After watching Bela Tarr’s Satantango, I added some of his other movies to the top of my Netflix queue. Damnation, a movie Tarr made in 1987 (before Satantango), was the first one I recieved, and I literally just finished watching it.

Damnation is filmed in very much the same style as Satantango (lots of very long takes, all in Black and White, in a very dystopian/muddy/dreary landscape), only it is far shorter (just under two hours). The story concerns a man named Karrer, who is in love with a married bar singer.

Karrer is offered a smuggling job by the shady bar owner, but offers the job to the bar singer’s husband, in order to increase his chances of getting the singer’s husband out of the way. Karrer and the singer have a brief relationship, but she eventually breaks it off. Karrer becomes obssessed with the singer, and at the same time, more and more depressed.

The long takes in the movie do a very good job of emphasizing the amount of emotional isolation Karrer is feeling. However, I found some parts of the movie hard to follow or uneven. I couldn’t really tell if the movie was being told in flashback or not, since there seem to be some early scenes where Karrer is arguing with the bar singer about their relationship, and then there are scenes afterwards where they are together. Perhaps this was the point, in order to bring a kind of stream-of-conciousness feeling to the movie, or perhaps I just wasn’t paying enough attention.

Like Satantango, Damnation is very slow, however, Damnation just didn’t grab me the way Satantango did for some reason. One thing both movies did very well, however, is being able to create a very moody atmosphere. Where Satantango is very slow going and mimicking the way of life of the commune the characters inhabit, Damnation mimicks Karrer’s growing depression and isolation through its long takes.

The movie’s atmosphere reminded me of Lynch’s Eraserhead at times, although this also lead to some uneveness in the mood of the movie, since it made virtually every scene feel extremely existentialist in nature, even during the scenes where Karrer is together with the bar singer. We later find out Karrer had a dark former relationship, so perhaps every scene was supposed to feel this way, but it felt a bit out of order to me.

In all, I wouldn’t say Damnation is a bad movie, it just didn’t really grab me the way Tarr’s other movie did, although I’m not exactly sure why that is, since both are filmed in a very similar, slow fashion. Again, perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mood for this one, but I’d say it was just okay.

I have had so much contact with spirits, that it has become routine to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I still have a feeling of gratitude and wonder towards the experience.  It is always a gratifying thing to speak to and hear from the Other Side…

So in tribute to all the spirits that have taken the time to come through and see us, I wanted to talk about friendships that can take place between people who have “died” and those of us still here working on our physical lives.

This is a story about a dude named Simmie Williams…he was 17 years old when he was “murdered” in Fort Lauderdale, FL in 2008.   He “died” early on a Friday morning.  On the next day, Saturday, I woke up here in Richmond, Virginia, in the late afternoon, from a strange dream and felt like something was different, but I wasn’t sure what it was.  Getting up from my nap, I could see a young black dude in my “mind’s eye” with a bunch of palm trees and a reddish sky behind him.  I knew it was a spirit, but I wasn’t sure who.

I turned on the computer and started randomly reading news articles on the Net.  I came across an article regarding the murder of a 17-year-old transvestite in Florida the day before.  Looking at the picture that was included in the article, I was surprised to see that it was the young brother I could see around me in my apartment.  I started speaking with him, and felt him there in the apartment with me, just hanging out, chilling with me.

At this point, I called Jeremy, who, as you all know, is a medium, and asked him what he saw.  He saw the same spirit as I was seeing.

I could feel Simmie riding along with me in the car several times.  I could feel him sitting behind me, massaging my shoulders while I drove around.  I felt an incredibly strong connection, spiritually and otherwise, to him, and told him he was always welcome to hang around with me anytime, as I truly appreciated his company.

Jeremy channeled him for me a few months later; he came through wearing white pants, a white shirt, with some kind of unbuttoned cream-colored shirt over the white shirt.  He was holding a white cat.  He said that he and I had a lot in common, so that is how he found me.  After he left his physical body, he could freely move around and be anywhere he wanted with the speed of his thought.  He ended up gravitating to me.

Simmie was not condemned and thrown in some “hell” by some angry “god” for wearing womens’ clothing, even though the Bible condemns the practice.  He was not condemned and judged for being attracted to men, and not women, even though the Bible says “men lying with men” is an “abomination to God”.

Simmie is the kind of person I would have liked to have met in the physical world.  He is a very sensual person; he likes being physically affectionate more than sex itself.  I could have easily become good friends with him here in the physical.  But I am happy just to have him around, chillin’ with me from time to time, in spirit form…

Jeremy said he felt Simmie is living it up in the Spirit World.  While his family, friends, and others who love him and are still in the physical world are crying and grieving, he is partying and enjoying himself like never before.  Let me tell you:  one thing the spirits want you to all know is : DO NOT GRIEVE.  Sadness from time to time is OK, that is part of the process of loss.  But continued grieving does nothing good for you, or for them.  In fact, it can actually bring them down:  thoughts about them attract and pull them to the person thinking about them, automatically.  If you are constantly grieving, for a long time, you are draining them as well as yourself.

When a person “dies”, there is NOTHING to be upset about.  In fact, when a person leaves this world, we ought to throw a BIG PARTY for them!!  For real…that is what a spirit would want!!  Party for them: knowing that they are there with you, partying with you, even though you might not always be able to see or hear them…

As I write this piece, I see and feel Simmie here with me, looking over my shoulder, reading along with me…

For sure, a good friend doesn’t have to be only in a physical body!!

One love to you Simmie, for real, thanks for everything you have done, and do, for me…I hope you continue to consider me worthy of your friendship – and I can’t wait to get back to the Spirit World & chill with you for real!!

In peace, in love, in harmony

…your friend Matt

Story from the New York Post. (H/T Hot Air – Cassy Fiano)

Excerpt:

A Brooklyn nurse claims she was forced to choose between her religious convictions and her job when Mount Sinai Hospital ordered her to assist in a late-term abortion against her will.

The hospital even exaggerated the patient’s condition and claimed the woman could die if the nurse, a devout Catholic, did not follow orders, the nurse alleges in a lawsuit.

“It felt like a horror film unfolding,” said Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, 35, who claims she has had gruesome nightmares and hasn’t been able to sleep since the May 24 incident.

The married mother of a year-old baby was 30 minutes into her early-morning shift when she realized she had been assigned to an abortion. She begged her supervisor to find a replacement nurse for the procedure. The hospital had a six-hour window to find a fill-in, the suit says.

Bosses told the weeping Cenzon-DeCarlo the patient was 22 weeks into her pregnancy and had preeclampsia, a condition marked by high blood pressure that can lead to seizures or death if left untreated.

The supervisor “claimed that the mother could die if [Cenzon-DeCarlo] did not assist in the abortion.”

But the nurse, the niece of a Filipino bishop, contends that the patient’s life was not in danger. She argued that the patient was not even on magnesium therapy, a common treatment for preeclampsia, and did not have problems indicating an emergency.

Her pleas were rejected, and instead she was threatened with career-ending charges of insubordination and patient abandonment, according to the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.

Feeling threatened, Cenzon-DeCarlo assisted in the procedure.

She said she later learned that the hospital’s own records deemed the procedure “Category II,” which is not considered immediately life threatening.

WARNING: I am now going to be really mean. Please don’t read the rest of this if you don’t like me being judgmental against atheists.

I was thinking about the kinds of things that atheists think are “moral” and interpreting those things within a Biblical framework. I know that atheists support abortion because they don’t want to be compelled to diminish their own happiness by tending to the needs of their own baby, conceived as a result of their own irresponsible sexual behavior. So when they force a pro-life nurse to perform an abortion, what they are really saying is “I don’t want anyone punishing other people with the unhappy consequences of their own selfish pursuit of happiness, because then no one will judge and punish me when I do the same as they did”.

