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Merry Christmas 2011!

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 23:14:24 -0700

To all our friends around the world, near and far, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas, and blessings in the coming New Year. I hope you have been blessed by the resources on our sites!

To those just embarking on a new trek through the Bible, you are at the start of an incredible journey, and I pray God will pour out His richest blessings to you and all yours!

Whether you are finishing up your journey through the Bible for the past year, or embarking on a new one for the New Year, why not drop us a note in our Guest Book. Your words just might encourage someone else! Click HERE to make an entry.

This past year has been one filled with challenges for me, but as I reflect back, I can thank God for His love and faithfulness, and blessings far more than I deserved.

No matter what trials you have gone through this past year, or what challenges you may face this coming year, never forget to be thankful, and never give up hope in the One who loves you and cares for you infinitely.

First and foremost, He wants to have a personal relationship with you. Isn't that amazing? The Creator of the universe, a billion light years across, loves you! Find out how to get started HERE!

Then He wants you to grow more Christ-like in your character and walk. Reading the Bible is a good step in helping you toward that goal. Be persistent, don't give up. If you fall behind, or stumble along the way, don't be discouraged, but keep plodding along. You will be glad you did!

God's Amazing Majesty and Glory and Power!

Sat, 9 Apr 2011 11:53:40 -0600

Today's readings reminded me of the ultimate majesty and glory and power of God. Jesus reminded us of the ultimate victory over the devil, saying, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:18, NKJV).

Moses declared the majesty and glory of our God:

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, also the earth with all that is in it....For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe....You shall fear the LORD your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name....He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen" (Deut. 10:12-14, 17, 20, NKJV)

Listen to this song about our "Indescribable" God, by Chris Tomlin!

The Tragedy in Tucson

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 15:21:02 -0700

It has been my privilege to live in the great city of Tucson for the past two and one-half years. I shed tears several times over the past three weeks as I learned of the tragedy of 1-8-11, and the stories of those who were wounded and killed, as well as the stories of many heroes that day.

I was out and about enjoying time with my children on that sunny Saturday morning, when my wife texted me that congresswoman Gabby Giffords had been shot. I immediately felt a deep sense of shock and sorrow. A short while later, she texted me that the congresswoman had died, and then a short while later that she had survived.

Later, away from the children, I turned on the news, and began to absorb the enormity of what had just happened. Six precious lives were lost, my congresswoman and twelve others were wounded, and a community, a state, and a nation were shaken.

I have a precious, nine-year-old daughter (she turned ten on 1-19), and my heart grieves for another family who lost their precious, nine-year-old daughter in the senseless tragedy.

The healing has begun in our city. Today I went out for the first time since the shooting to the Safeway at Ina and Oracle, the site of the tragedy, and visited the memorial set up in front of the entrance to the store. I was greatly moved emotionally as I viewed pictures of those who were lost, and so many flowers, candles, teddy bears, and messages of hope.

It is impossible to understand why tragedies like this happen. Our hearts continue to grieve with those who have been victimized, and our prayers are with them and their families. There is hope and there is healing in Jesus Christ, and it is in times such as these that we can find hope and comfort in the Scriptures.

If you have been following along in the Bible Reading Schedule so far this year, you have recently finished reading through the book of Job, a man who suffered great tragedies. He lost his precious children, his health, and his possessions.

Yet in this book, when God answered Job out of the whirlwind, He chose not to answer the question of "Why?" God told Job, in essence, "Trust in Me." In the end, Job persevered in his faith, though it had been shaken. God greatly blessed the life of this man after these trials.

In the New Testament, we have this marvelous promise, and I offer the words of Romans 8:28 - words of comfort, words of hope, and words of healing - to the victims and their families, to our community here in Tucson, and to the whole nation:

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." (NKJV)

In the end, no matter what befalls us in life, God is working all things together for our good, and for His glory! This gives us "strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow." When trials and tragedies strike, dear friend, look to Jesus, and you, too, can find His comfort, grace, and hope, knowing that He will carry you through.

Happy Thanksgiving to You!

Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:04:23 -0700

Here is a wish for a most blessed and happy Thanksgiving from my family to you and all yours! I hope that the practice of giving thanks is a reality every day of the year for you, that you will acknowledge the blessings God pours out into your life every single moment of every single day, both in good times and in bad. Every next breath and every next heartbeat literally is His loving gift.

It was our distinct blessing and privilege once again to have four generations, representing ages from age 91 to age 6, gathered together this Thanksgiving day in Tucson! The gift of family is one of the greatest blessings of this life, and the moments to cherish together are truly gifts from above.

Above all I am thankful for my Lord and Savior who took my place and died for my sins that I might be forgiven and have a home in heaven! The gift He gave me is greater than all others, the privilege of having the testimony, "This is my story, to God be the glory, I'm only a sinner, saved by grace!"

And so I hope that you may experience His abundant grace through this holiday season and for the next year!

In Him,

Norm Enger

My New Blog Site for Technical Content...

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 19:58:04 -0700

I have created a new blog site, http://thesqlguy.wordpress.com, entitled "The SQL Guy," where I will be moving any technical content that currently resides on my biblereadingschedule.com blog. I will provide a link at each old blog entry pointing to the new location for that entry. I will continue to use the biblereadingschedule.com blog site for blogging related to this site as well as personal and other topics.

Smoother RealPlayer Audio Playback for BibleGateway's "Listen to this Passage" feature...

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:36:38 -0600

For smoother RealPlayer audio playback when using BibleGateway's "Listen to this Passage" feature, change your RealPlayer settings to use the HTTP protocol. For RealPlayer SP 1.1.3, make the following changes:

1. Go to the "Tools" menu -> Preferences.

2. Highlight "Network Transports" under "Connection."

3. Put a check mark in the box next to "Manually configure connections settings."

4. Click the "RTSP Settings" button.

5. Uncheck the two middle boxes, "Attempt to use UDP for all content..." and "Attempt to use TCP for all content...." Leave the other boxes, including the "Attempt to use HTTP for all content" box, checked, then click OK.

