Reading Rev. David Jeremiah's 2008, Best-Selling, Prophecy Book

I'm reading Dr. David Jeremiah's 2008 book on Biblical prophecy, What in the World is Going ON? --one thing it tells is how the inscription on the eastern top of the Washington Monument is "Laus Deo" --Praise be to God. I knew about that, but there is a display that allows the public to see a replica of this inscription --which the Nat'l. Park Service has recently turned toward the wall --saying that they did so to "correct a mistake."

We are fools to be revisionist historians, hiding and stripping this nation of evidence of its religious heritage --considering that from the beginning of America's founding --from Columbus's comments in his journal that he thought he was opening the world to the Gospel of salvation in Christ with his explorations, God's hand is evidenced through the faith of the founders. Yes, I know all the evil that attended our history in America --and the hypocrisy of various of them --but it wasn't just the European and western Christians who sinned in every generation since creation's fall.

American Protestant Christianity has still been the world's greatest force for good with their Biblical knowledge and application --even some hellfire and brimstone preaching converted some pretty tough old sinners into decent citizens --and the USA has been the most blessed of nations for our global generosity, Christian missions, and beacon of freedom --all influenced by people who had a biblical sense of right and wrong, and the value of every individual --and the values of both justice and mercy.

We are rightly measured and judged by our Savior Jesus Christ --and corrected in our sins. But it is never a sin to correct to say "Laus Deo." "Praise be to God!" Not even as a nation.

Or to say, as did the Jewish man Irving Berlin, "God, Bless America!" It is a prayer --and every president utters it in his speeches.

Atheists, relax. You get to disbelieve all you wish! But don't help to remake us in Europe's image--secularistic, humanistic, socialistic, childless, gay, weak in family life --and ultimately overrun with a Muslim majority and their ideas of law and freedom.




"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

MERRY CHRISTMAS, BLOG FAMILY, ET AL!

Christ is Born! The Annointed One of the Creator has been sent --and has descended to be born of a Virgin Jewish girl --and because of His atonement on the cross --and His resurrection--and His power in miracles and raising the dead --and because His father loves us all enough to give us a chance at immortality AND power over sin and death --we all have the hope of resurrection to eternal life --instead of the hopelessness of mortality and the sorrow of death. We all know that we can live to please God instead of ourselves (which will be pleasure to ourselves as well) and find victory over temptations through repentance for sin --

⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9

A Merry Christmas indeed!!!

Peace on earth --good will to men-- from our heavenly Father.








"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Blade Writer Thinks Gay Issue is Minor for Lutheran Church

A Letter to the Blade:

In regard to the dispute at St. Paul’s Church over gay clergy: Though he had many major theological differences with the medieval church, Luther did not withdraw from it, but was forced out by the hierarchy.

It therefore seems strange that a Lutheran congregation would divorce itself from its parent body over one rather minor social issue.

Fred Shuman

Whitehouse

Fred and his wife both taught my children at AW Schools. Fred is a retired minister in the Evangelical Lutheran church--same as St. Paul's Lutheran in Maumee which recently voted to secede from the parent denomination.

Fred should remember that Luther was kicked out of the Catholic Church after disagreeing with it on a list of 99 issues. So what would happen if the St. Paul's congregation would refuse to receive a gay minister or perform gay marriages? The split is inevitable. And the issue is BIBLICAL, not socially minor. It is the church divider of our day.

Luther hoped to reform Catholicism instead of being excommunicated. St. Paul's Church probably knows that their denomination has been left-leaning on theological and social issues for decades. Better to secede than put up with their unbiblical stand on marriage --no small social issue.

Any church that wants to be truly Biblical cannot condone gay marriage or ordination for practicing homosexuals --same as for unrepentant, sexually active adulterers, rapists, pedophiles, incestors, fornicators, porn users.

The Bible blesses one proper arrangement for sexual intimacy--marriage between a man and wife --and warns against the rest as sins.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

An Invitation to

Christmas ~
From Our Home to Yours!

