A View From The Earth

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a wonk when it comes to American style football especially in the Division 1 College ranks. I've went as far as ranking all 120 teams as to where I think they should be rated. So here are my top ten plus a some others that I find of interest right now. 1. Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Florida 4. Texas 5. Virginia Tech 6. Oklahoma 7. Boise State 8. Texas Christian 9. Nebraska 10. Iowa My team, Iowa State, is down the list at 55. As the season progresses, I hope that they can climb the ladder to a higher ranking, but we shall see... Northern Illinois is the Iowa State Cyclones first opponent. I have them ranked right now at 50, which would make them better than Iowa State. Well, I still predict a win for the Cyclones because they are playing in Ames which makes a big difference. But it should be a good game and I will be there on Thursday night to watch Iowa State get a season opener win. The Iowa Hawkeyes start out play with the Eastern Illinois...

I've been neglecting the blog for the past few months so I thought I should probably post the sermons that I've done this summer at the Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa. This is the July 11, 2010 sermon. In every construction trade, in every business, there are standards of righteousness. By the term righteousness, in the context of construction, we mean being correct. Amos, one of the earliest prophets in Israel, used the plumb line as a metaphor for righteousness. Israel was more than “a bit out of plumb” in the days of Amos and Isaiah. The book of Amos records that two years after Amos received his visions, an earthquake struck the area. Josephus, the Jewish historian, believed that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah’s seizure of the role of High Priest and his subsequent bout with leprosy. Amos lived at about the same time as the prophets Isaiah, Micah and Hosea. Under Jeroboam II the kingdom of Israel reached the zenith ...