By: Maynard H. Belt

“Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.” I Chronicles 4:9-10

Well, friend, what went through your mind when you read the title of the Barnabas File this time? If like me, oh, no, not another “Prayer of Jabez” message.

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

This bit of excitment occured in the small town of Coldwater, where I work.

COLDWATER (NEWS 3) - Coldwater residents say the FBI, U.S. Customs and police were searching homes in the city for much of the day Wednesday. Authorities did not reveal what the activity was about.

Residents say they saw the agents searching at least four houses in downtown Coldwater, where there is a significant Arab-American community. “I looked over to the house across the street and there were FBI agents wearing bulletproof vests and checking their guns,” said one resident.

The searches appeared to go on uneventfully. City police did confirm they assisted the FBI in their actions.

One might get the impression from this article that Microsoft is just a wee bit concerned about the pressure being put on them by Linux and other free software.

Things at my place of employment have been getting interesting lately. Business has been slow for quite a while. Recently business got extremely slow. It’s a small shop with just a handful of employees. You get to know everyone pretty well in a small business. Recently management had to lay off a couple people. It’s hard to see people you’ve known for years be let go with no promise of soon returning. It makes one uncomfortable too when things don’t appear to be getting any better. It makes you wonder who’s next.

When you find yourself in the midst of an unstable work situation and you have a family to care for you gain a new appreciation for a steady job and the Lord’s provision. Let’s put it this way; God has my attention.

Sometimes God uses the voice of another to speak to you when you need it most. Sometimes He uses the voice of a child. Today He used a child’s voice to speak to me. As a part of our home schooling Carolyn requires each of our children to write something in their composition book each day. This is what Kevin, our oldest (11 years old), wrote today.

God made every grain of sand, every drop of water, formed all living things and loves everyone. He provides for the robins and He will provide for you.

Thanks Kev, I needed that.

I’ve been encouraging Kevin to write a bit, for family and friends to see, on the internet. He’s just getting his toes wet. Go check out his blog when you get a chance.

This artifact is an interesting find and could be some of the earliest archeological evidence of Jesus.

This from an article at Biblical Archeology Review;

“The James ossuary may be the most important find in the history of New Testament archaeology,” says Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review. “It has implications not just for scholarship, but for the world’s understanding of the Bible.”

This just in from the “more ignorance than one person should be aloud to have in a lifetime” department. What was this guy thinking anyway?

Theories about the Washington-area shootings abound.

Here’s an interesting development. It’s nice to see a court that will call a fetus a human life worth defending.

This is an interesting theory about the possibility the shooter could be using a much different type of weapon than most are thinking. Considering many of these shootings have happened in more heavily populated areas this is probably getting some serious review by the authorities.

UPDATE:
I spoke with a friend who owns a weapon like the one mentioned in the article. He says they are very accurate. It’s not uncommon for him to get a four inch group at 100 yards.

Even after getting treated to a good dose of common sense this PETA protester still doesn’t get it.

I sure appreciate these words of wisdom about the proper discipline of children. Let me share just part of what Tony has to say on the topic and then go read the piece for yourself.

If you wait until your child is two years old to begin holding him to expectations, you will have trained him to whine, wheedle, cry, scream, lie, and deliberately disobey you to get what he wants.

Want to know when your favorite web site has been updated - like this one? I found a handy site that meets my needs for tracking when a site has changed, so I don’t have to remember to go check it out or be concerned that I’ll forget about that site I once thought was so great. I’ve been using changedetection.com for a few weeks now and I’m pleased with what it does. Getting started is simple - start by copying the URL of the site you want to track, go to the monitor page at changedetection.com, paste the URL, add your e-mail address and click next. Note that you’ll be sent to the next page that will let you sign up for junk e-mail — just hit the skip button here and you are done. Now the next time that site you wanted to track changes you’ll get an e-mail notifying you of the change. You can also turn monitoring off for that site from a link in the e-mail you get notifying you of a recent change. Webmasters can also add the change detection feature to their web pages for visitors to track their site for changes. Hey - you could test it by trying it out this site.

How many of us couldn’t use some work on our prayer lives? Having a consistent prayer life can be a struggle for a pastor while being torn between the little fires and the big fires he is called to put out and attend to. It’s all too easy to put off the necessity of prayer for days on end. Rick Warren’s article, Four Secrets To Praying Like A Leader, from February 2002 can be an encouragment to get back into the habit of prayer. One area I’ve sought to improve in lately is being more specific in my prayers. Warren points out;

If you want specific answers to prayer, then you need to make specific requests. If your requests are extremely general, how will you know when they are answered?

This interesting piece at the USA Today site about The Homeless Guy also includes a quote from Jordon Cooper, both fellow bloggers.

This one is a bit late but it’s close to home - geographically. I happen to work in Branch County and having been in law enforcement I kind of feel sorry for the Branch County Sheriffs’s Office. They’ve been getting national attention this week for tipping off the public about a telemarketing scheme by al-Qaeda members. The only problem is their source was this article at the Onion, a satire site.

The whole Onion article on the telemarketing by terrorists, it’s hilarious. Totally absurd. How could you not realize it’s a joke with gems like this:

Last December, during a sweep of caves near the Afghan-Pakistani border, Maj. Gen. Dan K. McNeill, leader of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, unearthed further evidence corroborating the phone-solicitation theory. Inside one cave, McNeill and his troops found a bank of empty cubicles with individual phone lines, a bullhorn, and 10 desktop bells, commonly rung in the event of a “sale.”

The only redeeming factor for the Sheriffs’s office is that they’re probably clueless about all the recent notoriety.

Here’s and interesting idea. Looks like Saddam is willing to dual.