Whilin' Away the Hours

I've never done one of these...
Again, filched from Jessie:

1. What time is it? 1:59
2. Name that appears on your birth certificate: Barbara Ann Nesmith (hey hey we're the Monkees)
3.Nicknames: Nessie, Arthur, Stilts.
4. Number of candles that will appear on your next birthday cake: 50 (ouch!)
5. Date that you will blow them out: Dec 18, 'K, I'm cool for a year.
6. Kids: no, sadly. But I have 6 wonderful nieces & nephews and we all share a pew every Lord's Day! :)
7. Pets: Angus the proper Scots dog, Eleven, his royal catness, Pippin & Merry Parakeet, Fish the Beta and Snoopy Snail
8. Eye color: blue
9. Hair color: brown with lots of grey
10. Piercing: two holes per ear
11. Tattoos: I resisted as a teenager...I always wondered what a tummy tattoo would look like at age 50.
12. Favorite Activities: I'm an internet junkie but I love birding, movies, art, music, books, dinner with friends........
13. Favorite color: jewel tones...
14. Hometown: Don't have one. I was born in Des Moines but I've lived in Indianapolis, Chicago, New Orleans, New Jersey, Kansas City and finally, so far, Dayton.
15. Current residence: Well, Dayton.
16. Favorite food: Salad! I am known as the salad queen because of the killer salads I concoct.
17. Been to Africa or Australia: No. Maybe someday?
18. Been toilet papering: Somehow, in my youthful debauchery, I missed that one.
19. Loved somebody so much that it made you cry?: But of course.
20. Been in a car accident: oh yeah...nearly totaled my V Dub.
21. Croutons or bacon bits: More please.
22. Sprite or 7-up: Either. I'm not fussy.
23. Favorite movies: I hate this question because I love movies. All kinds of movies! To Kill A Mockingbird is my all time favorite but you name it, I've probably seen it and have an opinion about it.
24. Favorite Holiday: The Return To Standard Time. I die for an extra hour of sleep.
25. Favorite day of the week: The Lord's Day. I love to be in the company of the saints!
26. Favorite word or phrase: Ummm, I dunno.
27. Favorite toothpaste: Mentadent
28. Favorite restaurant: EL Meson One of the best restaurants in Dayton!
29. Favorite flowers: Purple Coneflowers...ask me tomorrow & I'll name another.
30. Favorite cola: Coke
31. Favorite T.V. shows: Northern Exposure
32. Favorite type of ice cream: Starbucks
33. Favorite Sesame Street Character: Wouldn't know...never watched it.
34. Disney or Warner Bros: Warner
35. Favorite fast food restaurant: Wendys
36. What color are your bedroom walls: off white :-|
37. How many times did you fail your driver's test: Nevah!
38. Who is the last person you got an email from before this?: My husband. He's at work now.
39. Have you ever been convicted of a crime: Yes, speeding in a school zone.
40. What single store would you choose to max out your credit card in: I hate to shop. But, maybe at a Porshe dealership.
41. What do you do most often when you are bored: I can't remember the last time I was bored! Life online is always exciting!
42. Name the person that you are friends with that lives the farthest away: Do my online Oz friends count?
43. Thing most people ask me: How's work?
44. Bedtime: 2 or 3
45. Who will respond the quickest?: n/a
46. Who is the person you sent this to that is least likely to respond: n/a>
47. Favorite sport: Dressage!!!
48. Last person (people) you went out to dinner with: Pastor & wife, Elder & wife, Sis-in -law & hubby, and one other couple from church.
49. Last movie you saw in theater: Hmmm...Minority Report?
50. How many broken bones: 2: ring finger (caught a ball wrong); collar bone (crashed a horse)
51. Going to the lake, would you rather ski or SeaDoo: I'd rather float on a raft.
52. Omitted for lack of a question: Jessie said it, I did it.
53. Favorite Pie: yeah, apple.
54. Favorite comic strip: Farside...wait, that's not a strip. Ummm, I don't get a paper so I don't know!
55. Time when you finished this: 2:47. OK, so I did other stuff while I did this!

So, I'm the last person on the planet to discover this site
and probably the last to hear James Jordan's lectures on paedocommunion. Well, that's OK 'cause they were sure worth the wait! I wish some of my credo-baptist friends would listen to this series! He makes such a great case for children at the Supper that infant baptism just becomes irrefutable.

I've got 3 pages of notes scribbled down. I really need to get a notebook for all my online listening adventures. Probably the one thought I'll remember is that we are never told to understand the Supper, we are only told to do it.

I love Jordan's drawl...it makes him seem so accessible!

I guess the cat's got my tongue.
I hope I haven't run out of words permanently!

Actually, as soon as I finish writing this, I'm going to make myself an eggnog & Bacardi (thanks Duane) and listen to a lecture by N.T. Wright while I get a little work done.

