Empty Works, Empty Faith. It’s an all or nothing kind of thing.

Our ol’ buddy Rob Bell made it back on CNN, attempting to rebut criticism of his new book which many accuse promotes Universalism.  Cnn predictably takes sides and fails to ask the key question: “Is faith in Christ the ONLY way to Salvation?”
He equivocates, but fails to state if his belief that Ghandi may be in Heaven is based on Ghandi’s works or his (heretofore unknown)faith in Christ. That’s the key on which no one has asked clarification.

Bell seems insist that “faith without works is dead,” which is true, but we also “have died with Christ, and Christ lives in us.”  Any works we do apart from Christ are likewise dead.  Ghandi was a swell chap, but if he rejected Christ he is not saved.  That’s how it works.

Laying low.

So much for that project. I think I’ll give it another go, here in April now that life has settled down a bit.

Accountability, Meet the Internet

I’m surprised no one’s thought of this before.  Maybe they have, but just never established a brand.  Still: a BRILLIANT idea. [Hat-tip: Instapundit]

After playing such a pivotal role in the November elections, Tea Party activists vowed they would keep a close eye on Congress. They weren’t kidding.  The Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest organizing groups of the movement, want to assign personal bloggers to track every member of Congress, not just the ones they supported.

It’s still theoretical.  538 blogs all in one place could get complicated.  But the assertion that unpaid volunteers would be more effective than paid “professional” journalists is an interesting proposition.  Would lack of a deadline and need for profitable headlines promote more honesty, or would a volunteer be motivated only by personal fandom or vendetta?

Wisdom from a friend.

A co-worker shared this with me, after I shared a with him a frustrating situation I’m in.  In trying to avoid repeating a past mistake, I took an action but am not sure if my trying to fix things made them better or worse.

He told me God is like a parent with a child and a series of broken toys.  Often, the Father will let His child “help” fix the toy, to teach him or to make him feel better.  Other times, the child’s attempt at “helping” just gets in the way, and the Father has to send him away for a bit forcing him to trust his Father with the toy. [limited analogy alert: situations are not toys, but people are children.  Even the adults: they're just bigger]

God is still in control.  Now for waiting to hear if He’s fixed things.  He’s really driving the “patience” and “perseverance” thing this month.  The car, the piles of Homework, the aforementioned thing.

I also just noticed something weird.  Three times, now I’ve started a blog journal sort of thing, and three times now I’ve found myself in eerily familiar stupid situations of my own responsibility.  The past two projects were subsequently abandoned.  This one is not over yet, and wasn’t even totally suppressed by the car thing.  Hope remains.  Faith and Love may still be around here somewhere……

Why Do These People Hate Blacks?

[Hat-tip: Dr. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection.]

Black sheep that is.  There are stories behind many nursery rhymes, the most notable being “Ring Around The Rosy” and The Plague.  Hyper-sensitive people with more power than common sense seem to think “black” anything is a racist slur.  Some times, however, the subject of the rhyme is exactly what it says it is.  There are black sheep in the world, and were when it was written:

“Baa! Baa! Black Sheep, have you any wool?
Yes, Sir! Yes, Sir! Three bags full.
One for the Master, one for the Dame
And one for the boy who lives down the lane!”

If anything the rhyme promotes what such “P.C.” people usally favor:  some for the “Master”, the “Dame” AND the “Boy…down the lane” i.e. Re-distribution of Wealth!  Huzzah!

Finally almost-professional.

Finished my best video project yet.  The Bangor Public library is a beautiful building and, being a library, a beautiful thing inherently.  The staff was remarkably tolerant of us as well, so long as we left patrons undisturbed.

Now to find a “hauted” house type place for the next one.  I’m thinking of taking a Hemingway angle…..

Tunisia: Not over yet

The same applies to Egypt, really.  Revolutions usually succeed because more than one single force drives them.  Those forces then compete to occupy the resulting Power vacuum.  Some people are beheading Christians in Tunis.  One of the major factions in Egypt calls for renewed war with Israel and the US.  It’s still looking like IRAN 2.0, with it’s own potential “supreme leader” Yusuf Qaradawi.