Deep Thoughts from Mark Batterson...

In the 1960’s, a study was done on the campus of Yale University. The subjects were Yale seniors who were educated about and encouraged to get a tetanus shot. Most of the students were convinced by the lecture that they needed to get the shot. But only 3% actually went and got the shot.

Another group of students were given the same lecture, but they were also given a copy of the campus map with the location of the health center circled. Then they were asked to look at their weekly schedules, make a plan for when they would go and take the shot, and look at the map and decide what route they would take. 28% of that control group got the shot. That is nine times as many! Why the radical increase? Because they identified how, when, and where?

I'm guessing all of us need to make a change going into the New Year. You need to stop doing something or start doing something. You need to do something less or do something more. But I'm guessing about 3% of us will make the change because we never identify how, when, and where!

So here's a plan. It's as simple as 1,2,3.

#1 Look at the calendar and schedule an hour between now and January 1^st. Put it on your calendar. Make an appointment with yourself. It may be in the morning or in the evening. It may be at your house or a coffeehouse. It may be on New Years Eve or New Years Day. Just set aside one hour.

#2 Spend an hour reflecting and praying. And here’s a suggestion. Think in categories. I think it helpful to think in these five categories: spiritual, relational, intellectual, emotional and physical. Do an honest self-assessment. And ask God to reveal the answer to this question: what change do I most need to make?

#3 Make the change. Call it a goal. Call it a New Year's Resolution. Call it whatever you want. The goal is to make a change that honors God. Here's a suggestion. Don't make ten resolutions! If you make lots of resolutions you'll probably keep none of them. In my experience, you need to make three or less. And I'd start with the spiritual category.

Once you come up with your resolution you need to write it down. Then you need to keep it visible. Put it on a screen saver. Put it on your bathroom mirror. If it's diet related, put it on the refrigerator. You might even want to find an accountability partner who will make the same resolution. It helps to have someone hold you accountable.

Third Day in concert....

Want to learn sign-language?

If you're interested in learning American Sign Language or want to brush up on some courses you took in college, there is an enormous amount of information available at LifePrint.

Assembled by American Sign Language teacher and evangelist Dr. Bill Vicars, LifePrint has dozens of ways for you to hone your Sign Language skills. There are basic word guides, Sign Language dictionaries, information on deaf culture and a plethora of links to other ASL resources. For other ways to learn Sign Language, check out the ASL Video Browser at Michigan State University or look up British Sign Language on the go with a mobile-friendly database of signs.

Learn American Sign Language

Spring Cleaning...

With an influx of holiday gifts and trinkets, now is the perfect time of year to ask some tough questions about your things. Erin at the blog Unclutterer has a list to get you started.

In an effort to make more conscious choices about the objects she shared her home with, Erin began aggressively asking questions about them. The questions helped her overcome a dilemma:

Each object exists in my space for a reason, and a chunk of time, planning, and research was dedicated to its acquisition, and there are further evaluations to let it stay. I make an investment of myself in every object, and that is why it’s hard for me to say that I’m not attached to these objects.

Even dedicating more thought to her acquisitions than most do, she still found it hard to work around the attachments we all form to things in our physical space. Using a series of questions like: "Does this item make my life easier, save me time, save me money, fulfill an essential need?" helped Erin sort through things more effectively and objectively. The questions are divided into two camp, those for the things you already own and those for the things you are about to acquire. If you're looking to live more consciously with your things this year and make better use of your physical space, Erin's list is a great spring board to taking an engaged look at your possessions. For other decluttering techniques check out how to declutter your home with the suitcase test and how to form an attack plan for a cluttered messy home.

Priorities....

Chris over at the productivity blog The Art of Non-Comformity wants you to say no. Frequently. So frequently in fact that the quality of the things you say yes to rises exponentially.

Chris advocates radical exclusion as a solution for overwhelming demands and new inputs. Rather than stretch yourself thin saying yes to everything and ultimately failing to deliver you should focus on the commitments and projects you really want to make something of:

I may or may not have a good excuse for why I failed to honor the commitment, but one thing’s for sure: if I make a habit of it, I will soon lose the trust of the person who had relied on me.

