WARNING LABEL

Our Secretary of State spoke before a group of gay and lesbian State Department employees on Monday.

Question: Why are State Department employees divided into sexual preference?

She told them of State Department efforts to get Lady Gaga to come to Rome to participate in a Lesbian/Bisexual/ Transgender/Gay festival.  Our Ambassador to Italy, David Thorne, apparently wrote a letter urging Gaga to take part.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/hillary-us-ambassador-instrumental-seali

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13948149

http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/hilary-clinton-us-state-dept-instrumental-in-securing-lady-gaga-gay-prid/

Question:  With Arab governments imploding, debt riots in Europe, and worldwide terrorism, why is our State Department involved in such a thing?

Color me flabbergasted.  My country's leadership has dragged all of us onto a world stage movement to poke God in the eye.  If individuals wanted to participate in such a thing...GO.  But don't throw the weight of government into seeing to it that a vulgar pop star insults the Pope in his backyard...as well as the whole of Christendom.

Thomas Jefferson said "to compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical".  Yes, Mr. Jefferson!  It is sinful to cause my money to be used for purposes that will bring judgment.

Question: How is it possible that in only 2.5 years, we have managed to hack off every world leader or ally...and now we insult our greatest Ally, the Almighty?

Society is clearly changing while God stays the same.  The essence of the Great I Am...His patience, generosity, mercy and grace...are welcomed into the world and presumed upon.  The equally present character traits...His purity, judgment, and wrath (His fixed opposition to all unrighteousness)...are skipped over. We skip them to our peril.  He loves, but He also calls to account. 

Question:  When a person challenges aberrant behaviors, what is the predictable response?  Hater?

The FDA is wanting to put graphic pictures on packs of cigarettes.  They are hoping the gruesome pictures will persuade people to quit smoking.

Does anyone think the FDA is hateful by trying to save lives?  No.

We still have the freedom of speech in our country to speak within reasonable limits.  Some would speak a warning to keep people from killing themselves spiritually. 

God has painted a graphic picture in both His testaments of offensive sexual behavior.  The word pictures in Romans 1 draw the eye like the cigarette pack's warning pictures. What shall we do with His words?  God included the verses because He wants people to avoid things that would separate them from Him.  That is not hate; that is love.  God wants our company in eternity.

A loving Father calls the behavior an abomination (in Hebrew,"tow ebah", meaning disgusting or detestable).  When I hear that God HATES something, I snap to.  How smart would it be to love something He hates...or endorse something that He does not endorse?

The choice to engage in the behavior will always exist in this fallen world.  God won't MAKE you go to heaven with Him. He's looking for folks who WANT to go there because they love Him.  He's explaining how the behavior puts you @arm's length from Him.  

Question:  Is it love or hate to explain such an important distinction?

The Lord set up His kingdom to work with a man and a woman.  The whole anatomy thing is pretty self-evident.  To go another way is to say "Listen, God.  I know what you say, but I've come up with a better idea".  What an old story!  People have been going their own way (sinning) since the garden.  We may all have gone there, but we don't all STAY because God can't bless anything that He has a fixed attitude of opposition toward.  And unrighteousness will receive His wrath.

Question:  What does His wrath look like? 

The first chapter of Romans says God put the truth about Himself into EVERY man and then illustrated that truth through the creation He made.  Therefore, no one gets a pass for "not knowing".  

When someone decides to suppress truth, there is a downward progression of events.  Foolish speculations (about what God is like)...result in darkened hearts, then an exchange of God's glory, and finally, a "giving over".  That last one is scary.  First God gives them over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, then gives them over to degrading passions, and then gives them over to a depraved mind to do those things that are not proper.  Ironic that in an effort to be in charge of their lives, they totally lose charge.

Finally, descent results in a dreadful laundry list of sinful behaviors that follow in verses 29-31...ending in verse 32, the final stiff neck which Gaga illustrates:  "They are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway.  And worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."

The first chapter of Romans is an amazing warning label.

ENCROACHER

We have been out of town and came home to some nubs in our cutting garden.  I thought that Beth had come over to water and had cut the flowers.  Mike's first thought was to go get his game camera.  

Before breakfast this morning, we couldn't wait to see if the camera caught anything on night #1.

Sure enough, here is Ms. Naughty, grazing by the 1a.m. moonlight.

Now, the good news is she doesn't like EVERYTHING in the garden.

She could care less about the "gumdrop" coneflowers or the "orange glory" butterfly plant.

She turned up her nose @ this beautiful "coral reef" bee balm...and the purple coneflower.

She must have stepped or sat on this "oranges-and-lemon" blanket flower.

But the bad news is...she thinks tomato plants and phlox are yummy.  We HAD been looking forward to some homegrown tomatoes.  But those will take a while to come back since she ate them halfway down.

The phlox I took personally.  That is one of my "go to" cut flower perennials.

Look how she stripped the poor phlox.  She must have a space between her two front teeth.  I know a good dentist...

The red penta is in the middle of a "tangerine dream"cone flower and a black-eyed Susan.  Of course, you have to take my word for it that it was full of red blossoms.  Deer must also be penta lovers.

Ms. Naughty and her short spotted dependants have a clump of woods behind the house that belongs to them.  True, our buffet is tempting, but it doesn't belong to them.  They need to honor the white picket fence.

I was thinking about how much we paid for this land and how irrelevant that is to the encroacher.  So now do we invest in a tacky electric fence...or get up each night @1 o'clock...or just give up the fight?  Two weeks ago we saw her fawns out playing.  This afternoon we saw them again and they seem to have grown a foot.  Soon we will have THREE naughty fence-vaulters.

So now what?  This boundary issue won't end well.  The lovely Ms. N has mistakenly chosen the cutting garden of a hunter's wife.  She may have gotten in the wrong buffet line.

God knows that His children have to deal daily with another kind of encroacher whose modus operandi is to ignore boundaries, wait for the opportunity of darkness, and jump into places without permission.

There's no snoozing with that encroacher.  If we let down our guard, we're toast.  Nubs.  We need a Defender who never sleeps and who knows what is in the darkness.  If I honor the words He left me, I have a fence which keeps the encroacher at bay.

My Protector paid a high price for His defense system.  And it works.

"Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith."  1Peter 5.8,9

SMARTYPANTS

A lot is said about intelligence these days.  Apparently, in our country we are bullish on smart.  

I don't claim to be the brightest bulb, but I'm beginning to get a whiff of a stacked deck.  See if you smell anything...

Consensus from the media and the left had President Reagan pegged as an actor/empty suit, lacking mental acuity long BEFORE his dementia began.  Everyone knows Dan Quayle can't spell potato(e).  Both Bushes were characterized as "not really that bright".  The former Governor of Alaska is made out to be a buffoon.  And now, the word "airhead" is in the same sentence as the name Michele Bachmann.

Conversely, Joe Biden is said to be really sharp.  Bill Clinton was the smartest politician ever.  Listen to these commentators in a discussion about Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer:


SIMON: It's the very intelligence of these men like Spitzer, like Weiner -- how bright they are, how quick they are, uh, how successful they are -- that gives them a sense of invulnerability, that nothing bad could really happen to them because nothing bad ever has.

HALPERIN: You won't meet any smarter people in politics than those two guys. Just won't.

Right.  And of course, there's the President.  He's so brilliant it affects nerves that run down Chris Matthews' leg.  OK, I'm picking up a pattern here.

So this is about one side's density versus the towering intellectuals on the other side?  Surely not.

Perhaps it's just a case of elitism.  Maybe if you graduate from the right coast schools, you're a brainiac.  Nope...that wouldn't work.  Both Bushes graduated from Yale (the elder in just three years) and W went on to get a masters @Harvard.  It must not be about the right school.

Maybe it is misogynistic.  No, they think Hillary is brilliant.  

So if this mindset is not elitist or gender-oriented, then what drives the "big brains" bandwagon?  

And why do all the conservative candidates get to wear the dunce hat?  Methinks one side has a bully pulpit. 

Let's flip through the Rolodex and consider a few conservatives in that corner:

SARAH PALIN

Has our country sunk so low that a candidate would be smart NOT to run?  Do liberals and the media have the power to  "r-u-n-n-o-f-t" a candidate? (Washington Hogwallop @"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?")

Sarah Palin probably won't run for President, but even if she WERE to run...let's unpack the attacks on this woman.  What drives a hatred that slanders/mocks her every word, her special needs child, her out-of-wedlock daughter, and on and on and on.  What would YOU think if someone published a request to the general public for help going through 24,000 of YOUR personal and business emails?  Sounds like a witch hunt to me. Mother would have called it a "water haul" since it hasn't turned up anything juicy. http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/575779/201106171909/Pursuing-Palin-NYTs-Fixation.htm

Sarah Palin's IQ is unknown, but without the number it is obvious that she has good instincts and she espouses her own clear vision for our country.  No one has to send Sarah Palin talking points or plug her into a teleprompter.  In Alaska, she bucked her own party, bucked the mighty oil companies, and bucked "the way it's always been done".  She has walked her fiscal talk and her love of country.

RONALD REAGAN
This President held firm to his plan to cut tax rates when even his own advisors lost confidence.  The plan worked and the economy roared.  Reagan was a LEADER who had vision regardless of polls or criticism.  At his death, the public stood in long lines at the Capitol to pay respects.  Wiki says 104,684 people passed by at the rate of 5,000 per hour.  Mourners then lined both the motorcade route to Andrews AFB, and then along California's 25 mile route to the burial service with 700 invited guests at the Reagan Library.

History tries to rewrite this man, but facts are facts.  Ronald Reagan connected with the American people and people loved him.  His words ring fresh and true even now, thirty years later.

GEORGE H. W. BUSH/GEORGE W. BUSH
Both gracious men, these Presidents were respectful and refused to return evil for evil.  I remember one time when Barbara Bush said in frustration "George is a GOOD man!"  It must have been hard to hear her husband criticized so unfairly.  Little did she know the reviling would be ratcheted up when her son was elected.  George W. Bush received hateful assaults and chose to turn the other cheek, even today choosing not to respond to criticism.

Both GHWB and GWB were smart enough to reach the pinnacle of service to their country.

MICHELE BACHMANN
Now let's consider a woman who IS running for President.  And just for the record, Michele Bachmann's smart badge was awarded to her for a life well lived.

She is an attorney who specializes in tax law.  Thirty-three years and five children ago, she married her Phd college sweetheart.  Together they began a small business, a counseling service for people going through tough times.  She has a heart for foster children and has brought 23 teens into their home.  And she serves as Minnesota's Congresswoman.

As Michele Bachmann announced her candidacy, it struck me that courage was part of her integrity.  Right now she is no threat and the media is treating her gingerly.

But if this woman gets traction....we will know  she's connecting with people when the attacks come against her intelligence.

"This is what the LORD says: 'Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,' declares the LORD."   Jeremiah 9.23,24

FATHERS DAY

Father's Day 2011 has come and gone.  I'm wondering if the president's family history makes that holiday hard for him.

President Obama married a strong woman and together they have steered their ship toward the harbor of a solid home.  Those little girls seem to adore their daddy and I'll bet he is a good daddy.

The cycle of brokenness seems to have stopped in the president's  generation, but still...those old heart holes must nag. 

An absent father-wound rips a huge anger portal.  His mother's absences and his moves from pillar-to-post must have been problematic.

As a teen, his grandparent's choice of mentors was unfortunate.  They turned him over to Frank Marshall Davis and it would be an understatement to say Mr. Davis was waaay off in the negative numbers for mentor-potential.

All the president's influencers taught him to see the world through eyes of radical strife.  Little Barry Soertoro carried a load that he had no control over.

                                                              But who would know that to look at him now?

Barack Obama has prospered in life and has been set in the highest place of authority and leadership.

President Obama has been in office two and a half years and has seen all the sparkly eye candy that the White House trappings afford.  He's been saluted and pampered; he has moved among people all over these United States.  Up until now, Americans have fawned over the man with great affection.  I just wonder if this is the country he thought it was?  Or that Michelle thought it was?

Have the president's experiences resulted in a philosophical watershed?  How could a person NOT understand our history after they have lived in a house full of precious artifacts?  Surely the documents from our framing have had an impact.  Has he searched the faces in those portraits of courageous men who led before him?  Does his heart stir when "Hail to the Chief" is played?  Has his view of black opportunity changed?  It would seem that all his mentor's advice about the white race...now has had to be rethought.

