a song in your heart

Grace, written by Carolyn Hamlin, is one of the most encouraging songs I know. The ladies ensemble sang this song Sunday night and my heart was again blessed by these words. A few years ago, my oldest son sang this song at a close friend's funeral, and it is still a very emotional song for me. The song reminds us that God will give us grace for every day and for everything we face in this life. He is always there for us, as the song says "when I am faltering, I still will find you(God) there."

Grace
by Carolyn Hamlin
click to listen to 90 second clip

Lord, as I seek your guidance for the day,
I find my thoughts unyielding: confusion clouds my way,
But, then when I bow to you,
the challenges you guide me through,
Your promises are ever new: I claim them for today.

Your will cannot lead me where your grace cannot keep me.
Your hand will protect me: I rest in your care.
Your eyes will watch over me: Your love will forgive me.
And when I am faltering, I still will find you there.

Each new day’s design is guided by your hand,
And graciously revealed as I seek your Master plan.
Keep my footsteps faithful when from you I go.
Return me to the joy that your blessings can bestow.

Your will cannot lead me where your grace cannot keep me.
Your hand will protect me: I rest in your care.
Your eyes will watch over me: Your love will forgive me.
And when I am faltering, I still will find you there.

Your eyes will watch over me,
Your love will forgive me,
And when I am faltering,
Lord, I will find you there.

a hill called Golgotha

The first four books of the New Testament are known as the gospels - the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These books were written by the four men through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We recognize their own styles of writing as being different from each other and their recording of the same facts are sometimes worded differently. Matthew, Mark and John refer to the place of Christ's crucifixion as Golgotha but Luke refers to the same hill as Calvary. Golgotha is the Hebrew word meaning "the place of the skull," and Calvary is the Latin word for "skull". Many songs come to mind that would have been worded differently if not for Luke. Can you imagine singing "Golgotha covers it all?" Or "I believe in a hill called Mount Golgotha?" or "mercy there was great and grace was free at Golgotha?" Actually, I have been involved in church music for many years, and can not think of any song with the word "Golgotha."

slideshow from the Great Guitar Gathering

great guitar gathering

Philip, a senior at Douglas Anderson, is second from left on the front row



Our nephew, Philip Logan, participated in the 14th annual Great Guitar Gathering last night. Along with 50 other students, the guitar orchestra played classical guitar arrangements of songs from the 18th & 19th century as well as two modern arrangements. "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" written by Johann Strauss was a "beautiful" arrangement for the guitar orchestra, very unique. One of the songs they played was called "Attic", a modern sounding piece written by one of the guest artists, Andrew York. Mr. York was a member of the LAGQ - Los Angeles Guitar Quartet for over 10 years. He is a composer of many songs that have been recorded by famous guitarists such as John Williams, Christopher Parkening, and Scott Tennant. I learned last night that Scott Tennant was also a member of the LAGQ. The other guest artist was Dusan Bogdanovic, born in Yugoslavia. He is an international award-winning guitarist-composer. As Philip would say many times last night, he was "amazing" (see the Florida tag below.) We ended the evening with a late dinner at "Friendly's" - late as in we finished our meal around midnight!

had enough snow?

This photo made me think of Josh, he just told us last week his thoughts about all of the snow in PA.

web watch

Steve Irwin may be gone, but the conservation work he started will keep going through this organization called Wildlife Warriors Worldwide

For the cooks and chocolate lovers in the family, I found this link to Chocolate Desserts with 26 recipes (and delicious looking photos.)

Did you know that Scooby Doo was created by a Japanese cartoonist? The kids will love this link to the interactive site for Scooby Dooby Doo!

One Night with the King Trailer

Another good movie just came out on DVD recently. This one is based on the story of Esther in the Bible.

Duke update

I haven't blogged lately about the Dukies, I guess because they LOST four games in a row! So I am happy to report that the Blue Devils defeated Boston College 78-70 this week, and I am sure that victory saved them from the WRATH OF K ! Coach K has never lost 5 games in a row at Duke. I am sure these guys did not want to be the ones to break that record. This was a great game against Boston College, this was Duke playing DUKE BASKETBALL! I don't remember the last time I saw Coach K jumping up and down with excitement as he did during this game when his team went ahead by 24 points. Overall, the Dukies have played well and lost 3 of the last 4 games by only one or two points. See the links below for more about the Dukies -

Reports of Duke's demise were greatly exaggerated! What did you expect? Did you really think Duke was dead? by Andy Katz at ESPN.com

Krzyzewski anything but over the hill. It's been a good week for Duke bashers, a good time to trash America's team for going through an unexpected free fall without a parachute.

McRoberts helps Duke bounce back with win over BC - College Scoreboard at ESPN.com with video highlights

AP photos of the game at GoDuke.com

always a pistol

As you may or may not know, the NBA All-Star game takes place this weekend. As we take a break from the regular season, I found this story posted at ESPN.com about the new bio of Pete Maravich. I have fond memories of watching him play in college, more so than when he played pro ball. I remember how neat it was to hear that he had turned his life over to Christ, and then to see how he followed that decision by hosting basketball camps at Clearwater Christian College in Florida. I also remember the tragic day that he died while playing a pick-up game of basketball with Dr. James Dobson. He had a heart defect for all of his life and no one ever knew it until he collapsed and died that fateful day. That makes his basketball skills even more amazing to me. I believe he was one of the best basketball players to ever live and play the sport. This new book is called "Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich" by Mark Kriegel. Click to read an excerpt from Chapter 12: Showtime

Check out the official website for Pistol Pete at pistolpete23.com.

along the journey

So I drove 5.8 miles one way to gas up and another 5.8 miles for the return trip - and that was 30 minutes of my lunch break - just to save 51 cents (or .04 per gallon.) Not sure that it was worth the time, or the extra 9 miles of gas. But why stop at those higher priced stations, (I passed about 10 along the journey) when I can buy my gas cheaper at Sam's Club? I have to admit though, last week it felt much better buying gas for $2.099 per gallon. Today, a week later, the price is $2.139 per gallon. It didn't feel the same this week, but it's the principle of the thing! The closest gas station to my job is selling gas for $2.179 per gallon and on the ride home from work tonight I noticed the gas on Dunn Ave. was $2.219 per gallon. So for at least today, the Sam's Club on Beach Blvd. has the cheapest gas in town. At least I'm not driving to Georgia to buy my gas - that would be 30 miles there and 30 miles back - well, you get the picture.

home improvement tips

While remodeling our garage and doing some research on line, I found a few interesting web sites and blogs.

Builder Buzz is a blog by Scott Tappa, the editor of Rural Builder magazine.

I found some tips on drywall at this link to Home Improvement ABC.

I also found useful information and tutorials at this link to Easy2DIY.com.

Lincoln's birthday

Today is President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. You wouldn't know it from the local media. There was no mention of it in today's paper. He is probably the second most popular president, after George Washington, in our US History. I did find a couple of websites devoted to Lincoln that would be especially useful to your students for research. At the link to Celebrate! Holidays in the U.S.A. you can read the history behind the holiday. Lincoln's birthday was a federal holiday until 1971. On this site you can read the words to his famous "Gettysburg Address" spoken after that Civil War battle ended. Also, scroll down the page to read the words to the poem written by Walt Whitman in honor of Lincoln after his death, "Captain! my Captain!" Another site full of information about Lincoln is called the Abraham Lincoln Research Site. I especially like the link to a collection of quotes from Lincoln.

Facing the Giants Trailer

Now out on DVD, the movie, Facing the Giants, is one that the whole family can watch. The only reason it was rated PG was because there are so many references to Jesus Christ and God. There is something in this movie for the entire family, even if you do not like football. This true story was produced by Sherwood Baptist Church in Georgia.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

I like to tell the story of reading The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Lehman for the first time. As I read the section on the traits and characteristics of the youngest child, these words stood out to me from the pages - "If your son or daughter is of school age and you are still calling your child 'baby', then you will have serious problems when your child enters junior and senior high!" Brandon was four or five at the time and yes, we were still calling him "baby Brandon". We immediately stopped calling him "baby" and I am thankful that we did. Our youngest son is now 26 years old today and we could not be prouder as parents! We are thankful that he has allowed God to mold his life and he is allowing God to use him. Happy Birthday Brandon!

family photo album

Natalie plays "pin the tail on the donkey" at a birthday party
Natalie and Meredith, photo taken Tuesday morning

Meredith is now two months old!

We received these latest photos from Wisconsin. Hope they are staying warm! Leah says that the temp Monday was -14 degrees (below zero) and Tuesday it was -5 degrees. Maybe it would warm up to about 20 degrees today. I noticed it was in single digits today in Hanover, PA. Keep our grandbabies warm! I really can't imagine how you handle the cold weather up there. We are complaining in Florida because the high is only going to be in the upper 60's this weekend. As they say, blame it on "global warming!"

band and cheerleaders bloopers

This video is set to the music of "the Stars and Stripes Forever"

along the journey

The price of gas dropped to $2.08/gallon in some parts of town today (most stations are at $2.15/gallon.) Don't you find it interesting that as the price of a barrel of oil drops, the price of gas comes slowly back down? It may drop 1-3 cents a week. But when the price of oil is going up, the increases are 7-10 cents at a time, and not just once a week. Enjoy it while you can, gas prices should start rising again by the end of February, because of ... you know the drill ... spring break, refineries shutting down for cleaning, refineries switching to produce the summer blend of gas that is more expensive, OPEC cutting their oil production, President Bush's promise to increase the US stockpile of oil reserves ...

Thanks to the stroller for this gem:

"The latest telephone poll asked whether people think illegal immigration is a serious problem. Thirty-two percent answered, 'Yes, it is a serious problem.' Sixty-eight percent answered, 'No es una problema serio.' "

family photo album

New photos of Brielle taken Wednesday morning - she is almost 5 months old - keep those photos coming!!

along the journey

Cold temps gave way to a beautiful noontime today, with a strong breeze from the southwest warming up the temps to about 75. My mom and dad woke up to snow and ice in Cowpens, SC, today. We also heard from Joann in Arkansas, who called last night to wish Cindy a happy birthday. They were enduring the cold and snowy conditions earlier this week. Meanwhile down here in Florida, we are wondering what has happened to "Old Man Winter." We finally had our first freeze Monday morning, but the hard freeze that we were supposed to have Tuesday morning did not occur(no surprise here.) It was about 33 degrees at 7 AM. We have an old saying in Jax - "if you don't like the weather right now, just wait a few hours and it will change." As I write this we are now under a tornado watch until 1AM Friday. Driving home from work in a thunderstorm in February just does not seem right!