Encouragement

After the sober word posted earlier, it only seemed appropriate to post this encouragement from God's Word.

- Jonathan

Psalm 27
Of David.

¹ The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

² When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.

³ Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.

⁴ One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.

⁵ For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.

⁶ Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

⁷ Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.

⁸ My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.

⁹ Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.

¹⁰ Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.

¹¹ Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.

¹² Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.

¹³ I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD.
 

Today's Prayer From The Presidential Prayer Team

Today the PPT repeated yesterday's post. Not a bad thing, because I think that we are going to need to pray for President Obama's courage in the days to come (and ours too for that matter.) But rather than post the same thing two days in a row I thought I'd offer my own prayer for today. It is on the same basic theme.



Prayer that the people of America and its newly elected leaders will not fear men, but will fear God.

"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows." Matthew 10:28-31

Father God, thank You that You have promised to care for even the smallest creatures! Thank You for the assurance that we are worth more to you than anything else in creation. What great love You have lavished on the people of the earth!

Father, please help us as a nation to respect You as we should. Please write Your laws on our hearts and cause us to obey Your precepts. In the same way, Father please cause our elected leaders to fear You more than they fear popular opinion or the threats of others. Give them the courage to lead in the direction that You would have our nation to go even if it is unpopular. Cause them to have a godly fear if they try to direct our nation towards ungodliness.

Please place wise advisors around those that have been elected to office and please put Your counsel in their mouths. Please give our leaders the wisdom to heed Your advice and to ignore any that is not from You.

Thank You, Father that you have promised to be a strong tower of refuge for the righteous. Help us to place our confidence in You and not in people, political parties, or the things that we can see with our eyes.

In the name of Jesus, amen!

Fearlessness

For the President-Elect to be fearless, trusting God in times of difficulty and trial

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.
—Psalm 46:1-2

O Lord God, You are mighty and strong, unshakable and powerful in all Your ways. I praise You for calling us to hide in You, to take refuge in You during times when we are tempted to fear. When things in our lives appear to be falling apart, I thank You that You are immovable and strong.

Today I pray for the President-Elect, that You will help and empower him to place his full trust in You. Make him fearless, Lord. May he replace any fear he feels with confidence and trust in You at every turn. Hold him firmly in Your hand as he trusts in You, O mighty God. In Your wonderful name, amen.

This is the latest in the series of prayers led by the Presidential Prayer Team for the new President and for our nation. If you are interested in receiving the email with each day's prayer assignment you can click here and sign up.

A Very Important Message

This is a message that is targeted primarily to my Christian readers, but should be of benefit to anyone who reads it. It is largely an excerpt of a post that I wrote for the Conspiracy of Kindness blog, but I believe that its message is important enough to duplicate it here.

Very few Christians would deny that God still speaks to His people. This communication can come in various forms: from general impressions, to visions, to dreams, and to a voice that isn't heard with our ears but is instead discerned by our spirits.

One of my friends has a particular fluency in their communication with God. Recently, in the midst of a conversation that this individual was having with God about a situation that they are dealing with, God shared something that I believe is very important for many to hear. Based on my experience with this individual, my knowledge of their understanding of the subject matter of the message, and the context in which it was given, I believe that this is a bona fide message from the Lord.

The Bible tells us to "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment." While many in traditional and even evangelical churches are uncomfortable with calling someone a prophet today or even in allowing that prophecies are still given today, I hope that you will not be offended by this term. A prophet is merely someone who tells others what God has told them. It is our job as priests in the Kingdom of God to consult with the Holy Spirit to test the prophecy. It is with this caveat that I submit this message for your consideration:

If you have an abundance don't invest it in the stock market. That's going to crash later this year. It will be a lot like 1929, but for those whose investment is primarily in the Kingdom there won't be a problem.

Wealth, as America knows it is almost over.

Dave Ramsey's teachings about mutual funds work well in this season - this system, but the economic system is about to change dramatically. The same rules will not apply.

I'm getting ready for the great wealth transfer. Many will be saved. Those in debt will suffer the most. Many will lose everything. "But those who know their God will do mighty exploits."

Let me begin by explaining something of the context in which this message was given. What I have shared was an excerpt from a larger conversation between my friend and God. There was nothing before this in the conversation that even made mention of the stock market, although financial matters had been discussed. This is one of the reasons that I believe that this message is from God.

A second reason that I believe that this message is authentic is that my friend has no knowledge or understanding of the stock market or the economic factors that drive it. This individual has (as was indicated in the prophecy) listened to Dave Ramsey, but that is the extent of their knowledge. In fact, my friend hardly even listens to or reads the news. So I don't believe that this is an idea that could have come from this individual's own concerns about the economy or knowledge about it.

Where does this leave us then? One of the purposes of prophecy is to encourage God's people. The entirety of the context of this message served to strongly encourage my friend.

Another purpose of prophecy is to warn God's people of sin and/or impending events. Proverbs tells us "The prudent sees the evil and hides himself, but the naive go on, and are punished for it." and "A prudent man sees evil and hides himself, the naive proceed and pay the penalty."

I am no financial expert. I cannot tell you what to do in response to this message. Perhaps it would be wise to study the events of the Great Depression and look specifically to the areas that thrived in the midst of the collapse of the Stock Market. I have heard that when one type of investment falters there are often other areas that do well. This may be a time for God's people to be able to prosper because of this warning.

Perhaps it would also be prudent to move funds from stock market based investments to investments with guaranteed interest. (I'm thinking particularly of folks with 401-ks and that sort of thing.) However, once again, I don't really know what I am talking about. Your best bet would be to ask God what you should do with your investments.

I would also encourage you to ask God about expediting the payoff of any home equity lines and about refinancing your home if the mortgage is not locked into a long-term fixed rate.

Can I guarantee that this is a word from the Lord? No. But I felt strongly enough that it was that I felt a responsibility to warn as many people as I could about it. Please pray and ask God to show you whether this prophecy is true and to tell you what you should do about it.

One last thought... Christians are not to be motivated by fear. This message should not cause fear, but should encourage us to praise God for giving us a warning before this event takes place.

If you are heavily in debt this may cause you some distress. That is understandable, but do not operate out of fear. Cry out to God in repentance over your situation and ask Him how to fix it. Allow your faith to rise up and trust your God to take care of you and your needs. I can attest that He does and He will. That is not to say that you may not suffer loss, but God will not allow the righteous to be forsaken or their children to beg for bread.

For any of my non-Christian friends who are reading this blog, I hope that this information will benefit you too. If it does, my sincerest prayer is that you will give glory to God for giving you this warning and that you will submit your lives to Him because of His goodness. He truly loves you and wants the very best for you.

Raging In The Storm

A group of my friends got together for church tonight at my sister's house. We had a great time. We enjoyed a very tasty meal, played and sang some songs, spent some time talking about the Bible, and spent some time talking to God. The awesome part about it all was God met us there.

I have to say that has not been the case so much for me lately.

One of the things that I try to do every morning as I am getting rolling is spend some time reading the Bible. I am on a daily plan that will help me to read through the Bible in a year. It is a good discipline, and I often learn things as I read it. I also like to pray, but prayer is one of the disciplines that I struggle with sometimes. My mind tends to wander, and I get off topic, and before I know it, I'm daydreaming about what I have to do that day or about something that I would like to do one day.

Lately I have been struggling to stay awake even to read my Bible. Not good.

It seems like there has been a lot of interference in my connection with God, and the bad thing about that is how I tend to respond to it. I tend to get angry.

One of my favorite poems of all time is The Collar by George Herbert. It is so typical of my life. I probably should have the last lines etched into my tombstone one day:

"But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde
At every word,
Me thoughts I heard one calling, Childe:
And I reply’d, My Lord."

I hate to admit it, but I am a rager. It is frankly downright embarrassing to have to admit that I have a huge, glaring fruit of the flesh growing on the vine of my life. And just like Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump, the more the storm rages, the more I tend to rage as well.

Tonight as we were praying I found a sheltered harbor in the midst of my storm, and I thought of the words that I used for the title of this post. I have been raging in the storm. How foolish! What a waste of time, emotion, and energy - especially when there is a safe place reserved for me in God.

I must make it a priority to find this place in God each day. Without it I get tossed about by every trial and wave that comes my way. I begin to fear and to express that fear I turn to anger. This must change in my life. With God's help it will.

God Is Good

2007 was a pretty rough year. I spent a lot of it like Elijah, waiting for ravens to come with my provision. As I have crossed into 2008, things haven't changed much to speak of, although God is still sending ravens (figuratively, that is.)

One of the keys that I have been working on for the past 12 months or so is that God is faithful and trustworthy. He won't allow us to go under. I have seen His provision for me over the past months time and time again. Why is it, I wonder, that even after His consistent support I can still become fearful about how my needs will be met? Foolish, foolish, foolish heart!

I can honestly say that I am getting better at dealing with the stress of this lesson, but every so often, I have to run back to Him for grace to overcome the nagging fear. Still, I don't guess there is anything wrong with getting grace. He told us to do it:

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
- Hebrews 4:16

I just think that it is awesome that God has given us a tool to use to help us live holy lives. I call it "grace grenades." Perhaps you are familiar with the armor of God passage that is found in Ephesians 6:10-18? Well, I have found that "grace grenades" complete the ensemble. Sadly, I do not have time to elucidate on this topic tonight. Perhaps I will be able to revisit it in detail soon.

The bottom line is - GOD IS GOOD. He has proven Himself to me many, many times.

Thanks, God!

The Least Of These

The past week has been a little disappointing. I had such high hopes for a spiritual feast on Thanksgiving. My heart was so full last Sunday night at the joint Thanksgiving service done by the three local PCA churches that I was eagerly anticipating Thanksgiving Day and some great connection with God. I had even been meditating on some scriptures that the Lord seemed to be bringing to my attention. Yet each day closer to Thanksgiving my soul felt drier and drier - like a turkey baked too long without being basted. In fact, even this morning on my way to church my attitude was so far from where I had hoped that it would be. When the time to worship started I was distracted and mildly frustrated. (Not a good place for the worship leader to be!)

I can't say that things got any better during my part of the service. My guitar strings were buzzing and sounded terrible. I couldn't get it positioned correctly and my arm and hand began to fatigue. It was some rough plowing. Thank God I have a great band behind me. Fortunately things picked up with the pastor's sermon. He has been challenging us as a church to reach out to our neighbors and used as his text the first half or so of Matthew 22.

God has truly called us to a great celebration. His party will blow all other parties away. He even provides everything that we need to be acceptable at His bash, and yet there are so many who refuse to come. Weird. And yet, how guilty are we - the invited - of acting like we are going to be scourged instead of going to a celebration? If we truly believed that God and His reward for us were all that, wouldn't we be eager to tell others? Wouldn't our lives be so full of joy and excitement that others would want to come? And then there are others who try to come but refuse His "party clothes." Thinking about this made me think of some of my loved ones who want to "come to the feast" but don't want to dress according to the code. It makes me shudder for them. Do I say that they aren't saved? I can't make that call, but I can't help but believe that they are in very dangerous waters.

Our church is at a place where I believe that God is calling us to reach out like most of us have never done before. I look at my sister's life and how God has strategically placed her in a neighborhood full of lost folk who love her to death. I look at my own neighborhood and realize that although there are some Christians living around me that there are many who don't know God at all living within a close walk of my house. This is what I am dealing with - breaking the inertia that keeps me from being a good neighbor and friend to the people who live close by. Dealing with the fear of sharing the gospel with anyone. I know it is an absurd fear - most fears are - but it is where I am.

I was talking with my good friend Bruce after the service and we were both feeling kind of low and worn out. We've both been taking a little time in the Lord's crucible lately, and I confessed to him how dry I had been feeling this past week - lonely for the Lord's presence. (Isn't it funny how being lonely for the Lord will often disguise itself as loneliness for other company? But I digress.) He suggested that it was perhaps the enemy's attack. We talked for a little bit longer and in the course of that discussion decided that we should do some servant evangelism together soon. (See Steve Sjogren's book Conspiracy Of Kindness.) As we left the church we passed a car broken down in the middle of the road. I stopped to ask if the guy driving needed help, and he could only answer me in Spanish. I went to park the car and looked up and there was Bruce! He was stopping to help too.

