John Chrysostom on Prayer

"Whether, therefore, we receive what we ask for, or do not receive it, let us still continue steadfast in prayer. For to fail in obtaining the desires of our heart, when God so wills it, is not worse than to receive it; for we know not as He does, what is profitable to us."  John Chrysostom (345?, Syria - 407), Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)

If You Don't Do It ...

Mordecai, a Benjamite who was one of the Jews of the Diaspora, deported during the reign of Jehoichin (Esther 2:5-6) was one of those brilliant and capable men who rise to positions of prominence wherever they end up.  He ended up as a trusted Persian official.

He raised, as his own daughter, Hadassah, a cousin whose parents had died when she was a child.  Her Persian name of Esther is probably from the Akkadian goddess named Ishtar, the equivalent of Venus.

After the Persian king, Xerxes, divorced his wife Vashti, he sent out an order to collect up all the beautiful young virgins in his kingdom for what is best described as a "tryout."  Esther was the clear "winner," and won the king's favor, but even she did not dare to just walk in to the king and say "Hi."

Esther was secretly Jewish at the instruction of her adopted father.  Then, when Xerxes was manipulated into issuing an order to exterminate the Jews, Mordecai asked Esther to do something which terrified her.

"When Mordecai learned of all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.  But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter it. In every province to which the edict and order of the king came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

When Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, she was in great distress. She sent clothes for him to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them. Then Esther summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs assigned to attend her, and ordered him to find out what was troubling Mordecai and why.

So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate. Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him, including the exact amount of money Haman had promised to pay into the royal treasury for the destruction of the Jews. He also gave him a copy of the text of the edict for their annihilation, which had been published in Susa, to show to Esther and explain it to her, and he told him to urge her to go into the king’s presence to beg for mercy and plead with him for her people.

Hathach went back and reported to Esther what Mordecai had said. Then she instructed him to say to Mordecai, “All the king’s officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned the king has but one law: that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the gold scepter to him and spare his life. But thirty days have passed since I was called to go to the king.”

When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, he sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?”

Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther’s instructions." Esther 4:1-17

God's will cannot and will not be thwarted.  When you are called to act, you must choose to act or to step aside and someone else will step up to answer their call from God.  When you step out of God's plan, you are not promised protection from what may happen.

Christian Gothic and Unblack Metal Bands

You will have to decide for yourself what you think of this.  All of these bands self-identify as Christian.  At the very least, they are very controversial.

HB  (from Finland, in English)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1vM-w8z6D0

Christian Goth Music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SPFLXvxRcc&playnext=1&list=PL2955AE9040C94B16

Unblack: War Against Satan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf4Wxf6slHQ&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unblack_metal

Christian Black Metal: Samples form numerous bands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oG_KGeJr6o&feature=related

Hello, Yemen!

مرحبا، اليمن! مرحبا بكم في مجموعة من القراء من البلدان أربعة وثمانين آخرين أيضا زيارة هذا بلوق. وآمل أن تجد بعضمن وظائف مفيدة أو ذات مغزى.

"ترجم هذه الصفحة" أداة مباشرة فوق "عرض صفحة المجموع" كاونتر لديها القدرة على ترجمة النص الانكليزي من هذابلوق مباشرة إلى اللغة العربية.


والثمانين خمس دول هي : الأرجنتين، أروبا، واستراليا ، النمسا، البحرين، روسيا البيضاء، بلجيكا، بليز ، البرازيل ، بلغاريا،كندا، جزر كايمان، الصين ، كولومبيا، الكونغو، كوستاريكا، كرواتيا، الجمهورية التشيكية ، الدانمرك، إكوادور، مصر،السلفادور، استونيا، اثيوبيا، فنلندا، فرنسا، جورجيا، المانيا، اليونان، هونغ كونغ ، هنغاريا والهند ، واندونيسيا، ايران،العراق، إسرائيل، إيطاليا، ساحل العاج، اليابان، الأردن، الكويت، لاتفيا، ليتوانيا، لوكسمبورغ ، المقدونية ، ماليزيا، مالطا،المكسيك، مولدافيا، المغرب، هولندا، نيوزيلندا ، نيجيريا، النرويج ، باكستان، بنما، باراغواي، الفلبين، بولندا، رومانيا، روسيا، المملكة العربية السعودية، السنغال، سنغافورة، سلوفاكيا، سلوفينيا، جنوب افريقيا، كوريا الجنوبية واسبانيا وسري لانكا ،السويد، سويسرا، تايوان ، تنزانيا، تايلاند، ترينيداد وتوباغو، تركيا ، أوكرانيا، الإمارات العربية المتحدة، المملكة المتحدة، الولايات المتحدة ، فنزويلا، فيتنام، اليمن، زمبابوي.

