Losing the Genie Mentality

Ok, so I have been reading this book on prayer the last few weeks, as our Sunday School class has been going through it (A Praying Life by Paul Miller). The book has been very interesting and helpful, but this posting is not a book review (sorry - suffice it to say for now that I do like it so far). As I have been re-learning to pray, I have noticed a deep down thought pattern emerging in my prayers. At first, it wasn't something that even phased me or was really noticed, but the more I started thinking about it, the more I realized not only that is was a totally wrong way to think, but that it was a pattern that came directly from my exposure to various modern "Genie" type stories. Let me see if I can properly explain this.

Book Review: The Fire That Consumes (Edward W. Fudge)

The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment by Edward W. Fudge

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have discussed, read and heard from people on this topic at time in the past ten years, but finally decided to jump into a very detailed study of the issue of final punishment from a more annihilationist position. Having been raised in a typical traditional view of hell as conscious torment, I was intrigued to see what the "other side" had to say. I found this book to be very, VERY thorough, and very enlightening. I am not sure how much more could be say, but in nearly 500 pages, Fudge covers an incredible amount of ground.

Memories: Pleasure and Pain

Every year, my church has a retreat on this weekend where we go to a 4H camp and stay in cabins, and have teaching sessions, games, family fun, dancing, sports, swimming, and great fellowship. We have been going yearly I guess for the past six years, and the kids look forward to it each year. It is a great time with many great memories.

Last year, I didn't get to go with the family, since my band had multiple gigs that weekend. I have still not lived that down. My family was again excited this time, but the kids were even more excited since I would be going with them for the majority of the weekend. While my band has a large exposure show on the Sunday of this weekend, I am still able to attend for Friday night, all day Saturday, and after my early morning gig, will return to finish out the entire Sunday afternoon with the family before coming home tomorrow night. 

Oil Spill Solutions?

Last week on the Mike Huckabee show, he had numerous guests on from various companies with numerous ways to safely and quickly clean up the continuing oil spill in the gulf. Most of the solutions were natural, non-toxic, and completely safe for the environment. It really makes you wonder why the government has not tried them, or why the EPA would makes stupid comments about them not being approved. Safe, non-toxic, natural solutions - not approved? Shoot, if I were these companies, I would go get the approval by running out and using the product today on the spill and stop it. Then let the citizens approve it when it works...HA! Maybe it is time for the environmental militia to take action.

In case you missed the show (shame on you), here is the full eleven segments from YouTube.

Police State and FEMA Camps

OK, so I have been promoting some Alex Jones films recently, and here is another one. I'm not going to add may of my own words to this, it is thorough enough with the evidence it presents. I was greatly saddened at the sections dealing with Glenn Beck and his glossing over some of the issues in FEMA camps. I am hoping maybe he has since then seen better evidence, and just has not had the time to go back and do a show on it.

I was most shocked when it got to the part with the footage of the event in Pittsburgh....about fifty-seven minutes into the film. I was shocked and enraged and felt like fighting back through the video. To think that citizens have been so brain washed that they can be duped into following such unconstitutional and horrible acts against other Americans. Why are the majority of these police forces not raising a voice of opposition against such ridiculous actions against a peaceful demonstration?

The Obama Deception

It is way beyond time for this generation to wake up and start paying attention to what is going on around them in the realm of politics. For far too long, people have walked around with their head in the sand, relying on government to do what is right, and ignoring what was going on behind the scenes. In doing so, the government has waged a war against the checks and balances that our country's forefather's put in place to protect us from overwhelming political power, and they have trampled on liberty and justice and are converting this nation into something totally foreign to what it was meant to be.

Many things have been radically changed by a progressive, power hungry regime, and the changes have been gradual for many decades. What kind of changes? What can be done to rectify them now? Who is behind all of this?

If Obama Had Told Us Before His Election

If Barack Obama had campaigned on what he has actually done in his first 300 days in office, would he have been elected? That's the question so many are asking today.

If Obama had told us he would appoint 34 czars, reporting only to himself and not vetted or confirmed in the constitutional way, building a powerful unitary executive branch of government, would he have been elected? What if he had told us that his green jobs czar had been a Communist, that the science czar wrote in a college textbook that compulsory "green abortions" are an acceptable way to control population growth and that the diversity czar has spoken publicly of getting white media executives to "step down" in favor of minorities?

Democratic Socialists of America?

Many people think I am crazy when I tell you that our president is a socialist. I think that it is because it is too unimaginable to believe that a United States president could ever stand for something that would ultimately ruin our country. We have a unique beginning, based on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We understand that individual freedom is what made our country great. People have flocked to this country with the hope of doing something with their lives that they could not do anywhere else. The reason we are different was based on our Christian beliefs, which were greater here than anywhere else in the world. Back then we had Faith, Hope, and Charity.

Call to Action: Learning from the War of the Jews

I have been reading through the amazing War of the Jews by Josephus, and ran across this exhortation by the high priest Ananus, and couldn't help but think the same type of speech could be equally applied to the majority of American's today who sit idly by and watch out freedoms dwindle as the government usurps more and more authority than they are Constitutionally allowed.

Of course I totally realize they were in a very different situation, being right in the middle of an all out bloody war. Their family and friends were dying around them, and their sacred things were being desecrated, and their foes were seemingly unstoppable. I just see a lot of what is being said about the non action of people during hard times, leads to loss of freedom and harder times. I see how that has been the case with our country over the past 150 years or so.

The lawful, Constitutional restraints of government have all but been forgotten by the government educated masses, and people today just go with the flow, and take little to no concern, and therefore the government encroaches on more and more freedoms. People need to pay attention, vote, and become real citizens of this country, and not just sit by and get steamrolled over. Hopefully, you too can read this, and keeping America in mind, be stirred, if even a little, to be more involved.

Hoping it Sinks In: Dealing with Grief and God's Sovereignty

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die...I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him...There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous...then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out...But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 2, 14; 8:14, 17; 9:1)