Libby is the best!

No, not Scooter Libby. LIBBY Hallock, our german shepherd mix! She's got the biggest ears of any good lookin' dog out there. Libby is crazy... she eats the soap while we're giving her a bath, and she drinks the water too! We got her about 3 months ago from a shelter, and haven't had any problems with her (except when we left her in the house by herself once). She is very well mannered, most of the time. She loves her toy chicken. For Christmas, she's getting a replacement chicken. :-)

This post is short and sweet, just like her!

Co-authored by Jeremy & Beth.

The sad plight of Iraqi Christians -- Post Saddam

Over the last few years I have followed some of the news about the persecution of Christians in Iraq. I'm going to keep this post short, but basically, Christians had protection under Saddam Hussein. He may have been an evil person but he was a secular Muslim and did not persecute Christians. After Saddam was removed from power, the country has been taken over by militant muslims. Not only the "insurgents", but also the political leaders. Sharia law rules in Iraq. Christians are murdered for simply being Christians. Many Christian churches in Iraq have been bombed, including the one in this photo. Most of the million plus Iraqi Christians have either had to flee Iraq or have been killed.

Here is a recent 60 minutes segment that gives a pretty good glimpse of what is going on in Iraq.

I have a difficult time with the widespread support of the Iraq War by so many American Christians. A prominent Christian professor actually told me recently that what is happening to Christians is not at all relevant to whether or not we should consider the war right or wrong. For the record, I disagree. I've talked about it before, but one issue we must consider is whether or not this war conforms to the Just War Theory. I will be posting more about that later as I would like to get deep into that discussion. In the mean time, we should be in constant prayer for our fellow believers in Iraq, and for that matter, in all countries where they are persecuted for their faith. We should also be eternally grateful to God for the freedoms we have to live out and share our faith in this country.

Christmas Lights!

Well, it took a few days to get all the Christmas lights up, but they are finally up! If I'm not mistaken, we've bought Christmas lights every year that we've been married (3 years) but have never put up Christmas lights. We have either been at my parents, or Beth's dad's house or in Brazil. We are going to be in Houston again this year, but we decided we were going to put up lights anyway. We bought our tree the day after Christmas when we were in Houston several years ago but hadn't set it up either. So, after several evenings of fun we now have our tree up and very nicely decorated by Beth, and we have our lights up. My lovely wife says it looks like the lights were professionally installed, and I will gladly accept that compliment! You can't see it all that well in the picture of the house lights, but the Christmas tree lights are visible through the office window, almost directly below the cross. ...and I wasn't going to advertise my own embarrassment, but I think I will anyway. As I was in the attic, about to plug in the power cord for the cross, I don't really remember exactly what I did, but I found myself looking down at my washing machine through a freshly punched out hole in my ceiling. I thought about taking a picture and putting it up here, but maybe I'll just post before and after pictures once I've got it fixed. So anyway, later this week I'm going to invite a buddy or two over for a "fix my ceiling" party! :-)

What should a Christian look like?

I love these PC vs. Mac parody videos. Some would probably consider them a little offensive, but I like the fact that they are thought provoking videos. Enjoy.

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 01

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 02

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 03

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 04

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 05

I'm a Christ Follower (Mac vs. PC Parody) Part 06

Should Christians vote for Ron Paul? - Part 2

This is part two of a two part series of blogs to discuss Ron Paul’s positions on the top 5 issues that are relevant to the Christian world view when determining the presidential candidate they will support. If you have not read Part 1, please clink here to read the post.

In the first post we discussed 1. abortion, 2. salvation and 3. war. Now we will continue the discussion with issues 4 and 5.

4. Home Schooling is an important issue to many Christians. I was home schooled for several years growing up (many years ago!) so, while home schooling laws do not affect me directly any more, I still have a soft spot for this issue. Here are some quotes from Ron Paul’s website: “Returning control of education to parents is the centerpiece of my education agenda. As President I will advance tax credits through the Family Education Freedom Act, which reduces taxes to make it easier for parents to home school by allowing them to devote more of their own funds to their children's education.
I will veto any legislation that creates national standards or national testing for home school parents or students. I also believe that, as long as No Child Left Behind remains law, it must include the protections for home schoolers included in sec. 9506 (enshrining home schoolers’ rights) and 9527 (guaranteeing no national curriculum).
Federal monies must never be used to undermine the rights of homeschooling parents. I will use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to encourage a culture of educational freedom throughout the nation.” It seems like most of what I am writing ends up being quotes, but I have to admit that it’s easy to do because Dr. Paul explains his positions in such an eloquent and direct way.

5. I was planning to discuss issues of personal privacy and freedom here, however, after some thought I have decided that those issues aren’t really “Christian world view” issues. However, I will say that when you look back throughout history it seems that the first thing to go when a society becomes more socialist is religious freedom. Keep this thought in mind as you research the issues and compare the views of the other candidates, be it Republican or Democrat. I would have to say that a more relevant issue for Christians would be the morality and family life of the candidates. I don’t think you will find a man who has more integrity or a more stable family life than Dr. Paul. He has been married to the same woman for 50 years, has 5 children and 17 grandchildren. I am not saying his family life is better than ALL the other candidates, but I don’t think you can beat it. Here are some notes on the integrity of the man:
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

I believe the issues discussed here are most relevant to the Christian world view. I certainly believe there are other issues that are as important as these; however, my intent with these posts is to bring to light the issues that are considered most relevant to Christians.

We are giving up our freedoms and privacy with, among other things, the National ID, the Patriot Act. Benjamin Franklin once stated that “Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.”

I could go on and on about the merits of Ron Paul’s domestic and foreign policy, his belief in a strict adherence to the constitution, his incredibly consistent voting record and his faithful family life. You may see statistics about his voting record that may not align with the “conservative” vote, but you must remember that he does not vote for any legislation that is not expressly authorized by the constitution.

Don’t judge Ron Paul by what you hear. Check out his website, http://ronpaul2008.com/, and the Ron Paul Library website, http://ronpaullibrary.com/, which contains documents on his position on pretty much any issue you can think of. Watch any speech (http://www.youtube.com/RonPaul2008DotCom) and you will come to see the sincerity and passion of Dr. Paul. Do some research and find out if he may be worth your vote. He is certainly worth mine.

Should Christians vote for Ron Paul?

As more and more Americans begin to pay attention to the upcoming presidential election, and with the announcement that republican congressman Ron Paul has received over $5 million dollars of donations for the third quarter of 2007, more and more people are beginning to ask “Who is Ron Paul”? My goal with this article is to shine a light on Ron Paul’s beliefs and to show why, of all of the candidates running for president, his views line up most accurately with Christian principles and the Christian world view. I am going to list my top 5 issues that relate to the Christian world view, broken down into two blog posts as it would be quite a long post if I did it all at once.

1. To start things off, there are several “requirements” that a majority of evangelical Christians have for a presidential candidate. The first issue that many Christians use to qualify candidates for office is abortion. Ron Paul personally believes in the right to life for all. This value for life includes unborn children. Ron Paul has actually authored legislation to define life as beginning at conception and is the prime sponsor of a bill that would negate the effect of Roe v. Wade. Here is an excerpt from his website: “In 40 years of medical practice, I never once considered performing an abortion, nor did I ever find abortion necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman. In Congress, I have authored legislation that seeks to define life as beginning at conception, HR 1094. I am also the prime sponsor of HR 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life. This is a practical, direct approach to ending federal court tyranny which threatens our constitutional republic and has caused the deaths of 45 million of the unborn. I have also authored HR 1095, which prevents federal funds to be used for so-called ‘population control.’ Many talk about being pro-life. I have taken direct action to restore protection for the unborn.” I hope that is clear enough to assure those who oppose abortion that Ron Paul is on their side!

2. The second question on the list is typically “Is the candidate a Christian?” Again, in his own words: “I have never been one who is comfortable talking about my faith in the political arena. In fact, the pandering that typically occurs in the election season I find to be distasteful. But for those who have asked, I freely confess that Jesus Christ is my personal Savior, and that I seek His guidance in all that I do. I know, as you do, that our freedoms come not from man, but from God. My record of public service reflects my reverence for the Natural Rights with which we have been endowed by a loving Creator.” I believe this is a fairly self-explanitory statement of Dr. Paul’s spiritual beliefs.

3. The War. I have to say that I, along with most Christians, supported the call for war in Iraq. As I think now about war, I have to say that I am stunned that I felt like going to war in Iraq was the right thing to do. PLEASE DON’T STOP READING HERE!! Let me explain. The Christian position on war over the last 1600 years has been fairly strictly aligned with the Just War Theory. The writings of St. Augustine helped formulate the Christian theory of just war. To get to the very basics of this theory, there are several requirements that must be met in order for a war to be considered. They are:
1. Just cause - The reason for going to war needs to be just and can therefore be recapturing things taken or punishing people who have done wrong.
2. Comparative justice - While there may be rights and wrongs on all sides of a conflict, to override the presumption against the use of force, the injustice suffered by one party must significantly outweigh that suffered by the other.
3. Legitimate authority - Only duly constituted public authorities may use deadly force or wage war
4. Right intention - Force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose—correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not.
5. Probability of success - Arms may not be used in a futile cause or in a case where disproportionate measures are required to achieve success;
6. Last resort - Force may be used only after all peaceful and viable alternatives have been seriously tried and exhausted.
Ron Paul voted for the use of force in Afganistan in order to find and punish the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, but he did not vote for the Iraq war. Why? September 4th, 2002 Congressman Paul gave a speech in Congress titled “Arguments Against a War in Iraq”. I urge you to read the entire speech, which reviews military, budgetary, and economic issues among others things, but I will include here his final paragraph: “Finally, there is a compelling moral argument against war in Iraq. Military force is justified only in self-defense; naked aggression is the province of dictators and rogue states. This is the danger of a new "preemptive first strike" doctrine. America is the most moral nation on earth, founded on moral principles, and we must apply moral principles when deciding to use military force.” I truly believe this should be the Christian stance on the war.

Part 2

Update: Added link for Part 2.

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Don’t judge Ron Paul by what you hear. Check out his website, http://ronpaul2008.com/, and the Ron Paul Library website, http://ronpaullibrary.com/, which contains documents on his position on pretty much any issue you can think of. Do some research and find out if he may be worth your vote. He is certainly worth mine.

On my mind

OK, so I am a really bad blogger. Oh well...

Here are the things on my mind lately.

Politics. Presidential Race. Ron Paul. Libertarianism. Power seeking Republican and Democrats. Ron Paul. Non-interventionsim vs. Isolatinism. War vs. Peace. Ron Paul.

Theology. Fasting - "real" fasting or giving "something" up? Which is right? Is there a right or a wrong? When should I fast? Christians. Do we live like it? Why are christians so in support of the Iraq war. Is war ever justified, from a christian's perspective?

Business. I want to start a business, I think. Should I start a business? I've got to get a business plan together. Do I want to spend the time learning and developing a business? Is it worth the time and effort?

So... these are a few things that I really do want to blog about. Soon. I hope. :-)

My long lost blog

wow... I haven't written here in a long time. I'll post something shortly.

my christian spirituality

I just read the book titled Blue Like Jazz, by Donald Miller. It is a very interesting book and it got me thinking about a lot of my beliefs about God, religion, social justice, the environment, etc. I went to Don's website and started reading some thing, found a link to some very good, free music (freederekwebb.com) and then via a google search I found some links to articles written by people that do not like Donald Miller. After reading and clicking on links and reading and clicking and reading and... well, you get the picture. Anyway, I found myself very curious about the emerging / emergent church, house churches, traditional church and traditional concepts about living out my faith in daily life. My readings of traditional religious leaders critizing Don lead me to articles / blogs critical of Rick Warren and the Purpose Driven Chruch / Life. I know people that are members of his church (Saddleback Church) who have been radically changed for Christ and who have contributed immensly to the church. The attacks on his ministry by these traditional religious leaders got me thinking that maybe they've got it all wrong. All of this to say that while I have certain beliefs about some of these things and I know why I believe, I do need to look at some of the concepts and foundations of my faith from different angles. I need to take a step back and think a little more about what I believe and why I believe it. We sometimes take what we have been taught as final truth when there may be more than one way to look at certain aspects of life. I am commencing a continuous journey of discovery. My great-grandfather read the Bible all the way through literally 100s of times and yet, in his 70s, he was excited to tell my dad about something new he had learned in the Bible that day. My goal is to be as my great-grandfather; ever learning, ever discovering and continuously sharing my discovery with others.

make a choice

Two weeks ago I was in Little Rock (LR), Arkansas and had a very, very short conversation with a lady in her 20s. She worked for Hertz car rental.

I am now going to make a short story kinda long...

The week before I went to LR I had been in a bible study with young couples from my church and had asked for prayer that God would grant me *explicit* opportunities to share Christ with some people while I was there.

The week before I went to LR I had started reading a book called The Last Choice, written by Andy Andrews. To keep this short, the moral of the fictional story is that we all make choices in life. Whether we think we are making a choice or not, we are. It could be something as simple as whether we eat healthy food, or bad food, or it could be something as "non-simple" as deciding whether or not to bring the topic of spirituality into a conversation. We can not just expect God to make our decisions for us. We must act.

Back to LR... The week had gone by and I had not had any "explicit" opportunites to talk about God. I was a little frustrated about that.

I had noticed, on my arrival in LR, and while I was waiting for my rental car, that someone had posted two pieces of paper in the Hertz booth. One was a very direct presentation of the gospel and the other talked about how there are no accidents and everything happens for a purpose.

It came time to leave LR and I was in my plane. After about 10 minutes they told us to get off the plane because of mechanical issues. 30 minutes later the flight was canceled. This was the last flight of the day back home, so the only other alternative to get home that night was to drive. So, I went back to Hertz, rented another car and went outside to wait for them to bring the car to me. As I waited, there was a young lady sitting in the booth (this is the one I mentioned at the beginning of this post). I said hi but continued talking to my friend (I was standing there with another friend that had been on the same flight. He rode back to the DFW area with me). I felt a "God induced" desire to continue talking to her, so I made the choice to continue talking to her. As I stood there I looked at those pieces of paper I had seen earlier in the week that presented the gospel and asked her if she had posted those. She said she hadn't, and that she hadn't even noticed them. I read part of one and mentioned how amazing and true it was. My friend happened to be a youth pastor and I felt, again, this God induced desire to mention that to her. I made the choice to tell her that. She said that she admired the fact that he was a youth pastor and thought it was really cool. Our car arrived at that time and we left.

See? A very simple story, but a very interesting story to me. First of all, I had asked for prayer for explicit opportunities, asking for others to initiate the conversation. I asked for that because I am sometimes too scared to initiate that conversation for fear of rejection or ridicule. Second, I read that book at the right time to help me understand that I needed to initiate the conversation because while God certainly can put those explicit conversations in my path, he also expects me to share with others about His love, forgiveness and relationship. Third, if my flight had not been canceled, I would have never had the opportunity to point that young lady towards thoughts of God and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I was at first irritated about the cancellation but with that simple interaction, I was joyful for the cancellation of the flight. (I also got to talk to my friend about theology and many other things for 5 hours, and that was fun too). Fourth, I don't know if she read those papers after we left. But I do know that she would have never known they were there and never taken the opportunity to read them if I had not been there and made the choice to talk to her. I think God sometimes uses opportunities like that to help our own relationship with Him grow, maybe even more than it helps the people we talk to. All I know is that it got me more excited about expressing, in a non-threatening way, that which gives me the ultimate joy in life, which is my relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

So, that is my short story long.

soccer words

I sent this email to newsdesk@soccernet.com. I get really irritated when the news media doesn't write about soccer using words that americans can identify with but I've never complained about it. Now I have.

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Why do reporters continue to use “non-american” words to talk about soccer in the media? Why do you think Americans can’t get into the sport? They can’t even remember the “right” words to say!

Let me give you a few examples from the following article: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=371576&root=worldcup&cc=5901

1. “They are team-mates at Real Madrid, the inseparable jokers of the Brazilian side and they share sponsors for everything from banks to boots.”

My comments: boots? Unless you are talking about cowboy boots, why can you not just say “shoes”? Who in the US calls soccer shoes boots??????????

2. “But for all their affinity off the pitch…”

My comments: why do people continue to refer to the soccer field as the pitch? Really, if it’s a football field, baseball field, why not a soccer field??

3. “…experience on his footballing CV.”

My comments: So at this point it’s pretty obvious that this is not an American writing this column. Can’t we just say SOCCER when we are writing in American English? …and if you asked a 22 year old American for his CV, he wouldn’t know what you’re talking about. Not many people do. So since soccer is the sport of the masses, let’s say “soccer resume”.

4. “In fact, Robinho can justifiably point to the fact that it was with him in the side in place of Ronaldo”

My comments: “in the side”? Who outside of a soccer person is going to know what that means? Can’t we be like all other normal sports and say “on the team”?

Listen, I’m a huge soccer fan. I love the sport and I want to see it continue to grow in the US. But how are you going to get non-soccer people to even talk about it or understand what you write if you don’t use common words that everyone can understand?

Andrew, I am glad you write and I do enjoy your perspective, but please try to write in “common American” English so that non-soccer fans can understand and get into the game a little more.

Thanks,
Jeremy

Life
as
a
kid...
not
a
worry
in
the
world.



(me and my bro...a long time ago)

It's amazing what kind of an impact simple events can have on my emotions. Sometimes I let the simplest things control me. I let a basketball team take my time. I invest my time in them, I route for them as if the outcome actually matters to me. Someone makes a bad play, I get angry, throw stuff at the tv (well, not the tv, i wouldn't want to break it... more like, throw things at the wall, couch, etc.). When they make a good play I go crazy, get all excited. I get tense. I get headaches after the game is over because I am so tense. ...and I mean, come on, what do I get out of it? Nothing. Such a waste of time. There are so many other things I could be doing with my time. Yeah, I'm a Dallas Mavericks fan. We (see... there I go again)... THEY just lost the NBA Finals. I'm not really in a good mood right now.

On to other topics. I have wanted to start a blog for awhile but I always put it off for one reason or another. I think I just want to have the "perfect" blog, whatever that means. But I've decided to just do it. I'm sure some stuff I write about will be stupid, but you've gotta start somewhere.

I am basically going to write this as a journal, just random thoughts that come to mind and stay there, waiting for me to write about them. I like to write, I just haven't done much of it. Sometimes I'll have a specific topic I want to cover and I'll try to do a little research before launching into any writing.

So, this is the beginning. I don't know what I want this to become. I guess most people that write these things want an outlet to express their opinions, maybe help others along the path of life, get famous, get rich... I just wanna write. Whatever happens, happens. Enjoy reading about "nothing".