My husband is going to pick up a Poppa Murphy's Pizza and we'll watch either Signs or Minority Report while we pig on pizza.

Has anyone had Poppa Murphy's? Easily the best pizza in the world! They are sold from a little store assembled but uncooked so they are half the price of a regular pizza and they are much better as well! Yum!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the new-born King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
With the angelic host proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem!

Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the new-born King!

Christ, by highest heaven adored;
Christ, the everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold him come,
Offspring of the Virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell;
Jesus, our Emmanuel!

Mild he lays his glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.
Risen with healing in his wings,
Light and life to all he brings,
Hail, the Sun of Righteousness!
Hail, the heaven-born Prince of Peace!

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home;
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring Seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head.
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore;
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine.

Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart

What would Christmas be
without a bit of exploitation?

Filched from Jessie:

"IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE QUIZ"
by Amanda Grace

A good essay
Someone posted this essay on the Hornes.org forum:

Covenantal Antithesis by, Robert R. Booth

I'm only about half way through reading it but thus far it is so good I just had to post it!

My Christmas present is purchased!
I just made my reservations to fly to Monroe. The best fare was through Hotwire.com so Rush, who advertises for them, is right. My times are awful though. I am, as I said, a nightowl but my flight leaves at 7am from Columbus, 1½ hrs. away! So, if I need to be at the airport 2 hrs early (are they still recommending that?) I'll need to leave Dayton at -gulp- 3:30am! I'm flying in on Saturday at the urging of my friends Amanda & Charles so I will have the opportunity to worship with Auburn on Sunday! I'm looking forward to that!

Amanda's parents have graciously offered the Dayton contingent hospitality. We will try not to Yankee up their home too much! ;-)

"Ya'll" aren't going to make us eat squirrel are you?

Our day...
I worked late Thursday night & got an early start (for me, the proverbial night owl) Friday morning so I am finished with work work until the day after Christmas. Now I only have shopping & housework to do.

So! Today, my husband & I went shopping for his Christmas present...a keyboard! I can't wait to have our home filled with music played live. He has narrowed his choices down to a few so it's only a matter of time before he makes a decision.

We also bought our Christmas tree. We wanted to get an early start this year but it didn't happen. We went to our usual supplier, a mom & pop Christmas tree farm about a mile or two away, where you cut your own tree. I could hear the trees screaming...no! No! Don't choose me! My husband heard a different song...choose me! Choose ME! Fa lala lala, lala la la...I think I like his hearing better than mine.

So, I have Saturday & Monday to finish my Christmas shopping, Tuesday to clean the house & buy the food and Wednesday to celebrate! Then, I work a few days, maybe go to my pastor's house for a New Years Eve party (maybe because my husband works that night & I'm not sure I want to drive home alone @ 2am) then work a few days and THEN I catch a flight to Monroe. THAT is my Christmas present! Can't wait!

Two posts below this one
about a fictitious interview, North cited "The Scots Confession"
Chapter 21 - The Sacraments by John Knox not the WCF

As the fathers under the Law, besides the reality of the sacrifices, had two chief sacraments, that is, circumcision and the passover, and those who rejected these were not reckoned among God's people; so do we acknowledge and confess that now in the time of the gospel we have two chief sacraments, which alone were instituted by the Lord Jesus and commanded to be used by all who will be counted members of his body, that is, Baptism and the Supper or Table of the Lord Jesus, also called the Communion of His Body and Blood. These sacraments, both of the Old Testament and of the New, were instituted by God not only to make a visible distinction between his people and those who were without the Covenant, but also to exercise the faith of his children and, by participation of these sacraments, to seal in their hearts the assurance of his promise, and of that most blessed conjuction, union, and society, which the chosen have with their Head, Christ Jesus. And so we utterly condemn the vanity of those who affirm the sacraments to be nothing else than naked and bare signs. No, we assuredly believe that by Baptism we are engrafted into Christ Jesus, to be made partakers of his righteousness, by which our sins are covered and remitted, and also that in the Supper rightly used, Christ Jesus is so joined with us that he becomes the very nourishment and food for our souls. Not that we imagine any transubstantiation of bread into Christ's body, and of wine into his natural blood, as the Romanists have perniciously taught and wrongly believed; but this union and conjunction which we have with the body and blood of Christ Jesus in the right use of the sacraments is wrought by means of the Holy Ghost, who by true faith carries us above all things that are visible, carnal, and earthly, and makes us feed upon the body and blood of Christ Jesus, once broken and shed for us but now in heaven, and appearing for us in the presence of his Father. Notwithstanding the distance between his glorified body in heaven and mortal men on earth, yet we must assuredly believe that the bread which we break is the communion of Christ's body and the cup which we bless the communion of his blood. Thus we confess and believe without doubt that the faithful, in the right use of the Lord's Table, do so eat the body and drink the blood of the Lord Jesus that he remains in them and they in him; they are so made flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone that as the eternal Godhood has given to the flesh of Christ Jesus, which by nature was corruptible and mortal, life and immortality, so the eating and drinking of the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus does the like for us. We grant that this is neither given to us merely at the time nor by the power and virtue of the sacrament alone, but we affirm that the faithful, in the right use of the Lord's Table, have such union with Christ Jesus as the natural man cannot apprehend. Further we affirm that although the faithful, hindered by negligence and human weakness, do not profit as much as they ought in the actual moment of the Supper, yet afterwards it shall bring forth fruit, being living seed sown in good ground; for the Holy Spirit, who can never be separated from the right institution of the Lord Jesus, will not deprive the faithful of the fruit of that mystical action. Yet all this, we say again, comes of that true faith which apprehends Christ Jesus, who alone makes the sacrament effective in us. Therefore, if anyone slanders us by saying that we affirm or believe the sacraments to be symbols and nothing more, they are libelous and speak against the plain facts. On the other hand we readily admit that we make a distinction between Christ Jesus in his eternal substance and the elements of the sacramental signs. So we neither worship the elements, in place of that which they signify, nor yet do we despise them or undervalue them, but we use them with great reverence, examining ourselves diligently before we participate, since we are assured by the mouth of the apostle that "whoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord."

Silly Scots. They actually believe that by Baptism we are engrafted into Christ Jesus. Humph! Must have been the Highlander Clans.

A Game for Rick
But he doesn't read my blog so he'll never see it.

Penguin Panic

In a piece depicting a fictitious interview
between Ronald Reagan's guardian and pastor called "The Excommunication of Ronald Reagan," Gary North writes this:

"GUARDIAN: If being denied access to the Lord's Supper is a
negative sanction for an adulterer, then it's also a
negative sanction for a Down's Syndrome victim.

PASTOR: But this isn't a negative sanction for the Down's
Syndrome victim.

GUARDIAN: Why not?

PASTOR: Because there has been no trial.

GUARDIAN: There doesn't need to be a trial. My point is
that the same negative sanction applies to both the Down's
Syndrome victim and the adulterer. If the sanction is the
same for one, it's the same for the other. It's not just
what the participants think it is. The Westminster
Confession of Faith is clear about this. It's right here
in Chapter XXI. Let me read it to you.

These sacraments, both of the Old Testament and
of the New, were instituted by God not only to
make a visible distinction between his people and
those who were without the Covenant, but also to
exercise the faith of his children and, by
participation of these sacraments, to seal in
their hearts the assurance of his promise, and of
that most blessed conjunction, union, and
society, which the chosen have with their Head,
Christ Jesus. And so we utterly condemn the
vanity of those who affirm the sacraments to be
nothing else than naked and bare signs. No, we
assuredly believe that by Baptism we are
engrafted into Christ Jesus, to be made partakers
of his righteousness, by which our sins are
covered and remitted, and also that in the Supper
rightly used, Christ Jesus is so joined with us
that he becomes the very nourishment and food of
our souls. . . .

Therefore, if anyone slanders us by saying that
we affirm or believe the sacraments to be symbols
and nothing more, they are libelous and speak
against the plain facts."

Today is my birthday
I can't believe I'm entering my 50th year. A half a century! It may seem so to every generation, but I feel as though I've witnessed one of the pivotal points of history in western culture. It was my generation that popularized post-modern culture. We were so idealistic! We were going to change the world; we would usher in the age of aquarius. Man, we did a hellova job, didn't we?

