There is no possible way the world can go on without this post.....
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
"and I've never licked a sparkplug, and I've never sniffed a stinkbug, and I've never painted daisies on a big red rubber ball, and I've never bathed in yogurt, and I dont look good in leggings, and I've never been to boston in the fall!!!!"
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Go to Hell
Last night I was sitting up at about 11 o'clock and pondering the secrets of the universe. As I did so, this thought came to mind;
If America as a society is truly as "secular" or "godless" as it is portrayed to be, then why is a knowledge of the spiritual found in simple slang, catch phrases, and common curses?
Example: (Names have not been changed to protect the guilty)
Bill (the 19 year-old athiest) is driving down Highway 131 attempting to exit at 9th street. As he slowly merges onto the off-ramp, a man in a shiny, red sportscar speeds up next to him and promptly swerves over in front of him, and then slams on his brakes. Bill's eyes get large, his pulse quickens, his mind races. Words are beginning to come out of his mouth. What are they?
A) Go to Hell, you idiot!
B) Oh my God!
C) God Dammit!
D) All of the above, in succession.
Based on these popular phrases, one can draw a few conclusions about Bill. They are...
1) Bill has heard of a place called Hell where bad people go.
2) God exists and in some capacity can hear him.
3) God has power to do things on earth (in this case, damning someone)
Now if I have my theology correct, Bill is over three-fourths of the way to becoming a follower of Jesus. It would seem that even the most hardened athiest/agnostic/unbeliever has at least a rudimentary knowledge of God simply based on his language. As the Old Testament Proverb says, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.."
Assuming this proverb is also true, Bills heart may have an abundance of misplaced anger, but it also has a knowledge of the Father, and Jesus gave us a way to get back into fellowship with the Father through His death on the cross.
Are you that foul-mouthed athiest who needs redemption? Do you know someone who is? Please, don't delay because today could be your last day on earth and without Christ you will spend eternity in a place called Hell. With a humble heart, pray this prayer out loud:
Father God, I admit that I cannot save myself. I have sinned and am guilty. Today I accept Your Son, Jesus Christ as my savior. I submit my life to Him and I pledge to follow all of His teachings. Amen
Now tell someone about it and start reading your bible daily. find a church and grow in your faith. I am praying for you.
B
If America as a society is truly as "secular" or "godless" as it is portrayed to be, then why is a knowledge of the spiritual found in simple slang, catch phrases, and common curses?
Example: (Names have not been changed to protect the guilty)
Bill (the 19 year-old athiest) is driving down Highway 131 attempting to exit at 9th street. As he slowly merges onto the off-ramp, a man in a shiny, red sportscar speeds up next to him and promptly swerves over in front of him, and then slams on his brakes. Bill's eyes get large, his pulse quickens, his mind races. Words are beginning to come out of his mouth. What are they?
A) Go to Hell, you idiot!
B) Oh my God!
C) God Dammit!
D) All of the above, in succession.
Based on these popular phrases, one can draw a few conclusions about Bill. They are...
1) Bill has heard of a place called Hell where bad people go.
2) God exists and in some capacity can hear him.
3) God has power to do things on earth (in this case, damning someone)
Now if I have my theology correct, Bill is over three-fourths of the way to becoming a follower of Jesus. It would seem that even the most hardened athiest/agnostic/unbeliever has at least a rudimentary knowledge of God simply based on his language. As the Old Testament Proverb says, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.."
Assuming this proverb is also true, Bills heart may have an abundance of misplaced anger, but it also has a knowledge of the Father, and Jesus gave us a way to get back into fellowship with the Father through His death on the cross.
Are you that foul-mouthed athiest who needs redemption? Do you know someone who is? Please, don't delay because today could be your last day on earth and without Christ you will spend eternity in a place called Hell. With a humble heart, pray this prayer out loud:
Father God, I admit that I cannot save myself. I have sinned and am guilty. Today I accept Your Son, Jesus Christ as my savior. I submit my life to Him and I pledge to follow all of His teachings. Amen
Now tell someone about it and start reading your bible daily. find a church and grow in your faith. I am praying for you.
B
Monday, April 16, 2007
The Madman
Today I was playing with my baby daughter on the floor when a thought came shooting into my mind that was so different from my regular thoughts that it could only have been from my Father in heaven. I write it here for your benefit.
