#LentSZN

On…what I’ve been doing while I’ve been gone… ( #LentSZN April 2019)

20190401

20190402

20190403

20190404

  • This physically feels like Friday but it is only Thursday – woke up late but made it in at normal time…but things are still kinda “off”; tomorrow is probably gonna suck
  • track of the day: Dwele – Lady Love (from his unreleased tracks)

20190405

20190406

20190407

  • Nope-looks like it might be the logic board instead…*sigh*
  • Started listening to the “Cultish” podcast by Durbin and Apologia Studios – it’s…sheesh
  • track of the day: Big Daddy Weave – The Lion and the Lamb (though I don’t particularly like their arrangement)

20190408

20190409

20190410

20190411

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20190413

  • I got nothin’ for ya. Just pray for me.

20190414

20190415

  • Got to see a baby baptism yesterday during service.  Now you might be thinking “Mr. Perry, I thought your church was pretty big and there surely have been baptisms there since you’ve been attending?” You’d be right – thing is, the church has two services – I usually go to the early service; the baptisms are usually in the later service.  So I’d unintentionally been dodging them until…yesterday due to my being in their membership class.  The things they ask of the family and the church/congregation were very much so “baby dedication”ish…but it was cool to see the baby’s grandfather (an ordained minister in some denomination that baptizes children too) there to perform the baptism.  You could definitely tell the emphasis was on family…but more than that, a trust in the Holy Spirit to draw that child to faith in Christ.
  • I watched Jordan Cooper’s “Why I’m Not Reformed?” video on Youtube finally (been hesitant to watch it thinking I was gonna hear something I wasn’t gonna like…but knew was true anyway…), and he mentioned something about the church fathers: none of them had an issue at all with baptismal regeneration.  So…I looked it up.  And good grief… http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2010/06/the-church-fathers-on-baptismal-regeneration/ EVEN MY GUY JEROME WAS TEAM BAPTISMAL REGENERATION
  • fragrance of the day: Calvin Klein – Eternity Aqua

20190416

20190417

  • track of the day: Najee – Room To Breathe (this song and I go way back)
  • So…Miss Jay Dubya kinda went off after my response to Prov. 8:22 (I thought Colossians 1 would be the trigger, and I “saw” where she could pop off during one of her visits to my house a good while ago…the time she scared the rabbit <skull emoji>…but here I see a little of the angst in her response via text as well. What follows is said response (was gonna just include snippets, but nah…minus whale include the whole thing. Oh, and the misspellings are hers in this bullet point-all others are probably mine):
    • “I watched the video. [I sent her a link to a GotQuestions.org video about the Trinity since she sent me a video from JW.org about their Friday celebration of Christ – they have their version of communion once per year] Unfortunately, I consider it gibberish, and a misleading. cop out. Jehovah God is more wise than any of us. But. (1) He provided the Bible for us to know him better and to draw closer to him. Not to be profoundly confused. A “Concept” that cannot be understood or explained is an untruth.  (2) The Bible does not teach that the Holy Spirit is a God. (3) Those who choose to “scholarize” push God away, holding him away from reality, allowing them to do progressively more horrible things, “in his name” as evidenced by the dark ages, (crusades) middle ages, and in modern times (slavery, world wars, nazis, human trafficking, etc.) Church “fathers” who ignore Gods true identity pretending he is unknowable, ,unexplainable” can do anything.” “***(3) Those who choose to “scholarize” the trinity doctrine in effect push Jehovah. God away. They effectively do the same to Jesus Christ.***”
  • So yeah…that was sent in response. As of 11:47 today I have done nothing in response to her but pray about what I will send back, that it may be filled with grace and truth. To that end, things I want to highlight in my response to her will be…
    • You consider it (the video I linked) gibberish…I must ask though: do you believe in what all of the Word of God says…or does what it say have to fit into a paradigm that you (a limited human) understand?
      • If the former, cool – we can continue to discuss translation discrepancies! If the latter, then unfortunately I need to introduce you to your true god: <insert your name here>
      • Scripture interprets Scripture: since all of it is the Word of God, we use things that are stated clearly to bring clarity to things that might be misunderstood if taken by themselves.
    • (1) A concept that cannot be understood/explained isn’t an untruth. Especially when it comes to God and what Scripture says about Him. (see above)
    • (2) Paying particular attention (again) to what you said: “The Bible does not teach that the Holy Spirit is a God.” [thank you for capitalizing His name]…the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is God.  Not just “a God”. This is why I still believe you misunderstand what I, that link, and other believers in the Trinity are saying. (Gen. 1:2; Ps. 33:6; 2 Peter 1:21; 1 Cor. 6:19; John 3:5; Acts 5; Ephesians 4:30; 1 Cor. 12:4-7; 1 Cor. 2:10; 2 Cor. 13:14; etc.)
    • (3) Wait…so what do you do with all of the verses imploring believers to study the Scriptures? (2 Tim. 2:15; Acts 17:11; Joshua 1:8; Psalm 119:11; 1 Thes. 5:21) This is why I own the material I do on the text of the Bible and study the way I do: so I know right (2 Tim. 3:16). As to your accusation that said doctrine leads to abase actions by those who believe, I would posit the church catholic is in fact not perfect (and won’t be until His blessed return), and moreover if that is your standard…is the Watchtower society ready for the same standard of scrutiny you’re holding those who disagree to?
    • …what (and who) do you believe saves you…and from what do you need saving from, ultimately?
  • The new Microsoft Edge beta (not Canary) that I’ve been using hasn’t let me down a single time thus far.  I’ve been using it along with Chrome at work and the move to a Chromium base has given it functionality and speed I missed (and yes I used the old Edge too); I look forward to Microsoft contributing more to the Chromium base and seeing all browsers become one lol (Firefox is my last holdout-if it “goes Chromium”, I’ll be caught in a Browser Trinity situation <crying laughter emoji>)

