Friday, April 30, 2010

America, like a hero. . .

I am, proudly, a culturalist.

My culture, American, is vastly superior to every other. All things considered.

Those Scandinavian countries, whence my ancestors, are ever so wonderful, as all of Europe must be, if you just want to get by, you know, hoping not to be invaded, and maybe some great but unnamed power will keep you safe, or rescue you.

Now who might that be? No matter. Point is, American character -- not diet -- is like a hero in the book of Judges. A great cry comes unto the Lord, and a savior rises up. America.

(- from Forgotten Prophets blog, article: Zoom.)

(I think so, too. America to the rescue? Maybe not again. You're on your own, nice people of Scandinavia. - Linda.)

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sisyphean

Def: Endlessly laborious and fruitless.

Albert Camus wrote an essay The Myth of Sisyphus in which he compares man's eternal and, in his view, futile search for meaning to the task that the mythical king was compelled to perform for all eternity. He concludes by saying that life is itself the end: "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." From: Gowri (via Wordsmith Talk bulletin board)

(I thought of all the explanations of the modern philosophy of our day, the above quote from Camus, the unbelieving existentialist, sums it up quite succinctly. It is most depressing. No hope. Sisyphus was confined to push a boulder up a hill and then have it fall back only to push it up again...forever repeating... and the religion of existentialism concludes that "one must imagine Sisyphus happy." That's sad. Very sad. - Linda)

Sisyphus in popular culture:

WALL-E, 2008, Academy-Award-winning animated movie directed by Andrew Stanton featured a robot who continually builds towers of trash-compacted cubes; these towers erode and collapse in the wind. Pixar creative team referenced Sisyphus in planning the character of WALL-E.
Cool Hand Luke, a popular movie starring Paul Newman in which the title character is a defiant prisoner at a work camp. His futile efforts to challenge authority, such as his escape attempts, result in equally pointless punishments, such as digging holes and filling them back in.
1866 Sisyphus, asteroid
Stone of Sisyphus, the previously unreleased album by the band Chicago
Sisyphus (dialogue), a dialogue ascribed to Plato
“Sysyphus,” an instrumental by Richard Wright of Pink Floyd
“Carve Away the Stone,” track 11 on the album Test for Echo by Rush. Lyrics written by Neil Peart.

FYI: Sisyphus is pushing that rock from the deepest depth of the unseen world, the Tartarus of hell. To hear a series of messages on hell visit the website of Grace Life Bible Church and click Online Messages, and get ready to have your hair stand on end!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Occam's Razor

There’s a thing in philosophy and science called Occam’s Razor. It’s a principle that says the simplest answer is the right answer. Occam’s Razor is generally accepted to be 99.99 percent of the time true. Medical students are told, for example, "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."

The phrase in Paul’s epistles that matches is II Corinthians 11: ‘the simplicity that is in Christ.’

Most the time we think life is extremely complicated because we get our plate so full. We think there are 50 million different reasons for failure and for sin or for success.

It does not matter what your specific circumstances are; there are really only three fundamental points of being tested:
  • the lust of the flesh,
  • the lust of the eye
  • and the pride of life.

When Adam and Eve were tested and fell, it was in those three points. In Matthew 4, when Jesus Christ was tested of Satan, it was in those three points He was tempted.

When sin attacks you, it attacks you on one of those three points. The whole course of the world is based upon focusing an attack on YOUR thinking and YOUR soul under those three points.

(Knowing Occam's Razor makes the success of standing against the wiles of the devil an easier fight, I think. - Linda)

(From R. Jordan via Lisa Leland . com)

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

RESPONDING TO PRINCIPLES

I may no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather respond to principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not.

--Jim Elliot(evangelical Christian missionary to Ecuador who, along with four others, was killed while attempting to evangelize the Waodani people through efforts known as Operation Auca).

Thor, angry at Loki?

"If I was a Viking living in Iceland a thousand years ago, and I saw some of this stuff, I would be pretty sure that Thor was angry at Loki again, or maybe he was mad at Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. But I would be pretty sure there was an angry god of some kind in that volcano."

Jonah Goldberg The Corner - National Review Online:

Monday, April 19, 2010

Vanity Fair

MEANING:
noun: A place characterized by frivolity and ostentation. ETYMOLOGY: After Vanity Fair, a fair that lasted all year long in the town of Vanity, in the novel Pilgrim's Progress by writer and preacher John Bunyan (1628-1688). In the fair were traded houses, honors, titles, kingdoms, pleasures, and much more.

Sounds like ebay, eh? (from A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg)

Let's remember The Preacher of the Bible..."Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2).

But don't ever read this Book without reading the last verse..."Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13).

Today, in the age of God's wonderful grace, our only command is to trust in the Lord for the finished work of Calvary where all our sins were paid for. This is not vanity, this is life!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

A big IF. . .

"If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done," says the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:37 KJV).

Now, that's a most remarkable promise. God has bound himself, by the faithfulness of his Being and of his Word, that Israel shall have a place in his program as long as the heavens and the earth remain. God will never cast them off as long as the sun and the moon maintain themselves in their courses and as long as long as the scope of the heavens remains to be measured and the interior of the earth remains unexplored.

So, where is Israel today? Today is the Mystery age of the Body of Christ where there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. But, one day, maybe soon, this age will end with the Rapture of the church, and then the prophecy of Israel will again be foremost in God's redemption of the earth.

The Bible is written to reflect the time we are now living and where we are to get our living instructions. Today this is in the Epistles of Paul, Romans to Philemon.


Chart courtesy of Johny Varghese:
Grace India Ministry
9834 Maynard Terrace
Niles, IL 60714
johnyvarghese@comcast.net

Thoughts courtesy of The Berean Call

Monday, April 12, 2010

The Master, even in Golf. . .

Sunday, relaxing in my chair reading the GR Press. Cubbies were out of town and WGN was broadcasting the Sox (: (), so tuned in the Master's and enjoyed the trial and error of play among the greats. Who knew even the pros could miss a foot shot to the flag?

Anyhoo...picked up Tiger's comments as he sliced into the trees...I know I heard him blaspheme the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus Christ. News outlets have picked up his out of control temper, but no one mentioned the slander of "the name that is above all names."

Can we say to pray for the man...evidently he knows not what Master his tongue will acknowledge some day.

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow...and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" ( Philippians 2:10-11).

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Meditations on Good Friday

Yet I must not forget that I too am greedy, that I too seek to control others and manipulate my world for my own benefit and betterment. We hate most in others what we see in ourselves, and our instincts scream to return evil for evil. Yet by so doing, I enslave myself to those who would enslave and destroy me.

The Cross teaches me another way. It teaches me, quite simply, that God is in control of all things, and that His ways are not my ways. It teaches me that the darkest hour comes before dawn, that God can use evil for good, and that only by bending my will and my knee before Him, no matter what the cost, can my own victory and deliverance, and that of others, be purchased.

We are at war. This is a war, not merely of bombs and guns, nor of words and arguments, nor of politics and power. It is an ancient war, from the very beginning of time: a war between the will of man and the will of God.

Meditations on Good Friday

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Piano song

YouTube - Musique sans parole " Neige " Piano song

Can we change?

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. -Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, c.1420

I like the wisdom of us trying to fix others and cannot, but I refuse to believe the life lived in Christ is unable to work effectually to change me.

I'm a New Creation in Christ and now can put on the new nature, and put off my old nature as I walk around in my flesh body. I'm not the person I was, and I do hope I have some years to allow the outworking of the salvation I have received already, in Christ.

"Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth...in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him:" ( Colossians 3:5 - 10).

