The power of the badge

I thought this joke was pretty good. :) It was taken from an email by the Patriot Post

The Power of a Badge

A Drug Enforcement Administration officer stops at a ranch in Texas and talks with an old rancher. He tells the rancher, "I'm here to inspect your ranch for marijuana."
The rancher points and says, "Okay, but don't go in that field over there."
"Mister," the DEA officer explodes, "I've got the authority of the federal government with me!" He produces his badge from his pocket and proudly displays it to the rancher. "See this? This badge means I'm allowed to go wherever I want -- no questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? You understand me, old man?"
The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.
A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the DEA officer running for his life chased by the rancher's gigantic Santa Gertrudis bull.
With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely that he'll get gored before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly terrified.
The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs: "Your badge. Show him your BADGE!"

Spring has sprung!

Hello brothers and sisters in Christ, I would like to begin using my blog as a platform for some accountability for growing in Godliness and combating the world's false ideologies. It is the first day of spring, a time for new growth.

First, a confession. I have become complacent and have not truly strove towards biblical fidelity in the ocean of ungodliness around me. If Godly growth is my aim and desire than I should have read the entire bible umpteen times as I am more than halfway into the first year of the second decade of my life. The truth is that for many years of my life, the bible has been put on the back shelf and largely ignored or forgotten.

As it says in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness," 


Reading this verse in the past, I became confused as to why Paul would say teaching and training in righteousness in the same sentence. Isn't training and teaching the same thing? So why mention them twice? But, the reason they are in the same sentence is simply because the teaching refers to the Bible and the Holy Spirit being the teacher. Not me! Now... the last piece in the puzzle finally makes it complete!

My trips to Grand Island twice a week has given me many more hours of driving time that I wouldn't otherwise have enjoyed. The blackberry that I have, offers the capability to listen to pretty much anything I want on the way. I have listened to presentations by the Botkins, John Piper, and Paul Washer, as well as catching up on the news with the Laura Ingrahm talk show. :)

It has given me extra time to commune with God and meditate on scripture. I thought I would be bemoaning the long trips halfway into the school semester but instead it is quite the opposite!

I mentioned accountability at the beginning of this post, so I would like to explain the road map ahead for this blog. I would like to start with bi-monthly posts that explain what God has taught me the last few weeks. These posts will include the following:

• Scripture I have committed to memory
• Lessons or insights God has taught me 
• Excellent quotations I have heard or read

I see a tremendous lack in these areas in my life and want to try this and see if it helps fill in those gaping holes. I am excited to see what the Lord will do.

I also want to say that it would be easy to post this and give the glory to myself. But, that wouldn't be right. All the glory goes to our Redeemer and Creator.

If you would like to participate, I give you my permission to yell at me if I haven't posted a report after more than two weeks time. Other unrelated posts will probably be scattered between these bi-monthly reports, but it is my goal to stick with that schedule until the end of this semester.

P.S. To you guys who are reading this, I would highly recommend listening to a couple excellent dissertations on biblical masculinity. These messages were presented by Paul Washer at a men's conference and really challenged me.

Biblical manhood part 1

Biblical manhood part 2

The sad death of anonymous comments...

Well, my blog was getting far too much comment spam from anonymous users. I had two choices, one, prevent anonymous users from commenting; or two, force everyone to type in a word verification. I elected for the former because I hold a strong disdain for those word verifications and don't want my blog viewers to suffer. :) hehe...

So, I am sorry, but you may no longer comment anonymously on my blog until further notice. Gone are the days when each anonymous comment was a fun guessing game. *crying* :(

Creation meditation

I was driving home this last Thursday, when the Lord showed me a biblical gem I hadn't ever gazed at yet. Have you had one of those moments recently? During my prayer, I was going through His story and giving glory for all the promises God had fulfilled.

I had just finished meditating on the fall in the garden when I realized an implication of the curses God pronounced on ALL of his creation he formally called "very good". After God made everything, and  before sin entered the world, every living creature lived in harmony with one another.

The Tillotson's recently finished going through Isaiah as a family. In this book is a glorious picture of what the creation was and will be.

"The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them."      Isaiah 11:6

But after the fall, God pronounced a curse that extended to all living creatures, not just men, women, and serpents. This is quite obvious when we watch films of lion predators stalking innocent antelope. But what is not quite as obvious is that God didn't leave the world to chaos after the fall. After the fall, an awareness was suddenly awakened in every creature that told him which creatures were now his tasty meals. This was not chaos, but a well ordered consequence of man's choice.

As I thought about this, it made we want to praise God even more for how even when we failed, He didn't set the earth spinning and leave it alone but instead sovereignly ordained the intricate details sin had now permitted. Isn't that neat! My face just beamed more and more just thinking about it!

Just a little social engineering :)

Social engineering is defined by this website as "Using various social skills (such as lying or conning) to attempt to get someone to hand over a password, access code or simply access to a computer."

Sound like fun! Well, for my information security course I was given a very interesting assignment. The goal of the assignment is to test the school's security policies. One of those policies protects grade report disclosure from any unauthorized individuals. Here is how it played out.

