Stinking work filters....


So my boss and friend recently got ticked off at myspace and blocked all weblogs/personal webpages.

this isn't a problem as I can get around them very easily..... but i just feel bad when I actually do it because it's a bit of abuse of power.

I will continue w/ the Romans and football blogs later this week.

Exciting me news:

Another month... another 1000 miles on the road.
May, June, July, and August are always a bit sad for me. I love baseball and Pro Basketball... but they just aren't college ball. There's just something about falls and football. Now that I'm out of school, I'll really be able to enjoy those Saturdays.
As an early father's day present I got a new pipe rack, humidor, and set of pipes. I'm stoked.





Exciting Jackson news:

Rolling over
Eating his feet
Talking all the time

Exciting Jennifer news:

Hot as ever
Joined health club
Joined Sam's club

Why didn't I think of this sooner.





+



+



+



+

= one outstanding morning




I am a passionate lover of quite a few things in this world. One of my favorite of those things is waking up early on weekends and drinking coffee and reading or watching TV. It's one of the only times i can be alone during the week (other than my 10 minute drive to and from work every day) This used to be the time that I prepared for sunday school, but I don't have that obligation now, so it's been replaced.
I also enjoy smoking my pipe. I've always enjoyed cigar smoking and thought I would enjoy a pipe as well. As a graduation gift my wife bought me a pipe and some incredibly comfortable slippers. I'm still getting used to the pipe smoking. My new friend Blake Manuel has helped me w/ this immensly (as well as accidentally leaving his blend of tobacco behind) I definitely limit myself with this as my wife doesn't care for it much, and I know that heavy smoking would be bad for my health. I try not to smoke more than once a week. I did do some study into this before I got mine and found out that moderate pipe smoker suffers much less of a chance of falling into the same health problems that others do. The most interesting study was found here. I also enjoy sitting outside on our bench when I do smoke. We have TONS of trees in our yard and live on a relatively quiet street.
For some reason the idea to smoke in the morning while I drink my coffee outside while I read has never occured to me till this last Sunday morning. The day before this I discovered I had a gift card to family christian bookstore that needed to be used. I found a large compilation of CS Lewis' works ( Suprised by Joy, the Four Loves, and The Business of Heaven to name a few)
Now I love to read. Growing up I was the biggest bookworm you could ever meet. I literally won the AR point total from 3rd grade till 9th. But for some reason I lost that passion throughout college. I think it had a lot to do w/ the amount of reading I was forced to do outside of pleasure reading and it really left a bad taste in my mouth. I've been trying to reachieve that passion, but with failed results. I figured this would be a good step towards regaining that. It was an excellent choice thus far. I think I'm a very nervous person (this results from not getting much rest during college) and I find it very hard to sit and do absolutely nothing. 24 and lost are my favorite shows on television, yet when they're on I'm always playing tetris on my phone or finding something else to do.
Smoking and coffee put me in a very relaxed mood and for the first time in ages I was able to sit and read my first book that took a bit deeper thought and concentration in almost 5 years. I also was blessed to have no cars drive by the house for an entire 45 minutes. Unheard of. I am hoping that it won't requre both things for me to continue reading, but it was great to partake of many things I enjoy all at once.

Myles' Preseason Rankings

1. USC Trojans
They just bring too much back to not put here. They lost 2 receivers and a few cogs in the Defense... but nothing major. Nobody stands out heads or shoulders above anybody this year... but The Trojans stand out at least a red plume helmet thing.


2. LSU
Bring back a quite a bit of talent... despite having 7 starters drafted including Russell. I think they have the shedule to pull this off. Their hardest away game is Alabama... based on Nick Saben... that could be a tough one... but they get Auburn, VTech, Florida, and Arkansas at home in the swamp. Tough to get through those teams, but having them in Baton Rouge makes it a lot prettier.



3. West Virginia
Seven words put them here: Steve Slaton. Pat White. Big East Schedule


4. Michigan
That rose bowl hurt. I mean hurt. Man I thought they were better than that and they were. But that was an ugly way to end a good season. The Wolverines return Chad Henne (more that capable), Super Mario (Manningham) and my third favorite running back in the game, the little big man Mike Hart. 2 Fumbles. 2 Fumbles in 3 years. That's outstanding. The draft took a toll on the D but it is still formidible.


5. Louisville
Brian Brohm rocks my face off. Solid performer on a team that can support him.

6. Forida
People can criticize Chris Leak to their hearts content... they guy won them a championship. Tebow was important last year and lead to a smaller extent. But Leak deserves the glory for last years championship. Take him away and you take a lot of offensive production. The D should still stand pretty strong. Winner of the gators and LSU wins SEC you heard it here.

