Dear Father,

I thank You for the redeeming work of your Son, Jesus Christ. He truly is our Lord and Savior and has freed us from the bondage of sin and death. He who led captivity captive also brought healing in his wings. I claim healing and revival for America and I bind and loose the following things in our country in Jesus’ name, by his blood, and with the authority and the keys He has given me to do so.

I loose from America and Americans every old, wrong, ungodly pattern of thinking, attitude, idea, belief, motivation, habit, and behavior. I tear down, crush, smash, and destroy all strongholds associated with these things. I loose from America and her citizens any strongholds that have been justifying and protecting hard feelings against anyone. I loose the strongholds of unforgiveness, fear, and distrust from our country. I loose from her the strongholds of idolatry, distrust, and self-indulgence.

In the name of Jesus, I loose from America the power and effects of deceptions and lies. I loose from her the confusion and blindness of the god of this world—those things which have kept Americans from seeing the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I call forth every precious word of Scripture that has ever been preached or prayed or spoken in America that it would rise up in power within her people.

In the name of Jesus and by the authority He has given me, I loose from our country the power and effect of any hard or harsh words that have been spoken to, about or by her citizens. I loose from her all generational bondages and associated strongholds. I loose from her all effects and bondages that may have been caused by my sins and by those of other believers Father, in Jesus name, I crush, smash and destroy all generational bondages of any kind; I destroy them right here, right now. They will not bind this country any longer.

In the name of Jesus and by his blood I bind the strongman, Satan, and I take back every spiritual and material possession he has taken from America. I loose from her the enemy’s influence over her spirit and her people. I loose, crush, smash and destroy every evil device Satan may try to bring into the American sphere of influence today.

And Father, in your Son’s name I bind America to Your will for the life of this country. I bind the will of the American people to the will of God. I bind them to the truth and to the blood of Jesus. I bind their minds to the mind of Christ that the very thoughts, feelings, and purposes of His heart would be within their thoughts.

I bind America to the paths of righteousness that her steps would be steady and sure. I bind her to the work of the cross with all its mercy, grace, love, and forgiveness and dying to self.

Dear Lord, I thank You that You have not left us powerless or orphans but that in your gracious love and mercy You have given us you Holy Spirit to abide with us and enable us to pray in power and with confidence. I trust in your grace and redeeming love in America. I give You thanks for our country, and in Jesus name, and by his blood, I bind and loose these things. Thank You, Lord for the truth. And God Bless America!

Amen.

Update: Well it looks like the problem with editing is now fixed. I edited this post any way.

Today started out much like that day. Wrangling with Dell over why my computer order was canceled for the third time, but finally talking to someone who actually knew and straightened things out. Frustration…and then reading an email that a friend is now under mandatory evacuation for hurricane Ike, and once again, although not as dramatically, the minor frustrations of life pale in the face of life or death events.

Not thinking anything really profound here. Just that life is sure like that.

"When we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be." But for now, "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain." The now is pretty hard.

Couple that case with another I just read about at National Review, and you begin to feel like those trying to marginalize Christians are attempting to take another giant step forward. So far, the Constitution has won out, but the fact that educational bureaucrats feel that they can get away with these things is disturbing. It suggests that the average understanding of the Bill of Rights is seriously flawed.

Here’s a portion of Richard Garnett’s post over at Bench Memos.

Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, in an opinion written by Judge (and famed law-and-religion scholar) Michael McConnell, issued its opinion in a case called Colorado Christian University v. Weaver. (Click here for more). In a nutshell, the decision and opinion are fantastic. The court held that the Constitution does not permit Colorado to discriminate against "pervasively sectarian" religiously-affiliated schools by excluding otherwise-eligible students who attend such schools from state scholarship programs. Along the way, the court read very narrowly the Supreme Court’s decision, a few years ago, in Locke v. Davey, which some have interpreted to allow governments to exclude religious schools from education-reform and – funding programs. That decision, Judge McConnell wrote, "does not extend to the wholesale exclusion of religious institutions and their students from otherwise neutral and generally available public support."

Amphibians Unit Study

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Matthew McConaughey and girlfriend Camila Alves reveal their newborn baby boy Levi Alves McConaughey in OK! magazine … and the actor says the couple got "tribal" during his birth.

"We found a great rhythm," says McConaughey, 38. "Contractions started kicking in. I sat there with her, right between her legs. We got tribal on it, we danced to it! I was DJ-ing this Brazilian music."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,389269,00.html

I probably would have shot him If I’d had to deal with this during labor:

"I have it all chronicled," McConaughey told OK! "Becoming a dad is something I’ve dreamed of doing since I was 10. Becoming a father felt very, very natural. We were jamming! She was sweating. No painkiller, let’s go. She just clicked into that gear that only a woman has at a time like this. We’d been up for 40-something hours, and we went from dead tired to a really steadfast, ‘Let’s handle this … let’s stay in the rhythm. Don’t let the contraction be more than you.’"

She ended up getting a C-section because the cord was wrapped around the baby’s throat, which was too bad after all that effort…on her part. Obviously she’s into McConaughey’s tribal style or she wouldn’t be having his baby. I wonder if the no painkiller was her idea or his.

It’s summer. I want to sit in the shade outdoors, sip iced tea, and read some totally frivolous book. I’m currently enamored of the Elizabeth Moon Vatta’s War series.

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I’m still in the process of moving stuff from the old to the new and installing necessary software. In addition to getting work done that came up while I was gone, I’ve got plenty to do. Being able to do some of this stuff at a faster speed is soooooo nice.

I also discovered and learned how to use DOSBox because Vista doesn’t allow you to run full screen DOS programs, and my favorite game is a really old DOS game. It’s a puzzle game that doesn’t rely on graphics to make it fun to play. In fact, the Windows version of the game isn’t as fun to play. The graphics actually make it harder to play in my opinion. The game? Sherlock. You can get it here: http://www.kaser.com/msdos.html in the DOS version or follow the links to see the Windows version. At $15 it really is a bargain because you can play and play and play this game.

Lots to talk about including the new grandbaby…so I’ll get to it.