Made Me Smile

I wish you brighter days, friends.

Three Part Answer That Solves Everything

Been stated many times, but God through Solomon said it best:
" ⁵    Trust in the LORD with all your heart     And do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶    In all your ways acknowledge Him,     And He will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:5-6

There it is. I need reminding on this just about every day; when I get caught up in strifes, troubles and the muck of this world, it's because I have forgotten this answer and tried to bull through on my own understanding.
I'm a moderately bright guy, and it would be easy for me to fall back on assuming that I have all the answers-that feeds my ego. That builds me up, can set me up... for a fall, because then I'm not trusting God, I'm trusting my imperfect self.
As I noted a while back, God will humble ALL the proud, Christian and pagan alike. This includes me.
Pagans would do well to read and take in this passage of Scripture in Proverbs, because it could be the first step towards God that leads to Salvation. Come over to the Light side...we have cookies, too.

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.