To prevent this from happening, I sometimes practice the fine art of radical exclusion. This is where I deliberately ignore or decline any number of inputs, messages, or requests for my attention in order to focus on what I decide is more important.

Christmas...Thanks Linus

Eating slow = losing weight...

There are a lot of factors in losing and maintaining a healthy diet and weight, but the HealthAssist blog points out that eating slowly might play a larger role than you realize.

Along with the general knowledge of your body needing more time to figure out it's full than most rush-rush meal

Bono on the incarnation...

"I remember coming back from a very long tour.... On Christmas Eve I went to St. Patrick???s Cathedral. ...It had dawned on me before, but it really sank in: the Christmas story. The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty... a child, I just thought: ???Wow!??? Just the poetry. Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and ...tears came down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this. Because that???s exactly what we were talking about earlier: love needs to find form, intimacy needs to be whispered. To me, it makes sense. It???s actually logical. It???s pure logic. Essence has to manifest itself. It???s inevitable. Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh." - Bono

Bling bling on my baby...

Check out the necklace around my baby's neck. I wanted her Christmas gift to be as beautiful as her...nothing will ever quite match her elegance but it's a step in the right direction! Diamonds...a girls best friend!

The dirty six-letter word....change

The best church/ministry book I read in 2008 didn’t even mention the words God, church, ministry, Jesus, or faith. That’s because it was a business book, written by leadership and change expert, John Kotter. The book is: “A Sense of Urgency.”

Kotter is a former Harvard Business School professor who discovered that years after writing his classic change book on change, 70% of organizations that attempted change failed. The #1 reason was that they lacked a sense of urgency.

So if 70% of significant change plans fail because of a diminished sense of urgency, what can we do to turn up the heat? Kotter provides some ideas in his book. While I’m tempted to translate his solutions into the church-ese, I won’t. If I could summarize it in an article like this, it wouldn’t be the best book I read in 2008, would it?

Tragedy Hits Cincinnati Church...

Tragedy struck Crossroads Church in Cincinnati, as a 23 year old woman, Keri Shryock, fell 25 feet to her death during one of the church's Christmas shows last Wednesday. The fall happened during the opening performance in front of thousands of people. The 10,000-member church has canceled the remaining 10 performances of "Awaited" out of respect for all of those involved and to facilitate the grieving and recovery process.

According to an article in The Christian Post, police have concluded that the fatal fall was an accident caused by an equipment failure...

More from the Christian Post article:

During Wednesday’s performance, Shryock and two other performers were making an ascent on ropes as they played the three wise men on the journey to Bethlehem. They were approaching a star when Shryock fell headfirst to the concrete floor.

“Toward the ending of the song she came loose,” Daniel Doepke, 55, of Middletown, told The Cincinnati Enquirer. “I can’t describe how heart-wrenching it was, her fall to a hard concrete surface.”

Natalie Hastings, a spokeswoman for the church, told AP, “I know the performers wore some kind of harness and they got some professional training especially to do this.”

Shryock had some gymnastics training and was excited about performing the rope act, said Melissa Davish, a friend and former gymnastics club teammate at Bowling Green State University, to AP.

While the remaining performances have been canceled, Shryock’s parents have encouraged the church to continue with a Christmas experience so that people would hear the message of Jesus and “because that’s the way Keri would have wanted it.”

What is wrong with this stupid church?

The Elders of Grace Community Church are taking a stand against the unbiblical lifestyle of Rebecca Hancock. And they have no other alternative then to pull a Matthew 18:17 on her. They plan to "tell if to the church". "It" being Hancock's sexual relationship with someone to whom she is not married. In a letter sent to her, the elders write: "Unless you repent of this sin and agree to meet with the elders regarding this issue, this third step will be carried out publicly on January 4, 2009. In order to avoid this, you may contact us through the church office." Hancock, instead, decided to contact the media. You can see a copy of the churches letter here...

PDF of Grace Community Church’s letter...

Here’s the story on FoxNews.com...

According to the Fox News story, Hancock says she has left the church rather than leaving her boyfriend. He two children remain active members of the church.

The Rev. T. Scott Christmas, pastor of the church, told the Florida Times-Union that the “process of loving accountability” is made very clear to members, and the church is doing “nothing more than following the practices of what biblical churches have done through history.”

More from the Fox News article:

Despite knowing her relationship was against church rules, Hancock said she never realized that disclosing it would trigger the first in a three-step process used by the church to deal with sinners: private admonishment, admonishment in the presence of witnesses and finally public admonishment.

Still, she said she tried to follow her mentor’s advice and break up with Young, who wasn’t a member of the church.

“I must have gone through 10 breakups trying to end it, but after not having the power to do it I would go back,” she said. “It was hard to give up somebody I love.”

Hancock learned that her private sessions with her mentor hadn’t been so private after all, when in October her mentor pulled her aside in church and asked her come into another room.

“In the room, there were several women that I never told my business to. And they proceeded to tell me about my business and what I was doing and what a sinner I was — just persecuting me.” Hancock said. “One of the ladies was even saying ‘I was at your house when you didn’t come home all night.’”

It was then that Hancock said she decided to leave Grace Community Church.

“I told them, ‘I cannot believe you people are doing this. I’m not going any further — I’m never coming here again,’” she recalled.

Darrell L. Bock, a research professor for the Dallas Theological Seminary, said that public admonishment is not uncommon in churches that focus on discipline but added, “Most churches would handle this much more privately than this particular community is choosing to do.”

What do you think? Is this church overstepping it’s bounds? Or is it lovingly correcting a member? Love to hear your thoughts…

Americans get their news from the web or tv...newspapers are obsolete

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Internet has surpassed newspapers as the main source for national and international news for Americans, according to a new survey.

Television, however, remains the preferred medium for Americans, according to the survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Seventy percent of the 1,489 people surveyed by Pew said television is their primary source for national and international news.

Are sales that bad?

J.C. Penney Co. is offering free wake-up calls to rouse department-store shoppers at 5:30 a.m. Friday. From the time the store opens until 1 p.m., the stores will offer 100 "doorbuster" deals, twice as many as last year, including 50% off Ralph Lauren-designed American Living sportswear line, 70% off gold and sterling-silver jewelry and juniors holiday sweaters for $9.99.

Learn the lessons the first time...

Have you ever left your gas cap at a gas station after filling up? Or what about leaving your bank card at ATM machine after making a withdrawal? I know. Most cars come equipped with an attached gas cap so you can't forget. And most ATM machines beep when the card is ejected. But that phenomenon of forgetting is something psychologists call a postcompletion error. It is the tendency, after completing a task, to forget the steps that got you there.

I think the postcompletion error is one of the dangers we face going into a new year. Let me put it this way. I know lots of people who have been Christians for twenty-five years. But they don't have twenty-five years of experience. They have one year of experience repeated twenty-five times. Why? Because God has to re-teach them the same lessons over and over and over again.

What lessons has God taught you this past year? Let's not forget the old lessons so God can teach us new lessons next year.

I think a huge part of discipleship is overcoming this postcompletion error. If you've overcome an addiction, don't forget the steps you took. If your marriage has been reconciled, don't forget the steps. If you've experienced success in business, don't forget the steps. Share the steps with others. That's called discipleship.

One of my New Year traditions is preaching a message called Live and Learn. It's my way of capturing the lessons God has taught me over the past year. I need to double-back. Why? Because I don't want to forget how I got here!
post by Mark Batterson

It's already yours...

I get so frustrated with the older brother in the story of the prodigal son.
Here he is, pitching a temper tantrum because of something his father never gave him (a goat, for crying out loud).

We can learn a valuable lesson at the expense his ignorance:
Your Father can’t give you what’s already yours!

This brother had access to as many fat cows as his little heart desired.
They were his for the taking. So what was he waiting for?

Many times we pray for God to give us things that we already possess.
We ask God to give us joy. Joy doesn’t come from out-there-somewhere.
It’s a fruit of the Spirit…and it’s already ours….waiting to be activated.

