Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Supreme Court~ Today RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) lies in state in the Capitol building rotunda, ther first woman to do so in the history of our country. It is certain that RBG had a huge impact on the American consciousness regarding equal rights and opportunities for women in the profession of the Law. Few women were allowed to attend law school when RBG did, and certainly fewer women were allowed...

Distraction~ We all have been distracted from time to time. Personally, it seems the older I get the more easily distracted I get. Being easily distracted, however, does lead one to contemplate the meaning of life; I will walk into a room, stop and say to myself - "Why am I here?" If we separate out the two components of the word we get 'dis-' and 'traction'; that is, the loss of mental traction....

Frustration~ It is apparent by the language used by both sides in the debate of ideas in public discourse in media and social media that there is a great deal of frustration in that one side does not 'see' what the other sees as the truth as to which directon the country or the world shoud take in dealing with our common societal problems. This frustration is being dramatically expressed in violen...

Liar, Liar~ What do you do when someone claims that you are lying in a situation, but they are lying about exactly the same thing and blaming you? Most people would call this a 'double standard'. but it is really called 'projection'! Projection is being blamed for doing something bad that someone else is doing in order to get people to look at you, in order to keep them from looking at them. This...

Patriot~ Today is Patriots Day - a day upon which we remember the lives and innocence lost on this date 19 years ago, when the Twin Towers and building #7 in New York were destroyed by the actions of "Enemies of the State". The bravery and heroism demonstrated by the people that were directly affected by these events have gone down into the history of the United States of America as some of the mo...

Benign Evil~ It is a fact of life that when we get into a routine we tend to ignore things that are outside of our routine. The protests and riots, for example. It has become a daily occurance that we hear about another protest, or worse another riot on the news. After a while this becomes normalized in our consciousness. We see it, but we don't. It's there, but it isn't. Another example; we hear...

Metamorphosis~  In perusing Facebook this morning I was accosted by a meme that was stunning in its implications: "The metamorphosis of Jesus from a humble servant of the abject poor to a symbol that stands for gun rights, prosperity theology, anti-science, limited government (that neglect the destitute), and fierce nationalism is truly the strangest tranformation in human history." There is so mu...

The Checklist for Truth~ Truth can be amorphous, sometimes indistinct and slippery. You might hear a political candidate say something and claiming it is true, but it just doesn't feel right. A friend posts something on social media that piques your curiosity, and you know this person would never purposely lie to you, but you just aren't sure of his source, so you check it and find that it cannot...

Life and Prosperity~ "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live." Deut. 30:19. The distinction between the  political Left and the Right has never been more clear than it has become in the past few months. It truly seems that "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (Comedy/Adventu...

Things change~ One of the axioms of life is that 'nothing stays the same'. No one likes change, especially in the realm of ideas. Older people don't like change any more than do younger people, they just have had their noses rubbed in it more often and for a longer time, and have become used to the idea that 'nothing stays the same'. The young rail at change; the older people just thumb their nose...

Left and Right~ There is a question that is ubiquitous in the collective consciousnes of people that are confused about why they see so much violence and mayhem assiciated with society today. That question goes right to the heart of why some people believe that they have no only the right to protest certain actions that have taken place that they feel are irresponsible (which they do, as long as i...

Censorship~ Our country today is seeing something today that has never been seen before to this great an extent, and that is the open censorship of opposing ideas. This is happening in public discourse on social-media platforms such as Twitter, Youtube and Facebook, and even in the Main Stream News. People will express an opposing point of view to the established and validated version, and their p...

Acting~ Have you thought about what it would be like to be an actor? Now I know what we mostly see in public about famous actors is their fabulous life styles; the money, cars, houses, and 'hanging' with the A listers. This is the reward for being a successful actor, but it is NOT acting, except in the loosest sense. Having been a child actor (playing roles under age 18) I, as with most actors, ha...

I read a short article this morning on Facebook that decried the lack of reseach of people that believe whatever is posted on Facebook. I agree wholeheartedly with this concept. Facebook is NOT a valid source for truth. That is not to say that there is no truth promoted on FB, but truth is not the primar reason that people post there. One of the respondents to this article was an associate pastor...

Defunding Truth~ There is a lot of talk today in the news about certain mayors and Governors wanting to 'defund' the poiice. They are doing this at the behest of another group of people that are angry that they cannot achieve a social goal of proving that slavery in one form or another still exists in the modern society of the USA, so they 'protest' and riot in order to advance their particular fo...

Except as a Child~ "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven". Matt. 18:3. There are two, and only two states of being in the being of a Human Being. These two states have nothing to do with biology, i.e. the gender of that human being, or the biological processes that sustain life, whether male or female. It has nothing to do...

Hot Times~ It is going to be HOT today where I live. We are experiencing a mini-heat wave in SoCal, that will see temperatures in the 103 to 107 deg. range today and tomorrow, and in the high 90's through Tuesday, then cooling slightly. Palm Springs Ca., a town in the desert about 40 minutes to the east of us, will be 116 deg. today, and in the 100's for all of next week. This weather report is br...

Politics and Religion~ My parents taught me that when in a social situation there are two subjects that are forbidden, politics and religion. The reason is that there is no one that doesn't have a heart felt opinion about either one or the other, and you will almost always alienate someone no matter what you say about either. It used be be that you could escape this conundrum by sticking to sports...

Plum Galette~ Have you ever noticed that the first time you try to make a recipe it does not look like the picture of the recipe in the cook book? This happens to me every time I try something new, as was my experience this week when I made a Plum Galette for the first time. It is not really a complex recipe if you have already learned how to make a single crust pie. The most difficult thing for m...

Impersonations~ Rick Little and Jonathan Winters were two of the best impersonators of my era. I remember Rich Little being on the Jonny Carson Show (late night comedy of the 1970's) and acting and sounding more like Jonny than Carson himself. It was amazing, accurate, and hilarious all at the same time. When I closed my eyes I really couldn't tell the difference. Impersonations can be funny,  but...

The Right Way~  There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Prov. 14:12. God gives everyone a choice of two roads that they will follow, the Life Road, or the Death Road. No one is exempt from this choice. Ancient Israel was given this choice two times, and both times they chose the Death Road. The result of their first choice was that they went into captivity in Ba...

DYI Repair~ Well, it's fixed. If you read my note yesterday you know that I was in the process of fixing my dishwasher. Rather that paying for a professional repair person to come to the house and fix it I used the knowledge and skill developed over the years to learn how to fix it myself. So I went to the appliance parts house and asked for the thermal fuse I needed in order to affect the repair....

Dishwashing~ Our dishwasher stopped working last Sunday. It just quit. Now I am not one to call a repair man the instant an appliance stops working. My natural reaction is to want to figure out what went wrong and fix it myself.  There are two reasons for this; 1) I just love the challeng of the 'hunt' for the solution, and 2) the cost of an in home repair by a certified technician is prohibitive...

Protest~ There is only ONE country in the world that has the RIGHT innumerated (not granted) under it's Constitution to PEACEFULLY protest, and petition their government for Redress of Grievances, and that country is the U.S.A. Included in the First Amendment is this RIGHT, but that also includes that in order for a protest to be peaceful the protesters cannot bring weapons, otherwise it is not pe...

Progress~ America, and indeed the world, is having a crisis of perfection. We see this crisis manifested in riots and protests that have caused death, destruction, mayhem, and anarchy, because a small faction of 'citizens' have declared that since their countries are not perfect that we must 'burn it all down' and start over in order to achieve equality of result for everyone. What these people ar...