Propane and propane accessories

Posted on by
Reply

Two-thirds or more of Fort Wayne residents lost power this past weekend. (The power company indicates that 142 of 210 circuits in the area were damaged. In terms of customers, there were well over 100,000 customers without power, out of somewhere around 140,000 total customers in the area, I think.)

This was not a good weekend to buy a generator, kerosene or propane heater, propane, lantern, or D-cell batteries. Items that would normally be in low demand were in high demand and low supply. (Time to start thinking about getting a few of these items ahead of time.)

We lost power around 10AM on Friday. Not much to worry about, although Carrie got a little stir crazy while I was away at work. We went out for supper, bought some ice, then came home. Since temperatures were well below freezing, we just emptied out the freezer and put everything outside, then used the ice to keep things in the refrigerator cold. No need for extra blankets on Friday night, although we had the sleeping bags on hand just in case.

Saturday morning, after 24-hours without heat, the house was still around 60°F, but it was time to start thinking about what we could do to generate some heat. A trip to the library led me to believe that an indoor-safe propane heater would be the way to go. A kerosene heater may have been more powerful, but last time I was around a kerosene heater, it wasn’t something you’d want in the house.

When I went to Menards and found a long line of people standing around waiting for various and sundry items to come in off a truck, I realized that it was going to be difficult to find much of anything. I called around various home improvement and hardware stores, but nobody had anything left. Finally, the Rural King in Decatur said they still had some propane heaters, so we went for a 20 minute drive. Turned out they didn’t have quite what we were looking for, and I hated to spend over $100 for something that we might never use again and didn’t have space for. Another truck was supposed to be on the way, so we waited. The truck was supposed to go to the Decatur store, then continue on to Van Wert, but it went to Van Wert first, so we waited some more. Finally we were able to buy the “Portable Buddy” we wanted and some propane.

Heater

Our little Buddy was sufficient to raise the temperature in the living area of the house (we closed off the bedrooms) from 56°F to 61°F before bedtime, but this time the sleeping bags came in handy. The wind was ferocious Saturday night, and several times I heard a loud bang that I was sure was a tree limb falling on the roof. Still not quite sure what caused the bangs.

After a restless night of sleep, Sunday came bringing more bitter cold and high wind. Sunday afternoon I tried to buy more propane and a battery-powered lantern. No luck on either end. Oh well, we had flashlights, a propane-powered lantern if necessary, and still enough propane to get through Monday. The temperature in the house had dropped to 54°F during the day, and the Buddy was having a little harder time chasing the cold away, managing to make it 58°F.

About 7:30PM on Sunday, wrapping up a game of Scrabble played by flashlight, we were joyously interrupted by a light coming on and the furnace starting. It was still cold in the house when we went to bed, but by morning everything was normal.

Things to be thankful for:

  1. A gas hot-water heater. A hot shower, the ability to wash dishes and hands without freezing them, and the benefit of introducing additional heat into the house were welcome.
  2. Freezing temperatures outside kept the frozen food from thawing out.
  3. A small house that maintained its temperature fairly well without being heated.
  4. No damage to our property.
  5. Finding our Portable Buddy.
  6. A camp stove for making hot drinks and soups.

Things that would help for next time:

  1. Get the windows recaulked.
  2. Have a battery powered lantern and a weather radio on hand.
  3. If I had space, get a generator and figure out how to hook the furnace up to it.

As of 9AM on Monday, there are still over 43,000 AEP customers in Fort Wayne without power. The Indiana Michigan website says, “The majority of customers in Fort Wayne and Allen County should have power restored by Wednesday evening. However, it appears likely that some customers won´t be restored by Wednesday and our restoration efforts will continue through Christmas and the end of the week.”

Quote of the Day

Posted on by
Reply

“It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows by the cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed if a person’s ambition is to avoid trouble, the recipe is simple: shed your ambitions, cut the wings of every purpose, and seek a little life with a purposes, a few relations, and a few contacts.

If you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble, reduce yourself to the smallest compass.

Tiny souls can dodge through life; bigger souls are blocked on every side. As soon as a person enlarges his or her life, resistances are multiplied. If you are petty and selfish and just caring about yourself, you will have no trouble; if you are interested in the agenda of Christ, your suffering will be increased on every side.”

Ellie Lefaro (Focus on the Family radio broadcast), quoting J. Henry Jowett

Her quote is apparently a paraphrase of some selections from The School of Calvary by John Henry Jowett.

Credo v. Paedo (baptism)

Posted on by
Reply

Raised more-or-less Baptist, with the influence of Dispensational theology, I’ve been increasingly influenced by Reformed theology. One aspect of what is typically considered Reformed theology is infant baptism.

Here are some resources I’m looking at to inform my view on this subject:

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~sjreeves/personal/baptism_faq.html

http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/credobaptism

http://www.orlutheran.com/html/whoswork.html

http://www.desiringgod.org/Search/?search=baptism

You might notice that these are primarily from the credobaptist viewpoint (with the exception of the Lutheran page). That’s mainly because that’s the view I currently hold, and I want to see the arguments for this view. If I’m going to be convinced to change my mind, I’m not going to do it lightly. When I read the arguments in favor of paedobaptism, I need to be convinced that the case is stronger than the case for credobaptism if I’m going to change my view.

At this point, it appears to me that the strongest arguments for paedobaptism are historical precedent and the framework through which one understands the Old and New Covenants. I’m sure there are other reasons, but the comparison of baptism to circumcision seems to be the primary argument, backed up by historical practice.

While not pertaining to baptism, per se, this is another link I’m perusing:

http://www.samwaldron.us/Papers.html

Quote o’ the Day

Posted on by
Reply

“Evangelical churches today are often more concerned about their philosophies of ministry than about their statements of faith.” (source)

Would some take umbrage at this statement? Is a “philosophy of ministry” another way of saying, “how we go about making disciples”? Isn’t making disciples more important than reciting what you believe?

Is it possible to make disciples effectively if you don’t have a solid doctrinal foundation? If you are making disciples, are they the right kind of disciples?

If you have a suitable statement of faith, shouldn’t it be a given that you intend to be making disciples?

Three Forms of Unity

Posted on by
2

I’ve known about the Westminster Confession and Catechisms (both Shorter and Larger)1

I also knew there were other confessions/catechisms, and I was kind of interested in the Baptist-flavored ones (like the 1689 London Baptist Confession, or John Piper’s adaptation of a Baptist catechism), because at this point I’m more inclined towards believer’s baptism than infant baptism. (Also, though I’m not sure what these creeds have to say about church polity, I’m more accustomed to congregational polity than presbyterian polity.)

However, I was recently intrigued by the “Three Forms of Unity” comprised of the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort.

I haven’t read through all three yet, but I would like to. It appears that these are the earliest of the confessional compilations that endure with significant use today.

The Belgic Confession is the earliest of the three, initially written in 1561 by Guido de Bres. Although de Bres wrote his confession independently, it reflects and incorporates the theology expressed by John Calvin. The occasion for this confession was to defend against charges of rebellion against the Roman Catholic political system. Reformed Christians rallied around this confession to affirm in the face of persecution that they believed and abided by the Scriptures. It consists of consists of 37 articles dealing with the doctrines of God, Scripture, humanity, sin, Christ, salvation, the Church, and the end times.

The Heidelberg Catechism has similar content to the Belgic Confession, but a different structure and purpose. Commissioned by Frederick III, the Electoral Palatinate of the Rhine, the catechism is designed to instruct church members in the faith and provide a structure for preaching the scriptures. The catechism was written by theologian Zacharias Ursinus and pastor/theologian Caspar Olevianus, and approved by the Synod of Heidelberg of 1563, then subsequently approved by other synods of the reformed faith. The catechism consists of 129 questions and answers, which have been divided into 52 sections.

Finally, the Canons of Dort are a judicial decision put forth by the Synod of Dort in in 1618-1619. Followers of Jacobus Arminius objected to some content within the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, and in 1610 drafted five “Articles of Remonstrance” articulating their differences with other protestants. An international synod met in Dordrecht to respond to the controversy between the Remonstrants and the “Calvinists.” The Synod rejected the views of the Remonstrants, reaffirmed the Belgic Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, and reiterated their views on the five issues at stake in the Articles of Remonstrance. The resulting decision is an exposition of five doctrinal points that have come to comprise the five points (or TULIP) of Calvinism.

These documents were developed during the working out of the Protestant Reformation, in the years following Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (1517), the reforms of Ulrich Zwingli (1520’s), and the publication of John Calvin’s Institutes (1536). While other confessions , catechisms, creeds, and doctrinal statements were written before and after, these three are significant in that they are among the earliest and most enduring.

For future study, it would be interesting to compare the differences between the Belgic Confession, the Westminster Confession, the Baptist Confession, and the Savoy Declaration .

  1. aren’t those inconsistent terms? shouldn’t it be “shorter and longer” or “smaller and larger”? anyway, I digress… ↩