Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The news is filled with reports out of the Democratic Republic of Georgia about the Russian invasion that has wrecked havoc in the tiny nation.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)

Ostensibly, the Russians invaded to defend the ethnic Russians living in the break-away provinces of South Ossetia & Abkhazia who in the 1990's asserted their independence from Georgia and applied to become a part of Russia. Their secession has never been officially recognized by the international community. Even Russia has never acknowledged the transfer of the regions to their soverienty. So it's curious why they are now "responding to the appeal" of these two provinces for military assistance.

Look at a map. Georgia lies between Russia & Iran.

With all of the talk about how the US & Israel will respond to the Iranian nuclear spin-up, we can expect Russia to insert itself into the region. Indeed, the Russians recently completed a railroad INTO Georgia in preparation for their invasion. See http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6458853.html

While Russia now speaks of a cease-fire, nothing in their deployment or actions indicates any halt to their push south. Ineed, their demands on Georgia seem calculated to make sure there is no end to hostilities. Be assured that railroad will continue to be built further south as the Russian bear moves in that direction to fulfill the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39.

On Thursday, May 15th, 2008 the California Supreme Court overturned a proposition passed by California voters in 2000 declaring that only marriages between men and women could be legally recognized.

The 4-3 decision reversed a lower court ruling enforcing the ban on same-sex marriage.

Before the Califonria court decision, only one other state, Massachussetts, allowed same-sex marriage. But as the most populous state in the nation, California's ruling could have far-reaching national impact.

The Last Humans - A Significant Trend Preparing the World for the End Times

Pastor Lance's fascinating insights on history's slide toward the last days...

Click Here for the full article

If you're a believer who's also a net-crawler (someone who spends time on the internet) chances are you're already encountered something called the Emergent Church or the Emergent Church Movement. Unless you've done a LOT of reading, you're probably a bit confused about it. That's because there's no set definition for what "emergent" means.

President Bush gave a news conference Monday, August 21 and fielded questions from the press about the war in Lebanon . He reiterated his commitment to seeing democracy spread to the nations of the world, especially the Middle East.

As he renewed his commitment to promote free and democratic nations, it became clearer, like the final adjustments on a projector. Every time Bush repeats his commitment to promoting democratic nations in the Middle East it’s like pulling the trigger on a gun aimed at the United States . It adds one more stick of dynamite to the truck bomb used against one of our buildings. It adds a dozen more terrorists to the Holy Jihad against the West.

Okay - unless you've spent the last month outside the States, you've heard at least a half dozen news stories about the "assault on Christmas." Departments stores, public schools, and several municipalities have removed any mention of Christmas in favor of a more secular representation of the holidays. They aren't "Christmas" trees, they're holiday trees. They aren't "Christmas" cards, they're holiday cards. Signs no longer read, "Merry Christmas;" they say "Happy Holidays." Even the lyrics of the most beloved carols are being edited to remove any mention of Jesus. "Silent night. Holy night" has been altered to "Silent night. Winter night" at one public elementary school.

I’ve got a “wild hare” of an idea.

(Is it ‘wild hair’ or ‘wild hare’?)

It’s something I’ve been kicking ‘round the ole gray matter for a few weeks now, but it came back with a vengeance Friday morning. Here’s why . . .

It was on page 5A of the Nov. 30th, 2005 USA Today.

There were 3 major stories on the page along with the paper's typical left-hand side bar of news snippets. The top-most story was about some new hostages taken by the terrorists in Iraq. But it was the middle and bottom stories that caught my attention.

The middle headline read, "'Peacekeeping' a struggle in Sudan" The article was about the failure of African Union troops to quell the violence of Arab militias, armed by the Sudanese Muslim government, perpetrated on unarmed southern Christian villages. The AU troops have stood by and watched while some 180,000 people have been butchered and over two million turned into refugees.

Look at a map. Ethiopia borders Sudan on the east. Hurrah! for the valiant efforts of our troops rescuing a couple cheetahs. That's great! But I wonder - did the editor of the USA Today see the incredible irony of placing these artciles next to each other? What does it say about our foreign policy when our our troops can rescue cheetahs but cannot be used to protect hundreds of thousands of innocent people? What does it say about the way human life is being devalued when these two articles can be placed on the same page, and the utter insanity of the contrast doesn't bring outrage?

I'm outraged. I'm incensed that we live in a world were two cheetahs would be deemed worthy of protection while a thousand children a few miles away are ignored protection.

Earlier I said I had more to comment on the whole Christmas deal. Here it is . .

The idea that there are those seeking to “make merchandise” of the Body of Christ really frosts me because I’m convinced it’s a large part of the motivation that moved Jesus to clear the temple. The major factor was the terrible way God was being misrepresented. But HOW He was being defamed was in the way the religious leaders were taking advantage of the worship of the sincere who came to the temple.

Hamas, an Islamic Terrorist organization, one officially registered as such by our federal government, is now the leading political party in Palestine. Elections last week saw Hamas secure 74 of the 132 seats in the Palestinian legislature...