Friday, November 23, 2007

Thanksgiving, Amen

From Wilson's blog:

Thanksgiving 2007 and the New Atheism
Topic: Church Year

If it were not so clunky, Thanksgiving should actually be subtitled National Apologetics Day. The apostle Paul tells us that there are two things that the unbeliever wants to suppress, and those two things are the Godness of God, and our consequent responsibility to render thanks to Him. Thanksgiving is really the central epistemological duty of man. Without it, we stagger right into every form of zeitgeistian idolatry.

A corollary of this is that the Church must recover a robust sense of these two realities, experiencing them in her own life, both in our worship services and out in the parish. If the unbelievers are laboring mightily to repress their sense of the Godness of God, and their responsibility to offer up to Him a life of gratitude, then the central thing we must do is live in such a way that keeps bringing the issue back up. They, in their unbelief, are trying to hold an over-inflated beach ball under water. And when we live rejoicing in the presence of the triune God who is God, and we live in a way that overflows with thanksgiving for all things, we are gently poking their quivering arms....
Read more>>

Slow Blogging

I continue to spend a lot of time listing things on Ebay, contacting people and shipping things. I barely can squeeze in an email around it all.

As the economy slowly digests and developes heartburn from Greenspans years of flooding the world with US dollars we see the end result as the value of our money drops from years of being debased.

They're still spending money at Ebay, so the new posts will be less for awhile. God bless all!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

An Uppity Jesus

While we are poking at Gods sovereignty and the million dollar "Says Who?" question. Lets establish that most Christians don’t want an uppity Jesus, we like him in our hearts, softly telling us he loves us and everything is gonna be ok. Just pick me up and carry me across the beach Jesus, I don’t think I can make it. Footprints you know.

We can just freak out at the thought that he actually might want his will known and acted upon by us all the time. This last part can really cramp our "liberty" in the Lord. We can be so taken in by our Americana and "no one can tell me what to do" and "I did it my way." American individualism has way more to do with how modern churchs and the vast majority of believers function than anything from Gods word. We cannot imagine that God is very much concerned about anything besides.......us. Getting people saved.

But God doesnt see his creation as a dixie cup to be thrown away, as of no real interest to him, nor does he view the governments on this planet as so many "free range" chickens that can just run willy nilly and claim authority over whatever they want...."time for flu shots everyone"....

So to help pick out the lay of the land I want to pass on some salient points I read

last Sunday. I read this article From Douglas Wilson, from his Credenda Agenda magazine. It is available to view online for free. "Cruciform Politics" by Douglas Wilson from volume19 issue 1: Thema Wilsons statements will be in blue, its four pages long so im gonna leave out a lot except for what might help us see that God has no intention of staying behind the pulpit.

So does Gods word show he wants to be Lord over all......

....When St. Paul came to the Corinthians,...He resolved to know nothing among them except Christ and Him crucified (v. 1). But this does not mean what individualistic moderns assume it to mean. We assume it means that he limited his message to a few bare doctrinal fundamentals, and for the remainder he left the kingdoms of men to govern themselves according to their own customs. In short, this confusion places "Christ and Him crucified" over here, and all the other subjects are over there. But this is almost directly opposite of the point the apostle Paul is making here....

..So what does the phrase "nothing but Christ and Him crucified" actually mean?..." Does this mean that all we are supposed to talk about is the fourth page of a six-page tract, the page that has a picture of a cross going across a chasm between God and man?

Most modern believers are still trapped by the Sacred / Secular disitinction idea from Greek thinking. It is ingrained in western thought.

...But note how St. Paul approaches this. This message is a message that topples the princes of this world and every thing that previously had been under their jurisdiction—meaning arts, politics, economics, exploration, scientific investigation, cooking, playing hacky-sack, and anything else that men might do. Rightly understood, preaching Christ and Him crucified is as broad as the world. Our desire is to bring every thought captive, bringing it into submission to Christ (2 Cor. 10:1-4).

Peter Leithart identifies a common problem we have with this kind of totalism: "Unfortunately, many Christians mentally adjust the astonishing claims of the New Testament and in so doing weaken it beyond recognition. Paul's words, it is thought, must apply to `spiritual' realities or to `salvation history,' but not to the actual history of humanity" (Deep Comedy, p. 26). In short, we slip away from what the New Testament actually says by spiritualizing or internalizing it....


Been there done that...

...This being the case, we should recognize that there are two different ways to get this whole enterprise wrong. The first is to deny what the Bible teaches about the public authority of Jesus Christ over all things. But Jesus said that all authority in heaven and on earth was given to Him. We should therefore go and disciple the nations. The reason given for the preaching of the gospel is this all-encompassing authority of Christ....

...Given how confused everything has gotten, we frequently find private Christians who are public secularists. They do not want the authority of Jesus Christ to be recognized in the public square.....

...a true cruciform politics will be iconoclastic—it will always challenge the idols. The idols of the age are always decked out in respectable clothing, and people who attack them are always dismissed (initially) as crazed nutjobs and disturbers of the peace. In our day, one of the central idols is the the swollen state. In other words, the political aparatus over which Jesus will be Lord needs to be about 100 times smaller than it currently is...


For most Americans they do see the State as a god, when something is wrong who is cried out to? Who is offered up a as having a solution to any problem? We as Chrisitans must first see it and forsake this view or truly our nation is lost. We need to first be open to Him as being truly Lord over all, before we will see it in the Word.

God bless. Proclaiming the whole gospel,

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Romans 13, E-mail Neighborhood

Most Christians just throw up there hands and say "oh, well" as they think of Romans 13. God put them in charge (the government), so we have to obey....So long as they don't try to get us to deny Christ...We then give to the State all of Christ's Kingdom so long as we can keep our hearts. "Do what you want to the lady, just let me go." Jesus said..."All authority has been given to me..." All authority, is more than our hearts. We started talking about this a while back, I have a pretty decent simmer going now with it. We don't see that every time the state is mentioned in the Bible, that in context, God's Word is a limiting document to them, like the Constitution was.

Was.

Judges who should have been like traffic cops enforcing the Constitution have been instead behaved like police who hold back the traffic so the speeders can go even faster!
Because the church has done such a wretched job of honoring God by how it ignores His jurisdiction in the name of keeping the arc from falling. It's only natural for us believers to then extend the privilege to Ceasar, after all, there really are a lot of needs out here and if the state doesn't do it... the arc will fall.

If you haven't heard the Pragmatism/Principle talk from the UCFC Conference then you are like someone who keeps passing by the door of the church in Wittenberg a month after Luther nailed up his 95 Thesis. "What's all the fuss?"

God is going to send us a parade of thundering prophets hammering us with this message. Lord, please let us see and understand and return to you. It will be such a drag if we get carried away into captivity with the vast majority of Christians going "Why did God allow this?" Both in Deuteronomy and in Jeremiah God gives the answer to this question when His people ask, "Why is this happening to us?" And God said, "it is because your father's, father rebelled..."

I can still hear Kevin Swanson saying..."because no one really cares about what God wants." Everyone is running around trying to.... keep the arc from falling.

Will God let us see it? I pray He will.

Tight $ Times Are Coming Our Way

Has God used our greed as Americans to put together the "perfect storm" to chastise us as a nation? We deserve it for sure. We will see, and like Job we need to be ready to say, "blessed be your name."

We have inflated our currency to ridiculous levels, and now other nations are reducing their holdings of dollars in favor of what they think will be a more stable money. Cannot blame them. We might see a lot more inflation as the Fed. trys to stave off a stock market stomache virus brought on by the credit markets imploding. A weaker dollar and a slower economy, if God is merciful. Even if it is much worse He still will be merciful. But I don't think it's going to be fun. Get your house in order as well as you can.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Taking Another Look

If you don't stop in often to see what Doug Wilson is posting over at Blog and Mablog than you are missing out. This was posted today. This is the entire posting.

Creation Law and Redemption Law by Douglas Wilson

"We may divide the law of the Old Testament into two basic categories, those of creation law and redemptive law. Creation law is that which looks the same throughout the history of the world. The definition of marriage and adultery did not change in the transition between the old and new covenants. Theft looked the same in 700 B.C. as it looks today. Redemption law is law to which obedience may vary in appearance drastically. Keeping the Passover before Christ involved a sacrificial paschal lamb and the removal of all physical leaven from the house3 (Exodu. 12:15), while today we sit down at the Lord's Supper, removing the leaven of malice and wickedness (1 Cor. 5:7-8). The transition between the covenants has dramatically altered the appearance of obedience" (Mother Kirk, p. 232).

He had another that was an eye brow raiser. I liked it. Putting the Fun Back into Fundamentalism

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Letter From A Christian Citizen

I recently finished Doug Wilson's "A Letter From A Chrisitan Citizen". It is an answer back to Sam Harris and his book "Letter to a Christian Nation" (I wish!) where he attacks Christianity and how it is holding back society. Wilson's book is just a treat to read! He just takes Mr Harris's lunch money, pants and shoes and Mr. Harris is left naked. If you are going to try and take the athiest position any body can take your lunch if they understand presuppositional thinking.

Athiests are used to being fawned over by universities and adoring media so when they step out from this protective bubble where real Christians can take a shot at their inconsistant thinking it gets ugly, for them.

This is from Wilson's archives where he describes his role, like a bird picking off bugs from it's host, protecting it...

...But let me up the ante. Since we showing off our respective educations by referring to poets, let me modify Eliot's hippopotamus and make it a rhino. Christendom is an enormous rhino -- socially awkward, unsophisticated, non-academic, embarrassing, and what have you. I am a tick-eating Oxpecker bird, positioned by the ear, or on the rump, depending the strategic necessities, the time of day, and my particular mood. The atheists are very critical ticks, and they take delight in pointing out (often quite accurately) that the rhino is lumpy, clumsy, and short-sighted. They recommend a fitness regimen, urge the rhino to abandon its shape and become something more Euro-friendly. Methane is also an issue...

The book is a great, short, enjoyable read on how to take apart an athiests thinking. This link will take you to about 5 additional postings about his book from his Blog and Mablog site, it will give you an appetite for the book, you can get it new for less than 10 bucks at American Vision.

Socialized Medicine Kills

From the New York Post...

UK'S BAD MEDICINE WHY U.S. HAS BETTER ODDS VS. CANCER DAVID GRATZER

....The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reports on both the incidence of prostate cancer in member nations and the number of resultant deaths. According to OECD data published in 2000, 49 Britons per 100,000 were diagnosed with prostate cancer and 28 per 100,000 died of it.

This means that 57 percent of Britons diagnosed with prostate cancer died of it; consequently, just 43 percent survived. Economist John Goodman, in "Lives at Risk," arrives at precisely the same conclusion: "In the United States, slightly less than one in five people diagnosed with prostate cancer dies of the disease. In the United Kingdom, 57 percent die."

None of this is surprising. In the United Kingdom, only about 40 percent of cancer patients see an oncologist and, histori-cally, the government has been reluctant to fund new (and often better) cancer drugs.

So why do the critics think that Britain's survival rates are as high as America's? The main reason is that they are citing overall mortality rates, which are indeed, as Ezra Klein writes, similar across various countries. That is, the percentage of all Americans who die from prostate cancer is similar to the percentage of all Britons who do. But this misses the point, since a much higher percentage of Americans than Britons are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the first place. If you are a patient already diagnosed with prostate cancer, like Rudy Giuliani, your chances of survival - as Giuliani correctly said - are far higher in the United States....
whole thing here

Been Sick,Yuck

Sore throat, had a cold this week. Went to bed early every night. No blogging, no emails. I hate it like this, so much floating in your head, so many trains of thought. It's hard to put into writing when it piles up, you don't know where to start, you want to start at each thing and you just cannot. I tend to just freeze up.

Saturday, November 3, 2007

So What Do You Have To Offer Us?

Found at Pearcy Report

What Has Atheism Done for Us?
By Dinesh D'Souza

My new book What’s So Great About Christianity, just out, is already an amazon.com bestseller, a Wall Street Journal bestseller and No. 16 on the New York Times bestseller list. On Saturday C-Span broadcast my debate with God Is Not Great author Christopher Hitchens. Many people have commented that this is the best debate on the topic of Christianity v. Atheism that has yet been held. If you haven’t seen it, you can find the debate on my website dineshdsouza.com...

One of the most interesting questions in the debate was posed to Hitchens by a man from Tonga. Before the Christians came to Tonga, he said, the place was a mess. Even cannibalism was widespread. The Christians stopped this practice and brought to Tonga the notion that each person has a soul and God loves everyone equally. The man from Tonga asked Hitchens, "So what do you have to offer us?" Hitchens was taken aback, and responded with a learned disquisition on cannibalism in various cultures. But he clearly missed the intellectual and moral force of the man's question. The man was asking why the Tongans, who had gained so much from Christianity, should reject it in favor of atheism.

In my response, I noted that when the missionaries came to India, they sometimes converted people by force. Even so, many Indians rushed on their own to embrace the faith of the foreigners. And why? Because they were born into the low caste of the Hindus. As long as they remained Hindus, there was no escape; even their descendants were condemned to the lowest rungs of humanity. By fleeing into the arms of the missionaries, the low-caste Hindus found themselves welcomed as Christian brothers. They discovered the ideal of equal dignity in the eyes of God... Read it All

Thursday, November 1, 2007

The Urgent Need to Evacuate the “Enemy’s Schools”

I like how that sounds the "enemy schools"...says it very well. from American Vision...

Three Cheers For Arnold
by Dr. Richard A. Jones

On October 12, shortly before last week’s deadly Southern California wildfires and the emergency evacuation of half a million people, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed senate bill (SB777) into law. And his shocking decision about this phony “anti-discrimination” law still has the blogosphere buzzing. Many know that the bill is really all about advancing the bisexual and homosexual agenda inside California schools, thus the purpose of today’s article is to remind you that a short-sighted attitude of, “oh well, this is just more routine California weirdness” is dangerous. The lesson is that it’s time for Christians, wherever they live, to start planning emergency evacuations from their public schools.

The Pandora’s Box of SB777 threatens parents and taxpayers with off-the-charts moral and financial harm because of its PC-based potential for all kinds of courtroom litigation stemming from anything smacking of ”discriminatory” behavior. The fact that trendy California fads almost always ooze out to infect the other 49 states means that this same kind of legislative deviancy and potential for court chaos will be coming up soon for a vote at your statehouse. So you need to take preemptive steps now to avoid the “when it happens, not if it happens” indoctrination programs lurking at your public school’s doorstep... Read it All

Anyone Torn Leviticus Out Of Your Bible? I'll Take It.

Leviticus, the books of the Law. As Swanson pointed out "Jesus was a theonomist" He went to the books of the law to quote scipture at and defeat the devil. How awesome is that?

How can you not love Lev 19:18 "Love your neighbor as yourself" ?

As God has said, Isaiah 8:20 "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word it is because there is no light in them." What happens if you don’t know what is in the law and the testimony? Might be harder to see if "they" are speaking according to "His" Word and to know if "they" have "light" in them. DOOH!

Without the law we turn Jesus into Gumby and mold and shape him to our liking and customize our Christianity into our own image until you have "Jesus is just alright by me" as a top 40 hit.(thank you Ken Myers) We have been twisting Jesus for a hundred and fifty years. His feet are about behind his head.

Sage Advice from Gary North

The cry to "save yourselves" continue. Gary North exorting people to get their kids out!!!!

The Best One-Shot Investment on Earth
by Gary North

...We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait.

It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking – and nearly hopeless – dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.

But is his friend exaggerating? Is the situation really that bad? Here is first-hand evidence.

But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.

It gets worse. My friend cites the fact that, of the 6,000 high school students he estimates he's taught over the span of his career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a functioning understanding of written English. They do not know how to form a sentence. They cannot write an intelligible paragraph. Recently, after giving an assignment that required drawing lines, he realized that not a single student actually knew how to use a ruler....

...Which is preferable?

A. Leave a large financial legacy to your children or grandchildren.

B. Make sure they share your worldview, which will cost you $200, plus keeping the mother at home to supervise.

C. Both of the above...

Read it All

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

"Law and Grace Come Together at the Cross..." Kevin Swanson

This is a snippet from Doug Wilson's blog...do we
respond as sons and daughters as Swanson would say?

Don't react....think about it.

...First, a restatement of my view on this. The Scripture is what it is, and contains both promises and imperatives. For the one who reads the Scripture in evangelical faith, he sees all the imperatives in the context of a larger grace. For the one who reads the Scripture in unbelief, he can sound out the promises, but they are always trumped by what he thinks is the larger demand of "do this and live." The former contextualizes everything as a subset of God's grace. The latter contextualizes everything as a subset of law.

For the believer, even the Ten Commandments can be understood as gracious. The preamble reminds the Jews that these words were coming from the one who brought them out of the house of bondage. For the unbeliever, even the message of the cross is foolishness, an intolerable demand. So that, in a nutshell, is what I think is going on with law and gospel
...whole thing here

The fact that most believers respond like the non-believers to God's Laws speaks volumes about US.

His Law is Like Honey...

From the Chalcedon Blog...

The Law Makes it Personal "The covenant with God is a legal relationship... it is more personal because of that fact. The modern mind separates the legal and the personal, because humanism has made law statist and abstract and hence impersonal. This is not true in the reality of God's creation. My relation to my wife is personal because it is legal, because it meets God's law. An illegal sexual relationship is impersonal and exploitive. In Scripture, the more faithful we are to God's law, the more close and personal is our relationship to Him and to our fellow men." ~ R. J. Rushdoony,
Systematic Theology, p. 674.

Time To Buy A Vowel, Hey Someone Put Garbage In Here

Linda Chavez has a column out stating the obvious. It's been years, a lot of years since we were watching tv. Even then, we taped it all because the commercials themselves were causing our hair to stand on end. That was ten years ago. You have to face it, if you are still watching tv programming and they put something on where you go, "they didn't have to show that!", "why did they do that, or show that." Well sorry, yes they did have to do that, their pagan, they answer to a different god than ours, and serve him they must.

Anyway, Linda here, like many Christian parents that still have their children attending the humanist temples of indoctrination just cannot believe what has become of humanist TV.

Say goodbye to family friendly TV By Linda Chavez

Am I imagining it or is television becoming even more family unfriendly? For years now, primetime television fare has offered a steady diet of comedies that depend on sexual innuendo and situations for laughs, crime dramas that make the world seem like it's filled with sadistic predators and perverts, often within our own homes, and cable "news" programs that spend as much time dissecting the bizarre antics of this week's celebrity bad girl (or boy) as they do covering real news...

Not only do commercials try to use sex to sell everything from automobiles to soap, it seems half the ads on TV now are marketing sex itself in the form of sex-enhancing drugs. And there's no avoiding the ads, no matter how careful you are with selecting your programming...

...but what do you do about the ads in family programs — like Major League Baseball? I was astonished at what aired between innings of the fourth game in the National League Championship Series between the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks, for example...


You can read the whole article here Read it All

Media Discernment

We watched the History channels Biography show on Winston Churchill DVDs The two biggest things we pointed out to the kids was how they made such a big deal on how Winston was the perfect man at just the moment he was needed by his nation and the world. What a fluke, what timing! It's like it was amazing, and just leave it at that. We pointed out to the kids how it is God who uses the saved and the unsaved for his own glory. He lifts up nations and lowers them. He numbers the hair on our head and a sparrow doesn't fall that he doesn't know.

The show covered a 70 year span of last century, both world wars, and did it from the world view that history happens in a vacuum, that it's just random things. Stuff happens. There is no God. God happens on Sunday while some of us watch football. We pointed out how their world view is showing. They are fools.

This is the type of show I use to give a free pass too...they didn’t deliberately attack my faith or ridicule my God, they didn’t try to defile me to my face. That I would've noticed. It's what they have done for a long, long time that was just as bad, every bit as rebellious, but more insidious. Subtle. The real bad was on my part. My understanding, my world view, was so shallow, that TV and movies could have no reference to the God of the universe and do hours and hours of programming on his universe and his world as if he didn’t exist and I wouldn't notice so long as they didn’t offend me.

We need to show our kids how every subject of their home schooling ties into the creator and his universe, how no subject can be properly understood if separated from God. If we don't show how it ties back to our Father we are still part of the rebellion and pretending the first commandment doesn't mean what God meant it to mean.

If you need help on this like I needed it. I recommend Israel Waynes book called "Homeschooling From a Biblical World View." http://www.wisdomsgate.com/ It's small, short and does an excellent job bringing a biblical worldview to any subject. Developing a biblical worldview set my faith on fire.

Everything! has been made to glorify the triune God! Everything! We are called to interact with everything in this light, in obedience to God's commands. To bring dominion, for the glory of God, to everything. In Philippians 2:4-11 points out after showing all that Jesus has done so that, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord... it also gives the reason why... to the glory of God the Father in heaven! It's what sons and daughters do. I'm only beginning to get the hang of this.... which is sad, because it's what I was created for. It's the purpose for my being a man, for being a husband, for having children, for working, for having a church and going to church, for the dirt outside and the heavens above! If your living for something else I pity you. Because your living for a lie. I like Douglas Jones phrase "the art of living small."

Rom 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Re-writing History

This has been going on for a long time now. The Park Service with nothing but time on it's hands and us paying the bills continues to scrub the Triune God out of American history. Nothing to see here, please move along...


Now, God banished from Washington Monument
Historic cap engraving 'Laus Deo' out of sight
By Bob Unruh
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The National Park Service has banished God from a key display of America's Christian heritage in Washington, and a California pastor who regularly leads teams of visitors to see markers of the nation's religious history wants Him restored.

The reference is an engraving of "LAUS DEO," which is Latin for "Praise be to God," and is on the east side of the 100-ounce aluminum cap of the Washington Monument.

Since the actual inscription on the cap, which on the other three sides provides other information, is unviewable atop the 555-foot stone column, the National Park Service has created a replica, which is on display inside the white-colored obelisk of marble, granite and sandstone...

The pastor sought a ranger with the National Park Service in the Monument to ask about the inscription.

"She smiled at me and said, 'It's not a conspiracy or anything,' Interesting first answer I thought! I replied, 'I didn't say anything about conspiracy. I was just wondering why all the sides of the replica are not shown to the public?" he said.

The ranger responded that the cap is positioned inside the Monument as it is atop the stone column, and then explained "there's not enough room," for the cap display to allow people to read the fourth side....

The 2000 description, he said, was:

APEX OF THE MONUMENT Reproduction The builders searched for an appropriate metal for the apex that would not tarnish and would act as a lightning rod. They chose one of the rarest metals of the time, aluminum. The casting was inscribed with the phrase, Laus Deo, (Praise be to God).

The last sentence was edited out for the 2007 display, he said, which includes only:

CAP OF THE MONUMENT Reproduction The builders searched for appropriate metal for the cap that would not tarnish and would act as a lightning rod. They chose one of the rarest metals of the time – aluminum....


They have pictures Read it all

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me

You read some things and you think, no way. But not only are they out there. There's lots of them out there. From Chalcedon. What is syncretism?

How Can a Christian Priest Be a Muslim?
Lee Duigon

Thou shalt have no other gods before me … for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God. —Exodus 20:3, 5

You would think that when an ordained Christian minister or priest publicly professes belief in a non-Christian religion, and publicly practices it, some degree of church discipline would be in order. Depending on the circumstances, the addled cleric might be subject to a formal rebuke and an exhortation to repent, or defrocked, or even excommunicated...

Rev. Dr. Ann Holmes Redding, now a congregant at St. Clement’s Episcopal Church, Seattle, made national news recently by revealing that she also worships as a Muslim at Al-Islam Center, in the same city, and has been doing so for almost a year...

Rev. Redding told The Episcopal Voice (June 2007, “On being Christian and Muslim”) that the Christian doctrine of Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God “is not literal,” and likened the affirmations of the Christian creeds to “fraternity hazing—you have to say these words in order to be part of the club.”...

Redding cites her “early exposure to interfaith relationships” (Episcopal Voice) as a factor in her decision to follow two religions simultaneously: baptized by an African Methodist Episcopal minister, Sunday school at an Episcopal church, Unitarian youth group, etc. She said she was introduced to Muslim prayer practice in 2006 and immediately “knew she had been wrestling with a call to Islam” (Episcopal Voice). “I was following Jesus and he led me into Islam,” she said...

In the Footsteps of Jeroboam

Syncretism, defined by R. J. Rushdoony (citing the dictionary) as “egregious compromise in religion or philosophy,” is the operative word here. Redding’s Voice interview is a muddle of feelings, confused thinking, and false theology. For instance, she finds irresistible the Muslim practice of praying five times a day—as if there were anything keeping a Christian from praying five times daily or more.

As Rushdoony writes, syncretism “is destructive of the human mind, of rationality … [One who has embraced syncretism] has lost the capacity for clear thinking.” “If a man believes that orthodox Christianity can be reconciled and united, or live in peace with, modernism, humanism, Mohammedanism, or Buddhism, that man is a syncretist, not a Christian. A syncretist has always abandoned his original position, even though he refuses to acknowledge this fact.”

Syncretism has been around for a long time, and is always offensive to God. Almost 3,000 years ago, Jeroboam I, the first king of northern Israel, installed golden idols at Bethel and at Dan because, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel …” (1 Kings 12:28). This fusion of Judaism and paganism, initiated by Jeroboam, “made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 15:34).

“Interfaith” is simply another name for syncretism: trying to combine all or several contradictory religions into “one path that leads to God.”...
Read it all

Taking An Offense

We must all be on our guard. We must be vigilant as the enemy is going to want to squish out the life from any fellowship that is being used by God to look for, and try to walk out the old paths. We must partner with our elders to keep the little foxes from spoiling the grapes.

Peace and Purity
Douglas Wilson

The problem of pettiness is not itself petty. Unchecked, it can destroy congregations, and the minister and elders need to be constantly on the alert for signs that "smallness of mind" is threatening the peace and purity of the church...

The armor that protects these alien definitions of peace and purity is often the armor of subjectivism. What matters is not what the minister said from the pulpit, for example, but rather how the disgruntled parishioner said he was made to feel. And when the refs stop making the calls accurately, the defending basketball player can pretend to take the charge and flop however it suits him. Of course he was offended. He's on his back, isn't he?

The myth of neutrality plagues us here as well. We often assume that people in community are not leaning one way or the other, but rather just gathering facts objectively. Then, when they get to a certain critical mass of facts, they make up their minds. But neutrality is impossible, especially in the community of the local church. People either love people or they don't. If they love them, then they will interpret whatever happens through that grid. If they do not love them, then they will bide their time, gathering evidence or, to use the scriptural term, a record of wrongs...

And many Christians have learned the jargon of pained vagueness. "Oh, I don't know. It is just that the sermons don't speak to my heart anymore. I am not feeling fed." Of course the reason he doesn't feel fed is that he is not eating, but that would be taken as an unloving thing to say...
Read it all

More Credenda Agenda

It's no secret, I enjoy Doug Wilson's Credenda Agenda and his Blog and Mablog site. Thought provoking. Humorous. This is from Crenda Agenda vol 17 number 3

The Art of Pettiness
Douglas Jones

Have you ever found yourself at a nice dinner party but can't find anything to take offense at? Is it getting harder to make people feel sorry for you? Do the people around you no longer bend to your silent punishments? Do you find yourself accidentally considering conflicts from other peoples' perspectives? Has your extrasensory gift for seeing motives become cloudy?

You might be in the early stages of beneficium creationis, a debilitating condition that causes memory loss, ironic giggling, and flippancy; side effects sometimes last for a thousand generations. Millions have found success in reversing the habits of this condition by relearning the ancient techniques of pettiness, the skills of counting mint, anise, cummin—or as we call it, the art of living small...
whole thing here

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

The Black Plague

As I continue to read through the Old Testament, I'm now in Numbers, and I am struck as to how much of the destruction brought on by the black plague during the middle ages could have been avoided. If just God's word/law concerning what is clean and unclean had been followed. His directions on what to do if you find a body, etc, etc. No one needed to understand anything about germs, just to obey God would have protected so many lives.

His Law brings life.

Today because people don't fall over dead within days, weeks, months we are too slow to see how much of what is happening around us is a reaping of what has been sown in the past. Either from ourselves, or our families or the forefathers of the church etc, etc. We are seeing in the culture what happens when God's people get syncretized. Balaam's trick has worked again.

We don't need revival, we need Reformation. For God's children to really start acting like sons and daughters. To really want to know...how does God want me to understand and see this or that and then to respond like I am his son. May God grant it.

If we cry out Lord! Lord! Show us your will! But then are clueless as to the written record that he deliberately left behind for us to follow...ouch! ouch! We have got to get out our camping flashlights, the big bright ones, the hot ones, and head out into those unexplored parts of the Old Testament. We need to get familiar with them like we are with Colossians and Romans and the Gospels. We're not looking for our righteousness, we have that in Christ! But what else has God said about life..."it's a lamp unto my feet." That's from psalm 119, that's talking about the Old Testmament! Do we believe that about the Old Testasment? "That it is a lamp unto my feet, and light unto my path." How come we dont? God doesn't lie.

Cultural side note: We have been trained subconscienciously by our culture to always want the new. Just think about the word "old." Old Testament...we of course want the..New... Testament. After all, it's new. It's probably improved.

Think of it rather as the First Testament. Without which you will not correctly understand the Second Testament, I mean New Testament.

Kevin Swanson drove this point home when he mentioned you will not see Jesus correctly without the Old Testament.

Reformation. We must chew on this stuff. Less we be like the seed that fell upon the side of the road...

A California side note: it's being roasted by wildfires right after it shook it's fist in God's face concerning his definitions of men and women as it relates to the education of it's children. No, I have not said it's God's judgement on them. But God does say that he is the the one who makes the blind. Just thinking out loud. I would say that this fire that is destroying so many homes and acres of land is less damaging then the spiritual firestorm that is taking place in the heavenlies over the laws recently passed there. Which firestorm are God's children more worried about? Which fires have been the biggest motivation for God's people to cry out to Him, or fast? Are we concerned with our captivity? Or that the supply of leeks and onions might be interupted? Just thinking.

God the dangerous, he is a consuming...

Reformation

More reflections from the Uniting church and Family Conference

So your standing around with other believers. You have your plumb line out, your Bible and your trying to be sure you move forward as correctly as you can. We all realize that if you are off, just a little, when you first start out that as you move down the line and over time you could be way, way off from where you intended to go.

What we don't do, is assume, that the position that we are starting from, could already be way, way, off course because of errors committed by those who have gone before 50, 100, 150 yrs ago.

We give ourselves a free pass on where we currently stand for most issues. We have been unaware that for us and those who have gone before that we have interpreted God's word from within a framework of thinking that was shaped by "values defined by an autonomous culture."

But most of us can quickly think of too many areas where we see the fruit of misdirection by our forefathers in the faith I.E. the embracing of humanistic mindsets for the raising of our children, not just public schools but some of us brought into our homes the same principles that were being taught in the schools. The teaching of knowledge without a real foundation of the fear of the Lord. The church embraced the fragmenting of the family as the best way to impart God's truth. It seemed normal, even wise.

The American idea of the rugged individual which turned into the family being just so many individuals all really going in different directions rather than a cohesive force for the advancement of God's Kingdom, which in turn has become the church full of "families" (I use the term lightly) all going in different directions. I speak of modern evangelicalism on the whole.

How about last weekend hearing Don Hart, Scott Brown and Kevin Swanson bring out principles where I just felt embarrassed, like "I didn't know my zipper has been down..."

Now after awhile you do have to wonder just what is solidly built on God's word and what is just so much Matt 15:1-7 "the traditions of men by which you have made the commandments of God of no effect..." The next thing you could hear would be Jesus saying . .. "Hypocrites!"... That would be verse 7. The final straw was when God gave Swanson a Magnum Opus on "Pragmatism" or was it "No.. one.. really.. cares..about.. what.. God.. wants!" or was it called "I was just trying to keep the arc from falling". You stop worring about whether your zipper is down when you realize you have no pants on!

This has been a week of repentance for me. Minus sack cloth and ashes. We need to be about this work of reformation with vigor. We have got to repent and get out of left field when God is merciful and shows us what we have missed. If we let our pride get in the way....

May it not be! What mercy and grace we have recieved....Let us be like Don Hart's young son who said if he was stuck in a flood ..."he would pray and swim like crazy!"

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Gleaning From the Conference

I cannot believe how much I am gleaning from listening to my mp3s of the conference.

At the conference, Kevin Swanson made the comment that all the government agencys are doing is putting their fingers into the dike to keep it from failing. That Chrisitans should be back another 50 feet building another dike for when it does fail. I do think that this is going to happen, it’s mostly a matter of when, not if. I think the same is true for much of modern evangelicalism. I’m not at the place that Kevin is, where he thinks it time to get the RIP signs ready... But, because it has abandoned the core of God’s Law as the standard for all of life it will be unable to stop its slide into irrelevancy and at some point, will just give way, if broad repentance doesn’t happen. We do need to be busy building, identifying our core identities, as to what our fellowships stand for, to be ready when, and if, that day arrives. Might want to be back further than 50ft.

At Legacy, Rob has been diligently working at this during the year. We have seen the need as a body to nail this stuff down so that as others come in they know where we’re coming from and what they would be joining. The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689 will work just fine for me. You are never gonna love everything, or you will be a church of one. So that’s where the "we are in substantial agreement with..." stuff comes in.

Having heard Swanson reformed talk multiple times now he talked about this subject in relation to the gay and lesbians...

Think about this, you can have every creed in the book and it still doesn’t tell someone whether you are taking a stand against egalitarianism, individualism, blind patriotism, big statist government. (Americana in other words) Even if you are against these things, what really counts is what you are for.

Your creed and confession doesn’t say if you have a biblical understanding of proper jurisdictions for the family, church and state. Embrace biblical patriachy with its multi-generational understanding of families or are even family integrated as a church. None tell you if the church trys to encourage a entreprenurial mindest amongst the fathers and young men and a rejection of the slave/worker bee mentality that was bred into us as a part of govenment controlled education, or if the women are seeking to recover bold biblical femininity. They don’t tell you whether the Pastor is a lone ranger with some eunich deacons or if it understands and embraces or is trying to embrace biblical eldership. They don’t let you know if they are trying to recover a biblical understanding of history and inculcating it into their sons and daughters, " so that they might not run in the day of adversity".

But at this weekends conference with the innocent sounding name of "Uniting Church and Family" almost all of these areas were addressed to one extent or another, if not during one of the talks then maybe from questions and answers. If you have been drinking deep from the cisterns of Vision Forum you will get all of this in spades.

I'm gonna add right here that if you just started downloading and listening to the Generations Radio broadcasts you would also wind up at the same place.

So, I’m not looking to tell people what creeds I embrace, or if I’m pre, post or ah...I will just say "I’m in substantial agreement with Vision Forum." That funny looking group of charismatics, presbeterians (these guys have done most of the heavy lifting), baptists, reformed baptists etc etc....all carrying around a serious attitude about the sovereignty of God and his authority over all of life!

Legacy will have the 1689 Baptist Confession. But the library table keeps looking more and more like pages from the Vision Forum catalog.

Your creed can show what you stand on, but not necessarily where your going. This is, where the battle is at today. Where are you, going?

