Head-dibs

Remember, the holidays are for families, so remember this amphibolie during this festive time of year: "include your loved ones when baking cookies!"  Happy Thanksgiving!  Speaking of pilgrims, when did American accents diverge from British accents ?  Beware that dreamy and disembodied after-turkey feeling . How to miss the moment with your iPhone . Get some perspective with this " Scale of the the Universe ." If you are watching movies for the holidays, don't miss the Architecture of Inception .

Is videotaping the police a crime? Seems that most missed the part about the driver committing traffic violations before being held accountable . Science now affirms what the Bible already teaches: the chicken came first ! Professor Howard Marshall's book, " A Pocket Guide to New Testament Theology "is available for download at BiblicalTraining.org Photoshop Time Travel. This makes one think twice about where we live and where we go. "Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov took some old photographs from World War II and combined them with new perspective-matching photos . The result are a series of time portals that help us contextualize the war into our current reality." (ht: Harlan Cone)

As of this writing, there are nearly 600 distinct crime-related shows on television each week. We have a strange fascination with crime: as long as it happens to someone else, we are easily entertained; yet, each of us have a personal relationship with crime in some way. The problem of crime, the disservice received by victims of crime and recommended reforms from a biblical perspective are the subjects covered Daniel Van Ness in his informative 240 page book, “ Crime and Its Victims ” (Inter-Varsity: Downers Grove, 1986). Why offer a book review of a twenty-four year-old book? Van Ness has a great concern for the victims of crime. “[C]rime is a spiritual malaise, the result of individuals making wrong moral choices. It is a matter of the heart and can be solved only when we apply moral solutions” (p. 11). This book is divided into four major parts, then subdivided into smaller chapters. The first section, “What’s Happening Here?” explains the relationship between victim and criminal. ...

There is one scene in Disney’s “A Bug’s Life” (time travel back to 1998) where the Grasshoppers bully the Ants over food and things get a little rough. Most frightening to the Ants is the Grasshopper, Thumper. He a raving mad-bug. His eyes are bloodshot, teeth are jagged, and his wings are torn. He never speaks (except in the outtakes), but grunts and growls, screams and scowls. When the lead Grasshopper (Hopper, wants to flex a little muscle, he snaps his fingers (?) and Thumper goes berserk. This is the picture that comes to mind when I read Matthew 12:14 which says, “But the Pharisees went out and counseled together against Him, as to how they might destroy Him.” Not too far before they began plotting, Jesus healed (among others that day) two blind men (Matthew 9:27-30) and a demonized man who was also dumb (Matthew 9:32) was brought to Him. Now, after they plotted to kill Him, we read that they go out, find a man who is demon-possessed, blind and dumb (Matthew 12:22) and bring him ...

Our team was downtown late one Friday night. Outside one bar, I saw a man crossed the street toward us with another fellow and two young ladies tagging along. I noticed he was wearing a “Got Jesus?” tee-shirt. Curious, I asked him if he had a Christian background. I ’ll tell you what happened in a moment—keep reading. Mention the “love chapter” of the Bible and one thinks of 1 Corinthians 13. Mention “The Hall of Faith,” and one turns to Hebrews 11. Ask someone on the street their favorite psalm and most will say “the 23rd.” When we think of Acts 17, our minds flip up the title, “Paul Goes to Mars” (or something like that) and we recall this is the record of Paul preaching to the pagans in their temple regarding “an unknown god.” Our eyes zero in on verse 16, noting that Paul when he arrives in Athens, does what any good Mars rover does: he observed. Next, he went to their temple and preached, they heard and some believed. Actually, that’s not quite what happened. When Paul first arriv...

Are you familiar with this word, "abomination?" Perhaps now it is an older word and not much used today. The word is used in reference to something extremely disgusting--so disgusting in fact, that one would put distance between himself or herself and whatever the abomination is. That which makes you jump up and run into the other room might be considered an "abomination." We've all seen the videos of people jumping up, running and screaming from dead rats (fake or otherwise) bugs, or just being scared in general. This is the idea that something is so horrendous, one flees the scene. Perhaps we would not jump up and run from these things, but consider our reaction to certain people or situations. We will not tolerate cheating either in business or in board games. What is your reaction to a business that steals from its customers, or treats its employees unfairly? We would avoid that business, and perhaps report to some authority regarding unethical business prac...

Reading through the account of Polycarp’s martyrdom reveals several observations concerning the conflict of worldviews and the impact of truth. Polycarp was killed for being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, killed in the name of religion. The persecution of believers today occurs because of the same conflict the world showed against truth--the same hostility that even our Lord Jesus Christ faced in his arrest, trial and death. Truth wrecks the principles of religion because truth is rooted in the person of Lord Jesus Christ, not in a man-made system of people who think they understand God. Pragmatism as a worldview results in many, many problems, because it attempts to establish truth in a "user-friendly" fashion. When two people stand shoulder to shoulder in the name of pragmatism or religious tolerance, the systems fail before it ever begins; for example, biblical truth stresses that man is the crown of God's creation, so for one man to "lift his hand" aga...

“There are four great impelling motives that move men to action: Fear, Hope, Faith, and Love—these four, but the greatest of these is Fear.” Fear makes people do the strangest things. The Russian revolutionary Joseph Stalin had eight bedrooms that could each be locked up like a bank vault, and nobody knew which room he was sleeping in on any given night. “Cockpit country” in Jamaica was once called the “Land of Look Behind” after the 1600’s. Runaway slaves (“maroons”) fled into the jungles and waged guerilla warfare against the English. The government troops so frequently looked over their shoulders to avoid ambush that they gave the mountainous area it’s name. Fear does not prevent us from greeting a stranger in the grocery store, nor does it keep us from talking about the best deals in town (we may perhaps even swap coupons) or discussing the best brand of toilet paper (I was being random). Yet, turning the corner in the store and seeing some young men with nametags that read "T...

Solomon was right: there is nothing new under the sun. I am amazed at the ongoing objections concerning the relevance of the Bible today, yet within those very objections is proof enough that the Bible is indeed very relevant. Objectors do not realize how they confirm scripture by their very act of rebellion. We find ourselves in the unique position to view an incredible display of God's omniscience as He reveals what is on the hearts, minds and in the actions of His enemies. This, too, demonstrates the relevance of God's Word today as what God reveals continues without abatement today. They bring nothing new to the forum, but a tired excuse to disbelieve God. When David was inspired to ask, " why are the nations in an uproar ," he was reflecting on old news and from our perspective, nothing has changed in that regard: the nations are still in an uproar as they try to cast off the rule of God. What should the nations be doing? The book of Psalms alone contains a small...

74 AD, The Letter of Barnabas: “The way of light, then, is as follows: If anyone desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way is the following: Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion: nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born.” 137 AD, The Apocalypse of Peter: “And near that place I saw another strait place into which the gore and the filth of those who were being punished ran down and became there as it were a lake: and there sat women having the gore up to their necks, and over against them sat many children who were born to them out of due time, crying; and there came forth from them sparks of fire and smote the women in the eyes: and these were the accursed who conceived and caused abortion.” 150 AD, Didache: “The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commi...

Time NEVER erases a crime. Fugitive Murderer Captured After Hiding for 16 Years in Portugese Caves - International News News of the World Middle East News Europe News - FOXNews.com Posted using ShareThis

My shining feet will never run on early morning lawn; My feet were crushed before they had a chance to greet the dawn. My fingers now will never stretch to touch the winning tape; My race was done before I learned the smallest steps to take. My growing height will never be recorded on the wall; My growth was stopped when I was still unseen, and very small. My lips and tongue will never taste the good fruits of the earth; For I myself was judged to be a fruit of little worth. My eyes will never scan the sky for my high—flying kite; For when still blind, destroyed were they in the black womb of night. I’ll never stand upon a hill, Spring’s winds in my hair; Aborted winds of thought closed in on Motherhood’s despair. I’ll never walk the shores of life or know the tides of time; For I was coming but unloved, and that my only crime. Nameless am I, a grain of sand, one of the countless dead; But the deed that made me ashen grey floats on seas of red. (Fay Clayton, Christian Crusade Weekly, J...

"What does the gospel say about homosexuals?" I was just finishing a conversation with a doctor at the Fountain in Five Points when I noticed two young ladies and a young man walking up to the Fountain. Though I was shaking hands and closing off my conversation with the doctor, I could not take my eyes off the girls and the guy for some reason, and one girl would not take her eyes off me. They sat down very close to us and I could almost feel a gravitational pull toward them. I pulled out three Million Dollar Bill tracts from my pocket and offered them to the girls and the guy. One girl only looked at it and would not take it. She told me so. The other girl took one, and so did the guy. Just as sure as I felt drawn toward them, I quickly felt pushed away. I told them to read the back because there was an important message they should pay close attention to and I sort of drifted back toward the street where I met another young man who stopped to talk when I offered him a Milli...

In the movie, “Papillon,” Steve McQueen played the part of a criminal who was imprisoned for life for crimes against the French state. The movie portrayed the dreams he dreamed while in prison. In one dream, he stood before a tribunal for a crime. He pleaded with the judge that he was not guilty of the crime for which he was being tried. The judge relied that he was not being tried for that crime, but for a crime which is the most heineous crime of the human race. Papillon asked what crime it was. He replied ‘The crime of a wasted life.” Papillon wept, “Guilty, guilty.” The judge pronounced the sentence of death.

One of our local papers here in Columbia published the following in the Crime Blotter: "A March 1 complaint on behalf of South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. said someone purposely struck a lamppost near a Greene Street sidewalk, causing about $500 in damage. OK, so how do they know if someone did it on purpose or it was an accident? And are we talking a car hitting it, or a person? Because, you know, if the Hulk is running around smashing lampposts that’s need-to-know info." Thought you would be interested. Just in case . . .

Yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama gave the following speech wherein he made some very particular comments. USA Today also carried a concise run-down: Regarding the history of the Prayer Breakfast, the President said it "strikes me that this is one of the rare occasions that still brings much of the world together in a moment of peace and goodwill." The President said, "There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all." The " Friendly Athiest " remarked, "It’s strange hearing a politician mention non-religious people in a positive, inclusive way. I could get used to this." The President went on to say, "But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there ...

1. They know that time never erases a crime . 2. Can he handle the job ? 3. Five "things" evangelism is NOT . 4. Five reasons to turn it down .

Candidates, political parties, and supporters spend millions of dollars in campaigning for the office of the presidency of the United States. For the one who wins the job, there is also a tremendous physical and emotional price, resulting from the vigorous schedule and incredible pressures and responsibilities. Despite the financial and physical price the office exacts, there is no shortage of people willing to campaign for the job. Each new candidate brings a list of plans and promises, intending to bring about incredible progress. But when the president takes office, do these promises necessarily come to pass? Generally, a substantial percentage of them do not. Even the most honest candidate with the best intentions cannot keep all of his promises--the problems faced are simply too complex, and the resources available are simply not adequate to solve every problem. This is why one person after another is voted into power with great expectations of progress and peace only to find that...