Thursday Night in Northern IL we had a real serious tornado come thru the area. Friday I visited as close as I could get to the damage. It's really bad. Two women died in the storm.
So, I decided to stop in a gathering place to see what the locals had to say about it. I heard one fellow loudly proclaim that there were 17 people still missing, unaccounted for, but that it was all a cover up.
Why? he didn't say.
I listened for a short bit and left the building.
This used to be conversation at the bar, coffee shop, water cooler or gossip fests. Now all that has changed. The Internet has now become the conduit of such things. A lie travels round the world while truth has yet to get his pants on. That was Churchill. It's still true.
It's not a wise stupid, left right, black white, male female, rich poor, liberal conservative, Christian Muslim, Believer Unbeliever, educated ignorant issue.. IT is a gullibility issue connected with a desire to appear in the know. If you believe you have inside information on something, or the straight story, or see the lies behind a story you can propagate this and cause all kinds of upset and fear in seconds with the click of a mouse.
I see this on Facebook. I see it in news feeds. I see it in chat rooms. For every blatant lie and accusation there is an equal and opposite lie fabricated out of whole cloth.
It WOULD be innocent enough, except that it divides people. People love sensational over truth. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus "What is Truth?". That question still rings 2 millenia later.
Here's the issue as I see it. Christians should be truth carriers. We should be able to dispel rumor, lie, conspiracy and misinformation in a world fraught with lies. That's what Jesus said would happen, "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to
testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." John 18:37
I don't hear much truth from many platforms today. I hear speculation, opinion, conspiracy, theory, misinformation and yes LIES. IF we cannot do better in our Churches and religious gatherings than deal in the devil's soup, the father of lies, then God cannot and will not allow that to long prosper.
I appeal, beg and hope that people will come to truth about what is happening all around us and stop using lies to divide. That is happening and it's killing people and it's killing any hope for the world.. that Jesus came for, lived for and died for.
STOP THE DECEPTION
Saturday, April 11, 2015
Thursday, April 09, 2015
A German pastor and theologian was executed seventy years ago today for opposing Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich.
Hitler personally ordered that Dietrich Bonhoeffer be hung in the nude with thin wire at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp on April 9, 1945, just days before the end of World War II.
“I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer...kneeling on the floor praying fervently to God,” according to Eberhard Bethe, who would later become Bonhoeffer's biographer.
Bethe cited the camp doctor's written testimony, who is said to have witnessed Bonhoeffer's execution.
“I was most deeply moved by the way this lovable man prayed, so devout and so certain that God heard his prayer. At the place of execution, he again said a short prayer and then climbed the few steps to the gallows, brave and composed. His death ensued after a few seconds. In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God,” Bethe wrote of the camp doctor who saw the execution.
But other eyewitnesses dispute the camp doctor’s account. They asserted that Hermann Fischer-Hüllstrung may have wished to minimize the suffering of Bonhoeffer and the sufferings of six other condemned men who were hung seventy years ago today to reduce his own culpability in their executions, according to Thomas O.H. Kaiser's 2014 book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
It is believed that Bonhoeffer suffered longer than a few seconds. To prolong the tortuous agony of death, Nazi executioners were known to have revived political prisoners who almost die, only to asphyxiate them yet again. The execution could had lasted as long as six hours, according to a former Flossenbürg Concentration Camp prisoner.
“The physical details of Bonhoeffer's death may have been much more difficult than we earlier had imagined,” wrote Craig J. Slane's 2004 Bonhoeffer as Martyr: Social Responsibility and Modern Christian Commitment book.
Bonhoeffer’s execution occurred just two weeks before American soldiers liberated Flossenbürg Concentration Camp, three weeks before the Soviets captured Berlin, and a month before Nazi Germany surrendered to the allies, according to Robert W. Hacker's unpublished manuscript.
It is interesting to note that Bonhoeffer was influenced by the black church. He went to the United States in 1930 as a postgraduate student and teaching fellow at New York City’s Union Theological Seminary. During this time Bonhoeffer attended Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church and taught Sunday School there. It is also interesting to note that the German Bonhoeffer fell in love with African-American spirituals, born from the turmoils, sorrows, challenges and inspirations of a minority people enslaved and oppressed by the majority.
After returning to Germany it was he would be oppressed by the majority. For ten years prior to his execution, Bonhoeffer spoke, wrote, taught, preached and courageously fought -- along with others in the German resistance movement -- Nazism, Hitlerism, totalitarianism and anti-Semitism. He criticized Germany's church, her religious leaders, as well as Christians who worshipped the Führer, rather than worship Jesus Christ the LORD.
The Bonhoeffer lesson learned is this: There's a danger when Christians hero worship political figures. So many German Christians in the 1930s were seduced by Hitler. It was Hitler who claimed to be a Christian. Bonhoeffer criticized them, German clergy and parishioners.
So many American Christians were -- and still are -- seduced by American political leaders, such as President Barack Obama. He says he's also a Christian, yet he is a proponent of late-term abortions, has increased the funding of abortion, believes in the equality of gays as a protected class and is a proponent of same-sex marriages. Christians are so willing to believe what leaders say rather than watch what they do.
Biblical purists – and I’m one of them -- would challenge Bonhoeffer for his ecumenical beliefs that go against scripture, and question his stance on social justice as it relates to forcibly taking from the have’s and giving to the have not’s. Yet Dietrich Bonhoeffer is an iconic Christian martyr. I afford him the respect on this – the seventieth anniversary of his brutal execution.
Let us remember the martyrs who died before Bonhoeffer and remember those who are being martyred for their faith now, from the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians beheaded in February to the 147 Christian students gunned down in Kenya last week.
Let us also pray for the millions of others who are persecuted for their faith, such as Asia Bibi, sentenced to death in Pakistan and Saeed Abedini, sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran.
Notice Anything?
- The top 10 states ranking in economic outlook for 2015 were as follows:
- 1. Utah - Republican Governor Gary Herbert
- 2. North Dakota - Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple
- 3. Indiana - Republican Governor Mike Pence
- 4. North Carolina - Republican Governor Pat McCrory
- 5. Arizona - Republican Governor Doug Ducey
- 6. Idaho - Republican Governor Butch Otter
- 7. Georgia - Republican Governor Nathan Deal
- 8. Wyoming - Republican Governor Matt Mead
- 9. South Dakota - Republican Governor Dennis Daugaard
- 10. Nevada - Republican Governor Brian Sandoval
-
-
- 40. Illinois - Republican Governor Bruce Rauner
- 41. Pennsylvania - Democrat Governor Tom Wolf
- 42. Maine - Republican Governor
- 43. Montana - Democrat Governor Steve Bullock
- 44. California - Democrat Governor Jerry Brown
- 45. Oregon - Democrat Governor Kate Brown
- 46. New Jersey - Republican Governor Chris Christie
- 47. Connecticut - Democrat Governor Dannel Malloy
- 48. Minnesota - Democrat Governor Mark Dayton
- 49. Vermont - Democrat Governor Peter Shumlin
- 50. New York - Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo
-
The Inconvenient Truth About The California Drought
The Inconvenient Truth About The California Drought
Notice what’s missing in Gov. Brown’s
solution? What’s missing is the most common and well-proven way to store
winter rainwater (much of which is not required to maintain fish and
wildlife, and just runs into the sea) for mankind: construction of new dams!
But what some people don’t realize is that Gov. Brown is in a real
jam; how can he possibly talk about the best single solution (more dams)
for creating more available water (and jobs, by the way) when he is
currently supporting the removal of several perfectly good dams in Siskiyou County? And adding insult to injury, California taxpayers will foot the bill for this insane dam removal project, costing approximately one billion ($1,000,000,000.00) dollars, which could be used to build more water storage dams instead.
These particular dams hold approximately 135,000 acre-feet of fresh
water; that’s nearly 44 billion gallons of fresh water that may
disappear at a time when California desperately needs more water, not
less! These dams also produce about 150 megawatts of clean-green
electrical power for Californians. What kind of lunacy does this
potential dam removal action represent? The simple answer is greed!
California needs more dams (and the water they can provide), not fewer.
Bad management of the People’s resources is at the root of these and
many other problems we all face and, according to
socialist-environmentalists, must endure. And for Californians who are
being shorted on their water by a short-sighted politician, I think it’s
a good bet that the bigwigs will have all the water they want for their
spas, pools, and lawns–regardless of rationing. Think about the 44
billion gallons of fresh water these people want to carelessly drain
into the sea, and then email or phone Gov. Brown
and give him a piece of your mind! And if you live outside California,
this same paradigm is (or soon will be) affecting you as well; so make
it a point to become proactive while you can!
solution? What’s missing is the most common and well-proven way to store
winter rainwater (much of which is not required to maintain fish and
wildlife, and just runs into the sea) for mankind: construction of new dams!
But what some people don’t realize is that Gov. Brown is in a real
jam; how can he possibly talk about the best single solution (more dams)
for creating more available water (and jobs, by the way) when he is
currently supporting the removal of several perfectly good dams in Siskiyou County? And adding insult to injury, California taxpayers will foot the bill for this insane dam removal project, costing approximately one billion ($1,000,000,000.00) dollars, which could be used to build more water storage dams instead.
These particular dams hold approximately 135,000 acre-feet of fresh
water; that’s nearly 44 billion gallons of fresh water that may
disappear at a time when California desperately needs more water, not
less! These dams also produce about 150 megawatts of clean-green
electrical power for Californians. What kind of lunacy does this
potential dam removal action represent? The simple answer is greed!
California needs more dams (and the water they can provide), not fewer.
Bad management of the People’s resources is at the root of these and
many other problems we all face and, according to
socialist-environmentalists, must endure. And for Californians who are
being shorted on their water by a short-sighted politician, I think it’s
a good bet that the bigwigs will have all the water they want for their
spas, pools, and lawns–regardless of rationing. Think about the 44
billion gallons of fresh water these people want to carelessly drain
into the sea, and then email or phone Gov. Brown
and give him a piece of your mind! And if you live outside California,
this same paradigm is (or soon will be) affecting you as well; so make
it a point to become proactive while you can!
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
Down the Drain
George
W Bush during his Presidency DOUBLED the National Debt from 3 Trillion
Dollars to 6 Trillion by the end of his 8 years in office. That was
horrid. It was unprecedented. He wasted it on wars and spending that
was ill advised.
For that reason Barack Obama was elected on the platform of Hope and Change. It was a change check that the new President wrote with his mouth that his butt could never cash. But he had more than a pen and a phone, he had the national credit card. So while by slight of hand he appeared to be cutting spending, he TRIPLED the national debt in 6 years from 6 trillion when he took over to now OVER 18 trillion. And EVERY DAY he swipes that card thru the machine for another 2.3 BILLION dollars of new debt. By the time he leaves office we will be well over 20 TRILLION.. To put that into some framework the TOTAL number of Dollars we are able to generate in all of everything in the whole of the USA is about 16 TRILLION. So if you were somehow able to suck all of the money out of the economy we still would be broke.
If now you are saying this can't go on. YOU ARE RIGHT. It won't. One of the "befits" of getting older is you can remember patterns of the past. I well remember the Jimmy Carter days and then resultant Ronald Reagan. An inversion of the Bush Obama succession. Carter left the nation in crisis and Reagan fixed it.. BRUTALLY. Bankruptcies were rampant. Asset values collapsed as the money had to be sucked back out of the economy. Job loss. All kinds of things. The result is that after his 8 years the economy did well. Bush 1 and Clinton road the wave of the Peace Dividend.
This debt must and will be unraveled, one way or the other. Greece and Argentina are examples of how far things can fall. And the USA is much larger. This national financial suicide will be resolved but let me warn you how painful it will be.
The very rich will be fine. They can always move money to safer havens. They have experts helping them skate around any issues. They can afford to move and dodge. There is no stopping them. The very wealthy will notice but it won't matter much. A blip on the radar screen.
The middle class, those souls who pay taxes, work, produce, do what needs to be done, the survivors in our nation will suffer. It will be hard. Bankruptcy. Difficulty. Even homelessness. But they have come back before. They are independent. They will eventually find a way to stabilize. It will be less than before, but they will survive.
The real losers in the coming reconciliation are the dependent poor. The independent poor will survive. The cruelest thing these last 6 years has done is create a fresh underclass of dependent poverty stricken people. They will be cast aside as the money for guns or butter is divided up. They will become dust in the wind. Unnoticed, uncared for, unable to make it. Book of Eli poor. There will be not hope for them.
In a sad way it's karma for an electorate that enthusiastically supported Obama's run for President. Many of those who were enthused will be cast aside. It will be painful and brutal. The amputation of a diseased limb is painful to save the body.. but it will be amputated.
