Thought for the day: Rejoice always.

Rejoice always, (1 Thessalonians 5:16) 

It often is hard to rejoice.

As always I don’t have a choice

but to praise, pray and sing

to my Savior and King.

To Jesus I lift up my voice.

At my mature age I try to keep my brain active by making Limericks. There are many types of Limericks, and millions have been made and printed over the years, some straight forward as the one above, some with a twist. I try to stay with the clean ones.

In my childhood’s Sweden we started learning English in fifth grade. The first semester, since English has weird spelling we learned the basics in phonetic script, and right from the start we were introduced to finer English poetry, such as this Limerick:

There once was a lady from Riga

who rode with a smile on a tiger.

They came back from the ride

withe the lady inside

and the smile on the face on the tiger.

Since then I have always loved the format, a strict  rhyme scheme (AABBA), and a predominantly anapestic meter  88668, or in this case 99669.

But my real love has been for songs and music. I have a very hard time to memorize things, but if it is set to music I hear the melody inside me and it stays with me for life. Even now I sometimes wake up in the morning with a song in my heart, a song I heard maybe fifty years ago and have not heard since I emigrated from Sweden. Such is the power of music. The cadence in the song and the melody work together to bring to remembrance the emotions I felt as a young lad.

Coming to America I decided to join the Rochester oratorio society. We sang Handel’s Messiah. It meant nothing to me except fantastic music. But the next piece was Elijah, and at the performance, the great base William Warfield was Elijah. He didn’t just sing, he was Elijah!

We moved away from Rochester and I didn’t sing for five years. Things didn’t go so well moodwise, but circumstances led me to again sing Handel’s Messiah. This time it spoke to me and rekindled in me the joy I once had singing. So I joined a church choir, still unsaved, but they let me sing anyway.

Since I found new life in Christ I have found that whenever things go bad, as they often do, God brings back a melody in my heart, not always with words, but they usually come back to remembrance a little bit later.

Thank God for hymns and songs with melody and words that bring back to remembrance the greatness of God!

(Sometimes I wake up with songs I heard in my youth that has very little to do with God and His greatness, but that is another story).

 

 

 

Thought for the day: Thank God for pork chops and “frikadeller”.

 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements:  You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell. (Acts 15:28-29

The other day we found a whole pork loin selling at $1.59 a pound at Wegmans. We picked it up and my wife made the most wonderful stuffed pork chops. The meat juice, when heavy cream, flour, water and some secret ingredients are added, makes the most wonderful gravy. we had our son and family over last Sunday, and the two year old grand daughter, small for her age as she is, ate almost a whole stuffed pork chop by herself, saying “I like it” over and over again.

Another food I love are Danish “frikadeller”. They are like Swedish meatballs, but bigger and made entirely from ground pork. Properly spiced they are just magnificently delicious. See the picture!

884223The principal agricultural export product from Denmark is pork in all of its forms. They have the last few years exported more and more to Russia, but a few months ago, after the collapse in oil prices, they suddenly stopped importing Danish pork. The pork mounds grew, filling up the slaughterhouses. What to do?

It is time to introduce pork in the political discussion.

Denmark has received their fair share of mid-eastern immigrants and refugees. They are now so many that they have started to demand they be served certifiably non-pork based food exclusively. Some communities responded by stopping to serve pork altogether in schools and municipal institutions so as not to hurt the feelings of Muslims. Such was the case in Randers, a seaport city in Northern Jutland, a town with a large slaughterhouse, processing pigs for export.

Monday a week ago the city council had enough. They voted (16 to 15) that pork products must be served at all meals in all schools and institutions. The Muslim children can still opt out of their ham and cheese sandwich, taking only cheese on their sandwich.

Yes there is pork in Danish politics. How about good old U.S.A.?

Iowa is holding its annual Pork Congress January 27-28, just before the Iowa caucus. Time for pork politics?

As for me and my house: Thank God for pork chops and “frikadeller”!

 

 

alpolitikerne har stemt ja til et forslag fra Dansk Folkeparti og Venstre om, at det skal være et krav hos alle kommunens institutioner, at svinekød skal være en del af madplanen.

Byrådsmedlem i Randers for Velfærdslisten Kasper Fuhr Christensen var et af de 15 byrådsmedlemmer, der stemte nej til forslaget.

Han kalder beslutningen »unødvendig«, fordi der ifølge ham ikke har været problemer på kommunens institutioner.

»Jeg synes, at det er fuldstændig absurd, når der nu ikke har været henvendelser fra utilfredse forældre. Det er et problem, som man har opfundet ud af den blå luft. Det er stor svineståhøj for ingenting,« siger han.

Forslaget om at servere svinekød for både de muslimske og ikke-muslimske børn blev stillet efter, at flere af kommunens institutioner havde valgt at ophøre med at servere svinekød for børnene.

• DF’er i Randers: Frikadelleforslag er blevet misforstået

Et af de steder, hvor man havde valgt at tage hensyn til de muslimske børn ved i stedet at servere halalkød, var Børnehuset Jennumparken, som Jyllands-Posten beskrev sidste år.

Dengang sagde institutionens leder Bente Gråkjær, at det vigtigste ifølge hende ikke var, hvordan kødet blev slagtet, men derimod om børnenen fik en ordentlig kost.

»Der er jo efterhånden også mange etniske danskere, der ikke spiser svinekød. Hos os har vi mange vigtige udfordringer at arbejde med, og så skal maden ikke gøres til en konflikt. Det vigtige er, at børnene får god og nærende kost,« sagde hun.

Muligheden for at forbyde svinekød har institutionerne i Randers Kommune med mandagens beslutning ikke længere. Fremover skal institutionerne i stedet sikre, at »dansk madkultur skal være en del af de kommunale institutioner.«

• Danske muslimer ønsker, at der bliver taget hensyn – men får et nej

Under byrådsmødet stillede medlem af Børn- og skoleudvalget, Mikael Firlings Mouritsen (S), ifølge Randers Amtsavis spørgsmålstegn ved, hvordan en forældrebestyrelse skal kunne forstå begrebet dansk madkultur

Manden bag forslaget, byrådsmedlem for Dansk Folkeparti Frank Nørgaard, understregede dog ifølge Ritzau, at forslaget ikke handlede om mistillid til institutionerne og forældrebestyrelserne.

»Vi vil bare sikre svinekød i vore institutioner til de, der ønsker det. Det handler ikke om generel mistillid til institutionernes bestyrelser. Men flere steder i landet forsøger man at luske igennem, at der ikke skal serveres svinekød i institutioner,« sagde Frank Nørgaard ifølge Randers Amtsavis.

En undersøgelse, som Wilke sidste efterår foretog for Jyllands-Posten, viste dengang, at 83,4 pct. af de danske muslimer mener, at der skal serveres halalslagtet kød i danske vuggestuer, børnehaver og skoler.

Omvendt svarede kun hver fjerde ikke-muslimske dansker, at institutionerne skal tage hensyn til de muslimske børns madvaner.

 

Thought for the day: Pray continually.

First Thessalonians 5:17 “pray continually” is short and to the point, only two words, as short as “rejoice always” and “Jesus wept”.  That is a tall order, it gives no wiggle room, we should always be in an attitude of prayer. How is that possible? I have other things to do.

Prayer is communication with God. It is mostly non verbal, thinking about and listening to what the Holy Spirit living within you wants you to do every moment of every day, certainly in your day-dreams, and maybe even in your dreams. I take this as one of the richest privileges of being a Christian.

The other day I read in the news that about 150 Somali-Muslim employees of a Colorado meat processing plant were fired after they walked out on the job, demanding prayer time, and refused to return.

Approximately 200 employees at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan staged the walkout, demanding various blocks of prayer time throughout the day, but a small number returned, according to The Denver Post.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is demanding their reinstatement and return of their prayer privileges and continuing use of the prayer room the company had generously provided for them until then. This had worked well for many years,  the company allowed them to go off and pray in groups of 2 or 3 so as not to shut down the assembly line, but the Somali Muslims started to demand that they all should be allowed to pray at the appointed prayer times and only those times to comply with Sharia law.

Why was that so important that they rather lose their jobs than yield to the company policy of staged prayer?

Muslim prayers are different from Christian prayers. Christians can pray at any time, Muslims are prescribed to pray their “Contact Prayers” at specific times, five are obligatory: Pre-dawn, midday, afternoon, after sunset and before going to bed. I take the midday prayer as an example. It cannot begin until the sun has passed zenith, the highest point on the solar arc. If you start too early Allah will not hear your prayer. This means you cannot use standard time but must use solar time. Solar noon is early in the eastern part of a time zone, and about an hour later in the western part of the time zone. In addition it matters which day of the year it is Solar noon in November is half an hour earlier than solar noon in February. Add two minutes to that, and you are allowed and commanded to do your prayers, you and everybody of like faith, turning to Mecca, thus fulfilling Sharia law.

The purpose of these proscribed prayer times is to round up all believers and exercise mind control. You know who your buddies are, and you also know who is an infidel. This is totalitarianism, following the directives of the Imams. In Muslim dominated territories, when the call to prayer is sung from the minarets everybody stops what they are doing, turns to Mecca, prostrates in a very prescribed position and recites their memorized prayer in Medieval Arabic.

I am so thankful to have access to God at any time, giving praise, giving thanks and asking God for His will for me and others, for the hour, for the day and for the future!

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Hebrews 4:16

 

 

 

 

Thought for the day: The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:6  He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
I woke up this morning with what I thought was a true bible verse: “The word killeth, but the Spirit giveth life”. Looking up the verse in the Bible it turned out I was wrong. It says the letter, not the word.
Over 40 years ago my wife and I emigrated to America. She became increasingly disillusioned with life here and got more and more unhappy as we realized more and more of our life goals, two beautiful children, a good job, a new house, two cars, in short, all you could ever wish. But she was unhappy and started to question the meaning of life. Is that all there is? At the same time she started seeking, and enrolled in a study course on great literature. One of her assigned readings was the Gospel of Matthew, and reading it she asked me the question: Since Jesus said: You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28), can that be true? If that is so then heaven must be empty. Nobody can control their thoughts.
I tried to assure her that heaven is just a concept to make us desire to live as good a life as possible and let God sort it out. This didn’t go over well, so she grew more and more unsatisfied. A friend invited her to a bible study and she agreed to go with her once to ask some pointed questions, but to her surprise they didn’t get mad at her but answered all her questions patiently. She went back week after week and she finally accepted that she couldn’t do it herself, but she had to accept the fact she was sinful and only through believing and trusting in Jesus Christ could she find the meaning of life. That changed her attitude completely. Initially I was very glad for her, smiling and even occasionally laughing again, a trait that once made me fall in love with her. But then she decided I needed this new-found purpose of life also, so she started to work me over at least one hour every night and even longer on weekends. This continued for months and she had  no success in making me see things her way. The biggest point of disagreement was: What has Jesus to do with that?
Then one night she prayed and cried out to God: God, I can’t do it, you do it! She felt the spirit giving her assurance. “I sure will, don’t worry, just believe.”
From that day, she was different, and half a year later I too became a believer.
What made the difference? For months she had tried to quote scripture at me, thinking something must stick, but nothing worked. She tried to do it herself apart from the spirit thinking the letter of the word would do the work. This is, I believe one aspect of the verse, and I too can testify that the Spirit gives life.

Sarah Palin on the stump for Trump. A Limerick.

The Lady and Trump on the stump

help Donald get over the hump.

Sarah Palin in Ames

added fuel to the flames.

The burn on the stump is with Trump.

Just imagine that! Donald Trump quiet for 20 minutes while Sarah Palin delivered her message!

Why did Sarah Palin endorse Trump over her previous favorite Ted Cruz?

Sarah Palin is against crony capitalism and Donald Trump epitomizes the crony capitalist.

The best exclamation is that pragmatism wins over purity.

Both Sarah and Donald want to shake up Washington.

Both Sarah and Donald speak their mind and are not afraid to tackle politically incorrect subjects.

And they both agree the most important issue facing us today is the epic battle against Islamic extremism, Jihadic terrorism threatening our very existence.

Way to go!

Thought for the day: In the middle of “Snowmageddon”, thank God for creating a wonderful ecosystem!

Genesis 1: 6-8 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

I marvel at God’s creation, especially when it shows its full power. The bird feeder got repaired just in time for the snowstorm, the birds are now flocking to it. We put out the Christmas tree next to it, so the birds can have close shelter when the stealer boys, the Blue Jays come and take over the feeder. I marvel at the persistence of all the small birds, surviving in these conditions.

In Creation, God, the Word and the Spirit created all matter. The water was created before light. And God saw that it was good. That was the first day.

The second day God made the feedback loop of water vapor evaporating,  rising to make clouds and giving rain and snow to form a functioning eco-system. So God took a whole day out of Creation just to make the clouds? And He didn’t even say it was good? He said it was good after all the other days of Creation. In the sixth day of Creation, after creating man, God even said it was very good, and then rested on the seventh day! The reason is the total ecosystem does not function well and be stable until all components, clouds, rain, snow, grass, plants, trees, animals and yes, even man are in place.

The story of Creation explains Creation spiritually, but leaves out a lot of details. To understand the functioning ecosystem one has to go about it scientifically, that is: Look at nature and what happens to Earth when something changes, such as burning fossil fuels and produce more and more CO2. Is that good or bad?

The last ice age ended with a massive melting of ice. The northern ice cap extended as far south as the Finger Lakes in North America and the middle of Poland in Europe. Something caused a disturbance to start the melting of the ice. Once going, more ice melted and exposed bare earth and more ocean for even more warming, and a chain reaction started. What had been a stable ice cap for thousands of years melted in a very short time. The level of CO2 was low during the ice age, but as soon as the ice melted some CO2 got released from the ice, and even more from the warming oceans, so with a lag of about 800 years the CO2 levels rose as well. The temperature rose and rose until suddenly they leveled off in what is called the Minoan optimum, with pleasant temperatures. Since then it has gotten gradually colder with small warm periods such as the Roman and Medieval Warm period, and colder periods, the last of which was the Little Ice Age.

During the ice age evaporation was much less than now. Snowfall over Greenland was about half what it is today, and there were significantly fewer clouds in the ice covered areas, much like Antarctica is today, an ice desert. This is what happens: As temperatures rise, more water evaporates and clouds form more often and earlier in the day causing a strong negative feedback so it doesn’t get as warm  as it otherwise would have been. This limits the surface temperature to about 88F when thunderstorms occur. If no clouds form it can get substantially warmer. Take New Delhi, India for example. During May the sky is without clouds and temperatures can reach 115F during the day. When the monsoons come in June-July the temperature stays below 100F with high humidity.

We are now well into the bog building phase of the inter-glacial period and the next ice age can start at any time. In fact, it was narrowly averted after the little ice age. With burning more fuel, creating more CO2 we delay the onset of the next ice age by a few thousand years. In addition, added CO2 grows more plants, making it possible to feed an additional two billion people on earth without starving. By lessening the temperature differences between the poles and the equator, storms, hurricanes and tornadoes will be less severe. Droughts will be less severe. Water will be more abundant. The only drawback is that floods will increase, but if we know they can come we can prepare for it.

The conclusion after this long harang is: When you see a cloud forming, thank God for providing a functioning ecosystem, and when you see a rainbow in the sky thank him again for his promise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thought for the day: Hooyah for female midshipmen!

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Genesis 1:27, King James Version)
I love this verse in the creation story of the Holy Bible. We are created in God’s image, but lest you think of God as a mere man it shows clearly that both men and women are created in the image of God. The only way to understand it is found in St.John 4:23 – 24: But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Naval Academy alumni, Annapolis residents and others voiced opposition this week to the Navy’s review of job titles in the pursuit of gender-integration — particularly the removal of the word “man” from ranks like midshipman.
Fox news commentator Lea Gabrielle, a former Navy midshipman, said she wore the title as a badge of honor.
The feminists have got it all wrong. Female midshipmen strengthen the notion that men and women are created equal in the sight of God.
Let’s keep it midshipman. According to Genesis 1:27 it is proper English and a valid title for both men and women. Political correctness has perverted the English language to the point of destroying the beauty and clarity of it.

Thought for the day: In everything give thanks.

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.  (1 Thesslonians 5:18)

After being reborn from above early in 1974 i felt challenged to find my life verse, a Bible verse that would best define me and my new life in Christ.

It was late February, lots of snow on the ground, it started to snow, mixed with sleet. I was in church, and the Pastor happened to mention the verse: Rejoice always. This seemed unrealistic to me, but my eyes fell on the next verse, and I made up my mind to give thanks for everything. Going out, there was a lot of slush in the parking lot, and as I started the car (an old Volvo with manual transmission), after putting the car in reverse my foot slipped on the clutch, breaking the gearbox.

This was the first test, and it was easy to thank God for his protection from something worse. So I gave thanks for the broken transmission.

Years passed and I found it more and more difficult to give thanks for everything that befell me. Then, 40 years later, after revisiting the verse many time I suddenly realized. It doesn’t say “For everything give thanks” but “In everything give thanks”.

Thanks God, that feels much better. With times being what they are it is still possible to give thanks, no matter the circumstances.

Obama’s Fast and Furious gunrunning to El Chapo: A Limerick.

Katie Pavlich commented on Townhall: “At least one firearm trafficked into Mexico (and lost) through the Obama Justice Department’s Operation Fast and Furious made its way into the upper echelons of the Sinaloa Cartel. 

According to a report by Fox News’ William La Jeunesse a .50-caliber rifle connected to the program was found inside the lair of notorious drug kingpin El Chapo Guzman.”

No wonder the Obama administration claimed executive privilege and refusing to release the documents to Congress!

Run Guns: It was fast, it was furious.

El Chapo got one, that is curious.

The Divider In Chief

gave the drug lords relief.

His treasonous act: Most injurious.