I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and
books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of
life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books,
according to what they had done. (Revelation 20:12)
....AND THE LONG-TERM SECURITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. IT WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.
President Trump now needs to back up his very fine speech tonight in favor of legal immigration by controlling illegal entry to the United States.
He must not back down. Congress certainly has as it has dilly dallied on this issue for decades, making promises, passing bills to fund a border wall which has never been implemented.
Mr.Trump has drawn the line for the American people and forced a crisis that's long, long overdue. Good for him. Now the president must not let this crisis go to waste.
He must not back down. Real leadership is taking a stand and letting the chips fall where they may.
President Trump is doing the right thing for the American people. He's doing the right thing for his presidency..
Trump needs to hang tough for as long as it takes. He must not back down.
He can not back down now. Thank you President Trump for taking this tough, hard stand against the entrenched powers and principalities of the air.
SEEN AND HEARD: Ivanka and Jared walked out of the movie Vice. Good. I would too, except I wouldn't go to such blatant propaganda in the first place.
BALE IS CLEARLY NO SAINT AS A VIOLENT DOMESTIC ABUSER. JUDGE NOT AS HE BE NOT JUDGED.
WHAT A TOTALLY EXPECTED DIG THIS BALE GUY MADE AGAINST FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY AT THE GOLDEN GLOBES. Group think hysteria at its lowest aimed to please his godless audience and get him lots of back slap kudos at the Golden Calf after-parties.
Anyway, good for Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, for her unexpected and greatly needed push back against Bales's slameless silliness towards her father.. To wit:
Dick Cheney's daughter Liz brought up
domestic allegations against Christian Bale after the actor said 'Satan'
inspired him to play her father in the movie, Vice.
The
former Vice President's daughter tweeted shortly after Bale's Sunday
night Globes speech: 'Satan probably inspired him to do this, too,' and
quoted a 2008 headline from British news organization The Independent
which read, 'Christian Bale arrested for "assault on mother and
sister."'
The reference to the
decade-old allegation from Liz came after Bale made the controversial
remarks while accepting the Golden Globe award for Best Actor Sunday
night.
'Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration for playing this role,' he said of his Dick Cheney character in an apparent snub.
Way to go Liz! You Go Girl. Your father is a class act and a true patriot from the great state of Wyoming! My second favorite state.
THIS ARTICLE ON FRANK REICH IS A TERRIFIC (LONG) READ, A TESTAMENT TO HOW GOD OPENS, CLOSES AND RE-OPENS OPPORTUNITIES WE COULD NOT FORESEE. By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra @ THE GOSPEL COALITION
IMAGINE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Al Mohler
taking over the Dallas Cowboys. Or Trinity International University
president David Dockery coaching the Chicago Bears. Or Covenant
Theological Seminary president Mark Dalbey heading up the Los Angeles
Rams.
This fall, former Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) Charlotte
campus president Frank Reich began his first season as head coach of the
Indianapolis Colts.
“I could never have predicted this path,” Reich toldThe Washington Post. “It’s crazy. It’s fun.”
It’s not the first time his path has seemed crazy.
When he enrolled in his first RTS class in 1997, he was a backup quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.
“When I was playing, I always thought I was going to be a coach,”
Reich told TGC. “When I went into full-time ministry, that was for all
the right motives—a real, sincere, heartfelt love for God. I was trying
to do the right thing.”
He was “selling everything” to follow Jesus. And he did—he graduated
from seminary, led RTS for three years, then pastored a local church.
But he didn’t feel called to it.
And RTS had taught him that pastoring isn’t everyone’s calling.
“I came to recognize more and more this false dichotomy between
sacred and secular work,” Reich said. He learned about “the priesthood
of all believers—that every Christian is called to live out their faith
in their sphere of influence.”
And Reich’s sphere of influence is football.
Comeback Kid
The first thing to know about Reich, the Indianapolis Startold readers when he was named head coach in February, is that “he knows about comebacks.”
