The Human Journey

Dale's New Years Resolutions

2011-01-01T22:34:00.000-06:00

1. Live according to my mission, do not adjust mission according to circumstances

2. Plan out the year meticulously = have more control = worry less = sideswiped by life less = more success.

3. Plan Months, Weeks, and Days out in advance = more success (see number 1)

4. Write and use a written budget, follow up on that budget, by looking at actual expenses, and readjusting if going the wrong way.

5. Plan to Win, Plan Work, Plan Recreation, Plan Spontaneity

6. Write that book I’ve had planned out in my head for the last several years

7. Visit my sister at least once a month.

8. Take everything more seriously: Take work very, very seriously, take recreation very seriously.

9. Catch up with everyone that I’ve known and who I’ve gotten along with through the years and then, stay in touch. Seriously, everyone. You’re going to be my friend and you’re gonna like it! This means you too Facebook friends!

10. Leave work at work and have a little bit of fun everyday

11. Facebook less, hang out with friends live more often!

Have a great year everyone!

The Human Journey- Melchin Commentaries Re-Launched: Also reflections on the New Year

2010-12-26T13:52:00.000-06:00

Its been a while hasn't it? Life sure takes its share of time time doesn't it? We'll, I am back, if only for today. I've been busy going through the last leg of my academic journey into a bachelor's degree, and running and managing my own Painting Operation. I've also had to deal with two deaths in my famliy this last year. Its been kind of a weird year.

Anyway, people tend to get reflective tward the end of the new year, especially me. I some times think about what could have been? What could be and what will be? I've learned an old rule from the classroom. "If you've got a question, someone else probably has the same one, so go ahead and ask." Or in my case as a blogger, go ahead and share.

In this last year I've learned that we have far more control over our lives than we give ourselves credit for. I've learned this both from negative and positive stand points. When you stay focused and stay on top of things, life tends to go your way. If we give in to fear, confusion, frustation or determinism, we have more of a tendancy to give up. I realize this is a basic truth, but some times it is the basics that often get lost in the shuffle don't they? If we become despondent, we can lose hope which can lead us to walking away from responsibility or even life itself.

This blog will discuss everything from the absurd, the zoological. The whole range of human experience is open for discussion. I will however say there are certain topics that WILL be avoided if the tone of the blog gets out of hand. This is more for my care than for yours. I tend to be a very passionate person and while I try to leave the door as wide as possible for as many points of view, I tend to have my hot button issues just like everyone else. Instead of 10 or 20 like it used to be, its now like 5.

There are certain things that I'm not going to put up with as a blog-master. Those two things are name-calling and judgementalism. I define name calling as just that, an unfounded use of names or labels that do not fit the person or thing being discussed. I define judgementalism as making a judgement call on something that is unknowable to the ordinary human brain. It is also called judging someone elses bad behavior when we have our own bad behavior. So in other words, unless you're Jesus Christ you're not allowed to judge anyone. I realize that certain actions may be moral, or immoral, or that certain actions may have good or bad consequences, or certain thoughts lead to certain places. I get that, I really do. However, there is a way to correct others without being disagreeable about it, and turning them off to being influenced by you at all, ever.

Those are the ground rules. The Golden Rule and the Do not judge rule. Basically, respect. On that same token, I am going to let my opinions be made known here, and of course if any of you comment you are more than welcome to make yours known. I'm not going to lay down a bunch of rules as to, you can't say this, you can't say that. You're all big boys and girls and can realize when you are being an jerk, and when you are just being firm in your beliefs.

Now on to the stuff you've all been waiting for. Reflections on the New Year. I'm going to try to repost this part on Dec 31 so that way its fresh in our minds on the New Year.

I have a lot of goals and resolutions. One of the first of them, is yes, to make a whole lot more money than I did last year. I'm finished with school, I have a line of business that is semi-operational (its winter time give me a break for goodness sakes!) My goal with that is put the time and attention necessary to make sure that it is properly marketed and has the volume it needs to have massive, but sustainable growth.

The next is to start a new career/business line selling insurance. I'm actually going to be working on my licensing this week. This will actually be full time for me because 1) the sales cycle is shorter than contracting, 2) I get to wear a suit.

The third thing is my sci-fi novel that has gone through several "reformations" and guttings. I'm finally going to get it written, edited and start marketing it to publishers this year. I have the first 11 chapters written. I don't know how long its going to be or how the middle is going to work out. I just know how the story is going to end.

The fourth thing is to get in the gym and stay there. I've let this part of my life go for to long, and I'm going to get it back under control.

The fifth thing is to give back. I'm not at liberty to discuss this as I will be violating Matthew 6 if I have not already.

So those are my big picture goals. Make a lot of money, get fit, and give back. What's not listed is to be making quantum leaps in my outlook. I will have a more realistic, but at the same time a more positive outlook. As my postmillenial friends say. "Its not that bad." So now that I've pour out my guts feel free to pour out yours. You can always comment here anonymously or you can send me an e-mail.

Seven Reasons I am voting against Obama

2008-10-15T20:19:00.004-06:00

1. Barack Obama is a Socialist
2. Barack Obama is an elitist
3. Barack Obama wants to give up Iraq
4. Barack Obama associated with a radical racist
5. Barack Obama has not executive or leadership experience
6. Barack Obama wouldn’t take a stand when he was a legislator
7. Barack Obama wants to legalize infanticide.

Before I expound upon these points I want to say a few positive words. On a personal level I am glad for Senator Obama. I am glad for the level of success that he has achieved. He has facilitated a stable family. I will probably not achieve the level of success that he has in his life. I measure success by the amount of paint I put on a wall and how much I get paid for it, and what ensues from getting paid for said jobs. With that said, I am now going to lean into him.

Barack Obama is a Socialist

Barack Obama in a recent gaffe while speaking to an Ohio plumber on the campaign trail said that he would spread the wealth around. This plumber is fixing to buy out his employer and thus own his own plumbing business. Barack intends on raising taxes on individuals that make over $250,000 a year. This man as well as many small business owners across the fruited plain will be exposed to this tax liability. He then intends on giving that money to people and programs how are not willing to go and do for themselves. This is a patently stupid thing to do. There is an old proverb that says: “Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for life.” This proverb begs an important question. What if the man doesn’t want to learn how to fish? Do you keep giving him fish? The answer to that is no.

Do not misunderstand me. I am not against helping those who are truly needy. Those would be all of the people who are truly and genuinely cut off from any economic opportunity but who are willing to fix their situation. These have classically included the blind, the deaf, the sick, lepers, the disabled (mentally or physically). I am very much for helping people in these conditions. But I am not willing to help those who are able bodied and are unwilling to work or who think they are too good for work, or who simply do not want to “get after it.” This is what Barack’s plan of spreading the wealth would do. It would compel people and business owners who work hard and are successful in their businesses and careers to subsidize the sins of other people. I am not willing to do this

This was the mentality of Karl Marx and consequently Soviet Russia. “From each according to their ability, to those according to their need.” This is wrong. We have already seen in history that this model of economics does not work. Barack Obama is a Socialist which is just a euphemism for communist. I do not want one of those in the White House. It is not the job of the government to fix me or my neighbor; it is my responsibility to fix me and it is your responsibility to fix you.

Barack Obama is an elitist

He said: “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And it’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” Swiped from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3740080.ece

This is bad because Barack fails to see several things. Many American’s are religious and they own guns and they are mad at illegal immigrants who steal American jobs because they were willing to work for less pay and they are mad at businesses who go over seas because of lower labor costs or a less hostile to business environement. This is a very bad way to connect with your “average” American.

Barack Obama wants to give up Iraq

Whether or not we should have gone into Iraq is neither here nor there now. Right now we have a strategic position in the Middle East to keep an eye on another crazy who could be far worse than the first one. This new one has threatened Israel, one of our strongest allies in that part of the world. It is good that we have set up shop in that part of the world. It will be great for us to nurture a good relationship with the new Iraq. If we leave we’ll have to go back. We should stay there until the Iraqi Army and the help we have enlisted from the tribal leaders can stop the terrorist elements their. We are still in Japan, we are still in Germany. This is preventative medicine as far as I can tell.

Barack Obama associated with a radical racist.

Two words: Jeremiah Wright
Watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M-kD0QdRJk

I was going to chase down all of the soundbytes but just type in Obama’s Pastor and you will get more.

Barack Obama has not executive or leadership experience

I have more executive experience than he does. All I’ve done was assistant manage a carwash and I’ve been a business owner for the last year or so. My brother in law has more experience than he does being a night supervisor at Marriot when he was in college. Here is his resume` for your examination. http://www.votesmart.org/bio.php?can_id=9490

Barack Obama wouldn’t take a stand when he was a legislator
http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=9490

I lost count of how many times he voted NV. Go and count for yourself. He also voted to legalize infanticide in the IL Senate. I will enlarge upon that in my next point.

Barack Obama wants to legalize infanticide.

http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2008/02/links_to_barack.html
When Obama was in the glorious Illinois Senate he voted against the born alive infant protection act. The essence of this bill will give protections to children born from botched abortions. This is an absolute outrage to me and it should be an outrage to all of humanity. All human life is created in the image of God. Everyone who is conceived has the right to life, regardless of the situation the child is conceived in. To say other wise is to say that they are beyond the help of God let alone their fellow man. It is a slap in the face to God. The same God that Barack Obama claims to have a relationship with because he is a Christian. Obama needs to understand that as long as he holds these positions that his God is not happy with him.

17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only. 2 Kings 17:17-18
The reason why people performed child sacrifice was to gain some kind of benefit from it. The reason why people have abortions performed is to get some kind of benefit from it. Namely the benefit of being free from the “burden” of having a child they did not want. These people are of the same ilk and are in the same kind of trouble. I am not judging anyone, I am repeating what the Bible says. To say that women should have a choice is foolish when the choice was made. The woman should not have opened her legs if she was unmarried and did not have the means to care for the fruit of the illicit union. Abortion should be illegal and highly punishable.

These are all the reasons that compel me to vote against Obama.

The story of my journey updated and revised.

2008-09-29T21:11:00.000-06:00

As many of you know I was raised in a home with a high degree of dysfunction. My parents fought all the time and in ways that were not healthy. Our home was very chaotic and not at all Christian. I was baptized as an infant. Both of my parents had religion in their background but it was not a part of their lives in any real way. I also wasn’t well liked by many of my peers. I had younger friends and older friends, but they were few and far between. The culmination of all of this was that I had a low view of myself and very low expectations which caused me other challenges.

In third grade I met my friend Jonathan R. Clauson. I befriended him on the playground of Sherrard Elementary school all because he wore a hat that reminded me of one of the characters from my favorite video game: Mario. We instantly became friends. In a sense Jon was an Icon of John the Forerunner in my life because he (numerous times) proclaimed Christ to me. My commitment did not happen right away in 3rd grade, it would take a few years. I credit much of this meeting with Jonathan to the prayers of my grandparents Bill and Ruth. This friendship would develop over several years and would have its highs and its lows.

Time progressed and I grew up. It was still a lot of the day in and day out stuff I had to work with between school and home, but some how I managed to stay sane. I had several defining moments in my life between 3rd and 6th grade, but finally I made a commitment to start going to youth group with my friend Jonathan.

Youth group got to be very interesting. It was religion meets teenagers. Not always the best experience because they are still teenagers. Even though they are on the path, teenagers can be mean. I learned to deal with it and make many friends. I journeyed with them for a time, going to youth group week in and week out. Finally the fall retreat came around. I wanted to go. There was a small cost involved to rent the camp ground for a weekend. I wanted to go just to have a weekend away from my family. My dad was infuriated because he saw the Church as always trying to take people’s money. I tried to explain to him that it was the cost for the campground and for meals. He said he never had to pay to go on youth camp trips. This was probably less than true. I desperately wanted to go so I saved my allowance and I bickered and argued until finally they both let me go. He was always ranting and raving about me being a cult. I think now that it is funny that he said that. It seems as though anyone who was committed to God was involved with something weird. To the world I guess this is the case.

So I went on the retreat. It was fun. I made a lot of friends and played a lot of games. Finally, the big night came. I believe it was on Saturday. They had a message about Jesus. It was a very simple message. The preacher talked about the problem of sin, the penalty of sin and the price paid to redeem us from sin. I realized at that point I was a sinner and that I needed Jesus to save me. I decided to follow Christ from that point on. I followed every word of the preacher’s instruction. I prayed the prayer, I raised my hand. I followed up with the youth pastor very briefly. I knew something in my spirit had changed. I knew life was going to be different. Not so much in the externals but in my way of being. I wanted to follow the Lord. I was thankful for what He had done on the Cross and I was glad that he rose from the dead. After talking with Jonathan about my commitment and with his parents I made arrangements to start going to Church with them.

Despite the ups and downs of going from event to event I was able to cultivate a relationship with God that did not depend upon these things. I read and studied the Bible (as best as I could), I started a prayer rule, I devoured as much Christian teaching as I could, and continued going to Church. I even decided at one point I was called to preach. I do want to give props to the other people who came into my life. I journeyed with the Clausons as well as the other people in my Church. I began to connect with the families in my Church, mainly the Stanfords (Barb, Ray, John and Stephanie [Jewell]); the Wilburs, (Dave, Rita, Nicole, Danielle, and Nick); of course the Clausons (Stan, Barb, Jonathan); the Schulenburgs, especially Pastor Brian, and Cyndi, as well as others. All of these people in various ways had a hand in my spiritual growth and helped me in many ways. I have no other words to say than to thank you for being a part of my life and thank you for making yourself available to God to be used in my life. Those whom I have not mentioned but have been a part of my life I thank you as well.

Pastor Brian was particularly instrumental in my journey. He listened to me and helped me in my walk in many ways. He was always willing to put aside what he was doing and listen. If he was on a deadline, he would find a way to involve me I realized that I wanted to be able to pass that kindness along to others in that way. I started to do that by beginning an independent Bible study on campus (although it probably would have been better to have a church affiliation, oh well). I was able by the help of God and others to start actualizing my calling by leading a campus Bible study and bringing the Christians together on campus. Looking back on it I was in a precarious spot and I may have a lot to answer for if I misled anyone. It was a wonderful experience nonetheless. We didn’t have mass conversions, but we had a family of Christians who were together. I even tried to make it as conciliar as possible although everyone more or less made me call the shots.

I was involved with a lot of other things such as Bible Quizzing and youth group as well as my regular school activities. Eventually work and d-group replaced quizzing and I carried on my ministry with the help of my friends.

From my sophomore year to my graduation this went on. I trained my successors for the next two years. Eventually I left Sherrard and moved to Liberty University to start learning my career. Or so I thought I would be doing this. I began to learn about the battle that surrounds all of us even if we don’t see it and how if we are not prepared for it we will be casualties.

I graduated from Sherrard. I worked hard saving up money and getting ready to leave in 3 months. I was grossly under prepared for the cost of school, but God was watching out for me and I met someone who helped me get through my first 2 years of school. I cannot name this angel because I do not wish to cause him more trouble. My first year at LU was a breeze. It was the second year that got difficult.

I honestly don’t know how to describe what happened. Life turned on me. Not God, but life. I knew what I was supposed to do, but I didn’t always do it. I’m not saying this conflict didn’t exist earlier in my life. I just tried harder when I was younger or perhaps I was under greater protection at that time I’m not sure. I truly though began my battle with the world, the flesh and the devil.

The World
I didn’t understand how to interact with it. There was so much out there. I even began to learn that there were multiple “flavors” of Christianity. This put me in more peril than anything else. I was always a moderate evangelical I believed in free will, but I believed God made us secure. In my second year I was bombarded by both sides of that argument. The Arminans and the Calvinists. By the end of my sophomore year I was a Calvinist to my own peril. My fervor was choked by a sterile and cerebral intellectualism that slowly sucked away my fire and desire for God. That fire was replaced by a cold rationalism that if it didn’t fit into the grid that I was operating under it was to be thrown out. Christianity was no longer a life to be lived but an ideology, to my peril. The story of this was more involved and complicated but the fruit of it cost me my friendships and my sincerity as a person. I was no longer myself but a shadow of my former self. I realize that much of this might have been my reaction to theology but the cold rationalism is built into the ideology I was espousing.

I did not turn to Spock by any stretch. I still had problems with other people and relating to them. I even remember exploding in a fit of anger on my entire dorm For the first time I felt, experienced and regretted the passion of anger in a real way. It nearly possessed me. I retreated into the mountains (literally) because I realized no longer knew how to relate to others. In this way it cost me my relationships.

The flesh.
I did not understand how to fight the flesh. Nearly everything began to trip me up and I did not know where to begin. I was as I was at the beginning of my journey. Lost. I would eat too much, work too much, sleep too much, play too much or what have you and commit a multitude of other sins. This was largely due to my focus on rationalism rather than living my faith.

The devil
I have never seen the dark legions. I hope I never have to. I only remember being threatened by him (or one of his minions) once in a dream at the beginning of my journey of faith. But now I know he and his minions are at work against us (as a race) and Christians through the world. (Sorry I’m not a postmiller any more, he and his minions are still out there fighting us on a guerilla warfare basis.) Circumstances began to work against me and I could not understand why so what little was left of my fire was systematically being snuffed out. My greatest love was for my books and my ideology, and my ego, and not for God and people which is of the utmost importance. This would be the source of many problems down the road.

I journeyed as a Presbyterian Calvinist for a number years. My theology got in my way rather than helping me. If God effected the change in my life I thought, “why should I try to fight? It’s in God court to do that.” So I thought. I abandoned my calling as a preacher and became part of the proletariat.

I even went to a CRE Church. I was helped very much by these people. I started to find myself again. I even felt I underwent healing. It was short circuited by wanderlust to go home. So after 3 months I went home. This only made things worse in a way. I entered my darkest times after returning home.

To put it succinctly. I entered a dead end job. I destroyed my relationships with friend and neighbor with my theology and gave myself up to slacking off. I lasted for about a year and a half at my job as a manager. My mother died, which caused me all manner of despair and draining my zest for life (I do not blame her for it). I also became an addict gamer (sorry to my friends who are gamers but this was how it was for me, not you.) I became part of a decidedly Reformed Baptist Church being a Presbyterian. However I spent my Fridays and Saturdays drinking and sometimes becoming drunk. I all but abandoned my faith. I believed but I was now afraid for my destination. I knew I was out of favor with God (so I thought, it was more that my way of being had changed for the worse and it felt like disfavor). The faith that I had come to know was not the light in my life anymore. It was the passions and of course martial arts (they were a help to my spirituality, not a hindrance). I had started that shortly after my mother died. This helped me stay sane. And to make it better, my Sifu (fatherly guide) was a Christian.

Martial arts drew a new picture for me of Christianity. I had to fight for victory. I couldn’t slack off. I had to be vigilant. I learned to control my body and my actions. (Not perfectly!) Over the time I studied under Sifu Morrow My view of the world was re-programmed. I wasn’t conscious of all of the changes but I slowly stopped being a determinist and I realized there was more to life and morality than mere rules. Life was to be lived, not thought about. I must be and do and I must do and be. I also don’t know how God used this, but He did. I slowly began to distain my Calvinist theology and everything that it produced in my life.

At this point I want to tell you, I am not saying any of these things to be hateful, unkind or unloving. I am relating my experience to you. Please understand where I am coming from (at least try.)

I don’t know when it was but I began to think that Reformed theology was a sham. There was a lot of rational theology, but no application. They said what, but now how. The only how was believe. It didn’t address every level of existence despite its attempts to do so. I’m not going to get into all of the philosophical angles of it but I knew that something wasn’t right. From the time I began my journey until now something was different, but the change wasn’t complete and it didn’t flow through the rest of my life. I was still an egocentric person (still am) no matter how hard I tried. So I began to search. I began to look into Orthodox Christianity (bypassing Catholicism).

It happened at the instigation of my then girlfriend Erica. She at least intellectually held to the positions of the CREC. One of those positions was Paedocommunion (giving communion to toddlers and infants.) I learned that this was always a practice in the Church until the Great Schism the practice in the West had changed. I wanted to confirm it. So I went to visit a priest at a local Orthodox Church. This was the beginning of the end of my Calvinist bent and my Protestant loyalties.

After my meeting with him, I accepted Orthodoxy on an intellectual level and maybe a heart level, but I wasn’t ready to jump in. I wanted to marry the woman I was with. So I continued to journey with the Reformed Baptists. I somehow reentered life and faith with new fervor, determined to find the truth.

I married my wife. We journeyed with the Reformed Baptists for sometime. I eventually told her about my misgivings and I suggested we start looking. We went to the Lutheran Church for a time. I liked it, but I was still holding to old intellectual positions that smacked of Calvinism. So we went back and forth missing some Sunday’s all together.

Finally, we decided to go to the Orthodox Church. We just went. My wife suffered culture shock (they did the liturgy in all Greek.) We didn’t go back for two weeks. We started going again and began catechesis with Father Jon. It wasn’t a full year we were confirmed in November a week after another convert (from Roman Catholicism) was confirmed. The culture shock went away and we slowly began to adjust to being around people who were very different from us average Americans. We met the Pataros who treat us like they were our own (they were consequently our several godparents {Helen to Erica and Chris to me}).

I cannot put into words what happened. It was as though we arrived. We were no longer looking for the Truth. It was in front of us it was a matter of journeying in the Truth and a journey of understanding. As we begin to complete our first year of being Orthodox I can truly say my faith in Christ and my walk with Him has never been more alive or vibrant. I go through difficult times and He is my bedrock. I am never really alone. I am increasingly becoming more sensitive to sin, to the needs of others, and I am more willing to be of assistance to others. I have found the fulfillment of all my deepest longs in existence fulfilled in Christ and in His Church (I mean it this time!) I am also more willing to say no to things that do not matter. I encourage anyone who is becoming tired of where they are in their walk with Christ to inquire about the Orthodox Christian Faith. Do not give up on God, go to Him in the Church.

Jesus is not a Community Organizer and Pontius Pilate was a bad governor

2008-09-10T21:40:00.005-06:00

This is getting ridiculous. This is one of the top 10 reasons why I think Protestantism was a disaster. People don't understand Christian tradition. A couple of people who don't understand it start making these asinine comparisons between Barack Hussein "Apollo" Obama and our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ, as well as comparisons between Pontius "I-don't-have-the-back-bone-to-stand-up-to-the-mob-and-use-military-force" Pilate and Sarah "the-Lipstick-Hockeymom" Palin. I think a more accurate comparison would be between Obama and Pilate, because neither of them have the backbone to use military force when it is necessary, but that is not the point of this angry, Orthodox, Conservative Religious Rant.

First of all to call Our Lord Jesus Christ a "community organizer" is a disparagement to Him. It is a disparagement to His Divinity, to His Humanity, to the reason why He came. He did not come preaching social justice. He came preaching forgiveness and healing for the fallenness of humanity. His mission on earth reached far beyond "community organizing". He came to reconcile humanity to God and to unite the race under one Standard: The Cross. No other standard or name have we been summoned to. He calls us to be more than community organizers. He calls us to be transformed human beings, He calls us to be saints; this goes far above and beyond "community organizing."

Second of all, comparing Our Lord with Barack Hussein "Apollo" Obama is blasphemous because it accords too much honor to Obama. He is not worthy of such a comparison. This just goes to show how defunct liberal Christianity is in its understanding of Christology. If these liberal Christians understood what it was they were saying they would weep, wail and mourn, asking for forgiveness for making this comparison.

Third, to compare Sarah Palin with Pontius Pilate is beyond the pail. She unlike Pilate stood up for what was right in Alaska. If Jesus had stood before Palin, He would have been released without scourging and then she (Governor Palin) would have turned the Roman garrison on the mob if they acted up. It is almost like comparing Bush to Hitler only going in the other direction. It is an idiotic comparison at best and slanderous at worst. Unfortunately this is what goes on in American politics: we act like kids on a playground in a fist fight until the last one is left standing.

I guess the solution is for liberal Christians to go back and read their Bible and the Church Fathers, and then they might have a better understanding of what the meaning of the Church and Christianity is, because the understanding they have right now is deficient at best and its only going to get worse if they continue down the path of liberalism and its presuppositions.

Of Holy Communion

2008-08-12T20:38:00.003-06:00

Ἱερεύς: Λάβετε, φάγετε, τοῦτό μού ἐστι τὸ σῶμα, τὸ ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν κλώμενον, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν.
Λαός: Ἀμήν.

Priest: Take, eat, this is my Body which is broken for you for the forgiveness of sins.

People: Amen.

Ἱερεύς: Πίετε ἐξ αὐτοῦ πάντες, τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ αἷμά μου, τὸ τῆς Καινῆς Διαθήκης, τὸ ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν καὶ πολλῶν ἐκχυνόμενον, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν.
Λαός: Ἀμήν.

Priest: Drink of it all of you; this is my Blood of the new Covenant which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

People: Amen.

From: THE HOLY ANAPHORA in THE DIVINE LITURGY OF SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."

And He took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The Gospel According to St. Matthew 26:26-28.

Notice Jesus does not say the bread and the wine are symbolic. He says they are His Body and they are His Blood. Now, don't you dare try to get me to map it out. This is why they are called the Mysteries of the Church. Even the Catholic Doctrine of Transubstantiation is insufficent because well, its a human concept. The definitions are the fruit of philosophical explanation. It was not something that was taught by the Church. It was left a Mystery. The logic v. mystery discussion is a topic for another time.

My question for those Protestants who wish to say that it is merely symbolic or pretend that it is the Body and Blood of Christ and then pretend it is not after the service is concluded, why then did people die and get sick in the New Testament when people partook of Communion in an inappropriate fashion? Why did Christ say in the book of John 6: "53Then Jesus said unto them, "Verily, verily I say unto you, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. 54Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day. "

I will quote it at length:

John 6:51-58

51I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
52The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
53Then Jesus said unto them, "Verily, verily I say unto you, unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.
54Whoso eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the Last Day.
55For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
56He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me, and I in him.
57As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.
58This is that Bread which came down from Heaven, not as your fathers ate manna and are dead; he that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever."

Christ was not advocating cannibalism. He was speaking of the Sacrament of Holy Communion. He speaks in no uncertain terms about it. He is the Source of Life and his flesh and his blood are means to eternal life. And Paul tells us later those who partake unworthily eat and drink condemnation upon themselves. Again I ask why?

Of the Theotokos

2008-08-11T19:42:00.002-06:00

I'm going to approach this from two angles. I'm going to get the technical and difficult out of the way first.

I'm going to say this. The Virgin Mary was a Virgin when she bore Christ. She was a Virgin after Bearing Christ. She remained a Virgin until her Dormition. There is one passage that we have to get over before we can have this discussion because supposedly this passage conflicts with the fact of Mary remaining a virgin.

22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."
24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,
25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Even with this passage staring blankly at me I'm still going to say Mary is a Virgin. Here is why:

"The question could be inverted. Why not believe in her ever-virginity? The Eastern Church has witnessed to the perpetual virginity of the Theotokos steadfastly for two thousand years and shows no sign of tiring. In the West, the idea was largely undisputed until late in the Reformation; even Luther and Calvin accepted the tradition."
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article9174.asp

"The Meaning of “Until”"
Another objection to the idea of Mary’s perpetual virginity is that the Scriptures use the word “until” or “till” in Matthew 1:25: “. . . and [Joseph] did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son.” Whereas in English the word “until” necessarily indicates change after the fact, in the ancient languages of the Bible this is simply not the case. For instance, if we read Deuteronomy 34:6, 2 Samuel 6:23, Psalm 72:7 and 110:1 (as interpreted by Jesus in Matthew 22:42–46), Matthew 11:23 and 28:20, Romans 8:22, and 1 Timothy 4:13, to reference just a few examples, we will see that in none of these passages does the word “until” indicate a necessary change. If it did, then apparently among other things we would be meant to understand that Jesus will at some point stop sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that on some unhappy date in the future He intends to abandon the Church! The use of “until” in Matthew 1:25, then, is purely to indicate that Christ was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, not conceived by Joseph and Mary, since they did not “know” each other “until” the birth. In this context “until” is really synonymous with “before.” If on the contrary it were meant in its full contemporary English sense—that is, if it really meant that Joseph and Mary’s chaste relationship changed after the birth—then the stylistics present another big problem: the reader would have to believe that Matthew was actually inviting contemplation of the couple’s later sexual activity. This is doubtful to say the least.
Also from http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article9174.asp

So to summarize this part of the article Mary was Perpetually a Virgin. Scripture does not contradict this fact ,Tradition upholds it and even Calvin and Luther did not dispute it.

Now, from a much simpler stand point. I trust the 2000 years of Church tradition over and against the 491 years of Protestant Tradition. It just makes sense. I do not ignore the Bible. I read it in the context of the Tradition it was born in like it was supposed to be.

Now I will deal with another issue: the veneration and honoring of the Virgin Mary.

But first allow me to use an illustration from daily life.

Mothers and their children have a special connection to the other regardless of how dysfunctional the relationship was. This is manifested in cute little phrases like: "You don't know what it is like to be a mother," or "mothers never give up on their children," and the like. Why should it be any different with the Virgin Mary? Young men and women (unless they are so far gone that this is impossible) feel a strong attatchment to their mother and defend her character or her when someone says something bad about her, such as insults characterized by "yo mama" humor.

Why should that connection be any different with the Virgin Mary? She gave birth to Christ, who is God Incarnate. If we have the attitude that she "gave birth to Him and she served her purpose" we are denying His Humanity and we become Nestorians. We deny that He is God and Man by denying that connection, by treating her like she doesn't matter. This is wrong and it something that has to stop, and I will stand up to any Protestant who says otherwise.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

2008-08-06T05:30:00.003-06:00

Today is the day we remember the Transfiguration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I relate particularly well to Peter who couldn't be quiet at this glorious display.
The following is from goarch.org

Transfiguration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

August 6
Reading:

Our Lord had spoken to His disciples many times not only concerning His Passion, Cross, and Death, but also concerning the coming persecutions and afflictions that they themselves would endure. Since all these evils were near at hand, but the enjoyment of good things which they hoped to receive in their stead was yet to come, our Savior desired to give them full assurance, evidently and openly, concerning that glory which is prepared for those who endure to the end. Therefore, fulfilling that which He had promised shortly before, that "there be some standing here which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in His Kingdom" (Matt. 16:28), He took His three foremost disciples and ascended Mount Tabor, where He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as the light. Suddenly, together with this dread and marvelous effulgence of light, there appeared those pinnacles of the Prophets, Moses and Elias, who spoke with the Lord Jesus concerning His saving Passion which was about to take place. Standing before Him as reverent servants, they showed that He is the Lord of both the living and the dead, for Moses came forth from Hades, having died many centuries before, and Elias, as it were from heaven, whither he had been taken up while yet alive. After a little while a radiant cloud overshadowed them and out of the cloud they heard that same voice which had been heard at the Jordan at the Baptism of Christ, testifying to the Divinity of Jesus and saying: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well-pleased; hear ye Him" (Matt. 17: 5).

Such are the marvels, truly worthy of God, celebrated in this present feast, which is an image and prefiguring of the future state of the righteous, whose splendor the Lord spoke of, saying: "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun" (Matt. 13:43). It is because of this that the Kontakion of this Feast is said daily (when there is not a great feast) in the Service of the Typica in perpetual commemoration of the glory that will be the lot of the Saints. According to tradition, the Lord's Transfiguration came to pass forty days before His Crucifixion; this is why the Transfiguration is celebrated forty days before the Exaltation of the Cross.

Apolytikion in the Grave Tone
You were transfigured on the Mount, Christ God revealing Your glory to Your disciples, insofar as they could comprehend. Illuminate us sinners also with Your everlasting light, through the intercessions of the Theotokos. Giver of light, glory to You.

Kontakion in the Grave Tone
You were transfigured upon the mount, O Christ our God, and Your disciples, in so far as they could bear, beheld Your glory. Thus, when they see You crucified, they may understand Your voluntary passion, and proclaim to the world that You are truly the effulgence of the Father.

Reading courtesy of Holy Transfiguration Monastery
Apolytikion courtesy of Narthex Press
Kontakion courtesy of Narthex Press

Gospel Reading
The Reading is from Matthew 17:1-9
At that time, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led him up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of man is raised from the dead."

Analysis of the Icon
http://www.goarch.org/en/special/listen_learn_share/transfiguration/learn/

An Apology

2008-08-04T19:45:00.002-06:00

I was inspired by a Protestant brother who went through a similar experience that I did at Liberty. The process of of becoming a Crazed Calvinist. I refer particularly to the "cage stage." The part of becoming a Calvinist where everyone is an enemy combatant. I think I even went after a couple of Calvinists for not being Reformed enough.

I want to apologize to everyone I've ever met ever, ever. When I was becoming a Calvinist and in the years ensuing of being a Calvinist. I was an idiot. I did not have an iota of concern or compassion for others if they didn't share my theological views. I was a horrible Christian and a horrible person. I have no idea what on earth I was thinking trying to become a pastor by starting fights like that all the time. All I could ever talk about was my skewed interpretation of Romans 9-11. I thought I was the Church's Internal Affairs Officer. There's only One Person with that job. That'd be Jesus.

I apologize to all the Churches I have attended ever and all the Pastors' that had to put up with my idiocy. I'm sorry. I was a horrible congregant and person.

I apologize to any person or friend at Liberty that had to put up with my tomfoolery. I was wrong both in my character and my doctrine. I apologize to any members of my prayer group or members of my dorm community. I was wrong, dead wrong for the way I had acted in any capacity. I am truly sorry.

Now, I realize it wasn't "Calvinism" that did it to me. Although I would contend that it did not help matters because it mitigated my belief in personal responsibility. It was my own bad character that made me the way I was.

I was a criticial, judgmental, hard-hearted git who was Don Pianoed by the novel doctrine of Calvinism. Every friend I ever lost I deserved to lose. All the alienation I recieved I deserved to recieve. The consequences known and unknown I deserved. I am sorry.

P.S. More cheerful posts will be forth coming

Voting For McCain

2008-08-04T11:46:00.001-06:00

I have something to clear up. I'm voting for McCain. Here is why:

I'm choosing the lesser of two evils. Barack is a Socialist. McCain is Moderate Republican. Inasmuch as I want and need and desire a free market capitalistic, free market, I'll settle for McCain until we can achieve or Libertarian goals. After this though, we Conservatives need to work with the Libertarians and become the new political party.

This is more of a concession than something I'm particularly proud of.

Butt Scratching and Bass Fishing (Dave Ramsey Rant)

2008-07-15T09:48:00.003-06:00

(Taken From daveramsey.com)

A couple of weeks ago, I worked late like I sometimes need to do to run my business. It was a nice Tennessee summer evening, and I was enjoying the drive home. About 7:30, as I pulled to a stop light a few blocks from my office, I noticed a light on in the corner office of a friend’s office building. Through the twilight I could make out my friend’s silhouette as he bent over his desk. Being a fellow entrepreneur, I knew what he was doing.

He was looking over some receivables. Some turkey hadn’t paid him, and he was trying to make his accounts balance so he would have the cash to make it another day. In that instant, I had a flashback to some of the ridiculous statements I’ve been hearing on the talking-head news channels and from some individuals during this political year. And I’ll be honest—I instantly felt the heat of anger flow through my body.

Let me tell you why. You see, my friend who I saw working late—we’ll call him Henry—is a great guy. He’s what you want your son to grow up to be. He loves God, his country, his wife, and his kids. He didn’t have the academic advantage of attending a big-name university. Instead, he started installing heating and air systems as a grunt laborer after he graduated from high school. He was and is a very hard and diligent worker, and before long, the boss taught him the trade. But when he was 24, after 6 years of service, the company he was working for got into financial trouble and laid him off.

Henry still had his tools, so he bought an old pickup to haul around his materials and tools, and suddenly he was in business. He knew about heating and air-conditioning, but not about business, so he made a lot of mistakes.

He persisted. He took accounting and management at the community college to learn about business. He started reading books on business, HVAC, marriage, kids, God, and anything else someone he respected recommended. Today he is one of the best-read men I know. Soon, because of his fabulous service and fair prices, he developed a great reputation, and his little business began to grow.

Henry started 15 years ago, and now he has 17 employees whose families are fed because he does a great job. He is in church on Sunday and seldom misses his kids’ Little League games. Sometimes he has to miss a game because some poor soul has their AC go out in the 96-degree Tennessee summer heat, but Henry makes sure they are served. He is, by all standards, a good man. He is, by all standards, what makes America great.Henry and I are friends, and so he asked me some financial questions last year. I learned in the process that his personal taxable income last year was $328,000. I smiled with pride for this 70-hour a week guy because he is living the dream.At the stop light that evening, I also thought of another guy I know—and that is where the anger flash came from. We will call him John. While John does not have the same drive Henry has, I can say that he, too, is a good man.

John also graduated from high school and did not attend a big-name university. He went to work at a local factory 15 years ago. When 5:00pm comes around, John has probably already made it to his car in the parking lot. He comes in 5 minutes late, takes frequent breaks, and leaves 5 minutes early. However, to his credit, he is steady and works hard.

Over the years, due to his steadiness and seniority, he has worked his way up to about $75,000 per year in that same factory. He seldom misses his kid’s ballgames, but most nights you will find him in front of the TV where he has become an expert on “American Idol,” “The Biggest Loser,” and who got thrown off the island. When he is not in front of the TV, he spends a LOT of time and money bass fishing on our local lake. He never works over 40 hours a week and hasn’t read a non-fiction book since high school.

This is America, and there is nothing wrong with either set of choices. Nothing wrong, that is, until the politicians and socialists get involved.

I have seen several elitist people on the talking-head channels make the statement lately that people making over $250,000 per year have a “moral imperative” to pay more in taxes to take care of the country’s problems. This is not only infuriating—it is economically, spiritually, and morally crazy!

Where in the world do these twits get off saying that Henry should be punished for his diligence? If you are John, where do you get off trying to take Henry’s hard-earned money away from him in the name of your misguided “fairness”? If you want to sit on the lake, drink beer, scratch your butt, and bass fish, that is perfectly fine with me. I am not against any of those activities and have engaged in some of them myself at one time or another. But you HAVE NO RIGHT to talk about “moral imperatives” about what other people have earned due to their diligence. That money is not yours! You want some money? Go earn some! Get up, leave the cave, kill something, and drag it home.

We are in a dangerous place in our country today. A segment of our population has decided that it is the government’s job to provide all of their protection, provision, and prosperity. This segment has figured out that government doesn’t have the money to give them everything they want, so somebody else has to pay for it. That is how the “politics of envy” was born. “Tax the rich” has become the mantra of the left, and this political season it has been falsely dubbed a “moral imperative.”

Ninety percent of America’s millionaires are first-generation rich. They are Henry. To tax them because you think it is a “moral imperative” is legalizing governmental theft from our brightest, most charitable, and most productive citizens.

If I can get a law passed that says you must surrender all your cars to the government because it is the “moral imperative” of anyone who owns cars to support the latest governmental program, that would be a violation of private property rights and simply morally wrong. This new “moral imperative” to redistribute wealth is no different from that. It’s the SAME THING!
Please, America, re-think the politics of envy! You are sowing the seeds of our destruction when you punish the Henrys of our culture. If you think taxing the populace to support government programs is the best way—and I don’t—then at least tax every single person the same! There are very few Henrys out here who would squawk much about paying a set percentage of their income—if everyone else did, too. But this idea of some butt-scratching bass fisherman saying government should tax his neighbor and not him—just because his neighbor has succeeded—must stop.

So the next time an elitist media talking-head starts telling you it is the moral imperative of our culture to tax my friend Henry, change the channel.

The next time you see someone wealthy who feels guilty and is preaching the politics of envy, change the channel.

The next time you see some celebrity who feels guilt over their income preaching socialism, change the channel.

And the next time you run into a misguided, butt-scratching bass fisherman who says the evil rich people in our culture should have their private property confiscated because that is fair… well just shake your head walk away—and make sure to vote against his candidate. If he and his type win, God help America.

I'm slowly getting tired of the North (See the link First)

2008-06-05T10:08:00.007-06:00

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=107483

Follow that link and you'll see why I'm a little miffed. Some bed-wetting liberal principal (as well as district board members) decided to suspend a couple of good ol' country boys and subsequently prevent them from walking at their graduation ceremony because they were flying the Confederate Battle Flag on the back of their trucks.

These damn Yankees can't seem to get it through their thick gourds that the battle flag does not represent racism ,hatred or anything of the like. It was the flag that the Southern Armies flew when they marched into battle defending their States' rights to govern themselves. It represents the glory and honor of the Southerners that were fighting to defend the Republic from domestic tyranny.

The War of Northern Aggression (Civil War) was not about slavery it was about the right of the several states to govern themselves as they saw fit. There was already a movement toward abolition it just didn't happen on the time table that the U.S. Congress wanted it to happen. They should have engaged in more diplomacy and not send Union troops into Carolina. I've been told that human rights trump states rights, well I agree on the face of it but with a word of clarification. The Civil War was one of the greatest human rights disasters in the history of America (maybe even the world). I say this not only because of the lives lost on both sides. I say this also for the lack of education and preparation for life off of the plantation for the soon to be ex-slaves. Had their been more education and preparation and there been a time table and transition period from slavery to freedom these problems would not have occured.

Despite the fact that I'm a "Copperhead" or would have been. I must say that in no uncertain terms am I not a racist, or a bigot. I "judge" people by the content of their character and their actions not by their skin color. Slavery is in no uncertain terms wrong. It should never have become a practice. That doesn't change the fact that in principle, on states rights the North was wrong and the South was right!

Personal Irresponsibility (parental discretion advised)

2008-05-15T15:14:00.003-06:00

If there is one thing that I abhor the most, whether I find it in myself or in others, is a lack of personal reponsibility. I encounter this in my own life all the time. People bitch about being broke, unhappy, unsuccessful (put just about any un- in there and its probably something people are bitching about!) or whatever and when they are asked what they have done about this, that or the other they get angry or they shy away or they get worked up into a dander otherwise.

The truth is, imperfect human beings don't like to take responsibility for their lives. They expect other people do it for them. This viewpoint is a totally alien one to anything we have seen through out history. Individuals are responsible for their own life, end of story. If you want to be successful, happy or rich you have to start taking the steps necessary to get their. The only caveat is you have to start working!

I realize we as a human race stand and fall together. I don't mean individuals just taking responsiblity for themselves. We are also responsible for each other. We affect each other. So not only do we take responsibility for ourselves we have to take responsibility for ourselves as we relate to others. One of the most common complaints I've gotten is about relationships, especially marriage. I'll ask someone what they have done to make it better. They proceed to place blame on everyone and everything but themselves. If its money I'll ask what are you doing to make it better? Are you setting money aside? Nope, gotta blame the government. Or happiness; I'll ask them if they realize that you have to choose to be happy? Anger is generally the response.

I don't know how I can say this any clearer. Stop BITCHING and start working. If you are unhappy about anything in your life, it's probably coming from something that you screwed up.

This goes is for all those able bodied welfare dependent people who expect the government to give you everything you need. This goes for all you pregnant, single mothers who won't find a man of integrity and keep popping out babies with men who are still boys and are otherwise unfit to be called men. This goes for all of you men who can't understand the emotional spectrum of a woman and will not be a man and take responsibilty for your wife or girlfriend and the younglings you've managed to produce, who will in turn cause problems for our society in the next twenty years. This goes for all of you people who come from broken families or single parent homes who want to blame your upbringing on where you are now and won't take responsibility for where you can be. This goes for all you pleasure seeking hedonists who instead of dealing with your problems try to drown them in drugs, alcohol, sex, computer games or anything unrelated to dealing with the problem.

This goes for anyone who has ever had a complaint about anything they have control over. What the hell are you going to do make it better?! This goes for all you fools who are unhappy about your marriage, or with your life in general. What are the things you need to do to fix the situation? Nothing of worth comes to a person without long protracted effort. Nothing at all. Stop blaming God, others or bad external circumstances, or anything else. Fix your self and you taken care of 75% of the problem! You have problems because you make them. I realize I'm not perfect either, but I'll say this this way: you and I have problems because we make them.

Thats my opinion anyway, I could be wrong.

Politics

2008-05-15T00:18:00.003-06:00

I'm going to go on a rant... I feel Reaganesque. Only in this case "I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party Left me." This seems to be the way it is going. While I'm not officially registered as a Republican I've voted that way when I've had the chance to do so. In any case I'm not happy with them. I'd be happier with them if they had some balls like they did back in the Clinton years. Its not going to happen though. The Republicans seem to think that the only way to get anywhere is to abandon Conservative Ideology and try to "reach out." I don't mind "reaching out" but when you compromise your values to do it, then I mind.

Republicans are supposed to be just that republican. Republicanism is: "is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, with an emphasis on liberty, rule of law, popular sovereignty and the civic virtue practiced by citizens." In America we are doing great on the liberty (in some cases, and not in others) but are doing horrible in the other areas. Civic virtue is waning, as is the rule of law and popular sovereignty. We are beginning to look more and more like a democracy.

Democracy is the system of rule by the people. It is derived by from the Greek δημοκρατία ([demokratia] (help·info)), "popular government"[1] which was coined from δήμος (dēmos), "people" and κράτος (kratos), "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens.

If our people in America had any civic virtue then a democracy might not be so bad. But since it is waning, it would be a disaster. It would be like kids that are already fat and spoiled having unlimited access to the fridge. It would eventually undercut the functioning of the entire house hold. Imagine 301,139,947 fallen, passionate, beings running the show. It would be a disaster.

I'll get right to the point. Obama and Hillary are both Democrats who are pushing a left wing agenda. McCain is liberal light. I'm not voting for any of them! I'll probably end up voting for the Constitutionalist Party Candidate. He's the only guy who's got the ideals that I have. I won't feel dirty coming out fo the voting booth.

I'm not into the name calling that has been going on recently, but I can agree at least in terms of symantics with Mr. Obama. We need some hope, and change, and maybe some change and home in America.

Definitions taken from Wikipedia

Wow! Here's your sign!

2008-05-08T23:00:00.000-06:00

"Stolen" From Breitbart.com

Feds: Teen use of pot can lead to dependency, mental illness

May 9 12:36 AM US/EasternBy JENNIFER C. KERRAssociated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Depression, teens and marijuana are a dangerous mix that can lead to dependency, mental illness or suicidal thoughts, according to a White House report being released Friday.
A teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed—25 percent compared with 12 percent, said the report by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"Marijuana is a more consequential substance of abuse than our culture has treated it in the last 20 years," said John Walters, director of the office. "This is not just youthful experimentation that they'll get over as we used to think in the past."
Smoking marijuana can lead to more serious problems, Walters said in an interview.
For example, using marijuana increases the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent, the report said. And teens who smoke pot at least once a month over a yearlong period are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than nonusers, it said.
The report also cited research that showed that teens who smoke marijuana when feeling depressed were more than twice as likely as their peers to abuse or become addicted to pot—8 percent compared with 3 percent.
Experts who have worked with children say there's nothing harmless about marijuana.
"I've seen many, many kids' lives negatively impacted and taken off track because of marijuana," said Elizabeth Stanley-Salazar, director of adolescent services for Phoenix House treatment centers in California. "It's somewhat Russian roulette. There are so many factors, emotional, psychological, biological. You can't predict the experimentation and how it will impact a kid."
The drug control policy office analyzed about a dozen studies looking at marijuana use, including research by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Overall, marijuana use among teens has decreased 25 percent since down to about 2.3 million kids who used pot at least once a month, the drug control office said.
While the drop is encouraging, Walters appealed to parents to recognize signs of possible drug use and depression.
"It's not something you look the other way about when your teen starts appearing careless about their grooming, withdrawing from the family, losing interest in daily activities," Walters said. "Find out what's wrong."
___
On the Net:
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Graduation

2008-05-08T22:53:00.006-06:00

It is almost surreal that I am nearly there. I'm a week away from finishing out my Math Class with a reasonably high degree of success. I'm going connsolidate my credits and get my associates degree. That puts me only two years from my Bachelor's. I can hardly believe it.

I mean, for me, this is a big deal. I've broken open the fortified wall into the city of academic success. I'm going to take the wall and begin engaging in a hand to hand, street to street combat in the academic and education arena and the rest of my resources will envelope the surrounding area to keep my enemies from escaping.

I realize I'm using war analogy. Its ok. Life is war for me. Christians are warriors.

"Six DAYS"

Oh and I'm voting for McCain. I'd rather have a R.I.N.O. in the White House rather than either one of those Socialists.

Blog Buffer

2008-04-28T09:53:00.001-06:00

I'm going to be re-filling the blog buffer. I'll be posting stuff retroactively. For not I don't have a lot of time. I have to get to class.

Best Pascha (Easter) Ever!

2008-04-28T02:50:00.000-06:00

Sunday, April 27, 2008
2:50 AM

Best Pascha (Easter) Ever!

That really says it all in my mind. I told my friends at Church, it is as though I’ve been following Christ around all week this week. Now He has Risen from the Dead. Christos Anesti!

I did not experience an explosion of happiness. It is more a quiet hum of happiness. Peace, glorious peace of soul and joy has come over me. It seems as though nothing else matters but this Great Event. The Resurrection.

Holy Saturday

2008-04-26T12:44:00.000-06:00

Saturday, April 26, 2008
12:44 PM
Holy Saturday

‘Today Hades cried out groaning: “Would that I had not received the One born of Mary; for He came upon me and loosed my power. He shattered the gates of brass the souls, which I held captive of old, as God He raised up” Glory O Lord to Your Cross and Your Resurrection.’

Christ has turned the tables upon the enemies of man and of God. Father Jon had so many good things to say this morning. I wish I could relate them all to you. I will try to relate as many as I can remember.

The Resurrection- The first thing Father spoke of was the Resurrection. In the Resurrection Christ kicks down the doors of Hades liberating all of the righteous from ages passed. It is the single most important reality. We must be oriented around it at all times. Sometimes we are deceived by the enemy into believing that other things are more important that the Resurrection.

Satan how ever being the deceiver was deceived into think that he had one. He thought God had not thought things through and that if Christ died, Satan was going to win. Satan thought this was going to be his glory day that now he and his angels had won and succeeded in establishing their own realm. Well, as was said before Christ kicked down the doors of Hades and let all the good guys out. Christ’s Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection is Satan’s undoing. They are mankind’s opportunity to be re-created. Glory to God!

The Soldiers bore witness of the Resurrection, but like Judas the betray they gave up their own mercy by reporting it to the Jews and then receiving a bribe to say that the Disciple’s came and stole body.

The Jews did malice to themselves. They said they would believe if Christ came down from the Cross. Well they got more than what they expected in the Resurrection but they would not believe even then! They were invested as the leaders of the religious establishment and they were not going to let go of their investiture. We must not be like them. We must be willing to let go of everything for the sake of the Resurrection. Our lives as diverse as they are must not be so selfish to the detriment of our souls as it was for the Jews.

Sometimes we are like the Jews in this respect, we will make decisions that in a sense deny the Resurrection although it is not as blatant as having it happen before our eyes and then denying it. It’s like the difference between stealing a dime and million dollars. The only difference is magnitude.

It doesn’t matter though; sin is still sin and should be avoided to the detriment of everything we think is important. Our orientation in life must be about the death, burial and Resurrection of Christ. Nothing else matters.

Great and Holy Friday

2008-04-25T22:46:00.000-06:00

Friday, April 25, 2008
Great and Holy Friday

Again, I am nearly speechless. I will quote an excerpt from one of the readings this night.

He who sustains all things was raised on the Cross, and all creation mourns, seeing Him hanging naked on the Wood. The sun hid its rays, and the stars cast off their gleam; the earth quaked with great fright, and the sea fled; the rocks were split asunder; many graves were opened, and the bodies of holy men arose. Hades groaned below, and the Judeans plan to spread false rumors against the Resurrection of Christ, while the women cried out: “Behold, this the most blessed Sabbath, in which Christ having fallen asleep, will rise on the third day.”

The Oikos of Great and Holy Friday

Tonight was Christ’s funeral. It is a bitter sweet occasion as it is with all of the days of Holy Week. We know what is going on in Hades. There is a massive “jail break” going for those of our holy fathers. In Paradise, they are being let out, rejoined with their bodies and brought into their inheritance.

I have never lived or thought in this way before as a Westerner. This is why Orthodoxy appeals to those of us who have found it. We are re-living and in a sense living Church History. History is such a dusty word. I prefer to say we are living the life of Christ and of the Church throughout the year.

When I was a Protestant I went from not knowing much about the calendar, to nearly disdaining the Calendar as a pseudo-Puritan. The only Holidays (Holy Days) I celebrated were Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, the celebration of each respective holiday having the poison of Americanism coursing through their veins causing an arsenic havoc upon my soul. You may think I exaggerate as I write this, but I do not. I say from my own experiences that those holidays (Easter might be an exception) that all I really looked forward to was the presents, or the giving of gifts, or as I got older the eating and drinking that would take place at the parties. I kinda celebrated Christ, but really the focus was on the material things and not matters of the soul. I actually even began to think of Holidays as an inconvenience.

I grant you on those Feast Days (along with other Church Holidays.) (With the exception of Thanksgiving, I almost want scratch it from the calendar) celebration had better be happening! Or else we are not fulfilling their purpose and we are then dishonoring Christ and the Church.

Now it is different. At each Holiday it is as though I am truly living the events as they happen. At Christmas whilst the snow was on the ground. I wanted to proclaim that Christ was born and that the world was going to change. This week, I have followed Christ from the raising of Lazarus, to the Entrance of the Holy City, to the Last Supper to the Garden, to his Arrest, His Crucifixion His Death, and His Funeral and now I anticipate his Resurrection. It is all extremely real.

2008-04-23T21:54:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, April 23, 2008
9:54 PM
Holy Week

I am almost entirely speechless. After becoming Orthodox, being Christian has taken a more complete meaning in my life. Although I am emotional, I am not sentimental by any stretch.

I did not realize this at first but part of our Tradition is that in our lives we remember the life of Christ and those who are closest to Christ. Remembering in Orthodoxy involves far more than merely intellectually recalling of something that happened previously it involves re-living the lives of these people, the Saints and most especially Christ. In the Bible it says “...Christ who is our life...” this is most truly expressed in Orthodoxy. It is expressed through the calendar, through the fasting and feasting periods and most especially in Holy Communion.

There are times when I am tempted to join Paul in regarding my passed life as a pile of crap. This temptation includes my life as a Protestant. Then I turn around and realize if it had not been for my Protestant brothers and sisters instilling in me the desire for the Truth and a love for Christ and the Scriptures I would never have become Orthodox.

How can I say this without going into a full on rant? Through my Christian experience there have been different “needs” in my life that have been met in my life. The first of which was a very strong need for acceptance and love. I’m not going to go into all of the details of my early childhood. When I finally “owned” at least in part my Christian heritage when I “asked Jesus into my heart” my life’s trajectory changed and put me in the paths of some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. Although they are not part of my Tradition, they are still wonderful people because they do serve God with their hearts and live according to what is revealed in the Bible. As I said before, if I had not come across these people I never would have become Orthodox. These people who are members of the Evangelical Free Church in America met my unmet needs, for love, guidance, acceptance, and discipline in such ways that I cannot describe. They were very good at that I’ll even say they were good at making the clearest parts of the Bible very applicable. As for History, their history only goes back about 200 years 400 at most if you put them into the stream of the entire Reformation. The need for doctrinal solidity was very minimally met. Love was the need of the hour; with these folks I gained what I needed to be strong.

As I journeyed I left (perhaps too quickly) that first foundation and moved to another, the foundation of historic solidity. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my Free Church didn’t have much of a foundation in Church History, or Theology (neither did the other traditions that I was a part of). So instead of being a “martyr” for my tradition I capitulated to a more historical, theologically sound, and “defensible” position: the position of Reformed Theology, most particularly Calvinism. This period in my life would be simultaneously some of the worst and ... no, the worst. I would have been better of had I stayed an Evangelical in some ways. I didn’t realize the bitter wine that I was drinking and how it would poison what I had gained as an Evangelical. Although the proponents of Calvinistic theology are quick to say that they are not Determinists the fact is they are Determinists. If you reduce their arguments to strict logic, they don’t add up. Even though it sounds like I’m cursing this time in my life, there are some redeeming qualities to it. The first is the scholarly approach. The other was the fact that I became convinced if I am to believe something theologically it needs to be rooted in history. Truth, does not change, it is not a passing fad. That need was met, but then toward the end of my journey I felt calloused and separated. Perhaps that was my own doing (in large part I think it was). It felt like everything that was done as a Calvinist was dead, especially toward the end. I did however, come away (or start coming away) with another important thing, a strong respect for Church History and Tradition.

The final thing that was lacking in both phases of Christianity was the necessary tools, weapons and methods for fighting sin. In both cases, memorizing Scripture, avoiding certain situations, and “prayer” was all that was necessary to avoid sin oh and maintaining good relationships with people of good character. These things are important, and are even a good start, but they don’t go far enough.

I’ll start off with prayer. In Protestantism, prayer is primarily words. Some will go so far as to say that it is an attitude. In Orthodoxy prayer is a state of being. Starting off by the prayer rule then moving to praying the hours and on to praying the Jesus Prayer, combined with cultivating inner quiet, which is the Orthodox way of prayer. That is the prayer that avails much where man surrender’s his will to God and goes beyond words. This also is the Orthodox way of prayer.

Memorizing Scripture is good, but since we don’t live in the culture wherein Scripture was written we miss many of the nuances of the text. That is why we need the church. Even then memorization is limited to the texts we understand, not to the ones that we don’t.

I won’t even go into the weapons that I find in the Sacraments although they are all indispensable. My spiritual life I feel has improved since becoming Orthodox, but even if it’s only a beginning.

In Orthodoxy, I get to have it all. My wife and I are constantly greeted by our respective sponsors and other people who could care less about who or what we were before we became Orthodox. This includes those that are still on this world and those Saints who have gone on before us. Including, but not limited to Our Blessed Pure and Glorious Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. I have a Tradition that is deeply rooted in Apostolic Doctrine and even has as its source and wellspring apostolic teaching. I have a vast arsenal of weapons at my disposal, everything from the daily prayer cycle, to the Sacraments. Even though I can’t always articulate it, Orthodoxy beats all.

It doesn't get any better than this.

2008-04-20T17:03:00.001-06:00

Click on this link and laugh!

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=80753

Inadmissible Evidence

2008-03-31T12:38:00.000-06:00

Note: I wrote this before my/our confirmation into the Orthodox Church

I'm on a journey as of late. It goes deep into the halls of Church History. It goes back far beyond the Reformation, and even before the East-West Split. I'm on a journey into Eastern Christianity. It has been (and I'm sure will continue to be) a very fascinating journey. I've ran into few bumps in the road until recently. It really isn't a bump, its more of a realization.

Protestant Churches don't really teach the Bible, they teach their own interpretation(s) of it. I realize that is a very heavy statement I made, but I think it is defensible. To explain it I will need to take a journey back into church history. Far back into church history.

In the beginning The Apostles believed and taught the same things. I grant that there was some disagreement about certain things, but major matters were settle through Church Councils. These councils that the Apostles would hold had real authority. One Apostle's band of followers couldn't just up and reject what everyone else was saying, no they were bound to it just like everyone else.

In the following centuries care of the church passed onto the bishops organized according to there geopolitical regions. The church still taught the same things that the Apostles taught, they only repeated them. This is where we get Sacred Tradition. In the years following the Apostles there was really no distinction between Sacred Tradition and "Scripture" as it was all Scripture and it was considered binding.

In the 400's there were several councils that convened to discuss doctrinal questions vital to the Church. 1) What would beliefs would be Christian beliefs? From this we get the Nicene Creed. 2) Who and what is Christ? (Definition of Chalcedon) 3) How may we begin to understand the Trinity? (The Trinity: Three persons One Essence Inseparable) More importantly than that these councils happened, they were binding on everyone who would call themselves Christian. The Doctrines they formulated were not explicitly taught in the Bible they were the Fruit of the Minds of these Teachers and the Guidance of the Holy Spirit. They are authoritative because the Early Church codified the doctrines and said anyone who is a Christian will believe this if not then he is not a Christian. Period, goodbye end of story!

Moving beyond the 400's the Church continued to grow and expand in knowledge and in understanding of the universe and the Traditions of the Church began to grow. Much of the Churches teaching only repeated things in the Apostolic Tradition. This continued until the 1000's when the Churches excommunicated each other.

The Patriarch of the West was looking for more power. He wanting to be deemed infallible because he was the Successor of Peter. Instead of being the First Among Equals He (in terms of Seniority) he decided he wanted to the First Among Equals (in terms of priority). He wanted to be first in other words. Something Christ said that Christians are not supposed to do! Thus the Church of the West began to fall into decay and become like the Pharisees of old. Issuing decrees and making Traditions that got in the way of following Scripture rather than Traditions that actually helped the practioner follow the Scriptures.

The Orthodox Church continued to thrive on its own. This disunity amongst Christians was going to have huge spiritual and political reprucussions for the next 1000 years. Four hundred years after the Split the The Eastern Roman Empire would fall to Islam. This would have serious reprucussions on the progress of the Gospel in Eastern Europe. In otherwords the disunity of the Church meant that the world or parts of it would be plunged into Darkness. Jesus Himself said that the world would that we are His followers by the love we show each other. Where is the love?

The Orthodox Church would survive even under the watchful eye of Islam. The Catholic Church on the other hand consolidated its power and even tried to make Eastern European peoples become Catholic (some did). The Catholic Church would continue to decay from with in. From the time of the Split till the time of the Reformation.

The Reformation was intitally about ecclesiastical abuses. Luther did not want to break away from Rome, he wanted to Reform the Church. It wasn't about Sacred Tradition. It was about how the Catholics were destroying Sacred Tradition by creating their own tradition based on the false doctrines of papal infallibility and a legalistic ethic. In other words the Catholics were become Pharisees.

As the Reformation began to take root and move on, it became more and more about things in Sacred Tradition. People began to say "this or that" isn't in the Bible. This Reformation ironcially enough led the spawning of Baptists.

This is the kicker though. No one in the last 400 years in the Protestant Church has really taught "The Bible." They have all taught there own interpretive tradition. For Lutherans its Luther's Catechism, for Presbyterian and Reformed People its Westminster, Heidlburg and Dort, for Methodists, and Weslyans its well, Wesley. I could go on and on but I won't.

In getting rid of most of Sacred Tradition, several Scholastic Traditions have sprung up based around the teachings of specific communities that are descended from Calvin and Luther and the other Reformers. Each of them make a Truth claim and think they are right but none of them are totally right. This discontinuity has resulted in a disunity that still has the church on the rack and impedes its goal to make disciples of all nations.

Shooting at NIU

2008-02-15T10:12:00.003-06:00

http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=374581#related

I'm not going to recount the story here, I have a few thoughts on the matter to express.

This is the second college shooting the last ten months and the 8th school shooting in the last two years. This is also the 43rd school shooting in the last 42 years. So that is about school shooting per year on the average. I realize there have been averages and spikes, but all of the details are available here through Wikipedia.

This should not be happening at all. I realize this is a very idealistic statement, but it is true. In fact before 1966 this never happened. I'm going to take a few shots as to how this has come about and then talk about what must be done to stop this.

This mess started with school shootings has started because people have failed to see the intrinsic value of human life. Bottom line end of story. Even if a person is chemically inbalanced that doesn't impair ones sense of right and wrong. Everyone makes a choice to become what they are. Even in the case of this shooting the monster in question went off his medicine that was keeping him from becoming a monster. This goes back much further than this simple answer but I'll treat that toward the end of this write-up.

The first thing that must be done to stabilize the situation until we can fix the actual problem is to reinstate the second amendment. Make sure that guns are in the hands of the right people and this will not happen. Everyone has the right to bear arms. If that right were realized that gun man would probably not take any lives. He would have been dead as soon as he pulled the gun. I realize with allowing the second amendment to have its full weight there were would be risks. Those are risks that I am prepared to live with. At least the good guys would have a fighting chance to stop people like this.

There is a more basic and at the same time more complicated problem creating these symptoms. This is the disease of secularization. Secularization has caused more problems than religion ever caused. I realize when I say this I'm calling out all of the left-wing atheistic forces of our day out to fight. Bring them on.

The problem of secularization started when Christians began to move away from Holy Tradition. This started to happen during the East-West Schism when the Roman Pontiff decided to break with Collegial nature of church government as taught in Holy Tradition, this resulted in the eccelsiastical tyranny that came to a head in the 1400's with the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation decided, consciously and deliberately to move away from Holy Tradition AGAIN and the result was chaos in that time. The Reformation gave birth to the "Enlightenment" and the Enlightenment gave birth to secularization, and secularization has given birth to moral relativism, the devaluing of human life, and consequently school shootings. Realize when I'm saying this I don't blame the Reformation, I blame sin, I blame egocentric people who think they know better than the Ancient wisdom of the Church.

Since moving further and further away from Holy Tradition is the problem, the solution is to move back to Holy Tradition. This imperative appeal includes Protestants, as well as Catholics. The Church needs nothingless than a complete reunification under Holy Tradition. After that the Gospel will be preached clearly and Christianity will eventually become relevant. After the gospel gets worked into the culture eventually government and society will change and will have something similar to what we had in the 500's a united church and a semi-peaceful world.

I realize this is a lot of history in such a short rant, but this is we have problem and solution right here. To the families who were involved in this tragedy, I give you my condolences. I'm sorry this has happened. I wish there was something that could be done to undo this. I am very grieved at this as should we all.

Forty-Two

2008-02-01T10:31:00.000-06:00

To find the answer one has to know the question in order to get the answer. Despite the Pluralistic nature of Protestantism, the question has never been, who is right or who is wrong, or who is in the church and who is out of the church the question lies in who has the more complete Tradition. the Protestants, the Roman Catholics or the Eastern Orthodox.

The question has been and will always be "whose Tradition is most complete?" There in are all of the questions answered therein will all of our problems be solved.

Now, to clarify things or to muddle them, yes, someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong in this dicussion. A move toward unity must not involve compromise, it must involve a move toward the truth, not our own subjective concoction of it. Unity will look like this when it finally does happen. For the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox, the Pope will stop calling himself the Viceroy of God and let colligate governance avail. For the Protestants and the Orthodox, submission to Holy Tradition and a rejection of individualistic interpretation will have to go right out the window.

To answer the question of who is in and who is out, anyone who fails to subscribe to Trinitarian Baptism, The Content of the Nicean Creed, and The Council of Chalcedon, is out. This includes Mormons, Jehovahs' Witnesses, and several other of the weird religions produced by our nation since its inception. Sadly, this includes all the liberal churches who do not avow the supernatural, they went off the rails as well.

My Conversion or Reasons For My Conversion

2007-11-22T14:42:00.000-06:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I have written. I have a lot to talk about, unfortunately I won't be able to get to it all, but I will get to the important stuff. Such as my conversion to Orthodox Christianity. My wife has joined me in this but I will let her speak for herself on her own myspace. Although I won't say that I didn't effect her decision, but she still has her own way of describing this because well, she's Erica.

The first of many reasons for my conversion to Orthodox Christianity is the fact that Eastern Church has maintained a consistent and authentic dogma for the last 2008 years. The Orthodox Church teaches the same things that it did 5 years ago, 10 years, 100 years ago, 500 years ago, 1000 years and so on. Methods may have changed the Liturgy(s) may have become more complex but the basic structure has remained unchanged. Same thing, 2000 years, thats a great track record. The problem with Protestantism is that it is always changing, and it a lot of ways it is changing for the better, but in some places sadly for the worse (liberalism and other very heterodox "Christian groups"). With all the changes I have had to go through in my experience it makes me glad to know that "the truth is out there" and it is in the Orthodox Church. My first reason for conversion is consistency in unaltered doctrine.

The second reason for my conversion is genuine connection with the Apostles. Some Protestants teach (intentionally or unintentionally) that the Church was lost after the death of the Apostles. Well that's ridiculous! Christ said the gates of hell will not over come the church, and the Apostles appointed sucessors in the church after they died so its kind of foolish to say that "the church was lost." It would be more accurate to say that wicked people got into positions of power in the West and began to cause problems in the Church. The church however, was never "lost" or died off. The groups that I have been involved with can trace their lineage back to a single imperfect human founder whereas the Orthodox Church can trace its lineage back to the Apostles.

My third reason for conversion is that the Orthodox Church teaches you not just what, but how to genuinely become like Christ. How is that possible? The Apostles and their successors genuinely knew Christ. In Protestantism we were taught how to be nice people, but Orthodoxy teaches us how to become transformed people. Those are the people like St. Paul, St. Peter just to name a couple of people.

My fourth reason is the emphasis on experience that is legitimized by the Word of God and Sacred Tradition. I really don't know how to say this other than the Christian life is a life of experiencing God, not just experiencing head knowledge. Of course not all experiences are valid, thats why I had the qualifier. We need to "test the spirits" as New Testatment teaches us.
My fifth reason for conversion is the appeal it has to the whole person. When you enter the Orthodox Church you see Christ and Christianity through the Icons, you hear Christ through the Gospels, The Epistles, the Liturgy and the Preaching, you smell the incense as the Priest censes the congregation and the church, you taste the Holy Communion as you recieve it, you handle and taste the bread as you walk back to your seat, you make the sign of the Cross upon the invocation of God, the Trinity, or the Theotokos.

My sixth reason is the emphasis on mystery. The Church lets God be God and doesn't try to diagram him. That is a huge problem for the Protestant Church and to a degree for the Catholic Church.

My Seventh and final reason is its emphasis on transformation. I'm not going to have to throw out my love of philosophy, martial arts or some of my Protestant conditioning. It will need to be transformed into something well, Orthodox. I'm able to pick up my journey from where I am instead of finding a new starting point. I'm still able to honor those who guided me along the way.

I would be more than happy to answer questions or discuss matters with you. I realize the seems to be a huge jump and for many of you this will be a surprise. Fear not for we are all on the journey together in one form or another.

Reformation Day Ball Eat Your Heart Out!

2007-08-18T21:15:00.001-06:00

My wife and I went to the Name Day Dance of Assumption (Dormition) Greek Orthodox Church. Needless to say, it was fun! Where to begin.

We show up a half an hour late! We pay the admission and we go in an sit down with Ludmela, her brother Victor, and 3 other older ladies. I thought we were going to be bore setting with them most of the evening. I started up a conversation with Victor about machine work and stuff until dinner.

Dinner was served promptly at 6:45 and shortly after that the fun begins. We go out on the second dance. Now mind you I can't really describe the dances to you. Except for one thing: you held onto each other and danced in a line squibbled into a circle. Beyond that I'd need one of my Greek friends sitting here to describe it to me. The first was was slow enough to follow but quick enough to get our feet wet.

The second dance was a little more challenging. It started off as a standard Greek dance, but it got faster and eventually turned into a standard Greek dance on crack! It was a standard Greek song set to techno music. Erica couldn't follow moves and I had to stop shortly after Erica bowed out.

We kept at it though. And we had the time of our lives. My wife who is at veilroom.blogspot.com will probably go into a little more detail, or be more precise than I am.

One other thing. We had an cash bar at this function! The cultural center (fellowship hall)is designed with a bar built into it. I mean, this new to me. No, I did not get hammered. I didn't want to we were at church.

Everytime I go to there I feel more and more like we are part of the community. It is great! I'm very pleased with the way everything is going.

Well enough of this. I'm going to go play Super Mario while my wife talks to her mom.

Screwy Local Goings On

2007-08-18T14:15:00.000-06:00

This is an exerpt from qconline.com

News-byte:Striking Die Cast workers plan rally

By Amy Rausch, arausch@qconline.com

Todd Mizener John Hefner of Moline acknowledges the honk of support from a passing car Friday morning while picketing in front of Quad City Die Casting Co. on River Driver in Moline. There are about 90 union employees currently locked out of their jobs over a contract dispute. Mr. Hefner has worked for the Moline company for nearly 28-years. The lock-out started July 26th.

MOLINE - Union employees locked out of their jobs at Quad City Die Casting are still waiting to hear from the mediator after meetings Monday did not go well.
The 90 members of United Electrical Local 1174 are "still standing out on the street," said union president Rich Nordholm.

A rally is scheduled for 2:30 to 4 p.m. Monday and Mr. Nordholm said he expects representatives from other unions in the Quad Cities to attend.

At the three-hour meeting Monday, union representatives met with a mediator and company representatives, but the meeting "didn't go so well," Mr. Nordholm said.

The sticking point continues to be the use of temporary workers. Under the current contract, about 800 to 1,000 hours a year by temporary workers is allowed. The company is proposing the number of hours by temporary workers be unlimited, Mr. Nordholm said.

Representatives from Quad City Die Casting, 3800 River Drive, did not return phone calls Friday. On July 17, the parties could not come to terms during a nine-hour meeting with a federal mediator and the company locked union employees out on July 26. Temporary workers are being used.

Quad City Die Casting, a manufacturer of aluminum and magnesium components, is part of QuadCast, Inc., also a Moline company, which has nonunion casting plants in Davenport and Red Oak, Iowa. Discussions about a new agreement have been ongoing since May. Union members worked under a prior three-year agreement that expired June 30. On July 18, union members voted 47 to 18 by secret ballot to turn down the company's offer.

"We'd like to go back to work as soon as possible," Mr. Nordholm said, adding that the union members were willing to work without a contract while the mediation continues. "We'd be more than happy to get this thing hammered out and back to work."

At the negotiating session Monday, company representatives asked to meet with union representatives face-to-face rather than going through the mediator. Mr. Nordholm said the union agreed hoping the company had another contract to offer.

"All they wanted to do was scold us like a bunch of school children," he said, adding that no other offer was made.

The language in the contract the company has proposed would mean "the end of full-time work" at the company, Mr. Nordholm said.

"We have to have some kinds of limits on the temporary work force," he said.

The union has offered to cap the number of hours worked by temporary workers at 10,000 per year and then increased that to 12,000 per year in the last meeting.

The union is waiting for the mediator to contact them about another meeting date.

"We're going to lose some good people over this and already have," Mr. Nordholm said. Some union members have already found different jobs rather than wait for the contract to be worked out. "It's time to get it settled."

(end of exerpt)

I realize in any labor/managment dispute situation it is very difficult to get the truth out of anyone. In fact if I were a good reporter I probably would have gone to downtown Moline to find out what is going on. I'm not doing that. The truth is both sides are wrong in this matter.

First, what QuadCast, Inc needs to realize is they are not repeat are not going to get quality work from temp workers. The general repuation of temp workers are people who are just looking for a few dollars to pay the bills and then go get drunk. They may not even pay their bills, they might just go get drunk. I realize about two of these temp workers are looking to turn their lives around, but the rest, no, they are not. I do speak from experience. I worked with temp workers when I was at the carwash. They are not reliable, at least in my experience. The injury rate is going to go up and quality is going to go down.

Secondly, QuadCast, Inc should realize that they are alienating a very very valuable component of what goes into their product their people. Union workers, more often than not are very experienced and skilled workers. They know what they are doing and should be able to command the price per hour that they ask for. Its only right. In successfully alienating these skilled and valuable workers they will lose a good amount of there workforce and have difficult retaining anyone who stays or who is hired on. Especially after this little bit of skullduggery with unlimited temporary workers. Unlimited temporary workers! Come on, you are just asking for it! Unlimited temporary workers means we want to try to increase our bottom line by using less expensive work and diminishing quality. Brilliant.

Third thing Quadcast should see is that as their retention rate lowers, quality lowers, and injuries fall, they are going to loose the all important revenue. That is the life blood of the business, and that is important. Without blood humans die. Without money and profit, businesses die. More importantly people are the heart and soul of business. Without the spirit the body dies. Blood can be transfused, its pretty hard to summon a spirit back to the body without Divine intervention. And last time I checked, it was anywhere from impossible to not recommended. When you lose your experienced workforce, your company will suffer.

Quadcast is wrong!

Now for the other side.

Will you workers stop striking and go find work! It is far better to be proactive about finding and keeping income coming in than to wait around for the company that is trying to alienate you to let you back in the door. You have skills you are in demand! You will find work, you just have to put yourselves out their and sell yourselves. I don't care if you work in a union shop, go find something and get after it! You can learn new skills or adapt your existing ones. You guys could even start a new company and put this company out of business. Learn from your experience at Quadcast and do make a better product for a better value and put these idiots out of business! This is America for crying out loud. Compete! Nothing is more annoying that people standing around and whining when they are not doing something about it. Please exert positive energy and do something! You can do it, you just have to know how!

That was a bit of a rant. Here is my point, you don't solve problems by cursing them all day. One has to deal with and fix the problems in one form or another. Quadcast must limit their workforce to the experienced workers (even if they are Union) and the alienated union members must not wait around for this corporation to make nice with them. If they tried it they might even be able to make a better business and product than Quadcast.

Eh, I'm not a Slytherin

2007-08-17T16:54:00.000-06:00

I changed my mind about being a Slytherin. As ambitious as I am, the fact that I am a Christian stops me from doing things such as killing, stealing, or cheating. Slytherins tend to do these things in one form or another. In fact they are known for it through out the Harry Potter series. I have no idea what I was thinking when I changed the blog around heh heh.

This has nothing to do with the fact that my brother in law said Slytherins go to hell. It has more to do with the fact, well I just said all that.

In other news. My wife and I have shopping to do. We are going to go now...

On The Up and Coming Election

2007-08-09T09:08:00.000-06:00

I did a previous blog on the players in the election arena. I need to repeat somethings and change somethings and state somethings that we all need to think about.

There are many factors that will cause us to choose who we will vote for. I'm not making an endorsement (yet) but when going to the polls or thinking about a candidate we need to ask ourselves the following questions to make sure our position is clear.

1. What is the candidates position on life? Does the candidate want to overturn Roe v. Wade and make abortion illegal again? Does he have leanings that way? If he does how much guts does he seem to have in getting the debate started?

Christians especially must ask themselves this question. The historic position of the Church has been pro-life. The reason for this being is that human life has the diginity of being created in the image of God regardless of how low the birth is or how adverse the circumstances the child may be born into or what gender they are. The belief is that all human life is precious and can be redeemed regardless of how bad it might be for that person coming up.

2. What is the candidate's position on Domestic Policy? Will the candidate facilitate an environment where people have maximum freedom and maximum responsiblity for their actions? Will he/she do things that stimulate the economy and make our nation stronger on every level? How he/she they handle the tax and economic problems that our nation faces?

3. What is the candidate's position on Foreign Policy? Will the candidate's policies look to the interests of the the United States first and everyone else in the world second? I'm not saying that we should be out to conquer the world, but will we continue to be the strong nation that we have been? Will the candidate put our country in a winning position?

4. What is the candidate's position on the Constitution? Will the candidate work to bring the government and country back to a more Constitutional place?

In my view it is too early to tell where most of the candidates actually stand on the issues. The only people I will not be endorsing is Rudy Guliani and well, none of the Democrats, Green, Socialist, Communist, or other fringe parties. I'm not saying that Guliani is on the fringe. I don't agree with his position on abortion. It needs to be illegal. That issue is a definite deal breaker for me.

Beyond Rudy, I am having a tough decision on which candidate to get behind because they are all saying things that appeal to me. My question is thusly: Which one would really work to bring about a Conservative Capitalist Paradise that we so long for in this country? I don't know. I still need to do more homework.

To summarize the Christian priorities in this matter need to center around what will create an environment that will make our nation Christian, peaceful, and responsible. Now, its up to you.

Slytherin

2007-07-26T16:50:00.001-06:00

I am in fact a Slytherin. I took one of those Harry Potter Sorting Hat Quizzes again. I'm a Slytherin. At first I denied it because I hated Snape, Voldemort and Draco, and pretty much anyone else who would crawl out of that part of the dungeon.

I'm going to start acting the part of a Slytherin then. I see that look, thats not what I mean. I'm not going to use evil means to accomplish my goals. Just questionable to good means.

A true Slytherin would in fact not act the way Voldie and the others do/did. To be clever, cunning and determined would mean to do what is best for yourself at little or no cost to others. In fact in some weird way a True Slytherin might actually work to benefit others. Let me explain.

Clever: Mentally bright; having sharp or quick intelligence; able.

This would not always describe me, but it could. The mentally bright or intelligent person would realize that the more outright evil he did the more it would eventually cave in on him. He would there for seek to not hurt unneccesarily/benefit others in the process of accomplishing his goals. It would very mentally dull to hurt those with whom he was associated. Granted they may not always approve of what he does. In the long run though they will see his cleverness.

Cunning: Skill employed in a shrewd or sly manner, as in deceiving; craftiness; guile.

This trait is also not always wrong. It in fact can be a good thing if used properly. If it is used to cheat someone then, it would be wrong. However, to defeat an opponent, to overcome obstacle, no, it is not wrong.

Determined: 1.resolute; staunch: the determined defenders of the Alamo. 2.decided; settled; resolved.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this quality. The only time it could be considered wrong is if someone was actually hurt in the process. To have the tenacity to attain a goal is not wrong and to go at it whatever cost to yourself, depending upon the goal can be a great thing.

Any of these virtues however that are not controlled by an overriding desire to avoid harming others, and even ultimately benefiting others can be very dangerous. Without governing principles you wind up with people like Voldemort or the Death Eaters. Not exactly people I want to be like. No one to trust, no one to truly care and be cared for.

So at the end of the day I accept my place as a Slytherin. I'm gonig to start acting the part.

The Laws of Karma or The Law of Reaping and Sowing

2007-07-21T16:38:00.000-06:00

In my previous posts I have attempted to make the case that nearly all traditions both Christianity and outside of Christianity share some very basic fundamental truths. The point of this being that God is active in the world and can use even the truths of non-Christian religions to bring people to Christ, such as is my case. (I will re-tell that story later.)

The Law of Karma (With Explanations taken from ncf.ca)

`For every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.'

A skillful event is one that is not accompanied by craving, resistance or delusions; an unskillful event is one that is accompanied by any one of those things. (Events are not skillful in themselves, but are so called only in virtue of the mental events that occur with them.)

Therefore, the law of Karma teaches that responsibility for unskillful actions is born by the person who commits them.

http://www.ncf.ca/freenet/rootdir/menus/sigs/religion/buddhism/introduction/truths/karma2.html

The Law of Reaping and Sowing
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Galatians 6:7

Paul is using the illustration of the agrarian society he lived in. If a man put down corn as a crop, he was going to get more corn. Fields of it. If he put down beans, he was going to get more beans. If a man neglected his field he would recieve only grass and weeds. If a man were really foolish and threw thistle seeds around he was only going to get brambles and thorns.

Our lives are like fields and whatever we put into our lives we will get in return. If we sow the seeds of the kingdom within our lives we will reap heaven. If we constantly commit sin or have pet sins, we will reap hell.

What Paul is saying is that everyone is responsible for the way they live their life. Paul says in the passage "God is not mocked." Going back to the illustration Paul uses the only way to prevent the crop from coming up is to either a) re-till the field or b) Start pulling the crop up when it becomes visible. The way we do that is through repentance and faith. Even then we may not get all of the bad crop up and that's where grace comes in or God being gracious may let some of the stuff we missed take fruit.

With both of these explanations I'm going to say this. The Law of Karma and The Law of Reaping and sowing are the same thing. They are just stated in different words.

Think about it. When we sin, we effect everything around us. We effect our spouse, our children, our friends our very environment sometimes. When we live righteously we effect everything in a positive manner. Our actions produce either good reactions or bad reactions depending on whether or not they are good or bad. To say it another way, we will gain the fruit of the crop we have sown.

Moving away from the actual "Laws," there is a related issue that we haven't addressed in this discussion. That is the issue of sin. We need to have some more discussion of that before we can understand the issues in Karma vs. Reaping and Sowing.

I'm not going to mince words. The Western view of sin is highly legalistic, superficial, and directed at social control. Legalistic because Christians constantly view it in terms of the rules God has laid down. Superficial because this view does not take into account the complexities of the human psychosomatic structure. Directed at social control because well, many times the church is more concerned with controlling behavior rather than changing lives. This can range from watching movies in a theater to saying that God is angry when we break a commandment.

The essence of sin goes beyond any want of conformity unto or transgression of God's Law. We could conform to the Law of God all day long and we'd still be in violation of it. Take the Pharisees for instance, they kept the law perfectly and their tradition perfectly. Yet Jesus said they were full of death and decay. It was this attitude that caused the City of Jerusalem to be destroyed in 70 A.D. Faithfulness is not merely external it has to be internal.

This legalistic view of sin leads us to a problem with salvation. If sin is simply the infraction of the rules then salvation is simply a transfer of blame from a mass of sinful people to the Divine Person. This view does not one thing for changing the human heart and life. Theoretically someone can have the blame for their sin transferred to Christ and still not be faced with the consequences of their actions. No no, sin runs much deeper than this.

Sin as I stated in my previous article is the existential misdirection of one's powers, generally resulting in harm to the person. The Commandments were not written to "tell people what to do" it was to show us how we are to live, how to properly direct our powers as beings. Since sex is over used I'll use worship. God commanded people not to worship other gods. To worship something as a God that is not god is to ascribe to that thing something one must ascribe only to God. In the case of the Egyptians worshiping the sun was ascribing to a non-sentient power plant the worth of God. The sun isn't even alive! It's a power plant! Worshiping Zeus for instance, ascribing to a superstrong man the worth that ought to be given to God alone. It creates an improper relationship and cuts the human being off from the life giving power of the True Creator. God knows what is best for us so He gave us the commandments. Its not simply "because He said so" He has reasons and His reasoning is obviously better than ours.

Another example is honoring parents. This one is a bit more complicated. When one dishonors their parents they are returning evil for good. They are the ones responsible for giving you life and you are going to be hateful to them for that gift! This is very much akin to idolatry because again you are cutting yourself off from something that gave/gives you life and even your continued means of livelihood. There is something more though, it, along with any other attack on another human is an assault on the image of God.

I'm not going to go through all of the commandments, but I hope my point is made. With this understanding of sin, it is not merely "getting what we deserve." It is that we are forced to bear the responsiblity for our actions.

Sometimes people will think Karma in such rigid terms that it is something that is "out to get you" or "its false because if we got what we deserved we'd be in hell." The first view is just silly and I'm not going address it unless it comes up. The other view is just extreme and it is tied to which view of sin one holds. If one holds to the strictly legalistic view of sin, then yes we "deserve" hell right now and Karma obviously does not exist; God is not giving us what we deserve. If one holds to an existential view of sin, then yes Karma fits perfectly. If one is rude to someone, the it follows that the person to whom you were rude might not like you. In fact it might even earn a bad reputation. Worse still if one continues in this line of behavior they might lose their friends. Karma also works the other way though. If one plants kindness and goodness and is diligent, it eventually brings good things back in return. One bears responsibility for actions whether they are skill full or unskillful. A man reaps what he sows.

Let me put them side by side.

`For every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.'

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

I don't see the difference.

An Open Letter to My Senators and Representatives in Washington

2007-07-20T19:31:00.000-06:00

Dear Representatives and Senators,

I wish to discuss three issues with you. The current immigration debate, taxes, and the Iraq War. I will be succinct and to the point.

The Current Immigration Debate

Send them all home. Send all of the illegal aliens, visa overstays and any and all forms of illegal immigrants home. Bring up and pass a resolution to deport them tommarow. Stop interfering with the enforcement of our countries laws and stop trying to change them or make them ineffective. We all know you are doing this so that you can create a welfare state where the poor are dependent upon the government's ability to redistribute wealth through the unethical tax system. "Making" the illegals legal will set a bad precedent. It will tell the other nations that we do not enforce our own laws. Nations such as Japan, or even Mexico guard their border and no one complains, why shouldn't we?

After sending the illegals in any form home, build a fortification along our border made of brick, steel and stone. Let our border patrol, State National Guardsmen and civilian volunteers man the fortification. After that allow no one in without the proper identification. Its just like parenting, it doesn't require a lot of brains (some not a lot) just consistence and persistence. Oh and let the members of the executive branch do their job, that will help. It will even have the nice after effect of unclogging our back logged court system. Then we can begin to discuss more important issues in the legislature and court.

Taxes

Pass the Fair Tax Act. Do not try to reform the IRS, do not impose a Flat Income Tax. Pass the Fair Tax Act unaltered, uncompromised. Pass it tommarow as well. It will give such a boost to our economy that the Federal Coffers will always have more than enough. The American People will love you for it. They will have ten times more incentive to work and many will gladly do it when they get all of their hard earned money out of their paychecks.

The Iraq War

Stop bugging General Petraeus while he's trying to do his job. He's a general in the U.S. Army so I'm sure he can take it. If the Congressmen will graciously remember when they were a child, please do so now. Reflect upon the times you actually tried to do your homework when you were a kid, and your younger brother or sister would come in and pester you. You'd tell them to leave and they wouldn't leave you alone, thus impeding your progress. Eventually to get their way they'd tell mom or dad you were being mean, but if your parents had any sense they would realize you were being the good kid and your younger sibling was the one who needed to be disciplined.

See this is the exact same thing you are doing to General Petraeus. He's trying his best to do a good job over there in a Iraq but you, his "governmental" younger siblings keep bugging him to come and play. He's not going to play and you aren't going to get him in trouble. I'm sure it annoys the hell out of him to hear your screechy little kid voices all the time, while he's trying to get his work done. SO STOP! Shut up and let him do his work. He'll come over and play with you when he's done. In fact do more than just "stop" why don't actually support the effort in Iraq. It took 50 years in Germany and you guys had your way over there. What are you complaining about in Iraq. Its only been what, 8 years. If everyone will just get together and work for the greater good, I'm sure the military will get the job done a helluva lot faster.

Its all really quite simple. I can make these decisions quickly and simply because I try to live my life by something called principles. You see, when you have principles 90% of your decisions are made for you.

In conclusion, stop letting illegals into our country, pass the Fair Tax into law, and stop bugging General Petraeus. The world will be better if you do. Thanks!

The Decision is Made, the Board is Set

2007-07-19T21:35:00.000-06:00

College, I'm going back, like it or not. We both are, like it or not. To you silly Protestants who think women should not be formally educated. You are wrong. My wife and I are going to be college kids again! YAY!

I've decided that my lack of education is what is holding me personally back and will hold my wife back as she seeks to become published author.

I'm going to be taking "a little of this a little of that" to get my magical piece of paper. After that, the sky is the limit, contacts will be made and something beyond painting or delivery will be had as a job. I know marketing ones self and networking are against the rules in Christian economics, but I don't care. The people who supposedly make those rules are silly.

More updates on this issue as it develops.

Hospitality of the Third Kind...

2007-07-18T19:08:00.000-06:00

I probably shouldn't post this on the internets, but I don't care. This last weekend my wife went for a walk and as she did this little orange furry thing came up and said hi to her. I went straightaway to the park when she called me. As it turns out we ended up taking him/it in over Friday night and then took him to the Milan (My-lan) human society. As it further turns out he was adopted to someone who didn't live that far from us. Needless to say, I don' think they are getting their kitty back. They shouldn't have let him outsmart them.

The reason why we took him in was because the little bugger had a really bad cold (as you will be able to tell from the pictures. This made him/it all the more pitiful and made me want to take him in. He would have been at a tactical disadvantage if we left him out their. I also don't think my wife would have been terribly happy with me if we didn't do at least a little something about the poor guy.

My land...tyrant doesn't know about the cat nor will she ever know. Now for kittiness.

Awww poor kitty...

More poorness of kitty, all though the blurr actually makes him look better. My sister-in-law is just sneezing right now just by looking at these pictures.

Well, to end the story, we took him back found out he had a bad I mean another owner. We also found out his eyes weren't as bad as we thought they were. They just needed some ointment. After that we went to Sherrard and hung out at the yearly Fish Fry, which was just as backroadish and not fun as ever.

Harry Potter... I thought so.

2007-07-16T19:51:00.000-06:00

A quote from my wife's web page who is quoting "good ole' J.K. !" when asked if she is a Christian.

“Yes, I am, which seems to offend the religious right far worse than if I said I thought there was no God. Every time I’ve been asked if I believe in God, I’ve said yes, because I do, but no one ever really has gone any more deeply into it than that, and I have to say that does suit me, because if I talk too freely about that [her Christianity] I think the intelligent reader, whether 10 or 60,will be able to guess what’s coming in the books.”(1)

(1) Wyman, Max. "'You can lead a fool to a book but you can't make them think': Author has frank words for the religious right," The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia), October 26, 2000.

Now let me tell you what is entirely wrong with this picture. It is the Religious Right. Ordinarily I save this sort of rant that is about to happen for Liberals, but for now I'm going to direct it at "Conservatives."

First let me tell all of you who think Harry Potter is going to send people to hell.... You are all idiots! Since when did reading something other than the Bible automatically hit someone with an anathema? You "right wingers" who work yourselves into a lather over this author and these books and this Boy Who Lived are working yourselves into a lather over the wrong thing! The wrong thing. Why not redirect that energy about "spiritual forces" onto something like getting abortion outlawed, or getting our government to acknowledge the Lordship of Jesus Christ, or no, wait... its coming... actually focusing on living out authentic Christianity in our personal lives and communities (churches). But no, that's not good enough, instead of changing ourselves and our expectations of the culture beyond the boundaries of the church Right Wing Christians have to bitch and moan about how bad the world is and how evil a certain British Christian author's writings. She's professing faith! Embrace her! Examine her writings and then SHUT UP and let the rest of us enjoy it if you still don't like it.

I'm not done. Shes a member of the Church of Scotland. Last time I checked they were within the charismatic boundaries of the Church. They believe in the same thing in essence all Christian groups believe. Same Trinity, Same God, Same Christ, Same Holy Spirit, Same Bible, etc. I'm pretty sure that if the Church of Scotland thought she was out of order for writing this book she'd be censured and or excommunicated. You conservatives who are going gangbusters over her and this book need to step back and realize what is going on here. If the church she is a member of and under the authority of doesn't have a problem either, you who are outside of the Church of Scotland should not raise any sort of rumpus. You do not have the authority to do so, her authorities are not doing so and neither should you. Her means and mode of living are Christian, she is a member of a Christian denomination, she's probably been baptized, she seems to live a Christian life. Stop bothering her, stop judging her, leave her alone! Oh I'm sorry, she's also, not under your church's jurisdiction.

This woman is not your enemy...

This is your Enemy...

See, there is a notable difference. The woman sitting on the "throne" of bookness does not have leathery wings, a plate armour and a leather armor skirt, and hooves. Furthermore, Satan is not "using" this woman. American/Anglo Culture was already going to pot before she showed up and I'm pretty sure she's trying to keep it from going that way with her writings. I don't know.

Now, moving on, actual content of the books.

Book 1 Harry is a baby, his mom dies for him because of her love, Harry consequently is zapped by the Killing Curse but it bounces off of him and onto Tom Marvolo Riddle, destroying him but not killing him. The "magic" that protected Harry was love, the thing that tried to kill him, the essence of murder which is an assault on the image of God. Harry endures several years of BS at the hands of his Aunt's family, discovers who he really is and goes to school to cultivate natural born powers. Oh and he stops Tom Marvolo Riddle from getting the Sorcerer's Stone.

Book 2 Harry grows up a bit and this time goes on an adventure with a flying car, and has to deal with an annoying house elf and finds out about the Chamber of Secrets which has been infiltrated by Tom Marvolo Riddle consequently awakening the Basilisk, but Harry because of his goodness, courage and bravery stops the Dark Lord yet again. Oh and he saves his future girlfriend Ginny from certain Death.

Book 3 Harry grows up some more there some confusion about Harry's Godfather, which gets sorted out. And this time Riddle is not thwarted, in fact help gets back to him.

Book 4 Harry is a teenager, Voldemort (Riddle) comes back, Harry fights him to a draw, escapes, all hell begins to break loose in Wizarding Britain.

Book 5 Harry is an angsty teen, discovers his connection to Voldemort, demonstrates significant leadership skills and bravery, picks the wrong girl, discovers just how good he really is, and has the possibility of some normality in his life wrecked by the agents of Voldemort and nearly by Voldemort himself. Oh and the government can't handle ANYTHING!

Book 6 Too much to handle, not even going to try.

Book 7 My Prediction: "Curio Victorium" learn my bad Latin rendering of things.

Notice in each of my book summaries the fact that each book is set in a fictional universe. Although it is written with a few real places in mind, its not real. Fictional stories that take place in real places are a part of nearly every single culture. In this case, Harry Potter is not steeped in Wiccan Tradition, it is steeped in largely Western Mythology and folklore, even World Mythology and Folklore. Sad to tell you that even though we are a Christian society, that Christian society is built upon the ashes of "pagan or pre-Christian" civilization. To be completely honest there were in some cases a lot more honor and valor in some of those pre-Christian people than there are in today's modern strains of Christianity, but that's just my take. My point here. Actually read the stories, suspend your belief, oh and read the book on its own merits and put your prejudices aside. The Bible tells us we are not supposed to be prejudiced. We are always to think the best of others that we can. This includes rich authors. If after evaluating the book on its own merit and substance you don't like it, fine. But shut up about it being "demonic" its set in a fictional universe!

My final point. She's a billionaire. She could probably afford to wage a legal war on all you idiots for slander and libel, win and still have her fortunes. The Great J.K. Rowling chooses not to do such things because she has better things to do. Things like philanthropy, helping people find their lost children and combating poverty, things that the Church is supposed to be doing. In fact I would wager that she helps the Church of Scotland do just that.

Now to summarize.

Enemies

are this being

and this ex-Maia...

and this creep....

Not Enemies

The Boy on this Book

and of course...

What We (My Wife and I) Believe

2007-07-16T19:23:00.000-06:00

When people ask me what we believe we should just start quoting these:

The Creeds of the Catholic Church

The Apostle’s Creed

The Nicene Creed

The Athanasian Creed

The Definition of Chalcedon

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
he descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
AMEN.

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of the Father before all worlds,
God of God,
Light of Light,
Very God of Very God,
begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father.
And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified,
who spoke by the prophets.
And we believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.
And we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Athanasian Creed
1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;
2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance.
5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.
6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.
7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.
8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.
9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.
10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.
11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.
12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.
13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.
14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.
15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;
16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.
17. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;
18. And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;
20. So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.
21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.
22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.
23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
24. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
25. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.
26. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.
27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
28. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.
29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.
31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.
32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.
34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.
35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.
36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.
37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ;
38. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;
39. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;
40. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
41. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;
42. and shall give account of their own works.
43. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
44. This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.

The Definition of Chalcedon

Following, then, the holy fathers, we unite in teaching all men to confess the one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

This selfsame one is perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man, with a rational soul {meaning human soul} and a body. He is of the same reality as God as far as his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as far as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin only excepted.

Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in respect of his deity, and now in these "last days," for us and behalf of our salvation, this selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who is God-bearer in respect of his humanness.

We also teach that we apprehend this one and only Christ-Son, Lord, only-begotten -- in two natures; and we do this without confusing the two natures, without transmuting one nature into the other, without dividing them into two separate categories, without contrasting them according to area or function.

The distinctiveness of each nature is not nullified by the union.
Instead, the "properties" of each nature are conserved and both natures concur in one "person" and in one reality {hypostasis}.

They are not divided or cut into two persons, but are together the one and only and only-begotten Word {Logos} of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thus have the prophets of old testified; thus the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us; thus the Symbol of Fathers {the Nicene Creed} has handed down to us.

I realize that kinda makes for miles and miles of reading, but I think you get the idea. I'm not getting pidgeon holed anymore. These things alone are enough to show us what we ought to believe concerning salvation.

An Endorsement

2007-07-15T08:32:00.000-06:00

I realize that Christians aren't supposed to think positive or be inspired. Were just supposed to trudge through our existence half-emo.

Well this is wrong. I encourage any and all people to go to http://www.greatday.com/ its the home of the Daily Motivator. I've found it to be very helpful and encouraging not just to myself, but to my wife.

It really is quite interesting how things happen. We'll be talking about or dealing with a particular subject for that day, and then bam! He's talking about it on his website. Its pretty amazing. I've found it sometimes to be just what I need to round off a rough edge for the particular day, or damage control at the end of the day.

In any case, go read and be inspired.

Cultivating Salvation

2007-07-15T07:52:00.000-06:00

16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
19Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another.

-Galatians 5:16-26

Just a few words before we head off to church this morning. I have a difficult time understanding why so many Modern Evangelicals and Reformed people think that salvation is something we are merely passively given. I mean they will say on the one hand that if a person is living in gross sin they are in danger and need to repent. For the most part, though the logical conclusion of Reformed Theology is passivity. Now don't get me wrong there is a place for being passive and being active. It is the balance of the human psychosomatic structure.

I guess the problem lies in how we interpret "the just shall live by faith." Even then that is in the active voice, not the passive voice. This passage however tells us something else. We are to walk by the Spirit. Walking is active. We are to walk by the Spirit and we'll produce the good things. But what does this walking mean? It means we do the things that this passage says to do both internally and externally. If we merely do things outwardly, we are hypocrites. These things have to be part of who we are and that means with God's help, we must change. Still active my friends.

So to conclude it is safe to say with James. "You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. " James 2:24

What I'm Going to Do When the Fair Tax Is Enacted Part Six

2007-07-12T20:07:00.000-06:00

American business would return operations to their home turf.

This translates into two things. 1) Jobs are created, or recreated. 2) The American Economy takes off like an overclocked Chevy Corvette on steroids and stays going.

If jobs are created, the more wealth is created. We have the American dream back and the politicians are forced to bow to us again. We aren't coerced into being nice anymore, we can actually perform and have the incentive to do it while being nice at the same time.

If the American Economy takes off and stays going that means we increase or hegemony as a nation by adding to our military might a stronger economic might. The nations will buy from us and not sell to us.

Again, I do not see a problem.

The Journey or Now I Can Click in the Title Box and Actually Type In It

2007-07-11T21:54:00.000-06:00

"Its not the destination its the journey..." I realize thats probably going to draw fire. I am used to taking fire no matter how annoying it might be.

We are all on a journey. Together or separate, physical or spiritual, we are all on a journey. The path takes twists and turns in the road and in many cases we wind up at different destinations that we expected.

I say this for a few reasons. My wife and I have been visiting a Greek Orthodox Church. We haven't become members, we haven't been chrismated, we have just been attending services there. Regardless of where we wind up, we are still Christians. We were baptized in the Name of the Trinity, We believe in the Creeds of the Church, we believe in the Definition of Chalcedon, we believe in the Church. We are still Christians. What that is going to look like over the next year to a year and a half I honestly don't know. I don't have sufficient forsight to see that far ahead. For now we are going to continue living our lives.

The thing that I can be sure of (I speak for both of us) is this: There is a lot of things that I like in Eastern Christianity and a lot of things that I don't like in Protestantism. I'm not going to change just to make a bunch of people happy. Sorry, not going to happen.

I guess thats it for the moment, my letter to the world as it were. I think I'm going to do something else now.

Harry Potter or at least the HP Universe, my way

2007-07-08T18:51:00.001-06:00

All the Death Eaters were on the floor unconscious. Many of them with shoe shaped or fist shaped marks on their faces. The marks were anything from a bruise to an actual blackened burn. Only one remained and he was at the back of the oncoming crowd of slowly staggering people. Xindaeltal panted from the work he had been doing. He knew he was being pushed. He'd already risked revealing the secret that lie within him fighting the Death Eaters, but what he faced now was just to enormous and risky to try to combat without it. All the years of training and work would go to waste.

The grunts and the moans of those coming to him, did not frighten him. He stood with his back against the wall. He stood up straight and breathed a deep breath. His tiredness left him and his stomach began to glow. White energy raced through his body. His flesh glowed and bolts of energy arced through his body. He felt full and alive again.

He touched the closest Inferi to him. It recoiled from the burn and fell to the ground. Xin similed in that cunning fashion. He began to mow through the living dead with a flurry of punches, kicks, round house kicks, spinning kicks, and strikes that went faster than any wizard could cast non-verbally. Inside of one minute the Inferi were all motionless.

The Death Eater on the other side of the room attempt to leave out of a side door, but Xin appeared infront of him.

"Where are you going, Greyback?" Xin asked the hunched Death Eater, Lord Werewolf. He snarled and attempted to claw the Martial-Wizard who caught lethal arm and broke it in six places.

Greyback howled in pain. "You and your Muggle tricks!"

"And you still won't admit that I'm tapping into the same thing that you are, unlimited chi power," Xin then kicked Greyback upside the face with a close in cresent kick, sending him flying across the room.

"You'll, you'll pay for this!" Greyback shouted holding his very broken arm.

"I would gladly cure the wound that I inflicted on you, only you would not meet the conditions that I require of you, so I'll leave it to your Dark Lord Voldemort to set the wounds if he sees fit. While you are begging your mercy from him tell him that I will always, always set myself between him and his goals."

"I make this promise, until life itself leaves my body, I will not rest until I have obstructed every plot that he hatches. Harry Potter will always have protection. And as long as he persists, my fists will strike the face of his servants, my hands will break their limbs, my legs and feet will, kick their bodies, my moves shall dodge their spells, and my sword will continue to shed their blood. That is my oath and my word of honor. Now leave!" the sage said forcefully without shouting and Greyback stood and disappeared and Xindaeltal turned into a crane and flew into the night.

Our Fourth Visit to the Greek Orthodox Church

2007-07-08T11:27:00.000-06:00

It was again the same but different. We got their in time to experience the last bit of the Orthos service. We were however, in time for the Divine Liturgy. Which was in fact the same because the standard Liturgy is St. John Chyrstosom's Divine Liturgy. I didn't understand a thing of what what was going on in the Orthos service because it was all Greek. I mean that, literally. I'll have to ask what's going on their. All that to say is I really like attending church their.

This leads me to the question, why do people get bored in church? Some people in Baptist Churches or Evangelical churches claim that church is boring. Why is this? Evangelicals on the whole change their liturgy from week to week. Yet, its boring. The problem is not in the church itself(at least not for the sake of this argument), it is in the person or persons attending said church. It is the attitude and direction of their heart. Most many Christians are seeking to be entertained rather than transformed. That is a huge problem both for the people involved and for the church itself.

This raises several other questions in my mind as well. Why does the Protestant Church feel the need to innovate? The problem is not in the tools of the hymns of the Church and Psalms of the Bible or in the liturgy. It is the attitude of the people. The people are bored. If the people are bored, give them something to do. In other words, tell them with God's help to transform their own lives and seek to help others come to Christ. Duh. Self-transformation is a hard enough task and can take up ones own life without trying to reach out to others. In fact when someone who is not far enough along the path of self-transformation tries to teach others how to live, it can prove worse for both people involved.

To conclude the Ancient Traditions handed down to us by the Apostles and the Church Fathers has nothing wrong with it. The problem is us. We are sinful, we are fallen, we are not contented to use the weapons and tools handed down to us so we need to throw them out. We don't though. If we would just ask the Lord humility for a right attitude and then go and seek to have that attitude ourselves, we'd be just fine. But since are fallen human beings we are such ingenious fools and create our own problems for ourselves.

So I Have to Hit Control a Bunch of Times to Get This to Title

2007-07-07T17:52:00.000-06:00

Well, yes my dear readers. I wish I had readers, my readership has gone down something 8 percent since I stopped publishing on Myspace. Thats what I get for not smoking the opiate of the masses I guess.

So in Economics, I'm working as a painter again. I'm liking it very much my boss actually gives a damn about my success and is helping me learn the trade in so many ways that its not even funny. I actually learn more the last several weeks of working with him than I did that last time. I spent most of last this afternoon painting my old bedroom at my dads house. I'm actually going to continue the project (unpaid) so I can perfect my trimming skills.

In Theology, we visited with Father Jon and we are seriously considering Orthodoxy as the spiritual path we'll follow. The jury hasn't decided yet though. There's still the Presbyterian Church in Aledo (maybe) and the Lutheran Church(s) here in East Moline. We might even consider the Anglican Communion, that is, if we can figure out where it stands on stuff. I need to locate that church and have an interview with the pastor. For now, we are exploring Orthodoxy. That sounds so weird. We are exploring "Orthodoxy" Its the name of a branch of Christianity and yet it is also a truth claim.

We both like a lot of the things about the church. The rich heritage, the Liturgy, its acknowlege ment that human beings are psychosomatic organisms. Not to mention the fact that the roots that it has in History, Theology and Method. There are other things as well, but there are too many to name.

In other news, I think I'm going to start planning my months out rather than just my weeks. I'm tired of people latching on to my schedule and trying to tell me my weekends are set up. Its so annoying. Well enough about that.

In book news. Well I'm working on a side project comparing the Western Roman Empire to America. I've temporarily put my other sci-fi book on hold. Its in the research stage still. I get ideas for my sci-fi book every once and again, but not very often. Mostly vague ending stuff.

In financial news, I'm thinking about investing in China. I know its almost treasonous, but you see there are so many good companies that could just explode soon, why risk passing it up? ;-) I'll get out as soon as my stocks reach postive net worth for us. Get the cash, pay the tax man and git our jobs done.

Oh, last and not least. My wife and I are getting along great. You wouldn't know it if we weren't so how do you really know we are hmmmmm?

Last and least to some of my reader(s). I've pretty much organized my schedule so all my working hours bounce between work and martial arts class. My wife will be coming with me to class as I intend for us to be full partners in our future endeavors. After Sept. It'll be Work, school, Martial arts in some order like that. We'll be kicking -ss taking names and learning stuff.

So in conclusion, eat least steak, more vegatables and always always leave me snide remarks.

Our Second Visit to the Orthodox Church

2007-05-31T15:42:00.000-06:00

This actually happened on the 20th of this month. But I'm a little late, as I have been in many things this month, but hopefully not too many.

This time the Bishop was not in town so we were actually able to get passed all the pomp and circumstance and actually get to meet some people. We met two brothers Mike and Dino and we spoke briefly with the pastor/priest.

It was pretty much the same Liturgy as it was the last time the sermon was a bit different. The Orthodox are pretty good about not being verbose in their preaching, which is something I appreciate. After that we all part took of the blessed bread (not the Eucharist) and went to have a light lunch in the cafeteria thing they have beyond the narthex.

We enjoyed our lunch with the two brothers and we even got to meet the Mayor of East Moline. The Greeks seem to have a prominent role in the Quad City community.

After that we departed there was Church business going on after the light lunch and since we aren't members we didn't want to get in the middle of it.

As we were leaving we decided that we were going to arrange a meeting with the Father Jon so that we can discuss issues such as beliefs and theology. I'd like to get a good deal of that worked out before we make any kind of long term commitment to that church (or any church for that matter.)

Ironically, that same Sunday I recieved a message through the Stanfords that Sycamore missed us in worship and then I got a call from Eric, one of the attendees of Sycamore. He's one of the Presbyterian Exiles there.

So that is where we are as of late ecclesiastically.

World No Tobacco Day

2007-05-30T20:20:00.000-06:00

I just found out that tomorrow is World No Tobacco Day. Since I do not have the time to do it tomorrow. I'm going to have a pipe while I'm writing this. No, seriously... *scoots back rummages through his tobacco box, finds a pipe, finds matches, finds tobacco, stuffs pipe, lights up and enjoys.*

Sorry, that took me a minute. I actually cleaned my pipe and stuff while I was supposed to be doing all that. Now I'm going to be a bit more complicated and confusing. Behold the wonders!

My official position on the matter is that smoking is bad for you and its probably not a good idea to smoke at all. I've pretty well quit smoking with the exception of last Saturday which involves a story that I cannot talk about here. Rest assured Erica knows about the story and was involved. She's not going to tell you either. Oh and the other exception is right now.

I am not legalistic if other people smoke because it is a disputable matter. I think people should be able to smoke pretty well when and where they want just as long they are not smoking around babies, or small children. If private establishments want to ban smoking from their places thats fine. I think a line is crossed when the government decides "Hey lets make legislation that targets smokers." I'm sorry, thats just wrong. The Constitution does guarantee us the right to the pursuit of happiness. Oh and just so I don't make everyone angry with me, the Constitution implies and explies responsiblities for citizens as well, that freedom comes with responsiblity. If people are going to be stupid, I think they should be allowed to reap the natural consequences of their actions (in most cases). Morally, I don't think people should damage themselves, but I can't stop everyone and I should limit myself to my sphere of influence in this matter.

With that said, I'm putting thumb to nose in the general direction of the World Health Organization. I'm an American, not a citizen of Earth (Not for at least another 400 years.) I'm not going to quit smoking because you tell me to do so. I'm going to do it because my conscience tells me to be free of addiction, my aspiration to become a martial artist dictates that I do so.

Finally, in conclusion, people need to drive slower in the parking lot and something that is not Christian, hostile to America, or isn't my conscience is going to tell me what to do with tobacco.

What I'm Going To Do When the FairTax Is Enacted IV

2007-05-30T19:45:00.000-06:00

We all start saving and investing without any tax consquences.

This is pretty well obvious what this means. One can buy stock, watch it go up (if the fundamentals are right) sell it, BAM! X amount of dollars richer! Or if you have more conservative tastes, use your monthly/weekly/daily surplus to buy up mutual funds continually and eventually you become a millionare especially if the market stays good over the next 20 years (which it generally does.)

One can do both of these things without having to pay the tax man a dime for it. The reason for this being is that our taxes are collected through consumption. One actually gets to keep all of what they reap for a wise investment and not have to share it with anyone forcibly.

Do not mistake me, I'm all for funding the Kingdom and philanthropy. When I speak of not having to share it forcibly I'm talking about we won't have to give our hard earned, wisely invested money to a bunch of prats in Washington who don't care about what the people really need or want, which in either case of want or need is more liberty and freedom.

That pretty much settles this one for me. I'm going to go rant about something else.

I'm not a Calvinist, I'm a Christian

2007-05-29T15:52:00.000-06:00

About 4 or more years ago I used to judge people's worthiness to be called Christian by how well they understood the Doctrines of Grace (The Tulip of Calvinism). While I didn't necessarily pronounce damnation upon them, I came close. I always thought God loved the Presbyterians more than He loved other branches of the Church. This was a gigantic mistake on my part. This mistake was further aggrevated by the fact that I blamed everyone and everything outside of myself for my blindness earlier in the Faith. I thought everyone was to blame for the fact that I didn't know these doctrines. I pretty much hated everyone who didn't agree with me and made it a point to isolate myself from such "idiots."

This is why I'm going to shock the entire world by saying this. I'm not a Calvinist, I'm a Christian. I don't define myself by someone who was in a very real way isolated from Greater Church Tradition. I think Calvin had a lot of good things to say and was right on a lot of things including salvation being a very God-Centered issue. I don't however define myself by Calvin's nor the Presbyterian's view of things. I will not be pigeonholed to one Protestant Sect or another. To some degree and one way or another Protestantism is right on a lot of things and it is wrong on a lot of things.

Yes, I still believe in salvation by grace through faith being the gift of God, but I'm not a Calvinist. Just because Calvin repeats something the Bible says doesn't put me in league with him. I disagree with Calvin on the nature of Baptism, Communion and certain other issues which I will not state here. This divergence from Calvinism makes me "not a Calvinist."

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that "Calvin" doesn't define my Christian identity anymore; God does, Christ does, the Scriptures do. Some of you will say "good I'm glad you've got this figured out." But here is the hang up: most of my readers or would be readers' beliefs are defined by a particular denomination or even, God forbid, private interpretation of Scripture. Something other than Scripture is defining you and your beliefs; some "Tradition."

I'm a Christian; I believe in the Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian, Creeds, the Definition of Chalcedon, and the Seven Ecumenical Councils. At the Center of all of this I believe in the Bible as the Inspired and Authoritative Word of God. I really hope this is good enough for all of you, because it doesn't get any better than this.

Well, maybe it does, maybe full Enlightenment would be better. I'm happy right now with where things are. Now if we could just get into a Church that would embrace us/tolerate us, that would be jolly good.

Economics Is Not the Problem

2007-05-28T20:22:00.000-06:00

Way back in my days as a fanatical "Christian Reconstructionist" I would rant and rave about the condition of our political system and how it needs to be exclusively Christian from the top down. I would always say "Politics Fourth". I think another Reconstructionist said that, but I forget whom. It would almost seem like I was putting politics on the same level as the Gospel. Even though I would blatantly deny such things, it was painfully obvious that I was in fact putting the Gospel on equal footing as politics. Silly me.

Now do not get me wrong. I think our government should be Christian, explicitly and implicitly. We are in fact One Nation Under God. Well let me clarify that. We are in fact One Nation Under Our King Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. All nations are actually under Christ whether they want to be or not. Governments of all kinds whether monarchy or republic, dictatorship or democracy, should and must recognize the Lordship of The King of Kings Jesus Christ over their government. As a law of the universe King Jesus holds that title even if the Nations do not obey it.

The truth is the Nations will not bow the knee until the battle over human hearts is won. Godly government cannot be a top down thing, unless nominal Christians become active Christians and start electing godly leadership, and then those godly leaders act like godly leaders and govern according to the Word of God. The battle for government will not be won in the White House or the Houses of Congress; it must be won in human hearts.

When the human heart is converted to Christ, as that person begins to work out their salvation and they are instructed by a godly Christian assembly, they will begin to change their personal principles to a more Scriptural standpoint. That is, if the Local Assemblies are doing what they are supposed to be doing, teaching people to be transformed.

This is the heart of the issue concerning cultural godliness. Human hearts must be turned toward God.

This same issue holds true concerning economics. As of late I have had some people complain to me about how our economic are too capitialistic and conglomerated and several other words. Just as bad government is a symptom of a foolish and godless culture so it is with economics. When the focus is shifted from service to profit for its own sake, then, well, the essence of economics is lost.

The same thing holds true for economics as well as government. The only way government will be changed is through human hearts being changed. The only way economics will be changed is through human hearts being changed. No, I did not just say that government and economics are the same. The only thing that makes them the same is that both involve fallen, misinformed, ignorant, fallible human beings.

If the Church was doing its job in transforming people into disciples neither of these things would be a problem. The thing is something is amiss and so things are the way they are. Trying to change the economic system without first changing the people is only going to make matters worse because one is treating the symptom and not the problem. People who have a cold will eat cough drops until they can't cough thus messing with the bodies ability to fight off the disease by removing the corpses of white blood cells from the body. They think they are better, but the truth is a VIRUS is running around inside of them causing all of these problems.

I'll admit the problem of transformation is much more complicated than merely ridding the body of a virus. The solution to the problem of transformation is relatively simple. Right beliefs, and right method are the two keys one needs to accomplish effective human transformation.

I also find the process of merely cursing the bad conditions as a rather pessimistic way of approaching the problem(s) at hand. Why not use the stock market as a means to gain wealth so that our families can benefit? Why not use mutual funds to create philanthropic funds to give to the need to help them become productive members of society.

I'm not saying a reversion back to a localized economic structure isn't a good idea, it just isn't going to work nor thrive in the conditions we live in. Unless of course you live in say New Castle, VA. But wait, the job market there sucks, so I need a different example.

To conclude, the battle for economics, government and culture needs to be fought in the Churches and then in streets with Christians setting the example for non-believers in meaningful life relationships. Christians in our culture unfortunately have a bad rap because of the unfaithfulness of others. Perhaps we should focus on rebuilding the Church before we try to conquer the world. It is better to accomplish one thing thoroughly than to try to accomplish several things shoddily.

Liturgy

2007-05-27T20:55:00.000-06:00

After visiting the Lutheran and the Orthodox Church, I am going to make a very provocative and radical statement. When it comes to a worship service, the modern church has it wrong. This is probably going to confuse, anger, or befuddle some of you, but stay with me.

From the beginning of the Church (regardless of when one marks it) all of the Ecclesiastical functions were interlinked vitally with other aspects of the tradition. In the Old Testament Salvation centered around Temple Worship, sacrifice, and Synagogue (during the Scattering). The Liturgy was derived from the prescriptions of the law and it grew from that very foundational center.

In the New Testament salvation centered(s) around Word of God, the Preaching of the Word, the Sacraments, the Psalmody and Hymnity (I think I spelled that right) of the Church. All of it had in its center the Word and Sacraments. The Tradition was all together and was inseparable from another part of it. It eventually developed and grew across the Mediterranian and throughout the entire world. The Liturgy was a self-contained unity that could trace its usage back to St. John Chrystosom and even further back then that. At one time Standard Christian Liturgy was 5 hours long. It was eventually stream lined to an hour, it was however essentially the same through the ages of the Church. Even the Lutheran Church bears some similarities to the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox church.

It was only around the time of the Reformation that the Church deemed it necessary to go outside of the Church to build its liturgy. It would seem that the Liturgy handed down wasn't good enough for the Reformers or something, I'm not quite sure. Eventually we get this idea to start importing common music into the Liturgy till now we have almost no Liturgy.

It was this break with tradition that has eventually brought about "contemporary" vs "Traditional" worship. The "Contemporary" music of our time tries to do the job of the old Divine Liturgy to bring the participant closer to Christ. I would say it tries and fails because too often our culture seeks experience for its own sake rather than experience for transformation.

My point? We need to return to the Liturgy handed down to use through the Christian tradition. Now I know some will say that's a mistake and we'll drive away people from the faith. Thats not necessarily true. If the change is made slowly the people won't know the difference. And if teaching is handled properly then many of the people will agree to go along with it. One might have a few stragglers who get mad and leave. Although you might not, it depends largely on the temprament of the congregation and the way the leadership of the church handles the issue(s).

In all truth this issue is rooted the same thing I said before regarding economics. It goes back to the human heart. It also goes to which tradition truly is more effective in bringing people closer to Christ when used properly. The Divine Liturgy has survived about 2006 years longer than the 50+ years of culturally influenced music. Who knows we might even stumble back upon it at some point.

Who Are We Really?

2007-05-26T13:53:00.000-06:00

Sadly in our fallen world we are the product of 10,000 years (or more or less depending on who you ask) of worldly conditioning. This has its roots back in the Fall of Adam and Eve and has survived the Ages. It has been mitigated or stopped (Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, Jesus, various revivals) only to have the degeneration to continue through neglect of the teachings of these Great People.

So what is the point of the teachings of the Christian Heritage? Well take this phrase "through faith in Christ we become the children of Abraham." Well, this means that we identify ourselves not primarily with our earthly parents (unless they were faithful) but with God and with His people. This is only to change our frame of mind. We still have to work this out practically in our daily lives. This is where repentance (metanoia) comes in. We are to constantly turn from the World, the Flesh and the Devil and turn our minds constantly to God, Christ, the Church and the Saints. There is a process to go through before we fully actualize the benefits of this. We recieve some of the benefits at conversion, and we continue to acquire them throughout our Christian growth, and the benefits are fully actualized at death if we have been faithful. Even if there are areas that we missed we still throw ourselves upon the mercy of God to make up for our lack (which is often times more than we realize.)

If we had to go through this process on our own we would most certainly fail. We have the power of the Holy Spirit and the Example of Christ and of the Saints to help us overcome these thousands of years of conditioning. Our problem as human beings is not a legal problem with the High Court of Heaven. Our problem is one of existential alignment. The process of repentance is not merely a legal transaction, it is a process of constantly changing and conforming and being transformed into the Image of Christ Himself.

We do have some benefits that we actualize on earth if our training has been correct. We have a greater sense of sin. We have a greater awareness of the world around us and of people and their needs. Dare I say it even to the very faithful there have been some very miraculous things that happen.

Our relationship to God does not come primarily through the intellect, it comes through experience. All of the greats of Christianity have had experiences with God that are passed down to us. We then seek and experience God. Our experiences are either validated or invalidated by the Christian Tradition, not by our narrow interpretation of Scripture. The playing field is still leveled for miracles and supernatural things. Ultimately, the Practice of Christianity undoes the thousands of years of conditioning, gives us a new identity, and gives us power to live a godly life. It address every level of existance, not just a few and not some imaginary legal problem we have with God. It transforms us.

So who are we? We are the Community of the Supernatural, and the Transforming Transformed. We are Christians.

Dr. Falwell

2007-05-25T13:53:00.000-06:00

The day I heard about Jerry Falwell's death it was out of the mouth of one of the heathen that I work with. Now just because I said "heathen" doesn't mean I hate them, its just true. They don't believe in God, by their own admission they don't understand "religion" and they believe in evolution so by those definitions that person is a heathen. The only defense that I could really reply was "He's still a human being."

That was a dim and diplomatic attempt at defending such a great man. Dr. Falwell did a lot for Lynchburg, The Commonwealth of Virginia, the South, the United States for the glory of God. In his time on earth he founded a huge church, he built several educational institutions founded numerous charities. Even though certain levels of the organization might not be the best, Falwell, was the best. He did it all by the Spirit of God. He was a man of prayer and of the Word.

Dr. Falwell was also very genuine man. He spoke his mind and what he believed to be right. How many of us can say that of ourselves or of other people around us. Diplomacy is one thing, but when it comes time for a cultural scrap how many of us have the guts to stand and fight? Not many. Dr. Falwell has that to his credit as well.

The man was truly above reproach and above scandal although he suffered the effects of it thanks to the Bakers and other televangelists repudiating Christianity through their sinful and disingenuous actions.

If I were fully able to embrace the ideals of the Orthodox Church I might implore Dr. Falwell to pray for us who remain behind. (I'm sure he will.) He is a man who ran the course and who one the prize.

Dr. Falwell will be remembered for years to come. He is one of the greatest of all of America's Churchmen. We salute you Jerry, we will follow your good actions, avoid your mistakes and make the world better because of you.

Blindsided by God

2007-05-24T15:20:00.000-06:00

So I've been in a bit of a rut lately on the vocational front. We've been surviving, but not thriving. I'm currently working two jobs that really don't pay all that well and I really don't enjoy them terribly. The telemarketing job I don't mind, but the delivery job is beginning to be more of a pain than anything else. Gas prices are up, and 50% of my delivery area are broke folks who don't think they can help other broke folks.

Then I get a phone call yesterday from a man named Tom Mays. He owns his own painting business out in Geneseo (has for over 30 years) and he told me he was willing me to train me from scratch on the trade of painting.

I've dabbled in painting for the last 4 years. I haven't been very wont to purue that as a career path because of the unwillingness of contractors to train people who haven't gone through the Union. I was interviewed by what I found out later was a Union shop and they said they'd hire me on as an apprentice if I applied and went through the Union. I almost took the bait. I decided against it though because I don't agree with Unions on principle. They are largely corrupt, houses of labor whose men often times aren't worth what they demand.

But now comes my opportunity. I've mulled over it for a couple of days to the point of almost becoming "emo" as my wife calls it. I interviewed with him today. He's got lots of work lined up and he seems to be an honest fellow (30 years in one place). He even gave me gas money for my trip back.

The only downside is I'll have to be a subcontractor. He will not take on employees because it isn't profitable. Frankly, I can't blame him. He requires me to have a certificate of insurance (the same as workman's comp.)

The upside is that I'll practically have my own business, I'll be learning a valuable trade, and I'll be able to work as much as I want. Which is great because I want to get out of debt yesterday. I won't need to work my other jobs (because of the insane amount of work he seems to have lined up.) Even if we are having a slow week he owns a lot of properties in the area so he can always throw me other work. I'll also be able to pursue my overall career goal (fitness and martial arts) as well as have my wife and I be able to eat whilst we pursue that. (Erica's joining the school as soon as the car is paid off.)

So the pros seem to outweigh the cons, now I just need to wait a couple of days to make sure this is something I really want to pursue. I know the opinions of all the earth will be pouring in shortly. ;-)

Buffer's Gone, I Don't Care.

2007-05-21T07:07:00.000-06:00

The buffer is gone. I'll write more tonight as time permits. Right now I'm struggling with larengitis. It is going away, one way or an other. I'm going to drink lots of tea and suck on cough drops till it gets better.

In other news. We're successfully following our daily program! Yay!

We went to the Orthodox Church this weekend.

Can't think of much else.

Ok bye

Canned Blog

2007-05-18T06:00:00.000-06:00

Saturday, February 10, 2007

A Quick Afternoon Thought Category: Religion and Philosophy

My Sifu and I had a talk about many things the other day. Somethings that I'm not prepared to share with the entire community just yet. Something that intrigued me when we were talking, we got onto the topic of cussing, swearing and cursing. I've come to my original conclusion that all three of them are innappropriate, the only exception is if it accurately describing something. The only exception might be the word jackass if someone is being particularly stubborn or foolish.

Here is why they are bad. They take the three most valuable things in human existence and degrade them to the lowest of levels. They are God (your Deity) Your Family (both immediate and extended and human family)

Your Deity
When one says "goddamn it" you are either asking or worse commanding the Eternal Creator to pass the highest capital sentence against something or someone that is a mere annoyance. It is the ultimate hatred against whatever the object of annoyance is.

Your family
Usage of the pharse "son of a bitch." I was going to use another word, but i don't want to lose half of my readership. When one calls another that the person recieving the insult is not actually recieving it, it is going to that persons mother. It makes the person at best half human, half canine.

Your Body
The F word. When one uses that word one is degrading the highest expression of human initmacy. One is turning it into a weapon, or a mere dirty act. This can be applied to the utterance of other bodily functions.

We discussed many other things, but I'm surprised that I got all of this from a subject we spent only 3 minutes talking about. I'm going to make an effort to clean up my language. I've indulged in the habit too much and its become a stronghold. Now that I've said the word strong hold all my Calvinist friends are going to come after me and think I've gone charismatic.

In Defense of Icons

2007-05-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

This issue has come up from time to time, but I'm just going to come out and say it. I use an Icon of Christ in personal meditation. I do not bow to the Icon, I don't kiss it, I either sit or kneel in front of it. It is not a Romantisized picture or sentimental picture of Christ. It is a flat work icon that portrays Him as Pancrator (Ruler of All). Even though I couldn't afford to buy a real one the print works just fine.

Now, this brings up the question of the 1st Commandment which shall be stated here.

"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments."
Exodus 20:3-6

Now, clearly I am in violation of this Commandment I must be stoned to death, or am I?

Let me establish a few things from the Bible and then move on to logic and reason and arguments from Christian Tradition. God gave this commandment to Moses and then later on in Exodus He told Moses thusly:

"Have them make a chest of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high. Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. Then put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you."
"Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites."
Exodus 25:10-22

The point? God told Moses not to make images of anything in heaven and on earth and under the earth. Then He tells Moses to go make graven images of the Cherubim for the Ark of the Covenant, which clearly were in heaven and at times appeared on earth, and we don't know this, but there might be a couple of them under the earth.

Did God just legalize something that not a few chapters ago outlawed? No. We must ask what did God outlaw? God outlawed the false or inaccurate portrayal of Himself and His character. He outlawed the elevation of things that do not share in His glory indeed detract His glory. People back then did not have a clue as to what God looked like and He did not want them knowing at the time. He did not outlaw religious art. He was also further outlawing the pagan practise of worshiping something that was not God. This would include any where from bulls to exaggerated reproductive parts (fertility religions). It was wrong for the Israelites at the time to create an image of God of their own making. The golden calf was wrong, our God is not something as dumb or stupid as a golden calf. Neither is a calf as wise and powerful as God.

Later on, in the Incarnation the scope of this commandment would change. God would become man. He would take on human qualities and attributes while at the same time remaining Divine. Christ would come with in the field of depiction and portrayal. To portray Christ as a Jewish man curly hair, a royal robe and a beard is accurate and acceptable.

There is also an argument from the Creation itself. We are psychosomatic beings. We exist and live on at at least 5 sensory levels. When we are combating sinful thoughts (this is true for guys, especially singles) what better weapon to use than an image of Christ? Nothing can be better. It realigns the human sense of sight to something higher than oneself. Using Scripture in a nearly mantraic fashion and breathing in such a way as to center the human structure can assist significantly as well. Prayer of course is at the root of it all. If one is not at home in front of the icon the image is easily recalled, giving the eyes an invisible place to rest themselves.

Finally, the Church practised the use of Icons for nearly 1600 years until Protestants started smashing them again. Whats more all of the branches that can actually trace their succesion all the way back (Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics, and Orthodox) use Icons in worship.

To summarize, the Bible does not outlaw it, psychosomatic common sense demands, it church tradition validates it. I have no problem with it either.

What I'm Going to Do When the Fairtax is Enacted III

2007-05-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

We start recieving monthly pre-bates equal to the amount of consumption tax we'd pay on life's basic necessities.

I simultaneously love and hate this part of the Fair Tax. I love it because we in essence don't have to pay taxes on basic needs and this eliminates such stupid things like Welfare and "Nutrition Assistance." I hate it because it is a form of wealth redistribution. I love it because it takes the hassle out of getting off of your feet.

In other words, we get our money back for the basics, necessities of survival. There will be no excuse for anyone to be in "poverty." It will eliminate it. It will be entirely up to the individual to save and become rich because the biggest obstacle, the tax obstacle has been removed from the individual and the family. It is not only removed, it is doubly removed.

I will be able to get ahead on my own steam and I'll be able to knock down the barriers. I'd be able to pay off my car faster (which of course I'll have it paid by the time the FairTax is enacted. We can save up for all our big projects.

In the end I'm wrong, its not wealth redistribution. Its just right to not have to pay taxes on basics.

Telemarketing

2007-05-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

My name is Dale, I do telemarketing for a living. Oh no, I'm a horrible human being.

Not really. Telemarketing works otherwise it wouldn't be a huge industry. One is able to find prospects that one normally would not find if left to normal means. I grant sometimes calls from telemarketers are not welcome. Especially if they are credit card offers, but thats not the callers fault, the company they work for needs to research their demographics better.

As a telemarketer I'm always polite and courteous to the customer. I'm firm and I won't let a customer go until they hang up on me. Even then, at the end of it, I did my job and its time to move on.

People who recieve telemarketing calls should not be rude to telemarketers. They are not scapegoats, verbal punching bags, or dogs to be kicked. If you must get rid of them tell them simply you are not interested and hang up. That way you prevent yourself the harm of sinning against another human being and you spare them of having an unpleasant lost call.

Programming, Its Not Just For Computers

2007-05-14T06:00:00.000-06:00

One of the main reasons why Christians these days are frustrated in their spiritual growth is due to lack of planning or programming in their spiritual walk. I will spare you of the other reason for now.

Like the world, Christians will often live in a lazy, indeliberate, half-awake fashion. I know I did for the better part of my years as a Christian. The result: several failed relationships in High School, continued problems with relationships and relating to people through college, disqualification from the pastorate, and a failure to finish college "on time" on time among other things. If it wasn't for the fact that one learns greatly from their mistakes, especially when they are hard lessons that needed to be learned it might have been wasted time. It wasn't until I enrolled in martial arts that I learned the importance of dedication, persistance and planning. Further, it wasn't until I discovered 5 Pillars of Life that Programming is easier than one thinks and it removes most of the hassle from life.

Salvation is much like learning a bodily discipline. Take martial arts for instance. First you condition your body to prevent injury. Then you learn your stances until you can stay in them. Next, you learn how to move from stance to stance for mobility, then you train in punches, kicks, and blocks endlessly as a group and with a partner. After that you learn various forms which is part of drilling, then you do two man training either one step or sparring, and then you fight in the tournament or in the street. Eventually the martial arts become such a part of you that it is no longer about winning or losing its about benefiting the opponent. Benefiting him even if you have to destroy him. The programming in this is key because if it is not followed exactly and as long as the master says it is to be followed one will get little to no results and be very very frustrated.

Here is where Salvation is similar. Upon conversion one is taken into the Church and taught all of the basic tenants Christianity. One is taught who to maintain and cultivate a relationship with God through the means of grace which are collectively speaking Baptism, the Preaching of the Word and the Sacraments, and Confession (only if you are Lutheran or Catholic, in Protestantism its called accountability time which is silly because it is the same thing).

Individually speaking the reading of the Scripture, the Creeds, the Confessions of the Denomination (unless you are a member of a "Non-Denomination"). Time is also spent in prayer, which when properly practiced leads to the cultivation of virtue in the life of the Believer.

The bulk if this is just intellectual excercise. Christianity is more than that. It is a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. No, I'm not sappy Evangelical, but it is a living relationship.

Here is where the Program comes in. The Christian may use this regardless of which strain. A well thought out program will include all of the activities of the day and account for every hour of the day. Here is what I do.

I will schedule my day according to various blocks of time and use color coding for each activity during those blocks. Red=the unescapable, activities, such as work, or class. Blue = flexible time where you have a degree of control over but one still has to deal with others such as the kids or the spouse or other beings. Green=Time the individual has complete control over.

I'm not going to go into all of the details of the day, I will give an overview. I am up early for devotional and excercise activities which is green time. I have control over that time for the most part and my wife will join me during those times. Next we have breakfast and I get ready to leave (this is blue time I have a small degree of control over but not much.) After that I have a huge 8-10 hour block of red time called work (it gets longer as the week goes on. After that I have a block of red time for my class and then blue time for my wife and after that green time where I meditate on my own. After that its off to bed.

Every hour is planned and accounted for. Using this a plan like this the Christian can make significant progress in his/her growth by control how time is spent, where it is spent and doing what. It has another added effect. You know that little voice inside your head that tells you to be doing this or that when you are already occupied with something else? Well, that voice goes away when you follow a program because you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing. When I follow this, I do well, when I do not, my day sucks. Oh and that annoying voice wakes back up.

I was thinking about having an objections session, but I'm not, mostly because all objections to following a program result from laziness. I'm not going to be a partner to sin.

A few closing remarks though, one should plan their life around others and not merely themselves. The point is salvation, not "self-improvment" there are right and meet times to help others out and they should very much be planned. The Spirit will lead you and your principles will guide you in how much time to give to others as well. Eventually you'll have time you didn't know what to do with it!

More Political Ramblings II

2007-05-12T13:25:00.000-06:00

Finally, in conclusion, thusly...

The Constitutionalists

Actively pursuing or interested in candidacy for the Constitution Party (United States):
James Gilchrist of California [20]
Dale Thompson of Kentucky [21]

I like both of these guys because they are explicitly, Christian, conservative, and laisse faire on economics. They are like Christians that founded America, serious, devout, and personally responsible. They would adhere to the Constitution. I could very easily put my vote with them. One of them has my name, Dale, not Xindaeltal, the other is a Christian Rocker. Rock on for Jesus man!

The Libertarians

Libertarian Party
Official candidates who have filed with the FEC for the Libertarian Party:
Mike Jingozian of Oregon (Campaign Site)
Bob Jackson of Michigan (Campaign Site)
Steve Kubby of California (Campaign Site)
George Phillies of Massachusetts (Campaign Site)
Christine Smith of Colorado (Campaign Site)

These guys are a mixed bag. I agree on the Economic policy and most of their understanding of the Constitution. Most of the things we would part ways on would be concerning the understanding of the separation of Church and State, "victimless" crimes and abortion(they would let the states decide, some think its a womans right, others do not.). I could very easily put my vote with these guys based on their economic stance. It would be wonderful to get the Fair Tax instituted.

Thats all for now. I'm going to eat lunch with my wife. The Green Party is sillier than the Democrats, but not as silly as the National Socialist Workers Party, the Socialists, or the Communists. I am now done, have a great day.

More Political Ramblings

2007-05-10T13:58:00.000-06:00

In my nightly driver "readings" I've been listening to Ann Coulter. She is funny, sarcastic and hilarious. She is a Conservative shock jock. The result of this though has been to start making me think about political things more seriously. I realize my tirade about two weeks ago made me look like a Holy Roman Nutcase, I was however, particularly frustrated with our situation.

In a more calm, cool calculated fashion I'm going to discuss the various "Conservative" Presidential Candidates. "Conservatives" include The Constitutionalist, Libertarian, and Republican Candidtates. I'm not going to discuss the Democrats, because they say the same thing. Well, I'll probably discuss Mike Grovel, err Gravel. Mostly because I actually agree with him about the Fair Tax.

The Conservatives

The Republicans
I will usually say that the Republicans want to do the same things as Democrats only at a much slower rate. That is usually when I am in a very feisty political mood. I must say that as a whole I am disappointed with the Republican majority that we "HAD" leading Congress. Until they decided to not lead when they could lead. Here they are.

Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas (Campaign Site)
Senator Brownback is a well defined Conservative Republican. He is pro-gun, pro-marriage, pro-life, very much for reforming the UN, very much for Reforming our culture. He wants to finish the job in Iraq, reform the judiciary and support Israel. I liked what I read from the time I surfed up to the page. On the majority I agree with him, I could see myself voting for him.

He is a little vague on Tax Reform. He ought to support the FairTax. It's by far the best solution, and most Constitution. The only other thing I would like to see is be a little more Constitutional on gun control. IN OTHER words, put down harsh Strictures on gun crime, and allow everyone to own a gun.

John H. Cox of Illinois (Campaign Site)
Same as Sentator Brownback, only Catholic. He supports the Second Amendment, the Fair Tax and Fiscal Discipline. He needs to be harder on Social Insecurity, and harsher on border control.

Former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia (Campaign Site)
Same as John Cox and Senator Brownback only Baptist... I think. He's a bit vague on Tax Issues. Once again, he needs to support the FairTax. He's on the NRA board so that tells you about his stand on guns. Oh and he's from VA. I could probably support him.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York City, New York (Campaign Site)
I appreciate Rudy because of the leadership he provided when New York was attacked during 9/11. I like his tough stance on crime, and the War on Terror. I do not think I could bring myself to support this man because of his stance on abortion. He has said that he hates abortion, but some how it is a right. He's also a bit wobbly on the the Institution of Marriage. He would support domestic partnerships. He's vague on tax reform and I believe his view of it is only a symptomatic fix and not a long term solution. Lowering the rates helps, but it is not the ultimate fix.

Representative Duncan Hunter of California (Campaign Site)
I like this guy all around. He is very precise in his outline of policies. I don't think his stance on taxes is hard enough. I think he is a bit light on the Education issue as well. Go read his stuff, but I'm not giving him an out and out endorsement. He's not hard enough on things that I think is important.

Senator John McCain of Arizona (Campaign Site)
He's got a neat website. I like his all around stance on everything. He is also a bit light on the Tax Issue. He needs to get behind the FairTax. I like him, but I'm not sure if I could support him.

Representative Ron Paul of Texas (Campaign Site)
Vague on Taxes, soft on Iraq. I agree with the Property rights issue. I can't support this guy because he's a cut and run Republican.

Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts (Campaign Site)
Strong on Fiscal Discipline, Strong on the War on Terror, wants to reform the tax system. His website doesn't discuss a thing about abortion. I'm relatively neutral. I could live under this man's administration.

Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado (Campaign Site)
Pro-life, very much against PC. Supports traditional marriage. He makes an interesting argument, go read it. He is for judicial reform. Seems a bit ambivelant, about the tax issue.

Former Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin (Campaign Site) Pro-military, proposes comprehensive solution to Iraq. Not tough enough on taxes.

You know what? I lied. I'm going to talk about the Democrats.

The Liberals
The Democrats
Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska (Campaign Site)
Supports the Fair Tax. Wants to cut and run out of Iraq and do "aggressive" diplomacy after words.

I changed my mind again. I'm not discussing the other Democrats. They all believe and think the same thing. They ought to stop sexual reproduction, shed their bodies and become a collective consciousness.

I changed my mind again. I'm not going to discuss the Constitutionalists or the Liberatrians in this article. I don't feel like it. Its America, its a free country.

My Reaction to Laura Mallory stalking, I mean combing the Internet for Harry Potter Fannery and Relationship to Druggery

2007-05-08T12:03:00.000-06:00

You wanna know what I think of the Laura Mallory's fan stalking!?! Oh I'll tell you what I think of it!

Yeah man, its like Harry Potter and stuff man. Wow man, lookit all that magic man!?!!? Whoa, this is trippier than bein' on an trip man!

A Retraction (sort of)

2007-05-07T08:02:00.000-06:00

I want to apologize for any confusion about the things discussed on this blog for the last few weeks. Accordingly I also want to apologize for using any jargon that may have been misleading or misdirecting. My intent in all of these things has been to point out that God is bigger than our own narrow understandings of the universe. Also, I have been trying to point out the fact that many of the worlds religious belief systems while far from having all aspects of cosmology properly understood, they are not all that far from the truth.

For many of the worlds religions all that would need to happen for them to be Christian would be for them to have their pantheons overthrown and have Christ enthroned in those religions. This would include teaching the things taught in the Old and New Testament, the Orthodox Creeds (Apostolic, Nicene, Athanasian, Chalcedon) the Seven Ecumenical Councils and having a historical rundown of Christianity as it is today. We don't have to Westernize people in order to make them Christian. That would be stupid.

So I guess it isn't really a retraction. Its more of a clarification.

Kill Devil Hill

2007-05-03T16:32:00.000-06:00

A recent favorite song of mine is Kill Devil Hills by Bruce Dickenson. I enjoy the song from the musical perspective to the thematic perspective. It truly involves all aspects of things, past, present and future.

If you want to read the lyrics go here. http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/brucedickinson/tyrannyofsouls.html#4

The song is about human progression. Its about our ascent to the stars to join whatever beings may or may not exist beyond or blue sky. In either case it is about human persistance and desire to go above and beyond where we are now.

I don't presume to speculate about Mr. Dickinson's religious beliefs. I find the song to be very encouraging and energizing. I find myself wanting to be progress and become more than what I am when I here the song. It has that particular annoyance of being catchy and it gets stuck in my head.

All in all great song.

If I have further thoughts upon this matter I will develop them as time goes on.

Harry Potter Predictions

2007-05-03T15:53:00.000-06:00

Screwit!

Rocks fall... everyone dies!

THE END!

Sin

2007-05-02T06:41:00.000-06:00

From the Westminster Shorter Cathecism

Q. 14. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

This is a good external definition of sin, percise and neat.

But wait! There's more!

"Sin is the existential misdirection of our powers and faculties in a way that causes us harm, hence the biblical word for sin (Greek hamartia) which literally means "missing the mark." In other words, when you sin, you are harming yourself."

Dr. Symeon Rodger The Five Pillars of Life

Now for synthesis.

Sin is the existential misdirection of our powers and faculties in a way that causes us harm, hence the biblical word for sin (Greek hamartia) which literally means "missing the mark." It just so happens to line up with the external commandment resulting in either lack of obedience or the transgression.

Humans were sinning long before the commandments came along. We read that in Romans 1:18-24. The commandment was written to show us our sin. It was meant to show us we are harming ourselves! God was not angry (wrathful) because He hated the ancient world or hates us, its because He hates sin an the chaos that ensues from it.

I think the more sin is understood in existential categories rather than juridical categories, the more progress will be made in the world. The more sin is understood in juridical categories rather than existential ones the more problems we'll have.

Karma and Reaping and Sowing

2007-05-01T17:10:00.000-06:00

`For every event that occurs, there will follow another event whose existence was caused by the first, and this second event will be pleasant or unpleasant according as its cause was skillful or unskillful.'

skillful = right, good, benefical, correct,virtuous, and otherwise altruistic action.
unskillful = wrong, bad, malevolent, incorrect, lacking virtue or an otherwise selfish action.

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

Xin's First Meeting with Snape

2007-04-30T20:31:00.000-06:00

The Tao of Magic
The Great Hall was cleared out and rearranged to look like an oversized dojo. The hall ceiling had on it five magically animated animals flying around fighting on it. The dragon, the leopard, the tiger, the crane, and the snake were there fight and killing each other and fighting again. At least half the school had taken an interest in the new Eastern Arts class being offered.
Among those present were Harry, Hermione, Ron as well as his father and brothers. To their surprise Draco Malfoy and a few others from Slytherin were present.

The young man, Xindaeltal walked out in front of them and began to speak.

"Since this is an "exhibition" of sorts I'll not follow the standard protocol for classes. You are here no-doubt because you were compelled by the heads of your glorious school. I see in some of you a great interest, despite the fact that I am a muggle. He cast quick glance at Ron's father. "Some of you hate me because of the fact that I am a muggle. You don't think I belong here," he cast a glance at the Slytherins who stared at him viciously.

"I bet you Malfoy is seething right now," Ron commented.

"No kidding," Harry whispered casting a glance across the room at a sneering Draco Malfoy.
"It matters not, human we are, whether wizard, muggle or squib, and we are all connected, whether we like it or not," the young man finished sagely. "Are there any here among you have experience in the martial arts?" No one responded. "That is sad really. I suppose I'll have to do this demonstration alone for the most part." He stopped speaking, bade the students to sit on the floor.

"This form is called Bow-men," he drew back his fist into his hand just beyond his right ear. Stepping he bowed in a cat stance, and moved his hands to his center and then out to the sides, then up into the air. He then slinked into a horse riding stance.

The form was accomplished in a very quick fashion, reaching its apex when he lowered into low spinning kick almost as though he were break dancing. When he came out of the low and went into a hurricane kick the students were blown back by a high force of wind. He went on to complete the form, bowing out and finishing. Many of the students clapped and stood. The Slytherins sat, unimpressed and uninterested, except for young Draco, who tried to hide his interest.

Xindaeltal surveyed the crowd. "I'll need a volunteer for the next part of my demonstration. Ah yes, you," he said pointing at a surprised and annoyed Severus Snape. Snape sneered and entertained the muggle's desire. He offered his hand to Snape in friendship. Snape shook the young instructors hand lightly and with little enthusiasm.

"We are going to duel," Xindaeltal replied. Snape had to hold back a snicker and some of the kids from Slytherin had to squelch giggles.

"Surely, you must be joking," Snape replied gaining control of himself.

"No, I do not jest, I want you to try to kill me. What is it you call it, curse me to death if you will," Xin responded.

"He's mad!" Hermione exclaimed in a whisper.

"Relax, look at him, he knows what he's doing!" Potter commented trying to assure her.

Draco looked surprised that a muggle would have so much confidence facing a wizard. They all wondered about this muggle.

"Pick your spell, I do not care how lethal it is, just as long as you do not get in trouble for using it," Xin replied knowing of the unforgivable curses. He stared squarely at Snape seeing the doubt hidden beyond his arrogant sneer.

"Same rules as in wizard dueling. You bow," Xin walked several feet from his opponent and bowed. Snape followed suit.

"Incendio! " Snape cried as a fire of flame burst forth from his wand. Xindaeltal assumed a horse riding stance and held out his palms. Energy gathered into him from the floor and into his body. As the fire flew at him he hurricane kicked again in the air causing the fire to surround him like a funnel cloud then disappear. At this all of the students were amazed and gasped, even Snape was taken aback.

"Sectumsempra!" Snape shouted. Sparks flew down the face and midsection of Xin, as though the spell were trying to cut him. However he was mysteriously impervious to the cutting spell. Snape was getting worried.

Snape cast another spell but, Xin had disappeared, and had reappeared behind Snape and had already struck him in the kidney (carefully) and put him in a figure four arm bar causing him to drop the wand. Snape flipped over on to the ground and Xin put his foot on his neck while holding Snape's wrist.

"The proper way to yield, sir is to slap the mat twice," Xin explained calmly. With that the defeated Professor slapped the ground twice and loudly.

My Larry Joe Fan Fic (warning there is some language)

2007-04-30T20:17:00.000-06:00

It was a clear black night. Xindaeltal patrolled the grounds to make sure no one got passed the enchantments Dumbledore had put into place. It was highly unlikely anything would happen. Every precaution was being taken, or so they thought.

Suddenly, there was a loud ‘BOOM’ from the castle. Xindaeltal whipped around, looking at the sky above the cast to see a very dark omen. It was something he had never seen, but all wizards feared. It was the sign of the skull spewing a snake, the infamous Dark Mark.

“Great,” he muttered. “Bah-hi!” he shouted and at once disappeared and took flight as a great white crane. He flew to the astronomy tower to see an older man running down the stairs and a young man waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

“Draco!” the crane called, returning to his human form. The young man Draco called the older man Gibbon and pointed out that Xindaeltal was a great threat. Gibbon turned to face him smirking. Xindaeltal pulled out his broadsword and demanded, “What’s all this?” gesturing with his head toward the top of the tower where the Dark Mark was floating in the sky.

“It’s the Dark Mark, mud-blood. And you’ll do well to stay out of our way!” Draco shouted running back downstairs.

“Always knew we’d have trouble with this one,” Xindaeltal said engaging Gibbon in combat.

Gibbon shot a curse which was deflected back at him by the enchanted broadsword. The deflected curse sent Gibbon flying back down the stairs where he was then hit by a random ricocheting curse. Xin sheathed his broadsword and walked down the stairs.

“You!” a savage man in over tight black robes barked.

“You!” Xindaeltal replied looking repulsed. “You’re the werewolf named Greyback!” Xindaeltal said in great disgust. “And from the looks of it you’re… a little early this month.” The young man grinned at the grizzly man.

“What!?” the werewolf shouted realized the comparison Xin had made. “Filthy mud-blood!” Fenir lunged at Xin who delivered a well timed front groin kick to the rabid dog-man and followed it up with a flying front kick to his wolfish face.

“Bitch! You ain’t got nothing on Lon Chaney!” Xin shouted at the unconscious wolf-man.

“Crucio!” Amycus yelled pointing his wand at the sage.

“Pain is an illusion,” Xindaeltal smiled and punched the fat Death Eater square in the chest, sending him flying into a wall. He collapsed on himself, looking fatter.

Xindaeltal looked around at the chaos carefully deciding which Death-Eater to man-handle first. Suddenly his decision was made for him.

Professor Snape came running up the hallway, he started blasting at the members of the Order.
“What?” Xin muttered in brief shock. “Traitor!” Xindaeltal moved to impede Snape’s path. Snape pointed his wand at the new found opponent.

“Out of my way, Professor!” Snape snapped.

“I think not, TSAI!” Xin focused and blasted Snape in the stomach with his fist. The tall lanky professor at once became a heap, in a nearby corner. Xindaeltal grabbed his broad-sword and held it into the air. “Accio lightning!” Lightning struck the sword and it glowed red with power. The area below Xin’s dantien glowed and power arced through his body. He suddenly understood what had happened with Snape.

“The Vow you have taken will not kill you, but I shall for your disloyalty to our master Dumbledore,” he raised the sword glowing about to bring it down on Snape.

“Expelliarmus!” Greyback had woken up and had knocked the broadsword from its keeper. The power that was with in Xin did not die.

“Accio!” Xin shouted and the sword returned just in time to make Greyback jump from the swing that was taken at him.

“So the honorable mudblood can be angered?” Fenir mocked.

“This is justice, not anger,” Xin retorted calmly. “Something you wicked, prejudiced, folk will never understand.”

Greyback grabbed at Xindaeltal and he escaped the grasp of the wolfman. Xindaeltal took a backswing with the sword at Fenir. While Xin’s arm was out the werewolf dove at him. This time Xin grabbed the wolfman’s arms and placed his foot in his attacker’s abdomen, flinging the wolf man into a picture knocking it down.

“Tiger!” Xindaeltal shouted and that shout became a roar as a great tiger appeared where Xindaeltal was.

“Bugger!” Greyback barked as the majestic orange and black feline padded up to him and sniffed the odd-looking man and roared in his face. He then crouched and jumped onto the werewolf, pinning him to the floor.

“Bloodhound! Xin roared and drew a clawed paw back. Snape emerged from his heap and fired a spell at the tiger changing him back into a man. Greyback attempted to claw Xindaeltal in the arm. The latter simply leapt back and into a fighting stance. Snape ran passed him. Xin then kicked Greyback through the tower door. He attempted to follow him through the door but was impeded.

“Dammit!” He couldn’t even see what was going on upstairs. He pulled out a short staff. “They blocked the stairs! Reducto! REDUCTO!’ It was in vain.

He stopped and felt a great power at the top of the stairs. Dumbledoore had returned, surely, the battle would be turned. Then, something wrong happened.
He heard a brief exchange between the Death Eaters on the tower. Then it happened. The great power he felt suddenly vanished.

His body arced with energy. For the first time, Xindaeltal, Eastern Arts teacher was truly, deeply angry. The life of an innocent and righteous man had been taken. As the Death Eaters came down the stairs, he confronted them.

“You dark, foolish fellows, will meet your end!”

Greyback, Amycus, and Alecto all attempted to assail Xindaeltal. He punched Greyback, breaking his jaw, turning, he sidekicked the fat Amycus and spinning hook kicked Alecto in the face.

Xin then ran to professor McGonagall. “Where’s Potter?”

“I’m right here!” he replied.

“Is he…?”

“Yes,” Harry replied again angrily.
“Dammit!”

Harry got up to go when Greyback lept at him. Harry fortunately petrified him and tore off after Snape and Malfoy.

Xindaeltal helped clean up was left of the mess. He felt a very deep sense of loss. This was the second master he had lost at the hands of the Death Eaters.

Christianity as Experience

2007-04-28T13:51:00.000-06:00

After today I have come to the conclusion that Christianity is an experiential religion. Adam and Eve experienced God, Noah, Abraham, Issac, and Jacob experienced God. Moses and the people of Israel, the Judges, the Kings, the Exiles and the Prophets all experienced God. Each experience of God was built and validated by the previous experiences. With that said, we must come to no other view other than that true Christianity is a living tradition. When we become a part of that we enter into a living, breathing relationship with God. With that said, we must not attempt to pidgeonhole Christianity into a scholastic tradition. If we do that, we risk committing the sins of the past. We must be genuine in all things.

Christianity by definition short circuits the scholastic process. We give up life in order gain it in a more abundant form. What we give to God and put in His right hand He gives us back with His left hand. Reason on its own cannot stand the paradoxes of Christianity and when allowed to rule the process of learning a tradition it naturally seeks to destroy the tradition. We have modern examples of this, they are called Theological Liberals.

I could go on and on. And I will. Unitiarians although noble in their efforts to be kind to all actually wind up harming those people who follow them. The Unitiarians have a policy of "unconditional love and acceptance" for all of those who come through there doors. This is noble. In the long run it is destructive to the practicioner of that "faith" because it is not real love. Love accepts a person as they are but pleads with them to strive and to become more. The kind of love the Unitiarians are giving out are a sappy sweet love that requires nothing of them. The reason it is destructive is that this love leaves the ego intact. Jesus said "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it(Matthew 16:25)." In order for a person to even think of giving up their life they have to die to self. They must. The ego must be put down. It is voluntarily to give one's life to Christ in all areas and in all respects. We don't just do this outwardly, but we do it inwardly.

When the ego is in the process of being destroyed the new self is found. This is where God gives us back the thing we gave up. This is how we find the power to go beyond feeling and perception and move into a glorious new experience. The experience of faith. This is what Jesus was talking about when a person abides in Christ. The Holy Spirit comes to that person from the Father and the Son and the Father and the Son commune and abide with Him. This is when the new and true self is found.

Our true nature is not our twisted nature of old habits and dying actions hiding behind our mask of self-righteousness. It is there underneath our conditioning and sinfulness. Only by the grace of God is our true self awakened. And, just so you know my Presbyterian friends, we do participate in this activity. Yet again, that too is a gift of grace.

To bring things back to the point. One of the many results of this experience is that we unconditionally accept the world as it is right now... and we entrust it and ourselves into the hands of God so we can set about the work of changing it. Once we understand things are the way they are for a reason only then can we set about the process of correcting the errors.

With that mind we do accept others unconditionally as they are. We might not allow them to come to the Table of Holy Communion. But we accept them as human beings who need love and grace and we give it to them. We show by our lives and actions that Christ is truly in our midst. If not, we continue to love them anyway. We persist. We pray, we love. We let them see that our Christ is real and we invite them to come. Not yet? We still love and accept them as human beings. We might occasionally exhort them to come to repentance. Or that their behaviors are harmful and that there is a better way. We let them go in that sense until they are ready to hear the truth. We experience Christ and His Word and attempt to share that experience with others.

To conclude, Love God, Love others and Live as He tells us because it is best.

Politics Shmolitics!

2007-04-27T15:26:00.000-06:00

This is going to be brief. I'm in the middle of something I really can't explain.

The political season is upon us. The Democrats are already holding debates. Republicans have been cowed, and the people who really give a care about the people's interests are going to get pigeonholed and marginalized.

Now would be a great time for the American people get good and angry about the sitation and start calling for the resignations of all the Democrats and putting new people in office on every level. Unfortunately since most Americans are too stupid to realize that the power is in THEIR hands it probably won't happen this year. We'll end up with another Democratically ruled government for 8 years and have to put up with all manner of B.S. between now and then. The grass roots Republicans have been disheartened, and the politicos are too interested in holding on to power to really do what would be in the best interests of the people.

The thing to do? I see only one of two things. Either 1) The Americans get really angry like they did back in 2001 and take care of business and get rid of the democrats and put together a government of true conservatives (not the Republicans, probably more like Constitutionalists and Libertarians) and we actually start running the country the way it was intened with the majority of powers being in the hands of the States, Cities, and people. Or 2) We vote for the lesser of 2 evils to keep Hillary Clinton out of office.

The way I see it either the 2nd option or the 3rd implied and unwanted option happens. We get a Democratically controlled Congress and a Democratic President. If that happens I'm going to be very very very very angry. This country does not need any more liberal, government deifying, economicallyl crippling, responsibility stripping, right to bear arms taking politics.

Do you hear me!? WE DO NOT NEED LIBERALS. Go to France! Stay there! See where true liberalism gets you! Give the people what they NEED! Not what they want! People need freedom and responsibility, people need the government out of their lives, people need to see that the fruits of their labor is not going to get eaten up by government waste! What the people need is not more of you bed-wetting, panty-waisted, bleeding heart liberals spending us into oblivion. All the Liberals do is create welfare queens, promote immorality, and propagate illegitimacy! I grant that people are individually responsible for these things, but liberals DO NOTHING to help! They create the problems so they can look all compassionate. They got themselves into the mess let them get themselves out! That is the most compassionate thing to do!

*Sigh* I'm getting myself worked up right now. As you can see I'm angry. I have a reason for it. I'm ticked off at both parties for taking advantage of the power vacuum. The American people are just like sheep and little children. If the grass isn't good enough they go to the other side of the same pasture! If dad won't do something for them they go ask mom! Everyone is wrong and I am no better!

So in conclusion. Don't vote Republican, don't vote Democrat. Vote Libertarian or Constitutionalist, I'd rather have Libertarians and Constitutionalists at each others throats. At least they won't screw with the economy while they are trying to take care of the business of the people.

Clarification of Waging War (Some selections)

2007-04-26T15:29:00.000-06:00

I normally don't do this and I'm probably throwing my pearls to swine and wasting my time on this but I'll do this. I really despise debate.... I do this with great reluctance.

Paul goes on from verse 12 to state that Christians are not to be mastered by food or sex because God is the master of the human body, not we ourselves. It also states that God intends to do away with these things in the New World when it is fully realized. This verse states for us one of the understated goals of Christianity and that is liberation. Freedom from the outward compultion (or inward compulsion) of all things.
I do not believe that God is going to do away with the human body in the New Order in the sense of throwing away. He intends to do away with the way it functioned in this world, however faultly our bodies functioned.

I will still contend that God wants us to be free from all things but Himself. This means that teachers, pastors, mentors and such are just means to the end of liberation or sanctification however you want to put it.

Just for clarification though.

Liberation: the act of liberating someone or something

Sanctification: to purify or free from sin, to make productive of or conducive to spiritual blessing

Same goal. Sanctification is only a more specific version of liberation.

Waging War

2007-04-26T07:41:00.000-06:00

From the New Testament:

"All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. " 1 Corinithians 6:12

Paul goes on from verse 12 to state that Christians are not to be mastered by food or sex because God is the master of the human body, not we ourselves. It also states that God intends to do away with these things in the New World when it is fully realized. This verse states for us one of the understated goals of Christianity and that is liberation. Freedom from the outward compultion (or inward compulsion) of all things.

I will grant you that nothing that God has given us is intrinsically evil. Neither food, nor sex, nor anything else in the world that God made is intrinsically wrong. It is when we are mastered by this or that is when said thing becomes wrong. Sin is not merely legal limitations, it is any excess of, enslavement to, an object or thing or misdirection of human energy.

22For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
Romans 7:22-23

16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
17For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
Galatians 5:16-17

In both of the texts we see the internal war that goes on between our dying worldy nature and the new redeemed nature brought forth by the Holy Spirit. It is one of war with our ego, our sins, addictions, and hang ups. Eventually the goal is to be a single minded creature. The thing is the activity is a war and it should be treated as such.

From the Art of War:

"Assess the advantages in taking advice, then structure your forces accordingly, to supplement extraordinary tactics. Forces are to be structured strategically, based on what is advantageous."

In attempting to carry the war analogy to its fullest extent how is a war won? It is done by clever strategy based on facts. We know that the enemy will attack where we are weakest. We fortify those weak points so that the enemy may not successfully enter. Next, we do things that will not merely defend ourselves, but drastically defeat the enemy. That is where the weapons of our war come in. This is in the Book of Ephesians Chapter 6 and in other places through out the Bible. To carry the war princple even further the enemy must be cut off from his supplies and attacked when unexpected from a strategic place.

For Christians, we are to cut off anything that would hang us up in our freedom from sin. We are then to cultivate new ways of living that replace these old habits. We view everything in terms of what will bring us closer to our goal and what will not. We get rid of what will not bring us closer to our goal.

I'm not sure if I'm getting my point across or not. Part of sanctification (a huge part) is gathering up the scatter pieces of human intellect and uniting them into one devoted and undivided whole. To allow anything to interfere with this goal is wrong, regardless of what it may be.

I'll state it in these terms. If one is an former alcoholic, or drunkard he must swear off alcohol because that is something the flesh will use to destroy a man or woman. If one is a drug addict he must get rid of his drugs and the company in which he did drugs. If one is a glutton one must cease to eat gourmet foods until they learn to eat in order to live and not vice versa. In the absence of those activities they must be replaced with something that will lead to sanctification. These are exterme cases, but even in the "unextereme" cases. We are to be mastered by nothing but God!

(I'm probably going to have to clarify this even further.)

What I'm Going to do when the Fair Tax is Enacted II

2007-04-25T20:13:00.000-06:00

Effect number 2: We all get practical raises since payroll taxes will not be squeezed from our weekly paychecks.

I can tell you three things that I'm going to do when this happens. I'll give more, save more and spend more. In fact a lot of people will be giving, saving and spending more. Since so many people will be doing these things this will lead to a huge economic surge that will only get larger as the effects of the income tax are realized.

With the economy swelling will lead to a boom in business. Employers may not have to give raises for a while (although they'll be more inclined to once they aren't having to pay that blessed payroll tax). Furthermore, employers will be able to employ more people all because of the swell in business. Some people who have thought about going into business might actually take the plunge and do it now.

For those of us who are not quite ready to do that just yet, we'll be able to do things with that 18-25% that we actually have claim to but the government always takes it from us before we can actually use it. One of those things for me, will be to get my car paid off and actualize a few other near term dreams that I've had a tough time with since I've been in the workforce.

Not only myself but other people will be able to do other things too. Whether its buy more diapers for the baby, or start saving for that baby's college, it doesn't matter you'll have that much more of an edge and be able to accomplish what it is you want to do financially speaking. You'll only get taxed when you spend on those items. (The neccessities are taken care of but you'll either have to wait until that post or go get the book yourself and read it.)

Another Canned Blog, because I have other things to do!

2007-04-25T11:04:00.000-06:00

Canned from Myspace
Sunday, May 21, 2006

Christian Prejudice
Current mood: hungry
Category: Religion and Philosophy

I was talking to Erica the other night about philosophy and the like. We ended up talking about Christians who are highly prejudiced against Eastern philosophy for no other reason other than they think demons will attack them if they study it.

This approach is wrong. I grant you that the philosophy intrinsically will not save you, but many of the things it teaches is true. Physics will not save you, but it will certainly get you where you need to go (cars). So it is with Eastern Philosophy.

Eastern Philosophy (the Bushido and the Tao in particular) are very "Christ pointing" pieces of literature. The Bushido because it talks of being devoted to ones lord in all respects. That kind of loyalty that is talked about in the Bushido is the kind of loyalty we as Christians need to have toward family, friends, and most importantly to Christ, being the Christ is the Ultimate Overlord. In talking about being ready for death at all times is it points us to Christ as well. Christians should be ready for death at all times. Notice, I say DEATH. Not the rapture, but DEATH. Death is the gateway to eternal life. If we are not ready for death as Christians then we will not be ready to meet Christ. In other words if we are anxious about it then we're not putting our faith in its proper context.

The Tao talks about living in harmony with the world. I'm not talking about the "world system" but the cosmos. When we live in harmony with the world as it is accepting it as it is, we become more in tune with God because He ins control of it all. When we humble ourselves, both as Christ and the Tao tell us to do, then we we'll be exalted as both Christ and the Tao say we will. It is the way the world works. The world hates arrogance, but exalts the humble. Same way with God.

Personally, I don't see what the rub is. I reject the particulars of pagan gods when they are invoked, but the underlying philosophy is very handy and is the same thing in many respects that which Christ put forth in the Bible. The Tao in a way, expounds upon it in a greater fashion.
My friend said that the Tao has true premises but makes false conclusions about Christ. This is bull because the Tao doesn't even speak of Christ directly. Its talking about the world and only the world. It can make no false conclusions about Christ, since it doesn't speak of him. It's possible that there may be falsity in some premises and the conclusions, but its such a mixed bag that it will in many cases still be VALID. In some cases it could be invalid.

I personally think it is wrong to let our prejudices get in the way of truth. I grant you that we will always have prejudices in one form or another, but if something is true, we have to have the humility to admit that it is so regardless of who says it.

Thus it is my rant for the night.

Peace Inside and Outside.

P.S. Its also wrong for Christians to have fear of anything but God. Stop being so afraid of the East. Let me state it this way.

All Christians are commanded fear nothing but God.
Some Christians fear Eastern Philsophy, which is not God
Somc Christians fear something other than God.

Progressing out of the Self-Made Matrix I

2007-04-23T12:06:00.000-06:00

This is a canned blog:

Saturday, November 25, 2006
2:30 PM
In the Matrix, Thomas A. Anderson lived in a world where at its very root was fake. Not only the things in that world were fake, but so were the other people. At their root they were real people, but they were trapped in pods. The real people were the individuals living inside the pods. Few of the people find there way out of the Matrix. The reason why so few people find their way out is because they are too distracted by that world. Theoretically those people could find their way out if they took to heart the profound foolishness the world they lived in. They don't. One usually has to encounter someone who is willing to free them from that world.

While "The Matrix" isn't real, the concept of it is real. The world is full of distractions. They are two different things; they are natural drives and desires that go awry. They are also the things that we as people create that become distractions. We as a race of beings create our own Matrix of sin, distraction and self-harm.

This "Matrix" is different for everyone. It expresses itself to everyone in different ways, but at its root it is the same. It is an excess of any one or several passions. For me recently "The Matrix" has been computer games. It has been an aspect of it for a long time. Well today that is no longer. I've had several experiences that have helped me realize the utter worthlessness of computer games. The first was very simple. In comparison to pursuing spiritual things, computer games are worthless. The more recent experience which happened just a little over an hour ago was profound and hit hard in another area. Computer games really are worthless in a very financial and spiritual way.

1) One plays computer games and depending upon ones personality, they can become very consuming. They consume resources of time and attention. In the end there is nothing. Nothing physical, nothing spiritual, nothing has been produced. I would almost argue that things are destroyed. Resources are destroyed, energies are ruined and misdirected.

2) One buys the computer game, keep it for several years and its value plummets. If one is breaking the game addiction one would be better to just throw the damn things away rather than go around to the various places just to get a dollar fifty for the game.

Yes, this happened to me to day. This is why I'm renouncing computer games, swearing them off totally and completely. This frees up at least two hours of my time a night. It is another step in my own personal war on self and ego. I honestly do feel freer and I don't feel like I've lost anything. I'm glad this battle has been one. My enemies lie in the bottom of the trash under food waste and other pieces of garbage.

This Lord's Day

2007-04-22T17:53:00.001-06:00

This morning Erica and I read from 1 Kings 12. Wasn't particularly relevant to what we experienced this morning in church but it was relevant to everything as Scripture is always.

12Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, "(H)Return to me on the third day."
13The king answered the people harshly, for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him, 14and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, "(I)My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."
15So the king did not listen to the people; (J)for it was a turn of events from the LORD, (K)that He might establish His word, which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

The Kingdom Divided; Jeroboam Rules Israel
16When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; (L)To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!" So Israel departed to their tents.
17But (M)as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18Then King Rehoboam sent (N)Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
19(O)So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

We concluded from this passage several things. 1) King Rehoboam lost his kingdom because of a lack of faithfulness in the bloodlines. We know that Solomon's kingdom was going to be rent because of his own unfaithfulness. That unfaithfulness was furthered thru Rehoboam. 2) Faithfulness brings liberation. The people were in bondage to Solomon. They asked the king for a break. This is not to say anything against hard work. Forced labor through government programs can be very tiresome. If Rehoboam had been truly faithful and looked out for the people he would have lightened the load. Thats not to say that the Word of the Lord would not be established. The rending of the kingdom might not have lasted as long. As it is though Israel was divided and it eventually fell. 3) Unfaithfulness creates more unfaithfulness. Jereboam was simply looking to keep his kingdom together, he however should have known better. Later on he decides to "invent" new gods so as to stir political unity. If Solomon had been faithful, Rehoboam probably would have been faithful and Israel might have lasted longer than it did. It might have even been able to stand up to Babylon and Assyria. As it is, it didn't and God still made all things work together for good.

It ought to be a lesson to us to continue in faithfulness to the Lord and to His Word. It should be a lesson for us to strive for consistency and authenticity in our own lives. If we do not we risk having things that are most precious to us rent from us.

(I know someone is going to try to argue with me, I just know it.)

The Experience of Orthodoxy

My wife and I visited Assumption Greek Orthodox Church this morning. We had mixed feelings about the experience. I think we ended up picking the worst possible day to visit because a Bishop was visiting. A lot of the service was in Greek. A deacon actually told us before the service started that when it was just Father Jon presiding over the service it was mostly in English. It was about 50/50. We both struggled through it. I had a harder time with it because I was trying to draw off of what little Greek I understood from my Greek classes in college. I'm disappointed that I didn't pay more heed to the Greek Language when I was studying it. I'm also kinda mad at Liberty for not teaching it as a spoken language. It is a spoken language. I heard it spoken and read today in church!

We both thought the service and the place of worship were in fact, beautiful. We struggled though, it was beautiful. Here is what we saw.

Outside

This building is structured very much like the Old Testament Temple. The only difference is the cross coming out of the top. Beyond that it is a brick and mortar building.

Around back is the rest of the parking lot and a beautiful garden area leading to the back entrance.

Now for the inside of the church.

Inside

As you can see a beautiful building full icons. Our Presbyterian friends would say "Fools and blind! A den of idolatry! You're all going to hell along with millions of other so called Christians who are a part of Catholicism and other branches of Christianity that aren't our own strain!"

Sorry, had to do it. It was for their own good. No in all seriousness. I don't believe this is a violation of the 1st and 2nd Commandments because they are not honoring the paint and paper. The are honoring what is it represents. Its like having a picture of your wife, or child, or other esteemed one. I actually have more of a problem with Statuary this:

Than I do with this:

The difference being one is intended to reflect a spiritual idea in its own terms rather than a spiritual truth in decidedly human terms. Not only that Icons are cool in that they look like they are watching you.

In all seriousness though, it was great. The experience I came away with was that of feeling fully engaged on all levels. All 5 senses were engaged during the service. The incense was a wonderful addition to all the beauty of the sanctuary and of the worship.

Now for all you hardliners who are looking for the opportunity to attack our Catholic and Orthodox cousins, listen up. We are not ready to make a jump into Orthodoxy. Both of us have too many convictions that stand in the way of such a thing. We are both Calvinists, and they categorically reject Calvinism and much of Augustine's doctrine (which oddly they honor him as a Saint but they don't agree with what he taught while here on earth). We are not entirely sure how much active honor should be given to Mary, Saints or Angels, and further more there are a lot of cultural barriers. Neither of us are Greek (although I might look Italian) there is the language barrier but there are other intangible barriers as well that might take some time to work through. Although I certainly would not mind learning Greek, we aren't Greek.

I personally am not ready to throw the West away yet. As much as I rant and rave about how badly our culture sucks, I still think there is a lot of good that comes from it and can be brought for from it if we would just cultivate it in godliness and humility. Semper Reformanda is the motto of the Reformation so it stands to reason that even the worst of the Westernesse can be salvaged or re-tooled. Not only that there is a connection between West and East along that Medditerranian "lake." There are always cultural connects where one may not see them either. In any case I'm not ready to give up.

As much as I believe in the Authority of Tradition, God is bigger than all of this. He can raise up children for Abraham out of stones as St. John the Baptist put it. God can raise up children for Abraham out of the "stoney" Roman Catholic Church and so He has. He is not limited by any tomfoolery that we might get up to as humans.

Right now, we are at home relaxing and reflecting upon our experiences. We'll get to a greater update later.

The Search Is Over

2007-04-20T15:48:00.000-06:00

Well, my search for 1st shift work is nearly over. I'll be starting at a telemarketing place on Monday or Tuesday. Its looking like its going to be 9am-5pm and then 5:30pm-9:30 or later. I'm hoping for later just so I can get this car paid off.

Once both of these jobs get rolling I'll be able to pay off this blasted car very easily. It will be all uphill from here. I'm not making promises but I know once the car is paid off and we've got money in the bank our time will be significantly more free.

I'll still be at at least bi-vocational until the car is paid off. If I get a call from them I'll be going to fedex to work early early early (as my sister would say) and get 9.50 per hour plus tuition benefits. Its gonna be sweet. If that doesn't work though I'll keep slinging pies and calling people until we get to certain point with our finances. Regardless it's going to be off to the Martial Arts academy for both of us and then eventually the halls of academia for at least one of us.

Early Thoughts (Continued)

2007-04-19T05:26:00.000-06:00

From Numbers 13

Report on the Exploration

26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan."

30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

31 But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them."

The verses in bold help us get our hands around the situation in the Camp of the Hebrews. The first highlighted verse tells us that the people believed half of what God had told them. There is a problem, they didn't believe all of what He told them collectively. There is nothing wrong with taking a healthy assesment of ones enemy. It certainly helps in strategy development. God does not bless laziness nor stupidity. The report of the spies shows us that quite a stir developed in the camp as a result of the spies initial report. An enemy greater than any Canaanite was in the camp. This enemies name was doubt. The people did not fully believe the Lord after several displays of His power. They were immersed in displays of power. There very beginning as a free people was a display of power. The daily provision of the people was a display of power. His discipline of Moses unruly relatives was a display of power. God was in their very midst! Yet seeing these things they did not believe and were beginning to show their doubt.

Caleb, responds to the situation aptly. "We should... for we can..." He believed the promises of God. His heart was ready when he saw what God did in the past. One-hundred percent of the time God prevailed in the past, God would again prevail. Later on we'll find out that this was the Hebrews' problem. They did not prepare their hearts. This is the same situation here, Israel did not prepare their hearts. To say the least on this Caleb's attitude should have been the attitude of everyone else. It was not. There are several ways of looking at it.

1) Israel was used to being defeated slaves. In other words they still had not recovered from the harsh life in Egypt.
2) This led them to believe that God forsook them and did not love them.
3) These then led them to believe that God could not be trusted.
4) The lack of trust in God led them to believe they could not defeat the enemies in front of them.

It is not as though God changed in His attitude toward the people. He loved them. He loved them while they were growing into the vast nation that they had become in Egypt. He obviously did not want them to stay in captivity. He wanted them to be a happy, prosperous, and a fully self-actualized people. He even loved them now although He hated their duplicity and allowed them to pay the price for it. All of this external conditioning lead to the following.

But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." The word can't at this point short circuits everything. Oh! There are so many things that could have been said at this point. They could have even said "We haven't learned how to attack." They could have said. "Lets study the data and see what we can come up with to overcome these people." Can't is so final. "They are stronger than we are." Adds insult to the final injury. Statistically speaking, defense generally wins against offense, but the Hebrews failed to take into account the most important thing. God was on their side. He wanted them to win had He not wanted them to win He wouldn't have told them they are going up. Instead they stubbornly refused to believe.

Conclusion
Clearly, the only way we as Christians will prevail in anything is to have faith and to leave doubt behind. What does these mean? We must deliberately prepare ourselves in all places and at all times and in varying degrees what God expects of us. We do this in two ways.

1) Externally: We remove conditions that are not conducive to growth. For Israel, God told them to leave Egypt and never go back. For us it might be different, but not all that different. It might be an illicit relationship. It might be as simple as having a messy house that needs to be brought to order. The general principle is to create circumstances that are conducive to spiritual growth. There are so many ways of doing this that I can't get into it all right now.

2) Internally: We remove belief systems that are not conducive to spiritual growth. I am going to take a few specific shots here. Any idea that attributes human fault of any form to God is wrong unequivocally. Any idea that would attempt to define where Providence and freedom interelate must be thrown out. I believe in the Sovereignty of God, make no mistake. God however has told us what we are to do and how to do it and we must do it because what He says is best. Also any idea that would attempt to reduce Christian ethics to a matter of rule keeping must definitely be thrown out. The Law is a means to an end not an end in and of itself. Again, I could go on and on.

If we would just learn the principle of internal and external and how to apply that to our faith we would grow into productive Christians. We would cease to be legalists, and we would cease to be pseudo-spiritual hippies.

Gun Control, Eastern Philosophy, and Spiritual Sickness

2007-04-18T22:49:00.000-06:00

I didn't even want to talk about this until at least next Monday, but I need to weigh in and put in my two cents. Mostly because of the egregious misunderstandings that I have run into (mostly on talk radio) because of this issue.

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution so states: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
This does not talk about the military in and of itself it is talking about a people's army being needed to protect the state both from an oppressive government and foreign powers that would seek to end the freedom of a free state. The second clause is very plain that the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. In other words according to this
Constitution it is illegal for the government to take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizen. To fully actualize as a human being one must be able to defend himself from physical harm. I'm not talking about motives here. This is a simple legal right of our country to keep and bear arms.
Now with that said I'm going to take this even further. If Virginia Tech had not been a gun free zone and at least half one of the other people in that dorm had a gun the death toll on that campus would have been signficantly lower because Cho Sun Wi would have been dead after the first shot was fired. Dead, not having life, and therefore unable to kill more people. It
probably would have gone down from 32 to either a single digit number or zero.

Some of you are going to say "well he was sick and needed help." I do not disagree. While we may understand some of the "root causes" of the problem was mental illness this does not absolve him from responsiblity for the crimes he committed.
I'm going to say more about this later.

To conclude this section, I'm going to tell you my readers and the American people. Change your attitude toward guns and gun control. Affirm our right to bear arms and to defend ourselves and others from evil and twisted people who look to destroy
innocent human life.

Continuing on with the issue at hand I'm going to say a few words about Eastern Philosophy. This man was a South Korean. Wikipeda citing April 23 2004 Yonhap News article, which is no longer available says this:
According to 2006 statistics compiled by the South Korean government, about 34.3% of citizens profess to follow no particular religion. Christians account for 14% of the population and Buddhists 50.7%.

From a "good for society standpoint" Mr. Wi would not have gone wrong in being in the 50% category or the 14% category of people from Korea. More than likely, he was probably in the 34% category. Here is a rundown of how his thought processes would have been had he been a consistent practicioner of either his native religion, or a proper application of Christianity.

If he were a Buddhist... "I'm detached from my external circumstances and nothing outside of me can harm me and I am still on the inside. I have compassion for these people and desire them to achieve happiness in life." Notice this would be conditioned upon a proper understanding and practice of the religion. Detachment does not mean being unfeeling. Detachment means getting out of the way of yourself and looking out for the intrests of others.

If he were a Christian... "I love God, I love my neighbor, I am uneffected by my external circumstances because God uses all things together for good." Once again, nothing would have happened.

In either case he would have lived a happy and productive life if he had been properly practicing one religion or the other. In both cases either Buddhism or Christianity both teach the individual to have a healthy detachment from external circumstances and to cultivate inner peace (they both do they just use different words). I haven't got all of the information about his life but I'm going to say that he was too attached to this world and it just could not make him happy. He had few friends, he had a hard time fitting in whatever. In any case, had he been more detached he probably would have been a happier person over all. Its hard to say what the clinical cause of this mental illness could be. I'm going to venture a guess though is that the condition of his external circumstances got the better of him and he got himself into a
series of sinful habits that he could not break away from. The logical conclusion of leading a life of sin and he eventually destroyed others and himself. We ourselves were it not for the grace of God could be in the same position. We are only a few thoughts away from doing good or evil. Many of us walk a fine line.

Lastly, I'm going to enlarge upon spiritual sickness and discuss its cure. Spiritual sickness has its source in our fallen state. We inherit our mortality from Adam and the fall is perpetuated by people acting sinfully and not appropriating God's revealed truth. There is real way in which we inherit sin from our parents and how through external condition certain predispositions are inherited. Some of them we break free from, others are mitigated, others we continue in. The goal of any tradition is to break free of all of these things (or as many of these things as possible) before we die.

Mr. Wi, as we are beginning to find out had several things wrong with him. He could not find happiness in this world. He thought he could find happiness through debauchery and excessive drinking. He thought it could be found by stalking a couple of girls around campus. He then ultimately and foolishly thought he could get back at others for not helping him by killing
people and ultimately himself. The world will never make anyone happy. True lasting happiness is only found in following and apporpriating the teachings of Jesus. The Christian tradition teaches that dispassion and kindness are the keys to happiness. God and the other are essential to happiness. The way a person gets to the state of being able to put God and
the other first in his life is through repentance. Giving up sinful tought patterns and actions and embracing a life of faith and faithfulness to the teachings of Jesus. That is the cure for spiritual sickness.

What I'm Going to Do When the Fair Tax is Enacted Part I

2007-04-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

I'm currently reading The Fair Tax Book by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder. I suggest that everyone go out and buy it, read it and get on board with it.

In light of this delightful read I'm going to be writing a weekly column with aformentioned title and sucessive numbers. I'm going to list here for everyone to read the benefits of implementing the Fair Tax.

1) We will collect 100% of our hard earned money.

2) We all get practical raises since payroll taxes will not be squeezed from our weekly paychecks.

3) We start recieving monthly pre-bates equal to the amount of consumption tax we'd pay on life's basic necessities.

4) We all start saving and investing without any tax consquences.

5) The price of consumer goods and services would remain the essentially the same with the removal of the embedded taxes compensating for the added consumption tax.

6) American business would return operations to their home turf.

7) The richest American's bring their money back home where it helps fuel the economy.

8) Those operating the underground and shadow economies finally start paying taxes.

9) You hear the unmistakable voice of that IRS agent who audited you three years ago asking if you'd like fries with that. (I hear the unmistakable voice of Neal Boortz.)

Tonight, lets enlrage upon benefit number 1. We will collect 100% of our hard earned money. Speaking entirely for myself, when this happens I will feel even more motivated to work hard and be loyal to my employer(s). For me this will increase my overall productivity and personal growth in the jobs that I am in. Eventually I'll only have to work one job and then eventually no "job" as I'll have my own business because I'll have been saving and investing the "tax" money that I'd be receiving.

There are several angles to look at this from. Lets look at the overall benefits of this and not just what I'll be doing. In another part of The Fair Tax Book it says the American work is the most productive worker in the world. Thats saying a lot given that we actually get to keep 75-60% of our income from our paychecks. Instead of only recieiving most our checks we'd recieve all of our checks. I'll predict that when this bill is enacted we'd see a 25-40% increase in worker productivity. Why? Because one of the greatest external obstacles to American economic achievement will have been removed from path.

Here is another twist on the subject before us. What incentive is there to bust tail, and work overtime? I mean personal day to day productivity is one thing but what about when you are being require to work overtime. Keep in mind that with over time its almost like the worker moves into a higher tax bracket. The IRS puts even more obstacles in the way of the American worker when they decided to show real dedication by working voluntary overtime. With the FairTax in play negative attitudes toward overtime would be assuaged, benefiting, not only the business, but the worker as well. At least the worker will have to look forward to recieving that full time and a half. This builds further energy to stay after hours and acquire more money through work. The worker actually feels like he or she is getting paid what they are worth. Bear in mind, I'm not trying to encourage workaholism, but I am trying to encourage hard work and greatness and discourage mediocrity of any kind.

So, lets review.. Under the Fair Tax one would recieve 100% of their paycheck. This means:

Increased worker productivity

Increased employee to employer loyalty

Greater personal incentive to work harder thus instilling greater ambition and work ethic into individuals across the board.

Increased personal and ecnomic liberty.

As one can see there is no downside to this. all that would be needed to dealt with under the Fair Tax is ones own lack of economic virtue or laziness and lack of ambition.

An Update on Life

2007-04-11T21:43:00.000-06:00

Life

I need to think about how to state what is on my mind here. I'm going to start off positive though. I'm happily married to my beautiful wife Erica, I'm employed near my residence and I know exactly what I want to be when I grow up. Most of you know of my aspiration to become the headmaster of a school that blends classical education with the transforming power of martial arts. As far as those things go I'm very, very, very happy with life. A lot of things that I thought were lost have come back to me. The first of which is the inner solidity and joy that I had when I first became a Christian. Ironically, I lost it when I became a Calvinist. Now don't get me wrong, it wasn't "Calvinism" that did the damage. I think it was actually due to several things. I did not understand the relationship between God's Sovereignty and our own human will. I was trying to solve all problems through logic and the intellectual mind rather than cultivating faith and renewing the mind (nous). I also did not understand how to handle the many energies we deal with as human beings. I also did not understand how to win.

Now because I actually understand many things that I did not understand, I got my joy back, I don't worry about evidence for or against various theological positions and I focus on the things that matter in life and the things that cultivate faith.

These are the things that matter.

1) A person's relationship with God matters above all things. This starts with organizing the physical house and home, stabilizing relationships, and committing oneself entirely to a daily program (i.e. managing ones time viciously.) This relationship is further deepened by daily stillness, prayer and contemplation of the Word. I'm not merely talking about "devotions." I'm talking about bringing the mind to the point where the "voices" shut up and one is able to contemplate God in the quiet. All of this is integrated and can go on for hours if necessary and if ones program permits.

2) A person's relationship with ones self matters secondly. I know these sounds out of order, but bear with me. A nation divided against its self cannot stand. I house divided cannot stay in order. A person with a scattered and divided, and damaged mind cannot help others. In fact they must not even attempt to help others until they are at least stable and even then it’s dangerous. I’m not talking about helping in small ways like physical tasks. We’ve seen many fallen pastors in our time. The ultimate and underlying reason why they fall is because their mind was divided. One must have a stable relationship with God and be growing in that and adhering to their life plan before they can even think about helping others.

3) A person’s relationship with others matters next. I’m throwing all of our significant human relations into this category and letting them fall into the proper structure for everyone who reads this because everyone’s life and situation is different. After we have stabilized our lives within certain values we can start spreading that order to the lives of others in ways that are appropriate and significant to them. People are the greatest asset to each other and to this world. If a business begins to hurt people eventually they will lose money because the devalued something more valuable than money and that is people.

4) Personal responsibility matters almost as much as the 1st three things. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that I am responsible for where I am at right now in life. I mourned at first that I could blame no one but myself for where I am. I’m 26 delivering pizzas know my goals but I’m frustrated by not realizing them. I mourned at first and then I got angry. I wanted to blame those around me. I couldn’t however blame them. I turned the anger inward and blamed the only one to blame, myself. I used that angry to chip off every last bit of self-pity that dared to raise itself against me. I then realized that with the help of God can change all of this. He doesn’t want me to be frustrated and in the tank. He does want His people to be successes, they just have to play be the rules He designed.

5) Physical fitness matters! I am in the best shape I have been in years. I’m still a little pudgy but I’m losing that weight slowly. Proper eating matters as well. Balance is key in all of this.

6) Anything that gets in the way of spiritual (or any kind of) growth is utterly useless! With the help of the Lord Jesus Christ I’ve gotten rid of many addictions in my life. Some are still waiting to fall. I no longer smoke (only a very occasional cigar or pipe), don’t drink beer (as much). These victories are only a beginning even if all the “big problems” are gone, its like cleaning house, the human spirit has to be maintained.

7) The opinions of other people do not matter! People who are living unwisely or who do not question conventional wisdom, or who are trying to distract one from their goals, those people’s opinions are the ones that do not matter. This one has taken me years to figure out. I realized this when I was in my late cage stage and let people know that I didn’t care what they thought. I’ve had to fix that and at least give people a hearing and develop discernment.

These are the things that I have lost and now I have found. These truths are the pearls of great price that I think all people ought to grab on to and attempt to work out in their own lives.

In Other News

I am currently hunting for work. (I’m employed but looking for more) I’m going in several different directions (purposefully) until I hit something. My priority is to get my car completely paid off by the middle to late summer so I can go to welder’s school and get my Associates. My current work directions are service positions either in advertising, delivery (expedited shipping) or cable installation. I am open to other suggestions. I am not open to suggestions regarding debt and getting into it.

The Better Half
Visit my wife’s blog veilroom.blogspot.com. It’s some good stuff on there!

Local
The Alderman-in-Jail, Crime, Demotion, and Scandal Update
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 by Jim FisherLife is good in Talk Radio, and until the voters in this community make better choices, it can only get better.

Davenport’s 1st Ward Alderman checked into a penal institution at 4:18 pm this afternoon. Trouble with the spouse, as you may have heard. He got 7 days in the slammer. Wonder if his fellow city leaders will let him vote on city issues by telephone from a JAIL CELL? They probably will, since they let him participate in City Council meetings by telephone from a Minnesota Clinic where alcoholics go to get all better. Shall we get together a consortium to smuggle beer into his JAIL CELL?

National
From the Virginian Pilot
Two Marines say Target store booted them for recruitingBy JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot© April 7, 2007 Last updated: 10:00 PMCHESAPEAKE - Two Marines in their dress uniforms - the ones with white hats, khaki shirts and blue trousers with red stripe - say they were accused of recruiting at a Target department store here and told to leave.

"We weren't recruiting," according to Cpl. Carlos Rodriguez, 22, who said he returned in October from his second combat tour in Iraq. "I just popped in to say hi to a guy I went to high school with. He works there."

But an assistant manager who saw Rodriguez and the other Marine apparently thought otherwise and showed them the door, according to both servicemen.

Manager Brian Sherman, who was not in the Chesapeake South store Monday when the alleged incident happened, denied Friday that the Marines were ordered out. But he said he was told they were talking to employees.

"They were not asked to leave, in fact they walked around the store and continued to shop," Sherman said.

Target has a strict no-solicitation policy, he said.

Rodriguez said he and the other Marine were in the Target about 10 a.m. Monday, when they had some slack time from their duties. The second Marine, a private, asked not to be identified because he's new to the Corps, but he affirmed Rodriguez's account.

Rodriguez, who is getting out of the Marines in June, and the private, who just completed boot camp training at Parris Island, S.C., are both on temporary duty back in their hometown of Chesapeake.

While they are assigned to a local recruiting office, they are not recruiters and work only as assistants, Rodriguez said.

He said he was talking to his high school friend in Target "briefly and then we were walking toward the CDs when this guy comes out of nowhere. He was the shift manager, or something, and the first thing he started saying was, 'You guys are recruiters, right?' "

Sherman declined to identify the assistant manager because he had not talked to him yet. The assistant manager said he couldn't have the Marines in the store soliciting workers for the military while they were on the company's clock, Rodriguez said.

"I didn't want to make a scene," Rodriguez said. "We were representing Marines anyway just by wearing the uniform, so I kept my mouth shut."

Then, Rodriguez said, "this retired Navy SEAL came up behind us and he said, 'You forget what... country this is,' and he goes off on (the assistant manager) saying, 'You have no right to throw them out of Target just because they are talking to one of your employees.' ""He got everything out in the open that I was thinking, so I kind of left with a grin," Rodriguez said.

George Rodriguez, the corporal's father and a former Navy officer, said in an interview that he told his son, " Now you know how I felt the first time I came back from Vietnam because it was like that all over the country."

A Marine Corps official based in Norfolk, Col. Jenny Holbert, said Friday that while the uniform the Marines were wearing is typical of those worn by recruiters, Rodriquez and the private were not recruiters.

"Were they recruiting? That's inconsequential really," Holbert said.

Sherman said no one had filed a formal complaint.He said he believed the incident has been blown out of proportion.

"We have a no-solicitation policy," Sherman said. "It has been in the news before. It's the same thing we went through with the Salvation Army and we give a lot of money to them. But we don't necessarily allow them to solicit on our property."

Target banned the Salvation Army's Christmas-time kettles from all its stores in 2004.Sherman provided Target corporate statements that say since 2002, it has been "the victim of a misleading e-mail campaign, which grossly misrepresents our support of veterans and our soldiers."

"Target supports many charitable causes, including veterans' organizations," according to a statement. "For years we have donated funds and volunteer hours to local and national veteran and military organizations around the country." Reach Jack Dorsey at (757) 446-2284 or· jack.dorsey@pilotonline.com.

We are not shopping at Target anymore! We are going to finish our gift card from our friends and then we are done!

The Need To Reaffirm Christianity

2006-04-09T01:48:00.000-06:00

I was at the dojo today and I heard something that I did not expect. One of my fellow students (who is older and two ranks higher than me) said that "the West needs to strengthen its Christian base or get taken over by Islam." I was astounded to hear such a loud affirmation of Christianity in the dojo because it is supposed to be a place of "neutrality" (which broadly means no discussion of religion or politics because it derails the training processes since people are often so divers in their views.)

To a large extent I would agree with Herr (Mr, Senor, Signor) Williams' assessment. Without knowing his background I would even say its a GOOD assessment of our situation.

Right now the West does hang in the balance. In terms of its overall philosophy I would say we are humanistic at best as a Hemispherical culture. (I'm dividing the hemisphere from Alaska as far as Eastern Europe.) Consequently, that means there is a high degree of pluralistic tolerance that plagues and in a weird way "blesses" our culture all at the same time.

The problem is America has lost sight of who it is since its inception. We are a culture of Rebellion and it has propagated itself as such since then. I am not someone who is against the Revolution, but you have to admit that the "Revolution" mindset as it relates to individuals has gone from "look we are leaving because the King is breaking the law and we aren't going to put up with it" to "look, I'm an individual and as such I'm going to do whatever I damn well please."

America as a nation was born Christian. Its roots are Christian because it came from a conglomeration of Christian nations. It is like Gondor in a lot of respects. It was a nation of very high birth but now is waning in its identity.

My point? My point is the Church in America and in the West needs to do some introspection, take stock of its situation and get back to its Traditional Roots and get away from Humanism. If the Church can do this and "reunite" as it were under Christ then we can make a stand against the onslaught of our enemies in the East. We might even stop them possibly conquer them.

As long as we try to take an Egalitarian, Humanistic and "Neutral" stand to things we aren't going to get anywhere, it is jus that simple.

Learning about Self-Transformation (Repost from Myspace)

2006-04-07T01:50:00.000-06:00

Self-transformation runs deeper than merely changing ones actions. Its changing ones entire being from one thing to another, this is something very profound that I have discovered recently.

It is something that few people truly understand or grasp, the reason for that is most people have forsaken the Wisdom borne out of the East. I don't mean the Middle East either unless you are talking about Ancient Israel.

While it is something the "self" does, it is still a gift granted by the Holy Spirit and He grants it in the time that He sees fit to people.

My current study of Eastern Orthodoxy has impacted me in profound ways thus far. I'm not convinced of the validity of its doctrine of election, nor of its hermenutic position, nor of its position on the Virgin Mary. This is due to the loudness of certain passages in the Bible. The overall attitude of that branch of Christianity is astounding. I think it would do West some good to at least take a look at its Eastern cousin. Yes be intellectual in the study of it, no problem there and even critical.

Our God is far to Powerful too forsake the branches of His Church that the Protestants so easily condemn. I am still a Protestant by conviction and will always be however I embrace the East (on some points) far more readily than I do the West or the ideas of our brothers in Rome.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving Protestantism. I still hold dearly to Semper Reformanda. I will not make the foolish mistake of breaking out of disagreement just because Luther did that originally. It is a trend that has gone on for far too long and we in the West need to knock it off.

We've been separating for far to long, the Church does need to get back together. We are One Church despite our man-made separations.

Those are my only thoughts for now.

Peace Inside and Outside

P.S. This is a back issue. If you are going to comment, just e-mail me directly. I'm not going to go digging through my archives to find comments to reply.

The Unity of the Church

2006-04-03T01:41:00.000-06:00

I have been a Christian since I was baptized, in other words 25 years have I lived in Christ's Kingdom. It was in the days of my youth though that I truly came alive in my faith and I am very thankful for the means that God used to bring these things to light. He used a friend I met in public school and a Church that sadly has departed from its litergical roots in the Nordic Lands. I speak not of that now but of another matter, the Unity of the Church.

In the last 500 years the Church has been fractured into three primary factions. They are the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and the Protestant Church. These churches geographical boundaries can be drawn up vaguely on a map, but I may do that later, not now. The Churches split off for various reasons and the splits were often, not pretty.

It is only recently that I have truly come to grips with the breadth and even the depth of my Christian Heritage. It is ENORMOUS! By baptism, I am a Lutheran, by choice I am a Presbyterian, even though I am currently a free-man in a Reformed Baptist church. The three branchings that I have just mentioned have their origins in the Protestant Church. The Protestant Church has its origin in the Catholic Church and the Catholic Church has its origin in the Apostolic Church (I'm talking from 30 AD to roughly 1000 AD when the institution started to become corrupt.) The Apostolic Church has its origins in Old Judaism, so to say the least my "bloodline" as it were goes all the way back nearly 5000 years.

I have done a cursory study of the Confessions of the Church, its not particularly deep, but it will do for now. In looking back on things though, I wonder why the Church cannot "fight" as it were under one flag, that is the flag of Christ Jesus.

I'm not advocating that we drop our distinctives to achieve some na da lay lah unity that stands for nothing. What I am advocating though is open dialog between the groups and then an agreement to work together to evangelize the world for Christ.

While the differences run deep, the similarities are still quite striking. The last time I heard all three of the Churches held to the same early Church Creeds. Why can't that be our starting point? I suppose the first thing is to stop saying that the other is going to hell even though we do believe in the same historical and Biblical Christ in the New Testament. That would be a wonderful start! After that we can talk about the important, but secondary issues that enshroud the Church.

This is unusual langauge for me, I'm normally not a peacekeeper when it comes to doctrine, but a war maker. I am generally a vehement defender when it comes to certain doctrines. I suppose thats because I treasure them greatly. I suppose though that is just a personality/sin issue that needs to be dealt with. I know though that in the midst of unity we can have passionate discussion on these issues, still using sarcasm and humor in these discussions. Part of that goes back detaching ones emotions from the issues.

I would definitely say now that how ginormous (ji-norm-us, slang/ both giant and enormous) the church has become upon the world is proof that postmillenialism is true. I won't go there though.

If the church were unified think of what could be accomplished, we'd have sway over the Far and Middle East in time sooner than we would if we didn't work together.

Those are my thoughts. Hit me up if you have any differings.

P.S. I am allowing comments on this one.

The Fruits of Emotional Detachment

2006-03-24T04:18:00.000-06:00

In my personal blog I talked about the things that are getting to me lately. None of that here though.

Romans 8:28 says: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

My master, Sifu Morrow taught us in class one day the principle of Ran'un. It was practiced by the Samurai of Japan when they were still dominant on that Isle. It was not external surrender. If it were, they never would have been the greatest of the ancient warriors. Surrender in this sense is the ability by one to accept the circumstances one is put into in order to function properly and well in that situation. If one is facing a battle, whether physical or spiritual (used in the broad sense, not necessarily confronting demons) one must accept that the conflict is going on before entering into it. If they don't, they either fall prey to fear and they are guaranteed to be defeated, or they act so emotionally that they don't fight well and as a result lose in the process.

Further, the Samurai were by no means Christian. They were religious, yes, but not Christian, yet they understood the concept of surrendering to ones circumstances. They succeeded in doing what was before them.

When I heard this concept put forth by my master a light went on in my head. God is Sovereign over all. Since He is sovereign I must surrender to the circumstances of my life or else on one level I am pitting myself against Him.

I might intellectually know the sovereignty of God, but until I fully surrender to that sovereignty my intellectual knowledge is useless.

If pagans can grasp this concept of surrender why can't most American Christians? I contend that they have not been exposed to the fires of persecution. I have not so I will probably never fully grasp the concept. Christians are supposed to be related to God through Christ in a filial relationship, so we should be able to accept most of the stuff that happens in our lives. Why do we not?

It is a failure to surrender. Surrender to God and you will be victorious over all, or at least be on that road to it. Fail to surrender and you will be beaten, badly.

Other News: Of Suicide Bombers and Other Things

2006-03-12T23:05:00.000-06:00

Attacks Kill 41 in Baghdad Shiite Slum (Source Yahoo News)

This one is going to be short. Will our enemies stop being such wimps? Call out our Armies and fight like men. For 1000's of years the Warriors of the Nations of the World took pride in confronting their enemies for better or for worse on their own part. Even though the Continental Army engaged in guerilla tactics they still fought in a way that the British knew it was their enemies. Just because you are sneaky, it doesn't mean that you are a coward. Suicide attacks show that you are afraid to die in combat against our troops. So basically, stop being cowards and fight the U.S. Army directly and stop hurting innocents along with Soldiers. One has no honor if they cannot face their enemy openly. All of history indicts you for this.

About this Site

2006-03-12T17:24:00.000-06:00

Melchin Commentaries is not a religious organization. I am one man. One is Melchin Commentaries. I being the Blog I will now deliniate for you what I believe.

Fundamentals:I believe in the Triune God who has manifested Himself as the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three are one essence but three different persons. This doctrine is difficult enough to deliniate so I will leave the explaination as is.

I believe in the Deity of Christ. He is very God of very God. He is the Image of the Invisible God in Human Form

I believe in the Atoning Death of Christ. He died for the sins of humanity made effective by regeneration and faith in Christ, both of which are gifts of God.

I believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ. He was borne of the Blessed Virgin Mary, concieved by the Holy Spirit and as such has no human father. This was not done through sexual relations with God the Father, but rather the Holy Spirit enabled her to concieve.

I believe also that one day Christ will return to the Earth in Final Judgment. That day the dead will rise, believers to eternal bliss in heaven, non-believers to eternal punishment. In that day all wrongs will be made right for every person under the sun.

Interpretive Tradition:

I hold the Reformed Tradition as Described in the Westminster Confession, however I will describe in particular what I believe, because I'm not entirely sure of everything in the Confession.

I hold to a Protestant, Presbyterian view of Paedo-baptism. That means that a child, yea, a mere infant can become a member of the covenant making them in name, Christian. From that time on it is the responsibility of the parent to make sure they are raised in faith providing them a godly, nuturing environment in which they may make good on the covenant they were born into that the child may manifest faith in Christ. The baptism itself does not save, the child must manifest faith in Christ. If a child falls away, it is simply indicative they did not believe in the first place.

I am a soteriological Calvinist. In other words I believe that God, before the foundation of the world chose a people for Himself by His own reasoning without any reference to mans will or desire. That act is effected through Christ's death on the cross and applied by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. I do not believe that man has the ultimate say in salvation for if man did have the ultimate say he would go nowhere near the things of God. Nay it is of grace that a man (or woman) is saved through faith. God works in the heart of the person to bring about faith and that person comes to Christ as a result of the work of God. God does use means to accomplish this, but it is not man but God that does the work.

I am an eschatological optimist. In other words I am a postmillenialist. I believe that since His ascension Christ has been conquering the world through His saints using the Gospel. We are currently in the millenium and Christ will return at the end of it, whenever it ends. One-thousand years isn't necessarily a literal reckoning of time, but it is the perfect number to use when describing how long a monarch will rule. The world will eventually be won over the long term, not the short.

I am a preterist I believe that most of the Book of Revelation and the warnings of Matthew 24 as well as the other gospels that talk about similar events were talking about what would happen to Jerusalem in 70 AD. The thing we know from that is that it did happen as Christ predicted it, not one stone was left upon another.

I am also a theonomist which means that I believe the Law of God should be the standard by which governments make Law, not merely the mind of man. This happens en tandem with the spread of the Gospel and as a result of the spread of the Gospel. Top down reform will simply not work in this present world.

Challenge my beliefs, question them, say what you will about them, but do not slander me for them, nor call me heretic. This beliefs are not outside of accepted Church doctrine in the last 2000 years.

Further, I believe in the inspiration and authority of Scripture. I save the best for last because this is the most important. Once we understand the Word of God we must implement it in our lives as best as we know how and how the Holy Spirit shows us how we can implement it.

I also hold that Eastern Philosophy and thought hold a valid place in the mind of the Christian. Thus far I have found very helpful things in the Tao Te Ching, and the Bushido code. You close minded Christians should read them, both.

Thats enough about what I believe. What do you believe? Oh and this board will be monitored. ;-)

The Death of Slobadan Milosevic

2006-03-12T16:35:00.000-06:00

As many of you may know ex-Serbian Ruler Slobadon Milosevic died yesterday in the UN Jail near the Hague in Netherlands. He was being tried for his alleged crimes during the Balkan Wars.

A little rundown on Milosevic. He could be likened to a failed Hitler of our time. He attempted to turn his country into an all-Serbian country much like Hitler tried to do to Germany. Instead of making great gains as the former Scorge of Europe he continually screwed things up and almost literally turned every obstacle into an opportunity. This is one case where the concept of the "League of Nations" actually worked. They stopped a tyrant from committing more of the same evils that he and Hitler committed in their respective times.

As a result of this death it appears that Justice will not be had by the peoples the former Yugoslavia at least not in this present world. Although, the UN Tribunal may be able to find the other villians involved in his regime, full justice will not be realized.

I wonder though what they would have done to him had he been found guilty? Would they have had him hanged? Would they have left him in prison to rot for the rest of his life? We don't know.

Many of the people of the Balkans are of a religious persuasion, I understand that there is a mix of Muslim and Christian believers in that land. I would like to offer this as a comfort to them and as a warning to the world. Milosevic will get what he deserves. God will judge him according to his actions and he will recieve a just punishment at the end of time. For some, that doesn't do a whole lot for them. I like you also grieve the fact that justice will not be realized in this world. It will eventually be realized in the day of judgement.

It will be a dreadful day when that happens and I do not invoke it lightly. All wrongs will be made right. Even for the worst person who has never borne the name of Christ all of the things that were done wrong to them will be made right. Perfect justice.

If one looks at things in light of history one could say that Milosevic did recieve judgment. Consider if you will Casear Nero. He was the worst and most wicked Emperor in Roman History. After many of his actrocities he fled Rome after the Army rebelled against him during his flight he committed suicide. (Source: http://www.bible-history.com/nero/NEROOverview.htm)

For many during that time the death of Nero was a judgment rendered by Christ Himself. The effects of Nero's sins piling up to high heaven brought upon himself the Wrath of God. Call it Karma, call it the Law of Reaping and Sowing but regardless of how you look at it Nero got what was coming to him in the present world.

Thinking about this historical figure, consider Milosevic. While he may not have been as evil as Nero he did many of the same evils to his people and the other ethnic groups that Nero did. Regardless of what the coroners find, this event is simply an example of an evil man getting what is coming to him in this world. I grant that not everything is the same between the two of them, but the are similarities. Using the power of the government for personal gain, a homicidal, genocidal agenda against those who are different from the norm of that particular area. One would think that someone as learned as Milosevic would learn from history, regardless of religious background.

Milosevic can also give us insight into our own evil as humans. We need to watch ourselves be careful that no matter how high we rise we never think of ourselves as unstoppable, because we are not.

To conclude, there are many lessons that we can learn from this if we can push passed the emotions of the situation. We in fact may even be able to find comfort in that this man did indeed get what he deserved, even though it was not rendered by human hands.