Beholding the Beauty

...And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose Kingdom shall have no end. — Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed Regarding the eschaton, that's as far as the Church takes it, officially. However, it does have some definite teachings regarding the Kingdom and the End. Here is my understanding of her teaching. The Kingdom is already established and active. (Or did you miss the whole "Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand" bit?) 1 Cor. 15, and Heb. 2 make it quite clear that Christ is reigning now , "for He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet." This is the Gospel of the Kingdom: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!" (Is. 52:7) This is why Jesus said, as the foundational reason ("Go ye therefore ") for the Great Commission: ...

Reference (Just one of many such stories) So....basically...the Democrats overspent by $857 Billion dollars on the completely unfounded assumption that they would be able to raise taxes to cover it. Then they try to blame Republicans (who are not yet in control of either house, btw), who are just doing what they have always done. They do this by assuming that taxes should be raised (read: more of your money should be stolen taken), and then calling anything less than that a "tax cut" and "adding to the deficit". Does anyone else see the insanity here?

Last night, we had a company Christmas party at the Driven Raceway , recently opened here in Fairfield. We had the facility to ourselves for two hours, and another hour after that where the public was allowed back in. We had open snack bar and free games (it's also an arcade) the whole time (the public didn't!), and pizza afterward. This was seriously one of the most awesome times I've had in a long time. :) The karts go up to 45 mph, and each race is 17 laps. I raced four races, and won them all and I put up a best lap time of 18.959. Ok, so I didn't exactly win the last race, but that was one with the public involved, and I got fourth. I did, however, beat everyone from our company, so I count that as a win, too. :) Anyway, if you are in Fairfield looking for something to do, Driven Raceway is definitely great fun to consider!

Sooo....there's been a lot of stuff flying around about the new "backscatter" scanning technology the TSA is making mandatory. Ok, not mandatory; but the only alternative is a thorough groping that would get any normal person slapped with a restraining order at best. Here, in no particular order, are a few ways I've come up with to do "peaceful resistance." 1. As you walk through the security line, just strip naked. Stark naked. When you are inevitably asked what the h*** you're doing, say, "just trying to make this go faster!" 2. Opt for the grope-down, then vocally "enjoy" it. Ham it up. 3. Insist on quid pro quo with the Agent, whether you do the backscatter or the groping. 4. Make lewd comments on the way to the groping room. (I'll leave the particulars up to your imagination.)

I was going to repost this, but I figured...I'll just link to it. :) Here.

EDIT (9/15/2010 4:08 p.m.): This is a work in progress, and generally paints with a very broad brush. However, please understand that my modus operandi with this article is to purposely narrow the semantic range of the words "spirit" and "soul" to their (apparent) usage in Gen. 2:7, and to try to understand and/or translate those exact words as used in the rest of Scripture from their meanings to be consistent with this new narrower range. -------------------------------- My current understanding of the nature of death and the Scriptural (or more accurately, Traditional, of which Scriptural is a part) definitions of the spirit, soul, and body, is as follows: That the "living soul" is the union of spirit (from God) and body (from dust). (Gen. 2:7) That death is the separation of that spirit from the that body, resulting in the corruption of said body, and the return of the spirit to God. (Eccl. 12:7) (This spirit is what is commonly referred to today as ...

This past Friday (Sept. 10) was my birthday. I did absolutely nothing to celebrate it. In fact, I was planning to take the day off; but circumstances (and the fact that I had already taken Monday off for Labor Day) dictated that I actually work, and I wound up working harder than the rest of the week combined (not longer, but definitely harder). Again, I was planning on a little celebration on Saturday, but got caught up in some more work that wasn't supposed to take that long. What's surprising to me, though, is that by saying this, I'm not complaining. :) I used to really look forward to my birthday; but this year, it was just another day — and I'm OK with that! I must be growing up or something. LOL