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This is how they protect school kids in Israel. We give our kids condoms and "gun free zones".

Now what?

Every Friday I try to send an email to our church family and close friends. Today, just before I sat down to do so, I heard on the news about the shooting tragedy in Connecticut. Now, so much of what I had intended to write is just not as important. Now, all the plans for Christmas and Sunday preparation that will still go on, just don't matter as much as they did just a little while ago. Along with the president and most of the rest of the country, I cry for the families involved directly and indirectly. I can't comprehend what kind of insanity would invade a person and cause him to do such a thing. The question I am left with is, "Now what?" Now what do we do as we see our country go over not just a fiscal cliff but a moral cliff as well? Now what do we do to protect ourselves? Now what do we tell our kids and grandkids? Now what is going to happen next? I don't have all the answers to all those questions but as I wonder how many other people we pass by every day that are bordering on that same kind of insanity, I do know that now is the time to share the "light and glory" (Luke 2:32) of our Lord Jesus to everyone we meet. This is a nasty old world and it is not going to get better until Jesus rips open the sky and comes with a trumpet sound and a loud voice to come get us (I Thess. 4:13-18). The answer is not more or less guns. It's not better laws or safer schools. The answer is Jesus. So, now what do we do? Hug your kids. Love on your neighbor. Speak Jesus. Speak Jesus. I love you all. Todd

Great news!

Obama phones cure blindness!

2nd Amendment

Dorky Carter

I have posted this picture before but it is even more special today. The little girl on the front row with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face is my dear friend Dorky Carter. This picture was taken December 7, 1941 when her mother heard that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. She thought the world was coming to an end so she got the kids together for one last photo. Dorky passed away last night at 2:17, peacefully and surrounded by her family. She was the toughest old gal I have ever known and she will be missed.

Tell me again there is no God.

Of course God loves everybody but it's obvious He loves Wise County best.

No more Kohl's.

Last June I sent a nicely worded and understanding email to the address at the bottom of the Kohl's flyer that was sent to my house. Tonight, 5 months and dozens of flyers later, I screamed at some guy who probably lives in India to take me off the mailing list right now! I kept yelling at this poor guy to not put me on hold, don't transfer me or take a message. Don't send me to somebody else. Man up and hit the delete button over my ex-wife's name. The same ex-wife who has never lived at this address but to whom this junk mail is sent. *sigh* He gave me the corporate number to call between 8-5 CST M-F. Half a dozen emails, letters and phone calls over 5 months and still nothing. How hard can it be Mr. Kohl? Well, anyway, no more Kohl's for me.

Bummer.

Sorry Pennsylvania kids. The candy is not going to be near as good this year at the Sandusky house.

My bad idea

All of my life I have felt the need to say what I feel. When I do, I mean what I say. Evidently, the problem is that I am not eloquent enough to keep from hurting feelings. When I was a kid and would get into trouble by my parents, they would want to know why I did such and such and so I would tell them. Bad idea. In school, my teachers would have a problem with me and I would tell them what I thought of them. Bad idea. In my work life, same with the boss. Bad idea. The lesson I learned through all of this is just to keep my mouth shut. And I have to admit that has worked pretty well. It's not right, but I have gotten by. Well, life hasn't changed now that I am in a leadership position. I thought that I was speaking the truth in love. I thought I was doing what needed to be done. I even thought I was being helpful. Evidently, it's still a bad idea. “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Caption this...

Something happened.

