God's providence or luck?

 I've heard at least a couple different people scoff at the idea of luck because luck implies randomness and God has ordained every single molecule to operate exactly for a specific purpose.  I don't get that.  If I spill a glass of milk, I am not going to revel in God's providence in that.  I call that "bad luck" because it's bad and as far I can tell, there is no purpose in it.  Knowing that God works all things together for the purpose of Christians should temper the negative reaction that I have toward it, but the reality is a lot of things happen just because.  Why did God create mankind?  "to be glorified" Ok, so why is mankind not doing its job?  You can explain things like that from The Bible, but aside from these microcosmic explanations like "mankind was tempted", "God is glorified in His wrath", and bla bla bla, the fact of the matter is we're in a giant melting pot and we don't know why we're here.  We can to an extent explain it, but the explanations that God has provided only go so far.  We're at war on multiple fronts and we would not have chosen that path had we known what we were getting into.  And there's no going back.  Why?  There's no point in trying to wrap your mind around such things.  And there's even less of a point in trying to wrap your mind around a minuscule occurrence like the power going out or tripping over a log.  Those are bad things that DO NOT HAVE AN EXPLANATION.  God has one, somewhere in the incomprehensibly vast terrain of His mind, but He's, generally speaking, not going to provide it and we'd ultimately be wasting our time asking Him such things.  It's bad luck.  You can substitute it with a bunch of unnecessary words, or you can just say "it's bad luck" and move on.  Times when something truly awful or indescribably good happens might deserve an examination, but even those things, we ultimately usually don't know why they happen and God does not owe us, who cannot hear His voice and cannot fully comprehend the written documents He has provided us, an explanation.  If He gave us an explanation, we'd most likely be too dull of hearing/discerning to even be aware that He's talking to us, much less WHAT He's saying.

It was kindofa neat time in my life, but it also kinda sucked

Hold on my heart Spotify playlist

covering that crazy time in my life 1991-1995.

I'm vengeance 🤬

 Literally have no interest in watching the new Batman movie when ever the heck it finally comes out ..   At the rate it's going, by the time they get the trilogy finished Robert Pattinson will be as old as death.  And then there's this stupid Godfather Goes To Gotham City TV show... no telling how much of that is going to factor in to the movie which should be on home video by now.  I think they might have started filming it finally.  Warner Bros. is so obsessed with this "DC universe" nonsense.  They're not going to be Marvel.  It just ain't happening.  Just make the new Batman movie already!  

Anyway....  also really skeptical about the portrayal of The Joker at the end of the newest Batman movie.  It's like they were running out of time and just hired some dopey off the street and quickly wrote some half baked dialogue for him.  Maybe that's the direction they decided on.  I'll probably watch it eventually and might even be excited when the trailer gets put up, but this trajectory that Warner has been on with the Batman property over the past 10+/- years just ticks me off.  

caring

 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fattened steer will be together;
And a little boy will lead them.
Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

 

Unfortunately that is not the reality we live in now.  The world is cursed because of Adam's disobedience.  The logic of that I honestly don't understand, but that's the explanation The Bible provides.  My pastor talked about the Old Testament sacrifices and how the altar was a bloodbath day and night.  He said it was supposed to give people a hint; SIN IS REALLY BAD!  And we're all guilty of something, even those few of us who have clung to righteousness for dear life from the very moment that the light of God's special revelation began to awaken the soul onward, we all have something in our past that is worthy of condemnation.  Maybe not the utmost condemnation, I don't presume to know how God deals with people who haven't been consciously delivered the knowledge of the requirements of God (Romans 5:14 [specifically the reference in the center of the verse]) but we all deserve condemnation.  THE GOOD NEWS is ultimately that God offers a way out.  The unfortunate reality is that so many people are going to refuse and find all kinds of excuses for doing so.  They'll cite the supposed scientific inaccuracy of The Bible, they'll cite the lack of perfection of Christians as supposedly proof that The Bible isn't trustworthy, they'll cite the myriad of disagreements that Christians have over various subpoints that scripture speaks of, and most of all, they'll cite the fact that so many Christians just aren't much to speak of, despite the statement that Jesus made to Nicodemus -- you must be born again!.  I touched on that in my most recent post (btw)...
Ultimately, if you really don't want to do something, you'll find a reason not to do it.  You might even find 8 or 9 different reasons.  But if you don't want to do it, that's really the reason.  And I can understand that; self denial is a hard difficult road and at this juncture in my life, I'm having difficulty imaging that my long standing sin patterns will NEVER EVER EVER rear their ugly head again and defile this clay jar that God The Father has sealed with The Holy Spirit until the day of redemption.  Honestly, that's not what kept me back for so long.  I spent many years just not wanting to believe in Yahweh because believing that God, as described in The Bible, IS real, would mean believing that Hell is real and that everything God says about Hell is true.  And I just could not find peace with that.  Ultimately, I realized I was being pretty darn stupid, and I simply acknowledged that maybe there was just something I wasn't getting.  My mom was asking me shortly after I gave up fighting Him how I feel about God commanding the annihilation of the amorites.  I told her at the time - It doesn't matter how I feel about it.  I'm going to have to find a way to make peace with it.
So, ultimately, I can say with pretty darn near certainty, just from what I know within me to be the truth, that I myself don't see sin the way that I should.  How I feel about sin cannot compare to the agony that Jesus faced on the cross.  The life that most Christians live in the US, even the most zealously faithful ones, the "persecution", the rejection, the scoffing, the various trials and testings, they don't compare with what Jesus faced.  But even if they did, it is only temporary.  It may be what seems like a "long time", BUT -- it is only temporary.  Honestly, I'm glad Jesus loved us enough to die for our sins, but I would be unable to live with myself if His death was ongoing and permanent.  I'm glad God didn't leave him to hang that way.  Realistically, that's just not feasible.  God staying dead, if that's even possible, would be unnecessary and, quite simply, NOT on His agenda, nor part of His obligation toward us.  Some people insist God has no obligation toward us.  In a manner of speaking that is true.  We certainly haven't earned anything FROM God, other than His wrath.  BUT -- God, being rich in love and abounding in mercy, is personally invested in us.  He's even invested in the animals of the earth (Matthew 10:29).  IF God wanted to be callous and flippant, we certainly would not be able to hang anything over His head, but that's not the God we worship.

a static

 My confidant confronted me head on with something that had occurred to me from time to time, and had actually gone through my mind a couple days before we met up.  He emphasized that Christians are to be born again.  I of course recall this being spoken of by Jesus in the Gospel of John (chapter 3) and being a bit perplexed by that because I often feel like a lump of fat and not much else.  I don't recall ever feeling different except on brief moments where I'm pumped up about something.  I don't ever recall being overwhelmed with grief or its flipside, gratitude.  I don't recall my state of being ever changing.  My mom said she could see a difference after I accepted Christ's calling and was saved, but I never did.
While discussing this, he pointed out some verse that "should scare me".  And I finally got down to it -- "OK, so what if it does scare me.  What am I supposed to do about it?!"  He said to ask Christ to save me from this deadness.  As far as I know, He hasn't done that, but if He had, I don't even know if I would be able to identify it.  He makes a good point, although I'm honestly a little confused as to how to being scared for my life fits into it.  He said I should "tell Him" that I'm "tired of" living in sin, and ask for Him to deliver me from it.  Which is a bit different than "I'm scared, please help me".
Anyway...  to be continued....

HELLRAISER (1987) & its marketing

 The poster graphics are appropriate for the film.  The tagline is absolutely stupid.  Pinhead, as he's known colloquially (he never had a name in the actual movie) was not THE villain.  It's debatable as to weather he's even the LEAD villain.  He seemed to be the spokesperson for the group of 'cenobites' that were seen in the movie.  It's not even clear if the movie features ALL of the 'cenobites' that exist in the set-up that Clive Barker conjured up.  Of course, it's possible that even Clive Barker would not be able to answer that, but usually a well made movie is the result of rather immersive understanding of the content within the movie, and that usually includes details that are not explicitly stated in the script and / or the movie itself.  But that only goes so far.  Someone was asking the writer of FALLEN DOWN (1993) as to weather the main character would have voted for Trump.  The writer of that movie didn't seem to have a definitive answer.  There's just some things that are left up in the air like that.  Characters in a movie I suppose can live on in the writers' imagination to where the writer can pinpoint exactly how they may have changed and where they would be in their life if they were in fact real people, but I can't imagine that being the norm for a writer.  Especially writers who write about people other than themselves...  SPOILER AHEAD: Of course, the writer of FALLEN DOWN may have just had difficulty answering the question because you have to wonder given the trajectory of the character and his downfall how it would have played out differently...  Aside from the cops just letting him be...  which is a question I ask about myself sometimes and never am able to answer.  Given my influences and personality etc., what about my life could have really been different, realistically?

 Anyway....

The film (HELLRAISER) will tear your soul apart.  "Pinhead" will not.  He's not even going to tear apart the soul of anyone in the movie.  The tagline really should have been IT'LL TEAR YOUR SOUL APART, not HE'LL TEAR YOUR SOUL APART.  I guess they were trying to reel in people who were conditioned to thinking a horror movie had to have a mascot type villain.  Even "Leatherface" from THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE is often thought of as "the villain" in that movie, although he, like "pinhead", was only a piece of the terror that ensued in that movie.  I think somehow the barrage of FRIDAY THE 13TH and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET sequels pretty much cemented that mentality of there being one central bad guy in the movie.  I think that's largely what made the ending for SCREAM (1996) so surprising, originally.  The identity of the killer was otherwise pretty obvious from the beginning and never stopped being obvious.

progrrrrrrrrrrr

 Been overall much better behaved the past couple weeks.  Still all too frequently stumbling and falling.
....   Here's to the future ;

Expulsion , almost (.../)

I have SO much more grace than I deserve.  Grace of course is never "deserved"....  That's actually an oxymoron.  We don't deserve to have God Almighty ruling over us, but that's how it is.  We don't deserve to exist.  We don't deserve to be treated with respect, we also don't even deserve the suffering that comes upon us in some cases.  Children who grew up in abusive households can attest to this.  Even an adult doesn't usually deserve the kind of crap kids sometimes put up with.  I, however, deserve that.  I have not been engaging in the conduct that caused the amorites to be spewed from the land, but I have laid eyes upon it numerous times by choice.  I had read Leviticus 18 but I apparently failed to meditate on it and somehow it just got tucked into some incredibly foggy section of my mind.

Granted, even watching a heterosexual married couple's homemade recordings would still be questionable at the very least.  The Bible isn't very specific about what constitutes a violation of Jesus' expounding of Exodus 20:14.  I'm fairly certain I've been guilty of that more times than I can count, not always or exclusively during my demonic internet dabblings.

Hoping I can KEEP all of this in view.  More importantly, I'm hoping my sensitivity to it will increase exponentially and that I can at some point have the affection for Jesus that has been dulled incredibly over the years.

Rev.

 Revelation is a really stirring beautiful display of God's power and preeminence.

It is ultimately a writing of promise; a culmination of the statement that He is working out all things for the well-being of His people and His glory.  It is rather disturbing in the first few chapters of prophecy, when God's wrath is being out poured, unless you assume that all of the Christians are not going to be here when it happens, which I don't see in the text anywhere, but maybe I'm just ignorant.  It will be darkest by far the closer the dawn approaches.  But dawn is approaching.

