The Trip

Our 2013 Summer trip from Elizabethtown, KY to San Antonio, TX was a fun time for all of us.  The only drawback was at the end I would say good-bye as the flew back to E'Town and I started my studies at Fort Sam Houston.

This was our itinerary.  Kind of like the Griswold's trip to Wally World!

22 May:  Kids left school early and we headed to Memphis, TN.  Had a great dinner at the 'Commissary' where we all enjoyed Memphis BBQ.

23 May:  short trip to Vicksburg, MS.  We had the luxury (or curse!) of towing our camper- so we were able to have more substantial lunches on the road.  R always wanted to pick the flowers whenever we would stop.  We toured the Vicksburg Battlefield- which surprisingly even Rachel tolerated it OK.  

It was a good tie in to our time in St Louis where US Grant (Grant's Farm) spent a few years getting his family and life together before re-entering the Army.  Then flash-forward to Vicksburg where Grant would overcome the ghosts of his past and achieve victory here that would change his life, and the life of our Country, forever!

24 May:  To quote Clark Griswold, we crossed the "Mighty Missisip" but did not sing 'Old Man River' into Louisiana.  Of course each state R wanted to be sure never to miss the sign!  We took a slight exit detour at West Monroe, LA.  Home of Duck Dynasty!  The boys were watching a Duck Dynasty marathon in the car for most of the time, so why not!  The building is exactly as it is on TV with plenty of people taking pictures and posing with Si's Vietnam-era 2.5 ton Truck (Duec-and-a-half).  Like they say, do not be surprised if one of the Robertson's show up in the showroom and says hi!  And sure enough, Jep (Baby Brother) came out and wandered around and posed for pictures!

We pressed through the Louisiana Bayou's into Texas, and stopped so Rachel could see the big 'Welcome to Texas' sign.  Our next stop was Dallas, where we would spend some time checking out the town.  It was Friday afternoon and we were heading against the traffic going into Dallas.  The boys were amazed at how far we were away from the city when we could see the buildings downtown.

25 May:  Location, Location, Location!  Our hotel was perfect- right off the DFW Light-Rail in Irving.

26 May:  we headed into downtown Dallas.  We decided to split up- Beck went with the boys to the 'Sixth Floor Museum' and Rachel and I went to the Dallas World Aquarium.  Of course, we had to walk around Daley Plaza for a while so the boys could listen and watch all the conspiracy theorists sell their wares!  Rachel was not very interested, except for the flowers planed in various areas!

The aquarium was fun, except that Rachel was very upset that there were 'Land Animals' in the Aquarium.  This was totally unacceptable to this six year old!  She even made her opinion known at the lynx exhibit, that I thought was cool!

27 May- on to San Antonio!  The family realized how big Texas was by just the 'little jaunt' from Dallas to San Antonio.  Five hours and a picnic stop north of Austin, and a near-scare of running out of gas on the Austin Bypass- we made it to our final stop- the Staybridge Suites- Fiesta Texas.  A great place in a great location.  A three bedroom suite, so we had plenty of room to stretch out and have our own space.  We dropped the trailer and took a short trip to Fort Sam Houston where I signed in and got my inprocessing paperwork.  Where to go for dinner? So many choices- so I took all fo them to Taco Cabana- my favorite for a quick uniquely SA- and the boys could get a real bottled Coke from Mexico.

28 May- Memorial Day.  We headed to Fredricksburg, Texas and enjoyed lunch at Winslow's and finally  took the boys to a place where they could shop for a real 'Bowie Knife'.  And they certainly had a great time shopping for their 'find'.  We also visited the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific along with the George H. W. Bush Navy Display.  Who would of thought that such a great museum of naval history would be in the middle of the Texas Hillcountry? 

29 May- we stopped by the Fort Sam ticket office and bought our discounted tickets to all the stuff to do around SA. We headed downtown and took the trolley tours that included the missions and other areas of interest.  We finally toured the famous 'Alamo'.  Like most people who spent years studying the importance of the phrase 'Remember the Alamo' when you finally see it in person usually say 'where is the rest of it?'  It is somewhat dissapointing when you first see it.  Surrounded by the typical cheesy Ripley's museums, wax museums, Fuddruckers, Subway, McDonalds, etc, it is surrounded by true commercial Americana!!!  However, once inside, it is a very impressive place to imagine what is was like to be there in the Spring of 1836.

30 May- Headed to Fiesta Texas.  Had a great time where Rachel was able to ride most of the rides we could.  It was great that the kids here were still in school, so it was not too crowded.  The last time we where here was in 1995 where Beck and I went when I was at Army AMEDD Officer Basic Course.

