Moving

Not me; the blog.  I am still working with the Church of Christ in Parrish, Alabama and have no plans to move - in fact, the elders warned me not to be looking :-). However, beginning  today, May 12, 2010 all new posts (and hopefully all archives) for The Morning Drive will move to WordPress.  The blog will still be The Morning Drive but with a new location .  Please make note of this change and redo (renew) subscriptions, rss feeds, and blogrolls accordingly.  When you stop by take a look a the archives.

Blogger has been a good starting place for me for the last year plus, but it is time to move on.  WordPress offers a cleaner page and a few extras that I think I am going to like.

I will keep this blogger account open for sometime in case I want a secondary blog ;-)

Thanks,
Scott

Sport of the gods

This Spring Andrew, age 12 #70 in this picture, decided to go out for football.  His team will have a Jamboree this Thursday.  It will be his first organized football game. 

This morning at breakfast we joked about what archaeologists would say about football if they dug up a stadium 5,000 years from now.

Here were the possibilities we came up with:

1.  They might consider the stadium to be a temple or place of worship (every town has one).

2. They would suppose that the team mascots (Oakman Wildcats) would be city or regional gods.

3.  What we know as players would be participating in battle to honor their god and to show their devotion to him (her).

4. The cheerleaders could be thought of as high priestesses (my son almost shot milk through his nose at the thought) who lead the worship. "We are the Wildcats, mighty, might Wildcats . . ."

5. The fans are the worshipers praying to their god for victory confirming his acceptance of their sacrifice.

6. The concession stand is where worshipers can procure grain, animal, and synthetic sacrifices to offer to their god by leaving portions in the stadium (worship arena).

Why else might sports (football, baseball, basketball, softball, etc) be confused as our national religion by those who study us in the future?

Scott

My Prezi

This is my first attempt at a Prezi presentation.  We are not set up to use Prezi with our current system at Parrish, but I wanted to see what a Prezi would look like so I built this one around the Mother's Day Sermon from 05.09.10.

Scott

May 9 Am Beauty Mother on Prezi

Will You Pray?

Thank you.  Thank you for your prayers; I covet them.  If not for the prayers of the faithful, what could we accomplish.  Prayer does so much for us as Christians.  Paul describes the armor that Christians wear and emphasizes that that armor is incomplete if not for prayer (Eph 6:11-18).  Life has a way of bringing us down.  Satan is a master at pulling us away from what is right and good.  The cares of this world choke at us as weeds do vegetables in a garden.  But God has not left us defenseless.  God gives us the privilege to approach Him in prayer.  "Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb 4:14-16- esv).

I ask you to do me a favor: Pray for me.  Pray for me to be effective as a minister, consistent  as  a Christian, responsible as a husband, an example as a father, and compassionate as a friend.  

Praying Always,

Scott

Top Ten Math Puns

These two words seem incongruous: Math and Humor.  Maybe my math teachers thought my answers were funny sometimes, but as a student math AND humor? Last night after Bible Class, Teresa Kitchens (a member at Parrish and a Math Teacher at Walker High School) knowing my warped sense of humor shared a list of 31 math puns.  What follows are my favorite ten of the list:

10. How do you know a plant belongs to a math teacher? - It has square roots.
9. Why do math books cry? - They have lots of problems.
8. When do mathematicians die? - When their number is up.
7. What is the longest piece of furniture? - The multiplication table.
6. What is a metric cookie? - A Gram cracker.
5. Why do math teachers talk to themselves? - They think the students are listening.
4. Two's company, three's a crowd, what are four and five? - Nine.
3. What did the math major mean when she called her blind date 288?  He's 2 gross.
2. What is a polygon? - A lost parrot.

And the number one math pun for the day . . .
1. What is an occupied bathroom on an airplane? a hypotenuse (high - pot - in - use).

Scott.

OK, here is one more just for today since you can't get enough math humor - How do you know God loves math? - He told Adam and Eve to multiply, the fourth book in the Bible is called Numbers, and his followers put "+" signs on His churches.

Teeth Cleaning

Yesterday morning, I went for my sixth month dental appointment.  I sat there having religious discussions, giving marital advice, and talking about child rearing while my mouth was wide open and Tracy was scraping my teeth. 

I do not have a fear of dentist, nor do I have issues with someone working in my mouth.  I try to listen to the advice my dentist and hygienist give.  I remember one bit of advice the Dr. Buchanan, my child-hood dentist gave.  "Scott, you need to brush and floss the teeth you want to keep."  Do I need to mention that he was blunt if anything? 

Preventative dental care.  That is why I brush and floss regularly.  That is why I visit my dentist twice a year.  That is why I avoid habits that damage teeth.  These examinations pay off in preventing future major issues.

To bring a spiritual application to this I point us to 2 Cor 13:5 where Paul instructs us to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith.  

What do you do to "examine yourself" spiritually?  How can I know that I am "in the faith?"

Scott

Sweetwater Church of Christ

I had a great visit with the good brethren at Sweetwater. Below is a link to the Sunday AM message (I wanted to embed but blogger is not letting me embed from ustream) . It is a long video (32 minutes). I wanted you to see what the good folks at Sweetwater are doing with video.  This is a congregation of about 30 members and the are doing great things.

Scott

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/6619074