BLOG OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Instead of my usual routine of visiting the news sites before blogging, ostensibly so I'll have something to say, I decided on a whim to visit my blog first.

Well, at the risk of sounding self-serving (which it may be), I felt encouraged by what I blogged recently. I even edited a recent post.

Right now I'm listening to a podcast of Preterist Radio from their archive of preterist-oriented programming, particularly 17:11 (based on Acts 17:11, where the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the Scriptures).

I know it goes against the tide/grain/majority report/conventional wisdom/traditional doctrine of dispensational, premillennial, pretribulational rapture theory. But it's fun.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SOLO

Sometimes the best thing to do is just sit down at the ol' PC and listen to a good podcast or something, and just blog your brains out. Sometimes that's exactly what it looks like I did!

I believe social networking is the natural outgrowth from our need to connect with each other in a fast-growing world, where time and location are increasingly limited. In a time when such conditions threaten to isolate us completely from one another, the Internet and its attendant blessings save us (by the grace of God) from extended solitary confinement.

Blogging is a good way to overcome the complete sense of isolation one gets when one refers to oneself as "one."

But seriously, the natural thing to do when one is all alone in a world of solitary solo artists who spend much of their spare time alone is blog. I know that sounds redundant, but you get the idea.

It is a "crapshoot" (pardon the expression). Maybe someone is reading your blog. Maybe they aren't.

But you are. God, you, angels, and demons-- not a bad starter audience. I would count on God, angels and yourself as supporters. Anyone else is a benefit of perseverance.

How to end a post like this?

Solo.

RUNNING THE HUMAN RACE

Is that a catchy title or what?

It brings attention to the question which came up today in a piece on the KTAR website about the 2010 U.S. Census and its confusing queries about race and ethnicity.

I too was stumped by the separate questions, and wondered if I was both white and Hispanic-- not that there's anything wrong with that :)

Help me out here. Can we not just call ourselves part of the HUMAN RACE, and leave the question forever answered in the affirmative for all humans? I am a firm believer in this assertion, and abhor the idea that some of us are part of a different race. Let us repent of this subtle deception forever.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against recognizing ethnic origins. That's all well and good. It's in the Bible. But I feel the "race" question is already settled.

REVIVAL IS WHAT WE NEED

Just a thought: while reading (scanning) the headlines at the Arizona Republic's website, it occurred to me that all the good things that happen in the world can be attributed to God, because the Bible says:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17)

I like the way the Holman Christian Standard Bible says the first part: "Every generous act..." This is actually closer to the Greek, according to my Jay Green translation.

This gives me pause, and I wonder if God will not plant another revival seed somewhere in the world today and let us see His work in the hearts of people who desperately need Him in their lives. We will indeed see the effects of this work in our lifetime, if He chooses to do so.

May God be praised for His gracious deliverance from all evil in Jesus' Name.

CALL ME CRAZY...

Every now and then, I get the sinking feeling-- the sneaking suspicion-- that no one reads my blog.

"Call me crazy..." goes the old saying, but if anyone is reading my blog, God bless them. Perhaps a few (if any) family and friends, a sprinkling of strangers, and me. That's it. No Hugh-Hewitt-like following, that's for sure.

Well, the pity-party is over.

This is the one venue where I get to exercise my nitpicky perfectionism.

No wonder nobody reads this thing!

CLASH BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE

Today I ask you, my dear readers, what would a blog about worldview, especially a Christian one, be without a post about church persecution in our own backyard.

I hope I don't sound like I enjoy blogging about it, per se. But I enjoy it when we (the Church militant) gain a victory over oppression, albeit legally.

Witness the case in Gilbert, Arizona, as reported by FOXNews.com. I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to the Alliance Defense Fund, who is defending the Oasis of Truth church against the town of Gilbert. The whole story can be found on ADF's website.

It shows the hypocrisy and double-standard applied to Christian churches, but not to everything else that meets regularly in homes and may cause minor traffic issues.