"But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved." (Matthew 24:13)

God has been gracious to all of us, and most of us, at least in the US, who haven't had any period in our lives where we were at the hands of some sadistic presence, haven't had to eat the family pet to survive a few more days, and who haven't had to debase themselves for an income, have had it rather easy.  Sure, poverty is by no means any kind of picnic and we don't always feel like going to work, and sometimes we downright hate our jobs, and get unfairly treated because of misunderstandings that could easily be cleared up if both sides tried, but how many of us have been unable to get away from insects?  One thing I dread about the possibility of homelessness is the inescapable presence of spiders.  But God will one day punish ALL of us, all of the world -- for nobody living here is truly innocent -- with an inescapable presence of locusts.  

"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:14)

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death." (Revelation 2:11)

"Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross. For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,

 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

Peace, in a fallen world

 It's unfortunate that this level of distrust is so pervasive in the gop these days. Both parties play fast and loose with the facts and take credit for stuff they didn't do and blame each other for stuff they had minimal if any involvement in. Neither party is beneficial when their policies are taken to the extreme. Tax cuts are not a bad idea, they're probably beneficial in fact, but even when the federal government is trillions of dollars in debt?? Raising taxes is also not an ideal scenario. But does anybody have a better plan for getting the bills paid? These tariffs that have been implemented have had minimal if any impact on that although they're not a bad idea in themselves... The border should be more secure although I understand why it isn't. Going by the legit means of entry is way too time consuming and confusing for someone that needs to flee their land. People would rather believe it's all orchestrated by some assortment of fantastically evil people than believe that these people are here in search for a better life. I don't think prochoice makes much sense either, but that's only if you acknowledge God as truly sovereign. If you're strictly trying to minimize child abuse and things like that, then of course prochoice makes sense. And God's sovereignty is not as clear cut as a lot of people who have tried to broach the subject seem to think it is. If God truly is sovereign then all sins - including any and every kind of murder imagineable - are subject to Him and He will deal with them however He sees fit. So, it ultimately is a matter of theology and to what value you place on the sheer existence of people. I personally can find holes in the arguments that pro lifers use but that doesn't mean I should just dismiss the gop as a bunch of judgmental busy bodies. That wouldn't be any more fair than the gop dismissing the DNC as a bunch of murderers who relish in every kind of destruction imaginable. Life without God does lead to destruction. It's unfortunate that so many people these days can't or won't see that.

In other news ...

 I don't think I posted about this here.  I had to put my cat down Aug 20th.  I've been mostly just going about life like usual, but there's a song by The Smiths that takes on new meaning, at least for me, in light of my cat being put down and the fact that I really just can't say what, if anything, happens to animals when they die.  My pastor noted that a lot of the indifference toward religion these days is due to the manufactured society we're living in.  People at least had no choice but to face the death of the animal they were eating once upon a time ago.  Nowadays, in most consumers minds, food doesn't come from animals, it comes from a store.  Peta type people of course act like it's some new thing they've stumbled upon and I do have to wonder how much less meat I'd be eating if I knew my food.  My pastor observed how some people would not be able to help but observe the fact that something had to die so that we could live and not think there is something wrong.

And in that respect, peta are right.  There is something wrong.  Jesus died so that we could live.  We'd be subject to eternal damnation for all the times we judged and spat on other people!  But Jesus WILLINGLY laid aside paradise for 33 years and suffered unjust scorn and bitter rejections so that we can have the option of having an eternal home, with an eternal father, where everything will be safe.  If on the EXTREMELY slim chance that atheist scientists are right and The Bible is just a bunch of poetic guesswork, I still don't see the point in believing that.  I don't believe I'm just being strung along.  But even if it turned out that I was, it's an encouragement to live a kinder life in pursuit of Christ likeness and in turn do my part to make this world a better place.  No body has a perfect track record in that, but it is possible to keep pushing the envelope, increase in generosity, courtesy, empathy, etc..  (I do believe I could do better at all of those things.)

Anyway....

Before typing this I created an existential/grief playlist.  Figured I'd post it here.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1CNV5sNf1ZOF98QmB21dNx?si=gSXmx3NQT8ORUyH3XzKYdQ&pi=bqzkCtyyQ0Cta

Unsatisfied, now what of it ..

 We are the world, saving each other's lives 

We are thus disappointed.

I have to wonder how much of the increase in kidnappings, mass shootings, and other heinous crimes would have been avoided if people entrusted themselves to God rather than people. This culture at some point let its' guard down. I don't know exactly when it started, but it's gotten worse and man's inclination to rebel against God has been unattended to and thus many kids have been growing up with minimal guidance. People have a false sense of security, instead of pummelling sin into the ground, people give it an inch and it begs for more rope for us to hang ourselves.

Seek Yahweh, The Heavenly Father, of The Resurrected Jesus Christ — while you still have the opportunity to do so. He will give you the power to live uprightly, for the most part, more and more so the more that you seek Him.  

cities of refuge

I emailed this to my inlaw  but i thought this might be some food for thought for other people as well.

----------------------------------

Deut 19:11-13

11 “But if there is a man who hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and rises up against him and strikes him so that he dies, and he flees to one of these cities, 12 then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there and deliver him into the hand of the avenger of blood, that he may die. 13 You shall not pity him, but you shall purge the blood of the innocent from Israel, that it may go well with you.

Matt 5:21-22

21 “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.

Matthew 5:21-22 was not meant to impersonalize the act of ACTUALLY KILLING someone.  The death penalty was indeed there for bloodshed.  It was there for other crimes as well, but hating someone was not one of them.  Hatred and anger are often passing emotions.  There was/is the sacrificial system in place for Christians (fka Jews) who fail to be loving and generous all of the time.  The death of Jesus is not primarily a payment for crimes that are so sick they stink up the earth for generations infinity.  His death is for crimes that we ourselves often undermine and overlook, crimes that, collectively, cause far more stench than anything Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy ever did on their own.

I can't find the verse, but it says somewhere in the law of Moses something to the effect of

if he killed his neighbor and did not hate him in his heart, he shall go free.

I think it might have been Deut 19:11-13 but I'm pretty sure there were others, and I'm not finding them at the moment.

If nobody is aware that the killing man had hatred for the victim, then this law can't possibly apply.  There is no indication that the assembly needed to kill or should have killed the hating man prior to the point of killing.  And usually, although exceptions abound, like always, a death does not get inflicted upon someone because of one singular event.  A person who gets to be 9 years old and hasn't learned enough self control for that not to be true of them will probably get a nasty reputation well before they get inducted into adulthood.

You also might notice that the death penalty is there for people that physically murder whereas the disregard for our fellow man as God's image bearers, although it carries consequences, is not treated with the same severity.  That, to me, indicates that God cares far more about us than we might sometimes be tempted to think He does.   Of course, the consequences for a person who intends to spit on the pattern that Jesus set for us and does not reconsider and have some semblance of belief in the provision of God to rescue from that...those consequences are actually much worse than those a person who sheds blood faces.  We can't make ourselves love God, but we do have the power to avoid hardening our hearts and at least be open enough to listen to what people are saying and be sincere in our evaluations.

  Praise be to Jesus that although the stench of our sins is indeed far more than any elite Hollywood Hills air freshener can cover over, Jesus Christ has paid for it, and not only that but He has given us a hope for a future so bright we'd need shades just to be near it, and a peace that endures through whatever dust and decay we experience in the meantime.

Yeah right 🙄

https://a.co/d/02Ttj4LH

Like you can learn how to do-be Batman just by reading a book.  Thankfully it's written in a more tongue-in-cheek fashion.  For the Batman fan who almost has everything (and there really is a whole lot of everything...  )

 I once had a loving CITYY CAT®, that had two previous owners.  Its' most recent prior owner wanted it back  and so I relinquished my caregiving and all the delights that had with it.

My mom bought a brand new one from the store.  She must have had to go into debt to pay for it.  They aren't cheap.

I was hesitant about opening it.  It just didn't seem right.  I knew it wasn't a real cat, but somehow I just couldn't bring myself to it.  

After a few days, it occurred to me, as far as I knew, it might die in the packaging, not having any food... the whole thing made no sense to me.  I shouldn't have assumed I could just open it whenever.

My mom gave a word of caution before I proceeded to opening the package. "She might not be as clingy as Sophie was.  They had to tone them down some because people were complaining about them being too clingy and some even returned them to the manufacturer."

I nodded. I took a moment to try to prepare myself mentally, and then pushed the activation button per the outside instructions. I unsealed the box and opened it, and then proceeded to untangle her from the intricacies of the packaging.

Arise, give thanks to The Lord.  Remember what great things He has done.

"my heart is steadfast"

 I like Michael W. Smith's WORSHIP album.  It's very beautiful and celebratory feeling, while also being reverent and dependent.
The opening snippet from the Psalms always had been a sticking point.  "My heart is steadfast"  If anybody's heart is not steadfast, it's mine.  I got to thinking tho -- a baseline.  I think it's more or less normal for people to have spiritual highs and lows, but what's the least amount of faith I've demonstrated since I was given God's salvation?  Not nearly as much as I need to always want to listen to MWS WORSHIP album.  Sometimes I just don't want to read The Bible and I altooften find myself feeling downcast over (what I perceive to be) God's dealings with man.  Regarding that, I think the book of Job, as much information as it gives us about the heavenly realm, God still does not, in that or any other writing, tell man why He has The Devil roaming through the earth.  And He didn't tell Job why He caused Job's suffering.  My pastor posits that the explanation for God allowing Job to go through that suffering is that "He wouldn't have had that encounter with God if it hadn't been for that."  That explanation is difficult to grasp.  At first it makes not a lick of sense...I can see it maybe making sense tho.  Jesus did say something to the effect "I came to save people who need saving, not people who are already perfect."  Of course, nobody's perfect, but there are people who got a good handle on sin, they're worshipping God with a fair amount of zeal, no major blemishes in their lives.  So...I guess you could say God gave Job a problem so He could fix it and have a logical reason to come down to give Job a hug, so to speak.  I mean, you don't normally hug someone who is already happy, unless you're greeting them, but even then, why would you greet someone and be that happy to see them if you're already good and content with whatever you're doing?  I'm sure there's a way to pick all that apart and tear it up too...I'm not good with relationships in general, so I'm certainly not an authority on any of that anyway, and even if I was, there's so much between the marrow, so to speak, we just don't understand enough about ourselves to really even begin to rightly understand God's dealings with us.  He, however, does know. " "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."

Noo ! Not another one.... a sleepless night? NO!

 Second time this month got zero sleep.
I missed volunteering at the food bank.  Finally crashed right around the time my ride was supposed to be arriving.  I gave her a heads up like at 2am.  I only got like 4 hours of sleep anyway tho.  So I'm still behind.  And I didn't get very much sleep the night before either :/

I seem to be making slight headway in my sanctification....maybe.  I still need to read some of God's word this day.  I really don't know of any better strategy of keeping Satanic impulses at bay.

jellyfish be thinking negative thoughts of the trippin

 The trip, oh, yo
OOOH!
THAT's what you mean
How did I not know this sooner?
Ayy...
Hmm.
Well,....

In any case, I see you saw your saw with surgenic precision
My surgeon neck is no more, since I hung my sign too low
Too low for any to see, had to shut the door, now the sign is no more and my surgeon neck...
no more, no more, they say it's wrong, but I don't have a clue
Be there, be square, but I'm nowhere to be found

talkative taxi drivers bring out the dead in people

 2024 will be THE year for home video.

Been waiting for Gregg Araki's nowhere to be available on home video for....over 20 years....It was on VHS, but, c'mon, does that even count really?  So far it's not been announced for standalone release...it's coming out as part of a boxed set that has two other movies with it, neither of which I'm too fond of.....

Gregg Araki's Teen Apocalypse Trilogy 4K Blu-ray (DigiPack)

I have Martin Scorsese's Bringing Out The Dead on DVD at least, which is cool 4sure.  It'll be nice to be able to buy it again with souped up cover art.

