So, in case I forgot to mention it, today I am having surgery on my left thumb for a "trigger thumb".  Minor outpatient, local numbing is all.  I will be leaving here in about half an hour to head on into Raleigh with my daughter.  Surgery is scheduled for between 8:30 and 8:45 am.   I should be home by 11 or noon.  A little prayer from y'all jic it is needed.

As a protest to the death, destruction and corruption that the United States leaves in it's wake around the world and in opposition the continuance of Empire. With antipathy to the corruption and moral decay created by the unwinnable prohibitionist war on drugs. A war which condemns generations of poor people to an endless cycle of crime and punishment, hopelessness and despair. As a stand against a growing Police State that targets anyone with the temerity to expose government abuse of power. And, as a middle finger to the Elites who direct the whole cesspool of deception. I have purchased a Nazi swastika t shirt.
  Now, I'm trying to come up with the shortest motto, that sums up the above disgustations.
  Suggestions, please?!. So far I have "Police" upper rocker above the swastika & "State"  below . Maybe American Reich.  It has to be succinct. I need it to represent where the country is going and my intent is to use a symbol considered the ultimate evil to highlight the evils of our present age. I believe the perpetrators of white supremacy to be total losers, perhaps beyond redemption. Cultural differences exists between different ethnicities but, not one is in anyway superior to the others. Racial identification is natural. We were designed to be different.
  I believe our covenant transcends race and is inclusive to all God's elect. God calls into RF whoever He chooses. Upon embracing our covenant, race is relegated to insignificance.
 I've seen Che Guevara, Marx, Lenin, Mao, Ho Chi Minh and even Stalin pictured on posters, buttons, pins and shirts with images of these mass murderers and no one bats an eye. The commies death counts dwarf the Nazis. Yet, Hitler's somehow worse. Stalin killed 10 times the amount and he's "Uncle Joe" Chairman Mao is the geatest mass in history and he's the smiling face Communism. History is written by the victors.

Let's set the general scene of what the Hebrews were up against. The Ancient Near East was polytheistic. There were gods aplenty being thrown about. Small tribes tended to follow one god, or sometimes a few more. Those living in more cosmopolitan areas could essentially have their pick of gods, though that depended on who the ruling authority preferred or decreed. We see this in action in Daniel: Nebuchadnezzar actually praised the Hebrew god after the furnace episode, and passed an anti-blasphemy law, punishable by death. Clearly he considered Yahweh powerful, but Nebuchadnezzar merely just added Him to the already-existing Babylonian pantheon of gods.

The category of what a god was, was very broad (even the Hebrews had a general term for supernatural beings). Most of gods amounted to nothing more than mischievous superhumans, living in the supernatural domain, sometimes crossing over into the physical domain in the form of great and powerful. These gods had varying powers and authority over aspects of life and the universe, and were considered caretakers and dispensers of the thing they governed; the sense of the feudal nature of reality was strong not just with the Hebrews, as pagans knew that a person--a god--had to be plied for good fortune.

The Hebrew God was always set against the other pagan gods, but it wasn't so much that pagans believed, or had "head knowledge" that other gods existed. The real issue was the practice of putting one's self under authority of these gods*. Scanning through the Old Testament stories of confrontation between Yahweh and these other deities, there's no indication that the Hebrews on Yahweh's side believed those other gods didn't exist. Again, that wasn't the issue. Henotheism** may be a legitimate meta-belief.

We should notice, too, that those Old Testament figures didn't have reasoned debates over who's god was more real. Instead, there was what amounted to a significant show of force. There were probably many reasons for this, like the intellectual presumptions of the area didn't consider "reason" to be relevant in this case. But not the least of these reasons was the nature of the heart and the mind. The intellect was irrelevant in this matter, so reorienting one's acknowledgements of "the facts" wouldn't change much if their heart's orientation isn't pointed at Yahweh. One would simply find other gods to place in authority. We see this in the modern western world, easily. Our pagan gods are the basic expressions of materialism: money, status, authority, sex, romantic love, science and technology, "living a good life." All of these existed prior to the modern age, certainly, but removing the head belief of the pagan gods, who governed these material aspects, simply shifted the focus to the things themselves.

Correct the heart, and the mind necessarily follows. That's the blueprint laid out for us. Going about our faith with this heart vs. mind relationship reversed means your head is currently winning the war.

* There's a theory I've heard a few times in the past that the pagan gods were actually demons who badly desired God's authority, and the only way they could attain it is through this kind of mass deception. While I don't necessarily believe this, it's a better explanation than some.

** I really mean here "monolatry," but within the context of what happened in the Old Testament, "henotheism" is a better fit for the discussion. Also, as a annotation, we do not support RationalWiki's overall rejection of the supernatural, but oftentimes their articles are excellent exposition.

Good morning Roofies,...that's not cool Dude,...OK, okay, just stop poking me!  Dude, just because you feel like a drowsy manikin in the morning doesn't mean you can thrash on date rape victims. Whoa, I was thinking about feeling hypnotized, man, you know. KNOCK IT OFF KNUCKLEHEADS! You> Hippie! Go to your room! and...sighs...Gen X stoner, you are an irritating git! You don't even give a crap, what were you thinking? Now we're gonna be hearin' Mr Bleedinghart all day "we changed the woorld, man".
Sorry for the interruption. I did not authorize either of those people to speak for me. I am the Alpha of this conglomeration; sometimes when I wake up sleepier than I went to bed, the Betas see an opportunity and rush in and they have to be suppressed by pelting them with eggs. More on this in two shortlys.
  First: It ain't morning no more so, happy Jesus Day! I think all of us here celebrate Jesus Day every day so, I guess it should be, He's Alive Day. Resurrection Day is Easter. I don't like the name Sunday, it's origins are pagan pretty much everwhur. So, I chunk a multitude of blessings on all who read this.

No, I don't have multiple personalities. I have multiple characters, it makes talking to myself fun and I do it in public so I do catch people look at me like I'm insane. That is their problem, I can't do anything about the fact that 90% of people are sheep, unimaginative dullards who anxiously await the next new in "thing" so they can go into debt just to say "me too".
 NO SIR Not me..."roll music...and Action! "   
   "Climb every mountain..." 
    no I'm meant "...every stream...
    " For Far Greater Things " ...every rainbow.. 
    " Yes! I am "..find Your Dreeeeeam!!" 
     Destined for GREATNESS! ...deafening silence ...
    "Oh..okay, well them um..I'm going..over..here now..bye"

A little Kingdom business here: To boil it down, Tom is in a situation where he simply does not have the leverage to make things go the way his convictions demand. This stuff does happen, and all the faith and red-pill stuff in the world won't change a spouse who rejects God's way. What this means is that God Himself will have to intervene, and that in turn means it will be pretty rough on everyone.

Pray that Tom is able to rest in the Lord and build up his faith for that coming day of sorrow. He will need to respond with authority and moral clarity, and it will not be a situation anyone will envy.

Just a reminder that we are participating in our weekly corporate prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own. 

As a special note, check your PM inbox here. Forrealone has sent a message to some of us with a prayer request.

The first time I really became aware that there was more to the heart than what I was being told was trying to figure out 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Later in the same chapter verse 21 says "Prove all things..." KJV or " but test everything..." ESV. So, I kicked verse 17 around for a long time, I'd go off somewhere else but, kept coming back to it. If you're a Westerner, you think it means on your knees 24/7. Little things like Paul's admonishment at the end of a letter carry weight because  ALL scripture is equally important. Somewhere along the line, I thought maybe it happened subconsciously but, upon reflection that didn't work because subconsciously I was thinking of new technicalities to excuse my sin. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that the Spirit resided in my heart so, that had to be where continuous prayer was happening. This in itself poses problems for a Western "mind". I had the benefit of not being entirely rational or particularly logical so, I lived with it. But unbeknownst to me I had opened one of those gag cans full of snakes, that is a better image than a can of worms.
   Worms taste like dirt, by the way so, now you won't live the rest of your lives thinking "I wonder what a worm tastes like". Guess what those big wood grubs tastes like...you guessed it WOOD! I learned that when I was younger, in my outdoor mountain man survival weekends. Like I've alluded to before, I have a strategy in place for every Apocalypse scenario.
   I'm glad for those snakes and the journey continues.

I went to buy some oil line last night after dropping my dotter of for some "thing" at the HS. Advance auto parts was empty so, as is my want, I engaged in conversation with the young guys working. In the course of said conversation, I inquired as to whether they were hiring. Yes, they are looking for a delivery driver. I'm going there in the morning. So maybe this is it. Pray!

You can buy a push button fart noise gag toy but not one that does the comedy one liner snare drum roll & cymbol crash. The "pirrrrrrit ching" so, I have to make one. I probably have the parts laying around in my tool (throw in devoid of order) boxes. Chevy truck cab & bed, Ford Explorer, retail store drink refrigerator and pallets covered in tarps. I have many junk. I know I could probably do it with a smart phone but, I don't have a cellphone period.!. It is essential, no... important, no... not really but, it would be fun to use in my ministry. My choke point is the effect generator, I can wire and fab the rest using my aforementioned junk. Great word, aforementioned, yep I try to use aforementioned whenever possible such is the case in my aforementioned use of aforementioned. ENOUGH!!! No, unseriously serious any help as to how I could make the aforementioned "pirrrrrrrit ching" generator would be, as not aforementioned, greatly appreciated. Man, I'm gonna be fixated on aforementioned all day!!! Love and Shalom Y'all.

Something came to me, I'm posting this to insure I'll follow up. I keep quiet about some things but, I can't with this. No one pays attention to what one nobody says so, anyway, whatever. I gotta go clean house or I'll catch a dose of Rumpus Kicktus.