God's Eye View: Google Earth Captures In History

The Glue Society presents a gallery presentation of images depicting Biblical events as seen from a satellite. Images include: Adam and Eve in the Garden (my fav), The parting of the Red Sea, Noah's Ark, and shown here The Crucifixion. (see more here)

Music Video: Johnny Cash "Hurt"

Christianity Today Article: Phil Vischer of VeggieTales Fame

“…You couldn’t write Narnia today and have it accepted by the evangelical world because [of the magic] and because in its metaphor, it effectively has a non-Christian worldview. Now, if we go to another fantasy world, we need to find Jesus there—literally. That is why the Harry Potter books are viewed to be straight from the pit. Even if Rowling says she’s enjoying Christian themes, forget it. How do you write a Christian fantasy today? I have no idea. I don’t know that you can. I think we’ve killed it. I think we are so concerned with how oppressed our worldview is and so defensive that we’ve painted ourselves into a corner. And thus, we can’t tell the kind of stories that Lewis or Chesterton would have told to share the gospel. It’s kind of depressing, frankly.”

via sds tumblrlog

A short dream story: Collision of Self

Pulling up in what appeared to be a combination small diesel truck and dune buggy the 20 something young man said "hop in I will take you to the end of the road.." seeing my perplexed face he chortled enthusiastically "I just bought it, it is awesome!"
"U.n ..no, but thanks for the offer" Stammering I replied guardedly. Some of us have boundaries I reasoned, besides on my way to work.
"Come on!" I want to see how she handles with a passenger" He said persuasively as he opened the door. I looked over the blue and white vehicle, spotting a bumper sticker from the radio station I worked at, and decided I would give a quick whirl. I need to be more trusting.

He gunned it from the gas station where he had stopped off, out town on a open but frequented desert road. I reached for the dash, feeling my heart swell into my stomach, and yelled "Slow down!" He laughed and continued to accelerate. A police cruiser passed us by, and quickly turned around after us. "I told you!" wondering what I had gotten myself into. As the cruiser sped to catch up, my new "friend" continued to accelerate. I did not know him, yet he seemed vaguely familiar. Maybe he was a friend of a friend, he acted as if he knew me. While he did not slow down we were approaching a "T" in the road and assumed he would pull off. He cackled loudly above the siren bearing down on us from behind. I looked at him and firmly and loudly said" You need to slow this thing down..now. We are going to be injured arrested or cause harm to someone else." He looked at me and grinning and replied "Amphibious." as we busted through the wooden guardrail, slammed and popped over the two foot cement curb, and plunged headlong into the Black Mountain reservoir.

Clutching the car, my heart racing, relief washed across me as we floated calmly down the shores edge. "There going to wait you out and catch you."
"Ahhh...I'll just say the throttle stuck." he arrogantly waddled his head. He was a large well muscled man with short blond hair and blue eyes. I was furious. I felt violated and abducted. I considered my impulse to grab him by the neck and ring it.
We drove from the water onto the boat launch under the steady watch of two police officers and a small contingent of city workers. As we pulled to a stop they handed both the driver and me documents with large fines and court summons.

I pleaded with the officer, "but I am just a passenger!"
"Sorry sir.." she deadpanned "..the plates list this as a combination recreational vehicle and in the state of Idaho, that means, that you are equally liable as a passenger for damages and guilty of several infractions." In perfectly bad timing and equally poorly delivered sincerity my new captor declared "Throttle stuck!" eliciting a groan from the small contingent of bystanders and officials alike. "Tell it to the judge" blank stare officer number two responded waving the tow truck off to impound with the strange dripping blue vehicle in tow.

"Unless you have any questions we will let you off on OR, provided you promise to make your court date, gentlemen.", the cackle of the shoulder mounted mic calling them off to yet another emergency. Everyone melted into a photoshop like blur as the impact of what happened focused my rage towards this irreverent cautionless abductor. I let loose yelling and standing him down "Who the hell do you think you are!" I screamed menacingly into his face. Being a good two or three inches taller he looked down with a smirk, seemingly un-intimidated by my violent threatening posture. "You enjoyed the ride as much as I did." he said in an almost southern Matthew McConaughey accent. Turning he walked away down a path lined by small newly planted trees that ran parallel to the reservoir. I turned after him, stilling myself of the notion to run full tilt and tackle him to the ground. Hearing me follow him he turned with clenched fists and clench jaw and said "You want a piece of this?!" I stopped. Perplexed by my quickness to violence and a new awareness of those around us and resignedly stated" I am pretty angry, but maybe I could see that as a moment of risky living that , though catching me off guard, was what I needed to be alive today." Surprising even myself, I said, tears welling in my eyes, "Thank you."

He looked at me blankly seemingly unstirred by my sincerity and emotions. "But I am not.." I continued "..paying for half of this, I will let the judge know that you abducted me." Swelling with rage and flaunching and strutting like a spoiled child he screamed "WHAT?!" his head rolled ghetto style and his large palms struck me hard in the chest, careening me backwards farther then I expected. My forty something year old legs barely staying under me. Looking back I saw the officers had left but a few city workers and passers by heard the commotion and were watching this brawl unfold. I considered walking away, taking the non-violent side, that is when I heard him say "This is about both of us!" and was blinded by a white flash as his fist snapped my body sideways and to the ground. I rolled and was up on my feet, my martial arts training and Welsh heritage taking over at the humiliation of being sucker punched, a knife hand whistled to the bridge of his upper lip clotheslining him and knocking him skyward, I was in control physically but righteous indignation soared through my adrenals as I pounced on his limp body with the intent to do him further harm... his cowering body melted into mine. He was me.

I awoke heart racing, anger and raw emotion a clot of comforter and pillow between my arms. Reeling, I puzzled over the dream, becoming aware that it was about one person and not two.

Esau Kessler

From My Journal: A Bible verse Hosea 10:12 and Slappin' 'Ho's

I had a friend tell me I should read this verse. My peave is when Christians will "give" you a verse. Not what it says just the reference. I think I feel manipulated to look it up. So often times I just nod and grin and don't bother looking it up. This time, however, I wanted to look it up with the faint hope of hearing from God. (reasoning how can I ask "Him" to speak to me if I am not listening?) So I began to write it on my bathroom mirror with a bar of soap. However it wasn't working so all I got was "HO". (A month later while the mirror was misted up I winced at the derogatory ghetto meaning and secretly hoped no one in my family wondered what that was all about.) So I looked it up yesterday. This is not me telling you this verse to shed light on your darkened corner, not that I am beyond that, but this is me documenting something that seems to have meaning but am not sure as to what with the hope that sometime in the future it could make sense to me. That and the possibility one of the 15-24 daily reader's who come by this blog might find something therein. Maybe not.

The verse sounds inspiring but is somewhat cryptic (to me at least):

"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you."

Context: This is the "nice" or hopeful part of a line of chastisements from God to Israel prophesied by and recorded by Hosea. In the other verses God is pretty hardnosed, he doesn't pussyfoot about concerning the lameness of the nation of Israel's abondonment of God, and the consequences. Yet somehow amongst the smoke of truth He is still kind, and has words of hope. Wow.

I like the notion of righteousness falling like rain. Would I skip and dance Gene Kelly style, or would I mutter about the weather? I know righteousness isn't always pleasing to be caught up in.

It is funny how this verse might be found on a placard in a religious bookstore. We like to "cherry pick" the Bible, put the "nicey" verses about that make us feel good on wristbands and such. What if you went to someones house and framed boldly on spotlit wall it grimly said:

"Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy own way"

Most certainly if we placed it on a bumper sticker it would not be in the context of God's condemnation of us as followers of Jesus, but of the loathsome "sinner".

The expression, "Break up your fallow ground" (Hos. 10:12; Jer. 4:3) means, "Do not sow your seed among thorns", i.e., break off all your evil habits; clear your hearts of weeds, in order that they may be prepared for the seed of righteousness. Land was allowed to lie fallow that it might become more fruitful; but when in this condition, it soon became overgrown with thorns and weeds. The cultivator of the soil was careful to "break up" his fallow ground, i.e., to clear the field of weeds, before sowing seed in it. So says the prophet, "Break off your evil ways, repent of your sins, cease to do evil, and then the good seed of the word will have room to grow and bear fruit."

The 4 Words

AA 12 steps seem to have some redundancy. (Don't freak on me you avid AA'rs) Thus John Baker's program has boiled them down to 8 principles. In a flash of inspiration I have boiled them down to 4 easier to remember words:

Truth
Trust
Surrender
Care

• One must step out of denial, face the music, stop running, admit there is a problem and one must stay in that brutal predicament of truth.

• One must come to a point that they stop trusting their failed thought process (the one that gets you sick and keeps you there.) And start trusting God and others.

• One also must surrender to that universal purpose in their life, and stop writing their own script.

• And as a result of this life long process/pursuit start caring for themselves and others equally.

Ever lived a lie? Ever felt there was no one you could trust not even God or yourself? Ever felt like giving up? ever said "I don't care"?

The Bible in 50 Words.

God made
Adam bit
Noah arked
Abraham split
Jacob fooled
Joseph ruled
Bush talked
Pharaoh plagued
Sea divided
Tablets guided
Promise landed
Judges led
Saul freaked
David peeked
Kingdom divided
Prophets warned
People exiled
Hope rose
Jesus born
God walked
Anger crucified
Love rose
Spirit flamed
Word spread
God remained.

iGeneration, iPod, iGnorance?

"Americans buy more than 20m new Bibles every year to add to the four that the average American has at home. Yet the state of American biblical knowledge is abysmal. A Gallup survey found that less than half of Americans can name the first book of the Bible (Genesis), only a third know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount (Billy Graham is a popular answer) and a quarter do not know what is celebrated at Easter (the resurrection, the foundational event of Christianity). Sixty per cent cannot name half the ten commandments; 12% think Noah was married to Joan of Arc. George Gallup, a leading Evangelical as well as a premier pollster, describes America as “a nation of biblical illiterates”.”