Donkey basketball, home improvement, taxes, eroding first amendment rights and gospel hope for sinners

Random thoughts for your amusement and/or contemplation, and/or disposal. 

Donkey basketball. I have to admit that even though I was skeptical, it did provide some entertainment. For the first five minutes anyway. After that I was ready to go. I wonder what Coach Rathgeb thought about allowing a bunch of donkeys to tromp around on the basketball court? Not sure how this ever got started or became a thing, but I can now say that I am cultured enough to have experienced donkey basketball. 

Installing a new light fixture and ceiling tiles in our laundry room is really stretching my handyman skills. I seem to have a knack for turning an afternoon project into a multi-day crusade. It’s all trial and error – mostly error.

This year I did my own taxes, for the first time in about 15 years. Not feeling tons of love for Caesar right now. Can understand why the tax collectors in Jesus’ time were so despised. I’ll give Caesar what belongs to him, but he seems to be taking more all the time. What’s that bumper sticker say? “I love my country. It’s my government I fear.” 

Have you read about the state’s intrusion on the rights of the Timber Creek Bed & Breakfast in Paxton, IL? The owner refused to rent his facilities for a homosexual couple’s celebration of their same-sex union because of his Christian beliefs, and a judge has ordered a fine of $80,000 and is attempting to force the owner to offer his facility to this couple. 

In a statement, owner Jim Walder said in part: “To be absolutely clear, we cannot host a same-sex wedding even though fines and penalties have been imposed by the Illinois Human Rights Commission. Our policy will not be changing. We are not looking for a fight, but when immoral laws are purposely passed (or deemed constitutional) that blatantly conflict with God’s Word and when the heavy hand of government tries to force us as Christians to embrace sinful behavior, we have a moral obligation to resist and stand for biblical truth. “It is better to obey God than men” (Acts 5:29). 

America is still a great nation, but “the times they are a-changin.” Just wait until they try to force pastors to perform same-sex “marriages” in whatever Christian church they choose. Just wait until calling homosexuality a sin is deemed “hate speech” and you are fined or imprisoned for your crime. 

Mark it down – the more that we stubbornly continue to forsake the ways of the Lord and embrace our own sinful desires, the more wrath we’re storing up for ourselves on the day when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. 

Let me assure you that hope for better things to come is not in the government, but in the God who rules in righteousness and is still in the business of saving sinners. Homosexuals, adulterers, tax evaders, drunkards, thieves, liars, murderers, and all. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That’s still good news today, even for those who have been acting like donkeys.