Vick Perspective

I'm a bit tired now of hearing 24-7 Michael Vick news. I am as disgusted with what he did as anyone; no animal deserves to be treated in those ways. I wonder, however, why we get so up-in-arms as Americans over the mistreatment of animals and yet turn a blind eye to the unborn babies killed each year?

Just musing.

Byzantine Text of John

The Byzantine Text of John is now on-line. The project, primarily produced by Dr. Rod Mullen, has been in the works for some time. One of the Church Fathers used in the apparatus is Chysostom. As I was finishing my dissertation on Chrysostom's text of John, Dr. Mullen and I corresponded several times. I sent him the work I had completed up to that point [too many mistakes in it, I'm afraid. Those mistakes have been corrected and hopefully will be in book form in the next year.], and he compared my work with his, using that comparsion for Chrysostom's witness to the 4th Gospel.

The text and information relating to it can be found at:

http://www.iohannes.com/

The IGNTP latest edition on John is also out.

The New Testament in Greek IV/ the Gospel According to St. John: Volume Two the Majuscules (New Testament Tools and Studies)by U. B. Schmid (Editor), D. C. Parker (Editor), W. J. Elliott (Editor), American and British Committees of the I (Editor)
List Price:$239.00Hardcover: 558 pages
Publisher: Brill Academic Pub (August 15, 2007)Language:
EnglishISBN-10: 9004163131
ISBN-13: 978-9004163133

[The above from an e-mail I received from Dr. William Warren]

Man I wish this wasn't $239!

Finally,

There is a little debate going on the Johannine Byzantine text on the Evangelical Text Criticism blog that you might be interested in.

http://evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/

Crusade

We finished the North Greenville Stadium Crusade this week. The crowds were a bit hindered, especially on Monday and Tuesday due to the record-breaking heat. The last night of the crusade made it all worthwhile, however. We had at least 50 people saved. Tony Nolan preached a powerful message. We had other great messaged during the week. My favorite was from evangelist Len Turner, who shared a great word on heaven.

I found it interesting that each night as the preacher was wrapping up his sermon and going into the invitation that geese would fly over, making the noises that geese make. Spiritual warfare is alive and well!

I had the privilege of sharing the gospel with two high school students on Wednesday night during the invitation. They were the among the many young people who gave their hearts to Christ.

Ankiel

During last night's Cardinals game I saw an outstanding story of perseverance. Rick Ankiel, who is probably one of the biggest pitching prospect busts in history, found himself back in St. Louis-this time in right field. Ankiel's makeover is truly one of the most remarkable I've ever seen. His story has a great ending too--a three-run homer in the 7th that gave the Cardinals some breathing room against San Diego.

What this teaches I think is that if you want something bad enough and are willing to persevere no matter the critics, good things can happen!

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20070809&content_id=2140369&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl

Great Site

Here is a great site for pictures of Bible Lands. You need to bookmark this one.

http://www.bibleplaces.com/index.htm

Thanks to the Dave Black blog for pointing this one out.

One More!

Mamaw and her great-grandchildren. The group grows!

Family Party!

Mamaw with her grandchildren. Only one is missing.

[Front from l to r: Cousin Linda, Mamaw, and my sister Susan. Back from l to r: Brothers Dave, Rob, John, and me].

#90

Happy 90th Mamaw! We recently travelled to Missouri for a big birthday bash for my grandmother, Mary Hogue. I think we surprised her. We had a birthday party at her church fellowship hall.

Missouri

We're looking forward to going to Missouri tomorrow. On Saturday the family will gather to celebrate my maternal grandmother's 90th birthday. Some Bill's barbecue, Causbie's bakery products, and Stawberry's ribs are in my future!!

Fairview Call

Yesterday Fairview extended a call for my family and me to serve there by unanimous vote. It was the culmination of what has been the most unusual times of my life. When we arrived in South Carolina last year, in no way was I looking to pastor a church. In the back of my mind I hadn't ruled it out forever, but I was looking for many years at North Greenville. God had other plans.

Only God can take a guy from Texas to a church via a university. His ways are certainly greater than our ways! Pray for us as we begin this journey officially on August 1. Fairview is a great church with God-given opportunity. An open-door is before us. My prayer is that we'll go through it.

Happy Birthday!

Lordy, Lordy look whose no longer 40!!

Lesa is officially AARP eligible.

Muslim-Christian 'Priest'

There is some recent news about an Episcopal priest's identity crisis in Seattle.

http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=972

Misplaced Priorities

More evidence is in that suggests much different priorities for married couples. The Pew Research Center survey on marriage and parenting found that the percentage of Americans who consider children "very important" to a successful marriage has dropped again. Couples cite the sharing of household chores as pivotal. Just 41% view children as important while chore-sharing was cited by 62% of the couples.

I suppose making sure the right person vacums or washes the clothes is all-important to a marriage. What happened to raising a family?

Psalms 127:3 (HCSB) "Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord, children, a reward."

Mormons as "Christians"

An interesting debate is taking place now on beliefnet.com about Mormonism. If you're interested click on the link below:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/blogalogue/mormondebate/

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th everyone. It will be a sunny, perfect day in South Carolina. We had a great July 4th celebration at Fairview on Sunday. There was a stirring musical by the choir and a fireworks display that was as well done as any I've seen. There were hundreds of people in attendance. As far as today is concerned, it is grill and chill!

Churches Marketing Hollywood

James Smith has an interesting take on churches marketing movies in an editorial found in the Florida Baptist Witness.

http://www.floridabaptistwitness.com/7536.article

I am always a bit uncomfortable telling my people to go to a certain movie because Hollywood's overall depiction of Christianity is anything but exemplary. "Facing the Giants," and "Passion of the Christ" are the two exceptions. When I saw the promotion of "Evan Almighty" by some churches I was VERY uncomfortable. We need to be careful.

CBF Counting

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship's counting practices have been called into question. See the following article:

http://www.bpnews.org/bpnews.asp?id=25983

If a church affiliated with the SBC has a few members give to the CBF, should that church be counted as a CBF church? I think not.

Confused and Dazed

This is a wonderful example of confused and dazed in religious America. An Episcopal priest in Seattle is a practicing Muslim. Read this one and scratch your head in disbelief!

http://www.bpnews.org/bpnews.asp?id=25959

This truly is "inclusion run amok."

Retirement

This is where I intend to spend my retirement!!!

Hilton Head

My two favorite girls!