Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Then I realized my true bid would be $3002.50!
No way!
Pastor and His Family for Sale
I’m not even going to Google it, but I wonder how many male bloggers are having a hey day with the idea of buying the family and keeping the wife and/or daughter.
And, vile being what vile is, how many other male bloggers are fantasizing about keeping the boy.
Not a wise move on Chad’s part.
Sure, he’s an unconventional pastor, but still . . . .
Closing out his first hour this afternoon (at least here in Oregon on 750 KXL), Michael Savage said (and I quote to the best of my recollection):
| I don’t know if God Himself can save this nation. |
Sir, God can save this nation!
“Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
Yes, God can save America.
But will He?
Or is the cup of iniquity of the United States of America too close to full by now?
I don’t know.
And if God chooses to bring judgment on the USA, what will I do?
Would to God that I will stand strong. And shine strongly with the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Iranians consider mandatory execution for apostasy:
| A plan is being discussed by lawmakers in Iran that would require the death penalty for anyone who leaves Islam for Christianity or someone who promotes such a conversion even on the Internet, according to a new report from Compass Direct News.
Those discussions of a penal code that was drafted earlier this year bring urgency to situations such as the two men arrested recently and under interrogation for that very crime, the report said. The report said Iranian authorities arrested a number of converts to Christianity in the city of Shiraz about two months ago on suspicion of “apostasy.” Arash Bandari, 44, and Mahmood Matin, 52, were arrested at the time along with 13 other Muslim converts to Christianity. But while the other 13 were told they have a court case pending and then released, Bandari and Matin have been held ever since. The 13 who have been released have not been told of any specific charges, but they report the nature of their questioning gives them reason to think the allegations may include apostasy and political crimes. The other two, Bandari and Matin, have been held almost incommunicado. Matin’s wife was able to see him for several minutes on June 24, when the prisoner told his wife “there had been a misunderstanding and that he could not teach Christianity any more,” Compass reported. […] Compass noted that under the existing sharia laws in Iran, the death penalty is available for the crime of apostasy, but not required. |
Over at Life in the Shoe, Dorcas Smucker as a short-but-excellent post on Looking Like a Mom:
| Obviously the implication here is that looking like a mom is a bad thing. Maybe that’s because the popular perception is that looking like a mom is all physical, and all moms are sloppy and out of shape. At least that’s the impression I get when people meet me and insist that I can’t possibly have six children, which is flattering in its way, but I think the essence of a real mom shows up on her face and I hope that’s what people can see in me.
I am proud to be a mom, and I hope people can look at me and tell right off that if they have a problem they can tell me about it, that I’ve survived enough crises to know what to get upset about and what not to, that I’ll happily dispense advice, that I believe in better things for them, that I’ll drop everything to make them a cup of hot tea, that I’ll happily mother anyone who needs mothering. And if someone stops me in a store to ask what to buy for a ten-year-old, I’ll feel honored. |
Way to go, Dorcas!
While I do not wish to look like a mother (or a grandmother), I want to “feel” likewise honored in looking like a father or even a grandfather.
After all, that’s what I am.
Whether or not I look like one, let me be the best at both that I can be.
Long ago I wished for a father’s heart like the Father’s heart. My wish was sincere. And intense. And quite ignorant.
Ignorant because I didn’t know the breaking and restructuring the granting of such a wish would require.
Ignorant because I didn’t realize the fragility of such a heart. (No, that doesn’t make God fragile!)
Do I now have a heart like the Father’s? Not even close. But I’m far closer than I was before making that request of Him.
And I think I understand His heart better than I used to.
So — again — I ask: Let me look and love and lead and live like a father should.
And like the Father does.
Over at WorldMagBlog, Andrée Seu has done it again. Here are some pieces to entice you to click the link:
| Beyond “mere men”
Is there anything about you that, if people only knew, they would not judge you so harshly? A little benefit of the doubt please. We all want to be understood and accepted. But most of us have learned not to expect much from one another in the way of understanding and patience. How sad. We have learned that people are pretty much the same — Christian or non-Christian: they’re nice when you’re nice or when you appeal to them, and not nice when you sin or you look like a loser. Push a Christian more than an inch and he will react pretty much like a pagan. But God has called us to be extraordinary. Paul chided the Corinthians for behaving like “mere men” (1 Corinthians 3:3). The place where God is glorified is the distance our love pushes through beyond where the world stops loving. Let us beseech the Lord for unkillable love. Let the world “[take] note that these men have been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). |
Ouch!
This morning Joel Rosenberg asks: War in November?
| War clouds continue to build in the epicenter. Last month in Rome, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed that the United States and Israel would soon be “annihilated,” language he had not used so explicitly since October 2005 when he promised to wipe Israel “off the map” and urged Muslims to “envision a world without the United States.” This week, his regime authorized a new series of Iranian war games. He ordered the digging of 320,000 graves to bury the enemies of Islam. He is calling for the unification of the Islamic world politically and economically, including the creation of a single currency.
Top Israeli intelligence officials, meanwhile, increasingly believe that time is running out. They believe that Iran could have nuclear weapons within a year and one former Mossad chief is urging his country’s leadership to launch a massive series of air strikes against Iranian nuclear and other military facilities before it is too late. Israel’s Air Force just conducted a test run of such a bombing mission. […] The U.S. does not want Israel to strike. After all, the repercussions of such a war with Iran would be global in nature. Israel would face tens of thousands of incoming missiles not just from Iran but likely from Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza and possibly the West Bank. Some of these missiles could be have chemical and/or biological warheads, even if the nuclear warheads in Iran are not yet ready. Ballistic missiles would also be likely fired from Iran at the oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, at oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and the Straight of Hormuz, and at U.S. bases and forces in Iraq. Tens of thousands of suicide bomber cells could be activated in the region — especially in Iraq and Israel — and perhaps even in Western Europe and the U.S. and Canada. Iranian efforts to topple Jordan’s King Abdullah II and/or Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in favor of radical Islamic regimes friendly to Tehran could also be set in motion. Oil prices could shoot from $140 a barrel to $300 a barrel or more. U.S. gas prices could spike to $7-$10 or more, with horrific domestic and global economic repercussions. No wonder Washington doesn’t want a war with Iran. No wants such a war. I certainly do not, nor do the Israelis. Yet, the U.S. does not have a convincing plan to stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program in time. Nor does the U.N., or the E.U. Diplomacy isn’t working. Economic sanctions have been imposed on Iran since 1979 to little strategic effect. Unfortunately, the words of Sen. John McCain keep echoing in my head this week. In April 2006, the senior Senator from Arizona appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press. He warned, “there’s only one thing worse than using the option of military action, and that is the Iranians acquiring nuclear weapons.” For if Iran gets the Bomb, he said, “I think we could have Armageddon.” |
If this were in one of Mr. Rosenberg’s novels, some people would be looking over their shoulders wondering when it would come true. But it’s not, so they can breathe a sigh of relief. 😐
That aside, here’s a bit from Joel’s most recent Flash Traffic email:
| As Israel faces the possibility of war with Iran in the next year — possibly as early as this fall — The Joshua Fund is stepping up efforts to stockpile food, water, medical equipment and other emergency supplies. Over the weekend, our leadership hosted the head of a leading evangelical Israeli relief organization to develop detailed contigency plans and we have a staff team heading to Israel at the end of the month to meet with other key allies. Over the course of the next few days, I will be holding conference calls with evangelical pastors throughout the U.S. to brief them on the latest developments and discuss ways they can help.
There are a few urgent prayer requests we would like to share with all of you: 1) First and foremost, please pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the entire region. Pray for the leaders of the region — and our own national leaders — to make wise choices in the days and weeks ahead. While diplomacy and sanctions haven’t worked so far, they still could. So let’s pray that the Lord would spare all the people of the region another war. They have, after all, suffered so much already. 2) Pray especially for peace on Israel’s southern border. Every day, rockets and mortars from Gaza are striking fear into the hearts of some 500,000 Israeli residents. Pray, too, for the staff of Barzilai Medical Center, the only hospital treating Israelis in the southern tier. Pray for wisdom and comfort for the doctors, nurses, administrators and volunteers. Pray that they would have all the equipment, pharmaceuticals and other essentials they need to treat those affected by the on-going terror attacks. 3) Please pray for evangelical Christians and Israeli Jews to join forces to bless the people of Israel in real and practical ways. Pray that historic tensions would subside, and that Christians would truly show unconditional love and unwavering support to the Jewish State. Pray, too, that Israeli leaders at all levels of society would be open to and accepting of such support, and that The Joshua Fund could play a positive, helpful role in all of this. 4) Please pray for members of Israeli churches and congregations and their leaders to have wisdom and discernment to know how best to love their neighbors and their enemies. Please particularly pray for their courage and patience. While harassment of believers in Israel is nothing like the terrible persecution ongoing in Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran or elsewhere, attacks against followers of Jesus in Israel have increased in recent months. As I have reported before, the 15-year old son of an Israeli pastor was nearly killed this spring when a bomb was sent to the pastor’s home disguised as a Purim gift. Ami Ortiz is slowly, steadily, miraculously recovering. But he definitely needs your prayers for the many surgeries he is having to go through. Please also pray that the authorities in Israel would be truly diligent in tracking down and catching those responsible for this horrific crime. The police have now definitively ruled out Palestinian terrorism. This was done by Jews who hate Israeli believers in Yeshua, they believe. But there have been concerns that the police were not doing as much as possible to solve the case. Pressure from Christians around the world writing to Israeli embassies insisting on action has helped. Please keep praying and pressing for justice. Unfortunately, there have been other attacks as well. A deputy Mayor of an Israeli town recently organized Orthodox youths to round up New Testaments and other Christian literature and burn them in a huge bonfire. Christian workers in the country are being denied visas. Some Israeli officials are harassing immigrants who believe in Yeshua and trying to strip of their Israeli citizenship. The Lord is being gracious in all these areas, and a national discussion has ensued over whether Israeli believers in Jesus have a right to live peaceably in the Jewish State, especially since they are very loyal citizens. They fight in the army. They pay their taxes. They serve their communities. They care for the poor and needy. They want to help build a strong Israel for the future. They also want the right to worship the Lord and unashamedly express their belief that Yeshua is the Messiah and the hope not only of the Jewish people, but the whole world. Let’s continue to pray for these brothers and sisters during these challenging times. 5.) Finally, please pray that we evangelicals around the world would have the courage to stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel and that we would not hesitate in any way to help them have enough food, water, clothing, medical equipment and other needed supplies to care for their own communities as well as their neighbors when the next war breaks out. As Paul wrote in Romans 15:25-27, “Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the saints there. For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.” We do owe it to our brethren in Israel to help them in their nation’s time of need. This summer, therefore, TJF is seeking the Lord to provide an additional $1 million above and beyond our current financial commitments to accelerate our efforts to stockpile these goods, acquire the needed warehouse facilities to store them, and vehicles to move them around the country. Our board will meet this weekend to discuss several urgent new projects and make decisions on how to proceed based, in part, on our sense of whether we believe we can afford accelerating our work in Israel. We are bringing in several experts to advise us, including a former top U.S. military commander who is a dear brother in Christ and has decades of experience praying for peace yet preparing for war. I’ll report more next week on what comes out of these discussions. |
I came up with that as I cast about in my head for a good headline for this:
| Church of England General Synod Backs Female Ordination
Members of its General Synod threw out compromise proposals on females in senior ranks. All safeguards demanded by traditionalists were rejected. But the Vatican warned the ruling would present a new obstacle to reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Church of England. In a statement it said: “We learned with regret the news of the vote of the Church of England that opens the way to the introduction of legislation that would lead to the ordination of women bishops.” Sky News correspondent Mike McCarthy said it was a historic and significant moment for the church. “The real test now is how many people will leave (the Church). There are certainly going to be many wrestling with their consciences,” he said. […] A total of 1,333 clergy have threatened to leave the Church of England if they are not given legal safeguards to set up a network of parishes that would remain under male leadership. |