Are you serving--loving--people in your family? your neighborhood? your church? your life?
"God sees our care for those around us. He places a high value on the meals we make for our hungry family, the care we give to our sick relatives and neighbors, the countless drinks of water we serve to our children and grandchildren, and the welcome we offer to people by opening our home. Jesus made it clear that when we provide for others' daily needs, we're giving directly to him. We serve Christ by serving those he loves" (128) .
"...within the limitations of our hours and days we can make significant contributions by caring for those God loves. We serve in an upside-down kingdom where God is pleased with the small and unseen, with the widow's mite, the mustard seed, and the loaves and fishes. Faithfulness in the little things will make the invisible kingdom bright and visible. It is not for us to strain again the limits boundaries that God put in place at the creation of the world and called "good." By his power and for his glory he brings the increase. And because he cares for us, we can cast our anxieties upon him and run to him to find rest for our weary bodies and souls" (129).
Andi Ashworth, Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Are you in pursuit of communion with God?
If you're looking for a great teaching on fasting, I highly recommend a 3-part series that I just finished by John Piper called "Prayer, Meditation, and Fasting: The Pursuit of Communion with God."
In part 3, Piper looks at several passages of scripture but one in particular that I've never connected to fasting is Matthew 9:14-17, the parable of the new and old wine skins.
Piper's point? Well, you've got to listen to it (or read you can read it). I could just copy and paste the key point, but then you'd miss out on how he unpacks scripture and how it applies to your life and relationship with God.
In part 3, Piper looks at several passages of scripture but one in particular that I've never connected to fasting is Matthew 9:14-17, the parable of the new and old wine skins.
Piper's point? Well, you've got to listen to it (or read you can read it). I could just copy and paste the key point, but then you'd miss out on how he unpacks scripture and how it applies to your life and relationship with God.
The teaching-learning process will be most effective when both students and teacher are adequately prepared. -The Law of Readiness, Dr. Howard Hendricks from Teaching to Change LivesFor you to be prepared for the point, as Piper is prepared to give it, I'd encourage you to listen to all 3 parts.
Quotes that Made Me Think This Week - Mar. 8-14
"A man is one whose body has been trained to be the ready servant of his mind; whose passions are trained to be the servants of his will; who enjoys the beautiful, loves truth, hates wrong, loves to do good, and respects others as himself." - Author Unknown
"Every person is an artist. the whole of life is a creative act. The warp and woof of each life is equivalent to the artist's paint or the musician's sounds." - Ranald McCaulay and Jerram Barrs, Being Human
"I don't want to go one more day without at your all consuming passion inside of me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life thinking, 'What if I had given everything.' " -Matthew West's song, The Motions
"Controlling people are generally the most insecure, which is why they try to control other people." - Pastor Doug (paraphrase, but it's close.)
"We are in error if we believe that just because there's a need, we're the one to fill it." - Andi Ashworth, Real Love for Real Life
"Every person is an artist. the whole of life is a creative act. The warp and woof of each life is equivalent to the artist's paint or the musician's sounds." - Ranald McCaulay and Jerram Barrs, Being Human
"I don't want to go one more day without at your all consuming passion inside of me. I don't want to spend the rest of my life thinking, 'What if I had given everything.' " -Matthew West's song, The Motions
"Controlling people are generally the most insecure, which is why they try to control other people." - Pastor Doug (paraphrase, but it's close.)
"We are in error if we believe that just because there's a need, we're the one to fill it." - Andi Ashworth, Real Love for Real Life
Thursday, March 12, 2009
A Word to Single Women from John Piper
(This is an excerpt from Piper's message "The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood"; listen or watch. Before listening to this message, I never considered how singleness can magnify God's love in ways marriage cannot.)
The apostle Paul loved his singleness, really loved his singleness. He loved it because it gave him such radical freedom to get arrested month after month without having a wife at home crying her eyes out, and to be beaten with rods over and over, and be lashed so that his back became jelly five times multiplied by 39, and so he could be shipwrecked at sea. Singleness is a high calling if you take it like that. He celebrated it and called many of you to follow him in it, even though marriage is meant to display the glory of Christ.
