Opus 2025-503: Dementia Club

I’m thinking that it might be time to start a new club.  We could make it a secret society with handshakes and subtle logos.  The main problem with the secret part is that this club is for people who are getting up to the age where dementia starts to sit in.  Yes I’m talking to me there.  Don’t look the other way.

Let’s face it.  We reach a certain point where we lose a lot of our edge.  All through life you have a hard time remembering names, getting the right word, forgetting to pick up eggs at the grocery store and so forth.  That’s a part of life, however, there comes a time in life when it seems to begin to multiply.  We can respond to this in different ways.

I’m suggesting that perhaps we start a secret club for people over 60.  We have a pledge to each other that we will constantly keep checking to see how far down the slide we’ve gone.  What brought this to mine was a recent conversation with a man who said, “I’m 84 years old and I think I’m still doing OK.  My mind seems alert.”  At that point, we both said together, “As far as you can tell.”  That’s a standard joke with us when we get to a certain age.  I will often say I think my mind is still working at least as far as I can tell.  I then often add I’ll be the last one to know when I lose it.

So this club will be there to help us find out when we’re losing it.  I think of the group of zoom guys I’m on with each week.  We are all at different levels of decay.  The guy who leads the group is starting to have more and more trouble with words and names.  Often I can come up with them.  That is to say I can come up with them for him, I’m not sure I can come up with them for myself.  So we correct each other, fill in the blanks, have a good laugh and head on down the slide.

The main problem with this secret club with its secret handshakes and such is that we may forget what the handshake is and we may even forget that we’re a member of the club.

It was a good idea while it lasted.  I wonder how many times I have already brought it up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-502: Lost Books of the Old Testament

No I’m not aware of any lost books that I really need to read.  I do have a volume that is labeled Lost Books of the Bible.  It’s mainly things that were written long after the death of Jesus and the death of the apostles.  The church knew they were not to be included, but liked to read them I guess for entertainment or possible insights.  It is possible to get inspiration from books not in the Bible, but we need to be careful not to consider them as containing genuine truth.

That having been said, there are certain books that I wish I had that I know were never written.

The first book that I wish I had would be The Memoirs of Adam and Eve.  Wouldn’t it be great if they could have written out some of the conversations they had with God as they walked in the garden before the fall.  There was no gossip to be had.  I doubt if they talked about the weather because it was always perfect.  Politics was not on the agenda.  Was God giving them instructions on how to fertilize the vegetables or to graft new types of apples onto the trees?  Was He talking about deep hidden truths that we don’t have any clue about?  I think it would be interesting to know.

Or how about the conversations that had to go on between Moses and God.  A lot of it probably would be Moses complaining about the children of Israel.  We know that eventually Moses had to talk God out of destroying them, but I’m guessing that there were probably times when the conversation with the other way.  There were probably times when God pointed out their positive points.  There could have also been in-depth discussions about the meanings of the law.  God might have given him some insight on where they were going, and what that was going to happen in the future.  I somehow believe that there is more that went on between God and Moses than what we have recorded.  Perhaps when we get to the great library of eternity, we will be able to look at some of those.

What about Jesus when He went a way to pray to His Father?  What kind of incredible insights would we have received if we could hear Him communicating?  I for one would like to have an insight into what that kind of communication was like.  We have the Lord’s prayer, true, but wouldn’t it be awesome to have more in-depth samples of what it means to really come before the Father?

I might like a book of sermons that Paul had preached at different times or perhaps some of his lecture notes for when he went into new churches.  We have reference to at least one other letter to the Corinthians and I have to believe that Paul did more writing than we have passed down to us.  God, in His wisdom chose which ones we would receive and which ones we wouldn’t.  That’s part of the inspiration of scripture.  The Holy Spirit has preserved and interpreted what we have for generations.  But wouldn’t it be nice to have even more?

I don’t expect these books to show up in this life.  If they did, I wouldn’t accept them because I would figure they were written by some screenwriter for a Hollywood movie.  God has given us what we need.  We’re not even following what we know to follow so why would we need more.

But someday…

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-501: Good for the Goose

The meme headline said that NBC is going to be doing a lot of layoffs.  We’ve heard this a number of times from different media organizations.  I accept that it’s happening.  I accept that they are all RIF’s based on economic necessity.  I may not be listening or reading the right sources, but I am not hearing about any federal judges, blocking these companies from firing unneeded employees.

So why did judges listen to federal unions when the federal government lays off unnecessary and unproductive employees?  The motivation is pretty much the same.  They are too expensive.  They are not earning their way.  They are dragging down the whole organization.

It seems to me that we need to do something about these judges who wear their little donkey logos on their robes and allow them to influence their actions . I honestly think that I would have the same response if it were the right wing judges of using the law in order to push their agenda.

We need some impeachments.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-500: Uncounted Blessings

I’m not sure how many people ever stop to think about how blessed we are in the sense of having access to the words of God.  When I want to study or know what it is that God has for me I can reach to one of a dozen different translations that have been made down over the years.  I have the word of God in my own language.  Beyond that I have study tools.

Think of the concordance and the way in which Strong linked every word in our Bible to a number that tells us what the Greek and Hebrew is.  This is in printed form.  I used to have a copy of the KJV New Testament interlinear that linked every word with its Greek text, and then had another volume that told us how it was used and where it was used and what it came from.  That was before the days of computers.

Now think about the access you have through your computer.  I have two main digital resources.  My oldest one is called E-Sword.  The advantage of it is that it is totally downloaded on my computer and I have access to everything even if the internet goes down.  The other one that a friend got me onto is The Blue Letter Bible.  This one requires Internet access to fully use and has many of the same features as E-Sword, but you have a little different approach and between the two of them, it is awesome the amount of study I can have from the primary sources.

Think about what you would have had available to you if you had been an average citizen of Israel in the days of Solomon.  The temple would be built.  The priesthood would be organized.  You could go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices.  It’s even possible that you as a farmer in a small town might have learned how to read and write.  The problem is, you wouldn’t have anything to read and very little reason to write.

An even greater limitation that we don’t think about is that most of what we consider the Bible would not have been available in those days.  None of the prophets were writing or preaching in the time of Solomon.  The books of Kings and Chronicles were written after the fact because they cover the entire history of the Jewish monarchy.  All would exists would be the Pentateuch, possibly Ruth, and possibly I and II Samuel.  There was nothing else available.

This is awesome what we have.  The sad part is that most people who call themselves Christians do not make use of the tools that are available to them.  They might show up on Sunday morning and expect the professionals to tell them what to believe and how to live.  Do they actually read it themselves?  Do they actually turn to the passages that the pastor refers to and read them for themselves?  Do they ever open their Bibles in between Sundays?

The answers are sad. If they make me sad, just think about it makes God feel.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-499: Beware the Open Mind

One of the problems when discussing important issues with people is that we all come to the table with certain biases, preferences, experiences, and preconceived notions.  That’s part of being human.  Take a simple thing such as going to the beach.  I have walked the sands of Cape Cod and I hope never having to do that again.  At least I wouldn’t want to do it in my bare feet.  The sand is very sharp and uncomfortable to walk on.  I was raised going to the beach in California.  For a long time I knew no better.  It was easy to walk on and fun to play with.  And then I went to Hawaii and all bets were off.  If you have been to the beach in Hawaii, you realize how wonderful sand can be and how clean and clear water can be.  It’s a different experience.  Someone who talks about going to the beach in Cape Cod would have no idea what it’s like on Maui.

If we take the economy, we run into the same problems.

I have experienced most in areas of theology.  When you take a verse and you try to understand what it means, you come with a lot of baggage.  Most of the time we’re not willing to leave anything behind and we expect everyone else to adjust to our standard.  It doesn’t matter if our standard is wrong.  It is our standard.  You must change.  What we believe today is based on what we have experienced and accepted in the past.

If you were a Catholic your whole view of the spiritual world works is based upon the infallibility of the pope.  If you are a Calvinist, everything comes down to an uncompromising view of the sovereignty of God.  If you are an Armenian, it all comes down to God giving us free will and free agency.  If you are from a holiness denomination, it comes down to the filling of the Holy Spirit.  Those are the spots you start and everything else is understood in light of that.  It’s no wonder that we can’t agree.

The place to start is with the foundation.  In theology that should be the Bible not the comments in your study Bible.  In science it should be with the known laws of science and a genuine scientific method.  In philosophy it should begin with an understanding of what the word means.

Got issues?  Start at the beginning and be an honest broker.  Examine your own opinions with a fine tooth comb and give others some slack.  It is amazing how just having a good attitude can enhance communication.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-498: Socialists Don’t Sweat

Why does socialism always fail?

I believe it was Margaret Thatcher, who put it in a nutshell when she said, “They always run out of other peoples money.”  Don’t let the word money get you distracted.  Money is just something that substitutes for items that you want to trade or barter.  So let’s just say that eventually the government runs out of other peoples assets.

