June 6, 2005

  • THE BIBLE AS HISTORY
    I am reading this book but as of yet I am unsure it he tends to be a liberal in the dating of Biblical events or conservative. He does seem to be balanced so far in his approach to the different ideas about the dating of Israel's early history like the Exodus. So at the presnt I see him doing a good job of showing us the evidence and letting us decide. If I had to choose though I believe he would lean towards a late exodus based on a single statement he makes at the end of one of his chapters.


    THE BIBLE'S HISTORY IS PROVEN TRUE AGAIN
    Related to this I saw an awesome documentary in TBN regarding the Exodus and tracing the route Moses followed to Mt Sinai. In it they talked about the real Mt Sinai being located in NorthEast Saudi Arabia where the Biblical land of Midan was located. If you can look at a topographical map of the area you will see a large mountain with a large open plain to the south, big enough for over 2 million people to camp at. This TV show walked us from Egypt to Sinai and show the most plausible route of Israel through the Sinai Wilderness through a dried up river bed and into an open beach area that was enclosed but on two sides. Only the entrance and the water way where not surrounded by mountains and cliffs. So this is where Israel crossed the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aqaba near present day Nuweiba. Add to this that all Biblical evidence points to this location being the area of Moses exile and Israel's Exodus. Check out http://www.arkdiscovery.com/red_sea_crossing.htm to see maps, photos, and other evidences that the Bible was correct when it spoke about Israel crossing the Red Sea. Once again archeology is proving the Bible true and accurate in areas of history.


    Here are some other map sites to give you a feel for the area as well as a picture from www.ArkDiscovery.com
    http://www.safariegypt.com/Maps/Red_sea_map.htm
    http://www.goredsea.com/EN_gomaps.aspx



    SITE UPDATE
    I guess it is time for a new header picture. I am waiting because I would like to use a new scene in stead of the one I have used for the last year. So if you can be patient I will soon be changing the header picture.


    Godspeed,
    Wesley

June 2, 2005


  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHANIEL


    I am exhausted from today's activities. Today we went to the local wildlife center or zoo to celebrate my sons 2nd year of birth. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day than what we had. The sun was bright and the breeze was cool. Today was "a very useful" day. To quote my son's favorite train yard owner. We followed the zoo up with a small evening gathering of friends for dinner and cake to celebrate Nathaniel's birthday. Now it is 930pm and I have been up since 6am. It is time for bed.


    We took this shot while walking the grounds. When I took this shot I did not realize he was striking a pose. What a cutie we have!! God has been really good to us in the children he has given us. Thank you Lord for giving us such a wonderful gift as our children.


    May I be a father like you so they can grow up to be just like you.


    Godspeed
    Goodnight
    Wesley

May 30, 2005


  • Senator Robert F. Kennedy


    On the Mindless Menace of Violence
    City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio
    April 5, 1968
    http://www.rfkmemorial.org/


    This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.


    It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

    Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

    No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

    Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

    "Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lost their cause and pay the costs."

    Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

    Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

    Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

    For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

    This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

    I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

    We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

    Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

    We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

    Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

    But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

    Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

May 13, 2005

  •  Been ages since I at least said Hi so HI.


    All is ok but I have been extremely busy trying to help my wife out with the new baby and our toddler. I will try to post something soon.


    Until then all is well.


    Godspeed,
    Wesley

April 18, 2005

  • HURRAH!!!


    Our daughter, Cassia has arrived.


    She was born this morning and weighs in at 8 lbs 1 oz and 20 in.


    Praise God all is well with everyone.

April 14, 2005

  • Tribute to My Grandfather


    Grief is a strange creature that I find hard to nail down and describe. Some would say that weeping and moaning would constitute grief, but how about a lack of emotion. A sort of confusion about how you ought to react and how you are. Wondering if your lack of reaction is a sign of callusesness or a type of grief in itself. Maybe the confusion comes from not having experienced much grief in my life. Life has not brought to my doorstep many opportunities to experience grief. Especially grief over the loss of a loved one.


