Many years ago I met a friend that had escaped East Germany after the war. He emigrated to U.S., met a delightful Southern Belle and fell in love. She was a faithful church goer, so before she would accept his advances she asked about his faith. He answered proudly “I am a Lutheran” to which she answered “Oh, is that’s like the Catholics?” This didn’t sit well with him, but he loved her very much, so he promised to go to church with her anyhow. He liked the people very much and felt welcome, so he became a faithful church-goer, but kept his faith to himself. They married, got children, brought them to church, but when the church started an Awana program he drew the line. “No Awana for my children! It’s indoctrination! Their scarves reminds me of my childhood’s Hitler-youth“. This saddened his wife, but being a loyal wife, she submitted and let the children join the Boy and Girl Scouts. This went on for years, but one time taking his daughter and two of her girl friends home after the scout meeting he happened to listen to what they were saying to each other about the meeting and many other things. The next Wednesday he came with his whole family and exclaimed “Awana, here we come” to the delight of his wife and children, since that’s where their real friends were, and this experience was also the catalyst for his salvation.
This was 35 years ago, and Awana is still going strong. The name Awana comes from 2 Timothy 2:15 Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed and their mission statement is: God is changing the world through the ministry of Awana by equipping leaders to reach kids with the gospel and engaging them in long-term discipleship.
Meanwhile, the Boy scouts and Girl Scouts of America have taken a different route and are now even further removed from their original mission than they were 35 years ago.
In July 2010 NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in an interview that his “foremost” mission as the head of America’s space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.
Shown here is NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. (YouTube)
Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA’s orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.
“When I became the NASA administrator — or before I became the NASA administrator — he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science … and math and engineering,” Bolden said in the interview.
NASA has not been the same since. Let us turn back to the original mission for NASA, to forward science and understanding of God’s universe through space exploration!
There were two, very different reactions to the brutal Facebook video showing four African-Americans torturing a white teen with special needs in Chicago.
Obama denied that racial tensions have increased in the Windy City, his home town. He said that “smart phones and the Internet has just made such incidents more visible.”
“What we have seen as surfacing, I think, are a lot of the problems that have been there a long time,”
President Obama Jan 5, 2017
Now contrast this with the article by Sarah Palin , January 6, 2017 in Breitbart:
“The child, yet unborn, spoke with the Father, ‘Lord, how will I survive in the world? I will not be like the other children. My walk may be slower, my speech hard to understand. I may look different. What is to become of me?’
“The Lord replied to the child, ‘My precious one, have no fear. I will give you protectors. They will love you because you are special, not in spite of it. Though your path through life will be difficult, your reward will be greater. You have been blessed with a special ability to love, and those whose lives you touch will be blessed because you are special.’” – From an embroidered plaque sent anonymously to me when my son Trig was born
Trying to fathom what is shown in the Chicago torture video is just too much. I watched a mere few seconds of it and will watch no more. I cannot watch more. Perhaps my family and I see the torture of an innocent young man with special needs through different eyes and with a greater, undeniable sense of responsibility to help; but this story playing out today is proving unbearable.
It’s time for a screaming wake-up call, America.
My extended family discussed the tragedy last night. We concluded we do not care about arguing the legalities involved in categorizing this as a “hate crime” or not a “hate crime.” Obviously it is a hateful, hate-filled crime centering on politics and race. Proof is on tape. Debating the merits of categorizing the disgusting racist and political taunts vomited up by thugs during their brutal beating of a helpless young man is, to us, a media distraction. I leave it to others to focus on that.
My sister Heather has worked professionally in the public school system with older special needs students for decades. She and her husband have also been raising a beautiful son with autism and disabilities. My sister seems to have seen it all. Because of Heather’s years of experience in this tough arena, she could understandably have grown necessarily less emotionally reactive than others when seeing such a news report. But Heather and the family reacted with more explosive shock and disgust, mixed with such profound sadness, than perhaps expected.
She knows her precious students — and son and nephew — could never defend themselves against attacks from such evil people. That’s such common sense, though, that even the depraved creatures haughtily recording their recent brutality knew their victim was as defenseless.
Heather and family remind the public that this targeted beating by young adults is equivalent to torturing a small child. (And media: quit hiding the alleged perps, especially the reported 24-year-old, behind your deceptively descriptive term “teens”!) We’re curious to hear where our public leaders and influential pop icons are on this.
But President Obama… shush. Just shush with your reaction to this racist attack with claims that race relations have improved under your reign. That is BS. And why, even in this, do you have to make it all about you, all the time? Your suggestion yesterday that there’s some silver lining in this shows how completely out of touch you are. Attacks on the helpless and vulnerable — no matter skin color — are society’s cancer. You still don’t get it. A better reaction is to acknowledge, for one, that your pride and joy hometown of Chicago is a mess.
Further, acknowledge that you’ve helped perpetuate a culture that disrespects innocent life by pretending that babies aren’t really babies, so their lives don’t matter; by mocking special needs children on national television (as the President!); by promoting vile gangsta “artists” and their cultural depravity; and by wasting time and public resources instead of using them to better society by, for instance, creating jobs and expecting able-bodied persons to work for self-respect and responsibility instead of incentivizing a lawless, selfish, hard-hearted entitlement culture. You have no credibility when twisting this into somehow being about your “accomplishments.” You fail by making this about you.
And we all fail as protectors of the innocent when we ignore solutions to create a culture of life.
We fail when we accept the killing of defenseless babies.
We fail when we don’t properly budget public resources to afford obvious funding priorities to assist the disabled and elderly.
We fail when we allow the celebration of gangsta’ thuggery and the twisted media that always demonizes anyone with conservative values.
We fail when we retreat and capitulate to the elitist PC thought police who command that we sit down and shut up about their double standards.
We fail when we don’t hold statisticians and pundits accountable when they fake numbers and scenarios to make all cops — and all non-liberals — look like bullies and racists.
We fail when we don’t support law enforcement, and further burden them by wasting their limited time expecting them to respond and resolve every dispute that mature adults used to be able to handle themselves.
We further fail when we choose politicians in self-preservation mode who ignore basic social issues in favor of just the “safer” fiscal issues. Look, we can’t make America great again by focusing only on bureaucratic ideas to hopefully put more money in people’s pockets. Really, it’s more soul in the American life that will make us great again.
Is it politically incorrect to call on leaders — including black leaders — to proclaim this the wake-up call society needs? If so, so be it. I call on them.
Is it politically incorrect to challenge pop culture “heroes” to join in? If so, so be it. I challenge Colin Kaepernick to take a knee over this one, for this cause is based in reality.
May we all do our part to be protectors of the innocent — as God expects. Then our nation will be blessed, for our lives will be touched by special people with a special ability to love. We’ve missed that for too long.
75 years ago, today, Dec 26, 1941, three weeks after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed a joint session of Congress, urging a complete commitment to the war effort. World War II had been raging since September 1939 with the British hanging on by a thread and the U.S. sitting on the sidelines, only offering limited support. After invading Denmark and Norway, Hitler decided to invade the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France the night of May 10, 1940. This was the moment Britain chose Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.
05/13/1940. The British Prime Minister Winston CHURCHILL gave the speech (on the BBC) he just delievered at the House of Commons : “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat (…) What is our aim? (…) Victory, Victory at all costs – Victory in spite of all terrors (…) for without victory there is no survival (…). No survival (…) for the impulse of the ages, that mankind shall move forward toward his goal. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, ‘Come then, let us go forward together with our united strenght’.” Next summer the Britain battle started, causing important destructions in London; the Royal Air Force nevertheless succeeded to push back the German air attacks.
When he met his Cabinet on May 13 he told them that “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” He repeated that phrase later in the day when he asked the House of Commons for a vote of confidence in his new all-party government. The response of Labour was heart-warming; the
Conservative reaction was luke-warm. They still really wanted Neville Chamberlain. For the first time, the people had hope but Churchill commented to General Ismay: “Poor people, poor people. They trust me, and I can give them nothing but disaster for quite a long time.”
Excerpt from his speech: “We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the British Empire, no survival for all that the British Empire has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, “come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”
Then came The Battle of Britain, which would have been lost but for Winston Churchill and the Royal Air Force. Winston Churchill and Major general Hastings Ismay were travelling together in a car, in which Winston rehearsed the speech he was to give in the House of Commons on 20 August 1940 after the Battle of Britain. When he came to the famous sentence, ‘Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few’, Ismay said ‘What about Jesus and his disciples?’ ‘Good old Pug,’ said Winston who immediately changed the wording to ‘Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few’
Words change history. Britain fought mostly alone in despair awaiting the inevitable invasion that they were in no way prepared to fend off. But then came Pearl Harbor. When Winston Churchill heard about it and that the U.S. had entered the war he slept soundly that night for the first time since the war started. Summoned to the U.S. he gave an impassioned speech to Congress. It was the day after Christmas, so the seats were mostly empty, but he finished the speech with the famous V sign to roaring applause.
About the Japanese he questioned, “What kind of a people do they think we are? Is it possible that they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?” As for the German forces he claimed, “With proper weapons and proper organization, we can beat the life out of the savage Nazi. These wicked men who have brought evil forces into play must “know they will be called to terrible account if they cannot beat down by force of arms the peoples they have assailed.”
That was then. What is happening now is in many ways worse. Germany and Japan were well defined entities, Russia and Iran may be, but the real enemy is the ideology of Radical Islam with a two fold approach in conquering the world, terrorism through Jihad, where the “martyrs” are assured of direct entry to heaven, the other is through “emigration and multiplying.” Normal warfare will not solve this epic battle of the 21st Century. It must be fought with ideology.
Yet the parallels are eerie. Neville Chamberlain came back from meeting with Hitler in Munich with a piece of paper where Hitler promised that after annexing Sudetenland the had no further territorial ambitions. Neville Chamberlain proclaimed “Peace for our time“. That lasted one year.
Obama has “negotiated” a deal with Iran that is much worse. It proclaims to delay Iran’s entry into the nuclear club by 10 years, but does nothing of that sort. Iran can have bombs within six months, and they have the rockets to deliver them. Hitler promised peace, Iran promises that “Israel must be wiped from the Face of the Earth” and “Death to America“. For these promises Obama and John Kerry agreed to abolish the sanctions and give Iran 140 billion dollars, some of it in cash that could be immediately dispersed to their terrorist groups.
Obama’s and Chamberlain’s shame:
Was “Peace for our time” just in name?
When Iran gets its nukes
it’s too late for rebukes.
It’s Winston’s and Benyamin’s claim.
The best way to explain Obama’s negotiating behaviour is that he is delusional. All other interpretations are worse. One telltale sign was when Obama told the British to take back the bust of Winston Churchill that had been on prominent display in the Oval Office. He replaced it wirh a photo of himself walking on water.
Obama shows signs he can’t hack it.
The consequence starts to attack it.
Winston Churchill was right,
We must still face the fight.
The bust of old Winston: Take back it!
The final blow came right before Christmas this year. Obama withdrew his support for Israel by abstaining a resolution to condemn Israel’s settlements. This will further destabilize the Middle East making the task of the incoming Trump Administration much more difficult.
Yesterday the Obama administration, the lamest of all ducks with four weeks left on its “reign”decided to abandon Israel, stabbing it in the back, trying to make it as difficult as possible for the Unites States to play a role in future peace negotiations. Days before the United States had been frozen out of the Syria deal, leaving Russia, Turkey and Iran as the only worthy partners in middle East negotiations.
President elect Donald Trump has his work cut out for him. Yet, there is hope. His latest tweet: “As to the U.N. things will be different after Jan 20.”
It’s Hannukah, Christmas together
and nothing can our bonds sever.
It’s God Jul and Noël
“All is peace”, God makes well.
Obama the traitor, whatever.
“Christmas and Hanukkah doesn’t have to be seen as contradictory, but rather a complimentary celebration of America’s Judeo/Christian foundation”
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo speaks during a news conference prior to runveiling the Euro 2016 Fan Zone at the Tour Eiffel in Paris, France, May 9, 2016. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
December 15, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Francis has asked the atheist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, to send him “positive waves” as support for his pontificate in just the same way he asks for prayers from Catholics.
“I ask you in good faith to pray for me or to think of me and send me positive waves (onde positive),” Pope Francis said in the closing of his letter to Hidalgo, as Le Pointreports.
Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the One having created— Who is blessed forever, amen. Romans 1:25
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:4-5
What did God say? From Genesis 9:8-17
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
So the Pope has exchanged the Gospel of Jesus Christ, salvation from sins through belief in Him, redemption through His death on the cross and His resurrection, and substituted it with the gospel of global governance to save the world from global warming. The claim is they do it for science when global control is their true aim.
The truth is that the promise of God is in the clouds. They act as a near perfect regulator to prevent overheating. We will never exceed the temperatures of the Minoan optimum, but we will go to another ice age. The increase in CO2 will delay the onset of the next ice age by at least 2000 years.
