Irish Hills

Traveling to Far Off Places

November 7th, 2008

In an hour I’m hitting the road and heading North into the rainy country. Guess which state that is. Over the next 12-13 hours as we are driving I will be:

Listening to my iphone.
Watching the scenery (that’s my favorite part of traveling.)
Talking to whoever is willing to listen.
Listening to whoever is willing to talk.
Reading one of the three books I am bringing: The Persian Pickle Club (can’t remember who wrote it), Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers, and Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Reading the RSS feeds on my iphone.
Watching more scenery.
Stopping for coffee every 3 hours.
Dozing off then jerking awake every 20 minutes because I have to stay awake to help the person who is driving stay awake. Hah, hah.

Bon Voyage.

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The God of Equality

October 31st, 2008

“The middle class is the economic engine. It’s fair. They deserve the tax breaks, not the super wealthy who are doing pretty well. They don’t need any more tax breaks.”–Joe Biden

I’m working the same number of hours and earning less than a business owner because the demands on his skills are higher than the demands on mine, so that means, according to the laws of “fairness,” that his wealth should be redistributed to me. I have less than he does, therefore, I need what he has. My rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness need to be upheld even at the expense of his own. Economic equality must be achieved among the masses.

Unfortunately, though, this is far from being a watertight plan, as Bret points out, since all wealth will eventually dry up when you continue to spread it around by giving tax breaks to those who have less, and taxing those who have more. The incentive to work has been removed by the equalization imposed by the government on those who have more capital.

Ludwig Von Mises points out that, “Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what the thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build; it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing; it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created… each step leading toward Socialism must exhaust itself in the destruction of what really exists.” (quote taken from David Chilton’s Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulation, p. 174)

God has lovingly designed this earth so that we reap what we sow, physically and metaphysically. Yes, God blesses us with gifts in abundance, but the gifts that He bestows on a lazy man and a diligent man, a wise man and a fool, differ radically. Yet socialists and Christians alike ignore the fact that “God makes both poor and rich.” (1 Samuel 2:7) If men desire to improve their economic conditions they must “submit themselves to Him, work hard, and call upon Him for blessing.” (David Chilton’s Productive Christians, p. 173)

“Thou shalt not steal,” and “Thou shalt not covet” apply to the collective will of individuals called government, too. Federal government is not above God’s law, God’s law is above it.

Anna

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Beauty and Goodness

October 31st, 2008

I have experienced complexity, and it’s perplexing. That which was aesthetically beautiful grew morbid to my eyes and through sin became ugly as sin, and that which was not beauty to behold was elevated by grace, kindness, and truth to be enthroned far above materialistic proprieties.

A beautiful girl, charming speech, a spotless campaign website, and golden promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness dance like sugarplum visions before my eyes. Every one of these things is pleasant to the eyes so it must be good. Beauty turns my judgment into partiality. Doling out my pennies, time, and life, I pay for a piece of that ethereal goodness, but, the first bite of luscious cake turns to dust in my mouth, the honey chokes me, the sweet turns sour. Time tells all things.

1 Timothy 5:21 reads, “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.”

Anna

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Yes, We Have no Bananas

October 31st, 2008

In the face of this economic crisis it’s time to pull back and honestly evaluate the difference between necessity and luxury. Over the past 15 years Americans have spent, and spent, and spent; spent like they were millionaires, when in reality, they were spending borrowed money and digging their graves with credit cards. Do we even realize the difference anymore between these two words, necessity and luxury? Or do we now treat them as synonymous? Here’s a list of a few things, only a few mind you, of the luxuries and necessities that I have been lumping together:

Necessities and Luxuries:

Luxury: Coffee
Luxury: Brand new clothes
Luxury: Carefree trips out shopping or to the movies
Luxury: Shower every day
Luxury: Bible study once a week
Luxury: Driving to see firefighter Ben at his station every few days
Luxury: Use of computer and TV
Luxury: Trips and vacations 3-4 times a year

Necessity: Paying bills and taxes
Necessity: Small, but efficient wardrobe
Necessity: Shower every 2 days
Necessity: Coffee 2-3 times a week
Necessity: Trips every 3-4 weeks for groceries
Necessity: Trip to church every Sunday
Necessity: Pursuing education through books this Fall
Necessity: Family time doing creative things without traveling far.

Do the lines I draw seem extreme? In a few more months maybe you’ll think again.

Anna

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Matters of the Heart

October 31st, 2008

Reading this morning from Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening:

After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.- I Peter 5:10

Quoting from Charles Spurgeon: Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no ‘baseless fabric of vision,’ but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of the earth shall never be able to remove you.