20190418

  • Considering she (Miss Jay Dubya) followed up with another text before I had a chance to respond, I’ve got even more to respond to…
    • “Changing the subject a bit, (I know, it’s almost impossible!) what do your theologians say about the coming wrath of God …in Armageddon. Specifically, Revelation 18:1-4 speaks of a woman ‘prostitute’ that does horrible, horrible things with ‘the Kings of the earth’. How do you understand these and similar warnings in Revelation?? Most religions claiming to be Christian pass on this, claiming it’s a mystery, ‘unexplainable’. An examination of history and correlated scriptures proves that, in fact, this prophecy about them and all other forms of false worship Jehovah has judged and condemned.” “Oh, the symbolic ‘prostitute’, by the way, has been designated ‘Babylon the Great’. There is a reason Jehovah has given all false worship this specific designation, or label. What do you think his[sic] reasons could be? Why would God connect false religion to s city so ancient? Do the scriptures themselves contain this answer?? What were/are the worlds religions doing that connects them to (or maps back to) ancient Babylon?? What are your thoughts?”
      • We actually have talked about this before, oddly enough! But here’s a cursory overview of what was discussed: Luther/Calvin/Knox (reformers) looked to the Roman Catholic Church as the Whore of Babylon.  Which makes sense, considering the context in which they lived.  I think it’s a little more general than specifically that church though, taking the text into full application: more than just the majority of the RCC falls under the statements John mentions in both Revelation and his other books; in addition, I’d believe that historically we should be careful as to what we anathematize considering that upon which we build what we currently believe (we owe the current canon of Scripture to the work of the Holy Spirit within the RCC, for example). All of that is to say: any church/entity that is anti-“the word of God in Scripture” as a whole would make up “the whore of Babylon” (1 John 4; 2 John 1). That would consist of false churches that preach a non-Christ-exalting “gospel”, and all organizations/governments/entities that support such groups. “She” is mentioned in Isaiah 47, 1 Peter 5 (when Peter wasn’t even near actual Babylon, so it couldn’t be the actual place-he was in Rome), and Revelation 17-18. This position also leaves “speculation” out of the discussion and lets Holy Writ speak for itself. I disagree that “most religions claiming to be Christian pass on this” though-there is a fair amount of scholarship on/reference to this, especially post-Reformation (C.I. Scofield, the Westminster Assembly, Particular Baptists, etc). Scofield even included his thoughts in his notes of the Bible (I can include a pic if so desired-I have a copy).
      • (sn: This juxtaposition as “oppressors of the Church” being equated to a “whore” makes sense as well in light of the rest of Revelation which positions the Church as the bride of Christ (Rev. 19, 21), and how His bride should/will be in contrast to the “whore”. Even more so, the whole of the Gospel is Father God reconciling His elect with Himself through the work of Christ at Calvary on the cross as an atonement: a “less than God” Jesus doesn’t satisfy this Gospel. The reconciliation story of a man and his exiled bride is the perfect mirror to the Gospel. This is, in fact, what is observed during the Lenten season in orthodoxy…which conveniently transitions to a mention of…)
      • Easter! Now to your Easter meme from IG! That’s been going around for a while now so I have seen it before (and checked it out). There’s quite a few issues with the meme: first, Ishtar’s sacred animal seems to have been a lion-depictions of her and other “goddesses” riding together on lions is what she is historically connected to, not eggs/rabbits. Her name cannot be connected in the fashion the meme says to Easter. The only mention of Eostre (the Saxon goddess) is that passing reference in the history of Venerable Bede (I note that your JW.org link references that too-there’s nothing to it though). That would also prove to be a weak theory too because no proof has been found that Eostre was ever worshipped as a goddess…but hey, at least you could get the word “Passover” out of that theory. Just because one holiday shares a general time with another doesn’t prove them connected. Even worse, if all of that is true…which it doesn’t seem to be…there’s one day we all generally acknowledge that has more substantive pagan origin: Wednesday. Or…even wilder…Sunday! Ultimately, Romans 14:5-6 applies here (I also included the New World Translation for your convenience):
        • One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. (ESV)
        • One man judges one day as above another; another judges one day the same as all others; let each one be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day observes it to Jehovah. Also, the one who eats, eats to Jehovah, for he gives thanks to God; and the one who does not eat does not eat to Jehovah, and yet gives thanks to God. (NWT)
          • THE ABOVE ENDED UP BEING WHAT I RESPONDED TO HER WITH
      • I got a question for you about the NWT’s John 1:1 though now that you mention changing the subject lol
  • On to other stuff…was supposed to go bowling with my small group. Ended up going to a baseball game…
    • Through a friend in the group I now have a Spotify playlist of various types of metal that come highly recommended. Reviews will be forthcoming, but I already found one that I…like?
      • All we need is blood.
        • (don’t expect any of these tracks to be a TOTD any time soon though)
  • Whoa… https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/pig-brains-partially-revived-hours-after-death%E2%80%94what-it-means-for-people/ar-BBW2ni6
  • …this is why I don’t write, ya’ll (pt. 1)… https://torreygazette.com/blog/2019/2/15/vignettes-peters-four-month-journey
  • …this is why I don’t write, ya’ll (pt. 2)… https://torreygazette.com/blog/2019/3/11/reading-writing-poems-in-the-shadow-of-death-in-lent
  • I would cry…a LOT… https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/jenny-mollen-reveals-she-dropped-her-son-5-and-fractured-his-skull/ar-BBW41lj
  • Any uh yawl gonna read AWL uh dis? https://www.justice.gov/storage/report.pdf
  • Aye yo Miss Jay Dubya done sent me a total of 14msgs about Easter and the whore of Babylon without me responding yet because I’ve been busy…sheesh my phone ain’t seen this much action since I had an anno…nevermind lol

20190420

20190421

20190422

20190423

20190424

20190425

Aye, I’ve been sick but I have been accumulating links so eventually I’ll get all of those on here.

20190428

  • fragrance of the day: Chanel – Bleu de Chanel EDP  …legit no-miss fragrance
  • Still trying to recover…*sigh*

20190429

20190430

 

This was the first month I really…like…made this a habit, and these are the results. Completely unedited too, so forgive me for anything said…

Ya’ll take care – I’ve got the next month coming later.