partsofspeaking

This testimony from Christianity Today says a lot in a few words.    https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2023/december/julie-hannah-testimony-skeptic-investigation-jesus.html At Christmas, I quote this section:   Reading from Genesis through Revelation, we see Jesus’ life and death as part of a holistic picture of God’s promises being fulfilled. If Jesus never said or did the bulk of what is recorded in the New Testament, then the biblical writers would have had to invent a vast amount of detail that somehow harmonizes with various Old Testament images, themes, prophecies, festival dates, and rituals. This would have been the most sophisticated fraud ever perpetrated.

From an environmental website:  "Yet almost 30 years after that warning, during the hottest year on Earth in 125,000 years , people are still arguing that the science is unreliable, or that the threat is real but we shouldn’t do anything about climate change. Conspiracies are thriving online, according to a report by the coalition Climate Action Against. "  How in the world would they know that its the hottest year in 125,000 of them?  In other news...... I am never a fan of Trump, but come on, people. Hillary did the same thing when she called his supporters "Deplorables." All this opposition just makes his supporters come out of the woodwork, others think he's a martyr, and even make those of us who see him as a chaos agent feel like "come on, people."

I can't go anywhere without seeing these ads.  Beware: the program, which does look amazing, is sponsored by and originates from the Falun Gong cult, about which Wikipedia says (sorry, it's quick), Led by Li Hongzhi, who is viewed by adherents as a deity-like figure, Falun Gong practitioners operate a variety of organizations in the United States and elsewhere, including the dance troupe Shen Yun . [8] [9] They are known for opposing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), espousing anti-evolutionary views, opposition to homosexuality and feminism , and rejection of modern medicine , among other views described as " ultra-conservative ". [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] The Falun Gong also operates the Epoch Media Group, which is known for its subsidiaries, New Tang Dynasty Television and The Epoch Times newspaper. The latter has been broadly noted as a politically far-right [30] media entity, and it has received significant attention in the United States for p...

Couple of observations I have faltered in not posting about advent. The candle/theme for yesterday was/is joy. In this over anxious society, we need to meditate on joy. Our pastor has been preaching on it with the basis that joy is an attribute of God. We do not think of that, but how could we not. How much does God rejoice? And Hebrews 12:2: "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross...." To turn from joy is to turn from God.  #2: We talk about relationship a lot, but we really do not dig deep into its meaning. Relationship equals knowledge.  "Adam knew his wife," meant total physical and psychological union. We want to have relationship with others without knowing them, without listening, without understanding them.  We have interpreted relatinship as warm and fuzzy feelings, as comfort with the other.  This is a symptom of our Freudian, post-Romantic age--emotions come first rather than as a result of something else.  Know people. Take the tim...

There is a commercial on a podcast I listen to about a program that helps domestic abuse shelters pay for clients to bring their pets. It is called Purple Leash.   Some might think that if a victim needs help, the dog or cat needs to be sacrificed for one’s safety. But that overlooks the place of the pet in the victim’s life. It might be the victim’s only friend, sad as that is. The abuser’s ability to keep the pet (assuming it will be cared for, which it might not) is another way the abuser has power over the victim.   I can see clearly why a person in that context might not be able to see their way clear to leave abuse if it means doing so without the pet.   I decided to leave my home and didn’t get to see my dog for many, many months. One time it worked out for her to spend the night with me. I let her sleep on the bed with me. I think she was happy. I was ecstatic to have her with me.   As time went on, she came to live with Butter...

 Today is a day I am thinking about drawing lines in the sand.   First, this was in my email in box, from The Dispatch newsletter.   If you don’t want to read all of it (tldr as they say), the short version is that this man was “encouraged” to leave a top job at the New York Times because the young staffers said his editorial policies made them feel unsafe and the oldsters there caved to the young people.   In a 16,000-word essay for The Economist , James Bennet—the former editorial page editor at the New York Times who was fired for running an op-ed in the summer of 2020 by Sen. Tom Cotton that advocated for the deployment of the National Guard to quell increasingly violent protests—criticized the higher-ups of the Gray Lady for caving to various pressures. “One of the glories of embracing illiberalism is that, like Trump, you are always right about everything, and so you are justified in shouting disagreement down,” Bennet wrote. “In the face of this, leaders...

After a day of cooking and cleaning and hosting Thanksgiving, I sat down to finally watch it. The Barbie   movie. And I loved it. It’s brilliant, silly, funny, witty, amazingly designed, touching. And very, very sad. Take the “prologue,” something I have not read anyone comment upon. It is a clever but disturbing parody of the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey . To me, very disturbing, because I am seeing it as the older version of a very young girl who got a Barbie doll probably at the age of eight and played with them, but also played with baby dolls. Barbie was introduced by Mattel (also willing to be parodied in the film) by Ruth Handler (notice that is the name Barbie takes at the end of the film when she becomes human). Mrs. Handler used the Lili doll from Germany, but none of us knew the origin of Lili. She was a “sex doll” and a character in a racy cartoon series. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2023/05/25/barbie-trailer-creator-pornographic-origin-doll/ The o...

