The Land of Ozz

One of my favorite faith teachers is coming to Goose Creek, South Carolina this Friday evening September 15, 2006. The New Life Christian Fellowship Church is hosting a Faith Conference in their new worship center this week. Charles Capps will be a guest speaker on Friday night at 7:00 pm.

New Life Christian Fellowship Church
402 Liberty Hall Rd.
Goose Creek, South Carolina
843-764-0418
Dr. Dexter Easley, Pastor

Join me for what is sure to be a spirit filled teaching by best selling author and pastor Charles Capps.

Check out Charles Capps’ Itinerary if you are not a low country resident. He will be in the Atlanta, GA area on Sunday September 17th.

That’s right folks, it looks like eBible has lite up the open for business sign. The beta images are gone and the invitation only access restrictions have been removed. The eBible online Bible study site is now open to the public. Anyone can now create an account. The eBible Blog has some more specific information on what has happened building up to the grand opening.

There has been a lot of change in my life in recent years. In some ways this blog has reflected how my life has changed. The biggest change can been seen in the overall theme and frequency of my posts. I have just realized that I have now posted more topics in the Faith category than in any other category on this blog. Over 25% percent of the posts are posted in the Faith category. I have been blogging less recently and have changed my focus to blog more on Faith related issues.

That said, the traffic has increased even though I blog less. My wife’s jaw almost hit the floor when I told her that there are now nearly 30,000 visitors to this site per month as of May. That is a huge increase relative to where this site came from. That much traffic comes with a huge responsibility.

This conversation with my wife prompted me to review this blog where a majority of the visitors are coming landing. Further review of the logs shows that the most popular non-visit hits are on the RSS feed used exclusively to bring in iTunes users who want to hear my readings of The Living Bible. The site has averaged well over six thousand hits per month on this RSS feed alone.

What does all of this mean? What should I do with this information?

I tend to be much more of a blog reader than a blog writer these days. I notice that many bloggers seem to cleave to the I want to be a reporter when I grow up style of blogging. They hang on the hottest MSM topics and hope to be the one who exposes the mistakes of the MSM media or some government official. Some are good at it. I have tried it and it is not for me. Even more bloggers just air out their feelings to the world for what seems to be no particular reason. I have been know to do that once in a while, but I am moving away from that practice.

I now have a better defined reason for what I am doing. I have a purpose. I have posted an image in the upper right of the page that states “As for me and blog we will serve the Lord!” I am not taking that little phrase lightly. That is my intention and purpose for this blog moving forward. I will continue to share some Bible reading as well as the reading schedule. I will also continue to provide my living testimony as to how God is blessing me and my family. I will do my best to built up the name of Jesus to let all who read know what God did for us by sending his son Jesus Christ.

I plan to continue to drop in some personal experiences and some fun from time to time. But, the primary purpose of this blog will be to serve the Lord. I have been particularly moved by what God has said to me recently through sermons and my personal study of the scriptures used as the foundation for these messages. I have heard messages on faith from just about every direction I have turned lately. The term faith has really taken on new meaning for me and my wife in the past year. We are experiencing God in ways that we never knew possible and God continues to bless us in ways that we could have never have dreamed up. There are three particular areas of ministry where God has blessed us as we have become more involved. One is the parenting ministry that we participate in. Another area where God has blessed us is in our learning and sharing what the Bible has to say about God’s laws of faith. The third area that we have been blessed is through this little Internet ministry.

God has blessed us through the parenting ministry in several ways. We have been able to share some great Biblical parenting materials with other young couples while getting a review on the material for our own family. The recent Growing Kids God’s Way and Preparation for Parenting classes that we held at our home were such a great success. I can say with confidence that these classes were a success because of the positive surveys that we received as well as the desire shown by many parents to take other programs offered through this awesome ministry build by Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo. Some members of the classes have expressed an interest in leading classes for other families. Some of the couples from the GKGW class are attending the Reflections of Moral Innocence class that we started in August. We also plan to offer another Prep class in the fall that we already have some folks asking about.

God has also blessed us in our search for a clearer understanding of His principles of Faith. I have enjoyed the past year in particular as I have used the same Bible reading schedule that I post on this blog. I started the posts of the schedule after the first of the year when I was several months into it myself. Sherry and I both use the same schedule as our minimum daily reading which almost daily provides for some great couch-time discussions when the day has been otherwise uneventful. Our journey in seeking a more personal relationship with God and striving to operate in the principles laid out in the Bible have come back to us many times over in health, finances, and relationships. We have begun to share our testimony of God’s work in our life by simply sharing the principles that we have learned on the subject of faith and speaking words of life. We are calling our new Bible study “Words of Life”. We started this past week by joining on Tuesday night with others in sharing directly from God’s word what we have heard and understood. This small group offers encouragement and accountability for daily Bible reading. I can only imagine what God is going to do with us in the future. It seems the more seed we see sown in this area the more we see God’s blessings in our lives and the lives.

The third area that I mentioned above where we have been blessed is right here on this web site. I called it a “little Internet ministry” because that is really how I see it now. We (my wife and I) have been given a unique opportunity to share with families who are struggling with sick children the way have struggled. They find Caden’s Page and then email us asking for advice. Most just need encouragement to continue to do what they are already doing as loving parents. Showing some concern and empathy from a perspective of having been there can do wonders for some. This site has opened up some great dialogs with other parents who landed here by way of searching for something related to their own child’s health concerns. I have also seen traffic increase as a result of my posting on faith related subjects. The odd thing is that many folks end up hear on as a result of searching for things having nothing to do with faith but yet my traffic increases when I post in the faith category. That little sign of more traffic with less posts along with the one I am about to share tells me to keep working on this “little Internet ministry”.

Here’s what happened. I was laying in bed one night a few months ago praying. Sherry had been asleep for a while. I was asking God to help me see where I should go. It was at that precise moment that the monitor lite up in the corner of the room from its sleep/hibernation mode. This had never happened before and has not happened since that night. We almost always leave that computer and monitor on so it was not like the computer came on from an off state, but there was no one within six feet of that computer when this happened. And it happened at the exact moment that I was praying for God to give me some guidance. What exactly that means I am not sure, but I will assure you that I am not about to stop working in the area of computers and Internet anytime soon. I took that event pretty seriously even though I have not shared it with anyone other than God and my wife before today.

I believe that God has clearly shown me that these three areas are where we are doing what God wants. I plan to continue to share the blessings from those areas with the readers of this web site. I will do my best to stay on the positive side of things. I will also do my best to encourage readers and give guidance on where they can go on the Internet to find what I believe to be useful information on these subjects. A list of recommended sites will be much shorter than a list of where not to go. Staying on recommendations will keep me from having to say anything negative about the bloggers who get caught up in tearing down Christian brothers or boasting about how superior their teachings are based on specific religious IC, ISM, IAN, or IST theologies. I am convinced that there is no best religious theology or doctrine. I have been through the gamut of religions in my short 39 years and I can tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect religion. Having a personal relationship with God based on his Word beginning with the belief that God sent his son Jesus to die on a cross to be raised from the dead after three days as payment for your sins and mine is what is most important. There is nothing religious about that.

There are plenty of Christian folks out here on the Internet trying to dazzle you with fancy words and phrases that you will never find in the Bible. These are very smart people and many have the best intentions in the world, but they will lead you astray. The problem is that they get to caught up in believing what another man has told them rather than listening to what God says to them through His word.

The purpose driving this blog moving forward will be to show more of Jesus Christ in what is posted. I realize and wish that more Christian bloggers would realize that they may be the only example of Christ a person gets on the Internet. I believe I have already started fulfilling this purpose and will continue to do so. I believe that the population of Internet users is largely composed of non-Christians. The Internet is not a place to try and hold other Christians accountable for actions that are believed to be wrong. I have fallen into the trap of trying to correct others, but I believe that setting an example is much more important.

I invite you to continue with me on my ongoing spiritual journey by visiting again soon. May God bless you and your family.

The low country of South Carolina was threatened by Tropical Storm Ernesto today. The storm behaved pretty much as was predicted by the weather forecasters. It came across Florida and regained some strength in the Atlantic before making its way up towards the coast of the Carolinas. I live about 20 miles inland from downtown Charleston, SC. The storm seems to have decided to pass by Charleston for the most part and will likely move inland again near the SC/NC state line. Charleston and the surrounding area has received some moderate rainfall and some light winds.

The funny thing about this storm is how critical people can be over how the government reacted. For the most part this storm has been a non-event for the Charleston area, but the American Red Cross, local, and state emergency agencies have taken this storm seriously. The shelters where open in a timely manner and they even went as far as to offer a voluntary evacuation for some areas. That has sparked some criticism from local residents as reported by the local media. Some folks are saying that these agencies overreacted.

I say that the emergency response teams have done a fine job preparing for this storm. There is no way to know for sure if one of these storms will strengthen to hurricane strength and turn in on your town at the last minute. These folks have done a fine job of standing up shelters and preparing for the worse while hoping for the best. I commend these folks for a fine job. Thank God we can look at this storm as mostly a drill instead of a real emergency for the Charleston area.

My daily review of Slashdot led me to an article about MySpace being sued for failure to protect a child. While MySpace is a dangerous environment for kids, in my opinion the parents hold ultimate responsibility for protecting their children from Internet threats. There may be extenuation circumstances here, so I realize that the parent may not be at fault in this particular case.

I have heard the arguments about how kids sneak around and that is often the case. The girl in the above mentioned article may have been using an unmonitored home Internet connection as many children do on a daily basis. That is where I have been focusing my attention on this issue of child safety online. I am a computer security professional and have a pretty in depth view of how your typical non-geek users attempts to sneak around Internet security and monitoring tools. There are some good tools and web sites out there to help parents protect their children from online predators, but there are just as many of not more sites that teach kids how to circumvent these systems. There is no substitute for physically monitoring your children while they use the Internet, but that is not always practical. I hope to educate parents on some of the sneaky tactics that children and adults use to get around the technical solutions offered to parents and administrators of library and school computer systems. Parents are responsible for deciding if and how Internet, cell phones, and other communications devices will be used in their homes. I can help you detect if your child is trying to get around your Internet monitoring and security solutions.

The young girl in this article feel prey to her alleged attacker via an Internet web site. She may have been using a school computer, a library computer, or even a public use computer in a coffee shop without her parents’ knowledge. She could have just as easily met this guy in a mall, movie theater, skating rink, or even church. Regardless of where a child meets a stranger, that child needs to have the built in ability to make good decisions when making new friends. There are no public school classes that teach this to kids. There are some great resources to help parents learn how to get to the heart of their child so that the child will respect the parents advice and teachings in these areas. You will find some of these great resources in the Parenting section of my Book Recommendations page.

Stay tuned to this blog for my upcoming articles aimed at Child Safety Online. I will be educating parents on the ways that tech savvy teens may be bypassing a the best attempts to secure a computer and Internet connections.

Why are so many people bent out of shape now over President Bush’s position on immigration? President Bush has not changed his tune on this subject since well before the 2000 elections. Let’s compare the 2000 presidential election platform on immigration to the five main points from the Monday night speech by President Bush.

Point 1 from 2006 speech - “First, the United States must secure its borders.”¹

Point 1 in 2000 election platform - ” In order to prevent illegal immigration, Bush proposes to step up border control…”² “Restore credibility to enforcement by devoting more resources both to border control and to internal operations.”³

Point 2 from 2006 speech - “Second, to secure our border, we must create a temporary worker program.”¹

Point 2 in 2000 election platform - “Guest worker programs should be revisited.”²

Point 3 from 2006 speech - “…we need to hold employers to account for the workers they hire….new identification card for every legal foreign worker.”¹

Point 3 in 2000 election platform - I found no evidence that President Bush spoke on this specific point before the 2000 election. The 2000 Republican party platform did state, “We oppose the creation of any national ID card.”³

Point 4 from 2006 speech - “It is neither wise, nor realistic to round up millions of people, many with deep roots in the United States, and send them across the border.”¹

Point 4 in 2000 election platform - “it is far more compassionate to turn away people at the border than to attempt to find and arrest them once they are living in our country illegally.”²

Point 5 from 2006 speech - “…we must honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one nation out of many peoples.” The President goes on to say, “English is also the key to unlocking the opportunity of America.”¹

Point 5 in 2000 election platform - “…every child ought to be educated regardless of the status of their parents.”² “We support the recognition of English as the nation’s common language.”³

There is no evidence that shows President Bush to be playing any games or leaning in a new direction to gain poll numbers on the subject of immigration. President Bush is standing firm on the same immigration policy that he has promoted since before he was elected in 2000.

¹President Bush Addresses the Nation on Immigration Reform - May 15, 2006
²The presidential candidates on immigration - Updated: April 2000
³REPUBLICAN PLATFORM 2000

One of my favorite conservative bloggers is taking one of the hardest lines against our president with a post titled “Should George Bush Be Impeached?“. La Shawn is not the only conservative fueling the left’s fire. Marl Tapscott, Michelle Malkin, Stop the ACLU, Right Wing News and Daily Pundit are a few who are also feeding this fire.

I’m support our president. I pray for him regularly. I would recommend that you do the same.

I found a short and very nice review of my blog on a new site called PostScripts:A Lowcountry Blogshere Hotspot. I was sifting through my traffic statistics late last night and found several referrals from http://www.postscripts.typepad.com/lowcountryblogs/ . It appears that this blog is associated with the The Post and Courier Online also known as Charleston.net. Here is what they had to say about The Land of Ozz:

The Land of Ozz. A Christian conservative father from Goose Creek who works as a network security engineer. Nicely constructed, with clean About page, Bible verse of the Day, clear statements of purpose.

I greatly appreciate the kind words about my blog. I am adding a link to my blogroll for these folks. You should check this site out if you are looking for local blogs from the Charleston, SC area. Another local blogger is helping spread the word of a Charleston area blogger gathering. Here are the details as written by Joan Perry of Walk This Way:

WHAT: Local blogger get-together/party/dinner
WHEN: 6 p.m., Tuesday, May 16
WHERE: Toucan Reef restaurant at Aquarium Wharf (on the water behind the IMAX)
WHY: This is Charleston. Since when does anybody need a reason to socialize?

Heather over at Moncks Corner Moments found out about the Postscripts site the same way I did by sifting through visitor logs. I saw that she dropped me a comment in my last post to give me a heads up about the PostScripts site.

It is a beautiful day in the Creek and I hear my little one waking from his nap. We have to get back outside to the awesome 70 degree weather. I have the whole day with my boys while Mrs. Ozz takes a well deserved day off to go to an all day crop to catch up on some scrap booking.

I finally found a big issue that La Shawn Barber and I disagree on. That is no big surprise since there is not a single person on this planet who I agree with on everything. That includes myself. That said, my opinion on this subject is subject to change, but not likely.

There has got to be a middle ground on this immigration issue. Too many of these people have come to this country searching for a better life. That is the same thing many of our ancestors did a few hundred years ago. Our ancestors busted in on the natives of this land and now treat them like second class citizens at best. Why do so many hard line conservatives want to just pass over this tidbit of history? I guess it was okay back then.

The legalist in me would say, “They broke the law so ship their tails back to where they came from.” The Word of God in me says to lean on the “Golden Rule” and treat them how I would want to be treated if I found myself in a similar circumstance. Many of these illegals were just trying to survive by coming here to the United States. It is entirely possible that many illegals may have not even been aware of the laws they were breaking before coming here, but somehow found their way in because some guy said, give me so much money and then get on this truck if you want a better life. Our country’s failed security system then allowed them in. Does that make it right? No but it does not make the solution any less complicated. It is easy to sit behind a keyboard and come up with blanket solutions to problems that you have no real idea of the human impact.

Let’s consider a mother who has three children ages 5 years, 3 years, and 6 months old? She entered this country illegally as a child and has been working as a migrant worker for several years of her adult life. She met an American-born man and even though they never marry they do have these children together. One day she gets a knock at the door because her neighbor reports her as a possible illegal. The authorities then take the woman away and deport her to her country of origin. The rest of her family who came to the USA with her when she was a child are still in the USA. She now finds herself in a foreign country, relative to where she has lived most of her life, without her children or their father.

Now put yourself in that woman’s shoes and think again about how we should deal with illegals. This is just one small but very real example of what will happen if we just start shipping out all the illegals. It is just wrong to have a hard line attitude against illegal aliens. Yes, it is wrong (ILLEGAL) for them to be here, but does two wrongs make it right?

Many of the illegals in this area of the country are Hispanic. I know people who employ some of these “illegals”. I have even know at least one illegal alien myself who admitted that he was illegal to me. I would have never known if he had not told me. Hispanics are more loyal and they work harder. Those who hire illegal Hispanics and have hired legal white, black, or other US citizens have echoed the same story. Would these Hispanics be as hard of workers and as loyal if they became legal? Who knows if being illegal really has a bearing on their work ethic, but the fact remains that they do work harder and they are more loyal to the employers I have talked to.

Now with all that said, what should we do? I would recommend that there will be a grace period when illegals can come to the table to get legal. While that is happening there should be some serious improvements in border control. At the end of the grace period the hammer should drop. At that point anyone who is apprehended and found to be illegal should be deported immediately.

I realize that there are methods of entering this country legally. My hat goes off and I sing praises to those who have endured that process. Are my suggestions fair to those who went by the book to become legal before this point?  No, but  unfortunately life is not always fair and those who have stood in line to get legal documentation to be in this country will just have to suck it up WHEN the current illegals get a shot at amnesty. How that will happen I do not know, but I believe it should and will happen.

Here a few links from La Shawn here and here and Michelle Malkin here that show where the big conservative bloggers stand on this subject. At least these are the ones I watch.