all of us here in california like to think that we’re the only people in the world who speak without an accent. now, while that is obviously true, it has come to my attention over the last couple of years that i pronounce certain words in unusual ways.

for example:

the word “leg” – i say “lehg“

the word “tv” – i say “TEEvee” (instead of the usual “teeVEE“)

just yesterday i learned of a new word i mispronounce. apparently when i use the word “else” i say, “elts.”

i did not know that.

zach, my coworker, told me that when he was younger he used to think i was canadian because of my elting. i don’t suppose i can blame him.

two questions:

question the first: do you know of any other words i mispronounce? i’m not going to stop, i’d just like to know.

question the second: what words do you knowingly ‘mis’pronounce?

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if you spend much time reading a lot of ‘popular’ Christian blogs eventually you will find an unedifying argument a discussion about the Old Testament that goes something like this:

blogger 1 – you can’t tell me to do/not do/support/not support that!

blogger 2 – i’m not telling you to do/not do/support/not support anything, BUT i WOULD like to direct your attention to (insert Old Testament reference here), which proves that you DO have to do/not do/support/not support what i’m talking about.

blogger 1 – oh, well, if you think the Old Testament is true then we all better start gouging out our own eyes and you better believe in marrying a bunch of wives because that’s what the Old Testament says to do.

sad, i know. yet, this is a back-and-forth that occurs pretty frequently out here.

christian critics of the Old Testament sometimes point to a weirdness like the multiplication of wives and say, “look, God endorsed this!” then, the trend is to sort of set the OT on the shelf, while only quoting snippets from the sermon on the mount. after all, that 75% of God’s word that comes right before the gospel of Matthew is just polygamist, war-mongering silliness! (insert sarcasm avatar/emoticon here)

there seems to be (in some Christian circles) almost of fear of the Old Testament. not the reverence kind of fear, but the frightened, embarrassed kind of fear. it’s as if we look at the levitical law, the conquest of canaan, etc., and are ashamed to say that it’s part of our Bible.

Jesus Christ was quite friendly with the Old Testament. He said in Hebrews 10:7 that He came ‘in the volume of the book.’

so what about polygamy?

God never endorsed polygamy. when we see God’s people marrying multiple wives it is a perversion of God’s original intent, which He revealed to adam and eve, that the two would become one flesh. not three. not four.

2.

to say that God endorsed polygamy in the Old Testament is to say that He also endorsed murder, bitterness, theft, strife, lying, adultery…i mean, king david did all those things and more that were recorded there in the Big Bad Testament.

i am always amazed when christians start criticizing the Old Testament, when they start writing it off, when they suggest in their comments that God was somehow different then; worse and more harsh, less merciful and hadn’t quite figured out forgiveness or loving-kindness.

what a terribly sad way to view the foundation of our faith.

polygamy was recorded in the Old Testament because that’s what happened. that was the behavior of many (not all) of the people we read about between Genesis and Malachi. to say that it was part of a good standing with God is just illogical and uninformed.

i love the quote from someone smarter than me: ‘the New is in the Old concealed, and the Old is in the New revealed.’

let’s stop bad-mouthing the Old Testament, and, let’s stop being afraid of it.

i realize this is a much greater topic, but after yet again reading a conversation like the one parodied above i thought we might start a conversation of our own.

any thoughts?

blessings

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Let me plead with you, whoever you may be, if you are out of Christ today, don’t think to find satisfaction in a world that has never satisfied anybody. It has disappointed everybody that ever sought satisfaction in it, during all these vast millenniums, and you can depend upon it, it is going to disappoint you. But oh, that even today, you might turn to One who never disappoints, to our blessed Lord Jesus, and find in Him everlasting salvation!
- H.A. Ironside [ Changed By Beholding pg. 10-11 ]

blessings

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It is well to remember that reading books about the Bible is a very different thing to searching the Word for oneself.”
- H.A. Ironside

i love harry. and i love to read his books about the Bible.

it will be nice to meet him one day.

blessings

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Whether they find a life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet.
– Jack Handey

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If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I’d carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like “Hey, look. He’s carrying a soldering iron!” and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, “That’s right, it’s a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice.” Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink.
– Jack Handey

thank you Jack. thank you.

Enjoy Jack Handey