6. Click the "PNA Settings" button.

7. Uncheck the two middle boxes, "Attempt to use UDP for all content..." and "Attempt to use TCP for all content...." Leave the other boxes, including the "Attempt to use HTTP for all content" box, checked, then click OK.

8. Click OK to save the changes.

This should result in smoother playback if you were noticing any issues.

Resolutions for the New Year From the Books of Malachi and Revelation...

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:07:30 -0700

Here are some good resolutions to make for the coming year based on the last readings of the year from the books of Malachi and Revelation.

Malachi Chapter 1:
Offer the first and the best of all that you have and all that you are to the Lord this coming year.

God is a great King, indeed Lord of lords and King of kings, and He deserves our best.

Malachi Chapter 2:
Remain wholly committed to the marriage covenant which you made before God, and to the spouse you married.

Maybe you are in a broken or damaged relationship with your spouse. Renew your commitment to God and to the one you married.

Malachi Chapter 3:
Allow the "Messenger of the covenant," our Lord Jesus Christ, to refine you and purge sin out of your life.

As we reflect on the past year, all of us have things that occurred that we are ashamed of, or areas in which we could have done better. Allow the Lord to purge the things that are displeasing to Him out of your life this new year.

Malachi Chapter 4:
Rejoice in the "sun of righteousness," God's Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and in the many blessings He in His mercy and grace bestows.

Revelation Chapter 22:
Maybe you are thirsty because you have been living in a spiritual wasteland this past year. If you are unsaved, say YES to the invitation of our Lord:

"I, Jesus, have sent My angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star. The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life." (Revelation 22:16-17, NIV)

From my family to you and yours, we wish you the best year ever in your walk with the Lord! Happy New Year!

Rubik's Cube - My Take on a Solution!...

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:00:00 -0700

Over the years at various times I have had fun with a Rubik's Cube solution memorized so that I can solve any cube. Here is my take on a solution. If you are looking for an easy to memorize solution that is rock solid, check it out. You are likely to make some mistakes at first (some of the steps are a bit tricky to describe accurately), but stick with it...the steps are accurate...you will get it!! Good luck!

Merry Christmas, 2009!

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:18:12 -0700

From my family to yours we wish you a blessed and Merry Christmas as we celebrate, like angels and shepherds did long ago, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our prayer for you in this upcoming year is that you may know the love of Christ, the joy of His salvation, and the peace He gives that surpasses all understanding!

"...the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...."
- Galatians 5:22 (NIV)

Fun online site with free Mad Libs, MasterMind, and Hangman...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:52:45 -0700

If you are like me and love thinking and word games, you will love MadGlibs, at http://www.madglibs.com/index.php, a free site which I recently discovered and have been enjoying of late. In particular I am a big fan of MasterMind, which they call "MadMinds." Their version of the classic game is extremely fun and challenging, with various levels of difficulty, from very easy to very hard. One nice thing about their implementation is that it is entirely written in JavaScript (in fact most of their site is), and the interface and graphics are simple and large enough to enjoy even on a higher-resolution display.

I am also enjoying their version of Hangman, which they call "MadMen." And some of their Mad Libs generators, which they call "MadGlibs," can be quite hilarious! Below is an example I created by clicking their "Totally Random" button to fill in the form for "Letter From Camp" with random words, and then typing in values in the fields that were not populated. There are some other funny ones, such as "The Walmart Difference." Be sure check out this fun and free site!

Here is the example Mad Lib:

Glibs - free online Mad Libs'>

Letter From Camp

Dear Uncle Alden,
I am having a(n) crazy, flipped-out time at camp. The counselour is gothic and the food is disciplinary. I met Hannah and we became erratic friends. Unfortunately, Hannah is changing and I skidded my eye lash so we couldn`t go stopping like everybody else. I need more corn and a tax sharpener, so please platonically appraise more when you dawdle back.
Your cousin,
Isaiah

Was Darwin a fool?

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:58:16 -0700

Was Darwin a fool? Recently much has been made of the 200th anniversary of his birth. No doubt his teachings have influenced many to reject the knowledge of or the belief in God. The Bible says in Psalm 14:1, "The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."" Based on that, I would say, yes, Darwin, and those who have been influenced by him or continue to be, were and are fools! Some of them are very intelligent, but that just makes them educated fools. It is the highest foolery to reject God, and the greatest tragedy to enter into eternity without Christ. Click HERE to read a Gospel presentation and learn how to enter into a life-changing relationship with the Creator of the universe!

Wishing You a Blessed New Year!

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:28:32 -0700

We come to the conclusion of another year, and the beginning of a new one. It is my hope and prayer that you will find all of your sufficiency in Christ this coming year, and that this will be the most successful yet spiritually for you and all yours. May you find forgiveness for all the shortcomings and failures of the past year, and renewed hope and strength for the journey ahead. It is my prayer that you will receive spiritual strength and nourishment from reading and treasuring up God's precious Word in your heart over the coming year, and that the tools on this site will minister to you. From me and my family to yours, we wish you a most blessed and happy New Year!

New Translation Choice, Holman Christian Standard Bible, Available...

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:45:00 -0700

I have added a new translation option, the Holman Christian Standard Bible, as a choice on the "Select a Bible Translation" drop-down menus for both the Bible Reading Schedule and the Memory Verse System. This is an excellent, newer translation.

You can view a helpful video introduction to this translation HERE

An additional change was to rearrange the list of available translations on the drop-down list into alphabetical order. This will change the saved translation option if you had a translation selected before. To correct this, just re-select your preferred translation.

Do You Know? - New Gospel Presentation Based on Evangelism Explosion...

