Test

I was testing the children in my Sunday school class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven.
I asked them, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, Would that get me into Heaven?"
"NO!" the children answered.
"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into Heaven?"
Again, the answer was, "NO!"
By now I was starting to smile. Hey, this was fun!
"Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave candy to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into Heaven?"
Again, they all answered, "NO!"
I was just bursting with pride for them.
"Well," I continued, "then how can I get into Heaven?"
A five-year-old boy shouted out, "YOU GOTTA BE DEAD."

Pets

Sometimes strange things happen when I'm out of town. For example, Kyle said we got a new pet. Have you ever had a pet like ours? We only kept this hissing pet a few days. I was very thankful that the pet chose not to fly for whatever reason. I am also thankful that this was not a long term pet. He was released back to our porch yesterday. I think he and I are both happy about this:)

Clean Art

While walking through a neighborhood next to the church passing out fliers for VBS, we noticed some graffiti. Unlike the usual gang tagging I see all over Clovis and Fresno, this graffiti was more a statement than a nuisance. Today I did some browsing on some art sites I like to visit every now and then and found reverse graffiti. One of the featured artists was Alexandre Orion.

Story from Automotive Ossuary

Brazilian artist Alexandre Orion turned a São Paulo transport tunnel into a kind of graphic charnel house, lined with skulls.

He created the images, the project's website explains, "by selectively scraping off layers of black soot deposited on those walls in the short life of this orifice of modernity."

Grandpa’s Stories

Last night he walked up to two ladies and their kids at Petsmart. The little boy had a mohawk and he asked the lady if she had given the boy that haircut. She said yes, so he asked her if she’d give him one too and lifted his hat off to expose his bald head. As we were leaving, I reminded the ladies not to talk to strange old men. Grandpa agreed and a few seconds passed. Then he realized what he’d just agreed to and shook a fist at me.

Grandpa was a teletype operator for the Marines. He served at the Air Station in Yuma, Arizona. This morning as grandpa and I enjoyed our morning coffee, he told me this story.


The base had about 15 head of horses on the land and civilians could come out there and pay 50 cents to ride for an hour. After showing a lieutenant how to handle an unruly horse he was appointed head over the stables. This lieutenant gave him a call and said, “Corporal, get yourself a rope and meet me at the helipad tomorrow morning.” Grandpa asked him what they’d be doing and the lieutenant said that they’d be going out to catch them a wild burro. Grandpa showed up and a pilot flew them out into the desert where they found a wild pack of them roaming. The pilot let them down and got the burros moving toward the lieutenant and grandpa with the ropes. The helicopter blew his rope down and he missed a big burro. When the helicopter came back around he lassoed a baby burro, which dragged him a ways before he was able to get his footing. Then he and the lieutenant tethered him between two yucca bushes and climbed back into the helicopter. The next day they drove a jeep out there to where they’d tied up the little burro and loaded him into the back beneath a blanket. Driving into base they checked in with the MP, who didn’t see the burro beneath the blanket. So they raised the burro and let the kids ride it for free while the parents paid to ride the horses. Well the lieutenant decided to sell the burro and told grandpa to take it to the back of the base and slide it through the fence to a man who had paid $24 dollars for it. Grandpa did what he was told and got $12.50 out of the deal. However, a new officer had come to the base and had seen that the burro wasn’t on the inventory list. He had added the burro to the inventory without mentioning it to anyone. Therefore, a month later when inventory came around the burro came up missing. Since grandpa was in charge of the stables he was told that if he didn’t find the burro then he’d be in big trouble. So for a week he and a stable hand would ride out to an orchard and take naps beneath the fruit trees for an hour or so before returning. They hoped that “looking” for the burro and not finding it would appease the officer. Meanwhile the officer did some snooping around and learned the story of how the burro came to be on the base. He called in grandpa and the lieutenant to demand an explanation. The officer told grandpa that if he didn’t come clean then he’d face 30 days in the brig doing hard labor. Grandpa laid it all out and was told that if he’d ever try anything like that again he’d be ground into a pulp. He said, “Sir if you let me go, you’ll never see me again.” The officer excused him and grandpa took off running, leaving the lieutenant to get tore apart by the officer for his funny business.



Good going, Franklin!

What is this world coming to?

City lawyer busted for allegedly stealing Sausage McMuffin

A deputy city attorney has been charged with petty theft and battery stemming from a dispute over his breakfast order at a McDonald’s restaurant.

Michael Richards was initially arrested May 18 on a felony robbery charge, but it was changed to the current misdemeanor charges when it was filed in Kern County Superior Court.

Richards, 33, ordered two sausage sandwiches at 6:20 a.m. from the drive-through at the McDonald’s in the 3000 block of Niles Street and paid for them, sheriff’s officials said.

But he was unhappy that he didn’t get eggs so he went inside the store, jumped over the counter, pushed a clerk and grabbed a Sausage McMuffin with egg, Sgt. Ed Komin said.

Fishing Below Pine Flat Dam

Spider with egg sack, eew!


Kyle caught himself a 15 1/2"golden sucker fish.


Close-up.


Tiny frog.


Here's my wife with her floppy fishing hat and a brand new fishing license. She caught herself a 72" black stick.

Ideas

"V is for Vendetta" is about a revolutionary named V. At a crescendo in the movie V is about to finish off Creedy when in frustration Creedy asks him, “Why won’t you die?” This is V’s response:

“Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.” - V

Man, I love that part. Not just because Creedy gets taken out but because of V’s commitment to his idea of freedom from tyranny. I came across a fellow blogger who blogged that “Ideas are not only bulletproof, they're the most dangerous thing in the world. All change, all growth, all destruction, everything beautiful and grotesque in this world began with a single idea. Ideas are seeds.”

What sort of ideas or ideals do we have? How are we planting them and cultivating them? Are they good or bad? How did we come to hold them?

Hardships

S: "You therefore must endure hardships as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." 2 Tim. 2:3
O: The Bible doesn't say that if you become a Christian you will be healthy, wealthy, and wise.
A: Some days I just want life to be easy. I'm surprised by challenges and left discouraged when things don't go as I planned. God never said life would be easy when you follow Him, in fact it says the opposite. Yet, God can use hardship to mold us to be more like Him. "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28
In Genesis God used enslavement by brothers (Gen. 37:12-36), lies of a hateful and covetous woman (Gen. 39), and false imprisonment (Gen. 39 and 40) to prepare Joseph for being second in command of all Egypt (Gen. 41). In this position God was able to save Jacob and his family, more than sixty-six people, from starvation do to a seven year drought (Gen. 46:26). Joseph's brothers feared him since they had been so evil.
Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Gen. 50:19-21
P: Lord, help me to glorify you despite the hardships in life.