Flashback to November: Travels to Vermont and Boston

This past November, we were blessed with the opportunity to visit Alan, Vanessa, Mike, and Lisa in the NH/Vermont area. The area was gorgeous, and we had a great time visting all the charming spots around the area. We also traveled with Walter, Elaine, and Henry to Boston afterwards to enjoy some great shopping and eats.

Rockets Weekly

With two big wins last week (SA, POR) and home games against Phi, Sea, and New Orleans, the Rockets are looking pretty with their 27-16 record.

Baller of the Week - Tracy Mcgrady. With the Rockets' offensive struggling a little against SA and Portland, TMAC led the team to 2 victories by shooting 62.5% from the floor and averaging 32.5 points.

Predictions for the Week - 3 Wins and 0 Losses

Danny Riding Dirty

Ben Witherington and The Environment

On Dr. Witherington's blog, I asked him, "Why Christians should care about the environment?", and he gave, I think, a great answer:

"There are several reasons: 1) of course it is in part because we are fouling our own nest and it hurts other human beings; 2)I believe that the church is always supposed to be about the business of making this a better world by offering up a whole Gospel, both in its spiritual and a social dimension. I recognize of course that the new heaven and new earth will only come in any full sense after Jesus returns. This is what the NT says. However, I also know that Jesus wants to find us being about the Father's business when he comes. And that business involves the salvation and redemption of the world, not just of human souls. So any alleviation of human misery is something that honors our God who will one day bring the resurrection and the new heaven and new earth."

Also over the past couple of weeks, Dr. Witherington has written several articles on his blog about the environment that are worth checking out:

1) Evangelicals and Climate Scientists Agree on Global Warming
2) Global Warming and Evangelicals Part Deux
3) The Smoking Gun--1600 Page Global Warming Report Out Soon

Rockets’ Weekly: "0-3"

With three tough losses last week and just two games (SA and Portland) this week, the Rockets should get some time to recover from injures and get back on track.

Predications for the Week: 1 Win (Portland) and 1 Loss (SA)

5 Reasons "Why The Rockets Lost":

1) Rebounding - The Mavs out rebounded the Rockets 44 to 32 in total and 15 to 8 in offensive rebounds.

2) Josh Howard - The dude is an All-Star. He is unstoppable offensively and he was killing my man, Shane (who always does a great job on Dirk). He can shoot from three, off the dribble, and he makes all his lay-ups.

3) Devean George - Four 3's and 6 boards coming off the bench

4) Mavs Small Line-up - In the 3rd quarter, the Mavs moved Dirk to center, leaving Mutombo to "guard" or leave open George for 3's. This was particularly effective because the Rockets couldn't get the Mavs back on the other end by killing them with a post player (We miss you, Yao)

5) Tmac Got Cold - Even though Tmac scored 45, he still relied too much on his jump shot, especially in the 2nd half as he got to the free-throw line ONCE and he shot 10 shots that were 20 feet or more, missing 7 of those. Dude, get to the line like D Wade.

Happy Bday Theresa

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Rockets’ Weekly

Last week, the Rockets won 4 games (Chi, LAL, Den, and Sac) with a tough overtime loss to Min. Overall it was a good week, which is something we needed going into next week's games against Dallas (Tues.) and Phoenix (Wed.).

Rockets Baller of the Week: Dikembe Mutombo averaged 15.2 boards and 2.2 rebounds this week.

Scrub of the Week: Rafer Alston - Skip shot 19% from the floor for the first two games, though he recovered towards the end of the week by averaging 19 against LAL, Den, and Sac.

Play of the Week: Luther Head’s dunk on Turiaf


Prediction for next week: 2 Wins (Dallas and Den)and 1 Loss (Pho)

3,191:Mutombo Rules

Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images

Dikembe Mutombo swatted five shots in a win over the Lakers and moved into what is technically second place all-time with 3,191, two more than Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Kareem's first four NBA seasons weren't counted, because blocks didn't become an official stat until 1973-74. Hakeem Olajuwon is the all-time leader at 3,830. 91 [1]

[1] espn.com

Neither Poverty nor Riches: A Biblical Theology of Possessions

Dr. Blomberg concludes in his book with these principles:

1. Material possessions are a good gift from God meant for his people to enjoy.
2. Material possessions are simultaneously one of primary means of turning human hearts away from God.
3. A necessary sign of a life in the process of being redeemed is that of transformation in the area of stewardship.
4. There are certain extremes of wealth and poverty which are in and of themselves intolerable.
5. Above all, the Bible’s teaching about the material possession is inextricably intertwined with more ‘spiritual’ matters [1]

And then draws these applications:

1. If wealth is an inherent good, Christians should try to gain it.
2. If wealth is seductive, giving away some of our surplus is a good strategy for resisting the temptation to overvalue it.
3. If stewardship is a sign of a redeemed life, then Christians will, by their new natures, want to give.
4. If certain extremes of wealth and poverty are inherently intolerable, those of us with excess income (i.e. most readers of this book!) will work hard to help at least a few of the desperately needy in our world.
5. If holistic salvation represents the ultimate good God wants all to receive, then our charitable giving should be directed to individuals, churches or organizations who minister holistically, carrying for people’s bodies as well as their souls, addressing their physical as well as their spiritual circumstances. [1]

For the exegetical support for these principles and applications check out the rest of Dr. Blomberg’s book, “Neither Poverty nor Riches: A Biblical theology of possessions”.

[1] Pg. 243- 247

Missing Something Mavs Fan??

2006 Books of the Year

Best Piper Book - God is the Gospel

Best Pauline Theological Books

1. Jesus' Blood and Righteousness: Paul's Theology of Imputation by Dr. Vickers - Vickers explains a view of imputation that would be hard to deny from any theological perspective.

2. By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation by Dr. Gaffin - This book is great for anyone that would want to learn the more nuanced "order of salvation"

3. The New interpreter's Bible -Romans by N.T. Wright

Best Theology Book outside of Pauline Theology -

1. The Bible and the Future

Most Disappointing - (I am not saying these books are bad, but I think I was expecting too much from them)

1. Justification and Variegated Nomism, vol. 2: The Paradoxes of Paul..

2. God of Promise: Introducing Covenant Theology

Best Pastoral - Speaking Truth in Love by David Powlison

Book of the Year - The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story by Bartholomew and Goheen

Honor Mentions - Simply Christian : Why Christianity Makes Sense, Jesus' Blood and Righteousness: Paul's Theology of Imputation by Dr. Vickers

By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation by Dr. Gaffin The New interpreter's Bible -Romans, Speaking Truth in Love, Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey