A national defense analyst says President Bush should be commended for keeping quiet about a discovery that could have blown his critics out of the water.
Now that’s news! Read the full story.
Tags: Army, defense analyst, peace, Politics, President George W. Bush, Republican Party, uranium, war
O how the world to evil allures me!
O how my heart is tempted to sin!
I must tell Jesus, and He will help me
Over the world the vict’ry to win.
- Elisha A. Hoffman, “I Must Tell Jesus,” verse 3
A few months ago, during a worship service, I was playing “I Must Tell Jesus” and singing it with the congregation. Now, I have sung and played this song many, many times before - many tens if not hundreds of times - but this time, those words from the third verse stood out. Sometimes it seems to me, especially with hymns, that the words are wonderful and spiritual, but lack reality. Like when we sing hymns about raising hands in celebration in a very conservative church with no one raising any hands. Or when we sing about giving up everything for the cause of Christ, knowing full well that few if any of us will ever make such a sacrifice. Not this time… those words fit me exactly at that moment. My eyes actually teared up as I was playing, which seldom happens. It was a moment from God, a reminder that only through Him can I ever hope to find victory over my temptations. I praise God that He brought those words to me when I needed them most and, most of all, that He will give me the strength to stand up against my selfish addictions. Praise the Lord!
Tags: celebration, Christ, church, Elisha A. Hoffman, god, heart, hymns, Jesus, sacrifice, sin, strength, temptations, victory, worship, worship service
My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (NIV)
Tags: bible, faith, god and man, love, niv, prosperity, proverbs, scripture, trust in the lord, trust in the lord with all your heart
In a small Texas town, (Mt. Vernon) Drummond’s bar began construction on a new building to increase their business. The local Baptist church started a campaign to block the bar from opening with petitions and prayers. Work progressed right up till the week before opening when lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground.
The church folks were rather smug in their outlook after that, until the bar owner sued the church on the grounds that the church was ultimately responsible for the demise of his building, either through direct or indirect actions or means. The church vehemently denied all responsibility or any connection to the building’s demise in its reply to the court.
As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork. At the hearing he commented, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to decide this, but as it appears from the paperwork, we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer, and an entire church congregation that does not.’
As far as I know, that’s just a great illustration, with no truth behind it. Thanks, Alex, for brightening my day!
Tags: church, fun, humor, power of God, prayer
Yahoo! recently released a “Sneak Peak” of BrowserPlus, “a technology for web browsers that allows developers to create rich web applications with desktop capabilities.” Perhaps “released” isn’t the right word - Yahoo! is providing the documentation along with a number of demos that utilize the technology, but they are not opening the technology for use by developers yet. BrowserPlus has promise and is a technology I will definitely be following.
Tags: Javascript, yahoo
Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. Proverbs 10:4
Tags: bible, prosperity, wealth
ACTOR HEATH LEDGER FOUND DEAD IN NEW YORK CITY
Those were the words that flashed in the corner of my computer screen at a few minutes after 5 pm Tuesday afternoon. I was working on a project for a client and had Outlook running when a FoxNews.com update arrived in my email Inbox. The message stopped me cold. It is amazing how quickly thoughts can come and yet how slow they can feel. I read the first word and thought, “that’s sad - an actor died. I wonder if it’s someone I know of?” Then I saw the name and my heart stopped. “He’s, like, my age,” I thought. I absentmindedly stopped the clock on my project and went first to IMDB to confirm his birthdate (he was actually 2 years older than I) and then to FoxNews.com to learn more. At that point, not much was known. As I write this, FoxNews.com has much more information than it did at that time and IMDB has this statement on its home page:
Actor Heath Ledger was found dead at a Manhattan apartment Tuesday afternoon in what appeared to be a possible drug-related death; he was 28.
I’ll come back to that in a moment.
I can’t explain why this has bothered me so much. People younger than I die every day and, while it saddens me, it doesn’t affect me like this. I wouldn’t call myself a Heath Ledger fan, although he was a good actor and I enjoyed a few of his movies. Perhaps it was just that initial shock of thinking the news update was referring to an elderly actor and then discovering it was a young actor. Or, perhaps, it was the fact that the headline made it sound like he was found on the streets of New York, the victim of a crime. In reality, it is unknown at this point if he died of an accidental overdose of sleeping medication, committed suicide, or died some other way.
That brings me back to the IMDB quote above… Immediately, IMDB casts a negative overtone over his death. Can those who are mourning not do so in peace? Must they immediately be made to put up with people suggesting he had a drug problem? That is what IMDB is suggesting, although they are being careful not to say it. That may be correct, but I’m sick of this stuff they pull.
Regarding perspective… (maybe this is what is bothering me) I was thinking this afternoon about where I might be in 2 years. This news gives me a new perspective on that. It makes me, more than ever, want to live my life to the fullest today and not put that off until tomorrow. None of us knows what will have happened by then.
Regarding my absence from posting to my blog: well, I’ve been busy.
Tags: accidental overdose, actors, death, Entertainment, heath ledger, new york city, young actor