For anyone who wants MORE

The last few days I have been in the company of Prophets.

The prophet I tip my prophetic hat to is James (Jimmy) Hernandez.

I know I have a few pastors who read this and I want to commend him to you.

He's the real thing.

Here's Prophet James Hernandez Website.

Contact him, have him come. You'll never be sorry. The power of God thru him will change your life, your church and your ministry forever for the better. I promise.

Being a BI-worshiper

Last Night for the third night in a row Peggy and I were part of a Hispanic Church retreat at a retreat house in Elgin.

We even needed a private English translator since all of it was in Spanish.

BUT THE WORSHIP.

And the presence of God.

Magnificent.

Prophet Hernandez ministered again.

I was thinking this morning in the shower how much I loved the evening. I then was thinking about some very traditional (ie Confessional) Lutheran services I have been in during the past few months.

I was blessed by them too. I can go to any worship service anywhere and enjoy and worship in spirit and truth. Heck, I can go to a Catholic mass and enjoy myself. I understand diversity. I'm not married to any form or function. I don't like dry. I don't like wrot. Most of the time the services I have been part of are not that.

So in a way I can go both ways worship wise and do so without finding fault. Amusement perhaps sometimes, but not fault.

I think of this because of the very nasty "Discussion" I dipped into and then out of with a bunch of Confessional Lutherans in the last week.

I promise you these folks could not come to a good old fashioned pentecostal church service and enter in with a spirit of worship.

So, then who is right and wrong? What is the spirit of worship if there are times you can't worship?

I don't know what that means but if you can only find fault (not holy discontent) fault with the style of a church service you are not a true worshiper.

I think some of these people need to have their paradigms stretched. My friend Barry ministers in Angola Prison. There they don't worship according to the book of Concord. The Augsburg confession is no where to be found. Yet he is as Lutheran as Jesus is. (hat tip to Ben)

OK, Rant finished. I just think it's terribly sad that over style not fundamental belief that the divide is so great. I believe it to be irreparable and a stain on the capacity of the church to reach the world for Jesus.

I just wonder if the confessional Lutherans will approve of the song of the Lamb when they are standing on the glassy sea in white robes and people's hands are raised in worship and others are falling down and others are throwing crowns at His feet and the sound is like the sound of many waters and the roar of people of every nation every tongue join in singing in a common tongue.

It will have to be speaking in tongues won't it, a heavenly language, since I don't think it will be English or Spanish.

Course it could be German.

HMMMM>

We'll see............

Ghost??

So what is this?

In the last few days I have seen more images presented to me on video of Angels and Ghosts than I can comprehend. I'm talking about 30 or 40 different angels and this one video of what they called a Ghost. What think ye?

What is this all about?

I don't know. Do you?

It may be a sign and a wonder. It's a sign that makes me wonder.

Senator John Edwards is Human, Weak, Vain, Egodriven and a Liar

Before you get upset with me, those are all things he said in a self deprecating way about himself. I agree with him. He is all those things.

So am I sometimes.

I am not standing in Judgment of him. Others will do that while the liberal sycophantic media will hide this as quickly as possible. I'm waiting for the moment when the voting record of the man who pursued and broke this story is questioned. I think he's from Great Britain. "Rats" someone at CBS news is saying.

This is a clear case of "Be sure your sin will find you out". It will be shouted from the rooftops. It will be brought to the light. Either here and in the media or at the Bema seat of Jesus it will come out.

IF when he was first confronted with this truth about him in October of last year, had he and Elisabeth stood holding hands said, "Yes it's all true, it's a matter of great pain in our family, I'm a flawed sinful man. I seek to become your President as I seek your forbearance. I have nailed my sin against God and my wife on the cross of Jesus."

I suspect the picture today would be different than it is. We might be seeing a different Democrat convention from what we are about to see.

A writer I admire and believe to have a compassionate and solid view of all this is a precious Catholic Woman who calls herself "The Anchoress". Her take on this is pretty much on the money.

I forgive John Edwards, most people, Jesus and his wife will. But, we must watch for men like him. They are dangerous if put in leadership of a company (I wrote on one such that nearly bankrupted me), a church or a nation.

Look at the title of how he now describes himself. No man or woman is perfect, it's just some flaws are worse. The sin of Hubris (pride) is worse than the act of adultery in it's damage.

My Pastor friend Aaron Helland is convinced by his Study that PRIDE, (HUBRIS) is the root of nearly all sin.

He might just be right. I don't want my sin to be shouted from the rooftops. I'm running to the cross as fast as I can.

Join me.

8-8-08 a NEW Beginning

Somehow the date today has caught my eye. 8 is the number of new beginnings. I have had a lot of burned over ground in my past.

Just today using the computer (my good one is on the blink) that my former CEO used to have at DVN I discoverered in some hidden files that he had betrayed me greatly, stole intellectual property from me and was engaged in all kinds of illicit affairs. I knew he was crooked, I just didn't know how much. I forgive because I don't want the tormenters, but I'll be much more careful.

I have been betrayed by others. Sometimes my confidences have been destroyed by people who were not men or women of their word.

Somehow that all seems less important now. I'm starting over. It's a new day.

Last night James Hernandez, a prophet from Puerto Rico defined this new start for Peggy and Me. That's why I love the Prophetic so much. I see much more clearly where we are. It's more than I had imagined. I'm looking forward to it all. It's time to forget what lies behind and press forward to the High Calling of God.

I'm ready.

8-8-08 is the beginning of a new day.

I speak this over you as well, this is a new day for YOU!

Redlin Implement

I grew up in the implement business. Trucks, Tractors, Combines and Swathers. I liked it. But it wasn't a business that was going to last.

In 1967 the question was asked if I had an interest in coming back into the business. I didn't.

I don't regret that decision. The business was then sold. It no longer exists.

An article in the Dickey County Leader about all this was published. It's about Earl and his leadership of the business after my dad died. You can see it here. Earl

Handling Snakes (or people mean as)

Many in the Confessional Lutheran church worry a great deal about people handling snakes. I never have. Never will. Never seen it. Wouldn't fear it if I was faced with it. I fear very little. I'm a big believer in Mark 16. If I drink poison, end up with a snake on my hand like Paul did or step on a scorpion I won't worry about it. Sometimes when I have eaten out I have had to confess Mark 16 over what was placed before me.

Of course casting out demons, Speaking in Tongues, raising the dead and healing the sick are all part of the Mark 16 package.

For the Confessional Lutherans Mark 16 is not part of their belief system.

The level of discourse on a confessional Lutheran blog I mentioned earlier is even worse than I thought. They don't have to worry about snakes in the churches they are so desperately trying to protect, They are already there.

Screwtape is happy as a clam in salt water and I am saddened by all this beyond belief. How did they ever end up there? Is there any hope for them at all?

I shared this with my Prophetic Friends last night and what a tragedy it all is. One of them said he thought that perhaps many of them might actually make heaven. But, when they step from time into eternity the chains of tradition and religion will fall from them and they will look at the pile around them wondering how all that happened. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. They will only experience true joy and freedom on the other side. What sadness.

These people are the least free I have ever encountered. I have known Orthodox Catholics with fewer hangups than this bunch.

Martin Luther is doing 2500 RPM and accelerating in his grave as we speak.

Company of Prophets

I spent last night with 3 other people who flow in the prophetic. They are doing a conference for young people. I was invited by a friend. We laid hands on the young people and prophesied over them. It was magnificent. Lives were changed.

Then after that we sat up till the wee hours telling Ghost stories (Holy Ghost). It was wonderful. Old Prophet Joke (two prophets meet on the street, one says, You're fine, how am I). It wasn't like that but I still smile at the dumb joke.

I was given a word of encouragement I needed very much. I live on the words of encouragement I get from true prophets of God.

I was able to give some as well.

If I read 1 Corinthians 14 properly that is exactly what I needed.

I love the ministry of the True Prophetic Flow. And I made some new friends last night.

Dying to be RIGHT and going to HELL

I have had many friends and relatives who are and were staunch in their principles, unwavering in their beliefs, solidly grounded in doctrines that were taught decades before and convinced of their RIGHTNESS. Some Died in their RIGHTNESS.

I was one of those. I was taught at the hand of a man I loved dearly. He's gone now. Pastor John. He taught me well, but some of what he insisted on was error.

Here's the problem. I was staunch, principled, unwavering and grounded in man's religious system. When I came into a personal relationship with Jesus, one that turned my world upside down, one that caused me to seek Him and Him alone I became less and less like that system and more and more like HIM.

