Category Archives: Miscellaneous
Apologetics Session 11: How to Give Evidence Presuppositionally
Establish the need: How do we give evidence as a Presuppositionalist?
Purpose: We will consider four points concerning giving evidence presuppositionally.
- There are no brute facts
- Why presuppositions matters
- Examples in action: Intelligent Design
- Presuppositionalist’s way of giving evidence
View original post 788 more words
The spy
Last month I was a spy in the classroom of a university professor who was teaching his class Critical Race Theory (CRT), that controversial approach to history that has been much discussed over the past several months. I was not sent into the room to be a spy; I was there to oversee the use of a rare and historic book that the professor wanted to show his students. But I felt very much like a spy as I heard the professor and his students analyze historic events with the methods and assumptions of CRT.
In my opinion, Critical Race Theory is a useful tool in the kit of professional historians. It provides a different angle from which to observe events and groups of people. It allows teachers and students to approach the discipline of history with awareness of differing points of view. But CRT is not the only tool…
View original post 956 more words
Fruit of the Spirit: a sermon (used by permission)
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no Law.” (Galatians 5:16-23)
When I was a young…
View original post 2,076 more words
Beyond reason in creation and in redemption
I am thankful for fellow blogger Clyde Herrin for two reasons. First, he has been kind enough to repost several of my recent posts on his blog, thus expanding my potential audience. Second, he has given me food for thought in his comment on my recent “Summer Solstice” post. You may recall that I suggested that an Obsessive-Compulsive Creator would have given us thirty-day months and a 360-day year, allowing day and month and year to match mathematically. Clyde suggested that, in the beginning, the solar system operated in sync according to simple math, but that sin and the consequences of sin threw the system into a more chaotic set of relationships. He pointed me to a post of his ten years ago (which I had already read and liked some time in the past) in which he suggests that the turmoil of the Flood threw the earth’s day off…
View original post 859 more words
Diplomatic Cologne
“Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne” – Quentin Crisp. A euphemism is making something sound more pleasant than it really is like when one uses the term “passed away” for “dying.” There are a whole lot of euphemisms in the modern world and very few in the Bible.
Nope, the Bible is generally pretty direct, blunt, and to the point. No diplomatic cologne anywhere in there. However, there are many, many idioms! An idiom is a cultural metaphor understood at the time by most people. It is not literal, but rather symbolic, metaphorical. One idiom that has expired in my lifetime would be, “roll down the window.” We no longer have handles in our cars to crank and obviously I am not a suggesting anyone literally roll themselves down a window.
We can laugh, but kids already look at me strangely when I tell them to “dial a…
View original post 287 more words
DO YOU HAVE FAITH OR FUZZY FEELINGS?
Anyone who doesn’t breathe is dead, and faith that doesn’t do anything is just as dead!
James chapter 5 verse 26 from the Contemporary English Version
Yesterday was an important day in Alabama. Though, based on the turn-out, most didn’t think it was important. It was the Primary Runoff election. And I was a poll worker. The particular precinct I worked had 117 votes cast in the primary election. But yesterday the number was only 61. Nearly 50% did not think it was worth their time to engage in the single most important principle of this nation–the right to vote. OK, OK! So one party’s run-off had only one office in the run-off. But when it comes to this representative republic, isn’t one office worth the effort to vote? I would say so, and so would the sacrifices and blood of those who fought and died for it. But…
View original post 283 more words
Juneteenth
I am home today, enjoying a paid holiday away from the workplace, but I’m not entirely sure why. I know that Juneteenth is a day long observed by African-Americans in the United States. I know that it marks, for them, the end of slavery and the beginning of freedom. I fully approve of the celebration of Juneteenth in the United States. I am not sure how being paid to stay home and catch up on my writing and other personal plans contributes to the meaning of this day.
Since colonial times, Africans were involuntarily transported into the western hemisphere to work for Europeans. Most of those Africans were sold into slavery by their fellow Africans, entrepreneurs making a profit off the vulnerability of their neighbors. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to exploit this involuntary labor. First on islands off the coast of Africa, then in the western hemisphere, Portuguese…
View original post 706 more words
Fathers’ Day sermon (shared by permission)
“Now before faith came, we were help captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until…
View original post 2,277 more words
DON’T BE RED! AND DON’T BE BLUE!
It is so sad, so very sad! And when I think about it I am a mixture of angry, snarky, frustrated, and just want to sit down and cry! What could make me feel like this? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s Red and Blue! That’s what makes me want to slap some people–make that–MANY people on the back of the head. This once great nation is now divided along the lines of color. Not the color of their skin–but the color of their politics. I’m beginning to see the movie The Matrix more as a prophetic statement on our current times than just a movie.
This once mighty nation where people of all sorts lived together, worked together, and rallied together–this nation where people once knew we could disagree with each other but not be enemies–has deteriorated into maps that are colored by either Red or Blue…
View original post 347 more words
Festival of the Holy Trinity
Traditional Christian congregations divide the year into two halves. The first half follows the mission of Jesus. Four Sundays of Advent prepare the way for the Lord. The twelve days of Christmas celebrate His birth. During the Epiphany season, Christians remember the works and deeds of Jesus that reveal Him as Lord and Savior. During Lent, Christians consider the reason we need a Savior. Lent concludes with Holy Week, following Jesus to the cross. Holy Week concludes with Easter Sunday, beginning seven weeks that rejoice in the resurrection of the Lord. On Pentecost Christians remember the work of the Holy Spirit. With this, the festival half of the Church Year comes to an end, and Christians begin numbering the Sundays after Pentecost, sometimes referring to this half of the Church Year as Ordinary Time.
But the First Sunday after Pentecost is not ordinary. On this Sunday, traditional Christians remember the…
View original post 770 more words
Not Even a Bubble…
Have a little chuckle with me. I snagged this little meme from some very progressive progressives, a meme I completely agree with. Robert Smalls was a remarkable man, one whose life would definitely make an adventuresome and entertaining movie.
I leave you to do your own research, but the short story is that there was frequent election fraud on the part of the Dems. He was eventually set up and framed, and later pardoned.
He is also well known for having said “I ask that every colored man in the North who has a vote to cast would cast that vote for the regular Republican Party and thus bury the Democratic Party so deep that there will not be seen even a bubble coming from the spot where the burial took place.”
Not even a bubble.
Somebody really should make that movie.
Atheists, Narcissism, and Gaslighting
This article will touch on several areas, some of the things I have thought about for quite a while. So I will present some speculations with what I think is evidential material, run it up the flagpole, and see if anyone salutes it.
The Dubious Nature of Psychology
Last I knew, there were over two hundred schools of psychology. Some in the “hard sciences” look askance on psychology and other social sciences, as they have few characteristics necessary in those sciences. Definitions of, and treatments for, mental illnesses are constantly changing and resemble guesswork. Social sciences are also rooted in Darwinism and atheistic naturalism.
I’ll allow that I have some cognitive dissonance happening. I don’t trust humanistic psychology, but getting some kind of treatment for mental illness can be beneficial. However, some problems fade over time. Even medication (although scientists do not know why one works and treatment is…
View original post 1,888 more words
DEBITS AND CREDITS!
Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.
Romans chapter 13 verse 8 from the New International Version
I think it was my sophomore year in high school when I signed up for “Bookkeeping”! Oh, I had no intention nor desire to become an accountant. But I needed one more class to fill my schedule–so there I was. Remember, this was back in the day of this thing called paper! I did learn, unwillingly I might add, about these books called ledgers. What I mainly remember about ledgers is two specific columns–debits and credits. Debits was the money coming in and credits was the money going out. And this morning I found myself thinking about those ledgers–and, of course–debits and credits. Oh? You need a connection between my thoughts and the Kingdom Life? OK, here goes!
View original post 415 more words
A six-point plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war
An impasse continues to develop in the war between Russia and Ukraine.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, they hoped for a quick victory. Their best-case scenario had Russian troops occupying the entire country, arresting Volodymyr Zelensky and the rest of the Ukrainian government, and asserting their ability to dictate policy to their neighbors, especially those neighbors that once were part of the Soviet Union. An acceptable scenario featured destruction of the Ukrainian military and the national infrastructure, firm control of the eastern provinces, and a negotiated settlement that would again have asserted control in the internal affairs of their neighbors. Putin’s Russia did not expect the vigorous resistance of Ukraine, its ability to withstand the Russian offensive, its support from many other nations in Europe as well as from the United States, and the surprising failure of the Russian army to achieve its objectives.
Meanwhile, a best-case scenario for Ukraine would…
View original post 881 more words
bless my mess and sanctify my stuff and i will be ok! not!!!!!
Calling this a crazy world out there doesn’t do justice to describing our current culture. Crazy doesn’t come close to describing the malady of our times. When you look at the development of civilization the most imediate thing that is clearly in focus is that even the most primitive civilizations recognize that there exists some “higher being”–A.K.A. a “god”. This is a powerful acknowledgement–to realize there is “someone” out there with more power and wisdom than us punny human beings. And thanks to The Bible–yes, that outdated and irrelevant book for our times–we know that the ONLY “higher being” is God–or using His name that He revealed to Moses–Yahweh!
The Bible reveals to us seven indesputable, ironclad, unassailable, and undeniable facts about Him and ourselves. And here they are:
- We ain’t that God! Many an empire has fallen into dust because their king wrongly believed they were a “god”…
View original post 640 more words
A smoldering wick
The prophet Isaiah delivered many descriptions of the coming Savior Jesus Christ. He pictured him as Emmanuel (“God with us”), born of a virgin. He celebrated him as the Child born to us, known as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He explained his work as the Suffering Servant, stricken and smitten and afflicted for our sake. He revealed his identity as Messiah to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but also Lord and Savior for people of every nation and culture and language.
This chosen Servant, anointed by the Holy Spirit, appears also in chapter forty-two of Isaiah’s book. Here we are told that he will proclaim justice without quarreling and without shouting in the streets. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” Even though Jesus possesses all power and all authority in this world, he…
View original post 560 more words
Pentecost
Pentecost is the Christian celebration of the Holy Spirit. Like the Passover, Pentecost is among the holidays God required Old Testament Israel to observe every year. It was a springtime Thanksgiving festival seven weeks (fifty days) after the Passover meal. As Jesus Christ was crucified and raised during the Passover celebration, so the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Christians in Jerusalem during the Pentecost celebration that same year. For that reason, seven weeks after celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord on Easter Day, Christians dedicate a Sunday to remember the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
An Old Testament lesson frequently read during the Pentecost service comes from the book of Genesis, chapter eleven. Several generations after the Flood, the descendants of Noah met on the plain of Shinar to build a city and a tower so they would be remembered and would not be scattered across…
View original post 636 more words
An Every Day Christian in an age of Active Shooters
Establish the need: With everything going on have you thought about what to do as a Christian in a time of danger?
Purpose: Today we will see three points about this topic of what Christians can do concerning violent situations.
- The Bible talks about the importance of vigilance
- The Bible condones self-defense
- Practical pointers
Caution
- This isn’t covering everything.
- This isn’t meant to be a security training per se.
- It is meant for every day Christians at church, work and in public thinking about protecting oneself and loved ones.
- While it can be applicable to workplace, stores, restaurants, and other public places, some of the applications will be given with the church as an example.
- Also nothing here are legal advices. One should research to know one’s local and state laws concerning self-defense and safety.
- Many of these insights are from those who have thought a lot…
View original post 1,787 more words
Jesus Hated Religious People, too!
Have a laugh with me, I was out secretly stashing a Jesus rock in the shrubbery when this guy came by and informed me he hated religious people. I was like, “Me too! Totally. So did Jesus.” It was comical because he did not see the rock in my hand and so he had no idea I was actually a, “religious people.” It was also comical because I wasn’t even being snarky, that’s where my heart was, too.
Gah, I can hardly abide religious people, myself.
To understand we first need to look at the definition of that word “religious.” The first definition is, “Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity,” but it’s the third definition, the last one that really gets to the meat of the matter. “Extremely scrupulous or conscientious.“
Oh my goodness, is that not like nails on a chalkboard?…
View original post 634 more words
Guns and madness
With every tragic mass shooting in the United States comes continued conversation and debate about how to end such horrors. Some people want to ban all guns, or at least most of them; others are determined to preserve their Second Amendment rights. Armed protectors and schools and other public places are frequently suggested, as well as various procedures to keep people safe without destroying their freedom. Mental health always enters the discussion, since clearly something is not right in the thinking of any person who goes into a school, a store, a church, a movie theater, or some other place where people are gathered and starts shooting to kill those people.
Evil lurks in this world and cannot be eradicated by mere human effort. Violent crimes remind us that sin and evil exist in the minds and hearts of each of us. Evil is random, unpredictable, and unfair. Governments exist…
View original post 925 more words
clydeherrin 