No Hatred Here...

Does this sound familiar?  “Man, I can’t stand those Bible thumpers, always trying to shove their religion down my throat.”  I hear it quite regularly, and wonder why those very same people will sit for hours and hours and peruse the internet media sites, or listen to the mainstream television media, or cable documentary channels that convey perspectives with which they may disagree, but still absorb the entirety of the message being delivered.

What is so objectionable that causes people to act so vehemently negative toward the very hearing of God’s Word?  Why do we get squeamish, angry, or put on guard when the name of Jesus Christ is invoked in average conversation other than being used as a curse?  This has always fascinated me, and as a young man it made me uncomfortable too until I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, then those situations weren’t a threat, but still fascinated me nonetheless.

I was recently in a conversation with several people talking about the idea that homosexuality as a predisposition opposed to a moral choice.  I put myself in this situation because I love discussion, (not that I am a good debater, I love to hear other people’s opinions) not thinking I would offend anyone.  The discussion was taking place on a popular social media forum which everybody knows, so people were popping in and out of the conversation.  A dear acquaintance joined in and was put off by the mention of my position, which is God’s position toward homosexuality.  Needless to say, I felt very bad that I had offended a person I care for dearly, so I bowed out; tail tucked firmly between my legs and left the exchange.  I am convinced God’s Word is undisputedly true, so forgoing a discussion for someone’s feelings seemed the better thing to do than continue on and risk alienating a friend.  However, (you knew this was coming…) there is a point where truth must clash with error, and finding an objection-free way to discuss it is becoming more and more difficult.

I will attempt to explain why I think speaking out against homosexuality, abortion, pornography, murder, adultery, promiscuity, or any other sin as defined in God’s Word is not hate speech, but love speech. 

Guilt.  We all feel guilt to some varying degree when we disobey God.  It’s hard-wired into our consciences for a reason, which is to make us accountable to the knowledge God has built into each and every one of us.  So long as we are striving to exalt and please God we will assuage our guilt by confessing our sin and repenting, and in turn, He will impute His righteousness to us.  If we want to disobey God more than guilt will let us, we must make a means of escaping the feelings of guilt, and at some point, we must suppress the truth of God’s Word and convince ourselves the behavior we are involved in is not bad, but good.  We can either say something ludicrous like “truth is subjective and can’t really be known”, or we redefine what sin is to soothe our consciences.

But that’s not enough, we still feel guilt because we are worried what others might think of us, so if we still want to try to escape feelings of guilt, we believe we must get others to agree with our position that God’s Word is not the truth (more suppression).  So, as in almost all sexual sin, and abortion, we have slowly over the years and decades convinced lawmakers, teachers, and some of the populace at large that sin is not bad, just misunderstood, and in some cases undeniably built in to us, so we must embrace and accommodate it, rather than shun and discourage it.

This dynamic is chronicled in the Bible in many places, especially in the book of Romans, where Paul is writing a letter to the church at Rome and explaining how God abandons a society that suppresses the truth and the resulting evidences that it is happening.  In chapter 1 verse 18, Paul is conveying to the church the consequences of unbelief. “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…” 

Paul continued explaining what the results would be of rebellion and suppressing the truth:                         “25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

And after enough suppression of the truth, and kidding ourselves that sin really isn’t sin, God allows our minds to become depraved, which is defined as: Morally corrupt, or evil, lacking good judgment:             “28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper…”

But the good part is, in Paul's letter to the Roman church, he reminds them that some of them were just as corrupt, and it’s never too late to turn your face toward God and repent and He will restore you and even the society He has abandoned.  Paul reassures the believers in letter to the church at Corinth:                                ” ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

In short, this is why people are angered by the mere mention of God’s Word, and why disagreeing with our nations embracing of open sin has nothing to do with hate, but an act of love, wanting only to save our country and the people in it from ruin.  I will admit there are misguided believers that confuse God’s Word with a personal vendetta on sin, but that is to misconstrue the true intent of God’s relationship toward us.  It is my hope that in an open discussion about any controversial issue, that we can talk about the merits of the issue, rather than painting anyone as having hatred as a motivation for disagreement.

A different Approach

A different Approach

One of my mantras is railing against the forces that are eroding the traditional values that make these United States what they are.  Today after listening to a powerful message by none other than Grace Community’s own Pastor Roger Olson, I was moved to use his sermon as a point of reference to look at our nation in purely patriotic terms, and the effects of patriotism on our country.

