Sunday Faith Blog

The great Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, who came to faith in Jesus Christ after having been an atheist, said the following in his amazing book with such an ironic title, "Mere Christianity":

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”  


Makes sense to me.....Christ said he's the Son of God and one can only get to Heaven 'through' Him......So, he's either right or he's a liar or he's crazy!   Yet, people admire him as a great teacher  I know most of you have heard this, but I thought it was worth posting........

 

"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

Lewis didn't think Jesus was either lying or crazy when he said the Scripture in John.  Something to think about, for sure.   Have a marvelous (thinking) Sunday!  Z

"he's got WEEEEED!" SO funny!

There's some really salty language in this but, if it's not your thing, suck it up and enjoy this because it is one REALLY FUNNY VIDEO!   I had a very serious post planned for today, but Big Bubba sent me this in an email and I had to post it......It's Saturday, have a good laugh!!  ENJOY!

Mexico's Drug Cartels.....you tell ME............

.........what'll it take to stop the problems on our border with vicious Mexican drug cartels who don't think twice of committing horrible murders?
HERE is an article you will want to read if this is at all a concern of yours....and here's the beginning of it:


WASHINGTON – Seeking to repair damaged relations, President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon agreed Thursday to deepen their cooperation in combating drug violence and declared a breakthrough in efforts to end a long-standing dispute over cross-border trucking.

During a joint news conference at the White House, Obama praised Calderon for his "extraordinary courage" in fighting the violent drug cartels that have been responsible for deaths on both sides of the border. Obama pledged to speed up U.S. aid to train and equip Mexican forces to help in those efforts, but he also acknowledged that the U.S. must stem the flow of cash and guns to Mexico that have aided the cartels.
"We are very mindful that the battle President Calderon is fighting inside of Mexico is not just his battle, it's also ours," Obama said. "We have to take responsibility just as he's taken responsibility."

Do you think this problem is solvable?  What would you suggest either or both countries do?  

z

check out THIS BLOG....he did a spectacular job of BLACK HISTORY MONTH and topped it off with a piece you will want to read.

How to Destroy a Society...but Jeane Kirkpatrick; Quite an eye opener

The following is from an amazing speech by Jeane Kirkpatrick.   The rest of the excellent speech deals mostly with El Salvador and Russia, and is brilliantly thought out but more 'local' to that era and so I recommend it but haven't quoted more of the speech for that reason.  The very obvious reason I publish the words below is because I don't know that anyone's said better what Leftists around the world are doing and why.  I hope you'll read it and let me know what you think.

To destroy a society it is first necessary to delegitimize its basic institutions so as to detach the identifications and affections of its citizens from the institutions and authorities of the society marked for destruction. This delegitimization may be achieved by attacking a society's practices in terms of its own deeply held values, or it may be achieved by attacking the values themselves. The latter course was undertaken by the fascists and Nazi movements which rejected outright the basic values of Western liberal democratic civilization. They rejected democracy, liberty, equality, and forthrightly, frankly, embraced principles of leadership, obedience and hierarchy as alternatives to the hated basic values of democracy. Unlike the fascists, Marxists, of course, do not attack our basic values forthrightly. Instead, they denounce our societies in terms of our own values. They do not postulate alternative values; they postulate a radical critique of our societies and institutions by expropriating our language, our values. Thus democracies are attacked as not truly democratic, because they cannot guarantee economic equality. The argument follows that this makes political equality impossible and in the absence of political equality, it has been asserted that there cannot be free elections or freedom of any sort. Or the absence of perfect political equality in an electoral system means that the elections are a fraud. Their point is that a regime whose practices systematically betray their basic values is obviously a failed regime. If our practices betray our own deepest values then we fail; we are a failed regime. If we pretend to hallow values which our practices do not perfectly achieve, then we are guilty of falsification. So we are both a failure and a fraud. Obviously, such a regime does not deserve the loyalty or affection of either its citizens or its friends. Thus, if the United States is a fraudulent, falsifying society which exploits its workers and subjugates all in a facade of democracy, then it is obviously not worthy of respect.

Z:  Our country is under assault by Leftists who have the absurd opinion that perfection is attainable and who feel America is not at all worth of respect.    I wish the paragraphs above could be read and discussed in every high school in America today.

z

No Separation of Mosque and State??

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Taliban militants on Wednesday shot dead Pakistan's only Christian government minister for challenging a law that mandates the death penalty for insulting Islam, the latest sign of instability in a country where many fear radical Islam is becoming more mainstream.
Reuters also reports: "The blasphemy law has been in the spotlight since last November, when a court sentenced a Christian mother of four to death after her neighbors complained she had insulted Prophet Muhammad."  HERE is the rest of the article.

What I'm curious about is why America is paying to refurbish mosques overseas (or anywhere, for that matter).  HERE is information we have all heard about our $6 million dollars being spent for that purpose.  I can't help wondering if the people who have condemned Christians, like in the two stories above today, are having their mosques fixed by US?  Probably not that exact mosque but, let's face it.....this is NUTS.

From the American Thinker:  

Nicole Thompson, a State Department spokeswoman, has said that this cultural preservation "is helping to preserve our cultural heritage.  It is not just to preserve religious structures.  It is not to preserve a religion.  It's to help us as global inhabitants preserve cultures."

As multicultural Americans, isn't it important to be caretakers of the ancient world and understand and learn from these structures?

Still others would ask, if American doctrine entails a separation of church and state, why are tax dollars being spent to assist in any religious monument, however well meant.  Isn't this a flagrant violation of American doctrine? 

Apparently the funding of such projects became acceptable in 2003 when the Justice Department "declared that the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause did not preclude federal funds from going to preserve religious structures if they had cultural importance."

How, then, does one define "cultural importance?"

Wouldn't you THINK that that 'cultural importance' is HERE IN AMERICA? Like old churches and synagogues needing repair?   Does this dovetail on Obama's opinion that Islam is "part of America?"

Why aren't people complaining about our tax dollars going overseas like that?  We would never use tax dollars to help build the old church here in Santa Monica that's in disrepair!!!  Imagine even asking for that financial help?

Think we should be doing this?  Think the killers of those Christians above are benefiting from our tax dollars?

z

Germany's reaction to Frankfurt's killings

My German stepson is telling me the reaction on line to the Frankfurt Airport killings of two American soldiers is ANGER in Germany..
He tells me that comments on the homepage article include statements like "He'll go to jail for 15 years and then get out"  (my stepson thinks the limit is 25 years so it could be that.)
"They come here from other countries, live on our taxes, and commit crimes like this...they have to go."
"This was no coincidence, it couldn't be; he was definitely going after American soldiers and this has to stop."
"Multiculturalism doesn't work"

My stepson says he and all his friends, younger middle-age, are sick of what's going on and want it to stop. Their tax dollars are supporting people from the Middle East, Turkey, many from the former Yugoslavia/Balkan area, and many people from Russia, Poland...and many of them come taking jobs from Germans because they work cheaper, and committing crimes.
When the politicians said "Poland will be part of the EU", people expected the crime rate to go up at the border....(there are no border controls between EU countries)...the Germans said "The crime rate is going to double" and the politicians said that won't happen, and it did, BIG time, more than double....garden sheds broken into and things stolen, bikes stolen, houses broken into, cars stolen or ripped apart for parts.  The scale of crime was much higher than it was before.   And, of course, Poland isn't able to protect their borders so Russians and Romanians are coming through INTO GERMANY....also, other parts of Europe, of course, but they go through Germany.
There is a kind of joke that "If your car is stolen, look in Poland"(funnier because that sentiment rhymes in German)   "Have a vacation in Poland, your car's already there!"   My stepson says "The Poles are mostly a very good people, really solid and hard working, in general...but the criminals come through to the other countries!"


The Albanians, according to Europeans, are the worst of the bunch as far as crime is concerned, and BAD crimes, too.  It's sad that those who come into Western countries have to commit crimes, isn't it?

I'm not picking on nationalities....I'm of Armenian descent and we're humiliated now by the Russian Armenian gangs in L.A.,  when cops used to say "We've never had an Armenian in our jails" they now tell me "they're more than half full with Armenian gangs!"  SO, believe me, I am not meaning to malign nationalities all of whom have really good people  in them, MOSTLY good people, but I thought hearing some of Germany's reactions to the killings today and about the multiculturalism they feel is killing them would be interesting to you.

