Author: Scott
THIS IS NOT CHRISTIANITY!
Faith Healer Parents Plead Guilty in the Death of Baby After They Chose Prayer Over Medical Help
The parents of an infant twin girl who died hours after her birth in 2017 pled guilty on Monday.
Source: Faith Healer Parents Plead Guilty in the Death of Baby After They Chose Prayer Over Medical Help
Much Happier Without Facebook, FOX, and Football
“Together, the people in these industries are arrogant and have collectively become a type of aristocracy. Putting up with them calls my own integrity into question: You entertain me so I look the other way as you destroy our culture! No.”
I have been several weeks now without fixating on Facebook, FOX News, and the NFL. I’m not actually one to “fixate” on them. But they have been a part of my routine. Not anymore. Why?
There’s no point anymore. I am sick of memes, forwards to messenger that say “Please forward to friends” or that contain links to fake news articles from people with no discernment. As far as it’s platform for social commentary—it’s either an argument or an echo chamber; an opportunity to get likes or create conflict. Has FB been useful ever? Sure, but not enough to put up with the rest of it.
FOX…
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The Diversity Lottery
In the wake of the latest NYC terror attack we all learned about something we didnt know existed called the diversity lottery. Leaving off the general rule that the odds are always against most who actually play lotteries, it raises other questions about fundamental differences of opinion concerning the role of diversity in the greatness of America.
My thoughts here are simple: It seems to me that the America I️ was taught about as a child was an America that welcomed to its shores the “tired…poor…huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” (Emma Lazarus, New Colossus), but that those who took us up on that offer came because they wanted to blend into the American family. Consequently, the uniqueness of their own heritage flavored America, yes. But they wanted to be Americans.
Somehow, those who have been shaping our immigration policies pre-Trump have assumed that we could manually create a diverse society and that the process needed our help—that somehow all we needed was the presence of people of different color and culture for America to be great. So, you get the diversity lottery. (Nowadays, it seems that the left requires that a certain percentage of immigrants be illegal or legal but want to kill us.)
From another angle, we see a strange thing happening in America—not new but newly aggravated. On one hand, we go to war over racism. We are willing to shed blood, either proverbially or for reallys, at even the perception of racism. But on the other hand, we are going to never-before-seen lengths to make sure that
- We identify ourselves in racial terms.
- We make sure that no one appropriates our cultural images and identities.
- We are at pains to be sure that every skin pigmentation is noted and protected.
So, ironically, we find ourselves saying “Treat me the same as you do everyone else while making sure you take note of every real or perceived difference.”
Another interesting phenomenon is happening somewhere, and that is that average white people are morphing into white supremicists. Of course, there have always been those groups, but now people are writing articles explaining how their kids should not be friends with white people. I thought generalizing people based on their skin color was racism.
I suppose my question is How can we ever get past racism when all we ever do is draw attention to race? I don’t see how we can ever arrive at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of unity when we are constantly asserting our diversity.
Our Culture Needs The Reckless Love of God and Our Churches Should Sing About It!
The Church in many places now is singing a song called “Reckless Love.” It’s a beautiful song and the lyrics are precious, powerful, and thought-provoking (you can read them at the end of this post).
The chorus begins with the phrase
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Powerful! The first person I ever heard refer to the “reckless love of God” was Rich Mullins. He was the artist who sang “Our God is an Awesome God!” He had a song called “The Love of God” (lyrics below). In that song he referred to
the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God
This concept of the “reckless” love of God is one the Church can not afford to miss! What God has done to bring us into fellowship with Himself even at the cost of His own Son; even at the cost of allowing people to be separated from Him eternally; all because He wants those who want Him! All for His love for us! Come on!
Reckless Love
Caleb Culver, Cory Asbury, Ran Jackson
Verse 1
Before I spoke a word
You were singing over me
You have been so, so
Good to me
Before I took a breath
You breathed Your life in me
You have been so, so
Kind to me
Chorus
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn’t earn it
I don’t deserve it
Still You give yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Verse 2
When I was your foe, still Your love fought for me
You have been so, so
Good to me
When I felt no worth
You paid it all for me
You have been so, so
Kind to me
The Love of God
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy
I cannot find in my own
And He keeps His fire burning
To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with a yearning
Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God
Now I’ve seen no band of angels
But I’ve heard the soldiers’ songs
Love hangs over them like a banner
Love within them leads them on
To the battle on the journey
And it’s never gonna stop
Ever widening their mercies
And the fury of His love
Oh the love of God
And oh, the love of God
The love of God
Joy and sorrow are this ocean
And in their every ebb and flow
Now the Lord a door has opened
That all Hell could never close
Here I’m tested and made worthy
Tossed about but lifted up
In the reckless raging fury
That they call the love of God
Written by Richard Mullins • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol Christian Music Group
Read this article at Scottythinks.com.
Gabby Douglas Got it Right!
Imaginations and Thoughts
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:5, KJV)
IMAGINATIONS. High things capable of exalting themselves against the knowledge of God. The authority to cast down thoughts produced in the mind (human or otherwise) that concoct a view of reality in which God is not the God.
THOUGHTS. So rapidly produced, one following the other in lightning procession, so able to slip past our notice; able to carry seeds of rebellion against Christ. So subtle. Thoughts—vehicles that carry; servants that serve. The authority to capture them and force them to carry and serve only that which aligns with the truth of God’s Divine Self-Revelation.
IMAGINATIONS—thoughts carrying seeds of rebellion that got lose and germinated producing a stronghold.
Cast down every imagine or high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God! Take captive every thought and force it to carry and serve only that which is true to God’s Divine Self-Revelation.
Should I Say It?
At key moments, the specter of hurting someone forces us into silence thus robbing individuals the value of the public corrective. Do you think this is true?
America’s Hermeneutical Crisis
Is it proper to say that Western Culture is in the midst of a hermeneutical crisis? Allow me to enumerate the several symptoms that I observe in order then to determine whether the list constitutes what I have prematurely labeled it.
The chief struggle in the current cultural difficulty is best described as an inability to find common ground of agreement in order to move forward with what is best for the American people as a whole rather than its partisan interest groups. That inability is anchored in an unwillingness to compromise on any level for the sake of finding such common ground. That unwillingness is defended through the exercise of intellectual dishonesty in many cases, while in other cases, there seems to be a genuine inability to distinguish truth from falsehood, good from bad.
An example of *unwillingness* working in tandem with *inability* can be seen in the current crisis having to do with what might be called gender confusion or gender fluidity. Here we observe souls (at least some of which are sincere) who are genuinely confused about their gender (i.e., a woman identifying internally as man, etc). Helping these sincere souls along are those people (many of whom I am convinced have no genuine sympathy) not plagued with such gender trauma and yet, because of the pressure (or the prizing) of political correctness, are willing to placate the gender confused by agreeing to call them Bill instead of Betty, or vice versa.
The hermeneutical crisis I am imagining manifests itself in people who are unable to discern or interpret their own lives within the context of normalcy and therefore create new categories for themselves, while on the other hand, are enablers who are willing to rewrite the cultural “text,” if you will, to include the gender-confused because by doing so they feel they can further their own cultural cause, get some extra votes (if they are politicians), vindicate a family member, or perhaps even garner the acceptance for their own sins in some way.
To put the matter in cruder terms, more and more, people are deciding to interpret cultural/political/social events in a way that supports their agenda rather than to interpret them factually, based on a commitment to truth, regardless of how it affects their agenda.
So, in the same way that some scholars are willing to twist a text in order to make it support their beliefs, people in Western Culture are proving that they have little to no commitment to rightly discerning the daily events and circumstances which make up the average American life.
It’s not my intent to discuss the problem of gender confusion though some will not be able to get past that example. My purpose instead is to examine the hermeneutical approach to the events of daily life taken by the average person in Western culture, particularly the average American.
The word *hermeneutics* is of course a terribly uninteresting word to the uninitiated, but expounding it and explaining how it applies to the average person is the best way forward.
In a counseling appointment with a man who is unruly in the church I observed again how distinctly from the norm some people arrive at truth. Such a distinct approach is almost impenetrable. The difficulty is bound up in the discussion of authority. One of the heritages from the enlightenment, as harmful as it may be at times, is the admonition to appeal to your own reason to arrive at truth and not depend on a book, an organization, etc.
So, yes America—the West—has chosen to “rewrite” the cultural text so that it says what they want to to say. That’s a hermeneutical crisis.
Descartes and Design |
In his arrival at what he called “the first principle of the Philosophy for which I was seeking,” Descartes famous “I think, therefore I am,” demonstrates the validity of th…
Source: Descartes and Design |