Would to God the words spoken of me would be:

Romans 1:8 “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.” NKJV

What would the “King of Pop” be saying if we could hear him speaking today? I am not going to take shots at him or his life. That type of judgment is left to the Lord, not to me. I do find it interesting that for the last decade the masses have ridiculed, laughed at, and greatly despised Michael Jackson yet today are singing a much different song. That however is not what is on my mind today.

We are hearing to great degree all the many words that are being offered in memory of Michael Jackson. What I want to think about real briefly is what would he want all these people to be thinking and speaking today, June 26th, if he could reach out from eternity and sing one more song.

Would he sing a song of praise or a song of warning? Would he share the excitement of the glory of the presence of the Lord or would he share a song that would plead with people to properly prepare their eternity?

Knowing what he knows today, if he were to sneak into the back of any of the press conferences or speeches or any other gatherings in his honor, how loudly would he scream for people to repent and prepare for eternity?

When he awoke yesterday morning, he had no idea it was his last day. He had no clue those would be his last moments. If he knew yesterday what he knows today, would he be pleased with how people are remembering him?

I have asked a few questions mostly to draw out thoughts. I’m far from perfect and am in no place to cast stones. I will say that it is an ongoing prayer that when I make my entrance into eternity, people can say of me that my faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

I love the words to the this song, “I want to get so close to Him, that it’ll be no change, on the day that Jesus calls my name.”

One of the hidden treasures of teaching Sunday School is how the lesson that I might be teaching affects me. Be it conviction, blessing, training, correction, or any of a myriad of other results, invariably God speaks to me in as thorough a way as I hope He speaks to the boys I am teaching. This Sunday was an extremely special lesson that I worked on from Luke Ch. 22.

Jesus, man to the fullest extent that we are, knew his coming fate. Daily he would teach in the temple and then cross over to the Mt. of Olives and pray in the Garden of Gethsemane.

~ Luke 22:39 “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him.” NKJV The King James here used the word “wont” “as He was wont to do” which was fun explaining to a group of 4th and 5th grade boys who champion the word “want” as a highly popular word. The understood easily enough when described as habit. It was the average day for Jesus much like we wake up, go to work, maybe go out to eat, and then go home.

~ Luke 22:40 “When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” NKJV Notice that He did not tell them to pray that temptation would be avoided. He told them to pray that they would not fall into the temptation when it comes. An intimation here is that temptation is inevitable. He knew, as He was tempted in every way just like we are. Jesus knew this as He was man… to the fullest extent that we are. The key he gave to assist in not falling into temptation? He said to pray. On a minute by minute basis we face battles, challenges, and temptations. There is no possible way for us to win these battles of our own accord and our own strength. If, however, we have a minute by minute communication with God dealing with the temptations becomes HIS battle. The odds turn dramatically. We still make our decisions, but it is MUCH simpler to make the right ones with God whispering in our ears… and we are in tune.

~ Luke 22:41 “And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed,” NKJV He knelt. He didn’t make a spectacle in open spaces for a whole group to see and comment on, He knelt in humility. The Creator, Saviour, Son of God, knelt. And prayed.

~ Luke 22:42 “saying, ‘Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.’”NKJV This floored me when the magnitude of a simple concept here hit me for the first time. He didn’t say, “Our Holy Father, Creator of the Universe, Outer Space, Chuck E. Cheese and bandaids, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Greatest of the Greatest Greats, Big Dog, Man Upstairs, You da Man, Peace, Love, and OUT” I have never called my Dad anything other than…. Dad. That is the nature of the relationship. He called God, “Father”. THAT is the relationship we need and need to pursue passionately in every moment. To be so close to Him that we can kneel and pray, calling Him, “Father”. Jesus knew what was coming. His destiny, and what had him tormented was not that He would face scourging, a crown of thorns, spikes, a spear, spit and urine. Jesus was perfect. He had never sinned. But He knew that He would have to take the sins of the entirety of humanity upon Himself which in that moment would separate Him from the “Father”. He made the specific request, as we always should, and then left it to the Father’s will.

~ Luke 22:43 “Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him.” NKJV Angels are real, and all around us. Watching, protecting, doing the Father’s bidding… and will.

