AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles: January 2009

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Bittersweet Refinements: I & II

Bittersweet Refinements is another book that I have been given to publish. If it gets to sounding an awfully lot like a broken player stuck on repeating the same old wrong song over and over again that is because it is to a fairly great extent. For most of it contains rewritten parts of the Bitter/Sweets that were published here before. Hopefully, it will get to sounding a lot better to you very soon, and for the benefit of those who do not have access to multiple versions of our Heavenly Father's Holy Bible, numbered Scripture references in the text (for example, [1]) provide links to such through Bible Gateway this time around. The same also applies to verses included in the text.

Chapter I
In The Beginning

IN THE beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
[Genesis 1:1 NIV]

No, it is not that there is a whole lot of confusion in the Christian community about where everything has come from. For aside from there being a few debates on just how He actually did certain things, there is little disagreement over our Heavenly Father truly being the Creator of all that exists apart from Himself[1].

It is a different story in regards to what happened in the days soon after He placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, however. For almost all of the doctrines of almost all of the major Christian denominations are based (in one way or another) upon the premise that our Heavenly Father’s great plan went terribly awry in paradise—especially in regards to sin entering into this world[2].

No, there are not many sermons to be found on the subject. That is, at least not expressed in as many words.

Nonetheless, what is implied should be all too painfully clear to those who have been given ears to hear[3]. For it has been widely taught that it is the result of sin entering into this world that much of what has happened down through the ages was never meant to be[4].

Shamefully, this even tarnishes the glory of the sacrifice that our Heavenly Father made for us. For if sin was never meant to enter into this world, the paying of the price in full that was required for our sins was just the partial righting of what had gone wrong in the Garden of Eden instead of something that He had planned on doing since long before He created us[5]! For there would have not been any price to pay if sin had of never entered into this world[6].

Yes, it is good that our Creator would want to clean up His own mess. That is, if there was one to clean up, of course[7].

On the other hand, there is another little matter to consider. For if it was possible for things to go so very wrong before—who is to say that it could not happen again? Subsequently, if it is possible for things to go wrong again—just how secure can eternity really be for any of us[8]? So, I would think that we would desperately want to believe everything truly has been in accordance to the plan that our Heavenly Father set into motion long before He created us[9].

Of course, we could just depend on ourselves to make the difference—right? For it is written: This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? "I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." [Jeremiah 17:5-10 NIV]

{1}Colossians 1:16; {2}Genesis 3:1-19; {3}John 6:63-65; {4}2 Timothy 4:2-4; {5}Revelation 13:8; {6}Romans 6:23; {7}Job 34:10-15; {8}Numbers 11:23; {9}Romans 11:32-36.

Chapter II
Introductions Are In Order

“Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.” [Isaiah 46:8-13 NIV]

Several years ago, our Heavenly Father spoke to me in an audible voice[1]. He said, “Introduce Me[2]."

Oh yes, introductions are most certainly in order[3]. For our Heavenly Father truly is the Lord God Almighty[4], who is all-powerful (Omnipotent)[5], all-knowing (Omniscient)[6], always-present (Omnipresent)[7] and perfect in all of His most awesome ways (Holy and Righteous)[8].

Are not the contradictions with the way He has been so often portrayed obvious? For with our Heavenly Father truly being all-powerful, no one could ever do anything without Him allowing and enabling them to[9]. Therefore, how could Adam and Eve have eaten of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden without Him letting them?

As if that was not enough, with Him truly being all-knowing, He would know all about everything that anyone would ever want to do long before they did[10]. Therefore, He would have known all about Satan wanting to tempt to Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit long before the insidious thought ever crossed his mind.

Then there is the reality of Him actually being everywhere—all of the time[11]. Therefore, He was actually there when it all happened.

Lastly, there is the part about Him truly being perfect in all of His most awesome ways[12], which brings us to the greatest contradiction of them all. For He could not possibly be perfect in all of His most awesome ways if things really did go so terribly wrong in the beginning.

Yes, it has been widely taught that it is because of their freewill that prevented our Heavenly Father from interfering with the choice that Adam and Eve made, but was it not Him who gave them their freewill in the first place? So, was this another mistake that He made?

{1}Job 33:14-18; {2}2 Corinthians 5:20; {3}Colossians 2:2-4; {4}Exodus 6:2-3; {5}Psalms 33:6-11; {6}Psalms 94:11; {7}Psalms 139:7-12; {8}Psalms 18:30-31; {9}Job 12:13-25; {10}Isaiah 46:10; {11}Matthew 28:18-20; {12}Deuteronomy 32:4.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Sites To See

This is the new version of FIVE FOR FRIDAY. As with the former, it is the SOLE purpose of this weekly series to call attention to sites that I think many would find most interesting—in one way or another. Please, go see for yourself.

Link: [Thundercatt99]

Link: [Always Amy]

Link: [Leon Basin]

Link: [The Galley Boys]

Link: [Runner's High]

Link: [SoapWithBalls]

Link: [This I Do...]

Link: [Pinoy Tayo Noh]

Link: [The "Gold Guys" Blog]

Link: [MyJourney]

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

WhiteHeart Wednesday

Link: [Power House]

MP3 Audio Player From: [BlogDumps Video]

Desert Rose
WhiteHeart
Lost in a windswept land
In a world of shifting sand
A fragile flower stands apart
There in that barren ground
You feel like the only one
Trying to serve Him with all your heart

And you wonder
Wonder
Can you last much longer
This cloud you are under
Will it cover you

Desert rose
Desert rose
Don’t you worry
Don’t be lonely
Heaven knows
Heaven knows
In a dry and weary land
A flower grows
His desert rose
His desert rose

Sometimes Holiness
Can seem like emptiness
When you feel the whole world’s laughin’ eyes
But if it’s a lonely day
Know you’re on the Father’s way
He will hear you when you cry

And He will hold you
Hold you
Your Father will hold you
He will love you
Love you
For the things you do

Desert rose
Desert rose
Don’t you worry
Don’t be lonely
Heaven knows
Heaven knows
In a dry and weary land
A flower grows
His desert rose
His desert rose
His desert rose

Desert rose
Don’t you worry
Don’t be lonely
Heaven knows
Heaven knows
In a dry and weary land
A flower grows
His desert rose
Desert rose

Desert rose
Don’t be lonely
Don’t be lonely

Desert rose
Oh don’t you worry

Desert rose
Don’t you know He’ll be with you

Heaven knows
Heaven knows
He will hold your troubled heart
Oh desert rose

Link: [WhiteHeart]

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

TWO FOR TUESDAY

Not every song that will be featured here will be what is generally considered as being “Christian” in the eyes of this world. For some will be anguished cries from the pit of despair, and others will be quite obviously ferverent rants of rebellion. Nonetheless, be assured that they will all be of our Heavenly Father (in one way or another) and I hope that you have been given ears to hear the message.

Link: [On YouTube]

Three Wooden Crosses
Randy Travis
A farmer and a teacher
A hooker and a preacher
Ridin’ on a midnight bus
Bound for Mexico
One was headed for vacation
One for higher education
And two of them were searchin’ for lost souls

That driver never ever saw
The stop sign
And eighteen wheelers
Can’t stop on a dime

There are three wooden crosses
On the right side of the highway
Why there’s not four of them
Heaven only knows
I guess it’s not what you take
When you leave this world behind you
It’s what you leave behind you
When you go

That farmer left a harvest
A home and eighty acres
The faith and love for growin’ things
In his young son’s heart
And that teacher left her wisdom
In the minds of lots of children
And did her best to give ‘em all
A better start

And that preacher whispered
Can’t you see the Promised Land
As he laid his blood-stained Bible
In that hooker’s hands

There are three wooden crosses
On the right side of the highway
Why there’s not four of them
Heaven only knows
I guess it’s not what you take
When you leave this world behind you
It’s what you leave behind you
When you go

That’s the story that our preacher told
Last Sunday
As he held that blood-stained Bible up
For all of us to see
He said
Bless the farmer and the teacher
And that preacher
Who gave this Bible to my mama
Who read it to me

There are three wooden crosses
On the right side of the highway
Why there’s not four of them
Now I guess you know
It’s not what you take
When you leave this world behind you
It’s what you leave behind you
When you go

There are three wooden crosses
On the right side of the highway

Link: [On YouTube]

When Mama Prayed
Randy Travis
Daddy never went to church on Sunday
He said that’s one thing I’ll never do
But mama never gave up she said one day
He’ll be sittin’ here beside of me and you
I can still hear mama softly talkin’
With hear tears fallin’ on her folded hands
So that Easter Sunday daddy walked in
That’s when I began to understand

When mama prayed
Good things happen
When mama prayed
Lives were changed
Not much more than five foot tall
But mountains big and small
Crumbled all away
When mama prayed

Seventeen and wild I hit the bottle
Doin’ anything I dang well please
Burnin’ down life’s highway at full throttle
While mama burned a candle on her knees
Then one night I came home half sober
I saw mama kneelin’ in the den
As I listened she and Jesus talked it over
And I knew my restless days were ‘bout to end

‘Cause when mama prayed
Good things happen
When mama prayed
Lives were changed
Not much more than five foot tall
But mountains big and small
Crumbled all away
When mama prayed

It isn’t like every one of them got answered
But the times they weren’t it seems to me were rare
You almost felt sorry for the devil
‘Cause Heaven knows he didn’t have a prayer
When mama prayed

Not much more than five foot tall
But mountains big and small
Crumbled all away
When mama prayed
They crumbled all away
When mama prayed

Link: [Randy Travis]

Lyrics From: [Cowboy Lyrics]

Monday, January 26, 2009

Come Monday...The Puppy Place

Hello,

I am handpicking people and businesses that I feel will care about our mission and thought our charity cookbook or the chance to donate might be of interest to you? It is to raise money to help the blind. This year we are focusing on a guide dog schools near and far. Please check out www.thepuppyplace.org for more information also we have a new blog site at www.thepuppyplace-connie28705.blogspot.com that has recipes as well as the cookbook information.

We have the cookbook available to you in your choice of hard copy @ $10 Donation each or immediate download in WORD or PDF formats @ $2.00 Donation each. Please even if you don’t need the cookbook consider donating any amount using either PAYPAL or Check/Money Order, every dollar counts for this cause as there are schools and programs closing everyday from lack of funding and the blind are going without in school housing while learning how to deal with being newly blind and using a guide dog. This is like helping a blind individual see again. All donations over $2.00 are tax deductible. These schools stay open and are solely run on private donations ONLY no federal or state funding is available to help them, yet they never charge a blind student or there families a dime for a dog Etc.

Please give what every help you can in order to help a blind individual become happy and independent once again. Also PLEASE pass this email onto those you feel would care also and like to help, some businesses are even asking if they can take hard copies on consignment to get donations at there businesses for us and send us the funds using paypal. Others are posting our link with a snippet about the charity drive on their blog and/or website for their readers, Other’s are simply asking if they can have advertising materials and/or flyer’s to show to other’s they know in their town or church. Contact us so we can work out a way you can help us advertise and remember we can’t reach our goals without YOUR HELP.

Thank you for your time and May God Bless and Keep You,

Connie C
Cookbook Chairman
conniec@thepuppyplace.org

Now to be honest about it, I do not know how she heard about me. Methinks that my wife and I’s puppies may have had something to do with it, but they keep denying that they even know how to turn on the computer—let alone send an email. Alas, they can look so innocent when they want to.

Anyway, Ms. Carpenter’s cause is most certainly a just one. So, I hope you-all will contribute what you can.

Yes, I am well aware of just how tough times are at this time, but this only makes what is given to those in need all the more valuable. Besides, you might be the next one in line for some help.

A poor man is shunned by all his relatives—how much more do his friends avoid him! Though he prusues them with pleading, they are nowhere to be found. {Proverbs 19:7 NIV}

Sunday, January 25, 2009

A Sunday Drive

Back during my childhood, my parents would often load up my brother and I after Sunday morning church services for a leasurely drive around where we lived. Even though we were seeing mostly familiar sights, it was still good to see them, and this is why “A Sunday Drive” sounded about right for the name of a weekly series revisiting familiar sites that are well worth seeing again and again.

Link: [Classic Poetry Aloud]

Link: [Gothic Box]

Link: [Kris Cahill Presents...]

Link: [Photography By KML]

Link: [Nature Shows and Dreams]

Link: [Mad William]

Link: [Urikalization]

Link: [Marian's Hunting Stories, etc., etc., etc.]

Link: [JB's Mom's Big World]

Link: [PUFF MATTY]

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Bittersweet Refinements

A Warning Of Sorts

And the voice which I heard from heaven, I heard again speaking with me, and saying, “Go, take the book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land.” And I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, “Take it, and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” [Revelation 10:8-11 NAS]

Be forewarned that there is much about what I have been given to say that the more devoutly religious will undoubtedly find quite bitter. For it is meant to help refine what was started with the Reformation, and it calls into question many of the things that far too many want to have great faith in.

Nonetheless, be assured that there is also much about what I have been given to say that those who hunger for something more will find oh so very sweet. For it is also meant to help clear up much of the confusion that now exists concerning our Heavenly Father and the righteousness of all of His most awesome ways, and it provides answers to many questions, especially in regards to what this world and our existence is really all about.

In other words, this is meant to help clear away much of the “stuff” that makes it impossible to truly have a very close and personal relationship with our Heavenly Father. For what He actually says is absolutely true about Himself and the righteousness of all of His most awesome ways is quite contrary to what far too many have been led to believe.

No, this is not meant for everyone at this time. For it all depends upon what our Heavenly Father wants to accomplish in and through someone that determines when, and to what extent, He will allow and enable them to enter into His absolute Truth.

It is meant for a great many more than will be willing to accept it, however. For there is a big difference between knowing about someone and actually knowing them, and the absolute truth of the matter truly is that most who openly profess to know our Heavenly Father merely have a semblence of knowledge about Him.

Yes, it may all be just some more incoherent ranting and raving from another self-anointed apostle of Christ Jesus. For similar things have been said by others who will ultimately come to nothing.

On the other hand, does this not present you with a unique opportunity to serve even if that is true? For how can anyone honestly believe that they are being guided by the love of God if they could not care less about the spiritual welfare of someone so obviously deceived?

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” [Revelation 3:14-22 NAS]