Now you need to understand, I am utterly NOT mechanical. I know next to NOTHING about what is going on under the hood of a car - especially if it isn't doing what it is supposed to be doing. However, Bruce is VERY mechanical. We helped the fellow to get his car out of the road and then Bruce went to work on the car. I used the little Spanish I knew to talk to Carlos and before you knew it Bruce had the car running again! We didn't say a word to Carlos about God or Jesus - I probably could have if I had been in practice - but as we went on our way I felt like I had just touched the Lord's fellowship for the first time in the past seven days. Is it possible that we met the Lord broken down on the road? Matthew 25:40 would seem to indicate that we did.

Perhaps God let me get dry and hungry for His presence so that I would sense it so clearly when I encountered it with Carlos this afternoon. If so, may He not let me forget to seek His presence even amongst "the least of these."

And God, please bless Carlos and help him to learn who You are!

What If?

As I have been reading the news for the last little while I can't help but wonder if America is getting set up for a big fall. It is becoming clearer and clearer that the ties between our enemies are growing stronger every day and their position is also being strengthened. There are certainly loose (or stronger) alliances between China, Iran, Russia, Cuba, Syria, North Korea, and Venezuela. China has also made overtures to nearly every country in South America. There is little doubt that Al Quaeda has at least some access to this alliance. Is it possible that these countries and Al Quaeda are preparing a strategic attack on the United States? Here is how it could play out:

Al Quaeda receives help getting nuclear materials for either a suitcase nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb into the United States and manages to detonate such a weapon in one or more American cities like Washington, DC, New York, or Los Angeles. A suitcase nuke or a dirty bomb in New York City would kill thousands upon thousands. Some of the most valuable property in the United States would become worthless. Imagine that multiplied by a factor 2 or 3 or, God forbid, 10.

The credit problems that we have seen in the past month have revealed the fragility of our economy. Even one successful large scale terrorist attack would likely put the economy in a tailspin - especially if that attack were to occur in one of our nation's financial or governmental centers.

Now suppose what would happen if immediately on the heels of that attack, Hugo Chavez and Venezuela begin "annexing" territory in South America. Russia invades Georgia (the country) and begins the process of re-establishing the iron curtain. Iran and Syria attack Israel. And China knocks out key military satellites, overwhelms Taiwan, and militarizes the Panama Canal.

To make matters worse, terror cells are activated in America and begin attacks throughout the American heartland such as blowing up schools, executing sniper style attacks randomly around the country, and suicide bombings. What if they instigated a biological terror attack using an agent like smallpox? What if they were clever enough to spread agricultural diseases like hoof and mouth disease?

If that happened what would you do? Where would you turn? What would you hold on to?

Here in America we have had a good long run of prosperity and protection. I personally believe that this is because our country was founded largely by people who came here to create a new Christian nation that would be a "light on a hill" to the world. In many ways we have done that - America is still the country that sends the most missionaries into the world and the country that gives the most to missions - however, our light hasn't always burned with such a pure light. We are also one of the leading exporters of pornography in the world and one of the leading countries in the world in murdering the unborn.

Over the past 40 years or so there has been a great shift in American culture away from the spiritual underpinnings that have held it secure towards a great secularization of our nation. As our nation has turned its back on God, I believe that we are beginning to "reap the whirlwind" for the wind that we have sown.

The scenario that I have painted is admittedly hypothetical and worst case. However, it is entirely plausible. It shows you just how precarious our position is today, and just how much we really do depend on God (or how much we should) for our country's security.

The scary thing is that God is a just God. He will not allow a nation to continually turn its back to Him and sin the way we are sinning as a nation. As I wrote the other day, "'Should I not punish them for this?' declares the LORD. 'Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?'" (Jeremiah 5:9 and 5:29 and 9:9)

The good news is that if we will repent of our wickedness, God will forgive. Yes there will eventually come a time when the conscience of our nation is seared to the point that God will judge us, but He is also very patient and merciful to the penitent.

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

Time To Duck...

It hasn't rained at my home since my birthday over a month ago. The drought is so severe here in North Carolina that they don't have a more severe category to use to classify it. This is the driest that it has ever been here since they have kept records. This is what they would call a famine in biblical days.

