http://funnytranslator.com

I decided to give it a try with a slogan from a commercial that just aired.

Watch the video here.

Her conviction is so strong that, though unemployed, she’s paid $1,200 to buy advertising space on 10 Springs bus benches through October to get the word out. The ad says, “Save the Date! Return of Christ: May 21, 2011, WeCanKnow.com.”

“I want to do all I can to get the message out,” Exley, 31, said.

Exley got the idea for the ads from listening to Family Radio, a Christian broadcast heard on 55 stations in the United States.

Full Article @Gazette.com

• Yesterday morning wasn’t exactly a smooth morning either as I kinda got stuck in the elevator when I got to work.  I say kinda because I was riding in an elevator with a woman who needed to stop one floor below mine.  When the stopped, the doors didn’t open and all the buttons were not responsive.  The first thought that went through my mine – Thank goodness I don’t have to pee.
• The woman in the elevator decided to just pry open the doors on her own, and thankfully the elevator stopped where it was suppose to and we just stepped off.  I told a friend this and he thought I was foolish for stepping off because the elevator could have dropped and cut me in half.  Now, if the elevator was between floors and I had to crawl through a space, that’s one thing, but all I had to do was step off.
• I’ve talked about my love for the Baker Hotel in my hometown of Mineral Wells, but I had no idea that one of my old high school acquaintances was making a documentary about it.
• We started to watch the second season of Mad Men yesterday.
• Toyota has an idea to help everyone save gas and all it involves is a glass of water.
• I thought it was interesting how Jimmy Johnson made the list twice in SI’s list of the top 25 hated sports teams.
• Best magazine articles (in English) ever?
• Bicycled Powered Coffee Stand
• Believe it or not, but there’s a Titanic II movie.

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Yesterday I was comforted by something my friend Andy posted on his blog.  Andy and I have never really hung out but knew each other as we both attended the same Bible community at Irving Bible Church.  We both just really respected each other and even attended each others wedding.  Somehow he kept track of me and became a pretty loyal reader of this blog and I’ve added his blog to my RSS reader for quite some time now.

What I found comforting was his courage to share his struggles with his Christian faith and how he too came from a Baptist/Evangelical background.  Heck, we both even attended Baptist colleges, so I feel I can really relate to the guy.

Below is a piece he shared, and even though I’ve taken a decent chunk of it, I don’t think he would mind me posting it here as it’s something that might help others who have a similar struggle.  I kind of started it in a odd place as the “we” he is referring to is one of his friends.

We both grew up in the Baptist tradition, which in our case emphasized (among other things) Biblical inerrancy, apologetics, and certainty of one’s faith. For a given spiritual question, such as the Problem of Evil or the once-saved, always-saved debate, there was a right answer from the Bible that we needed to know and be ready to defend. Looking back, I can’t remember how much of the obsession with the “right” answer came from the church and how much came from my own perfectionistic and logical personality. I’m sure both played a role.

As I grew older, through a variety of life experiences and much soul-searching, I realized some things:

• I didn’t really have all the answers on matters of Christian faith, or at least that I didn’t like some of the answers I had to some of life’s toughest questions.
• What various churches taught and emphasized didn’t necessarily match what the Bible taught and emphasized.
• Different Christians, all well-meaning, could interpret the same Bible and understand the same God in vastly different ways.

These realizations scared me in ways I cannot fully explain.

You can check out the full piece here, but I like to add how he summed it up.

Finally, in ways I can’t fully explain other than to give God the credit, I found a way to return to a faith that I don’t fully understand, a faith for which I don’t have all the answers. When someone asks me a spiritual question, and I don’t have a solid answer, I can finally respond with, “I don’t know”. And be OK with it.

See, the trait I admire most about Andy is something I wish more Christians would adhere to and the one thing I think drove me away from the Evangelical church . . . Andy is sincerely honest and genuine, a true example of grace.

Andy ends his post with a link to Rachel Held Evan’s blog, something I actually referenced a day or two ago.  Evans piece is titled Ten Things I’m Not “Ready to Give an Answer” About.  Evans, like Andy, is honest and genuine about how she feels about her faith even if it clashes with her upbringing and the people around her, and I felt I could totally relate to most of what she was saying.  Heck, I took comfort in it.  I know for sure I have an answer for myself to #5 on her list, but here’s a sampling of her list in case you are interested.

3. I don’t know which Bible stories ought to be treated as historically accurate, scientifically-provable accounts of fact and which stories are meant to be metaphorical. I’m beginning to believe that it might not matter, that these stories can transform my life whether or not they refer to literal days, literal fruit trees, or literal floods.

6. I don’t know how God will ultimately judge between good and evil. In other words, I don’t know who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell.

8. I don’t know why people are gay, or if being gay is a sin.

9. I don’t know which Church tradition best represents the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I know some of you are thinking there are some clear cut answers to her post and how on God’s green Earth can I not accept those answers.  Truth is, I did accept those answers, but I never had the courage to say out loud that I didn’t really believe in them.  The one time that I did, I was told I truly didn’t have a relationship with Jesus.  Yup, that made me feel like a winner.  I know there are some definite black and white answers when it comes to the Christian faith, but I think there’s a lot of more gray out there than people are willing to admit, and I’m finding gray to be a beautiful, graceful color which isn’t as “lukewarm” as I once thought.

• Yesterday was a doozy of a morning.  Before I head out to work, DogGeeding had a case of diarrhea.  While rushing him outside a little bit got on my shirt so I had to change so I wouldn’t be known as StinkyGeeding.  While getting my yogurt out of the fridge to take to work I dropped it and it splattered.  When I got to work to put my yogurt in the fridge, I found the fridge was no longer working and the food I had in there spoiled.  There’s nothing like opening up a refrigerator and taking a whiff of spoiled food.  And to top off the morning, WifeGeeding called to tell me that the HDTV is broken.  Luckily all I had to do was change the TV bulb/lamp thingy.
• I had such an off moment trying to replace that TV bulb/lamp thingy.  WifeGeeding left for an hour to teach swim lessons and I decided to change the bulb which should have taken no more 15 minutes, max.  Heck, I’ve even done it before, but I just couldn’t get one piece to fit back in.  I must have spent a whole hour trying to get that thing to fit.  WifeGeeding comes home, assesses the situation, and solves the problem in less than 15 seconds.  She is now the technical genius in the family.
• I’ve always wanted to ring the opening or closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange, that was until I learned that the cast of the Jersey Shore recently got that honor.
• My friend Jimi makes so much money that he recently bought a Bed Gun Safe.
• Yet another oil leak off the Louisiana coast – can’t that state catch a break?
• In case you didn’t know, there’s a little something to help you pass the time while waiting for a YouTube video to load.
• Alabama bingo losers sue to get their money back based on 158-year-old state law
• Poems don’t read so well on e-readers
• Every Cigarette Smoked in Mad Men
• Wired.com thinks iPad owners are ‘Selfish Elites’
• Lady Gaga was at the Round-Up Saloon bar in Dallas and took a picture with a bunch of old cowboys
• Monkey Wrangles Goat – YouTube
• Grace

The Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville, has marked the date in previous years with protests against Islam. The church holds protests on other issues, such as homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and abortion.

Pastor Terry Jones said members of the church plan to be at the Gainesville City Hall on Aug. 2 to protest the election of the city’s openly gay mayor. Church-state groups had previously accused the church of illegal politicking for its “No Homo Mayor” signs.

Jones, who is also the author of a book titled “Islam is of the Devil,” said protests are key to the mission of his church.

“We feel, as Christians, one of our jobs is to warn,” said Jones.
The goal of these and other protests are to give Muslims an opportunity to convert, he said.

In response to the posting of the event on Facebook a little more than a week ago, Jones said that people have been mailing Qurans to the church to burn. He said organizers got the idea, in part, from another Facebook page, called “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.”

Full Article

But today,for the first time, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ will be portrayed through the medium of 3000 coathangers.

The 9ft tall sculpture was set to be unveiled outside St Giles’ Cathedral by acclaimed sculptor David Mach, who is renowned for his artwork made out everyday items including coathangers, match sticks and bricks.

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Police are investigating Father Valentin for accidential homicide after witnesses at the ceremony said the priest did not cover the baby’s mouth during the ritual, The Sun newspaper reports.

Father Valentin had denied being responsible for the baby’s death during the baptism in Moldova.

The six-week-old baby died on the way to hospital and an autopsy found he had drowned, the baby’s dad Dumitru Gaidau told Romania’s Publica TV.

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I use only few minutes per picture, including creating idea, implementation and editing, ’cause I don’t want to disturb her sleeping and most of my time is for my family.

milasdaydreams.blogspot.com

So open, it seems, they won’t turn anyone away. Not even a dog.

That’s how a blessed canine ended up receiving communion from interim priest Rev. Marguerite Rea during a morning service the last Sunday in June.

According to those in attendance at the historical church at 188 Carlton St. in downtown Toronto, it was a spontaneous gesture, one intended to make both the dog and its owner – a first timer at the church — feel welcomed. But at least one parishioner saw the act as an affront to the rules and regulations of the Anglican Church. He filed a complaint with the reverend and with the Anglican Diocese of Toronto about the incident – and has since left the church.

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