Sin is simple disobedience to God’s commands.  Sin is wanting what we want and telling God we don’t care why He told us not to, we’re gonna have what we want.  Sin is always saying, “Screw you God!” Many people are angry with God just because He calls something we want sin.

Angry at God…

I get angry with God sometimes.  I tithe, I donate to the poor, to different organizations etc. and I think God could give me enough money to cover new bills or keep things from falling apart on a regular basis that keeps me from from breaking even every time I’m just about there.  That’s okay…until I get jealous of the money my friends make.  Or how unfair I think it is that some “raging sinner” celebrity makes boat loads of money, often for crap work.  When I get covetous I’m sinning and I’m that same sinner as the anti-God celeb., the murderer and the adulterer, and on.

Many people I know or read about are very angry with God, mostly because of how people who claim to know God behave.

I’ve said I understand how many “Liberals” feel and I was told I don’t and that I generalize entire groups of people. But I still contend that I get why some woman would want an abortion, or why gay people want to get married or how anti-gun people think guns are more the problem than the people that use them illegally.

I get it but I don’t agree with the reasoning.  Gay marriage is the biggest issue right now, one that I feel I hear about every day; news, radio, Facebook, twitter, etc.  I hear it from people that HATE hate and cannot tolerate the intolerant.  I still don’t get how that works.  Chic-Fil-A owner says he believes in traditional marriage and instantly a firestorm of intolerance breaks out against him.  Those that support his views (like me) are called hateful.  If we say the Bible says homosexuality is a sin we’re told that is our “interpretation” and “if” that is what God means then God is hateful as well.

I get frustrated by all the hate from people that hate hate.  We’re told not to bully, we’re asked to be loving and to accept all beliefs, but my belief is not accepted, often not loved and Christians in the USA are often bullied for expressing their views.

I would like to see some Biblical scripture from those Christians that say I’m “interpreting” the Bible wrong to believe that God calls homosexuality sin.  Non-Christians usually point out other verses that are supposed to support their view that the God of the Bible is filled with rage and hate, but they won’t stay in a discussion long enough to consider the context, original language, culture or other scriptures that oppose their angry view.

A person I’m close to and love believes God is being unfair to homosexuals by calling their sexual relations sin.  This person believes almost all other sins named in the Bible are sins, but is frustrated by that particular one.

I actually think it’s very simple to understand and that is to admit I don’t understand it.  What I mean is, there are many laws in the Old Testament I don’t understand.  A few years ago it was vogue in Christian writing to come up with all these real life consequences to sin.  Eating pig back in the day could lead to certain diseases, “so that’s why God told the Jews not to eat pig”.  So bogus. (I was a teen in the 80s, that’s how I talk). People eat pig all the time and couldn’t care less that pigs eat maggots, urine, rotted food, etc.  And for the most part it doesn’t affect us physically.  God did not call eating pig sin because there MIGHT be some sickness that COULD come along to SOME of the people that ate it.  He wanted His people separate from the other nations, so He came up with laws and defined sins and told His people to obey Him for their own good, meaning He would bless them and that’s good.  Why He made the eating of pig a sin, I don’t know, but He did.  Thankfully for America Peter was given a vision where God told him we could eat it, the law had been fulfilled in Jesus, so our response to the laws could be different.  

Some laws we didn’t need to obey anymore, but other we do.  One could say it’s all a matter of interpretation, but I think that’s a lazy cop out.

2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

When we think about sin in the “you’re gonna pay for that” way, we can get confused.  There’s the obvious consequences of adultery; it destroys relationships, but that’s only IF that adultery is found out.  Is it sin if no one knows? Yes! God calls it sin, even if the only people that know are the adulterers and even if they’re “in love” and have very good reasons for not wanting to get divorced.  Even if no-one on earth is ever hurt by their sinful relationship, it’s sin because God calls it sin.

There could be some connections to some laws and earthly, real time consequences, but the Bible repeatedly makes that point that sin is rebellion to God, not to other people.  Many people today eat pigs, have lobster, have pre-marital sex, lie, cheat, steal and often get away with all of it without any consequences….here on earth.  The real consequence is our relationship with God.  So it comes back to my first statement, Sin is simple disobedience to God’s commands.  Sin is wanting what we want and telling God we don’t care why He told us not to, we’re gonna have what we want.  Sin is always saying, “Screw you God!”

So gay people and their supporters want to the definition of marriage changed because they not interested in how the Bible defines marriage.  Supporters either say the Bible is being misinterpreted of if it does say that then God is hateful.  The problem is that the concept of the entire Bible is to show God’s LOVE for us despite our constant rebellion.  The hundreds of passages about His LOVE, His GRACE and His Mercy are ignored because if we can’t have what we want, or we don’t clearly understand why we can’t have what we want, then we don’t care what God says.  Or we’ll just “re-interpret” what He says, OR “let’s just talk about something else.”

Someone asked me, “What are gay people supposed to do then?!  Just not have sex?!”  Well, believe it or not that is possible, and one won’t even die from it.  I believe if a person truly desires God and gives their life to Christ and prays for the strength of the Holy Spirit, there’s MANY things we can live without.  We can deal with any situation.  For thousands of years many Christians just wanted to live peaceful lives and raise a nice family, instead they were tortured, their family enslaved and other family members killed.  One could point to that and say’ That’s a cruel God you have” (and they do) BUT there’s lack of understanding that God’s love and mercy and grace may not be seen here during our measly few years on earth.

We are not given life here to make us happy, we’re given lives here to make us HOLY for the eternity coming.

Ephesians 2:1-10

English Standard Version (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body^[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.^[b] 4 But^[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

jimllpaintit:

Dear Jim,

Please paint me Timothy Dalton having an intense arm wrestling match at Stonehenge with Oprah Winfrey as William Shatner force feeds her Spandeu Ballet cassette tapes. Also Tupac Shakur is fly tipping his knackered hot point washing machine from his rusted out blue Ford transit.

Thanks,

Chris

A friend of mine posted a comment on Facebook regarding the assault weapons ban and that lack of clarity on the universal background check.Part of his comment was that he thinks the assault weapons ban will ”be seen as a magic pill that solves the issue”.

 I don’t believe anyone in congress actually believes the ban will have any impact whatsoever on shooting deaths.  It is fully known and understood that an assault weapon is a hunting rifle with a different style hand guard and stock, nothing more.  Hand guns are also fully known to be used in far more shooting deaths but there is yet little talk of banning the handgun though it is far more dangerous and in fact what was used at Sandy Hook, where the “assault” rifle was found in Lanza’s trunk, unused.

Based on the facts surrounding mass shootings and the complete lack of clarity on background checks or ignoring data about hand guns we should all understand that addressing the problem of mass shooting is not the actual goal.  Since the mental health angle is being treated vaguely or not at all, the root cause of these senseless murders is not at issue either.  

Was an “assault weapon” used at Columbine.  If one were to use the media definition of an assault weapon (black, military appearance) then “Yes.” The fact is that one used a Tec-9 pistol and the other used a shotgun.  The Aurora shooter used a shotgun, a M&P 15 (military style, aka assault weapon) and 2 Glock handguns.  The M&P jammed, thanks to the shooter trying to use a high capacity magazine.  Military personnel, like me, know that high capacity magazines aren’t a real issue b/c they jam.  This is a good thing for victims.  Reducing the magazine capacity is a backwards approach IF the goal were really protecting victims.

Adam Lanza’s shooting at Sandy Hook was the final straw that pushed the assault weapons ban back to the forefront of the nation’s priorities, with good reason.  However, the assault weapons ban has nothing to do with the elementary school shooting because Lanza used handguns, the rifle was later found, unused, in the trunk of the car he drove there.  The background check that has been celebrated was already working in Lanza’s case as he was denied a weapons purchase.  Lanza used handguns, as did Nidal Hasan at the Ft. Hood shooting.

I believe the only logical conclusion one can come to given the evidence is that the assault weapons ban and the vague universal background check are not for protection of potential future victims but the first steps in the erosion of the rights of citizens.  By pushing bills into laws that do not address the problem or use available data then the administration is simply laying the ground work for a much wider ban because if one can successfully ban something that not actually at issue, then banning something that IS an issue (ie, handguns) will be much simpler.  If the government can deny an average citizen the ability to purchase an “assault weapon” based on the weapons style or deny them purchase based on vague mental health considerations the process of removing the rights of citizens to arm themselves will be a very simple matter.  A situation that once again has little to do with protecting the people of this country.

txchnologist:

by Matthew Van Dusen

Paleofuture blogger Matt Novak’s South by Southwest March 11 talk on the Edison versus Tesla debate and myth of the lone inventor went electric when web comic artist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal, whose Tesla comic spurred the debate,…

comicbookcovers:

Action Comics #95, April 1946, cover by Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye

austinabbott:

My Family

That’s my boy…

I’m in Arizona for work, but I came in a few days early to visit friends.  This morning I headed to Denny’s, believing they have moved beyond their problems of a decade ago, but I was still thinking about it. (Google it).

Across from Denny’s was a Golden Corral all you can eat breakfast buffet.  They had breakfast items in excess, along with pizza, meatloaf, salads, and even an open dessert bar.  All you can eat was no empty promise at this place!  I had steak and scrambled eggs, a couple of blueberry pancakes and more steak and more eggs and a couple more pancakes and COFFEE by the bucket.

Then, as I sat back in pain from overeating, I thought how there’s literally millions of kids in the US alone that go to bed hungry and wake up hungrier.  I’m not too far form Mexico and that’s even more true there, along with a drug culture of death and mayhem.

The world is out of balance.  Jesus said that we are to feed the hungry, visit the window and orphan and so much more.  I need to do more and by more right now I could do anything and it would be more…but it has to be a commitment and consistent. 

Everyone should experience the feeling of being too full from too much good food.  Here’s to working towards making sure at least some people in my sphere of influence discover that feeling…

Robert De Niro’s 1970 Rare Car Commercial (AFI) (by Don Emiliano)

Look who’s having an eighties flashback…