Random Thoughts

I listened to this sermon on Sunday, due to the fact that Church was cancelled due to the weather. It really enforced the need to read the Old Testament to get a better understanding of the New Testament. Many Christians focus almost entirely on the New Testament and you can miss out on so much if you fall into this trap.

Acts 11:19-21 (English Standard Version)

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Church in Antioch

¹⁹Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. ²⁰But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists^[a] also, preaching the Lord Jesus. ²¹And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.

You can find the sermon here. It is by Rev. Mark Gibson of Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Beaumont, TX.

Without the OT you can really miss out on how important the phrase "the hand of LORD" is and how often it is used throughout scripture. If you have the time I recommend you check it out.

Well, Maryland and Delaware both got more snow than they can take. The roads were horrible yesterday, it took me well over an hour to get home. I had to stop twice, once just to clean off the ice on my wiper blades. The second time was to push the sand bags in the back up my pickup truck over the back wheels since the back end kept losing traction.

Nice thing was that a plow had been through our lot once (could have used more, but I'll take what I can get). So while I'm parked far from my building, I'm not stuck in a foot of snow like most people.

They've been plowing the main routes, so hopefully there won't be problems tomorrow. Unfortunately, Church services are cancelled for both morning and evening. I'll try to find something good on SermonAudio.com. At least I don't need to run to BlockBuster to return my DVD since they don't have real late fees anymore.

As a former Illinois resident this really annoyed me. Things like this seem to be going on nearly everywhere now.

Isn't great when those who "promote tolerance" quote scripture to serve their point. Seems the Bible is just great when it's convienent to "use" against Christians, just reminds me that even Satan could quote from God's word.

From World Net Daily

Illinois churches are protesting a new state law that bars them from "discriminating" against homosexuals, contending it robs Christians of their First Amendment freedoms.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) signed the bill into law yesterday amid a demonstration led by the Illinois Family Institute, or IFI, a non-profit group affiliated with Focus on the Family, Family Research Council and Alliance Defense Fund.

The measure adds "sexual orientation" to the state law that bars discrimination based on race, religion and similar traits in areas such as jobs and housing.

The bill was signed to loud cheers and a standing ovation from about 150 homosexual-rights supporters who see it as a human-rights issue.

"This legislation sends a clear message that we will not allow our citizens to be discriminated against," Blagojevich said in a statement.

"What we're doing today is older than scripture: Love thy neighbor," the governor told the audience yesterday, according to the Associated Press. "It's what Jesus said when he gave his Sermon on the Mount: 'Do unto others what you would have others do unto you."' (more)

Do unto others? If I was stuck in a sinful lifestyle I would want someone to tell me and help me get out! Hey Gov. Rod -- Christians are standing up for what is right because we LOVE them -- you have it the wrong way around!

I hope the ADF or their allies can stop this law from be enforced agains Churches.

Well, I did remember to wear my button today. I got to listen to the oath of office and then found out that C-Span was live streaming the video and got to watch Bush's speech. Of course it's always hard to listen to everything especially with the background noise, so you may want to read it. It was good overall and not very long.

So I've posted the text below (from the Federal News Service)

Vice President Cheney, Mr. Chief Justice, President Carter, President Bush, President Clinton, members of the United States Congress, reverend, clergy, distinguished guests, fellow citizens -- (applause) -- on this day prescribed by law and marked by ceremony, we celebrate the durable wisdom of our Constitution and recall the deep commitments that unite our country. I am grateful for the honor of this hour, mindful of the consequential times in which we live, and determined to fulfill the oath that I have sworn and you have witnessed.

At this second gathering, our duties are defined not by the words I use, but by the history we have seen together. For a half a century, America defended our own freedom by standing watch on distant borders. After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical. And then there came a day of fire.

We have seen our vulnerability, and we have seen its deepest source. For as long as whole regions of the world simmer in resentment and tyranny, prone to ideologies that feed hatred and excuse murder, violence will gather and multiply in destructive power and cross the most defended borders and raise a mortal threat. There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom. (Cheers, applause.)

