Head-dibs

Today is Vernal Equinox, which means the sun is at one of two opposing points in the celestial sphere in relation to the Earth’s orbit around the sun and the length of night and day are nearly equal in the Northern Hemisphere. Science aside, it’s much easier to say, “First day of Spring.” Prior to 1948, imperial Japanese made this a festival day with regards to ancestor worship. Presently, today is a public Japanese holiday celebrating nature and living things--yet ancestor worship continues in this and other cultures. Ancestor worship is a spiritual practice that attempts to keep the family together (in so many words). Many view the world of the afterlife as being connected to the world of life, so kinships remain intact. The key feature here is that death is birth into another life. Reincarnation can be included in this system as the family may consist of the unborn living, the living living and the living dead. Simply stated, life is not complete without the presence of those who h...

"And I said--this is my infirmity!" Psalm 77:10 The best of men--are but men at best! We all have many remaining corruptions; we are all encompassed, like the high priests of old, with many infirmities. And what effect should the consideration of this humiliating but undoubted truth, produce? Ought it not, among other results, to excite in us a spirit of constant watchfulness? We are frail creatures--ever liable to fall! And being exposed, in addition, to the wiles of our spiritual adversaries--our danger is considerably greater. It is on our indwelling corruptions, that Satan works--and often, alas, with sad success! In addition to our general infirmities, it is probable that there is some one, or more besetting sins--to which we are particularly liable; in which case it befits us to be doubly on our guard! "If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts--then rid yourselves of the foreign gods--and the Ashtoreths; and commit yourselves to the Lord ...

There are many gods, which is why The One True and Living God distinguish Himself from all those that are not really gods at all. The objecting question is not a good one and the proofs are even worse; for example, Exodus 12:23 is sometimes referenced as proof there are many gods. The context of the passage clearly shows the Lord God doing two acts, not two gods working two acts. Another proof used in this objection is 1 John 5:7 (KJV), which reads, “ For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one .” The proof used by the objector answers against the objector. There is only one God. The first command is that we love God with all heart, mind, soul and strength. This means our love and devotion is undivided. Other things that compromise that love are gods of our own understanding, and this is offensive to the true and living God. This is why God warns repeatedly that men turn from false gods (things that are not rea...

I am personally not a huge “drop everything” fan of C.S. Lewis, but I do appreciate many of his contributions. This sonnet goes nearly unnoticed and unmentioned of his writings: From all my lame defeats and oh! much more From all the victories that I seemed to score; From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf at which, while angels weep, the audience laugh; From all my proofs of Thy divinity, Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me. Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust, instead of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head. From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee, O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free. Lord of the narrow gate and the needle's eye, Take from me all my trumpery lest I die. Lewis’ transparency is staggering, for here he presents to the world the weakness of his argument: himself. Recall that apologetics is defending the faith, and here C.S. Lewis confesses that every flaw in speaking on behalf of The Almighty lies with himself. Winning an argumen...

I had to watch this twice because I missed something the first time (the music should have been a clue): Ok, perhaps a little too specialized. Nestled two-thirds of the way through the Old Testament book of Isaiah, we find God discussing religion. Certainly this sounds strange, but in Isaiah 44 we find a tragic-comical commentary of what God thinks of those who make for themselves a god of their own understanding. First, we find a description of the Lord making a people for Himself (44:1-8): He chooses, forms, and pours out blessings as The Incomparable God. God is served by whom He forms, wiping out transgressions, redeems, receives worship and is glorified as The Maker of all things, “causing the signs of boasters to fail, making fools out of diviners,, causing wise men to draw back, and turning their knowledge into foolishness,” the One who performs His desires (44:21-28). Isaiah 44:9-20 describes the contrasting action of idolatrous man, who in futility makes a profitless and shame...

Quite unintentionally my readings the past few months have been in more ancient English works and many of those works I have reflected on here. While most have been poetic works from the Renaissance period, one particular historical narrative caught my eye. I will not spend too much time on it, but the overall thrust is quite exhilarating and makes a significant contribution to the ongoing conversation regarding the Biblical worldview. The Venerable Bede (673 – 735) was a Christian monk who earned the posthumous title, “Father of English History.” He was a biblical scholar, translator, and poet who composed (mostly for the purpose of correcting error and debunking myth) the earliest history of England in the five-volumes of the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People." The brief section I would like to highlight here is often referred to as, “ The Conversion of Northumbria ,” or “The Conversion of King Edwin.” England was a missionary frontier after the Roman occupation...

“ Far from enjoining men to listen to such tales are we, who avoid the practice of soothing our crying children, as the saying is, by telling them fabulous stories, being afraid of fostering in their minds the impiety professed by those who, though wise in their own conceit, have no more knowledge of the truth than do infants. For why (in the name of truth!) do you make those who believe you subject to ruin and corruption, dire and irretrievable? Why, I beseech you, fill up life with idolatrous images, by feigning the winds, or the air, or fire, or earth, or stones, or stocks, or steel, or this universe, to be gods; and, prating loftily of the heavenly bodies in this much vaunted science of astrology, not astronomy, to those men who have truly wandered, talk of the wandering stars as gods ?” (Clement of Alexandria, “Exhortation to the Heathen”) I quote Clement once more because our thoughts are centered on the matter he here presents: people are soothed with fabulous stories that are n...

"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality." (Albert Einstein )

Have you checked the oil in your car? The air pressure in the tires? The weather? The news? Is everything in order? Ever run a check on your god? Has your god created man on the earth or done anything like that? Has any people heard the voice of your god from the midst of the fire and survived? Has your god tried to take for himself a nation from within another nation? Has your god shown his might and power as God did in Egypt before so many witnesses? Has your god been heard from heaven? Has your god disciplined you because he loves you, as a father loves his children? Has your god driven out nations before his people? Has your god given you an inheritance? Has your god given commandments, that it may go well with you and with your children, that you may live long? ( Deuteronomy 4:32-40 )

" Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, ' If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, "This man began to build and was not able to finish." Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My di...

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a lady in the park. She claimed to have a Christian background, though was surprised to be caught by the law and her exposed sin. She admitted her guilt before God, and that the punishment for sin is death. She also said that though she did not deserve heaven knew she would be there because God “just forgives.” I asked her what she meant by that. She told me that she knew she would go to heaven because her mother was an atheist, and God would not send her mother to hell, so God forgives and lets everyone into heaven. My heart breaks right there. Recently Steve Sanchez shared on his blog : “But what can you say to someone who realizes that a deceased loved one might already be in eternal torment? One lady ran up to me after a recent open air sermon, furious about what she had just heard and shouted at me, ‘You mean to tell me that my 11-year-old son is in Hell for stealing a piece of gum? That’s a bunch of $#%&*!$%!’ Then she stormed away.” ...

"Whatever you believe is alright." "Everybody has their own beliefs." "Just so you believe something." These are sayings which you will hear from many people today. They sound nice, and help to make people feel good, since their own beliefs are said to be as valid as those of anyone else. "After all," some say, "can you really know anything for sure?" People who claim to have "the truth" are looked down upon as being arrogant and intolerant. For some reason, people can accept the idea that any religion is valid as long as it doesn't claim to be the only true religion! Do you know why that is? It's Satan's way of getting people to believe anything but the one thing that will remove his grip on their souls. It is not true that all religious beliefs are of equal value. It is not true that "Whatever you believe is alright." The very fact that "Everybody has their own beliefs" is what God says is man...

Tribune wire reports 12:24 PM CDT, April 8, 2008 SAINI SUNPURA, India - A baby with two faces was born in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said Tuesday.The baby, Lali, apparently has an extremely rare condition known as craniofacial duplication, where a single head has two faces. All of Lali's facial features are duplicated except for her ears--she has two. Otherwise, she has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes. Read the rest here , then go into all the world and preach the gospel.

"If we look carefully within ourselves, we shall find that there are certain limits beyond which we refuse to go in offering ourselves to God. We hover around these reservations, making believe not to see them, for fear of self reproach. The more we shrink from giving up any such reserved point, the more certain it is that it needs to be given up. If we were not fast bound by it, we should not make so many efforts to persuade ourselves that we are free. ” Henry Drummond (1851-1897), author of “ The Greatest Thing In The World .”

posted by Phil Johnson The Pyro Maniacs devote space at the beginning of each week to highlights from The Spurgeon Archive. The following excerpt is from "Wait for Signs and Wonders," a sermon Spurgeon preached on the last Sunday morning in October of 1869. ou are acting the part of an idolater. What does an idolater do? He says, "I cannot believe in an unseen God; I must have a golden calf or an image, that I can see with my eyes and touch with my hand." You say just the same. You cannot believe God's naked word, you demand something you can feel, something you can see. Sheer idolatry. Do you not see it? You make your own feelings and emotions, or strange impressions, to be more worthy of trust than even God himself. You make them idols, and put them into God's place. You, so far as you can, undeify the Deity. O tremble at such a crime as this!

The IrishCalvinist ran this great piece yesterday. Fits in great with our thoughts on "Does it matter what I believe?": Can we become so obsessed with making our theology work or pursue the “correct” theology with such fervor that it subtly becomes the thing we worship and not the Creator behind it? This is indeed a danger. Our sinful hearts can even use good things like the study of theology as an altar for the personal worship of self. This is tragic. The pursuit of and growth in the knowledge of God is not bad, in fact it is commanded (Matt. 22.37; 2 Pet. 3.18). However, it is true that knowledge in general and theological knowledge in particular may puff up believers (1 Cor. 8.1). So there is a command to learn and a caution toward the growth of pride. Read the rest here in " Can Theology become Idolatry? ".

This is the third time I’ve had to restart this blog entry. Third time because the LORD has pointed so many things out to me in these first few chapters of Exodus that I have tried to capture them all. But I’ve decided not to do that. Instead I will focus on just one great overriding theme in these first few verses, and that would be found in the Egyptians. God demonstrates fully his divine plan. He has no opposition, really. Those who oppose Him only think they do. Remember the way God stripped the pantheon of the Egyptians in the creation account and in so-doing, demonstrated to the first audience of the book that there are no gods? Now He is doing it again. Every time God does something in Egypt, it is not so Charleton Heston can look good someday on the big screen. It was not solely for Israel’s deliverance either. It was for the promise laid in Abraham that the nations be blessed. God was moving against the gods of Egypt and those who worshipped them! Setting: the Jacobsons...

Last night the kids were watching cartoons and an old Popeye cartoon came on, I beleive the date of this one was 1938 ("Don't Spanks the Baby"). I was'nt paying full attention, but for some reason Sweet Pea got a spanking for breaking something Popeye had sent him to his room, crying. After the door was closed (and the crying continued) an angellic sailor appeared over his shoulder and in sweet voice said in his ear, "now look at what you did! You made that baby cry--you should be ashamed of yourself." As Popeye began to slide into depression, a horned figure appeared and said, "What? You did'nt do nothing wrong. You got's nothing to be ashamed of. He deserved it." My ten year old daughter (the other spinach-eater in this tale) looks up at me and says, "Is that right? Isn't that backward? I don't like what that angel said at all--he is really acting like a devil. I think he lied to Popeye." I had to snap out of whateveritw...

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