Taylor University Parents Weekend

The Misery of Job Book CoverWe visited our son Noel, at Taylor University this past weekend, for Parents Weekend. On Friday, we ate at Ivanhoe’s Drive In, relaxed and played guitars, and saw the movie, “The Prestige.”

Saturday we had breakfast in Noel’s apartment, watched some college football on TV, walked the campus, watched some live lacrosse, visited the Brown collection of books and writings of C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and may others in the library, bought some stuff in the bookstore, got coffee from Steve Morley in the Student Union, visited with Noel’s apartment buddies John, Brent and Kyle and their parents, went out to a Mexican restaurant in Marion with everyone.

On Sunday we went to church at First Church in Muncie, and ate lunch at the Dining Commons with some more of Noel’s friends, including our niece Ali. We watched the first half of the Bears-San Francisco game, and headed home. Basically, it was a very relaxed, fun time with Noel. He’s doing well, and we look forward to having him home for the winter holidays, then watching him graduate in the Spring.

BTW – We witnessed an amazing dramatic interpretive performance of “The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God” (a book by John Piper), by Mark Tilghman and his wife, at First Church of God in Muncie. You can download this performance on iTunes.

Listen to C.S. Lewis!

C. S. LewisI want to thank my brother Barry, for sharing this incredible find! You can actually listen to about a 15 minutes of C.S. Lewis talking in his real actual voice.

Beyond Personality: The New Men: 1944
An introduction to The Great Divorce: 1948

These audio clips were originally recorded as BBC broadcasts, and are now archived in RealPlayer format on the BBC website located here.

My first impressions are that he sounds way more like an Englishman than I imagined!

This is totally, really, way cool!

Automotive Watercolor

Watercolor of a 1960's Chevy Impala

Watercolor of a 1960's Chevy Impala

Anybody who knows me knows I like old cars. I took a photo of this junked 1967 Chevy Impala back in the 70′s on a downtown Chicago street. Later on in the 1980′s, I used that photo as a foundation drawing/sketch for this watercolor study, done as an assignment for my watercolor class at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. My instructor, Irving Shapiro, a well-known American watercolorist, asked if he could use it as an example in one of his painting books. So, this is a published work of art!

If anybody out there has a copy of the book that this image is in, I’d love to know, and maybe buy it from you!

CNN Airs Enemy Sniper Killing a US Marine!

Insurgent Terrorist VideoI heard this on my way home from work on Michael Savage’s talk radio show, the Savage Nation. I couldn’t believe what I heard! Michael Ware, a British reporter for CNN, was reporting on an insurgent sniper team as they stalked and killed an American Marine soldier. [See Video]–>

Here is CNN’s response on why they aired this video.

Quoted from the official CNN blog linked above:

“Of course, we also understood that some might conclude there is a public relations benefit for the insurgents if we aired the material, especially on CNN International. We also understood that this kind of footage is upsetting and disturbing for many viewers. But after getting beyond the emotional debate, we concluded the tape meets our criteria for newsworthiness.”

CNN Reporter, Anderson CooperWikipedia offers this definition of TREASON: “In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one’s nation or state. A person who betrays the nation of their citizenship and/or reneges on an oath of loyalty and in some way willfully cooperates with an enemy, is considered to be a traitor.”

The Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Section 3 states: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

I call upon Congress to use the power vested in them by the U.S. Constitution to arrest the people in CNN who are suspected to be responsible for airing this enemy video “story” and to try them for the crime of treason. They have clearly given “Aid and Comfort” to the enemy, and revealed an outrageous bias and adherence to our enemies.

What if I was a parent who had lost my son to a sniper in Iraq?… like the Indiana father who called in this morning to John & Cisco on WIND 560. My heart went out to him and his family as he slowly, painfully shared how this “story” had affected him. The unbelievable pain that CNN inflicted on American citizens like this father is unforgivable, and then to have the audacity to say, “after getting beyond the emotional debate, we concluded the tape meets our criteria for newsworthiness.”

Over the “EMOTION?” I am grateful that somebody is EMOTIONAL over this kind of EVIL! What a bunch of absolute depravity – CNN!

This decision and action by Criminal News Network is an ABOMINATION!

I am so angry and outraged, I can’t write what I really feel.

UPDATES TO THIS POST
Added October 26, 2006: As usual, Mark Early of Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship Ministry have nailed this issue on the head with this Breakpoint article: CNN’s Snuff Film

Added November 1, 2006: Listen to Lynne Cheney chew out Wolf Blitzer on CNN over this issue! Good job, Lynne!

Tricey

Today we met with a group of friends to praise God for the life of Latrice — “Tricey” — and to pray for His hand on her life, and to dedicate those who have been given the responsibility of her care. You see, Tricey is only 5 months old, and was born with a terminal genetic disorder. She is going to die in a fairly short period of time, unless a miracle occurs in her life. She will probably go blind first, within the next few months. She will probably never walk, talk or even know what is happening to her.

Some might ask “”Why would God even allow this to happen?”

“What were her parents thinking?”

“Didn’t the doctors know this was coming?”

“Weren’t the parents counseled about this?”

There are lots of questions and no easy answers.

Every life is precious and has a purpose ordained by God according to Psalm 139. We may not know or understand that purpose fully because we are not God. Our job is to preserve and protect every life, because God made it, and blessed human life further by designing us “in his image” or as spiritual beings – like him.
Tricey bears that “imageo deo.”

I salute my friends Rob & Mary, Chris and Kara for recognizing this foundational Truth, and for being willing to put their lives squarely inside of the path that this belief has brought to their lives. I am blessed to call you all friends.

Together, we will trust God to reveal his plan for Tricey as we all place our trust in him. We KNOW that God has Tricey in his care, and can completely heal her in this life, or heal her by taking her to be with Him at the time he has determined. Either way, eternity is bright for Tricey.

Erin Thomas Visit

Erin Thomas came to dinner last night! I hadn’t seen her since Taylor & Laura’s wedding in August of 2005. It was fun to have her share dinner with us, and hear about her college years at Word of Life, then Prairie Bible Institute in Canada, and then this past summer of ministry in Slovenia. She showed us a slide show on her laptop of her summer there. What a beautiful place!

New Eyeballs…

I recently went to the eye/vision department at the Costco in Oakbrook, and got my eyes checked. I decided to go with contacts again after a couple years with bifocal glasses. I am going with bifocal contacts! The exam fee was very reasonable, service great, and the replacement contacts priced very competitively… lower than anything I could find online!