Guess what I get to do tomorrow?

Yup, I got Jury duty tomorrow.  As I have little else to do right now, I'm going to a) do my civic duty, b) get the entertainment value, and c) hopefully earn a day or 2 of $40 a pop.

So tonight, I'm going to empty out all the things I've been waiting to unleash on my lovely readers but have been waiting for you to read previously published stuff first.  And if you make it through the rants to story #5, I have a funny for you!

Story #1-  You all know that I am constantly trying to get my Christian audience to do God's will the right way.  I was reading My Utmost For His Highest last night, where the point was brought up how too many of us end up offending the Lord- and everyone else- by jumping into a project on human impulse rather than seeking God's will first.  As such, I was seeking about doing this story in a "names changed to protect the guilty" way, until I learned that it made National news through the much-less-understanding-than-I Huffington Post about 2 hours ago.  So here's the WANE-TV story:

Garrett mayor apologizes for throwing out Sikh pamphlets

Updated: Wednesday, 05 Sep 2012, 5:57 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 05 Sep 2012, 5:57 PM EDT

GARRETT, Ind. (WANE) The mayor of Garrett has apologized to a local business owner for an act that she herself called, "unrighteous." Our partners at KPC News reported the apology on Monday.

The manager and part-owner of Quickway in Garrett, Kulwinder Nagra, 38, said he put pamphlets about his Sikh religion on the counter of the store after the shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin .

“I just wanted to let people know who I am,” Nagra told KPC News. “After 9/11, there was a lot of misunderstanding. ”
Surveillance footage shows Hoeffel entering the store at about 12:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 28. She bought a soft drink and walked away. She then returned to the counter, grabbed the small stack of pamphlets, took them outside and threw them into a trash bin.
Nagra said he went outside to ask the mayor why she took all four of the pamphlets that had been placed on the counter in front of the register.

“She said, ‘It’s against my beliefs,’” Nagra said. “She said, ‘This is against Christianity.’”
Hoeffel later said she disposed of the pamphlets because of a lack of personal interest, not as a statement about the religion.
Hoefell has since apologized, saying, "I just grabbed what was there. I just decided I didn't want it."
Hoefell and Garrett City Coucilman Brad Stump met with Nagra and his business partners on Monday to discuss the incident.
“I personally believe if you do something wrong, you go to that person,” Hoeffel told KPC news. “I apologized for offending them. I said I know they are a peaceful people.”
Nagra said the Sikh religion teaches forgiveness and the issue was resolved for him when Hoeffel apologized.

Okay, my friends, since people don't seem to understand the simplest of principles anymore, let's take it step by step.

1-Christianity does not excuse or ask for this action.  Jesus did not overturn tables at the Quikee-mart, He did it at THE LOCAL CHURCH!  While we have a Great Commision to spread the word, we have no commission to censor beyond our own home.

2-If you are a public official AND a Christian, you are to be held to a higher standard.  This action was even more heinous for the fact an elected official did it.

3-A Christian would NOT try to pass off such stupidity to the public by saying that, oh, I took the stack to read it, wasn't interested, and threw it away. That, Ms. Mayor, is LYING.

 4-This Sikh gentleman casts a much better light on his faith than she does.  If the Mayor had done this at an atheist's shop to atheist pamphlets, the FFR bunch would have sued- would have been in the right to- and would have won.  That Mr. Nagra just forgave her is the kind of amazing testimony to his faith that we Christians SHOULD be making.

5-Moral of the story- THINK BEFORE YOU ACT.  Think of the consequences beyond your action.  And if you are a Christian, WWJD should be applied.  It's not just a bracelet, it's a way of life.  If it's not yours, please don't bring your "Christian faith" into it.



Story #2- Y'all hear the latest way the thugs of Ft. Wayne have found to prove how stupid they are? From Indianasnewscenter:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - An altercation that started inside Piere's nightclub early Sunday morning left one person stabbed, three people shot and an ambulance driver injured.

Fort Wayne police were called to Piere's Entertainment Center, 5629 St. Joe Rd., just before 3 a.m. on a report of a stabbing. The man stabbed, 29-year-old Jermaine Loyall of Fort Wayne, was taken to a local hospital, and his friends and family members followed the ambulance to the hospital in a black Chevrolet Impala.


On the way to the hospital, police say a white Ford Crown Victoria with tinted windows drove by the Impala and ambulance in the 2200 block of St. Joe Ctr. Rd., less than a mile from Piere's, and opened fire. The three passengers in the Impala, 22-year-old Dominic Loyal, 27-year-old Latasha Loyal, as well as 31-year-old Lashanda Conwell, were injured.

The ambulance driver, who is also a firefighter, was also injured during the shooting

The ambulance driver provided a description of the white car, and Allen County police found the vehicle that matched the description near downtown Fort Wayne.

After a short pursuit, Allen County police stopped the white car at West Jefferson Boulevard and Fairfield Avenue. The four people inside the white car were arrested. 18-year-old Jakwan Braster, 27-year-old Alfonso Chappell, 24-year-old Traneilous Jackson, the fourth occupant was detained and later released.

Braster was arrested on a charge of “minor consuming,” Chappell on “resisting and fleeing law enforcement” and Jackson was charged with “Aggravated Battery,” “Criminal Recklessness with a Firearm”, and “Possession of a Firearm by a Felon.”

Jermaine eventually made it to the hospital, and was listed in stable condition.

The three people shot inside the Impala drove to the Marathon gas station at Washington Center & Coldwater Roads, where they were treated by paramedics. All three are in stable condition.

The ambulance driver was treated for his injures and released.

According to my son, who was there, it all started when the thugs in the "general population" started blowing crap to those in the VIP section.  Soon later, he saw "about ten guys" pounding hell out of one dude.  This was the dude that got stabbed, apparently with a broken beer bottle.  The victorious group celebrated the victory by hoisting aloft one of the victim's shoes.  Police apparently thought the scene secured, and I'm sure "nobody saw nuthin'" as per usual.  But apparently beating, stabbing, and whatever else they did to this kid was not enough.

INC's reporter said that there is currently no law that increases the penalty for attacking a public safety vehicle.  If we weren't living amongst such animals, it wouldn't be necessary.  Ft. Wayne has a huge unrecognized by city-gov't problem, i.e. they are afraid of offending the black community and the ministers that crawl out of the woodwork to defend any of these "poor dears" that get caught.  Thus, the entire southeast side of the city is only patrolled by police on a "when needed" basis.  Anything more would send the local NAACP screaming to their lawyers.

I'm not saying this out of prejudice, these are the facts and can easily be researched.  We who live in Ft. Wayne don't need to, we know it.  75% of the crime we face in this town could be nipped in the bud where they live.  But the city, afraid of lawsuits, allows this crap to be exported to the north side- just across the river from where I live.

Plus, Pierre's is the largest night club in the area, and "coincidentally" seems to have some sort of immunity from the consequences which less-well-known spots such as the former Rick O'Shays (also not far from me) couldn't withstand.  They have 5 -count 'em 5- off duty cops on the weekend for security and a "million dollar, Las Vegas-style security system".  But I keep hearing of smoking (despite the smoking ban), even of pot, within the club under their watchful eyes.  They supposedly check IDs, but both one of the shooters and one of the vics were underage. They supposedly pat people down, but my son says a guy got in "with a bag" that night.

I'm for shutting the damn place down.  I fail the see the need for off-duty police to to get paid for a job they aren't even doing. I'm for this City doing the things necessary to PREVENT such crap in the first place.  But somebody is obviously making money off the situation (which, to me, is the greatest racism involved here, as those who are "discriminated against" are constantly being sold out of making something better of themselves), and our Prosecutor is so budget conscious that she'd plea bargain a murder into a trafiic ticket, so I don't forsee anything getting better soon.

Story #3- I guess our first report on the NHFFL will be delayed, but I can tell you that the KCAs are looking pretty safe to beat the Greenwoods, the B2s have beaten the Clock BBQs 36-21 and the Porkchops (apparent winners of the unannounced best-logo competition) tipped the Ducks 40-35 thanks to a certain former Colt QB, and everyone else is too close to call.

Story#4- Just to clean the books, the KHL Lokomotiv won again Monday, topping Metallurg Novokuznetsk 5-4 in a shootout.  The enemy scored first at 13:41 of the 1st, and made it 2-0 on a goal by 15-year NHL vet Chris Simon just over a minute later.  Then with our Roman Lyuduchin in the penalty box, Alexei Kalyuzhny, a Belarussian who came over from Avangard Omsk, scored shorthanded to cut it to 2-1 after one.  Yegor Averin got his second score for the young season at 3:51 of the second to tie it at 2-2, but they took another lead at 10:06.  29 seconds later, Daniil Apal'kov netted his second of the season unassisted, and MN pulled their goalie and brought in his backup.

We finally beat goalie #2 on a goal by left winger Niklas Hagman, a Finn veteran of 770 NHL games with Florida, Dallas, Calgary, Toronto, and splitting last season between the Flames and Anaheim's Mighty Ducks.  He's also spent time in the top leagues of his homeland as well as the Swiss National League A.  His power-play goal was matched by MN about six and a half minutes later, and we went to overtime.  After a five-minute OT that saw only 2 shots taken, we went to the shootout.  And guess who was the last of the first six shooters?  That's right, Mr. Hagman, and he was the only shooter to put one in the net to give us the 5-4 win.  Lokomotiv is off until Friday against Torpedo, who has a loss, an OT loss, AND a shootout loss to its credit.  Loko is currently tied with Dynamo Moscow for the best record at 2 wins and a shootout win.

Story #5- If you are a big fan like me, you can go on the KHL site and see text updates of the games as they play.  Of course, you have to use Google's translate function to read it, and sometimes it gets amusing.  Here's how Google translated one update in the season opener:

Gyunge made ​​his way to nickle visiting team. It makes the transfer partner, but the defenders of the Crusade did not allow him to complete the scene naked.

Apparently, the word for "naked" is the is the same as that for "goal" (Isn't THAT interesting?) and what it basically means is, "Gyunge made his way to the visiting team's end with the puck, and made a successful pass, but the defenders of the goal did not allow him to complete the play with a goal."  Now you see why I follow these games?

Sunday message

First, though, to my amigos in the Great Postcard Campaign, they are on their way!!!

Anyway, I got up this morning thinking it would be a great idea to lead into Christmas by looking at the prophecies about the coming Messiah.  Now, I'm really good at taking my concordance and beating raw facts from it.  Putting moving meaning to it is what separates me from effective preachers.  So I looked up my facts and then got dressed, hooked up my earphones to Turning Point with David Jeremiah, and off Scrappy and I went.

Along the way, Dr. Jeremiah read from a poem that got to me.  The basics are, the speaker is a sorrowing sinner, looking for a means to lift the burden from their soul.  This person fashions "a lash of remembered sin" to whip themselves with.  But it does them no good; and in desperation they turn again to Calvary.  Looking into the eyes of the dying Jesus, He says to them, "What you see as scarlet, I see as white as snow."  With that, the lash disappears and the burden is lifted.  Just for a moment, that spoke to me and my throat choked up.  And I was reminded that dry facts are great, but it's how God sees them that is important.  Dry facts hand me the lash; His mercy evaporates it.

Gotten that far, let me try the "dry facts " portion.  The first prophecy of the Messiah is in Genesis 3- the judgement God proclaims on the serpent.

 ¹⁵ And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”   

The first thing we pull from this is that, at the moment of Eve's sin, the world became divided.  "Enmity between you and the woman" does not mean everybody hates snakes.  The serpent is Satan; the enmity is between humankind and Satan.

Second thing is "and between your seed and her Seed".  The "seed" of the serpent, Satan's "offspring", are not a race of serpents, nor are they demons.  The serpent's seed are the unrepentant of humankind.  However, the Seed of the woman (note the capitalization) is Christ.  The enmity is between sinful man and Christ.  Thus, Joshua, we explain your hatred of all things Christian.  You see my friends, I have an atheist acquaintance who feels that, as an atheist, it is not only his choice to disbelieve God, but his duty to fight against, tear down, and mock Him (or if you prefer, the "belief" of Him) at every opportunity.  I posit that someone who simply doesn't believe in a god should have no real drive (other than to be left alone by preachers) to attack the belief in others.  But that is not the case, and it is the enmity of God's curse so long ago that makes it so.

So where do believers fall into this?  At the "heel."  You see, a "serpent" cannot strike the Head; it is beyond his reach.  So he has to strike at the heel.  What is the "heel" of Christ?  The word for heel is the same one that we draw the name Jacob from.  Jacob, the birth name of Israel, the name taken on by God's People.  So in the battle of enmity between Christ and Satan, we are the "heel " which he strikes- because it is the only means to strike at Christ that he has.

And Christ Himself?  He strikes at the "head" of the serpent- Satan himself.   The verse never says that the head removes the heel from the field of danger.  His perspective is the destruction of the head- by the salvation He brings.

A quote Dr. Jeremiah uses is, "God whispers to us in good times, talks to us in trouble, shouts at us in pain.  Pain is God's megaphone for a deaf world."  So many times I hear, "A loving God wouldn't do this or that". Sometimes I say it myself.  But, the catch is, he would allow it.  Because the making us white as snow for the next life is more important to Him than anything in this one.  He won't reverse the enmity.  He won't remove the heel from the serpent's bite.  But He will take the lash from our hands.  Atheists like to think we're the end product on earth of evolution, the peak of what is and thinks.  Jesus wants us to be the heel.



Omnibus end of June rants

Good evening, everyone; sit down and get ready for a long one.  I have several things to get off my hairless chest tonight, and this first one I'm hopimg for Pat Miller to read and give an opinion on, so I'll go there first as he is a busy man and will be able to read this part and not have to scroll around wondering why I asked him here.

Our Constitutional government is unarguably the best form of government when run by honorable men.  Also beyond argument is the fact that a huge proportion of those currently in charge are not exactly honorable.  Thus, I  have been considering our checks and balances system.  I want you to think about all the things currently stalemated in our government- and the things that are not.  It would almost seem, in a nation that has split into a two-party system, that the tendancy of a checks and balances framework would logically be stalemate.  Perhaps not at every moment in time, but on balance.  Today Mr. Miller was referencing all the different ways the Obama administration is circumventing the other two branches- and in this is included appointing of "czars" to avoid Congressional vetting of department heads- as the Constitution provides for by hearings on cabinet appointments.  In this is included underpublicized executive orders; and in this is included telling his Justice Dpt. not to prosecute laws he doesn't like but hasn't the votes nor the cajones to repeal.

But you know, he's not alone.  How about legislators who, finding themselves in the minority, skip the jurisdiction in order to keep the legislature from doing anything.  How about Legislatures that modify laws to ensure themselves majorities (such as eliminating voter ID requirements so that illegal aliens and dead people can vote in elections, and can vote multiple times).  How about "activist judges" who are determined to stretch, perforate, ignore, and create new "laws" in order to rule in favor of their political view (like the one who said that saying "amen" at a graduation was against free speech rights).  Now you might notice that the majority of all these examples can be laid at the feet of the Democrat party.  Not suprising; honor in the left end of the American political spectrum died with Jack Kennedy.  But over time, the right is learning the easy lesson of how to play the game too.  Because it's either that or surrender to stalemate.

If you think about it, how many of the great things that America has done are the result of a president acting in defiance of, or at least contrary to the wishes of, congress?  The freeing of slaves, the fighting for the freedom to choose in Vietnam, Nicaragua, Grenada, and Korea, reaching the moon, and so many more were done by Presidents with the courage to buck the system.  Name one great thing that America has done that Congress led us into.  While you scratch your heads for an answer on that, let me get to my point.

If we believe that we can still find enough honrable men to fill the voids thereof in the three branches of government, then what we have is fine.  If not, then let's look at a couple of choices. #1: based on past history, put the power into the executive.  Make Congress an advisory body, but draw a line of executive power that says this far and no farther.  After all, we don't need a Hugo Chavez.  #2: do like the Europeans do.  Put the power in Congress who chooses a Prime Minister to form a government.  Have an elected President whose basic job is to salute at funerals and call for new elections when he feels the current legislature and/or PM is out of touch with the nation's desires.  Both would basically do away with stale mate, the first because it's hard for one man to stalemate himself, and the second because at any one time, the majority of oars would be paddling the same direction.  As Americans, we would probably choose to keep the one we have- where honorable men move the country through RESPECTED checks and balances.  Right now, those checks and balances are not respected by a wide swath.  Those men are not always honorable.  So I ask you- is our current government just going through a hard time- or in this world's new morality, is it an ideal that just doesn't work anymore?

Okay Pat, you are excused.

The next thing I want to speak about is a study on 1090 Christian radio by Dr. James MacArthur a night or so ago.  Let me preface this by saying that his main point- that a Christian needs to be in an earthly church (ie a congregation)- I have no problem with.  Really.  But here are some things I did have a problem with:

1.  Dr. MacArthur began the lesson by stating how All the significant moments of his life came in church.  His father was a pastor.  He learned about God, gave his life to Christ, made all his lifelong friends, met his future wife, raised his children, all in his local church.  Thus, he went on, he could not conceive of how someone could not see the church in the same way he did.  Emphasising, "can not conceive".

2. I believe this created for him a "blind spot" that showed itself in the way he then described people who, though Christian, were not in a church.  The first was giving the impression that such people had not been baptized, did not receive the Lord's Supper.  I agree that it is essential (though not  "salvation depends on it" essential) to be baptized, and to take the Lord's Supper as often as your conscience dictates.  His implication that anyone not in a church for whatever reason has NEVER been baptized nor partaken was a bit of a stretch.

3. He went on to attack church hopping, and again in a general, "everybody who does this" way.  He may not have intended it to sound that way, but it did.  God allowed the establishment of different churches for a reason- different people have different needs.  Some people have to search to find the church that is the "fit" for them.  God has you look around, see the different facets, before He sets your roots down.  And sometimes a person changes, for whatever reasons.  I don't believe God wants you to stagnate.

4.He also pointed out, incredibly to me, that part of the problem is that the Evangelical movement focuses on the "personal relationship" of the believer with Christ.  Thus, the community of believers gets second billing.  Hello, which is more important- being in a church or being right with Christ?  I agree that- in most cases- the two go hand in hand.  But not always...

5. At the end, his host asked if their own ministry isn't a problem, a substitute for the church.  Of course he said no, and he is right- used properly, his program is nothing but a study aid.  But it carrys with it the temptation to use it as a sermon substitute- no matter his own intentions.

My thoughts afterwards were, I think Dr, MacArthur could use with a Perspective shift.  You cannot conceive of why someone wouldn't be a member of a church?  Perhaps he should try.  Some people are in the midst of a crisis, or at least personal debate, of faith.  I fall in that category.  I'm at peace with it, though, because when I brought it up in prayer one day, I felt the answer, not from me, " Jesus spent time in Samaria, too."  Get it- no synagogues in Samaria.  Sometimes the Lord's path is a solitary one.  Some people are physically or emotionally unable to attend with a group.  Some have been hurt deeply by "people" in a church, and have trust issues.  And a lot of these people have a peace with Christ about it.  Am I off base here/ Or do we need to move away from a black and white, zero tolerance approach to believers who are non- attenders?  I'd like to here from you all on this subject.



Finally a word about work, that place where we were told today that lollipops were no longer allowed on the work floor because they were a safety hazard. (Stay tuned for the second graders we must be hiring soon- they'll start as soon as they replace all our scissors with rounded end ones.)  Last year around this time, I was begging you all to stop buying our cushions, so we could get off the 70-hour weeks.  Well, a year later, you FINALLY decided to listen.  We're not even going to have a 40-hour week this week.  So let me phrase this concisely- Buy cushions!  In moderation, but don't be afraid.  You know you need them, that chaise lounge is beat to shit, admit it!  You don't have to get a cushion for every square inch of your home, like last year, just enough for those four chairs on the patio with the faded, lumpy cushions.  G'wan!

Standing up as a Christian

People from the White House to Pat Miller on WOWO are urging Christians to stand up and denounce the clowns at Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville FL for their plan to burn Korans. So I decided to look into the situation. Having done so, I'm not sure they were worthy of my time.

Just so I am clear, a Christian church has one goal, the goal that Christ gave them:

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. "(Matt. 28:19)

Anything that is not based upon this principle does NOT come from a true Christian Church. If what you do works against the bringing of souls to Christ, YOU ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Let all my readers no matter their faith or lack of it understand this. Most true Christian groups do understand this; only one church seems to be backing them up:

From Wikipaedia: On April 18, 2010, members of the church participated in a joint protest with the Westboro Baptist Church against homosexuality[14]; the protest took place in front of Trinity United Methodist Church and the University of Florida Hillel.
Later, on April 21, Dove World member Fran Ingram published a blog post proclaiming the church's endorsements of the Westboro Baptist Church's protests against homosexuality and homosexuals.

That's right, the only people aligned with these idiots are those lovely people who think that the best way to protest gays in the military is to torment the mourners of dead heroes. If that isn't enough to finish discrediting these nutbags, how about this little tidbit:

(also wiki) The church also maintains a Dove World Outreach Academy in Gainesville, in which students are prohibited from outside contact, and work without compensation in selling, packing, and shipping furniture for TS and Company (which is Pastor Terry Jones' and his wife's furniture on-the-side-business)[4].

Let's all say it together, kids: C-U-L-T!

It's just a shame that the thousands of truly Christian Churches who do countless acts of good cannot get press from the MSM, but any whack job with a building, a crackpot congregation, and the ability to spell "J-e-s-u-s" correctly, gets plastered all over the evening news.

Gal. 1:8-9: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed."