http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/ powered by: ComeupHither.com en-us http://comeuphither.com/images/logo.gif http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/ The Calvinist Corner 88 31 http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=257 In her brief time in the national spotlight, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, if nothing else, has rejuvenated the debate in this country regarding certain fundamental values. Interestingly, not all of this stems directly from the candidate's spoken statements but rather from a number of comments made about her by her Democratic counterpart Senator Joseph Biden.

From comments made on Fox and Friends mentioned in an Associated Press article titled “Biden says Palin family is off limits to critics”, voters learn that, to the Delaware Senator, government and politics are the ultimate and perhaps only source of values, truth, and hope.

In analyzing Palin’s acceptance speech, Biden remarked, “I didn’t hear the phrase ‘middle class’ mentioned. I didn’t hear a word about healthcare. I didn’t hear a word about what we’re going to do about the housing crisis, college education, and all the things that the middle class is being burdened by now.” Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:05:48 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=256 Charged with relaying the truth of God as revealed through Holy Scripture and rationally applied to more contemporary specific situations through theology, ministers face the unique challenge of uplifting those aspects of culture and society that are in accord with what the Lord intended for mankind while
admonishing or criticizing those aspects of human institutions and individual behavior that fall short.  As fallen beings themselves stained by the same sin nature plaguing each and every one of us, it can be easy for those aspiring for
recognition as mouthpieces of the divine to substitute their own agendas and predilections as God’s own clearly defined will.  That is why it is imperative for believers making up these respective congregations --- whether they be sitting in a traditional pew, listening over the airwaves, or even reading a book --- to do their duty not only as Bereans but also as the sons of Issachar by examining the ideas espoused, the implications of these ideas upon the future, and the underlying worldview of the individual expositing them.

Sometimes, our closeness to an individual prevents us from seeing an individual as they truly are.  Usually, this causes us to gloss over the faults of our loved ones to remember them in a light probably a bit better than they really were as love covers over a multitude of sins.

However, the very opposite can also take place if something causes a relationship to become strained and if we are not careful the minor faults we all struggle with can cause us to look back upon those we were once fond of in an almost criminal light.  This may be the perceptual trap Frank Schaeffer, son of the late apologist Francis Schaeffer, has fallen into when he claims his own father was worse than Barack Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright according to a
March 21, 2008 WorldNetDaily.com article titled “Francis Schaeffer’s Son: ‘Dad worse than Obama’s pastor’.” Sat, 17 May 2008 07:41:19 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=255 At one point in her career, Oprah Winfrey  was pretty much seen as a harmless crank as to the casual viewer catching the show in passing assumed that the program dealt primarily with her seesawing weight and whether or not her shack up might secretly prefer to be paid in three dollar bills.  However, as she has amassed considerable power and influence during her 20 plus years in the public limelight, this broadcaster is no longer an innocent afternoon distraction filling the time between when one arrives home from work and when dinner is set on the table but rather has intentionally set out to subvert American culture and the spiritual well being of the nation.

Not content with the worlds of television, publishing and politics now that she has taken an interest in Barack Obama only because he happens to be Black, Winfrey has now set out to establish her web presence as well.  According to the March 3, 2008 edition of USA Today in an article titled “World Is Oprah’s Classroom”, Winfrey plans to lead an online interactive book discussion. Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:32:41 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=254 Just because some white liberals are going out of their way to vote for Barack Obama for no other reason than that he happens to be half-black, some within the Evangelical leadership are once again beating on their drums about congregations being too split along racial and ethnic lines.

However, it they are the ones noticing this, isn't that proof that those patting themselves on the back for their embrace of racial diversity are in fact the ones looking at the color of skin rather than the content of character?

So long as a church sticks to Bible basics and welcomes those showing up at the front door, what does it really matter if a particular congregation appeals more to a particular group of people? Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:08:13 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=253 <p><b>LUKE 14:26-32 Discipleship It's not about hate, but learning to love.</b></p>
<p>The importance of having strong commitments to family, friends and others can not be made more clear than in <b>Luke 14:26-32</b>. This is a lesson and a warning by Jesus, where he tells people who his disciples are and should be, and what will be the result and danger of becoming a person greedy of religion.
Giving up money is not a problem, but giving up family and love ones - that is different.</p>
<p>If you read the <b>"whole"</b> chapter (<b>Luke 14</b>) you will have a better understanding of the whole verse.</p>
<p>I do like this chapter because of its intelligence to show a problem, and tell us who are the ones that are in real need of help. Not surprisingly they are the ones that are further from him and are in need of his assistance. </p>
<p><b>Who needs his (Jesus) teachings? </b></p>
<p>Certainly not the one that has and know everything. The ones that really needs him are the ones that have broken relationships, have hate or pain and are in desperately need of his teachings - they are his disciples!.</p> Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:51:45 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=252 One of mankind's fondest dreams is no doubt to live upon this earth in vitality and youth beyond the paltry 75 to 90-odd years the healthiest among us get to enjoy. As such, one of contemporary fantasy's most compelling franchises has had to have been Highlander. The protagonist is himself immortal and gets to live indefinitely provided his head is not lopped by a fellow Immortal as these are destined to battle until there is a sole survivor among them as the catch phrase reminds the viewer "In the end there can be only one." Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:33:39 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=251 Americans might be interested to know that to cross the Canadian border that the U.S. government will require them to be carrying a passport even if they have other legitimate forms of identification. However, most recall precious little is being done to stop the flow over our own borders of those with no proper reason to be here with no intentions of leaving.

Taken together, this dichotomy proves that the Orwellian notions of border security bandied about in the media and public policy circles have little to do with protecting the United States but are about controlling the American people.

These contradictions and inconsistencies not only have unsettling implications for the present but also even more startling consequences for the future. Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:10:14 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=250 Over the course of the past decade or so, leftist malcontents have set their ideological sites against Christmas no doubt as the holiday points to the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ who can often help or motivate the individual to work through many of their own problems without an over reliance on government aide and because many of the celebrations if not taken to extremes provide the individual with a sense of well being that undermines liberalism's basic assumption that things are so miserable that the only hope of fixing them is handing control over to a state imbued with almost God-like powers.

Initially, many of these challenges and objections were couched in terms of the canard of the Separation of Church and State and all that other pluralistic mumbo jumbo about not offending other cultures even though the rest of us have
the other cultures jammed down our throats the rest of the year to the point where if anyone objects to allowing hordes of radical Muslims or swarms of illegal aliens to settle here without question now you the one likely to be labeled a troublemaker or a threat to national security. Thu, 27 Dec 2007 05:23:20 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=249 In Matthew 10:16, Christians are admonished to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves.  Often though, Christian organizations and ministries are the ones at the forefront of propagating the expectation in the mind of their respective supporters that sincere believers are --- in the words of the Washington Post --- to be uneducated and easy to command.

The Angel Tree Project is a program administered by Prison Fellowship Ministries where Christmas gifts are provided to the children of the incarcerated on behalf of their parents.  While there is nothing wrong per say with such acts of charity even though Prison Fellowship mouthpieces such as Chuck Colson get heavy-handed at times that it is somehow the fault of the average American that these misunderstood souls are behind bars and that these convicts are the 21st century equivalent of Rousseau’s noble savage or somehow on par with Mother Teresa in terms of moral goodness as derailed in my column “A Big Helping Of Christmas Guilt” published in 2003, one way in which this charitable outreach markets itself to the broader Christian community might make some of Colson’s fellow Watergate conspirators blush  in terms of its duplicity and slight of hand.

One of the techniques organizations across the religious and political spectrum use to get the unsuspecting and gullible to part with their hard earned money is direct mail fundraising where pity party letters are sent out laying the guilt on recipients that somehow if they do not respond with the requested contribution that the world is somehow going to come to an end.  With such melodrama, the least one could ask for is at least a little consistency. Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:47:58 UT http://fotografia.comeuphither.com/article.php?sid=248 As the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell at one time (whether deservedly or not) had a reputation as a voice of sober realism in the arena of American foreign policy.  However, as he ages and heads into his sunset years, he is so increasingly muttering to himself about assorted forms of appeasement that he is coming to remind the citizen cognizant of the efforts to undermine this great nation more of Neville Chamberlain than as a soldier the statesman most perceived him to be throughout the early 90’s.



During the 1930’s, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed a pact with Adolf Hitler granting the German tyrant Czechoslovakia as part of what Nazi doctrine referred to as Lebensarum or “Living Space”.  For his part of this deal, Chamberlain has from that point forward pretty much been branded a coward  for thinking such a policy would appease aspiring despots and those out to undermine individual liberty.



As disappointing as he was, at least it was some lesser power’s real estate Chamberlain was giving away.  For today, his globalist descendants are such proponents of policide that they are no longer content to carve up the helpless corners of the earth but rather long to dismantle the strong nation-states in
which they themselves reside in the hopes of accruing more power into their own hands and control over the lives of those under them. Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:25:52 UT