Who should be the next Speaker of the House???



Received  this from my US Representative Steven Palazzo... What do you think?


Who Should the Next Speaker Be?
Over the past weeks, I have listened to my colleagues about what they want to see in a Speaker. They want to see these principles in action and they want to see leadership.  I went down the list of the 246 Republicans in the House and one name came up again and again: Congressman Marsha Blackburn.   From her strong pro-life stance to her fight to protect our Second Amendment right to bear arms, Congressman Blackburn is a proven conservative fighter.

Last year, she led the fight against amnesty in the House, as well as sponsored legislation known as the CLEAR act that gives law enforcement the tools they need to assist the Federal government in deporting criminal illegal immigrants from our country.  She has an A rating from the American Conservative Union and a high lifetime conservative score from Heritage Action.

She isn’t afraid to stand up to the establishment whether it’s in Washington, DC or at home.  When her liberal Republican governor in Tennessee tried to pass a state income tax, she led the fight against it and WON. She doesn’t just fight to fight, she fights to win.

Best of all, Marsha is a Mississippi native. She is from Jones County and went to Mississippi State. What better person to unite our party, fight this president and his liberal policies, and lead the House of Representatives? It would be historic.

#Blackburn4Speaker
Marsha is a candidate that could lead the Republican Party once again.  She is a results-oriented true conservative.  She knows how to get the job done while maintaining her conservative values and principles.  I am urging my friends in Congress to support Congressman Marsha Blackburn for Speaker, and hope others around the country will do the same.
 Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I am all for someone who is straight-line conservative. What do you think?

Our battles begin and end in the mind


(An excerpt from my workbook that is a companion to my book "Refreshment in Refuge" contact me if you would like a copy.)

Our battles begin and end in the mind…

Freedom of will is the same as freedom of choice. We choose who we love, where we live, what we eat, how we react to our trials and tribulations. We choose not to suffer consequences so we obey our parents. We choose to believe God exists and believe His Word, or we can choose not to believe. As in the passage from Joshua, "Choose you this day whom you will serve, as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

The Bible does not have the term "sacrificial love" nor does it have the term "unconditional love" yet it was unconditional love that sent Jesus to the cross while we were yet sinners, and it was sacrificial love that held Him to the cross. "The Trinity" is another example, yet we know God is Triune. Even though there are many terms that are not written in black and white within the pages of the Bible, we understand with the wisdom that God granted us, godly wisdom which is a gift from the Holy Spirit, that the principles are there in black and white. Our discernment of God's Word comes from above through the teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Our Free Will becomes a trophy for Jesus, a crown at His feet.
The key to realize is our battles begin and end in the Mind. Our thinking is a powerful tool that can be used by Satan, if we allow him to take control of our thoughts. To thwart that, we must ask God to take complete authority over our hearts, our minds, and our tongues just as David did. We must redecorate our minds with Jesus and that will take the shackles of bondage off of us so, as that song goes, we can dance!
God is the only safe, consuming passion we have. Our Enemy is seizing technology and is trying to make evil from what God intended for good. The only way to be released from evil is to take down that tacky decor in our mind and replace it with Jesus. The drugs of constant TV and games and internet junk must be replaced with things that are holy and things that are pure and things that are godly. Meditate on these things and watch how the addictions of the world have no more power. It is astounding!
Yes, evil and horror get up in our face everyday. We know that darkness prevails in this world because Satan is the prince of this world. However, we do not have to live in the darkness since we are the Light on the Hill so to speak. We are to embrace Truth, and sometimes truth is horrible and ugly. That means there are times when we must deal with the evil of this world. Thank goodness we don’t have to live there. Jesus has spread His wings so we can always find our safe haven under them. He has provided us with the perfect defense tools.
So put on that Helmet of Salvation and remove Satan’s influence by trusting God...Believe God. Wear the Sword of the Spirit so that the evil thoughts won’t find a foot hold. Wear the shoes of the Gospel of Peace and dance with Him. And the Belt of Truth will keep us from tripping over our skirts when we dance. He wants to dance with us. Can you see His hand outstretched? Can you hear His sweet voice asking you to dance? We’ll never be wallflowers, because our Beloved always has His protective arm around us. Turn up the music and let’s dance!

Spin zone city ahead


After reading these, my head feels like it has been in the washing machine spin cycle. I can hardly believe the stupidity and irresponsibility of journalists. I can't believe any of them went to a reputable journalism school/college. If I had blundderbussed like these guys, I never would have graduated! ACK! I'm appalled and ashamed for the industry as a whole. Received these in email from Media Research Center...

Monday, August 31, 2015, 5:48pm ET
MRC Alert Special: Latest Notable Quotables
As a bonus for CyberAlert subscribers, below is the text of the August 31 edition of Notable Quotables, the MRC's bi-weekly compilation of the latest outrageous, sometimes humorous, quotes in the liberal media. It was compiled by the MRC's Rich Noyes.
The three-page, fully-formatted, full-color PDF good for printing: http://www.mrc.org/sites/default/files/August312015.pdf

TV “News” Anchor Berates Trump Over Immigration Plan

So here’s the problem with your immigration plan. It’s full of empty promises. You cannot deport eleven million undocumented immigrants. You cannot deny citizenship to the children in this country....My other question is: How are you going to build up 1,900 miles of wall?...It’s a completely unnecessary waste of time and money and resources.”
— Univision anchor Jorge Ramos to GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump at an August 25 press conference broadcast live on several cable news channels.



Rest of the Media Gives Ramos a Platform for His Activism

 “He has to explain how he wants to deport eleven million people. Can you imagine? How is he going to do that? Is he going to put people in stadiums? We have to denounce that he wants to deny citizenship to children being born here. They’re citizens, just like his [children], and it is impossible to build a 1,900-mile wall between Mexico and the United States. So that’s the kind of questions that I was asking Mr. Trump, and obviously he didn’t give any answers.”
— Univision’s Jorge Ramos on ABC’s Good Morning America, August 26.

“The fact is that, as a reporter, I believe you have to take a stand, Chris, when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public lies, dictatorship, and human rights....When somebody says, Chris, that he wants to deport eleven million men, women, and children; when he says he wants to deny citizenship to children born here in the United States — which, by the way, are U.S. citizens just like he is — he is creating division, he is creating hatred, and we have to call him out on that.”
— Ramos to co-anchor Chris Cuomo on CNN’s New Day, August 26.

“Let’s remember that Donald Trump is a creation of the Republican Party. The same ideas that other Republicans have espoused in the past, but only that he expresses them with more violence and in an extreme way.”
— Ramos on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, August 24.



Will We See Confederate Flags at “Racist” Trump’s Rally?

 “Trump is very effectively parlaying a sense of anger, anxiety. There’s certainly a healthy dose of racism in what he’s doing. I think ultimately it will really falter, but I’m not sure how long ultimately is.”
— Fill-in co-host Al Hunt on Bloomberg’s With All Due Respect, August 21.

“Do you see any Confederate flags? Any Confederate battle flags anywhere in the audience?...Have you found any significant number of African Americans at the event, of the thirty some thousand there?”
— Host Chris Matthews to NBC’s Katy Tur during MSNBC’s live coverage of Trump’s speech in Alabama, August 21.



Media’s PC Squad Objects to “Anchor Baby” Phrase

 “Are you aware that the term ‘anchor baby,’ that’s an offensive term? People find that hurtful....Look it up in the dictionary. It’s offensive!”
— ABC correspondent Tom Llamas to Donald Trump in a clip shown on Good Morning America, August 20.



Suddenly, NBC Cares About Too Much Government Spending

 “The candidate known for his big money [Donald Trump] turns out to be a big spender when it comes to his presidential proposals: Deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants, estimated to cost about $138 billion; taking back Iraqi oil fields, which would mean U.S. boots on the ground, $13 to $22 billion; and repealing the Affordable Care Act may cost the government $137 billion in the next decade.”
— Correspondent Hallie Jackson on NBC’s Today, August 18.



As Always, Tragedy = Chance to Push Liberal Agenda

“So, Dr. Carson, you know, we witnessed a terrible shooting today [of two local TV news employees in Roanoke, Virgina]. As a neurosurgeon and someone who tries to prolong life and give life to people, after you watch a crime like this, does it make you question at all the role of guns in our society?”
— Anchor Don Lemon to GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson on CNN Tonight, August 26.



 

 

 

 

Refusing to Raise Taxes Will “Wreck the United States”

View video on MRCTV
“The [no tax increases] pledge has helped to wreck the United States. It is about the worst kind of public policy that you can imagine, for the reasons we have just heard. So I actually respect Jeb Bush for taking a position against it....It’s terribly destructive. And I pray that Donald Trump is not such a wimp that he changes his mind and signs the pledge. And if he holds out against it and does fine anyway, and Chris Christie [who signed the pledge] goes by the wayside, which he will, then maybe the Republican Party can start to move into a post-pledge environment.”
The Daily Beast’s Jonathan Alter on MSNBC’s The Last Word, August 12.



Marco Rubio: “So Far to the Right,” He’s “Unelectable”

“What we need to keep our eye on is, who could be elected in a general election? And that means someone who might not just appeal to the Republican base in Iowa, but to the country at large....[Florida Senator Marco Rubio] has painted himself so far to the right, who has put abortion so front and center in this campaign as to render his candidacy unelectable, probably, in terms of the general electorate, no matter how articulate he might have appeared in that debate.”
— Author and former Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein on CNN’s New Day, August 13.



“Bored” by Hillary’s “Too Hard to Follow” E-Mail Scandal

“I have been utterly bored with the story to the point where I only recently began to really sort of dig into it....The more I look into it, I think it’s one of those cases where the trailer is really simple, but the movie is kind of too hard to follow....Maybe Hillary Clinton on the cloud was actually somehow safer and more secure than the actual government e-mails? I don’t even understand it.”
— MSNBC national correspondent Joy Reid on All In with Chris Hayes, August 20.



CNN Salutes Hillary’s Humor: A “Fun Way to Obstruct” Journalists

View video on MRCTV
Clip of FNC’s Ed Henry: “You were the official in charge. Did you wipe the server?”
Clip of Hillary Clinton: “What, like with a cloth or something? No.”
Anchor Carol Costello: “Okay. You see she was joking about it, right?...I mean, you had to laugh when Hillary Clinton said that. Clearly she must know what wiping a server means?”
Mashable senior tech correspondent Christina Warren: “Absolutely. Absolutely. Of course she knows. But it was a fun way to try to, maybe, obstruct from the question.”
CNN Newsroom, August 19.



Since It Won’t Matter, Why Should Journalists Bother to Investigate?

View video on MRCTV
“The Clintons have been embroiled in scandal longer than I have been alive. And at this point it’s all just background noise. Everybody’s formulated an opinion about whether they think the Clintons are above board, or whether they care about whether the Clintons are above board or not. And I can’t imagine this breaking through in a way that the previous 25 or 35 scandals did, unless she were to be indicted, which I do not think is going to happen....My guess is this is something that is not big enough that people care.”
New York Times correspondent Josh Barro on MSNBC’s The Last Word, August 17.



Admitting Journalists “Encouraged” Socialist Sanders to Run

View video on MRCTV
“We, and a lot in the media, were encouraging of Bernie Sanders getting in the race, because the senator from Vermont does provoke a lot of passion from the left part of that party. We thought that that would be an interesting mix of ideas because, certainly, the Clintons are more known for the centrism that they present to the Democrats.”
— Co-anchor Chris Cuomo on CNN’s New Day, August 19.



Chicago: No Longer Big Enough for Superstar Obamas

“There are remnants of the Obamas all over their old neighborhood of Hyde Park. Walk east on 53rd Street, and you’ll pass the place where Barack and Michelle first kissed. A bronze marker laid into a stone marks the spot....[But] lingering in the air is the acknowledgment, eked out in drips and dribbles over the past year, that the Obamas probably will not call this place their permanent home again....‘They’ve probably outgrown Chicago socially and professionally,’ said [author and ex-Post reporter Peter] Slevin, who interviewed many of the family’s associates. ‘Chicago can’t hold them.’”
Washington Post reporter Krissah Thompson, August 21.



Voters Rejected “Nice” and “Decent” Carter for “Cowboy” Reagan

View video on MRCTV
“I think it does say something profoundly about who we are as a people that Carter’s decency and goodness was taken for weakness and had to be remedied with the sort of bluster of a Ronald Reagan and that the idea we needed a cowboy to replace what people viewed as a man who wasn’t cowboy enough to be president, that he was too nice.”
— MSNBC’s Joy Reid on The Last Word, August 20.



CNN Host Fulfills Carson’s Prediction of “Ridiculous” Journalism

Fill-in host Jim Acosta: “And let me ask you about something else you said earlier this week. You said that the United States should consider using drone strikes to secure the border with Mexico....Are you talking about taking drone strikes at the U.S.-Mexico border?”
GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson: “It was quite clear what I was talking about. I said that drones are excellent for surveillance....In no way did I suggest that drones be used to kill people. And I said that to the media at the time. I said, ‘You guys, some of you are going to go out and say Carson wants to use drones to kill people on the borders.’ How ridiculous.”
— CNN’s State of the Union, August 23.



Andrea Thrilled: John Kerry Brought Teddy’s Cane to Castro’s Cuba

“You have been looking at pictures of John Kerry and he’s off the crutches for this trip, at least so far today. You can see him using a cane, and it was Teddy Kennedy’s cane. Obviously, from the Kennedy family, offered to him. So, such a great symbol, symbolic gesture....The cane used by the youngest of the Kennedy brothers, and he, of course, was a senior senator, had long wanted this kind of normalization, which is now being affected by his junior senator and partner from Massachusetts, now the Secretary of State.”
— NBC’s Andrea Mitchell covering the re-opening of the U.S. embassy in Cuba, MSNBC’s The Rundown, Aug. 14.



Decrying Trump’s “Old School, Slave Owner Mentality”

“I mean, look how far he’s gotten. Knowing what it — I mean, yo, my man’s got a strong, old-school, slave owner mentality, and he’s not holding back. He told the Latinos, you’re this, you’re that, you’re this and I’m gonna win your — and you’re gonna vote for me! That’s slave owner 101, and people are like, keep going! Because the middle of the country is like, we feel the same way.”
— Actor Michael Rapaport on Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show, August 13.



“Freedom” and “Liberty” Just Thinly-Disguised Racial Epithets

“I think as a country most of us now know you can’t sling around the racial epithets. That’s not — those things won’t play. So we have a vernacular that allows us to play the same games, but now it’s all about personal freedom and liberty and my property values and not-in-my-backyardism, you know.”
— Television writer-producer David Simon in a Bloomberg Business interview posted August 14.

PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Dickens
RESEARCH ANALYST: Mike Ciandella
NEWS ANALYSTS: Scott Whitlock, Kyle Drennen, Matthew Balan, Jeffrey Meyer and Curtis Houck
INTERN: Spencer Raley

Call it what it is!



Clay Waters of the New York Times Magazine chided Republicans for calling illegal aliens "illegals." He says they should be called "undocumented."

Let's see. Did they come into the U.S. without permission to do so? Did they have visas? Did they apply for green cards in order to take a U.S. citizen's job? To my way of thinking that is: Breaking and entering, fraud, and stealing, and I call that definitely illegal.

Now the way people think in order to pasteurize unpalatable situations such as homosexual marriages, illegals bleeding into our used-to-be safe country has far surpassed those old, odd days of "free love" and drug-induced psychedelic trips that were rampant when I was growing up. 

Somehow my sister and I navigated the times safely with no weird stretches to our imaginations. We made it through college without professors warping our minds. I strongly believe that somehow was the Holy Spirit guarding and guiding us. We have the lighthouse built in. Only our lighthouse not only pierces the darkness shining a light on the massive rocks of life, but it also motors us to safe waters.

Of course, for that to happen we had to give up control, and slip into the backseat so Jesus could drive. Thank goodness He doesn't mind the pipsqueaks giving advice from the back seat.

Oh, Lord Jesus, please, please come quickly, protect my children and grandchildren, and pierce the darkest storms with Your brilliant, righteous light! 

Relative Policing???





There is a director of community relations at Wisconsin University who believes that catching and prosecuting shoplifters that steal from "big box" stores such as Walmart and Target is wrong ... "They have insurance..." he says.


This panel discussion discussed legal relativism. That basically means that each community should decide which laws are good for the community and enforced, and which laws should not be enforced because they are not good for the community.

I find this kind of thinking and whacked out reasoning impossible to understand. How can it be good for the community for Walmart to hike prices to cover the costs of shoplifting? How can it be good for everyone for Target to hike prices to cover costs of insurance? That makes no sense to me.

This is so much like those who pick and choose which of God's commandments to obey and which ones to ignore!

What are colleges teaching these days? Evidently there is no absolute truth. So what is going to happen when these poorly educated youth die and try to get into Heaven?

"What? Sayin' I'm sorry ain't good enuf?" asks a confused youth.
"What part of 'obey My commands' did you not understand, confused one?" asks Peter.
"Well, it's all relative, right? So Jesus is my relative, right? So why can't I get past those pearly gates? Hmmm, them real pearls, Pete?"
Alas, the confused and unrepentant youth does not get past go and does not collect his eternal life because he did not listen to his mamma when she taught him about Jesus.

This kind of thinking teaches nothing. Oh, I know, there are many people who do not believe laws and morals actually teach anything because it seems you can't legislate morality. However, before one gets too many years of growth on his or her body, there is instilled within the brain the knowledge of right and wrong. That comes from parents who care about how their children act. So is it just the children who did not learn right from wrong to blame for this kind of thinking?

Who is to blame for this ignorant reasoning? The parents? Churches? The schools' programs and curriculum? The children? Society? End Times? I think it is: All of the above.

One thing is for certain. If we Christians allow this kind of thinking to become rampant, the chaos is sure to reign.

How long will you pout about this?


We have a gorgeous water oak tree in the back yard. Its leaves shade my bedroom and the den from the sun's hot rays. I treasure this tree because life flits around it and lives in it. Birds, squirrels, and even three turtles flit, romp, and waddle around its branches and its roots. My cat loves to watch the bird show every morning.

Its been dropping limbs.

We thought it might need some trimming and pruning, so we called a tree doctor. He told us it was rotten clear through and would topple over in the next big wind. It would have to come down. I won't go into the exorbitant amount this was going to cost.

I cried and cried, and cried some more. It would take years for another tree to grow. It would take a monstrous dent in our finances. It was devastating.

There wasn't any way around it, but yet I cried and pleaded with the highest tree Doctor, the One Who created trees in the first place. I told him that I knew He could heal the tree, if He only would.

He brought to mind two stories. Jonah and Samuel. Jonah pouted that Nineveh repented and he wasn't going to see a fireworks show. Samuel pouted when Saul's kingship was taken away from him, and David was anointed in his stead.

Jonah should have rejoiced that the people of Nineveh were saved from God's wrath because they listened to his preaching and repented. That is a God-thing. Samuel, I can understand a bit better because he was mourning Israel's loss of a king, and that king's heart had grown so cold against obedience to God. But it was still disrespectful of God's decisions.

All my tears could do nothing to heal my tree. If I'd been a better steward of my tree by calling a tree doctor when I first noticed some ragged limb breaks that Hurricane Katrina had done, then my tree would have been much better, and not so sick.

Just as we often get another doctor's opinion when we hear bad news, we realized that we should get another tree doctor's opinion. We did. Good news.

He's going to be able to save our tree if only for the next 6-8 years. That will at least give another tree or two time to grow. I did not know that water oaks grow fast and decline fast. They generally do not live more than 20-25 years. But, this kind doctor is going to save our tree. The birds, squirrels, turtles, and yes even my cat will never know what almost happened.

I do, and I am incredibly grateful to my wonderful God Who cares enough to save a tree for my comfort. I am incredibly grateful that it will not wither and die like Jonah's shade vine did. I am wonderfully grateful that it will give plenty of time for another tree to grow up to take its place like God gave David time to grow and gain the strength to become king.

Selling intact dead babies as "line items" - Not just fetal tissue


Planned Parenthood is selling intact dead babies at 20 weeks gestation. And some people are crying over an old, dead lion! These are human babies that have no voices to cry or protest what is happening to them!



Back in 2005 there was an amazing breakthrough concerning stem cell research. I wrote this about it:

At the risk of getting up on a soap box, let's take a hard look at this. Why would God give hope to the dying for a cure by causing the death of an innocent? He would not. He spared Nineveh because of their repentance but also because there were 120,000 innocent babes that could not tell their right from their left (Jonah 4:11) plus much cattle. Many have argued that God ordered many innocents killed when the Israelites took over Canaan. True, but also many were left there in order to test Israel's heart for obedience to God and for them to learn warfare. (Judges 2:22) .

What I find truly intriguing is that the university where the fellows that discovered this amazing thing held back from letting the paper Stems Cells Express be published until they could get a patent on the discovery. At first, I'm thinking, "Good for them." Then I think, "Wha--?" Of course it's the process, but granny-get-your-gun, you can't get a patent on a placenta and blast it, you can't keep this sort of thing from helping others and keeping even more embryos from being destroyed. (Yes, there is a ban in the U.S. on that, but not in the rest of the world!)

Hooray they've found the alternative to embryonic murder! But, it's truly a sad day when we must cover our bases (patent) before we can share medical breakthroughs like this. 
Today I found out that very close to where I live right here on the Gulf Coast, Planned Parenthood has been selling murdered baby parts for research, including things like stem cells, thymus, etc. for research to cure all kinds of diseases.

I burst into tears watching the latest video released. These people have no sense of compassion, and zero sense for the sanctity of life. I wonder what would happen if they found out that the newly aborted baby that was hanging from their forceps was their own grandbaby. I wonder how they would feel if they could never get pregnant, but wanted a baby so badly they were aching. God, please have mercy on their souls. Open their eyes, Lord God. Take them to task; bring it home to them like no other truth they have ever faced! In Jesus name, amen.

Oh, hurry up, Jesus, come Lord Jesus, come.

Kindness is the pivotal point





In the list of the Fruit of the Spirit we see kindness is listed in the center: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

You see how the first four are basically states of being? They are similar to the leaves of a tree.

God is love, we are loved, we love others. Because of that, we experience joy, peace and patience. We then exhibit kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The first four well up inside us from God Himself through the Holy Spirit's indwelling. They are our sustenance, they gather oxygen to live, so to speak, and make visible God's blessings for our nurturing. The last five are expressed outwardly to our siblings in Christ first, and then to our neighbors. The last four are the roots of the tree establishing permanence and stability in the face of the storms of life/

Kindness is the first outward evidence of the Spirit, and especially of our Christianity. When we show kindness we are extending God's hand to others around us. Sadly, I do not see a whole lot of kindness in the body of Christ. Perhaps because it takes effort and energy, and it takes all the other parts of the gift of the Spirit in order to evidence kindness. Perhaps it is because those who exhibit no kindness, and are perpetually without kindness toward others do not have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the lack of kindness is because the person is just having a bad day, or is in a depressed state.


A person in deep depression has no thought of exhibiting kindness for that person is wrapped up in his own Hell. So it takes all of the fruit to shake out of the depression. The certainty of being loved, the joy of the heart, the peace that passes all understanding, and the patience to wait upon God gives that person the courage to reach out to fellow man. Certainly there are times we get depressed or lose our way temporarily. But the indwelling Holy Spirit does not allow us to stay there long because God is intensely interested in our well being because He loves us.

God works inside our hearts through the Spirit. God is love; John tells us so. If there is no love in the heart, then kindness is not evident, nor even a brief thought. For through love springs all the gift of the Spirit because God is love.

Without peace, kindness is not exhibited because turmoil and war in the mind and heart drown out all thoughts of others. This introspection, or rather inward thinking, builds a bridge to depression and despair.

Patience and long-suffering are the roots of kindness. A tree with shallow roots falls over in the first huff of wind. Kindness stems from patience because patience stalls the hasty reply, stops the anger before it forms and causes the advent of forgiveness before bitterness can germinate.

Therefore, in Paul's list of the fruit of the Spirit (please note it is all one fruit, not multiple fruits) Kindness is the turning point from the inward spring to the outward flow of the Spirit.

Christians have a problem today


Christians have a problem today. Oh, it isn't a new problem. This kind of thing has been going on for millennia. God told Isaiah to shout it out with a full-throated, trumpet-sounding shout in Isaiah 58. The people had the appearance of godliness, but their bickering, complaining, and oppressive actions illustrated the truth of what was in their hearts.

In other words, the appearance of godliness, but the heart intent is not there. They fasted, but they bickered and fought. They fasted but they acted mean. They went to church, but did not take God seriously or kept Him with them while going about their daily business.

Today some Christians do the same thing. Why do we act mean towards each other? Why do we hold grudges against each other? It takes a lot of love and mercy to be a true believer in Christ.

I believe what Isaiah is saying here correlates with Jesus’ cursing of the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23. Only Jesus says it much harsher drop down to verse 25.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of extortion and excess. Blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so you also appear righteous to men outwardly, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.Matthew 23:25

Now compare Isaiah 58:13  
 If you turn your foot because of the Sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy days, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of Jehovah, honorable; and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words…

They are almost exactly the same.

Didn't they learn anything in those 700+ years since Isaiah lived?

Praise God that believers today have the Holy Spirit funneling as much of God's love and mercy into our hearts that we allow to settle there. It's a choice, yes, but it is a burden-relieving choice because we don't have to do it alone! God does it for us if we just let Him.