say it ain't so Tony Stewart

You may have heard that President Obama will be "speaking" to our school children

Now (NASCAR) National Association for SOCIALIST CZAR Auto Racing, has jumped on the Obama band wagon to indoctrinate our kids.

Hey, Jeff Gordon, Leave Those Kids Alone.

MORE Garden Adventures: Farmers Market!!!

So I took the plunge and set up a table at my first ever Farmers' Market!!! Here's pics of my table, the market, and my first customer. It was not a financial success....YET. If you're in the area, check out the market which runs through October.O'Fallon Farmers Market

Garden Adventures with Val

So...I decided to divide some daylilies and expand flower beds on either side of our driveway. I still have to plant half the plants, and I'm done. Whew, it's been a lot of work...hopefully will pay off in the spring next year.
Also for your enjoyment, pics of the garden, including the basil that I'm going to sell at the farmer's market next week! Note the birdhouse gourd vines that are taking over the yard!

Coop in BRACES????

Yes, believe it or not, here he is. The orthodontists are recommending braces younger these days, supposed to be actually faster and easier in the long run as it leaves more space for the adult teeth to grow in straight. He also got a free t-shirt...get it? "Grill Repair??""

Good thing he likes his dairy...these pics also show how much his brother likes to copy him!

1 Timothy 5:8

It's old news that Mark Driscoll doesn't like stay at home dads.



But here is another take on what the Bible, including 1 Timothy 5:8, has to say about family roles.

"Some today understand Paul’s admonition that “if a man does not provide for his own, he is worse than an unbeliever” as a proof-text for the man-alone-as-breadwinner model (1 Timothy 5:8). The verse even has six male pronouns in many English translations. Yet Paul used the gender-neutral “someone” and “one’s own,” not “he/his.” And in the context he was speaking of widow-care. Ironically, the passage is more focused on women caring for mothers and mothers-in-law than on men providing (see 1 Tim 5:16). Imagine a culture with no nurses. Who bathes the patient? Paul’s talking about the family vs. the church caring for the elderly and infirm.

Questions about women’s economic contributions tell us something about our culture: We are rich. We may think we’re poor compared to Bill Gates, but more than two billion people live on less than two dollars a day. And I doubt if a single one of them wonders if it’s biblical for a woman to earn any income."

Theology

Baseball is just around the corner

Matthew 23:4-15,23-24 (The Message)

"Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and 'Reverend.'

"Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of 'Father'; you have only one Father, and he's in heaven. And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

"Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you'll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you're content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

"I've had it with you! You're hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God's kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won't let anyone else in either.

"You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.

"You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God's Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that's wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

Amos 5:18-24 (The Message)

Woe to all of you who want God's Judgment Day!
Why would you want to see God, want him to come?
When God comes, it will be bad news before it's good news,
the worst of times, not the best of times.
Here's what it's like: A man runs from a lion
right into the jaws of a bear.
A woman goes home after a hard day's work
and is raped by a neighbor.
At God's coming we face hard reality, not fantasy—
a black cloud with no silver lining.

"I can't stand your religious meetings.
I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That's what I want. That's all I want.

Quotable

Mix a good dose of ego addiction with Jesus, and the consequences are frightening. It causes ministers to build huge churches as a monument to their own ego, it causes people to go on television with their “unique ministry”, which is another term for “my ministry”. It causes people to write books, speak all over the world, abandon their families, their friends, and their neighborhoods so they can respond to the “great need”… which is really the need to be needed.

Think of all the churches in America right now that are supporting the egos of their ministers. Think of all the supporters of para-church organizations that are supporting the ego of their “founder and president.” Think of all the churches and organizations that are supporting the egos of their “internationally known speakers.”

The result is that the evangelical church is known more for its “big” churches and famous people than it is known for its Jesus.

-Mike Yaconelli (The Door Magazine, #125, October 1992)

Parenting

Parenting is God way of letting you know that you are not as important as you thought, and more important than you realize.