It Is Simple

It really is simple.
 "⁶ Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." John 14:6

If you have not been called to repentance by Christ, if He has not opened the way to the Father 
for you, you are doomed. False churches such as Catholicism claim Him...but do not know Him.
A thousand and one other religions can claim to represent Christ-but they have no place in His Kingdom. 
How can you know? Who can you trust?
You certainly aren't going to take my word for anything-I'm just a guy at a keyboard.
If you trust in your own wisdom to discern truth...you are a fool. 
If you trust in the religion that you happened to be born into you are someone else's fool.
In either case, you are spiritually blind, and cannot see the truth.
But if you seek Christ, not through your own wisdom, not through your own religion, but through
His words, asking for discernment...there may be hope for you yet. 
The Bible is a spiritual book which can only be understood by those who have their eyes opened by
God. 
The simple graphic above is a test. How you respond to it and the Bible verse beneath it shows you 
exactly where you are. 
May God open your eyes, make Himself evident to you.

A Beautiful Song Or Two

I hardly ever post videos, but I want to share this one from Joni Erickson Tada, "Alone, Yet Not Alone".

And...if it works, this one by Gabriela Montero and Ruth Palmer. They met when their cars had a fender-bender; Gabriela wrote this piece of music for them to perform together. I've noted it
here before, but it bears re-watching.

Just a reminder that 'the world is not all dross'-there are some things Beautiful.

Aokigahara, Or Random Thoughts Tuesday, Wednesday Edition

Haven't done a random thoughts for awhile, which is proof to the 'Random' in the title.
First on the page-the irrelevant yammerfest of last night between a Creationist and a
Scientist.
Didn't watch, didn't care.
The Olympics begin soon; from reports read on the intrawebs, Russia isn't ready.
At all. Hilarious!
Speaking of 'isn't ready', reportage concerning the affordable care act highlighting the continual
vapoi of bad intentions meeting horrid implementation is my favorite sitcom of the season.
It goes like this-if it reported that the ACA will cost America 20+ million jobs, the "White House" 
will declare proudly that the ACA will create 20+ million American jobs!
If the ACA 'roll-out' is reported to be a complete failure, the "White House" will tout it's smooth
operation. And great success. While saving you money!
}shrugs{
Okayfine, I'll admit to feeling a bit miffed. Just read that there is going to be a movie concerning
Aokigahara. I guess it was too thematically potent for Hollywood to miss. I see no good coming from this-I hope that the filmmakers are respectful and do not exploit Aokigahara.
Dun

Compassion Forgiveness Restoration

It's funny-I've spent the last few hours avoiding writing this post.
I read something yesterday that was disturbing, which prompted this.
A man was caught with child pornography on his computer.
The man worked in government.
The man committed suicide after leaving a measured, completely rational suicide note.
He claimed that he had been abused as a child, which scarred him emotionally.
As an adult he was functional, detail oriented, one who was always in control.
But when he first saw child pornography, as he wrote in his suicide note, he "didn't turn away."
Suddenly he was not in control anymore. And it destroyed him.

Why I am posting about this? That note.
He explained clearly what had happened to him, what he had done, that he regretted his actions...
and that at the next opportunity he was going to kill himself.
Functional. In control. Rational. Suicide.

Here's the thing-no matter how black our sins, they CAN be forgiven.
God forgives sinners. Jesus Christ came to make that Salvation possible.
Even for pedophiles.
For anyone haunted by guilt (which means all of us, as we are all guilty of something) it need not destroy you..

I once knew an assistant Pastor who was later discovered to be a pedophile. He ran away, and I had promised that if I ever saw him again, that I would give him a beating.
That is all over. Now I'm more of the forgiving type, as God has forgiven me for so much.
No sin is greater than the Grace of God. If you are living with a secret hurt, if you have carried some issue inside for a lifetime which makes you feel unworthy of God's forgiveness...it's been paid for by Jesus Christ, and there is Forgiveness available for you.

Speaking Of Old Stuff...

Yeah! I was doing mirror 'selfies' back before there was a Pinterest, before any Facebook, back when the
"Internet" went by the name "DARPA".
So there, America!

More Of My Old Stuff

I've decided to put more of my older work online, at both this blog and FDW.
This is a song written back in B.C. (Before Computers).

Holy Of Holies

Holy of Holies,

Be not far from me-

I pray that you answer at my call

(Hear my cry)

I pray that you answer at my call.

It is of the Lord’s Mercies that

We are not consumed,

Because His Compassions fail not

(Never fear)

Because His Compassions fail not.

The Lord is my portion

Saith my soul-

Therefore I will trust in Him

(Only Him)

Because his Compassions fail not

(Never fear)

I pray that you answer at my call

Hear my cry:

“The Lord IS my Portion”.

Best News Of The Day

You know me through these posts. I've loved Baseball for longer than I can remember. In the late 1980's/early 1990's I began watching WTBS and WGN while living in Vegas. Specifically, MLB-the Braves and the Cubs/White Sox. Even back then I had no use for New York teams, so I never invested much time in WOR.
But I became a Braves fan, and, when Tommy Glavine, John Smoltz, Steve Avery or Greg Maddux was pitching, they usually won. Maddux came in later, but he fit into the rotation quite nicely.
Congratulations to Glavine and Maddux for being voted into the Hall of Fame. Well deserved!

Thumbprint Meta Ikon

Sometimes an image pictorially exemplifies an emotion. Case in point above.
Whether or not the dog is happy, it LOOKS happy, and that shows how I feel
right now.
You may have heard of the "Peace that passes all understanding" with which Christians
are Blessed through Christ.
Here's the thing-if you were to look at my life, dissect all components...you might not see much
reason for happiness or Peace.  Logically, I should be UN-happy. 
But I have Peace and I am happy.
Cynics might ripost with:"Truly happy people don't proclaim it-Doug must be putting on 
a happy face to hide the truth."
Nah.
A few posts ago I wrote one of my darker items, the "Christmas Angel Parable". It was about a very real someone who does not share my Peace and happiness.
But even if such sadness and darkness are a part of my life...I am still at Peace, and am still
happy. 
Even if I can't figure it out.
May God Bless you in this new year.

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.