Master, we would no longer be
At home in that which hated Thee,
But patient in Thy footsteps go,
Thy sorrow as Thy joy to know;
We would-and O confirm the power-
With meekness meet the darkest hour,
By shame, contempt however tried,
For Thou wast scorned and crucified.
J. G. Deck, quoted in William MacDonald, Worlds Apart
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Who are you?
God doesn’t define us by our mistakes. Your mistakes aren’t final. They don’t need to be what define you. Let God define you in His Son -- in Jesus Christ.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
How to live...
Be not thou envious against evil, neither desire to be with them. For their heart studieth destruction, and their lips talk of mischief. (Proverbs 24:1,2 KJV)
Don't envy Godless men; don't even enjoy their company. For they spend their days plotting violence and cheating. (Proverbs 24: 1,2 TLB)
Don't envy Godless men; don't even enjoy their company. For they spend their days plotting violence and cheating. (Proverbs 24: 1,2 TLB)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
My hero
Whoe'er excels in what we prize
Appears a hero in our eyes.
-Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)
"Brethren, be followers together of me (Paul), and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." (Philippians 3:17)
The Apostle Paul, Apostle to the Nations, my hero.
Appears a hero in our eyes.
-Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)
"Brethren, be followers together of me (Paul), and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." (Philippians 3:17)
The Apostle Paul, Apostle to the Nations, my hero.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Anzio
Anzio is one of the saddest places I have ever been. (Comment on article regarding Hanson's visit to Anzio.)
Works and Days » Wandering Around Europe:
There is a beautiful American military cemetery at Anzio (Nettuno, Italy), an eerie place where 7,681 dead Americans rest. It is perhaps made the more eerie when one reads of the deer-in-the-headlights generalship of a well-meaning, but inept Gen. John Lucas, and the weird megalomania of Gen. Mark Clark that cheek-by-jowl tragically ensured that a badly planned amphibious landing would get even worse as it progressed. Meanwhile Patton was cooling his heels, in punishment for slapping two American soldiers. Never has such a slap cost so many American lives.
(Victor Davis Hanson)
Monday, May 25, 2009
Torah or Talmud, Bible or Purpose Driven...
The idea that John had to tell them I’m not the Messiah, means they couldn not recognize who the Messiah was and who he was not: "Just as untold thousands upon thousands of so-called “Christian leaders” today follow Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life as their authority for all-things-ministry, Israel’s religious leaders during the time of Christ did the same thing with their Rabbi-concocted Talmud (designated as “the literary reservoir of Rabbinic Judaism” and added to the Sacred Literature of Israel during the Hellenistic Age--250-200 BC--in Jewish history).
Barlow explains,
“The ‘religion’ of our Lord Jesus Christ was that of Judaism, a faith whose ONLY foundation was the Word of God, which was called the Torah. In contrast to that, the religious leaders of our Lord’s day belonged to another (though it adamantly claimed to be the same) religion that was based on the Talmud, which was man’s addition to the Word of God. I am perfectly aware that these words will cause an uproar. It will not be as seemingly caustic as the reaction that will come with the exact same charge will be laid at the feet of Christendom. I reiterate, Christianity is a faith in the Word of God only—Christendom is a totally different ‘religion’ than that and it rests upon the tenants of paganism, philosophy and augmentations to the Bible.”
(Lisa Leland)
Barlow explains,
“The ‘religion’ of our Lord Jesus Christ was that of Judaism, a faith whose ONLY foundation was the Word of God, which was called the Torah. In contrast to that, the religious leaders of our Lord’s day belonged to another (though it adamantly claimed to be the same) religion that was based on the Talmud, which was man’s addition to the Word of God. I am perfectly aware that these words will cause an uproar. It will not be as seemingly caustic as the reaction that will come with the exact same charge will be laid at the feet of Christendom. I reiterate, Christianity is a faith in the Word of God only—Christendom is a totally different ‘religion’ than that and it rests upon the tenants of paganism, philosophy and augmentations to the Bible.”
(Lisa Leland)
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Works and Days
Works and Days: "World Beneath Their Feet" Victor David Hanson
It is ironic to travel through Italy and see nearly all of its artistic treasures, whether classical or ecclesiastical, as a dividend of a religious, confident culture, and almost nothing comparable offered by the new Europe of socialism, statism, and agnosticism.
If heaven is retiring at 55, leaving the apartment each mid-morning to sit in the local coffee shop, and then protesting on weekends about my lower than anticipated pension cost of living increase, then I would prefer hell.
(No Victor wouldn't if he understood the utter wretchedness and hopelessness of life eternally apart from God. Jesus said, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). Indeed. The Apostle Paul writes, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (II Corinthians 4:17-18).
Victor correctly (I think) continues:
The great unspoken truth? Somewhere right now, a US ship, an American soldier, a circling F-16 keep the Russians honest, the fear in al Qaeda, the Straits of Hormuz open, the commerce of the Mediterranean safe–unknown, unappreciated to the mass of European utopian citizenry..."
I am reminded of a hymn which our choir sang long ago when I was in high school. The tune is called Ebenezer (Hitherto the Lord has helped me)but the words speak of a time of decision for people and nations:
Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by for ever
'Twixt that darkness and that light.
(James Russell Lowell, 1819-91)
It is ironic to travel through Italy and see nearly all of its artistic treasures, whether classical or ecclesiastical, as a dividend of a religious, confident culture, and almost nothing comparable offered by the new Europe of socialism, statism, and agnosticism.
If heaven is retiring at 55, leaving the apartment each mid-morning to sit in the local coffee shop, and then protesting on weekends about my lower than anticipated pension cost of living increase, then I would prefer hell.
(No Victor wouldn't if he understood the utter wretchedness and hopelessness of life eternally apart from God. Jesus said, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26). Indeed. The Apostle Paul writes, "For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (II Corinthians 4:17-18).
Victor correctly (I think) continues:
The great unspoken truth? Somewhere right now, a US ship, an American soldier, a circling F-16 keep the Russians honest, the fear in al Qaeda, the Straits of Hormuz open, the commerce of the Mediterranean safe–unknown, unappreciated to the mass of European utopian citizenry..."
I am reminded of a hymn which our choir sang long ago when I was in high school. The tune is called Ebenezer (Hitherto the Lord has helped me)but the words speak of a time of decision for people and nations:
Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's new messiah,
Offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by for ever
'Twixt that darkness and that light.
(James Russell Lowell, 1819-91)
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Friday, May 22, 2009
On vacation again...
Obituaries
There were no obituary reports for Friday, May 22
May 22, 2009
(Escanaba Daily Press on-line.)
Again, death takes a holiday. I'm sure it will be short.
Death Takes a Holiday (1934) The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
There were no obituary reports for Friday, May 22
May 22, 2009
(Escanaba Daily Press on-line.)
Again, death takes a holiday. I'm sure it will be short.
Death Takes a Holiday (1934) The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)
Faith, hope and love abides...
We live in a troubled place, and we have to choose sides. To do so with intelligence, we have to risk something. But the alternative is cowardice or betrayal.
No, time is not dishonest. It is brutal in its wisdom. It separates seed from seed, and it shows who has finished the race and who has turned away. Harsh and necessary truths, which none of us in the field may know before the proper time.
So it must be for our little ones as well. One of the few certainties in life is that pain is coming. How we would thrust ourselves between them and the hardship that awaits them. How we would take their fate into ourselves if we could. What deal wouldn't we make? We tear open our organs that God might show mercy -- our senses pour out their humours and something in us must be melting -- like fat over the flames of an altar. Is God moved? What dignity wouldn't we shed in our begging that those we love be spared? But they are not spared. There is only one salvation, and that is by way of a cross.
We don't need a God who passes by. Such a God might as well be made of stone, for all he hears. We need the God who comes up along side of us, and who stops and abides a while. We need the God who loves little children. We need the God who weeps.
From: FORGOTTEN PROPHETS
No matter what befalls in this life; faith, hope, and love abides unabated (I Corinthians 13:13). This is why we can rejoice over the coming of a new life. I will rejoice and be glad.