I’ve begged God before to give me peace about certain situations. When He doesn’t rain down peace, I become irritated and impatient.
But He’s already given me peace through Jesus…a peace that passes understanding.
He’s waiting for me to walk in what He’s already provided.

Don’t wait for God to give you victory when He’s already won the battle.
Don’t wait for God to give you hope when He’s already poured out His hope in abundance into your heart through the Holy Spirit.

Stop waiting for God to give you what’s already yours.

post from Steven Furtick

Questions to ask yourself

Here are some great questions to ask as you wrap up the year.

1. What are the 2-3 themes that personally defined 2008?

2. What people, books, accomplishments, or special moments created highlights in 2008?

3. Give yourself a grade in the following areas of focus: vocationally, spiritually, family, relationally, emotionally, financially, physically, recreationally

4. What am I working on that is BIG?

5. As I move into 2009, is a majority of my energy being spent on things that drain me or things that energize me?

6. How am I preparing for 20 years from now?

That's gonna leave a mark...

A pediatric brain surgeon Colorado Springs, Colorado was operating on a 3-day-old baby and found a foot growing in his brain.

"The foot literally popped out of the brain," Grabb told TheDenverChannel Wednesday.

The appendage threatened the newborn's life.

When [Dr. Paul] Grabb performed the life-saving surgery at Memorial Hospital for Children in Colorado Springs, he was in for another surprise: he also found what appeared to be parts of an intestine in the folds of the infant's tiny brain, in addition to another developing foot, hand and thigh.

Colorado doctor finds foot in newborn's brain

Early advertisement by my beloved Apple...

Creative punishment by a parent...

On Tuesday a 16-year-old boy caught vandalizing at Wilson Classical High School in Long Beach, CA walked the streets for five hours with a sandwich board that read "I have wasted your tax money with dumb acts of vandalism in the public schools." His father made him wear the sandwich board.

Baltimore, Sr., found out about the vandalism Monday, when his son's school called him and told him the damages would cost $875. He said his son was trying to get attention when he tagged a fictitious gang logo on school property.

Baltimore, Jr., was suspended for four days, and ordered by the school to spend several days of his holiday vacation doing community service on Wilson's campus. He will be painting over graffiti and doing other chores.

Father Punishes Son with Public Humiliation

Coldest Town In The World...

Bank Of America....never again!

To all my loyal readers: I must break from the tradition of spreading light (as opposed to cursing the darkness) to mention a not-so-friendly Christmas present I received from Bank of America.

Well, as many of you know the credit industry is taking a hard financial hit this fall season. However, I never thought they'd go to such inhumane levels to recoup some of their losses.

Last week I received a letter in the mail stating my Bank of America credit card interest rate had jumped from 9% APR to a stunning 28.99%. You can imagine my horror and shock; at first I thought it was a mistake but after talking to several representatives I realized their nasty plot.

To get more money this holiday season they decided to raise the interest rates on their loyal customer...without provocation.

So, I promptly closed my account with them and vowed to never again use Bank of America for anything.

Whew, I feel better now that I got that off my chest.

Is there a Santa?

Santa/Satan Christmas Card...

Unfortunately, this is not a joke. Some church out there really thinks this is true...

Henrietta and Merna sing "Go Tell It On A Mountain"

New Life Church- Thriving after shooting and Haggard resignation...

It's been a rough couple years for New Life Church in Colorado Springs. First long time, famed pastor Ted Haggard is publicly humiliated and forced to resign, then a shooting on-campus takes the life of two attenders. Giving was down, attendance was down, and things were looking bleak for this mega-church congregation.

Fast forward to today, and you'll find that, according to a newspaper article in the Colorado Springs Gazette, the church church is thriving under the leadership of new Senior Pastor Brady Boyd. Membership and donations are up. Ironically, according to the article, this was a job he almost turned down...

When Brady interviewed for the position, he was given the status report: $25 million in debt on New Life’s massive building; no available cash, and a line of credit was being utilized to help pay the salaries of the church’s 150 staff members.

