One In Jesus

From NASA.

I just spent the last half hour perusing NASA’s database of outerspace pictures. And I find myself on my knees.

Here are two locations to begin. If you find others, please share.

NASA.

FoxNews.

When I was a kid, around the fourth grade, I had my mother awaken me early and let me skip school to watch John Glenn’s mission — three orbits followed by a splashdown.

I remember Apollo XIII (and loved the movie).

There’s just something about outer space that has held a special fascination for me since my earliest years. I think it’s getting to glimpse another part of God’s self-revelation. Yep — it’s getting to see God.

The picture isn’t, of course, the literal hand of God. But you can see God there just as you can see Rembrandt in his paintings and Frank Lloyd Wright in his buildings. The art reveals the artist.

I was hoping, as a fourth grader, not to be too old to go to the moon. It turned out that I was too young. I’d love to go, but until we have inter-planetary cruise lines, looking at someone else’s pictures is a pretty good substitute.

So Alabama’s losing the Sugar Bowl to Oklahoma in a lackadaisical effort last Friday was pretty awful, but I felt reasonably well physically.

Before the trip, I’d had my pee tested, once again, and I had been found clear of any remaining infection — meaning that my three rounds of antibiotics following back surgery two months earlier was finally over.

I was still recovering from the stiffness and soreness of my back surgery, and I was looking forward to finally getting back into decent shape after a brief vacation in New Orleans. Continue reading →

I get emails —

I have never owned any Bible commentaries, always resorting to borrowing as needed. As of late I have decided to purchase, or start to purchase, such items. Do you have any suggestions for sets that would be suitable for a lay-person such as myself? If you don’t recommend complete sets, do you have any particular authors that you would recommend? I look forward to your advice.

This is a tough one, because there are so very many commentaries and commentary sets out there. They vary in terms of the level of expertise they assume the reader has, the denomination of the author, the target audience, and all sorts of things. Continue reading →

My wife asked for Sugar Bowl tickets for Christmas, and so she got Sugar Bowl tickets for Christmas.

And this means I’ll be away from my computer the next couple of days. I have only one more post written.

So posts will pause for a few days, I imagine. I might find time and energy to write ahead. You never know.

Meanwhile, I’m searching for handicapped accessible gates at the SuperDome.

Naomi brings an especially interesting story to Wineskins. It all goes back to 1966. You see, it was in 1966 that my congregation planted a church in Stamford, Connecticut: the Stamford Church of Christ.

This was part of the Exodus Movement in which several Churches of Christ worked together to plant churches in the Northeast.

As I understand the process, the plant involved several families from the planting churches pulling up roots and relocating to the new area. There is a good article in the Christian Chronicle recalling this plant. And here’s one from 1965.

I moved to Tuscaloosa, and my church home, in 1975, and so this was nearly a decade in the past at the time. (We’re fast approaching the 50th anniversary — and really ought to plan something.) And this was a plant, not a mission congregation, and so it was a fully autonomous, self-supporting church by the time I showed up. (I wonder how many former Tuscaloosans live there? Do they still remember how to say “Roll Tide!”?) Nonetheless, it was a ministry that my church understandably took great pride in. Continue reading →