a day at the beach

Mom and Dad enjoyed the ocean view from the pier

I took a day off of work on Wednesday to take mom and dad to the beach. We walked the Jacksonville Beach pier for $1.00. Dad said that he never imagined a few months ago, when he was down in his back, that he would ever be able to walk like this again. We tried to drive onto the Mayport Naval base but I could not obtain a pass without a military ID or a military sponsor. I guess since 9-11 security is a lot tighter now! I told the guard my dad was in World War II but that did not faze him at all! :)


We were surprised at how close we could get to the seagulls on the pier

graduation, it's that time of year!

Congratulations to Philip Logan, our nephew, who graduated Monday night from Douglas Anderson School of the Arts here in Jacksonville. He will be working at Wachovia for the summer before heading off to college at Stetson University in the fall. He has received grants and scholarships totaling about $30,000 a year and plans to major in classical guitar. We were all glad Grandma and Grandpa Franklin were able to be here for this big event!

update from the Ukraine Mission Team

Our niece, April Logan, is traveling with the Bob Jones University Ukraine Mission Team during May and June (April is dead center in the photo above, 3rd from the left on the second row, and center of photo below)

My sister sent the update below from the mission team .

Click on this link to see photos from Ukraine posted at the university website.

UPDATES FROM UKRAINE

It's been amazingly busy this week!

We painted the fence at the church, had a ladies meeting (which was great), visited an English class, had about 6 church services throughout the course of the week, had market meetings, went to the bazaar, distributed more tracts in lots of villages, and ate some pretty interesting food!

We are sending updates and pictures to the BJ website...go to our mission team and there should be a little link for pictures.
It's been really hot and we're pretty tired out, but God's been doing a great work in and through us.

Several have made professions of faith and many Christians have thanked us for the encouragement, but I think even more, God's been changing our hearts.

It's been amazing to see the sacrifice of people that have nothing so that we can eat and minister to them. Yet, even though they have nothing (materialistically speaking) I would venture to say that many of them have more of a passion for Christ than we do. That's certainly been a rebuke.

Memorial Day, 2007

A tribute video honors those who served and died for our country.

a message in song

Some songs stand out to me more than others. I spend a lot of time evaluating Christian music as to the message of the song. It should be biblical and in proper context. The song below was originally recorded as a "southern gospel" song and is titled "Crimson River." I am not sure who wrote the song, but I found the lyrics posted on line. The Steve Pettit Evanglistic Team CD "Weep No More" actually introduced this song to me. They rearranged the tune and gave it an Irish flair, so obviously it does not sound like a "southern gospel" song on their CD. This is the version I really enjoy listening too. (If you do not have the CD available, you can purchase it from their website above.) In the lyrics below, the blood that Jesus shed for our salvation is the "Crimson River."

CRIMSON RIVER

There’s a river flowing deep and wide,
Coming from the Savior’s side;
From His hands, His feet and brow,
Underneath this river I'll abide.

Crimson River, cover me,
And this blood bought one will be;
Purer than the breath of spring,
Cleaner than a sparkling stream.

Through the ages it has never dried,
Though the spring it came from died;
For the spring, reborn now, intercedes for me,
And the Crimson River sets me free.

Crimson River, cover me,
And this blood bought one will be;
Purer than the breath of spring,
Cleaner than a sparkling stream.

Then eternity will be,
A new starting place for me;
To praise the Lamb and all because,
The Crimson River covers all.

To praise the Lamb and all because,
All because,
Because the Crimson River covers all.
The Crimson River covers all!

remembering Anne Frank

The blogger Segatech has a post called "The Beauty That Still Remains" with links to many Anne Frank websites. We need to be reminded from time to time of the horrors of the Nazis under Hitler in the years leading up to World War II and then during the war. Millions of Jews as well as the mentally retarded and elderly were murdered because they were not Germans. Sadly, this could happen again.

educational videos at teachertube

This take-off on youtube is for teachers who want to create and post their educational and informative videos. The site is called TeacherTube.com

Click the link below to view info about China, India and the US . . .
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=799aaa845e1c2e8a762b&page=1&viewtype=&category=mv

Yo Yo Ma plays Ennio Morricone

This is a video post of Yo Yo Ma recording "Nella Fantasia" and other pieces for his CD. "Nella Fantasia" is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. I strongly recommend the CD "Yo Yo Ma plays the music of Ennio Morricone"

to all the Mothers out there - remember they do grow up

Happy Mother's Day to my wife and mother of my three sons! And Happy Mother's Day to our own Moms in SC and Arkansas!


My three sons with their Florida cousins and grandparents many moons ago!
The cousins in Texas from a 1993 photo

Happy birthday, Leah!

Happy Birthday Grandma Baggett!

Happy Birthday wishes today to Cindy's mom, Winnie. Hope you enjoy your day and have many more!

the cause of Spiderman's dark side

click photo to enlarge

thanks to cartoonist Gary Varvel's Varvblog

National Day of Prayer

Read about the prayer at Valley Forge and George Washington at this link

Click this link for the
"National Day of Prayer" website

Happy Birthday, Natalie!

Our oldest

granddaughter

turns 3 today!

(Natalie's the one on the left in this photo)

Happy birthday! Wish we could be there to celebrate!

news worth repeating

Here are some links to what I call "news worth repeating."
You may have missed these so here goes . . .

From USAToday.com, this article covers 25 things that happened to change the internet. It makes for very interesting reading with some tidbits of information that you may have wondered about.

For Jaguars fans only, the latest updates from the NFL draft this past weekend are found at this link to Jaguars.com

Coming up Thursday, America unites in prayer for the 56th annual National Day of Prayer. This tradition was established by Congress in 1952 and signed into law by President Harry Truman. You can never pray too much! Pastor Mike gave us this quote yesterday morning during his message, "Prayer makes things possible because it will move the hand of God."

Hinode, the newest solar observatory in space, has sent back to earth these "never before seen" images of the sun.

Dr. Lee Roberson in Heaven today

My wife and I were honored to sit under Dr. Roberson's preaching for four years in Chattanooga, TN when we attended Tennessee Temple University. I met with him my senior year to ask him to perform our wedding there in the Philips Chapel. Because of last minute changes to his schedule, he could not marry us but sent Dr. J. R. Faulkner to do the ceremony. It appears the ceremony was a good one (30 years later!)
I can still hear him preaching and one of his most famous quotes is "Everything rises and falls on leadership!"

• link to Wikipedia bio of Lee Roberson
• link to listen to sermons of Lee Roberson (mp3s)
• link to Lee Roberson, man of God with sermons in print

The following was received via email this afternoon.

Dr. Lee Roberson Memorial

Dr. Lee Roberson, age 97, former pastor of the Highland Park Baptist Church, Founder and Chancellor Emeritus of Tennessee Temple University and Man of God, passed into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ whom he had served faithfully since the age of fourteen, on Sunday, April 29, 2007.

Dr. Roberson was born November 24, 1909 on a farm near English, Indiana. He was led to the Lord at age fourteen by his Sunday School teacher, and he accepted the call to preach the 'Good News' of the Gospel at the age of eighteen.

He studied as vocal music at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and was a graduate of the University of Louisville and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Beginning in 1932, Dr. Roberson served as a pastor and evangelist before accepting the pastorate of the Highland Park Baptist Church of Chattanooga in November of 1942. Tennessee Temple University was founded as a junior college and Bible school in July 1946. TTU is now an accredited four-year college, graduate school and seminary.

Dr. Lee Roberson was preceded in death by daughter Joy Caroline and wife, the former Caroline Allen. He is survived by son, John C. Roberson and wife Donna, daughter LeeAnne Nichols and husband Dr. L.W. 'Buddy' Nichols, daughter June Ormesher and husband Bill, eight grandchildren and by the countless thousands who accepted the new life of salvation under his ministry and the subsequent ministries of the thousands of men and women who he faithfully led, taught and encouraged at HPBC and TTU.

The family is asking that any memorial gifts be sent to the Lee Roberson Foundation, 2327 Red Tail Lane, Chattanooga, TN 37421 or online at www.LeeRoberson.org.

Dr.Roberson's favorite Scripture verse was Romans 8:28 - "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Dated August 1, 2006 at the age of 96, Dr. Roberson published what he called his farewell letter and final testimony "to give encouragement to pastors, evangelists, and full-time Christian workers."

"I believe the Bible! I believe in the promises of God regarding our future life! I believe 'to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord.' I believe the future will hold some of the most glorious blessings that one could ever conceive. We will be present 'with the Lord.' The Apostle Paul said 'this is far better.' The future is bright! I know the Lord may come at any moment - He has promised 'I will
come again.'

"Continue in His great work! Give attention to the winning of souls and exhort yourself to a close walk with God."

Dr. Lee Roberson, "absent from the body, present with the Lord,"
April 29, 2007.

"A Sinner Seeking the Savior"

A Sinner Seeking the Savior
"Nicodemus . . . came to Jesus by night." John 3:1-2

In John 3 we see a sinner seeking the Savior. In John 4 we see the Savior seeking a sinner. And in Luke 5 four men bring a sinner to the Savior for salvation. Here are the three ways in which people come to salvation. Some great lessons in soul winning can be found in each.