Everybody is always asking me why I don't update my blog more often. Ok, 3 people have asked me that in 4 years but nevermind that. I don't blog more often because, as I have said, I now have an outlet for my discombobulated ramblings as a preacher but also, I don't want to post about boring stuff about my life so this poor blog gets neglected. I'm getting to the point where I wish Facebook would blow up because so many people, and not just kids, want to post about the most minute detail in their boring existences. "At the gym", "Checking in from work", "listening to (insert some band I've never heard of)". Who the head-bob cares?! I even posted on there one time how much I hated those kinds of posts and nobody agreed with me! They all hammered me and said they wanted to know every detail about every "friend" they have. I'm in the Twilight Zone, here. Actually, those posts are not really indicative of the kinds you see on Facebook because they are all spelled correctly but I digress. Anyhow, finally something interesting happened and I would now, finally, like to share. How many horror stories have started with the words, "I just wanted a little bacon for breakfast"? Is it so wrong to want the candy of meats to go with my biscuits? Is it so wrong to want to not make a mess on top of the stove? Is it so wrong to cook the bacon in the oven on a baking sheet? Answers? No. No. Yes. I've cooked bacon in the oven before but my sheet with sides was dirty so I used a baking sheet with no sides. You can probably already see where this is going but I failed to. So, I went into the next room to watch the morning news until I heard a funny crackling noise. You know, sort of like a campfire makes? I walked into the kitchen which already had a funny gray tint to it and slightly opened the oven door. Now, I'm not stupid. I know that if you open the oven door when there is a fire that you will feed the fire with oxygen and so I just barely cracked it enough to let a huge massive fireball from the pits of Hades come raging toward my head. Amazingly calm, I quickly returned the door to its' original position, turned the gas off and waited patiently for the fire to just die from lack of any more oxygen. 3 seconds later, the black smoke started rolling out the back of the stove like the Springfield tire fire and I knew I had a problem. Time for a breath-prayer, "God, please help me" and then I grabbed the baking soda box out of the fridge and like Red Adair on his best day I opened the oven door and splashed the soda all over the inside of the oven. Not enough. I'm pretty sure I saw Satan himself laughing through the remaining flames. Ok, now the number 911 is pretty steadily rolling through my head but I remembered I may have another box of baking soda. Quick like a panther, I open the fridge, move the Dr. Pepper, grab the box and two shakes of the soda still don't squelch the inferno but with the last shake and the last teaspoon of soda, the fire gives up and the demons return to Hell. Between the soda and the smoke, the kitchen is a mess. The oven is ruined and I'm still hungry but the real victim was the package of bacon. I couldn't even find the remains. All that was left was a now-black and white pan and the smell of burned bacon mixed with brushfire. To top it off, I posted the picture to Facebook and a friend let me know liked bacon. He misspelled it. ,

A conversation

One of my favorite members of our church had a birthday today so I gave him a call to wish him well. I'm not sure even he knows how old he is. His wife told me earlier that the hospital forgot to write the day on his birth certificate but they think it's today or maybe yesterday. Not uncommon approximately 84 years ago. "Hello, Brother Davenport, it's Todd!!!" (You have to scream for him to hear you and he is the only one who I still call "Brother".) "Who is it?" "Todd. I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. Are you ok?" "Yes, thank you, just fine. Hold on." I hear him "whisper" to his wife that he doesn't know who it is and she should talk. "Hello. Who is this?" "Hi Mrs. Davenport. It's Todd. I just wanted to wish Brother Davenport a happy birthday." "Oh! Ok, hold on." She then "whispers" to him that it's the pastor, Scott. "Hello Scott!" "It's Todd, Brother Davenport. Happy Birthday!!!" "Well thank you. Now who is this?" "It's Todd!!! I just wanted to say happy birthday!!! Then I hear him tell his wife, "There's nobody there." and then *click*. Oh well.

The Answer

Like I did, most of you probably went to bed last night with enough on your mind, but then to wake up and hear the tragic news of the mass shooting in Colorado just breaks our hearts. I can't comprehend what would motivate a person to do such a thing except that Satan is alive and well in our country and he seems to be gaining momentum. It makes me ache to just be with Jesus in Heaven where we won't have anymore heartbreak and no more sorrow. But we are still here and we still have the answer to these problems. The Bible tells us to expect this kind of thing as the end gets closer and closer and that we should be prepared. We are told that life is a wisp of smoke and can vanish in an instant (James 4:14) and that all creation is groaning and anxious to have things made right (Rom. 8:22). But while we are still here we are also told to share the answer to life's problems (Matt. 28:19). And we are told that we have God's own power when we go and tell (Acts 1:8). The Answer to what happened in Colorado this morning is not more gun control. The Answer will not come from Washington D.C. no matter who is in the White House or Congress. The Answer is not going to come from more police or better surveillence. The Answer lives inside of us as Christians and we have the power to make changes while we are still here. You are not too old or too young. You don't have to know all the right Bible verses. You don't have to preach or be perfect or be famous. In fact, you have no valid excuse. What is keeping you from changing this world by sharing the Answer with somebody today? Will you just say the name "Jesus" to somebody today?

