Sunday Psalm 17: All I want is to see you as you are

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Psalm 17

(A prayer by David.)

   The Prayer of an Innocent Person ¹I am innocent, LORD!

   Won't you listen as I pray

   and beg for help?

   I am honest!

   Please hear my prayer.

    ²Only you can say

   that I am innocent,

   because only your eyes

   can see the truth.

    ³You know my heart,

   and even during the night

   you have tested me

   and found me innocent.

   I have made up my mind

   never to tell a lie.

    ⁴I don't do like others.

   I obey your teachings

   and am not cruel.

    ⁵I have followed you,

   without ever stumbling.

    ⁶I pray to you, God,

   because you will help me.

   Listen and answer my prayer!

    ⁷Show your wonderful love.

   Your mighty arm protects those

   who run to you

   for safety

   from their enemies.

    ⁸Protect me as you would

   your very own eyes;

   hide me in the shadow

   of your wings.

    ⁹Don't let my brutal enemies

   attack from all sides

   and kill me.

    ¹⁰They refuse to show mercy,

   and they keep bragging.

    ¹¹They have caught up with me!

   My enemies are everywhere,

   eagerly hoping to smear me

   in the dirt.

    ¹²They are like hungry lions

   hunting for food,

   or like young lions

   hiding in ambush.

    ¹³Do something, LORD!

   Attack and defeat them.

   Take your sword and save me

   from those evil people.

    ¹⁴Use your powerful arm

   and rescue me

   from the hands of mere humans

   whose world won't last. ^[a] You provide food

   for those you love.

   Their children have plenty,

   and their grandchildren

   will have more than enough.

    ¹⁵I am innocent, LORD,

   and I will see your face!

   When I awake, all I want

   is to see you as you are.

Jesus said, "he who has seen me has seen the Father".

Have a good Sunday. Do something different. Ditch work and worry. Play with the kids. Notice nature. Give thanks. Be grateful.

Swiss Chalet's Festive Special... I do the math

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Swiss Chalet's festivized quarter chicken white costs about $4.00 more than the unfestive version -- about $18.00 all-in. It comes with soggy dressing and decent cranberries. I always fill out the receipt survey from the previous visit, so I get a $4.00 chicken soup appetizer at no charge. That knocks $4.00 off. You get six chocolates, worth maybe $4.00. Plus, you get a $5.00 Indigo Kids coupon. I use the coupon to get $6.00 worth of kids' toy cars for $1.00. So... $18.00 minus $13.00 is... $5 bucks.

But, the festivized chicken special also comes with a two-for-one coupon on the inside lid of the candy box -- ostensibly worth another $10 or so, but you have to buy two drinks to get it, so lets make it worth $5.00.

I'm eating and drinking for free!

That's great, but doesn't Swiss Chalet realize calling it their Festive Special offends all of us who don't celebrate Festivus? Where's their sensitivity? They dropped Christmas for Festivus??!!

And that's the way the festivized Ball bounces.

Ontario School Replaces Christmas With Multiculturally-Friendly Mush

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Parents’ anger as Ontario school replaces Christmas concert with non-denominational February fest.

A country that is ashamed of its culture -- a culture upon which its freedoms and laws and institutions historically rest -- deserves to be taken out or over.

Still, in the best tradition of Canadian artistic creativity (except for the no-government-grants bit) I've written a theme song for the great new winterfestivus for the restofus:

Hey, it's that meh time of year
With it's Feb-ru-ary cheer
It may not be May, but it's certainly meh
It's the time between Christmas and Easter you-know-whats
We'd mention the two-of-'em, but we ain't got the guts...

It's a most, it's a most, it's a most meh-time-of-year!!!

Our new motto: "To make sure we're inclusive we exclude everything!"™

Or, maybe,

Canada. Whatever.™

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Oh, This Is Beautiful...

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Quebec's $7-a-day daycare program faces corruption probe.

Oh, this is beautiful.

Two of Quebec's distinguishing characteristics in one headline. The vaunted $7/day daycare -- held up as an exemplary model of socialist Quebec and made possible because the rest of Canada shovels, what is it, seven or eight billion dollars a year in eternal subsidies Quebec's way while Quebec is up to its eyeballs in debt.

Plus, of course, world-class corruption.

Why Quebec puffs itself up and thinks it's something special is beyond me.

It's honest, tax-paying working stiffs who first pay their own way and then the way of others that make Canada great -- not the loads and loads of movers and takers.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Rex Murphy

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Rex Murphy:

To be a serious Christian in modern Western culture is to be the favoured easy target of every progressive thinker and every half-witted comedian. It is to have your sensibilities and your deepest beliefs on perpetual call for taunts, mockery and desecration. At a time when all progressives preach full volume for inclusivity and sensitivity, for the utmost care in speech when speaking of others with differing views or hues, Christians, as Christians, are under a constant hail of abuse and disregard. There is nothing too low or too vulgar.

Well worth reading.

Lucid Canadian Comment of the Day: Falling Asleep In A Tent Is Camping, Not Protesting

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re: Occupy Toronto:


“... falling asleep in a tent in the middle of a park is camping... not protesting.” -- Rachel Young, here.


Meanwhile, overheard at Occupy Toronto: "We're not leaving 'til we put the park back in the condition we found it in!".


OK, I made that one up.


And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Sunday Psalm: 16 - In your presence is fullness of joy

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Psalm 16

A Michtam of David.

 ¹ Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust.
        
 ² O my soul, you have said to the LORD,
         “You are my Lord,
         My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
 ³ As for the saints who are on the earth,
         “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”
        
 ⁴ Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
         Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
         Nor take up their names on my lips.
        
 ⁵ O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
         You maintain my lot.
 ⁶ The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
         Yes, I have a good inheritance.
        
 ⁷ I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
         My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
 ⁸ I have set the LORD always before me;
         Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
        
 ⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
         My flesh also will rest in hope.
 ¹⁰ For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
         Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
 ¹¹ You will show me the path of life;
         In Your presence is fullness of joy;
         At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

New King James Version (NKJV)

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

via BibleGateway.com

* * *

I confess: the Lord is my portion, my cup, my inheritance, my counsel, my instructor, my Rock, my Redeemer, my assurance of life beyond the grave.


How sure am I that Jesus is alive? 100.0%.


Have a good day of down-time rest from whatever you do the rest of the week.

Aborting Children Gives Chris Selley A Warm Fuzzy Feeling

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Chris Selley: "Ms. Tomlins suggests the added effort might make women reconsider. All it makes me consider is the prospect of a woman giving birth solely because she can't scrape together $1,000, even in a desperate situation. This does not give me a warm, fuzzy feeling."

Obliterating unborn humans does, Chris?

It's Samaritan's Purse Week In Canada

Our kitchen table is full of stuff collected over the last two years for the Samaritan's Purse kids. What a glorious sight!  We got busy last year and didn't get any shoe-boxes done. We're making up for it this year!  My wife is in charge of the operation. I contribute "stuff" as I come across it. My biggest coup this year was getting these little floating rubber ducky things from a pool/patio store in Phoenix. They gave us one every time we visited the store. Don't worry, we bought $1,000 in patio furniture, so they did OK by us.

It's Samaritan's Purse week in Canada, because "Next Week is Collection Week!".

Christmas shoe-boxes for the kids. The words of Jesus never cease to inspire.

Are you filling a Samaritan's Purse shoe-box this year?

Quote of the Day: "The dispute between atheism and theism is at bottom a philosophical dispute, not a scientific one"

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Continuing our look at Alex Rosenberg’s The Atheist’s Guide to Reality, we come to Rosenberg’s treatment of the question “Where did the big bang come from?”....

"[T]he dispute between atheism and theism is at bottom a philosophical dispute, not a scientific one." -- Edward Feser, in the combox of the above post, here.

A Question For The Occupiers...

Image by Kimberlyki via FlickrWhat plans do you have to restore the occupied grounds back to their original conditions?

Wouldn't most corporations -- the ones you despise -- have a plan in place?

What's yours?

* * *

And wouldn't those same corporations you despise expect to pay for taking over a public space, or otherwise compensate the residents who have been deprived of the use of public space?

What's your plan, Stan?

Sunday Psalm: 15 - Who may dwell in God's holy hill?

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Psalm 15

A Psalm of David.

 ¹ LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle?
         Who may dwell in Your holy hill?
        
 ² He who walks uprightly,
         And works righteousness,
         And speaks the truth in his heart;
 ³ He who does not backbite with his tongue,
         Nor does evil to his neighbor,
         Nor does he take up a reproach against his friend;
 ⁴ In whose eyes a vile person is despised,
         But he honors those who fear the LORD;
         He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
 ⁵ He who does not put out his money at usury,
         Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent.
        
         He who does these things shall never be moved.

New King James Version (NKJV)

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

source: Biblegateway.com

David is the author of this psalm. He was a "man's man" -- a warrior, tribal leader, king. He was also a worshipper and seeker after God. He counted God's presence as the greatest blessing on earth. 


Centuries later Christ came as the "son of David" and gave us an interpretive key to the Old Testament Scriptures: they speak of Him. Who is the man of Psalm 15 who ascends God's holy hill and abides in his temple? Who is this righteous man? To ask this question is to answer it. It is Christ. Christ ascended the hill of God and abides in his temple. 


Those who would do the same must do it through him. Whether you be Jew or Muslim or Hindu onew-age, or nothing-much-of-all hear his whisper: "I am the way... no man comes to the Father but by me".

Here's The 1% The 99% Should Be Going After

"I followed the law," he said. Using the system as it was available to him "was only the prudent thing to do."

Ah, yes. Similar to the "I was only following orders" excuse.

h/t Mark Steyn

The Mark Steyn Word of the Day™

Image via WikipediaOK, Mark Steyn is not Bill Buckley, but he is, er, Mark Steyn. So in honour of the fact that Mark Steyn is not Bill Buckley but is indeed Mark Steyn, the Ball Bounces is inaugurating the Mark Steyn Word of the Day™.  You too can learn to think, write, and even (gasp) speak like Mark Steyn!

tchotchke

Used here.

Mark Steyn. Well worth reading.™

Pardon Me While I Throw Up...

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California Mayor Snubs Veterans to Attend Occupy Rally.

Ah, yes. Because Occupiers represent all that's brightest and best in our society. Is that it?

Do they even have a viable plan to pay for the damage they are causing to public spaces?

Darwinism Defined...

Image via WikipediaThe term darwinism has both scientific and metaphysical dimensions. Metaphysically, it assumes materialism is true and then posits a theory consistent with this assumption. The problem arises when, because of this assumption, arguments are made to the effect that because materialism is true, we know darwinism is surely true and the only truth possible. Because it is true, we know it happened, and when inconvenient facts contradict it (like the demonstrably feeble creative power of undirected random mutation, the improbability of the butterfly, or the exquisite intelligence-laden complexity of the cell), it is because we don't know enough yet. In other words, a belief in Darwin of the gaps.

At any rate, here is cute definition of darwinian evolution designed by Tom Gilson over at Thinking Christian. You may design a clever response.

"Naturalistic Evolution (def.): the marvelous (presumed) capacity of nature to create the appearance of design, and to produce beings who have the ability to design and to detect design; but which itself has no ability to design, or if it does have that ability, it is forever undetectable."

The last bit is presumably a nod towards theistic darwinian evolutionists. Well done, Tom.

Sunday Psalm: 14 - Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!

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Psalm 14

New King James Version (NKJV)

Psalm 14

–To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

 ¹ The fool has said in his heart,
         “There is no God.”
         They are corrupt,
         They have done abominable works,
         There is none who does good.
       
 ² The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men,
         To see if there are any who understand, who seek God.
 ³ They have all turned aside,
         They have together become corrupt;
         There is none who does good,
         No, not one.
       
 ⁴ Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
         Who eat up my people as they eat bread,
         And do not call on the LORD?
 ⁵ There they are in great fear,
         For God is with the generation of the righteous.
 ⁶ You shame the counsel of the poor,
         But the LORD is his refuge.
       