We are led by events and common sense to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. (Applause.) The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. (Cheers, applause.)

America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one. From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights and dignity and matchless value because they bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth. (Cheers, applause.) Across the generations, we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government because no one is fit to be a master and no one deserves to be a slave. (Applause.)

Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers. Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security and the calling of our time. So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world. (Applause.)

This is not primarily the task of arms, though we will defend ourselves and our friends by force of arms when necessary. Freedom by its nature must be chosen and defended by citizens and sustained by the rule of law and the protection of minorities. And when the soul of a nation finally speaks, the institutions that arise may reflect customs and traditions very different from our own.

America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal, instead, is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.

The great objective of ending tyranny is the concentrated work of generations. The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it. (Cheers, applause.) America's influence is not unlimited, but fortunately for the oppressed, America's influence is considerable and we will use it confidently in freedom's cause. (Cheers, applause.)

My most solemn duty is to protect this nation and its people from further attacks and emerging threats. Some have unwisely chosen to test America's resolve and have found it firm. (Cheers, applause.)

We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation, the moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right. (Cheers, applause.)

America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies. We will encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people. (Applause.)

America's belief in human dignity will guide our policies. Yet rights must be more than the grudging concessions of dictators. They are secured by free dissent and the participation of the governed. In the long run, there is no justice without freedom and there can be no human rights without human liberty. (Cheers, applause.)

Some I know have questioned the global appeal of liberty, though this time in history -- four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen -- is an odd time for doubt.

Americans, of all people, should never be surprised by the power of our ideals.

Eventually the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery. (Applause.) Liberty will come to those who love it.

Today America speaks anew to the peoples of the world. All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty we will stand with you. (Applause.)

Democratic reformers facing repression, prison or exile can know: America sees you for who you are, the future leaders of your free country. The rulers of outlaw regimes can know that we still believe, as Abraham Lincoln did, those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under the rule of a just God cannot long retain it.

The leaders of governments with long habits of control need to know to serve your people, you must learn to trust them. Start on this journey of progress and justice, and America will walk at your side. (Applause.)

And all the allies of the United States can know we honor your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help. Division among free nations is a primary goal of freedom's enemies. The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat.

Today I also speak anew to my fellow citizens. From all of you I have asked patience in the hard task of securing America, which you have granted in good measure. Our country has accepted obligations that are difficult to fulfill and would be dishonorable to abandon. Yet, because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. (Cheers, applause.) And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it. By our efforts we have lit a fire as well, a fire in the minds of men. It warms those who feel its power; it burns those who fight its progress. And one day this untamed fire of freedom will reach the darkest corners of our world. (Cheers, applause.)

A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause -- in the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy, the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments, the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies.

Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives, and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice. (Applause.)

All Americans have witnessed this idealism, and some for the first time. I ask our youngest citizens to believe the evidence of your eyes. You have seen duty and allegiance in the determined faces of our soldiers. You have seen that life is fragile and evil is real and courage triumphs. Make the choice to serve in a cause larger than your wants, larger than yourself, and in your days you will add not just to the wealth of our country, but to its character. (Cheers, applause.)

America has need of idealism and courage because we have essential work at home.

In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.

In America's ideal of freedom, citizens find the dignity and security of economic independence instead of laboring on the edge of subsistence. This is the broader definition of liberty that motivated the Homestead Act, the Social Security Act and the GI Bill of Rights. And now we will extend this vision by reforming great institutions to serve the needs of our time.

To give every American a stake in the promise and future of our country, we will bring the highest standards to our schools and build an ownership society. (Applause.) We will widen the ownership of homes and businesses, retirement savings and health insurance, preparing our people for the challenges of life in a free society.

By making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny we will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear and make our society more prosperous and just and equal. (Applause.)