Bible Printer's Errors: The Unrepentant Ninevites Bible

Not all the errant texts of Bibles occurred in the years 1500 to 1700.  The edition known as the Unrepentant Ninevites Bible was issued in 1989. Luke 11:32 in the God's New Covenant Bible (1989) reads "For when Jonah preached to them, they were not led to repentance." Actually, they were.

Dating the End of the World Has Christological Implications

The recent controversy caused by the declaration that the end of the world would occur on 21 May 2011  caused me to think how what the bible clearly says about the timing of the end could be ignored.  I think I know, and it turns on a misunderstanding of who Jesus was..

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” 1 John 4:1-3

This passage addressed what was apparently one of the first, possibly the first, heretical interpretations of Christ to be introduced into the Christian community.  The heresy is that of Docetism, from dokein, a Greek verb meaning "to seem."  Though the heresy arose very early within the Church, the actual word "docetism" was first used in 1846. 

The Docetists insisted that since Jesus was God Almighty He could not have felt pain, He probably did not have an actual Human body, and He had no human limitations; therefore, He only seemed to be human.  An understanding similar to this is at the heart of the recent attempt to set a date for the Second Coming.  The “Son” ^@ in Matthew 24:36 is declared not to be Jesus, but the Devil.  Jesus must have known the date because He was God.

To insist that Jesus did know the day of the end of the world when He said He did not comes dangerously close to saying He was not really human, a sort of quasi-Docetism.  Jesus limited Himself, He “emptied” (ἐκένωσεν) Himself (Philippians 2:7) and became fully human.  We should believe that Jesus meant what He said.

Jesus is coming again, but He also is already here.  Those who love the Lord will be ready whenever He physically returns, if it is in the year 3411, next October 21, or two minutes from now.

^@(“Son” is not in the KJV translation but it is in the original Greek text.)

Over 10,000 Page Views!

This blog just went over 10,000 page views since the counter was installed in May of 2010.  The visitors have been readers from eighty-five countries.

The First Bible Printed in America

The first Bible printed in America was translated and published (1663) by John Eliot (b. ca 1604 - d. 1690), the "Apostle to the Indians."  Eliot published his Bible in the Algonquian language.

Names in the Bible: Jesus

The English-language name Jesus is actually Yeshua  or Yehoshua from the Hebrew word "yasha (ישע)" which means "to bring out into a spacious place," "to deliver," or "to bring to safety."   The word calls up the idea of the Exodus, of God leading the Israelites from bondage in Egypt into the Promised Land, just as Jesus brings us out of the dead world system into the Kingdom of God.

"Olorun" in Yoruba

This Christian song, "Olorun" ("God"), is performed by two Texans, Brother Chosen Okonrende and Brother Falu (I could not determine his surname).  The song is performed in the Yoruba language.

There is some controversy about the use of Olorun by Christians as the name of God.  Olorun is the supreme creator deity in the Yoruba polytheistic pantheon; his name is "olo" ("owner") + "orun" ("heaven"). Olorun is all-knowing and all-powerful and, in Yoruba, it can be translated as "God."

Yoruba-speaking Christians use Olorun in the same way that Arabic-speaking Christians use Allah (الله‎ ), Greek-speakers use Theos(θεὸς),
 or Israeli Hebrew-speaking Christians use Elohim (אלהים )or Jahweh (יהוה). They are aware of the other meanings of the names but they use them in the Christian context. 