Weekly attendance is at 10,000, up from a 8,800 low after the Haggard scandal. And through October of this year, giving is UP 9.5% over the same time last year. That has allowed New Life to pay off a million dollars in debt, spend half a mill on improvements and donate $2 million to the poor.

You can read more here...

I must say… a great show of leadership by Brady Boyd; and a great effort by the people of New Life Church!

Messy gift wrapping service for men...

Husbands and boyfriends who don't want their wives and girlfriends to know that they bought their gifts online instead of taking the time to go out shopping in the real world will appreciate the CrapWrap service.

Firebox.com is paying 20 of its male forklift truck drivers and warehouse assistants to wrap presents as quickly as possible, using ugly brown duct tape and very little care.

Kevin Smith, 29, is proud to be the worst wrapper at the company's London warehouse. He said: "I am rubbish. We're not given any instructions. I'm just asked to make a hash of it using lots of brown tape and making sure there are rips and untidy folds.

Love the creativity...

Gentlemen, stay out of the dog house this holiday season...

Why is watching others fail sometimes so funny?

Albino raccoon...

This not a fox but rather a rare albino raccoon that lives in the woods of Rockledge, Florida. A local woman has been lobbying for the zoo to capture it for its own protection. Michelle Smurl, Brevard Zoo's director of animal programs, said the zoo is not at liberty to trap an adult animal that is thriving in the wild. She viewed photos of the animal and confirmed that it is a white raccoon.

"The raccoon looks healthy, and it looks like it's doing well," Smurl said. "I grew up with white squirrels up in New York, and I was worried that someone was going to shoot them."

Check Out The Moon...

If you get a chance, check out tonight's full moon. It will be closer to Earth than it's been since 1993 - 221,560 miles away, making it look 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than 2008's other full moons. The composite NASA photo above shows how different the size of the moon appears at perigee, the moon's closest point to the Earth, and apogee, its furthest position from us. From National Geographic:

"Typically we don't have the full moon phase and perigee (the position of an object at its least distance from Earth), coinciding at the same time, so that makes this event particularly special," said Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California...

"While high tides happen each month when the sun, Earth, and the moon are aligned, there is going to be an enhanced effect, with the moon being the closest it's been in more than a decade," said Ben Burress, staff astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California.

Sky Show Tonight: Bigges, Brightest Full Moon of 2008

Let The Party Start!!!!!

In case you missed it, the Bengals sacked the Redskins 20-13 this past Sunday. The stingy "stonewall" defense of the Bengals combined with their high powered offense simply proved too much for the lowly Redskins. It is now left to historians to deconstruct this impressive win and future teams to do their best to mimic the Bengals game plan! December 14th, 2008 will surely go down in history!!!

My sympathies go out to Julianne, Allison, Dee, Jack, Jason, Brandon, and all the other skins fans....

Bush calm under pressure...

Ants are high-tech

Be prepared to be inspired!!!

Christmas Music

Bing and Bowie duet...



Here's Nsync with "O Holy Night."

Dentist Appointments

Okay, I have to admit that I absolutely despise going to dentist appointments. I mean, seriously, who wants to have their mouth awkwardly forced into the open position for minutes at a time as someone jabs at their gums with a sharp object? Not me!

Nonetheless, I went to my six month cleaning yesterday. I tried a new dentist office in the hopes that I would have a new and pleasant experience.

The results? Well, I'm about fifty/fifty. The place was clean, the support staff were very welcoming, and the hygienist had her moments of being nice; however, during the cleaning she was completely rude. I had to remind her several times of a sensitive spot. Did she listen and stay away? No! At one point I told her that if she poked it again that I would leave. I think she got the hint.

This brings me to my point: are there any good dental hygienists out there? I hope so, but I've unfortunately never found one. I guess the search will continue...

The Gipper...

