Splinters of Silver Scripture declares that the Words of God are pure, as silver tried in a furnace [Psalm 12:6], that God proves us as silver is tried [Psalm 66:10], and refines us as silver is [Zechariah 13:8-9]. I pray through this blog, not my words but, through the reading of the scriptures, through the presentation of thoughts and of comments, splinters of silver may prick and stay with us throughout our lives. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 5 1147 55 7519

Articles from Splinters of Silver

Seeking To Have the Next Generation Accept Homosexuality 2007-09-19 09:50:00 Apparently, there has been some dismay concerning, “The State of New Jersey mandates that all school children be taught a diversity curriculum by the fourth grade”. [Article]You may ask, what was the problem some had with the “diversity curriculum”?The school showed a film, “That’s a Family!” which, “looks at diversity through the eyes of children who talk about their own families.” There was a topic on single parents, traditional parents, adoptive parents, divorced parents, but then they also had lesbian parents (Betty and Kim).As Christians, we realize what Scripture says about marriage, and what it says about homosexuality. Currently, the majority of society does not see homosexuality as a moral, acceptable alternative lifestyle, which they would like to receive the same benefits and name as the moral, acceptable marriage of heterosexuals.It should be obvious, to any honest onlooker, that the purpose of showing third (or now fourth) graders such a film, is to give ...

Pink Is Their Color 2007-09-18 15:33:00 A rare pink dolphin has been seen in the waters of “in Calcasieu Lake, an estuary just north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern Louisiana.”Here are some pictures. [Link]“There is a species of pink dolphin that lives in the Amazon River in South America, but this one appears to be a more common bottlenose dolphin.”"It appears to be an uncanny freak of nature, an albino dolphin, with reddish eyes and glossy pink skin," the Web site reads. "It is small in comparison to the others it is traveling with and appears to be a youngster traveling with mama."Does this mean there could be merit to the “Invisible Pink Unicorn”? ...

Catholic Bishop Asks Christians to Embrace Idol Name for God 2007-09-13 15:20:00 I can only imagine what the Pope is saying about this… [Article]“Catholic churches in the Netherlands should use the name Allah for God to ease tensions between Muslims and Christians, says a Dutch bishop.”“Tiny Muskens, the bishop of Breda, told the Dutch TV program "Network" Monday night he believes God doesn't mind what he is called, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported.”“"Someone like me has prayed to Allah yang maha kuasa (Almighty God) for eight years in Indonesia and other priests for 20 or 30 years," Muskens said. "In the heart of the Eucharist, God is called Allah over there, so why can't we start doing that together?"”Does this heretic (one neither Christian nor Muslim) realize that the Christian God and the Muslim Allah do not share the same attributes (by majority) to even assume the two are the same? I usually refrain from such a title (heretic), but by all accounts what this Muskens is saying, clearly fits the definition, both to the Christian and to the M ...

Examine: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chapter 3 2007-09-13 08:35:00 As concerning my slow, but continuous reading of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion:Chapter 3P. 78Like most nonbelievers (and some Christians), RD misunderstands the attributes of God (i.e. omniscience and omnipotence), whereby, they are indeed hard to understand when man cannot and does not have the ability of such. But, how much more difficult for the natural man, that has not the Spirit?Such a big word, for such a “sparing” point: parsimonious. Interestingly, he never tells us WHY [but opinion], “it is more parsimonious to conjure up, say, a ‘big bang singularity’, or some other physical concept as yet unknown” over “invoking God” to terminate the beginning of creation. For by science, itself, states: matter/energy cannot be created/destroyed. Science also states: it cannot prove/disprove God. So, to say a “big bang singularity”, which is tested [assumingly] by science, seemingly defying science in creation [by its so-called ability to create matter/energy, if b ...

Critical Teardown versus Constructive Criticism 2007-09-10 08:53:00 To criticize someone is quite easy to do. All one must do is observe another person long enough, and we could quickly become critical of that person, their ideas and their actions. If we take notice of ourselves, we may find that this practice, most often, comes about when we do not particular like a person, when we are jealous of this person, or when we simply just think mighty highly of ourselves over another person; especially in times that we may find ourselves disagreeing with this person, whereas others (we wish were on our side) lean more toward them, rather than us.The problem with being entirely critical of someone else (deeds or actions), is that, in and of itself, does not bring forth anything positive or productive for the one we view with a critical eye, nor for our own humility, nor for those which observe our gossip of the situation from the sidelines.Criticizing and being critical of another, again, is easy to do, and is sometimes done without even taking thought to the ...

Examine: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Chapter 2 2007-09-07 08:14:00 As concerning my slow, but continuous reading of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion:Chapter 2P. 31I find it notably interesting that RD can begin a chapter describing one whom he does not know and whom he claims does not exist.It appears that RD uses the Catholic Church and Thomas Jefferson as his authoritative resources, at least in the beginning of chapter 2. Just noticing there are many of today which disagree with the Catholic Church and there were those of yesterday that did not agree with Jefferson.It also yields a lot of opinions that are somewhat without good foundations. (You would have to read to see what I mean here.)P. 38-39I believe RD misspeaks when he claims, “It is conventional to assume that the Founding Fathers of the American Republic were deists. No doubt many of them were, although it has been argued that the greatest of them might have been atheists.” For he clearly notes his opinion in saying, “Certainly their writings on religion in their own time leave m ...

Biology Mix Up 2007-09-04 13:02:00 Article: Human-animal embryo study wins approval“Most support was expressed for the creation of so-called cytoplasmic hybrid embryos, in which a human cell is inserted into an empty animal egg. Other hybrid embryos, such as those created by fertilising an animal egg with human sperm, or vice versa, were less well supported.In December, the government sparked a revolt by scientists, patient groups and medical researchers when it published a white paper containing proposals to outlaw almost all research into animal-human embryos. The research has since been backed by Nobel prizewinners, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Commons science and technology committee, and the government's chief science adviser, Sir David King.In May, the government withdrew its opposition in a draft fertility bill and now seeks to outlaw only embryos created by mixing sperm and eggs from humans and animals. The bill will be put before parliament before the end of the year.”All I can say ...

Does One Really Wager Everything 2007-09-04 08:25:00 Recently a blog posted their version of “Pascal's D--n Wager: Sidestepping Reason and Rational Thinking”.They present the following:To summarize, Pascal wager states two major suppositions:1. If you believe in God:i. If God exists, you go to heaven: your gain is infinite.ii. If God does not exist, you gain nothing & lose nothing.2. If you do not believe in God:i. If God exists, you go to hell, your loss is infinite.ii. If God does not exist, you gain nothing & lose nothing.They also posted this:The mathematical calculations are as follows:God exists (G)God does not exist (~G)Living as if God exists (B)+? (heaven)?N (none)Living as if God does not exist (~B)?? (hell)?N (none)The problem I found was with their assumptions. They have hence *amended their original post, in stating: “Mathematically speaking, using the parameters as set by Pascal, Pascal's Wager (based on playing on the safe side of belief) is a bet based pretty much on common sense and a great dose of ...

Good and Bad verses Righteous and Wicked 2007-08-30 09:17:00 On another blog, the person asks the question, “What Makes People Good or Bad?”My response to such a question, since the writer is not a Christian, was as follows:As a Christian, I know you know that we would consider the sin nature of the person to be why one rebels from that which is good. But, as you said, this does not mean “good” people are always good nor does it mean “bad” people are always bad. It appears that some people are born with more desire to rebel compared to other people, for I see this in my own kids. There is also reason to believe if some children only receive attention (although negative attention) because they do something wrong, they will continue to do wrong things just to get any attention at all. Sometimes it seems it could be that people “stay bad” simple because they have been stereotyped as “bad”, everyone talks, acts, and treats them like they are bad, so they continue to act as people see them as. I believe everything plays a part, su ...

Examine: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Preface and Chapter 1 2007-08-27 20:17:00 As most of you know, or may not, Richard Dawkins has written the book The God Delusion. Since he is an open atheist, there is no reason to ponder why such a title. I do not personally know Mr. Dawkins, nor have we ever met, but I would like to take a look at his book to glimpse inside the mindset of one who openly, excitedly denies the existence of God.What I shall present, continually in sections as I continue to read his story, is my questions and observations based on certain parts of his book. I will do my best to note the pages and places of each thought, based in Mr. Dawkins’ book so any owner of the book will easily be able to follow my thoughts, and so I will hopefully not be found guilty of taking things out of context.RD = Richard DawkinsPrefaceP. 1The very first page of the Preface RD speaks of “Imagine, with John Lennon, a world with no religion.” I can’t help but wonder if he also noticed that Mr. Lennon would have us remove not only religion, heaven, and hell, but ...

