With Respect

I went out today and watered some flowers.
While we may all be different dots across the political/religious landscape, one thing we have in common is respect for our country, and respect for those who have died for our country.
Seek out an assembly tomorrow if you can. 

Getting Church Wrong: Part Two

I'm pretty sure that this series isn't appreciated by all who read it-but here I go anyway.
^"2Now the town of Bethel had sent Sharezer and Regemmelech and their men to seek the favor of the LORD,
³speaking to the priests who belong to the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Shall I weep in the fifth month and abstain, as I have done these many years?”
Zechariah  7:2-3
I am careful not to misinterpret Scripture, and I understand the question posed above by the men from Bethel: "Should we still be fasting, keeping the memorial of the fall of Jerusalem, now that Jerusalem and the Temple are being rebuilt?"
God had never ordained the fasts they were asking about, but this post isn't about fasting per se. Look at the LORD's response:
^"4Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying,
⁵“Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?
⁶‘When you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?"

In my recent post "What Has God Done To Deserve Such Prayers?" I mentioned prayers such as heard at the National Day Of Prayer which may 'namecheck' God, but aren't actually petitions to God but instead are said to be heard by human listeners. I believe I mentioned Christian Pharisees.

It is a spiritual truth that God's people spend more time in the valleys than on the mountaintops.
What I mean by that is that we do not always have wonderful anointed mountaintop joyous experiences every day of our lives. Some would be quick (VERY QUICK!) to suggest that if you
are not seeing spiritual highs, you must have hidden sins that have shut off your access to God for a season to teach you to repent.
The 'proof text for such an assumption is Psalm 66:18 
"¹⁸  If I regard wickedness in my heart,     The Lord will not hear;"

It's never a good idea to build a theology out of one text. A Christian Pharisee might point to a brother hurting and bound up in troubles and think to himself, "That man is regarding wickedness in his heart; of course the Lord will not hear him!"

This was the same wrongful assumption of Job's friends.
Here is a spiritual truth which bears remembering.
God is interested in heartfelt honest worship, so if you are going to approach God, do so reverently.
Don't set your own fasts.
Don't go through the empty motions of worship if you are going through a spiritual dry spell.
You cannot 'force' a greater spiritual experience by 'priming the pump' with songs and prayers and
reading 3 chapters a day and tithing your lemons and spices and why won't God hear me? I'm doing all the right things!

Yeah. You're doing. You.
I've had my dry spells. I've been at this for over 30 years.
Rather than attempt to bring about spiritual growth by my own efforts, I simply trust that God will lead me through the valleys.
I avoid religion and ritual and human efforts.
I once mentioned to my pastor that if church becomes merely ritual, it would be better to stay home.
He looked at me as if I were from Mars. And I don't mean the candy bar.
 

Light-hearted VS Light-headed

I laughed hard when I saw this today. The joys of electricity and discovery!
Yup, a young teen, and it was a butter knife, just like the jr scientist above, but I did NOT stick the knife in an outlet---
I was using it to 'fix' an electric clock that was plugged in.
When I came to a few minutes later I was staring at the butter knife which had a big pitted burn
on the edge.
Fast forward 20 some years. I'm on top of a ten foot A-frame ladder replacing the ballast in an 8 foot fluorescent light fixture. Working hot was fine, as I was usually careful. To keep from getting shocked I would put a wire connector on the hot ends while switching out the ballast which weighed about 20 pounds. But I forgot...and as I was looking down the loose hot wires happened to graze both my ears at the exact same time. It was life a Chevy Chase or Ernest movie. The ladder thought it was an earthquake the way I was shaking around.Didn't fall, but I did get a good laugh out of it.
I know that the planet is rotating through some darkerish bad circumnavigations right now; this picture made me laugh, and that is enough for today.

Resurrection Season

I know-the weekend which reminds us of Christ's victory,  His Resurrection is here. There will be a lot of religious stuff happening. Forget all of that for a minute and enjoy some flowers.

Trust Not In Idiots

So, have you noticed?
Forget Putin/Ukraine.
Forget the Obamacare fiasco.
Forget Syria and Iran and North Korea.
Forget the dozen myriad chaos inflicted upon this world daily.
Please.
Instead, focus on Global warming, income inequality, taxing the rich so that they will begin to pay their fair share.
Help your President out-focus on problems which don't exist, and ignore the very real
troubles facing the world.
Because why?
Because President Obama's ego, his self-image is founded upon the idea that he is a winner.
He would prefer to fight against shadows rather than face issues of consequence and be seen as weak
when he cannot succeed.
In shadow boxing he never loses; his self esteem is safe and secure from all alarms.
So focus on global warming, please. For his sake.
We used to joke that he was Jimmy Carter-lite. Right now Carter looks like Reagan by comparison.
(In case you aren't sure, that is a compliment...for Carter).

No Trace Of Bitter

Just saw the news that Westburo baptist leader Fred Phelps has died. The interwebs mock crews have been cheering for this to happen the past few days. Not me.
Life is precious. If you hate him for all the hate that he and his group have spewed, how are you better?
Sure, they are a vile group. He was not a good guy. But right at this time I will not cheer for anyone's death, not even Phelps. 
Life is precious. The picture above is titled "Our Lady Grace" and I like it. If confronted by something ugly, look for beauty.

No, This Was A HAD TO Repost

I missed an opportunity to crack wise about "Beware the ides of March", but that's okay. Consider this a free post to comment on Bert Lahr's snappy chapeau.
I won't write (today) about the persistence of memories from childhood getting a new layer of introspect due to seeing iconic movie players as themselves but partially dressed as we remember.
Margaret Hamilton is not dressing as "Ghostface". And exactly who Frank Morgan is looking at we will never know.

Another Old One From PCD

IF YOU
GO SEARCHING THROUGH THE WORLD
LOOKING HARD TO FIND, TO SEE
ANY REMNANT OF GOOD
IN A LOST HUMANITY
KEEP SEARCHING.

DIGGING THROUGH THE RUBBLE-
ANY KINDNESS THAT YOU FIND,
YOU WILL TREASURE MORE.
ANY FORGIVENESS FOUND IS GOLD
WORTH DIGGING FOR.

KEEP SEARCHING-THIS WORLD
IS NOT ALL DROSS.
THERE ARE DIAMONDS IN THE CLAY TO POLISH
LAY BEFORE THE CROSS.
ANY SIN STRUCK SOUL BEFRIENDED-
MET WITH CHRIST BEFORE ALL CHANCE IS ENDED...
CAN BECOME A PRECIOUS STONE IN HIS HOUSE.
KEEP SEARCHING.

FOR YOU WERE TAKEN FROM THE MUD-
REACHED WITH WORDS YOU KNEW WERE SPOKEN IN
A SPECIAL CHRIST-LIKE LOVE;
YOU MAY HAVE BEEN UNLOVABLE
TO ANYONE BUT GOD,
BUT HIS LOVE SENT SOMEONE SEARCHING THROUGH THE WORLD,
AND YOU WERE FOUND.

Scarier Than Putin

Oh sure, thing looks scary. Black Flying Fox, also known as the "Fruitbat". Saw this online and the common tators noted that the AUSTRALIAN man with the stick is holding the fruitbat closer to the camera for a bit of forced perspective fun.
But still...the fruitbat of nightmares. I've been having some doozies lately, and this thing might join the shade population of my sleeps.
They LOOK scarier to me than Putin. He is just a man. No matter what troubles he brings on our world, his power is finite, and his day will end just as surely as Hitler's did, Napoleon's did.
See if this little epitaph fits Putin and the others like Hitler who so troubled the world:
"Those who see you will gaze at you, 
 They will ponder over you, saying,
 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
 Who shook kingdoms, 
 Who made the world like a wilderness
 And overthrew it's cities,
 Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?'"
Isaiah 14:16-17

That verse wasn't talking about Putin, of course, but about satan, who raises up such Putins and
Hitlers to trouble the earth.
In "Despicable Me" terms, satan is "Gru" and the Putins/Hitlers his minions.

So don't fear Putin. Pray, as I do, for the return of Christ to set this world right, to end the dominance of Man, pray that every heart prepare Him room, and Heaven and nature sing when He rules the world with Truth and Grace and makes the nations prove the Glories of His Righteousness.

Okay, How About This?

Oncet uponish a time, I was given grief for comparing President Obama to Adolph Hitler.
How about this? In the config of 2014 current events, Vladdie Putin is casting himself in the Hitler role, invading Ukraine as Hitler did Poland.
This is President Obama's moment to shine as a world leader. He can do the right thing and champion the people of Ukraine who are threatened with subservience...or he can follow the example of Neville Chamberlain. 
Chamberlain was the dovish PM of Great Britain who, in the name of world peace, caved like a mountain climber rather than a speleologist. That is to say, this dove's weak action, winning a peace accord from Hitler as meaningless as a basilisk's smile, made it necessary for hawks to take to the skies.
But Wars Will happen in this shoddy cosmos where Man acts up and causes grief to the world.
Such will be the case until we all sing, "Joy to the world, Our Lord has come! Let earth receive her King!"

Honoring Our Heroes

Egon is gone. Farewell to Harold Ramis. We do lose our heroes eventually, but one of mine who
has recently been promoted I will see again. May you be so fortunate.

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