I was once like a madman. Picture him sitting on the dusty ground, wearing ripped up, worn out rags for clothing. His skin is coated with crusted and dried dirt. As you scrutinize from your vantage point about two armslengths away, you catch a fire in his eyes and notice that he seems to be stalking an unknown prey. Suddenly, he jerks and pounces! His hands rifle into the sandy dust. Fingers grasping at this thing that you cannot quite make out. Then, he slaps his hands to his lips. You move closer in time to see the madman frantically grinding the grainy dirt into his front teeth! You can even hear the squeaky rasp of the particles embedding themselves in his soft enamel. Think of the look on your face right now....
Gums bleeding, his head shakes animalistically as a look of great satisfaction creeps across his filthy face. Crimson mixed with dirt makes its way down his chin as his wild eyes meet you, the only onlooker to this neurotic scene. Then, to your horror, he begins to repeat the same process again....
This friend, was me before Christ.
Take it for what you will.
BTJ
I was once like a madman. Picture him sitting on the dusty ground, wearing ripped up, worn out rags for clothing. His skin is coated with crusted and dried dirt. As you scrutinize from your vantage point about two armslengths away, you catch a fire in his eyes and notice that he seems to be stalking an unknown prey. Suddenly, he jerks and pounces! His hands rifle into the sandy dust. Fingers grasping at this thing that you cannot quite make out. Then, he slaps his hands to his lips. You move closer in time to see the madman frantically grinding the grainy dirt into his front teeth! You can even hear the squeaky rasp of the particles embedding themselves in his soft enamel. Think of the look on your face right now....
Gums bleeding, his head shakes animalistically as a look of great satisfaction creeps across his filthy face. Crimson mixed with dirt makes its way down his chin as his wild eyes meet you, the only onlooker to this neurotic scene. Then, to your horror, he begins to repeat the same process again....
This friend, was me before Christ.
Take it for what you will.
BTJ
Monday, April 9, 2007
George McDonald Breaks it Down
I was changed by this. Its excerpted from a sermon given by George Mcdonald in June of 1882 at Brixton Congregational Church. If you read it all, I believe you too will experience something of God Himself. (Bold emphasis is mine.)
I question if there is a doubt or a sense of difficulty that prevails now that has not passed through my own mind as a thing to be encountered and understood and settled. It is natural that we should doubt, with such cries especially on all sides of us, and the intellect so much more awake than ever it was before, and indeed the conscience not more asleep than before; and with one on this side and one on that side crying out, "I have reached, I have seen, and I have found no God." Settle this with yourselves to begin with. Not all the intellect or metaphysics of the world could prove that there is no God, and not all the intellect in the world could prove that there is a God. If you could prove that there is a God, that would imply that you could go all around Him, and buttress up his being with your human argument that He should exist. As soon might a child on his mother's bosom, looking up into his mother's face, write a treatise on what a woman was and what a mother was.
But do not think that God is angry with you because you find it hard to believe. It is not so; that is not like God; God is all that you can honestly wish Him to be, and infinitely more; He is not angry with you for that. And He knows perfectly well what the scientific man calls truth--although you will observe that he is always constantly, and everywhere changing his theories--that what the scientific man calls truth is simply an impossibility with regard to God; And God knows it. Your brain, the symbol of your intellect, cannot, concerning Him, if He exists, receive that kind of proof which you have when you read a proposition of Euclid. It commends itself to your mind and your understanding. You say, "So it is, and it cannot be otherwise." But you cannot receive that kind of; there is no such proof with regard to the Mighty God. And therefore I say if you doubt the existence of the living God, He is not angry with you for that. But I am speaking of those who would fain believe if they could, I ask you, have you been trying the things not seen? Have you been proving them? This is what God puts in your hands. He says, " I tell you I Am. You act upon that; for I know that your conscience moves you to it; you act upon that and you will find whether I Am or not, and what I Am." Do you see? Faith in its true sense does not belong to the intellect alone, nor to the intellect first, but to the conscience, to the will, and that man is a faithful man who says "I cannot prove that there is a God, but, O God, if Thou hearest me anywhere, help me to do Thy will." There is faith, "Do this," and he does it. It is o, friends, that is faith; it is doing that thing which you, let me say, even only suppose to be the will of God; for if you are wrong, and do it because you think it is His will, He will set you right. It is the turning of the eye to the light; it is the sending of the feet into the path that is required, putting the hands to do the things which the conscience says ought to be done. You will notice that all this chapter from which I have taken the text is a list of people that did things. Some of them were made kings, and some of them were sawn asunder for it; but it was all for faith, and nothing but faith. There was a truth; there was a live truth; a truth that had welled through and called the knowledge of truth up in us, nay, called up in us the very possibility of feeling truth; and according to this law these men walked through all the world, and all the worlds together set themselves against them, and in the name of the original vital law of the universe-- namely, the living God--they walked right on and met their fate. Yes; victory and the participation of the Divine nature, that was their faith.
