On a Lighter Note...

One of my gerbils was jumping onto the top of his water bottle and chewing on the wire holding it up. Of course, since I have a new camera, I had to get a video of it. :)




My two, three-week-old pups learning how to eat (and steal food):



Some gerbils sleeping with their pups:



Don't say it, Steve...

Benny Hinn and Goats

Couldn't help but see a hilarious similarity between Benny Hinn's "test subjects" and these goats.





On the subject of Benny Hinn, I can't help but wonder why the "catchers" don't fall over too, but that's for a different post.

More Atheist Talk

I came across this list of questions that an atheist wrote to try to get Christians to sound stupid. These questions are excellent examples of what you would be faced with. If you can't come up with a good answer to each of these questions, you'd better think twice before entering into a debate with an atheist.

~~~
Why won't God heal amputees?Yet supposedly heals anything that can by itself heal naturally?

How can a mother enjoy Heaven knowing her atheist son is suffering in Hell?

Why do good moral atheists go to Hell and evil immoral Jesus-accepting-Christians go to Heaven?

Why is God obsessed with testing our faith when those found of skeptical inquiry will all be led to Hell?

What finite sin deserves infinite punishment?

Why do we deserve Hell for something Adam and Eve did?Should we charge grandchildren with the crimes of their grandparents?

Why do we deserve Hell for not being as perfect as Jesus?

Why does the creationist account of the creation of the earth contradict with all of science?Is a test of faith worth the damnation of those deterred from God because of this fact?

Why would an omniscient author create such a barbaric and scientifically literate book with all the knowledge he could provide.

What about animal sacrifice entices God so intensely as to have pages and pages on how to do it?

Why is religion so demographic?

Why do people of all religions claim God speaks to them if there's only one God? Is God speaking to Hindus? Isn't that misleading for God to do?

Why does God want us to stone our rebellious children?He specifically says his words are perfect and should never change.

Why did God drown innocent babies in the Great Flood?

Why does God want us to stone non-believers and worshippers of other gods?He specifically says his words are perfect and should never change.

Why doesn't God want women to talk in church?He specifically says his words are perfect and should never change.

Why does God want us to stone people who work on Sundays?He specifically says his words are perfect and should never change.

Why did God demand so much killing and destruction?

Why did God enlighten only one specific small area of the world? Did he no forsee the immense conflict this would bring?

Why has God planted so much evidence of evolution and non-designed world?

Why would God combine our breathing and eating channels into one single orifice?Think of the lives this slipshod design has cost.

Why do so many creatures have completely useless features that evidence evolution?

In natural disasters, many people die before having accepted Jesus. Why strip their chance to get into Heaven so viciously?

Why do we still have gurus like Jesus today tricking people into believing they can perform miracles? Why should atheists disregard these gurus yet accept Jesus as the only true miracle worker?

Why does God condone slavery?

Why does the Bible say that God would direct a Holy War, and the murder of millions of people. And yet condemn mass murder as morally incorrect?

Why did God only inform Christians about "the truth" and not everyone else?

Why would God allow atheists to ask you a bunch of questions that you cannot answer, how can you save souls without the right answers to give them? (my note-this is a terrible thing an atheist could ask. How much more personal could it get?)

Why would God have Adam marry Eve who is his own daughter and then later make it immoral to mate with your own off-spring?

Why would God create the sun at the end of the week after he created the difference between night and day?

Why would God allow Darwin followers to discover all those millions of fossils which can be used as evidence to disprove the storyline of his authorized book, the Bible.

Why is the earth no longer square shaped.

Why did God not give us the free will to be perfect Christians without lieing about it?

Why did God not trust women to head up and to lead his early Christian churches?

Why did God call Paul to replace Jesus and his teachings, is it because Jesus did not communicate the message clear enough?

~~~

And that's just a few. As you can well see, atheists have plenty of logic. Most of their questions just have to do with them not knowing that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. A lot of these questions are almost funny, they're so ridiculous, but they make you think. I've found that I grow the most in my faith when I am challenged in such a way. Sadly, it is mainly the Christian's fault that atheists live in such an illusioned world. Christians have created for themselves many questions like this just because they don't understand it themselves. We must strive to know more. We must ask God to reveal to us His truths in His Scriptures. We must remember what we've learned.

As Pertaining to Debating with Atheists

I'm afraid this is going to be more a rant than a lecture.

About a month ago, I decided to join a debate forum. I was tired of people getting offended for what I said, and I was especially tired of people running and hiding as soon as I tried to discuss anything. Okay, this is mainly my fault. I kind of have this way of saying everything I know about the subject in five minutes so that by the time I'm done, people are so sick of hearing about it that they leave. I was excited to start debating with other people that would actually listen and argue back. My favorite thing to debate about, however, is theology. Unfortunately, this forum didn't have too many Christians on it. Even the section for talking about religion was mostly atheists coming in and telling everyone that they're nuts. After even a couple days of this degrading way atheists talk about Christianity, I couldn't stand it. I left. However, it has gotten me to think why it is so hard to debate religion with atheists.

1. In my experience with atheists, it seems that many of them grew up in a Christian family. Having had this background, many of them have all the arguments, and they can even pick out instances in the Bible to use against you. For example, someone told me that they would never want to become a Christian because the God of the Old Testament was very harsh, cruel, and unjust. Well, nevermind the fact that they're completely missing the point of the whole Old Testament, but they had enough background to make these conclusions.
2. They're fighting not only against you as a Christian but also against themselves. All people innately have a sense of needing a supreme being. All people also innately have a sense that they are separated from that supreme being. Because of the fall, we are indeed separated from God. All people (even Christians) try to do things to bridge the gap that is between God and man. Think of the Tower of Babel. The people were building a tower up to heaven, signifying that they thought that they could bridge that gap between their God and themselves on their own. Well, believe it or not, atheists also have those feelings. Instead of making the real God their God, they make nature itself and man their god. So, even though they would never admit to worshipping themselves, they are indeed trying to bridge the gap between what they know to be higher than they. All that to say, when they're telling you that there isn't a God, they're having to ingrain that into themselves also.
3. Atheists, in general, tend to be very dogmatic. You are wrong. Even if you're right, you're still wrong. They have all the "good arguments" under their belt, and they know how to use them. They know the weaknesses of Christianity (in natural wisdom), and they know how to use them against Christians. They believe whole-heartedly in science. They have to see everything for themselves. Christians don't. Doesn't that seem a little strange to them?
4. Atheists, for the most part, are very logical people. They've worked out the logic in their arguments, and they know how to use them. Christianity, on the other hand, is not ever going to appear logical to the natural mind. Atheists see this, and use it against Christians. As I said before, they know the "weak" part of the plan (though we know there isn't actually a weak part).
5. It all comes down to faith. Even though atheists think they can see and know everything by science, they actually can't. They don't actually know everything. They don't know for sure that it rained for 2.7 million years to fill up the oceans, and they didn't know that there was a "big bang." Believe it or not, they weren't actually there to see it. Even if they claim they were, I don't know if they could survive the rain that long. :) However, on the other hand, we have Christianity. We, too, have to have faith. Much more so than atheists (though I'm beginning to think that it would take a whole lot more faith to believe atheism). We must have faith that we don't have to see everything. We can definitely (and should!) think about things, but when it comes down to whether you believe in God or not, that comes down to whether or not you are in Christ.
6. Okay, I can't be totally hard on atheists. I know that many Christians use pretty puny arguments against them, causing them to think that Christians are these loony, weak people that believe in some guy named Jesus. It is going to seem absurd to them, and when Christians use some not-so-great arguments against them, it's going to confirm their suspicions. Think deeply before you talk to them. Can you fully explain what you are talking about? Do you know what you believe? How do you know what you believe? Don't forget that for the most part, atheists do know what they believe in, why they believe it, how they believe it, and how to defend themselves. You aren't going to convince them because that comes down to faith, but if you represent Christianity to them as being some organization for people who need help, you're not going to be doing a single good thing for them. If you just stand there with a blank face while they're lecturing you, it's only going to confirm it in their mind that the theory of evolution is far superior.
7. Talk to them out of love. <---One of my biggest problems I face when debating. Don't forget you're representing Christianity to them. If you get all hussled up, they're going to see that you can't defend yourself. If you just start shouting at them with no logic, their suspicions are going to be confirmed. Be patient and listen to them. Don't just bark back at them. Think. Show the love of Christ to them by how you speak to them. Don't get mad at them.

To sum this all up, I just want to say that atheists (in my opinion) are some of the absolute hardest people to deal with, but I also have to remember that it's not my work that's going to get anyone saved. It's God's work. Faith.

Music

Well, as many of you know, I have well expressed my opinion that bluegrass, in general, is not worth listen to. To me, it sounds like a bunch of people who have been out on the ranch, belting out some tune they happened to put empty words with. I don't like the sound. I don't like lots of chromatics. I just don't like it. Does that mean it's bad? No. Yet, why in the world can you put a rockus beat to it, flash strobe-lights around, say it's bluegrass, and agree that it isn't bad? Why would you sing about Jesus, put a beat to it, call it bluegrass, and yet still agree that it's okay? Just because it's talking about Jesus? The words might not be bad if you read them, but when you drown out the words with music so that you can only vaguely hear the words "Jesus rocks" every so often, does that mean it's okay? Does that mean I think it's bad? Not necessarily. In fact, this is only my personal preference. So why am I making a big deal about it? Because I don't think people know what "bad music" is. So, what is bad music? I think that when trying to figure out what "bad music" is, there are several things you must take into account.

1. The culture-In our western culture, we're pretty tame as far as music goes. Ever heard of the missionaries who go to African countries, hear them playing their African drums, are shocked at what they're hearing, and immediately tell them that they must reform their taste of music?

It's cultural. There's absolutely no reason to force those Africans to stop playing those African drums and reform to our western taste of music unless if there's some demonic reason they're playing them.
2. A lot of what is good music and bad music has to do with what the culture thinks is good music and bad music. Using the example from before, if the Africans are playing what would be considered rock music in their country, chances are it wouldn't really be reverent to play for worship.
3. It has a lot to do with how you've grown up. If you've grown up around a classical-music-only group, chances are, you wouldn't think too highly of rock music. During worship, you most likely would feel uncomfortable with having a worship team. If anything, you would feel that you're being irreverent to God in playing such music during worship. On the other hand, if you've grown up around it, you aren't going to feel that you're doing God justice if you worship with hymns only.
4.It has a lot to do with what the words say vs. what the music says. For example, you could have some contemporary worship song that has basically good words (besides the fact that most of them say absolutely nothing), but it could have such loud, obnoxious music that you wouldn't even be able to hear the words. Does an offertory using the words from "Be Still My Soul" fit with rockus, loud music? Absolutely not. The words are calling you to be still and calm and to walk a life of faith, yet what is the music calling you to do? It's calling you to get riled up. The two don't match eachother; therefore, I don't personally see that this would be considered good music.
5. Having grown up with only listening to classical music, I kind of have the view that rock music is mostly associated with a worldly way of living. Of course this is a rather warped view considering there are perfectly sincere Christians who love their rock music. So what makes rock music so bad? One big reason is because most of the words aren't all that great. Also, the music really can cause you to get caught up emotionally in it. I don't know about you all, but I like to be pretty in control of myself. In worship, I don't personally believe that God is calling us to be hugely emotional. I do believe we should be happy, but not because of some outside emotion-producer. I think it should be because we know who we are in Christ. You can be happy and joyful, but that's not the same things as being out of control. I think that much contemporary worship music today stresses on emotion. It makes you feel good because of the music-not because you know who you are in Christ. Just for a quick example, I think of the Newsboy's "Blessed Be the Name of the Lord". First watch the video

Now read the lyrics:

Blessed be Your name In the land that is plentiful Where Your streams of abundance flow Blessed be Your name And blessed be Your name When I'm found in the desert place Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed be your name
CHORUS: Every blessing You pour out I'll Turn back to praise And when the darkness closes in, Lord Still I will say Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name
Blessed be Your name When the sun's shining down on me When the world's "all as it should be" Blessed be You name And blessed be Your name On the road marked with suffering Though there's pain in the offering Blessed be Your name
CHORUS
You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be Your name I will bless Your name
CHORUS
Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your name Blessed be the name of the Lord Blessed be Your glorious name
You give and take away You give and take away My heart will choose to say Lord, blessed be Your name *Repeat*

Says hardly anything, right? Yet, the song gets you so emotionally worked up that you think you're listening to something great and you really feel "close to God". Of course, this is only my opinion, and I'm not saying there's a "right way" to worship. This is just the way I see it having grown up the way I did.

So, after saying all of that, what is good music? I think it has nothing to do with the label that is put on it (classical, bluegrass, rock music, etc.). And just because something has a beat and a drum doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. I think you must determine whether something is bad by if the words agree with the music, if the words are saying anything good, if the music is causing you to become so emotional that you're living into an illusion, and if the music/words are causing you to think bad thoughts or do bad things.

New Twist to Father Abraham!

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