Reich, who grew up in a religious home, has been playing organized
football since sixth grade. He went to the University of Maryland on an
athletic scholarship, where he was a year behind All-American
quarterback Boomer Esiason. He backed up Esiason for three years. When
Esiason graduated, Reich finally had his chance to start in 1984.
But one month in, he injured his shoulder. Three weeks later, the
coach told him the team would stick with his replacement, and Reich was
back on the bench as backup.
Reich couldn’t believe it.
God, I thought you and I were good, he remembers thinking. Why are you doing this to me?
He realized that “football had become my God. . . . When that was taken away from me, I realized I had to reprioritize my life.”
So he worked at it. And a few weeks later, in a game against the
Miami Hurricanes, he came off the bench at halftime. The Terrapins were
down 31-0.
Over the next two quarters, Reich threw three touchdowns, handed off
for two more, and ran one in himself. Maryland won 42–40, and the
comeback remained college’s greatest for 22 years.
Football had become my God. . . . When that was taken away from me, I realized I had to reprioritize my life.
Almost 10 years later, he did it again, this time coming off the
bench in his first NFL playoff game with the Buffalo Bills. Three
minutes into the third quarter, the Bills were down 35–3 to the Houston
Oilers. Reich handed off for the first touchdown, then threw four in a
row. The Bills won 41–38 in a 1993 game that would get its own name
(“The Comeback” or “The Choke,” depending on the fan), its own Wikipedia page, and its own NFL record (largest comeback in NFL history).
But Reich’s not a prosperity theologian. He knows getting himself
straight with God didn’t lead to touchdowns and paychecks. Four weeks
after The Comeback, the Bills lost the Super Bowl 52–17.
They would ultimately lose four Super Bowls in a row, from 1991 to
1994. And Reich never would land that starting quarterback position.
Frank Reich / Courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts
“[A]fter our crushing 52–17 loss to the Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVII, I was devastated,” he wrote.
“The devastation was compounded by the fact that I had played more than
half of the game. I couldn’t understand how God could allow us to get
beat like that, especially after the Houston miracle.”
He was flying home from Pasadena when he realized the answer.
“For the first two hours of the trip, I was going crazy trying to
figure out why the Super Bowl went the way it did,” he wrote. “Finally, I
could take it no longer. I realized I could be asking the same
questions the rest of my life. I needed some peace of mind. The only
thing I could think to do was to put on my headset and listen to
[Michael English’s] ‘In Christ Alone.’”
It was a song his sister had introduced him to. He’d listened to it
hundreds of times, even reading it at the press conference after The
Comeback.
Now, he “sought comfort from the song which gave me peace during the
stressful week prior to the Houston game. The message I was now hearing
was that we can experience victory in all our circumstances through
Jesus Christ. He gives us the strength and hope to overcome all odds.”
Not Just a Testimony
Reich grew up Catholic, coming to know Jesus as a University of
Maryland senior through Campus Crusade for Christ (now Cru) and Athletes
in Action.
As a ball player, Reich “was very involved in Bible studies and
traveling around and sharing the gospel at different events,” he told
TGC.
“As I was growing, I felt like I needed some more formalized training
to be able to use the platform that sports had provided to be able to
share the gospel,” he said. Not only that—“my heart was not just to
share my testimony. I also wanted to be able to teach the Bible.”
My heart was not just to share my testimony. I also wanted to be able to teach the Bible.
Because Reich was playing for the Panthers, he was living in
Charlotte. After “a little bit of research,” the backup quarterback of
the Carolina Panthers ended up in a couple RTS classes in the offseason.
(“Of course, I heard about it pretty quickly,” said Ric Cannada, then
president of RTS’s new Charlotte campus. Reich even hauled some buddies
along with him—the campus still has former Panthers in the classroom.)
Reich kept taking classes during his time with the Panthers, then the
New York Jets, then the Detroit Lions. After he played his last pro
game in 1998, he took classes while he worked on a few business
interests (a sports memorabilia display company and a boot store)
.