Oh, I'm not there yet. No one is. But I'm closer than I would have been had I stayed in the system and not asked the hard questions that gave me life. Last Saturday Pastor Phil showed a clip of a movie in the mens fellowship. The Matrix. It's the idea that people on earth at that time were living in a false construct they thought was reality and real life while more brutal was real. That movie helped me grasp what was happening to me many years ago.

When I broke free of the constraints of man made religion I became a lover of Jesus. The matrix was revealed. It was religion.

Like in the movie, people who lived in the matrix thought everyone should live in the matrix. That if you doubted the matrix for reality you were in sin.

Such has been a short however vehement exchange with people who are uber-conservative Lutherans. Confessionals. I don't want to fuel any more fires. I have flamed them all I care to. I'm stepping back.

It gives me cause to relax since they are dying out. They believe they are right. They are dying to be right. Oh, I think many of them are sincere, some may even be believers in Jesus unto Salvation. But many will find themselves being ushered in the gates of Hell holding up a book of Concord claiming adherence to this should keep them out of eternal damnation. It won't.

I only want to be found in one book. The book of Life.

In all fairness, there are Confessional Baptists, Confessional Pentecostals, Confessional Methodists, Confessional Catholics, Confessional.......anyone.

They are all relying on a system fraught with error and human construct. Just like the Matrix. It's interesting that as I have studied and read the writings of Luther and Smith Wigglesworth how much alike they are. Decades and denominational differences are washed away by a passion to serve a holy God. In the end, only one thing saves....one thing...

NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD OF JESUS.

Foolish Fears and Who Generates it

I heard an interview by Diane Reem of Daniel Gardner who is a journalist from Ottawa Canada and has written an intriguing book called "THE SCIENCE OF FEAR".

In it he debunks the huge number of fears we all live with that are generated by a fear culture in the western world. Mostly by media.

Notes from radio interview with author:

- Flying is much safer than driving.

- Each year, more people drown in swimming pools in the U.S. than all the people in the entire world die in terrorist attacks.

- 41,000 people in the U.S. and Europe die from radon gas every year. (Many homes have naturally occurring radon gas in them.)

Who benefits from fear, irrational or not? Advertisers and companies that make products and services, politicians, governments, the military industrial complex, etc.

But, it is not a secret group or cabal. It is something many good people engage in, rationalize, to sell things usually, to make a living. Cognitive dissonance comes along eventually though.

Author also talked about how, in the greater history of humans, things like news and photography and modern life, is a speck in time compared to the thousands and millions of years of evolution our current minds are based on. So, when we saw a wild animal kill a human long long ago, we see it with our own eyes and, avoid those wild animals. Fast forward to modern day when we “see” an event, like murder, on the evening news. Well, we saw it, so, murder is common and a threat to me. Of course, it isn’t.

It's a great interview. You can listen on line to it here. And here is a short review of the book.

Here is a transcript of an interview.

I think if you know someone who lives in fear this might be a good book for them.

Dark Knight is a GREAT MOVIE

OK, I'm gonna gush a little. I just came home from seeing Dark Knight. I saw it on a huge IMAX screen with a HUGE LOUD surround sound system.

WOW.

I was very impressed. AND, not to be a bandwagon jumper, but Heath Ledger if he gets an Oscar deserves it not because he's dead but because he was great in the movie.

Evil with a sense of understanding his justification for being evil. I loved the whole thing. I won't see it again. It was great just as is and made such an impression on me to leave things alone.

It's very very violent. It's been maybe 6 months since I've been in a movie theater. I don't go to movies much. Loud, Run, Jump, Shoot, Fight, Hit, Fall, and more explosions than I could count. Good family entertainment.

No animals were injured during the making of this movie. Wish we could say the same for Heath Ledger.

Thank God and George Bush

I appreciated so much a well written column by Bret Stephans in the Wall Street Journal.

Where does that leave us now? Perhaps it's worth considering what we have gained now that Iraq looks like a winner.

Here's a partial list: Saddam is dead. Had he remained in power, we would likely still believe he had WMD. He would have been sitting on an oil bonanza priced at $140 a barrel. He would almost certainly have broken free from an already crumbling sanctions regime. The U.S. would be faced with not one, but two, major adversaries in the Persian Gulf. Iraqis would be living under a regime that, in an average year, was at least as murderous as the sectarian violence that followed its collapse. And the U.S. would have seemed powerless to shape events.

Instead, we now have a government that does not threaten its neighbors, does not sponsor terrorism, and is unlikely to again seek WMD. We have a democratic government, a first for the Arab world, and one that is increasingly capable of defending its people and asserting its interests.

