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gonna get back in the groove of journaling, something happens, like I mentioned in that last post, to stop me for a bit.

Truth is, too many people read this stuff that know me and my church for me to lay out the truth like I used to do. So I'm still learning, I guess, to walk that line, whatever it is.

Although I don't think I should come right out and say what is happening, I can say that no one, and I mean no one, hates legalistic Christians more than me. With that in mind, I'll just report that a couple of families complained to the pastor about some behavior that they saw at a local restaurant involving a couple of special music guests that were at the church the day I led the music. And that I strongly disagreed with his response to said families.

Now, don't get me wrong, I respect the pastor an awful lot. So much so that I've held my tongue, biting it so hard that blood came out if you get my drift. He is responsible for the entire church body, I'm not. I just hate to see legalism rear its ugly head in any shape. Period.

So that was really bugging me, because if the pastor sticks with his initial response, he is, in effect, kicking me out of the church. And I don't think that is God's will in any shape, form or fashion. But the issue is so close to the pastor's upbringing that I continue to think that will be the end result.

So on Tuesday, SU had to go out of town. Both of us were just sick about the whole thing. The idea of finding a new church body to accept us is horrifying but we know it can be done. It was just bad timing for her to go out of town with such uncertainty hanging over our heads.

One very nice thing is that I went to dinner Tuesday night with LB, one of the guys in my class. It never ceases to amaze me how God can use the people around us to encourage us and give us insight into His will. And that was the case with LB. As we sat outside listening to music at T-Bone Tom's, we talked and talked. Shared life's struggles. And helped each other understand that we aren't alone, God does provide what we need, when we need it. In this case, He provided LB to help me and perhaps me to help him.

On Wednesday, I met with the pastor to discuss the issue. It was a very good meeting, non-confrontational, just a laying it on the line, what to do now meeting. And it was definitely the best meeting I've ever had with my pastor of 35+ years, no question about that. But in the end, we didn't resolve the issue at hand, so that is still very much out there. It is his decision to make, really not much I can do about it.

We discussed the "incident" briefly but my concern and issue is, what type of church do we want to become? Yes, we are growing and yes, we are dynamic. But should we grow at the expense of legalism? Definitely not in my view, perhaps in the pastor's. That is a bit unfair, he understands the legalistic problem but is, at the same time, concerned about problems within the church when members complain.

As for me, I'd take the frikkin' gossips behind the woodshed and beat them until they were bloody. But that's just me.

Not much to report after that. SU came home (thank goodness) and we had a nice dinner at the remote. They seem to be almost back to normal after the management change. Same for Thursday. And last night, we ordered a pizza and watched a movie.

And then today sucked because I had to go to the HCAD and protest my appraisal. Stupidest system ever devised by man for taxation. I count it as a "win" but really, if your "value" goes up 6.18%, is that a win? I think not.

Too much of a rough week. I called BD and asked him to fill in for me tomorrow, I just don't have it in me.

Can't believe I'm going to be looking for a new church family. That sucks if it actually comes to that. Still prayin...

on the heels of an awesome Saturday, that sucks. The weekend was rolling right along, everything going my way. Then, BAM!

Like I said, though, Saturday was awesome. Got a ton of things done around the house and even had time to smoke a rack of ribs. Used a pecan/hickory mix, not bad.

Why was Saturday so good? Well, got a lot done. Early morning work on a couple of websites was fruitful. Then, I drove the beast over to Pop's old house and picked up a desk that he had used for many years. Took it up to the north forty to SSu's homestead and managed to install it without breaking anything. Or my back, thanks to RW's help.

Decided to fire up the pit when I got home, so I stopped by Kroger to see what they had. Ended up with a rack of ribs and a few chicken breasts. While the pit was warming up, I applied a dry rub to all the meat and let it absorb for about an hour. When the pit settled and no smoke was visible, I put the rack on and brought stabilized the heat at 280 F. I like to smoke ribs at a little bit higher temp than brisket or pork shoulders. At some point in time, I put the breasts on.

When that was started up and stable, I changed the oil in 1's Hyundai. Quick and simple, no muss, no fuss. Then I tackled the beast and as usual, the beast won. Dropped the oil filter again, spilling a half a quart or more on the drive. The trailer park manager is never happy when that happens, so I had to pressure wash it before she noticed.

When that was done, I just kept on pressure washing. Got at least half the drive looking like new. More fun than vacuuming!

After that, it was time for a swim in the pool. Man, that felt good! Toweled off, pulled the ribs and chicken off, had a nice dinner and went upstairs and watched a couple of episodes of Criminal Minds. Nice day.

And today started out fine. Had BD teach class and enjoyed his lesson. Thought it went really well. And then I had such a good time on stage in church that two men came up and said how much they enjoyed my joy! Can't beat that.

And then...well, let's just say it sucked the joy right out of the day. Not sure what Pop had in mind when he pulled SU and I in his office but I doubt the results were what he thought they would be. And that's about all I can say. Later.

about last Sunday's class. We talked about being open to new revelation using Peter's experience in Acts 10 as a launching pad.

In this passage, Peter has a dream, sees a vision, whatever you want to call it. This vision leads him to conclude that he has been wrong about his new beliefs and that he should indeed share the faith with Gentiles, i.e., people not like him, not of his culture, race, nationality, etc. He proceeds to act upon his new knowledge, which angers the rest of the apostles. So, in Acts 11:1-18, he defends his new position and convinces the other apostles that he is correct.

So, the question presented was, how do we open ourselves today to new understanding? I didn't even get the question out of my mouth before someone said let's get something straight, we are talking about new truth from the Bible. Sigh, I knew then it was going to be a long one. I mean, do I really have to include disclaimers like that every time I open my mouth? In a Bible study group? What other purpose would I have? Annoying.

I think that people sometimes use these tactics, and others, to avoid the truth. And the truth is, most of us don't want to learn anything new. We are comfortable with what we think we believe and don't really want to probe areas that make us uncomfortable. And I see this play out every week in class.

One guy, SV, likes to pretend he is SuperChrstian. He never, ever, answers any question in the first person. It is always "them" or "they", never "I" or "me". And he also tries to go to tangents on words rather than think about the point. Like this past Sunday, talking about prejudice, he tried to take off on positive/negative prejudice, he is prejudiced against certain flavors of ice cream, etc. When the point of the conversation was Peter's prejudice towards Gentiles.

Anyways, the thing is, and the question was, how do we make ourselves open to understanding what God is telling us? The key, obviously, is to listen to the Holy Spirit. If Peter, who walked side by side with Christ, needed a new understanding of the faith, how much more do I? Am I willing to listen to the Holy Spirit without allowing my "knowledge" to interfere?

I've been concentrating lately on the teachings of Christ (trying to?) and then run everything else through that lens. Doing this has really created conflict with a lot of what I "think" Paul is saying. Which means, to me, that I need to rethink what I "know" about the writings of Paul.

So that is where I am. What stirred this line of thinking, honestly, is the current homosexual marriage debates. What if my current "knowledge" of this issue is wrong? In any case, I think that today's churches place far too much importance on this issue (and others). What if churches and Christians just focused on following Christ and helping their members follow Christ instead of homosexuality, abortion, whatever?

compass test I talked about a couple of years ago? Well, bob42 brought it back up over at Lonestartimes, so, I thought I'd take it again to see if anything had changed.

Looks like I moved a bit to the right and a bit more libertarian over the past 2 1/2 years.

Almost a full point to the right and a quarter point further into libertarian land. Scary place, that is. Give it a try , it's interesting.

I almost forgot.

That little music player on the left features songs from my brother-in-law, Ron Maxey, affectionately referred to as BIL This is the same BIL that was very much near death a couple of years ago. Spent some time with him a couple of weeks ago at Katie's, he's still got a few problems but nothing he can't handle.

Decided to take a little time off from "journaling" about the Jolly life. Ended up taking over a month off. Not sure I intended that to happen but life goes as it goes sometimes. Didn't do much more at Lonestartimes, a little filler here and there, 'bout it.

So, what's been happening in the trailer park? Lots and lots. Spent a week in Iowa in training. Learned how to hire better slaves for the plantation, you know, the kind that will stick around awhile. I dreaded going but all in all, it wasn't a terrible week.

SSh coordinated (and did the bulk of the work) the cleaning out of Pop's house. Big "estate" sale went on for a couple of weekends. Sure was weird having an "estate" sale while he is still kickin'! Strange going through stuff that you hadn't seen in years, some for a couple of decades! Old pictures galore, I was actually young once. And could have been nicknamed String Bean Jolly!

SU has been working hard at working out, getting ready for the big Hawaii vacation, which is rapidly approaching. Bought her an Ipod, she really likes using it, says she works out harder. Whatever she's doing, it's working!

Nothing much new happening with 1 and 2. 1 continues planning the wedding to Hero and working. She took the summer off from school, says she needed a break. I say she should have taken the summer off from work and stayed in school but, you know, who am I? 2 is also working a lot of shifts in Austin but managed to come down for a couple of days. She's signed up for the motorcycle safety class in July. Chip off the ol' block! Her mom isn't thrilled about that.

Pop seems to be settling in to his new life. Went over their house yesterday for lunch, very pleasant time.

Had a great day at church yesterday. Class was really good, I thought, although this one guy keeps challenging me. Doesn't really bother me all that much, I just hope it doesn't affect the class negatively. Interesting thing yesterday was I had a visitor named Bill. Seems Bill was asked to leave his Sunday School class, so he was visiting to find a place. About 10 minutes before class was over, he hopped up and said he had to leave. I thought I'd pissed him off or something but it turns out that he was heading over to his own church. Strange. But true.

Anyways, I had the opportunity to lead the music for both the morning and evening services yesterday because RSa was out of town. Had a ball. Really special because BT was playing the organ and SSh sang on stage with us. Way cool. Then BT accompanied me on Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone). I had my guitar but didn't play it much, mostly piano for that song. Both returned for the evening service. In that one, I sang Jesus and Mama Always Loved Me, playing the Taylor DN3. Had fun. Lots.

The VTX is now mine, I've ridden it more miles than the previous owner. Love that bike, LB gets a h/t for turning me on to it. Haven't been taking very many pictures, here is one of the Iowa State Capital. That's enough for now.