I went to the LOC and scanned a bunch of pages from microfilm, but the CD burner on the computer I was using was not working. So I had to upload the files to my website. You can just ignor this post unless you just have some unnatural interest in random congress proceedings.

We laugh at stuff like this.

And I have no idea where it originally came from.

Kona killed a bird today. It was traumatic. she ran over to the bushes and pounced on it. I don't think she meant to kill it, because she will often catch butterflies in her mouth and then spit them out unharmed. But by the time I got over to her, the bird was pretty well crushed. Kristy Kent may be the only other person to fully appreciate our sadness.

I don't know if that title is exactly accurate, but yesterday in small group, we had a long discussion about whether or not christians can lose/reject/forget/opt out of their faith and thus forfeit their salvation. As always when this topic comes up, the room was divided and both sides were pretty adament about their opinion. I've been conflicted on this issue in the past, so I didn't say much, but instead chose to listen and absorb for processing later.

After the discussion, I still don't think I'm 100 percent convinced either way because I just don't think the Bible is clear on this. But I do lean towards the belief that once you're made new by the holy spirit, the part of you that could reject Christ is gone for good. That's not to say that I'm fully assured, though.

Here's the problem... the verses that are traditionally used to argue this issue are not precisely addressed to the question. The old standby used to support persistance is John 10:25-30. But in this passage, Jesus is talking specifically about His sheep--those who listen to his voice and follow him. His sheep certainly cannot be snatched from his hand, but does that necessarily mean that our position as His sheep is eternally binding? Can we choose not to be his sheep by not believing or not following his voice? It seems unclear to me whether the object of Christ's grasp is a certain group of sheep who chose to be His once, or a group of sheep who continuely choose to be His.

On the other hand, the verse most commonly cited to refute the persistance arguement seems to be Hebrews 6:4-6. But in the same way, this passage doesn't convince me because it's talking specifically about repentance, not salvation. They are close, I'll admit it, but they're just not the same.

I guess the thing that pushes me more toward the persistance opinion is the experience of the Jews in the Bible. They fell away so many times. They purposefully rejected God so many times I can't count that high. They worshiped false gods, they begged to be sent back to Egypt. And finally they crucified Jesus. But they have never ceased to be God's chosen people. God's incredible tenacity is so real to His people that I just don't see where his love ends for even the worst of us.

I guess some would argue that God did prevent a generation of Jews from entering the promised land, which could be symbolically significant, but remember that Moses was one of those left out in the wilderness, and we KNOW he's in heaven (see the transfiguration).

I think the trouble most of us have with taking a hard stand on this issue is that if you believe a person can lose his or her faith, then you're faced with deciding how much sin is too much before grace stops coming. On the other hand, if you believe you can never lose it, then we're faced with a potentially difficult threshold of salvation because we all know people we thought were believers who turned away. We're forced to conclude either they get what we get regardless, or they "really never had it," and then what can we point to that sets our faith apart from theirs?

Thoughts?

So I've fallen behind again and the blog has been relegated to last place on my list of priorities. But I've got some time today, and I thought I would share some pictures from Brooklynne's spring break.

As many of you know, we went to Pittsburgh for the first weekend. Pittsburgh is a really interesting town, full of history. Did you know it was once the sixth largest city in the States? The sense of working-class immigrant communities lingers everywhere (except the heart of downtown), and to me at least, the Homestead rebellion took on a greater meaning by experiencing the city.

Pittsburgh must have one of the highest concentrations of cultural, historic, and entertainment venues in the country and we only got to visit a fraction of them, so we will probably go back again some day. This trip, the highlights were a ride on the Incline (a mountain-side trolly that takes you to an overlook of the city), a trip to the Improv (a world-famous comedy club), and the Pirates' home opener against the Dodgers.

I had school on Tuesday and Thursday, so we came back from Pittsburgh on Monday, and we planned to take a second mini-vacation over the second weekend of Brooklynne's spring break, but we were both exhausted, so we stayed home instead and recharged. Still, we took the chance to get out of the house on Saturday by hiking the "Big Schloss" on the VA/WV border.

Click continue reading for our pictures from the week.

Thanks to every one for the great dissertation ideas. We'll have to see how that comes out. For now, I'm going to try to concentrate on DC stadium issues (my current class project).

On another note, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed our small group this past Wednesday. We started a study on James and we worked through the first 10 or so verses (I can't remember exactly). Bill related this section to the story from Numbers when the snakes come into the Israelite camp and start biting people. I know that sounds random, but the connection really worked. Anyway, the golden tidbit from the night, the one piece of wisdom that stuck in my head, was that went James says to Pray without doubting, he means not to doubt who God is and that he will provide for us in His own wisdom. I shared that I often pray for things and then wonder if I'm praying for the right thing and doubt whether my prayers will be answered the way I expect. Then, I wonder if my prayers aren't answer the way I want because I doubted my prayers. But everyone else was very kind to point out that we should have faith in God--not in faith in our prayers, defering to God's wisdom is not an act of unbelief, but rather an act of faith in the Father who will not give us a rock when we need bread. In fact, confidence in the power of our own prayers could eclispe the Power behind the power, and allow us to stray away from God's plans for our lives.

I'm back and I'm blogging again! If you are still checking this place, hold onto your hat, 'cause here we go!!!!

I've realized that my brain is stagnating under the weight of seventeenth century political history and I have to find an outlet for the pressure between my ears. Last night I came home from the LOC, went out on the deck with my lovely wife and played scrabble for a couple hours instead of reading like I was supposed to. Now I will be up all night finishing my work, but my brain feels like it has new life. I've realized that all work and no play makes for brain mush. So, I'm making a new committment to a healthy amount of nintendo, blogging, relaxing, and wasting time. CHEERS TO THAT ONE!!!!

But for now, here's the deal--I have to have a dissertation committee in place by August and in order to have a committee, I have to have an idea of what I'm going to write about. So, if anyone's still reading, here's a call for your top ten lists of historical things that I should or should not write about.