It's so hot folks are having to carry an oven mitt to grab hold of the door knob!

Welcome to the Wednesday fireside chat, on this June 8, 2011. I use that word fireside intentionally since through the first six days of June we have set a record for high temperature, five of those days. We saw two consecutive days of 105 degree highs, Sunday and Monday, and on both those days the previous highs were 98 degrees. Now that is what I call breaking the record! If they needed anyone to testify on behalf of how hot it has been, there are plenty of our folks here that work out in the elements who would come forth and volunteer to speak out on the subject. I am in and out of the office and my take on it can be described as feels like scalding. The global warming folks are having a field day with these high temps. They claim it as proof but many weather experts within the scientific community have yet to agree with them. I have always said that fallen humanity is quite capable of doing its best to ruin the creation God gave to us. Typically, greed and corruption rules and reigns in many different arenas within our world. I started to say the majority of arenas but I did not want to get the 'man is basically good' crowd all stirred up. However, we must, even in the midst of these noted evil players, keep our heads, and clearly evaluate the evidence that gives us the best reading on what exactly is going on. We already know that many within the warming community have their own agendas that transcend this one issue. Things like world government and repressed individualism. In addition, there are plenty that have dollars in mind as they whip up the frenzy over this issue. It is hard to know where to find facts that can be relied upon, but when it comes to global warming, here's something we can know about one day in the future: "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up." (2 Peter 3:10, New American Standard Bible)

I read an interesting commentary in the Houston Chronicle this week. It was written by a lady who was identified as a religion expert and author. Her regular blog is entitled Talking Tolerance. This particular piece had this theme: "Why the Bible is too complicated for public policy." In this article she talks about all the different views about the Bible, how some promote welfare for the poor, while others, typically those who call themselves conservatives, tend to promote benefit to the wealthy. And, both of these use the Bible to support their viewpoints. She also outlined the many contradictory statements that she sees in the Bible and her thought is that this shouldn't be surprising given all the different writers and the long number of years it took to compile the completed text. She even pointed out the way Jesus confused everyone by telling folks to leave the lady alone that was pouring out the expensive perfume on Him as contrasted to the fact that He always seemed to care deeply about the poorest among us. Bottom line, public policy has to be strictly secular because of all the conflicting views in any and all so-called sacred texts. As a believer in the God of the Bible, it is difficult for me to objectively analyze all that she said. There are nuggets of fact in many of her statements but they completely misrepresent a full understanding of the biblical text within its context. She obviously ignores the history of these United States where our founders believed in freedom of religion, not freedom from religion since they credited The Creator for our very existence. To the extent that we who proudly stand up for biblical truth have not fully modeled the message of the Gospel, we need to do better, but we should never be ashamed of the Gospel, because as the Apostle Paul said, ".....for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)  Amen.

 

I know that being unable to handle the heat is to a certain extent an acquired behavior. How would I know that? Because, my friend, I somehow made it the first 20 years of my life without air conditioning. And, I can tell you that where I grew up we had that combo going on, high humidity and high heat. In those hot days we had, when we kids, on the rare occasion would go into a place that had a window unit it was like visiting an alpine ski lift in the dead of winter. I suppose we didn't complain about not having it because it wasn't on our radar screen and we wouldn't have known who to submit the request to anyway. Would I like to go back and experience those days again? Not in a heartbeat but that's not to say I can't compare the experiences between now and then, and perhaps learn something from it. One thing is how that we have sealed our houses completely and getting them opened up is not easy. Back in the day every window was open and if we had a screen door it was latched but the solid door was left open. I was fortunate because we did have electric fans. In the boys room we stuck ours in the window and it sucked in the outside air. No wonder we woke up some mornings with our sheets dripping from the moisture. Now here's the thing I am gettting at. I know you are glad I did have a point in there somewhere. We got along with what we had because we didn't have anything else and as far as I can remember we didn't go around every day moping and complaining about it. Notice I didn't say that I don't go around moping and complaining about it today when the power is out and it's hot outside. Back then, we most likely just got a gang together and went to the swimming hole. Not a bad idea when you think about it? Right? Right! Have a great day and may God bless each one. Amen.        .....More later.