The last post was an accident but read it anyway.

I have 2 blogs; a personal blog (here) and a church blog (over there). I post my sermons every week on the church blog and got them mixed up today. I'm not being a smart aleck or posting about guns but it might do ya some good to read it so I'm leaving it.

Decisions - Ruth 1

FBCRB 7/15/12 “Decisions” – Ruth 1 We had a great time last Wednesday night. We started having a family dinner discussion around the table discussing what the Bible says about certain big topics. Last Wednesday was “What does the Bible say about divorce?” and it was so good. I encourage you to come and be a part. You don’t have to say anything but you are welcome to. On the heels of that discussion on divorce, though, one might go away thinking I am against marriage or love or some nonsense like that and that is certainly not the case. I told the group that for me personally it is sort of like asking Mrs. Lincoln if she wants to go back to Ford’s Theater and see a show. She might say, “No, thank you. The last time I went there something really bad happened.” But that does not make me against marriage, love or romance. In fact, it makes me appreciate even more couples who have been married for long periods of time. Several of you in here have been married multiple decades. My parents have been married 54 years. I know because I texted my mom the other day and her reply was 54 looooonnnnnggggg years. I can appreciate the effort involved there. That response probably tells more about her kids than her husband, especially her daughters! :) But we can all appreciate a good love story. Women seem to be drawn to that more than men but we all want that in our lives. Adrian Rogers tells the story of 3 girls who were college roommates at their Christian college and were in their dorm room one night praying, “Lord, give us pure hearts. Lord, give us clean hearts. Lord, give us sweethearts.” And, all the girls said, “Ah-men.” We are going to be looking at one of the most beautiful love stories ever in any kind of literature this morning and we have it right in our Bibles but before we do, this is a perfect opportunity for me to give a warning about some popular forms of media that are out today. One is a book and the other is a movie. The book is 50 Shades of Grey and the movie is “Magic Mike”. Both are extremely popular with women right now and both have been described as “mommy porn”. Ladies, when your friends start giggling and talking about these it’s time to politely excuse yourself or even nicely tell them you don’t care to see, read or talk about such things. You wouldn’t want your husband, son or father watching or reading things that portray women like these portray men so don’t be a part of it. In fact, if and when that happens, that would be a great time to say something positive about your husband. Trust me on this. I know you have been married for a thousand years and your husband knows you are kidding when you say things about him but he also needs to know that you do not speak poorly of him in public. So, use this time to say something positive about him. When my mom texted me back about the 54 long years, I jokingly asked her if she had been mistreated and her immediate response was, “No, Daddy has always treated me like a queen. Far better than I deserve.” So, when your girlfriend wants you to go see Magic Mike you could say that while your husband may not look like Matthew McConaughey, he is…and then you fill in the blank. So guys, now you have to make sure that your wife has something nice to say about you. I’ll leave that to you and I will end this session of “Marriage Advice from Todd”. That is all the marriage counseling you will get from me today and you can rest assured that counseling from me will be few and far between. Let’s get back to our beautiful love story. It comes from the Book of Ruth. Ruth is a continuation of the Book of Judges but while Judges was about culture, rules and laws regarding the nation of Israel, the Book of Ruth is about a common woman who was concerned about common things. Ruth is a picture—in the Old Testament—of the Church. And, she marries a man named Boaz, who was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, our kinsman Redeemer. If you have never read the story of Ruth, I think you will love it. It’s a great story, considered by many to be a great work of art no matter what kind of literature. Benjamin Franklin—as you know, one of the fathers of our country—was also the ambassador to France. And, when in France, he was a member of a literary society, and they were giving different readings and so forth. Ben Franklin, without letting this agnostic literary society know where he had gotten it, shared with them the love story of Ruth. They were astounded. They said to him, “Dr. Franklin, that is beyond a doubt the most beautiful romance—love story—we’ve ever heard. Would you give us leave, please, that we might have it published and give it broad distribution?” He said, “It is already published, and it already has broad distribution. It is found in the Bible, that book that you profess to despise”. I hope you have your copy of that book today and if you do please turn to the Book of Ruth which is in the OT right after Judges and before 1 Samuel. I try not to have you read any more than is necessary to get the point across but this morning I want us to read the whole first chapter. It’s not terribly long. In fact, the whole book is only 4 chapters. Go home and read the whole thing before we come back next time. You will be glad you did. And as we read I want you to think about the decisions that the characters make and we will consider that after we read. Read chapter 1. There are 3 things I want us to see in this chapter regarding our decisions. • We are free to choose. • Our choices have consequences. • Our consequences affect others. The first verse says that this was the time of the judges. We have some Gideons here this morning. Gideon was one of the good judges but overall this was a dark and bloody time for the Hebrew people. It was also a time when names meant a lot more than they do now. You will notice that Elimelech (whose name means “my God is king”) is coming from Bethlehem that means “house of bread”. So, evidently Elimelech had a godly background but he chooses to leave the house of bread and go to the land of their enemy to wait out the famine. There is no other source that corroborates the fact that there was a famine at this time so we have to wonder what drove this decision. Now there is an ongoing debate over whether man has free will or if God is sovereign. And, honestly, I’m no Aristotle but I chalk that up to something I will never completely understand. We will talk about God’s sovereignty again in the next couple of weeks but for now, without dealing with a lot of semantics, we all understand that we have choices to make. God gives us a will, and with that will we make choices. We’re not machines. We’re not forced. God made us moral creatures; and, when God made us moral creatures, God gave us a choice. Joshua 24:15 says “choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve”. "Come now, and let us reason together,'' says the Lord Isa 1.18a. “I have set before you this day life and death, blessing and cursing…choose life, that you may live”(Deuteronomy 30:19). If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. Jam 1.5 The problem here is that obviously Elimelech did not ask God for wisdom nor did he pray about any aspect of this trip. God wants us to make right decisions. It is for our own good that we make good decisions. It is for the good of the Kingdom that we make good decisions and that is our goal, right? To further the Kingdom? As I was studying this the other day, I took a break and took my dogs for a walk. I have 3 dogs. Bo, Sara and Dori. And every day it is the same: Good boy Bo! That's a sweet girl, Sara! And where's Dori? I like to walk them without leashes but Dori gets distracted and then won't come when she is called. Now she has to walk on the leash or not at all. She makes the choice. That's freedom through obedience. Some people think all God does is make up things we shouldn't do. He has a long list of "thou shalt nots" and you can't have any fun being a Christian. But the longer you serve Him the more you realize that if He says no it is for your benefit and the benefit of the kingdom. The next thing about the choices we make is that they have consequences. Elimelech is going where he shouldn't go and with poor motive. He was not seeking first the Kingdom. He was seeking bread. He takes his 2 sons (whose names mean "weak" and "sick", by the way, so this can't turn out well) and also his wife and the wives of his sons. God did not tell him to go, it just seemed like the thing to do at the time. There is a proverb that seems to have been written just for Elimelech. Proverbs 16:25 says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Nobody proved this better than Elimelech. Also, the thing about our choices is that while we are free to make the choice, we are not free to choose the consequences. I think there ought to be a warning label on spandex that says, "Just because you can wear this doesn't mean you should." And it's the same with the choices we make. Just because you can do something does not mean you should because there are consequences and you have no control over them. Just because you can live with someone and not be married to them does not mean you should. You can't choose the disease you may get or the pregnancy that comes out of it. When you make choices outside the bounds of God's plan you should expect the unexpected. Galatians 6:7 says, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Every night when you watch the news, there is story after story of somebody making poor decisions. You see the business man who steals from his company; the mother who abuses her child, the drug dealer who sells to a cop. Do you know how many of those people thought they would get caught? None. We can all say "amen" to that because we don't steal or do drugs, right? How many times has a lie come back to bite you? Have you ever been busted gossiping? Have you had to apologize to a neighbor or a family member for saying something inappropriate? Nobody ever thinks they are going to get caught. Jerry Sandusky ruined boys' lives for years and for the longest time thought he would never get caught and now that he has we all cheer but God says a sin is a sin. He hates them all. The thing about making bad choices is that while God sees all sin as sin the consequences can be extreme, as Elimelech and his family found out. Yes, his family also found out about the consequences because our consequences affect others around us. Naomi, whose name means "sweetness" went back to Bethlehem and when her friends saw her they said, “Hey, look. There’s Sweetness.” And she said, “Don’t call me Sweetness. Call me Bitterness.” Naomi didn’t do anything to deserve this. Neither did Ruth or Orpah. Have you ever been in that position? Has anybody ever made a decision that affected you? Of course they have. Adam and Eve made a decision that still affects all of us thousands of years later. Think about David. He made one wrong decision and it led to so many others. Instead of going to war with his troops like he was supposed to do, he stayed at home, saw Bathsheba, and a man lost his life. A baby was born and died. The lives of many were changed forever because of one little decision made outside the will of God. How about you? I know some of you are in the process of making some big decisions in your life. Is your relationship with Jesus where it is supposed to be? Satan would have you believe that it’s no big deal. You won’t get caught. It’s just a little decision. And that’s how it starts every time. Thankfully we serve a God who is forgiving. When we do make bad decisions there are consequences and they often affect other people but we don’t have to live in guilt and shame. In fact, I’m anxious to talk about God’s sovereignty in the coming weeks because we serve the same God as Joseph in the OT who told his brothers in the last chapter of Genesis, “ What you intended for harm, God intended it for good”. I can see that in my own life and that is one reason that, as I said earlier, I don’t hate the thought of someone getting married. I’m not against it. I know God to be a God of second and third chances. I know Him to be merciful and generous. I know Him as my Father and even my Friend. Do you have that relationship with Him? You can.

