Juneau, Alaska (Artist: Susan Cassidy Wilhoit)
49th State: Jan 3, 1959 Style: Art Deco Built: 1931
To read the introduction to this series, CLICK HERE.
Filed under America, Apologetics, community, Culture Wars, God, politics
To the right is a picture I just took of our kitchen table. I don’t know how your house works, but our kitchen table is a community gathering place. Yes, it’s a flat surface, so it’s likely to be the place where something is sat before it goes where it’s supposed to.
But on the other hand, it’s a place where we play games, do homework, study, read, assemble kitchen appliances, wrap gifts, organize bills, and occasionally eat.
I mean, just look at what’s on the table right now! There’s condiments, dog treats, butter, books, earbuds, coffee, a computer, sermon notes, and study notes for Haley’s upcoming research paper. This is not a table reserved for dinner and breakfast, alone.
But this morning was one of those times when discussion was the meal being served, and there was way more than one course. Even when we were eating breakfast – which was a combination of leftover nacho chicken casserole, eggs, cream of wheat, bacon, and biscuits with butter and jelly – we were entertained with helping after helping of good, old-fashioned, eye-to-eye conversation.
We didn’t even play with our smartphones!
Here are some of the things we discussed this morning, starting at around 9:30 and ending around 1 p.m.
I’d say that was one the best breakfasts ever 🙂
We should do it more often.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Filed under community, current events, Parenting, politics, Relationships and Family
My opinions are my opinions, and I don’t want you to feel like I’m forcing you to accept them.
Wait…If you feel like I’m forcing you to accept my opinions, what kind of mental midget are you? Good grief! I’m so tired of worrying about the fragile feelings of infantile adults who cry quicker than a baby who’s lost her pacifier. If you can be forced to accept my opinions, then you’re too weak to argue for your own and should just go back to kindergarten or take a nap in your cradle.
MY opinions are just that…mine. If you don’t like them, move on. Believe me, if I don’t like your opinions, I’m certainly not going to feel obligated to affirm their validity; I’ll just say “next” and move on.
So, what I am going to share in this post is not necessarily the views and opinions of other people with whom I associate. Take them for what they are worth, but you don’t have to approve.
I know I have friends in the UK, Australia, and other places where guns of all kinds are either forbidden or tightly restricted. It is not my intention to offend any of you guys, so stop reading right here if the subject content is apt to “trigger” you (pun intended).
But here’s a fact: Guns are not evil.
Guns are no more evil than alcohol, drugs, or automobiles. In the same way alcohol doesn’t pour itself down our throats and drugs don’t crawl into needles and attack us, guns don’t kill people without a human being getting involved. Automobiles? Well, who knows what self-driving cars will do?
Therefore, calling for the ban of certain weapons – or any weapon, for that matter – after a tragedy like a school or church shooting, does NOTHING to address the evil that does exist in the heart of the one who kills innocents.
Take away guns and you’ll still have murderers. You had them before guns were invented, didn’t you? Did Cain kill Able with a .45 cal.? No. Are we going to ban rocks?
Folks, I live in the United States of America. Like it or not, guns have been a part of our DNA since before the Second Amendment was penned with a quill. Guns will always be a part of our culture, no matter how many times Europeans try to chastise and shame us into getting rid of them. Remember, we would still be paying taxes to England if we’d not had them.
Face it, folks…even if you tried to outlaw guns in America, you’d never get rid of them all. Never. Besides the fact that there would be so many immediately hidden, you’d have to go door-to-door to confiscate the majority of them – and there are tens of millions of them – and a lot of folk wouldn’t take too kindly to that.
If, by some stretch of the imagination, you were able to outlaw guns of every shape, size, and caliber…and if all law-abiding, patriotic, God-fearing citizens decided to comply with the insanity and surrender their weapons…who do you think would still have access to millions of pistols, rifles, shotguns, and those dreaded AR-15s? Those who already refuse to submit to or abide by the law! The criminals!!
