Snowflakes That Stay On My Nose and Eyelashes

Well, these snowflakes didn't really stay very long, but it was beautiful while it lasted!

Under Pro-Death Leadership

I have found that John Piper's blog expresses much of what I am feeling today.


Desiring God Blog
Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President
Posted: 20 Jan 2009 01:08 AM CST
(Author: John Piper)


That is the title of a sermon I preached January 17, 1993, three days before Bill Clinton was inaugurated president. It is just as relevant—or more—today.

The text was 1 Peter 2:17, "Honor the king." I closed with eight ways to honor a pro-choice president. The seventh was this:

• We will honor you by expecting from you straightforward answers to straightforward questions. We would not expect this from a con-man, but we do expect it from an honorable man.

For example,

• Are you willing to explain why a baby's right not to be killed is less important than a woman's right not to be pregnant?
  
• Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?
  
• Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?
  
• And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the "Freedom of Choice Act" by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?
  

Perhaps you have good answers to each of these questions. We will honor you by expecting you to defend your position forthrightly in the public eye.

You have immense power as President of the United States. To wield it against the protection of the unborn without giving a public accounting in view of moral and scientific reality would be dishonorable. We will honor you by expecting better.

This is What America Voted For

Openly Homosexual Anglican Bishop to Kick Off Obama Inaugural Weekend
By Kathleen Gilbert

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 12, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com)

Following the row that erupted after pro-marriage and pro-life Saddleback pastor Rick Warren was picked to preside over the main inauguration event, Obama has selected the Episcopal Church's only openly homosexual bishop to give the main invocation at a Sunday event celebrating Obama's inauguration, to be held two days later.

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, a central figure in the homosexual clergy controversy that has rocked the worldwide Anglican communion, will deliver his invocation on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.


"I'm just overwhelmed and so humbled by this invitation," said Robinson, who entered into a legal civil union with his long-time partner Mark Andrews in June.


Joe Solmonese, president of the homosexual activist group the Human Rights Campaign, said Robinson's selection was "encouraging."


"Bishop Robinson models what prayer should be - spiritual reflection put into action for justice," he said.


Robinson said his prayer would focus on inclusiveness. "It will certainly be a message that everyone in the nation can identify with. And part of the prayer will be for President Obama but also I am going to include words of prayer for the nation and what I think we are called upon to do," he said.

Mr. Obama felt the ire of homosexual activists and social liberals on the whole last month after inviting Rick Warren to deliver the main invocation at the presidential inauguration on January 20. Warren is widely known for proclaiming Christian teaching on marriage and family, which has frequently earned him the brand "anti-gay."

Robinson and his associates denied that Obama picked the bishop to help soothe anger from gay lobbyists; rather, the pick reflects Obama's longtime friendship with the bishop.
Obama sought out Robinson on several occasions during the presidential race. During one such meeting, the two shared thoughts on being "first" of their kind.


Speaking of Obama, Robinson said in a Times interview last November: "The thing that I liked about him and what he said on this issue is that he and I would agree about the rightful place of religion vis-a-vis the secular state.


"That is to say, we don't impose our religious values on the secular state because God said so. Our faith informs our own values and then we take those values into the civil market place, the civil discourse, and then you argue for them based on the constitution."


I read this article on SermonAudio and was disgusted, to say the least. In case any of you were wondering, I am totally and absolutely against homosexuality in any way, shape, form, or fashion. Not because of personal preference, but because God in His Word (in both the Old and New Testaments) calls it a sin. Not only is this Episcopal bishop an open homosexual, but he is a bit mixed up on how and from where his faith and values should be argued from. He says that "you argue for them based on the constitution." What? Argue Christianity from the U.S. Constitution? No. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17) This is the Christian standard--the inspired, infallible Word of God. Don't misunderstand me. I am for the Constitution because in it (if interpreted correctly) I am given the freedom to worship and love God and His Son in this country without restraint. But the Constitution is not sacred, nor infallible. Bishop Robinson also denies that President-elect Obama made this choice to appease gay activists after they threw a fit about his choice of Rick Warren to preside over the main inauguration event; the decision was made because Robinson and Obama are friends. Somehow, I just can't believe this is true. It seems to me that Obama has buckled under pressure; however, I openly admit that I might be wrong.

I know that God is sovereign even over who is elected President of this country, but I can't help but say, "Here you are, America. This is what you voted for." May God have continued mercy on this seemingly God-less nation and Presidential administration.

Wit and Wisdom from Mr. Darcy

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony, in a moment."

"The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance."

"Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

"I cannot be so easily reconciled to myself. The recollection of what I then said, of my conduct, my manners, my expressions during the whole of it, is now, and has been many months, inexpressibly painful to me. Your reproof, so well applied, I shall never forget: 'had you behaved in a more gentlemanlike manner.' Those were your words. You know not, you can scarcely conceive, how they have tortured me;— though it was some time, I confess, before I was reasonable enough to allow their justice."

"I cannot give you credit for any philosophy of the kind. Your retrospections must be so totally void of reproach, that the contentment arising from them is not of philosophy, but, what is much better, of innocence. But with me, it is not so. Painful recollections will intrude which cannot, which ought not, to be repelled. I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. As a child I was taught what was right, but I was not taught to correct my temper. I was given good principles, but left to follow them in pride and conceit. Unfortunately an only son (for many years an only child), I was spoilt by my parents, who, though good themselves (my father, particularly, all that was benevolent and amiable), allowed, encouraged, almost taught me to be selfish and overbearing; to care for none beyond my own family circle; to think meanly of all the rest of the world; to wish at least to think meanly of their sense and worth compared with my own. Such I was, from eight to eight and twenty; and such I might still have been but for you, dearest, loveliest Elizabeth! What do I not owe you! You taught me a lesson, hard indeed at first, but most advantageous. By you, I was properly humbled. I came to you without a doubt of my reception. You showed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a woman worthy of being pleased."

The Holy Shores of Uncreated Light

In reading through Psalms in this new year, I read something a few days ago in Psalm 6 that has been on my mind ever since. In this particular psalm, David is pleading with God to deliver him from defeat in the face of his enemies. In verses 4-5 he says, "Return, O LORD, deliver me! Oh, save me for your mercies' sake! For in death there is no remembrance of You; In the grave, who will give You thanks?" This verse strikes me. I think that David is asking for God to spare his life because he is a little uncertain of what will happen to him after death. David didn't have the privilege of the New Testament, which reveals the glory that awaits God's people when they die. I would love to have seen the look on David's face when he passed from this world to the next...as he stood and beheld the face of the living God...as his senses were inflamed with the glory of heaven. There is after all remembrance of God in the grave, because for God's people, the grave is not the end. It is only the beginning. I am so glad that this life in this world is not going to be the end for me. I am in a far country, traveling to another far country--the home where I was made to go. It is the same far country that Abraham, Moses, David, all the prophets and all the apostles have already reached by faith in Jesus Christ. By faith, I will reach heaven. And when I die,

You can lay me anywhere,

But just remember this:

When you lay me down to die,

You lay me down to live.

(Lay Me Down by Andrew Peterson)

Mystery of Mercy

I love this amazing song by Andrew Peterson.

I am the woman at the well, I am the harlot
I am the scattered seed that fell among the path
I am the son who ran away
I am the bitter son who stayed

My God, my God,
Why hast Thou accepted me
You took my sin and wrapped my in
Your robe and Your ring
My God, my God
Why hast Thou accepted me
It's a mystery of mercy
And the song I sing

I am the angry men who came to stone the lover
I am the woman there ashamed before the crowd
I am the leper who gave thanks
I am the nine who never came

My God, my God,
Why hast Thou accepted me
You took my sin and wrapped my in
Your robe and Your ring
My God, my God
Why hast Thou accepted me
It's a mystery of mercy
And the song I sing

You are the bringer of the moon and all the seasons
You are the singer of the tune that calls the stars

My God, my God
Why hast thou accepted me
You took my sin and wrapped me in
Your robe and your ring
My God, my God
Why hast thou accepted me
When all my love was vinegar
To a thirsty king
My God, my God
Why hast thou accepted me
It’s a mystery of mercy
And the song I sing