I WILL be posting Carnival this week (even though I've been mostly invisible on the web)...I'll post it Friday night and my address in in a page on the sidebar...

It's the "Beauty of Patience" - patience is both beautiful and a challenge...

A foundation of an old barn

This is on South Manitou Island - they used what they had; in this case it was not stones, like you might expect.

Dr. Helen interviews Glenn Sacks (if you care about the bad rap that too many men get in today's legal system...)

• Link to Dr. Helen's blog
• Link to Glenn Sacks
• Link to the interview

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The "top 50" dystopian movies of all time...

I think I may start from the bottom and work my way through...

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Mark Dever on complementarianism.

Of course there are issues more central to the gospel than gender issues.  However, there may be no way the authority of Scripture is being undermined more quickly or more thoroughly in our day than through the hermenuetics of egalitarian readings of the Bible.  And when the authority of Scripture is undermined, the gospel will not long be acknowledged.  Therefore, love for God, the gospel, and future generations, demands the careful presentation and pressing of the complementarian position.

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I don't generally like war movies (a blast from the past), but this movie was striking. From the "other side", regardless of which side was right or wrong, the scene when the beach was invaded made me think about what the soldiers must have felt.

Many of these men were drafted; they were not there by choice (thinking of the one who left behind his pregnant wife).

The futility that they must have felt when they saw the massive numbers of ships that were landing and the seemingly endless stream of troops on the beach.

The flip side is the Americans; landing, facing the machine guns in the caves. The need to face the mountain side, with spurts of gunfire.

As a Christian, I can imagine myself in the place of the Americans.

I know the outcome. Christ has already won the battle. There are other Christians all around me who are fighting the same battle that I am.

Like the fire from the caves, the flaming darts from the evil one are raining down. It is a battle - my temptations are not your temptations, yet there are no temptations that are not unknown.

I can feel like the Japanese; I can give in, I can cave. Or I can live to fight another day.

The soldier who the other thought was there to "tattle", but was there because he was discharged from another service - I feel like that sometimes.

To me, this movie is less about war and more about humanity - the feelings of anger, futility, fear.

All of those are known to me.
This is a good movie; it made me think about humanity, about emotions, about fear and temptation. It is not about who was right and who was wrong. It's about what the men went through to get to where it ended up.
4 out of 5 stars.

"A Greater Gift" -

A Greater Gift is a program of SERRV International, a nonprofit alternative trade and development organization. Our mission is to promote the social and economic progress of people in developing regions of the world by marketing their products in a just and direct manner.

I'm doing some of my Christmas shopping here...

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Okay...it's been a slow week...

Here is some music...

Rodrigo y Gabriela - this is some of my favorite walking music...also to study by...and ride on an airplane...etc...

- The Bean...Chicago

(here we are with the bean)

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

It's been a while since I've participated in the Carnival of Beauty...but I'm here.

This is taken outside of our public library.

First off: happy birthday to me!

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From Denny Burk:

6. If you have NOT pastored, then please just answer this question the best you can. What practical difference does this “Comp. vs. Ega.” thing make to a church member?

It makes all the difference in the world. When Jesus calls people to be His disciples, He’s not calling them as androgynous creatures. He calls them as male and female. A man’s role as a Christian husband is different than a woman’s role as a believing wife (Ephesians 5:21-33). A Christian husband will lead his family as Christ leads and “heads” His church, or else the husband is a disobedient disciple. A Christian wife will follow her husband’s leadership as the church follows Christ’s, or else she is a disobedient disciple. These two biblical principles alone have massive practical implications for the ordering of family life, for the raising of children, and for the continued health of marriages. Within the church, Complementarianism has enormous practical implications.

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People who have lived in three different centuries: (HT Dark Roasted Blend)

One man in this series of photos is a:

110 year 320 day-old American man of Native American, African American and Swedish descent — the 44th oldest living person in the world.

His father stood on the platform next to President Abraham Lincoln as Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address. His father was the illegitimate son of Lincoln's Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, who became President after Lincoln's assassination.

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This is weird.  An "invisible" octopus that seems to appear out of nowhere...this earth that God created is amazing!

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More amazing creation...from the Hubble site.

Yes - I know.  It's "eye candy" - but the desktop folders for windows Vista are cool.  You can catch a glimpse of the photos that are in the folder.

(this is not a good photo, but considering the subject is about a 1/2 inch tall...)

Here is a photo of my "set up" - I got the new laptop, I have the huge monitor that was gifted to me (thank you!) and a mini-port.  I stick the laptop in the port - that's where all of the peripherals are plugged in.  So I can have a "panorama" desktop spread over both monitors (the laptop and the big one) and use the keyboard/mouse/etc. with minimal fuss.

You can see here that I've got wordpress on the big monitor and iTunes on the laptop - actually one "screen", but spread over two monitors with the windows side by side.  All I have to do in order to "go" is unplug the one thing.  Yes, I'm spoiled...but with the classes I have, and have coming up the portability will be very helpful.