The Desert of the Real

So, I’ve been thinking about the Lordship debate all day, pondering what I was going to write about it. I thought I missed quite a bit due to paying attention to the recording, but upon reflection I don’t think I missed that much at all. I’m sure there were lots of details, moments I’ve glossed over in my memory, but the overall debate is pretty clear.

The problem is the mixed feelings it produced. I’ve listened to some debates before, but this was my first live debate. I had a mixture of reactions. Dr Wilkin’s presentation was…shocking. I think that’s the most charitable word I can think of that’s appropriate to describe it. I had the chance to meet him beforehand, and had hoped for a lot better than we got. I knew almost nothing about the man going in, so maybe I was just naieve.
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Ok, so, I freely admit that I’ve been frustrated by the stupid ideas people come up with to deal with spam for some time. So I doubt that I’m going to say a whole lot that is new to anyone who has known me for long when it comes to this stuff. Yet my current job has exposed me to this to a greater degree than I’ve had to deal with before.

See, we send email. LOTS of email. We send email to people who actually want it. We know they want it, because they pay us to send it to them. And we’re not talking chump change here. What none of these people realize is how much work it takes just to get that email that they PAID for into their email account.

You would not believe the stupidity in some of these email admins, especially at AOL. (Ok, maybe you’d believe that one.) Well, we’ve been working on trying to get whitelisted with one major email provider, and we got a reply back this week indicating they had no whitelist capability for now. They filter email, but don’t have whitelisting. How nifty. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. I have snipped the parts that would make the company identifiable to protect the guilty, but this is the part that made me hit the roof anyway.
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This is what I’m currently reading…sort of. It’s well written, and the content is excellent. It is probably one of the best books I’ve read in its genre. However, I find that I can’t read more than a chapter at a time. There is much value in the teaching of this book. To sweep through it would be to rob myself of a great opportunity for learning and growth. On several occaisions, the words of this book have been like a physical blow. Most on points I already know and believe, but still apparently don’t take fully enough to heart.

Notably, the chapter I just finished on the justice of God. Nothing new here really. However, his writing brings directly before your eyes the staggering truth of God’s holiness, His justice, and the reality of how truly amazing His grace really is. When it is a subject of daily study and consideration I think it easily becomes a part of the backdrop. We never forget, at least intellectually, where we stand. Yet it is so easy to let it become a part of the backdrop, and that is unfortunate, and is to our great loss.
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Earlier this morning I heard a clip of Jesse Jackson’s presentation at Johnnie Cochran’s funeral. I have searched all over for a transcript of his remarks but haven’t had any luck finding it. This is the closest I coudl come up with:

Jackson imagined the flamboyant lawyer in the afterlife taking up the late Pope John Paul II’s claim to sit nearest to God of all the deceased pontiffs.

Cochran, Jackson speculated, would support that claim based on the pope’s advocacy on behalf of former South African President Nelson Mandela during Mandela’s imprisonment by that nation’s apartheid regime, and would argue to God that because Cochran “helped free Mandela, he’s your fella.”

In what I heard, Jesse asserted that he envisioned Cochran, standing before God’s judgement seat, arguing for the Pope. He then enumerated some of his arguments in Cochran’s style, touching on the works of the Pope, his work against communism, his efforts at freeing Nelson Mandela, his fight against poverty, etc. His arguments culminated in an argument claiming that the Pope deserved the place at the right hand of God.

This was quite…stunning…to say the least. I mean, Jesse isn’t exactly a guy I look to for theology period, let alone good theology. The man can’t even grasp good politics, let alone God’s word. However, considering the way he throws the title of reverend around, you’d think he’d at least be aware that the place at God’s right hand is occupied by Jesus. To suggest that the pope belongs there is unbelievable.

The rest though, I found interesting. While I doubt God really has a place for representation by counsel before the judgement seat of God, I envision the pope probably tried some very similar tactics. Along with asking where Mary was, and would she be coming to speak on his behalf. It makes me shudder though, to imagine his horror to realize that she would, indeed, not be coming, would not be doing any such thing. And that more than that, his works, as impressive to men as they might be, mean nothing to God. That God’s line of questioning focuses solely on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Fear grips my heart just thinking about it.

Yet Jesse’s comments are not unusual. Much to my great irritation, almost everywhere you turn these days you can hear some evangelical leader or another espousing similar ideas. Willingly overlooking the fact that most of them would never get up in front of their congregation and tell them that if they do good deeds, or suffer in this world, that they will earn a place in heaven. Most every mainstream protestant minister knows that the only hope we have is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, rather than stand up for the truth, and deal with the heat, they’d rather buckle and say pretty things that make people happy.

Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. (Martin Luther)

Oh how I hate DST. A more ridiculous concept, creating such huge annoyances, and yet observed by so many worldwide year after year. How sad that only three states in the US have the presence of mind to forgoe this absurdity.

Want to hear an example? Well, how about this one. It’s particularly useful if you happen to travel by train and might one day have to travel on a change date:

To keep to their published timetables, trains cannot leave a station before the scheduled time. So when the clocks fall back one hour in October, all Amtrak trains in the United States that are running on time stop at 2 A.M. and wait one hour before resuming. Overnight passengers are often surprised to find their train at a dead stop and their travel time an hour longer than expected. At the spring DST time change, trains instantaneously become an hour behind schedule at 2 A.M., but they just keep going and do their best to make up the time.

Another example, where we might find less sympathy for the parties involved:

In September 1999, the Palestinian West Bank was on daylight saving time while Israel had just switched back to standard time. West Bank Palestinians prepared time bombs and smuggled them to Arab Israelis, who misunderstood the time on the bombs. As the bombs were being planted, they exploded—one hour too early—killing three terrorists instead of two busloads of people, the intended victims.