no lines, no driving, no waiting, no hassles

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.

- Luke 2:11

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

- Matthew 11:28-30

The 10,000 Hour Principle

Several years ago I watched a TV interview with a world-famous jazz trumpet player who remarked that "People are always coming up to me and saying 'I'd give anything to play like you do!'

"And so I ask them, are you willing to practice five hours a day?" Would-be trumpet players start frowning and making faces and shaking their heads No, and that's when he points out "Practicing five hours a day is what I have to do."

---

In the early 1990s a study of violinists at a Berlin music academy was undertaken to determine what specific factors separated virtuoso students from their peers ... the students considered either "good" or "average."

The students were divided into three groups according to their level of playing skill. The first group consisted of students with the potential to become virtuosos; the second group was considered good enough to become professional musicians and the third group of students was rated sufficiently proficient to become music teachers.

The study found that between the ages of 8 and 20, virtuoso-potential students had logged more than 10,000 total hours of practicing. The students good enough to become professional musicians had 8000 hours and the third-tier students had accumulated 4000 lifetime hours or less.

That means potential virtuosos averaged practicing 30 hours per week ... over 4 hours per day ... for 12 years. The professional-level students averaged 23 hours per week while the third group averaged 15 hours per week, which translates to just over two hours of practicing per day over 12 years.

The study also determined that unquantifiable variables like "natural talent," "perfect pitch" and "a willingness to work harder than anybody else" made absolutely no difference whatsoever. Read that sentence again.

The students' level of performance only depended on how much time they'd put into practicing. Period.

Lots of folks claiming they's give anything to be world class trumpet players, violinists or guitarists simply aren't willing to log the 10,000 lifetime hours it takes to get there.

---

In more than 36 years of service and with over 1550 daily flights, SkyWest Airlines has never been cited in a fatal accident.

The average newly-hired airline pilot has 4000 hours of flight experience and flies 75 hours per month. Many SkyWest pilots have over 10,000 hours of flight time.

---

I started thinking about why people sometimes complain "God isn't listening" as if that proves "Prayer doesn't work." But if prayer is a dialog with God (and not just an opportunity to tell God our wish lists), have we stopped to consider what God thinks of our prayers and our answers?

"He/She isn't listening, and that proves prayer doesn't work."

Why do we think prayer's just a one-way street?

---

I also started thinking about how much time I've spent praying and reading Scripture over the course of my life and realized that if praying was like learning to play a musical instrument, I wouldn't come anywhere near close to being included in the group considered sufficiently proficient to become a prayer teacher.

All of us want to pray like virtuosos when an emergency arises and we feel it's time for God to sit up and pay attention. But unless we make time and create a daily habit, it just seems like too much trouble and aggravation to put in all those hours of practicing .

When choice comes to town

"The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion, which is war against the child. The mother doesn't learn to love, but kills to solve her own problems. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.

"Abortion, which often follows from contraception, brings a people to be spiritually poor, and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to overcome." - Mother Teresa

Maryland to become the late-term abortion capital of America:

Activists protest doctor performing late-term abortions at Md. clinic

By Lena H. Sun

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 6, 2010; 1:08 PM

About 200 to 300 antiabortion activists gathered near the Germantown clinic Monday where Nebraska doctor LeRoy Carhart has started performing late-term abortions.

Carhart is one of the few doctors in the United States to perform the controversial procedure. He will be working at Germantown Reproductive Health Services, where physicians performs abortions earlier in a pregnancy. Only a handful of doctors publicly acknowledge that they perform abortions late in a pregnancy, and Carhart has been the target of protests.

"We don't want Maryland to become the late-term abortion capital of America," said the Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition.

- source

In the Late-Term abortion procedure, the preborn baby is rotated and delivered feet first, except for the head. The back of the neck is punctured with scissors and suction is used to suck out the brain and collapse the skull. The dead baby is then fully delivered.

I was there when they crucified my Lord
I held the scabbard when the soldier drew his sword

I threw the dice when they pierced his side
But I've seen love conquer the great divide.

When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that train
When love comes to town I'm gonna catch that flame

"When Love Comes to Town"

- lyrics by U2

For today

On that day
they will say to Jerusalem,
“Do not fear, Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The LORD your God is with you,
the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
but will rejoice over you with singing.”

- Zephaniah 3:16-17

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving's just around the corner, and it seems like a good time to remember all we have to be thankful for.

Food

Income

Friends

Family

Health

Most of all give thanks to God, for a Savior willing to take our place on the cross.

But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57

The Calvinist Salvation Show: a life of re-runs [Part 2]

Here's an (imperfect) analogy to refute Calvinist tenets:

It's estimated that approximately 160 billion human beings have lived on the earth since Creation. So let's say each one of those people is represented by a single DVD movie ... which amounts to about a 1.8 million years of constant movie-watching time in your private collection.

Let's also say every one of your 160 billion DVDs is a copy of the same movie, so you know beforehand all the action, all the dialog and exactly how each movie ends.

The problem is that only a small minority of those 160 billion DVDs play according to your expectations, while the vast majority will not ... so you decide to throw out all the skipping, scratched, blemished and flawed discs.

Now let's assume you already know which DVDs are scratched and which ones you'll select to keep, so here's the kicker:

Does it make sense to spend the next two million years watching re-runs ... copies of scratched, flawed and skipping copies of a movie you already know backward and forward to decide which ones to throw out ... when you already know before turning on the DVD player which discs you've chosen to keep?

I suppose to Calvinists, it makes a perfectly select sense.

The Calvinist Salvation Show: Notes on Being Born Lucky [Part 1]

Yesterday my friend Ken M. sent me this article about young Christians turning to Calvinism, which I found to be especially troubling.

The logic behind Calvinism is that since God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then God must know in advance who'll be saved and who will not. Which means every one of us is essentially "pre-destined" to a place in Heaven or in Hell ... which leaves Free Will entirely out of the question ... and there's not one thing we can do to alter our pre-ordained eternal destination.

The 'But It Makes Sense to Me' Argument

In previous posts I've written that what makes logical, ordered sense to Calvinists doesn't necessarily make sense or apply to God the Creator. God exists outside of human concepts of Space and Time, and Scripture doesn't assign we fallen beings the task of understanding the mind of God or permit us to second-guess His will.

Not that either of those obstacles has ever kept Calvinists from creating a theology that, at least from my perspective, subjugates God's grace and mercy and substitutes an automated assembly line salvation system in its place.

Could be because Calvinists enjoy identifying themselves as among "The Elect" so much.

Yes I'm Lucky, and Proud to Say So

The irony for Calvinists is that according to their own theology, no personal faith or works was required to achieve their favored position among the chosen ... because belonging to "The Elect" was pre-ordained before the Universe was created.

Excuse me, but if it's all about being born Lucky then why did Christ did on the cross to save us from our sins if Salvation was preordained for some, but eternally out of reach for others?

Starts sounding to me as though Calvinist theology has more to do with being born lucky than it does with personal faith in God's mercy and accepting Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Rescued

Chile miners rescue: 'I was with God and the devil - and God took me' says miner

• 
• 

By Mirror.co.uk 13/10/2010

Read more:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/most-popular/2010/10/13/chile-miners-rescue-i-was-with-god-and-the-devil-and-god-took-me-says-miner-115875-22630937/#ixzz12EtMpEKF

+5=162

OCTOBER 11, 2010

Murders continue in Baltimore

Five people were killed in Baltimore over the weekend and the gunmen didn't stop today. About 9:25 a.m., police responded to 911 calls for gunshots and found the body of an adult male behind some rowhouses on Shirley Avenue, just off Park Heights. Police said he had been shot in the head.

-full story and source here

Wow

USC Defeats #1 Alabama 35-21

Clemson 16 North Carolina 21

Spare the rod and ...

... spoil the lion?

At about 48 seconds, notice in the lower right corner how close one lion gets to escaping into the audience.

No comment.

"Prosperity Means Success, right?"

The Dangers of the Prosperity Gospel is a powerful and timely article by Robert Barron.

Here's some brief excerpts:

In its American incarnation, the prosperity Gospel probably began with the theological speculations of the late evangelist Oral Roberts. Roberts encouraged his followers to "expect miracles" and to look forward with confidence to the ways in which God would reward them, materially and financially, for their trust in his providence.

To give the prosperity gospellers their due, there is some biblical warrant for their position. The book of Deuteronomy consistently promises Israel that, if it remains faithful to God's commands, it will receive numerous benefits in this world.

However, we must be attentive to the very subtle way that the Bible itself nuances and specifies these claims. The great counterpoise to the book of Deuteronomy is the book of Job, which tells the story of a thoroughly righteous man who, in one fell swoop, suffers the loss of all of his material prosperity. Job's friends, operating out of a standard Deuteronomistic (or prosperity Gospel) point of view, argue that he must have grievously offended God, but Job—and God himself—protest against this simplistic interpretation.

Obeying the divine commands does indeed lead to the right ordering of the self, and therefore to an increase in joy, even if that very obedience leads, in worldly terms, to abject suffering or failure. [emphasis added]

Read the entire piece by clicking here.

Whatcha readin'?

From Booklist

When his former girlfriend, Doris Jimenez, was murdered in the small town where she lived, Volz became the primary suspect even though he was miles away in Managua at the time. He was a twentysomething American starting a new publication in Nicaragua, resented by some of the locals for what was perceived as his wealth and power. Despite a strong alibi and no physical evidence linking him to the crime, Volz was tried and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He began serving his sentence at one of the most notorious prisons in Nicaragua, where he had to navigate the violence and corruption to maintain his mental and physical health.

FFrom Publishers Weekly

When reading de O'Higgins's first cookbook, evocative prose seems to bring a distant Cuba back to life. Thanks to a lifelong love of Cuban food and devotion to her extended family, O'Higgins never lost touch with her Caribbean roots: she was raised there in the 1920s and '30s. With a sensibility that is responsive to both the flavors of food and the feelings that accompany meals remembered, the writer lets readers understand the myriad of influences that have formed Cuban cuisine

In my own words

I hate this kind of house-keeping and hope you'll bear with me.

Over the past five years I've occasionally quoted or referenced materials here from secondary sources, including newspaper and magazine articles, encyclopedias, TV shows, novels, poems, Scripture and even other peoples' blogs.

In each case I was careful to follow the principle of Fair Use as closely as possible, in addition to attributing full credit to original sources and authors.

From my un-affiliated, non-competitive, un-ordained and un-paid perspective as an amateur blogger, there's precious little difference between including a link pointing readers to an outside source and quoting the exact same material verbatim while identifying the original source, simply as a convenience for the reader. Nonetheless I accept responsibility for any outrage or misunderstanding.

To avoid any potential misunderstandings, accusations, suspicions or hurt feelings in the future, I removed all links to external blogs from the "Convenient Links" on the right hand side of this page. Hopefully that'll put an end to the question.

Two more things.

In no case did I ever quote, copy, plagiarize, appropriate, borrow, incorporate, apply or re-word someone else's work and present it to others as my own. Posts bearing my name reflect my thoughts expressed in my words. Each one of The Blue Book's 4565 posts is still available in the online archives if anyone wants to check.

Finally, please feel free to quote, borrow, mention or copy anything I've written here in the service of God's kingdom. I don't earn a penny from The Blue Book and I'm not in competition with anybody ... regardless of their denomination, position, title or affiliation. No one. I hope you won't even think of The Blue Book as belonging to me.

My ambition is that The Blue Book will somehow share the Gospel and reach people for Christ no matter where they are in the world. Period. Whether or not I receive financial reward, popular acclaim or public credit for my words simply doesn't matter ... and is the least thing I have time to worry about.

How I became a Catholic

Mount Calvary Episcopal Church will vote in October on full-communion with the Catholic Church

• By Randy Sly
• 9/30/2010

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - In a letter to parishioners, the Reverend Jason Cantania, rector of Mount Calvary Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland, announced that the vestry of the parish had voted unanimously in favor of two resolutions. First, they have voted to leave The Episcopal Church (TEC) where they are a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, and, second, to become an Anglican Use parish in the Catholic Church through the new initiative from Rome - the Anglicorum Coetibus.

Under the terms of this apostolic constitution, the Church has provided opportunities for "personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering full communion with the Catholic Church."

• 
  
• - source
• ----- ---

It strikes me as odd that voting can change an entire congregation's affiliation. I mean, how can an entire church wake up one morning belonging to one faith, and then fall asleep the same night identifying themselves as something else? Is such a wholesale realignment possible, or does the identification a church decides for itself even matter?

And what happens to the members who voted not to change? Are they still Episcopalians, or would the parish's vote change them into Catholics?

At least in this case, the congregation gets the chance to vote on the vestry's decision.

PS. Vestry is another word for Committee.

Wal-Mart where?

Wal-Mart expands into Africa with $4.2bn deal

Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, is expanding into Africa for the first time after offering to buy one of South Africa's largest chains in a multi-billion dollar deal.

By Richard Blackden
Published: 9:40PM BST 27 Sep 2010

Andy Bond, who helps run Wal-Mart's international business, said South Africa 'possesses attractive market dynamics' Photo: Clara Molden

The US retailer, which owns the Asda chain in the UK, plans to buy MassMart, which sells general merchandise, electronic goods and food at its 290 stores, for $4.2bn (£2.6bn). The deal also gives it a toehold in Nigeria, Ghana and Botswana.

"Africa fits very nicely into a strategy of building an international business skewed to emerging markets," said Bryan Roberts, an analyst at Planet Retail.

- source and full story here

Choices vs Decisions ... vs Bull

Quotes from outside

Success is not built on success. It's built on failure. It's built on frustration. Sometimes it's built on catastrophe. - Sumner Redstone

Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration and resentment. - Dale Carnegie

All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is to act as if it were impossible to fail. - Dorothea Brande

إِنَّ اللهَ مَحَبَّةٌ

God is love.

The "I didn't mean to, it was an accident!" excuse

My sleeping schedule's off-track.

I blame insomnia, but the reason doesn't matter. The point is that after staying up until almost 7AM earlier in the week, since then I've been getting to bed later and later each successive night. Which helps explain why I was up and awake, fidgeting, and badly craving a Diet Coke at 1:10 AM tonight.

My tiny 12-volt fridge is empty, but then there's a drink machine in the middle of the marina, outside the Rec Room and office. So I counted the change in my pocket, grabbed a rain coat and headed down the dock.

And I tried not to remember or think too much about the clock.

--

Rain had been falling off and on for most of the night, so at that hour of the night the Promenade along the waterfront was completely deserted. I saw a few lights left on in the windows of condos adjoining the marina but I didn't see a single person along the way, not even one.

The quiet and almost complete stillness didn't stop me from thinking what I'd do if the situation suddenly changed ... and things got seriously very serious.

What if the wide shadow behind the next bush suddenly jumped up and turned into a knife-wielding assailant? After all, we've had 158 murders (that's two every three days) in the city already this year.

Sure, I was on Def-Con 4 Situational Code Red High Alert looking out for bad guys all the way to the Coke machine and back ... but if bad guys had showed up, how could I explain why a Diet Coke was soooo important at 1:15 AM that I left my boat (and the security of surveillance cameras and an electronically locked gate) to get one?

"Bad guys showed up at my boat at 1:10 AM, climbed on board with weapons, fought their way inside, handcuffed my wrists behind my back, threw a bag over my head ... and then forced me at gun point to walk to the machine and buy myself two Diet Cokes"?

How about "Walking to the machine in the middle of the night to find a drink machine was an accident?" or "I have a right to do anything I want to at any time of day or night at any place I want"?

Don't all those excuses sound dumb, selfish or both?

Then why do we think those lame excuses work when we use them to rationalize and explain our sins?

The real reason I left my boat at 1AM to go grab a Diet Coke was because I wanted to.

--

I didn't mean to tell a lie

It was an accident that I fell in love with a married man/woman

I didn't wake up thinking about stealing from my employer

My girlfriend got pregnant by accident

He/She's not a believer, but nobody chooses who they fall in love with

Looking back, everything just happened so fast

I never planned on letting my debt getting out of hand

I lost my temper by accident

... It just happened.

But those are all lies.

The truth is that Bad Guys didn't show up and snatch you out of bed this morning, threaten you or your loved ones at gun point and force you to sin.

And neither is it the truth that six months ago you tripped over your shoe laces at work and stumbled into an adulterous affair as a result. Just as it's true that slipping on a banana peel can't explain stealing, lying ... or rationalize a secret porn addiction.

--

Sin is never an accident.

The hollowness of every justification we dream up to squirm our way out of our sins and the consequences of our choices offers a pretty clear indication of how much faith we put in ourselves and how little faith we put in Christ.

Our excuses, no matter how sympathetic or reasonable they sound to our ears, only reveal how convinced we are of our ability to deceive God ... and how deluded we are that we can double-talk The Creator into looking the other way.

At least until the shadow of evil jumps out of the bushes, and life suddenly gets seriously very serious.

The Problem with Popular Wisdom, Snowclones, Bromides, Platitudes and Thought-Terminating Clichés

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe.

- Carl Sagan

Hmmm. I wonder if Sagan believed that. Or if he just needed to believe it.

End of an Empire?

You may have seen headlines this week detailing the lurid sexual accusations against a nationally-known "megachurch" pastor.

Church/pastor scandals are hardly unique, and sadly seem to unfold in a similar way. When this story broke I guessed it wouldn't be long before additional claimants surfaced and leveled another round of allegations, just as I'm guessing the publicity generated by this outrage will likely spark similar allegations against other pastors in other churches in other parts of the country.

One more guess tells me that if the claims made against this pastor turn out to be true, his sexual sins will prove to be just the tiny tip of an iceberg concealing large scale financial wrong-doings, fraud, lies, cover-ups and greed ... because the revelation of one man's sins will cast light on his partners and associates who chose to ignore God's commandments and reap their own benefits from sinning right along beside him.

A headline in The New York Times hints that this "Scandal Threatens A Georgia Pastor's Empire." That pastor's empire, built on preaching a "Prosperity Gospel," may well crumble to dust whether or not the allegations turn out to be true.

Christ never taught that salvation depends upon his followers driving Bentleys, wearing Gucci sunglasses or living in million-dollar mini-castles.

Reading Scripture and comparing God's Word to what this man teaches, I wonder if God entrusted Christ's message of Grace, Forgiveness and the Cross to a celebrity pastor earning $3 million dollar annual compensation, who preaches a "Prosperity Gospel" and who arrogantly proclaimed "We're not just a church, we're an international corporation. I deal with the White House. I deal with presidents all over this world. I pastor a multi-million dollar congregation."

That pastor's empire might fail, but no matter what tomorrow's headlines reveal, God's kingdom will always prevail.

Now available on Kindle

Notes from the Blue Book is now available on your Kindle.

Thing is I don't know anybody who owns a Kindle ... and I've never even seen one, except on TV.

If Facebook existed back then ...

Always Dangerous

Tonight I found myself walking alone again for about a mile along the waterfront after 11 PM in the second most dangerous city in the country. That's not the first time; it's just the latest.

I've never tried walking alone on the waterfront late at night dressed in a suit and tie, complete with a starched shirt, shined shoes, minty breath and freshly combed hair.

So here's a couple of things worth passing along:

1. With my grimy jeans, 10 year old sneakers, sweaty baseball cap, 9 months without a haircut hair, torn shirt, grease-stained hands and unshaved face, it's me who 99% of people are worried about ... and I easily picked up on that

2. It doesn't make sense to try running away from the other 1%

Which made me of the Gospel and the Apostle Paul.

---

Why do Believers act as though they've got to protect themselves and switch to a "Prevent Defense" late in the fourth quarter to keep the enemy from scoring? Why do folks who call themselves Christians become indignant when Satan throws pebbles at the Kingdom's fortress walls, and cower in the corner over every little thing in the world they happen to oppose?

Are they afraid of getting their suits and ties dirty?

Why aren't the believers who profess Jesus Christ as their Savior and King the ones who the world considers dangerous?

Why are Christians afraid of an enemy who has absolutely no chance of winning?

PS. When I got back to the marina I found a crated clothes dryer I'd ordered online delivered to the slip beside my boat. Turns out the marina had two muscular twenty-something guys and a propane-powered tug drive it to my boat, so how was I gonna lift that thing over my head and somehow get it on-board?

I could've waited till tomorrow and asked the marina for assistance, or I could've called my friends and asked for creative solutions, or I could've gone online and sent an address book-full of emails requesting leadership to provide me with guidance and direction ... and then crossed my fingers hoping to hear something back before my dryer magically vanished forever from the dock.

Instead I hauled my gimpy 53 year old body and half-lame knee on-board, said a prayer, got seriously dangerous and grabbed with both hands.

And now I've got an actual clothes dryer on-board my boat.

The Superstition of Atheism

Last night I remarked in an email to my friend Ken M. down in Florida that I'd seen Bill Maher on The Late Show and was amazed at the comedian's supercilious slams against religion, which he considers little more than unscientific superstition. Then this morning Ken forwarded this timely article to my Inbox. Thanks again Ken!

Proving the Existence of God Posted By Frank J. Tipler September 14, 2010 In 1966, Stephen Hawking published his first — completely valid — proof for the existence of God. Over the next seven years, he followed this with even more powerful valid theorems proving God’s existence. So how did Hawking, who successfully proved God’s existence, remain an atheist? Simple. He simply denied that the assumptions he used in his proofs were true. As a matter of logic, if the assumptions in a proof are not true, then the conclusions need not be true. What assumptions did the young Hawking make? He assumed that the laws of physics, mainly Einstein’s theory of gravity, were true. In the summary of his early research, namely his book The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, Hawking wrote: It seems to be a good principle that the prediction of [God] by a physical theory indicates that the theory has broken down, i.e. it no longer provides a correct description of observations. Hawking then began working on quantum gravity, in hopes that God would be at last eliminated from the equations. Alas, it was not to be: God was even more prominent — and unavoidable — in quantum gravity than in Einstein’s theory of gravity. In his latest book, The Grand Design, Hawking has pinned his hope of eliminating God on M-theory, a theory with no experimental support whatsoever, hence not a theory of physics at all. Nor has it been proven that M-theory is mathematically consistent. Nor has it been proven that God has been eliminated from M-theory. There are disquieting signs (for Hawking and company) that He is also unavoidable in M-theory, as He is in Einstein’s gravity, and in quantum gravity. In spite of what the atheist press is telling you, it’s looking bad for atheism today. And it is extraordinary the lengths an atheist like Hawking will go to avoid the obvious: God exists. The alert reader will have noticed that in the above quote, Hawking did not actually use the word “God.” But this is what he really meant. To see this, let us recall just what the word “God” means. Consider the opening words of the (original) Nicene Creed: “We believe in one God, the omnipotent Father, Maker of all things visible and invisible.” These words give the basic definition of “God” used by Christians and Jews: God is the Cause of everything, but He Himself has no cause. God is the Uncaused First Cause. In his Second Way, Thomas Aquinas proves the existence of the Uncaused First (efficient) Cause, and Aquinas concludes, “to which all give the name ‘God’ (quam omnes Deum nominant).” So now let us return to the theorems of the young Hawking. By following the history of the universe back into time — in other words, by following the causes of the current universe back into time — Hawking proved that all of these causes had a common cause; a common cause that did not itself have a cause. This common cause was an Uncaused Cause that was beyond the control of the laws of physics, beyond the control of any possible laws of physics. Rather, the entire universe began at this Uncaused First Cause. In exactly the same way that Aquinas used the word “create,” we can say that the Uncaused First Cause, whose existence was proven decades ago by Hawking, “created” the universe. Hawking called this Uncaused First Cause a “singularity.” But given the properties of this “singularity,” it is God. So I have replaced the word “singularity,” which Hawking actually used in the above quote, with what it really means according to Aquinas. To show how this Cosmological Singularity — the Uncaused First Cause — can manifest itself as a personal God would require a book, which I have written. Indeed, the personal nature of God is not obvious in Hawking’s proof of His existence. But neither is it obvious in the proof of Aquinas, and Aquinas also required a book to establish God’s personal nature. The interesting thing about Hawking’s existence proof for God is that it can be tested experimentally, since it is based on experimentally confirmed physical law. I published a paper in a refereed physics journal a few years ago pointing this out. Eventually the experiment will be done, but it will require tens of thousands of dollars for equipment. So don’t despair, my fellow theists! The recent slew of best-selling books by atheists attacking religion, supposedly using science, is their last gasp. Remember the great words of Gandhi: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” We theists are now at stage three. Frank J. Tipler is Professor of Mathematical Physics at Tulane University. He is the co-author of The Anthropic Cosmological Principle(Oxford University Press) and the author of The Physics of Immortality and The Physics of Christianity both published by Doubleday.

"Who's telling us the truth?"

We live in a time when social customs and political expediency have come to demand that people communicate and express themselves by telling each other convenient lies, rather than risk saying something that someone else might take offensively, or cause them to feel uneasy in their convictions or to start worrying that the truth of their values and beliefs is in dispute.

We're told we must speak and write "correctly" because there is no absolute truth, since what's true for you may not always be true for me. But if that's true for you, then it may not always be true for me. Which makes that statement a lie.

We're told that all religions are the same and therefore all faiths are equal, because there is no absolute truth, not about anything. So on any question involving morals or values there is no right or wrong, because the answer is always, "It depends."

But is "It depends" absolutely true? How can it be, if there are no absolute truths?

People will eagerly deny that absolute truth exists, because absolute truth condemns their personal beliefs and their values, their individual preferences, their lifestyle choices and their selfishness, their idolatry and all their wickedness ... and their hatred of the truth, too.

Does every sin start with a lie? I'm starting to think that's true. No wonder current times and "correctness" want nothing to do with the truth, because all Truth comes straight from the Word of God.

I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.

- Luke 18:17

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

- John 3:21

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

- Matthew 21:32

This is my command: Love each other.

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

- John 15:17-19

"Just horsing around with members of his staff"

Police: Bieber Hit Md. Troopers With Water Balloons

Pop Star Accused Of 'Inappropriate Behavior'

BALTIMORE -- It seems teen sensation Justin Bieber had a bit of a run-in with Maryland state troopers before his sold-out concert Sunday at the Maryland State Fair.

Thousands of fans attended Sunday night's concert at the Timonium Fairgrounds.

A state police spokesperson said Bieber, while "horsing around with members of his staff," threw water balloons at two troopers, the 11 News I-Team's Jayne Miller reported.

One of the balloons hit a trooper's gun belt and burst, and the other brushed a trooper on the chest but didn't burst, Miller reported.

It happened outside a trailer Bieber was using before the concert. The troopers were there for crowd control.

- source

Today is One Five Oh

How were you doing at 9AM this morning?

It's 12:21AM as I write this, so I'll assume you're joining this post on Tuesday. How's your day been going so far? I mean, since yesterday was the end of the Labor Day weekend.

I imagine that sometime around 7AM lots of folks heard the alarm and started shouting bad words (or throwing things) at the alarm. A few probably even had a little bit of trouble getting out of bed, sadly wondering how their vacation had flown by so quickly.

Maybe a handful of others spent a good long time wide awake in the shadows before the alarm went off, thinking about the stressful things in their lives ... like that situation coming up at work, or the fretful condition of their marriage (or relationship; or the lack of marriage or meaningful romantic relationship), or their credit card debt or about the dim prospects for improvement in any those areas.

Could be one or two were wide awake all night, thinking about that thing that happened a long time ago that no one else knows about.

I'm sure more than a handful simply couldn't feel any good reason to get out of bed and face the day, even though they did it anyway. Like robots, simply responding to instructions.

You might have been one of them.

Or, you might have been one of the gung-ho Yee-ha, I Can't Wait To Be Anywhere So I Can Get Busy Asserting Myself So You'll Know I'm Here and I'm In Charge Type A Personality types willing to brutalize your new SUV's engine warranty on the way to work if it'll save three seconds of driving time (meanwhile pressure-testing your arteries waiting for the "stupid jerk with his head up his phone" ahead of you at the red light to pay attention, hang up from his conversation, notice the light's been green for 10 minutes and finally kick the gas pedal).

Or when you woke up this morning and looked at the clock, you might not have felt anything at all ... Is it really Tuesday? ... because you haven't felt anything change or been part of anything worth mentioning, because nothing has seemed worth remembering or looking forward to for a long, long time.

If that's you, maybe life feels like it's passing you by ... and this morning you felt a tug to make a change, but then doing something seemed like too much work, so before climbing out of bed and facing another day you did the usual thing and pushed that thought aside.

Regardless, whether at 9AM this morning you found yourself worrying about your finances, or complaining to yourself about your job, or felt hostile about your marriage or bitter about a relationship, or resentful of lost opportunities, felt disrespected, ignored or unloved, or woke up blaming someone else for all the problems in your life ... then Please remember this:

At 9AM on a morning almost two thousand years ago, Jesus found himself abandoned and denied by his closest friends, sleep deprived, accused, tried, found guilty, whipped, flailed and bleeding, seconds away from being nailed to a cross at the top of a hill called The Place of The Skull, crucified with nails through his hands and his feet between two outlaws, for sins he never committed.

For our sins, because he loved us that much.

So how's your day been going so far, truly?

Instead of cussing out the guy ahead of you at the red light, instead of screaming and calling your spouse ugly names in anger, instead of thinking about how to get revenge at work, instead of thinking about filling up the tank with gas and driving away from the bank and the credit card companies forever, think about pulling over soon as you're safely through the intersection ... and praying to thank God out loud that Christ's sacrifice means we'll never face the same kind of terrible, horrific 9AM morning Jesus suffered and endured on our behalf.

Lost by Translation

Just got back from running a few errands on this gorgeous Saturday afternoon.

On the way home I stopped at a sandwich shop to pick up a sub. I told the girl behind the counter which sandwich I wanted but even though I was the only customer in the store, I still had trouble hearing and understanding her thick Asian-Pacific accent.

After five attempts at failed communication and three times repeating "Twelve inch Philly Cheese Steak please," she resorted to pointing at two trays of meat that, at least to my eye, looked exactly the same. "Sure," I said, even though I had no idea if anything about my sandwich was sure.

No big deal, but I didn't get the sandwich I ordered.

To me it was a bigger deal was that none of the other employees behind the counter bothered to step forward and offer to help either of us with our obvious communication problems, and so the message got lost.

--

On the walk back to the marina it occurred to me that upon hearing the gospel for the first time, not everyone understands, comprehends or grasps Christ's message as clearly we might think.

I'm not talking about language or cultural differences, and I'm not saying either the listener or the speaker is at fault. I simply mean not everyone has the gift of clear communication (on the flip side I also mean people like me, who can't comprehend anything the first time they hear it).

I am talking about what happens when uniform-wearing believers show up for work and then stand around behind the service counter trying to look busy, without once offering to help when it's clear there's someone standing before them who needs to hear the gospel is having trouble understanding and grasping the message.

I know how grateful and appreciative I would've been 30 minutes ago if somebody behind the sandwich counter had stepped up and offered to help me understand what I was getting.

At least in this case, it was only my sandwich that got lost by the lack of translation.

Can I get all my sins double-bagged, please

I save all my plastic grocery bags to use later as trash bags. Sometimes the bags get tiny holes in the bottom, which can be a problem if galley (kitchen) stuff starts draining toward the bottom.

That's why when I have two bags with holes, I'll use them together and double bag my trash.

Just a few minutes ago I dumped a paper plate and a plastic spoon into my double-bagged trash bag and guess what? The spoon slid right out the bottom and went dancing across the deck (floor).

The next five, count them, five times I put the spoon back in the bag it somehow magically did exactly the same thing.

How is that possible?

Turns out the spoon was just the right shape and size and weight and had just the right slickness to slide its way through and out the bottom. I couldn't believe it.

On my sixth attempt I jammed the spoon inside the plastic assortment box it came in, crumpled both in half and dropped them together inside the bag. That time the spoon stayed put.

Then a plastic fork fell out the bottom. No kidding ... and I never did find the hole.

--

That real life scenario reminded me of how some folks see Salvation, and how complicated and legalistic God's gift can become once men start creating doctrines, theologies and traditions.

Some religions describe Salvation as an uncertain, can never be sure, always in doubt and permanently unsettled thing: Have you done every good work possible for today? What about sinning? Sure, maybe you already asked God for forgiveness, but are you absolutely certain you remembered to ask forgiveness for every single sin you committed today? You did? Then Pride just caused you to commit another sin, and therefore your salvation is in doubt.

Christ's sacrifice on the cross for our sins didn't leave room for doubt.

Christ's love didn't involve jumping through church hoops and wasn't dependent on any legalistic man-made rituals. Nor did Christ's resurrection require a vote or a convention statement explaining church policies before it happened. What did happen was that God loved us so much that he sent his one and only son to die in our place, that whoever believed in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Pure and simple: we can't double bag what Christ's already done.

No religious double bagging or traditional re-arranging our trash is ever required to make sure none of our sins fall out the bottom.

"I Hate Your Nasty Stinking Guts"

Ever been in the same room when something suddenly blows up and two people in a relationship decide to have a fight?

Things get uncomfortable in a hurry, and only get worse once both participants decides it's gloves-off and start addressing each other as though no one else is within earshot to hear the vitriol and name-calling that comes flying out of their mouths.

I can't stand the sight of you!

You make me sick!

I must be crazy to think I ever loved you!

You'll never change!

Of course the reality is that people say much, much uglier things than that.

--

Do those folks really mean what they say? Even if they know they'll be forgiven, why intentionally antagonize the other person by saying them in the first place? To emphasize their feelings? To express hurt and anger? At some point maybe screaming, name-calling and finger pointing simply becomes a habit.

Or in a relationship (or marriage), is that kind of insulting ugliness and antagonism only "natural"?

--

No matter what's happened that makes a person feel like screaming I Hate Your Guts, that sentiment can't come close to describing how God feels about sin. Yet God doesn't start insulting us in his wrath, and he doesn't call us ugly names and then ask us for forgiveness. So why do we think it's OK for us to rant and rave any time we feel provoked?

People who feel self-important in their faith, who look down on sinners, should consider that.

None of us live completely without sin. None of us has reason to praise ourselves for our righteousness, and we should always remember our humbleness before the Father when we ask his forgiveness before confronting others for their sins. God is perfect and holy, but we fall short every time.

We should remember too that God's never come to any of us asking for our forgiveness.

"Hey Ref, whose TEAM are you on???"

Ever noticed how we treat God as though he's either a spectator watching the game of our lives from his Heavenly sky box, or else folks believe The Father's beside them on the playing field as the game's referee ... which sometimes sounds like fun, because we think it's great having our Father as our game's referee.

Even though he's our Father, some believers treat God's on-field presence as an irritating but necessary part of the game's structure while secretly hoping our Father The Ref pays more attention to our opponents and how they play than he does watching to see if we're staying in bounds or lining up in an illegal formation.

During the game we tell our opponents The Ref is always impartial, unerring and perfect, while at the same time expecting every judgement call will go our way, just as we expect a great spot after every play.

Because The Ref's our Father, we get frustrated when he rules our passes out of bounds or calls us for being offsides or penalizes us by moving life's ball backwards.

If we think God's missed a call we feel it's perfectly OK to gripe, complain and throw our helmets on the ground, and that it's our right to throw a red flag on the field and demand that God stop the game and take a timeout so he can review the action on Instant Replay and see where he made a mistake and blew the call.

That's pretty arrogant, but what's most wrong with all those perspectives?

What's wrong is that God's not a spectator watching our game from the bleachers, God's not on the field as a referee to make sure life's always fair and God doesn't show up on game day to play on our team. And we certainly don't have any right to question The Creator's calls.

--

God doesn't show up once a week to watch or referee our game; God's there 24x7x365 because he owns the team, because he created the game and because the rules and the playing field and the stadium all belong to him.

As believers we're on the field for him and belong to his team. Not vice versa.