Language Lessons

I am not sure whether to laugh or cry at this news.  Apparently, some not so bright people in the south are starting to use the word Canadians to refer to black people.  What am I supposed to do now.  I live near Canada these days, but I am originally from the south.  Are people going to start thinking I am a racist when I talk about Canadians?  I guess this is further proof of the crazy world we live in today.  

I am working on a paper for one of my classes at Liberty and it got me to thinking.  What is it about us that makes us feel as if we need to defend God and His nature.  When the Bible clearly says over and over again that we are not able to understand God's ways completely, why do we feel like we should rush in on some topic that seems incomprehesible and quickly start explaining.  One of these areas is the nature of hell and eternal punishment.  There are many people that are offended by the idea that God can be called merciful and yet allow someone to spend eternity in a place that is undoubtedly the worst place in the universe to be.  Some will go so far as to say that they are unwilling to accept or believe in a God that could do such a thing.  My only answer to that is to say that I may not understand it fully or be able to explain it to that person's liking, but I am not about to try and change what God has told us in no uncertain terms.  I am more than willing to live and let live when there is no clear view or understanding on a subject (there are plenty of them), but I have no desire to do theological backflips and contortions just to make someone feel better either.  If God is the Being that the Bible says He is, and I believe that to be true with good reason, then I am in no position to try and be His PR guy to someone else.  He is big enough and has enough credibilty on His own, without me trying to stand in His defense.  

Circular Reasoning

Maybe it is because of this Philosophy class, but I find myself more than a little annoyed when someone argues in a circle.  You know what I mean.  For instance, I have decided that I like Ron Paul in the Republican Presidential primary.  Actually, it's a caucus here, which I have never done before so it ought to be interesting to say the least.  But when I talk to some people, whom I will not name, it turns out that they can't support him.  Which is fine with me, except that the reason that they can't support him is because he doesn't/won't get enough votes.  When I ask, if it is possible that the reason he doesn't get enough votes is because of this attitude, I inevitably get the brush off.  It just drives me a little crazy that someone who can be otherwise very intelligent and thoughtful can be trapped within such a silly logical loop.  I am one of those people who has voted for the  Constitution party presidential candidate in the past because I stick with my principles before I stick with a party.  My friend thinks I am stubborn for not bowing to practicality and maybe I am stubborn.  But in this case I consider it a good thing.  I truly believe that if I have the priviledge to vote for people who have an influence on our government then I should at least do so with a sense of obligation and conviction to principles that will not bend.  In an election year where Rush Limbaugh has finally said that he might not vote for the Republican nominee for president depending on who it is, I feel vindicated that I have been on the right (pun intended) side of things for the entire time.

I like to read a lot.  I am looking forward to getting a chance to read Vox Day's new book, The Irrational Atheist.  But today, as I was reading his blog I saw a post that detailed arguments from a reader centered partially around Carl Sagan's quote, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."  Vox did a wonderful job of highlighting the logical problems in this claim, but I have now heard this phrase twice this week and would like to take a different tack on it.  Since, the extraordinary claim part is undefined let me fill this in for the case of Christianity.  Perhaps the most extraordinary claim that drives many people crazy, indeed it appeared to be the main problem this guy had with it as well, is that it claims to have the exclusive means of pleasing God and entering Heaven.  The gentleman was asking how to choose which religion is right, so I feel this is a fair assumption to make.  Taking this in mind, let's look at a few facts.  Christianity is centered on the person of Jesus Christ and His claims.  He is the one who claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life and in fact followed that up by saying that no one could get to Heaven except through Him.  This qualifies as an extraordinary claim.  What kind of extraordinary evidence did He present to back it up?  You can probably guess my answer here; His resurrection from the dead after His crucifixion.  There is a multitude of reasonable evidence to support the claims made by the disciples that Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them.  This claim would certainly be good evidence that His teachings were true, in fact this evidence could be considered extraordinary since it doesn't happen every day.  I could certainly attempt to reproduce the list of evidence here, but in the interest of time, let me instead point you to the resources that I have used to study and discover much of this for myself.  The works of Josh McDowell are my favorites as he was an atheist who set out to disprove the resurrection as a historical event.  In the process, the data he collected led him to the unthinkable conclusion that the resurrection had indeed happened.  More recently, and part of the inspiration behind this post in fact, I have become aware of the work of Dr. Gary Habermas at Liberty University.  His website gives a lot of great information as well.  I encourage you to look at the facts with a critical mind.  God can withstand scrutiny.  He has given us extraordinary evidence to back His extraordinary claim, because it is the center of the Christian faith.

The real danger of Joel Osteen

I was reading another blog.  One that I get to about once or twice a month called the Internet Monk.  I first found him a few years back before we moved from Arkansas to South Dakota.  I could relate to some of the questions he raised back then about the Catholic faith.  I am one who studies what I believe and even questions it at times to make sure that what I believe is true.  After all, if it doesn't withstand scrutiny then why believe it?  I enjoy reading there and today in my perusal I ran across a reference to a story that Slate did about Joel Osteen.  I must admit that Mr. Osteen is one of those folks who have caught my attention on many occaisions for his lack of sound theology.  I heard the interview on Larry King where he said he doesn't talk about sin.  I have even taken the time to watch a couple of times when he was on TV.  I must say that I have always considered him dangerous in the sense that he gives enough of the truth to grab people and mislead them.  I think he fits the descriptions given in 2 Timothy of teachers who will say what their audience wants to hear.  There are several warnings in both 1 and 2 Timothy that fit the situation actually.  In any case, this story in Slate is fascinating because it is written by a publication that I am pretty sure no one would classify as religious.  As I have aged and matured, I have been less and less willing to pass judgment on believers whose doctrine didn't match mine completely, but only to the extent that those believers are still teaching the truth about the gospel of Christ.  That all men are sinners (yes, there is that word again), and that the only means of payment for that debt of sin before God is the blood of Jesus Christ who died for us on the cross and then rose from the dead on the third day.  If a "minister" is unwilling to even address sin or its consequences in our relationship with God then it is an automatic nonstarter with me.  Joel Osteen is preaching a gospel that reduces God to a personal assistant, or as the writer in Slate says, "This is a long, long way down the road from the inscrutable, infant-damning theology of this country's Calvinist forebears—it is, rather, a just-in-time economy's vision of salvation, an eerily collapsible spiritual narcissism that downgrades the divine image into the job description for a lifestyle concierge."  I am disturbed by this notion in part because this writer has hit on one of the things that has always bothered me in the health and wealth gospel.  There are certainly verses in the Bible that point to God's desire for us to do well and to be well, but there are plenty more that indicate that this is not the normal state of affairs for everyone.  Jesus said to His disciples that they would have trouble in this world (John 16:33).  Bible doctrine is no good if it isn't true to the whole counsel of Scripture.  I could go on but there are others who have said this much more succinctly.

I changed the name of this blog today.  I took the new name from this passage in 1 Kings 19:11-13:

11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

It is a reminder that God doesn't always speak or even often speak above the noise.  I need a place to put the random thoughts and musings that catch my eye, but don't fit in with the blogging that I do to keep our friends and family updated on life in general.  

I am going to attempt to bring this blog back to life.  And I found the perfect story to start with today.  Ann Coulter has gone and done it now.  She made folks mad once again, now by suggesting that everything would be better off if we were all Christians.  This harkens me back to the statements by some people that equate radical Islam with radical Christianity and suggest that both are equally bad.  The problem with this is that if by radical we are to infer someone who lives their convictions out to their total ends then we would end up on two different ends of the equations.  With radical Islam you have people who are prepared to kill others, themselves as well if needed, to promote/spread their faith.  With radical Christians, you have people who are willing to die(notice the difference here) if needed just to make sure someone has the chance to hear their message.  If Christians were to live a life radically adjusted to be like the life of Christ, they will not walk around killing others.  Instead they will live a life that is at heart self-sacrificing for the benefit of others.  Now don't you think that would indeed make the world a better place?

New York City!!
Now they say that Jewish and Muslim symbols have a secular dimension but that Christian symbols are "purely religious". What pray tell are they talking about? Why a nativity scene of course. Apparently they may not even be sure that the birth of Jesus even happened like that. It was of course something those nutty first century folks exaggerated to no end.
Why is it that we think we know better what happened 2 millennia ago than do the original eyewitnesses? It seems pretty arrogant to me.
This goes along with what I have long held about religious discussions in the public area. Watch yourself and see if you think I am right. Christianity is treated differently in the public marketplace of ideas. I hold that the reason for this is that it is True. I put forward that a religion that is not wholly True is not a threat. Therefore Christianity that is based on historical, truthful, undeniable facts, is a threat like no other to people in certain places.

I picked a good time to get back to blogging. This story on FoxNews' website has one of the most outrageous quotes I have ever seen.
"Judicial selection should be based on principle, not on pigment. The president cheapens the process when he substitutes race for rationality or color for capability," Bond said.
This guy is speaking on behalf of the NAACP. It seems like only yesterday that these folks were screaming about letting minorities into Michigan Law School based on the pigment, race, color or whatever else you want to call it. Why do these people make such patently absurd statements like this? The reason is because they have turned skin color into a political classification rather than a racial one. I have literally seen them say that someone isn't black or Hispanic enough?!? What the heck can you mean by that. More and more they are simply being exposed for what they are; bigots of a different stripe.

The problem is this. If politicians do the right thing and cut social programs for the elderly so that their government won't go in a financial hole. Those same elderly voters will go to the poles and make sure they don't get any more chances to do the right thing.
The solution in Germany to combat this. Give children a vote to counterbalance. This would be extremely laughable if these people weren't dead serious.

This is too funny to let stand without comment. I saw this on Barbara Streisand's webpage, where I had gone to read her sobbing about the movement of the Reagan movie to Showtime.

Regardless of what you think about Grey Davis, we should all be able to agree that we must now stop this attempted hijacking of the democratic process. Impeaching Clinton ...Florida and the 2000 election ... Redistricting in Texas ... now California... What makes the Right Wing think they can just bully and buy their way into power? If we allow this recall to win, we will be setting a dangerous precedent. In this unfair process, a candidate receiving just 30% of the vote could beat Davis, even if the governor receives 49%. Our governor was elected fair and square just a year ago. He deserves the opportunity to serve out his time in office. So get out there on October 7th and vote no on recall !!!

Apparently the "Right Wing" has been bullying those angels in the Democrat party when they have pursued Constitutional and lawful means to a)redress Clinton's perjury and obstruction of the law, b)stop a runaway Florida Supreme Court that tried to change election laws after the election was finished, c)allow lawmakers in Texas doing what lawmakers have always done in redistricting procedures, d)let California citizens exercise their lawful provisions for recalling a governor that more and more people were growing to despise. Thanks for the laughs Barbara.

It has been a time of transition. I started a different blog to keep my ministry partners up to date and neglected this one. However, I am getting so sick of seeing these common sense propositions touted by someone as part of a great "discovery". So I am going to come back to this blog for my commentary on life in general.
Can we by some chance in this country find our way back to the place where we won't be stunned to discover that a)men and women are different, b)kids do better when their parents are paying attention to them, c)insert other commonly held piece of good old common sense here.
It's enought to make you spit.

A must read column by Vox Day at WorldNetDaily today.

I am going to be writing somewhat more frequently for the next month until things get really busy before our move to SD. I am excited this Fourth of July. I am thinking about independence and all that it means. Not just our independence as a nation, but the freedom that God offers us through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is silly for people to say that America is not a Christian nation, because the very notion that has held this nation together has been a deeply rooted truth of the Christian faith. Which is to say that true Freedom and Liberty can only be maintained with proper form and restraint. Our Founders set us up as a nation of laws that restricted our license, doing whatever we want to do, in order to preserve true freedom. For them, license was the antithesis of liberty. We have lost sight of that in our era, aided by a Supreme Court that continues to find new "rights" which amount to nothing more than justifications for the types of "license" our Founding Fathers understood as destruction for freedom and liberty.

I also want to thank John Rabe for his wonderful blog entry on July 2nd which compares the SCOTUS' authority to the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. I had not thought of it in that light before, and I couldn't agree more.

In an effort to remind everybody where government checks come from, Neal Boortz has written this wonderful column.

I went a whole month without writing, but it was a busy month. I traveled to South Dakota with my family, because we have felt God's calling in our lives to go and minister in that part of the country. When we got there, God made himself plainly known, and we found the place of service that He has been preparing for us. It is an exciting time but a busy one. I am going to start a second blog for daily ministry information later this summer and will keep this blog going for musings of other sorts (political, social or otherwise)

This time the brief siesta from writing was intentional. I have been spending more time studying and reading the Word of God, known to some as the Bible. I have been spending less time on the computer and watching TV to accomplish this. It is truly wonderful the things that God has done this past week during this time. My faith has grown by leaps and bounds as I have watched God work and speak in my life and through His Word. I highly recommend pushing things that distract you from focusing on God into the background for a week or even just a day and see what He does in your life.

I haven't written in two weeks. It wasn't an intentional hiatus. It was more of a combination of preoccupation with other things and having nothing to say here during that time that has kept me from writing anything. I have been reading a studying a lot. Last night I just finished re-reading a book called "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn. He has quickly grown to become one of my favorite authors and his books continue to challenge me in my walk with Christ and my faith. He has a website Eternal Perspective Ministries. I have been amazed by his heart for God and at his ability to spur others on through his writings. There are many things that we as Christians can get bogged down with. Our favorite doctrinal dispute, or a sin that so easily besets us, but our Lord calls us to focus on Him. When we do this as we should, those things that bog us down will take care of themselves. I have seen people spend days arguing over Calvinist and Armenian positions, or whether the war in Iraq is a just war. That stuff is not important, it is temporary. What is important is that God loved us so much he sent his Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sin, and that there is no other way to get into God's Presence (Heaven) except that you go through the blood of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. That is Truth and Grace.

Isaiah 40:28-31
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Are you feeling a little weary? It's Friday and that helps a lot of people get through the day, but here is better help. God gives strength to the weary. In the New Testament it says, "in our weakness he is strong". So take comfort in the Lord. He gives us strength when we need it most. He never grows weary, and he never runs out of strength.

Today's More Than Bread:
1 Peter 4:7-11
7The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. 8Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. 11If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

With things going the way they are these days, it is sometimes tempting to think that the end is near, and it may well be. However, that is just more reason for us to be diligent. When you speak or when you serve others, be sure to do it in God's strength and with His mind. That takes prayer and lots of it. It also takes a lot of love.