Top Tennis

Prolife

reading a book entitled "prolife answers to prochoice arguments" by randy alcorn. i recommend it for people who want to know what are the prochoice arguments. for a long time i was naive. not so much now.

apparently roe v. wade in overturning the laws prohibiting abortion referred to the 14th amendment. the woman maintains the "right to privacy" under the "due process." abortion is unrestricted up to the point which the fetus is able to live outside the womb with artificial aid. this is about 24 weeks to 7 months. an abortion may be allowed if the mother's health is in question.

i wonder why there is this restriction of viability? it seems that the court is forcing the mother to decide in a short amount of time to make a permanent decision. this hardly seems fair.

what seems even more unfair is that due process (right to life and liberty) do not apply to an unborn, unwanted child. who gave the court the power to decide this? maybe it is because i have healthy kids or maybe it is because i have more time to think. but it just seems right for a society to protect the life of another human being without regard to age, place of residence, or potential. i pray and hope that some person in the near future invents some device that enables a two month fetus to be viable.  

Mindful Frustration

being unemployed for a month has offered ample opportunity for reading, reflection, conversing and tbn. it has always pained me to hear about pastors and other well respected church leaders falling from grace. in fact it used to anger me. angry at the pastors and angry at the congregations for not being more transparent and honest.

but recently i have gone from mad to sad. in fact it saddens me to reflect on all the times that i used to get bent out of shape. people misquoting scripture, advocating health and wealth, praying patripassianally, and a whole host of other things. reflecting upon the churches i formerly attended and speaking to people for whom i care much, i have found that there is so much disenfranchisement (people deprived of the opportunity to truly experience God in their lives) and disillusionment (people feeling fooled or deceived) in the church.

it's not drinking, smoking, or gambling christians that inhibit people like my mom to accept christianity. it's the uncontrolled gossiping, rampant backstabbing, and overall negativity that serve as preventative. i have discovered that my biggest gripe against lds, watchtower, and tbn is not that they are spiritually misleading, doctrinally unsound, etc. but that they generally have an all around positive worldview. this bugs me. actually it bugs me more that this bugs me so much. and like most conservative, traditional, evangelical christians I tend to be more negative and judgmental.

if my belief and understanding of God and the Bible are correct (because they are) why do i not have a more positive outlook on things? why do people who attend conservative, traditional, evangelical churches get spiritually beat up and bored out of their mind if jesus is the truth, the way, the life, the light, the vine, and all the other good stuff. when i approach worship, discipleship, service, fellowship, and evangelism they should be devoid of defeatism, drudgery, negativity and all the other stuff that will cause others to feel defeated, obligated, and negative.

I Got Some Time to Ponder

Romans 8:20-22 says that creation has been subjected to frustration and at some point will be liberated from the bondage of decay.

Genesis 1:29, 30; 9:3 suggest that before the flood humans and animals were all vegetarian.

Genesis 3:21 suggests that God is the first one to actually kill something to cover the sin of mankind.

Genesis 1 states that after creating everything up through day five, it was good. On day six after creating humans, God was done and it was very good.

For awhile now I have believed all these statements to be true and put them all together to understand that before Adam’s sin, there was no pain, suffering, or death. Life was in perfect harmony because relationships between God and His creation were in perfect harmony. Doubt led to sin led to death.

With my newly acquired spare time I have been reading “The New Answers Book.” It is a book on creationism. The amazing thing is that it has taken what I believe to be true and put it together with dinosaurs. Many scientists believe that there have been five mass extinctions during earth’s history, the most recent having occurred about 65 million years ago. I come to a point where I have to 1) adjust my perception of the Bible (which would be to accept what many scientists believe to be true) or 2) reject what many scientists believe to be true and stick with my belief.

Should I use a Bible lens to interpret science or should I use a science lens to interpret the Bible?

If I decide to stick to my beliefs that pain, suffering, and death did not occur before Adam’s sin I would have to concede that there were no mass extinctions before the time of Adam. If I accept this then I must accept that dinosaurs and humans co-existed.

TV Shows

i attended ecct last sunday. last time i was there was 10 years ago. there has been some upheaval so many of the people i knew are gone. not sure if that will be the church i will attend since it is not expressly baptist. but it may be a church my mom would like to attend. i sat down with the pastor and discovered that he is an sbc seminary grad.

additionally i now know two people who have been on reality shows. james (friend of dazuma) with the apprentice la. ronald (ecct member) of the amazing race 12.

i hope i'm not the only old fogey who thinks there is nothing more hokey than reviving american gladiators.