Musings of a Snickerdoodle

I'm hoping to get back to reviewing books in the near future. I've been helping my youngest brother with his school, and that has taken up a lot of my time. He may be finishing up high school in the next year or two...or if he's fast and focused, this year. We do homeschooling and so we go at a different pace.  I'll then have time to get back to reviewing and critiquing books.  I was recently looking at my blog 'dashboard' again, and noticed that I may still have some viewers/followers (or I'm talking to bots), and I should probably write a note, explaining the main reason I've not really been writing these past several years. Happy New Year! - Sarah

 So, I obviously didn't get around to posting the AI Christmas songs anywhere near in time for Christmas. But I'll just throw some out there now:  Here are several of the Christmas songs my brother Tim and I had fun 'directing'. - I would have posted more of Tim's but Udio's new update won't let me download the video or audio of other people's 'creations' anymore, so the ones that are here are from back when I was able to download them. The first up is this one by Tim, "Look Who is Born", I really like the lyrics he wrote to it (unlike myself, he doesn't utilize AI at all for the lyrics, he writes them himself).  https://www.udio.com/songs/9UvYQHkFnbeLBfh4YWca2z?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing This next is one I 'directed', it is based on Mary's praise of God in Luke 1, and as usual, utilized Chat GPT due to my lack of rhyming skills and general word creativity. I usually generate...

 My brother and I are still playing around with that AI music generating software, Udio. It can generate excellent tunes and really puts emotion into the voices. It truly is amazing what God has allowed humans to do. I figured I'd put out a few more songs we were able to 'direct' (and in Tim's case, write).  First, one of my absolute favorites, my brother Tim did this one, and unlike myself, he writes the lyrics completely himself. This one actually made me cry... O Heavenly Father, Make Us Like Thee! You can view the lyrics and download the MP3 or Wave file here:  https://www.udio.com/songs/rcJrrJTqABKtrnga2JSeF7 And next is one that I 'directed'. I am HORRIBLE with poetry, rhyming n' making lines that have rhythm.  So I utilize Chat GPT for the lyrics, though I don't just generate them and take them as is, I make it generate a lot of prompts and several versions of the lyrics. Then I go back through and revise each verse, switching out words, chunks of...

  Shepherds For Sale, as one would expect, is not an uplifting read, but it's very insightful.  Each chapter gives details about how so many church leaders are turning away from the Bible as their sole authority of faith and practice and instead turning to the 'moral' 'causes of the world.   I really liked how Basham did this, giving facts in  journalistic way and yet giving Biblically based commentary/critiques throughout.  I wasn't sure how to write this review (or 'tome' as it turned out to be!) as this book is a little more unique from any book I've read before, as it has a lot of 'data' as it were, a lot of documenting of the downfall of church leaders. So I'll write it a bit different and go chapter by chapter: CLIMATE CHANGE: Pastors have accepted the idea of climate change as one of the things they are obligated to warn their people about. Some of them are doing it under the guise of it's being "Creation Care" or somethi...

For the past day or two my family and I have been playing with this new AI audio generator software called Udio (www.Udio.com).  At first I heard a sample of an instrumental piece someone had generated and it sounded very nice, so I decided to sign up and just see what it could do. It also lets you put in your own lyrics to generate music with. What I didn't really see coming was how well it could do voices...they sound real, and I don't mean AI real, I mean REAL.  They sound like actually people singing with their own individual voices (you can even hear them taking breaths). I have found it has been getting harder to find nice music, not just generally okay music, but music that you REALLY like. Most especially, Christian music.  Well Udio allows you to create it.  And you don't even have to be musically inclined, you just prompt it.   You type in prompts like "classical", "cinematic", "female voice" etc.. and add any lyrics you want and then...

"Self is a fleshly weapon. It's useless in spiritual battles." I really liked this study that Rick Lambert (author of Polycarp: A Destroyer of Our gods ) is doing on 'self control', that the term is actually translated incorrectly in our Bibles and that there is a better term that captures the meaning of the original greek word better.  He is working on a book that will deal with this concept (among other things). In this talk, he is doing a test run to try to get his explanation of the concept perfected.

  The Journey of the Purple Heart by Robert Baumer is an interesting account of his uncle (also his namesake) who fought and died in World War II.  This book follows Bob Baumer, a soldier, from the start of World War 2 all the way to his death just after Normandy. This book has a unique twist in that it is written in the form of a novel. The author does admit that he takes some liberties but all with a good knowledge of what his uncle was actually like (he interviewed family members, friends, fellow soldiers, read his letters...etc.) so it is quite an accurate account. It starts and ends by telling about the author's research into his uncle. With the semi-fictional retelling of his uncle's history in the middle. It  is written from various perspectives, that of Bob's mom, his brother and of course Bob himself. It also gives high level overviews of what was happening at various times. I t 'pulls you in' in many places, making you feel as if you are with them while ...

  I've known something about the "Christocentric" hermeneutic for many years now.  I need to admit up front that I've always disagreed with it in theory, but have never really fully formulated why I disagree with it.  I saw 'Your Old Testament Sermon Needs to Get Saved' by David King and figured that it would be good chance to read the whole argument for Christocentrism in preaching and think it through more thoroughly.   One of the main arguments that King makes for a Christocentric interpretation of everything is the Lordship of Jesus.  "We start with the simple but sweeping confession: Jesus is Lord. Take a second to ponder the weight of that three word sentence.  Could there be a more persuasive argument for preaching Christ from the Old Testament? If Jesus is Lord, then He is Lord over the Old Testament - and Lord over our Old Testament sermons, too." At first, it was hard to figure out how to reply to such an argument. A lot of the arguments ...

  The good news is that demonstration of what God is accomplishing in spite of me.  It makes it the best news possible because it doesn't depend upon my right response. Even after Jesus told Peter he was going to deny Him, if faith then was built on his (Peter's) response, then he failed in faith! But Jesus had already told them, before He admonished them regarding "don't let your hearts be troubled", 'You're going to do this' (to deny Him, to forsake Him), 'this is going to happen , He didn't say "you might", He didn't say "you might".  "You will!" That's the beauty of the Gospel! We're troubled in every way! And yet God is still doing His work! We doubt Him, and God is doing His work, we may even deny Him and yet God is still doing His work , in us, through us, for us - bringing us to that glorious conclusion that "this is what I've (God has) done." And so we go in faith to the Word, and...

   Speaking on James 1:14:  Temptation finds its strength and source from within ourselves. The brutal truth of our sin, personal sinning, is that it is all in and of ourselves - not only can't God be blamed, but no other (person or thing) can be blamed - it is sad to realize how many still trust the validity of their 'blame shifting' and then add an extra 'perimeter fence' of protection by no longer identifying sin as sin - sinners are encouraged by other sinners to find shelter in their being a victim. The process is ls illustrated by James as being , first, each person being tempted (tested to prove slavery to sin) by their own desire/lust (ἐπιθυμίας - passions, inner cravings and inclinations) - this process of temptation first "lures" (NASB has "carried away") - "lure" is a better descriptive word since it was used of luring a fish with bait and visuals.  Then they are "enticed" (another hunting/fishing term) and so are t...

  It's been a while since I've seen a book I wanted to review.  I was looking at the Moody Publishers Newsroom website and the title of this book caught my eye:  Getting Over Yourself: Trading Believe-In-Yourself Religion for Christ-Centered Christianity.   If I remember correctly, when I was looking at the preview of the book online the chapter titles were a big part of what convinced me that this would be a good read, Here's a little sample of them: 1.LOSERVILLE : Is Christianity for the Cool, Trendy, and Successful? 4. HASHTAG FILTER: The Promise of a Socially Approved Life 5. THIS IS SO BORING: The New Prosperity Cardinal Sin of Settling For The Mundane I love the title of Chapter 5, it's so true! The living a mundane life really does seem to be a sin in our age. It really looked like this guy had a lot of the same thoughts my dad (a pastor) has had on the state of modern 'Christianity', so I ordered the book. Of course, it turned out that the chapter titles...

  The progress of Christianity has been confessedly tardy. From the places where first its light shone, the candlestick has been removed; and where now we speak of it as established, we are constrained to make the humiliating acknowledgment that nine-tenths of the profession is false. Our missions proceed also but slowly, indeed more slowly than we will allow ourselves to think; and though we hang upon the lips of the newly arrived missionary, and drink in with avidity the reports of each society, when we come in the moment of cool reflection to ask, what has been done? I say the answer is, but little. Nor is it from want of exertion: for never was there such a host of instrumentality brought to bear on the promotion of Christianity as of late years: and, without making the state of things worse than it really is, I yet say that the mind that would take for its data, on which to expect the speedy establishment of Christ's kingdom, the means now in use, and the success attending the...

  When we turn from the restless entreaties and exhortations which fill the pages of our modern missionary magazines to the pages of the New Testament, we are astonished at the change in atmosphere. St Paul does not repeatedly exhort his churches to subscribe money for the propagation of the Faith, he is far more concerned to explain to them what the faith is, and how they ought to practice it and keep it.  The same is true of St Peter and St John, and all of the apostolic writers. They do not seem to feel any necessity to repeat the great Commission, and to urge that it is the duty of their converts to make disciples of all the nations. What we read in the New Testament is no anxious appeal to Christians to spread the Gospel, but a note here and there which suggests how the Gospel was being spread abroad: 'the churches were established in the faith and increased in number daily', 'in every place your faith to Godward is spread abroad so that we need not to spea...

  Several years ago my family and I watched the movie Night Crossing by Disney, about two families, living in the 1970s, who escaped from Soviet West Germany in hot air balloon.  I was looking around for any books about the escape and came across this account written for kids Flight for Freedom by Kriston Fulton is written giving a child's perspective.  Little 6 year old Peter Wetzel knows about the plan to try to escape East Germany in a hot air balloon.  He understands the seriousness of the situation as he watches his parents and the other adults plan and orchestrate the escape.   It is written quite simply, conveying the story simply enough for children to follow along. "Each morning when Peter woke, he expected to find proof that his parents were building a balloon. But, the house was exactly as it had been the day before.  Everything hidden.  Everything quiet.  Peter wondered if it had been only a dream.  Would he ever escape East...