God’s promise to Noah is quite profound: ( Genesis 8:21b-22) “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”
How are the harvests coming? Thanks to increased CO2 the earth is getting greener! 11% without additional fertilizers, benefiting both people and animals. O2 is increased!This means another billion or more will be rescued from starving, the increase is the greatest in developing countries.
I doubt this is what the Roman Catholic Priests’ will be preaching from the pulpits.
Instead, this is what they will learn: The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences is the world’s oldest, longest running scientific mission. That body, which advises the pope on matters of science, has concluded that global climate change is real and is caused, at least in significant part, by human activity.
This is important to the Church because creation care is part of our mission. We are called to be stewards of creation. It’s also important because climate change can exacerbate the ills of poverty. Poor people in much of the world are the most vulnerable to changes.
In the western, industrialized world, a drought means bottled water becomes more expensive. In the developing world, a drought means people starve and die.
Unfortunately, the issue is politicized. In the late 1970s, when the issue threatened the financial interests of the fossil fuel industry, the political lobbies, chiefly in the United States, financed a massive political disinformation campaign to manufacture the illusion of dissent within the scientific community.
We know because this manipulation of public opinion has been caught and documented. The fossil fuel industry funds nearly all of the climate change skeptics, going so far as to commission questionable studies, to financing think tanks, and even paying individual bloggers. The deception continues today.
Few things could be further from the truth. The established community of experts agree with frightful consensus that the planet is warming because of human activity. And while nature may play a role in the natural heating of the planet it is known that the Earth’s temperature is dynamic, humans are clearly responsible for much of the present warming.
The Earth’s temperatures are spiking faster that at any time in history. The speed of the warming is so great, it is fueling extinctions and other crisis. Natural selection, evolution and adaptation cannot keep up with the pace of rapid change.
Climate change is costing lives already, and will continue to cost more lives in the future.
As Christians we are commanded to Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thes 5:16-18).
This is my life verse, but as with so many things I had misunderstood the verse to mean “for everything give thanks”, which turned out to be impossible. With the meaning “in everything give thanks” that makes it possible to give thanks, no matter the circumstances.
So was the situation with the Prophet Jonah. God had told him to go to Nineveh and prophesy so that they would repent. Now Nineveh was the very enemy of the Jews, so Jonah refused and boarded a ship going the other way. A storm arose, and the crew wanted to know who to blame for the storm. The lot fell on Jonah, he confessed and told them to throw him overboard so the storm would end. They did and God had prepared a big fish that swallowed Jonah whole. Jonah stayed in the fish three days and three nights.
Jonah was in dire straits. What could he do? He did obey God and said:
“I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me.
“Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice. 3 For You cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the floods surrounded me; All Your billows and Your waves passed over me. 4 Then I said, ‘I have been cast out of Your sight; Yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ 5 The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; The deep closed around me; Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6 I went down to the moorings of the mountains; The earth with its bars closed behind me forever; Yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God.
7 “When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; And my prayer went up to You, Into Your holy temple.
8 “Those who regard worthless idols Forsake their own Mercy. 9 But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.”
10 So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. (Jonah 2:1-10)
The story goes on Jonah went to Nineveh (think ISIS), they repented, which displeased Jonah. Pouting Jonah sat outside the town and in one day a gourd grew up, gave him shelter. But in the evening the plant withered, which also displeased Jonah (he was not a good rejoicer)
Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”
And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even to death!”
10 But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?”
This is the true meaning of thanksgiving; In everything give thanks.
1 Thess 5 continues: 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
This too is good advise, more than that, it is a command.
Awana program he drew the line. “No Awana for my children! It’s indoctrination! Their scarves reminds me of my childhood’s Hitler-youth“. This saddened his wife, but being a loyal wife, she submitted and let the children join the Boy and Girl Scouts. This went on for years, but one time taking his daughter and two of her girl friends home after the scout meeting he happened to listen to what they were saying to each other about the meeting and many other things. The next Wednesday he came with his whole family and exclaimed “Awana, here we come” to the delight of his wife and children, since that’s where their real friends were, and this experience was also the catalyst for his salvation.
This was 35 years ago, and Awana is still going strong. The name Awana comes from 2 Timothy 2:15 Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed and their mission statement is: God is changing the world through the ministry of Awana by equipping leaders to reach kids with the gospel and engaging them in long-term discipleship.
were 35 years ago.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 