More Pictures

Here are some pictures of a spectacular fort we visited, Fort De Soto.

It is situated in a sandbar/island paradise, with lush palm forests and amazing beaches.

It was used during the Spanish-American War in the turn of the century (1900s).

These mortar guns pictured fired 1,098 pound cannonballs 6 miles out to sea!

This is a picture of a smaller gun mounted on a turret, facing the gulf.

Probably useful for repelling amphibious assaults on the beach.

A very cool schematic of the gun.

Here is a downward view of a gun turret.

This is the upper rampart of the fort, facing the Gulf.

And this ... so cool. This is the fort, from the Gulf beach.

Any attackers would have no clue that massive mortars and a hundred soldiers

were fortified behind that false hill.

Ah, some of you have been very patient. At last we get to family and vacation pics!

Steven, this is to show your mom ....

So far, we have seen dolphins two days (see the dolphin fin above).

We have also seen a mother and baby shark swimming by this same pier.

The only thing yet to be seen are alligators (surprise!) and armadillos.

John - the Snorkler Extraordinaire

He has seen a lot of fish so far ...

Relaxing on a pier.

There you are, Avery. Us on a beach - 4 beaches this week, too.

Imagine the Kerr family sand-encrusted and sun-burned,

and I won't begrudge you an evil laugh.

There have been a couple of us who unfortunately failed to realize that 45-strength

suntan lotion works too well ... and only put it on our face and shoulders.

Hence, 80% of our body is burned, and the other 20% is ghost white.

No pictures, though ... that would be too embarrassing.

Anyhow ... NEXT!

An amazing pier/aquarium/mini-mall

Laura and the palm trees.

There you are. Pictures.

Hopefully, next on the blog-role will be a review of Spiderman III.

Have a fabulous weekend!

News Flash: Blog Birth

To all you blog-readers out there, we have another new addition to the Cosmos of the Bloggos: my brother, Stephen, and his new blog, "The Breathing."

Check it out here, or in the Links on the side-bar.

The Gift of Petition

Here's something to think and meditate on, and pray about ...

Yesterday in family devotions my dad pointed out something similar between Mark 10:36 and 10:51.
In the first case, James and John come to Jesus to ask for "high command" positions beside the Messiah in his new Kingdom that they thought he would soon establish on earth. Jesus asked them, "What do you want me to do for you?" ...
In the second case, a blind man comes to Jesus to ask him to have mercy on him and restore his sight. Jesus again asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" ...
In the first case, the request was denied. In the second, it was granted.

I won't go into the details of why one was denied and another granted, but it is interesting to see that even though the first request was quite selfish ... so, in a sense, was the second (again, in a sense). After all, the beggar didn't ask Jesus to "let your will be done" or "please make me holy like you" or "show me a glimpse of your glory" or anything "spiritual" like that ... no, he asked that he would have his sight restored. He didn't even piously add anything about "let me recover my sight, for God's glory," or "but your will be done." No, it was a plain-cut request asking for Jesus to meet a personal need.

Also interesting, in BOTH cases Jesus didn't just look at them and say, "Oh, grow up! Why on earth would you ask for that? No, no ... all you need is a healthy dose of humility and contentment." No ... in the first case, Jesus patiently pointed James and John to true greatness in humility. In the second case, Jesus restored the man's sight, and commented on his faith!

Why all this? Well, it brings to mind the words of Jesus time and time again throughout the Gospels and the Bible. "Ask, and you will receive." "How much more will the heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him?" "Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking." "You have not because you ask not."

Imagine coming before Jesus and him asking you, "What do you want me to do for you?"

Now, please understand, I am not advocating a health and wealth kind of prayer, claiming that all Christians deserve good things and money and cars and fame, blah blah blah. I am not saying that God gives you anything and everything you ask for ("God, I want my own private yacht"). I am not saying that we can somehow use God's invitation to prayer and His promises to "twist His arm" into giving us stuff. No, no.
I am saying that Jesus invites us as God's beloved children to come before him constantly, not only to worship Him, but also to petition Him for our needs and desires, and those of others. He sovereignly controls our entire lives, and yet He desires that we converse with Him and ask Him for things according to His purpose. He will not give us everything that we ask for, but when we pray according to His will, He does give us those things which most pleases Him to gift us with (see I John 5:15).

Pray! Talk with God! He is your Lord, and He is your loving Father. He is both awesome in power and kind and tenderly caring and interested in everything that concerns you!

It seems a bit selfish, but it is hard to escape the fact that Jesus said these words so many times! God is a generous God! If you doubt His generosity ... think about the cost of the cross.

"He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, with Him, graciously give us all things?"

So often we keep our hurts, cares, thoughts, desires all bottled up inside! Prayer is a marvelous gift, a personal communion and conversation and fellowship with God.

What a shame to waste such a precious gift and not pray!

On that note ... talk to God now. No time like the present.

Happy Mothers Day

My mom is a special blessing.
My mom exemplifies to me the verse in I Peter 4, which speaks of a woman with a gentle and quiet spirit, whom the Lord greatly values. My mom is exactly like that. She is gentle and kind, always showing my Dad and our family loyal love and compassion, caring for us and selflessly serving us day in and day out. She has a quiet spirit, and yet is firm and grounded in the Truth. She trusts God tremendously, and spends much time in private prayer or prayer with my Dad. She is a perfect compliment for my Dad - they have a very intimate, fun-filled, and loving friendship, talking with each other, walking together, praying together, hugging each other ... my mom and dad have one of the most exemplary marriages I have ever seen, and are a tremendous example to me.
My mom is very selfless in caring for her family. She sacrifices a vast amount of time, rest, money, emotion, and comfort to make sure that each of us in her family feel loved and cared for.
My mom is very intelligent - after all, she taught all the way to grade 12 calculus!... and yet for all her smarts she has an ever greater portion of wisdom, that God-given gift of wisdom for living life in a way that honors God.
Not only is she a terrific mom, but she is also one of my closest friends! I can talk with her and dad about things which I have never discussed with anyone else. I love going out every now and then with my mom alone to Starbucks, where we sip vanilla bean whatchamakalits or white hot chocolate and talk and laugh about everything from funny family stories, good books, weather, and animals we like to our hopes and fears about the future, love and relationships, and areas in our life which we would like to grow in holiness. In almost every conversation, though, I appreciate how my mom is able to speak wisdom into what we talk about and always take it back to God and what He said in His Words.

I love my mom very, very much, and I wish her a Happy Mother's Day!

Journey in Photos I

THE THREE DAY PILGRIMAGE

Here are some pictures from our trip to Florida:

This is one of my favorites. It pretty much speaks for itself.

Nice shot of Laura smiling ...


This is tremendously unflattering ... but my Mom swears that this is the
exact same face I always made when I had my picture taken at age 2.
Some things never change ...



Dad deep in thought. Trying to figure out how to open the hood.

Sometimes we got a bit bored waiting for our dinner.

Stephen did not pose for this.

Reading (duh).

My grandmother!

Ok, fabulous sign. Read carefully.

My grandfather doing an incredible "Nero" pose.

There you have it. More to come.

Photo credit to Stephen and Andrew Kerr. Hint to difference: one is a 7 mp camera, another is 2 mp ...

More to Come

I apologize for the slight inactivity on my part ... I'm getting into vacation mode. I will try to blog more frequently throughout my holiday, hopefully complete with pictures and such. Perhaps "Sounds of the Ocean Surf," too.

In the meantime, I've found that controversial blogs spark more comment traffic than anything else I can think of (check out Tim Challies' blog on homeschooling). And for those visiting for the first time in a while, definitely check out the new blogs of Emily and Avery ... and, AHEM, Steven .... (nudge, nudge, nudge ...)

Until then ...

History and Study and Books can be FUN!

As a great many of you would know, I am a history [take your pick: buff, lover, nerd, freak ... whatever would describe a semi-obsession]. History reminds me of a vast, magnificent book; different ages for different "chapters," with new characters and settings and plots every chapter. But this does not mean that each scene from history is disconnected - no, the entire span of history is intricately interconnected and flows subtly and wonderfully from one picture to the next. One individual influences a nation which influences a culture which influences history itself. This book is imaginatively and perfectly written by the supreme Author - God! And the end of the book of history is not yet written, though we catch glimpses of it in Revelation (in that Book through which God Himself made Himself known to the characters of His "drama").

It is said that theology (the study of God and His Word) is the "Queen of the Sciences" (thus meaning all the disciplines and studies we as humans can dedicate ourselves to), and that philosophy is its "handmaiden." Because God and His Word have complete authority above all else in this world, I completely agree with this first assessment; and because correct philosophy both flows from an accurate, Spirit-illuminated understanding of God and His Word and also is foundational in our understanding of all other areas of study, the second statement also seems true.
If theology is the foundation of study, and philosophy the pillars which uphold the other studies, then I might take this analogy even further (hopefully without slaughtering it) by saying that history acts as the walls or structure upon which all other studies are built. In short, theology informs philosophy which informs history which informs all other disciplines.
Why do I say this? Other studies (chemistry, astronomy, literature, music, mathematics) are inextricably set within the context of history. All of these "sciences" and "arts" have been developed from "infancy" to their current states over millennia. And even though it is certainly possible to, say, understand matrix mechanics or the Pythagorean theorem or the Scream or the doctrine of sovereign election or the Mass in B Minor without understanding their history ... it definitely helps, and tends to make the study that much more interesting!

I always find it helps me wonderfully to take a certain period of history (say, ancient Egypt) or a certain individual (say, Hannibal the Carthaginian [my, ahem, hero] or Bach) or even a literary piece (say the Histories of Herodotus or Far from the Madding Crowd) ... and begin with a short summary. Look at this time-clip of history, or person's life, or book-plot, from an "overall and overarching" perspective. Familiarize yourself with the basic facts. Don't, for example, begin a study of Alexander the Great by reading The Military Genius of Alexander: Macedonian Phalanx Techniques and Hellenistic Warfare (however wonderfully appealing this title seems)! Rather begin by reading a 30-page life of Alexander.
Once this intro has been finished, and you know the basic facts, take at least 2 or more "medium" (non-scholarly) books on that particular time/person/work, and try reading through them in say, three to four weeks (thus, in a month, you will have a very good, "conversive" understanding of what you're studying.
Only after this can you begin to "specialize" - that is, take a certain "mini-topic" of the "main" topic, and study this in-depth (*gasp*). I made this mistake when I began to study J.S. Bach ... I tried to read a very scholarly study on the Brandenburg Concertos before I even knew much about Bach himself! I realized the hard way that I must learn more about Bach the man and at the very least basic baroque music history and theory before I can begin to touch the "Brandenburg" book (I'm thinking in about 2-3 years ... *sigh*).
All of you, each of whom are very well-versed in certain areas above the average person, can testify to this! You can't read Kant without knowing basic philosophy. You can't decipher the intricacies of quantum mechanics before you understand classical physics. You don't study the first century Roman legions without knowing Roman history. And on and on and on.

Well, that was a long and slightly rambling post. Thanks for reading, if you endured so far!