Sunday, August 29, 2021
Monday, August 23, 2021
Quick Bullets Monday: Lawsuit-McDonald's made her eat cheeseburgers
• Photo from American Web Media & Shutterstock
• Cited: McDonald’s made me eat it. That’s what one woman is claiming in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit claiming that McDonald’s advertisements were so good, she had no choice but to eat the dang burger and fries.
• Cited: The lawsuit, which was filed in Russia, has a religious undertone to it as well. The fast-food corporation finds itself facing time in court because Ksenia Ovchinnikova, an Orthodox Christian, claims that McDonald’s advertisements made her break her fast for lent back in 2019.
• Cited: Because of the season, Ksenia was trying to avoid meat, dairy, poultry, and meat by-products for the entire length of Lent. As an Orthodox Christian...
• Thanks to my good friend 007, that posted this in a Facebook chat group.
• I agree with 007 here, that this woman had moral and ethical accountability for choosing to eat at McDonalds.
• Within a compatibilistic model, Reformed theology and theistic compatibilistic views within philosophy of religion, a person is merely a secondary cause of deeds.
• God being the primary cause, directly or indirectly, as infinite, sovereign and omnipotent.
• But a secondary cause is with full moral accountability where he/she can significantly embrace, in significant freedom, through human nature (fallen and corrupted in this realm see Genesis 1-3, and Romans, especially), consciousness, thoughts, desires, will, choices, acts/actions, that lead to the deeds committed and accomplished.
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• I appreciate all the friends and acquaintances that have encouraged me in regards to my new size. and new (ish) permanent diet.
• It was extremely personally and socially frustrating for years eating (intake) only 1000 calories a day, working out up to two hours a day and gaining weight.
• I have been slowly losing size over the years, since my UPPP and Rhinoplasty, apnea related surgeries, but with this permanent diet, the changes are more drastic.
• My sleep apnea is under control and I am healthy states medical science, but my body cannot handle carbohydrates.
• Who knew? God...
• A fellow condominium owner here this afternoon, told me not to lose any more weight.
• That is up to God...
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• My open topic Zoom, with mainly Christian thinkers, from last night...
• Photo one from Arne.
Saturday, August 21, 2021
Quebec third favourites?
Quebec third favourites?
Cited
Cited
If the Coyotes end up leaving, this could be a tossup between Quebec City and Houston. Oddsmakers give Houston the edge, but Quebec City has already proven it will fight hard for an NHL team.
Comments
1. As usual, I am hoping for Quebec to regain a National Hockey League club. I support the growth of the NHL in Canada where teams can be profitable and successful.
2. I am not surprised to see betting odds on a possible professional sports team relocation. There is a timeline, with staying within the present metropolitan location as an option.
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Short comments on some charismatic teaching & my recent appearance
1. Photo is from White Rock, last weekend.
2. Yesterday, my friend and sometimes Zoom colleague, Miss CIA, asked a few of us through email, for an opinion on some charismatic teaching she found and attached within the email.
My slightly edited reply. I have added a link.
(Quoting her source)
We can all hear his voice.
I was probably a regenerated believer (John 3, Titus 3) by the age of 4 years old, but not with an adult-like faith. I am not formally charismatic, but am open to the Lord guiding me with a message or via a dream. This would be in agreement with scripture, in its proper context.
I agree with what 'Red Dome' wrote and in agreement with Miss CIA, have issues with this message.
The Lord is free, within his nature and biblical plans, to communicate with people as he sees fit. But this does not equate with scripture that can be tested by the biblical era community, especially the New Testament community. The New Testament community is key, due to progressive revelation and the Gospel work and that these people viewed the resurrection of Jesus Christ and/or knew people that did. Biblical era communities now of course departed. New messages also cannot be tested by the Church Fathers (this could include women in the community), that are also departed.
We can all hear his voice.
Theoretically true, but there are few, IMHO, that God had (or has) guided and sanctified that will use this extra guidance well. It is also not a replacement for knowing and trusting the word and prayerfully walking with the Lord in sanctification.
3. Comments from my Facebook Business Page: I am receiving positive feedback online and offline, so here is an explanation in regards to my more recent appearance. Note, I have always been a small eater, my entire life, but with sleep apnea and a family that ate (some still eat) potatoes, for a 'notorious' carbs example; the diet aspect took some time to reason out with the help of medical science.
One thousand daily calories with carbohydrates is much different than one thousand daily calories with little or no carbohydrates. I am on a permanent low carb, low sugar diet, and still exercise regularly. I am aiming to ingest, including with supplements, what boosts metabolism in a healthy manner. No potatoes, in my case, anyway.
4. 'Red Done' photo.
Monday, August 16, 2021
Interesting architecture and blue sky
Image two: My comments on LinkedIn
From an artistic perspective, some of the visual tests are also interesting. 
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Sunday Bullets: Norway
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• Theologically, I do not consider myself, charismatic.
• I am prayerfully open-minded and seek God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
• J.R. Williams states that the charismatic movement began in the 1950s and was often termed 'neo-Pentecostal'. Williams (1996: 205).
