The Great Separation

Long Day at the Church Garage Sale.

I'm beat. I don't know how a garage sale can take it out of you, but it zapped me and my mom & dad. Now we have to do it again tomorrow. Tomorrow should be busier based on last year's sale.

I was a bit suprised today by some of the grumpie people we had to deal with. But then there were those like the man in a wheel chair who thanked us for our ministry here in the community. So that mightily offset the grumpy ones.

Of course each year has its surprises. A few years ago we had an older couple drive up in a newer white cadillac with gold tones. They preceeded to try to steal items. And then there are those that offset such greed by telling us to keep the change for the church or the church's tutoring program.

Ah..... I'm starting to drift off into my innerspace so I think I will crawl to my bed and do the drifting from a horizontal position (I lost count on how many times I had to correct this last sentence and I think three or four songs have played from the CD in the drive - yeah, I'm beat).

I know I promised to post the Family Christian letter and I still intend too but I'm too muddle headed to do it right now and form a response. So it will have to wait till later. Maybe Sunday or more likely Monday. Oh! Sunday, I've got to get together the Revelation Study Questions for Bible study Sunday night... Nuts and Rusty Bolts! I knew there was something I was forgetting.

Better grab the Bible and notepad on that crawl...nite nite.

Garage Sale.

Mercy. There's so much good stuff to blog about this morning but I just don't seem to have the time.

We're having a huge church garage sale and so my Dad and I will be running it today and tomorrow.

I'm already worn out from setting all the stuff out. I got way to much sun yesterday. Which reminds me, where's the sun block? Got to remember the sun block. The weather should be great if not a little on the warm side, at least things are dry.

Oh, I sent a copy of my post, Christian Store Chain Decides To Break Three Commandments, to Family Christian Stores and received a response in the mail yesterday. I'll post it later when I get a chance.

You might want to check out these headlines this morning:
Man fails to break clothes pegs on face record
and
Judge to Christian mom: No 'homophobic' teaching.

Later,
Hal

SMS Marriage.

Nokia Must Be Proud - I immediately thought of that cell phone commercial where everyone in the marriage ceremony uses the walkie talkie enabled c-phones. So maybe this is a life imitating art story.

Ananova™ reports that a Belgian couple will be exchanging vows by text messaging each other on November 14. And yes the marriage proposal was done in the same manner.

Well, I guess if the Muslim world can get divorced via text messaging, the Christian world should be able to get hitched in the same manner.

Egypt Arresting and Torturing Christians.

Signs of the Times - More than twenty-two Christians have been seized by the government of Egypt and brutalized in attempt to make them convert back to Islam.

Julie Stahl, the CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief, reports Egyptians that have converted to Christianity are under extreme pressure by the Islamic government in Egypt to denounce Christ and return to their Muslim religion.

Stahl writes:

"While it is not technically illegal for Muslims to convert to Christianity in Egypt, converts are often sought out and arrested on other charges in an attempt to force them to return to Islam, said Paul Cook, advocacy manager of the Barnabas Fund, which helps Christians in countries where they are a minority, and particularly, where they are persecuted.

"According to the British-based charity, a new wave of arrests began on October 21 with the arrests of two converts: Yusuf Samuel Makari Suliman and his wife, Mariam Girgis Makar, two former Muslims.

"'The Christians have been taken from Alexandria to police stations in Cairo and are being beaten, interrogated and tortured," the Barnabas Fund said in a statement.

...The group has also received information that Mariam and other women may have been raped in an attempt to persuade them to renounce their Christian faith and return to Islam, said Cook in a telephone interview."

The police are holding them under the guise that they falsified records. Among other things, it is illegal in Egypt to change a Muslim name to a non-Muslim name which is something many Christian converts wish to do. So many apply for a passport with a Christian name and that is what the government of Egypt is using as a falsified records charge in order to punish people for their leaving the Muslim religion.

Read the full article, it's worth your time. It sheds some light on how extreme Islamic religion is working its way through predominately Muslim countries and at what cost.

Hat tip to WorldNetDaily™.

The Great Separation continues.

Sea Captain Grabs Shark by the Tail.

Not Ahab but The Iceman - I call this an incident of the everyday hero. A person who, in doing their job day in and day out, does the heroic.

Here is a man, a fishing captain, that does just that. You and I would label the act of saving his men from a shark, heroic, but he would likely say it's all in a day's work.

Reuters reports:

"The skipper of the trawler 'Erik the Red' was on a beach in Kuummiit, east Greenland, watching his crew processing a catch when he saw the shark swimming towards the fish blood and guts -- and his men.

"Captain Sigurdur Petursson, known to locals as 'the Iceman', ran into the shallow water and grabbed the shark by its tail. He dragged it off to dry land and killed it with his knife."

The shark weighed in at 660 pounds. We only find out about this story because a person on the beach saw the deed and reported it to the newspaper. 'The Iceman' and his crew likely just went on with work.

It's Not Just the Anglican Church.

Can We Call it The Bride of Christ Anymore? - The sin of homosexuality isn't exclusive to the Anglican Church. Satan has infected the whole of the church with the promotion of this sin and is attempting to set up new theology around it.

Some Evidence:

Gleb Bryanksi for Reuters UK writes:

"Sweden's national church has taken a first step towards allowing gay marriages after senior clerics voted to draft an order of service for such a ceremony."

He goes on to quote a sorely confused pastor,

" 'The Swedish church has thus taken a prophetic role upon itself,' lesbian pastor Ann-Cathrin Jarl told Reuters at the assembly in Uppsala, north of Stockholm, on Thursday. 'We are the first major church that has come to that point.' "

Confused because she clearly doesn't know what prophecy is.

Bryanski goes on to quote the Swedish Church's archbishop as saying this step towards 'gay marriages' (ie, the endorsing of sin),

"...is a step towards making this reality but a solid theological foundation is needed before the church can go further."

A 'solid theological foundation'! You've got to be kidding me? So basically, they are going to rewrite God's Holy Word into their own image. That foundation isn't solid, it's sinking sand filled with hopelessness and death.

Not to be left out - or is that locked in the closet? - a Seattle Methodist minister has told her bishop that she is practicing the sin of homosexuality and has been doing so for some time. But it's ok in her eyes because it is with one woman. And they have a son.

Peggy Anderson for the AP reports that, thankfully,

"The [Methodist] denomination's Book of Discipline bars "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from being ordained or serving as pastors. On Monday, the church's highest court -- known as the United Methodist Judicial Council -- said the book must be upheld."

So it looks like the woman will be removed from her place of authority. Hopefully, they can find a way to bring this woman to redemption through the Love of Christ.

The Great Separation continues.

Microsoft Helping Police Fight Child Pornography.

Redmond, WA - Stuart Shepard for Family News In Focus is reporting that Microsoft has answered the call from police to help develop a system to categorize, organize, and track child pornography.

This moves Microsoft up an number of notches in my opinion of the company.

Shepard writes:

"The effort began when an exasperated Toronto police detective made a shot-in-the-dark e-mail plea to Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Last year, the Toronto Police Department seized more than two million child pornography images, according to Paula Knight, a spokeswoman for Microsoft Canada.

" 'That's a huge amount of data for them to actually have to go through,' Knight said. 'So, this system will allow them to put a much better process around that, so they can 1) process that kind of information; but 2) collaborate on that information across the country.' "

Microsoft has sunk $500,000.00 into the project so far. Which may not seem like a lot when you consider the worth of the company on the stock market but it doesn't diminish the fact that this is a good thing to be doing. And the company says they aren't looking to make money from this project but instead are trying to be a 'responsible leader.'

I'm glad to see they recognize the need to help stop this horrible crime against children, civilization, and innocence.

Bush Gives Condoleezza Rice New Title.

Washington D.C. - This made me smile.

At a news conference the other day Bush was discussing the new National Security Council oversight group that is under Rice. Of course some of you that are up to date on political wrangling will remember the hoopla this caused because there was the innuendos that Rumsfeld was being 'sidelined.'

The AP reports Bush had this to say about Rice and the oversight duties,

"The role of the national security adviser is to not only provide good advice to the president, which she does on a regular basis... but her job is also to deal inter-agency and to help unstick things that may get stuck. That's the best way to put it. She's an unsticker."

Now that's a job title fit for a movie of the week. The 'Unsticker'.

:D

Army Colonel Charged with Applying Psychological Pressure to Terrorist.

Iraq - This just can't be right. The mixed messages this sends to those outside the military and much more to those inside the military is mind boggling.

Rowan Scarborough reports in The Washington Times that Lt. Colonel Allen B. West is facing a court martial because he,

"...coerced an Iraqi into providing information that foiled a planned attack on U.S. soldiers.

"Lt. Col. Allen B. West says he did not physically abuse the detainee, but used psychological pressure by twice firing his service weapon away from the Iraqi. After the shots were fired, the detainee, an Iraqi police officer, gave up the information on a planned attack around the northern Iraqi town of Saba al Boor."

I suggest you follow the link and read the full article.

The Lt. Colonel said,

"I admit that what I did was not right but it was done with the concern of the safety of my soldiers and myself."

Well, if his version of the incident is correct than what he certainly did was not wrong. He very likely is a hero.

I'm not advocating torture because in the end a government that uses it will eat itself apart, and it doesn't sound to me like torture is what happened in this case. They roughed the man up and then applied some psychological pressure on him, scaring him into spilling the beans. That's not torture.

The Lt. Col. saved some lives. Why are they prosecuting the man? He was doing his job.

I'll have to remember to follow this and see what develops.

Coffeehouse at the End-Of-Days Brewing Up Some Truth.

Russ Lipton's Coffeehouse at the End-of-Days has quickly become one of my favorite spots to go for a quick fix.

In commenting on an AP article on MSNBC about how much Halloween has become an adult event in the American culture, he quotes the piece and writes:

In truth, experts say the traditions that gave rise to Halloween - the Celtic 'Samhain' festival and the British All Hallows's Eve - were mainly for adults in the first place.

In other words, Satan is taking back his holiday.

You can't hit it more squarely on the head than that.