The interesting thing about famines is that they don't come around for no reason. According to the Bible famines come as a wake up call from God to turn from our sins and cry out to Him. Here's the problem: no one seems to be calling out to God. Now, I know that I have a number of Christian friends who are praying for rain and even a few who are acknowledging that this seems to be a judgment from the Lord's hand. However, the numbers of people who seem willing to acknowledge this are small in comparison to those who want to scream "global warming!"

Today in the news I have heard about massive, violent, unseasonable tornadoes and thunderstorms all across the country. There is a major storm in Washington state right now that is threatening a floating bridge, and there has been an overabundance of rain in Texas of all places.

The thing that really concerns me is that the Bush administration is beginning to press Israel for a "Palestinian" peace deal again. They even have some people in Israel talking of giving up part of Jerusalem to the terrorists in exchange for peace. Just the other day Secretary Of State Rice declared that now is the time for a Palestinian state. I shudder. The last time we got involved in pushing Israel to give up its rightful homeland, ceded to them by God, Katrina devestated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, killing thousands.

In fact, historically, every time that the United States has pushed Israel to give up land it has ended very badly for us.

So right now we have catestrophic (historically associated with judgment) weather patterns plaguing us. Our economy is on very shaky ground with the dollar growing weaker almost daily and the banking industry suffering the consequences of the poorly thought out loans that they made during the housing boom. Businesses are run by CEOs with short term mentality and big time greed. We even saw swarms of insects attack our national passtime in the Cleveland and New York game! The next thing in the litany of judgments is pestilence and it may have been unleashed as MRSA claims more and more lives and begins to spread further and further. After that comes war and defeat.

I wish I knew what to repent for. The problem is not actually trying to find one thing to repent for - it is that there are so many things that we are guilty of! As a people we are perverse, murderous, idolatrous, greedy, self-absorbed, non-loving, rebellious, faithless, baby-killing, self-worshipping swindlers. I am reminded of a passage from Jeremiah that says, "'Should I not punish them for this?' declares the LORD. 'Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?'" (Jeremiah 5:9 and 5:29 and 9:9) These words make me tremble. I pray that they make you tremble as well.

God please forgive us! Please cause us to repent! And please turn your anger from this land.

I believe it is time to duck.

One Of Those Days...

I hate to lose. I mean I REALLY HATE to lose. You might not know it from my mild mannered alter ego but it is very true. In fact, deep down, I'm so competitive that I don't much like the fellow I become when I lose. Over the years I have developed ways to cope with this dark little me. Most of them have involved locking competitive me away in a dark dungeon and not giving him an opportunity to come out and do his thing.

It is a poor solution, really, because I have allowed myself to shut away one of my most masculine traits merely because it is dangerous. If you subscribe to John Eldredge's view of masculinity, you know that that is a cardinal sin. But I digress. See, this post isn't about how I have managed this aspect of my life so much as it is about the spiritual warfare that Christians find themselves engaged in constantly and more particularly about the warfare in which I found myself yesterday.

One of the neat things about being a Christian is the foregone certainty that we are on a winning team. While this is true, it is also very true that our sanctification doesn't occur overnight. The reality is that we struggle against our flesh for the remainder of our days. Until we die we will contend against its desires. Our enemy does his part too to make sure that we trip often.

As a young Christian I had great success in the battle against the flesh initially. Quite a few of my more fleshly habits dropped to the wayside very easily. However, there came a time in my life (and from my observation the lives of all Christians) where the Lord allowed the enemy to start fighting back. This generally comes as a shock to new believers, and the real hard work of sanctification is begun.

Over the years you become more accustomed to the fight. Indeed, you can even get in the habit of winning these skirmishes with the enemy. Then God takes you to a new place where the demons that you are battling have entrenched themselves deep in the areas of your personality that are so close to your perception of who you are that it feels like the guns of heaven, the blasts of the enemy, and even your own weapons are turned upon you. The very things that we are fighting are the attitudes and mechanisms that we have used to protect ourselves from the wounds that we have received throughout our lives. These defenses were adopted as means of the flesh to survive the awful attack of an enemy who sought to destroy us even before we came to know Jesus the Savior. The difficulty of this part of the fight is that the habits are so deeply ingrained that we often do them without even realizing that we are doing them.

Such is the battle that I have been fighting. Recently, the Lord began to show me that the very root of all of the sinful manifestations that I have been resisting for all of my Christian life are bound up in one thing: FEAR. He has begun to show me through the Scriptures that if we truly know Him and truly understand the relationship that He wants to have with us then we need fear nothing. When we have acknowledged Him as Lord and are submitted to His will for our lives then we have nothing to fear in all of creation.

I pretty well have this down in my mind. I understand the theology behind it. I assent to the logic of it. I believe it is right. And yet I discovered yesterday that there is a big difference between knowledge and true belief. Knowing your enemy does not guarantee victory over him.

Yesterday I had to deal with a financial matter that had been looming for several months. I knew that I needed to work on it, but really wasn't that afraid of it. I wasn't afraid, that is, until I sat down to start working on it. It was then that the enemy hit me with everything that he had, and I found myself resorting to all of my old tricks. In short, I totally blew it, even though I knew what was going on, and even though I knew to fight, I found myself totally overwhelmed.

I hate losing. And by God's grace, in the next battle it will be the enemy licking his wounds, not me.

If There Really Is No God, What Are You So Afraid Of?

Here's a scary thought: Atheist Extremists

Religion Must Be Destroyed, Atheists Say

According to the linked article, a recent conference of atheists took a very militant tone.

Some of the luminaries who spoke at the conference, held at the Crown Royal Hotel in Crystal City, Va., over the weekend, included Oxford professor Richard Dawkins, author Sam Harris and journalist Christopher Hitchens. The Atheist Alliance International describes itself as "the only democratic national atheist organization in the United States."

While most attendees on Friday night were adamant that God was a myth, the convention, attended by hundreds of people, brought into focus a divide among atheists as to their identity as a movement and the nature of the enemy they faced.

In his speech, Dawkins portrayed a black-and-white intellectual battle between atheism and religion. He denounced the "preposterous nonsense of religious customs" and compared religion to racism. He also gave no quarter to moderate or liberal believers, asserting that "so-called moderate Christianity is simply an evasion."

"If you've been taught to believe it by moderates, what's to stop you from taking the next step and blowing yourself up?" he said.

I find the language used to be interesting: "the nature of the enemy they faced," "intellectual battle between atheism and religion," "He also gave no quarter..."

What's this old boy so threatened by? If there is no God, he has nothing to fear. But then again, that IS the point, isn't it?

Various and Assorted...

It has been an interesting and busy day. Of course, my dinosaur computer tends to make small jobs big, (don't think sexy dinosaur like veloceraptor, mine is more like the big-boned brontosaurus - who has a really great personality and likes long walks on the beach...) but it was just a packed day anyway.

I have been doing some contract software testing for a company for the past month and a half. I figured the job would last a week and a half. Oh well, so much for that. I guess the good (and bad) thing is that I have found some fairly major bugs. It is good from the perspective that they know that I am doing what they hired me to do, bad from the perspective that it is causing the contract to drag out FAR longer than I and planned on.

I used to be scared of computers. They never did what I wanted them to do. Later, I discovered that it wasn't my fault. I just have an innate ability to uncover latent "product features" as the developers like to call them!

One of the best pieces of advice I got on my first QA (Quality Assurance) job. An old, seasoned tester told me to not be afraid to break something. That if I could break it, it needed breaking. Good advice. There is a lot of software out there that needs breaking. Microsoft's is the worst. I am pretty sure that they don't have a single QA person on staff. If they do, they should be fired. Microsoft puts out the buggiest software on the planet I think.

I never buy any of their new release software because I know that it will be crap. They release it with as many bugs as a low-rent mobile home, and then put in this clever little program that allows you to report failures when it crashes and burns - kind of like a black box for software. They get their customers to do for free what they are too cheap to pay for. And people put up with this junk! But I digress...

I have always been accused of not knowing my own strength. Growing up, I often broke things by using force against resistance. I eventually became conditioned to not do this because it usually ended up in something getting broken. (That whole tie up a baby elephant thing...) This is why there are times when I will ask for help with something and end up looking like an idiot when someone half my size and strength comes up and easily accomplishes my task by applying a little more force. I guess this explains why I was afraid to mess with computers.

Isn't it funny how much fear influences our lives? I have really been pondering this lately. In fact we had a pretty strong prayer meeting tonight with some guys from the church, and fear was our number one target. I think that we had a really good breakthrough. I guess the proof will be in the pudding. When we have an opportunity to fear, will we give in to it, or will we respond in faith? Jim Laffoon wrote a really good devotion about that the other day at Our Daily Blog. You should check it out. Here is a quote from one of his recent posts:

Even as faith is your greatest friend, so fear is your greatest foe. In fact, fear is the enemy’s version of faith; even as faith will bring you into the reality of God’s promises, so fear will bring you into the reality of the enemy’s tormenting threats.

- Jim Laffoon

I have a post cooking, actually a couple, that are about fear. I will probably post different ones on the different blogs that I am working on (as if keeping up ONE blog wasn't challenging enough.) If you are interested in more Christian-themed posts about fear you can check out Conspiracy Of Kindness. It is a blog that I set up for my church to use, but so far I am the only one who posts there. I try not to be so political over there and I really try to resist the urge to get in a good rant. Should be safe for a 'G' rating. I might just copy the post that I do on fear over there to this blog too. I can do that. I have the power.

Still, it will be interesting to see how I handle another bad news day and whether it is sufficient to bring me down or if I will be able to respond in faith. Sigh... The bad thing about that is that it means there will have to be another bad news day. I am definitely getting better at handling them, though. By temperament I tend towards melancholy, but Jesus is helping me to deal with that a lot better. Things that would have bummed me out for a month now only seem to be able to affect me for a few hours. That is an improvement!

Another indicator that I am getting better is in the way I handled my recent reading of the book of Job. Job has always been my least favorite book in the Bible. In the past, I have found myself railing at God for not answering Job's legitimate question. This time it was different. I think that I am finally starting to understand Job.

Bottom line? God is good. Period. Even when it looks like He isn't good, He is good. If you can get that, you'll be fine.

Some good news today:

Judge: Ten Commandments Display Can Stay

It's about time we win one of these.

The other day seemed heavy laden with bad news. There is an old treaty that Ronald Reagan refused to ratify (because of the damage that it would do to US sovereignty) that inexplicably is in the Senate at President Bush's request for full ratification. This is a horribly bad idea. I love President Bush and all, but this was not one of the finer moments. You can read about it at the link below. Please call and fax your Senators and tell them that you strongly oppose the ratification of this treaty. Unfortunately, letters and emails have almost no impact on Congressional opinion. Since the anthrax scare, letters take months to get there if ever, and emails are given very little weight.

UNITED NATION JURISDICTION OF THE SEAS - THE LAW OF THE SEAS TREATY

Let folks know about this one. It is bad news. It is always a bad thing for us if the UN is in control of anything. I'm personally ready for the US to kick them out of NYC and tell them that if they want to act like our enemy they can do it in someone else's country. I have heard that there is a lovely mountain ridge in the middle of the Atlantic...

I also read a good article the other day on the Town Hall website. It was called:

Exposing How Liberals Misread the Bible
By Frank Pastore
Sunday, September 16, 2007

It demonstrated a very serious weakness in any biblical argument of anyone who doesn't accept biblical inerrancy. Kind of hard to legitimately use the Bible to support your point if you don't accept that the Bible is what it claims to be - the literal Word of God.

I've also been helping a friend who is trying to sell a couple homes in Rowan County, NC. You can see them here. Sorry about the website. It is new and I haven't finished doctoring it up yet. One property is a farm ($255,000) and the other is a really well renovated single story house ($149,900). I know that is a "ranch" but I thought it might be a little confusing after I was talking about the first being a farm. If you know anyone looking to move to Rowan County let them know about it.

My friend, David P has returned from Japan. Keep an eye on his blog. He has found out some interesting information, and I think that his posts in the coming days, weeks and months will prove to continue to be interesting and enlightening.

It seems that there was something else that I wanted to ramble on about, but I can't seem to remember what it was. Perhaps that is because I should have gone to bed hours ago. Thus, that is enough rambling for this post. I'll try to get those fear posts done soon. They have been tumbling around in my mind for a couple of weeks. I think they'll be pretty good. Should be ready before Halloween anyway!