Some major events that I remember:
1953 - I don't remember, but they tell me I was born this year.
1962-U.S. astronaut John Glenn orbits the earth in a spacecraft. This is the first major historical event I remember. Amazing!
1962-The Cuban missle crisis occurs. This is the closest the U.S. has ever come to all out Nuclear War. The U.S. blockade on Cuba causes USSR to withdraw its missles from Cuba. We had air raid drills in grade school. In the event of nuclear attack we were to file out of our classrooms in an orderly manner & sit lined up against the walls with our heads covered by our arms. The motto was "duck & cover".
November 22, 1963-President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald. People were crying in the streets. I doubt that would happen today.
1964-The Beatles gain international fame as a rock band. I saw them on "The Ed Sullivan Show". Life would never be the same.
1965-President Lyndon Johnson quickly increases the number of troops in Vietnam. Vietnam was beginning to make it's way into my awareness. It was the first time war was televised. The horrors joined us in our livingrooms every evening.
1965-Race riots occur in Watts, Los Angeles. Things were really tense all over the country. We lived in New Orleans at the time and I remember that my father bought a shotgun for home protection.
1967-Antiwar protesters march on the Pentagon in protest. I began to identify with the sub-culture that spearheaded the antiwar movement. I was a little hippie in the making.
1968-Riots break out at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Dave Dellinger, Rennie Davis, Tom Hayden, Lee Weiner, and John Froines or "The Chicago 7" became my heros. Later, they would become insurance salesmen and State representatives.
1968-Robert Kennedy and Martin and Martin Luther King Jr. are assassinated. It seemed like the world was falling apart.
May 1969 - Woodstock. Oh, how I wanted to be there! Jimi Hendrix was awesome.
July 1969-The U.S. becomes the first nation to land astronauts on the moon, with Neil Armstrong being the first astronaut to step down onto its surface. This lead to his famous quote "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
1970-Rock stars Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix die of drug overdoses. This was a huge shock. In my twisted mind, they seemed to be martyrs.
1970-Four Kent State University students were killed in a Vietnam War protest by the National Guard. It really had become an us & them situation. We called them pigs. All authorities were pigs and we were strangers in a strange land.
January 26, 1971-At age 36, Charels Manson and 3 of his cult followers were found guilty of first degree murder in the 1969 slaying of actress Sharon Tate and 6 others. I felt betrayed. I thought I could trust anyone with long hair.
1972-A break-in at the Democratic headquarters sets off the Watergate Scandal. Yawn. Everyone knew Tricky Dick was a pig.
October 10, 1973-Vice President Spiro Agnew resigns and pleads no contest to charges of tax evasion on payments made to him by Maryland contractors when he was governor. Agnew was perhaps the poppa of all pigs.
1973-An energy crisis occurs. The first gas lines.
March 29, 1973-The last of the American forces finally leave Vietnam. We treated the soldiers shamefully.
August 9, 1974-Nixon resigned with Vice President Gerald Ford sworn in on the same day. Ford probably tripped on his way to the podium.
1977-The biggest ticket selling movie of all time, StarWars, is released. I took my parents to see it. My father slept through the whole movie.
November 4, 1979-Iranians seize the American Embassy in Tehran, taking 63 Americans hostage.
May 18, 1980-In Washington Mount St. Helens erupted in a violent blast estimated to be 500 times as powerful as the Hiroshima atomic bomb. I flew over Mt. St. Helens in 2000. I could still see the huge mud flows and fallen trees.
December 8, 1980-Former Beatle member John Lennon was shot and killed outside his apartment building in New York City. By now, I'd been a Christian for about 7 years. Lennon's death seemed like nothing more than a wasted life. It was still very sad. A Beatle was gone. We really are mortal.
March 30, 1981- President Reagan was shot in the chest by an unsuccessful assassin in Washington, DC as he was walking to his limousine following an address. The Secret Service men were amazing as they positioned their bodies between the threat & the Pres.
December 2, 1982-Dr. Barney B. Clark, a 61 year-old retired dentist, became the first recipient of a permanent artificial heart after a seven and a half hour operation.
1983-A group of Shiite Moslems bomb the U.S. embassy in Beirut.
January 28, 1986-Moments after liftoff the space shuttle Challenger explodes killing six astronauts and a New Hampshire teacher on board named Christa McAuliffie. I was at work but we had a little TV there. At first, no one was sure if the people on board were dead.
1987-A world stock market crash occurs. Black Monday.
1989-The Berlin Wall falls uniting communist East Germany and capitalistic West Germany. This was a great day for freedom and a celebration for the rest of the world. Thanks Ronnie.
January 1991-President Bush sends troops to the Persian Gulf in operation Desert Storm to free Kuwait. The war lasted only 42 days. I had the 6:30pm national news on. It was Peter Jennings. I heard it start live as ABC correspondents reported from their hotel room in Bagdad.
1991-The Soviet Union no longer existed, ending communism. This was the final end to the Cold War, since the Soviet Union could no longer support itself under communism. Thanks again Ronnie. You are a great man.
1992-The Rodney King riots occur in L.A.
1993-A 51 day siege of Waco, Texas ends in a fire storm. This was an outrage! It should never have happened
June 17, 1994-O.J. Simpson is chased down by the police in his white Bronco. This was the most watched thing on the air and wiped out the audience for the David Hasslehoff singing special. The trial was extensively publicized and the verdict sent waves of controversy throughout the U.S. What a sham.
1995-A car bomb destroys the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
1996-In the latest presidential election, Bill Clinton defeats Bob Dole. Black Tuesday.
Jan. 2000 - I got a computer and access to the internet.

