Book List [what I've been reading lately ...]

You are what your mind eats ...

A Trophy of Grace

Please join me in praying for Christopher Hitchens, who has recently announced a cancelation of his book tours in order to begin chemotherapy for cancer [I believe of the asophogas]. It would be just like God to send undercurrents of grace beneath the crashing waves. Let’s pray that this is the case.
For we also used to be foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, Whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.


- Titus 3

Gleanings from Storytime in Narnia ...

“When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the whole point; for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion (“only a lion,” as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that it wasn’t singing and never had been singing—only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our own world. “Of course it can’t really have been singing,” he thought, “I must have imagined it. I’ve been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?” And the longer and more beautiful the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring. Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan’s song. Soon he couldn’t have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.”

- C. S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew


"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. But although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."
 
- St. Paul, Romans 1

All of human history ...

... is simply the continuing process of God redeeming our race while at the same time demonstrating the folly of sin. 

Now there's a happy thought.

Judicial Activism

‘Judicial activism’ is a fancy phrase for a very plain thing. When the law says ‘A’ and the judge wants it to mean ‘Z’ he “interprets” it as meaning 'Z'. Deep thinkers may call that “judicial activism”. Back where I come from, we call that lying. Judges don’t just twist and stretch the law for fun, usually they do it to support some article of faith in the liberal creed. That’s what wins them the support of the media and academia. Attempts to justify judicial activism are very complicated and very clever, but they boil down to the kind of excuses any parent of a small child should be used to hearing.


- Thomas Sowell

With a Firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence ...

In case you missed the opportunity, be sure to set aside the 5 short minutes it will take to read through the Declaration of Independence this week.  Look for the several references to God.  Count the reasons for breaking w/ Britain.  Count the names and do a wiki-search on your 3 favorite signatures.  Look for the terrifically un-PC phrase "with manly firmness", and more. 
For a bit of context and wit [if a bit snippy], check out Gary North's satirical piece on proposed revisions to the Declaration.