It’s my son’s birthday! He was born on the coldest New Year’s Eve in MN history. The record still holds as far as I can tell. In his honor, it’s getting cold tonight, but not like the night he was born.
Happy New Year, everyone!
I’ve done a much better job blogging this year than last. This blog started in August 2005 and was up to 103 posts by the end of 2006 … not exactly prolific. Of course, I was still trying to keep the Xisti bulletin board going then and was writing regular articles for Xisti. That’s my excuse for the low output, anyway. I was also much more cautious about what I posted, trying not to offend anyone. What a waste of time that is! I so appreciate Karen and Rachel, who let me be me without getting offended. They will disagree with me at times, but don’t expect me to change and I really value that.
David cleared his bookshelf and gave me three books that I read previously, but I had to take another look. That slowed down my other reading, but it was good to jump into a little fiction for a change.
I’m still working on my study of 1st Corinthians. I’m halfway through Chapter 12. Chapter 13 is the famous love chapter and should go well, but the rest of the book is pretty deep. I’m expecting to finish around the end of February. Which brings me to another question:
I set myself a task of doing deep study of Paul’s Epistles. At the current rate of study, and based on the books yet to be studied, I will probably finish the task in another two years. I guess I am wondering if this is the most profitable study I could be doing? I won’t decide for a while, because I want to finish Corinthians. There are some meaty subjects covered in 2 Corinthians that I don’t want to pass by. So I won’t decide about this before summer, but the question is simmering. Part of what drives this question is the fact that there are many books I would like to be reading, but this study takes much time and the books for it are costly. Both things preclude reading and purchasing other books.
(Steve, you can jump in with an opinion if you want)
OK, so that was the second Huckabee video I posted and you probably think I am running red. Most states, whether “red” or “blue” in the past, are purple today. The divisions are less clear cut. People vote more for the person than the party. That is mostly a good thing.
So I am looking at the field of contenders in both parties and I can find a lot to dislike, a lot to rant about and sometimes something to approve. I even find a few things to smile about … like the video below. 
The great thing is that people feel they can have fun without offending Huckabee. I can’t imagine this kind of thing on Rudy Guiliani’s site, or Hillary’s or Mitt’s. But to be sure I checked. They have nothing of the kind.
I’ve been getting a bunch of gotchas from my ESV feed. Today’s doesn’t “get” me, but it does remind me anew that we have been given a commission which most of us fail. I’m repeating the verse here because it goes away tomorrow when a fresh gotcha will appear. 
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2.38)
Just a few verses further in the chapter we read that “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2.41) I wonder how many souls will be added today?
Our Christmas snow lasted 24 hours and accumulated 4.5 inches of new snow. Depending on who you listen to, we have 16 – 18 inches on the ground. We had a few warm days and a lot of snow melted.
I feel out of sync, like Christmas should have been Sunday. Holidays seem to goof up my internal clock. I’m not ready for it to be 2008, but the clock isn’t waiting for me. 
It was a wonderful day. We started with breakfast at my daughters house. When we started home, snow began falling and continued through the day. It was one of those beautiful snows where the flakes glisten like diamonds. I thought it was wonderful, but I wasn’t the one out snow blowing the drive.
We finished the day with dinner here for David, Stephanie and her mom and siblings, and Steve, Sr. Now I sleep.
Jimmy and I went for a ride in the snow yesterday. Jimmy loves playing in the snow. Ice under the snow is not as much fun, but Jimmy handles it pretty well. And yesterday he showed me how tough he can be. There was this big monster SUV hog who thought he owned the road. He didn’t see, or ignored Jimmy’s turn signal. He rode right up behind Jimmy, forcing a turn at a faster speed than was smart. Jimmy hit an icy patch and slid (cause he didn’t have his ice skates on, of course). He slid right up to a snow bank beside the driveway.
At this point, most little SUVs would have been stuck, but good. But not Jimmy. When asked to plow on through, he did it with ease, bringing me safely onto the driveway while casting a baleful look at that nasty, rude giant that barreled right past us.
I really wish CNN would give it up. Their “religious” programming is worse than the History Channel and that’s pretty bad indeed. Tonight they brought out an old program, gave it a new title and let it run … 3 times.
The media seems to have a predictable formula for such things. They try to tell the story in a sensational way with twists that add a lot of skepticism and then bring in people who are questionable experts at best to add commentary.
I would be so shocked, not to mentioned awed, if they would present something that isn’t full of innuendo and if they would bring some real scholars to discuss the questions they try to raise.
*sigh* Patience, I tell myself. A few more days and they won’t feel the need to air such things until Easter. And then I sigh again as I realize Easter comes early this year.
I have to admit being greatly surprised to find an editorial on the CNN site by Roland Martin that is definitely outside the borders of political correctness CNN usually adheres to. This was all the more surprising in view of the negative commentary by multiple personalities at CNN because they perceived that the bookcase in Mike Huckabee’s Christmas ad was a cross. Decide for yourself … I didn’t see anything threatening about the ad.
I might try to talk David into something like this for next Christmas.
Our church goes Christmas Caroling in our community every year. Last Sunday, the 16th, was the date for this year’s event. The weather cooperated … temps in the 20s and light snow flurries … perfect for setting the mood. We had two groups out caroling and a team at church preparing hot drinks and snacks for their return.
It is always good to see how well people respond to this. The teams returned to church with great enthusiasm and wonderful stories of the comments people made. This is such a good way to share the blessings of the Christmas season with our neighbors. And we have fun too!
This is the kind of thing I really miss being able to do, but my back just won’t allow me to walk that much. 
I just read the full text of the HR 1955 which was passed by the House and forwarded to the Senate. You might want to do the same.
It makes me hesitant to say much, especially on the internet, which is targeted in the bill as a source of dissemination. Ugh!
It is more than a little disconcerting when a news junkie like me discovers that something has happened without any coverage from major sources. I did a search on CNN and found nada … searched Google News and found coverage by small town papers and independents and more than a few blogs. Nothing from the big guys. What’s the deal? HR 1955 is more than a little scary. I am appalled that every representative from MN voted in favor of it.