31 May- Beck's birthday.  We kind of relaxed.  The boys  and I took the trailer to the KOA-Alamo Campground and got my space lined up.  Now I am officially living in a 'Trailer down by the River'.  We then went to Fort Sam and we visted the AMEDD Museum.  They had a special exibit called 'Dust Off'- the history of Aeromedical Operations. They enjoyed it, as I hoped they would.  

1 June- Road Trip!  We drove out of the Hill Country and to the beginning of West Texax.  Where your radio's scan button will go 'round and round and round'!!!  Headed to Langtry, Texas.  Home of Judge Roy Bean, 'The Law, West of the Pecos'.  It is 150 miles due west on the Rio Grand.  It is out of the way, but is part of our history.  It's significance to us is that is was the southern railway route to California.  And Langtry was the last stop before heading into the desolate West.  Judge Roy Bean (made famous in the movies) was known as the Hanging Judge.  He was also famous for hosting boxing matches (not illegal), but would hold them during the summer months when the Rio Grand was dried up and people could gamble on them in the river bed (in Mexico) where he could get away with it!!!

2 June- Sea World day!  Rachel really enjoyed this.  In 1998, I went here with a friend of mine (Mike Speir) when I was here for more 'Army Training'.  It was here that I bought our oldest son (Joshua) his first stuffed animal:  a little Shamu that he would call 'opu'.  Michael's joke of the day was after watching the Shamu show, when exiting, one coulde 'Dine with Shamu' at the restaurant.  He said that he wanted a fish sandwich, and they should call it 'Dine ON Shamu'.

3 June- Relaxing day, went to one of our favorite restaurants called the 'Magic Time Machine' on the northside.  It is a theme-style restaurant where the servers dress up and act the part.  Our waiter was 'Ace Ventura:  Pet Detective' and he was very good- including standing on the back of Michael's chair and acted like a monkey!  We spent most of the day using our second-day pass on the trolley spending more time touring the missions.  We also watched 'The Price of Freedom' at the RiverCenter IMAX about the Alamo.  Not sure if Rachel really appreciated it, but the boys did.  

4 June- a sad day as I dropped them off at the airport for their trip home.  It was Michael and Rachel's first trip on an airplane, but wish it were on better terms.  This year will go fast and will be able to go home frequently.  It was a great two weeks.  It is has also been a difficult few weeks.  We said good-bye to some of the best friends we have had in a long time, said goodbye to our home for the past three years, and are now separated for a year.  It will go fast, and we all look forward to where God will lead us on our next adventure this time next year.

Fourth week, fourth church!

I attended Churchill Baptist Church this past Sunday.  It was refreshing to visit a church that was somewhat smaller and very similar to my home church in E'Town.

http://www.churchillbaptist.org/

After using my criteria outlined in an earlier post, this church was at the top of my list to visit.  And I did.  I was encouraged by the Pastor's recent sermon series in Romans 8.  It appeared that he had spent a lot of time in Romans, and specifically in Romans 8.

Expositional preaching is something that I have come to treasure and seek in a church and pastor.  It is not a something that would be a sole-deciding factor, but I want a pastor/teacher that will describe the verses and dig a little. 

To me, a little Greek here and a little Hebrew there goes a long way!  Furthermore, any pastor that is not afraid to preach through Romans 8 without skipping verses is a pastor who is honoring the Word of God.  So many pastors today will skip verse 29 and others in this passage to avoid any controversy.

With that, he finished chapter 8 this past Sunday and I will summarize it this way:  Paul has three sets of five imperatives in this chapter:

Five Convictions:
1.  He is at work
2.  For the good of us
3.  There is good in everything He does.  It is just not always the carnal man's definition of good.
4.  His good is for those that love Him, Repent of their sins and submit to His Lordship.
5.  And who are called according to His purpose.

Five Undeniable Affirmations
1.  Predestined to His image
2.  First among men
3.  Called out
4.  Justified
5.  Glorified

Five Unanswerable Questions (Paul's Throwdowns!)
1.  Who is against us?
2.  Who will take care of us?
3.  Who condemns us?
4.  Who will separate us from Him?
5.  Who will bring any charge against His chosen?

It was a great message.  I will  visit again, probably on Wednesday.  And not just because they have a Wednesday evening meal!

Drew's Top Ten Reasons NOT to visit a church

I am being extremely judgmental.  I can be- it is my blog!  I do judge a church on it's public image- what a church shows on the outside (website, information, etc) tells the public a lot about their beliefs and doctrine.  Paul wrote his letters to various churches based on what he heard about them.  They were not acting like the Bride of Christ!

