Random Bits

I haven't been blogging much lately because my new hobby keeps me busy. My new hobby, by the way, is visiting doctors and emergency rooms. After too many years of health my body has decided it's due for some quiet time and I've come down with several ailments, most of which start with the word "pulmonary". Two months after my first prognosis I'm still undergoing tests and they're still finding more broken stuff (my first chest x-ray showed my lungs were fine, but my spine was a mess. I need to make sure they know how to focus that x-ray camera properly, they may have it set too deep)

As this journey progresses I'm more and more awed by the love and goodness of my bride (my nursy angel) my boss, my co-workers, my family and church family, neighbors, pastor, and the medical professionals I've come to know. My pulmonologist whom I will call Dr. Folger (who carried twins so she and my bride are both members of the Twin Moms Mutual Support Society) is incredible! No, make that awesome!, when I mention that I'm seeing Dr. Folger, everyone: doctors and nurses and staff alike all say "She's so awesome!" I was seeing a doctor in another hospital and mentioned that I was under the treatment of Dr. Folger and he said "Wow! How did you get so lucky?" Later his department head came in, a stately and reserved doctor of no small renown, and found out I was seeing Dr. Folger and he said "Amy? She's so awesome!"

Psalm 30:2

The Lord has blessed me with such wonderful, skilled physicians and a caring loving wife that is such an incredible conduit for His love. He is healing me, my body is catching up.

The Pope Advocates Violence

Mr. Pope has done it again. As the worlds best example for the necessity of the reformation, Mr. Pope regularly opens his mouth and stuffs it full of gold shod foot. His unending unbiblical gaffes have Vatican spinmeisters working over time to retell what he actually said into something that doesn't sound so wrong. This time they're really earning their pay.

On his trip to the Philippines Mr. Pope had to open his mouth about the slaughter in Paris recently conducted by the Religion of Peace on the staff of Charlie Hebdo. Rather than point out the sinfulness of the murderers actions, Mr. Pope actually defended them:

"If my good friend Dr. Gasparri says a curse word against my mother, he can expect a punch. It's normal. You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others... there are so many people who speak badly about religion or other religions who make fun of them... who make a game of the religions of others. They are provocateurs. And what happens to them is what would happen to Dr. Gasparri if he says a curse word against my mother." -Pope Francis. 

Be The Berean!

A few years ago when my bride and I were church shopping we stopped into the Mountain View Church of the Holy Migraine, there they played "music" at such levels that my ears, deadened by years of working on heavy bomber aircraft, began to ache. After the aural and spiritual assault was over the preacher took the stage and began to speak.

And what a speech it was! Filled with unending bible verses delivered at a rate of fire that would make any heavy infantry company proud. Luckily I had my cell phone loaded with the YouVersion bible app and I punched in the book, chapter, and verse as fast as he could spit them out and found very quickly that he wasn't preaching the word of God, he was speaking a God flavored, feel good, self improvement seminar. Not one verse was actually used in context, and not a single verse was used in its entirety, and most verses used in their entirety and in context had little to nothing to do with what he was speaking about.

Jeremiah 30:17

More on my journey to come...

2014: The Year of the Christian Genocide

2014: The Year of the Christian Genocide

by Thomas D. Williams, PH.D.

The year 2014 saw more global persecution of Christians than any other year in recent history, and can only be compared to the first centuries when Christians were hunted down as criminals in the Roman Empire. The policy of the Emperor Diocletian, in fact, who reigned from 284-305AD, was remarkably similar to that taken by the Islamic State and Boko Haram: “Convert or die.”

A look around the globe reveals an unprecedented pattern of persecution that has shifted from isolated incidents of hostility to a systematic campaign to exterminate Christians in places where they have lived peacefully for centuries.

From the kidnapped school girls and massacres in Nigeria and the displacement of thousands in the Central African Republic, to the believers arrested for having a Bible study in Central Asia, to Meriam Ibrahim being sentenced to death in Sudan, to the ISIS slaughters, to the couple burned alive for blasphemy and hundreds of girls kidnapped in Pakistan, Christians throughout the world saw a major escalation in persecution in 2014.

My New Favorite Prayer

Our pastor, I'll call him Pastor Paratus, sends out a prayer every day to his flock, this is my favorite:

We cannot thank You enough, Father God, for Your mercy, compassion and forgiveness.  

You do not treat us as our sins deserve, but instead You graciously call us back when we fall out of fellowship with You.  

Please give us discernment to quickly recognize the wiles of our enemy who may be trying to entice us to disobey, wisdom to renounce such temptations, and courage to do as You say.  

When we fail, grace us with humility to immediately confess rather than deny, avoid, justify, rationalize or otherwise try to shift the blame.  

May we never cringe in shame or guilt, knowing that because of the sacrificial death, victorious resurrection and current intercessory ministry of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, our confession brings forgiveness and reconciliation without any condemnation.

Another Fail Of Biblical Proportions for the History Channel

Once again the History Channel attempts to do something with the bible without actually reading or trying to understand the bible. The last time they attempted to deal with the bible with The Bible Rules they fell far short of producing something that resembles God's word. This time the History Channel avoids Jewish law and tackles eschatology with "Revelation, The End of Days". Of course if you tried a tackle like this in the NFL you'd cost your team 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The production sources revealed by the History Channel are the Bible, Revelations: Visions, Prophecy and Politics in the Book of Revelation – Elaine Pagels, The End Times in Chronological Order – Ron Rhodes, Are We Living in the End Times? – Tim LaHaye, The End – Mark Hitchcock, Could the Rapture Happen Today? – Mark Hitchcock. I take Dr. Pagel's and Mr. LaHaye's writings with a huge grain of salt, as she's a salesperson for gnosticism and Mr. LaHaye's writings are based on the heretical teachings of John Darby. Still, the History Channel's source material doesn't include a who's who of atheism and the emergent church (but I repeat myself) as in The Bible Rules.