This glorious Good Friday reminds us about the redemption we have in Jesus Christ.
A few years ago I wrote this song in five verses. Five is the number of grace.
It can also be used as one way of expressing five pillars of the Christian faith.
To be sung to the tune of “Dark Eyes” (Ochi Chernye)
1 The word incarnate proclaimed by God.
• Once in David’s town
• As the prophet said
• God Himself came down
• In a manger laid
• Wise men saw his star
• They came from afar
• Unto Bethlehem
• Where our Lord was born
2. The prayer of submission to the cross.
• In Gethsemane
• There in bitter pains
• Sweat like blood did flow
• From His sacred veins
• In deep anguish he
• Prayed more earnestly
• That God’s will be done
• Jesus prayed
3. The redemption.
• Outside city walls
• Up on Calvary
• He hung on a cross
• In deep agony
• The atonement made
• As He loudly said
• It is finished, then
• Breathed his last
4. The Resurrection.
• First day of the week
• The three women went
• They the grave did seek
• Stone was rolled away
• Strips of cloth they found
• As the scripture said
• Jesus had to rise
• From the dead
5. The pilgrimage and final victory.
• Therefore let us rejoice
• Gladly let us go
• Conquered has our Lord
• Vanquished is the foe
• Christ without, our shield
• Christ within, our life
• Unto Him our all we yield
• this is victory!
“It is the only country in the world that has now had six elections since the first election of [its president in 1997]. (It is) the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in the six elections…In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote. There is no other country in the world that I can say that about, certainly not my own.” Davos, Switzerland, Feb.2005.
The person that said it is William Jefferson Clinton, former President of the United States of America, and the country he is referring to is the Islamic Republic of Iran. He said it in an interview with PBS Charlie Rose.
The Islamic Republic of Nation Iran
Bill Clinton admires as much as he can.
They are so progressive
What we call oppressive
Is freedom to nuke our friends; that’s their plan.
Two fellow Alaskan women, Kirsten Powers and Penny Lee, penned a letter to the New York Times calling out misogynist attacks on women in public life.
They included this interesting aside: “Coincidentally we both hail from Alaska — where women are treated as equals — so perhaps our threshold for this kind of behavior is less than here in the Lower 48.”
As an Alaskan woman, I completely agree. Women up here do not tolerate the sexist stereotyping and behavior.
Up here, I’m constantly around commercial fishermen who curse like sailors, oil field workers with hardcore blue collar work ethics, tattooed-up soldiers serving on our military bases, long-haul truck drivers, motorheads, hunters and sport fishermen; and yet I don’t know anyone who talks about women the way these misogynists on TV do with their degrading comments, which includes comments mocking those with special needs.
I grew up hunting, fishing, playing sports, plowing snow, and chopping wood just like the guys. My parents raised my sisters and me to never consider gender an unequal element in anything. (In fact, today is my Dad’s birthday, and I want to give him a shout out because as a science teacher and track coach, he treated all of his students and athletes equally with respect and encouragement.) My daughters have participated on football, hockey, and wrestling teams just like the guys. We even dress like the guys at times (or they, like us) in warm camo hoodies and Carharts. It’s accepted up here because the environment is rugged and real, and our Alaskan elements are a great equalizer.
Women and men are equals in every way in the Last Frontier, and real men are not threatened by strong women. Real men don’t insult women with gross sexist comments meant to demean and objectify them.
These misogynists wouldn’t know how real men behave. I cannot imagine them working on my commercial fishing skiff in Bristol Bay, or driving our trucks to haul gear out to a remote cabin, or fueling up the float plane, or even having a tinge of grease under their fingernails which symbolizes the hard work needed to fuel the nation’s economy. And yet these are all things average Alaskan women do everyday. If these misogynists said one of their disgusting comments up here in person to an “Alaskan chick,” they would have to replace their veneered teeth.
I personally do not seek an apology from these narrow-minded men. With a full family and productive “to-do” list everyday, I just don’t have time for them. But I do feel sorry for them and for their obvious need to compensate for something that’s missing in their own lives, which compels them to belittle others in order to feel big. And I feel sorry for our culture for having to listen to them. America deserves better. I applaud Kirsten and Penny for taking a stand when too many feminists don’t speak up when the attacks are directed at their conservative sisters. And unfortunately too many men, like our president, will only defend certain women, not all women.
– Sarah Palin
Here is my two cents worth of reply:
Thank you Sarah for speaking the truth, again. This mirrors my own experience. The misogynists cannot look at a woman as an equal, for they see only a sex-object. In a strange way the pill and other contraceptives have transformed “liberated” women from being one man’s property to being every man’s property. They think free sex liberates since Hollywood promotes it and society encourages it, but in fact it is a new form of loss of freedom. We must work to a day when men look at women as partners in a cause greater than themselves. We must also work for a day when “feminists” no longer look at themselves as victims bent on revenge, but as equals.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his speech Mar 4 2012 to AIPAC said this:
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This week, we will read how one woman changed Jewish history.
In Synagogues throughout the world, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. We will read how some 2,500 years ago, a Persian anti-Semite tried to annihilate the Jewish people.
And we will read how that plot was foiled by one courageous woman – Esther.
In every generation, there are those who wish to destroy the Jewish people.
The next day Netanyahu handed US President Barack Obama a gift that spoke volumes about Israel’s tensions with Iran – an ancient Hebrew tome about a Persian plot to annihilate Jews, otherwise known as the Scroll of Esther.
The Scroll, or the Megila, tells a tale of palace intrigue featuring a Jewish beauty, Queen Esther, who charms a Persian king into foiling an evil adviser’s genocidal plans for her people some 2,500 years ago.
“Then too, they wanted to wipe us out,” Netanyahu told Obama, according to an Israeli official.
History was made last week. Did you miss it? There was but a one paragraph mention in most of the news clips.
For what it is worth here is my take on it.
Sarah Palin visited India in 2011 (She came, She spoke, She conquered, Hindustan Times).
On the way back she and her husband Todd visited Israel. She wore a large David’s star as a necklace. One of the stops was to celebrate Purim with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara. At the feast of Purim it is customary to read the entire scroll of Esther. That Purim was no exception. They mentioned they talked about many things, but mentioned Esther in particular.
When Netanyahu spoke Sunday night he was not only talking to all Jews, but it was a coded signal to Sarah Palin. When Sarah Palin abruptly resigned as Governor less than 3 years into her term, she went fishing. The press was there and asked her many questions. She claimed the reasons for her resignation were so obvious that anybody should get it. Liberal interviewers are not just anybody, so they kept asking. In one of her answers she said the phrase from Esther, slightly concealed “If I die, I die”. This was too deep for the interviewers, for they do not even know there is a book in the Bible called Esther, and if they do they would never admit it, for the Bible is not something about which they are supposed to acknowledge any positive knowledge.
Anyhow the exact quote is: Esther 4:13-16 (ESV)
13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” 15 Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai, 16 “Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my young women will also fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though it is against the law, and if I perish, I perish.”
I believe Netanyahu reminded Sarah Palin about her quote from Esther and the consequences if she doesn’t answer the challenge.
I also believed Sarah wore the same necklace in Hannity’s interview of her the same week to respond in solidarity with the Jewish People.
Excerpts from the interview can be found in a desperate Obama fundraiser video where Sarah’s remarks are taken out of context to deliberately generate a false narrative of Sarah. But there it is: The David’s star necklace. In Obama’s narrative only a racist can support the Jews.
Obama Sends Apologies as Afghan Koran Protests Rage
February 23, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Obama apologized on Thursday for the burning of Korans at the largest American base in Afghanistan earlier this week as furious protests raged for a third day and a man wearing Afghan Army uniform turned his weapon on coalition soldiers, killing two of them, bringing the total death toll to 9.
“I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident,” Mr. Obama said in a letter to President Hamid Karzai. “I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies.”
They burned the Korans “by mistake” down in Kabul.
President Obama really did say that at the recent National Prayer Breakfast.
He went on to say that his understanding of the Bible is his basis for his economic policies.
So the question is: Which Governmental policy was Jesus so supportive of?
I think I have found it: It is from: Luke 16:1-8 King James Version (KJV)
1And he (Jesus) said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.
2And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
3Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
4I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
5So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
6And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
7Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
8And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
The certain rich man is the people of the United States, the steward is Obama, the goods are our national resources and heritage.
So far the People of the United States are commending the unjust steward.
Do you think this is the basis for his economic principles?
You went on to say that your understanding of the Bible is the basis for your economic policies.
Campaigning in Ohio, presidential candidate Rick Santorum was criticizing your radical environmental views, which he said hurt the American people.
“It’s not about you [people],” Santorum declared. “It’s not about your quality of life. It’s not about your jobs. It’s about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible — a different theology.”
Very few commented on your statements at the prayer breakfast. People seem to be perfectly happy that you are using your understanding of the Bible as the basis for your polices.
When Rick Santorum challenges you on your understanding of the Bible, saying that your theology is open to challenge, everybody is jumping on him, saying that any criticism of your Christian belief is over the line.
You invited a discussion on your understanding of the Bible since you use it as the basis for your economic polices.
What is your biblical basis for not having an opinion whether we should have a budget or not?
What is your biblical understanding on abortion? The only references on abortion I can find in the Bible are child sacrifices, as was practiced in Baal worship. Is that your basis?
Where is the biblical justification for Government regulation trumping Religion?
Please let me know where you stand on the Bible since it is your understanding of the Bible that is the basis for your economic polices.
You were in Rev. Jeremy Wright’s Church for twenty years. You said you never listened to his sermons. How did you obtain your understanding of the Bible?
Planned Parenthood and NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) are telling their members that 98% of Catholic women use contraception.
My first observation is that this is a surprisingly large percentage. One Catholic woman in fifty is not using birth control. How can that be? Why would an 80 year old nun use birth control? 10% of all women are lesbians (this is a statistic that cannot be challenged), what type of birth control do they use? Or, is the very fact that they are lesbians a form of birth control? If so, why use the word contraception?
Planned Parenthood is quoting from a study made by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, a former Planned Parenthood affiliate. Did they exclude any women from their study, thus inflating the numbers?
Indeed they did. They included only women between the ages 15-44, normal child-bearing age. They excluded any woman who had not been sexually active in the last 3 months. They also excluded all postpartum or pregnant women. All women trying to get pregnant were also excluded. In fact, the only women included in the study were (pg.8 of the study) “those for whom a pregnancy would be unintended and who are “at risk” of becoming pregnant.” It is unclear if women whose attitude is: While I am not trying to get pregnant I am trusting in God, and if I do get pregnant it is the will of God to do a miracle in me. My hunch is that more than one Catholic woman in 50 has that attitude, so they would have to have been excluded as well.
The study probably should have been stated: 98% of all Catholic women using the services of Planned Parenthood use contraceptives and other forms of birth control, such as abortifacients and abortion. That may be close to the truth.
There is no profit for Planned Parenthood in promoting abstinence. Yet it works every time.
Nancy Pelosi is informed as always. The hearing was on the constitutionality of the mandate, not biology.
This is her attitude to the Constitution of the United States:
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 