Month: March 2005

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High Oil Prices and the Economy

How do high oil prices impact you? Sure, we all pay more for gas at the pump, but what about other ways? We haven't seen Wal-Mart raise prices yet, airlines are having price wars in some markets, and food still doesn't cost more; however, that could all be changing soon. As the price of oil rises, expect the price of everything to rise. How do you think Wal-Mart gets everything to its stores? Trucks. What is the largest sigle expense an airline has) besides labor? Fuel. How much gasoline and diesel fuel do farmers go through? Tons. It is only a short time before oil and energy prices start to impact costs in other areas. That is what this article is talking about:

Christie Baker, owner of Flowers on the Green, recently had to hike the cost of a delivery in Guilford, Conn., from $6 to $8 to make up for the higher cost of gas. In La Jolla, Calif., Domino's just increased the amount it pays delivery drivers by a nickel a trip: They now get 95 cents to transport a large pepperoni…. And at Meyers Moving & Storage in New York City, they're now charging $15 more an hour to move from an apartment on the East Side to the West.

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The Bulang

I was surfing on the internet and came across this site today. The Bulang are a small group of people in China. The site talks about how they live, etc…. It has some really cool pictures and other information about their region and life. Enjoy!

[Update 2012-12-25 22:07:42]  The site I referenced, www.thebulang.org, is no more.  I’ve removed the link from the article.

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Pensees

I was browsing Technorati this evening, and came across this blog. This guy appears to have a good handle on things, but I haven't read everything so….. Here are some quotes of his:

From Easter Egg Christianity:

The other day I noticed a Newsweek poll regarding belief in the resurrection. I was astonished to find that in this secular venue 81% had affirmed a belief in this event. 81% of the population believes that Jesus was supernaturally raised from the dead into an immortal, glorified body, thus vindicating His teaching and claims to be the Messiah and the very Son of God? I don't think so! Not if I'm reading my cultural cues properly anyways….

…So a person believing in the resurrection should have good grounds for believing that Jesus actually said things like, "Before Abraham was, I am" and, "No man comes to the Father except through Me" and, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven." How is it, then, that so many Christians can go to their Easter pageants and light their candles and sing their hymns while also denying potent realities like Jesus' unique divinity, the exclusivity of Christianity, or the doctrine of hell? The answer must be one of two things. One, they do not genuinely believe the resurrection to be a literal, historical event, i.e., they are simply immersed in the cultural expression of their "faith traditions." Two, they have not yielded to the logical implications of their profession of belief. Either this is a cavalier belief or it is simply an intellectual assent absent of any authentic faith commitment.

From Between Consenting Adults: 

"What consenting adults do in private is no one else's business." Is this really a good moral criteria? Based on the outrageous and lethal things that some consenting adults have managed to do, "consent" advocates should be running for cover.

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Terri Schiavo

We were talking this past Saturday in our Men's Bible Study group about the Terri Schiavo situation, and that conversation got me thinking. God promises in Romans 8:27-29:

27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Well, ok, we know that good in God's eyes isn't "good" in our eyes. The good may happen days, months, or even years from now. It may happen in a way we can't even comprehend. So, what good could come out of this situation? Well, it has certainly raised awareness of traditional "right-to-life" issues, but I think there could be more. What if Michael Schiavo were to get saved? What if he were to really get saved out of this. I'm not talking a show salvation. I'm not talking about a liberal feel good conversion. I'm talking about a real conversion experience. A salvation experience where he does real business with God. What about that? What good could come of that? Who knows, but if it happens soon, just think of what could happen: he could go on TV, get lots of TV time, and tell the truth about his salvation (see why I'm talking about a real conversion experience? He would need to go on TV and stand up to all the liberal God-haters in the media…all the God-haters in society.).

I don't know about you (or his actual spiritual state; however, I doubt he is really saved.), but my God–the God of the Universe, the Creator, the Alpha and Omega, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, the Lord and Savior of My life–can work all kinds of miracles and could make that happen if it was His will.

Just my thoughts on a terrible, horrible situation.

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A Partial Answer

I received an e-mail forward today from my old pastor–Pastor Tony. It was sent to him by his son who read the article on WorldNetDaily.com. Here is a link to the article. It dovetails nicely with a post I made on 21 March: Thoughts on The Church.

…I don't know Greer personally, but I know many people like him. They go to church on Sunday and then between Monday and Friday lead lives with no seeming connection to what they hear preached in the pulpit, what they read in the Bible, what they claim to believe of the Christian faith.

This may be the biggest single problem we have in America today – this disconnect between the spiritual lives of Christians and how they practice their faith in the world….

…Too many pastors in this country don't require obedience to God as a prerequisite for church membership. They seem to believe in a kind of "cheap" grace that comes with regular attendance or tithing rather than a Christian walk. They seem to have no minimal standards for fellowship and communion with the saints….

Do you want to know why the church doesn't have influence and impact in our increasingly secular world today?

Because there are too many so-called Christians like Judge George Greer and not enough like Pastor William Rice.

This is a good point. It is true that only God really knows the heart of men. On the other side of the coin, we are told in the Bible that our fruits/works/obedience will show if we really love God: 

Matthew 7:19-21
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

John 14:15
If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Church! It is time to wake up and see what is going on! We need to seek the face of God and plead for revival.

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Hillary and the Soldier

One of my favorite sites on the internet is Snopes. If you haven't heard of it, it is a page that investigates Urban Legends. If I get an e-mail from someone talking about this situation or that event or beware of this, Snoopes is my first stop. I was browsing their site, and came across this article talking about secret signs, etc…. I thought I would link to it just in case anyone else reading this may be interested.

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TV

Did anyone else watch TV this weekend? Did anyone notice the plethora of shows that dealt with Christianity, God, Jerusalem, visions, etc…? I sure did. The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, and The Learning Channel were the worst. It appears to me that they are trying to cash in on the "spirituality" craze that appears to be sweeping the country. The problem with this is that they deal with things that so don't matter. They ran shows talking about what Jesus would have looked like, the grail, mystics, people who have seen visions of Mary, the road to Emmaus, etc…. Shows like this only make people question their faith and don't do anything substantial to further the Gospel.

Do I really expect secular TV to run The Jesus Video? No, although, it would be awesome if they would. This is why we as Christians need to know what we believe, why we beleive it, and what we stand on. So what if the apocrypha or Dead Sea scrolls says thing that contradict the Bible. They aren't the Bible. I don't believe them, I believe was the Bible was

 

…written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy….

 

— The Bpatist Faith and Message

 

My faith won't be shaken because something appears to contradict the Bible. My faith won't be shaken by someone who claims to have seen a vision of Mary. My faith is built upon the words of Almighty God! For those of you who may not understand, I mean the Bible.

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Obeying God

Today's My Utmost for His Highest used the scriptrure John 11:7-8:

7-Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.
8-His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again?

Just because we don't understand what God is telling is or what God is doing doesn't mean it is the wrong thing. We need to continue on in our Christian walk doing what God tells us. Oswald Chambers puts it this way: 

Are you debating whether to take a step in faith in Jesus or to wait until you can see how to do the thing yourself? Obey Him with glad reckless joy. When He says something and you begin to debate, it is because you have a conception of His honour which is not His honour. Are you loyal to Jesus or loyal to your notion of Him? Are you loyal to what He says, or are you trying to compromise with conceptions which never came from Him? "Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it."

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Christian Growth

Sunday's My Utmost for His Highest used the scriptrure Revelation 4:1:

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Oswald Chambers made the point that God calls us higher (closer to Him) in our Christian walks. He also proposed an interesting way to determine if you are growing or not: 

Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year and see how God has called you up higher. We have all been brought to see from a higher standpoint. Never let God give you one point of truth which you do not instantly live up to. Always work it out, keep in the light of it.

Being the "geek" that I am, I immediately wished we had a way we could quantify our spiritual progress and enter it into an Excel spreadsheet or database. Then, we could graph that and determine in an instant if we were growing or not.

One interesting thing about Mr. Chmbers' way to guage is to "…Compare this week in your spiritual history with the same week last year…." He doesn't say compare it to last month or last week: he uses the last year. That is interesting because we all have our ups and downs in the short term, but our long term trend should be to get closer to God. If you need an example, think of the stock market. The market may go up or down in the short-term, but the long term trend is up. In the same way, we may have our short-term ups and downs, but our long-term trend should be up…up towards God.

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Bad Links

This post has a bad link in it. The correct link to lifeway should be http://www.lifeway.com.

This post also has a bad link in it. The correct link to my contact page should be http://www.techs4jesus.com/contact.htm.

This post also has a bad link in it. The correct link to Technocrati should be http://www.technorati.com.

Sorry about not editing the posts directly. Blosxom by default uses the modify dates on the files to determine where to put the post in the blog. If I edit them after the fact, perma links will be all messed up, etc… I think there are some plugins out there that will fix that to use something from the filename, but I haven't had time to look into them yet.