We Three Kings

A few years ago I actually read through and pondered the words of this song. Since that time, this has become one of my favorites. In these five short versus, it tells of the true reason why Jesus Christ was born in the grimy confines of a stable. This is the real Reason for the Season. Not a baby that stays in a manger from year to year, but a King who was willing to die because of His love for an unworthy people. This song was written by Reverend John Henry Hopkins, Jr. in 1857 for a Christmas pageant at the General Theological Seminary in New York City.

 

We three kings of Orient are;
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

Refrain

O star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.

Refrain

Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshipping God on high.

Refrain

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

Refrain

Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.

Refrain

 

Request

As Isaiah’s original due date rapidly approaches, please pray for our family. Seemingly simple, meaningless things trigger memories and emotions in both Eshell and I. Although it’s not always easy to give thanks in things we don’t fully understand, we still know and trust in God’s control (and we do thank Him for that!). Also, pray as we still search for a church home. We have met some very nice families and made some friends, but still don’t have a clear direction for fellowship. As goes our life. But that’s another post for another day.

Thanks,

Troy

 

More Inconvenient Truths

Headline from ScienceDaily website: New Study Increases Concerns About Climate Model Reliability

It appears more truths are surfacing regarding the data that Al Gore used in his film about the irreversible destruction of the world as we know it because of our frivolous behavior and misuse of the earths resources (see previous post). I know, that’s a terrible run-on sentence. I don’t blame Al Gore for this. It appears that the data that was put out by the researchers was flawed. He just happened to pick it up and use it in his movie model. The new data pretty much says that the lower portion of the atmosphere is warming at a slower rate than what was originally thought. This also means that future warming will be slower than originally predicted. Maybe the sky’s not falling after all?

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071211101623.htm

 

An Inconvenient Truth

Apparently the only inconvenient truth for Al Gore is that his "documentary" and the "facts" that it contains are unsubstantiated. A couple of articles by Joseph Farah from WorldNetDaily goes into detail. It appears that the popularity of this movie has been sweeping through governments and school systems alike. Both US schools and UK schools have made this mandatory viewing material. One man in the UK had different ideas. He was a concerned parent involved in what his children are being taught. He took this matter to the court system. The UK court ruled that many of the claims in the movie that are conveyed as fact are indeed untruths. The UK ruled the following points of the movie as false:

• that sea levels will rise 20 feet in the foreseeable future due to ice melts;
• that people are evacuating Pacific island nations because of rising sea levels;
• that the "oceanic conveyor" belt is in danger of shutting down and triggering a new ice age;
• that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have historically caused temperatures to rise;
• that global warming is causing a retreat of Mount Kilimanjaro's alpine glacier;
• that global warming is causing Africa's Lake Chad to dry up;
• that global warming contributed to Hurricane Katrina;
• that polar bears are dying due to receding sea ice;
• that global warming is causing coral reefs to bleach and die.
  

Farah then states "This is the very heart of Gore's film! It has all been ruled a fraud in a court of law. Yet American schoolchildren are still being massively subjected to this torturous propaganda." His points are basically two-fold. First being that we (as Americans) are still willingly allowing the public educational system feed this drivel to our children. And second, why isn't Al Gore being confronted with these findings. He has not come forward and denied the court ruling. He has not tried to clear his name. He has remained rather hushed about the episode. The UK schools are still allowed to show the film, but it must be introduced with "an explicit disclaimer that it is "partisan," "political" and is riddled with misleading exaggerations and factual errors".
My Take:
I have not seen the movie. I have no desire to see the movie. So how can I report on it? Two reasons. One, this is MY blog. And two, I am just relaying a couple articles that I read. Actually, I have read a lot about the movie. And I've read both sides. The court ruling goes along with a lot of what many scientist and climatologist are saying. I understand that there are many on the other side as well. I feel that we do misuse many of the resources that God has given us. What the others are saying is that we need to "inconvenience" ourselves to reverse these detrimental effects to great mother earth. Is there more we could do? Sure, but so many studies have proven that man is not cause of this. This is a natural cycle. Cows and camels pump more carbon into the atmosphere than what man does. Maybe we should cleanse the earth of camels and cows. You know...for the sake of the planet. Maybe Al Gore should stop zooming around the world in jet airplanes consuming mass amounts of fossil fuel and expelling huge amounts of carbon.
At any rate. I thought the articles were interesting and I thought the cartoon was funny. Feel free to read the articles yourself.
Sources:
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59066
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59117

