The Renter

The Renter A young man moved into a house full of guys. The first thing he asked the others was “What are the rules of the house?”. They proceeded to give him a printed list of about thirty things covering duties, other visitors, rent due date, etc, etc. They told him it was not an exhaustive list but it was to reflect the principle “be considerate of others as you would wish them to be considerate to you”. He thought this sounded reasonable but found some things on the list to be very irritating – like no parakeets, and no eating pickles in the living room. He began questioning the reasonableness of some of these and other rules. He asked if the landlord had make the rules and they all answered “What landlord, there is no landlord”. He then wondered who the rent money goes to but he didn't ask. He was surprised to find out there was no landlord. Then he asked them if there was no landlord, who made the rules and they said “We did along with the previous folks who had lived there before”. He then asked how did they come to agree on the rules and they said they voted and the majority rules. He asked “ what if the minority decides to rebel against the majority” and they said they fight. He asked further “what if the minority wins the fight?” And they said that the rules change. He decided to move out, he had no desire to live in such a chaotic climate. No landlord? Ridiculous!

Spiritual Without Being Religious?

Spiritual w/o being Religious - Many people today describe themselves as being 'spiritual' without being 'religious'. We ask “do they have any idea of what they mean”? We think that they would be hard pressed to give a meaningful response to the question. We conjecture that what they mean is that they believe in right and wrong and also believe that they think themselves to be better than others in their effort to be good. Maybe they mean that they think they can be good without God. But why would a person want just to be good? Do they want to be able to think of themselves as being good or do they want others to think of themselves as being good or do they really want to be good? How good to they want to be – moderately good or really good? Or just better than others. We ask “why bother”? Trying to be good is a real nuisance. It means having to say 'no' to yourself, being honest when you would like to lie to cover your tracks. It means trying to avoid every selfish act. It will impinge on our life almost hourly to not do what we would like to do or to do thinks we don't want to do. Can they succeed in being good? Well to a degree, Yes. If they work hard they make themselves a bit better than others. But if they want to be their best self, they will need God in their lives to help get rid of their pride, envy, self importance, etc. etc. If there is a God we think He will help us make progress but only if we give ourselves over to Him. He can make us truly good, but we can never make it on our own. C.S. Lewis describes this kind of religion as “all the thrills of religion with none of the costs. Holmesdb@gmail.com

Reflections on the Bible - More stuff to come later

Reflections on the Bible We don't think that most evangelical Christians have any idea of the complexity of believing that the Bible is inspired, infallible and inerrant. We know the the Bible was written by humans, we don't know if, and to what degree, God was involved in writing the Bible. We think the Bible is a pretty much a human book containing some myth, legends, exaggerations, inexactitudes, errors, and LOTS of reliable reportage. We don't know the precise meaning of the word 'inspired' as used by Paul in the book of Timothy nor are we clear on what the word 'scripture' means. Whose scripture, Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox – the three major branches of Christendom who don't agree on what books belong in the Bible. Paul was referring to the Septuagint (The Greek Bible that was translated from the Hebrew) when he wrote Timothy. The Septuagint has books in it that ours does not have. We have very few of the words of Christ in His language. We have His words in the Aramaic translated into Greek, then translated in English. i.e. Aramaic to Greek to English. We have none of the original writing of any of the Bible. What we have is copies of copies of copies, etc. For a VERY informative, interesting and somewhat humerus lecture on the complication of the writing and the transmission of the Bible, go to: “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFs-llHmxNc.” Or go to youtube – “Bart Ehrman” and pic “Misquoting Jesus'. Dr. Ehrman was once an evangelical Christian, went to Moody Bible Instutute and Wheaton College and is now an agnostic. We think he should be a lot more skeptical about his skepticism but his material is very worth knowing about. He is a first class scholar on ancient tests and teaches in the department at Religions Studies at North Carolina University. Some thoughts on the idea of Inspiration: We think that all good acts are inspired by God, that all real beauty is inspired by God and that all truth is inspired by God. He is the author of all Truth, Goodness and Beauty and none of these things exist apart from Him being somehow uniquely and mysteriously present. Where truth, beauty and goodness are present, God's inspiration is at work. The Bible is inspired like anything else on earth is inspired – by being true, beautiful or good. There parts of the Bible that are difficult to include under the headings of Truth, Beauty or Good which we find nearly impossible to believe – like the command to slaughter all all the men, women and children in some cities in Canaan or the drowning of the Egyptian solders in the Red Sea, etc. etc. These things seems to violate God's own nature and God can not be a contradiction to Himself. How do we know what to believe? We believe all that we are capable of believing. But we are compelled to disbelieve what our good sense and reason will not let us believe. There is no use in trying to pretend to believe what we don't believe. We think that God honors our attempt to be honest and reasonable. He is the ultimate reasoner, He gave us to be reasonable creatures. He is the Logos – the Word. Jesus is the Word, the one that is truly Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. The above 'we' represents other like minded persons. Don

poem

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife? When the strong tide lifts and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift or firm remain? "I never leave you or forsake you"

I DON'T KNOW - Why Jesus had to die for our sins or what the connection is between our sins and His death. I don't know how accurate the history is in the Old Testament. I don't know for sure what is literal and what is figurative in the Old Testament. I don't know if Jesus did all the miracles that the New Testament reports He did. I don't know what the term 'inspired' means in II Timothy 3:16 I don't have any idea of how to understand the book of Revelation in the New Testament. I don't know the connections of the story of the Fall and our sinful natures. I don't have any idea how to explain the disconnect between the goodness of God and the pain, suffering and death in the world. I am baffled at the teaching that apparently billions of the 'lost' will be tortured in hell for ever and ever. I don't know how to deal with the clear cut distinction between the righteous and the wicked in the Old Testament. But I do think I know, at His right hand stands one who is the Savior and who said “What is that to thee, follow thou me?”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olwr9FdJUjI&list=LPs5xMxy0fHDE Spend 18 minutes watching this It is by a Jewish Rabbi speaking to a group of Persian Jews. VERY helpful to anyone of any faith. Don

SUGGESTION

Just saw Les Miserables - IT IS JUST WONDERFUL - YOU MUST SEE IT. IT IS THE STORY OF FORGIVENESS AND RESTORATION. PLEASE GO. DON

Update - As some may you may know, I have been mulling over, for a long time, the idea of writing a book on apologetics. I have finally begun I think in earnest. I have been struggling to find the right structure which I have, I think, found. The book will be aimed at two kinds of related audiences: 1) Thoughtful skeptics and 2) People who would have once considered themselves to be Christians and who have either drifted away or who have made a decision that they no longer think it is true. It will hopefully be easier to read than "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. I know a lot of people who just can't follow Lewis. I will try to avoid the use of theological words but still deal with theological ideas. If all goes well, I may be done in a month of so but more likely will take six months. I am not going to argue from 'experience' or from the conclusion that the Bible is divinely inspired and that we are therefore obligated to believe it but from the 'facts' of history. Is the report in the Gospels of the life of Christ essentially good history? Christianity stands or falls on the answer to this question. Pray for me as I am very serious about this project. My plea is to follow the evidence. I will self publish and probably put it on the Kindle for free or for very little. I am more interested in finding readers than I am in the possible money. We are doing fine. Have had a great summer with really wonderful weather. Lots of folks over along with our kids and grand kids including two mama dogs and eight puppies. Have been able to sit out on my ramp in the nice warm sun a lot. Am now reading a long bio on Lynden Johnson. Also intend to look into a recommended book called "Bad Religion". I hope you will recover from the shock of actually finding a new post on my blog site. I don't write more because I have nothing unusual to report. Someone has said that nothing is news worthy except the unusual. True? Don

Delayed Hawaii trip report - Everything went well. Went with my wife, my caregiver, Our daughter and her two kids. The kids loved snorkeling, and swimming every day. I sat by and completely enjoyed the time watching the kids, sitting beside the ocean, reading and watching the waves. Thing going along here as normal with nothing special to report. Don

TRIP

WE ARE OFF TO HAWAII FOR A WEEK WITH OUR ELDEST DAUGHTER AND HER TWO KIDS ALONG WITH MY CARE GIVER. WE THINK WE HAVE TRANSPORTATION WORKED OUT BUT WE WON'T KNOW HOW EVERYTHING WILL GO TIL WEE GET THERE.
NO OTHER NEWS EXCEPT THAT OUR ELDEST GRAND DAUGHTER IS GETTING MARRIED NEXT OCT IN NEW YORK. WE HOPE TO GO.
DON

recession???????

It is obvious that some people are experiencing financial problems but we reject the idea
that our country has financial problems. We will believe that our country has serious
financial problems when:

1) Millions of folks quit buying $40,000 cars and men quit paying $80,000 for over sized trucks
2) The parking lots of gambling casinos are not full 24 hours a day.
3) When we no longer can afford to pay athletes, entertainers and movie stars millions of dollars a year.
4) We quit spending fifty billion dollars a year on the luxury of pop, booze, coffee and other drinks when water is
the only liquid humans need. (We are the only creature on earth that drinks any thing beside water)
5) When people quit paying $500,000 for a place to live.
6) When we can no longer afford expensive boats, cruse trips, tourist traveling, secondary condo homes.
7) When we realize that half the stuff we buy at grocery stores is not nourishing and stop buying it.
8) When we quit buying stuff at stores like Kmart that we don't need.
9) When we begin to encourage retired people to continuing using their skills to benefit mankind instead of just entertaining themselves.
10) When we quit spending billions of dollars on political campaigns.
11) When we quit paying for the printing and delivering of tons of daily junk mail to every home in America.
12) When we quit paying thousands of folks to do telephone sales which is VERY annoying.
13) When we figure how to settle our disputes with each other with out the assistance of tens of thousands of lawyers making $200,000 a year. (Count the number of lawyers in the local phone book)
14) When we demand that the advertising business informs people about products rather that spending fortunes on graphics.
15) When millions of women quit expecting to wear expensive rings and jewelry.
17) When most junior high kids quit owning $200 phones in their pickets.
Fancy cloths, perfume, $10,00 movie tickets, millions of folks on netflix @ $18.00/month Etc, Etc,Etc, Etc. Etc.
===================

Are you as annoyed as I am with:
Telephone sales wanting to lower credit card interest rates.
Junk Mail
Things in plastic packaging that is next to impossible to open without bolt cutters or carving knives



Your comment,


Don

Frankenstien

Just finished the book. Remarkable. It is a story of what may happen to a person who is deformed and therefore is unloved. They can become resentful and angry and want revenge. It caused me to try to be more loving to the 'unloveable'.
We are doing o.k.
Snowed a bit last night so the view out my window is better than the bleak winter scene.

Looking forward to our trip to Hawaii in April. Taking my caregiver with us. I would find it very difficult without him.

Drop me a note - holmesdb@gmail.com

still here

Hi -

WE are about the same. Feeling good and enjoying life. See lots of our kids and grand kids. Will all be together at Christmas as our middle grand daughter Kelli, is getting
married on the 18th here in Bellingham. Went out for dinner for our 52nd. The best time in our marriage is now. We are pretty much together 24/7 and mostly at home. Barb reads a lot especially now that she can't get out to her huge flower garden.
I am enjoying college football and reading on my Kindle.

Reading "Killing Lincoln' by O'Riely and an historian friend of his. On best seller list for many weeks. Just reread "the Mayor of Casterbridge" by Hardy. Like the way he has with words. It is interesting to watch the best seller list on "amazon.com'. What a mixed bag of quality writing and junk.

A note about the housing 'crises' There is no crisis. You would think the term means that there are not enough houses. There is a problem for some but 'one persons loss is another persons gain. The houses are not going to sit empty. The banks or whoever owns the houses will simply lower the price to the point that someone will buy it. It will simple be a change of ownership which is not a national crisis though it is a hardship for some who should have never been approved for a loan in the first place. Terrible how the media likes to blow things up. Am I wrong?

We are for Newt. We know about his 'baggage' but he has joined the catholic church and it is reasonable to assume that he has gone through some process of confession and received forgiveness. Any how he is is by far and away the smartest candidate and he knows how Washington works.

We are going to have an adventure this summer - Suzanne and her two kids, Barb, my care giver, and I are going to Hawaii this April for a week. Will be my first big outing since I went back to Nebraska a few summers ago. This Christmas will be the 5th anniversary of my accident. Times flies. The older we get the faster it goes. According to a form I filled out on the computer about, age, habits, etc. I am supposed to live until I am 95 and so is Barb. I don't know if this is good or bad. 17 more years - I can't imagine it.

Our dreary winter weather has begun and has already caused me to long for spring.

Still trying to get serious about writing a book on apologetics for lay people. Would be a bit like 'Mere Christianity' by Lewis but not as complicated. I have a sermon in my head about suffering and am looking for a place to preach it. It has been rumbling around in my head for months if not years. Suffering is not data for thinking as much as it is an opportunity to trust. 'I will never leave you or forsake you" That is the bottom line on the question of suffering.

Would be happy for hear from you so I know that someone actually reads my blogs.
Just click on 'comments' at the bottom of this note.

Best Wishes,
Don

note

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK1v0L7djrQ

Very interesting from a Russian Priest

It is more difficult to love than it is to endure suffering.

Doing fine after 5 weeks in bed getting over some pressure shores.

Best to you,
don

thought for the day

Whatever failures I have known Whatever errors I have committed , whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life have been the consequences of action without thought.

Bernard Barach


I am being interviewed for a job tomorrow - more later.

