Before Abraham Was, I Am

Enough with the politics already! Part of why I never go whole-heartedly into Politico mode is I get tired of it all very quickly. I'll vote my conscience, same as you.
If you look to the right at my miniscule 'Blog List' you will see listed John Mac Arthur's site, "Grace To You".
I am just beginning a sermon series of Mac Arthur's detailing Christ in the Old Testament. Good food for the soul, friends. 
I hear many sermons/ read articles/ web posts about how to be a better Christian; those are fine, and necessary...but it's not all about us-we are to learn more of Christ, and I'm certain that this audio series will be of great benefit to those who have ears to hear. 
I must plug iTunes again-having an iPod and the iTunes store brimming full of good content such as Mac Arthur's podcasts makes my work nights flow much easier. I'm on my third or fourth iPod, and may possibly be getting an iMac in a few months.
Back to the post-Jesus Christ is all through the O.T.; not on every single page, but as Mac Arthur points out in the first sermon, knowing Christ from the New Testament helps us to recognize Him in the Old.
When He said in John chapter 8 that 'before Abraham was, I Am' He was stating that He is eternal, always here (and the Creator of 'here'). Good News indeed!
If you want to be blessed, check out Grace To You, look for any sermon series and start reading. It can't hurt!

Planting Garlic By Moonlight

Or, if I don't shake this stick just so, God will smite me.
If you haven't yet enjoyed the TV show "Destination Truth" I encourage you to check it out.
A few fun facts about the show:
A: The host, Josh Gates, is crazy.
B. His merry crew of adventurers often get hurt.
C. They go all over the world checking out myths and legendary creatures.
D. The show is addicting.

It's interesting that wherever they go around the globe, in chasing monsters they come up against
local customs and religions which are are universal:
Some old Shaman (or Sha-woman)  will pronounce (through interpreters):
"You must DO this (whatever this is: say a prayer, light a candle, gather weeds from a volcano, etc)
in order to be protected against the ____________."
Or to keep the local god from killing you.
Or to have fair haired children. Or...
You get the idea-Gates and crew dance to whatever music the local wizened man or woman plays.
They will solemnly recite prayers and oaths, walk backwards through doorways, wear paint or ridiculous hats-whatever it takes to go look for the local monster. 
They also will eat spiders or octopus lice salad or anything else that is put in front of them by the natives.
Sometimes they even keep the food down!
It's a paranormal travelogue. It's a mystery show. It's a blast.
It's also interesting to see lands and peoples far removed from our daily reality. Though Nike and Lakers shirts seem to be worn by indigenous peoples throughout the world.
Do they find creatures? Not so much. But the efforts they make to seek them out- rappelling down cliffs, jet skiing into sea caves, hiking through jungles-it makes for great TV.

Lady Gaga's Greatest Monster

She really captures his essence, doesn't she? No one is surprised that she would shave her head or 'go there' with the make-up just to further her "ART". Lady G_g_ has done it again!
I guess it is Parody Parity-Weird Al mocks her in "Perform This Way" and she has to up the ante by going where Mr. Yankovic wouldn't. Call it a weirdness tie.
Speaking of ties, more and more Democrats seem to be untying themselves, leaping clear of the Obama Popularity Avalanche (which, by nature, goes downhill).
What was it, a couple of weeks ago, a Texas felon on the ballot in North Carolina captured quite a share of the Democratic Primary votes? Now Arkansas and Tennessee Democrats have shown a willingness to vote for ANYONE but President Obama. As the incumbent, he should be riding high at 90%!
I'm not overconfident, though-elections can turn on a dime and President Obama has the Press and 'opposition research' both in the palm of his hand. Plus quite a lot of silver in the other hand. Labor unions and Acamania (not a typo) in a third hand.
It's getting funny now. Asked about the economy and President Obama attacks Bain Capital. As if it mattered- if Mitt Romney had run PBS, then PBS would be the greatest villain ever to soil our great country.
Demonize your opposition, first rule of Saul Alinsky.
Capitalism is evil? If you live in a house, somebody from Capitalism built it. The refrigerator in your kitchen? Bought from Capitalists FOR capitalists (you) to put their (bought through capitalism) food in.
One of the greatest comparisons I've heard about this Obama war on "Venture Capitalists" such as Bain Capital, which he claims closed businesses and lost jobs...(pay attention now) is that is exactly what Obama did with General Motors and its government takeover. They shuttered many dealerships, many (most?) of whom were owned by Republicans. President Obama did the very thing he accuses Mitt Romney of doing!
If his Obamacare survives the Supreme Court, it will be responsible for killing off private medical insurers, with the aim of moving the population to Government run Healthcare. Millions of insurance professionals forced out of business as they can't compete with the Government? How very Bain Capital of him!

The Selfish, Hard-necked, Hateful, Prejudiced, Self-righteous Man Of God

This morning in church we looked at one of the most treasured verses in the Bible: "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" Romans 5:20b
That says a lot. Here's an example, shortened for time's sake:
One particular Sin City, full of corruption and evil, ignores God, hates God, wants nothing to do with God.
Sin did indeed abound there.
God, in His Mercy and Grace, wants to reach those people, and chooses an evangelist to send...who is the "The Selfish, Hard-necked, Hateful, Prejudiced, Self-righteous Man Of God" in the post title.
This guy, who knows the type of stinkers that live in Sin City, doesn't want them to enjoy the same Grace that God has showered on him. So he takes a bus in the opposite direction, figuring that he can outfox God.
Long story short,(NOBODY outfoxes God!)  God gets him to Sin City in spite of himself; the evangelist declares to the Sin Cityites that they are dooooooooommmmmmmeeeeddddddd because of their sin...and he heads out of town to a nearby hill to watch God do His Sodom and Gommorah thing. He wanted to see a tsunami of righteous destruction clean out the burg.
But Grace did much more abound...and that city was saved because they repented and asked God for forgiveness...which did not thrill the evangelist. Like the Grinch on his hill, listening for a ruined Christmas in Whoville, the stubborn, self-righteous evangelist was dissapointed to hear Salvation come to Sin City...and he was bitter towards God for saving those dirty heathens. His heart didn't grow three times larger (which is fine metaphorically, but in the real world would be cause for alarm), and he said to God, "I knew it! You know they deserve Death! Why didn't you take them out?"
"But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:" Romans 5:20b

An Exorcise In Futility

An Exorcise In Futility, or: Give it up, you crazy exorcists, you!
You know the drill-the world is rosy, all is calm and fine, then some innocent child falls prey to a demon- the bed starts shaking, pea soup is projectalized, and the kid's head turns 360*. On a good day.
I haven't bashed the Catholic church for awhile, so let me start by declaring that it is ridiculous that the Cultic Empire called Catholicism supposedly has the 'experts' in Exorcism working for them. 
Nope.

Another nope for these young ladies who have made the 'news' lately. Their Dad, Bob Larson, has been pitching them to star in a Reality TV series as they go about their Demon evicting work. Triple nope.
Here's the thing-the exorcist of "The Exorcist", Father Merrin, coming from darkness has no ability to banish darkness. He's just a fictional character, of course, but the Father Merrins of the Catholic church can't exorcise anything. Spouting Latin at a demon infested child does nothing for the child and nothing to the demon. The book and movie are pure Catholic fantasy-Catholics WISH that their faith could move mountains or face down fallen angels!
Conversely, these misguided young ladies, who apparently are graduates of their father's "International School of Exorcism" (which promises that YOU can learn to be an Exorcist...online!) have as much chance of actually ridding someone of a demon as they do of winning an Emmy. Not going to happen.

Side note: some thirty years ago my church youth group attended a lecture by Bob Larson about the Devil in rock and roll. He was against it. I accept that the world's music is not going to honor God. But I would rather listen to some of the "Devil's music" than the trash being perpetrated on Christians in the name of Christ-there's much deviltry in that stuff, also.

End of side note.

I say all of this to establish that we generally understand the idea of Exorcism: driving a demon out of someone, banishing said demon to some elsewhere, saving the innocent from evil.
Please listen (read) carefully this next part.
This 'cosmos', this world culture in which we exist acts as "Oppo-Exorcists". Rather than driving a devil out of an innocent, this cosmos is hell-bent on driving the Holy Spirit out of it's sphere of influence.
It (the world culture) would love nothing more than to drive out, to exorcise the Holy Spirit. Where is the Holy Spirit found? In Christians. How does the world treat Christians? Poorly. We are shunned, shouted down in public discourse, mocked and ridiculed for our faith in God.
If not for our faith in God, we would be embraced and loved as fellow citizens in Darkness. Belonging to Christ is the only black mark against us.
Praise God for that black mark!
It is futile to think that Christians can be freed from the Holy Spirit inhabiting us. God is the One Who promised to indwell us with the Holy Spirit as a foretaste of Heaven.
So go ahead, cosmos. Reject and shun all you like. The more you ridicule us, all the more we pray for you, that you will be delivered from this world of Darkness. May God drive out all demons in this current age; in the future, during Christ's reign on earth and into Eternity there will be no exorcists or demons to pester us.
Amen.

  

Mother's Day-Better Than Cats

Yup. Went and saw the Imax 3D version yesterday; it was the best Summer Movie since "Inception".
Joss Whedon hit it out of the park, and the squabbling heroes reminded me of the best elements of
"Firefly". Good old times. The only 'hero' missing was Captain Hammer.
 If you are inclined to see it, the Imax 3D is the goodest way to watch it-I'll probably get the 3D Blu-ray when it comes out. The price with parking was only $10.50 for the manatee.
Actually, the manatee is possibly the only mammal missing from this extra_vaganza-it is BUSY with good stuff.
But today is a celebrate Mothers Day-to all Mothers out there-thanks for putting up with us. You're tops.
Hav

High Class Blast From The Past

Take dos. Somehow blogspot dropped my post-as I was saying: a bummer-when I was digging into the archives-the posts from my first year of Fine Dry Wit evaporated when I had to change some things back in the day.
I had planned to dig up fun stuff from the 2004 Presidential olympics-John Kerry, champion of the working class vs George Bush, champion of all Americans.
Kerry was hardly Presidential, and the argument that "At least he isn't George Bush!" didn't sway enough voters to install him in the White House (which would have been the smallest mansion he had ever lived in)-the White House isn't even equal to a carriage house on any of his estates. But he was willing to slum it for four years. Ever notice that after he lost the election, he seems to have disappeared back into the woodwork of the Heinz mansion? 
It's funny-I may re-purpose that old argument for this year's contest with Romney: "At least he isn't Obama!"
I may also borrow a bumper sticker was prevalent during the Bush era: "I love my Country but fear my Government".
I found the picture above from a post back in 2005. Although FDW will never set the world afire, I have had a lot of fun in the past eight years, and if I don't amuse anyone else, I still am my biggest fan.
President Obama surprised me yesterday: at the massive Hollywood fundraiser hosted by George Clooney President Obama didn't make an economic speech or cut the ribbon for a new abortion clinic so as to write off the California trip as 'Presidential Business'.
It's estimated that he added 15 million dollars to his (already huuuuuuuuuuuge) war chest so that he can buy ads to badmouth Republicans. And spread the word about his taking out Osama. And Gay marriage. Then more Osama. ANYTHING BUT THE ECONOMY! Shhhhh!
Prediction time: Romney wins in a landslide, Republicans take back Congress, the few Dems left will offer to help dismantle Obamacare to show their willingness to do ANYTHING to save their flea bitten hides.
"It was like a fever dream-we didn't know what we were doing-Obama tricked us into going along with his schemes!"
yeah.
The problem with the prediction thing is I've been wrong before-I was confident that the American populace would never vote to put Obama IN office. When McCain won the Republican nom I was almost sick to my intestines-he was nearly to the Left of Obama! But I held my nose and voted.
This time I will vote for Romney and whoever he adds to the ticket. He could choose Hilary Clinton and I'd still vote for him versus Obama. See you on the other side.

Handspan But Dust

Handspan. A morning mist which quickly burns away. 
This past week has had (in my opinion, which means nothing) too many reminders that we are momentary beings, short timers on this side of Eternity. 
We may live forever, but during our time here...we are here. And that means something.
God in His wisdom decides the number of our days, and we are powerless to extend or cut short our individual allotment. 
Here's our humanness in simple: it hurts to see the young die more than the old. When we see a young life ended, we feel that potential wasn't achieved, that more life was owed to that young one.
But that isn't so-no one is owed Life. 
Life is a gift from God-if it were owed to us, it wouldn't be a gift, but something somehow earned. 
Thank God for your life.

With All Due Respect...

Ah, the joys of leaving work for the weekend! I have a little extra time, so here I put in pixels something that has been kicking around in my head for awhile. My 'facts' may not be more than opinion, but I am always an expert on things which are a matter of (my) opinion.
Before you start hyper-mental-ating over my possibly calling President Obama Hitler, please. I'm not that much of a hack to go where so many Liberals have already trod with their tired "BushHitler" routine.

Totally different men, folks: President Obama is NOT Hitler!

But they do have a few things in common:
Both were/are heads of governments, having risen to power by dividing populaces, using class warfare to disunite the populations.
Both Barry and Dolph considered the lower classes to be victims of the "Ruling Class".
Both considered the country they lived in to be 'unfair' and in need of CHANGE.
Both identified those who disagreed with them to be enemies of the State (or the State that they wished to bring into existence).
Both wrote autobiographies before they had actually accomplished much-in both cases, the books were written to serve a future cause. Dolph wrote of his struggle while being imprisoned for being a community organizer who went just a little too far in a beer hall (Oh, those Crazy Austrians!). He would fit in just fine today with Occupy Wall Street.

Dolph loved dogs... and Barry ate them.

Both were/are ideologues who could not be swayed from their agenda. Barry will not be won over to any other point of view-it's his way or nothing.

Both Dolph and Barry were, however, great at "Con-promise"-they would/will say anything, promise anything to get what they want...and then forget both the lie and the lie-ee once their purpose has been accomplished.

You may notice in the pixels above that the boys have playmates who mirror each other quite dis-favorably:
Axelrod and Himmler, or: Dave and Heine. Both were/are masters of propaganda/dirty political tricks/smirking like weasels. 
I didn't want to go too far in this post, so I've left out the Goering/Biden and Heydrich/Eric Holder comparisons. But they are there if you want to look for them.
Back to Dolph and Barry, or, to be fair, Soetoro and Schicklgruber. Adolph's father (Alois) changed his name to Hitler to be more closely associated with the man, Hiedler, that his mother, Maria Anna Schicklgruber, had married.
Of course, Barry's story was totally different. He was born an Obama, and only became a Soetoro when his mother remarried. So there.
There are more similarities, but your eyes are probably tired by now. See you in the funny papers.