---Consigiliari---

I am so pleased to be able to share what I have come to learn about my understanding of God, as pathetically limited as it is. The last post I made included a promise to explain the act of prophecy, the ability to speak with divinely-inspired insight. Sometimes it deals with foretelling the future, sometimes it involves determining a present problem situation of which noone would be naturally aware. But usually prophecy is simply the ability of a committed Christian, having the experience of being "baptized with the Holy Spirit", to hear the "still, small voice of God", guiding him in the circumstances of his/her life.

What is the purpose of prophecy? Simply put, it is the act of love by a loving God who acts as a loving father, telling us about His will for each of us, in order to let us know that, irregardless of whether He seems far away, He is there, in the midst of our lives, at every turn of the road of our life's journey. Prophecy shows us that, because God knows everything, that He is in control, and that He is looking out for us.

It may sound pretty simplistic and filled with platitudes, but empty it is not.

More to come.

---Alcalde del Cid---

As of tonight, I am going to change my call name. I have been referring to myself by several names, most particularly the name Belisarius II. A slight change will be made. I will still have the name of ShilohHouseCA for the blog. However, I will take on the name in Latin for counselor in connection to Belisarius II, the name Consigiliari. In the alternative, I will use the name in Spanish for a local judge-mayor-magistrate, the name Alcalde del Cid, in honor of the great and legendary Spanish leader, who stood with both Christian, Jew, and civilized Muslim against the Jihadists of his time. I like the name Alcalde myself, because that was an honored title in my native Texas for jurists and statesmen, even after its independence from Mexico, and later in the annexation by the Americans. I also like the title of Consigiliari, because it is the title of the counselors to the great leaders of the Holy Roman Empire, particularly the Christian kings and popes who stood defiantly against the repeated onslaught of the Islamists that made the Crusades seem like a ladies' garden club.

So, new changes. I think it may fit my personality. Hope that I will carry those names with dignity. Salaam alayakum. Hasta a la manana. Jesu Cristo es Dominus et Deus.

---Consigiliari Belisarius II---

Well, we begin a new series of chats today. I will have to say that the role I will be adopting will not be something that I expected when I began to do the work to which I have been called. But the truth is, I am actually quite excited about it. I don't want to be mean in talking about it, really I don't. But some people will come to the conclusion that I am. If it is because of bias, prejudice, and hatred toward anything that has the word "Christian" attached to it, then I can't be too terribly upset about it. But if it is because I really am acting mean and unkind, then I need to be justly and rightly repentant. And I shall be. But I will make someone who so accuses me to shoulder one big burden of proof to make me cave in. I believe in what I believe, and I don't go for postmodern vacillation.

You see, I don't have much use for phrases like, "my truth, your truth, we all have a different truth, " and so on. There is Truth, absolute, objective, attainable, comprehendible. There may be many opinions and interpretations of truth, and often colored by the interpreter, and often wrong. But truth nonetheless exists, and it has a spiritual origin, and that origin is the personal God described in the Bible.

I have thrown down the gauntlet, and shall be shot at from here on. But I will seek to keep my good cheer, self-restraint, and open-minded kindness to those who will disagree with me. I worship as God a Man who taught his followers to write that "Love never fails...the greatest is love." So, I'll do my best to remember my Master, and follow His path, as I act as advocate for Him.

The world is changing, by the hour. We are hurtling, I believe, for a day of fire. It will not be pleasant, and it has been predicted. Prediction. An activity which is historically called, "prophecy." It is not for the purpose of promoting hate or fear, but love, and wisdom. A wisdom that will make intelligent people see danger, and avoid it. I'll be talking a lot about prediction--or prophecy in the days to come. But to start, I'll lay the groundwork as to why it is important.

Hope to see people join the community. Take care and God bless.

---Iona II---

I am at the end of my very long and very typical day. I am devoting myself to working on my own personal support for my ministry, and on the ministry itself. There are so many things that have come to bother me over the last 8 months, ever since the war in Lebanon heated up things in the Mideast, as if they couldn't get worse. The election didn't help. But then I had to take Gail and I out of the place we had been worshipping for 2 years, due to the fact that their compromise with clear biblical teaching on more than one issue, and their penchant for feeling that they had to be ashamed to be Americans in order to have compassion on poor people in the world, simply frustrated us to the point we could not handle being there.

I begin to understand a little more the words of the Apostle Paul, in 2nd Corinthians, where he said: "We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; sturck down, but not destroyed." I wonder sometimes how a man with a ministry with no followers can ever be of value to anyone. I would be certainly told by some that I am not meant to be in ministry, that my lack of success is proof that I was never called by God to the ministry in the first place. Fortunately, I am from Texas, we're naturally stubborn. I don't listen much to people who don't know about my life. It's hard, not knowing what your future is going to hold. But you move on, knowing that "I know the one who holds the future."

I will begin with what I will call Re-Intro. I have done a similar thing in the past, but it needs much in the way of restructuring, modification, and refinement. In some of the parts of the original book I will need to start all over. In others the changes will be quite small. Hopefully, we will, at the end, have completed, a 17-part course, that will "reintroduce" Jesus and His teachings to the world. It's an audacious concept, but I think we will have help from above in doing so.

Well, we'll start tomorrow. Adios for now.


---Santo Patricio 2d-----

Well, I am happy that I am able to write. There are people in this world who have lost their fingers, so that they cannot even touch a keyboard. So, while there is so much that has gone wrong in my life, I am definitely moved to count my blessings. I have my life, my health, my wife's and my children's love, my home, and my God (not necessarily in that order).

I have spent the last several years struggling with what I want to say as I get on this blog, which is the oldest of all the attempted blogs that I have. Well, I guess that what I have to do is just begin speaking from my heart, rather than start some kind of elaborate program. I even thought of doing that earlier this week, and at the time it seemed like wisdom. But I think that, after a lot of thought and prayer, that I will just begin speaking from the heart, on whatever topic I would feel is right to bring up. I have another blog, one that deals with the passions I have about current events, about the war in which my country has become embroiled, and over which the whole world seems to have very strong opinions, mostly negative. I am going to leave those issues and subjects to that blog.

Over here, I'll just chat with whoever will listen. I am very hopeful about my future, actually, and I have some ideas about what I want to say. It won't always be nice and enjoyable, but it will always try to be with a positive purpose in mind. The world is a mess, and a word of hope is something that people can always use.

I'll just begin with these words. Freedom is what I'm about, but not simply as a political or military construct, as so many approach it. Sometimes I do, too, but as Solomon said, "...a time for every purpose under heaven." It begins in the spirit, and The Spirit. As St. Paul said, "Now the Lord God is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, then---freedom!"

I'll talk some more about that later. It's late. Me and the wife need our beauty sleep. Adios for now.

Well, good afternoon, friends. With this entry I begin my own change in strategy. I have another blog, which is devoted to matters of my interest in U.S. foreign policy, the war against Islamist terrorism, and various other subjects involving the law, both international and U.S. constitutional matters. I'll link to articles from that blog from time to time, but not right now.

I have chosen to reignite this particular blog along the lines which were at the core of small organization which Gail and I began 10 years ago: our interest in spirituality, particularly Christian spirituality. I choose not to let it be a religious blog, turning it into a walking advertisement for churches and mere traditional dogma. But I am going to make it a discussion place about God, His existence, and our relationship to Him as human beings, who I am convinced are made by God, in His image and His likeness, in spite of our flaws and failings, better known as "sin."

I will talk about different matters that impact upon my conviction of the ultimate reasonableness and exclusive sensibility in believing in Jesus as the true and unique expression of God in the universe, as well as what I hope are common-sense applications of faith in Him and His teachings in the everyday world. I hope to be non-boring, especially as I begin posting podcast and video from different sources.

So I'll begin now. Earlier today I noted about four different articles from two esteemed centers of thought and learning that deal with the scientific soundness of believing that the Bible's account of the creation of the universe is literally true: The Institute for Creation Research, and Answers in Genesis (ICR is near my home in San Diego, CA, and AIG is located in Georgetown, Kentucky, just south of Cincinnati, Ohio). The first of two articles just released by ICR and posted on its website dealt with the issue of explanations from the fossil record in various places around the world, which support the Genesis account of a great global flood about 5,000 years ago (rather than millions or billions of years ago). "Vulgar Notions of A Universal Flood" pins the dearth of support for the universal nature of the fossil deposits, coming at approximately the same time, squarely upon a truly-ironic religious fanaticism on the part of evolutionary scientists, failing to account for the variable of eruption of land tectonic plate formations and water displacement. Such explains how there could be a vast amount of water which covered the highest mountains which were then displaced within a year into the world's ocean basins, which are deeper than the mountain ranges are high.

"Smithsonian: Religious Scientists Prohibited", is an expose of how the National Museum of Natural History sought to ban and eventually fire Dr. Richard Sternberg, a distinguished fellow of the Smithsonian, simply for publishing a journal article by an Oxford professor who posited the possibility of Intelligent Design as a suitable explanation for certain biological processes. Though an evolutionist himself, the Smithsonian's fellows, including his own peers, sought to have Dr. Sternberg fired. It took a U.S. Congressional investigation to save Dr. Sternberg's position as even being on the staff of the Smithsonian, and after suffering demotion and harassment.

In AIG, the first article contained an insightful attack on the notion of mutation being a satisfactory explanation for E coli bacteria's resiliency as a pathogen infecting food produce, rather than being a genetically-equipped substance that engages in non-mutated adaptation, which explains the higher amount of genetic information that the organism has obtained in order to change and thrive. Rejecting mutation in this case is further evidentiary support for divine design as a cause for the development and increased complexity of living things rather than by untenable evolutionary processes.

The second article contained an expose of high-handed moves by the University of California system (including UC-Berkeley, UCLA, and of course, our own UC-San Diego) to ban admission of Christian high school and home school graduates who used creationist science textbooks as part of their science curriculum. The textbooks had the same discussion of science history and the teaching of the scientific method, one just had a belief in creationism reflected and the UC system couldn't handle even scriptures written at the start of each unit in the Christian science textbooks. The bigotry is simply beyond the pale, and deserves the massive legal action lodged by the Christian schools and parents.

I simply am amazed at the capability of people to claim absolute impartiality and yet treat people who disagree with them, particularly in the science field, with that kind of bigotry.

Well, we'll be back for more tomorrow. If you don't like or recognize the links to the articles, just do a Google search to ICR and AIG.

---Cincinnatus---

Well, hello. I guess it was about time for me to return. I think that I shall concentrate upon this blog more or less exclusively from here on (save for my business blog). It's time to be constructive. I had another blog which I have been working on for the last two months, but I'm not happy with what I'm writing. So, I'm discontinuing my work there and concentrating here. I'll tell more of what I'm about now the next time. Later.

--The Cid & Belisarius II--