Writer’s Block

Meh.

Perhaps it’s the heat, as summer has finally decided to arrive in Chicagoland.

Perhaps it’s the plans, as I will be getting married in a few weeks.

Perhaps it’s the shows, as I’ve found Chef Gordon Ramsey to be as astute a judge of character as he is of food and business acumen.

Perhaps I’m just being lazy.

Meh.

Spam

As y’all have no doubt noticed, there has been a bit of spam making it through iPandora’s Akismet filters this last week.

I’ve been deleting them as I see them, but they keep coming. A few more each day.

What do y’all use to block spam on your blogs?

Why Do You (or Don’t You) Blog?

Just a question.

How To Win The Culture War

Romans 1:18-32 (ESV):

(18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. (19) For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. (20) For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (21) For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (22) Claiming to be wise, they became fools, (23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

(24) Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to (25) because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,

(26) For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; (27) and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

(28) And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to what ought not to be done. (29) They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, (30) slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, (31) foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. (32) Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

This passage is contains the litany of sin from it’s roots, to it’s inception, to it’s fruition. Of particular importance is the fact that this litany is particularly applicable to a lifestyle of sin.

The process of temptation described in James 1:14-15 (ESV) is more universal in it’s application:

(14) But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. (15) Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

James’ process applies to all in that even we as Christians are prone to temptation, lustful desires, sin, and spiritual death or dormancy.

Paul’s process and description is more applicable to the sin of lifestyle. From a consistent denial of God and His attributes, God will cast them down into degrading passions. If they will not exalt Him, He will deny them even ‘human’ decency.

But in our sinful state, the heart of man seeks approval, approbation, and acceptance. As our sins have crawled out of the closet and been accepted by others, they have gained courage and through courage, further acceptance. Eventually, and this is the state of our nation today, sin and acceptance reach critical mass and breaks out into the mainstream, demanding recognition as something other than what it is.

But how do we deal with this? The lines have been drawn, the gauntlet thrown down, our children are being indoctrinated in school and our cities are being cajoled into hosting sex-fests in their streets in the form of “gay pride parades”.

We’ve confronted them, attacked their ideology, beaten back their growth at times, but bit by bit they seem to be winning as people stop caring and say to themselves: “what’s so wrong about it, they aren’t hurting anybody”.

A key fact in any war is that those fighting FOR something have a distinct advantage over those fighting AGAINST something. A positive goal inspires confidence and wins allies, while a negative goal works against the human spirit bringing discouragement and desperation.

So far in our culture war, we’ve been fighting against the encroaching forces of multi-culturalism, sexual deviancy, and other forms of social decay. At times we remind ourselves that we’re fighting for our families and children and nation, but overall, it is a war of defense.

We have lost the high-ground though. The momentum is with the enemy. We are being backed into walls in nearly all fronts of this war. This is a good thing.

Yes, this is a good thing.

We now have something to fight for.

But what are we fighting for, and how do we wage that battle most effectively.

In the last year of blogging here at I, Pandora, I’ve come to realize the futility of forcing political change. Bringing about a political change may bring temporary gains, but we have to compromise. We force ourselves to accept less-than-optimal options in our leaders.

Political change is still important, very important. Those who stand in the gap for us are heroes who ought to be protected, and prayed over, and supported. But unless the hearts change, the same people will keep coming back with the same goals: to wipe out the influence and effectiveness of God’s word in the world.

Don’t be misguided, the people who champion the wrong ideas’ personal goals may be the forced societal acceptance of some deviance. But they are only the faces, they are not the enemy. They need true love, God’s love, as much or more so than any other.

No, the enemy is Satan. The deceiver. And it is in his impending and sure doom that we have our strength.

His goal is not acceptance of homosexuality, it is destruction of individuals in any way possible.

Our counter is the reaching of individuals in any way possible. And just as when Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, and it brought healing to those who saw it, and as Jesus, when He was lifted up on the cross, drew all men to Himself. Lifting God’s standard once again will draw men and women to Him.

The root cause, according to Paul, of the sin lifestyle is a refusal to recognize God, His attributes, and His truth. So we need to place God, His attributes, and His truth before them in an unimpeachable, undeniable, and undeniable way.

This is not done necessarily with posters and signs, slogans and shouts. But with lives lived wholly for Him.

The mission field is not just in Zimbabwe or Zambia, China or Croatia, or India. It may be in Indianapolis, or Sacramento, or Dallas, or Boston. For you it is wherever you are, whenever you are there. And if you’ve not started yet, it starts right now.

Your mission: to live your life wholly for God.

This does not mean perfection or even the illusion of perfection. God’s law and God’s love balance each other and provide guidance for us through our struggles and our triumphs.

The family is under assault, so shore up the breeches. Starting with as solid a foundation as can be found, Christ’s love, build your family with hard work and constant prayer. Grow it as large as God will give, and share and spread.

It is humorous, but conservative, loving, Christianity enjoys a distinct advantage over all alternate and deviant lifestyles even if only through the “Rabbit Method”: where we out-grow the deviant by means of procreation. (Soberingly, this is exactly how Muslims are taking over much of the world, by having large families).

Large families are not required, and I know many good people who choose a single life of service, or if they cannot have children, use their additional freedom to free energy to wage mighty war against the enemy.

The important thing is not that we have large families, but that we follow God’s call for our lives.

In our stable and strong, God-fearing, and God-glorifying relationships, we have something the rest of the world, including every religion and worldview and mythos, envies: peace.

Not a hypnotized, brainless, mind-numbing peace. But an despite-the-world-falling-around-us peace which comes from having the Master and Maker of all creation caring for us and promising that He’ll work everything together for our good.

That peaceful life, lived on ever lane and at each corner, in the car and on the roads. Lived in public and in private, at the grocery store and the lumber mill and the cannery. And yes, even on the battlefields around the world. Will draw all people.

So don’t beat your plowshares into swords or your rakes into Uzis. Using your plowshares and rakes to God’s glory will bring a far greater, far more lasting, and far more effective harvest.

American evangelicals are the wests best hope (American Thinker).

Visa, It’s Everywhere You Want To Vote

Originally posted November 11th, one of the first articles written here at I, Pandora.

Internet voting is a hot-button issue today with plethora of heated rhetoric and a paucity of actual fact (it’s interesting to note that nearly all nearly all hypothetical e-voting catastrophes predicted by the dooms-day-ers in the media had ‘big’ and ‘evil’ corporations changing the outcome to favor those ‘dirty republicans’ while those paragons of virtue, the Democrats, where standing by with armies of Lawyer Friar Tuck J.D. ready to swing to the rescue and when the election fell to the Democrats, there were NO allegations of ANY fraud, not that I’m saying anything, but…).

So, rantings and ravings and very long run-on sentences aside (personally I see no point in raves) I ask you this: If Visa and Mastercard and Discover and Amex and even Diners Club can do it, why can’t we? Think this through with me: every day, all over the world, there’s a nearly real-time network that securely and with a minimum of fuss and complete transparency and verifiability transfer large sums of money between owners. Now all we’re asking for is a system that presents options, records choices, tallies outcomes, one or two days a year, in a technologically advanced country.

So lets see what I can dream up for my Credit Card Voting System: Voter Jane comes in to her voting location with her proper ID (yes, it is stupid not to require some (relatively) empirical form of ID to vote, no, no one will be ‘disenfranchised’ (liberals like to use large words to describe supposed social ills so dumb people will repeat them thinking this makes them sound smart). She swipes that drivers license that everybody should darn well have, the system checks that she is eligible, and hasn’t voted yet. Think of the possibilities here though, she could be in Zimbabwe, with her Army Ranger unit (yes, I know we’re not really there, this is hypothetical, and I had to make it at least a little bit of a challenge), and she could be presented with her local ballot issues. Or Chicago, when she’s a resident in Poduncville Wherever, the point is, this is what happens every time you slide that magic card at Walmart or the Ritz-Carlton. If the system finds that she’s already voted, it could present the election staff the location of the previous vote, the choices made and other pertinent data necessary for deciding who is the correct Voter Jane.

Do you see what I’m getting at here? We’re still scared about “paper trails” and security and evil corporations buying our vote from the sleazy hacker next door, when the reality is mundane and bla and the future is oh-so-bright.

I’ve figured out what the Democrats want. They don’t really care about the paper trail, they just want to cut down more trees and be able to blame the Republicans.

Holidays And New Year

From I, Pandora, here are wishes for a Merry Christmas to each and every one of you.

May this be an enjoyable time for all alike as we gather with friends and family to celebrate the giving of the greatest gift.

Over Christmas and the New Years and up until the 11th of January, I will not be blogging regularly.

However, I’ve schedule several new articles and several reposts of articles from when I, Pandora was young, over a year ago now. Regular posting will resume on the 14th of January.

I will be visiting in California the first two weeks of the New Year, seeing my hometown for the first time since I moved out to Chicago nearly a year ago now. Accompanying me will be my girlfriend who will be meeting my family for the first time (pray for her).

And so I pray that for each and every one of you, God will speak peace into your hearts as He did to us all so many years ago.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Divorce Is Not Eco-nomical

As if the burden of divorce weren’t bad enough, people with failed marriages can be blamed for global warming, according to a study by Michigan State University.
-Divorce Pains The Planet, CNet News

“If you have more households as a result of divorce, then you would need more housing units, and if you need to build more houses or apartments, that means you need more land, and that will contribute to urban sprawl,” he says.
-Jianguo “Jack” Liu in Marriage: Eco-friendlier Than Divorce?, USA Today

“A married household actually uses resources more efficiently than a divorced household,” said Jianguo Liu, a sustainability expert with Michigan State University.
-Divorce Isn’t Resource Efficient, Study Finds, Seattle Times

If you thought divorce was bad for the kids, you should see what it does to the environment.
-In Divorce Even The Environment Pays A Price, LA Times

I Pandora finds the evidence does not support claims that human energy use has a significant effect on global temperature. However, we do recognize the unsightly nature of waste and the issues of inefficient use of resources. And we realize the almost universally evil nature of divorce.

As such, if you can’t stay together for love, and you can’t stay together for the kids, and you’re just to d****d selfish and pig-headed to work to live with this person you used to love and promised to never leave, then maybe the fact that if you break up your making twice as much trash will give you pause…

Naw, didn’t think so. Pig.

A Sad Yet True-To-Life Christmas Song

matthew: Please welcome the newest addition to the I Pandora family of authors: American Texan. American Texan is a student who sometimes just has to write things down, and is rather good at it too. But don’t take my word for it…

As I was getting ready this morning I found the song “Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer” running through my head. I stopped and focused on the words I had just sung:

And then one foggy Christmas eve,
Santa came to say,
‘Rudolph, with your nose so bright,
Won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?’
Then all the reindeer loved him,
As they shouted out with glee,
‘Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer,
You’ll go down in history.’

The other reindeer didn’t see the value of Rudolph until someone pointed out that he was useful for something. Until that point his differences made him an outcast.

I think this relates very much to human behavior. Unless, or until, someone’s difference seems to contribute to the well-being or enjoyment of others they are often shunned.

Everyone is worthwhile regardless of their differences. I am worthwhile, not because of myself, but because I am a creation of God. My differences, my similarities, are absolutely nothing if it is just me; they have been given to me by God. Everyone is worthwhile because they are a creation of God. He made them who they are.

I remember the case of Terry Schiavo a few years back. Her husband, and numerous courts, didn’t see her life, her personhood, as worthwhile.

A potato is a potato even if someone, for example, says it is a flower. It will always be a potato no matter one’s viewpoint on it.

A person is a person and has worth no matter what anyone says. A person has worth even if you do not know what they will contribute to the world yet.

Everyone is worthwhile in God’s eyes regardless of how individuals or society as a whole views them. They are valued by God even if they seem to contribute little or nothing to others or to the world.

I Looked Outsite My Window West

I looked outside my window west, across the broad horizon.
My dreams and hopes from years gone by glowed golden in the light.
The setting sun of all my past fell surely to the lip of the hills, shedding the last light of the days of my youth on the things I valued then.

But looking out the other sill towards the glowing East, the light of breaking day, already growing steadily stronger as in repose I lay.
This newly born light, of the sun of new hopes and new dreams, rises strongly upward, bringing to my watering eyes in dazzling relief new dreams and new joys before unknown.
Toward this new light I rise to my feet, walking with strong step and sure, forgetting what was behind and pressing on I keep my aim true.
I am not without questions, and foreboding too, but when the dream and goal is sure as the wind, I know what I am to do.
To take hold of the wind and grip it tight as into it’s teeth I fly, I ride this beast, this roaring beast and follow it where it will.

Apologies

I’m sorry for not being more regular with my blogging of late. And from here on I solemnly pledge to be sorry again when if it happens again.