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Over Our Heads: Life in the Golden Triangle (Rom. 5:1-5) Chris Altrock – Aug. 6, 2017

This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series Over Our Heads

Guts

We were standing in line to board our flight from Atlanta to Memphis when I saw the t-shirt.

It was the end of a long week. We had said our goodbye’s to Kendra’s mother after her long battle with MS and cancer. We were returning from Arizona home to Memphis after the funeral. Standing in line ahead of us as we were boarding our final leg home was a young man with a t-shirt that read “Being human takes guts.” I thought, “Boy, that’s right.” Being human takes guts. It’s hard to be human. Life is hard.Read More »Over Our Heads: Life in the Golden Triangle (Rom. 5:1-5) Chris Altrock – Aug. 6, 2017

Over Our Heads: The Power of God (Rom. 1:16-17) Chris Altrock – July 30, 2017

This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series Over Our Heads

Recently I was talking to one of Kendra’s cousins about her grandfather. He was an infamous figure in the family. His was one of the first funerals at which I officiated. And it remains one of the most difficult at which I officiated. He was one of those people about whom it was hard to find anything good to say.

This cousin was one of three siblings–two girls and a boy. She was telling me that the grandfather played favorites as they were growing up. When they’d visit the grandfather, he’d take their brother out to eat at a nice restaurant, and leave the two sisters at home to fend for themselves. He’d buy the brother special presents at a nice store, and leave the two sisters empty-handed. His favoritism was that blatant.

This morning we begin a series on a letter written by Paul called Romans. It is addressed to Christians living in the ancient city of Rome. Among a handful of other themes, Romans is all about favoritism.Read More »Over Our Heads: The Power of God (Rom. 1:16-17) Chris Altrock – July 30, 2017

Heart of the Matter: Hearing the Call of the Wild (1 Sam. 23:14-29) Chris Altrock – July 16, 2017

This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series The Heart of the Matter

American Wilderness

In 1964, in a nearly unanimous vote, the United States Congress enacted legislation to protect American wilderness.[1] The Wilderness Act was put into place to secure for present and future generations the benefits of wilderness. The United States was the first country in the world to define and designate wilderness areas through law. Through it more than 105 million acres of wilderness have been preserved so that people can hike it, hunt in it, take pictures in it, stargaze in it. Wilderness also provides clean water and air and places to see wildlife in a natural setting. It seems that we need and love wilderness.Read More »Heart of the Matter: Hearing the Call of the Wild (1 Sam. 23:14-29) Chris Altrock – July 16, 2017

Heart of the Matter: How Not to Be Shallow (1 Sam. 16:6-7) Chris Altrock – July 2, 2017

This entry is part [part not set] of 4 in the series The Heart of the Matter

The book Hidden Figures, which was made into a critically acclaimed movie, tells of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory in Virginia.[1] Housed at NACA, the precursor to NASA, Langley was where production and experimental aircraft were developed and tested, especially during and after World Word War II. Langley helped develop the first supersonic aircraft in the U.S. Langley also participated significantly in the development and testing of the first U.S. spacecraft.

All of this work required extremely high levels of mathematics. Data from tests had to be processed by hand–much of this was before the advent of modern computers. Thus human computers or mathematicians were hired by the hundreds. They spent their days crunching all the data gathered in the lab’s wind tunnels and other tests. As the space race ensued, these human computers calculated the trajectories of the Mercury and Apollo missions as well.Read More »Heart of the Matter: How Not to Be Shallow (1 Sam. 16:6-7) Chris Altrock – July 2, 2017