While I am not sure what factors have facilitated this almost universal aspect of our psyche, I would say they are in large part materialism, poorly chosen priorities, improperly bolstered self esteem, and other features of low character. These things, and others like them, drive our desire to be connected with certain brands, activities, and even the communities we choose to associated with.

The forms in which we present our advertisements are almost as numerous as the brands themselves. We wear t-shirts, hats, and all manner of clothing (down to our underwear) that are chosen not only for the unique brands and ideology they present to our observers, but even for the specific brand of clothing we are willing to be “caught dead in”. It has become important to us that those around us know that we prefer Pepsi over Coke, that we listen to NPR, that we are inspired by Che Guevara (without knowing what he did or his impetus for doing it), and that we think marijuana use should be legal.

I would suggest as a follower of Christ that we should strive to obliterate this idolatry from our lives. I would further suggest that eliminating idolatry (of this variety as well as all others) will be the result of a more robust dedication to obedience to The Great Commandment (Matthew 22:35-40), and an equally robust pursuit of The Great Commision (Matthew 28:18-20). As we focus on loving God with every aspect of who we are, we will begin to supplant our desire not only to be concerned with what others think of us, but also with what we think of ourselves. Likewise, if we focus on going, baptizing, making, and teaching we will be less inclined to be concerned about what we look like when doing it, as well as when, where, and with who we are seen doing it.

1. Ruger 10/22 TD — I want to get back into reloading as soon as possible, but I also want to get my hands on a good rifle for a “zombie appocalypse” situation, and to teach my kids (and myself) how to shoot a rifle…for cheap.
2. H&R Buffalo Classic — I have considered a lot of options for my first big boy gun, and after doing my research, and with help from my friend r1kk1 on the AmmoSmith forum, I have decided on the 45-70. This gun is affordable, and good looking.
3. Glock — I will use this for everyday carry…in my house and garage. There is no CCW in the horrible state of Illinoguns.
4. EAA Bounty Hunter — My wife wants a “shiny cowboy gun” that shoots 22 LR.
5. Ruger Vaquero — I want a “shiny cowboy gun” that shoots 45 Colt.
6. Ruger SP 101 — For CCW in every other state in the Union but mine.
7. I would like a shotgun for clays and/or hunting, but I have not decided on a particular model. I would love to have a Browning “Sweet Sixteen”, but my Father-In-Law has one and I am hoping he remembers me, uh, I mean his daughter, in his will. A nice over/under scatter gun would be nice as well, but a nice over/under will cost more than I am willing to spend.
8. I would like a bolt action in one of the 22 caliber chambering for varmint hunting. I have not picked a specific round or model, but it will be one of the rifles manufactured by Savage Arms.
9. I would like a big bore single action revelover such as the Ruger Super Blackhawk or single shot handgun such as the Thompson/Center for hunting.
10. I would like a “black gun” for home defense and fun. Again, I do not have a specific model in mind, or even a make, but there are LOTS of choices. Ruger (my favorite firearm manufacturer, as you can tell) makes a black gun, the Ruger SR 556, but I am not crazy about it. Smith & Wesson also has a line of ARs, but there are also several makers that specialize in these weapon systems such as DPMS. Possibly I will build my own.
11. I would like to own a black powder muzzle loader just for fun, and to learn more about firearm history. I have not researched this category of firearm yet, but a quick Google search yields many options including Veteran Arms, LLC.

My family recently returned from vacation in Florida. On our way through Tennessee we stopped at The Outpost Armory to stretch our legs and look around. I could have spent a lot longer browsing and buying, but we still had a lot of road to drive. I did pick up a Ruger branded “Ultra Pepper Spray System” (in pink) for my wife. I have been wanting to get spray for her for a long time, but I could not pass this one up. In addition to pepper spray rated at 2,000,000 Scoville heat units it has a 125 decibel alarm, a strobe light, and a belt clip. Now I just have to get her to enroll in a self defense corse.

I recently decided to start posting to my blog again on a regular basis. I thought it would be nice to have these posts cross-posted to my Twitter and Facebook accounts to give me more time reading and writing and less time messing with posting everything three times. The solution I chose is FatPanda’s SharePress. The advantage of using SharePress rather than a free alternative (there is a free version of SharePress too) is the great step by step instructions, and the great support of the developer, Aaron Collegeman.

I purchased a subscription to a new firearms “lifestyle” magazine entitled, RECOIL. I saw the periodical for the first time a couple days ago, and bought the third issue at Barnes & Noble. At first I thought it might be to firearms enthusiasts what Cigar Aficianado is to cigar lovers. Namely, a magazine not about what it claims to be about. While there certainly is some of that (like a $1,000 watch), I was pleased with the content enough that I was interested in reading the first two issues, but not enough to pay $8.99 per issue! I bought the first two issues AND subscribed to 14 months of upcoming issues for about $25 (I will get 14 instead of 12 issues because I shared my info with RECOIL). You do the math.

Treating severe chronic pain can be a huge irritation for a number of reasons, and I’m hoping to address one of those irritations here. Namely, finding a Fentanyl patch that actually sticks to your skin!

In addition I have met several of the reps from various cigar manufacturers, and even a couple cigar makers themselves, including José Oliva of Oliva Cigars and Sam Lecia, the creator of the Nub and Cain lines of cigars.

I regularly smoke cigars with a former Illinois state representative, a man that played backup banjo for Dolly Parton, a retired United States Army Reserve General, various lawyers, doctors, soldiers and ministers, and even a “mercenary” that regularly works for the United States Government in the Middle East. There are lots more, but that is a good sample. Moral of the story? Find a lounge, buy a cigar (locally if you can), enjoy.

For instance, in addition to my adress book, my iPhone stores my browsing history (including online banking), access to over 13,000 email messages, my Twitter, Facebook and IM accounts, personal photos, over 1.5gb of data on Dropbox, several personal documents, access to my source code repository and well, you get the idea. If all of that is not enough, a would-be iPhone snatcher could concievablly gain access to my MacBook Pro using the VNC client I installed on my iPhone!

However, unlike the victims of purse snatchers, you can do something to protect what is inside your iPhone. If you touch the System icon on your iPhone's Home Screen, then choose General and Passcode Lock, you can create a four digit numeric passcode which must be entered by anyone attempting to access your iPhone. For even more protection you can have the iPhone wipe itself clean if anyone enters the wrong passcode ten times in a row (be sure you keep current backups if you use this option). If the thought of entering a passcode every time you use your iPhone is less than appealing you can choose to lock the phone only after it has been off for several minutes or even hours.

This is not government level security by any stretch of the imagination. Personally I would prefer a five or seven digit code and the ability to erase the data long before ten failed attempts, but it is still much better than leaving all my data unprotected (there is a way to make security even tighter using profiles, but it an advanced topic). Also, it is built-in, it is free and let us face it, it is more than enough for most of us. Protect yourself, protect your iPhone, protect your data!

“And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS , AND LORD OF LORDS.” Rev. 19:16 KJV

The only time when there was no King or Queen in Britain was when the country was a republic between 1649 and 1660. In 1649 King Charles I was executed and Britain became a Republic for eleven years. The monarchy was restored in 1660. So it was a challenge for us as a new nation to create a new system of government.

When our country revolted and broke away from Britain the question was what form of government would we create. Much debate ensued. Several plans were suggested. In fact Alexander Hamilton suggested a system much like Britain’s system which would have a lower house and upper house as well as an executive whose title would be Governor and whose term would be for life! Of course it was decided that our government would have three branches. One of those branches would be the executive branch, but the question arose as to what title would be chosen to describe the executive. Should we call him King, Governor, or President?

The important factor that we need to remember this advent season is that regardless of what title the leader of any nation my have that individual will bow before the KING OF KINGS one day. Scripture says:

“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow , every tongue shall swear” Isa 45:22-23 KJV

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white, declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and Heav’n be one.

This is my Father’s world, dreaming, I see His face.
I ope my eyes, and in glad surprise cry, “The Lord is in this place.”
This is my Father’s world, from the shining courts above,
The Beloved One, His Only Son,
Came—a pledge of deathless love.

This is my Father’s world, should my heart be ever sad?
The lord is King—let the heavens ring. God reigns—let the earth be glad.
This is my Father’s world. Now closer to Heaven bound,
For dear to God is the earth Christ trod.
No place but is holy ground.

This is my Father’s world. I walk a desert lone.
In a bush ablaze to my wondering gaze God makes His glory known.
This is my Father’s world, a wanderer I may roam
Whate’er my lot, it matters not,
My heart is still at home.

“A worldview is a set of presuppositions (assumptions which may be true, partially true or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of our world.” — James Sire, The Universe Next Door

Various philosophers have used different categories to help “define” particular worldviews, but they can all be represented by the following list: God/Prime Reality, Cosmos, Humans, Knowledge/Revelation, Ethics, Death, and History. How well does your worldview stand up against possible alternatives using the criteria below?

How well does the worldview relate to itself?
Consistency – It does not violate the law of non-contradiction.
Coherence – Do its parts fit together; do separate statements support one another? (For instance the following statements are true [grass is green; 2 + 2 = 4, Springfield is the Capital City of Illinois] however they do not support one another in any way and therefore taken holistically they are not coherent)

How well does the worldview explain the world?
Comprehensiveness – Does it cover all the bases?
Congruence – Does it fit with reality; does it fit the data?

How well does the worldview explain humanity?
Compensation – Does it provide a sense of satisfaction; is the worldview livable?

Is the worldview the best alternative?
Comparability – Does it do the best job of answering all the questions?

Here is a list (not exhaustive) of how specific worldviews answer the questions of God, Cosmos, Humans etc. This list begins with my own worldview, but is not a statement of which worldview is correct, but rather is provided simply to show how each worldview answers the categories given above. Keep in mind that most people won’t fit neatly into one worldview as delineated here.

