Makes me smile….

As some of you know I am currently doing my student teaching 1 experience in a large public middle school in Lincoln, NE. First of all, I love it. The kids keep me on my toes, I have an excellent cooperating teacher, and I get to teach a subject I love! However, being in a public school after 3 1/2 years at Seward is a bit interesting. I feel like I have to watch over my should to make sure I’m not saying something that will get me into trouble. I have had good discussions with my co-op on our planning periods…. but its not quite the same is being so immersed at Concordia.

However, I do have moments where I just want to shout “YES!”

We are currently watching a PBS video on the Lewis and Clark series and we just finished watching some clips on Thomas Jefferson. Both were narriated by Ken Burns. As I watched the video with my students I noticed the music. Both films had the hymn “Be Thou My Vision” playing in the background (only instrumental… no vocal). Then, in the Lewis and Clark film I noticed that the hymn “Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness” was playing in the background. One of my students after class stated that she’d heard that song in church and loved that hymn. I smiled big and agreed with her that I thought it was a good hymn.

I’ll leave you know with the words to “Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness” (HS 881)

Praise the One who breaks the darkness
With a liberating light;
Praise the One who frees the pris’ners,
Turning blindness in-to sight.
Praise the One who preached the Gospel,
Healing every dread disease,
Calming storms, and feeding thousands
With the very Bread of Peace

Praise the One who bless’d the children
With a strong, yet gentle, word;
Praise the One who drove out demons
With the piericing, two-edged sword.
Praise the One who brings cool water
To the desert’s burning sand;
From this well comes living water,
Quenching thirst in every land.

Let us praise the Word incarnate,
Christ, who suffered in our place;
Jesus died and rose victorious
That we may know God by grace.
Let us sing for joy and gladness,
Seeing what our God has done;
Let us praise the true Redeemer,
Praise the One who makes us one.

Another means to procrastinate…

So I have found another way to procrastinate… or is it a more efficent way??

http://www.bloglines.com/

If you go to this site you can sign up for their free service. Basically the site helps a person manage what they read on the internet. You can put in feeds (rss, xml, etc) and it will automatically pull in all the new postings from the sites you have in your listing. This includes news sites, comics (Dilbert), xangas, livejournals, and bloggers. Even if the site you want doesn’t have a feed specified, it can actually find it for you. I will admit that I am an information junkie… and this just helps manage my habit….

The "ME" Church

Sermonspice.com meCHURCH 1:25

What a great video that in a humerous (and extreme) way shows what can happen when a church takes its focus off of Christ. It really does put things in perspective regarding our postmodern society and how our societal changes affect the church.

Severus Snape: One teacher’s hero – Harry Potter – MSNBC.com

Severus Snape: One teacher’s hero – Harry Potter – MSNBC.com

After book six of the Harry Potter series I don’t like Snape. I’m not sure how his character will play out in book seven… but I still probably won’t like him. However, the person in the article linked to above does have a great point. Snape is the kind of no nonsense teacher that I strive to be. He doesn’t take crap from anyone… and he is very concerned with making sure that his students learn everything they possibly can. He also pushes students farther than they think they can go. While he may have made some incredibly stupid choices… he was still a good teacher.

FOXNews.com – Views – Junk Science – Trillion-Dollar Radiation Mistake?

FOXNews.com – Views – Junk Science – Trillion-Dollar Radiation Mistake?: “A federal research panel last week concluded that there is no safe exposure to radiation. It’s a conclusion based on assumptions about cancer that may be all wrong and in very costly ways. “

What crap! If there is no safe exposure to radiation then we all better bend over and grab our ankles. Do some research in the library or on any number of university or governmental sites and you can find some interesting statistics about radiation. Most people don’t realize it, but you actually are exposed to more radiation annually by living close to a coal power plant than you are by living the same distance from a nuclear plant. Also, you are exposed to radiation daily by living in a brick home or by sitting in front of a computer all the time. Wait… there’s more! Best not live in Colorado if there is no safe exposure to radiation. You receive a far greater radiation dose in Colorado because of the rocky topography and the higher elevation than you do in Florida. But guess what… cancer rates are higher in Florida.

Basically… some idiotic environmentalists are spouting off facts to scare people. This comes at a time when we are having the greatest push in years for more nuclear power plants to be built. Let’s build them. They are more efficient. They don’t polute. The chance for any amount of radiation to be released is so small that i have a better chance or walking outside right now and getting hit by a car than I do of ever being exposed to a potentially harmful dose of radiation!

Go Nuke!

different Think

I found this online a while ago. Very profound. Now all I need to do is get a mac…

 

Santa is coming!!!

This post should have been done before Christmas but I had other things to do.

I saw this sign and honestly nearly slammed on the brakes of my car… got out… and went and smacked the pastor upside the head. Of course… this Disciples of Christ church has a female pastor… so that wouldn’t be cool. Instead I just kept it inside.

What is this church and their pastor thinking? You would think that in Small Town, USA we would hopefully be somewhat secluded from this kind of thing. You would also think that a church that is so proud to say “No Creed but the Bible” would be free of such stupid statements. What point does it serve to say that “Santa is coming.” Will it attract new members, does it proclaim the message of the coming Savior? NO! This pastor in an effort to be relevant and fun has completely missed a chance to proclaim Christ and His message of salvation. For shame…..

Be an organ donor, give your heart to Jesus

Yes… that’s right…. the United Methodist Church in California, Missouri wants YOU to be an organ donor.

What is sad is that I’m sure this sign could be found on an LCMS church sign somewhere in the country. It sounds hip… it sounds so perfect….. give your heart to Jesus! It is so appealing to have some control over this. What is also sad is that this particular church in California, MO belongs to the larger United Methodist Church. This same church promotes infant Baptism on their site. How can an infant give their heart to Jesus? They also have a more in depth discussion of the topic here.

I leave you now with a bit of Luther who so keenly addresses the idea that we can “give our hearts to Jesus.” When you click on the link below scroll down until you get to the third article of the Apostle’s Creed.

Luther’s Small Catechism

A far more in depth discussion of Luther’s understanding of our ability to “give our hearts to Jesus” is found in his Large Catechism.

Luther’s Large Catechism