f.allen requaintance

Funny this and funny that. Something I read today brought to mind one of my early heroes of comedy, the gentleman pictured above, Fred Allen.
Top of the literary comedy heap for me is Robert Benchley and the only reason H. Allen Smith is
second, ahead of Fred Allen is output-most of Fred's genius was expressed through his radio show, which hasn't much survived to present day. Benchley and H. Allen made book on books, collections of their magazine and newspaper writings, which I have on my shelves.
Of Fred Allen, I only have one book, the collection of his letters which sparkled with wit. He had a comedic mind, view of life and command of language which makes him very readable/re-readable.
He made a few movies, had great success on radio and was known as one of the true gentlemen in 'show business'. Most of the biggest celebrities were honored to be known as his friend. Check him out if you need a laugh.

Reblogged from the other dougplace

Light-hearted VS Light-headed

 

 

I laughed hard when I saw this today. The joys of electricity and discovery!
Yup, a young teen, and it was a butter knife, just like the jr scientist above, but I did NOT stick the knife in an outlet---
I was using it to 'fix' an electric clock that was plugged in.
When I came to a few minutes later I was staring at the butter knife which had a big pitted burn
on the edge.
Fast forward 20 some years. I'm on top of a ten foot A-frame ladder replacing the ballast in an 8 foot fluorescent light fixture. Working hot was fine, as I was usually careful. To keep from getting shocked I would put a wire connector on the hot ends while switching out the ballast which weighed about 20 pounds. But I forgot...and as I was looking down the loose hot wires happened to graze both my ears at the exact same time. It was life a Chevy Chase or Ernest movie. The ladder thought it was an earthquake the way I was shaking around.Didn't fall, but I did get a good laugh out of it.
I know that the planet is rotating through some darkerish bad circumnavigations right now; this picture made me laugh, and that is enough for today.

 

With Sola Scriptura, A Little Heart, Please

I'll get to the post point in a moment, but first a mention about the recent posts I've made about Four Blood Moons and that Tom Horn guy with his Nimrod stuff-
I heard back from a friend who believes all of that stuff, and I could tell that she was hurt by my tone and comments in the letter I sent back with the materials I listened to and investigated.
Never my ambition to hurt someone's feelings, but if I can make this point without sounding like a heartless jerk, feelings and emotions do not change facts. We also aren't allowed to choose which 'facts' we accept. "Facts are stubborn things." John Adams.

My friend is Pentecostal, and Pentecostals are, sad to say, eager to open the doors to all kinds of errors because of sentimentality and emotions. Even stuff that goes against the Bible is swallowed whole if it comes from a Bible teacher they like.
I like some Bible teachers, and enjoy their works, but: I measure even my favorite teachers against Scripture to make sure that their teachings are solid.
I'm not the smartest guy in the room, except when alone, and my understanding of Scripture has evolved over the decades. As a newly hatched Christian I knew virtually nothing about God and understood little of what His Word revealed.
But that was long ago, and God has been working on me for quite awhile.
I recognize that my Pentecostal friend has also been a Christian for about as long, and yet she has an entirely different theology. God has also been working on her. 
I can't explain why there is such a disparity in our beliefs except to state that God is right, and we'll both find out in Heaven that the scraps of understanding we have here on earth are minimal compared to what we know then.
With all of that preamble, I'm going to cover today's actual post in just a few words:
This new movie, "Heaven Is For Real" based on the book of the same name is more emotional hogwash being put forth as a "Christian" film.
Which I state knowing that many soft-hearted Christians embrace that book and will probably make the film profitable.
Hogwash is too kind, but perhaps I should show some heart and simply state that the film, which purports to show a child who has visited Heaven and comes back to tell of it plays upon the emotions but friends, emotions can lie and cause us to accept lies. That's how we got our President.
Sola Scriptura. The Canon of Scripture is closed, and no matter how sensational a book or movie, no matter how the heartstrings are yanked by a cute kid having an amazing adventure...this is not of God, and it is not God expounding a New Revelation. If it is not Scripture IT. IS. FALSE.
Don't be suckered by what is false, but seek and hold only to what is TRUE.
Thus saith the heartless robot named Doug.

String Theorists

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ySSyrfJLs

Appreciate 'Till You

disintegrate. 
Here's the hear's of the day, friends:
"I've heard funerals referred to as unplanned family reunions with one less person. And reunions can be fun..."
Quoted at reddit on a posting today about things said at funerals. There's a bunch more, but I'm trying to focus here.
The picture above does not prove reincarnation, but this flower comes up below my window every year, nice red flowers. Each Winter the plant sleeps, and now it is awake. Then it will sleep again, if you can pardon the anthropomorphizing of a flower's habits.
Talking with a friend today-we've lost another of the family that once was tight, and now is more unwound. I didn't know of her death until after the service-as I said, unwound.
According to the Bible, the body in death 'sleeps' in the ground, dust and ashes returning to form, while the 'WE' who are US go to be with Christ.
The dead in Christ are no longer troubled by such circumstance as native to us on this side of Eternity. We are the ones going through troubles, great and small-those who have passed on are having a better time of it.
I've been to enough funerals lately; that isn't a complaint, just a statement. While we're here we are to be here for each other, to cherish the Life that God has given us, to mourn with those mourning and share burdens and joys on this side of eternity. May God Bless you today.

Living On Solae Power

Returning (briefly?) to the issues of false teachers banging the gong for, emphasizing "Four Blood Moons" and the ridiculable Nimrod antichrist theory, I was only going to focus on one of the five solas.
But that might not explain where I'm coming from; so, in short, these are the five solas:

Sola scriptura-trusting only in Scripture as God's Word revealed to mankind. Not Bible plus anything else. Just the Bible.

Sola fide-faith alone, not faith plus works, faith plus ritual, faith plus anything.  Faith alone in God, not in church, nor angels, or anything else. Just Faith. In God.

Sola gratia-Grace alone-recognising that Salvation is available only from God, and only on His terms.
No one can earn Salvation; it is a gift freely given by God.

Solus Christus-Christ alone-no other name given under heaven by which man can be saved. It is all of His work and His sacrifice on our behalf that makes Salvation, being re-united with God, possible.

Soli Deo gloria- only God is worthy to be Glorified and worthy to receive worship from His creation.

Bye the bye, although the Catholic church has much to do with Latin, they don't own the language, and the Reformers who gathered together under the banner of the five solas also worked in that language in opposition to the Catholic church.

So, Sola scriptura. This Tom Horn with his Nimrod fantasy uses a passage of Scripture as his jumping off point but then populates his mythos with creatures substantiated by other sources, which means that he does not follow Sola scriptura. So I confidently reject his theories just as the Reformers of Luther's day would have, had such ridiculous notions been floated in their presence.
Jude, half brother of Christ, wrote in his book warning against false teachers.
Jude quotes from non-canonical books just as the Tom Horn types do but here is the difference:  
Jude was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and while the sources may not be canonical, we can trust that
the events mentioned in those books actually occurred, or else the Holy Spirit working through Jude would not have allowed their addition into the canon.

Likewise, the Four Blood Moon theory which has more adherents due to its boosting by "Evangelicals" who have some gravitas...hogwash and garbage. Why?
Because the entire mythology is built upon the foundation of mis-quoting Scripture, as I noted in an earlier post.
To say that the "moon darkening" mentioned in conjunction with the Day of the Lord is in fact what is happening now, that such natural occurrences prove to be a  harbinger of the return of Christ is simple heresy.
My friend who brought this to my attention confidently stated that Christ will return sometime in 2014 or 2015 because of these moons. My initial response was to invite him to dinner at my house in January 2016. There! I've tired out your eyes enough for this post.

TL:DR or, Back To Brev

I haven't forgotten the maxim, "Brevity is the soul of wit". I know that my last two posts yammered on more than usual.
Those in the know know that "TL:DR" stands for 'Too long: didn't read".
So here's a picture from a Summer day. My same friend holding up a different sky. 

Being Red Mooned And Red Faced

I hardly ever do sequels with my posts, but after 24 hours of mulling and poking into dusty corners I've decided that I need to be more clear about "Refutations Of Biblical Proportions!!!".
As Homer would call it, part D'oh!.
In part one I decided to not mention the full name of the man who has been a part of the bad theology
onslaught having to do with Nimrod and his buddies  “Nefilim, Giborim, Anakim, Refaim Amalekim”.
Horn. Tom R. Horn. Horn is the owner/CEO of raidersnewsupdate website and also something called survivormall. His books and materials are available from each-theological stuff on raiders, survivalist supplies on the other. Nothing wrong with promoting his own stuff-I would do that, if I didn't give mine away for free (still overpriced!).
I've done more checking into this character, and I am among the throng of believers who have the spiritual discernment to recognize that he is a liar and a fraud.
I'm not alone-dig a bit deeper into the interwebs, past all of the puff pieces and con artist familia that vouch for each other, and those who refute his beliefs can be found, read, accepted or rejected.
In part one I mentioned that his theology is populated by “Nefilim, Giborim, Anakim, Refaim Amalekim” and Nimrod who, though born a man, became something other.
I didn't mention that Horn believes that Nimrod will come back to life as the Antichrist because that sounds too silly even for a heretic.

As I've mentioned to a friend who believes all of the Blood Moon miasma, the words of the day should be "Critical Thinking".

Here are some questions that I would ask Horn using critical thinking:

Horn, you claim to have been a Pastor for 25 years. What was your denomination, ordination board?
Do you have any doctorates, any degrees? What is your education?
Please tell-what is your statement of faith? What do you believe, and why?
If you were a Pastor, why did you leave the pastorate?
Can you use Sola Scriptura, that is, only the Bible to explain your beliefs? If not, why not?

There. I wouldn't take Herm Goering's word, vouching for Hitler's honesty.
I have no reason to accept anything about Tom Horn written by his fellow travelers/fringe conspiracists.
Bye the way, about that Blood moon business. It's just marketing smoke and blood red mirrors. You couldn't sell ANY materials about four lunar eclipses. But call them Blood Moons and you've struck
blood red GOLD! It creates an emotionally charged idea out of a simple truth: sometimes there are lunar eclipses.
Yes, Scripture does mention a time when the moon will be darkened. But that will be then, and it isn't now. How can I prove that?
Scripture. 
¹³    Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.     Come, tread, for the wine press is full;     The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
¹⁴    Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!     For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
¹⁵    The sun and moon grow dark     And the stars lose their brightness. Joel 3:13-15
This speaks of the Day of the Lord, when Christ judges the wickedness of the world. Not happening now.

 ²⁹“But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Matthew 24:29
This speaks of the Day of the Lord, when Christ judges the wickedness of the world. Not happening now.

 ¹⁰    For the stars of heaven and their constellations     Will not flash forth their light;     The sun will be dark when it rises     And the moon will not shed its light. Isaiah 13:10
This speaks of the Day of the Lord, when Christ judges the wickedness of the world. Not happening now. 
See the pattern? These are some of the proof texts for those getting all excited about the Blood Moons. 
C'mon, brethren! Critical thinking! Read the Scriptures for yourself and ask God, not John Hagee, Tom Horn or Mark Biltz-ask God to show you the truth. And then be humble enough to admit that you were wrong.

Refutations Of Biblical Proportions!!!

- "It really seems to me that in the midst of great tragedy, there is always the possibility that something terribly funny will happen."

Philip K. Dick

Forgive, please-this post is not going to be my usual nonsensical musings. I have Refaim to slay!!

Here’s the deal-along with the “Four Blood Moons” nonsense which is discomfiting the easily gullible, there’s another wisenheimer-in-his-own-eyes “Scholar” who is doing the work that American Gnostics won’t do: announcing to the world that he has the answers to questions that only the noble high-minded seekers of truth will ask.

Here’s what burns my goat on the altar of ignorance: he dresses up his nonsense in Biblical terms, pretending that his “wisdom” is authenticated by Scripture. That bugs me.

I have great respect for Scripture, and I do not like to see it used to shore up unbiblical theories and the wild imaginings of Man.

Horn is the name of the mystical miscreant-I will not name him or link to his writings.

Instead I will show you all (if anyone is reading this) how the trick is done and undone.

Ready? Horn posits that the Nimrod of the Bible is the same entity as Gilgamesh, Osiris and Apollo. Here’s the actual verse from Genesis upon which he hangs his theory:

⁸Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. 
⁹He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.” Genesis 10:8-9

Horn makes much of “he became a”, suggesting that he was turned into something other than human.

Problem: Nimrod was the grandson of Ham, great-grandson of Noah, and nothing else in Scripture even remotely mentions any such transformation. If you think I’m making too much of this, Horn believes in what he calls “Trans-humanism” where human and animal DNA are/were mixed to create something else that could be inhabited by others, which I’ll get to in a minute.

All of Horn’s theories about Nimrod’s transformation depend upon his interpretation of “he became a”.

Gilgamesh, Osiris and Apollo (the god, not the evangelist) are not mentioned in Scripture. That Nimrod is connected with these other names is ridiculous speculation not supported by Scripture.

Only one more example to get your head spinning. 

Let’s go to Exodus!

³⁷Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children. 
³⁸A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of livestock.” Exodus 12:37-38

Hope you are ready for this. The verse above mentions “mixed multitude”. According to Horn, the mixed multitudes included “Nefilim, Giborim, Anakim, Refaim Amalekim”.  What are they?

Transhumans like Nimrod? Maybe kinda sorta, if they weren't Egyptian bankers and magicians.

That is reading an entire hybrid human/animal mythology into “mixed multitude” to come up with “EVIDENCE”.

Doesn’t pass the stink test. Fail. Horn will have to re-take mythological theology 101. 

He’s better hurry-he also posits that Pope Frankie is *possibly* the False Prophet mentioned in Revelation according to a 900 year old prophesy by a Catholic “Saint”. And those four blood moons mean that mankind is in BIG TROUBLE!!! End of the world as we know it by 2016. Yea…..nope.

I want Christ to come back, but I don't look outside of the Bible for any wisdom concerning His return. There they're be divils!

Flesh Profits Zilch

The picture might not seem to go with the post. Forgive please, and read on.
In John chapter 6 Jesus tells His disciples, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life."
The flesh profits nothing.
Via Veritas Vita. When Christ said,  “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." He meant exactly that.
His sacrifice. His Life. His words are spirit and life.
That is exclusive. Singular. No matter how many emotionally WISH that there were some other avenue for Salvation, those without Christ have no hope of Heaven.
Some friends and I watched "Fiddler On The Roof" the other night and it is a wonderful play, with great songs and touching drama and humor. The play centers on Tevye the milkman, a humble Jewish man who considers himself religious and a friend of God.
How horrible a person am I for suggesting  that the Tevyes of this world who live for God have no part of God and no hope of Heaven?
I'm not horrible. Or 'anti-Semitic'.
I'm pro-Christ, the Jewish Messiah Who was rejected by the religious Jews of His day because their religion was not of His Spirit, but of flesh. 
The Jewish believers who were of His Spirit came to be known as "Christians".
All other Rabbis/teachers from that day until now have been perpetuating a fleshly 'religion' which excludes Christ.They have much wisdom, but it is earthly wisdom. They know, teach and learn from Scriptures but it is not spiritual but flesh because "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.".
If I'm not in trouble yet, read on.
Here is another way in which the flesh profits nothing: it is the Spirit who gives life, not anything we do or can touch or make happen or put faith in apart from God's Spirit.
Someone who goes through an agonizing horrible event, whether it is being blown up by a roadside bomb or having the worst forms of Cancer---all is flesh and happens to the flesh.
There is no piety in suffering; a person can not 'win' Heaven by going through hell on earth.
I mean no disrespect to the woman above who was a victim of the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing. But her terrible pain and suffering, while making her a stronger person, has not had one whit of effect on her eternal destination. I hope that she's a Christian, just as I hope that Heaven will be filled and hell empty. But if she is a Christian it is through Christ and His suffering on her behalf, not through anything she has experienced.
The flesh profits nothing.

 

Abide

The picture above used to be my life-I loved the bean! But recently I have cut way, way back on my coffee drinking, and it feels normal now to just have water.
I have learned to abide-a nice enough word, which to me means that I am comfortable in my own
skin, pleased with the blessings bestowed on me by God, happy with my life.
Abide. Restfull, as in not restless.
I know that many people remember that word from the Coen brothers movie, "The Big Lebowski" where we find that "The Dude Abides."
So do I, right where God has placed me. May God Bless you today.

Getting Out Of God's Way

The Intrernets are riphe with comments, opinions, alleged wisdom, and that and that and all of that.
Here are God Breathed words which are so much more:

Psalm One
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.
³    He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,     Which yields its fruit in its season     And its leaf does not wither;     And in whatever he does, he prospers.
⁴    The wicked are not so,     But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
⁵    Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,     Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
⁶    For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,     But the way of the wicked will perish. 

Carole King Had The Right Of It

"I FEEL THE EARTH...MOVE...UNDER MY FEET..."

Seems that when no one was watching we launched into earthquake season. Now Oklahoma
(still OK!), last week California; out of town tryouts in Indiana next.
Any California resident can attest-tremblors tremble all the time. The big ones get the press, the little ones can't get a mention on local TV, not even the wacky news weekend segment.
One time I awoke to my bedroom gently rocking back and forth-my two cats jumped up on the bed scared out of their whiskers. Earthquake centered in lower California, reached Las Vegas. shrugs
One thing to remember-there is indeed reference to earthquakes in the Bible as happening in the last days.
But don't let anyone scare you up a stump as if what we are seeing now are the beginning of that.
No-you'll KNOW when those quakes start their business!
So, no fear, just caution. Remember the Boxing Day Tsunami on 2004 that wiped out 100,000 souls.
There will be big ones and small ones-just part of Creation. If you're on an ocean beach and the water recedes big time, time for a big time move out of there.
This post went a different direction-I was going to write about how God indeed answers prayers and
takes care of His children. More evidence of both happened today. More evidence tomorrow.
If I were to perish in an earthquake...I would just be in Heaven that much quicker. I'll stay here until
I get called up there, and then more Peace than we can possibly put into words will be my existence.
May God Bless you today.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."

Sometimes we're the mourner, sometimes the comforter. Sometimes a mix.
Once upon a time I was sitting in a hospital waiting room, sad and troubled.
This guy came up and said, "Hey, I don't know your situation, but I can see you're hurting.
The hurting will pass, it always does, and things will get better."
I thanked him; I knew he was right.
Another time, different waiting room. Same hospital.
My family rushed there for my brother who had fallen.
The waiting room was overpacked-it looked like over a hundred people in a space meant for a third that number.
Milling around, crying-a teen aged girl had been in a catastrophic car accident, and was near death- they were all there for her.
Later that night, I was 'not' napping on a bench-my family went home to sleep.
The crowds were gone; it would be the next day before anything would be known about the girl's
condition.
I prayed for that girl, for her family and friends. I prayed for my brother.
Someone, I think the girl's aunt, was also waiting; we got to talking, comforted each other, encouraged each other that all would be all right.
I told her that I was praying for her niece, and she appreciated that.
"And you're here for your brother? How is he doing?"
I had to shake my head-he was basically already gone.
That teen aged girl survived. There was a news article a year later about her rehabilitation, and it was
gratifying to hear that she came back from such a terrible injury.
In the past year I've known some mourning, and comforting.
One friend passed away about a month ago-today when I was calling his widow, I was startled: his
voice is still on the phone answering message. When she called me back later we could laugh about it, which is a kind of comforting. She's doing all right.
As that guy said in the waiting room, "Things will get better.".

Unbowed By Pain

Please forgive the use of the above picture-it is from a horror film, "Les yeux sans visage" -in
English, "Eyes Without A Face". 
I mean no disrespect to anyone, and am using this photo rather than one from real life because we need that buffer, that detachment that film provides.
Right now I know of someone who has been suicidal, has tried to take his life to stop the pain and horror that his life has turned into. That is just about the toughest pain that we can know. 
Back when I was a newbie Christian, I fell in among good company and became part of a 'Coffeehouse' ministry which met in an old church. 
One night we had a guest speaker who had a plastic face-it was an approximation similar to the photo above. Real life horror. 
This man had been suicidal and had blown his face off with a shotgun. 
He survived, and later accepted Christ, accepting the Grace that God had ready for him. 
So now this Christian brother was talking to groups, sharing how God has saved from from a desperate, hurting life. We should cherish the life we have been given by God.
This was 30 plus years ago-I have no idea where that man is now, but I know that when we get to Heaven, we will be unbowed by pain, we will be free from all of the hurts and tragic events that
make up life on this side of Eternity. 
It says in God's Word that at that time Christ will wipe away every one of our tears. 
That is Love, friends. 
I will see that man from the coffeehouse in Heaven-we will know just as we are known, part of the glorious blessings of Heaven. 
In those perfect fit for eternity bodies we will Praise God together.
I pray that God will seek you out, lift your burdens, save you. If life has become too much
for you or someone you love, Pray. His Grace is sufficient for all that we face, and that Grace can be yours. 
May God richly Bless you today.

Lest Said Bitter

FAIL