A musical program ~
Compiled by Stephanie Rohrs Hulbert


December 18 & 20, 7:00 pm


At the Holland Free Methodist Church
6605 Angola Road ~Holland, Ohio



Sharing Traditions ~ Gretchen Bersinger, Gail Warton, Sue Conklin,
Diane Bethel, Jean Knapp, Inga Wood, Pastor Keith & Rachel Simpson

Cantata Choir, Jr. Church Singers, Andrew Winckles,
The Perez Family, the Youth Dancers, Courtney & Andrea, the Junior
Church Choir, The Rohrs Family, Bob Sutton,
Children’s Nativity, Costumes by Conklin
and Cookies by the Church Ladies ~ Nursery Provided

Share this invitation to our 35th annual
not-to-be missed holiday Christmas Praise Concert.

Also ~ Candlelight Christmas Eve Service ~ 6 pm

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Hey, Matt? Do you really think nativity scenes are idolatrous??

You never know what you'll see at Mudrake's. (Well, actually, it is pretty predictable!) But my Christian brother Matt suggested in a comment over there --maybe with tongue in cheek --maybe not--that nativity scenes were idolatrous.

If he really thinks that, I hope he also doesn't take any photographs as they might qualify as graven images of things on the earth.

Granted, some Catholic laity around the world seem to relate to the statuary of Catholic churches as pagans do to idols --praying to them. Missing the point that God is Spirit --and He is everywhere --and we do not reach Him or praise Him through a statue. But I believe Catholic doctrine denies deifying and worshiping Mary. Maryology is a medieval development --and some say it improved the lot of women and mothers. Some say it is an adaptation of the Mother Earth/Mother/Goddess pagan worship. Whatever, Mary is a special lady who found favor with God --and did all that God asked of her.

I think the creche scenes such as we enact in our church Christmas programs are, like the Christmas carols, re-telling the "greatest story ever told." Drama was one way the medieval church told Bible stories before people had access to the Bibles --"morality plays," they called them. Re-enactments of this timeless, true tale help to make the story come alive again and again --

The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy --
Immanuel, God with Us --
He shall save His people from their sins!
Glory to the new born king!
Joy to the world --the Lord has Come!

and finally

He rules the world --with Truth and Grace!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Friday a Full Moon at the Blade Letters Forum???

A lady from Archbold, Sarah Maxwell, a Democrat, complained in a Blade letter printed yesterday, that GOP Rep. Bob Latta was making a "slur" against the Democrats when he referred to "democrat party." She insists the word can only be a noun and never an adjective --and thus should be "democratic party."

But then, what of the Republicans? Should they be the Republicanic Party? Isn't the word used as both an adjective and a noun? Why shouldn't Democrat be used the same way???

In fact, the dictionary does refer to democrat as a noun and republican as both noun and adjective. Yet, the dictionary had an example using democrat as an adjective in the name of a wagon --a "democrat wagon." So the word was a modifier/adjective for wagon in that case.

I think it's the height of silliness to think that everybody knows that the Party is the Democratic Party and not the Democrat Party --considering that the GOP is the Republican Party, filled with Republicans. While Ms. Maxwell seems to have slight dictionary support for insisting that democrat is only a noun, I think she's really paranoid for her party to think Latta intends a slur when he refers to the "democrat party."

Now, my husband's Uncle George is another story! He referred to the Damocrats!

Then, silly letter no. 2: a fat person of 400 pounds declared his self-loathing and said we over-weight Americans should --in effect, "carry our own weight," and pay for our condition --that we all lack self-control (duh!) and should pay extra for ourselves. Well, I guess we DO pay extra for the food! And so far, my med chart and expense doesn't look like those of smokers --who start having CAD (coronary artery disease) in their 40's. While the gentleman, Jason Craig, made valid observations about obesity, I can't help but wonder WHY??? Does he really want us to pay more for health insurance or be taxed for our weight? Is he nuts? considering his own condition??? Would he think we should be denied health care unless we could pay more for it than most others?

Finally, Rebecca Swinney somehow knows exactly how much is owed the city in traffic fines for getting caught on camera running red lights at intersections -but she has apparently never figured out why the city isn't collecting. Fine enforcement is lax because of the much publicized concern that the cameras cause more accidents than they prevent --as people jerk to a stop when the light changes --causing rear-end collisions. WHO LIKES THOSE CAMERAS? Almost nobody but Ms. Swinney, apparently.