Until 2012 it is President Obama's charge to guard the liberties of ALL of us.  But as his change is instituted, our hope is draining.  People sense that our country is hanging by a thread.  Just as President Obama must have longed for a solid family, we long for a solid connection to liberty and justice for all.

Lately I've been convicted about not regularly praying for my president by name.  I am a Christian and my book calls me to pray for those in authority over me.  Since I disagree with his policies, my prayers in the past have gone something like this:  "Oh, Lord, HELP our country!"  But that is SO not the heart of prayer that He calls me to offer.  I never have prayed in depth for the man.

I never have said "Father, Barack Obama is made in Your image.  You loved him when he was a confused and isolated little boy and You love him now even as he sets his seat high.  Open his eyes, Lord.  Help him see that Your gospel has nothing to do with the black liberation theology that he espouses.  Show him how to bow to a real King and SERVE the people under him...just as he has promised he would.  Help him realize that the system he bucks is the same opportunity that gave him access to his office.  Lift his veil, Lord, and show him Your governance so he can turn and practice wise governance.

I pray for Barack Hussein Obama, Father.  I ask You to take him to the Damascus road.  And I make this prayer in Jesus' name."

ALL ABOUT ANTHONY

Has there been enough said about Anthony Weiner?

If this Congressman had an inordinate need to make himself known, that is certainly what has happened.

Narcissism pushed it's way past any potential concern of shame he would cause his wife...then went past any stain to the family name for his future child...then bowled over his high calling of leadership, and then slapped God in the face.

But perhaps if Anthony Weiner had been "@hisrightmind", those choices would have been no-brainers.

So what makes John Edwards and the Governator and Eliot Spitzer and Mark Foley and Mark Sanford and Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner all lose their minds and become self-destructive?

Doctors-With-Couches can explain the compulsive behavioral issues, the power issues, the addiction and exhibitionist issues.  But at the end of the day Anthony Weiner has a sin issue.  Sin won't be dallied with because it wants to be master.  There's an old familiar phrase that comes to mind:  "sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay".  That repeats the thought of the hymn words "I'd rather have Jesus than be the king of a vast domain or be held in sin's dread sway".  This Congressman underestimated the power of sin's dread sway.

Many years ago someone gave me an acrostic (SEE) that helps me remember that sin wants to keep me from seeing clearly.  Sin promises me S(satisfaction), E(excuse) and E(escape).  That acrostic helps me understand Anthony Weiner's humiliation.

Sin promised him satisfaction. "Wouldn't it be great to have a stringer of adoring women who are impressed with my brand?"  But the promised satisfaction was fleeting...and then required more and more rebooting.

Sin promised an excuse.  "This wasn't real sex."  "I'm connecting with my constituency and contributing to my popularity."  "It is hip and young to sext and send racy pictures."

Sin promised escape.  "Huma is away.  Besides, I've already told her some of this."  "I am powerful enough to slip the noose if I'm caught.  Or I'll blame the accuser."

Anthony Weiner is getting a WHOLE lot more exposure than he ever dreamed of, but now he's overexposed.  Who could take him seriously now?  He SAYS he is taking responsibility, but what responsibility does not have consequences?  Now it's uphill sledding for the Congressman because he is not trained to fall back on another profession and he doesn't want to quit.

Here are some reactions from the man on the street.  "It's his personal business and has nothing to do with his job".  "I support Rep. Weiner because he's done a good job for us."  "He will go away to some rehab and be cured."

1.  Nothing to do with his job?

First, there are pictures of him both in his office and in the Congressional bathroom, where he snapped pics of himself without clothing.  So he seems to have lost his vocational focus.

Then his requested job-leave certainly affects his work.

But infinitely more important, the question that I don't hear being asked is "what about how the risky behavior of this man could have affected our nation?".  He IS married to a woman who is the top aide to our Secretary of State.  Could there be possible opportunity for blackmail there from a foreign government?

Anthony Weiner does not have the option of corrupt personal business when he assumes the mantle of a public figure.

