Happy birthday bro!

Today is my dearest brother's birthday. He turns 27 today--what an old man! One of my favorite childhood memories with Mark has to do with our birthdays. Though he is four years older than me, my birthday still falls at the beginning of May. It drove him crazy to know that even though he was the big brother, little sister still had her birthday first. So here's to another flip-flopped birthday! I love you, dear brother!


Our first day of school together!

My very first drink on my 21st birthday with Mark.

Me & Mark at Central Park last February. He works in Manhattan so it's always a treat to visit him in his stomping ground.

My sweet brother flew down for my graduation from A&M last May.

Mark giving away his baby sister.

Mama & her boy.

My sister-in-law, Valerie. It's a good thing that Mark caught the garter since their wedding is coming up in October!

Thoughts on the Da Vinci Code

Let's all welcome my husband to the blogging world. It's his first post!!!!!

The "Da Vinci Code" movie comes out today and deserves some form of response for my part. Becky & I both read the book since we've been here and did find it to be an intriguing and entertaining novel. This engaging best seller has now made it from the book stands to the movie screen. It is likely to be somewhat popular as it is directed by Ron Howard and staring Tom Hanks. The book has certainly made a stir among many evangelical and historical groups in these past couple of years. As I feel many of you have already gotten some form of overview of DVC's historical and biblical errors that are likely to be displayed in the movie, I will try to be brief. For those who have not be made aware of misrepresentations in DVC, then I will point you to some articles that display where Dan Brown errs. Aside from this, I wish only to say a couple of things as they refer to spiritual matters.

First, is saddens me to know that many of DVC readers blindly accept the book (or the movie as of today) as fact. Brown writes a wonderfully engaging fiction novel, but that is all it will ever be. Our society widely accepts DVC with open arms, like a long lost relative who after a painstaking journey has finally made it home. Many take in the DVC as an answer to the Jesus, despite historical and theological errors found within the book. Many seem to be jumping on the DVC bandwagon with enthusiasfervorrver, smiling as they are now headed in the right direction with regards to the church, Christians, and more importantly Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus is far greater than the Jesus portrayed by Brown. The good news of Jesus according to the DVC boils down to nothing more than lies laid down to promulgate the authority of the Catholic Church. However, as we read the earliest narrative documents of Jesus's life and teachings (also known as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), we are left with a completely different understanding. Jesus was more than an amazing leader or great teacher. He was the greatest representative and substitute for men who have fallen infinitely beneath the standard of a perfect and righteous God. God, who is perfect and right, will not discard justice and thus he must punish every person who has acted in opposition to his standard. Those who believe and follow Jesus will have him as a representative and substitute before God. Jesus will substitute for their punishment and we will receive his righteousness and upright virtue. This is an awesome, wonderful, and biblical view of Jesus and sharply contrasts the DVC Jesus paraded around the best seller list and the "big screen."

To all my readers. I believe that you are likely to fall into several categories. There are those who disagree with the DVC portrayal of Jesus and historical events. You will likely read the book or see the movie and be able to identify inaccuracies without evidential support of their error. There will be some of you who, upon exposure to the plot, will be intrigued by the beauty of how it all fits together. You will hear the same remarks and think that BrownÂ’s suggestions could be possible and be content with that, but you won't really be any more educated than the other side. My suggestion is that it might be worth the time to go do a little research: go read the four gospels, find out the background to Jesus and the early church. Whether you believe them or not, let's make efforts to be educated and thoughtful in the contruction of our worldview.

www.bethinking.org
www.mbts.edu/Resources/worshop_davincicode.htm
Books for knowledge of Church history-Story of Christianity, Gonzalez, History of the Church in the Middle Ages, Logan.

Throo the Zoo

Neither Kevin nor myself would ever acclaim to be first-rate runners. But who could pass up an opportunity to run with the elephants? With finals finished, we got to take an entire Saturday and play all day. A 5K throo the zoo (why is it called marketing genius to misspell a word anyway?) and then free admission to the world of zoological wonders. Yes, we are those people who stop and read every sign by every animal and hold up everyone else behind us. To justify our slowness, I'll teach you some of the random things we learned:

* Giraffe babies are 6 feet tall when they're born. (Dear mother-in-law, though you had 16 pounds of twin baby inside of you, at least they weren't as tall as they are now at birth).

* Warthogs don't really have warts. It's just cartilage deposits. That'll help with their self-esteem.

* Vampire bats are actually very intelligent creatures. Intelligent but still very yucky and frightening.

Kevin's body double









Now let's all join hands for a rousing chorus:

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
Won't you come too, too, too
We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo
And we're gonna stay all day!

From a Peek to a Sharp

We got to go back to Tejas last week for our dear sister Shannon's wedding. I become a Peek and she becomes a Sharp. One of my favorite things about the weekend was watching the Lord's grace in the simple things--the weather. It rained and rained and rained all day Saturday morning. Preparing for an outdoor wedding on Saturday morning makes you want to sing along with Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" song. Then the gracious hand of the Lord stopped the rain and, apart from a little soggy grass, everything was beautiful. So congrats Mr. & Mrs. Marcus Sharp!

Here's a pic of all the sisters:

There's Beck (the newest of the clan), Terra, Shannon, Robin, and...who is that on the end? That's sweet Sarah Comfort, Chris' girlfriend. We had the pleasure of Sarah's company all the way from Seattle. She's not an official sister (though our nephew Toby took the liberty to call her Aunt Sarah numerous times), but she was a blessing to the family this weekend. We love you Sarah!