7. Texas
The draft hurt them a lot. How do you have one of the worst pass defenses in the nation, yet have 3 DB's taken in the draft. I don't get that. All the love for the Horns though. Colt brings back a strong Offense and Mac Brown doesn't have bad defenses. look for the horns and Ags to fight for the Big XII Championship Thanksgiving Weekend

8. Virginia Tech
What a horrible horrible year for the ACC... If you had told me the ACC championship would conisist of Georgia Tech and Wake Forrest I would have hit you in the face and told you to shut up and start watching Women's Division III Basketball for punishment. Wow. what a horribly down year. When it comes down to the wire for Maryland, GTech, and the Demon Deacons it's a down year. Congrats to all three for having better years. Virginia Tech returns a few starters on Offense and Beamer always always always ALWAYS has the best Defense in the land.

9. Wisconson
You would think you get more respect for only losing one game all season. The Badger badger badger's had a better season than they're given credit for. They lost Stocco who has been consistant for a few years, but gain KSU's Allen Everidge

10. Ohio State University
My sweatervest hero returns a good defense and an unproven offense. Chris Wells is back and I expect him to have a highlight reel 2 weeks into the season. Running behind Antonio Pittman kept the lid on for the beginning of the season, but you can expect to hear a lot about him this year


11. Rutgers
12. Oklahoma Sooners
13. Arkansas Razorbacks
14. Auburn
15. Tennessee
16. Boise State
17. Texas A&M (being realistic for the start of the season here.)
18. Nebraska
19. Cal
20. PSU


Your thoughts are valued. unless your Cates or Plevan

I just want to say this is directed at nobody other than Cates. I apologize if it offends any other LongHorn Supporters here. I wish all of you the best. Except Cates. Grr... we need to hang out sometime bud.

Google image Graham Harrell and this is what you find:

I'm not saying... I'm just saying.

I soon plan on a series of blogs about the upcoming football season. We'll cover a little bit of this... a little bit of that.

Mainly: Texas, A&M, and Tech's upcoming seasons as well as an overall look at the season.

While every season is good, this last year was a bit of a letdown. But then again compared to the season we had 2 years ago. (05-06), it's hard to look good. That was definitely the best season in recent memory. No controversy about the bowls... great bowl matchups.... great regular season games. BCS bowls were all outstanding close games. We got to see a classic by Bobby Bowden and Joe Paterno w/ an overtime kicking fiesta... Topped off by an outstanding come from behind championship game. Hard to top that one

None of the 3 texas teams were dominant by any stretch this last year... and OU went on to play for the big XII championship... which, I think we can all agree.... sucked. Big time. I fully expect the south champion to be decided during Thanksgiving weekend... and not anywhere north of Dallas.

The first post will probably be a general summary of the upcoming season... Stay tuned.


*** edited for the Jay Scott whining.

Romans

The study of Romans has been outstanding. The Angelo State University head basketball coach has been the front man for this study. I can't say much more than that I am very pleasantly surprised at his knowledge and wisdom of the Bible. It excites me that a godly man is in charge of our basketball team. I found out that he was a former Denton Bible Church member and it suddenly made sense.

We're only through Romans 2 at this point and I love that. Doing about 4-5 verses a week gives a great chance to dive into the word more deeply.


The best portion we've covered thus far has been the latter part of Romans 1, discussing the sinfulness of man.

18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

This sparked an interesting discussion. I was shocked at the people that still cling to the idea that "God is kind and wouldn't send people to hell who haven't heard of Him." Calvinist or not, it's a foolish notion to think that God will simply not punish a man for his sin. Later on we know that God has written his law on the hearts of man and that they know the difference from right and wrong. A great point brought up was of Malchizidek. A man who was not a jew, but was a priest of God. He lived with forward faith.

Also, from a sociological standpoint, we don't ever encounter new people-groups or tribes who do not believe in some form of diety and formed some sort of moral law. We do not have to teach our children to lie... and we don't have to teach them that lying is wrong either. They know it is wrong because of God's law written on their hearts.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people that we meet that will claim that the Bible only speaks against homosexuality in the old testament and that the new testament doesn't actually preach against that.

One of my favorite sites on the intarwebnets is here. I recommend you play w/ that one for a while. It'll leave you quite frustrated and angry.

Pretty blatent to me... but I digress.