One of the most common fallacies of man that is parroted by so many people, even Christians today, is, “follow your heart”, “respect yourself”, and “be at peace with yourself.” On the surface this sounds like good advice; follow the dictates of your conscience and you can’t go wrong. Listen to the little voice in your head, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit, and drive in the direction He tells you. Before making a choice, weigh the balances on the scales of your heart and discern what you should do from whichever way it tips. The only problem is, Jeremiah 17:9 gives us a little insight into the heart:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

The lesson that many of us learn (especially, parents, teachers, and elders) as we grow and mature, is that our temptations aren’t always presented to us in the form of shiny poison apples, held out by a devil with horns. Or a snake with legs. Or a garish prostitute. In our pietistic lives, we can get so wrapped up in the obvious that we neglect to guard against the fount of all temptations, our own heart.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way. Who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.– Psalm 119:1-2

It would be utterly useless to seek God with our whole heart, and walk in the law, if we were not first anchored steadfastly in Christ Jesus and established in peace by Him. Any security and peace found apart from God’s word, especially in our own hearts, is a false peace. We cannot look within ourselves to be certain of the things we are doing. Most sinners feel a false certainty of peace when sinning, and most righteous men never felt more at war with themselves than when struggling against the lusts of the flesh.

Turning our hearts toward God, and seeking Him wholly, is a conscious act, the Bible says, and in it we struggle deeply against our natural state as we turn towards His grace and law with our whole hearts.

Anna

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Milk and Honey

October 31st, 2008

Wheat, milk, and honey form a triad of deliciousness. When God lead the Israelites into a land flowing with milk and honey, He expected that they would get creative with these elements and put them to the best use by making food like this:

Toasted whole wheat bread soaked with rich butter and golden honey. The next best use for milk and honey besides Baklava.

Anna

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Return of the Blonde

October 30th, 2008

Im baaaaaack! *sound of silence chirping.* I drove everyone away by my year long hiatus from this blog.

Actually, I have been busy other places: Classically Clothed my fashion blog. And Blonde Soliloquy another WordPress blog I created to try and take the place of Irish Hills.

I found, though, that no blog could take the place of this one. The simple fact of the matter is, I have put too many words and time into my historic posts to let them slip into the clutches of death, perhaps only to be discovered on the 20th Google search page.

There is something non-conformist about this blog, it isn’t singularly theological, political, or diurnal. It’s a medley of different genres; classical, modern, christian. My words can’t be set to one idiom because I have to live life as a whole, not a lot of separate parts.

So my pointed rambling is back.

Anna

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Trials Turn To Gold

December 19th, 2007

Listening to Canon in D makes my soul feel comforted for a moment.

Right now, life is hard. Pieter and Rebekah are both sick with Strep Throat; Pieter being the worse of the two. Are more to fall prey to the grasps of this disease this very night?

Yes, it is *almost* a mere 5 days to Christmas. No, we have not finished all our Christmas shopping. Does that mean that everything will fall apart if we don’t have absolutely every gift under the Christmas tree come Christmas Day? No, it merely means that we will fall apart if we try to accomplish everything on the few hours of sleep that we have in our sleep bank and with bodies that are already frail and susceptible to sickness. Do without is my motto. There are already plenty of gifts to go under the tree.

Sometimes it gets very hard having to deal with all the illness and pressure at Christmas. I’m definitely asking why. Why do we have to get sick at Christmas of all times? Why do we have so many factions and conflicts during this time, too? Enough already!

Yeah, and what have I done to deserve these afflictions, God? But, what have we done to merit His grace? God sends these trials for our benefit and testing and bending of our wills. I know it’s easy to say that and a lot of the time not really mean it when you’re not the person hurting, but it is true. Blessed is the man who can say “give me more trials, Lord!” Because, these rocks and burdens that we now bear about with us are one day going to be turned to precious jewels and shining gold.

Anna

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Die Daily

December 11th, 2007

Be killing sin or it will be killing you

My spin on John Owen’s quote owing to this diehard cold that seems to be possessing my body:

Be killing colds or they’ll be killing you

Oh, so quotable.

To the non-believer all the following will sound very strict, Puritan-like (which it is, is that a bad thing?) and ascetic. Keep a constant watch over my thought life? Ha! I’m only human, you know. I live a good life, I give my time to charitable organizations and the lusting, lying, blaspheming and coveting that goes on in my head hasn’t broken out in the open yet, so I’m good.

Don’t we know that the less we fight against sin the more entangled we become in it?

Don’t we know that the more we dull our minds by repeating sights and sounds the more easily our heart embraces the paraphernalia of this world, paraphernalia that longs to be possessed?

Don’t we know that the less vigilant we become about truly reading the Bible and earnestly praying to God the more vigilant we will have to become in our watch against sin?

Don’t we know how much it pains our Savior and grieves the Holy Spirit when we use that very grace poured out for the remission of our sins to excuse the actual engaging in of sin? Is Christ’s love a trinket or bauble to be bartered with?

Do we not know how useless our strivings will be against those outbreaks of troubling thought if we are only seeking to alleviate our guilty feelings and are not truly sorry for sin because it is displeasing to God?

Believer, be killing sin, both outward and inward, or it will be killing you! And read John Owen’s book.

Anna

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Christmas Bells!

December 7th, 2007

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas! Not only around our house but over at our book sale page, where I’ve been busily adding a lot more titles, including Christmas ones.

Many of the ornaments on our tree.