Blog Title Changed

OK, I changed the title of this blog just now. I wasn't sticking to the kind of material that would have justified calling it World's End Blog or anything similar. The material is becoming eclectic. Now I'll feel freer to talk about whatever is on my mind.

I once had another blog with the title Faith's Corner, but it was focused on the creation-evolution debate and I finally gave it up. Since it was on another provider site I was able to use the same name here.

Discovered a vast graveyard of abandoned Blogs out there.

I finally realized that I can't just turn off my thoughts about the political situation and especially Sarah Palin's sudden and very welcome appearance on the scene, so I decided to put up a new blog to focus on that for a while. I decided I wanted to focus especially on prayer for her and her family and McCain and family as well because the left has been just unbelievably vicious lately. I may link to it from here when I have it set up.

In seeking a new URL (internet address) for the blog, I discovered that most of the terms I thought of have already been used. Normally I just keep looking until I hit on one that's free but this time I decided to seek out those blogs with those addresses, figuring they might be bloggers I'd want to get to know.

What I found out is that of eleven I checked, only ONE is currently functioning. All the others were started a few years ago and abandoned after only a few posts, in some cases no posts at all. These are all URLs using the word "prayer" or some Biblical phrase, and two of them were started by pastors. Does this mean that the vast majority of blogs at Blogger and Wordpress are defunct, that the ones that are alive and well are the minority? Or is it something peculiar to the Biblical and Christian blogs that they are started and abandoned more frequently than others?

It was interesting to discover so many abandoned blogs because I too had started a couple of blogs a few years ago that I had abandoned. One of them I abandoned only because I had a computer disaster that disabled my internet connection and couldn't access the blog after that. Couldn't even contact Blogger to explain the problem because they required my old email address in order to contact them, which I no longer had. So I dropped that blog altogether after a couple of posts. It's still accessible for viewing but not for managing and editing. Believe me, I tried everything to get to it and get help from Blogger. It's a difficult situation to explain and it would take a very long post to try so I'm not going to say more.

But the other blog just died because I wasn't inspired enough to keep it up. I have to suppose that is the case with the majority of others' abandoned blogs. I had been writing prolifically online for years at various message boards so thought a blog would come naturally, but had to face that at least at that time I needed the stimulation of others' views to inspire me. With my current blog I thought that might also be the case but I'm treating it more as a personal diary and don't run out of things to say for that reason.

Conservative politics; Women in politics

I don't want my blog to become a political blog, but some attention has to be paid to developments in this election campaign because they are so unusual and unexpected. Sarah Palin is about as unexpected as you can get, a strong self-possessed articulate likeable woman, a REAL Christian who obeys the Lord -- instead of the usual Christian-in-name-only -- with all the right conservative ideals and political savvy to boot. Conservatives are amazed at this gift to their cause out of the blue. A friend believes she is answer to prayer. This may be. I posted a while back on the weekly prayer for revival in the nation various evangelical groups have been engaged in, that's planned to go at least through the election and perhaps through Christmas. I wouldn't discount the idea that God has heard and provided help for the conservative cause.

Why would He hear particularly for the cause of just one political party? Well, it does seem to me that the cause is a good cause and the prayers are for the increase of the good in it. The focus is on returning America to its pre-Marxist condition, to homely values and strengths, as opposed to the sin-promoting values of the other party, abortion in particular, gay marriage in particular, and above all socialism, which is a form of theft and bondage, stealing from some of the people to provide for others and taking personal choice and responsibility out of our hands.

Oh it's not that the Republican party is so pure, by a long shot. Plenty of Republicans rationalize murder of the unborn, and gay marriage too, and even support some socialist causes, just fewer of them than in the other party. There's also sometimes a macho tone to the Republican party and conservatives in general, that emphasizes, perhaps overemphasizes, armed defense of the nation and a sort of chest-thumping vengeance against the nation's enemies. Since American causes generally really are good causes, to help and defend others, and not the theft of foreign land or national power over others, we can support a strong military readiness up to a point, but I've heard a little too much "nuke 'em" from the Right as the solution to everything. I suppose it's an understandable natural reaction when the country has been attacked, but even then it certainly can't be the shout of a Christian. We aren't to have natural reactions, we're to learn the power of spiritual actions in obedience to Christ that contradict our natural impulses. Die to self, hate your own life, turn the other cheek, resist not evil, remember? Vengeance is the Lord's, not ours.

A Christian has to remember that our enemies are human beings who need the gospel of Christ above all, and sometimes that is hard to reconcile with any armed defense for any reason. We should even consider whether Jesus is really for the life of a soldier among His own. It can be argued both ways, and I've usually argued in favor of the soldier, but in the last year or so have been seeing more of a conflict with the Kingdom of God in any armed defense.

We take it for granted these days that there is no conflict, and American soldiers are often true Christians. Emails go around all the time showing them in prayer and there's no doubt in my mind it's all quite genuine. The question is exactly where and how to apply Jesus' commands to turn the other cheek and not resist evil. Surely they are not addressed to nations; Jesus didn't talk to nations, who are part of the fallen world. He talked to individuals, those who seek to obey Him. It's individuals who serve as soldiers, and if they are living for Christ how can they kill anyone?

