In the wall street journal, I read about toxic epidermal necrolysis which causes your skin to fall off in large sheets.
Archive for November, 2008
A new disease
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008SPECULATION ALERT
Friday, November 14th, 2008Now first of all, please don’t read this unless:
1) You are really smart;
2) You don’t believe in any conspiracy theories (at least not very fervidly); and,
3) Are not easily influenced by what you read (be honest!)
Now there’s this age-old debate about who the sons of God and the daughters of men are in Genesis chapter 6. But check out verse 38 in Luke chapter 3: “[...] which was [the son] of Enos, which was [the son] of Seth, which was [the son] of Adam, which was [the son] of God” (KJV).
Not that this is some kind of magical map key or something– I certainly don’t agree with Dave Root’s idea that the Bible is a jigsaw puzzle– but could it be that there was more than one “first man?”
Now before you tar, feather, and burn me with the steak, go back up there and re-read the title. This idea sounds as preposterous to me as it does to you, but, did you know that the name Adam, in the original Hebrew, doesn’t necessarily mean “first man” in all cases? It could just mean, man-kind. So that would answer the question, “did Seth marry his sister?”– because maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe First Man was really just The First Men. Then it would also make sense that there were also First Women, and then we would have separate bloodlines, and people wouldn’t have to marry their sisters.
Anyway, the name Adam doesn’t show up until the middle of Genesis chapter two, so even if Adam means and was the first man, that doesn’t necessarily mean there weren’t others! And if Adam was “the son of God” – please notice carefully my emphasis on the lowercase ’s’ – suppose that maybe God put all of His apples on one tree, so to speak, and Adam was sort of His “special project man”– the one He was closest to. Then we could reasonably suppose that his sons were the sons of God and the daughters of the other men were the daughters of men.
Like I said, that’s just a theory, please please please don’t go off and use it as an excuse to start a new religion, and also don’t flame me for having false doctrine. This is just a crazy thought that I had.
Beautiful Redemption
Thursday, November 13th, 2008I’ve had my forty days and forty nights at sea
I’ve had forty years in the wilderness, or so to speak
I’ve walked with sand from the ocean floor on my feet
To turn and say you left me
I’m a doubting Thomas in needing to believe
I’m a perfumed sinner just like Magdalene
I’m Judas kissing on your cheek eager to decieve
I am all of these
I cry, Father, Father, forgive me
You say, Child, I already have
You are beautiful
Beautiful Redemption
You are Beautiful
Beautiful Redemption
I’m the guilty thief that’s hanging by your side
and my shame is dying with your sacrifice
And all my fears come crashing down as I look in your eyes
I see paradise
Hallelujah (we all, we all, we all fall down)
– Joy Williams
The Generations of Adam
Thursday, November 13th, 2008“This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created.” — Genesis 5:1-2
And here it is again. How do you describe something like this? Everything that happened back then was in the context of the Lord being there. There was just this communication between Him and His people, a sort of matter-of-fact thing. He made them, He named them, and they talked to Him and talked about Him all the time. He was just there, a regular part of every day life. That’s what He made them for, and that’s the way He always meant for things to be.
There’s a dynamic here that you don’t tend to see today- a kind of commaderie between the Lord and His creation. Here the Lord gets up close with Man and gives Him a name. “I’m going to make you look just like me.”
“[Adam's wife] gave birth to a son,and she name him Seth, for [she said,] ‘God has appointed me another offspring in place of Abel, for Cain killed him.” — Genesis 4:25
And here it is again. How do you describe something like this? Everything that happened back then was in the context of the Lord being there. There was just this communication between Him and His people, a sort of matter-of-fact thing. He made them, He named them, and they talked to Him and talked about Him all the time. He was just there, a regular part of every day life. That’s what He made them for, and that’s the way He always meant for things to be.
But then there was the sin in the garden, followed by the corruption of the human race and all the other sins we started perpetrating on each other. I think the Lord looks at it more like a tragedy than anything else. Sure, we can look at ourselves and be disgusted with ourselves, but I think Adam and Eve were just grieving for their sons. (Remember that Cain was sentenced to a life of vagrancy for his crime.)
So what does the Lord do? He does what He always does. He took the tragedy and turned it into a miracle. The blessing of another son. Another gift to these hurting parents. And look-
“To Seth, to him also a son was born; and he called his name Enosh. Then [men] began to call upon the name of the Lord.” — Genesis 4:25-26
I mean we can make the excuse that well, of course Adam and Eve knew the Lord, He made them! They remembered what it was like meeting with Him in the garden. But as the human race slowly corrupted itself, we got away from this blessed fellowship with the Lord.
But He still turns it into something good- “Then [men] began to call upon the name of the Lord.” See that? It’s a new thing, isn’t it? Men who love the Lord now have another exciting way to fellowship with Him- they can depend on His goodness when they’re in trouble. The trouble wouldn’t have been there to begin with if it wasn’t our own doing, but the Lord still found a way to bless us by brining us closer to Him in new ways.
Today, I’m just going to stand amazed at how relentlessly the Lord has pursued our relationship, and how somehow, He always manages to turn even my mistakes into an opportunity to bless me.
I don’t know if anyone thought of this…
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008The age-old debate is, how would the Law of Fives be affected if human beings had 6 fingers on each hand? I offer some thoughts here.
If we had six fingers on each hand, then applying the grid of symmetry, it is reasonable to guess that there would also be 6 toes on each foot. Six fingers on a hand leads us to 12 fingers. This, in conjunction with the additional 12 toes, equals 24. Hence you have 4 groups of 6 (anatomical) digits, totaling 24.
And we all know what number comes between 4 and 6…
An ACRONYM…
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008is an Abbreviated Contraction Relating an Obscure, Nominally Youthful Message.
An Editorial from Russia
Thursday, November 6th, 2008“Only Satan would have been worse than the Bush regime. Therefore it could be argued that the new administration in the USA could never be worse than the one which divorced the hearts and minds of Americans from their brothers in the international community, which appalled the rest of the world with shock and awe tactics that included concentration camps, torture, mass murder and utter disrespect for international law. Yet in choosing Obama, the people of America have opted to come back into the international fold. Welcome back, friends!”
meh
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008Little orphans in the snowWith nowhere to call a homeStart their singingWaiting through the summertimeTo thaw your hearts in wintertimeThat's why they're singing...Waiting for a sign to turn blood into wineThe sweet taste in your mouth--turned bitter in its glass [...] Shattered fragments of the pastMeet in veins on the stained glassLike the lifeline in your palmRed and green reflects the sceneOf a long forgotten dream There were princes and there were kingsNow hidden in disguise--cheap wrappings of liesKeep your heart alive with a song from insideEven though we're all aloneWe are never on our own when we're singing There's a man who's looking inAnd he smiles a toothless grinBecause he's singing...See some people shine with gleeBut their song is jealousyTheir hate is clanging--maddening[...] will they sing Happy Noel [...] [...] will they sing Happy Noel -- Siouxsie and the Banshees