November 2008 Archives

Wednesday evening ...  we were informed that my great-nephew was in the hospital with a concussion, three or four broken ribs, and a broken leg. I am not going to go into great detail here as to how this happened to a two and a half month old baby, but I am going to ask for your prayers. Prayers for healing, comfort, and love to be poured out on this child. I also ask that you pray that what evil was done in secret will come to light and the abuser of this child will be known so that it never happens again.

I want to light Heaven up with prayers for this baby. I have been in constant prayer since yesterday and I cannot even think about this poor child without crying. I haven't even had a chance to hold him yet ... and yet someone cared so little for him that they did this to him. It is almost more than I can bear to even think about.

I have been a member of the Christian Women Online Blogroll for awhile now. I love CWO. It is an awesome online mag and such an encouragment. So when I found out that they were also on Facebook, it was a given I was going to join their group there as well. It is really fun too. They have contests and giveaways ... just some really fun stuff.

Well ... I won the latest giveaway and it is so awesome! I won a bracelet from Bracelet Stories. Oh my! You have got to see the work that is put into these bracelets. They are gorgeous! They began creating them in memory of children (miscarriage, stillbirth, newborn) but they also make them for brides, anniversaries ... any special occasion you want to commemorate with a bracelet. :)

I chose to have them make me a Mommy Bracelet. It has my children's birthstones in it surrounded by pearls. It is gorgeous! Check it out ...

Get this ...

Religious leaders and AIDS activists told CNSNNews.com Tuesday that labeling sex outside of marriage as sinful or having multiple partners as immoral behavior is "biased" - something society has "moved beyond."

I have read the whole article and found many thoughts expressed in it to be right on. Like teaching abstinence only is not doing the trick when it comes to sex education. Seriously ... we know that abstinence is the number one way to keep from getting pregnant and contracting a venereal disease. If you aren't having sex ... the chances of you getting HIV is slim to none unless you are sharing needles while you shoot up. But ... people aren't listening. They are still having sex and exposing themselves.

But, to say that labeling sex outside of marriage or promiscuity is sinful is "biased" and that "society has moved beyond" that ... hello? And, this came from a religious leader? Which one? Is it the Church of We Don't Read Our Bible or the Church of We Read Our Bible But We Don't Believe It? Is anyone home?

I wasn't going to say anything. I didn't want anyone to think I was picking on Ed Young after my last two posts about him (here and here). Luckily, I didn't have to. iMonk did it for me and is it ever good. Here is a taste ...

You're the master of the evangelical universe. You've got the Bible on your side. Song of Solomon. It's about sex. So couples, take the seven day sex challenge. Or the 30 day. Or whatever doesn't kill you.

Women, it is time to submit! God's will has been announced! It's the Seven Day Sex Challenge!

Git 'er done there Christians.

We're sexy now. We're having sex, yes we are. Sex. Ask me to say it again. Sex.

You have to read all of it. It is just too good.

I tell you it never fails! I get online with the intention of making a really good post on some topic or another and instead spend my time reading everyone else's blogs instead. Then, next thing I know, time has passed by and I need to get off my computer and get busy doing all the things I need to get done that I haven't gotten done because I have been sitting here!

And ... I have so much to do! I need to prepare for Thanksgiving. We are going to my sister-n-law's house, but I still want to make a few things to bring. Plus, my sister may cook as well and I want to go to her house and bring a few things for there too.

I am also making deer jerky this week. The hubby got a deer Saturday morning and he wants some jerky. My nephew J sent sent deer meet for me to make jerky from as well.

Plus ... a ministry I am involved with is having a Christmas Outreach in a few weeks and I need to get stuff together for that. Our local community "Christmas Connection" only services the poorest of the poor and then only for two years. After that ... they are just out of luck. There is no one to help them at all since the "Christmas Connection" is all the old seperate services combined now into one.

We are hoping that we can at least make some kind of dent in the need that still exists. We have permission to come into one of the local subsidized housing areas and set up. We are going to be giving away new and used toys, coats, clothes ... and food. Plus we are going to serve hot chili and hotdogs. I cannot wait! Our whole church is coming together and donating the items we need. It is going to be so awesome!

Well, I am out of here. I need to shower and get to cutting up more deer meat. Making jerky is so time intensive! I am praying I can get through all the meat before any of it tries to go bad. Lata!

If you have never looked at the statistics on human trafficking then you may not be aware of how prevalent it has become. The stats are shocking and heartbreaking ... but there are people out there trying to make a difference.

For more information, visit www.theA21campaign.org. Please consider joining and downloading their prayer guide.

Well ... my Bloginality might be ISFP, but my blog's is not. According to the Typealyzer, my blog is ...

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Hmmm. I am not sure how my blog can have it's own personality ... but okay. :)

Hat tip: Conservative Musings

NoNo sat up for the first time yesterday! It was so awesome. I was at work at church and she was up on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth. She hasn't learned to crawl forward just yet so she rocks like a car revving up it's engine ... she just doesn't take off ... at least not yet.

So, I am cheering her on ... encouraging her to take that first leap forward when I notice that she has straightened her back leg. I am all like ... "NoNo, bend your leg! You can't crawl with your leg all straight behind you!" Then she starts going backwards slowly, pivots, and ends up on her butt! It was so great!

She will be eight months old here in a couple of days. :)

eHarmony has given in and will now hook up gay people. I find this wrong on so many levels. The fact that anyone would sue eHarmony because they do not provide services to them is stupid. It is not like eHarmony is the only dating site on the net. There are many such sites specifically for homosexuals ... and some of those sites do not provide services to heterosexuals ... but you don't hear them crying.

I agree whole-heartedly with the following ...

This case is akin to a meat-eater suing a vegetarian restaurant for not offering him a rib-eye, or a female patient suing a vasectomy doctor for not providing her hysterectomy services.

Honestly ... I think I would have fought it or even shut my business down. If I make pants for girls and they don't fit boys ... but boys want the pants I make ... no one is going to force me to make pants for them too. It is ridiculous. Next thing you know ... someone is going to sue the Girl Scouts because they don't accept boys into their organization. It won't matter that there is a Boy Scouts. That won't be the point. The point will be forcing oneself onto others regardless of how ignorant it makes you look.

... for my brain to right itself again I wanted to share a really good post with you from iMonk. It is so good. You just have to go read it. Here is a taste ...

I'm getting the feeling that we're talking about a kind of "mini-Jesus." A diluted, declawed, demoted savior who is a symbolic representation for a kind of anemic, watered-down, unBiblical, culturally acceptable Jesus.

I get the feeling that if you move beyond the standard biographical paragraph, you're going to discover that the Jesus you're hearing about has considerably less to say than Jesus as we meet him in the Gospels.

You're going to discover that he has little or nothing to do with most of the Bible, especially the Old Testament and the more demanding parts of the new.

If this post doesn't get you to thinking about the Jesus you say you follow ... I don't know what will. But, it is obvious that there are people out there who are not following the Jesus of the Bible. They are following a Jesus that they have made up in their own mind. A Jesus who does not exist and is only used to excuse their own beliefs, sins, and doubt.

I don't know about you ... but I want the real Jesus. I don't want some watered-down, abbreviated version of a Savior. I want the Real Deal. And ... it is only the real Jesus that can save you and me from our sin.

Go read it. It is that good.

I know I haven't been blogging much in the way of substance of late. I am not feeling real well. I am also flared up right now. And with Fibromyalgia there comes brain fog (also known as Fibro-Fog). So ... I have trouble thinking right now and that can make for some stupid stuff coming out of my mouth ... or fingertips. My ability to logically look at something becomes deeply impaired when I am like this. I can't wrap my mind around simple concepts. So ... instead of posting some really ridiculous stuff or getting involved in some of the deep conversations out there ... I keep it light.

Just so you know. :)

Have you ever craved something but you don't know what it is? So ... you eat different things hoping that one of them will be it so you can be satisfied ... only to find out afterwards that it wasn't it? Then you have to wait to try something else because you have already eaten and now you are full ... but you are still craving?

It sucks! Big time! I have been doing this for days and I don't know why and I don't know what I am wanting to eat because everything I do eat is so obviously not what I am wanting ... but I don't know this until after I eat it. It is crazy!

So ... I figure I am a nice person and all. I have an open door policy around here and visitors are welcome night and day. All they have to do is just come on over and help themselves to all the tidbits about me and what I think. From the looks of my stats ... some of you are really gorging yourself over here too.

Then ... one of you comes over here and sneezes or spits or whatever it is you did and gives me some kind of nasty cold. That ain't cool. Not at all. Seriously, if you are going to come over here sick would you please wear a medical mask or something?

Didn't your momma teach you any manners? ;)

Church was so good yesterday! It started out kind of frustrating. We arrived to find that someone had broken through the glass of one of our main doors. It didn't appear that they had taken anything, but it was sad that someone felt the need to do such a thing. Then I got flustered during service and messed up a few of the song screens. I recovered quickly, but once I start messing up it just seems to escalate.

Things picked up though once Pastor started preaching. He preached on the return of Christ and how we should be expectant of His return ... just as the disciples were. That really touched me and answered something for me. I know you will probably think this sounds crazy ... but lately I have been expectant in my spirit. I feel it ... like an urgency that I cannot explain. I didn't even realize what it was until Pastor talked about it during our AM service.

I feel such an urgent need to read my Bible and learn more and more and more. I have also been really searching my own heart making sure that I am right with God ... desiring to align myself more perfectly with His will. There has been times of late that I have felt like I have been so busy working for the Lord that I haven't been having a relationship with Him. I spend far too much time on this computer and not enough in my Bible. I have a few studies that I really need to devote myself to as well.

But ... it is still more than that. With this expectancy, I feel such a heartache for my children. I want so much to know that my girls are living their lives for the Lord and I know that two of them may actually be falling away. One is very involved with the Church ... but her attitude is so bad sometimes. The other ... she is more interested in friends and boys. She has never been baptized and doesn't seem to want to be. I want so much for her. I just keep praying for God to draw her near to Him.

It is all so hard to explain. I just feel like I am running out of time and there are things I should have gotten done and I need to get done before ... I don't know. I just want to be ready whatever it is. I want everyone I love to be ready. I want those that I care about to be ready. I want perfect strangers to be ready. It is a most intense feeling and I know it makes me sound a bit nuts ... but it is how I am feeling and have been feeling for a bit. This is just the first time I have put it into words.

Beliefnet has published it's 2008 Exit Poll Results. It is kind of interesting ... especially the part on whether or not a person considers themselves evangelical or born again. I was surprised to find so many "Christians" who do not consider themselves to be born again. How can you be a Christian and not be born again?

Answer: You cannot.

Have I mentioned lately just how much the MT Community Forum sucks?

No? Well, it does.

I am not sure why but God keeps sending me back to this scripture ...

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
 
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.

I have spoken my piece on gay marriage before. It is no mystery where I stand on the issue. I am against gay marriage. I am all for civil unions/domestic partnerships. I have no problem with gay people having the same benefits that heterosexual partners have.

What I do have a problem with is when gay people claim they are being denied a civil right because they want to redefine marriage. Going so far as to say that being denied "marriage" is the same as when blacks were denied the right to marry whites, vote, drink from white fountains, eat in white restaurants, and attend white schools. I don't think so.

First of all ... blacks were denied rights that everyone else had. White men could marry white women. They could vote, drink from fountains, sit in the front of the bus, eat where they wanted, etc. No one had forced them into slavery or made them second-class citizens. The same could not be said for black people.

Second of all ... gay people have the same rights as everyone else. They can work where they want, eat where they want, vote, drink from public fountains, attend the school of their choice, and marry someone of the opposite sex ... just like the rest of us. They can't marry a dog, their sister, someone of the same sex, or three other people at the same time ... just like the rest of us.

Some of you may have noticed yesterday that my blog disappeared for a few hours. I have been running some major errors and they weren't corrected no matter what I did. So ... I decided to reinstall my blog which fixed all but two of the errors.

One of those errors is coming from allowing OpenID on my blog. When I initially set the blog to accept OpenID comments, it worked fine. Then it didn't. I don't know why either. All of a sudden they ran a 403 Error. So, I disabled it. But ... the good news is that CAPTCHA works now so you don't have to login to comment anyways. :)

Then there was the URL issue. When I had inititally installed MT4 ... I did not know that it would automatically change my site URLs. Instead of a file name being something like ... billy_graham_politics it became billy-graham-politics. That made lots of older posts very unhappy. So I changed it and now my newer posts are very unhappy.

I still haven't been able to revert back to the .php extension I used to use for my site files. That makes the majority of my archives non-existent. They are there, they just have the standard .html extension now.

I am also working to put in redirects for any pages that are consistently being viewed (or at least people are attempting to view them). I am also doing that with posts from the last few months so that no one ends up with any dead links. Oh joy.

I also need to go through every last post and the internal trackbacks to ensure that the proper links are in place. I have no clue how long that will take. Double joy.

According to this source, Rev. Billy Graham will not be able to be an active counselor to presidents any longer. His health is far too frail. He is now ninety years old and has lived a long life ... bringing so many to Christ. His health has been so frail of late that he hasn't had the chance to meet with Obama, but he hopes to do so soon.

This is from the BGEA website, "President Elect Barack Obama faces many challenges," Mr. Graham says, "and I urge everyone to join me in pledging our support and prayers as he begins the difficult task ahead."

I did not know that Billy Graham is a registered Democrat. But ... that is how it should be. He kept his partisanship away from his pulpit and preached the Gospel instead.

After running errands and working for the last couple of days, I came online to check the blogs I read and see what the general mood has been like since the election. Interestingly enough, there is a lot of happiness for the decision that was made Tuesday night. That is good.

Of those grieving ... or at least disappointed ... I was kind of surprised that they weren't speaking more on Obama and what they thought he would bring to the presidency. I don't see any posts about abortion or gay marriage. I haven't even seen a post yet on the Freedom of Choice Act and what that is going to mean for America.

What I have been seeing though has been more along the lines of where did Republicans go wrong. There has been speculation that they missed their mark nominating John McCain. Some feel they needed someone more conservative. Some feel that their biggest mistake was trying to "out-liberal" the liberals. Others realize that Sarah Palin may have hurt them with her inexperience and "rogue" commentary.

This is the latest newsletter from the DFLA regarding the election ...

We did it!  We pick 5 pro-life democrats!

Thank you for all your hard work and support. The pro-life Democratic Caucus will once again increase.  This will be only the second time in 30 years that the number of pro-life democrats increases instead of decreases. The first time we made gains was in 2006 due to the work of pro-life democrats all over this country advocating on behalf of the pro-life cause. 

Congratulations to our pro-life Democrat Incumbents

First of all Congratulations to our incumbents: Altmire, Berry, Boren, Childress, Costello, Cuellar, Davis, Donnelly, Ellsworth, Holden, Kildee, Lipinski, Marshall, McIntyre, Melancon, Mollohan, Murtha, Oberstar, Ortiz, Peterson, Rahall, Skelton, Shuler, Stupak, Taylor and Wilson.

Wow. I am sitting here stunned. America just elected her first black president. As I listened to Barack Obama's acceptance speech, I started to tear up. Not so much because of what he said ... but for what his being elected means for our country. It is a historic day ... whether you voted for him or not. And ... whether he will live up to his promise of hope and change ... I don't know. Just his being elected gives blacks and other minorities hope ... a hope they have never known before and a change they never thought they would ever see.

I was glad to see John McCain took it like a man. He reminded me more of the man that I had come to admire ... than the John McCain that I lost respect for during this election. Maybe if he had not allowed his campaign to get away from him ... he would have won. I still think Sarah Palin hurt him. He had a lot of Moderates out there who would have been happy to have voted for him ... especially with Hillary losing the nomination of the Democratic Party. Instead he played to the Conservative base of the Republican Party and far too many people were tired of the way they do politics. Eight years of George W. Bush were enough. The people have spoken and they don't want four more.

As I close ... and get ready to take myself to bed ... I pray that regardless of the promises Obama has made or the things he would like to accomplish ... that he will hear God above all others. I don't agree with everything he agrees with. I don't support everything that he supports. But ... he is my brother in Christ and he will soon take office. I will extend my goodwill and I will pray for him and Joe Biden daily.

We just made history. Let's pray that Obama will rise to the occasion and be the president this country needs.

I went to vote today and had every intention of writing-in Scooby Doo as my pick for President. Unfortunately, while I was standing in line ... reviewing the new voting procedures ... I noticed a sign on the wall that stated that my write-in vote would not be valid if the candidate had not filed a Declaration of Intent. Well, I figured Scooby had not done so. Jesus either.

So, I had to pick which duo would get my vote. I wasn't ready for that at all and I struggled with it for a few minutes ... but I finally made my pick.

Beliefnet has an Election 2008 Exit Poll. It has some interesting questions on it. I recommend checking it out. :)

One of the most awesome worship songs I have ever heard is People Get Ready by Misty Edwards. It is not your average worship song. No ... it is what we call worship music for warfare around my church. I literally get chills when I hear it. It is a lengthy song ... but well worth every second of it. Click the title and come back and let me know what you think.

Suggestion: Listen to it with your eyes closed, let your body feel the beat of the music, and let the words sink into your spirit.

Update 11/29/08: I have removed the song to conserve bandwidth.

Ed Young continued in the same vein as he did last week. Am I surprised? Why, no I'm not. After last week's service you would have to be an idiot to not know where he was going with it. So, vote JESUS (or in Ed Young political speak) ... vote Republican. Because we are not battling against flesh and blood. No we are battling against socialism ... oops, sorry ... I meant principalities.

I wonder if Jesus knew He was a member of a man-made political party or that one day Republicans would consider His call to care for the poor, the disabled, the elderly ... socialism? I am surprised he did not call Creation Care pure liberalism!

Video here.