It's not that we simply don't kill, but we have different weapons against our enemies, AND we are to understand who our enemies are in a different way than the world does. The weapons of our warfare are not physical but spiritual. We fight not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in heavenly places. And in His strength we DO win our battles. Enemies convert into friends or are rendered unable to fight.

Anyway, it's something I've been thinking about for some time. There is a caricature of the argument against war that is sheer foolishness, it seems to me, that comes from the left: that the nation should simply abandon all military attempts to bring justice to foreign situations because it's inherently unjust or none of our business and so on. It certainly IS our business if foreign powers hate us and are gaining the means to do us harm, apart from the fact that our motives really ARE good motives. Beyond that, unbelievers have nothing with which to fight EXCEPT physical means, so to pull back leaves the nation completely vulnerable to enemies. But Christians do have other weapons. If we are living by His Spirit, we can count on protection from God.

In any case it appears to me that there's no doubt that there are more true Christians on the conservative side of the political arguments because there are more issues a Christian can support on the conservative side. Certainly not all, and I strongly considered not voting at all this time until Sarah Palin came along.

So maybe Sarah Palin is answer to prayer. She certainly strengthens the Republican ticket, to put it mildly.

But I've also been thinking about the rightness of a woman in office in general, and in specific the rightness of a woman in office with young children. Of course she's been in the Governor's office in Alaska for a couple of years and before that the Mayor's office in a small town in Alaska. I don't think we have a clear picture exactly how that was worked out, except that her husband took a year off to help.

How different will the Vice Presidency be? The campaign is sure to be intense and time-consuming but that's only for two months. Seems to me I remember seeing something she said a while back when she was one of many being considered for the office, that she wasn't sure the Vice Presidency would give her enough work to do and she needs to have plenty to do. That may mean she can handle a lot of work on top of dealing with family life or it may mean that she is sacrificing her family. It's probably both to some extent and I'm not clear what proportion of both it may be.

One answer I have to my own questions is that Sarah Palin is unique. She's simply the best out there right now. We don't have to judge all family situations by hers, and what she has done for the conservative cause in a few short days simply by her speech-making ability and attractive presence and ability to connect with people is truly phenomenal.

The Bible shows that, although women have the ability to rule, God put men in that role, yet it also shows that sometimes He puts women in that role nevertheless. When the men aren't rising to the occasion. When the prophets were weak in Israel, there would be a woman prophet. When the kings were weak, there would be a strong woman ruling -- for good or ill.

Beyond that there is the practical matter of a woman's having the job of taking care of children. It's not that men can't do it, it's that women were given that role, and in most situations in history the men are needed elsewhere. How can anyone argue with this? Yet we have lots of women in office today. This is supposed to be "progress" for the nation. It's certainly a victory for feminism. But unfortunately it's no doubt also a sign of the general weakening of the nation that women are taking those roles. Certainly the righteous alternative is NOT the macho attitude that is so likely to surface in reaction against such a situation. It was the macho attitude in the first place that provoked women into the feminist reaction. Victory over THAT is fine with me, but in a perfect world there would not be such conflict and such extremes on either side of it.

P.S. I checked Dr. Laura's site today, not having followed her for a few years now, just wanting to see what she had to say about Sarah Palin, and found her denouncing her as a mother of five children for taking on such a demanding job. I've often found Dr. Laura's opinions congenial with my own, and I agree with her general concern in this case too, but only her GENERAL concern. I think she errs in not seeing the uniqueness of this situation, the uniqueness of the need for a powerful boost to the conservative cause and the lack of anyone else who could have done what Sarah Palin has done, the uniqueness of Sarah Palin herself, perhaps even the uniqueness of her family situation in which the children have many caretakers and will most likely be a great deal with their mother in this endeavor anyway. And Sarah herself isn't going to be completely swallowed up by the kind of job the Vice Presidency is.

Sarah Palin needs a LOT of prayer

Here's a video of Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, visiting the Assembly of God church in Wasilla, Alaska, that she grew up in. It must be recent because she says her son Track is soon to go to Iraq, and that's scheduled for September 11, as of today just a week away. She sounds very young here (Lots of "cool" and "you guys"), not quite the same persona we've seen at the Republican Convention, but not inconsistent with it either I hasten to add. Her Christian commitment is made very clear in any case.

It's of the utmost importance that Christians pray for her protection. She's already under attack and it's not going to let up. There is at least one website calling for increased security for her because she's such a threat to the leftist establishment, and that's good but of course the attack she has been going through is fundamentally spiritual. It has reached a pitch even unusual for the left, and it's easy to suspect that it could inspire someone to try to kill her. This is clearly demonic, this is spiritual warfare. Besides praying for her protection, and her family's protection, and McCain's too, we should pray that God would restrain her enemies, interfere with their plans and so on.

And thank Him for letting us have her. We don't deserve this good woman in our political life, but God has had mercy on us in giving her to us.

