Springtime in Illinois
The date of this post is March 24, and yesterday was a nice early Spring day here in the Middle West—temps were in the high 40s, winds were calm and skies were mostly sunny. A nice day to be working outside, and in fact, I got some dirt work done with the 8N Friday evening. The photo above, on the other hand was made just this morning, and we have maybe 4″ of snow on the ground as of this evening, with more due overnight.
Deer, No Hunting
A couple weeks ago, a neighbor called asking if I had hay for sale, and ended up buying 20 bales from me for his deer. Yep, he raises them for what I would call “vanity hunting.” The bucks are bred for humongous racks (horns), and folks who can afford them pay top dollar to choose their buck and “hunt” it in a penned area—the animal most likely ending up on a hunting lodge wall somewhere.
The deer are pretty tame, and one walked right up to the fence and started licking the salt off my hand. It was pretty neat!
Volkswagen Number Six
After 12-1/2 years and over 216,000 miles, it’s time to replace Herbie, my 2000 TDI (diesel) New Beetle. I placed the order for the new car back around Christmas—it took three months for it to come in. It’s a 2013 TDI Beetle Convertible with six-speed manual transmission. The only options are the “Heritage” wheels. I’ll call it Eeyore (II, named after the 1964 Beetle I owned prior to Herbie). It’s my sixth Volkswagen.
McGuffey Readers
The McGuffey readers helped unite the nation. They were excellent for their time, and still worth finding for home schoolers. They could never be adopted in a public school today. The first words of the Soviet first grade readers were “For the joys of our childhood we thank our native land.” The McGuffey readers began with “No man can put off the law of God” which instantly disqualifies them from public adoption.
– Jerry Pournelle
More on McGuffey here.
Truth
“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.”
~Churchill
The Most Offensive Thing I Believe
The following was copied and slightly edited from a blog I occasionally read…
The most offensive thing I believe is Genesis 1:1, and everything it implies.
That is, I believe in a sovereign Creator who is Lord and Definer of all. Everything in the universe — the planet, the laws of physics, the laws of morality, you, me — everything was created by Another, was designed by Another, was given value and definition by Another. God is Creator and Lord, and so He is ultimate. That means we are created and subjects, and therefore derivative and dependent.
Therefore, we are not free to create meaning or value. We have only two options. We can discover the true value assigned by the Creator and revealed in His Word, the Bible; or we can rebel against that meaning.
Any time you bring up questions about any of these issues, you do so from one of two stances. You either do it as someone advocating and enabling rebellion against the Creator’s design, or as someone seeking submissive understanding of that design. You do it as servant or rebel. There is no third option.
So insofar as I’m consistent with my core beliefs, everything I think about sexuality, relationships, morals, the whole nine yards,all of it is derived from what the Creator says. If I deviate from that, I’m wrong.
To anyone involved in the doomed ‘you-shall-be-as-God’ project, that is the most offensive truth in the world, and it is the most offensive belief I hold.
But if I can say one more thing, the first noun in that verse —beginning — immediately points us forward. It points to the end. And the end is all about Jesus Christ. That takes us to the topic of the Gospel, and that’s what we really need to talk about.