Travels to Presidential Places Part I

Ever since I can remember, I've been a Presidential buff. I'm not sure how it started.  I think it was when my great uncle gave us an old set of encyclopdias from the 1960's. The 'P' volume, in it's article on Presidents of the United States, had drawings of every president from Washington to LBJ. Soon after I acquired a stamp album which has room for stickers of all the presidents up to Reagan (then the current POTUS.) It might of also helped that I spent the first few years of my life near Yorktown, Virginia; The site of George Washington's victory over the British that finally guaranteed America it's freedom.

My mom says that her and my dad took me as a baby to Monticello. She said they were asked to leave cause they were worried that I would break something.  Since I have no memory of that visit, I will start with the first one I do have memories of. Mount Vernon

Photo Courtsey Ad Meskens

I was 7 years old and my uncle was working in the Reagan administration. My mom decided to take a trip on the Amtrak to see him. My mom didn't drive or have a car at the time so I forget how we were able to get to Mount Vernon. I remember that the main thing I wanted to see there was George Washington's tomb, so I didn't take the time I should of to look around the house.  I finally got to the tomb and well it was a tomb. That hasn't stopped me in the years since from trying to visit other presidents tombs and graves, but I guess I was 7 so that could be excused.

During my childhood I made several visits to the Yorktown battlefield. Although I haven't been to the visitors center there since 1986, I would recommend you drop by. It's alot better then the 'Victory Center' which I think charges too much. When I was a kid the visitors center had George Washington's tent and bed from the time of the Revolution, plus a cool movie. Definetly drop by and only go to the 'Victory Center' if you have kids who want to take part in hands on demonstrations.

When my parents divorced, I would move to Northwestern Pennsylvania and the town or "city" of Corry. One of the few presidential sites nearby is the site of Fort LeBouf in the small town of Waterford, PA. Fort LeBouf was a French fort.  As a young man in his twenties, George Washington was sent by the Governor of Virginia, to tell the French to get out.  The French said no, but wined and dined him anyway like a James Bond villain does before he tries to kill 007. The statue pictured is said to be the only one of Washington in a British uniform, though some would argue that he is in fact wearing a Virginia militia uniform instead. Along with the statue is a small museum that is rather unimpressive, assuming of course you find it open when you are there.


In my next post, I will tell you the story of the Rutherford B. Hayes Center and the grave of 'Old Whitey'.

The Turmoil in the Middle East

The murder of the American Ambassador to Libya and his cohorts, as well as violent protests in Egypt have been blamed on the outrage over a You Tube video which  mocks the Prophet Muhammad.  As a Christian,I am offended when I hear Jesus Christ's name used in vain and when I see him mocked on South Park and other comedy shows.  However when is the last time you saw Christians take to the street to protest blashphemy over their God?  There might of been a couple of instances in 1988 when The Last Temptation of Christ was released but besides that I can not think of any others.  Does Islam want to be known as a religion that is only feared but not respected?  Governments may urge the videos to be taken down and web sites may comply  but this is because of the violence, not because of the principles of Islam or  the greatness of Muhammad.  Otherwise why aren't artworks such as 'Piss Christ' which is a picture of a crucifix submerged in urine banned? Just a thought....

Musing of a Taco Bell cashier

I am have been working at a Taco Bell as a cashier for the last year. Before this I worked in as an operator/Customer Service rep for various companies. I got laid off at the end of 2008 and searched for a year and a half for another job until I found this one. It took some getting used to, being on my feet up to 8 hours a day and the pay is quite a bit less then a call center pays but I like my job. I have a great boss and don't dread coming to work everyday like I did working customer service. I have observed some things in my year of waiting on customers that I wanted to share.

• Old people like to use change alot more then young people.
• Women are more apt to complain about things then men are.
• Some people you can't make happy, no matter how hard you try.

Do I want to do this for the rest of my life? No, but if I was getting paid $10 an hour I could live with it!

The Second Unpardonable Sin.

If you were to ask most Baptists how many unpardonable sins there were, they would say one. The Blasphemy of The Holy Spirit. But in reality for most Baptists there are two. The second being divorced. If someone feels called to be a pastor or any paid position in the Baptist hierarchy and they've been divorced, regardless of the circumstances they are eliminated from consideration because of their interpretation of such verses as I Timothy 3:2 which states that a bishop should be the 'husband of one wife'. Never mind that the Greek means 'one woman man.' Example, Bill Clinton has only been married once but even the most devout Democrat wouldn't call him a one woman man. Yet, he'd have a better chance of being called as the pastor of a Baptist church then a man who was faithful to his wife but for non biblical reasons, decided to divorce him.

