is god homophobic?

in a fairly recent interview retired archbishop desmond tutu indicated that he would not worship a "homophobic" god, nor would he be interested in going to an anti-homosexual heaven. that is all very well and good except that it ignores the point that God does not have phobias, God is not afraid of anything, not even militant homosexuality. God does not endorse homosexuality, God does not intend that his children should be actively homosexual, God is not afraid of them. God loves them, God wants them to be released and transformed. God is all powerful. Nothing good is beyond God.

Incidentally, according to Holy Scripture and perhaps good logic, heaven is not an especially sexual place. just as there is no homosexuality in heaven, so there is no marriage. heaven is beyond all of that. heaven is eternal freedom freedom from sin, freedom from any desire except to love, serve and please God.

one is free to reject God as He is, but it is utterly ridiculous to set up a straw dog of a homophobic God who could not exist by His very definition, even though He Himself is beyond definition, altogether good and worthy of praise.

Hail Mary.

the minimum wage

about that. as far as i know, the minimum wage is aro und $7 or $8 an hour. working a forty hour week, that is abotu $300 a week. subtracting $40 a week for taxes that leaves $260 a week or $1125 a month. there are four and one-third weeks in a month. that is a good bit more than i make on social security, and although social security was never intended to provide an adequate income by itself, i still get by on what i have and am fairly comfortable. admittedly i receive a little additional assistance, but some additional assistance is also often available for the full time worker.

just as my check was never intended to support me fully by itself, so a minimum wage job is not expected to fully cover independent living expenses for one person, much less a married couple with or without children. at a minimum wage it takes more than a single check to support a family. that's just the way it is. traditionally people have waited until they had enough money or income before they got married or attempted to have a larger family. minimum wage jobs are not designed to support a family. one has to make some progress up the ladder before one achieves that.

so go ahead and take a job whatever the job is. find a job on a bus line if necessary for transportation. look for an assisted living situation, such as on a couch or with a family. don't waste your money. get food assistance if necessary. there are food stamps and food banks in many cases. buy into the minimal health care you can afford, and be proud that you are able to work. if you are not able to work, apply for appropriate assistance.

if we keep pushing the minimum wage envelope, pretty soon there will be fewer jobs. employers will hire less and lay off more. our economy is bouncing back. be a part of it. and QUIT PROTESTING.

arrest the protestors

these people would be well advised to try obeying the laws of the land, all of them, as well as the laws of God, all of that, if they would like to avoid serious personal unhappiness in the foreseable future. they might try cooperating with valiant and dedicated police officers and other authorities. they might try addressing the greed, lust and anger in their hearts, and of course that goes for all of us. anger is not the answer. only love can conquer violence. only love is meaningful. believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, read and study the Word of God, and try to conform. there is happiness and joy to be realized. you may not become a millionaire. try to be happy and enjoy the simplest possible pleasures in life. i myself have a poverty level income, it does not keep me from feeling seriously blessed. i don't drink, don't smoke, don't do drugs and don't fool around. i say morning prayer every day, i give to charities and the church, i try to be in church on sundays. i do operate a car. it seems essential not only to my well being, but to the well being of those around me,including my 93 year old mother in a nursing home. i don't throw money away. i commend and recommend this way of life to anyone. the parsimonius will survive.

as a rule, i soft pedal mention of hell because i donn't really think it does a lot of good to threaten non-believers with so patent and obvious a punishment. nonetheless, i try to lead mylistener to the realizatiion that it might, it just might, be possible that there is such a condition to existence, and the absolute horror of its reality, to be permanently shut off or out from the source of love, the truth abooooout all love, because one stubbornly clings to one's own self-righteousness and one's own self-indulgent habits. hell Is real, i believe. we should from time to time just entertain the possibility. reverend doug hinks that is way too light. he likes to tell it like he sees it, which is the righteous anger of an all perfect and all good God confronted with man's overwhelming sinfulness. it's something for an atheist to consdier, and there are a lot f profesing aheists who aren't even honest enough to come forward and admit that that is what they really are. they know better than God. they have attained to a superior understanding. and they are rife and rampant in the Church of God, especially today.

the end is near

don't kid yourself

one million legal abortions a year

in this country alone

openly endorsed homosexuality

legalization of demonically sacramental substances

rejection of the Principle of responsible male leadership

in the family and in the Church

rejection of the authority of Holy Scripture

there may still be a handful who have not

bent the knee to the god of Baal

maybe not

don't be foolish

the middle east poised for a major war

disease and famine and contagion everywhere

ebola beans

an obama/nation

a cogg/in a wheel

let those that have ears understand

suffering

if the essence of God is love, and the creation is an act of love; then why is there suffering in the world. it is really not that hard to explain. we do not live in the creation as it was first ordered. we live in a fallen creation, fallen because of man's disobedience to God, the same disobedience that continued throughout the history of the Jewish people in the desert, and which continues in the world today down to this very minute.


God did not ask just a heck of a lot of man. Just that man love and obey him, primarily in relation to His one principle command, not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. it might seem trivial, it might seem irrelevant or incomprehensible, but that was it; and man did eat and the whole of creation changed in its very nature. therefore death, sickness, suffering, war, and natural disaster.

there was and is only one way back into the garden, and that is through the voluntary sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross in which He took the sins of the whole world upon Himself and offered Himself, His very death, in atonement for those sins. there was and is no other way. we have only to accept His generous offer of perfect forgiveness to have the hope of ultimate restoration.

common tators

genesis

janis is

in the beginning

in the big inning

there was a beginning

bereshite

in the beginning God

God has always existed

God is outside of time

God created time

and space.

God is wholly other,

always immanent

always transcendent.

God created,

created ex nihilo

from nothing

brought into being

the heavens

heavens?

multiple, perhaps

abode of the stars?

the Universe, perhaps

the sky

and the Earth

Urth

our home,

God created,

brought into being

out of nothing

existence

material existence

God Is meaning

Essence

ultimate meaning

He precedes existence

except in the sense that

He exists eternally

in Him,

essence and existence are one

out of His great love

He brings existence into being

He endows it with His essence

the essence of creation is

Love

watermelon gardens

when i was a child, visiting my grandparents in dallas in the summertime, there were places called watermelon gardens all over town, especially in east dallas. they were little out of doors places with redwood picnic tables (sometimes redwood, anyway) and a tent or shed under which a man would cut large slices of watermelon at a fairly cheap price, perhaps, 50 cents.

one time i was with grandmother and granddaddy and uncle george and aunt lottie, waiting in line to get some watermelon. grandmother said to me, you can eat part of mine, gerry. no, i replied (i was maybe five years old), i want my own piece. uncle george thought that pretty amazing, that i spoke up for myself like that. i got "my own piece" that day, and try to now every chance i can.

watermelon gardens are a thing of the past, but i think of them when i am in houston in the summer, and there are outdoor beer gardens scattered around town. it's not exactly the same thing, but it is somewhat similar.

watermelon
it makes my mouth water

also, when i was still quite young, maybe 10, we joined a fashionable country club in our part of town. i was often alone at the country club, and very friendly with a young woman named mary who was the club secretary. sometimes we would eat lunch together in the elaborate dining room. i would order a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and maybe a chocolate malt. in those days i could just sign a ticket at the table for whatever i wanted. but i sort of balked at the price of a peanut butter sandwich, and complained to mary. she told me my parents were paying for the atmosphere; and when i questioned that, she just told me to ask my parents.

sometimes i would order a dish of watermelon sherbert as well.

there was a teenage room at the club also, the bonton room. i often sat in there and played gin rummy with the lady attendant who sometimes had time on her hands. i was just starting to learn to dance back then (later i became an instructor), and sometimes i would dance alone to the juke box, a simple jitterbug or cha-cha. those were good times for me. i was often alone, but rarely lonely. i knew how to entertain myself.

another note on watermelon: additions to an old joke...one time andrew mellon, the pittsburg steel magnate and former secretary of the treasury, was approached by his daughter who told him that she was going to get married. honey, do, he replied, because you can't elope. he sometimes called her "daughter mellon".

omasaya fasoranti

was a student of mine at texas wesleyan university in freshman english in 1973. i think he was from nigeria or possibly kenya. i thought of him today. i had not thought of him for years. i remember his name because of an abbreviation i read in a footnote to shakespeare's "othello" about that time: om fas, i think it was. i don't remember what it meant. i looked for omasaya on facebook today, but did not find him; i did find a lot of fasoranti's, so at least i got that much right.

perhaps i thought of him because of the ebola outbreak in west africa...quite possibly. one of the infected american doctors is from here. i think he belongs to southside church of Christ. that is a fundamentalist church somewhat like the southern baptists, not to be confused with their sister church the disciples of christ or their northern cousins, the ultra-liberal united church of christ, once the congregationalists i think, if i remember correctly

revolution/revelation

repent, reform, renew


there is no God like our God

in fact, there is no other God.

put your faith in loving Him

and trust in faith until the end.


the Bible is His Holy Word

it cuts both ways just like a sword,

double-edged, that severs truth

from falsehood and can be trusted

not to lead at all astray.

take its love in full array.


its message always uniform

God's love and discipline the norm

worship only God and His

revelation will be yours. Amen.

vital clue

http://internetandyahoo.blogspot.com

as predicted in the Bible

it's exactly as predicticated. a major war brewing in the middle east. israel surrounded. russia on the prowl. china grim and menacing. etc. jesus will be returning soon.