Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Headache~ All of us get them, from time to time. You know what I am talking about-THAT headache; the one that makes your head feel like it is going to explode. All sorts of things can cause THAT headache; food, a bad conversation, a blow to the head, even low blood sugar. There is one thing, though, that can change the dynamic of a headache from the occasional 'two Excedrin' kind, to the 'I better...

Fire Insurance~ We had a scare yesterday, where I live in Southern California. It was been quite windy yesterday (more wind for today, also). A trash truck was collecting across fhr freeway from our little town, near a mobile home park and a bruchy area that extends for miles to the East and South. The operator of the truck noticed that the fire alarm for his truck whet off, and he decided to dump...

Oh, My Heart~ My wife and I just came home from the Rehearsal for my son's wedding. After the rehearsal we took the wedding party to the Rehearsal Dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant. My son's tomorrow wife, Erica, is 1/2 Thai (her mother is full Thai, and her father was Irish Catholic) and they specifically requested to go to this restaurant; we were delighted to oblige. Seeing how Zach and Eri...

Wedding day~ Tomorrow afternoon my son and his bride will be married. It is an auspicious day, and one that we will enjoy to the full, and remember for eternity. The metaphor of the 'marriage' is all through the Bible, and especially in the parable/prophecies of Jesus in Matthew, John, and Revelation. The description therein touch my heart because as a father that has already prepared my daughter...

The Best Laid Plans~ Sometimes no matter how hard you work, how well you plan, or how much is your desire to serve your friends, family, and the Kingdom of the Heavens, the situation dictates the result, and you end up not being able to complete the task. This is what happened to us yesterday, when just before the program The Bible on Trial was about to start Blog Talk Radio informed us that our a...

TEST

Clean Up~ Life can be messy, really messy! This is especially true when you have either kids or dogs, or both. Both of my kids are well established adults, so I am no longer responsible for cleaning us their messes. This is not true, however, for my animals. Yesterday, my big GSD (German Shepher Dog) Charlie came down with an upset stomach. I was abruptly made aware of this after our radio program...

Law Under Attack~ Today in America, and indeed in the rest of the world, LAW is under attack. We see it daily in the idea that Identity Politics overshadows individual rights, We see it in the number of murders in some States and big cities that have chosen to institute policies that promote homelessness, illegal immigration, and gun violence, to such and extent that the laws that are already in p...

That's not Fair~ The most common phrase in any household in which there are more than one child is, "That's not fair"! At least it was in our house when I was growing up. Any percieved slight, or observed inequity in anything nearly always elicited this ubiquitous comment. Even my youngest sister, Debbie, when she was still to young to string words into complete sentences would say, "Momma Dennis,...

Truth, or Consequences~ When I was 16 years old, one of the most popular show on TV was a game show called "Truth, or Consequences!" I think is aired on NBC. As an outing with the family, we went to a filming of a show, and as a lark I decided to see if I could get on the show. Wouldn't you know it, I actually made the cut, and was entered as a contestant on the show. I didn't win. And although it...

Gut Check~ We have all from time to time felt that something was 'just not right'. This feeling comes when there has been a 'cognative dissonance' set up by circumstances that are outside our comfort zone, where your heart says go one direction but your intellect tells you to go another. We experience the results of this 'identity crisis' as a 'feeling of doom', especially when what we are plannin...

Race Wars~ I occasionally respond to friends on Face Book when they post memes that attract my attention. Today, one of these memes spoke of being tired of the race wars going on in our culture; all of us know what this means. My friend ended the meme with this; "Start acting like civilized people. We are better than that!" My first thought was the question-Are We? Are we truly 'better than that?'...

Reparations~ There has been a lot of talk lately in the USA about having one group of people pay another group of people reparations for a perceived social infraction in the distant past, for somethng that neither group was personally involved with. This money transfer is demanded solely based on skin color, and not based in any actual physical restraint. No one alive today was either harmed by th...

Short Shelf life~ There are some things that just don't get better over time. We have all experienced looking in the refridgerator and seeing a container of 'something' that we forgot, and is now unrecognizable - reference George Carlin's "What is it?"  Certain skills are 'perishable'; playing any instrument well requires constant (perfect) practice to maintain; pistol or rifle shooting; cooking a...

Not a game~ The PGA Tour Championship is being played this weekend. The 30 top golfers for the year are competing not only for the FedEx Cup, but for an amazing prize that includes around $2M for the win in this final tournament win,  but more importantly $15M for the overall win. As much as they would like to believe it, for these golfers this IS NOT a game. If a player wins both the tournament a...

When I was studying chemistry in college in preparation for going to medical school (my mom's wish for me), In lab one day i learned about solvents uin a dramatic way. A solvent is a fluid compound that is used to desolve other compounds. One such solvent is toluene, which when heated in the presence of nitrogen at a specific temperature and duration can generate a highly explosive compound called...

Baking~ This morning I am baking my version of Cinna-buns, taken from a base recipie on the King Arthur web site. As with all my recipies that I regularly use I have changed a few things to fit my taste and the taste that my family and friends have come to love. One of the things that I regularly change in almost all my 'sweet' recipies is that I use less sugar than the  original recipie calls for...

Illegal Aliens~ One of the most controversial problems in America (and indeed the world) today is unauthorized immigration. This can be defined as a foreign national entering our country without going through the legal immigration process.  How to deal with the millions of illegals in the USA is a pernicious problem, where good people on both sides are seeing this issue so differently that it is c...

Cowards~ Bravery has been defined as being scared to death, but doing it anyway. The idea of 'overcoming' is ubiquitous in the gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus uses the word 'overcome' to establish the context of what it takes to enter the Kingdom of God.  'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Rev. 3:21. B...

Withdrawl~ In today's world the word 'withdrawl' gives many people  a picture of drug addicts or alchoholics going through the horrors of detoxing. Yet there is another use of the word that while not as titilating subscribes a person to a dubious identity, that of 'quiter'! This weekend is the first of three tournaments that will crown golfs FedEx champion. The prize is $15 million dollars to the...

"You've got to be kidding me!"~ There are such things in the English language as 'throw away lines". These are either declarations or responses that are symantically null-that is, they mean nothing.  For example - "Hi, how are you?" The normal answer is, "Fine". For most people, and in most cases, this is a greeting and not a real question that demands a direct answer. Neither the person that says...

Truth is Frightening~ Most of us, at one time or another, have found ourselved in the unenviable position of sitting in the Doctors office or a hospital room waiting for test results. This can be a most nerve wracking and frightening experience, because in spite of assurances by your Doctor or your family there is always the thought in the back of your mind that 'this time' it's going to be bad. W...

Truth is Perishable~ Have you heard the adage, "Practice makes perfect"? It is commonly heard in music studios or classrooms, at golf lessons, shooting ranges, or anywhere teachers interact with students in passing along knowledge and skill in virtually any discipline. However, this understanding is a lie! Practice does not make perfect, it only makes what ever you practice PERMANENT.  Only PERFEC...

"Liar, liar, pants on fire"~ There is an old saying that goes, "How do you know when a politician is lying? When their lips are moving!" And this is also true for pastors, teachers, preachers, medical practitioners, fiduciaries, or anyone in a position of responsibility for others that knowingly lies to further tor protect heir position, or income, at the expense of their charges. This is also tru...

I was a on point in my life an avid golfer, and passed the love of the game on to my son, who was a high school team golfer, and still plays from time to time. I love the game, because it embodies many of the the same time tested spiritual principles that can help bring a person into the Kingdom of the Heavens; honesty, perserverance, growth in spritual identity, forgiveness of mistakes, practicin...