Get Ready...

I'm not sure what to do with this. I love it but I hate it. Its awesome but it hurts. Watch and listen closely.

Now, what should we preach? Grab a tissue. I needed one.

Shana's Update: 1st year scrapbook

This is the scrapbook I made online for Truett's first year. I apologize if there are a few errors in this one. I accidentally named 2 revisions the same so I am not sure which was is the revised one. I hope you enjoy it. I love it. We got it printed out, it is pretty long though 68 pages. But 68 pages of heaven :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Truett Video: Probably one of my favorites so far.

This video just makes my heart melt. He is getting so big.

Truett Videos: First Birthday part 2

On Truett's actual birthday we were home here in Louisville. We had wanted to get him a toy like this, so I found one on sale at Babies R Us and we went and got it to put it together for him. He loves this thing still.

Truett Videos: First Birthday part 3

This is a long video. This is how we celebrated Truett's birthday at home in Louisville on the actual date. We love this guy a bunch.

Truett Videos: First Birthday

Here are some really great videos from Truett's Birthday Party.

Shana's Update: SBTS Fall Festival 2010

This years fall festival was over the top. It really was a lot of fun. I think we enjoyed it way more having Truett this time. Last year Truett was only a month old, but I still remember going just for some free food. They kicked it off with these skydivers. Way cool. There was so much free food it was really awesome. They also had a bunch of cool rides and different themed areas. I definitely thought it was probably one of the best years.

You see two families sliding down. First you see Josh climbing up with Truett. Then Cassidy Smith and Tristen coming down. This is a new friend of mine that has moved into Grinstead. Then Josh and Truett come down. So cute.

I think it was pretty late in the night when we attempted this. He wasn't really excited about it when we were standing there waiting for the ride to get started, but once it started he came around. It was fun.

This was a first. That is right I am riding a mechanical bull. I thought it would have been fun and it was, but I left with an injury that I didn't expect. Truett cried when the bull threw me off, I think that was supposed to be sweet.

Truett Video: Gotta love the laugh

Here is a great video when we were home in August. One of my best friends Heidi came up for Truett's birthday. As you can see he loves her, but it also helps she is making him laugh pretty hard.

Truett Videos:Brmm Brmm

In August he started making this sound when he played with toys. SO ADORABLE!!

Shana's Update: Stringer Family photos.

While we were home in ATL, GA this past August we had pictures done with everybody.

Shana's Update: Family photos.

We got family photos done in June.

Tuesday Morning Apologetics

This post comes (again) from Kevin DeYoung's blog. I'm too busy to write something original and this was really good. So for all you apologetic types out there, or those who are wanting to share your faith (which means you!) you might enjoy this:

To spot bad arguments you often need a lot of facts. But sometimes you just need a little commonsense. When it comes to discerning truth from error, good arguments from bad, a little bit of logic goes a long way.

All of us can make strong sounding arguments that, upon closer inspection, are much less than meets the eye. We employ rhetorical strategies that look impressive (and often work) but contain hidden assumptions and flimsy reasoning. Here are six common arguments (or approaches to argumentation) that can stop us in our tracks, but are actually less impressive than they seem. These arguments are not all wrong, but they must be evaluated with discernment, and they must not be accepted without corroborating evidence.

1. The Big Nasty. One of the best ways to discredit your opponent is to give his position a nasty sounding name. No one may no what “biblicistic” means, but it sure sounds bad. Likewise, if your opponent quotes Bible verses, it’s easier to charge him with “prooftexting” than it is to deal with the verses themselves. A subset of this approach is to throw around undefined, undefended historical curse words like Platonic, Modernism, Constantine, or Gnostic.

2. The Third Way. That Isn’t. This is the perfect example of an argument that can work but doesn’t automatically. Sometimes there really is a third way. This side says Jesus is divine. These folks think he’s human. The orthodox third way says he is human and divine. That’s an appropriate use of the third way.

Similarly, most preachers have warned before against “ditches on either side of the road.” This is a variation on the third way argument. The problem is when people argue for a third way like it’s the only sane option between two crazy extremes. For example, the leadership in my denomination has frequently made this kind of claim: “Some in our midst want to push an aggressive homosexual agenda, while others want to punish everyone who disagrees with their narrow reading of Scripture. But the vast majority in the middle realize we need room to dialogue and agree to disagree.” The problem here is that these may not be the only three options. What if there are five different approaches and your “third way” is really about the second from the left?

John Stott’s complementarian-egalitarian hybrid is another example. He paints his position as the middle ground between mistreating women on the one hand and disregarding Scripture on the other. But what if full blown complementarianism does not mistreat women? Or, the other side could argue, what if full blown egalitarianism is not unfaithful to Scripture?