Gridiron Men's Conference 2011

The Gridiron Men's Conference will be held July 29-30, 2011 at the Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  The conference is associated with Phil Waldrep Ministries  and with Pine Terrace Baptist Church.  Coleman Coliseum is the home of the University of Alabama men's and women's basketball teams.

Speakers at the conference include sports announcer Pat Summerall, 1996 Heisman Trophy Winner and National Football League quarterback Danny Wuerffel, National Basketball Association executive Pat Williams, Big Oak Ranch founder John Croyle, Christian comedian Ken Davis, and Baptist Minister of Music Charles Billingsley.



For those who may not know, "gridiron" is a reference to American-style football.  The rectangular shape of the football field, crossed by regularly spaced painted lines, resembles a gridiron (griddle), a metal frame of parallel bars used to broil or grill meat, fish, and vegetables.

The word "griddle" comes from the Old North French word "gredil" and, ultimately, from the Latin word "cratis," a lattice or wickerwork.

A Little Mother

Today at work I saw a little girl (I really can't say young woman) who was very obviously pregnant.  She was perhaps be fourteen years old ... but she looked like she was eleven, maybe twelve.  Her features were those of a pre-teenage girl.


Statistics almost always lag behind reality, but the latest numbers (2007) for births  to unmarried mothers in the United States are alarming: unmarried women accounted for 39.7 percent of all U.S. births in 2007.  Broken down by race: Black women, 72%, Hispanic women 51%, and non-Hispanic White women, 28%.


The numbers are just as troubling in other countries: Iceland, 66%; Sweden, 55%; France, 50%; United Kingdom, 44%.


The little pregnant girl I saw today faces a very bleak future: she may prove loyal to her child(ren) and spend the rest of her life as one of the working poor, or, she may dump the child(ren) with relatives and run off in pursuit of "fun."  Emily Yoffe in the Slate.com article below states that "Studies have found that children born to single mothers are vastly more likely to be poor, have behavioral and psychological problems, drop out of high school, and themselves go on to have out-of-wedlock children." 

All the statistics point out the result of devaluing traditional standards of morality.  Girls/women learn to not value and treasure their bodies and their chastity.  Instead they learn to see themselves as objects, as a commodity which they can use to get "what they want." And, strangely, some "experts" see this as liberating for women.

Christians need to use whatever influence they have to foster the traditional understanding of sexuality only within the bounds of marriage.  It is not the sexuality which is the problem, but the loss of a proper understanding of sexuality.  God gave us sex; sex is holy.  When sex is removed from its proper context, it becomes a destructive force, just another sin, like unbridled greed or unreasoning hatred or a little white lie.  One sin is as good as another.

All sin reduces to the primal sin, the worship of self instead of God.

Three articles about teenage and unwed pregnancy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051301628.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29754561/ns/health-womens_health/t/unwed-birth-rate-reaches-all-time-high-us/

http://www.slate.com/id/2185944/

More About the End of the World Group

It intrigued me that Harold Camping could so easily ignore what is plainly stated in Matthew 24:36, "But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Περὶ δὲ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκείνης καὶ ὥρας οὐδεὶς οἶδεν, οὐδὲ οἱ ἄγγελοι τῶν οὐρανῶν οὐδὲ ὁ υἱός, εἰ μὴ ὁ πατὴρ μόνος. He ignores it because he identifies the Son (υἱός in the original Greek) with the devil, "the son of perdition."  He does this because, as he says, "To say "Christ does not know all things" is to say Christ did not have the Spirit of God in Him.  This is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit."  Is that so?


Well, actually not.  It is an odd reading of the text to insist that Jesus was not referring to Himself as the Son; he clearly did so in other places.  Also, to insist that Jesus did know the day of the end of the world when He said He did not not comes dangerously close to saying He was not really human, a sort of quasi-Docetism.  Orthodox Christianity insists that Jesus was fully Human and fully Divine.  As a man He could not know more than we can know; "But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:" ἀλλὰ ἑαυτὸν ἐκένωσεν μορφὴν δούλου λαβών, ἐν ὁμοιώματι ἀνθρώπων γενόμενος· καὶ σχήματι εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος.  The Greek says he "emptied" (ἐκένωσεν) Himself. Philippians 2:7


This is important because if Jesus was not really a human, not really a man, then he could not have died in our place for our sins.

Relativism

"Relativism has become, in effect, the fundamental problem in our day."  Pope Benedict XVI

The World Ends Next Saturday

www.FAMILYRADIO.com has bought billboards and a very expensive full page advertisement in the USA Today newspaper to announce that the end of the world will begin with a worldwide earthquake on Saturday, 21 May 2011.

They acknowledge that Mark 13:32 says, "But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."  They say, "The Bible declares that "No Man Knows" is describing the unsaved condition of mankind.  If you are saved then we may know all things spiritually discerned in God's Word."  They also deny that "the Son" mentioned in Mark 13:32 is Jesus; they say the Son is Satan, the "son of perdition."  The "angels in heaven" are the fallen angels who were cast out of Heaven because of their rebellion against God.  (I will have something to say about these claims later). 


The theology expressed here and the dating of the Judgement Day are based on the calculations of Harold Camping (b. 1921, Colorado, USA).  He previously announced that the Rapture would occur in 1994.


If the announcement is correct, then all Spirit-led Christians are ready.  I am ready as all of you should be, but what I suspect will happen is nothing.  The followers of Harold Camping will join a long line of other disappointed people who have thought that the date that they set was the proper one.  And the result will be that they will have brought reproach and derision upon the Church, the ἐκκλησία.

The Lord's Prayer in Mandarin

Chinese/Mandarin Version of Lord’s Prayer.

我們在天上的父，
願人都尊祢的名為聖，
願祢的國降臨，
願祢的旨意行在地上，
如同行在天上。
我們日用的飲食，
今日賜給我們，
免我們的債，
如同我們免了人的債，
不叫我們遇見試探，
救我們脫離兇惡，
因為國度、權柄、榮耀，全是祢的，
直到永遠。阿們！

Is Francis Chan a Sell-Out?

Wow! This blog post pulled in a swirling storm of 188 comments.  It must have hit a nerve!  The basic thrust of the post was to question whether Francis Chan , a Chinese-American man born in Hong Kong, was a sell-out because he is willing to speak at evangelical conferences which sometimes are 98% white.

Many people (not just Americans!) cannot get over RACE.  All they have to do is read their Bibles!  The question was settled almost 2000 years ago.

"Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free: but Christ [is] all, and in all." Colossians 3:11

"There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28

There Was No Post on Thursday; Here's What Happened

I try to post every day.  Late Wednesday and all day Thursday, the Blogger platform was unavailable.

"Here’s what happened: during scheduled maintenance work Wednesday night, we experienced some data corruption that impacted Blogger’s behavior. Since then, bloggers and readers may have experienced a variety of anomalies including intermittent outages, disappearing posts, and arriving at unintended blogs or error pages. A small subset of Blogger users (we estimate 0.16%) may have encountered additional problems specific to their accounts. Yesterday we returned Blogger to a pre-maintenance state and placed the service in read-only mode while we worked on restoring all content: that’s why you haven’t been able to publish.  We rolled back to a version of Blogger as of Wednesday May 11th, so your posts since then were temporarily removed. Those are the posts that we’re in the progress of restoring.

Again, we are very sorry for the impact to our authors and readers.  We try hard to ensure Blogger is always available for you to share your thoughts and opinions with the world, and we’ll do our best to prevent this from happening again."

Posted by Eddie Kessler, Tech Lead/Manager, Blogger

A Romanian Christian Song

Christian Hip Hop Music

This is "The Gift," by Manifest and Lyricks,

Christians

At some time during their lives, the following people have publicly identified themselves as Christian.   Inclusion in this list does not indicate approval or disapproval of the person, of their orthodoxy or lack of it, or of their actions.  Readers are encouraged to suggest persons who should be included on this list.  This is a recurring segment in this blog.

George Washington Carver: (b. 1864, Missouri, USA – d. 1943) Scientist, botanist, educator, inventor.  Carver was born as a slave, after the slaves were freed, he was raised as a son by his former owner. He created numerous products from peanuts, soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes; the products included recipes, cosmetics, axle grease, adhesives, stains, ink, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, bleach, linoleum, paper, and paints.  In 1941 Time Magazine called him a “Black Leonardo.”

Charles Hodge: (b. 1797, Pennsylvania, USA – d. 1878) Presbyterian Calvinist theologian, seminary president.  He insisted that the authority of the Bible had to be understood literally.

Sarah Bache: Great-granddaughter of Benjamin Franklin and wife of Charles Hodge above.  She was named for Sarah Franklin Bache (1743/4 – 1808), Benjamin Franklin’s only daughter.

John Johns: (b. 1796, Delaware, USA – d. 1876) College president, Episcopal bishop of Virginia, lifelong friend of Charles Hodge above.  He was a grandson of Governor Nicholas Van Dyke of Delaware.

Charles Pettit McIlvaine: (b. 1799, New Jersey, USA – d. 1873) College president, Episcopal bishop of Ohio, lifelong friend of Charles Hodge above.

I Urge You to Think Carefully About This

Few issues are more contentious in the modern church than homosexualty.  The readers of this blog probably fall on both sides of the issue with many falling somewhere in the middle.  My intention here is to get you thinking.  I don't want to argue with anyone; this is one of the issues where everyone's attitudes may be already set in stone. I don't intend to tell you what to think, but I will tell you what I think.  I just hope that everyone will think about why they think what they do think and seek to conform themselves to the will of God as expressed in Scripture.  Too many people, on both sides of issues, take stances which they can not intellectually explain or defend.  The link below contains a lively discussion on the issue.

http://ancienthebrewpoetry.typepad.com/ancient_hebrew_poetry/2011/05/to-hell-with-gays-the-bible-and-homosexuality.html#tp

It is clear that the Bible condemns homosexual behavior and that Jesus, himself, never mentioned it.  Your attitude toward the Bible will determine what you make of this.  My belief is that Jesus never mentioned the subject because He was an observant religious Jew and considered the issue to be settled by the Scriptures.

In my understanding, homosexuality is merely a sin like any other sin. Any sin, no matter how small, is a missing of the mark.  If you do not believe that homosexual behavior is a sin, at the very least, know the reasons why you have this belief.  God will not look on sin.  How wonderful it is that when God sees his saints, he sees Jesus!

Many homosexuals insist that they have not chosen homosexuality, that is is inborn.  Are beastiality, or necrophilia,  or sexual coprophila, or sexual urophilia, or pedophilia, or sexual masochism, or sexual sadism, or, for that matter, asexuality, inborn?  My understanding of "nature vs. nurture" is that it is the sexual impulse which is inborn and that the object of sexuality can be determined by many factors from a very early age.  The object of sexual desire need not even be alive, it may be shoes, or money, or power.  Many believe that the feeling of power over another person is the sexual release which serial killers experience.   The current state of knowledge provides no definitive answer to the question of the origins of sexual orientation and it is not likely to in the future.

Some will bring up recent anatomical studies which suggest differences in the brain structure of homosexuals and heterosexuals.  Though these differences are real, they have not been shown to be present in all examined brain specimens.  It is an unwarranted intellectual leap to declare that they are causative. They also do not take into account functional magnetic resonance studies which suggest that functional brain anatomy changes in response to behavior and learning.  The current state of brain science provides no definitive answer to the question of the origins of sexual orientation and is not likely to in the future.

Yes, of course, there are homosexuals in the organized church.  I know some of them.  Some are closeted and others attend churches which accept their sexual orientation.  A few practice celibacy, which may be the best course of action.  It is not the sexual orientation which is condemned by Scripture, but the behavior.  No one sins by being tempted. We are all tempted by something. Jesus was tempted.

Can a homosexual be saved?  Can a thief be saved?  Can a murderer be saved?  Can a tax cheater be saved?  Can a church pastor be saved?  Of course, and we all do still sin after our conversion but we must not consciously chose to continue to sin.  We are to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into holiness.

After Jesus shamed a group of sanctimonious men who where about to stone an adulterous woman to death, He asked her who was there condemning her.

"She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." John 8:11

Malayalam Christian Flute Music

This is a Malayalam Christian song, Kannuneer Thazhvarayil.  I do not know the translation of the title.  The musician in the first video is Sunil Solomon,

Another version

Mother Teresa on Prayer

To Mother Teresa, a reporter asked, “What do you say to God when you pray?” Her simple answer was, “I don’t say anything; I just listen.” He then asked her, “Well, what does Jesus say to you?” And Mother Theresa answered, “Oh, He doesn’t say anything, either. He just listens.”

Bird in a Mud Puddle

Yesterday morning I was walking my dog.  She is totally deaf and has epilepsy, so, when she stiffened, I thought she might be having a seizure.  Then I saw that she was in a "What is that???!!!!" stance.  In front of us was a sparrow splashing and thrashing about in a puddle of muddy water.  The bird wasn't crazy, injured, or frightened.  It was taking a bath.

Birds take water and/or dust baths to clean themselves and to discourage the presence of itchy mites and fleas on their bodies.

Sparrows taking a dirt bath

Wild blue tits taking a water bath

This little poem is quoted from http://blogs.cbn.com/soultransformation/archive/2010/05/28/why-the-birds-dont-worry.aspx

“Said the Robin to the Sparrow:
‘I should really like to know,  Why these anxious human beings,
Rush about and worry so.’
 
Said the Sparrow to the Robin:
‘Friend, I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me’” 
(Elizabeth Cheney, Streams in the Desert) 

"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."  Matthew 6: 25-34.

We live in a world full of tornadoes, earthquakes, civil wars, terrorism, hatred, and strife.  Many of us walk around with an underlying state of stress,  We might profit by actually listening to Jesus and looking at the birds.

Film Comment: The Magic Christian

The Magic Christian (1969) is Terry Southern's sarcastic and nihilist bite at hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and pretensions of altruism.  This satire of the modern consumer culture skewers the rich, lawyers, social snobs, the church and just about everyone else.  An underlying theme during the film is that the hypocrites are running about doing their lives while social unrest burns around them, totally unnoticed by them.  The novel (also titled The Magic Christian) on which the film is based was considered by many to be obscene and was banned in several countries.  Think of Monty Python with a knife.

Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) is a multi-bazillionare ("I have enough for everyone.") One day, on a whim, Sir Guy adopts a smelly and unkempt vagrant (Ringo Starr, of the Beatles) whom he meets in the park, and names him Youngman, Youngman Grand.  "It's grand to be Grand."

Sir Guy takes Youngman out into the world to teach him the ultimate truth; Everyone has a price, everyone can be bought.  Spreading around his fortune with wild abandon, Sir Guy stages absurd situations to expose snobbery and greed and everyone responds exactly as he predicted they would.  Youngman gets into the spirit of his lessons, becoming ever more cynical by the second.

The Magic Christian of the title is a luxury ocean liner which caters only to the ultra-ultra-rich.  Sir Guy arranges for the only available food on the ship to be potatoes.

Unless you are a Peter Sellers completist, this is not a film you probably wish to see.  It is more sarcastic and angry than funny.  When I say angry, I mean bitter.  The bitterness comes to full fruition in the ending of the film.

THIS IS A SPOILER!  DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU PLAN TO SEE THIS FILM!  SKIP TO THE ENDING OF THIS POST!  The film ends with an iconic but disgusting scene in which Sir Guy drives home his point.  He hires a waste disposal company to fill a large swimming pool with animal blood, urine, and feces and then, while wearing a gas mask, scatters millions of pounds (this is a British film) into the pool.  He and Youngman then stand back as all the men in expensive suits dive in to grab up as much money as they can.  Everyone can be bought, everyone has a price.  The love of money is the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10) because it is actually the love of self, the glorification of self, the root sin.

Christians may not realize it but they also have a price.  Instead of allowing themselves to be bought by the world, they belong to Christ.  Their love is of Christ who is of inestimable value.

"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:" Galatians 3:13

"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." 1 Corinthians 6:20.  

 The price was the life of Jesus, who is fully human and fully God.  How much is God worth?  

Book Comment: Handbook of Denominations in the United States

Do you know a Schwenkfelder?  Do you know the difference between the Unity School of Christianity and the Unity of the Brethren?  Frank S. Mead's classic 1951 reference book, Handbook of Denominations in the United States can help you with these questions and many others. The book is so useful that it has been released in multiple editions (there were eleven editions by 1985!)

Each religious body is described listing its history, contact address, membership statistics, distinctive doctrines and beliefs, prominent members, geographical distribution data, and a discussion of the body's government.  The listings are placed within major groupings: Baptist, Adventist, Bahai, Jewish, Muslim, Episcopal/Anglican, Mennonite, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Spiritualist, Reformed, Catholic, Fundamentalist,  Mormon, and others.

Opening the book to ten random pages finds articles on the following groups: Anglican Catholic Church,  Branch Davidians, Hungarian Reformed Church in America,  Conservative Baptist Association of America, The Pillar of Fire, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, Open Bible Standard Churches, International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, Unification Church, and the National Baptist Convention of America.

I know that the idea of a reference book may sound dry and boring but this well-written book is fascinating.  It will be useful reading to anyone interested in the history of religion in the United States and should be available in the adult reference section in most larger libraries.

Saying Their Prayers

I do not know the source of this photograph.

David Wilkerson is Dead

Assemblies of God evangelist-pastor David Wilkerson died Wednesday in a head-on crash with a tractor trailer truck on a highway in Texas.  Wilkerson was the subject of the film, The Cross and the Switchblade, about his encounter with the street gang thug, Nicky Cruz, who is now a Christian evangelist.

Here is his seemingly prophetic final blog post: 

"To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights, and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, `I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident." 

This is why some people are fascinated by the Bible Codes.

GENESIS 1: 22-26

The Hebrew text above is one example of why many people believe in the phenomenon of the Bible Codes.  I must admit that I tend to be a skeptic about things like this, but you can see why this would intrigue people.

Rabbi Chaim Michael Dov Weissmandl (1903-1957), the driving force behind the Bible Codes movement, found the following in Genesis 1:22-26; the name of Abraham is spelled out (from the top line down, enclosed in the added boxes) by the letters in the passage with each letter of the name separated from the preceding letter by forty-nine (seven times seven; seven was a sacred number, Genesis 2:2, 4:24, 21:28)) intercalary letters.  In each of the forty-nine letter sequences, אֱלֹהִים (elohim/God, backlit in gray) appears.

 In the midrash Bereshit Rabbah (68, 11f), Rabbi Nehemiah said, "The Holy One, blessed be He, united His name with Abraham; with Isaac too he united His name."  

One of the names of God is "Yahweh" (in biblical Hebrew this is represented as HWHY, read from right to left).  Remember that the ancients believed that names and even the letters of which the names were composed carried meaning and power.

When God confirmed His covenant to Abram by declaring that Sarai's son would be the long-promised heir, He inserted himself (the "H") into their names, giving them new and suddenly different lives.  Abram became Abraham; Sarai became Sarah.  Isaac means "he laughed" which is what elderly Abram did when God told him that he and and his very old wife were going to finally have a son. 

The text (Genesis 1: 22-26) into which this insertion of the name of Abraham occurs says nothing about Abram.  He wouldn't be born until centuries later.

"And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

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There are often odd spacings and other abnormalities in the text when Hebrew and other Semitic languages like Arabic are inserted into a text.  Microsoft Word insists on reversing the letter order to conform to English usage (unintended ATBASH?)  Word processors need special software to properly handle these alphabets; without the software you have to try to trick Microsoft Word which doesn't always work.

Found in You (In Japanese)

Usama bin Laden is Dead

Usama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida, is dead, killed in a American commando raid and his body is in the hands of American forces.  This can only be seen as a good thing.  At the same time, I am troubled.

Some of the network news people seemed almost giddy, giggling, exulting.  The death of a person, even Usama bin Laden, should not be a cause for celebration.  It was necessary.

Romans 13: 1-7 tells us that government's function is to protect the people and punish the wrongdoer and this situation certainly fits that description.  The commandos who carried out this action, as agents of the state, bear no personal responsibility for bin Laden's death.

The soldiers mentioned in the Bible, when carrying out the legitimate functions of the state, are spoken of favorably.  They are respected persons.

Swahili Worship Song