Taking a Stand

Blackballed: the NFL’s Borking of Tim Tebow: "The Jets were a mess this year and if Tim Tebow was on another team’s roster, [Coach] Sanchez would have been replaced.... Sanchez was tolerated only because Tebow was despised. Tim Tebow is ... loved by many, hated by the establishment and constantly disrespected for nothing other than virtue....

      "Tim Tebow led the Broncos past the Pittsburgh Steelers just over a year ago.... The only place that Tebow hasn’t succeeded is in New York, where he couldn’t get off the bench. ... Whatever Tebow had been promised got shelved and the dissension on this team stood out as an aberration from Tim’s previous teams and team-mates. ...

      "Tebow will not change. He will succeed in whatever endeavor he pursues, for he has already carved out the right priorities: God first, others second, self last." See Why They Love - or Hate - Tim Tebow

Dr. Benjamin Carson's Amazing Speech at the National Prayer Breakfast with Obama!  Don't miss Dr. Carson's much-needed message!

Will the Boy Scouts stand up to bullies?  "For decades, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have heroically withstood attacks from homosexual activists. Now, officials from the organization have indicated that this may be about to change. The BSA says that it is 'discussing potentially removing the national membership restriction regarding sexual orientation."

      "'Be prepared.' The motto of the venerable organization that has helped develop countless boys into men, preparedness is not only an aspiration, but a descriptor. ... Please call the Boy Scouts of America at 972-580-2000 and tell them that you want to see the organization stand firm in its moral values and respect the right of parents to discuss these sexual topics with their children." See Don't conform to the ways of the world 

September 2012

Depending on Dependency [Sowell]: "When an empirical study of the actual behavior of American conservatives and liberals was published in 2006, it turned out that conservatives donated... a higher percentage of their incomes (which were slightly lower than liberal incomes) to philanthropic activities.... It was just assumed, for centuries, that the left was more compassionate....It was just assumed, for centuries, that the left was more compassionate.

      "Ronald Reagan donated a higher percentage of his income to charitable activities than did either Franklin D. Roosevelt or Ted Kennedy. Being willing to donate the taxpayers' money is not the same as being willing to put your own money where your mouth is.... Milton Friedman pointed out that the heyday of free market capitalism in the 19th century was a period of an unprecedented rise in philanthropic activity."

Nebraska football coach: I’d rather be fired than retract homosexuality remarks: "University of Nebraska’s assistant football coach, Ron Brown, who is facing censure and calls for his dismissal for publicly expressing his biblically-based views against the homosexual lifestyle, has stated that he’d rather be fired than retract his comments....

      "His remarks sparked outrage among homosexual advocates and resulted in Barbara Baier of the Lincoln Board of Education issuing a written demand to the University of Nebraska administration calling for Brown to be sacked.

      "Brown responded, 'To be fired for my faith would be a greater honor than to be fired because we didn’t win enough games'...'I have simply said that based on the Bible, homosexuality, the lifestyle of homosexuality, is a sin."

March 2012

January 2012

Victory for Freedom of Conscience in Ward v. Polite: "Julea Ward was a student in the counseling program at Eastern Michigan University who was expelled from the program after she asked permission to refer a gay client to another counselor. Ms. Ward, citing her Christian beliefs, was willing to counsel the client but not to 'affirm' his homosexual behavior." See Don't conform to the ways of the world

Backlash Begins Against Obama’s LGBT agenda: "The citizens of several countries are pushing back against President Obama’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender foreign policy imperative. Leaders in El Salvador launched a website on 'Obama’s Corrupting Foreign Policy' and are asking the U.S. Senate to reject Obama's nominee for ambassador to their country. President Obama announced in December that the promotion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) behavior is a top foreign policy priority, even for the U.S. military oversees."

 

Thousands of Chaplains Refusing Pentagon Directive: "On September 30, 2011, the Pentagon issued a directive to all military chaplains to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies and to make military chapels available for any such private ceremonies. ...members of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty have issued a statement indicating that they will also not participate in performing same-sex ceremonies.'” See God's Warnings for our Times

November 2011

Video: Hidden America: Living in Cars, Tents and Cheap Motels: '"...the homeless shelters are full. Where do they go then? They try to keep up appearances by day and try to stay out of sight at night – holding on to one another in a hidden America, a place you wouldn’t notice.... people are running out of resources. The unemployment runs out. Their savings run out. The family that lent them money does not have it anymore because they are looking at economic hardship. And, before you know it, they find themselves living in their car because they just ran out of all options.....

     "If and when hard times befall us – and there’s a strong possibility they will – and the seemingly uncontrollable feelings of helplessness and failure take hold, we can only hope to have the strength, optimism and realistic perspective of the 15 year old girl featured.... It’s not really that much of an embarrassment. It’s only life. You do what you need to do, right?"

July 2011

New NIV “was written, it seems, by cowards for cowards” says Voice of the Martyrs Director: "'One current example of this dangerous numbing down of the Christian faith is the 2011 NIV Bible.... In Job, Amos, Psalms, Isaiah and Jeremiah, the translators have removed all 16 references to our greatest motive for evangelizing–-the 'shadow of death'–and replaced the phrase with 'darkness.' ... 'The words ‘shadow of death’ in the Old Testament are from the Hebrew word ’Tsalmaveth,’ which literally means the ‘grave’ or figuratively, ‘calamity.’" See God's eternal, unchanging Word

The Face of Pakistan's Courage: "On Jan. 4, Salmaan Taseer, the liberal-minded governor of the Pakistani province Punjab, was shot 27 times at point-blank range by his bodyguard, an Islamic fanatic named Mumtaz Qadri....Qadri...was showered with rose petals on his way to court....Tens of thousands of Islamists took to the streets...to oppose any changes to the blasphemy law. [Meanwhile, Asia Bibi, a faithful Christian woman who talked to some women about Jesus] remains in prison....

     "The U.S. has given Islamabad billions in military and civilian aid....It does not seem to have produced a better or less fanatical country. Then again, it's worth bearing in mind that 'these people' also include the late Taseer and his no-less-remarkable daughter....'In Pakistan," says Ms. Taseer, "if you believe in something, you have to be willing to die for it." She's 22 years old."

 

A Door in the Darkness: "But it was not the bad food and the lack of sanitation [in the Russian prison] that bothered me the most. It was the conduct of the prisoners themselves. Nothing was too vile or evil for them. Their language, their attitudes, and their actions were extremely difficult to bear. We were all crowded together—murderers, thieves, arsonists, and political prisoners. The toughest of the bunch were always out to assert themselves and bring the rest of us under their thumbs." See The School of Joyful Endurance

The Armor of God: Beginning with TRUTH: "Truth is the first piece of God's armor, the part that holds everything else together. I can go no further until I have 'put on' Truth through Spirit-given knowledge of His Word. His Truth is my protection in every challenge ahead."

"...be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers...against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:10-12

May 2011

The School of Suffering: "Pain...teaches us many things we never could have known, if we had not been called to endure it. It opens windows through which we see, as we never saw before -- the beautiful things of God's love."

"... we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God..." 2 Cor. 1:8-9

Hearts Aflame: A beautiful picture and message from a faithful servant of God, who travels throughout Asia and Africa with the message of God's redeeming love.

December 2010

Officer won't sign order for troop indoctrination: "President Obama's repeal of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy is already damaging the U.S. military. An Army lieutenant colonel has asked to be relieved of command rather than order his troops to go through pro-homosexual indoctrination following the repeal of the policy, which required homosexuals to keep silent about their sexual preference. Currently the commander of a battalion-sized unit in the Army National Guard, the officer also has threatened to resign his commission rather than undergo 'behavior modification' training intended to counter his religious convictions about homosexuality." See Don't conform to the ways of the world

What Are We Thinking About? "Some things in the Bible come in pairs. One statement helps us avoid the ditch on one side of the road, and the other statement helps us avoid the ditch on the opposite side. When it comes to what we think about, we need to understand both sets of principles. On the one hand, we need to have enough understanding of evil to be able to deal with it. On the other hand, we need to focus on good things—not bad ones."

November 2010

The Watchman: "Some one, then, must undertake the ungracious task of probing and laying bare the evils of the age; for men must not be allowed to congratulate themselves that all is well. If others will not, he will. If others shrink from such a work, he will not.... He loves his fellow-men too well. ... He will prefer being thus misunderstood and maligned, to allowing men to precipitate themselves upon a ruin which they see not. ... The evils around him press upon him sadly; the coming evils are foreshadowed upon his spirit, and, therefore, he lifts up his voice like a trumpet." See Opening Prayer

September 2010

Librarian May Lose Job for Stopping Child from Viewing Porn in Salinas Public Library: "A librarian in the Salinas Public Library may lose her job for stopping a 10 year old boy from viewing pornography on the library's unfiltered computers.... [Her superior, the] library director Elizabeth Martinez said patrons have right to information and the filters would block out more than just the bad stuff.... [But] filters have advanced so much even the ACLU now argues filters are 95% effective and no longer block health-related information. The library director's not mentioning this is another way she is misleading the community." See Opening Prayer, Kansas State Senate

Blessings in Disguise: "When discussing the problem of loving difficult people, [Charles Spurgeon] said, 'So much the more room for the heroism of love. Wouldst thou be a feather-bed warrior, instead of bearing the rough fight of love? He who dares the most, shall win the most; and if rough be thy path of love, tread it boldly, still loving thy neighbours through thick and thin.'

     "Such trials enable us (by God’s grace) to develop character qualities which will bear good fruit for eternity. If we can get a vision for the valuable end results, then we will be able to see each trial as being helpful. That will enable us to 'count it all joy” — to consider it something to be grateful for, rather than a problem to endure."

"In joy or pain, our course is onward still": [Burma in "But new battles were brewing. The Burmese king feared foreigners and had little tolerance for Christian missionaries. Accused of being a British spy, Judson was thrown in prison -- a crowded, sweltering, windowless 'death camp.' The floor was covered with human waste, and their food consisted of maggot-infested animals (including decaying rats) hardly fit for humans. To prevent night-time escapes, the guards would sometimes chain the prisoners to a rack and elevate their feet, resting their heads and shoulders in the rat-infested sewage below. The pain, heat and stench was nearly unbearable.

      "Yet, those deadly seventeen months didn't stop Judson's from working on translations. He kept his notes hidden in a hard, dirty pillow and pulled them out whenever possible. Ann, weak and sick herself, would befriend the guards and try to bring more edible food. They didn't know that she also brought the needed pens and paper."

March 2010