Theology

“Double” Predestination" by R.C. Sproul

This concept is one of the more difficult - did God preordain some for destruction, or does He just allow humans to damn themselves and He ordains a few for glory?

Politics

A Tsunami of Hate

We are suffering from a Tsunami of Hate emanating from the Democrat Party that seeks to demonize, criminalize and extinguish dissent from the 75 million supporters of Donald Trump. It is now official Washington dogma that to question an election result – something the congressional Democrats have done in the face of every Republican presidential victory since 2000 - is now “insurrection” and “domestic terrorism,” or the incitement thereto, and needs to be prosecuted and suppressed.

Fortress DC

(this one is a bit old)

According to Ken Cuccinelli, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security, Pelosi not only asked for those massive numbers of troops, but she also asked for the Guard to have crew-manned vehicle mounted machine guns. Now that’s absolutely crazy, was she really envisioning Guard members machine gunning down Americans? Remember these are the same folks who ignored violent riots precipitated by BLM/Antifa for months and chastised President Donald Trump for responding to them with federal agents.

But now reports are suggesting that Pelosi wants them there into March, during impeachment proceedings…

So she’s going to try to use them like her personal Army till mid-March? Welcome to the security state. Based on what? Notice how they’re very happy to use the Guard for themselves yet not so much for other citizens during the months of rioting.

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Biden Takes Heat For Killing Trump’s Opioid-Treatment Prescription Plan Praised By Doctors

President Joe Biden last week killed a plan from the Trump administration to allow more physicians to prescribe an opioid-treatment drug.

The move from the Trump administration was widely praised by both physicians and lawmakers, and came on the heels of another spike in opioid-related deaths during the pandemic. Criticizing the Biden administration on the reversal, Trump’s Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Brett Giroir warned the move “will cost thousands of lives.”

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What I'm Reading

Biblical Imprecations: Christians’ Secret Weapon

Biblical Imprecations: Christians’ Secret Weapon demonstrates the unity of Biblical teaching regarding such imprecations, examining: (1) Christ and the Apostles endorsement of Old Testament imprecations; (2) imprecations spoken by Christ and the Apostles; and (3) imprecations spoken by God’s angels and by glorified martyrs in heaven.

Eight key Biblical-theological principles underlying the imprecatory Psalms are developed: (follow the link)

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Politics

Rush to judgement? Three crucial questions remain unanswered about Capitol siege

How could Trump incite an attack that had already been pre-planned and was in motion before his speech ended?

What did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the other leaders in Congress know — and when did they know it — about the possibility for violence and the Pentagon's pre-attack offer to send National Guardsmen to reinforce the Capitol Police?

Were there facilitators inside the Capitol and outside it who instigated or enabled the attack to be carried out?

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Jim Jordan Blasts ‘Double Standards’ of Democrats: They ‘Objected to More States in 2017 than Republicans Did Last Week’

Jordan continued, reminding his colleagues that the individual managing impeachment for the Democrats, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), too, objected to electoral votes in 2017.

“Americans are tired of the double standards. They are so tired of it,” the Ohio Republican said. “Democrats objected to more states in 2017 than Republicans did last week, but somehow we’re wrong.”

“Democrats can raise bail for rioters and looters this summer but somehow when Republicans condemn all the violence, the violence this summer, the violence last week, somehow we’re wrong,” he said.

Gaslighting Last Summer's Riots and the Law Enforcement Response

Minneapolis: For the first few days of riots, Minneapolis police focused on defending their embattled 3rd Precinct building located at the center of the unrest. The mayor then ordered the police to stand down and abandon the building to the angry crowd that had surrounded it. The police withdrawal caused the situation to "spin[] out of control in the neighborhood around the precinct house"; the Precinct was burned to the ground, and "nearly every building around it [was] vandalized, looted or set on fire."

Seattle: For twenty-three days in June, armed leftists occupied six blocks of the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood, declaring the area a "police-free" zone they called the "Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone" ("CHAZ"), later changed to "Capitol Hill Occupied Protest" ("CHOP"). Bands of self-appointed, gun-toting "guards" set up encampments and patrolled the area, looted stores, smashed windows, and prevented residents from leaving or visitors from entering—in the process devastating businesses located in the occupied blocks.

Portland: Portland suffered three months of nightly riots. Daryl Turner, head of the Portland Police Association, alleged that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt limited the city's response to riots in order to appease lawbreakers: "If it is acceptable for rioters to commit acts of violence against community members and to try and burn down occupied buildings, and if this conduct is allowed to continue," Turner said, "then Portland is lost."

Chicago: On a particularly violent weekend in early June, Mayor Lightfoot refused to deploy the National Guard beyond Chicago's central business district, drawing condemnations from officials representing districts on the south and west side of the city, which were left unprotected during Chicago's deadliest weekend in sixty years.

Louisville: Riots left the city's downtown "look[ing] like a war zone," according to a local paper. Louisville Police accused Mayor Greg Fischer of issuing stand-down orders to officers during riots, allowing lawlessness to run rampant.

(and more)

The Capitol Police were woefully understaffed and under-prepared for last Wednesday's riot. The reasons for that need to be thoroughly investigated. But the notion that right-wing mostly white rioters get special treatment while BLM-associated lawless behavior attracts violent, harsh, crackdown is at odds with what actually happened last summer.

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Joe Biden pledged on Friday "to defeat the [National Rifle Association" and end our epidemic of gun violence"

(MzEllen writes, ummm...that's us.)

Weekly Prayer Quote “Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him.” Hudson Taylor
 

Things We Couldn't Say

"Things We Couldn't Say" is the true story of Diet Eman and Hein Sietsma (her fiance) told through their journals leading up to, and through, the German occupation of Holland.

I'm part way through, but so far it's been a good read.

What I find interesting is the responses of the two people, one man and one woman, to different situations. They were separated when the queen took the entire government and escaped to England - his response was anger at the "desertion" and hers was despair at the "abandonment".

Her journal tells of her fear at the though to Hein being caught while in hiding from the Germans, and the caution that she had to take while moving him from home to home without being discovered.

His journal tells of his fear for her and his anger at not being able to protect her.

I'm getting value from the book and it's another story of Christians helping Jews escape persecution that we all should remember.

Call to worship, Psalms 102

a Psalm of lament - quite long...

 Hear my prayer, O Lord;
let my cry come to you!
² Do not hide your face from me
    in the day of my distress!
Incline your ear to me;
    answer me speedily in the day when I call!

Sermon Quote

"Man's maker was made man that he, Ruler of the starts, might nurse at Him mother's breast, that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witness the Teacher beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood, that Strength might grow weak, that the Healer might be wounded, that Life might die

Augustine of Hippo

This resonated with me...so here it is...

Worship: Worship Seven Days a Week

But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.—Habakkuk 2:20

So I've got to tell you that if you do not worship God seven days a week, you do not worship Him on one day a week. There is no such thing known in heaven as Sunday worship unless it is accompanied by Monday worship and Tuesday worship and so on....

We come into God's house and say, "The Lord is in His holy temple, let us all kneel before Him." Very nice. I think it's nice to start a service that way once in a while. But when any of you men enter your office Monday morning at 9 o'clock, if you can't walk into that office and say, "The Lord is in my office, let all the world be silent before Him," then you are not worshiping the Lord on Sunday. If you can't worship Him on Monday you didn't worship Him on Sunday. If you don't worship Him on Saturday you are not in very good shape to worship Him on Sunday. Tozer on Worship and Entertainment, 9,24.

"Lord, permeate my whole life with a spirit of worship—all week long, every day. Amen."

I can only shake my head at this article, and grieve - not only that this woman has gone through this trauma (rape) but also that this is the route she's gone in order to...I'm not sure what she'll gain from this thinking.

Here's the article, "Our culture of purity celebrates the Virgin Mary. As a rape victim, that hurts me."

Now the rest of us are stuck trying to be both a virgin and a mother at the same time.