And finally, Bruce Whalen, native American, is offended that the IRS is treating people of native American heritage JUST THE SAME AS THEY TREAT ALL THE OTHER AMERICANS! When are the natives going to forgive the past and realize they are no more entitled to the continent by accident of birth than the rest of us who were born here? And we ALL resent the IRS! You can see what hanging on to the grudges of ancestors will do for a nation--just look all over the middle east. Americans should ALL let bygones be bygones and protect this almost "shining city on a hill," this place where the beacons of liberty and opportunity still shine for native Americans and immigrants alike --who are willing to forgive and forget and move forward.

Whooeeee! Kooky letter day at the Blade!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

CLINTON-GORE EMBARRASSING MOMENT

Thanks again to Mike Johnson's wonderful article in the ADF magazine, Truth and Triumph

At the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast, Mother Teresa told a gathering of D.C. power-brokers:

“Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”

Those words brought hundreds to their feet, but not President Bill Clinton – or Mrs. Clinton, or Vice President and Mrs. Al Gore. Seats planted, faces set like stone, that quartet gazed, dazed, on the wizened old face of wisdom … and sat powerless, for a moment, in the face of the truth.

Scenes like that are why ACLU attorneys balk and rage at the prospect of public prayer. The truth is not always something most of us – including the ACLU crowd – are fond of hearing.

For the truth is, people have a right to speak, publicly, not only their vulgarities, but their beliefs. People have a right to distribute, publicly, not only atheist journals and non-religious books – but Bibles and gospel tracts, too. A community has a right to publicly celebrate its heritage – even when that history is Christian.

I thought I had heard that a similar event took place at a Catholic Youth Conference in Colo. when Gores and Clintons remained seated, embarrassed looking, when both the Pope and Mother Theresa made pro-life statements and the crowd wildly cheered. I know similar embarrassments occur when democrat politicians attend Catholic funerals where priests make pro-life statements.

This is truly an example of speaking truth to power, as ADF points out. May we never stop doing it! May we always keep our FREEDOMS to do it!!! and not go to jail or die for our convictions in the USA --as is happening elsewhere.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

MY CHOICE FOR QUOTE OF THE YEAR-- ON ACLU: MIKE JOHNSON, ADF

Alliance Defense Fund's Senior Legal Counsel, Mike Johnson wrote:

There’s an incredible double-standard at play with the ACLU and its allies, who’ve always been more worried about praying children than preying pornographers; more concerned about committed Christians than committed terrorists. Their record and their relentless agenda defy logic and betray the best of our traditions. They are a threat because they are so subversive.

He goes on to say:

In recent years, the Leftists have made it their goal to eliminate prayer at public gatherings, concentrating much of their legal intimidation on hometown governments, hoping to bully them into surrendering a practice that dates back to our Founding Fathers. (The Alliance Defense Fund is meeting – and defeating – the secularists on each of these battlefields, by God’s grace.)

Yet, somehow – for all the ACLU’s aggressive legal efforts to eliminate invocations at city council meetings and graduation exercises and public events throughout the nation – prayer persists. People just keep talking to God. And some of them insist on doing it right out loud.

Leftists are especially fond of that old Quaker quote about “speaking truth to power.” It makes them feel brave – the idea of standing up to a gracious, polite society, calling for the abolition of the essential tenets of Western civilization – with no one to back them up but an omnipresent mass media, a posse of increasingly activist judges, and the glittery Hollywood Thought Police.

The irony, though, is that public prayer is the ultimate way of speaking truth to power.

Read his whole article HERE.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

MICHAEL MEDVED ON THE LEFT VS. PUBLIC ED.

See this article HERE.

Medved has pointed out the upside down perspective in left-wing propaganda regarding First Amendment concerns today:

Part of the debate here is, which side is the aggressor? To understand what the other side is up to, it is important to recognize that THEY [emphases added by The Barb Wire] believe that WE are the aggressors, and that somehow we are trying to alter this wonderful, consitutional, God-free and religion-free paradise by introducing the serpent of religious messages into public education.

