Rats!!

 I was reading about this on the horizon virus.  And I do God Almighty disciplines people by sending down diseases of various sorts. I do think the AIDS scare of the 80s was sent in response to the growing number of homosexuals and general promiscuity, and that COVID19 was Him waging war with idols. Michael Crichton of course depersonalizes it, but in his book JURASSIC PARK, he describes some of the ways that God will have His way in the world irrespective of our made up expectations. Granted, the main premise of Jurassic Park was flawed and basically designed to be consumed like a campy horror movie, he packed a lot of worthwhile insights in there as well.

--When I say "He sent", I'm not talking about the specific people who have been afflicted with AIDS.  I know some people are born with AIDS.  I don't know why, any more than I understand why some people have schizophrenia or autism or die before they've had enough time to really live.  

"For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience."

Joy! To the World!!!

 It's unfortunate that so many modern recordings of truly joyful songs such as "Come All Ye Faithful" etc are so dour in their presentation.  It is sad that western culture has degraded to the extent it has, and that it's affected the church even, but there is plenty of opportunity to create music with theologically sound lyrics to reflect the times we live in.  Taking Christmas music and making it sad sounding is just...I'll just leave it there.  :/

Anxiety...all your cares

 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow. For tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."

Matthew 6:34

That is so simple yet so utterly profound.  Much of The Bible ultimately is the same way, but I think this passage really stands out, probably because it's so urgently helpful.  Worry is arguably at least one of the most common and severe obstacles that stand in our way.  It's difficult, perhaps next to impossible, to stand with joy *and* anxiety.  At the very least one would need to switch between the two...  Maybe I'm just blown away by that because I have so much time on my hands that I find myself worrying way more than I ought to without even realizing it sometimes

3CD

https://www.discogs.com/release/2269579-Genesis-Trespass-Nursery-Cryme-Foxtrot
I was really eying this a few months ago.  It's out of print, and insanely expensive, most of the time.  Maybe if the powers that be would offer it for a reasonable price, like $30?.....  The original issues of the set are the ones I'd want.  The discs included are unremastered.  The remastered set has modified packaging that just looks lame.

  I don't always mind un-re-mastered albums, but this is one case where the remaster was much welcome.  The first second or two of "Watcher Of The Skies" (Foxtrot) is like a pause, which if you've never ever heard the album before, or just aren't into it, then it probably doesn't matter.  But, for reasons I make absolutely no claim of understanding, it just helps the flow of the song.
However, 99.999% of the time I just am not interested in listening to Foxtrot.  It starts out really good.  The opener is classic Genesis.  However, there are two songs that are pure filler.  And then there's another song, track #4, that I really like, but by the time it's over, there's track #5, which is pure filler, and then this gargantuan song carries the second half of the album.  It's a cool song, but what the heck??  It's way too slow at parts, and then it picks up a little bit, but not enough.  Maybe I'm just bored with it.  "Watcher Of The Skies" and "Get 'Em Out By Friday" are solid gold.  "Get 'Em Out By Friday" is in a lot of ways like a condensed version of "Supper's Ready".  Lyrically, it's a lot easier to figure out what he's singing about, which helps a little.  And then Trespass is pretty cool, but it seems kinda like they accomplish most of what they did on Trespass more succinctly on Nursery Cryme.  But I guess sometimes the unsuccintness has its appeal...  I don't dislike Foxtrot, but I don't think I have any reason to have it in my collection.  It would be kinda cool to have it alongside Trespass and Nursery Cryme, tho.  Definitely not paying $30 plus international shipping.

The unsearchable...

 I know "wishing you luck" might not be the truth of it... not sure what else to call it...wishing "God's favor...."? I don't think God just randomly favors people and I don't think every time something good happens is the result of a concentrated effort of God to bless that person that experiences it. A lot of the time it just works out that way. If it's a beautiful "day", odds are there's at least a hundred people that are going to notice it. Not so much today because so many people are stuck indoors looking at TV and computer screens.. but, for most of the time people have existed...

I can almost hear some hardcore Calvinist getting all queasy thinking I'm advocating for self righteousness.  The specifics of why any particular person receives God's salvation are way too complex and often depend on factors within each of us that we ourselves don't have the ability to spiritually discern.  The Bible sums all of that up in very simple terms simply saying "God elected everyone to salvation before time began".  One irrefutable interpretation that teaching is that self righteousness is not on the table.  If you're "good enough" to get into Heaven, you'll find out by whether God decides to impute the perfection of His son, who atoned for your iniquities and trespasses, and you can only know if He's done that if you're denying yourself, taking up your cross and following Him.  If you're practicing sin -- doing a half-assed job at self denial like I am -- then you (as I) need to shape up or find out for certain when death happens.   

the trinity and so forth.

 Was thinking about the wide difference between what reformed Christianity teaches about The Trinity and what people like Philips Craig & Dean, who each pastor a flock of Christians, believe about it.

I don't think Pc&d are correct, but I don't know specifically with any absolute certainty that they are wrong.  I don't think it's wise of them to be expounding on what The Bible already says point blank about "The Trinity".  And I likewise used to get annoyed sometimes when I'd hear reformed Christian leaders talking about it.  The opening pages of Scripture do say: "Let us make man in our image.". Thst would seem very clearly to me to be a reference to the simultaneous existence of God The Father, Jesus Christ and The Holy Spirit.  I simply am not aware of any other explanation and it absolutely seems like a logical thing to think.  However, Job's friends, and Job himself, were not aware of any logical explanation why Job was experiencing the seemingly supernatural assault on him and everything around him.  The only logical explanation they could conjure up was absolutely **not true**.  They were slandering Job and saying things about God that were not 100% accurate, and God told them to seek atonement from Job because Job, although he came awfully close to doing one of those, did not do either of them.

And Jesus warned that blaspheming The Holy Spirit is an unpardonable sin.  People I've read and heard from tend to zero in on the lack of reliance upon The Holy Spirit as what Jesus was referring to, and to an extent that's not inconsistent with the rest of scripture, but we are simply never going to be free from sin while living on this earth.  We will always be veering toward idolatry, and having to snap out of it and repent.  Sin's ownership of us is gone.  That doesn't mean we "have a choice".  We always have a choice of weather to do right or wrong.  You cannot be a child of God if you're owned by sin.  So if you know God, and have made a decision to yield to Him, more and more, as time goes on ("progressive sanctification", I've heard it called), then you are no longer owned by sin.  "You have been transferred from the dominion of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved son".  Another reference to the co-existence of The Trinity, or at least two thirds of Him/it.  At least I think.  Like I said, I don't think PC&D are correct.  But even if they are correct, that means reformed Christians are NOT correct, and vice versa, and I don't think either of us want to be saying or doing ANYTHING that displeases God, especially something so easily avoided.  Humility of this sort is a bit of a challenge, but it doesnt' seem like a mountain that just can't be moved.  Maybe I'm wrong.  I'm probably more humble than a lot of people, even though people swear up and down I'm profoundly arrogant.  Maybe I'm wrong about my take on that.  I don't usually receive correction until I understand it, and I don't LOVE correction, as The Bible advises to.  If I were eager to be told I'm wrong, I'd probably understand the correction I receive without sparring with people because of the lack of clarity I have initially.  Likewise, if people would think about what's coming out of their mouth and how it's going to be understood, instead of just saying what in hindsight often might as well be a bunch of random words that kinda sorta maybe get the point across in a rather vague manner...but anyway...  If I'm really that insanely arrogant, then that's even more evidence of how astoundingly *easy* it is to just stop talking out of our asses like we understand what the counters of everything The Bible says.  There's even a passage that says seemingly out of the blue, "A dispute arose between a Jew about purification", and my pastor, not because he's a slave to sin and thus his eyes have not been opened, but simply, does not know why that is in the text.  Yet he felt the need to expound on that text even, if nothing else than to say "we don't know...".  So, ya, people of all faiths, in many cases, would benefit from being a little more comfortalbe with simply saying "We don't know", or "We're not entirely sure" or something other than half of what I hear from people a lot of the time.
I should confess here that I also have been guilty of trying to understand the trinity and thinking I have it all figured out, when in reality, I am not entirely sure how much accuracy there is in "the doctrine of the trinity" that people seem fully convinced is confirmed in God's word.  I mean, anything can be confirmed in God's word if you look hard enough and think about it at a certain angle.  Just about every "doctrine" has a passage or two that you look at and are like "Ok, THAT seems to contradict it".  And a good chunk of the time it is simply a result of a misreading (which is at least some of the time at least partially the result of crappy translation choices, which are in almost every English translation available) of the text, but sometimes these inconsistencies are just swept under the rug.  Which is fine, when one truth is highlighted time and time again and again and again, and you only see one or two verses that don't seem to match up.  We are often dealing with texts that are over 3 thousand years old after all.  But anyway....
I don't know how much this is edifying to anyone.  I'm probably going on a rampage in some people's minds.  I haven't posted anything in a good while. :/       Well, here's one way to close out February

