EU Shmeu....or something stupid and irritating from the EU

So, there is a little megaphone appearing beside "Overview" on Blogger.  This is a notice, telling us that the EU needs special notice to know what anyone who uses the internet should know...that sites use cookies.  Wow.  Who doesn't know that?!  

Here's the notice that appears when you click on "Overview":

European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. 

As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. 

You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

Once you go to the learn more link, you will see how to display your blog the way the Europeans see it.  And you'll see the cookie notice.  And you'll find that it is YOUR responsibility to fix it if it doesn't display!!  Thanks, Blogger! Just tell me, what the hell are they gonna do to me in Texas?!  Seriously. 
   
Thank God I live in Texas.   And may God take me home before anyone in the United States government or the EU changes Texas.  Yes, I am old and fussy and I have a God given right to be that way!  

And for anyone out there that doesn't know, all websites use cookies.  Your computer saves all cookies.  You can set permissions in Internet Options for your cookies.  And if you want to clean them, the best free tool out there is CCleaner.  The first C stands for crap.  Which is what this EU law is.

I Saw It On Facebook

This one is a little different.  I don't have anything to say, except this is one of the best pieces of good news I have seen in a long time.  Brighten your day and listen to this community's story.

Misconceptions: God is Love and Only Love

Many years ago, I stopped watching Oprah Winfrey when she had several people on her stage who were each living in some state of sin and all she could expound was how "God is love."  As I stated in last week's post, God most certainly is Love.  Real love.  The kind of love that doesn't leave people down in sorry living, but lifts them up to a higher purpose and better life.  

And God is not only love.  In the Old Testament times much meaning was attached to names.  Often, they'd use a play on words to take a name and use it to convey a quality of that person.  God revealed various dimensions of His persona through the use of many and varied names for The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit in the Bible.  



The most comprehensive list of His Names I could find online is here:  900+ Titles and Names of God.  I admire that they have scripture references on many.  

Yes, our God is Good, He is Love, He is Abba Father, He is Savior, He is Friend, He is Mediator.  Many fuzzy, warm, wonderful things.  But the part that is being watered down every where you look now days to "tickle the ears" of those who prefer to live in sin is that He is also a Holy God that cannot even look upon sin.  He is also the Righteous Judge who will call every living soul to account for their life.  

God does have nothing but mercy to give to all who admit they are sinners and repent of it, accept His Son's gift of salvation paid on the cross for their sins and turn from living a lifestyle of sin.  Those who ignore this invitation or refuse it, will find themselves told on the great judgement day, "23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."Matthew 7 - KJV

I Saw It On Facebook

Sometimes, I feel very much like this.  Sometimes, I remember my wilder, younger years and want to jump up and do something just like that all over again.  To feel just as free, just as uninhibited.  

Then I think of how very much things, times and people have changed and know there is no way to really recapture those times.  Those specific times are gone.  

That doesn't mean that I can't still do some things with abandon.  That I can't still do things spur of the moment.  I can still cut up, I can still be silly.  I can still strike out on a new path, if I so desire.  

I've always tempered my recklessness with an overarching umbrella of safety and responsibility.  I've always had a sense of how suddenly the wild and fun can turn into tragic and sad.  So, I've always selected my risks carefully, though I've definitely matured as to what is acceptable and what is not.  

I've also found, as I get older, that simpler can be as exciting and rejuvenating as complicated and costly.  It's like so many other things in life, it's mostly in how you chose to view it.  What you are willing to invest of yourself. What you chose to value and to cherish.  

What about you, do you still let yourself cut loose? 

Misconceptions: Godly Love

Many people say, "I thought Christians were supposed to love everyone"  or "God is love."  Both statements are absolutely true!  The Bible does tell us that God is love. God's love is nothing like the love between friends or between lovers.  God's love is pure and unmerited.  It does not wax or wane.  It was demonstrated for us on the cross in that "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:8, TLB

God is love, but He is also much, much more than love alone.  And that is coming in another post, for another day.

