Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Did I miss the inauguration?
Did Bush finally give in to all his enemies and resign early? 😯
What’s with this?
As far as I know, neither of those pictures match the accompanying headlines.
I guess ole Matt came down with the fever. 🙄
Oh well. 😆
Note: above screen captured roughly ten minutes ago. I did no doctoring to it.
This is not the faith of our fathers!
| Half of Americans who call themselves “Christian” don’t believe Satan exists and fully one-third are confident that Jesus sinned while on Earth, according to a new Barna Group poll.
Another 40 percent say they do not have a responsibility to share their Christian faith with others, and 25 percent “dismiss the idea that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches,” the organization reports. Pollster George Barna said the results have huge implications. “Americans are increasingly comfortable picking and choosing what they deem to be helpful and accurate theological views and have become comfortable discarding the rest of the teachings in the Bible,” he said. […] By a margin of 71 percent to 26 percent adults “noted that they are personally more likely to develop their own set of religious beliefs than to accept a comprehensive set of beliefs taught by a particular church,” the report said. Nearly two-thirds of “born again Christians” adopted that stance. |
Revive us again!
And what are we — what am I — to do about it?
Shall I truly give up in passing the faith along Read it all
I was going to post this yesterday morning. 🙁
“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59).
We all need to periodically evaluate our ways. Daily, I suppose. May the result of such self-analysis cause me to turn back to God’s ways or to reaffirm myself in those ways.
“Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word” (Psalm 119:67).
“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:71).
“Good for me”? Well, it’s a matter of perspective, no? If affliction brings me into compliance with God’s Word, then it’s a good thing. Right?
“The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver” (Psalm 119:72).
What a great verse to come across when all kinds of things financial and economic are staggering and collapsing all around us! (Now if that girl who is auctioning off her “virtue” would grab ahold of that verse!)
Well, what say you?
I was stunned to see the red headline on Drudge a couple mornings ago: US military report warns ‘sudden collapse’ of Mexico is possible.
| Mexico is one of two countries that “bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse,” according to a report by the U.S. Joint Forces Command on worldwide security threats.
The command’s “Joint Operating Environment (JOE 2008)” report, which contains projections of global threats and potential next wars, puts Pakistan on the same level as Mexico. “In terms of worse-case scenarios for the Joint Force and indeed the world, two large and important states bear consideration for a rapid and sudden collapse: Pakistan and Mexico. “The Mexican possibility may seem less likely, but the government, its politicians, police and judicial infrastructure are all under sustained assault and press by criminal gangs and drug cartels. How that internal conflict turns out over the next several years will have a major impact on the stability of the Mexican state. Any descent by Mexico into chaos would demand an American response based on the serious implications for homeland security alone.” |
That matters to me. Not just because Mexico shares a long, relatively-porous border with the US, but because I grew up there as an MK. And because I served as an adult missionary there for some five years. And because the Mission Board I chair presently has workers there. As you might imagine, I have lots of friends there.
Oh, the news story ends with this interesting sentence:
| The U.S. military report, which also analyzed economic situations in other countries, also noted that China has increased its influence in places where oil fields are present. |
So there you are.
God’s gifts today in New York City:
I know I’m blogging here only once a week now!
But it seems urgent I remind us of Orissa.
| Orissa: insecurity and hatred await Christians forced out of refugee camps
There is no sign that the long journey of suffering by Orissa’s Christian community is anywhere near its end. The government has decided to shut down refugee camps and force Christians to leave but no one is providing them with any guarantee as to their security against further violence once back home; instead, they are still the object of hatred and rejection. […] “Christians in Kandhamal are treated like animals. They live in fear and cannot find shelter, anywhere. They cannot live in dignity. The money they got [from the government] is not enough to buy food; their fields lie abandoned, burnt; their homes all but destroyed.” |
I don’t usually read Covenant News but the above headline caught my attention. Here you have the opening and closing paragraphs, with my own title borrowed from the body:
| Our Banner, Our Emblem, Our Flag of Allegiance
The relationship between church and state continues to be a subject of great interest and importance to me, particularly the dangers of statism and its inevitable by-product, nation-worship. For example, I think the flying of the American flag in our churches is a bad idea. In my opinion, it sends all the wrong messages. For one thing, it confuses the kingdom of God with the kingdom of man. We wonder, “Where does America stop and Christianity begin?” For another thing, Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world. It transcends tribe and nationality. And it is God’s primary agent of activity in the world. Because of this, the nation-state is always seeking to usurp Christ’s kingdom authority. Allegiance to the nation replaces (or at least actively competes with) allegiance to Christ. […] There is reason for thinking that if Christians could look, not at their own country, but at a man – the God-Man whose kingdom unites people from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation – there would be no need for displays of national patriotism in their churches. By its very nature, the church is different from any other society on earth. And the cross, not the flag, is the point of intersection between the church and the world. The cross of Jesus Christ is the secret of being in the world without being of it. It is the source of freedom for us to be given to the world as broken bread and poured-out wine. It is our banner, our emblem, our flag of allegiance. Let us fly it high! |
Here is some further reading from one of my own sites: