Take Apart T

Take Apart T

Assembling a Model T in 7 min 37 seconds.

What a day… A first experience: Assembling Model T. David and I had the privilege of “assisting” Marv Gage and other members of the AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) in assembling a model T the way they did it on the Ford line in 1914. All the parts were set in place like they way they did it in the Ford factories. They were very nice to us even though I don’t think we had a positive impact on the speed.

We put it together and Reilly Reiner in the jacket cranked it up and ran it across the field.

Ya Gotta GO on A Faith And Freedom Tour

Everyone who is educating their children should try to find a way to go to a Vision Forum Faith and Freedom Tour… They are absolutely blockbuster. There is nothing better for learning history than to go to the actual places in which they occurred.



Monticello, my favorite place on the tour. Wonderful buildings. Great site.



Doug Philips Lecturing in front of Mt. Vernon



George Washington the Surveyor

One of my favorite places in Virginia is Mount Vernon. I love it because I see a man creating over a span of forty years a home place full of activity, hospitality and industry. I like the way the buildings are arranged. I like the way the main house sets on the hill overlooking the Potomac. I like the shape of the house and how it is fitted for having large groups of visitors for lodging and for meals.

I like the way the outbuildings are arranged for efficient exercise of the prosperous purposes of the farm.

This home schooled boy lost his father at age 11 and went on to became a surveyor then a planter and then the most powerful man in the nation and perhaps the best President the country ever had.

He humbly acquiesced taking the Presidency making provisions for the power of others in the process. When elected President, said,

“I walk on un trodden Ground.”

In a way, so are we who are involved in family integrated churches that turn sharply away from the highly programmed professionally run seeker driven churches of our day. It is not completely untrodden ground that we travel, but it has been un trodden for quite a while.

Mount Vernon
A small building for each service the farm needed. There were three hundred slaves who needed shoes so there was a cobbler who worked in a building. One million fish were caught each year so there was a salt room for the preparation of fish. There was a blacksmith. Wash house. One year there were 11,000 gallons of liquor produced. He produced wheat, corn…

Wise Thinking Regarding Home place Development
I like the expansion of the house and how it demonstrated forethought yet the understanding of the resources at hand. The house started with about a 1200 square foot footprint and grew through two major stages to around 9000 sf. He started with a small house, expanded it twice. He had a wise modular plan. I have known people who use this strategy and it allows them affordability while growing at the pace of their prosperity instead of ahead of it (through debt).



This is Stonewall Jackson’s home. See the original footprint of the home on the left (brick). On the right is the addition. It started small and was expanded as finances would allow. A very smart way to engage in home ownership

Hospitality
There was a twenty year stretch at Mount Vernon where he and Martha did not eat alone because there were always visitors. They averaged over 700 overnight visitors each year.

Martha Washington built wonderful relationships among her visitors.

In a letter from Martha Washington to her friend Mercy Otis Warren, Dec 26:1789, (displayed in Williamsburg Visitors center) she writes

“I am determined to be cheerful and to be happy in whatever situation I may, for I have learnt from experience that the greater part of happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances.”

We went to the home of Patrick Henry - the place where he raised his six children from his first wife.


The Actual Floor that Patrick Henry (and other founding fathers) Walked

Fruitfulness and Multiplication
I am sorry to say that in the area of large family, Patrick Henry makes Dan Garner, with only a measly 11 children, look like a lightweight. His first wife bore him six children and went insane, dying at a young age. She died there in the house we visited. Patrick remarried, moved to a new home in Red Hill Virginia… and went to have a total of 17 children.

Devotion to family
Patrick Henry was an unusual member of our founding fathers for many reasons. First, as George Washington was known as “the sword” of the revolution, Jefferson was “the Pen” of the revolution and Patrick Henry was “the Trumpet” (the orator) of the revolution. It is interesting to note that he slipped into relative obscurity after the revolution. Patrick Henry went back home and spurned all other overtures for continued fame and fortune through political position and travel. He stayed home. In some ways he became the forgotten founding father. His grave site was left unkempt and overgrown until only recently when the governor of Virginia allocated funds to clean it up and repair it for visitation..

Formational Years Under Great Preaching
One principle that family heads need to understand is that importance of the local church you choose during your children’s formative years. My own father made a powerful decision for our young family, when he took us out of a liberal Methodist church in and took us to a Bible teaching church. The effect was landmark in every one of our lives. I am confident that if we had stayed in the old church, our family history would be very different. Patrick Henry was nurtured under the best preaching that Virginia had to offer. His oratorical skills were first inspired by the Great Awakening preacher, Samuel Davies. His mother took him to a Presbyterian church from age 12-22 to hear Davies preach.