• Classical Pentecostalism emphasized strongly baptism in the Holy Spirit as an endowment of power subsequent to/after conversion and the continuation of the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12) in post New Testament times is considered valid. Williams (1996: 205).
• There are the spiritual gifts and manifestations from the New Testament era still in existence today, is the reasoning.
• FARICY ROBERT (1999) 'Charismatic', in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Limited.
• WILLIAMS, J.R. (1996) ‘Charismatic Movement' in Walter A. Elwell (ed.), Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Books.
• By the way, from the debate cited in the link, our family friend, later told my brother that this man claiming to be a prophet, stated I was immature.
• I suppose that accusation was because of me holding to my Reformed views in disagreement with this man claiming to be a prophet.
• Well, I thought he was wrong and dogmatically, aggressively, wrong.
• Not sure how theological disagreement and me being much younger and more educated with theology and critical reasoning, than the generally kind man claiming to be a prophet, made me immature.
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• My MPhil advisor was (is) a well-known British charismatic and during one of his tutoring sessions, replied to a comment of mine (paraphrased) when I stated that much of the charismatic movement was (is) created through psychological manipulation.
• He stated (paraphrased) that God could communicate to a human beings through psychological means.
• Agreed...
• But my point still stands, IMHO.
Thursday, August 12, 2021
Thursday Bullets: Doubting God's goodness versus Doubting God will give a good thing
• Image one: Recently.
• Images two-three: Today in my sunroom, which is next to my loft and office. The rest of my condominium is roughly 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the sunroom.
• Images two-three: I am not a scientist of any type and am no expert on global warming and climate change, but these temperatures in Metro Vancouver and the Lower Mainland are the highest I can remember...
• I basically agreed with the pastor's reply to a person, until the end where he, in my humble opinion, fumbled the ball in regards to problems of evil, as is often done within the evangelical church.
• This pastor (paraphrased) criticized this person with the question, that apparently, according to the claim made in the letter, had been a loyal Christian for decades and had avoided a specific sin that was an aspect of his/her fallen nature (see Romans 1-3 in particular for a fall theology)
• This person, rightly so, in my humble biblical and theological opinion, questioned whether God would bless this person in this particular area, which has been a lifelong struggle.
• Rather than acknowledge this a legitimate and reasonable, the pastor questioned the strength of this person's Christian faith.
• The pastor assumed this person was questioning the goodness of God.
• But in reality, the evidence from the person's letter meant that person was more so, at least, questioning whether or not God would bless him/her with a good thing.
• Understanding in a mature faith an orthodox, reasonable, biblical, New Testament understanding of the goodness of God, is to understand that God created, and sustains the universe and provides salvation, specifically for those in Jesus Christ that are regenerated (John 3, Titus 3) in the applied atoning and resurrection work of Jesus Christ, in imputed righteousness (Romans and Galatians as key examples) and sanctification.
• By grace through faith alone, not by good works (works righteousness), but for good works, created in Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 1-2, Romans as key examples).
• In this temporal realm, God definitely does not provide everything good, and/or every good thing for each human being, nor each Christian. For example, the blind person often does not have his/her ontological need for perfect vision provided.
• I do not have perfect vision, and I am not technically blind.
• I function normally and appear normal.
• I exercise with martial arts weapons.
• I walk in busy traffic with no problems.
• I doubt I shall ever have perfect vision in this life but God could heal me.
• But for me to doubt God will heal me toward perfect vision, is not doubting God's goodness, rather I doubt God will give me this good thing.
• There are true needs that in this realm of problems of evil and suffering are not always met by God.
• As God meets the needs of his followers in order to accomplish his will.
• 1 John 5:14-15 English Standard Version (ESV): '14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.'
• I do not find the idea from 1 John or the New Testament, that God meets all of our (ontological, existence) needs in Christ in this realm, but rather his needs for us are met in prayer as in his purposes for persons.
• In Philippians 4:19, Paul promises his readers that God will supply their needs in Christ. However, Martin noted that: "The precise meaning of will meet as a wish-prayer, not a statement of fact, is a helpful insight." Martin (1987: 184).
• The fact that Paul is waiting for God to supply the reader’s needs means there is an element of faith involved, and in matters of faith, God sometimes does not deliver as expected although he will meet the needs of his people in Christ, in order for them to best serve him.
• God will meet the needs of the believer, mainly in the context of making it feasible for a person to complete his will for their individual life.
• This unfortunately, from a human perspective, leaves much room for suffering and problems of evil.
• Yes, God loves his people, but he has knowledge of what must take place in a believer’s life in a more complete way than any human being could be aware of. He alone is omniscient.
• MARTIN, R.P. (1987) 'Philippians', in Leon Canon Morris (gen. ed.),Tyndale New Testament Commentary, Leicester/Grand Rapids, Inter-Varsity Press/William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Cited with my work in brackets:
your needs χρείαν chreian Original Word: χρεία, ας, ἡ
needs, business
• Bible Hub
Philippians 4:19 N-AFS (noun, accusative feminine, singular)
(Accusative, meet (verb) needs of you)
GRK: πληρώσει πᾶσαν χρείαν ὑμῶν κατὰ
(will fill up or meet all needs of you according to)
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• The New Testament Greek to me with a definition of needs and business, could be described in context, as the needs and business of the individual Christian in serving God, being met, more so than all of the ontological needs of the individual Christian, all being met.
Sunday, August 08, 2021
Saturday, August 07, 2021
I host a Zoom meeting some Saturdays: Open topics, some choose the topic of sleeping
Open topics Zoom:
Includes so far, people from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Florida, Norway, Australia, England
Christianity, prayer, politics, travel, psychology, etcetera, and Arne, the Norwegian Benny Hill's Master Class Dating Tips.
Arne Tip #1: Date someone overseas, online for over a decade. Wait for your Mother to die and your inheritance to be legally completed, until you propose to one of your overseas online 'sweeties'.
This Saturday, tonite, August 7, 2021
21: 30 PDT
9:30 PM Vancouver time
Thursday, August 05, 2021
Electric socket/Zombie
Electric socket/Zombie
Me: (To employee) Do you have any Zombie birthday cards?
Employee: (Laughs)
A female customer: (Laughs loudly)
Me: My friend is called Zombie, because he falls asleep often.
A female customer: (Laughs loudly) I cannot believe you would call your friend that! (smiling)
(They had none, I bought a Bob Ross card)
(Ironically, Bob made people sleepy)
Wednesday, August 04, 2021
Wednesday Bullets: Brief on some ethics
Wednesday Bullets: Brief on some ethics
Edited August 5, 2021
• Image one from Facebook: Our former family cat, as a kitten, followed my older brother home from a party.
• Image two from Facebook: There is a good possibility, of course, those two dogs are eying another dog, rather than a person that honked.
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• This includes biblical, New Testament, Christian sexual ethics.
• That being stated, as a theologian and philosopher of religion, I do reasonably ponder on and review various non-Christian philosophies and different worldviews.
• I listen to and watch You Tube.
• This is a source of some of my website work material.
• This does include dating and relationship sermons, lectures and talks from Christians.
• This does include secular talks and lectures.
• I do have some significant agreement with Red Pill, which is not one definitive movement.
• By my definition, Red Pill is a men's movement which attempts to realistically look at dating and marriage with the use of reason.
• This is not to be confused with MGTOW, which is Men Going Their Own Way, which is related, and is more radically against romantic relationships, in general, it seems to me.
• I am absolutely pro-marriage in a biblical sense, and follow the New Testament for standards.
• I do agree with much of what I have heard on You Tube in regards to Red Pill, as far as reasonable and often true evaluations of the secular dating and marriage scene, and philosophies within the western world system, in 2021.
• I do not overall, support the sexual ethics of the Red Pill movement.
• On the other hand, from more than one source within the Red Pill movement, I have heard it suggested and taught that a man should only date and marry a woman with as few previous sexual partners as possible, preferably zero sexual partners.
• If a person embraces both of these concepts, every dating encounter that features pre-marital sex (biblically known as fornication if both partners are unmarried, or adultery when a married person has sexual relations with someone not his/her spouse), that does not lead to a committed, life-long marriage, actually makes the western dating and relationship pool decrease in quantity and quality for other men trying to find a female partner with less, little or no sexual experience.
• There were several persons in local Singles (35 + year old's) that were offended that I favoured a potential partner with less or little experience, because this implied likely a younger potential dating and marriage partner for me.
• I have never embraced Singles. I biblically embrace mutual, spiritual, intellectual, romantic attraction within New Testament standards.
• But, although I certainly have struggled with thought sin (Matthew 5-7), (paraphrased) Birds of the same feather, flock together.
Tuesday, August 03, 2021
Monday, August 02, 2021
Monday Bullets and Images: Libertarian v Limited
• Image one: John Cleese from Facebook. I do practice social distancing, and sometimes socialist distancing, as a moderate conservative, with some libertarian leanings.
• However, my political views do not extend to theological and philosophical views supporting libertarian free will, but instead limited free will.
See comments this posting...
• Image two: Thomas Tommy Perez photo, August 2, 2021, or at least, one he shared on Facebook. I have chatted with Tommy online for years and once on the phone. He has a heart of gold and is a winning NYC street hockey goalie.
• Image three: If that Facebook ad is true, I just need to keep chatting with the intellectual, youthful, women at church that fire lasers from their eyes. Or do I have to fire lasers into their eyes?
• Image four: The image keeps receiving traction on Facebook.
Sunday, August 01, 2021
Sunday Bullets: Everything happens for a reason...
• That is one of my favourite funny images of all-time.. I think I saw it several years ago as well as today, again.
• It reminds me that theologically and philosophically, we in humanity, are both finite and sinful.
• Ephesians 2:8-10
New American Standard Bible (NASB) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [a]this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Footnotes
Ephesians 2:8 I.e., this salvation
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