Therefore, friends, the practical thing is just this, and it is the one lesson that we have to learn, that whatever our doubts or difficulties, we must do the thing we know in order to learn the thing we do not know; but whether we learn it or not, "If ye know these things," saith the Master, "happy are ye if you do them." It is the doing that is everything, and the doing is faith and there is no division between them.
BTJ
I question if there is a doubt or a sense of difficulty that prevails now that has not passed through my own mind as a thing to be encountered and understood and settled. It is natural that we should doubt, with such cries especially on all sides of us, and the intellect so much more awake than ever it was before, and indeed the conscience not more asleep than before; and with one on this side and one on that side crying out, "I have reached, I have seen, and I have found no God." Settle this with yourselves to begin with. Not all the intellect or metaphysics of the world could prove that there is no God, and not all the intellect in the world could prove that there is a God. If you could prove that there is a God, that would imply that you could go all around Him, and buttress up his being with your human argument that He should exist. As soon might a child on his mother's bosom, looking up into his mother's face, write a treatise on what a woman was and what a mother was.
But do not think that God is angry with you because you find it hard to believe. It is not so; that is not like God; God is all that you can honestly wish Him to be, and infinitely more; He is not angry with you for that. And He knows perfectly well what the scientific man calls truth--although you will observe that he is always constantly, and everywhere changing his theories--that what the scientific man calls truth is simply an impossibility with regard to God; And God knows it. Your brain, the symbol of your intellect, cannot, concerning Him, if He exists, receive that kind of proof which you have when you read a proposition of Euclid. It commends itself to your mind and your understanding. You say, "So it is, and it cannot be otherwise." But you cannot receive that kind of; there is no such proof with regard to the Mighty God. And therefore I say if you doubt the existence of the living God, He is not angry with you for that. But I am speaking of those who would fain believe if they could, I ask you, have you been trying the things not seen? Have you been proving them? This is what God puts in your hands. He says, " I tell you I Am. You act upon that; for I know that your conscience moves you to it; you act upon that and you will find whether I Am or not, and what I Am." Do you see? Faith in its true sense does not belong to the intellect alone, nor to the intellect first, but to the conscience, to the will, and that man is a faithful man who says "I cannot prove that there is a God, but, O God, if Thou hearest me anywhere, help me to do Thy will." There is faith, "Do this," and he does it. It is o, friends, that is faith; it is doing that thing which you, let me say, even only suppose to be the will of God; for if you are wrong, and do it because you think it is His will, He will set you right. It is the turning of the eye to the light; it is the sending of the feet into the path that is required, putting the hands to do the things which the conscience says ought to be done. You will notice that all this chapter from which I have taken the text is a list of people that did things. Some of them were made kings, and some of them were sawn asunder for it; but it was all for faith, and nothing but faith. There was a truth; there was a live truth; a truth that had welled through and called the knowledge of truth up in us, nay, called up in us the very possibility of feeling truth; and according to this law these men walked through all the world, and all the worlds together set themselves against them, and in the name of the original vital law of the universe-- namely, the living God--they walked right on and met their fate. Yes; victory and the participation of the Divine nature, that was their faith.
Therefore, friends, the practical thing is just this, and it is the one lesson that we have to learn, that whatever our doubts or difficulties, we must do the thing we know in order to learn the thing we do not know; but whether we learn it or not, "If ye know these things," saith the Master, "happy are ye if you do them." It is the doing that is everything, and the doing is faith and there is no division between them.
*Edit*
This is really the tip of the iceberg for this text. I printed the whole thing (6 Pages) and have read over it several times, getting something new each time. Its really good to meditate over because there is so much good stuff there. Here is the link to the whole text...
Faith, The Proof of the Unseen, By George McDonald
BTJ
Brigette Gabriel
Did you know that Islam has declared war on the Rotary and Lions' Clubs?