"The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."

Hapzrd

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aversion_to_happiness

I don't know what exactly the cause of this is in my life.  I don't have a conscience understanding that happiness is wrong, although I do think everything that I tend to enjoy is sinful to some degree.  Lately I haven't been listening to music as much as I'd like because I've been so dang sleepy.  I don't feel discomfort in the midst of happiness, but I do have a bad habit of not pursuing happiness like I probably should.

they /

 It irks me immensely how flippant people are about a fundamental reality that NOT EVERYONE AGREES.  People feel the need to slander other people "because it's true", like "they support the murder of children", or "they're trying to take away women's rights".  Both of those are true and neither of those need to be worded that way.  If you really feel strongly against abortion on moral grounds, how about making your talking points with some sense of compassion.  RvW was backed by the understanding that a fetus is not a baby.  Science, it seems to me, has quashed that notion, but if we're going to categorically consider any form of destruction of human life "murder", what do you call shooting someone who tries to break into your home?  If you're going to use The Bible to support your views on this, I'm pretty sure there's a provision against that.  "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth...."  People use that verse to support capital punishment, but that's not quite what that verse is about.  It's saying you don't take an eye just because someone spat on you.  Likewise, you don't knock someone in the face just because they invaded your personal space.

And yes, RvW did establish that women have the "right to choose".  And some pro-life advocates are quite possibly wanting general freedoms to be limited for women.  But that is not the overall aim for "taking away women's rights".  That might very well be a natural consequence of reversing RvW, since women who get pregnant will more likely than not keep the baby and have to make concessions for him/her.  But that was not the main goal of reversing RvW.

I could go on, but I doubt it's going to make any difference.  This vitriolic opinionatedness doesn't seem to have any sign of ending.

G&L

 https://www.crossway.org/articles/a-tender-friend-is-knocking-at-the-door-and-we-only-have-one-job/?utm_source=Crossway+Marketing&utm_campaign=1dc277088f-20251205+Gen-ATenderFriendIsKnockingattheDoor&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-1dc277088f-528178872&mc_cid=1dc277088f&mc_eid=80232d4943

Was thinking I could find some information here.  Like, what am I lacking to feel closer to God and a not-quite-so-burdensome way of attaining it.  This article is of no help.  It says my "one job" is to "let" Him be my friend.  Wtfh does that mean???

Gty makes a valid point.  The Bible makes it very clear that the job of a Christian is to repent and believe.  I have so much shit covering my heart from 35+/- years of intense lust that I have no business seeking an easier/easy way out of it.

Prayer like Ezra's

 In my BSF meeting last night we went over Ezra chapters 9 and 10.  The prayer of Ezra in chapter 10 I felt was rather relatable.

I decided to adapt it for the time we live in.

O, my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift my face to you, my God, for my iniquities have risen higher than my head, and my guilt has mounted up to the heavens. From days of old to this day man has been in great guilt. And for such trespasses as mine, men have been given into the hands of kings, to the slaughter, to captivity, to chaos, and unto utter shame.

But Your favor has been shown by the ransom paid by Jesus The Christ, to leave mankind a remnant and to give peace, a secure hold within Your holiness, that You may brighten eyes and grant reviving from slavery.

May I thirst for repentance, and find refuge in Your salvation.