Give Thanks by Patricia Day

Psalm 100:4-5 …… Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.  For the Lord is good and His mercy is everlasting.  (NKJV)

Thanksgiving!  A time to be thankful for all that we have.  We might not be grateful at all times; human nature is fickle and often what we see ‘on the other side of the fence’ appears to be better.  I have discovered, sometimes to my detriment, that is not always so.

I am learning to be content with all that I experience, and all that I have.  It is not always easy but I put everything into perspective by realizing that millions around the world have much less than I do.

I have a roof over my head; food to eat; clean water to drink; family to love and be loved by; good friends and much, much more.

Just for a moment, over this Thanksgiving weekend (Canada), let us stop and think about all that we have, and let go of our wants.

Enjoy time with family and friends and if, by chance, you are alone, reach out to someone and share time with them.

Numbers 6:24-26  The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.  (NKJV)

http://devotionalchristian.com/give-thanks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DevotionalChristian+%28Devotional+Christian%29

Letters That Need Never Be Sent

There was a lot of stupid in the presidential race this week. I’ve written about it all here. But I’ve been thinking about something for awhile. I’ve gotten sidetracked by the media every time I set out to write about it, but no more. Today, we explore the question: What will they think about us 50 years from now? What will they think of how we’ve tried to govern the country? What will they think of the arguments we’re having now?

Perhaps a few letters will help.

From the Future

Dear Past,

Was it worth it? Was the party worth it? I assume there was a party – and a huge one at that – because I’m looking at the bill and … Damn! What were you thinking?

I’ve done some research, and you guys were running up the credit card like it was an Olympic event and you were going for the gold. And when that wasn’t enough you simply printed money. I guess that’s easy to do when you’re not stuck with the bill. But we are stuck with the bill, and I want some answers.

Here we are in 2062, and I can tell you all that paper you printed makes for great insulation…and that’s about it. A trillion dollars is a huge amount of money now. You guys treated it like it was nothing. Did you think it wouldn’t come back to haunt the country?

I know it’s tempting to live in “the now.” But “the now” is only “the now” until the next moment takes over. Then, it’s “the past.” “The future” … that’s nothing but the results of the past. You’re long gone and “the now” we live in is screwed.

Unemployment is through the roof. Food prices are insane. The only gas anyone can afford comes a few hours after eating beans. The American West is covered in the solar panels and windmills you tried to tell us were the “way of the future” for electricity. As someone living in that future, I can tell you I’m using some of my two- hours-per-day electricity ration to write this letter. And I’m not happy about it.

You do realize “wishing something will work eventually” isn’t an energy policy, right? News stories from your time say you called it an “investment.” Maybe that word meant something different back then, but now it means putting money into something hoping to get a return on that money. Government dumping money into something unproven, thereby undercutting any private investment by non-politically connected people, is not an investment. In fact, it discourages real investment.

Once China bought all of Canada’s oil after you refused to build a simple pipeline across a route then traversed by more than 1,300 working pipelines, the dominoes began to fall. The Chinese cornered the market on oil from Iranistan. The United States regulated coal out of existence. And before long, Americans were relegated to rubbing balloons against their heads if they wanted electricity.

And health care. Holy Frank, what were you thinking? You took the people who talked about cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” from government for years but never lifted a finger to do it, and you put them in charge of health care? Had none of you ever been to the DMV? The waitlist to see a doctor is so bad people are crossing over to Canada for treatment, and Canadians are heading to the UK. Did you not have even a hint this might occur?

Didn’t you realize the price controls you forced on the market would mean no innovation, no new drugs, services or treatments? Did you not understand that if the billions needed for research couldn’t be recouped in the market, somebody – really, a lot of somebodys – were going to suffer? You can remember when Americans produced more medical and therapeutic breakthroughs than the rest of the world combined. We can’t. Thanks for that.

And taxes, don’t even get me started. I’m taking a risk even writing about it. The 28^th Amendment, the “Patriotic Duty” Amendment, forbids complaining about how much money the government allows us to keep. But someone has to.

Things really went down hill after Congress passed the “Shared Sacrifice Act,” which mandated all paychecks go to the government first to pay down the national debt, with only a few leftovers redistributed to workers.

Again, it all comes back to the debt. Your debt. Our debt now. Thanks a lot. Did you really think it would never come due or did you just not give a damn? We know you knew it. We know, even then, you realized you were borrowing 42 cents of every dollar you spent and that Medicare and Social Security were going bankrupt. We know a few of you took this seriously and tried to stop it. But not many of you. Not enough, certainly. Was basic math a rare skill back then?

I could go on and on but the rolling blackout will be here soon. I’ll just leave you with this: Why didn’t you try to stop it? I mean really try. I can understand electing President Obama the first time, what with the media cheerleading for him and all the flowery promises he made. But the second? Didn’t you notice nothing he did worked? That it, in fact, made things worse? I mean, the guy basically ran on “I know what I’ve done has failed, but that’s just because you haven’t given it enough time.” Einstein called doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result insane. Were you all insane?

How many billions did he have to give to his friends? How many trillions did he have to rack up in debt? How many people did he have to blame? How high did unemployment have to be? How many border guards and ambassadors had to die because he wasn’t engaged? How many rounds of golf did he have to play?

My daily electricity is up and I’ve got to go to an underground history meeting. Tonight, we’re going to learn about a place called “Israel,” apparently a staunch American ally back in the time before Iranistan. Do you remember it?

I’ll leave you with this: Everyone here is suffering. The nation is falling apart. You could have stopped it but didn’t. Why did you do that to us? Was it worth it?

How could you let this happen?

Sincerely,

2062

The Democrat Voter’s Response

Dear 2062,

So everyone waits to see the doctor? Everyone is suffering? Equally? The future sounds like Utopia! You are so welcome.

Hope and Change be with you!

The Republican Voter’s Response

Dear 2062,

Hey, I plan on voting for Romney, so I don’t know what else you expect from me? Am I supposed to talk to people, tell them how important it is we correct course now? Am I supposed to volunteer for the campaign or something? Make phone calls from home? Other people have that stuff covered. I’m voting the right way. That’s enough.

Good luck

Reply Back From The Future

I get it now. Thanks for nothing.

2062

I only wish this was as absurd as it sounds. But it’s not far off at all. And it doesn’t have to be this way.

I am in no way associated with the Romney campaign, nor do I receive any money from it, nor am I associated with any campaign, or activist or super PAC group.

I offer my opinion, and I encouraging you to engage, to talk to any and everyone you know in your state, and/or swing states, and to impress upon them the reality we’re facing, the one they don’t get from the mainstream media. The clock is ticking, and the media will focus on anything but what’s truly important right now. They have the megaphone on TV every night, and they follow up with the newspaper on your doorstep every morning. We have us. You and me. Talking to each other and to those who can be persuaded.

Sitting on the sidelines gives you a great view, but if you’re going to affect the outcome, you’re going to have to get in the game.

Derek Hunter

Derek Hunter is Washington, DC based writer, radio host and political strategist. You can also stalk his thoughts 140 characters at a time on Twitter.

http://townhall.com/columnists/derekhunter/2012/09/23/letters_that_need_never_be_sent/page/full/

It Can Happen Here: Religious Freedom Threatened By Eric Metaxas

Christians are often asked by gay activists why they oppose same-sex “marriage.” “How does our marriage hurt you?” they ask.

Well, I can think of one significant way it will hurt us: It will destroy religious freedom and free speech rights.

The handwriting is on the wall in Canada, which legalized same-sex “marriage” in 2005, in effect completely changing its true meaning. Since then, as Michael Coren notes in National Review Online, “there have been between 200 and 300 proceedings … against critics and opponents of same-sex marriage.” Of course he means legal proceedings.

For instance, in Saskatchewan, a homosexual man called a state marriage commissioner, wanting to “marry” his partner. The commissioner, an evangelical Christian, declined to conduct the ceremony for religious reasons. He simply referred the man to another commissioner.

But that was not enough for the gay couple. Even though they got their ceremony, they wanted to punish the Christian who had declined to conduct it. The case ended up in the courts. And the result? Those with religious objections to conducting such ceremonies now face the loss of their jobs.

Canadian churches are also under attack. Coren writes that when Fred Henry, the Roman Catholic bishop of Calgary, Alberta, sent a letter to churches explaining traditional Catholic teaching on marriage, he was “charged with a human-rights violation” and “threatened with litigation.”

Churches with theological objections to performing same-sex “wedding” ceremonies are being threatened with the loss of their tax-free status. In British Columbia, the Knights of Columbus agreed to rent its building for a wedding reception before finding out that the couple was lesbian. When they did find out, they apologized to the women and agreed to both find an alternative venue and pay the costs for printing new invitations: But that wasn’t good enough. The women prosecuted, and the Human Rights Commission ordered the Knights of Columbus to pay a fine.

Of course, the lesbians knew perfectly well what the Catholic Church teaches about marriage, but they sought out a Catholic-owned building, anyway. As Michael Coren puts it, “it’s becoming obvious that Christian people, leaders, and organizations are being targeted, almost certainly to create legal precedents”-precedents intended to silence and punish anyone who dares to disagree with so-called gay “marriage.”

If you think this couldn’t happen here, think again. This year we’ve seen ObamaCare attack the autonomy of Catholic churches by attempting to force them, in violation of Catholic teaching, to pay for contraceptives and abortifacients for church employees. And just last week, a lesbian employee of a Catholic hospital in New York sued the hospital for denying her partner spousal health benefits.

This is what we need to tell our neighbors when they ask us, “How does gay ‘marriage’ hurt us?” It means that those hostile to our beliefs will attempt to bend us to their will to force us to not only accept gay “marriage,” but to condone it as well.

This is why I urge you to join the half-million Christians who have signed the Manhattan Declaration. Please sign it yourself by going to www.manhattandeclaration.org.

You and I must demonstrate love to our gay neighbors, of course, remembering that we are ultimately engaged in spiritual warfare. But we should boldly stand up when our rights as citizens and the demands of our conscience are threatened.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/it-can-happen-here-religious-freedom-threatened-77359/

Commitment and Courage

“Rise up…take courage and do it.”                                     Ezr 10:4 NIV

Terry Fox ran across Canada and raised twenty-four million dollars to fight cancer. What’s amazing is that he did it with one leg; cancer had taken the other. He planned to run twenty-six miles each day but because of severe headaches, snow and icy roads, after a month he’d only managed to struggle about eight miles a day. So why did he keep going? Because the purpose in his heart was stronger than the pain in his body. They could amputate his leg, but not his spirit! Commitment is a willingness to do whatever it takes; it’s a promise to yourself, from which you refuse to back down. There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested you do it only when it’s convenient, but when you’re committed you accept no excuses—only results. Only you can decide whether the rewards are worth the effort, for there are tradeoffs. You can’t have a healthy body and live on junk food. A guaranteed salary is nonexistent when you start your own business. Mindless hours of watching television and straight “A’s” are a rare combination. Commitment means paying your dues. It also means disregarding your critics. Jesus did that. “But Jesus ignored their comments and said…‘Don’t be afraid. Just trust me’” (Mk 5:36 TLB). Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Whatever course you decide upon, there will always be someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.”

http://theencouragingword.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/commitment-and-courage/

Marriage is Marriage – Period

In this life, a number of relationships are of great significance, such as the relationship between a customer and his banker, a patient and his doctor, or even a congregant and his pastor. These are important relationships-some of which produce near-familial emotions, binding people together at a deep, deep level.

 

And while all of these relationships are important, they are but proximate compared with the ultimate earthly relationship—and that is marriage.

 

In fact, among relationships, marriage stands out as the one which is absolutely essential to the future of humanity. Despite this inarguable fact, marriage is under assault. And while this assault is but one front in the battle against Western Civilization as a whole, it could prove the most crucial if we lose it.

 

The enemies of marriage, striking at it tooth and nail, are varied in their approaches.

 

Those who advocate homosexual behavior, bolstered by the president’s support for same-sex “marriage,” are actively seeking to redefine marriage from what it always has been to what they demand it should become, which is anything and nothing. And this entails the willingness of many such advocates ” to invoke  the authority of ancient pagan civilizations in which practices condemned by the Judeo-Christian ethic sometimes flourished.”

 

Against all evidence, empirical and otherwise, those who wish to redefine marriage contend that permanently depriving a child of a father or mother is just as good for children as providing them homes with a father and mother. They have elevated the idea of diversity to a point approaching sacrosanct, and in so doing, have trampled the unifying qualities of real marriage underfoot.

 

This assault on marriage is also being carried out by those contending for polygamy. However, the danger of these relationships was recently highlighted by the British Columbia Supreme Court, which ruled Canada’s laws against Polygamy ” must remainin place because of the harm polygamist marriages would pose to children.”

 

Others pursue quasi-polygamy in hopes of escaping such prohibitions. This arrangement is one in which a man has numerous wives, yet he only recognizes one in a state-condoned, official marriage. All his other wives, whom he uses and abuses as he sees fit, are simply regarded as “spiritual spouses.” It’s a play on words, but the damage it causes to families is no less significant.

 

Against these and many other marriage deviations stands the genuine article—the union of one man and one woman. Established in a garden long ago, it is based on the complementariness of the male and female body to produce life and unity between a husband and wife, their offspring, and their Creator. This is marriage without hyphenations and qualifiers, where a mother and a father raise a family in the way mothers and fathers have been raising families since the dawn of time.

 

In other words, the marriage we defend and protect is just that—marriage.

 

Marriage is marriage, and nothing else is. And the future of humanity literally depends on it staying that way.

Alan Sears

Alan Sears, a former federal prosecutor in the Reagan Administration, is president and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance employing a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.

http://townhall.com/columnists/alansears/2012/06/07/marriage_is_marriage__period/page/full/

Canada’s ‘Scientific’ Museum of Smut

In Ottawa, the nation’s capital of Canada, the Museum of Science and Technology has decided to provide school children with answers in a scientific field where “reliable and comprehensive sources of information are rare or little-known.” I don’t know if you’re familiar with it. That field is called “sex.”

As always, society’s experts believe parents either faint at the thought of discussing sex with their children or worse, spread ignorance based on allegedly outdated religious texts. But wait until you hear what the Canadian government’s subsidized version of “science” looks like.

The exhibit is called “Sex: A Tell-All Exhibition.” It is certainly exhibitionist.

Kris Sims of Canada’s Sun News reported: “The exhibit includes floor-to-ceiling photos of nude toddlers, children, teens and adults, and an array of heated, flavored, and textured condoms rolled over wooden dildos. There’s also a ‘climax room’ with a round, low, leather bed, red curtains, a video screen showing animations of aroused genitals, and the voice of a man describing an orgasm.”

This doesn’t sound like it belongs in a museum. It sounds like a seedy porn emporium. Did I mention it was designed to inform “adolescents 12 and older”? (After the word went around about this trash, the museum raised the minimum age to 16. Whew.)

Oh, but don’t worry, Canada. The experts have designed this to be — you guessed it — educational. The museum explains, “The exhibition explains the physiological and psychological manifestations of sexuality from a scientific standpoint, answering young people’s most common concerns in frank but tactful language.”

Uh-oh. What is meant by “frank but tactful”? Sun News explains the children are instructed to write their own words for penis and vagina on a digital screen, while slang terms such as “c —” and “pussy” for female genitalia and “c—” for male body parts are displayed above it in large letters.

If you find that “tactful,” you might be the kind of idiot that feels qualified to run a museum and lecture others that they are not “reliable and comprehensive sources of information.”

“It very quickly became apparent to myself and my wife that this was revolting,” parent Patrick Meagher said. “They were encouraging kids to have multiple partners, have anal sex, and the words they used were inappropriate. This felt like a sexual agenda being pushed.”

That’s putting it mildly. The exhibit includes listening stations with prewritten questions and push-button audio answers. Next to a printed question asking, “Why do many boys always want to have anal sex?” sexologist Jamy Ryan responds that not all boys want to do it, but: “If you are comfortable trying that activity, go ahead and do it. It could be fun for you, but if you are not, you don’t really have to do it.”

Next to a question about pregnancy, the museum recording assures listeners that abortions are available at medical clinics and at 14 years old, you don’t need to tell your parents.

After all, we’ve established that most parents just don’t have the gift of providing “reliable and comprehensive information.” They can be discouraging of anal sex and abortion at 14.

Critics did shrink the base of “comprehensive” information in one part of the exhibit. Students will not see video screens using animations to explain the joy of masturbation. But they are still “scientifically” instructed it is “completely normal” and one of the “pathways of pleasure” that continues into adulthood alongside other “intimate caresses.”

The word “comprehensive” also describes incessant promotion of condoms and other artificial contraceptives. One exhibit insists: “No condom? The answer is no!” Contraceptives are defined as essential health products to prevent bad outcomes … such as pregnancy or as American politicians describe it, being “punished with a baby.” Who is giving the editorial guidelines here in Ottawa? Obama?

The Montreal Science Centre, the creator of the exhibition, developed a teacher’s guide, which includes in-class activities for before and after student arousal — I mean, the field trip. “Teachers are invited to involve students in a quiz-game either during their visit or back in the classroom.” Can you imagine what kind of trouble a teacher would invite by bringing this explicit “climax room” concept into the schools?

On national television, the Canadian anchormen and liberal members of Parliament had no patience for the museum’s critics. “Clearly, it is science,” interjected one “news” host. “It’s called biology,” sneered one haughty politician.

This is another manifestation of that disease Jonah Goldberg has diagnosed in his book “The Tyranny of Cliches.” Like other leftists, cultural leftists think their ideological promotions — have sex; have it now; have it often; have it at 14; and have it with a condom — can be defined as objective “biology,” not a sexual-revolution ideology.

