Emasculating Nickname

Good quote on fear, freedom, legalism, and liberty

2009-11-06T11:31:00.004-06:00

“I will pour water upon him that is thirsty.” (Isaiah 44:3)

When a believer has fallen into a low, sad state of feeling, he often tries to lift himself out of it by chastening himself with dark and doleful fears. Such is not the way to rise from the dust, but to continue in it. You might as well chain an eagle’s wing to make it fly away, as doubt in order to increase our grace. It is not the law, but the gospel which saves the seeking soul at first; and it is not a legal bondage, but gospel liberty which can restore the fainting believer afterwards. Slavish fear does not bring the backslider to God, but the sweet wooings of love allure him to Jesus’ bosom.

-C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening Daily Readings (morning, Nov. 6)

-HT, Russ Quinn

2009-10-29T09:33:00.004-05:00

http://www.gocomics.com/closetohome/2009/10/29/

And then Anselm said...

2009-10-28T11:37:00.003-05:00

Read the Anselm quote from the post below this one.

After reading (and posting) that quote I went on to read Anselm say later in that same book:

O CHRISTIAN soul, soul raised up from a grievous death, soul redeemed and delivered from a miserable slavery by the blood of God, arouse your mind from sleep, think of your resurrection, remember thy redemption and deliverance. Consider where and what is the strength of your salvation, (Ps. cxl. 7.) Occupy yourself in meditating thereon, delight yourself in the contemplation thereof; put away your daintiness, force yourself, give your mind to it; taste of the goodness of your Redeemer, kindle within yourself the love of your Savior. With your mind eat of the honeycomb of His words, with your understanding suck out their sweetness, for they are sweeter than honey;(Ps. xix. 10; cxix. 103). By loving them and rejoicing therein feed yourself upon them, for they are savory and wholesome completely. Rejoice in that eating, be glad in that sucking out of the sweetness, make merry in that feeding upon them.

Seriously, for saints in agony...

2009-10-27T13:55:00.004-05:00

Here are some agonizing cries from one of the church's greatest theologians.

Anselm (1033-1109) - Devotions

"Alas for me, one of the miserable children of Eve, cast far away from God! What did I begin? and what have I accomplished? At what did I aim? and unto what have I attained? To what did I aspire? and why am I now sighing? I sought good, and behold, trouble.(Jer. xiv. 19) I aimed at God, and have stumbled upon myself. I sought rest in my secret chamber, and I have found tribulation and grief in the inmost parts. I desired to laugh for gladness of spirit and am constrained to roar for the disquietness of my heart.(Ps. xxxviii. 8) I hoped for joy and behold increase of sorrow. How long, O Lord, how long? How long, O Lord, wilt Thou forget us, how long wilt Thou hide Thy face from us? (Ps. xiii. 1) When wilt Thou turn and hearken unto us? When wilt thou enlighten our eyes and show us Thy face? When wilt Thou restore Thy presence to us? Turn and look upon us, O Lord: hearken unto us, enlighten us, show us Thyself. Restore to us Thy presence that it may be well with us; for without Thee it goes very ill with us. Have pity upon our labours and strivings after Thee, for without Thee we can do nothing. Thou callest us; help us to obey the call. I beseech Thee, O Lord, that I may not despair in my sighing, but may draw full breath again in hope. My heart is embittered by its desolation; with Thy consolation, I beseech Thee, O Lord, make it sweet again."

2009-10-27T09:50:00.004-05:00

via

One Letter Different - Movie Titles:

2009-10-24T11:21:00.000-05:00

Movie Titles with only one letter changed:

Zombiegland
Jurassic Pork
Black to the Future
Madagascat
The Incredible Sulk
Mystic Rover
Iron Can
Scarfface
The Green Pile
Petty Woman
Its a Wonderful Lime
Schindler's Lint
The Man with Two Drains
A View to a Kilt
Speedo
Apocalypse Cow
Dude, Where's My Cat
Shaving Private Ryan
Corn on the Fourth of July
Allens

via Twitter trending

Football? Soccer?

2009-10-20T12:58:00.005-05:00

Here's a good solution to that whole 'football/soccer' dilemma:

The National Handegg League

via

Robber Consoles Victim by Praying With Her!!

2009-10-20T09:28:00.008-05:00

Police: Hugging, Praying Robber Surrenders

INDIANAPOLIS -- A man who police said was involved in a bizarre robbery in which he hugged and prayed with a frightened store clerk turned himself in after his mother saw him on TV.

Indianapolis police Lt. Jeff Duhamell said Gregory Smith, 23, had a gun when he went to the Advance America Store in the 900 block of East Washington Street Monday.

Police said Smith jumped behind the counter and pointed a gun at the female clerk, but then became remorseful when she began crying and talking about God.

"He, at that time, starts to basically console her," said Indianapolis police Detective Kevin Wethington.

Police said the robber told the clerk that he hated to do it, but times are hard and he has a 2-year-old child to support.

Surveillance video showed the clerk praying with the robber, who even went so far as to hug the frightened female clerk.

"They were actually praying at this point about the decisions that he's making," Wethington said.

When the clerk pleaded with the gunman not to shoot her, police said he made a shocking gesture to put her at ease, police said.

"He reaches down, hands her the bullet out of his gun," Wethington said.

After 30 minutes of conversation with the clerk, the robber grabbed about $20 from the register and the clerk's cell phone before he left, investigators said.Smith was expected to be charged with robbery.

Copyright 2009 by TheIndyChannel.com All rights reserved.

2009-10-12T14:37:00.001-05:00

2009-10-07T07:33:00.000-05:00

C.S. Lewis was a 'dejected...convert'

2009-10-05T16:25:00.006-05:00

C.S. Lewis was a 'dejected...convert'.

Perhaps this gives some comfort to those who are currently the 'dejected converted'.

source

New book on the Inklings (Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, etc.)...

2009-10-02T09:45:00.002-05:00

The world's best photographer has joined with the world's best writer to produce the world's best photo-book (am I over-selling it a little?):

Click here for larger view

Funny Pacifier...

2009-10-01T14:36:00.002-05:00

$12.95

via

Over-parenting and the 'wilderness of childhood'...

2009-09-29T10:08:00.000-05:00

The provocative writer Michael Chabon recently published a marvelous essay called “Manhood for Amateurs” on the loss of what he calls the “Wilderness of Childhood” in the New York Review of Books. In the piece, Chabon muses on the ways in which modern children have been robbed of the danger and wonder inherent in childhood exploration.

He writes of past days of freedom and adventure:

The thing that strikes me now when I think about the Wilderness of Childhood is the incredible degree of freedom my parents gave me to adventure there. A very grave, very significant shift in our idea of childhood has occurred since then. The Wilderness of Childhood is gone; the days of adventure are past. The land ruled by children, to which a kid might exile himself for at least some portion of every day from the neighboring kingdom of adulthood, has in large part been taken over, co-opted, colonized, and finally absorbed by the neighbors.

Chabon recounts a startling story of two neighboring children who have never met one another due to their cloistered childhoods:

We schedule their encounters for them, driving them to and from one another’s houses so they never get a chance to discover the unexplored lands between. If they are lucky, we send them out to play in the backyard, where they can be safely fenced in and even, in extreme cases, monitored with security cameras. When my family and I moved onto our street in Berkeley, the family next door included a nine-year-old girl; in the house two doors down the other way, there was a nine-year-old boy, her exact contemporary and, like her, a lifelong resident of the street. They had never met.

The whole piece is worth reading. Chabon’s book of the same title, out next week, also looks like a great read.

There’s much to think about in this article. Are we over-parenting? Are we robbing our children of an important gift, the wilderness world where adventure, a little danger, and freedom wait to enchant and mature them?

I’m not sure. I’m a young father. I want my daughter to have a full and happy life. But I also want to protect her. I do sometimes wonder if our laments about the lost freedom of former days miss the fact that the world has become so much more complex and scary for parents. Speaking without almighty facts or stats, we seem less innocent as a society now, less protective of children. Many of us would love to set our kids free as we hear used to happen in former days, but there are many understandable obstacles in the way of a “liberated” childhood that some wish for.

I can say one thing. I’m committed to not over-parent my children. I want them to experience adventure, freedom, liberation, and a tiny bit of danger. But fundamentally, I want to keep them safe, happy, and healthy. In a modern world, we will have to work hard to reconcile these twin desires, trusting at all times in the providence of our great God, acting with all the wisdom and prudence we can muster.

via

Jackson Sun story about some friends of mine...

2009-09-25T15:38:00.004-05:00

A mission to share:
Indigenous Outreach International's 10th Anniversary

By TRACIE SIMER
tsimer@jacksonsun.com • September 25, 2009

More than 12 years ago, Patrick Beard and his wife, Lana, moved to Ethiopia to become missionaries. Their dreams were ended when they had to return to the United States because she had a complicated pregnancy.

"I came home sick and beaten," he said. "I just knew our missions career was over."

However, he soon had a vision to help native missionaries and pastors like the ones he met in Ethiopia. That vision became Indigenous Outreach International, which celebrated 10 years of ministry Thursday night at Union University.

The ministry now supports 38 missionaries in Ethiopia, two in Brazil and one in Germany. The organization also provides a child care service to meet the needs of 100 poverty-stricken children in Ethiopia, Beard said.

After six weeks, the ministry was supporting seven missionaries for about $250 a month, Beard said.

"Indigenous Outreach International was born in suffering, carried out in simplicity and grounded in ancient roots," he said. "It's simple, really - we saw brothers in need, and we had compassion. We're simply doing what the apostle Paul did when he helped out young missionaries and churches."

Steven Kennedy, missions coordinator for the ministry, said the celebration was a way for people to learn more about what the ministry does and hear about its progress.

"We wanted to make the Jackson area aware of what this ministry is doing," he said. "Scripture says that good news from distant lands brings joy to the heart. We want to encourage (people) that God is working around the world and using people in Jackson to help around the world."

Beard shared the stories of a few missionaries who receive support and who have started their own ministries. Future projects include opening a cafe in Ethiopia to help raise funds and creating training centers for missionaries there, Beard said.

"God has done some amazing things," he said. "I hope we can continue to help others in need."

Kennedy said that aside from financial support, Indigenous Outreach International also offers technical, educational and prayer support.

more photos

2009-09-25T11:00:00.000-05:00

Prisoners get drunk on swine flu hand gel

Inmates have been drinking the liquid soap placed on their wing after realising it contained alcohol. The detergent was meant to beat off the threat of swine flu in the Verne Prison on Portland, Dorset.

However, instead of rubbing it into their hands, inmates at the category C prison have been placing their mouths over the dispensers and consuming it.

Prison officers had expressed their concerns at suddenly having to deal with a number of drunken convicts before the brawl erupted.

It is thought one prisoner became aggressive after downing the gel and started a fist fight with another inmate. Now the governor of the Verne has removed all of the dispensers from the prison.

A source at the Verne said: "The cleansers were put out on a wing to combat swine flu but as soon as they were put out, the prisoners started drinking the stuff straight out of them.

"There was a fight after one of the prisoners got violent after drinking the gel. The canisters have now all been removed from the wings but I couldn't quite believe it when they were put out in the first place."

via

Why Donuts Have Holes ;)

2009-09-25T07:27:00.000-05:00

Best 'Music' Moments from "The Office"...

2009-09-24T12:32:00.002-05:00

Is Swine Flu Deadly? Not Really...

2009-09-24T07:01:00.004-05:00

Click on picture for larger view

Feel good story...

2009-09-17T09:31:00.003-05:00

2009-09-15T15:50:00.004-05:00

Snake with foot found in China

2009-09-15T10:21:00.000-05:00

Snake with foot found in China: "A snake with a single clawed foot has been discovered in China.

Dean Qiongxiu, 66, said she discovered the reptile clinging to the wall of her bedroom with its talons in the middle of the night.

'I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound. I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw,' said Mrs Duan of Suining, southwest China.

Mrs Duan said she was so scared she grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death before preserving its body in a bottle of alcohol.

The snake – 16 inches long and the thickness of a little finger – is now being studied at the Life Sciences Department at China's West Normal University in Nanchang.

Snake expert Long Shuai said: 'It is truly shocking but we won't know the cause until we've conducted an autopsy.'

The Anagram Hall of Fame

2009-09-15T10:02:00.001-05:00

If you rearrange the letters of _____ you get ______:

Elvis = Lives

Listen = Silent

Clint Eastwood = Old West Action

Western Union = No Wire Unsent

The country side = No City Dust Here

Astronomers = Moon starers

The eyes = They see

Waitress = A stew, Sir?

The Morse Code = Here Come Dots

Heavy Rain? = Hire a Navy!

Mother-in-law = Woman Hitler

A domesticated animal = Docile, as a man Tamed it

The United States Bureau of Fisheries = I Raise the Bass to Feed Us in the Future

Snooze Alarms = Alas! No More Z’s

Vacation Times = I’m Not as Active

The Hospital Ambulance = A Cab, I Hustle to Help Man

The United States of America = Attaineth its cause, freedom

A Decimal Point = I’m a Dot in Place

The Earthquakes = That Queer Shake

Statue of Liberty = Built to Stay Free

New York Times = Monkeys write

Television programming = Permeating living rooms

My favorite...

Presbyterians = Britney Spears

via

Seriously...You Have to Lose Your Life to Find It

2009-09-09T12:29:00.005-05:00

I read this excerpt from a blog by a young girl who is a missionary in Uganda, you've got to read it!:

Friday, August 14, 2009

It is my 16th Birthday and I am eating sushi at my favorite restaurant with my parents when I tell them that I would like to explore the possibility of taking a year in between high school and college to do mission work. This is unheard of in my family and they say they are not sure and will think about it. I am nervous, but somehow I know it is right. He changes their hearts.

