PCs CAN EQUAL WASTED TIME

Today I feel as I have wasted my Sunday on trying to fix my PCs. I have been trying to troubleshoot why my laptop will not wirelessly connect to the Internet via my deskpc and it's dail-up connection. It is very frustrating. So I am giving up for today. I did leave a post at http://www.annoyances.org in the hopes that someone can help me fix this issue. If you have any PC skills in the area of networking maybe you can go over to Annoyances and give me some suggestions. If you click here you can read my forum post. Other wise read on since I plan to post my message here as well. In the end I know I have learned something's about my PC but it is still frustrating that I cannot get the Name Resolution to work properly.

Has anyone ever read A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins? I was just wondering what someone else's take on this book would be. I hear it is an excellent book to look at how one mans life was changed by walking across our nation with his dog, Cooper.

It was recommended to me by Ronald Reagan on a CD series I have of his from his pre-president days when he was on the radio. The series was awesome. It seems to me that if you applied the test for Old Testament prophets to Ronald Reagan you would have only come to one conclusion. He was a prophet. Check out this CD collection "Reagan in His Own Voice". If you ever wondered why Liberals hate him just listen to him and see how intelligent, insightful, and caring he was and because of that I think they fear him. He had an amazing ability to look ahead and see how today's world events and choices would impact the world tomorrow. I have only ever read and seen one other person who had such keen insight into history and current events, Francis Schaeffer. Every Christian and American ought to read, listen, and view materials from both of these men. Forget what others say listen to their very own words. Thank God for Ronnie and being around at the right time to fight and bring down communism.

PS. I hope your team wins Sunday, but like I tell everyone else it really does not mater who wins because the Browns are not playin!!

GETTIN BEHIND & BURIED
the story of my life

Well if you remeber my reading list I began in May then you may wonder how I am doing on it. To tell you the truth. I am way behind. Add to that I recieved two new books for Christmas to add onto my reading list. I plan to turn this month around and to watch less TV and read more print. Beginning with my Feburary reading and possible 1 of 2 other books. I receicd A Charge to Keep by George W. Bush and The Faith of George W. Bush by Stephen Mansfield. If any one has read either of these please let me know your thoughts on both and which to read first. So far I have not decided yet. But the Feb. book is The Vanishing Word by Hunt. This book is probably approapriate to read since he deals with how we are becoming a visual society and losing our connection to the written word, specifically the Bible (poor synopsis, but the geist of it I think).

Once I have finished reading these books I will leave a short blog here on them, but I plan to post a longer blog on then at my book blog site, Books! Books! Books! While you are there you can also check out my daily blogs I read using the services provided by BlogLines to read RSS and XML like newsfeeds.

Godspeed,
Wesley

THE REAL DIVISIVE ISSUE OF OUR TIMES 

The map to the left shows an issue that is more divisive than who you voted for in the 2004 Elections. This divisive issue truly divides up our nation. Just look at the map for yourself and look at the color spread. Not only do we have regionaly division, but also State and county by county division. I believe that if we do not settle this is soon we will see bottles and cans flying at each other all over the nation. What does this most divisive issue revolve around? The central issue her is the what we call soft drinks. Just a small amount of satire. But the idea that we have such a division on what we call soft drinks I find amazing. So what name for soft drinks do you use (pop, soda, coke, other)? Reply and let me know. If you are interested in participating in this survey follow this link (http://www.popvssoda.com/). There ou will be able to cast your own vote, to see a more detail breakdown of the votes, and to find out exactly why this survey exisits. I hope this site can help us inderstand one another better as we process the data from across English-speaking North America and how we user the terms "Pop", "Soda", "Coke" and other terms to describe carbonated soft drinks.

Click the picture for a closeup view of the soft drink wars.

I hope you enjoy your pop by whatever name you call it.

Winter has arrived here in NEPA with backup this year. Tonight we are expecting another snowstorm that will drop another 2-4 inches on us between 2-4AM. Add to that the snow we had on Sunday and Saturday and we will be close to 12-16 inches. That does not include the 3-4 inches already on the ground from a previous storm. Now this does not compare to New England where in some parts I hear they got 30 inches over the weekend of white powder. But for me it is too much. Especailly since I get to shovel and go to work through it.

Anyway's I wanted to show you what the reservoir looks like covered in snow. Take care and stay warm. I know I am trying to.

ChinaMan777 and ChinaGirl777 I wish you Godspeed as you journey to the states. You will be in my prayers. Keep us up on your itinerary and maybe some of your readers can come and meet you in person.

Godspeed,
Wesley

Last week I read Job and I was amazed at the vivid description of two dinosaurs in the final chapters of the book (Job 40:15-24; 41:1-34). Here God describes a large dionsuar and possible what we might call a dragon. Well today in an email I recieved from Answers In Genesis (http://www.answersingenesis.org/) they talk about this very thing so I thought I would post the article here for your reading enjoyment.

Q: How are “dinosaurs” mentioned in the Bible if we’ve never seen that word in Scripture?

A: The term “dinosaur” was only invented in 1841 by an Englishman named Sir Richard Owen—many Bibles were translated into English before then, so we wouldn’t expect to find the word dinosaur.

But in the Book of Job, there is a description of a great beast called behemoth—which we believe was a dinosaur.

It had a tail like a cedar tree and bones as strong as pieces of brass. His strength was in his loins. The great creature lay in the reeds and drank up the river. He was the “chief of the ways of God”—which means the largest animal God made. This animal couldn’t have been an elephant or hippo, which have small tails. In fact, the only animal that fits this description is a dinosaur.

This behemoth, or dinosaur, was also living at the same time as Job, because God said to Job, Behold now behemoth. According to evolutionists, though, dinosaurs died out millions of years before man.

But God made the first behemoth on Day 6 of creation, just a few thousand years ago.

“The origin of life by chance in a primeval soup is impossible in probability in the same way that a perpetual machine is in probability. The extremely small probabilities calculated in this chapter are not discouraging to true believers … [however] A practical person must conclude that life didn’t happen by chance.”

– Hubert Yockey, Information Theory and Molecular Biology, Cambridge University Press, p. 257, 1992. In these calculations, Yockey generously granted that the raw materials were available in a primeval soup. But in the previous chapter, Yockey showed there was much evidence that a primeval soup never existed, so is an act of faith.

This text is from a newsletter I get from www.AnswersInGenesis.org. They are an awesome ministry that seeks to protect Christianity by protecting the word of God as being literal in the Book of Genesis.

Q: Since we now have the New Testament, why do we even bother with the Book of Genesis?

A: Ken Ham once spoke to a pastor who proudly proclaimed that his church was a New Testament church. He said that he didn’t have to worry about the Old Testament.

Ken asked him, “Pastor, do you believe in marriage?” “Why yes,” he replied. “Why do you believe in marriage?” Ken asked. “Because Paul talks about marriage in the New Testament,” he said. “Well that’s interesting,” Ken said, “because when Paul talks about marriage, such as in Ephesians, he goes back to Genesis to give the foundation for marriage.”

Then Ken asked, “Do you believe in original sin?” “Why yes,” he said. “Well that’s interesting,” Ken went on. “In 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul is writing about the message of Jesus on the Cross and His death and Resurrection, he goes back to Genesis to justify why Jesus died on the cross.” Ken continued, “It’s all very well to be a New Testament church, but you must realize that all of the New Testament is based in the Old Testament, and ultimately all of this is founded in Genesis 1–11.”

The first eleven chapters of the Bible are the key to understanding the rest of Scripture. This is how we can fully understand the meaning of New Testament doctrine!

“At this point, it is necessary to reveal a little inside information about how scientists work, something the textbooks don’t usually tell you. The fact is that scientists are not really as objective and dispassionate in their work as they would like you to think. Most scientists first get their ideas about how the world works not through rigorously logical processes but through hunches and wild guesses. As individuals they often come to believe something to be true long before they assemble the hard evidence that will convince somebody else that it is. Motivated by faith in his own ideas and a desire for acceptance by his peers, a scientist will labor for years knowing in his heart that his theory is correct but devising experiment after experiment whose results he hopes will support his position.”

– Boyce Rensberger, How the World Works, William Morrow, NY, pp. 17–18, 1986. Rensberger is an ardently anti-creationist science writer.

WIN AN INVITE TO YOUR VERY OWN GMAIL ACCOUNT

Another GMAIL give is about to begin. This time I will be giving three accounts away and all you have to do is tell me what your favorite Blog is and why. Then out of all the submissions I will choose my favorite three. These three Xanga members whose chosen blogs I like will then win a free GMail invite. If there are any duplicate entries among the winners I will choose the Xanga user that commented about their favorite blog first. You will have four weeks to submit your entry and on Feb 5th I will announce the winners. Any blog that is listed in my subscribed blog list will not be eligible for entry.

Good luck!

Wesley

SNOW!! SNOW!! SNOW!!
That seems to be the only thing that happens around here any more other than school closings. To bad my school never closes. I guess that's what happens when over 90% of the student body live on campus. Well I guess I'll see any BBC'ers who read my blog tomorrow in Jackson Hall.

FIRST THINGS FIRST
It has been a while since my last post. I guess once the novelty wears off some you post less or at least you start to way your priorities and place then in a better order. Over the last month that is exactly what I have been doing. As Covey would say I am putting First Things First. AS much as I value and want to be interacting with the Body of Christ across the globe I need to remember that God place me here in CS for a reason and I need to minster to this body as well.

Beginning with my spiritual body. That is why I have begun a regimented reading of the Word of God and a plan to study his word. I plan my time of reading God's word to be a time of becoming more familiar with each and every inspired word, phrase, sentence, grammatical structure, book, author, and ultimately my Sovereign Savior Lord Jesus Christ!!!! So I have a goal to be reading 10 pages of Scripture in Chronological order by March. Currently I read 20-30 pages a week (I am trying to work my way up to 40 pgs/wk). I also have one day set aside to examine the passages that caught my eye during my weekly readings. Following this I plan to add two days a week that I will set aside to studying God's word inductively by book studies and topics. By April I hope to have a schedule in place where I read, study, or meditate on God's word 7 days a week and read through it at least once. If my accountability group is reading this please remember to ask me frequently how I am doing.

My family body is next and I have been trying to be more of a help at home and using creative ways to show my wife I love her. Recently, a good friend has been reminding me that I need to be taking the time to express my love to my wife in a variety of ways. Especially, ways that she appreciates.

My church body is next. This group of people includes those I attend church with, know in my neighborhood, and those of you in the online world.

While I have placed this blog a little lower on my priorities list I have continued to find time to read a variety of your blogs so that I can continue to prayer for your needs.

NEW THINGS NEW IDEAS
One of my Birthday gifts (Dec 27) was a new Bible. I purchased a wide margin ESV so that I would have room to write my many copious notes from my time in the word and church. This Bible is part of a plan I have to impact my children for years to come. I plan to every 10 years being a new Bible so that I can have a Bible from various stages of my spiritual walk. Currently I have my High School and early college years Bible (1990-1996), Then my wife-to-be bought me my first wide margin Bible and I used that one through out my College and Seminary years (1995-2005). Now I have begun a new Bible. I guess this decade will be that of young father. I hope then to give each of my children one of my Bibles as he enters an importnat stage of his life. May be he will begin High School, College, or become a father. Whenever I choose to impart one of these Bibles to my children I will be praying that God will use that Bible to impact them for His glory.

Well I outta go.

Godspeed,

Wesley

Merry Christmas! Godspeed, Wesley