Something New

I'm starting something I promised that I would do. Yes, this blog is dead, but so what, this is as much for me as anyone else.

I've finally finished the notebook I keep sermon and study notes in. Since we are talking something I use once or twice a week, it is time to do something with these. So, I'm going to go through it page by page and on the weekdays start putting in the Scripture that came with each message and from my notes either teach the same lesson or review it the Scripture and create my own lesson from it.

For several reasons, I'm not going to list the names of the men who taught these, most importantly because there are still some antimasons who want to try to find my pastor and harass him. So, if you do read this and it looks like your stuff, all copyrights will still apply to the original author.

I'll start this up in the morning.

Strange Events

Okay, here I am at a Men's conference and I noticed a few things that strike me as odd.

Ok, it is a big church, but that is to be expected. They have a good music group with a nice rocking beat. However, did I need to be blinded by whirling colored spots in some kind of light show that was crappier than the ones I used to see in bars a couple of decades ago? What was this need to produce "smoke" to drift over the pulpit area around the band, again a crappier effect than the one I saw in bars a couple of decades ago? Not a problem that they were bad, but this is a church! The praise and worship was great, except the cheap rock concert effects were distracting and annoying to me. Of course, the advances in video technology had produced a much sharper image of the breakout solos of the various instruments with the preening of the soloists. I'd have gotten by that until the music minister decides to announce that Jesus is in this place (Well, DUH!), then he (music minister) says that "Because I brought Him!", waits a few beats and then segues into the "where two or three are gathered..." (like I said, Well, DUH!).

Of course, then there was the special message from the pastor and his wife, pitching some weird kind of life insurance....

Now, the message we got was good. In fact, the biggest problem was that even though it ran over, the pastor could spend our two sessions tomorrow with him simply unpacking that one message. I was enjoying that message, but that life insurance pitch...

Maybe I just don't understand "big city" churches and the stresses of a pastor who deals with thousands of people in his pews, but a life insurance pitch? That was just too much. You know, when a Sunday school class gets too big, it should be split or break out another teacher or two and IMO, most megachurches and the wannabe lower echelon probably should have a rock thrown in them. I doubt the efficiency of anything they do over several small churches (except at maybe selling life insurance that not only keeps "tithing" for you after you are dead, but also sends a little check to the grandkids too) since it is much easier in a bigger church to go to sleep and "let George do it".

The problem I'd have: Does the pastor know about this issue with the music ministry playing failed rock concert guys? Does the pastor simply trust his music minister to keep things straight or what?

Gee, you wonder why some SBC members worry about whether or not the GCRTF will do anything worth the time and effort, don't you? After all, some of the leadership now were young Turks and players fifteen years ago when with either the blissful ignorance of (or active abetting of) the then CR leadership of the SBC accepted the tales of proven liars and their false witnessing over the contrary testimony of respected members. Of course, disappearing reports, thousands of documents going missing and changes in policy exceeding the mandate of the messengers by bureaucratic means have nothing to do with it. No, not at all.

In the meantime, there is much bruhaha about discernment and education of the Church. True, it is needed and I was calling for it before these bigwigs stepped in. Of course, there is my "little problem" which prevents me from being an official front line teacher. The sad thing is that my pastor is a busy man, earnestly working and striving, doing a great job of teaching the Word when he can. I'm still enjoying learning from him. Yet, my "little problem" which might be "offensive" or "questionable" to "some" in the church and could be a "stumbling block" to "some" remains totally 100% based on false witness, open lies, twisted Scripture, forgeries and shoddy scholarship. So, we could remove this "little problem" by actually doing some education in doctrines and discernment, but.....there is only one readily available teacher who is familiar and motivated with the subject matter and he.....has a "little problem".

This seems to be coming to a head, or I'm just needing to vent a little, because truthfully, the time and effort to actually educate people to that level of discernment would be wasteful even if I turned out to be the teacher from heaven, especially since there are some who would still believe what they heard from their brother's sister's mother's cousin was true. So they would just keep "viewing with alarm". That it makes my pastor look like something I don't believe he is (one of the "stealth" antimasons, who never says Freemasonry is wrong, but simply denies any Mason any responsible position) evidently just cannot be helped.

It is a small thing, but it would be a stand for truth instead of false witness, but in end results, this way is most expedient. There would be a price to be paid, because I know one person who has bought the lies hook, line and sinker. I feel it was my error not to directly confront and correct that brother on the spot, but I had work to do in the fellowship hall to finish setting up for a fund raiser and it was more expedient to let it go with my comment that it was bogus and an assurance that I would "watch out" for that pagan stuff that "trusted preachers" had said was in Freemasonry. So, I cannot very well go around talking about the mote in someone else's eye with the beam sticking out of mine.

Going to Africa

I've known it for a while now, but it is been getting more official: I'm going to Africa on a mission trip. I'm not going to say exactly where since it fits on the IMB's list of countries that you aren't supposed to talk about. While I'm going to be there doing what the missionary requires, the primary requirement is to improve the quality of the local food production. Since part of what I do around my place is sustainable agriculture and livestock, I am able to fit a specific need.

Actually, this might be something more than just what I'm going for. I'm not sure, but along with the minor stuff, once I get on the ground and see what the locals have, I might be able to work on getting more to them. They have very little to no electricity, but these days everyone thinks "modern". How much electricity do you need for refrigeration if you use an old fashioned ice box? A few hours of generator power once a week to hard freeze ~50 lbs of ice, which should give the locals some extra food storage, especially for something like making cheese. Even a little bit of cold box extends your options on holding food.

This would give them the option of culling their goat flocks harder to get higher productivity since it won't go to waste in the heat. There would be the ability to hold excess products until enough was on hand to process for long term storage. For example, if they need to consume most fruit as part of their daily diet, but there is a little bit left over, then it could be accumulated in the cold for a few days until there was enough to cook down and can in jars for later. It is amazing how much just a little bit of ice can do. However, that is for the next time I go.

So, please, I'd like your prayers and if you feel like you need to you can send a donation through the online giving link here, I'm sure there is someway you can list it as "for Kamatu's Africa Trip" or something like that. You will probably confuse everyone except my pastor. It takes some kind of registration, so that is up to you, but I would thank all of you who pray that He will make this trip a success.

Dealing with the VA

What is it with government employees in general and the VA in particular? Here I sit stressing in the middle of the night, because after years of work, gathering documentation, trudging up the line of appeals, seeing quacks who write junk and lies that have to be rebutted and finally getting it before a VA judge who makes a ruling raising my rating to the maximum amount allowable by law, the VA decides to send me a letter saying that they want to reduce my rating back to where it was.

The crux of this rant, since I'm not really that stressed yet. Why is it that I can get a letter from the VA that will at a minimum eat up two days of my life, potentially can stress my entire family out seriously and (knowing my wife) is already working on her nerves since she still isn't quite sure on this "be still" stuff and there is no penalty or recourse on the VA (or other government) employee?

However if I shake my finger in their face (let alone give them the arse kicking that their lack of ability to reason their way out of a paper bag truly deserves) then I am issuing a terroristic threat and can be banned from VA facilities?

Oh, because they are "doing their job" and need to be "free from fear"? "Doing my job" is the defense of all incompetents that are doing something wrong. Of course, if they simply did their jobs in accordance with regulations and with PROPER and FULL review of case records (in my case, this actually means some summaries of the issues in my records, so they don't have to dig that far back), then they could live "free from fear".

Amazing, isn't it?! If government employees would actually do their jobs then they could be free from fear! Of course, if they use the excuse to mess with peoples' lives, thereby triggering problems, then I guess they should be afraid. If I were them, I'd be afraid of low stress guys, especially when they make them useless for any valid function in their family.