To most of us that doesn’t mean anything.  We have credit cards, we have debit cards, we know what it is to get something for nothing.  Or we think we get it for nothing.  We have whole generations who don’t understand the central concept of credit that eventually you have to pay it back.  I remember a discussion between Charlie Kirk and Tucker Carlson.  Charlie was explaining to him that we have a whole generation of people who somehow have used up their credit, but they can go around the credit and order a pizza on the installment plan.  And so they do.  It’s constructed in such a way that it’s outside of the normal controls of credit cards and credit but it’s the same thing just under a different name.

So these people will order a pizza with the idea that they will pay for it and four installments.  Of course, the next day they want another pizza and the next day another pizza.  Because they have no concept of earning their own way, they keep digging deeper and deeper into debt.  In the real world, they will eventually run into a wall where the pizza delivery man will demand immediate payment and since they have no assets to give him, he will take the pizza back to the store.

It always amazes me how people don’t seem to understand, but not only do they have to pay back what they charge on their credit card, but there are extremely high interest rates that are attached if they stretch it out over a period of time.  And the person who will stretch it out over a period of time because they can’t pay it is the same person that will continue charging.

Now let’s look at the large economy.  Ultimately, there are only a few places where assets are developed.  I have heard some summarize it as growing food and mining ore.  They generally come at the cost of sweaty labor.  That sweaty labor is delivered by sweaty laborers.  In other words, someone has to produce the wheat that makes the pizza crust.  Someone else has to produce the bricks that make the oven in which the pizza is baked.  I would guess that a majority of people think that this is done by the little red hen and that instead of saying she would eat it herself she just continues to turn it over to those who have been taking naps.

Ultimately, the sweaty laborer is going to want to be paid.  He’s going to want to be reimbursed for the effort he’s put in.  He will want some assets in exchange for his sweat.  If society takes him for granted and refuses to pay because, after all, we’re in this together, he will eventually retreat to his truck garden where he is raising enough food for him and his family, and the wheatfield will become a weed field.

Then you have a deadly domino effect that kicks in.

First, the mills shut down because there’s no grain to grind.  Then the bakery shuts down because there’s no flour to make bread.  Of course that assumes that the bakers showed up and joined the sweaty masses.  Then the store shelves become empty because nobody is baking bread.  And then the masses riot because there is no bread.  All they see is the fact that the greedy grocery store is not supplying what they need, that the politicians are not delivering on their promises, that the rich are eating cake and caviar.  What they don’t see is that there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

Can the socialist turn out the army to force the sweaty laborers in the field to produce grain?  Possibly for a while.  The problem is that the sweaty laborer who is being amply rewarded for his work will put in that little extra something which produces the profit margin that becomes the asset that can be passed on.  The sweaty laborer who is compelled to work by the bayonet will take a nap every time his minder looks the other way.  Being clever as well as sweaty he will mix in some sand or dirt with the grain in the bag put it on the truck and go home to dinner, if they left anything for him to eat.  If they didn’t leave him anything to eat he will get weaker and starve to death, and there will be no sweaty laborers who know how to raise wheat.

You think this is just my imagination?  Then go look at how socialism worked in the Soviet Union when they starved the Ukrainian peasants to death.  Would you want a television made in a Soviet factory during those days?  It would make a nice paperweight and conversation piece but would be pretty much useless for entertainment.

In other words, socialism doesn’t work because lazy is the default setting in human beings.  Go back and read the story of The Little Red Hen.  When it was time to work, everyone had an excuse.  When it came time to eat, everyone had their napkin around their neck and a fork in their hand.  Unfortunately the little red hen was the one who had the bread and the lazy laborers did not have an army to take it away from her.

Socialism has never worked, and it will never work because you will never get to the place where people will give you according to their ability and only take according to their genuine need.

It is as obvious as it is simple.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-497: Lasts: The Retreat of the Coffee Bean

I went to the store in all innocence recently.  I was going to buy some coffee beans and grind them in the commercial grade machines that were available in the store.  The store I was going to had three machines and a selection of 20 or 30 coffees.  Everything was smiles and unicorns until I started walking down the coffee aisle.  It seemed that things have been moved around.  I wasn’t seeing what I expected.  I got to the end of the aisle and not only was the bulk coffee gone but so were the coffee grinders. 

I walked back-and-forth several times and saw nothing.  Eventually, I saw an employee and asked.  He said “Yes they’ve been removed.”  He didn’t know if it was in all the stores or just locally.  later, I saw the manager and asked him about it and he said the entire corporate structure had removed the coffee grinders and the bulk coffee.  Evidently it wasn’t making enough money. 

Some people call it progress.  I salute their freedom to remove products that are not generating enough income to justify the space in the store.  At the same time I’m mourn for the loss of what used to be variety and choice. 

I still have my burr grinder at home.  I can still buy bulk beans and grind them myself.  In fact, I had recently just ordered 12 pounds of coffee over the Internet.  It’s not going to send me into depression.  But my choice has been limited. 

Goodbye coffee grinders.  It’s been good knowing you. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-496: Monday Pulpit: Lost Does Not Mean Worthless

In response to some words from a hymn an author said, “I do not know why I was saved”, or something to that affect.  The pastor then said we should we know why and quoted John 3:16.  He then went on to pontificate on the fact that we did not deserve it.  God sent His Son, even though we were not worthy.  Somewhere in his comments he began to lose me.  His statement was basically true, but at the same time, it is a distortion.  Evidently God felt like we deserved it, or we were worthy, or He would not have sent Jesus.  Jesus didn’t die for trash.  He died for human beings who are created in the image of God.  There’s a difference between the statement that we are lost in sin and not able to work your way out compared to the position that you were worthless.

Would you die for worthless humanity with no guarantee that anyone would respond?  Jesus did and we rejoice daily for that knowledge.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-495: Growing in Fear

One of the mysterious expressions in the Bible is the admonition that we should fear God, and it’s given as if this is a good thing.  Fear is good?  It can be.

When I was first born I was probably pretty much startled by everything.  You could think of it as a form of fear.  My brain was just a bunch of mush.  My physical coordination was not even a dream because I didn’t know such a thing existed.  My eyes couldn’t focus.  I saw this something waving around in front of me.  Little did I know it was my own hand, and I knew so little that I probably didn’t even know to be afraid.  But I was capable of being startled and surprised.  I would cry or laugh, depending on how the gas was moving through my body.

When I got to be a toddler, I could be startled again.  You could jump out of the corner and scare me.  My grandchildren do this to me all the time.  They love to catch me napping in my chair.  Yesterday my granddaughter just came up and stood about 6 inches away and stared at me until I woke up.  I won’t say I was afraid, but I was certainly scared.  When I hide around the corner and catch them unexpectedly we have the same scenario.  Again, this is a type of fear, but it’s based on knowledge that I’m secure.

All of that changed as I moved into being an older child and adolescence.  Suddenly, my fear of my father became a very real thing.  I knew that if I stepped out of line there would be repercussions.  I was spanked a few times, but being a good child, it wasn’t a big issue.  One thing that kept me in line was a dread of my father’s anger.

Let’s fast forward to my adulthood . I still had a lot of respect and fear of my father, but since I could out run him and had my own car, I wasn’t particularly afraid.  As I moved onward in adulthood, there was a less and less reason for me to have any reason to run away.  I see a very real parallel between that and the relationship between my son and I.

Fearing God goes through these stages.  As a child, I would sing the song, “Jesus loves me” and have a lot of fun with it.  I might sing father Abraham, and dance in circles.  It never occurred to me that the God of the universe might someday be mad at me.  I have gone through the different stages and I’m now at that point where I can sit down in the presence of the Creator of the universe and not even think about lightning bolts.  I don’t worry about swarms of locust coming out of the dark in the morning.  I don’t expect a plague to hit me.

Fear can be a wonderful thing when you know the source of that fear and know about His loving kindness.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-494: The Attributes of Truth

This morning, as I was following another trail a side path opened up which pointed out to me something which I knew, but I had not focused on.  One of the attributes of God is “truth”.

One simple statement about this is where Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

Truth comes in different forms.  That may seem strange, but there are many times where it’s very difficult to cut through all the layers of frosting and bloviation and get to the substance, but it still is true.

Some truth is absolute but must be expressed correctly.  Take the statement that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.  We were taught this as children, or at least we think we were.  The correct statement would be that pure water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit at sea level.  There might be further details I am missing but the actual truth does not vary.  Also keep in mind that truth does not require your approval or agreement.

Some truth is variable in the sense that it’s best presented in principles rather than simple yes/no statements.  Often there are situations which modify the basic statement.  Take, “Honesty is the best policy.”  Not when you are hiding Jews from the Nazis.

Some truth needs to be broken down in smaller truth so that it can be worked with and applied

Some truth is not meant to be understood by we humans in our mortal bodies with mortal minds.  It would be easy to illustrate this by the fact that children are not ready to understand everything that adults understand.  A child will pick a shiny nickle over a corroded dime.  That doesn’t mean that the facts are any less true, just beyond you.  Some of this may be temporary.  Some of it may be permanent.  I’m not sure we will ever understand the Trinity.

Some truth might even be inaccurate.  I’m sitting on the porch looking toward the eastern horizon.  The black has turned into gray, which is morphing into orange and pink and as you go higher up, it’s blue.  I would say the sun is rising.  In one sense that is true.  In another sense it is a false statement because we know the sun is not rising, but the Earth is turning under the sun.  Does that make the statement any less true?

Some truths are only true in our own eyes.  That doesn’t make them any less true to us, but others might question it.  For instance, my grandchildren are the most wonderful and awesome grandchildren in the world.  That is true for me.  You might disagree.  On other matters disagreement is just confusion on one person’s part.  If I say there is one God and you disagree that doesn’t mean it’s just a matter of opinion.  It means that one of us is woefully wrong.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-493: Rule Two

I recently asked someone if they knew what the first law was God laid down for human beings.  I was told that it was to have children . Oh, OK he got me on that one.  That is true.  The first thing that God laid out as a guideline for human life was to create new human life.  Later on He will give us the framework for that in marriage, but the concept of having children is very biblical.

Then you have a second law. 

Genesis 1:28 (KJV) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

It’s a combination of several things.  You’ll notice that it talks about replenishing, of having dominion, in a word we are to be stewards of the world we live in.  How is that going for you?  Do you litter?  Do you thoughtlessly waste?  Do you allow your pets or farm animals to go hungry and unwatered?  Do you mow your lawn?  You might think mowing your lawn has nothing to do with your spiritual condition but I would suggest that perhaps that’s what it means to subdue and have dominion.

But where this thought is going is really having to do with the whole concept of creation and man’s place in it.  You’ll notice that at the end of the chapter God looks back at everything He’s done and He doesn’t just say it’s good, He says it’s very good.  That’s better than good.  And one of the parts of that goodness is that we are commissioned to finish things off for Him.

Now I know it might go against the grain for you to think that God did not complete the job.  However, if you look at what He told Adam to do, it was to take the rough product and turn it into a finished planet.  That does not mean cut down all the trees and plant roses.  It means too carefully harvest the trees and make conditions ripe for the trees to reproduce themselves.  It might mean cleaning out the under brush.  Now at the very beginning there wouldn’t be much brush to clean out, after all God just got through with his work.  But it would accumulate.

So we are in the process of finishing off creation.  It will be a never-ending job at least until the new Jerusalem and the new Earth.  We will have a continual crop of new children to be disciplined and trained.  We will have weeds anxiously trying to run our lives.  We will have rivers that want to get out of their banks.  The challenges will go on.  God is giving us a commission.  We need to take this second law seriously.  The problem with the green movement is not that they are concerned about the environment, but that they consider the environment, which we are to subdue, as being superior to us.  They reject God and the order that he established.

There are some areas where it’s a good thing to be a legalist.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-492: Forgotten but Not Gone

Who? How often have you been asked that question when you mentioned someone that you thought would be remembered forever?  There are so many people who have left a big footprint behind them and yet the sands of time tend to fill in the footprint.  In spite of that their influence still continues.

I think of people like Jim Dobson, John MacArthur, Rush Limbaugh, and others who have passed away recently.  Who?  I think of Alistair Begg who just retired.  Who?  History is full of people who during their lifetime made a big splash and left a meaningful legacy.  We benefit from their legacy without knowing their names.  To that list we would add Charlie Kirk.

I remember when my father died.  He was a blue collar worker in construction.  He wore a white shirt on Sunday but you knew it was not his natural state.  Most people would not give him a second thought but I wondered why the world kept going after he died.  He made an impact.  He left four healthy, responsible, God-fearing sons to carry on.  He touched the lives of other people who lived below the radar.

The contribution we make to the world is not measured in how many headlines we get.  It is measured in how many lives we touched and how they pass that touch on.  If you are faithful then the results will linger.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-491: Literacy Is Overrated

Down through history the percentage of the people who were literate was very small.  For most people it had little or no value and the amount of time and effort it took to learn put it beyond their reach.  Even heads of state and commanders of armies often could not read.  They had scribes and priest to do that for them.  Of course that put them at the mercy of the scribes and priest and that worked out in history also.

The value of literacy depends upon access to truth.  It doesn’t do you much good to have a literate population if nothing they read is true or accurate.  Of course, part of the dumbing down process is to separate the general population from the ability to discern what is true and accurate.  I have been conditioned to believe that liver is a disgusting thing to eat.  I continually come across people who rave about the liver and onions that they’ve had and tell me that the only reason I don’t like it is because it was not prepared properly.  They make sense, but I’m not willing to listen.  I am even less willing to try it.  It is similar to the people who say that real communism has never been tried.

The implementation of the intersection of literacy and truth depends on open and free dialogue.  I think of how the American colonies responded to the Federalist Papers as each chapter was published in local newspapers.  The picture you get is that when the local citizens would gather at the pub to have a pint and discuss the publications, the discussion was free and far ranging.  In those days, people gathered at the pub to discuss philosophy, politics and economics.  Today they gather at the pub to get drunk and watch football.

Literacy is only valuable if you are willing to think about what you read.  For everyday tasks the written word is often optional.  Have you ever bought a piece of furniture from IKEA?  You have to assemble it yourself and the instructions have no words.  It would be interesting to find out if being literate made it easier for you to understand picture writing.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-490: Snake or Serpent?

Generally, when people think of the garden of Eden and Eve being tempted, I think they use the word snake to refer to Satan.  Most translations us the term serpent.  Is that just a translation issue or is there a difference?

We understand that sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve.

If their disobedience was the beginning of sin, where did the serpent come from?  I don’t have a biblical answer for that.  We are not told.  We are just told that he was there and that he was tempting Eve to disobedience.  Adam and Eve sinned.  The serpent was evil.  I’m suggesting that these are two different things.  I’m suggesting that it is possible to be evil without committing acts of sin.  I’m suggesting that is possible to commit an act of sin without being evil.  One is a condition; one an action.

Sin can be confessed, repented of, and forgiven.  Evil would never do the first two or think that the third was necessary.  People are content to be what they are and anxious to spread the poison if possible.  Paul declares that he is the greatest of sinners.  We know that sinners need to get saved.  We don’t see those same comments having to do with evil.

What we do see, at least in Psalms and Proverbs, is a condition of evil that controls the hearts of men.  The implication is that some men have consciously chosen to establish their foundation as evil.  Other men, in contrast, have chosen to establish themselves in the realm of righteousness.  I know that those who want to be righteous have their stumbling blocks  and their failures. That’s when we turn to Jesus confess our sins, and know that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.  I read that somewhere.  I would venture to guess that sometimes those who are rooted in evil will also have their failures.  If you want a humorous approach to this read The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis.

Some people in their belief systems and even in their formal theology, confused the two.  When they talk about all of us being born in sin and our original simple nature, they confuse that with the choices in which we sign up on what team we’re going to be.  They refuse to acknowledge that when God created us in His image, one of the choices that we have is which way we are going to go.  Now the choice to pursue the righteous path as opposed to the evil path does not save us.  That requires an act of God, which we call grace, which is activated by our faith.  We can still seek because God made us free agents.  We are not helpless pawns in the hands of fate.  We may be feeble humans surrounded by evil, but there’s always that spark of the Holy Spirit, which allows us to make a choice.

Eve did not have to be convinced by Satan.  It was at inner desire in her to be dominant, to be as gods, and to think that she knew better than what she knew was right.

Fight that tendency.  It can come upon us at any time, no matter what our spiritual condition.  God is always there with the help of His Holy Spirit.  As someone said Satan has one vote, God has one vote, and we are the deciding ballot.

Choose wisely.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-489: Open Enrollment

I’ve been reading a lot in the Old Testament prophets and in Revelation, and I’m finding a lot of doom and gloom.  God reaches a point where He’s had enough and His wrath takes command.  If you remember the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal, you know how Elijah won the contest and then he ran away in fear and hid in the wilderness.  When God confronted him, he confessed his fear and how he was the only one left.  God corrected him and told him there were 7000 left who had not bowed their knee to Baal.

You might be impressed by the number 7000.  Perhaps you go to a typical church and you look around and you realize that you couldn’t even get the cars for 7000 people into your parking lot let alone into your sanctuary.  It sounds impressive until you stop to consider that while 7000 would be an overwhelming expression for a Little League baseball game it would be insulting at the Super Bowl.  You need to consider that they were over 1 million people living in Israel at the time and only 7000 of them were faithful.

As a general rule, God takes care of His remnant, of His faithful.  As I’m sitting on a hill in Texas and I’m hearing the saber rattling going on regarding Russia and China, I get concerned for the well-being of my children and grandchildren.  I need to keep looking unto the Lord and knowing that I am in His hands.  And that’s a good place to be.  Historically Israel survived.  Most of them were eliminated in various invasions and plagues, but the faithful remnant survived.

Where do you think those 7000 lived?  I doubt if they lived in the capital.  I doubt if they were CEO’s of large corporations.  I doubt if they were wealthy and successful merchants.  They were probably small farmers, shepherds, ordinary people, being faithful to God and keeping their heads down when the ruling forces came by.  God knew who they were, and he is quite capable of confusing the minds of the hateful people looking for them.

So there is a remnant.  One of the things you need to understand is that it is not a closed society.  It is open to anyone.  You might say there’s open enrollment.  And like any open enrollment there comes a time when it’s too late to apply, there are requirements, there are expectations.  The point is anyone who is willing to take those steps can join the organization.  Those who refuse are on the outside.

I doubt if you get too upset that most Americans are not members of the American Hot Rod Association, assuming there is such a thing.  It doesn’t bother you because you don’t want to be a member, unless you are.  And if you are, you would love to have your neighbors join, your friends join, everyone else, but it’s their choice.  You don’t regret that they have no access to that cute decal you put on your bumper.

Eternal destiny is a much more serious issue, but the principle is the same.  Eternal life in the presence of Almighty God is available and offered to everyone.  You need to accept the fact that the vast majority of people are not willing to submit their application.

Be a remnant. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-488: Enjoy Without Imbibing

I recently saw a meme and I found myself nodding my head . I liked the message that it was portraying because it agreed with my prejudices.  If I remember correctly, it was attributed to NBC news and it reported that 95% of all cases of measles occurred in children who had been vaccinated .

The inference was that this was the Covid vaccination and it fits perfectly with my preconceived notions about the whole Covid panic.  My problem is that I am a skeptic, even when I see things that I like . So I put on my thinking cap and looked at this.

First of all I’ve seen enough memes that are obviously false that attribute their source to a known entity, such as NBC, that I don’t automatically assume that it is an honest attribution.  Most of the time when you see something like this, the news that is attributed to them is so ridiculous that it is obvious that it is intended as humor.  I have no problem with that.  This was not presented as humor.  This was presented as a scientific breakthrough.  Did they really get it from NBC or is it Photoshop?  I have no way of knowing.  Strike one.

Secondly, the 95% is a meaningless statistic unless you know how big the sampling was.  If your sample was 100 children, it’s pretty meaningless.  If it was 10 children, it’s even less meaningful.  Not knowing that basic fact makes the 95% questionable.  That’s the way it is with statistics.  You have to be very careful about what they say and about what they don’t say.  Even if the 95% were accurate, you have no idea what it means.

Thirdly, I am guessing that most children who attend public school were forced to be vaccinated.  We all know, or we should know, that even the best vaccine is going to have some people that are still going to get sick.  I don’t know of any that give 100% guarantee except for the guarantees of politicians regarding the Covid vaccine.  For some people, the vaccines are just not going to take.  Since we’re talking about public school children, you need to understand that they are in incubation heaven.  Being in a public school classroom is like being bacteria in a petri dish.  You’re surrounded by disease and it’s gonna get you.

Fourthly, the main body of children that would not be vaccinated would probably be homeschoolers.  One thing about this is that they are not in the petri dish.  The chances of them catching measles would be much lower than their public school contemporary.  That would have a big influence on whether they catch measles or not.  Secondly, homeschoolers tend to be off the radar.  It’s possible that the children in the homeschool situation had measles and just didn’t report it.  We know how to treat measles.  I had measles when I was a kid and I don’t know that I was taken to a doctor.  They kept me in a dark room and whatever else, that’s all I remember, they knew how to deal with it.  I know that I’ve heard of homeschoolers having what they call “chickenpox parties” where if someone has chickenpox, you have a party and try to expose everybody else while they’re young and it’s not going to be a big deal.  I don’t know if they did that for measles.  I don’t actually know of any who did it for chickenpox, but it was one of the things they talked about.

So, is the meme accurate?  I want it to be.  That doesn’t meme anything.  I want to be skinny and good looking too, but I haven’t noticed any big changes overnight.  I’m more concerned with being honest and truthful that I am with being considered right.

Don’t be a cynic.  Be a practicing skeptic.  Seek truth no matter where the path takes you.  It will produce a better world.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-487: The Toxic Rooster

I don’t know why my mind turned to roosters this morning.  It may be because I had been checking on my daughter’s chickens as she was out of town and thinking about how she’s not allowed to have a rooster in the city limits . I thought about how the rooster gets very aggressive when protecting his hens.  I tend to think of chickens just being mindless balls of feathers and that may have some truth in it, but I’ve also seen the way my grandchildren can sometimes carry them around like pets and I’ve watched them follow people.

There’s more to chickens than meets the eye and the rooster is a good example.  Roosters can be very aggressive and very effective in fighting for their brood.  They will take on all kinds of adversaries and I understand they come out on top.  Part of that is because of their aggressiveness.  I know I wouldn’t want a rooster coming after me.  They are a prime example of toxic masculinity.

One of the interesting things about roosters that I’ve learned is that if they find something good to eat, they don’t eat it themselves, but they call the hens over and let them have first go at it. That is toxic masculinity at work.  That is how the male in any species will look at it as his responsibility to protect the rest of his group.  It’s the way roosters are.  It’s the way men are.

Consider it a blessing and not curse.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-486: Saul and David

I’m looking at the failure of Saul and the fact that he was rejected by God and Samuel.  At this point in my reading, God is sending Samuel off to find David and anoint him.  Both men were called by God and yet have totally different destinies.

What did they have in common?

Saul did not come seeking to be king.  He was looking for some lost donkeys.  When they tried to install him he was out hiding with the animals.  David did not come seeking to be king.  He was out minding his own business, tending the sheep.  Both sinned against the known will of God.  Both asked for forgiveness.  Yet God rejected Saul for a single failure and continued to interact with David after several.

What is the difference?  I think it comes down to this verse where Samuel is looking for a son of Jesse to anoint.

(1Sa 16:7 KJV)  But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Saul may have been repentant but it was the repentance of being caught.  We all know people who exhibit a boat load of remorse when they are caught with their hand in the cookie jar.  All that means is they will be more careful next time.  David, on the other hand, seems to have had real repentance in his heart.  God can tell the difference.  We don’t have that ability to read the hearts of others so we are cautioned to be slow to judge.

I think we have more ability to measure our own hearts that we want to admit.  I think we can know if we are sincere or playing games.  Keep in mind God has more insight than you do.  I have felt sympathy for Saul but I must accept that he could have changed his attitude.

Be a David.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-485: Click Bait: Sayonara

The headline read “Why I’m leaving Germany…”  I didn’t bother clicking because I could think of enough reasons myself to leave Germany or any other place in Europe for that matter.  The way things are going here I could think of reasons to leave the United States.  The problem is from here there’s no place to go.

Another issue that would come up from this topic is the question of what if you couldn’t leave?  What if you were financially unable to pick up and get out of the country?  What if you didn’t have the passport or security clearance for the government to allow you to leave?  What if you had family that refused to go?  There are so many reasons why you might not be able to leave Germany.  There are also so many reasons why I would not be able to leave the United States.

One of the most important reasons is the one that we often overlook.  If we leave who is going to bring about renewal.  We see people struggling with this in their churches.  What happens when you’re in a church that has gone woke?  I guess an earlier question than that should be, “How did the church go woke if you were paying attention?”  Did it go woke because you were so busy keeping your head down and enjoying the fellowship that no one ever stood up and said, “Wait a minute…”

Rarely are people able to stay behind and recover a lost church.  The people who are concerned about recovering are also people who tend to have ethics and integrity.  They don’t cheat.  They don’t lie.  They don’t change the rules to suit themselves . They work in good faith.  The people they’re trying to recover the church from have none of those limitations.  When you reject the basic truths of the Bible it’s kind of ridiculous to expect you to follow the simple patterns of etiquette and Roberts Rules of Order.

So if you’re concerned about having to leave the United States someday I would suggest that maybe you need to stand up now while you still have a chance and say what needs to be said.   That could start in your Sunday school class as you try to keep your church from going over the falls.  You could start in Starbucks while you’re sitting around shooting the bull with the other bull shooters.  It could start at Thanksgiving dinner when all the family is gathered together, and cousin purple hair is pontificating about Orange Man bad.

Opportunities will vary.  Results will vary.  The time left to take advantage of those opportunities is just getting shorter and shorter.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-484: Leftovers

As I was contemplating the relationship between God and Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, I found myself wanting the right word to express the status of the first humans.  At first, I wanted to say God fellowshiped with His creatures, but then I realized God also made the horses, cows, earthworms and oak trees.  He does not fellowship with them.  In trying to find the right term I stumbled across one that I probably first saw in a book by Michael Heiser, “image bearers”.

We are created in the image of God.  None of the other creatures does God fellowship with.  He didn’t walk with them in the garden.  He didn’t create for them a tree of life and a tree of knowledge of good and evil.  They were there for Adam and Eve to subdue and care for.  They were creatures.  They still are.  We were created in His image which makes “image bearers” a logical title for us.

From there, my mind did a sharp left turn, and I began to wonder if even many of the people that we consider human beings like ourselves were actually creatures instead of image bearers.  Somehow, I feel like I’m wondering into some kind of heresy.  We have people all the time talking about how we are all God’s children and how God loves His children and yet that does not play well in Peoria.  All through history, God has chosen individuals and groups of people to be special in His eyes.

He chose Noah and his sons to preserve out of all humanity.  He chose Abraham to be the father of a line of people leading toward the Messiah.  He chose the Jews to carry the banner of the law.  Even today he chooses those who believe in Jesus to have eternal life.  All through history, there have been the in-crowd and the outsiders.

The word that I’m coming up with from the Bible is “remnant”.

Remnant can have different meanings.  In our culture, remnants generally are referred to as leftovers.  When you go to a store that sells cloth and sewing supplies, the remnants are those little pieces of a bolt that were not sold.  They aren’t big enough to make a lot of clothes from, but they might be enough if carefully marshaled to produce one article.  It would seem in Bible times that the remnant would have that appearance to the masses.  They would be the ones who are out of step.  They would be the ones who are old-fashioned.  They would be the ones clinging to the past.

In God’s eyes this remnant are the chosen ones.  I often wonder how Paul and Romans 11:26 can claim that all Israel will be saved.

Romans 11:26 (KJV) And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

You either take the concept of salvation and separated it from any sense of responsibility or personal response and actually go back through history and reclaim every single Jew who lived, or you seek to understand the possibility that in this case “Israel” means something more, or less, than every DNA Jew through history.

It is more likely that it refers to the remnant, the faithful, the leftovers.  When you consider that what Paul said,

(Gal 3:28 KJV)  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

Then there is a welcome mat out for faithful, believing Jews in the Body of Christ.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-483: Poor, Confused John

There are times when the skeptic in me ruins beautiful poetic images.  I was sitting out on the porch around 8 o’clock. The sun was a couple inches above the horizon.  Sunrise was at 7:30.  In spite of that my mind went to the words of a John Denver song,

It’s 5 o’clock this morning and the sun is on the rise.
There is frosting on the window pane and sorrow in your eyes.

That should be enough to begin to point out the problem to you.  But consider the next line.

The stars are fading quietly, night is nearly gone,

Now I don’t know about you, but I have yet to be anywhere that has frosting on the windowsill where the sun comes up at 5 o’clock.  In most places where it gets really cold, the sun doesn’t come up until much later.

We need to make allowance for poets and people with romance in their soul.  At the same time I wonder when I read something like this if John Denver was really the country boy he claimed to be.  A country boy would know that the sun does not come up at five when there’s frosting on the window.

I hope I didn’t bust any bubbles.  Enjoy your poetry.  I will enjoy my Star Wars.  Both require you to suspend belief in order to get full enjoyment.

Develop the artist in your soul.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-482: The Eyes Don’t Have It Any More

I have seen numerous pictures which are reported to be Hamas executing their political rivals.  The written portion talks about them hunting down rival gangs, and anyone who has tried to stand up to them.  I’m told that now that they are coming out of the tunnels they’re putting their uniforms back on . One reason all of this is very simple to believe is because it fits in with the pattern that these terrorist have demonstrated over the years.  There is nothing in it that is surprising.

The big question that we always have to ask ourselves though, would be, “Is it true?”

Just because I want something to be true, or should I say just because something fits my preconceived notions, does that excuse me for taking it at face value?  Keep in mind the things that we know that are readily available to even amateur provocateurs.  You have the tools of AI. Does anybody remember Photoshop?  With Internet search engines we have access to vast quantities of old photographs.  Has Hollywood ever produce something like this?  Since reporters can’t find out much of anything else how would they know what Hamas is doing against its rivals behind the barricade of censorship?

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but so far I have seen one photograph.  This type of sensationalism I have seen in regard to earthquakes, fires and all kinds of disasters.  You have one spot and you take multiple photographs from different positions, different angles, different times of day, different lighting, different filters, and you presented as something much bigger than it actually is.

Somewhere under all the manipulation is the truth.  When it comes to things like this, I don’t know if we’ll find the truth.  When I think of how this relates to me in my daily life, I as usual, come back to my studies of the Bible and thoughts about the things of God.  The commentaries that I read, the study notes in my reference Bible, the teachers on the Internet, all of them give me their opinion.  Even allowing for them speaking in good faith, it still adds up to a bunch of AI, Photoshop, personal opinions.  Fortunately, when it comes to eternal truth, I am able to cut through all of the nonsense and go right to the original source.  I have a Bible.  I was taught to read as a child.  I have learned to reason as I moved into adulthood.

I may continue to live in the dark when it comes to current events and the news.  I don’t have to settle for that when it comes to eternal truth.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-481: Changeless Variety

Does truth change?  No.  Does our understanding of truth change?  Yes.

So often we get these two things confused in all walks of life.  It seems to be part of the life of faith to think that we have arrived at an understanding of truth.  That may be an important and even vital element in our walk with Christ.  We need to believe.  We need to be able to overcome doubts.  But in the midst of that we also need to be open to greater insight into the truth that God has given us.

I am reflecting on the sovereignty of God and what we would call the doctrine of a mutability.  I keep coming across people advocating an understanding of this which conflicts with my contact with a living God.  God says He does not change. 

(Mal 3:6 KJV)  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

I believe the Bible also says He’s the same yesterday, today and forever.  That is the truth, but it is a truth that we only understand partially to our own deficiency.

We need to walk carefully here and not keep throwing the baby out with the bath water.  We need to not reject our brothers and sisters in the faith because their level of insight is higher or lower than ours.  We are united by our faith in Christ, not by our insight and eschatology.  We are one in the body because of the blood of Jesus, not because we agree on our theories of the atonement.  God does not change in character, power, holiness, and the list goes on.   However, in His unchangeability, He is constantly interacting with we humans who are nothing but change.  That requires Him to be expressing Himself differently one time from another.  From our perspective that has changed.  From His not so much.

I can trust Him because He doesn’t fluctuate.  I can trust Him because He relates to me as a free agent and desires genuine love, not slave obedience.  There is an understanding of truth that will never change in one sense, and yet we always become deeper and more meaningful as time goes by.  If the church could historically struggle with the concept of the Trinity, of God being one in three persons, then I think they could also struggle with a concept of an unchanging God responding differently based on the input from His world.

(Jon 3:10 KJV)  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

And that’s the truth.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-480: Did You Notice?

Have you noticed yet the small changes that have been made in the dynamics of written English?  I am sure there are more than I see but let me list a couple.  

It used to be that you were expected to put two spaces after a period and after a colon.  You were also supposed to capitalize the first word after the colon.  One reason I noticed this was at some point my word processing software made the change which had it “correcting” my typing.  I had to dig into the inner workings to change the setting.  

Why the changes?  The basic reason is to save space on the computer disk.  Everything you type is recorded in 0's and 1's.  Even a single space takes up room.  Over a long document that can add up.  They totally overlook the fact that they were originally double spaced to make communication easier.  It alerted the reader that a new thought was beginning.  We live in a day when saving space on a disc is more important than clarity in writing.

You can make your own decision on the bigger reason for the change.  I would say it is a both/and situation.  It saved the technology people money and it gave them more control over the population by increasing ignorance.  It was a twofer.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-479: Gods Mailing Address

I was reading my daily dose of Psalms in chapter 134.  It was only a couple of verses long and I was a bit miffed at the brevity.  Then I took a look at that last verse,

Psalm 134:3 (KJV) The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

And I got to wondering about Zion.  It’s a common word in the Old Testament.  I haven’t checked to see how often it shows up in the new, but it is assumed that it refers to Jerusalem, possibly the temple, and I would say specifically it refers to the mercy seat above the tabernacle.  That seems to be the place where God has announced His presence will be focused on the Earth.

Does that mean that God is confined to one room on one hill in one city?  Preposterous.  This is the God who created the universe with a word.  Somehow I think we forget what a miracle it is that He is willing to touchdown briefly in a location for our benefit.

I have a friend who gets all upset when we spiritualize the Old Testament.  He wants everything to be totally literal.  For him this simply means that one spot and only relates to the Jews.  Excuse me, I tend to believe that the entire Bible is there to instruct us,

(2Ti 3:16 KJV)  All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

So I’m going to take this and make Zion a figure of speech or an allegory for us today.  This is a reminder that God is going to bless us from His current mailing address.  I don’t know if you have been checking your political mailers lately, but I’ve gotten one from my state assembly woman and one from our state senator.  Each of them give me multiple ways to get in contact with them.  They give me an address in their capital office and one in their local office.  They include phone numbers.  I think the idea is that I can contact them at either one.

That’s the way it is with God.  Back in the day Zion may have been one spot.  Today Zion can be called upon from anywhere.  In fact, when we think about the fact that we have received the Holy Spirit and have been offered the filling of the Holy Spirit, I would suggest that perhaps Zion is as close as your heart.  Isn’t that great?  It doesn’t even require a postage stamp.  I was commenting recently to someone how it used to be.  You could worry about somebody taking your phone and making long-distance calls because the bill would be very high.  Remember when long-distance calls were very expensive?  On your new phone you can pretty much call anywhere and there’s no extra charge.

Welcome to the world of the New Testament.  And unlike our state senator, when I call Zion, I don’t get put on hold, I don’t get voicemail, I don’t get a secretary.  I get the party to whom I am addressing.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-478: The Prejudice of Tradition

While contemplating the Sunday sermon, one of the things I kept running into was the way in which the pastor would use his traditional understanding in a way which did not go well with the verse he was looking at.  It came up several times.  He was going down the road of eschatology, which is rather risky when you have people around you who have read their Bible.  He was talking about the rapture and looking at Paul’s writings.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 (KJV) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

He was explaining that the word sleep here means dead.  No problem with that but somewhere on the talking points he got off on something called “soul sleep”.  I’ve heard of this before and I recognize it is one of the two theories on what happens between death and resurrection.  Some placees in scripture seem to imply that you go directly to be in the presence of Jesus.  Other places, and this is one of them, seem to imply that we are asleep until the resurrection.  Both are legitimate ways to understand it, but he started off on talking about how this was totally wrong.  My memory might be faulty, but I think he even used the word heresy.

So this morning, I was reflecting on how our traditions often get in the way of reading the Bible.  We have the ability to read something that makes a very clear statement and then speak tradition instead of scripture.  I like to think I’m above it, but I’m not convinced of that.  I’m at least aware of the problem and seek overcome.

So this morning, as I was thinking about this, the Lord brought this to mind,

Psalm 119:105 (KJV) NUN. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

And as I contemplated that, I got to thinking about how the scripture is there to give us direction, to show us where to put our feet, to give us an insight and do which path to follow.  That’s all good standard stuff.

Then I realized that although the lamp will tell us where to put our feet, it might not tell us what the landscape around us looks like  . We’re so used to powerful flashlights that put out thousands of lumens.  Put yourself back in the day of flickering oil lamps.  You didn’t even have the glass chimneys to keep the flame steady.  If you heard a rustling in a dark corner of the room at home, you might have to get up and walk over to see what it was even if you had a lamp.

It occurred to me as we go through life that God will show us what our next step will be.  He will show us which is the right direction, the path. that does not mean that He’s going to light up the distant hills on our left and our right.  It doesn’t mean He’s going to make us able to penetrate the forest that is grown up next to the road.  What He does is guarantee to help us know truth or falsehood as we head straight and narrow.

Our problem usually is not that we don’t have light, but that we don’t use the light we have.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-477: You Really Don’t Want That

The jellied masses of the left should be grateful to Donald Trump.  He has given people of principle on the right a hope that we can move forward without violence.  We are more than reluctant to resort to extreme measures for a number of reasons.

We know enough about history to know that the kind of destruction and death caused by civil war and wide scale insurrection is far worse than we can imagine.  Once the restraints are broken atrocities and mayhem multiply.  When a neighbor you have known for years turns on you it becomes dangerous to be alive.  The ones who suffer the most are the innocent.  

We know enough about our emotional and mental health to know that killing has a price even for the survivors.  Talk to someone who has been in combat.  It isn’t like the movies where you shrug you shoulders and move on.  It destroys something in you.

We have a spiritual commitment that holds us back.  This is probably the strongest of all but don’t assume that it does not have a limit.

So be glad that we have more hope than we did a year ago.  

Keep your doors locked, you eyes open and your prayer life on high.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-476: Neo-Pagan Lies

When providing pulpit supply for another church I had some interesting conversations.  Some were enlightening such as an explanation of the maneuvering in the United Methodist Church that let the pagans take over.  Others were frustrating like the brief conversation about homosexuality with a lady one Sunday.  

The service was about to begin and we both had responsibilities.  She brought up something a friend, who was in seminary, had told her.  It involved homosexuality and her friend was feeding her the standard line of the neo-pagans running the mainline churches.  It was just an Old Testament hang up with the law and legalism.  The poor lady did not seem to be one who read her Bible much.  When I read her a brief portion of Romans she looked confused and said she had never heard that before.

Her friend had told her that we were made in the image of God and God did not make mistakes.  The conclusion from that statement involved claiming that 10% of Americans were born homosexual and it was the way God wanted them so it could not be wrong.  All I had time for was to point out that she was being lied to.  We had to move on.

It occurred to me later that we were making the wrong assumptions.  We should assume that homosexuality is being equated with adultery not with marriage.  God is very clear that sexual expression is to be between a man and his wife.  Anything outside that is adultery or fornication.  Both are condemned clearly in scripture.

If you are talking to someone who is actually a believer who has a Bible, start with the definition of marriage.  Anything outside of that is sin.  If I commit adultery I am outside God’s plan for me.  The same is true of homosexual activity.  The answer is chastity.  That means refraining from an activity.  If you believe God made you a homosexual and I can’t convince you otherwise we still have the Godly standard of chastity and self control.

If they can’t accept that then about all you can do is pray for them and keep them out of church leadership.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-475: Truth Is an Introvert; Tradition an Extrovert

When it comes to any area of study, one of the big challenges is separating the traditions from the truth.  Traditions are represented by theories that have come to be accepted as rock solid truth.  In reality, many of these theories might have a bit of truth, but are also heavily influenced by folklore, antidotes, legends, deliberate editing and any other type of story that’s been passed down and possibly embellished over the years.  One of the challenges of history scholars is to cut through the cultural mandates and get to what actually happened in the past.  On the other hand, you have truth.  Truth is something which is based on facts and in reality.  If you say, the nail was rusty, then it requires certain evidence.  First you need a nail.  Then you need samples of rust and proof that the rust came from the nail.  It seems easy, but it’s also easy to fake.  Truth is a hard one and must be continually examined to see if the reason for believing it was fraudulent or not.

Which is worse, traditional truth or truthful tradition?  Which is more dangerous?  If you’re talking science and you’re doing experiments based on traditional understandings, it’s possible that you could kill yourself and everyone around you based on what you thought was a safe process.  This is the problem with much of science today.  Research is being manufactured.  It’s being falsified.  And no one seems to care.  If the issue is whether the paint on your car will last five years or seven years then you’re not causing a lot of harm and you’re making money.  If the issue is, does your vaccine cause people to die in a few years, that gets to be a whole different issue.

Remember when education went with the whole language approach to teaching reading?  What was the whole language approach?  I was a teacher for years and I’m not sure I know.  The key thing that came down was that it abandoned the teaching of phonics.  It was based on theories made it by people with an agenda.  The result was decrease in reading abilities and students level of education.  As a social skeptic, I would say that was a successful application of their theory because it produced the results that they seem to really want.  It’s much easier to bring in a dictatorship and control the population when people are ignorant and can’t read.  It is almost as effective if you destroy their desire to read by introducing inferior woke literature.  You can call me a cynic if you want.  In this case I would say I’m just an observant realist.

And of course, I run the same issue in theology and biblical studies.  One of the reasons we have so many denominations is that people want to go with traditions.  They’re comfortable with what they have always been told rather than facts that they don’t like.  Many times, the comfort is based on being accepted by the cool kids.  This is why many so-called Christian churches are rejecting the concept of the physical resurrection of Christ.  They can be respected by their pagan friends because they have rejected this “fairytale”.  The problem is when you look objectively at the evidence, the most logical conclusion to come to is that Jesus did rise physically from the dead.  The cool kids will laugh.  They will laugh very hard until they stand before the judgment seat.  Jesus will not be amused.

So whatever your field of study, mine is the Bible, make sure that your research is coming up with actual facts rather than the wishful thinking of other people.  I don’t know how easy or hard that is in science, education, economics, history, or other fields.  I do know that it can be done when it comes to Bible study.

Don’t throw all the babies out with all the bath water.  Sometimes tradition is just a simple way of understanding a deeper truth.  Other times it is like the cowbird that lays its eggs in another birds nest, and when it hatches, it’s chicks push out the eggs and chicks that belong there.

Seek truth.  Embrace truth.  Make truth a part of your family.  Pat tradition on the head and let it sit at the table for dinner as long as it behaves itself.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-474: PBPWMGINFWMY

Acronyms have grown exponentially in recent times because of social media.  We all know lol.  Some of us are familiar with TL; DR.  The title of this is one of the originals which means, “Please be patient with me, God is not finished with me yet.”

As I was getting ready to go refill my coffee cup I was talking to myself, which is a mark of sanity on a dark porch in the morning, and I told myself that I was anxious to get back and see what else God had to say to me this morning.  The thought occurred to me that these morning dialogues are part of the process of God still whittling away at the knots in my grain and trying to refine me into something that will fit into eternity.

That brought to mind the opening quotation.  I am now 78.  The number keeps getting bigger.  With it come more and more limitations.  With it comes greater weakness.  In spite of that, or because of that, God is still working on me.  What a glorious place to be.  As the world finds me of  less value, God rubs his hand, picks up his chisel and continues to enjoy the process of sanctifying my character and clarifying my mind.  I think He enjoys the challenge I present.

This is a bidirectional declaration.  It is directed outward towards those around me.  It is both an apology and an explanation.  Directed inwardly.  It is a comfort and an anticipation.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-473: The Myth of the God Box

I have made the statement which I know is not original to me, that people often try to put God in a box.  We often find that we are making God in our image instead of seeking to know what it means that we are made in His.  That causes a lot of distress and distortion in our lives.

I have been enjoying reminding myself about how I need to take down the box that I have built around God.  Much of that involves removing the box that other people have put around God with their traditions and their personal opinions.  I had a new insight this morning.  It’s new to me.  It may not be new to you.  Like so much that comes to me in my Eureka moments you may have already known it, but you just didn’t tell me.

It suddenly hit me that what I was really doing, was tearing down the box that I had built around myself.  It started with the idea that God doesn’t need me to take a box down from around Him.  He’s quite capable of removing that box Himself.  He can penetrate it and speak to me.  His Holy Spirit is living within me and speaking to me through His written word.  God has no problem, breaking out and reaching out.  The problem we have is the barriers that we build to keep Him away.

Think of the type of boxes that we can build.  One might be all mirrors.  In this case, all the light that comes, our direction is reflected and never gets to us.  It can be a box painted black, and the surface by it’s very nature just absorbs everything that hits it.  It can be of the hardest metal, or the hardest head and just doesn’t pay attention to truth that does penetrate.  That sounds a lot like the parable of the soils.

So I think I am going to work on getting myself out of the box instead of worrying about God being confined.  It seems a logical choice.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-472: The Original Fanny J Pack

As I was gazing at the perfect world I’m in the center of, a phrase came to mind, “Oh what a foretaste of glory divine.”  It only took me a moment to recognize it as a quote from a hymn by Fanny J Crosby called “Blessed Assurance”.  You may have sung it this week or hummed the tune or even sang it out in your car as you drove across your world.

Life can be good.  We can be in the midst of a bubble of Providence.  That’s good.  What is even better is an awareness that this is just a foretaste of glory divine.  This is just the first chapter of an endless book of riveting excellence.  It’s just the first chorus in the eternal version of Handel’s Messiah.  It’s just a note that begins the lost cord.

One of the gimmicks of pop literature, and popular entertainment is the serial.  You come to what you think is going to be the end of the book.  You don’t see how the author is going to get the hero out of his conflict.  And then he doesn’t.  He finishes with some version of “to be continued”.  Some people relish that; some hate it.  Picture the author that is able to bring the episode to a glorious conclusion, and yet still be able to point out that there are more adventures to come, or if you’re into Jane Austin more romance to come.

I’m not big on poetry unless it’s been set to music that stirs my soul.  Then I can take phrases like the one given to us by Crosby and let them saturate my being and cause joy to bubble up in my soul.

And it’s just a foretaste.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-471: The Cog of Destiny

How many cogs does it take to make a gear effective?  I’m going to suggest all or most of them.  I only am willing to say “most” because it’s possible something depending on a cog wheel might be able to function if one were broken off.  I don’t know.

My reflection is based on an awareness of how little influence I will ever have on the world.  Bear with me on the assumption that I might actually have something to offer.  I know that is an assumption, but consider it just a bit of my ego as I was wondering what difference it made if I lived the good life, seeking to be upright, following the rule of law, keeping the golden rule, in general being what used to be considered you’re basic American citizen.

What difference does it make?

And I got to thinking about how one drop does not create a flash flood, but if enough drops of water were redirected, instead of a flash flood you would have a life giving rain.  You never know if you’re going to be the straw that breaks the camels back.  I’m not sure how you turn that positive but try to take it that way.

My recent experience brought this home.  I may have written about it before in the sense of talking about my riding mower.  My wife finally manipulated things so that I ended up with a used riding mower.  It did the job OK until one day it didn’t.  It started getting hard to steer and I had to play around with it to make it go left.  Then came the day when it refused to go left.  The reason?  It was missing a couple of cogs.  Part of the steering mechanism is a rod with teeth on it that meshed with the column coming from the steering wheel.  If you looked at it from one angle, you couldn’t see any problem.  If you held it up and sighted down the row, you could clearly see how there was a dip in the smooth line somewhere in the middle.  There was a cog that just would not bite.

It only took one cog to make the tractor worthless.

Are you that cog?  Am I that cog?  The point is we will never know until it’s too late.  That is why it is so important for each of us to fulfill our small role in making our world worth living in.  That of course is easier if you believe in God’s Providence and that He knows what He’s doing, which I do.  I will admit I tend to forget it sometimes in my frustration, but the belief is still there.  So I will continue with my little drops of wisdom.  Nothing I write will change the world, but combined with what you do and what God has others doing it could just happen.

Destiny is often fulfilled in small packages.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-470: Every Blessing Has a Clouding Lining

I am truly blessed.  I accept that.  I rejoice in that.  This morning it occurred to me that the other side of blessing could very well be responsibility.

I am blessed with good health.  That’s what struck me this morning as I was thinking about all the different issues that my wife is going through.  I think we’re to the point where almost every organ and joint that can be dealt with has been removed or replaced.  Even with that she now came up with a totally unexpected attack of shingles.  And that was added on top of everything else going on, not a later addition.

The responsibility of those of us blessed with good health is to have compassion and understanding towards those who don’t.  In my case I’m dealing with someone who does not respond well to pain.  She gets irrational and aggressive.  I can do nothing right.  I am supposed to be able to read her mind and know the future.  That isn’t going to happen.  What can happen is that I can practice love.  Remember that the first characteristic that Paul tells us love involves is patience or as the KJV says “long suffering”.  I can relate to that.

Or take the fact that it seems we have an adequate income to meet our needs.  It’s easy to criticize those who are struggling.  It’s easy to look at their lives and see the wrong decisions they made.  It’s also very easy to miss the fact that many times it’s not really their fault.  It’s a time for compassion.  The same passage in Paul tells us that love is not arrogant and does not brag.  Difficult times call upon us to be more generous and to be more supportive of those who are struggling.

I don’t know all of the blessings that you have.  I’m not even sure that I know all the ways in which God has blessed me.  I continually thank him for the things that I’m not aware of or have forgotten.  Each of us needs to look at our blessings and see if there is a responsibility that we have towards our family, the body of Christ and our country.

The only result will be a better world.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-469: Is Not Jealous...

One of the insights I had a while back was that if God is love, and that is one of His attributes, then looking at Paul’s definition of love in I Corinthians 13 would be a good way to get insights into God’s character.  I’ve already talked about that first quality of patience or long suffering.  God is definitely patient with us.  He was patient with Israel.

This morning, as I was basking in the presence of the living God, and reaching out to receive His blessing, it occurred to me that the Holy Spirit already lives within me.  Why would I be reaching out to receive something when God is already here?  That got me to wondering if God the Father would get a little upset if I prayed to God the Spirit?  That made me think of a professor who once shared that we are to pray to the Father, in the name of the Son and in the power of the Spirit but if we got them mixed up God would understand.  

One of the things I’ve heard expressed by different writers and speakers is that the Trinity demonstrates this concept of love and also shows us that God does not need fellowship with human beings because He already has fellowship within Himself.  I don’t know how biblical that is, but it’s an interesting way of looking at it.  As I was thinking about that the phase from I Corinthians 13 came to my mind, “and is not jealous....”  Beautiful.

It’s hard for us to understand in our competitive world what it means to be not jealous.  We always have this attitude of getting ahead of the other guy.  Why is it when someone passes you on the interstate that you feel like you have to get ahead of them again?  Why is it when I stop because someone in the car has to go to the bathroom I look at all those people I’ve already passed and it occurs to me that I’m now going to have to get ahead of them again?  I know I am not the only one.  Competition rears its head everywhere.

A spirit of competitiveness is one of the blocks in our lives when we seek to not be jealous.  I should use God‘s Trinity as an example of what it means to not be jealous, to not worry about who gets first credit on the billing.  Someone once said it’s amazing what you can get done if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.  I think that’s kind of where God is.

A friend wants made a big deal about who we were praying to when we prayed to the capitalized LORD (Yahweh) in the OT.  I told him it didn’t really matter.  Yahweh is the name that God gave us to call Him, and I tend to think of it as the Father, but if it includes all three, so much the better.  He wasn’t happy with that because he was trying to convince me of some eschatological point.  I wasn’t buying and I stood by my position.  I’m not sure what my position was but I still stand by it.

So God is not jealous.  He doesn’t mind when Jesus gets top billing and He doesn’t mind when the Holy Spirit moves to the front of the pack.  They may be three persons, but they are one God and They are united in purpose and love.

Always something to rejoice about.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-468: New terms: Academic Brain Dysfunction

In my thought journey, I keep coming across people who have certificates on their wall and letters behind their name who think they have the right to pontificate on major issues.  When I go to see my doctor, which I did recently, I choose the doctor not because he has certificates, but because he has impressed me that his mind and his understanding have grown beyond his degrees and his official status.  I go to see him because I feel he is unusual in the field of primary care medicine.  I will continue to work with him as long as he continues to keep thinking.

Other doctors I have been around take the company line, swallow it hole, and spew back the nonsense that they have been told.  They show no evidence of thinking it through themselves.  They show no evidence of reading or paying attention to what’s happening in our society.  This is true in just about every area of study.

I fight this most in the area of my biblical studies and my theology.  The current burr under my saddle in theological terms would have to do with the immutability of God.  Put in simple everyday language, that means that God does not change.  I agree with that statement because the Bible has statements like this,

(Mal 3:6 KJV)  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

To paraphrase a quote from Princess bride, I keep wanting to say, “I don’t think that word means what you think it means.”  The reason for that is that there are numerous places in the scripture where it talks about God changing his mind.  In the King James that is often built around the word “repent” .  One of the classic lines that proceeds Noah finding grace in the eyes of the Lord is this verse,

Genesis 6:6 (KJV) And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

Now, I don’t care what your theological persuasion is.  You may be a total atheist.  But when someone repents of something that means they change their mind.  It means they have a different idea than they had before.  It would seem that it is possible for God to have different thoughts.

Is God immutable?  Yes if you understand it in the proper way.  But that does not mean that He is a dead piece of stone.  Several places in scripture God mocks the idols of the pagans.  He talks about them having eyes, but they cannot see; feet, but they cannot walk; mouths but they cannot talk and so forth.  The implication is that He, the living God, can see, walk and talk.  Now when you see things they interact with your neurons and make your brain perceive something that wasn’t there before.  That is literally, change.  I understand that God is not physical so He does not have nurons, but if God is different from the idols because He can see, and He can feel and He can hear, every time He does one of those things He is changing.  So don’t give me this nonsense that God cannot “change”.

I started watching a video by someone who had impressed me once, but has been losing ground ever since and he got off on this idea that God cannot change.  He was taking it all the way to the wall.  His statements were without any kind of waiver or qualification.  He even quoted a famous theologian, one that I had heard of, one that I stopped listening to a long time ago when he declared war on non-Calvinists.  That theologian really got worked up and said that if there is one molecule anywhere in the entire universe, that is a maverick molecule, outside of the total control of God, then all our theology, all of our beliefs, everything about who we are as Christians is meaningless.  Excuse me.  My God is bigger than that.  What if God made that molecule a maverick?

The problem with being an academic is that you think your theories are above the facts.  How someone with many books to his credit, and I’m sure multiple degrees, could declare that everything is void if there is one spec out of place has an undue respect for his own insight.  I would encourage him to stay in his office and write out deep thoughts on sticky notes and post them on his window so that he doesn’t have to look out and see the real world.  I would even encourage for him to make videos and post them.  One of the great things about YouTube is, I don’t have to watch.

I’m sure this rant will continue in other places of the times.  Until then, keep your brain in gear and your Bible open.  It is amazing how well those two concepts work together.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-467: Deconstruction Strikes Again

Don’t think that philosophy has no relevance for our daily lives.  The philosophy of deconstruction which is rampant in our elites is working overtime to redefine the words of our language so that we cannot communicate.  The latest target of redemption is the word “fascist”.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have.  The word “fascist” appears quite frequently in the click bait that is offered on my YouTube algorithm.  People throw it around casually.  A definition of fascism has always been slippery, but in my mind it is a socioeconomic system in which the government and big business cooperate to establish a dictatorship over the masses.  It’s not communism.  It’s not pure socialism.  It’s a cooperation which we have sometimes called in our country, crony capitalism.

We see an example of this when one of the big media companies is accused of cooperating with the government to censor conservatives in order to control an election.  This has happened several times in different ways.  The social media company tries to act like it was coercion.  Possibly.  But it was coercion with a willing victim.  I would doubt that we will ever find out who approached whom first.

Another example would be the kinds of government regulations that we find in such things as the Americans with Disabilities Act.  In it, they require business to spend considerable amounts of money establishing access for people with limited mobility such as wheelchairs, crutches, and other difficulties.  It sounds so caring, so sensitive.  In reality, it is an expression of fascism.  You see, big business can make these changes with out-of-pocket change . Medium size businesses get stressed.  They can comply but it takes funds that might have been used to expand and does things like paint handicap parking places in front of the local gym.  In order to seem really compassionate the government makes allowances for small businesses and saying if they’re under a certain size they do not have to comply.  It sounds so caring.  It’s certainly not brutal.  No one is beaten up or carried to the Gulag.  It is still fascism.

Why is it fascism?  It passes laws which make it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for the little guy to ever make it into the ranks of the big guys.  You have someone in business.  They started the business with their family.  They worked hard and made sacrifices.  They did well.  They expanded.  They increased production, hired new workers, paid more taxes and got ready to expand again.  They run into this government regulation, which was made to be so sensitive.  You see in order to take that next step up towards becoming a big successful company they have to invest large amounts of money in order to be compliant with the government regulations for the handicapped.  That would be bad enough.  Some might be willing to give it a try.  It would require borrowing more money and going deeper in debt and making it harder to take that next step up.  What goes on behind the scenes in our fascist economy?  Government regulations make it very hard for them to qualify for a loan they can afford.  A little back scratching and winking convince the bank to deny the loan.  So even if they’re willing to take the risk they’re not allowed to.

Think of it as a soft form of dictatorship.  Again, no one is locked up for the rest of their life in a jail.  They’re simply locked up at their economic class.  It keeps the power in the hands of the elites.  It keeps the little people where they belong.

The modern definition of fascist is being changed to mean anyone who disagrees with a liberal.  It is deconstructionism in action.  It takes away truth and makes it impossible for people who believe in absolute values to function safely in society.

Keep correcting people and use the term correctly yourself.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-466: From Boxing Day to Christmas Morning

In England they have a holiday we don’t celebrate.  I believe it’s called Boxing Day.  This is not where they put on the gloves and come out swinging.  I believe it’s the day where they wrap their Christmas gifts.  It might be the beginning of the musical 12 days of Christmas.

It is the day where you take your glorious gifts that you have brought for people you love, and you put them in a box, wrap it in pretty paper, if you’re in touch with your feminine side, you have ribbons and bows, and you put it under the tree.  If you live in a house like mine you hide it in the closet because my children used to love to almost destroy the package, trying to figure out what was in it.

This is where a lot of us are when it comes to understanding or trying to understand God himself.  Let it be stated at the beginning that God is beyond our comprehension in His totality.  We are told that we can know Him through Jesus and that opens the door and gives us access.  However, as long as we are in this flesh, there are severe limitations.

My encouragement is that you take God out of the box and let Him be God.  This comes from my thinking this morning, as I am reflecting on the nature of God, and trying to understand Him, and realizing how petty my gestures are.  Don’t get me wrong, I believe He welcomes those gestures.  I believe He encourages those gestures.  The point is that we need to realize God does not fit in our box and that our attempts are gestures.  We need to take all of the preconceived notions we have about God and put them over to the side in case somebody needs them someday.  Wouldn’t it be great if we had a local thrift store that could take preconceived notions?  But I digress.

This does not mean that you just wander off into total ignorant speculation.  It means that you take literally the very clear teachings of the Bible about the character and attributes of God.  Start with the statement in John that God is love.  You can observe how repeatedly He demonstrates His patience.  You can see how He has let His wrath go.  In all of these things you build up a picture of God, but just be careful that you don’t put Him back in the box and define Him just by your chosen terms.

As I look in the morning sky and I see a star that is there on a regular basis, I picture a box around that star, and in my mind I reach out and open that box, drop it into the horizon and then sit back and allow the Holy Spirit to bring to mind what the Bible tells me about God.

We’re still a long way from Christmas Day but it’s never too early to let God out of His box.  He wasn’t in there anyway.

homo unius libri