Opus 2026-436: Actually, It Is About Me

Have you ever had anybody tell you, “It’s not about you”?  I recently came across this in a book that my MAD (Mid-Acts Dispensationist, their acronym, not mine) friend sent me.  It was written by Randy White and dealing with dividing the word correctly.  Most of it was routine MAD propaganda, but he specifically used that phrase.  He said the gospel is not about you, which means me.  I know that my MAD friend has used it several times.  I know what they’re saying in one sense but the statement just didn’t sit well with me.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it is about me.  Part of that is based upon the fact that Jesus died on a cross so that I could come to eternal life.  The other part is based upon the character of God and His attributes.  One of the things that strikes me in the morning out on the porch as I look up into the dark sky and behold the majesty of God, is how big He is.  Obviously the word “big” is not a good description, but it points us in the right direction.  God is majestic and sovereign enough that He can run the entire universe down to the atom level and below, and at the same time have enough computing power left to deal with every single individual as individuals.

In the grand scheme of things no, it’s not about me.  The gospel is not an invitation to narcissism.  It is a universal declaration for all mankind.  At the same time it is about me because the parable of the Shepherd has Him leaving the 99 and going out after the one that is lost.  Did that mean He didn’t care for the other sheep?  Of course not.  It meant that He was committed enough to make it about that one sheep.

All they are trying to do is distract me so they can push their theological agenda.  The MAD sect believes that the entire scripture is about Israel being reestablished and the Messiah ruling with a rod of iron. What worries me is that they put Jesus and the cross in kind of a supporting role for that priority.

No, it is not about Israel.  It is about Jesus and me, and you, and you, and you….

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-435: And a Dash of Optimism

Recently, I had my first cataract surgery.  In the scheme of medical practice, it’s a relatively minor procedure.  I imagine there are hundreds if not thousands of them done every day and as the nurse said, they haven’t lost anybody yet.  There wasn’t much doubt that I would be having the surgery.  It was just a question of when.

On the other hand, what if I felt like I needed to replace one of my joints, would I assume that I’m going forward with that?  I have occasional twinges in my hip.  Since I’m getting old, I have occasional twinges lots of places.  Do I rush to the doctor, get x-rays, schedule a surgery?  No, I walk it off.

There are various reasons for walking it off.  The first and most important, is that it’s probably just a twinge, a momentary malfunction, and by exercising it, it will go away.  Life has taught me that.  It’s an important lesson.  The cloudiness of my vision was not going to go away.  It was just going to get worse, so there came a time for a decision.  The decision was based on the fact that I assumed I would live beyond the weekend.  You laugh.  Some people are up at a place in life where they’re not sure that they’re gonna make it past the weekend.  I am close to that.  It influences their decisions.

I am going to suggest that perhaps when we have major decisions, and we are looking at all the ingredients to that decision, that we add a dash of optimism.  My original forecast of how long I would live gives me about two more years.  I probably will need to revise that since I’m still working along OK.  If I still believed the two year forcaste I might not have gone ahead with the cataract surgery.  If something more serious comes along, I will take into consideration how long I think I will live.

Too often we take pessimism as our main ingredient.  We grasp at anything in desperation.  We rush ahead with surgeries that could just as well be put off.

It’s a hard balance to find.  Might I suggest that you walk in confidence, knowing that the living God is still on the throne.  Mix that in and see if it changes the outcome.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-434: Levels of Questions

I recently read toward the end of CS Lewis’s book Miracles about issues of prayer.  People often wonder if their prayers make any difference.  If they tend to come from a theological tradition which emphasizes the sovereignty of God that question gets even deeper and more frustrating.  If God knows what He wants, is all powerful, and knows the future, what is the point of praying?

This is a real question based on a desire to bring glory to God, not a desire to assert my own free will.

I would suggest that when we have difficult questions that we should approach them on at least two levels.  The first level is what I would call, “Because I said so.”  Why do we pray?  Because we are told to pray.  Paul got a bit extreme when he told us to pray without ceasing.  So ultimately, whether we understand it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we agree with it or not, we pray.

The second level is on the “Let us reason together” level.  I believe God encourages us and wants us to take our questions to the next level.  We never desert the first level.  Everything is based on accepting without disobedience what God says.  I was going to say without questioning, but that didn’t seem to be quite appropriate.

So we ask questions.  We dig deeper.  We should start by consulting other scripture.  Paul talks about praying without ceasing.  When you look at David in the Psalms, he talks about praying on his bed.  I somehow think that the tone of prayer changes if you’re charging in line with a spear in your hand.  I look for illustrations of how to pray.  In other words, I go through scripture for advice, guidance, and understanding.

Then I might go to something like I read in CS Lewis book where he deals with the issue of free will, and God’s foreknowledge.  He finds the answer in the aspect of time and how God is outside of time.  We can look at scholars and philosophers, we can even look scientist, as long as they are rational, and don’t reject with the Bible says out of hand.

Or take another example.  Look at the first chapter Genesis.  It starts off telling us that God created the heavens in the Earth.  I accept that totally.  I don’t really have any questions about it except being an American human being I ask, “How did You do that?”

When you get to verse two and on into the rest of the chapter things get more complicated.  Did God create the world or the universe in six 24 hour days or was there a process involving eons and time periods .

I would start off with a simple answer, “Yes.”  And then I would plug in my brain, exercise my free will, and believe that the God who created the universe also established the laws, which we call laws of nature, by which that universe operates.  As our knowledge deepens, as we understand more, so my understanding of the first chapter of Genesis may change.  Ultimately, I always come back to verse one, which is the pivotal spot, and say God did it.

Beyond that I need to be open to constantly learning new things from scripture, from science, from reason, from experience, but always rooted and grounded in scripture.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-433: WARNING: Unity Ahead

In discussing the beliefs of different denominations one of the rules of thumb that I’ve come up with is that if they have the word “united” in their denomination name, then they are most likely heretical.  One of the sad truths is that in order to unite with other people you generally have to give something up.  In the case of united churches, they often give up important theological truth.   Of course it’s also possible that they gave up those truths before they united but again that’s what makes it possible for them to hang together.

I submit to you the United Nations.  It is hailed as democracy in action but since the original founders understood the mindless nature of democracy they established The Security Counsel in which each member has a veto.  Picture the nature of a pure democratic organization that puts decapitating, wife beating, prepubescent raping countries on a committee to guarantee individual rights.  How would you like the General Assembly by a simple majority to put a special tax on the income of Americans?  

When I was a kid, I attended the Pasadena School District.  We called it PSD for short.  It was rated as one of the best in the country.  Somewhere along the line between the time that I graduated from high school and came back to teach there, they added the word united.  At that point they were in the bottom 25%.  Nowadays, you rarely see a school district that doesn’t have united in its name.  Now I’m not here to say that adding that word to their name ruined education, but it’s just another one of those many coincidences that happened at the same time. United school districts tend to do much worse than just school districts used to do.

Then I thought what about the United States of America?  I had to come up with some kind of modification or corollary.  I decided that what would mark united as a warning is if you change your name to include it.  If it was original then you might be good to go.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-432: The Eternal Human Nature

As I said earlier, I am reading a two volume set called The Works of John Adams.  As I was reading his diary which covered his years immediately after passing the bar, I found a recurring theme in his mind.

“This day has been spent to little purpose.  I must confine my body, or I never shall confine my thoughts:  running to Doctor’s, cutting wood, blowing fire, cutting tobacco - waste my time, scatter my thoughts, and divert my ambition.  A train of thought is hard to procure; trifles light as air break the chain, interrupt the series.”  pp. 102-103

This type of comment keeps recurring.  He continually made resolutions to continue studying the law, to get up early, to study and ride all day, and get a good nights sleep.  It seems that this founding father rarely lived up to his goals.

I find his procrastination and rationalization and lofty goals, very reminiscent of my daily process.

If you are young and struggling with keeping your nose to the grindstone, just keep in mind that John Adams had the same problem.

Adams, John.  The Works of John Adams, Volume 1.  Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 1992.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-431: The Long View

How is your day going?  That is a question that we often are asked by concerned friends or by people that are mouthing a platitude.  Our day can be going well, or be a disaster.  We need to understand neither one of them is the final word.

The Bible touches on this in several places, but the one that hit me recently was in Jeremiah chapter 39.  The king had a servant named Ebedmelech who was from Ethiopia.  The basic scenario was that he was most likely born there and was sold into slavery for some reason.  He was transported north until he entered service under King Zedekiah.  Was that good or bad? Without approving of slavery, we have to admit that there were many high-ranking officials in ancient times who were slaves, but still wheeled lots of power and influence.

Life started out as a disaster and was improved by what someone called chance and others providence.  It was also improved by his hard work, perseverance, and willingness to be loyal to the king.  Then Babylon arrived outside the gates of Jerusalem and things started looking down again.  We are at a period of time where there is little food left, the city is surrounded by the armies of Babylon, and we are just moments away from the gates being crashed and the city being ravaged.  Things were not looking good.

But then we come to the final chapter.  Previously, Ebedmelech had been helpful to the prophet Jeremiah.  He stood up to the nobles, appealed to the king, and rescued Jeremiah out of the pit.  Now as things are crashing down and he’s facing death or worse again, life changes.  God steps in and through the prophet Jeremiah tells him,

Jeremiah 39:18 (BES) (46:18) For I will surely save thee, and thou shalt by no means fall by the sword; and thou shalt find thy life, because thou didst trust in me, saith the Lord.

Notice the key to him being saved from the sword.  It wasn’t his DNA, he was not a Jew.  It wasn’t his obedience to the law.  It wasn’t his charming good looks.  It was because he had exercised his trust in Almighty God and been obedient to what God wanted him to do.  In short, because he feared God, he did the right thing.

We need to take a lesson from that for our lives.  We face uncertain times.  We see an elite class that wants to run the country into the ground and turn it into a social estate with them in charge and us living hand to mouth.  We see a religion of peace invading, and doing everything it can to make us into a battlefield.  We see the church permeated by insincere and heretical so-called brothers.  Things do not look promising.  Almost as if the Babylonians are at the gate and the battering rams are doing their work.  In the midst of that, we need to keep doing what we know is right, trust in God, and leaving the future in His hands.

The upper classes of Israel were either killed or enslaved.  The king had his sons murdered in front of him and was blinded.  Left behind were the farmers and peasants who tilled the land.  Among those who were carted off to a foreign country were those who had been faithful.  They went away to become leaders and successful citizens elsewhere.  God has a plan for us and He has ways of taking care of His people.

I hope that includes you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-430: The Probable Impossibilities

The Bible is full of things we could label as paradox.  Some people like to call them contradictions but one of our articles of faith is that the Bible does not contradict itself.  So how do you work out such things as,

Foreknowledge and free will
Jesus being fully man and fully God.
The Trinity
And what got me going on this, how can God be just and loving at the same time?

I have borrowed a term from psychology, gestalt, and applied it to my view of the Bible in its teachings.  What I mean by that is the endeavor to take the entire voice of scripture and apply it to any bit of theology, philosophy, or behavior if it comes up.  Often that requires digging deeper and thinking longer.  It is probably impossible to take everything into consideration but my belief is that these things can be worked out.

Take what got me started.  I was thinking in terms of the difference between Yahweh and the Bible and Allah in the Quran.  Both would be considered to have the attribute of justice.  Both would have the attribute of mercy.  Those two attributes do not go well together because they are juxtaposition.  In the Quran all the works this out because Allah is sovereign, he is above any constraints or correction, and because of that he can do whatever he wants.  Thus he will send some to paradise and condemn others.  You won’t really know until you arrive.

Yahweh takes a different approach.  Being  a just God, He must punish sin.  All human beings are sinners and deserve punishment.  Being a loving God, He wants to forgive, but He must do this in compliance with His justice.  His answer is to pay the price for sin Himself.  This is where Jesus coming to earth, living as a human being, suffering, death on the cross and shedding the blood of forgiveness is the solution.  Thus the debt of sin is paid and both justice and love are fulfilled.

Of course, sometimes you have to resort to, “I don’t know”, or “It’s a mystery”.  For the first it may be that a little more thinking, and studying will give us an answer.  For the second, there may be an answer someday, but we are not spiritually, mentally or physically in any condition to embrace it at this point.

Keep thinking, asking questions, thinking some more and pray a lot.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-429: The Blessing of Rejection

I have experienced food poisoning a few times in my life.  The first indication for me is a lightheadedness and disorientation, which can get bad enough that I feel the potential of passing out.  Generally, my solution to that is to find a toilet, get on my knees beside it, and hope to throw up.  Once I vomit the conditions quickly depart.

I hope you’re not eating breakfast if you’re reading this.  It’s a common reaction though, at least for me.  Our body has ways of letting us know that something is not meant for us, that it has potentially poisonous attributes.  I’ve read that if you’re ever out in the forest and for some unimaginable reason, need to forage for food, that you should not just start eating things that you see.  It could also be poisonous.  I’ve heard that if you take some of the greenery and strap it to the inner side of your arm and leave it there for a while, that if it’s poisonous your skin will respond with a rash of some kind.

I find that in the spiritual sense my soul also reacts to things this way.  I find that when I read things that on the surface seem OK, there develops a reaction of either sort already discussed.  After I have gotten rid of the offending material, my soul begins to respond by thinking about things in the Bible and actually reading what the word says.  That quickly restores me to health.

I believe I related how years ago, right after I graduated from seminary, I had a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses come to the door.  Being cocky, arrogant, and full of myself, I thought I would show them my erudition.  When they left, I’m sure they had a smug look on their face because they had tied me up in knots.  I wasn’t sure what I believed.  My solution was to get out my Bible and start reading and things quickly settled into place as I came across scriptures which gave me the answers and the keys to understanding.

I just finished a short little booklet sent to me by a friend, which caused the same reaction.  It wasn’t quite as severe as the food poisoning or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but there was an unsettled feeling after reading what he had said.  My solution was to get out my Bible to read, to meditate, to pray, and to listen to what God would say to me.  In a short time, my mind settled down, my smarty-pants switched over to a seat of wisdom, and I was back on track.

Be thankful when things force you to think and contemplate.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-428: Spawning Tradition

I was thinking about a Bible teacher that I enjoy and how often he seems to get confused between scripture, teaching and traditions.  It’s a normal thing for us.  It’s hard to break free from traditions because we have been taught that they are based in truth.

I got thinking about how traditions start.  I thought about that pastor who gives an illustration and he is perfectly aware that he’s making the whole thing up, but it gets across his point.  Ideally, he will tell people he made it up.  In the long run, it doesn’t make any difference for one or two tellings it may remain something he made up, but eventually someone is going to take it as fact and low, a new tradition is born.

I find myself wondering if I have ever introduced traditions into people’s lives, which they now think of is being factual and truthful.  I don’t say that in the sense of arrogance just in the fact that people often only hear half of what you say, and then build on it.

Traditions can be helpful when they enrich and deepen the truth.  They can be destructive when they substitute as a truth or water it down.  Again I remind you always seek to find what the Bible actually says or what that person speaking about the Bible actually said.  It could make a difference.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-427: Trying to Smell the Smoke

I’m thinking that God is working overtime trying to send us a message about the direction in which our society is going.  I’m wondering if he’s trying to tell us that if we don’t shape up and change course that we are doomed.

My reflection is based on this woman who murdered her three children.  I shall not try to learn her name because she does not deserve to be famous.  I have not followed the trial closely, but I’m making a couple of assumptions.  Basically my understanding is there is no question about the fact that she strangled her three children.  We are not talking about whether she is guilty.  We are talking about whether she should be held accountable.  Once you get beyond that, I am relying on Clickbait and people‘s opinions.  Whether she planned it out ahead of time, I wasn’t in the courtroom.

The question isn’t even how we deal with people who are mentally unstable.  The question that God is throwing down like a gauntlet in front of us is what are our values?  It seems from the click bait that large numbers of women are gathering to support her.  I saw one video where a man canceled his wedding because his wife was siding with this woman.  I’ve seen a lot of anger and hostility.  Again, the issue is not “Did she murder her children”, that seems to be obvious.  The question isn’t even really was she mentally unstable.  That should be obvious also.  No one with a trace of decency, morality or mental capability could stare into the eyes of her children while she chokes the life out of them.  That action surrendered her humanity and her right to be protected by anything that is decent in the world.

So it’s our reaction to this that God is watching.  Couple that with the idea of mutilating children to try and change their sex.  Add to that how people just smile and shrug at the idea of drag queens reading stories to children in libraries.  Think about people excusing honor killings of teenage daughters and throwing acid in the face of women who talk back as being just a cultural thing.  Back up and look at how in our political world we have entire libraries of evidence and documentation about graft, corruption, even possibly murder, and no one is being arrested.

If you wake up in the middle of the night and smell smoke, I would advise you get up and go look for the source.  If it is in your waste basket, throw on some water.  If it is your neighbor’s house, panic and dial 911.  When I hear rattling and shaking coming from the other end of the house at three in the morning, you better believe I go check it out.  I take some self-defense with me.  If the idiot light on your dash comes on warning you that the car is overheating, your next moment should take you to the side of the road.

People, the smoke is rising.  It is getting thicker by the minute.  We don’t have time to stop and smell the roses.  We have to find out the source of the smoke and deal with it.  If you can stifle it immediately, do so.  If it is beyond you make a lot of noise.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-426: Philosophy and Ground Beef

I was part of a recent discussion with a family that was ready to refill the meat compartment in their freezer.  I think the solution this time was half a cow and a whole pig.  After discussing taste and quality we got off on the concerns about beef brought in from Mexico and other places.  The current noise about some parasite made people aware of a problem that is ongoing.  I’m sure that there’s some issues with American raised beef also, but the general feeling was the quality was higher, and safer.

I have never slaughtered an animal.  The closest I’ve come is catching and cleaning a fish.  I imagine it can be a pretty messy process.  Raw steak is as close as I ever want to get, but that brought me to the concept of working in a slaughterhouse, which my uncle did for years, or in a butcher shop and being a part of that journey from a living, breathing animal to breakfast sausage.  What was once alive is now someone else’s meal.  What once was moving freely through the pastures, munching on grass, sniffing the daisies, feeding its newborn calf and heading home to be milked is now being packaged in different cuts.

It brought me to the difference between animals and people.  In the creation account, the only living entity that was created in the image of God was man.  We are different.  We are unique.  At the same time we share some of the same qualities.  We die.  The big question is what happens after that?  If I were a believer in certain eastern religions where you have reincarnation I’m sure that a cow soul would move on to something else.  That is not my belief.  When a cow dies, it is dead.

Not so with people.  What is that mysterious element which is removed at death which science cannot put back?  Man is always wondered what happens after death.  Of course as Christians, we believe that it’s just a promotion, or demotion, depending on your circumstances.  We believe that that inner core goes on.  Depending on your theology, you can think of it as a soul or the spirit, but that essential element that is you continues on into eternity.

We are not just a part of nature.  We are part of the kingdom of God. We are created in the image of God.  We need to take that into consideration when we decide on just about anything.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-425: Seat of Honor

If I am ever at dinner with you in a restaurant and put you on my right hand side, you need to understand that is the place of honor.

Historically, the right hand is the seat of honor.  If you were having dinner with the king being seated at his right hand meant that you were the highest in regard amongst the diners.  When you put flags up the American flag is supposed to be on the right.  It’s a fairly standard idea.  I’ve heard that it comes from the need in a battle for the king to have someone on his sword side to protect him from spears and missiles and such.  On his left, he would have a shield, but he would be vulnerable on the right hand side, and so his bodyguard or the person he trusted the most would be on the right hand side.

That has nothing to do with me putting you in the seat of honor.

For me, it’s a matter of being able to hear you.  I have noticed for years that the hearing in my right ear is better than the hearing in my left ear.  As I get older, the difference is more pronounced.  If I’m distracted by the snoring coming from someone else in the room, I can turn over, put my right ear into the pillow, and be able to sleep.  If I put my left ear in the pillow, I’m afraid the noise keeps me awake.

So if we’re out to dinner, I have any control over the situation at all and I value what you might have to say, I will try to get you on my right hand side.  Usually, I don’t have that kind of control and I just go with what fate hands me.  So if I don’t seem to be hearing what you’re saying, check and see which way my head is turned.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-424: WARNING: Shortage Ahead

I don’t know why no one seems to have seen this coming but I am projecting a coming shortage of Himalayan Pink Salt.  I assume from the labels that it is mined somewhere in the mountains of Pakistan and packaged for your table.  There must be a limit to the amount of this precious resource available.  The Himalayas are only so big, you know.  We might need to limit production so that there would be salt left for future generations and perhaps, like our national forests, set up preserves that will never be touched just so future generations will have the ability to come in and experience Himalayan pink salt, even though they can’t have any.  You may not know what Himalayan pink salt is.  That doesn’t matter.  Just realize that we are facing a shortage and it could sneak up on you and we need the government to make us safe from such a catastrophe.
    
Sounds like a plank for the Democrat Convention.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-423: Will the Real Pagan Please Stand Up

I was thinking about different preachers I’ve been under and listening to different sermons and how our pastor is primarily an evangelist and a teacher secondary.  Every Sunday, no matter what the text, we get “turn or burn”.  I’ve gone through various responses.  After examining myself for a couple weeks, I am ready to admit that I turned a long time ago and I’m not worried about burning.  But I need to understand that he is not called to meet my criteria, but to be faithful to his calling.

There are number people that feel like he’s really preaching the word.  OK.  That’s partially an indication that he’s doing what God wants him to do.  We see people making spiritual progress as they move back into a serious desire to follow the Lord.  OK, that’s another indication that he’s doing what he’s supposed to do.

My mind wandered down one of them many rabbit trails that infested my mind andI came up with the quiestion of how would you evaluate a congregation based on the way in which God is impressing the pastor to preach?  What does the sermon topic say about what the Holy Spirit knows that we don’t know.  If that were a legitimate criteria, and I’m not saying that it necessarily is, then how would I evaluate our church.  I might assume that this is a church full of pagans who have never heard the gospel before.  Maybe hiding behind the façade of being a believer are people who all their lives have rejected the good news.  Possible, but not probable.  Perhaps there’s a good number of them that are heretics or halfway.  Perhaps on any given Sunday there is one person in the crowd who’s on the verge of turning their life over to Christ.  So many possible reasons.

And of course, there is what may be the real reason.

It may be that my attitude needs a serious adjustment.  It could be that there are verses being quoted that I need to be reminded of and to look at in greater depth during the week.  It could be the thing that’s holding him back is the fact that I’m being too much of a rock head.

The perfect church does not exist.  As far as I’m concerned, this comes as close as I can find at this point.  May God bless the pastor as he prepares to preach and teach and keep my mind open and my heart tender.

And what did we say as children, “Same to you and more of it.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-422: Missing the Point

As I have shared before, I am seeking to understand the seeming contradiction between Paul and David when it comes to the law.  I think a lot of the problem is that people misunderstand what Paul means when he talks about the law, but that’s not what I’m looking at today.  What I’m looking at today, comes to me and is summarized in this verse,

Galatians 2:16 (KJV) Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Do you know where I’m going?  You need to look at this also in the NASB.  The NASB translates this in a way that most translations put it.  As much as it hurts me to say it the KJV gets it more accurately here.  Take a look at these two translations and see if you can pick out where I’m going with the differences.

Galatians 2:16 (NASB95) nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

Notice that the King James does not say “faith in Jesus Christ” it says “faith of Jesus Christ”.  That is not a misprint and it is not insignificant.  It reflects what the Greek says.  I know none of us were paying attention when we went through grammar, but these are both in the generative case which marks possession not direction.

When Paul says that we are not justified by the works of the law he is correct.  We are justified by the faith of Jesus.  You can take that to mean one of two things.  First, it can mean the faith that Jesus has in us.  Secondly, and I think this is more the point, you can translate this with faithfulness rather than believe or confidence.  That is a perfectly legitimate way to translate the Greek word.  Put that together, and you have a theological statement that is valid, it was the faithfulness of Jesus, in going to the cross and interceding for us, that gives us a hope of salvation.

The modern translations transpose this to us having faith in Jesus.  To be fair, there are places where that is the correct understanding.  This does not do away with the importance of faith, our faith, and the process that leads to salvation.  What this does is it points out the relationship of the works of the law and faith.  Notice that twice in this verse Paul points out that we are not saved, or justified, by works.  The point that we miss is that we never have been saved by works.  This is not a new doctrine.  This is not a new thought.  This is taking the old traditions of the rabbis and what Judaism had become, leaving them behind and going back to what the Bible actually teaches.

The purpose of the law was not to save people for eternity.  The purpose of the law was to mold a people, a nation, to provide the structure for the coming of the Messiah.  Although there are indications in the Old Testament of eternal life, the main emphasis of the promises to Abraham has to do with the land, not eternity.
    
I am in contact with people who take two extremes.  One rejects Paul.  The other puts Jesus below Paul.  Neither one is correct.  It is all the same God and the same truth.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-421: The Problem with Quality

I just took the plunge and bought a couple of books on Amazon.  They look nice in the pictures and when I got them that was an accurate depiction of what they were.  What didn’t come through online was that the covers, although technically hardbound, we’re made up of that shiny plastic coating on the outside rather than the old cloth bound covers.  Short term, it won’t make any difference.  Long-term I have a question on whether these books will hold up.  Since both of them will be what I consider reference books I need something that will hold up over use.  A novel or a one time cultural criticism can fall apart and it’s not the end of the world.  When you have something that you need for reference that should endure.  I guess I should be glad I won’t live long enough for them to disintegrate.  

I don’t know that there are any options.  In the old days, you could go to a bookstore and handle the merchandise so that you knew what you were getting quality-wise.  If had been able to do that I might have thought twice about buying them.  I would’ve looked a little further, hoping to find better quality, even if it cost a little more.  Here’s where our current market atmosphere is driving quality out of the stores.

If I have two items to buy, and the price is different, but the price reflects the quality, I am free to make the choice of whether I want to pay the extra money.  I have no problem paying for quality.  What I have a problem with is paying the quality price for the inferior product.  Let’s take a simple pencil.  When I was teaching, it became obvious that pencils came in different qualities.  You could go down to the back-to-school sale at Walmart and buy a package of pencils for a nickel apiece.  They looked nice.  They were well packaged.  You were happy with your purchase.  You totally ignored the Ticonderoga brand which is right beside them and cost much more.

Fast-forward to the classroom.  I always insisted on having a good, solid pencil sharpener fastened the wall.  I would watch kids take their shiny new pencils up to the pencil sharpener, inserted in the proper hole, and start cranking.  I would watch their nice new full-length pencil slowly be reduced to a stub because the quality of the pencil was so low that it was impossible to get a point.  It could be cheap materials.  It could be the fact that the lead was not centered in the wood.  It could also be the technique of the child.  I also noticed that occasional student who had the expensive pencil could walk up, crank the handle a few times, and walk away with a nice point on his still long pencil.  The quality was worth it if you were planning on doing much work with a pencil.

What do you do when the local merchant, or the mail order merchant for that matter, only makes the cheap pencils available?  Maybe learn to write with a pen.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-420: Hold that Note

I was thinking about the song “A Mighty Fortress” and about how we tend to sing it the way we’re used to singing it, not the way it is actually written.  We sing “A mighty Fortress is our Goooooood; a bulwark never failing.”  That’s not the way it’s written.  It’s written “A mighty Fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.”  There is no long hold on the word “God”.

So we have tradition as opposed to the original text.  Now you’ll notice that it does not change the meaning of the song when you pause there.  It throws in no theological monkeywrench.  It’s just a different rhythm.  Singing it as written may confuse some people.  It will certainly embarrass some people.  It might even make some angry.  But it doesn’t change anything.

Some tradition is like that.  It doesn’t matter whether you immerse or pour.  It doesn’t matter whether you stand or sit.  There are all kinds of traditions we have that do not matter.

The discernment comes when you have a tradition that actually changes the meaning of this song or the scripture.  I can’t think of any musical examples where a different rhythm changes things.  There are probably places where if you change the punctuation and put periods at different places or leave certain phrases out that it could change the theological implication what you’re singing, but that would be very unusual.

So enjoy your traditions. Understand that they are traditions, and that people with different traditions are not necessarily heretics.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-419: Click Bait: Stealing Thunder

One of the ads that popped up on my You Tube feed had this line,

“He gave his life as a martyr for the cause of peace.”

I think it was advertising some kind of computer game you could play on line.  What struck me was the attempt to draw parallels with the life of Christ.  We saw this theme developing in Star Wars.  We see it being stolen all the time.

In reality, this is a phrase that could sum up the contribution of every soldier that we celebrate on Memorial Day.  Most modern soldiers do not go to war because they want to rape, pillage and steal.  Most modern soldiers go to war because they feel they are defending their family in their country.  The purpose of having a strong military is really to keep people from invading and taking over your space.

Many people also live their lives in a self sacrificing way.  They are committed to the idea of helping the downtrodden and trying to advance godly principles in our society.  Often they set aside earlier dreams of wealth and fame.  Instead, they settle for a life of purpose and contribution.

If you know someone like that, salute them.  You might even take them out to dinner at a place that they would never go themselves.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-418: Day Three and Four and…

At this point, I’m well on the way to recovery I think.  On day three I took a drive.  I went on roads that I know to places I know.  I could tell that my eyes were still dilated.  I knew this because when I’ve had them dilated normally during a regular checkup, I can’t tell what color the signals are when I try to drive home.  I can’t tell that there’s even a light in them until I get close enough.  And close enough is very close.  I experienced the same thing on day three.  I also could not read the signs until they got close enough to almost touch them.  That didn’t matter so much since I drive this on a regular basis and know what all the signs say.  I did a little shopping and headed home.

I go over this stuff in case someone is reading who has not been through cataract surgery.  If you’ve been there, this is all repetition.  Of course, you also have to make allowance for the fact that everyone is different, every doctor has different procedure, and there are radically different ways to deal with it.  Evidently, if you have the laser approach, then you walk out one hundred percent ready to go.  Very quick.  Replacing the lens takes more time to adapt.

Day four I went driving again and at this point, I could see the signals and tell what color they were from a reasonable distance.  It seems I’m gradually making progress.

I don’t plan on going on with day five or beyond.  At this point it’s a matter of making adjustments in lifestyle.  For 76 years I’ve been wearing glasses.  The first thing I would do in the morning is put them on.  The last thing I would do at night is take them off.  It is very hard to convince myself that I don’t need to put glasses on.  For reading it is better every day after this point.  I think I finally settled down.  I’m beginning to understand why people tuck their sunglasses in the collar of their shirt.  For many it’s still to look cool, for most it’s probably just the best way to keep track of your sunglasses when you’re taking them off and putting them on.

I have a half dozen sets of reading glasses from the dollar store of various magnification.  The adventure right now is trying them on and seeing what works for different things.  I’m starting to lay the groundwork for flexibility in life and laying a set of glasses in a certain place where I know I will need them.  I put one by my music stand for playing my guitar.  I put one by my reading chair.  I plan to put one in the car.  Sometimes I can read things on the computer and iPad, other times not so much.  I don’t know how much more change there will be, but I think we’re starting to settle down.

I still have this residue of 76 years of habit.  I may just have to get a pair of frames with no lens so I can feel like life is complete.  My grandchildren are worried that they won’t recognize me without glasses.

Technology can be frustrating, but it also can make getting old easier.

homo unius libri 

Opus 2026-417: Apology Not Accepted

In the past year, I’ve come across a number of defenders of the faith, apologists.  These are people who have taken on the challenge of answering attacks on Christianity.  One of the verses that comes to mind for this area of study is,

1 Peter 3:15 (NASB95) but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence;

I have no trouble with the study of apologetics.  I wish I were much better at it.

Unfortunately, much of the time it’s just a futile effort.  I enjoy listening to the repartée between the apologist and a Muslim who is taking him on.  It deepens my knowledge of scripture and reinforces my concerns about Islam.  The problem is that the people that they are talking to are not interested in a discussion or learning truth.  They are simply there to go on the attack.  I believe the term is polemics.  Many of the discussions that we have with other people are not really discussions.  There are more defending the castle against someone who wants to destroy it.

I listened to a number of these discussions, or more accurately arguments, and notice a pattern on the side of the Muslims.  They never listen to what you say.  They never listen to what they themselves say.  It becomes a contest to see who can talk the fastest, and the loudest and be the most aggressive.  When an apologist will read a passage out of the Quran and ask a simple question about it, the Muslim will ignore the question and bring up a whole new area to go on the attack.  They interrupt, they talk over.  They call you names.  Rarely do they ever listen to anything.  They know that if they listen, they will have to admit to truth and that’s not what they’re after.

If you enjoy the challenge, then go for it.  If it sharpens your skills and deepens your understanding by forcing you to dig deeper into your own beliefs, then it can be worthwhile.  If you think that someone who will not listen can be convinced of anything, I suggest you think again.

Keep in mind misunderstanding applies also to other Christians. Many times we are so set in our theology that we don’t want to look at any verses that conflict or any context that would make us change the direction of our thinking.  Let’s be part of the solution.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-416: Blindness outside the Refrigerator

I’m sure that you have heard the phrase “male refrigerator blindness”.  I would suggest that out of sensitivity we need to change that to “XY refrigerator visually challenged.”  But that is neither here or there.

I like to talk about “female refrigerator blindness”.  The reason for that is that there’s so many things that my wife isn’t able to find in the refrigerator or things that she sees that just don’t reflect reality.  It makes me think of how we tend to be sensitive in some areas and obtuse in others.

For instance, when I come into the kitchen in the morning and see that little blue light at one end of the dishwasher panel and that’s the only light on the dishwasher, I know something.  I know that the dishwasher has been run.  After nine years with this pattern, I don’t think my wife understands it yet.  I’ve also noticed from experience that if I open the door and close it all the way, the light goes out.  Thus, if a curious member of the family comes and looks inside the dishwasher to see if it’s been run and then pushes the door closed, there is no way I would know it has been run.  If on the other hand, you open it and just bring it up close to closing, but don’t push it home the light stays on.

These are things that I noticed.

When it comes to dust in the corner of my room, be it on the floor or the ceiling, I am totally oblivious.  The only way I know there’s dust on my bookshelf is when the grandchildren come over and write their names in it.  There are certain things that I don’t notice.  Much of it’s because I don’t care.  If I did notice it, I would look the other way and try to forget.

Male refrigerator blindness is a thing.  I know from experience.  I remember looking for the ketchup.  I don’t know how many times I went through the entire refrigerator.  There was no ketchup.  Then my wife told me, from the other room, it’s on the top shelf in the front.  I opened the door and, lo and behold, there it was.  I know she didn’t have a chance to sneak by and put it there.  My only conclusion is, male refrigerated blindness.  I’m guessing that I myself did not want the ketchup that she had sent me to get.  That might account for part of why I did not see it, I didn’t want to see it.  I didn’t need it.  It was still there.

We won’t go into things like needing a haircut, socks that have holes in them, your collar is crooked or so many other things.  Those are obvious.

I always like that button that had the acronym that stood for, “please be patient with me God is not finished with me yet.”  It fits so many holes in my resume.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-415: Click Bait: Look for the Silver

Somewhere in the past two months a famous pastor put out the word.  Before I share the word, let me tell you that I have a high regard for this pastor in general.  He stood up to the government overreach during the covid nonsense.  He has a high view scripture.  I would put him as one of the great men of God of our ages.  I would also disagree with them on many theological points.  He is in that niche.

His word was basically that a rich Muslim family had bought the largest Biblre publisher in the world and that we needed to take action.  He later backed off from that and tried to qualify what he said, but that’s pretty much what it was.  It didn’t seem right to me when I heard it and eventually, I found out that it was simply a family from Saudi Arabia had bought 7% of a parent company which a couple of layers down was invested in Bible publishing.  By the time the announcement was made for the family had sold most of what they bought.

All that is just part of the excitement of Clickbait and the Internet.  I did listen to the click bait because it was an issue I cared about.  It got me sucked in.  Sometimes you need to risk the wasted time.  The word that he added, which was probably the focus of what he wanted to say really, was buy a Bible.  Now that seems rhetorical.  It’s hard for me to believe that people don’t have Bibles.  But his warning was one that we need to take to heart.  We need to make sure that we have a good supply of different translations available to us in hardcopy.  We need to buy bound volumes of Strong’s Concordance.  It is available I know at least in the KJV and NASB.  We need to get hard bound, paper, credible resources that we can put on our shelves or, for that matter, in boxes under the bed.  

As much as the hype is hype, there is a real danger with modern technology from people who hate God and who hate the United States will go into all the files in the world and change what they say.  If you watched or read 1984, the job of the main character was to go back through all the computer files, revising the history to match whatever the party said was true today.  That included newspaper archives.  He even had to go change things that he knew we’re not true because he’d experienced him.  I’ve seen that.  I have had books removed from my electronic devices without my permission, or without my knowledge until I found out later.  My Kindle was not connected to the internet and I keep it on airplane mode.  Any files I had with 1984 in the title disappeared.  It is a real problem.

So don’t panic.  Don’t run around yelling that the sky is falling or that the kooties are coming.  Just as you would prepare by buying dried beans and canned vegetables, invest in hard copies that may someday be impossible to find.  

Become a spiritual prepper.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-414: Thanks Thoughts: Hands

I often wonder what all the hoopla is about Thanksgiving Day.  I have a similar celebration almost every morning.  The focus of my thanksgiving is how God uses so many hands to put my breakfast in front of me.  My mind will rove back over the trail my oatmeal takes from Canada to my bowl and how the honey I put on it is collected from at least five countries.  I ask God to bless the hands that have provided my bounty.  Add to that the many faithful workers that produced the cheese and the bread that came all the way from Germany and I can go around the world without even thinking about missionaries.

We truely live in miraculous times.  I thought of the farmer in Scotland on a tiny plot of land being thankful for his morning porridge which I think of as oatmeal.  While I am grateful for a long supply chain, he is thankful that his harvest was good enough that his family is fed for the day.  There are so many ways to be thankful.

While I am at it I thank God for the free enterprise system that gives me a choice of brands of oatmeal on a well stocked shelf as opposed to long line I will have to stand in just to see if they have any oatmeal today if the socialists get their way.

Every day is a day to celebrate God’s bounty.  Pray that we continue to be salt so that the bounty continues.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-413: Day 2

I got up to the alarm, got the coffee going, powdered my nose, and went out to enjoy the morning on the front porch.  We had an appointment at 8 o’clock, and so I had somewhat of a deadline.  I made breakfast, made sure my wife was awake and we took the journey to the doctor’s office.

They took off the patch, checked me for glaucoma, put some letters up to see if I could read and went over the general routine that I was going to be following.  I was concerned that the letters they put up were not very readable.  I was able to make out the top line, but nothing else.  They only bothered with two lines which should’ve told me something.  When we met the doctor later, he told me that I actually could read better than was expected so that was no big problem.  He said that even at that point, my eyes were good enough that I could legally drive without my glasses.  It didn’t feel that way, but I’ll take his word for it.

They gave me a real fun little kit to take home in a nice little bag.  It was like the gifts at a Mary Kay presentation.  They gave me a pair of sunglasses.  They gave me papers to check off when I use the eye drops and the technician put the first ones in.  They gave me a card to show if I was ever pulled over and not wearing glasses.  We then went over to one of the exam rooms and waited for the doctor show up.

Things are relatively uneventful.  Everything seemed to have gone well.  He got his bright light and scope and looked inside my eye to check out and see if everything was OK and it seemed to please him.  He answered any questions we had.  We were on our way.

Probably the big revelation of the doctors visit was that we were told that instead of taping on the eye cover every night when I slept, I could stop and get an eyepatch for five dollars on the way out and use it for when I slept.  It sounded like a good deal to me and it seemed to work well.

I am now entering that period of adjustment that comes afterwards.  You need to be careful you don’t listen to people’s stories about how it works.  I don’t know how many people told me that they walked out of there and everything was beautiful and clear and wonderful and there were no more issues.  I won’t say I have issues but it’s going to take my eyes a while to adjust.  I have worn glasses every day for 76 years and habits are hard to change.  It is difficult to take off glasses you are not wearing.  I can tell there will be a lot of little things to reprogram.

One of the technicians in preparation told me that they were going to dilate my eyes in a way that I’ve never experienced before.  Instead of going back to normal in a few hours this is going to take days.  I assume most people have had their eyes dilated.  It makes you very sensitive to light and you need sunglasses when you go outside.  What affected me was when trying to read, things were very fuzzy.  There’s something about the dilation and the dealing with light which throws everything out of kilter.  Any light print in a book is almost impossible for me to see.  Screens that have white print on dark backgrounds are easier to read than others.  Sometimes I think I’m making progress; sometimes not so much.

I have lots of old glasses.  I have an assortment of those reading glasses you buy at the drugstore.  I started sifting through everything I had and I only found one that was of any help.  With it, I can read somewhat normally, but again my eyes are still dilated.  I can look in the mirror and see the difference between the eye that was treated and the one that wasn’t.  It’s going to be several days before things settle down.  At that point, I will get serious about going to the drugstore or the dollar store and experimenting with the different reading glasses.

I can read if I really want to, but it’s still not flowing the way I want.  With my Bible applications on my screens I can read the scriptures but the comments and Greek information I need to get something to magnify.

Again no pain.  The eye drops are a nuisance,  but not a problem.  My sleep the second night was pretty much normal for my place in life. On day three.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-412: Prophets Hat: The Better Half

I’m thinking that maybe it’s time to put on my prophet hat about the coming election.  I am not a biblical prophet so please do not start finding stones to deal with me if I’m wrong.  The prophet here is tongue in cheek.

My forecast is twofold.  The first is that Paxton will win the Senate seat in Texas.  I have a hard time believing it could come out any other way in spite of all the liberals moving from Los Angeles to Austin.

The second part of my prophecy is that it will be one of the biggest blowouts in history, certainly in a free election.  I’m not including the 100% votes under communism that Stalin and Mao received.  I’m talking about free elections that expect voter ID.  In Texas I am required to present ID to vote.

If it’s anything but an incredible blowout it will simply reinforce the idea that George Carlin gave us that half the people are below average.

I tend to think that Texans are above average on the whole but in any population you’re going to have the lower half.  After all, we do need people to flip burgers, drive Ubers and campaign for Democrats.  The question is what percentage of Texans are total, unredeemable fools. We will know in November.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-411: Day 1

I survived Monday’s cataract surgery.  That was day one.  Although the patch they put over my eye was a bit porous and would keep me from walking into walls, it was pretty much impossible to read or to edit anything that I dictated.  So this is reminiscence.

If you’ve been through this process this may be totally boring to you, but I thought I would share it anyway.  Feel free to chime in any different experiences that you had.  I know from listening to people ahead of time that results may vary although I did not talk to anyone who felt like it did not help.  So I went in with no major concerns.  The nurses also assured me that they had not lost one yet.  Of course, they would say that.

As usual with low-level medical procedures, the hardest part is the preparation and the waiting.  I generally don’t feel hunger in the morning, probably because I’ve tanked up on coffee and it’s killing those urges.  When I’ve gone without food before a colonoscopy, I have no memory of major hunger.  This time for me, it was very different.  I was hungry when I went to bed.  I was hungry when I woke  Up. I was hungry when they wheeled me into the hallway.  But that’s a minor issue.

The hospital clothing is always fun.  Don’t you love those gowns with no back. The surgery center I went to had a very innovative twist on gowns, they tied the knot for your head for you ahead of time so all you had to do was slip it over.  Genius.  Maybe you’ve experienced this before but I have not.  My next challenge was those itty-bitty socks they gave you.  Now you need to picture that the shoes I wear every day are size 17, and it took the nurse only one glance to realize that this was not going to be a positive experience.  Having been down this road before I managed to get them far enough up that they covered my heel.  I wasn’t planning on doing any walking anyway.

They started putting drops in my eyes.  I think they were at least three groupings of four bottles.  While they were distracting me with that, one of the nurses slipped in the IV.  It was a good stick.  Since I used to donate blood on a regular basis and have blood drawn at least twice a year for my regular check ups, I know a good stick when I see one, or don’t feel one.  The anesthesiologist came in and told me that if I felt any anxiety to let him know and he would up the dosage.  I didn’t bother asking him, but my question was if I am unaware of what’s going on how would I feel in any anxiety?  The nurse said it would be about a 30 minute procedure from when I left my cubicle and out of that only 10 minutes would be involved in the actual operation.  The doctor came by.  I had him hold up his hands to see if they were shaky and we got ready to wait.

The surgery itself was rather uneventful.  I am told that in the 10 minutes I got to sleep enough to snore.  At one point I remember telling the doctor I had to cough so he backed off, I coughed, and then we went back to work, so I must’ve been at least somewhat aware part of the time.  He asked me something about the red dot that I was supposed to see.  I told him it was green.  He humored me, but evidently everybody else sees it as read.  I remember them taking off the tape that they had covered my head with and taping on a patch over my eye and then they wheeled me down to a place where they put me in a reclining chair and I sat.

They gave me something to drink and a package of crackers.  My wife came and sat there waiting for them to tell us we could go.  We went out and got in the car.  We drove home.  I spent the rest of the day, taking naps and looking for YouTube videos that I could listen to.

I have experienced at this point no pain.  The first night the patch came off around three in the morning and I taped it back on.  At that point I could see that things seemed a little more clear and others weren’t.  And I went back to bed.

End of day one.  I am sure the excitement will build.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-410: Remnant Ratio

In the history of Israel there is a group the Bible labels the “Faithful Remnant.”  They are that small group out of the nation of Israel who lived in faith and obedience.  My theory is that God’s promises are limited to that group.  We see the same kind of thing going on after the cross.  Everyone who shows up for church or gets their name on the membership role will not be in the book of life.

The odds, if it were a game of chance, are not good.

The resent Holdout Juror reminds me of this ratio.  It reminds me that the number of people who are willing to stand up for righteousness is a small percentage.  It also reminds me that they exist.  We should be sad about the first and rejoice about the second.

When you are hauled before the tribunals of Satan pray that there will be a key individual who lives in the remnant.  If you are ever on a jury remember that there is no guarantee that the judge is on the side of justice and your fellow jurors may be living in Unicorn land.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-409: Election 20-26: Payday

I recently watched a short video and the focus was that Ken Paxton, running for the Senate in Texas, has suddenly received a large donation from some Senate fund.  I think the amount mentioned is $50 million.  The same group of people backed his primary opponent and poured money into the campaign to defeat Paxton.  They’ve been holding out, acting like they weren’t going to support him.  He is not a Rino favorite.

Why the sudden change?

My cynical reasoning is that the rhinos in the Senate finally realized that Paxton could win without their help.  They realized that if they withheld the funds that were available, it would display a partisanship so that when he arrived in the Senate, he would be at the spearhead of defeating their agenda.

Since they believed he was going to win they decided to try and buy him off.  I’m glad he has the funds.  I hope his people use the money wisely.  And my prayer is that he will remain the maverick that he has been in the past.  That he will take the attitudes he has displayed in Texas and begin to advance them at the federal level.

Let’s pray that money does not corrupt always.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-408: A CEV Moment

I am not on a trail to evaluate the Contemporary English Version, (CEV).  However as I do other research I come across things that give me a feel.  Most of the time it is a sense of too much paraphrase going on.  Take for instance this verse in the KJV,

(Exo 24:12 KJV)  And the LORD said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

and compare it to the CEV,

(Exo 24:12 CEV) The LORD said to Moses, "Come up on the mountain and stay here for a while. I will give you the two flat stones on which I have written the laws that my people must obey."

The two do not say the same thing.  There are assumptions, deletions and additions.  I was originally comparing the KJV with the NASB and finding the KJV more accurate in the details revealed in the Blue Letter Bible.

I also noticed that the CEV leaves out the fact that Moses will be meeting with God not just meditating on world peace.

Little stuff.  Does it change any doctrine?  No.  It is still taking liberties that are not necessary.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-407: Uncolorblind

I’m due for cataract surgery.  By the time you read this, it may be over.  One of the things that people been telling me is that it’s different in unexpected ways.  Now everybody has a story.  You can really get carried away with the gloom and doom and with the joyful praise.  It’s going to be what it is.  But one of the ones that I found interesting was a man who said that he came out of the cataract surgery and looked up at the sky, and he had forgotten how blue the sky really was.  Removing the fog of the cataracts had given him superior color awareness.

One of my thoughts about heaven is that my issues of color blindness and lack of stereoscopic vision will be corrected and I will be able to see the world in a way that I never had before.  Him declaring how blue the sky was is just a small indicator of what it will be like an eternity.

I am looking forward to see how many of the stories about cataract surgery are exaggerated.  Either way, it’s time and I’m going ahead with it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-406: Doctor’s Orders

Cataract Surgery is scheduled for this morning.  I report at 6:30.  It is fairly standard at this point.  Everyone I talk to seems to have been through it.  One of the chores after the surgery is following the instructions of the medical professionals and ignore what they told my wife when she had it done.

Will I be told to not let my head get below my heart nor lift anything heavy?  That seems to be the usual advice, which brings up many questions but we will go with one:  How will the dish washer get emptied?

Have my wife do it.

Hire it done.

Let it sit.

Use my head.  Sit in a chair as I put items on the counter.  Then stand up and put them away, one item at a time if necessary.

It always amazes me what people claim they can not do.

I will soldier on.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-405: Worth Your Salt

I was part of a zoom meeting recently and the question came up of how to support candidates and causes that we believe in without having all of our contribution be wasted.  Several of them lamented on all of the emails and phone calls they were getting from different political candidates.  They couldn’t understand how and why they were suddenly being hit by these things.  My memory tells me that it wasn’t sudden, that they’ve been hit quite a bit.  My ears go up when people talk about answering the phone and finding some kind of telemarketer on the other end.

I get a few of these, but not many because I don’t answer the phone unless I either know who it is or I’m expecting a call from a local business or doctor.  As a result, I don’t go on their list of hot calls.  I don’t respond to emails no matter how official they sound.  I delete them.  If given the opportunity to report spam, I will do so.  I still get more than I want, but not near what others get.

That still leaves the problem of supporting people and organizations that need support.  I know it goes against our intuition and our knowledge, but there are politicians running for office that need us to back them.  The problem is that my experience says that it’s almost impossible to actually be of assistance.  Years ago, I made a contribution at the encouragement of a Talking Head that I listened to on the radio.  He had a member of Congress and and she either was asking for contributions for herself or for someone else, I can’t remember.  Since I had at that point confidence in the talking head, I took his word for it and I believe I contributed $100.  At that point in my life that was a significant and almost sacrificial contribution.  I have no reason even today to doubt the congresswoman asking for the donation or the person I was donating it to.  They were worth the money.

The problem is, they didn’t get the money.  In this case, the amount that I donated was more than consumed by all of the follow up calls, surveys and other points of contact that had to be paid for somehow.  In the long run, my contribution cost the campaign money because they kept thinking that I would give them more.  Of course, they may have also sold my information to another campaign and generated income for themselves.  It’s hard to know.  Gradually over the years, the interruptions to my life faded away.

But the lesson was learned. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-404: A Principle, not a Blasphemy

When Jesus was telling the disciples that He had to leave, but He would send the Holy Spirit, He told them that this was necessary.  I believe the point He was making was that in the flesh He was only one man, and could only be one place at a time.  When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, He was able to be anywhere and everywhere.  The idea that the disciples and other converts would spread throughout the whole world demonstrates that.

Now we take that biblical principal and apply it to daily life.  I’m not taking the theological principle.  I’m not saying that any human being is equal with Jesus.  I’m talking about management.

Someday Donald Trump will be gone from office.  We have seen how he is only one man and how the Rino Republicans have worked overtime to keep him from being successful.  In spite of that he has gotten a lot done.  But again he is only one man.  When he is out of the White House, the MAGA movement will be turned over to people who believe in the same principles that he did.  His influence will wane but his legacy will hopefully spread.

We have seen how one man or one organization is limited in what it can do.  What we need to consider is how much change can be brought about if all Americans who believe in the country will begin to be MAGA in their everyday habits.  I am not talking politics alone, although that will be a part of it.  What we need to do is stop spending our money at businesses that are out to destroy us.  We should not need a formal boycott of broadcast media.  Thinking Americans should have already stopped watching.  That will cause ad revenues to decline.  That will force them to either go broke or change.  Apply that to local businesses.  I have stopped shopping at Texas businesses that put up “no gun” signs.  I drink store brand soft drinks rather than national brands.  Put your wallet where your mouth is.

I am serious about my religious beliefs.  If I was attending a church that flew a rainbow flag I would leave immediately.  If I heard support for abortion from the pulpit it would be the last I heard from that source.

The country can be reclaimed.  It will probably not be overnight by a Constitutional Convention or civil uprising.  It can be if the majority of decent people would extend their decency to every area of their life.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-403: Hierarchy of Freedom

Who is freer, people with the wealth of Trump and Soros or people like you and me.  That may seem like a silly question.

It is true that they have all the things that money can buy.  Whether they have the things that money can’t buy depends on the person.  They live in mansions with 20 bedrooms.  The last I heard you can only sleep in one bed at a time.  They drive cars that cost more than my house.  Good for them.  They might wear a Rolex and still be late for appointments.

I have the things I need, and want, that money can buy.  In addition to that I have most of the things tha money can’t buy.  When I park my car I don’t need to hire an armed guard to make sure it is not stollen.  People would drive by my neighborhood to break into theirs.  People don’t kiss up to me because they want something.

I can go for a walk in my neighborhood. I can stop for fast food without an army of bodyguards.  Keep in mind that we have more real freedom than they do.  Count your blessings.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-402: Fine Tuned Humanity

If the entire universe exists as it does with the sole purpose of creating the bubble that we know as earth, why not also assume that the innumerable pagans in the world are there to provide an infrastructure for the righteous.

The first statement is about the Fine Tuning of the Universe.  There are about 200 different measurements involving physics, astronomy, chemistry and such across the universe that all need to be exactly where they are for the conditions of life to exist here on earth.  So far, in spite of the headlines you read in the MSM, there have been no planets discovered with life.  Telescopes get more powerful.  Our knowledge increases by leaps and bounds.  Still no life anywhere but earth.

I have been trying to read the book of Revelation.  It is a constant litany of death and destruction.  When I read the prophets in the Old Testament I see the same pattern.  If you know anything about history it is a record of war and genocide.  Look at the parable of the seeds.  Only 25% thrived.  When God told Elijah that there were still 7,000 men who had not bowed to Baal you need to realize that is out of a population of at least 3 million.  I try to fit the hope for peace and security into that.  It makes me wonder if there is a need for fine tuning the human race.

When I think of all of the hands that are necessary around the world for me to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning, ask yourself how many are necessary to provide and maintain a comfortable life that we know today.

Granted, in many years passed, the lifestyle of the righteous was not all that glorious.  We need to be careful though that we don’t try and see the world through our modern eyes and assume that those people were aware of their poverty.  If you lived in Medieval Europe, and you had enough food to feed your family, enough wood to keep them warm in the winter time, enough wool to give them clothes to wear, and a priest who actually understood the Bible and the gospel, would that not be enough to make you glory in the Providence of God?.

Will people in the future look back and wonder how we survived in the crude 21st century?  Enjoy the day.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-401: Cultural Dementia

25 years ago the phrase we kept hearing was, “Never forget”.  It seems that most of us have done so.  There are acts of violence that stand out in history.  Some of them were just cultural norms.  If you look at the battles going back-and-forth between the Muslims and the Christians during the Crusade era, you see what look like atrocities to us but to the people of that day it was just business as usual.  Some are just the conflict of war and its results.

25 years ago was a whole different genre of atrocity.  When a carefully planed attack my Muslims destroyed the lives of thousands of Americans and billions of dollars worth of property with no warning and no real cause, you better remember if this is a part of the culture you’re going up against.

The events of October 7 would be in the same category.  Of course, the ones who did the attacking out of nowhere would claim that they had justified cause.  That’s part of what we need to remember.  There are people in the world who confuse their own personal opinion with absolute truth.  They are all around us, and for the most part, we managed to squeeze by them or avoid them.  September 11 and October 7 should remind us that there are people who are better at dodgeball than we are.

Are there other events that we need to remember for our own survival sake?  I would suggest the Jewish holocaust as one and following close behind it would be the Armenian holocaust. And listening to us and historian recently, it would seem that there are many other similar holocaust that went on in the world of Islam.  I would venture a guess we could find them in other parts of the world too.  The killing in the Communist world should be engraved on our eyelids from starving the Ukranian peasants to Cambodia come to mind. 

We need to remember that we were attacked but even more we need to remember that there are evil people in the world who would love to attack us again and that we need to be on our guard.

Avoid cultural dementia, never forget.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-400: Uncharted Revelation: Timing

As you come to th end of chapter 7 you should see why it is so hard, and pointless, to make a timeline or chart out of this.

End times enthusiasts like to say that this portion of Revelation refers to the tribulation.  One group says only Israel will go through it.  Lets go with that and make note the the Greek here is the one place where it mentions “the” great tribulation.  Verse 14 has them coming out of that tribulation.   If they come out of it then it is over.  You can’t have it both ways.

The last three verses clearly relate to chapter 21.  That is when the new heaven and earth are established.  Then you have a problem with the temple.  There will be no temple in the New Jerusalem.  

Which brings up the nature of the narrative.  Did John write down the visions as they appeared?  Did he write them down later as they came back to him thus jumbling the order?  Were they intended to be accepted as in order?  If the book is literal then it makes a difference.  If it is mostly figurative, then not so much.  If it is apocryphal then the options are wide open.

Might I suggest that you spend less time trying to decode Revelation and spend more time meditating on the Love Chapter?

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Opus 2026-399: Let It Go

A friend of mine is involved in one of those typical things which causes a church to rot from the inside instead of being brought down by Satan on the outside.  It’s really a dispute over superficial nonsense.  Of course that’s my view because I’m not involved in it.  If I was in the middle of it, I might have a different opinion.

We have a church that used to be large and thriving, but has dwindled away to almost nothing, at least comparatively speaking.  They still have enough residue to be bigger than most common churches but there is that recovery that they’re hoping for.

They’ve called a new pastor.  Everyone seems enthused.  It seems that he’s preaching the gospel and reaching out to new people.  That is all well and good.  But you have these people who are more intent on being the big frog in the little pond.

There are three Sunday school classes which have a long history in this church.  I’m not sure how big they are at this point, but I would guess between 10 and 15.  As my friend said if you subtract a couple younger people in his class, the average age is probably above 90.  We are not talking here about frisky cutting edge, middle ages or even elderly who are out making a difference in the world.  There’s talk of electric golf carts bringing people to Sunday school classes from the parking lot.  I’m sure that walkers and wheelchairs abound.  One of the big issues is does the PA system broadcast loud enough for everyone to hear.  All of that is just part of life.

Now we come to the point where forces unknown to me are trying to get these classes to move forward in someway.  It seems like they have many more people wanting to teach then they have classes to be taught.  We’re talking here about retired ministers, ex missionaries, school teachers. All of them probably have the ability to do a good job.  None of them has the support of everyone.  None wants to sit down and be quiet.

So they fuss and fume and bicker.  They vote.  They have meetings.  They rotate through the teachers.  That would be OK if they just left it amongst themselves.  The problem is, they are dragging the pastor into it.  I am only getting one side of the issue, but my guess is that you have at least three different power structures in the church who are trying to get the pastor to back them to do it their way.

Now my point.  I know you were wondering when I would get to it.  At what point do we stop standing on our gold plated wisdom, and back off and let it go.  We’re not talking here about debating the divinity of Christ.  No one is denying the physical resurrection.  There are no major doctrines under discussion.  It simply a matter of which group wins.

Again, I’m on the outside, so my opinion is rather empty.  My suggestion though is that they all have an attack of humility and you have a competition where everybody starts backing out and saying “Whatever you want”, and may the last man standing be teaching the class.  Maybe the next one standing could be president of the class.

But please do not dilute the energy and the focus of the pastor with your petty arguments.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-398: Lazy Eye

I am due for cataract surgery.  When I went in for the preparation work, one of the technicians called my condition “lazy eye”.  That is probably the most common name for it, but she then got apologetic for using the term.  The technical term is a combination of two Greek words which mean moving and eye, or if you want to sound cool, you could call it ambling eye.  She was worried that I would take offense by using the term.

Since I’m somebody who likes labels and likes to make up my own names for people it would seem a bit inconsistent to get offended by a common every day phrase.  It is amazing how easily people are offended.  Think of the way this is manipulated by the media and academic circles.  Take for instance Americans who have have ancestors from Africa.  At one point, they were called blacks.  Negro became the technical term.  Then the politically correct crowd got in and they came African-American.  Somewhere in there they were called colored, but when that was labeled racist, instead they became people of color.  And of course, you have the consistent word starting with an N.  Such nonsense.  I have a bit of a joke that I like to tell, I’m not sure if it’s mine or I’ve borrowed it, but I asked somebody what would I call a certain student and the target of my joke was afraid to answer.   After a dramatic pause I tell them I would call him, Steve.   Guess what his name was.

In the process of manipulating the vocabulary of a culture we are robbing it of clarity and the ability to communicate.  Do you want to call me a right winger?  I will wear the badge with pride.  You want to call me a racist?  At this point in my life, I would wear that badge with pride because I know that it simply means is that I disagree with a liberal.  I wish I could earn the tag of being toxically masculine, but I’m far from that.  On the other side, I am filled with horror when the woke crowd calls me tolerant.  Tolerant doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

Those of us with moral standards and an understanding that there are unchangeable truths are going to have to develop a much thicker skin and just keep moving forward.  Ignore the fools trying to manipulate.  Think of this reality that terrorism does not really depend on how many people you kill, it depends on how many people you get to change their way of living out of fear.  The same thing goes for all these try to control you.

Stand tall.  Put up a finger to detect which way the wind is flowing.  Lean in that direction become a leaning meaning machine.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-397: One Corner of Utopia

When I think about the American genius and what separates us from the rest of the world, I think about the Latin phrase we see every day.  It’s on our money, E Pluribus Unum.  We have this concept that we can take many and make them one.  For centuries that philosophy held true.  We had immigrants from all over the world who came here seeking many different things, but generally, they could be boiled down to a land of freedom and opportunity.  For some it was the ability to own land.  For someone else to escape persecution, whether it be ethnic or religious.  Or sometimes it was just the opportunity to get rich without the government taking everything you earned.  Whatever your reason you bought into the basic philosophy of America that we are one nation united by a common dream.

We are now facing a trial.  We might come out of the other side stronger than before or we might be totally subdued and destroyed.  We are now enduring massive invasion by a large group of people who don’t get along themselves, but they are united in their hatred for America and for the foundations of freedom that we have.  Don’t confuse Islam-lite as a religion which worships a God called Allah with genuine Islam which is a total control of all your life, including your government, your family, and your community.  The danger is not the religion of Islam.  Well, it is a danger, but Christianity is quite capable of dealing with that.  What we’re not capable of doing is dealing with people whose political structure is totalitarian and demands that you conform in every area of your life.  Women not only have to sit down and shut up, but have to endure constant physical abuse as well as emotional and intellectual abuse.  Moral behavior is the standard for the day as long as it is sanctioned by obedience to the local authorities.  Thus sexual abuse of little boys is common in the culture that murders homosexuals.

Isalm is a total, choking atmosphere.  It permeates all of life.  I’m in the process of reading through the Hadith.  I’m just starting, about 250 into around eight thousand, and so far I’ve gotten instructions on how to take baths, how to wipe my bottom after a bowel movement, and knowledge of how Mohammed cleaned himself after sexual activity.  Even your bathroom habits are regulated.  Islam demands total obedience all the time and gives arbitrary powers of proclamation to the leaders of the spiritual community.  In theory it is based on the example of Mohammed.

It’s possible that Christianity at one time had that kind of all inclusive atmosphere.  Maybe during medieval times.  But even there, there was a lot more freedom than you find in the world of Islam.

That attitude of freedom, the worth of the individual, encouraging standing up to false teaching; all of that is ingrained into the American spirit and the American Creed.

Some of the click bait that comes across my screen claims that Islam is falling apart.  It wouldn’t surprise me because they have a long history of falling apart.  Your ally today, may be your arch enemy tomorrow.  So someone may save your life today and tomorrow instead of returning the favor you may stab him in the back.  It’s all part of Islam if you look at it correctly.  Of course, if you look at Christian Europe in the middle ages, even up to today, you see the same kind of pattern.  The difference is in America.  We have 50 states at present, who knows what the Democrats will do if they get in power again.  Originally we started with 13 states and they considered themselves to be independent nations.  That’s why they started with the Federation instead of the Constitution.  It gave states veto power over anything that happened.  It didn’t work very well.  It was becoming more and more like Europe all the time and so the founding fathers after careful study of the failures of Roman, Greece and Europe decided on a federal representative republic.  At the heart of that is the essence of Christianity.  The idea of turning the other cheek and giving the other person the benefit of the doubt was paramount.  Unchangeable truth, reflected in contracts and property rights was also a vital part of the program.

What we see happening today is not so much the invasion of people with a different religion, but the infiltration of all of our political systems by the Marxists and the anti-American statists who want to take away individual liberties from everybody to their own empowerment.  Christians can overcome Muslims if it comes down to the competition of theology and thought.  Where we are going to have to find ways to think it through and come up with a new system possibly is in the area of allowing people to manipulate the good faith rules, and rule of law that we have and turning it against us by manipulating the system.

Bring up the issue when you get a chance.  Revert to 1770 America where they went to the pub to discuss forms of government rather than the football scores.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-396: Glorious Controversy

While listening to a lecture on church history the speaker was tracking about Paul’s being called into Europe and listed off the churches he started.  Berea stood out to me.  They were unique because the Jews of Berea were so open and solid in testing the scriptures.  It occurred to me that we don’t have any letters of Paul to the Bereans.  That should tell us something.

All the other churches seemed to have some issues for Paul to address.  If they had not then we would have not had any of the letters of Paul.  We should be grateful for all of the issues that emerged.

Is that true in our own lives?  My opinion is that we grow faster when we face opposition and temptation.  That does not mean I want more problems but I acknowledge how they can be a benfit.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-395: New Laws: Tourist Warning

It’s not exactly a new law but I’m thinking that a new sign would be appropriate at least on one of the roads that I drive on regularly.  We have a local attraction and it has a very large entrance that is very well marked, but it requires paying attention and it’s almost invariable that you can tell the person in front of you is a tourist because they are driving so slow you can tell they don’t know where they’re going.  The second indication they are a tourist is that they drive past the exit and just kind of keep on cruising around the corner.  The third indication is when they try to make a U-turn on a blind corner where the speed limit is 60 miles an hour.  So I think we need to maybe put up a sign to warn locals and remind them that there are tourists in the area and to drive accordingly.

homo unius libri

Opus 2026-394: To Be Fair

There are certain things we say which reflect the Christian heritage of our culture.  One of them is “to be fair”.  Originally it reflected a standard established by God that we were to refer to in making decisions and judgements.

It does not mean what it used to mean.

It has been mutated from its foundations.

We have two places where it is common.  One is the person who is trying to avoid taking a stand.  I am sure you have seen and heard this.  When someone talks about American history they will say, “To be fair...” and proceed to being totally one sided.  

The other is the person who is trying to manipulate and box you into his agenda.  He will say things like “I just want to be fair”.  What he means is “I want to shame you into surrendering the high ground.”

I get tired of people who talk about big issues and start off by saying “to be fair” and then go down the path of unfairness.  Think about people who talk about American history.  Often times they will be starting off and saying something like “to be fair we have to admit that we do have sins in our past. We have slavery.…”  After that, they kind of run out of things to say.  What they should be saying is, “to be fair we do have some sins in our past, but then, so does everybody else.  The difference is that we have addressed those sins and have tried to remedy them.”  Has the Muslim world ever admitted their participation in slavery and ask for forgiveness?  For that matter, have they even renounced it yet?  And yet we are the ones confessing our sin.

This is the pattern pretty much everywhere.  Do we have things that we’re not perfect in our past?  Of course we do.  We’re human.  We make mistakes.  But again the difference with the United States is that we have moved forward to become a force of righteousness and goodness in the world instead of wallowing in the filth of our past.

Be fair.  While you’re at it, be honest.

homo unius libri