Ten Commandment Tuesday - Keep It Honest

Some people are upset with the president because he lies. These are usually people who were not upset with the previous president who was a prolific liar, and so was his predecessor, and so was his predecessor, and so on and so on.

Humans are really good about lying, so much so that humans have categorized them; there's white lies (which is a venial sin, what ever that is) boldface lies, lies by omission, broken promises, fabrication, exaggeration, deception, plagiarism, and according to Mark Twain (whose name is a lie, he's really Samuel Clemons) "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." (According to Twain Clemons, it was Benjamin Disraeli who coined that phrase). According to the prince of preachers. Charles Spurgeon:

"A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is still putting on it's shoes"

Random Bits

"I walk through this sinful world as a 

pilgrim in a foreign country" - CH Spurgeon

Last month I spent a little time in Philadelphia where my company is headquartered. We had a symposium centered around hiring veterans and most of us being veterans spent a lot of time together "comparing scars". Good times... The symposium ended with a trip to the 119th Army-Navy game. Being a USAF veteran I didn't have a dog in that fight, so I auctioned off my enthusiasm to the highest bidder and the Army won the rights to hearing my cheers. They also won the game. Coincidence? I think not.

Personally I like to go to the USAF academy and watch the Army and Navy football teams gasp in the thin air, the USAF Academy is at 6000 feet. As for the NFL, I haven't watched them in almost 2 years. The reason: Sometime in the near future a few young enlisted folks are going to take the flag, MY flag (it was stashed in my beloved EF-111A on a combat mission over downtown Baghdad) off of my coffin, fold it neatly, and hand it to my son. I don't want that flag stained in any way by a punk millionaire.

I'm back now and after catching up at work, I'm catching up at other things. I didn't put my Lord and savior on the back burner, but this blog did get cooled off some. And when I started looking at the news I just want to go back to my veteran brothers and sisters and ask "Did we just waste our time and youth? What did we defend?"

That pope fellow finally spoke out about the scandals rocking his church. It's too little too late, but it's something

Could it be money that got that pope fellow moving?

While diocese are being investigated for child abuse cover ups and bishops are being investigated for serial homosexual abuse, that Pope tells bishops to close ranks and stop pointing fingers. To me it sounds like he's telling his minions to not participate in the investigations. Am I wrong?

The popes instructions are not being followed as names are being named in the Church of the Pope

Oh Dear Lord - it's not just the priests and bishops (and cardinals and monsignors) but the NUNS TOO!  

False Teacher of the Year 2018

I held back this year until one person or denomination broke out of the pack of false teachers and came to the forefront of falsehood.  Sadly, the church that Jesus built is now devolving into a worship of cash and self and that particular teaching is getting very popular. While pretending to worship God, they're actually worshiping Lakshmi. Where once Christianity was the home of the teaching of the solid gospel of Jesus crucified and resurrected, it now is sliding into a mishmash of feelings and emotions.

God wants you to be; happy, rich, healthy, wealthy, prosperous, successful...

And that's the problem. The very best false teachers go right to the emotions. They know how to manipulate people’s feelings. They tell you warm stories that tug on your heart. They get you laughing and cheering and clapping and then they get you weeping on cue. They inject themselves into the bible, they ridicule those who stand firm for biblical truth and portray them as mean, angry, and unloving. They bring the world into their message and appeal to greed and the desire that we all have to be healthy by telling us of the Green God of clean water, social justice, and a world free of white privilege. By preying on your feelings, they draw you into their false message.

This year has been headspinning, The  United Church of Canada decided that an atheist preaching self help messages was just ducky and can keep her job as a PASTOR, the NAR is slow rolling their own bible, Andy Stanley has decided that the Old Testament is Old News (actually he said “intellectually ruinous and morally debilitating.”), and Pope Francis... I get vapors just thinking about Pope Francis and his continuing efforts to protect his mob of homosexual child rapists. But no matter how bad Mr. Pope wanted the fabled Golden Goat he didn't "win" again. but the nominating committee awarded him second place (I hope he likes the color)

So onward with the presentation of the ignominious Golden Goat award; John Shore grabbed the very first Golden Goat in 2013, followed by Steven McSwain in 2014, Mark Sandlin hoisted a cold one in one hand and the Golden Goat in the other in 2015, in 2016 it was God's own NFL bookie, Rick Joyner that grabbed the Goat, and in 2017 the squiggly squid herself, Jennifer LeClare was the Goatrix. The nominating committee still wants to nominate Gretta Vosper for this prize but in Paul's letter, 1 Corinthians 5:12, he tells us that God instructs us not to judge those outside the church. Yes, Gretta is a devout atheist and that puts you as far outside of the church as you can get without being drown in hell's fires even though she is still a PASTOR in the West Hill United Church, Scarborough, Ontario. The United Church of Canada decided not to remove this wolf from the remainder of their flock, because: feelings. 

Merry Christmas Fellow Royal Priests

To all my readers and all followers of Jesus of Nazareth, firstborn over all creation, head of the church, Son of God and son of man, king of kings, lord of lords, prince of peace, light of the world, I wish you a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year.  

I love Christmas, just the central idea; a promise made eons ago comes to fruition, that God would send us a savior. The plot point of Christmas in the overall story of our salvation is not one to be overlooked. Our lord and savior came to us with incredibly humble beginnings - born to peasants in a stable. So humble that even today unbelievers mistakenly call Mary an "unwed mother" (when we look at Luke 2:5 properly translated we find that when Christ was born Joseph and Mary were married). But that's ok, not a lot of people are going to truly understand. Jesus was very plain about the fact that believers are different than unbelievers and are divinely inspired:

65 And He was saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” 66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. (John 6:65-66)

So often when we consider our sinful nature we rightfully humble ourselves often to the point of tears. Yet we forget that not only is our faith a gift of God, we forget that we have been chosen, set apart by God to do His work, to spread the Gospel to all the nations. And that is a very special thing:

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

So royal priests, citizens of a holy nation - let's celebrate the anniversary of Christ's first advent the old fashioned way: by spreading the Gospel

Feel Free To Utter The C Word - It's a Big Deal

I'm going to Philadelphia tomorrow to spend a few days at the Comcast Military Development and Leadership Symposium, which is a big deal. But I will be in Philadelphia away from my family during the early part of the Christmas season, which is a big deal. 

I love my family, I love my savior, and I love the way He made His presence here on earth a reality. We as a people set apart a day to remember His birth, even though we don't know exactly what day He arrived. To many it's a big deal. There are many Americans who are not Christian, but still celebrate Christmas, to them too it's a big deal. But there are a minority who do not celebrate Christmas because it is a reminder of Christ's birth, who want Christmas erased, and to them deleting our savior is a very big deal. They want to, no - they need to remove Christ from our society, and a very small part of that plan is to replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" erasing Christ from the celebration of His birth. Just part of their satanically inspired takeover which is a really big deal.