No, time is not dishonest. It is brutal in its wisdom. It separates seed from seed, and it shows who has finished the race and who has turned away. Harsh and necessary truths, which none of us in the field may know before the proper time.
So it must be for our little ones as well. One of the few certainties in life is that pain is coming. How we would thrust ourselves between them and the hardship that awaits them. How we would take their fate into ourselves if we could. What deal wouldn't we make? We tear open our organs that God might show mercy -- our senses pour out their humours and something in us must be melting -- like fat over the flames of an altar. Is God moved? What dignity wouldn't we shed in our begging that those we love be spared? But they are not spared. There is only one salvation, and that is by way of a cross.
We don't need a God who passes by. Such a God might as well be made of stone, for all he hears. We need the God who comes up along side of us, and who stops and abides a while. We need the God who loves little children. We need the God who weeps.
From: FORGOTTEN PROPHETS
No matter what befalls in this life; faith, hope, and love abides unabated (I Corinthians 13:13). This is why we can rejoice over the coming of a new life. I will rejoice and be glad.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
TUNING PIANOS
Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow.
So one hundred worshippers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become "unity" conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.
--A.W. Tozer
Monday, May 18, 2009
Are you woolgathering today?
Some clothing idioms:
people are advised not to wash their dirty linen in public,
even adults like to have their security blankets,
and emperors often don't have clothes.
The word silken can be used to describe food and voice and touch.
Woolgathering (daydreaming) and cottonpickin' (fit for nothing better than picking cotton; unworthy) -- the list of idiomatic use of fabric words is a long one. (from Wordsmith.org)
Scripture speaks of the hope of our resurrection body "eternal in the heavens". For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked...but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (II Corinthians 5:2-8).
Let's do a bit of woolgathering today on this wonderful promise.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The alcoholic ...
All good stories–even true ones–should have a moral, but Darin’s story eludes easy lessons. He was taken by that peculiar insanity which alcoholics possess in abundance, even while sober. When Darin hatched his master plan, he was not drinking, but engaged in one of his countless attempts to clean up. For the alcoholic, the danger lies not in the bottle, but in the brain. The sane among us make mistakes, to be sure: wisdom comes from experience, and experience often comes from lack of wisdom. But facing the inevitable consequences of bad choices, we generally rearrange our lives and priorities to ensure that such a travesty does not happen again. Not so the alcoholic. Obsessively repeating behavior long ago proven destructive, he nevertheless pursues the optimism of denial which says the next time will be different. This baffling disconnect from reality cascades from farce to tragedy, as the alcoholic perceives no problems other than those who are out to get him.
There is much resistance to the idea that alcoholism and addiction are a disease. Much of this comes from conservatives, and those of religious conviction, whose proper emphasis on personal responsibility and moral rectitude sees in the alcoholic only reckless hedonism and wanton irresponsibility. These qualities the addict has in spades, but less obvious is the driving obsessive compulsion, the thought disorder which is their engine. The medical evidence for the disease model of alcoholism and addiction is deep and wide. The liberals have this one right: the alcoholic is a victim of his or her genetics, and the addition of a mind-altering drug–which one is probably moot–starts a swirling whirlpool whose vortex holds only misery, destruction and death. Not many survive its power.
Read full article at:
The Doctor Is In
There is much resistance to the idea that alcoholism and addiction are a disease. Much of this comes from conservatives, and those of religious conviction, whose proper emphasis on personal responsibility and moral rectitude sees in the alcoholic only reckless hedonism and wanton irresponsibility. These qualities the addict has in spades, but less obvious is the driving obsessive compulsion, the thought disorder which is their engine. The medical evidence for the disease model of alcoholism and addiction is deep and wide. The liberals have this one right: the alcoholic is a victim of his or her genetics, and the addition of a mind-altering drug–which one is probably moot–starts a swirling whirlpool whose vortex holds only misery, destruction and death. Not many survive its power.
Read full article at:
The Doctor Is In
Not overnight...
The old Latin proverb nemo repente turpissimus can be translated as "nobody becomes very evil overnight."
Saturday, May 16, 2009
What is man?
"What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" -- Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare
Yes, a quintessence of dust,(but) made a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:4,5; Hebrews 2:6-8) and, in Christ, filled with God's glory, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
James Montgomery Boice said in thinking about these verses: If we could see the lowliest believer, as God sees them, we would be tempted to worship them as we beheld their glory.
"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?"
Indeed. Behold what the Lord has done on our behalf.
And so our hearts are one with the Apostle Paul when he says:
"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4).
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust?" -- Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare
Yes, a quintessence of dust,(but) made a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:4,5; Hebrews 2:6-8) and, in Christ, filled with God's glory, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
James Montgomery Boice said in thinking about these verses: If we could see the lowliest believer, as God sees them, we would be tempted to worship them as we beheld their glory.
"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?"
Indeed. Behold what the Lord has done on our behalf.
And so our hearts are one with the Apostle Paul when he says:
"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4).
Angel wings?
Ark of the Covenant - two Cherubim on top with wings touching.
Angel = Gr. messenger
Isaiah 6 reveals the Seraphim order of angels with six wings. The Cherubim were placed at the entrance of Eden (Gen 3:24), upon the cover of the ark of the covenant, they are the living creatures of Revelation 4, and they have wings.
Otherwise, when an angel appears to mankind in the Scriptures they appear as men (no wings). Abraham looked up and saw three men (Genesis 18:2 with 19:1) which confirm they were angels.
They are a heavenly being, created (Ps 148:2-5). They have revealed themselves in bodily form to man. Jesus said that they do not marry and do not die (Luke 20:34-36). They are of various ranks (Col. 1:16), but only Michael is called an archangel in Scripture (Jude 9).
Angels in the Bible when they appear to mankind are men.
Angels are spirits (Psm 104:4) but power is given them to become visible in human form (Matthew 1.20; Luke 1:26; John 20:12; Acts 7:30 etc.) The word angel is always used in the masculine gender.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Israel again a nation
State of Israel Proclaimed (1948)
In November 1947, the UN approved the Partition Plan for Palestine, calling for the formation of two states, one Jewish and one Arab, as well as a small, internationally administered zone in what had previously been a British-administered territory. The Arab leadership rejected this plan, but on May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was declared. The next day, five Arab states declared war on Israel.
The Lord said, "Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me" (Psalm 89:35-36).
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Quiet sun. . .
Global warming predictions by meteorologists are based on speculative, untested, and poorly constrained computer models. But our knowledge of ice ages is based on a wide variety of reliable data, including cores from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. In this case, it would be perspicacious to listen to the geologists, not the meteorologists. By reducing our production of carbon dioxide, we risk hastening the advent of the next ice age. Even more foolhardy and dangerous is the Obama administration's announcement that they may try to cool the planet through geoengineering. Such a move in the middle of a cooling trend could provoke the irreversible onset of an ice age. It is not hyperbole to state that such a climatic change would mean the end of human civilization as we know it.
Earth's climate is controlled by the Sun. In comparison, every other factor is trivial. The coldest part of the Little Ice Age during the latter half of the seventeenth century was marked by the nearly complete absence of sunspots. And the Sun now appears to be entering a new period of quiescence. August of 2008 was the
first month since the year 1913 that no sunspots were observed. As I write, the sun remains quiet. We are in a cooling trend. The areal extent of global sea ice is above the twenty-year mean.
We have heard much of the dangers of global warming due to carbon dioxide. But the potential danger of any potential anthropogenic warming is trivial compared to the risk of entering a new ice age. Public policy decisions should be based on a realistic appraisal that takes both climate scenarios into consideration.
(The American Thinker article)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Goodness
"Liberals think people are good. Libertarians think people are rational. Alas." Neither is the case.
I couldn't continue as libertarian because it was just too irresponsible. The self-interest part is easy, but the other? -- not so much.
Liberals end up using force to coerce goodness; because force is antithetical to their theory, they don't know how to use it wisely. Communism in action. Great sounding theories, aren't they. Alas, reality is so harsh with theories.
So how will good ever be done in the world, if mankind is neither good nor rational? There is no process of goodness. It's almost arbitrary -- it requires wisdom. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes it is no. Answer a fool according to his folly, and answer not a fool according to his folly. Some children need gentleness, and some need firmness. Wisdom discerns.
How can we do good in the world? One act at a time.
Marvin Olasky documented this thoroughly in his superb The Tragedy of American Compassion.
Personal generosity is a virtue. Impersonal generosity is a bureaucracy. Money is for increasing happiness. If it doesn't bring happiness, it hasn't been spent properly. Spend it on yourself, past a certain point, and it's no longer about happiness, but about money. Use it where it's needed, and deserts blossom.
(From FORGOTTEN PROPHETS blog.)
I couldn't continue as libertarian because it was just too irresponsible. The self-interest part is easy, but the other? -- not so much.
Liberals end up using force to coerce goodness; because force is antithetical to their theory, they don't know how to use it wisely. Communism in action. Great sounding theories, aren't they. Alas, reality is so harsh with theories.
So how will good ever be done in the world, if mankind is neither good nor rational? There is no process of goodness. It's almost arbitrary -- it requires wisdom. Sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes it is no. Answer a fool according to his folly, and answer not a fool according to his folly. Some children need gentleness, and some need firmness. Wisdom discerns.
How can we do good in the world? One act at a time.
Marvin Olasky documented this thoroughly in his superb The Tragedy of American Compassion.
Personal generosity is a virtue. Impersonal generosity is a bureaucracy. Money is for increasing happiness. If it doesn't bring happiness, it hasn't been spent properly. Spend it on yourself, past a certain point, and it's no longer about happiness, but about money. Use it where it's needed, and deserts blossom.
(From FORGOTTEN PROPHETS blog.)
Give and Take
"A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is big enough to take away everything you have."
Thomas Jefferson
is big enough to take away everything you have."
Thomas Jefferson
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Who do you love?
"...all they that hate me love death" (Proverbs 8:36).
This from the wonderful 8th chapter of Proverbs in where Wisdom is personified and points to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you match this with verses in Colossians, "...being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:2,3), you have the connection of wisdom with Christ.
Who do you love? Christ or death?
This from the wonderful 8th chapter of Proverbs in where Wisdom is personified and points to the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you match this with verses in Colossians, "...being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:2,3), you have the connection of wisdom with Christ.
Who do you love? Christ or death?
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Fire or ice?
Some say the world will end in fire;
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
(Robert Frost)
God says the world will never end. It will be cleaned up by fire (II Peter 3:12,13). We will have a new heaven and a new earth.
"He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
God is good. He will make new all the desecration that man has wrecked upon this lovely earth. Then God will dwell on this earth in Jerusalem, the city of the King (Psalm 132:13). Alleluia!
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
(Robert Frost)
God says the world will never end. It will be cleaned up by fire (II Peter 3:12,13). We will have a new heaven and a new earth.
"He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
God is good. He will make new all the desecration that man has wrecked upon this lovely earth. Then God will dwell on this earth in Jerusalem, the city of the King (Psalm 132:13). Alleluia!
Free will...
C.S. Lewis, a 20th century Christian philosopher, discussed free will at length. On the matter of human will, Lewis wrote:
"God willed the free will of men and angels in spite of His knowledge that it could lead in some cases to sin and thence to suffering: i.e., He thought freedom worth creating even at that price."
In his radio broadcast Lewis indicated that God "gave [humans] free will. He gave them free will because a world of mere automata could never love…"
Lewis, believing in free will, had an indirect belief in randomness by setting up a dependency of love on free will.
Randomness - encyclopedia article about Randomness.
"God willed the free will of men and angels in spite of His knowledge that it could lead in some cases to sin and thence to suffering: i.e., He thought freedom worth creating even at that price."
In his radio broadcast Lewis indicated that God "gave [humans] free will. He gave them free will because a world of mere automata could never love…"
Lewis, believing in free will, had an indirect belief in randomness by setting up a dependency of love on free will.
Randomness - encyclopedia article about Randomness.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Your name...
A man's name is not like a mantle which merely hangs about him, and which one perchance may safely twitch and pull, but a perfectly fitting garment, which, like the skin, has grown over and over him, at which one cannot rake and scrape without injuring the man himself.
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher, 1749-1832)
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold." (Proverbs 22:1)
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher, 1749-1832)
"A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold." (Proverbs 22:1)
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Tears in rain...
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die.
(Blade Runner, 1982 sci-fi film)
Consider what God says about our tears:
"O God...Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?" (Psalm 56:8)
"For Thou (O LORD) hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." (Psalm 116.8)
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." (Psalm 126.5)
"...God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (Revelation 7:17)
Monday, May 4, 2009
Nimrod
(Pieter Bruegel's Tower of Babel)
Enough to say there was a Flood that scrubbed the world down to basement rock and destroyed every geographical feature. Everything currently existing, from the Grand Canyon to the Himalayas, is Post-Flood.
Göbekli Tepe Gobekli Tepe, an archaeological dig in Turkey. Anatolia. Asia Minor.
What then is Gobekli Tepe? It's very cool. I take it as a holy site of Nimrod and his cultus. Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham, son of Noah. Rough date, 2100 BC. Perhaps the site is from a later era, and the radiocarbon dating is just really really fouled up. But if it is truly archaic, then its burial would represent the action of Shem, who is generally represented as an evil force in pagan mythology, but they would spin it that way, wouldn't they.
Shem was in actuality the anti-pagan who fought to preserve the pure tradition of Noah, over Ham's corrupt carry-over from an Antediluvian world that was so steeped in corruption as to be irredeemable.
You know where Eden is, right? Lost beneath the waves of the Flood.
(Interesting stuff from J...Go to link below for a really interesting study of the dating of the earth.)
The Age of Base Metal
Enough to say there was a Flood that scrubbed the world down to basement rock and destroyed every geographical feature. Everything currently existing, from the Grand Canyon to the Himalayas, is Post-Flood.
Göbekli Tepe Gobekli Tepe, an archaeological dig in Turkey. Anatolia. Asia Minor.
What then is Gobekli Tepe? It's very cool. I take it as a holy site of Nimrod and his cultus. Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham, son of Noah. Rough date, 2100 BC. Perhaps the site is from a later era, and the radiocarbon dating is just really really fouled up. But if it is truly archaic, then its burial would represent the action of Shem, who is generally represented as an evil force in pagan mythology, but they would spin it that way, wouldn't they.
Shem was in actuality the anti-pagan who fought to preserve the pure tradition of Noah, over Ham's corrupt carry-over from an Antediluvian world that was so steeped in corruption as to be irredeemable.
You know where Eden is, right? Lost beneath the waves of the Flood.
(Interesting stuff from J...Go to link below for a really interesting study of the dating of the earth.)
The Age of Base Metal
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Experience
In my many years I have come to a conclusion that:
one useless man is a shame,
two is a law firm,
and three or more is a congress.
(John Adams)
one useless man is a shame,
two is a law firm,
and three or more is a congress.
(John Adams)
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Not the end of the story...
History is a murder mystery. The universe was fed a slow poison, and we are riding out its death-throes. And mankind, from the first father to the unborn in the womb -- all hold still in shallow-breath'd anticipation of the falling ax. The mystery isn't what will happen in the end, but how it will unfold. Dust reclaims its own. We don't own the land -- it owns us.
That's the plot.
But it's not the end of the story.
(This from Forbidden Prophets blog. If I knew how to link directly I would do so, but can't seen to master the art yet. Wanted to give credit.)
That's the plot.
But it's not the end of the story.
(This from Forbidden Prophets blog. If I knew how to link directly I would do so, but can't seen to master the art yet. Wanted to give credit.)
Wind
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
- Christina Rossetti
Friday, May 1, 2009
Look up!
THE BUZZARD:
If you put a buzzard in a pen 6 feet by 8 feet that is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason: a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.
THE BAT:
The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkable nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.
THE BUMBLEBEE:
A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it completely destroys itself.
PEOPLE:
In many ways, we are like the buzzard, the bat and the bumblebee. We struggle about with all our problems and frustrations, never realizing that we we should look up to God!
Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up with trust in the Son of God who loved us, and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).
". . . we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe." ( I Timothy 4:10)
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