Katrina and Rita are memories... at least should be

I’m pretty sure that my head is about to explode.

A federal judge ordered the Bush administration Wednesday to immediately resume making housing benefits available to thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina.

U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to adequately explain why it ended the 18-month housing assistance program for people who lost their homes in the 2005 storm. More…

Why don’t people get it?! The welfare state goes contrary to what the founding fathers envisioned. That is why they created a representative republic rather than a true democracy. They knew that in a democracy that the majority would inevitably seek to redistribute the wealth by using a simple majority vote, because they knew the simple fact of life, that the majority of the wealth always resides in the hands of the few. Here we have the victims of a natural disaster, over a year since it hit, still crying for someone to help them. Most of these people are able-bodied adults capable of working and finding a residence on their own. Look what the welfare state has done to these people. A year after the hurricanes hit and they are still incapable of providing for themselves. It’s pathetic. These are grown people who are incapable of providing the basic necessities of life. In effect they are children, taught to be wholly dependent on others for their survival. I’m all for helping people who have lost everything, but I have NO intention of picking up economic leeches and carrying their weight over a year after the fact. If they can work, let them work! It is not my job, or anyone else’s job to pay for their laziness. The welfare state DOES NOT WORK, and the pit of liberal corruption that was Louisiana proves it. Personal responsibility destroys any argument the liberal cry-babies can muster.

Sunday School Discussion

As promised last Sunday, it is my desire to change the format of our Sunday School class so that we shift from my trying to lecture, to all of us discussing the material together. As such, this week we will be discussing John Piper's sermon on Romans 6:20-22. Piper provides the base text for his sermon, as well as the audio. It is not very long, and you can listen online or download it for a later time. I encourage everyone to listen to the sermon and write down questions, comments, disagreements, anything that strikes you, as you listen.

Also, as a reminder, we will be meeting upstairs above the kitchen for now on. Class starts at 10 AM, and I look forward to seeing each of you this Sunday.

Thanksgiving

In reply to Ched's post.

Whenever people are asked to share what they are thankful for I get a strange desire to come up with something unique, something that breaks away from the mundane and the trivial, something that people haven't heard so many times before; almost as if I were in competition with them. Yet I am quickly reminded that the forgiveness of sin is not trivial, it is not mundane. It is the source of my joy, my hope, the defining key that opens the door to life in what would otherwise be complete chaos and despair. This year I am thankful, from the depths of my soul, for God's saving grace, his mercy, and his continuing love for a sinful person like me. I pray I never file away what God has done through Christ as trivial or mundane. I pray I never settle from the emotional torrent that accompanies the realization of what exactly has been done on my behalf. On the contrary, I pray that God make it ever more precious to me. As I continue to experience God, each moment should be seen through divine lenses, that none of it is possible save for the work of Christ alone. Praise God!

Sola Scriptura

This is what happens when traditions and the rule of man supplant the inherent authority of the Word of God and are used to lead the church; the complete compromise of biblical principle and acceptance of sin amongst God’s people.

Catholic bishops debate gay ministry

BALTIMORE - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is debating how parishes can be welcoming to gays while also upholding the teaching that gay relationships are "disordered."

The proposed guidelines before the bishops Tuesday, called "Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination," condemn discrimination against gays, acknowledge that many try to live faithfully and state that it's not a sin to be attracted to someone of the same gender. more…

Where is the debate? Why use an appeasing phrase like, “disordered?” God does not call homosexuality disordered, he calls it an abomination. It is not okay to have homosexual thoughts and not act on them, that’s just as bad! Jesus said if you look at a woman with lust in your eye then you have committed adultery with her in your heart; you do the math. It is the condition of our heart, the readiness of our soul that interests God, not merely our actions. If actions alone could save, we wouldn’t have needed Jesus, and the scribes would not have been denounced as a brood of vipers. Jesus came so that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. He wants us to be free from the sin that is eating away at us like a cancer. This infestation of pervasive thought among the Catholic leaders will ultimately be their undoing. Just as you would not ignore a cancerous growth, you cannot compromise with sin, you must not. Instead we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that though it has not yet been revealed how we will be, we know that when we stand in the presence of God, we will be like him. We cannot be like God if we desire to live in our sin more than we desire the things of God. Instead of trying to coddle the masses, mired in their sin, perhaps the church should try preaching the truth, as we promised, and letting God heal people, like he promised.

Looking into the future

These stories do not bode well for us. We have long been seeing what moral abandonment has done in western Europe. We've also seen the fate of the feminist movement, where some countries’ populations are actually declining because their women no longer feel the need to be women, as they futilely seek to be men, while being a woman, or some such nonsense. This headline should illustrate the absurdity to which Europe has fallen. It is like looking into the future, only no one will admit it because they are afraid of the social consequence of being labeled a misogynist by the feminazis.

Town gives women equal footing on road signs

A Spanish town council has vowed to banish sexism from street signage by demanding half of all road signs and traffic lights show female figures with skirts and ponytails.

These people are insane!

And let's not forget our liberal friends to the north... That's right! Our wacky northern neighbors, those crazy Canadians are up to their same ole shenanigans!

Hundreds to compete for rock, paper, scissors title

Think rock, paper, scissors is a children's game? Think again.

Top players from around the globe will gather in Toronto this weekend to compete for a C$10,000 (USD$8,840) prize and the title of world champion.

Savage is right, liberalism is a mental disorder. All we can do is sit back and enjoy the show, because the world as we know it is doomed.

The sky is falling

The sky is falling, the sky is falling! Democrats have officially won control of the House and unofficially the Senate. I must say, I am glad the Republicans lost, but I am equally horrified that the Democrats won. The Republicans abandoned their conservative base, and their base rightfully abandoned them. They did not secure the border and they spent our money like drunken Democrats. The major media outlets cite two main causes for the shift in power, namely voter disgruntlement over the war in Iraq and perceived corruption.

Two problems with that logic. First, the corruption is not one-sided. The libs have spent the last four years playing the corruption charge, pointing fingers across the aisle, ignoring their own corruption. I’m not even sure what corruption they are citing… Perhaps the Tom Delay pseudo-indictment? Or the Jack Abramoff scandal? Maybe the Mark Foley fiasco? Delay’s indictment was political at best, underhanded at worst. Abramoff had ties on both sides of the aisle, which is why it disappeared from the media outlets. And Foley is gay, a lifestyle championed by Democrats, yet used as a wedge to drive discontent between the GOP and their conservative base. Corruption was perceived because it was pushed in the Big Media, and most voters are not aware of anything more than they are told, they do not look at the information themselves and make an informed decision.

Second, the war in Iraq. The pollsters ask inept questions like, “Do you approve of the way the war has been handled,” or, “Do you think we need to change direction in Iraq?” I would emphatically answer no and yes, respectively, but neither would lead me to vote for Democrats! I think the war effort has been largely political, trying to apply the least amount of force to the problem. I say we unleash the power of the US military giant against the enemy and stop coddling them. We need to show power and force, but that is not the direction the Dems are going to take us. They will try to set timetables for withdrawal, halt funding, etc… Anything to undermine the war effort. God forbid that Iraq fall into civil war where the strongest faction takes control. It will be ten times worse than when we went in.

Lets not forget minimum wage increase, higher taxes, inflation (which has been nonexistent under the GOP controlled congress), abortion and embryonic stem cell research, open borders, constitutional rights to enemy combatants, and of course, the ever continuing moral degradation of the fabric of America heralded by the liberal leaders. I wish the failures of the GOP did not necessitate the shift in power to the liberal maniacs, but I believe it necessary to awaken the Republicans. I fear the results of the liberals actions to come will bring bad heaped on bad, and hopefully it will refocus the conservative movement. That the two aformentioned reasons for the Democrat victory are not solid backing for their liberal agendas proves one thing to me, not that American sentiment has shifted to Democrats, but that it has shifted away from Republicans. People did not vote for Democrats, but voted against Republicans (or just abstained from voting). As a result, this shift is temporary. What will happen in the interim however chills me to the bone!