We have a defeat for al Qaeda. Critics carp that had there been no invasion, there never would have been al Qaeda in Iraq. Maybe. As it is, thousands of jihadists are dead, al Qaeda has been defeated on its self-declared "central battlefield," and the movement is largely discredited on the Arab street and even within Islamist circles.

We also have -- if still only prospectively -- an Arab bulwark against Iran's encroachments in the region. But that depends on whether we simply withdraw from Iraq, or join it in a lasting security partnership.

He accurately says that now that the war in Iraq has been won, Obama and McCain are talking like, WHAT WAR. There's nothing to pull the troops out of. We won. I'm so glad George W Bush had the courage to do the right thing.

The world is a safer better place for it. I know I'm a warmonger in many people's eyes but from the first days I saw this from a long view as a prophetic line in the sand. I still do. Ron, my brother from NZ will disagree with me. But I see it like Bret Stephens sees it.

WE WON - THANK GOD (and George W Bush).

The Christian Ministry for Dummies and Wannabes

I really connected to a piece on Ministry I read today. There is uber Truth in it. Steve Scott posted a link in his blog and I am republishing it in it's entirety with a few of my own comments along the way IN ALL CAPS.

Here are some suggestions for those wanting (or "feeling called") to enter the ministry. I've learned by experience that some of these items would be helpful to candidates and others pursuing ordination. Other items represent what I believe might be helpful. In any case, I offer them up for consideration for students and others to perhaps avoid some of the mistakes I've already made and many others have also perhaps made along the way:

1) Find the janitor in your church and offer to help him with his responsibilities–take the majority of them over if you can. Do the work he'd rather not do. If your church doesn't have a janitor, volunteer to take over the work in addition to other gainful employment you may already (hopefully) have. Hopefully, you'll be in a church where there is either a lot to vacuum or mop. Use this time to meditate on God's Word and how you can work humbly for others. If you're blessed enough to be the janitor of a church, don't take any money that the church would like to give unless they insist. If they do pay you, give everything back on Sunday in the offering and don't ever talk about it. Or, use a portion to buy good books or music for later study. OR WORKING IN THE LANDSCAPE

2) Do not go directly to seminary out of college or do not go to seminary at all. Spend two or three years working and saving money. Having a job while going to college doesn't count and don't pretend you work as hard as the average man just because you're going to college on your own and paying for it by working in the meantime. Don't quit this post-college job until you've gotten good enough at it to be promoted a couple of times. Realize that your job in the ministry is to deal with people who have to put up with everything you'd put up with in these couple of years and more–much more.

3) Remember that being ordained really doesn't do anything except confirm what is already a reality in your ministry–that is, if you even have a ministry or a reality that encompasses real ministry. Understand that the men who ordain you are just men and you all together don't add up to anything more than the one elderly lady in the back of the church who can't always make it because of her health but the prayers she offers to God after a life of service make her among the most important in your church. THIS IS WHY I HAVE NOT SOUGHT ORDINATION. I CAN DO ALL THE MINISTRY FUNCTIONS LEGALLY SO ORDINATION DOESN'T DO ANYTHING ADDITIONAL FOR ME OR TO ME.

4) Do not volunteer for pulpit supply in your church or in other churches. Volunteer for pulpit supply at nursing homes or hospital chapels. Not only will this provide you with the greatest way to learn how to speak in challenging environments, you will be exercising true religion by visiting "orphans and widows"–the forgotten of the church in this society–in their distress. Nothing could help your preaching more.

5) Find some set order of praying every morning and evening–noon too if there is room–and if there isn't room in your schedule for this just stop reading. Don't pursue the ministry. Don't curse a generation with the wickedness of your presence in the pulpit without prayer. In this day and age of funky spirituality–go with the old and proven stuff. No one drinks 2 year old Scotch. Don't think you can freestyle prayer with our Lord until it actually happens as an outflow of the Lord's work in your life. Try Morning and Evening Prayer via the Book of Common Prayer and steep in the wisdom of the Fathers on this one. Find a parish in your city that has at least one weekday where either Morning or Evening Prayer is offered on a weekday and do everything in your power to be there every week. THIS WOULD BE ONE I WOULD DISAGREE WITH. IT'S OK TO USE WRITTEN PRAYER AS MEDITATION, BUT PRAYER SHOULD BE TALKING TO OUR FATHER IN NON RELIGIOUS TERMS. IT SHOULD COME FROM OUR HEART. I'M NOT CONVINCED THE VALUE OF READING A PRAYER.

6) If you really feel called to the ministry, put off your own desire to do so until people actually force you into it. Continue to say no for years and don't just accept leadership positions because they're offered to you. Don't buy the mantra offered to young men that you ought to be in the ministry because you're nice and intelligent and well-spoken. What a load of you know what. Some of the worst ministers in the world are the smartest and the sneakiest. Prove yourself by serving the congregation in ways that no one sees and few care about. Remember #4 above–and find other similar ways of working hard at it. I HAD NO INTENTION OF BECOMING WHATEVER I AM IN MINISTRY. IT JUST HAPPENED AND I OBEYED.

7) Any extra money you have after spending everything possible on your wife, use to buy the best in sacred music or books. For the first ten years, you'll likely buy all the wrong books but buy them anyway and read through them with the understanding in the next ten to fifteen years you may very well disagree with what they advocate. Start buying books by author and not by the publishing house where you find them. Learn the good authors to buy and read through everything they've written–then take the people they reference in their own works and read through their sources as well. THIS IN BOLD IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO ME. MOST OF THOSE EARLY BOOKS WERE DROSS.

8) Read a good fiction book at least once a year and don't always busy yourself with reading theological history, philosophy, or theology. Take at least three months off every year and read nothing but your Bible (all at once or interspersed throughout the year).

9) Take a foreign language besides the biblical languages. A European language if possible but one which will force you to appreciate the best in other cultures.

10) Read your Bible more than you study it. Study one good passage or topic a month while you still have time. But always have your Bible open, reading, praying, and then thinking about it.

11) Live the lifestyle of a mendicant monk, but treat your wife like a queen. Don't make her financially support you through school. Do it yourself even if it takes three years longer than it would otherwise. Christ gave Himself up for the church and ministers should do likewise in spades for their wives.

12) Learn to read music. Sing in a choir regularly for years or learn to play an instrument. Go hear the best in music (note, this does not mean attend a rock concert) and find ways to support exceptional music in your community. Take the hit and buy season tickets to the symphony or the opera instead of drinking Starbucks every blasted day of your life.

13) If you decide you really have to go to seminary (and this decision you should weigh carefully because it's not for every minister), find a seminary that is intimately connected with and responsible to a local church. Make sure it's more like a monastery of very committed men instead of some place where academic concerns reign. The pastorate is not about being a scholar. If you want to be a scholar go to a good school and become a teacher but whatever you do don't become a seminary professor.

14) Do not go to an undergraduate Bible school. Go to a State run school. Learn to value those who are completely different than you are and learn also to see the good in their ideas.

15) Move to a city if you are in a small town. You can go back to the small town later but you need the difference in the air that a large complex environment like a city provides. God's work is being done chiefly in the cities and we shouldn't forget that most of those we are called to minister to find themselves living in and among the cities of this world. I AGREE WITH THIS. UNLESS WE LEARN TO WORK IN THE INNER CITY WE CAN'T SERVE THE COUNTRY.

16) Ask yourself. Are you really sure you want to become a minister? If the answer is yes you likely shouldn't. Sounds unbelievable but true. Not to say you can't, but spend your time serving in your church instead of trying to "confirm" a call by asking every person you respect what they think about it or what they think God's will is for you. Let the people of God lift you up at the right time. If you are truly called to the ministry, it will happen in due time as God ordains and the people of your parish desire. Remember, though, to make sure to say no to them at least two or three times. If you aren't called to the ministry after all, you will have still lived a life of service to our Lord and rightly so–that is no small thing and in fact it is likely the greater accomplishment. AMEN

Old (I mean longtime) friends in the Ministry

This feels like one of those "You know you're a Redneck when..... " Jokes. You know you have been in the ministry a long time when.......

I got a nice email from friends of mine in the ministry, Barb and Dennis Kankowske.

I was trying to remember how many years it's been. Years. They are mighty warriors in the kingdom. She is a mighty woman of God. And when the Apostle Peter writes of being a peculiar people she fits the bill. I want to be more peculiar like she is. Maybe I already am.

She is controversial and casts out demons on a regular basis. I am coming to the conclusion that if you are mighty in God you will be a controversy.

I got an email from them today. We have to reconnect. We will.

Birds of a ministry feather flock together. I'm one of those birds.

I feel better about my 7 3/4 hat size now

From a very Scientific Study that says in part:

Smarter brains tend to be bigger—at least in certain locations. Researchers have fingered parts of the parietal and frontal lobes as well as a structure called the anterior cingulate as important for superior cognition.

I just watched the Wizard of Oz a week ago. I feel a little like the Scarecrow. "If I only had a brain". I keep hoping there's SOMETHING in that 7 3/4 fat head of mine. According to these researchers there just might be.

Is there REALLY a God Shaped Hole in Everyone's Heart??

I lifted this from Steve Scott (he said I could). It's very intriguing.

Every now and then I want to write on a very specific thing I've been thinking about, only to come across somebody else who does first. This in turn triggers my post. Today I came across a post from Michael Spencer, the Internet Monk (aka iMonk), about the idea of the God shaped void. I've heard it said a thousand times in preaching and teaching and in common Christian talk that there's a God shaped hole in everyone's heart, and that unbelievers fill it with everything else except God. They sense the void, and are extremely unhappy with life. Their gluttonous appetite for superficial things leads them to mask their despair with vain materialism. What I didn't know was that the original idea supposedly came from St. Augustine. The iMonk's post contains a link to his older post on this.

A few months ago I started thinking about this, since I heard the God shaped hole thing somewhere, and I realized that in general, unbelievers were capable of being quite happy and fulfilled with life. Many of them don't live in despair and generally aren't clutching at anything and everything to try to add meaning to their lives. I also saw an unbeliever comment on a Christian's blog somewhere a few months ago about his unbelief or atheism (or whatever), and other Christians' replies to him that he was leading a meaningless life and was depressed about it. He replied with incredulity that others could possibly know this, and their reply was that he was lying to himself because they knew better!

The Scriptures say many things about men's hearts and thoughts, but they also say much about the happiness and contentment of nonbelievers. Luke 16 (the rich man and Lazarus) describes the rich man "gaily living in splendor every day." Gaily living? How was this man living gaily as opposed to in superficial pretense? David opines in Psalm 73 about his witnessing of the wicked being at ease and prospering while he himself is stricken and afflicted. There are many other examples of unbelievers finding joy in earthly things. They trust in money and fame and worldly achievements. Why is it thought that these things can't bring joy? It seems to me that often we don't try to understand those around us and simply rely upon some incomplete interpretation from our pet bible teachers. Unbelievers often see through this and discount our witness, while we think it's all their fault all along why they don't listen to us.

Steve has a point. We need to think about our assumptions no matter how sacred that old cow is. Sometimes a good hamburger is what is needed.

Jane Ahlin says - Alert the Media, It's all George Bush's Fault

Jane Ahlin, I grew up with her. She is a very nice lady. Her dad was my Boy Scout leader. BUT, she is so wrong so often I have given up trying to correct her. As she has with me. We live in sort of an ideological detente. Till now.

Jane writes for the Forum in Fargo. She just wrote a very stereotypical left tipping column that I have to answer. You can read it all here.

Here are the things I want to respond to. Since I have no other fair Forum to do, Say Anything and it’s hundred thousand global readers (along with my lowly blog) will have to be my platform.

Jane Says that she just spent a wonderful tranquil weekend with her family. I’ll bet they didn’t think one time about an attack of an Islamic radical. That was a long time ago and the “Failed” policies of the Bush administration have contributed to the sense of peace and security she enjoyed. Not that she would say anything about that in appreciation.

Then Jane Says:
The country....... general sense of frustration is unfocused and seems to render us disengaged rather than determined in the pursuit of change.

What about OBAMA. Isn’t he the candidate of Change? Isn’t he going to solve all the problems just like the whiz bang kids of the all Democrat congress was going to at the end of 2006? Guess not.

we’re stuck as long as George Bush is president.

I guess the Democrat majority in Congress have all dropped dead. Oh, Wait, no they only look that way. What a victim mentality. We would do something except we can’t because of …………………

Sounds like the mentality coming out of Jeremiah Wright’s Church. It’s all ___________ Fault. Fill in the blank. Whitey, Uncle Tom, Bush, Cheney ad nauseaum

incompetence of the Bush administration in all things economic. ideology is no substitute for reasoned public policy.

