Psalm 32

1How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
2How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
3When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
4For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.
5I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD";
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
6Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
7You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
8I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
9Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
10Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him.
11Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

On atheistic "morality"...

If morality is democratic, as many evolutionists argue, the time will come when it either is "immoral" to kill animals, or it it is "moral" to kill humans. Because evolution refuses to admit that humans were created in God's image, while animals were not.

Ernie Hasse & Signature Sound

Have any of you heard these guys before?

MuseScore

I found this nice music writing software online called musescore. It's kind of slow to use at first, but is a lot of fun.

www.musescore.org

This is my first composition, enjoy. :D

Highlights of townhall meeting

BTW The Marine, David Hendrick is strongly considering running against Baird in 2010, his website is http://www.davidwhedrick.com/

Chestertonian movies

Manalive (a book by Chesterton) is being made into a movie, here is the trailer.



Of course, at this stage I can't say whether or not the movie will be any good, but the trailer is quite funny.

Also there are rumors that "The man who was thursday" will be released sometime in 2010.

Chesterton Reformed: A Protestant Interpretation, James Sauer

I found this essay about GK Chesterton as a Roman Catholic, it is very good.

I've also been interested in Chesterton as a revolutionary, and will hopefully write about that when I come to a conclusion.

In other news, while playing volleyball with our new ball I invented a new sport. Because this particular ball was made for beginners it is more bouncy than the common volleyball. This led me to invent volleypong, which is a cross between volleyball and ping pong. Official rules are being created because people got irritated at me writing rules on the fly.

Earlier that day, we had received intelligence that our "enemies" were going to set up an advanced outpost quite close to our territories. Unfortunately they set up their camp in the midst of civilians, so we could not use live rounds, so we armed up with water balloons and made the assault with non-lethal weapons.

Nazi's before hitler?

After reading "The Barbarism of Berlin, I decided that I should write a summary on it, to straighten out my thoughts on it. After Dr. Grant said that many American citizens wanted to join the war on Germany's side I started to wonder which side was the better of the two. This book was very enlightening, and I advise it to anyone who is interested in military history.

Chesterton first states why it is Britain's business to interfere with Prussia in the first place. He sets up a ficticious calender of events that would have happened if England had been silenced every time by Prussian diplomacy...

July 24: Germany invades Belgium.

July 25: England declares war.

July 26: Germany promises not to annex Belgium.

July 27: England withdraws from the war.

July 28: Germany annexes Belgium, England declares war.

July 29: Germany promises not to annex France, England withdraws from the
war.

July 30: Germany annexes France, England declares war.

July 31: Germany promises not to annex England.

Aug. 1: England withdraws from the war. Germany invades England.

Chesterton then states that there are two different types of barbarian, the negative barbarian, such as Russia, and the positive barbarian such as Prussia. The negative Barbarian is barbaric because of tradition, he simply goes on doing the same as his fathers before him. The positive barbarian on the other hand takes an old barbaric act, claims that it is a new scientific discovery, and then commits the act while proclaiming progress. In the end, Chesterton states that positive barbarism means purposeful militant hostility to certain necessary human ideas.

One Crucial "necessary (God given) human idea" is that of keeping one's word. Apparently the Prussians often broke the promises with one country while making a new agreement with another. While many of the most cruel traditional barbarians have a sense of honor about keeping one's word, the positive barbarian denies this crucial idea.

Another fundamental idea which the Prussian's denied was the "idea of reciprocity" or of "give and take." To the Prussian's nothing is mutual, they had no feeling of other's pain, this is obviously an outcrop of "survival of the fittest."

In the end, then, the Prussian mindset was based off of Nietzsche, who once said the following...

The "overman" is most likely referring to the Aryan race.

I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? … All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood, and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be that to overman: a laughingstock or painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm. Once you were apes, and even now, too, man is more ape than any ape.… The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth.… Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope over an abyss … what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end."

Note that this book was first published in 1914, which is the year in which the war started.

I have also read, "The ball and the cross" by Chesterton, which was also a great book about a devout Catholic Irishman trying to fight a physical duel with an atheist.

I am currently reading "GK Chesterton, A Critisism" By his brother, Cecil Cheterton. So far, this also is a very good book. It is not on Gutenberg, but can be read here.

Eternal Father, strong to save!

No other branch of the military has as good a hymn as the Navy, in my opinion at least.
This video is one of the better recordings I have heard.



For about twenty excellent extra verses go here

(Note, this does have a slightly different harmony than what is in the trinity red hymnal, but the same melody.)

Second poem

British soldiers, side by side
In rows they march, in rows they die
They stand in lines for money,
and kill for country's pride.

German soldiers, in a trench
trained for years to do their best
Unaware of Nazi wrongs
They fight on with the rest.

To soldiers of the United States,
Are you as well to share their fate?
Do you blindly follow your flag?
And kill all those your country hate?

One day you may face the same
when your country chases fame
follow not their blackened name
When they the defenseless maim.

The story behind my poem

As many of you know, I have not been known as much of a poet,* and perhaps you have been wondering what inspired me to write a poem. It started while I was reading nineteenth century military documents when I was quite depressed by the utter uselessness of their style of combat. And then I had a dream...

The first dream wasn't bad, the whole airsoft group (including myself) was out on our lawn trading volleys of airsoft fire to see how warfare used to be waged. However, the night after than I dreamp't that the airsoft group was in a valley trading volleys with replica muskets while I was on top of a hill, to see what affect smoke had on the visibility of a general. Unfortunately, I had forgotten to tell them to not load with real bullets and they started shooting at each other. I didn't wake up until I dreampt that I was at Church and several airsofters were dead, and many more wounded.

Although this may sound silly, it was quite serious to me. It seemed that I had ordered my friends to shoot each other in my dream for just as poor a reason as they used to in real life.

That is why I wrote the poem about the utter uselessness and destruction of war, unless it is for reasons necessitated by God's word.

Self Control and hospitality

He that has no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. Proverbs 25:28

Wow, I'm already a week behind. Last week's evening sermon was on Self control. Dr. Bordwine pointed out that Self control is not only an issue of anger, it is an issue of the heart that can affect countless things in many ways. Simply put, a lack of self control can cause us to not resist temptation. We can not get over this issue by ourselves, only God can give us self control.

Instead of the common practice of "tagging" I would like to ask my readers to pray for self control for both themselves and others, as it is a vital issue which needs much prayer.

Last night Dr. Bordwine spoke on hospitality, stating that sharing a meal is not the only way to be hospitable. Other ways include calling people, sharing work and other activities together, basically just sharing, whether it be encouragement, or physical goods.

G. K. Chesterton

In the past few months I've started reading Chesterton. So far I've read "Magic
A Fantastic Comedy," "The Man Who Knew Too Much," "The Man Who was Thursday, A Nightmare," "What I Saw in America" and "The Club of Queer Trades" And am now working on "The Barbarism of Berlin."

All of them are excellent, and they all have a way of making the reader think, I still don't have my head wrapped around "the man who was thursday," but that was the first one I read, so I will go back to it. All of them, and more may be found for free here: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/c#a80

I also have got the volleyball net up, no pictures yet as it is to dark out for good ones.

Another youtube video

My type of music

This is the type of music I like to listen to most of the time.

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Last night's Church sevice

Dr. Bordwine's sermon last night was on the topic of reputation. I have heard sermons on this topic many times before, but I always learn something new. The specific new thing I learned last night was that because a good reputation is to be desired above great wealth, we should defend it. If someone spreads lies about our reputation, we must not hesitate to let the truth be known. Dr. Bordwine made the point that when you try to defend the truth, you will often be accused of being "defensive," to which we must reply, "yes I am, because it is the right thing to do."

I didn't take very good notes last night, but I am hoping to start summarizing the evening sermons on this blog, so that those who can't be there might still know what is being said.

I'm excited about choir, even if it is not at the most convenient time.

Saw and Cello duet

The best saw music I have heard so far! The impressive cello performance greatly enhances it.

Poem

Defeat, how mournful, and victory how bright!

Marking the end of battle, but we have neither this night.

This night for now is peace, for now a time to rest,

tomorrow is the day of war, of misery and of death.

Tomorrow this green valley will be filled with leaden shot,

indeed, this mortal valley will decay and start to rot. 

Why do men fight with cannon? With musket and with sword? 

Why indeed can we not fight with logic and God's word? 

Defeat, how terrible, and victory how vain! 

When we have no just cause, but fight for our own gain. 

Although there is a time for war, the time for peace is bless't 

Let us now fight by trading words, not by exchanging death. 

When men attack your family, fight and drive them out 

When men assault your country, join, and make them rout. 

But when your nation goes to war, with glory the reward, 

ride not with them, O Christian men, give glory to the LORD!

Sir Arthur Wellesly, not just a military man

"For my own part, I have certainly never seen the Protestant Catechism, which the Honorable member has just alluded to. Neither am I acquainted with those other documents from which he has quoted, in order to refute the statements in the Catechism that have given him so much offence. But, Sir, I do think that, when that Honorable gentleman has stated what the opinions are which he says are inculcated in some schools, he should have told us what those are which are taught in others. Now I have been informed that in several Roman Catholic schools children have been taught to read, not out of the Bible, but out of Paine's Rights of Man, and in books professing to give an account of the sufferings and ill-treatment which the Roman Catholics of Ireland have experienced at the hands of the Protestants. Such an education as this, it is evident, must necessarily breed them up in a fixed and rooted hatred to Protestants." ~Sir Arthur Wellesly

While working on my paper I decided I need to study the lives of Wellington and Napoleon. Right now I am reading "The Speeches of the Duke of Wellington in Parliament" by Arthur Wellesley Wellington, John Gurwood and William Hazlitt. Published in 1854.

You can find the book here.

If you see this post...

...reply, and say you were here, but don't tell anyone else. I am hoping to start actually blogging soon, but not yet.

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