If criminals and murderers already don’t care about the law, what’s a new law going to do to stop them?
As I have written previously…
You could take away all the guns, but you’ll still have a disease that’s going to find a way to steal, kill, and destroy. No law, no matter how strict, is going to turn a lawbreaker into a law-abiding citizen.
Until you address the heart and soul issues, your only solution will end up being totalitarian control. When the law of God is written on the hearts of men, there’s no need for external restraints; the constraints are internal. But when the only law written on the heart is the law of Self, there’s no restraint sufficient to make a man love his neighbor.
So, ban all the guns you want, but in the context of this country, combined with the facts of human nature, you will never stop gun violence, only encourage the violent lawbreakers to prey on the law-keepers.
Folks, I’m about sick of the way the media is controlling the conversation. They don’t want real answers; they want gun control, pure and simple. If it wasn’t about gun control and the opportunity to take advantage of a tragedy to achieve it, then why don’t they encourage protests and walk-outs over a thousand other things?
How much money is spent on sports? How much money is spent developing new ways to teach diversity? How many billions of tax dollars do we spend each year to produce inferior graduates? Where does all the money go? How much money is spent on actual safety upgrades?
As for arming teachers, YES!! Absolutely!
I recently heard an idiot on CNN claim that President Trump wants to put guns in the hands of every teacher. The lying, misleading, fact-twisting, Trump-hating propagandist then began to call it “insanity!” No, what’s insane was his clinically deranged hatred being allowed to suggest that a properly-trained, devoted, life-sacrificing teacher wouldn’t be effective in saving the lives of children when a killer’s on the loose. Insanity is thinking that throwing erasers at a shooter is no less effective than a courageous teacher with a concealed 9mm.
No one with any common sense is suggesting that ALL teachers in schools should be given weapons. What IS being suggested is that willing and qualified teachers should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon for the purpose of defense and deterrence. There is nothing crazy about that.
Before I go – and I must – let me make a prediction. Actually, I’ve made this prediction several times in the past, but no one will listen to me.
Before you ever make any progress on getting rid of guns, one day there will be a shooting with a gun carried into the school inside a band instrument case. Some kid is going to bring in a stash of weapons hidden inside his trumpet or tuba case, and no one is going to see it coming. He or she is going to walk right through all of the safety measures and bring loaded firearms into the school and right into the classrooms.
Why? Because it’s illegal in most schools to do random searches of lockers and personal items. Therefore, some kid is going to figure this out (I’m sure they already have) and someone is going to die. All because we are too scared to hurt a child’s feelings, or appear to be profiling.
Those are my opinions for the day. I hope we’re still friends.
Filed under America, community, current events
Our hearts break when we think of the students and parents and staff, but now that the dust is settling, and the political forces have already spoken out, I’d like to say something about the most recent school shooting.
It’s not a gun problem; it’s a heart problem.
I’ve heard all the gun control arguments, but regardless the Constitution or the right to defend oneself, the root of the problem is what should be addressed. The question should be “why?”, not “how?”
Why did this teenager want to kill his fellow students? Why did the other murderers, maniacs, and monsters want to kill people? We’ve had guns in this country long before Columbine. Heck, we used to have shooting clubs in the schools! But what changed in society? What changed in the heart of our culture?
You can take away all the guns, but you’ll still have a disease that’s going to find a way to steal, kill, and destroy. No law, no matter how strict, is going to turn a lawbreaker into a law-abiding citizen.
Until you address the heart and soul issues, your only solution will end up being totalitarian control.
When the law of God is written on the hearts of men, there’s no need for external restraints; the constraints are internal. But when the only law written on the heart is the law of Self, there’s no restraint sufficient to make a man love his neighbor.
Filed under America, community, current events, General Observations, legalism, Life/Death, politics, Struggles and Trials
“There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: … The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks” – Proverbs 30:24, 36
The conies are second in the list “four (little) things” that are exceedingly wise. But what is a coney? Is it a hot dog found on Long Island, New York? Possibly, but only if a legless wiener is capable of wisdom. These conies in this proverb seem to have a defense against being eaten with mustard – they hide in the rocks.
The animal described here is the hyrax, or rock badger (no relation to the kind that can chew off your arm). Found in Africa and the Middle East, these cute little critters, weighing an average of 8 lbs., are scavengers which live in groups of 8 to 10 and find refuge in the cracks and crevices of rocky terrain. Though scientists say the hyrax is a close relative to the elephant (it even has tiny little tusks – how cute!), this furry little animal is practically defenseless…at least on its own.
Even though hyraxes are small, weak, and incapable of fighting off a predator, they are not on the endangered species list. Why is that? The answer lies in where they make their homes – in the rocks – and how they look out for each other.
Being small and rather slow, the hyraxes in Africa are preyed upon by other animals such as wild dogs, leopards, and Egyptian cobras. However, it seems that the conies in Israel, like the ones of which Solomon spoke, have learned how to use the rocks to their advantage, along with a “system of sentries.”
“In Israel, the rock hyrax is reportedly rarely preyed upon by terrestrial predators, as their system of sentries and their reliable refuges provide considerable protection. Hyrax remains are almost absent from the droppings of wolves in the Judean Desert.” (Wickipedia)
Is it any wonder why Solomon called the conies (hyraxes) “exceeding wise?” Knowing the danger posed by wolves and the like, the defenseless animals band together, watch over each other, and run to the rocks any time there is a threat.
One would have to be blind to miss the parallels here. Why do so many fools fall victim to the ravenous wolves of the world? Their bones are found scattered across the sands of time because they ventured out alone, without the watchful eyes of others, and without the defense available in the true Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ.
Why won’t more people heed the wisdom of Proverbs? Why do so many of us continue to be eaten alive by the enemy when there is a Rock in which to run and hide?
“OH! Rock of Ages, hide thou me!”
Filed under animals, Bible Study, Christian Unity, community, God, Life/Death, Struggles and Trials
Please take a moment to read and then share the following appeal. Thanks!
Hey everybody!
First, let me just say that God is good, and I put my full faith and trust in Him to provide for me. He is the One who loves me more than the flowers He clothes in the field (Matt. 6:30; Luke 12:28), so why be anxious? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, including the hills; He will take care of my family and me.
However, one of the ways God takes care of His children is through the other children in His family. We don’t have to read very far into the book of Acts and the Apostle Paul’s writings to see where it was the churches (including individuals) who sent gifts to keep the first missionaries in the field and to relieve the burdens of hurting congregations. It is not beyond the ability of God to make manna fall from heaven, but more often I’ve seen Him use the abilities and gifts of His children to sustain those traveling through a modern wilderness.
On this December 19th (Tuesday) I will be having rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder. A couple of years ago I fell on the side of a hill while mowing a friend’s grass, and now the problem has grown to the point where surgery is the only option. I have two partial tears and one full through-and-through tear of tendons in my shoulder. I am also being advised to have a release of the bicep tendon which is tracking wrong and causing damage to another tendon. This surgery will result in many weeks (up to 4 to 6 months) of recovery.
Now, if you didn’t know already, my main source of income is driving a school bus and training new drivers. I put in up to 10 hours a day either driving or instructing. My only other income is a small housing allowance from the little church I pastor ($150 a week). Having this surgery will mean that I will not be able to drive at all for a good while, and neither will I be able to instruct (I have to be back to full capability before returning to drive or work – there is no office work available). Therefore, I will have no income coming in for possibly up to 6 months!
What I am asking is simple: Would you consider supporting my family and me as temporary “Pastoral Missionaries”? Yeah, I sorta made up that title, but it fits the bill, don’t you think?