Bringing Out the Dead 25th Anniversary 4K Blu-ray

The ONLY thing that would make 2024 a BETTER year for home video is Ghostbusters I & II getting a snazzy re-pack-release.  But really just that by itself wouldn't be that impressive or noteworthy...impressive, a little, maybe somewhat noteworthy....but honestly it would be neat if they did all 3 in the same year...this is pretty magnificent.  Bringing Out The Dead and nowhere are probably two of my personal favorite movies.  I wouldn't say they're the BEST movies, but it feels like they got my name is written all over them.  Definitely something of a showcase of what kind of person I am, if someone ever comes in and starts ruminating about my home video collection...which I don't think has ever happened.................

Demo.... I'm not sure if it's worth finishing

I realized I have for a moment to practice my singing. I live with roommates and don't want to bother them with all this.

I don't  expect to make a career out of this.  I don't even know if I have a whole 1 song's worth of material..I might be able and mindful enough to work at this wip later today or tomorrow... I'm house-sitting until Wednesday.

EDIT: 6/27 Never did get around to working any more on this.  :/

Eat the Rich...and be satisfied

There was a movie that came out in the 80s that I saw when I was around 7 or 8 years old, which would have been like 6 or 7 years after it originally came out in 1985. It was called THE STUFF.  The tagline was pretty catchy "Are you eating it OR IS IT EATING YOU?" It's a pretty applicable rhetorical question for a variety of circumstances, more than anything, I think, it applies to pornography.  I wish I could say that and not come across as hypocritical.  I've had to remind myself of this truth regarding sexual misconduct just throughout this one day that I've managed to keep myself away from it this week.  I've been so utterly prone to disregard God's word on the matter, it's become almost habitual...I find myself losing sight of what my mission in this life is and letting the dark parts of my inner man roam wild.  For about 10+/- years, from the time I was about 6(?) to about 16 or thereabouts, a somewhat long time, I honestly did not know there was God's word on the matter.  And then after I had an inkling of an idea, I was busy rejecting the very notion of The Bible being THE TRUTH, I certainly wasn't going to be obeying anything strictly because of what it said.  Now that I'm a Christian, I find myself at odds with what I know to be true.  It's been a slow progression; some might even say nonexistent.  I think I spent too many years trying to console myself into a kind of "It's ok, it's not that big of a deal", but then I'd run right back into the same quandary.  For every word of rebuke that God has, He follows that up with a word of comfort, which would be great if I just read The Bible and that were it.  But you read 1st Corinthians and then Ok, even if you never read it again, you still have several other similar passages that talk about disobedience and the risks that are inherent in that.   It's hard to know if I'm even on the right path with all of this urgency, knowing I need to do right by God and reject my fleshly impulses but finding myself maybe just a hair and a half shy of UN ABLE.  Maybe it'll come together
after awhile.  I can only hope, and pray from time to time..

But anyway...

Editn

 I remember seeing this photo on Facebook and I tried to find it doing an internet search and found two; the original photo and the meme itself.   The text on the meme was a little too oversized tho, imo, almost blocking the image.  I tried downloading 3 different photo editing apps before found one that could do what I was wanting to do and do it right.  I probably could have selected a more apt font...idk...

I'm kinda excited about the app.  There's been a few times being able to create a collage would have been helpful.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=photoeditor.layout.collagemaker&pcampaignid=web_share

Deceitfulness

 I was thinking about Romans ch1 just now. I thought it was interesting, Pastor once said your morality effects your theology. Romans ch1 seems to support that and it also supports the reverse idea. It talks about people suppressing the truth in unrighteousness which I'm pretty sure is when you refuse to come to the light for fear of having the muck of the heart exposed and it goes on to talk about people in that state being handed over to greater and greater sinfulness. I do believe that's a large reason why I have the perverted mind that I have, because I spent SO MUCH of my life, including my early childhood, just completely oblivious to God and then when I found out a little about God during my teen years, I had continually rejected Him and even after my own family turned to Christ, I instead of submitting to what was being presented to me even more strongly rejected it. I eventually humbled myself just enough, after wearing myself down trying to resist the truth, to concede that I might be the one who is wrong, especially if the God of The Holy Bible *does* in fact exist... it's a bit of a pickle to be in trying to make a case for God being at fault when your very life depends on Him being for you or against you.

But anyway... I think a small amount of what Jesus said to one of The Apostles is true of me and while writing this it occurs to me how much it is not as true of me as I'd like it to be. "Behold, an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!".

Arthur Pink Sovereignty of God review...

I skipped to chapter 7 because The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God is involved, at least in some measure, in all things that happen. The author seems to think that coming to Christ and receiving salvation is some kind of explosive supernatural event. Yes, God softened my heart and showed me how to believe and trust in Him, and it's ongoing still, moving way slower than I'd like it to... And His overcoming my initial emnity toward Him was in itself a long agonizing process. "No one seeks God" means The Gospel needs to be preached to people. Nobody is going to go to a Christian book shop and load themselves a Study Bible having not been preached at, at least in some manner and measure. If that does happen, then, yes, that is truly a mighty work of God, which I'd think means God has some big plans for that person, even if they don't become a Billy Graham or John MacArthur... "to work and will for His good pleasure". Yes. The initial work of salvation is a precursor to that working of His will, which I'd think corresponds with the "good works prepared beforehand". "prepared beforehand" does not mean they are of His making. It simply means he's designated each believer for a specific purpose or series of purposes. To say that He created the good works is to say that sin is a problem God brought on Himself which I guess technically there's no verses in The Bible to refute that... It does say from Him both good and evil proceed or something like that... I think Job (the Bible narrative ["book"]) gives one a glimpse of what that means. God didn't tell Satan to do all that stuff to Job. He ALLOWED it -- for his testing , to serve as a testament to his righteous character (flying in the face of Satan, his accusor) but also to purify Job so that he could trust evermore in God and love Him all the more.