Evolving Faster

New scientific reports state that we are evolving a lot faster than we did 50,000 years ago. Scientist analyzed our genes and compared them to those of a chimpanzee, our closest evolutionary relative. If we had evolved at the same rate that we were evolving at some 50,000 years ago, we would have 160 times more differences than what we currently do from the chimps. They claim that humans throughout the world are evolving in different directions. Proof is that genes that suppress body odor and dry earwax are spreading rapidly in Asia. Many of the changes noted are diet related. Some people can drink fresh milk, as others cannot. All concrete proof that we are evolving at a different rate than originally thought. They do believe, however, that this rate of evolution will stabilize in a while. By ‘while’ they mean tens of thousands of years, of course.

My Take:

So, they find another inconsistency with their theory of evolution. What do they do? Create another theory to “explain” why they are changing directions. They will never prove the origin of man because their theory continues to change. As they catch up to science and the evidence disproves their theory, they must scramble and develop a new and improved theory. When their “truth” is based on assumptive theories, the theory remains dynamic (constantly changing) as opposed to taking a static, historical approach (history does not change). Until they realize that the truth of the origin of man is recorded in a historically proven book, their story will continue to change. The more evidence that is revealed, the more the book is proven. Proof that God’s word is unchanging.

Sources:

1) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071211-human-evolution_2.html

2) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/11/science/11gene.html?ref=science

Children Today

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers." – Socrates (469-399 BC)

There’s much we could add to this, but it stands fairly sufficiently on its own. What would Socrates think about children of this generation? What can we do to reverse what we see? My wife and I have kind of become observers. We sit back and watch people and families and how they interact. At an airport earlier this year I saw a family heading out on spring break. Dad, mom and two kids. Each had their own iPod/MP3 players. They even had kind of a unique form of sign language. Something developed, I assume, to avoid having to de-cyborg yourself every time mom wanted to talk to you or ask you a question. She would just use some impromptu hand signals. The kids would typically respond with an agitated yes or no nod or shake. I wondered what supper was like at their home; or if they even sat together to eat supper. Does dad yell at the kids when sports are on; or maybe just ignore them altogether? Does mom disregard the kids when “Dancing With The Stars” comes on? Are the children an interruption to their lives? Not if you plant them in front of their own TV or video game machine. We’ve become removed and annoyed from spending time with them.

I came across an article while reading through the news. There’s a proposal in the Massachusetts House of Representatives that would ban corporal punishment (House Bill 3922). Lovingly spanking your child would turn you into a criminal. They tried to push this through California a while back. This is not how we correct what we see in the children today. The Bible is very clear on how to remedy this, and it’s not retiring the “rod of correction”.

I’m fairly certain that my children would be ecstatic to spend every waking moment with me or their mother. Why? At times, we have put our interest on hold and taken up their interest. We take ourselves to their level. Whether it’s playing a game or reading a book or coloring a picture. We also involve them in our interest; baking, hunting, fishing, etc... I don’t claim to have perfect children or to have this all figured out. I do know that if we put our selfish “I-need-my-time” attitude on the back burner and show an interest in what our children are doing, you build a bond and a friendship that will outlast any spanking you ever give. That’s not to say that spankings are never necessary. And when I say that you need to build a friendship, that is not the permissive, anything-goes, kids rule the roost mentality that many parents have taken. “If I give them everything they want, maybe they’ll like me!” That’s just sick and way out of order! Catering to them is only fanning the flame. I think parents are just trying to get by long enough to get them out of the house. From there on, it’s society’s problem. Even those that claim Christ have this same misguided thinking. They hope that the Sunday school class will “train them up in the way they should go”. I believe we have made a turn in a very poor direction, and it will take something huge to correct it. Something larger than a push from man. Something like a revival of hearts. And that only comes from God.

Try Again

I tried to post this yesterday in the comments, but blogger must have went wild. This is response to the comment from the last post.
Typically I don't come out swinging like that when it comes to Bible translations. I've never been a fan of the NIV, but it was mainly for the missing scriptures. When I stumbled across this I had to pass it along. As for Virginia Mollenkott, here are just a couple links: Way of Life an interesting, if not disturbing read; and AV 1611 which is apparently a 1611 KJV only website. As for King James being a homosexual. I don't know for sure. Most of what I've read says that the accusations didn't even surface until 25 years after his death, and that it originated from his arch nemesis. A quick google search turned up these pages: The first one seems to be written by a homosexual "christian", here. Another one that I found by a homosexual "christian" utilized filthy language, therefore gets disqualified from getting a link from me. Here's another. The next three oppose the thinking: here, here and here. What I do know is that he only promoted the translation of the scripture. He didn't take part in it.
As for books. The best that I've read is "Which Version Is The Bible?" by Floyd Nolen Jones. It's very detailed in the history and canonization of the Bible, who translated what and what the other Bible translations are missing or changing. I let a friend borrow it, but if I can get it back, I'll certainly pass it off to you.
Just to sum it up. I believe that all faith and foundation come from the word of God. If you can't believe that God has preserved His word for us and remains infallible, then how can you know what portions of the Bible to trust and what to disregard? And there are too many contradictions between translations for them all to be correct. The history that I've studied on the subject convinces me that the KJV is the authorized and preserved version.
Hope this helps to at least see where we come from. I don't like to stir up controversy or be divisive, but we too like to find truth.

Christmas Gift Ideas

I stumbled across a news article the other day. These selfless ladies across the pond are gifting the world with their own sterilization. They both feel that having a child would only add to the problem of climate change and overpopulation. One went so far as to have an abortion before sterilization. All for the sake of the earth. One made the comment about meeting her second husband "We both passionately wanted to save the planet - not produce a new life which would only add to the problem." What a caring lady.
The other lady in the article filtered through several boyfriends before finding the right one. Her revelation of the evils of childbearing went like this: "I realised then that a baby would pollute the planet - and that never having a child was the most environmentally friendly thing I could do."
How much of yourself are you willing to give this holiday season?

Next up for the gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender christian in your life: the Gay and Lesbian Bible.
We have here another lady who did the world a favor. She's the first of all previous bible scholars who could actually translate the bible properly. A bible that does NOT speak out against homosexuality. Up until now, we had no way to translate some of the Hebrew and Greek words accurately. But now, we have a bible that caters to the gay and lesbian christians. "Don't feel comfortable coming to the Lord and allowing him to change your life? Don't worry about it! We have a bible that says you can live in the sinful, hell-bound lifestyle that your accustomed to!" If you go to the "About Us" page of the website, she gives some ridiculous example of why she needed to do this. And no, she didn't do this just for the gays and lesbians. She did this to get the accurate translation into the hands of a misled world. She just happened to name it the Gay and Lesbian Bible.

And lastly as I was doing some research, I found out that the original NIV translation had a very open, very active lesbian on it's translating team. In fact, she believes that God is a woman. She also believes that Jesus was born parthenogenetic (because Mary had a child without male fertilization); meaning that "born in parthenogenesis; that parthenogenetic births are always female; that in some cases, therefore, he would be willing to refer to Jesus as 'she' -- up until the last minute of sex reversal, in which case Jesus remains chromosomally female throughout life, but functions as a normal male and looks like a normal male". If your curious about who helped translate the holy, infallible word of God into the train wreck that is the NIV, do a search for Virginia Ramey Mollenkott. She's very proud of her work.

Being an engineer, I have a theory. I think we should pick and island and put the sterilized ladies (and their mates) as well as the gay and lesbian christians on an island. Let them have all the food and water they need for survival. Than check on them in 50 years. See how the commune is thriving. I have a feeling that Darwin may have been right. The weak of the species would die out. Obviously the sterilized men/ladies won't be reproducing. Even more obviously the gays and lesbians won't be reproducing (unless they're cheating). How can this thinking be right? Do they not understand science and biology? My head hurts...

Works, Faith and Salvation

Answering the comment left on the "Faith, Works and Salvation" post: No. This gentleman was not saying the same thing. He has no assurance of his salvation. He feels that he has to fight and work everyday towards gaining his salvation. His belief does not offend me. If he has no surety of his salvation, I feel sorry for him, but he does not offend me or my faith.
As for you not changing your worldly ways after you're saved, true conversion will bring about heart changes. Heart changes bring about the desire to change your life. A circumcised (converted) heart is crushed at the thought of offending God. That's what James is saying about faith and works. True faith brings about works. Think of Simon the sorcerer in Acts. He believed Philip when he preached; was even baptized. I doubt his conversion was real. Why? He still had his heart set on himself. He wanted to wow the people with the Holy Spirit. So much so, he was willing to pay for that power. He hadn't changed. Read in chapter 8 of Acts, verses 20 through 24. Peter doubted his conversion also. So much so that he said he was going to perish along with his money. His heart was "not right in the sight of God". Doesn't sound like a saved person to me. Salvation starts in the heart and ends in the heart. I can't give you faith, nor can I take your faith.
I'll finish with a few verses.
Galatians 2:20 and 21 - ²⁰I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.²¹I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Hmmm, Paul says he lives his life by faith in the Son of God. He also says that if we are living by the law (works) that we are frustrating [to set aside, that is, (by implication) to disesteem, neutralize or violate: - cast off, despise, disannul, frustrate, bring to nought, reject] the grace of God; AND that when we frustrate the grace of God, we have caused Christ to die in vain. That's pretty harsh.
Galatians 5:1-26 (focus 4-6) - ⁴Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.⁵For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.⁶For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. Is it fair to say that the circumcision that Paul speaks about is a work?
When we work in our flesh, our works always die out. I've seen many times where people try to take on the ministry (or lifestyle) of someone else without Spiritual conviction, only to become frustrated and swing 180 degrees in the opposite direction. Not once or twice, but time and time again. Like the man in James who doesn't ask in faith, he's "like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed."
Once again, I know that I didn't exhaust the scriptures, but I do hope that you see where I'm coming from. I also hope you read some of the referenced scriptures from the other post.

Ghost Town

It’s just after nine o’ clock and it’s like a ghost town in here (work). Why? Deer hunting season started yesterday. Judging by the quietness of the office area and the emptiness of the cubes and shop floor, I’ll bet that the company is at about 20% today. Yesterday was about 25%. The beginning of gun season is like a holiday. In fact, up until a couple years ago, the whole shop shut down as a paid holiday on the first day of gun season. Then, with much surprise to management, they found out that not everyone was hunting on this day off! At that point, they re-instated November 15^th as an actual work day and gave everyone an additional vacation day to use at the employees discretion. It’s obvious to me that most people still use this day as a holiday. Hunting is still a way of life up here.

 

Another factual specimen. A couple years ago, President George W. Bush made a trip up to the UP. He’s only the second U.S. president to visit the UP. He actually expressed a desire to tour our facility. They had his secret service come through and talk to the employees and management. The tour was scrapped when they realized that too many people carried firearms to work or actually had firearms stashed in their desks. They couldn’t guarantee this would be a weapon-free facility and had concerns for the president’s safety. Not that anyone had any intentions to harm him, just that the possibility was there. Having said that, I don’t come to work in fear for my safety. Just as hunting is a part of life, so are firearms. Obviously, they go hand-in-hand. That’s not to say that someone couldn’t become disgruntled and go on a rampage. That could happen in Washington DC where gun control is the most stringent. What it does mean is that if someone does come in here with the intent to harm with a firearm, he will not make much headway with the other people also carrying firearms. Just some more UP history I thought I’d pass along.