ALAMODE

"It can be exalting to belong to a church that is five hundred years behind the times and sublimely indifferent to fashion. It is mortifying to belong to a church that is five minutes behind the times, huffing and puffing to catch up."
              Joseph Sobran


If it's true, it isn't new.

PTOLEMY

For all you "everybody thought the Earth was flat prior to Columbus," people.

“The earth, in relation to the distance of the fixed stars, has no appreciable size and must be treated as a mathematical point.”

Ptolemy,  The Almagest  circa. 150 ad

PRESENCE

Vocativs Atque non Vocativs, Deus adent


(Bidden or not bidden, God is present)
                         
                        Carl Jung

WISDOM FROM DAD

"Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
   and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. "
                                 Proverbs 1:8


The book of proverbs is not a book of guarantees. These pithy sayings are not promises from God that nothing in your life will ever go wrong if you follow them. Many people have trained up their children in the way they should go and never saw them follow the Lord in later life.


No, Proverbs are simply wisdom about the way life works in general. There is no real difference between the spiritual sounding lines found the ancient book of Proverbs and slightly more modern wisdom such as, "a stitch in time saves nine." The ancient Near Eastern world loved proverbs. There was a whole wisdom movement found in the writings of Egyptians, Babylonians and most literate societies of the day.

I'm not disparaging the godly wisdom of Proverbs, I am dispelling the notion that these are "magic words" to summon the power of God.

When I think about learning wisdom from my dad the progression went something like this... 

* When I was 5 my dad was the smartest man in the world

         * When I was 16 I thought my dad was an overbearing Tyrant 

         * At 17 I thought he knew nothing about life

         * At 21 I began going to him for advice

         * Now I just quote him all the time without giving him credit

When you honor your parents they--in turn--are blessed to have such a wise child.

FOR YOU: KEITH URBAN

Lyrics | Keith Urban - For You lyrics

This song really spoke to my heart about the very human, imperfect people I know, Armed Service, Law Enforcement, and Fire that put their lives in the line of fire every day. Keith Urban has captured not just the camaraderie, or brotherhood, but the love it takes to do this. I am moved each time I hear it and think about the words.

ACT OF VALOR

My friends and I had a Guys Movie Night. We saw "Act of Valor." This movie is a surprising blend of a Blockbuster Action Adventure and a Reality Documentary. Active duty Navy SEALs are cast as the main characters. While the acting is not up to Hollywood's intense, emotional range standards it is powerfully believable. A briefing from the Senior Chief has the ring of authenticity and the jargon-laden conversations don't suffer from a lack of interpretation.

The action scenes have the feel of authenticity because much of the movie consists of actual training using live fire. One scene has two SWCC (Special Warfare Combat Crewmen) boats extracting the SEALS from a riverbank crawling with armed hostiles. The SWCCs turn one of their vehicles into a flaming colander that makes Bonnie and Clyde's car look like it ran into a little light hail.



Apparently, there are a lot of critics of the movie. I would have to give them a big raspberry. I guess they are offended that the SEALs don't commit atrocities, or engage in soul-searching self examinations, or show how America really deserves to be hated. Instead, the movie follows a SEAL platoon as they discover and track down a terror threat approaching the continental United States.

The movie also carefully avoids revealing certain tactics and descriptions; as it should. The team parachutes into Central America, but the movie does not show how they form up, or conceal their landing presence. Intelligence on the terror attack is developed, but HOW that is done is severely limited as far as the audience knows. Good. as a writer of action adventure stories I am curious about such things, but I don't want to reveal them to the bad guys, either.

Since I wrote COLOMBIAN KILO, a SEAL/Submarine adventure, my favorite shot of the movie is of an SSGN (Guided Missile Nuclear Submarine) diving; The Sub's sail is visible underwater as it slowly disappears beneath the waves. Very cool shot and done without the benefit of CGI.



To say the least, I HIGHLY recommend this movie. It accurately depicts the men, women and families of our warriors as they put their lives on the line to protect us daily.

THE ROMAN TRIUMPH

“For over a thousand years Roman Generals returning from the wars enjoyed the favor of a Triumph—a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in the triumphal chariot, the day’s prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children—robed in white—stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning; that all glory is fleeting.” 

                                                             General George Smith Patton

WANDERING IN THE BEWILDERNESS

G.K.CHESTERTON ON "SIN"

Chesterton said that the doctrine of "original sin" was "the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved." He followed that with:

"If it be true (as it certainly is) that a man can feel exquisite happiness in skinning a cat, then the religious philosopher can only draw one of two conclusions. He must either deny the existence of God as all atheists do; or he must deny the present union between God and man, as all Christians do. The New Theologians seem to think it a highly rationalistic solution to deny the cat."
                   G.K. Chesterton, "Orthodoxy"

SHERIFF CHAPLAIN LOGO

My son designed a Chaplain Logo to use as an auto sticker. I'm really happy with it.