Transgenre

 Alright, so I'm registering my album to be distributed digitally.

Even on Soundcloud, I have a hard time deciding what genre my music is.

Am I folk? Folk pop? Country, maybe? Easy listening? Accountant-core? Life-metal?

It's primarily acoustic + keyboard sounds.

Can't go wrong with indie!

But on this jank internet form, here are my options:

I cannot believe that SKA is a genre but not folk, acoustic, pop, or easy listening.

Like, you guys already had jazz AND reggae, but noooooooooo, SKA is just a little bit different!

I have really spent like 15 minutes trying to figure out what to choose because I have to put something to fill out this dumb form.

I'm thinking of putting it under karaoke to throw everybody off.

Or soundtrack.

They'd be like, "This sounds cool...but wait! There's singing!"

Or classical...'cuz I'm classic.

When did comedy become a genre for music? When Al got Weird, I guess.

I love how they separated Christian and Gospel. And Metal and Rock. And Latin and World.

Just... LOVE. IT.

"New Age" is not only a religion for the non-religious but now, apparently, it's even music. The kind that hipsters listen to in long car rides to their bouncy desert feeling festivals. So relevant. So phresh. So zeitgeist. So times.

I suppose blues is like R&B but without the R.

For lack of better options, I'm going with blues. If you're on a music streaming platform one day, looking for me, and you can't find me because I'm horribly miscategorized, just know that I did the best I could.

Pronounce "saxophone" like it's a Greek name,

TWS

Grinchiness

Yay, insomnia again.

Unpopular opinion:

Jesus is not the reason for the season.

I was trolling around the Church of Satan's FAQ holiday page, and they claim that Christians stole the holiday from pagans. Quoted from the webpage: "So for the Yule holiday season, we enjoy the richness of life and the company of people whom we cherish, as we will often be the only ones who know where the traditions really came from!"

I don't expect the Church of Satan to tell the truth, but they're right about this one.

I think the most Christ-honoring thing we could do for Christmas is abandon it.

Without doing too much research, you can easily find the origins of the holiday center around the Roman Empire celebrating the winter solstice and "rebirth" of the sun/sun god. This holiday is a perfect example of syncretism, where pagan customs were "Christianized" and adopted by the early church and the birth date of our savior was assigned to the sun god's so we could all party together.

Wonderful.

There are other darker connections going way back to Nimrod, but I don't think I need to go there to make the point that celebrating Christmas is worshiping God in the way of the nations, which is a big no-no.

Deut 12:30-31a Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods saying, "How did these nations serve their gods?- that I may also do the same." You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.

Christians, everywhere: "But that's not what it means to meeeeeeeeeee."

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that the worship of the Most High was dependent on your feelings. 

And here we have another Exodus 32 golden calf situation: perhaps your heart intends to worship rightly, but your actions are instead aligned with what the world is doing and traditions rooted in fertility rites.

Do you think the God of the Bible is pleased with us celebrating a commercialized, self-indulgent holiday and putting a Jesus sticker on it? 

Or telling the nations to "Put Christ back in Christmas" where he never was to begin with?

Or even worse- abandoning the Biblical feasts and choosing to celebrate pagan ones instead?

Furthermore, it's idolatry.

Christians, everywhere: "My heart is in the right place for this holiday because I set up a nativity scene."

Well, first of all, the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked (Jer 17:9), so jot that down.

Secondly, do you believe that God meant what he said in Exodus 20:4 about not making a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above?

Then WHY celebrate a pagan festival with carved images of baby Jesus and angels!?!?!?!?!

I realize nativity scenes try their best to purport what happened at his birth in order to remember the story, but do you really want to venerate your Savior as a vulnerable, helpless baby?

The danger of images or visual representations of Elohim is that they limit our view of God. 

You may not be falling down and worshipping the image, but it subconsciously forces you to only see the humanity of Christ and not the fullness and trueness of his being.

I know I've upset a lot of apple carts here.

A LOT of apple carts.

So let's say you get rid of all the tree phallus and fertility decor, idolatrous nativity images, and whatever other Santa crap you may have laying around, but you still want to celebrate Jesus' birthday.

