rambling rosemarie

I hate to be the one to tell you this but it appears that Kristen Stewart is an adulteress. The Twilight star has proven that money and fame don't necessarily coincide with contentment and integrity. Or good acting for that matter, but that's only my opinion. In what Stewart apologizes for as a " momentary indiscretion " she admits to having an affair with Rupert Sanders, the director of the Snow White movie she stars in...which I don't remember the entire title of ... and if it weren't for the fact that every news outlet seems to think her infidelity to Robert Pattinson is front page, hot scoop material, I wouldn't remember Kristen Stewart. I don't know why our culture is so fixated on sin that it isn't enough to wallow in your own but we seem intent to be groupies for others who are swimming in the cesspool. A momentary indiscretion. There are so many things wrong with that statement. The brash Rosemarie wants to say if it's only taki...

I have been wondering what all the talk about The Elephant Room is about. I hang out with folks on the net who are wicked smart theologians and apologists. The kind of folks who don't just know the word patristics, like me, but who are intimately familiar with their writings and can quote them as readily as I quote The Princess Bride or Monty Python. Hanging out with these folks doesn't make me smart nor does it mean I am up on all the things I should be. In fact, in writing this I am about to expose just out out of the loop I have been. Oh well. Here I go anyway. I saw my friend, Lane , post this url on Face Book and was sort of amazed at what I was reading. A Christian being forced to leave a Christian function?What is The Elephant Room? Did I really just read that? Realizing I was completely ignorant about the pachyderm on the premises and not wanting to expose my ignorance, I was tempted to simply read the opinions of my friends on the matter. If I have learned anyt...

The passionate intensity of cheap grace is seductively attractive to a weary, plodding soul. Like a blast of adrenaline to a dying heart, it infuses energy. Energy that is mistaken for life. The problem is a deadly one. Our hearts don't need to be kick-started by motivational speakers and charlatans hawking holy snake oil falsely labeled 'the gospel'. What we, all of us are in dire need of is a heart transplant. A heart of stone must be removed and replaced with a heart of flesh. God is the only surgeon capable of undertaking the procedure and the gospel of Christ is the only tool He uses to bypass the death our sins have earned us. I believe one largest mission fields we have is assembled every Sunday morning. In fact, it assembles itself in church pews where cheap grace is spewed with wild abandon. Like sheep led to their slaughter the potential harvest comes in to partake of entertainment packages custom made to hold their attention. They watch the spectacle... waiti...

My pastor has been teaching through Philippians. I have been reading the tiny but meaty book in the mornings. It was an easy jump for me to go from Philippians to Colossians . In Colossians , Paul is focused on the preeminence of Christ. Today I sat on my deck and read and thought about Colossians . I have been enjoying my mornings on my deck. I read a little, talk to God a little and then go play in the garden. Usually I harvest some onions and spinach and anything else I can find and come in and make an omelette . There is something satisfying about working for my food. This morning I was out in the garden pulling weeds when I remembered something my agronomy teacher said during a lecture. "Any plant is a weed when it is growing where you don't want it to grow." I was busy pulling out volunteer tomato plants. They volunteered to grow in the middle of my squash patch, in my flowers, and just about everywhere else. As I pulled out volunteer tomatoes, bluegrass, clover, w...

I have finished watching the HBO series, John Adams , based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by David McCullough. I am not going to review it here, but I am going to discuss an aspect of the final show. I don't think it will spoil anything but... fair warning. There is a lot to like about the series. It haven't read McCullough's book yet, but I have recently read Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation, Cokie Roberts. In it, Roberts writes about both Abigail and "Nabby" Adams, providing some primary source material . I read the book as part of a book club and we had a marvelous time discussing the women who were a part of our founding history. Armed with some elementary research, I was thrilled to watch the John Adams series. One of the things that struck me in the final episode was the evolution and transformation of the friendship between Adams and Thomas Jefferson. As they both neared their ends, there came a time when all of those who had been...

Last night the storm that went through my hometown was incredible. Three separate times the tornado sirens went off beckoning us all to find sturdy shelter. I don't have a basement or a storm cellar so the safest place for me is the walk-in closet in my bedroom. I knew it was going to be a rough night so I put a nice comfy bench for me to sit on, threw some pillows on the floor for my little dog and made certain my cell phone and some water were on the shelf. I have a weather radio and a television in my bedroom. The local television channels take over programming during dangerous weather events and show us pictures of Doppler radar, warning communities based on projected storm paths. This particular storm acted as if it was on rails, a string of organized cells following the same pattern from Tennessee into Kentucky and right past my home. The wind howled, the lightning flashed and sitting my closet watching the television I prayed. I was warm, safe and dry but having worke...

If you have been reading blogs for very long you know how easy it is to lose complete track of time in them. If you have a favorite blogger that mentions his or her favorite blog, you're very likely to click a link and go see for yourself what the attraction is. We adults trade links to blogs like kids trading or playing a game of cards. If someone doesn't have a blog that addresses the issue you are looking for there is always Google so you can 'go fish.' One of my dear friends gave me a link the other night and I clicked it. I feel a bit like Cypher in The Matrix, I wish I had taken the blue pill. The world that opened when I clicked that link catapulted me out of the safety of my naive little world and plunked me into the middle of a controversy. I wasn't shocked but I was dismayed and saddened. It wasn't the topic of the conversation that bothered me, it was the tenor of it. While this medium leaves entirely too much interpretation to the reader rega...