Forgiveness, Yes – Responsible, No 2007-08-24 14:20:00 ArticleI am a Baptist, therefore, I would really like to know what the persons of First Baptist Church of Romeoville were thinking when they asked “convicted child sex offender” Jeff Hannah to “step into the pulpit until a replacement was hired” and “served in that role for three years and ever since has been a fill-in preacher, teacher and music minister at the church.”1. “In 1996, Jeff Hannah was sentenced to nine years in prison for having sexual relations with four underage girls -- ages 15 to 17 -- while a married youth minister at Crossroads Church in Libertyville.”2. “The Rev. Steve Farish, pastor of Crossroads Church, which has relocated to Grayslake, said he considered Hannah so dangerous that he warned the Romeoville church and a regional Southern Baptist official.”: “"We thought he could still potentially be a danger to women and children," Farish said. "He was never repentant and never told the truth."”3. “In talking to the Sun-Times last week, Han ...

A Few Teeth and a Big Story 2007-08-24 08:58:00 Based on “one canine tooth and eight molars”, some researches have determined it is “a 10 million-year-old ape” and that it “suggests that humans and African great apes may have split much earlier than thought.”So based on only 9 teeth of a missing skeleton, “The Ethiopian and Japanese team named the species Chororapithecus abyssinicus and said it represents the earliest recognized primate directly related to modern-day gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos.”Although they do seem claim that humans evolved from apes, they admit, “we know nothing about how the human line actually emerged from apes”. Doesn’t this merely prove there is no FACT of evolution from apes to man, but a suggestion, hope, desire, etc. that man evolved from apes, but we have no idea as of how or when. Hmmm…Of course, there are still those which have doubts, but have no problem telling us what it MUST be anyway. As Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo says, “If it’s not a gorilla relative, the ...

The Hidden Gospel 2007-08-21 21:50:00 2 Corinthians 4: 3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We, as Christians, sometimes do not seem to understand why a person may not want to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, may even despise or viscously reject it, or simply file it into a category of legend and fairy tales, but we should not allow the rejection to enrage us to ungodly behavior of instant hate and equally vial speech towards them. A rejection of the call to the gospel is a rejection of Christ, not us; for we cannot give salvation or take away sin o ...

Discovery Gives More Credibility/Validity to Christian Scriptures 2007-08-20 11:53:00 Discovery Channel: Ancient Tablet Vouches for Biblical King“Non-biblical evidence for individuals named in the Bible is rare, particularly for people who were not royals. But an ancient Babylonian tablet provides further proof that a king and his servant — both named in the Book of Jeremiah — existed in the 6th century B.C.According to an announcement by Assyriologist Michael Jursa and the British Museum, the small clay tablet from the museum's collections bears the name of Babylonian officer Nebo-Sarsekim. In chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, this individual is described as being with King Nebuchadnezzar II at the siege of Jerusalem in the year 587 B.C.”“Brody thinks the tablet represents "further verification that certain historical elements within the Book of Jeremiah are valid."”Also: TimesOnline ...

ELCA Openly Dismisses Scripture By Asking For Acceptance For Homosexuality 2007-08-15 09:24:00 Article: Lutherans to allow pastors in gay relationships“The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America passed a resolution at its annual assembly urging bishops to refrain from disciplining pastors who are in “faithful committed same-gender relationships.” The resolution passed by a vote of 538-431.”“The ELCA, which has 4.8 million members, had previously allowed gays to serve as pastors so long as they abstained from sexual relations.”“Since the ELCA was founded in 1988, the group has ordered three pastors in gay relationships to be removed from their ministries. The most recent case was decided in July when the ELCA’s committee on appeals voted to remove an openly gay pastor from St. John’s Lutheran Church in Atlanta.”““The Church ... has just said, ‘Do not do punishments,’” said Phil Soucy, spokesman for Lutherans Concerned, a gay-lesbian rights group within the church. “That is huge.””“A gay-lesbian rights group within the church”, hmmm…?Befor ...