28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

What Paul does so well here is put us (sinners and at the time gentiles) in their place. We are sinful. We are naturally full of the sins listed above. It is only because him softening our hearts that we put those things past us and instead pursue Christ.

Excellent excellent stuff. Romans 2 will be up next week when Paul puts the Israelites in their place as well.

Eron, Jay.... I apologize profusely.

No words or justification can right the wrong I've done by not posting. I've been in the stages of removing myself from my regular message board activities.... (Goodbye texags...) and continued travels throughout Texas.

March and April were both hard on me:

- First... who misses a wide open layup... seriously... Mr. Clutch himself stuck a dagger in my heart vs. Memphis. Man that stunk.

- Then, my man Billy-G left me for Kentucky and Ashley Judd. That hurt. Understood and I appreciate the man for what he did but it still sucked. Turgeon will continue the ownage.

- Finally... while I was upset for the missed layup... Acie Law IV was robbed of player of the year. Kevin Durant was far and away the best player in the league. Once Oden and Durant hit their grooves they were unstoppable this year. Without the draft rule those two would have been in the NBA tearing it up this fall coming. Remove both of those players from their team and they both finish in the same area. Remove Acie Law and you remove several wins this year from the Ags. Both OSU and Texas were stacked w/ other talent that could have gotten them to the same area. Remove both players and the teams have a 2-3 game difference in schedule.
Remove Law and ags drop about 6-7 more.

Let this be said that I know and acknowledge that Durant and Oden were better and more athletically-gifted athletes. Law was a scrapper. And that's why he deserved it.

I soon plan on blogging again.


Due to the 1500+ miles logged in the month of February of traveling.... I took a break

Some tidbits from the month


-San Angelo's Mexican food is better than Del Rio
-Del Rio is a plan to take over Texas for Mexico
-Big O's in Valera Texas is a great stop i recommend for all.
-Law IV was intentionally fouled on a 3 point play in the 2nd overtime. That should be 3 at the line and get the ball back to the good guys.
-Kevin Durant is a beast and deserves to be college player of the year. Law IV should be big XII player of the year. I say this, as in Big XII play, Acie Law has been incredible week in and week out. The Ags wouldn't have been in the place they were if not for clutch shooting and consistant asissts that he is known for Durant has by far been the most outstanding player in the country, age aside. Texas is still probably at least a bubble team w/out him. A&M loses far more in the Big XII w/out Law.
-I am stepping out of the youth ministry this Sunday. I have been involved in the youth ministry for almost 11 years w/ some short breaks in there. I'm excited to start going to Sunday School w/ my wife for the first time in our marriage. First book up on deck in said Sunday School class. Romans. I'm stoked here.
- I promise a stirring post on the points of Romans for Eron.

Theology and aggies.


Before I get to a more serious post requested by Eron, I need to give some street cred to my man, Billy ,G of the Texas A&M Fightin' Aggies. I'll start off by saying that I expected to drop both the games to Kansas and Texas (i did still watch supporting them). After the Kansas victory I was a bit shocked, but proud of BCG and Icie Law for coming through in a clutch. Excellent play and coaching decisions in the final minutes. One of the bigger wins in a somewhat history-less program
Now I have watched Durant this entire year and been very, very, very impressed with him. Hands down player of the year. Oden doesn't even hold a candle. He's decent and has the size to be great, but Kevin Durant is above anybody else this year. His outside shooting is excellent as well as being money inside. He also has great D in the paint. The only downfall is his outside D and it can be improved. For the Aggies to come off of such a huge emotional upset win in Lawrence and come down to Reed Arena and take care of a very talented, athletic Texas team speaks volumes for the improvement of this team. I would love to see them play LSU or UCLA again. I don't know that they'd beat UCLA, but believe they could spank the cajuns and Big Baby if given the chance again.
I think that if the aggies continue this style of play, an elite 8 appearance at the least will be expected.


“You are in a reformed church but secretly long for more of an experience of God, you are in a charismatic church but secretly enjoy listening to preaching and reading books that teach substantial theology.”
-Adrian Warnock

Now to a more serious note. My friend Eron recently asked why I consider myself a reformed charismatic. He referenced my love for Matt Chandler, who is definitely a influence on my theology and approach to evangelism. But I would say that me getting to the point where I consider myself is far removed from the influence of one pastor. My time with calvinists in San Angelo as well as my pastor friends, LakanM and RyanD have had much more influence in that. While Lakan probably wouldn't call himself that... he has a very strict interpretation of the scripture and would put all of God's glory in salvation on God.
To answer this we need to look at what "reformed" and "charasmatic" are. I find it very interesting that separately these 2 words can bring about some negative connotations...
i.e.:
reformed - close-minded, calvinist, fundamentalist
charismatic - loose interpretation of scripture, holy roller, liberal

But when the words are put together it brings about an entirely different picture than either of them alone. People like Matt Chandler and Mark Driscoll are thought of when this term is used. What these men are known for is their commitment to the scriptures, as well as their passion for evanglism and knowing God. I will not say that these men are flawless in their study of the scripture, but they are bible believing men who love the Lord and lost people.

