Swap Blog

From what I can see and from all I am hearing, Hillary will cleaned today in West Virgina. She will be in it until June 3rd I think honestly, but the die is already set and she has lost. She really should get out sooner, but she won’t. This is one time that I don’t think the Clintons can even pull one out of the dust bin.

It is obvious that Obama considers it over as he is already talking about the huge differences between himself and McCain. Though there may be a FEW (and I do mean a FEW) differences in their personal views and goals, in office there will be even fewer as Obama’s most liberal ideas will never get through the House and Senate - even if they are heavy Democrat - and McCain has always been a compromiser on his conservative stances.

In the end I think either guy that wins this is a one term President. In 2012 my money will be on Bill Richardson or Jeb Bush, though I would love to see a real run from Herman Cain but I think Mr Cain is out of the political office game due both his health and his personal desire to enjoy life a bit more.

Regardless of the 2008 winner, the US has in for a rough go until we take a two prong approach to our energy problems / issues - at least in my mind. In my plan the first prong would be to begin a program similar to the one in the 60’s where we went from non being able to orbit a man in space to landing on the moon within a decade where our best minds and large amounts of funding goes toward the goal of a 50% increase in fuel economy in new cars. Though it may take 5 to 10 more years for 80 to 90% of drivers to be in those cars it is a glide path. Heck, there are still people driving 1965 Ford Falcons and 1975 AMC Pacers, i.e. it will never be 100%. The second prong I see needed is a expansion of both domestic drilling - the Gulf, the Dakota’s, ANWAR - and refining capacity. As I understand it that would take about 6 to 8 years to see real results, so if we start NOW we should be ready for both a increase in population and the average MPG in cars by 2016.

Unfortunately, I don’t think either Obama or McCain will pursue either of the prongs I suggest due to their concern with being labeled, criticized, or branded the press and due to their personal views and commitments to special interests.

Well after almost (probably nine total months of breaks) 20 solid years a era ended yesterday (May 11th, Mothers Day, 2008), I am not longer teaching a weekly Sunday School, Discipleship Training, Youth Ministry, Small Group or Connection Time class. The last 20 years have been fun, and I can honestly say God taught me so much because I was leading the various classes, but my wife and I made this call for all the right reasons. The #1 reason being that God seems to be bringing some new ministry options / opportunities / means our way and #2 we need some freedom on weekends to pursue some things away from church as well.

That is not to say that we (meaning she and I) will not take a class on again or act as filling ins / temps when needed, but honestly as of now we/ I have no plans to take leadership of a weekly class anytime soon. God of course could change all of that tomorrow (and He has done that before when we stepped down from leadership), but we are trusting Him to work on that when He wants.

This decision took almost a year to make, and the base seeds of it were planted almost 2 years ago. It was one of those things where 10 to 15 small to medium, and a few large things, added up to showing us it was the right time to make the big move. Our students seemed to understand and were supportive overall, church leadership was supportive as well, but in the end we made the call and we were going to do regardless of the support because it was time.

For this blog / website this real world change should have no real impact as this operation / ministry has functioned separately from our weekly live teaching for over 4 years now. Hopefully it will actually help improve this blog / web site as we MAY (big MAY) have a bit more free time to devote to it now. I do desire to resume a more regular blogging pattern again soon, but that will be more dependent on my ongoing M -F work load. It is a very good possibility that there will be more and more posts from 6 to11 PM and less from 8 AM to 5 PM at least short term. Time will tell.

As always thanks for reading, thanks for your encouragement, thanks for visiting, thanks for commenting, and most of thanks for your prayers.

This came in via Daily Wisdom today and I wanted to share it. I highlighted the part I know I personally needed to hear today -

Camouflage - May 06, 2008

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Hebrews 4:13

We were on the back porch. A holiday morning, not much stirring yet. I was slowly waking, cradling my steaming coffee mug, when my husband quietly asked, “Do you see what’s in the tree there?”

I strained to look, and all I saw was healthy, green fronds. I noticed how tall the coconut palm was getting. But I didn’t see what he was talking about.

“Sit here”, he said. “There’s something blocking your view there.”

Perfectly camouflaged, the iguana lay draped over a top branch. I zoomed in the lens, and was once-again amazed, at the mimic, nature can come up with.

“He’s so concealed by his coloring and marks”, I thought. However, my husband saw him, then I did as well. Sometimes I cover things up, put a smokescreen over them. But nothing in all of this world, including my heart, is hidden from God.

Our very thoughts are known to Him, and they are not even a surprise.

He doesn’t say, “Hmmmm, imagine that, what she’s thinking”….or, “Gee, look what he just did!” No news to the Lord, who knew us before we were even born (Psalm 139).

And, He loves us anyway. You may have heard this, and it is true: there is nothing you could ever do that would make God love you more, and there is nothing you could ever do that would make God love you less. He loves you. Period. Forever. Unconditionally. Just as you are. Forever and ever.

That is definitely good news.

Milton Stanley is pondering, thinking and teaching on the habits ofNehemiah, specifically his prayer life which was CONSTANT. Part of Milton’s pondering is brought on by a piece by Jeff Weddle ), which Milton followe with some personal audio about. Milton’s Post / Audio Here. Give both posts a read and Milton’s audio a listen.

First of all…THANK YOU TDOT FOR FINALLY GETTING AROUND TO FIXING DOWNTOWN KNOXVILLE, even if it does affect my drive to church for the next 14 months. I am leaving 10 minutes earlier Sunday, regardless of what the wife thinks…LOL.., and all should be well. Fourteen months of inconvince is worth the rest of my life driving on three FULL lanes of Interstate through downtown.

Yes, I know this should have been done in the 70’s, but hey back then half of Knoxville fought it and the other half moved to Farragut and started working in Oak Ridge so there you go. Regardless of the timing it is time and I appreciate it. Bottomline thanks, good luck, and do good work ASAP… (13 1/2 months would be even nicer wouldn’t it?)

Now for my next point. Mr. Nicely start the Knoxville Beltway in 14 months. You got B&B here, you got the machinces, you got the workers here, you got the gas taxes, you got EPA warnings that could drop with less congestion, so get to paving and building and such. If you can do the downtown thing in 14 months with all the traffic and roads around it, I think you can do the Orange route in 3 years since there fewer roads and less traffic to contend with. So, 2012 or early 2013 I would love to see a finished beltway around Ktown. Worst case give me Lenoir City to the Oak Ridge Hwy area by 2012.

Then Knoxville, and it’s visitors, can get on with our bizness.

Milton Stanley of Transforming Sermons has a great post / link up to a piece at Jesus the Radical Pastor Post here that is a great reminder that we all need to take some BE time with GOD.

This AM as I drove into work I was already thinking about lunch. It was not that I was really hungry it was I was missing a little sandwich shop near my work that closed a few years back.

This little sandwich shop made some of the best sandwiches I have ever had, they made a good calzone too but you had to come after 5 for those as the owner (and only employee) did not turn on the “pizza oven” until 4PM due to the cost of running it. The sentence above really tells you most of the reasons that the shop is gone - one employee (the owner) and a bare bone budget with no room for advertising. Adding to the last issue was the fact that the owner was a quiet guy who you almost had to drag more then a “Hello” out of. Not exactly a self promoter you might say.

Well bottom line as I thought about those sandwiches, the business situation of the shop, and the owner himself an additional thought came to me - how most Christians have similar habits to that little shop and it’s owner when it comes to sharing their faith and their relationship with God.

You ask why I say that? Well think about it a bit. Christians have the best thing in the world going for them - a one to one relationship with the creator of the Universe, the savior of the world, and the perfect patient and persistent teacher of true wisdom - yet many never talk about how great their life is or the perfect peace that comes from the Father. They allow their natural habits and tendencies to confound their walk, which eventually results in them just giving up and moving on. Many Christians go quietly through life, concerned more about not being noticed or being different, then actually worrying about showing / telling other about the very thing that makes them different, special and unique.

Understand I am not talking about,or saying that, Christians having to run into a room hand out tracs and share their testimony 15 times a day. No, I am simply talking about Christians taking the time to share with others (friends, co-workers, etc) the love of God. I am talking about relating too / investing in people close to you. That means talking to people about more then sports, weather, kids, and cars. That means carrying about the person enough to want to get to know the REAL person and allowing them to know the REAL you.

Back to my core point, this pattern of silence and camouflage by many Christians goes on month after month, year after year. They then wonder why their faith is stale, why they are unexcited about the things of God, why they seem so unfulfilled, and why no one really id’s them as a child of God. In time they begin to drift away even more and they begin to languish in their own disillusionment. After that they just stop thinking about the things of God entirely. They are resigned to being saved and to being silent about it. Unfortunately by doing this, they are missing the fact that they are not living up to the potential that God has for them. They are sliding silently through life while carrying a incredible (and free) gift with them and that is not God’s call to His people.

Just something to ponder as you move through your day and your walk with the Lord. Also something to ponder if you are ready to hang up your walk with God and just accept a quiet life of sliding along.

First of all, I am not a big Dell fan. Their higher end stuff (XPS, servers, etc) is good, but their lower end stuff is just terrible in my experiance. Honestly, they make fine computers if you buy a new box every few years, but if you want to upgrade and expand well their non standard motherboards and all on one board systems have always bothered me. Bottomline, in high volume big business where there is a consistent and regular migration pattern then Dell works, but in small to medium non tech businesses they create problems with the less then stellar quality and properitary products.

With that all behind us I heartly say CONGRATS and WELL DONE to Dell (HP and Leveno too) for coming up with creative and LEGAL ways to continue to provide XP after the CURRENT (as I think the Redmond gang will move it) June 30, 2008 end of product life date for XP. Vista is just bad. Every person I know now is trying to stay with XP. All my IT friends are working hard to keep Vista out of their offices and off their users desktops when possible. Windows 7 better get here soon or OS X and Linux will continue to get traction (and growth) in the marketplace. At this point Microsoft needs to understand that people are trying to stay on XP and are only going to Vista when they have too. That sort of situation causes people to look around at alternatives ALOT more. Personally I would love to see a working Windows 7 by Jan 1, 2009, but honestly I don’t think Microsoft could hit a any reasonible deadline at this point.

Stories here, here and here.