Healthcare summit

I watched part of that 7.5 hour healthcare summit yesterday. It made me want to reach through the TV screen and just slap some sense into Obama. His dictator attitude was in full force and I caught him in at least 2 lies. He out right accused the GOP of carelessness of the American public's previous condition welfare. That wasn't what the GOPs objected to, it was all the self-serving of the precious few that had them in an uproar.

This is what McCain pointed out to Obama's face. I thought Obama's ears would shoot blood! If we had some transparency while the bill was being discussed and put together, I do believe there would have been more outrage expressed across the country that what has been already.

Who cares if I have healthcare when I do not have a job? When I can't buy food or pay the mortgage or pay the light bill, no health insurance in the world can bring me back to life or give me back my home. The American people have told those guys in Washington over and over again: Arrange your priorities back in proper order. Take care of the economy and let's worry about healthcare when we (or at least most of us) have a job!

Big words cheat sheet

Okay... so is it cheating to see the answers before the questions? I think it is... but the way the blog world is set up, we must go in an ascending order rather than bookish fashion where the pages descend. So, I shall post the last first and the first last (which is Biblical by the way) so those who come and see and want to play can quickly go to the immediate post below this one to take the test.


20. Sufficiency so fanciful to satisfy the situation. Said after a wonderful dinner to please the hostess with the most-est.


19.Those who live in Glass Houses should cast no stones.


18.All work and No Play makes Jack a Dull boy.


17.One who laughs the last, laughs the best.


16.Twinkle twinkle little star


15.    Look before you leap.


14.    You cant teach an Old Dog new Tricks.


13. The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.


12. Spare the Rod and Spoil the Child.


11. Don't cry over Spilt Milk.


10. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.


9.  Beauty is only skin-deep.


8.  Birds of a feather flock together.


7.   A Rolling Stone gathers no Moss.


I suddenly notice there is no 6. I wonder what happened to it? This was a work exercise when I sold advertising so I know it wasn't pornographic... 


5.    A Rolling Stone gathers no Moss.


4.    Beginner's luck


3.    Dead men tell no tales.


2.  Beggars cannot be choosers.


1.    All that Glitters is not Gold.

Big Words

How's your vocabulary? With the onset of the texting generation, our use of really good words that your tongue wraps around is fading. Here's a test. To help you render the correct word from the less used, "big" word are these restatements of tried and true proverbs. If I think about it, I'll post the answers tomorrow.


 1.All articles that coruscate with resplendence are not  truly auriferous.

 2.Sorting on the part of mendicants must be interdicted.

 3.Male cadavers are incapable of rendering testimony.

4.Neophite's serendipity.

5.A revolving lithic conglomerate accumulates no congeries of small, green, biophytic plant.

 7.Members of an avian species of identical plumage tend to congregate.

 8.Pulchritude possesses solely cutaneous profundity.

 9.Freedom from incrustations of grime is contiguous to rectitude.

 10.It is fruitless to become lachrymose of precipitately departed lacteal fluid.

 11.Eschew the implement of correction and vitiate the scion.

12.The stylus is more potent than the rapier.

 13.It is fruitless to attempt to indoctrinate a superannuated canine with innovative maneuvers.

14.Surveillance should precede saltation.

15. Scintillate, scintillate, asteroid minim. (not a proverb)

 16.The person presenting the ultimate cachinnation possesses thereby the optimal cachinnation.


17. Exclusive dedication to necessitous chores without interludes of hedonistic diversion renders John a hebetudinous fellow.

18.Individuals who make their abodes in vitreous edifices would be advised to refrain from catapulting petrious projectiles.

19.Where there are visible vapors having their provenance in  ignited carbonaceous materials, there is conflagration.

20. Sufficiency so fanciful to satisfy the situation. (not a proverb)



10 things that have a gender

I keep finding these things in archives. I'm trying to clean out my files... I keep getting side-tracked. Does that ever happen to you? 

I have no idea who wrote this...

You may not know that many nonliving things have a gender.
For example"
1) Ziploc Bags -- They are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2) Copiers -- They are Female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3) Tires -- Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4) Hot Air Balloon -- Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part.
5) Sponges -- Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6) Web Page -- Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7) Subway -- Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick up people.
8) Hourglass -- Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
9) Hammer -- Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10) Remote Control -- Female.... Ha! You thought it'd be male! But -- it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying


I find it so very delightful that women and men are so different. Scarlett's papa once told her, "Just being male and female is opposite enough." That is such a true statement. If we yoke ourselves to someone so totally different than us, then we are unequally yoked.

When we yoke with someone who had Jesus as LORD, then the oppositeness of the other translates into a oneness in Christ. He prayed for that you know.

 John 17:20  And I do not pray concerning these only, but also concerning those who will believe in Me through their word; 21  that all may be one, as You are in Me, Father, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22  And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are One: 23  I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected in one; and that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them, even as You loved Me. 

How incredibly astounding that Jesus not only thought of us and all Believers, He prayed for us, that we may be perfected in one so that the world would know God sent His Son because He so loved us and He loved Jesus. Now there is a sermon!

Light of the world

The Light of the World is Jesus....        
John 9:5  While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world. Rev 21:23  And the city had no need of the sun, nor of the moon, that they might shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, even its lamp is the Lamb.


How astounding to live in a place that has no sun or moon nor stars, and there is no need for them to give light because the glory of God will be the light.


Every Sabbath, the woman of the home lights the candles. Only the woman of the house may light the candles because she is the light of the home. It follows that through a woman, Mary, the light of the world came into the world. 

School Shootings: Pray for the children by Unknown

I found this in my archives dated 1998. Something to pause and ponder.

We pray for the Children
 who sneak Popsicle's before supper,
 who erase holes in math workbooks,
 who can never find their shoes.

 And we pray for those
 who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
 who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
 who never "counted potatoes,"
 who are born in places where we wouldn't be  caught dead,
 who never go to the circus,
 who live in an X-rated world.

 We pray for children
 who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
 who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.

 And we pray for those
 who never get dessert,
 who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
 who watch their parents watch them die,
 who can't find any bread to steal,
 who don't have any rooms to clean up,
 whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
 whose monsters are real.

 We pray for children
 who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,

 who like ghost stories,
 who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
 who never rinse out the tub,
 who get visits from the tooth fairy,
 who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
 who squirm in church or temple and scream in the phone,
 whose tears we  sometimes laugh at and
 whose smiles can make us cry.

 And we pray for those
 whose nightmares come in the daytime,
 who will eat anything,
 who have never seen a dentist,
 who aren't spoiled by anybody,
 who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
 who live and move, but have no being.

 We pray for children
 who want to be carried and for those who must,
 who we never give up on
 and for those who don't get a second chance.
 For those we smother and . . .
 for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

 ~Unknown

 In Memory of........
 Natalie Brooks, student  age 12
 Paige Ann Herring, student age 12
 Stephanie Johnson, student age 12
 Brittany R. Varner, student age 11
 Shannon Wright,   Teacher age 32
 This is in memory of the children and teacher killed in the shooting
 on  Tuesday, March 24, 1998  in  Jonesboro, Arkansas.

and at Columbine, and at Pearl High School, and at West Virginia, and more recently at University of Tennessee.

Since 1996 there have been more than 40 school violence by firearms with three quarters of them here in the U.S.  I find it terribly disturbing that this is basically safer to fly on an airline than to go to school. Since 1996 there have been 59 fatal accidents on airlines out of the millions of flights. 



What profit circumcision?

From a column I wrote last year at LiveAsIf.org 



What is the superiority of the Jew? What is the profit of circumcision? Paul asks these rhetorical questions in Romans chapter 3. Then he answers them in the following verses in stating that the Jews were trusted with the Word of God. Imagine how great a trust this was from God to these people.

God is no respecter of persons, yet He did choose Israel. He did give His words to Moses, He was a Pillar of Fire by night and a Pillar of Cloud by day for 40 years. He performed miracles in the wilderness and in the Promised Land. He settled within the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and eventually in the Sanctuary built by Solomon. He has made Jerusalem the center of the universe virtually for all mankind down through the centuries. The advantages of growing up a Jew in the ages before Jesus rose from the dead were Spiritual, if not physical.

In a good Jewish home, the Mamma taught the babies about the LORD. Along about the age of seven, the Papa began teaching the son. Each child was bade to memorize the Scriptures. The Rabbi would teach not only Scriptures, but also the traditions. It was a reverential treatment of the Torah, the Songs, and the Prophets. So, when we find partial references to the Old Testament passages, it is not surprising because the few words of reference brought the whole passage to mind and all knew what the purpose of the scrap of quote pointed to in the whole scheme of things. Context, context, context was not an issue.

