A Profound Revelation

This is one of the most profound Easter thoughts I have read or heard this Easter. I know and love this man and sometimes I think he stumbles into truth at this level by accident. That's not criticism. This is a revelation that only comes by the Spirit of God and not by study or some book or another.

Barry Kolb who pastors First Lutheran Church in Texarkana Texas wrote and probably preached this. You can read the whole thing here. But here's the key excerpt:

BUT FRIENDS—GOD HAS GIVEN US A KEY CALLED WORSHIP THAT CHANGES OUR PERSPECTIVE ON HEAVENLY THINGS. Satan cannot even begin to understand it, because he lost his keys long ago! He lost all access to the purposes of God the moment he rebelled. And he has been frantically trying to bluff his way to victory ever since!

Worship is the key that lifts you up to God’s perspective. The higher you rise in worship, the smaller the devil & his kingdom look! When you see things from Heaven’s perspective, the one opening the scroll which controls the ages is not just a slain Lamb but a strong Lion! Once John understood this, he could stop weeping!

Jesus was not just the Lamb slain in Rev 5 or the Lamb slain at Calvary—He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world! His “temporary defeat” had ALWAYS been part of God’s plan for ultimate victory!

AND SATAN TOOK THE BAIT!

After Calvary, Satan & his demons had just 3 short days to celebrate their killing of God’s latest “prophet” before GOD WALKED INTO HELL. Satan was puzzled & asked, “God, what are you doing here? You said that, since the fall of man, death, Hell & the grave would be my domain! Who gave You the authority to come in here?”

God replied, “Don’t you know? YOU gave me the authority you crucified me at Calvary!”

Satan screamed, “What do you mean? That was just another prophet named Jesus!”

God said, “No, that wasn’t just another prophet—it was ME!” And at that moment, Satan understood some Scripture that had probably gnawed at him for centuries!

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

James 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—& shudder.

ALL SATAN DID THE DAY HE KILLED THE LAMB WAS TO UNVEIL THE LION! And what he didn’t know has been revealed to us by God’s Spirit (1 Cor 2:10).

Revelation 1:17-18 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me & said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First & the Last. 18I am the Living One; I was dead& behold I am alive for ever & ever! And I hold the keys of death & hell.

To understand the profundity of this all, here's the key, Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead, yet he is revealed in Revelation as the Lamb (son) but is also in reality fully God the Father (Lion). I know that this trinity thing is hard to understand but when you come to grips with the reality that all of God is in all of God all the time you grasp that there is no hierarchy. There is a unity of the Godhead centered in Jesus. The spirit of whom is the Father in Heaven and the dwelling among us as the "never leaving or forsaking us" God, is the Holy Spirit yet all are present in Jesus - the Lion and the Lamb. When we worship, we worship Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy means set apart, unlike anything or anyone else, unique, absolutely other.

As we fix our focus on the Person of Jesus we begin to come to grips with the fullness of the Godhead. Lion and the Lamb. The fullness of the Trinity, understood in Jesus.

I won't try to express it any further. This is one of those words that is unspeakable and full of Glory when it starts to dawn on you.

My Friend Barry, You have lurched into a profound truth you may not understand how rich it really is.

Thanks for making my day better.

Common Sense on Peak Oil

Most People believe in the myth of Peak Oil.

It's best understood by hearing what this man has to say.

Wind farms a new threat for rare whooping cranes

This story is so typical. I have been against the money spent and subsidies given for really stupid technologies. I love our President but this I hold against him.

I wish they would give us our tax dollars back and take those eyesores down.

Read the whole article.

Excerpts:

We would hate to see any collisions with whooping cranes," said Laurie Jodziewicz, the association's manager of siting policy.

But she said the wind industry, which is now in 34 states and provided about 1 percent of the nation's energy last year, will continue to grow in the crane's migration corridor and shouldn't be subject to regulations that don't apply to other industries.

Stehn said wind farms could also become problematic if they discourage the cranes from stopping in a known area and force them to seek other stopping grounds.

"Will there be food in that area?" he asked. "Will there be predators?"

Stehn said it was likely inevitable that whooping cranes would be harmed by the wind industry. But he said wind companies could take steps "to make up for the negative."

From the comments:

John Doe and Alden, unfortunately, whooping cranes aren't the only threatened or endangered species potentially impacted by wind farms. Lesser prairie chickens, for example, will not breed in habitat that is too near a windmill. As the article points out, conservationists concerned with the potential impacts are not trying to bring a halt to new wind energy; they are simply trying to have simple "adjustments" made to reduce any potential negative impact (i.e. marking power lines or avoiding known habitat).

I mean, we have built way too many of these abominations. And we get 1% of unreliable power from them. If we doubled we'd get TWO PERCENT.

There's be no room for anyone anywhere if this keeps up.

DUMB DUMB DUMB.

This was stupid at the beginning and gets dumber every day.

Crying Real Croc Tears

Obama complaining about that mean press. WAHHHH

Life Turns on a FEW Significant Insights (Wisdoms or Hinges)

I had always heard that big things turn on small hinges. Today in a conversation with my best friend in all the world who has a new job I told him I would write on what I have learned from life regarding his situation in his new job:

From Loehle Gast, "Treat every person as if their heart were breaking because it probably is". People carry baggage from relationship to relationship. They have been shamed, pained or severely disappointed. Until they come to grips with and put these behind them under the blood of Jesus they can never be all they hoped to become. Life is about getting over our shames, pains and disappointments.

From Vance (I don't remember his first name anymore):

Never sanction an incompetent act. Forgive but don't sanction. There is a difference. The reason: things that are rewarded get done and are repeated. IF you want to break a dog from jumping on you never pet it or scratch it's ears or even talk to it. Ignore it and give it a knee in the chest. It'll figure it out. Same with people. Never sanction incompetence.

Life's Lessons I have learned: Struggles people have that others consider weaknesses may not be weaknesses at least to them. They may just be struggles. My struggle is not your struggle. My struggle might look like weakness to you but is not to me. Your struggle may look like weakness to me but is not to you. Not all struggles are weaknesses. In fact what I consider weakness in others sometimes they consider strengths. I have a friend who's biggest weakness I see is tolerance and compassion. He thinks they are strengths. I see them as a lack of a spiritual compass. I love this brother and I know he sees my passion and single vision a weakness. I see them as strengths. So, I have learned NOT to judge others for the weakness I see in them.

Be careful in selecting people you invest in, particularly in key positions. Insecure people are bad team members. Insecurity is most often demonstrated by talking too much, taking offense easily, being wounded quickly and never able to get past themselves and their self importance. They just don't work well on a team. I have been that person. I work hard to not be.

There are Four Levels of Unteachability. If a person just won't change or seems to resist being instructed there are usually 4 levels. Each is more difficult than the last. I find that when I chance upon one of these people and they keep pushing back I determine not to try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes my time, makes me get down in the mud with the pig and it annoys the pig.

1. They don't recognize there is a problem and therefore don't know why they need to hear what is being said.

2. They don't actually understand the problem and therefore are incapable of being taught

3. Even if they could be taught or are apparently willing to be taught they are not capable of doing anything about the problem and know it, so they remain unteachable

4. They really can't do anything about the problem so to protect their ego they remain apparently unteachable.

WHEN YOU TAKE A NEW JOB

Most people when they come into a new job or even a new position in the company they are in need to be able to process thru until they become productive. Sometimes to get to step 3 can take 5 years. Some people never get past step 1 or 2. There are 3 clear steps in growth when someone takes on a new job.

1. Familiarity - This includes where's the Bathroom, who are the people, who are the key players, what are the politics of the organization, what are the dynamics, what is the history, why have there been successes and failures before.

2. Efficiency - This is the level at which a person becomes competent in what they do, they learn the procedures and system pretty well. They need to think about it but they get good results. They make it all happen. Efficient in doing what they do according to procedure.

3. Creativity - This is the level, and it takes time to get here, where the ability to do what needs to be done flows out of a creative inner core. In what ways can we do this better. Creative discontent drives the person who is in this mode. Every person should strive to become so competent until they reach this level.

Last, there are some truths only experience can teach. If any person does these five things, they will always succeed:

1. Don't just work at your job, work to be really really good at something. Not everything, something.

2. Be responsive to those who are above you in the company and do all you can to to EARN their trust.

3. Underpromise and Overdeliver.

4. Be an encourager and a team builder to everyone with whom you work.

5. Keep your word, never lie, let your yes be yes.

I hope that helps, I didn't make any of this up, they have been hammered them out on the anvil of experience and instruction.

The Future Animitronic Political Party (Makes the R's and D's Look Pretty Good)

Thanks to AJ

Put on your Easter Parka

I know this is an early Easter.  Earliest for many years.  Full moon and all.  BUT, this is silly.  It's 30 degrees, snowing like a banshee and people are staying off the roads so they don't crash.

 

That seems like a good idea. 

So, if you were thinking of a nice new Easter Outfit, with an nice new Easter hat, I think an Easter Parka would be more appropriate.   

 

I hate this global warming thing.  A couple nites ago there was a fellow on Coast to Coast who wrote a book called not by fire but by ice.  Lots of internet chatter about it here and here.

 

I don't know if we are going to freeze to death, I am cold now.  But, this climate thing is changing.

 

We are going to survive (or not).  The part that makes it particularly dire is that this is how come there are Mastadon's found whole in Siberia.  Quick frozen.  Dr Felix says that when the big global cooling thing hit it will hit all of a sudden, we will be under 30 feet of snow and all die in a few days. 

 

So enjoy Easter.  Repent, for according to Dr Felix the end is near.

Obama's Obfuscating Outrage

Pat Buchanan may not always speak for me, but he always tells the truth. I agreed with him on trade, on culture decline and on the origins of our nations greatness.

When he made a take on Obama's speech I decided it was time to tell the truth.

Obama's thesis when you read between the lines was the same old bull I hear all the time from "Victims" in Chicago. Watch and newscast and the same cast of characters come up.

It's all Whitey's fault. We poor folks are oppressed by the white man. So the hate speech that Jeremiah Wright, spiritual advisor and pastor to Obama is all Whitey's fault. I don't buy it and neither does Pat.

Read what he wrote today. Read the WHOLE THING. I'm sick and tired of this blame everyone except the guilty parties.

A Brief for Whitey
by Patrick J. Buchanan

How would he pull it off? I wondered.

How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?

How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"

My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.

Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were "controversial," and "divisive," and "racially charged," reflecting a "distorted view of America."

But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.

Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.

The "white community," said Barack, must start "acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds ... ."

And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?

The "white community" must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with "ladders of opportunity" that were "unavailable" to Barack's and the Rev. Wright's generations.

What is wrong with Barack's prognosis and Barack's cure?

Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."

