BOMBER FATIGUE

It will NOT be too soon when we never see their faces again.  Or see that bomb go off again.  Or think of what it would be like to lose your limbs.

The bomber's whole dysfunctional family is tiring.  Fatigue comes from hearing their whiney mother covered incessantly in the media around the world, complaining about how awful America is.  That would be the same "innocent" lady who we now know (from a Russian wiretap) had jihad conversations with her older son.

Hey Mom!  What about using welfare dollars to pay your arrest warrant for $1,600 worth of clothes lifted from Lord and Taylor?  Or at the very least, pay for some acting lessons.

This family has a trail of sadness, but our country brought them in and gave them money to get them on their feet.  We were repaid most ingloriously; they are ingrates from hell.

And listen, media.  Don't put anymore hunky pictures of #1 in his boxing suit.  Don't put anymore pictures of #2, looking like he is thirteen.  What's the point?  Sixty Minutes, don't run anymore interviews of a girl from high school that talks incessantly about the younger brother...how she liked him because he was cute and sweet.  Alan Colmes, spare us the SYMPATHY for the grieving mother.

Our country is engaged in a life-and-death struggle; extraneous stuff (such as how sweet or cute they are) is ridiculous.  Their book gives them permission to lie as necessary to fool the infidel.  So what if they were good at lying?  We just need to know how they did what they did...and how we can work best to prevent a reoccurrence.

When America heard that the FBI had interviewed #1 but had found nothing, we were willing to cut the agency slack.  Perhaps #1's descent had not begun at the time the FBI came calling.

But then we heard Napolitano say the system "pinged" when #1 traveled, so we know they were aware of him and that he was on two different lists.  Russia gave us the first tip to check him out, and when the FBI didn't turn up anything, six months later the Russians called the CIA.  Knowing all this now...we wonder how AFTER the bombing...that family wasn't up at the top of suspects?  Why did the FBI have to publish their picture and ask for help finding the perps?

We are told that after twelve years since 9/11, the same problem (lack of communication) has happened again between "the suits and the spooks".  Could someone please fix that?

CAN I GET A BLESSING?

When the President spoke to Planned Parenthood's "gala" yesterday, he spoke for twelve minutes and three seconds.

According to Planned Parenthood's 2011 NUMBERS...they performed 333,964 abortions, or one every 94 seconds.  That means at least 7.6 abortions (if not more) were performed during the time he spoke.

The President is the first sitting president to ADDRESS the group.  His appearance seems to be a hail Mary because of two encouraging things:

#1.  States are passing new abortion RESTRICTIONS. Eight states now require an ultrasound prior to receiving an abortion.

#2.  The Gosnell trial.  The informed populace has been to the outer banks of disgust as the DETAILS of this trial unfold.

Truly, Gosnell and Planned Parenthood have a common link.  This TESTIMONY of the Planned Parenthood paid lobbyist boggles the mind.  The legislators asked her a good question; it was not a gotcha question, but a bottom-line question.  "What do you do with the baby born alive?"  And the PP spokesperson went into robotic mode, saying "That is up to the girl, her family, and the doctors."  That painfully illustrates how do no harm swerves into infanticide without a blink.  It did for Dr. Gosnell...

Planned Parenthood would defend themselves by saying that Dr. Gosnell exhibits aberrant behavior and bears no likeness to what happens in their clinics.  They cast themselves as being a helper for women.  They don't put infant feet in jars on display as the doc did.  They have cleaner standards and licensed personnel.

But the Gosnell trial has given America a look inside a death chamber for innocents. We've long heard words to describe procedures done to pre-borns...but now we've seen the gruesome pictures.

Gosnell has proven himself neither the friend of women, nor mankind.  And while PP might tout their righteousness while hiding behind the preventative screenings (as though there would be no other way for women to get those)...the Judge will hold them responsible.

Meanwhile, the country will feel judgment because of their actions.  Evil begets greater evil.  And the ones who do not go along with the President's "enlightenment" find themselves characterized as dinosaurs who refuse to evolve and want to go back to the 50's.

Mankind is called to live a live that put us in the position to receive God's blessing.  When Barack Obama closed his speech at Planned Parenthood, he said to the crowd "God bless you."  That was hair-raising.  The President trivializes the holy and minimizes costly mercy...while putting us beyond the place to be blessed.

It's possible to ignore what God says.  It's possible to reject His laws and smirk at their shelf life and boldly go where no man has gone.  But it guarantees a position where blessing becomes impossible.

CHOOSE LIFE!

THE BROTHERS TSARNAEV

It's pretty creepy seeing them in the crowd.

Mike and I were traveling yesterday and listening to Mark Steyn, hopeful of news of the capture of the second Boston bomber.  Steyn's great acerbic wit (delivered with a British accent) makes him a favorite.  He said that one side waits, sure the fugitive was a white, rightwing nutcase...while the other side waits, expecting a Muslim extremist.

In the end, he said they both were happy because the brothers were Caucasians (and you couldn't get more Caucasian than being from the Caucasus') AND they were Muslims.

Steyn went on to explain about a YouTube channel belonging to Tamerian Tsarnaev, which gives us a looksee into his head.  (That would be somewhat like looking at your Netflix history to see what is inside your head...except having a YouTube channel means you are promoting and not just viewing.)  Tamerian was promoting hateful radical Islamic videos.  He began posting them when he came home from six months in Russia.

This brings us to the reoccurring terrorism in our country.   Just a cursory look back tells us who our enemy repeatedly has been.  This administration has continued to play down the enemy, redefine the enemy, cleanse the nomenclature about the enemy, and choose not to pay benefits to soldiers at Ft. Hood who faced the enemy.  It's hard to know why.

Steyn sarcastically says:  "None of these guys, none of these lone wolves, none of these lone wolves stretching as far back as the eye can see, are ever typical of anything,” Steyn said. “We don’t know that any of these lone wolves belong to the United Amalgamated of Lone Wolves and Isolated Extremists. They’re all just one-offs — all jihad is local.”

Of course Steyn's sarcasm points out that they are NOT lone wolves and the common thread is their belief in the same worldview.  Contrary to tolerant pantheists, it matters what people believe.  The bumper sticker on the back of Tsarnaev's car said "COEXIST".  That's a good one.

We can connect the dots between the Ft. Hood shooter, the underwear bomber, the Christmas Eve bomber, the Little Rock Army recruiting station shooter, etc. etc. etc.  All are the product of global jihad; all have roots in hateful/harmful radical Islamic fundamentalism.

If Christianity can be reduced to the phrase "turn or burn", then that phrase is a plea to reason and a warning about destruction ahead.  But the believer is not the judgment agent.  

On the other hand, an Islamist says "turn or face the sword and Allah will reward me".  He's judge and jury and executioner...and thinks he will be a bountiful beneficiary.

Strangely, today people are hurrying to the microphone to illustrate their broad-mindedness and enlarge themselves as being viewpoint-tolerant concerning the Tsarnaevs.  Al Sharpton stepped all over himself in this LINK.

A more mainstream media example might be an essay from the NEW YORKER HERE.  Or the NEW YORK TIMES sympathetic piece about the brothers which later had words retracted ("far from war-torn homeland, trying to fit in").  HERE

These men were trying to fit in?  They pay back a government who welcomed them in and supported them...by putting a bomb beside a little boy and setting it off?  Does anyone believe the tripe that they had their feelings hurt and decided to become mass murderers?

No one is advocating a rush to judgment.  But so many things are already known about the Tsarnaev brothers that would put them in the suspicious file (their "religion" not being one of the reasons).  For starters, two years ago the Russians tipped the FBI about Tamerian and he was interviewed about a terror connection.  There was no evidence then to support the claim, but the claim red-flagged Tamerian's citizenship application.

It's very encouraging to see the way technology has come alongside law enforcement.  These pictures of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev getting into the boat are amazing...as well as the infrared picture of him hiding in the boat.

Government stands guard between us and global jihad.  I would feel more comfortable if they started acknowledging the enemy by using the correct words.  Take away the words "workplace violence" and lose the words "overseas contingency operation".  Say the words "radical Islamic terrorist".  It is NOT Islamaphobic to say America is in the crosshairs of radical Muslim fundamentalists.  We are.  And if profiling helps, profile!  Can't we be on our own side?  It's reverse profiling that Major Hassan put "soldier of Allah" on his calling card and no one called him on it.

The diluting of Al-Qaeda worldwide has resulted in smaller efforts centered on disaffected nationals to act as the new footsoldiers.  There may be no more big 9/11 operations, but it looks like with little money and a pressure cooker, the Tsarnaevs have put themselves on the front page.  Others will be attracted to do the same. 

Lord, make us alert and at the ready. 

RULES, RULES

I swim at a really nice pool at the Senior Citizens Center with multiple lists of rules posted everywhere.  They serve to make my eyes roll back into my head.  The only rule I like is the one about not getting into the pool with open sores.

But you know what I mean.  The place seems over-regulated and who reads 'em, anyway?  Besides, my fallen nature tends to hear what I can't do and chomps at the bits, wanting to do it.  What good is the law?

The book says God gave us the law as a tutor to bring us to Christ.  It sets God's standard (like a mirror) in front of our faces.  When I see I can't measure up to His standards, I know my need of a Savior.  Then I can (as Tim Keller says) "make peace with the wrath of God".

Our Father is the champion for cutting through the fat.  He made a concise list of ten commandments for man to keep, and then reduced those ten to only two (love God/love others).  Still...no.can.do.

Our church fathers had had much to say about the law over the centuries.
Reaching waaaay back to the man who wrote most of the New Testament, Paul said this in Galatians 2:19 (The Message).

"What actually took place is this.  I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work.  So I quit being a 'law man' so that I could be God's man."

Augustine (died 430):

"Through the law, God opens man's eyes so that he sees his helplessness and by faith takes refuge to His mercy and is healed.  The law was given in order that we might seek grace, and grace was given in order that we might fulfill the law."

Martin Luther (died 1546):

"The law and the gospel are given to the end that we may learn to know both how guilty we are, and to what again we should return."

Matthew Henry (died 1714).  When I need a commentary, I reach for Matthew Henry:

"There is no way of coming to that knowledge of sin which is necessary to repentance, but by comparing our hearts and lives by the law."

The fiery Jonathan Edwards (died 1758):

"What good is it to have godly principles yet not know them?  Why should God reveal His mind to us if we don't care enough to know what it is?  Yet the only way we can know whether we are sinning is by knowing His moral law: by the law is the knowledge of sin."

Charles Spurgeon (died 1892):

"If men do not understand the law, they will not feel they are sinners.  And if they are not consciously sinners, they will never value the sin offering.  There is no healing a man till the law has wounded him, no making him alive till the law has slain him."

D.L. Moody (died 1899):

"This is what God gives us the Law for, to show us ourselves and our true colors."

William Booth (died 1912).

William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army;  he preached and served the poor in London's slums throughout his life.  

When General Booth died, there were 40,000 mourners who turned out (see below).  Queen Mary slipped into the great hall and sat at the rear, unrecognized.  

General Booth made an interesting remark about our times when he said of the Law:

"The chief danger of the Twentieth Century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God...and heaven without hell."

A contemporary thinker who always challenges my thinking...the passionate John Piper (born 1946):

"If we don't understand why the law was given, we can kill ourselves with it."

Amen.

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

Can you feel the blood rising already?

Here's another weigh-in on this serious subject that is under adjudication by our high court.  In an effort to be brief about a complex subject, could we consider three areas?

FICKLE. TWEAK. LOVE.


FICKLE.
The Supremes are asked to build law around something so new the paint hasn't dried.  Marriage between a man and woman has been the pillar of society for 4,000 years.  Just as recently as 1996, Bill Clinton and Democrats passed legislation called DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) which upheld traditional marriage.

Now magically, we are 17 years down the road from DOMA and things are tumped upside down.  We have new clarity; we're evolved and tolerant.  But consider that there are 1,100 federal laws dealing with marriage now that a capricious ruling could complicate.

TWEAK.
A friend of mine posed a good question.  Do the people with the red/pink "equal sign" (see above) want marriage, or just the perks the institution affords?  Civil unions already exist that could be reworked to assure better equality of benefits.  But would that really scratch the itch?  Perhaps not.  Do same-sex couples want to be considered "married" in the sense they haven't done anything wrong and are equally entitled to rewrite mores?  Now the water gets deep and choppy.

Marriage already had an inventor and the Inventor built humanity on that plan. People don't get to rewrite a concept from on high.  Rewriting would make them equal to the Divine...and Lord knows, that's been tried.  Marriage remains His plan for the ages and both a picture of what His fidelity looks like, and a launchpad for the next generation.  A man gives himself up for his wife just like Jesus gave himself up for the church.  The woman respects her husband as the church respects her Head.  (Personally speaking, marriage has been His best tool to tweak my selfishness.)  All that brings glory to His power and points to God's larger plan.

 We "get" that not everyone in a secular society buys into such a model.  Some believe the Bible and some don't. However, now the image of God is under attack like never before with tsunami waves that would shake the pillars of civilization.  And this latest wave hurls people into one of two camps.  Either you are kind and loving and trying to do as Jesus said ("love one another")...or you are a hater-bigot.

Is there room for the lover of God's word?  Homosexuality is mentioned seven times in Scripture, all unfavorably.  What shall we do with that?

LOVE.
If you have children, you may be familiar with loving through hard times of unacceptable behavior.  Yes, the Scripture calls for loving others, but not to the exclusion of the other things He says.  Scripture also sets out guidelines for those who would "come, follow Me".  He calls us to actually love people enough to plead with them when they are asking for God's wrath.  Isaiah says "Your sinful acts have alienated you from God."

In Scripture, if I am busy tolerating behavior that is sure to earn punishment, then I may gain the applause of men...but I haven't loved my brother well.  A Christian can tolerate ungodly behavior that is another man's choice, but they certainly don't promote it.

There is a wide place to camp where people can know we love them, while not endorsing their behavior.  Have you not heard the present participle verb in Romans 1:18?  "God's wrath IS (continually) BEING REVEALED from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness."  It truly is spitting in the wind to ask for God's wrath.  If we love our neighbor, we want them on that bus when it pulls out of the station for the coming kingdom.  You can't love them and help them be excluded from the kingdom at the same time.

So at day's end...

We know FICKLE men change, but God doesn't change.  Isn't DOMA a great example?  Once everyone wanted to support it, now everyone is jumping off that bandwagon.  Did you ever tell your kids "if everyone jumps off the cliff...will you?"  All the more reason to hang tightly to words that never change.  Should we call "good" what God has not called "good"?  He actually says "Woe to them who call evil good".

TWEAK the benefits?  Yes, we can "even" things up.  We can decree that partners have better survivors' benefits and figure out how the states can reciprocally acknowledge civil unions.

But MARRIAGE belongs to God.  He folds marriage into the implementation of His greater plan, which is one continuous blueprint.  So who is bodacious enough to tweak HIS plan?  That can't end well.

And LOVE.  What is love?  Are we not called to love God first?

And if we love anything more than God, isn't that forming an idol?  Self-rule is an idol (when self determines what is "just" and "fair").  Loving one of God's tenets to the exclusion of them all is an idol (picking which you live by and which you ignore).  Nobody makes a golden calf anymore, but idols are made everyday.

We should remember God doesn't have tenets such as "go along to get along"...or..."do what you like as long as you don't hurt anyone".  His tenets call us to choose Who(m) we serve.

And does it hurt to see people go their own way?  You bet it hurts.  The Book says the road is narrow and one day all will give an account.

So take courage and speak the truth in love.

CYPRUS

It's a done deal.  Cyprus has been "saved" from bankruptcy.  Poof!

Cyprus is the size of Vermont.  Forbes calls it "smidgen-sized" in their ARTICLE:
Cyprus Bailout-Everything You Need to Know Before the Opening Bell.  

If Cyprus represents only .2% of the European Union's monetary worth...then what's the big deal?

It's a big deal because we worry that Cyprus is the first domino.

Cypriots are furious because of yesterday's deal.  The European partners agreed to bail out Cyprus if Cyprus puts skin in the game.  So the agreement was to seize money from large depositer's bank accounts.

Well, it's just from the rich.  It doesn't matter.  They can afford it.

Listen, America.  This is such a picture book for us.  Government with dipping rights is a force to be reckoned with.  What if YOU waked up to find as much as 40% of your assets gone?  The cutoff was $130k.  Below that amount and your money was put into a "good" bank; above that, you go into a "bad" bank...where depositors and bond-holders may recover little or none of their money.

Sadly, Cyprus' problem is not just their bailout through seized assets.  What caused the problem in the first place?  Why are they in that hole?  Why isn't THAT problem being addressed?

If Europe passes all those utopian work weeks/benefits (on the assumption that people are entitled), then are the people entitled to feel the results?  Is there REALLY such a lack of understanding of basic economic feasibility?  Or are they petulant children?  We all get it that everyone shuffles their feet while no one wants to end up with the check.  But someone at the table gets the short stick.

So take careful watch, America.  When our government (and unions) demand unrealistic regulations and bargains, who is at the head of our table?  The states?  If California can't pay the ridiculous things they've agreed upon, then who gets the check?  Arkansas has a balanced budget law which has kept us out of the red.  Shall we pay for California?  Is responsible stewardship repaid by bankrolling a spendthrift?  Does anyone side with a trust fund kid who has run through "Daddy's money"?  No.  No one.

Grow up, Cyprus.  Grow up, Europe.  Grow up, America.

HOLY GROUND

Last night there was a pinprick of light on earth that surely was seen from heaven.  It was a flame that joined the heavenly chorus...praise that we are told goes on night and day there.

This room was full of smoke and a light show and your chest felt the rumbling.  That's similar to how Isaiah described the temple worship in Chapter Six of his book.  But the place last night was not a temple.  It was the Drury University basketball arena in Springfield, MO.  

And it was a Chris Tomlin concert.

The stars onstage (Chris Tomlin and Keri Jobe) were just the choir directors as the audience sang at the top of their lungs for the entire two hours.  (See singers on right.) 

The songs were a blend of new ones from Chris' "Burning Lights" CD, plus the oldie-but-goodies "How Great is Our God", "Indescribable", and "I Will Rise". 

And at the end, the two young 'uns (who are 31 and 40) joined voices in the hymn "Crown Him With Many Crowns", followed by Keri Jobe singing "Revelation Song"  LINK.  Who could ask for anything more?

Whatever hurt or brokenness or discouragement that walked into that arena...lost its sting as the people applauded and magnified the Most High God.

The Lord says He inhabits the praise of His people, so surely He was on that holy ground in a Missouri basketball arena.

Last month, Chris Tomlin and Keri Jobe both attended the Grammys.  He said that many of the winners or presenters came to the mic and spoke of "music's greatest night".  CT said that with all due respect, they haven't seen anything yet.  There's a time coming when the Grammys will pale at the sound of the heavenly host surrounding the throne of God.

Revelation 19 paints a picture of that worship scene.  It says there is the voice of a vast throng like the roar of many waters and the loud crashes of thunder.  And they are all shouting "Hallelujah!  For the Lord our God, the All-Powerful reigns!"

Meanwhile, a Chris Tomlin concert will do.

P.S.  Here's a LINK to one of his new songs called "White Flag".  It was recorded in January at the Passion Conference in Atlanta which drew 60,000 college students.