Think of how many children there are in our church that are in this same formative period. This makes it obvious that the kind of church we make together, as the formational environment for our children looms in significance.

And how did young Patrick’s mother help her son understand the preaching of the day? On the way home, she would make him recite the sermon contend and would go the extra step to have him give the proper inflections and emphases he heard from Davies sermons.


I played the role of the pastor of the church Patrick Henry gave his famous address, “give me liberty or give me death.

One encouraging note
Patrick was not a good student as a boy. He was like most boys… liking the outdoors and not appreciating books all that much. He failed in two businesses by age 22, as a shopkeeper and a farmer. After that he studied law under the forces of his own motivation and continued to be self taught. From this time forward, Patrick Henry’s motivation rose dramatically. The lesson: Sometimes a youth without any strong literary or oratorical motivations during their youth will later turn on. Youthful affections or inclinations are not always the indicator for the future.


Robert E. Lee’s Grave at Washington and Lee University in Virginia

Highly Principled Weddings

September 18, 2004

This was our second wedding as a church… Oh the happiness! Kevin Page and Rebecca Garner



This was a highly principled wedding. Many protections and projections were made regarding the formation and purpose of this wedding. There was careful selection for kingdom purposes…NOT a couple doing their own thing.

Of all of the things a church does, one of the most important things it ever does is to participate in the formation of marriages.

It matters how you form marriages. If you (or your church) forms them poorly (with the methods of the world) you will make worldly marriages that will bankrupt the storehouse of blessing for the following generations.

Kevin and Rebecca’s preparation and formation should be an example for all who are witnessing this marriage.

First of all, Daniel Garner protected his daughter Rebecca from multiple failed romantic relationships, by first of all rejecting modern dating practices and adopting practices of what is called courtship. Second, he became the protector of his daughter and the gatekeeper who held back unworthy suitors. This is a very important role- that fathers do not play anymore - and we need to bring it back in the normal practices of the church.

Second, Kevin was highly principled by waiting till he was ready to be married before he pursued marriage. He did not express any interest in Rebeccca nor did he try to win Rebeccas heart until he had the full approval of her father and other wise counselors. Kevin refused to trifle with Rebecca, honored Rebecca’s father and then honored Rebecca by insuring his readiness for marriage. I know… I was there.

The kiss at this wedding (and it was a real corker) was Kevin and Rebecca’s first kiss. In this way, Kevin worked to keep his bride pure.



Both fathers and grandfathers addressed the couple during the ceremony and the fathers signed their marriage covenant along with the bride and groom.



Patriarchs, Daniel Garner and Dick Page sign the covenant

How thankful I was to know that all our little ones were watching how all this was done.



Here are brides to be, my daughter Claudia and Sophie Albright enjoying the moment. I trust God for the future of Trinity Baptist Church for many principled marriages for the glory of God.

Dove Hunting

September 4, 04 Dove Hunting –
Opening Day I had a first time experience (Dove hunting) and the opportunity to watch a true Patriarch (with a capital "P") in action. Don Bowen, the 68 year old father of Don Bowen, elder at Trinity Baptist Church invited three fathers and sons to go on their yearly family first day of the season dove hunt.

The Bowen Men - Father on far right, Sons in Middle and grandsons scattered about
We drove to Cheraw South Carolina to a 50 acre cornfield where we were to hunt. I watched this man bring together about 30 fathers and sons directing them to God, and demonstrating exemplary manhood. I watched him relate to his grandsons, giving them jobs to do and responsibilities. I watched him express kindnesses toward his sons.

Here you have a full output of testosterone… Don and Danny Albright, Jerry and Jonathan Mestas, Daniel Brown, Scott Brown, David Brown, Patrick and Brandon Bowen.

David Brown drawing a bead on a pesky Dove.

Sodom and Gomorrah

August 30, 04
Sodom and Gomorrah Top of Mind This Sunday I am preaching from Genesis 19… the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

This is one of the saddest stories in all the bible. When we read about the people of the earth before the flood, that the thoughts and intentions of their hearts were only evil continually, God does not give us a concrete illustration – just the summary statement. But, in Genesis 19 we see the vivid colors of what pervasive evil looks like in the city.

Here are a few themes that run through the chapter.: The consuming wrath of God; The syncretism of Lot; A picture of wickedness running wild in a city; The power of the sin of homosexuality; The torment of living in a wicked city; What Lot lost in the wicked city; God’s mercy to rescue His children; Reminder of Lot’s wife; The tragic crushing of a family.

We see the terrible results of syncretism. Syncretism is the blending faith with the worldly ways of the world. Syncretism always was and always will be the most dangerous threat to God’s people. If you think you can fit in with this world, and keep your faith, think again.

Sodom and Gomorrah brings us face to face with a culture of rampant homosexuality. This obviously, is a very important issue in our day. The homosexual agenda is beginning to dominate the human resource departments of our major corporations. We currently have a ‘conservative” "christian" president who is for civil unions of homosexuals, has been appointing homosexuals to key posts, and his wife promotes the gay agenda in her reading programs. Amazingly, we have a rising consciousness that labels Biblical statements about homosexuality as “hate speech”.

It is already illegal in Canada to quote the Bible on homosexuality.

Last year a Swedish pastor was sentenced to one month in prison, finding him guilty of offending homosexuals in a sermon. His crime was that he named homosexuality as “abnormal, a horrible cancerous tumor in the body of society.” The prosecutor played the sermon tape in the courtroom and it was concluded said “collecting Bible verses on this topic as he does, makes this hate speech.” The pastor defended himself by saying that he was simply trying to make clear the biblical view of homosexuality. (Article in Christianity Today, Sept 04, page 23)

The world system always wants to muzzle the truth about everything, which is why the gay agenda in business and government (and soon in the church) is making the Christian position dangerous to your job security.

If Christian men can be muzzled by fear of earthly reprisals, they will find themselves dangerously syncretized and the church will cease to be the salt and light. This is what we see in Sodom. Lot went to Sodom to make a living and in the process, Sodom filled his heart to the point that he lost absolutely everything of value. Still, God is faithful to grip him by the hand and remove him from the city just before it is incinerated. Grace Alone!

My Dad"s Old House

I am blessed to have a wonderful father. My father took me to his old neighborhood in St Louis where he lived from age six to ten…. The place where he wrestled with the sons of Jimmy Doolittle, the famous WWII pilot; where he lived in an upscale neighborhood where the Methodist parsonage was located; where he experienced the great depression.


Dad’s house (we think) David, Kelly, Dad and my cousin Susan


My grandfather probably preached behind this pulpit.



Female pastor at the Methodist Church
My son David had a first experience. When we went to the church that Dad attended, we met the pastor (or pastorette). This was the first time my son had ever met a female pastor.


We saw the movie theater that he went to on Saturday.

We walked down the alley he used coming home from school. We walked down the street that he walked everyday. It had not changed much in all these years. What a serene neighborhood it was.

The years here did their part in shaping my dad. He ran and played and ate ice cream here. I really enjoyed walking up and down his street, almost as if I were reliving his life as a little boy in the 1930's.

Prozac Found in UK Water Table

August 9, 04
Prozac Found in UK Water Table... Amazing. The antidepressant, Prozac has been found in the drinking water in UK. Because it is taken so widely (24 million prescriptions per year), it has found itself back into the water systems through the sewer system. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1278760,00.html When we need a lift, we go straight to the medicine cabinet. This is a symptom of a people who have forgotten God.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble”.

Psalm 46:1

If you go to the medicine cabinet for everything you might be missing some of the suffering God has planned for you to turn your heart to your only source of true comfort: Himself.

Malthusian Horrors

July 27, 2004 Emerald Isle –

Here is a grisly poem written long ago that will knock your socks off... Malthusian Horrors Illustrated in Verse.

Of the many lies that have produced the culture of abortion, theories of population growth have formed a philosophical foundation. It is safe to say that the father of overpopulation theory is Thomas Malthus (1766-1834).

Malthus, was a clergyman of the Church of England and a professor of Political Economy. In 1798, he wrote an essay (An Essay on Population) which became the most important, most adored and most widely read treatise on overpopulation and population control. He wrote that population grows geometrically but food production grows arithmetically, eventually producing food shortages, creating famine.

For example an arithmetic ratio would advance in the following way, 2, 4, 6, 8 ..., while a geometric ratio of growth would look like this: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 ... His ideas were used to promulgate the idea that small families were ideal for the sake of enough food for everyone.

His work caused much guilt in the hearts of people who had lots of children, and he scared off many who would dare. While the God of the Bible, said, “Be Fruitful and Multiply”, over and over again, the philosophy of wicked Malthus, said, “shame on you for having so many children…how could you be so selfish.”

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) wrote a poem that illustrates the depressing implications of Malthus’ theory as they worked their way out in the lives of real people.

“Oh! Mr. Malthus!
"MOTHER, Mother, here comes Malthus,
Mother, hold me tight!
Look! It's Mr. Malthus, Mother!
Hide me out of sight."
This was the cry of little Jane
In bed she moaning lay,
Delirious with Stomach Pain,
That would not go away.
All because her small Existence
Over-pressed upon Subsistence;
Human Numbers didn't need her;
Human Effort couldn't feed her.
Little Janie didn't know
The Geometric Ratio.
Poor Wee Janie had never done
Course Economics No. 1;
Never reached in Education
Theories of Population, --
Theories which tend to show

Just how far our Food will go,
Mathematically found
Just enough to go around.
This, my little Jane, is why
Pauper Children have to die.

Pauper Children underfed
Die delirious in Bed;
Thus at Malthus's Command
Match Supply with true Demand.
Jane who should have gently died
Started up and wildly cried, --
"Look, mother, look, he's there again
I see him at the Window Pane,
Father, -- don't let him, -- he's behind
That shadow on the window blind, --"
In vain the anxious parents soothe, --
What can avail their useless Love?
"Darling, lie down again; don't mind;
Branches are moving in the Wind."
With panting Breath, with Eyes that stare,
Again she cries, "He's there, he's there!"
The frightened Parents look, aghast,
Is it that something really passed?
What is it that they seem to scan,
Ghost or Abstraction, Dream or Man? --
That long drawn Face, the cloven Lip,
The crooked Fingers all a-grip,
The sunken Face, cadaverous,
The dress, Ah, God deliver us!
What awful Sacrilege is that?
The Choker and the Shovel Hat,
The Costume black and sinister,

The dress of God's own minister!
What fiend could ever urge a Man
To personate a Clergyman!
The Father strides with angry fist
"Out, out! you damned Economist!"
His wife restrains his threatening Paw, --
"William, it's economic Law!"
She shrieks, -- "Oh William! don't you know
The Geometric Ratio? --
William, God means it for the best
Our Darling's taken! we've transgressed -- "
And crying, "Two times two makes four,"
She crashes swooning to the Floor.
And when her Senses come again
Janie had passed from mortal Pain

And scowling Malthus had moved on
Murm'ring, "That's one more Infant gone,"
To other Windows, one by one; --
Later he came and took their Son.
With Jane and John gone, out of seven,
They kept at five and just broke even.
"Mary," the chastened Father said,
"I feel God's wisdom; two are dead
The world has only food for five,
Quintuplets are the thing that thrive."
She sobbed, -- "We'll do it if we can!
But, oh that awful Malthus Man.

This poem written so many years ago, during the Great Depression, makes clear the sadnesses associated with Malthus misguided theory of striving for lower population. Now, as the ethic of human dispensability has taken hold in the hearts of the people of the global village, these sadnesses are being multiplied in every country on the planet.

Collectively, we have exterminated nearly one billion children worldwide through abortion. Malthus, and his inaccurate theory paved the way. The poem can be found at “Representative Poetry Online: http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1283.html

Beach Life

We have been reading, swimming, reading, swimming, reading , swimming. We left the house twice in eight days. I cannot describe how nice it was to sit and write and read and just be together.

One particular joy: I was able to surf everyday on the giant NC waves.

Claudia became my surfer girl

The kayaking is much too much fun…

Problem; The girls did something that they did not think through. The implications of their creativity did not come to light until they were in the water. The painted their toe nails. They did not realize that they had made themselves shark lures. Imagine the attraction their kicking feet would arouse moving slowly through the water. Shark bait. Blair made it clear that all were safe to swim anytime, except during shark dinner time.

Tryon Palace

One day, we went to Tryon Palace in New Bern which was the first capital of North Carolina before the Revolution and then for a while after.


The buildings were wonderful sights to behold. It has a Colonial Williamsburg feel to it… really nice.

The superiority of Cattle over Sheep Summer Reading:

July 21, 2004
The superiority of Cattle over Sheep.
Summer Reading: I just read a delightful book by Teddy Roosevelt first published in 1885, entitled “Hunting Trips of a Ranchman’, in which he tells hundreds of hunting stories that give a wonderful picture of the state of the nation during the time. It was a time when the trappers and mountain men were getting scarce and though there were problems with Indians, they were waning. The spirit of the old west was still alive but being modified by westward movement and the increasing population of the nation.

Teddy Roosevelt had an 80 head cattle ranch in the Bad Lands of South Dakota. After a hail storm killed several sheep on his ranch. It was no loss in his mind. He writes:

“Cattle men hate sheep, because they eat the grass so close that cattle cannot live on the same ground. The sheep-herders are a morose, melancholy set of men, generally afoot, and with no companionship except that of the bleating idiots they are hired to guard. No man can associate with sheep and retain his self respect. Intellectually a sheep is about on the lowest level of the brute creation ; why the early Christians admired it, whether young or old, is to a cattle-man always a profound mystery.”

It is not very flattering that the Lord relates to us like sheep. When it comes to identifying ourselves, we have to admit that we are sheep. The sheep are not the other guys. The sheep are not the guys who don’t "get it". We are all sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

No matter what any of us are doing in the church, we should have the mark of humility upon us. Whatever new patterns we establish, they will carry with them some imperfections for which the grace of God is sufficient. In all our conveyances, we should remember four key The Mark of Humility - The recognition of our problem The Centrality of the Cross – the Lord’s supper The Preaching of the Word – Word saturated churches The Fulfillment of the Great Commission.

Forming Marriages for the Glory of God

Weddings of the First Kiss

On July 17, our church had one of the most joyous gatherings in its history. I have always been amazed at the happiness that I have seen in our meeting times and the joy that we experience by being together in the church. But on this day, people were especially happy. We were together in unity and in love to speed one of our young men into marriage.

We witnessed a marriage that was formed in a very unusual way… an exemplary way. It was formed through principles of courtship rather than dating. Throughout their courtship, the couple consulted the principles from the Bible rather than the principles that guide the common culture. Those who have an inside understanding of Trinity Baptist Church will know that I have rejected most of the processes and values of the modern dating system. And we are seeking to establish patterns that avoid the weaknesses of dating with our own children.
But why was this such an unusually happy day?

This wedding marked the conclusion of an exemplary courtship.
There was a method that was established at the beginning that led to marriage It was an orderly process that involved several things:

A. Screening the suitor: A father figure in the life of the bride required over100 questions to be answered and many hours of conversation, emails and meetings before he would even allow the suitor to speak to the bride to be. He had to be qualified FIRST.

B. The values and standards of the couple were thoroughly tested through personal questioning BEFORE heart strings started twanging. This is to verify if there any “show stoppers” in the relationship before emotional bonds were formed.

C. Respect for the counsels of the men of the church were considered. The groom sought counsel from the people in his life who knew him best. It was not an individualistic effort – or decision - but jointly with many counselors. In the abundance of counselors there is victory.

D. The whole church worked together to pull off the wedding and then committed great resources so that the wedding was absolutely wonderful, but not a financial burden on the families of the couple. We were tired because it was a lot of hard work, but we were thankful that our labors were effective for the encouragement and the prosperity of the couple. We worked hard because we believed in it.
E. The suitor paid a Bride price as a security of his commitments in the betrothal.
F. Betrothal period was marked by an unshakeable commitment to follow through witht he marriage.
G. The groom worked effectively to protect the sexual purity of the relationship. The couple established some rules to keep them out of sexual compromise during the courtship. For instance, they were always with chaperone. No backrubs. No Kissing. Time alone was limited.
There were some important assumptions regarding physical intimacy. First of all, kissing and other forms of physical intimacy were regarded as the territory of marriage alone.

H. The wedding kiss was the first kiss. Presiding over what I will call “weddings of the first kiss” is definitely an paradigm shattering experience. I have performed many weddings but have not seen as much joy in the kisses as I see in the “weddings of the first kiss”….There is an unparalleled happiness and purity to the moment. It is an explosion of joy unparalleled. I think that waiting until the wedding day must somehow concentrate and increase and sanctify the joy.
This couple believed that only after speaking vows of covenantal commitment does a man the permission to touch a woman. They took the position that if there were no vows, then there should be no rights of marital physical blessing. I agree completely.

The way we form marriages is important. The way churches help their people form marriages is important.

How can we overcome the forcefulness of the culture regarding how marriages are made?It helps to remember Penn’s face, smiling more that day than any day I have ever seen.It helps to remember the joy of the people participating in a wedding that was guided by God’s Word. It helps to have a principled battle plan to guide us. We have all of these going forward.

We were so very happy on this wedding day because we knew we had a good pattern for the future. We were very happy because of the direction this wedding day and courtship would take us. Our practices always take us in a direction. And, the practices of this courtship and marriage were the kind that we as a church want to foster among our young people. Not that everyone has to follow every aspect of this pattern, but that we have carefully considered our practices and that we work for marriages for the glory of God.