Opus 2026-094: Needs and Wants

Our children don’t really “need” us anymore.

That is a good thing.  It says that we have done our job.  We have raised them right.  We have planted the seed and it is growing to maturity.  They may have times where they think they need us, but in reality, they have the tools to deal with life.

If I was talking to myself, I might say, “Good job”.

As I said, there may be times when they would like to retreat to childhood and let mommy take care of it.  There are times when they wish they could metaphorically let daddy answer the door.  That’s normal.  The point is that they are equipped to deal with what they face in life.  All they have to do is reach down and call up the lessons that they have been taught.

How do they raise their children?  They’ve had that demonstrated.  How do they respond when the finances get low?  They certainly had that lesson.  Most important, what place does Almighty God have in their lives?  So far it seems like we demonstrated a living faith.

I hope that you can say the same thing.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-093: Not the First Test

I was reading in a book where the author talked about Israel being led out of Egypt toward the promised land.  There were certain key moments that were overlooked.  The author had a point to make, and those key moments did not follow the narrative, but my memory would not let it go.

The moment in question was when Israel came to the Red Sea and made camp on the shore and noticed one little detail:  Pharaoh was coming after them with his chariots.  He was not coming to offer a loan of his boats.  The children of Israel in typical fashion reacted, as if there was something threatening them.

Exodus 14:11 (KJV) And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?

Of course, you know the story.  God opened up the Red Sea and miraculously let them across.  Pharaoh tried to follow and was drowned.  This made me think of where we are today in our country.  I don’t know about you, but one of the common themes is that people feel everything is falling apart, everyone in power is greedy and stealing from the coffers of the country.  Anarchist are rioting in the streets and things seem to be going definitely south.

We find ourselves looking over our shoulders and noticing that the chariots are coming.  Am I the only one?  Are the people I meet the only ones?  I think there’s a lot of concern about the direction of the country is going.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could actually move into a position where we realize that we are under His wings.  I wonder, if the Hebrews had not panicked but simply gone to prayer and made a request that God would see them through, what would have happened.  Would the scenario have gone on pretty much the same or would God have come up with some other miracle?  Would Pharaoh’s horse have gone lame and done a cartwheel with him in his chariot?  We’ll never know.

What we do know is that God saw his people through.  Historically, even in the times when Israel was being decimated for their rebellion and evil living the faithful remnant came through.  I know we can trust God, but the question is, “Are we part of the faithful remnant?”  I like to think I am and I hope you are.  So as we approach the Red Sea and the mob is chasing us remember that God has a plan and we are part of it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-092: The Middle Ground

My thoughts were on being thankful for God’s beneficial providence.  I was marveling over how patient He is.  We hear a lot about God‘s wrath and forget that He would often withhold His correcting rod for hundreds of years before He would lower the boom.  He was definitely patient.

From there, my thoughts went to the antisemitism that we are hearing so much about.  I just finished reading a section in Durant’s “The Story of Civilization” in which he was dealing with the suffering that the Jews endured in medieval Europe.  It was widespread and brutal.  What impressed me, and honestly surprised me, was that the safest place to be a Jew was in the Papal Estates.  Were the Pope had the greatest authority the persecution was held at bay.  Throughout Europe, many church leaders did what they could to protect the Jews that were being harassed by Crusaders and others.

I fear that antisemitism is real and is on the rise.  By that I don’t mean all of the loud noise attacking certain talking heads.  I don’t listen to those people much anyway, but I’ve never heard them say anything I thought it was filled with hate.  Much of what we hear is just the left and the pseudo-right trying to defame them.  Hatred of Jews does not come from those who believe in the traditional America.  Historically it has come from the world of socialism and totalitarian governments.  Keep in mind that the communisst are also socialist and if you lump together the persecution between the communist and the national socialist, you have a perfectly brutal demonstration of what totalitarians have in store with the Jewish people.

What is ironic is that in our country the forces of socialism seem to be supported by the Jews themselves.  Is it a form of self hatred?  What kind of thinking has almost an entire ethnic group being supportive of the people who hate them the most?

We need to bend over backwards to make sure that we are not expressing hatred for Jews.  Whatever you’re feelings about the nation of Israel and the place of Israel in prophecy, Jews are created in the image of God, just like the rest of us.  They deserve the same courtesy and compassion that anyone else would deserve.  That middle ground is hard for people to walk.

Genuine Americans, and true Christians should be looking inward and preparing themselves in case we ever have the resurgence of the kind of things that happened in Nazi Germany.  What that means is that we will need to be ready to quietly and secretly practice resistance to the forces of tyranny.  That means sheltering the target of tyranny and risking ourselves in the cause of righteousness.  It means realizing that we may be that prey.

Pray and prepare.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-091: Source of Heresy

I am currently in the middle of a discussion with a friend of mine who to be honest, has a lot of weird ideas.  He likes to take quotations out of context and throw them at me and then say, “Aha! Gotcha!”  When I take time to read the proof of my perfidity, I just scratch my head and wonder what he’s been smoking.  The reason he sees it the way he did is because he came with his mind made up and was sat on finding something to put me in my place.

The focus of our current discussion is the heresy of Arianism.  This goes back to an early Christian teacher called Arias, who was involved with the controversy of the Nicean council.  His basic teaching was that Jesus was a created being.  At best he was a minor God.  Of course, this opened up the controversies about trying to understand the Trinity.  In fact, he was rejecting the orthodox position of the church.

One of the scriptures that gets thrown in is in Proverbs 8.  In that Proverb wisdom is personified and when you get down to verse 22 and the passage after that, you find that there are qualities laid upon wisdom which crossover enter the description of Jesus. A few verse down you read this,

Proverbs 8:25 (KJV) Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:

The “brought forth” can have the idea of being born. Arias interpreted this to mean that wisdom, which he equates with Jesus, is a created being.

This is where heresy is born.  It is born in the mind of the perceiver.  When you come to something with your mind made up what it’s going to say, you can find just about anything you want.  When he came to this verse, Arias was allowing his arrogance and his confidence in his own intellectual ability to supersede what he knew the Bible taught.

If you come to these verses with an understanding of what the Bible teaches about, Jesus, then you read this and look for something inspiring about it.  You don’t look for a way to undermine the rest of the Bible.  It’s called studying with a spirit of humility instead of arrogance.

Attitude is so important when we come to scripture.  I think most of the heretics in the world and most of the pagans of the world come to their research with the idea that they are smarter than the average bear and will find that they deserve the picnic basket on the table in spite of the signs.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-090: How about a Dumb-Down

Some temptations roll off my psyche with no pause or penetration.  I was recently looking for a primary source document and at the beginning I saw this message:

“This appears to be a long document.  Save time by reading a summary using AI assistant.”

No.  When a certain terminal destination freezes over.  I would sooner have Joe Biden give me a summary as AI Assistant.  

The invasiveness of this software is ubiquitous.  If you don’t know what that means ask Google.  The irritation is even worse.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-089: Scapegoat Phoenix

They’re at it again.  In this case “they” are the Jew haters who seem to always emerge from the rotten cellars whenever they’re running out of other conspiracy theories.  Right now I’m seeing it frequently in mentions of the Epstein files.  They’re dripping with nauseating accusations about the Jews.  True, they are quoting some things expressed in the emails but it’s just the old scapegoat emerging again.

Right now it seems to be coming from both sides of the aisle.  Historically it’s been around since almost the beginning of time.  I’ve been reading about medieval times and how the Jews struggled through those time and persecution was prevalent.  Some of the accusations that we’re hearing today are just repetitions of what they threw around 1,000 years ago.  They were accused of drinking babies blood.  They were accused of murdering Christians in their rituals.  They were accused of witchcraft and all sorts of nonsense.

Some things never change.  You may not like the Jews.  You may think Israel is an aberration.  You may think that Jewish bankers are at the center of all our economic problems.

As the medieval world would say, hold my beer.  These accusations are nothing new.  I would assume that being human beings the Jews have their share of nefarious individuals, but these accusations are nothing but liable and insults to our intelligence.

What does it say about our intelligence, let alone our moral fiber, that we believe them so readily.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-088: How Are You?

Sunday as we were all sharing in the ritual of “How are you”, I shared that I was above average.  Some wag had to call by bet and raise me with, “How did you get above average?”  As often happens, that made me think.

When I hear words like “average” and “normal” my mind goes to the George Carlin routine about how half the people in the country are below average.  It doesn’t give us a very high bar.  I looked around the congregation and I had to admit that the group was well above average.  There were people I disagree with, but that could be a mark of intelligence in itself.  I didn’t see any millionaires or CEO’s of major corporations but I did see people who had made a lot of right decisions.

I have been around stupidity.  I was, after all, a public school teacher and was required to attend faculty meetings.  I remember the guy who worked in special ed who had failed the BEST exam about five times.  Keep in mind that it was something any high school graduate should have no trouble with.  I remember the math teacher who shared she had not read a book since college.

It is scary that the people I know that seem so normal are all well above average.  Keep in mind that you only need to survive eighteen years to vote.  When you add ignorance to stupidity, the future is in doubt.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-087: Bell Curve Utopia

 he emergence of AI seems to promise a lot.  Picture technology, moving forward to the point where no one needs to mine iron ore anymore, it’s all done by intelligent machines.  You no longer need to do your laundry, or mow your lawn.  It’s all done by intelligent machines.  Everyone is able to live in comfort and plenty.  There are no shortages.  There is also no need for most human beings.

When you think of a world demonstrated by such science fiction as Star Trek, you have these beautiful advanced starships with carpet in perfect condition, uniform cuffs that are never frayed, food appears miraculously out of a slot on the wall.  Nowhere is there a sweaty cook tasting the broth.  It’s all done by machines.

So all you really need in this ideal utopia are the elites.  All you want are those who are of superior intelligence and ability.  There is really no place for anyone else.  The problem this presents is that it seems that humanity is produced from the womb in a bell shaped distribution of intelligence and ability.  The only way you can produce just an elite is to eliminate all those who are below a certain IQ level.  I use IQ as a familiar term not because it would be the actual measure used.

Of course this would require some more advanced technology, overseen, maybe by AI.  You would probably have intelligent machines choosing who would live and who would not.   You could do this by abortion, the pre-birth level, elimination by murder shortly after birth,  regular testing schedules, where everyone who failed to measure up was done away with, or some really sophisticated genetic engineering.

When it comes to the bell curve of humanity, I am relatively sure that in most areas I am above mediocre.  I am far from being the top of the pile.  I am not really excellent in anything, but I am better than the average bear.  In spite of that I’m afraid that I would not be high enough on the scale to qualify to walk down the halls of the Starship Enterprise.  They don’t need people who are just good enough or slightly better than average.  All they have room for is the cream at the top.

It is a scary scenario and one that some people would love to see.  Of course the rioting fools of socialism all see themselves in the captain’s chair.  At best they will be red shirts.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-086: Star Trek Christmas

How do you give gifts if you live in a socialist Utopia?

Keep in mind that there is no real difference between Marxism and socialism when you get to the end of the day.  Scholars may want to debate the nuances but they both end up with the state in control.

I was thinking about Star Trek and how you never see any money being used.  I believe it is supposed to be the perfect Utopia which functions on the Marxist slogan of “from each according to his ability; to each according to his need.”  In this perfect Utopia you are advanced to Star Fleet because you are the most qualified.  I always wonder where the peasants are who produce the basics for the elites.

How would you celebrate Christmas or birthdays in a culture where what your needs are provided but there is no surplus for things like gifts?  Is there a prescribed list of gifts in the government store that anyone can walk in and collect?  Do you need to fill out a form or get your supervisor to approve?  If the person needed the gift, could they not pick it up themselves?  If they did not need it would you be allowed to give it to them? 

Would old people have a clutter of knick-knacks around their one bedroom suites or would they all be collected by the Need Police?

Somehow the concept of Utopia and socialism don’t seem to go together.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-085: Click Bait: Astronomy Quiz

Okay, so I got pulled in.  Jay Leno was doing one of his Man on the Street things.  You know the idea.  He stops a random stranger and asks, “How many toes do you have on your right foot?”  You can see them thinking and they come up with a number like “25”.

I usually finish one of those feeling really smart but I have a question:  How many correct answers were screened out in order to get the entertainment?  Could people really be that ignorant?

My favorite on this series was “What galaxy do we live in?”  When the man only looked puzzled, Leno gave a hint, “It a candy bar.”  To which the man answered, “Mars”.

We will never know the real level of ignorance unless they put out a press release.  Even that could be fake news.  

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-084: What Is the Ratio?

How many peasant farmers does it take to support one philosopher?

This isn’t the first time I’ve asked myself this.  Often it reflects the opulence of ancient kings and medieval nobility.  Recently, though, I have been reading about the Muslim empires, and the author, Will Durant, seems very supportive and excited about Islam historically.  His accuracy is questionable but his enthusiasm is measurable.

In the process of going through several hundred years of medieval history in the world of Islam, he mentions name after name of syllables that are impossible to pronounce and all have deep hidden meanings.  He will then go on and talk about all of the books they wrote.  Some of them lived in very high style.  One of them insisted on living on two dollars a day.  Overall, I asked myself how many peasants does it take, laboring from sun up to sundown with all of the difficulties of raising a crop and feeding a family, to make it possible for this great famous wise man to sit around, meditating on the categorical imperative.

When you consider the vast amount of gold that went into providing the elaborate mosaics, flowing fountains, numerous slaves, and concubines, and just general waste in supporting this infrastructure, I keep wondering what the ratio is.

One of the miracles of the free enterprise system that we used to enjoy was that it provided a large enough surplus from the labor of what used to be peasants, to support an elite that lived an elaborate lifestyle.  Rockefeller, Carnegie, the other is so called Robert Barron’s lived in great luxury.  At the same time, the people who worked in the oil industry, steel industry, at Ford Motor Company and so forth, tended to live lives of security, plenty and prosperity.

Now with all of the graft and corruption going on in government, I see the day coming again, where we will be forced into the same pattern as ancient times.  The elites will not suffer.  They will make sure that they have their caviar, gold plated toilet seats, numerous servants and so forth, but with so much being siphoned off for their waste, there will come a point where we will become peasants again.

We worry about the economy, collapsing.  That could be from a mild collapse to total destruction of the infrastructure.  Rest assured that there will still be a small group of elites at the top who are living off our blood and sweat.  It’s called communism.  It’s called socialism.  It’s called tyranny.  It’s called the a lot of the common man for most of history.

The younger generation seems to want to embrace the socialism.  If I live long enough to see all of these feminine studies majors out slaving in the fields then maybe it will be worth it.

But I doubt it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-083: Living up to Mediocre

One of the big disappointments in my life is that I am not an expert in anything.  If you car is making a funny noise and you ask me if I know what that sound is, all I can do is hum a few bars.  If your vacuum isn’t working well I might suggest emptying the bin.  Lawn mower won’t move?  I can point out that it is a push mower.  After that I might suggest a pair of scissors.   If they want to know where the book of Amos is I am glad to direct them to the table of contents.

I can show people how to write a complete sentence but no one cares about such things any more.  I can preach them a sermon but I can’t make them turn their hearing aids on.  

When I was teaching it wasn’t such a challenge.  Teachers don’t get out much.  When they would come to me and say their computer didn’t work I would suggest checking to see if it was plugged in.  Usually that solved the problem.  They thought I was a techo-wizard.  If they could not get their key to work in the door all I needed to point out was that there was another key on their ring.  I could feel like the one eyed man in the land of the blind.  One of the sayings I used to post in my room to keep me humble was, “Being the deepest puddle on the sidewalk is nothing to brag about.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-082: Embarrassment

My family just celebrated a birthday and it was a day that was enjoyed by all.  Today I got to thinking about my children.  They don’t want me bragging on them in public.  Okay.  Maybe I can’t broadcast all their attributes but I can share with you that they do not embarrass me.

That is a major thing in life, the absence of embarrassments.  I think of the people my age who love their children but are almost ashamed to be with them in public.  The other side of that is I don’t think they are embarrassed to be seen with me.

One of the reasons I am an introvert is my insecurities that would make me ashamed to go out in public.  Looking back, many of my insecurities were products of my imagination.  I guess the question is, “Which came first, being introverted or being insecure?”  Age has made me more content because I don’t care as much about what others think.

We should extend that confidence to the criticism that the woke culture wants to beat us down with.  I think I would be glad to be accused of “toxic masculinity” or being a “fundamentalist”. Just because someone thinks they are insulting you doesn’t mean that the comment is really negative.  When someone mocks me for my well done steak I just nod my head and take another bite.

I don’t know what embarasses you but it can’t be worse than going to Flemings and ordering your steak well done.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-081: Hiding Behind Hyperbole

In case you weren’t paying attention in high school English, hyperbole is a literary device where you use extreme exaggeration to make a point.  It’s fairly common and I think most of us have used it sometime in the last 24 hours.  It involves words like “never” and “always”.

Sometimes I think hyperbole is used to hide our feelings or our opinions.  In a sense it’s an out-and-out lie, but the person can’t accuse you of that because you will just say, “I was joking”, or “you don’t recognize hyperbole?”

We also need to acknowledge it when we see, or hear, it.  A good example that I find irritating is the way President Trump always declare things are “huge” or “the best in history”.  It is irritating but I have learned to live with it.  One way I deal with it is to not listen to his speeches unless it is necessary.  Why would it be necessary?  Because the media will try to tell me what he said and in their case it isn’t “extreme exaggeration to make a point” it is just plain lies.

There is a difference. They don’t seem to know it, but we do.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-080: A Verse for My Granddaughter

My granddaughter’s favorite animal after her cat is the unicorn.  We have assumed that they are mythical creatures.  I am not sure she agrees with that.  The King James translators may have agreed with her.

Psalm 92:10 (KJV) But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

Modern translations seem to substitute “wild ox” but what is the basis for that?  In a moment of whimsey I checked out the Hebrew on my software.  I was under the impression that we only saw “unicorn” once but in the KJV it occurs nine times.  It says that this is one of those words that we have no idea about what it means.  Could the KJV translators have known something we don’t?

The word “horn” at the beginning of the verse is in the singular.  It would make sense that this refers to an animal with one horn.

Keep in mind all the times that statements in the Bible have been mocked by scholars only to find out that the Bible had the last laugh.  Don’t be shocked if someday they dig up a skeleton that has a horn in the center of its forehead.  It would be extra special if they found it in the stables of King David.

Stranger things have happened.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-079: Uncharted Revelation: Going Full Dystopian

I don’t know when I first started seeing this word “dystopian” used in print.  For the longest time I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about.  I think I finally looked it up.  I think it’s a good word to describe the change that takes place between chapters 3 and 4 of Revelation.  The first three chapters are visions, it says “in the spirit”, but there is at least some element of connection with reality.

All that is put aside when we enter into chapter 4.  Once again, John is “in the spirit”, but the whole feel of the Revelation changes.  The word dystopian comes to mind.  I was trying to put myself into some of the scenes, to get a feel for what the individuals involve my be going through.  It was almost impossible.  And it was definitely impossible to do it without that feel of dystopia.

How do I describe my vision of dystopia?  I think the best is the feel I got from the brief exposure to one of the Conan the Barbarian movies.  I think I tried to watch one of them and got partway through but nowhere near the finish.  There was a mood in the photography that put me off.  I think of the main character, Conan.  It struck me at a certain point that this giant of a man never did any physical workouts.  You don’t get that kind of muscle mass, just walking across the country and swinging a sword occasionally.  I noticed that massive square jaw was never shaved.  I noticed that that flowing hair was never washed.  I know he never took a shower at least in the parts I saw, yet here we have this tall, stately, giant, striding across the set.  It goes without saying that we never saw him hunting or farming.  We never find him digging up root vegetables to eat.  I never saw him mending a broken strap or anything else that would bring reality to the picture.  In addition to that there seem to be a filter over the camera that made everything dark and depressing.

That is the picture that I get as I continue reading in Revelation.  I think the most important words for understanding Revelation are found in that phrase “in the spirit”.  That tells me that this is similar to a dream, or with possibly the greater accuracy of a vision.  I just had a dream last night.  It was a nightmare.  I was back teaching middle school.  It went downhill from there.  There was nothing terrifying that took place except the general sense of frustration that nothing made sense.  I’m sure that if I had a psychologist sitting across from me, he could analyze the parts that I told him, but for me, they are a total mystery.  Why did that student appear?  What happened to my grade book?  Why did this classroom have so many doors?  None of it made sense, but all of that had a basis.

So as I began chapter 4, I began a new journey with a different attitude.  My sense of interpreting things literally has been put on a back shelf where I can reach it if I needed it.  For the most part, I’m going to try to also put my skepticism on the back shelf and see if there’s anything I can find in here that could possibly be of any use before the rapture.

Onward into the uncharted depths of Revelation.  By that I mean, uncharted by me, not uncharted by the multitude of interpreters of the book.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-078: It’s Everywhere

Everyone is a philosopher.  Philosophy is all around us.

This came to me today when my wife asked me why my whites were not on the back porch.  In this case it had to do with laundry, at least on the surface.  Underneath it, though, was really a philosophical question.  She was really asking, “Why?”  She was not really interested in the laundry.  She wanted to know what eternal truth was keeping me from completing a simple task.

You may have run into this at work, if not at home.  When I was teaching I would often have administrators asking “why” questions.  They really didn’t want to hear my answer.  They didn’t care what I said or my motivation.  The question came because their view of reality was being questioned.  I found that I could not help them.  I found that the best way to help them find reality was to stay out of their sight.

Think about it.  When your wife asks you, “Why haven’t you taken out the trash”, she really doesn’t care about your reason.  It does, though, reflect her feeling that meaning is eluding her.  If her real concern was the trash she might say, “I would feel better about the condition of the universe if you would take out the trash.”  She could also do it herself unless she is confined to a wheelchair but that would not be philosophical.

So next time you are asked, “Why” consider it to be a question about the meaning of life not just an evasive request for the completion of a menial chore. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-077: Controversy

There is a definite conversation that we as Americans need to have.  Patriotic Americans that believe in absolute truth and eternal values have a tendency to look at the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as being semi-inspired documents.  They would be just slightly below the Bible itself.  Because of that, we tend to get a bit idolatrous about them.

What brings this up is the problem that we are having now with the invasion by the Muslims.  Islam is a religion, but unlike other religions, it is also a political system.  It demands total and complete obedience in every area of life.  Sharia law is to be implemented wherever Muslims go.  We on the other hand, have a tradition of religious freedom.  The idea of executing someone because they leave your religion is anathema to Americans and yet it is foundational to Muslims.

Can these kind of differences survive in the current understanding of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.  More and more people are beginning to doubt it.  So what do we do?  We need to have some serious conversations while we still have time to disagree in a civil manner.

That conversation needs to take place on the internet, in coffee shops, over family dinners and any other forum that has two or more people.  One of the basic rules of civilized conversation and debate is at the base or our freedom of speech.  People need to explore ideas.  Just because someone says we might need to review the clause in the Constitution that outlaws religion tests for public office does not make them a hater or a bigot.  We need to listen and come up with better responses than, “Well, Oh yeah?”  This requires a bit of intellectual activity on our part.  Did you ever stop to think that the person who is retarded enough to disagree with you might have some part of their argument that makes sense?

It will also require a bit of courage.  We need to get over being afraid someone will call us a name or hurt our feelings.  We need to embrace the insults.  I am ready to exult in the accusation of White Privilege.  I yearn to be called a chauvinist.  I would love to be called racist by someone who does not see their own racism.  Deal with it.  Glory in it.  It means you have connected at least on some level.

We need to address the controversy.  If we don’t it will not go away, it will eat us alive.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-076: Late Blooming

What areas of growth are open to you when you approach 80?

I know I need to accept that fact that I am old but even harder to accept is the concept that I have wisdom to share.  Part of that acceptance is involved in the futility of blogging.  What kind of arrogance assumes that being able to write a paragraph and remember the final period qualifies you to be read?  Long ago I decided that it was more an inner urge to express myself than to actually think I would go viral.

Another approach I am trying to figure out is finding a coffee shop to hang around in and develop some dialogue.  I have a vague idea how it would work but starting to move is difficult.  First I need to find a place where I can sit and study without putting them out of business by tying up a table.  Then I need the consistency and patience to wait for things to develop.  Over time the regulars begin to recognize each other.  If they are all introverts like me it never moves beyond a nod of the head.  If there is an extrovert in the group then contact might be made.

I am working on a few areas.  My fingers are getting too stiff to play chords on the guitar and my voice is becoming an embarassment so I am working on playing the melody off the sheet music.  So far I can get by in three keys.  More to come, I hope.  I am starting to play around with the recorder.  Little progress at this point.  I dug my golf clubs out of mothballs and am starting to walk nine hole, par three and executive courses.  It is not a promising goal, but good exercise and a bit of fun.  The last two times I went out I scored a scorching 10 on the first hole.

I got sucked in by some click bait that revealed the five things that the elderly do that drive people away.  Most of it I was already aware of.  One of the temptations we get as we get older is to ignore hygiene.  Why shave and shower if you are going no place?  I think the idea is that shaving is a bit of rebellion against the decline of life.  

The battle continues.  Once you lose ground it is very difficult to gain it back.  Ultimately the end will come but I can work to make it as dignified as possible.  So I keep walking, practicing and pushing my limits even if they are not impressive to you young squirts.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-075: Immortal Quotes: Enquiring minds…

In contemplating all the doomsday scenarios that we are looking at I began wondering what it was that would help us to come out as individuals, families, communities the other side, moving forward and prosperous.  I am somewhat amused at the people who tell us to buy gold.  They don’t seem to have studied much in history.  As recently as FDR, we have had the government confiscating gold.  In order to make your goal worthless all it takes is the government to make it illegal.

The most recent advice I got was to invest in assets that would retain their value, don’t put all your money in cash.  Make sure you don’t put it all in the bank.  At all sounds very good.  Real estate is an asset that doesn’t go away, but it could be taken away.  All you have to do to wipe out someone’s real estate assets is to increase taxes to the point where they can’t be paid.  The same is true of almost anything.

That led me to think about what would help us to survive and the two things that came to mind were skills and flexibility.  In looking at skills, I could see that my children would be well placed to survive, but if I were younger and had to go out and get a job, I’m not sure that I have any skills that would find a place in a world coming out of chaos.  If I were younger, there might be a place for pastors, but even pastors often have to have a skill on the side.  My 29 years of teaching would be almost worthless.

I always get amused at people to think about teachers is being this elite group of highly trained professionals.  Not really.  Teachers main contribution is daycare.  They supervise people’s children while their parents are off, trying to earn enough money to keep up with their neighbors.  There is very little that is taught that most parents could not take care of.

The basics that are necessary for an education?  Go back to the three R’s.  Any adult who can read should be able to teach a child to read. If you can write a sentence, you should be able to teach your children to write a sentence and encourage them to put them together in a paragraph.  If you can balance your checkbook, you’re ahead of most Americans and you can teach your child the math that they need to survive in the future.  After that, it’s up to the child.

There might be some exceptions to this such as teaching microbiology or quantum physics, but that won’t be the issue for most of us.  In the world coming out of chaos there won’t be much demand for microbiologists or quantum physicists.  They well however, be a need for carpenters, bakers, welders, and hopefully we will be advanced enough to need electricians.

So that commercial phrase from the National Enquirer really should be one of our goals and focuses.  We need to create children with enquiring minds.  We need children with curiosity and the initiative to go out and look for answers.  What we need for the future are not more teachers, but more well stocked libraries

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Opus 2026-074: Terms in Transition

We like to use words without being forced to define them.  There are so many different ways you can use the same term.  Currently a word that comes to mind it “ice”.  Spoken quietly at the dinner table it can mean you want a few more cubes in your glass.  Screamed in a mob it can mean, “Attack the nazi thug.”  Totally different uses.  My most common example is the word “can”.  Just stop and think of all the different ways it can be used.

What started me down this road is a recent discussion by Steven Gregg on the future of Israel.  In the process, a lot of time was spent on “Who is Israel?”  It occurs to me that this is a question that has parallels in New Testament vocabulary also.  Have you ever wondered “Who is the church?”  I find the same definitions are necessary.

In the OT you have the nation of Israel juxtapositioned with what might be called the True Israel.  One is based on DNA and geography.  The other is based on on faith and obedience.  The nation of Israel is repeatedly turned over to invasion and God’s wrath.  It is exciled and dispersed.  Words like “destroyed” are used and yet the Jews kept coming back.  The key word here is “remnant”.  In the midst of the threats of wrath there is a constant reminder that there will be a faithful remnant.  That represents the true Israel which is the recipient of the promises.

We see the same problem of definition emerging in the New Testament.  Here the word of confusion is “church”.  In the Greek it means “called out ones”.  During NT times it was probably a good word to describe the saved people of God.  In modern times the word has become almost meaningless.  It has become a building.  It is often nothing but a social club.  It has often lost its spiritual meaning.  We sometimes talk about the “true church” just like we might have talked about the “true Israel”.

There are Biblical words that are more accurate.  When you want to refer to the Israel that is the recipient of God’s promise it is the remnant.  When you want to refer to the church that God is saving, refer to the body of Christ.

I think that understanding would go a long way toward clarifying issues.  If you are one of those people who don’t want clarification then try reading the L.A. Times.

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Opus 2026-073: Pictures of Providence

As I look at the chaos approaching I wonder how this will play out for the people of God.  I have different pictures.  One of my favorites is “Pocket of Providence”.  I also coin “Bubble of Benevolence”.  The concept is that there always seems to be a remnant that survives when God allows His people to face persecution.

There are better terms and phrases found in the Bible itself.

Under His wings

In His hand

A shield about me

A Fortress 

Thy rod and they staff, they comfort me

Fire by night and the cloud by day

Angels to stand guard

The more I look the more examples I find. 

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Opus 2026-072: Headlines: The Big Flip

One of the recent headlines has been about how the government agencies have redrawn the nutrition pyramid.  There’s a lot of talk about how it has been inverted.  I watched one “Doctor” on the Internet until he got to his commercial, and he was excited about the fact that grains and carbohydrates have been taken from the position of king and foundation to a fringe group.  He had a lot to say about how destructive carbohydrates are and so forth.

While I will accept the fact that we eat too many carbohydrates it is not a problem of the carbs themselves as much as it is our lack of discipline and moderation.  One reason people eat a lot of carbs is that they are less expensive than the other things on the chart such as red meat and fresh vegetables.  I sometimes wonder if the people telling us how wonderful this will be have ever actually gone to a grocery store or had to balance a budget.  Pasta is cheap.  Porterhouse is expensive.

Another reason that I am not jumping on this bandwagon is because of a point that was made years ago in a book called The Weigh Down Diet.  The author pointed out that God had designed our bodies and designed hunger and appetite as a way of the bodies knowing what they should take in.  Her point was to eat what you craved, but do it in moderation.  Unfortunately, most of us don’t have the kind of discipline necessary to do that, but the principle of God building in a craving for certain foods resounded with me.

I’m not ready to reject carbohydrates as being the major problem in diabetes, and, according to the good doctor, all major illness.  My reason is theological.  I can give you a reason from the Bible in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  For instance,

(Mat 6:11 KJV)  Give us this day our daily bread.

This is a clear statement about bread.  I’ve seen other click bait on YouTube about how the bread they ate in those days was different than the bread we eat today.  That’s probably true.  The answer is not to throw out bread, but possibly to stop putting pesticides on the grain.  I’m not ready to reject what is a staple across almost all cultures just because the FDA decided to revise the food pyramid.  I am not ready to reduce the population of the world in order to give everyone the amount of fresh vegetables and fruits needed to follow the fruits and nuts.

I have been tracking certain things in nutrition for years.  Bread, and starches like potatoes, contain fiber, protein, and a bit of fat as well as carbohydrates.  Government agencies have a tendency to take extreme stands.  They tend to throw the baby out with a bath water.  While their advice is something to be considered, each of us needs to be our own advocate and walk our own path.

Shamblin, Gwen.  The Weigh Down Diet.  New York:  Doubleday, 1997.

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Opus 2026-071: Interview: Matt Fradd and Daniel Suazo

I just finished watching an interview between Matt Fradd and Daniel Suazo.  Fradd is a devout Roman Catholic who hosts a podcast called Pints with Aquinas.  Suazo is a Catholic convert out of Judaism.  At times it was very frustrating and at other times enlightening.

Suazo has both great insight and frustrating blindness.  At times he shares the big problem with Judaism.  It is no longer the religion expressed by the OT but an aberration based on the creative imagination of the Rabbis.  He admits this but does not seem to understand what he is saying.  He speaks of the Talmud with great respect . He shares a few of its ridiculous moments and ignores what they demonstrate.

One example is when he says that the Law of Moses says nothing about mixing dairy and meat.  That is true.  He points out that the Rabbis have explained this conclusion from a statement about boiling a baby goat in its mother’s milk.  (That is my paraphrase).  To him this seems a noble and honorable thing.  In reality it is the extreme arrogance of legalistic scholars.  If something doesn’t make any sense he explains it as allegory.

He then explains the attraction of the Catholic Church in the similar application of scholarly rationalization by the priests.  He somehow finds a parallel between Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the movement of the tabernacle by David.  I am still scratching my head over that one.

Can I expect to see Suazo in heaven?  I think so.  He is clear about the trinity, incarnation, resurrection and other basic doctrines.  I think God will be more lenient on some of the nonsense we advocate than we will be.  As I have said, Jesus did not die on the cross to see how many He could send to hell.

As long as we know what we believe and why we believe it we can gain by listening to people that we don’t understand, or if we do, don’t agree with.

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Opus 2026-070: New Terms: Needles

I find recently that I have been using a phrase that I don’t think I’ve frequented before.  I know it’s not original with me.  I don’t know if I heard it somewhere recently, what put it in the front of my mind or whether it just emerged from the murk of my magic eight ball.

The phrase is “move the needle”.  You can express it different ways such as “move your needle”, but the idea is the same.  The concept is that needles on seismograph’s, audio equipment VU meters and such respond to show when there’s a sudden disturbance.  Most of us are stuck somewhere in the middle and our needles just don’t move.  We need a challenge that comes from discomfort or crisis.  It seems that only that will move our needle.

Another way in which the needle moves is demonstrated by the needle of our fuel or our temperature gauge in the car.  They are bound to move.  The question is are we watching to see when we need to do something about it.

So maybe a new phrase might be, “watch your needle”. Or we could say “take care of your needle”.

Life brings change, or it should if we’re still alive.  Pay attention, fill up with gas, have your oil changed, and get on down the road.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-069: The Jinx of the Book

There are a number of things that take the place of superstitious mementos in our lives.  I have a few.  One of them is a book.  Any book will do.  I found that if I travel somewhere and do not take a book along to read that almost invariably I end up sitting staring at a wall.  Once I got so desperate, I was reading People magazine.

I accepted it as superstition and nonsense.  At the same time, it seems to work out that way.  I don’t get stranded unless I don’t have a book.

Then there are the times I want to do something at the next red light.  Guess what?  Life is lived in the green lane.  I balance the frustration with rapid progress.  If I am going to have a flat tire it always seems to be raining.  If I am going to have a breakdown it hits when I left my phone at home.  I am sure you have your own list.

In my intellect I know this is nonsense.  I still take a book with me everywhere I go.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-068: 101 Means 101

In case you have not picked it up, I enjoy debating theology and Bible.  For me a paraphrase of “All roads lead to Rome” would substitute “Bible” for “Rome”.  It is a natural drift in my mind.

There is a basic truth about Christian theology that we tend to overlook and that basic truth is that basic theology is easy to understand.  It might be an exaggeration but with John 3:16 and five minutes I could teach you basic theology.  From there we would open a door to a lifetime of enriching conversations about God, His nature and how He expects us to live.  If we are really bored we could get into prophecy and the end times but since those things generally have no practical application they can be saved for theological desert.

Does basic theology demand that you accept Jesus as God?  Yes.  Does it demand that you agree on whether Mary had other children?  Not really.  Such topics lead to the divisions in the body of Christ and can be taken to the point of undermining the basics but they are not necessary for salvation.  Is there more truth than I could cover in five minutes?  Obviously.  I could not read you the Sermon on the Mount in five minutes but it is loaded with spiritual truth.

Don’t get upset when people disagree with you on topics beyond the five minutes.  Remember that some people tan and some burn but the sun is the same and produces vitamin D in both.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-067: Don’t Assume

What is truly one of the problems we have today is trying to find where we can get accurate information.  We have the category of Fake News.  We have such nonsense as global warming.  We have supposedly honest scientist talking about the missing links when they describe evolution.  Everywhere you look there is deceit, compromise, and all the words they make up to disguise that they are lying to you.

You would think that the one place you would find a real respect for truth is in the believing Christian community.  You would think the truth would set up a standard in their hearts and minds and be expressed through their tongues.  You would think you could go to a church that claims to be Bible believing and find truth being spoken.

Sadly, that’s not the case.

Most of us are aware that many of the mega churches have drifted away from scripture.  We know about the Progressive church.  We know about the new age.  We are aware of the deception is going on.  What we don’t like to admit is that twisting and compromise is setting up a castle in the hearts of minds of people we think of as true believers.

Sometimes the deception is based on the fact that they’ve been taught wrong.  They’ve been indoctrinated with a certain slant from a certain theological perspective, and they adapted.  They repeated without thinking or searching the scripture for themselves.  I think that’s almost universal across the church . And what is amazing is when you share with them something that is clearly stated and they say, “Well, it doesn’t mean that.”

Recently, I was watching a video that caught my eye because it said something to the effect of did Jesus really say, “Go and sin no more.”  My first reaction is, what a stupid question.  I’ve read it over and over again.  I don’t know that I’ve ever researched the Greek, but I know what it says.  How could there be any question?  But evidently there is.  The man putting on this podcast went down along windy road, never getting close to the conclusion before I finally turned him off, but I could tell he was going to compromise on something.  It is a basic statement of Jesus.  Why the question?  Because he’s been indoctrinated in the Calvinistic interpretation of Pauline theology and is incapable of getting beyond it.  I’ve seen the same arguments when someone says with the Bible does not say you’re saved by faith alone.  Then it’s pointed out that the only place that that phrase appears is in James where he is saying it’s not by faith alone.  And again in some convoluted twisted way, they managed to turn that on its head.

No, I’m not talking about those people.  They are not trying to deceive.  They are not aware of their deception.

So whom am I speaking about?

Here’s where I come to my reading and discussion with King James Only (KJO) and Mid-Aact Dispensation (MAD) people . I first entered into my reading and discussing in good faith.  I assumed that the commandment that we interpret as not lying would be followed by them, even though it is under the law.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the way it works.  I think I’ve expressed this before, but I want to say it again here.  The two groups mentioned tend to take the scripture and put it in a special category and, while they will admit it if you confront them, they continually hide it behind their vocabulary.

An example from frequent instances.  There’s a word that Christians around the world assume means a certain thing.  That word is “Bible”.  You can be speaking in any language and they may have a different word for it but you know what they mean.  It is a book that contains the words of God from Genesis to Revelation.  These two groups have decided to redefine the word.  When they say the word “Bible” what they mean is the 1611 translation of King James.  They don’t say that, but that’s what they mean.  There are subtle indicators, like for instance they no longer talk about the KJV but instead the KJB.  The difference to them is significant, but it’s no concern for us because we assume that the KJV is a Bible, we may not preferred it as our translation but we referred to it as a Bible.  That courtesy is not extended the other way.  If you don’t use the KJB, you are not reading the Bible.  Anything you quote from another translation has very likely been distorted by Satan.

Do you think I joke?  I wish I joked.  Stay alert.  It’s a jungle out there.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-066: Prima, not Sola

One of the common concepts I am trying to deal with is the five Solas.  I believe it is a teaching in Calvinism.  The five Solas are faith, grace, scripture, Christ and the glory of God.

Logic alone tells us that the literal understanding of five different points that are “only” does not make sense.  If it is “faith alone” then why do you need grace and so forth.  I am sure that in the defining of the terms there is a lot of qualifying and back peddling.

I would suggest that a better approach would be to speak of the five Primas rather than the five Solas.  Even that would require some explanation.  You can’t have five things that are first.  The reasoning is that they are first in different catagories.

Take faith as an example.  “Faith alone” in regard to salvation, which is how this phrase is used, is not only nonsense but is the opposite of what the Bible actually says.  Even Paul, who emphasizes faith, goes on to describe behaviors that will keep you out of eternal life.  At the same time faith seems to be the universal requirement for entering into a saving relationship with Jesus.  There is no question about that but I would say scripture is consistent in expecting obedience after the fact, thus “prima” or first faith.

The Bible is clear from Genesis to Revelation that following rules, laws or ritual can never earn God’s forgiveness.  Salvation comes down to trusting in God and His action in response to that trusting.  We can do one and He will do the other.

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Opus 2026-065: Jerky Insights

I just finished putting some beef jerky into the dehydrator and now I wait for the results.  I’ve gotten into this because I couldn’t find jerky that I really liked.  The one place that I could get it and almost get delirious about was a place called Capri Deli, but it’s all the way out in California.  My kids have tried having it shipped, but they don’t seem to be big on customer service when it comes to people out of town.

So I started thinking about making my own and as often happens, I did a lot of thinking and no jerky making.  My kids, again as usual, came to the rescue and bought me a dehydrator and what is called a jerky gun.  The jerky gun is for making it with ground beef.  I started with the jerky gun, but found that the process of preparing and cleaning up was just too much and actually buying top round and slicing it myself was much easier.  And now I have found places where I can find top round pre-sliced.

My kids encourage me because I came up with a recipe for teriyaki jerky and they love it.  Since I don’t have a great enjoyment of teriyaki, they have more left for them when I make it since I don’t do a lot of sampling.  I experiment with different recipes and in the process I’m noticing something.

Most jerky recipes have at least one ingredient that is not common.  I don’t know how much that affects the actual taste, my pallette is not known for it’s discernment, but I have to assume it has some effect.  Today’s key ingredient was celery seed.  Another one is made with coriander.  One recipe I have cause for habanero peppers. With the exception of the habanero, I’m not sure I can really tell that much difference.  I know it affects the taste, but it’s on a subtle level that I don’t notice.  What happens if I leave it out?  Some people will tell right away, others like me, would need to leave out something significant like soy sauce.

I think it is these ingredients that you don’t think about that make the difference in the long run.  Today’s recipe called for kosher salt.  To me salt is salt.  What makes it salt is its salty taste.  Other people would tend to disagree with me.  If I use regular salt, I’m sure it would be OK but somehow I just have this feeling, call it an emotion, that it actually tastes better with kosher salt.  Keep in mind though that I also think that Chinese food tastes better when you eat it with chopsticks.

You can start leaving out key ingredients and, no matter how dull your sense of taste, eventually, you will notice a difference.  I have one recipe that a family member dug up out of an old journal.  It’s nothing but salt, pepper, garlic, and onion, sprinkled on and then dehydrated.  No special sauces or herbs.  You don’t marinate it.  You just dry it.  Sad to say it taste like you just dried it.  Somewhere along the line the missing ingredients made a strong difference.

In life, we have people telling us that certain things are important.  They tell us that certain moral standards make a difference.  Take an overused example of alcohol.  I am a teetotaler.  I don’t drink at all.  I can’t stand the smell of the alcohol.  In my opinion, that makes me a good judge of how much is too much.  I am convinced that having one drink with dinner is not going to destroy you physically or morally.  I’m also convinced that when you have a hard time staggering out the door and can’t figure out which key starts the car, you have crossed a line.  You crossed it long before.  My advice is, don’t take the first drink.  Taking the first drink might not make any difference, but somewhere along the line, somewhere in the evening, you are going to get to the place where it does make a difference.  At that point it’s too late.

So pay attention to the little things they add up.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-064: Off the Cuff: Have I Got a Deal for You

From reading Psalm 80.

I notice that this is again a Psalm of Asaph.  He does not seem to have the deepest flowing thoughts.  He lives in a time when Israel is a wasteland.  We know this because all the people around are laughing at them.  The temple and Jerusalem have been destroyed.

Asaph totally misses the point.  He complains and calls on God.  He wants restoration and renewal.  What he does not want is responsibility and repentance.  He does not seem to see the sin in Israel.

He tries to make a deal with God.

Psalm 80:18 (KJV) So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

He seems to think that he has the upper hand and God will fall for his offer.  He totally misses the point that Israel is suffering because of this kind of attitude.

Do I try to bargain with God from a position of strength?  What a joke but how typical.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-063: Forgotten Blessings

We live in a privileged age and a privileged country. We tend to forget that, and many Americans who have never left the country unsupervised have no idea of how good we have it.

I say unsupervised because there are many people who might travel to other parts of the world in carefully sheltered bubbles designed to give them a false impression.  I think back to the journalists who were taken to the Soviet Union in the early days of communism.  They were taken to the Potemkin villages and thought they were seeing the real Russia when all they were seeing was a carefully constructed movie set.  Many of them returned, writing glowing approval of the Soviet system, totally unaware that reality was more displayed in the Gulag Archipelago than it was in the construct they visited.  You get the same effect when you go on a scheduled tour.

And thinking about our blessings, my mind went back to some of the things that stood out to me when I was on a tour of Vietnam.  It’s always strange what you remember.

I think the memory that comes back to be most often is the absence of the smell of diesel fuel.  It was pervasive in Vietnam.  There was a limit to personal cars, but lots of trucks and all of those trucks ran on diesel fuel.  Not having the dubious benefit of the EPA those trucks spewed out lots of fumes and clouds of black smoke.  But that was only part of the problem.  Today when I smell diesel fuel being burnt in a truck, I think of Vietnam, but what that brings back is the memory of using diesel fuel to burn the grass off of the berms around the camp.  The idea was to make it harder for terrorist to sneak up through the grass and take a pot shot at you.  You smelled it in your barracks.  You smelled it on guard duty.  You smelled it walking across the camp.  It was everywhere, but it is not here.

How about displaying your flag because you want to.  Several times I’ve read about how people from other countries are amazed at how many American flags they see flying from front porches, from businesses, even from car windows.  Americans tend to be patriotic, or at least we used to be.  Flag waving was a part of our life.  You could drive down the street on the Fourth of July and know that something was up because every porch would have a flag waving.  That means that overall we are glad to be living in a country where liberty is still in existence in parts of our lives.

I can load my rifle and not get an Article 15.  One of the totally retarded truths of being on guard duty on the outside edge of an American facility in Vietnam was that you were not allowed to load your weapon.  If you were caught with a loaded weapon, you’ll be written up.  Keep in mind this was a war zone.  It was a place full of hostile enemy out to get you.  That didn’t matter.  Some politician, back in Washington DC, surrounded by security who were armed decided that the soldiers in Vietnam should not be able to shoot back.  In Texas we don’t have that problem.

I remember the taste of the soda that we used to buy at the PX.  It had been sitting in the hold of a ship, on the back of a truck, in the hot sun for possibly months.  That brought a certain taste that was not necessarily fresh.  You couldn’t get away from it.  Well, you might’ve gotten away from it if you wanted to go into town and buy something from the black market that have been stolen from the American army.  It might still be somewhat fresh.  It always amazes me that if we couldn’t get a part to get our jeep going from the motor pool, it was available on the streets of the cities.

One of the great blessings we have that we don’t think about is the fact that we do not have a national ID card.  In many countries of the world, you can be stopped at any point and asked to produce your papers. I f you don’t have them with you you are in trouble.  I remember just checking into a hotel in Europe, I had to turn over my passport.  I remember traveling on trains and being asked to show my passport.  This is the normal procedure in much of the world.  Be careful what you wish for.  Now I can put on my pants and shoes, slip some second amendment into my pocket, and walk out the door without my wallet or any kind of identification and take a walk.  It’s called freedom.

This is one of the liberties we take for granted.  It is under attack by the underground fascists who are trying to make America a Gulag.  The problem of illegal aliens is multifaceted.  This is often overlooked.  People are calling for a national ID.  With that will come the habit of government officials stopping us and asking for ID.  So far we have mostly avoided that.

I intend to enjoy it and be grateful for it as long as possible.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-062: Uncharted Revelation: Facing It

I was struck with the desire to declare much of revelation as figurative, and needing to be spiritualized.  The scenario was singing a song which has the chorus which goes, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full and his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim…

I’ve sung these for years.  I find it inspirational.  I, along with the rest of the congregation really love these words.  My problem is that I had been reading the book of Revelation.  Actually, it’s not really a problem, but it sets up a bit of cognitive dissonance.

Here is how the Bible describes the face of Jesus in revelation,

Revelation 1:14-16 (KJV) 14 His head and [his] hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Take a moment and look at the literal picture being drawn.  Not only is his hair white, but the impression is His entire head is white as snow.  Then you have these eyes with flames coming out of them, a voice it sounds like Niagara Falls, a sword sticking out of his mouth, and finish it all off of face that is so bright that it would blind you if you looked at it.

Not a very inspirational sight.  Now, I will admit that there are probably some deep hidden meanings here, if you look at this as John, seeing Jesus and all the splendor and having trouble describing it, you’re good.  However, this does not describe a face that I want to gaze into and sing about.

There are times when I wish I could just turn off my imagination.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-061: I Don’t Need You

I recently overheard those words.  It made me cringe.  They came back to me this morning, and I began thinking about the different ways in which that phrase could be uttered.  It could be totally devastating, or it could be very affirming, and many variances in between.

Being told that you are not needed, if uttered in the right context, and with the right tone of voice, can drive a nail into a friendship or any other kind of relationship.  People need to be needed.   Even more than being needed they have a desire to be wanted in someone else’s life.  If you have someone that you have been involved with for years and they suddenly declare this out of the blue, you wonder what is going on.  It can certainly chill the warmth of fellowship.

In between the devastation and the affirmation, you might have a simple statement of fact.  If someone calls you to tell you, they’ll be late for coffee because they have a flat tire and when you offer to come get them, they say, “I don’t need you. I have it covered. I will only be a few minutes late”, you don’t take it personally you just order another cup of coffee.  If your child is making up their bed and you’re used to helping them get it straight and they tell you that they don’t need you, that can be a time of knowing you have done your job well.

So at the other extreme, you have this situation where someone is informing you that you have made your contribution and they are now ready to grow up and step out into life.  That’s what being a parent is about.  It’s possible that you have a friend that you’ve been mentoring in a certain area and now they are ready to be independent.  It doesn’t mean you are rejected, it means that you are rewarded.

Of course, in some relationships, it’s just an acknowledgment of what has always been true.  Many times the words are not uttered because you don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.  I am not known for my sense of design or color.  It’s possible that for years I have helped people who really didn’t need help.  In that case, it might be us who would say to them, “You really don’t need me for this.”  If the relationship is right, the statement can be affirming.

Keep looking for places where you are really needed.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-060: Maybe Some Idea

I often find my self saying, “I have no idea.”  That is really just another one of those nonsense expressions because I usually have a lot of ideas.  What I am really saying is, “I really don’t know but I have a good imagination.”

This often comes up when I am speculating on why God does things.  Why does God allow evil?  Is the dragon in Revelation literal or figurative?

Why does God allow cancer?  Honestly, I don’t know but I am quite willing to offer the caveat, “I don’t know, but…”.  The difference between us and the animals is not that we can answer these questions but that we ask them.

Why did God choose Abraham?  I have no idea.  I have some evidence for the choice of Noah but draw a blank on Abraham.  Why is Israel special?  God makes it clear that it is not because they are so wonderful.  Did God spin His celestial dice or did He have some deep considerations that we are still guessing about?

I really don’t know but I can speculate.

Speculation is a useful tool if we understand its limitations.  I would guess that God gave us this tool to make us feel good.  Since we can never know if it is accurate until it is too late, feeling good is about all it can do for us.

So go ahead and speculate but keep on trusting.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-059: Answers

There are a lot of questions that I cannot answer.  Why?

One reason I can’t answer a question is because it is incoherent.  My grandson is still having trouble with his pronunciation.  He’s constantly asking me questions and for the life of me I can’t figure out what he’s asking.  Then I have friends who have weird theological ideas.  They ask questions that make no sense.  Have you had the experience where you know every single word and can define every single word in a statement, but you still don’t have a clue as to what the statement is about?

I might not know the answer because of ignorance.  There are many things that are out there that I have no experience with and no comprehension of.  The encyclopedia is full of information that I don’t know.  It is available.  If I want to look hard enough, I might be able to find it.  Ultimately at this stage, though, I don’t know the answer.

Sometimes the answer is not known by anyone.  There are probably many questions in physics and biology that are still being researched.  So far many of them lack closure.  They are being pursued, but the answer keeps moving away.  Others have not yet been pursued.  The questions are on a long list that maybe someday they will get to and when they are addressed answers will be forthcoming.

Some things cannot be known.  They are beyond our capability of human beings.  We don’t like to admit that, but it’s true.  We have our limitations.  There are some lines that we will never cross.  We may approach them.  We may bang our heads against them.  Somehow, we will never be able to put together what we need to go across.  In some areas I think we’ve already reached that in mathematics where we have mathematical formulas the computers can work, but we can’t, but that’s possibly just my imagination.

One of my favorite quotes is, “Any fool can ask a question that a wise man cannot answer.”  Of course, I like to identify with a wise man more than the fool.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-058: Another Tragedy

The world fell apart again this morning, at least briefly.

I woke up in the dark and decided it was time to get on with my day.  I sat up, picked up my glasses, and as I started to put them on, they fell apart.  It was a moment of crisis.  If you wear glasses you may have experienced the insecurity that comes when you can’t find them.  How does a person who cannot see find his glasses?  What do you do when you have them deconstruct in your hands?

I got over it.  I moved on.  Things came back into focus.

It is so easy to lose our perspective on things.  I had an echocardiogram recently and this week I will see my cardiologist to find out the results.  He has not called me yet so I guess I have a few days to live, but what will he tell me when I go to my appointment?  Will it be, “We could not find anything,” or will it be, “You have six months to live.”  That could be a real crisis.

There are so many things that could go wrong but won’t.  Since I know that God is in charge there are also many things that I don’t bother worrying about.  He has my back, as they say.  It doesn’t mean I won’t face a real tragedy, but it means that it will not really be a tragedy.  It is a great way to live.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-057: Monday Pulpit: Why Listen?

As I’m pondering the last sermon I heard I’m wondering how someone can keep saying the same basic thing over and over again without digging any deeper?  This thought came as I was praying for the pastor and that his preparation would be spirit filled, spirit lead, and show his prayer and meditation.  He’s a man who loves the word.  He loves to proclaim what he calls the gospel.  What that means is that every Sunday sermon could be pretty much boiled down to, “turn or burn.”

We have a fair number of spiritual people who listen to this week after week and have no complaints.  I’m not going to make an issue of it because he has a high view of scripture and he is a faithful man of God.  But again, I asked myself why do people seem to enjoy this?

On the positive side it could be because they believe that there are unsaved sinners in the crowd and those unsafe sinners need to hear the gospel.  That’s probably a safe assumption, but those unsaved sinners have heard the same gospel a hundred times and it has not moved their needle.

My cynical side tells me that the reason they’re quite content just listening to a “turn or burn” sermon is because they have already turned, feel they’re not going to burn, and really don’t want to be pushed any further.

I don’t actually think that’s where they would be if they were challenged.  I think if they were challenged to grow deeper, to witness more effectively, to exercise the gifts of the Spirit, to demonstrate the fruit of the spirit, they would respond.  Sincere people operate that way.  When they hear “turn or burn”, the examine the proposition and decide they’re good.  Case over.  Now let’s go to lunch

One of the weaknesses of the church today is this residue of eternal security that makes us think just because we made a decision and God moved in our lives that everything is secure from then on.  I hope they’re right.  I know they’re not.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-056: Sad Situation

One of the problems we have today is trying to find where we can get accurate information.  We have the category of fake news.  We have such nonsense as global warming.  We have supposedly honest scientists talking about the missing links when they describe evolution.  Everywhere you look there is deceit, compromise, spin, advertizing and whatever other words you want to throw in.

You would think that the one place you would find a real respect for truth is in the believing Christian community.  You would think the truth would set up a standard in their hearts and minds and be expressed through their tongues.  You would think you could go to a church that claims to be Bible believing and find truth being presented.

Sadly, that’s not the case.

Most of us are aware that many of the mega churches have drifted away from scripture.  We know about the Progressive.  We know about the new agers.  We are aware of the deception that is going on.  What we don’t like to admit is that same twisting and compromise is setting up a castle in the hearts of minds of people we think of as true believers.

Sometimes the deception is based on the fact that they’ve been taught wrong.  They’ve been indoctrinated with a certain slant from a certain theological perspective, and they adapted.  They repeated without thinking or searching the scripture for themselves.  I think that’s almost universal across the church.  And what is amazing is when you share with them something that is clearly stated and they say, “Well, it doesn’t mean that.”

Recently, I was watching a video that caught my eye because it said something to the effect of did Jesus really say, “Go and sin no more”?  My first reaction is, “What a stupid question.”  I’ve read it over and over again. I  don’t know that I’ve ever researched the Greek, but I know what it says.  How could there be any question?  But evidently there is.  The man putting on this podcast went down a long windy road, never getting close to a conclusion before I finally turned him off, but I could tell he was going to compromise on something.  It is a basic statement of Jesus.  Why define it into oblivion?  Because he’s indoctrinated in the Calvinistic interpretation of Pauline theology and is incapable of getting beyond it.  I’ve seen the same arguments when someone says  the Bible does not say you’re saved by faith alone when it’s pointed out that the only place that phrases appears is in James where he is saying it’s not by faith alone.  And again in some convoluted twisted way, they managed to turn that on its head.

No, I’m not talking about those people.  They are not trying to deceive.  They are not aware of their deception.

So whom am I speaking about?

Here’s where I come to my reading and discussions with King James Only (KJO) and Mid-Acts Dispensation (MAD) people.  I first entered into my reading and discussing in good faith.  I assumed that the commandment that we says not to bear false witness would be followed by them, even though it is under the law.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the way it works.  I think I’ve expressed this before, but I want to say it again here.  The two groups mentioned tend to take most scripture and put it in a special, inferior, it-doesnt-apply-to-us category and while they will admit it if you confront them, they continually hide it behind their vocabulary.

Let me give an example from frequent instances.  There’s a word that Christians around the world assume means a certain thing.  That word is “Bible”.  You can be speaking in any language and they may have a different word for it but you know what they mean.  It is a book that contains the words of God from Genesis to Revelation.  These two groups have decided to redefine the word.  When they say the word “Bible” what they mean is the 1611 translation of King James.  They don’t reveal that, but that’s what they mean.  There are subtle indicators like for instance they no longer talk about the KJV but instead the KJB.  The difference to them is significant, but it’s no concern for us because we assume that the KJV is a Bible.  We may not prefer it as our translation but we refer to it as a Bible.  That courtesy is not extended the other way.  If you don’t use the KJB, you are not reading the Bible.  Anything you quote from another translation has very likely been distorted by Satan.

Do you think I joke?  I wish I joked.

Stay alert.  Many people want to confuse you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-055: The Shoes of Poverty

One of the ladies our church is heading up a fundraiser and initially it sounds painless and helpful.  She has found some organization that will take used sneakers and donate them to Third World countries that need shoes and in the process generate a donation for the local church that gathers the shoes.

On one point this is painless.  It’s a good way to get rid of a lot of those old shoes that you have in your closet that are still in good shape, but now are the wrong color, they might be the wrong size, or they’re a style that just isn’t cool anymore.  It could be there’s nothing wrong with them, but you just kept buying new stuff and wearing the new ones.  So it’s painless to you.  It cleans out your closet for a good cause.  It doesn’t cost the church anything.  All it takes is a person who will put out a collection bin and then put the shoes in a shipping bag and drop it off.

The question I would have is how helpful it is.  Somewhere in the past, I touched on this before.  There was a basketball coach whose name escapes me, but he was collecting shoes for people in poor countries who didn’t have any.  It all sounded really good until you stopped to think about the effect this has on the big picture.

When you donate free shoes to a Third World country you get to feel good and there are a certain number of poor people that will get shoes who might not have had them.  How much they needed them is always a question.  I don’t think you have to go back very many generations in our country to find out that many people could go without shoes all summer.  That might not work too well in the winter, but in the summer, it was just fine.  A lot of of these Third World countries are areas where it’s possible to go without shoes and still function.  But that’s not the issue.  The issue is that if you flood a market with free shoes, you put local shoemakers and shoe sellers out of business.  In many parts of the world there is a business of taking old worn out tires and repurposing them into sandals.  You’re probably many other aspects of the business too, but it’s really hard for a local businessman to compete with free.

We often don’t see the long-term results of the things that we like to do to feel good and to help people.  There are times when help is necessary.  There are times when help is destructive.  We’ve seen that in the welfare system in our own country where entire cultures have been lowered to underclass simply because they’ve stopped learning how to provide for themselves.

Be generous.  The best place to be generous is close to home where you can get personally involved with the people and not just write a check.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-054: On the Other Hand…

How would the world be different if certain people had died sooner?

The first one that comes to my mind is George Washington.  During the French and Indian war when he was rescuing the remnants of Braddock’s army, what would  have happened if one of those many musket balls that went through his coat had been just a little bit different and had taken his life.  Would the American Revolution have started without Washington’s uniting presence?  I can guarantee you that we would have never won the war because he was the one who was totally indispensable.  He’s the one that held them together.  He’s the one that deserved their trust.  So definitely the world will be different today.

What if Hitler died earlier?  I think we can say that things would’ve definitely been different.  Millions of people would’ve lived that died.  Of course we don’t know what direction European politics would have taken.  There could’ve been many more wars.  In fact, if the history of Europe was anything to go by, there would have been more wars.  It’s very possible that the Soviet Union would have been able to continue to expand without anything to stop it.  Would that matter?   What if Stalin had died as a young man?  The Communist revolution would’ve still proceeded.  But what would’ve happened after that?  I don’t know what role he played but it’s possible that Trosky would not have been murdered.  It’s possible that Lenin would never have emerged as a leader.  They’re all kinds of possibilities.