I can't make myself as I want to be, but I have the power of God working within me to transform me if I allow Him to work. I'm transforming every day. Praise the goodness and power of Christ.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Movie: In the Valley of Elah

Elah is where David meets Goliath (I Samuel 17). Not sure exactly the meaning of the title in relation to the film. The story of David and Goliath was mentioned a couple of times but who was David and who was Goliath representing? Don't know. I was hooked by the title, but agree with the review below. Pass on this one.

The premise: Four tough guys go out, get drunk and rowdy, which leads to a fight, murder and cover-up. Good start for a crime mystery. As the movie goes on, we find out why the above occurred: The guys were in the army; soldiers are psychopathic torturers, drug addicts and child killers; this occurs because war is immoral, the military is immoral, and the United States of America is a horrible place.

Otherwise, nothing to see here, move along folks. One incident summarizes the disrespect and cluelessness of the filmmakers: Near the end, Tommy Lee, a veteran with two dead veteran sons, hoists a U.S. flag that had been in battle, upside down. NO veteran anywhere, anytime would commit that act. Sickening.

# 1 Song on the date I was born - March 14, 1947

YouTube - Ted Weems Orch. - Heartaches, Decca 1938

Monday, April 5, 2010

From what movie?

“Dellow Felegates…” Jar Jar

Experience

We had the experience but missed the meaning...
- Eliot, The Dry Salvages

Don't miss Pastor Bryan's Resurrection Sunday's message on lots of folks who had the experience but missed the meaning. Soon to be posted at: www.gracelifebiblechurch.com Click ONLINE MESSAGES and then the April 4 message.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Perfect pattern. . .

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned upon my Savior’s brow,
His head with radiant glories crowned,
His lips with grace o’er flow,
His lips with grace o'er flow.

No mortal can with Him compare among the sons of men;
Fairer is He than all the fair
Who fill the heavenly train,
Who fill the heavenly train.

Majestic manhood, perfect pattern.
Live again thy life through us.

(Samuel Stennett, 1787)

Friday, April 2, 2010

Satisfied (Jesus Satisfies My Longing)

YouTube - Satisfied (Jesus Satisfies My Longing) - Gaither Vocal Band

Good Friday

Over and over again
we sit in our courtyards,
our mouths speaking what our hearts are full of . . .
WE DO NOT KNOW HIM.
DONOTDONOTDONOT
KNOWHIMKNOWHIMKNOWHIM echoes loudly
emphatically
filling time and space
heaven and earth;
and yet
the saddest part is
when the cock crows
we don't have the ears to hear
TOHEARTOHEARTOHEAR.
At least Peter had the ears to hear
and the heart to weep.
(-Ann Weems, Kneeling in Jerusalem)

"And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha:" On arriving at the place, "they gave Him vinegar to drink mingled with gall (wine mingled with myrrh, Mark 15.23), and when He had tasted thereof, He would not drink" (Matt. 27.34). This potion was stupefying, and given to criminals just before execution, to deaden the sense of pain.

Fill high the bowl, and spice it well, and pour
The dews oblivious: for the Cross is sharp,
The Cross is sharp, and He
Is tenderer than a lamb.

But our Lord would die with every faculty clear, and in full sensibility to all His sufferings.

Thou wilt feel all, that Thou may'st pity all;
And rather would'st Thou wrestle with strong pain
Than overcloud Thy soul,
So clear in agony,
Or lose one glimpse of Heaven before the time,
O most entire and perfect Sacrifice,
Renewed in every pulse.
(-Keble )

"...they crucified Him" John 19.17-19

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Calvinism is back

"When things go through this upheaval," Ms. Tickle says, "there's always those who absolutely need the assurance of rules and a foundation."

Christian faith: Calvinism is back / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

I've been at the place where I said to the Lord....just tell me what to do and I will do it. It doesn't work!

What works in God's program for today? Grace.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured-
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace , grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!

Grace trumps Calvinism (Law keeping) in what we need today.