You Know Who You Are

Imitation is the most insincere form of mockery.
If you are not connected to Jesus Christ,
if He is not Lord of your life,
why would you celebrate Christmas?
Who is He to you?
Forget about some priest mumbling words over a baby-you know in your heart whether or not Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior.
If the answer is "NO"...why Christmas?
He is your enemy. He is sending you to hell.
That would be like Christians celebrating the existence of satan. 
If Christmas is a cultural thing only, simply tradition and Christ is not Lord to you,
your tradition is the insincere mockery of what life IS for us who do belong to Him.
We celebrate our Savior all of our lives.
We acknowledge Him as Lord seven days a week, not one day a year.
I realize that this post sounds harsh.
The harsh reality is that all are doomed until they are brought face to face with the fact that they NEED a Savior. 
That's how it was for me, that is how it is.
Seek the Lord while He may be found.

 

IF YOU LIKE YOUR GOVERNMENT, YOU CAN KEEP IT?

You don't know hard it is to have sworn off political snarking at a time when hilarious chaos is bayoneting the survivors.
Metaphorically, of course. Actual bayoneting would be double nasty when millions are losing their health care.
Others will yammer on and on about this, so, as brevity is the soul of fine dry wit:
President Obama=bad.

Preaching From The _______ (plural)

¹⁴    “Issachar is a ______ donkey,     Lying down between the sheepfolds.

¹⁹So the LORD shifted the wind to a very ______ west wind which took up the locusts and drove them into the ^£Red Sea; not one locust was left in all the territory of Egypt.
 
¹³It came about when the sons of Israel became ______, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they did not drive them out completely.

Enough of that. I've come to dislike 'fill in the blank' teaching, as I see it as ineffectual, and mostly a waste of paper. If we didn't know the answer before we filled in a blank, we won't know it again the second we've move on to the next. It might work better among first graders who are just learning words, but for adults it seems a lazy teaching tool.

Since I am already in _______, as in: " ³⁵When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are among those who ______ me; for I have given my word to the LORD, and I cannot take it back.” ...
I hope that we will not next be going through Psalm 119 from Aleph to Tav. The words are pure and wonderful for personal meditation, but the similarities between the verses make for tough slogging if one tries to find something fresh and new to say about each and every verse. It is possible to get bogged down in minutia. Who would want to make Bible study boring?

Relent

Tentative-walking a fine line here. Troubled by years of interacting with someone who is Gospel hardened, a friend who might no longer see me as a friend.
Insecure people stand out like flashing neon signs on a dark night. An insecure Christian may swear
that he or she is fine, doing fine. Everything's fine. No problems here. Couldn't be better!
And those of us who know the symptoms and the signs shake our heads.
Here are a few signs:
1. A controlling personality.
    Someone who is insecure can work themselves to death trying to 'keep it all together', control all
situations; when confronted by something or someone they can't control, the controlling person gets nervous, feels threatened, uncomfortable.
2. Heavy lifting.
   An insecure person never is able to get over the feeling that they don't measure up, that they have to do twice as much, lift heavier burdens, take on more duties than everyone else. They generally only live to be overworked.
   Some others happily take advantage of an insecure person's 'need to do more'.
   It also becomes a self-fulfilling flagellation, feeding into the insecure person's belief that they
have to do everything or it won't get done. And they are just the martyr chosen to do it.
3. Perfection mask
   This one ranges far afield-it isn't a singular sign of the insecure, but they might have the market cornered.
Someone holding up the perfection mask is very careful not to make any serious mistakes; they fear being humbled, their poor self image demands that they never allow themselves to be seen as wrong.

I'm going to stop there for now. 

Yes, With Respect

This is tough, but God may Bless anyway.
Talking with someone is a dialogue-this isn't going to be one of those. I have no interest in
back and forth, argument, all of that stuff. I'm going to said my said, and after that, I may say some more.
I see problems in my church, and I'm speaking up because our leadership is mostly absent right now-our pastor isn't getting needed feedback, and it is hurting our assembly.
I know that this will seem like a personal attack, and I fully expect the pastor to get defensive and possibly attack me back. Not looking for a fight, just want things to get better.
First issue-last year we began taping our services to play on local cable access. I don't know if there was any discussion in the body or if the elders simply agreed to it.
Church is personal, and since they began taping, it has felt like an invasion of our privacy. I know that I no longer wish to do anything in the service, and when we have a sharing time, I and most of the congregation sit on our hands. It doesn't even matter to me if they shut the camera off-it's still there, and I want it gone.
Now...I'm about to get into hotter waters.
Our pastor has begun 'playing to' the camera in his sermons, and the sermons of late have been erratic, all over the place. He's not preaching to us, he's preaching to cable access.
I've also noticed that rather than simply expositing Scripture, he's padding the sermons with a lot of unrelated nonsense. Last Sunday he forced Attention Deficit Disorder into a sermon from Jude.
We've also heard about blood pressure, seen sermons/displays on different types of swords, secular surveys(?) of Christians and others in our country that show nothing and have nothing to do with us.
If we lose the camera, and if the pastor would focus on Scripture, I think that our church would be in better shape.
I'm not against anyone talking about worldly subjects-I do it all of the time. But I'm not a preacher. Scripture CAN illuminate worldly topics, and here's an example:
The theme of this last sermon was Jude warning against false teachers.
I would have appreciated if that had been a springboard for our pastor to warn against the false teachers of our generation: T.D. Jakes with his Modalism. Rick Warren watering down the Gospel. Rob Bell and others who teach a different Gospel, the disgrace which is Joel Osteen, etc. That would be helpful.
If Jude had been sitting next to me last Sunday, he might have asked, "Doug, what is ADD? Some new heresy?"
I think I've done enough damage for today. If our elder board were in place, I would have brought these concerns to them.
I believe that it would have been foolish/futile to bring my concerns to the pastor, as he is the one that I am taking issue with. That would have led only to argument and back and forth that I want to avoid.

Confaluted World

Sometimes it feels as if this entire world has tripped and is falling down the crazy stairs. Stuff that used to
make sense is now perceived as senseless, and vita versi is too true.
Once the norm, the trad family: (Man and woman married to each other raising children which will someday become men and women married to each other raising chil...you've got it)-that ideal still exists, but it shares space on the planet with other configs which, amazingly, don't work as well.
"You don't have to be married to live together and raise kids."
"You can marry someone of your own gender."
"To say otherwise is a hate crime."

nope.
What you consider a family may simply be an aggregation of sinners sharing living space.
Your opinion and my opinion mean nothing.
God is the only one Who's opinion on ANYTHING means EVERYTHING.

Number Two

"Could you have number two step forward and say, "Acorns! I've got acorns in here!"

Prayers For Oklahoma

Devastation. Oklahoma took a hit yesterday, giving the rest of us an opportunity to pray for the health and welfare of those affected.
God allowed it to happen, just as He allows everything else.
There will be a time when such tragedies no longer happen, but we aren't there yet.
 Fund the Red Cross. Pray for Oklahoma.

Warm Thoughts

Sure, sure, Mother's Day. One of the least reprehensible non-holy holidays. Moms are great-I was just talking to one, and I MEANT to wish her a happy Mother's Day, but it came out wrong, that she was expecting to be a mother again. Wrong wrong wrong.
John MacArthur teaches from the Bible year around, but even he somehow finds himself focusing on 'Mothers in the Bible' the week ahead of the Day.
H.M.D.

Blowback

Dear atheists, a theist here, a follower of God who wants to gently, with care and kindness, tell you that
your imaginings regarding God are folly.
Pride is a killer, friends, and as it has been stated many times, God opposes the proud, but gives Grace to the humble. Rather than pretending that God doesn't exist so that you can live your life however you wish, stop for a second.
Think, just think for a moment of how your life would be different if God does indeed exist.
Have a better day, friends.

Same ol' Same ol'

Just waiting on Friday, the end of the week. And...waiting.
My Friday used to be Monday-I had Tues/Wedn off for years. Then I had a decade plus of Friday actually falling on Friday.
Now it's weird. Seven days in a row, three off, three on, one off and repeat. Right now I'm at one off, meaning Monday I start my seven. I spent most of Saturday thinking it was Friday, and now I'm tired enough
to keep thinking it.
Please don't mistake this for whining-I am very grateful to have a job. Today at the store I saw another one of my former co-workers, and discovered that she had been laid off also. Ouch.
More businesses are closing down in my little town. Consequences of losing elections, friends.
See you on the radio.

Arrivanoches, Roger

Well, they just couldn't let it go-the nutcase Wierdsboro {allegedly} Baptist churchers decided that
Roger Ebert needed a dishonor guard at his funeral.
I wasn't going to write about Ebert, as I wasn't a fan of his reviews or opinions. Sad that he died.
                                                                 shrugs
But the WBC crowd had to stink up the place with their hate spewing. They give Democrats a bad name.
In case anyone's thinking, "Wait a minuto, Doug! You just commented for the 18,000 time about homosexuals being sinners bound for hell-isn't that what the WBC believes?"
Allegedly. One major difference is that I try to follow the Bible:
"Bless your enemies. Be kind to those who hate you." That's a paraphrase, but you get the idea-Christians are called to pray for their enemies. Not shout and hold signs at solemn events where we were not invited.
If they were true Christians, rather than holding hateful placards at funerals, they would be in their church
praying for the Eberts of the world.
I'm not saying this now to boast, but to share a point:
in many ways, I oppose nearly all of the policies of President Obama. I think he is wrong about just about everything.
But I, as a Christian, and my church as a church body pray for President Obama, and for those in government under whom we live. Every Wednesday night my church meets for prayer; government officials, from President Obama down to the city level are listed and prayed for.
I pray for his salvation, that God will draw him to Himself and give him the faith to believe and be saved.
I pray that God will humble him and cause him to repent of his sins.
Would I ever picket a place, such as some Christians do at abortion clinic? I don't know. If I felt that God wanted me to do so, I would. He once had one of his prophets walk around naked to shame the Israelites
who needed shaming. I hope it doesn't come to that.
My point is: there's a distinction between Christians who try to live by God's teachings and those such as the Westboro crowd who only hate. You may not see  a difference, but for me it's there.

Homosexual Hitlers

The fuss and furor is starting up again. No matter how many times homosexual marriage is voted down in California, the true believers, those politicizing sexuality, refuse to take "No" for reality. Now it's going before the Supreme Court, and it doesn't matter. If the SCOTUS affirms that homosexual marriage is a protected 'right', then that is what we will have as the law of the land. We are a nation of Laws, and obey even those which we think are wrong.
But...
If the SCOTUS says no, if the Court rules that it is not a protected right...that will not stop the political agitators one bit. They will go on, crusading for their beliefs as if SCOTUS has no right to decide such matters.
"Stay OUT of our Bedrooms, SCOTUS!" will be the strident screed of the day.
It's really quite simple. Those sexual agitators who wish to make homosexual marriage legal are not going to be swayed by law, reason or argument. They are as fully invested in their being 'Right' as Hitler was about the Aryans being human perfection. He could not be swayed by law, reason or argument, either.
Bottom line: God is in charge, and what He says is proper and right will ultimately be all that matters. When Christ returns to set up His Kingdom, He will rule the nations with a rod of iron, and this world will be a much better place.

Transmogrificationalistacate

Transitions are ever so much fun. We transition from day to day, year to year, friend to friend, job to job, place to place.
We progress, regress and sometimes digress. This blog, Finer with an 'R' Dry Wit only exists because google deleted FDW for a few days, and I transitioned here in case it went away forever.
I can write nonsense/sense for two blogs as well as one, so I will keep both going.
Going. That is the operative. Tummeling. Action. Forward movement.
My non-online friends know what I haven't mentioned on the blogs-I was 'laid off' in January from the place where I had worked for over ten years.
They recently called me back with an offer for a short term contract, which came at about the same time as another job offer for full time year around employment.
No to the past, yes to the future, and whatever I do, wherever I transition, I actually am working for God.
Awaiting the perfect transition, from corruptable flesh to incorruptible, into His presence forever. Amen.

Sic transit gloria mundi...or not

Thus passes the glory of the world. OR thus passes the latest addition to popery, showing his humility while wearing a golden crown, living in the most exclusive neighborhood on oit.
                                             {shrugs}
It doesn't really affect my life if there is a pope or a penguin being proclaimed the Vicar-he is anathema, astride a cultic empire so huge that it has almost caught up, sizewise, with Barack Obama's ego.
I thought that Catholics gave up their pope for Lent, but what do I know?

Bible Lies

Lies that are nuked into distorted common usage by sinful unsaved knuckleheads:
Nephilim. Means giant. As in tall guys. Yet you can find all sorts of wrong headed theology claiming that
Genesis 6:4 means that angels had sex with humans and the result were half caste angelhumans called Nephilim.
Libraries of books have been written about Nephilim angelhumans, but not by B.A. Christians who know better-the books are excreted by non-Christians who don't.
Another Bible lie-that it is false, incomplete, outdated, racist, homophobic, hate literature.
Again-those who belong to God know the truth, and those who do not belong to God only know lies.
Number three in our round up: God isn't. Isn't there, isn't able, isn't trustworthy, isn't listening.
El wrongo, friends. He IS, He's able, He's trustworthy...He's listening.

Redemption

One of the most beautiful words in all of recorded languages. Redemption. Recovering something of wealth, of worth; reclaiming something lost.
Does it get under your skin to hear Christians boasting about going to Heaven? I have good news for you.
They can't claim any credit. We have nothing to do with being saved, except saying yes to Christ when Christ calls us. Even the faith to believe comes from God, so saying 'yes' is pre-ordained by God.
Redeemed. By God. For God's own purposes.
You might say, "That's fine for you-but I am not a Christian, and I feel fine."
How you feel, how I feel has nothing to do with anything. If you live by your feelings, God help you.
If Salvation were based on how a person feels, no one would survive to make it into Heaven.
God still saves people from hell-the books have not yet been closed. If you can read this, you still may be
given the gift of faith to believe in God, leading to your being redeemed. Mighty Cool.

Simply Grateful

God has Blessed me in many, many ways through the years, and I am eternally grateful for all that
He has given me (family, friends), and also for all that He has kept away from me.
Diabetes romps through my family. I don't have diabetes.
I've never had a broken bone, though my nose was busted a few times in my earlier stupider years.
I'm in fairly good health, and I trust that as I wander into eternity, I will someday be perfect, as in complete.
The time that we have on earth...great news! For me it's more than half over, unless I live to be 108. 
How cool is that?
 

Evo FDW!!!

Fine Dry Wit. Eight years, many many posts, a lot of fun. Deleted by Google by mistake, and it
may not ever come back.
No tears, no sorrow. This new blog is the evolution of Fine Dry Wit, and hopefully those who search for FDW will find their way to this new thing-I don't actually think it will be "Finer", but I wanted to keep as close to the original title as possible.
For new guests, a bit o'background. Back in the early 2000's I came upon a weblog called "Christian Conservative" created by a man named Michael. In order to be able to comment on his blog I needed
to set up an email account, which I named, without much thought, fine_dry_wit@yahoo.com.
Michael closed up shop for his blog, and I decided to start my own, which is how Fine Dry Wit became
a weblog. I had two compatriots for awhile, and we each posted our thoughts, but eventually they went their own way and FDW became a one dog show.
So here I am, freshly starting with the same old same old.
I can still be reached at: fine_dry_wit@yahoo.com but am also connectable through:
fine.dry.wit@gmail.com.
There will be many photos and topics recycled from FDW, as I have not changed my spotty attempts at humor or point of view.
I am simply a Christian living here until I get to go there. The picture above shows the egress of a harbor.
Happy sailing!