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 19:30:00 -0700

In the last couple of weeks we have changed our old Gospel presentation to a new one based on Evangelism Explosion International's very effective presentation. I recently completed a course in this method of sharing the Gospel, so I am excited to place an adapted version up on this Web site.

If you are not a Christian, I invite you to read the new presentation and consider the claims of Christ. If you are a Christian, I invite you to use it as a tool in sharing Christ with your non-Christian friends and loved ones. You can view the new presentation HERE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 10:10:00 -0700

If you have read today's Old Testament reading, you will find the inspiration for my favorite hymn of all time, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness." The passage is Lamentations 3:22-23:

Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.

A few years back, when we left Mississippi, and left our former church, Broadmoor Baptist, the folks in the music ministry fulfilled a tradition by giving us a Baptist Hymnal, with kind words of encouragement and prayers written by various members for us, the departing family, above or below each one's favorite hymn. The following kind words and encouragement were written by one of our dear friends, Susan W., on the page with "Great Is Thy Faithfulness":

"I pray you will always be aware of God's faithfulness in your life, clinging to the hope and knowledge of it in the valleys and celebrating it on the mountain tops. Philippians 4:4-7. Susan."

What an encouragement for us all! Celebrate God's goodness no matter what!

Philippians 4:4-7, the passage she quoted, says:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

And so from my family, who will be gathering together this day with four generations present in Tucson, to yours, we wish you a most blessed Thanksgiving!

We leave you with the words of the great hymn:

Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Words by Thomas O. Chisholm, Music by William M. Runyan

Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy Faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love.

Great is Thy Faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy Faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

November 4th Election - McCain - Palin vs. Obama - Biden on Pro-Life Issues...

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:15:57 -0600

Many thanks to the National Right to Life Committee for publishing an outstanding brochure on the positions of John McCain and Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama and Joseph Biden on pro-life issues. No Christian who respects human life should support or vote for Obama/Biden, as the issue of the sanctity of life transcends issues of war, the economy, and the stock market. And every Christian who respects life should pray for and vigorously support and vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin on November 4th.

Click HERE to view a copy of this colorful brochure in PDF format.

In summary...

Barack Obama supports abortion on demand, opposes the Partial-Birth Abortion Act, opposes protecting babies who are born alive after an abortion, supports taxpayer funding of abortion, and opposes parental notification. This is a dangerous candidate for the future of the unborn, who continue to be slaughtered by the thousands and millions in this country and around the world.

John McCain and Sarah Palin are just the opposite and have strong pro-life records and positions, and with our prayers and support they will be the next President and Vice President of the United States of America.

Bejeweled 2 - Strategies for High Scoring Games

Sat, 9 Aug 2008 21:00:00 -0600

Okay, a while back I promised I'd share some of my strategies for Bejeweled 2, the stupendously simple, yet superbly challenging game from PopCap. So here goes a brief description of strategies I have discovered for having some very high scoring, long lasting games.

The version of the game I use is Bejeweled 2 Deluxe from PopCap Games and Sony Pictures Digital. I always play the "classic, untimed" game. I first played a Java version on an old cell phone.

So here are my rules and strategies:

1. Hypercubes (5 in a row) are your best friends! Build as many as you can, and never detonate one unless you are absolutely forced to. These are your "life savers," your "fail safes" when you run out of other moves, and are what will enable you to have very long games - 25, 50, 75 or more rounds.

2. A good move is one that creates, or tends toward creating, a hypercube, leads to other moves, or results in a chain reaction.

3. Powercubes (4 in a row) are your worst enemies! They only tend toward chaos and complicate the task of building hypercubes. Don't intentionally build them, as a general rule, and if you are "given" one, detonate it as soon and as safely as possible. By "safely," I mean in a way that does not destroy any adjacent hypercubes.

4. When you have the luxury of doing so, try to "move" existing hypercubes to the bottom three rows. This will clear the upper part of the board for other moves.

5. My ideal board is one in which there are many (4 or more) hypercubes, all located in the bottom few rows, and no un-detonated powercubes. I have had as many as 10 hypercubes on the board at one time...cool, seriously!

6. When you do have to detonate a hypercube, try to choose a color to detonate that has 10 or more of that color on the board...the more the better!

7. Take breaks! Remember, when you exit Bejeweled, your current game is automatically saved in its current state, and will be there waiting for you when you return the next time.

Good luck, and have fun!

Welcome to Tucson!

Sat, 2 Aug 2008 19:30:00 -0600

The week of July 14, I took a week of vacation and relocated, for family reasons, to incredibly beautiful Tucson, AZ. Spectacular mountains surround Tucson, and it reminds me of the verse of Scripture, "As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His people." No matter what, He is surrounding us and covering us with his love and care. Even if all else fails in life, He never does!

My employer was gracious enough to allow me to relocate and work remotely. God is truly good! - though I will miss seeing my work friends and church family back in the "Carpet Capitol of the World." Those of you reading this....you know I miss you!

I have gotten settled in and am starting to adjust to the desert climate. We are in monsoon season, so I have been able to see a few good thunderstorms and downpours rumble through...something to remind me a little bit of back home in Georgia, I guess!

I have found a great church I am visiting, Sabino Road Baptist Church. The believers there are an incredibly loving and welcoming group of Christian folks. I will be playing my violin in the services, accompanying the singing, for the first time tomorrow. Two of the songs are a couple of my favorites, "Our God Is an Awesome God" and "God of Wonders" - fitting for this setting in Arizona, "the Grand Canyon state," where the beauty of the creation truly testifies to glory of the Creator, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Personalize This Site! Choose Your Own Color Scheme...

Sat, 31 May 2008 17:21:39 -0600

Through the use of the style sheet technology, we have added a little JavaScript "magic." At the bottom of each page, there are links that let you choose your own color scheme. Through the use of cookies, your selection is "remembered" the next time you come back to that page or as you navigate from page to page.

