"Being straight isn’t a guarantee of having a healthy, shiny, pre-integrated sexuality"

A good read from Brutally Honest.

I’m so used to being gay and Catholic, I forget how strange that sounds.
I forget that, for some people, “homosexual” describes something like a different race, or maybe even a different gender. I forget that some Christians think I’m the worst kind of pervert (but a pervert they have to treat nicely), and some secularists think I’m the worst kind of hypocrite; the former because I’m sexually attracted to men, and the latter because I don’t do anything about it.
Read the last part again. Yes, I’m attracted to men; no, I don’t sleep with them, for the same reason that a lot of Catholics don’t sleep with people they’re not married to. But you’d be surprised how often people hear the first part (gay) and not the second (celibate) — even though the second is the only part that’s up to me.

Follow the top link for the whole post.  Very worthwhile!

xtnyoda, shalomed.

Eliminating God

  Well, some are continuing to try and eliminate the 'need' for God.  It's a fun read from Yahoo and LiveScience.

I'll share just the opening paragraph.  And as you read just keep in mind that man's theories are simply that, theories, not proven nor demonstrated facts. 

Over the past few centuries, science can be said to have gradually chipped away at the traditional grounds for believing in God. Much of what once seemed mysterious — the existence of humanity, the life-bearing perfection of Earth, the workings of the universe — can now be explained by biology, astronomy, physics and other domains of science. ...

Like I said, it's a fun read. :-)

xtnyoda, shalomed

Defining a Spiritual Awakening

  Our "First World Wide War "

We are witnessing and participants in the first genuine "World Wide War." It is a war of ideas and religion more than a war of weapons and technology, though weapons and technology are some of the tools of this war.

If you will, we are in an epic clash of cultures. Culture is defined by the laws written and the religious foundation of those laws. Anyone that does not recognize that the general laws of the 'western' world have been founded on the Christian bible, New Testament specifically, simply doesn't understand the forming of a 'culture.'  There are forces at work in the United States to redefine 'culture' from both the outside and probably more profoundly, from the inside, as well as in Europe.

 We are experiencing what historians will define as a 'great awakening' a hundred years from now. The awakening will be when the Church realizes that she will be a slave to no man nor government.

Unfortunately, the social outcome of the working of an 'awakening' is always a war. While one is in the middle of an awakening it seems like the worst of times. Again, it is historians that look back and determine when an awakening happened, in the middle of an awakening it seems like anything other than a spiritual experience.

xtnyoda, shalomed

As responding on Brutally Honest 

I Am Sin

H/T to  Brutally Honest

xtnyoda, shalomed

"We are standing upon a precipice"

Brutally Honest has shared an important article about the current condition we are in, and the spiritual reasons for our condition.

The Anchoress is conducting a root cause analysis on America's troubles:

Last week Mark Steyn wrote, “America is seizing up before our eyes,”and that is a spot-on image. She is like a brilliantly conceived machine that, poorly maintained for more years than any of us cares to admit, has gone too long untuned; the oil of her invention has thinned out and broken down and now bit-by-bit, gear-by-gear—economically, socially, spiritually—she is making an ungodly noise and grinding to a halt.

And yet people want optimism. They crave it, especially when a president is telling one half of the country that it is “time to eat your peas” while simultaneously encouraging another half to take to the streets and demand more dessert. “Where is our Ronald Reagan,” is a phrase that rises with alarming frequency, in some comboxes, and it always unsettles me to see it, because it seems so determinedly obtuse; if we can just find someone exactly like the president from thirty years ago, we will be alright. If only someone will smile and tell us it is morning in America, again, and the city has not slid down the hill!

There are probably ten thousand articles to be found on the Internet all fleshing out their theories of what is behind America’s swift collapse. Curiously, most of them will touch—all without realizing it—on the seven deadly sins; Capitalist Greed; Spiritual Sloth; Physical Lust; Nationalist/Military Pride; Consumer Gluttony; Partisan Wrath; Class Envy. Good arguments can be made blaming some are all of these sins for our current dire straits and for the sense that we are standing upon a precipice.

But I wonder if it is not the first and greatest sin named by Yahweh and given to Moses, that is most at fault: the sin of idolatry. We have loved ourselves so well; we have denied ourselves nothing and placed too much of what we love between ourselves and God; we have cherished mere things or other people; over-identified with ideas or ideologies and made an afterthought of God, who will not be mocked.

...

