Category: faith

We hold these truths to be self-evident

George Cruey takes an interesting look at the philosophy behind our Declaration of Independence and how a chance by Ben Franklin took the rational for our independence beyond the Christian/spiritual realm and made it something all men can understand.

If Jefferson’s “sacred” had been left in, the Arabs of Iraq and the Hindus of India could have looked at Democracy (at least in light of our Declaration of Independence) and said, “Ha, Christians! What do they know?” As a result of Franklin’s change, the idea became rational (and secular) instead of being based on revelation from God.

Read his thoughts for yourself. Do you think the change was necessary, worthwhile, important?

Nepal goddess stripped of her title

From NPR:

The young Nepali goddess Sajani Shakya has been stripped of her title — apparently because of her visit to the U.S. to promote a documentary in which she was featured.
Elders in Nepal have said the trip tainted her purity, and purity for a goddess is everything.

I wonder what that says about the U.S. that we’re so “unpure” that we can strip a goddess of her title. Also, isn’t it good to know that God is pure and holy and true no matter what country he’s in?
What a relief that is.

Olly (Mrs. Thomas) reflects on Rob Bell

Thomas’ wife Olly is back blogging again and she reflects on hearing Rob Bell over the weekend. (I don’t think she has permalinks turned on so the link doesn’t appear to be working but it’s one of her latest posts).

Rob spoke about how wonderful it would be if the world tried to find a third way of dealing with situations such as these. Jesus was the best at finding third ways. Diffusing situations where people where desperately trying to irritate Him…where people were trying to accuse Him of breaking some sort of law…. God’s law!….where people tried to bring Jesus down…..He found a third way…He found a way of diffusing it all without allowing people to humiliate Him or drag Him down or worst of all allow people to say that He wasn’t who He claimed to be…The Son of God…the Messiah! Yet He did it with such class! He didn’t just walk away from the situation and just give up, but yet neither did He retaliate in the same manner as what was done to Him…..He found a third way, and in doing so, didn’t lose face. He put his point across with such great authority and with such clarity that the disgruntled people were left at times speechless and with the ball well and truly being out of their court.
I really feel that for most people, finding a third way in which to react to a situation, especially one that comes unexpected and fast, is incredibly hard! We usually react quickly in one out of the two ways…and I desperately need to find a way of letting this third way of reacting come naturally to me. When I look back over my life and even at this very moment in my life I feel that I allow or have allowed people to put me down which is really in essence trying to humiliate me. It may be that they are unaware of what they are doing, yet it hurts. How do I deal with it. Well in my past I have usually “sucked it up” and as I don’t like confrontation and animosity particularly much, I usually just smile and pretend I don’t mind, and then go home upset about it…knowing full well that if I allowed myself to respond in the other way it would only be to my own shame the next day when I remember back to how I let it rip!

Good stuff – drop by and give Olly a visit and enjoy the rest of her thoughts on Bell.

Re: On a search for the Music Machine

Further searching led me to a website for Agapeland Music as well.
I did botch those lyrics up on Patience, sung by Herbert the Snail.
The correct lyrics are, “Have patience, have patience. Don’t be in such a hurry. When you get impatient, you only start to worry. Remember, remember, that God is patient too. And think about the times when others have to wait for you.”
You can order all the Agapeland recordings on CD now, but I’d love to find the original records as well.

On a search for the Music Machine


While working at Brian and Heather’s yesterday somehow we got a couple Music Machine songs stuck in our head.

I think it started with, “Have patience, have patience. Don’t be in such a hurry. Remember, remember you’ll only start to worry. If you get impatient know you need patience too and think about the times when others have to wait on you.”

I’m a little foggy on the lyrics there in the middle but we had fun remembering the great albums of our childhood like the Music Machine, Music Machine II, Bullfrogs and Butterflies, Sir Oliver’s Song, Psalty and Charity the Churchmouse.

I did some searching and was able to find some cool info on Wikipedia about them and now I’m wondering if maybe I or my parents have those records around the house somewhere. I really want to get my hands on them if possible.

I would imagine they were tossed out at some point and now I’m going to have to pay a lot more to get them off eBay. But my search has now begun.

I also found that Psalty has actually kept up with the times and has his own webpage as well as a Myspace page.

UPDATE: Audio from the Music Machine gearing up (taken from our online radio station – orangenoiseradio.com) ::
Music Machine Bumber

[audio:http://www.casadeblundell.com/jonathan/wp-content/uploads/bumper107.mp3]