• Sam has PinkEye and an Ear Infection, and Tracey has strep in her thumb!? What? I'm sure I'll wake up tomorrow, sans weird dream! #
• Woke up to a fantastic Thunderstorm this morning, with dreams of Crawfish Boils and Pig Pickin's dancing through my head! #
• Four more days (if you don't count today) and I start my new job. I'm thinking about not counting tomorrow either! #
• Small herd of dear in the backyard, eight in total that I see: http://tweetphoto.com/12190848 they have been arriving daily. #
• That was not a misspelling, Tracey says, "If the are labeled DEAR you can't shoot them, while DEER are open season!" Backyard Dear! #
• The last "the" instead of "they" was indeed a misspelling – for what it is worth. #
• CHICAGO PEEPS!! I'll be in the Fox Valley all week next week! Don't act like I didn't tweet it and you didn't know the following week! #
• Looking to replace the Electric Stove with a nice Gas Range. Perhaps something like: http://bit.ly/9rk81x – any recommendations out there? #
• GDPicture documentation is driving me nutz. It looks like it does what I want, but then … it doesn't. #
• Gas company (PNSC) wants $600 to just run a new gas tap to the kitchen! I asked them, "You want me to use gas, right?" Apparently Not. #
• Tracey got a new (Electric) Range and a much quieter, more efficient, Dishwasher today! Pictures will follow, I'm sure … but we are happy! #
• Picture of the new, installed (thanks @jinksto) electric, convection range. http://moby.to/l9205m #
• Picture of the uber quiet, super steam, dish washing machine! Thanks again for the help @jinksto http://moby.to/gddzc7 #
• The entire, updated kitchen; which cooked and cleaned a great friedsteak/mashedpotato/gravey/corn dinner tonight! http://moby.to/dsr478 #
• Well, @LookoutBLowe was going to come over for a cigar later tonight, needs to cancel. That means I don't have to wait? Finding Matches… #
• Penn Gillette gets a Gift of a Bible – http://bit.ly/d1UE7l — how did I miss this and no one pointed it out before? #
• David Keen just called and invited me to lunch, this brightens my day considerably! That dude is so cool, I just like to hang out w/him! #
• Fantastic time with David Keen, that dude is so kool! He gets married in 1.5 weeks too! Whoot! #
• Dear ME. your Juror Number is 051. Please report to the (…) assembly room on 04/26/10 at 8:30am. [Need a good anti-gvmt shirt to wear.] #
• Fantastic time tonight with our friends from The Exodus Church, great review of @LookoutBLowe latest teaching and the best of fellowship! #
• Packing up the kids and taking 'em to school this morning, letting my bride sleep in; I'll take Ethan to breakfast. Might meet @Jinksto ! #
• There are few things that fill me with rage, I met one of them this morning. Leaders like this, Jude1:4 claiming and maligning Christ. #
• He asked, "Seriously? You would say that to me!?" I responded, "If I don't, then who will?" #
• Cheesecake! I'm just saying. That is all. #
• I will, yes, definitely. I'm going to do it. No one is here. Why not? Good tunes, fun labor, and a cup of hot coffee. TIme for a cigar! #
• Friday morning, 0730 hours, preparing for an epic day. Coffee, Proverbs, & some Franz Joseph Haydn. This is going to be good. #
• Admiral Ackbar Poised for Ole Miss Glory : http://bit.ly/bm39LB #
• Whistleblower Site Back After Microsoft Withdraws Complaint http://bit.ly/9nu0QG #
• Gmail Features Graduate From Labs to Big Leagues http://bit.ly/ajB8vY #
• Hands-On: Overhauled StarCraft II Welcomes Strategy Noobs http://bit.ly/aymHiY #
• Immaculate Conception? Why Ladies-Only Species Don’t Need Men: http://bit.ly/chx3XX #
• It’s Official: Google Can Sell Power Like a Utility http://bit.ly/c6XzxC #
• How Can I Ditch Cable and Watch My TV Shows and Movies Online? http://bit.ly/dDzynp #
• Rednecks Rejoice! How to Cook Something in the Dishwasher [DIY Week] http://bit.ly/b8cW9Z #
• Comical http://bit.ly/biFAvN #
• The Problem with Passwords – http://bit.ly/cZhkPO #
• Last IAM Team Meeting on this job. Gonna miss these guys, a lot. I'm not going to miss evangelizing this to dev teams. Thick Headed Devs!! #
• Boss just said,"Unfortunately, we can only get two slots to replace Bubba. We simply won't deliver as much this year." That was nice. #
• Just logged off the job's network for the last time. It was a surprisingly emotional moment. #
• Whoot! Leah Ammons is having a boy!!! Yeeeaaaaaahhhhaaaaaa! Congratulations on the good news! #
• RT @daveammons: We're having a son #
• RT @jszobody: My 12 year-old brother: http://bit.ly/9ETY0A What's more awesome, the hair or the painting? #
• Campfire prepared for tonight! I will be cold but fun, so wear yer winter coat! We gonna have a good time tonight! #
• Time to light the fire, who brought cigars! I love you! #
• Great night around the campfire! We finally got cold and moved inside, but it was awesome time of a visiting and story telling! #
• RT @JohnPiper: Liberalism: Make the Gospel acceptable to the world rather than showing the world it is unintelligible without the Gospel. SH #
• My son Collin lost his first tooth! Epic adventure in the household! http://moby.to/rww3ik #
• It is apparently required by the 6yo that we share a photo of the actual tooth: http://moby.to/fa53h0 #

A few weeks back, someone made a comment a comment about desiring to see some pictures of Tracey and I back in the day. It turns out that only a few days later, yet another person made the same comment, and then another. I’m sure that there is some sort of internet conspiracy thing going on.

However, today my mother-in-law showed up for a visit, and brought with her a number of just those photos. As we sat around the table, it dawned on me that this was precisely the sort of stuff those people had been asking for, and I do have this cool scanner sitting here, so why not go ahead and throw some up on the web?

First, here is a picture of Tracey and I. One year after our marriage we returned from Scotland to have a proper church wedding with all the fixings. Ages 21 and 19 respectively.

Just one year earlier, the following photo was taken, we were 19 and 20 respectively, newly wed, and on our way to Scotland, there is also a picture of me at the same time.

Tracey and Bethany, not quite sure of ages here, followed by Beth and Samantha (throwing things in the water), followed by a shot of all four of us!

A few short years later (1997) we celebrated Samantha’s birthday in our Pensacola Home.

That’s it for today, I hope that sates the appetites of those who were curious!

• My Favorite #EVE wallpaper: http://bit.ly/dv1NZX #tweetfleet #
• Listening to the kids laugh and play provides a valentine that is priceless. Thank you Tracey, for 18 years of wonderful, joy filled, life. #
• Bethany is running a fever this morning, she will be home from school today. I'm still not feeling the greatest. Coffee is needed. #
• Bethany is officially has Strep Throat! All kids are scheduled to go see the Dr in the next 24 hrs. Sister/Brother in law+3 kids arve tonght #
• Listening to @LookoutBLowe on Biblical Marriage … http://bit.ly/b4Z2PB — good stuff this! Pairs well with a cigar and coffee Dudes! #
• RT @jszobody: Just released Talker.php, a real-time PHP chat client for @talkerapp! http://bit.ly/aAdsef // Whoot, this is good stuff!!! #
• Five years of play, finally get my own officer spawn, lock the wreck, instead of Tractor Beam, I click Artillary. #noob #tweetfleet #eve #
• Some 16 years ago I was learning how diapers work, today I'm learning how 16 year olds work. #
• My nephew wouldn't go in the room because, "There is a big man in there!" I was concerned, then realized he was referring to me! #
• This was a fun kill, and the loot was awesome! http://bit.ly/aHn4c5 #eve #tweetfleet #
• "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."– Henry Ford #
• 5,085 members strong, 105 Sovereign Systems, 52 Outposts, across 15 Corporations paying bills. Believe -IT- happened. http://bit.ly/8HaAt2 #
• I have a six year old son this morning! Happy Birthday Collin – may you grow into a man of integrity and character! Whoot! #
• Boss just said, "I had a different impression of 'stoning to death' until Mel Gibson made a film confirming the more gruesome way out". #
• Followed by, "You do realize you're having a healthy debate with someone whose religion is 'Practicing Antagonist' right ?" #
• Some days, I think I would be much happier with fewer "Practicing Antagonists" in my life. Probably not, but it seems so desirable today. #
• RT @Jinksto: Please Consider, in which a reasoned article decays into a rant. http://jinksto.com/blog/?p=1271 #
• Lighting up an Excalibur this morning to compliment the coffee and committee meetings. Conf Call, Conf Call, Conf Call. DefCon 4! Conf Call. #
• I created a visio diagram of the IAM Infrastructure communication today; should have just taken a picture of a bowl of spaghetti – more apt. #
• Dave&Busters, 9-Ball, 8-Ball, Lunch, Bass Pro Shop! Great day w/best friend, bro-in-law, & potential son-in-law. I love my life in NC! #
• At the coffee shop & we are educating the potential son-in-law on the finer points of fine java. Let me remember days like this as I age. #
• Datenight w/Tracey, her sister Amy, and birthday boy brother in law at Red Lobster tonight. I'm thinking this day aged well. Cigar awaits! #
• If I could work from home, and call home anywhere on the face of this earth, I would live and work in North Carolina! What a gorgeous day! #
• 21 individuals under the age of 18 in the house, many of which are, or were, orphans! I love this stuff, how many more can we fit? #
• The troops are mobilized, the plan of attack has been drawn up, we are at heightened awareness and readiness, let's move out! Big Family FTW #
• Had fun serving a Lowell family this morning, sore muscles too! Time for lunch I think. #
• Met a young man (Steve) and his dad (Jack). They are going to be over for supper tonight. Steve asked if he could attend church with us. #
• Tommy is starting up the fire. Got a massive Cast Iron Vat. Gumbo over an open fire for dinner tonight! This life is the good life! #
• My bride is out helping friends this afternoon. The kids are taking a nap. I'm thinking it might be a good time for a cigar and a book. #
• Crew is packed up and headed to @Jinksto , we are rolling four deep in redneck mobiles! Whooot … Lookout, here we come! #
• We got the fire going and the gumbo cookin! Yard full of kids, open fire, good food. Wish you were here! http://twitpic.com/14e7ub #
• We got us a bonifide guitar picker out here tonight at the fire! That boy sure can play! http://twitpic.com/14efu4 #
• Great evening eating gumbo, sitting round the fire, sharing stories, and loving life. Welcome spring, stay awhile! http://twitpic.com/14fyaf #
• A pint of Guiness, some rib sticking pub food, and good fellowship after church. I mention loving it here lately? #
• Corey, "I coughed up a piece of gumbo from last night." Beth, "Eww!" Corey, "It was just as tasty the second time!" The entire van gags abit #

• Cup of Coffee; Good Cigar; Tabernacle Part 2 (http://bit.ly/60qkRC) Looking forward to some @LookoutBLowe preaching. #
• RT @daveammons: Roger Daltrey pulled off the scream of We Won't Get Fooled Again and didn't loose his teeth. I was impressed. #
• Looking for a demonoid.com invitation code, direct message me if you can spare one please! #
• I looked all the places you aren't, I just can't find the place that you are. – Winnie the Pooh #
• Officials from Poughkeepsie criticized Bank after hackers broke into an account, stole $378K & xfrd it to the Ukraine. http://bit.ly/b4DEW8 #
• Yes, yes indeed, I do, I very much do: http://bit.ly/daIGxa #
• Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.—Saint Augustine #
• Wishing I had a non-bank laptop to work on. The things they have done to this machine. Just wrong I tell you! wscript.exe must die! #
• Religion pure & undefiled before God: to visit orphans & widows in their affliction, & to keep oneself unstained from the world. -James 1:27 #
• Who Is Paying Taxes? http://bit.ly/9OV8T7 reminds me of How Beer Drinkers Might View Tax Cuts http://bit.ly/9IMwm3 #
• Muppets Treasure Island with the Kids! WHoooot! Shiver me timbers mate! #
• Free #Krugle Basic http://bit.ly/cR8qFj – that is awesome! Same as Enterprise with less connectors and capacity. Great for a small shop! #
• Downloading #Krugle Basic now, whoot! I'm excited, I loves me some Krugle! #
• It is now public knowledge that I am resigning from Bank of America & taking a new position with Signature Tech Studio http://bit.ly/9IfEmG #
• Expect a blog post in the coming weeks that details my decision making process in this job change. #
• Nope, I will not be moving to Chicago again. I will continue to live and work from home in Lowell, NC. WIll visit CHI a bit more often!! #
• Wonderful start to a beautiful day with 100% chance of awesomeness, excellence, and a dash of joy! All synonyms for Tracey Hines too! #
• Configuring EyeBeam! Anyone have some hints/tricks to share, please let me know. #
• Day old red beans and rice for lunch! The only way this gets better is if I let it age one more day .. gonna do that too!!!! #
• Steak'n Shake'n with Tracey and the kids. I told you this was going to be a fantastic day! http://twitpic.com/12nrob #
• This day is going to be better than the last! I got older redbeans and rice, I got a cigar to fire up, and a cup of jo. Look out world! #
• RT @mogrinz: Anyone who thinks people and dinosaurs didn't live at the same time should stop by where I work. #
• Tracey says, "Yer the best." I don't want to argue, so I respond, "Yer the second best!" Turns out, that DOES NOT avoid an argument. #
• RT @BlissSpillar: When you step into what God wants you to do… people WILL call you ridiculous. -@jeffkapusta #
• No campfire tonight, looks like we are going to get snowed in tonight. WHoot! Gonna miss all of ya'll though. #
• Corey, Tyler, Nicole, and Beth are having a big snowball fight outside while Scott and his boys head home. #
• A nice quite evening snowed in! Some games, books, and comfortable conversation beside the fireplace …. the eleven of us. #
• A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. #
• The difference between a genius and a fool is that being a genius has its limits …. #
• Beautiful morning of snow. Left our windows open last night, and woke up to a snuggly 49F in the bedroom. I loves it! #
• RT @JohnPiper: Don't marry so you can stop pursuing women. Marry so you can perfect the pursuit of 1 woman for a lifetime http://ow.ly/16kX7 #
• I'm feeling sick, Tracey said I have a fever … eyes feel all dried out. This is not fun, not fun at all I say! #

Scalable Web Architecture, Processes, and Organizations for the Modern Enterprise

I recently received my copy of the book, and the kids think it is utterly awesome to find my name on the copyright page as a Technical Reviewer. For what it is worth, I think it is pretty cool tool!

I spent a lot of my free time last summer reviewing the roughly 550 page draft on a chapter by chapter basis, and ultimately I feel like I helped Mr. Abbot and Fisher deliver a relatively solid treaty on the subject matter. I would suggest that the title is quite apropos  in that they focus the majority of their effort on the less technical side of Scalability, and if you are looking for a book that delves deep into the technical aspects of scaling, this likely isn’t what you are looking for. Where they do speak to the technical, it is primarily about scaling Web and takes a bit of translating to non-web based architecture.

Additionally, if you have ever worked at a large organization, measured in the realm of hundreds of thousands of employees, then you likely already have a firm grasp of many of the tenets  proposed herein; though you may find some new manner of thinking about them. As the subtitle clearly articulate, the book is about Organizations, Processes, and Architecture; thus two of the three main topics are specifically non-technical. Engineers and Architects should not be surprised when they pick up the book and discover this.

The book follows a logical pattern by first addressing scalable organizations, then addressing scalable processes, and finally discussing how one goes about scalable architecture. This seems very reasonable to me in that if you do not have the right people (organizations) focused on the right things (processes) then you will not be designing the correct architecture, rather you will be designing an architecture that address (perhaps) less scalable processes due to those processes being defined by an organization that doesn’t approach the defining scalable processes with intentionality. Which means that if they happen to get it right, then all is good; but they are more likely to get it wrong.

Many people use the terms Scale and Perform interchangeably, and these two fellows do a fantastic job of explaining why that is incorrect and precisely how so; many others believe that if their design has proven to scale from 1 to 10 to 100 to 1000 then it stands to reason that it would continue scaling, which is again a fallacy that too many startups fall into. If you have never designed, engineered, nor managed said activities for an extremely scalable system then this book is a great introduction to what that might successfully look like. If you have experience with building scalable solutions, it is still a good read and can help define and challenge some of your currently thought processes, I definitely suggest buying it and giving a copy to your project manager and leadership team!

