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A Classic Presidential Response

This week a classic letter of response for natural disaster funds resurfaced on Twitter. The classic response was from President Ronald Reagan in 1984 to 13 year old, Andy Smith from Irmo, South Carolina, who wrote a letter to him requesting funds for a natural disaster.

Here is how the correspondence went:

Request:

Dear Mr. President,

Today my mother declared my bedroom a disaster area. I would like to request federal funds to hire a crew to clean up my room.

Presidential response:

Dear Andy:

I’m sorry to be so late in answering your letter but as you know I’ve been in China and found your letter here upon my return.

Your application for disaster relief has been duly noted but I must point out one technical problem; the authority declaring the disaster is supposed to make the request. In this case your mother.

However, setting that aside, I’ll have to point out the larger problem of available funds. This has been a year of disasters, 539 hurricanes as of May 4th and several more since, numerous floods, forest fires, drought in Texas and a number of earthquakes. What I’m getting at is that funds are dangerously low.

May I make a suggestion? This administration, believing that government has done many things that could better be done by volunteers at the local level, has sponsored a Private Sector Initiative program, calling upon people to practice voluntarism in the solving of a number of local problems.

Your situation appears to be a natural. I’m sure your mother was fully justified in proclaiming your room a disaster. Therefore you are in an excellent position to launch another volunteer program to go along with the more than 3,000 already underway in our nation—congratulations.

Give my best regards to your mother.

Sincerely, Ronald Reagan

The times, they are a changin’. In an age where frivolity is norm, I wonder what the Presidential response would be today.

 

This Looks Like a Good Place for a Toilet

The bible can be the source of wonderful amusement while reading through it. Today my daily reading took me through 2 Kings 10. The text describes the events of Jehu, king of Israel, and his purging of the prophets of Baal. In an effort to round up all of the worshipers of the false god Baal, Jehu proclaims that he wishes to have a grand assembly of the prophets, worshipers, and priests, of Baal. He does this by also proclaiming that whoever is missing from this assembly of worshipers of Baal will be put to death. The worshipers go into the “House of Baal” and offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. As soon as the end of the offering is made, Jehu and eighty of his guard go in and slaughter all of the worshipers. Jehu also orders the demolition of the “House of Baal” and  “made into a latrine to this day.”

Ok, my first thought was of a pile of rubble and the infamous Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs) peeing on it. But I chose a more appropriate image as you see.

And they demolished the pillar of Baal, and demolished the house of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day. (2 Kings 10:27)

28) Thus Jehu wiped out Baal from Israel.

God is very serious about that first commandment.

Soli Deo Gloria!!

 

Where Have All the Wild Things Gone?

This post stems from the news of the death of Maurice Sendack, the author of the, then controversial, children’s illustrated fiction “Where The Wild things Are.” “WTWTA” was published in 1963 and came into the public eye with  
mixed feelings from parents. I remember that although my parents would not allow me to read it because it represented a misbehaving child and had scary illustrations, I had fellow students and friends who had read it. I had always been curious about monsters and scary things as a child and even to some degree today. When I saw the book in the public library at six years of age, I sat down and read through it. It was truly scary with it’s monster characters who had fangs and long sharp claws. But I also remember thinking that the ending was kind of cool because Max (the lead character) ended up back at home with supper waiting. I never did tell my mother about reading that book until I was in Jr. High or early High School. By then it was fairly tame as far as subject matter goes.

Read the rest of this entry »

 

Bring the Books and Above All the Parchments

So wrote Paul to Timothy in his second letter. The text was brought to mind during a listen to an interview Dr. Albert Mohler had with Robert Darnton. Among his many positions and roles, Darnton is the director or the Harvard University Library. Which means his daily duties surround many books. The primary reason for the interview was to discuss Darton’s book “The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future” (New York: NY Public Affairs. 2009). 

With the the future of the “codex” (from “The Gutenberg Bible” to “Tuesday”s With Morrie”) seemingly defunct due to digital media, the two men discuss Darnton’s book and the future of the traditional book. I really recommend this podcast to anyone who has a love for books and the future of books.

The Fate of the Book in the Digital Age: A Conversation with Robert Darnton

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

Would Jesus Have A Facebook Page?

I stumbled on this article by Michael Horton in My Feedly today. I thought it was interesting enough to share. Below are some excerpts from the article. But please click on the links provided, and read the article in it’s entirety. Are we really going down this road as a church?

Technology should ultimately be an enhancement, not a replacement, for gathering in person for worship, discussion, debate and service to others.

You can have a digital Bible in the palm of your hand or connect with others in prayer any time anywhere.

Contrary to the propaganda of the techno-evangelists, the Internet cannot bring people together, bodily, to make them a communion of saints. It can deliver data, even crucial information about God’s Worrd, but it cannot deliver Christ with all of his benefits.

Would Jesus Have A Facebook Page?

 

The Six Fingered Man is Dead

During my daily bible reading I happened upon some text that once again interacts with pop culture. The biblical text I am referring to is in 2 Samuel 21 verse 20.  

And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants.

Someone please inform Indigo Montoya that the he may have killed the wrong six-fingered man.

 

Displaying Christ from 9 to 5

This past Lord’s Day our local pastor, Mike Rue, exposited on the scriptures found in Ephesians 6:5-9. This section of scripture is usually sub-titled “Slave and Masters” in most bible translations. Culturally we can relate to this section
 of scripture as “Employees and Bosses”. The text provides answers to the following: How, as Christians, do we behave within the confines of our daily grind, (job used in a popular negative term) and relate to our bosses or employees.

Pastor Mike lays out two imperatives from this text: (I know they originally came from the Apostle Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit)

1) Work as if Jesus was your boss.

 Work with sincerity and respect.

2) Treat your employee as if he was Jesus.

Respect and honor.

How are treating those who serve us?

We all can relate as a boss in how we treat our server at a restaurant.

Whether you are a janitor scrubbing toilets or a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, there is no difference with God.

Mike also asked each of us to pray and consider a few practical ways we could change the way we work to display Christ.

Here are a few I came up with:

Perform my job as if it has a direct reflection on Christ and his accomplishments.

Love and respect all of my co-workers regardless of how they treat me.

Serve my boss as I should be serving Christ.

Below is the link to the sermon. I hope you glean as much from it as I did.

Displaying Christ from 9 to 5.

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

Tommy Bolin and Friends – A unique tribute album

This is a great addition to the collection of any fan of the late and über talented Tommy Bolin. It is a very unique tribute album in that the producer took actual tracks from unreleased versions of his songs and guest musicians played and vocalized along. One of the guest vocalists is the ever present Miles Kennedy. One of my top vocalists of all time. The songs sound like Tommy is recording right there with them. Awesome!

Links to the album provided via the image and the link below.

Great Gypsy Soul (Deluxe Edition) – Tommy Bolin and Friends

 
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Posted by on April 7, 2012 in Tommy Bolin, tribute album

 

Francis Chan Kindle Books for Free

Amazon Kindle is making these three Francis Chan eBooks available for free today. Click on the images to go there.

 
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Posted by on April 6, 2012 in Francis Chan, Kindle

 

The Sovereignty of God and The Last Revival at Geneva

Today I listened to a wonderful sermon by the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice. The sermon is posted here at the bottom of the page. If you read the accompanying personal story written by Pastor Barry York, you will be blessed as well. I found the Gentle Reformation blog posting via the Challies feed in My Feedly. You just gotta love technology.

As I listened to Kokomo Krusade story by Dr. Boice, and as he expounded on the Romans 11, Dr. Boice mentions and emphatically recommends a commentary of Romans by Robert Haldane. This is a recommendation I could not help but research. What I found is, this Romans commentary comes highly recommended in Reformation circles. Almost as thrilling as finding this gem of a commentary is the history behind how Robert Haldane came to write his commentary. The story, along with some other tid bits about Robert Haldane  can be found here, including some encouraging info concerning the sovereignty of God through his life.

Below, I have provided a few links. The first two are links to the Haldane Romans Commentary. The first one also has a bit of the story from Dr. Boice, and the second is the commentary by itself. The last link is also the link to the story of the last known Reformation revival in Geneva Switzerland. Enjoy!

Robert Haldane by James M. Boice

Romans Commentary by Robert Haldane – PDF format

Up From the Ashes: Robert Haldane and the Revival in Geneva

Actual commentary at Amazon.com

S D G!!