Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

The video above is of us playing with my Christmas gift from Elisa and the boys. We actually opened it, ahem, on Monday! Yes, I know, not actually waiting until Christmas day. But I can explain.

Let's see... we went to the Casey Jones Museum on Monday with the boys, and our next door neighbor, Dalton. All day long, Andy had been telling me that I did, in fact, have a train even though I said I didn't. Well, the cat was out of the bag. What he was telling me was true. I did have a train. But I didn't know it because it was wrapped up in the closet waiting to be opened on Friday.

That didn't happen.

While at the museum, we had such fun playing with all the trains that they had on display, that I... bought one! Yes, kudos to the designers of the museum. After you have toured the museum, you get to exit through the Museum Store! This is guaranteeing that you will buy something to do with trains. As I was looking at the model above, Elisa confessed that she had already bought me an electric Thomas the Tank Engine, but that if I wanted the one above, she could take Thomas back, and get me that one. Of course, I thought it over for three, maybe four minutes before accepting her offer, all the while looking at all the other electric trains in the store.

Let me tell you about this beauty! It's made of cast iron, puffs smoke as it goes around the track, has all the lights and bells, literally, and is an absolute blast. It is also modeled after a real train built in the late 1920s that ran along the New Jersey shore line. Mine is engine 831. They also have engines 832, and 833.

But alas, I'm beginning to sound like an enthusiast, which would probably be accurate because when it comes to this train, my thoughts keep coming back to... "if I only had about 30 more feet of track... I could run that baby through most of the rooms in the house..."

Now back to the story of why we set it up on Monday. When we got home, we quickly took the Thomas train back to Hobby Lobby and came back home to find the train where we left it on the dinning room table. Elisa convinced me that I would not be able to sleep until we set it up in order to satisfy the boys' curiosity. She made a strong case, and after many hours... OK, only moments of wrangling over the issue, I decided that she was being wise in this situation and that I should set it up for the sake of the boys. You must understand, I really, really, really, wanted to wait until Christmas day. Yeah! Right!

As you can see from the video, we had a blast. It's too bad that Elisa's camera ran out of battery power, otherwise we would have the entire train displayed as well. But once I get my Rail King Empire built and running, I will have plenty of pictures to follow.

I hope that all of you have as a wonderful a Christmas as we are having here. Now, back to my train.

Jack Bauer and Santa!

A wee bit of Yule Tide humor... as 24's Jack Bauer interrogates Santa for being in the country without a passport!

Atheists Are Always Experts on Christianity!

In the discussions between atheists and Christians, it always bothers me whenever atheists put themselves forth as experts on Christianity. Julie pointed out to me the discussion between Christian Tim Challies, over at Challies.com and Luke of Common Sense Atheism.

Of course, Luke gives his testimony there and shows how he was raised a Christian and then was "deconverted." This, in his opinion, makes him an expert on Christianity because he has somehow seen the light and embraced atheism. Of course, this is nonsense, because he is assuming that since he was a Christian before, he is an expert of Christianity now.

I know men and women who have been Christians for 50 years and never would make such a bold assumption about the faith. Theology is far to broad and comprehensive to become an expert simply by being converted to the faith, and supposedly, being converted away from the faith. This is a common mistake a lot of people make, that simply because they have study something, or read a book about something, they are now experts on the topic. No, the expert is the one who wrote the book (assuming it was well done).

Luke's other claim to expertise on the topic is the fact that he was raised in a "born-again" family and his father is a pastor. Well, my wife was raised by a doctor, in a doctor's family, but I wouldn't want her performing heart surgery on me, even though she knows infinitely more about the human body and it's functions than I do. The point is that being raised in a Christian home doesn't make one a Christian or an expert on Christianity. Luke is not an expert. I know, he claims all the right things, raised in a Christian family, etc., but that doesn't make him an expert on what it is that true, born again Christians believe.

He writes:

I went to church, Bible study, and other spiritual events every week. I prayed often and earnestly. For 12 years I attended a Christian school that taught Bible classes and creation science. I played in worship bands. As a teenager I made trips to China and England to tell the atheists over there about Jesus.

I felt the presence of God. Sometimes I would tingle and sweat with the Holy Spirit. Other times I felt led by Him to give money to a certain cause, or to pay someone a specific compliment, or to walk to the cross at the front of my church and bow before it during a worship service.

