Thanksgiving Means Just That---Prayerfully Giving Thanks for All Our Many Blessings

SERVING LIFE FOR THIS?
 HOW SUGAR/GRAIN DIET EFFECTS OUR BRAINS

....TOO NUMEROUS TO COUNT OR COMPREHEND.

Rather than running to the mall later today or Friday with the horrific traffic and crowds---my idea of hell, by the way--- why not take a slow, grateful walk in the woods after Thanksgiving turkey, roasted brussel sprouts and a sliver of apple crisp?

It's freezing cold here in Nashville, and will be in Manhattan when I get these tomorrow.  Long silk underwear  and a good roasting pan are a girl's best friend today.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Will add a couple of links for our edification:

Tom Blumer   wirtes a lovely Thanksgiving tribute to his late mother who just died and decries the absense of the sentiment of prayers in the phrase my thoughts are with you.

My thoughts and prayers are indeed with him and his family.

Pruden: Obama Does the Full Grovel To Iran In Geneva

MY FAVORITE COLUMNIST WESLEY PRUDEN NAILS THE TERRIBLE FECKLESS DEAL THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION HAS STRUCK WITH IRAN. IT'S A JOKE. EVERY WORD IS WORTH READING:

THERE'S GOOD NEWS AND BAD news in Barack Obama’s sucker deal with Iran. The Iranians get all the good news, and the West gets all the bad news. The only good news for the good guys is that the deal, like Obamacare, is President Obama’s baby.

Sometimes, the baby daddy has to pay up.

 The president and his administration, having done the full grovel in Geneva, is now into full defensive mode. Stung by the cries of disbelief in Washington from a growing number of his partisan allies in Congress, the president insists that his handiwork “halted the progress of the Iranian nuclear program.” But it has done no such thing. The deal, or the “interim accord” as the Western deal-makers insist on calling it, does not even meet the requirements of several United Nations resolutions insisting on suspension of all enrichment of uranium before it gets relief from the sanctions that were driving the mullahs in Tehran to cry “uncle.”

Mr. Obama, the crafty Chicago politician, is counting on the maxim that “all politics is local,” that the talk of centrifuges, the plutonium reactor at Arak, and oxidation of 5 percent against the enrichment of 20 percent, will quickly make everyone’s eyes glaze over and we can get back to the important affairs of state that everyone understands, such as whether to change the name of the Redskins.

The deal, signed at 3 o’clock in the morning, when diplomats are supposed to be in bed, was meant to distract attention from the spectacular collapse of Obamacare. But the point of “all politics is local,” as any Chicago alderman could tell the president, is that if you fix the pothole, the suckers will pay no attention to the mischief at hand, but you’ve got to actually fix the pothole. This pothole — the Affordable Care Act — is unfixable, a pothole without a bottom.

 Mr. Obama sold himself as the man who could charm the Muslims into the 21st century because he understood the Islamic mind. Hadn’t he grown up in the Islamic world, listening to the call to evening prayer, “the prettiest sound in the world”? He would make nice with the Muslims, and they would make nice with the West.

 But they’re not even making nice with Barack Obama. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, who decides whose deal gets ratified and who loses his head, couldn’t resist playing the game by his own rules. He spent the weekend crowing, not bothering to hide his agenda. “I thank God that … the new government … was able to legitimize the Iranian nation’s nuclear program on the international stage and take the initial step in a way that the nuclear rights and the enrichment rights of the Iranian nation are acknowledged by world powers.”

The new president, Hassan Rouhani, did a little taunting himself. “No matter whether the world wants it or not,” he said, “this path [to the bomb] will, God willing, continue to the peak.” The “peak,” as everyone with eyes and ears understands, is the development of the nuclear bomb to destroy Israel and intimidate everyone else in the Middle East. For all their comic bluster, meant for the Muslim street, the big ayatollah and all the little ayatollahs in Tehran have always believed that America and the West have no choice but to accept Islam as a nuclear equal.

 “Looking back at the past decade,” wrote Mohammad Mohammadi, regarded as an Iranian authority on his country’s nuclear affairs, “all the red lines by America and the West over Iran’s nuclear issue have now been transformed into acceptance. America has always adopted radical actions at first that have changed to symbolic measures later.”

After that, the acceptance. He’s right about that. The governing elites in the West have trouble recognizing deep belief and conviction as calls to action. Having abandoned religious faith themselves, except for the convenient rituals of weddings and funerals, the elites do not understand those who act on religious conviction, however perverted the convictions may be.

The threats and boasts by the mullahs in Tehran, like the braggadocio of the fanatics in Pyongyang, can sound like the stuff of “Saturday Night Live.” But despite the promises of the leaders of the West that it could never happen, North Korea has the bomb, and Iran is well on its way to raising the dust and making the noise of the big one. The Israelis, so scorned by Mr. Obama and his friends, stand alone as the West’s last hope.

Pastor Tim Keller Answers the Question: What Hope Does the Promise of Everlasting Life Hold for Us?

REMINDING US, the present fallen world is not all there is. There's so much more than we could ever imagine or fathom.

The Advent App

A CHRISTMAS CONSPIRACY. I like it.

Priceless: What's in A Name Now That It's Not Working?

9 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT C.S. LEWIS--(#9 HE DIED ONE HOUR AFTER JFK SHOT)
   

TOO GOOD NOT TO PASS ON.

 H/T WHD Thanks, Keith. A Washington classic.

Itty Ward's First Year

Ward Miles - First Year from BenjaminScot on Vimeo.

HOW PRECIOUS AND GRACE-FILLED IS THIS?

Sunday: Pastor Mike Atkins @ River Crossing On the Need For Persistence In Prayer

GAME CHANGER.

LUKE 11   JESUS' TEACHING ON PRAYER

11 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

² He said to them, “When you pray, say:

“‘Father,^[a]
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.^[b]
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
⁴ Forgive us our sins,
    for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.^[c]
And lead us not into temptation.^[d]’”

⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity^[e] he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for^[f] a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

For Your Viewing Horror---Gravity Spoof Of Being Trapped In..... IKEA

SOMETHING SIMILAR HAPPENED TO ME IN AN IKEA OUT SIDE D.C. When I finally found my way out, after getting separated from a friend whom I never reconnected with,   I searched 10 minutes for my car. The final hurdle was getting back on the I-495 beltway in time for the 5-o'clock  traffic.

Never Again! And I've never looked back.

NY POST Says It All: The Unaffordable Healthcare Fact

OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NANNY STATE HAS TRULY  OUTDONE ITSELF THIS TIME. The healthcare law is an unmitigated disaster that creates many more problems than it  seeks to cure,  at  much higher, unaffordable costs to everyone. Everyone.

“I’m telling you that the cure is the disease. The main source of illness in this world is the doctor’s own illness: his compulsion to try and cure and his fraudulent belief that he can. It ain’t easy to do nothing, now that society is telling everyone that the body is fundamentally flawed and about to self-destruct.” 

The Fat Man, The House of God, by Samuel Shem, p. 215

Review of The Dallas Buyers Club  and the murderous ways of government, by John Tamny

Late Sniper Veteran And Navy SEAL Honored In Bronze

REMEMBER HIM?

Chris Kyle

American Patriots in Art

Sunday---Wonderful Reminder: Be The Smile of God To Your Children

GREAT INSPIRATION FOR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS FROM JOE RIGNEY @ DESIRING GOD:

HE'S A SQUIRMY ONE, HE IS.  If I don’t watch him, he’ll wriggle off the bed.

But he doesn’t want to. He’s enjoying the tickle fight too much. I can’t blame him. Those giggles make this father’s heart want to leap out of my chest. I wonder how long this laugh will last. Reflect on the tickle fight with me.

See the layers of reality at work. Triune Joy in Our Little Home On the surface: an adult male and a one-year-old of the species, smiles, laughter, darting fingers, kicking legs, squeals, deep breaths, rapid kisses on the neck, raspberries on the belly, and did I mention the laughter? Beneath the surface: emotional bonding, fatherly affection, wide-eyed childhood delight. A contribution to the child’s sense of safety and security in the world. Perhaps he’ll be “well-adjusted” (or at least better adjusted). This will, no doubt, help him on his standardized tests. Beneath and in and through it all, Trinitarian fullness is being extended.

The Joy that made the mountains is concentrated in my home. Fatherly delight is at the heart of reality. “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” It plays on a looping tape in the back of my mind. Thus sayeth the Lord to his Son. Thus sayeth the Lord to all of his sons that are in the Son. Tickle Fights Are High Theology This is the pitch of fatherhood. This is the melody line of motherhood. This ought to be the dominant note in the familial symphony. Delight, Pleasure, Joy. This tickle fight is high theology.

This scene is a picture, a parable of a glory that existed before the world did. It’s a display and an invitation. Father and son are being beckoned into the divine life and joy. Only I will remember it distinctly. The scene will pass through my son’s mind and out of his memory. And yet, in a sense, it’s the most spiritual thing I can do for him. My delight and pleasure in him can leave a mark on him that will outlive the sun. “Father,” I pray, taking a breath in the war of laughter to go directly to God, “make it so.” How to Be His Smile This is our fundamental calling as parents — to be the smile of God to our children.

We are charged by God to bring our children up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. God himself has commanded us to communicate to our children what he is like. And God is fundamentally a Happy Father, a Well-Pleased Parent. And just as the Father communicates his delight in his Son through his words and deeds and demeanor and presence, so also should we.

Four suggestions for starters:

1) Be thrilled about what they are thrilled about. Join them in their joy, however simple and childlike. Whether it’s drawing a stick figure or building a castle out of blocks, be lavish with your “well-dones” and “good jobs.” Find the good and the glory in everything they do. When they pull out the pots and pans, and turn them into drums, there is imagination and creativity to rejoice in.

2) Recognize that an atmosphere of joy and delight is the only environment in which discipline is safe and good. Sin poisons the gladness of a godly home and breaks the fellowship of the family. Wise discipline quickly sets things right — clear explanations, swift discipline (whether spanking or otherwise), sincere repentance, prayerful repentance, and then restoration of the sweet gladness of fellowship.

3) Remember that the main way they experience joy is through laughter and play. Fun is joy in kid form. There are more complex joys that come with increasing maturity. But the only way that they will grow into them is if they are well-acquainted with the simple pleasures of play. So be a good missionary and contextualize. Translate joy into their language. This doesn’t mean that you should stay shallow or trivial. It does mean that family devotions ought to be marked by gladness and delight, by bright eyes, loud singing, and manifest affection. And if a tickle fight should happen to break out every now and then, count yourself blessed and see it as success.

4) Make the most of temporary separations and reunions. Communicate your pleasure in them as you leave and your excitement when you return. Leave with laughter and come home happy. Let the exuberance in your voice and the warmth of your smile and the brightness of your eyes reveal to them the God who joyously sings over his people, the father who runs to his son when he sees him on the horizon. And so again, to all moms and dads, embrace the joy of your calling. Your Father is smiling on you.

 So be the smile of God to your children.

Carrie and Brad Sing Obamacare By Morning---CMA Awards Highlight

TAMNY: MAGIC IN MINNEAPOLIS REVEALS GENIUS OF 1%ERS OVER SIX PEOPLE SERVED!!

Hilarious and Adorable Tantrums: Halloween Candy Monster Strikes Again

WE ALL NEED TO LAUGH SOMETIMES. Jimmy Kimmel is brilliant on this one.

'The Book of Matt' Author Stephen Jimenez Answers Questions About Explosive Revelations In His New Book

AS I SORT OUT THIS AMAZING NEWLY-RELEASED BOOK  ON THE 1998 MURDER OF MATTHEW SHEPHERD OUTSIDE LARAMIE, WY and the courageous, meticulous journalism that went into reporting and writing it over more than a decade,  I plan to say more.

Perhaps my intense interest in knowing the real----as opposed to the mythological, highly politicized storyline that became a massive gay-baiting industry and federal religion over the past 15 years----is that it takes place in  a state and on Interstate corridors I've known, loved and traveled for decades---in Wyoming, and specifically in and around the college town of Laramie.

I cannot recommend Jimenez's book  more highly. At the same time, the often explosive, complex  contents are extremely unsettling, especially in the aftermath of the highly charged and politicized Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman media circus.

More than anything else, media and law enforcement agencies are slowly seen and indited for not thorougly investigating this tragic murder as they got caught up in the national media frenzy, saying what news people wanted to hear rather than the truth they knew deep down.

Once the myth was made within days of the terrible murder, there was no going back.....until now.  Now is better than never.

If you dare to read The Book of Matt prepare to have your eyes opened about what you've been fed by the MSM and  gay communities.  Nothing got in the way of myth-making.

The Book of Matt is a story for and of our time.

Sunday: Mark Driscoll On Pretend Christianity From Exodus 20

DRISCOLL INTERVIEWED ON DEATH OF CHRISTENDOM, WHAT REFORMED THEOLOGY MEANS THE FOOLS PARADE ON PARADE. Pastor Mark Driscoll intends to offend everyone. Below Driscoll discusses on idolatry and worship---it's not just a Sunday thing: