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July 17, 2010 Leave a comment

 

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus

God sending his own Son

in the likeness of sinful man

He condemned sin

in sinful man

So that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met

in us.

 

Those who live

in accordance

with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature

but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives

in you.

But if Christ is

in you,

Your body is dead because of sin,

Yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living

in you

He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life

to your mortal bodies

Through his Spirit, who lives

in you.

 

We share

in his sufferings

in order that we may also share

in his glory.

 

The whole creation waits

in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice,

But by the will of the one who subjected it,

in hope that the creation itself will be liberated

from its bondage to decay.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as

in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

 

In the same way, the Spirit helps us

in our weakness

The Spirit intercedes for the saints

in accordance with God’s will

And we know that

in all things God works for the good of those who love him.

 

What, then, shall we say

in response to this?

 

Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

Who is he that condemns?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

No,

in all these things we are more than conquerors

Through him who loved us.

I am convinced that neither death nor life,

neither angels nor demons,

neither the present nor the future,

nor any powers, neither height nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation,

will be able to separate us from the love of God that is

in Christ Jesus our Lord.

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Howard Finster

July 16, 2010 Leave a comment

Road to Prayer by Howard Finster

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Dirty Harry In The Green Zone

July 16, 2010 Leave a comment

Read this column by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal first and then, if you’re a Democrat, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: ‘do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?
Did President Bush lie about WMDs in Iraq? Would he do this for political advantage? Would anyone do this to gain political advantage? In this WSJ article you will find out who has lied and who sought out political advantage. And, they continue to do so. God help us.

Filed under Current Events 2010, Politics Tagged with , ,

The Big Shebang Theory

July 16, 2010 Leave a comment

In a marriage relationship, men want to be honored and women want to be loved. We all know how to do the opposite. But, when love and honor are fused, then all is well in the nuclear family.

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Mel-odrama

July 16, 2010 1 Comment

There is no doubt that by now you have heard news reports replaying Mel Gibson’s rants to his girlfriend. I am not going to comment on what he has said.  It is really none of my business.  I will say that the media has no business playing these tapes and the public has no business listening.  It is an egregious invasion of privacy. I realize that people are hungry for gossip and ready to gorge themselves on any hypocrisy that can be scrounged up.  But no one I know would want to be cannibalized in the same way.

If the woman has a legitimate complaint of physical abuse against Gibson then she should get the authorities involved. Other than this, the playing of these tapes is malicious in intent and serves no real redemptive purpose. The tapes should not be used in court and should be inadmissible as evidence.

 Would you want tapes of all your bad/hysterical moments played to the public?  No, you wouldn’t. Mel, a devout Catholic, should know though, that God, the Operator, is listening in.

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That’s Too Wicked!

July 15, 2010 Leave a comment

Holy summer in the city! Hand me my parasol. Chicago is fried-egg-on-the-pavement hot.  Here are some beat-the-heat suggestions (and don’t forget to put your undies in the freezer):

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The Eyes Have It

July 14, 2010 Leave a comment

The phrase “The Men Who Stare Like Goats” came into my head yesterday morning and I am still wondering why.  I never did see the movie, the title of which holds the correct phrase.  Yet, this is how my mind works. And, usually by this time some occurrence comes alongside the enigmatic words to give them some context and relevance. But, nothing of any consequence has happened yet. I can only tell you of what happened yesterday as I headed home from work. 

Yesterday afternoon I found a single seat in the “upper deck” of the 5:04 West Line commuter.  From my perch I could look out over Chicago as the train headed west. At one point, not far from the station, the train stopped where it usually did.  Here incoming trains and outgoing trains wait on each other to pass.  While we waited another commuter train heading east came right up next to our train, on my side, and then passed by.  I could look directly across into the engineer’s cabin.  There, I saw the train’s engineer reading the Chicago Sun Times as the train was moving towards Ogilvie station, his eyes focused on the day’s events. I turned back to look into our coach to see if anyone else had seen the same thing and then I saw it:  staring. Four men sat ogling an attractive young woman. 

The woman sat in a single seat across the upper aisle from me.   A beautiful brunette, she wore a flowery silk dress with a slit on both sides and in front, a ‘V’ tucked in between two exclamation points. (My outfit was more of an “H”.  I received only perfunctory glances.)  This whole ‘business’ brings me back to my present free-association dilemma:  Men Who Stare Like Goats. I’ll have to wait and see what meanings today brings to the fore. Maybe, though, it is staring me in the face.

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In Joy So High, So Very High

July 13, 2010 Leave a comment

When two of my children were much younger they were home schooled.  In the evenings after dinner I would read to my son and my daughter from Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories

Here’s what we read…

The Little Mermaid

The Princess and the Pea

The Little Match Girl

The Emperor’s New Clothes

The Steadfast Tin Soldier

The Ugly Duckling

Thumbelina

The Snow Queen

And so many more…

…I remember reading the Snow Queen while snow was falling quietly one winter evening.

From Hans Christian Andersen’s diary, a prayer:

 “Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!”

I recommend reading this book to your children:

Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, translated from the Danish by Erik Christian Haugaard,

Here are some excerpts:

“And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety–they were with God.” The Little Match Girl

“”I cannot bear it!” said the pewter soldier.” I have shed pewter
tears! It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and
lose arms and legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot
bear it longer! Now, I know what it is to have a visit from
one’s old thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have
had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant
thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down from the
drawers.”” The Old House

The Old House

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Week in Review – July 5, 2010 –July 11, 2010

July 11, 2010 1 Comment

I don’t remember Monday.

 Tuesday, on Nova, I learned that the universe is rapidly expanding away, from where to where, I don’t know.  But this explains my need to be going somewhere right now.  I also heard about red shifts and blue shifts (not the loosely hanging dress but light speed wavelengths) and that light travels at 186,000 m/sec. Physicists have not been able to break this speed record first clocked by Einstein.  Nature has, though, and right after the Big Bang.  The hyper-speed is called inflation. The temperature of the universe is universally uniform, a lovely green on the light spectrum. I also learned that light slows down when refracted by water or a prism.  This will come in handy when I wear a bathing suit this summer. There was also a news report that there is a big hole in the universe. “Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size,” said Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota reported in a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.  I somehow think this will involve me someday (or George Bush). (Perhaps it is the effects of progressivism waiting in the wings.)

 Wednesday, during my regular doctor’s appointment I was told that I could go on roller coasters but I must wear a neck brace.  This piece of news was of special interest to me especially since I hadn’t mentioned to my doctor my desire to ride a roller coaster or even the inclination to be near one.  All I told my doctor during my appointment was how fragile I felt since having two surgeries on my neck for a herniated disc (C5-C6 for all of you ER nurses).  I never mentioned to him that last Sunday night I saw a Great America commercial on TV.  At that time I mentioned to my daughter that I would love to go but I felt I couldn’t risk it anymore with my weakened spine. My daughter didn’t care – “roller coasters are for throwing up.”

 Thursday night I saw commercials for the World Cup and still felt no desire to watch the human pinball machine in action.  The guys are cute, though.  If the World Cup was ninety minutes of soccer guys doing underwear commercials (ala the Vanity Fair June 2010 cover), well then, I would become a soccer mom.

 I don’t remember Friday night. I went to work on Friday, got on the train at the end of the work day and arrived home on Saturday morning.

 Last night, sitting in my favorite Mexican restaurant, I was an OR nurse for about fifteen minutes.  No, I didn’t cut into anyone. Rather, a woman pointed me out as being a nurse she knew who worked with her in the OR at Rush-Copely Medical Center.  She said this because she noticed my eyes, the only part of me that would stick out of a surgical gown. Prior to coming over to me, she had her picture taken with an “El Puente” sombrero on her head and a lighted cupcake. Her scruffy boyfriend ducked under the hat with margarita in hand just in time to have his picture taken next to her. After the photo shoot she waved “Hi” in my direction and I waved back in birthday courtesy.  When she walked over to me later I told her that I was good with knives and forks but that I was only a lowly electrical designer who worked in Chicago. I again wished her Happy Birthday but without my imaginary scrubs.  She returned to her Margarita, one of two influences in her life at the moment.

 This morning I head to church. I hope to make sense of all these things or to at least make a clean start for next week.  The Lord is my Shepherd and I need to get back to the fold.

Filed under Christian, family, Human Interest

Addicted to Love

July 7, 2010 Leave a comment

With the economy doing a head and shoulders march toward another recession, our President Obama is busy at work laying tracks for his progressive soul train and bypassing the dire economic issues at hand.  What economy?  Obama has global warming, cap and trade, education reform and a host of other subordinate issues in his docket to dabble in first.  Now, his AG Eric Holder is filing suit against Arizona’s immigration law.  Stupid move and what’s this? Obama finally joined in the battle against the gulf oil spill after James Carville read him the riot act.  Initially, Obama didn’t want the help of other nations to fix the spill.  I guess he’s too big to fail. 

On the record, Obama spent his first year in office on a national health care bill and on blaming Bush. We now have a national health care that our country can not pay for and that most Americans do not want and Bush looks better than ever.   On his recent prosperity tour, Obama and his slick cohort Joe Biden proclaimed how great things are and will be in America.  His “big picture” is to campaign jobs into creation by the sheer force of his community organizer will and yet, no improvements still in the economy or in the hopes of the American people. 

Obama recently let us know that some people make enough money and so he means to take the ‘excess’ from them.  This concept of taking someone’s property is stealing to God (see Commandment #8) but is re-labeled as “redistribution of wealth” by the god-man, Obama. And, he continues to verbally hammer away on big business even though big business, any business for that matter, is the cornerstone of our economy. Obama is the “fat cat” of fairness with Biblical disproportions

We have a president who inspires no confidence whatsoever.  He’s definitely not the likes of Martin Luther King or Ghandi or even a Jimmy Carter.  Jimmy Carter did not inspire confidence either, but he didn’t erode the national confidence as Obama has done and Obama’s reign of financial terror is not over. His big government Keynesian style economy is certainly more of a tyranny than any big corporation could ever become – you have to pay taxes. Economic slavery is only a jot and tittle away from becoming law.

Obama is more like a misunderstood child (Carter-like) who needs to constantly crusade in order to bolster his rolled up shirt sleeve poster boy image.  He wants to be admired and loved. He hopes there is an Oprah in all of us to coddle him.  He also believes that his image, a Harvard law grad from humble beginnings, will inspire the people to follow him. To be sure, there are lemmings still in tow. I don’t buy it and you and I can’t take it to the bank, either.  With all his highly polished learning, he only knows how to get around laws. He is incompetent as a leader.  And, he has become indecisive to a fault on crucial national issues while being dogmatically decisive on his own ideological issues, thereby creating havoc. Maybe he thinks that if he waits long enough the problem will go away. Or, another campaign is in order.  Woodrow Wilson, move over.

Obama spends a lot to time playing catch-up because he’s spends most of time tweaking his constant mutual admiration society address in front of his favorite tele-prompters:  Axelrod and Emmanuel.  He is a tireless campaigner for himself.  He wants to feel the love on the campaign trail that he doesn’t feel in the polls.  He doesn’t seem to see anything beyond those two screens or himself.  Behind the screens of this Manchurian Candidate there is a defiant scrapper (Black Panther-esque) who hones in on a certain issue of interest to himself (maybe basketball or his next golf game) and ignores everything else. He doesn’t get it. And, the American people are getting nothing but frustrated and hungry. Another great depression is headed our way if Obama remains in office.  You might as well face it – this President is addicted to love.

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