Don

Thought for the day

One of the most telling indications of sanctity is a persons ability always to see himself in the sins of others.
Antony Padonovo "Free to Be Faithful"

Hi

Beautiful weather today-sitting outside reading
Just got a new used Mac computer - HIGHLY recommend the Mac
No special plans
We are doing well -

Watch for quote of the day coming soon on this blog.
Don

not dead - still reflecting-

Reasons that make it difficult to pray:

1. It seems silly to give God advice.
2) It seems silly to give Him information. "Dear Lord, bless Sally who broke her leg"
3) IT seem odd to praise God for being what he can't help being, like praising a parent for loving their child.
4) We can never be sure there is a connection between our prayer and what happens.
5) It is difficult to speak to a Being we can't see and who does not talk back. I know there are folks who claim that God talks to them but I think this is figure of speech.

So why to we pray? For the simple reason that our Lord commands us to - that ought to be enough.

Doing o.k.
Don

why don likes his kindle

Why ereaders like the “Kindle” from Amazon and the “Nook” from Barnes and Noble may replace traditional books. (“ebooks” are books that can be read on a hand held reading device and an “ereader” is the device itself. There dozens on the market with the Kindle and the Book are currently the leaders)

1)  One ereader, at the present time, can hold 3500 books  - they are about the size of a  paper back, weigh less and are about three eights of inch thick.

2)  Cost of books on ereaders:
     a)  There are about 2,000,000 books available for free
     b)  There are about  800,000 books available that sell for between a $1.00 and $15.00-  most best sellers are $9.99(the cost for a ereader is now $139.00 - the original price a few years ago was about $400)

3) Ebooks are available in 8 print sizes at the press of a button. 
From 8 point to 72 point

4) Most ebooks are available in print size as large or larger than most other large print books.

5) Amazon has stated that their goal is to have every book that has ever been printed in any language available on ereaders within two years.

5) Ebooks will never go out of print.

6) Ereaders keep track of where you were when you last stopped reading - no more book marks or lost places.  You may be reading many books at the same time and the ereader will keep track of where you were in each book when you stopped reading.

7) Batteries can last up to thirty days and can be recharged over night. (can keep reading while they charge)

8) You can search for a word or a phrase in all the books, or a specific book, on your ebook reader.  It will list on the screen each book that has the word or the phrase and the number of times the word or phrase appears in each book.  You can then click on a certain book and it will list all the sentences  the word or phrase appears in. Click again and you will be at the appropriate page.

9)  You can underline right on the ereader screen and then search for all the underlined sentences.

10) You can make your own notes to remain on your ereader..

11) Pages turn at the press of a button,  faster than turning pages manually.

12) Only one hand is needed for reading thus freeing up the other hand to eat, feed the baby, etc.

13) Ereaders are wonderful for folks with arthritis with fingers that do not work well.

14) About 25 categories of book listed by best selling.

15) Moving the on screen cursor over a word automatically shows the definition at the top or bottom of the screen.

16)  Books can be loaded into the ereader in about 15 seconds. (The entire Bible, The
complete works of Shakespear , etc. in less than 30 seconds)
17) You can looks up books by title or author

18) No trips to the library to pick up and drop off books - no overdue books.

19) Ereaders are handy and quick to use.  You can even read a bit while waiting in line at the Post Office.

20) 169 newspapers, 90 magazines and Journals are instantly available from around the
world.

21) You can read the first chapter of most books on the ereader for free, then decide if you want to buy the book or not.

22) You can loan a book once to another person from your ereader to their ereader for two weeks at no additional charge.

23) You can register up to six people on the same account. If anyone of the six people order a book, it then become available to all six people at no additional charge.

Why authors like ebooks:

1) Authors receive about a 8% royalty of the selling price of a book published by
a publisher.

2) Authors receive 70% of a self published book on ereaders.    They would rather get
70% of a  $10.00 book rather than 8% of a $30.00 book (a difference of over $4.00 per book) Note: An known author has turned down an advance by a publisher of $500,000 recently because he thought he could make more money by self publishing on
an ereader.

3) Authors can set the price of their book rather than publishers.

4) Authors can add an appendix or a correction to a book on your ereader at any time - now or 10 years from now and do it in seconds automatically.

5) Authors can keep total control of their book (copy rights, etc)

6) Books will stay available even if sales start to slow.  Publishers now quit publishing books if their sales fall below a certain point so the author stops receiving royalty Payments.

7) Authors can have their book formatted for ereaders for about $200.  So anybody who
can make their book available to millions of people without spending a lot of money. 

8) When an author finishes writing a book, it can be made available to the reading public immediately, they don’t have to wait to find a publisher and then wait to get the book printed.

What does this mean for bookstores and libraries?

1)  Book stores, as we know them, may go out of business - Border books (501stores) has already declared bankruptcy., The Barnes and Noble chain has been up for sale for over a year.   Hundreds of small books store are already closed or declining. Other chains are closed: Daltons-750 stores, Crown 198-stores, Walden- 81 stores.

2) Libraries will disappear or change dramatically and maybe become a place to check out eraders.
   
Misc info.

1) Some schools have abandoned books and now supply or require ereaders for all their
students.

2) College students will no longer have to spend thousands of dollars on books as
ereaders will be drastically cheaper.

3) Students, of all ages, won't have to haul around book bags - just one ereader.

4) Millions of trees and tons of ink will be saved.

Answer to skeptics:
"I just like the feel of a book in my hands - not a mechanical device"

Maybe people don't know themselves very well.  It is difficult to find someone who felt that way before buying an ereader and did not change mind quickly after they began using it. Also, it would be difficult to find someone who has given up their ereader and gone back to reading traditional books?

What people really like is reading and we associate that pleasure with a book.  But the pleasure is in the reading not the method.

more speech to text

well here we go again. I'm going to try to do to do the new speech to text. So far it is working pretty well. I still can't get over it. To just talk to a microphone and have this words appear on the page is very strange but it is skews me. But it is very fast. Probably about twice as fast or three times as fast as a person can type. And it is very accurate. To show its accuracy I will not make any corrections to this after I am done and you can see for yourself how accurate it is.

We have been doing quite well lately apart from the fact that Barb had a very bad cold which is now just getting old skews be getting over, that was my mistake not the computer's.

Book club was great last week we discussed new book word new book club and we picked the lemon tree. It is a book about the relationship between a Palestinian family in a Jewish family after the seven days for. It puts a human face on the conflict in the Middle East and it shows that the things are a lot more complicated over there that a person might imagine.

I have been keeping up with the NCAA basketball tournament. I don't have a favorite team this year after Washington lost out yesterday to North Carolina.

I am delighted to find the sun showing a lot more lately it's moving north so the days are longer. I'm looking forward to getting that out doors this summer to sit on the ramp that my son-in-law made for me and read in the sun. I've had quite a few guests lately. Friends that I've known for years come by. I have about two or three friends who I can count on coming by regularly and that five or 10 friends who come by often on.

Our book club book last week was a book called wait till next year. It was a memoir of a girl who was raised in Brooklyn and follow the Brooklyn Dodgers and told the story of her life growing up in Brooklyn and being an avid baseball fans and how the whole city of Brooklyn and city of New York's were supporters of the baseball games. There were three of them the New York Giants the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers it was quite interesting because most of us remember living through those days in the late 40s and early 50s when television was just starting to come out.

Sullivan some of the new skews the. Some of the new news that I think were going to bear watching is this new book that's come out by Rob Bell called God wins he espouses universalism but it is a very Christo centric universalism. His thesis is that the God of love is not powerless to prevent an eternal hell. He has trouble imagining, as I do, billions of people suffering in hell tormented hell for ever and ever. I think the book is going to be probably somewhat divisive and that Eugene Peterson of Regent College has endorsed the book. The author is part of the emerging church and is himself had he himself has an evangelical background. He graduated from Wheaton College and Fuller seminary. His book just came out this week and its already high on bookseller lists. It will be in single watch what kind of activity that stirs up the Christian community.

We like you have been watching the news and Libya and Japan. My goodness what problems this world has but I guess it's nothing new with cars have problems.

I been feeling quite good lately. I've been using my sleep apnea machine which I breathe into every night and seems to be not quite so tired the next day. I've had for overnight stays where they tried to test me to get the setting right on the machine. It's not much fun to sleep away from home all night and in the wake and six o'clock in the morning and told to go home. Greg Misty Suzman, has gone with me at night along with Tim and my caregiver.

Our caregiver Aaron Brandt has been with us now for over three years and he is wonderful young man. We are going to miss him next fall when he starts nursing school. I'm a little bit concerned else will be able to find somebody quite as good he's been a good friend as well as a good worker.

If you're curious about this speech to text software it's called Dragon software and it costs about $50 plus you might have to spend about $20 to upgrade your storage in your computer. Would be happy to hear from any of you. And I will write you back a personal Gmail best wishes to all Don holds that's not holds that's Holmes that's better.

Now that I have finished I can say that I have made no corrections. Many of the mistakes were my mumbling while I was talking. I think you will get better the more I use it. I think it will get better the more I use it.