None of this proves conversion. What does the "presence of God" feel like? Is it that happy chummy feeling we might get on Sunday mornings because everything is going our way? Zip-pi-di-do-dah, zip-pi-di day! My o my what a wonderful day?

Find me the passage that says, "And thou shalt feel the presence of God, by tingling and many sweats of the Holy Spirit." Again, nothing in his testimony here, proves conversion. In fact, I would argue if you are using what he has given to prove your conversion, then you are not converted because all the elements that he has listed here are nothing more than works. We are not saved by works at all. We might do all of these things, but that is a result of conversion, not proof of conversion.

The proof we have is that our faith is in, and remains in Christ for salvation, basing our salvation on what Jesus has done in His earthly ministry and on the cross. Our faith always must be in Christ for salvation, for if it is in what we do or not do, then we do not have true salvation because our works are never acceptable to the Father because of remaining sin.

So what are we to make of Luke in this situation? Does the Bible say anything about those who have tasted the operations of the Spirit, but have drifted away, or become apostate? It really does. The writer of Hebrews addresses this very issue.

Hebrews 6:4-8 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.
For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

There are those in the body who do all the right things, but are not born again. Jesus tells us of those in the parable of the wheat and the tares. Luke, while he was in the body of Christ, did a lot of seemingly good things for the body of Christ. But all those works were thorns and briers because they were not done in faith. He was not a true believer and fell away into open shame.

Now some always say, "yes but what about 'once saved, always saved.'" To that I reply that given what we know about Luke at this point in his life, we have no basis to say that he was ever saved at all. Yes, he may have professed faith in a public confession, but never truly believed. That being the case, he was never truly saved and Hebrews 6 applies directly to him.

Might God show Luke grace later in life? He might and we should pray that He does. But as for now, Luke is apostate, out of the faith, and certainly no expert on Christianity. If you read what Challies writes as his post in response to Luke's post, you will see Challies quickly point this out.

But until Luke actually trusts in Christ for salvation, and truly becomes born again, he has no right to act as an expert on Christianity. Let's not give in to the premise that simply because someone says, "I had to figure out who Jesus really was," that he actually knows who Jesus was.

By the way, that last statement of his that I quoted is another insight into his hubris. He had to figure out who Jesus really was. No, Jesus has already told us who He is. It's not our responsibility to "figure it out," as if somehow we rise above all the rabble and figure this stuff out on our own. The LORD has blessed the church with pastors and teachers who do teach the truth (Ephesians 4). For those who want to know, we can read our Bibles and listen to our pastors. But if we rely on our fallen natures to figure God out, we will either fall away, as Luke did, or run off into some new fangled idea that is an old heresy in a new dress.

Conversations with Pre-Schoolers

Yes, my boys are at it again. Humoring us in the normal course of the day.

The Boy Who Know Everything
As we were driving home from Kroger the other night, Andy, all of 4 years old, proclaimed in the back seat of the minivan that he was the boy who knew everything! Yes, everything! I really didn't think that would start until he got into his teens, but I've always thought he was a tad bit ahead of the curve when it came to intellectual matters.

I couldn't let it rest. I just had to test his great knowledge.

"Andy, since you know everything, what size shoe do I wear?"
Without much pause, "Your shoes are bigger than your footprint!"

Both Elisa and I laughed the rest of the way home.

The Boy Who Knows His Name
As I was trying to get Joey in bed the other night, he started to get up one more time. In my "authoritative" voice, I said, "You lay down young man!"
He responded: "I'm not a young man, I'm Joey."

Authoritative voices were replaced with voices trying to remain in control.

Atheists Are At It Again

The Atheists are at it again this Christmas. Taking out more signs that say things like, "Yes Virginia, there is no God." Laura Ingraham interviews one of them on Fox's show, the O'Reilly Factor. She is almost caustic towards them. and interviews this woman with an air of contempt.

I think the most alarming aspect of atheists, is this notion that we Christians are indoctrinating our children. It's a moot point to try and reason with them on what our beliefs say about raising our children. Their view is that we should not teach them our beliefs, because that is indoctrination. My response that if you don't teach them at all, you are indoctrinating them in ignorance. So we must teach our children on some level. It might as well be that what God has given us to teach them. After all, it is His word that shows atheists to be fools (Psalm 14:1). It is His word that also shows to not instruct them is to raise more fools. We need need educate our children on what is true and right, and the best place for that is God's Word.

What also strikes me as odd, is that she claims to be from a third-generation of free thinkers. Why would she be proud of that, unless her parents raised her to be a free thinker. When they were presenting all the options, so she could make her own choice, did they really paint Christianity in a positive light? Or was it the typical atheist drivel about how religion has brought about wars, etc., etc.?

If they are truly free thinkers, the allow us access to your children for several years so that we may teach them about Christianity from a Christian's perspective and not an atheist's perspective. But alas, that would never happen. What the atheists want is to prevent Christians from teaching their children about God, while doing so, will result in more atheists. They want us to do their work for them. This is why atheists are dangerous. They want to share in their foolishness.

United Breaks Guitar

The one thing about country music that I like, is that those in it, write about the simple struggles of life. No great pontification or rambling of lyrics like Bono of U2 did for years, and groupie music reviewers would go on and on about the depth of Bono's ramblings. Blah, blah, blah. My wife said, "they were just rambling, he would just write down whatever came into his head." The reality is that Bono wouldn't even write it down. He would just ramble. "Nothing deep there," Elisa said. "I have a kiddie pool that is deeper."

But I digress.

The following song is about United Airlines destroying the song writer's beloved Taylor guitar. No, it's not deep, but it is real. Anyone who has traveled at all, has experienced this professionalism on the part of the airlines in some way. Enjoy the song.

And here is the song:




I just discovered that Dave Carroll, who is the singer/song writer, had come out with a statement over this incident... and a second song. Here is the statement:





BTW, hattip goes to Sharon and Brian. Look at all the publicity that United is getting from this song. They should have thought twice about not buying the guy a new guitar.



Here is the second song:

Happy Birthday Elisa!

Dear Sweetie,
Happy Birthday! Happy, ahem, 29th Birthday! You don't look a day over 28! I really hope you enjoy your new teapot. Andy picked it out. He was very insistent on the color red, so I hope you don't mind. I know it doesn't match the rest of the appliance decor, but alas, It's what Andy wanted to give you.

I hope you don't mind your gifts being open by our professional opening service, otherwise known as Andy and Joey. They did a pretty good job, didn't they?

I hope you enjoyed the breakfast in bed. I wanted to make it more special than just Raisin Bran and a cup of tea, but alas, I really doing well this year. I shopped for your birthday a good 10 days before it's arrival. I hope this has been my best year yet.

I hope you enjoy the digital camera I bought you. I know it's smaller than mine, but much more POWERFUL!!! It's all about power, isn't it Sweetie?

I hope I can take you to lunch somewhere, and that the rest of the day is a blessing. You are the love of my life. Thank you for all that you do.

Your underserving Husband,
Timothy

The Religion of Global Warming

Once again, Gary Varvel captures the essence of "science" and global warming. By faith, you must buy into man-made global warming. It is a religion to itself, and to deny this presupposition is to be label a modern heretic.

I don't mind numbering myself among those who have doubted these global warming claims all along. That is because I know that the Triune God is in control of everything, even occasional warming periods of the earth, and cooling periods. It is He who set all these things into motion, and sends the rain or the drought. Man has no control over any of it, and to claim such is the height of hubris. But just looking at someone like Al Gore should tell us that. I refuse to buy into such nonsense. Science is only as good as the scientist behind it, and since all are fallen, we must question those who refuse to admit such from the outset.

Tiger Woods: Deplorable/Despictable and just plain BAD

Tiger Woods: Deplorable/Despicable and Just Plain BAD! Yup, I'm finally chiming in on the sports great and his alleged affairs for several reasons.

The first reason is purely self serving. The name "Tiger Woods" is currently the number one Google term out there. That being the case, I'm trying to generate some more hits for my lowly blog.

The second reason: something I've said about sports figures of his stature before. I don't know if the affairs are real or not, but who is there in Tiger's life that is willing to tell him "no." That is problem with great people. They surround themselves with those who will let them have what they want. The rest of us have to live (thankfully) in a world that holds us accountable. But who will do that for this poor man? Would you? If he were your friend, would you be willing to risk that friendship by telling him that his lifestyle is egregious towards God and Tiger's wife?

Granted, his wife is telling him these things. But it took her getting to the point of violence in order for it happen. I know, there isn't quite the proof we need to prove she was going to become violent with the man. Just let me ask you this. If you see your spouse run their truck into a tree, do you stop and grab a 7-iron on the way out the door? Nope! Most grab a cell phone. I'm thinking she had the 7-iron already in hand and was chasing him for his alleged crimes, which in her world, are not alleged at all! (My wife says: "she was only going to use a 7-iron?").

The point is that Tiger, Roger Clemens, Jordan, etc., all need people in their lives to say "no." Otherwise, they end up like another famous man no one said "no" to: Michael Jackson.

We truly are blessed not to "free" to live as we want. Our sports heroes are examples who live supposedly free, and this is what it gets them. Sin is never free. It ALWAYS comes at a cost. Tiger, no matter how good he is on the golf course, is still a sinner and in need of a Savior. His Buddhism will never save him from his sins, or the death that awaits him.

"The Lord moved me to tell you..."

Elisa and I were doing our devotion this morning when it was pointed out by the writer that this little phrase, "The Lord moved me to tell you..." is taking the Lord's name in vain. The entire devotion was on the Third Commandment, "You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."

The writer already pointed out that this Commandment is THE most violated commandment in culture. We use His name in vows we take before Him, in the frivolous way we use it, (O my Gawddd!), to attributing our actions to the Lord's leading. This latter violation is one that is used in church over and over again to misrepresent the LORD. We do this when we attribute our feelings or intuitions to the LORD by saying such things as "The LORD moved me to tell you..."

We cannot attribute our intuition to the LORD. We may have an intuition, but that is not based on His word. If we want to know what God has said or IS saying, we must look to the Bible, not our intuitions. As fallen sinners, we must admit to ourselves that our intuitions can be just as misleading as Satan himself.

I know this seems harsh, but we must remember, that even as those who have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, still have sin residing in our hearts. When we try to ascribe some feeling or intuition to God, we are elevating our feelings to the level of Scripture, and that we must not do because our feelings and intuitions can be wrong. Yes, we may have truly valid feelings and intuitions, but let us keep those feelings and intuitions in perspective. Let us say what we know to be true... "I feel moved to tell you..." We don't know if the Lord is really telling us or moving us in a direction at all.

Let me give you an example. In my current situation serving as interim pastor here in Jackson, I felt like the Lord might be leading me in this direction when the opportunity first arose. The opportunity was there, it met a need for me to provide for my family, and helped a small church in need of a pastor. But no one could say, "The Lord moved me to tell you to move to Jackson." All we could really say is that the opportunity was there and until we moved here, we didn't KNOW if it was God's will for our lives. Now we know that it was God's will and my feelings about being led here were validated. Yet those feelings were not the guiding principle. The guiding principle was walking by faith, not by sight.

Had I said to the session here, "The Lord told me to tell you to hire me," would have been blasphemous and using His name in vain because I was speaking for the LORD where He has not spoken. To speak such a way is to try and give validity to my feelings by adding the name of the LORD to my feelings. This is a vain use of His holy and hallowed name. In fact, if someone talks to you in such a way, flee. They are too busy elevating their fallen feelings to the level of the authoritative Word to be of any real help. After all, our feelings can really deceive us. Just look at anyone who has committed adultery. At the time the committed the act, I'm sure they would tell you they felt led to do so, and because of their feelings, it's OK. Wrong. God's word condemns such behavior and it is always wrong.

When it comes to our guiding principle in life, it should not be our feelings, but God's word. No matter how valid our feelings may seem, if they do not measure up to Scripture, we should not follow them.

Texas Aggies! Georgia Bulldogs! Independence Bowl!

I know many of you are just as excited as I am, cough, cough, that the Texas Aggies will be playing the Georgia Bulldogs in the Independence Bowl on December 28, in beautiful Shreveport, LA. Yes, you know that Louisiana city that every one says, "keep driving" while passing through on I-20? That city that has it's own distinct smell, that causes your mate to say,"Honey, could you open a window?" not know that this could be the death of all of you? That city where we have proven that bringing in casinos is NOT the answer for economic growth?

Nonetheless, the Aggies will be taking on the mighty Georgia Bulldog's. Just so happens that I have friends who Georgia Bulldogs! Tyrus and his son, Ty are Bulldogs. Or Dawgs as they also say. My wife even likes the Dawgs. She is sitting here trying to push my buttons by saying that she may just have to pull for the Dawgs. But, I digress. The point is that it is a game that everyone needs to be watching. So mark your calendars. I'm predicting that that Aggies will surprise a lot of people, but that is farther than I want to go.

Gig 'Em Aggies! Beat the (theological warm place) outta of Georgia!