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Treason, Boobleheads and Justice

Last night, as I laid in my hotel room, watching the bobble heads on the various networks, I became more and more angered at the ignorance and down right stupidity of the various “news anchors”. The more I watched MSNBC the madder I got. So, I turned over to CNN and heard their garbage for a few minutes and in short order changed the channel before I totally lost is and threw a shoe or some other object threw the hotel’s TV.

The pompous anchor on MSNBC made sure to speak of how evil the Bush administration is and how we as citizens need to hang them all up. He spoke of how this country is so destroyed under the Bush administration that we are never going to be the same. He yelled at photos and comments of other anchors and even called the other networks stupid and lame. He basically made a fool of himself, but I am sure many can’t see just how foolish he is.

I must say, I am totally annoyed and in many ways pissed at the media. They have taken this waterboarding thing and ran with it to prop up their own liberal agenda and it is creating so much division in the country. I agree that the country is probably never going to be the same.  But under the Bush administration the world was changed by terrorists, not by the administration. The things that Bush did to protect the citizens of this country are not only admirable, but were his job. He was tasked to protect this country and the citizens of it, even those that are now trying to hang him up.

I found it amusing that many of the bobble heads were saying how in the history of the US they have never heard of such torture and blatant disregard for the suffering of human beings. I agree, never have you heard of it, because in the past, the Presidents of history were smart enough to realize that somethings are not meant to be public knowledge. There have been other times in our history, I can assure you, where those that intended to do us harm, have been subjected to various methods to extract vital information. It is total ignorance on anyone’s part that disbelieves it.

We are now living in a time where we have a president that it inept at keeping things secure. He has proven in his first days to turn over top secret documents that should have remained there. He has breached our country’s own national security and because of that, he has opened the door for more terrorist attacks. By breaching National Security, in such a public manner, he is guilty of treason. But, do we hear about that, and the new threats that are surfacing due to these policy changes and acts, no, we hear how bad Bush was and distract the public from what is happening now.

He has managed to not only shield his own actions from the public, but those of his cronies in congress.  There are 4-5 top ranking Dems that are all facing ethics charges, yet we never hear of those, because he has flooded the airwaves with this garbage.

I for one am not only angered and outraged, I want justice. I want the acts of treason committed in the past month to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.  Let’s start at the top and work our way down.

My little rant about Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

So, recently I ran an event that had Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson speaking at the event.  In fact the event was really mostly a time for him to speak and then autograph some book he wrote afterwards.

Neil is self-proclaimed “non-religious.”  I realize that his has his own belief and thought process and I can accept that, but it was difficult to see how far off base he really was. It was even harder to watch some 2000 people hang on his every word.

At one point, he said, “if Christians want to refute scientific data on the basis of their belief, that is fine, but their belief does not make it correct.”  He went on to say, “I long for the day when the religious understand  that their beliefs cannot refute science.”

So, with all of that, I have the following to say….

The definition of scientific method is as follows:

“Scientific method refers to bodies of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methodologies of knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses. These steps must be repeatable in order to dependably predict any future results. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many hypotheses together in a coherent structure. This in turn may help form new hypotheses or place groups of hypotheses into context.

Among other facets shared by the various fields of inquiry is the conviction that the process be objective to reduce a biased interpretation of the results. Another basic expectation is to document, archive and share all data and methodology so they are available for careful scrutiny by other scientists, thereby allowing other researchers the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. This practice, called full disclosure, also allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established.”

I must reference the bolded text above.  I believe this is a key line in the definition of the scientific method; the interpretation MUST be unbiased. I would argue that Dr. deGrasse Tyson is biased against religion, as he has several times referred to himself as “non-religious, not against religion, but enlightened beyond it.”  By his own statements, deGrasse Tyson, convicts himself of being biased.

My next argument is the lack of controls in his scientific method.

The description of scientific controls is below:

A positive control is a procedure that is very similar to the actual experimental test, but which is known from previous experience to give a positive result. A negative control is known to give a negative result. The positive control confirms that the basic conditions of the experiment were able to produce a positive result, even if none of the actual experimental samples produce a positive result. The negative control demonstrates the base-line result obtained when a test does not produce a measurable positive result; often the value of the negative control is treated as a “background” value to be subtracted from the test sample results, or be used as the “100%” value against which the test sample results are weighed.

For example, in an enzyme assay to measure the amount of an enzyme in a set of extracts, a positive control would be an assay where you add some of the purified enzyme, and a negative control would be where you do not add any extract. The positive control should give a large amount of enzyme activity, while the negative control should give very low to no activity.

So, in the scientific test, you need to add positive and negative controls to fully test the method. Under this understanding, and being that Dr. deGrasse Tyson was specifically talking on the Big Bang theory, how do you establish a positive and negative control? There is really only one way, the positive control being GOD, and the negative control being the BANG. So, how then, does one add positive control to their experiment? Do you really believe you have the scientific power to add God into the test?

I completely argue that in any test of the Big Bang theory, there has never been a positive control. You cannot pressure God to throw His power in for your little experiment. So, you cannot with any shred of decency, tell me that your scientific study has proved the Big Bang created the universe instead of God.

The next time you want to present your “factual data” you might want to consider the very premise of scientific method – solid controls – something which you cannot do in this equation. Your argument sir, is dead wrong, and completely biased in your own opinion, or one might say, belief. If you want to criticize a group of people for their beliefs, you might want to look into your own mirror, and realize that your belief cannot prove scientific data.

The Ridiculous Church

I have previously written about Pastor Ted Haggard and the sex scandal that revolved around him. While I previously mentioned how I prayed and hoped that the church would use this scandal to demonstrate to the world the amazing forgiveness and acceptance of Christ, it is sad today that they have failed miserably.

I just watched the HBO documentary on Ted and I must admit that it tends to lean in Ted’s favor. I understand that many are still hurt and upset at the downfall of Pastor Ted. I can understand that it takes time for healing to come, but I also realize that many have moved from hurt and pain to bitterness.

I didn’t realize that Ted’s church had required for Ted to move out of state and never return. I didn’t realize that they had banned him from every working in ministry again. I didn’t realize that they had essentially kicked him out of the church, out of the state and out of ministry while telling him to undergo “spiritual restoration.” I am not sure this church even understands spiritual restoration.

While I whole-heartedly agree that Ted Haggard needs to receive healing and restoration for his life, I also understand that his life is his own and his choices are his own to make. The church has little say in how he goes about the process and they certainly don’t have ANY say or authority to tell him to leave the state of Colorado and never return. It is ridiculous for them to even believe that they can tell someone to get out of our area and stay out. I must say who do they think they are?

Only Ted and God, know the depth of his sin and where he is spiritually today. It is not for me, you, the media or his previous church to stand in judgment of him. It IS all of our responsibility to love him and accept him where he is at. We must be the church that God created us to be, not the Pharisees and Sadducees that many are.

I pray for Ted Haggard and his family. I pray for New Life church and their leaders and I pray for all of us to stop being so “righteous” that we can’t even be the church to a lost and dying world. It is time for us to use these moments of failure to demonstrate just how powerful the love of God is and how far reaching His forgiveness goes. Stop kicking those that are down and pick them up instead and build them towards a closer, more personal relationship with the Father of Lights.

Isn’t the purpose of the church to lift up the sinner and lead them to Christ?

Be careful how you answer that…..

Cause if you answer it Yes….

Then the church is failing miserably in this case and many others as well.

Switching to Digital

So, in case you haven’t heard, the big switch to digital tv is coming soon.

It is interesting that the majority of people effected by the switch are most likely not going to be using the internet…. but oh well, what does our government know anyways.

This video is pretty funny and sums up the confusion I am sure many feel with this coming switch.

Finding your purpose circle…

 

As I watched the ceremonies yesterday, I could not help but wonder what is going on in the mind, heart and soul of President Bush. Is he sad to see the last day of his presidency finally come to an end or is he happy to be moving forward in his life and on to new and different things?

All of that thinking and pondering brought me to a few revelations of wisdom and those are what I really desire to write about today.

You see, we have all heard a lot about purpose in the past few years. Rick Warren wrote a book about your life’s purpose and millions bought it and assumably read it.  Others have followed in his footsteps and written their own books related to the topic, but in all of my reading and research, I have never fully understood a simple concept that was revealed so clearly to me yesterday.

You see in my simple understanding of it all, I realized that purpose creates passion.  With passion you become committed, so I believe it is fair to further state that passion creates commitment.  With commitment things get accomplished and that sense of accomplishment creates fulfillment. That fulfillment then ratifies or confirms the overall purpose.

So the picture is something like this…..

 

While I only spent a few minutes creating the graphic above, I hope that it gives you a good idea of this concept.

So, as I contemplated President Bush’s thoughts and emotions yesterday, I prayed that he truly does know what his ultimate purpose is. With understanding one’s purpose, life can and will be fulfilling. It is a perpetual cycle that sustains itself.

I am fairly certain that President Bush knows his purpose. I also am confident President Obama knows his purpose as well. The question that remains, do the people that stood hours in the cold to catch a glimpse of a man, know their purpose? Do they understand what they are here on this earth for? 

I hope they do… if they don’t I am afraid that the fulfillment they believe they have found will soon fade and despair will quickly set in.

 

Kingdom Coming

In a world that is full of broken dreams, where truth is hard to find, there is a peace that continues to scream out to all that will find. This peace is the knowledge that the Kingdom of God is at hand. It is a proclamation that Jesus Himself declared countless times during His life on this earth. This knowledge should bring anyone great comfort and peace.

No matter the situation you find yourself in today, I can boldly tell you that the Kingdom is at hand, take strength in knowing that God is still on His throne and totally in charge of it all. 

Mercy reigns, justice comes and the righteousness of Christ will conquer all fear, oppression and death. You might find yourself oppressed, hurt or downtrodden today, but the good news is that the Kingdom will come. For God has declared, that if you seek Him with all your heart, you WILL find Him. (Prov. 8:17; Jer. 29:13; Acts 17:26-28) 

My prayer – let the Kingdom come.  Let it come to you, to your family, to your nation, and to this entire world. May we all embrace the Kingdom of God and rest in the peace that only He can give. Let us all surrender our own struggles to the one who is actually able to handle them. Let us all choose to leave behind the desire to control things we cannot, and move on to greater things. Let us all surrender our own agenda to the agenda of the Kingdom. Let the Kingdom come.