So how can that be? Why would He lure some of you out of marriage, that is out of pursuing marriage? Why would He do that if He made marriage as this magnificent portrait of His Son's covenant-keeping love with His bride so that husbands and wives, living out their unique manhood and womanhood, become a magnificent drama of that glory? Why would He lure anybody away from that, which He does? There's a very clear reason why.
In this season of history since the Fall, the natural order that God established at the beginning is not absolute. "It's not good that man should be alone. It's not good that woman should be alone." That's true. It's just not absolutely true because now sin has entered into the world, and there are other things to take into consideration besides the sheer natural order that God set up before there was sin and collapse, and thousands and millions of people to be rescued from perishing. The reason that it is not an assault on God's glory for the apostle Paul to say, "I would that you were single like I am, if you had the gift" (see 1 Corinthians 7:7).
The reason that's not an assault on God's glory is that in this world there are truths about Christ and His kingdom which can be more clearly displayed by womanhood in singleness and manhood in singleness than by womanhood in marriage and manhood in marriage. I'll give you three of them.
These are three things that your womanly singleness can say better to the world than any married woman can say by virtue of her marriage.
1) A life of Christ-exalting singleness bears witness that the family of God grows by regeneration through faith not propagation through sexual intercourse. The family of God grows by regeneration not by propagation, by faith, not sexual intercourse. The main thing we're about is growing that family. So if you never marry, and you embrace a lifetime of chastity and biological childlessness, and you receive this from the Lord's hand as a mercy and a gift with contentment, and you gather to yourself the poor and the lonely, and you spend yourself for the gospel without self-pity; you will, in your unique single womanhood, magnify Christ in ways no married woman can.
2) A life of Christ-exalting singleness bears witness that relationships in Christ are more permanent and more precious than relationships in families. If a single woman turns without bitterness and regret from the absence of her own family and gives herself to creating God's family in the church, she will find a flowering for her womanhood in ways never dreamed of, and Christ will be uniquely honored.
3) The Christ-exalting singleness of a woman bears witness to the truth that marriage is temporary and finally gives way in the end to the relationship to which it was pointing all alone, Christ and the church, the way a picture is no longer needed when you're face to face.
Marriage is a beautiful thing, and I want to bear public witness and gratitude for Noel, who will have been my wife come December 21st forty years. I want to bear public witness that she has been a gift to me that I didn't deserve. We together have labored to raise five children and ten grandchildren and are still, with tears, laboring. As parents you never ever stop being a parent, we have now learned, never stop with tears, never stop with joy.
Nevertheless, she and I would both say, we say it with deep conviction: Marriage is not the main thing. It's momentary. Otherwise Jesus would not have said, "In the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like angels in heaven because they do not die anymore." My relationship with Noel has a few more years, and then she and I will experience what that was all about, ultimately, with Him.
Therefore, a single woman who lives with that final day in view, and finds Christ to be her all in all here, says something very powerfully and very clearly about her Savior.
If you're interested in signing the "True Woman Manifesto" you can do that here, which is a beautiful statement about God's special plan for women.
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Learning how to express me
Communication, in part, is about expressing oneself.
A monthly email newsletter I get from "Communicatrix" uses the tag ling: "A Monthly Newsletter About Expressing the Unique Fabulosity That Is You."
We are all fabulous in our own unique way. Some people have a talent for expressing themselves well with words; others with pictures, others with actions, others in ways I can't think of because as a perfectionist, I wanted one word words to use to keep the sentence balanced. But you know, people, I think, need other people to create balance--to fill full. I don't think anyone of us can be balanced or full all by ourselves.
In the the last issue of "Communicatrix," the author suggests that writers should "spend your time on the things under your control, and do your best to let go of the rest." She then asks:
What does "Control What You Can" mean in terms of expressing your unique fabulosity?
Her suggestions:
1. Share more of yourself, not less
2. Ask more questions...of everyone!
3. Spend more time making stuff of utility
The author seems to have latched on to an new concept to me: who we are can help other people, but that means we've got to be able to express ourselves.
It is, therefore, useful--not selfish--for people to spend time learning how to write, draw, sing, dance, act, play, record, create...anything that expresses the you that others need.
The author ends by saying: "basically, anything that will stretch your abilities and that other people will find somehow useful and remember, informative, supportive and entertaining all fall under the rubric of "useful")
(She hasn't archived her Mar. 2008 newsletter yet, but try going here "http://www.communicatrix.com/newsletter-archives" to read it.)
How much time to you spend developing your talents in ways that are useful for others?
A monthly email newsletter I get from "Communicatrix" uses the tag ling: "A Monthly Newsletter About Expressing the Unique Fabulosity That Is You."
We are all fabulous in our own unique way. Some people have a talent for expressing themselves well with words; others with pictures, others with actions, others in ways I can't think of because as a perfectionist, I wanted one word words to use to keep the sentence balanced. But you know, people, I think, need other people to create balance--to fill full. I don't think anyone of us can be balanced or full all by ourselves.
In the the last issue of "Communicatrix," the author suggests that writers should "spend your time on the things under your control, and do your best to let go of the rest." She then asks:
What does "Control What You Can" mean in terms of expressing your unique fabulosity?
Her suggestions:
1. Share more of yourself, not less
2. Ask more questions...of everyone!
3. Spend more time making stuff of utility
The author seems to have latched on to an new concept to me: who we are can help other people, but that means we've got to be able to express ourselves.
It is, therefore, useful--not selfish--for people to spend time learning how to write, draw, sing, dance, act, play, record, create...anything that expresses the you that others need.
The author ends by saying: "basically, anything that will stretch your abilities and that other people will find somehow useful and remember, informative, supportive and entertaining all fall under the rubric of "useful")
(She hasn't archived her Mar. 2008 newsletter yet, but try going here "http://www.communicatrix.com/newsletter-archives" to read it.)
How much time to you spend developing your talents in ways that are useful for others?
Cinderella Syndrome
"Cinderella Syndrome" occurs when women are more in love with the idea of marriage in a greater degree than love for the person which seems to promise marital bliss to her--a fairy tale.
I used to think "settling" would be comparable to a woman selecting the chicken meal that's ready now rather than wait for salmon (and chocolate mousse) that isn't ready yet--simply because she's consumed with the idea with being full now. The underlying fear that the salmon might not come is why she settles...err...selects the chicken.
But the problem with this analogy is that a chicken meal is nourishing even if it's not as yummy as salmon. Even more, this analogy supports the misconception that only marriage will bring the nourishment many women long for and that marriage later rather than sooner is the best arrangement.
A better analogy for women "settling" is the intoxication of alcohol. While intoxicated, everything seems fine; we're happy. We don't want the feeling to go away so we keep drinking. But the feeling will eventually will go away. It's not filling; it's not sustainable; it's not nourishing.
I used to think "settling" would be comparable to a woman selecting the chicken meal that's ready now rather than wait for salmon (and chocolate mousse) that isn't ready yet--simply because she's consumed with the idea with being full now. The underlying fear that the salmon might not come is why she settles...err...selects the chicken.
But the problem with this analogy is that a chicken meal is nourishing even if it's not as yummy as salmon. Even more, this analogy supports the misconception that only marriage will bring the nourishment many women long for and that marriage later rather than sooner is the best arrangement.
A better analogy for women "settling" is the intoxication of alcohol. While intoxicated, everything seems fine; we're happy. We don't want the feeling to go away so we keep drinking. But the feeling will eventually will go away. It's not filling; it's not sustainable; it's not nourishing.
But the Lord knows we cannot live on Champaign all our life, and that if this emotional high were indefinitely maintained no one would ever get anything done, nor would they be able to think about the practical considerations that are necessary for raising and supporting a family. From "The Way of a Man with a Maid: A Response to the Courtship & Betrothal Movements" (PDF) by Robin PhilipsIf a woman marries, who she marries is the most important decision she will make in her lifetime. This person will guide how she will live the rest of her life. He will either be a support, or drag her to the bottom of the ocean of the cares of this world.
Joy of Discipleship
(This is an email I sent to friend)
Here is a short passage from "The Cost of Discipleship" in the chapter "Grace and Discipleship" by Bonhoeffer. Two points that you've been a part of highlighting to me: Jesus isn't just about "emotional uplife" and grace is given to each in measure of Christ's gift.
I thought you might be encouraged by the following:
"It comes to us in the joy of discipleship and confirms us in it.
To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but inseparable from this mortal life, but a necessity. It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life. It is not suffering per se but suffering-and-rejection, and not rejection for any cause or conviction of our own, but rejection for the sake of Christ. If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplife which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trails and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and same as well as suffering. The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. but this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ....Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share...."
Here is a short passage from "The Cost of Discipleship" in the chapter "Grace and Discipleship" by Bonhoeffer. Two points that you've been a part of highlighting to me: Jesus isn't just about "emotional uplife" and grace is given to each in measure of Christ's gift.
I thought you might be encouraged by the following:
"It comes to us in the joy of discipleship and confirms us in it.
To endure the cross is not a tragedy; it is the suffering which is the fruit of an exclusive allegiance to Jesus Christ. When it comes, it is not an accident, but inseparable from this mortal life, but a necessity. It is not the sort of suffering which is inseparable from this mortal life, but the suffering which is an essential part of the specifically Christian life. It is not suffering per se but suffering-and-rejection, and not rejection for any cause or conviction of our own, but rejection for the sake of Christ. If our Christianity has ceased to be serious about discipleship, if we have watered down the gospel into emotional uplife which makes no costly demands and which fails to distinguish between natural and Christian existence, then we cannot help regarding the cross as an ordinary everyday calamity, as one of the trails and tribulations of life. We have then forgotten that the cross means rejection and same as well as suffering. The Psalmist was lamenting that he was despised and rejected of men, and that is an essential quality of the suffering of the cross. but this notion has ceased to be intelligible to a Christianity which can no longer see any difference between an ordinary human life and a life committed to Christ....Each must endure his allotted share of suffering and rejection. But each has a different share...."
Friday, March 06, 2009
Quotes that Made Me Think This Week: Mar 1-7
He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep, to obtain what he cannot lose. - Jim Elliot
The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good. -Ann Landers
Live one rank lower than your pay grade. -a lieutenant colonel & con law professor @ West Point
You can only exhale what you inhale. Do you want to exhale Jesus in your life? Then inhale Jesus constantly. -Doug Merkey
Conversation today:
Ruth: "It's humbling for people to grow older." [in reference to my 84 year-old boss falling and breaking her hip]
Mary (aid to my boss's sister-in-law who is 87 & still volunteering part-time): "The key is to accept it. What's the alternative? Dying young."
The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good. -Ann Landers
Live one rank lower than your pay grade. -a lieutenant colonel & con law professor @ West Point
You can only exhale what you inhale. Do you want to exhale Jesus in your life? Then inhale Jesus constantly. -Doug Merkey
Conversation today:
Ruth: "It's humbling for people to grow older." [in reference to my 84 year-old boss falling and breaking her hip]
Mary (aid to my boss's sister-in-law who is 87 & still volunteering part-time): "The key is to accept it. What's the alternative? Dying young."
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Are you faint from hunger and disease?
Imagine if you were from a country where it's normal be be hunger and not feeling well? I just got a report from Zimbabwe that made me stop and thank God for his overflowing provision for not only my physical hunger, but my spiritual hunger.
"Barry Fitzpatrick (Chester, UK) and I (Alan Scotland) have just returned from a trip into Zimbabwe. The heart of the story has not been told even in the press. The people are seriously in trouble. Many people are faint from hunger and disease. We heard reports of families who are eating warm cow dung, trying to get nutrients to survive. The economy is in total collapse. People can only buy food and other things with US dollars or other foreign currency; but people are still being paid in Zimbabwe dollars which means they cannot buy anything really because Zim dollars are not considered tradable capital.
We had the privilege of taking a love offering from the churches in the UK by which we were able to provide food for 13 churches across the city of Harare. We were also able to help several pastors by giving sufficient funding to bless them for the next several months.
We then traveled to the orphanage spending time with Livingstone and his wife. They were looking forward to coming to the UK for a few months of refres.hing in the word, etc. but the British Commissioner rejected them so they have been unable to obtain their visas. They have been a little disappointed at that. Maybe it will be possible to get Livingstone over to the Horthrope Hall meetings on a tourist visa.
We were able to give the orphan children some special gifts of oranges, pencils, lollipops; things that we would take for granted but they treasure them over there. In terms of development of the program there, the footings and foundation are in for the toilet buildings, and we've now commissioned the purchase of all the materials so that they can start building in earnest in April, 2009. We want to see at least three or four homes built for the children within this next year.
In January 2010, we would like to run a Fast Forward in Zimbabwe with teachers from the UK and the USA to give their time to bless the church as it endures the suffering of the times they are in."
Link Link's Feb. 2009 Newsletter
"Barry Fitzpatrick (Chester, UK) and I (Alan Scotland) have just returned from a trip into Zimbabwe. The heart of the story has not been told even in the press. The people are seriously in trouble. Many people are faint from hunger and disease. We heard reports of families who are eating warm cow dung, trying to get nutrients to survive. The economy is in total collapse. People can only buy food and other things with US dollars or other foreign currency; but people are still being paid in Zimbabwe dollars which means they cannot buy anything really because Zim dollars are not considered tradable capital.
We had the privilege of taking a love offering from the churches in the UK by which we were able to provide food for 13 churches across the city of Harare. We were also able to help several pastors by giving sufficient funding to bless them for the next several months.
We then traveled to the orphanage spending time with Livingstone and his wife. They were looking forward to coming to the UK for a few months of refres.hing in the word, etc. but the British Commissioner rejected them so they have been unable to obtain their visas. They have been a little disappointed at that. Maybe it will be possible to get Livingstone over to the Horthrope Hall meetings on a tourist visa.
We were able to give the orphan children some special gifts of oranges, pencils, lollipops; things that we would take for granted but they treasure them over there. In terms of development of the program there, the footings and foundation are in for the toilet buildings, and we've now commissioned the purchase of all the materials so that they can start building in earnest in April, 2009. We want to see at least three or four homes built for the children within this next year.
In January 2010, we would like to run a Fast Forward in Zimbabwe with teachers from the UK and the USA to give their time to bless the church as it endures the suffering of the times they are in."
Link Link's Feb. 2009 Newsletter
Life's not Fair
The problem with life is that it's not fair. Or maybe it's not life's problem; it's a human perspective problem. We don't like the fact that the world does not center on us; thus we are sometimes wrong: both factually wrong or morally wrong.
The question isn't about whether something is fair; it's about who's rules you're using and if you're living in reality or your own little, or possible big, world. It depends on how many people you've convinced to join you or how many people you've joined with to follow someone or something else.
Consider the following:
"Liberty Counsel recently filed suit at the Florida Supreme Court against The Florida Bar and is requesting the Bar remain neutral on political and ideological issues unrelated to the regulation of attorneys. In January the Bar voted to file an amicus brief, arguing that the 1977 adoption law is unconstitutional. By taking sides on this issue, Liberty Counsel says that the Bar has violated the First Amendment rights of Florida lawyers. Outside of regulating the practice of law, the Bar has no authority to advocate on behalf of such issues."
Ok, so what is "neutral"? If the bar doesn't file an amicus brief, does that make it neutral? Why or why not?
The question isn't about whether something is fair; it's about who's rules you're using and if you're living in reality or your own little, or possible big, world. It depends on how many people you've convinced to join you or how many people you've joined with to follow someone or something else.
Consider the following:
"Liberty Counsel recently filed suit at the Florida Supreme Court against The Florida Bar and is requesting the Bar remain neutral on political and ideological issues unrelated to the regulation of attorneys. In January the Bar voted to file an amicus brief, arguing that the 1977 adoption law is unconstitutional. By taking sides on this issue, Liberty Counsel says that the Bar has violated the First Amendment rights of Florida lawyers. Outside of regulating the practice of law, the Bar has no authority to advocate on behalf of such issues."
Ok, so what is "neutral"? If the bar doesn't file an amicus brief, does that make it neutral? Why or why not?
Monday, March 02, 2009
Hope: 1.5 Millon Homeschoolers
1.5 million students are being homeschooled in the U.S. this year.
Data from the March 2009 Townhall magazine, pg. 19.
Data from the March 2009 Townhall magazine, pg. 19.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The world can offer a "survey" and the church should offer...
I still get a weekly email from WU's student news paper. This week's headline: SU Senate backs mental health education initiative for next year.
I don't disagree with the importance of "mental health" screening or education; however, I wonder how effective a tedious survey can really be compared to the listening ear of caring friend? And if the result of checking the wrong combination of boxes is a prescription, then supporting "mental health education" really isn't about caring for students and faculty. Nothing substitutes for people genuinely caring for people.
How much time do you dedicate to listening to your friends (family, co-workers, church members) and opening your ears for signs of depression or sadness?
What makes someone mentally unhealthy? Who defines that?
I don't disagree with the importance of "mental health" screening or education; however, I wonder how effective a tedious survey can really be compared to the listening ear of caring friend? And if the result of checking the wrong combination of boxes is a prescription, then supporting "mental health education" really isn't about caring for students and faculty. Nothing substitutes for people genuinely caring for people.
How much time do you dedicate to listening to your friends (family, co-workers, church members) and opening your ears for signs of depression or sadness?
What makes someone mentally unhealthy? Who defines that?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
No Pain, No Gain
The socialist health-care expansion in the so-called "stimulus" plan "will not be pain free," according to Daschle.
The provisions include:
-creating more bureaucracy called the "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research" to determine when to replace costly treatments with a "hopeless diagnoses" and produce federal guidelines to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions
-keeping your health care records electronically in a federal database and penalties for doctors and hospitals that do not share your records with the federal government
Read more in an article by Betsy McCaughey posted on Bloomberg.com.
The provisions include:
-creating more bureaucracy called the "Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research" to determine when to replace costly treatments with a "hopeless diagnoses" and produce federal guidelines to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions
-keeping your health care records electronically in a federal database and penalties for doctors and hospitals that do not share your records with the federal government
Read more in an article by Betsy McCaughey posted on Bloomberg.com.
Do you want our Federal bureaucracy writing a "guide" to help your doctors make cost effective decisions concerning your health?
Bloomberg.com
"One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.” "
"One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.” "
Monday, February 09, 2009
Money is the Trojan horse that government uses to infiltrate and infect organizations.
Ron Paul's column this week explains why government funding of "faith based" organizations means less autonomy for the orgs that accept this money.
"Money is the Trojan horse that government uses to infiltrate and infect organizations. Funding that, on the outset, is designed to strengthen and support, will bureaucratize and regulate in the end."
Well, and then these organizations add on "lobbying" as central to their existence.
Ron Paul ends the column by suggests that we "Just Say No" (Nancy Reagan's drug slogan) to government money!
"Money is the Trojan horse that government uses to infiltrate and infect organizations. Funding that, on the outset, is designed to strengthen and support, will bureaucratize and regulate in the end."
Well, and then these organizations add on "lobbying" as central to their existence.
Ron Paul ends the column by suggests that we "Just Say No" (Nancy Reagan's drug slogan) to government money!
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Why do we have a Department of Agriculture?
washingtonpost.com includes the following quote by the former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, who is Obama's nomination of for the secretary of the Department of Agriculture, in an article today.
Vilsack says he wants "We [US Government] want to make a better connection between what kids eat and knowing where it comes from. I've seen it in my own family. If you educate kids at an early age, you can have a tremendous impact."
FEE.org asks why do we even have a dept. of agriculture?
Hmm...to tell us corn is grown in Iowa?
Vilsack says he wants "We [US Government] want to make a better connection between what kids eat and knowing where it comes from. I've seen it in my own family. If you educate kids at an early age, you can have a tremendous impact."
FEE.org asks why do we even have a dept. of agriculture?
Hmm...to tell us corn is grown in Iowa?
Could it be that "bearing with one another" might start with changing me?
It's so easy to see the faults in others. When I see a "fault" in someone else, rather than just talk about it with other people, maybe I should consider whether I, to some degree, struggle with the same thing.
"If you cannot make yourself what you would wish to be, how can you bend others to your will? We want them to be perfect, yet we do not correct our own faults. We wish them to be severely corrected, yet we will not correct ourselves. Their great liberty displeases us, yet we would not be denied what we ask. We would have them bound by laws, yet we will allow ourselves to be restrained in nothing. Hence, it is clear how seldom we think of others as we do of ourselves." Thomas a Kempis, Bearing with the Faults of Others in Imitation of Christ
"I (Paul)...urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling... bearing with one another in love..." Eph. 4:1-2
NAS - Transliterated Word - Anechomai
to sustain, to bear, to endure
"If you cannot make yourself what you would wish to be, how can you bend others to your will? We want them to be perfect, yet we do not correct our own faults. We wish them to be severely corrected, yet we will not correct ourselves. Their great liberty displeases us, yet we would not be denied what we ask. We would have them bound by laws, yet we will allow ourselves to be restrained in nothing. Hence, it is clear how seldom we think of others as we do of ourselves." Thomas a Kempis, Bearing with the Faults of Others in Imitation of Christ
"I (Paul)...urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling... bearing with one another in love..." Eph. 4:1-2
NAS - Transliterated Word - Anechomai
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
What about the widows?
Many people in the church (and in life) feel invisible. They think to themselves: "we just want someone from the church to know we're alive,"especially older widows.
Remembering a name, greeting with hug, and asking about a favorite pastime might feel awkward at first, but I believe caring for others requires us to careless about how we feel ourselves.
"Every one of us has so much to offer....As each of us discovers and nurtures your gifts and celebrates the gifts of others in the Church, we see glimpses of what it means to live a life of true worship."
"True caring is a choice. True caring sometimes means choosing to be with someone in hardship rather than without them in prosperity. It is loving over the long haul, loving through disappointments, and loving in the midst of losses that may not be redeemed until heaven."
From Real Love for Real Life by Ashworth
This is probably the first in a series of posts on the question: What does it mean to "care" for people?
Remembering a name, greeting with hug, and asking about a favorite pastime might feel awkward at first, but I believe caring for others requires us to careless about how we feel ourselves.
"Every one of us has so much to offer....As each of us discovers and nurtures your gifts and celebrates the gifts of others in the Church, we see glimpses of what it means to live a life of true worship."
"True caring is a choice. True caring sometimes means choosing to be with someone in hardship rather than without them in prosperity. It is loving over the long haul, loving through disappointments, and loving in the midst of losses that may not be redeemed until heaven."
From Real Love for Real Life by Ashworth
This is probably the first in a series of posts on the question: What does it mean to "care" for people?
Lost and Found
Just rediscovered my blog from a couple years ago...yeh, I've got somewhere to post my rants besides Facebook!
Yes, I've discovered a way to only import entries that I tag "fb" into Facebook. This way, I can consider my audience when posting. Interestingly, I posted something back in 2006 about trying to consider who would be reading what I would be posting.
I originally titled my blog "Just a thought"; however, if I were to chose a name today, I think I'd call it "One more Question..." or something like that. I'm finding it doesn't really matter what I think, but finding a way to get others thinking.
http://ruthcarlson.blogspot.com/
Yes, I've discovered a way to only import entries that I tag "fb" into Facebook. This way, I can consider my audience when posting. Interestingly, I posted something back in 2006 about trying to consider who would be reading what I would be posting.
I originally titled my blog "Just a thought"; however, if I were to chose a name today, I think I'd call it "One more Question..." or something like that. I'm finding it doesn't really matter what I think, but finding a way to get others thinking.
http://ruthcarlson.blogspot.com/
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