Please God

 <sup>I watched a church service this morning online where the musicians, lead singers and choir were all 'professional grade'-they were singing and playing, praising God through worship. 
I liked it, but I wasn't the audience-they were playing for God, worshiping to please Him. 
I got to thinking about the verses in the Bible where God is pleased, and a few tied together:

 16</sup>After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, 
¹⁷and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is ^£My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”
Matthew 3:16-17
God the Father was pleased in God the Son.

  ⁵While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” Matthew 17:5
God the Father once more declares His pleasure in His Beloved Son, and commands us to listen to Him.

<sup>THEN

10</sup>    But the LORD was pleased     To crush Him, putting Him to grief;     If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,     He will see His offspring,     He will prolong His days,     And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10
Here's the heart of it. God was pleased to crush His Beloved Son, to put Him to grief. That very act of crushing, death on the cross, was the focal point of all of Creation. Redemption.
Without Christ rendering Himself as a guilt offering to cover our sins, we would all still be lost, and God would have failed...but God never fails.
The outcome of that act:    "He will see His offspring,     He will prolong His days,     And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand." 
We are selfish creatures, even the best of us, and we focus on how things affect us. In this act of redemption, we become His children, we live with Him forever, and we share in His redeemed Creation with Him throughout eternity.
And God is Pleased.

HAPPY P.T.B.D.!!!!!

Arfred: Hi! I'm Arfred!
Barky-Lou: And I'm Barky-Lou!
Together: And we're dogs! (laughter, howls)
Barky-Lou: We thank Doug for letting us guest post here at FDW-when we met him
 online he thought we were humans!
Arfred:  We want to join in Thanking God today-He has given us great humans...
Barky-Lou: Who give us love and shelter and walks and food!
Arfred: Today is a special day-our humans have cleaned the house...
Barky-Lou: And have been cooking for days...
Arfred: And we know what that door knock means...
Together: Prime Table Begging Day!!!!!
Arfred: We won't have to whimper or 'accidentally' bump up against the chair legs-
 all we need to do is sit quietly under the table and wait!
Barky-Lou: Arf, remember last time when that human pup dropped a whole pork chop
 right into your mouth?
Arfred: Do I? You know where I'll be sitting today!
Barky-Lou:  And it all comes from our Creator Who has given us everything!
Together: Happy Prime Table Begging Day, everyone!

I Shake My Head

Typo-that is supposed to be "Doug" shakes head, but enough about me.
Most recent news about our least favorite new political healthcareless thingie is that approximately 80 million Americans who have healthcare through their workplace...will lose their coverage just like the millions of individual policy holders already impacted by the Affordable Care Act.
Will the American people reject this President and his agenda?
They have rejected such before-President Nixon was hounded from the Oval Office, President Carter was laughed out of the same.
Keeping it simple-this is a bad President with a bad agenda. Listen to your conscience.

We Don't Know Jack

Doug-1959 to 1962.
I knew who Popeye was, though I have no memory of the knowing. My parents convinced me to eat spinach because 'Popeye ate spinach'. One of my few memories of our first home before moving in 1962.
Doug-1963 to the present.
My first "television event" memory was of John Kennedy's funeral. It made an impact as it was on TV for days.
I had no comprehension of "Death"-I only knew that something bad had happened, and that everyone was sad.
In my growing up and somehow growing wiser I have heard all sorts of things about John Kennedy's feet of clay, how he did this and started that and this was happening behind the scenes and all of that stuff.
I think he was a good enough man who made an all right President.
Feet of clay, but he did some good.
I'd be honored to have that epitaph.

Shameful and Over

Once again I find myself on a narrow ledge inching forward cautiously-I really do not enjoy politi-bickering and would prefer to not stain my weblog with Partisan stuff. This will be short and sour.
Just read that President Obama is skipping a ceremony tribute to President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address because of "this ACA website mess".
Even if I were a Democrat, I would find that shameful.
150 years ago President Lincoln delivered a speech meant to heal a country that had been at war.
It honored the dead. It honored those who fought.
Abraham Lincoln had issued an Executive Order 11 months previous to Gettysburg which declared
that all Slaves should be FREE.
And the first Black President of the United States can't be bothered to show up to take part in a ceremony.
That is shameful.

Through Early Morning Fog I See

Forgive, please-the title isn't meant to be mocking or sarcastic-just an entry point into a topic
which is more sensitive than many I prattle on about.
Listening to the radio while playing on the interwebs, someone mentioned that this is the anniversary
date for the "Jonestown" massacre, November 18, 1978.
Socialist self proclaimed god-man Jim Jones. Egomaniac and psychopath. Suicide, but taking 918
or so 'followers' with him. Whether most of them decided to drink the poisoned kool-aid of their own volition or were motivated by the guard's guns pointing at them is something known by God, not me.
We've all been touched by someone's suicide if we live long enough. The earliest case for me was one of my older brother's best friends, back in the early 1970's. Then a classmate's brother. Then...
Here's one of the hard truths: there are 'live suicides', people who have given up on life but have not yet arrived at the point where they physically die. Some, such as a certain alcoholic I know, have been on that dark road for years, and may have years yet to go. That is tough.
Here's the thing-most of the world, this secular, crazy inhumane world-most of the world lives without God.
People may put their trust in imitation gods, or imitation god-men such as Jim Jones,but as we were
created to give Glory to the true God, imitations break us away from our purpose.
Lives without purpose? Lives lived without God?  Suicide becomes a 'Why Not?".
I am one of 'those' who have never been so discouraged or troubled that I have considered suicide.  
I cherish Life, and am grateful to God for all that he has given to us, His Creation.
I am cheered by the knowledge that this inhumane world is a temporary pain which will someday be replaced by a Creation without sin, pain, tears, death.
But as I said, all of us have been touched by suicide, and the Season is about to start again.
Be sensitive-those who are troubled, whom you might only see on holidays...be there for them, listen to them; if necessary, take the bottle away.



  

IF YOU LIKE YOUR GOVERNMENT, YOU CAN KEEP IT?

You don't know hard it is to have sworn off political snarking at a time when hilarious chaos is bayoneting the survivors.
Metaphorically, of course. Actual bayoneting would be double nasty when millions are losing their health care.
Others will yammer on and on about this, so, as brevity is the soul of fine dry wit:
President Obama=bad.

(also blogged at Finer Dry Wit)

Shows To Go Ya

So, someone put a good quote with Rob Kennedy. I have no idea if the attribution is correct, or if someone just wanted to put Kennedy with a quote. On the interwebs, it doesn't really matter.
The quote works. Many a public servant (NOT savant) arrives in the power hub an innocent Smeagol and is soon becomes just another Gollum.
For brevity, the current admin is working against the wishes of the majority of the American people.
I have no idea how this will shake out; I'm a notoriously bad judge of politics. But I feel that any over-reach
will be answered by those afflicted. The moral outrage which boiled up 40 years ago when the public believed that their President was lying to them did not die with that generation.
No one likes being lied to, no one respects a liar. No one trusts a liar. When the President has to lie to the American People to get his agenda approved, he is a failure.
Fortunately, this country is greater than any one failure. We will get past this.
You can be patriotic and help with the process of healing by:
1. Being honest. Create or pass along no untruth. Tie your self-respect to the fact that you mean what you say.
2. Reject dishonesty in others. If someone is dis-respecting you by lying to you, call them on it. Call him or her a liar to their face.
If, as a country, we held each other to this standard, can you imagine how much better things would be right now?

If You Need Help

Everything old is new again:
http://sundayassembly.com/
I don't know if the link above will work, but the Sunday Assembly might just top off your tank
if you are looking for an Atheistic church-like group.
Not the Methodists this time-these are true Atheists, banding together to enjoy church without God.
And you know what?
God Love'em. 
I much prefer that they gather together in their group and leave mine alone.
Here's the "Everything Old Is" thing. It's been happening unofficially since there have been believers.
Harry Golden, a former scoundrel who took to kicking against the goads of Racism back before I was evolved used to love singing Christmas Carols with Carolers, or so he said in one of his books.
{an aside-Golden's publication, "The Carolina Israelite" was satirical, sharp and did extremely great work in it's time. It was basically Golden's "BLOG" back from the 1940's to 1968, if you can wrap your head around that concept.}
Back to the other Atheists.
These 'Sunday Assembly' groupings might celebrate "Festivus", if that helps pinpoint them on the theological map.
Again, God Love'em.
I don't see them as mocking God, Who they don't believe in. The originators, a Brit comedy team, seem sincere in their wish to enjoy the experience of Congregating without God. If anything, they are mocking Christian behavior, and we are used to that.
The God Who they pretend doesn't exist will call them to answer for their sins, including the sin of disbelief.
All I can do is pray that God will draw them to Himself and turn their unbelief into Faith in Him.
He did that for me and to me and I am eternally grateful. You could call me one of the "Grateful Alive."

Help

We are untouched by events happening on the far side of the globe...until we know of them.
Two hundred years ago most of the world would not hear of catastrophe in time to be emotionally touched by the event.
Yes, I'm thinking of the Christmas Tsunami, but now we are nearly nine years (!) past that event when
155,000 people died.
Right now the Philippines is enduring a typhoon which has killed at least 10,000 souls.
10,000. And that is just the early estimate for human life-everything else destroyed will have to be rebuilt after the main focus-the human lives lost or saved-is met.
Pray for the Philippines. Send the Red Cross money as you have for so many previous events.
We are here to help each other, as we can.
May God Bless you and the Philippines today.

Pig In A Poke Pizza

Sec: Mr President, are you busy?
P. O.: You can keep
Sec: Yes Sir-there's a Codie on your private line-I'll just put him through.
P.O. : If you like your
Codie: Mr.  President? Codie from Pig In a Poke Pizza. How you doing today?
P.O. : You will see a drop in
Codie: Sir, I'm calling today because we have another problem with with your card on file.
P.O. : Let me be clear: If you like
Codie: Yeah, sir...your card is maxed, and I'm afraid we'll need cash for any further deliveries.
P.O. : We will start by reducing premiums by as much as $2,500 per family!
Codie: Or if you have another card, that would be great. I know your Secret Service guys love our
deep dish!
P.O. :  ...your choice of doctor; keep your plan. The only thing we're going to do is lower costs.
Codie: That reminds, me, I'm afraid we've had to raise our prices a bit to...
P.O.: {click}

Sit On Hands, Play Chicken With Government

Please don't think of this as a partisan political post-I've been keeping a watchful eye on the roll out/roll over the cliff of Obamacare, which is hurting all of us. There are plenty of others yapping about this, so I will confine my post to just one tiny idea:
Wait. Wait and see, wait to see if reality does triumph over the fabulists. Hang on and hope that this bad idea dies because, like Frankenstein's Monster, it was never meant to live. Government never was meant to control healthcare. The idea was stillborn back in the day when it was derisively called "Hillarycare". They couldn't even bring it to a vote. So wait.
I am not signing up for government health care.
The government might decide that if you are on welfare, to continue to receive benefits, you must sign up.
The government might decide that anyone on social security must sign up. Or starve.
The alleged penalty for not signing up for the exchanges or having health care is supposed to be $95.00.
I will wait.
Some patriot might encourage everyone to participate in a denial of service attack against Healthcare,gov, millions of hits per day while not signing up.
I would say no to that-it would work, but I think that Obamacare will fail on it's own, though I can't imagine how the economic damage already done will be fixed.
Ah well. We survived six decades of Jerry Lewis, I guess we can get by.