I needed something to cheer me up, and this picture did the trick! LOL! Look at them!

Unlikely Inspiration - Feline Fancies II

This is a continuation of the Unlikely Inspiration Series.

As a child my parents imparted a good piece of advice: Take what you want, but eat what you take. The idea was that you could eat what you wanted, but make sure you are actually going to eat your food and not put it on your plate only to waste it because your eyes were bigger than your stomach. I wish I could impart this wisdom to our cats. They have become spoiled in that they will cry for food, even if there is food already in their dish. I can't recall how many times one of the cats has sat in the hallway and cried, then motioned that they want to be fed by walking to their dish and sitting expectantly. I have no qualms with feeding them. I'm not some sadist who enjoys tormenting them or anything. Imagine my frustration however when I go to feed them and find a bowl still half full of food! There must be a reason for this behavior. I have experimentally ruled out that the food has grown stale and that is why it has been left. The only explanation I have is one of self-preservation. The cat knows that when the bowl is empty that it will be out of food. Now, that may seem trivial, but for an animal of limited cognizant ability, I consider this an amazing feat. The cat is actually planning ahead so as not to be without food at a later time, perhaps after I have left for the day. They will even go so far as eating food from the other cat's bowl so as to maintain the level in their own dish. Self preservation is a trait shared by almost all animals, from man, all the way down to the lowest orders. It is a part of our makeup, so I acknowledge it, but it also disappoints me. If the cat knows enough to know that eating its own food will cause it to be without food at a later time, then it should also be aware enough to know that I will not let it go hungry, that I always feed them. Since the cats petition me to be fed, I know they understand that I am the one who feeds them, so they have not forgotten that fact. However, they are so focused on the immediacy of their bowl and its contents that they ignore the aforementioned fact. Their faith in me is trumped by their desire for self-preservation, as they see it. Food is here and now, while what I will do later is up for speculation.

Unfortunately for them, I will not play the puppet to this desire. I force them to trust that I will feed them more. If they have even a morsel of food left I will not add to it. This leaves them with a choice to make. Trust that I will feed them more when the dish is empty, or go hungry so as to ensure food is around later. Do you see the irony in this, the insanity? They do not want to go hungry, and to avoid going hungry, they go hungry! My rule is, "Finish what you have and I will give you more." I have found the best way to reassure them is to sit down and watch them finish their food off. It lets them know that I am aware of their problem, and am there to resolve it, but that it will not be resolved until they do their part.

O, if only I had the faith in God that I require of my own pets! How many times has God placed something before me and told me to complete it, yet I look to the horizon for something else, all the while ignoring the nourishment right in front of me? How many times has God told me to, "finish what I have given you and I'll give you more?" Is this not the point of the parable of the talents? If I ignore what I have been given for the sake of self preservation, will I not anger he who gave it so that I might prosper? The LORD is my portion, therefore I have hope in Him.¹ I ask God to give me more, to satisfy some desire, all the while ignoring that I have been given something for right now. How many times has God had to sit down beside me to reassure me that he is near and that he will provide for my needs? "Little man, why do you not trust me?"

"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?"

Texas Renaissance Festival

Last weekend we (Jarod, Stephen, and Chris) went to the Texas Renaissance Festival.

• I should have dressed in costume.
  
• Ded Bob still rocks.
  
• Seeing people drunk before noon is funny. Except for the drunk guy in the Ded Bob audience who kept yelling the wrong stuff, but seemed to be having a good time in his drunken stupor.
  
• The food gets better every year.
  
• Best costume award goes to a couple who looked JUST like Captain Jack Sparrow and the female pirate captain Anamaria.
  
• It's a lot more fun now that I have money to spend.
  
• New shows are fun to check out.

I love this place, there is no place like it.