New Look for Our Site! Let Us Know What You Think...

Sat, 31 May 2008 17:17:43 -0600

This past week we have been working on rolling out a brand new look for our site. The programming has been updated to make better use of cascading style sheets (CSS), and the site has been revamped giving it a new, cleaner, and more consistent look and feel.

Through the use of the style sheet technology, we have added a little JavaScript "magic." At the bottom of each page, there are links that let you choose your own color scheme. Through the use of cookies, your selection is "remembered" the next time you come back to that page or as you navigate from page to page.

We hope you like these changes. In any case, let us know what you think, and by all means, let your friends and family know about this great resource on the Web that just keeps getting better!

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:30:06 -0600

Thinking about the "Expelled" movie I saw tonight, I was inspired in the car on the way home listening to a beautiful hymn declaring how wondrously the Creation testifies to the glory of the Creator.

Psalm 19:1 states, "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork."

Here are the lyrics of this great hymn.

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

Words: Isaac Watts, Divine and Moral Songs for Children, 1715.

I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at God's command, and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food,
Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where'er I turn my eye,
If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.

There's not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care;
And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God art present there.

"Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" exposes hypocrisy of the intellectual tyrants and dictators of evolutionary dogma...

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:34:41 -0600

For the film's website, you can click HERE.

This evening I went to see the much-maligned but excellent film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" by Ben Stein, exposing the hypocrisy of the intellectual tyrants and dictators of evolutionary dogma. The film is ridiculed, maligned, and insulted, that is, by some evolutionists and atheists (if you go to their blog sites) and by some mainstream film critics - which is a good sign that it is on mark and making some people uncomfortable by exposing their hypocrisy as well as the lunacy of evolutionary belief. As the head of the Discovery Institute says in the film, they are merely pointing out "the emperor has no clothes."

I am a big fan of "Looney Toons" cartoons, and evolutionists' dogma is not much better. They are positively "looney" in their hurling of insults, vitriolic bitumen, toxic waste spewing from the polluting factories of their minds, which is the only tactic they seem to be able to employ since they are so miserable at answering the hard questions by those who are skeptical of evolutionary dogma.

One advocate of Intelligent Design said it well in the movie, something to the effect of "Hard questions not well-answered have a way of not going away" - which is to say the ID voice - and the debate - is not going away any time soon, and especially as increasing numbers of scientists decide to escape, at great risk of harm, the uncomfortable confines of the damp and dreary intellectual gulags.

Why do some evolutionists want to stifle the free speech and intellectual freedom of those who question the orthodoxy? I would say they are running scared. And in my opinion well they should.

One other note. One of the evolutionists in the film mentioned the deplorabe state of science education in America, but it seems to me that it is those secular humanist foxes that have been guarding that henhouse the last 50 years - a telling admission of the failure of their approach. I think the presenting of ID or Creationism as an alternative to evolution will elevate the teaching of science and will help us regain some of that lost ground.

SQL 2005 Blocking Chains - a Friendly Display Using CTE and Recursion

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 23:30:00 -0600

Note: content for this article has been moved to http://thesqlguy.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/sql-2005-blocking-chains-a-friendly-display-using-cte-and-recursion/

Continuing my non-serious series of blog posts, yet another Bejeweled new high score!

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:20:18 -0600

Are you a Bejeweled 2 enthusiast like me? Yet another game has shattered my old records, with 4.4 million points and 53 levels completed! Here is the screen shot from this remarkable game, which I'll admit was played over several sessions over several days. I have developed some Bejeweled 2 strategies which I will blog about at some point when I continue this "non-serious" series of blog posts!

On a lighter note for the New Year, a new Bejeweled 2 high score!

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 11:20:11 -0700

Someone commented I must be bored! I wasn't planning on it, but it was the Bejeweled 2 game that just wouldn't die! I am a big fan of Bejeweled, and I decided to ring in the New Year last evening with a game. I started about 5:30 p.m., and almost 6 hours later, I had a game that racked up 37 levels completed, and more than 1.5 million points, double my previous high score. Here is a screen shot showing the statistics from that game, which ended just before midnight, just in time for the New Year!

History of the Resources on This Site...

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 10:34:39 -0700

Someone recently sent me an email asking about the origin and arrangement of the Bible Reading Schedule and Summary Outline Charts, and it made me realize I have never shared in much detail about the history of the tools on this site.

The schedule originated out of a personal Bible study I embarked on in the early 1990's. My goal was to gain a better understanding of the flow of the history of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and to grow in my relationship with Christ. I consulted a variety of resources, including commentaries, Bible encyclopedias, and other sources as a supplement to my personal study.

Ultimately the idea of creating a Bible reading plan was formulated, and the color-coded schedule and outline charts were the end result. The schedule was originally printed using an early version of Word Perfect, and was first published on the World Wide Web in September 1996.

The decision of how, chronologically, to order the Old and New Testaments was somewhat arbitrary but was based on what seemed to me at the time the most harmonious for reading. The OT seemed to lend itself to an event-ordered flow because there are many parallel passages for the same events scattered across different books, and I desired to bring those together in close proximity to one another. In the NT the order seemed to lend itself more to an order-written flow, except for the four gospels, because many of the books are smaller epistles or letters. The end result, I believe, is a panoramic view of biblical history from the beginning of time to the end of time.

One of my goals when designing the schedule was to avoid too choppy a level of granularity when coupling together the various parallel passages. Another goal was to, as harmoniously as possible, divide the daily readings up not based on chapter counts but on verse counts. This was achieved by taking the total verse counts of both the Old and New Testaments, dividing by 365, and using that number of verses as a general guide or rule for the length of each day's reading. This is reflected in the schedule in that sometimes you will just read one larger chapter, and at other times you will read multiple, smaller chapters (as in the Psalms).

