Excellent Vision Forum Sale!

The Bell

Stately situated atop its wooden frame “The Bell” watches over the old home place. Long since removed from its original lofty height, its job changed from summoning parishioners or schoolchildren to the meeting at hand to the more menial duty of calling home a loving husband for the mid-day meal known as “dinner.” While my grandmother’s home cooking sat cooling on the stove, she would make her way out to “The Bell” and give it a tug with all the might her feeble frame could yield. In an age before cell phones commanded instant communication, the tolling of the bell wafted across the golden fields of grain. Its voice was loud enough to be heard over the rumble of the old red tractor. A smile appeared on the gentle farmer’s face as he stepped down from the tractor and into the old truck that would carry him to his table to meet the woman and the meal that awaited him.

“The Bell” not only signaled a home cooked meal for grandpa, as a child we also used it to call in the cows. A much more vibrant ringing by grandchildren, and later in life, great-grandchildren, would cause the ears of our bovine friends to perk up. It was quite a sight to see these plump land blimps run at full trot to receive the reward of white bread that the children would feed them from their hands. Very thankful for the fence between us and the cattle, my two year old always wanted to “feed the cows” but she did it from the safety of Daddy’s arms.

“The Bell” is silent now. The wrinkled hands that once prepared the meals and tugged at the rope are folded in peace. The tough, but gentle, grandpa farmer parked his tractor in the barn for the last time. The once open fields are now strewn with homes and businesses. Yet “The Bell” eagerly waits to make new memories in the lives of its next trustees.

What will the tolling of “The Bell” signal for you? Will it be a grand noisemaker for a new generation of children unaccustomed to items that last for several lifetimes? Will it regain its place of prominence in the bell tower of a local church or school house? Will it simply serve as a reminder of better days gone by? Regardless of the use you find for it, its ring is as strong as it ever was. May the tolling of “The Bell” signify to you and your family the blessings and the memories it has given to us.

“The Bell” is 27 inches high, 30 inch diameter with a 36 inch width for mounting. It is marked with “THE C.S. BELL CO” on one side of the mounting support and “HILLSBORO O.” on the other. The number “30” is on the top.

Because of its size and weight this auction is listed as “local pickup” only. But don’t let that discourage you. The charm of its full toned ring and its antiqued iron façade will make the trip to Ovilla, Texas (about 30 miles south of Dallas) worth every minute. Don’t let this auction pass you by. Bid right now while you still can!

View the auction here

Family Reunited

Praise be to God who works all things according to the council of His
will! I am nearing the end of my second week away from my family as I
am working several hours away from them in Texas. God's heart is for
husbands and wives, fathers and children to live together, not apart.
It appears that God is making a way not only to be reunited with my
family, but also a way to remain in the Church where He has placed us.
I'm being deliberately vague until such time as things are finalized,
but suffice it to say that He is answering prayer and rescuing me out
of my own unwise decision that I made several months ago.

I believe that God had a purpose for the circumstances in which I
found myself over these past few months. But I also thank Him that it
is not a permanent arrangement and that restoration is right around
the corner.

Perhaps then, I can concentrate on bringing FatherToFather.net online.
No, I haven't forgotten it. But in the everyday bustle of what's
been going on in our lives, it has not received the attention it
deserves. Stay tuned. God is working…

Halloween...Again...

This is a tired subject. How sad it is that every October sincere Christians need to give reminders to their fellow believers on the evils of halloween...

Regardless, I did just that in a Toastmasters speech today. I gleaned much of my material from the following website:
A Puritan's Mind

Bottom line...reject this evil holiday. "Reformation Day" is a much better "alternative" (if such a thing is needed):
Reformation Day 2006

Interesting Links

I’ve run across a few interesting web links this week that I’d like to share with you.

I’m a book lover. I’ve gotten some emails concerning this site from a yahoo group of which I’m a member. If you like old documents that unashamedly proclaim truths and convictions that were held by many of our founding fathers, check out: http://www.dayspringgatherings.org/dayspring_library.html I may not agree with all the works you will find here, and the host’s “kum by ya” type of “tolerance” attitude leaves a bit to be desired for those with the backbone to proclaim that Jesus is the “Way the Truth and the Life and no man comes unto the Father but by [Him].” John 14:6 In spite of their notice reading,
“We make such non commercial speech and electronic communication available in our private efforts to exchange and advance understanding and promote well being, good, peace and harmony for all that includes but is not limited to spiritual principals, human liberties, learning, religious, economic, scientific and social ideas.”
I think it’s a great resource, with many/most of the works declaring the exclusiveness of Christianity as the only true faith, though the folks at Dayspring Gatherings may want to think otherwise.

I’m sure you’ve most likely heard me lament the fact that I have ever so much more reading material than I can probably get through, even in my lifetime, and I keep collecting more all the time. I found a great place to index my library. It’s called http://www.librarything.com. Once you start entering books that you own, they make recommendations for...of course…more books that you may be interested in. You can reference this site from your blackberry…so you can avoid impulse purchases of books that you already own…but have forgotten about. :-)

Finally, because I have so little time to read, but such a desire to, the site http://www.librivox.org provides free downloadable MP3s of public domain books. They are read by “real humans!” (I made this comment because I recently listed to all 13 books of Augustine’s Confessions read by…a computer!)

Enjoy.

Anonymous Comments

Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
(Job 38:3)

When I set up my blog I decided to allow comments. I chose, however, to require my approval on all comments. Generally, I will allow negative and positive comments on my articles. I do ask that negative comments be free of profanity. Here’s another tip for you. If you leave a negative comment and wish to remain anonymous, I very well may not approve it. Why is it in this day and age that people are so cowardly that they will spout off derogatory comments, but yet they don’t want to stand behind their words?

I have offered negative comments at other people’s blogs before. Yet in every case, I leave my name, and often my email address. You may disagree with what I write. You may want to tell the world of your disagreement. But if you don’t have the fortitude to sign your own name to your comments, why don’t you just keep them to yourself?

My personal theory on why people do this is that they have their own blogs full of ridiculous assertions that can be easily shown to be in error. If they were to venture out and start signing their comments on others’ blogs, those authors may actually visit their blog and shoot gaping holes in all their articles. So, they hide behind an “anonymous” label and take pop shots at leaders who are bold enough to challenge the status quo.

Cardinals and Insanity

THUMP! What was that? THUMP! There it is again!

About 2 months ago, this strange sound started coming from our front door and our back window. When rushing to the door to investigate, a flash of red could be seen as a cardinal fluttered away at the sight of six children coming toward him. At first, this was entertaining. We thought that the bird wanted inside our house. There was talk of opening the door and letting him come in. Then maybe we could capture him and put him in a cage. But we soon realized that this cardinal did not want to come in our house. He was merely “fighting” a perceived enemy that he saw in his reflection. The tell tale evidence soon became apparent on the doors and mirrors of our van, as he left his “calling card” splattered all over our newly washed vehicle. It seems this red bird has enemies all over our yard, including any reflective surface he can find.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Some have attributed this quote to Albert Einstein. Others go further back and credit it to Ben Franklin. Regardless, the truth in this statement is apparent. Are we dealing with an insane bird here? I’m thinking not…but rather that it is his instinct that keeps him pounding his head against glass all day long for over two months now. After watching this and considering it over this length of time, I knew there had to be a spiritual lesson here somewhere. This bird is walking (flying? :-) ) after the flesh. He is relying on his instincts to guide his steps. I was reading in Galatians 5 this morning. Think of this bird fighting his “enemy” and the pain that he surely must be causing himself in this futile effort.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
(Gal 5:14-26)

How often do we strive against one another, acting out fleshly pursuits in a desire to better ourselves at the expense of our neighbour? How many times do we do this to our own demise whereby our attempts at striving end up hurting ourselves? And finally, how often do we continue these behaviours hoping against hope that somehow, someway, our futile efforts will ultimately allow us to “defeat” our perceived enemies?

So, I admonish you, just as Paul admonished the Galatians, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

Which Type are You?

There are 10 types of people in this world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.

There’s a beauty in homeschooling in that you can teach what you think is appropriate in all subject areas. Now, with something as objective as math, I generally follow the curriculum pretty closely. However, there is something lacking in our otherwise very good Saxon math books. My oldest daughter is doing eighth grade work now, and she has yet to learn number systems other than base 10.

When I was in seventh grade, I taught myself binary using an old Commodore Vic 20 instruction manual. Remember those? I believe it had 3K of memory. For comparison, the Atari 2600 game console had 5K, I believe. Anyway, one of the games that came with the used system I bought would sometimes fail right in the middle and give me a “Syntax Error.” What I discovered when this happened intrigued me. I found that as I typed keys after this program had failed that some of the keys displayed parts of the pictures from the games, rather than the expected characters (A, B, C, etc.) I wanted to learn how to do this, so I pulled out the manual and discovered that you could alter the character set for each letter by assigning several 8 bit codes to each letter. Where the bit was “turned on” the pixel was lit up. Where it was off, the pixel was off. This translated into the 1’s and 0’s that made up the number. In the first position was 2 to the 0 power, or “1.” In the second position was 2 to the 1st power, or “2.” In the third position was 2 to the 2nd power, or “4,” and so on continuing to 2 to the 7th power (which was 128). If I wanted any of these pixels lit up I just added that number to the grand total. This gave a number anywhere between 0-255. In no time at all, I was modifying my character fonts. In the process, I was learning a valuable lesson that I would later use in my college days, as well as on the job from time to time. What I didn’t have explained to me was the ease at which binary converts to hexadecimal. I didn’t manage to grasp that concept until after my college IBM 370 Assembler class.

Anyway, from time to time, I’ll go over a few lessons on binary with the children. To count to ten in binary, you count this way (starting at zero):

0, 1, 10, 11, 100, 101, 110, 111, 1000, 1001, 1010

It’s easy when you think about it. When you count in decimal, you run out of numbers after you use up 9. So, you count: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. What comes next? There’s no single digit to represent the next number in binary, so you have to use a combination of digits to represent numbers greater than 9. So, we use 1 followed by 0, or “10.” Binary is the same way, it’s just you run out of numbers much faster. In the above example where I count to ten in binary, you start: 0, 1, then oops…we don’t have another digit, so we have to start combining, though the value is only two. So, two in binary has to be represented as a combination of 1 followed by 0, or “10.” The next number, 11, is three, then oops, we have to add another column, because we’ve used up the digits again. That’s when we get 100, which is 4. And so on…I think you get the picture.

Whereas binary uses only 1’s and 0’s, hexadecimal uses 0-9, and A-F. It is base 16. Therefore, after 9, the next digit is A (having a value of ten), followed by B, and so on to F (having a value of 15). Computers only recognize binary. But hexadecimal is a great help to programmers. The quick little conversion thing is this. Four bits (binary digits) are needed to make a single hexadecimal digit. 0000 (binary) equates to 0 in hex. 1111 (binary) equates to F in hex. Two of these hexadecimal digits make up a “byte” or 8 binary digits. Therefore, programmers have an easier type representing computer commands and values using hex rather than decimal. Knowing that each hex digit converts straightforward to a binary value, it’s easy to see why hex is the preferred notation.

For some reason, Saxon Math doesn’t think this is an important concept to pass on to my children, at least not from Kindergarten through eighth grade. Well, that’s OK. I bring the topic up from time to time. When my children want to learn programming, they’ll have a head start over all those modern “wimp” programmers who’s GUI environment fills everything in automatically. In the old days, we actually had to allocate our own memory…programmers today have it easy… I’ll teach my children programming “heritage,” not just the path of ease… (this last paragraph written somewhat tongue in cheek!)

So, of the 10 types of people, which type are you? I’ll give you a hint, there’s only two!

Deer and Collisions

Just a couple of weeks ago, my mother-in-law hit a deer on her way back to our house after going to the store for a few things. This really tore her little Honda up pretty badly, doing about $4700 worth of damage. She was only traveling about 25 mph. Then earlier this week a friend of mine from church was traveling at 60 mph on a highway when a deer ran out in front of him. He was driving his van with his wife and six children in the vehicle. His damage was over $6800. What is the deal with these deer?! For many years I have wanted to hunt. I may just have a chance out here in Oklahoma. To date, I’ve not had a good place to hunt.

Something needs to be done, though, to relieve this obvious overcrowding of the deer population. When I hear of two people close to me, within a span of two weeks hitting deer, I can only guess that the same problem could very well happen to me. There’s not much I can do to prepare my Mustang for such an encounter, but I am seriously considering buying a heavy duty tubular steel bumper for our van. I can’t afford to lose it. In my opinion, they need to eliminate restrictions on hunting deer. Let hunters take all they want, at least for a time. Doing this would help public safety. We thank God that neither my mother-in-law nor my friend’s family from church were hurt seriously (though my friend’s wife and daughter are a little sore). I seriously doubt that removing limits from hunters would result in deer extinction. If the species actually begins to be threatened, then reinstate the limits. But for now, these deer would be much less of a public threat if they were stored in someone’s freezer.

Reformation Day

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther boldly nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Wittenburg Chapel, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation. As he studied the Word of God, the words in Romans 1:17 jumped out at him.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
(Rom 1:17)

There it was in black and white, the just shall live by faith! The heretical popish church had devised a scheme to line their cathedrals with the gold of peasants. Over time, the heresy of purgatory had crept into the church with no scriptural warrant whatsoever. Then, very conveniently, the church had convinced the ignorant masses that if they wanted to spring their loved ones from the grip of purgatory, they needed to purchase “indulgences,” which were payments to the church. The church, then, promised to say special prayers on their behalf, etc. Sounds like an early version of a televangelist, doesn’t it? This deception had spread over all of Christendom because the Bible was not available in the common language of the people (German in Martin’s case). So only the priests could read the scriptures in Latin. It did not take long for Martin Luther to be driven into exile in order to preserve his life. During this time, he translated the entire Bible into German, thus flinging open the truth to even the common man.

The Protestant Reformation is one of the most important historical events in post biblical church history, Yet most Christians today are ignorant of it. It is my opinion that this is “by design.” As church coalitions form and ecumenical councils decry the “division” caused by sound doctrine, the modern church capitulates and climbs in bed with that great whore of Revelation to commit fornication with her.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
(Rev 17:4-6)

Remember on this day, the blood of the martyrs spilt on behalf of Christ’s Church. Study the history and honor the heroes of the faith. Resist the urge to compromise for the sake of peace. Our Reformation ancestors died for the five solas of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, and Soli Deo Gloria.

Also, consider the other “holiday” that the world celebrates on this day. This too is by satanic design to keep your mind away from the great good that was accomplished by the Reformation. So, today, if someone wishes you a "Happy," followed by the name of their pagan holiday, simply reply back, "And a Blessed Reformation Day to you."