Wow, there is a classic stoves calling kettles black. If the democrat party had a clue in economics I would rest well. Unfortunately with few exceptions there is not a whit of economic common sense among them. Barney Frank would be a notable exception and even, Obama is for the most part starting to talk with some level of intelligence on economics. Of course that is going to go over badly with the loons at Huffpo and Kos. They can’t even balance a checkbook. If he decides to talk with common sense they will go nuttier than they already are.

In fact, were the economy not in such dire straits, it might be amusingly ironic that the bailout of the big financial institutions – Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac – echoed the New Deal mentality conservatives love to hate.
Here Jane gets it right. These bail outs and the economic stimulus plan were among the dumber things that have happened. Bush signed them and in that I am disappointed. But let’s see, what group of dummies came up with all that?

Our children and their children will sort out the ways we were shamed with patriotism and corralled by fear into letting this presidential administration play fast and loose with the constitution.

I would love to ask Jane what constitutional right has she personally lost in the last 8 years that she is missing. I can’t think of any. Getting on a plane with an Uzzi is more difficult but I guess that’s OK.

the downward trajectory of educational achievement
I guess it’s right to blame the President because we sure can’t blame the education lobby, teachers unions, corrupt administration, failed public education and local government. I mean everyone knows that the President comes RIGHT IN THE CLASSROOM AND RIPS THE BOOKS OUT OF INNOCENT CHILDREN’S HANDS. Never mind that Vouchers and Charter Schools allow kids to get actual educations and who is it that opposes that working strategy?

“It’s not globalization or immigration or computers per se that widen inequality. It’s the skills gap.”

OK, I guess parents have no responsibility at all in this equation. Never mind that Chinese and Jewish kids do very well on all these educational venues in the USA. White and Black kids not so much. How much of this lack of skill is cultural and how much is parental. We have a parenting gap, not an educational gap.

I would like to ask my friend one thing, Other than the arrogance of thinking that after Bush is gone you (we) will have to “Clean this mess up”, what are some actual specific things you would do if you were King or Queen. I mean specific implementable policies that you would specifically suggest that are not being done now.

Of course the classic knee jerk liberal pap is defeat George Bush. Oh, wait, he’s not running. Not that that ever stopped anyone from running against him.

You, we, no one will get any specific plan that has a drop of common sense in it because they don’t have any. They have nothing but hatred for Bush in their arsenal.

Well guess what boys and girls, he won’t be the POTUS after the 20th of Jan. You get to blame him for a while. But that will run out too. Unless President ObamaMcCain finds some bright people to surround themselves with we are going to be in deeper trouble still.

There is a really really good reason the USA has in all it’s history only elected two presidents directly from the US Senate. They have no experience. That is as true of McCain as it is of Obama. They don’t know how things work. Both men have demonstrated profound ignorance. I’m not happy with either choice which my bumper sticker says: No One for President.

I’ll sit right here and wait for 2 or 3 sound practical strategic proposals to “Clean this Mess Up”.

The arrogance behind even MAKING such a statement is huge.

But the Arrogance of the Left continues to astound me at every turn.

The Demon Spirit of Offense

I have written a lot on this blog over the years about how demonic being offended really is. John Wimber said long ago that whatever offends the mind reveals the heart. There is negative and positive information derived from that.

Jesus said clearly that in the last days the Demon Spirit of Offense would rise up. It has. I am trying not be be among them. I hope for the same for you.

All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Matthew 24:8-12

The spirit of offense is guilty of breaking up marriages, destroying churches and wrecking friendships. The list of their destruction is very long. They are the cause of what has been named "ROAD RAGE," which all drivers of vehicles have experienced in their own lives. It's a rage that just takes over and it throws us into a fit. It happens in the Church first. It's where the Judgment of God must begin. What are people offended by? By Jesus. And his anointing and his manifest presence.

Today in Church Pastor Phil had a reader read from an unadulterated Mark 16:16-20

16Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

19After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

I'm convinced of the truth of this passage. We have watered down the Gospel to not be offensive to unbelievers and so called seekers when what they really want is conviction, passion and authenticity. Of course the Demon Spirit of Offense will take issue with this.

It is time to allow people to be offended by the truth of the Word of God. There will be an end time Whore Church made up of those who wish to pick and choose their doctrine theologies and those who are true believers in the revealed word from Genesis to Maps.

So, take offense. I just want to know one thing, What are you offended at? If it's Jesus and what he said in this passage you have a huge problem.

Whatever offends the Mind Reveals YOUR heart.