VBC-Apologetics

Luke's writings aren't good enough to be lies. Don't get me wrong: He was a great historian and rhetorician. His writings are either the most excellent or the awfulest (Sorry, couldn't resist the pun). But he missed so many chances to gild the lily. Take Acts 14:19-20. Paul is stoned outside Derbe, and his attackers suppose that he is dead. The elders of the local assembly gather around him, and pray over him, and he gets up and goes back into the town. The way to write, this, if you want to make propaganda for a new religion, would be to put flowery words in the mouths of his attackers: Behold, infidel, we slay thee for thy blasphemy! Then the elders should say flowery words over Paul's body - maybe a big prayer, declaring that by God's power, Paul will rise from the dead and show them all the truth - Then Paul leaps to his feet, sparks shoot from his eyes, and he strikes the attackers with lightning bolts. But no, Luke soft-pedals it. They merely suppose Paul to be dead - Maybe he isn't. And the attackers are all allowed to walk away before Paul gets back up. When he does, there's no confrontation, no Told-Ya-So, no triumph. He just goes back to town. Or take Acts 25:19, where Porcius Festus is explaining to Herod Agrippa II about a prisoner left over from his predecessor, Antonius Felix. Festus merely says, "It has something to do with Jewish laws, and with some man named Jesus, who died, but whom Paul asserts to be alive." That's the Christian gospel, but it's told like it's hard to understand. If he were writing propaganda, Luke should be selling this bit - See, even Festus got it: "Paul started a riot over whether people could be raised from the dead, and he preached that Jesus, that blaspher Pilate crucified, was the Son of God and Rose from the dead!" Then, by the end of chapter 26, Festus should be frightened, realizing the Apostolic Authority of Paul, servant of the Most High God... But instead Festus is calling Paul a madman, and Agrippa is sarcastically offering to convert... It's almost like Luke wasn't planning it very well... Like he was just writing what happened, and not what could have happened. Like he was telling the truth or something...

"Is the universe one thing, or many things? Can I ever eat the same food twice?"

If you were really angry about a snowstorm would you be flurryous?

Does anyone know how to adjust the time on a cat?

I am given to understand that a certain university has a club for enthusiasts of remote unmanned flying devices. They call it the "Drone Club." It consists of nerdy unmarried young men.

An open note to "Melody" (not her name) Sweet, girl, your life isn't working. You know that best of all. It's mostly not your fault. Clinicians say, "If your life isn't working, change something." But it's not always obvious how to change. Many people change by 12-stepping. It works like this: 1. Admit your life is broken. 2. Admit that you are powerless to fix your life. 3. Call upon the Only Higher Power, Jesus Christ, to fix your life for you. Commit yourself to Him. 4. Make an honest inventory of your faults and the broken things in your life. 5. Admit these to Jesus, and to at least one living human. 6. Be ready to let Jesus fix your broken life. 7. Humbly ask Jesus to fix your faults. 8. Make a list of people you've hurt, and be ready to make amends to each of them. 9. So far as you can, without hurting others, set right what you've done wrong. 10. Continue inventorying your faults, and make amends when you become aware of them. 11. Through prayer and contemplation, seek the will of God for your life, and the courage to carry it out. 12. Having found through Jesus the power to change your life, share Him with others, encouraging them to follow these steps. Sweet "Melody," I will pray that God will heal the broken things in your life - in your body, in your family, and in the social circumstances you find around you. God bless you and keep you.

Trunk or treat, over 800 guests. One man made a point of telling me that a book we gave him at our August backpack giveaway blessed him and revived his hope during an extended spell of unemployment. God answered his prayer. God is on the move. Aslan may have already landed.

Estoi El Catrin.

Today a Coworker asked me about the Ottoman Empire. I got to explain how living room furniture rose up against the Byzantine empire and tried to conquer the world, until we defeated them in WW1 and now their best soldiers serve as our footstools. She isn't talking to me now.

A TV is running in another room, for *reasons.* I keep hearing ads about how many animals will go hungry this season, and that we can do something about it. Apparently we're supposed to slather ourselves with gravy and go for a walk in the woods.

Vote for Steve Hilton. @SteveHiltonx Save $150/vehicle. No brainer.

Yesterday I had occasion to play Old Maid and Go Fish with a 7yo and a 12yo. Today, their mother has apparently been hearing "Why, as a matter of fact I do have a shark" on non-stop repeat. Muhahahaha.

Only a fool sends his dog to the corner store for a pack of cigarettes.