The Locution

Quoting Ike

2011-09-15T16:49:00.001-07:00

"We are summoned to act in wisdom and in conscience, to work with industry, to teach with persuasion, to preach with conviction, to weigh our every deed with care and with compassion. For this truth must be clear before us: whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come pass in the heart of America."

- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jan. 20, 1953.

Leaders not victims

2011-08-19T14:07:00.001-07:00

The question is not what the president inherited, the question is what has he done to make things better. That is the question behind the question, that is personal responsibility. We didn't elect our officials to be victims, we elected them to be leaders.

Own the Quote

2011-08-09T14:38:00.001-07:00

"Memo to U.S. presidents of any party: Please stand at the lectern & say, "I am accountable. I own this economy. I own the problem."
- John Miller, Author of the QBQ and Fliping the Switch.

Quoting For the Weekend

2011-07-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

"We live in an age in which advocates do not believe in their own advocacy:A “planet is doomed” Al Gore refuses to fly economy; a statist John Kerry won’t pay taxes on his yacht unless he is caught; an anti-war Barack Obama won’t honor the War Powers Act he once deified; and the liberal congressional and media establishment will not put their children in the D.C. schools that are the reification of their own ideology."

-Victor Davis Hanson
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270892/liberal-frankensteins-victor-davis-hanson?page=2

Willard Quote

2011-06-11T09:35:00.000-07:00

The disappearance of Jesus as teacher explains why today in Christian churches – of whatever leaning – little effort is made to teach people to do what he did and taught. Once again, it is a natural consequence of our basic message. Who among us has personal knowledge of a seminar or course of study and practice being offered in a “Christian Education Program” on how to “love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who spit on you and make your life miserable”? (Matt. 5:44). Much less, then, one on how to conduct our business or profession on behalf of Jesus Christ (Col. 3:17, 23). The most common response by Christians in the “real” world to Christ’s teachings is, precisely, “Business is Business.” And we all know what that means.

- Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.56.

The Ten Commandments

2011-06-10T06:56:00.001-07:00

Some critics of the U.S. Supreme Court like to point out that it does not allow the Ten Commandments, though written upon the walls of its own chambers, to be displayed in public schools.

But where do we find churches, right or left, that put them on their walls? Then Ten Commandments really aren’t very popular anywhere. This is so in spite of the fact that even a fairly general practice of them would lead to a solution of almost every problem of meaning and order now facing Western societies. They are God’s best information on how to lead a basically decent human existence.

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.56

Quote of the Day

2011-06-09T21:44:00.001-07:00

"I think that has been proven again and again, White House press secretary Jay Carney said of President Obama's commitment to reducing the deficit. "Most recently by the continuing resolution negotiation that averted a government shutdown earlier this year with Republicans that tighten deficits significantly in this fiscal year by the Affordable Care Act, which is a long term deficit."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/06/09/whs_carney_obama_extremely_dedicated_to_deficit_reduction.html

What a joke.

Freedom

2011-05-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

"Progress is not foreordained. The key is freedom: Freedom of thought, freedom of information, freedom of communication."

- President Ronald Reagan.

Remarks at a Question and Answer Session with the students and faculty at Moscow State University, May 31, 1988.

Quote of the Day

2011-05-29T10:45:00.001-07:00

Does Jesus only enable me to ‘make the cut’ when I die? Or to know what to protest, or how to vote or agitate and organize? It is good to know that when I die all will be well, but is there any good news for life? If I had to choose, I would rather have a car that runs than good insurance on one that doesn’t. Can I not have both?

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, P.12.

Quote of the Day

2011-05-18T09:35:00.001-07:00

"Life is too short to be small." - Benjamin Disraeli

The Cost of Discipleship

2011-05-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

There is no deeper distress to be found in the world, no pain more bitter than our enemy’s. Nowhere is service more necessary or more blessed than when we serve our enemies.

Bohnoeffer, p.149

TCOD

2011-05-06T07:48:00.000-07:00

Love asks nothing in return, but seeks those who need it. And who needs our love more than those who are consumed with hatred and are utterly devoid of love? Who in other words deserves our love more than our enemy? Where is love more glorified than where she dwells in the midst of her enemies?
Bohnoeffer, p.148

Quote of the Day

2011-05-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

By our enemies Jesus means those who are quite intractable and utterly unresponsive to our love, who forgive us nothing when we forgive them all, who requite our love with hatred and our service with derision, ‘For the love that I had unto them, lo, they now take my contrary part: but I give myself unto prayer” (Ps. 109.4).
Bohnoeffer, p.148

Sometimes loving your neighbor means killing him, and other thoughts

2011-05-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes loving your neighbor means killing him

Sometimes the most loving thing to do is to stop your neighbor from continuing to ruin his soul and corrupting other souls. In some instances, the only way one has to stop such a person is to end his life. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it is okay to kill your neighbor but sometimes it is the only thing you can do. Murder is never justified but killing is sometimes necessary.