Sodom, meet Gomorrah.

Brent Bozell

Founder and President of the Media Research Center, Brent Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America.

http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2012/05/25/l_brent_bozell_iii/page/full/

Days of Heaven Upon Earth A Year Book of Scripture Texts and Living Truths

Author: A.B. Simpson 1843 – 1919

Albert Benjamin Simpson was a Canadian preacher, theologian, author, and founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA), an evangelical protestant denomination with an emphasis on global evangelism.

In December 1873, at age 30, Simpson left Canada and assumed the pulpit of the largest Presbyterian church in Louisville, Kentucky, the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church. It was in Louisville that he first conceived of preaching the gospel to the common man by building a simple tabernacle structure for that purpose. Despite his success at the Chestnut Street Church, Simpson was frustrated by their reluctance to embrace this burden for wider evangelistic endeavor.

Simpson’s heart for evangelism was to become the driving force behind the creation of the C&MA. Initially, the Christian and Missionary Alliance was not founded as a denomination, but as an organized movement of world evangelism. Today, the C&MA denomination plays a leadership role in global evangelism.

http://devotionals.ochristian.com/

Answering Planned Parenthood’s Grand Deception

Although popular opinion has been turning steadily against Planned Parenthood and their allies over the course of the last 20 years, the culture of death continues to seek and proselytize new adherents in pervasive and destructive ways. With their success, human life has been cheapened to such a degree that news stories about sex and death which our grandparents would have found heinous, don’t even make us blink today.

For example, in April 2005, a 19-year-old teenager in Canada became pregnant. She hid the pregnancy from her parents and secretly gave birth to a son in her parents’ basement. Immediately thereafter, she strangled the child to death so he wouldn’t make any noise. She then went outside and threw the body over the fence, where it was later discovered.

In that same year, a 16-year-old Michigan boy repeatedly hit his pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend in the stomach with a small baseball bat in hopes of killing their baby: he succeeded. Eric Smith, the county prosecutor in the county where the crime happened, said, “The length at which these two 16-year-olds went to abort this unborn child is disturbing.”

Of course, what’s profoundly troubling is that representatives of the culture of death were more disturbed the abortion was done externally with a bat instead of internally via Planned Parenthood scalpels and vacuum devices. As Lori Lamerand, president and CEO at Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan put it, “It’s always tragic when people resort to such drastic measures, when there are appropriate, safe medical measures available.”

The actions of the Canadian mother and the Michigan couple demand more than sorrow over how they killed their children. They demand sorrow over the fact that death was even viewed as solution by these young parents to begin with. Yet Planned Parenthood and its fellow travelers encourage our youth to view fetal death as a good “option” via web-based propaganda outlets like Teenwire.org and the texting campaign Planned Parenthood has undertaken to reach out to children as young as 14. Or, as one Planned Parenthood affiliate did, launching a “Tell a Friend” marketing program that offered free movie tickets and a chance to win an I-Pod as a reward for teenagers referring friends to Planned Parenthood for their “services.”

At Planned Parenthood’s Teenwire.org, the assumption is that young mothers will choose abortion. So, after a little lip service to those who “think [they] might continue the pregnancy,” the tone on the site quickly switches to, “If you’re considering abortion, you should make a decision as soon as possible. Abortion is very safe, but the risks increase the longer a pregnancy goes on.”

In that one sentence, vulnerable, young women, desperate for truth and open to the power of suggestion, are essentially told carrying a live child is risky but “abortion is safe” without any caveats or stipulations. No mention is made of the ties between abortion and breast cancer or abortion and depression, nor is mention made of the lifelong torment of post-abortive women after it’s way too late.

There is no excuse for taking a human life in cold blood, but there must be sympathy for teenagers in crisis who find themselves thoroughly seduced by the Planned Parenthood mantra—the mantra that the only value humans possess is the value other humans place on them, not the intrinsic value they have as a human person.

We must remain relentless in our fight against Planned Parenthood and its grand deception on the one hand, yet compassionate in outreach to those whom Planned Parenthood has misled on the other. The lives that need to be protected from these abortion profiteers are both inside and outside the womb.

 

 

 

Tags: A Culture of Life , Abortion , Planned Parenthood , Abortion Business

 

Alan Sears

 

Alan Sears, a former federal prosecutor in the Reagan Administration, is president and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance employing a unique combination of strategy, training, funding, and litigation to protect and preserve religious liberty, the sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.

http://townhall.com/columnists/alansears/2012/02/27/answering_planned_parenthoods_grand_deception/page/full/