Goats in Sheep’s Clothing
Earlier today, while reading an interesting article on church planting, I ran across this statement:
“Millions of people in the United States do not know Jesus and millions more claim to know him but have no connection to a healthy local church.”
While the first part is an undeniably true and important, it was the second part of the sentence that caught me. Just how many UNhealthy churches have I known? No, not “imperfect churches striving to follow Christ,” but unhealthy, even toxic churches? More than I care to dwell on: personality cults, Clique Clubs, “business churches” (moneymakers for the “in” group), etc. Goats dominating the sheep and misleading them is more common than it ought to be (heck, one case is too common, IMO).
But one case stands out. Oh, about 30 years ago or so, I knew of a church that was in turmoil. It seems their pastor–well-liked by almost everyone, “productive” in church growth, a “pack the pews” preacher–had admitted that by the church’s–and his own–standards, by any biblical standard, he wasn’t a Christian, did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God or had worked redemption for man, had doubts, even, that God existed, etc.
Let that sink in a bit. Accepted as pastor of a supposedly Christian church but did not believe anything that would define him as a Christian.
I suspect there are more churches in this position than are known. And, from my experience, even more with other toxic circumstances that lead many astray.
Crucial: if one is going to share one’s Christian faith, and Christians are enjoined to do so, being a part of a healthy body that is pursuing the doing of His will, with sound biblical grounding, and a clear lookout for subversion of biblical truth, is pretty darned important. If that group is just a dedicated group of “laymen” studying the Bible and praying, approaching the throne of grace in a proper attitude of humility, then that is better than becoming a part of a toxic social club or a personality cult.
“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Yep.
Cliff Notes Lives
It’s really sad to hear people talk about how they “grew up with The Jungle Book” and realize they’re talking about an animated (or, perhaps an earlier live action) movie they recall from their childhood, NOT the book (or the sequel). The best of the movies were derived from just three Mowgli stories taken from the book. All the rest of the riches the book offers? Lost to these folks. Sad. New “Jungle Book” movie is being produced by one of these “Cliff Notes” kids. (But I’m almost certain I slander Cliff Notes summations, since I’m sure Cliff Notes dealt with the whole book.)
A Tale of Two Cities? I’m sure however many folks still relate to Dicken’s tale, most have never read the book, and most of those either read a Cliff Notes (or, if they’re old enough, a Classics Illustrated comic version) summary or sat through the late 50s movie with Dirk Bogarde that featured a Reader’s Digest version of the book. LOADS missing.
And so it goes. If it’s not a recent crappy Hollyweird movie, chances are it’s terra incognita/ignota to most folks. That’s just sad.
May I? Please?
May I dope slap someone for using “abit” to stand in for “a bit”? Please? Pretty please with sugar on top? Would it help my case if I told you the same folks used the adjective “backdoor” when they meant “back door”? Hmm?
[excessively polite mini-rant /off]
A Brief Explanation
I frequently refer to “Hillary Clintoon” as The Queenie Cacklepants Cylon. “Queenie” cos it acts as though it were entitled to royal treatment and privileges. “Cacklepants” cos it cackles out its ass. “Cylon” because, well, evil android that cannot yet pass a Turing Test.
That is all.
Well, no. Also, remember: Never mess with a chipmunk’s nuts. (No reason. I just despaired of ever having the opportunity to insert that into a text in a context that fit it.)
Long Ago. . .
. . . there was a prescription for dealing with false prophets. Nowadays? Notsomuch.
18 spectacularly wrong predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970
*sigh*
Earth Day: the Cult of Anthropogenic Climate Alarmism’s pagan holiday. I expected lots of CACA and it was delivered.
Blood Sacrifice
While God long ago settled the blood sacrifice issue in His payment for our sins, the evil little “gremlins of handymannery” still exact bloody tribute, as my hands can attest.
That is all.
Timely, once again:
Recessional
Rudyard Kipling
G0D of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine
Lord God of Hosts be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
The tumult and the shouting dies;
The Captains and the Kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget – lest we forget!
For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
For frantic boast and foolish word
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Well, Now Isn’t That Cute
Racist Leftist/Liberal/Dhimmicrappic heads explode over the Harriet Tubman $20 bill.
Yeh, it’s racism, straight up, no matter what lame excuses they utter. As for me, I am looking forward to going to the bank and withdrawing money for ammo resupply, requesting “All Harriet Tubman, pistol-packin’ Republican freedom fighter 20s, please.”
🙂
Questionable Password Advice
Touting the use of a password manager, a so-called “security quiz” stated,
“Trying to remember a multitude of different (secure) passwords can be really tough.”
Really? Well, I suppose that is true if one were a lobotomized gerbil. Designing memorable, seriously difficult to crack passwords is really very easy, but it does require a bit of thought and the development and practice of good security habits, so I suppose for 99.999% of people the statement stands.
Let me tell one and all just what pertinent info one would need to crack the current password for one of my casual use email accounts. All one needs to know are these things: my own, idiosyncratic, symbol substitution methodologies (plural, and circumstantial); exactly what the specials were on a particular day five decades ago in an eating establishment that has been out of business for three decade; how many of that item I ordered; what the price was.
There. Most password checker sites would give you several trillion years to crack a similarly-configured (same circumstance, different substitution methodology) password using some sort of massive array, supposing you didn’t have the clues I mentioned above (and could make sense of them).
And yet, for me to type out the 66-character password is easy-peasy.
Oh, and it’s due to be changed at the end of this month.
Remembering relatively secure passwords should not be difficult for any normal adult, but in the self-induced ADHD age, I suppose such things have become the new norm. *sigh*