“I was in my fifth or sixth year when [Cannada], who had left to
become chancellor over the whole system, called me up and said, ‘Can you
come into my office?’” Reich said. “So I went into his office and he
said, ‘Hey, I’ve been praying about this for a long time. I’d like to
ask you to be the next president.’”
Reich laughed.
“You’ve got the wrong guy,” he told Cannada. “I haven’t even graduated yet!”
Natural Leader
As a general practice, RTS doesn’t ask its students to take over operations.
But Reich “was an older student when he came,” Cannada explained. “He
was mature. He had been reading and studying for 10 years already, and
you could see that he was a knowledgeable and serious student in his
classes.”
Reich was also “easy and personable, a natural leader.” Early on,
Cannada started asking Reich to come along on speaking engagements to
share his student testimony.
“We spent a lot of time together in the car, going places and sharing vision,” Cannada said. “I got pretty close to him.”
That closeness ran both ways—on the road, Cannada and Reich “would
stop and eat and talk, and I got to learn the inner workings of the
seminary,” Reich said.
So when Cannada was elevated to chancellor, and tasked with finding his replacement in Charlotte, Reich was “a natural choice.”
“I’d been with him enough that I knew his character was right, and he
could set an example,” Cannada said. “He was comfortable with faculty
and students, and his character was strong. And there was vision
there—and that’s what you need in a leader.”
Teacher and Coach
Frank didn’t say yes right away. But he respected Cannada enough, and
loved RTS enough, to agree to pray about it. Then he went down to
Jackson to meet the board. Then he agreed to give it a try for a few
years.
“It went exceedingly well,” Reich said. “I really did enjoy it.”
The school enjoyed him too.
“During his tenure as president, Frank Reich was known as a man with a
vision not only for the growth and well-being of the RTS Charlotte
campus, but also for striving to elevate the strategic importance of
each faculty and staff member serving with him,” said Rod Culbertson,
director of admissions and professor of practical theology under Reich.
“He was highly respected for his straightforward communication,
integrity, trustworthiness, and humility. Like a coach, he relied upon
the insights and advice of others who could help him gain wisdom in
decision making.”
Reich and quarterback Andrew Luck at an off-season workout / Courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts
“One of the things that impressed me most about Frank was his
humility,” said Michael Kruger, who was RTS Charlotte’s academic dean
while Reich was president. “While he had accomplished amazing things in
his football career, Frank was never interested in talking about
himself. His focus was always on Christ and how to bring glory to him.”
Reich’s best leadership was through example, said Kruger, who is now RTS Charlotte’s president.
“Leaders today often underestimate the power of their example,” he
said. “They tend to lead by telling people what to do, rather than showing them
what to do. Frank was not that way. He would not ask someone to walk a
path he was unwilling to walk himself. He sought to embody the values of
the seminary, not just talk about those values. That’s been a great
lesson for me.”
But at the end of three years, Reich “just didn’t feel like I was
called to be an administrator. I’m more of a teacher and coach.”
He knew he was only qualified to teach two things—the Bible and
football. He tried his hand at being an interim pastor, but it only took
“about a year to figure out that wasn’t the calling on my life. That’s
probably the hardest job in the world.”
And his theology told him that preaching isn’t the only work that
honors God. “I learned that calling—for most people—is to stay where you
are and do your work to the Lord.”
So Reich circled back around to football. “If pastoring isn’t what
I’m called to do, and it’s not an accident that God has given me a
career in football, then I guess I should make an impact in that arena
in whatever way I can,” he figured. “I decided to start coaching at that
time.”
45-Year-Old Intern
At 45, Reich took a coaching internship with the Indianapolis Colts.
He moved up to offensive coaching staff assistant, to quarterback coach
for Peyton Manning, to wide receivers coach. He coached for the Arizona
Cardinals for a year, for the San Diego Chargers for three, and for the
Philadelphia Eagles for two.
Reich and his wife, Linda, after the Eagles Super Bowl win in 2018 / Courtesy of Ric Cannada
Perhaps not surprisingly, Reich coaches like a teacher—”He does a
great job letting us understand the why, teaching us why we are running a
certain thing,” quarterback Andrew Luck told the Indianapolis Star. “I think when you understand an offense, as a player, you are going to buy in.”
Reich isn’t shy about his faith, but isn’t obnoxious about it either.
“I do think there’s a time to be assertive and proclaim what we believe and stand up on the rooftop and shout it out,” he told
Penn Live. “But there’s also a time where we need to keep our mouth
shut and just live it out and make someone else ask, ‘Hey, why do act
like that? What is it that shapes how you act?'”
“And then when people want to know the why,” Reich told TGC, “you have the opportunity to tell them.”
Because when Reich took over the reins in Indianapolis this year, the
team was coming off a dismal 4–12 season. Star quarterback Andrew Luck
was sidelined with a shoulder injury. The Colts owner was asking fans for patience.
And then the team lost five of its first six games this fall.
Theology of Sports
If you congratulate Reich on being the Comeback Kid, he’ll remind you that he also holds (shares, really) the record for most fumbles in a Super Bowl game.
Football is like that. After losing nearly the entire first third of
the season, the Colts won nine of the next 10 games to become the third
NFL team in history to make the playoffs after a 1-5 start. (“No NFL
playoff team came further this season than the Colts,” The Washington Postobserved.)
Faith “really keeps you grounded and centered” during the wild
emotional swings of professional sports, Reich told TGC. “It gives you
perspective. . . . We don’t always understand the ups and downs of life,
but we try to stay steady, loving and serving people and being
committed to the process of doing things the right way and making an
impact that way.”
Frank Reich / Courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts
Reich is sure that God doesn’t have a favorite football team. (A
quarter of Americans say God has a hand in determining the outcome of
sporting events; 28 percent have asked him to help their team.)
“I have two little kids, and when I see my children playing a game together I don’t care who wins that game,” Reich toldTeam NFL
magazine in 1993. “I’m their father. What’s important to me is that
there’s character being built and they’re learning the lessons that come
along with that activity. I think God looks at us the same way. I think
the football game is insignificant to him. But what is significant is
that we learn what he wants us to learn out of that game, win or lose.”
Reich roots his view of work in Genesis. “Our job description comes from Genesis 1:28—bring out the best in the environment and the people around you.”
As a quarterback, he tried to “be a good teammate, to bring out the
best in players around me, to make a good locker room environment, to do
my job right.” As a coach, he “works hard, trying to create a culture
where people can flourish.”
The ability—and charge—to work well is given to everyone, from seminary presidents to head coaches.
It’s also a lesson that RTS teaches.
“I wasn’t disappointed or bothered by it,” Cannada said of Reich’s
decision to leave ministry. “At RTS we very much hold a Reformed
worldview, where calling from the Lord can lead us in all kinds of
directions. Church ministry is a good one, but it’s not the only one.
We’re to serve the Lord wherever we are.”
Current RTS Charlotte president Kruger agrees.
“Frank’s story is a perfect example of what we value here at RTS,”
said Kruger (who wouldn’t turn down a job coaching the Liverpool
Football Club in the English Premiere League).
“The Reformers taught that all callings matter, not just callings to
vocational ministry,” he said. “God’s sovereignty extends to all
categories of our life, not just to the ‘religious’ category. And thus
God’s Word applies as much to the banker, the farmer, and the athlete as
it does to the pastor.”
Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra is senior writer for The Gospel Coalition. She earned her master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
2019 SPOILER ALERT FOR ALL US DEPLORABLE CONSERVATIVES: Our politics and principles are not just offensive to Deep State liberals, they're causing us mental, physical disease and early death. Furthermore, President Donald Trump is Hitler for woke Americans and the radical political correctness crowd.
WOW! Just wow.
To wit: Georgia Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson let loose on New Year's Day to say all us conservatives are less prosperous, dying from alcoholism, drug addictions and broken hearts. This confused, anxious and well-meaning man seems to have lost touch with reality. But don't believe me, listen for yourself:
<
'A powerful domestic enemy of democracy has emerged from the dark shadows of America....' Johnson opines as he takes things out of historical and political context. It's all the Trump voters fault.....
So, I predict we're in for a very interesting, pathological year.
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL SPRING DAY AS A GOOD FRIEND AND I DROVE FROM NASHVILLE OVER MONTEAGLE MOUNTAIN TO CHATTANOOGA.
We were going to a fund-raising/gathering for George W. Bush's presidential re-election campaign at the palatial home of Bob and Elizabeth Corker whom we knew as friends from their days living in Nashville during Bob's work in the Governor Don Sunquist's administration.
W. was not going to be at the Corkers that day, but George and Barbara Bush were making a proxy campaign stop with great fanfare and much publicity.
Tish and I arrived as personal friends, not deep pocketed donors. Neither of us knew many Chattanooga Republicans who would be there in droves. We looked forward to visiting their Versailles-like home and gardens in spring bloom.
So it was we arrived, had our car valet parked, and went in to a massive mob scene.
We found Elizabeth and Bob and said hello then we wandered through the grounds and lots of exuberant people After a few minutes, I wondered how I could politely flee.
I turned to Tish and said, 'Let's blow this joint' Or find a quieter place that's out of the way of the increasing crowds.
The Bushes were to arrive momentarily at the covered east portico where press and ardent supporters pressed against each other.
'Why don't we go to the other end of the house on the quiet front patio until thimgs settle down? I said. She agreed.
We found our way outside and sat down on the short brick wall away from everyone else.
Then as almost on cue, the presidential motorcade appeared and began to head up the Corkers' long, winding driveway with the presidential limousine lead and attendant security vehicles following close behind.
'The Bushes were here!,. We were relieved we were in a quiet spot away from the mayhem.
Then suddenly something totally unexpected happened....
A man looking a lot like former president George HW Bush had his limo stop far down the Corkers' driveway, got out and pulled a white-haired lady out the his side of the car and started walking through the yard...up the hill towards....the two of.us!
'Tish, that looks like the Bushes walking towards us. But it can't be; they're supposed to be arriving at the other end of the house.... This is not supposed to be happening,' I said, as they pulled themselves up the long hill, closer and closer to where the two of us were sitting far away from the crowds.
We watched for a minute dumbfounded, then I sprung up and out of my stupor and into my southern belle mode, as Barbara and George got closer to the two of us....
Ready or not, were suddenly the Bushes official greeting committee.
'Hello President and Mrs.Bush!' I said. 'Welcome to Chattanooga and the Corkers.....Do you know you are supposed to be arriving at the other end of the house where all your other supporters are waiting?" We shook hands and greeted each other warmly.
President Bush said he knew he wasn't supposed to come this way, but 'I saw two pretty ladies up here and wanted to come meet them.' Barbara smiled and chimed in, 'It was good to be here!'
So we stood making small talk for a few minutes as if old friends enjoying a beautiful spring afternoon, in peace and quiet. Soon enough the real welcoming committee and press got wind of the Bushes whereabouts after their limousine arrived empty and quickly the mob came bursting out through the front doors where we were and swooped the Bushes inside.
Tish and I said goodbye. We laughed all the way back to Nashville later that afternoon. Who knew we would be their unofficial welcoming committee at the Corkers that day? Who knew we would have the unexpected pleasure of making their delightful company?
ALONG WITH MY DAILY BIBLE READINGS EACH MORNING FROM ONE YEAR BIBLE BLOG on my sidebar (which includes readings from the Old and New Testaments, a Psalm and Proverb passsage), there is a dazzling new, Gospel resource that I'm finding rich and edifying which I want to call your attention to. It is brief but extremely powerful and well worth checking out, listening to and mediatating on daily:
It's called Solid Joys Daily Devotional with Pastor John Piper at Desiring God.
When you click on the link, you will find the day's latest devotional and also you can scroll down and go back days, even weeks to review old devotionals you missed or wish to review.
I hope you will integrate this feed into your daily quiet time and find it as wonderful a resource as I do. It is now also posted as a link on my sidebar. God bless and thanks for coming by.
I LOVE THE FALL HUNTER GATHERER LOOK--pine cones, magnolias and pheasant feathers (from Martha Stewart). Perfect for dining al fresco or inside. It could use a little more red---berries or apples, for zip, but otherwise spectacular.
It's a glorious day of sunshine and soon-to-be warmth here in Middle Tennessee. If you can breathe the air and it's warm enough, hope you will join me for a nice walk in the woods; we're getting far too sedentary. So much to be thankful for. Happy, Blessed Thanksgiving Day! I include a prayer of thanksgiving from the Anglican prayer book:
Collect for the Day
Almighty and gracious Father,
we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season
and for the labors of those who harvest them.
Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty,
for the provision of our necessities and
the relief of all who are in need,
to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with
you and the Holy Spirit,
WHY DOES IT SEEM THAT SUFFERING INTENSIFIES AT THIS TIME OF YEAR when days are shortest and light from sun is weakest? Does God design life that way? When life is supposed to be so cheerful it often become depressing and desperately isolated.
In this week alone horrendous mega forest fires in California have left so many without anything--- homes, possessions, family members and often worse. It boggles the mind how quickly disaster can happen to any of us and change the course of our lives and destiny forever.
How can we help in a way that truly reaches past merely restoring money and physical possessions? Nancy Guthrie talks here about what Christians and can do and how we can pray more deeply for those in need of so much:
THERE ARE A LOT OF MOVING, DISPARATE PIECES IN OUR LIVES THAT DON'T ALL FIT NEATLY TOGETHER AND MAKE SENSE. But righteous people and their purpose are in the hand of God. We may not know the end of something, but if we do what God guides us to do, then one day we will. If we humble ourselves and let ourselves be guided, God will bring something marvelous out of even the most difficult times.
Please join me in praying for the thousands of victims of the catastrophic fires in California who have lost their homes and much worse. Also please pray for our favorite blogger and friend Gerard Vanderleun, his mother and little cat who are all surviving and prospering by the Grace of God.
THIS COMMENT IS TOO EXTREME TO DELETE. Without further ado, I give you Hillary Bill from Sewanee, TN on the elite radical left to all of us drug addled deplorables in Tennessee:
Only in a redneck state like yours, would a bimbo be elected whose
degree is in Home Economics and has worked in beauty pageants vs a guy
who has a Physics degree from Harvard and has successfully managed a
state with $33 billion budget. Of course we know Tennesseans are in a
lot of pain and they need their opiates which Marsha will be happy to
supply after receiving her payoffs from big pharm... every other parent
in Manchester, Winchester, and small town TN is on disability and has a
opiate problem. I guess if you keep them medicated, you'll get their
vote. Sorry, you can't blame the brown people for this, it's purely a
white redneck problem. What is wrong with these people? Poorly educated,
scared of the brown people, gun fetishists, and afflicted with fear and
gullibility... It's a redneck nation, at least 50%, the worst of
America which you vote to keep over fed and medicated.
But, justice is soon to come. It's Mueller time!
MY RESPONSE:
All the advanced degrees on earth cannot make up for your hateful, condescending, disrespectful attitude towards the people of this state. These are my people. Get a grip and grow up and out of your hysteria. You're a troubled man and starting to sound like an unhinged mass shooter in the making....this has been going on for years and today it's over. Get some help.
SURE, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IDEAL TO HAVE KEPT BOTH HOUSES last night. Still there's much to be thankful for: Marsha Blackburn and Bill Lee keep Tennessee clearly soaked in red. Beto, Andrew, Stacy and Taylor Swift were defeated. President Trump is still a winner. For now.
....the GOP will keep the Senate and maybe the House! though the Dems will get more votes. Would not have thought it a year, a month ago, but today is a new day. And Donald Trump is a political magician. The nation's IQ test which Roger Simon poses today at pjmedia will be passed by freedom loving, responsible voters.