Christian Theism
God/Prime Reality:
Creator, Infinite, Personal, Triune, Rational
Transcendent And Immanent
Sovereign And Good

Cosmos:
Created Ex Nihilo
Operates With A Uniformity Of Cause And Effect
Open System (Miracles Possible Through God’s Immanence)
Fallen World

Humans:
Created In The Image Of God
Possess Self-Transcendence, Rationality, Personality, Morality, Creativity, Sociability
Originally Good, Now Fallen But Capable Of Redemption

Knowledge/Revelation:
Can Have Adequate Knowledge Of The World And God
Available Through General And Special Revelation

Ethics:
Transcendent
Based On the Character Of God As Good (Holy And Loving)
Some Ethical Principles Are Universal (Not Relative)
Given By General And/Or Special Revelation

Death:
Gateway To Eternity With Or Eternity Separated From God
Outcome Determined By Relationship With Christ
Individuality Retained

History:
Linear
Meaningful
Leading To the Fulfillment Of God’s Purposes
Guided By God’s Providence And Miraculous Intervention

Deism
God/Prime Reality:
Creator
Transcendent Not Immanent
Not Fully Personal

Cosmos:
Created
Operates With A Uniformity Of Cause And Effect
Closed System (Miracles Not Possible/Actual Because God Lacks Immanence)
Not Fallen

Humans:
Personal
Part Of The Clockwork Universe
Capacity For Morality Is “Built In”
Not Currently Dependent Upon God’s Involvement

Knowledge/Revelation:
Cosmos Is Knowable Via Human Reason
God Is Knowable Only Through Natural Revelation

Ethics:
Moral Principles Based On God’s Transcendent Nature
Knowable Only Through Natural Revelation
What “Is” Must Be “Right”

Death:
Possibly Devine Judgment With Rewards And Punishment Based On Merit
Possibly Death As The End Of Personal Existence

History:
Linear
Determined At Creation
God Does Not Act In History

Optimistic Naturalism (Secular Humanism)
God/Prime Reality:
Eternal Or Self-Generated Matter
No God

Cosmos:
Uncreated
Operates With A Uniformity Of Cause And Effect
Closed System (Miracles Not Possible Because There Is No God)
Everything Is Within The “Box” Of The Universe

Humans:
“Fee Yet “Complex Machines”
Personality Not Yet Understandable
Appears To Be Nothing More Than The Interaction Of Physical And Chemical Properties

Knowledge/Revelation:
Possible To Discover
Important To Effect Progress
Not Divinely Revealed

Ethics:
Created By Human Consensus
Autonomous (Not Dependent On Any God)
Situational

Death:
Extinction Of Consciousness, Personality, And Individuality

History:
Linear Stream Of Events Linked By Cause And Effect
No Overarching Purpose

Pessimistic Naturalism (Nihilism)
God/Prime Reality:
No God
A Cosmos That Appears Not To Care, To Value Goodness, Or To Be Rational
Absurd

Cosmos:
Operates Either From Necessity Or Chance
No Inherent Value Or Meaning
Provides No Answers
Absurd

Humans:
No Value, Meaning Or Self
Freedom And Consciousness Undermined

Knowledge/Revelation:
No Foundation For Knowledge
No Reason To Think The Brain As Pure Matter Would Give “Truth”
Truth And Illusion Indistinguishable

Ethics:
No Basis For Moral Values
Values Relative
Cannot Produce “Oughts” From What “Is” The Case

Death:
Extinction Of Consciousness, Personality, And Individuality
Final Absurdity

History:
No Direction Or Purpose
Individual And World History Are Meaningless

Atheistic Existentialism
God/Prime Reality:
Two Disunited Forms Objective (Matter) And Subjective (My Experience Of Freedom)

Cosmos:
Consists Of Objective “Essences” Which Are Governed By Nature’s Law And Logic
Absurd

Humans:
Existence Precedes Essence (For Humans Alone)
Man Free To Define Himself
Alienated From The World

Knowledge/Revelation:
Objective Knowable By Logic And Science
Self Removed From Analysis

Ethics:
Humans Must “Revolt” Against Absurdity And Create Value
Good Actions Are Those That Are Consciously And Freely Chosen

Death:
Undeniable Absurdity
Face It Boldly As The Final Exercise Of Revolt

History:
World History Is Meaningless
Temporary Individual Meaning May Arise Through Choices And Personal Encounters

Theistic Existentialism
God/Prime Reality:
God Is Personal, Transcendent, Immanent And Good
Accepted Without Proof Through A Leap Of Faith

Cosmos:
Paradoxical
Gives No Meaning
Offers No Evidence For God

Humans:
The “Personal” I-Thou Is Valuable
Finite
Fallen
Not Satisfied Apart From Surrender To God

Knowledge/Revelation:
Often Paradoxical
God Believed Without Reason Or Proof
Revelation Is Personal Encounter Not Revealed Propositions Or Doctrines

Ethics:
Understood Primarily In “Personal” Terms
Emphasis On Personal Relationship Not Moral Values

Death:
Personal Encounter With God Can Prompt Hope Over The Absurdity Of Death
Literal Continued Life Uncertain

History:
Uncertain And Unimportant
Can Provide A Model To Live By

Eastern Pantheistic Monism
God/Prime Reality:
All Reality Is “Divine Oneness” (Brahman)
This “God” Supersedes All Rational/Moral Distinctions

Cosmos:
Cosmos Is One
Not Perceived As It Is, It Is Thus Maya (Illusion)

Humans:
Real Self Is Not Psycho-physical Self (Jiva)
Real Self Is A Passive Observer (Atman) That Is One With Brahman
Atman is Brahman

Knowledge/Revelation:
Transcends Logic, Language, Physical Senses
A Direct Experienced Knowledge Of One’s Oneness With The Universe

Ethics:
Distinction Between Good And Evil Abandoned Due To Oneness Of Reality

Death:
Cycle Of Rebirth (Samsara) That Is Only Stopped When Oneness Is Achieved
Future Life Determined By Karma

History:
Individual And Cosmic History Are Cyclical
Time Is Unreal As One Passes Beyond It In The Experience Of The One

New Age
God/Prime Reality:
Self Linked To A Permeating Force Throughout The Universe
No Transcendent God, Only The Good Within

Cosmos:
Visible (Accessible By Normal Consciousness)
Invisible (Accessible By Altered Consciousness)

Humans:
Individual More Important
Atman Is Brahman
Growing Cosmic Consciousness Leads To Superior Human Race

Knowledge/Revelation:
Experiencing True Reality In Its Unity Is The Goal
Accomplished Through Altered States Of Consciousness
Assisted By Meditation, Mantras, Mediums, Etc.

Ethics:
Good Is Whatever Facilitates A Cosmic Consciousness Of Oneness
Often Involves Ecological And Human Sensitivity
Everything Part Of Mother Earth

Death:
Not The End Of Self
What Lies Beyond Unclear
Many Opt For Repeated Reincarnations

History:
Cosmos And Man Have Entered A New Age
Some Stress A One-World Government And Coming One-World Leader

This post is compiled from notes taken during a course at Lincoln Christian University taught by Dr. Richard Knopp.

I have known many dispensationalists in my life, and grew up as one myself. However, when I began studying the Word on my own several years ago I started to feel that something was not quite right. I will not use this post as a polemic against dispensationalism because I think the Bible itself and a close study of the history of dispensationalism (such as these DVD’s) can do that much better than I. I did find that a few points and quotations really struck home with me.

It is hard to find words to describe people that do crap like this (read the article)…ignorant, bored, misguided, criminal…I cannot find just one word to sum it all up…maybe fool?

The great people at Logos Bible Software have decided to put out their own bi-monthly publication called Bible Study Magazine. I learned about the new magazine one month after its inaugural issue, but I quickly ordered the Nov/Dec 2008 issue after reading the Jan/Feb 2009 issue!

“In every 48-page issue, you’ll get sound advice and enriching insights from pastors and scholars who have spent a lifetime applying the Bible to their lives and teaching others how to do the same. Read pastor profiles, author interviews, and stories of individuals whose engagement with Scripture has shaped their thinking and defined their ministries. Bible Study Magazine reveals the impact of God’s Word on their lives and the power of Scripture in yours. — Bible Study Magazine Website”

There are also word studies, explanations and instructions for using various Bible study tools, in depth discussions of difficult passages, and instructions for using Logos Bible Software to do Bible study. Right now you can subscribe at the introductory price of $14.95, and they even have bulk prices if you want to order several copies for your church.

“First Peter 3:15 says, ‘Be ready always to give an answer for the hope you have received,’ which simply means, if someone asks you why are you a Christian, why you believe in Jesus, why you believe the Bible, you should be ready to give an intelligent answer for it.” — Josh McDowell, Bible Study Magazine, Nov/Dec 2008

“Check out the context of the passage–what come before it, what comes after it on the page; it’s so important. I find when I read through the Bible, book by book, the Holy Spirit begins to cross-reference the Word of God for me, bringing other Scriptures to mind, and then Scripture becomes the interpreter for Scripture.” — Kay Arthur, Bible Study Magazine, Jan/Feb 2009

“I think before you study the Scriptures, you’ve got to examine yourself. You’ve got to look for any sin in your life, and spend time in prayer–being humble enough to recieve the truth even if you disagree with it. You’ve got to ask the Holy Spirit, since He inspired the Scriptures.” — Mark Driscoll,  Bible Study Magazine, Mar/Apr 2009

1. We pray because God commands us to pray — 1 Thessalonians 5:17
2. We pray because it provides a means of communication to the creator. Jesus Christ used this means to communicate with his Father, and even provided us with a template to follow when we approach Him in prayer — Matthew 6:9-13
3. Prayer is not designed to change God. Prayer should change us — James 1:5-6
4. The focus of prayer should be on bringing glory to God — Matthew 6:33

Of course I will have to deal with a little bit of Lutheran indoctrination and young earth creationism, but I would rather deal with that than King and King: a book about two princes that fall in love. We obviously considered sending the boys to public school, but when Anthony Martin shared the link with me that mentions a failed lawsuit concerning the book (being read to second graders) it reminded me of one of the reasons I want to keep my boys out of the mainstream education system.

Ten years ago the price of a barrel of crude oil was only $10. Now, it’s about $140 per barrel–a new high. Gasoline prices are soaring and affecting missions and relief work around the world.

“The first to feel the skyrocketing prices are workers on the [mission] field,” says Bruce Smith of Wycliffe Associates. “As prices go up, typically their support does not…”

Relief agencies are feeling it, too.

“We’re finding the price of food is going up due to transportation costs and production costs,” says Gary Zander of Food For the Hungry.” When those two things are put together, the amount of money you had available for food is strained even more. There’s just less available.”

It’s impacting every area of ministry for the Slavic Gospel Association, says Eric Mock, vice president of ministry operations for the organization.

“It has caused the operation costs of the seminaries and Bible institutes we support to go up,” he says. “It’s reduced [our support for] church planters. They cannot travel to remote villages where often they’re planting two, three or four churches.”

How about some perspective on political discord? We have all been hearing about the “election” in Zimbabwe, but how does it affect missions?

“Groups of youth were roaming the streets,” (following the vote) said Charles Debter with Global Aid Network (GAiN USA), who has a minsitry partner in Zimbabwe. “If a person was stopped by them and couldn’t recite a particular political slogan or sing a political song, they may be put in jail.

“There have been ministry volunteers who have been jailed because they were not able to recite those slogans…”

The work of Operation Mobilization (OM) in Zimbabwe was also affected when it had to close a day-care center as well as its mobile clinic. Food aid, which millions of people depend on, has stopped.

Obviously, just because someone else has bigger problems than our own does not mean they are not important to us as well, but it is critical as American Christians that we understand the gifts we have been given, and what is expected of us because of that (See Philippians 4 et al).

In case you decide to open the coffers a little wider I am providing a list of all the agencies mentioned in the article:

• Wycliffe Associates
• Food For The Hungry
• Slavic Gospel Association
• Global Aid Network
• Mission Network News

For further reading:

• High fuel prices affecting ministry abroad
• High fuel prices impact relief efforts abroad
• Soaring fuel prices are affecting missionaries
• High fuel costs will hurt short-term missions
• Cost of fuel, food prices and the dollar hurt summer camp ministry
• New tools boost missional opportunities amidst soaring fuel costs
• Fuel costs have an interesting impact on ministry in Ghana
• Fuel crisis marks points of impact around the world

Mission Network News has made many resources (many free) available. Be sure to check out their website to see if there is anything that might be helpful to you or your ministry.

Atheist Argument: “There are things we do for the welfare of mankind and this makes them right and wrong.”
Theist Response: “But without and objective source, and given the matter/energy makeup of the universe, there cannot be ‘welfare’ or ‘right and wrong’. After all, if it would have been more advantageous to the human race for Hitler to win would it have been ‘right’? etc. ad infinitum”
Atheist Response To Theist Response: “There are things we do for the welfare of mankind and this makes them right and wrong.”

In other words the atheist response is no response. If I could get something like, “The universe is meaningless as are our lives, but we create ‘meaning’ out of nothing as a safety net for our psyche much the same way that Christians do by belief in God.” At least at this point we would be getting somewhere. Then we could begin to explore the psyche etc. and try to answer the questions that arise from that point. As it is we just keep going in circles.

At this point I am often confronted with questions about the veracity of the Bible and other particulars of the Christian faith (which I am happy to discuss), but before these matters can be discussed in a meaningful way it is necessary for the atheist to step up and live the intellectually honest lives they claim to live.

When the atheist is willing to admit the utter meaninglessness of the universe and of their lives with the resultant removal of objectively based moral values the discussion can move on. After all, it is possible to be an atheist while at the same time accepting the fact that life without a Creator is meaningless, and all that remains is experience. Of course this ultimtely leads to Nihilism and nobody wants that. So, “There are things we do for the welfare of mankind and this makes them right and wrong.”

As a rule I do not purchase Cuban cigars as it is illegal to do so, and to many “aficionados” that makes me (and all other NC smokers) nothing more than “drugstore” cigar smokers. Of course I disagree with that assessment as will anyone with half a pallet that has tasted a Swisher Sweet and any one of the many great domestic cigars. Still, if you want to find the “best” domestic cigars there are some rules that will help you find them.

1. Ignore Price–there are some really good domestic sticks out there for $5 and under. There are also some really nasty sticks out there for over $5!
2. Ignore Half-Naked Women–sex sells, but not good cigars.
3. Ignore “Cuban” Nomenclature–many domestic cigars are “rolled in the fine Cuban tradition” or have a distinct “Cuban” flavor. I am not saying some of the cigars marketed using this strategy are not good, but it is not because of anything “Cuban” about the cigar.
4. Ignore Ostentatious Packaging–sure those fancy boxes and bands are attractive, but they have no correlation to the quality of the cigar.
5. Ignore Most Cigars With Stolen Cuban Names–when America placed an embargo against Cuba many of the names used for Cuban cigars were stolen and placed on domestic cigars. As a general rule these cigars are manufactured by large companies pumping out tons of cigars that are just a notch above those drugstore smokes mentioned earlier. That is not to say you will not find a few good ones, but if you stick with boutique or family owned shops you will find better smokes.

The following is taken from the August 2008 issue of America’s 1st Freedom, and it is not particularly shocking. Actually, it is something that everyone willing to look at the situation honestly has seen coming for some time. It is so stupid that it is almost embarrassing to read.

 

 

 

 

As criminal use of firearms continues to rise in Britain despite the gun ban there, criminals with knives are also causing major problems for law-abiding British citizens.

In what a Christian Science Monitor report called a “growing knife-crime culture,” [Does that sound familiar?] British authorities are finding themselves in a losing battle to stop young people from carrying knives.

Along with stop-and-search operations on the street, the government is instituting a $6 million ad campaign to warn youths about the dangers of carrying a knife. [Yes, $6 million!]

According to the report, Britain sees 200 to 250 stabbing murders a year, a number that has some pushing for less-lethal knives.

Dr. Mike Beckett is pushing to do away with tips on all kitchen knives in Britain.

“What people want in a kitchen knife is the edge,” he told the BBC. “The point on the end of the knife actually serves little culinary purpose, but it is the point that kills people.”

This month, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proposed an unprecedented city ban on drugstores selling tobacco products, including cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco. “This will be the beginning of a national movement,” Newson predicts…

Others are on the same track. Bills are pending in New Hampshire, Illinois and Tennessee to bar pharmacies with walk-in clinics from selling tobacco, and a bill in New York would apply to all pharmacies, including those in big stores such as Wal-Mart. “Pharmacies are places we go to get healthy,” says Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, author of the New York proposal. “It just seems inappropriate that on the other hand, they sell something that kills.”

Thank you for your insight Mr. Hoyt, but America is where people go to be free. It just seems inappropriate that on the other hand, you should take that freedom away.

“But if a robust Christian faith could handle non-Christian learning without compromising, it was all too easy for Greek and Roman thought forms to creep into the cracks and chinks of a faith which was less and less founded on the Bible and more and more resting on the authority of church pronouncements.” — Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?

Schaeffer is speaking here about the changes taking place during the Middle Ages in which human reason began to be as important to the church as revelation. You can trace much of the destructive influence of this situation by doing even a cursory study on the history of the Catholic church. However, note the first sentence. The inference is that if we approach human reason (philosophy, science, etc.) while standing on the firm foundation of what Schaeffer calls a “robust” Christian faith we gain something. This begs the question , “What does a robust Christian faith look like?” (It also begs the question, “What is non-Christian learning?”, but we will defer that to another time.)

Paul gives us pictures of this robust faith throughout the New Testament. The robust faith is one in which the glory of God is the ultimate goal. The robust faith is concerned not with blind obedience to a set of rules (can you say Pharisee?), but with a transformation of the self as Paul speaks of in Romans, and again, this transformation is not for our ultimate good, but for the glory of God.

Indeed, if we take Paul’s example it could be said that the robust faith must embrace non-Christian learning in order to follow the directive that we are to always be “ready to give a defense”. Of course, by embrace we do not necessarily mean agreement. Paul was familiar with the non-Christian philosophy of the first century, and it could be argued that it is even more critical for the Christian apologist (that is all of us right?) today to have a clear understanding of the non-Christian philosophy surrounding us in order to combat ideas that are simply false. However, it is also important to remember that all truth is God’s truth, and God has not chosen to give a comprehensive revelation in the Scriptures. For instance, the Bible does not teach us the science of mathematics, yet we know that two plus two does indeed equal four.

In the end we we must constantly ask ourselves two questions as we interact with non-Christian ideas: “Is my faith a robust transformational faith with the glory of God as its highest goal?”, and “Is the non-Christian philosophy I am studying, and the way I am interacting with it helping to fulfill that goal?”

Jose Oliva is a member of the Oliva family which produces some of the finest cigars in the business. Oliva cigars are rolled in Esteli Nicaragua and are sold at any worthwhile tobacconist. Jose lives in Miami Florida, and represents the Oliva family in the states. He rubs shoulders with some of the most famous men in America in the course of his work and charity activities, men like Rush Limbaugh, Rudy Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Marvin Shanken, Francis Ford Coppola, etc. He told me a story about drinking a glass of wine from a bottle that was won at auction for $30,000 (I think by Marvin Shanken, but I am not sure) during the Prostate Cancer Foundation’s, A Night To Remember. I asked him how it was, and he said, “It was wonderful! Someone gives you a glass of wine that cost $30,000, and all objectivity is gone.”

So here I am talking with Jose Oliva about family (he is about my age, and has two kids), politics (he is what I would call conservative, and studies history with a passion), and of course cigars, when finally my favorite subject is brought up and we start talking about Jesus. We talked for a long time about the church and its relationship to science, marriage, wealth, and a bunch of other areas. It was simply one of the most gratifying experiences of my life. Birthdays come and go, but this year has been the best one in my 32 years.

Finally, it is significant that Paul’s great Christological statement is set in the form of a hymn, a confession of faith. It is often in our worship and our praise that we are brought closest to a full awareness of God and his greatness, something that the purely rational exercise of our theological endeavors could never do. Polhill, Paul and His Letters, 342 (endnote referencing E. Schweizer, The Letter to the Colossians, 82-88)

I disagree. The simple truth of the matter is that for many of us, the deepest form of worship we experience is “the purely rational exercise of our theological endeavors.” Certainly I understand the significance of Paul using a hymn to clarify theological concerns. This certainly is one of the easiest, and perhaps best, ways of getting theology into the minds of the body of Christ. However, everyone does not share this “full awareness of God” brought about during what is considered the “ordinary” method of worship. For those of us trapped in an almost completely “rational” awareness of God, theological study brings us closer to His glory than any poetic hymn could do.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWpU8sX10_4&hl=en]

After launching an “undercover investigation” of the monastery’s henhouses  and following  it with almost a year of complaints and publicity stunts, Peaple for the Ethical Treatment of Aninmals (PETA) has succeeded in forcing Mepkin Abbey to shut down its egg operation.

PETA’s complaint? That the monks treat the chickens cruelly. How? In short, by keeping them in cages and preventing them from pecking each other to death.

In other words, by complying with every animal welfare standard established by the United Egg Producers.

Yet with its trademark overheated rhetoric, PETA calls Mepkin Abbey “hell on earth for chickens,” a place where the birds suffer “nothing less than torture.”

Taken From The April 2008 Issue Of America’s 1st Freedom

  Kentucky Fried Chicken

Figures released in January show that during the six years since Michigan joined the American mainstream by offering citizens a shall-issue Right-to-Carry law, the number of firearms related fatalities dropped–even though opponents predicted rampant mayhem…

Overall, the violent crime rate in Michigan during the years since passage of Right-to-Carry was significantly less than the rate during the six years prior to passage. At the same time, the number of firearm fatalities, including those stemming from suicide and accidents, also declined…

Opponents of Right-to-Carry predicted an outbreak of firearm violence, even though concealed-carry options are now the norm rather than the exception across much of America. Similar predictions of Wild West-style shootouts in a number of other Right-to-Carry states also never materialized, dating back to the uproar in Florida some 17 years ago…

One official with the Michigan chapter of the Million Mom March actually said that despite the figures, she still believes that gun violence has grown, owing to what she feels is inadequate reporting. And, she adds, even if the statistics prove to be correct, there are still more guns in Michigan homes and on the street, in her opinion offering the potential for increased violence some day in the future…

Taken From The April 2008 Edition Of America’s 1st Freedom 

This is the type of person we are fighting. It does not matter what is really happening. It only matters what I think is happening because I am so smart, and kids are dying in our streets!

• The World Health Organization conducted a study of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) and lung cancer in Europe.
• ETS is commonly referred to as Second Hand Smoke (SHS). The two terms are interchangeable.
• This was a case control study using a large sample size.
• The purpose of the study was to provide a more precise estimate of risk, to discover any differences between different sources of ETS, and the effect of ETS exposure on different types of lung cancer.
• The study was conducted from twelve centers in seven European countries over a period of seven years.
• The participants consisted of 650 patients with lung cancer and 1542 control subjects. Patients with smoking related diseases were excluded from the control group. None of the subjects in either group had smoked more than 400 cigarettes in their lifetime.
• Three of the study centers interviewed family members of the participants to confirm the subjects were not smokers.
• The study found no statistically significant risk existed for non-smokers who either lived or worked with smokers.
• The only statistically significant number was a decrease in the risk of lung cancer among the children of smokers.
• The study found a Relative Risk (RR) for spousal exposure of 1.16, with a Confidence Interval (CI) of .93 – 1.44. In layman’s terms, that means
  • Exposure to the ETS from a spouse increases the risk of getting lung cancer by 16%.
  • Where you’d normally find 100 cases of lung cancer, you’d find 116….BUT
  • Because the Confidence Interval includes 1.0, The Relative Risk of 1.16 number is not statistically significant.
• The real RR can be any number within the CI. The CI includes 1.0, meaning that the real number could be no increase at all. It also includes numbers below 1.0, which would indicate a protective effect. This means that the RR of 1.16 is not statistically significant.
• A RR of less than 2.0 is usually not considered important and, most likely to be due to error or bias. An RR of 3.0 or higher is considered desirable. (This rule of thumb is routinely ignored by the anti-smoker activists.)
• The study found no Dose/Response relationship for spousal ETS exposure.
• The RR for workplace ETS was 1.17 with a CI of .94 – 1.45, well below the preferred 2.0 – 3.0, and with another CI that straddled 1.0.
• The RR for exposure from both a smoking spouse and a smoky workplace was 1.14, with a CI of .88 – 1.47.
• The RR for exposure during childhood was 0.78, with a CI of .64 – .96. This indicates a protective effect! Children exposed to ETS in the home during childhood are 22% less likely to get lung cancer, according to this study. Note that this was the only result in the study that did not include 1.0 in the CI.

The WHO quickly buried the report. The British press got wind of it and hounded them for weeks.

On March 8, 1998, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported “The world’s leading health organization has withheld from publication a study which shows that not only might there be no link between passive smoking and lung cancer but that it could have even a protective effect.”

Finally, the WHO issued a press release. Although their study showed no statistically significant risk from ETS, their press release had the misleading headline “Passive Smoking Does Cause Lung Cancer – Do Not Let Them Fool You.” (I say “misleading” because it would be impolite to call it an outright lie.)

In paragraph four they admitted the facts: “The study found that there was an estimated 16% increased risk of lung cancer among nonsmoking spouses of smokers. For workplace exposure the estimated increase in risk was 17%. However, due to small sample size, neither increased risk was statistically significant.” (Emphasis added.)

The press release doesn’t mention the one statistically significant result from the study, that children raised by smokers were 22% less likely to get lung cancer.

The WHO tried to blame the results on a small sample size. However, in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, where the results were published, the researchers clearly state: “An important aspect of our study in relation to previous studies is its size, which allowed us to obtain risk estimates with good statistical precision…”

It should also be noted that the most likely effect of a larger sample size wouldn’t be a large change to the RR, but a narrowed CI.

Download an abstract of the study.
Download the WHO’s press release.
Synopsis of the WHO Study provided courtesy of The Hitt Chronicle. via Cigarmony.com

Now, imagine if just one student at NIU had been licensed and trained to carry a firearm. How many lives might have been saved?

In almost any other state a school shooting would have had at least a marginal chance to bring about positive change, but in Illinois it is just going to mean more of the same impotent laws that only effect those that do not break the law (i.e. those not shooting people at schools). In the end it is not just an issue of safety, but of freedom. America is supposed to be a land where the balance is in favor of freedom with the belief that social safety will be a result of that. Somewhere along the line American’s started depending on the state to take care of them.

California’s Govenor Schwarzenegger signed a bill, effective as of January 1, that banned smoking in personal automobiles if anyone under the age of 18 is in the vehicle. However, the only way to get a ticket for this offense is to be pulled over for a moving violation, such as speeding or making an illegal turn.

I do not know, my neighbor’s house is still pretty close, and he smokes when he works in the yard!

On October 9, Belmont, California, city officials passed a law banning smoking in apartment buildings, though smoking is still allowed in single-family dwellings and their yards, as well as units and yards in apartment buildings, condominiums, and townhouses that don’t share common floors or ceilings with other units…

Thank goodness they quit smoking!

The Food and Drug Administration has announced that Pfizer’s smoking-cessation drug Chantix is under investigation due to reports of dangerous side effects…The complaints included 55 reports of suicide, 199 reports of suicidal thoughts, 417 cases of depression, and hundreds of reports of anger, aggression, hallucination, and homicidal thoughts.

Just in case you thought it was just us.

United Kingdom: The revised Highway Code for the Department of Transport (National) that was released on Spetember 28 now lists smoking while driving as a distraction, which means that police and lawyers can cite it in court when looking to convict for a traffic offense. Other driving distractions on the list include eating or drinking, turning on a radio, inserting CDs or tapes, arguing with passengers, trying to read a map, and playing loud music.

Just in case you thought Americans were the only stupid people on the planet.

England: Six police officers in full riot gear stormed the Copper Pot pub on September 8 after an enraged cricket fan lit a cigarette in protest when the bar’s TV’s channel was changed from the England v. India cricket game to a football game. Pub staff, after asking John Vaughan to extinguish his smoke, hit the bar’s panic button, which summoned the local authorities. Despite police involvement, no arrests were made and Vaughan peacefully left the premises.

Is Everybody Stupid?

Taken From The News Section Of The Spring 2008 Issue Of Cigar Magazine

 

Red Lion’s cigarmaking community kept on innovating, and the little town had more than one thousand brand names being produced. In reality though, those brands had little differentiation. “They were basically all the same cigars,” Frutiger confirms. “In my grandfather’s factory, we had sixty-three labels for the same cigar.” He also notes that, on the day Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris in 1927, three Red Lion cigarmakers were staked out in Washington to lay claim to new brands, Lucky Lindy, World’s Greatest Flyer, and Our Flyer–all the same cigars from the respective factories, with new names and packaging.

1904 W. A. Lahr – Porto Rico Leaf Tobacco Co.

I simply wanted to show you my point of view. I meant to speak of the suffering of mankind generally, but we had better confine ourselves to the sufferings of the children…If they, too, suffer horribly on earth, they must suffer for their fathers’ sins, they must be punished for their fathers, who have eaten the apple; but that reasoning is of the other world and is incomprehensible for the heart of man here on earth. The innocent must not suffer for another’s sins, and especially such innocents!… Imagine a trembling mother with her baby in her arms, a circle of invading Turks around her. They’ve planned a diversion; they pet the baby, laugh to make it laugh. They succeed, the baby laughs. At that moment a Turk points a pistol four inches from the baby’s face. The baby laughs with glee, holds out its little hands to the pistol, and he pulls the trigger in the baby’s face and blows out its brains. Artistic, wasn’t it?…A well educated, cultured gentleman and his wife beat their own child with a birch-rod, a girl of seven. I have an exact account of it. The papa was glad that the birch was covered with twigs. ‘It stings more,’ said he, and so he began stinging his daughter. I know for a fact there are people who at every blow are worked up to sensuality, to literal sensuality, which increases progressively at every blow they inflict. They beat for a minute, for five minutes, for ten minutes, more often and more savagely. The child screams. At last the child cannot scream, it gasps, ‘Daddy! daddy!’…There was a little girl of five who was hated by her father and mother, ‘most worthy and respectable people, of good education and breeding.’…This poor child of five was subjected to every possible torture by those cultivated parents. They beat her, thrashed her, kicked her for no reason till her body was one bruise. Then, they went to greater refinements of cruelty—shut her up all night in the cold and frost in a privy, and because she didn’t ask to be taken up at night (as though a child of five sleeping its angelic, sound sleep could be trained to wake and ask), they smeared her face and filled her mouth with excrement, and it was her mother, her mother did this. And that mother could sleep, hearing the poor child’s groans! Can you understand why a little creature, who can’t even understand what’s done to her, should beat her little aching heart with her tiny fist in the dark and the cold, and weep her meek unresentful tears to dear, kind God to protect her? Do you understand that, friend and brother, you pious and humble novice? Do you understand why this infamy must be and is permitted? Without it, I am told, man could not have existed on earth, for he could not have known good and evil. Why should he know that diabolical good and evil when it costs so much? Why, the whole world of knowledge is not worth that child’s prayer to ‘dear, kind God’!…One picture, only one more, because it’s so curious, so characteristic…It was in the darkest days of serfdom at the beginning of the century, and long live the Liberator of the People! There was in those days a general of aristocratic connections, the owner of great estates, one of those men…who…are convinced that they’ve earned absolute power over the lives of their subjects…So our general, settled on his property of two thousand souls, lives in pomp, and domineers over his poor neighbours as though they were dependents and buffoons. He has kennels of hundreds of hounds and nearly a hundred dog-boys—all mounted, and in uniform. One day a serf boy, a little child of eight, threw a stone in play and hurt the paw of the general’s favourite hound. ‘Why is my favourite dog lame?’ He is told that the boy threw a stone that hurt the dog’s paw. ‘So you did it.’ The general looked the child up and down. ‘Take him.’ He was taken—taken from his mother and kept shut up all night. Early that morning the general comes out on horseback, with the hounds, his dependents, dog-boys, and huntsmen, all mounted around him in full hunting parade. The servants are summoned for their edification, and in front of them all stands the mother of the child. The child is brought from the lock-up. It’s a gloomy cold, foggy autumn day, a capital day for hunting. The general orders the child to be undressed; the child is stripped naked. He shivers, numb with terror, not daring to cry.…‘Make him run,’ commands the general. ‘Run! run! shout the dog-boys. The boy runs.…‘At him!’ yells the general, and he sets the whole pack of hounds on the child. The hounds catch him, and tear him to pieces before his mother’s eyes!…Well—what did he deserve? To be shot? To be shot for the satisfaction of our moral feelings?…The world stands on absurdities, and perhaps nothing would have come to pass in it without them…I understand nothing,” Ivan went on, as though in delirium. “I don’t want to understand anything now…Listen! I took the case of children only to make my case clearer. Of the other tears of humanity with which the earth is soaked from its crust to its centre, I will say nothing. I have narrowed my subject on purpose. I am a bug, and I recognise in all humility that I cannot understand why the world is arranged as it is. Men are themselves to blame, I suppose; they were given paradise, they wanted freedom, and stole fire from heaven, though they knew they would become unhappy, so there is no need to pity them. With my pitiful, earthly, Euclidian understanding, all I know is that there is suffering and that there are none guilty; that cause follows effect, simply and directly; that everything flows and finds its level—but that’s only Euclidian nonsense, I know that, and I can’t consent to live by it! What comfort is it to me that there are none guilty and that cause follows effect simply and directly, and that I know it—I must have justice, or I will destroy myself. And not justice in some remote infinite time and space, but here on earth, and that I could see myself. I have believed in it. I want to see it, and if I am dead by then, let me rise again, for if it all happens without me, it will be too unfair. Surely I haven’t suffered, simply that I, my crimes and my sufferings, may manure the soil of the future harmony for somebody else. I want to see with my own eyes the hind lie down with the lion and the victim rise up and embrace his murderer. I want to be there when every one suddenly understands what it has all been for. All the religions of the world are built on this longing, and I am a believer. But then there are the children, and what am I to do about them? That’s a question I can’t answer. For the hundredth time I repeat, there are numbers of questions, but I’ve only taken the children, because in their case what I mean is so unanswerably clear. Listen! If all must suffer to pay for the eternal harmony, what have children to do with it, tell me, please? It’s beyond all comprehension why they should suffer, and why they should pay for the harmony. Why should they, too, furnish material to enrich the soil for the harmony of the future? I understand solidarity in sin among men. I understand solidarity in retribution, too; but there can be no such solidarity with children. And if it is really true that they must share responsibility for all their fathers’ crimes, such a truth is not of this world and is beyond my comprehension. Some jester will say, perhaps, that the child would have grown up and have sinned, but you see he didn’t grow up, he was torn to pieces by the dogs, at eight years old. Oh, Alyosha, I am not blaspheming! I understand, of course, what an upheaval of the universe it will be, when everything in heaven and earth blends in one hymn of praise and everything that lives and has lived cries aloud: ‘Thou art just, O Lord, for Thy ways are revealed.’ When the mother embraces the fiend who threw her child to the dogs, and all three cry aloud with tears, ‘Thou are just. O Lord!’ then, of course, the crown of knowledge will be reached and all will be made clear. But what pulls
me up here is that I can’t accept that harmony. And while I am on earth, I make haste to take my own measures. You see, Alyosha, perhaps it really may happen that if I live to that moment, or rise again to see it, I, too, perhaps, may cry aloud with the rest, looking at the mother embracing the child’s torturer, ‘Thou art just, O Lord!’ but I don’t want to cry aloud then. While there is still time. I hasten to protect myself and so I renounce the higher harmony altogether. It’s not worth the tears of that one tortured child who beat itself on the breast with its little fist and prayed in its stinking outhouse, with its unexpiated tears to ‘dear, kind God’! It’s not worth it, because those tears are unatoned for. They must be atoned for, or there can be no harmony. But how? How are you going to atone for them? Is it possible? By their being avenged? But what do I care for avenging them? What do I care for a hell for oppressors? What good can hell do, since those children have already been tortured? And what becomes of harmony, if there is hell? I want to forgive. I want to embrace. I don’t want more suffering. And if the sufferings of children go to swell the sum of sufferings which was necessary to pay for truth, then I protest that the truth is not worth such a price…Is there in the whole world a being who would have the right to forgive and could forgive? I don’t want harmony. From love for humanity I don’t want it. I would rather be left with the unavenged suffering. I would rather remain with my unavenged suffering and unsatisfied indignation, even if I were wrong. Besides, too high a price is asked for harmony; it’s beyond our means to pay so much to enter on it. And so I hasten to give back my entrance ticket, and if I am an honest man I am bound to give it back as soon as possible. And that I am doing. It’s not God that I don’t accept, Alyosha, only I most respectfully return Him the ticket…Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature—that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance—and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth…And can you admit the idea that men for whom you are building it would agree to accept their happiness on the foundation of the unexpiated blood of a little victim? And accepting it would remain happy for ever?”

…So when our heart is breaking we must labor with a broken instrument. Preaching is our main work. And preaching is heart work, not just mental work. So the question for us is not just How you keep on living when the marriage is blank, and a child has run away, and the finances don’t reach, and pews are bare and friends have forsaken you; the question for us is more than, How do you keep on living? It’s, How do you keep on preaching. It’s one thing to survive adversity; it is something very different to keep on preaching, Sunday after Sunday, month after month when the heart is overwhelmed…

Read The Entire Paper

“In Christ Alone”
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2001 Kingsway Thankyou Music

In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev’ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.

The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches us that all conquerers who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.–Adolf Hitler 1942

The Seven Myths of Gun Control

…All of the gun-control laws that have been passed and are still being contemplated could not have had the affect of one armed, trained and law-abiding citizen on the scene like 42-year-old Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs…

Read The Entire Article 

The first thing to accept is, ever and again this reality of an enduring Advent. If we do that, we shall begin to realize that the borderline between “before Christ” and “after Christ” does not run through historical time, in an outward sense, and cannot be drawn on any map; it runs through our hearts. Insofar as we are living on a basis of selfishness, egoism, then even today we are “before Christ.” But in this time of Advent, let us ask the Lord to grant that we may live less and less “before Christ,” and certainly not “after Christ” but truly with Christ and in Christ; with Him who is indeed Christ yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Amen. (What it Means to Be a Christian, by Joseph Ratzinger, page 40)

Taken From The Winter 2007 Issue Of Cigar Magazine

Taken From The Winter 2007 Issue Of Cigar Magazine

When one is possessed with doubt, that though he call upon the Lord he cannot be heard, and that God has turned his heart from him, and is angry,…he must…arm himself with God’s Word, promising to hear him. As to the when and how God will hear him, this is stark naught; place, time, and person are accidental things; the substance and essence is the promise.–Martin Luther

…Up until the early 1970s, Israel had to deal with the cold reality of terrorists who would take machine guns into shopping malls, schools, and Synagogues and open fire. That type of attack doesn’t occur any more. Why? Israelis realized that armed citizens could stop such an attacker before he did much damage.

About 15 percent of Israelis are now licensed to carry weapons, and determined terrorists have to resort to less effective, secretive routes of attack such as bombing.

Increasing the probability that someone will be able to protect himself or herself increases deterrence. Even when any single person might have a small probability of having a concealed handgun, the probability that at least someone in the crowd will have a gun is very high…

…While right-to-carry laws– now operating in 40 states — do reduce violent crime generally, the effect is much larger for multiple-victim shootings. Normally about 2 to 6 percent of adults in any state have permits, and for most crimes that means some deterrence. But for a shooting in a public place where there might be dozens or hundreds of people, it will almost ensure that at least someone — someone who is unknown to the attacker — will be able to defend themselves and others…

…Most people understand that guns deter criminals. Suppose you or your family are being stalked by a criminal who intends to harm you. Would you feel safer putting a sign in front of your home saying “This home is a gun-free zone”? Would it frighten criminals away?

Good intentions don’t necessarily make good laws. What counts is whether the laws ultimately save lives. Unfortunately, too many gun laws primarily disarm law-abiding citizens, not criminals.

• Man Shot In Face Three Times
• Boy, 11, Shot Dead Returning From Football
• Two Men Seriously Injured In Street Shooting
• Three Murdered As Knife Crime Soars

It simply is not a matter of what feels right. The fact of the matter is we live in a world full of evil.

MORE GUNS = LESS CRIME

My brother sent me a link to an extraordinary article at Time entitled, Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith. The article speaks of a new book by Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk entitled, Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light, in which Kolodiejchuk compiles a lifetime of letters from Mother Teresa to her confessors in which she reveals the darkness of her soul.

I have tried to explain this situation to others, and have often been misunderstood. The tendency of those that are not experiencing a “dark night of the soul”, a term coined by St. John of the Cross in the 16th century, often mistake such an experience as a lack of faith, or proof that a person does not believe in a personal relationship with Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are not guaranteed a “feelings based” relationship with our Lord, and indeed the dark night of one may be a week, while the dark night of another may last a lifetime.

So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them — because of the blasphemy — If there be God — please forgive me — When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives & hurt my very soul. — I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness & coldness & emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.–Mother Teresa

You are not so much in the dark as you think … You have exterior facts enough to see that God blesses your work … Feelings are not required and often may be misleading.–Archbishop Ferdinand Périer

I can’t express in words — the gratitude I owe you for your kindness to me — for the first time in … years — I have come to love the darkness — for I believe now that it is part of a very, very small part of Jesus’ darkness & pain on earth. You have taught me to accept it [as] a ‘spiritual side of your work’ as you wrote — Today really I felt a deep joy — that Jesus can’t go anymore through the agony — but that He wants to go through it in me.–Mother Teresa

I accept not in my feelings — but with my will, the Will of God — I accept His will.–Mother Teresa

The tendency in our spiritual life but also in our more general attitude toward love is that our feelings are all that is going on,…And so to us the totality of love is what we feel. But to really love someone requires commitment, fidelity and vulnerability. Mother Teresa wasn’t ‘feeling’ Christ’s love, and she could have shut down. But she was up at 4:30 every morning for Jesus, and still writing to him, ‘Your happiness is all I want.’–Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk

During research for my previous post, Plochman’s, The Mustard Lover’s Mustard. I ran across something very interesting on the Plochman’s website, and had the wife pick up a bottle this evening. Plochman’s Chicago Fire Mustard combines the wonder of Plochman’s Mustard with the fire of Tabasco Brand Pepper Sauce (A top-notch condiment in its own right). The flavor? In a word: fantastic! If you cannot find Plochman’s Chicago Fire Mustard in your area, you can purchase it directly from the Plochman’s Online Store!

As I often tell my wife, mustard makes my life better. I love mustard. Mustard is one of those rare commodities in life that makes almost anything that is good, better. But which mustard to choose? When speaking of the “plain” variety, there really is only one choice, and that choice is the ‘Plochman’s, The Mustard Lover’s Mustard’.

Some people close to me have tried to tell me that “mustard is mustard”. Obviously those folks just do not understand or appreciate quality mustard when they taste it. For those of us that understand how mustard can take a bad sandwich and make it good, or take a good sandwich and make it great, there really is a big difference in the mustard you choose to put on your food. Plochman’s is simply the best mustard you can get!

Isn’t the age of the earth really at the heart of this argument? of course if the earth is young evolution is out the window. and I’m not as comfortable as you are labeling the universe as ancient.

Without scientific information available to every Joe-Blow in 2007, one would never assume an old universe from literal scripture reading. My charge still stands completely unmolested to my mind, that this is not exegesis from the scripture but rather addition to the scripture to make it sync with other pieces of information, which are supposed to be subservient to the scripture. with the Genesis account using the 7 day time-line and using terms like morning and night, it is at loggerheads with an old universe. and I cant figure it out.

First of all, we have to be careful with making “literal reading” the only litmus test for proper exegesis. It is certainly a critical factor, but so are historical and cultural matters, and perhaps on equal footing with the “literal (simple)” reading of Scripture is genre. For instance, if the genre of Genesis were “science book” then I would have more concern with what the original audience were able to understand about the creation account versus what we can understand. After all, what it meant is what is means. But science is not the genre of Genesis, and the first two chapters of the book were not written to give us a detailed account of every aspect of creation. As mentioned above, the primary theological principles that should be gleaned from Genesis 1 and 2 are a) God created everything, and b) it was good.

