Samantha Pierce

You scored as Herald Model . Your model of the church is Herald. The organization of the church is much less important than the urgency of announcing the Good News of salvation to all the world. The Holy Spirit moves the individual to belief in Jesus Christ and to do the will of the Father by sharing this message with others. As with other models, the narrowness of this model could be supplemented by drawing on other models. Herald Model 100% Mystical Communion Model 78% Sacrament model 78% Servant Model 33% Institutional Model 17% What is your model of the church? [Dulles] created with QuizFarm.com (Via Dappled Things . He's always got such interesting quizzes.)

Discovery's Foam Issues have grounded the space shuttle program. Maybe I watch too many sci fi shows but um, couldn't there be multiple layers of ceramic heat tiles on our space craft so that if the first layer is damaged there's a backup?

Someone mentioned beautiful fall foliage in a comment on last week's Thankful Thursday post. It got me thinking about the fascinating mechanism by which the change to fall foliage colours occurs. (Some trees are already donning their fall colour in this region.) So here begins the lesson in plant physiology. Plant leaves contain a variety of pigments which allow them to utilise the full spectrum of visible light (part of the electromagnetic spectrum ). Together the range of pigments form an action spectrum over which photosynthesis occurs. Action spectrum of photosynthesis of the green alga Chlorella pyrenoidosa (quantum yield of oxygen production as a function of wave length). Please notice the drastic drop in the red part of the spectrum (R. EMERSON and LEWIS, 1943). This is similar to the action spectrum of your average vascular plant.   The colours we see in plant leaves are the light reflected back by the plant pigments. The level of each pigment in a leaf determines its co...

Hey it's Thursday! (Yes I really did forget what today was.) Today I am extremely thankful for the weather. The temperature reading on my computer this morning is still at 57 degrees. What a relief! It made me think of apple picking, cider, pumpkin pie, hay rides, cool crisp mornings and crimson leaves on the trees. I'm thankful that I have those things to look forward to. I'm thankful for my new glasses. I've been wanting to get a new pair for a couple of years now. I finally bit the bullet yesterday and got them. What are you thankful for?

Why are people so upset about this? It looks like some bad graffiti that a teenager sprayed on a wall. This is just another hackneyed cliche. It is worthy only of an eye roll and a shrug. Move along folks, nothing to see here but some really bad art. 

Tulip Girl has a round up of posts from Ezzo Week . It has apparently railed up at least one Ezzo supporter who takes issue with her critique of Ezzo and her rounding up of other posts doing the same. Tulip Girl has been extremely gracious in her responses. She also has a three part series on evaluating Ezzo: Evaluating Ezzo's Leadership, Part 1: Why Bother? Evaluating Ezzo's Leadership, Part 2: Church Discipline Evaluating Ezzo's Leadership, Part 3: Other Concerning Patterns As for me, I don't care for Ezzo and his methods. I like the way that Christine at Welcome to My Brain put it, " God is Wise - Gary Ezzo ... not so much! " My rule of thumb, if anybody comes to you with a sure fire way to make your children godly, polite, perfect, or whatever the ideal you desire is, RUN THE OTHER WAY AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!! I've heard people say that there are some good things in the various repackagings of Ezzo's teachings. But all of that good stuff you can learn...

NPR has a story about the mothers who lost children in Beslan. They have become a political force in Russia. Some criticise them for politicizung their loss. I think their loss was politicized when terrorists took their children hostage.

Instapundit has a link to the transcript of John Howard's answer to the reported asking if Blair felt responsible for the bombings because of British policy. Howard's remark is even more damning than I first thought (I was distracted by the kids.) Also a link to a photo essay of some of Al Qaeda's handiwork long before Iraq. The Anchoress says, Tell us some more how terrorists are only responding to regime change in Iraq, and how if only we would obey the "insurgents" there and leave Iraq, all of this would end. Tell us that some more, Mr. Galloway, tell us that some more, ladies and gentlemen of the press. Tell us all about it you tired, phoney, so-called intellectuals and sophisticates. Tell us how terror that has existed for decades is all the fault of George W. Bush and his poodles Tony Blair and John Howard.

I'm thankful that God is sovereign over all things. I am thankful that he is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. I am thankful that despite the obvious evil of man he still loves us and offers to us the hope of salvation. I am thankful for the blood of Jesus Christ that washes away the sins of the world (and they are legion). I am thankful that there appear to be limited casualties in the today's incidents in London . I am thankful that, "God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." ( II Timothy 1:7 ) What are you thankful for?

UPDATED Seems like jokers are at it again in London. According to Fox News they may be nail bombs. Four sites so far. Not much info available yet. (The story at the link has been updated.) Incident reported on London Underground Not much on Wizbang yet updated. Just two posts down there's this, London Bombing Mastermind Captured In Pakistan . Update 8:53 AM EDT Breaking: Explosions Reported in Londing Apparently things may have not gone down as the bombers may have wanted. Update 9:00 AM EDT From Terrorism Unveiled, Breaking: More London Bombings? Whoever these attackers are, they went undetected after the crackdown immediately after the July 7 attack. So, if this is closely linked to the previous attacks (other than a random urge to be a copycat), then al-Qaida has to be involved in order to plan such a meticulous strategy that would go undetected even after the first bombing. It represents a high level of operational security, bombers who are well trained and well composed a...

Many people think that what is fueling radical Islam are justified grievances against the West—in particular, the United States, for among things, its support of Israel. Why, the U.S. is frequently referred to as the “evil empire”. Of course, there is no point in denying that the United States has committed its share of wrongs against the Arabic world. And while we are playing this particular blame game, we might also acknowledge that France has most certainly committed its share of wrongs against the Arabic world. Why is the French language so prevalent in the Arabic world? The word “colonization” comes quickly to mind. I suspect, though, that reality is quite different. And for those of us living in the individualistic societies of the West it is really difficult to appreciate what in fact is happening. This is especially true of those for whom the word “diversity” is tantamount to some form of biblical calling. Grievances against the United States are, I suggest, but a pret...

Ebonics, ebony + phonics. Any one who would term a dialect of a language something like that isn't interested in language for language's sake. And anyone who would come up with this tortured acronym "Students Accumulating New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishment" (SANKOFA see here for the meaning of the word and a movie by the same name) is more interested in scoring points in the identity politics game than making sure that children are fluent in the lingua franca of this country. Honestly I'm tired of this mess . Avery gives a good break down of what Standard Black Vernacular is and isn't. And after reading his piece ebonics advocates need to answer this, how is teaching black children a primarily oral mode of communication that they already know going to make them more proficient in standard English? Paul over at Wizbang had some pretty harsh sarcastic commentary that apparently went way over the heads of some folk. La Shawn Barber remarks on thi...

There's an interesting conversation going on here about whether Jesus is the only way, the best way, or just a way. I'm staying clear of that one.

From Dappled Things : ...it has more to do with God's talking to me than my talking to God; it has more to do with my being bended to conformity to God's inscrutable Will than with God's doing stuff that I request. Even though intercession is a valid function of prayer, this function is way down on the list, below adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and pleas for forgiveness. If all I do is ask God for stuff (even good stuff!), my prayer life is seriously deficient. Yeah what he said. My dad has a t-shirt that says " PUSH Pray Until Something Happens ". I inwardly cringe every time I see him wearing it. Partly because it brings to mind Jesse Jackson's shake down group the Rainbow Push Coalition. Partly because I know people will assume the shirt means " Pray Until What You Want Happens ". Now I know dad knows better than to think that praying is about getting stuff or that the "something" that happens will be what he wants to happen. The stor...

You Are 68% American Most times you are proud to be an American. Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home. You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you! How American Are You? Only 68%? I'll have to do better. They might take away my membership to the VRWC because of a score this low. (Via DT )

I found one of these in my purple cone flowers this afternoon. Black swallowtail Spicebush swallowtail (male) Mourning cloak ( link 2 ) I can't really decide which one it was. It was dark brown with larger prolongations on the hindwings than the mourning cloak. There were yellow spots at the margin of the forewings and iridescent blue green spots on the margin of the hindwings. I didn't see any orange spots that would be indicative of a swallowtail butterfly but I was keeping an eye on three kids at the time so maybe I missed it. There are also at least two species of bees in the cone flowers as well. (Cross posted at Pierce Pictures .)

(I will NOT perpetuate the [pick-a-scandal]-gate craze by calling this mess Rove -gate.) Curiouser and curiouser .

This is the post I promised to do here . Now, what would Jesus eat , what would Jesus drive , what would Jesus...? I think we've gone a bit over board with the "what would Jesus..." craze. I read the book What Would Jesus Do? when I was in college. If memory serves me correctly the book was a tale of some turn of the (last) century folk counting the cost of what it meant for them to be followers of Christ. For one it meant not publishing his paper on Sundays and accepting the loss of revenue that came from that decision. For others we were left hanging to decide for ourselves what we would do in their shoes. Some found that they did not want to pay the price of being a follower of Christ at all. The various "what would Jesus..." fads that are popping up all over the place completely miss this point. People need to be asking what did Jesus do ? The son of God consented to don mortal flesh. He willingly sacrificed his life to pay our debts, debts that we had no ...

Mom's at the airport right now cooling her heels before she can take her flight out to Barbados. Her father died earlier this week so she's got to go deal with that. My dad can't go with her because he just got back from dealing with issues surrounding my grandfather's disappearance (he still hasn't been found and it appears that he and his son ran afoul of his son's criminal associates). Please pray for my mom as she's got to deal with her family on her own. There's also a hurricane stalking the area. When it rains it pours (sorry, I couldn't resist).

Once again it is Thursday and time to remind myself that things aren't always as bad as they seem. So I'm thankful for/that: The survivors of the London bombings. Ethan's gone three nights in a row with out a diaper and with out wetting the bed. It seems that he's decided that he's potty trained now. We just need to work on his aim. Lawn sprinklers. The neighbour down the street who helped herd Isaiah back onto the sidewalk after he decided to make an exploratory run down the street. (He had been doing so well with that but he seems to have fallen off of the wagon. He had to spend the rest of the afternoon indoors for that one.) Said by Isaiah standing in front of the fridge, "Open a door!" and once the door was open, "I want cheese." It was a bit garbled but we understood and we very excited. Rain. Cool night breezes. Blogfriends who say nice things about me. Thank you (you know who you are). Forgot two three items: Cicadas. I know everyone was...

Christopher Arps of New Leadership blog puts into words something that has been bothering me about the whole Rove/Plame leak business. I have a hard time believing that a reporter working for a major media outlet that makes no secret of its dislike of the President and his administration would go to jail to protect Karl Rove's identity as the secret source. Now it could be that these reporters are keeping their mouths shut in order to bring Rove down but I generally don't go in for those kinds of conspiracy theories.

Says Juliette of Baldilocks of those who say, "We support the troops" with one face and then accuse them of all manner of things with the other. I've been wondering myself just how long people expect to keep up this two faced charade claiming "we support the troops" while carrying on about the American gulags and American soldiers targeting journalists and the American military indiscriminately killing civilians. Do you think the rest of America and the troops that you claim to support are too stupid to see your barely veiled contempt? As Juliette notes at least those who protest against military recruiters on college and high school campuses are honest about their contempt. I think they're idiots but they're honest idiots.

I thought guest Wizbang blogger Rob would get his head bitten off over this post about the NAACP's push for reparations but it looks like he dodged that particular bullet. I've still got some questions about reparations that I'd like answered. In any case, shaking down companies for pay back for connections to slavery may work for a while but sooner or later someone will stand up to what essentially amounts to black mail.

Yesterday I finally took the plunge. I submitted my name and info to the editor of a local homeschool network newsletter as a biology teacher/tutor. I think the idea came to me as I was rescuing one of my field guides from college from one of the kids. I realised how much I missed learning about the natural world. Teaching others will be a good way to keep all of the things I learned fresh in my mind. I've still got to work out the details but a lot of that will depend on what students I end up with. For now I'm working on putting together a curriculum. I'm open to suggestions for any who want to offer them.

I had to take this thing three times just to see what would happen. Dune is one of my favourtie movies (the 1983 version, the Sci Fi channel's recent remake wasn't too bad either, it gave a few more details from the book). The other two books I read in highschool. Brave New World was down right freaky. I'd probably be one of the people living outside of the high tech society. It's completly beyond me why people want Adventures of Huckleberry Finn banded from libraries but that seems to be en vogue these days. (Hatp tip Reading, Writing, Ranting ) You're Dune ! by Frank Herbert You have control over a great wealth of resources, but no one wants to let you have them. You've decided to try to defend yourself, but it may take eons before you really get back what you feel you deserve. Meanwhile you have a cult-like following of minions waiting for your life to progress. This would all be even more exciting if you could just get the sand out of your eyes. You'r...