The song below is fairly new.  My prayer is that you will let it speak to you and your heart. May you hear the deeper meaning in it and move on… to the things of the Kingdom.

And the new gay agenda begins….

For those of you who haven’t seen or were not aware, recently Ray Boltz came out of the closet as gay.  I wrote about it HERE.  

Well, today, as I was responding to a question from another person, I discovered that Ray has released a new single, [entitled] “Don’t Tell Me Who To Love.”  (You can listen to the single HERE.) 

Ray has written this announcement on his website and provided a link to his blog with a way to listen to the song. 

 

When I first wrote about Ray’s coming out, I spoke of how in all of this God is still on His throne and I still will boldly claim, that God is on His throne and He will ultimately received the glory in all things. I know it may be hard to understand how at this moment, but I trust and fully know that God is in control and that is the anchor I cling to.

So, here are my new thoughts and concern. I have often feared that the “gay agenda” would one day turn to the real civil rights challenges of the 60’s etc. and use it as a pedestal to prop up their arguments. I really understand that satan uses those dark moments in our history to further spiral us into depravity. I expected it to come and as of this new Ray Boltz song, it has fully arrived.  

If you listen to the lyrics you hear him say, that in the 60’s a couple that was wanting to get married were discriminated against because one was white, the other black.  He goes on to say that just as “they” were wrong back then, they are wrong today – Don’t tell me who to love, don’t tell me who to kiss…. etc. etc. etc.

I guess in reality, even though I expected this kind of attack to come, I never really contemplated what if it originates out of the Christian community. While I am sure that Ray Boltz and his music has been trashed and burned in many circles, I am still sure, that many still admire him and love his music. I for one, loved his music. I still love those songs I mentioned in my earlier post. My heart breaks for the destruction that is raging through Ray’s heart and mind. I can only imagine the despair and pain he has lived with while he was hiding.

I still stand here today and pray and believe God can touch Ray’s heart again. I know that this can all be used for the good. I pray that we as the church stand up and love Ray and everyone the same. 

For far too long, the church has stood in judgment instead of love. We have pushed those who were lost and hurting away and have shunned those who were different. Our churches in the US became country clubs while destruction and havoc reigned on the streets, the neighborhoods and the homes. We looked to our own self righteous interpretations of the gospel instead of simple message of Jesus – He came in so much love for all of us, that He died, was buried and rose to save us all. The short version – Jesus loves all of us enough to die for all of us.

If Christ loves all – then surely He loves the homosexual, the straight,  the prostitute, the sick and downtrodden, the wealthy, the poor, the weak and the strong. He loves those that stand for His truth, He loves those that stand against it. In all things God loves, not because He has to, but because He chooses to love us, no matter where we are.

So, I plead to the church…. start to love more. We will never be effective, until we come down off of our soapbox. We MUST stand for what is truth and what is right, but while doing so, we must love.

I have great hope for the church. While we have failed miserably at times, we have the ability to change into what God has for us to be. I believe if we re-focus on His wisdom, His love and His peace, then we will reach those we are here to reach. No where in scripture do I see a call to pick up chips and place them on our shoulders. I only see God’s call to walk in love and righteousness

For you see, in love we should not be rude, self-seeking, or easily angered. We should not keep a record of all that is wrong, but stand for what is truth. In love we should protect, trust, hope, and persevere. For, love never fails.

In our own self-seeking, our haste to keep records of wrong, our failure to protect the hearts of those we are called to reach, our failure to trust God to bring about the change, our failure to hope and persevere – WE HAVE FAILED!  But, love never fails…love is the answer.

So, with that, I take issue with this new song of Ray’s. For you see, his song says, “don’t tell me who to love.”  Well, Mr. Boltz, I have not attempted to tell you who to love, but the Word of God has. You, Mr. Boltz, and all of us on this planet, have been instructed to love EVERYONE. So with the final line of your new song, I do agree, true love is gonna make it in the end, for God is love.

I pray, that we, as humans, learn to just do it… love.

1 Corinthians 13

Love

 1If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^[b] but have not love, I gain nothing. 4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

 13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

When It’s Time to Fire the Soundman

Sometimes it is just time to fire the sound guy.  I won’t go as far to say that the person operating this microphone was an engineer, but just a soundman.  I know a couple of guys around town that are totally capable of this type of work….

 

If you ask me who, I won’t tell you, but I am sure if you are around me much, you know who I am thinking of.

 

LOL

 

One Infamous Pastor’s Kid

So, as I think most people know, Jessica Simpson is the daughter of Joe Simpson, a former youth pastor. Joe long ago gave up his ministry (some might even say- he sold his soul) to be his kids manager.  Well, now his oldest daughter, Jessica, has decided to go back to school and study …. Theology….

Wow is right.  Especially after you read her logic in determining this course of study.

 

 

Makes you wonder what exactly was happening in the Simpson household during those early formative years. What in the world was Joe preaching?