A proverb in His word tells a Christian (fka Jewish) parent to train their child up in the way of The Lord and they'll not depart from it.  Who are these Godly people?  Noah continued to believe in God even after the entire rest of civilization had fled to rival makeshift gods.  He was a holdover from the days of Adam when God would come down and speak to people, even people like Cain who killed his own brother somehow thinking that would make him look better (I guess?..) , which I'm thinking was probably because the power and sum of sin had not become the sticky prickly web that it'd become by the time the Israelites had settled into The Promised Land.  Getting the smallest piece of spiritual insight into most of those guys' heads was like pulling teeth.  Even when Jesus, the true light of the world, was with His chosen 12, they still would worry themselves about things like bread the day after He'd got done feeding 5,000 people with a few handfulls of food.  I think I had maybe a slightly easier time understanding spiritual truths even before I made the leap to entrust my future to God, because The Holy Spirit is all over this land.  Christians, both mighty in faith and lowly, are on almost every section of every town in this country.  Some more so than others.  There's light shining through street corners and it's doing what light does - illuminating.  It's a subliminal light tho, so it's still a Christian's duty to explain it and some people just don't want it.  Why is that? I don't know.  Christians are partly to blame for the times we are poor ambassadors of Him, and people that are falsely proclaiming His name are not helping either.  

But back to my subpoint about the childrearing proverb.  The knowledge of God is as old as humanity.  Even people before Israel was called to father the 12 tribes, various people groups across the globe worshipped God.  The town Jonah was sent to preach to was not in Israel.  It was a town within a nation that was infamous to Israel in its day because of their brutality and so forth.  God sent Jonah to tell them to repent!  And guess what?  THEY DID!  Some facets of Christianity are tough to get through and accept, especially in this modern world where people, albeit with increasing exceptions, are getting along fairly well and life is generally peaceful, it can become difficult to swallow passages that talk about God's swift judgement on people, both past and future.  But there's a lot of Christianity that can be palatable, although you can spin anything to make it sound more difficult than it is.  The concept of Hell makes sense when you consider people like Ted Bundy.  But what about people that hurl insults and spew hateful rhetoric on Facebook and never apologize?  What about people who drive home from a bar when they ought to have designated a driver to take them home, or, if they did and the driver bailed on them, they could have just stayed put and dealt with the couple days of jail time they might get for being drunk in public instead of endangering people's lives?  What about people who steal music from the internet (just pretend Spotify isn't around yet for a brief minute) instead of paying the required wages to access it?  God does not send people to Hell for those things in and of themself.  He has the right to do so and will if you refuse to **acknowledge** your shortcomings and do what you can to repent.  And in some instances repentance is a loooong process.  Some things are easier to repent of than others and yet still the propensity lurks.  Sometimes I find myself not being forgiving toward others.  I have to remind myself of Jesus' words regarding that.  Sometimes I have to ask Him for help.  But I know He is infinitely more lenient toward me than I am to other people and that's coming from somebody who sometimes thinks of kindness as his strongsuit.

I think I started a couple strands of thought that I didn't finish but I don't know who might actually read this and I'm getting exhausted.

Tri-unity

I think people get needlessly stumped over the Trinity. People say it's impossible to wrap one's mind around. I think it's actually pretty simple. The Trinity is three people who are in perfect agreement about everything.

I find it extremely unlikely that any combination of people on this planet can be in perfect agreement about everything. You might find two people who never argue because they realize arguing about stuff is a waste of time and just not a good thing and they find more to agree about than disagree about. How many cinema buffs who liked Star Wars would spend any time arguing over why exactly Darth Vader makes for such a compelling character? We, who appreciate the entertainment value of a film like Star Wars, can all agree that Darth Vader is indeed a compelling character but I don't think everyone would be able to explain why with the same reasoning and even if the reasoning were very similar, different people would probably have different emphasis on different nuances.  Likewise, the heavenly angels and the ancestral saints, probably don't all feel exactly the same way toward or about God. They undoubtedly agree enough about God to keep from developing distrust and bitterness, far more than many current earth dwelling believers do. And likewise I'm pretty sure debates in Heaven are just not a thing. I also strongly suspect that our experiences on earth will inform our being even in Heaven. I don't think we're all going to be blank canvases just waking up with no clue about our having lived on Earth. God says in His word that every tear will be wiped away. Which means there will be tears to be wiped away.  

I'm probably not explaining my point very well and I'm not even sure I myself even understand the point I'm trying to make well enough to be able to explain it succinctly. I'm also probably oversimplifying it, in part because of the dullness of my senses and also just general lack of knowledge. It's also possible that I'm just completely off base. Maybe there are two people on earth , or at least in Heaven, that literally agree about everything in every way... I can't prove either one..

GB4

 Finally saw the new Ghostbusters movie this afternoon.  I can't say I'm surprised by the results.  I think "disappointed" might be a little harsh.  It was interesting throughout and fun here and there, and I thouroughly enjoyed the last 20 minutes (approx) of it.

https://www.imdb.com/review/rw9715837/

Trinty

 I'm not as studied on The Bible as I wish I could say I was, but I have read pretty much all of it.  There's some small sections that I don't feel I can thoroughly exposit.  There's probably good chunks of Genesis that I still don't understand sufficiently.  But I don't understand how people get these motions about "the Trinity".  People say things like the Trinity is all knowing.  That may be true, but The Bible doesn't say that.  The primary attribute of God is LOVE.  God the father isn't going to be possessively keeping random secrets from Jesus, but KNOWLEDGE is not described as being something that the Trinity shares in any particular measure.  Just like people in heaven will be neither male nor female, but, rather, like the angels.  Now, people who get to heaven will be different people.  But the lack of gender divisions is not what's going to cause that.  Maybe that'll greatly help people who would otherwise be tempted into sexual impurity not have to deal with it, but sin encompasses much more than sex crimes.  There's a difference between who a person is and what a person is.  There may be some cause and effect in those two facets of any being, which I suspect is why man is called to put away sexual impurity.  A person can still long for sexual stimulation even if the capacity for it is removed.

Jesus did make it fairly clear that He and The Holy Spirit are both GOD as well as God The Father.  He gave stern warning about blaspheming The Holy Spirit.  Blasphemy is not something one does except to God.  If you regard ice cream as your god, you might refer to certain sentiments etc as being blasphemy and of course that construct in itself is blasphemy.  But He did not specify what being GOD entails.  One of John's epistles states that God is love.  Not that God is "the 6 day creation", or anti - theory of evolution or a pop quiz afficionado.  I really don't think God is going to cast anyone out of Heaven for thinking that scientists might have somehow been right about the theory of evolution or not having a firm belief in ANYTHING that The Bible does not emphatically state.  The Bible is emphatic about the application of understanding "6 day creation" - which The Bible explains to be The Sabbath.  If God did indeed spend 14 billion or whatever Earth days creating this planet, we certainly aren't off the hook celebrating the Sabbath.  Of course, I'm not saying we should swallow whole what scientists think either, I'm just saying to dismiss such things as being blasphemy is just snobbery for the utter sake of it.  Christians don't have to literally agree about every single solitary detail of everything under or above the sun.

Anyway....  ...I guess that's it.. until next time.. ✌️✌️

Say it, SAY IT!

 I was listening to The Starting Line's seminal pop punk album SAY IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT on Spotify a few days ago and the experience was rather bland.  I'm listening to it on CD and I cannot believe how much better it sounds.  The guitars are substantially more amped sounding and the overall quality is much crisper.  I remember reading a comment on a thread on Facebook about how Spotify has really poor audio quality.  I usually don't notice but some albums just don't come through without the full quality of the recording.  CHVRCHES sophomore album was another example.  (I don't have it on CD because there's one song on that album that I find to be absolute trash.)

 

sanc

 been kinda relapsed the past monthish.  Was starting to show progress and then it just kinda collapsed like a mudslide.  idk.  I think my counselor kinda nailed it, using an analogy from The Pilgrim's Progress (I haven't read it, but he's talked about it so much I feel like I almost sorta have)

"Little faith"


My assurance is indeed kinda diluted.  I feel like I'm teetering on the brink of destruction.  Like I'm dangling on a high wire.  "and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."  It doesn't make it any less scary.  I do need to back off of this crap otherwise I'm going to prove myself deluded. 
"To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand."

to have and to haven't

 You can't have it back.

You gave it away and left it.

It's changed.  How can you even recognize it from what it once was?

You left it.  

It changed without you.

You can't have it back.

How could you even recognize it enough to even want it again?

It's nowhere to be found.

You let it go and now it's gone.

The truth about truth

 https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-COVID-19-Lockdowns-Passports-ebook/dp/B08WRDXLVY/ref=cm_cr_arp_mb_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

This book has a landslide of support.

Here's one customers' thought on it

It explains the things that didn’t make sense to me, such as:

- Has any one looking at the people who are asymptomatic? What are they doing that keeps them healthy?

- Why everyone who had a little covid in them was considered to have died from covid? Even when they were decapitated and clearly that was the cause of death.

- Why must everyone get a shot, even those who have already had covid? Natural immunity is superior to everything else.

- Where did this virus come from and how do we know?

- Why is the nation freaking out when about 10% of the population has tested positive (according to USA Today)? With all the hysteria, I thought the percentage of sick people was higher.

- How safe is this mRNA vaccine? Why is it the first?

- Why is there only one acceptable solution to this virus? Why not consider other treatments?

- Why must information be banned?

I can't answer that last question. I find it unfortunate that people pushed Facebook into that as it hasn't changed anything.

- That I don't know nor do I think it matters. The odds of beating the clock to become asymptomatic are not dependable. They've already observed that people who are healthy have a much higher chance of surviving COVID19 or avoiding it entirely, so itd seem like this question is based on a false assumption..

- I need more context

- that's like asking why some of the earth is purple despite the presence of green. I think this guy is asking why nobody takes antibodies into account when advising on vaccines. That I honestly haven't looked into.

- Again, why does this matter? I don't think any establishment has claimed to know its origin, but, again, even if they did, what difference does it make?

- I too think people overreacted regarding it. The reason people did probably varies from person to person.

- The first - vaccine created in such a relatively short amount of time? Other nations had developed vaccines before we did and they were not safe enough to justify administering. If people are dying or facing severe handicap because of the vaccine, why put any level of trust in anyone? Yet people post everything on Facebook and Amazon and I certainly don't know of anyone who's mysteriously gone missing... but I'm not maga, so of course I'd say that..

There are multiple solutions to the vaccine. Vaccines are the most agreeable. Nobody wanted to wear a mask or be on lockdown (which is totally understandable)... the same truths apply to the flu btw 

Of course, you could dismiss all of this and just rule everyone as being fantastically evil... Sin of all varieties does create a casm that only allegiance to Christ can bridge. That doesn't mean that the medical community is part of some diabolical plot to harm people. It doesn't *not* mean that, either... I know there are a lot of people who are exceedingly selfish and greedy and shortsighted and would do something like that if they could find someone else to partner with in that but I find it a little doubtful that God would make all traditional outlets of information-- government, news, even social media--to be of zero value to anyone. When the antichrist comes to stamp people with The Mark it's not going to be news that only conspiracy theory junkies are in on. When the beast takes over the world, it's not going to be something the media brushes under the rug. Taylor Swift isn't my cup of tea but she IS insanely popular. Perhaps to some extent that's because of people just going along with what their friends are doing, but regardless; 

Of course, it's entirely possible - perhaps even likely - that the number of COVID 19 deaths is inflated because of the way data gets lumped together especially in less technically sophisticated medical facilities and it's possible that the side effects are more numerous and a tiny bit more serious than what the medical establishment is trying to sell.  

I honestly don't care if you or anyone else gets the vaccine. I just wish people would quit with the knee jerk reactions. The people "freaking out" over COVID 19 just want to be happy and healthy. I agree, the world overreacted to it in the early days of it, and that was a huge burden for many small business owners, many of which might never come back. It's so infuriating that I'm numb at the thought. Like the stories of murder that come up in newspapers, it's just too much to take on in myself. The solace I have is knowing that it's unlikely I'll come across a huge trove of people who feel the exact opposite way about those two things.

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

I'd bought BAD (several times in fact...:/) and so know the song "Another Part Of Me"  For whatever reason I was reading reviews of the album on Amazon and someone mentioned this Disney attraction that up until this point, 2007?ish..., I had never heard of.  I mean, this is so freakin' epic!  You got Michael Jackson, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola all together in one film!  I mean, if it was just Michael Jackson, that'd be a huge selling point in itself, but I had NEVER heard of this film until I was reading about it online several years after the fact.  I guess people who go to Disney parks are so used to awesomeness galore that it probably just felt like "meh, it was aiight"  And people who don't go to Disney parks....I mean, why would you want to make them jealous? They can't afford it!?!!(the end!!!)  Idk.  Just seems weird.....like some kind of illuminati..."You knew about this!!!!!!  YOU KNEW!!!!!!!!"

Easy vs

 https://www.gotquestions.org/sacrifice-of-praise.html

I think my pastor was about to explain this verse when he was using it as a proof text in expositing another section of scripture in The Bible.  Or maybe he thought the two seconds he spent on it were sufficient...idk.  It probably would not have mattered.  This article seems authoritative enough but is lacking in coherency.  How does praising God for no discernable reason count as a "sacrifice"?  The cost of praising Him is not even mentioned.  It simply says there is one and in what kinds of circumstances it occurs.  I'm guessing the cost is one's selfishness 🤔. The examples given here are relatively petty.  Someone else makes a less than ideal decision and we're expected to think of it as a sacrifice to not demand our wishes be granted but instead trust Him that there's more than meets the eye?  You don't even need to think that hard about it when it comes to other people's decisions.  Wicked people exist.  God does not put us in a protective bubble once we experience salvation.  The Holy Spirit keeps us from rejecting Him after we reach out to Him in faith, but getting one's dream home or getting an increase in cash flow is not what it's all about, as pleasant as those things are.  Those things will fall away like a person drowning in quicksand.  I can just imagine a person at 99 years old looking back on their dream home and cash flow and I shudder to think of either response.  One of gratitude...that instead of joining in the fight and trying to tell people, with words and actions, that Christ *is* Lord and that anyone who comes to Him He will not cast out but will instead lavish His love and strength upon them... instead of being sorrowful over the lack of blessing one has been to mankind in the name of Jesus, they watch blindly their last sunset.

Star Wars new and old ..

 Some list of bad movies I was looking at a few days ago listed RISE OF SKYWALKER as worthy of inclusion because, supposedly, it became clear somehow that the creative powers involved in the films were just "winging it".  I'm just really confused as to how that's a bad thing.  I mean, someone going into the production of a movie, be it the writer, director, or producer, should have some idea of what they're trying to do.  Taking what started out as a comedy and turning it into a drama midway through production is just kind of dumb.  That's just wasteful spending on Hollywood's part and there's no amount of renewed interest in cinema that will make that kind of stupidity sustainable.  But if you happen to have ideas for how to make the film better while it's being filmed, why not?  The now classic juggernaut known as THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was not finished during conception.  George Lucas' original draft was limpAF and then I guess he either got into a hissy fit and abdicated his director's chair or the studio basically did it for him ('step aside, sir!')  And then of course GHOSTBUSTERS, which admittedly is a different film (duh), but, seriously, comedy aside, there are some similarities between the two films.  What does a Star Wars fan want from an entry?  Adventure, and spectacle are pretty much simultaneously job1&1, respectively.  Some people say adventure comes first and some people say spectacle comes first, but I say they the greatest command is adventure and if you do it right the spectacle will follow.  Maybe I'm wrong on that front, but it's close enough, anyway...  If you do a Star Wars film right, it seems like spectacle would follow the adventure, but of course if you're doing an Indiana Jones film right, the adventure IS the spectacle...kinda...a very different sort of spectacle, for sure.

It does look like GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE will be at least more entertaining than GB3.  GB3 was pretty good.  It had its highlights.  The film made no sense to me, ultimately.  I didn't appreciate how heavily the film borrowed from the first film.  I understand Gozer coming back, and Gary and Callie being the new KM&GK but did they have to recreate Sigourney Weavers' GK garb from the first film?  And why was Gozer just sitting there doing nothing when there was a puny unsuspecting group of villagers not very far away?  And that's just a very small PIECE OF the TIP OF the iceberg.  How long would it have been before it got to NYC?  And it had the same exact form it did in the first one!  "It's whatever it wants to be"  So....maybe Gozer would be just fine wearing the same clothes every time it comes to this dimension of Earth, but...what does the audience get from such a bland personality on display?  And Egon quoted a verse from The Bible describing the end of the world.  Not only that but he started going all manic and freaking everybody out.  That's not the same Egon who, for a moment, managed to articulate his fright so well ("I've lost the capacity for rational thought") and then a few minutes later managed to come up with a somewhat brilliant plan to thwart Gozer's attempted reign.  If he was freaking Ray out, why didn't he calm his ass down and take a breathe and try to seek help and not be a weirdo about it?
Hopefully this coming film will be less brownnosing to crustyold fans and more fresh for people who, like, primarily, just want to watch a good movie....If it happens to echo the first film without unnecessary (and illogical) insertions, at the expense of freshness, then that'd be cool too.