August 8, read through the Bible in a year.

Today we read the last chapter of Ephesians and first chapter of Isaiah.

August 8: Ephesians 6, Isaiah 1 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Ephesians 6. Children, obey your parents, bondservants do everything as unto God, put on the whole armor of God and pray in the spirit always for all the saints. Paul then adds a final greeting, and so ends the inspirational letter to the Ephesians.

Isaiah 1. No other book of the Bible has so many fulfilled prophecies. Read it and marvel! Use the lists as reference.

What is the importance of 8/8?

Tomorrow, August 8 is my birthday. Hooray!! I have lived a long and fruitful life, and am thankful for every extra day God has granted me here on earth. 8/8 has always been a number of interest to me, so if anything else happens on that day I take notice. On Monday Frank Figliuzzi, the former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence and a regular contributor to NBC News, told MSNBC’s Brian Williams that President Trump’s decision to fly flags at half-staff until Aug. 8 may very well be a tip of the cap to white supremacist groups. Here’s what he said:

The president’s either getting really good advice and rejecting it, or he’s getting really bad advice. We have to understand the adversary and the threat we’re dealing with, and if we don’t understand how they think, we’ll never understand how to counter them, so it’s the little things and the messaging that matters.

The president says that we will fly our flags at half-mast until August 8, that’s 8/8. Now I’m not going to imply that he did this deliberately, but I am using it as an example of the ignorance of the adversary demonstrated by the White House. The numbers 8/8 are very significant in the neo-Nazi and the white supremacy movement. Why? Because the letter ‘H’ is the eighth letter of the alphabet, and to them, the numbers 8/8 stand for ‘Heil Hitler.’

So we’re going to be raising the flag back up at dusk on 8/8. No one’s thinking about this. No one’s giving the advice, or he’s rejecting the advice.”

In my more than seventy years of reading, listening to radio, watching television and watching old WWII movies I have never once encountered that my birthday equated “Heil Hitler”. Neither has anyone, even in jest thrown it at me.

Such is the hatred for President Donald Trump that some grasp for anything, no matter how far fetched to find some connection between him and racism and white supremacy, or in this case Neo-Nazism.

August 7, read through the Bible in a year.

Today we read the fifth chapter of Ephesians and the last two chapters of Song of Solomon.

August 7: Ephesians 5, Song of Solomon 7, Song of Solomon 8 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Ephesians 5, Paul gives good advice:Walk in love, walk in light, and walk in wisdom, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” Then Paul gives Godly advice on marriage  and likens it to the relationship between Christ and the church.

Song of Solomon 7 is full of expressions of praise.

Song of Solomon 8. And so is love renewed in Lebanon. This shows that God’s love is complete, and does indeed include the sensual. This too is the gift of God.

 

August 6, read through the Bible in a year.

Today we read the fourth chapter of Ephesians and three chapters of Song of Solomon.

August 6: Ephesians 4, Song of Solomon 4, Song of Solomon 5, Song of Solomon 6 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Ephesians 4. Paul urges the believers to walk in unity, because there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God, even though there are different spiritual gifts. He reminds them they are children of light, do not grieve the spirit, and “do not let the sun go down on your wrath“.

Song of Solomon 4. The bridegroom praises the bride.

Song of Solomon 5. The Shulamite’s troubled evening.

Song of Solomon 6. The bridegroom and friens praise the Shulamite’s beauty.

 

What is hate speech?

What is hate speech?

Hillary Clinton put up this tweet on Saturday morning, just before the terrible shooting tragedy in El Paso that killed 22 people and wounded more than two dozen.

The El Paso shooter, Patrick Crusius of Allen Tx, was a registered Democrat, held anti illegal immigrant views since before Donald Trump became President, pointed out that one of his biggest fears was what illegal immigration did to the environment and climate change. His manifesto, published two hours before the shooting mentioned the massacre in Christchurch, NZ, which also defines him as anti Muslim. The interpretation of his manifesto has been that he is a white supremacist, but other parts seem to indicate that he believes in sustainability and has to reduce the overall population of the world.

It looks as though Connor Betts, the Dayton shooter, who killed nine people Saturday night, one of them his own sister, was a registered Democrat, Satanist, vehement anti-Trumper, and supporter of one of the Democratic presidential candidates. I do not mention her name, she has no personal responsibility for the shooting.

Now back to Hillary’s tweet. It mentions climate emergency as if it were a fact and only by voting Democrat can this emergency be averted. This is delusional at best and a flat out lie at worst. Let us take a look at what is happening to Greenland this year.

It is true that we are having a heatwave over Greenland the last four days, and there has been some ice-melt. See chart from the Danish Meteorological Institute

in 2011-2012 there  was a much larger ice-melt. By contrast, the last 4 years the ice accumulation has been above normal and Greenland actually grew its glaciers. This year nearly all snow storms went between Greenland and Scandinavia so the snow did not accumulate as fast, which means it is old ice melting in the western parts of Greenland. This is perfectly normal and now the sun is so low on the horizon that melted water actually reflects the sun more than the ice, so the melting is about over for this year. Hillary is no climate scientist, and all this fear mongering does is trying to whip up a frenzy, so much so that us “climate deniers” (a term reserved for climate change realists) should be exterminated, or at least castrated. This too is hate speech.

August 5, read through the Bible in a year.

Today we read the third chapter of Ephesians and the first three chapters of Song of Solomon.

August 5: Ephesians 3, Song of Solomon 1, Song of Solomon 2, Song of Solomon 3 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Ephesians 3. “The meaning of the Greek word mysterion is a truth hitherto hidden from human knowledge or understanding but now disclosed by the revelation of God.”  With that in mind this chapter reveals the mystery of Christ,  its purpose  and the appreciation of the mystery.

Song of Solomon 1. The Song of Songs stands unique in the Bible. It has no obvious religious content, just beautiful poetry. But it fits with the theme of love permeating the Bible. It starts with the Banquet.

Song of Solomon 2, the Banquet, the Beloved’s Request.

Song of Solomon 3, a Troubled Night, the Coming of Solomon.

August 4, read through the Bible in a year.

Today we read the second chapter of Ephesians and the last four chapters of Ecclesiastes.

August 4: Ephesians 2, Ecclesiastes 9, Ecclesiastes 10, Ecclesiastes 11, Ecclesiastes 12 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Ephesians 2. This is the famous chapter explaining that we are saved by grace through faith and brought near by His blood. Furthermore, Christ is our peace and our cornerstone. There is much more in this chapter.

Ecclesiastes 9. Death comes to all,  and wisdom  is better than folly.

Ecclesiastes 10. Yes indeed, wisdom is better than folly.

Ecclesiastes 11 explains the value of diligence. One advice: Seek God early in life.

Ecclesiastes 12. “Remember now thy creator in the days of your youth“. “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”

Nancy Pelosi and Ilhan Omar at the Door of Return in Ghana. A Limerick.

Pelosi and Omar in Ghana.

She laughs in her Muslim bandana.

Nancy’s stomach does churn

at the “door of return”

End slave trade of sex-slaves? Mañana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slavery has officially ended. Saudi Arabia ended slavery in the 1950’s, Mauritania ended theirs officially in 2007, but it still continues unofficially in parts of Africa. And then there is the sex slavery trafficking and child trafficking going on, being encouraged by open border policies. This is no laughing matter.

August 3, read through the Bible in a year.

Today we read the first chapter of Ephesians and three chapters of Ecclesiastes.

August 3: Ephesians 1, Ecclesiastes 6, Ecclesiastes 7, Ecclesiastes 8 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Ephesians 1. This letter is a wonderful explanation of the Christian Gospel. Paul starts out with a greeting, then explains what it means to get redemption in Christ and ends up with a prayer for spiritual wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 6. Vanity is the theme, this time the vanity of desire.

Ecclesiastes 7. There is value in practical wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 8. Obey authorities for God’s Sake, and yes, this too is in Ecclesiastes: “Eat, drink and be merry.” It fits with the theme of vanity.

 

August 2, read through the Bible in a year.

In between Galatians and Ephesians we read one Psalm and three chapters of Ecclesiastes.

August 2: Psalm 69, Ecclesiastes 3, Ecclesiastes 4, Ecclesiastes 5 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Psalm 69, of David. When you get that sinking feeling, this Psalm lifts you back up, “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving.”

Ecclesiastes 3. There is a time for everything. The gift of God is that He has set eternity in our hearts, yet injustice seems to prevail.

Ecclesiastes 4. There is oppression but no comforter, there is vanity of selfish toil. There is value in having friends “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken,” yet, popularity passes away.

Ecclesiastes 5. Fear God, keep your vows. There is vanity in amassing riches, even vanity in seeking honor.