Then maybe do it at the right time? Like, around when he was actually born?

5 Simple Steps to Prove Yeshua was not born December 25th:

1. Luke 1:5 - Zechariah was in the priestly division of Abijah.

2. 1 Chron 24:10 - the 8th lot fell to Abijah, meaning that the Abijah priests would serve in the temple in the 8th week of the Hebrew year. Hebrew year starts in March/April, so 8 weeks after that puts us around June when Zechariah got the news that he and Elizabeth would bear a son. 

3. Luke 1:24 - Elizabeth conceives and keeps this hidden for 5 months, so now we're probably at November.

4. Luke 1:26 - In the sixth month, Gabriel tells Mary she will conceive. So now we're in December, probably around Hanukkah. (What!?!? The light of the world conceived during the festival of lights? No way!)

5. Normal 40 week pregnancy puts the birth date at the beginning of October, probably coinciding with the Feast of Tabernacles. What a cool time for our Messiah to come and dwell, i.e. tabernacle, among us!

See, aren't the Biblical feasts much better than the stupid pagan ones?

Other fun facts:

1. There was probably no room in the inn (Luke 2:7) because Bethlehem was a suburb of Jerusalem where everyone gathered for the pilgrimage festival of Sukkot (tabernacles). It's very possible that he was born in a sukkah, the temporary shelter set up for the feast.

2. Shepherds kept their flocks in the field from Passover (Mar/Apr) to the first rain (Oct/Nov) and were not out tending their flocks in the dead of winter (Luke 2:8).

3. Wise men came years later and worshiped him at their house (Matt 2:11), not at the manger scene.

I would contend that we are not told exactly when he was born because our focus should not be on his birth but rather his life.

Let's move on from Jesus being a baby and learn to walk in the way that he did.

Move on from the "peace on earth" shtick and realize that Yeshua said he did not come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword (Matt 10:34). 

I know that nostalgia is one of the strongest ties to this holiday that is hard to break.

Just last year, I was setting up my tree and bowing down to put gifts under it like the rest of mystery Babylon, simply yet painfully unaware that anything I was doing might be an affront to my Creator.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

I'm not here to judge you for not knowing. 

I'm here to tell true stories.

As for me, finding out the truth about these things caused me to lose all joy in them.

And when you repent and lose all joy of the worldly things - PRAISE GOD BECAUSE THEN YOU ARE FREE.

We have got to be wise as serpents, guys. 

We have to know what Satan is up to so that we can defend against it and not be deceived. When the church of Satan knows something the majority of Christians refuse to acknowledge, we have a BIG problem. 

Even bigger than my potential big turkey problems. 

And what really gets to me is when churches decorate their sanctuaries for Christmas, which is an oxymoron because the word "sanctuary" means holy & set apart (Latin: sanctus).

HOW are Christians being set apart from the world when we look and act just like it?

Anyway, if you disagree with me, fine, but if you made it this far, you no longer have plausible deniability. The world loves to live like it won't have to give an account to God (Rom 14:12), but I would encourage you to look at your heart and then at your actions, SEEK TRUTH, and then make darn sure you're without excuse.

Then make your repentant butt perpendicular to hut and walk right out of Babylon.

TWS

Cognizant

 No law, no sin.

= Lawlessness

Know law, know sin.

= Walking in righteousness because you know what to do and what not to do

It's that easy.

Deut 30:11 - For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.

The more I look into this stuff, the more blaringly obvious it becomes.

This is what Yeshua meant when he said come to him, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

Because it is.

Duh,

TWS

Day 2

Remember when we had to interpret poetry for AP Lang and AP Lit and it was like....whaaaaaaaaaat?

Hello, John Donne, with your metaphysical semicolons that apparently mean the pause between life and death.

Anyway, I finally got some magnetic poetry:

There are some deep truths in there if you know what to look for.

Happy Hanukkah,

TWS

Golden Pecan Trees

 Oh, Wikipedia.

I feel like every other month you are out pan-handling your patrons for donations. You are so determined to keep your site "ad-free" all the while posting querulous "we, humbly, ask you, dear reader, to donate" banners that might as well be ads. Many, if not all, of your money problems could be solved by you selling discreet ad space that can be blocked with my ad-blocker.

That way, everybody wins!

Anyway, I was just on there trying to see what Alan Alda looks like now. 

Turns out, just like Hawkeye, but older.

Yesterday, we were at Publix milling around in the meat department because I wanted to see if there were any leftover turkeys on sale. There was one and it was 22 lbs.

But only $11!

But 22 lbs!!!!!

It has come to my attention that an inordinate amount of time on this blog has been dedicated to assorted foods and their variable prices, so I'll make this short. 

I don't want the first turkey I ever cook to big THAT big. 

Bigger turkey means potential bigger turkey problems that would require bigger turkey solutions. 

But only $11!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I didn't buy it, but I keep thinking about how my life would be different if I had. 

Did you see that they are putting a Chick-Fil-A in one of the busiest intersections in town by the mall? I mean, if you want to make any place busy, just put a Chick-Fil-A there, and BOOM! You've got yourself some serious traffic. 

But to put a Chick-Fil-A where there is already too much going on? That's just cruel. 

Especially since they built a brand new building for it all the while the vacant Eckerd/Rite-Aid on the next block over stands grey and sulking like a fat clarinet player behind the color guard. Did you know that ex-pharmaceutical buildings have drive through windows, too? It would've been the perfect solution!

Oh, Eckerd building. They just didn't see it in you.

What if Sam has been a furry walrus this whole time and didn't tell anybody?

On the way to the auto shop this morning, there was a sign that said "Flagman ahead" to indicate roadwork, but there was no roadwork going on and no one around.

Me: Flagman? I wonder what his superpower is.

Mike: Invisibility.

Buying cards in Shanghai rummy,

TWS

Late-Fall

 It's fuzzy sock season.

TWS

Per Usual

I woke up in the middle of the night and could not sleep, so I decided to type this.

What is the gospel? 

What is the good news?

Keep reading.

Growing up in the church, I had always heard about the gospel and how it needs to be shared to bring people into salvation, but I never knew just how to articulate it. I could talk about Jesus and what he came and did and what it meant to me, but it all seemed so platitudinous. Maybe evangelism just wasn't for me.

Turns out, the gospel is this:

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

It is really that simple. 

The gospel is not:

Jesus loves you!

~or~

You need to be saved to avoid hell and Jesus saves.

-or-

John 3:16

~or~

We have all fallen short of the glory of God, but Jesus came for us, died on a cross, and was resurrected so we could have everlasting life in him. Believe on Jesus' name, ask him into your heart, and you will be saved.

-or-

~The myriad of prosperity promises about material blessings and other false gospels.~

Shocking, I know.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In my former church, I went to a class on sharing the gospel because I felt like as a "believer" I "should" be "witnessing" to "bear fruit" or whatever. 

And I'm terrible at small talk, so I was curious in how to turn meaningless, futile banter into meaningful, fruitful conversation.

We talked about several bridges to turn normal everyday things (death, news, etc) to point to the hope that we have. We went through the illustration with the gap between God and man and how the cross of Jesus enables us to be reconciled to God. 

At the Q&A section at the end, I asked at what point do we share with them the cost of being a disciple?

The answer given was somewhere along the lines of, we don't tell them that in the beginning conversations; that would come later.

REALLY?????????

The first word of the *true* gospel is repent.

That is an action word, and it means to turn from all your wicked, worldly ways.

Sounds like it could be pretty life-changing and, er, costly.

Further, if someone wasn't willing to repent, would they even be a true believer?

In Matthew 28, Yeshua did not say, "Go therefore and make believers/converts of all nations."

He said, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations."

And guess what else he said? 

Keep reading!

"Baptizing them...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

So...there's an obedience clause to being a disciple?

Matthew 10:38: And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 

Luke 14:33: So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

True believers are repentant and true disciples are obedient.

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, and I mean, soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many churches stop at Jesus.

They just stop.

Belief is good enough.

The aim is membership and not discipleship.

Repentance is completely left out of the pulpit today, IMHO, because it has to deal with the law, and God knows no one preaches the law anymore. 

But how do you know what sins to repent from if you have not the law? 

(#Paul #Romans 7:7)

Perhaps people would repent if they only knew which worldly ways were wicked!

Seriously, all fun alliteration aside, the law and the prophets is what should be preached in order that people be moved to repentance and obedience. It's what the apostles did, and we should have never diluted or departed from that gospel.

And for all of you horses out there, ye NEIGH-SAYERS, who claim that Paul said that the law wasn't required of the Gentiles because of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, let's have a looksy.

First off, I'm not proclaiming a works-based salvation here, just works-based obedience.

Okay, we're clear? 

All right, we're gonna move ahead. 

Sorry to slow you down.

Secondly, because it's not a works-based salvation, Paul rightly declared that circumcision was not required to be saved. He goes through this whole thing about not placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples, and that they'll be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus (v 11) which people take to mean that the Old Testament law doesn't apply to Gentiles.

But keep reading!

Verse 19:  Therefore my judgement is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. 

How did he come up with all these random commands? 

Mosaic law, probably?

And these aren't your Sunday school 10 commandments, either. 

The command to abstain from blood is in Leviticus 17, just a few chapters after the clean and unclean meats are discussed. 

This is Biblical kosher, baby.

Verse 20: For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.

This verse is so interesting to me because it answers the question: how would the Gentiles know what to do to follow the Lord? 

They read the law of Moses in the synagogues! Every week they were hearing these things! 

And not only hearing, but they were probably surrounded and encouraged by other like-minded disciples who were actually living out the law desiring to present their lives pleasing to God. 

What a concept.

So I paraphrase Paul at the council like, "We don't have to lay it all on them at once. Let's take care of the huge idol and pagan stuff that they may need to repent from, and they'll learn the rest in the assemblies." 

Dude, what if Paul found out that we weren't reading Moses? On the Sabbath? In synagogues? 

He'd probably, like, write us a strongly-worded letter.

But then the church would probably twist his words and distort the meaning to rationalize lawlessness like has been done with several of his other writings.

"But synagogues are just for Jews," exclaimed a whinypants somewhere, fluent in dispensational theology.

Acts 15 specifically dealt with Gentiles.

Repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent repent

One disadvantage of not preaching the law and the prophets is that people don't know what to repent from or how to worship YHWH rightly. So you have a bunch of "believers" wondering what they can do for the kingdom of God and so they do a lot of volunteer work or serve on committees or in the nursery or play music for the "the church", thinking that is fruit. That was me for a long time.

Matthew 3:8: Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Again, it's that simple. Your fruit is turning from worldliness and turning unto godliness by keeping the commandments! It is a circumcised heart, of course, that even allows this to occur which is also all over the law of Moses. 

Another disadvantage of not preaching the law and the prophets is that people don't know the MAGNITUDE of the great promises of being the people of Yah! 

Before Yeshua came, the Hebrews had the law and the promises, e.g. old covenant. But now, that gospel of repentance can go forth into all nations, and he is extending the law and the promises to anyone and everyone, e.g. new covenant!

Gah- I could go on about that for a while but I need to go ahead and wrap this up because the I can see the sun now and realize I've been typing for hours.

But keep reading.

The difference between a "believer" and a "disciple" is action.

Not just hearers of the word, but doers.

Repentance is the only way to a gospel-changed life. 

Am I minimizing Yeshua's great sacrifice?

No, he absolutely took the punishment that we deserved.

But belief in his resurrection isn't the gospel.

Belief in church doctrine isn't the gospel.

The belief that heaven is a glorious place and you'd rather be there than what you've been told of hell so you just kind of go along with church-ianity is not the gospel.

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Unless, of course, you believe that repentance was only meant for the Jews.

Keep reading,

TWS

Recommended reading:

The whole Bible and start at the beginning this time

Re-caulking the Bathroom

So there I was, crying in the pastor's office, trying to explain that the new testament doesn't get rid of the old testament laws and festivals.
He looked at me like I was hysterical.

A comment was made that there were some issues I need to look into because I was so clearly emotional about it. I explained that the conviction was deep and very real.

In the words of Michael Kelso, IS IT SO WRONG TO FEEL?

And then a few days ago, I read Psalm 119:136.

My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.

Ah, yes. Psalmist says it be like that sometimes. 