2.  Rep. Weiner has done a good job?  That does not deserve a dignified response.  The intensity of his abrasive personality does not lend itself well to a mercy plea.  Now he has lied in several ways.  His behavior lied in passive ways.  Then when caught, AW boldface lied about himself to the nation and was just about to involve the FBI in an investigation.  Then he purposefully damaged the truthteller's name by defamation of Breitbart's character.

3.  Will the Congressman get fixed?  Do people really think a man who has forty-six years of accumulated behaviors will go to rehab for a couple of months...and get straightened out?  Who ARE these people on the street?

This man should be on his face before the Lord, begging for forgiveness for the abject mess he has made.

But what a complicated situation!
Congressman Weiner is Jewish (although on his Wiki page, he says he did not come from a religious household), his wife is a devout Muslim, and Jesus is the answer.

There are MANY young people who regularly send suggestive emails and pictures; they do not see this behavior as problematic.  But the real question is what would God say?  Is sexting problematic?  We know that things with God are all about the heart.  He has said that if you look on a woman to lust for her, then you have committed adultery in your heart.  The Lord wants a pure heart and His standard is waaaay above what the world demands of Anthony Weiner.

So can the Congressman be forgiven?  Is God that good that He would offer His Son for a liar, a thief who stole a man's reputation, brought shame to his family, and could have compromised the nation's security?

Here's a little story to answer that question.  Back in the 50's there was a comic strip called "Dennis the Menace".  Dennis was a little tow-headed trike rider who could find trouble effortlessly.  He had a pal named Joey and an older couple who lived next-door, the Wilson's.  One day Dennis and Joey were leaving Mrs. Wilson's front steps with a cookie in hand.  Joey says "why does Mrs. Wilson think we deserve a cookie?"  Dennis replies "you got it wrong, Joey.  Its not that WE are so good, it's that Mrs. Wilson is so good."

God is all over the redemption page; He specializes in second chances.  He is that good.  His Son is the atonement Anthony Weiner needs...the Passover Lamb.  The Congressman still would have the horizontal consequences, but his vertical channel would be clear.  Sin prowls and seeks our demise, but we serve a loving Father who has made provision for sin.  And His patience waits for us to ask for Jesus' covering.

Yes, God IS good.  Hope your choice is to believe that, Anthony.  He loves you more than you could imagine. They say on the news you are now despondent about your situation, but brokenness can be a path.  Call out to Jesus.  That's why they call Him the Savior.

"God wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2.4

"NO, I HAVEN'T SEEN YOUR LIPSTICK!"

Fables are spun out of cotton candy and air.  But  sometimes they're as obvious as the lipstick on your face.

Americans are called constantly to swallow fables that are economically implausible.  We are WEARY of being insulted.

Think about being told we are in a recovery summer...or that there are jobs saved/created or shovel-ready... or that we can be saved by the slush fund called stimulus... the bogus your healthcare costs won't go up...the ridiculous I won't raise your taxes...the miracle we staved off a depression...and blah, blah, blah.

Reality says our May job numbers are dismal even though President Obama called them "a bump in the road".  Half of those meager 54K new jobs listed were McDonald's jobs.  No one is hiring or creating in a hostile business climate.

Unemployment is @9.1%.  Food costs a fortune.  Gas bites.  We've lost our home value, which was our nest egg.  Spending continues to freely pour out of a boot.  Government regs squash free enterprise. We pay Brazil to drill for oil so we can turn around and buy it back...and we have joined into another expensive armed conflict in Libya.

Where is the way out of this financial morass?

After 2.5 years in office, all this can no longer be hung on the last guy.  The big my bad belongs to someone else.

And that someone has had a flawed plan from the beginning.  If you tried to SPEND your family's way out of debt, it wouldn't work.  Government is no different; government cannot create wealth.  They can pay a man to work a shovel (with MY money), but when my money runs out, so does the "job".

Criticizing the plan usually draws the "racist" or "party-hack" label.  Sometimes criticism is even judged to be unpatriotic (as in..."why would you NOT want your president to succeed?").  The kicker is that from the beginning, the economic policies were predictably catastrophic...and now the fruit bears out that claim.  Who WOULD want their country to slide down that dead end?

So here we are.  Now what?  Does the president have Plan B, or do we continue with his A game?  Stimulus Three, anyone?