Evolutionary Hymn-

Lead us, Evolution, lead us
Up the future’s endless stair:
Chop us, change us, prod us, weed us.
For stagnation is despair:
Groping, guessing, yet progressing,
Lead us nobody knows where.

Wrong or justice in the present,
Joy or sorrow, what are they
While there’s always jam to-morrow,
While we tread the onward way?
Never knowing where we’re going,
We can never go astray.

To what ever variation
Our posterity may turn
Hairy, squashy, or crustacean,
Bulbous-eyed or square of stern,
Tusked or toothless, mild or ruthless,
Towards that unknown god we yearn.

Ask not if it’s god or devil,
Brethren, lest your words imply
Static norms of good and evil
(As in Plato) throned on high;
Such scholastic, inelastic,
Abstract yardsticks we deny.

For too long have sages vainly
Glossed great Nature’s simple text;
He who runs can read it plainly,
‘Goodness=what comes next.’
By evolving, Life is solving
All the questions we perplexed.

On then! Value means survival-
Value. If our progeny
Spreads and spawns and licks each rival,
That will prove it’s deity
(Far from pleasant, by our present
Standards, though it well may be).

C.S. Lewis-
The Cambridge Review LXXIX (Nov. 30, 1957), p.227

This is for sure my most favorite whimsical/apologetical poem!! Even if I coudn't stand to hear the beliefs held by Mr. Lewis (which is not the case), I would bear it to hear this poem a million times over!!

Let me see-

Let me see this world, dear Lord,
As though I were looking through Your eyes.
A world of men, who don’t want You Lord-
But a world for which You died.

Let me kneel with You in the garden.
Blur my eyes with tears of agony.
For if once I could see this world-
The way You see, I just know
I’d serve You more faithfully!

Let me see this world, dear Lord,
Through Your eyes as men mock You holy name.
As they beat You and spat upon You, Lord-
Let me love them, as You loved them
Just the same!!

Let me rise high above my petty problems
And grieve for men, hell-bound eternally!
For if once I could see this world
The way You see, I just know
I’d serve you more faithfully!

If Only I Had Said

My, one-time-friend, I’m sorry
I just wish I could have said-
I just wish I could have voiced,
All the convictions in my head.

Yes, I tried to model them,
But I fit them into my system-
And watered them down so low
That I couldn’t recognize them!

I wish I could have been a better
Example of a true friend,
But all this speculative wishing-
Finds itself a bitter end…

For you are down there screaming
In torment day and night!
Truly, only, for one reason-
MY stupid, selfish, fright.

If only I had said-
I really might have saved you!
But- now you are dead, and
All of my chances are through.

Are you afraid of saying?
Of speaking out your belief?
Learn- PLEASE- from my example,
So you won’t bear this grief!

I bear a load of remorse so great-
If ONLY I’d stepped out and said!
If I had told him of my great God,
He might have been in heaven, instead!

I sat mute and silent, wanting
All the acceptance my friends gave-
But the greatest gift, I with held
And now he mourns in the grave!

Believe me it’s not worth it!
Stick out! Stand up! Be the talk of the town!
And you won’t have my burden-
Weighing you down!

J. L. P.- June 23, 2006

Calvinist?

Am I a Calvinist?

It is a shock-word to most denominations. I was raised adamantly free-will. Now I have to come to terms with (what I think is a) balanced view.

First, to all you good (moderate) "Arminian", and to all you good (moderate) "Calvinists" "Reformed Baptists"...and etc.

I have a firm belief in the Hypostatic Union. That is the biblical doctrine that states that Jesus (while here on earth) was at the same time both fully God, and fully man. This is confusing to some because the definition of "God", and the definition of "man" are fully opposite of each other

This is how I have settled in my own mind the question of how God can be fully supreme....for He is by His very nature...and how man can have at the same time a fully free will to make decisions for which he is fully responsible.

Supremacy entails full power over, and absolute control. Freedom entails perfectly uninfluenced decisions, and no set boundaries to limit. I am not fully able to understand the plans of Father God.......but couldn't that be?

I heard from someone that there is a movie about a man raised in a glass world. That is all he knew and all he wanted to know. What he didn't know was that his world was fake...all the people surrounding him were well-versed actors. He believed that he was acting from his own ideas, but all he thought and did was really dictated by the false world around him. He was the ultimate reality show to the world. One day his "world" breaks and he realizes how duped he was.
Is this how God has set things? Are we just thinking we make decisions on our own and God lets us think it? Are we then still responsible for our actions?

Obviously God is all-knowing (omniscient)...
Matt. 6:8- ...For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him
9:5- But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?
Acts 1:24- And they prayed and said, "You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all...
15:8- Known to God from eternity are all His works....
I Cor. 3:19- For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, "He catches the wise in their [own] craftiness"; 20 and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." 21 Therefore let no one boast in men.

But man was created in God's image
Gen. 1:26- Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His [own] image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God's image in man is what the other creatures weren't given and don't have...namely, a soul, and with a soul goes the ability to exercise it. It is a shame that man had to use it wrongly...namely the first sin when Eve went against the only rule that God had set, and Adam ate after her. This gave them the knowledge of evil, and gave sin to all of us who were born after.

It also did not stop...for after the flood when God set up new guidelines for society, (Gen. 9:6 - Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man.) He acknowledged man's free will.

Is it a hypostatic union? I don't know.

I am certainly NOT *hyper* anything. If it has to come down to a debate where only either man can be fully autonomous, or where God cam be fully supreme....I'm on God's side every time!

Immortal, invisible...

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life thou givest, to both great and small;
In all life thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish, like leaves on the tree,
Then wither and perish; but nought changeth thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render: O help us to see'
Tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.

It gives me shivers to hear it sung by a choir.....and it is only praise to the Father. It's only notice of self is to admit how worthless, derpaved, and degraded we naturally are.

All praise I render...to Him who is worthy alone!

Intro-

Hullo! This is my blog. For those of you who know me, you did a good job in finding this......and don't check often because I won't be posting a lot!