Hubby and I went to a Proto-Kaw concert while in New York City last week. It was a great concert. One of the songs they performed was written in the days following sometime after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (see Jeremy's comment below). It's a beautiful song and I thought I'd share the lyrics with you. You can find a link to audio here and lyrics to other songs from the CD Before Became After here . Words of Honor Words of honor Words of peace Words of comfort, that never cease Bringing freedom, across the earth Tell a story of endless worth Deeds of valor Deeds of old Raise the standard For the weak and for the bold Till the nations, find release In words of wisdom, words of peace Words of honor, a world at peace Long the days where we could toss our bread upon the waters And see beyond the veil of tears we sow For soon we walk in fields of sun and trace the path we follow That takes us to a place we've yet to know Where we'll stand ...

Posted at Moralhealth.com : The Crusades are over. Conversion by force is now considered passé. This is the very essence of the idea freedom of liberty based upon mutual respect. [SNIP] It is my considered view that radical Islamic groups thrive in part because the West has become more than a little besotted with the idea of diversity without taking seriously that diversity is a two-way street. An alliance of diversity between you and me is not just about me respecting you. It is also about you respecting me. It is no doubt true the West has not accorded Islam all the respect that it deserves. But this does not give Islam carte blanche. In a world of mutual respect, Islam can no more have carte blanche than Christianity or Judaism can. The West is so concerned with avoiding the appearance of being anti-Muslim that radical Islamic groups have much more maneuvering room than they should have. Want to funnel money to an Islamic terrorist group, well call yourself a charity. Then ...

What the hell is up with this ? Israel was not warned about possible terror attacks in London before a series of blasts ripped through the city, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Thursday. A Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had said earlier that British police warned the Israeli Embassy in London of possible terror attacks minutes before the first explosion. In the after math of 9/11 jokers were saying that all the Jewish people stayed home from work at the WTC because they knew what would happen before hand. Why must people always drag Israel into things like this in this manner? Can you say rank anti-semitism? Up date: Rantingprofs notes: Here we go again. Israel is denying that their embassy officials were tipped before the explosion. The original rumour according to MS (which means according to AP) came from a "Foreign Ministry official," but they don't say which Foreign Ministry, British or Israeli. What are the chances an Israeli off...

In light of this mornings events I am thankful for those who survived.

The crack heads have struck London. I'm not surprised. I'm not appalled. I'm not devastated. This just feels like business as usual. Life will go on in spite of things like this. I just got back from New York City yesterday. We did a bit of traveling on the subways while there. At some point I thought about the possibility of a terrorist attack on the subway. I had basically had two choices. I could live in fear of what might happen constantly looking over my shoulder and being suspicious of every one and everything. Or I could boldly go where ever I needed or wanted to go trusting that God is sovereign over all things. We all have to die sometime. I won't waste the time that I have living in fear. Instapundit has plenty of info on the bombings. Wizbang has info as well. La Shawn is blogging about the bombings. Jihad Watch Terrorism Unveiled Up date: Tim Blair has several posts this is the latest . Fox News and MSNBC are reporting on it as well. Up date: Jihad W...

I'm going to blog about this when I get back to my cable modem tomorrow. What would Jesus do about the use of his name for yet another pet cause?

I'm in the apple at my parents' place. The kids are having quite a bit of fun with grandma and grandpa and their aunties. Lots of shouting along the lines of, "You! What are you doing? Stop that! Why you little...!" It's nice break for me because I don't have to chase the kids 24/7. Meanwhile in the blog world. Did you know that Karl Rove is the source that leaked Valerie Plame's secret identity that wasn't all that secret? Sandra Day O'Connor is retiring from the SCOTUS . I can't wait to see the circus that will surround the choosing of her replacement. Can't you? I just that the powers that be remember that us regular folk are watching and taking notes (and blogging). I got to go. There's only dial-up in these here parts and I've been hogging the phone line for over an hour. (But that's not entirely my fault because I had to keep getting up to stop the kids from taking off their diapers and eating things that aren't food...