Saturday, January 30, 2010

Israel's reality . . .

"If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence.

If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel!"

- Benjamin Netanyahu

Oops! Presumption does another in. . .

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist - -" -last words of General Sedgwick

John Sedgwick - Wikipedia

The Little Mars Rover That Could


Something Wonderful: The Little Mars Rover That Could @ AMERICAN DIGEST

To the rover, Spirit:

It was a big job to ask
of little gears and chips
and shiny foil.
To race alone through nothingness,
to taste the red dust
of a land no soul calls
home.

But, like the little pill bug
that entertained an earthling
with his plodding in the rain,
you rolled on.

But if you stop,
burdened by the dust
or an unseen crack
in the cosmic sidewalk,
who is there to pick you up,
dust you off,
or place you gently
under a leaf?

There will most likely never be a human's bootprint on the surface of Mars; it's now way too expensive and too dangerous for humans to spend so much time in a vacuum full of cosmic rays, and by the time we have the resources and the technology to do it safely there will be no point; robots will have long been doing a better job of exploration, far more cheaply.

But the little rover that could has shown why that is no great loss. We're there with the little guy and will be with all his successors.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Writing in pictures...




"The brambles and the thorns grew thick and thicker in a ticking thicket of bickering crickets. Farther along and stronger, bonged the gongs of a throng of frogs, green and vivid on their lily pads. From the sky came the crying of flies, and the pilgrims leaped over a bleating sheep creeping knee-deep in a sleepy stream, in which swift and slippery snakes slid and slithered silkily, whispering sinful secrets." From James Thurber, The 13 Clocks (New York, 1957)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Let's bow our knee today. . .

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

-Philippians 2:5 - 11

Friday, January 22, 2010

Standing by what authority?

Sin is sin.

First, you have to define sin.

Then you have to reveal the authority behind the definition.

Then you have to stand by that authority as unbelievers scoff at your unscientific, reactionary, outdated, bigoted beliefs.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Israel helps Haiti

ISRAEL’S DISPROPORTIONATE RESPONSE

Because of Israel’s long history of enduring bomb and missile attacks the Israeli army (the IDF) is one of the most experienced in the world in treating mass-injuries and using specially trained sniffer dogs to locate wounded persons in the rubble.

The IDF was one of the first on the scene in Haiti last week (sending considerably more troops and doctors than, for example, Britain and France did). Hundreds, if not thousands of Haitians have already been treated (and many life-saving surgeries performed) in the IDF Medical and Rescue Field Hospital, set up in a large tent on a soccer field in Port-Au-Prince. In addition, Israeli forces have located and rescued survivors trapped in ruined buildings, including many who were injured during the collapse of the UN headquarters

Monday, January 11, 2010

Grover

October 16, 1919 - January 9, 2010

Uncle Grover has passed into eternity.

The last of the Anderson boys. Andy, some called him.

When we were children, with his stutter and laugh, he was a larger than life presence as he came from Detroit to visit us at the Linough farm in Ensign during hunting season.

Then in his later years you can still see all the fence posts and wire he put up to enclose the farm after he and Bea retired. Work, work, work...moving around on his four-wheeler.

Mother cured him of his cancer with carrot juice (she says).

He enjoyed life and had many years.

May he have entered into his eternal rest, in Christ Jesus.

Facts

Facts are stubborn things. (John Adams)

Friday, January 8, 2010

Where is the promise of His coming?

I used to expect Jesus to come and save us. Something seems to be delaying Him. (From friend at Forgotten Prophets)

"Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation." (2 Peter 3:4).

"For this they willingly are ignorant of...the Lord is not slack concerning His promise...but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

Thursday, January 7, 2010

For Jason . . .

Jimmy Piersal on how to diaper a baby:
Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat. Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher's mound. Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together. Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again.


Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Sweet Babe. . .

If one feels the need of something grand, something infinite, something that makes one feel aware of God, one need not go far to find it. I think that I see something deeper, more infinite, more eternal than the ocean in the expression of the eyes of a little baby when it wakes in the morning and coos or laughs because it sees the sun shining on its cradle. - Vincent van Gogh -

Our little girl is full-term. She is comfortable and warm, the Doctor says, and not anxious to leave what she knows for what she doesn't.

Even so, the space is getting more confining every day, and the time for exit is imminent. We are waiting to see her smiles. Should be soon.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

That's Greek to me. . .

Koine Greek parchment

Unless you understand Koine Greek as well as you do English, when you combine an interlinear text (done by men) and a lexicon (compiled by men) you are using your limited understanding of a foreign language as a substitute for a real translation.

I will not tell you not to learn or study Greek, but remember that there is no good reason to think the result of all this is a better translation than a thorough translation done by real scholars as is the King James translation of the Hebrew and Greek majority text.

I believe the best approach is to take the KJV (King James Version) and read it. Compare one part against another. It is a literal translation, except where a completely literal translation would be clearly wrong.

The KJV translators deliberately left clues throughout the text to indicate the original word. For instance, in the Old Testament if you see LORD in all capitals, the word in Hebrew was Jehovah. The word Lord, with just the first letter capitalized, indicates the word was translated from the Hebrew, Adonai. And God indicates the Hebrew word was Elohim.

None of this takes away the ability to look at a Greek or Hebrew word if you’re so inclined, as many Greek to English word books are available to purchase. A good one is Strong's Concordance, which I use.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Presumption. . .


"Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me" (Psalm 19:13).

noun = the act of presuming; assumption of something as true; an assumption, often not fully established, that is taken for granted in some piece of reasoning; unwarrantable, unbecoming, or impertinent boldness. Synonyms: audacity, effrontery, arrogance, gall.

Presumption is the lowest form of knowledge.

How do we keep from presumptuous sins?

By letting God's Word, the Bible, be our standard of truth, not our own reasoning.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Who will have all men to be . . .


"...this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (I Timothy 2:3-5).

From Matthew Henry commentary:

God bears a goodwill to all mankind. There is one God, and one only. This one God will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. It concerns us to get the knowledge of the truth, because that is the way to be saved.

There is one Mediator, and that Mediator gave Himself a ransom for all. As the mercy of God extends itself to all His works, so the mediation of Christ extends to all the children of men.

We deserved to have died. Christ died for us.

He put Himself into the office of Mediator between God and man.

A mediator supposes a controversy. Sin had made a quarrel between us and God. Jesus Christ is a Mediator to bring God and man together.

(God is so good to us. And His salvation, found in Christ Jesus, so right and available to us all. "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33). May we all be rejoicing in this salvation!)

The real person . . .

Beethoven

One key factor that separates man from all lower creatures: man's ability to form conceptual ideas and to express them in words and music and art! We are made in the image of God our Creator and the lover of our souls. The same cannot be said of any other living creature.

This simple fact reveals the futility of searching the world of fossils to find a "missing link" between man and lower creatures of any kind. It is equally futile to search the DNA of man and animals for a missing link. Neither the skeletal structure nor the DNA has anything to do with who the person really is.

Even if the complete skeletons and DNA of Albert Einstein, Charles Dickens, and Ludwig van Beethoven could be discovered, would they hold the key to the genius of these men? Of course not! The real person is a nonphysical being living inside the physical body. This fact is indisputable.

The Berean Call Website! thebereancall.org

Happy MMX . . .