And there's nothing you or I can do. No matter who is elected in 2016 and beyond.. the grand reckoning is coming, the reset will happen. We are swirling down a drain and can't stop ourselves
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison
For that reason Barack Obama was elected on the platform of Hope and Change. It was a change check that the new President wrote with his mouth that his butt could never cash. But he had more than a pen and a phone, he had the national credit card. So while by slight of hand he appeared to be cutting spending, he TRIPLED the national debt in 6 years from 6 trillion when he took over to now OVER 18 trillion. And EVERY DAY he swipes that card thru the machine for another 2.3 BILLION dollars of new debt. By the time he leaves office we will be well over 20 TRILLION.. To put that into some framework the TOTAL number of Dollars we are able to generate in all of everything in the whole of the USA is about 16 TRILLION. So if you were somehow able to suck all of the money out of the economy we still would be broke.
If now you are saying this can't go on. YOU ARE RIGHT. It won't. One of the "befits" of getting older is you can remember patterns of the past. I well remember the Jimmy Carter days and then resultant Ronald Reagan. An inversion of the Bush Obama succession. Carter left the nation in crisis and Reagan fixed it.. BRUTALLY. Bankruptcies were rampant. Asset values collapsed as the money had to be sucked back out of the economy. Job loss. All kinds of things. The result is that after his 8 years the economy did well. Bush 1 and Clinton road the wave of the Peace Dividend.
This debt must and will be unraveled, one way or the other. Greece and Argentina are examples of how far things can fall. And the USA is much larger. This national financial suicide will be resolved but let me warn you how painful it will be.
The very rich will be fine. They can always move money to safer havens. They have experts helping them skate around any issues. They can afford to move and dodge. There is no stopping them. The very wealthy will notice but it won't matter much. A blip on the radar screen.
The middle class, those souls who pay taxes, work, produce, do what needs to be done, the survivors in our nation will suffer. It will be hard. Bankruptcy. Difficulty. Even homelessness. But they have come back before. They are independent. They will eventually find a way to stabilize. It will be less than before, but they will survive.
The real losers in the coming reconciliation are the dependent poor. The independent poor will survive. The cruelest thing these last 6 years has done is create a fresh underclass of dependent poverty stricken people. They will be cast aside as the money for guns or butter is divided up. They will become dust in the wind. Unnoticed, uncared for, unable to make it. Book of Eli poor. There will be not hope for them.
In a sad way it's karma for an electorate that enthusiastically supported Obama's run for President. Many of those who were enthused will be cast aside. It will be painful and brutal. The amputation of a diseased limb is painful to save the body.. but it will be amputated.
And there's nothing you or I can do. No matter who is elected in 2016 and beyond.. the grand reckoning is coming, the reset will happen. We are swirling down a drain and can't stop ourselves
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Kyrie Eleison
To experience an abortion, here is an educational article for gay men to grasp the seriousness of what an abortion REALLY involves, the murder of a baby. dcgazette.com
Where
is the cake those Christian bakers are supposed to make, where are the
flowers the Christian florist was supposed to arrange? Shouldn't we
celebrate such and event? SMH
Monday, April 06, 2015
Gardening for Dummies: Companion Planting {Free Printable} - onecreativemommy.com
Gardening for Dummies: Companion Planting {Free Printable} - onecreativemommy.com
SPRING is here (in my neck of the woods), and it’s time to get the
garden ready! I am on year four of my desert garden adventure, and
things just keep getting better! Now that I have learned (through trial
and error) what grows well in the desert, I’m ready to focus on what
plants help each other in the garden. Want to learn, too? I thought
you might!
SPRING is here (in my neck of the woods), and it’s time to get the
garden ready! I am on year four of my desert garden adventure, and
things just keep getting better! Now that I have learned (through trial
and error) what grows well in the desert, I’m ready to focus on what
plants help each other in the garden. Want to learn, too? I thought
you might!
Instead of just randomly placing my plants
in the garden (which I have done in the past), I decided to find out
which plants should and should not go together. I found a fantastic
resource at WestCoastSeeds.com. I’ve linked you to a document about companion planting.
in the garden (which I have done in the past), I decided to find out
which plants should and should not go together. I found a fantastic
resource at WestCoastSeeds.com. I’ve linked you to a document about companion planting.
I had a really hard time keeping track of
the twenty-four different plants I want to include in my garden. To
keep it all straight, I created this companion planting chart and
planned my square foot garden boxes based the chart. I hope it helps
you decide what to plant as well.
the twenty-four different plants I want to include in my garden. To
keep it all straight, I created this companion planting chart and
planned my square foot garden boxes based the chart. I hope it helps
you decide what to plant as well.
