I know that many people are very suspicious of bio-engineering, but what if they could make trees that glow like something out of a Tinkerbell movie? Scientists are working on making glow-in-the-dark plants that could one day replace streetlights. How awesome (and beautiful) would that be? Unfortunately, since the process relies on the chlorophyl found in plants, I don’t suppose it would work very well … Continue reading This would be AWESOME!
Today’s use of the word salvation comes from Luke 3:2-6 the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one shouting in the … Continue reading Salvation 3
Today in my study of the word salvation in the New Testament, we’ll look at Luke 2:30-32. This is the proclamation of Simeon over the infant Jesus as he was brought into the temple for circumcision: “”For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples: a light, for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your … Continue reading Salvation 2
“When you visualized a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity — that was a quality God’s image carried with it. When you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination.” ~ “The Power and The Glory” by Graham Greene
I have often observed how hard it can be for people – and often particularly God’s people – to get past the sin and ugliness and abrasiveness of people to see the image bearing man or woman God created them to be. I think that “a failure of imagination” is probably just the right accounting of the problem. When I was growing up my mom used to look at someone who had fallen on the way of life and say, “there but for the grace of God go I.” Continue reading ““Hate was just a failure of imagination””
Last night my oldest son Noah announced to his little brother, “you can use the computer all day tomorrow. I’m going to be busy working on writing my story.” As of right now, I think he has 5 pages written in his notebook. This is my child who HATES writing more than just about anything. If I get him to put a pen to paper, … Continue reading May Wonders Never Cease
“Conservative, n: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others.” – Ambrose Bierce, satirist. Continue reading Liberal-Conservative Quote of the Day
I just opened my email to find an oh-so-helpful email with the subject line: 5 ways to survive a shark attack. Because shark attacks are a constant threat here in the great northern tundra, dontchaknow? Now, if they could put out an email on 5 ways to survive a deer attack or 5 ways to survive blood loss from giant mosquito attacks, that would be … Continue reading Not So Useful Information
A post by Suburban Correspondent over at The More the Messier about her blogging injuries reminded me of a product recommendation I’ve been meaning to make for ages. It’s for a contour memory foam pillow. It’s a bit pricey for my blood ($40 at Target), but the darn thing is like a miracle. A couple of months ago I did something to my neck (actually, … Continue reading The Magic Pillow
As many readers here know, I’m doing a study of the Book of Job. (Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter3) I’ve had several comments saying, “I love the Book of Job too.” Here’s the funny thing though: I don’t really like the Book of Job. Never have. The repetative poetry used in the book makes it rather tedious for me to read. Plus, the idea that … Continue reading Funny Thing About Job
I have written before about issues of race, especially as pertains to conservative’s perceptions about race before. My basic premise is that I do not think that conservatives have an accurate or often even rational view of race in America. Now, mind you, I’m not some goofy lefty here to incite white guilt and pander for more government programs. I am coming at this from a conservative perspective myself. For me this is both a moral issue and a practical imperative. I say a practical imperative because if we think that we can keep the problems which arise in impoverished, minority communities isolated, we’re not paying attention. Over and over, we can see that things from social breakdown to styles of music and dress spread outwards from our cities into the lives of middle class white suburbanites. So my point is, it matters. If you are a conservative who cares about the breakdown of the family or porn posing as music, then you need to care as much about issues of race as you do about what goes on in leafy suburban neighborhoods.
As I have argued before, one of the main barriers to dealing realistically with matters of race and the ongoing fall-out of the history of race relations in this country, is an almost complete denial of race as a real issue worth dealing with. What is crazy, and what I did not realize was that this is not at all a new phenomena. We like to think that race is not an issue anymore because we have made so much progress. Anyone claiming that race is an obstacle for them must be trying to “play the race card” and “make themselves the victim”. However, it turns out that even back when we would all agree that the state of affairs for African Americans was horrid, unequal and morally indefensible, white Americans thought pretty much exactly the same thing!
I came across some statistics today which I think we all need to remember the next time we are tempted to write off race as an actual issue today: Continue reading “Check Yourself”
The Upside Down World 