THE END

THE CAMPERS AT KITTY HAWK

On December seventeenth, nineteen hundred and three, Bishop Wright of the United Brethren onetime editor of the Religious Telescope received in his framehouse on Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio, a telegram from his boys Wilbur and Orville who'd gotten it into Their heads to spend their vacations in a little camp out on the dunes of the North Carolina coast tinkering with a homemade glider they'd knocked together themselves. The telegram read:

SUCCESS FOUR FLIGHTS THURSDAY MORNING ALL
AGAINST TWENTYONE MILE WIND STARTED FROM LEVEL
WITH ENGINEPOWER ALONE AVERAGE SPEED THROUGH
AIR THIRTYONE MILES LONGEST FIFTYSEVEN SECONDS
INFORM PRESS HOME CHRISTMAS

The figures were a little wrong because the telegraph operator misread Orville's hasty penciled scrawl
but the fact remains
that a couple of young bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio
had designed constructed and flown
for the first time ever a practical airplane.

After running the motor a few minutes to heat it up I released the wire that held the machine to the track and the machine started forward into the wind. Wilbur ran at the side of the machine holding the wing to balance it on the track. Unlike the start on the 14th made in a calm the machine facing a 27 mite wind started very slowly. . . . Wilbur was able to stay with it until it lifted from the track after a forty-foot run. One of the lifesaving men snapped the camera for us taking a picture just as it reached the end of the track and the machine had risen to a height of about two feet. . . The course of the flight up and down was extremely erratic, partly due to the irregularities of the air, partly to lack of experience in handling this machine. A sudden dart when a little over a hundred and twenty feet from the point at which it rose in the air ended the flight. . . This flight lasted only 12 seconds bus it was nevertheless the first in the history of the world in which a machine carrying a man had raised itself by its own power into the air in full flight, had sailed forward without reduction of speed and had finally landed as a point as high as that from which it started.

A little later in the day the machine was caught in a gust of wind and turned over and smashed, almost killing the coastguardsman who tried to hold it down
it was too bad
but the Wright brothers were too happy to care
they'd proved that the damn thing flew.

When these points had been definitely established we at once packed our goods and returned home knowing that the age of the flying machine had come at last.

They were home for Christmas in Dayton, Ohio, where they'd been born in the seventies of a family who had been settled west of the Alleghenies since eighteen fourteen, in Dayton, Ohio, where they'd been to grammarschool and highschool and joined their father's church and played baseball and hockey and worked out on the parallel bars and the flying swing and sold newspapers and built themselves a printingpress out of odds and ends from the junkheap and flown kites and tinkered with mechanical contraptions and gone around town as boys doing odd jobs to turn an honest penny.
The folks claimed it was the bishop's bringing home a helicopter, a fiftycent mechanical toy made of two fans worked by elastic bands that was supposed to hover in the air, that had got his two youngest boys hipped on the subject of flight
so that they stayed home instead of marrying the way the other boys did, and puttered all day about the house picking up a living with jobprinting,
bicyclerepair work,
sitting up late nights reading books on aerodynamics.
Still they were sintere churchmembcrs, their bicycle business was prosperous, a man could rely on their word. They were popular in Dayton.
In those days flyingmachines were the big laugh of all the crackerbarrel philosophers. Langley's and Chanute's unsuccessful experiments had been jeered down with an I-told-you-so that rang from coast to coast. The Wrights' big problem was to find a place secluded enough to carry on their experiments without being the horselaugh of the countryside. Then they had no money to spend;
they were practical mechanics; when they needed anything they built it themselves.

They hit on Kitty Hawk,
on the great dunes and sandy banks that stretch south towards Hatteras seaward of Albemarle Sound,
a vast stretch of seabeach
empty except for a coastguard station, a few fisherman's shacks and the swarms of mosquitoes and the ticks and chiggers in the crabgrass behind the dunes
and overhead the gulls and swooping terns, in the evening fishhawks and cranes flapping across the saltmarshes, occasionally eagles
that the Wright brothers followed soaring with their eyes
as Leonardo watched them centuries before
straining his sharp eyes to apprehend
the laws of flight.

Four miles across the loose sand from the scattering of shacks, the Wright brothers built themselves a camp and a shed for their gliders. It was a long way to pack their groceries their tools, anything they hap-pened to need; in summer it was hot as blazes, the mosquitoes were hell;
but they were alone there
and they'd figured out that the loose sand was as soft as anything they could find to fall in.
There with a glider made of two planes and a tail in which they lay flat on their bellies and controlled the warp of the planes by shimmying their hips, taking off again and again all day from a big dune named Kill Devil Hill,
they learned to fly.

Once they'd managed to hover for a few seconds and soar ever so slightly on a rising aircurrent
they decided the time had come
to put a motor in their biplane.

