Lord, Lord

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-23)

There are many people who claim to be Christians who aren't. Hitler may well have thought he was a "Christian," but his use of the Lord's name to incite violence against Jews and, ultimately, to try to exterminate them, would suggest Hitler's claim to being "Christian" was just words.

Clearly I'm in no position to say who truly is chosen by God and who is not. So I'm not saying for certain that Hitler was or was not. God will make that judgment, if he has not yet done that. But one can get a sense for another's posture towards Christ. What we do with our sense of that is where the danger lies. The Bible seems to suggest at worst we just walk away from those who would not treat the "things of God" as Holy. I can't think of anything that would suggest we harm them just because we don't think they're Christians.

Discerning in our own hearts our own posture towards Christ is a useful exercise. I'm not entirely certain I'm in a good place on that score. I count as a blessing my awareness of this, though. I'd rather wrestle with that question than be oblivious to it.

* * *
It is Saturday night and I should be home from G'burg. But my flight Friday evening was canceled and no flights were available until Sunday night. So I'm in a hotel near Dulles. And I'm in a foul mood.

The U.S. air travel industry is running at 100%, and the slightest disturbance results in extended problems. The disturbance on Friday was a "perfect storm" -- bad weather in Dallas and Chicago resulted in extended flight delays; and spring break travel meant all flights were oversold. Hence I had no options to get home until Sunday. It's the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" in real life.

* * *
The "silicon on insulator" stuff is cool. I'm always amazed that people can sit there and conjure up these things:

Then they discovered Separation by Implantation of Oxygen (SIMOX). SIMOX involves the direct injection of purified oxygen into the silicon wafer at an extremely high temperature. The oxygen bonds with the silicon and forms thin layers of silicon oxide. This layer of silicon oxide film is perfect enough that it bonds with the pure crystal silicon layer.

Amazing.

* * *
On another subject, when do you think moral reasons for taking a particular decision outweigh rational reasons for the decision? Always?

Perhaps. But only if I had a firm conviction of what was moral. Some things are clear; others less so. My gut tells me my sense of reason should test my sense of morality, and also the other way around.

I'm trying to think of a case where morality would dictate one thing and reason clearly dictate something opposite. I'm having trouble.

"Rational reasoning" is not always clear-cut, is it? I would imagine my sense of what is "rational" can be as cloudy as my sense of what is "moral." But I'm a confused person generally.

* * *
Imagine if you worked in an office and one worker had a simple message on his door :

"I know the secret !"

How would you feel?

I'd think the person was being boastful, being selfish, or lying. Or perhaps all three.