'Those who give to.j the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses. (28:27)
I SHALL NOT WANT. If we are generous with wealth, we will lack nothing. While this cannot mean that all generous, righteous people become more prosperous, the second clause guves us a hint at why financial generosity van enhance material security. Selfish people get curses from the community around them. Thus the generous het the blessings of the community.
In Mark 10:29-31 Jesus says that if, through generosity, you lose 'homes' or 'fields' for his sake, you will receive new ones 'in the present age.' The reason that Christians are free to radically give away money when needs are evident is because they are now members of a community that will do the same for them, should they ne in want....
In your life or the life of someone else, have you seen how the strength of a Christian community encourages and supports generosity?
PRAYER: Lord, to live as a rugged individualist is not your will for me, and it leaves me vulnerable. Change my heart and strengthen the church so we, your people, can truly be members of one another. Amen
From Tim Keller, Proverbs, God's Wisdom For Navigating Life
NOTE: I had planned to do a post on a Christian perspective on Henley's Invictus. However, my computer screen has gone haywire and may be finished. Can't do that post until I get it fixed. Thanks for coming by.
WE'RE ALL READY FOR A LIGHT-HEARTED, FUN AD TO WIND THINGS UP AFTER A BRUTAL SENATE RACE in which the voters have been assaulted as much as the candidates.
Marsha and Darryl are lightning things up and delivering the NASCAR vote and beyond. I love it! Have already voted for Marsha for Senate and Bill Lee for governor. Now, let's take it on home, Marsha and Darrell!
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He
will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no
more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for
the former things have passed away." And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am
making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words
are trustworthy and true." And he said to me, "It is
done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the
thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without
payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Thought for the Day
As I read a passage like this I wonder at the audacity of it.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth..." that is a breathtaking
statement leaving us wondering how the old will be subsumed by something
utterly new and holy. Yet this is the end toward which the whole of
Scripture points. We can only marvel at the grace and majesty of the
living God and realize that this side of our own transition to eternity
the hows and whys of this happening cannot be answered. But there is a
promise within this passage to which we can cling, "Behold, the dwelling
place of God is with man, humanity." As he makes all things new the
redeemed community of God's people will accompany him and the Jesus, the
Alpha and the Omega, who won our salvation. No wonder this is one of
the key readings for All Saints' Day.
Thanksgiving for the Day
Without knowing precisely what it means for all things to be
made new, it is through the Cross of Jesus that this will happen for us
and we can bring gratitude humbly before him.
Intercession for the Day
Let us each pray that we may be ready for the day of our departing this life for the world that is to come.
He and his besainted, long-suffering wife are visiting family who have just moved there. Exactly what he needs to go with the new Tesla, now dry docked quietly at home in Grand Junction.
But then, not to leave well enough alone, he emails this pic which undoubtedly he thinks is hilarious....married guy humor.....but us womenfolk think is utterly puerile.
THERE ARE THOSE WHO SEEM TO ACCEPT CHRIST AS THEIR SAVIOR, BUT THEN LATER RECANT. They were never saved in the first place. If a person truly has a supernatural salvation experience, they can never lose it. Never.
But, Pastor John Piper does the heavy lifting with a terrifying, unpopular message in today's all-about-love church. It's a false religion that rejects judgment: Before You Bail On Jesus, from Paul's Letter to Timothy @ Desiring God.
GOD LEFT PROBLEMS IN THE PROMISED LAND TO TEST HIS PEOPLE, ASSAY THEM, THEN TRAIN AND STRENGTHEN THEM. Every problem we're going through has a purpose. Crises show what we have become over time.
As Christians, we better toughen up, because war and battles are coming our way.
I HAVE JUST RETURNED FROM FOUR INTENSE DAYS WITH STEVE JIMENEZ, AUTHOR OF THE BOOK OF MATT IN LARAMIE, WY. It is the 20 year commemoration of the horrendous beating murder of Matthew Shephard in October, 1998, outside Laramie. No one denies the undeserved violence of this crime.
Jimenez was headlining a Community Forum Tuesday on the real story of the life and death of Shephard based on over ten years of investigative research and reporting on the case. He asked me to come and speak on the panel. Way above my pay grade, but I did it anyway.
