29.5.06
Thought Provoking Album Review
Check out this record review and read all the way to the end. there are some interesting observations and insights to be found. I dig it. Here's a key portion:
"Anyone with a passing knowledge of Cash's career should surely realize that he did not keep his spiritual side separate from his work. His hard-won Christian faith played a crucial role in all of his songs, lending them a moral gravity. Conversely, his secular concerns lend his songs of praise a powerful conflicted quality, making them sound like the humble prayers of a repentant sinner. On Personal File, this separation restricts these songs and their meanings and melodies: Why wouldn't "Have a Drink of Water", about Jesus in Samaria, fit right alongside Cash's take on John Prine's "Paradise"? Or "The Engineer's Dying Child" alongside "My Children Walk in Truth"? What would this tell us about such a complex American figure? I recommend you shuffle the tracklist and find out for yourself."
Get Lonely.
Get Lonely is the title of the new Mountain Goats album due to hit the street in August. If you've not heard the Mountain Goats, I recommend checking them out. Start with The Sunset Tree.
Click the title to link to a cheery little number about a disintegrating marriage. Enjoy.
28.5.06
Giant Killer.
The guy on the bottom in this photo is world renowned Brazilian jiu jiuitsu artist and undefeated UFC world champion Royce Gracie. He's like the Babe Ruth of mixed martial arts fighting. The guy is a legend and he never loses. Ever.
However, if you examine the photo closely, you'll notice that there is another gentleman in teh picture as well. No not the referee. The other guy. The one perched on Gracie's back raining down fists of fury like it's 1988, he's thirteen and playing Mike Tyson's Super punch out all hopped up on Mountain Dew and pixie sticks. Ok, now do you see him? That guys is Matt Hughes. No nickname. Just Matt Hughes. He's a wrestler and lives on a farm in illinois. And he just dropped like a ton of bricks. It wasn't even close.
25.5.06
Everyone ought to be at least a one point Calvinist by now.
Please pray for mercy and justice for these women. And repentance for their enemies. An enemy of the powerless and the widow and the orphan is an enemy of Christ. And not the blue-eyed, cherub-faced baby Jesus, cooing gently in the manger. Enemies of the powerless and the widow and the orphan are enemies of this Jesus:
"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades"
"Behold I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end". [Revelation 1:12-18; 22:12-13]
_____________________________________________________
Psalm 58
Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.
O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”
_______________________________________________________
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades"
"Behold I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end". [Revelation 1:12-18; 22:12-13]
_____________________________________________________
Psalm 58
Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?
Do you judge the children of man uprightly?
No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
your hands deal out violence on earth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb;
they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
or of the cunning enchanter.
O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
Let them vanish like water that runs away;
when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who judges on earth.”
_______________________________________________________
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
24.5.06
I've Found an Application For the Imprecatory Psalms.
Why don't we care about this? I mean as a nation, or as an international community? Is it because these are women and the leaders of the industrialized world are men? Is it because they are black and the North American and European nations with the resources to address this situation are mostly not black? Is it because they are poor? Is it because they have no oil?
I don't think we're really interested in stopping terrorism.
Here is the US code definition of terrorism:
Sec. 2331. Definitions
As used in this chapter--
(1) the term ``international terrorism'' means activities that--
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life
that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States
or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if
committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any
State;
(B) appear to be intended--
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of
the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of
the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they
appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which
their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;
I don't think we're really interested in stopping terrorism.
Here is the US code definition of terrorism:
Sec. 2331. Definitions
As used in this chapter--
(1) the term ``international terrorism'' means activities that--
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life
that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States
or of any State, or that would be a criminal violation if
committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any
State;
(B) appear to be intended--
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of
the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of
the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they
appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which
their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;
12.5.06
Baddest Man Ever.
This is one of those Olympic hype, special interest stories from the games in Australia a while back. The "baddest man ever" whom I am referring to is the subject of the story, not Bob Costas. Just didn't want anyone to be confused. My favorite part is when Karelin says "Wrestling is how I express myself". Some people journal in their notebooks, or play the piano and others pick up grown men and smash them into the ground face first. Consistently. For thirteen years.
Ironically, Karelin lost his very first (and last) match in the finals. He lost to a big doughy American named Rulon Gardner. Karelin was just getting a bit too old to compete at the same level. I think he was pushing 40 at the time of his last match. Now he serves in the Russian parliment. Did I mention the guy is also a genius?
If you have the guts to actually watch this video clip, I would not sit directly in front of the screen. Sit at like a 45 degree angle or something. We can't be sure that Karelin won't finish the taping of the segment and then reach his left arm through the video camera and six years into the future, just to grab you by the throat and yank you into your own computer monitor and back out onto the wrestling mat so he can pick you up and smash your face into the ground as well. I mean it probably won't happen, but why risk it, you know?
Ironically, Karelin lost his very first (and last) match in the finals. He lost to a big doughy American named Rulon Gardner. Karelin was just getting a bit too old to compete at the same level. I think he was pushing 40 at the time of his last match. Now he serves in the Russian parliment. Did I mention the guy is also a genius?
If you have the guts to actually watch this video clip, I would not sit directly in front of the screen. Sit at like a 45 degree angle or something. We can't be sure that Karelin won't finish the taping of the segment and then reach his left arm through the video camera and six years into the future, just to grab you by the throat and yank you into your own computer monitor and back out onto the wrestling mat so he can pick you up and smash your face into the ground as well. I mean it probably won't happen, but why risk it, you know?
1.5.06
An Evening with Joel Olsteen! Only TEN BUCKS! What a bargain!
Yes, it's true. For only ten dollars, you can spend an evening with Joel Olsteen right here in Columbus, Ohio on May 12th. What a deal.
Of course for just the price of a 16oz Guiness, the Funky Presbyterian will let you hang out with him at Hound Dog's and listen to him crack jokes about televangelists. For free you can come to his church on Sunday evenings at 6pm, 237 West Second Avenue in the Short North. But there's no Guiness at the church. So... it's your call.
Of course for just the price of a 16oz Guiness, the Funky Presbyterian will let you hang out with him at Hound Dog's and listen to him crack jokes about televangelists. For free you can come to his church on Sunday evenings at 6pm, 237 West Second Avenue in the Short North. But there's no Guiness at the church. So... it's your call.
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