Mars and the Watts

Two places to go... or not to go, really... whatever.

The first, check out NASA's mission to Mars. This is pretty incredible, if you ask me. I had a great uncle who died a few years ago in his 90's. He swore up and down that we never sent men to the moon, but that in fact they just walked around in the Arizona desert. I wonder what he'd think about a robot on the Red Planet...

Here's NASA's Mars Pheonix site.

The second is probably not worth your time, but I had to go for the name's sake. I saw it on a banner ad on CNN today. I think it's the first banner ad I've ever visited.

Here it is: www.SaveTheWatts.com. Awesome. They're trying to save my family.

You really might not want to visit it. It's about energy conservation or some junk like that...

The 10 Spot

Ten random thoughts... No rhyme or reason...

10. I've just found the worst broadcast combination in Baseball, Darren Sutton and Mark Grace of Fox Sports. Yes, worse than Joe Morgan. At least he has Jon Miller to support him. Listening to Darren Sutton and Mark Grace is like listening to Joe Morgan broadcasting with his partner, Joe Morgan. I'm watching the Diamondbacks at the Braves right now on Fox and I promise you I just heard Darren Sutton say "Corky Miller. One of the great names in baseball. First name Corky. Last name Miller." Wow Darren! What insight! And Mark Grace. I kid you not, a batter comes up, his numbers are put on the screen, and it's like the first time Grace has seen his stats. Corky Miller's .100 BA, 0 HRs and 3 RBI come on the screen and a second later Mark gracefully adds "Man, he's not having a great year at the plate." Good eye, Mark. Good eye.


Oh, and they seriously said about Randy Johnson, "He's not your father's big unit." What? Can they say that on daytime t.v.?

9. Speaking of Joe Morgan, be sure to check out his website, http://www.firejoemorgan.com/, "Where Bad Sports Journalism Comes to Die." I wonder if Jon Miller secretly contributes to this site.

8. Even with the bad broadcasters, at least I'm getting to watch the Braves. It's just the second time since I moved to North Carolina that I've been able to catch them on the tube. It's like a piece of me has died.


7. My fantasy baseball team, Donkey's Jawbone, is doing poorly, as July Johnson would say. After sitting pretty in first for a few days, I've hovered around fifth, about 19 points back of the leader, for the last week or so. Not good. It's just a run of bad luck. I'm still banking on it turning around.

6. I spent my first two picks on Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. Last year's stats: Fielder, .288, 119 RBI, 50 HRs; Cabrera, .320, 119 RBI, 34 HRs. So far this year: Fielder, .265, 24 RBI, 6 HRs; Cabrera, .283, 26 RBI, 7 HRs.

Cabrera's projected to finish with 24 HRs, 89 RBI and Fielder's looking at 21 HRs and 82 RBI.

5. Fielder's gotta start eating meat again.

4. My catcher is Gerald Laird. He looks like this:

Allow me now to introduce you to a friend of mine, Will ElLaissi. He looks like this:

You decide.

3. Oh, and I'm probably in fifth place because Gerald Laird is my catcher.

2. The Braves are 1.5 games behind the Marlins. The Marlins. The Mets are crashing hard and are now facing distractions from their manager. The Phillies remembered they're the Phillies and only won last year because the Mets lost. I think the Nationals quit playing games sometime around the first week of April.

The Braves are going to win the East.

1. In two games against each other this year, Tim Hudson is 2-0 against Johan Santana. Which is amazing, because if you listened to ESPN in the offseason you would have thought Santana was immortal. Turns out he's just a Met.

Global Warming?

There's a petition out that's been signed by over 31,000 scientists, including over 9,000 with PhD's, denying that "global warming" is caused by manmade greenhouse gases.

I'd be interested to see Al Gore's response. Maybe he'll sign it too in order to not feel guilty about his house, the one that used twice as much electricity one month than the average household uses in an entire year. (Check it out.)

Here's the text though for anyone who is interested:

"We urge the United States government to reject the global warming agreement that was written in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, and any other similar proposals. The proposed limit on greenhouse gases would harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial upon the natural plant and animal environments of the earth."

You can go to their site here.

The implications of this are big. This many scientists, going against mainstream thought, will cause tidal waves of ripple effects. Stay tuned...

The heart of it all

So I'm in the heart of Paul's word on justification before God by faith as opposed to works. And I thought I'd share some of Mr. Murray's words again this morning that proved to be incredibly encouraging to me.

In making his point from the Old Testament that justification has ALWAYS been by faith, not works, Paul recalls both Abraham and David. After quoting Genesis 15:6, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness" Paul proves that "to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."

And it keeps getting better.

Paul continues, "just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: (citing David in Psalm 32 now) 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.'"

And now John Murray's thoughts:
"What David spoke of in terms of the non-imputation and forgiveness of sin Paul interprets (in the preceding verse, verse 6) more positively as the imputation of righteousness."

"(Paul) is dealing with justification by faith in opposition to works. Nothing could be more illustrative of this than the pronouncement that the blessed man is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and to whom the Lord does not impute sin. For what is contemplated in this pronouncement is not good works but the opposite, iniquities and sin. And the blessed man is not the man who has good works laid to his account but whose sins are not laid to his account. David's religion, therefore, was not one determined by the concept of good works but by that of gracious remission of sin, and the blessedness, regarded as the epitome of divine favour, had no affinity with that secured by works of merit."

In the gospel of God's grace, the unmistakable indentifying feature for anyone who believes (anyone!) is not that God forgives just his sins. It's not that God just credits him for his own good works and says that's enough. No, it is far better than both. It's that God forgives his sins and gives him all the goodness and reward that deservedly belongs to Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:21, "(God) made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." And in the words of Jonathan Edwards, "What sin was it? Why that sin that was in us. So we are made the righteousness of God. But what righteousness of God is it that we are made? Why that which was in Christ."

And so I hope we say with the father in Mark 9:24, "I believe! Help my unbelief!"

Why Barack Obama is not an option

Here is a clip of Mr. Obama addressing Planned Parenthood in July, 2007. (Clip starts at about nine seconds.)



The first ten minutes is enough to see his perspective. In the clip he defends very passionately the "right" to choice, the freedom to choose abortion. He says "On this fundamental issue, I will not yield" and in discussing the recent gains that pro-life advocates have made in the Supreme Court, he says "This is what is at stake in this election" (the ability to reverse some of these recent trends, and the fear that if not, pro-lifers will win out).

Keep in mind also that Mr. Obama is not just discussing abortion. He is defending partial-birth abortion as a legitimate option for women. In his condemnation of the Court's decision in Gonzales v. Carhart, which upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, he is arguing for partial-birth abortion, the bringing of the child out of the womb before taking it's life.

Barack's view is that Abortion is all about the opportunity for the woman to have the same life as the man, that the fundamental issue is opportunity for her. While I believe in the right for women to live that kind of life, and agree wholeheartedly that the woman's life is just as valuable, just as meaningful, just as impactful as that of a male, it is a complete smokescreen to make that the central issue in abortion.

If two people, a male and a female, want their life to have the utmost opportunity for success, then they need to plan before sexual intercourse what will be the best path for that success, not make that plan as a reaction. Today, 50% of abortions are the couple's only means of birth-control. If we're talking about opportunity for success, our society, male and female, needs to be responsible, not careless. And let me be clear, the onus for this falls on both the male and the female. When they fail at this, the government and our society does not need to pat them on the back and tell them all will be well after this "procedure," we need to love them and care for them and help them make the best decisions to care for this new life while building their own lives as well.

This is what is at stake in this election. Not the right to choice, but the right to life. How can we consciously place the emphasis on choice? How can we in good conscious say that this is not about a new life, but about a mere preference for the mother? To borrow from Mark Driscoll, how can some in our society call for the end of a war because they don't want terrorists to die, but be agreeable with the killing thousands of children here in our own nation? How can some make the conservation of nature their battleground while agreeing with the murder of children?

This is not about choice. It is about life. This election is not about the kind of "change" America needs if Barack Obama is the author of that change. A man who stands so passionately for the murder of the unborn and so callously calls it mere choice is not the kind of man that America needs writing policy.

Wanting the right kind of change,
Bert

HT: Justin Taylor

Hey Barry! You want some cheese with that whine?

Barry Bonds is back. Well, back in the news. Not in baseball. And that's what the news is all about. Earlier this week, the MLB Players Association filed "expressed concern" over the lack of any offers to certain free agents, specifically Barry Bonds, intimating their belief that the ownwers are acting in collusion, a big no-no.

Let's see, Barry Bonds is the only player named in a concern filed for several unsigned players. Does anybody think Barry himself isn't directly behind this?

But collusion? Seriously, Barry. You must be a moron. It doesn't take collusion to keep you off the field. It takes just a little thing we thinking humans like to call "reason".

Let's say I'm an owner.

Hmm. Barry Bonds is available. I've got a need for a DH. (Even though I hate the DH and wish I owned an National League team and we played real baseball. But I digress.) So I need a DH and Barry Bonds is available.

Barry. Home Run King. .480 OBP last season. Career .607 slugging pct. 762 career dingers. Over 1000 more walks than strikeouts in his career. Potent offensive threat, even at age 43.

But then there's Barry. Indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. He's the King alright, the King of Performance-Enhancing Drugs. Most hated man in baseball. Fans hate him. The media's all over him. And he doesn't help the situation.

Let's see. I could hire a stop-gap DH who might get 75 rbi over the rest of the season, but who would also bring me the more negative publicity than if I killed a puppy on the pitcher's mound. I think I'll look elsewhere.

And so it goes. It's not collusion, Barry. It's just that you cheated, and got caught, and everybody knows it except you. You're not getting hired because the cons far outweigh the pros of your employment. So move to Florida, play bingo and get used to the retirement life.

John Murray on Romans 1:17 - "It is a God-righteousness."

Romans 1:17 - For in it [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith...

"It is a 'God-righteousness.' Because it is such, God is its author; it is a righteousness that meets all the demands of His justice and therfore avails before God. But the particular emphasis rests upon its divine property and is therefore contrasted not only with human unrighteousness but with human righteousness. Man-righteousness, even though [or, even if it were...] perfect and measuring up to all the demands of God's perfection, would never be adequate to the situation created by our sins. This is the glory of the gospel; as it is God's power operative unto salvation [verse 16] so is it God's righteousness superveing upon our sin and ruin. And it is God's power operative unto salvation because the righteousness of God is dynamically made manifest unto our justification. Nothing serves to point up the effectiveness, completeness, and irrevocableness of the justification which it is the apostle's purpose to establish and vindicate than this datum set forth at the outset--the righteousness which is unto justification is one characterized by the perfection belonging to all that God is and does. It is a 'God-righteousness.'"

-John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 31