Tradition was an issue, though. The Sacredness of the Law was such that the elders of Israel put a hedge of protection around it so that no man could misunderstand and break the Law. Then the next generation put a hedge around that hedge, and again another hedge around that hedge on down through the centuries until the Tradition out weighed the Torah by 18 volumes of tiny type to one small volume held in one hand.

Deut 10:16  And you shall circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and you shall not harden your neck any more.

Always the outward symbol of the covenant with God was circumcision. That one act of removal of the tough hedge around tender flesh was a blood covenant. It separated God’s Chosen from the goyim of the surrounding nations. It was the physical illustration of a Spiritual Truth. God wanted man to be sensitive to all things Spiritual. When God wanted the heart circumcised, He was talking about removing the hedge which prevented direct contact with Him. He wanted those who loved Him to honor the tender feelings He had placed within us. That stony hedge which surrounds the heart keeps God’s people from being obedient, from seeking His face and His forgiveness. That stony hedge blunts the sharp edge of conviction and dulls the blade of passion which will make any one of God’s children ineffective in ministry.

What is so important about a circumcised heart? You can’t have one unless God gives it to you. You can’t love without it and you can’t live without it, and if you don’t have one, your children may not get one either. Deut 30:6  And Jehovah your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Jehovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live.

A circumcised heart is a legacy which will continue on through the ages. It breaks down strongholds and builds bridges. It is necessary to know God, for without it the heart cannot be pierced. That is not a good thing.

Some of the Pharisee’s (in Acts 15) declared that all Gentiles must be circumcised and must keep the Law of Moses. It was such a hullabaloo that a conference was held with the Apostles and the Elders to discuss it and reason it out. Now, discussion was not such a great thing because for the Jews a loud discussion could occur anywhere there may be a disagreement. However, this was a formal thing. Peter pointed out that from ancient days, God had planned for the world to know about Himself through Israel, and that He made no distinction between Us and Them because He purified Their hearts (meaning Gentiles) by faith giving them the Holy Spirit. But… circumcision was the accepted sign of covenant.

Paul made sure Timothy was circumcised before they traveled to Jerusalem so that he, being one half Greek, would not offend any of the Jews. What profit was that? It was an outward illustration of the blood covenant. But, Paul made sure all knew that being circumcised did not make one immune to the Law, but rather made one a slave to it: …for as many as have sinned within the Law will be judged by the Law. (Rom. 2:12) And again in verse 25: For indeed circumcision profits if you practice the Law, but if you are a transgressor of Law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.

God’s people keep His commands. Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. How do we know His will in order to keep it and to make it our will as well? It can’t be done with an uncircumcised heart.

The Hebrew word for circumcision is מוּל  mûl (mool) A primitive root; to cut short, that is, curtail (specifically the prepuce, that is, to circumcise); by implication to blunt; figuratively to destroy: - circumcise (-ing, selves), cut down (in pieces), destroy, X must needs.

That is exactly what is described by God circumcising a heart. He cuts short the mulish will of the sinful nature of man. He destroys that bent toward sin and the temptations of the heart are blunted. It is only as good as we allow it, however. We were made in God’s image with the characteristics of Him. We can discern the difference between good and evil, between the clean and unclean and we have been given the ability to choose. As Joshua told the Israelites after they had come into the Promised Land, “Choose you this day who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

With a circumcised heart which is acutely sensitive to the LORD, to His still small voice, to the merest touch of His guiding hand, we will know beyond doubt which is the good choice and which is the bad. With an uncircumcised heart, one can be a good discerner and resolver of cases of conscience, but would be a very poor Christian. As Matthew Henry said, “…accurate in notion but loose and careless in application… A man may be well skilled in the controversies of religion, and yet a stranger to the power of godliness.” This, then, is a picture of how there can be “good” people who do not know Jesus. They know what is The Right Thing, and even capable of doing The Right Thing, but not how that applies to eternity or understanding of Godly things.

Choose you this day to keep the circumcised heart, to keep sensitive for this the path of usefulness to our LORD. When we are useless to God, He withdraws nourishment and we wither as aptly illustrated by the story of Jesus and the fig tree without fruit. Even though it was not the season for figs, for us, there is no fruit bearing season. WE are always to bear fruit. Therefore, let us be useful in our ministry. Let us plant and water and weed and tend and harvest for the time is growing short.

The question of where Golgatha is

To the left, a threshing floor.


In Genesis 22, we see the story of the sacrifice of Isaac where Moriah (mo-ree-yah) is mentioned first. The Hebrew word means seen of God.

Moses states "the land of Moriah", not Mount Moriah. God tells Abraham to go into the Land of Moriah to a place He would show him. God did not say, "There is a mount called Moriah where I wish you to offer up your only son as a sacrifice to Me."


Gen 22:14
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the LORD it will be seen.

The Targum which is the Aramaic translation/interpretation of the Torah and the Prophets states that the place David bought (the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite 1 Chron 21) to build the House of God was Mount Moriah.

But... how could the Romans profane the Temple by crucifying Jesus inside the Temple walls, since Solomon had no choice in where to build the Temple, God told him to build it on the property David had bought from Ornan the Jebusite. Also...

The Bible states that they took Jesus outside the city walls for crucifixion. The place that tradition states is Golgotha, is not a logical site for the wall expansion. While I do not think Wikipedia is full of accurate information, the section on
Calvary is full of legitimate references, and it quite interesting.

Bottom line, no one really knows for sure where Golgatha literally is. If they did, then history illustrates that people would worship the rock instead of the Rock.

Older, Wiser, Better Employee

Being ancient in the over 50 age bracket does not mean it is time to search for good pasture. Unlike this rusted cannon that "guards" the Alabama coastline, the over 50 worker still works and swivels and can still aim in several directions accurately.

Employers often think that younger means more energy and better education, but statistics are proving that the younger generations do not have the wisdom and people-training that the older generations possess. There are numerous other advantages to hiring someone over 50 such as patience, purpose, problem solving, putting square pegs in round holes and vice versa. Young people are not adept at that yet because they don't have the years of experience which affords those skills. There is a lot you can learn from a textbook, but the actual practicing of the principles learned is what brings perfection to the skills.

Last week I was calling about a job opening I found on CareerBuilder.com. I had more experience and better qualifications than required for the position, so I sent my resume thinking it would be received well. In the cover letter, I let To Whom It May Concern know that I would be unavailable that day because of Mom's doctor appointment, but free for phone interview the following day. I also paraphrased my understanding of the job.

I got a terse reply: "Wrong. You would be selling the program. Any other questions you have will have to be addressed in the phone interview." Then a follow-up phone call stating I must call an 800 number to set up an interview that day. Obviously, the voice belonged to the email author because it was quite caustic in tone.

How's that again?

The company responded promptly enough but did not pay any attention to what I had said. I wrote about something similar to this back in 2006 after five months of job hunting. Things have not changed at all. What has happened to integrity, courtesy, and human kindness?

The experience is very much worth the paycheck. You literally do get what you pay for.

Here is some advice for employers who are searching for excellent employees:

1.  Rejection is crushing. Call the applicant to set up an interview. Letters indicate rejection before they are even opened. Never send a letter to set up an interview.

2.   Return emails. Resist the temptation to prolong suspense. This is only good in excellent novels and is not appreciated by the applicant. Don't keep us wiggling on the hook. Either throw us back or put us in the keeper pile.

3.  If you want a phone interview, then set a time and follow through. Why ask for a phone interview and then never respond after that?

4.  Before you toss your hook in the water, make sure you know what kind of fish...er, applicant you need and don't be afraid to be specific. That saves a lot of wasted time and energy for both of us.

5.  If your "opportunity" is MLM (Multi-Level Marketing), for goodness sakes say so. Offer all the particulars up front and quit the hems, haws and coaxings. It wastes too much time. (I know this because I was a Director for an MLM). No one wants to spend 30 minutes on a long-distance phone call if they don't know what the product is.

6. I love the "if you are still interested" response. It kicks! Tell me what you are looking for, how much it pays, your precise expectations and then tell me, "If you are still interested _________." That is the best time saver ever.

I do not know an older person who would not sacrifice a few dollars from their paycheck to be able to do something really interesting. We are established and we have a lot to offer. Play to that. It will absolutely be worth your while.