Here's the Truth about Refusing to Serve Gay Marriage
If I owned a Gas Station
A Car Wash
A taco shop
A Super 8 motel
A movie theater
A shoe store
A clothing store
A hardware store
Or any such thing where undifferentiated goods and services were provided, I will not and should not ever see your sexual preference as a barrier to doing business.
In the business I am in, nursery, there are a lot of people who I interact with, selling and buying, without consideration about IF or That they are homosexual. Some of those who actually LIKE are in gay "Marriages". Women and Men. I got a birth announcement from a lesbian couple recently. I'm friends. I used to have a roommate in college who was gay. Friends from School who were gay. I am not only not against LGBT people, I care about them. Some have had a really rough go. It can be a brutal lifestyle, I care about them.
So if someone comes to me, even one of my friends, and asks me to do a Michelangelo on their Sistine chapel, or to create a pieta for them celebrating their marriage I will hope they understand why I refuse.
If I were to create a floral arrangement, write a tome, host their wedding in my home, invite them to spend their first night together as a gay couple in my guestroom, Make a special something for them that could be construed as an endorsement or celebration of their union, even to making a cake (or pizza) that is asking me to put however abstract my indicia on the event.
I don't hate Gay people at all. I accept that they are.. that they have a right to breath air, that they have the right in the USA to do whatever they want.
I just don't want to be asked however tacitly to put a stamp of approval on a life that is in rebellion to the Word of God as I understand it. Selling you a pair of Rockport shoes from my shoe store for your wedding is not the issue. Asking me to MAKE a pair of special shoes so designed to glorify your wedding to someone of the same sex IS the issue.
I don't expect this puts this to bed.. but it needs to be said.
IF I have to instruct you about the damage done to the institution of marriage in America by the acceptance of Same Sex marriage, you are so blinded by your "open mindedness" that there is no hope for you. Compromise has seared your conscience.
For that reason, I am not going to provide you any service that requires my creativity. If Michelangelo painted the Sistine out of his love for God, I can NOT make you a wedding cake out of my love for HIM.
I don't want to be forced into celebrating something I don't accept. That's what you are asking. In Red China.. the clapping celebrating Chariman Mao was enforced at the point of a gun. You celebrated or you were prosecuted.
This is that..
A Car Wash
A taco shop
A Super 8 motel
A movie theater
A shoe store
A clothing store
A hardware store
Or any such thing where undifferentiated goods and services were provided, I will not and should not ever see your sexual preference as a barrier to doing business.
In the business I am in, nursery, there are a lot of people who I interact with, selling and buying, without consideration about IF or That they are homosexual. Some of those who actually LIKE are in gay "Marriages". Women and Men. I got a birth announcement from a lesbian couple recently. I'm friends. I used to have a roommate in college who was gay. Friends from School who were gay. I am not only not against LGBT people, I care about them. Some have had a really rough go. It can be a brutal lifestyle, I care about them.
So if someone comes to me, even one of my friends, and asks me to do a Michelangelo on their Sistine chapel, or to create a pieta for them celebrating their marriage I will hope they understand why I refuse.
If I were to create a floral arrangement, write a tome, host their wedding in my home, invite them to spend their first night together as a gay couple in my guestroom, Make a special something for them that could be construed as an endorsement or celebration of their union, even to making a cake (or pizza) that is asking me to put however abstract my indicia on the event.
I don't hate Gay people at all. I accept that they are.. that they have a right to breath air, that they have the right in the USA to do whatever they want.
I just don't want to be asked however tacitly to put a stamp of approval on a life that is in rebellion to the Word of God as I understand it. Selling you a pair of Rockport shoes from my shoe store for your wedding is not the issue. Asking me to MAKE a pair of special shoes so designed to glorify your wedding to someone of the same sex IS the issue.
I don't expect this puts this to bed.. but it needs to be said.
IF I have to instruct you about the damage done to the institution of marriage in America by the acceptance of Same Sex marriage, you are so blinded by your "open mindedness" that there is no hope for you. Compromise has seared your conscience.
For that reason, I am not going to provide you any service that requires my creativity. If Michelangelo painted the Sistine out of his love for God, I can NOT make you a wedding cake out of my love for HIM.
I don't want to be forced into celebrating something I don't accept. That's what you are asking. In Red China.. the clapping celebrating Chariman Mao was enforced at the point of a gun. You celebrated or you were prosecuted.
This is that..
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