 ⁷ Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
         When the LORD brings back the captivity of His people,
         Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad.

* * *

"Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!"

That cry-of-the-heart prayer of David was answered in the coming of Christ -- the "salvation of Israel". Zion's King. The suffering servant of Isaiah. The Son of Man of Daniel. "The Word" of John's gospel. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords of Revelation. This is the day [of salvation] the Lord has made. This is your day of salvation. Embrace it. Take hold of it. Relish it. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!


source: biblegateway.com

Intelligent Design: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies - Today Toronto GTA - Free, With Refreshments!

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"Intelligent Design: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies     Nov. 5 (Saturday)  2:30 to 8:00 p.m.   Agenda and more information To see how science provides convincing evidence for the compatibility of a Creator God who is potentially reflected in the design found in nature.   Keynote Speaker: Paul A. Nelson. We will have a DVD showing of a beautiful new science documentary.   

The day is free (with refreshments)."

Free with refreshments? How good is that?!



Richmond Hill Christian Community Church
9670 Bayview Avenue,
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada L4C 9X9
Tel: (905) 884-3399 Fax: (905) 884-9465



The Ball Bounces shall be attending and reporting.

Sunday Psalm: 13 - "I Have Trusted In Your Loving-Kindness

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Psalm 13

New Life Version (NLV)

Psalm 13

Prayer for Help in Time of Trouble

 ¹ How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? ² How long must I plan what to do in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will those who hate me rise above me? ³ Look on me and answer, O Lord, my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death. ⁴ Or the one who hates me will say, “I have power over him.” And those who hate me will be happy when I am shaken.
 ⁵ But I have trusted in Your loving-kindness. My heart will be full of joy because You will save me. ⁶ I will sing to the Lord, because He has been good to me.

New Life Version (NLV)Copyright © 1969 by Christian Literature International


credit: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalm%2013&version=NLV 


The Lord responds to the deepest longings, and deepest needs, of our hearts. He is not found at the end of a logical argument; he is found at the point of your deepest need.  Have a good Day.

Nurturing Little Newfie Cheaters

Image via Wikipedia"Earlier this month, Eastern School District along the east coast of Newfoundland unveiled a new evaluation policy that said teachers should not give a student caught cheating a zero, but an “alternate appropriate assessment.” The student’s mark should be “derived from the second assessment” with no academic penalty for having been dishonest in the first place."

So,  we're penalizing the teachers instead of the students (by making teachers do extra work). And what's with the author's funny use of the term "bluff" as a synonym for cheat (see below)? Nothing wrong with bluffing on an answer, is there?

Newfoundland’s largest school board is “enabling students to cheat” with a new policy that requires teachers to let students caught bluffing on their tests get a second try with no academic penalty, the province’s teachers’ association charged this week in a complaint that echoes frustrations in other school districts across the country that are rethinking the way they discipline student cheaters.

PS -- It's OK to say "Newfie", I hope? No disrespect intended!

Did ABC News Really Say This?

At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America.

Did ABC News really say this? Apparently so.

h/t Mark Steyn

The Occupiers Speak (You Can't Make This Stuff Up)

You can't make this kind of stuff up.

During the final session reserved for comments, discussions became somewhat heated when a man stood and said through the “human mic,” “We are all God’s children. We should not label each other.”  Another man responded, “Issues of inequality should be at the center of discussions." A woman added, “Don’t mention God.  It makes me feel like I have to hide my agnostic beliefs.”

One's head spins.

Mark Steyn's Best Line Ever: The body count at Kingston is "29 per cent of the Montreal Massacre"

The body count at Kingston is "29 per cent of the Montreal Massacre", but the feminists who happily used Gamil Gharbi/Marc Lepine to indict the massed ranks of Canadian menfolk are disinclined to dip their toes into the waters of the Rideau - even though this mass murder is far more telling about a culture of misogyny. -- Mark Steyn, here.

Where have all the feminists gone?
Gone to boardrooms, everyone
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

To The Occupiers: My First Job Was Shovelling Gravel, What Was Yours?

My sympathies do not lie with the Occupiers. However, there are some systemic problems in the US worth addressing. I suspect the Tea Partiers will do a better job than the "give-us-free-condoms" Occupiers at addressing these, but I'll leave that for you to decide.

Here's my list:

1. US federal government "equity" policies which required banks to throw money at anyone with a pulse -- even if that pulse was sustained by welfare cheques. This was a flight from conservative fiscal reality with devastating consequences. Home ownership is an earned right, not a birth-right.

2. The federal government's aiding and abetting of the banks by easing good-sense policy constraints, etc. in the name of fuelling an artificial prosperity.

3. The immoral and unethical if not illegal actions of the banks in milking the real estate bubble for all it was worth, including creation of those slice-and-dice mortgage instruments. When scouting for real estate in Phoenix, I came across one property where the purchase price was $285,000, and the mortgage was for... $300,000. That's right, folks. The owner had negative equity in the property from the get-go.

4. The federal government's bailout of the banks, unaccompanied by censure and restrictions going forward. "All gain, no pain".

5. The federal government's student loans program which has apparently enabled universities to charge ever-increasing  tuition fees, leaving graduates deeply in debt and, in this economy, with no viable game-plan to pay it off.

6. The assumption that life should be easy and "meaningful" jobs plentiful. To the Occupiers: My first job after university was shovelling gravel. What was yours?

Has the US passed its tipping-point? Probably. Because the tipping point is moral, and those with power have lost the moral restraint necessary for good governance. Much easier to live the good life now at taxpayers' expense. Kick the consequences down the road. The US needs a religious awakening, at just a time when Christianity is oozing out of American life and consciousness.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Sunday Psalm: 12 -- "I Will Rise Up To Rescue Them"

Psalm 12

New Living Translation (NLT)

 ¹ Help, O Lord, for the godly are fast disappearing!

      The faithful have vanished from the earth!

 ² Neighbors lie to each other,
      speaking with flattering lips and deceitful hearts.
 ³ May the Lord cut off their flattering lips
      and silence their boastful tongues.
 ⁴ They say, “We will lie to our hearts’ content.
      Our lips are our own—who can stop us?”

 ⁵ The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless,
      and I have heard the groans of the poor.
   Now I will rise up to rescue them,
      as they have longed for me to do.”
 ⁶ The Lord’s promises are pure,
      like silver refined in a furnace,
      purified seven times over.
 ⁷ Therefore, Lord, we know you will protect the oppressed,
      preserving them forever from this lying generation,
 ⁸ even though the wicked strut about,
      and evil is praised throughout the land.

New Living Translation (NLT)

http://www.biblegateway.com

Mark Steyn Interviews Paul Simon: Still Crazy-Good After All These Years

Mark Steyn's two-part musical interview with the incomparable Paul Simon.

Parts one and two may be found here.

Well worth a listen.

Can Greece Be Saved?

The National Post is featuring TVO's ‘The Greek Collapse’, calling it "a must-see special". The show is hosted by the incomparable Steve Paikin. Experts bat around what to do about insolvent Greece.

The elephant in the room is corruption. The Greeks are dishonest. Tax evasion and bribery are the rule rather than the exception. Steve Paikin raises the issue at about the 29 minute mark and it is discussed for all of about 90 seconds. The guy's answer is incomprehensible.

There's a lot of discussion in the show about the rich EU countries stepping up to the plate and supporting the poor. Here's my question to the participants: Why would successful taxpaying societies spend their tax dollars propping up a dishonest, tax-evading one? 

What is needed in Greece is a deep-rooted cultural repentance -- the kind of fundamental reordering of society that in the past has been associated with the leavening effects of evangelical Christianity. The kind of self-regulating reordering that characterized Great Britain, spread to North America, Australia, New Zealand and beyond, and unleashed the greatest prosperity the world has ever seen.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

Related articles

• 'The Greek Collapse': a must-see special (opinion.financialpost.com)