Why I don’t call myself a Conservative

Once when I was a child in school I remember asking one of my teachers what the difference was between a conservative and a liberal.  She answered, “A conservative is one who wants to keep things the same and a liberal is someone who wants to change things.”

I answered, “If the liberals ever succeed in changing things and the conservatives want to change it back, doesn’t that make the conservatives liberal and the liberals conservative?”

“No .. it doesn’t”  I can’t quite remember the rest if she thought it was silly or ridiculous but today I was reminded of this as we see many of our Republican leaders who are often referred to as RINOs lean ever further to the left and hardly believe in a republic anymore but because they are in the Republican party are still called Republicans even though they are hardly the sort.

Similar to their Democratic brethren who’ve leaned to the left they are hardly democrats anymore. They are oligarchs.

It’s almost as though at the time they were named because the name meant something a Republican was someone who believed in the rule of law and not just mob rule with 51% of the vote to make sure everyone has equal protection under the law.  Democrats at some point I believe were named so because they would like to believe they want the rule of the majority.

Somewhere along the lines the meanings of the names simply came to represent which brand or team you are, like the Cardinals and the Cubs or Coke and Pepsi.

And the people on either side became men of position rather then men of conviction.

The same thing happened to terms meant to describe them like conservatives and liberals.  The Left have become increasingly professional at swapping terms around to cover their tracks.  As soon as we become familiar with a term like Liberal or Global Warming and what they really mean suddenly they want to use words like Progressive and Climate Change.

How are we supposed to keep track if the labels never stick.  And that is part of the strategy I believe.  But for now I’d like to look at a few of these terms and why they are used.

Liberal has its root in the word liberty.  Of course liberty brings to mind positive connotations of being free and at liberty to do what we want.  But in reality the group calling themselves Liberals want nothing more than to remove our freedom.  They could even care less if we were born and are perfectly happy if our parents would have chosen to abort us preferably before we were born because then they can apply a term like abortion to it instead of murder as if there was really a difference. So once we started realizing abortion was murder they now call it planned parenthood.

Liberals also want to control what we buy and how much we manufacture in the name of saving the planet from yet another fictitious global disaster. I think they operate out of a combination of two camps. Those who want and desire control and those raised in the education system where we are all taught about these dangers where we sincerely want to save the planet until we reach a point where we realize what we  are taught doesn’t match what we observe. Then we either make their desire for control our own or we break free. I went to public school I was there, I know what they taught us.

Now they want to be called Progressives.  From the term “liberal” we can almost guess that since they were trying to cover up a lack of liberty they used Liberal as their name and now if they call themselves Progressive perhaps they are really for the opposite of “progress”?  Of course they call themselves progressive because they want the name to insinuate progress and that brings to mind “moving forward” and anyone who would dare stand against them must not be for progress and is therefore backward.  It’s really quite smart. They’ve used this very argument on the left in regards to republicans.  I remember one speech where the leftist asked “…the Republicans keep saying they want to go back. To when? 1850s?” (I think they were trying to prevent us from looking at the 1850s as a better time but that is a tangent for another day)

Did you know that there were communists some time back that called themselves “Progressives” to hide that they are or were communists?  I’ve provided a link below regarding David Horowitz who claimed this of his parents.

But if we’ve taken a wrong turn and we are now going the wrong way then turning around and going back might be backward from our current position and heading relatively, but not in regards to where we want to be in regards to the unchanging standard. From where we want to be, going back would be moving forward.

When people play with the meanings of the words or worse yet, remove meaning from words they can manipulate those who think they know what the words mean or rather think that those using the same words mean the same as us.  Sort of like when they were vetting the supreme court justices recently and they made comments about the “rule of law”.  The left does not mean the same thing as us when they use words and phrases like “rule of law”.

Then there’s conservatives.  Some people are so conservative they should’ve changed their label long ago … but then by default I suppose that is what makes them one. This word is to conserve or to keep things the same.  But in this fallen depraved world we can’t dare ever leave things as they are. We must always fight to abolish evil to make sure there is justice for the widow, the orphan, and the poor.

“All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But… if you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.” – G.K. Chesterton

I posted this this morning and I’m sure I raised a few eyebrows.  I wonder sometimes if people notice that I don’t label myself a conservative.  I don’t want to be like the Left and apply a label to myself that doesn’t really mean what I am or what I am trying to do.

Do we really want to conserve things?  As they are?  If we want to repeal Obamacare and get back to the Constitution that sure sounds like we actually want to change things.  Obama and other progressives not only want to keep things this way but go further down this path.  So now the Liberals want to hold the ground they’ve won and Conservatives want to change things.

Does this make the Conservatives liberal and the Liberals conservative?  I still think I’m right in regards to that teacher I was talking about earlier. Because ultimately she missed my point. That the words she gave meaning didn’t really mean to her what she told me.  They were nothing more than brand names. Or did she want me to only think of them as brand names while she slipped up and gave me a definition. Truly the confusion in this area is so deep I don’t even think she would know.

I’ve posted in my Info currently that Politically I am Biblical.  The Bible has a lot to say about politics and I believe the Biblical way is the proper way things are done. A friend of mine called me a reformer when I was explaining this to him so I looked it up.

re·form transitive verb

1a : to put or change into an improved form or condition b : to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses

2: to put an end to (an evil) by enforcing or introducing a better method or course of action

Perhaps Conservatives would be better suited to become Reformers. Doesn’t this sound more like what we want?  To improve our condition. To remove faults and abuses?  To put an end to evil run amok in our country?  And then even when we’ve greatly improved things there is always room for improvement especially educating our children to know our values and why they are our values.  Why we are not communists, fascists, leftists or otherwise.

And yes, I realize that the Bible teaches that this world is going to get worse, but nowhere in the Bible does it say we are to simply go behind closed doors and wait for Jesus to return. As Jesus said, we are to occupy until he comes.  That’s going to cost us as the world gets worse. We must keep our eye on the goal.

And who wants to be a conservative Christian anyway?  Don’t you want to grow in love and knowledge and Holiness through Jesus Christ our Lord?  Or are we really happy just staying the way we are?  Did He really save us so we can remain as we are?

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Was it a bunch of Conservatives that unleashed the Bible into the hands of the populace during the Reformation or was it Reformers?

The danger with being Conservative is if there is evil and we simply want to “keep things they way they are” then the down trodden will never have any hope of justice, then agents offering “Hope and Change” will once again seep in and deceive the down trodden … smother them in darkness and with their lies bind them.

I would rather be a Reformer and label myself as such because the words we use have meaning and I think the meaning of the words “reformer”, “constitutional”,or “biblical” more aptly describe what I am politically than conservative.

Ephesians 5:11

Some other reading:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/liberty_sovereignty_and_arizon.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/absolutely_fabulists_liberal_m.html

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/are-progressives-really-just-communists-in-disguise/question-820105/

Bloggin’ and some Political links

I haven’t really blogged for a while as I seem to post most stuff at Facebook or Twitter.  I originally set out to just copy everything from one to the other or find some way to sync it, but I haven’t a clue how to do either time effectively.

In the  meantime, I’ve also collected a huge list of links I haven’t posted at all just because I’d collect them at break or post them in one spot but not another, but a few are getting a bit dated now.  It’s just that as soon as you think the government or something is done doing one stupid thing they’re gallivanting off to the next stupid thing. So I thought I’d just categorize them as best as possible and let anyone who wants to go at them, have at them.

I’ve stopped counting on any semblance of news from Mainstream Media(MSM) Unless I want to know the latest gossip plaguing Tiger Woods or Michael Jackson.  They ought to be covering ClimateGate, Healthcare or any other thing that has been shoved down our throats for all these years when they are just now being shown that things like Global Warming is false that’s why they have to change the name. Or Socialized medicine is bad. But rather than refute it or pretend to agree with it, they shamefully go for gossip.  I suppose they can only stand lying in limited quantities.

So here are some of the links I’ve collected:

Farah’s commentary on our MSM:
A Halloween media nightmare story
The shameful non-coverage of 9/12

Open letter to our hypocrites in office:
The Steady Drip: An Open Letter To The President, Congress and Supreme Court:

On Global Warming:
CNSNews.com – Scientists Rebut Claim That Man Causes Climate Change
BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | What happened to global warming?
Scientist: Cap and trade will hurt Earth
Politically Conservative/Republican/Libertarian community

War
President Obama, time to make a decision
IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER URGES MUSLIMS TO MOBILIZE AGAINST U.S. AND ISRAEL TO PREPARE FOR MESSIAH’S ARRIVAL « Joel Rosenberg’s Weblog

Politics
American Thinker: The political battleground shifts – takes a while to get into but an interesting read.

Abortion
It Is My Business – TOM SHAW
Tearjerker: 5 alive after woman makes 1 brave choice

Homosexuality
‘Gay’ gene claim suddenly vanishes
Gay activists acknowledge severe health risks of lifestyle
Negative Health Effects of Homosexuality

Free book “The Law”
The Law, by Frederic Bastiat

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Migraines

As some of you know I’ve suffered chronic headaches for the last few years. Actually headache. It just never ended. In fact the last time I remember not having a headache was in May/June 2006 when I was in the hospital and forced to fast for a few days for tests.

Since then I’ve dealt with a steady headache that I would rate a 2 or 3 and then occasionally it would spike for a day or more ranging between 7-10. Usually once it gets past 7 everything is unbearable.

I’ve been dizzy, mentally unclear, unable to even form sentences, seen auras and just been made plain sick by these things.

I’ve tried different diets, and lately I’ve even started to try exercising but my biggest challenge has been the last few months. I’ve felt so tired and so drained during the migraines that when I woke up in the mornings my first objective was to see just how much more I could sleep.

Obviously I don’t blog about this a whole lot, because its just bad news with bad news with a side of complaint. But today something clicked. I’ve been praying for God to heal me or if that wasn’t in his will to show me what I could do to stop these things from running away with me.

Thank you for your prayers as well. God has been good today. During my break at work I did some looking up of migraines on the net and I believe God is helping me put the pieces together.

I found that milk can cause migraines. And during any elimination diet, milk, cheese, and ice cream are all something that I’ve never given up. So I did a search on “too much milk” and found that too much can lower your iron count. Well the last few times I’ve given blood they’ve told me my iron count was low. Lack of iron can make you sleepy which I was practically all the time.

And I’m practically a milk-aholic. After all I grew up in the 80s and I listened to Mr. T. Apparently there is such a thing as too much milk.

I’ve taken iron before but they usually make me feel worse not better, so I talked to my chiropractor Dr Wolfswinkel about it and he had a whole food product that increases your iron count. Ferrofood. I took some tonight and I have to say wow what a difference. My headache is down to 2 or 3 from a 5. And I’ve been so awake tonight and full of energy.

I still have to give up dairy for a week or two to fully get it out of my system and then I can try different dairy products but minimally to make sure I don’t cause my headaches again.

I do know a few other things that can swing my headaches one way or the other and I’m hoping that I’ve finally nailed the major culprit. I’ve got to admit, for as much research as I’ve done there is always new stuff to learn.

This will be a bit rough. Like I said, I’m a milk-aholic. Dr. Wolfswinkel said that we usually crave the things that are the worst for us. Like smoking.

As Christian I think of sin like that. It always something we want to do while at same time poison to our soul.

Anyway, I’m just so excited and happy! I’ve actually thought that I may have to just put up with these migraines and headaches and now well if tonight is any indication, now I have a shot at eliminating these things.

God bless,
Daniel

PS. Just in case you’re wondering none of the doctors or nurses said anything about milk possibly being a problem with my iron or my headaches. The pieces just didn’t fit because it is very uncommon for adult males to have these particular problems.

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Jesus Music

When it comes to Music, I’ve always felt a bit alone. Except when it comes to soundtracks, most music I listen to, I’m hard pressed to find another who likes it too.

