A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens

I’m actually surprised by how many classics I’ve avoided reading over the years.  I only recently read Dracula.  Most classics are free for my Kindle and I’ve downloaded many of them.  I just finished Dickens’ classic.

 

The first thing that I noticed is that it’s very short.  It’s barely a novella.  Considering the movies that they’ve made from the material, I expected a longer book.

 

Second, while all of the movie versions that I’ve seen have been pretty much secular, God was mentioned a few times in the book.  In fact, it’s mentioned that Scrooge goes to church on the Christmas morning where he wakes up a new man.  That’s left out of all the movie versions that I’ve seen.

 

Third, the depiction of the Ghost of Christmas Past is much different.  His first description makes him a shape-shifter.  His appearance morphs every time that Scrooge looks at him, with his number of legs changing and things like that.

 

The Ghost of Christmas Present takes Scrooge to a ship in the ocean to see its Christmas celebration.  He also takes him to other lands to see Christmas celebrations in those places, too.

 

The final part of the book, after his conversion, seems rushed.  It does depict him as a better person, but it doesn’t show the Cratchet’s reaction to having a giant turkey sent to them, which was one of my favorite parts of the movie versions.

 

The book is being told by a narrator as if he is verbally telling the story.  We never find out who the person is, but he speaks like a storyteller and refers to himself as “I” on a couple of occasions.

 

I’m looking forward to reading some more of the classics.

A Review of THE BLACK STILETTO by Raymond Benson

As a professing geek, I have to admit that I grew up reading comic books.  Spider-man was my favorite.  I began reading his comics just as he got the alien costume.  Not long after, he got married and I stuck with the character for OVER TWENTY YEARS (pay attention here, Marvel), until the writers that be decided to retcon the marriage.  That was when I finally jumped ship.

 

Pretty much blaming Marvel Comics, as a whole, for what happened, I tried to switch to DC.  Then their entire UNIVERSE retconned (this is the second time that they’ve done it).  So what’s a superhero-loving geek to do?

 

I started looking for indie superheroes.  There are several . . . Melody Ravert’s “Nightwolf”, A.P. Fuchs’ “Axiom-man”, Frank Dirscherl’s “The Wraith” and, now, Raymond Benson’s “The Black Stiletto.”

 

I found this last ebook on Amazon for a special free promotion.  I rather enjoyed it.  The story is told in the first person perspective by three different characters:  Martin Talbot (the Black Stiletto’s son); an elderly mob enforcer named Roberto Ranelli, who has just gotten out of prison after more than fifty years; and, of course, the Black Stiletto herself, through her son’s reading of her diary.  Martin’s mother is in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s disease.  She had enlisted a lawyer friend to give her son a number of items from her past when she could no longer remain in control of herself.  To Martin’s surprise, these include the diaries of the famous Black Stiletto, a costumed crime fighter who was active in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

 

The book manages a very cohesive plot, considering three different points of view.  The Black Stiletto is a flirty heroine who I liken to Catwoman, but with more of a moral core.  She defends those who need her and even fights a Communist spy at one point in the novel.  However, I admit disappointment at the fact that she has powers, as I was hoping for a more “Batman-type” character.  Her powers seem to be mutant in origin.  She can tell when someone is lying and she has an early warning sense that works very much like that of my former favorite superhero.  And the powers seem to be genetic, as well.

 

I was also disappointed with how the story threw cohabitation in as acceptable, having the heroine speak against her current (late 1950s) society’s norms on the subject.  She also wasn’t afraid to kill the villains.  The book talks about the characters having sex (including one rape scene) without going into detail.  But the language in the book was mature.  The four-letter word gets a workout, as well as several instances of taking the Lord’s Name in vain.

 

The climax of the book is rather abrupt, but still good.  I’d recommend that any fellow adult geeks read it.  Just keep it away from the kids.

 

On a side note, there is a sequel.  However, I won’t be buying it for a while.  The price of the Kindle version is $10.91.  I just can’t see paying that much for an ebook.

A Political Joke Becomes a Reality

I am taking part in a discussion on a Facebook friend’s page.  He posted a cartoon that said, “To re-elect Obama would be like the Titanic backing up and hitting the iceberg again.”  One of this person’s friends immediately jumped to Obama’s defense by asking where we were headed four years ago. I responded with this direct quote:

“Gas that was about half the price of what it is now, an unconstitutional healthcare law, freedom from having to be forced to have my tax dollars pay for abortions, AAA credit rating . . .. We were doing pretty good four years ago.”

Another person said that the economy was in the toilet four years ago and that Obama stopped that.  Then he went on to point out that Obamacare keeps insurance companies from “gouging” us.  He continued that Obama had killed Bin Laden.  Then he attacked his own Catholic church for being upset about the abortion mandate.  My response:

“How is forcing us to purchase over-priced insurance going to keep us from being gouged? It seems as if he played right into their hands? Obama only “took out” bin laden by using techniques that he bashed Bush for using. Furthermore, it wasn’t Obama who got the man, it was the brave men of our armed forces–the same men he and his cronies have been undercutting at every opportunity. I’m not Catholic, but I don’t appreciate my tax dollars going to kill unborn children or being forced to do business with someone against our moral judgement or have to worry about a lawsuit. Oh, and nearly four-dollar a gallon gas kind of sucks, too”

Another person jumped in by using pizza to explain that, if one person buys the pizza, it’s going to be more expensive than if five people pitch in on it.  Another person gave that person a kudos and basically said that conservative Christians don’t have a leg to stand on against Obamacare’s attacks on religious freedoms because there are some religious people who believe in abortion.  I should have pointed out that, when five people pitch in on a pizza, they get less of it.  But my response was:

“We’re forcing the people who don’t believe that murder is right to pay for it. And your model for the insurance would work great, in theory. But nothing is forcing them to go by that model. But Obama sure wants us to buy into a broken model without fixing said model. Obama HAS used the capture of Bin Laden for his re-election. Sounds like gloating to me. And what Obama was handed was an AAA credit rating, less than 2.00/gallon gas and freedom of conscience. It’s time to stop blaming Bush and to let Obama stand on his own.”

Finally, I got a response from a woman that floored me.  “Is it his programs you don’t like or the fact that he is black. Some of your comments sure make me wonder. Everyone of the politicians promise they are going to make things better, so far I can’t tell a difference with any of them,and I’ve been around a lot longer than you.”

I’ve read the jokes about liberals using racism as a talking point against conservatives who don’t like Obama.  But where in the WORLD did she get anything from any of my above comments that I didn’t like him because of his skin color?

A Review of “Life Reflections: A ghost story” by Ian Woodhead

I’ve really enjoyed having my Kindle Fire.  It’s given me a chance to read stories that I would never have tried out before.  Many of these are short stories that I download directly from Amazon.  I should review more of them.  Today, I read one that begged me to do so.

Life Reflections: A ghost story, by Ian Woodhead, was a quick read.  It was supposed to be a horror story . . . I think.  Unfortunately, the story was filled with so many glaring grammatical errors that it was nearly impossible to follow.  The ending was such a sudden thing, that I’m still not really sure what happened.  One minute, the primary character is running from her possessed boyfriend while lugging a bag of human bones.  When she falls and the bag flies out of the yard of the haunted house, all is suddenly well.  I just tried going back over it a second time, but it’s still just as hard to follow.  A simple edit (maybe he  could have just let some friends read over it, as the errors are easy to spot), might have helped a little.  But I definitely wouldn’t want to pay for one of his longer works if this is what I have to expect.

Perseverance Unto Salvation

Over the years, I’ve known many people who have professed faith in Christ.  I have grown with them, studied Scripture with them and discussed God’s plans with them.  I’ve worshiped with them and wept tears of joy at the salvation of others with them.  This is why I’m so shocked when I see some of them fall away . . . and fall away HARD.  Two of my childhood friends, both of whom put my faith to shame at one point, are now open homosexuals who seem to have adopted some wishy-washy spirituality that, at the very least, permits a lifestyle of unrepentant sin and, at the most, justifies it.  One person, who has written an expose online as to his fall from the faith, used to lead a bible study for Chi Alpha Christian Ministries.  Another pen pal simply posted on his blog one day that he wasn’t a Christian any longer.  Some others took a while to fall, first excusing skipping a church service here or there, not reading their Bible one day, etc..  They have all sorts of excuses as to what happened that convinced them that God wasn’t real or, at the very least, that the God of the Bible wasn’t real.  The problem was that I’ve been through many of the same things that they have been through and I came through it with my faith intact, if not stronger.  I’ve examined what has kept me focused during those times.

First of all, I understand that bad things happen to good people.  Throughout Scripture, we see normal people who suffer for God, realizing that their treasure is not on earth, but in Heaven.  Paul gave up a position of power, wealth and prestige as a “Pharisee of Pharisees” to walk the narrow road of suffering for Christ, finally reaching the end and his Crown of Glory.  When my first marriage ended, I contemplated suicide.  I was devastated.  But I had good, godly friends who walked with me through it and I am now married to a godly woman who challenges me to grow in my faith.

Second, I don’t let people who are supposed to be Christians color my view of what it means to be one of the Elect.  Especially pastors.  My ministry mentor once compared our relationship to that of Paul and Timothy’s.  After a bad situation, he broke off all contact with me.  I’ve attempted to e-mail him a number of times, but they always go unanswered.  He’s given up the ministry for another vocation, although he doesn’t seem to have given up his faith.  I’ve felt the loss keenly and it has hurt a great deal, especially during those times when I really needed spiritual advice from someone who knew me personally.  But I don’t blame God.  The minister is only human.

Third of all, I pray that I am Elect.  As a Calvinist, I truly believe that a person who is truly saved will never fall away.  1 John 2:19 says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.” (ESV)  A person who is not Elect may serve God’s purpose his entire life, but may fall away before the end.  It’s a sad fact.  But, on a higher note, it can also work the opposite way.  A person may live a life of the flesh and find Christ in their twilight years.  Or, like the thief on the cross, he may even find him just before his life ends.

That last one is the key.  The Doctrines of Grace stand or fall together.  If we believe that Salvation is an act of Christ, alone, then we cannot truly believe that anything can earn our Salvation . . . including our own will.  It’s Sola Christus, or “Christ alone” . . . not “Christ plus one.”

My Weekend in Jail (Warning PG-13)

I spent this past weekend in jail.

 

Do I have your attention?  I figured that any of you who know me personally would find that shocking.  Imagine my surprise when I was handcuffed on Saturday to be taken to jail as a “body bond” because I missed a court date of which I wasn’t made aware in the first place.

 

Saturday morning was a depressing blur.  I remember being handcuffed to a bench in the part of the station where I was checked in.  While sitting there, the guards made crude jokes about the deer sausage that one of them brought in to share.  Even the lone female guard jumped in the crass humor.  I was given an orange jumpsuit and forced to strip for the guard who brought in the food.  He made me lift my tongue and “junk”, as he put it, before I was allowed to put on the orange clothing.  Perhaps I should have been flattered that he thought that I was large enough to hide a weapon.  But, having never undressed like that in front of a man, I simply found it humiliating.  Before they booked me, I spoke with a nurse, who gave me a shot.  I don’t have tuberculosis.  I guess that’s a positive.

 

Our free phone call?  It has to be collect and, if you don’t know anybody who can accept collect calls, you get one whole minute to talk to them.  You get more than one, however.  You can call as many people as you like.  But you can’t talk to any who don’t have collect call capability for more than a minute, or more than one time.  And it memorizes the number and literally won’t LET you call it more than once.

 

The room that I was in was where everyone stayed at first.  If I remember correctly, there were about thirty bunks, arranged in sets of three.  As I had mentioned that I was acrophobic, I was assigned a bottom bunk.  The room was large, with several round tables like the kind you might find in a high school cafeteria.  The food was comparable, as well.  I didn’t eat much, though.  I didn’t really have much of an appetite.

 

Right outside of the bathroom, somebody had drawn a life-size rendition of Marge Simpson.  The artwork was really good, with the notable exception of the fact that she was naked.  I guess, if you’re in there long enough . . ..

 

And the fact that I’m also OCD fell on deaf ears.  We didn’t have soap the entire time that I was in there.  In desperation, I even washed my hands with toothpaste at one point.

 

The guards who stayed in the room with us were much more pleasant than those who checked us in.  They’d sit and talk with us.  One of them even said that he was there to do a job and, if we were all at a bar with him, he wouldn’t have cared what we’d done.

 

I got into a conversation with a friendly jokester the first night who told me that, no matter what I was going through, it could be worse.  It came out that I was ordained and I was thereafter referred to as “Preach.”  I lamented that I didn’t have a Bible, so the jokester gave me the closest thing that was in there . . . a women’s daily devotional.  The irony of the fact that this book and several Harlequin Romances were the primary reading material in a lockdown that was made for thirty men didn’t escape me.  However, I did read the devotional.  I got through ten months of it while I was in there.

And while I wanted more than anything to get out, God softened my heart toward the others that were sharing that space with me.  I began to listen to their stories.

 

There was the guy who had lost his parental rights in his first marriage nearly twenty years ago, was remarried for over seventeen years with three more boys that he’s raised, and was pulled over in Georgia for a broken taillight only to be shocked to find out that he was seventy thousand dollars past due on child support that he didn’t even know that he was supposed to be paying.

 

There was the guy who was arrested for getting into an argument with his girlfriend and punching his own television instead of her.

 

There was the guy who was intoxicated and his sister-in-law just called the police to take him in long enough to sober up, but the county filed charges against him instead.

 

There was one guy who never got out of his bed the whole time that I was there because he was detoxing.

 

There was the guy who was a victim of abuse from his fiancé and finally snapped at her constantly hitting him, hitting her back and landing in jail.  I’m not justifying a man hitting a woman, but why didn’t she get arrested, too?

 

And there was “J”.  J is a heroin addict.  And he is a good person.  He has a fiancé who he loves and a four-year-old son for whom he desperately wants to get clean.  J was the first person to call me Preach.  He sat down at the table with me while I was reading that women’s devotional and told me his life story.  And I listened.  I think that’s all he needed . . . someone to listen.  When he realized that I couldn’t talk to anyone outside, he had his fiancé call home for me.  He was a really good person and . . . I truly believe . . . someone who is dear to Jesus’s heart.

 

Finally, I had my day in court and was released with nothing on my record.  When I went back to the lockdown to pack up my bedding, J asked me to call his fiancé and give her a message . . . to bring his ab-roller to him on visitation day.  I kept that promise.  I also told him that, if he wants to talk to someone, just put me down as someone who can visit him and have his fiancé call me.  I told him that, with Christ’s help, he can beat the odds.

Just Some Random Things . . ..

DON’T PROCRASTINATE!

Considering the fact that I’ve been working for a travel agency for the past six months and have had to tell people, on a daily basis, that the cost of a flight isn’t guaranteed until booked, I should have known better. But, when I saw that AirTran had flights from Kansas City, MO, to Orlando, FL, for $79 each way on the days that we needed them for our honeymoon, I should have jumped on it then, on Monday. However, I decided to wait until Tuesday morning. Imagine my horror when I discovered that the price HAD DOUBLED!!! We ended up booking our flight through American Airlines. My procrastination cost us about a hundred dollars.

AN INTERESTING HALLOWEEN

Due to an issue in the basement that I’d just as soon not go into here, I found myself sleeping on the living room couch last night. I was awakened by the sound of a car horn in the middle of the night. It didn’t sound like a car alarm, as it wasn’t “pulsing” (for lack of a better word). It sounded like someone was simply pressing down on their horn without letting up. After laying there and listening to it for several minutes, I got up and went outside. The sound seemed to be coming from across the street, so I walked in that direction.

To my shock, my car, which was parked on the street in front of our house, was where it was coming from. I checked the doors and they were locked. After running back into the house to get my keys, I unlocked the car and pressed on the horn button on the steering wheel and the blaring stopped. I’m at a loss as to what could have caused it.