Contemplating the drop from our trembling heights is dizzying. We are safer on our knees. Even so, if we are going to survive what is before us, we’ll have to cast off our idols and cling to something else, without despair. And it will have to be something that can bear us up when all about us goes into collapse. Something like a rock; something that has managed to continue even as one government after another, one nation after another, one trend after another, has been swept away. Something that is promised to prevail.

Wise, very wise, words.

Heed them friend.

And all I can add is, Amen.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Anguish

From David Wilkerson

H/T Danielle

Fairy Tale Heaven

There are physical realities ... then there are spiritual realities. I am praying for Stephen Hawking today ... that he will come to the place where he can grasp how wide, deep, long, and high the Father's love is for His creation ... and His love for Stephen Hawking.

British scientist Stephen Hawking has branded heaven a "fairy story" for people afraid of the dark, in his latest dismissal of the concepts underpinning the world's religions.

The author of 1988 international best-seller "A Brief History of Time" said in an interview with The Guardian published on Monday that his views were partly influenced by his battle with motor neurone disease.

"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he told the newspaper.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

Hawking's stance on religion has hardened significantly in the nearly quarter century since the publication of his seminal work on the cosmos.

In "A Brief History of Time" he suggested that the idea of a divine being was not necessarily incompatible with a scientific understanding of the Universe.

But in his 2010 book "The Grand Design" he said a deity no longer has any place in theories on the creation of the universe in the light of a series of developments in physics....

Will you join me in prayer?

xtnyoda, shalomed

Hallelujah!

The question has been asked as to whether or not it is appropriate for there to be expressions of relief/gratitude/joy at the demise of one such as Osama bin Laden?

If we go to the scriptures we might find a clue about the answer to this question. I have listed below the first times that the "Hallulujah!" is used in both the Old and New Testaments. You will notice that in both instances it is the natural expression of praise to God ... for the destruction of the truly wicked ... from the hearts of His people.

First use in the Old Testament.

"May sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. My soul, praise the Lord! Hallelujah!"
Psalm 104:35

First use in the New Testament.

"After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying: Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, because His judgments are true and righteous, because He has judged the notorious prostitute who corrupted the earth with her sexual immorality; and He has avenged the blood of His servants that was on her hands. A second time they said: Hallelujah!"
Revelation 19:1-3

Friends ... there is not need for feelings of guilt for feeling joy/relief at hearing of the destruction of the wicked slayers of humanity. In the scripture the Hallelujah! was the heart felt praise to Almighty God ... over the bringing of His Righteous Justice ... to the enemies of virtue.

Osama bin Laden is dead.

Hallelujah!

xtnyoda, shalomed

It Is Not Winter Yet #3

This is the same arctic blast that swept across North America last week and earlier this week... and it's going to run it's course through Asia... then... will it revolve around again to North America?

Daily Star UK

FREEZING Britain will be buried by the worst ­blizzards in 100 years ­today.

Drifts of up to 6ft are expected as 60mph Arctic gales batter the country.

Motorists and train commuters have been warned to expect chaos while thousands of schools will shut early.

Millions of Christmas cards and presents will not arrive.

Forecasters have warned that the storms, which will drop a foot of snow in hours, will be even more serious than the notorious 1962-63 winter and the worst to hit Britain since 1927.

Giant drifts are set to close dozens of main roads. Scores of railway lines will be threatened with long delays and ­cancellations....

“The winds are expected to cause 6ft drifts in the north. Many roads will be closed, including A roads.”

Long-range forecaster Jonathan Powell, of Positive Weather Solutions, said the freeze could last until mid-February and the temperature this winter could plummet to a record low.

The Polar freeze is set to cost our economy £13.2billion by Christmas, wiping out 1% of the UK’s annual turnover, said loss experts RSA.

Retailers said the snowfalls could force some small firms to fold.

To add to the misery, petrol prices rose even higher, with an average litre of unleaded hitting a 122.14p.

And don't think for a minute that this is a local event... it's happening over the entire northern hemisphere... and the southern hemisphere as well... one might call it world wide in scope.

One might call these "weather events" epic.

One might even begin to believe that Yahweh is involved for some reason.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Following the Pied Piper

The fantasy world of entitlements, wealth redistribution, and benevolent government bureaucracy... is going to sink us... according to the chair of the FDIC... and the Bible.

"The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender."
Proverbs 22:7 (HCSB)

Once again the Word of God is being proven true... even in the case of economics.

CNBC

Next Debt Crisis May Start in Washington: Bair

The US needs to take urgent action to cut its debt in order to prevent the next financial crisis, which may start in Washington, Sheila Bair, chair of the Federal Deposits Insurance Corp. (FDIC) wrote in an editorial in the Washington Post.

