I like to post in "trebuchet." Although I am not entirely sure why it is called "trebuchet," as a treb. Was one of the most destructive war machines of the Middle Ages.
Well, as is the case with many of my questions, I promptly did a web search of the topic. It yielded this. It doesn't say why the guy named it after a siege weapon, but it was still interesting.
I have been interested in trebs since I began to play Age of Empires 2 where they play an important role in smashing your opponent's defenses (or leaving you scrambling to find those pesky light cavalry units to destroy them!). I always wanted to build one. I might someday.
How disappointing! I clicked on a station on XM online because it said Johnny Cash was on. Apparently is was almost over because by the time it connected it was Reba McIntyre from the 80's. BLACCH!
This week we had a lectureship by a great apologist Dr. Gary Habermast. He led us through an apologetical method we can use with everyone from world-class scholars to lay people because he only uses scripture that is accepted as "authentic" by even the most liberal scholars to prove that Jesus claimed to be God, was crucified, and rose from the dead. From there you can work back to prove the existence of God and the exclusivity of the Christian message for salvation. It was great! I will give more detail later. Right now I have to work on a new project....

Hello all. Not that there are very many people who know this site even exists.
Wow. We had our last Greek Exegesis class for the semester today. What a great class. We put all the things we learned this semester together and "exegeted" Phillipians 1:1-2 and 4:2-11.
Phil. 1:1-2 is Paul's salutation to the church in Philippi. Paul includes Timothy in his greeting but not because Timothy is a co-writer, but probably because Paul is getting the Philippians ready for Timothy's upcoming visit. Paul addresses the letter to the "saints" together with the "elders and deacons" in Philippi. There has been much discussion why he did this. People want to connect the two terms to say that the letter was only to the leaders in the church ( a term in Greek grammar called apposition). But they are not the same. We came to the conclusion that Paul is including the whole church, emphasising that the problems Paul deals with will also have to be dealt with by the leaders.
Phil. 4:2-4 is Paul's plea to get along. There are two women who have a difference of opinion that has apparently spread to the entire church, with people taking one side or the other. It is a conflict over something involved in ministry in Philippi. Paul appeals to the time when the Philippians and Paul's fellow workers were striving in the work of the Gospel, asking them to return to that point in thier thinking. They need to return to fellowshipping in the gospel. If they can't have fellowship doing something, they need to stop. Of course the appication applies to us today. If some ministry program is better monitarally or efficient but causes a rift in the church, it needs to be ended. The point of the section is to work together.
We also looked at Phil. 4:13. Many interpret the verse as saying "I can do anything through Him who strengthens me." But exegetically that interpretation does not hold up. The context is Paul speaking about how he has learned the secret of contentment in times of adversity (with an emphasis on finances). He says he cannot do this on his own, as the Stoic philosiphers of the time argued (he even uses the same type of language as the Stoics). He says it is only possible through God. It is also clear that the believer in need must go to the Christian community for help, and that the community is bound to help the one in need. Finally we are only able to do something if it is what God wants us to do. If God really wants us to be able to lift 300lbs we will do it. But if we want to lift it, we cannot hang our hopes on this verse.
There was a TON of work behind these summaries. There were literally pages of notes we wrote down on individual verses. The more we studied, the more questions we came up with that we needed to answer. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. Just kidding. By all means, study as much as you can, using all the tools at your diposal. This is what "meditating on the Word" means. It does not mean to empty your mind, rather fill it with thoughts about the Word. You will find it very rewarding.

It certainly has been a while since I updated! Lots of things have been going on!
Jan. 20,21,and 22 was the men's retreat at our church. It was, as it has been for 20 years, at Tadmore Camp.
The speaker was Dr. Phil Howard. He pulled no punches and talked to us men straight about living for God and keeping ourselves pure. I think a lot of men were changed, including me! There was also paintball and pistol shooting, lots of Super Monkey Ball, great food, and great fellowship. I am waiting until someone puts his messages online to comment because they were so good I don't want to sell them short.
As for paintball, our team ran the table, winning both team-elimination games and both capture-the-flag games. The first game I got hit in the face running blindly (my mask was so fogged, I almost tripped several times) toward the other team. The second game none of us got out. In fact, we employed some great military tactics of cover fire and flanking. The first capture the flag game was double elimination, that is you can get shot once, run back to your base and get back in. My boss, Shawn hit me in the face as I was running for the flag but it allowed Joe (a great friend and co-worker) to hit Shawn in the heart area. Joe hit another guy on the other team. This gave one of our guys an opportunity to grab the flag. The second capture the flag game was non-elimination. The judge overheard us discussing strategy and suggested a rather radical one. I left my paint gun at our base and ran full-bore for the flag as soon as it started, with Joe covering with his gun. I made it to the flag and made a grab for it. As paintballs whizzed by I tugged at the flag. It was stuck in the tree. Finally I was hit and Joe right after me. We bee-lined it back to our base and flipped a u-iee, sprinting back toward the flag. This time I reached it and broke the tree holding it. I started to run back toward our base and fell flat. As paintballs flew by and spattered around me I jumped back up and raced back to the base. It was quite exhilarating!
For the pistol shoot they organized a card game. At piece of cardboard was attached to a stand and playing cards were taped on it, face down. A small pack was included and these counted double. The objective was to rack up as many points as possible with 6 shots (revolvers were involved, so 6 was the max). I came in late. Since the rules said "any caliber," I went with my Browning Buckmark .22 since it is almost a target quality pistol, as opposed to my Desert Eagle .40 S&W which is a combat arm. It turned out I tied for 1st and we had a shoot-off. I had already put the Buckmark away because I thought we were on to the next activity. I got 8 points on 2 cards with the Eagle, while the other guy got 1 double card for 14 points. It was great fun. There was even a guy with a blackpowder revolver. Some complained about having to stand downwind of him ;-)
I came back refreshed and challenged. And with Karen's help and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, we will continue in our spiritual renewal.
More later.
P.S. Phil, I have the comments set to "anyone" now! :-)