"Nicodemus . . . came to Jesus by night" (John 3:1-2). What a thrill when someone comes seeking! Remember, this is the exception; the norm is to "go and tell." We know that before Nicodemus could come, the Father had to "draw him" (John 6:44), but he came as though it was all on his own. He had a reason for coming to Jesus. He had seen the "miracles" and knew Jesus was "a teacher come from God." He knew there was something very different about the Lord Jesus. He saw God working. To let others know what Christ can do for them, let them see what He has done for you.

The Savior did not reprimand Nicodemus for coming at night, whatever his reasons were. It is easy to frighten away the seeker over nonessentials. Keep away from the detours. The important thing was that Nicodemus had come to the right person to find life. Would your neighbors or fellow workers know to come to you for theanswers to their hearts' needs? God tells us Nicodemus was a "ruler of the Jews," obviously a man of importance. Sometimes we have the unhealthy attitude that men of stature cannot be reached. There are all kinds of missions and methods for reaching the down-and-outer and so little to reach the up-and-outer. God does say "not many wise" are called, but thank God he does not say "not any." Here was a very religious man, a Pharisee, and yet not saved.

This is hard for some to believe, but "many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not . . . in thy name done many wonderful works . . . and then will I profess unto them . . . I never knew you" (Matthew 7:22-23). No matter how religious, a wise person will not take a chance on hell but will admit his lack of a real relation to God and come to Christ. It is not religion but relation to Christ that gets a man to heaven. Have you ever been born again? Is your whole life changed because you personally invited Christ to be your Savior? Do it now!

from the American Tract Society email

calling all bird watchers

We recently saw this bird in the crepe myrtle tree outside the kitchen window. It was almost as big as a pigeon. Does any one know what the name of this bird is?

Happy Birthday, Roxanne!

Wishing a happy birthday today to Roxanne Baggett, Uncle Kelsea's wife, way out west in California. Hope you have a great day!

strings on the river

We enjoyed the second annual “Strings on the River” performance Tuesday night at the Jacoby Symphony Hall. There are only four schools in Jacksonville with orchestras and they were on display in what is becoming an annual concert. Our seats were great thanks to my son - even though we were on the 3rd level (the Grand Tier,) we were on the very front row "section A." The two elementary schools represented were Pine Forest School of the Arts, Brentwood School of the Arts, the Lavilla Middle School of the Arts and the Douglas Anderson High School of the Arts performing last. I thought the Pine Forest elementary school (pictured above) was very impressive. Their selections included "Simple Gifts" with the students singing one verse, the bluegrass favorites "Bile 'em Cabbage Down & Cripple Creek" and ended with "The Patriot." One student played the Revolutionary War Drum and near the end another student marched onto the stage with the American flag bringing everyone to their feet.

The guest performer with the DA Orchestra, playing the violin for the “Violin and Symphony Concerto” was Mark O’Conner. The concerto was written by O’Conner and lasted about 15 minutes or so. He was awesome! The Douglas Anderson orchestra also played the New World Symphony, Movement no. 4, which is also known as the "Finale from the New World." They closed with the “Orange Blossom Special.” This orchestra was excellent and it was hard to believe they were just high school students. The final selection featured all 300 students in a combined performance of a very emotional arrangement of “America the Beautiful.” What a great concert!

Spring Slideshow of the grandkids

stupid question day

Do ever have days at work when people ask you the same questions over and over? Does it seem to you that the same people always ask the same questions? Days like that are either caused by a "full moon" (if there is one) or we just decide to recognize it as "stupid question day." I thought of the title of my blog post today while having one of those days at work last week. Anyway, here are some really "stupid" questions (from one of those emails floating around the internet)

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are NOT on sale?

Why do we constantly return to the fridge with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Why doesn't glue stick to the bottle?

Why do they use sterilized needles for death by lethal injection?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

And my personal favorite,
Why did Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

why do Christians sing?

Many feel that singing in church is optional while others excuse themselves because they don't have any talent. Our decision to sing at church should be based on our desire to please God. We are created in God's image and we know that God enjoys and participates in musical activity. He has created us with that ability as well. Psalm 33:1 tells us that praise is "comely" or beautiful for the upright. Psalm 147:1 says praise is "comely" for the Lord. Note the correlation between the words "singing" and "praise" in this verse. The majority of verses in the Bible that speak of our "singing" refer to "singing praise to God." The purpose then of singing is to praise God - there is no room left for selfish pleasure.

"Praise" as defined in Hebrews 13:15 is the "fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name." We praise God by thanking Him for who He is and for His goodness. Read Psalm 107 and note that this phrase is used four times in that chapter - "Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" Then read Psalm 98:1 which says "O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things." What better way to remember God's personal works than through our songs! For example, the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" reminds us of God's faithfulness to us personally.

Why do we sing in a public worship service? In singing we are reminded of God's person and wonderful works in our lives. The great hymn writer, Isaac Watts, wrote this poem we know as "I Sing the Mighty Power of God" in 1715:

"I sing the mighty power of God that made the mountains rise;
That spread the flowing seas abroad and built the lofty skies"

When you sing these words, do you think about the God who can create and sustain the world we live in? How much more then he has the power to help us in our daily lives!

Notes taken from a book on music written by Tim Fisher

the Air Force Concert Band

There were a lot of music concerts last night in Jacksonville. Yes, we could have paid $35 to hear the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, or $60 to go hear the world famous Andre Rieu in concert at Veterans Memorial Arena, but we chose to go to the free one at the University of North Florida. The Air Force Concert Band from Washington, D.C. included a stop in Jacksonville on their spring tour. They added a special tribute sung by the Singing Sergeants to the victims at Virginia Tech. It was a very moving, emotional song titled "Hymn to the Fallen." The concert was a very impressive performance by top-notch instrumentalists. All of the members of the concert band are sergeants in the Air Force. I have never heard "Barnum and Bailey's Favorites March" played at such a quick tempo before, simply amazing! After intermission, we enjoyed listening to the Singing Sergeants backed up by the concert band in their tribute to music from the "Those Nifty Fifties." And no, I did not recognize all of those songs - I was only born in 1955!

Orange and Maroon Friday in memory

Gary Varvel posted these cartoons at Varvblog.com in memory of the students at Virginia Tech and their families. Words cannot express our sadness and shock at a time like this.

chocolate desserts

If you like chocolate, check out this link to Chocolate Desserts from BHG.com and msn.com. There are 26 scrumptious-looking pictures of chocolate desserts with a link to the recipe below each image.

CleanFlicks.com is back

After being shut down by the courts last year for editing movies, CleanFlicks.com is back. Of course, they can no longer edit movies for you but they have a selection of movies with no profanity (some may have mild profanity) - no nudity - no graphic violence - and no sexual content. Therefore they are offering many older movies for rent, the ones you do not ever see on TV anymore like "Ma and Pa Kettle" and "Abbott and Costello" to name a couple that caught my eye. Also there are more recent titles available if they meet the standards above. The rental service is similar to NetFlicks.com.






This one has been circulating the internet recently. This link to The Magic Gopher is quite interesting and you will find yourself saying "How does he do that?!"

Is there a Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream shop near you? Check out this link to find out because some of those shops are participating in Free Cone Day.

family photo album

Some recent photos of the grandkids to enjoy! Spring is in the air!

Natalie picking up pine cones for the neighbor lady next door - I hear that she thought of doing this on her own!
Mam-maw says that she helped to wash dishes when she was three, so she was told, but she just doesn't remember it!


Meredith is sporting her "latest" hair-do! She is now four months old!











Brielle is learning to talk on the phone at a very young age of 7 months! Or is she just chewing on the phone??

Happy Birthday, Uncle Joel!

Wishing a happy birthday to Uncle Joel Blackstock who turns 70 today! And you thought he was only 39! Also two of his grandsons are celebrating their birthdays this time of the year. I don't have the exact dates, but I know Colby and Dustin Blackstock are probably enjoying birthday cake today too!

community orchestra photos

We went to hear Brandon and Rachel play in the Community Pops Orchestra concert tonight at the Fleet Landing in Mayport, Florida. The members of the orchestra come from all walks of life and "Love Music" as their director likes to say! (also watch the video posted I recorded below)

Brandon, first chair trumpet

Rip and Nathan also play trumpet

Rachel playing the flute

View from our seats

Brandon and Mark talk after the concert

Community Pops Orchestra

Brandon and Rachel in the Pops Orchestra Concert Saturday night, excerpt from "Pirates of the Caribbean"

if you build it, they will come

The south-bound bridge over the Trout River on I-95 is complete and they are slooowly working on dismantling the old bridge to build a new north-bound span. This is what I will get to view as I travel home from work everyday for the next two years!

click to see previous postings of the bridge

Happy Birthday, Debbie!

Wishing a happy birthday to my sister, Debbie Logan, who turns 54 today! Hope you enjoy the day and don't work too hard! At least you survived your ride in the UPS truck!

