3:49, #543: Revival Praying

Sometime in the last week or two I got an email asking me to pray for revival for America based on 2 Chronicles 7:14 and was wondering if the advocates realized that the first half of the sentence, vs. 13, defines God's actions prior to the whole prayer deal? Here's the whole verse: "If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

In the New King James the word is 'when,' not 'if.' In either case, there appears to my way of thinking a causative aspect to the whole deal that requires God to trash the nation with drought, crop failures due to bugs, and some sort of epidemic to build a fire under 'His people'...that would be the Born Agains in our day...to realize they're responsible for the degraded condition of this nation so that they ask Him to do what needs to be done to change things for the better.

Over the last 30 years since I got saved, I've noticed that the praying part is a big deal with folks, but the 'turning from their wicked ways' is not. I guess spiritual Band aids don't work too well in God's frame of reference.
Got surgical tools sharpened?

3:48, #542: The Garden

Nope, this is not some theological exhortation about Eden; merely a report on God's graciousness last year because Elfson, Archangel, & I got this year's Garden dug of weeds and planted this morning in about 3 hours of well done work.

Last year I got: 9.5 dozen radishes, 69.5 dozen green beans, 6 zucchini, 43 cucumbers, 2 dozen onions, 17 dozen cherry tomatoes, 8 large bowls of lettuce, 8 bags of parsley, 3 bags of cilantro, and 2 dozen green tomatoes. And, yes, the green tomatoes served us both as fried green tomatoes AND green tomato pie!! If you've never tried them, you should get a recipe for both and have a delightful culinary repast!!

Got Yuengling?

3:47, #541: Legion

Yessirree, Bob, I watched "Legion" last night and now I've got a few things to say. First of all, it wasn't all that great as a movie, even though Gabriel and Michael (angels in the legion) were played by decent actors: Kevin Durand and Paul Bettany, respectively. I hung on until the end to find out whether the 'legion' was going to be the one mentioned in the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus could have called down to His aid or the one He cast out of the Gerasene demoniac to become pig farmers of sorts.

Well, it turns out it was a bit of both. The legion of possessed individuals who could be killed with lots of real bullets...I was sitting there thinking of 'Shawn of the Dead,' perhaps one of the worst zombie movies I've ever seen...but they were supposed to be angels doing God's will to destroy mankind; especially the illegitimate baby of the Paradise Falls (nice town name!) waitress who apparently got impregnated by a state cop, based on her reaction to the dramatic appearance of Michael-the-former-archangel in a stolen cop car. Are you getting this convoluted theology?!! If I was a swearing man...which I am on occasion...I would utter an imprecation or two at this point, but I won't.

Anyway, Gabe shows up with some cool sound effects to herald his entrance to start kicking Mikey's butt around to the point of actually killing him; which, of course flies like an evil angel in the face of all reality!! Well, I won't give away the ending in case some of you might want to actually watch this but it does have a Gandalfian-twist to it! Oh, and the interesting tattoos on Mikey are supposedly Enochian...angel language given to a couple of guys in the 16th century by angels themselves...supposedly so we could talk to them. Ummm...in the New Testament, they spoke the same language as the recipients of the news!!! DUH...they're angels, after all!!

Anyway, the good thing I see is that Gabriel and Michael are not depicted as the effeminate things artists down through the ages have depicted, but are warrior-looking but oddly dressed in black with black wings...not everything white as I would suspect HOLY angels would be...no racial profiling intended, I assure you. Oh, the other good thing suits my mood here of late. The question arises both at the beginning and end of the movie, "Why is God so angry with His children?" The answer? "I guess because He's tired of all the bulls...t!"
I wonder if John on Patmos felt the same when he wrote, "Come, Lord Jesus?!!"

3:46, #540: What's Next?

I was just reading Max Lucado's devotional, Grace for the Moment, this morning and was reminded that Jesus works with us in this life to accomplish His will. This reminded me of my days as a carpenter back in the 70s when my lead carpenter would give me a job to do, I'd do it and then ask, "What's next?" The key in this is that he was working the job, too, not just giving me assignments, but actively participating in the whole project while giving me the freedom and responsibility to take care of my particular part of the job.

That made me think that Jesus is The Lead Carpenter and the Ephesians 2:10 'good works for which we are each chosen that are laid out beforehand for us to walk in them' are ours to do but not on our own. He's there to work with us and has supplied the Holy Spirit to work within us in a further assisting way that we can't really grasp, when it comes down to it. I guess this is to encourage any of you who might be feeling as though the Lord has given you a task and then cut you loose on your own to do it that that is definitely not the case.

The spiritual gifts and natural talents which you've been given are sufficient for the task...and He's there when it's coffee break in between the 'doing' part of your being His kid!
Got Ephesians 6:15 work boots?

3:45, #539: Avatar Dissected

Last night I watched 'Avatar' and came to a conclusion...the writers watched a whole bunch of other movies and capitalized on their efforts. If you've seen 'Avatar' you'll recognize the references. If not, this can serve as your 'critic's review' to possibly determine if you want to see it.

First, the plot is that aliens (that would be the earth men) fly to Pandora to take all the resources of the planet and annihilate the Na'vi indigenous peoples in the process if necessary because their own planet is dying. Can you say PLOT OF 'INDEPENDENCE DAY?' Can you say Environmentalist Whackos writing scripts?

Secondly, the mechanized earthlings battle the bow and arrow, flying on dragon-like creatures Na'vi in scenes reminiscent of 'The Return of the Empire' when the Rebels and Ewoks whup up on Vader and the Bad Guys.

Thirdly, The alien, a.k.a. Jake Scully (X-Files anyone?) falls in love with the Chief's daughter after she saves his life and teaches him how to be one of The People...can you say 'POCHAHANTAS??!!'

Then there's #4: The dragon-looking creature and its rider PICK EACH OTHER...This time around we have Jeremy Irons in 'Eragon!!'

Numero Cinco (de Mayo-naise?) is the parallel of the rampaging dinosaur wannabe creatures that the Divine Mother of Pandora let's loose to save the day...reminded me of the rampaging Dinos in the most recent 'King Kong'...hey, where's the big ape when you really need him?!!

And how about the characters?!! For those of you who've seen 'Last of the Mohicans,' you'll remember the voice of Magua, a.k.a. Wes Studi as the Chief Eytukan of the Na'vi...guess Ole Wes got a promotion when he changed tribes!!

I like The Bad Guy, Colonel Miles Quaritch, a.k.a. Stephen Lang, who's played nasty Ike Clanton in 'Tombstone' and hard core soldier Stonewall Jackson in 'Gods and Generals' and combines the two characters quite well with some cool looking scars on his head!

And Sigourney Weaver played the same character as she did in ALL FOUR ALIEN MOVIES!!

Well, before I continue this rant any further, I'll just crank up ELO's "The Jungle" and think I'm on Pandora.

3:44, #538: Blood, Sweat & Tears

Today in History tells me that good old Winnie Churchill gave his famous speech, "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat" on taking up the role of Prime Minister of England on this day in 1940. He was, of course, telling the Brits what to expect in the upcoming years known as World War II and was rather accurate in his predictive skills.

I just looked on Wikipedia for a public domain pic and, lo and behold...Winnie got the phrase from Teddy Roosevelt's speech in his address to the Naval War College in 1897 which I'm pretty certain is shown in the beginning of the film, "Rough Riders," one of my favorites and excellently portrayed by Tom Berenger. Annnnd, if I'm not mistaken, Old Teddy was also one of those Born Again Christian Presidents that God put in place 'for just such a time' as occurred. Several others I'd name are Washington, Lincoln (converted the day of the Gettysburg Address), McKinley (who sent Teddy to Cuba to charge up San Juan Hill), Garfield, Wilson, Carter, and Bush. And why do I point this out?

I've been percolating an idea that the Lord put Christians in power to direct historical events leading up to the Persecution of the American Church much as He put Joseph in the #2 slot in Egypt to set up the machinery of government and relief from seven famine years that eventually led to the persecution of the Hebrews and the Exodus. Who knows? Maybe I've got another book in me yet?

3:43, #537: Cigars

Last night I indulged myself, after having a brew and burger, with a good cigar whilst perusing my Thompson Cigar Company catalog looking for the best deal for my next order. This morning I thought about the whole cigar concept and decided to blow some theological smoke, so to speak.

I've often said that the evidence that God is a cigar smoker...in a pre-Reformation, Van Tillian, Zen Sorta Feng Shui Way, of course...is all over the Old Testament; especially in Isaiah 6:4 where it says the temple was filled with smoke and all the passages where the Tabernacle and/or Temple are filled with the Shekinah Smoke Cloud ...variant reading of the original Hebrew in the Newly Annotated Sexton Bible...NASB! ;p. The NT covers it in Revelation 15:8, " And the temple was filled with the smoke from the glory of God and from His power..."

I mean, consider Genesis when thinking about cigars or tobacco in general..."And it was very good!" I don't 'smoke cigars'...I indulge in 'aroma therapy' whilst exhibiting the same oral behavior that was placed upon me as a toddler with either a bottle or a ducker/binky/whateveryouwanttocallit! Oh...on an experiential basis, I actually performed a medical 'procedure' on Mom 'back in the day' when she was in her 80s before passing on to Glory by repeating a process great grandfather Murray did with her when she was a child...she had an earache that he...and I many decades later...cured by gently blowing cigar smoke into her ear!!

Now when some California anti-smoking crusader gets in your face, let them know the medical reason why God created tobacco in the first place...so 'a form of alternate medicine that uses volatile plant materials' could benefit folks all these years later.
Got a match?!!

3:42, #536: Justice

I was browsing through Any Day In History and learned that today was not only the end of the Battle of the Wilderness in the American Civil War in 1864...maybe I'll play that scenario on my computer later...but the day the Germans sunk the Lusitania off the coast of Ireland; hence the great propaganda poster picture that comes from the public domain. Now THAT'S how to get folks interested in warming up for war!!

Actually, that would be a great book cover for God Caused the Civil War under a new title! We could redo the outfit the chick is wearing to one of Civil War era, Scarlett O'Hara style dress, lose the Lusitania and put the Monitor and Merrimack in the background and call it something like God's Civil War Sword of Justice!! Guess I'll hold off on writing to a publisher.

It's interesting that the Brits wanted 'justice.' I think they really wanted, to quote Doc Holiday as played by Val Kilmer in "Tombstone" 'a reckoning!!' I guess that's what Hell's gonna be someday for all those outside of His grace...THE Day of Reckoning!! I'm glad I'm getting mercy instead.
Got His grace on you?