American patriotism is what has given our country its own identity uniquely separating it from any other nation ever, and patriotism in the United States is indivisibly linked to the belief in being free to worship our Creator and give Him our full allegiance and acknowledgement of our freedoms here as being fully His work and blessing upon us.  Our rich history recounts our founding with a desire to be free from tyranny and an overbearing, over-reaching government’s rule.  Along with the desire to be free from a tyrant’s rule, was a desire to worship our God in freedom and in an uninhibited way in our daily lives. 

The freedoms we enjoy here are a product of the adherence and practice of keeping the very ideals our early founders fought for in the forefront of our daily existence.  Over the years, many selfless men and women have given their hearts and lives, even unto death to protect and ensure our free and liberty filled life style here by remembering the ideals and sacrifices those brave travelers envisioned when they made the trek from England so many years ago.  These soldiers are of the highest character, and believe God and country come before their lives, and strive to ensure the people back at home remain safe for generations to come.

In today’s age, there is a threat to our way of life, not from a foreign enemy, but one of a domestic nature.  There is, and has been a movement to uproot traditional values and replace them with values of a self-centered, humanistic nature that fly in the face of the ideals that have kept our country separate from the rest of the world.  It has many facets in its attack: It seeks to revise history, contaminate our young by infiltrating our schools; it rejects sound doctrine and applauds deceit and evil.  The movement seeks to strengthen its hold on our society by sleight of hand and deceitfulness.  It goes by many names, progressivism, liberalism, moderation, and “open-mindedness” (though it’s not) to name a few.

The idea bandied about today that true “tolerance” involves accepting all things and rejecting only those that disagree with the popular culture is a mistake of colossal proportion.  The idea of “discriminating” in today’s society has been assigned a negative connotation, and brings ideas of mistreatment, racial prejudice and oppression.  To discriminate is defined as recognizing or making identification between things, good or evil.  We make distinctions every day to try to do the very best we can for ourselves, why can’t we make those same choices for the embetterment of our culture? 

A noted philosopher once said “Those who don’t understand history are bound to repeat it.”  Many others have echoed similar warnings along the way.  These philosophical thinkers weren’t just adding to their repertoire of pithy sayings, some had lived in a time where it was coming true and others could see as students of history how the cycle repeats itself.  We are living in a time where past history is reliving itself as it did in other cultures of old.  The Roman Empire always comes to mind, and ironically our country adopted a lot of our governmental structure from it.  Rome was thought to be invincible at times and in many ways was very similar to our culture today.  It lasted for more than two millennia, depending on who the historian is, and was not weakened by external forces, but by moral decay.  It was eventually overtaken by a foreign enemy.

This same “progressive” movement that seeks to make an emotional plea to embrace all things based on our “feelings”, rather than what history teaches us, is an invitation to destroy the very culture we have grown to be and protected for so many years.  By allowing all things by the emotional sentiment attached to them we ignore the negative effects they may result in, and in some cases are returning our country to the very things our founders fled from.  We need to use what we know to be true rather than riding an emotional high that we are being coerced to believe is freedom.  True freedom must be fought for, and is a disciplined process to keep.

In the last several decades, our country as a whole has begun to take our great freedom for granted.  The biggest change that has come over our land is how our God, our Creator has been removed from our schools, and from our governmental institutions.  By legislating the removal of the very God that has blessed us, is to commit an epic mistake with regard to our future prosperity and freedom.  The United States is the most popular country immigrants flock to for the chance for a better life, and should tell us how truly blessed we are and we should cherish and meditate on the idea daily.  We should be ashamed for allowing our freedom to become something so trivial and assumed.  And shame on us for treating our God and Creator with such reckless abandon in our culture, some of us even railing against Him.  

History teaches that behavior like our culture is exhibiting doesn’t lead to improvement, and if your honest, you can already see the decline in our leadership, morality, lack of patriotism (love of country), and especially the willingness to commiserate one with another, on a personal level. In fact history teaches that the declines we see in our society are products of our abandonment of those ideas our founders pursued so vehemently.

I can’t end without recalling a historical event that is ending well:  From its beginning Israel has had its share of fighting, falling from Grace, and returning to good favor, and falling again, and even complete dissolution, but their favor in God’s eyes has brought them back into existence as a nation, and resurrected the Hebrew language again spoken today.  Though tiny and still plagued by hateful angry neighbors, Israel should be proof that by turning our collective faces to God, He will honor our praise and bless us.  I am using Israel as an example for anybody that would shun the Bible as evidence of historical proof of God’s blessing to those who turn to Him, as Israel is living proof in real time.

There is much more that can be said in reference to God blessing us as a nation, and the Christian influence upon the founding of our nation, but I will save that for another blog.  Suffice it to say, it’s never too late to change course as a nation.  Believer’s in Christ already know the battle has been won, and that is a great comfort in these times, but we want to take as many as possible with us when we go home.

An Atheist's Opinion...

I just finished reading an op-ed piece by a modern day self-proclaimed atheist named Sam Harris expressing his distaste for the appointment of a scientist named Frank Collins to the head of the NIH (National Institutes of Health).  Mr. Harris, like other “new atheists” attacks Dr. Collins because he is a Christian, and tries to draw blood as if he screams loud enough and makes a big enough stir his point will have some validity. 
 Mr. Harris and many other modern day atheists remind me of my then teen-age daughter trying to side step household chores, or facing the consequences of disobedience.  She (who will remain unnamed) would work up such a production over anything other than the task at hand, that if left unchecked would skew the entire point of the confrontation, and I will admit, made me reluctant to engage her unless I was fully ready for the clash. 
I believe the new atheists employ a lot of bluster which include a façade of deep thinking, big words, and yes, eloquence in delivery (as would be associated with a successful used car salesman).  But I also learned a simple trick that my teen age kid taught me that I haphazardly named “table-turning”.  Table turning is obviously where if I as a parent, were to ask my kid why she did not load the dishes into the dishwasher, she, in her defense would ask me when the last time I loaded them, or a variation would be to inform me that I didn’t require my other child to perform the same task as much as I had asked her.
I do not operate on the same level as these new atheists obviously, even though nothing would make me happier than to see them enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, trusting His atoning death at Calvary for their eternal salvation.  I fully understand they have an agenda, rather than a belief, because it would require faith in their understanding of “science” which they will never cop to.  Their agenda is a little hazy as to the catalyst, but not to the intent.  The intent is to deface and utterly oppose Christianity at every turn.  Not Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Mormons, the Dalai Lama, or the Easter bunny, though they do give lip service to them.  They are 100% dedicated to the promotion of the idea that the only “science” knowable is on their terms, by their definition of standards, and must exclude, and always carry the disclaimer that religion (which in atheist-speak is always Christianity) isn't compatible with true discovery.  This, in their way of looking at things, has to be to perpetuate their agenda, this is clear.
The hazy part, of the agenda is the motivation.  As a Believer, the first explanation for their motivation is Satan, as he clearly is the largest single opposition to God Almighty, not formidable, but in opposition.  But human rebellion is nearly as consistent as well, these self-proclaimed atheists may deep down need a comforter to woo them back to sleep at night when they awaken to the fleeting thought that, maybe there is a God, and the potential for eternal separation from Him in a unspeakable place is really awaiting their disbelief.  So the agenda could be to quash Christianity and, misery loves company.  In any event, for whatever reason that motivates these people to antagonize Christian Believers and society at large,  if their arguments turned are in reverse, yield the same problems for them, again, they will never cop to them, but so is the political realm we live in today of intellectual cat and mouse. 
The clear image I took away from my read of Mr. Harris’s opinion was that outside his sphere of influence, his opinion means exactly squat.  It can only be made sense of by a like-minded thinker, and then I am left with the idea that modern atheism is just another example of societal decay due to abandoning the recognition and worship of our Creator.
When I have time to write more I can help connect the dots that show conclusively the relation of vacating our dependence on God and the moral and societal decay we are experiencing, but I have to leave for work.  God Bless.

OUYA : At First Glance

For those who care, my initial assessment of the OUYA console and entertainment system is positive.  The only reservations I have at this time are in it’s not being an Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii.  Which it isn't trying to be, but when you have the controller in your hand it’s almost by second nature you expect to command the same activity on the TV screen that more expensive consoles offer.

One thing that is unique is the presence of the Android OS.  It is familiar and intuitive to those of us Androidians.  Apple users can play catch-up in no time at all.  The games available to The OUYA are limited to about 150 at this time of which probably 20-30 are decent, but this is an all comers console for developers to show their wares.  I imagine as time goes on a plethora of user sites will spring up guiding the OUYA gamers to the worthwhile games and steering them from the “less desirable” ones. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I installed the XBMC port for OUYA.  It works remarkably well and gives worth to the little console as a media center.  For those of you missing the joy of XBMC, it is an open source development of the old Xbox media center from the first Xbox, which has gained much popularity as an internet based media program.  The OUYA plays and streams video at 720 and 1080p, and can process up to 5.1 Dolby Stereo.  An interesting surprise is the OUYA’s ability to render 3D graphics as well.

One nice thing open source hardware and software can do, such as the OUYA console that their commercial counterparts cannot, is be a little more practical in their wearing of more than one hat for the same price as they don’t have to always be selling you additional services to remunerate their makers.   In terms of saving money, this little gadget is fully customizable, with most all the free android apps that are currently available for your smart phone, though they might not be usable on a game console.  In time I believe the developers will make apps and software for home activities that will make this an even more welcome addition to your home.

It’s implications as a viable media/gaming console are only limited to the media available for it at this time.  But make no mistake, it is a $99 console and has definite limitations.  However, for what it is I believe it will be a great offering for enthusiasts that are on a budget and want a fully functioning media center for their TV on budget pricing.  The accompanying media supply will only get better and better as they have not even been released for public consumption yet.  They are scheduled to be released on June 25.  I heartily recommend them in their own category of competition.  Unless you are expecting them to be an Xbox, you won’t be disappointed.

“One Nation Under God”, or “In God We Trust”, whether or not you like the words, they are a staple of our American plight, and way of life, if now in reference only.  Our leaders invoke God’s blessing when trying to uplift their constituents, mostly at the end of a speech.  Congressional meetings are opened with a prayer, and I’m sure if you looked and care to be honest there are many remnants of a culture more devoted to their Creator. 

This isn’t a rant about all the unrepentant sinners, or a pointless argument whether or not God exists.  This is a rant about the isolation and eviction of the traces of the God that our country has referred to the last 200 plus years.   It signifies more than a “separation between church and state” it is more of a down right disdain for Him, but this expulsion is limited only to the God of the Bible and apparently not any other god.

For instance there are a number of occurrences in the news media where our schools here in the US are teaching some of the tenets of Islam in classrooms in more than just an educational way.  The belief also being taught in our schools that humans have evolved from animals or, even lower organisms, has not been proven conclusively and the idea is less than 200 years old in its present form.  The humanist aspect of this and other related beliefs are a religion unto themselves, though its proponents will argue the idea.

Again, my point is not to argue the validity of any of the ideas presented in our schools.  My point of contention is, why do we have to vacate our public institutions of any trace of the very God our founders spoke so highly of at the inception of our country?  Our founders never discouraged people from worshiping other ideas, they were adamant however, that the Christian message and teachings be present alongside any other belief.  They were confident that God’s Word, if represented equally and unabashedly, alongside anything other than the Gospel, it would stand on its own merits.  I believe that’s the objection that Christians today have to the shut out of God in our society. 

I believe this to be true because the evidence that the inverse is the case with the opponents of God:  If these people that are atheists, agnostics, skeptics, or even Democrats were confident of their beliefs, why would a belief and the display of it be so offensive to them? The political correctness of today embraces and protects a religion whose extreme believers are openly hateful of the west and more personally the United States.  I dare say our current leaders even promote Islam in many cases.  If us Christians are a bunch of quacks, why not study our beliefs and not be afraid to engage in the honest an open discussion why our founders referred to God over and over throughout our country’s founding?

Look Inside Yourself...

Some of the video games I have most anticipated this year and some last year are filled with needless profanity.  And not just random swearing resulting from a fit of anger (not that that is even remotely OK), but the characters talk like loggers in normal conversation.  And these games are targeting kids from grade school to old dudes like me.  In most cases, the swearing is awkward, like the computer nerds that wrote these games had a quota of curse words to use and sprinkled them throughout the games randomly.  Personally, I don't think it adds anything to the games, I think it reduces their likability.

 Most of the heroes from the silver screen I remember from when I was a kid, either didn't swear at all, or only used one or maybe two curse words in an entire movie.  Frankly, I am more troubled that the barrage of gutter talk and sex in these games is far more detrimental to our kids than the use of guns are.  I think kids today are exposed to way too much negative influence than even when I was a kid.  They lose their precious innocence at an early age, and it's my money hungry generation that is all too willing to profit at any cost and using anything to sell their wares to kids through any means they can.

 This obviously isn't anything you can legislate away, it is the essence of why a lot of things that used to be part of every day commerce are now demonized as evil Capitalism, when it's the evil in the hearts and souls of men left unchecked by society, and in some cases defended as free speech that are to blame. To we who believe, a much simpler word for it is "sin".  To me, this kind of a lack of moral restraint is at the root of the free market and our very society's demise today, and OUR lack of fortitude and willingness to identify the culprits and single out the offenses as bad business is just as much to blame.  Instead we let politicians and the willing news media propagandize bad behavior as belonging to an inanimate object that should be taken from the populace, as if evil will stop if one of the tools is prohibited. Or we let them spin a yarn of blaming some external force, or congenital anomaly for evil behavior.  Jesus clears it up in Mark 7:5 by saying "Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them".

The Eagles had a song on their "Hell Freezes Over" album called "Get Over It" which I find very appropriate for what is needed for our country.  We need to quit blaming everything but the cause of the evils today and forgo the loss of money, political correctness, propaganda, and the like, and not settle for anything less than the men and women that founded this country settled for.  They left England to escape some of the very things we are trying to embrace as a nation today.  The irony would be laughable if it weren't so sad.

I'm Mad

All the talk of the need for additional tax revenue, and the screams of bloody murder at the idea of reducing spending, are symptomatic of a government that is not acting in our best interest.  They aren’t even using common sense.  In fact, there is nowhere in the world, but in a government setting in which one could get away with what they’re doing.  The latest local “crisis” is the supposed need to increase our fuel costs to fix roads in our state. 

I believe the question that begs to be asked of our elected officials is:  What happened to the monies that were supposed to be used for road maintenance?  Why aren’t you budgeting for this?  The cost of maintaining roads hasn’t increased to the degree that more revenue is necessary.  Our state is not so different from other states, why then can some of them return unused monies to their constituents?  The answer is these three things:  budgeting, budgeting, and budgeting.  You might have to speak slowly to our state officials and spell it out, as this is obviously a foreign concept to them.  It also involves work.

If their answer is wages and benefits are eating the funds up, then again I must ask: Why are you using funds for roads for paying employees?  And where else in the world can you decide to spend less making product to pay more wages?  This isn’t the land of Oz, and the union and government employees won’t melt if this year’s contract is less money than last.  We in the private sector have been doing what we do with less and less for the last 5+ years.  In part, so our government and its employees can keep the lifestyle they’ve grown accustomed to, and then some.

I am sick and tired of the attitudes our elected officials are taking with us.  They seem even more emboldened to act dishonorably after the election of late.  I am even more disappointed that people don’t seem to care how much their own money is wasted and will line up to give even more to the bottomless pit we call our government.  I’m no prophet, but I can say with relative certainty that if we continue to remain apathetic to the way we are treated by the media in our country, and by our government that refuses to work for us, soon we will be oppressed like never before in these United States.  History testifies to it, as this isn’t the first time a government has gone in a tyrannical direction.  Actually, the USA is the exception to the rule, and one of the last truly free countries left in the world.

What’s the answer?  I used to think voting, but I believe our system of election has sadly been corrupted to the point it is untrustworthy.  At this point, I believe bringing the deeds of our elected officials to the light of day and not let them set the narrative for what they are doing is a good start.  Throwing out the Republican and Democrat party lines from one’s thought process is another, as it keeps the masses divided sufficiently so the ruling class can do as they want under the guise of whatever cover story they tell to their devotees.  Don’t let peripheral or social issues take our eyes off the goal of making our leaders act in our behalf.  Don’t be afraid to dialog about it, after all it IS important.  If someone says they hate politics, answer “me too, but I don’t like what our government is doing to my kids future”.  What’s more important than our children’s wellbeing?  At this point there lives will be drastically different than ours, not for the better, unless we do something about it. 

Anymore, when I see a news snippet of a politician talking about the need for revenue or the horrific results of reducing even the rate of increase that they spend money, I immediately see a picture of Peter Finch delivering his “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore” lines from the movie “Network”, in the same way adults sound to the cartoon characters in Charlie Brown.  I can see their lips move, but I only hear “I’m mad as hell…”