After parsing through a list of twenty churches I finally made a list. Kind of like Jeff Foxworthy's approach:

1. If you don't have a website, I may not visit you.
2. If  your links include people like Joel Olsteen/Joyce Meyer/Creflo Dollar, I definitely will not visit.
3. If they are affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, I will not visit.

4.  If the Pastor's page included a LOT about himself, I may not be visiting!

5.  If you use words like 'relevant', 'missional', or 'on purpose', I may visit after exhausting all others!

6.  If you accept the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message (and make a big issue of it), I probably won't stop by!  (look it up, there is a reason why a church would go this way- then see #3- there is a connection!)

7.  If your church meets in a coffee house, donut shop, or bar, I will not break bread with your fellowship

8.  If anyone of the ministerial staff wears glasses like Rob Bell, then will assume that Hell is not real and that I don't need your church.  Buh-Bye!

9.  If your church newsletter quotes an author's (false teacher, perhaps?) paraphrase of an actual Bible verse for your 'Bible Thought of the Day', I will probably not be subscribing to your newsletter!

10.  If your church wants me to 'Experrience my Spirituality by reading a PowerPoint slide with water flowing and fiery flames in order to help me realize my happy feelings about my Daddy (God) and Bro (Jesus) then go and do some community service project so I can wear a cool t-shirt and feel better about my self (works)-  Good Bye!

I know that #10 is a huge run-on sentence, but you get my point! 

Pretests

     Completed the required pretests today.  Classes start tomorrow, but already have reading homework!  It will take some getting used to, homework and all! 

     On the Board of Governors exam pre-test, my score was a 69.  It has 100 questions and covers primarily civilian healthcare questions.  Not too bad based on my experience in both civilian and military healthcare.

     Hopefully I will blog, or journal, as much as I can over the next 12 months about my experiences both in class and outside of class.

Two Weeks- Two Churches

LAST WEEK, I attended a church that I attended back in 1995 when I was here for AMEDD Officer Basic Course.  It is in an old shopping mall- where the main sanctuary is where an anchor store was.  The teaching was good and scriptural.  However, when reading bulletin, I noticed the main 'thought' for the day.  It was from Sara Young's book "Jesus Calling".  Read an excellent review by Tim Challies here.

It does have a Scripture referent below it from Psalm 29:11 "The LORD will give strength to His people; The LORD will bless His people with peace."  Young takes this simple truth from the Word of God and improves upon it!  She spends three very wordy sentences to help explain what Jesus said for her to write.

Her messages 'from Jesus' border on direct revelation.  The last time I checked, Jesus speaks to us directly from His word.  There is NO new revelation.  John and Paul are very clear on this topic in 2 John 1:10 and 2 Cor 11:4 respectively.

Unfortunately, this is what today's emotional-based people want in writing. Someone who can 'fluff up' the Word of God.  What we end up with is a bunch of words that mean absolutely nothing.  It tickles our ears and warms our hearts (ugh!).  Makes us feel so good about ourselves. 

My question to the one who reviewed and approved the bulletin:  Why would you put a wordy paraphrase as the headline, then reference the Scripture?  Why not print the actual Bible verse?  I do not understand that thought process.  What troubles me more is obviously someone in authority is reading this book and thinks highly enough to quote it in the Sunday morning bulletin.  Another slippery slope of discernment in today's church trying to be relevant (read= like the world) rather than salt and light (called out and separate).

THIS WEEK, another church visit.  Attended the contemporary service at 930am rather than the traditional service at 11am.  They have a big 'Save and Serve San Antonio' project going on that works with many different faith-based service programs.  Of course, SA is a large city with a lot of needs.  The promotion is encouraging in that it is not ashamed that those churches that are involved will serve AND evangelize those in need.  Anything a New-Testament church does that does not include the Gospel of Jesus Christ is just a service project. 

The Bible tells us how we (and the Church) is supposed to serve others- Chapter 2 in the book of James spells it out very clearly: 

14What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

I will visit again in a couple of weeks as visit a couple of other churches in the area.

---

       

---

A new chapter and a new adventure for the Winslows

     On Wednesday, May 22nd we started on a new adventure.  Sadly for the next year, they are two adventures in two different locations.  Many significant events have taken place over the past couple of weeks.

1.  I started the Army-Baylor Master's of Healthcare Administration/MBA program at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.  It is year-long didactic program with a follow-on one year residency.  The program is a traditional two-year MHA/MBA program crammed into one year.  For someone who has not sat in a formal classroom in 20 years, it will be a challenge.