It won't happen to me.

Two weeks ago a member of our church was using the weedeater around the front of the church and hit a rock. The rock flew up and hit the glass door that was propped open. We gave him a hard time about that for days, as you can imagine. So, since I'm so much smarter and careful than he is, I made sure when I was doing the same thing yesterday that I slowed the weedeater way down and made sure it was spinning stuff away from the door. Except that one rock...

Think anybody will notice?

No more anonymous posts.

This is to notify you that there will be no more anonymous posts on this blog. Real Dew, you're welcome. Then to illustrate the fact that there is no more anonymous posting I found this picture when I googled "anonymous pic". I hope this clears everything up.

Splodey end points thataway.

Finally shooting the Glock with my friend Brian who evidently scared out the family of Mexicans who were living in my pants. It looks like we were very depressed but actually we were looking for spent brass on our way back from the target. That's Brian's wheelgun. Conclusion? My decision to Glock was a wise one.

The Question

About 1500 miles from here, as the big silver bird flies, is a country that is in almost every way different from where we live. Their culture, clothes, language, weather, even transportation would be considered strange by our standards; not necessarily strange in a bad way but dissimilar to our norms. The beautiful country of Nicaragua welcomed eleven gringos with open arms and continued to make us feel welcome for the entire ten days we were there. While the customs agent only smiled as he did his job, almost the entire rest of the country literally had open arms for us. They are very affectionate and love to hug. We also had gifts for them as we arrived. We started with the gift of English in the form of four English classes a day tailored to the individual's level of knowledge and comfort of the language. Many could speak absolutely no English while others conversed about difficult subjects with ease, only needing some clarification of nuances and figurative meanings. All were appreciative of the gift we gave since it will be a great help in finding and keeping a good job. We soon starting working in the next and best gift which was the gift of the Gospel. Through testimony, songs, and preaching, as well as our own open lives we were able to present the Good News of Jesus to over four hundred people from kindergarten age on up. My new Nicaraguan friend Marta was well into her sixties or maybe seventies and did not know how to even say "Hello" when we started but learned not only English but also about how Jesus died for her sins and was resurrected and now waits for her in Heaven. Teenagers with bad attitudes (ok, not everything is different there) heard and accepted the free gift of English but much more importantly the free gift of eternal life with Jesus. We had approximately 100 adults and 100 teenagers come to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ over the week. We gave a good gift and a great gift and asked for nothing in return but, of course, received some wonderful tokens and souvenirs as we left. The best thing we received was obviously not a tangible bauble or trinket but the incredible gift of God's revelation of Himself in our work. We did what we needed to do but God blessed it and made it worth something far more valuable. As we were preparing to leave our leader and missionary friend Jody Kennedy asked us a question. He asked us what God had revealed about Himself to us this week and also what God had revealed to us about ourselves. I didn't have an answer when he asked but I see now the answer is clear that God, in his sovereignty and power showed me that He is more of a big deal and I am less of a big deal than I have been giving us credit for. And that is a great gift.

Life's better with a sense of humor.

I recently found this little hole in the wall church that meets on Thursday nights. Last night was my third time there. I was first told it was a cowboy church and so I wanted to check it out. Turns out it is a biker church. I have been to a cowboy church before and felt like it was more about "Hey look at my hat!" than it was about Jesus but the biker church has been nothing but Jesus-focused, Bible-loving, Spirit-led worship, led by guys wearing their colors but not trying to draw attention to themselves. In fact, showing up at church not dressed like a Hell's Angel made me stand out like a Suzuki in a parking lot full of Harleys; which is exactly what happened last night when I showed up on my little Zuk 300. I was going to park around the corner but Pastor Speedy (yep!) saw me and motioned for me to park right in front. So, I backed my free little beater into a row full of full-dressed Hogs that each cost more than my car did, got off and put my skunk helmet on the seat and was immediately warmly welcomed by several guys you wouldn't want to meet in an alley. We have all made mistakes in the past. We all have regrets. But as I got off the bike last night and realized how ridiculous I must look to them, I appreciated the fact that they don't take themselves too seriously. Because I still wouldn't want to make 'em mad!

Score but lose.

Our democracy is dying, but fear not: we are in a Golden Age of snacks!

Maybe he's wrong about that?!!

Ultimate sacrifice

I didn't know these men nor are they related to me. They are buried in the cemetary near my house. It brings tears to my eyes when I think that these young men (18, 22, 24) sacrificed everything for a country that has fallen so low. If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Thank you.

My friend took this picture in Arlington National Cemetary in February of 2012. These are his remarks: Although I felt guilty for imposing on a very private moment, I snapped this pic in Arlington National Cemetery in February 2012 to remind me of the sacrifices made by men and women in uniform throughout our nation's history. No idea who this vet is or who he mourns, but to him and all who serve...thank you.

Oh yea...

Picture this: you are laying on a snow white Brazilian beach. Wave after wave of gentle liquid refreshment laps at your sun-kissed feet. A lone fluffy white cloud eases past but never hinders the brilliant aurora. The air is 72 degrees everywhere except on the beach towel next to you where Michelina lays and she seems to raise the temp considerably with her native beauty. Since Michelina is mute she only motions for you to apply more suntan lotion to her back. Now, pop the top on the lotion and as you apply it to her bronze skin, breathe deeply. What you now smell is exactly how this tastes.

Hey Look. I found Dew's Christmas present.

What it takes to get me to blog again...

Yes, I know my blogging has been supermodel thin lately and not as fun to look at but I have found another outlet for my nuggets of literary gold. My insatiable appetite for expressing myself was for years what also fed my adoring throngs of blog followers. At one time I think I was up to 4 or maybe even 5 people who read this ever-offending opus and I realize their lives have been hollow and void without my wry compositions in the past few months and I am forever sorry about that. I have been a pastor and preacher for a whole year now and all 6 of my active brain cells are fairly smoking with activity since I was called, much to the detriment of Blog, I thought dog...thing..whatever it's called (and why?). I have been content studying, writing and delivering sermons and since my church flock is nearly double my blog followers I owe them my best but I am taking some time out to make known to you all how I feel about Barack Hussein Obama "coming out" (as the headline read)in favor of gay marriage. I know that ten years ago before anybody ever heard of BHO that if you had heard that the guy on the bike in the above pic was coming out in favor of such it would be no surprise. He might as well be wearing a rainbow helmet and a leather vest with no shirt, but I digress. Even after I have had 3 long years to figure out this guy, I'm not surprised by his support of it. I am, though, offended at his reference to Jesus and the Golden Rule as his basis for his decision "evolving" into this support. I would never expect a man of his character to support a ban on same sex marriage just because the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin but when he says he is a practicing Christian and realizes that this view for the rights of gays to marry "might put him at odds with others of his faith", I start to get my hackles up. Then when he says that "Jesus died on the cross" and that we should all do as "the Golden Rule says and do to others as we would have done to us", I start to get mad. First off, what does Jesus dying on the cross have to do with this at all? He didn't even tie it in to anything. He just threw that out there. Secondly, I am all for treating homosexuals "fairly and equal" as he said just like I would treat any other person who chooses to sin, whether that sin is lying, cheating, stealing, murder or doing mean things to puppies. It's all sin and one is as bad as another. But the Golden Rule does not say we should rationalize away sin. My next thought goes to the end of all of this. Just where does it end if we throw away our moral compass and allow same sex individuals to mutilate the sanctity of marriage? Can I now marry my dog? I love her and she loves me. We both want the best for each other and want to have all the same rights as non-K9's do. Or how about if all 3 of my dogs and I want to marry a lovely squid? What's wrong with that? Don't be hatin' on me and mine because you're jealous of our male/canine/marine love affair. I'm sick of this nasty, nasty old world and I look forward more than ever to my real home. Heaven will be better than we can imagine and I'm sure Hell will be worse than we can imagine. In fact, I understand the Book of Revelation to say that in Hell everybody has to ride blue touring bikes with rainbow helmets. Really. Go look it up.

Update

Just in case you were wondering...I Glocked.

To Glock or not to Glock?

At Cabela's tonight:
Me: I want the best pistol for the money.
Friendly Employee: How about the Glock? I have 5 of them.
Me: Why do you go with Glocks?
FE: I don't just go with Glocks. I have about 40 pistols but the Glock is the best pistol for the money.

So, I'm asking for your opinion. I feel the need for something concealable but with stopping power. I'm thinking the Glock 23 in .40 would serve the purpose and they retail for about $550. (Not that I would buy retail. I don't trust the gubmint to have my name on a piece of paper saying I have a gun.)

What do y'all recommend? I have a budget but also want a good gun when the end of the world as we know it comes.

A long time ago...

When I first heard this song I was still young and naive enough to think it was being sung by a young man wanting to do something nice for his mother.

stole off the interwebz

For my 700th post, let's play, "Who's that Stud?"

About the only thing that didn't happen at church yesterday.

Maybe next Sunday...

Dr. Dewgood said I should write this.

Two years later and I still miss her every day and wish I didn't. In a life with more than my share of regrets, my greatest regret is getting married. My second greatest regret is not trying harder to stay married. There ya go, Doc. Your check is in the mail.

Doggie Door

This is my little princess, Sara.

Normally she is perfect in every way. But lately she has decided she doesn't like to stay in the back yard with Bo and Dori.

She was pretty persistent in her digging out and so I finally had to put up an electric fence. I got it completely installed yesterday knowing i would be gone to a meeting all day today. I came home to find this:

The door has had a few scratches on it but Sara did 99% of this today including ripping out a panel so she could get in and wait for me to get home. I guess Dori is not big enough and Bo is too big because only Sara was inside. Just inside the door a kitchen chair was knocked over so when she went in she must have been going fast.

Get a job.

Unless you live under a rock you don't need a link from me to know about the protests in Afghanistan over some burned Islamic religious material. I know all of us are outraged at their outrage. The difference is, obviously, we don't protest in the streets. We don't throw rocks or jump up and down shouting the name of our God. And while I can't for the life of me remember why we are even in Afghanistan, I think, like most of you, that this makes it obvious that we should be out.

But the first thing I think of when I see these folks protesting day after day is: Don't you people have jobs to go to?

Headlines make me crazy.

Do you ever feel like this is really just an episode of the Twilight Zone that we are living? Surely this can't be really happening. I just went to a favorite news site and thought I was going to lose my mind. Please tell me these headlines are not real:

Obama: I'm getting 'better as time goes on'...

Husband of missing Utah woman kills self, two young sons in gas blast...

Girl Caught Selling Pot Brownies at Middle School...

Did Madonna put on the greatest show on earth?

Special ed student set on fire...

CHICAGOLAND: Burglars Torture Man With Red-Hot Spoon...

I'm not wanting to alarm anyone but...we're doomed. Seriously, no country can keep on rowing furiously toward the falls without pretty soon going over. It started with family and marriage being replaced with entertainment. That led to a greed mentality which led to an "I deserve it" mentality (Occupy Wall St.) which is leading to an economic collapse.

I'm not a very dramatic person but I do want to be prepared. I'm not going down without a fight and I'm not going down without telling everybody that will listen about how to have a life-changing relationship with Jesus because that is the ONLY way this country will turn around. Until that happens though, you might want to check out a website like this: http://www.survivalblog.com/

Oh good. Valentines Day is coming up.

I really just couldn't stand Roseanne Barr being the first thing to see on my blog so I fixed it.

I'm moving to Canada. Or Greenland. Maybe a houseboat in uncharted waters.

The day this happens...http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/02/02/roseanne-barr-seeks-green-party-presidential-nod/

I even have a vice president for her.

Sometimes I just don't have much to say here.

I repeat, don't touch me.

How many times do I have to tell you freaks? I enjoy hugging my close friends and family. I might even be called kinda touch-feely when it comes to people I know well. A touch on the arm or shoulder as we converse is welcome and shows that we are interested in each other, that we are listening. But if I don't know you really well, let's talk without touch. Period.

Our church hired a company to do some roofing work for us this past week and the owner of the business is a wonderful, older, Christian man who was so nice. We got along really well and everything was going just peachy until, as we were sitting and talking, he reached over and cupped his hand over mine that was on my desk. Several other people were there and I know he didn't mean anything weird by it but I instantly quit hearing whatever he was saying and all my focus went to my hand.

"Why is he touching me? Is he going to keep it there? How long should I leave my hand under his? Really, why is he touching me?" All that was running through my head. Later on he even hugged me, just a friendly kinda side-arm thing but it weirded me out. I know I flinched when he did it too and I didn't want to make him feel bad but I couldn't help it.

I know he didn't mean anything by it and probably felt like a bit of a father-figure but as he was leaving he even did what my grandmother used to do to me and he reached up to my cheek and gave a little squeeze with his thumb and fore finger. I felt my hand come up to swat his away and tried to control it by grabbing his hand and shaking it but I don't know how well it worked.

I know, it's just me. The guy is completely normal. I just don't think we will ever hire Sanduskey Roofing again.

How it really happened.

I know, I know. It looks really bad for me but it's not what it seems. I had gone to South Carolina to visit some family and work on my tan, which as you can see by my pic here has really improved. Besides, I heard the cops were really cool there. So, anyway,I borrowed a friends' card and went to Buffalo Wild Wings, had a few drinks and went to the bathroom to clean my fingernails with my knife. Evidently some guy in there thought I was trying to rob him see he took off all his clothes. People are crazy, huh? So, see, it's not all that bad but maybe don't say anything to my church, ok?

I thought hackers were supposed to be smart.

I just got this email:

Due large number of new members joining to our website we decided to do a review of our members , to see our inactive users.
There before you need to Click Here to login in your craigslist account .
If you choose not to login your craigslist account will be deleted.

Thank you for your understanding.
Craigslist Team



Now even though I taught Dew everything he knows about computers, that does not mean that I am a computer guru. Nevertheless, I caught on pretty quickly that this was not really an email from Craigslist. First, Craigslist would not send an email like this. Also, even Craigslist can spell and they know grammar. Lastly, when you hover over the link where it says, "Click here" the domain name is devildesign.org. C'mon folks. It's 2012. Don't insult me.

Unintended irony

"With all due respect we don't need God on our sidelines." - Terrell Suggs

With all due respect? I don't know who Suggs is but evidently he was bashing Tim Tebow, who I only know because he has made the news for stuff besides football.

Speaking of Tebow, am I the only one who thinks it's a slam to "do the Tebow"? To get down on one knee and pretend to be praying sounds to me like you are making fun of the guy. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. What do you think? Anyway, it's all just one more reason not to watch that stuff on TV.