And the snow came down

Our house at about 5:30 pm

At 5:30, David noticed that the snow that had been falling lightly all day had increased in intensity. So I grabbed my camera and David and I went outside to take a few pictures of what appeared to be the beginning of the big storm.

Then we ate dinner. While we were eating dinner, we heard the weather forecaster say that this storm is likely to be the biggest snow/blizzard in history for the Washington, DC, area. Multiple newscasters echoed the call for folks to stay off the streets saying that driving would be “life threatening” and “extremely dangerous and should be avoided at all cost.”

Our house at about 5:30 pm

So at about 7:00 we went back outside to take a few more pictures and to shovel the front walk. There was much more snow than before. It took me about 1 minute to shovel the walk but when I finished and turned around, the end of the walk where I had begun was already completely covered again.

The view from our front porch at around 7:00 pm

Then, as I worked on these photos that I took at 5:30 and 7:00, the newscaster said that Dulles Airport (our local weather center) reported 7 inches of snow on the ground with the snow falling at a rate of 3 inches per hour. Yikes!

The streetlamp near our house at about 7:30 pm.
No wonder the snow is piling up so quickly.

 

Snow my goodness!

O

ver the years, as I have driven in the Washington, DC, area, I have learned that driving around here can be very dangerous. But with the forecast snow storm (30 inches at least) that has begun and is supposed to continue through late tomorrow, the weather reports have become more and more frightening.

As I began to shut down my computer for the end of the work day, I turned on the news and saw the weather man say, “travel in the Washington, DC, area over the next few days will be life threatening”! Life threatening! My goodness. I mean ... snow my goodness (another phrase from the newscaster).

And, yeah, we live under that bubble.

 

My all-time favorite band

A Simple Life

Sweet Home Alabama

That Ain’t My America

 

That woman is da bomb!

Truth is stranger than fiction. How true it is—especially in today’s world of moral free-fall, postmodern theology and debate, and religious terrorism.

Here’s the newest way to hide explosives, now all the rage for female suicide bombers: WorldNet Daily Bosom Bombers: Women have explosive breast implants

 

No Condemnation

I

shared these thoughts with a young friend yesterday. I know a lot of us struggle with the same thing, so I thought I’d blog about it today. Romans 8:1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Later in that same chapter, Paul says, What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God's right hand, pleading for us.

Elsewhere in scripture, Satan is called, “the accuser of the brethren.” Most often, the fiery darts that the enemy sends are thoughts of condemnation. Don’t confuse condemnation, which comes from the enemy, with conviction, which comes from the Holy Spirit. Conviction points us to a specific sin, and forces us to deal with that sin according to biblical principles. Condemnation is that sense of being totally useless to our Lord, a “good for nothing loser.” The enemy uses this tool as a “demotivator,” crippling us in our fulfillment of the “good works He has foreordained for us to do” (Eph. 2:10).

Here are a couple of music videos that will remind you to listen to the voice of the Shepherd; that same voice that told Peter, the one who failed Him miserably, to “feed my sheep.” He tells us to forget what is behind and press on. May you be encouraged today to remember that the voice of condemnation is not the voice of the Shepherd speaking to you!

 

Obama adresses the Democrats

T

oday, President Barack Obama addressed his fellow Democrats. His address was in the form of a pep-talk, presumably to cheer up the hapless group of autocrats regarding recent stinging defeats at the polls.

Seeing as the president’s recent State of the Union address lasted well more than an hour, I thought I would summarize what I’ve heard from the president so far as he tries to encourage his fellow Democrats to hold the faith—that would be the faith in the stupidity of the American electorate and the faith in the Democrats need to force their agenda on us:

Summary

It’s nice to meet with you today. I’d like to remind you that we knew this first year would be a particularly difficult year to govern. We inherited a bunch of bad stuff from the terrible last president, Bush. In fact, President Bush waged expensive wars. President Bush spent a lot of money in economic recovery and bailouts. President Bush spent lots of money in tax reductions. And we have worked hard to overcome where those terrible Bush policies have brought us by continuing all of these policies, except at a much greater level of spending.

You should feel good that you have been able to continue the disastrous Bush policies, but can now describe them as “fiscal responsibility.”

You have also had to fight the mean and nasty Republicans who have been so not-nice in legislative committee and on the floor. You have had to vote to break more filibusters than were voted on during all of the decades between 1200 BC and 1779. That’s 2,979 years worth of obstruction that the mean Republicans have packed into one year.

Bush did really bad stuff. Everything that looks bad in the world right now was caused by Bush. Bush was a failure. Bush was mean. Bush, Bush, Bush, Bush. And furthermore, Bush. And don't forget that Bush.

Thank you for your time and for making this administration the most transparent and most effective administration in the history of civilization, in spite of the fact that we inherited from Bush lots of really bad stuff that led to everything bad that has happened in the entire world this past year. Remember that were it not for us, all of those bad things that Bush caused would be way worse.

 

The Snowy Day

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esterday’s snow storm—the fifth snow storm of the season that resulted in significant accumulation—was as beautiful as the previous ones. But I think I’m ready for spring.

Here’s the view out of our bedroom window that we woke up to this morning.

 

Another snow storm?

This video is quite poor. I took it on my cell phone, and the quality just isn’t that great. But I had to run out and capture a video of the fifth snowstorm of the season. Virginia just does not normally get much snow. But it has been continual this winter. And they’re forecasting another pretty big snow storm this time. I wish you could see the snow better in this video. It was actually really coming down hard and is forecast to continue until tomorrow morning at around 4:00 with six inches of accumulation.

 

Blog Header - February 1, 2010

I stopped in front of the capitol building on my way in to work yesterday morning to take this picture. I love the look of the sky brightening behind the lighted capitol dome as the sun begins to rise.

Happy February from Washington, DC

G

od blesses us in many ways. But many times we need to look for those blessings and not take them for granted, and working in Washington, DC, is one of those blessings that I am prone to overlook.

Although the traffic and the lifestyle in the Washington, DC, area are both terrible annoyances, the plethora of jobs keeps many people in town even when they might look for a less stressful location to set up shop. But the blessing of living and working in the DC area is the same thing that brings so many tourists here. This city is dripping with history—the history of our nation. And because this is the seat of the federal government, everything here is paid for by taxes. Thus, everything is open to the public. After all, that’s who pays for it.

So I can go to the many Smithsonian museums. I can go to the Library of Congress and check out any book that has ever been published anywhere on the planet in all of history. I can visit the monuments, and the parks, and the scenic drives. And I can do all of it other than the drives without getting in my car. Everything is within walking distance of my office and it is a wealth of history and education.

As I drove past the Capitol building this morning, it hit me how blessed I am to be working here and living so close. So I pulled over and took a couple pictures of the Capitol. I hope you enjoy them. And I hope you get to visit Washington, DC, some day—if you’re not already one of my neighbors.

Here it is—the Capitol Building at about 6:00 am today: