If you’ve seen the video of the original “big dog” robot, perhaps you remember the scene near the beginning where it’s climbing a hill in the forest. For whatever reason, that made a rather sinister impression on me. Well, the next edition has arrived, now more nimble (albeit smaller version) than before. Check out the crazy leaping action around 1:09!

This past weekend Alisa and I traveled north with a bunch of other mission reps.  Somewhere between Sudbury and Espanola we passed this vehicle.  Obviously the photo quality of my cell phone isn’t great; think if it as one of those next-model-car spy photos

To me, it’s becoming evident the term “Facebook Privacy” is mostly an oxymoron.  NY Times recently posted  an interesting (and shocking) graphic showing the staggering “privacy” options of the blue and white site, and how the complexity has increased over time. While I try to stay on top of FB changes and adjust by setting accordingly, I increasing feel it’s ridiculous. Maybe it’s about time for me to join others who are pulling their profiles… But not quite.

Click to see the graphic:
Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options [External link to nytimes.com]

As an inaugural post (at least for 2010) – I present this amazing illusion:

Here are two additional quotes from the book reviewed in our last post:

• “The apparent conflict that exists between grace and truth isn’t because they’re incompatible, but because we lack perspective to resolve their paradox. The two are interdependent.” (pg. 16)

• “Unfortunately, many nonbelievers know only two kinds of Christians; those who speak the truth without grace and those who are very nice but never share the truth. What they need to see is the third type of Christian – one who, in a spirit of grace, loves them enough to tell them the truth.” (pg. 77)

Recently Malcolm and I (Alisa) have been reading Randy Alcorn’s The Grace and Truth Paradox as part of our morning devotions. Even though the book is very small, it took us several days to get through it, because the explanations within it spurned lots of discussions between us (in which we were mostly just agreeing with what the author said). Like anything I’ve read from Alcorn, this book gets a high rating from me, and I’d recommend it to any Christian…or maybe anyone, for that matter. It’s stuffed with “quotable quotes,” and I’ve selected a few here to share with you:

• “[In John 1:14] Scripture distills Christ’s attributes into a two-point checklist.” (pg. 13) (“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”- Jn. 1:14)

• “Truth-oriented Christians love studying Scripture and theology. But sometimes they’re quick to judge and slow to forgive. They’re strong on truth, weak on grace. Grace-oriented Christians love forgiveness and freedom. But sometimes they neglect Bible study and see moral standards as ‘legalism.’ They’re strong on grace, weak on truth. Countless mistakes in marriage, parenting, ministry, and other relationships are failures to balance grace and truth.” (pg. 17)

• “Christ’s heart is equally grieved by grace-suppression and truth-suppression, by grace-twisting and truth-twisting. Grace and truth are both necessary. Neither is sufficient.” (pg. 88)

So, there is the answer to the question. Christ, was full of both grace and truth.  They are both essential!

This afternoon Alisa and I went out and took some photos in the vibrant Fall colours!  Here’s a few of the results: