Reading and watching news of the recovery in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and thinking about my father-in-law, who has a horse farm in Franklinton, LA, north of Lake Pontchartrain, I recalled llamas. Yes, llamas. Just as my wife’s dad raises thoroughbreds and quarter horses, people raise llamas in the States, for a variety of reasons.
It was then that I remembered reading about llamas last month, courtesy of Steve Farrar:
Llamas are strange looking animals with a warrior mentality. Llamas don’t appear to be afraid of anything. When they see something they don’t understand they put their head straight up and walk towards it. The coyotes couldn’t handle the Llama’s courage and finally left the sheep alone.
I had no idea llamas were that way. So, echoing Mr. Farrar, are you a llama?
Yesterday, I picked up my pre-ordered copy of Lifesong, the latest from Casting Crowns. No sophomore jinx here, and I’ve already found straight-to-the-heart songs that make me ponder and pray, just as on their first album. There has been a track I’ve been playing over and over again, number two on the disc, and I hope those in the Gulf South can find some comfort in the message it contains, even if they are unable to hear it. I include the complete liner notes for it below.
If there ever were a test of our faith—if there ever were a test of the motives of our worship—it is when a storm rolls into our lies. We watched and prayed for a precious little girl named Erin Edwards struggle with a deadly disease for several years. The courage, the witness, and the worship of Erin’s mother Laurie inspired this song. Sometimes God calms our storms. Sometimes He chooses to ride them with us.
Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Psalm 42:5, Psalm 121:1-2, Job 1:20-21, Daniel 3:16-18
I was sure by now
That You would have reached down
And wiped our tears away
Stepped in and saved the day
But once again, I say “Amen,” and it’s still raining
As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away
I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm
I remember when
I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry
You raised me up again
My strength is almost gone
How can I carry on
If I can’t find You
As the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
And as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise the God who gives
And takes away
I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm
I lift my eyes unto the hills
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord
The Maker of Heaven and Earth
I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm
Words by Mark Hall
© 2005 Club Zoo Music (BMI) / SWECS Music (BMI) (adm. b yEMI CMG Publishing) / Word Music, LLC (ASCAP) / Banahama Tunes (ASCAP) (adm. by Word Music, LLC)
If you’re an Accordance user, and aren’t on the OakTree Software e-mail list, there is a free seminar on getting the most out of the company’s flagship product coming up in September:
Saturday September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Todd Academic Center — Room 114
Dallas Theological Seminary
3909 Swiss Ave., Dallas, TX
Refreshments will be provided, though you’re on your own for lunch. You are encouraged to bring your own laptop to follow along with. E-mail Dr. Helen Brown for further details and to RSVP.
“The Christian and the Materialist hold different beliefs about the universe. They can’t both be right. The one who is wrong will act in a way which simply doesn’t fit the real universe. Consequently, with the best will in the world, he will be helping his fellow creatures to their destruction.” —C. S. Lewis
David Limbaugh ponders why the scientific community seems determined to slam the door on the debate of intelligent design:
Consider what Harvard chemistry professor David Liu said about Harvard University’s plan to spend $1 million annually toward research concerning the origin of life. “My expectation,” said Liu, “is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention.”
Liu’s statement is a tacit admission that Darwinists (used loosely here to include all scientific materialists) have yet to demonstrate the origin of life but nevertheless still fervently hold to their rigid presupposition that only a natural explanation is conceivable. That life began without intelligent causes is thus dutifully accepted without question and merely awaits the inevitable confirming evidence.
So held to their own standards, isn’t the Darwinists’ presupposition that life began without design unscientific? At the very least it requires as much faith as ID could conceivably require. Darwinists haven’t even been able to prove, through empirical testing or otherwise, the evolution of existing species to others by Darwinian mechanisms.
Just imagine, the Creator of the Universe wants to spend time with you. Is there any appointment that is worth keeping more than this one?
I confess this is one of the toughest aspects of my Christian walk, making the time for God. I allow myself to be sidetracked by all sorts of distractions, when I could be spending time with our Father, reading His Word or in prayer. Some people pencil God in to their schedules, with a set time for prayer and Bible reading. Others allow their daily circumstances to dictate when and how they spend time with God? Which pattern do you follow? Feel free to share in the comments.
[Link to Pastor Laurie’s Daily Devotional requires a free registration. —R]
This is what Rebecca Hagelin reminds us:
The greatest gift we can give our children is to let them know that there is a God who loves them and knows them by name. We must teach our sons and daughters that the God of the Universe is intensely interested and familiar with every aspect of their lives and wants what is best for them. Today’s culture teaches even the young child that he is here by accident, and that he is just another creature on a big, impersonal planet, no different from any other animal. It’s no wonder that kids today are experiencing depression and loneliness in record numbers.
[…]
A few years ago the mantra was, “It’s quality time, not quantity time, that counts.” WRONG! Kids need a good dose of both from their parents. If we think we can spend one great hour a day with our kids and counteract the negative garbage they’re getting from the culture “24/7,” we’re fooling ourselves.
If you’re using the Accordance software (sorry, Windows users), they now have a widget for Mac OS X Tiger 10.4 users. If you run the 6.7 updater, the widget will be placed on the desktop for installation, along with a Read Me doc.
My druther with the widget is that it requires Accordance to be running to access text from the installed modules. Bad, OakTree Software, bad! Upon entering a verse in the text box, the widget launches Accordance in the background and hides it. I’m not really saving much time using the widget then, am I?
Ideally, the widget would be able to search Accordance modules without the requirement of launching the full application, the latter of which pretty much defeats the point of having a widget in the first place.
The widget is quite lovely looking, however, just so no one can accuse me of not having anything nice to say about it.
How can I resist posting when I’m handed the subject on a silver platter?
The fine folks at Laridian have released iPocketBible, giving you the New Living Translation (NLT) on your iPod.
What’s so very cool about iPocketBible, however, is that, unlike Laridian’s Palm product, MyBible (which I’ve used in the past and been quite happy with), not only can you read the Bible text on screen, but you can listen to it as well. At the same time. Very, very cool, Laridian.
This book claims to be an historical novel (although that term is not used), because the first page says, It claims that, “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” When an author claims that Jesus was married, that his wife was considered a Goddess, that the Gospels are mere political creations, and so on, the author owns the burden of proof. But the burden of proof crushes Dan Brown into a pancake.
Doug details twelve claims Brown makes in the book, showing them to be patently false. There is so much in the historical record that renders nearly all of the “background” in The Da Vinci Code as false, that it’s hard to believe so many people buy in to it. I also recommend The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction by Hank Hanegraaff and Paul L. Maier.
I had studied biblical worldview for years and believed that I could prove beyond a doubt that the biblical worldview is the only one that is rational, the only one that conforms to the truth of the way the world is made. But that led to a spiritual crisis of sorts, when one morning in my quiet time I realized that while I could prove all of this, I could not prove who God was. I began to worry: When this life was over, would I really meet Him?
Some weeks later, as I describe in my new book The Good Life, it hit me that if I could prove God, I could not know Him. The reason is that, just as He tells us, He wants us to come like little children with faith. If you could resolve all intellectual doubts, there would be no need for faith. You would then know God the same way that you know the tree in the garden outside your home. You would look at it, know it is there, and that’s it, as Thomas Aquinas once said.
Faith is necessary because without it you cannot love God. So as I said to Dr. Flew, if you could prove God, you couldn’t love Him, which is His whole purpose in creating you.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a God I can fit in a box, which is what so many people seem to want. We want God in a box, where we can peek in and see Him, talk to Him, then close the box back up. We want a God that is like us, because we can understand “us.”
I know me, and I want a God that is so much more than me. I need a God that is beyond my understanding, because what good is it to follow and worship a god who is no better than we are? The God of the Bible, through the salvation He offers in His Son, Jesus the Christ, is the only God that fits the bill.
World Vision is seeking donations to aid folks in Niger who are victims of the recent drought and locust swarms which have devastated crops in the country. If you are able and feel so inclined, please help.