It gets really messy

This is cool:
FLIP Marine research vessel

I was at Home Depot by 7:30 this morning to get steel plates and studs, fasteners, electrical boxes and a few other things necessary to get those two walls framed in. From Home Depot to the clinic where the first step was to turn on the AC. Except the display was blank. Hmmm. Do you suppose there's a connection between a blank thermostat display and the fact none of the lights work? The breakers were all on which means that a main somewhere is shut off. That main is undoubtedly in the mechanical closet on the outside wall of the building behind the locked door.
No success getting anyone with a key, so aside from unloading those materials I got nothing done on that job today. Hope for more success tomorrow.

Our tax rebate check should have been mailed by May 6 according to the IRS web site. The mailing date is determined by the last two digits of your SS number. We got a letter from the IRS today telling us that we should receive that check by July 7. Hmmm.

Today Microsoft discontinued Windows XP. It's now Vista or nothing. Sometimes I wish Macs weren't so expensive.

Jeff at church sent me this last week. I was going to put it in an e-mail to our church list, but it's too good to limit to just that group. Please read this brief article. It sums up the main reason we started Pathway Bible Church and shines a light on a growing problem in the evangelical church in America.
Failing Church

Two related news stories today, also about the church in America (though these two denominations might not consider themselves evangelical).
Summer is the time when denominations have their annual conventions and work on matters of doctrine and practice. At their convention the Anglicans (AKA Episcopalians in the U.S.) issued a warning to their churches who are making noise about secession over the gay priest issue. Ever since the Anglican leaders OK'd the ordination of openly gay priests a growing number of local congregations have been withdrawing. Now there's talk of those conservative congregations banding together to form a new denomination. At stake is not just congregations and the income they produce for the denomination, but the real estate involved. We're talking millions of dollars worth of buildings and land that, depending on court rulings, could walk away from the Anglican Church. The head Episcopal bishop in America, Katharine Jefferts Schori, said, "Anglicanism has always been broader than some find comfortable."
Meanwhile, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is wrestling with the same issue. Their leadership voted to drop the requirement that ministers live in marital fidelity or in celibacy if unmarried, thus opening the way for practicing gays and lesbians to be ordained. That decision still has to be ratified by the local presbyteries, something that may not happen. But what doesn't need ratification is the leaders' edict that gay and lesbian seeking ordination can file a conscientious objection to the rules which prohibit their ordination. That conscientious objection is then heard by their local presbytery. If they accept the objection then the ordination is allowed. In other words, we're going to see gay and lesbian individuals approved for ordination in areas where the presbyteries are more liberal - the east and west coasts.
The Presbyterians are headed down the same road the Anglicans/Episcopalians have just traveled.

It should come as no surprise that neither of these groups views the Bible as inspired and authoritative for all matters of faith and practice. So the clear teachings of Scripture on homosexuality, never mind in the ministry, are not a sticking point.
Given that, it shouldn't surprise anyone in either denomination that they're looking at dissension and defections. When we deviate from God's Word, whether as an organization or as an individual, things get messy real fast.
One of our common misconceptions is that God's rules are prohibitions that deny us something that, in one sense or another, is good. (see: Eve) But when God prohibits something it is to protect us from its dangers. Obedience is good for us in a practical sense. Alas, the Anglicans and Presbyterians seem to think they know better than God. Ain't gonna happen (see: Adam).

P.S. - a response to a comment posted to last night's blog entry. I didn't understand either, and I had a son half way through a Master's Program in pediatric occupational therapy. But he explained it to me.
In the medical field, Occupational Therapy refers to therapy that helps the patient do tasks (here knows an "occupations." Go figure.) So physical therapy works on range of motion and occupational therapy works on using that range of motion to accomplish things. It may be as simple as sitting upright, or eating, or holding a pencil. Tasks. Add range of motion to the ability to accomplish tasks, each at the patient's highest possible level, and you have function at the highest possible level.
Note: my son the pediatric OT will be sending me an email correcting something in the above explanation (his dad still doesn't understand all of it) and I'll pass on the revisions.