Conqueror

Lion heart
Brave
Courageous
True

Ferocious
Muscular
Strong
Fierce

Victor
Champion
Conquering
King

The Character of the Christ
The Lion of Judah
King of Kings
Lord of Lords

And yet He conquers
As a Lamb
A Slain lamb
A Crucified Lamb

Such is the mystery
His secret way
Upside down
Inside out

His character
The Lion
Who Conquers
Like a Lamb

Nationalistic

Admittedly, I haven't researched this post very well as I'm sure their are a ton of ideas written on both sides of the issue. I know there are several books about it as well and I haven't read any of them. And now that I've verified that this post is garbage, here it is.

I don't think most Christians I know would really want to live in a Christian nation.

Have you ever thought about what a truly Christian nation would look like? For one thing I think it would blush at the idea of being called a nation at all. No nationalism here. The height of Israel's glory is usually considered to be during the time of kings David and Solomon. But remember, that was a result of their rejection of God's idea of a nation. Can you imagine the USA governed like Israel in the time of the judges? No flag to wave? No president to rally around? No 4th of July celebration?

It would be far from the wealthiest nation on earth, not because God wouldn't bless it, but because it would give it's wealth away to those in need. It wouldn't seek to be the world's leader. It would seek to be the world's servant. There would be a high possibility that it would be in servitude to another country and they would probably see that servitude transfer among several countries, which ever one happened to be ruling the world at the time.

Some argue that God led Israel to conquer other peoples as proof that a Christian nation today would do the same. But that was all part of God's redemptive plan for the world and it wasn't a pattern he would continue for all time. That's what the Jews were looking for in Jesus' day. They were looking for someone to save them from Roman servitude and lead them to military dominance. But God's plan was the way of the cross. Following through with military victory would have been exactly what Satan would have wanted and was apparently expecting.

So I think a true Christian nation would really struggle with the whole idea of war. It would be severely distressed over the thought of war and deeply troubled about it. There certainly wouldn't be victory parades and we would feel the pain of war just as much as the other side.

How dare I write a post like this while enjoying the freedom of this nation. Don't get me wrong, I love my country. It certainly has it's faults but it has many good qualities too. I have no problem waving a flag or celebrating it's independence. But I don't consider it a Christian nation either. It certainly has drawn on Christian influences to varying degrees over the years and that is a good thing, as long as those ideas are truly from God. But in the end it is a secular nation. It happens to be the nation that I was born in so it is my country. God saw fit that in all the world this is where I should be placed. So this is where I live out his redemptive mission.

Torture

I found the results of this survey by Pew Research disgusting. What part of "...love your enemies, do good to those who hate you..." (Jesus in Luke 6:27) don't Christians understand? Is that too radical of an idea? Well, here's a news flash. Jesus is radical. Following Jesus is radical.

Library

My wife is wonderful. She is cataloging my library for me so I can search and find what I'm looking for. There is no way I could do it because it is just way too tedious for me. So far she has done a little over 1500 books and I think she might be just about half way done but that's just a guess. A lot of the books were in boxes so I'm going to need to buy more book shelves. That's had a ripple effect as we are now looking at re-organizing the basement to accommodate them better.

She has thought about the possibility of turning it into a business. You'd need a lot of wealthy people willing to have their books cataloged in order to make it work and I'm just not sure you'd find that many. Some would say it is costing me a lot but I think I'm getting a bargain.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/datema

Beck

My birthday was several months ago but I was given some cash instead of a gift to go buy a book or some music. I knew what I wanted but it didn't get released until late March. The wait was hard but I am now the proud owner of "Jeff Beck: performing this week...Live at Ronnie Scott's" the DVD. It is 2 hours and 35 minutes of pure heaven.

It is basically the set he has been playing for a year or two now with a few guest appearances from Jos Stone, Imogen Heap, and Eric Clapton. Jeff, Vinnie, Tal, and Jason make a few changes to account for the small venue but I like it just as much as what I've heard in the past. All three guests compliment the rest of the set beautifully. In other words, you aren't watching and wondering what they are doing there, or thinking that they were just thrown in for the star appeal. (If you are after star appeal just watch the audience.) They combine with Jeff's style but take it somewhere it wouldn't go without their own unique talents.

Even Clapton does a great job with this. I'm all for watching Clapton and Beck play together but it would easy for that combination to be very predictable. But Clapton playing Little Brown Bird and You Need Love with Jeff messing around with the bottle neck is great.

Imogen is the most interesting of the three guests though. She brings her own unique style to Blanket and Rollin' and Tumblin' and sounds like a Stratocaster all by herself.

All in all I would say this is one of the best music purchases I've ever made. Time to sit back and enjoy some more.

Forsaken

Having spent a significant portion of my life living in Sierra Leone I find it sickening how the rebel war there, as well as so many other conflicts in Africa, are basically ignored by the rest of the world. I would blame it on the media but they only get part of the blame. They are a business after all and if we as ordinary people cared about these conflicts the media would probably cover them.

It is not just about coverage either. Along with that coverage goes time and money. So governments, institutions, and influential people spend tons of time and money on the most popular contests while the conflicts that have impacted the most people receive hardly any attention.

Some would say that while those smaller conflicts may not have the same number of deaths they still impact far more people. I believe that is true. But why is that? There is something wrong about the way we value people.

Here's some stats I pulled from the Stealth Conflicts website. They have a lot of interesting information there. I like the maps and charts they produce to graphically illustrate the issue. I can't vouch for the accuracy of these numbers but that's kind of the point. We just don't know what we really should know.


Conflict /Death Toll

Democratic Republic of Congo /5,400,000

Southern Sudan /1,200,000

Angola /800,000

Rwanda /800,000

Afghanistan /500,000

Somalia /400,000

Iraq /400,000

Burundi /300,000

Darfur /300,000

Zaire /300,000

Liberia /200,000

Algeria /150,000

Ethiopia-Eritrea /100,000

Chechnya /100,000

Uganda /100,000

Sierra Leone /50,000

Kashmir /50,000

Colombia /50,000

Sri Lanka /50,000

Bosnia-Herzegovina /50,000

Philippines /20,000

Turkey /20,000

Nigeria /20,000

Gulf War /20,000

Azerbaijan /20,000

Bougainville /20,000

Cote d’Ivoire /10,000

Congo, Republic of /10,000

Peru /10,000

Aceh /10,000

Myanmar /10,000

Nepal /10,000

Croatia /10,000

Kosovo /10,000

Kurdish Iraq /10,000

Southern Iraq /10,000

Senegal /< 10,000

Guinea /< 10,000

Chad /< 10,000

Mali /< 10,000

Niger /< 10,000

Central African Republic /< 10,000

Haiti /< 10,000

Mexico /< 10,000

Israel-Palestine /< 10,000

Israel-Lebanon /< 10,000

Yemen /< 10,000

Andrha Pradesh /< 10,000

Gujurat /< 10,000

Northeast India /< 10,000

East Timor /< 10,000

Irian Jaya /< 10,000

Kalimantan /< 10,000

Molucca Islands /< 10,000

Sulawesi /< 10,000

Georgia /< 10,000

Moldova /< 10,000

Northern Ireland /< 10,000