    The reality of death to me seems to be a foggy remnant of distant memories from my youth. With the the loss of my great grandmother and Grandma Kennelly being really the only two I can recall. Memories of my great grandmother I do have. Memories of sitting in her half of my grandparents home talking to her and watching TV. Seeking to recall events and facts from this time I find myself only pulling up feelings. Warm cozy feelings that make me smile and think of better days and vague events. Wishing I had spent more time finding out about who see was. The same is true of my grandmother Kennelly. I recall few facts, but it is the feelings that remain the strongest memories I have of her. Feelings of shame as I recall my attitude towards a blanket she made me by hand. Shame because now I love that blanket even though as a youth I saw it as nothing but a stinky blanket. Today it represents a piece of my relationship with her. A moment in time that I get to dwell upon, every time it warms my flesh or my bed. I have more concrete memories of events that took place with her. Weird memories of religious symbols throughout her home and busts of middle eastern men and women. Even memories about visiting her tailor as a young child and then later when she had an apartment on Washington Ave. While I remember some events it remains the feelings that remain strongest in my mind.  But grief is not one of those memories I can recall. I remember the funeral, but not the grief. I remember the looking upon her beautiful face, the look of peace and tranquility, but not of grief. Maybe this is because I was young or maybe because the good over shadows the bad. Could it be that I was designed to forget grief?


    When I think of my grandfather I think of many things. Working with him to make a tool box for my cars, sitting with him in his shop as he caned another chair, going to antique shows and stores, playing manager in his basement office on his big metal desk and antique typewriter, but the strongest memory is one that takes place in his living room. I find it odd that the most vivid memory I have is not one of us playing or working together with our hands, but one of lounging around. Grandpa at one time had this old green leather chair with large metal rivets. To this day I can still see him sitting in it with his flattop haircut smoking his Dutch Master cigar. Next to him would have been his large ash tray that sat on the table in front of the big living room windows. Why this memory? I do not know for sure, but maybe because it was one of the best memories in my life. Why do some memories stick while others fade away? I am not sure, but I do know that when I think of my grandfather it will always be with love for the man I knew and remember in my memories. Was he perfect? I doubt it but that does not matter in the memories of a child or for me. What matters is that he loves me and I love him.


    Grandpa, while I may not grieve for you in rivers of tears I do so in my heart, in knowing that until we meet again I will make no more new memories of our times together. But the memories I do have I will cherish for they are priceless to me. Memories of playing and working with you. Memories of lounging around with you. Memories of you holding my first child and talking to him as if you understood every word of his gibberish. Thank you for being my grandfather.


    Maybe my grief is tempered by the memories of good times and feelings. Maybe it is the knowledge that he professed to be saved from his sins by the shed blood of Christ. Maybe because he is in a better place with a greater Father to care for him like no other. Maybe it is something else or maybe a combination of circumstances and events. All I know is that I am at peace with his death and that my grief is my way of grieving for our loss.


    While we all grieve in our own ways I finally find myself tearing up as I think about the man you where in my life and how much you will be missed. Godspeed and peace be with you grandpa. I look forward to the day "I'll Fly Away" and we meet again.

April 12, 2005

  • MIN-UPDATE ~ I am reposting this article becasue we are still waiting. At the most it seems it will be about another week. Please pray for us as we learn the meaning of patience.


    Does anyone like to wait? I think that most Americans like myself feel a certain pride about being able to go anywhere and have a relatively short wait to see a movie, buy groceries, drive to work, or use the work out equipment. Some nations especially ones like the former USSR traditionally have had long lines that can take a better part of an afternoon to get through. Those lines are probably more like the lines amusement parks like Cedar Point or King's Island have. Well I digress. Patience is a virtue that at times I lack and now is one of those times.


    Do you know the feeling you get as Christmas approaches. You know it is the same feeling you have as summer break approaches and the school day begins to feel like an eternity. The days are just going by so slow that you feel like you are in slow motion. That is how I feel today. I am waiting on one of the biggest events in my life. My wedding day was like this. I was to get married at 1:30pm and the morning went by so slooowwww. But then it was over in a blink of an eye. Our honeymoon was like a whirlwind. That week went by like no other. Since then my wife and her husband (me) have been on a wonderful journey that seems to be progressing at a fairly fast pace. I mean this June marks year 7 of our bliss together. You do know that God likes the number 7. Maybe we ought to take a year of rest in memory of our Lord's 7th day of rest. Speaking of rest I feel like I have not had enough lately and I know I will be missing more.


    Only one other time have I felt time pass so slowly and just like that time I had very little to gauge our progress of time with. While April 5th and 8th are possibilities for this event to occur on there is no guarantee so I wait wonder if to day is the day. It is kind of like the immanent return of our Lord Jesus Christ to take his church home at the rapture. I have no idea when it will be but it could be NOW.......... or NOW...............or NOW...or NOW... or tomorrow. No one has any clue so if some says he knows when the Lord is going to return, DO NOT BELIEVE THEM.. His return is coming and sooner than it was a minute, a day, a month, or 1000 years ago. I know for sure my Lord is coming, but I do not know when so I prepare as if it was today.


    Likewise I am preparing for this new event in my life.  I hope it is soon. I cannot wait to see the face of my daughter in her mothers arms or to hold her for the very first time in mine. I wonder what the look on my son's face will be when he sees his baby sister for the very first time. How about when she beings to crawl and play with her bigger brother. My thoughts bring tears to my eyes and joy to my soul.


    Dear God care for my daughter as you prepare her for this world that you so skillfully crafted at with the breathing forth of your Words.

April 8, 2005

  • URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS


    Please be in prayer for my family. I learned tonight that my grandfather died unexpectedly today. I believe he was a believer, but many of his friends and family may not be. Please prayer that my parents and I can be a testimony to the grace and love of God during this hard time for all of my family.


    Pray also for my parents who were planning to come visit the new baby due any day now.  I know their hearts are dually grieved in losing a loved family member and missing time spent with other loved family.


    Thank you my xanga brethren for praying.


    Godspeed,
    Wesley

March 28, 2005

  • BOOK REVIEW


    I just finished reading Michael Green's book Follow in His Footprints today and I thought I would post some thoughts and quotes. Even though it is a small book and has only 194 pages I have taken over a year to read this book. Not the best method of reading but I was looking to read this book at a casual pace. Therefore my thoughts about the book as a whole are not as concise and pointed as I would. This leads me to focus my thoughts to last chapter in detail. Over all though I found this to be a good book for those who like to read and are not believers, are new believers, or are old believers. Reason being is that I believe Michael Green has something that can help all of us if we want to read and grow. He outlines various stumbling blocks to the Gospel and overcomes them, he talks about our current culture, he contrasts the flaws of the apostles with the great works for Christ they did, he leads you to understand biblical love, and much more can be found in this little 5x7 book.


    Enjoy the following excerpts from the last chapter called, Choices. I have included them here because I feel that the subjects he mentions are crucial to our walk to maturity in Christ.


    The Choice to Read is Yours


    The Bible "is a detailed and very descriptive map of how we can progress in our lives until finally we meet the Lord in heaven. It is a very comprehensive guide with promises to claim, examples to follow, warnings to heed, prayers to use. Above all it brings us face-to-face with the Lord himself. He inspired this book. He reveals not just his will but also himself in its pages. There is a lovely saying of Martin Luther's about the reason for Bible reading: 'As we come to the cradle in order to find the baby, so we come to the Scriptures in order to find the Christ.' Sometimes we will find it almost a talking book as some bit comes alive and strikes us forcibly. Sometimes we will find it more of a picture gallery as we see what God did in other lives in the past and learn from that. Sometimes it will be a torch to help us along a particularly dark part of the route. Sometimes it will be a fire to warm us, sometimes a hammer to break down our proud independence. Sometimes it will be a meal to feed us spiritually, and sometimes a mirror to see what we look like - and then take appropriate action! One thing that stands out clearly in Christian History the world over. Feed on this book and you will grow. Neglect it and you will remain small spiritually. We have to choose." (Green, Michael. Follow in His Footprints. Thomas Nelson Pub, Nashville. 1998. pg 185-6.)


    Community


    "It has been well said that the Christianity that does not begin with the individual does not begin; but the Christianity that ends with the individual ends. Following Jesus is a community business, not a solo trip from the alone to the Alone. To uses one of the Bibles favorite images we are like children adopted into a family. We need - and are not at liberty to choose - our brothers and sisters." (189-190)


    "We are not meant to be rugged individuals who fondly imagine we are independent. god tells us we can't cope adequately as Christian on our own, and we are not meant to try. We need on another. To fancy that we do not is to give way to an arrogance that stinks in God's nostrils." (190)


    "He wants to bring into being an alternative society to the selfish rat race... to cultivate in us interdependence... to be compassionate people in a hard world... to show that it is possible, and infinitely attractive, to live an upright, unselfish, generous life, marked but love for God and neighbor. We need one another [to do this]." (190-191)


    "We need this togetherness at three levels" beginning with a small group of friends, a weekly meeting for worship and instruction , and a big celebration with many churches gathering as Israel did during the festivals at Jerusalem. "I believe we need all three levels of Christian fellowship so that we can genuinely be woven together into a lovely tapestry for God." (191-193)


    Godspeed,
    Wesley

March 27, 2005

  • HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY