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.

Maker's Mark, Window Cats and ‘Meretricious Living’

Once more, NOT my cats, but an example of 'window cats'. Really, just google image 'window cats'
and see for yourself how plentiful they are.
I had dinner tonight in a bar restaurant in front of a bottle of "Maker's Mark" whisky. It reminded me
that we are made in God's image, our Maker has put His Mark on us, even though sin has marred our existence.
Sin is temporary and will burn away. God and His Mark are forever.
Part of our Maker's Mark is evident through our morality-we know right from wrong, even when we do wrong. Especially when we do wrong. God instilled in us His morality, and our cosmos, this corrupt world lives by that morality even when full populations of peoples reject God.
We mostly all TRY to be good. That is design.
Cats don't have any morality, being made not in God's image, but in the fashion that He designed. They know how to find the warm sunny spots, but are totally lacking a sense of humor. That's design,too.
In church tonight we studied "Pride vs Humility" and I was reminded of an exchange online the other day where this alleged pontificator attempted to impress us with his language- he even worked "‘meretricious" into his dismissal of someone else's point.
Fool's gold, blarney. I hide my education through language, and I haven't failed yet.
Live for real, don't act or sound big online if you're really a shrimp. Any Capuchin Monkey can be King Kong online...but no one is fooled for long.
Keepin' it real since the Eisenhower Administration. See you on the other side?

OURSTORY

44 years ago, I'm just a child, my family heading to visit friends in another town. Like most of the world, we listened to the report 'live' as Neil Armstrong made that famous step. I was looking up at the Moon through the rear window of the car as history happened.
History='Ourstory' as "Men" walked on the Moon. Not Americans. Not Caucasians. Not Democrats or Republicans. Men. We. Mankind accomplished the goal set by President Kennedy but dreamed of since man first looked up into the sky.
It was a great moment, it was spectacular...and now, to my shame, I needed to be reminded that it happened 44 years ago today. I'm watching Baseball when a graphic pops up on the screen, along with a note about Hank Aaron hitting number 755 on July 20th a few years later.
So, late to the party (will there be a party?), I celebrate this day in Ourstory when 44 years ago WE walked on the Moon. As a long time baseball fan, I lift my coffee cup in salute to Hank also.
Remember the Good.

Breathing Fresh Air

Ah, Summer-the lovely time of year when peoples stop complaining about how cold it is and
get down to the serious business of complaining about the heat. I just had the honor of cutting my lawn
and am now hiding from the sunburn.
I love living in a small town. This is also rummage sale season, and I do my part to move cherished somethings from other garages into mine. Eventually I'll have a sale and continue the process.
I can go to most any sale and ask, "Has Val been here yet?" and get affirmative. I have friends who are such avid rummagers that their three car garage is set up as a 'store'. I picked up a crochet quilt and a lawn chair from them a few weeks back.
Breath fresh air. Enjoy the day. Don't complain too much. 

Go See "Pacific Rim" In 3D And Thank Me Later

Just got back from playing hooky from cleaning-I was looking at movie info online and saw a positive note about "Pacific Rim". Quick! To the Dougtruck!
It was great. It was better than "Cats". I'm going to buy the 3D Blu when it comes out.
If you haven't yet warmed to 3D in the theater, this movie is immersive, meaning the 3D is fully integrated
into the film and all that you notice is how great it looks. For me it was worth the few extra bucks to enjoy
a pretty great film in three dimensions. Four if you count time.
I do not watch trailers or read reviews on movies I want to see, so I knew little about this film except that it was from Guillermo Del Toro. I won't say more, except that I think that if you seek it out on a 3D screen, you will enjoy it.

Guillermo Del Toro

Guillermo Del Toro

Guillermo Del Toro

You're God Doesn't Exist

Not a misspelling.
Our God exists Greater than our Existence.
You are not God.
You do not run the world.
You can't save yourselves from hell.
Liars who tell you that you are superior to God
Are on their way to hell themselves and want company.
God on your terms is a fiction.
Don't be doomed by a fiction.
Seek the True God while He may be found.

May This Fourth Also Be With You

Absolute proof that we are conflixterated sapients: It's all okay.
"Psalm 37:1-7 (HCSB)
¹
 Do not be agitated by evildoers; do not envy those who do wrong.
²  For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants.
³  Trust in the LORD and do what is good; dwell in the land and live securely.
⁴  Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart’s desires.
⁵  Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will act,
⁶  making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.
⁷  Be silent before the LORD and wait expectantly for Him; do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way, by the man who carries out evil plans."

I would quote more of this wonderful Psalm, but the point is made in those few stanzas:
"Don't worry, Be Happy". 
Turmoyled.  If I were to look only at circumstances, this year in this world could win first prize for most
troubled and least improved.
But all of the BAD, all the frictis and cancer and deaths and economic crazy salad and war and personal
problems in existence right now...aren't able to negatize my life.
Here's the thing-despite all of the nastiness I trudge through every day...I'm happy.
Of course, some of the most unhappy people claim to be happy to be able to get through a day, but you'll
have to trust me on this-I am happy.
This Psalm is a refuge, a place where God spells it out for us: Do not be agitated, trust in the LORD, take delight in the LORD, Commit your way to the LORD and He will act.
Looking in at Christianity from the outside, you can't understand how comforting it is to be freed from Worry and troubles because God cares for us, takes care of us. It frees me from dreading what may come; I am looking ahead to the Day when Christ returns and cleans house on all of the Bad that stains this existence.
Until that Day...no fretting (without a guitar). No worries so 'all encompassing' that they ruin the happy.
Praise God for this day, this Fourth of July, when we remember how God set peoples free from a tyrant, guiding them to issue a Declaration of Independence, and making it so. 
I am free from the tyranny of worry because God made it so for me.
Happy Independence Day!  

Start Small...Smaller...Smaller Yet...Almost There...

Dig down, friends, deep deeply deeper down. Your life-view (and mine) is based on a number on accepted truths and assumptions regarding God, Man, and everything that exists in the multiverse.
Here's what I mean: if I mention 'politics', because it is me, Doug, here at FDW, you will instantly decide from past posts what my viewpoints are about politics, and whether or not you will agree with or dispute what I might say. Some of you (Hi Lu!) might already be assembling a list of my wrong headed beliefs, ready to jump on any alleged 'fact' that can be disputed.
Calm down, citizens-this isn't a political post. I may post on that subject again, but since the last Presidential election, there hasn't seemed to be much point.
No-you're safe from one of my political screeds.
Here's another test-abortion. Clang{!} go the bars of your mind, shutting the front door on anything I might say.
You can't argue with a made up mind, so again, there doesn't seem to be much point in bringing...that word...
up.
Deeper down, friends, below the surface world of accepted truths and assumptions, without regard to political positioning or bumpersticker non-mentalities...please, just one question I would like you to answer.
Is a fetus before it is born...human?