1578 Days Later

1578 Days Later

It was a short blog, the first entry I ever posted, and it was written on November 27th of 2008. It was an exciting blog, I mean just the mention of a la carte cable can send one into ecstasy. And then again maybe not. Well here, read for yourself.....

If only it were just a "vast wasteland!" Unfortunately, television sculpts and molds the American mind. We have become a society that learns from visual sources rather than the written word and we are at the mercy of the cable package. There is a bill in the Senate on giving us the right to choose our stations but its stated purpose is to lessen our cable bill and some say that it will not even do that. I don't care. I want to support only stations that have prefigured the effect on society into its programming. Boycotts cannot do the job. Give us a year of "a la carte" and some networks will respond. In my mind, this is not a minor thing. I can see a major improvement in how our society forms a consensus on many issues simply by weening itself from what television throws at us. If you agree with this please talk the issue up and contact your Representatives and Senators.

Well that was it! As I write this there is a lawsuit pending where Cablevision is suing Viacom over just this issue of bundled stations. The reasons for wanting to end the bundled package vary as do the prognostications on what would happen if consumers are indeed allowed to purchase only the stations that they want to watch. I do believe that if it would be as easy as calling up the cable company and telling them to cancel a particular station that millions would do just that. Over time these companies would realize that we are not a captive audience anymore, that their news people might just have to become real journalists once again. Given more time, and only the Lord can allow that-while we barely acknowledge Him let alone seek His mercies, and with a return to simple things like common sense, logic and truth and the American landscape might not be a killing field of the intellect anymore.

Sola Cremora

Sola Cremora!

         I give way too much money to McDonalds for coffee. A conservative estimate, being that I'm a Conservative, might be ten large coffees a week or over forty-two dollars a month. The folks working at McDonalds at 6 A.M. know me. If I don't show up for a week they might ask where I have been and if I show up at nine or ten they might comment on it. They're very good and I never have to worry about my order. Last week was one of those days where my schedule was different and so was the crew working at McDonalds when I showed up. I gave my order of a large coffee with two creams at the drive-thru and a few miles down the road sipped the coffee and there was cream and sugar in it, sugar...blah! I think that I said "blah" after every sip. A few hours later that day I was at the drive-thru again with the same order..."large coffee with two creams...please put them in." And once again I was a couple miles down the road and...blah! I like only cream in my coffee, or cream alone! Anything added to that and it's just not the same. 
          I bring this up for an analogy. A great problem in the church today is the failure to preach faith...alone.....sola fide...one of the five solas of the Reformation and the Gospel itself. As Scripture reveals to us....Scripture alone...sola Scriptura, salvation is in Christ alone...solus Christus, by grace alone...sola gracia, through faith alone...sola fide with all glory to God alone...sola Deo gloria. When we add anything to sola fide it is no longer sola fide, it is no longer faith alone, it is no longer efficacious for salvation. My coffee is enjoyable without the addition of sugar. Our salvation is efficacious when it is in Christ alone...by grace alone...through faith alone, as revealed to us in Scripture alone and with all to the glory to God alone!