One more failed end times prophecy
Category Archives: Bible
Surprising Bible learnings
I am working on the post, “Other Jesus sayings,” which quite possibly may not appear until December; and learning some things I never would have supposed.
The phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” comes up at Matthew 8:12, Matthew 13:42, Matthew 13:50, Matthew 24:51, Matthew 25:30, Luke 13:28. So, it appears to be a particular favorite of Matthew.
The phrase “you of little faith” comes up at Matthew 6:20, 8:26, 14:31, 16:8 and 17:20, and Luke 12:28. So, it appears five times in Matthew, only once in Luke, and not at all in Mark. Thus this also appears to be a favorite of Matthew.
This suggests to what extent each Gospel author was telling his own story.
“Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?”
At the shelter, we’re required to attend chapel for an hour every night. I normally find it just as edifying as a traffic jam.
The group from “Guilford” presents on the fourth Monday every month. About a dozen of them come. Their leader is J_____ R__. Different ones preach in different months. When J_____ R__ preaches, the message is always the same.
“Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?”
Continue reading “Just how bad do you think you’ve got it?”
Easily breakable
(Originally posted 08/25/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 05/07/14.)
06/25/12 I had to buy another flash drive.
I was downloading the music for The William Tell Show. I backed up the .mp3 files by attaching them to e-mails to myself. Problem: some files, such as the first movement of Tchaikovski’s violin concerto, exceed 25 MB and can’t be attached to a Yahoo! e-mail. What to do? Get another flash drive, to back up just those files.
My current flash drive consisted of an aluminum sleeve wrapped around a flat plastic stick. The stick had the USB contacts at one end, and the other end was shaped into a hook. By moving the sleeve back and forth, you could either expose the USB contacts for use, or hide them and expose the hook, to clip the drive onto, say, a key ring for storage.
The clerk offered me a different kind, with no hook or loop or anything that would let me attach it to something for storage. I don’t want to carry the drive around loose in my pocket or bag. So I asked for another like the one I already have. She said people have had trouble with those because “they’re easily breakable.” She said the staff at the Public Computer Center had seen this so much that they asked for the new kind instead.
I smiled and said nothing.
The drives aren’t easily breakable. Rather, some people easily break them.
Victory in Jesus
This concept has puzzled me. It’s prominent in a number of the hymns they make us sing in chapel at the shelter,[1] but no one explains it or preaches on it. There is no Wikipedia page about it.
The chapel presenters seem to think that victory over sin and death pertains to what happens at the end of life, in that the real or born-again Christian goes to heaven instead of hell. That’s not it. It pertains instead to how one faces this life from day to day; as will be seen.
It appears that a doctrine of Christian victory as I shall explain it below was popular in some circles in the early 20th century, but has somehow been eclipsed by a now-more-prevalent view; as follows. God has a plan (It says.), and the born-again or real Christian has access to that plan through prayer. If prayer fails to bring clear direction, one should wait till such direction comes. “Wait on the Lord” (Psalm 27:14), “and He will direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:6). Under no circumstances should one “lean unto one’s own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
Thus the real or born-again Christian need never take risks in life and need never face disappointment. Consistent with this view, some say disappointment comes only from sin; one has deviated from God’s plan. And risk-taking or taking initiatives is, itself, sin.
Hogwash.
Christian victory accepts instead that one faces inevitable difficulties in life, but says that by God’s grace one can take them all in stride. “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5). “A righteous man falls seven times, but gets up again” (Proverbs 24:16). In this way, it’s not that much different from what I call the Way of Peace, or from Stoicism.
Victory over sin and death, in this view, is like this: every time one finds oneself in the midst of shattered dreams, it is a kind of death; every time one accepts the love of God and so gets back on one’s feet, it is a resurrection.
That’s victory in Jesus.
[1]Notably:
– “Victory in Jesus”
– “In the Name of Jesus”
– “Victory is Mine”
– “When We All Get to Heaven”
New Testament communism
This past week, in the comments sections of news articles, I’ve been called a commie more times than I can count.
There is also the relentless insistence that the Left is anti-Christian or anti-God.
How I became homeless
This is the second of three posts about entitlement:
07/12 – “Entitlement(s): Attitude and policy”
Today – “How I became homeless”
07/26 – “When needs are met”
This is a long post. One may want to avail oneself of a navigation resource here.
I don’t write about easy things.
At this writing, a more immediate question is how I’ve stayed homeless, which has prompted no small amount of anger and depression in recent weeks. The short answer appears to be that I’ve stayed homeless the same way I became homeless.
Heart and soul
| “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” | |
| — Soren Kierkegaard | |
Hopes vs. expectations
I have been wary of telling this, because the thing hinges on an abstraction that not everyone may be in a position to grasp. But in recent weeks, it’s been really prominent to me. And one can tell from recent posts that I don’t much care for abstractions.
Chakras complications
At this point in my life, I’m not keen to learn a whole new complicated system.
I may have no choice.
The Homeless Blogger 