Just saw a news report of a Leucistic alligator born in captivity. It is white and blue eyed. It can grow to ten feet. Another thing to have nightmares over. Yet it is God's creature.  Even if you believe that God directed and used evolution, I ask like William Blake:  Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb make thee?   I am still "gobsmacked" by the way the three university presidents were "gobsmacked" by the Congressional committee. Are we afraid of students?  Is higher ed in thrall to the people who are supposed to be the ones needing education?  Yet, after 40 plus years of having to read student evaluations of my teaching.  18 year olds critiquing a person in her 60s with a three graduate degrees, a doctorate, publications, administrative experience--and I am only one little cog in a big wheel, and it happens to all of us who teach--yes, after this, we have allowed ourselves to think the 18 years olds, who don't even know what river ...

 "Evangelical" has, unfortunately, become a word defined by many, media and otherwise, as a political position rather than a view of Scripture, a doctrinal stance, and a belief that personal conversion is necessary.  And of course we mourn that because the mistaken but widespread view of evangelical is a conservative Protestant who supports Donald Trump.  For that reason, a lot of us don't want to be called "evangelical" any more because we don't want our faith conflated with a political candidate.  However.... This afternoon I dialed into a podcast I often listen to, one where the host is evangelical but more "open-minded" or even progressive.  This is person is anti-Trump and very concerned about evangelicals who are pro-Trump. Two of the latest episodes are "What are evangelicals doing about climate change?" and"What is going on at the Southern Border?" These are political subjects, right? So it will be okay if evan...

They are shorter and do not take a life-time commitment to watch.  They are in black and white, usually, which helps me focus on story, acting, lighting, direction (I might be a bit ADD).  Let's face it--no F words to have to deal with.  Even the pre-code movies of the early '30s, which could get kind of racey, kept away from language. They mostly liked showing scantily clad females.  Today's films take a fragmented approach to time lines. Constant skipping around in time, and I'm not talking about Tenet. Oppenheimer had five different time lines. The latest version of Little Women was incomprehensible if you didn't already know the story very well.  They are more about how the story is told than just telling the story. Finaly, older movies tell stories that are not so weird. I've been seeing ads for Poor Things , a new film by a Greek director and starring Emma Stone. It's basically a dead grown woman has the brain of an infant put in her skull, she is re-...

 I am going to say something that is not original but about which we need to be reminded.  Thousands of people, tragically, were crucified during the  Roman Empire. Only one proved through supernatural works that He was the Son of God and rose from the dead, with over 500 eyewitnesses who at the time were willing to die for the truth of what they saw. The resurrection solidifies the work of the cross.  All the claims in the New Testament about the efficacy of the cross for our justification and so much more are moot without the resurrection. The experts on this subject are Gary Habermas and N.T. Wright. I refer you to their writings and probably more accessible, their YouTube videos. Habermas lectures a lot about the timeline, and that when Paul wrote I Corinthians 15 in AD 54 or 55, it was about 20 years since the historical incident. "The best part of them are still alive," Paul says. He wasn't afraid of investigation; "go talk to them," is the implication.   ...

 In regard to the facts that Hunter Biden spent millions on luxury items and escorts, but didn't pay his income taxes, his lawyer says,  "In the depths of his addiction, which is something so many Americans have experienced with family members....." I doubt many of them spent 500 grand on hookers and got 1.5 million in the red with the IRS.   Sheesh.    "Pay your fair share, Joe." Apparently presidents of Ivy League institutions have the same problem; they'll say anything.  "Is calling for the genocide of Jews against Harvard's code of conduct?" Elise Stefanik asked (she's a bit much, but the question mattered). "It depends on the context," was Claudine Gay's answer. You've got to be kidding me. 

 I spent much of my early years in fundamentalism. Some would say I still exist in that realm, but I would say only in some associations. I do not consider myself an evangelical any longer because the word has changed meaning from theological to socio/political. I experience a good bit of cognitive dissonance about complementarianism in its extreme forms yet don't buy into egalitarianism because it's too close to "no-gender-ism."  I am conservative in social issues, libertarian in fiscal policy, and lean somewhat progressive about the environment (except my version of it would not strike some as progressive).   So I don't like labels any more.  But, back to sentence one. Some things from fundamentalism were helpful. Some things not, and those things I have had to shake off and shed, and some need to be excised like a cancer.  One of the latter is the sense of cause v. people. Fundamentalism as I was taught it said the cause of evangelism was more important ...

I am teaching from Luke 24 tomorrow. Normally I have a detailed outline that I publish here. Tomorrow my outline is simple, not because the lesson is simple or because I didn't study, but because I prefer to let the straightforward narrative speak for itself with little interference from me.  But I will provide this:  Recommendation of this page for harmonizing the gospel accounts of the resurrection:  https://www.gotquestions.org/resurrection-accounts.html    One must read Luke 24 and John 20 in tandem. The takeaways: 1. Tell the truth. Tell.  The.  Truth.  Christ is Risen. Russell Moore's latest podcast is with N.T. Wright, whose answer to the question, "How do you know it's true?" is " Christ is risen." 2. Believe the truth when a faithful witness tells you. Jesus provides Thomas with the same physical proof (in John 20) that He did to the others in Luke 24 ("eleven" referring to the group as a whole, not always an exact number, although the...