I have just turned 18 and find an orphanage online. I beg my parents to let me visit over break, just three weeks. A month later I am on a plane. I am so excited. I am so scared of being, but I know He is going with me. I fall in love.

I graduate high school having made the commitment to teach Kindergarten for a year at a school in The Middle of Nowhere, Uganda. In August I get on the plane. I’m apprehensive and I cry most of the way because I miss my Mommy and my boyfriend. I am eager, but so uncertain. I trust Him. I teach 138 children how to speak English and to love Jesus.

It is October and I am just not sure I can do it anymore. I live in the smallest room I have ever seen in the back of a pastor’s house. I am more uncomfortable than I had bargained for. No one understands, not people here, not people at home. I am tired. But I am prideful and I am not going to quit. I don’t like this. But I know He has a plan. I learn, I grow, He is there.

It is December and God has spoken very clearly about opening a ministry that sponsors 40 of the orphaned children in the village where I am working. This involves moving into a different house, ALONE. It is big and I cannot imagine how God will fill it up. I am lonely and I am anxious. But I am still trusting. He fills the house, and we now have 400 children sponsored.

It is January and I am looking at a little girl, crushed under a brick wall with no one to care for her or her younger siblings. I offer to take the three home with me until we find them a better placement. I am not really sure what to do with them, but I know they are God’s children. They stay.

It is three days later and the littlest looks at me and calls me mommy. My heart might break in two. Something clicks. I am even more scared than I was the day I stepped on that plane, but I KNOW. Today I have 13.

I have to deliver a baby, give a boy stitches, pull a tooth, give and injection. I am petrified. But no one will do it if I do not. He is present, He holds my hand, they are all fine.

It is August and I must get on a plane back to America to go to college, as I have promised my father. I do not remember how to be a teenager or what it is to be normal Brentwood, Tennessee. I will have to leave my babies. I will have to make new friends. I am sad and I am terrified. He wraps His arms around me. He puts just the right people in just the right places, and they help me and they make me feel at home.

First semester is over and He speaks clearly to me that I cannot serve two masters. “Go HOME,” He says, “and stay.” I am uncertain, but I want to be obedient. He squeezes tighter. I am thankful.

I have to look at my loving parents who have given me everything and tell them that I will not go to college right now, because I feel God wants me to be in Uganda. I know how disappointed and how angry they will be. I am more scared than I was when I got on the plane and more scared than I was when I took my first children. But I know that this IS the Plan. They love me anyway.

It is February and my daughter’s biological father comes to take her away. My heart breaks in half, and I am not sure I will ever be able to get out of my bed again, let alone foster another child. I am more than devastated, but I want what is best for her, what He wants for her. She comes back and her biological father learns about Jesus.

It is March and a lame little girl is brought to my gate. She is undoubtedly mine, but I am still anxious. What if I can’t do it? I don’t know what to do with a special needs child, especially as my 13th child. I am criticized and ridiculed. I wonder. I trust and praise God for her sweet little life. She starts to walk.

I find myself in a village full of starving people that for some reason seem to want to kill me. God says to serve them anyway. I am not sure how it is going to work, or if it is safe. I can’t figure it out, but I know He can. 1,200 Karamajongs, the poorest of Uganda’s poor, are now served hot meals daily.

We keep taking in more children until there are 400 in our program. There is no way we will raise enough funds, but by now I have stopped worrying. He has always provided. Blessings rain from the sky, and all 400 children go to school.

I am 20 years old and have 13 children and 400 more who all depend on me for their care. Who are all learning to love Jesus and be responsible adults and looking up to me. The reality of it all can be a bit overwhelming at times. However, it is always pure joy. There is a common misconception that I am courageous. I will be the first to tell you that this is not actually true. Most of the time, I am not brave. I just believe in a God who will use me even though I am not. Most mornings, before I even get out of bed I am overwhelmed with His goodness, with His plan for my life; I stand in awe of the fact that He could entrust me with so much. Most days, I don’t have much of a plan. I don’t always know where this is going. I can’t see the end of the road, but here is the great part: Courage is not about knowing the path. It is about taking the first step. It is about Peter, getting out of the boat. I do not know my five year plan; even tomorrow will probably not go as I have planned. I am thrilled and I am terrified, in a good way. So some call it courage, some call it foolish, I call it Faith. I choose to get out of the boat. To take the next step. Sometimes I walk straight into His arms. More often, I get scared and look down and stumble. Sometimes I almost completely drown. And through it all, He never lets go of my hand.

Read the rest of her blog posts here.

Thanks, Tyler Glodjo

Hilarious Soccer Moments...

2009-09-07T08:31:00.000-05:00

http://haha.nu/entertainment/20-hilarious-plays-in-football/