BelongingMy older sister's blog
Blibby's BlogMy little sister's blog
Gixxer For ChristMy brother's blog
Grantian FlorilegiumDr. Grant: literary, bibliophile, wordsmithy, and professor
Blog and MablogPastor and professor in Moscow, Idaho
A Proverb A DayShort daily expositions and applications of a Proverb
The Evantine AbbeyMy former landlord, self-proclaimed futilitarian
Roots by the RiverThe elder Wilson, providing practical encouragement to Christian living
Christus RexHe's masculine during the week and feminine on Sundays
Trozzort's TalesGot married, cut travel time to church by 75%
Blog of NashThe Nashes like football and their kids
Joy in the Journey
Has cute kids.
Pointyshoes87Those funny stories aren't made up
Filled With TruthAdventures and thoughts of a Christian country girl
Danger BlogSeeing the glory of God in the ordinary
Sacra DoctrinaTheology and family of Joel Garver
A MinorCommunity-oriented blogger
This Classical LifeYoung family living the classical life
A Cup of RichFellow Celto-phile
Sir JakeHe's happily taken
UnrivenThe writer, student, and Chicago style pizza lover
Gulf CoastalBeside the sea
The High PostClever Christian chaps, triumvirate of family men
Wittenberg HallDiscussing Christianity and beer
Weighing GlorySomewhere chasing his hat
Down To A Sunless SeaWhen Florida and Minnesota collide
Crash Into MeNo problems with authority
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 T h u r s d a y , N o v e m b e r 3 0 t h
8:08PM | Bringing You The News That Matters
 esterday a 5,000 pound killer whale at a Sea World aquarium in San Diego bit her trainer's foot and dragged him to the bottom of the pool and didn't resurface for about a minute, then repeated the action, all in front of a crowd at the end of a performance (the trainer is still alive and ok). Sometime during the terrifying moment, someone called the local fire department: "Hello, fire department? There's a killer whale that has this guy pinned at the bottom of a pool... do you think you can come over and help?" I wonder how the fire department reacted: "Another prank call"; or amongst themselves "You go." "No, you go." I don't imagine it's quite the same deal as rescuing a kitty from the top of a tree.
Meanwhile, earlier this week on the very day that the Iraqi president visited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss how Iran might help quell the violence in Iraq, Iran got off on the wrong foot concerning how their military is the most capable and best equipped to make a positive difference in a violent, war-torn Iraq. An antiquated aircraft carrying military personnel crashed upon takeoff from Tehran, killing 36.
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S u n d a y , N o v e m b e r 2 6 t h
10:40PM | Forgiveness And Remembering
 was reading one of the archived Communion exhortations delivered last month by Toby Sumpter, pastor of Holy Trinity Reformed Evangelical Church in Greenville, South Carolina. In this homily, Toby talked about how the Lord welcomes us at His table, despite our faithlessness, betrayals, and sins, all confessed, of the past week. We confess our sins and we still feel bad about them, but the Lord does not remember them - He does not hold them to our account. I've heard this preached and declared many times, but the concept is too amazing for me to grasp. It is incredible that despite another week of the same sins and the same confessions, the Lord still welcomes me to the fellowhsip of His table and that my sins are forgiven and forgotten, while on the other hand my shamed and guilty conscience tempts me to think that I still need to do something to recompence for my shortcomings and failures. A good reminder for me to think about at such times is the example of Christ and his post-resurrection fellowship with the disciples. At the end of His earthly ministry, prior to His arrest in Gethsemane, Jesus foretold that all His disciples would flee from Him in His hour of need and even deny Him. This they did, including most famously Peter. After his denial and remembrance of Christ's words, Peter immediately felt remorse and repented, and it can be safely assumed that the other disciples, all of whom remained disciples of Christ following His ascension, did likewise. What followed that was despite this outright abandonment and denial of Christ, after He arose from the grave He still returned to His disciples and invited them to fellowship and dine with Him, not rebuking them for or remembering their denial of Him. That is the same thing the Lord does for us now: having purchased the remission of all of our sins on the cross, He remembers our confessed sins no more and invites us to the fellowship of His table.
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7:09PM | Prayer And Confession
 couple thoughts; one mine, and one not mine.
Sometimes when praying it is easy to say the words, to speak vocally or silently the petitions, thanks, or confession, and not think much else about the prayer and what is going on when I pray. I take for granted that somehow God hears me, and have a general reverence for the one whom I address. Other times, because of experience and because of the promises that come from reading God's Word, I more consciously acknowledge the power of prayer and am assured that God hears my prayers. This is comforting and encouraging. Yet other times, on very rare occasions, during prayer it hits me that I am talking directly to God: that I am addressing the supreme power who is head over all things and who created all things, and this is a frightening realization.
This week I read something by Donald Whitney, a simple truth that struck me with its rebuke:
"But that does not mean that confession is a light and easy thing, a simple mouthing of words, a verbal ritual. Mere admission is not confession. Christ is dishonored by a frivolous view of confession that does not appreciate how much our sin cost Him.
(Spiritual Disciplines For The Christian Life, p.168)
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F r i d a y , N o v e m b e r 2 4 t h
8:58PM | The Season Of Reading
 he cold months are more conducive to reading, and already I am taking advantage of the seasons' benefits in this regard. Hot and sunny days find me less able to sit still for any length of time, and what time I am able to sit for an extended period it is because I am nodding off with the book open in my lap. The chill of fall encourages sitting tight in a comfortable chair with a book in one hand and a livening drink near the other: somehow the cool corrals the senses, I guess you could say like cold causes things, such as water, to contract while heat causes things to expand - and so in the summer my thoughts expand and burst into distractions of things to do outdoors and means to obtain relief from the heat.
Aside from the not-so-subtle influences of weather, I have also resolved to spend less time at the computer listening to music or gaming (I say as I sit at my computer listening to music and writing on my blog) and more time disciplining myself to get back into the habit of sustained reading. I figure that I can at least make myself spend an hour an evening reading, outside of the time I spend in daily Bible reading. Days such as today, in which many were on vacation following the Thanksgiving holiday and in order to indulge in the enticements of sale prices, and in which the U.S. markets closed early, work was slow and this afforded the rare opportunity to read something instructive at work. Devoting 15 minutes each evening to cleaning would be beneficial as well, but I'm not prepared to make any promises to myself there.
As always, the stack of unfinished books is plentiful, and the list of books yet to be read exceeds even that. There are plenty of books to get at this winter, and hopefully yet more will be discovered as the weeks continue. If progress is indeed made, you should see additions to the list of books I am reading or have read, which you can find at the bottom of the right-most column of this blog.
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T u e s d a y , N o v e m b e r 2 1 s t
10:05PM | The Cause Of The Christmas Spirit
could say that the weather puts me in the Christmas spirit. The gray overcast skies, trees stripped bare of their last autumn leaves by the rain, excellent Christmas music playing in my car, my little sister asking me for a Christmas list, people starting to wear coats to keep warm, Eagles vs. Cowboys on Christmas day, buying little smokies at the supermarket... but what really puts me in the Christmas spirit is driving home on a cold night, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, hungry and thinking of food and warmth, in heavy rain on slippery roads: it reminds me of my need for a Savior.
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M o n d a y , N o v e m b e r 2 0 t h
10:24PM | If Gandalf And Palpatine Presided Over The Church
 ome is excited about the visit of the Anglican church's Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. An article talks about the meetings of two separate denominations of the Church, and how maybe we can hope that there will one day be unity again between the Anglicans and the Roman Catholics. But the real reason why Rome is excited because they saw Rowan Williams' picture and he looks like Gandalf. The Pope looks like Emperor Palpatine (reference the same link as above). Beyond appearances, there are definite similarities, in some regards, between these two bishops and their fictional look-alikes. I'll leave you to think about it, because writing out such drivel will only further denigrate this blog entry. At least it had an intriguing title.
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W e d n e s d a y , N o v e m b e r 1 5 t h
9:25AM | Church Of The King Withdraws From The CREC
ell me you did not see this coming from a mile away, ye who follow what is going on within the CREC. Both sides should be ashamed of themselves, particularly the elders comprising the respective local sessions of which Mr. Wilson and Mr. Sandlin were a part. Months before this church split, both men were bickering and mudslinging in the public realm of the internet with no graciousness or apology, and nothing was done about this very visible feud between two of the more recognizable figures in the CREC, and eventually it comes down to this, where the lack of gracious and brotherly dialogue between the two prominent figures contributes to a mess in one of the CREC member churches. Where were the elders of these two men's sessions? Did they do anything to rebuke Mr. Wilson and Mr. Sandlin and try to bring reconciliation between them, or did they sit idly by with hands folded nodding affably when their man issued his attack or defense against the other across the internet? (Evidence that nothing intercessory was done: the ill will between Mr. Sandlin and Mr. Wilson is one of the citations that dominates a couple paragraphs in Church of the King's public written statement announcing their withdrawal) Clearly in the early public stages of this bickering, both men needed to be taken to the woodshed by their respective sessions, and these same sessions should have strove to bring about face-to-face reconciliation between these to Christian leaders. Does the CREC have any leaders who will or who tried to rise up and speak out against these popular CREC figures, at the risk of sacrificing his own popularity or comfort? What do we do about similar situtations in the future, now that we have had this learning event?
Was this dispute a contributing factor to the Church of the King withdrawal? Yes. If the dispute was snuffed at its source early on by the CREC would Church of the King still be a member church? Who knows. Maybe there are additional contributing factors. But one thing is clear: it is ugly when popular church figures quarrel, and this cannot be tolerated by those men to whom ministers of God are accountable.
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T u e s d a y , N o v e m b e r 1 4 t h
8:20PM | Ah, Democracy
hope you participated and voted in last week's midterm elections. After all, every vote counts (wink, wink). This story was too good to pass by without mentioning: Candidate gets no votes despite voting for himself.
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8:13PM | Cryptozoology Mania Hits Southeast Wisconsin
 very once in a while I like to catch up on what's news in the world of cryptozoology (cyptozoology is the study of mythical creatures: Bigfoot, mothman, Loch Ness monster, chupacabra, our local Tyco Animal, etc). I'm usually reminded of this entertaining and fascinating, and ridiculed, field whenever the rare "Bigfoot sighting" story appears on CNN.com or on some other major online news outlet. It makes for good reading at work for a day, on a day with rare downtime.
The most recent hoopla is regarding what a Wisonconsin DOT roadkill collector reports he saw while making his rounds last Wednesday night. CNN quickly tagged this as a "man thinks he saw Bigfoot" story, despite the fact that the witness, Steven Krueger, emphatically denied that this was "Bigfoot", at least as a sasquatch is most consistently reported to be in appearance.
Why am I fascinated by these stories? One commenter on cryptozoology news site Cryptomundo put it well:
So, what would you rather read or report about, sasquatch sightings or seven more soldiers killed in Iraq. I think the flurry of reports and interest in all things cryptid is partially a sociological response to the unrelenting horrors of the world we inhabit; frankly my mind needs a break from 9/11, and contemplating cryptids helps.
I really believe that some of this is escapism, remember the frenzy of Bigfoot reporting in the 60’s and 70’s was better than dwelling on Vietnam, JFK, RFK, MLK and Nixon. Ol’ Sasquatch draws us back to the wonder and mystery of life and leaves us less calloused, and in a strange way comforted.
posted by "Joppa"
It's the last sentence that I agree with. So, at the end of the day, while Bigfoot may just be a man in a ghillie suit, it is a reminder that life is funny and mysterious (and if nothing else it has to irritate the religion of Science). That reminds me, I want a really good ghillie suit for Christmas.
