pain Christ suffered when God turned his back him for us then we need that gut check.

As I close this post a little food for thought. At what point to you think Christ realized his purpose on this earth was to be the perfect lamb to be slain for a world that would still reject him?

Just a bad year for sports

Man as I watched this weekend I have to say this has been a bad year in sports for me. Now some who know me know that i won my fantasy football league and my fantasy baseball league but other than that every team i pull for, excluding UT basketball, has fallen.

Let me list a few
1) UT football was in the toilet this year.
2) WKU football was #1 for 6 weeks then didn't make the playoffs
3) The SEC went 3-3 in bowl games
4) THE DANG COLTS LOST THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!ARGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!1
5) UofL lost to UofK

Now i could just post this and be done but I am not because there is a commen theme to all these. I actually watched more sports this year than I have in the past 5 years. It seems like every game I watch the team I want to win LOSES!. I am done with this. I can't win. It is a sad sad day when a Tennessee fans rest his hopes for a sports year on the basketball team! O well life in the world of sports. You win some, you lose some, and then there are those that just SUCK!

Cry out to Jesus

Hopefully this song will bless some others lives the way it has blessed mine. Thank you Third Day once again.

lyrics as follows

"To everyone who's lost someone they love
long before it's their time.
You feel like the days you had were not enough
when you said goodbye.

And to all of the people with burdens and pains
keepin' you back from your life.
You believe that there's nothing
and there is no one who can make it right.

There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
He'll meet you wherever you are.

Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus.

For the marriage that struggle just to hang on
have lost all of their faith in love.
and they've done all they can to make it right
again 'til it's not enough.
For those who can't break the addictions and chains
and try to give up but you come back again.
Just remember that you're not alone
in your shame and your suffering.

There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
that meets you wherever you are.

Cry out to Jesus.

When you're lonely and it feels like the whole world is falling on you
you just reach out, you just cry out to Jesus

Cry to Jesus.

To the widow who suffers from being alone,
wipin' the tears from her eyes.
For the children around the world without a home,
say a prayer tonight.

There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
that meets you wherever you are.
There is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary,
and love for the broken hearts.
There is grace and forgiveness, mercy and healing
that meets you wherever you are.

Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus.

Cry out to Jesus. Cry out to Jesus."

GO VOLS

Well just a quick post. My Vols are still rolling on and with on exception, a lose to Ok. State, are 10-1. How about ol Smokey stepping up on the basketball court in the absence of a football team this past year. Yet again I write this post and they are in the SEC, 10-1, victory over Texas, and the only 1 loss team in a power conference that I can think of that isn't in the top 25. COME ON people give me a break. Give the boys from the Vols a little love.

The Gamecocks get beat up on!

Sharing in Chapel

If you do not know I am an employee of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. One of the greatest benefits of working there is the fact that I am able to worship the Lord freely. The best example of this is Wednesday morning prayer and worship. I went to this service for the first time since becoming a full time employee today and I must say i do not think I would have gone if it had not been for our executive director asking me to share what scripture I wrote on the floor of my office before the carpet went down.

After sharing this morning I got lots of feed back on the scripture I shared and that it had impacted so people so I thought I would put it out here with my notes and thought for who ever else reads think.

"With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalms 119:10-11

Point 1:
Like the other that I work with when I enter the building everyday I am not going to a "job" I am going to a "ministry" and "service". So I placed this scripture reference as a reminder in the opening for my door on the entry to my office.
Point 2:
We all konw what sin did to Christ and we know what sin does to our lives with God. I will hide His word in my heart so that I don't continually drive that nail deeper in to Christ hands. I will remember this verse so that I am not just swipping my little grace credit card issued to me on the day I recieved the free gift of salvation.
Point 3:
This verse is very personal because I have a very hard time memorizing scriptures. It is very easy in our world to get down on ourselves because we are the "model" Christian. But just because I have a hard time doesn't mean I should quit trying. This verse is my uplifting verse when I get down because I am not being able to memorizing something.

SEC Disappoints once again

Well the bowl season is over once again for SEC football and yet again for I believe the fourth year we are either 500 or under 500 in wins. Georgia had everything going for them except that they forgot to show up to play. Auburn forgot how to play in the first quarter and Alabama tried to blow it as well. Why is it the most powerful conference in all of college football can't seem to win a decently hard game outside of the conference. If you have any ideas on this please comment. I love football but this is discouraging.