Before I go any further here's a great Blanket Statement: Certain things are absolute: the Trinity; the deity and humanity of Christ; his future second coming; salvation being by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone; and the complete trustworthiness of the Bible.

I have friends that I would define as charismatic. Holy rollers or whatever they may be called. Most are non-denominational and ended up that way because of being scorned from another denomination or pissed off at their previous church and denomination. Some remain very dogmatic to their original denomination, but choose to attend this church for various reasons. Why I would call myself charismatic is that I fully believe in the spirits acting and moving today. I think to discount its importance and presence would be foolish. I see no scripture that says otherwise. Speaking in tongues is a gift. I don't really care if you think that it is irrelevant today. 99% of the time, speaking in tongues is a misused gift, done in sin. I believe the Spirit of God heals people today. But I just can't believe that 1 Cor 14 is irrelevant Others call them miracles and good medicine... I call it God. I just cannot believe and buy into those gifts being useless in today's day and age... or dispensation or whatever. This believe must be taken w/ a grain of salt. How many people do I know that use their gift of tongues? very few. Healing as well. I don't know that I've met somebody with the gift of prophesy ever. For those that do believe that these don't exist, they are entitled to their own opinion. I do not believe however that they are able to judge somebody who does posess that gift, because they are judging on their interpretation of scripture and doctrine... not scripture itself. I don't see how we can say somebody has the spirit of teaching, faith, helps, evangelist, or of administration that we have today.... and say that Wisdom, Knowledge, Discernment, Prophecy, Tongues, Interpretation, Faith, Healing and Miracles. ... meh... we stopped needing them early in church history.

On the flip side I don't think I'll ever be quite as "reformed" as several of my friends... and that's fine. I know they love scripture and doctrine as a result of loving our Lord. But the total sell out to the doctrines of grace is something I have never been able to do. It doesn't really matter at what point I can't agree... but it's something I've never been able to fully embrace. I can fully embrace the idea of the reformation and what it was truly about at it's time. Salvation is by the good graces of God alone (Rom 11:16). That includes his calling, our response and life as a christian... all up to his will and kindness. That being said, I don't believe my response is a work... but still a necessity.

I also believe in the 5 Solas of the reformation...fwiw

For some strange reason... in our christian culture, many believe that those two can not coexist... But I do. I have to believe that they can. I find both to be biblical and essential. I long for the deep things of God and know his scripture and be absolutely entralled w/ his glory and have that be the overwhelming theme of my life. But I also long to be filled w/ the spirit of the scriptures like the saints of old.

I can not believe the statement in John 4:24 that God told us to worship in spirit and in truth to not apply today. Or am I only supposed to worship in truth now that the spirit is not moving? Am I to be led by the spirit, but not let the truth of God take hold of me? I can't seperate them.

Well..

it's been a long time since a post. And with good reason. Between finishing up moving into our house, starting a new job, finals, graduation, and having a baby I have free time now.

kinda. I guess... a little. suprisingly after you graduate you don't have all the time in the world like one would think. It's annoyingly busy.

College football has come and gone. College basketball is getting to conference play soon. The NFL is winding down w/ just conference finals left to play. I'm always a little sad the day after the BCS National Championship game. Even last year when I was cheering for Texas (one time thing) as they won the national championship game, I was sad afterwards. Just kinda stinks. I mean the NFL playoffs are still there. And I love college hoops, but it really just isn't the same as football. Jay would disagree, but he's a Duke fan (horrible at football and the Notre Dame of BBall).

Which leads me the fact that, I need to start reading again. During college I haven't hardly read anything due to my schedule the entire time. I had thought upon graduation, I would jump right into it but the kid didn't share my sentiments. Upon recommendation of my pastor I've picked up Master Plan of Evangelism. Great read. Very simplistic, biblical approach to Jesus' practice of reaching the masses. The idea is that Christ did not try to hold trendy attractive large services that brought in the masses, but instead took a group of 12 imperfect men and invested in their lives, and encouraged them to do the same after they were equipped. By developing them as indivdual's he brought up 12 (well 11) godly men that were ready to go into ministry. I'm not sure if the idea of reaching the masses w/ shallow sermons was an American invention or just something that developed. I'm pretty sure it was around way before our modern day church got ahold of the idea. I'd be interested to find out where it came from though. If you have a chance pick it up.

I guess that's all for now.

I hate the BCS... only the BCS could have a one loss Texas and Notre Dame ranked below two SEC teams that were beaten by teams ranked lower than themselves at the time.

Michigan and OSU are there correctly. Can't argue those but let's move down the list here...

West Virginia... One victory over a team w/ a winning record. One. If you're going to put them there then you have to put Boise State there as well. Where's there love for the smurfs??? They have at least 4 victories over teams w/ winning records. Louisville is even a better pick for #3. They have 4 over winning teams and one over a ranked team. For all I know WVU will mop the floor w/ the Cards come Thursday, but right now they have proven NOTHING to be where they are.

Moving on to the one loss teams...

How can a Auburn team that has had almost 3 losses to unranked teams and one lost to an unranked team jump UT and Notre Dame? Preposterous!!! Auburn has had nothing short of mediocrity this year and yet they sit in the top 6? Tennessee above them too? Come on BCS... I'm an Ag and hate ND but this is the royal screwover!!!



Explain to me 2 weeks ago where

Cal was over Tennessee
Mizzou was over A&M
Arkansas over Auburn
Clemson over Boston College.

Tell me this, O' technological genuises of college football how you can take teams w/ even records, and put the team that lost the head-to-head on top of the team that beat them!!!??!?1/11/!?!!?!?1/1??!!/!1

It's almost as if the computers can't think logically enough to take the real world situation of what happened and who has won and put them in a proper place.... Oh wait... they can't think logically!!!

But let's put the deciding vote of who's better into an inanimate object that can't determine that Tennessee beat the ever living daylights out of California. Let's let a computer determine that Texas losing 24-7 to the #1 team in the land deserves to push them down further than Auburn losing 27-10 to an unranked team.

The BCS should not come out until after the last game is played. here's why:

1. look @ Boise State or Rutgers. Great chance that both of these teams can win out and miss the big dance. Any system that doesn't allow ANY team amongst the 119 to win is completely unfair. If you don't start in the top 20 you don't have a chance usually.

2. I'm an admitted aggie fan... but bare w/ me here. Let's say that Auburn wins out the rest of the year and so does A&M ( I don't use Texas in this instance because they began ranked highly). They both win their respective championships and finish the regular season 12-1. A&M was beaten by #25 by 4 points w/ 26 seconds left. Auburn was losing the entire game to a team that wasn't even in the ORV category in most polls by 17 points. A team that smoked them by running the Annexation of Puerto Rico w/ a guy who's 4'11 at that!!!! Who's ranked higher? Auburn. What have they done to deserve it? Have a better team last year? Start out ranked higher? Is one of these fair? Did they take on some strong and great team out of conference better than A&M? Wazzu? Buffalo? Tulane? Do these teams strike more fear in your heart than ULaLa, Army, and Louisiana Tech? Take this year for this year and leave last year and the preseason out.

The BCS and Myles Brand lucked out last year. There was a cut and dry #1 and a cut and dry #2... Unless you're Matt Leinart saying something about being the better team as a scoreboard and large black man wearing the number 10 and carrying a large crystal ball disagree w/ him in the background... but I digress. I have a strong feeling that this year is going to end the same way. Some 11-1 teams are going to be left out of the big dance. Another one will get the invite and get smoked and all the 11-1's are going to be saying wouldacouldashoulda. And they're completely justified in being angry. They do deserve a shot. And they deserve a system that doesn't screw them... be it the playoffs ( write it down. 32 teams, 4 from each major conference, 2 from mid-majors and the independents can join up or shut up), or be it removal of the computers for 12 weeks of the season. Something's got to be done.

This being the first blog on here I feel the necessity to discuss what we'll be discussing on here.


The topics may include but aren't limited to.
Jesus Christ.
Things that make fun of Texas Tech
Theology that I happen to come across and be worthy of posting.
Duke bashings
My experiences w/ my crazy but beautiful wife.
Funny things my dog does
UT Football and the criminals it hosts.
Sports triva, quirks, announcments, scores and stories
J.J Reddickisms

As you can see, there is a vast array to discuss, not that anybody cares how I feel about it, but I'm sure Jay, Cates, or somebody will have an opinion to make or disagree with. Hope it's good for a laugh or encouragement.