Scott Freeman

–Sometime in the next week this humble blog should hit 100,000 on the ole stat-counter. To properly celebrate this august occasion I am offering a special promotion. The individual who is that lucky number will win a copy of either Lee Camp’s Mere Discipleship or Jimmy Dorrell’s Trolls and Truth. Good luck to you and thanks for being a part of my blog world.

–I have taken some hits in the last few weeks for my nonviolent/pacifist leanings. I am preparing a series of posts that will deal with the objections to what I feel is the best way for the church to behave. I will begin by looking at some biblical arguments often proposed to discredit non-violence: war in the OT, Jesus in the temple, etc. I’m hoping for a reasoned discourse that takes into account all of the initial reactions against peace. I look forward to discussing it with you. Any thoughts before I launch into it?

–My church fantasy football team needs help. I own Shawn Alexander and Terrell Owens. It’s been a tough week. I also own Larry Fitzgerald. I was sweating the threat of Matt Leinart being handed the ball. That would have been a trifecta of bad news.

–Anybody ever taken the GMAT? I’m taking it next week and getting paid to do it. Any pointers or things to look out for. I’m expected to fail the test but it would be cool if I didn’t.

–What’s the right way to “do” church?

–And finally, this guy is everything I hate about politics: mean-spirited, ad-hominem and hyperbolic attacks on others. Check out the dreadful ads. “Jesse Helms is back, and this time he’s black.”

In just a few minutes I will shut down my office and head home.

To work.

And keep the kids.

Last week we shelled out a truck-load of money so we could open our back door. Couple that with Tracy’s work schedule precluding her from picking up Chloe from school and the fact that it’s a 20 minute drive for me to our side of town, I have to spend some time with a home office.
So this past weekend, I bought a new desktop for the house and set it up so I can split my time between my home and the church.

Here are the pros of my situation:
–Saving about 500 a month in childcare
–Saving on gas (2.12 a gallon here, though)
–Eat lunch at home more
–More time with my little ones
–Less time commuting
–Developing a more flexible work schedule (I’m doing 6 days a week anyway)
–Being able to pay for the 9,000 dollar back door quicker

Cons:
–It’s going to be hard to get work done while keeping an eye on two toddlers
–Our three year old cries. A lot.
–Stress of not getting work done in a timely manner
–Not being at the church as much during the day

What I will have to do is focus more on the less “in-depth” aspects of my work while I’m at home and leave the more complex exegesis for my church hours. I’ll also try to get my running in while I have the kids by dropping them at the YMCA child care.
Here is where you come in. I’m not the best in the world at organization, productivity or time management.
Any of you work at home? How do you prioritize your work week? Any productivity pointers or thoughts that you have?
Help a fella out here.

I finally have my site looking just the way I want it.

If you notice on the left hand side of the page there is a section called “Now Reading.”  You can click on any of those books to find out additional information about that book.

By clicking on the “recent books” or “full library” you can even access my (short) review and rating of each book I read.

What’s better is that if you then click through to the Amazon page and actually buy that book I will get a small royalty.

No pressure or anything.  It’s just that my kids have to eat.

Great place to start? Pick up “The Politics of Jesus.”  Great read. Seminal work.

I thought I would give the ole blog a makeover. What do you think so far?

I’m hoping to get the “now reading” plug-in up and running but for some reason I can’t get it to add books. I’m stumped.  If only I knew somebody who knew their way around programming.
Anyway give me your thoughts about the new design.

When I had a typepad account I never received comment spam.  WordPress isn’t quite as Fort Knox-ian in it’s faux-ham security.

As my readership has grown in the last few months to around 450 hits a day, I’ve seen a growth in pseudo-pork.

A couple of weeks ago I installed Akismet, a bogus beef filter.  It seems they have a top-notch system of catching mythical meat.  The influx of tricky turkey has grown exponentially since then.  So, is my spam filter actually going out and courting this stuff?

Anyway, much of the spam that it is catching is well-versed at crafting comments that look like it might fit into the flow of a conversation.  I’m enjoying reading them and trying to understand what that conversation might be.

Here’s a sampling of actual spam comments I have received lately:

• An exhaustive knowledge of the life and times of Douglas “Tin Legs” Bader, English WWII fighter ace. (This piece of spam makes light of Bader who fought despite having both legs amputated. Spam is no respecter of persons.)
• **Not to be confused with the town of Normal, Illinois. Anyone know anyone from there? (Actually, no I don’t although I do know that McLean Stevenson is from Normal.  And the first Steak ‘n Shake was there.)
• ‘Grandma, when is the world going to end?’  (Since this is a spam for Cephalexin I believe the correct answer is “The world is not going to end, it just feels like it does because it burns when you urinate.”)
• “William Safire has just been picked on by a blog with a name that keeps changing. Not too harshly, though. The comment is William Safire, you annoy me.” (Don’t worry, Mr. Safire.  As you know they are just ‘nattering nabobs of negativity.’)
• I’d feel clever if it wasn’t for the fact that every single person in the country who isn’t in the Tory party took the same view. (You crazy Brits! Sure, I’ll click the link and play party poker with you.)
• He sits at his chair, one of those faggy ball chairs, crosses his legs and turns toward his Macintosh. “Come, lovely. Let me show you how to open an email.” (Now, I’m really interested in what happens next.  I’m disappointed the clicking the link only finds me bargain prices for depakote.)
• i have been writing up a fierce storm to the echoing applause of silent rejections (at least send a note, people). and i have been making leaps and bounds in therapy. (People might be more willing to respond when you finish the Prilosec treatment you’re pushing, honey.)
• Louise of course. Thelma is much too tragic. (I’d chime in here, but I really wish I knew what the question was.  I also can’t remember who played Louise.  Was it Sarandon or Davis? Because that would play a much greater factor in my decision than which character was the most tragic.)
• Another reason to love Senegal is because of the music they produce there. (Noted.)

There you have it.  The vast majority of these are for prescription pills such as Oxycontin and Klonopin.  Could it be that we are all so heavily medicated that eventually spam will actually start working because we will be so sedated that we will lose the ability of discernment?

It’s just a question. To quote one of my commenters, “Right, that’ll do for now. I’m off to see Ritmos da Cidade and Grupo Sambando with the Drumming Club.”

You got any interesting spam lately?

Thanks for migrating over to my new site. Bear with me over the next few weeks as I learn the ins and outs of designing a web page. Some notes as we all get acclimated:

• There is a huge learning curve to WordPress. If I linked to you previously but you don’t see a link here, don’t worry. I’ll get that fixed this week.
• Also notice that I have updated my friends and family with some new blogs.
• You can also notice that I have added categories on the right-handed column. One category is a list of my favorite posts. Here you can see my favorite writings. I think you can also get a good idea from the categories the things I like to write about.
• One reason for the switch to this site is that I will soon have the power and capacity to podcast my sermons. Keep a lookout for that.
• One other new feature is Just In Case You Ever Wondered.  Over the next couple of weeks I will add further information about myself if you have any interest in what makes me tick.
• I’m open to any suggestions to make this a better site.  Give me your constructive input.

Welcome to my new website. Please set your bookmarks accordingly. If you would, leave me a comment to let me know you found the new site.

• My Daniel sermon is up on my sermon blog. Definitely not one of my best and may be somewhat difficult to follow reading as a text. However, if you are interested in giving it a gander, be my guest. I hope to find a way to begin pod-casting these at some point in the future. Daniel down, Hosea to go.
• By the way, are there any blogger aficionado’s out there who can help me with that site? There is a feature where you can expand/collapse posts but I have no clue how to do it.
• Can’t stop listening to Hem. Great music for the background. Sally Ellyson has the voice of an angel.
• Working on some posts in the coming weeks. Here is what will be coming your way in the next few entries:
• What would I rather be guilty of: loving too much or judging too much?
• An open letter to the GOP
• How I learned to sell cars from learning evangelism growing up in the church
• My take on the MySpace phenomenon.
• More on Grace Based Parenting.
• Why I may need to invest more into my T-Shirt Budget
• Oscar Predictions

• Question: What does “speak the truth in love” mean to you?

So, our morning services were canceled yesterday here in arctic Waco. That means I have a free week.
My sermon and classes are, in effect, done. I am just delaying for a week what I would have done yesterday.
That gives me some time to plot out my summer preaching and teaching curriculum. I usually like to have this done by the first of the year. However, what we are studying right now is so labor-intensive for me, I have not had a chance.
So, the cancellation yesterday was a good thing for me.
The question is: What do I want to preach and teach on this summer?
We are in the midst of a 2 year series where we will look at a book of the bible each week. This school year we are doing the Old Testament. Beginning in the fall we will tackle the New. With that in mind, I don’t want to preach through a NT book in advance of next year’s study.
Here is what I am thinking so far:

Sunday A.M. Class—A Study on “The Jews in the Time of Jesus.” This study would help us to understand what has transpired in the 400 years between the end of the OT and the arrival of John the Baptist. It would help us to understand the culture and environment in which Jesus lived. It would shed light on the mind-set of the Jews as the Messiah appeared among them. This would segue nicely into our fall study.
Sunday P.M. Class–A Study on “Hot Issues Facing the Church Today.” This would be a series of different issues that are swirling around today and trying to grapple with them under the light of Scripture. Topics would include: Stem Cells, The Da Vinci Code (in expectation of its summer movie release), Torture, Just War, Homosexuality, etc.
Wednesday Sermon Series–This would continue to be a short motivational/encouraging talk from Scripture.

Sunday Sermon Series–Not sure. Maybe looking over some major themes of the OT and how they connect to the NT.

The reason I post this is to get your feedback.
What do you think of these suggestions?
Anything you would like to see tackled in a sermon/class series (the two of you from my church who actually read this blog, I value your input)?
Sermon Series Suggestions?
Any thoughts would be helpful.

One year ago today, I began broadcasting my thoughts into the cyber ether. Since then I have posted 199 entries and received 741 comments. I consistently blog about 4 times a week and have had no prolonged spells of not posting.
Readers were hard to come by in the early months but just this week I passed 30,000 hits. I am humbled that you come by to read my ramblings and “free thoughts.”
I hope that you have enjoyed my writings and look forward to sharing with you in the coming months and years. I began this blog as a fun hobby and have instead found an outlet for me to wrestle with my thoughts and beliefs.
One thought, I get about 200+ hits per day and only a handful of comments. In honor of my one year, will you do me a favor? If you read this, just leave me a comment letting me know. Just today, then you can go back to lurking.
Now, I’m off to find some blogiversary cake.