“The character that takes command in moments of crucial choices has already been determined by a thousand other choices made earlier in seemingly unimportant moments. It has been determined by all the ‘little’ choices of years past—by all those times when the voice of conscience was at war with the voice of temptation, [which was] whispering the lie that ‘it really doesn’t matter.’ It has been determined by all the day-to-day decisions made when life seemed easy and crises seemed far away—the decision that, piece by piece, bit by bit, developed habits of discipline or of laziness; habits of self-sacrifice or self-indulgence; habits of duty and honor and integrity—or dishonor and shame.” —Ronald Reagan

American Idol? I Think So...

I've always had a knack for discovering talent. Check out the below YouTube clip, it's one of the members of Sub30 rockin it to some Guns-n-Roses.

Her name is Lizzy and she rocks my face off, check it out....

Thief In The Night

The following is a post from Jill Carattini, she works for Ravi Zacharias Ministries:

The alarm of discovering your house has been broken into is one I imagine stays with you long after the thief has gone home. Though most are not eyewitnesses to the looming figure that wrongfully entered, victims of such crimes often report seeing shadows in every corner and silhouettes peering through their windows. Signs that someone had been there are enough to call them to alertness.

Whether you have experienced the shock of burglary and its lasting effects or not, the portrayal of Christ as one who will come like a thief in the night is a startling image. The description is one that seems uncouth amongst the reassuring images that will soon be upon us--a young mother and father beside a quiet baby in a manger, a star that guides wise men in the obscurity of night. How could one who came as a child of hope return like a looming, unwanted figure?

Yet this is the counsel from Christ himself: "Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him" (Matthew 24:42-44). The cry of Advent, the sounds of which are just starting to stir, is the cry of wakeful vigilance.

One of the key figures in celebrating the season, John the Baptist brings the probing message that continues to cry in urgency: "Are you ready?" Are you ready to respond to the infant that came to dwell in the midst of night and suffering? Are you ready to hear his invasive message? Are you ready to recognize God among you, the hunter, the thief, the King? During the season of Advent, we are called to keep alert, to read again the fearful signs that someone has been here moving about the places we dwell. And we are called to stay awake to the startling possibility of his nearness even now. “I say to all: ‘Stay awake,’” says Christ (Mark 13:37).

Though the signs that Christ has been here are enough to call us to alertness, the season that reminds us to stay awake is now upon us. Like a thief in the night, he will come again. Let us therefore keep watch.

Things that make you go "hmm"

The gentleman above is Michael Campbell in two mug shots taken five years apart. The photo at left depicts Campbell in 2003 and the right is from October.

Alphabet Help Anyone?

Where's The Beef?

Did you know vegetarians and vegans are six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage than their meat-eating neighbors? This week, the militant vegetarians at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have called for the famous ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s to replace the cow’s milk in their products with human breast milk. PETA claims it would lessen the suffering of dairy cows as well as benefit human health. “The fact that human adults consume huge quantities of dairy products made from milk that was meant for a baby cow just doesn’t make sense,” said PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, adding, “Everyone knows that ‘the breast is best’.” Realizing PETA was milking the issue, Ben & Jerry’s declined, but thanked them for expressing themselves.

Article taken from the Patriot Post

The "F" Word....

THE “F” WORD

One of the things that Seh Godin talks about his book Tribes is the “F” word…. which is “FEAR.”

He tells us that there are many ordinary people walking around with extraordinary ideas in their head. Every person that is reading this post has a good if not great idea rolling around in their head; however the ingredient missing from taking that great idea to action, is the will to make it happen.

“In a battle between two ideas, the best one doesn’t necessarily win. No, the idea that wins is the one with the most fearless heretic behind it.” Seth Godin

There you have it, no more excuses....Go Do Great Things For The Kingdom!!!

Could not have said it better!!!

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” —Thomas Jefferson

New Blog

To my faithful readers, I want to enthusiastically recommend that each of you go check out this new blog. The author is a very educated and passionate women who will inspire you by her words.

Check it out here!!!!

Two Thumbs-Up to Peter Schiff....

Peter Schiff was right in 2006, two years before the economic walls came down. It takes guts, perseverance and, as Peter instructively demonstrates in this video, quiet confidence.

Oldest Living Tortoise...