The problem is that atheists don’t want to be thought of as people who are willing to go as far as killing others in order to avoid facing judgment and consequences for their own actions. They have to invent some myth that justifies the abortion, instead. If they could only invent some plausible-sounding myth that would convince other people, and themselves, that their abortion was justified by some greater good. With the right myth, they could continue their pursuit of pleasure unimpeded by consequences and social disapproval. What possible myth could possibly provide moral justification for something as extreme as abortion?

Well, atheists decided to invent several myths to provide rationalization for abortion:

• Darwinism – animals do it, and we’re just animals, so let’s do it!
• overpopulation – we’ll all starve by 1970! Oops, I mean 1990! 2050!
• resource exhaustion – we’ll be out of oil by 1970! Oops, I mean 1990! 2050!
• global warming – too many people are driving cars so some have to go away!
• embryonic stem-cell research – it will turn lead into gold, you’ll see!
• rising crime rates – who cares about what economists say!
• etc.

So basically they are inventing myths in order to justify abortion as a legitimate means of pursuing happiness in this life. And this made me think of how child sacrifice was used by pagan nations in the Bible. It’s exactly what is predicted in Romans 1:18-32, which is arguably the most useful passage in the Bible for understanding what our existence here is really about. They didn’t want to take responsibility for those demanding, expensive children they conceived during unmarried sex, because those children would reduce their selfish pursuit of pleasure. So they invented a variety of baseless myths in order to make abortion appear “moral” to themselves and to others.

The Bible mentions the habit of inventing “speculations” in order to avoid having to obey the moral law. Atheists feel that they are too “smart” to be restrained by authentic morality, especially one that is constantly under fire in the public schools, the mainstream media and pop culture. So they do destructive things and then are surprised to feel guilty about it. They want to be happy while sinning, and to avoid the natural consequences of sin that serve as warning signs of the judgment to come. If anyone dares to imply that there is any morality higher than selfishness, (say, by wearing a cross in public or by questioning Darwinism), then they use the power of the state to silence them.

That’s atheist “morality”. The Bible’s diagnosis of sin really hasn’t changed in 2000 years. The people who rebel against God have just found more sophisticated myths to justify their selfish pursuit of pleasure. Before, it was Molech. Today, it’s overpopulation causing global warming. And they are not afraid to enforce these myths on religious people using the power of the state. Anything to make everyone celebrate their destructive actions as though they were in fact good. And if they have to kill many people to pursue happiness, well, that’s fine on atheism – there is no “right to life” on atheism. It’s survival of the fittest. Morality is just an illusion created by evolution.

And that is why a pro-life nurse was forced to perform an abortion – because she made people who reject God feel guilty by calling attention to a real standard of objective morality which defies atheistic efforts to rationalize hedonism with speculative myths. She was telling them that we should not take the life of an innocent unborn human being just because it makes us happier to do so. She was opposing their hedonistic purposes, and the speculative myths that they had invented to justify their selfish, irresponsible pursuit of pleasure. Christian morality isn’t a headlong pursuit of selfish pleasure. It’s about self-denial and self-sacrifice – which is not pleasurable.

As I wrote before:

The great moral accomplishment of atheists in the last 100 years has been to murder 100 million people. And this is not counting the millions of deaths caused by abortion, and environmentalist bans on DDT. It also doesn’t count the millions of broken homes caused by the sexual revolution, or the social costs of raising children without fathers who go on to commit crimes.

When the intuitive awareness of God’s moral requirements conflicts with the atheistic desire for selfish happiness, atheists first do the crime, then they search around frantically for some fig-leaf to justify it as “moral”. Any speculation will do, and the “evidence” can be manufactured (at taxpayer expense) to fit the myths. They believe that if they could just get everyone to see that evil is really good, and to celebrate their selfish hedonism, then their feelings of guilt would vanish, and their happiness level would increase. Their attempts to demonize Christianity and Christians is also part of their plan – they want to celebrate their own behavior as moral and deride the behavior of authentic Christians as immoral.

The very concept of morality is illusory on an atheistic worldview.

And lest anyone think that I can’t defend the Christian worldview as true, click here and start engaging.

…and now I’m going for judging them. But that’s not my point”. {end of title}

There’s a special place reserved, with fiery ropes, in hell for corporate #@$&€ who ask themselves “how can we keep homeless people from stealing our carts?” and then create a project, fund that project, and scientifically develop a solution to that “problem”.

That spot in hell is in between Bernie Madoff’s and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s.

I hope they have to push a loaded-down shopping cart, with locked wheels, for eternity! With a screaming kid in the front! And with no shoes and goodwill clothes!

Be good to people less fortunate than you.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

John 5:25-29

For some as-yet unknown reason, I feel compelled to post the following here, because I might forget these ideas just when I’ll be needing them:

William H. Gass:

Lists, then, are for those who savor, who revel and wallow, who embrace, not only the whole of things, but all of its accounts, histories, descriptions, justifications. … Even the jeremiad is a list, and full of joy, for damnations are delightful. Lists are finally for those who love language, the vowel-swollen cheek, the lilting, dancing tongue, because lists are fields full of words, and roving bands of “and.”

The polysyndeton: the ands justify what they mean. The asyndeton : when the ands end.

Hendiadys: Not so much when two become one as when one becomes two. Or do those two refer to one thing?

And now we come to the conclusion of the whole matter—the paragraph and the 11 chapters.  Not only are all things from God and through God, but, as verse 36b says, “To him are all things. To him be glory forever.”

Do you love the thought that you exist to make God look glorious?  Do you love the thought that all creation exists to display the glory of God?  Do you love the truth that all of history is designed by God to one day be a completed canvas that displays in the best way possible the greatness and beauty of God?  Do you love the fact that Jesus Christ came into the world to vindicate the righteousness of God and repair the injury that we had done to the reputation of the glory of God?  Do you love the truth you personally exist to make God look like what he really is—glorious?  I ask again: Do you love the fact that your salvation is meant to put the glory of God’s grace on display?  Do you love seeing and showing the glory of God?

This is why God created the universe.  This is why he ordained history.  This is why he sent his Son.  This is why you exist.  Forever to see and enjoy and show the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  The question at the end of Romans 1-11 is.  Do you embrace this calling as your treasure and your joy?

If not, I must explain this to you:

You will glorify God regardless.  You will either willingly glorify Him by displaying His grace and mercy, or you will unwillingly glorify Him by displaying His justice in your righteous damnation to spend eternity in hell.  This glorifying of God is no small matter.  Your eternal destiny hangs on it.

Damnation is Opeth’s seventh full-length studio album, released in April 22, 2003, following the band’s previous album Deliverance the year before. The album was a radical departure from their typical death metal sound and into the much softer, 1970s progressive rock genre. The album was critically acclaimed and boosted their popularity, leading to the release of Lamentations on DVD in 2004.

Tracks

1. “Windowpane”
2. “In My Time of Need”
3. “Death Whispered a Lullaby”
4. “Closure”
5. “Hope Leaves”
6. “To Rid the Disease”
7. “Ending Credits”
8. “Weakness”

More @ Wikipedia

Buy on Amazon: Damnation

Bay Area thrash legends TESTAMENT are taking the stage once again in support of their 2008 release, “The Formation of Damnation”, TESTAMENT will be touring as special guest with fellow thrash legends MEGADETH and SLAYER. The tour will feature the classic lineup of vocalist Chuck Billy, guitarists Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick, bassist Greg Christian, and drummer Paul Bostaph and will mark the 20th anniversary of these major players taking the stage together on the same stage as MEGADETH and SLAYER.

“The Formation of Damnation” will be reissued just in time for this amazing tour with SLAYER and MEGADETH with a bonus CD that contains live renditions of the classics “The New Order”, “Practice What You Preach” and “Souls Of Black”. The tracks will also feature enhanced video clips recorded in Alcatraz for their MTV special “52/52″ campaign feature as well as the music video for “More Than Meets The Eye”. This special album re-release with bonus material will be in stores on February 23. TESTAMENT will have the tour reissue available on all of the dates of the upcoming “American Carnage” tour prior to it hitting stores.

More here: TESTAMENT: ‘The Formation Of Damnation’ To Be Reissued With Bonus CD - Nov. 17, 2009

2010 California Marriage Protection Act | Safeguarding marriage from the evils of divorce.

Best. Cause. Ever.

Seems some would like to choose from the scriptures like it was a buffet.

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

NazNet website Founder/Moderator Dave McClung makes this statement at the site’s outset:

“NazNet is proud to be a loyal supporter of the denomination and its world wide mission — to respond to the Great Commission of Christ ‘to make Christ-like disciples in the nations.’ This is a Nazarene friendly site and our purpose is: ‘building community among Nazarenes and friends.’”

Not so. In fact, far far from it.

NazNet undercuts Church of the Nazarene historic theology. One of the site’s prime voices is Moderator Hans Deventer, unfortunately.

McClung should absent Deventer from any posts on the site if McClung wants to be honest in his opening statement of support for the Church of the Nazarene.

Deventer propagates heresies that will never be acceptable to Wesleyan holiness teachings of the Church of that Nazarene, that is, unless this denomination transgresses its spiritual journey in disobeying God. And that in fact is happening as I type. If it continues, the Church of the Nazarene will implode under God’s wrath.

For example, NazNet reader Ian Gentles states to Deventer: “I believe in eternal torment. Oh trust me, I don’t like it, but I believe it. Can the church have misunderstood all these centuries?”

Deventer answers: “THE church has had different opinions, and THE church has never felt the need to express itself in the early creeds on this topic. Hence, it is an issue where differences of opinion are allowed.”

Gentles responds: “Did the Nazarene church misunderstand?”

Deventer says: “Yes. Hey, we can’t have everything right, can we?”

Gentles continues: “Did i misunderstand the Bible?”

Deventer again: “Yes.”

Yes?

Gentles states he believes the biblical Christ’s teaching regarding eternal torment being just that.

Deventer redirects him to the “truth according to Deventer.” Sadly Deventer does this repeatedly throughout the site.

Deventer tenaciously believes in infant baptism, contrary to the traditional Nazarene infant dedication and adult believers’ baptism.

Deventer teaches that there is no “eternal torment.” Deventer states that “annihilation” is the proper reality.

Deventer teaches that there is no such entity as “eternal life.” “Eternal” is not meant to be everlasting but merely the content, not duration for the saved.

Deventer does not hold that the Bible is the infallible, inerrant Word of God. He believes that the more doubt one holds to, the more one comes upon truth. Moderator Scott Cundiff agrees. NazNet Founder Dave McClung does nothing to correct these heresies.

I emailed Deventer regarding his misuse of Scripture. His email to me let me know that I am his “enemy.”

If am his enemy, I am God’s friend. Deventer destroys the biblical truth; I support biblical truth.

Deventer seemingly has no fear of appearing before the Judgment Seat of Christ for he writes his own holy writ by flying by the seat of his pants.

That’s actually not the way to carry out biblical research, especially for the benefit of inquirers on a site that advertises itself as friend to Nazarenes.

What say, McClung?

Read more: NAZNET DISTORTS at http://naznetdistorts.blogspot.com/

Matthew 25:3, 29, 45

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour…For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him…‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’“

These powerful statements spoken by Jesus at the end of each parable pretty much sum up what the Lord is saying to us today. The first parable is about the 10 virgins who come to meet the bride. The virgins here refer to the Church which is us children of God collectively. The second parable is about the 3 servants and how they put the money their master entrusted them to good use and this again refers to us. The last is a revelation of the end times and how God will judge the living and the dead in spirit, rewards for the saved and damnation for the lost.

Clearly today, we are reminded that we need to be seeking from God and sharing with everyone who is needy that which God has blessed us with. We need to be relying on God for everything and not on our own selves, whether as a Church or as individuals and therefore we need to keep going back to God and asking for God’s leading in every area of our lives. We might think we know how to do some things well but that’s when we take over the reins and that is not what pleases God. We need to submit our all to him and he will lead us to victory over sin and death through the shed blood of Jesus Christ for us. We cannot live partial Christian lives where we are Christians at Church and secular in the world. God wants our all! Are you willing to give him your all?

In His Loving Service,

Vineet

A Long Walk To Victory

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Based off a pretty interesting video game, titled “Damnation”. You can check out the Official Website here, if you’d like. I was pretty bummed after my Packers lost pathetically today, so I figured I’d get down on some of what I do best, SIGS! I’ve made this one into a Sig & Av pack, so please feel free to use them for yourself, just please don’t modify them. I make my Signatures for others to use, but not for others to take credit for. I hope you like what you see! Please leave your thoughts, good or bad, as comments. If you like what you see, please help me share this through the social networking links above! Enjoy !

Original Image Used:

You were betrayed by a close friend, once, maybe even recently.  I feel your pain.  We’ve all been there.  Even the friend who betrayed you was probably betrayed.  The rude comments from some stranger in an internet forum were annoying, at worst, but the day that your friend turned on you still eats at the back of your mind like a weeping sore.

 The world is full of critics who blast the President of the United States with insults of the vilest sort.  He probably needs the skin of an alligator to hold his job.  But the rants of a thousand critics are nothing, compared to the passing remark of a close friend or a spouse.  The difference is in the closeness of the relationship.  Insults from someone who actually knows me hold more water than the snide remarks of someone I’ve never met.  The difference is in the knowing.

 Contrary to what you may have been told, no one actually knows Jesus.  No one, despite the abundance of statements to the contrary, actually has a relationship with Christ, directly.  He walked the Earth two thousand years ago, and I prefer to think that no one who knew him is still alive to make any reliable account of the man.  Judas knew the man.  Now, there was a man capable of true betrayal.  He was one from the inner, inner, circle.  Somehow, though, he found that a few gold coins were worth more to him than his friendship with the messiah.  That betrayal was a cut of the deepest kind.  He was driven by the Devil from the moment he decided to turn, to the moment that he jumped from the cliff and spilled his guts all over the ground.

 Don’t worry, friend.  You can never be a Judas.  We’re long past getting Jesus killed.  There’s so much that we never knew about Christ.  What jokes did he laugh at?  What little thing annoyed him?  Yeah, Christians say all the time that they know Jesus, but, in truth, one could know him about as well as one could know Abraham Lincoln.  Read all you want.  Research every thesis written for the last two thousand years, but you never knew the man.  You only know about him.

 However…the Holy Spirit is among us (Ah, yes, that other person of the Trinity who walks the Earth, even now).  If we know the Spirit, then we know Jesus, for he is to Jesus what Jesus was to the Father, in Heaven.  You can mock and ridicule Jesus all you want, but you never knew the man.  You speak from ignorance.  Your comments have no merit.  The Holy Spirit, though, is another matter.

 The Spirit stands available to everyone.  He’s like the person that’s always in the room; you may not have made his acquaintance, but he’s always there.  You may not have noticed him for the crowd of people you’ve spent your time with in conversation, but you have probably made eye contact on more than one occasion.  He looks like someone who has something to tell you.  We all have an open invitation to engage in dialogue with the maker of the universe.  Well, most of us do, anyway.  The fact is that some people have actually been Christians, knowing the Holy Spirit personally, but, everyone who has ever lost a friend to betrayal knows, once that relationship is rejected, there’s no great risk of going back.  I’m not talking about the kid who grew up in a Christian home but never really got it.  I’m not talking about one who got distracted by temptations and trivialities along the way.  This is not the prodigal son, here.  What I’m talking about is that breed of atheist who says, “I used to be a Christian, but…(I’m wiser now).”

 In theory, even the apostate former Christian could turn back to Christ, but the draw isn’t there.  The tug of the call of the Father in Heaven just isn’t what it used to be.  In reality, any true conversion is a miracle.  It goes against our very nature.  It simply won’t happen without an act of God.  The apostate man, though, does not walk away from the faith for want of understanding.  No amount of witnessing gets to him, because he already knows as much about God as the average believer.  He didn’t leave God because he didn’t know any better.  He left God because he was evil, and he chose evil over his friendship with God.  A genuinely apostate former Christian spends his life writing posts slamming Christianity.  When he’s not overtly trying to tear down the faith, he’s looking, like a wooly wolf, for believers, with some hope of sparking discouragement or doubt.  In short, he is as fallen as the Devil, with the same intentions and the same destiny.  Beware of such people.  In a position of real power such a person might try to kill us all.

 Apparently, you, too, can be a Judas, after all.  I take back what I said, earlier.  You can betray the Holy Spirit.  You can malign the God that you do know.  The danger is real, because, unlike Jesus, the Holy Spirit is accessible to all people.  Jesus was confined to a small area on the East coast of the Mediterranean, but his Spirit is global.

 Blaspheme Jesus, and you can be forgiven.  Blaspheme the Holy Spirit, and God will turn his back on you.

 Justin was his name.  I knew you were wondering.  One does not write about betrayal without someone in particular in mind.  I first met the kid in kindergarten.  We fought back-to-back on the playground through the first half of elementary school, back when we were too young to do any serious damage.  We played with G. I. Joes and plastic toy guns.  We dreamed of being spies or soldiers when we grew up.  We were always at each other’s birthday parties.

 Justin’s father was a chain-smoking mostly-unemployed alcoholic, who loved his pornography and hung it on the wall next to the bed, opposite his wife.  He had the temper of a pit bull with rabies, and he seemed to think that romance involved raising his voice and griping at his wife like she was an unruly cur.  With time, his son came to be a reflection of his father, an insufferable wretch.  Father and son both took turns grinding Mother into the ash-fouled carpet, verbally.  Yet, both swore they would pound anyone who dared speak ill of her.

 By junior high school, my childhood friend was my worst enemy.  He was still, technically, my friend, but his methods had changed.  He took to bossing me around and insulting and threatening  me, .  If he didn’t like what I was wearing, then he kicked mud on it.  With his severe under-bite and his thick black hair, coupled with his less-than-charming disposition, he earned for himself the nickname of “Fred Flintstone” among those who were lucky enough not to be his friend.  I never called him that, but that didn’t stop him from pointing his finger in my face and accusing me of thinking it.  When we were sitting at lunch outside at school, and he spit in my face, I chased him out of the lunch area.

 The next day, I wondered if he would dare come back to join us at the lunch table, having dared to do the unthinkable to a friend.  He did.  He told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was a nerd (I was…am), and that I was blemishing his reputation among the other students.  The last thing he ever said to me was that if it weren’t for him, I would have no friends.

 “Really?”  I said, “You think so?”  Then I got up and joined a student who was sitting by himself.  Our mutual friend, Jeremy, went with me.  The new friend’s name was Gus, which reminds me; I should be writing to him instead of writing this post, but I digress.  The endeavor was so successful, that I made it my mission to seek out students that had no friends.  There were more than I had, at first, realized.  The last one to join our group was Doug, who thought I was mocking him for the first few weeks that I said hello to him.  The last day of school, we sat on the lawn and congratulated each other for overcoming the enormous crushing pressure of trying to belong.  It goes down as one of the brightest, happiest days of my life.

 Justin sat alone at lunch, all the way into high school.  He never looked at me for the remaining years that we went to the same school.  He never said a word.  I was there when he made his next friend.  I was standing right behind him when that friend cast him off as a crazy control freak.  His own father even found God, and turned his life around.  His father, now a meek and inspired fellow, looks nothing like he used to be.  He finally quit his vices, and he treats his wife like a doting newlywed.  Perhaps, eventually, this will wear-off on Justin; perhaps not.

