Question: parental internet locks, etc.

We're thinking of some furniture and pc rearrangement that has us considering parental-lock software or solutions. The pc will move to another room, and we're thinking proactive.

Any of you have experience, warnings, recommendations about the various softwares available?

Hither and thither — 2/27/09

This week's battered pickup has returned from the field. Here's what it brings us (I'm sneaking in unmarked UPDATES as I find them, so keep checking back):

• Obamolaters scoff and sneer when we call them, well, Obamolaters. But according new Harris interactive poll asked 2,634 Americans who they admire enough to call a hero. Who did they pick? Barack Obama, who has done nothing of substance, besides parlay a paint-thin resume into the highest office in the land. Which, I'll admit, is not nothing — but it's nothing to admire. Second place? Jesus Christ. Now, I pause to say that I am not making this up. I have to give that disclaimer, because it gets even more absurd, if that can be imagined. Among the "values" that moved Obama ahead of Christ, the walking brain-dead listed "Doing what's right regardless of personal consequences" with 89 percent, "Not giving up until the goal is accomplished" with 83 percent and "Doing more than what other people expect of them," with 82 percent. Also popular were "Overcoming adversity" and "Staying level-headed in a crisis."
• I thought that Bill Clinton was the most egregious textbook incarnation of David Wells' warnings about Americans worshiping style and image over substance and accomplishment and character. I was wrong. I'm forced to say that Obama has actually accomplished less of substance even than Bill Clinton... who tied for sixteenth place with George Washington and Colin Powell — which is bizarre enough, if you think about it. Which I don't recommend.

• Radical Presidency Update. Not two full months into his presidency, Obama is showing that he is what we already knew he was: a totalitarian radical. Somehow, he trades on his supporters' addiction to violating the Tenth Commandment and uses it effectively to codify violation of the Eighth. Well-educated though he was, Obama evidently never learned that the most portable resource in the world is money. As California's liberal legislators have driven business out for years, Obama means to do to America. So he has announced his intention further to punish the most productive, to reward the least-productive. In 2006, "the richest 1% -- about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 -- paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income." Even if he took 100% of those earning &500K or more, Obama wouldn't pay for his schemes. Yet, like every doctrinaire socialist, Obama thinks he can get more eggs by strangling the goose because he's, you know, special. Just like all his predecessors.
  
• The president's administration surely is well aware that crisis is a useful tool for gaining power. The procedure is simple and two-step: (1) convince everyone that there is a crisis; (2) tell them that only you can solve it. Obama certainly is worsening the crisis, and riding it for all he's worth. Every time he opens his mouth, the market crashes. I wish he'd stop. In fact, if Obama proposed a six-month moratorium on saying or doing anything, perhaps we could begin recovering.
• Safari sounds cool. Anyone using it?
  
• Why we hate Vista:

• Northern Peril Alert. Canadians: harmless and peculiar? Maybe. Maybe at one time. But now... they're learning to read our minds! "Harmless," they say. Yeah, right. I say: today, Shania Twain; tomorrow, the world!!!
• Well, imagine that. Kids who listen to songs with sexual lyrics are likelier to engage in sexual activities/intercourse. No proof cited to identify chicken/egg causality. Me, I'd say it cycles.
• Very cool. Some early risers got a view of the Moon, Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars. For a larger picture and more explanation, go here.
• Also cool: see a large model of Herod's temple that a man spent thirty years building here. (Herod himself took over forty-six years to build his rather larger version.)
  
• You can see a list of Britain's most bizarre names, which includes a few American ones as well. Maybe Libbie or Ian can explain "Teresa Green," though. I've tried to pronounce "Teresa" as Brit-ty as I can, and I still don't get it. Or is it... "Trees are green"?
  
• Warning-shot alert. You learn you are dying of a brain tumor. How do you prepare? Here's one sad product of our image-first age.
  
• Ear-mark alert. Remember The One promising that he'd be hot, molten death on ear-marks? Yeah, I didn't believe it either. But we'll get to see, really soon. The Porkulus package reportedly features "about 9,000 earmarks totaling $5 billion." Goodness, that's a bit of change, isn't it? But surely it's for truly vital and Constitutionally-required spending? Yes, it is — if you can expand that to include $200,000 for “Tattoo Removal Violence Prevention Outreach Program,” $5.8 million for the “Ted Kennedy Institute for the Senate…for the planning and design of a building & an endowment,” and $473,000 for National Council of La Raza. Which I can't.
• Reason #7109 why you DON'T want the government taking over health care: CPSIA. Hugh "Squish" Hewitt explains it here, and unfolds the implications here. Power + arrogance + incompetence = disaster.
  
• Tempted to hide in a cave until Obamanomics is over? Won't work.
• Another 1500 visits or so, and we'll be at a third of a million. Not bad for a no-name. Glory to God.
  

Nobody's favorite topic: diets

This study is being leveraged thus:"Low-fat, low-carb or high-protein? The kind of diet doesn't matter, scientists say."

Ahh, "scientists." But even the article mentions previous "scientists" who found differently. But even more the AP article later discloses that they didn't do low-carb, etc. So... how is a study that produced meager results, that doesn't use those diets, a scientific condemnation of those diets?

So, if somebody regularly reads The Message and doesn't grow much spiritually, does that prove that it doesn't matter what translation you read?

"The Shining" — It's all in how you look at it

Just a fun, wholesome heart-warmer!

Ee-e-e-ee-eee.

Pat Robertson! That thing you do with your mouth! STO-O-O-O-OP!

Pat Robertson can't seem to help himself. (Does he even try?)

I am far from a Limbaugh apologist. But it seems to me reasonable that, if you're going to say something that hundreds of thousands of people will hear, and that many will quote and cite and use... you ought to have some vague idea of what you're talking about. This consideration has, sadly, never slowed Robertson, no matter what he's operating his orifice about.

In this case, Limbaugh was very clear and concise: he had studied and understood Obama's politics, and he wants none of Obama's liberal, totalitarian, socialist plots to succeed.

To which I say a hearty "Amen."

As I tried to work out at some length, there is nothing particularly Christian about going Kent Brockman and welcoming our new totalitarian overlords. Far from it. I think the American Christian who tries to craft his worldview Biblically is obliged to speak out against much (if not all) of Obama's policies.

Suppose CNN were to ask me if I hope Obama succeeds? I'd say, "Succeeds in what?" Do I hope he succeeds in turning back 30 years of pro-life progress? Do I hope his bloody pogrom against unborn "punishments" succeeds? Do I hope he succeeds in punishing the hard-working and productive who keep their commitments, robbing them of freedom, and forcing them to reward and subsidize the indolent and feckless? Do I hope he succeeds in weakening our defenses? Do I hope he succeeds in emboldening our enemies?

That would be a "No."

I not only hope that Obama fails in those things, I hope that he fails so miserably that, for 50 years, anytime someone proposes a socialistic, liberal, totalitarian policy, the immediate response is to groan, "Oh, you mean like Obama tried?" — and that that is the end of it.

Pray for Obama's safety. Pray for his conversion and growth in Christ.

And pray that his totalitarian, anti-freedom, and anti-child, anti-freedom plots fail spectacularly.

Babylon... rebuilt?

Joel Rosenberg reports that funds are being directed towards the rebuilding of Babylon. Yes, that Babylon, the actual city of Babylon.

Saddam Hussein had been very invested in resurrecting Babylon to power and glory, but he's very invested in something else at the present. Nonetheless, the dream hasn't died.

This won't be of any real interest to the I-know-it-looks-like-a-squirrel-but-I'm-going-to-say-"Jesus" crowd, but those of us who think that prophecies about Babylon are about, well, Babylon, find it of at least passing interest.

Change? Yes, no, and yes-but....

UPDATE: I think most of you have seen the video. It auto-starts, which is annoying. A loyal reader supplies this link, where you can see it if you want.

That amounts to an awful lot of change.

But government spending more and more and more of our money on itself, punishing the productive, rewarding special interests, and encouraging yet more government dependence? No. No change at all.

But it is a change, in a way... for the worse.

I'm beginning to wonder if Obama is going to take us past the point of no return, where the most visionary leader, with Biblically conservative values, would be forced by honesty to say "There isn't much I can do except try to slow the hemorrhage."

Pray for Joni Eareckson Tada

I just learned that Joni has been bedridden for the last year with chronic pain. This is a new and hard development in her last forty-one years as a quadriplegic.

Reading Joni's first book back in the seventies was a moving experience. Here was a young girl who dove in for a swim, and broke her neck. A tiny decision that took seconds to execute, and she's paralyzed for life.

God did a work of grace in Joni's heart, and she has since used every opportunity she could obtain to bear witness to His grace. She has a very necessary and effective ministry. She has lived 2 Corinthians 1:3-6, and 12:7-10, for longer than many of my readers have been alive. Hear (or watch) her testimony at a Desiring God conference here, and you will see your challenges in a new light.

Pray for comfort, joy and healing for this dear sister in her affliction.

Hither and thither — 2/20/09

What's the net scooped up this week:

• Another snapshot at life (and its end) in a socialized medicine environment? And this is where Obama is heading us? A massive bureaucracy with all the efficiency of the USPO, and all the compassion of the IRS?
• Maybe I should add a Warning Shot Alert feature. If I did, this kid would be this week's entry.
• Coming Soon to California alert. (If not, why not?)
  
• I don't "Twitter." Just don't see the point of it yet. Do you? Well, if you do, or are about to, here are ten tips for starting right. Supposedly.
  
• This is science. "Why, Jimmy, there could be hundreds of inhabited, earth-like planets! Millions! Trillions! A hundred billion trillion!" Wow. You see, "scientists are now coming to the conclusion that the universe is teeming with living organisms." Oh, and the hard, unambiguous evidence for even one such planet, and one such extra-terrestrial living organism? A hundred billion trillion zeroes. But it's fun, and it's science, and nobody will prove you wrong in your lifetime! Now, explain to me the difference between that, and speculating about a hundred billion trillion years with no witness, on a loaded system, with no possibility of final falsification.
• "Please pull over, sir. You're in violation of Vehicle Code 666.0, 'Criticizing The One.'" Okay, not that. And the officer's actions are ju-u-u-ust on the far border of understandable ignorance.
• Not everyone is loving the Messiah-based economy. But hey, why not have some fun while the president ruins the country?
  
• Weird way of saying "Thank you" alert. Previous Republican presidents appointed blacks to various high offices. Now we have a half-black president, who appoints a black to be the nation's Attorney General. And what does AG Eric Holder have to say to us all? That we're a nation of cowards on the subject of race. Thank you, President Obama. let the healing begin!
• Michelle Malkin offers some excellent perspective on Holder's remark. For her troubles, she's shown the usual liberal version of love — but I'll hold the link until after this warning. I've read a number of emails Michelle gets, and I think our sister LaShawn would echo this. Liberals are absolutely vicious towards non-white women who dare criticize the liberal ideology. I normally don't link to horrid language (and this isn't the worst I've seen), but you can get just a little taste of what these women face, if you like, here.
  
• Plague-carrying mice missing... but don't worry! So says our cracker-jack FBI. (Tip thanks to faithful reader Becky, who particularly likes the wording of "there was no risk to public health or any indication of the terrorist link." The MSM writes English real good!)
• An eye for an eye may be about to carried out literally in Iran. (Thanks to an anonymous faithful reader for the tip.)
  
• Locked up in the Birmingham City Jail, because of denial of fundamental civil rights. Who? Martin Luther King, Jr.? Well, yes; but not this time. Oh no, not new racism? Nope. This was a group of Christian youths peacefully protesting the slaughter of innocents by abortion, and exercising their First Amendment rights.
• There's no law against being a jerk, right? Evidently, in England, there is.
  
• Here's some great advice:
  

• Another reminder (if we needed it) that English is not as easy as it looks. Best to leave it to, ahem, professionals.
  
• And finally... okay, I've never had anything go this badly in a wedding.

Sarah Palin's stupid mistake

I'm glad I supported Governor Palin when she ran for the Presidency with McWhat'shisname. I wish they'd won.

When the news came out that Palin's daughter had sinned sexually, I was glad that the Palins were not taking Obama's our-grandchild-is-a-punishment-so-kill-it approach. When Pastor Doug Wilson immediately laid responsibility for Bristol Palin's sin at her father's feet, I took issue with him at length ...and I still agree with myself!

I'm glad of all those stances, with no "But's" or second thoughts.

Now Governor Palin does something I can't defend, and haven't the slightest inclination to defend. Palin gives her shallow, foolish, clueless, unrepentant daughter a global microphone, and lets her strike at the heart of what Palin herself professes to believe.

Be clear: Bristol Palin has accomplished nothing of global significance in her life. Nothing has earned her the spotlight. Her mother, by contrast, is a focused, excellent, disciplined woman. What's more, her mother professes to be a Christian, and has lived a life that adorns that testimony.

The only reason Bristol Palin is in the spotlight is because she sneered at God's law regarding sexuality, was found out, and is herself the child of a famous mother.

This gets her the spotlight — and it is an undeserved prominence.

Still, Bristol could use it for good, in an Ephesians 5:16 way. Were she a humbled, chastened, repentant child of God, Bristol could view the opportunity as repentant king David did:

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you" (Psalm 51:13).

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you (Psalm 32:8-9)

She could speak of her sin, and of the glories of Christ. She could point the nation to Christ. Bristol could do all that. But she didn't — and Governor Palin had to know she wouldn't. That, or Palin has been terribly deceived by her daughter, or is a wretched, disengaged, irresponsible mother.

Todd and Sarah Palin let Fox News into their house, and put their still unmarried daughter and illegitimately-conceived and still-fatherless grandson on camera, and they let Bristol share her unrepentant, unchastened foolishness with the world. To the families that defended and looked up to her, Governor Palin has presented her daughter as their Proverbs 13:20b and 1 Corinthians 15:33.

Now, if someone wants to argue that the interview was edited and slanted... fine. Governor Palin knew that would happen. She knows the media hate her and her faith. She had to have told Bristol it would happen.

So how does one defend these statements, from a Christian perspective, in any context?

VAN SUSTEREN: Any sort of -- I mean -- and I realize, you know, what joy a child brings to a family. But was there any sort of thinking that maybe -- did you have any sort of sense about, I wish that maybe this would happen a year or two from now, rather than now?

BRISTOL: Yes. Of course. I wished it would have happened in, like, 10 years so I could have a job and an education and be, like, prepared and have my own house and stuff. But he brings so much joy, I don't regret it at all. I just wish it would have happened in 10 years, rather than right now.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, it always is sort of a difficult thing, you know, when it's a question of youth, and no one ever really knows what to say to a young person in your situation.

BRISTOL: Yes. I don't know. I just -- I hope that people learn from my story and just, like, I don't know, prevent teen pregnancy, I guess.

She doesn't know, like, y'know, she guesses. Pregnancy, gestation, delivery, motherhood — still doesn't know, still guesses... yet she thought that was worth telling the watching world, the world that already ridicules her mother for her faith in Christ?

Here's what Bristol says about her mother's influence on her decision:

VAN SUSTEREN: What didn't anybody get? What didn't people understand?

BRISTOL: That -- there's a lot of things. They thought that, like, my mom was going to make me have the baby, and it was my choice to have the baby. And it's just -- that kind of stuff just bothered me.

VAN SUSTEREN: And in terms of your mother making you have the baby, I mean, the whole issue of, I guess, the right -- the right to life and choice and things like that.

BRISTOL: Yes. Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: But this is your issue. This is your decision.

BRISTOL: Yes. And would have -- [would have what?] doesn't matter what my mom's views are on it. It was my decision, and I wish people would realize that, too.

Further, we learn that she didn't even tell her parents first. She told a best friend, and her accomplice, Levi. The three of them sat her parents down, and her parents had to hear it from her friend. Not their daughter, not the brave father. The friend. Great.

And Bristol depicts their reaction in terms of her having "a lot of growing up" to do. When someone sins, when I sin, that isn't my first thought; I don't think it ever should be anyone's first thought. Sin is not immaturity — it's sin. Bristol wasn't a tot showing bad manners; she was a young woman knowingly and deliberately violating God's law. Is that what she got from her parents — that she just needed to mature?

Well, it isn't what she needed, nor needs. She needs what any sinner needs. She needs Christ. She needs to humble herself, repent, mortify her sin, make right whatever she could, put off the patterns and sinful attitudes that birthed the sin, and walk with Christ (cf. Job 42:6; Proverbs 28:13; Ezekiel 18:30; Matthew 13:8; Romans 6; 8:12-14; 2 Corinthians 7:10; James 4:6-10). If this exposes that Bristol never truly believed in Christ, she must repent and do so (Acts 16:31; 17:30).

But a chastened humility is not what radiates through the interview. Rather, an in-denial giddiness over the joys and trials of young motherhood — and still, her child is fatherless.

Well, Bristol doesn't think her child is fatherless. She says that Levi is "a really hands-on dad. He's just in love with him as much as I am."

Right.

Gosh, that offends me, as a Christian man and a father. This boy is so "in love with" his son that he doesn't mind if the child bears the stigma of illegitimacy now, nor that he would bear that stigma forever, if Levi were to die before finally marrying Bristol. So "in love" that Levi pursues his life and schooling or whatever as his child and the woman he wronged start the family by themselves. So "in love" with the child that he continues to set an indelibly wretched example for his son, that words alone will never undo.

I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am not with Levi's "love" for that child.

Bristol several times speaks of being "blessed" in her family, but that's always in the context of their usefulness to her, their utility. She shows us more of her attitude towards her parents:

VAN SUSTEREN: Your parents know you're doing this interview. You're 18, so you make your own decisions, but do they know?

BRISTOL: I told my mom yesterday, so...

VAN SUSTEREN: That was good timing, yesterday.

BRISTOL: Yes.

VAN SUSTEREN: You don't give them much notice, do you, advance notice.

BRISTOL: No.

Well, that's just great. Bristol's mother is an international figure now, almost was vice-president; she (Bristol) caused her embarrassment and threatened the focus of the campaign... but, hey, whatever. I guess it looked like a hoot to get out there and, y'know, blab with Greta.

And blab she does. Once again, Bristol is given an opportunity to say something about her sin. Here's what she says:

VAN SUSTEREN: Teen pregnancy -- what's your thought on that?

BRISTOL: I think everyone should just wait 10 years.

VAN SUSTEREN: That's just -- why?

BRISTOL: Just because it's so much easier if you're married and if you have a house and a career and -- it's just so much easier.

VAN SUSTEREN: What do your parents say about teen pregnancy?

BRISTOL: It's not something to strive for, I guess. It's just -- I don't know. I'm not the first person that it's happened to and I'm not going to be the last. But I don't know. I'd love for -- to be an advocate to prevent teen pregnancy because it's not, like, a situation that you want to strive for, I guess.

Gets very vague and "I guess"-y, doesn't she? But it gets worse, as she's given yet another opportunity:

VAN SUSTEREN: I don't want to pry to personally, but I mean, actually, contraception is an issue here. Is that something that you were just lazy about or not interested, or do you have a philosophical or religious opposition to it or...

BRISTOL: No. I don't want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like -- like, the -- I don't know how to put it -- like, the main -- everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all.

VAN SUSTEREN: Why?

BRISTOL: Because -- I don't want to get into details on this.

VAN SUSTEREN: Well, no, I don't mean personally, just big picture, not -- not necessarily about you, but...

BRISTOL: Because it's more and more accepted now.

VAN SUSTEREN: Among your classmates and kids your age?

BRISTOL: Among -- yes, among kids my age.

VAN SUSTEREN: How do you change that?

BRISTOL: To see stories like this and to see other stories of teen moms and just -- it's something that's -- I don't know, just -- you should just wait 10 years and it'd just be so much easier.

I don't know, I guess, I don't want, uh... "not realistic" ...uh... "more accepted" ...uh... "easier." Mercy.

Um, Bristol? It still is not "more accepted" with God. Has no one pointed that out to you?

Now, if I were reading this, I'd be thinking, "Dude, you're being a bit harsh on Governor Palin. Bristol did this without her permission or knowledge. How can you lay this on her?" Fair enough. I don't want to lay this on Palin unfairly.

But Governor Palin enters the interview at this point, and here's what she says:

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. We weren't expecting you because Bristol -- she told me that she had just sort of sprung the interview on you.

SARAH PALIN: Yes!

VAN SUSTEREN: And this is her idea about -- talking about the big picture of teen pregnancy.

SARAH PALIN: Yes. Yes. And I'm proud of her, too, wanting to take on an advocacy role and, you know, just let other girls know that this is - - it's not the most ideal situation, but certainly, make the most of it. And Bristol is a strong and bold young woman and she is an amazing mom. And this little baby is very lucky to have her as a mama. He's going to be just fine. We're very proud of Bristol.

Palin's "proud" of Bristol's "advocacy role."

I could go on quoting, but there's no point. Palin speaks of it as a "surprise," as something that "happened to" Bristol (you know, like being hit by a stray bullet, or catching a cold). She actually says, "Life happens. Life happens and you deal with it, and Bristol's dealing with it wonderfully."

Greta however uses the opportunity to whack on Palin's Christian faith. Oh, she doesn't use the words, "I despise your God and this is as good a time as any to say so" — she uses "abstinence," which to a Christian means "obeying Christ in the area of sexuality." Greta feels it unreasonable and even "unkind" (towards Levi) to obey Christ. Palin does not correct her, nor mention Christ at all.

In fact, nobody mentions Christ, or God. No sign of Him at all.

Final thoughts: I was content to let Bristol be their problem, their business. I was content to give them the benefit of the doubt (not the damn of the doubt, as I think Pastor Wilson did).

But now they let her make it my business, everybody's business.

And the taste it's leaving is bad.

I mean to write about this at Pyro, soon. But often our faith is most severely and bitterly tested when a dearly loved one shames and spites Christ. Do you sell Christ out to accommodate an unrepentant loved one's sin, or avoid that person's displeasure?

Is "Hallowed be Thy name" just words?

Situations like this test the heart like nothing else can.

Mark Joseph's recommendations for "Saving Narnia"

Mark Joseph gives a list of ten suggestions for saving the Chronicles of Narnia film franchise. Joseph brings an educated perspective, having been involved in one way or another with a number of noteworthy films.

Joseph registers a number of the same concerns I voiced back in 2005, and gives a good deal more detail as to the spiritual tone-deafness of some of the movies' handlers and shapers. As I said, they should keep being pointed back to the books, whose proven cross-generational track-record should be compelling enough.

I hope he gets heard.

(h-t Cindy Swanson)

Faithful pastor: ever a waiter, never a guest?

A striking statement from Spurgeon's autobiography:

'I once learnt something in a way one does not often get a lesson. I felt at that time very weary, and very sad, and very heavy at heart; and I began to doubt in my own mind whether I really enjoyed the things which I preached to others. It seemed to be a dreadful thing for me to be only a waiter, and not a guest, at the gospel feast. I went to a certain country town, and on the Sabbath day entered a Methodist Chapel. The man who conducted the service was an engineer; he read the Scriptures, and prayed, and preached. The tears flowed freely from my eyes; I was moved to the deepest emotion by every sentence of the sermon, and I felt all my difficulty removed, for the gospel, I saw, was very dear to me, and had wonderful effect upon my own heart. I went to the preacher, and said, "I thank you very much for that sermon." He asked me who I was, and when I told him, he looked as red as possible, and he said, "Why, it was one of your sermons that I preached this morning!" "Yes," I said, "I know it was; but that was the very message that I wanted to hear, because I then saw that I did enjoy the very Word I myself preached." It was happily so arranged in the good providence of God. Had it been his own sermon, it would not have answered the purpose nearly so well as when it turned out to be one of mine.'

There's a lot to think about in this, but I just focus on one facet: Spurgeon admitting his own falling-short, sometimes, of the joy he should have in Christ.

I very much empathize with his statement, and have often felt exactly the same — though I've not put it as well. I've preached Christ's riches to the elect often and with absolute conviction... for my hearers. But my own feeling of those truths, for myself, hasn't been nearly as exultant as it should be.

This is one of the reason, or really two of the reasons, why Spurgeon remains so broadly useful. Luther said that a good theologian is made by oratio, meditatio, and tentatio — prayer, meditation, and temptation. Spurgeon knew all three. He hadn't the leisure of laboratory Christianity. He actually had to live it out. He knew deep, dark depression, and had to battle his way out by God's promises. He never sold a pistol he hadn't fired first.

And, secondly, he admitted it. I think of one preacher, and I simply imagine him doing such. When this worthy brother gives illustrations at all, they're always about others' follies and failures and sins. He evidently has none... or none that he cares to mention.

His preaching doesn't connect with me. Informs, yes; encourages, moves, blesses, no. When I get all perfect and everything, I'll give it another go.

Until then?

Spurgeon.

"Stimulus"?

This may actually be deeper than the artist intended — though, who knows?

Hither and thither — 2/13/09

Here's this week's overflowing cornucopia:

• Breaking news! Palin Derangement Disorder still turning should-be professionals into classless jerks! (Of course, had Trig never been on stage, we'd have been told the family was "ashamed" of him, and "trying to hide" him, because of course they're hypocrites.)
• You have to love a web site titled I Hate the Media, and subtitled Exposing the third-rate fourth estate.
• Larry Elder offers seven wonderful questions that no Obamolatrous MSMer will ask the Pres.
  
• Did you know that yesterday was Academic Freedom Day? Well, it was. Read more here.
• Okay. Now I get it:

• Wow. Talk about a warning-shot. Think this young idiot's God-given neurons will start firing now, maybe specifically about this, or this? Naw; me neither. He's laughing over a beer somewhere, as his finite number of remaining seconds gets smaller and smaller towards an inevitable zero.
• You really, really know you have a problem when you do this.
  
• An Aussie writer admits what President Obama won't. Tom Switzer is still clueless about the past, still misinformed about Hussein, still thinks like a 9/10er... but has to admit that President Bush's "surge" has worked admirably, and that Iraq continues to move from bloody tyranny to freedom.
• Hm. Next time you get a cold, don't blow your nose. (Right.)
• Careful, Phil. There's a law about everything.
• It's fried. I'll eat it.
• Ahh, BibChr blog. Where else would you get Bible, politics, culture, news, humor... and Muppet back-stories?
• I Am Not Making This Up Dept. Good heavens. Where's the poxy "Defender of Faith" when you need him? A tiny little five year old girl is chewed out to the point of tears for her "intolerance", because she dared to share an unpopular facet of her Christian faith with another student. Then her mother is called on the carpet for using her private email at home to ask friends to pray for the situation. But, the school responds, they're not being anti-Christian. Oh, no! How could anyone think that? That's the European model to which our liberal overlords want to take us. (h-t Libbie; Brit-bro Gary Benfold also kindly emailed me this)
  
• Let no one say that this blog doesn't do romance. Lookie here. (It's a contest.)
  
• And on the general subject of romance, but far off into the Bizarro-world of Islamic countries, and veering from any notion of "romance" and off to "child molestation": a Saudi father sold his eight-year-old daughter in marriage to a forty-seven year old man to settle a debt. The judge, Sheikh Habib Abdallah al-Habib, refused to annul the wedding but requested that the man stay away from the girl until puberty.
• Senator John Kerry, who married into millions, disapproves of letting Americans keep their money. (Hel-lo-o? Democrat?) Why? Too much freedom! Can't have that! Not when we've got The Omnieverything Government to help us!
• Yet another son making a name for himself by shaming his good father and knifing his grave. Evidently feeling he hasn't yet made enough of a fool of himself in public, Frank Schaeffer gives it another go.
  
• Please Don't Gloat Dept. You all can get a glimpse at what happens when liberals/Democrats run a prosperous, richly-endowed state into the ground.
  
• And now... this.

...or...

Dads (video)

What do you think of this?

You go first.

(h-t Seth McBee)

---

UPDATE: I said I'd offer my thoughts after around 20 responses, which we've now had. So, as predicted, here's my contrarian response:

First, I think all the commenters make good points. I basically agree with everyone.

Second, insofar as the point of the video is that fathers are important in their children's lives, that we must be involved in small as well as large ways, that we must ALWAYS keep in mind that those little eyes are watching us, and that our example speaks loud and clear — good point, and well-made.

But:

Third, my problem is with the constant use of the future tense, indicative mood. IF a father does A, then B WILL result.

It's the same point I argued at great length awhile back.

IF IT WERE TRUE that a son would automatically accept and embrace all the good things a good father taught and modeled, THEN there would be no point to verses such as these:

Proverbs 1:8 Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
and forsake not your mother's teaching,

Proverbs 2:1 My son, if you receive my words
and treasure up my commandments with you,
2 making your ear attentive to wisdom
and inclining your heart to understanding;
3 yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 3:1 My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
2 for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you.

Proverbs 4:1 Hear, O sons, a father's instruction,
and be attentive, that you may gain insight,

Proverbs 4:10 Hear, my son, and accept my words,
that the years of your life may be many.

Proverbs 5:7 And now, O sons, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,
9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”

Proverbs 26:26 My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
27 For a prostitute is a deep pit;
an adulteress is a narrow well.
28 She lies in wait like a robber
and increases the traitors among mankind.

I could go on and on, and on and on.

The point: if it were an automatic thing that —

Good father
+Good teaching
+Good example
___________

Godly, wise son

...then why would the son be told, again and again, that he must accept his father's instruction, that he must take it to heart, that he must remember it, that he must not stray from it — that he's in danger of wrong women and ruin if he does not?

So yes, if your life is the foolish life of the hypocrite, you certainly don't love God, and you certainly don't love your son, and you certainly shouldn't congratulate yourself on what a fine example of manhood you are.

But equally: a man can be a godly example, and teach God's word, and still have a son who turns himself into a fool.

And those are my thoughts on that.

Blessed re-birthday

Thirty-six years ago today marked the moment when the work of the Holy Spirit in my heart came to fruition in my conversion. On that day, I called on Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior; and He's kept me lo these many years.

I relate the story at more length here. In 1973, the eleventh of February was on a Sunday. It had been raining, and clouds scudded across the sky. I attended Van Nuys Baptist with the Christian friend who had been witnessing to me. The Holy Spirit had performed a good deal of battering and demo work to bring me to the point where I would listen to a friend's witness without reflexively arguing and dismissing, and would go listen to a Gospel sermon.

And did I hear? I'd say I had no choice! I wish I could remember the content better, but in that large congregation, it was as if Pastor Harold Fickett knew me and had read my journals. It was as if he were talking only to me. The Word of God bore in on my heart and virtually nailed me to my pew. Offered the opportunity to talk with someone about how to know Christ, I leapt for it.

Everything changed for me that day, because everything changed in me. I shall never forget it. I saw Christ as the One I needed to atone for my sins and repair the irreparable breach between God and me (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5-6). I saw Him as the One I needed to be my Lord and my life. I saw His Word to be the light and guide I needed to steer me from my idiotic delusions and set my feet on a rock. I had an immediate sense of relief, a sense of "Ahh, that's it; I'm home."

In fact, as I often say, one of the first huge changes was that someone came by my house and stole that boring, dead, stale, irrelevant old Bible-thing, and put in its place a book that was electric, compelling, powerful, and addressed to me. I devoured it, on my knees, grateful and hungry.

Conviction of sin was so keen and real and devastating, that I felt sure I'd fall away within days, if I could even hang on that long. I never thought I could last. I read the Parable of the Soils, and saw myself in all the bad soils. Only. Every warning filled me with dread. I clung hard and pled earnestly and learned to look to Jesus only.

I knew people would fail me, and I wasn't wrong. I knew I would fail, and I 'way wasn't wrong. But I knew Jesus would remain Jesus — and, thank God, I wasn't wrong about that, either.

And after all, Jesus is why I became a Christian. It was all about Jesus, and my need for Him. It was because He was true, His Word was true, all of it. I accepted the OT, and it was because of Him; same with the NT. He saw the Bible as God's Word, I saw Him as Lord, and so I saw the Bible as He saw it. No one from Fuller or a hundred other seminaries was there to lay out sophisticated ways to be smarter than Jesus (I speak as a fool) about the Bible.

And here it is, thirty-six years later. Thirty-six years of feeling no confidence in myself, but looking to Jesus alone to keep me. He has, and I praise Him. It's not always been with soaring joy and assurance — but thank God that it isn't feelings of assurance that save. It's Jesus who saves.

I look back with regrets beyond counting, and mercies beyond number. But one thing I never regret: that God chose me in eternity past (Ephesians 1:3f.), and sovereignly moved in my life to give me new birth and faith in Christ; and that He has kept His word faithfully — and thus, to His mercy alone and His praise alone and His glory alone, has kept me.

To Him all the praise and glory!

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24-25)

Very creative: "Her Morning Elegance," by Oren Lavie

This is the most creative, clever music video I've seen in a long time.

Rural churches, seminarians, the Bible

Our commenter RT sent me a link to an article on the shortage of pastors in shrinking rural towns. Now, it's TIME magazine, so it may be all lies and fabrication... but in this case, I don't think so.

Briefly, the story is that the shrinkage of rural towns, and the movement of jobs, is creating a scarcity of support for "seminary-trained" pastors. And of course the article features apostates and false-teachers alternately wringing their hands or gleefully eying the opportunity.


The article provides no Biblical interaction — so I'll try to do so.

No Bible verse urges nor implies the necessity of seminary education. I have such an education, I'm glad of it, but I've never thought that it is what either gifted or qualified me to be a pastor.

Decades ago I was in a Baptist church with a very professional, formal pastor, who often spoke of my then-future stint at Talbot as the time when I'd "begin" to prepare for pastoral ministry. At the time, I'd had four years at a church-based pastoral training institute, and had a Bachelor's via distance-education. I already knew Greek far better than he (no brag, just fact); and he didn't know Hebrew at all. I tried respectfully to correct him as to where I was in the training-trajectory, but the correction never "took."

Here are my reflections on the article:

1. Formal, Caesar-accredited seminary education is in no way a Biblical requirement for pastoral ministry.
2. The first requirement is that a man be a genuine convert to the Lord Jesus Christ. No seminary issues regeneration. The Lord effects it, and local churches can observe and confirm it.
   
3. The second requirement is that Christ have given a man as a pastor-teacher (Ephesians 4:11), and that he thus possess both the passion (1 Timothy 3:1) and the gift (cf. Romans 12:5-8 ; 1 Corinthians 12:28).
4. The prospective pastor must also possess the moral and spiritual character of a pastor-teacher (1 Timothy 3:1ff.; Titus 1:5-9).
5. Specifically and particularly, he must be able and willing to teach sound doctrine, whether in easy or difficult situations; he must be able to discern sound from sick doctrine; and he must be able to refute sick doctrine (this recurs constantly in the Pastorals, including 1 Timothy 1:3ff.; 2 Timothy 3; 4:1-4; Titus 1:9; 2:1, 15; 3:10-11).
6. While formal seminary education is one way to gain the qualifications laid out in #5, it is not the only way, nor is it the way specifically envisioned in the Bible.
7. The explicitly Biblical way is local-church apprenticeship (cf. 2 Timothy 2:2).
8. That doesn't mean that formal seminary education is evil or wrong; just that it is not a Biblical requirement.
9. The Biblical model for the appointment of elders is startlingly simple. Elders find gifted men in churches, and appoint them in those churches (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). Ta daa. That's it. Done.
10. Congregations should financially support such men fulltime (1 Corinthians 9:6-7, 14; 1 Timothy 5:17-18), but that is also not a Biblical requirement — a man may voluntarily waive fulltime salary (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:15-18; 2 Corinthians 12:13).

The upshot: I think these situations are rebukes of our abandonment of the Biblical model. Now, I'll say it again: there is nothing wrong with a man going to seminary, per se. I did it, and it is not on my long list of regrets.

But formal seminary education just is not necessary, and churches should not simply be shipping everyone off to Debtor's Prison or going without pastors because seminary grads can't afford to pastor them. I see this as an opportunity for Biblically-faithful churches to implement the Biblical model.

One parting shot: I fear that my stressing the not-absolutely-essential nature of formal seminary education will be mis-apprehended by some lazy souls. I think that, if you do not have such an education, you must nonetheless accomplish the equivalent under apprenticeship. You must know Hebrew and Greek, you must learn how to study, preach and teach, and how to care for souls. You must know theology. This is hard, hard work. I'm not issuing a get-out-of-work card.

If you point to Charles Spurgeon as an example of a man who had no formal seminary education, but who rather enjoyed a bit of fruit in his labor, I will heartily agree. But I will also point out that Spurgeon was better-read and better-studied at age 17 than most seminary-trained pastors are in their twentieth year, and that Spurgeon was a voracious reader and student until his last breath.

Wow. This could explain a lot... a laugh-a-lot

Here at the Biblical Christianity blog, we sometimes like to start the week off with a chuckle. Sometimes chuckles and screams can mix.

Did a generation grow up, permanently scarred...by this?

PS — this post displays fine in Firefox, odd in IE. Can't fix it from work.

PPS — but you really should be using FF anyway, so... as we say at work, Not supported!

PPPS — Hah! Fixed!

Hither and thither — 2/6/09

[Note: updates below]

Another helping — not as large as last week! — of odds and ends I found interesting:

• If you want to see where societal apostasy is taking us, often you just have to look to Europe and Canada. (Our current leadership can't wait to take us there.) From Great Britain we find out more about what happens when the "rights" of sexual perverts outweigh the well being of children or the wishes of their parents. (Thanks to Pastor Benfold for the heads-up.) It's all about "rights," not what's right. "I want" trumps "I should" every time in the world's thinking.
• We warned about it many times, and it continues to loom: those who empowered Obama, empowered more dismantling of our Constitutional rights and freedoms. It's coming. God help us. (Thanks, Curtis, for the heads-up.)
• Victor Davis Hanson sees an inept start and a dim future for the Obama administration.

• "The gentler sex"? Not when a demonic murder-cult twists your mind. (Here is a bit more insight.)
• Usually my Isn't Evolution Wonderful{tm} updates are video's, and this isn't, so I put it here. The language in this article is simply amazing. I am not making this up: a type of butterfly "learned" to mimic the scent of ants, and to imitate the sound a queen makes, to get ants to raise — and give preferential treatment to! — its young. The mind boggles. How many billions of generations of butterflies died working on their impressions? How did they "learn" to exude a fragrance? Can you? How did they get in there and survive to hear the imperceptible sound a queen makes, much less work on their Rich Little groove? And, having "learned" all that, how did they communicate this acquired characteristic and learning to their offspring? All that's just for starters. Amazing. (I do think we have a better explanation [Psalm 104:24].)
  
• As we wrap up, let's have a chuckle. My new son-in-law's mother actually did the wedding cake herself, and it was absolutely a marvel — and delicious, to boot. But this photo essay reminds us that not all professional jobs are so delightful. (Warning: the photos are very funny, but be warned that one does feature a terribly unfortunate misspelling of the word "luck.") After you wipe away the tears, you can see even more at the Cake Wrecks blog.
• Gosh, I hate it when this happens. (Warning: disturbing image!)
  
• And finally... the more Star Wars fans thought about Episodes 1-3, the madder they got. I mean — Jar-Jar Binks; expressionless kids; "Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo"; "Don't do this, Anakin! You're a good person!" Ultimately it was too much to take, and so....

In other news....

UPDATES

• Oh dear. The story of Jesus' mother Mary told as "a female empowerment movie." Oh my. I suppose that is because the actual story is not all that interesting?
• Hire this kid.
• Snopes should do one on the urban legend that Democrats are, in any sense, protectors of Constitutional rights. Wrong!