Jephthah’s Perfect Vow – An interesting take on a challenging passage where one of Israel’s judges appears to sacrifice his daughter.
“Jephthah is a rash fool who made a stupid vow and an even more stupid decision to keep it by offering his daughter as a burnt sacrifice.”
That’s the most common view of Jephthah that I’ve come across in the commentaries.
And it’s totally wrong.
Jephthah was a godly man who made a godly vow and who kept that vow in a godly way. No, he did not offer his daughter as a burnt sacrifice. But that’s because he did not vow his daughter as a burnt sacrifice. Here are 10 proofs . . .
Some counterpoints here.
Planned Parenthood Produces Video Promoting Bondage and Sadomasochism to Teens – Go to the link to see the video made with your tax dollars. Planned Parenthood also kills babies for a living, they systematically hide rape, incest and sex trafficking, they encourage kids to have all sorts of out-of-wedlock sex and pretend that it can be done without risks, they would rather destroy a breast cancer charity than part ways amicably, they commit Medicaid fraud, and so much more.
31 Days of Purity: Putting Sin to Death – This applies to all sins. I just finished reading The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin and it hit many of the same themes. I like how this passage from the post emphasized how sin is fought as a gift of the Holy Spirit and as part of our duty.
The Christian learns early on that sin still has a hold on him and remains in him, even “besetting” him, dogging his steps and burdening him with guilt and shame. Paul describes this remaining sin as “another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind” (Rom. 7:23). How does the believer respond to this “law of sin”? We must mortify (put to death) what Paul calls “the old man and his deeds,” and “the lusts of the flesh” (Rom. 8:13, 13:14; Col. 3:15). This mortification is both a gift (of the Holy Spirit) and a duty (ours). In our own strength we cannot accomplish any lasting mortification, without the Spirit’s grace. But by the powerful and enabling grace of the Holy Spirit, we may and must hate sin, strangle it, and put a sword through it. We must meditate often on the horrific consequences of sinning against our beloved, triune God and Savior. We must know our own hearts and weaknesses, and avoid those situations that tend to promote the temptations that we are weakest in battling against. We must cast off all remnants of the life we left behind when we began to follow Christ. We must put ourselves under the death-dealing power of the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14) so that the Spirit of Christ may put to death what is earthly in us.
Crimea River – a great analysis of the foreign policy debacles of the Left. And they are adding to this list daily.
In exchange for Russia’s laughably empty threats about Cuba, JFK removed our missiles from Turkey — a major retreat. As Khrushchev put it in his memoirs: “It would have been ridiculous for us to go to war over Cuba — for a country 12,000 miles away. For us, war was unthinkable. We ended up getting exactly what we’d wanted all along, security for Fidel Castro’s regime and American missiles removed from Turkey.”
Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, famously escalated the war in Vietnam simply to prove that the Democrats could be trusted with national security.
As historian David Halberstam describes it, LBJ “would talk to his closest political aides about the McCarthy days, of how Truman lost China and then the Congress and the White House and how, by God, Johnson was not going to be the president who lost Vietnam and then the Congress and the White House.”
LBJ’s incompetent handling of that war allowed liberals to spend the next half-century denouncing every use of American military force as “another Vietnam.”
Wealthy Escape From de Blasio’s New York – NY is Detroit 2.0. Things can spiral down in a hurry when you chase off your tax base.
As Bloomberg often noted, about 5,000 very wealthy families paid 30 percent of the city’s income tax. Losing even a few of them means significantly less money for filling potholes and hiring cops.
Why I Don’t Go to the Movies Anymore – It is hard to imagine a more stupid and insulting movie than Non-Stop.
If you have any intention of watching the new action thriller Non-Stop, read no further, because this review will completely spoil the suspense. But more importantly, it will save you from wasting your time and money.
Greenpeace Cofounder: There Is No Evidence of Anthropogenic Global Warming
Not even this will be enough to convince gullible true believers that anthropogenic global warming is a hoax:
A co-founder of Greenpeace told lawmakers there is no evidence man is contributing to climate change, and said he left the group when it became more interested in politics than the environment.
Patrick Moore, a Canadian ecologist and business consultant who was a member of Greenpeace from 1971-86, told members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee environmental groups like the one he helped establish use faulty computer models and scare tactics in promoting claims man-made gases are heating up the planet.
“There is no scientific proof that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are the dominant cause of the minor warming of the Earth’s atmosphere over the past 100 years,” he said.
Even if the planet is warming up, Moore claimed it would not be calamitous for men, which he described as a “subtropical species.”
Biggest virus ever: “We don’t understand anything anymore!” – And yet another repudiation of Darwinian evolution. Too bad most of the Darwin fans are 20 years behind on the research.
“There is a mechanism of permanent creation going on in amoeba producing a new repertoire of viruses and predisposing giant viruses to become pathogens once they specialise”, Raoult said.
He said the mechanism was not foreseen by Charles Darwin’s theory that life comes from a common ancestor.
“The idea of a common ancestor makes no sense in the light of viruses,” he said. “That was Darwin’s idea, but he was clearly wrong.”
10 Reasons to Avoid Sexual Immorality—a great list based on Proverbs. Go read them all.
Perhaps making your own list will help you to remember these things when you face temptation.
1. You’ll participate in evil
To preserve you from the evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. (Prov 6:24, ESV)
Immorality is evil, and temptation is an invitation to do evil. But wisdom preserves the wise from evil. When you believe the smooth and deceitful promises of immorality, you choose guilt by association: You are now evil as well.
2. Your desire will take you captive
Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. (Prov 6:25)
t was for freedom that Christ has set you free, but immorality seeks to enslave you. Capitulation will become easier and easier. Resistance will become more and more difficult. Far better for you to rid your heart of these fantasies while you can.
3. You’ll lose everything
For the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,
but a married woman hunts down a precious life. (Prov 6:26)
The cost begins low: only a loaf of bread. But with diminishing returns, you’ll need to give more and more until your very life is forfeit. Immorality hooks you while it’s cheap. A glance here, a touch there. But before you know it, you can’t sleep without sexual release. You simply can’t keep your hands off, and you’ll lose everything in the process.
4. Your punishment is inevitable
Can a man carry fire next to his chest
and his clothes not be burned?
Or can one walk on hot coals
and his feet not be scorched?
So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
none who touches her will go unpunished. (Prov 6:27-29)
You can’t tinker with immorality and hope to escape. You may be able to cover it up for a time, but you will eventually be found out. God sees everything, and he is a consuming fire.
5. You can’t repay what you’ve stolen
People do not despise a thief if he steals
to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
he will give all the goods of his house…
[A jealous husband] will accept no compensation;
he will refuse though you multiply gifts. (Prov 6:30-31, 35)
The point is not to justify theft, but to condemn sexual immorality. People can understand a thief’s motives, though they still make him repay what he stole. How much less will they understand you when they find you out?
Perhaps you rob your present or future spouse of your best love and attention. Maybe you steal someone’s innocence. Or perhaps you continue supporting the horrific porn industry, which destroys young women and holds them captive. Pictures are never harmless; we must not lie to ourselves.
Eternity Matters 