In praise of “going through the motions”

 

By Glen Scrivener of Christ-the-Truth

Isaiah warned us and Jesus repeated it – it’s hypocritical to honour the Lord with your lips while your heart is far from Him (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 15:8). It’s something I pray about every Sunday, “As I preach or pray or sing, may my lips and my heart be set on the Lord Jesus.” But there’s another danger. We can react the other way and disdain anything ‘external’. We say to the world: “I reject ‘works’, I’m all about the inward life.” And so we’re constantly taking our spiritual temperatures. We neglect ritual (as though it always leads to ritualism). And we start to think of faith as a thing – the one really meritorious work! The faith-works polarity becomes, in our thinking, an internal-external polarity. Internal – good. External – bad. We start to imagine that mental acts are good old grace while physical acts are nasty old law. But that’s not how it is. There can be a crippling legalism of the heart (ever felt it?) and there can be a wonderful liberation in gospel rituals (ever experienced that?). Take communion. Please. No but seriously, take it. Because here is a gospel ritual which, because it is external, brings home the grace of Jesus all the stronger. We are not (or at least we should not be!) memorialists. Jesus has not left us a mental duty with the bread and wine as mere thought prompters. We have been left a meal. To chew. And to gulp down. There are motions to go through. And they are the same motions we performed last week. And the week before that. But here’s the thing – these motions are means of God’s grace and not in spite of their externalism but because they are external. Here is a gift that comes to you from outside yourself. And it comes apart from your internal state. But nonetheless it is for you – sinner that you are. So take it regardless of whether your heart is white-hot with religious zeal. Take it regardless of whether you are really, really mindful of the gravity of it all. And as the minister prays the prayer of consecration and your mind wanders… oh well. Don’t ask him to start again. Go through the motions I say. Your heart is meant to catch up with the motions. That’s why the motions were given. Because our hearts are weak and not to be trusted. So allow the Word to come to you from beyond. Allow Him to love you first. Don’t disdain ‘going through the motions.’ For many on a Sunday – those grieving or sick or gripped by depression – they need to be carried along by these motions. And for all of us – if we’re going to be people of grace, we need these externals.

 

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Nice job, Glen!

 

You are another non-Lutheran who gets it.

 

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God Set up a Cross

By Pastor Mark Anderson  

 

The ancient world was a vast field of magnificent temples. Only symbols bespeaking power, permanence, and ultimate authority could faithfully proclaim the mystery of divinity. The gods deserved nothing less, or so thought the ancients.

Then God set up a cross.

It was forged by nameless servants of imperial authority. A bare, rude thing. A time tested instrument designed to evoke terror and coerce obedience through the application of unspeakable cruelty. Only the very worst, despised offenders suffered the fate of the crucified ones. The Romans lined roadways with them so that passers by would be forced to carry the weight of pitiful suffering and inhale the stench of rotting corpses. It was about as far from divinty as one could get.

This is the symbol of God’s presence with us?   

Yes.

God set up His cross where the four roads we travel most, meet: guilt, failure, spiritual poverty, and willful disobedience. The gift of God’s cross, the baptism into Christ’s death, is not given until I see that nothing in the world – nothing - can address my sickness unto death except this one, impossible, ridiculous sacrifice. For only by the shame, cruelty and utter godlessness of the cross can the true magnitude of our guilt be measured. The cross proclaims to us what our true position in life really is.  No wonder we flee from it for all we’re worth.

But Christ Jesus did not flee from the cross. He embraced it’s suffering and shame – for you. And three days after they laid His battered corpse to rest, God vindicated His trust and raised Him from the dead.

For Lutherans the season of Lent, therefore, is no occasion for self-conscious schemes of spiritual navel gazing or sentimental musings on self-pity and the like. Lent is no time for half-measures. You may want to give yourself some sort of moral or ethical tune-up during Lent. That’s fine. Your life might need one. But have no illusions that it will somehow earn points with God.

During Lent we return to Holy Baptism, through an active and living faith. There we remember with joy that our lives were drowned with Christ, crucified with Christ (Romans 6), and then raised with Christ. We give thanks to God who forgives our sins and who has brought all our works and all our ways under His judgment and mercy on the cross.

Through Word and sacrament God continues to set up the cross – and the empty tomb – in the center of our lives, and through them release hope and the divine power of His kingdom. And since Christ Jesus embodies hope He rightly calls us to hope – not in our efforts, will or determination, but in Him, the crucified. This is the scandal of the gospel – Jesus appears in the defenseless form of the crucified God to put an end to our pretensions to righteousness in order that we might have a righteousness based on faith. A righteousness won for us, the ungodly, through His death on the bloody cross, where the true glory of God is revealed.

 

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Mark Anderson is pastor at Lutheran-Church-of-the-Master , Corona del Mar, CA

 

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Do you notice what’s missing from Pastor Anderson’s piece?

An appeal to you to do, or think, or feel…anything.

 

This is a great example of Christ centered, cross focused Christianity.

Death and resurrection. Both Christ’s, and yours…in Him.

 

Is there anything else that is needful?

 

 

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Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

RFK, Jr. 15 months ago: Global warming means no snow or cold in DC

By: David Freddoso
Online Opinion Editor
12/21/09 1:51 PM EST

Mary Mitchell cross country skis in a deserted downtown in front of the U.S. Capitol December 19, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who flies around on private planes so as to tell larger numbers of people how they must live their lives in order to save the planet, wrote a column last year on the lack of winter weather in Washington, D.C.

In Virginia, the weather also has changed dramatically. Recently arrived residents in the northern suburbs, accustomed to today’s anemic winters, might find it astonishing to learn that there were once ski runs on Ballantrae Hill in McLean, with a rope tow and local ski club. Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don’t own a sled. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers.

In those days, I recall my uncle, President Kennedy, standing erect as he rode a toboggan in his top coat, never faltering until he slid into the boxwood at the bottom of the hill. Once, my father, Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, brought a delegation of visiting Eskimos home from the Justice Department for lunch at our house. They spent the afternoon building a great igloo in the deep snow in our backyard. My brothers and sisters played in the structure for several weeks before it began to melt. On weekend afternoons, we commonly joined hundreds of Georgetown residents for ice skating on Washington’s C&O Canal, which these days rarely freezes enough to safely skate.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil and its carbon cronies continue to pour money into think tanks whose purpose is to deceive the American public into believing that global warming is a fantasy. 

Having shoveled my walk five times in the midst of this past weekend’s extreme cold and blizzard, I think perhaps RFK, Jr. should leave weather analysis to the meteorologists instead of trying to attribute every global phenomenon to anthropogenic climate change.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/RFK-79834057.html#ixzz0erVKYUfM

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ICE AGE: WEST WING NEARLY BURIED IN SNOW…
Historic storm…
Paralyzing nation’s capital…
200,000+ without power in DC metro…
*90,000 In NJ…
Nearing all-time storm total snowfall record for Baltimore…
Snow measurements for DC/MD/VA/WVA…
Multipe Roof Collapses Around Region…
Up to 30 inches in parts of Philly…

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Video on praying the Lord’s Prayer

 

videotaped class:

Jim Nestingen on The-Lord’s-Prayer  and the Catechism

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Thank you, Institute-of-Lutheran-Theology

I only had a chance to watch the first half, but I enjoyed the class very much and learned a few things, besides.

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Muslim Facebook group: “We hate Jews for the sake of Allah as he has told us to do in the Koran.” 

Misunderstanders of Islam active on Facebook! “Police launch investigation into anti-Semitic Facebook group,” by Chloe Markowicz for TotallyJewish.com, February 4 (thanks to Philip):

Police have launched an urgent investigation into a horrific Facebook group that gave graphic details of anti-Semitic incidents perpetrated by its members against Ilford’s Jewish community. The group, created by a student at Loxford School of Science and Technology, attracted more than 500 members in two weeks following its launch last month and featured teenagers boasting about engaging in anti-Semitic behaviour.

It featured messages from youths using language rife with spelling errors,
profanities and teenage colloquialisms.

One girl wrote: “Jews are the ones that killed prophets in the past. Dirty filthy scum-bags. No wonder they have the curse of Allah upon them. Burn Jew burn.”

Another stated: “OMG! ii Saw a Jew Todaii ii Swearr downn Weariingg Dahh Hatt He Lookedd At Me Liike Man Knowsz Me [sic].”

She went on to describe screaming obscenities at the man and rudely telling him to go away.

In a further disturbing post, a girl bragged about aggressively confronting
a Jewish woman in Argos after she was “looking at me”. She wrote: “Looool i Had a Fight Wif 1 Urgh in Argos [sic].”

The Jewish News was informed about the group, created by a student at Loxford School, by a private investigator in Australia. It has since been removed from the popular social networking site….

Several comments on the vile Facebook site include misguided references to Islam and the Koran as justification for targeting Jews.

 

“Misguided,” says Chloe Markowicz, who is no doubt a Qur’anic scholar, and is certain, certain!, that there is no antisemitism in the Qur’an or Islam in general!

One female youth wrote: “We hate Jews for the sake of Allah as he has told us to do in the Koran.” The group page included offensive jokes invoking pejorative stereotypes about Jews and money as well as an anti-Semitic cartoon. There was also a link to a YouTube video entitled “Kill All Christians and Jews“.

In addition several members expressed anti-Israeli sentiment. There was a photograph of graffiti saying “Jihad 4 Israel” and a link to another YouTube video of “a brave Palestinian girl standing up to Israeli soldiers”.

Mike Gardner, director of communications at the CST, said he was left “utterly chilled” by the casual way that the youths displayed their anti-Semitism.

He said: “It shows how new media is now facilitating the most shocking anti-Semitism among groups of youngsters, as if hatred and violence and gross ignorance were all just a part of their normal lives.

 

Mike, it’s what they’re taught in their mosques and schools. It has nothing to do with Facebook or “new media” per se, or “gross ignorance” of anything except the idea that the Qur’an and Islam should be open to questioning rather than blind obedience.

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Thank you Robert Spencer at Jihad-Watch

 

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A little more than a month of mayhem and murder

From islam:the-religion-of-peace(and-a-big-stack-of-dead-bodies)

 

List of Islamic Terror Attacks since the start of 2010 

 

 

 

 

 

Date	Country	City	Killed	Injured	Description
2010.02.04	Afghanistan	Kandahar	3	17	Three people are dismembered by a Shahid suicide bomber.
2010.02.03	Pakistan	Swat	9	115	Four children are among nine people killed when the Tehrik-e-Taliban bomb am opening ceremony at a girl’s school.
2010.02.03	Iraq	Karbalah	23	147	A Fedayeen bomber passes out fruit to children before detonating, killing nearly two dozen.
2010.02.03	Iraq	Baghdad	1	3	Sunni bombers send a Shia pilgrim straight to Allah.
2010.02.03	Thailand	Narathiwat	1	0	A rubber tapper working with his wife is shot in the back by Muslim militants with a shotgun
2010.02.02	Iraq	Karbalah	3	21	Three Shia pilgirms are murdered by Sunni bombers.
2010.02.02	Pakistan	Mohmand	2	2	Two members of a peace community pay the ultimate price when Islamic hardliners blow them up.
2010.02.02	Philippines	Maluso	1	8	Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants plant a landmine that kills one local soldier.
2010.02.01	Ingushetia	Nazran	1	3	Islamists fire five grenades into a building, killing at least one occupant.
2010.02.01	Ingushetia	Nazran	1	3	A bomb planted in a kindergarten explodes, leaving one person dead.
2010.02.01	Iraq	Baghdad	54	117	A female suicide bomber murders fifty-four innocent Shia pilgrims at a hospitality tent, mostly women and children.
2010.01.31	Pakistan	Mohmand	2	2	The Taliban take out two local troops with a landmine.
2010.01.31	Iraq	Mosul	1	0	A young woman is shot to death inside her home by Muslim terrorists.
2010.01.31	Somalia	Mogadishu	8	55	A mother and her 4-year-old child are among eight civilians killed during an al-Shabaab mortar attack.
2010.01.31	Thailand	Pattani	3	1	A 6-year-old boy and his parents are brutally shot to death by Religion of Peace advocates.
2010.01.30	Pakistan	Bajaur	16	20	A suicide bomber at a market sends sixteen shoppers straight to Allah.
2010.01.30	Iraq	Samarrah	2	20	Two people at a restaurant are blown to bits by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2010.01.30	Thailand	Pattani	2	0	A man and his wife are murdered by Islamic radicals while on their way to work at a rubber plantation.
2010.01.30	Afghanistan	Uruzgan	1	1	A baby is killed when religious extremists use the mother as a human shield in an attack on Afghan troops.
2010.01.30	Iraq	Baghdad	1	4	Sunni bombers take out a Shia pilgrim.
2010.01.30	Pakistan	North Waziristan	2	0	The Taliban abduct two civilians, then shoot them to death in captivity.
2010.01.30	Somalia	Mogadishu	12	25	A mother and her two children are among a dozen civilians burned or blasted to death when Islamists lob mortars into their neighborhood.
2010.01.30	Pakistan	Bolochistan	3	7	Sectarian Jihadis fire into a bus filled with Shia pilgrims, killing at least three.
2010.01.29	Afghanistan	Lashkar Gah	1	3	At least one civilian is killed during a sustained Taliban assault on a commercial district.
2010.01.29	India	Kishtwar	2	0	Two Indian troops are gunned down in cold blood by Islamic militants.
2010.01.29	Thailand	Pattani	1	2	A bomb detonated at a mosque kills a local soldier.
2010.01.29	Afghanistan	Wardak	2	0	An interpreter suddendly turns on two US soldiers, killing both.
2010.01.29	Somalia	Mogadishu	10	35	An al-Shabaab ambush leaves at least 10 people dead.
2010.01.28	Iraq	Mosul	4	3	Jihadi bombers take down four Iraqis.
2010.01.28	Ingushetia	Nazran	1	0	Islamic militants fire on a car, killing the driver.
2010.01.28	Iran	Tehran	2	0	Two people are executed for ‘waging war against Allah’.
2010.01.28	Iraq	Adel	1	0	An imam is gunned down by Muslim rivals while leaving a mosque.
2010.01.28	Somalia	Mogadishu	2	5	Two Ugandan peacekeepers die from shrapnel injuries suffered during an Islamist mortar attack.
2010.01.27	Somalia	Mogadishu	1	0	Islamists assassinate a local official at a market.
2010.01.27	Ingushetia	Nazran	2	2	Two police officers die in the hospital from injuries suffered in a Islamic ambush.
2010.01.27	Pakistan	Mardan	1	5	A drive-by attack by Sunni hardliners leaves one cop dead.
2010.01.27	Iraq	Baghdad	2	5	A woman is among two people murdered by Mujahid gunmen.
2010.01.27	Iraq	Mosul	2	0	Muslim terrorists shoot two people to death.
2010.01.27	Pakistan	Dir	3	0	Three children are murdered by Taliban bombers while grazing their family goats.
2010.01.27	Somalia	Hiran	8	0	Rival Islamic groups Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab go on a beheading spree, lopping off at least four heads apiece.
2010.01.26	Pakistan	Salarzai	1	0	A local tribesman is abducted and murdered by Sunni extremists.
2010.01.26	Afghanistan	Helmand	4	0	Talibanis ambush and kill four local policemen in the middle of the night.
2010.01.26	Somalia	Mogadishu	5	3	al-Shabaab Islamists bomb a hospital clinic, killing at leat five.
2010.01.26	Thailand	Pattani	3	0	Two Buddhist contruction workers are among three people gunned down Islamic separatists in two attacks.
2010.01.26	Iraq	Mosul	0	1	A Christian shopkeeper is targeted by Muslim gunmen and seriously injured.
2010.01.26	Iraq	Baghdad	22	80	A Shahid suicide bomber murders over twenty people working at a police crime lab.
2010.01.25	Iraq	Mosul	2	0	A woman and her daughter are shot to death in their own home by Holy Warriors.
2010.01.25	Somalia	Sool	2	3	Two police officers are killed by a bomb hidden in a mosque.
2010.01.25	Iraq	Kirkuk	2	0	Two cops sitting at a gas station are wasted by Sunni gunmen.
2010.01.25	Yemen	Sanaa	3	0	al-Qaeda militants attack a checkpoint, killing three local soldiers.
2010.01.25	Iraq	Baghdad	41	102	Three horrific bomb attacks on hotels leave at least three dozen dead and many more in agony.
2010.01.24	Iraq	Mosul	6	2	Six Iraqis are killed in two Mujahid bomb blasts.
2010.01.23	Pakistan	Gomal	4	11	Two children are among four people dismembered by a suicide bomber.
2010.01.23	Afghanistan	Helmand	1	0	A young marine is murdered by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2010.01.23	Afghanistan	Helmand	2	2	Muslim radicals take out two children with an IED blast.
2010.01.23	Afghanistan	Paktika	4	3	Islamic hardliners fire into a taxi, killing three women and a boy.
2010.01.23	Pakistan	Orakzai	3	0	Three local soldiers are ambushed and killed by religious extremists.
2010.01.23	Pakistan	North Waziristan	7	0	Seven civilians are kidnapped and executed by Sunni hardliners.
2010.01.23	Afghanistan	Khost	1	0	A 16-year-old boy is sent straight to Allah by Taliban bombers.
2010.01.22	Pakistan	Pattar	2	0	Two tribal elders are murdered by Muslim militants and dumped under a bridge.
2010.01.22	Afghanistan	Ghazni	4	1	Four soldiers are sent to Allah by Taliban bombers.
2010.01.22	Iraq	Baghdad	2	0	Jihadi gunmen assassinate two police officers.
2010.01.22	Bangladesh	Netrokona	0	2	A Catholic humanitarian worker and his wife are attacked by a gang of Muslims.
2010.01.22	Pakistan	Lahore	1	0	A 12-year-old Christian girl is raped, tortured and killed by her Muslim employer, a respected lawyer.
2010.01.21	Thailand	Narathiwat	1	0	A 42-year-old defense volunteer is gunned down by Islamic radicals while riding a motorcycle.
2010.01.21	Iraq	Mussayab	1	5	Mujahideen murder a cop with a roadside bomb.
2010.01.21	Pakistan	Bajaur	3	22	A woman is among three people blown to bits by an Islamic bomb.
2010.01.20	Pakistan	Karachi	1	0	A woman 8-months pregnant is stabbed to death with an axe and dagger by her family for marrying against their will.
2010.01.20	Iraq	Mosul	0	45	A suicide bomber injures over forty Iraqis, but manages to kill only himself.
2010.01.19	Somalia	Bosasso	1	0	Fundamentalists shoot a man to death inside his bookstore.
2010.01.19	Somalia	Mogadishu	19	30	Women and children are among nineteen killed when Islamists launch multiple assaults on ‘apostates and Christian backers.’
2010.01.19	Pakistan	Jandola	2	0	Islamic hardliners end the lives of two local soldiers with a bomb.
2010.01.19	Pakistan	Mohmand	2	2	Religious extremists open fire on a peace committee, killing two members.
2010.01.18	Afghanistan	Kabul	5	71	Fedayeen stage a massive suicide attack against government buildings in the capital, leaving at least five dead.
2010.01.18	Pakistan	Mohmand	1	2	The Taliban attack a village, killing a defense volunteer.
2010.01.18	Iraq	Mosul	1	0	Islamic terrorists gun down a Christian man inside a grocery.
2010.01.18	Iraq	Baghdad	5	0	Muslim gunmen storm a humanitarian office, killing four workers and a mother in front of her 3-year-old daughter.
2010.01.18	Algeria	Kabylie	1	0	Armed fundamentalists cut down a cop at point blank range.
2010.01.17	Thailand	Pattani	2	0	Two civilians are gunned down by Islamic radicals in separate attacks.
2010.01.17	Afghanistan	Chishti Sharif	6	0	Sunni hardliners open fire on a vehicle, killing six local occupants.
2010.01.17	Nigeria	Jos	48	96	Muslim youth go on a rampage, hacking about 48 Christians to death after an attack outside a church. The victims include two pastors.
2010.01.17	Iraq	Kharab	3	0	According to reports, three brothers are dragged out of their home and shot to death on their doorstep by Muslim terrorists.
2010.01.17	Iraq	Mosul	2	0	At least one of two men gunned down in a targeted shooting is a Christian father of two.
2010.01.17	Thailand	Pattani	1	0	A Buddhist woman is dismembered by a Muslim bomb thrown into a karaoke bar.
2010.01.16	Iraq	Baghdad	5	3	Five Iraqis are murdered in various Mujahideen attacks.
2010.01.16	Philippines	North Cotabato	3	3	Three civilians are machine-gunned to death in their village by Moro Islamists.
2010.01.15	Kenya	Nairobi	1	5	A Muslim gunmen fires into a crowd, killing one Christian and injuring five.
2010.01.15	Somalia	Lasanod	1	0	Suspected Islamists assassinate a senior police officer outside a mosque.
2010.01.15	Afghanistan	Spin Boldak	5	0	A mother and her four children are successfully taken out by a fundamentalist bomb attack on their car.
2010.01.15	India	Sopore	2	7	Islamic militants assault a police station, killing a civilian and one officer.
2010.01.15	Somalia	Mogadishu	1	2	Three aid workers are kidnapped by suspected Hizbul Islam. One is found brutally murdered.
2010.01.14	Iraq	Baqubah	2	10	Two people at a market are killed by a Mujahideen market blast.
2010.01.14	Afghanistan	Helmand	1	4	A Shahid suicide bomber sends a local cop to paradise.
2010.01.14	Ingushetia	Nazran	1	3	Islamists shoot a cop to death outside a mosque.
2010.01.14	Afghanistan	Uruzgan	20	13	Three children are among twenty civilians blown to bits at a market place by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2010.01.14	Thailand	Pattani	2	0	A Buddhist couple is shot to death by Muslims while riding to work. Their bodies are then burned.
2010.01.14	Pakistan	Mohmand	2	7	Two members of a peace committee are murdered by Taliban roadside bombers while on their way home.
2010.01.14	India	Uttar Pradesh	1	0	A 14-year-old member of the area’s oppressed Hindu community is raped and killed by two Muslim men.
2010.01.14	Iraq	Najaf	27	111	Twenty-seven people are massacred by three separate bomb blasts at a Shia market.
2010.01.13	Thailand	Pattani	1	4	Islamic terrorists ambush a group of electricians, killing one.
2010.01.13	Iraq	Saqlawiya	7	6	A suicide bomber sends seven Iraqis to Allah.
2010.01.13	Afghanistan	Ghazni	1	6	An Afghan police officer is murdered by Sunni roadside bombers.
2010.01.13	Yemen	Shabwa	2	0	Two local soldiers are cut down in an al-Qaeda ambush.
2010.01.13	Pakistan	Tank	1	6	A child is killed from an explosive planted by religious radicals at a playground.
2010.01.13	Algeria	Allaghane	2	0	Two security personnel are shot to death by Islamic extremists.
2010.01.13	Pakistan	Hangu	1	0	A man is kidnapped and beheaded by Muslim militants, who then booby-trap the body.
2010.01.12	Iraq	Diyala	3	5	Terrorists murder three people with a brutal bomb blast.
2010.01.12	Iraq	Mosul	1	0	A 75-year-old Christian is gunned down in his grocery story by Religion of Peace militants.
2010.01.12	France	Paris	0	1	An actress-playwright is doused with petrol and nearly set on fire by three Algerians angred by her negative portrayal of Muslim men.
2010.01.11	Afghanistan	Uruzgan	1	2	A policeman is cut down by a suicide bomber.
2010.01.11	India	Jammu	1	0	Pakistani terrorists shoot an Indian border guard to death.
2010.01.11	Dagestan	Kizlyar	2	0	A moderate cleric and a former policeman are murdered in separate attacks.
2010.01.11	Pakistan	Peshawar	1	5	One person is crushed to death in a Taliban rocket attack.
2010.01.11	Iraq	Mosul	1	0	A 51-year-old Christian man is brutally gunned down while selling vegetables by the side of the road.
2010.01.10	Afghanistan	Uruzgan	3	0	Three humanitarian workers die in a Taliban roadside attack.
2010.01.10	Thailand	Narathiwat	2	0	Two men sitting in a tea shop are blown away by Muslim terrorists with automatic weapons.
2010.01.10	Pakistan	Mohmand	2	0	Suspected Islamists murder two tribal elders.
2010.01.10	India	Kulgam	2	1	Hizb-ul-Mujahideen gun down two former members who had renounced violence.
2010.01.09	Afghanistan	Helmand	2	6	A British journalist is among two killed in a roadside Mujahideen bombing.
2010.01.09	Iraq	Mosul	1	0	Freedom fighters kill a 16-year-old boy with a bomb.
2010.01.08	Pakistan	Karachi	5	7	Five mourners at a funeral are shot to death by sectarian Jihadis.
2010.01.08	Pakistan	Khyber	8	11	Three children are among eight civilians murdered by a Lashkar-e-Islam suicide bomber outside a mosque.
2010.01.08	Pakistan	Bajaur	2	2	Two people are blown to bits by a Taliban roadside bomb.
2010.01.08	Afghanistan	Logar	2	0	Two Afghans are blown away at point blank range by a Fedayeen.
2010.01.08	Iraq	Ras Al-Jadeh	2	0	Jihad bombers kill two local cops.
2010.01.07	Egypt	Nag Hamadi	7	10	Six worshippers and one guard are gunned down by Muslim radicals as they leave mass at a Christian church. A 14-year-old is among the dead.
2010.01.07	Afghanistan	Nangarhar	9	44	Four children are among nine Afghans murdered by Islamic bombers in two attacks.
2010.01.07	Thailand	Yala	1	0	A man is ripped in two by a Religion of Peace nail bomb.
2010.01.07	Iraq	Khanaqin	3	15	Three Iraqis are cut down by a Jihadi bomb.
2010.01.07	Iraq	Hit	7	6	Women and children are among the dead when Mujahideen detonate planted bombs around the bedrooms of four homes.
2010.01.07	Afghanistan	Uruzgan	8	0	All eight Afghan soldiers riding in a vehicle are killed by a Taliban roadside bomb.
2010.01.06	Pakistan	Sudhanoti	3	11	Three local soldiers are incinerated by a suicide bomber.
2010.01.06	India	Srinagar	3	11	Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen militants toss grenades and fire into a crowd at a shopping center, killing at least three people.
2010.01.06	Egypt	Rafah	1	0	Hamas snipers take down an Egyptian soldier.
2010.01.06	Iraq	Mosul	2	1	Two children are killed by a bomb in their home, suspected to have been stored there by their father.
2010.01.06	Dagestan	Makhachkala	6	12	A suicide bomber murders six Russian police officers.
2010.01.06	Somalia	Bosasso	1	0	A lawmaker is assassinated by suspected fundamentalists.
2010.01.05	Pakistan	Karachi	1	0	A 70-year-old leader of a religious minority is murdered while sitting in his store by Jihadi gunmen.
2010.01.05	Pakistan	Mohmand	2	2	Two civilians are taken down by Taliban rockets.
2010.01.04	Iraq	Kirkuk	3	7	Three Iraqis are murdered in a Mujahideen double bombing.
2010.01.04	Iraq	Mosul	3	1	Sunni bombers blast three civilians into pieces.
2010.01.03	Pakistan	Hangu	4	2	A Taliban roadside bomb ends the lives of four people.
2010.01.03	Iraq	Tal Abta	3	0	Three road construction workers are gunned down by Muslim terrorists.
2010.01.03	Pakistan	Bajaur	2	4	Two tribal elders are blown to bits by a Taliban roadside bomb.
2010.01.03	Pakistan	Waziristan	2	5	A bombing and separate rocket attack leave two people dead.
2010.01.02	Pakistan	Orakzai	3	0	Three civilian village guards are ambushed and killed by Islamic militants.
2010.01.02	Afghanistan	Kandahar	4	0	Four American soldiers guarding a road are murdered by a Taliban roadside bomb.
2010.01.02	Afghanistan	Nimroz	5	6	Five civilians are killed when Sunni terrorists bomb their pickup truck.
2010.01.02	Somalia	Dhusamareb	47	150	al-Shabaab Islamists assault a small town. At least four dozen people are killed in the fighting.
2010.01.02	Iraq	Mosul	2	0	Two local cops are gunned down by Sunni terrorists.
2010.01.02	Iraq	Baghdad	1	21	Jihadi bombers take out a civilian and injure two dozen others.
2010.01.01	Pakistan	Shah Hason Khel	105	100	Children are amply represented among over one hundred spectators massacred at a volleyball tournament by a Fedayeen suicide bomber.
2010.01.01	Somalia	Hodan	1	0	Islamists murder a 41-year-old Christian convert and church leader.

