Additional quote of the day

I just had to add this one today—hat tip to SimpleGifts3 of Indelible Grace:

Host introduces Joe Biden as "John McCain"

Quote of the day

American Medical Association – Geniuses

"Many groups in America face health risks: children, adolescents, the elderly, the homeless, women. The AMA is committed to speaking out on their behalf ... establishing programs and policies that protect and defeat their rights to a long and healthy life."
—the AMA

From an American Medical Association letter sent to resident doctors

Not bad, for government work...

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?'

Yuppieman

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, 'Sure, Why not?'

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with e-mail on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'

Cowboy Bud (okay, Cowboy David)

'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?'

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'

'You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government', says Bud.

'Wow! That's correct,' says the yuppie, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing required' answered the cowboy. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew,to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a herd of sheep. Now, give me back my dog.

Blog Header - October 7, 2008

Today's blog header photo was taken just about two years ago. One of the adult Sunday school classes in our church (Old Forest Road Baptist Church) organized a fall colors hike up the Peaks of Otter. This is a mountain near Lynchburg, Virginia, and it is gorgeous. It was quite a hike up the side of the mountain—with actual rock climbing involved in some areas of the path. We were all exhausted by the time we reached the summit. But it was well worth it.

What a glorious planet God has given us. I can't wait to see what he's been working on for the past 2,000 years since Jesus told us, "I go to prepare a place for you."

You MUST see this movie!

My wife and I don't go to the theater very often. For the cost of a couple theater tickets, you can purchase the DVD and watch the movie over and over—as long as you're willing to wait for a few months to see the movie. But this past weekend we decided to go to the theater to see the new movie Fireproof, and what a great decision that was!

"Fireproof" was produced by the same church that produced "Facing the Giants." Facing the Giants was an enjoyable movie, even though the acting was not up to the quality level of the Hollywood productions. But the storyline was so compelling that the sub-par acting faded into nonexistence as soon as the story took hold (about a quarter of the way through the movie.

The acting is not nearly as noticeable in Fireproof. Kirk Cameron plays the lead role and, I believe, had a great impact on the acting abilities of the other players. No one, including Cameron, received any pay for their work in this movie. The whole movie was made on a budget of $500,000. And it is a phenomenal movie. With just over 800 theaters showing the movie in its first weekend, it pulled in the second highest ticket sales (more than $11 million in sales) behind the top-ranking movie, which was showing in more than 3,000 theaters. And it deserved to do better.

Clips, trailers, and more:

This movie doesn't pull any punches and if you are married and honest (and are a Christian), you will be convicted and even humiliated by what you have done wrong in your marriage. And you will be motivated to love your spouse, to correct your actions, and to recommit to your vows to your spouse and to God. If you are not a Christian, you may not understand much. But I pray that you will understand the movie's presentation of God's love and the absolute necessity of a relationship with Jesus Christ to be the foundation for human love to each other.

During the movie, the audience response was inspiring. I saw some couples move their children from between them so that they could sit next to each other. After the movie I saw multiple couples embracing and talking privately. As we left the theater, we saw a friend who had also just seen the movie with her husband. As I quickly wiped my tear-stained cheeks, I noticed that her face also showed evidence of tears. My son said, "I thought Mom was a fire hydrant" because she was crying so hard during the movie.

I don't know what else to say other than you MUST see this movie! Hire a baby sitter, plan a special night out together, grab your wife or husband and go see this movie. Now. While it's still in the theaters. It will be one of the best things that you could do for your marriage, for your church, for your community ... for yourself.

• Movie Review from Plugged In Online.

• Additional resources from FireproofMyMarriage.com
• Previous post on Kirk Cameron's commitment to not kiss anyone other than his wife—even in movies.

To-do list

The Imitation of Christ, Thomas à Kempis

Study also to guard against and to overcome the faults which in others very frequently displease you. Make the best of every opportunity, so that if you see or hear good example you may be moved to imitate it. On the other hand, take care lest you be guilty of those things which you consider reprehensible, or if you have ever been guilty of them, try to correct yourself as soon as possible. As you see others, so they see you.

This past week has been extremely full and busy. I have had very little time to attend to myself. And the weekend looks every bit as busy as the week has been.

So, hoping that I could find a little bit of quiet time in which to relax early this morning, I grabbed my copy of The Imitation of Christ, opened it to a random portion and began reading. And I found something that I obviously need to add to the top of my to-do list.

My pastor has talked from the pulpit about those people that just tend to rub you the wrong way. He encourages us to pray for them and to not allow bitterness to rise against a brother or sister in Christ. And he always reminds us that we are that person for someone else. That's a good thing to remember.

So much for the relaxation.

Modern voting technology

Probably not intended as a warning but, nevertheless, quite funny.

Blog Header - October 3, 2008

This blog header photo is actually a composite of two different photos that seemed to go well together.

The photo of the girl was taken in the downtown area of Lynchburg on John Lynch Day. This was the anniversary of the day that John Lynch completed his unique rope guided barge voyage across the rapids of the James River, allowing people access to the area of the mountain that is now known as Lynchburg. This young lady (and her family) dressed in period garb for the celebration. I took quite a few pictures of this family. They all looked great. And they said that the mom of the family had made all of the outfits from scratch. Pretty talented.

The other photo that contributed to this composite was a photo of the house in the background. The house is a fabulous old mansion known as Point of Honor. It sits atop one of the hills on the edge of the city of Lynchburg. During the War Between the States, it was the home of a local doctor who treated the wounded soldiers wearing both gray and blue. When questioned about his treatment of Yankee soldiers, this doctor said that he considered it a "point of honor to treat anyone in need." Thus the name of this house.

I took the Point of Honor photo about two weeks after the photo of the girl in period garb. When I realized how good they would look together, I layered the two and added a shadow cast from the girl onto the walkway and the grass. I kind of like the result. The sepia toning was the final touch and provided the final needed ingredient in this photo's recipe.

Quote of the day

Casey Stengel – Genius

"Line up alphabetically by height."
—Casey Stengel

Casey Stengel, baseball great

Martin Luther on bold proclamation of controversial truths

Martin Luther changed the world when his extremely controversial ideas were distributed by the new technology of the printing press. God used this man who was so grounded in scripture that he was willing to face death rather than recant to launch the visible reformation of the Church. And his impact is still felt strongly today.

One of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther is his statement about the importance of standing for not just truth but for controversial truth:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ.

I don't believe there has been a time more ripe than now for the repetition of what happened in Martin Luther's day. As the printing press allowed Luther's words to be distributed to the masses, the Internet today allows for the publication and distribution of thoughts and concepts in a way unimaginable just a decade earlier.

The technology is in place. The human inability and debauchery is in place. Now we need someone to step into the role that Martin Luther filled 500 years ago. May God raise such a person soon.