You see, South Soddy Baptist is a small church, but it cannot afford a full-time (fully funded) pastor. I believe this church has potential and value in this community, but what it really needs is to be worked in a full-time-pastor fashion. Being gone so much during the weekdays prohibits me from doing a lot of visitation (especially in these darker winter months), and doing personal outreach is critical to growing a new church, but especially in a context of revitalization. Believe it or not, I can see this surgery becoming a blessing this church needs. However, my family still needs to have electricity, gas money, and food, of course.
Oh, but why doesn’t my wife work? In case you didn’t know, my wife would work if she could. However, my wife became disabled a couple of years ago, so now the only money she can bring in is from her disability and what little she is allowed to make for doing taxes and books. Both of our younger two daughters still live at home, but one is in college and the other is duel-enrolled; they can’t work enough to pay our bills.
So, what I’m praying for is enough people to take us on as temporary “missionaries” and therefore provide tax-deductible support on a weekly or monthly basis. If enough of you could give $10, $20, or $50 monthly or weekly, my bus-driving income could be replaced while I recover, and in the meantime more ministry could take place here at South Soddy Baptist.
It this something you could do? Would you pray about it?
IF you would like to help, then you could contact either myself or our Director of Missions for the Hamilton County Baptist Association, Dr. Dennis Culbreth.
IF you would like to donate with a credit card, you could simply click on the “Donate” tab in the sidebar on this blog.
Thank you so much for giving this some thought and a lot of prayer. Please pray that the surgery will be a success and that full recovery will be quick. But remember, those of you who pray and give will not just be helping my family for a short time, you will be contributing toward the ministry of a small, local church as it seeks to minister to the people in this community.
God bless you,
Anthony Baker (The Recovering Legalist)
Dr. Dennis Culbreth, c/o Hamilton County Baptist Association, 6625 Lee Hwy, Chattanooga, TN 37421 (423-267-3794) Website: www.BaptistAssociation.com/contact-us/
Anthony C. Baker, c/o South Soddy Baptist Church, 11055 Dayton Pike, Soddy Daisy, TN 37379 (423-645-8884) PastorACBaker@yahoo.com
http://southsoddybaptist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/SouthSoddyBaptist.mp4?_=1
Filed under baptist, Christian Unity, Church, community, ministry, Struggles and Trials
“Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul: he heareth cursing, and bewrayeth it not.” – Proverbs 29:24
Bewrayeth
When was the last time you used “bewrayeth” in a conversation? I don’t know if I have ever even seen it in a crossword puzzle. But before we go any further, let’s make sure we understand this old English word.
According to Strong’s Concordance, the Hebrew נָגַד (nagad ) occurs 370 times in the King James Version. Besides “bewrayeth,” nagad is translated most often as “tell,” “declare,” and “shew.” Therefore, it is safe to conclude that “bewrayeth” carries with it the idea of making something known or telling it the way it is.
So, then, what does “bewrayeth’ have to do with partnering with a thief and hating one’s soul?
Partners
First, it must be understood that a partner in crime is just as guilty as his other partner in crime. The one driving the getaway car and the one laundering the money are just as guilty of bank robbery as the one who takes the bag of cash from the safe.
Are you a partner with a thief? Do you recoil at that question? Stop and consider that if you know of someone committing a crime, no matter how small, then you are just as guilty if you keep silent. For instance, do you know of a man who beats his wife and yet have never reported the abuse? If so, then you are enabling him to do his dirty work, which makes you his partner in crime.
Self-Haters
The hard thing to grasp is that when we try to stay out of something by remaining silent, we are not doing ourselves a favor. So many people will witness a wrong or learn of a crime, but keep silent in order to protect themselves. But even though one may stay out of the spotlight or courtroom, the one that “bewrayeth it not” hates his own soul.
What is a worse form of hate: to hate one’s body, or hate one’s soul? Which is worse, the fear of jail time or eternal damnation? Simply put, there are deeper consequences for “not getting involved” than for speaking out in the face of evil.
(The previous was adapted from a post I wrote on 1/01/14 for ProverbialThought.com entitled “When Silence is Self-Hate.”)
Filed under Bible Study, community, Life Lessons, self-worth
My heartfelt thanks goes out to all of you who read and follow my blog. You mean more to me than you know.
This morning, before I got out of bed, I told my wife, “I just want to write!” Last night I went to bed with thoughts I wanted to express, but were wondering which to tackle first. Writing, of course, is one of the most therapeutic exercises for relieving stress and clearing one’s mind, but some of what I want to write about face some barriers to my sensibilities.
“It’s not like I have writer’s block…” I said, as my wife looked at me with a look that implied indifference to my struggle – which is a common expression from those who don’t understand the need to pound a computer keyboard – “…it’s like I have ‘writer’s wall‘!”
Do any of you understand what I talking about? It’s like there are a ton of things worth discussing, but what will happen when I write about them? For example, I seriously want to write about the “F” word and its usage. Also, there’s all the curse words like “damn” and “go to hell” that need to be realistically addressed in the light of atheism. What do you think the reaction from my conservative readership would be? How could I set those up?
Another topic would be the definitions of “racism” and “racist.” Personally, I believe that without a biblical worldview and the Christian faith, the whole subject of racism is an ironic joke unwittingly perpetrated on a daily basis by millions upon millions. Yet, what would be the repercussions should I even approach that topic? Would I get banned from social media without even getting to make my point?
It’s not like I have nothing to write about; it’s just that there’s so much which poses a real challenge, even a danger, to put into print. Unfortunately, that only adds to unwanted stress.
So, as I was trying to decide if or what I would write about, I made the seemingly innocuous decision to make a Saturday-morning pot of coffee. If anything was going to get done this morning, besides the rest of the activities and chores which the rest of the day holds, a good cup of coffee made perfect sense.
Using a conventional Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker, I poured in the right amount of water, to begin with, and then placed in the filter to hold the grounds. For some unknown reason, possibly the result of criminal activity, I could not find my usual tool to measure out the appropriate amount of ground coffee to put in the filter; therefore, I selected a previously-unused measuring spoon from the counter drawer and put it to use.
A few minutes later – and not a minute too soon – the coffee maker beeped at me, signifying the coffee-making process had finished and my morning caffeine was ready for consumption. Unfortunately, as soon as I poured the freshly-brewed coffee into my white ceramic mug, the blackness of the liquid signaled something went wrong. Obviously, the previously-unused measuring spoon resulted in me using too many coffee grounds for the amount of water in the pot.
The coffee was now too dark, too “black.”
Immediately…not like I had a chance to jokingly come up with it…immediately…just as soon as I looked down into my white cup with the “too black” coffee!…the thought came into my mind, “Great! All I wanted was a cup of coffee, and now I’m a racist.”
Folks, when you can’t even make a simple cup of coffee in the morning without the constant drumming of media messaging and labeling affecting completely unrelated actions, society…civilized society…is in big, big, trouble.
I looked at my coffee, then sat down to write.
Filed under blogging, community, Culture Wars, current events, Food, writing
As much as I hate to admit it, everything that Mark West says in this article about Chattanooga (my home town) is true. For example, he points out that Chattanooga was once considered the most polluted city in America – I remember those days when one couldn’t even see Lookout Mountain because of the brown smog that hung low over the city.
But it’s another kind of pollution that Mark describes in “Chattanooga: A Polluted City,” and that pollution is proving far more difficult to eradicate.
I love my city, and I’m happy to live here. I mean, seriously, Chattanooga is regularly listed as one of those beautiful places everyone one – especially the nature-loving folk – should visit at least once. In addition to the natural beauty, there’s the history, the southern culture, and the courteous people. Yet, a serious problem wafts through the streets, and it’s going to take a lot more than nice words and eco-friendly investments to solve.
Click on the above links and read my friend’s assessment of the situation. If you have any other suggestions, I’m sure he’ll be glad to hear. Just let him know I sent you 😉
Filed under America, community, current events, Guest Posts, places
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The Recovering Legalist 