yeah, right . . .

September 02nd, 2010 | Author: akagaga

As with many of us, I’ve been keeping an eye on Earl, and they just issued a change. The tropical storm warning for southern Massachusetts has been changed to a hurricane warning. Whether that’s because the track is changing further west or the storm has continued to intensify, I don’t know, but I surely would appreciate the prayers of my blogging buddies. My granddaughter and her family live in New Bedford, Mass.

Here’s the latest satellite image. Looking at this sure makes me feel small.

Update: I just saw this tweet, and decided to add the widget:

CDCemergency RT @CDC_eHealth: Hurricane widget provides important, timely tips when #Earl makes landfall. Add it to your page/blog: http://is.gd/eRB7f

We’ll see how it works.

Category: nature, prayer | 2 Comments

WFW: A Stranger They Simply Will Not Follow

September 01st, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Most Christians acknowledge that we are living in the end times, pointing to the declining morality of the culture around us.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Some Christians acknowledge that at least part of the institutional church is in trouble, pointing to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and its official acceptance of homosexuality or the likes of Ted Haggard.

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. (2 John 1:7-11)

A few Christians, myself among them, are convinced that the deception has become so open and so widespread that we are watching many be mislead, just as Jesus forewarned us. [Matt 24:11]

And when it comes to the issue of church and state, America vs. God, many refuse to hear the truth, and choose instead to follow those who tell them what they want to hear, among them Barrack Obama, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck. Like the Israelites of old, they want to follow a flesh and blood king instead of God. [1 Samuel 8:5] The popularity of these charismatic figures fulfills another prophecy:

preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:2-4)

They have refused the truth and are being deceived:

Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12)

If you are among them, I beseech you to wake up! Heed the many warnings the Bible gives us about who we follow and who we associate with. Beware of those who place love of America above love of God. Do not follow those who, for their own selfish purposes, take advantage of your concern for our country, those who don’t enter by the door but sneak in some other way. Turn to God, not to a wannabe king.

Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18)

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers. (John 10:1-5)

Category: Apostasy Abounds, Bible, Christianity, Word for Wednesday | 5 Comments

Playing with the Moon

August 28th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Whenever I’ve tried to take pictures of the moon, they’ve always come out like this:

See? A white blob with fuzzy white stuff around it. It drove me nuts, so a while back I asked blogger buddy Jim Wetzel, who happens to be an optical engineer, how to get better moon shots. He responded, as only an engineer can, way beyond my understanding, but with all the pertinent information. (I’m married to an engineer and around here we now call that “talking engineerical.”)

Anyhow, I played around this week, a day after the full moon which was all cloud cover, and got this:

So then I changed a couple settings, and … drumroll, please … voilà!

Does that look like a picture of the moon, or what? The only problem is? I don’t remember what settings took what picture!

Category: nature, photos | 7 Comments

WFW: God or Country?

August 25th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

It’s been a long couple weeks, but I’m finally getting back on my feet. Turns out that a new thyroid medication was reeking havoc with my fibromyalgia, causing overdose symptoms. Eewww!! Anyhow, that’s done and here I am to thank all of you for your prayers and notes of encouragement. It’s nice to know you’ve got my back. I’ve got some catching up to do, but I hope to make the rounds in the next few days.

I recently had a discussion on a Christian forum I joined earlier this summer. The other party’s most recent post included the following, in reference to the pledge of allegiance, which he insists is a prayer:

Indivisible means we can never be separated from our God who rules over us.

While I agree that individual, born-again believers cannot be separated from God, regular readers who have seen my many, many posts about various aspects of church and state will know that I don’t count America, the nation, in that number.

At the mini level, “indivisible” was included by Bellamy when he wrote the pledge in 1892, not because our country couldn’t be separated from God, but to reinforce the notion that America is “One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove.”

At the macro level, while our country may or may not have been formed as “the direct result of the providence of God,” I find it impossible to believe that God is currently directing our government to murder over 50 million unborn babies or thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is an immeasurable difference between God and America, and I believe strongly that we will be required to choose which is first in our lives.

As so often happens when an issue is at the front of my mind, I came across a reference that applies. I’ve been reading an excellent series at Herescope by Pastor Anton Bosch, who has long held my respect, titled The Money God. The whole series is worth your time, but in Part III, The Political Kingdom, here is part of what he had to say:

Throughout the 3-year ministry of Jesus, his disciples and the multitudes who followed Him, expected Him to establish a material, political Kingdom. It is likely that a number of the Twelve followed Jesus because of this expectation. Several of them were of the party called the “Zealots.” Simon is specifically named a Zealot (Luke 6:15). And in addition there is evidence that Simon Peter, John, James and Judas (Iscariot) were all Zealots. According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, the Zealots were one of the political parties of the day. (The others were the Pharisees, Sadducees and the Essenes – the Zealots had broken away from the Pharisees.) The Zealots were on the extreme right of the political spectrum, and they were called Zealots because of their zeal for national Israel and their hatred of Roman domination.

Throughout the ministry of Jesus there is evidence that the Twelve expected Him to establish a material Kingdom immediately: “they thought the Kingdom of God would appear immediately” (Luke 19:11). In response, Jesus tells the parable about a nobleman who went away to receive a Kingdom, thus indicating that He had to go away, receive His kingdom, and then return (Luke 19:12-27). The request by James and John, through their mother, for the second and third positions of political power in the Kingdom (Matthew 20:21) was also based on the anticipation of an immediate, literal Kingdom.

Jesus frequently tried to discourage the Twelve, and others, from thinking about the Kingdom as a literal and material Kingdom. Sometimes He did so by inference, teaching that the Kingdom was made up of the meek and that the greatest in the Kingdom were little children. But He also demonstrated unequivocally that he had not come to remove the Romans. This He did by paying taxes and teaching obedience to the Romans (Matthew 5:41), even allowing them to crucify Him. But Jesus also taught very specifically that the Kingdom would be taken from the Jews and given to others (Matthew 21:43), thus removing all doubt about a revival of the state of Israel.

Matthew 21:43 caught my attention:

Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.

This brought to mind this passage:

If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. (Romans 11:16-23)

God does not love Americans more than He loves the Jewish people. It is pure arrogance to think that America can never be separated from Him.

Category: Christianity, Word for Wednesday, church and state | 4 Comments

WFW: Resting

August 18th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

I’m in the middle of a fibromyalgia flare, and have realized over the last few days that it hurts to think – yes, think. So no WFW this week, but hopefully I’ll be back at it next week.

My apologies, also, to those who have left comments which have gone unanswered. See above.

Category: Word for Wednesday | 7 Comments