I have more pictures, but Blogger is refusing to load them, so we'll have to wait.

Hill Country morning

After listening to lawyers talk for the last three days, I see why jurors don't like to do it.

In support of my theory that there are only a couple of dozen facial types in the world population, I offer this comparison of well know religious guys and entertainers.

WHICH CAME FIRST?

I always thought if it as more of a joke, but evidently a number of people have been concerned over the years to ascertain which came first, the chicken or the egg.

One of those people is Dr. Colin Freeman at Sheffield University. He and some friends at Warwick University (I have never heard of either of these schools)decided to find out "scientifically" the correct answer. (Here imagine Yule Brenner saying "it's scientifice!" in The King and I)

The good doctor used the UK Science Research Council's super-computer (High End Computing Terascale Resource). He "inputted" the chemical composition of eggshells so see what the computer would do with it. Hopefully, it would not lay an egg in the metaphorical sense.

The computer results showed the researchers that a protein, ovocledidin-17 or OC-17, is a key piece in the formation of egg shells. OC-17 exists only in chicken ovaries.

Of course, Dr. Freeman had to take a stab at an evolutionary explanation. He said the ancestors of chickens evolved to create hard eggs around the time of the dinosaurs. The yoke is on you if you think he has a scientific basis for that one. I think it more likely scenario is his fear that his finding would contradict the theory of evolution. You had to have a chicken programmed to produce eggs in order to have subsequent generations of chickens.

Side note: I wonder if the people that ate all the dinosaurs and made them extinct said "it tastes like chicken" when they at them.

The reason I did not spend any time of the supposed condundrum of the chicken and egg is that I had a theological answer. Genesis 1 tells us God created all the living creatures, blessed them and and told them to be fruitful and increase in number. He did not create eggs. He created a chicken to make eggs.

So, the chicken came first.

God make the chicken. Even more, he made a chicken programmed to reproduce its kind and multiply according to his word, down to the little detail of putting a chemical in the female's ovaries that caused the shell to be form and harden and protect the little one.

God pays a lot of attention to detail.

I love that about him.

After meeting with some of my wife's relatives this week end, I came up with a new word.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

MY REPUTATION IS NOW INTERNATIONAL

I received this email today.

Dearest,

I write to you in tears, most times when I look at myself in the mirror I ask myself "am I going to die and leave this world". I told my private doctor once no to let me die but life and death is not in his hands to decide as I even feel I am going to die. The pain,the trauma,the psychological effect am going through makes me reject this wicked world.I never believed such thing could happen to me.

I am Susan Storch, a 54 years old business woman from Ireland, who has suffered for cancer for more than 12 years now. I don't understand why life has been so good to me and at the same time been so cruel to me.

I expect even if I am dying, my kids should come to see me in the hospital where I have leaved now for more than 10 years. But I have no kids to help or to give me hope.

I want you to come up to inherit my health insurance fund. Valued 2.2m Great Britain Pounds. I want a trusted, God fearing person.

There is absolutely going to be a great doubt and distrust in your mind in respect of this email, coupled with the fact that, so many individuals have taken possession of the Internet to facilitate their deeds, I want this money invested in any business of your chose with its monthly profit from this money Donated to support relief and rebuilding efforts.

I hope to hear from you or get back to me with your direct phone number.

Susan

I notice she says she is in Ireland, but the stuff at the bottom looks German. Hmmm.
___________________________________________________________
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Jetzt De-Mail-Adresse reservieren: http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/demail

You know the honeymoon is over when the comedians start.

The liberals are asking us to give Obama time. We agree . . . and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
--Jay Leno

America needs Obama-care like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
--Jay Leno

Q: Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal?
A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
--Conan O'Brien

Q: What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.
--Jay Leno

Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.
--David Letterman

Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?
A: America !
--Jimmy Fallon

Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
A: Bo has papers.
--Jimmy Kimmel

Q: What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.
--David Letterman

WAYNE’S WORLD

Wayne Dyer, Ph. D., gives the following tip for success:

“Live in a supportive universe. If you see the world as an unfriendly place, you will have a handy excuse for any failure -- something always will seem to stand in your way. Instead, view the universe as helpful.

Strategy: Remind yourself frequently that the universe is trying to help you achieve your goals. Soon people and events will stop conspiring against you and start conspiring to assist you.

Example: In an unfriendly universe, if your car breaks down, the 100 drivers who don’t stop to help are proof that the world is out to get you. If your car breaks down in a supportive universe, the 101st driver who does stop is evidence that the universe is on your side. This attitude will keep you in a state of contentment and peace instead of anxiety. It also enables you to attract the right people into your life.”

Notice the personalization of the universe. He says the universe is trying to help you.

No, Wayne.

The universe is a collection of impersonal objects. It is the space that contains galaxies, planets, stars and lots of empty space. It is actually more empty than full. Emptiness does not want anything, it is the absence of everything.

This reminds me somewhat of Carl Sagan, the former scientist and writer, who hosted the show “Cosmos” and said that word in every other sentence. Sagan, late in life, said we could worship the Cosmos.

