Monday, November 30, 2009

Childhood fun . . .

"Snap the Whip" by Winslow Homer
I loved being part of "Crack the Whip" as we called it. It almost felt like flying when you were on the end and the whip snapped. We would do it on the ice rink too. Always someone got hurt so finally the "Whip" was not allowed.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Blue Tanzanite

In 1967, the gemstone of the 20th Century was discovered in Tanzania, Africa.

The rich, bluish-purple colored gemstone is now known as the December birthstone.

I think it is the most beautiful of gemstones.

Seeking for Me


Elizabeth "Bette" Majors
September 15, 1915 - November 21, 2009

Dearest Friend,
Faith has now become sight!

Bette played and sang many songs of her Savior, Jesus Christ, but one that is not well known, in fact to me she is the only one who knew this song, expresses her faith and hope. I can hear her singing .... Seeking for Me

Jesus my Savior to Bethlehem came,
Born in a manger to sorrow and shame;
Oh, it was wonderful--blest be His name!
Seeking for me, for me!
Seeking for me! Seeking for me!
Seeking for me! Seeking for me!
Oh, it was wonderful--blest be His name!
Seeking for me, for me!

Jesus my Savior, on Calvary's tree,
Paid the great debt and my soul He set free;
Oh, it was wonderful--how could it be?
Dying for me, for me!
Dying for me! Dying for me!
Dying for me! Dying for me!
Oh, it was wonderful--how could it be?
Dying for me, for me!

Bette is now absent from her body and present with the Lord.

Friday, November 27, 2009

The checklist. . .


So there’s a checklist, formal or informal. I used to put it on them -- go take a look, and anything that’s yours and out, take care of it. Of course they wanted to do a sloppy job. It’s not bad, it’s human. But there’s accountability too.

After they got used to the rules, they’d know that any toy they left lying around, I’d keep for a while. Put it up high, where they could see it but not have it.

Mean? I smile with thin lips, and call it justice.

(taken from Forgotten Prophets)

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Thanks To God!


"Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20)

Thanks, O God, for boundless mercy
From Thy gracious throne above;
Thanks for ev’ry need provided
From the fullness of Thy love.
Thanks for daily toil and labor
And for rest when shadows fall;
Thanks for love of friend and neighbor
And Thy goodness unto all.

Thanks for thorns as well as roses,
Thanks for weakness and for health;
Thanks for clouds as well as sunshine,
Thanks for poverty and wealth.
Thanks for pain as well as pleasure--
All Thou sendest day by day;
And Thy Word, our dearest treasure,
Shedding light upon our way.

Thanks, O God, for home and fireside,
Where we share our daily bread;
Thanks for hours of sweet communion,
When by Thee our souls are fed.
Thanks for grace in time of sorrow
And for joy and peace in Thee;
Thanks for hope today, tomorrow,
And for all eternity!

(August Ludvig Storm, Swedish Traditional Hymn "Tack O Gud" - 1891)

Thanks to God! is one of the most popular Swedish hymns that found its way into many of our evangelical hymnals.

August Storm was born 1862, in Motala, Sweden. He converted to Christ in a Salvation Army meeting and although he suffered a back ailment at the age of 37 that left him crippled for life, he continued his Salvation Army work until his death. The gratitude expressed to God ranges from the "dark and dreary fall" to the "pleasant, balmy springtime," and "pain" as well as "pleasure." There is gratitude, warmth of text and a folk-like quality in the music. Go to http://www.hymntime.com/ (Johannes Hultman score) to hear the melody.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Poppies


Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

Drows'd with the fume of poppies...


- To Autumn, John Keats

Monday, November 23, 2009

Scientific thought, free or not?


Amazon.com: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed: Ben Stein, Richard Dawkins,

Darwinism leads to Atheism.

Your worldview determines your conclusion to scientific hypothesis.


The way to expose darkness is to turn on the light. Ben Stein turns on the light in the academic community. Well worth your viewing.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Beacons of light . . .

There is no ideal place to live. Every place you go, you are going to find an earth totally contaminated with sin. Children are hungry, people are suffering from war and pestilence -- there are so many heartbreaks.

Some people try to escape the world by moving out to the country. I have found this doesn't work because there is no place to escape from yourself.

We are directed to be beacons of light to this lost world. You can't be a beacon while hiding in a cave.

Economics


Morality represents the way that people would like the world to work--whereas economics represents how it actually does work.

(Freakonomics, p. 11)

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Greek Euro Coin



The abduction of Europa by Zeus in the form of a bull.

How many people are aware that the Greek two Euro coin depicts a woman riding a beast (Rev. 17:3).

Of infinite value. . .

What is the future? Something that Jesus said to not concern ourselves with. Not urging us to irresponsibility. It's just that towers fall and crush passersby, and armed men come and make victims out of citizens. It's why people believe in fate. I don't believe in fate any more than I believe in the assurance of earthly blessings. God keeps his promises. He just never promised to keep us safe. He deals with eternity.

God is forgiving, but reality is not.

See how it is? We are victims of choices, our own or of monstrous mothers and murderous scum. Victims of happenstance as well, having turned right instead of left, or waited a moment instead of moving. What horrors have we missed, for such choices? Or suffered?

I see people speaking of the future as if it were a real thing. We have to act as if it were. That's what hope is. But always in my heart I hear the sound of stifled sobs, memory of lost loved ones and the triumph of evil. Compassion is easy. Some people bleed it.

In the things that matter we must persevere.

The cat came back. Murdered little molested girls don't come back. Somehow, though, God will find comfort for them, and redress, the wounds to their souls healed, and the price in suffering they have paid will buy them, somehow, comforts of infinitely greater value. I forget this most of the time.

My self-esteem can absorb occasional failure, and learn from it. It makes me wiser, and eventually stronger. That's how God sees his fallen creation. It can be full of failure, and yet, somehow, be of infinite value. Enough, somehow, to be worth an infinity of suffering.

(From Forgotten Prophets, November 17, 09)

Monday, November 16, 2009

Memories



"Why should the old envy the young?

For the possibilities that a young person has?


Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered." -Viktor Frankl "Man's Search for Meaning"

Mother now lives in her memories. She loves being there.

Don't say it is a waste.

Heart to heart, Mother, I hold you in my memories too.

Nature's secrets. . .

John Calvin, from his commentary on Genesis,

"To be so occupied in the investigation of the secrets of nature, as never to turn the eyes to its Author, is a most perverted study; and to enjoy everything in nature without acknowledging the Author of the benefit, is the basest ingratitude."

Bring them in with the truth of the Bible . . .


Youth pastors have to attract kids; at least that's what they are told. A very wise youth pastor said,

"What brings them in keeps them in."


The idea is that if they are brought in by novelty, and if they are brought in by something exciting or bizarre, whatever it might be, that's what they are looking for. We're in a day of advertising, we're in the day of infomercials and all of that,

but

it cannot be applied to somebody who is seeking out truth, God's Word, God himself.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Keat's Eremite. . .


BRIGHT STAR, WOULD I WERE STEDFAST by John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art---
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---
No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever---or else swoon in death.

Eremite:

An eremite (pronounced ERR-uh-mite) is a 'religious recluse', someone who, from religious motives, has retired into a solitary life. Both eremite and hermit came into English late in the 12th century and were used interchangeably for over 400 years. Hermit is now the more common word. In Modern English, especially since the 16th century, eremite is most often used poetically or to create a certain effect. Time magazine referred to J.D. Salinger as "the eremite of Cornish, N.H." in a 1999 article.

In the poem "Bright Star," Keats speaks of "nature's patient sleepless Eremite." The reference is to an unidentified star which, like a hermit, sits apart from the world. Frost, in "Choose Something Like a Star," refers to the steadfastness of "Keats' Eremite."

Bye, Bye, Birdie . . .


Under the microscope this icon of evolution might not have been a bird at all" (Hotz, "Bye Bye Birdie: Famed Fossil Loses Avian Perch," The Wall Street Journal, page A1, October 23, 2009).

According to the new research, inferences about growth rates made from studies of Archaeopteryx's ancient fossilized bones show it developed much more slowly than modern birds.

Archaeopteryx isn't the only evolutionary icon losing its claim as the ancestor of birds. In recent months we've seen paleontologists increasingly arguing that the entire clade of dinosaurs should no longer be considered ancestral to birds.

As the WSJ article states: There are lingering doubts that birds today are descendants of dinosaurs.

(My granddaughter and I watch the Dinosaur Train on PBS and their latest program just stated that birds were descendants of dinosaurs. Just who can you trust, eh? We'll have to have a talk.) : )

Linear, Cyclical, and Human Collapse

















From Defense and Confirmation:

Now that we have combined cyclical and linear concepts into a single explanatory model of history, only one detail remains for the articulation of a complete paradigm.

For accuracy’s sake, the trajectory of linear progression is best illustrated by a downward sloping line. Drawing the line in this fashion sets the Christian view of history apart from other linear progressive models discussed in previous postings.

Unlike the evolutionary or Marxian views of history, humanity is not improving but finding new ways and methods to rebel against God. In Romans Chapter One, Paul summarizes how the reprobate mind works when he reports that human beings are “inventors of evil things.”

For the purposes of illustration, please consider the diagram that is depectied above titled, Law of Human Collapse Diagram.

(Pastor Bryan's articles can be found at www.defenseandcomfirmation.blogspot.com)

Word Faith and Mind Science


Mind science, whether Christian Science, Religious Science, the Secret, or the word faith movement, is active today.

Dave Hunt says these things are in reality, "recycled Hinduism, shamanism, and New Age folly.

One of many huge lies is its claim: 'You create your own reality with your mind.'

This was the serpent's false promise to Eve-the promise of godhood (Gen 3:5).

Embracing that delusion cost Eve and her descendants Eden's paradise-and would have barred mankind from heaven had not Christ died for the sins of the world.

In the 6,000 years since Eden, the serpent's promise has not been fulfilled in even one person's life."

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/art_within_america/the_wreck_of_the_edmund_f.php

November 10, 1975

by Gordon Lightfoot

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee.
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy.
With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty,
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed when the gales of November came early.
The ship was the pride of the American side, coming back from some mill in Wisconsin,
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most with a crew and the Captain well seasoned.
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms when they left fully loaded for Cleveland,
And later that night when the ships bell rang, could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling?

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound and a wave broke over the railing,
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too, t'was the witch of November come stealing.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait when the gales of November came slashing,
When afternoon came it was freezing rain in the face of a hurricane West Wind.
When supper time came the old cook came on deck saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya,
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in he said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in and the good ship and crew was in peril,
And later that night when his lights went out of sight came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the words turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay if they'd fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized, they may have broke deep and took water, And all that remains is the faces and the names of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings in the ruins of her ice water mansion,
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams, the islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know with the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, in the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral,
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee,
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead when the gales of November come early.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Hero


Police Sergeant Kimberly Munley.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Principles of God's final judgment . . .


Romans 2

1. According to truth (vs. 2)
2. According to accumulated guilt (vs. 5)
3. According to works (vs. 6)
4. Without respect to persons (vs. 11)
5. According to light received (vs. 12)
6. According to Paul's gospel (vs. 16)
7. According to the inward heart (vs. 17-29)

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The true Word of God. . .


The Bible, the true Word of God, gives the only account of the creation of the universe, then reports the only resurrection from the dead, and finally uniquely reveals God's grace in providing salvation by faith apart from works, recognizing the impossibility of attaining God's perfect standard by human effort.

The Lord Jesus Christ, our Creator and Redeemer, gives eternal life to all who trust their souls to Him. --Henry Morris, The God Who is Real, pgs. 100-101

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Faith is the substance . . .


For most people, the word faith is simply another term for "wishful thinking." But that's not the way the Bible describes it. According to Hebrews 11:1:

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen."

substance = L. substo; sub and sto, to stand. In a general sense, being; something existing by itself; that which really is or exists; something real, not imaginary; something solid, not empty. equally applicable to matter or spirit. Thus the soul of man is called an immaterial substance, a cogitative substance, a substance endued with thought.

Faith is substance, not a force we can manipulate. And, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10.17).

(Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of The English Language)

The truth is still the truth. . .

A lie is still a lie, even if you’ve been believing it for 40 years; and the truth is still the truth, even if you’ve been believing it for only two weeks.

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8.32) KJV

"Jesus saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14.6).

The most shocking thing . . .

The words of C.S. Lewis,

"Among the Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He were God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among pantheists, like the Hindus of India, anyone might say that he is part of god or one with god. There would be nothing very odd about that. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God in their language meant the Being outside of the world who had made it and was infinitely different than anything else. And when you have grasped that concept you will see that what this man said was quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips."

Monday, November 2, 2009

The eternal spirit. . .

Imagine a universe where there is life, and that life ends. What sort of a universe would that be like? A very strange place. First, life would have to have arisen randomly. An impossibility in itself. Randomly I say because a purposeful universe would be directed by intelligence, or God if you will, and God is not capable of creating life that ends.

Animals? Their souls must return to that vast subclass of life that loses its identity when it becomes nonphysical.

The thing that remembers going to the light, but then returns, in near-death experiences? That's not the spirit. That's the soul. Soul is the emotional body, elemental, a sort of ethereal feeling clay that becomes impressed with a shape for a time, which it may retain, but is not a real identity.

We don't have eternal souls. We have eternal spirits.