My money is on the church, and ADF.

THE FACE OF FRAUD

If fraud had a face, it might look something like James Sikes, the California real estate agent who has a shady financial past and a dubious reputation for such things as his latest escapade: scamming Toyota.

Witness the article on him on FOXNews.com. I was mildly angered by the apparent duplicity in his account of what happened when his Toyota Prius' gas pedal supposedly got stuck at 94 mph on a San Diego freeway.

As a veteran of reading news stories and driving, and that would describe most thinking adults, I doubt the veracity of such an incredible story because the most obvious remedy was not exercised: throw the stick shift into neutral! This was suggested by someone, and his response was, "You had to be there..."

Really? We weren't there. But you were.

"Twenty-three minutes later," according to the article, he was guided by a police officer safely to a stop. I have to wonder if this is not another scam by Mr. Sikes attempting to recover from his financial losses. I don't doubt his desperation, but I have to wait and see if this really happened.

Sorry if I'm wrong. But I have to say it sounds like a scam.

MEXICO'S SAVIOR?

Let the mariachis begin!

Carlos Slim, Mexico's son and the world's richest man has emerged amid the heap of superlative wealth to claim the title which used to belong to our own Bill Gates. His first-place showing of $53.5 billion beats Gates' $53 billion second-place position.

My question is, what can he do to help fix the broken economic and political machine that is Mexico?

ITCH TO BLOG SCRATCHED

Well, intrepid blog readers, it is once again time to post an entry in my five-plus-year-old web log. What? Oh! I meant blog. Just testing you.

Blessed is the man or woman who does his or her work and finally feels the need to blog and socially mediate! It will scratch an itch, to borrow a phrase, and renew a sense of inspiration and creativity (something new under the sun) within the heart. It is a good feeling, especially when one has faith in God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ by the power and working of the Holy Spirit.

It might even engender feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction. Blessed indeed.

ON SAFARI

Out of sheer and utter boredom, or some kind of inspired mundanity, I will post a link to Safari, Apple's web browser par excellence.

When a web browser outperforms your expectations, generally speaking, you want to recommend it to the world. That's what blogs are for.

Yet, for some odd reason, while I was composing this post and simultaneously downloading the latest versions of Safari and iTunes/QuickTime together (you know how Apple does it), my Safari browser crashed and/or closed itself before I could finish this post. How rude!

[I found out later that Windows shut down Safari due to an executable file which turned out to be harmless as far as I can tell.]

Well, not to be denied, I had to restart my download and resume posting. Fun, fun, fun...

It looks like my progress meter is showing that Safari is done downloading and iTunes/QT is in progress. Sometimes--somehow--technology and the great minds behind it redeem themselves quite admirably. Or it could be that I'm in an unusually good mood today. A combination of both is my humble assessment. Nevertheless, I credit the Holy Spirit with this one for sure.

It is a slow download, but I am in the mood to wait and learn in the meantime of other things online.

May the God of the Bible grant you deliverance from any heaviness and worry resulting from this economic nightmare we are living under. I pray for His peace and comfort in you today in His Son Jesus Christ's name, amen.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

How did 2000 years of Biblical tradition, knowledge, and scholarship get it wrong?

I must ask this question immediately after coming to grips with a view of Scripture I have never held before, namely, preterist.

I am currently investigating for myself the claims of such learned men as Don Preston, William Bell, and others on this view. It is worth looking into.

More to come...

ANOTHER FAVORITE

Q. When does a website become a favorite?

A. When one spends precious many minutes listening to podcast after short, sweet, hard-to-beat podcast, a broadcaster is sure to have entered the inner sanctum of the human heart and won some measure of closely-held confidence.

Quiz over. You win.

LewRockwell.com is the latest addition to my "Favorites" list of web sites on this blog. I woke up early today and found a new podcaster that piques my interest in things socio-political, economic, and/or religious (Biblical). "The Best-Read Libertarian Website in the World," is not your average website of this sort. Check it out.

My last favorite entry was AD70.net, which you may find in a previous post.

PRETERIST PERSUASION

The nice thing about blogging is you can post something you believe in, even if it's brand new to you (and perhaps your readers). In this case, it's preterism. AD70.net is the site for Preterist Radio Podcasts, which I have just recently begun listening to. A.D. 70 is the year Jerusalem was destroyed after a three-and-a-half year war with the Roman army.

It was such an unprecedented kind of destruction and suffering inflicted on anyone at any time on such a large scale, that the Roman army consigned one of their captives, a Jewish general named Yosef Ben Matityahu (later Titus Flavius Josephus, to chronicle the awful situation. So we have The Jewish War as a record of the "end of the world."(Matthew 28:20)

The Greek word translated "world" in the KJV is actually aion or "age." Other translations, such as the NIV, translate it that way. This is why it is good to consult other Bible versions and the original languages.

ISLAM IS HERE

Just as a public service, by way of blogging, I would like to post the following link as a so-called Religion of Peace Update:

STUDENT KILLS PROF

I will give you three guesses as to the student's religious affiliation. No, he is not a Christian, conservative, or Republican. But he did carry out the demands of his "faith."

Welcome to the New Crusades.

LAMENTATION

It's hard to know what to post and what not to post in a blog. Supposedly, the eyes of the world and Satan are watching my every word--waiting for me to get tripped up in self-indulgent bloggery as I verbally dig my own hole and avoid godly correction. Or so I think.

I am in the Book of Lamentations in the Bible. I feel I am living in the same scenario as that painted by the prophet Jeremiah. Flapping in the breeze, hung out to dry in the sun, devoid of life-giving water, I cling to the remnant of my once-vibrant faith in God and struggle daily to maintain some semblance of godly living--whatever that looks like.

Perhaps the LORD will have mercy on me, unmerited though it is. Totally undeserved favor is what I crave most. Repentance is the call of the day. "Ichabod!" No glory.

Knowing Jesus will not leave me nor forsake me, I press on. Limp, halt, crippled by sin, I walk--no, crawl--to the cross. Calvary is my only hope, forgiveness is my prayer. Presumption and pride are my sins. God's grace is my only shelter.

Jesus, Savior, pilot me
over life's tempestuous sea;
unknown waves before me roll,
hiding rock and treacherous shoal.
Chart and compass come from thee;
Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

Hope truly comes from Jesus. Listen.

IE KUDOS

This has nothing to do with worldview, politics, religion, or anything else--but browsers! Namely, Internet Explorer and its wonderful ability to import favorites from Firefox and put them in their respective folders automatically.

I generally refrain from using IE simply because it's a pain to use, and slow. But for online classes through my community college, IE is required for optimal performance. Or so they say.

In any event, I found IE to be deficient in its selection of favorites which I've created. So I simply clicked on the File menu, chose Import and Export, and clicked which browser's favorites I wanted to import to IE. Done.

Within mere seconds, IE imported all (I suppose) of my favorites from Firefox. Having all of my stored favorites is a great comfort. It takes a very long time to save sites for future reference, as you well know.

Well, I won't bore my readers with further kudos to IE-- at not least until I find another feature which saves the day (and my sanity).

ITALY, AMERICA UNITE!

I read an article today by the American Vision organization and thought I would post it here. It is a description of the situation going on in Italy where a European court has struck down the right to display crucifixes publicly. It is a direct attack on the religious liberties which the Italian people must protect. The article reads in part:

"The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg declared the public display of crucifixes in schools in Italy illegal. This was in response to a complaint filed by a Finnish-born mother who sued the schools for displaying the crucifixes. Crucifixes in the classrooms of public schools in Italy are mandatory by law, and that law is approved by the majority of the population, whether they believe in Christ or not. But the Court in Strasbourg decided against the democratic opinion of the Italian people and declared the law illegal."

The article goes on to talk about the deficiency in American Christianity to wage the same battles it won in eras past (American Revolutionary War, abolition of slavery, civil rights, etc.), and how we must be revived by the Spirit of God--the same spirit which raised Jesus from the dead and quickened our spirits to be born again.

"If the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He Who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11)

Revival breeds reformation, and Heaven knows we badly need it in this country. The Christians around the world who are suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ know too well the real battle that is out there. We have been spoiled by our prosperity and affluence (indeed blessed), only to compromise the gospel for social and political expediency. May God deliver His people from complacency and raise up a standard in the land for the cause of Christ.

In Jesus' Name.

VETERAN'S DAY

It is inspiring to see the military pull together in the face and wake of Islamic terrorism in its ranks. I have no doubt this psychiatrist needs to be exorcised as well as treated for his well-deserved wounds. May God grant him the grace to wake up and realize how good those brothers- and sisters-in-arms were whom he killed in cold blood and in the name of a false god.

May God have mercy on this country for allowing such enemies of the gospel, and of our nation, to attain such positions of authority and trust, only to betray their true identity and intentions.

May God bless the men and women of our military, keepers of the freedom we all need and cherish.

CALLING ALL ARMINIANS: READ THE WHOLE BIBLE!!!

In scouring YouTube for James White videos yesterday, I came across an alarming headline in the Related Videos frame: "Calling All Calvinists: A Call to Repentance." If that's not a provocative statement, I don't know what is.

Over the course of yesterday and today, I have watched all four videos in the series. Wow! How can such a talented and beautiful Christian sister be so hateful and wrong about so many things in one--let alone four--videos? She snarls, hisses, and spits her vitriol continually throughout the series at the name and adherents of "Calvinism." I put that in quotes because she has so grossly misrepresented it that I cannot equate true Calvinism with her sick caricature of it.

Her persistent, out-of-context misapplication of Scripture is indeed breath-taking. I took the time to watch and see if she could convince me of how sinful and deceived I was, but she failed. Miserably.

The one question I have is this: why is she condemning and judging John Calvin and those who dare to agree with him on many things about God, while calling "Calvinists" to stop judging and condemning? Gosh, sounds kinda hypocritical to me.

Thank God there are many sound, Biblical responses to Monica Dennington's viscious attacks on us Christians--oops, I meant Calvinists. Many of them reside in Google's search results.

Here is one of the best. This is what real Calvinism looks like!

CLARIFICATION

It seems that a common misconception of Calvinism is the belief that, for example, Abraham would never have left Ur of the Chaldees had he been a Calvinist. After all, they claim, Calvinists don't do: they just pray.

I take great offense when someone slanders me, be it ever so slightly--especially when they use Calvinism as their justification. Do I do that to them? I notice "free will" believers go out of their way to attack Calvinism. Do I do that with "free will" people? No. I defend, to the best of my ability, what I believe to be sound doctrine from the Bible, based on what I've learned over the years from reputable Bible teachers who are known for their warm, evangelistic tone and knowledge of Scripture.

Do the names RC Sproul, John MacArthur, Sinclair Ferguson, John Piper, James White, and Charles Spurgeon ring a bell with anyone? None is infallible as a pastor, teacher, and preacher. But all are excellent in rightly dividing the Word of God.

Nine times out of ten, I agree with free willers! But they must have their fun and slander Calvin. They're wrong, but that doesn't matter to them. I'm a sinner like them. I know I must endure the growth process of sanctification as they must. It is indeed a blessing to be called a child of God.

When we decided to follow Christ, it was by the grace of God alone. Our wills were remade, reborn by the Spirit of God and His Word (Scripture and Jesus). Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

I only defend Calvinism because it gives God all the credit and glory for our salvation, and because I think it is very arrogant to believe that I know better than him or any other Bible scholar what the Bible teaches. He and many others have proven themselves to have a better, bird's eye view of things in Scripture. Nothing wrong with that, right?

I wish free willers could see that I agree with them 99% of the time, except when they slander Calvin (and me) with misconceptions of Scripture that neither of us believes!