A side note: all these areas were first being elevated by a group that called this restoration work "Reconstruction". Unfortunately the devil and his humanist friends with the help of dumb Christians, did a good job smearing them and their work, stigmatizing the name. Too bad.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Need a Realtor?

I want to mention my friend, Martin Spilo, if anyone has need of a realtor and doesn't have one they're comfortable with. His web site has lots of helpful tools/calculators if you just want to see what your house is worth or figure what a new payment would be after refinancing would be, etc. A good brother in the Lord. His family has a special place in my family's heart.

Martin's website

'Mom' and 'Dad' Banished by California

Need to be building that dike....as events seem to keep picking up speed. Good news, might help create an uptick in the Phoenix housing market as some?!? a lot?!? relocate here. Or will this not amount to much to our evangelical brothers there? If they have not seen the need to get their kids out of Government schools by now. Or will they now see an even greater need for their kids to be a "christian witness".

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS
'Mom' and 'Dad' banished by California
Schwarzenegger signs law outlawing terms perceived as negative to 'gays'

"Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" effectively have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.

"We are shocked and appalled that the governor has blatantly attacked traditional family values in California," said Karen England, executive director of Capitol Resource Institute.

"With this decision, Gov. Schwarzenegger has told parents that their values are irrelevant. Many parents will have no choice but to pull their children out of the public schools that have now become sexualized indoctrination centers."

"Arnold Schwarzenegger has delivered young children into the hands of those who will introduce them to alternative sexual lifestyles," said Randy Thomasson, president of Campaign for Children and Families, which worked to defeat the plans. "This means children as young as five years old will be mentally molested in school classrooms...
Read more>>

Monday, October 15, 2007

Evangelical,I have Stopped Going to Church

Here is something to think about in light of the teaching, instruction, wisdom given from those a little further down the road from us. We will need to seek out Gods wisdom, so we can act prudently, biblically, to the miriad of weird and not so weird things that happen when sinful humans gather together in the name of Christ. May we never just give up and let things go on. May God grant us humility to always be willing to seek out help and Godly advice. This is from the American Spectator via Pearcy Report something to think about

Church and Me
By Lawrence Henry
Published 10/12/2007 12:07:25 AM

When I was a boy, I spent summers visiting my grandparents in South Dakota. We attended a little white Church of Christ right in the middle of our little town. I could name every member of the congregation for you to this day, simply by picturing where everybody sat, but for reasons you'll see, I'm not going to do that. In fact, from now on out, I'll change names to protect the feelings of people still alive.....

But, at various stages, I have stopped going to church, because some human fallibility, some shortcoming in the congregation itself, has brought me up short. As a church, we belong to Jesus Christ, not to any particular person, whether he be preacher, teacher, elder, or friend.

But those preachers, teachers, elders, and friends do mean something, and when something goes awry -- when the church as a church just plain doesn't work, and when I start to feel the way I felt as a child, that some of the grownups are faking it, or taking refuge in rigidity -- then I start to feel that old uneasiness again, and find it a lot more comfortable to retreat to my Bible and my prayers and solitude.

Of late, that kind of thing has happened again, and I have stopped going to church. We'll see how long it takes for me to get that old-time feeling again.
entire article

The Truth, Whats Your Standard? Who Says?

From Chalcedon, how timely! You will either love God and his Law or you will embrace humanism. All, of course, in the name of keeping the arc from falling.

Tolerance and Intolerance Rev. R.J. Rushdoony
California Farmer 243:6 (Oct. 18, 1975), p. 36.

A friend was accused of intolerance by an associate because he expressed his opposition to various sexual offenses. He was briefly troubled by this charge until he suddenly realized that this accuser was himself savagely intolerant, intolerant in his case of Christianity.

Intolerance is inescapable. If we are Christians and abide by Scripture, we will be intolerant towards murder, theft, adultery, false witness, and other offenses against God's order. They will be to us a violation of our freedom and order under God, and an oppression of godly men.

If, on the other hand, we are sinners and lawbreakers by nature, we will be intolerant of God and His people, intolerant of godly laws and restraints precisely because we tolerate and love sin.

Our Lord stated the issues clearly: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other" (Matt. 6:24). It is necessary for us to love God and His Word, and, if we are regenerate, it is our nature to do so. This means that we therefore hate sin and regard it as an offense against God and man and an intolerable violation of godly order which must be eliminated.

Similarly, those who hate God want to eliminate Him, and us, and everything which is an aspect of God's law and order and Word from their universe. They are savagely and bitterly intolerant.

In other words, what you tolerate says a great deal about you. It identifies your loyalties and your love, and it classifies your nature clearly. Men are known, not only by their fruits, but also by their love and hate, their tolerance and intolerance.

Article found here

Sunday, October 14, 2007

2007 Az Uniting Church and Family Conference

More thanks to all who helped and prayed for the conference. The fellowship was fun, what the speakers communicated was all out of proportion to the size of the event. They all did a great job bringing the Word, I think those of us already on this path recieved a sharper, clearer vision and as a side bonus closer unity between Legacy and Heritage. Just to have some of the men working together from the two fellowships was most profitable.

Scott Brown did a great job giving a clear picture of what it's all about! All of the talks he did were great. I'm Glad he changed his message topic for this morning as I think it was very helpful for us men.

There is no mistaking the love Don Hart has for The bride of Christ, that it would function as God has intended. Gotta love those cowboy boots with the business suit.

Kevin Swanson is just industrial strength, what can you say. Whether in front of thousands or a hundred of us, he just leaves it all on the table and God is using him in a special way right now. That was a Martin Luther number he layed down on Saturday. Seismic. I had chills. For those who were there, you saw God bring a "95 thesis" message to the modern church. And like at Wittenburg it wasn't witnessed by many when Luther nailed his message to the church door. But when the finger of God touchs the water the ripples can sometimes be all out of proportion to the first little splash. That was the first time Kevin has given the "Pragmatic Church" message. God just nails the untrusting hearts of ours, how we are just driven to second guess God in order to keep the Arc from hitting the ground. We don't Love his Law. We don't behave like sons and daughters.

Scott was wanting to contact Doug Phillips today about the importance of getting that message available for distribution. I have noted how it's good to have your seatbelt on when you hear some messages. Sometimes you might even feel like the drivers airbag went off. Saturday morning I thought that the car had rolled, multiple times. Can we change the name of our Church to Repenting Legacy......Reforming Legacy....whoa unto us if the modern church refuses this warning and call to turn back to our Father.

Our guests enjoyed the Gaslight Inn. They had sweet times of fellowship together each morning, that was enjoyed by all, relaxing, nice ambiance. Don Hart expressed the pleasure of something so different from the normal hotel experience.

Firday night Don said they were surprised to have the place buzzing with music. But that he immediately fell asleep when his head hit the pillow. Seven talks made for a full day. I crashed hard my self.

Now no one could have seen that the little German restaurant next door would have closed off the alley and be in full October-fest mode Saturday night. There must of been a hundred tables, lots of beer and a band right next door to Scott and David Brown's room. Ay yi yi. Scott said David fell right to sleep. But that even after getting earplugs it didn't seem to make a difference on the volume level to him. God bless him.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Uniting Church and Family AZ Conference is Friday, Whoopee!

Joshua 1:12-15

12 And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh Joshua spoke, saying,13 "Remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The Lord your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land.’14 "Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them,15 "until the Lord has given your brethren rest, as He gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the Lord your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses the Lord’s servant gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise."

The Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh all received their land first and were told by Moses that their fighting men would need to go on, cross the Jordan, and help the other tribes defeat their enemies that would be opposing them. For those of us who have already found a church home we need to have this attitude for those that are coming behind us.


For some, we can lift the conference and speakers in prayer, or fast. Pray that wives will be helpmeets and encouragers to their husbands "where you go, I will go". Pray that the Lord will raise up elders to start and lead budding congregations, that like minded elders would find each other to be able to yoke together from the start so that congregations will not need to split apart later. Pray that men will have courage to lead their families out of their comfort zones. Pray that families will get a vision.

For those who can, please come and attend. It will be a big encouragement to those families that are just trying to see if it's really true..... "Is there another way?"

Like those who came first to America, and made maps, and learned what crops worked and what didn’t work..hoo boy. Just by being there you will be a physical manifestation of encouragement to some new family.

I am part of God's economy, wanting to plant spiritual seeds that if not me, then my future offspring will see a local church that is a truer representation of the bride of Christ. That perhaps from fellowships that spring up from this conference, my children or children's children will find a like minded spouse to advance the Kingdom of God. I want my kids when they're old and gray to be talking with someone and go ...."Hey, I was at that first conference too!...Kevin Swanson made me laugh so hard...we were sitting on this side of the room, where was your family?!"

So mighty men of valor, come pass before your bretheran if you are able to and join us this weekend. I know your wife doesn't just spend her money willey-nilley, she jumps on the "two for one sale", she strikes when the time is right! Well, the best harvests come from planting seed in rich soil at the right time. And it's even in my back yard!?!...I'm ready to sign up twice!!!!

If you cannot attend, please move over next to Moses and help hold up his hands in prayer! Pray like the future of this nation depends on it. (In a way, I think it does.)

I want my children's children, to still be harvesting fruit from my choices 50, 100, 200 yrs from now.....for the Glory of God!

May God say of us as he did to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh....3 "You have not left your brethren these many days, up to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God.4 "And now the Lord your God has given rest to your brethren, as He promised them; now therefore, return and go to your tents and to the land of your possession, (yes! yes! yes!) which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side of the Jordan. Joshua 22:3-4
Uniting Church and Family Arizona

Please note your Bible doesn't have the yes! yes! yes! Part, that's just me standing on my chair.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Uniting Church and Family, AZ Regional Conference

I have been listening to lots of Vision Forum stuff, History of the World cds, the Quadracentenial cds, Entrepreneurial cds, just great...

I keep hearing Dan Ford (Quadracentenial cd) speaking of the puritans and pilgrims as a people "who knew who they we’re..." they saw themselves as "being used by God to advance his Kingdom..." they knew it wasn't about them. They picked up this perspective from their Bibles. When you see reality with that type of understanding you can stand up against Kings. You can expect God to providentially move on your behalf because you have aligned yourself with the King of the universe. This is a 1500, 1600 puritan/pilgrim mindset that led to a people in America who, as Marshall Foster said in the 1700's, saw that the Bible spoke to every area of life, that it was like the air they breathed, law, government, everything.

I think it was Botkin who pointed out that every interest of ours, is under the Christ's authority.

We as modern Christians have been trained to look at everything in relation to us. We tend to think in terms of ourselves going out to "do something, (fill in the blank_____)" for the Lord as compared to seeing yourself "used" by Him. The focus shifts to us and what were doing instead of on God and what He is doing. It's as much of a cultural imprint on us as anything.

Next Friday and Saturday we host the most westward Uniting Church and Family Conference that Vision Forum has done and we need to see that it is part of God's providential hand. It is another page in His history, just as when he guided the the puritans/pilgrims to come to America to bring the gospel to the natives and take dominion of the land, again for the glory of God. It may not be the biggest conference but it is God's conference.Uniting Church and Family Arizona

I submit that everyday, all day and in all things we should see ourselves as being used by Him for His own Glory. Now that way of thinking, can be part of a rich inheritance passed onto future generations. I want to be a part of God's economy!

Phil 2:5-11......and that every tongue should confess Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Discipleship, Relationships, and the Right Worldview.

From Kevin Swanson's Oct 5 show....

Raising Children that Won't Leave the Faith - Interview - Phil Downer Friday, October 5, 2007

While 80% of children raised in the evangelical world walk away from the faith a year or two after they leave the home, this doesn't happen everywhere. Whole families are keeping the faith generation after generation. It's a faith that sticks, and has a lot to do with discipleship, relationships, and the right worldview.

Homeschool parents, Phil and Susy Downer raised six children, all of whom are serving God now. In this interview we get to the heart of what it took to raise these children to love God.
download here

Are You Going?

We must understand and shift our thinking from, "Does this help me?", "Do I need this?" to "Does this advance the Kingdom of God," "will this help position future generations (your future generations or other families) to live for the glory of God?" We must be about making shade for others, to be stepping stones for our children's children. This goes absolutely 100% against the grain of our culture, that has even us in the church focused inwardly on ourselves, our retirements, our 401 K's....

Uniting Church and Family Arizona

Saturday, October 6, 2007

"Lord over All..."

From Credenda Agenda vol 16 number 4 from the "meander" section of the magazine

Crinkum Crankum
Douglas Wilson

There is no area of our lives where we can go stand and be free from the authority and direction of Scripture. Landscaping, chemistry, physics, medicine, changing diapers, law, thumb-twiddling, etc. all fall under the lordship of Christ. The kingdom of God is not like a poor cell phone plan that gives you places to go where you don't have coverage.

Minds and Mammom issue

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Your Making To Much Of This Worldview Stuff

From Feb 07

Question: Why should I care about worldviews, what difference does it make....

..... pick any situation and your response to it will be a response based on what you believe. (Not necessarily what's true) That's why God commands us to take every thought captive....And that's why we need all of the Word, the whole counsel of God...how else do we know if it's been taken captive to Christ. I sure cannot trust my heart, for "there is no good thing in me" and the "heart is desperately wicked" and "full of deceit."


The following is taken from the Center for Arizona Policy email update, talking about worldviews a couple of days ago.....(Less than 10% of Christians have a biblical worldview ! ouch!)


"Research by George Barna?s organization shows that only 9 percent of professing Christians actually see the world through a Biblical worldview. As a result, many of us are not making the difference in the world today as we are called to do by Scripture. Many of us have attended Bible studies and received solid Biblical teaching at church. However, we haven?t necessarily taken the time to look at life?s issues through a Biblical worldview perspective. Sometimes we need to take a step back and consider whether we are living the Christian Worldview in our everyday lives."

If Your Mother Says She Loves You Check It Out

We all can just take things for granted, this was from last Mar 07. So much of what I used to think was wrong. The if your mother says she loves you check it it came from Gary North. I believe it was a saying reporters would use.

"The word says God will write his law on our heart."

The Word does say that God will write his law on our hearts ....but If we believe that God has written his law on our hearts, or even in our minds, then why do we need to keep reading our Bibles? Why have our children reading their Bibles, won't God write it on their hearts too?....great, now I have more free time...

I had just assumed that this is how it is, I think, He's already done it, rather than going back to God's word to see if what is coming out of my heart and mouth lines up with his Word.

Now that would prove that he has done it! Or more accurately that he has done some of it...

We cannot assume that because were born again...that if we are comfortable with something ... (our hearts don't condem us)..that it must be okay with God,.... rather than looking to the only sure witness from Him (His word) to see if we have lined up with Him. When we read.... "We should treat others as we would be treated, for that sums up the Law and the Prophets..".. Do we go back to see ... "just what was it?".... that they, "the Law and the Prophets" have said ?" ...and am I lining up with it?

The Bereans searched the scripture to see if it was so... and it seems we are quick to check our standard "he bible" when it comes to what is being taught, which is good....but do we give our hearts and minds a free pass...if our reason for doing something, or believing something, is not founded on the word, than something other than the Word has smuggled its way into our hearts as the standard.

Sometimes it seems that things are just assumed to be the norm, "everyone thinks this way".....or.... we just notice that this seems to be how all the other Christians around us are living, but in doing so we make other believers the standard, not God's Word.

One last thought, we need to start asking people when they mention "the law"...what do you mean by that? I had no idea that the "law" meant precepts and statutes... so when someone says "do you think we need to follow the law?" We should ask ...which precepts and statutes are you talking about? We must use God's definitions for everything....Then we could say "No, we don't need to sacrifice a lamb anymore... we have a new covenant now. Or no, you cannot commit adultery and you shouldn't even look with lust at any women.

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Now Remember, Socialization Is The Important Reason Given For Leaving Your Kid In Government School

Last week Swanson talked about this alot, again from the Barna group. This survey is just pregnant with meaning. Nothing like knowing what medicine can help, and at the same time realizing that these people are committed to a lifestyle that by its very nature is also the source of their angst.

Survey Reveals Challenges Faced by Young People

...Separating the views of parents by the age of their children, the study discovered that the parents of teenagers identified peer pressure as the biggest challenge faced by 13-to-18 year olds. The parents of pre-teens listed both peer pressure and school performance as the greatest struggles their younger children face...

Parents of Teens

When asked to identify the most significant or challenging issues facing their teenagers, parents listed peer pressure (42%), performance in school (16%), substance abuse (16%), and behavioral issues (15%)....

Among the parents of children younger than 13, by far the most serious issues were feeling misunderstood by their family (listed by 41% of pre-teen parents as a significant issue in the minds of their children); being made fun of by their peers (32%); struggling with their self-image (26%); and not feeling accepted by their peers (26%)...

"The percentage of young people plagued by peer pressure issues more than doubles once a child reaches high school," Barna revealed. "That pressure takes many forms: using drugs or alcohol, befriending certain groups of peers, owning specific media technologies, having sexual experiences, wearing particular types of clothing or brands, and possessing a certain attitude."...

The issue that seemed to remain a constant and significant challenge across time is the nature of the connection between parent and child. "Feeling misunderstood is one of the most widespread and long-lasting difficulties felt by young people," according to Barna...
whole thing here

I liked the part about opportunities for parents and youth leaders!

For What It's Worth

From the Barna group.

A New Generation Expresses its
Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity


As the nation’s culture changes in diverse ways, one of the most significant shifts is the declining reputation of Christianity, especially among young Americans. A new study by The Barna Group conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago....

Even among young Christians, many of the negative images generated significant traction. Half of young churchgoers said they perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, and too political. One-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.

Interestingly, the study discovered a new image that has steadily grown in prominence over the last decade. Today, the most common perception is that present-day Christianity is "anti-homosexual." Overall, 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers say this phrase describes Christianity. As the research probed this perception, non-Christians and Christians explained that beyond their recognition that Christians oppose homosexuality, they believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians. One of the most frequent criticisms of young Christians was that they believe the church has made homosexuality a "bigger sin" than anything else. Moreover, they claim that the church has not helped them apply the biblical teaching on homosexuality to their friendships with gays and lesbians....

"Older generations more easily dismiss the criticism of those who are outsiders," Kinnaman said. "But we discovered that young leaders and young Christians are more aware of and concerned about the views of outsiders, because they are more likely to interact closely with such people. Their life is more deeply affected by the negative image of Christianity. For them, what Christianity looks like from an outsider’s perspective has greater relevance, because outsiders are more likely to be schoolmates, colleagues, and friends."... whole thing here

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Government School Sin

From Chalcedon...

Exodus Mandate’s 10th Anniversary Lee Duigon

I think this country has no good future apart from Christian education. Unless we get our children out of the public schools, I think we have a very sad and tragic future.
—Rev. Joseph Morecraft III...

In February 1997, Moore attended a national conference in Washington, D.C., chaired by luminaries of the Christian Right like Phyllis Schlafly and Congressman Henry Hyde, dedicated to revealing the flaws in the federal government’s “Goals 2000” project for improving public education.

“The only plan they had was to repeal bad legislation,” Moore said. “I was thinking, ‘These are the good guys, and they don’t have a clue.’...

“A friend warned me, ‘You’ll become one of the most hated men in America,’” he said. “‘Christian parents will hate you because they don’t want to obey God.’ But it hasn’t been that bad. After all, everyone agrees the public school system is in terrible shape. They find it very hard to counter the case we’re making.”...

“Lincoln once observed that the philosophy of the classroom is the philosophy of the government in the next generation,” Shortt said. “In fact, the importance of education is even more fundamental than that—it is the single greatest determinant of what sort of culture we will have.

“This is why the Left has worked so hard over the last 100 years and more to expand government education and control it. If tomorrow Christians were to refuse to hand their children over to the government schools, the government school system would collapse, the NEA [teachers’ union] and a whole host of liberal organizations would be largely defunded, delegitimized, and deprived of most of their political and cultural power. This would also set the state for a renewal of our culture, and true revival...

But the Mandate’s biggest challenge in the future, Moore and Shortt agreed, is the church itself.

“Bad habits and weak theologies die hard,” Moore said, “and most Christians have a poor educational theology. But we’ve helped reframe the issue, among the Christian community, away from public school reform and toward Christian education. This has helped spawn many new homeschooling and Christian education ministries.

“We don’t tell people to ‘take back their schools,’ get themselves elected to their local school boards, or anything like that. We don’t want those schools. We just want our children out of them.”

“Our greatest challenge is to get parents and pastors to be honest,” Shortt said. “They need to give up the ‘our schools are different’ and ‘our children are salt and light’ lies and repent of their disobedience in education that is destroying our children, families, churches, and culture. We also need to find a way to get those who are faithful in the education of their children to find the courage to confront other Christians about their government school sin.”...
Read more>>

The Standard, Who Says?

Without God, things will get confusing.

It's Gods Law or chaos.....below is a column, which pokes holes in the hate-crime thing, it is a good place to work out some real world questions. Our God has said, "come let us reason together." He wants us to use our minds, to think with Him, even like Him. Ours is a reasonable faith. This nation and culture is desperate for people who can think God's thoughts after Him. But first some comments on, "When our God has been removed from the equation..."

By what authority are definitions such as hate-crimes made? Says who? Why should we care what they think and say? By what standard? Who's standard? Where did it come from and why is it binding on anyone? Who died and made them king? Or god.

Did they come down from some mountain with stone tablets... from whom? Once you remove God from His throne anything goes. But without God everyone else can just yawn and say so what? That's why Government Schools and culture work hard to inculcate into us the desire to fit in. Then you can feel relevant. Which they will remind you is important. Part of this is fear of man as the Word says....We don't want to be seen as what? Not caring? But if there is no God so what. Except for us wanting to be seen to fit in. The belief also must be instilled in us from an early age that our government is intrinsically good. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

Without God you had better make your government buildings look like huge greek replicas of buildings that inscribe sub-consciously that they represent and reek of real authority. Which should be obeyed. You need the illusion of real authority. For the most part most believers would think that our U.S. laws are more legitimate than God's Laws. It's not an accident that the buildings in Washington D.C. look the way they do. At the founding of our nation it wasn't this way. Because the authority rested on God and His Word, not the institution of state itself. They for the most part enforced God's Law, most of our Law came from the English Common Law which was grounded in God's word.

But without this foundation those who want us to follow and embrace this alternative value system that is based on the whims of man must continually try to shame or embarrass those who "refuse to bow down when the horns are blown". In the Soviet Union those who wouldn't repeat back the State said were labeled as insane. The mental institutions were filled with Christians. Eventually they would just be sent to the gulags.

But if they can get us to accede and nod the head when there is no more threat than public disapproval...or to intimidate you that your words might hurt somones feelings.....or gasp! that by what you say, your causing people to not feel included.... and we all know how evil that is! Then without even having to threaten us with imprisonment they will have won.

All of this is also part of taking every thought captive to Christ.

September 12, 2007 "Hate" Is Worse Than The Crime Itself? Steven M. Warshawsky

...The focus of the AP story was not on the crime itself, however, but on allegations (made by the victim's mother) that the attackers used the "n-word" every time they assaulted the victim. Thus, the crime was not merely a heinous, brutal victimization of a young woman -- it was a "hate crime." According to the story, the FBI "is looking into possible civil rights violations." As if being beaten, stabbed, and raped is not a "civil rights violation."
The article clearly implies that the use of racial slurs was the most serious transgression committed by the perpetrators. As the lede states:

"A woman who authorities said was sexually abused, beaten and stabbed while held captive for at least a week was repeatedly called a racial slur during the attacks, the victim's mother said."
It is the allegation that racial slurs were uttered by the white perpetrators, not the crime itself, that is supposed to trigger an outraged response from readers.

The notion of a "hate crime" -- which, in essence, seeks to punish impure thoughts, rather than unjust deeds -- has been criticized on the grounds that such laws are unnecessary because the criminal conduct itself is punishable, that they treat crime victims unequally depending on whether the victims enjoy "protected" or "non-protected" status, and that they infringe on individual freedom and impose a form of thought-control on citizens.
I think these criticisms are valid, but miss a more important point: Hate crime laws, by elevating the perceived seriousness of crimes when allegations of bias or bigotry are involved, have the perverse result of diminishing the perceived seriousness of crimes when no such allegations are involved.

In this case, the AP story about this terrible crime clearly implies that had no racial slurs been uttered, the crime itself would not have been as wrong. Instead, it probably would have been described as simply a "tragic" and "senseless" act. This makes no sense, logically or morally....

Read more>>

This from the ones who insist you cannot legislate morality......

Romans 13, Looking At The Government

Here's Romans 13:1-7

Romans 13:1-7 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.4 For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience' sake.6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing.7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.

I think this is what most Christians focus on and remember, and I think it has to do with our world view .... For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves....

Some responses to questions. My own experience has been I miss so much because I either take God's Word out of context or I would compartmentalize and fragment scripture, where I didn't even try to look at how his word could be extrapolated. Too much tunnel vision.

Are you saying that Romans 13 advocates civil disobedience? No, I would say the first commandment would call for civil disobedience, any time, and everytime, the government defines anything contrary to God's revealed Word. We cannot serve two masters, you will either love the one and hate the other. We need to always repeat back what God has said. We are called to advance the Kingdom of God, if our government is in sync with God's ways, then that is icing on the cake.

I'm saying that Romans 13 does some defining, God describes the government as his ministers, 3 times, they should be submitted to God as his ministers, just like us. They are not free-lance agents. Jesus is described as ruling over the Nations and in Psalms, nations are told to kiss the Son.

Just earlier in Romans 11:36 For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. This is gonna include governments. ."..and to Him" As Ken Myers pointed out in " So Let Your Light." "When Jesus said give unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's, he did not mean that Caesar got to descide the split!" The governments are never just given carte blanche to decide for themselves what they should be concerned with. As I pointed out Sunday, because even we individual believers are not always used to submitting to God, if only because we cannot fathom what God wants done with all this neutral territory. So at this point in our history we just accept and expect that if you can get the votes, than it's okay.

It is telling, that Romans 13 only defines the government job as of opposing evil by both positive reward of those doing good, no need to fear government if your doing good, and reminding that if you do evil they are assigned to suppress it. Both the positive and negative are spoken of twice.

And as in the garden, the temptation for every government, like each individual man is, "who will decide? that which is good and that which is evil?" At any point any government fails to repeat back what God has said about any situation the Christians in the nation should not fall in line but be a witness about what God has said. You don't have to take to the streets with your guns to do this.

Note: Our government through the government school system has made it very clear what god they serve, and it is the god of humanism. Now the government doesn't have to take out ads in the local papers and say, "These are the truths we hold to be self-evident." It's much easier to just inculcate into the next generation what values they believe in, through the school system. It's worked great so far. Kevin Swanson says the "battle is over" concerniong homosexuality as within the student population, it will parrot back, that being gay is ok, no big deal. So this next generation has accepted the new paradigm without so much as a whimper.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Gods Law, The Only Sure Reference Point

Part and parcel of what has become modern Christianity is this notion/idea that we all can decide for ourselves, what and how to apply Scripture, and that we don't need what we call, God's Law, from the Old Testament. That we are given the right, that we are granted a license as part of being an independantly owned and operated Christian franchise....

Someone will tell me...."you need to read Romans 2:14, look at Romans 2:14 God said he will put it in our minds and in our hearts."...and I said..."so we don't have to read our Bibles anymore right?" ...they get a blank look and say ....Wellllll... nooooo.....

Along with this we could add, "then why do we need a pastor or anyone to teach us?"

Old world views die hard.

His Word, His commandments, His precepts, His statutes, His laws, His judgements......the only thing to fear is that He may get to really be LORD of our lives...are we ready for it?

More, How We Got Here

Psalm 78:41 again and again they tempted God and limited the Holy one....

I am fascinated to read of those events that helped turn Christianity from a dominion stance, looking at all of life, knowing that Christ really was Lord over all of it. To one that became turned so sharply inward towards the individual that we became comfortable with the idea of "full-time Christian service" and this now seems normal to most believers! That we struggle, and it's so hard to see that every believers walk should be of full time service to our Lord. This is from Credenda Agenda ....

The Academic Civil War
Roy Atwood

And Jesus said, "Seek first vocational-technical training and all that Kingdom of God and righteousness stuff can be added later." —Matthew 6:35....

...Abandonment of the classical Christian model in higher education and the ascent of vocational-technical college training began with the 1862 Morrill Act...

...The predominantly Unitarian North opened this academic front with the mission of undermining America's historically Trinitarian colleges and universities. Their classical Christian curricula had mentored virtually every major leader of the New Nation since devout Puritans founded Harvard in 1636. The Morrill Act was the North's long-term strategic move to displace the academy's classical Christian tradition and to reconstruct the nation on purely economic, technological, scientific, democratic, rationalistic, and secular (i.e., anything-but-Christian) foundations...

..." Horace Mann, the father of the American government school system and a Calvinist-turned-Unitarian, encouraged "daily reading of the Bible, devotional exercises, and the constant inculcation of the precepts of Christian morality in all the Public schools" so it would disarm critics who knew where his secular vision for education would lead. Using the rhetoric of religion, Mann outflanked pious evangelicals with god-words while establishing a new educational system at war with God's Word....

Prior to 1862, education was almost universally understood as the shaping of a person's life and character through personal, covenantal nurturing and rigorous study of the classical liberal arts from a biblical perspective. Prior to the Morrill Act, the "useful arts" had no place within the Christian liberal arts curriculum....

...The new federally funded land-grant universities redefined education as egalitarian training to serve the American National Will, not "sectarian" interests like serving Christ and His kingdom. Their federally bankrolled success soon pressured even staunchly traditional Christian liberal arts colleges to add new departments of technical education and engineering...

...There are many reasons for the church's drift away from the classical Christian liberal arts college education, but the Morrill Act-inspired belief that practical skills can be taught without religious assumptions was—and still is—chief among them....

...the priorities of Matthew 6:33 have been overturned even among well meaning Christians, just as the strategists behind the Morrill Act had hoped for one hundred and forty years ago. Read more>>

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Looking At The Word With New Eyes

More thoughts from Feb 07......

I keep asking who or which groups are even discussing the world views necessary to really see what is going on in the culture, I see that it is those peoples/groups that fear the LORD and honor His laws and statutes, that have eyes that see and ears that hear. The others don't even seem to be aware of the topics!??! All they see is that they have to get people saved.

But if we will not honor what God has plainly said to us in His Word...why should He then reveal to us the deeper things. The passage where Jesus says I speak to them in parables...otherwise they would repent...comes to mind, but not in a comforting way.
Mathew 5:17-19 I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfill.
This was great, I had just wrote the above and then stopped to read Matt 7 with the family....

I have just returned from our evening Bible reading, Matt chpt 7. My Bible has those little section titles like, "I never knew you" at the start of verse 21 and at verse 24 it says, "Build on the rock". I noticed tonight that those things break up how I look at the Word.

so when I read at 26 and 27 about whoever hears these these sayings of mine and does not do them is building on sand... and when the wind comes...etc. Tonight, God quickend to me verse 23 where he says, "Depart from me you who practice lawlessness." I always thought of this as "wicked","unsaved" people.

But tonight I thought of modern evangelicalism and now I can see that in so many ways we have been lawless, (without God's Law) very little direction (Discipleship) to show us how to live and think God's thoughts after him. Instead it was emphasised to follow the Spirit. I know I have mentioned how more than once that I said at my old church that it seemed like "every man is doing what is right in his own eyes."

As I think of how much carnage is happening in the modern church, divorces, heart ache over what direction the kids are going, the churches themselves more concerned for their buildings than the people, the culture kicking us around, etc, etc, etc....you name it and it is hard to show by its fruit those areas that are still standing and are not falling (fallen) down.... because the foundation is on sand rather than the God's Word/Law?.... v 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house: and it fell. and great was it's fall....

I can hear the crys from under the rubble of modern Christianity, "Our houses have not fallen down."

You will know a tree by it's fruit. I am just starting to taste God's goodness by honoring more and more of His Word/Law and in turn foreseeing that God is building a house (family's and generations going forward) that will be able to stand as the rains descend and the floods come....praise God!, I can see it happening.

Without a vision my people perish....

Passing On A Vision

Lately, I have been listening to Geof Botkin, from the History Of The World Conference and The Uniting Church And Family conference in St Louis. Gooood stuff! Tonight at the dinner table I brought up how we are in a battle. How our timeline that I have used to give a visual example of Our Story, God's story of his creation and where we fit into it is also the record of the battles between God's children and the children of this world.

I took a que from Botkin and tried to stress how this life is not a game, how it is a fight, a battle. How most of the world and God's family don’t see it for what it really is. We easily are side tracked to chase after the Americana dream of personal peace and affluence. I used an example from one of my war games where you don’t waste moves, even if you cannot do something decisive this turn you lay up, prepare and place influence where it can be brought to bear when needed in the future. I stressed how they are being trained to be a part of this fight and even today at there young age they are in the battle, when they surrender their heart to daddy, when they yield their will to mom. Whenever they move into the role God has created them for (which right now is about being godly young ladies), they influence the battle.

Later we started listening to cd4 from the Father/Daughter Retreat 2007 from Vision Forum. I have Beth get a nice desert for the girls as we have started to listen to them together, I try to make it a special time so it will stand out in their heads. Cd4 Botkin talks about his daughters, how he asked them to examine the culture and see what has happened to the women of America and give answers to the young ladies at the retreat.

"Dominion ordered Femininity"........that sounds so powerful!

"Women helping men fulfill their calling....verses... a women who wants it her own way, who wants control...independant and self seeking...."

They used the term... " battle raging around us".... can you see it? Can you hear the battle? It's being fought over the souls of your children and children's children. At Waterloo Gen. Grouchy had orders to try and keep the Prussians away from the battle between Wellington and Napoleon. In the far distance the sounds of several hundred artillery pieces were heard. Grouchy stayed put as he thought he was between the Prussians and the battle, but he wasn't. Exasperated, a junior officer declared, "General, we must march to the sound of the guns!" He didn’t and the battle was lost, his 20-30,000 men might've made the difference. We have been made for this fight. Will you?... march to the sound of the guns? Or are you gonna get some new remote batteries?

I hope all are signed up for the Uniting Church and Family Conference in Glendale next month. Come see if God will help you to see where one of the battles is being fought.

Today I got my copy of "All God's Children And Blue Suede Shoes" Christians and Popular Culture. It's from 1989 and until this year I hadn't heard of it.

From the backcover "this provocative book that shows how our thought, communication, and living have all been affected by popular cultures omnipresence. It should make us take a hard look at what we've accepted as harmless entertainment"

"Where did pop-culture come from? Why is it the way it is? How does it influence Americans in general and Christians in particular?... He see’s pop-culture as a culture of diversion, preventing people from asking the questions about their origin and destiny and life. Two aspects stand out- a quest for novelty and a desire for instant gratification...the illusion to set your own standard, you can choose, you are the master of your fate, you deserve a break, your worth it.

Aye, ya yi yi. Why do these statements feel so dead on. I think it is part of modern evangelicalisms resistance to God's Law. It removes the grey zones that I used to love and re-establishes God's Kingdom and claim over all things! We do not serve the God of full time Christian service. But rather the LORD God of all Heavens and Earth.