Happy 491st Birthday Protestant Reformation!

Again this year, I will be celebrating the Protestant Reformation's birthday while everyone else is trick or treating or Light the Nighting. I want to take this oppurtunity to thank Martin Luther for all that he has done for Christianity.
Here are a couple of my favorites of his 95 theses:

#33 - Men must be on their guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man is reconciled to Him.

#43 - Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons.

I will leave you with one final quote from Martin Luther:
"Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the Popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. ”

Scary Nature, Part 3

You can see my other posts on things in nature that are scary here and here. And now, just in time for Halloween, is the third installment of Scary Nature...Blood-Craving Vampire Moths!!!



P.S. The more I find stuff like this, the more I think Scary Nature should be a regular recuring installment here. What do you think?

By Request.....

This one's for you, GAJ. Here are some nursery pics. Michelle wanted my to say that this is the current state, not the finished product of the nursery. Michelle is going to jazz the walls up a little with our star theme and his as-yet-to-be-determined name creatively put on the wall.

Also, baby update:
We had an ultrasound yesterday and the tech said that Logan/Liam/Shane/Elias? is 9 pounds. According to my sources the average weight for a 38 week old baby is 6.8 lbs, so he's gonna be a big one. But we were already expecting that. He is measuring at 40 weeks, so we are going to try to convince our doctor (our appointment is tomorrow morning) to induce before he gets too big. I like the idea of him coming on my schedule. If I dont post for a while after this, it means he's here. I'm so excited!!!!

Update on Scary Nature

In case you missed my last post on animals who unepectedly eat other animals, I mentioned a snake that ate an alligator and a spider that ate a snake. I have just been informed that spiders now eat birds. Check out the full story here.

How To Get a Free Dr. Pepper...

Step 1. On November 23, 2008, go to www.drpepper.com and register your name.

Step 2. Print coupon.

Step 3. Go to convenience store that sells Dr. Pepper.

Step 4. Present 20 oz bottle of Dr. Pepper with coupon.

Step 5. Drink Dr. Pepper.

for more click here.

Another Awesome Baby Shower!!!

My work friends are awesome! If you need proof, click here. They threw me a surprise baby shower. I usually can tell when something is going down, but this time I was totally shocked. Evidently my work is pretty good at keeping secrets. One of my team leaders, Alex, asked me to help him move something from another building into our building. I didn't think anything of it, because I noticed him out of the corner of my eye and it looked like he went to go ask someone else first but they weren't at their desk. So we were walking over to the other building, and we go into the suite doors of where we used to work for Miller and Clark and right inside this suite, there is a glass-walled conference room and the first person I notice is Melanie, back from Miller and Clark days, and then I notice Julie, my other team leader, and I thought to myself "Well, that's weird. I didn't know that they had meetings together." And then I saw Michelle, and for a split second I thought "What is she doing in a meeting with Julie and Melanie??" That's how surprised I actually was! Then I noticed the big "Its a boy" banner and cake and stuff, and I realized that Michelle wasn't here for a business meeting. They made this cool looking three-tiered-wedding-cake thing out of diapers and bouquets out of baby socks. And they got us a very large Babies R Us gift card. It was a very nice way to end my work day because by the time I got back to my desk, there was only about 15 minutes before I clocked out. Parties are always a good way to end the work day!

Thanks work friends! That was an awesome surprise party!

What's With Nebraska???

Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers has filed a lawsuit against God. He claims that God is a terrorist and has caused "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants." The judge seemed to see the comedy in this and dismissed the case for failure to properly serve the accused due to no listed home address.

You can read the full story here.

Stem Cell Research

I just read about this this morning and thought I would share. There have been several breakthroughs in stem cell research over this past summer. I am no scientist, so I might communicate this information inadequately, but here is how I understand it: Last year some scientists were able to change normal skin cells into an embryonic state with an injection (not very invasive method). These cells performed the same function as embryonic stem cells. With merely an injection, adult skin cells were able to replace the need for embryonic stem cells. Another team of scientists from Harvard and Columbia were able to duplicate the results from last year and used these adult skin cells to treat a patient with Lou Gehrig's disease. A separate team from Harvard was able to do the same thing with cells from Type I diabetes, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, Down's syndrome, and 2 forms of muscular dystrophy. All this has been done within President Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell research. There is still a lot of research to be done and these experimental results do not mean that we have perfected the use of adult stem cells, but it is a huge step in eliminating any need for embryonic stem cells.

Even after these results have been published and made available to the public, Obama still said that he will immediately overturn President Bush's ban on embryonic stem cell research. I'm not saying that you should vote for McCain because of this, but it is something to consider.

Words that the FCC doesn't like...

...look 'em up...

fecund, penal, taint, titmouse, cockamamie, cockatoo, cocksure, coccyx, ballcock, cockeye, prick, prickly, kumquat, titter, cunning linguist, insertion, gobble, guzzle, swallow, manhole, rimshot, ramrod, come, fallacious, lugubrious, rectify, Uranus, angina, paradiddle, spotted dick, dictum, frock, cunctation, engorge, turgid, stiff, bush, uvula, crapulence, masticate, Dick Butkus, gherkin and, of course, the always bewildering lickety-split

(stolen from the extremely funny Chuck Lorre)

Halloween is gonna suck this year.....

Romans

We are doing a study of Romans in our small group at church and I'm really excited about it. Romans is one of the most theologically packed books of the Bible and many people think that it is the most important book in the Bible, including some people at Calvary. Michelle's high school theology teacher made her class memorize Romans 8 as an assignment. Martin Luther said that Romans is a "beacon by which the rest of Scripture is illuminated" and John Calvin said that Romans was a gateway to the rest of Scripture. I am taking this semester very easy because it is the baby semester, so I am using my urge to research something to study Romans. I broke out all of my commentaries and went to the library to pick up a couple more. This is the calm before the storm, so I am getting a lot of good reading in. That will all change though on November 10.