I'm paraphrasing, of course.

I went away from the meeting feeling cold and prickly. As I mulled it over the next few days, there were a few red flags:

1. When I brought up the commanded feasts and festivals in Leviticus 23, I asked if he knew what they pointed to prophetically. He said that I probably know more about them than he would. I guess OT covenant law is not taught at length in Baptist seminary.

2. I felt like a heretic for being enthusiastic about obeying God's law. This should not be.

3. We read through Matthew 5:17-19 together, which to me is a pretty damning verse for those wanting to declare any of the law irrelevant. He said that there is like a 10 hour sermon out there on the topic of how Jesus' fulfillment wasn't abolishment but doesn't require OT obedience of believers. Sounded like a loophole sermon to me. It shouldn't take 10 hours to explain a doctrine if it is scripturally sound.

4. When talking about actually observing the Sabbath on Saturday, he said "I'm sure that does you well spiritually." Really? Because now, here we are, questioning my spirituality.

Let me back up a few years and talk about how this began.

It all started in 2017 when I found out that one of my bosses was a Messianic Jew. I thought it was so freaking cool because here you have the Hebrew heritage wonderfully yoked to faith and belief in Messiah. I would watch some of his services on Saturday and love how they preached from the Torah and prophets and linked it to Yeshua and NT scripture. Love love love. It was great.

I never had the courage to actually go on Shabbat to mingle with ~other like-minded folks~ because I felt like I wasn't Jewish enough, I was already going to church on Sunday, it last two hours, blerg blerg blerg. Disgusting excuses all up in here.

But I did have some cool conversations with him at work and he completely blew my mind about how the spring festivals point to Yeshua's first coming, the fall festivals point to his second coming, how the last supper was actually just the Passover meal, and how Yeshua wasn't born in December.

I ran home and read it in Leviticus. It was all right there. 

Somehow I had read the Bible several times and never seen it.

The more I found out, the more I questioned. 

How can it be that this one group of believers has the fulfillment of the law in Yeshua and still keeps it?

We believe in the same savior and yet I do not know these feasts, let alone annually remember them, as they point to events that are still to come?

Should I still even eat pork?

I felt kind of, like, bad about it. I gave myself the good ol' "I'm just a Gentile" reason. "These things are just for the Jews" reason. When that feeling became a conviction, I stopped eating pork for a bit. 

Then I read and listened to some John MacArthur sermons about how the law is completely fulfilled in Jesus and that does away with the Sabbath so that we can venerate his resurrection on Sunday and that somehow extrapolates to all the commandments, ceremonial and civil. 

It worked for a time, and I could forget about it and live life like I had been.

But then the feelings would come up years later, and I'd feel all conflicted about it again.

And then I'd go back and read the SAME articles and sermons to quell the cognitive dissonance.

This was a huge error: seeking man's thoughts on a subject and not going straight to the word.

I would see the carefully constructed arguments from cherry picked scriptures and try to convince myself that it was right because that's the reigning belief in the church.

And church doctrine must be right, right?

And then COVID happened, and I began to look for the truth in things. 

I started studying about the end times and prophecy because, I mean, come on- we're clearly in the last days- and I wanted to be prepared.

In my research, those same prophetic fall feasts kept coming back up and finally, I decided I was going to get to the bottom of this once and for all.

So I went back to Torah. Since we were already going through Genesis in bible study, I started with Exodus and read very carefully and deliberately. I saw that the crowd that left Egypt wasn't just Jewish people. Exodus 12:38 says that a mixed multitude went up with the people of Israel and celebrated the Passover.

Hm.

And then when I continued reading through Leviticus, I saw that the law was for those "of the house of Israel and those that sojourn among you." That language is all over the place. That means everyone following YHWH was subject to following his commands. That's how they were to keep the covenant. 

Aha.

So it wasn't just a Jewish thing - even from the beginning.

Furthermore, I saw in Revelation - at the very back of the book - that when the saints are mentioned, they are clarified as "those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus." Rev 12:17 & Rev 14:12. So it's not just faith in Jesus? It's also keeping the commandments?

Then I took all those cherry picked scriptures from the John MacArthur Bible about how Paul is "clear" that "Gentiles" aren't "under" the "law". I'm talking the classic excuse verses - Colossians 2:16-17, Acts 10:15, Galatians 4:10, etc. And I looked up each one of them and read into the context.

Oh my.

Those verses did not mean what I had been led into thinking they meant. 

Quite the opposite in a few instances.

Thanks be to Yah that I actually read scripture this time instead of just what man said about it.

And then I was in crisis mode. 

How could I, a lowly peasant believer, be running up doctrine against one of the greatest theologians of our time?

So then I prayed. I prayed hard. And I asked that if what I am finding out is not true or not right or not the way I should be pursuing, make it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR.

And Yah did what he always does when one humbly seeks after him.

I fell in love with the scriptures. I'm talking like I'd go to work, eat lunch, and just study all afternoon. I couldn't get enough of it. I watched documentaries. I started using Hebrew and Greek Bible dictionaries for the first time. I read and saw things in scripture like I never have before. I pulled the ol' 1 Thess 5:21 maneuver and tested everything and held fast what was good. I started keeping the Sabbath. I looked into celebrating the feast days and cooked some delicious Challah bread. I prayed some more. I fasted for clarity. 

And then I met with the preacher and actually felt like I was going insane.

I felt like I was speaking truth and that it wasn't being taken seriously.

I was being "emotional".

Because I care SO much about this. Because this, THIS, is actually life changing.

And I felt like the only person I could talk to without having to defend myself was Yah.

So then I prayed and fasted some more.

And I asked again lead me to truth. I just want the truth. I do not care what that means for my life. I will leave the church if I have to. I will get rid of every hobby in my life if I have to. I will leave every pagan thing and tradition of men behind even if it gets awkward with family and whoever. Just lead me to truth.

And then John 14:15-17 took on a whole new meaning (emphasis added for, you know, emphasis):

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 

even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

John 17:17 Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth.

Proverbs 30: 5 Every word of God proves true.

Romans 3:4 Let God be true though every one a liar.

I firmly believe that truth is given to those that seek it.

I also believe that a strong delusion is upon those that do not. See 2 Thess 2:11.

I have been deceived and distracted for too long.

So what now, I asked. Now that I vehemently disagree with a big chunk of church doctrine that I know to be false, can I even still go to church with a good conscience? Jury is still out on that one. I haven't gone to church in 3 weeks but people say they missed seeing us. I suppose it's not all bad, but you can bet your Sunday best, I'm going to be testing everything. I am not here to make discord among brothers, but I will not compromise in the face of adversity, if it even comes to that. I already forsee that I will not be attending most of December.

But MAN it is lonely out here. Just like he said it would be. The narrow way is narrow indeed!

Again, I start to question my own sanity because it is startling when one finds oneself in Babylon and is called to come out of it. We are truth seekers and commandment keepers in a world full of lies and lawlessness.

So, of course, I looked online for others that held these same beliefs. I haven't reached out or made any pen pals yet (wouldn't that be fun!?!); the bigger groups that actually do sukkot together are in the midwest hours away. :/

But the final nail in the coffin of confirmation for me was the fact that so many of their testimonies aligned with mine, that is: specifically praying for and seeking truth and all coming to the conclusion that believers should be keeping Torah.

I guess that's the Spirit of truth at work. It's actually kind of nuts. 

What started years ago has finally culminated into a firmly held personal belief. 

Not a widely accepted church doctrine. 

My greatest fear as a Christian was that I would be a hypocrite. And now I don't have to be!

I plan to flesh this out in way more detail in the future. I personally want to write down what I believe and why so that I can always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the hope that it is me (1 Pet 3:15). With gentleness and respect, via whimsical scribblings of course. :)

I considered starting a new blog for this, but then I REALLY didn't want to become one of those people that just starts a new blog every time they have something new to write about, you know?

And then I was like- hey, this is already called True Story, so let's just make it even more so.

I will leave you with one other nugget. A tender, juicy one.

Along this truth quest, I noticed that names are important in the Bible. When people named their children as they were born, they declared the meaning at the beginning before that person even grew up or became anything. Yah changed some people's names (Abram > Abraham, Jacob > Israel) as he called them unto himself. 

Just for fun I looked into the etymology of my name.

Allie is short for Allison.

Allison means "son of Alice", and I was partially named after my great grandmother on my dad's side, Alice.

Alice derives from the Greek "aletheia" meaning "truth". 

I have literally been called truth.

True story.

Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. Isaiah 43:6

Shalom,

TWS

Fall

 It's leaf-blowing season.

TWS

Miso Soup

 I called the practitioner priority service.

Estimated wait time is 15-30 min.

20 minutes in and I have to pee.

Do I risk it?

If I take the phone into the bathroom and they answer, then I won't have all my documents.

Documents.

And then they might hear the toilet flush.

But the longer I wait, the more likely it is that they will pick up and then I will really need to pee.

21 minutes in.

What do I dooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo???????????????????

TWS

Cruciferosity

I know people, myself included, that frequently hyperbolize the statement, "I've tried everything!" when accomplishing a rather pedantic task, like trying to fall asleep, contact a vendor, or get rid of a headache.

"Trying everything" is really only trying one or two things, to be honest.

Like, have you tried eating a cup of broccoli?
No?

Well, maybe you should.

Because that would be a little more truthful.

"Virtue signaling",
TWS

Sans Serif

Ever been looking for a font and decided that all of them are just trying too hard?

That's where I am right now.

TWS

Does Allie Even Update Her Blog Anymore?

I hear this question far too frequently nowadays not to address it directly.

So to answer it, Yes! I do!

But sometimes I do it in Pages.

Some of you guys have never been to my Soundcloud page and it shows.

So below are the pages that go along with it.
You would easily find these if you would only click in the description of the song like an actual fan would.

http://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/thumbtacks.html

https://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/old-friend.html

https://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/undream.html

https://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/magnets.html

https://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/fairfax.html

https://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/this-is-why-we-fight.html

https://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/not-your-scene.html

https://thewhimsicalscribbler.blogspot.com/p/suspended-forth.html


If I sound a little snarky, I am.
I haven't eaten in like three hours.

TWS

Insourcing

Let's talk about the Intuit TurboTax 2020 Superbowl commercial.

The first problem I have with this commercial is the claim: "All people are tax people."

Could all people be tax people? As in, could all people read the instructions and figure out how to file their own taxes?
YES.
But do all of them want to?
NO.

So it should be, "All people could be tax people."

Now, if you only have a W-2 and file single which is kind of what this ad is referring to, then sure. You should be able to file on your own without any help.

So maybe, "All people who get a W-2 and only a W-2 and have no dependents or weird low income situations are tax people."

But it's a little longer and not quite as catchy to fit into the New Orleans bounce music.

The second problem I have with this commercial is that they always advertise these ridiculous refund amounts to entice you to use their software. In the first two seconds of the commercial, the first lady is getting $3,284 back and then starts actin' a fool. If you are getting that much back, perhaps you should update your exemptions on your W-4 so that you have more in every paycheck all year?

I mean, maybe?

The third problem I have with this commercial is around seconds 34-35 where the guy is mowing his lawn but the mower is moving by itself. I mean, what a safety hazard! Where did they find such a machine!?

Anyway, these kinds of commercials this time of year always irk me because they oversimplify the process and could be misleading a lot of people. But I did enjoy this next one that's not even advertising tax software.

In unrelated news, I bought a 2 lb bag of black beans because I really like having black beans around but wanting to see if I could save some money by cooking dry beans instead of using canned.

I soaked them last night and they pretty much doubled in size. You're only supposed to cook one pound at a time in 6-8 cups of water, so I was measuring out how many batches I will have to cook today. I think 2 lbs of dry beans makes about 12 cups of cooked beans whereas a can of beans is only 1.5 cups. So that's $1.99 for 12 cups of beans vs $.79 for a 1.5 cup can, which would be like 8 cans for 12 cups which would be $6.32 and so I save over $4 by doing this.

And then I realized as I stood in my kitchen.
There I was.
Counting beans.

Certified public bean counter,
TWS

Housewarming

Mike was like, "We need a doormat. We need one that says 'Fun accountants live here!'"

And then, "Literally - we need one that says that."