The Bible says the universe, the cosmos, was created by God. Genesis 1:1 says “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” It is the first verse in the Bible for a reason. The writer, inspired by God, wanted people to know that everything started with God. He made the universe, he owns it, he controls it and he may do with it what he will.

It’s not only in Genesis, though, that the Bible makes the claim. It says it over and over. Here are a few examples in the English Standard Version.

Isaiah 40:26 says “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them (stars, planets etc.) all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.” God made them, he numbered and named them, showing they are his and subject to his will, and he kept track of them.

In Isaiah 45:12, God says “ I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.”

Colossians 1:16 says “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”

Yet, men want to reject God, refusing to submit to his authority. They even deny his existence and his creation. In short, they refuse to worship him.

The problem is, men and women are made to worship. Rejection of God does not result in atheism, total unbelief, very often. Rather it leads to idolatry, the worship of other so called gods. That is what Dyer and others do when they personalize the inanimate universe and especially when they attribute power to it to control human life. This is usually couched either in philosophical terms, as with Dyer, or in pseudo-scientific terms, as with Sagan, but is just window dressing for astrology, the belief that stars and planets affect human destiny.

The Bible addresses this phenomenon. Romans 1:24 says “ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever!” They key here is they exchanged worship of the Creator, God, for worship of the creature, or creation. Worship of the universe, or cosmos, is, in God’s eye, no better than the worship of wooden idols, trees or animals.

God gave them up because he left plenty of evidence that there is a creator. Romans 1:19 says “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

In other words, the beauty and intricacy of creation speaks to the qualities of the creator, particularly his eternal power and divine nature. No one without great power could create the universe and no one could keep it going unless his power is eternal. No one could create all this unless he is divine, for man cannot do it.

Thomas Jefferson, a Deist, recognized this. He said, in an 1823 letter to John Adams:

". . . I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the Universe, in it's parts general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of it's composition. The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces, the structure of our earth itself, with it's distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere, animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles, insects mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organised as man or mammoth, the mineral substances, their generation and uses, it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe that there is, in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, . . ."

What is the result of man’s rejection of God in the face of the evidence he left in creation? The result is God’s wrath. The Bible says it this way: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Men and women who reject God will incur his wrath.

Wrath is extreme anger and fury. We are not to have it. God has the right to it.

God has displayed his wrath on several occasions recorded in the Bible, always as a result of men and women rejected him. The first example is the sin of Adam and Eve, rejecting the command of God and following Satan’s advice. God banished them from his presence in the Garden, cursed the ground and imposed death on them and the whole human race.

In the time of Noah, God expressed his wrath on the wickedness of men and women by destroying the earth in a flood.

God expressed his wrath on Israel, who had rejected God by practicing idolatry, by letting them be conquered and taken into captivity in Babylon. He even let the Babylonians destroy his temple.

God expressed his wrath on Israel again, for their rejection of Christ, by letting the Romans destroy Jerusalem and the Temple and kill a million or so people.

All of these are types of the ultimate expression of God’s wrath which will occur at the final judgment. The book called “Revelation” shows God expressing his wrath partially in increasingly terrible ways to get man’s attention. Then, finally, those who reject him are banished from his presence like Adam and Eve, but to everlasting torment, not to a cursed earth.

This, of course, means we are all in trouble. We have all rejected God at some point and refused to follow his rules. The Bible calls that sin and says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So, we all become objects of God’s wrath. Yikes! What can we do?

The good news is God provided a way out. He provided a way to punish sin and allow us to escape his wrath. He did that by sending his son, Jesus, to take the punishment for us. He put our sin on Jesus when he died on the cross. If we believe that he is God’s son and did in fact die for our sin, and commit to follow him, we receive the benefit of his death for us. Then we avoid God’s wrath and, instead, experience his love and eternal life.

The universe, the creation, will not save you. The creation will not respond to your worship.

The Creator demands it.

HUMOROUS EMAIL

God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael, the archangel, found him, resting on the seventh day.

He inquired, "Where have you been?"

God smiled deeply and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look, Michael. Look what I've made."

Archangel Michael looked puzzled, and said, "What is it?"

"It's a planet," replied God, and I've put life on it. I'm going to call it Earth and it's going to be a place to test Balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, "I'm still confused."

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth. "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor. Over here I've placed a continent of white people, and over there is a continent of black people. Balance in all things."

God continued pointing to different countries. "This one will be extremely hot, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a land area and said, "What's that one?"

"That's Texas, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful mountains, rivers and streams, lakes, forests, hills, and plains.
The people from Texas are going to be handsome, modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to travel the world. They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, high achieving, carriers of peace, and producers of good things."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then asked, "But what about balance, God? You said there would be balance."

God smiled, "I will create Washington, D.C. Wait till you see the idiots I put there."

He Lives: Comparative Views of the End Times (Lesson 2-2)

Here is a good summary of the various theological positions regarding the end times, or in theological latin speak, eschatological views, from my friend David Heddle.

He Lives: Comparative Views of the End Times (Lesson 2-2)

Now, this is a parking garage. Bring it to Fort Worth.