toe-MAY-toe...toe-MAH-toe...

I used to hate tomatoes. They are still not my favorite but I eat them on hamburgers and other sandwiches because I know they are really good for me. You eat anything solely for the health benefits?

I used to hate cucumbers. Why? Because my Dad did. Still does to this day I believe. I eat them now for the health benefits and to set a good example for my kids--my boy, especially--who hates most anything called a vegetable. I want to be the best influence I can be on all my kids. There are PLENTY of areas where they have picked up bad behavior from me that I truly regret. It's ingrained in them now and I have to live with the consequences. At this point, it will take THEM realizing they are behaving that way and desire to see God change it in their own lives.

Wow, this post degraded from an entry on food to changing bad behaviors pretty quick! Maybe it's still the same topic though. I saw the following article pop up in my twitter followings and quickly perused it for the 5 Foods Men Should Be Eating Daily only to find, to my surprise that it wasn't 5 foods that I'd never want to put in my mouth but foods, for the most part, I have been eating--granted not daily, but I do try to eat them as I have occasion to.

Back to the point about changing behaviors. Are there things in your life that you want to change? Maybe it's not as easy as changing your diet to include eating a tomato or two a week, but it can be just as easy to identify the things that need changing. A great past associate pastor and mentor of mine, Dr Clayton Cloer, once gave me and a group of men the recipe for changing our lives. We used to meet once a week at "First Light" where he would pour his life into ours. Two lessons that I still hold on to today are: "Evaluating Your Walk" and "Characteristics of a Mature Believer". Each are "recipes", if you will, that will help you evaluate where you stand in life: as a Christian and as a man. As with any recipe, you have to follow it to get the end result. But, they are not magic panaceas and the results are not even up to you or me--but Almighty God and His work in and through your life. ("For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." - Philippians 2:13) But, you do your part and the Holy Spirit will do His. :) I will post these here in later posts for your benefit. Hopefully you will find them as encouraging and useful as I have over the years.

photo by orangeacid

The art of manliness?

In today's society, when we think about being "manly", in a lot of people, it conjures up images of rednecks--at least in the south. When you joke about being "manly", you usually are joking and you poke out your chest and use the deepest voice you can muster and exaggerate your southern drawl. Now, as funny as that is in the moment, it's a sad state of affairs when you sit back and think about what the image of a "real man" has become. Are there really any true "real men" out there? As a Christian, there are lots of things that the Bible teaches me about being a real man and none of them have anything to do with chewing tobacky or chopping wood.

Real men love and lead.

They love the One True Almighty God and His Son Jesus Christ. And because of that "first love", they love their wives, their children, their country, the church and justice. They respect authority. The believe in the American way and the principles that our founding fathers believed in when they forged this great nation. Real men...love.

They lead their families based upon the love that guides them. They lead their wives as God directs--not lording it over them but guiding them and partnering with them as their "help meet". They lead their children and guide them in the Biblical principles that are tried, true and tested since the foundation of this world. They lead in the workplace. Real men are honest and hard-working. They are "servant leaders" as the Bible teaches. They don't ask others to do what they are unwilling to do themselves. Real men...lead.

I would like to point you to a website I found a while back that I've really enjoyed. While not a "Christian website", per se, it does hit on some of the more "secular" principles and "manly" things that I believe are being lost in our society that continually promotes an agenda far from the Bible and even that of our great society even a mere 20, 10, 5 years ago.

While I don't agree with everything they have to say, The Art of Manliness is a cool website, nonetheless. Give it a look-see and tell me what you think of some of their articles.

photo by jcoterhals

Camping in Thunderstorms

This was uploaded more of a test of sending photos from my iPhone via the "Email this Photo" feature of the photo album. But, now that it's up, I figured I can go ahead and write something. This would usually go over on my CampRanker blog but, hey, they're both my blogs, so I can cross-post if I want to! :)

This was the radar most every night of our camping trip to East TN at The Oaks Retreat Center. We are the "X" about to get hit by the big red storm! The first night we got there was sans rain but the wind gusts required me to lash down the roof before we blew away. I am in the process of writing up a full review of The Oaks and more of our experience over on campranker.blogspot.com. Check it out.

Nuther FishWithTrish Contest

OK, so I don't carry a purse but FishWithTrish is at it again giving away purses chocked full of tracts! I'd love to have the tracts and can let the wifey have the purse (and of course some of those tracts)! She's teamed up with Christa-Taylor (a modest clothing designer) and the Empowered Traditionalist this time. Check out any of the links above to enter the contest!

And they call us stupid...

Atheists and their ilk call us creationists crazy but check out the latest "scientific" enlightenment...

I added the highlighting. After reading, head on over to Ray Comfort's blog. Or here.

Comets Probably Seeded Earth's Nitrogen Atmosphere

from Slashdot by samzenpus

KentuckyFC writes "One of the biggest puzzles of astrobiology is the origin of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere. One favored theory is that our water is the leftovers from a bombardment of comets early in Earth's history. But the ratio of hydrogen and deuterium in the oceans doesn't match the ratio in the four comets measured so far (Halley's, Hyakutake, Hale-Bopp and C/2002 T7 LINEAR). Now a new analysis of the ratio of nitrogen-14 and 15 isotopes in these comets and on Earth places new limits on how much of our environment could have come from comets. On the one hand, the astronomers who did the work say that no more than a few percent of Earth's water could have come from comets. But on the other, they say that the ratio of nitrogen isotopes in these comets almost exactly matches the ratio in Earth's atmosphere. That suggests that while Earth's oceans must have come from somewhere else, Earth's early atmosphere was probably seeded by comets."

What President?

Man, this is an awesome metaphor Ray gave on his blog in response to an atheist who was asking why God does not show/prove Himself when we ask/demand Him to...


"How arrogant and conceited would I be to say, "I summoned the President of the United States to come to my house to speak with me, and he didn’t come. I didn’t hear a word from him, therefore he doesn’t exist." If I want an audience with someone of importance, I have to approach him on his terms, not mine. So stop asking for a sign and do what God tells you to do. Repent and trust the Savior, then you will have the ear of God (see John 14:21)." (Ray Comfort, original full blog entry here).

Android vs iPhone vs Pre vs Other

Ok, so unless you've been living under a rock for the past few years, the hottest phone around is the iPhone. If you're a techy, you probably know about the Android phone (currently only HTC G1 available). And, if you're a geek who owns/owned one of the original Palm "Pilot" devices and still calls his PDA a "PalmPilot" to this day, then you know about the Palm Pre coming out next week. And late but not least, if you're one of the countless millions of others, you have a "regular ole phone".

I want a new phone! I currently own a Sony Ericsson w580i, the Walkman phone. Boy, I really felt old when my 15 year old daughter asked me the other day, "What's a Walkman?"...ugh! Like, the coolest thing ever in the 80's when *I* grew up! You could play your cassettes and take it WITH you whereever you went, clipped right on your pants!

But I digress... I'm in need of a phone that suites my online lifestyle. I'm a Google junkie and use most every service they have so the Android is looking pretty sweet to me but there's just so few handsets to choose from and they are only on the T-Mobile network. I'm a Cingluar/AT&T guy. I'd hate to switch but I'd jump ship if I can fill my needs with the right handset!

The iPhone is all the rage and I'm sure I'd like one but I just can't pull myself to drink the Kool-Aid for some reason--maybe it's the price. But who am I kidding? All of the fancy handsets are going to cost me! And, of course, I'll have to have the all-you-can-eat surfing plan!

Being a life-long Palm PDA user, I love the platform and they finally announced that the Pre would run old Palm apps so all my favorities will be there! Again, I'll have to switch companies but that's maybe not a biggie.

I don't know what to do! Any advice?