When loving your neighbor sometimes means killing your neighbor

You cannot stand idly by while evil men do wicked things to innocent people. Governing authorities have the right to ensure protection and justice even if it means killing. Individuals can do so if it is the only choice available to ensure protection of innocent life. Murder irreparably harms the human soul. It is not loving to allow a person to continue to harm himself and others.

Why it is okay to rejoice

OBL was evil. The Bible tells say that those who love good, hate evil, see Amos chapter 5. So we can hate the evil that OBL interjected into the world. If Cancer was cured we would rightly rejoice. OBL was a cancer and we should rejoice that he can no longer interject evil into the world.

I said that as an American I rejoice in the news that OBL is dead. I also recognized that another soul is lost to weep and gnash for eternity. I did not say I would mourn his lost but rather recognize it. Whether in life or death we should always recognize that life apart from God is a sad existence. There are many people living that are spiritually dead.

God does not send people to Hell…

But he does honor the individual will. People do not abstractly choose to go to Hell either.

“Thus no one chooses in the abstract to go to hell or even to be the kind of person who belongs there. But their orientation towards self leads them to become the kind of person for whom away-from-God is the only place for which they are suited. It is a place they would, in the end, choose for themselves, rather come to humble themselves before God and accept who he is. Whether or not God’s will is infinitely flexible, the human will is not. There are limits beyond, which it cannot bend back, cannot turn or repent.”
- Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p.57

God does not rejoice in death but in life. He does not like that people choose to ignore him or even out rightly oppose him. God loves people but he will not deny them their will. If a person spends his entire life in a posture opposed to God then the only right and proper place for that person is Hell. For many, Heaven will not and cannot be a place of joy because they do not have a heart prepared for such a blessing.

"We should be very sure that the ruined soul is not one who has missed a few more or less important theological points and will flunk a theological examination at the end of life. Hell is not an ‘oops!’ or a slip. One does not miss heaven by a hair, but by constant effort to avoid and escape God.”

- Renovation of the Heart, p.59.

We should withhold judgment because we are all sinners

I understand the posture of humility that comes with this statement. Yes, we are all sinners but people who are caught up in the life of Jesus Christ are called to be substantially different, they are to throw off the old self. No one is perfect but some people are just down right wicked. I am not a mass murderer of innocent people, women, and children. In fact, most people are also not murderous tyrants, regardless of how many people they have murdered in their hearts with anger.

Conclusion

Osama Bin Laden is dead and for that we should delight in justice for our country. We need not fret, God will always act justly when he deals with us. We need not pretend to be sad because OBL did not know Christ. OBL was the master of his will and now God will honor his choices.

Honestly, I cannot mourn the death of OBL nor should you or anyone else. But we can recognize and mourn the path of those who refuse to trust Jesus Christ and to take advantage of the abundant life he offers on earth and in Heaven.

Quoting The Cost of Discipleship

2011-04-30T00:00:00.000-07:00

The only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him.
- Bonhoeffer, p. 147

Quote of the Day

2011-04-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

Since they always speak the whole truth and nothing but the truth, there is no need for an oath, which would only throw doubt on the veracity of all their other statements.

Bonhoeffer, p. 137

TCOD

2011-04-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

The incarnation is the ultimate reason why the service of God cannot be divorced from the service of man. He who says he loves God and hates his brother is a liar.

Bonhoeffer, p. 129

Quoting Bonhoeffer

2011-04-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

If we despise our brother our worship is unreal, and it forfeits every divine promise.

TCOD, p.128

2011-04-26T00:00:00.000-07:00

Anger is always an attack on the brother’s life, for it refuses to let him live and aims at his destruction.

Bonhoeffer, 126

TCOD

2011-04-25T00:00:00.000-07:00

A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, TCOD, p.118

Resurrection Sunday

2011-04-24T01:30:00.000-07:00

‎"The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating thet God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven."

"The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it."
— N.T. Wright

Quoting The Cost of Discipleship

2011-04-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

The call of Christ makes those who respond to it the salt of the earth in their total existence.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, p. 116

Quoting Bonhoeffer - TCOD

2011-04-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

The peacemakers will carry the cross with their Lord, for it was on the cross that peace was made.

- Bonhoeffer, p.113

Quote of the Day

2011-04-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

To go one’s way under the sign of the cross is not misery and desperation, but peace and refreshment for the soul.

-Bonhoeffer, p.93

Quote of the Day

2011-04-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

Thus the call to follow Christ always means a call to share the work of forgiving men their sins. Forgiveness is the Christlike suffering which it is the Christian’s duty to bear.

Bonhoeffer, p.90