Monday, May 30, 2016

Sunday/Monday

WEDNESDAY: ROGER SIMON WRITES AT PJMEDIA--- TRUMP STATES THE OBVIOUS ABOUT THE PRESS
 

CAST YOUR CARES UPON THE LORD, AND HE WILL SUSTAIN YOU...
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Seen in the SoHo Fly Shop this weekend,outside Bristol, Tennessee.

Below, one of my favorite fly fishing guides on the SoHo--Mike King.   I do not condone what Mike did when he came back from Viet Nam--the drug trafficking and alcohol and pot use---however, today I can say he has turned his life around by God's Grace and is clean, sober and a terrific guide on the rivers we love so much. 

 

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Why Real Men Love Strong Women

CHALLIES: NO PLACE FOR REGRET
By PAUL MAXWELL @ DESIRING GOD

 I’VE HEARD IT TOO MANY TIMES: “A man likes a quiet woman.” “Guys don’t respond well to smart girls.” “Educated women are too intimidating to attract good men.” I understand why we believe these things. It’s a nice story. It makes sense of the success of some women to find husbands, and the failure of others.

As Christians (and as humans), we feel very clever when we get to diagnose the cause and cure of singleness. “You’re too opinionated.” “You’re too boisterous.” “A woman should be small, and quiet, and delicate.”

Yet, it’s easy to forget in the midst of all our diagnosing: whether a woman is “intimidating” is a factor of male perception, not female personality. Do we want women to be less intimidating? That’s a question to be put to men who experience them as such, and we can only wait for such men to grow.

The real question we need to ask is: Do we want women to be weak? And the answer must forever be, on the basis of Scripture, “May it never be.” Strong women are as vital as strong men to God’s purpose in the church. Why?

1. Strong women expose evil men. I can’t speak for Christian men everywhere, but I can speak for myself, and for many of the men in the Bible: Godliness is attractive to both men and women (Proverbs 31:30). And often, godly femininity requires being strong, even intimidating. Consider Jael in Judges 4. Jael’s husband Heber “had separated from the Kenites,” and “had pitched his tent as far away as the oak in Zaanannim, which is near Kedesh.” So, when Sisera, a Canaanite military general under Jabin the King of Hazor — the enemy of the people of God — tried to seek refuge, he went to Heber’s tent, “for there was peace between Jabin the King of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite” (Judges 4:17). But Sisera found Jael at the tent and started barking orders at her, “Give me a little water.” “Stand at the opening of the tent.” In response, “she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground” (Judges 4:21). Deborah later sang of Jael, “Most blessed of women be Jael . . . She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet” (Judges 5:24–25). Thank God Jael wasn’t meek and submissive and respectful toward this friend of her wayward husband. She wasn’t one to be trampled on. Strong women reject the requests of evil men.

2. Strong women rebuke good men. When David set out to kill Nabal — the brash and brute man who embodied pure masculine folly — Nabal’s wife Abigail offered hundreds of fig cakes and loaves of bread and wine skins to David. Yet, she uses the opportunity to warn David that he should “have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation for himself” (1 Samuel 25:31). In other words, Abigail warned: “Be careful. Don’t use your power in a way that will make you guilty.” David responds, “Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand!” (1 Samuel 25:33). Nabal soon after died of a heart attack. “Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife” (1 Samuel 25:39). David was attracted to this strong woman for her strength, for her rebuke, and for her character. Abigail made life harder for David. And David, in a moment of grace, was able to see that Abigail’s standing in David’s way was a gift of purity to him. That day, David was seeking salvation for himself, but it was gifted to him by God in Abigail, who, even while she was at his mercy as his subject, told him what he needed to hear. Strong women rebuke good men, who need help in their weaknesses, who need someone to help them see how to be strong.

3. Strong women raise believing men. There is no stronger, more consistent reminder of the gospel in my life than my mom. Paul says something very similar of Timothy: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (1 Timothy 1:5). In an ideal world, men and women would partner together in their strength. But we live in a world where we need strong women to make men strong, because sometimes there simply are no men there to do it. My mom’s dad died when she was nine, and my own dad wasn’t present in my life enough to be a father. So she did the work of two parents — the work of two disciplers — for both my sister and me. With Timothy and Paul, I’m so glad that God gave us these gifts of strong women to survive the inconsistent presence and consequences of “strong” men.

 Of course, some of the godliest mothers have had some of the ungodliest children, and vice versa.

But in an age when fathers often fail to bestow the gift of faith to their children, the future often hangs on the strength of women to do that gospel work. Whether as children or their disciples, strong women raise believing men.

The Beauty and Strength of Faith

We live in a time when women are outperforming men in many areas of professional and personal competency. And men have two choices: to find female strength captivatingly attractive, or to be insecure and intimidated. Real men love strong women, because God’s glory is beautiful, and “woman is the glory of man” (1 Corinthians 11:7).

Jesus, gave men the grace to see the beauty of glorious female strength. Gave women the resilience to remain strong long enough for the right men to find them beautiful for the right reasons. And help men and women to fall in love with proven, genuine faith, which is “more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire” (1 Peter 1:7).

Source @ Desiring God

The Most Loving Thing We Can Do For Others Is.....

 WHY DO CHRISTIANS OFTEN MAJOR IN THE MINORS?
WE CAN PLANT THE SEEDS, MAKE THE INTRODUCTION, GIVE OUR TESTIMONY.

The rest is up to God and the Holy Spirit in His timing.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Anonymous Congressman X Writes Tell-All Book and Slams Us As A Nation of Easily Led Sheep

SO, MR. ANON CONGRESSMAN,  NEXT TIME,  TELL US WHAT YOU THINK. This shouldn't be shocking, but I, for one, am glad this congressman is speaking out and taking us sheep who hold no one accountable to task:

 

'Screw the next generation': Anonymous congressman writes tell-all and slams 'nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep' as he admits he never reads bills he votes on.

 

  • 'My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything,' an anonymous member of Congress writes in a new book
  •  
  • 'Voters are incredibly ignorant and know little about our form of government and how it works,' he writes
  • 'It's far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification'
  •  
  • One liberal news blogger claims the author is a Democrat
  •  
  • 'The Confessions of Congressman X' will be released May 24 by a small Minnesota-based 'vanity press' publisher
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A new book threatens to blow the lid off of Congress as a legislator has penned a tell-all about the worst parts of serving in the House of Representatives – saying that his main job is to raise money for re-election and that leaves little time for reading the bills he votes on
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Mill City Press, a small Minnesota-based 'vanity press' publisher describes 'The Confessions of Congressman X' as  'a devastating inside look at the dark side of Congress as revealed by one of its own.'

'No wonder Congressman X wants to remain anonymous for fear of retribution. His admissions are deeply disturbing.' 
The 84-page exposé is due in bookstores in two weeks, and Washington is abuzz with speculation about who may have written it.

Political Wire, a liberal news blog, disclosed on Thursday that the author is a 'Democratic congressman.'
Most of the excerpts that appear on the book jacket will come as little surprise to Americans who are cynical about the political process.

'Most of my colleagues are dishonest career politicians who revel in the power and special-interest money that's lavished upon them,' the author writes.

'My main job is to keep my job, to get reelected. It takes precedence over everything.'

'Fundraising is so time consuming I seldom read any bills I vote on. Like many of my colleagues, I don't know how the legislation will be implemented, or what it'll cost.'

Monday, May 9, 2016

Andrea Peyser Tells Tiger Woods Not to Bother with Trying a Comback---My Sentiments Exactly

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: OBAMA'S GIFT OF IMMUNITY TO TRUMP

SPEAKING OF REMORSE, TRUE REPENTANCE BRINGS CHANGED HEARTS AND LIVES, even if it's incremental, over time. Below, Andrea Peyser talks about Tiger Woods lack of true remorse and how it affected his game,  his popularity, his health and his chances of ever being anything but a second rate human being today. Take it away Andrea,  I couldn't agree more:

Americans love a good comeback story the way we love a warm cuddle in the morning and a stiff belt of Scotch at night.

Not long ago, Robert Downey Jr. was a much-arrested, drugged-up Hollywood washout. But the 51-year-old now-clean and sober star of “Captain America: Civil War” replaced his passion for heroin, cocaine and marijuana with a healthy hankering for money — and was named the world’s highest-paid actor each of the last three years by Forbes magazine.

The Boston Red Sox sank into baseball loserdom after trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, suffering “The Curse of the Bambino” for 86 years, starting after the 1918 season. The World Series drought finally lifted when the Sox defeated the despised (by the team and me) Yanks in the 2004 American League Championship Series, and then won the Fall Classic that year and twice more.
Even the nations of Japan and Germany, two of the United States’ Axis archenemies during World War II, have come back as our country’s wealthy allies and pals.

The latest bid for a comeback appears to be planned not by a politician or junkie — in the ordinary sense of the word — but by the sexually insatiable golfer Tiger Woods. He spent the last few years in a moral timeout room following his admitted extramarital affairs, if one considers having sex with scores of blond, brunette and redheaded chippies, some while standing up, “affairs.”





Elin NordegrenPhoto: Splash News
This drove his then-wife Elin Nordegren, armed with a 9 iron, on a legendary 2009 chase of the rotter from their Florida mansion. Tiger lost lucrative endorsement deals and got divorced. He then entered into a reputation-cleansing romantic relationship with Olympic champion alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, 31 — which unraveled amid rumors that Tiger couldn’t keep his pants zipped for any one woman, even America’s sweetheart. Perhaps not coincidentally, his golf game has plunged into the cellar.
Tiger is now 40 years old. He has undergone two back surgeries and a follow-up procedure. The world’s former No. 1-ranked golfer has fallen to a dismal 508th place as of last week.

Isn’t it time that we tried, if not to forgive, then to forget Tiger’s sliming of his fans, his sponsors, his friends and his family?

Not on your furry tail!

Another famous cheater, former President Bill Clinton, nearly purified his image by at least behaving as if he were sorry. But Tiger is too egotistical for that.

Recently, I watched a video compilation of Tiger’s lowlights at play — he was an F-bomb-spewing, golf-club-hurling, walking temper tantrum. He’s a rotten role model for kids and a disgrace to grown men.

Tiger has booked accommodations for the Memorial Tournament in Ohio next month, Reuters reported, presumably in preparation for playing. Golf! Get your mind out of the sand trap. Tiger’s camp is mum on his plans.

He hasn’t appeared in a tourney since August. But word is that he’ll likely stage a post-surgery comeback, and may compete next month in the prestigious US Open, for which he has registered but is not required to play. Stuff it.

We don’t need Tiger 2.0.

He’s been replaced in the hearts and minds of links lovers by humble 22-year-old golfer Jordan Spieth, whose biggest breach of etiquette was muttering, “Dang it!’’ after flubbing a tee shot during the 2015 Master’s Tournament, which he won.

Tiger doesn’t seem to realize that when one wins the goodies that come with fame — big bucks, public adulation, groupies — he must at least try to live by ordinary rules of decency. And when he’s caught behaving badly, he must show remorse. Tiger is one sorry human, but he regrets nothing.
Tiger Woods may play golf again. I, for one, will not be watching.
And neither will I. I'll take Jason Spieth any day.

Sunday, May 8, 2016

Sunday


I LOVE THIS QUOTE FROM TIM KELLER. 

Repentance is another one of those words that has so many meanings and motivations. Sometimes we repent because we get caught and feel pressure to say I'm sorry, when we're really not. Other times we're like to think of ourselves as perfect and  broke a rule or a law.  Sometimes we judge all things by whether its legal or not, even if it hurts God or other people.

Real repentance begins in the heart and humbles us back to solid ground. We know we're sinners in need of a Savior. We know we can break God's rules as well as break His heart.  Learning to repent to God first and change the direction of some aspect of our lives---and meaning it---gets easier and easier as time goes on.  Little by little, it transforms or sanctifies us into wiser, more mature people.

There's no real maturity without repentance and the grace of God's forgiveness in His Son's magnificent death on the Cross for our sins. To wit:

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Just A Word About One Christian's Opinion of Ted Cruz's Last Stand


AM SO BUSY RIGHT NOW, I HARDLY HAVE TIME TO TURN ON MY COMPUTER.  Still I stay in touch these days on my phone. Then when I have something to say, however trivial and shallow,  I rev up the computer.  Today is one of those days.

Tuesday may be Ted Cruz's last stand. For me---an evangelical Christian---it's not a minute too soon.  Ted Cruz, and especially his loudmouth father inappropriately imploring the Body of Christ to vote for Ted or else doom will descend on all of us,  has become a monumental, desperate bore to me in this election.  No candidate, not even his son, can save us outright from the moral, political and fiscal slippery slope we're careening down at warp speed.Whatever any of us, including me,  thinks of Donald Trump or doesn't think,  the Cruz team, seems over the top and frankly has become so unattractive,  I've totally withdrawn my potential support.   I'll take a shot of Jose Donald any day over the heavy-handed Cruzes.

Please let it be over for Ted Cruz tonight.  Then send Cruz's father to a retreat center somewhere to chill out and pray for our country.

Now back to my move.


Monday, May 2, 2016

Sunday On Monday: Screwtape Reveals His Arch-Enemy's--God's--Intentions

NOW IT MAY SURPRISE YOU to learn that in God's [the Enemy’s] efforts to get permanent possession of a soul. He relies on the troughs even more than on the peaks; some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else. The reason is this. To us devils, a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours, the increase of our own area of selfhood at its expense. But the obedience which the Enemy demands of men is quite a different thing. One must face the fact that all the talk about His love for men, and His service being perfect freedom, is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself—creatures whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His. We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.