New reads and listens

I finished Patrick O' Brien's Master and Commander a little while ago. Its a pretty good read, but understanding the immersive language of 18th century sea faring is a bit much. I may pick up the next one soon. Good thing I can get these at the library - there's about 20 books in the series.

Now I am trying to read a Bio on Bach - The Learned Musician. Its good, but its written by a Harvard professor of music, so his use of musical terms is varied. I mean, how many people know the difference between a motet and a cantata without having to look it up? I may not finish this one before I have to give it back. Its that slow of a read.

New CD finds:


I found this CD for 2 bucks! I had wanted to buy it new, but used for 2 bucks works well. I told it, "You're going home with me." Good CD!

I also bought a version of Bach's Mass in B Minor. Still need to figure a way to load it on the MP3 player and listen to it start to finish.

Steve Brown Quote

"Evangelical Christians debate about how we can be assured of salvation. Some say the only way we can be assured of our salvation is to persevere in obedience, and as we obey, we will know we belong to Christ. (Detractors of this particular view call it works salvation.) Others say we can rest on the promise Jesus gave when we were saved; that is, "I accepted the gift of salvation when it was freely offered, and God doesn't lie. Therefore, I am saved." (Detractors of this view call it easy believism.) Still others say we can't know we have salvation-all we can do is hope and keep on trucking. When the game is over God will tell us whether or not we are saved. (Detractors of this view call it daisy salvation: He loves me, He loves me not; He loves me, He loves me not.)

Now, with as much humility as I can possibly muster, I'm going to settle the arguments: The way we are assured of salvation is to check and see if we desire to obey God. Please note: I did not say that you had to obey God 100 percent of the time-only that you have to want to. If you want obedience, you've got salvation. Scripture says, "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3).

Do you see what John is saying? He is saying that the confirmation of your salvation is not in your being like Jesus now but in the hope you have of being like Jesus in heaven. When John gives us a future promise of being like Jesus (i.e., obedient) our desire for the fulfillment of that promise is not only the assurance of our salvation, it is the motivation (i.e., purifies himself) toward the fulfillment of the reality."

Cedar Cove Animal Habitat

These are pictures from 2 outings to the Cedar Cove Animal Habitat in Louisburg Kansas.


This is Cheyanne. She stared at my kid the whole time we were there. Makes a father a little nervous.


This is a 3 month old Caracal that is lounging in the open display case.


This is Voodoo. She purrs...loudly!


The big guy! His paws are as big as your head.


Shawdow the wolf. He is about 11 years old, and got kicked out of his pack.

Ducks are Moving on, Sharks going Home

Next is Detriot.

GO DUCKS!!!

The Anaheim Ducks won last night, beating the San Jose Sharks 4-0. They lead the series 3-1. One more time boys!

I ain't sayin, I'm just sayin....

Library Finds...

I saw this at the library, and just picked it up.

I'm glad I did. Just awesome!

Here's another good find:


A bit "smoother" than her previous CD. But a good listen.

Finally:

Yeah.

Readings....

So I finished the book by JM Boice "Gospel of Grace". It was good, but not as deep as I thought it would be.
Also, he made some sweeping generalizations about church at large that I don't agree with.

I went to the library to pick up a CD, and what else did I find?


Oh yeah BABY! The third Stephen Lawhead book of the King Raven trilogy! I had put a hold on it before it came out, and I must have been high on the list, cause it only came out back in Feb.

As with the previous two books, I plowed through this one in a few days. Actually, I could have gone through faster, but I wanted to "savor" the yarn. Needless to say, I enjoyed the story. Maybe if I see the set on sale somewhere(for less than Bran paid the king) I will pick up the set.

It also keeps the door open for me to read more of SH's books. I loved "Byzantium", but was less than enthused for "Patrick". I liked the story, but felt that like he rushed the ending of Patrick...

New Believer CD Coming Out

I just found out yesterday that one of my fav old school bands was going to be putting out a new CD on March 17 - Believer. The cover looks GOOD. I may have to save a little money and buy this one outright, if I can find it. I wonder?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_(album)

You see, Believer was one of the bands early in me being a Christian. While most bands were knock offs of some secular band, Believer was a band that was hard to categorize. They were a bit of Motorhead, bit of some other bands that if I mentioned very few people would know.(I actually met Lemmy from Motorhead a couple years back - got to shake his hand.) Believer was pretty original in the thrash scene. I was stoked when Extol covered "Shadow of Death" a few years back, and their CD "Synergy" was pretty much a nod of the cap towards Believer.