~ Luke 22:44 “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” NKJV The depths of that passion is overwhelming. He knew of the impending separation from God. He also knew the answer. Yet prayed anyway.

~ Luke 22:45,46 “When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.” NKJV Our Lord and Saviour, knowing of His coming torments loved His disciples enough to put HIS sorrows and worries aside to tap them on the shoulder and give them gentle correction.

I love this passage. I pray anyone that reads it does as well.

I was recently driving home from the office and was listening to one of my favorite talk show hosts.  This happened just a couple of days after the murder of George Tiller and, of course, the host was deriding someone going to the length of murder to support their position.

Accurately, in my opinion, he made the point that you should not forsake the law to try to achieve change, but rather change the law.  I have no argument with that precept in any way.  To allow for vigilante justice, especially when the recipient (in this case, Tiller) is not breaking the laws of the land (whether the law is heartbreaking and evil or not), ultimately leads straight to anarchy.  Some may say that anarchy might be preferable to the Obama administration but that is a thought for another day.

He then started to take questions and comments from callers and one guy totally floored me.  He made it clear from the very beginning that he had no axe to grind.  He had no horse in this race.  Abortion was a non-issue to him and he did not recognize himself as either pro-life or pro-choice.  He then posed this question.  If one believes that abortion is murder, and that life begins at conception, just how far should one go to protect the lives of those children?  He followed that with the dagger to the heart:

“If you saw a guy walk into a daycare center with a baseball bat and start bashing kids in the head, would you stop him?  How far would you go to stop him?  If you saw someone walking around a school cafeteria and emptying vials of poison into the kid’s drinks, how far would go to stop him?”

1.  At what point does “2 wrongs don’t make a right” become just another lame cliche?

2.  Since life begins at conception, are we taking OUR reponsibilities as Christians, humans, and Americans seriously enough that we are willing to take every LEGAL step available to us to put a stop to this ongoing legalized genocide?

Today, IN AMERICA, in honor of George Tiller:

Come and get it:  Free Abortions

How far is too far?

If you knew that YOUR children were in imminent danger of death, to what lengths would you go to protect and defend them?

More info on the Philly free abortion tradedy from around the web…

Someone sent me an email.  We all get them on a consistent basis.  This one caught my eye as it seems to somewhat validate a discussion I’ve had plenty of times in the past.

Why are people obsessed with insanity?  What do I mean?  The same thing over and over and over expecting a different result.  We have all heard that definition many times.  Want an example?:

Poverty in Our Cities.

City, State, % of People Below the Poverty Level

1.   Detroit, MI 32.5%

2.   Buffalo, NY 29.9%

3.   Cincinnati, OH 27.8%

4.   Cleveland, OH 27.0%

5.   Miami, FL 26.9%

5.   St. Louis, MO 26.8%

7.   El Paso, TX 26.4%

8.   Milwaukee, WI 26.2%

9.   Philadelphia, PA 25.1%

10.   Newark, NJ 24.2%

What do these top ten cities (over 250,000 population) with the highest poverty rates all share in common?

Detroit, MI (1st on the poverty rate list) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor since 1961;

Buffalo, NY (2nd) hasn’t elected one since 1954;

Cincinnati, OH   (3rd)…since 1984;

Cleveland, OH   (4th)…since 1989;

Miami, FL   (5th) has never had a Republican mayor;

St. Louis, MO   (6th)….since 1949;

El Paso, TX   (7th) has never had a Republican mayor;

Milwaukee, WI   (8th)…since 1908;

Philadelphia, PA   (9th)…since 1952;

Newark, NJ   (10th)…since 1907.

Einstein once said, ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’

It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats—yet they are still ………………POOR

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.  You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.  You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.  You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.  You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred…  You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.  You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.” Abraham Lincoln

This is hardly a litmus test and has been tossed about on blogs and message boards at length with they typical battle lines drawn.  My premise is the same as it has always been.  The democrats need their base to remain poor where they can remain brainwashed and continue to vote democrat as they believe that party is the one that is truly interested in bringing them out of their poverty.  Looks like they are doing a good job it…  (snickering implied)

But hey, we can always blame George Bush, right?

More thoughts and opinions on poverty from around the web…