A Brief Celebration of Marriage

Since this is Valentine’s Weekend, and last Sunday was Worldwide Marriage Day, it seems appropriate to celebrate one of the greatest gifts that God ever gave to us: marriage. 

I stumbled across a brief sermonette by Jonathan Bartlett of Bartlett Publishing, which was given at his brother-in-law’s wedding. It hits on themes which are, sadly, too rarely heard in our society nowadays:

Education and Character: Learning to See Clearly, part 2

In part 1 of this series, I quoted C.S. Lewis’ essay, “Meditation in a Toolshed,” which illustrated the different between looking AT something and looking ALONG it to its source. There is flexibility and discernment required here. In some sense, it is the difference between objective and subjective seeing, or the difference between analysis and philosophy.

To understand anything–any subject in the natural world–fully,  we ask not only “What is it?” but “What can I infer from it?” and “Where did it come from?” and “What is its purpose?”

Christian Movies: “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby”

Conservative Christians often complain about entertainment these days. And one of our biggest peeves is how difficult it can be trying to find a movie with a positive, Christian message. Heck, sometimes I’d settle for one which doesn’t seem designed to impugn my faith.

Sure, we’ll see an occasional film like Soul Surfer, but that’s the exception to the rule.

Or is it?

Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill: “How Great Thou Art”

After a particularly contentious news cycle this past week, I thought it would be beneficial to bring the focus back onto what’s important in our lives.

What’s truly important.

And I couldn’t come up with a better, or more inspiring, way to illustrate it than this video from 2011.

Please: turn up the volume, close your eyes, and let the Truth bring you peace today….

Ragamuffins!

QUOTE from the article: “…children are not a disease, and poverty isn’t a symptom…”

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A short-but-powerful post in defense of having/raising children, which ends up as a tribute to marriage itself.  ¡Bravo!

J.E. Dyer: “We need to find ways… to disentangle ourselves from what is Evil in our culture.”

If you give the daily headlines even minimal attention, then you probably heard about the murder of Australian baseball player Chris Lane a few weeks back. Tragic, horrible, and yet completely unsurprising, given the level of morality (or lack thereof) which exists in some corners of our society today.

But just because Mr. Lane’s teenaged killers are no longer being discussed on a daily basis, we cannot let the lesson of his death drop by the wayside, as well. To that end, please take a moment to read a wonderful homily on this by J. E. Dyer, whom we have linked several times previously.

A brief quote:

“…Evil can’t be domesticated.  We are fooling ourselves if we think we can laugh with it, subsidize it, refuse to name it, and yet not have it come back around to smack us down. 

You may be surprised to learn this INCREDIBLY FAMOUS GUY is a Christian AND a Capitalist…

From the:  “If you only read, listen to, or watch the MSM, then you probably missed this story” department.

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THIS man is famous. WORLD famous. His birth name is Paul David Hewson.

You may well ask:  “Who the heck is Paul David Hewson”?  Well, perhaps you know him by his more recognized pseudonym:

Bono.

Mr. Hewson (on the far right), pictured with three other dudes I don’t recognize….

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Lead Singer for the über rock group, U2.

Activist.

Seriously, it’s hard to imagine anyone who hasn’t heard of him. Even if you never followed the music, you should certainly remember his much heralded and well-reported missions to Africa.

What you MIGHT have missed were 2 recent stories about Bono:  The Christian, and its powerful sequel, Bono:  The Capitalist.

On June 25th, Bono was a guest on the “Focus on the Family” radio program.  The entire interview is definitely worth reading, but this one excerpt stood out to me (emphasis mine):

Jim Daly of FOTF: So often those that struggle with accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior — it’s the idea that He’s the Messiah. In fact, you were asked about that by a journalist. How did you respond to that?

Bono: Jesus doesn’t let you off the hook. The Scriptures don’t let you off the hook so easily. So, Jesus died on a cross with “King of the Jews,” as the Messiah. In fact, if He’d just given that bit up, you know, [He] would not have had the crucifixion. And Pilate was saying it’s unnecessary. Everyone was, “this is kind of mad.” Because when people say, you know, “good teacher,” “prophet,” “really nice guy,” and this is not how Jesus thought of Himself.  

So, you’re left with a challenge in that, which is either: Jesus was who He said He was, or a complete and utter nut case. You have to make a choice on that.

And I believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

Wow…

I’d actually heard about this a few weeks back while listening to our local K-LOVE affiliate. Then I turned on the local news, …then the “other” MSM stations, …Radio, …TV, …

***insert sound of crickets chirping here***

Hmmm, why wouldn’t they report such a thing?

Oh. Yeah:

I guess Bono just didn’t “come out” with the appropriate type of news that fit the predetermined, MSM narrative.

***sigh***

Then one morning, I woke up to the following clip on ‘Fox and Friends’. The actual speech is nearly an hour in length (you can see it all HERE), but this segment really struck me:

Isn’t this news? In our hyper media-ized world, everything a celebrity says, does, wears or buys at the store is news these days. And here we have Bono, …BONO!…, saying in effect that Aid is a stop-gap, only, and Capitalism takes far more people out of poverty than Aid does.

***crickets begin chirping again, louder this time***

No matter.

This message will still get out, whether or not the press ignores it. As a result, some folks will actually be inspired to examine these topics, perhaps for the first time. Minds which have heretofore been closed to the inherent truths of both Christianity and Capitalism will be opened.

And won’t that be A Beautiful Day?

“The Left vs. our Military Chaplains”: Political Correctness is the new god of the State

A while back, we covered a statement from the Pentagon which confirmed that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith. This seemed to endanger the role of chaplains in military service, since reaching out to soldiers from a religious perspective is part and parcel of their vocation and their training.

A quote from the military site, Stars and Stripes:

What it comes down to, officials said, is that discussing matters of faith and religious practice with a willing audience is allowed, but pushing religious beliefs on those who don’t want to hear it is a form of harassment forbidden under Defense Department policies.

While I strongly disagree that having a man of the cloth reach out to a non-believer equates to “pushing” one’s religious beliefs, if that’s how the military wants it, so be it.

But the following article takes that decision …and basically beats military chaplains over the head with it.