This is an amazing Sony Commercial they filmed at a condemned building in Glasgow Scotland.

And the whole thing is REAL.

My wife and girls are in Colorado visiting some friends and she sent me this email (which I have edited slightly):

Greetings from Colorado!

Our gracious host, Cathy, took us last night to the home of herfriends, Bob and Ann.  They are a retired couple from FL.  Their house is surrounded by panoramic views of the Rockies and is fairly isolated.  They regularly have over 50 hummingbirds feeding in the evenings during the summer, as well as herds of deer, elk, chipmunks and even bears in their backyard in the early mornings!  Bob told us he mixes between 1 1/2 and 2 gallons of sugar water each day for his hummingbird feeders!

When we came over, they took down all the feeders except one and let the girls hold that one so that all the hummingbirds would come to them.  Bob took pictures with his camera and emailed them to us.  These are the photos of the girls and the birds.  They were literally perching on their fingers! Meg said it was “a little slice of heaven” and Emily said “I want to live here!”

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.  

Love,
Jean

Can be found HERE.

Hmm, who is at the center of it all?

Scott

If you haven’t seen it, rush out TODAY and go see The Dark Knight. I have decided it is my favorite movie of all time.

Oh, and here’s some cool trivia. Check out the scene below.

Well, the old man at the end, the one NOT INTIMIDATED BY THUGS, who has a knife in his mouth, is none other than Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy. You may remember he was told to “Go F$%K yourself” by Vice President Dick Cheney on the Senate floor. Not intimidated by thugs, indeed.

Scott

UPDATE: Per the suggestion of people I respect, I have edited this post by removing the last paragraph.

Larry Hunter has very strong conservative cred and I agree with him, namely, if ill-advised tax and economic plans are the price we have to pay to reverse the disaster of the last 8 years then so be it. We need to restore the constitution and the rule of law to this country and stop fighting dumb wars.

link

Scott

I like this…and I am glad that he is getting lots of views. He uses helpful pejoratives like “pathetic” and “stupid” a lot.

I do believe that this guy is truly non-partisan and middle of the road. But he is correct when he speaks of our need to tap into our own HUGE reserves of available oil. Wondering when Obama will jump onto that bandwagon?…NOT.

HT to my daughter Caroline.

Seth

You have to go across the pond (The Sunday Times) to read about the good news that came out of Iraq this week.  With the exception of Fox News, no major new media outlet reported this in a significant way.

Seth

The more I read Ron Paul the more I like him.

Seth

I have been humbled this week. Humbled to learn, most remarkably, that God can use me. It is genuinely shocking, really. I certainly don’t want this post to become a “isn’t Seth great” post. If it smacks of that please forgive me from the outset. I really want it to be a “isn’t God great” post.

First, I had lunch with my cousin this week. We always TALK about getting together when we see each other, like we did last weekend. But this week we actually did it–we had a lunch. It was a warm time and a remarkably open time. (And a sad/profoundly happy time as he recounted the story of a dear friend who was very publicly caught in a major sin [that’s the sad part–not that he got caught but the way sin ensnares] but the TRULY remarkable ways that God is working through the situation in his friend’s life [that’s the happy part]).

Then he told me something that blew me away…he thanked me for a conversation we had, together, almost all of which I don’t remember, at the beach when he was on the cusp of starting college. My cousin is a very nice looking young man. And I told him that in today’s world (in fact even more so today, much less then) that there are women who would gladly have sex with him…and that he needed to care about the CHARACTER of the women he spent time with and that he dated. (That part I remember, albeit vaguely.) But he said that I said more, about how our lives are the aggregation of the choices we make…and that we needed to work hard to make the right choices, mostly about loving God and going hard after Christ in this life and embracing the Gospel (or something like that). And then he said — “I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN THAT.” He implied that my words played a role in getting him through college with his character intact. I am still in shock.

Another story…some dear friends were at a conference last year (don’t remember what kind of conference — marriage or family or something else) and they were attending one of the sessions and the speaker told this story about when he was in high school he received counsel from someone about the Gospel and Jesus … whatever … and then he MENTIONED ME BY NAME as that one –having influenced him to follow after Christ and enter the Christian ministry. My friends mentioned his name to me…I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER HIS NAME. I don’t know what I said to him. WOW.

Now here’s what’s weird about those stories. Both of those “talks” happened A LONG TIME AGO. I have now been a Christian for about 24 years now. That counsel I gave was probably given 18 - 22 years ago. Remarkably, both of those talks are still bearing fruit, in there own way, today. But back then I had a LOT MORE ZEAL and a LOT LESS KNOWLEDGE. Back then, I spoke, in earnest love out of an ignorant heart but with a lot of zeal. And the Holy Spirit used that. And then, as I grew in knowledge, my love and earnestness waned. I “grew” to a point where I knew a lot but became a lot less useful.

(At this point I want to include a long comment about doctrine and knowledge not only being useful but necessary and important. But the occupational hazard of gaining knowledge and understanding is that with it can come pride [the waning of humility] and unbelief [the waning of faith]).

I have only recently begun to “recover” from this and see it. And my hopes and dreams are that, without compromising my theological integrity, that I can become winsome and loving and good and kind again and that I can use words that reflect that commitment. That any knowledge I have will be wisdom in His arsenal used for the glory of Christ and the growth of His kingdom. All with a profound joy that defeats spiritual pride and unbelief. I want to REALLY care about people. I want to smile a lot more. And hug children and make them laugh. And weep with those who weep. And enjoy the beauty of a sunset or a spring morning. And ALL of that as spiritual fruit that belies understanding. And then, out of that, to speak words to people.

There are hopeful signs. A few days ago I was speaking to my dear brother, very casually really, about “living with our wives in an understanding way…” (1 Peter 3:SOMEVERSE). Today, he said it helped him. Just a little while later, although he was still struggling with some difficult emotions, he began to think about her SO AS TO UNDERSTAND HER. And then shortly afterwards, they were working through their disagreements together. WOW.

I just have a few takeaways from this post. The first is this. Out of your Christian joy…SPEAK. It is truly shocking that God uses us. Far more than we know. But not if we don’t speak sometimes. Two, pray that God will increase your love for people. Really…that you would have a delight in people that is truly spirit wrought and sincere. And, here is the trick, then number one will come easily.

Soli Deo Gloria

Seth

You can find it here.

Steve