I drove to the Learning Center in Kearney, got out my phone and contacted my evening college advisor. Here is an unofficial transcript of our conversation.

Seth: Hello, is this student services in Kearney?

Lori: That depends on what you are looking for.

Seth: I am (my father) and would like to request a grade report for the fall 2009 semester for my son Seth.

Lori: You would have to call the registrar office in Grand                           Island.

Seth: What is their number?

Lori: (fumbles around) Okay, here it is.

Seth: And they will be able to provide this information?

Lori: Only if the student has signed a student records release form. You must call the registrar office and talk with them.

Seth: But, you just mentioned a form, what was that form                           again?

Lori: Oh, the student records release form.

Seth: Yes, so if I contact the registrar office, I will get the                           information?

Lori: The grade report?

Seth: Yes

Lori: No, the student still must sign the record release form.

Seth: Okay, thank you.

Lori: Yep

****End of call****

After this call, I waltzed into the Learning Center and announced to the poor, confused, advisor that she had performed her job well. hehe... At first, she was befuddled and didn’t understand why my father would have called her seconds before I came bursting into her office. 

She half expected my father to come right behind me in a fit of rage and even thought of sending an email to the registrar office in Grand Island informing them that a furious father would be contacting them soon. lol!

But, after reassuring her that everything was fine, we laughed heartedly together.


This weekend I drove to see my family near Lincoln and have been having a great time! Thursday night we surprised my dad with my presence and even had Dana and Joe come without him knowing. We celebrated his birthday with a special home made meal of dad's choice. 


The first course was Jello salad. The main course consisted of hash browns, barbecue chicken, and corn. For dessert, Dad chose home made chocolate ice cream. All was very scrumptious!


Today, I performed my usual computer maintenance checkups. I also went sledding with Kayla and played ball tag in the dark with Mom and Kayla. It was meant to be Kayla's 30 minute PE time for the day. That was fun! But poor mom, she had a difficult time keeping up with Kayla and myself. Kayla's 11th birthday is coming up really soon. My... is she growing up fast!


Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Dad and I have a men's bible study at Zion early, then we are moving a church family, and then after lunch I am going to climb the wall at the UNL Recreation center with Joe. Yay! :)


Well, that was my excitement for the week. These are the consequences when my teachers don't give me enough homework. Pretty brutal I know. 


I had better get some sleep tonight and stop blogging. haha... Goodnight! :)

A Valentines Post

Happy Valentines day everyone! And an interesting day it was. ;)

Valentines day is one to remember the ineffable love our Lord has shown to us. It is a day to remember the blessings God has done in the past and look forward to His plans for our future. Those of us that don't yet have a sleeping beauty, :) or prince charming :) can rejoice that God will bring them in His time. That is a threshold that should only be crossed once.  In the meantime let us strive towards purity and reflect on Romans 12:9-13.

Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Profit Scrutiny and the Gargantuan Deception

I just wanted to share an excerpt from an email I received today from The Patriot Post.

"Pop quiz: What billion-dollar multinational receives hundreds of millions in tax dollars even though it is enormously profitable?

If your thoughts turned to defense contractors, you would be right about the purpose -- killing -- but wrong about the recipient. The answer, in fact, is Planned Parenthood.

According to its most recent annual report, in fiscal 2008, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation's largest abortion provider, had annual revenue of more than $1 billion. Of this, about 34 percent was made up of government grants. In other words, almost $350 million of American taxpayer dollars supported the work of Planned Parenthood from October 2007 to September 2008.

And, according to tax records from the same time period, this 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization had a net income $85 million greater than its expenses. That looks suspiciously like a profit....

The enterprise of abortion in America is big business. It turns a profit, and for the American taxpayer, the bailout of a financial behemoth -- one engaged in an activity most Americans find troubling -- is obviously unnecessary. Even without pondering such moral questions as 'When does life begin?' and 'What is happening in a woman's body that abortion stops?' the fact that this billion-dollar industry needs no tax support should be enough to stop taxpayer handouts." --Jeanne Monahan of the Family Research Council

I, for one, had no idea Planned Parenthood was a "non-profit" organization. That is ridiculous!

The very name "Planned Parenthood" screams their agenda. It is not the parents anymore, it is a heavily government subsidized industry that decides which babies are "qualified" to possess life.

The phrases Planned Parenthood frequently spout revolve around providing an alternative for "unplanned" pregnancies. The very idea is absurd and I am astounded that many evangelicals today have bought this idea. Pregnancies are never unplanned except in the rare case of rape and incest. Without the physical union between male and female, procreation is impossible! It is always planned.

One could make the valid argument that en-vitro fertilization is another option; but I would argue that the massive expenditure would indicate even more planning is involved.

Obama himself made the argument that he doesn't want his daughters to be punished with a [GASP!] baby if they make a mistake. Yes, that is the person we have elected to lead this country.

"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Luke 23:34

We must pray for Obama and our other leaders that their hearts might be turned towards their creator and not towards His creation. God is still on his throne!

Planned Parenthood has slaughtered millions of babies using their lies being spread all across this country. Whatever you do, don't believe them!