Pretty soon everyone is going to have one of these

http://tinyurl.com/na8bgo

I don’t right now but no doubt will have one in the near future, especially if it is jail broken.

Did you hear this about our President?

The Scripps News Service carried this as the US President attended the G-20 summit in London.  Please Mr. Obama, you are supposed to be the President of all of us.  And, we are trying to trim the budget for 2010.  I think the British media found some fat that could be trimmed greatly.

Enjoy and react!

The heads of government in London for the G-20 summit are discussing serious and weighty issues, which in time will be duly reported on, but right now the British press is entranced by the sheer size of President Obama’s traveling entourage. And no wonder.

Obama arrived with 500 staff in tow, including 200 Secret Service agents, a team of six doctors, the White House chef and kitchen staff with the president’s own food and water.

And, according to the Evening Standard, he also came with “35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters.” For sure, our president is not going to be at a loss for words.

The press duly reported on Air Force One and all its bells and whistles but also on the presence of the presidential helicopter, Marine One, and a fleet of identical decoys to ferry him from Stansted airport to central London.

Among all those vehicles is the presidential limousine, which one local paper mistakenly called Cadillac One, but is universally referred to as the Beast. The limo, reinforced with ceramic and titanium armor, carries tear gas cannon, night vision devices, its own oxygen and is resistant to chemical and radiation attack. It is, marveled one reporter, a sort of mobile panic room. The Guardian called it “the ultimate in heavily armored transport.”

The president is entitled to all the security, communications and support he feels necessary to do his job but surely, when we’re trying to project a more restrained, humble image to the world, the president’s huge retinue could be scaled back to something less than the triumphal march from “Aida.”

Vacation: I had one

It was wonderful.   We love visiting Hilton Head Island because there is so much to see and do there.  This visit did not disappoint.

So here are some shots from the visit.  You can tell, we go there mostly for the nature.

And if you are really interested and want to see more nature, try this.

This is a rare look at some baby Anhingas in a nest on a fallen tree over a lagoon.

Did Evangelicals Curb the Housing Bubble?

I am reading an interesting bit of research summarized in a blog section of the New York Times.  The research conducted in part by Christopher Crowe postulates that because of Evangelicals’ theological bent about end times we do not spend as must on houses as non-evangelicals. (I assume that could be true.)

Next the summary points out that Evangelicals would tend to give to unbelievers more generously during tough times such as the current financial crisis.  (Okay, I could believe that. In fact,  I could be proud of that.)

Lastly, the researchers apparently go off the deep end and attempts to link a Rapture Index, yes, there really is one, to changes in home prices in Evangelical areas.

The summary blog never defined Evangelical areas or told where they are.  I just can’t conceive such an area but that may be because I am not really familiar with US demographics.

Mr. Crowe did find a 90 % correlation between the Rapture Index and changes in home prices in areas where Evnagelicals are concentrated.

If you ask me this is hocus pocus and of course the New York Times blogger ducked by including this comment, “It’s important to note that the results here show correlation and don’t establish causation.”  Okay, and there could be and likely are confounding factors to these correlations which the researchers did not study.

But if you want more entertainment of this nature:  here it is.

Is Jesus God? If Killed, God would rise from the dead

I have written exhaustively about the topic so I thought I would include a link here to the How to Know God blog.

Jesus did rise from the dead as shown by the creed that the Apostle Paul records.  You can see that here.  There is no doubt that this happened.  These people aren’t liars or legend-creators.  The events were too public.  The followers of Jesus would have been shamed out of town if they tried to pull a caper like this.

Go ahead and read about the Resurrection from the Dead.

Have a wonderful day!!!

Is Jesus God? He spoke the greatest words ever spoken

Jesus said about his own words, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away” Luke 21:33

It was common for the crowds who heard Him to be “astonished at His teaching” Luke 4:32.  Even a Roman officer exclaimed, “No one ever spoke like this Man!” John 7:46

Statistically speaking, the Gospels are the greatest literature ever written. They are read by more people, quoted by more authors, translated into more tongues, represented in more art, set to more music, than any other book or books written by any man in any century in any land. But the words of Christ are not great on the grounds that they have such a statistical edge over any body else’s words. They are read more, quoted more, loved more, believed more, and translated more because they are the greatest words ever spoken. And where is their greatness? Their greatness lies in the pure, lucid spirituality in dealing clearly, definitively, and authoritatively with the greatest problems that throb in the human breast; namely, Who is God? Does He love me? What should I do to please Him? How does He look at my sin? How can I be forgiven? Where will I go when I die? How must I treat others? No other man’s words have the appeal of Jesus’ words because no other man can answer these fundamental human questions as Jesus answered them. They are the kind of words and the kind of answers we would expect God to give, and we who believe in Jesus’ deity have no problem as to why these words came from His mouth.
Ramm, Protestant Christian Evidences, 170-171

Napoleon:

Never did the Speaker seem to stand more utterly alone than when He uttered this majestic utterance. Never did it seem more improbable that it should be fulfilled. But as we look across the centuries we see how it has been realized. His words have passed into law, they have passed into doctrines, they have passed into proverbs, they have passed into consolations, but they have never ‘passed away.’ What human teacher ever dared to claim an eternity for his words?  G. F. Maclean, Cambridge Bible for Schools, 149

Though without formal rabbinical training, He showed no timidity or self-consciousness, no hesitation as to what He felt to be truth. Without any thought of Himself or His audience, He spoke out fearlessly on every occasion, utterly heedless of the consequences to Himself, and only concerned for truth and the delivery of His Father’s message. The power of His teaching was also deeply felt. “His word was with power” Luke 4:32. The spiritual force of His personality expressed itself in His utterances and held His hearers in its enthralling grasp. And so we are not surprised to read of the impression of uniqueness made by Him. “Never man spoke like this man” John 7:46. The simplicity and charm and yet the depth, the directness, the universality, and the truth of His teaching made a deep mark on His hearers, and elicited the conviction that they were in the presence of a Teacher such as man had never known before. And thus the large proportion of teaching in the Gospels, and the impressions evidently created by the Teacher Himself, are such that we are not at all surprised that years afterward the great Apostle of the Gentiles should recall these things and say, “Remember the words of the Lord Jesus” Acts 20:35. The same impression has been made in every age since the days of Christ and His immediate followers, and in any full consideration of His person as the substance of Christianity great attention must necessarily be paid to His teaching.  W. H. Griffith Thomas, Christianity Is Christ, 32

Please comment below or pass on through a reading service?

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Lady Jane – the Movie

I took the opportunity to see this movie last night.  What a movie it was!!   Having visited England and Scotland,  I now enjoy the rich history of the country.

This  was more than rich history.  The movie portrays some of what I perceive as weakness of the culture of the elite of England at the time.  One being, arranged marriages, in this case.  Now, but this arranged marriage of two misfit for one another, shows God’s interventions into the evil intents and missteps of man.

Jane is married off to the son of a plotting, conniving, and powerful John Dudley.  Guilford, the son, is a low life and living in the gutter most of he adult life.  Yet,  that marriage to Jane eventually totally changes him.  Actually, though not portrayed in the movie, I believe God Himself intervened in his life and Guilford became a follower of Jesus in the process.   Soon into the movie the two give themselves to one another in a marital commitment and their holy causes.   I say holy because I believe their goals and visions were of God.  What a picture of the way God would have marriages to be.

Jane is a Reformer and spends most of her early teen days studying and praying.  She is a real saint.

The outcome is not good but because of all that came from their lives, the movie has a real redeeming quality.  It is definitely worth the watch.   I know it came out about 14 years ago but it is still around and DVD play like they are new.

The movie trailer.

“Ancient” Syriac bible found in Cyprus

Parchment, vellum, stone and other sources keep turning up which help scholars and text critics verify the accuracy of the delivered text of the New Testament.

And, this weekend, we get another possible source for comparison.  Some  smugglers were at work in Nicosia, Cyprus and were discovered by police there.  Part of their contraband included an “ancient” Syriac bible.  The problem is that we don’t know how old the bible actually is because it has just been discovered and no manuscript specialists have been close enough to the copy to do due diligence in verifying the dates.

The good news is that the text is in Syriac and Syriac is a dialect of Aramaic – the native language of Jesus – once spoken across much of the Middle East.

As long as it is available, read more here…

As with any topic here we are open to your comments below or would you pass it on through a reading service?

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Quote from Kurt Warner, after Super Bowl

“You know, when it comes to faith, you believe what you believe. I believe in Jesus. It makes all the difference in my life. Everything I do, everywhere I go, I’m trying to live up (to) or to represent Jesus. Having the faith that I have, believing what I believe, it’s the first and foremost thing in my life. Why do I always bring it up when I’m in interviews or when you’re on a stage like the Super Bowl or the NFC Championship game? Because it’s the most important thing in my life. It’s just like anything. Some people get up when they win an award and thank their wife or their kids. And as important as those things are in my life, the first thing I always want to do is thank my savior in Jesus because He’s the most important thing in my life. I know…some people get tired of hearing it, (or say), ‘How does it relate to football?’ It is who I am, and it will always be who I am, and it’s the most important thing in my life. So more times than not, it’s going to be the first thing I talk about.”

As with any topic here we are open to your comments below or would you pass it on through a reading service?

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I’ve Been Sick

I have been sick for about three weeks. I am better now but during that time and because it drug on so long, I lost all motivation, even to write or surf the internet for that matter.

Sickness like that makes one feel so vulnerable. I was able to see how fleeting life can be.

I am back on my feet and feeling much better. I’ve even got some motivation now.

All this made me rethink thoughts I had when I had a more chronic condition. I wondered at times, if I would ever be past the problem. I even put my faith in the docs and medicine and they were not working. I learned from that experience that you just cannot put your faith in anyone or anything in this world. I want to share that experience with you abit later.

Have a wonderful evening!!