You don't have permission

It's been a while since I really ranted about something, so here goes :

I'm sick and tired of people using the Bible to justify disobeying the Bible. For better or worse, I live in a part of the world where the Bible has moral authority. People invoke it a lot  to make a point, or to prove their arguments. The problem is that few read it. They just mine it for quotes they like.

If you'd read the whole thing, you'd know you don't have permission.

You want to leave your wife and kids? You don't have permission.

You want to sleep around? You don't have permission.

You want to abdicate your responsibilities and live like a teenager? It's not even acceptable for teenagers to act like that way. You don't have permission.

Let me be clear: you don't have permission.

You don't have permission.

You don't have permission.

Not from the Word of God.

How to talk to me

The simple answer is, "Like you always have."

The stroke had a great effect on me physically, not mentally, I'm still the same person inside, I'm still a nerd. I'm still impatient. I still love to laugh, usually at stupid things.

I can't respond like I used to. But I still like to listen.

Review: "At the Mountains of Madness" by H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Philips Lovecraft was an American writer who was most active in the 1930s. He is most famous today for his stories in the Cthulhu Mythos, written in a blend of science fiction and horror he called "weird fiction". In addition to his many short stories, he also wrote three novellas.

The first of these, alphabetically and chronocalogically, is "At the Mountains of Madness". It is, in a word, boring. Some would describe all Lovecraft's work that way; he wrote almost 100 years ago, and his style was old-fashioned even then. Personally, I like it, and have been a fan for nearly 20 years, but I'd never read the novellas , and this one honestly bored me.

I spent a great deal of time wondering about that. I finally figured it out. It was dull because Lovecraft was a very good writer. He perfectly caught the dry, academic tone of his narrator. Regardless, I can't recommend it to anyone. It's just too dull.

A hospital

As long as there's been a Church, people have argued whether it's, as I've heard it, a haven for saints or a hospital for sinners. I believe it's the latter, and I'll tell you why.

No one goes to a hospital because he's well; he goes because he's sick. In the same way, churches aren't full of good people, but sinful, broken ones. Jesus, after all, didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. Everyone has violated God's law, everyone is broken, and everyone needs healing.

If anyone tries to act high and mighty because they're "good church folks", ask them of what they've been forgiven. If they haven't been forgiven, then they're bound for Hell and need the Gospel. If they have been, they came to Christ like everyone else, limping.

Exodus 1

First, we made it through Genesis. Bask in that for a minute.

Okay, back to work. The first chapter of Exodus is essentially a recap of the previous 400 years. It tells in part how the Hebrews went from a position of privilege to one of slavery.

It's important to remember that the first audience for Exodus was the group of Hebrews who left Egypt. They needed to know where they came from, and Moses and God gave them what they needed.