He Coulda Won a Grammy ...

On Friday March 13th, we went to Dallas to see King Tut. Well, his treasures anyway.

I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the artifacts, but Floyd's Ancient Wonders Blog was evidently able to sneak a camera in.

The piece above was on the head of Tutankhamun when they found him.

Tutankhamun's name in heiroglyphics.

There's a cool story about the scarab in the above picture. It was carved from obsidian glass which may have been formed by a meteorite. (Watch out for the auto-start music!)

The tour ended with a sign that said this exhibit had hopefully honored Tutankhamun's memory and given him the eternal life which he had so eagerly sought.

Not 50 feet away from the aforementioned sign, the gift shop had this tacky Tut tissue box for sale. What kind of afterlife is this?
But then these stuffed camels were kinda cute.

We met up with our great niece and her fiance, both of whom blog also. It was good to see them again.

The next day, we went to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science to see dinosaur bones found in the Big Bend area of Texas.

Robert digging for plaster casts of dinosaur bones.

We almost visited Rick Atchley's church on Sunday, but my tired family was ready to come home, so that's what we did.

Here's a Biblical Question!

( Not a Borg cube.)

Revelation 21:1-4

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

I know that many Bible experts read this blog, so I thought I would pose this question to you guys and ladies. A friend at church thinks that this song is unbiblical because it refers to the events described in Revelation 21:1-4 as being in the future. He says the new Jerusalem is in fact the church in the present age, and that God has already wiped all tears away from our eyes and that there is no reason for tears if we are in Christ. I told him I didn't agree because this life still has plenty of tears, even under the best conditions.

So I guess the question is: Revelation 21 - past, present or future?

Does anyone want to weigh in on this one?

Eternity, Space, and Other Fun Stuff

As I said, I'm writing an article about my mother, and it's taking an

eternity. When I was little, the concept of eternity would sometimes cause me to lose sleep. Not that I was afraid of eternal punishment, mind you, I was afraid of the idea of life without an end. I just couldn't "wrap my mind around" the idea of eternal life. I still can't, but I guess I don't think about it as much or as vividly as I did then. Or maybe my imagination was better then. Or my faith. It was a disturbing obsession to me, like thinking about how often your eyes blink. I can't explain it any better than that. Forever used to be a frightening concept to me. Did anybody else ever feel that way, or was it just me?

Here's a cool UFO video you can watch while you're contemplating all this.

Oh, and here's a Trekkie alert!

Slinkys, Signs and Splits

• My next article is about my mother, and it's takingan eternity, so in the meantime here's some random thoughts:
  
• A sign at the McCamey Allsup's:
  Some people are like Slinkys. They serve no real purpose, but it is pleasant to push them down the stairs.

• Actual concert line-up (3 bands coming to Odessa August 14):
  She Turned Us Into Trees, How to Start a Fire, and Hit the Ground Running.

• A very good friend grew up in Andrews (45 miles away) and used to be Max Lucado's biggest fan. She phoned us twice last week to express her outrage over the fact that his church in San Antonio, Oak Hills, had dropped the "of Christ" from their name in 2003. All we could do was look up their reasons for the change - to reach people with the gospel - and send the information to her. She was not consoled. I asked my preacher about it and he said "If you had the power to preach the gospel to more people just by removing two words from the sign, wouldn't you do it?" Hmm...
• It is difficult to tell the story of Frogtown without touching on the church split of 2003, which some say never even happened. It came about suddenly and without warning. Supposedly, it began when two guys didn't agree with the idea of the church hosting grief seminars, financial seminars, and marriage classes. "We need to touch people where they hurt," the preacher at the time said, "not hurt people when we touch them." Those who agreed with the preacher, including the three of us, mostly wound up at the Wink church, eight miles away, while the rest remained in Kermit with the two guys. The preacher moved to Carlsbad and sold cars for awhile, until he eventually got a preaching job again. Can't we all get along?

34 hours after the split, a gas plant blew up 6 miles outside of Kermit, at 5 in the morning. A sign from God? In any case, we remember that week for the church and the gas plant both blowing up. In a manner of speaking.