To be clear, I don’t get any sort of royalty for you buying the book; and I reckon that the majority of my technical brethren can live without having read it. However, I’ve met a large number of people, typically small shop vendors attempting to sell a product to my large global organization, who could have really benefited from reading this prior to designing the product they were having. The number one reason large organizations do not invest in your company and product? You simply do not scale and you lack an understanding of what we are talking about when we necessarily broach the subject.

As many of you are aware, we don’t have any sort of Cable, Satellite, or Public Broadcast Television in the house. We do have an XBox 360, hooked up to an Epson MovieMate 50 Projector, pointed at a wall in the living room, which gives us about a ten foot wide viewing high definition surface to play video games on, watch DVD’s, and even stream shows from Netflix, my desktop Media Center, and other Microsoft affiliates. We also make great use of HULU and EZTV; and typically watch those shows on individual laptops or as a family around my 32” monitor in the office.

We love the projector which we have had for about two years now, and every time we go into Best Buy and see all those TV’s they have for sale at price points above $600 and significantly smaller viewing surfaces, we just sort of giggle. On top of the relatively inexpensive nature of the investment, we can also pick it up, take it into the back yard, and watch an outdoor movie on the backside of the house at night; or take it to the park, over to another friends house, etc. Tommy and Jodi have the same sort of deal, and went so far as to create an outdoor screen from a King Size bed sheet that can be hung between two trees in the yard, and we often take the kids over to BBQ, play outside, and watch a movie from their patio. All told, fantastic value for the price … in our opinions.

About once every two years, we do have to change the bulb, and that runs about $120, so we do not want to ignore the ongoing operational cost, but we still feel it is a great investment. We also appreciate that our main family room is not set up around a television, and it is certainly fun to have new people over to visit. They tend to look around for it, and then comment on the fact that they don’t see a television in our house – which provides a fun opportunity to turn on the system, transform a wall into a television, and play some Lego Indiana Jones! This especially fun with smaller children, who will continually walk up to the wall, then to the room behind the wall, in an effort to discover how the magic works; and did I mention the shadow puppet shows; kids love playing with shadows!

David Ammons suggested that a group from our community get together to watch the Super Bowl at our place, and he brought over a laptop with an HD tuner that could pick up the game to demonstrate how we could do it. Turns out that this was also the week that the projector began asking for a new bulb, and Tracey went ahead and ordered it so that we wouldn’t end up in some embarrassing situation with a group of people at the house watching the game and the bulb suddenly goes out! Friday afternoon, I changed the bulb and took the opportunity to clean up some of the cable connections, the sound system, and gamming connections. As I finished testing the system to ensure that we are good to go for having people over on Sunday, Tracey remarked that it would be very nice to be able to stream HULU and watch our shows on the big screen, rather than crowded around my desk.

If you grew up in the south, you know better than to mess with Mamma’s Stories! I decided to look into satisfying my wife’s whim. Amazingly, it only took a single Google Search to find PlayOn. To enjoy PlayOn, you need a networked PC, and a Wii^{In BETA}, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Moxi HD DVR, Netgear Digital Entertainer Live, or another supported device. PlayOn also enables you to stream your personal videos, photos and music from your PC to your Home Entertainment Center. It takes less than 3 minutes to set up! So, in less than five minutes of my wife commenting that she would like to watch Bones or Castle on the big screen, I was back downstairs and we were watching Bones!

Turns out PlayOn lets us do so much more than simply HULU, we can watch Netflix (we already could), CBS.com, ESPN.com, our media from Amazon VOD, and YouTube! Additionally with PlayOn Plugins you can get free access to The Food Network, The Weather Channel, and much much more. The library just keeps growing. Be sure to check out their free plugins. We are three days into the free 14-day trial, and I expect that we will be investing the $39.99 to pay for it at the end of the trial.

Ultimately, we didn’t have any embarrassing situations while watching the big game yesterday and we discovered a way to move Mamma’s Stories from the office to the living room, and with a family of eleven …. the living room tends to be a bit less crowded and infinitely more comfortable.

• Good Morning World! It's a beautiful day, in a beautiful state, and I got me one beautiful wife and family! SuperNorthFragalCarolinastic!! #
• Fun w/Google Talk Chatback links and email signatures today! #
• I am beginning to like #Thunderbird. It has taken a few weeks of use to get over the hump, but now I'm into the "it is fun" mode. #
• In the face of suffocating religion & moralism, offend boldly and celebrate liberty of faith for the sake of the gospel http://bit.ly/c1EdVc #
• RT @LookoutBLowe: RT @JimBelcher: Christopher Hitchens gets it exactly right. http://bit.ly/dtimEZ // that is utterly awesome and amazing! #
• Rolling through the mall with my posse! Oh yea, I suppose we qualify for village, but posse sounds so much mor hip! #
• Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Iced Tea. If you don't know, I can't explain it to you. If you do know, celebrate with me! #
• Tracey just said, "Honey, you have mashed potatoes and gravy in your beard." I thought she was flirting; I was wrong. #
• Gaston County apparently still has dangerous road conditions (in the hills?) so Public School is yet again canceled. Kids are doing a dance #
• Congrats to my bride on her new status as a Pampered Chef Consultant! Whoot! Cookware rocks! Technically, stoneware, but we ain't techy! #
• Those who desire to succeed will search for a way, those who do not will search for an excuse. #
• Show me your data (structure) and I'll derive the rest. #
• Mexican lunch w/@jinksto, stop by the sherriff's office for his weapon permit, & on to the coffee shop! It is a good day! #
• Listening to Gartner wax philosophical on The Emerging Identity Architecture. #
• Facebook rewrites PHP runtime http://bit.ly/bLjmpR #
• Facebook Rewrites PHP Runtime With HipHop http://bit.ly/awObUY #
• HipHop for PHP: Move FastShare by Haiping Zhao (notes) Today at 12:41pm http://bit.ly/8Xmzum #
• Time to do the Taxes! Tracey and I are off to see the Tax Consultant and finalize our paperwork! I look forward to being done with it! #
• Met a young man at the tax collector who is interested in the faith, Tracey and I invited him to dinner one night. People amaze me. #
• RT @Snozbody Making a good confession in a post-modern world http://bit.ly/9TT91Q #
• Look Forward to This @AdvanceTC event: Pastors and leaders from 10 states this Thursday. Not 2 late 2 register: http://bit.ly/4tAQ8u #
• To scars. Those we have already earned; and those that are yet to come. #
• rob@bankofamerica.com is now rob@baml.com – I feel so Flintstonish. BAML! BAML! BAML! #
• #EVE Goonswarm has 22 members, 2 corps, and 2 Systems. (http://bit.ly/9UjYcF) What? They just quit playing? #tweetfleet #
• Ordered me a side of DSL to go with my CABLE access. Too many afternoons of not enough bandwidth. I need more ISP options!!! #
• #EVE in other news, -IT- is now the single largest Alliance in EVE (my member count) http://bit.ly/dnqHON #tweetfleet #
• Gonna be a great day! Headed off to http://bit.ly/csM7m5 with some DUDES from Exodus! #
• Boswell kicking it off at #advancetc – Whoooot! http://twitpic.com/11cibt #
• Our ecclessiology is our true theology. -Boswell #advancetc #
• Calling our people to a God centered liturgy is vital to us! -Boswell #advancetc #
• Entitlement is proof we don't really belive righteousness has been imputed to us. -Boswell #advancetc #
• Our ecclessiology is our living doctrinal statement. -Boswell #advancetc #
• Ahead of schedule, that's the difference between a worship pastor and a lead pastor! #advancetc #
• Some days, like today, it hits me and I just really miss my dad. #
• I sneezed! Now where's the people? #advanceTC #
• Tyler on deck to rip it up! Looking forward to what he has to say. Belt buckle strapped! #advancetc #
• Your strengths and your weaknesses will be photocoppied into those that you lead. People imitate us and do what we do. #advancetc #
• Yer first 200 sermons are going to be … Stinky? #advancetc #
• A quick survey of my surroundings indicates that the vast majority of attendees own Apple products. #advancetc #
• I'm back home! Fantastic day at #advanceTC … and I got to stop by JR Cigars on the way home too! I love hanging out with the DUDES!! #
• Just re-filled the humidor with Excalibur Maduro (Lonsdale) … I'm so excited, but not to smoke one tonight. Tomorrow morning!!! #
• 49 Outposts, 90 System – Fountain & Delve are ours.(http://bit.ly/8HaAt2) Look at all that blue (http://bit.ly/7AXZm6) #tweetfleet #eve #
• New facebook Interface is aggravating. I dislike the sudden change, with no warning, and it slows me down. Someone point out the retro link #
• Church planting: Invigorating, satisfying and a load of fun … right? http://bit.ly/c80s9o #
• Blizzard headed toward mid-Atlantic region http://bit.ly/c8T9H1 – Do I need to go to the store? #
• Looking forward to folks coming over tonight. I been missing y'all with the travel and stuff. Will be great to sit and chat with friends! #
• Collin was throwing up last night. Tracey kept him home from school today. He doesn't appear sick to me. #
• Expense Reports, I just can't ever get excited about the paperwork associated with the trave. #
• 10.7M download and 334M upload speeds … the RV02 is treating me right I think #
• Er KB not M … 10.7M down 334KB up #
• The rain didn't keep people in; we got a full house packed in here tonight – I love this. Wonder how many more can squeeze in? #
• Jacob is moving in with his dad, back in Gastonia and attending Ashbrook! Whooot. Just down the road from Scott. #
• Lifting, Toting, Hauling, Slogging through the mud! Man I hope breakfast is ready by now, I reckon this crew is hungry! #
• Breakfast is done, someone find my whip so I can crack it! Git back to work crew! #
• Wondering where one finds a bi-polar bear. #
• Gout attack! I hates the pain, someone fetch me a hacksaw! The foot has to go. #
• Time to install MS Visual Studio … just realized I didn't install at Christmas when rebuilding the machine. How have I lived!? #
• Samantha and I getting set for another fantastic morning with the Exodus Kids! http://twitpic.com/11wdfu #

Songs, fellowship, big dinners, sweet words, beautiful liturgies, the holiday season was upon us! What joy, what merriment, entire towns were dressed up to reflect the pervasive spirit of celebration. Hot chocolate, fresh baked cookies, warm fireplaces, warmer friendships, praise the Lord for our ability to celebrate Him so. In reflecting on our celebration, let us look at the gift of salvation and remember what made that celebration so sweet; and perhaps be encouraged to deliver the gift to others this year.

It seems simple enough to say, “Christ died for our sins” and there we have it, nutcracker done, shell removed, and on to enjoying the sweet meat. Yet I would submit that by doing this, we lose so much of the context that makes this gift wonderful beyond comparison. It is as though I walked up to you on the street and said, “Hey! Congratulations, Mr. Smith just paid your $15,000.00 speeding fine. You do not have to be concerned about that anymore.”

You are probably going to look at me funny and be offended that I would even suggest you had such a speeding fine, never mind the fact that I claim someone you do not know paid it for you. Yet, if I approached you on the street and said, “This morning, as you were driving to work, you passed a school for deaf and blind children. You were in such a rush to get to work on time, you must have missed the clearly posted speed limit signs, and ignored the speed bumps, you went through so fast. The policeman on duty at the crosswalk got your tag number and fined you with $15,000.00. But Mr. Smith heard about it and paid the fine for you!”

Now you are excited, you have the full context and the gift actually makes sense to you. As Christians we need to keep in mind the full context of God’s gift of salvation and present that gift to others in the full context. God created us (Revelations 4:11[RSH1] ). We sinned against God (Mark 7:20-22 [RSH2] & Romans 3:10-12[RSH3] ). God justly gives those who sin against Him exactly what they ask for, separation from Him (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9[RSH4] ). Jesus was born in the flesh (John 1:14). Jesus died for our sins (1 Peter 3:18 [RSH5] & 1 Peter 2:24[RSH6] ). We must place our faith only in Jesus Christ to be saved from our sins (John 3:36 [RSH7] & John 3:16[RSH8] ). There you have it, the gift of God in a nutshell and all the sweeter for it.

[RSH1]“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

[RSH2]²⁰And he said, ““What comes out of a person is what defiles him.” ²¹“For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,” ²²“coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.”

[RSH3]¹⁰as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹²All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

[RSH4]⁸in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. ⁹They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

[RSH5]¹⁸For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit

[RSH6]²⁴He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

[RSH7]³⁶Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

[RSH8]For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”