Debbie with Philip and April after the guitar concert

Varvel pays tribute to Johnny Hart

Nice cartoon posted at Varvel's blog in honor of Johnny Hart, the creator of the comic strip B.C. He passed away this week. He had a stroke while at his drawing board - "he died with his shoes on." Many times, Hart would focus on Christianity in his comic strip, which is rather unusual in this day and age.

web watch

Welcome to OneLook® Dictionary Search

Think of this web site as a search engine for words and phrases: If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, we'll quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or translate that word. If you don't know how to spell the word, we'll help you do that too. No word is too obscure: More than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook® search engine.

www.cheapbooks.com

A web site called Cheapbooks.com compares the prices of many major online bookstores to help you find the cheapest price. The site compares prices from Amazon.com, EBay's Half.com, Barnes & Nobel.com, Overstock.com, as well as other stores like Ecampus.com and BiggerBooks.com.


Welcome to Citizendium

The Citizendium (sit-ih-ZEN-dee-um), a "citizens' compendium of everything," is an experimental new wiki project. The project, started by a founder of Wikipedia, aims to improve on that model by adding "gentle expert oversight" and requiring contributors to use their real names.

Slideshow from Easter in SC

family photo album

Photos from Easter weekend in SC with my Mom and Dad

Mother with Brandon and Rachel after the Living Gallery performance at BJU
Great-Grandpa Franklin with Kenny and Caden

"Practice makes perfect" must be Philip's motto - He has been offered a scholarship to Stetson University.

Nephew Kenny and Casey with their son, Caden - for his first Easter, he chose the bunny rabbit over the chicken!

Happy Birthday, Sharon!

Wishing a happy birthday today to Carl's wife Sharon Baggett down in Texas. She is standing left in the photo, probably throwing rocks at Carl :)

2007 One Shining Moment

One thing we always look forward to is the end-of-tournament CBS video

one shining moment

Check out this blog from SportsTalkCleveland.com - It has the CBS Final Four video wrap-up known as "One Shining Moment" (posted at youtube.com) from the previous ten years, 1996 - 2006.

Gators make history

What a game! Florida 84, Ohio State 75! It is sweeter the second time around! The Gator basketball team made history yesterday becoming the first team in 16 years to win back-to-back titles. Other records set yesterday include Lee Humphrey with the most 3s in NCAA tournament history and that this team was the first one ever to win back-to-back titles with the same starting five players. Congrats to Joakim Noah, Lee Humphrey, Corey Brewer, Taureen Green and Al Horford and the rest of the Gators! Humphrey is the only senior of the starting five, but most expect the others to head to the NBA next year. We will find out by Friday when the championship rally takes place in Gainesville.

Link to Gatorsports.com

Link to Gator Madness at Jacksonville.com

Link to CBSNCAA Tourney videos

out like a lamb

Here in Florida, the weather has lived up to that old elementary school rhyme that says "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." It has been beautiful the last two weeks - too bad it can't stay this way all year round! Now if the other weather "ditty" comes true - "April showers bring forth May flowers" - we should be in good shape. Right now though, we are really low on the rainfall totals in Florida and we pray that we get some much needed rain. We do not look forward to the potential wild fires that we have had in the past.

In case you have not noticed, I have updated my blog sidebar recently.

1) I have added a link to all of my slideshows under Family & Photos.

2) I have changed the "Christian links" to read "Enhancement" with the thinking these links will help enhance your Christian walk and Christian world view. I have added links to another Christian online radio station "Abiding Radio" and also links to my home church and my son's church , Hope Baptist Church in PA. He has many photos posted of his youth group activities you might enjoy viewing. Another new link is to "Pulpit Helps" which has many free articles available. This site is connected to Spiros Zodhiates, and his ministry to the Greeks (AMG Int.) I read the printed version of "Pulpit Helps" for years and was happy to find this online site.

3) I have added two more bloggers to my "Blogroll" . Natalie and Meredith's Grandpa Johnson has started blogging again at "G'pa J" and "Youthpastor711" is written by our church youth pastor's wife, Carrie Bennett. She always includes lots of photos of the youth activities at our church.

4) Under the heading of "News, Sports & Fun" I have removed Duke basketball links and added the link to the Braves. Baseball season starts tonight with one game, St Louis Cardinals vs NY Mets. Also on the horizon is the Drum and Bugle Corps season, so I have added the link to DCI and will add others as the season progresses. Beyond the Ultimate is a site sponsored by Athletes in Action and has some interesting info, videos, and testimonies of coaches, athletes and even sports broadcasters like Clark Kellogg.