Finally, it is very interesting to note that historically, the issue of old versus young earth was a non-issue until following WWI when Fundamentalist began to fear the effects of evolutionary teaching upon society. Note that they were not worried about an old earth, but rather their primary concern was thwarting the power of evolution. Their fears eventually led to a strict adherence to Young Earth Theology because this view basically removes the possibility of evolution. However, as Ratzsch points out, this was not the original position of the Fundamentalist.

“Thus none of the early fundamentalist leaders rejected science’s claims that the earth was vastly old, although they differed concerning the reconciliation of science with Scripture…Dixon, Torrey, C. I. Scofield (of Scofield Reference Bible fame) and…Harry Rimmer, all held gap theories. Virtually none of the early fundamentalist leaders took the flood to be geologically significant…”

My reason for bringing Fundamentalists into the discussion is simply because of their historical place as movers and shakers in outlining “orthodox” Christian beliefs in America. In other words, the conservatives conservative, were not concerned with the age of the Earth until they began to squirm under the influence of evolution, and needed to find a way to protect against it.

“I have no way of knowing how long the world was created before man was created. The Bible does not tell. It only says, ‘In the beginning’ and that afterwards He created the plants and animals, and last of all man. But it gives no intimation how long the earth was created before these other things were.”–David Lipscomb, 1921

“There is no statement in the Bible which indicates the age of the earth…If the scientist or pseudoscientist want to ascribe to the earth an age of a million, a billion, or three hundred billion years, I will not pause to argue…’In the beginning God.’ That is all the Bible affirms on the question.” Foy E. Wallace, 1946

There have been, and continue to be many possible ways to mesh a literal interpretation of Genesis’ seven days with an old earth. The problem is not that this cannot be conceived, but rather that in so doing we open the gates, as it were, to evolutionary possibility, and that is something we simply can’t afford to do!

First of all let me say, many of these questions are loaded heavier than a LongHorn Steakhouse baked potato. Here are the questions along with my answers and a few observations.

1. Are tribes in South American rain forest more primitive forms of humans than we are? No
2. Did dinosaurs live before humans? Yes. This does not indicate my belief in evolution, but rather in an Old Earth Theology that coincides with a literal interpretation of Genesis.
3. Were the people who lived in caves, and used simple tools unintelligent? No. Still, humans have learned more about the universe around us since Adam started working in the Garden of Eden. We make progress in medicine, agriculture, technology, science, etc. So it would be possible to answer this question with a yes, and still not indicate a belief in evolution.
4. Did Noah lack special tools or equipment to build the ark? No. Again, he obviously had what he needed, but he also didn’t have power tools or a Lowe’s store to help him out. This is just a stupid question.
5. Are the stars older than the earth? Yes. This does not indicate my belief in evolution, but rather in an Old Earth Theology that coincides with a literal interpretation of Genesis.
6. Is there more than one race? No. If there ever was a “trick question” this is one. Many people would answer yes to this question in regard to the ethnic separation of races (black, white, Hispanic, Latin, etc) but still hold that all of these “races” descended from one original human race.
7. Does it take millions of years to form fossils, oil, coal, and diamonds? Yes. This does not indicate my belief in evolution, but rather in an Old Earth Theology that coincides with a literal interpretation of Genesis.
8. Did Adam have to learn how to speak, read and write after he was created? Yes and no: how in the name of all that is holy could we possibly answer this question completely. Certainly Adam communed with God and this indicates speech, but it does NOT necessitate writing and reading. We can trace the, dare I say it, evolution of written language throughout history by looking first at the primitive symbol based writing and finally at the phonetically developed alphabets mankind uses today.

What these questions show more than anything is the simplistic approach to the evolution/creation debate that many creationists take. It is interesting to note that historically, even the fundamentalist Christians did not take issue with an old earth theology. As with many things “fundamental” these ideas grew out of a fear that science would corrupt Christianity and leave us a society of godless men and women.

I certainly believe we have such a society, but I would make two points about it. First, mankind has been a godless society since he left the Garden of Eden. This is not a new situation brought about by evil naturalistic scientists. And secondly, to whatever degree it is possible to curb this evil side of humanity, we would have been (and still would be) better served to approach debates such as this one using sensible, well developed arguments rather than parlor tricks, and closed minded ignorance.

I have quoted and mentioned it a few times before, but a great place to begin your journey into a more developed approach to this dialog is The battle of Beginnings: Why Neither Side Is Winning the Creation-Evolution, by Del Ratzsch. Del is a Christian, but his objective in this book is not to defend creation or evolution, but to point out first the history of both sides, and then the errors found in the common arguments presented by both sides. Ratzsch does not provide you with the answers, but rather asks all the right questions and leaves you questioning if your approach to the debate is the best one available. I’m currently working through this book for the second time, and I can’t recommend it enough.

…When things become extraordinary and unnatural, however, Bonhoeffer also saw clearly that our only choice is to do the best we can, to be as faithful to Jesus as we can. And that means not to sort out our actions on a neat ethical  grid of right and wrong, but to strive to accomplish as much good as possible.

“Responsible action does not lay claim to knowledge of its own ultimate righteousness. When the deed is performed with a responsible weighing up of all the personal and objective circumstances and in the awareness that God has become man and that it is God who has become man, then this deed is delivered up solely to God at the moment of its performance. Ultimate ignorance of one’s own good and evil, and with it a complete reliance upon grace, is an essential property of responsible historical action. The man who acts ideologically sees himself justified in his idea; the responsible man commits his action into the hands of God and lives by God’s grace and favour.”–Bonhoeffer

If getting God’s will done in the world means one must engage in conspiracy, deceit, and assassination, then Bonhoeffer was prepared to incur whatever guilt those evil actions entailed. Indeed, he did not want to call evil good, and thus he speaks of guilt that one would obtain if these actions were undertaken.

I have always been  intrigued by this discussion, and before we get to high up on our horse to condemn Bonhoeffer, we need to take a look at Rahab and Esther (among others) in the Bible and see how they fit into this discussion. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but things certainly are never as black and white as we would like them to be in a universe that is fallen.

…Of course, to know a wise course of action and to choose a wise course of action is two different things and the latter is sometimes illusive to us all…

…Without God’s eternal truth knowledge is corrupted as is wisdom and philosophy. Psalm 111:10 says; “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His instructions have good insight.” Knowing God’s will, therefore, is part of knowledge and is necessary for making proper ethical and moral choices…

The author of the article is Terry Jackson, who just happens to be my Dad, but I can assure you this has not prejudiced my review of the article. Dad and I have our disagreements. I’m sure the far-reaching conclusions he would infer as rising from his arguments would be a little different than mine, but this does not detract from the wisdom of his words.

…The crime rate initially plummeted for several years after the passage of the ordinance, with the 2005 per capita crime rate actually significantly lower than it was in 1981, the year before passage of the law.

Prior to enactment of the law, Kennesaw had a population of just 5,242 but a crime rate significantly higher (4,332 per 100,000) than the national average (3,899 per 100,000). The latest statistics available – for the year 2005 – show the rate at 2,027 per 100,000. Meanwhile, the population has skyrocketed to 28,189…

Once again, the point being made is, more guns = less crime. It simply does not matter if you cannot get yourself to say it because it “just doesn’t feel right”, or if it seems counterintuitive to you. It does not even matter if you believe America has a love affair with guns; this is beside the point. The data support the hypothesis, and is shown to be true over and over.

Those who wish to limit firearm ownership in the name of safety frequently win ground among otherwise intelligent, conservative thinking people by using the same tools they use to push the rest of thier agenda. Namely, emotion-driven, statistically incorrect data presented in a way that speaks to ones feelings instead of ones mind. If the pictures of mass murder on the screen are bothering you, remember, these atrocities are being committed in “gun-free” zones. It seems that taking away firearms just isn’t going to stop people from doing bad things.

If you want to hate firearms, and want ammunition to support your position, simply keep doing what your doing: getting your information from the media. However, if you want to make an informed decision on your position towards firearm ownership start reading! You can even read the books that the anti-gun groups put out…just do not expect footnotes or a full bibliography. Take notes in the margins of both types of books. When you find an argument based on data write the word “data” in the margin. When you find an argument based on emotion, write the word “emotion” in the margin. The results will speak for themselves.

Don’t know where to start: Start Here or Here or Here (CDC..Look For Yourself!)

It seems to me that the Emergent movement is poised to split into a least two directions. One headed toward an amalgamation of theological liberalism and postmodernism. The other being a more raw, unpretentious, and informal expression of orthodox Christianity. Of course, the later is to be preferred, and so long as it is not condescending toward those who continue to appreciate (though not elevate) their liturgies and traditions, it may ultimately be a fresh wind in the body of Christ.–Scott Pruett

I find myself in the second of these groups much of the time. You can read the entire article at the Stand To Reason website, and I cannot recommend it enough. Unfortunately, this is the first issue I have received so I missed out on parts I-IV. While you are visiting the website, be sure to sign up for the newsletter and donate if you can.

…The first point that needs to be made is that God can do whatever God likes!…God does not need time at all!…If we understand God as the Bible defines and describes Him, then time is a creation of God and does not control God. The issue is not what God could do but what He did do…

Most of us have been told that God created the universe, created all that…because He desired fellowship with man. Has anybody heard that? It’s a great idea if it weren’t for the Bible, and it’s almost blasphemous. That God, in His infinite perfection, was lonely, and His response to that loneliness was to create a bunch of glory thieving rats? That was the infinite God solution to His loneliness? You are not created for fellowship. That kind of makes you the centerpiece of the puzzle I’m afraid. We’re not that close to center. There are two ways to view the Scripture…One is that it’s a book about life and the other is that it’s a book about God. And this book, from beginning to end, will unpack for you that the desire of God’s heart is not your salvation but rather the glory of His name. That is what drives the universe, that is why everything exists, not so that you and I might be saved or lost, heaven or hell, but that God might be glorified in His infinite perfections.

• Ezekiel 20:5-9 says that God did not destroy Israel in the desert for the sake of His name.
• Psalms 106:6-8 says, “Yet he saved them for his name’s sake.”So, why are men saved? For the name of Christ, for the namesake of God, that He might make known His mighty power.
• Exodus 14:4; Exodus 14:18 says that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened for the glory of God.
• 1 Samuel 12:19-23 says the beginning of the Israeli monarch was about the glory of God.
• Psalms 25:11 says, “For your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my guilt, for it is great.”
• Psalms 23:3 says, “He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”
• 1 Kings 8:41-45 says Solomon dedicates the temple for the glory of God.
• 2 Samuel 7:23 says Israel became great and powerful among the nations for the glory of God.
• Isaiah 48:9-11 says God does not destroy Israel when they deserve it because He did not want His name blasphemed among the nations.
• Malachi 2:2, He decides to destroy Israel because they would not lay it in their heart to give glory to His name.
• John 17:4; John 7:18; John 4:34 says that Jesus’ life and ministry was about the glory of God.
• John 12:27-28 says the cross of Jesus is about the glory of God.
• Ephesians 1:3-6 says that you and I are saved to the praise of His glorious grace.
• 1 Corinthians 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11; Matthew 5:16 says that the Christian life is about the reflection of the glory of God off of our lives into the universe
• 2 Thessalonians 1:9-10 says the second coming is about the consummation of the glory of God.
• Revelation 21:23 says the consummation of all things is that God might be praise.