As a former newspaper reporter and journalist, I became involved in this ongoing story with Jimenez, a gay man, in 2013 after reading his amazing book and meeting the author and several of the story's main characters in Laramie in the winter of 2014.
Matthew Shepard's family and The Shephard Foundation continue to vehemently deny and reject Jimenez's work while propagating the Myth of Matt's tragic death as a totally innocent gay man, targeted in a bar for being gay by two redneck strangers who hated gays and wanted to take him out. He was a man who had no responsibility whatsoever in his murder.
Nothing could be further from the truth. This murder was not about gay hate between strangers, but rather about meth addiction and drug dealing between two addicted young men---Matt Shephard and Aaron McKinney who knew each other intimately.
The fake myth was far from the real story. Yet the quick myth became the rock solid narrative and fake news story of the decade pushed by the Shepards, the MSM and the radical LGBT community. The Shephard Foundation has raised millions and millions of dollars martyring Matthew over the past 20 years and don't want the flow of money and accolades to dry up. No one can deny some good has come from this narrative. Yet the good is based on a false story of Shepherd's life and death.
Today as the Shepards donate Matthew Shephard's ashes to the crypt at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. as a martyr and global icon of gay hate, the voices of reality are slowly speaking up in Laramie and elsewhere for the truth. It is not to make Matt look bad. It is to make him look human.
Make no mistake, these people hate Jimenez's decades long work and decry him as a liar and worse.
Here below, Jimenez gives a radio interview today on this ongoing story with Glenn Woods in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
SWIFT'S VIRTUE SIGNALING, DISSING MARSHA BLACKBURN FALLS SHORT OF POLITICALLY CONVINCING.
She's a teeny bopper globalist born and raised in Pennsylvania---not Tennessee-- with New York Times' talking points. Who's next to endorse Phil? Cardi B?
Taylor's undoubtedly joined the Bloomberg Billionaire Brigade for Phil in Blue Manhattan while assuring she gets invited back to guest host SNL.
No surprises here except the damage it will do to her career.
Think she'll be going to Michael Bloomberg's Tuesday fund raising bash for Phil in Manhattan? I do and bet she'll even sing a ditty or two for liberal Dem elites and grandees.
And make no mistake, senate hopeful Bredesen is a eastern elite who wants to cram blue values and agendas down Tennesseans throats cause we're not smart enough to know what's good for us.
NO MATTER HOW MORAL WE THINK WE ARE, NO MATTER HOW RELIGIOUS, DISCIPLINED OR CHURCH-GOING, each person who comes into a relationship with the Living Christ, comes through a supernatural experience--the new birth--which bring a new aliveness to Christ.
I'm a southern Christian conservative with a degree in civil & environmental engineering and a passion for the truth of God's Word, writing, hiking, investing, fly fishing, cooking and the great outdoors. My favorite tech invention = spellcheck. There are no such things as rights without responsibility, a free lunch, cheap grace, man-made climate change, successful government engineering, or figuring out when life begins. We're hurling towards the abyss with only One Life-Line: it's not botox, a "living" Constitution, celebrity president, or making nice with Iran. Meanwhile, God gave us His Word, His Son, Grace Upon Grace, family/friends and the greatest country in the world to live--if we can keep it. E-mail: webutante07 at gmail dot com. Thanks for coming by.
"The sin that is most destructive in our life right now is the one we are most defensive about."
---Tim Keller
Grace Sunday
G-Boy and Girly-G Baptized In Manhattan---God Bless Them and Their Parents!
Above Jackson Hole
On the Thames
Girly-G Looks For the Queeny-B!
At the AT Headquarters
At Harper's Ferry WV (click pic)
In A Central Park State of Mind
Last Stanzas of America the Beautiful
O beautiful for pilgrim feet, Whose stern, impassioned stress A thoroughfare for freedom beat Across the wilderness! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved And mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And every gain divine!
Visit to Scotland
G-Boy Tractors Around Scotland With His Late Great-Grandpapa, Fred