The closest mirror to God's love that mankind demonstrates  here on earth is the love a parent has for a child.  Any good parent, draws the line in what they will and won't allow a child to do, in order to keep them safe.  In order to give them what is best for them. Sometimes, it's merely a situation of teaching them restraint.  One cookie is okay, twenty leads to a belly ache and pain.   Other times, a parent's love may lead them to seem harsh in order to protect their child.  They might swat a hand that reaches out toward a hot stove or a fire. Better a little pain that is soon gone than searing pain that will leave scars that never go away. 

I Corinthians 3 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.3 You are still worldly.  -NIV

Now, you are closer to understanding God's love.  Too many today expound only the part that God loved us so much while we were sinners that He sent His son to pay the price for those sins, but never go on to tell that God has no plan to leave us that way!  For one thing, we can't have the fellowship with God that He desires when we are living in sin.  For another thing, those sins will leave nasty scars on our lives that keep us from living life fully.  

Here, is the Bible's definition of true love, Godly love.  It's nothing any of us can obtain on our own, but something we should all aspire to.

I Corinthians 13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.- NIV

I Saw It On Facebook

So, when I read this, I had to smile.  I tend to talk out loud quite often.  Not always necessarily to myself, but sometimes yes.  

If I am extremely upset I will pace around the house talking to myself.  Sometimes I will turn it into a prayer.  

When I am trying to do something and hit a problem, I will talk out loud.  Sometimes to myself, "Now, Barbara, what were you thinking."  and sometimes to the thing I'm working with/on.  For example, the computer at work:  "I clicked the stupid square, now go!"

If I'm home alone and really busy around the house, sometimes I'll announce out loud to myself what I am going to do.  "Let's see.  I'll wash up these dishes, after I start that load of clothes, then I'll scrub the shower and take me a shower.  Then I'll fix me a little something to eat...."

And, on occasion, if I am listening to radio or TV by myself, I'll respond verbally to what I am listening to or watching.  Same thing if I see something out the window at the house or on the side of the road while driving.  I may remark out loud, or quip a joke to myself.  

Way back in 2006, I took one of those online quizzes to see how weird I was.  Here's the results:

You Are 70% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right? But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

Blogthings: 100's of Fun, Free Quizzes!

I treasure my weirdness.  That's one thing I'm looking forward to in my old age:  just letting it all hang out and making the younger generation just deal with it.  Well, no, actually, I think I'm pretty much already doing that.

Now, be honest.  Do you ever talk out loud in any of the ways I do?  Are you willing to take the weirdness test?  Will you share your result with us here?  

Misconceptions: A new series here at Canyehead

What is a misconception?  The word is defined as "a view or opinion that is incorrect because it is based on faulty thinking or understanding." Misconceptions can occur because an individual was fed or taught misinformation.  Information that was not based in fact.  When it comes to God and things of God, we have two sources for accurate, true information:  The Bible and the Holy Spirit.  

The Bible is the inspired (by the Holy Spirit) Word of God that was revealed and dictated to 40 different writers over a 1600 year time-span.  It was originally written in three languages and upon 3 continents. The Bible has God for it's author, salvation for it's end and Truth, without any mixture or error, for it's matter.  The 66 books of the Bible were brought together, for the first time, over 200 years after the last book, Revelations, was written by the Apostle John.  God orchestrated both the writing of these books over this great span of time, and the bringing together of the books into one Word. 

No one writer knew of all the others, nor ever had the chance to read all of the others, contributing to it's incorruptibility and it's purity.  It has been translated into most every language known to man, to ease the understanding of the reader.  Many, with circumspect carefulness have rendered various English translations simply to attempt to get the word back into the vernacular of the people, like it was originally written, instead of the stilted English of King James' England.  And, sadly, some have made tragic honest mistakes in their translation. These usually get corrected or soon go out of publication. Others have purposefully ignored God's own warning regarding His Word and altered it to fit their agenda or support their cult beliefs. 

Revelation 22

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.  -KJV

They will answer to Almighty God for those they have misled.   

There has been so much misconception displayed of late, regarding the Word of God and God Himself, that I humbly feel called to share a series of posts here addressing many of these same misconceptions that I have encountered personally.  

I ask you to journey with me through this series.  To read, reflect and ponder.  And I ask you, that if you only know the Bible by quotes you've seen or what people have told you, that you will read some long established version for yourself.  That if you have never read the Whole Word of God that you will commit to read it in it's entirety before this year is out.  

There is lot to consider for serious, in depth Bible study.  Regarding each book:  who the original audience was, what was the culture and history of the time each was written in, for two examples. These things are for intellectual knowledge and understanding.  For spiritual insight and understanding, one only need approach the reading with an open mind and heart.  For any time one does so sincerely, The Holy Spirit will be there with you as you read highlighting what God would have you know of Himself, to see yourself as God sees you and what response God is seeking from you.

Are you willing to join me in this series?  Does your Bible have dust on it?  Have you ever read the Bible all the way through? 

Much of the description of the Bible comes from the work of  Henrietta C. Mears.

  

Sorry About all the Tests, Looking to the 4th

Sorry about the rash of  Tests, I posted.  My feed was hi-jacked the middle of last week.  Been working to get that corrected.  There is absolutely no real time help anywhere!  But this old self taught, AOL trained techie person finally got it sorted out.  If you subscribe to Life & Faith in Caneyhead, and have any issues moving forward, please let me know in an email or in a comment here.  

I hope everyone here in America has a safe and happy Independence Day celebration tomorrow.  I humbly suggest at some point you read the Declaration of Independence.  Reflect and think upon what it cost to gain us this nation unto ourselves.  I remind you that if you plan to display the flag, make sure you do so correctly.  The flag should never be worn as apparel, so put the bikini and the T-shirt back in the drawer.  To wear the colors is okay, but it should not look like Old Glory.  If you live where fireworks can be used by citizens, please follow the law in your area and use them safely.  Think of your neighbors, especially the sick and the elderly, and those that may suffer from PTSD.

If you see a sign like the one above, or know a combat veteran lives near you, please be courteous.  Here are some tips:  Fireworks & Veterans.  I've seen firsthand what a car back firing can do, instantly transporting a vet back into combat.  Imagine how painful repeated loud bursts could be! 

I'll be enjoying life in Caneyhead, my family and the pool for this celebration.  Our church planned for a revival to start this Sunday, a year ago.  Tell me God doesn't have perfect timing!  God bless and keep you. 

I Saw It On Facebook

I had been thinking it was time to get back to a regular type post.  Thought an installment of I Saw It On Facebook was a good way to start.  You see, after the Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, I had been feeling very down.  Not for the reasons you might think, but because it lead to me seeing firsthand how despised God and The Holy Bible has become in our nation.  Bad enough non-believers and atheists feel that way, but actual professed Christians believing only parts of the Bible and picking and choosing "what is sin" so as not to hurt their poor little conscience. 
I felt numb, shell shocked.  

You see I have been privileged to have grown up and lived all my life in a small rural town in Texas.  It's primarily Protestant and Baptist.  By and large, no matter what has transpired across the nation, nothing has changed drastically here since as far back as I can remember.  And the two major changes have been voted in by the residents of Texas on the state level:  the repeal of blue laws that kept stores closed on Sunday and the Ann Richard's stupid Texas lottery.  God has certainly blessed Texas, and especially our little corner of it.  To quote Hank Williams, Jr. "we say grace and we say m'am, if you ain't into that we don't give a damn". And I'm so very proud of it!  And I don't care what you think about that.  

In the words of Aaron Tippin, "you've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything".  America today stands for very little, and she's falling all over herself trying to please every fringe group and foreign government on the planet.

So, I give you today's graphic from Facebook.

Well, the guns are Pete's.  Shotguns and rifles.  For hunting, killing varmints and protecting our home.  Back in 2007, I went for Halloween as the scariest thing alive:  a white, middle aged, born again, politically incorrect, college educated, redneck AMERICAN.  It's the "costume" I've worn all my life.  I am not ashamed of it and I'm not taking it off for anyone.

Do you stand or fall?  Do you know what you believe or blow with the wind?