This is the story of the Bible, not you, not me, God, God alone, God’s name alone, God’s glory alone, God who is deep in riches, God who is deep in wisdom and knowledge, not you and me. So you see, outside of an understanding of God like this, everything becomes surface. Everything from dinner to sex to marriage to kids, it’s all shallow, it’s all trivial. But when you understand the driving force behind everything, all of a sudden there’s an immense amount of joy because everything we do is carried into a deeper level.

I agree that at one point in time there was a distinction between naked and nude. It is unfortunately a distinction that can only exist as long as mankind does not know of its existence. Once man fell, everything that was encompassed in “nude” suddenly became quite naked. For a Christian to make a distinction between nude and naked (excluding perhaps the marriage bed made righteous through Christ) is, I believe, a mistake, and a dangerous one at that.

Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. — Genesis 3:7 The NET Bible

I certainly do not have a problem with the “fundamentals of the faith”…I believe in those fundamentals as well: 1. the inerrancy of the Bible 2. the Virgin birth of Jesus Christ 3. the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ 4. atonement by the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ 5. the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, but to define “Fundamentalist Christians” as those that believe in the “fundamentals of the faith” is simplistic at best.

Fundamentalism may have started this way, but it quickly grew into something more by adding more and more “fundamentals” to the list, and by requiring, if not formally then pragmatically, that all “true” believers follow their specific brand of systematic theology. Those that refuse to accept the entire package of fundamentalism are not only heretics, but are either positioned further away from God than those that have been fortunate enough to interpret all of Scripture accurately, or worse yet, they are moving farther away from Christ every day until they come to know the full truth.

Basically, fundamentalism became defined by arrogance rather than humility, and mistrust rather than gracious love. For an example of this check out the doctrinal statement found on the Fundamental Evangelical Association’s website. You will note that their list of “fundamentals” has grown substantially. Another example of this growing of the “fundamentals” is the expansion (again if not formally, at the very least pragmatically) of the immanent return of Christ, into the immanent return of Christ as properly understood under the auspices of dispensationalism.

Furthermore, fundamentalism continued the wave of anti-intellectualism started by The Second Great Awakenings (1800 – 1820) the revivals of Charles Finney (1824 – 1837) and the Layman’s Prayer Revivals (1856 – 1858) by emphasizing a personal experience of conversion over a deep understanding of the Christian faith, and an interpretation of Scripture that depended greatly on fundamentalist presuppositions and an expectation of the Spirit to spoon feed them the truth rather than a desire to approach the Scripture with humility, and do the hard work of interpretation with the Spirit coming along side to help and guide.

Rather than presenting fully developed arguments against David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and others, along with German Higher Criticism of Scripture and Darwinian Evolution, fundamentalist withdrew into its own protective cave and helped to create the secular/sacred devision that we have today. The goal of the fundamentalist movement was to protect against the onslaught of attacks that the 19th century presented to the Christian faith, unfortunately what they ended up doing was creating a system of “safety” beliefs much like the Pharisees did in order to ensure obedience to God. In so doing they lost much of the Spirit of Christ found in the New Testament. Indeed, there is much more to a late 20th/early 21st century Christian fundamentalist than simply believing in the “fundamentals of the faith” irregardless of terrorism and non-Christian groups.

Certainly this explanation does not define all Christian Fundamentalists. There are those that define themselves as such simply on the basis of believing in the five “fundamentals” of Christian faith (heck, I would define myself as a fundamentalist based on that definition), but for each one of these there are churches full of the more “developed” fundamentalist described above.

For more information on this topic read J. P. Moreland’s book, Love Your God With All Your Mind.

Self-discipline

If you set out to seek freedom, you must learn before all things
Mastery over sense and soul, lest your wayward desirings,
Lest your undisciplined members lead you now this way, now that way.
Chaste be your mind and your body, and subject to you and obedient,
Serving solely to seek their appointed goal and objective.
None learns the secret of freedom save only by way of control.

Action

Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment.
Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be.
Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom.
Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living.
God’s command is enough and your faith in him to sustain you.
Then at last freedom will welcome your spirit amid great rejoicing.

Suffering

See what a transformation! These hands so active and powerful
Now are tied, and alone and fainting, you see where your work ends.
Yet you are confident still, and gladly commit what is rightful
Into a stronger hand, and say that you are contented.
You were free from a moment of bliss, then you yielded your freedom
Into the hand of God, that he might perfect it in glory.

Death

Come now, highest of feasts on the way to freedom eternal,
Death, strike off the fetters, break down the walls that oppress us,
Our bedazzled soul and our ephemeral body,
That we may see at last the sight which here was not vouchsafed us.
Freedom, we sought you long in discipline, action, suffering.
Now as we die we see you and know you at last, face to face.

I ask’d the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favour’d hour
At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart,
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea, more, with His own hand He seem’d
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Cross’d all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourd, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this: I trembling cried,
Wilt Thou pursue Thy worm to death:
‘Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou may’st seek thy all in Me.

The Tank–the tank is confrontational, pointed, and angry, the ultimate in pushy and aggressive behavior.

The Sniper–whether through rude comments, biting sarcasm, or a well-timed roll of the eyes, making you look foolish is the Sniper’s specialty.

The Grenade–after a brief period of calm, the Grenade explodes into unfocused ranting and raving about things that have nothing to do with the present circumstances.

The Know-It-All–seldom in doubt, the Know-It-All has a low tolerance for correction and contradiction. If something goes wrong, however, the Know-It-All will speak with the same authority about who’s to blame–you!

The Think-They-Know-It-All–Think-They-Know-It-Alls can’t fool all the people all of the time, but they can fool some of the people enough of the time, and enough of the people all of the time–all for the sake of getting some attention.

The Yes Person–in an effort to please people and avoid confrontation, Yes People say “yes” without thinking things through. They react to the latest demands on their time by forgetting prior commitments, and overcommit until they have no time for themselves. Then they become resentful.

The Maybe Person–in a moment of decision, the Maybe Person procrastinates in the hope that a better choice will present itself. Sadly, with most decisions, there comes a point when it is too little, too late, and the decision makes itself.

The Nothing Person–no verbal feedback, no nonverbal feedback. Nothing. What else could your expect from…the Nothing Person.

The No Person–more deadly to morale than a speeding bullet, more powerful than hope, able to defeat big ideas with a single syllable. Disguised as a mild mannered normal person, the No Person fights a never ending battle for futility, hopelessness, and despair.

The Whiner–Whiners feel helpless and overwhelmed by an unfair world. Their standard is perfection, and no one and nothing measure up to it. But misery loves company, so they bring their problems to you. Offering solutions makes you bad company, so their whining escalates.

“Aggressive stupidity is very different from the regular stupidity we all demonstrate from time to time. Being aggressively stupid is an art form and takes time to develop into maturity. You don’t just wake up one day and decide to become aggressively stupid, it takes effort and a determined passion for folly.

Aggressively stupid people chooses to be aggressively stupid, so they are much easier to pick on because deep down, we all know they really do know better. They choose to look at facts and ignore them. They choose to stick to one line of reasoning and die for it, even when that line of reasoning is obviously fallacious.

An aggressively stupid person enjoys developing an unsound argument. When you try to poke holes in their argument, they either get emotional, which is difficult to combat, or just shut you down.

It’s still important continue to engage the aggressively stupid. Just because past experiences may have been fruitless doesn’t mean we should give up. It’s far better to respond to aggressive stupidity with uncompromising intelligence. It’s also a good idea to pick one’s battles.”–Anthony Martin

“There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 – 1832

…The question is, how are we to understand the relationship between science and Christianity? At a dinner party I was introduced to a professor of physics. On learning that I was a philosopher and theologian, he informed me of the irrational nature of my fields, contending that science had removed the need to believe in God.

Others maintain science and theology mix like oil and water; they are so different that no discovery in science has any bearing on theology or vice versa. Science and religion are radically different spheres of life, they maintain. This opinion was enshrined in law in the creation science trial in Little Rock, Arkansas in December 1981. In that trial, creation science was judged as religion masquerading as science.

Still others seem to believe theology is not rational unless it has scientific confirmation, and they fervently look about to find that confirmation. Who’s right? Is science a threat or a help to faith, or are they unrelated at an intellectual level?…

An ambassador is:

• Ready. An Ambassador is alert for chances to represent Christ and will not back away from a challenge or an opportunity.
• Patient. An Ambassador won’t quarrel, but will listen in order to understand, then with gentleness seek to respectfully engage those who disagree.
• Reasonable. An Ambassador has informed convictions (not just feelings), gives reasons, asks questions, aggressively seeks answers, and will not be stumped by the same challenge twice.
• Tactical. An Ambassador adapts to each unique person and situation, maneuvering with wisdom to challenge bad thinking, presenting the truth in an understandable and compelling way.
• Clear. An Ambassador is careful with language, and will not rely on Christian lingo nor gain unfair advantage by resorting to empty rhetoric.
• Fair. An Ambassador is sympathetic and understanding towards others, and will acknowledge the merits of contrary views.
• Honest. An Ambassador is careful with the facts and will not misrepresent another’s view, overstate his own case, or understate the demands of the Gospel.
• Humble. An Ambassador is provisional in his claims, knowing that his understanding of truth is fallible, and will not press a point beyond what his evidence allows.
• Attractive. An Ambassador will act with grace, kindness, and good manners and will not dishonor Christ in his conduct.
• Dependent. An Ambassador knows that effectiveness requires joining his best efforts with God’s power.

…We can’t know what God is talking about or teaching us by looking at an isolated sentence or phrase. And if we take the Scripture in a way God did not mean it–if what we’re teaching from the verse is not really the teaching of the verse–then the words lose their authority. As Christians our commitment should be to the truth of the passage, not to the feeling a certain reading of that passage gives us. If we ignore that priority, then whatever feeling we may have had will have been based on fantasy–make believe…

…There are no “private” messages in the Bible. Simply put, a text cannot mean what it never meant. The Holy Spirit did not mean one thing when Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, for example, and then something entirely different when you read it 2000 years later…

The authors of Simple Church are not giving church leaders yet another church model, but rather they are suggesting that whatever your model is it needs to be simplified.

After hundreds of consultations with local churches, and a significant research project we have concluded that church leaders need to simplify. They are constantly asking, “How can we make it all the work? How can we put all the pieces together?” Many of the church leaders we talked to are seeking an escape from the not-so-simple life. — Thom S. Rainer and Eric Geiger, Simple Church

In short, I do not object to someone being “born again”, but rather I object to the all-to-often misunderstood idea that once a person has said this prayer there is nothing more to do.

Being a Christian begins with being born again. Being a Christian continues with sanctification. I believe this was well understood for most of historical Christianity, but with the advent of the spiritual awakenings in Europe and America, the idea of what it means to be a Christian was watered down into a type of “fire insurance” that saves one’s body from the flames of hell without asking much of anything in return. Certainly we must bring people to the cross where they can ask Christ into their hearts, but we must bring them to so much more if they are be true followers of Christ.

Paul sees holiness not as an optional extra, not as something to which some Christians are called while others are allowed to stay in a state of semi-paganism, but as something which necessarily characterizes all those who are renewed in Christ. — N.T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said

Mr. Driscoll is about as conservative and counter-cultural as one can be. This is what draws me to him I think. He is one of few Christian men that are successfully navigating today’s culture without becoming a part of it, while at the same time preaching conservative theology focused around Jesus to one of the most unchurched regions of the United States.

Anyway, I found this interview done by Ed Stetzer on the Resurgence and it really gives a close up view of Mark Driscoll and what makes him tick.

…But with the rise of modern science and evolutionary theory, the Biblical account of creation came under continual attack, which caused some Christians to seek to reconcile science and Scripture. When done rightly, science simply operates by the order God placed in creation and therefore points back to Him so there is no need to bifurcate science and Scripture…

…Lastly, I would like to stress that Genesis was not written with the intention of being a scientific textbook. Rather, it is a theological narrative written to reveal the God of creation which means its emphasis is on God and not creation. Because of this, Hebrews 11:3 says “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”…

…Among Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians there are at least six primary interpretations of the creation account in Genesis 1:2. Among the elders at Mars Hill we find the first two positions to be the most persuasive biblically. But we would like to stress that our Christian brothers and sisters who hold the other views listed below are welcome at our church. Our only request is that the Christians in our church would not become divisive over this matter and seek to make their view the litmus test for Christian orthodoxy. As Paul says, we only see in part now but one day in Jesus’ presence we will know in full and we will all be in complete agreement on this and other matters.

View #1–Historic Creationism
In this view, Genesis 1:1 records the making of all of creation by God out of nothing (or exnihilo) through a merism of “heavens and earth,” which means the sky above and land below, or the totality of creation. Since the word used for “beginning” in Genesis 1:1 is reshit in Hebrew, which means an indefinite period of time, it is likely that all of creation was completed over an extended period of time (anywhere from days to billions of years). Then Genesis 1:2 begins the description of God preparing the uninhabitable land for the creation of mankind. The preparation of the uncultivated land for and creation of Adam and Eve occurred in six literal twenty-four hour days. This view leaves open the possibility of both an old earth and six literal days of creation.

View #2–Creationism
In this view, God created the entire universe, including Adam and Eve, in six literal twenty-four hour days. This view is almost always accompanied with a belief in a young earth as it seeks to be faithful to the Biblical text while not giving much credence to the scientific claims of such things as an old earth.

…Therefore, as Christians we are free to explore all areas of study, including science. But when the findings of any discipline stand in contradiction to the clear teachings of Scripture, we must side with Scripture because it is our source of highest authority…

There is much, much more to this article, including a description of the other four interpretations of Genesis 1-2 and a discussion of Intelligent Design.

This is an email response that was received by an acquaintance of mine from Scotts. He wrote telling them he would no longer be using their products because of their insane smoking policy. I’ve added a few remarks in order to make the letter easier for the naive readers to understand.

 

 

Thank you for contacting us concerning Scotts products. [Please do not trouble me with your complaints again.] As always, it is our goal to make sure that our customers are completely satisfied with our products and services. [But in this case you can go get bent.]

We appreciate you letting us know about your concern with our new no-smoking policy. Please rest assured that we will pass your comments on to Senior Management. [I have already deleted your message.]

I am sorry to hear that you will no longer be using our products. [We could not care less if you quit using our products.] It certainly was not the intent of our company to alienate our customers. [We could not care less if you quit using our products.] Our primary motivation for doing this is an effort to control escalating health care costs while improving the long term quality of life for our associates. [Our primary motivation for doing this is an effort to control OUR escalating health care costs, and to control the everyday activities of our employees if we believe those activities will cost us money in the long run.]

You may not be aware, [You personal freedom people are really getting on my nerves!] but the smoking policy is only one component of a significant investment we are making in improving our associates’ health. [We are spending a lot of money on these people, and we do not want to lose it!] These include free doctor care, access to a low cost fitness facility, access to dieticians, [So if I eat a Big Mac, will I get fired?] free generic prescription drugs, and of course, free smoking cessation programs. [Of course.]

I certainly hope you will reconsider your decision to use our products. [I still do not care if you use our products.] Our goal is simply to improve our associates’ health and reduce health care costs. [Our goal is simply to improve out associates' health IN ORDER TO reduce OUR health care costs.]

Again, thank you for taking the time to let us know of your concerns. [I'm really tired of explaining this to you "democracy" people.] Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any additional help to you. [I would be glad to delete any further comments you may have.]

Sharon Newell
Consumer Service Representative
The Scotts Company and Subsidiaries
14111 Scottslawn Road
Marysville, OH 43041

It blew my mind to discover that Scotts, makers of Miracle Grow, has a no smoking policy. Not a no smoking policy for employees at work, but a no smoking policy for employees period. That’s right, if Scotts finds out you are smoking on your free time, you can be terminated. In fact, Scotts is facing at least one lawsuit by a terminated employee. This is absolute insanity!

Dear Abby,

I’ve never written to you before, but I really need your advice. I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me. The usual signs…the phone rings, but if I answer, the caller hangs up.

My wife has been going out with the girls a lot recently although when I ask their names she always says, “Just some friends from work, you don’t know them.” I always try to stay awake to look out for her coming home, but I usually fall asleep. Anyway, I have never approached the subject with my wife. I think deep down I just didn’t want to know the truth, but last night she went out again and I decided to really check on her.

Around midnight, I decided to hide in the garage behind my golf clubs so I could get a good view of the whole street when she arrived home from a night out with “the girls”.

It was at that moment, crouching behind my clubs, that I noticed that the graphite shaft on my driver appeared to have a hairline crack right by the club head.

Is this something I can fix myself or should I take it back to the pro shop where I bought it?

Deeply Concerned

Dr. Pamela Gay of Slacker Astronomy fame, has joined Fraser Cain, producer of Universe Today, to bring us Astronomy Cast on a weekly basis. Fraser Cain does a great job of asking the right questions, and Dr. Pamela Gay does a great job of answering them. She is witty, funny, and smarter than a person should be allowed to be. Dr. Gay has a very real talent as bringing extremely sophisticated science down to an understanable level. You can subscribe to Astronomy Cast directly from iTunes or by clicking on the links below.

iTunes | RSS Feed

Give Them Back!

Today is an historical day for me. I have completely given up my seven year old copy of Microsoft Office 2000 and replaced it with OpenOffice.org.  I have been using OOo for some time, but today marks the day I decided it was good enough to get rid of my old Microsoft software and depend entirely on OpenOffice.org.

UPDATE: I know use a combination of OpenOffice.org, Pages, and a couple plain text editors…still no Microsoft.

“It is especially interesting for women. If they learn what we do here they will realise it is not a big deal if their husbands or boyfriends want to come here.”

“This day is to help break down taboos around prostitution and to create more understanding and respect,” he said.

“People who work in the sex industry don’t get enough respect,” said Mariska Majoor, a former prostitute who now runs the red-light district’s information centre.

The URL for this article is no longer active.

An interesting article at the Telegraph by Philip Johnston talks about the CCTV cameras that abound in the emerging Orwellian England. I sure hope America follows suit with this insanity as we are trying to do with England’s wonderful gun control laws.

Taken from the April 2007 issue of America’s 1st Freedom

hammer comes down, spike rips the skin
blood drips from His hands and mine
pain withstood to forgive my sin
precious blood found nowhere in kind

blood drips from His hands and mine
i am the instrument that brought pain
precious blood found nowhere in kind
i do it again and again

i am the instrument that brought pain
the hammer bloody and cold
i do it again and again
my soul is not cheaply sold

the hammer bloody and cold
pain withstood to forgive my sin
i do it again and again
hammer comes down, spike rips the skin

1. Strong theist, 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C. G. Jung, ‘I do not believe, I know.’
2. Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. De facto theist. ‘I cannot know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there.’
3. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. Technically agnostic but leaning towards theism. ‘I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God.’
4. Exactly 50 per cent. Completely impartial agnostic. ‘God’s existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable.’
5. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheism. ‘I don’t know whether God exists but I’m inclined to be sceptical.’
6. Very low probability, but short of zero. De facto atheist. ‘I cannot know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that hie is not there.’
7. Strong atheist. ‘I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung “knows” there is one.’

Obviously four and below are out of the question with three quite probably included also, but what about two? Dawkins suggests that there are many religious people in the “1″ category and few in the “7″. Of course, he then goes on to explain how ridiculous it is to be in the “1″ and how wonderful it is to be in the “7″, but that is to be expected. What I find fascinating thus far with Dawkins is that he relies solely on these “1″ type Christians to formulate his defense against them. It seems that to his mind, there is no such thing as a thinking Christian.

Incidentally, I am a “2″.

The March 2007 issue of America’s 1st Freedom contains a fabulous article about Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a women considered to be the best female sniper ever. Lyudmila had 309 confirmed kills during WW II including 36 Nazi snipers. She was wounded in battle four times. In addition she was the first Soviet citizen granted a reception in the White House, being received by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. What a woman! This would make an award winning movie.

This list was taken directly from an article by David Kopel
in the March 2007 issue of America’s 1st Freedom.

From the “I can’t believe this is happening” file, the city of Buffalo, N.Y., is participating in a toy gun “buy-back.”A program initiated by the FATHERS grassroots community and anti-violence organization has swapped basketballs, footballs, books and board games for the toy guns of the city’s youth.

At press time, more than 100 toy guns already have been turned in, ranging from water pistols to soft pellet guns that look real.

Excerpt and post title taken from the March 2007 issue of America’s 1st Freedom. I could not locate a link for the FATHERS organization in question. I did notice that if you do a search you find that this is not a new idea, and many people are doing the same sort of things across the nation. Thank goodness for that.

These officers do not have to identify themselves when they go into premises and they can even film and photograph people to gather evidence…

We want to make our presence felt from the start, and while we will probably just issue warnings on the first day, we won’t be afraid of making an example of people or businesses if they try to make a stand.–Ian Gray, Policy Officer, Chartered Institute Of Environmental Health

I believe Cypress Hill said it best–

Insane in the membrane
Plenty insane
Got no brain!
Insane in the membrane
Insane in the brain!

My wife works as a Laboratory Scientist at Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital, and in the midst of our 12 inches of global warming snow, she tells me they have a singular snow shoveler–Dolan C. Dalpoasthe, the President and CEO of the hospital! I do not know if Dr. Dalpoasthe is a follower of Christ, but He has pegged the Christian model of leadership dead on.