This just hit me

"For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith."

I Jn. 5:4

Faith will overcome the world.. That's powerful.

Faith in what?

I Jn 5:5:

"Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

A prayer of thanks

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving
And His courts with praise
Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the LORD is good;
His lovingkindness is everlasting
And His faithfulness to all generations.” Ps. 100:4-5

Our heavenly Father, You are good. You have always been good, and You always will be good. No good gift will You withhold from those who walk uprightly. Yet we are truly perplexed at the circumstances of our lives sometimes..How can this be good? Yet in your infinite wisdom and perfect plans You allow for pain to enter in and sting us. We cannot understand as You do. We were not there when You laid the foundations of the earth…We see with our eyes 5 ½ ft. off the ground, but You cause atoms to play together on Pluto. You roll the thunderclouds like a 17 year old rolls cotton candy in the spinner. We just eat cotton candy…That’s all we do, as we stare up into Your grandeur, while drooling sugar with squinty eyes. We just sit around the living room staring at this new Jonathan Thomas Kuntz, wondering at the miracle of his black cow lick on the back of his head. Why does food have to taste so good? What is this feeling of forgiveness that we feel? How come people look so beautiful when they smile!? Black and white, brown and pale, fat and thin, young and old, beautiful people made in your image. It is because we are made in your image… You are the source of all beauty, we’re just fragments reflecting You. Your creation preaches your lovingkindness with each gracious flower springing to life from the dust. You will spring us to life after we all enter that veil in faith. We are all on an adventure, one with real stage props, sin and death. Real darkness. But we will rise again and everything will spring to life. We will all meet little Victory Athanasius Cummings.
We are all here to love and to know you and each other. We do not hold the universe in the span of Your control as You do. We do not understand Your vastness, Your glory, that You are awesome beyond imagining. You know the end from the beginning. You are good. No lie is in You. You are truth. We know that You will triumph over wickedness, over death. Everything heinous will be reckoned. Yes, you are sovereign. You are the King of all providence. You allow pain to come so that somehow, somehow in the deep of our dark—we may know You more.. You are worthy. Show us your glory! Everything’s going to be okay because You are God. So, for this reason, we give You thanks for dry and dusty old stodgy reformed systematic theologies and the like…because we have been reminded there that yes, You are the Calvinistic God…You know what is going to happen because You have orchestrated everything in Your most loving and wise providence. Nothing can happen to us that first does not come through your all-wise loving hands. We are thankful for good ole’ doctrine..Because in it we learn something of You…Esp. when things get rough. We can rest.

We give you thanks Abba, Father, that we are not in a evolutionary washing machine of time, chance and violence. We do not have to placate polytheistic gods so that we will not have drought. We don’t live in fear-filled superstition as though the world was controlled by a pantheon of warring and petty gods. We don’t serve Allah, the brutal demon tyrant. We don’t serve the Buddha who blurs right and wrong, justice and injustice. We condemn the gods of the Bhagavad Gita, that tyrannize the universe in perversion. There is a God who reigns, and You are this God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David and Samson, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with You and the Holy Spirit are one God, world without end.

Amen.

My defense for it

"During breakfast, Tolkien glances at his newspaper, but only in the most cursory fashion. He, like his friend C.S. Lewis, regards 'news' as on the whole trivial and fit to be ignored, and they both argue (to the annoyance of many of their friends) that the only 'truth' is to be found in literature. However, both men enjoy the crossword."

One would expect the crossword reference from men like that. My only further input is that I justify theology like that too!

Yoga

Yoga for Immunity and Vitality

"Sit cross-legged or in a chair with spine straight. Stick your tongue all the way out and keep it out as you rapidly breathe through your mouth. Continue this breathing for 1 to 3 minutes. Not only will your body strengthen its defenses, but your spirit will be lifted to the sky."

This is written on the side of an Echinacea tea box with a picture of a woman in a yoga position tongue all the way out and eyes closed... Then in small font.."Before doing this exercise or participating in any exercise program, consult your physician."

This is the most hilarious satire of yoga, and the best part is that I think it might be real.