A Curious Instrument

After all the elaborate writing of Paul, I always find the epistle of James to be a wonderful and understandable respite, except for the fact that James highlights many principles of behavior and living on which we need to be working! Here is a bit of a list that I came up with.  Surely, all of you could come up with better lists, given how "meaty" James is! It is better to be a "low" person with afflictions than a rich man living in ease. (1:9-11) Everyone is tempted (not just "bad" people) - it is how we endure temptations that matters (1:12-15) Actually being and doing good is much better than hearing and talking about doing good. (1:22-25) Pure Religion - visit the fatherless children and widows - sounds like ministering! (1:27) You shouldn't treat people differently, rich or poor. (2:1-9)  You can't pick and choose the laws you keep, you have to keep them all. (2:10-12) "...faith without works is dead..." (2:17-26) Be car...

Climate is changing all the time. In what records scientists have been able to develop, there have been things like ice ages and warming trends in the past, among all sort of variations. These seem to have been happening for the entire lifetime of the earth, which length of life there is all sorts of debate. Basically, experts can't definitively agree on much about how the earth works, much less something as basic as its age. A first painful question:  How do we know if the changes were are observing now in the Earth's climate are really anything that we can affect? I don't think the actions of humans created the last big ice age - either there were far too few of us or we were more like apes and therefore, by politically correct (pc) standards, totally benign. Why did the climate make a big change then and why?  All we can do is shrug and say "wasn't us!" Some painful follow-up questions:  What if our heroic efforts to suppress temperature rise actually...

I listen often to a psychologist and college professor named Jordan Peterson and his insights into our current social upheavels. I was strongly impressed to share this snippet of one of his lectures on masculinity .  In his own way, he describes the sort of responsibility that is particularly resonate with young men that have often been cast aside as worthless and destructive to an emasculated world desired by some. For my part, I encourage everyone to seek wisdom and they will often find themselves at the feet of Jesus Christ . If you get there through the words of a psychologist or at the hands of a priest, it matters little.  Christ will help you find the true masculinity and transcendence that your soul demands.  I don't pretend to be some paragon of virtue, but I have become acquainted with Jesus and his teachings from many sources  and I invite all to find the truth of God through his prophets .  It is a worthy pursuit for any who seeks the divine m...