Blogging to Save My Sanity

I just finished reading Today's Bleat at www.lileks.com. I found myself nodding in agreement as I read it. The material about the Bush campaign ads is particularly insightful. It said all the things I have been thinking. Check out the following excerpt, then visit www.lileks.com for yourself.

"People forgot the Cole the day after it happened. People forgot the embassy attacks – if they were aware of them at all – by nightfall. People shrugged at Desert Fox and the Tomahawk attack on empty Afghan camps. No one took it seriously until we were all sitting in a dark room at 1 AM staring at the TV, watching the crawl, wondering what was next, stunned and horrified and scared. Three moments: Bush’s speech on the pile, the speech at the National Cathedral, and then the jaw-dropping State of the Union address, which was the moment when the national mood got off its knees and balled its fists and said that’s not going to happen again.

"Remember?"

I've moved my link to www.lileks.com to a newly created category on my blog page: Top Blog.

Katie Couric interviewed Karen Hughes, a Bush campaign advisor, on NBC’s “Today” show this morning. The interview was about the new Bush campaign advertisements unveiled yesterday. (To see the ads, click here.) Katie fired questions at Ms. Hughes like a medieval soldier firing arrows at the enemy, one after the other, pointed and intended to do harm. The questions were openly against the advertisements, unveiling that in the opinion of the interviewer the content, footage from the September 11 attacks, was inappropriate, and the lack of content, missing reference to situation in Iraq, showed weakness. Ms. Hughes countered with reasonable responses, keeping her emotions in check. Watching the interview, I was tempted to turn the channel as the obvious bias of the interviewer turned my stomach.

Following Katie Couric’s interview on the “Today” show was a story about Senator John Kerry’s search for a running mate. The mood turned so dramatically from vicious onslaught to excited speculation. The contrast, of the merciless pecking away at a guest to the hopeful envisioning of what might be, was overbearing for someone who strongly supports, in their opinion, the opposition. Would it be Gephardt? Maybe Hillary Clinton? Will it be someone from a state where the race will be close like Ohio? Or maybe the governor of New Mexico? At that point, I had no difficulty turning off the television.

I know I take my chances with the “Today” show. It portrays itself as a news show when the majority of the content is op-ed. I find that I listen more closely and discover resolve and motivation that I didn’t know I had when the segments reflect the show’s liberal bias. It makes me wonder how many people are “followers” of the show and how many I might be able to convert. It is my encouragement to do more for the cause of getting the President re-elected.

I wanted to again complement Karen Hughes on her composure during the interview with Katie Couric. It takes a person of strong character to encounter such opposition and not let her emotions get the best of her.

Another thing I want to do is complement the Bush campaign on positive advertisements. Fostering feelings of hate and anger toward the opposing candidate is not the way to win the election. Highlighting a candidate’s accomplishments and strengths is the way to win.

Each day I pray I could know God a little better and love Him a little more. So, each day I am exposed to a new piece of information that somehow increases my understanding of who God is. I hope to one day be in God’s presence. I prepare myself by learning as much as I can about Him. In my learning, I have found that the more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.

Sometimes I find myself doubting. There are times when my faith wanes. I am plagued with a variety of questions at these times. One such question is:
How is it that Jesus Christ suffered the most painful death when others being persecuted have suffered horrific deaths as well?

This is a question that has nagged me for quite some time. I had never really asked it of anyone, but I had long been in search of an answer. It would seem to me that there are many persecuted Christians, in this age and ages past, who have suffered unimaginable physical torture, enduring extreme pain for the cause of Christianity. If this is so, how could Christ’s suffering be considered the greatest sacrifice?

Thanks to the movie “The Passion of the Christ” I have finally found my answer. I haven’t even seen the movie yet, but in a devotional about the movie I found the answer. The devotional referenced the following verse:
Mark 15:34
“Then, at that time Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” NLT

The author of the devotional then writes about how Jesus not only suffered physical pain, but he suffered the wrath of God. Unimaginable. Jesus suffered the wrath of God on our behalf.

Here is an excerpt of the devotional entitled “The Passion of Christ”:
“The wrath of God against our sin was so potent that even God himself (Jesus the God-man) winced at it. For those of us who believe in the trinity, the fabric of time/space and eternity was in danger of being torn-the very relationship between God and His Son was being assaulted. God intersecting with His creation was bound to have some nuclear affect, a strain beyond of unprecedented proportions in the make up of existence itself. How can an infinite, pure, holy God come into contact with a sin-cursed, self-absorbed, inhumane world like ours-without causing a catastrophe to either Himself or the physical universe? The obvious loser in such an event, it would seem, would be the world, we humans in particular. But, Christ absorbed the blow, first by humbling himself in becoming a man, then by subjecting himself to man's inhumanity, and finally by absorbing the cosmic cataclysm that would have otherwise destroyed the entire human race-namely the collision of that which is pure and holy with that which is evil. That evil runs in every human heart.
“When the dust settled, God the Son took the full impact of this collision, the instinctive response of God's wrath on a fallen world. He did it so that we would not be spiritually destroyed, for we could not stand such wrath, such rejection. That is what hell is all about. Yet, Jesus experienced the essence of hell, an eternity of separation from His Father during the hour of his death. He did it for us that we might be saved from God's wrath.”

Copyright (c) 2004 - Christian Cyber Ministries - Pastor Bill - All Rights Reserved, Author: Pastor Chuck

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