3. Categorize and Conquer. Here’s another common strategy that can be worthwhile but also contains some hidden assumptions. For example, suppose you want to describe the evangelical landscape. So you divide evangelicalism into five groups (I’m just making these up off the top of my head): the new Calvinists, the neo-Anabaptists, the progressive left, the traditionalists, and Charismatics. Then you argue that we can learn something from each group. The new Calvinists teach us the importance of doctrine, the neo-Anabaptists the importance of community, the progressives the importance of social justice, the traditionalists the importance of tradition, and the Charismatics the importance of the affections. Your conclusion from this analysis: we all need to learn from each other and see the beautiful mosaic that is our diversity.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it? But while the schematic may have pedagogic value, there are a host of subtle assumptions hidden in this approach. 1) Once you’ve assigned the categories you’ve already given the strong impression that no one view is more correct than another. You sit above the whole mess and can see the parts of a larger whole. 2) The emphases in one group are not found adequately in the others. The analysis in the previous paragraph holds together only if it is assumed that each group gets one main thing right to the detriment of everything else. But what if the new Calvinists are known for doctrine and they prize the affections too? What if the traditionalists also care about community? 3) When someone puts together a categorization like this there is almost always an extra, unstated category. The hidden category is almost always some variation of “we need each other, so let’s all get along and embrace our diversity.” Of course, this could be the right answer, but its rightness must established, not assumed.

It should be noted that this line of thinking is also prevalent in discussions of pluralism and tolerance. When Christians are chastised for being intolerant of other religions what the arguer is really arguing for (though he doesn’t realize it) is that the Christian should accept his belief in the sameness of all religions and the irrelevance of doctrinal and ethical distinctions. His tolerance is not neutral ground, but an unstated faith commitment.

4. Preemptive Strikes. Any good argument will anticipate counter-arguments. But the preemptive approach doesn’t anticipate arguments, it merely tries to preempt them by defining would-be opponents in unflattering terms. So you might say something like: “I know that heresy hunters will see it as their duty to attack me.” Or, “Those who depend on the current system for their paycheck will feel compelled to cut me down.”

This rhetorical strategy is brilliant, annoying, and cowardly. Brilliant because you set a trap that no one who wishes to disagree with you can avoid. Annoying because you position yourself as a martyr before you’ve even been opposed. Cowardly because you call your opponents names even as you warn that they should not do so to you. The preemptive strike is usually passive-aggressive argumentation at its worst.

5. Affirm Then Deny. In this approach you simply say one thing and then say the opposite. “I’m not saying you’re fat, I’m just saying your grossly overweight” is an obvious example. More subtly someone might claim, “I hear what you are saying. And on one level I agree with you that God’s election is determinative in our salvation, but on another level I think God chooses us because we first choose him.” It’s possible the “levels” here actually refer to some important distinction, but often this is merely a way of saying, “I affirm your argument in principle, but now I will deny it.”

6. We’ve Been Wrong, So You Are Wrong. If you insist that God created the world out of nothing by the word of his mouth or that homosexual behavior is sinful you’re bound to have someone bring up Galileo and slavery. The argument usually goes like this: “I can’t believe you are holding to these outdated beliefs. Sure, you think the Bible is on your side, but Christians used to think the sun went around the earth, and Christians used to defend slavery from the Bible.” The idea is: “Don’t be too confident. We’ve been wrong before, so you are probably wrong now.”

I can’t recall how many times I’ve heard this line of thinking, but it’s roughly equal to the number of rainy days in Seattle. And yet for all its frequency, this argument proves nothing more than that Christians have interpreted the Bible incorrectly in the past (leaving aside whether the usual Galileo and slavery trump cards are as historically well-suited as people think). But the fact that Southerners were sure the Bible supported chattel slavery does not mean we can’t be sure of anything. In fact, the “what about slavery” argument is self-defeating because it assumes that we do know for certain that slavery is wrong. So there are things can be sure of after all.

In conclusion, all I have to say is this post was too long so I’m taking tomorrow off. The mean-spirited blog bullies will probably call me lazy, but that’s a cross I’m willing to bear. On one level this may look like a passive aggressive argument, but on another level I knew you would say that because you are beholden to Greek thinking and a mechanical dictation theory of inspiration.

Shana's Update: Other photos from visit to GA.

Our first Sunday home for Truett and Josh's birthday week, we went to hang out with all the girls in my old small group at Maggie's parents house after church. We had so much fun hanging out at the pool and just being silly for hours. We did a lot of silly stuff that we swore not to post pictures or videos of. OOO so tempting. o well.

Marcy and Truett enjoying a popsicle.

Truett riding on Aunt Caitlin's back. They look so adorable laughing at each other.

Truett trying to learn to jump to Maggie. Still adorable.

Aunt Lauren swimming Truett to me. Still adorable.

Still adorable!!!!!

Cute video of him swimming.

Turn Up Your Speakers....

Its rare that you find something this good. Thanks to my friend Jacob Cloer for sending this to me. For those of you who are flow-nomically challenged (I think I made up that word), you'll have to listen close to catch all the words, but this a great song that preaches the gospel. Thank God for people like Hazakim and Shai Linne who fill the void in the rap world with the gospel.

Turn up your speakers and enjoy. And yes, that's Johnny Hunt who he sampled in this song.