 I won’t know if it does, because I won’t be there to see it.  I turned my back on him years ago.  He went his own way, and I’ve never tried to get his friendship back.

This weekend saw Damnation Festival roll into Leeds. In the space of a few short years, Damnation has evolved into a pretty  shit hot festival, in my opinion.

Quite a lot of people said that they wouldn’t surpass last years in terms of line up, but I think it was still a strong ‘un. 2008 saw the first British appearance by Carcass in 46 years or something, so it was a pretty big deal. And they were very good- there’s no denying it! So last year had the wow factor, that’s true, but this year wasn’t exactly second rate entertainment!

Headlining on each of the three stages were Life of Agony, Lock Up and Jesu. Something for everyone no? Well, again, that’s a critism I have heard levelled at Damnation- that they’re trying to please everybody. Well so what? As far as I can see it’s working! With a ticket price of £30, and a wide selection of bands on offer- for me personally, it would work out at approx £3 per band I would want to see. Not exactly a rip off for the likes of Anathema, Destruction, Rotting Christ, Therapy?, Electric Wizard and so on.

I suppose there are always going to be downsides to an indoor festival (much like how the weather is often a downside to outdoor festivals)- yesterday I was so ruddy bloody hot it was insane. I was sweating all over the shop. It didn’t help that they shut the lifts off to the dressing rooms, so in order to arrange interviews, collect bands and journalists etc, I ran up and down the same two flights of stairs approximately 12 times in an hour or so.  Ohh my, my thighs are made of steel today!!

I have a real affection for Gav, one of the main organisers of the fest. He has such a massive passion for music and for his festival it’s almost tangiable. A chat with him at any of the festivals he’s done, really makes me believe he’s living his dream. But it’s not just his festival and the bands that play it- his diving off a speaker stack at a gig just a few weeks ago is testament to that!! He accused me of baffling him with maths, but I really love working with him. For me personally it will be a sad day when Damnation happens and a band I am working with is not playing!!

Yesterday, the bands in question were Mistress and Lock Up. It was a special do for both bands; a sign off for Mistress as their last ever gig, and a kind of welcome back/reunion for Lock Up. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and it was nice to catch up with everyone. I had never actually met Tomas Lindberg before, but he seemed totally charming and a pleasure to work with.

The other good thing about the Damnation guys is that they make themselves known to the bands, they’re not hiding away in some production office/cupboard, and they make a point of asking how it went for the bands.  Last year they may have regretted that when Barney, launched into Festival Hints and Tips 2008!! But it’s done them no harm. Comments are always taken on board and sound relationships are fostered- I believe this was the fourth year with a Dave Hunt-fronted band on the line up!

As ever, I got sidetracked and failed to watch half the bands I had earmarked for attention, but I had an amazing, and knackering day.  Full respect to Damnation for an excellent festival. Roll on 2010.

Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome held nothing at all of purgatory. Gregory, being in the nighttime deceived by a vision, taught something of purgatory, whereas God openly commanded that we should search out and inquire nothing of spirits, but of Moses and the prophets.

Therefore we must not admit Gregory’s opinion on this point; the day of the Lord will show and declare the same, when it will be revealed by fire.

This sentence, “And their works do follow them,” must not be understood of purgatory, but of the doctrine of good works, or of godly and true Christians, and of heretics. Arius, the heretic, has had his judgment; the fire of faith has declared it. For the last day will discover and declare all things.

God has, in his Word, laid before us two ways; one which by faith leads to salvation,—the other, by unbelief, to damnation.

As for purgatory, no place in Scripture makes mention thereof, neither must we any way allow it; for it darkens and undervalues the grace, benefits, and merits of our blessed, sweet Saviour Christ Jesus.

The bounds of purgatory extend not beyond this world; for here in this life the upright, good, and godly Christians are well and soundly scoured and purged.

— Martin Luther 1483 – 1546