 

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I’m sure all those were cases of people who just misunderstood their “peacful religion”.

 

An-American-born-Islamic-holy-man speaks about the attempted Christmas day bombing of a civilian airliner.

I’m sure this “man of God” condemned this horrible attempt at murder.

Right.

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Sanctification

“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ, (as long as you give it a decent effort).(ESV)

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…or something like that.

 

Will He really complete the good work that He started in us…all by Himself?

 

Is He a big enough God to handle that?

 

Or… is he a puny god who needs our help?

 

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The IRS is buying shotguns

IRS-to-purchase-60-shotguns

 

Interesting.    

 

What do you make of it? 

Don’t law enforcement agencies and the courts enforce IRS rulings and judgements?

 

 

I’m not sure I want to find out.

 

 

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Why the scam will continue

From Jewish-World-Review:   

 

By Professor Walter E. Williams

John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, in an hour-long television documentary titled “Global Warming: The Other Side,” presents evidence that our National Climatic Data Center has been manipulating weather data just as the now disgraced and under investigation British University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit. The NCDC is a division of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s manipulated climate data is used by the Goddard Institute of Space Studies, which is a division of the National Aeronautical and Space Administration. John Coleman’s blockbuster five-part series can be seen at   www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/81583352.html.

The Coleman documentary presents research by computer expert E. Michael Smith and Certified Consulting Meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo. During the 1960s and into the 1980s, the number of stations used for calculating global surface temperatures was about 6,000. By 1990, the number of stations dropped rapidly to about 1,500. Most of the stations lost were in the colder regions of the Earth. Not adjusting for their lost made temperatures appear to be higher than was in fact the case. According to Science & Environmental Policy Project, Russia reported that CRU was ignoring data from colder regions of Russia, even though these stations were still reporting data. That means data loss was not simply the result of station closings but deliberate decisions by CRU to ignore them in order to hype their global warming claims. D’Aleo and Smith report that our NCDC engaged in similar deceptive activity where they have dropped stations, particularly in colder climates, higher elevations or closer to the polar regions. Temperatures are now simply projected for these colder stations from other stations, usually in warmer climates.

Mounting evidence of scientific fraud might make little difference in terms of the response to manmade global warming hysteria. Why? Vested economic and political interests have emerged where trillions of dollars and social control are at stake. Therefore, many people who recognize the scientific fraud underlying global warming claims are likely to defend it anyway. Automobile companies have invested billions in research and investment in producing “green cars.” General Electric and Phillips have spent millions lobbying Congress to outlaw incandescent bulbs so that they can force us to buy costly compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL). Farmers and ethanol manufacturers have gotten Congress to enact laws mandating greater use of their product, not to mention massive subsidies. Thousands of major corporations around the world have taken steps to reduce carbon emissions including giants like IBM, Nike, Coca-Cola and BP, the oil giant. Companies like Google, Yahoo and Dell have vowed to become “carbon neutral.”

Then there’s Chicago Climate Futures Exchange that plans to trade in billions of dollars of greenhouse gas emission allowances. Corporate America and labor unions, as well as their international counterparts have a huge multi-trillion dollar financial stake in the perpetuation of the global warming fraud. Federal, state and local agencies have spent billions of dollars and created millions of jobs to deal with one aspect or another of global warming.

It’s deeper than just money. Schoolteachers have created polar-bear-dying lectures to frighten and indoctrinate our children when in fact there are more polar bears now than in 1950. They’ve taught children about melting glaciers. Just recently, the International Panel on Climate Change was forced to admit that their Himalayan glacier-melting fraud was done to “impact policy makers and politicians and encourage them to take some concrete action.”

What would all the beneficiaries of the global warming hype do if it becomes widely known and accepted that mankind’s activities have very little to do with the Earth’s temperature? I don’t know but a lot of people would feel and look like idiots. But I bet that even if the permafrost returned as far south as New Jersey, as it once did, the warmers and their congressional stooges would still call for measures to fight global warming.

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Way too much money invested to walk away from it now.

 

 

 

 

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Some Old Testament

Ezekiel 36: 25,26 (NIV) 

 

²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

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Ok… what do you think that language is referring to?

 

If you answered, ‘Holy Baptism’… go straight to the head of the class!

 

 If you answered anything else, you can sit in the corner with a pointy hat.

 

 

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