The Void

Just finished reading an intriguing book. The Void, by Mark Mynheir, a former police officer, who worked in narcotics, homicide, and S.W.A.T. This book, #3 in a series, was a Christmas gift that I forgot I had. Anyway, back to the book.

The book is fiction, but explores a modern day controversial subject: human cloning. In the book, a rich guy is financing a secret lab project to clone humans. After several failed attempts, they finally succeed, and name him "Adam". He is perfect, Atlas on steroids. But soon, they realize they have created monsters - he is not the only successful clone. They go on a killing spree killing any Christian they can seek out.

The idea of cloning freaks me out. Quite honestly, I hope they never succeed with cloning humans. A big part of me wants to believe that God just won't let it happen, but it is also possible that He would let man do such a thing, with possibly as destructive results as the fictional account that I read.

There is a thought that I have had and mulled over several times when hearing talk about the cloning issue. If they could clone a human, what about a soul? A conscience? I cannot imagine that a cloned human being could have a soul - only God gives man a soul, so these cloned humans would be incapable of a sense of morality or conscience.

Evidently I am not the only one to wonder about that, for this book comes at it from that angle. The scientists/doctors discovered too late that there might be more to creating human beings than just body and mind. They didn't consider a third component - souls. They could give their experiments everything but a soul - which created a void in the clones that they could not fill.

In the book, the cloned humans' void was filled by demons who had been imprisoned for years, and now wanted to destroy all Christians to get back at God. Far fetched? Maybe - it is fiction after all - but is it that far of a stretch that if humans are ever cloned - God forbid - that they would have a void where the soul would reside in a God-created human - and that the void could be filled by evil?

The whole cloning thing sounds like science fiction, but they have cloned animals, so who knows? Maybe somewhere on this planet there are people secretly working to clone humans. Whether they are or not, I hope that I am correct in my theory that God might just not let it happen.

Taking Off Our Spiritual Sweatshirts

Guest columnist today - man, that sounds offical! :-) I get emails from New Release Tuesday telling what new releases are out each week. This week, they included something a guy connected with NRT wrote, a Josh Peterson. I read it, and thought it was really good, so I am pasting it here. Check it out - it is called "Taking off our spiritual sweatshirts" (the title made me check it out)


I don’t remember the last time I could say
I was where I wanted to be
Still You see through this mask
Hiding all my flaws
You see something down deep in me...

Bring me back so that I can feel You again
Take me to that place I was before
All I want is to hold my head up high
So take this life and set aflame again
--Decyfer Down "Life Again"

Life is sometimes like a hooded sweatshirt.

A good one!

You know, the kind of sweatshirt that has a hood that is so deep it covers three fourths of your face if you want it to. It hides the poser behind the fabric.

It is imaging. And life is all about how we position ourselves isn’t it? I mean come on...it really is, isn’t it?

We put our hip sunglasses on from Urban Outfitters so we can give people a false impression of who we really are. Big, ugly, dorks?

We don’t want people to see who we really are inside...the messed up parts of our lives, the sin, the shame, and disappointment. So we cover ourselves up to disguise the truth. We don’t want anyone to discover who we really are, or they may not accept us or let us into their lives.

And this is not just true inside the church, which is popular to bash these days. I am talking about something more relevant. I mean we all hide the junk in our past or present, or at least try our very best to.

We always answer the question, "how are you doing," with "fine." Are you really fine today?

We smile at church when we are really hurting inside. We laugh and hang with our friends and family but never break down our walls, until we are finally forced to because we are out of answers and options.

I am ready to start living a life that is more transparent. I want to come to God, and my friends and family sooner then later. I want to get their advice, council, and wisdom BEFORE pain occurs so that I am better equipped when the garbage hits the fan in my life.

Its time to wake up spiritually! Today is the day to get committed to Christ.

Romans 13:11-12 says, "The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here."

It’s time to get serious.

Life is surely way too short to gamble with our souls. Isn’t it?

If we are not growing in our daily walk with Jesus as followers of the Gospel then we are fading.

The great theologian and preacher John Wesley once said about the growth of his relationship with God: "Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame, if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago."

He understood that he could not rely on his past, but he needed to be developing and nurturing his relationship with Jesus.

Today is a day to renew our relationship with Jesus and ask for revival in our hearts. Not the cheesy "Christian" word revival, but a total explosion of emotion and zeal for Jesus. The way you feel when you meet a new girl, start a new job, or the way you felt the day you fell in love with Jesus. A fresh start, clean slate, and fire in my chest.

Romans 12:11-13 says this about having Passion and Zeal for our relationship with Jesus: "Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality."

Do you remember the way you felt when you gave your life to Christ? Why did you fall in love with Him in the first place? Why do you want to choose to continue to fall in love with Him even today?

Keith Green the musician and author wrote this about our spiritual priorities: "If your heart takes more pleasure in reading novels, or watching TV, or going to the movies, or talking to friends, rather than just sitting alone with God and embracing Him, sharing His cares and His burdens, weeping and rejoicing with Him, then how are you going to handle forever and ever in His presence…? You’d be bored to tears in heaven, if you’re not ecstatic about God now!"

Unmasking our sin in front of people, the ones who REALLY care about us, is so important. If we come to people and get real with our problems and pains then they can take us consistently and constantly to the Cross, where we can finally learn to allow Jesus to wash us clean.

You are much too valuable to God, to not spiritually be maintaining and paying attention to your soul. He has given us Godly relationships, wise pastors, loving family members, and His Son Jesus to restore and prepare our souls for eternity in the presence of God.

Opening up and becoming more "see through" is a very scary place. It reveals flaws and broken places that we hide, but to allow God to rip the bandages we have placed on ourselves and heal us is totally worth whatever uncomfortable ness there may be in publicly disclosing the junk in our past.

There is healing and restoration in coming back to the feet of Jesus and allowing Him to take our hood off our face.

I am sinner saved by grace, and a poser in an oversized spiritual sweatshirt. With the compassion of Jesus available to each one of us, today is the day that we can become more real, open and transparent.

A final thought today to ponder.

"Go forth today, by the help of God’s Spirit, vowing and declaring that in life—-come poverty, come wealth, in death—come pain or come what may, you are and ever must be the Lord’s. For this is written on your heart, ‘We love Him because He first loved us.’" --Charles Spurgeon
Posted April 27, 2009 Josh Petersen serves as the Manager of Marketing and Retail Promotions for Centricity Music. Before holding this position he worked for S/R/E Records as Marketing Manager, working with Flyleaf, Disciple, The Rocket Summer, Todd Agnew, and more. He lives in Franklin, TN, and has previously served as a part time band pastor. He enjoys golf, collecting Frank Sinatra records, finding new ways to promote Christian Music, and watching Ohio State Buckeyes football.


http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/article.php?article_id=208

A Great Sunday & Old Friends

Today was a really good Sunday. The weather was beautiful- 80's. A tad bit too warm, but hey - I will take it over rain or snow.

We had a really good service. A young couple, Jenny & Steven Troyer, sang a really good song, "Draw Nearer". I tend to recognize a lot of songs, who recorded it, etc, but had no luck with that one - turned out she wrote it. I wish I had the lyrics. Talked about the storms of life and we need to draw nearer to Jesus. Very moving and meaningful song.

Our pastor then preached on a subject I have said I can't remember hearing preached much in my life - God's love. It was a great message, and he said a lot of things I needed to hear. At the end of the sermon, he asked Jenny & Steven to come back up and sing their song again. He then opened the altar up for anyone to come up and pray, no matter what their need, or if they just wanted to draw closer to God. Half of the church went up - seemed like it at least :-) - several people knelt at their seat - myself included, but I have become "altar shy" - and I have good reasons. After we all prayed for a while, we were dismissed. Great service to be in.

Ken & Melinda Hosey, the parents of the young lady who wrote and sang the song were visiting her from PA today - we have known them for years - well since like 1980 - Melinda taught my sister and also had me for music or something when I was in 6th grade. We went to the same church for several years, and they have been great friends of our family over the years - so it was great to see them. It seems funny to us that Melinda taught my sister Vicki, and now her daughter is teaching two of Vicki's kids.

Jenny & Steven asked us over after the evening service so we could visit more with her mom - her dad had to leave early for PA. The food was great - meatball sandwiches and some other good stuff, and we all had a great time reminiscing and laughing - man did we laugh. It is great to get with people you have known for years and who haven't changed at all- they are the same.

As I rode home afterwards, a song the Gaithers wrote came to my mind. Old Friends. It is one of those songs that has good lyrics, but could have used a different tune. :-) Anyway, here are the lyrics:

Old Friends (Gaithers & Miller)

Old friends, after all these years
Just old friends, through the laughter and tears
Old friends, what a find,
What a priceless treasure
Old friends, like a rare piece of gold
My old friends, make it great to grow old
Old friends, through it all
I will hold to old friends

Now God must have known
That some days on our
We would lose the will to go on
That's why He sent friends like you along

Old friends, you've always been there
My old friends, we've had more than our share
Old friends, I'm a rich millionaire in old friends

A phone call, a letter, a pat on the back
Or a "heym I just dropped by to say"
A hand when we're down
Or a loan when we just couldn't pay
A song or a story, a rose from the florist
A little note that you just happened to send
out of the blue to tell us that you're still our friend

Old friends, you've always been there
My old friends, we've had more than our share
Old friends, we are all millionaires
In old friends

Spring Is Here

Spring is finally here! Actually, I think we skipped spring in Ohio and went straight to summer. It hit at least 82 today, and it was great! I drove into Salem to pick up a few things I needed, and splurged a bit and got lunch at Bob Evans. I got a salad to go and bought a pop out of a machine, and took it to the park to eat. Great day for it! And I saved a few $$ by not eating in the restaurant.

Speaking of Bob Evans, I have to tell this: I walked in, told the girl who was doing register & hostess duties that I had a carryout. It wasn't ready, so I sat down to wait. A few minutes later, she came out and handed it to me, then stepped up to the cash register. She rang the woman ahead of me out, then I stepped up to pay. She smiled and asked me, "How was everything?" I laughed and told her I didn't know yet. She apologized and said it was from habit. :-)

I also stopped in that Christian bookstore where I used to work to do some birthday list shopping. In case that is a new term, it means I was seeing if there was any new books I wanted to add to the list of birthday ideas for my family to work off of. I also had an amusing experience while in the store. I was chatting with a former co-worker and in reply to something she told me, I said "Oh brother!" Another former c-w said "no, it's your sister". Puzzled by the remark, I turned around to see my sister Vicki standing there. :-)

I left without purchasing anything :-) and headed home. Once here, I let the porch swing down from its high winter perch, got my Ipod and headphones, and enjoyed the nice day and some Southern Gospel music.

Speaking of, for some reason, I got an email from Pizza Hut giving me 50 free music downloads on emusic. I actually used up all 50 downloads, on mostly Southern Gospel, and some CCM. Good deal.

Again taking advantage of the awesome weather, I washed my car out in the driveway. It was a mess. The newspaper I work for is beside an Agway, and I parked beside one of their silos of feed. Bad mistake.

Supper was steak from the cows we butchered and also some deer steaks, both cooked outside on the grill of course - what else on a day like this?!

So that was my day so far. Hope the weather was as nice wherever you are!

My Take On Torture

There has been a lot in the news lately about the USA torturing terrorists, closing the prison, and now Obama has released some of the Bush administration's "torture memos" so the entire world can see what we have been up to. Not only do I consider this a really stupid move, but it borders on treasonous. And now there is talk about trying to prosecute some of those involved. Give me a break!

First off, I don't think we need to know how our government gets information out of terrorists they capture. I don't care. Just get all of the information out of them that they can. We should not know whats going on. I really don't want to know how many terrorists they capture, what they do with them, etc - as long as our country is kept safe. It seems the Democrats had it in for Bush and still want to make him look as bad as possible, even if it means endangering our country by throwing the doors open to the government's tactics in dealing with terrorists.

Secondly, the "torture" methods that were used hardly compare to the tactics other countries use and have used. Water boarding? Stripping them naked? Putting a bug in with them? Give me a break!

I am with Dick Cheney. If they are going to release these memos, they need to also release the information of what they managed to stop because of using these methods - and they were able to stop some attempted terrorist activities.

This may sound like am outrageous statement, but I don't think there is an American alive who is 100% against torture. You think you are? Let me put a scenario out there for you........

The US has captured a terrorist. They have information that something is planned in one of 4 cities. Your son, or daughter, grandchildren - or other loved ones - live in one of those cities. The terrorist refused to say where or when the attack will be. It is in your power to order water boarding.......or worse. What would you do? Send him to his cell and give him a 5-course meal and hope your kindness will cause him to give up the information to save your loved ones, and countless others? Or would you give the order to get the information out of him by any means necessary? I firmly believe every one of us, if in that position, would do what we had to do to save our loved ones.

Bring it a little closer home. Your child or grandchild is kidnapped. One of the kidnappers is captured. What means would you want the police to use to get information out of the kidnapper? Would you be willing to let the guy sit in a comfortable cell while you go crazy with worry? I think not.

And to take it closer to the White House, if water boarding - or worse - was needed to save the lives of Michelle Obama or their 2 daughters - Obama would sure change his mind in a hurry. If I were a betting man, I would bet everything that I have on that.

Now most people aren't going to be in that position, but the president is. And others in government. It is their duty to keep this country safe, and when they capture terrorists and know or suspect that the terrorist can provide information that could save thousands or more of innocent American lives, I believe that they should act in the same way if it were we trying to save our loved ones. Get the information out of them in any means necessary.

I am a Christian, but I love our country, and want us to be safe. I believe the government should do its job, and not broadcast their activities to the world. Torture may seem extreme, but if by using it, American lives are saved, then go for it.

If you are doubting these methods, check out this article that shows the results of "enhanced interrogation"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042002818.html

Hannah Montana

I have never been a fan of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus. I know, I'm not a teenage girl either. I have never been comfortable with the idea of her being a role model. I was also bothered by the fact that CBD (Christianbook.com) sells her products. I ran across something today that reinforced the unlikelihood of her being a positive role model. I in fact, emailed CBD and told them politely how I felt, and included the following with my email.

A bit of information first: Miss California was asked her opinion of gay marriage by a gay blogger, Perez Hilton. She is against it, and replied so, and that it should be between one man and one woman, and now she is being trashed for her stand. I read the story on Newsbusters, a conservative news site, and clicked on the link to this fella's website, curious to see what he was saying about it. There, I read these comments that Miley Cyrus, aka Hannah Montana made. Would you want your daughter following her?

Referenced website: http://perezhilton.com/

Responding to a question we asked her on Twitter, The Hills star Heidi Montag Tweeted back saying:

"God says in the bible that we should love our neighbor and he created us all as equals. I know in my heart that gays and lesbians should have the same government rights that Spencer and I will when we get married. So, yes, this blonde Christian believes in gay marriage and I hope to one day go to YOUR wedding, Perez!!!"

Woo hoo!!!! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Heidi Montag would have been a better Miss USA than Miss California. It's a good thing that blonde didn't win!

Update: Holy moly!

Disney star - and fellow Christian - Miley Cyrus has also thrust herself into the gay marriage debate.

Responding to us and Montag via Twitter, she says "i second that!!! wow heidi is smart!!! shes amazing "

Quite courageous for Cyrus to do what she just did. We applaud her!!!!

Update #2: When told of the high suicide rate amongst gay and lesbian teens and how her standing up for equality will help battle that, Miley Tweeted back to us, saying, "Jesus loves you AND your partner and wants you to know how much he cares! thats like a daddy not loving his lil boy cuz hes gay and that is WRONG and very sad! like i said everyone deserves to be happy."

Thank you, Miley!

Update #3: Cyrus even went so far as to tweet to Perez, "i am a christian and i love you [Perez] - gay or not. BECAUSE you are no different that anyone else! we are all gods children! i am not saying this so would be nice on your site (though that would be nice jk;) but because the LORD has spoken 'love cuz god loves'."

All The Way

Ran across a good song by Chris Tomlin. He put new music to an old hymn, and also added some words. I like the end result:

All The Way My Savior Leads Me

All the way my Savior leads me
Who have I to ask beside
How could I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide

All the way my Savior leads me
Cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me grace for every trial
Feeds me with the living Bread

You lead me and keep me from falling
You carry me close to Your heart
And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me

All the way my Savior leads me
O, the fullness of His love
O, the sureness of His promise
In the triumph of His blood
And when my spirit clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way
Jesus led me all the way

All the way my Savior leads me
All the way my Savior leads me