There. That's Much Better

Don't know if you've paid attention, but the last half dozen posts here at FDW have been kind of...harsh.
Don't I know it. What comes out of a man is what does the damage, and my poor and improper response
to things like Christians being murdered and political nonsense becoming the law of the land kinda sorta turned me a bit cynical. Garbage in/Harsh out.
Other events in my life piled on and soured my normal exuberantly sunny disposition.
But God loves His children too much to allow us to stay sour for very long.
Just like other, wiser Christians I will look at the world trusting that God has everything well in
hand. Living by what we see and reacting to what happens isn't faith. Even when terrible things happen, God
has it covered.
So I apologize if my tone recently has been off putting. One of the {few} rules that I set at FDW is that I will
not fake anything-if times have been tough, I will not put on a happy face and pretend that all is just
ducky.
May God Bless you this day.

The Dead Lady Of Clowntown Speaks!

That is, she would 'speak' if she weren't merely a digirecording of the memory of a formerly alive lady.
With the underpeople in revolt, and D'Joan about to be livingly cremated to bring about " 'The Robot, the Rat, and the Copt'"...stay with me now...the Instrumentality will someday make Scanners obsolete.

I'll Tell You

I just spent a few moments looking at the site of a Democrat 'true believer' who thinks that all of the problems this country and world face can be laid at the dirty oil and blood soaked feet of Republicans.
We don't really know why lemmings jump over cliffs, but we do know why DemoLiberals try to run the entire world over cliffs: 
Hatred. Self hate, God Hate, Everyone else Hate.
There is no love in the hearts of Democrats. They simply hate. Hate God, the world that He created, hate themselves for existing, hate existence itself.
You don't advocate abortion out of love and compassion. You don't embrace any and all death religions
while rejecting God out of concern for your fellow man.
It's hate. The Godless who reject God simply hate.
Shame on you.

Time Is Almost Up

Do you have a hundred dollars on you? 10 Tens, 5 Twenties, whatever?
Lay it out in front of you.
Then take approx 3/4 of it, 75 dollars, and separate it from the rest.
Today a suicide bomber did his thing as a Christian church was letting out
from their morning service.
75 women, children and men killed, and reports
are still coming in. There will probably be more.
If you are not at Peace with God, you are considered His enemy, and eternity
will be no better for you than for this suicide bomber.
Christians have been looking for the return of the Lord since He went back
up to Heaven.
We think that we might be coming up on the edge of the final last days, but
what we think doesn't matter. Whether He returns today or a thousand
years from now, those of you reading this today do not have another thousand years.
You might not even have tomorrow.
Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Mankind Is Wishful Thinking

Another day, another mass shooting. Syria is the kickball of global "diplomacy". No wonder "Duck Dynasty"
is such a hit.
Disjointed? How did those three items end up on the same page? Read on.
MAN is not kind. Man is the only creature capable of murder and boy, do we murder!
Early reports may be wrong, but the MAN (or MEN) who killed so many today at that Navy Yard were
doing what comes naturally.
Bash al Assad was murdering Syrians with impunity-the WORLD accepted that as business as usual...until
he unleashed the chemical weapons. Now, all of a sudden, he's a bad guy?!
No, that son of a tyrant has been a bad guy for decades. He was gulfing buddies with Saddam Hussein, even took in Iraq's chemical stash when the World's cops showed up. It's a wonder that Liberals haven't ever put him up for the Nobel Prize.
So-"Duck Dynasty". Never have seen an episode; it seems to be one of the most positive "happy story"
TV shows out there. People tune in, buy the DVDs, the hats and shirts, the duck calls.
Why?
Why does this show seem to resonate with so many?
Because, even though MAN is not KIND...he wishes that we were. He wishes that the world was positive and happy like that family on TV.
All is vanity.
By now you might be wondering about the picture. This is part of my particular twisted psyche. When something bad or evil happens, I seek out something good, positive to help restore my emotional equilibrium.
When my family moved into an farmhouse in 1962 we found this trunk left behind by the former owner.
For years it held my Mother's yarn. Now it is in my house, and I store extra blankets in it. Today I bought some cedar and cut it to fit in the trunk, aromatic and a defense against mustiness. I feel better now. 

"Why So Syria?"

Yeah, sure, we could use a hero right about now. Evil knuckleheads pompositing on the international stage; aside from Obama and Putin there's also the worst ophthalmologist/tyrant EVER!
Killing his own people the old bad ways wasn't enough-once he started using chemical weapons the world looked up from "Duck Dynasty" and started denouncing al-Assaassaaaad in earnest.
President Obama, fresh from the Wally Cox school of MMA threatened to shake his fist at Syria.
While frowning.
Ooh, that'll put a scare into them!
If he really wants to win this proxy fight, President Obama should threaten to send VP Joe Biden over to arrange a beer summit. 
This entire situation is so fouled up-don't ask me what the right answer might be, as there may be no right answers. At least, none that the world would find acceptable.
Whatever happens, it will happen for awhile and then end and something else will happen.
Larry Norman echoed The Preacher when he sang, "Nothing ever changes, everything remains the same-you are what you are till the day that you die." If you don't know the song, there's a twist at the end.

You Have No Health Assurance, World

Don't mind the pix too much-just reminders that God makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
Well, not always. Sitting with friends last night we were discussing how, during the Millennial reign of
Christ, even with God Himself (!) ruling the world (and the universe) from Jerusalem, there will still be knuckleheads who reject His rule.
"Zechariah 14:16-19 (HCSB)
¹⁶  Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths.
¹⁷  Should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, rain will not fall on them.
¹⁸  And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague the LORD inflicts on the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.
¹⁹  This will be the punishment of Egypt and all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths."

'The survivors from the nations'-after Christ returns and cleans house on planet Earth, there will be some survivors who repopulate the planet. Don't put any faith in the faint hope that you will be able to squeak past the Day of the Lord without repentance. Even if you survive into the Millennium, you will still be confronted with Christ Who IS the Lord of your life-your Liege and your King. You've ignored Him during this age of Grace. Not going to happen then.
Right now the world is focused on Syria and the tyrant who has used 'chemical weapons' which seems to be a more offensive threat than the starvation, torture, bullets and bombs which Assad has 'rained down' on his victims for years.
And, of course, President Obama lacks. He fumbles. He attempts to shift focus and narrative away from his weak lackings.
Just remember the mantra, Odie: "It's All George Bush's Fault!"

And Now About You Christians, You

We’ve got troubles, friends and I’m not talking River City.
Today’s soapbox soliloquy deals with that noxious weed which crops up in every heart:
Pride.
Now Christians, those who have been at this for a few decades, have an instant mental gut
reaction to that word: “I’m okay, Doug is talking about someone else, maybe himself.”
No and yes. No, you’re probably not okay, and yes, I include myself in this, as I also have
problems with pride. That doesn’t negate what I’m about to write.
I see Christians struggling with Pride, and I’m going to use a word (again) that I’ve noted before:
‘canalized’. As in making canals-our minds and egos work along certain paths which, the longer they are trod, become canals, the only ways that we CAN think-call it 'accepted' knowledge.
Thinking outside the box is a poor metaphor-better to say “Have courage to climb up out of your canals
And look at things from a different perspective.”
Here’s the Pride thing. Part of what we take pride in is our knowledge, what we have learned since that Doctor slapped us as babies.
If we had learned everything perfectly, fine and good. But perfect knowledge is impossible for us, and
If our thought canals run deep, accepted knowledge can be faulty (and I mean faulty!) but hard to give up, as we hate to admit
That we are wrong (pride), are afraid to be seen as lacking (pride) and will run all the faster and harder through our canals to prove that we are right (did you guess? PRIDE).

“I preached a GREAT SERMON on humility, had them crying in the pews. Best sermon I ever gave!
My Scripture verse was ‘Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.’ They sure needed to hear it!”

See a problem there, friends? Before I get accused of having a log in my own eye (a Scriptural but human, prideful riposte to one’s Pride being attacked), I’m also Prideful, and God often humbles me, too.
This post isn’t about shooting fiery darts at my brethren, it’s about holding up a mirror and saying, “Do a Pride check-your mind may be so canalized that you
Think that you are doing well, when actually Pride is blinding you to the fact that you need
Humbling.
And God WILL humble. He humbles arrogant pagans and willful, prideful Christians alike.
Christians are humbled for their own betterment; everyone else is humbled for the betterment of us all.
Am I immune to canalized thought paths? Not by your Mothers doughnuts! But I recognize that fact, and I work to see things from different perspectives, climb out of my own (comfortable but deep) canals.
God continues to humble me as I need. This isn’t a case of a sinful sniper joyfully pointing out faults in others-it’s a call for all of us to take a dose of that foul-tasting medicine-humility-and get better.
God won’t lift us up if we think we are already flying high.

Lying Racist Liberal Hypocrites

Beautiful day where you live? Really?
Just a few notes today about the uncharming Lying Racist Liberal Hypocrites. This post has
been kicking around in my head for a while, and it finally made bail.
First, the Lying. Liberals lie to everyone, most especially themselves, as it is the only way that
they can make it through this world which doesn't operate on their principles. They live and have their existence in the funhouse mirror of the real world.
They say that they are the good guys, the ones who Love and affirm Life...while they go about
their daily bidness of hating (rich people, Christians, Conservatives) and protecting the Death Dealers
(Abortionists). See, they only affirm Life for those fortunate enough to have made it out of the womb alive.
Racist. How can a Liberal be racist? Only by what they do and what they say. They proclaim themselves
the protectors of minorities.
BUT
Putting people into groups, identifying groups of peoples by color or ethnicity is... Racist!
Promoting the fiction that such groups need spokesmen, need Protecting from some other 'evil group' is Racist.
Hypocrites-let me count the ways. Actually, just one example will do-
Liberals allow their emotions to be used to promote hatred against "The Rich and Powerful" who, it is assumed, must have made their bucks by exploiting the poor.
You know, like Joe Kennedy or Al Gore or...I'm sorry! Liberals are exempted from the "Hate the Rich" screed as they are somehow morally superior to everyone else. They can make Billlions and still be seated with Jimmy Carter at the Democratic Conventions.
Unless you Liberals (you know who you are) have taken a vow of poverty, and take no part in the United States economy...you are hypocrites for pointing fingers at those who also live, work and make money here. You may be jealous of those others who have succeeded in life, but that doesn't make them evil, it just is evidence that you are Lying Racist Liberal Hypocrites. Have a nice day!

Isaiah 40:6-8 (HCSB)
^"6  A voice was saying, “Cry out!” Another said, “What should I cry out?” “All humanity is grass, and all its goodness is like the flower of the field.
⁷  The grass withers, the flowers fade when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass.
⁸  The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”"

Pretty flowers, but if you look closely, they are already past prime, starting to wither.
"and all its goodness is like the flower of the field"-every kind act, every bit of good that you or I may 
do in this world, doesn't have a long life. Sad.
If you have been separated from God by your sin (the state of all mankind) and NOT brought back into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ (the state of the Saved-you know where you stand)...
all of your goodness and love are as nothing. Nothing. Destined to be burnt into nothingness.
There's a lot of talk about 'everlasting love' but, if you are not saved by God, that is just romantic nonsense. 
You won't know love at all in hell. You won't know one pleasure. Just Sad.
"the word of our God remains forever."
If you look in God's Word, see what He declares to be true, your life will change. Even if it changes for the
worse, driving you farther away from God, it will change.  
But there is Life and Salvation available only through God's Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
Of course, you can find a billion or two peoples from different 'belief systems' who will tell you that I and my Christian brothers and sisters are merely arrogant; they consider us self appointed doorkeepers who would deny all others entrance to Heaven. How dare we suggest that everyone else is wrong!
They (you) are wrong. 
If any of us are arrogant, God will humble us. We aren't doorkeepers-we proclaim to a sinful world that there is but one way to God, and that is through Jesus Christ. We aren't trying to keep you out of Heaven; we want you to come in through the only door possible!
That is love for our fellow man and, unlike the grass that withers and dies, that love is solid through eternity.
 

Returned Random Thoughts Tuesday One Day Early

Hi howdy haven't done one of these in a while. Note picture above.
Okay, I'm better now. I'm being set free from one of my jobs, and will no longer do 70 plus
hours a week.
Even a knucklehead like me can get tired.
In church we are just finishing a Bible study on the book of Ecclesiastes where Solomon, the author inspired by God, details what life is like for both God's people and everyone else. The everyone else don't catch a break.
Yesterday on my first night free from the afternoon job I decided to experience a bit of Summer: photo graphy, dine out, sit in a park; I even made it to a rummage. 
Tonight I'm trying to put my house in order, or at least I WAS, until I sat down here.
Haven't really been paying attention to news but I feel relived rather than deprived.
Let me know when something happe

Caught Between The Rock Of Ages And A Heartless Place

So, here it is. Back when things were rotten, times were tough and people adapted to survive.
We had what we called "The Great Depression" in my parent's lifetimes. It was bad. BAD. No or little work,
crops dying for lack of water, a dustbowl full of dust.
My grandfather moved to the west coast to find a job...for three or four years. When he came back with a friend, my aunt didn't know which one was her daddy.
 My Dad, just a kid, did some spearfishing without license to keep the family fed. The game wardens developed a peculiar blindness. We survived.
I am in no way precognitive, but I think that the policies of the Federal government are going to bankrupt the country and toss us into a financial dustbowl. By design.
But an amazing thing happens when times get tough-people disillusioned by Man's inability to solve any of the problems that Man creates look elsewhere, upwards, and seek God. And He Delivers. Bigtime.
For a short while I have been working about 70 hours a week between two jobs. I feel blessed by God for all that He has provided, including the stamina to work work work.
I began the year by being let go from the job that I had for over a decade. I've done a few things since January, and now I am back at that same job, for now.
But if I lost everything in this world, I would not sweat it or regret a thing. I'm eternal and this world is transitory. God Bless you as you move through it.

Going, Going...

So, y'know...Cancer stinks, right? Heart disease-rotten to the core. Diabetes-they've made inroads towards cures, but still...not good.
A few days ago marked the anniversary of the passing of one Marilyn Monroe. She would have been 87, but will forever be remembered as being 36 or timeless.
The grundoon at her feet lived to a much older age, but his time passed, too.
God makes us an offer we can't refuse. We are allotted some few years to walk on His planet, and then the dust.
At this moment in time I think I have more ailing folks in my life than healthy ones. I'm not doing so great myself; not from sickness but exhaustion which, if left unchecked, can open the door for the bad stuffs.
The dust will get us all, someday.
I feel bad that Marilyn had such an unhappy life, but that life ended when I was three, so all the bad feelings about her death or good feelings about her life are just so much vapor.
If you are going through some bad stuff, made uneasy by disease...it may the persuader God uses to get your
attention. Our milliseconds on earth are a bare fraction of eternity. May God Bless you today, and Bless you into forever.

Why Do I Have To Be This Way?

You might have wondered WHY I and my fellow Christians (true Christians-the ones chosen by God) are such hardline naysayers regarding much of what YOU consider common knowledge or wisdom.
WHY?
Why are we so anti-Abortion?
Why do vote Republican/Libertarian/Other?
Why do we promote such causes/people/ideas which you consider evil or wrong?
Why do we have to be this way?
"¹    How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,     Nor stand in the path of sinners,     Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
²    But his delight is in the law of the LORD,     And in His law he meditates day and night."
Psalm 1:1-2

It's really that easy. We consider the world from the point of view that God is right in all that He says or has done/does/will do.
So everyone who rejects God, which includes most of the world, are enemies of God.
They are (you are?) wicked.
And...
We don't walk with wicked. We won't join you in your journey.
'Nor stand in the path of sinners' might need a bit of understanding.
I stand in the path of sinners every day to impede them, to tell them of God, to turn them away from that path.
But I do not stand in the path of sinners in that I do not follow their path, again the walking metaphor.
I'm going in the opposite direction.
And finally: sitting with the scoffers.
I'm a prime scoffer myself-I scoff at idjits such as President Obama who deserve to be scoffed at.
But those who scoff at God? I may sit at a dinner table with them, but I won't 'sit' with them, accepting their premise that God is worthy of nothing but derision. 
I know better.
And so should you.