In America's ideal of freedom, the public interest depends on private character, on integrity and tolerance toward others and the rule of conscience in our own lives.

Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self. That edifice of character is built in families, supported by communities with standards, and sustained in our nation life by the truths of Sinai, the sermon on the mount, the words of the Koran, and the varied faiths of our people. Americans move forward in every generation by reaffirming all that is good and true that came before, ideals of justice and conduct that are the same yesterday, today and forever. (Cheers, applause.)

In America's ideal of freedom, the exercise of rights is ennobled by service and mercy and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. (Cheers, applause.)

And our country must abandon all the habits of racism because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time. (Cheers, applause.)

From the perspective of a single day, including this day of dedication, the issues and questions before our country are many. From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom, and did our character bring credit to that cause?

These questions that judge us also unite us because Americans of every party and background, Americans, by choice and by birth, are bound to one another in the cause of freedom.

We have known divisions, which must be healed to move forward in great purposes. And I will strive in good faith to heal them. Yet those divisions do not define America. We felt the unity and fellowship of our nation when freedom came under attack and our response came like a single hand over a single heart. And we can feel that same unity and pride whenever America acts for good and the victims of disaster are given hope, and the unjust encounter justice, and the captives are set free. (Cheers, applause.)

We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom, not because history runs on the wheels of inevitability; it is human choices that move events. Not because we consider ourselves a chosen nation; God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul.

When our Founders declared a new order of the ages, when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty, when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now," they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled.

History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction set by liberty and the author of liberty. (Cheers, applause.)

When the Declaration of Independence was first read in public and the Liberty Bell was sounded in celebration, a witness said it rang as if it meant something. In our time, it means something still. America, in this young century, proclaims liberty throughout all the world and to all the inhabitants thereof. (Cheers, applause.) Renewed in our strength, tested but not weary, we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom. (Cheers, applause.)

May God bless you, and may he watch over the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)

Ugh I haven't posted anything in a Week! That's too long -- I've gotten very busy with work lately and it doesn't look like it will let up any time soon. So I guess I better get used to it.

I haven't posted anything political in a while either, maybe I was just fatigued from the election. In any case the Inauguration is only hours away. I'll be at work, but I'll listen to the radio if possible. I actually got an Inauguration 2005 button when I was in DC before Christmas, if I remember I'll wear it tomorrow -- I'm sure all the liberal professors will enjoy it.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer
By Larry Eichel
Inquirer Staff Writer

A Philadelphia criminal case is getting considerable national attention. And it's not about political corruption.

Four members of a local Christian group, Repent America, are facing felony charges in connection with their behavior in the fall during the gay and lesbian community's annual Outfest celebration in Center City.

For allegedly trying to disrupt the event with their bullhorn-amplified, Scripture-based denunciations of homosexuality, they have been accused of criminal conspiracy, incitement to riot, and violating the state's law against hate crimes.

Several conservative Christian groups, including the American Family Association and Concerned Women for America, say the "Philadelphia Four" are being prosecuted solely for voicing their religious beliefs.

For more click here

As promised, here is a picture from my cousin Vicki's wedding last Saturday in Oklahoma

Well I'm finally back at work. I went to my cousin Vicki's wedding in Tulsa, OK on Saturday. Anita and I left Saturday night and drove to Rolla, MO then got up early Sunday and drove all the way back home (only 16 hours in the car yesterday).

I have some pictures so I'll put one up soon. It was a good wedding and I think Vicki and her new husband Justin will be happy together. Now I just need to get my research finished!

I'm blogging from Illinois right now. Visiting family for belated Christmas gatherings and gift giving. So I'll be fairly busy this next week and won't be posting too much.

I found out everyone I knew in Sri Lanka and their families is doing fine. Getting back to the US may take a while longer than they expected, but that is a rather minor inconvenience compared to the devastation others suffered.

I wish everyone a Happy and Joyous New Year!