GroupHelp.NET - Easy everything!

You know it's true.

(h-t reader/friend Pastor John)

If I do say so myself — and look! I am! — we are serving up a particularly tasty eclectic blend today. Enjoy.

• Behold, the Lego empire.
• Lego Vader, from Sir Aaron.

• From my dear wife comes this odd moment: do you have your tinfoil hat on?
• It's pleasant to have a certain number of unmarketable talents. This gent has at least one.

• Excellent hand-art.

• Yikes. Or, to be exact, Yike bike. My mother-in-law pointed this one out. You can queue up to get one for yourself, for a mere $4500. Me, I see dead people.
• Goodness, but I wish Mitt Romney would forget about running for president. Now he's wriggling about whether he ever called himself "pro-choice." Dude...look you can see how emphatic Romney was in his support of protecting the abortion status quo, running for governor as recently as 2002. His brave mom, standing up for the right to butcher inconvenient or imperfect babies, what a proud legacy, blah blah bloody-blah. If Romney wants to say he was being wiggly to win in a pro-abort state then (i.e. really pro-life, but sounding pro-abortion to get elected), then what is he doing now, to be nominated by a pro-life party?
• Wellnow, I've found a page you should not go to if you are even one ounce overweight. Or hungry. Or human. This one. Three words...and you know what they are.
• No, Josiah, this would not be an acceptable answer.  (c;

• Elitists' favorite "conservative" (or one of them, at any rate), David Brooks, has given a game try at trashing the Tea Party Movement. Golly, what a surprise. Who could ever have guessed that a movement of Those People wouldn't be to Mr. Brooks' liking?
• So then Lee Harris took a second look at Brooks' case and, in looking, pretty well demolished it.
• Reader Pam Siegfried alerted me to some pretty neat garage covers with which you could amaze your neighbors. Here are a few (click to enlarge; more here).

• Buck Murdock Alert. Oh my gosh, the irony is just priceless. Just listen:  "US president Barack Obama has said the 'time for talk is over'...Speaking to a crowd in Missouri, Mr Obama said ... {snip} ...the president hoped to rally support for his plans, saying: 'The time to talk is over...'" — and then he went on, and on, and on.

• Translation: "Hey! No fair disagreeing and challenging and asking questions! Just do my will 'n' pass my bill!" (Look for that on a T-shirt... or an O-shirt: "Do my will 'n' pass my bill!")
• Of course, I do agree with President Oblahblah: the time for talk is over. Dude, you've flogged it for over a year. We hate it. Drop it. Give it a rest. Give us a rest. Move on!

• One last healthcare takeover note: the genius who Dem voters put in charge of Congress, Nancy Pelosi, actually said of the healthcare bill, "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it." I (A) am not making this up, and (B) feel so much better. Don't you?

• Independent thinking in Texas education? Not so much. Back in line, comrade!
• Ahh, lovely. Hobbit houses.

• Here's a sad graph, relating the number of abortions in a state to whether it votes Democrat or Republican. Sad, but no surprises. The most-Democrat states also have the most abortions. And the stand-out bloodiest state? My own. Horrible, horrible.
• For the most part, seems like the homosexual agenda is very similar to the pro-abortion movement, in that there is no actual "there" there, beyond emotions, clichés, and selfishness. Current exhibit: I gather a songwriter named Ray Boltz at one point thought he was a Christian, as Nebuchadnezzar at one point thought he was an ox. Then Ray decided indulging sexually perverse desires was worth everything, so now he's that. Instead of the Lordship of Christ, he wrote a little song in which he preaches the Lordship of Ray and Ray's feelings and perverted desires, and equates sexual perversion to skin-color. My. All the originality and newness of...of... of things that have no originality nor newness. (Reader Jonathan Vowell pointed this item out.)
• While doing background for that item, I stumbled across a thoughtful reflection by reader Fred Butler, on the sad occasion of Boltz' shaking his fist in God's face.
• This is very cool. Dude spends three years building Minas Tirith... out of matchsticks.

• I know I know I know. Raised-pinkie bloggers would never say this. There are two or three things wrong with my saying this. But sometimes you just have to say it. Here goes: don't you sometimes just thank God that you don't carry the burden of trying to explain or defend the Roman Catholic Church? Seriously?
• Do not press the red button.

• Title of the Week winner is: Homeless man under house arrest.
• We also have a runner-up, also from the law enforcement files. It is: Calif state senator says he's gay after DUI arrest. Well, at least now we know what causes it.
• I care for the health and wellbeing of all my readers. So, here is a public service reminder: physical exercise of any sort is hazarrous and should be avoided at all costs.

• Relatedly, with our lady readers who are increasingly "great with child" in mind, there is an onion cream that is supposed to help with stretch marks. Mm... wonder whether it makes a nice little chip-dip, too....
• Bringing us inexorably to all of this:

As all who know me know, I am a mono-tasker. At best. Additionally, I'm fairly easily-distracted.

So when I'm studying, particularly in places where there are competing noises, I need some sort of music for "white noise," to cancel out everything else. It can't feature vocals, and it can't be soundtracks for movies I'll be tempted to visualize. It should be just engaging enough, but not distracting.

To meet that need, I have Phil Keaggy instrumentals, some Celtic music, some fusion jazz — and now Matt Stevens.

Since I've featured some instrumental guitar music, Matt Stevens contacted me directly to see if I'd be interested in reviewing his album, and I was glad to take the offer. It is available for download here.  Payment is "name your price."

Matt is a North Londoner, a guitarist who provides his own layers of sound for his own compositions. He's quite a prolific presence.

What did I think?

Funny thing about my musical tastes. Some of my long-term favorite music, I did not like at first listen. I didn't like Chicago at first — and now they've been my favorite band for nearly forty years. Some Chicago songs turned me off at first, then became favorites.

It was similar with this album. At first listen, my reaction was mixed. I didn't love it. It is all acoustic. I did not immediately warm to the thump-knock percussion (presumably off the body of the guitar), found myself longing for real drums. I found the direction of the leads odd. The rhythm backing was strange, not immediately easy to get a hold of.

Challenging, is the word.

Then, as I listened, every single track grew on me. Stevens is rather a daring guitarist. Either he's completely fooled me, or he deliberately takes his music into dissonant ranges, just to avoid the numbingly predictable.

The opening track ("Burning Bandstands") starts off with an insistent strum, then shifts into a melodic, semi-flamenco style, with more changes on the way, ranging in feel from mellow and relaxed, to urgent and probing. And that's just one song. Then "Airships" mixes a driving beat with mixed tempo, and a haunting recurrent melody. "Drama in the Coals" follows with a pell-mell journey feel, its signature-line weaving in and out, then providing the final notes of the song.

"Flies in the Basement" again brings in something of a more Spanish feel, combined with fast-paced percussion and harmonic accents. Then "Snow Part 3" brings it way down (perhaps too much), into a sloow, hazy jazzy feel. But don't get too relaxed; "Chasing the Sun" gets us back to a run, with a compelling beat and refrain.

Track 8 is "West Green," with a very Reggae feel, and some complex layering and changes. (At one point, the  one-man Reggae band evidently heads for outer space.) The final track ("Echo") is mellow and pleasant, featuring what I now see as Stevens' fondness for change-ups.

Ah, there it is. Now I see one reason I like him, why the songs stay with me. Early Chicago attracted me by the complexity and changes in its first albums. Though his music is nothing like Chicago, Stevens has that same sensibility: most of these songs go over various landscapes, involving several mid-course alterations.

I recommend it, and will be looking forward to his second album, due this summer.

This study is from an on going online Daily Bible Study at:
DailyBibleStudy.Org | Daily Bible Study Index Page | Daily Bible Study Online E-Book Library



1 Timothy 5:25

DailyBibleStudy.Org


25 Likewise [hosautos] also [kai] the good [kalos] works [ergon] of some are [esti] manifest beforehand; [prodelos] and [kai] they that are [echo] otherwise [allos] cannot [ou] [dunamai] be hid. [krupto] KJV-Interlinear


25 Likewise also, deeds that are good are quite evident, and those which are otherwise cannot be concealed. NASB


And conversely to the previous verse where the bad in people may be obvious for some and hidden in others, but so too, the good in some is obvious and in others the good is not so obvious.

In either situation, proper, objective and thorough investigation, and patience, will generally always result in discovering what the truth is, with regard to someone's personality, attitude, and motivations in life.

They are either playing you for a fool, or they are sincere, honest and above board in their behavior.

Spontaneous decisions usually result in trouble, whereas patient and thoughtful examination will usually result in good decisions.

In life, good decisions yield more opportunities. Bad decisions limit opportunities.

We have covered a lot of ground in 1Timothy. From the role of men and women, to preparation for the Rapture, to the qualifications for good Christian behavior.

But remember one thing, the overall subject of 1Timothy, is ‘maintaining.’

Our purpose in this life is not to settle in, to a life in this world, but to prepare ourselves for the next life. A life which will be far greater than anything that you can imagine.

And while most folks waste their lives away, with trivial matters, hobbies, and pursuits, the world and history is rapidly closing in on the next and ultimate event – the Rapture of the Church.

And though we do not know when that will occur, it is not relevant to your spiritual life, because your primary priority in life, is to grow up in your spiritual life to maturity, so that you will be ready and prepared for whatever happens, no matter when it happens.

And thus Paul in his instructions to Timothy, is speaking to each one of us as well. We are to know doctrine, through study, and then apply it to our daily life. For it is through that process that we prepare ourselves for whatever God has planned for each one of us, as well as for the world and history.

The world is in desperate need of qualified instructors. The world is in desperate need of positive students.

As attitude toward Christ and doctrine goes, so goes history.\

We have already studied the massive apostasy that will grow up at end of our own dispensation, and as to that, none of us will be able to prevent it.

However, that does not mean that we need to be a part of it, and so through a daily study we can prepare and maintain ourselves for better things, while the world slips away into a destiny that God has already fore-ordained, and therefore is inevitable.


Feel Free to make a comment about this study: Comment Page


If you are a Facebook member, then please join the Bible Study Group that best suits you:


Facebook Groups


Daily Bible Study Quick Links
Go to this quick links page, and save it in your bookmarks for quick access to the daily studies.

Two subscription options to receive these daily studies everyday via e-mail, are available here.