How would the world be different if Napoleon had never lived?  Again we don’t know how the politics of Europe would’ve worked out, it could’ve been just as bloody only with different leaders.  The concept of a national army in total war would have not come so early.  The Napoleonic codes would never have been written.

What if Octavian, commonly also known as Caesar Augustus, had lost the wars against his rivals.  Would any of them have had the focus and the priorities to make Rome an empire that would endure?  If the Roman empire had fallen apart earlier, how would history be different?

If Mohammed had never lived, would someone else have been raised up to replace him?  Of course, if you were a devout Muslim, you would think, yes, Allah would have raised somebody else up.  If you are just about anyone else, you would think it would be almost impossible for anyone to be so delusional.  The development around the Mediterranean would have certainly changed as the different Christian groups would be in constant conflict, and the schisms within the church would become very pronounced.  Would Rome have dominated the way it did?

Speculate.  I am glad you are still with us to make a difference.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-053: Oh Well…

I was thinking about the death of Charlie Kirk.  He was a young man who was going to be a world changer, and in spite of his death, he may still be a world changer.  We have to wait and see.

I wonder how many other deaths I can think of where it changed the direction of the world.  I am sure others have addressed this.  There are probably books on it.  When I taught middle school and assigned term papers about famous people it was one of the questions I asked:  How would the world be different if the person had never lived?

One that comes to mind is Abraham Lincoln.  If Abraham Lincoln had lived, then the soft-sell of reconstruction would’ve been the game.  He wanted to bring the states back in with almost no penalties and no consequences for what they’ve done.  Johnson tried to implement the policies that Lincoln wanted to put into play.  He didn’t have enough political power.  The radical Republicans shot him down, tried to impeach him and generally made his life miserable.  If Lincoln had lived, things would’ve gone in a direction in a very different direction. I ’m not sure if it would’ve been good or bad, but it would’ve been different.

How would the world have been different if Julius Caesar had listened to the warnings?  It would have certainly made a difference in the direction of Rome.  Rome had a republic which was deteriorating.  Cesar had a lot of great ideas and had he managed to get them finalized Rome would have run much more smoothly and might have lasted even longer.  Of course it was from the point of view of a dictator or a monarch.

What about Joan of Arc?  She was betrayed by the people that she was helping.  If she had continued on, would she have ended up changing the whole direction of France?  She might have eventually become queen or some kind of dictator.  We might be speaking French today.

What if Santa Anna had not won the battle of the Alamo?  How would that have changed the direction of Texas and thus the United States if they had managed to stay alive?  Would I still be in California?  Would my grandmother have moved west?

Of course they’re the unknowns.  How many potential world changers have been destroyed by the forceps of the abortionist.  How many Beethoven’s, Einstein’s, Salk’s, Washington’s?  Make your own list.  Put your name on it.  It will give you something to think about on a cold night.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-052: Gentiles in the Life of Jesus

One of the points that has been shared with me from dispensationalist sources is the claim that Jesus only came for the Jews.  I’ve heard it stated so strongly that one guy said Jesus only died for the Jews.  This is a combination of obvious truth with obvious nonsense.

My contact person has told me repeatedly that Jesus only came for the Jews.  He will have a couple of quotations he likes to throw in and never wants to listen to my response.  Let me give you an example. He likes to quote this out of Matthew.

Matthew 15:24 (KJV) But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

He claims that this clearly teaches Jesus did not come for the Gentiles.  If I had a one verse Bible I would agree, but I like to share with him that Mark has the same story, but with one extra word which he doesn’t like to include,

Mark 7:27 (KJV) But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

Notice the word “first”.  What Mark added is that Jesus may have come first to the Jews, but that did not rule out the Gentiles.

What evidence do we have that Jesus had anything to do with non-Jews? Let’s look at a few examples.

Start with the Wise men.
Herod was not considered Jewish.
The woman at the well was the Samarian.  And Jesus went to her village to teach.
The Syrophoenician woman was a gentile.
The centurion was a gentile
Pilate was a gentile.
The soldiers who executed him were gentiles
One of the 10 lepers was Samarian.

Now, obviously, some of these, like Pilate were not Gentiles that He was ministering to or reaching out to, but if you look at the whole list you can see that there are cases where Jesus got involved with non-Jews.

It is obvious that Jesus was ministering to the Jews.  He was a Jew born in Israel.  He was raised in Israel.  Most of His ministry was spent in Israel.  He was speaking in Hebrew and Aramaic.  But keep in mind half the truth is not the whole truth.  Sometimes half the truth will get you where you need to go, other times it will stop you in the middle of the bridge.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-051: Where’s the Fire?

The euphoria of living in Texas starts to wear very thin when you get caught in the traffic.  I am sure that by this time I have commented on this before but I am in the middle of it again.   Getting past the interstate is almost grounds for returning to California.  Texas does not believe in underpasses that cross the interstate, and they all tend to be on major highways going the other way.  Add to that the fact that we have a very healthy percentage of the population that knows nothing about driving.  Think how I would drive a stagecoach.

Then they have what are called “frontage roads” that only go in one direction and what that means is if you don’t know exactly where to get off or if you miss the spot where you were going to get off you have to drive another mile to find another offramp, sometimes 2 miles, and then when you get off, you have to cross back underneath the interstate and drive a mile back on the one direction frontage road the other side.  If what you missed was on the original side you were on then you have to drive past it a mile, turn around and come back to where you wanted to go.  Not only does this make your trip longer, but it generates a lot more traffic instead of frequent underpasses and two way frontage roads.

Life is hard even in Texas.  I am sure you don’t want to move here.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-050: Coffee, Grace

The traditions of the elders are like old coffee grounds where the flavor and the freshness has been leached out.

Up above, I said “leached out” and the AI added a “B” to make it “bleached”.  That is also a good illustration, but it’s a totally different one.

When you make coffee, you don’t reheat the old grinds and run water through them.  Well, I guess you could, but you get decreasing flavor with each reheat.  I think I tried it somewhere in my past.  No, you get new beans, grind them up and get your truth out of them.

So many of the traditions that we accept as biblical truth have gotten stale in the reheating over the years.  It may very well be that in the ritual excesses of the Roman Catholic Church, Calvin and Luther were right in rejecting what they had to say and instead emphasizing grace and faith.  Grace and faith are certainly biblical concepts.  The Bible does say we are saved by grace.  It says we are saved through faith and believing is a constant in the salvation process.  However, in spite of everything that your traditional elders have told you, the Bible does not say that you are saved by faith alone.

You don’t believe me?  I don’t really expect you to because you’ve heard it otherwise so often.  I even started out on a bit of Clickbait that asked the question, “How many times does the Bible say ‘faith alone’?”  I didn’t get very far before I realized that he wasn’t really asking what the Bible said.  He was asking what the tradition said.  Do your own research.  Look for the phrase “faith alone”.  You won’t find it in the KJV.  You only find it once in the New American Standard.  When you find it go to that passage and read what it says, and then ask yourself who am I gonna believe, the traditions of the elders, my own lying eyes, or what the Bible clearly states.

There are many battles for truth to be fought.  God is loving.  God is kind.  Jesus did not go to the cross in order to see how many people He could throw into hell.  We can probably make a lot of mistakes in our theology and still make it to heaven.  I for one want to be as close to the center of the target as I can be.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-049: Aren’t Clichés Wonderful

They certainly do come in handy.

I don’t like them when people throw them at me.  It just means they’re not bothering to either listen to me or to think about a reply.  Often times they’re just appropriate.  As I started walking this morning, I looked at the sky.  It was dull, gray and uniform.  I found myself saying, “Yes, but the glory of the Lord shines through.”  How trite.  How common.  How true.  There’s a reason why so many clichés have been going so long.  That may be why some people can read the same books over and over again.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-048: Which Came First?

One of the constant themes that runs that run through my mind is the contradiction in the Bible between the concepts of predestination and free will.  I don’t expect to live to see the resolution in real time.  I know that there are people who think they have it all worked out but that is usually based on ignorance, ideological purity or malfeasance.

We have a generous supply of verses that talk about being called and chosen.  We have matching verses about believing, following and responding.  Like so many theological traditions we find ourselves ignoring the reality that the answers are usually both/and not either/or.

We are not chosen so that we will respond but chosen because we will respond.  There is a world of difference there.  I was reading in one book full of nonsense and came across a moment of clarity.  I am paraphrasing but the essence of the comment was, “If it is predestined and all the paperwork has been done by God already, what is the point of continuing the discussion.”

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ then you serve a living God.  He is not a Calvinistic version based on the static stone gods of the pagan.  His character does not change, but he is vibrant and responsive.  I don’t think the God of the Bible is interested in locking down everyone’s destiny before they’re even born.

If I’m wrong, I lose nothing.  If they’re wrong, they could lose everything.  It’s that old Pascal’s wager thing again.

homo unius libri