Sunday

SUNDAY REFLECTION

The Christian movement  is a degeneracy movement composed of reject and refuse elements of every kind....It is therefore not racially conditioned;  it appeals to the disinherited everywhere....It needs a symbol that represents a curse on the well-constituted and dominant...it takes the side of idiots and utters rancor against the gifted, the learned, the independent, for it detects in them the well-constituted and the masterful.

----Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power

Really, Friedrich?   Really?


I've posted atheist before, but it never ceases to fascinate me.

(Above, photo on Roan Mountain overlook, taken Saturday on a perfect day, temperature for hiking at  a high altitude.  Below, temps were in the mid-90s.)

View of the Grand Teton Tuesday As the Fed Meets In Jackson Hole

WEDNESDAY UPDATE: BERRY FIRE BLOWS UP TOWARDS YELLOWSTONE---IT'S BAD
WHY I'LL NEVER GIVE ANOTHER DIME TO THE RED CROSS

 

I MISS JACKSON HOLE AND ALL MY BUDDIES TERRIBLY. I WANT TO GO BACK! In my homesickness for the West, I go to the JHNews/Guide and look at the webcams. Very quickly it cools my ardor and brings me back to reality. The air there is extremely dry, toxic and lethal for everyone, though especially for people prone to bronchitis like me. These conditions will persist until at least the first good snow. Meanwhile, I turn my focus back to Tennessee, North Carolina and the projects, friends and blessings I have here. Friday, God willing, I will be hiking at Carvers Gap on Roan Mountain on the Tennessee/NC state line. Too lovely for words and every bit as grand as the mountains in Wyoming in its own unique way.

Nick Gillespie Interviews John Mackey, CEO Whole Foods Market

DREHER: WE HAVE BEEN WARNED
 GILLESPIE TALKS TO MACKEY IN A WIDE-RANGING, FASCINATING INTERVIEW. First half of this Q and A goes from politics to business, crushing federal regulations and WFM's new 365 Stores. Last half, it starts to lose me when Mackey goes off the rails into veganism. I've always liked and respected Mackey, especially his politics and health savings accounts ideas. But I have to say, he certainly looks pale and pasty to me in this video and I wonder if it's because of his vegan diet? Or maybe it's the lighting. He's starting to look more and more like Paul McCartney who is also a vegan. There's a definite wan look of extreme veganism that seems unhealthy to me. Ironic that the CEO of WFM comes across that way.

Sunday---Losing Louisiana---Shocking Photographs of the Devastation From the 1000-Year Flood and A Prayer

UNEXPECTED ANSWERS TO OUR BIGGEST QUESTIONS
@ CHALLIES: THREE KEYS TO A POWERFUL PRAYER LIFE

MORE @ Zero Hedge


THIS IS A WONDERFUL PRAYER from Tim Keller's daily devotionals from The Songs of Jesus for September 3:

The Gift of Prayer---

LORD, prayerlessness is a sin against you.  It comes from a self-sufficiency that is wrong and that dishonors you.  Prayerlessness is also a sin against those around me.  I should be engaging my heart and your power in their needs. Lord, I pray with all my heart that you would give me a heart for prayer.
Amen

Way To Go Guys! Trump/Pence Tour Flood-Ravaged People In Louisiana

KEITH KOFFLER @ TOP OF DRUDGE ON TRUMP PLAYING PRESIDENT
ABSOLUTE BEST  COVERAGE OF PEOPLE IN S LOUISIANA COPING WITH FLOODS: ROD DREHER @ AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE

WHATEVER GROUND TRUMP HAS LOST OVER THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS, he has certainly helped regain some footing over the past few days with a couople of good policy speeches, a long-overdue apology and, now, his and Mike Pence's improvised tour to hurting and devastated people in southern Louisiana, many of whom have lost most of their material worldy possessions.

This from today's NYPost:

Here’s gumbo in your eye, Barack and Hillary.

Donald Trump wore the white hat Friday — one of his “Make America Great Again” hats, naturally — as he landed in flood-battered Baton Rouge to tour the damage and take a more-than-subliminal swipe at President Obama and Hillary Clinton, who have yet to visit victims.

Joined by his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for a hastily-planned, three-hour visit, the GOP candidate toured flood damage in a motorcade and got a warm welcome at a Baptist church in East Baton Rouge Parish. 

 These people need our prayers and absolutely anything we can think of to contribute to them. May God bless and have mercy on them all.

TGC: King Henry VIII, The Reformation and The First Authorized Bible

RYAN REEVES @ TGC PENS THIS FASCINATING PIECE ON THE FIRST BIBLE AUTHORIZED BY A KING, BEFORE KING JAMES:

Spend much time in Protestant circles and you will eventually hear of the Authorized Bible or the King James Bible. People who should know better have invented all manor of theories about the purity of the KJV, it’s reliance on the Textus Receptus, and the corruption of modern translations.

But the KJV was not the first English translation authorized by a king. The Great Bible (1539) was authorized by Henry VIII and was supervised by leading Protestant luminaries such as Miles Coverdale. It also rested its translation in large part on those books translated by William Tyndale. It’s legacy was to shape future English bibles, including the KJV itself. Also its legacy will be largely forgotten due to the quirky way Henry VIII viewed the Reformation, as well as the enormous success of the KJV a century later.

Henry VIII and the Reformation

Henry VIII is one of the oddest characters in the story of the Reformation. A man of conservative instincts when Luther’s reformation began, he nevertheless overthrew papal influence in England and built a church of his own. This puts Henry in the awkward position as both persecutor and supporter of the English Protestant church—the king who had Tyndale killed and later himself hired Protestants to translate the Bible into English. He’s a man of enormous contradictions, which is why the early Reformation in England appears to hesitant and piecemeal. 

Still Henry did quarrel with the pope over his annulment to Catherine of Aragorn and so launched England in a Protestant direction (try as he might to stop it from becoming fully Protestant). Henry at least liked certain types of Protestants who were both opposed to the pope and yet still supportive of Henry VIII’s claims to be head of the church in England. These men included Thomas Cranmer, Thomas Cromwell, and Miles Coverdale, each instrumental in the approval of the Great Bible.

Read the whole fascinating piece.

God Will Take Us At Our Word

HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER AND CONNECTIVITY FOR SEVERAL DAYS...NOW AT A FOOD CITY OUTSIDE BRISTOL, TN for a little while. Above is a photo I took Friday on the trail at the magnificent Grayson Highlands State Park at 4,500' in SW Virginia.

Below,  is a link to a piece from Tim Challies:  God Will Take Us At Our Word. It begins: 

The kingdom of God is in every way opposite to the kingdom of this world. We see this clearly described in a powerful bit of preaching from an old Wesleyan minister. His text was Matthew 16:24-25: “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Sunday--What Is the Old Testament Law (the Torah) and the Prophets?

Six Christian Athletes to Watch At Rio 2016
15 Great Quotes on One Great Chapter 
Link to Romans 8

Missing Teen In Grand Teton NP Found Safe But Eluding Searchers

 

THIS TEEN ON A SERVICE PROJECT TO GTNP TURNED OUT TO BE A ROYAL PAIN IN THE BUNS! Running away, cutting and dying her hair while hiding from authorities who were desperately trying to find her...

Here's the latest update from JH News and Guide on Fauna Jackson from Cincinnati, OH: 

Update 9:55 a.m.: Missing teenager Fauna Jackson was found at 8 a.m. near the Snake River Overlook today uninjured and was taken to St. John's Medical Center "for a welfare check," according to Denise Germann of Grand Teton National Park. Germann said in a press release that Jackson was found three to four miles from where she went missing Thursday while working as part of a volunteer trail crew.

"Jackson changed her appearance by cutting and dying her hair, was wearing different clothes than when last seen, and when approached by law enforcement officials she fled," the release said.

          Details are still under investigation.

Hopefully she will be sent home....and fast. Then she can go to work to help pay for the huge costs of trying to find her while she hid.

No Really---Motorized Suitcast Lets You Drive It At the Airport, Office Or Beyond...

IS BUYING A HOUSE TODAY FOR SUCKERS? SOURCE: CNBC

The Calming, Uniting Influence of Mike Pence On the Trump--Khan Political Flap

VP CANDIDATE MIKE PENCE SHOWS US HOW IT'S DONE IN THE MOST RESPECTFUL WAY ON THE FRACTIOUS CAMPAIGN TRAIL. WOW. Great work, Mike. 

John Sexton @ HOTAIR writes:

This is how it’s done. Pence took a tough question that riled up the room and handled it well from beginning to end.

Let’s consider the list of things he did right here:

 He respected the woman’s right to free speech.

 He reminded the audience that that’s what America sounds like, i.e. disagreement shouldn’t get shouted down in America.

 He praised the woman’s son for his service and praised the family.

 He acknowledged the controversy.

 He praised Captain Khan as a hero.

 He said we honor his family as we do all gold star families.

 He demonstrated that he sincerely respected Captain Khan’s service by recounting his story for the audience. He called Khan a great leader and an American hero.

He said he cherished Khan’s gold star family.

And then, having said all that, he actually answered the woman’s pointed question about how he can still respect Donald Trump.

Pence couldn’t have handled that any better than he did. Trump would be wise to follow Pence’s lead.

The audio above of this clip isn’t great but you can make it out.