God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

Here is some early marketing information for Dust or Dew: Wipf and Stock will has it available on their website for $24.80 + shipping. You can also call their customer service on M - F at 541-344-1528. They are located in Eugene OR, so no tax. Go to http://www.wipfandstock.com/ and enter "dust or dew" into the search box. There are discounts for ordering 5 or more. It will be available online around mid-April (amazon.com, etc.). Amazon retail will be $31 plus shipping. At that time, a Kindle version will be available for about $19. It's an academic book, so it might be a hard read for some, but there are chapters that are readable for those who know something about the Old Testament. My approach is that God's revelation to us fully human types was gradual. He stepped into their ancient culture and spoke through a contemporaneous worldview. The step-by-step process of changing their worldview was often jarring. Blood was spilled, families were divided as people tried ...

In my studies of the paranormal and how it relates to Christianity I like to look for smoking guns that explicitly demonstrate that the two arenas are not only incompatible but are in open conflict with one another. I have stated in other posts that all entities other than angels loyal to Jesus Christ dismiss Jesus as just a teacher, just a god-force much like what we find within our own selves, or an alien plant to teach us to be more spiritual. They do not ever use the four-letter s-word..."save"...even though His very name means "salvation." The other word you will never hear in the realm of reincarnation, Buddhist mysticism, alien abduction, shamanism, etc. is "redemption" or "sin." There is no sin. There is only growth...or not. No-growth just means delay. In the Ted Rice story (a past blog post), Ted's grandma is presented with an imitation of her late beloved husband that was so real that she was convinced it was really him, come to h...

Tonight I listened to a CD with the story of how Sid Roth, Messianic Jew and TV host, came to Christ. He wasn't raised that way. He tells an audience of Jewish people in Boca Raton, Florida, that he was separated from his wife and daughter at the time when he was encouraged by a friend to attend a New Age training center. There they taught people to meditate and accelerate their brain cells in order to become enlightened. They promised the clients that if they complete the training and their program doesn't work, they would refund their money. Sid thought it was just crazy stuff and wanted his money back, so he toughed it out. At the end, they encourage the clients to meditate and to invite a counselor spirit into their head. As proof that something new had entered Sid's life they presented him with the name of a woman about whom he knew nothing. Suddenly he saw a vision which suggested to him that she had cancer in her left breast. They said that was exactly right. At firs...

Today there are several TV shows here in the US that deal with ghost hunting. . .Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Stories, Celebrity Ghost Stories, Paranormal State, and an occasional documentary about a famous exorcism or haunted house. Charismatic, TV-friendly hunters bring in high tech equipment such as digital recorders to record ghostly voices called Electronic Voice Phenomenon ( EVP ). There are night vision TV cameras, computer monitors watching every room, walkie talkies, Electromagnetic Frequency monitors, and heat sensing equipment. There is the interview with clients: We heard children crying or giggling, we saw a lady dressed in last century's fashion, we were touched, we heard a voice telling us to get out, we heard footsteps, things fly off the kitchen counter, something appears to me at night, we feel watched all the time, a voice tells me to kill myself or kill my parents or my kids, etc. In a haunted home, people live in terror as things literally go bump in...

Psalm 1 says, "Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers (NRSV). A poetic metaphor, of course. But what does it really mean? That nothing bad will ever happen to a God-centered person? Of course not. We all know that such people can have car accidents, develop cancer, lose their homes, lose a child, wind up divorced, or become depressed and angry. Goodness knows Israel and every major hero and heroine in the Hebrew Bible had crosses to bear and trials to overcome. So what point was the author of the psalm making with such confidence? The water represents God's presence in our lives... an otherworldly energy that brings them through all tests and trial...