Jack Pelham

There is the truth
And then there is
The whole truth.

And there are those
Who do not see the difference
And then there are those
Who do.

Is there a way to fix stupid?
Yes! But there’s a catch,
Because it’s the stupid guy
That has to fix it.

The state of the art in technology
Has been improved since you started reading this,
While the state of the art in humanity
Has not been improved since the creation.

It is anathema to the good sense of most
That God would preserve wicked Cain—
Or wicked Satan, for that matter—
That they should go on for even an hour after their sin.

But he had his reasons—
And they’d have to study
The rest of the story
To understand them.

It is the story of one’s life—
What he will push through
And what he will not.
And his years will be reckoned
By the mosaic of it all—
Some tiles being by nature
More important than others—
And that nature being
All too often unexamined
As it deserves.

And the best story of all
Is of the one who would
Push through to learn
What is right—
And to believe it
And to do it.

Let us watch the man
And see him choose his way
Through this beautiful/ugly world

You wouldn’t know it by what you see in the churches today, but the original religion of God was to be one of deep and careful consideration—as a way of life! Consider this list of example passages from the Bible, and as you read and begin to get a little mind-weary from it, ask yourself whether you are in a high state of mental fitness for having the sort of high-output mindset in your religion that God desires. And ask yourself whether you are willing to live such a life!

Proverbs 4:26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.

“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.”

Jeremiah 5:1. NIV

How could it ever have gotten that bad—and in God’s own city? And if it happened there, could it not happen also in a church, that corruption takes hold and no one is honest?

As I ponder the difficulties of translating the Bible documents from their original languages, two particular ones come to mind:

1. Rendering a passage whose meaning in the original language is unclear or ambiguous. And,
2. Rendering a passage whose meaning in the original language is undesirable.

In the first, you have to render it somehow; you can’t just leave it blank. And how unsettling that must be!

The man himself sins
But blames it on Satan
Or on the pressures he’s facing
Or on his bad mood or his fatigue
Or on the difficult behavior of those around him
Or on the bad circumstances of the day
Or on the abuses from his childhood.

The ambitious sort who does not love the truth or the people, wants things like money and power and prestige. And for this, he needs customers, whom he attempts to gain by way of offering goods or services of value. And if he should find his way into the business of religion or politics, he will likely have to pick a camp large enough to suit his needs, and convince them that he holds value for them.