They don't realize that there is nothing that even the most conservative religious believers want for our public schoools or for the public square generally that would not have been normal in Eisenhower's America. Nobody wants to establish an official religion or impose faith on anybody. Unless you believe that we lived under a theocracy under FDR or Eisenhower, these charges about the theocratic leanings of religious believers are clearly bogus and deeply misleading. Truth & Triumph, Vol II, Issue 4, p. 14.

WHO IS RADICAL, ANYWAY???

Michael's view is similar to my observation that the Christians have not been the radical change-agents here, as the Left would have us believe. E.G., the LEFT implies the traditional definition of marriage, the practice of public prayers by public agencies, the posting of The Ten Commandments, the free expression of religion in courts, congress, and schools, are all NEW and a NEW THREAT to American freedom --and yes, unconstitutional.

In fact, it is RADICAL to deny Americans the traditional right to pray and express faith most anywhere and most any time they wish (granted, there are places and times when free expression might be inappropriate or impolite and we won't all agree about that.) It is radical to make Americans afraid for their religious expression and belief --and radical to scare everybody with threat of lawsuits for religious free expression --and radical to redefine marriage and family to mean any creatures sharing a bed and a house.

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

Eastern Michigan U Denies Degree for Values Viewpoint

Julea Ward is a very together and very attractive, accomplished A student (African-American, incidentally) with two master's degrees, a teacher who decided she'd like to be a school counselor. The problem? She was assigned in her practicum to counsel a gay student wanting counsel re: a gay relationship --and she does not believe in such relationships because of her Christian beliefs. Though she had a 3.91 GPA there, her professors stated they would weed from the program students who would not embrace the school position of affirming clients in homosexual relationships.

She asked her advisor if she should disclose her Christian faith on the "informed consent" paper given to the potential clients for counseling during the practicum. The advisor said not. But she explained her beliefs --and knew them to be a "values-based conflict," with gay clients. Such conflicts are allowed as a reason for assigning a client to a different counselor. She wasn't refusing to counsel homosexuals; but she knew she was not to establish rapport with a client with whom she was going to have a values clash, but instead, refer them to someone else.

But Julea's advisor said she would undergo an "informal review" for her refusal to approve homosexuality. Her professors concluded that Julea was "in violation of EMU's code of ethics." She was to either 1. change her belief system through a remediation program --or 2. withdraw voluntarily from the program --or 3. request a formal review hearing. In option 3, which she chose, in which she was allowed no outsiders or legal representation, the panel decided to dismiss her from the program.

THIS MONTH, The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) will defend Julea who has sued the school for reinstatement in the program. Read about her case HERE.

Obviously, EMU has a problem with religion-based values and the definition of marriage. As do most of our state universities. We shall see more and more that Bible-believing college and grad students are discriminated against for not affirming homosexual acts and relationships, unless we help our ADF and ACLJ attorneys do this very important work of defending students like Julea.

We recall a similar case of an African-American woman administrator in human resources at U.T. Does anyone recall her name or how her case resolved??

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

READ NEWSWEEK, Dec. 7, 2009, RE: OBAMA, ABORTION, ENTITLEMENTS, ECONOMIC COLLAPSE OF USA

Newsweek,12/7/2009, titled HOW GREAT POWERS FALL announces on the cover: Steep debt, slow growth, and high spending kill empires--and America could be next --by Niall Ferguson.

This issue also has a pro-choice writer telling that Democrats are mad at Obama for not insisting that gov't fund abortions. But, in fact, his Blue Dog democrats dare NOT vote for gov't-funded abortions; the abortion liberals do not have a majority in the nation's polls or in the Senate. They managed to put gov't-funding of abortion in the House version of the health reform bill--but it ain't gonna happen in the Senate! Hurrah for common sense and decency! and LIFE!

Reality of opposition has come to this president --as it did to Bush. You cannot get the majority to go your way--and still get re-elected --on some of these hard core controversies.

Here's another Newsweek tidbit: THE WAR ON TERROR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR FINANCIAL MESS --AMOUNTING TO 1.8 PERCENT OF GDP. THE DEFICIT IN 2009 IS ABOUT 11.2 PERCENT OF GDP ACCORDING TO THE CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE --GREATER THAN ANY IN THE PAST 60 YEARS. And the war is only a fraction of it. It is nowhere near the cost of a world war, according to Laurence A. Tischy, prof of history at Harvard and the author of The Ascent of Money.

Prof Tischy says, in effect, "It's the Entitlements, Stupid!"

Consider that 40 per cent of adult Americans do not pay any taxes (tv source --don't recall who) --and many of these get the earned income tax credit --a gift from the gov't for working, so that working will be more profitable to them than sitting on the public dole. So only 60 percent are paying INTO the gov't, and the rest are all taking FROM. The 40% of non-contributors grows because we aren't making babies!! and we are aging!

And the Dumb Donkey Democrats want to add national healthcare to this scenario and tax higher the job generators making 250,000 and above. Nevermind that there aren't enough people in this income bracket to pay for all those entitlements to people who are not paying much, if anything, into the system. Nevermind that high taxes on the "haves" eliminates jobs and hurts small businesses especially --who provide most of the jobs (with the exception of Gov't bureaucracy --whose only money comes from the tax-payers because gov't MAKES nothing.)

HIGHEST STUPIDITY! DEMS WANT GOV'T TO PAY FOR ABORTIONS AND REQUIRE ALL HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS WITH GOV'T-SUBSIDIZED PATIENTS TO PARTICIPATE. Besides being morally indefensible, WE NEED CHILDREN!!!! We need good parents, also, to raise responsible, educated, moral, working citizens. Otherwise, the kids we do make end up on the dole and there is no income to tax for the entitlement programs.

Everybody will have to tighten their belts --including the seniors --of which I am technically one, though not yet gov't-dependent --in order to get us out of this mess.

And we are at the state where NOBODY VOTES LESS FREEBIES AND LESS MONEY FOR THEMSELVES. EVERYBODY WANTS TO KEEP ALL THEIR SO-CALLED ENTITLEMENTS --AND OBAMA AND THE DEMS ANNUALLY PROMISE THEM MORE!!! THEY GET ELECTED ON WHAT THEY CANNOT DELIVER! BECAUSE THE GOV'T MONEY COMES FROM THE WORKERS AND JOB GENERATORS --WHICH WE ARE MAKING FEWER OF.

You can't get blood from a turnip --which the nation has become!

What a mess!!!

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

CHRISTIANS AND CULTURE WARRIORS SHOULD SUPPORT DISNEY'S "A CHRISTMAS CAROL"

Disney's A Christmas Carol is a delightful remake of the classic tale. Christians should support such efforts by secular film makers. What I liked: the use of Christmas carols throughout and one juxtaposed with a cross on a steeple ( I think it was on a steeple) --there were several in the graveyard scene, of course.

You see many holiday movies that use the melodies and occasional phrases from Christmas carols --but this Christmas Carol has LOTS of carols about Christ, the newborn KING.

I might like some of the other versions better--Scrooge, the Albert Finney musical, Kelsey Grammer's Hallmark version and of course, the George C. Scott film.

But seeing the story in 3 D is fun for all, great "special effects," and some wonderful scenes of Old England and many dizzying 3D flights over the countryside and cities in the bleak midwinter. Snowfall in 3D is lovely. This one may be the most fun for kids --who know the story and are old enough not to be frightened by the ghostly aspects and death theme. We took our grandsons, 9 and 8, who seemed to like it --at one point saying, "awesome!"

I think it was the Jim Carrey Scrooge whom I would have liked better had he seemed more like Jim Carrey! This Scrooge is a bit over- charicatured -- the characters are not as "real" --but close. Is that necessary in order to have 3 D, I wondered? This Scrooge's nose and chin nearly meet --even in his supposedly attractive YOUTH! It's hard to see the beautiful sweetheart's attraction to him!

Once again, Scrooge's joy at finding himself alive on Christmas morning, is a true "born again" experience! Having been convinced of the reality of Christmas future --if he does not change --Scrooge is transformed and as giddy as a school girl in spring on Christmas Day. He has a NEW nature! and ever after, "he keeps Christmas well!"

"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible