Rush to Judgment

I hate that Rush Limbaugh got into this kind of trouble. I'd like to hear what he has to say about it on his radio program. I'll reserve judgment till I hear what he has to say.

Last time he got in trouble for pills, they were for pain, but these were for gain.

Good Godless!

Taking a break from mowing grass, I stopped at the library to pick up my reserved copy of Ann Coulter's latest book, Godless. I've read only the first three chapters so far, but I'm enjoying every sentence. She's the ultimate smartbutt. I'd hate her if she wasn't right. Every page is jam-packed with stinging sarcasm and satire, which I reward with a series of great-big grins.

I've skimmed through various anti-Coulter blogs, and they frequently criticize Coulter's style. They think her attacks are vicious and un-Christian -- Godless, if you will. What I haven't yet seen is serious refutation of her conclusions.

I can't help but think her satirical style makes her opponents jealous, because she's smart as a whip -- she gets away with her humorous, biting style because she presents her case with facts and common sense. And she can really sell her books.

Sarcasm, by the way, is not inherently bad. It can provide just the right leverage to pry open the mind of reason, unless its purpose is to simply be mean. When Jesus speaks of a speck in your brother's eye versus the plank in your own, He is thick on sarcasm, but also on truth.

I read this book not so much from a political but a Christian perspective. Ann does a good job documenting and explaining how seriously twisted society has become in its rejection of God. She makes out the enemy to be "liberalism," but the real enemy is the sinister being that lurks behind and "inspires" this our culture of death: "that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). His deceit has surfaced in every age to one degree or another, in one form or another. Regrettably, in today's American politics, it can be seen in the form of liberalism that promotes abortion, homosexual unions, euthanasia, Darwinism, and other godless philosophies.

He who has an ear, let him hear what Ann says to the church of liberalism!

Front-Porch Apologetics

Behold, I give you a true saying:

You cannot reason somebody into believing the Christian faith, but you can show that believing the Christian faith is reasonable.

Humility Is . . .

Is humility synonymous with loathing oneself, deprecating oneself, walking around with slumped shoulders and seeing no value at all in oneself?

No. Humility is seeing things as they are. It is recognizing the truth, the true order of things.

If you're humble, you see that you are a speck in the cosmos, that you are small and weak compared to God.

And, if you're truly humble, you will also recognize that God loves us specks, that we have incredible value and potential, having been created in God's image.

Pride is the opposite of humility. It makes a person see himself falsely, in a more lofty position than he really is.

True humility is the key to effective prayer. That's why we must first recognize that God is "Our Father, who art in heaven," and that His name is hallowed.

A Thought That Hurts My Brain

I wish I could de-mystify this mystery. It bugs me, but I just have to let it go. Follow my logic and let me know if you can explain things in a way I can understand:

My two presuppositions are these:

1. All time and matter -- the whole physical universe -- must have had a beginning. It did not always exist.
   
2. God, who is not a part of Creation but is outside of it and thus timeless, does not have successive thoughts or acts. If He had one thought followed by another, then that means He is in time and not in eternity, for time is merely a measurement of the motion of matter, which He created out of nothing.
   

It seems, then, that God must have been thinking about this Creation in eternity. Since He is timeless, then that means there wasn't a "time" when He decided to begin acting on His thoughts and start creating. Yet this universe was born, was begun. It almost seems that if God was always thinking about us, He was always Creating us, so we've always been here, but that can't be.

Just as one can rightly say "God IS," can one say "God DOES"? How would that square with the physical universe having a definite starting point?

Am I missing something? Is there a better way to look at this apparent conundrum?

You don't know what the heck I'm trying to ask, do you? . . . Crap!