What the eyes have seen…

 

I've seen dead people too.

Not like the movie of course, but I've seen them. With my baby blues. 

Not everything that has passed before these eyes has been a depressing sight though.

I've seen beauty too. 

My two nephews fresh into the world.

Sunny days.

Rainy days.

Snowy days.

Tornado days! Yikes!

My eyes have mesmerized me at times.

I've seen lovely faces that have elicited very deep sighs.

And sometimes I should have plucked my eyes out.

I've seen tumultuous waters crashing into land while foaming at the mouth.

I've seen snow capped peaks and deep caverns.

I've seen lazy country vistas.

I've even seen a bear...in the wild. 

Now I've seen 50, plus a year. 

My eyes are older and hopefully my brain wiser.

Floaters and flashes appear in my eyes now and ghosts in my brain. I see memories, cloudy, surreal but yet very much breathing.

These eyes have limited blinks, limited tears, and limited visions before they close for eternity, And  I hope that when and if you see me lying in my finest suit, this thought will enter your mind...

"Surely...he is seeing now what eye hath never seen."

New Things

Everybody loves new things.

New car. New clothes. New house. 

That new car smell. New clothes that fit just right. New house that feels like vacation.

But the new car smell leaves and leaves behind the smell of oil and gas and wear. Clothes get tattered and torn or small. The house starts creaking and endures the bumps and bruises of weather and wear.

Likewise, our bodies, once new and vibrant, start to bend and break. Wear beats it through the years until it is frail and wrinkled.

Wear pummels our limbs into submission. Wear breaks down this human house until the roof caves in.

Basically, we wear ourselves out.

What we need is a body that wears and un-wears at the same time, like the soul of man. The soul endures wear and yet at the same time wear does not have such a deleterious effect on the soul as it does the body. The soul gets put through the emotional meat grinder, wear, but yet it will always exist, un-wear (so to speak). 

What we really need is a different paradigm. A world, a universe, that is able to join the wear/un-wear soul to a fleshy creation of a wear/un-wear body.

We need a different physics.

Behold!!

We need somebody to make all things new.

Know anybody like that?

Don't put up with the bull, Eat Mor Chikin

From losing a head...to chicken feathers.

From being nailed on a cross upside down...to waffle fries.

From being fed to the lions...to feeding our face.

From being the burning lamps that lit up Nero's gardens...to a drive thru.

Such is the case of Christian "martydom" in these the United States of Stupid.

Maybe there's a correlation between this act of sacrifice and the issue that has brought about this reaction. The seemingly inane and harmless act of stuffing your face with a chicken sandwich may be indicative of God's sense of derision and comedic affectations. The real inanity is the issue of same sex marriage itself.

But the cry from the bereft left has attempted to co-opt the Civil Rights movement by citing discrimination. But the chicken coop will gladly sell their fried and featherless fare to any and all comers who wish to fork over the asexual green. Refusing access to markets by mayors and council members is the "real" discrimination in this dark comedy. (For a refutation of the juxtapositioning of the Civil Rights movement and the Homosexual movement please see Voddie Bachman's article here)

The question of what next? is never asked by the proponents of same sex marriage. Where does it stop? On what basis do we then deny polyamory, polygamy, pedophilia, intergenerational relationships, incestuous relationships, man/dog relationships, woman/make-up relationships. And the greatest irony of all...

What if I want to marry a chicken sandwich?

There are graves, crypts and cemeteries in full rotation with the bones of our forefathers. Yeah...this is what they meant in every document they've ever signed their name to, every war they've ever fought, every drop of blood they've ever dropped, and every debate they've ever had with the final culmination and conclusion being that same sex couples will have their relationship codefied and sanctioned by the government for the people and by the people. In fact, shouldn't President Obama's bones be in full rotation inside his skin after his most recent "evolution"?

Now any Christian response has to be flavored with love, or in this case salt, pepper and mayonnaise...or ketchup for all you real bigots. We must, like sheep led to the slaughter, like Jesus and previous Christian martyrs, bare the scorn and hatred, be hated and maligned, by going through a drive thru.

So with love in our hearts and grace on our lips...

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS...

EAT MOR CHIKIN !

In search of some Christian cussing

With tongue firmly planted in cheek...  

Somewhere in the darkest recesses of my soul resides a teenage terror that sure needs his mouth washed out with soap. Amongst my closest friends I have been told that I should filter what I say...to which I respond, "I am filtering what I say, you should hear me totally unfiltered."

That which I respond most to is what I perceive as ludicrous announcements. Ever since I've been interested in apologetics I've gained the somewhat dysfunctional ability to unravel, in my mind...and sometimes out of my mouth, the little threads that some folks use to justify certain conclusions. If I had remained stupid I would have had more friends and less argumentative conversations with preachers. To be honest with you, some of those moments are embarrassing to me now, while some of those moments should be embarrassing to them. Incidents such as disagreements within a men's group, shining a preacher's shoes, being called out from a pulpit directly and, most recently (although a few years ago), indirectly, made for interesting exchanges and pretty good stories to speak of later. But I'm not so sure that those exchanges have made me a better person or a better Christian.

It would've been nice just to shut down the conversation with some big ole' fat ad hominem, country cussing.

Not cursing.

Cussing.

Of course it couldn't be the normal "momma close your ears" cussing. It would have to be some "biblical" cussing, but the only word that comes to mind quick enough to have any rhetorical force is Jezebel. Kind of wouldn't work in the situations I've been in. Besides it doesn't really roll off the tongue.

"Son, ya need to get on up dere and shine dem preacher's shoes."

"Jezebel."

 Nah. No rhetorical force  

How about...  

"If'n ya listen to dat Rock n Roll music ya a child of the devil."

Ok...if I listen to some of dat Rock n Roll music... I'm a child of bad taste...

How about talking to unbelievers?

The most common refrain is when these Einsteins wish to devalue or marginalize what you're saying by the retort...

"Well you're just closed minded." (not talking about anyone in particular)

GASP !  

"Well...you're just a lobster eating, polyester fashionista who lives in the carcass of a pig... ...and an Abominable Gentile."  

Sigh...oh yeah...those cream puff invectives will really leave a person's mouth wide open.  I'm looking for something a little bit more...mean.  

The truth is...there really isn't good cussing in the Bible, except the name of Jezebel on occasion...and that doesn't fit most of the time. Also one should consider that instructions have been given about how to treat folks...you know...give a reason with gentleness and respect...thanks Pete.  

So I guess I have to tell that teenager to go to his room and shut his mouth...except...  

"Son, ya need to get on up dere and shine dem preacher's shoes."  

"Why don't you just go emasculate yourself."   That's biblical...right?

A Liar

Nothing I hate more than a liar. A liar is the worst kind of person in the world. You can never trust them. A liar will cheat, steal, obfuscate and stretch the truth. He will be a master of the bait and switch, he will equivocate and change the meanings of words. He is also hell bound, for ALL liars have their place there. A liar also has minions that will keep up the lie. A liar neither has any respect for anything other than his lie and will use what is honorable to substantiate his lying, for he feels no need to be honest about what is honorable. He has no compunction about name dropping the name of Jesus, for he feels no necessity to honestly assess the hypocrisy of him dropping the name of He who is honorable. He is not obligated to be consistent with Christianity even when he uses Christianity because his only obligation is to his lying. President Obama; How is this shoe fitting you?
 

...back from a cigarette break...

I just stepped out for awhile to inflict damage on my lungs.

Just kidding.

Just took a couple of weeks off after the debate with David Green (no doubt to lick my wounds), waiting for a subject that comes to my brain membrane that either thrills me or kills me.

And what shall I ruminate about?


Well, gay marriage seems to be incessantly in the news. Thirty two states have now passed traditional marriage laws or something to that effect. But this horse isn't going to die, at least not until the Supreme Court has it's say. The highest estimated percentage of folks who are gay is probably at 4% of the total population...GOOD GRIEF !!...there are almost more illegal aliens in this country than gays. But before any redneck makes some sort of point about that, the gay community does pay taxes so...YAY!!! GAY COMMUNITY!!!

I am a little confused about this issue though. One of the purposes of marriage is the taming of the man's teenage habits....like...picking his nose in public, scratching certain parts of his physique, grabbing certain parts of his physique, burping out loud, farting at restaurants...and disciplining his promiscuous leanings. Marriage, for the man, has a certain emasculating effect on his male ego. So marriage is already gay... without adding the same sex ingredient to this fine elixir.

So considering that probably 99 % of these 30-40 year old hairy apes could use a little taming...then I'm for gay marriage.

So there I said it...


Now in stupid news...

Snake handler Mark Wolford died from a snake bite this past week...proving once again that literacy is dangerous to some folk. Maybe that is the solution for the Appys (people who live in the Appalachians)...quit teaching them to read...because...if they were more illiterate then they wouldn't know enough to mis-interpret Mark 16:9-20.

Some claim that this is due out of ignorance.

Well I claim they're just not ignorant enough.


My nephew finishes his first Tee-ball season today. Now that is some funny stuff right there. Little 3 and 4 year olds eating dirt, running the wrong way, pushing each other, and somewhere in there...learning a little about baseball.

Good stuff. I just wish life was one big ole tee ball game...eating dirt might be better than what some of us have to eat on a daily basis.

But for me...nothing taste as bitter as my own words...


Now to cease this confusing meandering and settle down to some real topics.

The Pretending God Debate

My recent debate with David Green has been moved to it's own page. Just click on the bar above titled "The Pretending God Debate" and it will take you to it. I do this so the reader can read the debate in chronological order.