Was "white racism" really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said -- that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.

Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.

Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.

This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the '60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Barack talks about new "ladders of opportunity" for blacks.

Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for "deserving" white kids.

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

This would be a big DUH! 'Believers are happier than atheists'

From this article:

By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:38am GMT 18/03/2008

People who believe in God are happier than agnostics or atheists, researchers claimed yesterday.

A report found that religious people were better able to cope with disappointments such as unemployment or divorce than non-believers.

Moreover, they become even happier the more they pray and go to church, claims the study by Prof Andrew Clark and Dr Orsolya Lelkes.

The research, presented at the Royal Economic Society's annual conference, echoes academic studies that have found religion can improve people's sense of wellbeing.

Using data from Britain and Europe, the study found believers enjoyed higher levels of satisfaction and suffered less psychological damage from unemployment, divorce or the death of a partner.

However, it also found that religious people across Europe tended to be more socially conservative and opposed to Government intervention in areas such as employment.

Believers, for example, were less likely to look for a new job if they were out of work.

Countries with a more religious electorate had lower unemployment benefits.

The study, Deliver Us From Evil: Religion as Insurance, found that less than a sixth of churchgoers in Britain believe it is better to divorce than stay in an unhappy marriage.

The authors of the study said: "Religion tempers the impact of adverse life events."

Now it Begins

This morning in the very wee hours spring sprung.   When I was a kid we had a poem we loved to chant. It went like this: "spring has sprung, the grass is riz… I wonder where the birdies is." We thought it was hilarious. Of course we were just kids. Right now, it is March, howling winds, cold temperatures and wind chill factors that make the twenty-five mile an hour winds seem like the Antarctic.

 

What this has to do with anything is that it's a new day.  I guess every day is.  But this one is new for lots of reasons.  Convergence.  Easter and spring.  Death gives way to resurrection.  Cold and barren gives way to fruitfulness.

 

And, being an old commodity trader, the long looked for bubble is bursting.  It's time.  If I had any guts I'd get in on it.

 

Oil and gold going down, dollar going up, the DJIA won't do much, this is irrelevant to that.

 

In the long run this is good news.  See Larry Kudlow's writing below.

 

I never worry very much, first there's little you can do about it and second even if there were you wouldn't.

 

So live your life, go to church and enjoy it all.

George W Bush's Magnificent Leadership

God bless our great President and his Leadership. Larry Kudlow tells the truth we who admire this man all know and those on the left are blinded to. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. This is Maundy Thursday. The crowd that admired Jesus last Sunday are getting ready to Crucify him tomorrow. Things never change. Can't we have four more years? I'm gonna miss Pres Bush.

---

March 20, 2008, 7:24 a.m.

Why Not Optimism?
And by the way: Who you calling Hoover?

By Larry Kudlow

What exactly is wrong with an optimistic president who has confidence in the long-run future of the American economy?

President Bush took this stance in a recent interview with me and at the Economic Club of New York. He told me, “Like any free market, there’s also downturns, and we’re in one. But I am confident in the long-term strength of our economy.”

Optimism, after all, is one of the few levers our chief executive can use every day. By remaining optimistic, Bush is borrowing a page from Ronald Reagan, and rejecting a whole book of malaise from Jimmy Carter.

Bush is dealing with the housing and mortgage credit virus. But he will avoid anything that will doom future economic growth. He wants to stop overzealous regulatory legislation that will turn the U.S. back thirty years. And he won’t bow to tax hikes and trade protectionism. While the rest of the world is embracing free-market American-style capitalism, he won’t lurch left with big-government programs.

Home prices must adjust lower to end the housing downturn. And it’s precisely these lower prices that will allow young families to afford new homes. Prices may fall, but homes don’t go away. Markets, not government, are the best way to sort this out.

Bush gets all this. And yet he’s attacked for his free-market moorings. Liberal columnist Maureen Dowd says he’s “plum loco.” She and Sen. Charles Schumer call him the new Herbert Hoover.

But let’s take a closer look.

It was Hoover who signed the Smoot-Hawley trade-protectionism act and overturned the Coolidge-Mellon tax cuts. These disastrous measures — along with monetary contraction from a fledgling Federal Reserve — turned a recession into a depression. FDR didn’t help matters, either. His misbegotten tax hikes on successful earners and businesses, and his alphabet agencies to control the industrial and farming sectors, extended the depression and held unemployment near 20 percent.

Today, it’s the Hill-Bama Democrats who want to raise taxes on successful producers. And they want to turn protectionist by reopening NAFTA and stopping any new open-trade treaties. Schumer himself has spent years bashing China, threatening the nation with huge tariffs if its currency policies don’t conform to demands.

If anyone has resurrected the party of Hoover, it’s today’s Democrats. They’ve adopted pessimism as their national pastime, and want us to believe we’re already in a long and deep recession.

But not so fast.

The growing export sector is showing considerable strength. So are agriculture, energy, industrials, and international infrastructure. The e-forecasting economic service says GDP had a small gain in February and a positive reading of 1.5 percent over the past six months. The economy isn’t collapsing. And while it may be flat, there’s no deep recession.

Hooveresque monetary contraction? It’s not there, either. After numerous Fed easing moves, the three-month growth of the monetary base has shifted from minus-4 percent last December to plus-6 percent in mid-March. The broader M2 money supply has registered an 11 percent annual gain over the past three months.

Inflation remains a worry. And despite dissenting votes by Reserve Bank presidents in Dallas and Philadelphia, the Fed slashed its target rate by 75 basis points this week. But the Fed’s statement put a greater emphasis on inflation — which has risen to 4.5 percent — and the inflation-sensitive gold price dropped $65 on the news.

Big inflations cause deep recessions, and hopefully the central bank is moving back toward price stability. In fact, now would be a perfect time for the Treasury to publicly support a stronger dollar, and to conduct some dollar diplomacy with the G7 nations to defend the greenback.

On the housing-credit front, University of Michigan economist Mark Perry, using data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, points out that of the 46 million mortgages outstanding, only 2.04 percent were in the foreclosure process in last year’s fourth quarter. And most of those were confined to Nevada, Florida, Michigan, and Indiana.

Meanwhile, commercial mortgage delinquencies ended 2007 near record lows. And get this: Over the past year bank loans to businesses have grown by $250 billion. During the credit crunch of the early 1990s, these loans fell by $60 billion. Believe it or not, credit is still available, even to small businesses.

In the stock market, the best-performing sectors since the January 22 bottom have been transports (trucking and railroads), basic materials, energy, and industrials. These economic-sensitive areas point to a solid near-term pickup in economic growth.

Even John McCain is picking up. New polls from Zogby and Rasmussen give him a 6 to 8 point lead over Hill-Bama — a nod to Reagan-Bush pro-growth policies instead of high-tax, protectionist big-government from the Democrats.

So I’m glad President Bush is taking an optimistic view. That’s called leadership.

— Larry Kudlow, NRO’s Economics Editor, is host of CNBC’s Kudlow & Company and author of the daily web blog, Kudlow’s Money Politic$.

The Wall Street Journal gets it Right on Marriage

I have written and counseled others a great deal on marriage. While not an expert, I'm experienced. I have walked some pretty rough roads and know where the potholes are. In today's Wall Street Journal there is an article that for the most part I agree with. Read it here.

It starts:

As the national divorce rate plateaus at historically high levels, many people yearn to understand what makes a successful marriage. This has given rise in recent years to an outpouring of confusing studies and surveys attempting to nail down the odds of particular types of couples staying together.

HOW TO MAKE A MARRIAGE WORK?

• What are your tricks for keeping a marriage together? Or, how would you have done things differently? Share your thoughts and experiences with Sue Shellenbarger.

• What are the benefits of marriage? Diane Sollee, the founder of SmartMarriages.com, a coalition based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on couples education, answers the question and offers tips to people who want to be a better spouse.

Which couples have the best chances? Depending on which study you believe -- they vary widely in quality -- you must get lots of education, earn a lot of money, marry over age 25, live in a Blue State, be white, or be a Presbyterian or a Catholic (but only a faithful one who attends Mass). What doesn't help: being a born-again Christian, having daughters instead of sons, having divorced parents or being born in Oklahoma. (Pilloried in the media a few years ago for its high divorce rate, Oklahoma has mounted a state-funded marriage-education program that has enrolled 133,000 people so far, an official says.)

Read the whole thing, It's pretty balanced.

Obama = Hypocrisy

From Fox News and Newsmax:

It took Barack Obama more than a year to repudiate his former pastor's racially charged anti-American tirades, but when it came to denouncing Don Imus for his racial slurs against the Rutgers girls basketball team, it took Obama only a week to demand the shock jock be fired, Fox News notes.

In a major speech Tuesday, Obama condemned the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's shocking verbal assaults against the U.S. dating back to 2001.

But in April of last year, Obama was quick to demand Imus' ouster for making a racially insensitive remark.

“There’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude,” Obama told ABC News in an April 11 interview demanding Imus' resignation.

Obama told ABC in the interview he would never appear again on Imus’ show after Imus set off a firestorm of outrage when he called members of the women’s basketball team at Rutgers University “nappy-headed hos” on his popular morning talk show.

“He didn’t just cross the line,” Obama raged then. “He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America.”

Obama has downplayed Wright for Wright's insensitive remarks, saying he has done good work with the poor and AIDS victims. Yet Obama did not afford the same respect to Imus, who has devoted considerable energy to helping children with cancer, wounded war veterans, and others.

Obama's pastor has blamed the government for HIV, cast the country as institutionally racist, and said God should damn the United States.

But Obama, who Fox recalled has had a 20-year relationship with Wright, claimed in his speech Tuesday that he had no idea Wright had ever expressed such incendiary remarks.

When some of Wright’s remarks were publicized last year, Obama rescinded an invitation for Wright to speak at his Feb. 10, 2007, presidential announcement, but had failed to fully address the matter until Tuesday's speech.

When Fox News asked about the different responses to his pastor and to Imus, Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor questioned the premise of the comparison and defended Obama’s response in each case. “He spoke out both times, so it’s entirely consistent,” he told Foxnews.com Tuesday. While Obama didn’t condemn Wright’s views outright until last Friday, Vietor said Obama had started putting the issue to rest long before now.

“He denounced specific comments months ago and he gave a thoughtful speech today,” Vietor told Fox News Tuesday.

Get Real - The losses in Iraq are minisucle compared to what whe have gained

Please, if you have the courage, look at this.

The losses from just battles in earlier wars.

NOW, tell me that the price in Iraq is too high.

What President Bush said today that really matters

“The surge has done more than turn the situation in Iraq around -- it has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror. For the terrorists, Iraq was supposed to be the place where al Qaeda rallied Arab masses to drive America out. Instead, Iraq has become the place where Arabs joined with Americans to drive al Qaeda out. In Iraq, we are witnessing the first large-scale Arab uprising against Osama bin Laden, his grim ideology, and his murderous network. And the significance of this development cannot be overstated. The terrorist movement feeds on a sense of inevitability, and claims to rise on the tide of history. The accomplishments of the surge in Iraq are exposing this myth and discrediting the extremists. When Iraqi and American forces finish the job, the effects will reverberate far beyond Iraq's borders. Osama bin Laden once said: "When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse." By defeating al Qaeda in Iraq, we will show the world that al Qaeda is the weak horse."

I'm really gonna miss that man. How bout just forgetting the elections and going for 4 more years one time. HUH?

Thank God George Bush has a Compass that Always Points Norh

Today is the fifth year since we invaded Iraq. So much GOOD has come of that. I have written much on this over the years I won't try to rehearse it all once again.

His speech today was clear on that. I appreciate his so much.

One thing he didn't say and couldn't say is the war in Iraq has begun the disintegration of a religion that has been hijacked by the devil. Islam.

I know there are sincere moderate Muslims. There are sincere moderate Jehovah's Witness. Both are completely wrong but they are sincere.

It's when they are sincere, wrong and demonic when the blow people up with suicide bombers that it becomes evil. Make no mistake Radical Islam is evil.

So, thank God for George Bush and his courage. Thank God for the courage of our men and women in arms.

The world is a better place because of the sacrifice we still pay.

Read about his speech here:

I'm sure full texts will be available soon

Spring is TRYING to Spring

What an interesting and discouraging spring. This picture below is a sprout of a plant, probably a Hyacinth, trying to push up from a bed by the road. The snowbank JUST moved aside. Yet, under the snow with no sunshine, no heat, no reason, the little sprout of a Hyacinth pushed up?

How come? Why? What's up with that. What caused that little guy to try even though everything looks desolate.


Or these just outside our bedroom window. Probably Narcissus, pushing up. At least there is no snow. But, it's cold. 22 degrees last night. What's up with that? Don't they know spring is not yet. At the appointed time is what the word KARIOS means. Maybe these are just pushing up at the appointed time.


Really, this makes no sense at all. Here is what my back yard looked like Monday PM, two days ago. St. Patty's day. Cold, snowy, wet, miserable.


The next few pictures are of vole damage. A little mouse like creature with a short tail. The prime purposes of being a vole is to be food for hawks and owls and the half dozen eagles we have in our neighborhood. I should be upset with them but I have compassion on the lowly vole.

Besides the lawn damage they do is easily and quickly reversed. I know it's unsightly for a few weeks but then, POOF it's over.

















That little hole in the ground is where they live. Look at the picture above. All this work was done under 3 feet of snow over the last few months. Hard work if you are a vole.

















The snow pulls back and reveals the damage. Except to the vole, it's not damage, it's food.

So live on little vole, I have lots of roots for you to eat. Besides, your life is short and your purpose is menial.

I have a friend who takes a lot of great pictures of Nature and does so with skill. Visit her blog.

PS: If she writes anything political, she is way way on the other side of the political fence from me. She does admire nature and I think she has a good perspective on all that.

What Obama's "Conversation" Really Teaches Us and Why it is Useless

Victor Davis Hanson clears things up. He identifies 6 things that Obama's talk today was meant to teach us. It does none of these things. He just dug the apologistic hole deeper and deeper. He managed to drive the wedge Wright gave him between us all. From Hanson's Piece:


Obama tried to convince us that:

1) The good that Rev. Wright and Trinity Church did far outweighs his controversial comments, which were taken out of context as “snippets” and aired in the “endless loop” on conservative outlets.

2) We are all at times racists and the uniquely qualified Obama is our valuable mirror of that ugliness: Wright may say things like “God damn America” or “Dirty Word” Israel or “Clarence Colon,” but then it must be balanced by other truths like Obama’s own grandmother who also expresses fear of black males (his grandmother’s private angst is thus of the same magnitude as Wright’s outbursts broadcast to tens of thousands).

3) We don’t understand Wright’s history and personal narrative. But as someone who grew up in the hate-filled and racist 1960s, it was understandable that he was bound to mature into his present angry anti-American, anti-Israel, anti-white mentality. (As if all blacks did?)

4) Indeed, Wright does nothing that much different from radio-talk show hosts and those of the Reagan Coalition who thrive on racial resentments. But whereas Wright has cause as a victim, his counterparts are opportunists who play on white fears.

5) And if we wish to continue to express worries about Obama’s past relationships with Wright — never delineated, never explained in detail — in trite and mean-spirited ways such as replaying the Wright tapes, then we have lost a rare opportunity to follow Obama into a post-racial America.

6) We, both black and white alike, are victims, victims of an insensitive system, a shapeless, anonymous “it” that brings out the worst in all of us — but it will at last end with an Obama candidacy.

The message? Some of us are never quite responsible for what we say. And Obama has no responsibility to explain the inexplicable of how he closely tied himself to someone of such repugnant and racist views. We will never hear “It’s time for Rev. Wright and me to part our separate ways, and here’s why.”

Instead, the entire Wright controversy evolved due to America’s failure to understand the Wright’s past and the present status of race. No doubt, the next time some public figure utters a racist comment — and it will happen — we will then expect to hear about context that explains and excuses such an apparent hurtful outburst.

Obama is right about one thing: We are losing yet another opportunity to talk honestly about race, to hold all Americans to the same standards of public ethics and morality, and to emphasize that no one gets a pass peddling vulgar racism, or enabling it by failing to disassociate himself from its source — not Rev. Wright, not even the eloquent, but now vapid, Barack Obama.

AMEN TO VDH and NOT to Obama.

Some Responses from Obama's Big Race Speech - UNCHAINED AUDACITY

Rev Wright has a soup kitchen and Mussolini kept the trains on time. The liberal argument is always that it doesn't matter what you spew into the dark or do with your right hand, as long as you do Good Works with your left.

The last I checked, he wasn't running for President of Day Care. Furthermore, I'd like to see the books of that day care: did it make money?

Obama has laid it all out. It's YOUR FAULT WHITEY! You've never faced injustice, you've never had to struggle. Tell that to my grandparents from Norway and Germany who lived in a sod hut in Dakota. They worked 7 days a week. They did the best They could. They didn't make excuses! I'm This is hate-speech, same as Wright!

Pathetic, racist, blaming the white man, conservatives, talk show hosts...blah blah blah...

He may as well kiss his dreams good-bye....the audacity of his speech is breath taking...I know the msm will love it of course, but the normal man out here won't.

He stuck up for Wright and his hate speech when it comes right down to it....and himself.

I do not care how the msm spins this.

I now pronounce Obama - Toast.

AMEN

NRO Get's It Right

March 18, 2008, 4:00 a.m.

The Audacity of Hate

By the Editors

‘The audacity of hope” just got less hopeful. Senator Barack Obama is facing questions about his closest spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, from whom he cribbed the title of his second book and rallying cry of his presidential campaign.

The controversy has forced Obama to schedule a speech in Philadelphia today where he will address race and the campaign. Over the weekend, he lamented how “the forces of division have started to raise their ugly heads again,” although nothing has been as ugly or divisive as what Rev. Wright has said.

In recent days, we have seen videos of Wright, Obama’s longtime pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, preaching a vile anti-Americanism from the pulpit. “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America,’” Wright told his congregation in 2003. “No, no, no — God damn America. That’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

On September 16, 2001, just five days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, Wright told his congregation, “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. . . . We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.” Wright referred to America — “white America” — as “the U.S. of KKK A.”

In a sermon this January, Obama’s pastor criticized Hillary Clinton and disparaged the idea that black voters should support her. “Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was ridin’ dirty.”

Obama dismissed previously reported incendiary comments by his pastor by likening him to an uncle who says disagreeable things. But you don’t chose your obnoxious uncles, and you certainly don’t put them on advisory committees of your campaign (Wright is now off Obama’s African-American Religious Leadership Committee).

In the face of video evidence of Wright’s angry rantings, Obama has attempted to distance himself from his choice of mentors by repudiating his pastor’s “inflammatory” and “appalling” remarks. “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation,” Obama said in a statement Friday night. “When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign. I made it clear at the time that I strongly condemned his comments. But because Rev. Wright was on the verge of retirement, and because of my strong links to the Trinity faith community, where I married my wife and where my daughters were baptized, I did not think it appropriate to leave the church.”

But that left the question unanswered: Even if Obama heard none of the specific statements at issue, is he telling us he went to that church for 20 years and is only now aware of Rev. Wright’s venomous views? The enthusiastic reaction of his fellow congregants apparent on the videos contradicts Obama’s incredible claim that Wright’s anti-American, racist rantings are an anomaly. Perhaps Michelle Obama was more attentive during their pastor’s sermons. There is an echo of them in her complaints that America is “downright mean,” and her comment that she has been proud of her country as an adult only since her husband began to have political success.

In his statement, Obama explained, “And while Rev. Wright’s statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in; on my values, judgment, and experience to be President of the United States.” The problem for Obama is that the length and depth of his relationship with the Rev. Wright and his unconvincing attempts to distance himself from his mentor tell Americans far more about his values and judgment than his compelling campaign speeches about racial harmony do.

The Hillary Clinton campaign is loath to raise the Rev. Wright issue and John McCain even apologized after his campaign staff e-mailed around an oped about Rev. Wright’s ravings. But Obama’s association with the pastor is a legitimate issue that — if Obama is the Democratic nominee — will get, and deserve, even more scrutiny in the general election. Super-delegates beware.

Breakout = Breakthrough at Lord of Life

I wish you could have been in Church with us Sunday.  It was magnificent.  We experienced the presence of God in ways that are new, fresh and unusual in that place. 

 

It's not due to any one thing.  It's due to hunger.  It's due to discontent.  It's due to challenge.  It's due to the new thing God is doing among us.

 

I think it was essential that things changed as they have.  It was painful.  We still are trying to recover.  We will.  What we have to do now is guard against the potential to be dragged into the water and drown by the Gators of the past who want to kill this move of God. 

 

The gators aren't bad people, they are people who are well meaning who don't understand what it looks like when the Spirit of God is released in worship and the proclamation of the Word of God.   They believe they are ordained of God to bring balance.

 

Unfortunately Balance looks like:

 

Faith balanced with Unbelief

Hope balanced with Realism

Joy balanced with Restraint

Passion balanced with Stoicism

Hunger balanced with Spiritual Nibbling

 

And you can create your own balances. I can hear the old gators saying, don't go too far, don't get too excited, don't let it loose too far, we have to stay in control.

 

Where is it written that we are to be controlled in our worship of God??  Did Mary of Bethany control herself?

 

The gators criticized her too.

 

So, to those of you from Lord of Life who read this blog.  Let's get out of balance on fire for God.  He has great things planned for us.  He hasn't told me what they are.  I just know he does.

 

This is a new precious day we have to live out.  Let's experience heaven on earth right here on this side of the veil.

 

Who knows what will happen when believers are set on fire and worship God without fear or restraint,  I'm hoping it will scare people, I'm hoping in fact it will scare the gators away.

 

This is a new day in God for Lord of Life.  Let's enjoy it and take back all the territory the Devil stole from us.

 

When we burn with passion for Jesus others will jump in the fire with us.  What a glorious sight that will be.   Let's go for it.  We have nothing to lose but our fears.

Cold, Damp and Delayed

I am convinced that the weather is changing.  Not for the better.

 

Colder, wetter, later spring. 

 

Delay in the season.  Compresses the time.  I'm OK but the trees are very confused.  They think it's spring except it's cold as heck and snowing.

 

It is. 

 

And I'm supposed to find 600 3' black walnut trees tomorrow.  I guess I will.  And I have a difficult situation to resolve.  And and and.

 

It's what I do.  I'm driven and constrained by the weather.

 

What I need is some global warming,  Al Gore where are you?

 

Murderer in the Pulpit?

I wonder if the Reverend Jeremiah Wright in his rhetoric of racism and god damn America has bothered to consider 1 John 3:15.

I have thought about what I might have said to him if I were his friend and he preached the kinds of things he did.

I would ask if he Hated the people who "Oppressed" him. The verse says: Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. Here's a pretty good study on all that.

If after that question he didn't recant his rants as I have heard and read them, I would ask him to step down, publicly rebuke him, and denounce him.

Of course that would have also meant i would have left that Church.

I submit, that's what Obama didn't do and for that reason he is not qualified to be President of the USA.

UPDATE: Like all true apostates, Wright Hates Jews and Israel.

Look at this

Imagine a white candidate went to a church for 20 years where the minister preached that blacks were the problem with America or other racist theories on par with what Wright says about Jews, America, Whites, etc. And that candidate said he had close relationship with that minister, akin to what you have said your relationship with Wright has been.

Would you accept as an explanation or excuse that the candidate 'didn't hear those things'? That the media was cherry picking quotes? That 'he's like a crazy uncle'? Or you find membership in such a church and a relationship with such a minister disqualifying?

Wouldn't a white candidate who went to such a church be unelectable and rightly so?

Why do we need prophets?

Kim Clement is one of the Prophets in the World today that I trust. His explanations of how God speaks to him and this on the WHY need of prophets is really well said. If you are a teacher or preacher you need to understand this. Color Highlighting is my own.



Kim Clement:

"Chaotic Randomness of Pure Experience--Revelation Comes Upon Us with the Chaos of Life"

I was recently being interviewed on a national television show and was asked the question, "Why would we need prophets to speak to us today?" My answer was simple and to the point. As Christians, we are to be "fed and led" to become His voice--fed by the Word and led by the Spirit, because unless the Spirit alights (settles) on the Word, there is no voice.

Let me tell you why I believe this. There are many lazy people in the Church and, for them, the easiest way to hear God is to be fed by someone who is "close" to God. Psychics are extremely popular in the world because people don't know how to hear for themselves, and so they hope the psychics will deliver a message about their present state or their future. Unfortunately, this mindset has crept into the Church and, actually, the prophet has been demoted to a spiritual psychic. The fact is, the only reason that it is important that you hear God speaking to you is so that you can become a voice yourself--an expression, NOT an opinion.

Don't be hasty to speak on God's behalf, for there is always time to utter a word but never time to take it back. Secrecy has the feel of divinity. There are times when silence is deafening and speaks more than a thousand words. We often waste time giving words and truth to the ignorant. Even our Lord taught us that there were times to share parables with the masses, and then there were times to share deeper truths with the few that had an ear to hear.

Luis de Gongora, Spain's great Baroque poet, defended his "Solitudes" with these words: "It has been a matter of honor to me to make myself obscure to the ignorant, for that is what distinguishes the learned; to speak in a style that seems Greek to the ignorant, for precious pearls should not be cast before swine."

How many times have I been asked, "So what is God telling you about me?" and I've answered, "I don't know, but I know what He's telling me about me." The Word, as we know, is Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was doing his work as a prophet and, while baptizing many, Jesus approached him and told him that it was time for him to baptize Jesus. When John baptized Jesus (the Word), the Spirit lightened upon Him like a dove, and once this happened there was a Voice that came from Heaven that they heard clearly. This gives us a clear lesson about God's expression under the reign of Christ. The only way that you can be fed and then led is to feed on God's Word. Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." It doesn't say "proceeded," but "proceeds," which is ongoing or present.

The Three Steps of Truth

Having the Word in you is not enough. Only when the Spirit lightened upon the Word (Christ), did the Voice come from Heaven. The Spirit has to connect with the Word inside of you in order to become a voice, and depending on how much of the Word you have inside of you determines the depth of expression. Let's talk about truth. The Bible states, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." Truth requires three steps:

1. Revelation
2. Illumination
3. Inspiration

Revelation is the discovery of the truth. Illumination is the understanding of the discovered truth. Inspiration is the communication of the discovered, understood truth. These three steps have to connect; otherwise, you will have a voice that utters truth without understanding or truth without inspiration.

Truth, Without Spirit, is "Truth in the Tomb"

The Bible also says, "Your Word is truth." When God gives you truth, it is impossible to communicate the truth without having illumination, which is what the Spirit does with the Word that is inside of you. The discovery of truth is such an exciting experience and yet, for some, it is literally soul-destroying because it usually does not fit into their staple diet and daily routine. Revelation comes upon us with the chaos of life itself, reproducing the chaotic randomness of pure experience. It is unpredictable and will cause chaos in your regular, stagnant life.

In the Spirit world, it is our enemy who watches us to trip us up, and the only way that he can do this is if we lack truth and understanding. Knowledge is power, but it is not attained through the senses. It is only attained by the Spirit. Remember these words from an old teacher: "It is easy to kill a bird in a straight line, but not the one that changes its line of flight." The discovery of truth will change your line of flight a few times and completely stump your adversary who is seeking whom he may devour.

Becoming the Voice of God requires that you consume the Word. What does this mean? Many people think that reading the Bible is adequate and that nothing else is required. While there may be some truth to this, I want to take you to John 4 where Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well drawing water. During the course of their conversation, she starts making a statement that places a question about territories. She says in verses 20: "Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship."

In verses 21-24, Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father...but the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth...God is Spirit."

What I understand about this is that there are two dimensions of communication with God that ought to be applied to the issue of being "fed" by the Word: Truth and spirit. Truth without spirit is truth in "the tomb." Truth with spirit is truth in "the womb." Truth in the tomb is still truth, but it is buried, established and dead. It is historical truth. It can be resurrected, but then it still takes Spirit to resurrect it. Truth in the womb is creative truth, and at the right time will be born and will breathe and grow. So to become the voice of God, you should read the Word, indeed, but God is also a Spirit and will also speak to you. This is commonly known as "rhema," the spoken word. Following Jesus means you are going to have to HEAR HIS VOICE from HEAVEN, not ONLY FROM PAGES.

A Voice on Earth to Agree with the Voice in Heaven

Here is something very interesting. In Hebrews 1:1-3 it says, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things...and upholding all things by the word of His power..."

Acts 9:3-19 says that Saul of Tarsus was traveling to Damascus and was struck and blinded by the light, and he heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him directly. Saul calls Him "Lord" and then Jesus instructs him to go into the city to a certain house on Straight Street, to await further instruction. Why didn't Jesus just tell Saul everything at that point? Why did He withhold certain information about his future? Instead, Jesus seeks out a man by the name of Ananias and instructs him to go to Straight Street, where Saul is, and deliver a word to him. Jesus will speak truth from Heaven and from the Earth; from the Spirit and through the flesh. Read this to understand a little further:

"See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from Heaven... Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom, which cannot be shaken, let us have grace..." Hebrews 12:25-28

When Jesus spoke to Saul on the road, He spoke to him from Heaven, but when Ananias spoke to Saul, it was from the Earth. Hebrews simply says that we are "receiving" a Kingdom, which cannot be shaken. Saul of Tarsus was receiving the Kingdom, as the appointed heir of all things spoken to him, and established it on earth by speaking to him through one of his joint-heirs--Ananias.

You have the power to become the voice of God. What you need to understand is that long before Ananias spoke to Saul in the House of Judas on Straight Street, Jesus had already spoken it from Heaven. Someone on the Earth has to have a voice to AGREE with the VOICE IN HEAVEN. I want it to be you.

I am a firm believer that God blesses obedience before sacrifice. The prophet Samuel told King Saul that "to obey is greater than to sacrifice." This tells me that obedience is the key to everything we do in our walk with God. Over the years, I have discovered that when you obey God and it requires a sacrifice AS WELL, that you receive a double blessing--one for obedience and another for sacrifice.

We have been told by God that this year is a season of unique and unusual miracles, and I firmly believe it. Do something unusual so that God can do something unusual for you. In your giving, allow God to speak to you--and obey Him--even if what He told you to do seems challenging, because if you obey Him and act, so will He!

I anticipate something beautiful and wonderful to happen to you!

Kim Clement
Prophetic Image Expressions
Email: hope@kimclement.com

A Book I am Going to Buy - So Should you

Dr Herbert London has a book coming out in August. I am interested because it's thesis is one I endorse. America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion

In this timely and wide-ranging book, one of America's leading public intellectuals explores the rise of radical secular humanism as a religious experience. London shows that while secular humanism has it's saints, sinners, and even its quasi-religious rituals, it is too anemic and self-centered a philosophy of life to serve America and the West in its battle against the threat of radical Islam.

About The Author from WIKI:

London is the former John M. Olin Professor of Humanities at New York University. There he was responsible for creating the Gallatin School of Individualized Study in 1972 and was its dean until 1992. This school was organized to promote the study of "Great Books" and classic texts.

He is currently president of the Hudson Institute. In this role he was one of the judges for Human Events' Ten Most Harmful Books of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. After this list was compiled, London gave an interview about the list, his selections and the judges[1].

A Nice Birthday Gift

On My Birthday was published an article in answer to the "God Delusion". It's called

the Atheist Delusion.

I don't expect most people who read this blog will read it, but SOME will. It's pretty good.

Read it here unless you are afraid your paradigm you have carefully constructed will be disturbed.

I think there's a bug in my operating system

Working for Change means becoming Small Change

(HT: Geraghty.)

Using Haiku to explain the Rezko-Obama deal:

Big house and mortgage
A friend's money and empty lot
The deal done, Chicago winks