Back in the shop in Dayton, Ohio, they built an airtunnel, which is their first great contribution to the science of flying, and tried out model planes in it.
They couldn't interest any builders of gasoline engines so they had to build their own motor.
It worked; after that Christmas of nineteen three the Wright brothers weren't doing it for fun any more; they gave up their bicycle business, got the use of a big old cowpasture belonging to the local banker for practice flights, spent all the time when they weren't working on their machine in promotion, worrying about patents, infringements, spies, trying to interest government officials, to make sense out of the smooth involved heartbreaking remarks of lawyers.
In two years they had a plane that would cover twentyfour miles at a stretch round and round the cowpasture.
People on the interurban car used to crane their necks out of the windows when they passed along the edge of the field; startled by the clattering pop pop of the old Wright motor and the sight of the white biplane like a pair of ironingboards one on top of the other chugging along a good fifty feet in the air. The cows soon got used to it.

As the flights got longer
the Wright brothers got backers,
engaged in lawsuits,
lay in their beds at night sleepless with the whine of phantom millions, worse than the mosquitoes at Kitty Hawk.

In nineteen seven they went to Paris,
allowed themselves to be togged out in dress suits and silk hats,
learned to tip waiters
talked with government experts, got used to gold braid and postponements and vandyke beards and thc outspread palms of politicos. For amusement
they played diabolo in the Tuileries gardens.

They gave publicized flights at Fort Myers, where they had their first fatal crackup, St. Petersburg, Paris, Berlin; at Pau they were all the rage,
such an attraction that the hotelkeeper
wouldn't charge them for their room.
Alfonso of Spain shook hands with them and was photographed sitting in the machine,
King Edward watched a flight,
the Crown Prince insisted on being taken up,
the rain of medals began.

They were congratulated by the Czar
and the King of Italy and the amateurs of sport, and the society climbers and the papal titles,
and decorated by a society for universal peace.

Aeronautics became the sport of the day.
The Wrights don't seem to have been very much impressed by the upholstery and the braid and the gold medals and the parades of plush horses,
they remained practical mechanics
and insisted on doing all their own work themselves,
even to filling the gasolinetank.

In nineteen eleven they were back on the dunes
at Kitty Hawk with a new glider.
Orville stayed up in the air for nine and a half minutes, which remained a long time the record for motorless flight.
The same year Wilbur died of typhoidfever in Dayton.
In the rush of new names: Farman, Blériot, Curtiss, Ferber, Esnault-Peltrie, Delagrange;
in the snorting impact of bombs and the whine and rattle of shrapnel and the sudden stutter of machine-guns after the motor's been shut off overhead,
and we flatten into the mud
and make ourselves small cowering in the corners of ruined walls,
the Wright brothers passed out of the headlines
but not even headlines or the bitter smear of newsprint or the choke of smokescreen and gas or chatter of brokers on the stockmarket or barking of phantom millions or oratory of brasshats laying wreaths on new monuments
can blur the memory
of the chilly December day
two shivering bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio,
first felt their homemade contraption
whittled out of hickory sticks,
gummed together with Arnstein's bicycle cement,
stretched with muslin they'd sewn on their sister's
sewingmachine in their own backyard on Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio,
soar into the air
above the dunes and the wide beach
at Kitty Hawk.

Excerpted from "The Big Money", part three of John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy ©1936, 1938 John Dos Passos.

I wish I could post the picture
of the Reformed Iraqi pastors but I can't. It's a small picture in a fundraising letter from MERF. Since I can't post the picture, I thought I'd post a link to an article from MERF about the history of the church in Iraq.

The Reformed Churches in Iraq

Pray for the Middle East Reformed Fellowship!

Did you know?
In the mid 19th century, Reformed missionaries brought the Arabic Bible and sound instruction to Iraq? Did you know that there is a small but vital Reformed community there? Since Iraq is a secular state, Christains enjoy governmental protection. They enjoy full privileges of freedom to worship. I am, at this moment, looking at a photograph of 13 Reformed Iraqi pastors. They are wearing sports shirts & ties, they are clean shaven or mustached, one has glasses. They are young to middle-aged. They may be husbands & fathers. They look a lot like my next door neighbors.

A denomination selector

Visit this and other SelectSmart.com selectors:
Christian Denomination Selector
by Mike Hopkins
What were your results?

I took the test twice. The first time I defined the questions the way I thought the writer of the test would have intended them. IOW, #11. Once saved, always saved (Eternal Security) means an individual decreed to eschatological salvation from before the foundation of the world cannot loose their salvation. Or, I interpret # 15. Baptism saves (or regenerates, or washes away sin) to mean that baptism guarantees regeneration. I came out OPC/PCA with second place going to Reformed Churches.

The second time I defined the questions the way I wanted them defined so that #11. Once saved, always saved (Eternal Security) means someone can be saved by virtue of "a decision for Christ" without regard for perseverance. # 15. Baptism saves (or regenerates, or washes away sin) now means that baptism actually confers the thing signified (union with Christ). Altering the intended meaning of the question probably skews the accuracy of the test but it's amusing to see what the results are!
My results:
#1 Episcopal/Anglican Church
#2 Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
#3 Presbyterian Church in America/Orthodox Presbyterian Church
#4 Reformed Churches
#5 Church of Christ
#6 Methodist/Weslyian Church
#7 Evangelical Lutheran Church
#8 Free Will Baptist
#9 Presbyterian Church USA
#10 Reformed Baptist

The Gospel is...
(A few random notes from this morning's sermon on Acts 10:34-43.)

The Gospel is eschatological. It is an inexorable movement of history in which the promised Messiah arrives and welcomes the outcasts into Covenant.
The Gospel is ecclesiastical. It is the establishment of the church.
The Gospel is judgment. It is the testimony that Christ is the one appointed to judge the living & the dead.
The Gospel is the living Word of God.. It is the preaching of union with Christ, not union with propositions & doctrine.
The Gospel is the establishment of a Kingdom.
1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3to grant to those who mourn in Zion--
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
4They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
5Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
6but you shall be called the priests of the LORD;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
7Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
8For I the LORD love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are an offspring the LORD has blessed.
10I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.

Isaiah 61

My husband
is upstairs whistling along with a Mozart horn concerto. He knows it by heart and inserts all the little trills & flourishes. When he listens he becomes completely immersed, taken up and away from the weariness of cursed creation. I love to hear him whistle because I know that when he is whistling, he is happy.

Air fares
It looks as though the carpool to Monroe our church group was planning has fallen through (at least for me...the guys may still drive down). So, since I feel as obessed as Roy Neary to have a Close Encounter of the Third Kind, I'm checking air fares. I have experience with Priceline.com and Hotwire.com but are there others which may be competetive? Are there secrets to getting the best deal?

If I only had a brain
I would've named my blog "A'whilin' Away the Hours." That way, I would've been at the top of the list...

Truth standing on it's head
My forum friend, Gilda, has put me onto a great series of sermons by Robert Rayburn of Faith Presbyterian Church, Tacoma, WA titled Reading the Bible For All It's Worth.

I haven't read the whole series yet but from what I have read, it promises to be excellent! Rayburn presents a "dialectical" hermeneutic that fairly rings with truth! I highly recommend!

I'm a happy camper!
For the past two worship services, our pastor has permitted us to sing Christmas hymns. This is a major step for him!

Why?
I don't necessarily enjoy revealing my ignorance but sometimes my question outweighs my pride. This is one of those times. Why has Andrew Sandlin bid Christian Reconstructionism farewell?

Why the Movement Stops
Saying goodbye to Christian Reconstructionism
P. Andrew Sandlin

I've heard hints and rumors but...I don't understand.

God's wings
An article in National Geographic several years ago provided a poignant picture of God's wings.*

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. One ranger found a bird, literally petrified in ashes, standing on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother's wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies. When the blaze arrived and the heat scorched her body, the mother remained steadfast. Because she had been willing to die, those under the cover of her wings would live.

Remember the One who loves you,
"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge." (Psalm 91:4)

*This came to me in an email. When he heard that I was skeptical, my husband checked Urban Legends and found nothing there pertaining to this story. It could be true; it might just be a story. Either way, it made me cry.

Courtesy of Kristen

The Ultimate *Which Harry Potter Character are You?* Quiz
brought to you by Quizilla
I have no idea what this means. Really.

Introducing...
Another new kid on the blog!

The Ivy Vine

Anne is a forum friend whom I've known as long as I've known Valerie!
Anne has the most unenviable job this time of year!

Ok, ok, Valerie's "Which Blogger"

1. Which blogger have you known longest online?
Yes, Valerie...at least two years. The RYM days were the beginning, then the Refugee Camp & now ABC plus a few others.

2. Which blogger have you known longest IRL?

No one

3. Which blogger have you spent the most time with IRL?
None so far but I'm trying to talk Amanda into blogging so she would be it, if she ever gets around it it!

4. Which blogger would you most like to meet IRL (that you haven’t met IRL)?
Valerie...'cause I love axE murderers.

5. Which blogger do you think has the best blog design?
Valerie's or Kristen's for girl stuff. For the guy thing, I like Mike's blog. Clean. Except fot the popups. I don't like popups.

6. Which blogger do you like most to argue with?
Hmm, I haven't argued with any bloggers yet but just give me time!

7. Which blogger makes you laugh the most?
Duane, of course.

8. Which blogger intimidates you the most?
Joel. I'm always intimidated by super-intelligent people. Actually, I'd be rendered speechless in the company of almost every blogger I've encountered because I'm a

9. Which blogger do you most wish would post more often?
House of Horne has been quiet for far too long...

10. Which blogger do you most wish would get a comment system?
Richard!

Back by popular demand!*
(Or, a few compatriots hatch a conspiracy to make Pentamom famous)
Self-Evaluation at 11 P.M.
The Nancy Rule
No self-evaluation after 10:30 pm
As Kelly said, "Soon, all women in America will be keeping The Nancy Rule, and we will be able to say, " Our Jane is responsible for this great good to society, and we were there when it began!"

*Valerie first blogged "The Nancy Rule"

I think Bono's been cloned!
Janah
Go to the music page & listen to "Creation's Molding Furnace" or "Wake of the Sun" and see if you agree.

And speaking of Lilliput

King Little of Lilliput has issued a decree:
Why We No Longer Call Ourselves "Reformed" or "Calvinists"

Ok, I realize this is old news, but so what? King Little has compiled an enjoyable list of quotes from Calvin regarding the extent of the atonement.*
Apparently, Calvin was no Calvinist so King Little has banished this heterodox Calvin from Lilliput!
The evidence:
"And, indeed, in the Second Epistle of Peter, Christ alone is mentioned, and there he is called Lord. But He means that Christ is denied, when they who had been redeemed by his blood, become again the vassals of the Devil, and thus render void as far as they can that incomparable price." [Commentary on Jude 4]
"Also we ought to have good care of those that have been redeemed with the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we see souls which have been so precious to God go to perdition, and we make nothing of it, that is to despise the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ." [Sermon on Ephesians 5:11-14]
"The four reasons, whereby Paul doth carefully prick forward the pastors to do their duty diligently, because the Lord hath given no small pledge of his love toward the Church in shedding his own blood for it. Whereby it appeareth how precious it is to him; and surely there is nothing which ought more vehemently to urge pastors to do their duty joyfully, than if they consider that the price of the blood of Christ is committed to them. For hereupon it followeth, that unless they take pains in the Church, the lost souls are not only imputed to them, but they be also guilty of sacrilege, because they have profaned the holy blood of the Son of God, and have made the redemption gotten by him to be of none effect, so much as in them lieth. And this is a most cruel offense, if, through our sluggishness, the death of Christ do not only become vile or base, but the fruit thereof be also abolished and perish ..." [Commentary on Acts 20:28]
"He makes this favor common to all, because it is propounded to all, and not because it is in reality extended to all; for though Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and is offered through God's benignity indiscriminately to all, yet all do not receive him." [Commentary on Romans 5:18]
"True it is that the effect of His death comes not to the whole world. Nevertheless, forasmuch as it is not in us to discern between the righteous and the sinners that go to destruction, but that Jesus Christ has suffered His death and passion as well for them as for us, therefore it behoves us to labour to bring every man to salvation, that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ may be available to them ..." [Sermon CXVI on the Book of Job (31:29-32)]
"The word many is not put definitely for a fixed number, but for a large number; for he contrasts himself with all others. And in this sense it is used in Romans 5:15, where Paul does not speak of any part of men, but embraces the whole human race." [Commentary on Matthew 20:28]

*I did not verify these quotes nor did I research their context.

War! There's War in Lilliput!
News Flash! Hot Off The Wires
KING BOMBO DECLARES WAR!
And he wants YOU to sign up!

"Friends,

In several recent Trinity Reviews we have reported on and discussed the growing apostasy in churches that have historically professed Reformed theology and the doctrines of grace.

Last year we published a small book by Mark Karlberg, a Westminster Seminary Th.D. grad, detailing how that seminary has been subverting the Gospel of justification by faith alone for at least 25 years.

Only one church, the small Reformed Presbyerian Church in the United States, has acted to mark out this apostasy, to name some of the men who are teaching a new gospel, and to call for their discipline by appropriate church courts. Their rebuke has been met with a chorus of criticism--not against the apostates, but against the RPCUS for their obedience to Scripture. And no church court with jurisdiction has rebuked or disciplined the offenders.

Much needs to be done to oppose this growing apostasy. Each new statement by one of its advocates needs to be answered, promptly and publicly. Sessions and congregations need to be informed of the dangers they face. Essays, tapes, and books need to be written. Conferences and meetings must be organized and held all over the country. Money must be raised.

If you are concerned and would like to help, please respond by sending in writing the following information:

Name
Addresses (mail and email)
Phone numbers
Fax numbers
Church affiliation and position
Areas of interest and expertise
Willingness to
(1)speak
(2)write
(3)donate funds for publications,
equipment, and wages
(4)organize meetings and conferences
(5)perform clerical tasks
(6)design and host websites
(7)host meetings
and so on.

Please let me hear from you soon. Please forward this email to anyone you know that is concerned about the growing apostasy and wants to help combat it. Thank you.

Cordially for the Gospel
Dr. John W. Robbins
Elder, Presbyterian Church in America
The Trinity Foundation
POB 68
Unicoi, Tennessee 37692
Jrob1517@aol.com
423.743.2005 fax"