Sept 5: Friend Z, who has a very popular conservative political blog, has posted a Psalm for Sarah today, as a great example of how to pray for her.

Sarah Palin's speech:

Loose ends, hurricanes, politics, Bible versions

Well, New Orleans wasn't God's target this time after all. I do wonder however if prayer might have deflected it because if you look at a map of Gustav's track you can see that it made a little jog to the West just as it passed that city as if intentionally keeping some distance from it. Certainly there was a lot of prayer out there.

Then there's the scandal about Sarah Palin's daughter that just reared its ugly head. Obama is right, the families of politicians should be out of bounds for news hounds, it's nobody's business but the family's, but that isn't going to happen in our news-mad age. Of course the sexual acting out of a child of a Christian does disappoint, but more disappointing was the response of her parents. I personally think some disappointment on their part should have been expressed in some quiet way -- Palin is good with the words, I'm sure she could have found the right ones --along with the family support for the daughter in spite of it of course. But all we got was the support part, and the support was overboard in my opinion. Could have done without the enthusiasm, the "beautiful daughter" part and how proud they are of her and the grandchild to come. Seems to me that just feeds the liberal position that there's nothing wrong with sex outside marriage. No disappointment, no sanctions, no consequences, except of course she'll have to grow up sooner than anticipated etc. Weak. Too bad.

I'm stalled on the Bible versions topic, don't know for how long, got into a debate on another board, this time with a new versions defender for a change instead of a King-James-Only defender. Unfortunately made me appreciate just how dug in people are in the new versions. Then talked to a friend who trusts in her Revised Standard Version and thinks it's particularly trustworthy because whenever the pastor gives the translation of a passage that he says is the best rendering of the Greek, it's the same one she has in her RSV. Of course he's consulting with the same texts her Bible is based on but I thought better of trying to explain that. Encountering such entrenched belief in people I know to be truly Christians makes my effort on the subject seem a lost cause. I don't think I'll give up but I'll probably take a breather.

Got back into some good recent teachings by Zac Poonen in the meantime -- always inspiring, and I need spiritual bolstering after getting too involved in intellectual debate. http://rlcfchurch.org/ (go to "Sermons").

Mullings on God's will in hurricanes and politics

I just keep thinking about it. It makes me very sad. The God, THE God, the God of all things, the one and only, the God and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the God who made the world and everything in it, God who deserves the worship of every one of His creatures, God who puts up with those who hate Him, who is even good to those who hate Him, God who hears the prayers of those who acknowledge Him, is forgotten and ignored in our sophisticated time. He is also ignored by those who seek Him where He has not put His name, in the false religions. He has only put His name on His word, and on the people of the Bible. Then there are people who claim to be Christians who aren't. Then there are the Christians, those who do belong to Him, who nevertheless don't live up to our calling, who don't seek Him as we should, who don't obey Him as He has clearly told us to in His word, who remain stupid in the face of acts of God when of all people we should know what is going on because of all people we should know HIM.
So this hurricane comes and maybe we'll hear a call to pray, but when do we hear a call to humble ourselves and repent in sackcloth and ashes for the sins that have deserved the hurricane? The sins of the CHURCH, mind you, even before the sins of the nation: we're to turn from OUR wicked ways it says in 2 Chron 7:14.

So the twin towers of New York are demolished and people say "God bless America" but very very few would admit that it was God's doing. Of course it was the doing of Muslim jihadists, but isn't God in charge of the actions of Muslim jihadists as well as everyone else? They are merely instruments in God's hands, just as the Assyrians and the Babylonians and other great empires were God's instruments of judgment against God's own people as reported in the Old Testament.

I heard I think four sermons that acknowledged that 9/11 was God's judgment, only because local Christian radio sought them out and played them as a series well after the event, and I doubt there were many more than that across the nation. Everybody else was saying God wouldn't do such a thing, or if He did there is no way to know why, and so on. But what a myopic view of it, what a shame if such things are said by people who call themselves Christians. Of course we can't know why in the case of individuals, the persons who died in such catastrophes, that's only for God to know -- He takes the unrighteous AND the righteous according to His own timetable. In the case of the attack on the World Trade Center He showed more mercy than judgment -- there were so few who died compared to the numbers that could have been killed, and there were many miracle rescue stories, all heartening signs of His mercy in judgment. But if we know the Bible at all we ought to be able to surmise that God is saying something to the nation as a whole in such a disaster. But it seems we don't. The church is backslidden, out of touch with God. The church needs to repent.

So we're sitting and watching for Gustav to hit. I for one am not going to pray that God will deflect the hurricane. He's not going to let many be killed, there's been time for a massive evacuation, but a nation that doesn't give God the glory, that doesn't recognize its own sins, that doesn't repent and seek His face, doesn't deserve to be spared His judgments. Elijah prayed for famine on Israel because they had left their God for the pagan demon god Baal. America has done the same. I wonder if anything will turn us back? How hard does God have to hit us? Or will we just continue to say it's only Nature, just a matter for government and human ingenuity to deal with?