I went through a situation like this. I surrendered to preach the gospel in 2003 at a conference in Hammond, Indiana. The following year I enrolled at Hyles-Anderson College, the bible college run by the church that put on this conference. I left because I felt I wasn't learning any bible. I ended up marrying a graduate of said college in 2006. Less then a year later she filed for divorce. I tried everything I could think of to reconcile with her but nothing worked. Since then I have been greatly frustrated. I still feel called to preach but the Baptist churches I go to prohibit divorced men from pastoring. It had depressed me so much that I've attended Presbyterian and Full Gospel churches where I felt more accepted but whose theology I had trouble with. It seems like I can either stay in a Baptist church where I feel at home, but where I feel like I'll have a scarlet 'D' on my chest for the rest of my life, or I can try another church where I'm accepted but where I don't feel comfortable, either with their worship or their theology.

I am sure there are others out there who have been through simlar circumstances. If you have feel free to post them in the comments.

Bible Post #3 The Ryrie Study Bible KJV

I bought my first Ryrie Study Bible in August of 1997. I had liked how it answered a theological question I had been dealing with. It soon became my favorite study bible; I would take it everywhere and used it so much that by the time I replaced it, the bonded leather was peeling off. I especially liked the nice large typeface on it. Even when I didn't need to reference the notes I liked reading it for that reason alone.  It also has a nice set of cross references, a topical index, and much more.

In 2005 I replaced My burgundy bonded leather Ryrie with a black genuine leather one. I used that one regularly until I moved back to Pennsylvania from Louisiana and the moved again and it got lost in the moving. I still believe I have it somewhere so instead of spending the big bucks for another genuine leather edition, I bought another bonded leather one.  I figured by the time the leather started pealing off, I would of found my genuine leather one.  Well, I've had the bonded leather one for close to a year and still haven't found the real leather one.

I almost forgot to mention that the bible includes a DVD with the Ryrie study notes and several other works by the good doctor including Basic Theology. It also includes the NIV and NASB (1977 and 1995 editions) on a trial basis along with several of John MacArthur's commentaries. The software is Bible Explorer which is scaled down version of Wordsearch. There are also several free (mostly public domain) titles that you can download from their web site, in addition to the ones included on the disc. I wouldn't make the disc a major factor in buying this bible but it's a nice bonus.

As you can probably guess I do recommend The Ryrie. My main complaint is that while they publish it in the KJV, NASB, and NIV; they no longer publish an edition in the NKJV which has become My bible translation of choice. That being said, if you like one of the translations mentioned above and lean towards a dispensationalist point of view; then I would wholeheartedly recommend The Ryrie Study Bible.

PS The first page shows what happens when you have a nose bleed and are reading your bible!

My Bibles 1 The Classic Note Bible

I have over the past 15 years, become somewhat of a collector of bibles. I only have 3 or 4 (depending on how you count) in my collection right now but that's because I've sold, given away, or lost a good many of them.  I know I usually talk about political things on this blog but decided for a change of pace to talk about this hobby of mine. For the next few posts, I'm going to review some bibles I own.  I'm going to start with the oldest one that I regularly use. The Classic Note Bible.

I bought this bible in 2004 while I was attending Hyles-Anderson College.  It was the same type of bible that Jack Hyles used to preach from, though it had been redesigned to be smaller and easier to carry around then the one he used.  It is a plain black text KJV with one big difference;  It has a blank page beside every bible page with the exception of Genesis 1.  It is only made in Genuine Leather. The leather is kind of stiff which I am not a big fan of but it had held up well in the 5 years since I bought it.  It has two bookmarks which comes in handy if you are reading from the Old and New Testament at the same time.  Although Dr. Hyles was the co publisher of The Bible, except for his name on the front, and an introduction that talks about how this bible came about, it doesn't have any notes or commentary from him.  There is a bit of separation going on in Genesis 20 and Revelation 13.  Of course, the main reason that someone would buy this is for the blank pages, so they can write notes and sermon outlines.  I won't argue that it is good for notes, but I have found in my personal experience, that trying to preach a sermon from a two sided page isn't as good as just taking your sermon notes up to the pulpit with you.  I know Dr. Hyles wrote his outlines in his bible but maybe it was easier when the bible was bigger and thus, you had more room on the page to write on. (Though those editions are so thick, it would probably pull your back out to carry one very far.)

Do I recommend this bible? If you are someone that finds that his or her wide margin bible is still not enough to record their notes on, or you want to be able to write notes from sermons you hear then yes;  If you want to use it to preach from, then I would say no, unless you can find one of the thicker first editions on eBay.

Will Caroline run for Uncle Teddy's seat?

I just read that Caroline Kennedy is going to be one of the speakers at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh. Is this the first step in a run for her Uncle Teddy (and before him, her father's) Senate seat? You may say "Yeah, but Caroline lives in New York!" Well, Hillary Clinton was a resident of Arkansas when she began her 'listening tour' to become New York's junior senator and Caroline at least has family ties to Massachusetts. If Vicki or Joe Kennedy decide not to run, look at Caroline to.