When I was growing up, to around 1989 when I was 12 I just listened to whatever Mom and Dad did and most of what they listened to was Contemporary Christian Music (CCM for short) or oldies.

At some point later that year I heard something I’d never really heard before called rap. I think this was on one of those satellite stations that my cousin got but I don’t remember. The sound set my ears and heart on fire and I had to listen to more.

Oskaloosa got radio stations like KBOE and oldies and then classical and then other 80s rock at that time … no rap there. Perhaps I could ask my parents for a rap cassette for Christmas.

I remember the look of shock on their faces. It looked like this :^O At that time they either didn’t know what rap was or all they could think of was all the cursing or the girly chasing that was done.

Not wanting to disappoint me they found a CD that year by a brand new group called dc Talk who also was a Christian group which meant I was safe from any cursing or “girly chasing”

I liked it. It had a bit of grunge rock/rap thing going on with a bunch of stuff mixed in that shouldn’t work but did. I also started checking out other Christian artists like Petra, Degarmo & Key, White Heart, and some of the calmer stuff like Ray Boltz and Dallas Holm.

Who are those guys?

Exactly. Most of the people in my class really didn’t know them. I liked them a lot. Still do. When I wanted to talk music I had to find the nearest Vennard Student who either liked the same stuff or at least knew who I was talking about.

When it comes down to it, I just never got into secular music that much. The closest I get to secular is a good movie sound track. I didn’t even really like Kiss’s “Rock and Roll and party everyday” song when I first heard it in gym class. Then I heard it like a hundred million times in gym class and would now rather smash a radio and pay someone for it than risk ever hearing that song again.

Another problem has always been that I’ve pretty much had to listen to demos in the store as best I could or take my chances in buying a cd because the radio station never played it.

But nonetheless I ended up with something of a unique taste in music. I miss Sam Goody being in Osky. I was starting to find some great international music there before they closed.

Wal-Mart doesn’t really carry bands like Angela, Hikaru Utada, 12 girls band, or Jackie Chan. Yes that’s a joke as far as I know he doesn’t sing professionally. It’s hard enough to buy this music let alone a radio station playing it.

KBOE is not about to break from country any time soon. Shame.

At some point Pella got a Christian radio station and I thought, finally I’ll have a station I can tune into to listen to the music that I like ….

Unless the Christian Rock band played any Worship song then KCWN probably doesn’t play it. We’re fortunate that they play Newsboys praise song with a rock edge to it. But if KCWN ever played anything that didn’t sound like it came straight from Easy Listening it’d be an act of God.

I mean couldn’t they play classic christian rock at least? Generally once music hits 15-20 yrs old it is considered safe even though it never changed. As Larry Norman once wrote, “Why should the Devil have all the good music?” He wrote this because there are some “Christians” who consider anything that might make your toe tap is from the devil, even if the song speaks of Jesus.

Today I still listen to some of the old stuff. I still like it and I probably always will. But I’ve also found a love for newer stuff and metal. Demon Hunter, FireFlight, Flyleaf, The Showdown, and others.

And though these bands sing lyrics that no Christian would be against KCWN will not play them.

If there are any stations playing this kind of music they’d better let me know in person cause I so don’t listen to music radio that much I’ll probably never find the station if it is out there.

If I do listen to radio I prefer talk. It’s usually politics or news and I love the debate and the exchange of ideas. I get angry and I get good laughs. Without the risk of listening to music I don’t really like.

There are few people I can listen to my music with and we both know and enjoy the songs. I’ve been told my music is too preachy, too old, lacking something and the list goes on.

The strange part is these artists have concerts and they are usually always full, so it’s not like they don’t have their fans around here, I just happen to not know many of them.

In the end I often feel I’m Musically alone. Yes this sometimes bums me out, cuz I really do like what I listen to and I’d like to share it with people and not just get complaints.

But that’s not why I’m writing this. Or even to start a music debate. I’m just pondering an idea. I mean what would happen if I ever got a radio station. What if I didn’t play CCM? What if I really did play “Jesus Rock & Roll”, man? or Jesus Metal? Jesus Blues? What if I formatted it so there was no mention of Southern Gospel? Unless they pay good money to pay for an ad about a concert or something?

I mean if I formatted it to play as Baz Luhrman once had a CD entitled “SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE” but it was of course geared towards Christians who want to rock out and dance and go nuts for God? I’d probably try to throw in some J-POP for you Otaku too!

Would you listen? Would you be curious? Would you say like me that it’s about time? Would you say that I’m crazy? … uhm don’t answer that one. ;^)

I once was a DJ on KIGC on Sunday. I did play anything and everything “Christian” I could get my hands on to play on the Sunday show. I even had some people call in for requests. Some of them asked me to play something normal… but then there were the others. The ones who liked the same thing that I did. I’m pretty sure I had 3 fans.

I’m so proud. I know it’s not a lot, but not everyone can claim to have 3 fans at some point in their lives. Ok I jest. I don’t know if I had fans or not, but the point is there is a hole in the area looking to be filled. People who actually do love Jesus and good music. And people who may not love Jesus but are looking for something good and different to listen to and then find that there is a God and He loves them.

My good friend pointed out, since his church is looking to build/buy a radio station that plays Christian music for old farts and farmers and they expect this to be a mission to reach non-Christians…. How exactly does playing music that no one but a Christian would want to listen to be a mission? Ok, you might reach the “Non-Christian” old farts and farmers, but that rules out a lot of people.

I’ve wondered before, but I wonder again what could we do if we got our hands on a Radio Station? Plug in some Jesus Music and Rock out?

Personally I think it’d be like pulling teeth. It’d hurt to start with, but once the bad teeth are out and the dental work is done, then maybe we could enjoy it.

I’ll leave you on this note. The Newsboys have a song that says to “SHINE! Make them wonder what you got. Make them wish that they were not, on the outside looking bored!”

Of course the song also mentions a transformation so great that vegetarians may BBQ hamsters… I’m pretty sure it’s a metaphor, and no hamsters were harmed in the making of the video.

Importing Blog

I’m currently importing my blog from Myspace to here.  So some of the links or references may not work or make sense.  I will try to go thru and update these as time allows, but only after the import is finished.  Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be an easier way than copy and paste, but at least so far most of the links and pictures are working ok.

Thanks for your patience on this.

Rant about Wal-Mart and DVDs

I had to go to Wal-Mart. It’s hard to find things that I want there so I usually try to just avoid it. Also I’m just letting off a little steam with a buyer beware thing that I just realized while piecing this together.

I have to go back for one more thing tomorrow and then I think I can ignore Wal-Mart for a while after that.

I got the movie Speed Racer which I really liked as a gift. They had an offer that consisted of the message “Get a Digital Copy” on the sticker and in the case it had instructions. I thought that would be nice to get before the offer expires since they are taking the work out of making a mobile movie for me, then I found they wanted $1.99 for the digital copy. Not a big price, but I already own the DVD. Why would I pay another $2 for the same movie I already own? The answer is, “I don’t pay another $2″

So while I was at Wal-Mart I noticed another sticker on movies that “include a digital copy” are $5 more.

So what’s going on here? I mean the sticker makes it look like you’re getting an extra thing for free, but it looks like you are really paying extra for the same movie twice.

In case you’re wondering here’s what I think is fair pricing:

old movies 5-10 yrs at $9 or less
movies 2-5 yrs old at $10 or less
current movies $15 or less
$20 is pushing it unless they got good extras
Anything more than $20 better have some cool collectible or be a season of a tv series.
Full Screen Movies should have an automatic $5 deduction in cost unless they were originally made that way. (I don’t really want to spend full price for a movie that has the sides chopped off.)
Anything that includes a copy of the exact same movie in another form should not cost more.

I know I don’t get to pick the prices but I do get to pick what I spend money on. This is just what I think is fair and base my purchases on unless there is a rarity or collectibility thing involved with getting the DVD.

So when they pull this $25 for two copies of the same movie selling for $20 without the digital copy it smells bad.

They are already raising prices on movies and now they are trying to pull this crap on us.

I wonder if I could just buy the $5 digital version.

————

There is a possibility I missed something since I was a bit tired when I discovered this, so let me know. I just wanted to vent and warn of a possibly bum purchase.

*UPDATE*
It appears that the $25 DVD with Digital copy may be the Special Edition with extra content. The odd thing about this is I just did a quick check at WalMart.com and the movies were about $4-5 less on the site. Anyway the special edition contains 3 discs. 1 with extra content disc and the third disc with digital version of the movie and digital versions of some of the extra content.

Then it says the list price is $30, but they’re selling it for $21.86 so you get a deal. I’m guessing some of this is to make up for shipping cost, but I still think something is up with the price on these things.

Road Rage for Patience

I’ve purposely titled this backwards because this is how I feel. I prayed for patience about 1-2 years ago. I knew and still know that I too often want things to change now. So patience I thought was a good thing to pray for.

I have the weirdest travel to work stories from this time. I only live 5-10 minutes from work and it was during this time of prayer for patience that I began to experience an unusually high number of people running red lights, four way stops, or just plain cutting me off. This was happening no less than once per trip to work up to 3 times during a single trip and then no less than once on the way back home. I was downright mad and angry about how careless these drivers were.

Finally I took it to God and asked, “WHAT’S WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!”

In my heart I heard, “You’re the one that was praying for patience.”

Then I laughed and realized how foolish I’d been. In my quest for patience I’d expected God to just make me patient. But if God does that then what kind of person am I? I’m like a robot awaiting programing. God instead was giving me a chance to practice patience.

I’m glad God is more patient than me, because some time later, I found myself praying once again in frustration, “Ok, God, I understand that I need patience but can I have a break from all these close calls with these vehicles?”

Then I heard in my heart, “You can if you stop praying for patience.”

Yes, I was still praying for patience but for some reason I thought that God would give me a break or change methods, but apparently this was one of those prayers that God was very willing to answer for me. And He knew just where to coach me. In a place I very much needed it. I will pray for patience again someday … maybe, but for now I need a break. Occasionally I still have those close calls, and they still serve as a reminder to be patient.

James 1:2-4 says this regarding my encounter:
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

So its like going to the gym. Working out is tough and grueling but it eventually helps you lose weight, look and feel better, and be healthier overall.

Lately I’ve been praying for “Unity” in the church. I wonder how will our unity be tested so that we may practice it. I’ve prayed that we would love one another and wonder will we love one another even when it appears that we ourselves are not loved.

I believe our perceptions may be played against us. When I prayed for patience and those cars tested mine, the people in the other cars showed no knowledge of doing wrong. As far as I know, they thought they were driving perfectly fine and never knew that I was insulted by them.

If our unity and love is tested the same way my patience was, there may be those that wrong me, and not know it. Will I love them even if they don’t show me love? Or maybe I’m the guy in the other car, cutting someone off and not knowing it. Will they love me if I fail to show them love?

Or maybe we both did fine, but took offense anyway. Will we give each other the benefit of the doubt?

When given the opportunity to practice loving our neighbor as ourselves will we take advantage to practice loving? Or will we simply complain, and say that it isn’t our fault, so don’t give us no blame.

I must urge all my brothers and sisters to love one another even in the face of adversity. We must love those most, who we perceive to love us least. Because those who have so little need it the most, and that I believe will allow us to shine the light of Christ and grow stronger in our Unity and our Love.

And who knows. Maybe we will find that we were the ones that needed their love all along. That they never stopped loving us despite our perceptions.

And if we’ve already fallen short, we have Christ’s forgiveness to lift us up and we should show them love now, before it’s too late.

No one said it was easy for a tiny seed to die and become something it never was before. A large tree. In this way I perceive our faith as a seed and when we are finished growing, our faith will be as a large tree. The growing, however, is not easy.

“We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage” – John Newton

Sexy ads annoy me.

Category: MySpace

The sexy singles ads on myspace are annoying me. Isn’t there anything else anyone could sell on this site?