The federal debt has doubled over the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion, and the growth is a result of both the financial crisis and the government's "unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit," Bair wrote.....

Now... just for fun... notice what CNBC elected to leave out of their quote from Chairman Bair's editorial in the Washington Post....

"Total federal debt has doubled in the past seven years, to almost $14 trillion. That's more than $100,000 for every American household. This explosive growth in federal borrowing is a result of not just the financial crisis but also government unwillingness over many years to make the hard choices necessary to rein in our long-term structural deficit."

Did you catch the staggering reality of the current $100,000 debt that EVER American household NOW is in DEBT because of government... folly? And political progressives want to give government even more control of business and the economy?

Go check your checkbook and see where your $100,000 dollars is to pay back our government debt. Most Americans in reality are now officially economic slaves to our nation's debt... at the hands of our government.

The Pied Piper has been very effective in America... and the world... and the hammer is preparing to fall.

xtnyoda, shalomed

The "progressives" are having a fit over Oklahomans passing a state law that outlaws the application of Sharia Islamic law in the state of Oklahoma.

The "progressives" want to paint all Oklahomans as hick idiots... even though it is the express intention of Islamists to institute Islam by implementing Sharia law in lands they are conquering... and instituting Sharia law is exactly their weapon of assault.

So... the "progressives" are claiming as idiots the very people who are trying to save their lives... because as soon as Sharia law is established the "progressives" would be the very first ones whose heads would be loped of by some Sharia court with the charge of being an infidel.

Think Progressive

Sharia Hysteria Comes To Oklahoma: Voters Approve Sharia Law Ban

Oklahoma became the first U.S. state to ban the non-existent threat of Sharia law yesterday. Nearly 70 percent of voters there approved ballot initiative “Question 755″ — or the “Save Our State” constitutional amendment — which bans Sharia from being considered in Oklahoma courts. The ballot states that Oklahoma courts must “rely on federal and state law when deciding cases” and forbids them from “considering or using international law” and “from considering or using Sharia Law.”

The measure’s sponsor, Republican state senator Rex Duncan, called the result a “preemptive strike” against local judges whom he thinks might be “legislating from the bench or using international law or Sharia law.” “The fact that Sharia law was even considered anywhere in the United States is enough for me,” said GOP state senator Anthony Sykes. “It should scare anyone that any judge in America would consider using that as precedent.” Sykes is referring to a case in New Jersey in which a local judge ruled against a woman seeking a retraining order against her husband because he had repeatedly raped her. The judge said the husband was abiding by Muslim beliefs, but the decision was later overturned by an appellate court.

One local Muslim leader called the measure a “scare tactic” while another, Saleem Quraishi, called the measure “fear mongering“:

“It’s just fear mongering; it’s nothing,” Quraishi told CNN. “What’s Sharia law have to do with Oklahoma?” [...]

Quraishi insists that Islam does not allow for men to mistreat women, and that the New Jersey case involved a “crazy, loony man, unfortunately a Muslim.” “That is not Islam,” he said. “Oklahoma, you know, is a very Republican state,” Quraishi said. He accused some lawmakers with attempting to instill fear in the heads of constituents in order to drum up votes. “But Oklahomans are not like that. I know most of the Oklahomans. They’re very nice people.”

Of course, in the quote above by Saleem Quraishi, stating that the law is crazy... with the additional threat of a law suit to repeal it in federal court.... Saleem... by his pitiful denial that there is a problem... acknowledges the problem... for if it wasn't his and Muslims intentions to conquer through Sharai law... then he shouldn't have a problem with the new law itself.

So... Saleem's "defense" is in and of itself an acknowledgment of guilt itself.

xtnyoda, shalomed

The euphoria of rescue

There's rich symbolism here, so rich:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Anchoress sums things up nicely:

And then, after a brief wait, the second miner emerges from the rescue capsule with great joy; he embraces his wife and then opens a bag to retrieve…gifts.

For others.

In the midst of all of this drama, all of the lights and excitement and concern, and at a moment when a man could reasonably be excused for thinking only of himself, Mario Sepulveda Espinace thought about others, and he brought them gifts.

Rocks? Rocks containing gold? It doesn’t matter. Mario Sepulveda Espinace crested the top of a hole from which he thought he might never escape, and his first instinct was to give. That’s a thing worth writing about, and thinking about and praying about. I wish I had a picture of that moment! How huge and resilient is the human spirit?

We were already witnessing something jaw-dropping and near-miraculous. And a man arose bearing gifts, and it got even better, for everyone in the world who was paying attention.

All the above courtesy of Brutally Honest.

It's only taken Fidel 51 years to figure this out...

...not bad for a communist dictator.

And to think... we had a delegation of US congress people down there last years acting like he was the stuff that legends are made of.

Yahoo report via AP

Report: Castro says Cuban model doesn't work (AP)

HAVANA – Fidel Castro told a visiting American journalist that Cuba's communist economic model doesn't work, a rare comment on domestic affairs from a man who has conspicuously steered clear of local issues since stepping down four years ago.

The fact that things are not working efficiently on this cash-strapped Caribbean island is hardly news. Fidel's brother Raul, the country's president, has said the same thing repeatedly. But the blunt assessment by the father of Cuba's 1959 revolution is sure to raise eyebrows.

Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for The Atlantic magazine, asked if Cuba's economic system was still worth exporting to other countries, and Castro replied: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore"....

Let's see now... who is it in America that desires to give the government more and more control of our lives and economics? Do you think it will take us 50 years to figure this one out?

Consider and ponder.

xynyoda, shalomed

Security in my days

Hezekiah... boasting to his enemy of his and his nations great wealth... in fact laid the marker for his nation's defeat... and his children's.

Hezekiah's response? Read it and see if it sounds familiar.

"Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good." For he thought, "There will be peace and security in my days."
Isaiah 39:5-8 (ESV)

This is so much like reading today's political news... "We are rich! We can do what we want! We have so much money that we can invent money! (And our children will pay the price... just so we can live the good life today.)

This is the stimulus.

This is madness.

This is a failing society.

We must be prepared to pick up the pieces.

xtnyoda, shalomed

Coming Climate Disaster

Please... prepare for the coming winter.

Nature News report

Cold empties Bolivian rivers of fish... Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon.

With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere's recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country's tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins.

Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known, and, as an example of a sudden climatic change wreaking havoc on wildlife, it is unprecedented in recorded history....

The entire Southern Hemisphere is experiencing a devastating and brutal winter.

It is coming to the Northern Hemisphere in a couple of months.

Yahweh will not have man boasting that man can control the earth nor her climate.

xtnyoda, shalomed

The growing understanding... desperately needed understanding... we have until a child is about 5 years old... to reach them.

Live Science study
Personality Set for Life By 1st Grade, Study Suggests

Our personalities stay pretty much the same throughout our lives, from our early childhood years to after we're over the hill, according to a new study. The results show personality traits observed in children as young as first graders are a strong predictor of adult behavior.

"We remain recognizably the same person," said study author Christopher Nave, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Riverside. "This speaks to the importance of understanding personality because it does follow us wherever we go across time and contexts."...

Tracking personalities

Using data from a 1960s study of approximately 2,400 ethnically diverse schoolchildren (grades 1 – 6) in Hawaii, researchers compared teacher personality ratings of the students with videotaped interviews of 144 of those individuals 40 years later.

They examined four personality attributes — talkativeness (called verbal fluency), adaptability (cope well with new situations), impulsiveness and self-minimizing behavior (essentially being humble to the point of minimizing one's importance).

Among the findings:

Talkative youngsters tended to show interest in intellectual matters, speak fluently, try to control situations, and exhibit a high degree of intelligence as adults. Children who rated low in verbal fluency were observed as adults to seek advice, give up when faced with obstacles, and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Children rated as highly adaptable tended, as middle-age adults, to behave cheerfully, speak fluently and show interest in intellectual matters. Those who rated low in adaptability as children were observed as adults to say negative things about themselves, seek advice and exhibit an awkward interpersonal style.

Students rated as impulsive were inclined to speak loudly, display a wide range of interests and be talkative as adults. Less impulsive kids tended to be fearful or timid, kept others at a distance and expressed insecurity as adults.

Children characterized as self-minimizing were likely to express guilt, seek reassurance, say negative things about themselves and express insecurity as adults. Those who were ranked low on a self-minimizing scale tended to speak loudly, show interest in intellectual matters and exhibit condescending behavior as adults.

Changing personality

Previous research has suggested that while our personalities can change, it's not an easy undertaking.

Personality is "a part of us, a part of our biology," Nave said. "Life events still influence our behaviors, yet we must acknowledge the power of personality in understanding future behavior as well."

Future research will "help us understand how personality is related to behavior as well as examine the extent to which we may be able to change our personality," Nave said.

And as the line from the study said... after their "personalities" are formed there is little chance of the child ever changing... ever.

God... have mercy.

xtnyoda, shalomed