No Grasp of Your Reality

This week, I received a mailing from Peacemaker Ministries that included an “Operation Peace on Earth” calendar with thought-provoking daily assignments for “holiday peacemaking”. Holidays can be stressful for some, as are forced to see people whom they have avoided for the rest of the year. The calendar goes from 11/21 through 12/25 and a .pdf version can be downloaded here.

This is one of my favorite ministries! I love their godly approach to conflict and living in genuine peace (as opposed to putting on a fake smile and pretending that everything is A-Ok, while a standing on a large pile of angry dust bunnies festering under the carpet) with one another.

Their website has many resources for peacemaking in the church, in families (including a series called the “Young Peacemaker” for teens), between spouses, at work and school, and even for the international community. Workbooks for personal or group/class study are available. They offer a variety of counseling services for conflicts that require third party mediation.

Also, If you ever have an opportunity to go to one of their seminars, please don’t let it pass by. I guarantee you will grow and be encouraged. I was blessed to have attended a Peacemaker’s retreat for women with the Philadelphia PresWIC.

This story made the CNN headlines today.

A father in New Jersey called the police to report his 16 year old daughter, who stumbled in ‘drunk and unruly’ around 2:45am.

When the police got there, she claimed she felt threatened by her dad and led police to his 600 vial stash of cocaine and an arsenal of weapons in a crawl space above the ceiling.

Classic.

Sigh… power went out this morning right after we left for church. Didn’t get back home until this evening, which means the system was down for over 12 hours. I reconfigured my server to remember that the system is powered on when it loses power, meaning when the power comes back on, the server will come back up.

Now I need to look into an uninterruptable power supply…

Well, our complaints about recent actions by the IPC Session have finally been received, and Sarah and I are meeting with a committee from Heritage Presbytery one week from today (Dec. 4). Since the complaint has been received, and based on numerous statements from members of the Session, and from the Clerk of Session that the matter is public, we’re posting our cronological list of events over the past 5 months.

All the documents linked below are official correspondences between the Session and my family, and originals of all the documents have been saved.

Sarah and I think that there has been a lot gossip spread over this whole issue, and we don’t see it ending any time soon. Due to lack of clarity from the Session, we were never sure whether it was appropriate to discuss the issue publicly, but as I said before, now that the ambiguity has been resolved, we are comfortable publishing our information. Our goal is not to stir up trouble, but instead to show the facts to those who ought to know.

One other comment: There are a lot more words that passed back and forth between my family and members of the Session than what is documented here, but I have not posted them since there is no hard copy of those conversations, and my opinions would be so biased as to be useless to an observer.
Read the rest of this entry »

The schism between the Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church make the Protestant/Catholic split look like a minor disagreement. It surprised me, then to see the recent news about Pope John Paul II returning Orthodox relics to the leaders of the Orthodox Church.

For those of you who don’t have the Christian Schism scorecard, a good place to start is at the Hall of Church History, and you can read about things like the Great Schism of 1054. Contrary to popular understanding, Muslims were not the only recipients of the Roman Catholic Church’s wrath during the Crusades. The Fourth Crusade was “diverted” from their perpetual attempt to “reclaim the holy land” into Constantinople, attacking the Orthodox Christians for their indifference, and even their support of Saladin during the Third Crusade.

Anyway, needless to say, the RCs and the Orthodox Christians haven’t liked each other for a long time. Pope John Paul II had made it a goal of his tenure to encourage unity with the Orthodox Church, but his recent actions were the first real concrete actions taken.

Bartholomew I, the leader (Ecumenical Patriarch) of the Orthodox Church has said in response, “This brotherly gesture by the Church of Old Rome confirms that there are no insurmountable problems in the church of Christ.”

I agree that all things are possible through Christ, and that we should strive for unity (contrary to those who have a rally cry “No Peace with Rome”). However, our unity needs to be centered on Christ and His truth, and not simply a desire to “all get along”. While many Protestants seem to have the strength to hold fast to the Truth, oftentimes we fail to have the humility to even sit face to face with a Christian brother and talk to them. Until we can do that, unity will never happen.

Doug Wilson has posted a review of Guy Waters’ new book, Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul, and he seems to agree with the author who seems to agree with Gaffin. Wilson vents his ongoing frustration with the usual irony:

Now, when we Federal Vision troublemakers are sitting there listening to the discussion between Gaffin and Wright, though Christian charity will radiate from us in every direction like heat from a stove, where shall our doctrinal sympathies be? Mine will be with Gaffin; his concerns are mine. This means, according to the bibliography, that since his concerns are the concerns of Waters, my concerns are those of Waters. But Gaffin is friendly to Shepherd, and I don’t know who is on what team anymore.

Except for a few critiques, Wilson’s review of the book is positive overall. I may be adding it to my bookshelf, soon.

While I have no plans on seeing the movie, this review of Alexander in the Marin Independant Journal has probably cemented my resolve not to go. The reviewer don’t mince words when describing how much he hates this film.

“Alexander” takes one of world history’s most interesting characters and tabloidizes him with speculation on his sexuality and whether he actually was the god that he claimed to be. Like the egomaniacal rulers of old, the film is far more concerned with the legend of the man than it is with the significance of his accomplishments.

Read the entire review yourself for a good chuckle.

“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?” - G.K. Chesterton

“The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” - H.U. Westermayer

“The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.” - G.K. Chesterton

While the Thanksgiving holidays have traditionally been a celebration of the blessings that God has given us, and a yearly time set aside to thank our Provider and Creator for his gifts, our modern litigious society has caused gracious hosts to worry whether their serving of a meal could force them into the poorhouse.

Fear no more! Just in time for Thanksgiving, the Center for Consumer Freedom has released a form for hosts to have their guests sign to release them from all indemnity in the event that the guest somehow feels wronged by the meal.

Make sure you us the 2004 Thanksgiving Guest Liability and Indemnification Form this year, and take the worry out of this holiday season.

This morning, between 4 and 5 AM, the power went off and on at least three times.
It actually woke me up.
It was the whole block, not just our house.
I stood in one of the rooms that overlook the city, and I saw a huge flash - but no noise.
Then, a number of alarms went off in the downtown area.
There isn’t anything on the news, and I never heard any emergency vehicles.
Because I didn’t hear any emergency vehicles, it is possible that the “flash” was power
being turned back on, on the next grid over.
Still, it’s strange that it would happen more than once.

This is… interesting. I stumbled on Molatar’s Castle from BoingBoing . The site has the goal of “spreading the Gospel in the werewolf and furry communities.” I really don’t know how to comment on it, so instead, I’m just going to post a few choice quotes. You can take from this what you choose.

As an aside, his theology isn’t too bad…

Dear visitor, if you are trans-species, I can sympathize with you. I too know the shame and anger about being trapped in a powerless and ugly human body. If you desire a shape-shift, please click on the P-shift essay link to your left and I will guide you.

Q: Did you just say that God could do a shapeshift? I thought God didn’t allow that kind of thing!
A: Yes, I did say that God could perform a shape-shift on someone. You forget that God is generous and kind. He knows our sufferings, and He will satisfy our longings to become powerful nonhuman beings if we remain faithful to Him. Read Psalm 37:4. God will reward His children with whatever delights them, but when He feels it is the right time.

Q: What is a fursuit?
A: A fursuit is a costume worn by the shifter to help him pretend he is his nonhuman persona. Some fursuits are carefully crafted to replicate a bestial appearance, but others are silly. Some shifters simply wear a mask or a false tail. Most people who wear fursuits do so as part of a role-playing fantasy, not because they are true werewolves, although some rare shifters would do so.

Q: How can you be a dragon and a Christian at the same time?
A: Many shifters worry that they are so strange that they can never be accepted into the Body of Christ. That’s not true and its not being fair to Christians. We Christians accept people from all walks of life. I’m proof of that.
I have been told that my shifter feelings are a lie from satan and that God has a plan for me in this human body. Well I don’t know what that plan is, and as far as I can see, that divine plan will never see fruition because I feel too much like a loser to implement it.
So I need to be a dragon, a beautiful and powerful dragon that’s fears not what men can say or do and attracts many followers. If I was a dragon, I could do so much good for this world because my self-confidence would return to me. I pray constantly to God to change me, and He tells me to wait.
If I can handle being a Christian, you can too, because I’m more f***** up than you are.

I don’t recall my parents ever saying this… perhaps it might have helped.

My son, Thomas, is now prone to sneaking into the office to use the computer. I called him over after an episode of disobedience this evening, and told him that if he did it again, that he would a) get a spanking, and b) lose his login privledges.

The loss of computer privileges scared him more.

One one hand, this story has a “well, duh…” element about it. On the other hand, it’s dumbfounding how disfunctional our federal government, and how we continue to accept it. CNN has a story about the Senate barely catching language in the 2005 spending bill that would have allowed two Republican congressmen, one from Florida and one from Alaska, to read the Federal tax returns of anyone in America.

Bill Frist is understandably upset, vowing that “accountability will be carried out”. Diane Feinstein and John McCain are livid, but I have a fear the democrats are going to make this a partisan issue, as though the same thing couldn’t have happened if the Democrats were in charge.

I wonder… I wonder whether someone did this deliberatly, not to get these two congressmen weird powers, but to see if they could sneak through a law under everyone’s noses. I hope there are followups to this, and more importantly, I hope that our congressmen are held accountable for voting for the bill. It’s inexcusable that anyone would vote for a bill that they wouldn’t even read, yet we take this as a matter of course.

Pathetic.

TokyoNov2004/PocariSweatadFood in Japan is unlike western food - where everything is segregated on the customer’s plate.

Things are piled on top of each other, even to the extent of having fried food sticking out of soup.

Interesting things I ate:

Read the rest of this entry »

Have Premillennial Dispensationalists become discontent with simply watching the prophetic events unfold around them, and decided to help try speed up God’s timetable? In a well-written article entitled “On the Road to Armageddon“, Timothy Weber discusses how much of America’s foreign policy is actually based on the false views of Dispensational Theology. The online article is excerpted from the author’s book by the same title.

Whether or not George Bush and the rest of his administration accept the tenents of Dispensationalism, it’s no surprise that the Dispensational Christians in America have a strong approval for the United States’ pro-Israel policies, and rather confused at the less one-sided of other countries around the world. Pat Robertson has named himself a “Christian Zionist” and expects that all Bible-believing Christians should think the same.

For the dispensational community, the future is determined. The Bible’s prophecies are being fulfilled with amazing accuracy and rapidity. They do not believe the road map will - or should - succeed. According to the prophetic texts, partitioning is not in Israel’s future, even if the creation of a Palestinian state is the best chance for peace in the region. Peace is nowhere prophesied for the Middle East until Jesus comes and brings it himself. The worst thing the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations can do is force Israel to give up land for a peace that will never materialize this side of the second coming. Anyone who pushes for peace in such a manner is ignoring or defying God’s plan for the end of the age.

Thankfully, a more Biblical voice still exists among evangelical Christians, as learned men are willing to sign their name to a document contradicting the “pro-Israel - right or wrong” doctrine of modern Dispensationalism. I pray that Christians will soon see that Zionism is not in the Bible, and that the nation of Israel has no prophetic future.