How about "peaceful" muslims tying one leg of an infant child to its mother, the other leg to its father, and pulling the mom and dad apart unti the baby is split in two?
A quote:
"They started massacring the Christians, city after city. Horrific events the western media seldom reported. One of the most ghastly acts was the massacre in the Christian City of Damour where thousands of Christians were slaughtered like sheep. The Muslims would enter a bomb shelter, see a mother and a father hiding with a little baby. They would tie one leg of the baby to the mother and one leg to the father and pulled the parents apart splitting the child in half. A close friend of mine was mentally disturbed because they made her slaughter her own son in a chair. They tied her to a chair, tied a knife to her hand and holding her hand forcing her to cut her own son’s throat. They would urinate and defecate on the altars of churches using the pages of the bible as toilet paper. They did so many things I don't need to go into any more detail. You get the picture."
Brigette Gabriel was an eyewitness to this and many other atrocities. This native-Lebanese Christian has now emigrated to America and is leading the quest to inform and equip the average American citizen to win the war on terror.
Her account had me ranging from sadness to joy to rage. Please read it and disspell all doubts in your mind that peace can ever be made with terrorists.
Brigette Gabriel Interview
After you read that, please check out the American Congress for Truth, and sign their petitions against Islamic terror in the United States.
BTJ
How about "peaceful" muslims tying one leg of an infant child to its mother, the other leg to its father, and pulling the mom and dad apart unti the baby is split in two?
A quote:
"They started massacring the Christians, city after city. Horrific events the western media seldom reported. One of the most ghastly acts was the massacre in the Christian City of Damour where thousands of Christians were slaughtered like sheep. The Muslims would enter a bomb shelter, see a mother and a father hiding with a little baby. They would tie one leg of the baby to the mother and one leg to the father and pulled the parents apart splitting the child in half. A close friend of mine was mentally disturbed because they made her slaughter her own son in a chair. They tied her to a chair, tied a knife to her hand and holding her hand forcing her to cut her own son’s throat. They would urinate and defecate on the altars of churches using the pages of the bible as toilet paper. They did so many things I don't need to go into any more detail. You get the picture."
Brigette Gabriel was an eyewitness to this and many other atrocities. This native-Lebanese Christian has now emigrated to America and is leading the quest to inform and equip the average American citizen to win the war on terror.
Her account had me ranging from sadness to joy to rage. Please read it and disspell all doubts in your mind that peace can ever be made with terrorists.
Brigette Gabriel Interview
After you read that, please check out the American Congress for Truth, and sign their petitions against Islamic terror in the United States.
BTJ
A Quote
"The mind is a monkey: all you need to do is let the monkey into a forest; you do not have to tell him where the nuts are to be found. You don't even have to guide him toward the good nuts."
Lin Yutang, in "From Pagan to Christian" (World Press 1956)
Lin Yutang, in "From Pagan to Christian" (World Press 1956)
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Imagination, Dreams, and God
I am struck dumb and humbled by this quote from Christian theologian GK Chesterton in his book, "Orthodoxy".
"Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad, but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad; but creative artists very seldom...Poetry is sane because it floats easily on the infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion...The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."
I have always tried to "get the heavens into my head" and sometimes it does feel like its splitting. I was once a poet. Then I grew up......
The Icy Wind, (A Ballad of Spring)
As the icy fingers creep in through the drafty windows,
my skin tightens, the furnace strains.
Just last week I was walking in the sun, warmed and filled,
breeze caressing my skin.
Just last week I was on the trampoline, feeling my stomach lurch.
Falling and scraping my elbow.
Fluffy white covers the newly green grass.
My toes long to slide between its downy blades.
But not today.
BTJ
"Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad, but chess-players do. Mathematicians go mad; but creative artists very seldom...Poetry is sane because it floats easily on the infinite sea; reason seeks to cross the infinite sea, and so make it finite. The result is mental exhaustion...The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits."
I have always tried to "get the heavens into my head" and sometimes it does feel like its splitting. I was once a poet. Then I grew up......
The Icy Wind, (A Ballad of Spring)
As the icy fingers creep in through the drafty windows,
my skin tightens, the furnace strains.
Just last week I was walking in the sun, warmed and filled,
breeze caressing my skin.
Just last week I was on the trampoline, feeling my stomach lurch.
Falling and scraping my elbow.
Fluffy white covers the newly green grass.
My toes long to slide between its downy blades.
But not today.
BTJ
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