The Complete Topical Memory Verse System came into being shortly after the Bible Reading Schedule, and was born out of the seeds of my own personal Bible memorization efforts over several years. Sometime in the early- to mid-1990's, I had purchased one of the early versions of the Lotus Approach database (now owned by IBM), which ran on my Windows 3.1 computer. This, in fact, was my first exposure to database technology, which eventually became the seed for my career in computer technology and databases.

It was using Lotus Approach that I designed a database application that allowed me to easily add and categorize all of the memory verses I had worked on up to that time, as well as add and categorize other verses as I thought appropriate. In fact I found that many of the memory passages contained more than one topic, and this is reflected throughout the system. I also used an early version of the Online Bible to help me search for and and count the verses.

The result was the memory verse system, which I originally designed to be printed out as eight booklets. These booklets became the basis for the eight pages in the online version, which was first published to the Web in April 1997. The system contains 300 topics, from "Abiding in Christ" to "Zeal," and incorporates 1,693 of some of the best-loved memory verses.

And so as not to leave the reader with any other impression, I still actively work on memorizing verses, but I have mastered only a fraction of the 1,693 verses!

I eventually enhanced these tools with client-side JavaScript programming to enable multiple Bible translations to be used, according to the reader's preference, and to allow saving of one's settings to cookies on his or her computer. The biblereadingschedule.com domain came into being in November 2004 and became the permanent home for the schedule and memory verse system.

The online versions have from the beginning always been tightly coupled with GospelCom.net's excellent online Bibles resource, the BibleGateway, and I am extremely appreciative of the efforts of the excellent folks there who have maintained and enhanced BibleGateway over the years!

I believe in these tools, I use them, and I encourage others to use them freely, without charge. My desire has been to share them with as many people as possible via the World Wide Web or other means.

I used to sell copies of the schedule, printed out from my computer, but that became impossible due to the volume of the requests received. Many people from across the country and around the world have written us over the past decade to thank us and to tell us how much they have been blessed by using these resources, which in turn has greatly blessed us. We hope that you too will be blessed by these tools and will write to tell us how God is using them in your life!

SQL 2000 and 2005 Taskpad View Replacement using SQL 2005 RS...

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:06:21 -0700

Note: content for this article has been moved to http://thesqlguy.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/sql-2000-and-2005-taskpad-view-replacement-using-sql-2005-rs/

SQL 2000 and 2005 - Do You Know What Your Autogrowth Settings Are?

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 12:03:15 -0700

Note: content for this article has been moved to http://thesqlguy.wordpress.com/2010/11/15/sql-2000-and-2005-do-you-know-what-your-autogrowth-settings-are/

Some beautiful Christmas desktop wallpapers for your computer at blirk.net...

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:43:12 -0700

There are some beautiful, free Christmas desktop wallpapers for your computer available at http://www.blirk.net/wallpapers/christmas/. My favorite is THIS one.

Christmas blessings to you and yours!

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:31:52 -0700

Here is a wish from me and my family to yours. May you have a blessed and merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! May your life this coming year be filled with the light and love of God's written Word - the Bible - and of the living Word, our Savior, Jesus Christ. May your life be flooded with His light and love each day and each moment this coming year.

And a prayer for those of you who have experienced loss or are lonely this holiday season - may the light and comfort and love of Christ fill your life and give you hope and strength and joy.

Would you visit our Guestbook and take a few moments to share how these resources have touched you this past year? Would you also take a moment to spread the word about our site...send our web address to friends and family, post links to us on your own websites, etc.? We want to see as many people as possible reached and impacted for eternity!

Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!

NEW feature - Print out a copy in Adobe Reader .pdf format with check boxes to track progress!

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:30:00 -0700

We have added a NEW feature - "Track your progress... (check marks saved when viewing in your browser)..." You will see this as a link near the top of each Bible Reading Schedule page. The link will open up in your browser, in a new window, an Adobe .pdf version of that month's schedule, with clickable check boxes.

What is really nice about this is that, thanks to Adobe Reader functionality, when viewed in your browser, the boxes you have checked will be remembered, so you can use this feature to check off each day's readings and track your progress.

Also the .pdf presents a nice format for you to print out a copy of that month's schedule on your own printer.

I have not tested this functionality in other Internet browsers or operating systems (I use Internet Explorer on Windows Vista), nor on different versions of Adobe Reader (I have version 7.0), so if this does not work for you, please let me know, as I am interested in researching this information.

I have not confirmed this, but please be aware the Adobe functionality probably depends on cookies within your browser, so if you don't have cookies enabled or if you have any kind of program that removes cookies, your progress check marks will probably not be saved.

Update 11/28...

Alas, it seems, at least with Vista, that the check marks are not retained after you restart your computer. However the .pdf can still be printed out and the check marks checked off with a pen if you encounter this problem and desire to track your progress.

Update 12/2...

I have changed the text on the links and the title of this post to reflect that this is really only for printing out a copy, as the check box remembering functionality does not seem to be reliable. We still encourage to you print copies out for personal use if it would be helpful to you.

Interesting Nova program "Intelligent Design on Trial" aired tonight...

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:56:47 -0700

Nova on PBS aired an interesting program tonight, "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial," about the Dover trial of two years ago. It is being followed, as I write, by another documentary, "12 Days in Dayton: the Scopes Monkey Trial," about the Scopes trial of 1925.

The ID documentary presented both sides of the case, but with a decided bias toward evolution, as would be expected from the documentary's liberal-leaning makers. What was really highlighted to me, however, was how badly the judge bungled the case, in my opinion, buckling under the pressure of political correctness, and making a really horrendous, excessive, and hostile ruling that was not at all warranted by the evidence that was presented at trial. It is precisely this hostility in his ruling that is most telling.

This case just highlights once again why many of us who believe in Creation have a bad taste in our mouths for the public schools, though we admire most teachers who are sincere and are devoted to educating the next generation. Unfortunately, through the "evolution" of the laws in our nation, in the wrong direction I feel, what has happened in effect is that religion, the Bible, and prayer have been kicked out of the schools, in particular, and out of the public square, in general. And this has led to the current poor state of the schools, in particular, and of our culture, in general, that leaves such a bad taste in our mouths.

Fortunately we still live in a free country where we can pull our children out of the public schools, if we choose to, and take back control over their education. Of course this requires a great deal of commitment and sacrifice, but it is well worth it.

Evolution continues to be one of the greatest myths ever foisted on the human race. The lie continues from the father of lies.

Going to SQL PASS...

Sat, 1 Sep 2007 14:08:44 -0600

I found out recently that my company, Mohawk Industries, will be sending me to the SQL PASS conference in Denver later this month, Sept. 18-21. This will be my first time attending. This is a fantastic meeting including sessions from SQL Server MVP's, the chance to meet SQL Server professionals from around the country and around the world, and the opportunity to interface with representatives from Microsoft and various vendors. I am really looking forward to it.

Sites Tuned Up!...

Sat, 1 Sep 2007 13:30:05 -0600

We performed some updates and tune-ups to the sites today and have fixed a couple of problems. One issue was an error in the September and October BRS pages causing problems with the links to open each day's Scriptures. This has been resolved. Another issue was a problem opening some of the larger topics, such as "Word of God," in the Memory Verse System (this is done by clicking the "Versions" button under each topic). BibleGateway.com instituted a maximum of 25 passages that can be opened up at one time, so these larger topics needed to be broken down into smaller parts. These issues are now resolved. We have also updated our welcome and intro pages. We hope that you will continue to be enriched and blessed by these resources!

"Be Thou My Vision" - Violin Solo (mp3) by Yours Truly...

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 00:00:29 -0600

Here is the second recording for tonight, one of my favorites, the classic hymn "Be Thou My Vision."

"Jesus Loves Me" - Violin Solo (mp3) by Yours Truly...

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:56:45 -0600

Here is the children's classic recorded by me tonight (experimenting with recording using my laptop)...

SQL Server Security Audit Script - Detect Logins With No Permissions - SQL 2005 Version...

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 21:08:13 -0600

Note: content for this article has been moved to http://thesqlguy.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/sql-server-security-audit-script-detect-logins-with-no-permissions-sql-2005-version/

SQL Server Security Audit Script - Detect Logins With No Permissions - SQL 2000 Version...

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 20:57:41 -0600

Note: content for this article has been moved to http://thesqlguy.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/sql-server-security-audit-script-detect-logins-with-no-permissions-sql-2000-version/

Detect SQL 2005 server level permissions for a user - excluding the CONNECT privilege

Mon, 9 Jul 2007 23:27:02 -0600

This script is a variation of a portion of the last script, modified to show relevant permissions at the server level for a particular SQL login. I have added a union to also display logins that have been disabled at the SQL Server level, and ones that have been denied the ability to connect to the database engine.

USE [master] SET NOCOUNT ON /* Modified by NE - 7/9/2007 Thanks to Nathan's script at: http://blogs.geekdojo.net/nathan/default.aspx */ SELECT spr.name, [Object Class]=class_desc, [Object]= CASE class WHEN 100 THEN @@SERVERNAME WHEN 105 THEN (SELECT name FROM master.sys.endpoints WHERE endpoint_id=major_id) ELSE object_name(major_id) END , [column]='', spm.state_desc, [Permission]=permission_name, [Permission Type]= CASE spr.type WHEN 'U' THEN 'Direct' WHEN 'R' THEN 'Inherited' END FROM master.sys.server_permissions spm INNER JOIN master.sys.server_principals spr ON spm.grantee_principal_id=spr.principal_id WHERE spr.type NOT IN('C') AND is_disabled=0 -- AND spr.name=@login AND permission_name NOT LIKE 'CONNECT%' UNION SELECT spr.name, [Object Class]=class_desc, Object= CASE class WHEN 100 THEN @@SERVERNAME WHEN 105 THEN (SELECT name FROM master.sys.endpoints WHERE endpoint_id=major_id) ELSE object_name(major_id) END, '' , spm.state_desc, permission_name, [Permission Type]= CASE spr.type WHEN 'U' THEN 'Direct' WHEN 'R' THEN 'Inherited' END FROM master.sys.server_permissions spm INNER JOIN master.sys.server_principals spr ON spm.grantee_principal_id=spr.principal_id WHERE spr.type NOT IN('C') AND is_disabled=0 AND spr.name='public' AND permission_name NOT LIKE 'CONNECT%' UNION SELECT spr.name, '', '', '', '', CASE WHEN spr.is_disabled = 1 THEN '(Valid login, but login is disabled at the SQL level)' ELSE '(Valid login, but permission to connect to database engine is denied)' END, '' FROM master.sys.server_permissions spm INNER JOIN master.sys.server_principals spr ON spm.grantee_principal_id=spr.principal_id WHERE spr.is_disabled = 1 OR (spm.permission_name = 'CONNECT SQL' AND spm.state_desc = 'DENY')

Detect SQL 2005 all permissions for a user in a database...

Mon, 9 Jul 2007 23:20:20 -0600

Here is yet another security audit script for SQL Server 2005 only. The proc will be created in a particular database and run for a particular user in that databse. It unions together the server level permissions for that user plus his database level permissions, using a different approach than the previous scripts.

IF OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[dba_loginperms]') IS NOT NULL DROP PROCEDURE [dbo].[dba_loginperms] GO CREATE PROC [dbo].[dba_loginperms] @login VARCHAR(128) AS /* Modified by NE - 7/9/2007 Thanks to Nathan's script at: http://blogs.geekdojo.net/nathan/default.aspx EXEC dba_loginperms 'user_name' */ SET NOCOUNT ON IF (SELECT is_disabled from sys.server_principals WHERE name=@login)=1 SELECT 'The login <' + @login + '> is disabled' ELSE SELECT [Object Class]=class_desc, [Object]= CASE class WHEN 100 THEN @@SERVERNAME WHEN 105 THEN (SELECT name FROM sys.endpoints WHERE endpoint_id=major_id) ELSE object_name(major_id) END , [column]='', [Permission]=permission_name, [Permission Type]= CASE spr.type WHEN 'U' THEN 'Direct' WHEN 'R' THEN 'Inherited' END FROM sys.server_permissions spm INNER JOIN sys.server_principals spr ON spm.grantee_principal_id=spr.principal_id WHERE spr.type NOT IN('C') AND is_disabled=0 AND spr.name=@login UNION SELECT [Object Class]=class_desc, Object= CASE class WHEN 100 THEN @@SERVERNAME WHEN 105 THEN (SELECT name FROM sys.endpoints WHERE endpoint_id=major_id) ELSE object_name(major_id) END, '' , permission_name, [Permission Type]= CASE spr.type WHEN 'U' THEN 'Direct' WHEN 'R' THEN 'Inherited' END FROM sys.server_permissions spm INNER JOIN sys.server_principals spr ON spm.grantee_principal_id=spr.principal_id WHERE spr.type NOT IN('C') AND is_disabled=0 AND spr.name='public' UNION SELECT [Object Class]= CASE class WHEN 1 THEN (SELECT REPLACE(type_desc,'_',' ') FROM sys.all_objects WHERE object_id=major_id) ELSE class_desc END , Object = CASE class WHEN 0 THEN DB_NAME() ELSE object_name(major_id) END , [Column]= CASE minor_id WHEN 0 then '' ELSE COL_NAME(major_id,minor_id) END, permission_name, [Permission Type]= CASE dpri.type WHEN 'U' THEN 'Direct' WHEN 'R' THEN 'Inherited' END FROM sys.database_permissions dperm INNER JOIN sys.database_principals dpri ON dperm.grantee_principal_id=dpri.principal_id WHERE dpri.name=@login -- AND state_desc LIKE 'G%' AND major_id>=0 UNION SELECT [Object Class]=class_desc, Object= CASE class WHEN 0 THEN DB_NAME() ELSE object_name(major_id) END, [Column]= CASE minor_id WHEN 0 then '' ELSE COL_NAME(major_id,minor_id) END, permission_name, [Permission Type]= CASE dpri.type WHEN 'U' THEN 'Direct' WHEN 'R' THEN 'Inherited' END FROM sys.database_permissions dperm INNER JOIN sys.database_principals dpri ON dperm.grantee_principal_id=dpri.principal_id WHERE dpri.name='public' -- AND state_desc LIKE 'G%' AND major_id>=0 GO

SQL Server 2000/2005 Security Audit Scripts

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:46:42 -0600

Note: content for this article has been moved to http://thesqlguy.wordpress.com/2010/11/24/sql-server-20002005-security-audit-scripts/

Spreading the word about biblereadingschedule.com...

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:35:23 -0600

We are planning to begin a small campaign to spread the word about the excellent resources available at biblereadingschedule.com! This will include some small advertising buys with sites such as Yahoo! and Google in the coming months. But we encourage you to let others in your circle know about this site...our best advertising has always been word-of-mouth.

We are also considering incorporating as a non-profit ministry. This would allow us to accept donations to help print and advertise. We would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and guidance.

I have for a long time had the dream of having the Bible Reading Schedule mass printed and made available very inexpensively or for free as a resource to thousands if not millions of Christians, and made known to millions via the Web as well, both in America and around the world! If you have ideas for helping this dream to become a reality, please feel free to contact me via email.

Halfway through the year!!!

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 13:22:45 -0600

You have made it halfway through the year, and hopefully, now halfway through reading the Bible using biblereadingschedule.com! If you have made it this far, congratulations!

If you have struggled at times with consistency, don't be discouraged! You are not alone. Don't give up...reading and studying God's Word is one of the most worthwhile endeavors you will embark on, and it is more than worth the effort. The truth is most people who start out don't stay with it, and if they give up the effort, they are allowing themselves to be robbed of blessings.

Recommendations if you have fallen behind:

1. Don't put yourself on a guilt trip. This is hard...if it were easy, everyone would be reading the Word on a consistent basis.
2. Don't try to make up reading passages you have missed, just resume with the current day's readings. You can catch missed readings the next time around.

Recommendations to those who have made it to this point:

1. Keep up the good work!

I invite you to drop me a note at our Guest Book and let me know how you are doing. It's always a blessing to hear from those who are using the site! You can also be encouraged by reading the comments of others.

Note: In order for us to prevent robots from spamming our Guest Book, you will be asked to answer a question, and all entries are moderated before appearing in the Guest Book.

Listen to the Bible via BibleGateway.com...

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 12:29:55 -0600

If you have not already discovered it, one of the most useful features of BibleGateway.com is the ability to listen to audio readings of the passages you bring up. So when you click on a passage in the "OT" or "NT" columns of the Bible Reading Schedule, and the passage opens up at BibleGateway, you can then click on either the mini-toolbar button that has an audio symbol if available, or the link that says "Listen to this passage" if available.

Note that not all translations have audio availble. Also you will find that you may sometimes have to type in the passage for the next chapter or passage and click "Update" (or use the mini-toolbar's right arrow button if available) in order to make the audio link for the next chapter or passage available. Also you may want to use the slider in your audio player to skip ahead when a passage from the Bible Reading Schedule picks up in the middle of a chapter, as it sometimes does.

I want to say thanks to all the great folks at GospelCom.net and BibleGateway.com who make their marvellous resources available for free. You guys and gals do a fantastic job!

Three Memory Templates on "Marriage" (NKJV) Now Available for Download...

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 22:23:56 -0700

I have made three new memory verse templates available (NKJV), in Microsoft Word format, based on the first part of my Complete Topical Memory Verse System topic "Marriage."The first includes the passages Genesis 1:26-28, Proverbs 18:22 and Proverbs 19:14.

The second includes the passages Proverbs 31:10, Proverbs 31:30, Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 and Matthew 5:31-32.

The third includes the passages Malachi 2:14-16, Matthew 19:4-6 and Matthew 19:9.

(To save these, right-click on the links above and choose "Save Target As...")

Others will be added as I am able to make them available.

If you would like these in a different version than the NKJV, you can download them, then modify them to your liking using the translation of your choice.

Excellent Movie "The Last Sin Eater" in Theaters Now...

Sun, 18 Feb 2007 21:59:44 -0700

I had opportunity this weekend to see the excellent film "The Last Sin Eater," based on the best-selling novel by Francine Rivers, masterfully acted by Liana Liberato as ten year-old Cadi Forbes, and masterfully directed by Michael Landon, Jr. Despite the strange title, this film has a powerful Gospel message, and had me in tears in a couple of places (yes, my wife calls me a "softie"!).

If you have the opportunity, I encourage you to see this film as soon as possible and show your support for great Christian cinema such as this. Click HERE to visit the movie's website for more information.

An Old Violin...and the Touch of the Master's Hand!

Sun, 4 Feb 2007 22:08:41 -0700

As a violinist, I love this old poem, "The Touch of the Master's Hand," by Myra Brooks Welch, about the worth of every soul and the transforming touch of the Master's hand, no matter how far from God you may have wandered.The music minister of my church, Chris Diffey, beautifully sang a version of it set to music this morning, reminding me once again of the poem and its timeless truth about the love of Christ.

The Touch of the Master's Hand

'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
       Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin
       But he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
       "Who'll start the bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar...now who'll make it two--
       Two dollars, and who'll make it three?

Three dollars once, three dollars twice,
       Going for three?" ... but no!!
From the room far back a gray-haired man
       Came forward and picked up the bow,
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
       And tightening the loosened strings,
He played a melody pure and sweet,
       As a caroling angel sings.

The music ceased and the auctioneer
       With a voice that was quiet and low
Said, "What am I bidden for the old violin?"
       And he held it up with the bow.
"A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two?
       Two thousand! And who'll make it three?
Three thousand, once; three thousand, twice;
       And going, and gone," said he.

The people cheered, but some of them cried,
       "We do not quite understand.
What changed its worth?" Swift came the reply:
       "The touch of a master's hand."
And many a man with life out of tune,
       And battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
       Much like the old violin.

A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
       A game and he travels on.
He's going once, and going twice --
       He's going -- and almost gone!
But the Master comes, and the foolish crowd
       Never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul, and the change that's wrought
       By the Touch of the Master's Hand.

Myra Brooks Welch, 1926

One Month In, How Are You Doing?...

Thu, 1 Feb 2007 20:58:07 -0700

Congratulations! You have made it through the first month of biblereadingschedule.com! We want to give you an opportunity to share how you are being blessed. You can submit a comment (click on "No Comments" or "Comments" if you do not already see a comment entry form), or sign our Guest Book. Our prayer is that God will be glorified, and you will be edified and built up in your "most holy faith" through this site. Happy reading!

Marriage - Two Becoming One...

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:53:14 -0700

From yesterday's NT reading (Jan. 27 - Matt. 19:1-15), Jesus teaches us about the sanctity and permanence of marriage.

3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" 4 "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

(Matt. 19:3-6, NIV)

There are several timeless truths about marriage from this passage.First, marriage was created and instituted by God Himself. It is rooted in God's creation of mankind, male and female. It is not the product of man's imagination.

Second, marriage is between a man and a woman, not between two men, or two women.

Third, a man is to leave his father and his mother - not his father and his father, or his mother and his mother - and be joined to his wife. Homosexual households are unnatural, and those with children are even more unnatural.

Fourth, God joins a man and a woman as one. Two human beings, different but complementary of each other, are united to become one, in the most intimate relationship in this life.

Fifth, though allowed in our culture and law, so-called "no fault" divorce is not permitted under Jesus' teaching. "Irreconcilable differences" do not justify the destruction of a marriage or a family.

Sixth, marriage is for life...as our vows say, for better or worse, in sickness and health, for richer or poorer, until death do us part. The divorce rate in our nation and worldwide is unconscionable!

Seventh, the institutions of marriage and the family are precious and highly valued in God's sight, so they should be most precious to us in this life.

Let us do everything possible to nourish, guard, and protect that which is most important - our marriages and our homes.

The Sanctity of Life Is Rooted in the Very First Chapter of the Very First Book of the Bible, Genesis 1....

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 13:00:40 -0700

Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday, commemorating the preciousness of life in the midst of a culture of death.

The sanctity of life is rooted in the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible:

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

(Gen. 1:26-27, NIV)

Every human being has been created in the image of God!While the abortion holocaust continues mostly unabated in the United States of America and worldwide, and the culture of death that approves of abortion, infanticide, embryonic stem cell research, and euthanasia grows in influence, God's Word here reminds us of inestimable the value of every single life.

On this day, we mourn for the lives of precious unborn babies that have been snuffed out, and for the damaged, broken lives of the mothers and fathers who have also been victimized by abortion. If you are one of these moms or dads, there is hope, healing, and forgiveness in Christ, for He came to pay for your sin and take away your shame and guilt!

But also on this day we celebrate and revel in the beauty and miracle of life, as we, in my own family celebrated the sixth birthday of our own precious daughter two days ago, and the birth of a brand new baby boy three days ago to my brother-in-law and his wife!

God is the author and giver of human life. May we cherish it, respect it, nourish it, and care for it at every stage of life, from conception to natural death.