Clouds in a building?  Believe it.  And stare in nerdy awe.

3 of a Kind by Theodore Scott

Hello everyone. My name is Andrew and I was homeschooled.

It is true. For 10 years, through high school, I walked in those proud ranks.

And what a mighty force we were. Standing against the foes of cultural liberalism, the Democratic Party and the Public Educational System, we were a fell enemy to all things evil. Armed with our Latin, Logic and SAT scores we slew the ideas and perspectives we hated.

We measured ourselves against the ignorant horde of the Public Schooled and came out the Victors. It was we who were fair-minded. It was we who were free to think and reason. It was we who were preserved from State Controlled brain washing. It was we who had the best theology, the best philosophy and the best politics.

We bled republican red. We applied our proven grassroots ability and far-reaching networking to great success for our saviors in D.C. We fought to keep prayers public in the schools we shunned and we ached for our government to be run by Christians once again.

We spat upon the endless, mindless questioning of American-hating liberalism. We defended absolute Truth and repelled Mr. Darwin. We worked to keep our nation afloat in the seas of moral relativism. We were the sails and we were the rudder; predestined to put our Christian Country back on course.

We were the intellectual warriors, the fair-minded victors and the liberalism-squelching band of home-educated brothers. Ours was a proud tradition and we fought tooth and nail to defend it.

And yet.

I left the ranks of the Enlightened and upon entering the marketplace of ideas and results, I was humbled.

I found that I was not the conqueror and that there were scores of people educated differently than I who were far wiser and more intelligent than I.

I found that the Republican Party is just as nasty, spiteful and sin-filled than any political party anywhere in this sinning world.

I found that liberalism really does have some very searching questions, few of which I had developed any real solid answers for.

I found that my country is not really the greatest and that she will ultimately fall as all great countries have.

I found that I am just an ordinary guy relying on Jesus in a sinning, sorry world. I love myself too much. I love my mind too much. I love this world too much.

Home Education has much to offer. My parents did right by me in it. It took guts and gumption and they succeeded with flying colors. I know many more young men and women who have benefited from it as I have. My wife and I plan on homeschooling our own small children. Yet, it is still a human enterprise and as such, it is open to the same sin and vice as any activity engaged in by men.

In the end, it was all about lost sheep.

It was about Ben, the Island-bred murderous liar, for whom manipulation was second nature and coercion simply a means to the end of the moment.

It was about Sawyer, the smooth-talking con-man, rough around every edge, singularly bent on murderous revenge.

It was about Kate, the attractive girl-next-door killer, on the run from the authorities and her broken past.

It was about the Kims, husband and wife in name only, owners of a broken marriage and slaves to a dictatorial father/boss.

It was about John, the bitterly angry paraplegic orphan with sever daddy issues.

It was about Jack, the work absorbed, brilliant surgeon, who could fix everything except his own broken, screwed-up life.

It was about Sayid, the torturer.

It was about Charlie, the druggie.

It was about Claire, the young-mother-turned-crazie.

It was about Hurley, the large, superstitious lottery-winning schizophrenic.

It was about Desmond, the yellow-bellied time-traveller.

It was about a diverse group of fallen, flawed and ultimately lonely people.

They tried to fix things, they tried to do things their own way.  Every step was a stumble, every stumble a full-on face plant.

In the end, it is all about a Lamb.

A Lamb who was born a miraculous birth.

A Lamb who lived a completely human life.

A Lamb who is without spot or blemish.

A Lamb who sympathizes as a Kind and Dread Sovereign.

A Lamb who bled, died and rose again.

This Lamb redeemed David, the cowardly murderous adulterer.

This Lamb redeemed Jacob, the spineless mommas-boy cheat.

This Lamb redeemed Moses, the timidly fearful seeker of man’s honor.

This Lamb redeemed Peter, the loud-mouthed, impetuous, impatient fisherman.

This Lamb redeemed Saul, the hate-filled, Pharisaical butcher.

This Lamb redeemed the dying, bloody, pathetic thief on the Cross.

This Lamb redeemed me.

The Stories of men are powerful.  They’re riveting.  They’re didactic.  They’re inspiring.

Yet, all such stories of hope and grace and redemption pale in comparison to the glorious Light, our Lion and Lamb, in whom is no darkness.

This is for those of you (like me) who are Lost fanatics.

Interesting.  Colorful.  Imaginative.  Pixels. 

From Oddee.com, some of the world’s most beautiful libraries.

I’ve been to the Long Room at Trinity College in Dublin, and the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.  Anyone else visited any of these others?

The ultimate apologetic is to a dying man….

The are a lot of different kinds of Good News, but there is little good news in “My argument scored more points than you argument.” But the news that “Christ is risen!” really is Good News for one kind of person: The person who is dying.

If Christianity is not a dying word to dying men, it is not the message of the Bible that gives hope now.

What is your apologetic? Make it the full and complete announcement of the Life Giving news about Jesus.

- Michael Spencer (the Internet Monk)

HDB/Cram & Ferguson

Beautiful.

Strange, Creative, Thoughtful and eerily beautiful.

The art of Alexa Meade:

Bruce Willis + Computer Animated Gorillaz + Awesome Cars = SWEET Music Video

Gorillaz – Stylo from mario ucci on Vimeo.

Ireland wins over Wales, 27 – 12!

Our religion ought to inform our politics as it ought to inform our whole life. There are some political issues we should not be silent on (abortion comes to mind). However, the “culture wars” in America have duped Christians into enlisting in causes that have nothing to do with their religion. Worse still, it makes our religion into simply one aspect of a larger subsuming culture complete with its own schools, dress, music, television shows and diets. It doesn’t take a large jump before those things all become of similar importance, and Christ takes his place in the pantheon between Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck (or Obama and Al Franken, as the case may be). It’s the devil’s old bait-and-switch. Christ didn’t have a problem with the Pharisee’s actual righteousness, he had a problem with assuming that adherence to arbitrary cultural conventions was righteousness. Christianity is not a culture, it is trans-cultural. When we engage in evangelism, it should not be to make people more like us, but rather more like Christ.

- Justin Longacre, “Five Things“

Ireland wins over England, 20-16!!!