2.  We sold (unexpectedly very quick) our house. We did this as a future contingency- there is a chance that my residency would not be at Fort Knox.  This would avoid Rebekah from having to do all the things that would be required for her to sell the house one year from now.  This was a prudent, although strange to some, plan for us.  We moved out of the house and into an apartment in E'Town.  For the next year Rebekah won't have to worry about maintenance, lawn mowing, etc.  We will save a lot of money while I am in San Antonio.

3.  I am living in a 'trailer down by the river' in San Antonio.  We decided that it was less expensive for me to live in our camper at the 'Alamo Kampground of America'.  It is a very nice place so far.  It is exactly 2.1 miles from the 'School House' (Army Medical Department's Center and School) where my classes are located.

It is very difficult to be away from the family.  I miss them terribly, but I am not alone as there are about ten of us who are here without their families.  There is much more to write, but will write more later.

Jesus Calling. Really?

A very good review of this book based on Scripture, not emotions.  Why are so many Christians (or maybe they are not?) deceived or led to believe that one needs more than the Bible to know they are truly saved?  So many times churches cry out for 'more, more, more'.  

This is a trap by Satan to render us inneffective, and it is working- just look at the popularity of this book and others like it. 

Paul tells us in Romans 10:7 (the author cites right of the bat) that faith comes from the Word of God.  Period.  Nothing else.  When we base our faith in emotion, that is not a saving faith.  That, my friends, is a works-based faith that is not faith at all.  

Sorry, folks, just because someone is not raising their hands in worship, not crying crocodile tears during a song, does not mean they are not being 'spiritual'.  We are NOT commanded to reach for the next greatest spiritual thing, or 'go farther for Christ'. What does all that mean?  Some are called to what the world calls mundane or common.  Sorry, Christians are called to obey God, glorify His name, and be salt and light for Him.  God will take care of the rest.

http://www.whitehorseinn.org/blog/2013/03/05/review-of-jesus-calling/

 

Last of a Generation

Revelation 21:1-4

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven of God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God: and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more:the first things are passed away.

Today we buried my Aunt Kay. She was the widow of my favorite Uncle Gus. He was the youngest of the Gossard Brothers who farmed the land of Tipton County, Indiana. The Gossard family farmed this land since the 1870s.

Only God knows whether her recent profession of faith was genuine The Pastor read these verses, among others, to claim that only those who confess their sins and trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior can have the Revelation Peace that John writes about. It was a bittersweet service. Glad that she was no longer suffering and that my mother can finally rest after caring for her for the past 18 months.

Aunt Kay, widow of Donald "Uncle Gus" Gossard. 1917-2013.

Visions and words from Jeremiah 23

Jeremiah 23:16
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
“Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds,
not from the mouth of the Lord.

Many popular and 'hip' evangelical speakers use words flippantly. Kind of like the Princess Bride when Fezek says "I don't think that word means what you think it means."

These pastors and pastorettes (women who unbiblically take this title, too like Judah Smith and his co-pastor wife Chelsea for the City Church in Seattle) use word and phrases like:

1- God came to me and told me...
2- Jesus walked through the door and...
3- I had a vision where God...
4- God gave me a special word to...
5- Open your mind and...
6- What did Jesus say to you...

In and of themselves, these are innocuous statements. But WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THEM? The band Jesus Culture is a dangerous group because of this. What do they mean when they/we sing the popular praise song 'God works all things together for MY good!'. I am sorry, what do you mean? Romans 8:28 does not end there! Paul did not pen that verse to build up our self-esteem or remove some emotional teen-angst.

Do some research! Jesus Culture is part of the New Apostolic Movement. Yes, these are the people who abuse the name of the Holy Spirit when they have Holy moments such as clucking like chickens, barking like dogs. The also pray over dead members of their church for the dead-person's spirit to impart their spirit to them.

Bill Redding is their pastor (Bethel Church) and is a false teacher because he teaches this stuff to his young, naive congregation. He has smoke and dust blown through his sanctuary and says it is a sign from God that He is in their presence and equates it to God's presence with Moses and the Israelites coming out of Egypt.

Jesus Culture is his praise band. One of their band members is Kim Walker-Smith and she will preach during their concerts. One time she says Jesus came to her and 'cuddled with her' during one of her 'down times'.

Really? Their songs are now mainstream in our churches. People need to know that this is subtle because we do not define the terms. What is the first rule of any debate or discussion? DEFINE THE TERMS.

God has spoken to us through His Word, the Bible. There is no more revelation or prophecies. When Jesus said 'It is Finished'. The redemptive work was done. Period. He is the Alpha and the Omega. The sufficiency of Scripture. There are no more Revelations or Prophecies. The Holy Spirit will help us rightly decide the Word of God.

Jesus WILL NEVER come down off the Throne of Almighty God to 'cuddle'.