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M o n d a y , N o v e m b e r 1 3 t h
11:38PM | Thoughts On Today's Readings From The Bible 11/13
 e people tend to be politically correct, whether we sympathize with political correctness or not; the Bible is never politically correct. As an example, many of us are familiar with the idiom "the leopard cannot change his spots" when referring to a person who cannot change due to their character. However, we avoid using the comparison that immediately precedes "the leopard cannot change his spots in the same verse in the Bible (Jer. 13:23): "the Ethiopian cannot change his skin". Many of us probably didn't know that "the leopard cannot change his spots", or "can the leopard change his spots?" came from the Bible, or at least did not know that it came from Jeremiah. That's politically correct, too.
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S u n d a y , N o v e m b e r 1 2 t h
6:53PM | Sabbath Eating
his would be a good time to blog about food, since it's Sunday and Sunday is a celebratory and joyful feast day. I have even more occasion to talk about food since I cooked this evening, which is a rare endeavor for me on any day. While the meal I made may be regarded as simple to put together, it was the first time I had attempted to make any portion of it. The menu was garlic and herb roasted chicken drumsticks, a rice pilaf, and raw broccoli (because it was pretty much the only fresh side-item vegetable that I had in the fridge.
First I melted butter and mixed it with garlic powder to create a blend in which to roll and coat the drumsticks. Then I shook a variety of herbs and seasonings onto the chicken, and shoved it into the oven to turn a color unlike pink. While the chicken was roasting slowly I prepared the pilaf. I found a recipe online that looked promisingly similar to pilafs I have enjoyed from others in the past. This dish involved more garlic (garlic is of course, as I have previously said, one of four essential foods, two more of which I used this evening: butter and bacon) - I sauteed chopped onion in melted butter and garlic powder, then added this to a pot of uncooked rice, sliced mushrooms, and pecans (recipe called for almonds but pecans were the only nut I had available). All this was mixed and cooked in chicken broth. Once finished, I added my own item to the recipe: crumbled bacon.
To my surprise, all turned out very well - especially the roasted chicken, which was tender, moist and easily pulled off the bone. Most importantly though, it was very flavorful as the mixture of herbs was well chosen. The rice pilaf was not as pasty as I would have liked, but delicious nonetheless. Along with the broccoli, all this was finished off and washed down with Samuel Adam's Black Lager, from my Sam Adam's winter variety pack. I am not disappointed to have leftovers.
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W e d n e s d a y , N o v e m b e r 8 t h
11:21PM | Non-Election News
hile you've been caught up in midterm elections news these past two days, here are a couple news stories you may have missed.
1. A nazi propaganda speech is blared in German during pregame warmups at a North Carolina soccer match.
2. In a lab, sight is restored to mice who had been blind due to genetically programmed eye diseases. This was accomplished by transferring retina cells from baby mice. Isn't that great? Maybe not... to accomplish the same for visually impaired humans would require harvesting stem cells from the retina of second trimester unborn babies, and transplanting them into the adult human's eyes. Not content with killing the unborn, we will "blind" and rob them first.
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T u e s d a y , N o v e m b e r 7 t h
9:35PM | Thoughts On Today's Readings From The Bible
 salm 110: verse one of this psalm frequently appears among postmillenial writings as somewhat of an evidence that Christ will not return to the earth again until Christians have victoriously restored the world in the name of Christ - "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool". I think that this verse is misapplied to Christ's "second" coming, but that it still holds a postmillenial note of victorious hope. The rest of the psalm following verse one speaks of how the Christ will "send the rod out of Zion and rule in the midst of His enemies" (v.2), "strike through kings in the day of His wrath" (v.5: is not the day of His wrath the day of His death?), and "He shall judge among the heathen" (v.6). All this is not something that will be, from our perspective, accomplished in the future; it is not something that awaits Christ's return, but something that was definitely accomplished at the cross, preceded by Christ's earthly ministry and succeeded by His kingly mandate. So while in verse one the Lord sends the Messiah through the incarnation to make His enemies His footstool, the victory accomplished in this event is not something that will be reversed or nearly nullified by the events of history. Christ has established His rule, He has struck through the kings, He has judged the heathen and filled the earth with their dead bodies, and He has lifted up His head in victory (v.7). His ascension into heaven after His resurrection was not the Lord beating a hasty retreat.
Brief observations from Jeremiah 7:
1. "Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee." (v.16)
The Lord is not receptive to the hypocritical, lip-service prayers of those who are rebellion against Him.
2. "Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched." (v.20)
God's judgment against a nation does not just affect the people or a subset of the people, nor does the effect of their sin hurt themselves only: the earth itself is damaged by their sin (remember that the Fall affected the entire earth), and God's judgment is upon both man and the earth. Consequently, this implies that repentance and a return to God leads to a healing of the land, and the replenishment of its resources and its blessing towards man.
3. "Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but stiffened their neck: they did worse than their fathers." (v.26)
Jeremiah sums up pre-Incarnation history here: the trend was negative - things were steadily progressing worse and worse.
4. "Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate." (v.34)
As a nation steadily departs from God wilfully and comes under His judgment, marriage is affected: there is no joy in marriage, marriage is corrupted, and the number of people declines ("Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out" - Ps. 109:13). Joy and gladness disappear. These are not inalienable rights inherited by all men at birth: true joy and gladness have their only source in a right relationship with God, and all other perceived sources of the same are futility, frustration, and bitterness.
John 2:10 - After Jesus turns water into wine at a marriage feast, and the servants provide a sample of the wine to the master of the wedding party, the master of the party exclaims "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is inferior: but you have kept the good wine until now". Is there some meaning to why this statement was included in the gospel record? Perhaps the meaning is this: God's Kingdom has been blessed by His coming, but the best is reserved; it is yet to come.
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M o n d a y , N o v e m b e r 6 t h
9:38AM | Eco On The Follies Of Man's Search For Religion
 y favorite modern author, Italian semanticist, professor, and prolific writer Umberto Eco, served up the following short essay on his website, in which he treats the commercialization of Christmas as another vain attempt by man at religion. Eco is not a professing Christian, and though he sees the folly in the occult and so many other alternative religions, I fear that his insights into the corruption and deterioration of the Christian church, and the intellectual capacity of his mind, prevents him from returning to the true faith.
Read Umberto Eco on God Isn't Big Enough For Some People.
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F r i d a y , N o v e m b e r 5 t h
9:06PM | This Is What It Looks Like When You Blog But Don't Really Have Anything To Say
 idn't I tell you that I have trouble with calendar awareness and don't know what day it is? My last blog entry was posted on Friday, and I dated it "Friday, November 1st". It's fixed now. I get distracted easily, and since I don't always catch myself getting the date wrong the most evident manifestation of this for me is my loss of the ability to sit down and read for hours. These days 30 minutes to an hour is my max for one go - that's not to say this could not be increased by daily discipline. I think the change in my capacity for attentiveness has come steadily as I've added years to my life, with more responsibilities and things to think about keeping my mind full, busy, and distracted. I suspect that without discipline this would only grow worse, because men older than myself, men with families to take care of, have even more that must crowd their minds and demand attention. There I go again: when I set out to write tonight I did not intend to write this - this paragraph was prompted by my noticing the error in my last post's timestamp - and now I cannot remember what I intended to write.
This being the sabbath, I will mention something about sabbaticals. I have not worked in the corporate world many years, and thus have not had occasion to frequently change jobs and inquire about different companies' benefits packages. Among the benefits offered by my current employer, I was surprised to learn that they permit employees to take a sabbatical (once every seven years, with eligibility for one's first sabbatical kicking in after five consecutive years of employment). I do not know how common it is to find sabbaticals among employee benefits in large companies; I do know that I am already looking forward to taking advantage of mine - if the Lord permits me to stay with this employer that long.
This being the weekend, I will mention something about movies. I have not seen many movies lately (rentals, from Blockbuster Online, so I always have about three movies at my place available for watching) - I've not really been interested, nor have I felt willing to devote two hours out of an evening to watching someone else's story that may or may not be good, but certainly would not be an excellent or memorable story. Yet, more to return a couple movies to Blockbuster and perhaps receive something more interesting out of my queue of movies, I watched two this weekend.
The first was Vozvrashcheniye, and I had no idea that this was its title until I looked it up just now on imbd.com. It's English title is "The Return": this is a Russian movie, with subtitles. It's the kind of movie that you might expect to find on show at the Venice Film Festival. And whaddayaknow, it won an award there in 2003. This film is about two young Russian boys who go on a trip with their father, who has returned to them for the first time in 12 years - or since they were babies. As you can imagine, this would be an awkward situation for the boys, and there you have the setting for the movie. While not particularly memorable on the whole, the film did have it's moments. The scene that really struck me in this film was near the beginning, and will not give anything away for those who have not seen the film: the two boys, their grandmother, and their mother sit around the dinner table, and in walks their father from his nap, taking his seat to share a meal with them for the first time since returning. He pours wine for them all, then breaks a loaf of bread with his hands and distributes pieces to them all, and the whole scene takes place in silence, for the most part. The scene was very patriarchal and seemed to recognize the joint intimacy of sharing a meal together unified by a presiding host... that doesn't really explain why the scene struck me. After watching the film, for some reason I distinctly thought that if I heard the title The Return without knowing anything about the movie, I would have assumed that such a title would belong to a horror film. That very evening I saw for the first time the trailer for the upcoming horror film The Return, broadcast on one of the television stations.
The other movie was a Neil Gamain (writer of fantasy books) fantasy adaptation called Mirrormask. I like fantasy and science fiction, but this movie wasn't really for me. From a production standpoint, for a movie produced in 2005 the visual effects should have been so much... less 80's, less stage-like; the audio was horribly mixed as well, with the dialogue channel set too low against the score and sound effects. There was too much work demanded of my remote in this one. The story itself was unoriginal, but clearly this is a film for a younger audience so perhaps my feelings toward it are unfair - but I still did not like it.
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F r i d a y , N o v e m b e r 3 r d
11:29PM | Update Bookmarks
n a few days, if you have this blog saved in your web browser's Favorites or Bookmarks, those bookmarks will no longer work. That's because instead of http://www.joshuamcinnis.com/blog pointing to http://www.joshuamcinnis.com/blog/index.shtml, the domain will start pointing to http://www.joshuamcinnis.com/blog/index.php. The index.php version is available now as a mirror site, and in a few days will be the primary site. Therefore, please update your bookmarks. If you don't see this message, then you won't know what's going on at all when you click on my blog in your Favorites and get a "404 File Not Found" error. If your bookmark links to just http://www.joshuamcinnis.com/blog, then this message means nothing to you.
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 E l s e w h e r e
Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol (link added 06.16.08)
Crude oil is being created from genetically modified bug excretions.
Read it
Pringles can designer buried in his work (link added 06.03.08)
Designer of the Pringles can was cremated and his remains kept in a Pringles can.
Read it
P o e t r y
Contented Wi' Little, And Cantie Wi' Mair - Robert Burns
Contented wi' little and cantie wi' mair,
Whene'er I forgather wi' Sorrow and Care,
I gie them a skelp, as they're creepin alang,
Wi' a cog o' guid swats and an auld Scottish sang.
I whyles claw the elbow o' troublesome Thought;
But Man is a soger, and Life is a faught.
My mirth and guid humour are coin in my pouch,
And my Freedom's my lairdship nae monarch daur touch.
A towmond o' trouble, should that be my fa',
A night o' guid fellowship sowthers it a':
When at the blythe end o' our journey at last,
Wha the Deil ever thinks o' the road he has past?
Blind Chance, let her snapper and stoyte on her way,
Be't to me, be't frae me, e'en let the jade gae!
Come Ease or come Travail, come Pleasure or Pain,
My warst word is:- ' Welcome, and welcome again!'
S t o r y
R e a d i n g / R e a d
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