I mean it was different when I had my status set to single, I expected the dating service ads to be in full swing. Since I’ve set my status to engaged I don’t want any singles ads and now the women in these ads are more then ever trying to draw my attention to them. Most of the ads try to get you to focus right on the breasts. Maybe the butt but mostly the breasts.

It’s obvious that’s what they want you to look at to think if you go to that site all the women may just open up their shirts to tease you a bit. It’s attractive, cheap, and a low blow against both sexes at the same time.

At least for the most part they’re not touting “love” when it is “lust” they are promoting, but dang it. Lust is a weakness of mine. I want to look, I don’t want to look. I hate the ads and I hate the lust that keeps trying to steal my eyes and heart.

Does this bug anyone else? When I set my status to married are they going to continue promoting me finding a mate?

Have we really sunk this low where we’ll settle for anything and anyone touting a bit of skin, when it is true love most of us are really longing for?

It’s the internet and it’s hard enough to keep a pure relationship. Instead of promoting infidelity couldn’t they look at my status as “Engaged” and be recommending movies like Fireproof, or books on staying with the one you marry? Oh heck forget selling relationships altogether and just sell video games, movies, books, anime, bicycles, cars, homes, manga or just about anything else.

Maybe if there are any Myspace programmers that come across this you could help me out here. But for now I’ll do my best to advert my eyes.

Oh be careful little eyes, what you see.

Engaged

Yes, That’s right, for those of you who didn’t know, I am engaged.

I met Amanda a long time ago, but we never really hung out until after meeting up at the Christmas Parade last year. Then we met up again at the New Years Party and then at that time we decided that we would only be friends.

But after only a week more of hanging out we knew there was more here than just a friendship.

Now this all came just after I collected my thoughts on dating and marriage so we had a discussion with her pastor on the issue when we got to talking one night, which led me and Amanda to have a discussion of our own. We knew then that we would like to be married, but I don’t know about her, but I wanted more time to fully wake up to this. So we told our families, and talked to my pastor, but never really made an official announcement.

Now about a month ago, we got to playing around with some dates and finally decided that God willing we’d like to be married May 2nd the first weekend in May while it was still spring next year. And from there she started telling people out of excitement. I was wanting to get her a ring first because to me it seems unofficial without it, but I didn’t want to stifle her excitement so I said go ahead.

I finally caught up cuz I’m slow with such things, so I wanted to tell as many people in real life before I blogged about it. And then I realized I can’t get the word out fast enough.

Well here it, is. We have the rings. My Grandparents’ wedding and engagement ring. This last Saturday we went to Fairfield to get them sized and fixed up for us. I was expecting to spend so much money so I saved, and then God blessed it and made it not cost near as much as I thought they would.

This weekend I should have the rings at which time we will according to my “C” type personality will be officially engaged.

Standing … you may get mad.

This is primarily for Christians. Read it if you want. Be interested to see what anyone thinks, but if you don’t like being ticked off then don’t read it. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Not to sound too up on myself here, but lately when I watch, read, or listen to the news I feel like I’m in the middle of a gap watching people take up sides.

Maybe its the current presidential race going on, or maybe its looking back thru history at the founder’s faith in God and recognizing our own evil that they wrote our Declaration and Constitution so carefully, up until the point they kick prayer out of school and hearing so many different people’s ideas of right and wrong until it is no longer about certain rights and wrongs but only relative right and wrong depending on the individual.

I stand looking and I wonder how long?

I’m a Christian. Christ rescued me a couple of years ago.

To me there’s Christianity and then there’s everything else. Jesus spoke the truth when he said, He’s the truth, the way and the life. and no one goes to the Father except by him. So according to him its by him or you don’t go. If you don’t believe what he said, then you either think he’s a liar or a lunatic. If you say he never existed, then remember I’m currently directing this to Christians.
If you are a Christian but don’t believe that Jesus existed, then well … that’s just weird.

I stand in the gap and wonder not about the non-Christians. I don’t expect them to behave or act a certain way. I don’t expect them to believe in Jesus, or that he told the truth. Heck I expect them to be mad at me or think I’m crazy for claiming to know “the truth” but yet another topic.

I stand in the gap as I see different Christians line up against each other.

Recently Charles Barkley … (although half the bloggers say its Barclay so I hope I picked the correct spelling) said that conservative Christians are fake Christians. He then gets on them (conservatives) for judging others. About how conservatives say abortion and gay marriage are wrong. He says they ought not to judge others.

I’m not going to rebuttal Sir Charles as that is also not my point.

My point is the different reactions of Christians. Or at least those that claim to be.

It’s at times like this I see myself with an over-sized sword. Swinging it around and ready to cut myself. But here goes:

I think Sir Charles brought up a point inadvertently of course, but a point nonetheless. That the church has actually done a terrible job in judging. Too often I hear people talk about others. How that man loves that man in a special way and how terrible it is and such a sin. Then they go home to live with their boyfriend or girlfriend they haven’t and may not marry.

The Bible doesn’t say that we shouldn’t judge anything. Matthew 7:1-6 says this:

1″Do not judge, or you too will be judged.2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3″Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
6″Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.

Verses 1 and 2 are great by themselves. People like it because then you can’t tell them anything is wrong about anything, but if you add in verses 3-6 you see this is talking about not judging others on the same sin you yourself are guilty of.

I think when Catholic priests are found hurting children or when Fred Phelps and his cronies start hating gay people and hurting them, then the church needs to turn to its “own” and say, “Stop it”

Kick them out of their positions. Send them to jail and protect our kids and stop hating people from the pulpit without any mercy or compassion.

We spend too much time pointing at the sins that sinners commit and not enough time getting on our own for committing a much worse sin.

I think that we seem to get all caught up in trying to point out everyones dirty laundry and forget to wash our own.

Christians need balance and we need to get our own houses in check. But we seem to be all across the board. We have people who claim to be Christian who don’t read the Bible, don’t know what it says, don’t even believe it is God’s word to us. They believe that there is more than one way to heaven ??? despite what Jesus says ??? They believe good works will get them to heaven, that Jesus committed sins, that he didn’t even rise from the dead ??? despite Paul’s letters saying how important this is to make it worthwhile?? That Satan is not real but merely a symbol for evil. And they don’t believe the Holy Spirit is and living entity… And I’m sure the list goes on beyond this.

Mostly I think this is a lack of discipleship. A lack of understanding in the Word of God. Too many Christians don’t stand for anything because they don’t know what it really is they are trying to stand for.

Then we wonder why an unbelieving world finds us so unbelievable. We acknowledge Christ with our lips and then we deny him by our life-style.

So this is my stand

Jesus is God.
Jesus did not sin. – His sacrifice would’ve been pointless
He did die and then rise again. – without this our belief is pointless.
The Holy Spirit is real and really working in remnant that truly believe and accept Christ.
Good works will not get us into heaven. They are merely evidence of God’s work in our lives.
Satan is real and our real enemy.
Other people who believe differently than us are to be loved. Not hated. Not despised and not merely to be tolerated. Christ is reaching out to them in love, how can we not do the same?
There is sin. We need to judge it correctly and love those who commit it.
Sin inside the Church is bad if not worse than sin outside the church.
I am a sinner saved by grace. Forgiven and Free.
I still battle temptation. I still sin. Not like I used to. But there is grace and love for even me.

Don’t take my word as rock solid here. I’m just a man. If you want to check me out then check out the book you claim to believe. If I’m wrong then point it out. I don’t mind being corrected when it puts me on the right path. I will however judge your correction with my knowledge of the Word to be sure.

Alright I’ve swung my over-sized sword and just poked at a bunch of different points without arguing them in order to focus on my main argument. If you want to message or comment me to explain my position, I’ll do my best to answer. If you are a Christian and disagree with me go ahead.

If I get too many messages regarding similar questions I’ll post another blog to cover it. If I made a mistake above then I’ll correct it later. Its late and I’m tired. Time for bed.