Chasing the Wind

Baldilocks does a little Jesus-preaching and quotes liberally from C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. I love to read about people who take yet another step of sanctification and realize something about themselves needs to change. I’ll be working on the same thing for, oh, the rest of my life.

The Bible says that Satan is the Father of Lies; these progeny include the lies that you tell yourself. And once you get into the habit of lying to yourself about yourself, it becomes almost instinctive. But when reality butts against your instinct, it interrupts the play of the little DVD of self-serving scenarios running in your head and you scream “no!” and try to turn your “truth” into reality…if you’re really far gone into self-delusion, that is.

A genuine conversion to Christianity throws cold water on all of that fantasy and shows you what you are and were on your way to becoming and points you in the opposite direction. You still fall short sometimes but you know you have broken the rules and you don’t try to cover it up or rationalize it away. Simply becoming a Christian doesn’t put Big J’s approval on everything an individual Christian does. We still sin and, if the conversion is true, we feel the sting of guilt even more keenly because we know what the rules are.

But also we know that we are incapable of sticking to the rules perfectly. And, most importantly, we know that our adherence to the rules isn’t what has saved and will save us anyway.

Yum, good stuff.

Some bad stuff – take a look at these cute little girls:

ABC News reports these twins, Lamb and Lynx Gaede, have formed a band called “Prussian Blue” to encourage white nationalism:

Lynx and Lamb have been nurtured on racist beliefs since birth by their mother April. “They need to have the background to understand why certain things are happening,” said April, a stay-at-home mom who no longer lives with the twins’ father. “I’m going to give them, give them my opinion just like any, any parent would.”

April home-schools the girls, teaching them her own unique perspective on everything from current to historical events. In addition, April’s father surrounds the family with symbols of his beliefs — specifically the Nazi swastika. It appears on his belt buckle, on the side of his pick-up truck and he’s even registered it as his cattle brand with the Bureau of Livestock Identification.

Gadzooks. Cute little things taught to hate at such a young age. And I’m sure they don’t even realize they’re singing about hate.

Let’s see… apparently 73% of conservative bloggers oppose Harriet Miers. I sort of feel at home since I opposed her last week. I have to add the following phrase for Truth Laid Bear to pick up my vote: I oppose the Miers nomination. I actually like her as a person and I think she would make a fine … um, cheerleader, I suppose. But we have so many more qualified conservatives that are better qualified. I don’t think we ought to settle for mediocre.

I stumbled across that little tidbit reading about God’s Grace and You. While most people question why there is evil in the world, La Shawn Barber questions why there is good in the world, given man’s scriptural and inherent depravity.

Common grace is distinct from saving grace in that the believer and unbeliever alike share in God’s earthly blessings. Also, since the Bible tells us man is not as evil as he could be, something must be restraining evil. That restraint is also God’s common grace.

Good reading there.

Lions and Lambs is taking some sabbatical time to grow closer to the Lord. Many daily posts full of reading, contemplation, and just a good old plain recognition of the blessings around us. Good reading there, too.

Pamibe is in the eyewall of Hurricane Wilma and yet somehow continues to blog. Amazing. Apparently what she misses most is coffee. 😛

On a lighter note, Sand in the Gears does his best impression of Spider Man:

And then I looked down, and saw him crawling up my chest.

You know how in the movies, when somebody gets some kind of icky crawly creature on him, he slaps hysterically at it with both hands, making distinctly unmanly sounds?

This is exactly true to life. Hollywood, I salute you for getting this, at least, dead to rights.

The spider, rest his soul, was killed by my flurry of self-inflicted judo chops. He lay crumpled in a little heap on the carpet, to what would have been the endless fascination of the two older boys, had the youngest not tried to eat him.

There. That should give y’all plenty of good stuff to read today. 🙂