Friday, January 23, 2015

An Ethical Question

A story from CNN talks about the ethics of the methodology that is, in some cases used to recover ancient documents. The following quoted paragraph, I think, reveals something of the attitude of the authors involved:
It is possible that the earliest text of the Gospel of Mark has been discovered. But until the world is given access to the papyrus through its publication, there is no story here, except that ancient Egyptian mummy masks are being destroyed in the ongoing search for Christian relics.
This brings up a question to me, given the manner in which this concluding paragraph does itself conclude: Why is it being deemed unethical to seek confirmatory evidence of the Christian Scriptures and Gospel accounts, with no mention being made, in this conclusion, regarding all the other categories of documents so recovered?

Is this betraying a bias on the part of the authors?

New Hymn, "Look Around You and Behold!"

The hymn for today speaks of part of God's portion for our salvation.

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Possible Archaeological Blockbuster

A First Century fragment of the Gospel of Mark has been found in a ancient mummy mask. It is said to be from before AD90.

This could blow the doors off of the arguments of many critics of the Bible.

New Hymn, "The Grace of the Lord is Given to Men"

The hymn for today recounts a history of grace.

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive

Monday, January 19, 2015

New Hymn, "Jesus Christ Our King!"

The hymn for today is about standing with Christ, or bowing to the devil. The choice is yours. Where do you stand?

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive

Sunday, January 18, 2015

New Hymn, "Come to the Aid of Thy People, Lord"

The hymn for today, though linked to a personal prayer of repentance (and is certainly useful as such) is more akin to Daniel's prayer of national repentance, and should be useful for such intercessions.

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

A Good Day

Yesterday, I had a good day, and humbling.

I got a direct contact from my niece, Ashley (My first direct family contact in, quite literally, years). I and my siblings do not have relationships after what they did to me and my Lord at our mother's funeral. So, this contact from a niece was both unexpected and nice.

Also, a follower on MuseScore left this as a comment on one of my hymns:

Very nice!
You know, I know nobody's perfect. But I was watching this video http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=eric%20ludy%20intercession&source=...
and the only person I could recall of whom I know no shortcomings to this standard is you. Keep working. :D
 I do, of course, encourage all readers to click the link he included.

New Hymn, "Praise the Maker of All!"

The hymn for today sings Salvation's Song.

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive

Saturday, January 10, 2015

To Act and to Muse


Musing upon things can be a most beneficial way of arriving at solutions, but in order for this to be the case you have to be willing to face solutions that you do not like, or the exercise becomes little more than a braying after the wind.
This is a dangerous thing, because even the simple act of having written that foregoing sentence can become an invitation to those who think too highly of their intellectual prowess, for we, also, should not think too highly of our own. There is a danger, you see, of forgetting the dimly lit hallways of our own intellectual past, before we knew the One who is the Way and the Truth and the Life. We did not form our own mental acuity because we did not form our own mental being.
In today’s society there is a most annoying tendency to think that no one should ever receive anything unless they have paid for it. The next time you run into someone who supports that silly notion, ask them this question: “Whom did you pay in order to receive life, and where is your receipt?” We did not form our own mental acuity because we did not form our own mental being. It is not something that we earned; it was freely given.
In the same manner, we should not lord it over those who have been gifted differently than we have, for their gifts will put us to shame. Each of us has been made for a purpose, and that purpose does not include flapping our arms about and crying out “Hey! Look at me!”
Many years ago there was an advertising campaign for a large financial corporation that always concluded with a line about how they got where they were, “We earned it!”
That’s how society wants us all to be, wants every aspect of existence to be, that you work endlessly—for something that will blow away in the wind, like so much chaff from the threshing floor, when your time comes. Fiddlesticks! The world wants to keep you a slave, so it demands that you work and work and work and work… until you cannot work anymore. And then, the system that held riches and glory out before you like an apple held out in front of a reluctant horse, will throw you aside, onto the trash heap of history, never once giving you anything at all like what you were promised—all the happiness, all the joy, all the relaxation of the ultimate carefree life—but leaves you broken and in pain and anguish, and caring nothing at all about the life that has been destroyed by the Satanic deceptions that so ensnare the weak-minded among us.
Am I saying that the world owes you a living? No. But it does owe you the Truth. The problem there, though, is that the world at large wouldn’t know the Truth if it came up and slapped them in the face. There is a quote that I like to use, and you see it every month in the masthead of this newsletter. “When a person has—whether they knew it or not—already rejected the Truth, by what means do they discern a lie?”
You see, my friend, the world at large has already rejected the Truth, and is willingly and wantonly living a lie—and a most profligate one, indeed. The Truth has been openly proclaimed before them for well nigh these 2,000 years. As it is written, “I AM the Way and the Truth and the Life; not even one even turns in the general direction of the Father if not in Me!” He stood before Pilate when the question was uttered, “What is Truth?”
The fact that He stayed silent upon the utterance of that question is a damning thing! There He stood, and, the question asked, said nothing in response. Was He condemning the questioner, or was the questioner condemned already? After all, it is written, “He who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
There is no other fact that matters nearly so much as the identity of the Truth. Muse upon it all you like, the fact remains the same, because the Truth cannot change, but is ever and always the Truth.
Think about it.
Really.
Think about it.
If the Truth were able to change, then what is it when it is not the Truth? What was it before it was the Truth and what will it be after?
That which chameliates in order to fit what people think is a deception and a lie. It is designed to deceive and not to enlighten; to darken and enslave and not to free.
If the Truth can chameliate so that it is true one moment and false the next, then upon what do you base the living of your life for the sake of reliability and safety? That traffic signal ahead, is it green or not? The railroad crossing, is the gate opened or closed? What is Truth? Is that big rig, loaded for bear and flying along and bearing down on you, there or not? Is the train imminent to the crossing or not?
What is Truth?
Spare me the idiocy that claims that Truth can change; that it can be one thing for one person while being the direct opposite for another. The Truth does not chameliate!
Disguises do that—not the Truth!
Disguises are there to deceive, not to enlighten. They work to make things appear bigger than they are, or to not be where they are, or even to not be what they are, perhaps in order to shield from observation in a wicked place, but they are there to perpetrate a lie so that the Truth be not known to the observer.
The Truth does not deceive, but simply speaks that which is True.
The Truth does not care whether you like it or not, but simply presents accurately that which is true. The one who would decry the Truth as being painful or uncompassionate is the person who would blame a light bulb for the contents of a closet when they should clean the closet and leave the bulb in peace to do its job.
One of the many Truths of life is that we did not make ourselves, but were made. That which begins to exist has a beginning and was caused to begin. It was caused to begin by something other than itself because, before it existed it did not exist in order to be the cause of itself. It is, therefore, disqualified from causing itself.
This is simple, basic, and ordinary logic, and yet, there are so many who will wail and moan and gnash their teeth at the sound of it because it is not what they want to hear.
Such people are braying after the wind. They are so deceived by the concept that they have rights; that they can earn. Surely, in the economic sense this is possible, but not in the righteous sense, “for there is no one righteous, not even one, no one that understands, no one seeking after God. All have turned aside and become useless; no one does good; there is not even one.”
People will even bray against that. But if their complaint is well founded, what, then, is the source of the saying, “I’m not perfect; I’m only human”?
All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” This is the light bulb in the closet, and it is on, and you cannot turn it off. But here’s the real problem: you also cannot clean that closet. It is there, unalterably, as a testimony against you.
But God (Oh! How I love that phrase: But God)!
But God, who is the Truth, has provided the Way; a way that you cannot pay for, and that you cannot earn. It is a way that is gifted to you so that you may live the Life that you have not earned, but to which you are called.
It is a calling upon which to act and to muse.


New Hymn, "Only to the Grace of God"

The hymn for today speaks of the source of true peace.

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive

Sunday, January 4, 2015

New Hymn, "The Cry of My Soul"

The hymn for today shows the cry of the repentant heart.

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive

Who's the Real Jerk?

In a recent column, Bill McClellan referred to the Rev. Larry Rice in the following manner: “Rice can seem like a jerk, self-righteous and inflexible, who seems to care not a fig about his neighbors.”

Understand something. This is someone who tries to be a journalist. The seem and seems phrases are possibly just there to do a little CYA. I have never seen Bill McClellan lift half a finger in regard to the homeless. I can certainly say that about the vast majority of loft-owners and loft-dwellers, who never seem to do anything in regard to the homeless (I mean, beyond complaining and crying over them taking up air in order to breathe). From what I can see, it seems to me as if the lofters would rather go on a staggering drunk and urinate and defecate against the New Life Evangelistic Center and its dumpsters, and then try to blame it on the homeless than to lift even a tenth of an effort to ensure that PEOPLE have access to a bathroom and somewhere other than outside to sleep.

Come on, Bill. You should be better than that. Show a little courage.

Decent people would act to make sure that the homeless can get a shower, a shave, a bathroom, and a bed instead of crying and weeping and moaning over that supposedly “inflexible, self-righteous jerk who insists upon using a property to help those in need rather than sell out to some rich guy who doesn’t give a rip about anybody else and just wants to line his own pockets more deeply.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

The Bill of Abortion Logic

 Originally posted on Google+:

1. Human genetics and epigenetics can produce nothing except humans.

2. The genetics and epigenetics of a human fetus differ from those of the mother.

3. Therefore, the fetus is human and is a different human than the mother and is deserving of rights equal to those of the mother.

4. Further, the fetus did not cause the pregnancy, but is just as much a victim of it as is the mother.

5. Having done nothing to cause the pregnancy, the fetus is therefore an innocent human being not guilty of any crime whatsoever.

6. Therefore, terminating the life of the fetus is a despicable injustice that wisdom calls the shedding of innocent blood.

7. Human beings do have rights, but those rights do not extend to the wanton termination of the lives of those who inconvenience them.

8. You are responsible for your own behavior; your victims are not.

9. You are responsible for your own consequences and have no right to push them off onto the innocent victims of your profligate behavior.

10. Grow up and behave yourselves, and you will find greater peace.

New Hymn, "The Saving Grace of Jesus Christ"


There are times when, like King Saul when the Muse of God does not come at your prompting, you risk giving up the wait and taking matters into your own hands. Then, there are times when you sit down at the writing desk, the Muse of God standing on the paper, tapping its feet in impatience as it waits for you. Then there are timesmagical times—when you both arrive at the same place at the same time, and the music flows from your pen. Today is just such a time, in the hymn for today.
The hymn for today is a treatment of the science of salvation.

Play the score on MuseScore

Get the PDF from Google Drive