Let's see what happens to the guy from Kosovo who committed these murders..... we'll see if he's an Islamist and we'll see how he gets treated.  Meanwhile two of our best are dead.

z

Favorite SOUND?

Almost nothing makes me smile more than hearing a baby laugh really hard!   Here's a good one:

Do you have a favorite sound?  What is it?
thanks!  OH, and please read about my friend ERMA below, you'll really like her!
z

Black History Month and my friend Erma

I just hung the phone up with a 92 year old Black lady named Erma who is in my Bible Study Core Group...she is a delight and I thought I'd tell you a little about her.  First, she says she's "29" instead of 92!  And, when she's not well, she says "I've been better, but I'm doing okay"  You'll never hear a negative thing from Erma and her faith is rock solid, too.

Today, her ankles are hurting and she feels a bit weak.  In my own little obtuse way I asked her  "Erma, why are you feeling weak and achy?  Do you know what's causing it?"   Her voice lowered over the telephone and she said, very seriously but with a smile in it.."OLD AAAAAGE!"  (duh, Z!) 

At a luncheon a few weeks ago, I asked the ladies in the Bible study (about 15 of them) where they put the brunt of their anger and how they cope with it (we pick subjects for discussion which get some good conversations going)....one woman said she's almost 50 and angry that she's wasted 2 years on a guy who she feels she should break up with soon.  Suddenly,  ERMA chimed in with "My dear girl........you'd better get rid of him and find someone new now because it doesn't get easier to meet men when you get older"  (Remember, she's 92!)  She added "I meet men at the Sr. Center but all they ever want to talk about is..........(her voice deepened).....WORLD WAR TWOOOOO"   We laughed and then she added .."...and they want to call you BABY...Baby, baby, baby"   What a great woman Erma is!   What spirit!  Her youthful, cheerful humor is an inspiration.

On the phone just now we were talking and I asked Erma what she had done for a living.  She said "I was an LVN!"  And then she added "I've done a lot of things, believe me....when I was growing up in N. Caroline, at the age of six, I cleaned porches and emptied the SLOP....for twenty-five cents a week.  My daughters don't believe me but it's true...."   I asked when she moved to California and she said she met her first husband and then came here........but she added that her family had moved to Virginia in the meantime from N. Carolina....I told her I'd love to sit and talk with her about her life...Finally, she said, not remembering it's March today, not February, "This is Black History Month......Well, Z, you might say I LIVED BLACK HISTORY MONTH!"  :-)

You've gotta love Erma! I sure do!

z

Death comes to a liberal Muse..........

Suze Rotolo has died.   Do you know who she was?  That's her in the album cover to the left.....she was (the Freewheelin') Bob Dylan's girlfriend and muse from 1961, when she was seventeen years old, till 1964, when they broke up.   She inspired "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," one of my favorites (I was never a real big fan of Dylan because of his nasal mumbling and I do an imitation that kills my friends :-) But, I do like his songs performed by other people. (and, by the way, Rotolo died after a long illness and I'm sorry she went through that and my heart's with her husband of 40 years.)

I post this because Rolling Stone magazine says this: "Her left-wing background also meant she played "a huge role in Dylan's political awakening,"   First, it's fascinating that becoming left-wing is "political awakening" and, second, is it really seventeen year olds who budding leftists learn from? Suddenly, a LOT makes sense, doesn't it?  Heh

Here's a list of my Dylan favorites:

When You Awake (The Band did it best)
Up on Cripple Creek (ditto)
House of the Risin' Sun (The Animals did it well, Dylan's wasn't bad)
Maggie's Farm (nobody comes close to The 'Dead on that one)
He was a Friend of Mine (Good job by The Byrds)
Stage Fright (who can come close to The Band?)
Girl From the North Country (Dylan's is pretty good)

You have any Dylan song favorites?  And what do you think about the Rolling Stones comment in bold above?   And that 17 yr olds are the inspiration for budding leftists? :-)

z