Challenge?

I recently heard of a site, and browsed it briefly. While reluctant, I think it's unfair not to post the link: http://www.blasphemychallenge.com/ It's a sad case of people thinking their proving a point. Somehow, I can't even think of it in anger, just a faint trace of sadness. This is a site designed specifically to defy God, as one 'member' puts it, "daring God to send me to hell."

Unfortunately it demonstrates a basic ignorance of theology on two points. The first is blasphemy. Webster's online dictionary defines blasphemy as 1 a : the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God b : the act of claiming the attributes of deity2 : irreverence toward something considered sacred or inviolable As the gospel means it, I believe blasphemy is in itself an ironic thing, because in blaspheming the holy spirit you are denying it forever in your life. Not some temporary statement online, but forever keeping it from your life. Which, basically means, not accepting salvation. That's my view anyway.

Incidentally the site claims that Christians are trying to redefine blasphemy thanks to it. A rather uninformed response, as I read a definition similar to what I stated in a book (which title I can't remember) written in 80s, before such a site existed.

The other ignorance is that God sends them to hell. Okay, some may think I'm arguing semantics here, but I think intention really matters. Anyway, what I mean is, we send ourselves to hell. Everyone of us has sinned. Therefore we are marred, sin itself derives from the idea of 'falling short'. What do we fall short of? Well, God. If God is, if He created a world, then He is either perfect or flawed. If he is flawed, he is not deserving of reverence, his afterlife of 'paradise' will be flawed, and therefore who cares? If He is perfect, then those that are flawed can not be a part of what He is, to do so would mar his perfection. So he created a very simple way of casting off our sins by making a simple choice to trust in His Son. Not very hard. Those who don't, well, "The wages of sin is Death." I capitalize death because I mean eternal death, eternal separation from God.

My most basic reaction is sadness, as I said before, and a strong desire to pray. And I have been, and will continue to do so. I also urge all of you who read this to pray for those people that somehow God might touch their hearts.

Abortion

Lately I read one of the saddest things I think I have ever laid eyes upon. Recently in the Moscow Times there was a little blurb about the state Duma proposing a law to limit/end advertising for abortions. Okay, not much, I personally suport the idea, but whatever. Next, though, comes a blurb about statistics, stating that there are 2.8 abortions for every birth. I nearly cried.

That's right, 3 out of every 4 pregnancies end in death. Death, finality, destruction of the life inside of it. And 3 out of 4 can not nearly account for supposed 'life of the mother' nor rape/incest cases. This is just a tragedy of wanting to live a so called 'planne lifestyle.' What sort of life is that? A life built not upon planning, but on being able to relegate indulgement to a simple thing as 'choice' and a 'simple medical procedure.' And this is the country trying to push births, because they are losing several thousand in population count every year.

Of course, the whole issue bothers me a lot. I'm just to sad about the idea of life being ended with out a chance of life. What if a life aborted could have lead to some great discovery, if it was allowed to lead its life. Of course the counter argument is that it oculd have been the next hitler. But the over all point is there was never given any choice but that of a group of people to selfish to live up to the consequences of their actions.

Prayer is definitely called for here.

Save the Frogs!

This article cracks me up. Or at least the quote from the PETA person does.

"We were shocked to discover that the dissection kit contains the carcass of a real frog," said spokesman Michael McGraw.

Well really, what'd they expect in a frog dissection kit. You know, PETA really gets under my skin. On one hand they try to make themselves look like their just being kind and say things like "Be kind, adopt a pet!" Which is all well and good. And then you had the spokeman who said "Sure, 5 million jews were killed in the holcaust, but over 100 million chickens die every year!" I mean, what sort of people are these?

I think we've had to much of Disney-esque personification of animals...people are actually beginning to give them equal footing with humans. I mean, I'm all for being nice and responsible, taking care of pets, etc. But let's draw a line somewhere, okay?

I'm just rambling though, so I'll be quiet.

My take

Living in a foreign country often gives someone some opportunities to dispel myths that people have about my country. In this paticular case I'm talking about the recent election. Or at least, if I'm not dispelling a myth, I'm taking a different approach than what's normally understood.

My take on it all is this: It's not really surprsing at all. From what I can tell, this is being treated as some grand revolution that's shocked the world, much like the republican win during Clinton's last mid-term election. Well, I hate to contradict people, but to me, this seems the same, business as usual cycle. I mean, has the president's party EVER kept control during the mid-term of his second term? I don't think so. So why is everyone acting like this is a major thing?

Okay, you have some what of an argument for it saying 'the president has lost the people's confidence' but even that's not much to me. I mean, people are so wishy washy on everything (even me) that it means beans about 'peoples confidence' as a real indicator of anything.

After all, in the early 90s people swore that 7-up was the greatest "uncola" and after a year long advertising blitz, sprite dominates.

But hey, that's just my opinion

New Kid in Town

I've been vaguely following the story about a game called Bully. This game is produced by Rockstar Games, the infamous creators of the Grand Theft Auto series. Simply the title and the producers seems to be enough to set off the ire of people, as the revered Jack Thompson, personal litigator for the families to bent on actually raising their kids to take the time to raise and outcry, has began prosecuting Rockstar to have it banned based on a Florida law.

Now the issue to me seems that none of the people objecting seem to know much about the game. They hear 1)Rockstar and 2)game called Bully and start screaming like a bunch of rabid howler monkeys fighting over the last banana. Add that there's actually fisticuffs and you got a near riot on your hands. Now, I haven't played it, and I really won't have a chance, not having any gaming systems it's not that surprsing that I don't play ANY video games anymore. But I have read some stuff about the game, and it seems to me that Bully is an ironic title, as the premise seems to be closer to the movie My Bodyguard. The big thug kid who, though not an angel, isn't a bully so much as he faces down the real bullies who are picking on the geeks and the girls.

I don't know, maybe I'm mistaken, but this doesn't seem to be a game like GTA: San Andreas, of which I can understand the objections, or even Doom, rather it's a rather mild, action, beat 'em up style game with a unique twist of actually accomplishing worthwhile. Who knows though, I could be wrong.

This is the body of Christ?

This story has me pretty irritated. This group, it seems, just likes making Christianity look awful. Really really awful. You know, I thought the point of Chirstianity was spreading the love of Christ to all the world. Apparently this group thinks it's better suited to offend people and ruin a healing process.

Don't get me wrong, their entitled to their views of why people are dying. They may even have something. But ruining a families moment is probably the worst way to make that point. Instead of winning people to their point of view, their alienating everyone who hears about them as they are being offensive. It's just awful. It's got me so irritated I can't even say anything more about it. Ugh

A small task

I lead a session in a middle school youth retreat a week ago. It was really good, we talked about the top 10 lies and cop-outs in dating and relationships. I think it went well, I think the youth listened, learned, all that stuff. It was fun.

What's a little more scary is in a couple of weeks I'm leading again at the high school retreat. But this time I'm doing two sessions, and the first is on what it means to be a man. Geeze, I'm supposed to cover in a 45 to 60 minute session something grown men in their 80s never figure out sometimes. I'm supposed to cover in an hour a subject that has huge numbers of books devoted to it.

And of course, any session on men, has to have a bit on women. After all, the whole session is true love waits. And to understand any of it you have to understand first what it means to be a man, then what it means to be a woman, then everything that goes on between them. That's the basic approach the whole session takes, but it's kind of dautning to think I'm going to have to tell these guys where they need to grow, what it really means to be a man.

So I've been praying. Praying and reading. It's no secret that I really think a lot of the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. I recently reread that and am near the end of the women's book Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge. This has been a good source for organizing my thoughts, but the problem still is that it's so much to fit in. How am I supposed to exlain in an hour the three things a man craves, that we have a question about success, and that we are all wounded, that we must over come this woundedness, that we must offer our strength, real strength, to our women. How am I supposed to explain the wondrous mystery of woman hood? It's all a bit much, but I hope ti will work out well, with the Father's help.