This photo of a tortoise was taken around 1900 on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. The tortoise, named Jonathan, still lives there today. He may be the world's oldest living animal. From The Telegraph:

A spokesman for the island's tourist board said Jonathan is owned by the St Helena government and lives in the specially built plantation on the governor's land.

He said: "Jonathan is the sole survivor of three tortoises that arrived on St Helena Island in 1882.

"He was already mature when he arrived and was at least 50-years-old.

"Therefore his minimum age is 176-years-old. He is the oldest inhabitant on St Helena and is claimed to be the oldest living tortoise in the world.

"World's oldest living animal discovered after he is pictured in 1900 photograph"

Thoughts From Craig Croeshel...

A lukewarm pastor:

• Prays as much, or more, publicly than privately.
• Is almost exclusively dependent on others’ sermons to preach than directly hearing from God.
• Cares more about his church than The Church.
• Preaches about evangelism but doesn’t practice evangelism privately.
• Tolerates and rationalizes unconfessed sin.
• Preaches for the approval of people rather than the approval of God.
• Is overly sensitive to criticism.
• Harbors bitterness and unforgiveness.
• Reads the Bible to prepare sermons but not for personal devotion to God.
• Is jealous or critical of someone else that God is blessing.

Stalkers...

Apparently, some stalker or weasely Paparazzi photographer sneakily affixed a GPS transmitter on American Idol judge Simon Cowell's Bentley. It's a pretty weak move, both for Cowell's privacy and for a public who doesn't care about Simon Cowell's whereabouts.

Apparently, a leather-clad biker kept showing up everywhere Cowell went, so he had his car swept for bugs. At that point, they found a sophisticated tracking device magnetically attached to the undercarriage of his car. Who would go to such lengths to stalk Simon frigging Cowell? Could it be a stalker? Probably not, as stalkers rarely have the funds or wherewithal to use such fancy technology.

Interesting...

This post comes from Eric Bryant:

Have you noticed that the fast food companies across the United States have a spiritual agenda? If you don’t believe me, just check out this evidence:

1. In-N-Out (one of the best hamburgers in the world) includes Bible verses on the bottoms of their cups.

2. McDonald’s uses the Golden Arches to promote their food. Where did they get this idea? Perhaps from the description of heaven in Revelation 21:18-21

3. On the other side of the spiritual realm, notice that Subway’s logo includes the devil’s tail:

… and where do subways operate? Below ground.

4. Church’s Chicken seems too obvious.

5. Recently Popeye’s changed their logo to try and hide their agenda, but notice their original logo which reveals an obvious bias. It doesn’t say “popeyes” but “pope yes” and apparently the pontiff enjoys chicken and biscuits.

6. Finally, one more example from Jack-in-the-Box. See if you can spot the message they hope to communicate:

Can you see it? It doesn’t say simply “Jack-in-the-Box” but says “Jack-in-the-B Jesus fish.”

Toilet Paper...

That is the age old question…
Which way does the toilet paper fall. I prefer for it to come down in the front, that way I can easily grab the next piece. When it comes down from the back the next piece could very well get lost on the backside, which requires a painful extra two seconds to locate. However, I bet if you added up all the two seconds you'd save you would, in the end, be adding several days to your life! Nuf said...

Chess Anyone?

Whether you'd like to increase your mental health or just relax after a stressful holiday visit, there aren't many games more classic than chess. Over at tips and tricks blog MakeUseOf, they have rounded up a variety of ways you can both play and sharpen your chess game. The screenshot above is from FlashChessIII, a beautifully rendered flash-based and free for download chess game. If you're concerned that all the playing in the world won't make you any better, they have a variety of resources listed for helping you not just play but increase your grasp of the game. My favorite was Chess Problems, a site which generates "puzzles" based on chess board setups ranging from simple to extremely complicated. After some practice at Chess Problems you won't find yourself often staring down a chess board without a clue what your next move will be. If you're absolutely brand new to the game, make sure to check out a beginner's guide to getting good at chess.

Founders Quote

"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever."

--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18, 1781