ryan.the.calvinist

I just read the lyrics to the Lady GaGa song "Born This Way" for the first time.  I would rather not post the lyrics... but you can find them in their entirety here.  I will post the climax of the song, found in the bridge: Don't be a drag, just be a queen Whether you're broke or evergreen You're black, white, beige, chola descent You're Lebanese, you're orient Whether life's disabilities Left you outcast, bullied, or teased Rejoice and love yourself today 'cause baby you were born this way No matter gay, straight, or bi, Lesbian, transgendered life, I'm on the right track baby, I was born to survive. No matter black, white or beige Chola or orient made, I'm on the right track baby, I was born to be brave. Wow. All I can think about is the way I was born - in sin.  I was stillborn, dead in sin.  A rebel against God.  That's how I was born.  A child of wrath by nature.  I'm so thankful that God sovereign...

Here is an example of how irrational the followers of Ergan Butch Caner can be.   This is an exchange I partook in via Facebook with a student who, while claiming to be at least somewhat Reformed, attends Liberty University. I don’t know if I would believe this mess if I had not been involved in it directly… and even then I am bewildered.  You would think that, just because someone is a “Christian leader”, they get a free pass to lie and do anything they want – and NO ONE can question them when they are caught in their lies!  This is nuts and cult-like at the very least. (btw… the exchange ended because I was promptly removed from Leah’s friends list, making it impossible for me to reply.) This is nuts!

This past week, I caught up in my Bible reading calendar… and came to John 14:18-21 a few days ago: I will not leave you as orphans;  I will come to you.  Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.  In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.  Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. In all honesty, the thought of this saying of Jesus causes me to tremble a bit.   If it doesn’t cause you to tremble, look at your own life for a bit. Why do I tremble? I do not obey Christ perfectly.  We know from Scripture that God’s law – his statutes – his commands demand perfect obedience.  I can’t wonder, how many people can I be really unjustly angry with and NOT be counted a murderer?   Or how many girls can I lust af...

It was sometime last week I was sitting next to my friend Elise during our Apocalypses course when the issue of Theodicy came up. It arose when our instructor mentioned the question that many must struggle with: "How can God be just/good and allow bad things to happen to people?" This question is odd to me. I am not truly sure if I am relaying it correctly, or if my memory is going bad. But if I had related the "problem" correctly as previously stated... it is something I struggle with. It is not something I struggle with as most people probably struggle with. I would venture to guess most people who struggle with such a question are at odds with some apparent contradiction between God being a good/loving God and a just God and his action of permitting evil or bad things to occur. I suppose these individuals who are baffled by such a conundrum fret over God's inability or unwillingness to wipe evil away off the face of the earth for good... RIGHT NOW (o...

The following is a slightly-altered response I made to someone on Facebook… concerning the topics of abortion, sin, the nature of God, and man’s need for a Savior.  I hope it is a blessing to those who read it. I have heard the desires to make exceptions when it comes to abortion for cases of rape or incest.  However, there is still a fundamental issue:  There is a living human being inside of the mother, with DNA and a heartbeat distinct from the mother's own.  Is rape a horrible crime and sin?  YES.  However, I think it is just as much of a crime/sin to slaughter the unborn child that results.  Truth be told, pregnancies resulting from rape are less common than those resulting from Tom and Linda not being able to keep it in their pants.  I would say the child deserves to live either way.  Adoption is always an option.  the 9 month journey is difficult, but having the blood of the innocent on the mother's hands is far worse.  "What...

So I am sitting at work this morning, and decide to surf on into a Christian group on MySpace I am a member of. In the usually inactive forum, I see this message left by an apparent member: I’ve heard so many people say that they feel far from God, or that they can’t feel his presence, or that they can’t connect with God, or that … If you are struggling in this area and you want to know HOW to find God in you, please go to my blog. What is this "Finding God in you..." nonsense?! DO we have a god in us? Answer: NO WAY. Let’s look at what the Holy Bible says about the nature of man: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." --Genesis 6:5 "And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, ’I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth’." --Genesis 8:21 "The heart ...

I am astonished how often people misunderstand the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5, 6 & 7. I have actually heard it claimed this sermon of Jesus isn't preachy... that it is a wonderful piece that shows a fluffy gracious God who seems more like a fictional Santa than Lord. These persons read Matthew 5:3-12 , and then it seems their eyes wonder off, or they shut down. To them, Jesus is ONLY someone who cares about the poor, the sorrowful, the meek, the hungry, the the merciful, peacemakers, and persecuted (I skip Mt 5:8, because most probably do-- if they had a concept for what purity was they would view the gospel differently), accepting them as they are! But wait a minute. Surely Jesus Christ IS concerned with those things! ALL scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in self righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I do not deny the words of Christ Jesus. Be...

Current mood: peaceful I have noticed a lot within the secular Gay-Pride movement, the "Gay Christian" Movement, and within liberalism in general, the trend of believing that Old Testament Levitical laws are no longer useful to us Christians in the 20th century and should be ignored all together. I am going to "pick on" two verses in Leviticus that explicitly spell out that homosexuality is indeed sinful behavior before a Holy God. Lev 18:22 (ESV): You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. Lev 20:13 (ESV): If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. I just read a friend's blog concerning Levitical Laws... she seemed to be snidely implying that laws against homosexuality in Leviticus are along the same lines of off...

The following is a message I sent to someone I've known for several years now. She claims to be a Christian but as a bleeding-heart liberal, she refuses to recognize the need for our government to make laws that go in accordance to what the Bible says about certain issues... primarily gay marriage and the brutal killing of innocent infants known as abortion. She posted a bulletin on Myspace saying "if you believe in gay marriage, repost this and sign at the bottom." When I asked her about it, she explained how she has gay friends and how she feels that God just "wants us to be happy." I replied with the following: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Romans 1:24-26 you said the homosexual was different from the child molester. really? how? both is sin. do you recognize that homosexuality is sin? It was in OT law and still is today. Why shouldn't we make governing laws that reflect morality? Why go against what God has deemed right and wrong? This is unwise t...