Demons at work

and Satan's Ploys

Let me just say that Satan is truly playing havoc in my life right now.

But, he does that continually so it isn't such a big surprise. Years ago, God warned me one morning at 5:39 AM this is what would happen. He was preparing me for Satan to try to find a chink in the Whole Armor of God. At that time, God prevailed, for He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world. Amen.

First thing he loves to do is sit on my shoulder and whisper out right lies into my ear. I know they are lies, but there's just enough plausibility to it ... and that is enough to get the mind working in top gear going through the

Wounded Pride, Poor Me, Woe Is Me, How Dare He Do That Cycle...

When there isn't a shred of truth in any of it but of course there is a problem in a different angle... so long as Satan has me in that washer cycle going round and round, I'm not praying about the true problem and Satan wins.

Well, he's not going to win this one. Because of God.

Let me say that another way. Satan can't win because God is in control.

If I do not allow Satan the power to spin a web, then he cannot immobilize me because God has all authority, and though Satan was given the title of Prince of the Air and of this world, he still submits to the authority of God..

 God and I, me and God. That is personalized. Together make a perfect combo and that is the most healthy relationship possible. I must remember that God is the force, not me. Without Him, I am nothing.

It still doesn't stop the pain right away. It doesn't help the heart ache. But, that too will pass. As I was telling my dear friend just a while ago. The day of Joy will be the day that Jesus holds out His hand to me saying, "Shall we dance?" Boy OH Boy! That will be the joyous day. Come, Lord Jesus, Come... I am weary of this world. Marantha.

Secret Service: Their bullying is getting out of hand

When the Secret Service bullies two Airmen who are on the same detail as them, it is outrageous. Read the police report here. It is a travesty to bully. Yet, grown men who are trained to protect our president and vice president and others, the travesty looms too large to wrap the brain around. I've studied bullying. I written articles about it: Bullying is a growing concern, Bullying is torture at school, Bullying is the silent epidemic, and Sack tapping another form of bullying.

This is beyond simple bullying, although there is nothing simple about bullying. These children in grown up bodies are a menace, and with a total lack of judgment are a peril to the highest office of our nation. Drunken behavior is unacceptable.

I, for one, am calling for a clean sweep of this organization. Forget retraining, fire them and hire respectable men and women full of self-control and brains larger than peas.

This isn't the least. When vacationing president and veep go to Nantucket, home owners are very chary of renting their nice houses to the Secret Service because they vandalize the homes conjuring visions of Animal House--how mature is that?

These men should ponder:

Psalm 5:6  You shall destroy those who speak lies; Jehovah will despise the bloody and deceitful man.

Psa 28:5  Because they do not pay attention to the works of Jehovah and to the work of His hands, He shall destroy them and never build them up.

Ecc 5:6  Do not allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; do not say before the angel that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

Mat 21:41  They said to Him, Bad men! He will miserably destroy them and will rent out his vineyard to other vinedressers who will give him the fruits in their seasons.

Just a slight change... is it lying?

What do you consider lying? Are little white lies okay when you are "protecting" a friend's feelings? Doing an assignment for school I pondered this question when it comes to unethical photojournalism. I found numerous, horrendous photos from the "Napalm girl" to the "Starving Sudanese child" and the drowned five year old boy. I don't link to those because I think even those photos won Pulitzer prizes... maybe not the dead boy's photo, I think it was up for a Pulitzer.

Public domain photo from Library of Congress

Public domain photo from Library of Congress

Close ups and wide angles can tell two hugely different stories, yet, be the same subject matter. These photos were taken by the same photographer, Dorothea Lange; and taken in 1936. The then Resettlement Administration had the job of resettling farmers off 100,000,000 acres of worn out, dust bowl land into settlements. There were a series of photographers by several photographers used by the Resettlement Administration to show the necessity to help these poor people. California didn’t want the thousands of poor farmers being removed to the state. So photos were used to soften the hearts of the state government. The first photo was used but retouched. The second photo was buried in archives and unused by the Administration.

The first photo is the close up and depicts a poor mother, surrounded by her children but also depicts, with the application of a little money the family could survive easily. Her expression is one of contemplation rather than despair.

The second photo is the wide angle showing what desperate straits the family is living in; and that it will take much more than a few dollars to help this family survive. The squalor seems insurmountable. The family is flanked by a tattered lean-to, meager belongings in a broken trunks, and an empty plate on another trunk, surrounded by empty fields.

Both photos are ethical, and taken in an ethical manner. However, the use of the first retouched photo to tell a deceptive story is unethical. In the retouched photo, the woman has a brighter face, and there are highlights in the children’s hair. This photo represents hope. The second photo tells the whole truth and represents despair which did not tell the story the Resettlement Administration wanted to tell so it was buried in archives.

The ethical dilemma is using a retouched photograph to sell a story to persuade a group of people into a certain action. Kant would say, this goes against his categorical imperative, in universalizability, and using the family as a means to an end. He would also say that this may be a little lie, it is still a lie. Exhibiting truth is what gives credibility, and that is all that journalists have. The public hates to be lied to. Big lie, little lie, important or trivial, offering anything but the truth is lying.

Calling all Christian bloggers...

Hi All...

I am conducting a project for one of my Master's classes and need some input from you Christian bloggers. There is so little study going on in this respect and I think communication scholars would benefit from your answers. I will use this information for a paper that I hope will be published, however I need your answers now for my class paper.

Please take about 10 minutes to answer these questions and if you don't want to answer publicly, please email answers to me at glburgess at gmail dot com. Thank you so very, very much!

Blog Address:

Who are the "stakeholders" with regard to your blog? Who will be affected by what you post?

When making decisions about your blog, do any of the following values or duties cross your mind? If so, which? Can you rank them?

Transparency
Accountability
Minimizing Harm to Others
Free Expression
Factual Truth
Etiquette

Are there any values/duties you feel should be weighed in a discussion of Blogging?


Are there certain duties ALL bloggers should fulfill... all the time... in order to be "good" bloggers?


Are there certain things bloggers should NEVER do?


On a societal level, what role do blogs play?


Why did you decide to start a weblog? What did you want your blog to accomplish? Have you achieved that purpose yet?

Thank you for furthering God's glory in participating in this survey, because I do give it all to Him!

Engraved in His palm,
Gina

Sin and flaws: Is there a difference?

We are not stuck with permanent flaws.

What a relief!

We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So where is the connection?

I have done some most ugly things which, if I allow myself to dwell upon them, shame me to the core. I know I am not alone in this because anyone can open the Bible up to just about any page and see sinful acts by God’s saints. He knew this would happen from the beginning and that is why from the beginning He had a plan. Sins are events. Sin is forgiven those who realize they have sinned, confess that sin, and ask God for forgiveness because Jesus made that ultimate sacrifice so it would be. Sin only defines those who are not saved and who reject Jesus. However…

Satan’s plan is to steal, kill and destroy, and to smear the consciences as well as the reputations of all God’s children. He will latch on to a sin and from his point of view make that sin our identity. But, as I told my pastor last night, those horrible things I have done are not even an itch between God's shoulder blades. Why do I let Satan toss a memories at me from his Accusation File Folder?

Sometimes I want to just throw myself down and beg God to forgive me for something I did years ago. Why does this guilt hang around my neck like a mill stone? Because I allow it. Sanctification is working with God against the flaws that instigate sin. Not against sin itself. As Paul puts it, he wants to present us to God without wrinkle, blemish or spot dressed in bright, white linen. Wrinkles come from sitting down on the job. Blemishes come from devouring junk food. And spots come from wallowing where we do not belong as God’s children.

I am not stuck with permanent flaws, but Satan would have me believe such. He throws those things at me to make me believe it was a continual thing rather than a single event. He digs around in his Accusation File throwing those at me to keep me from my sweet relationship with the Most Holy God. Paul had the same problem, or at least he spoke of it:

2 Corinthians 1:8 For, brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant as to our affliction having happened to us in Asia, that we were excessively burdened beyond our power, so as for us even to despair of living. 9 But we ourselves have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust on ourselves, but on God, the One raising the dead.

With power like that, who can defeat us? With power like that, how can we fail? Father, help us to wake up with You on our minds and to always ask You to manage our time and to help us use Your energy in us forever and ever. Amen

Dingo really did snatch a 9-week old baby

National Geographic photo by Jason Edwards

It took four inquests, untold number of tears, several years in prison at hard labor for the mother, and more than two decades for the truth to finally hold sway over this case. In 1980 a wild dog snatched a baby from a family's camp in the wilds of Australia. Both the mother and the father asserted repeatedly that a dingo had taken the baby, but the baby's clothes found in the desert were unmarred which led to the belief the mother had made it look like a dog attack.

Is it reasonable to automatically assume family attacks family?

Gary Chapman said in his book, The Five Languages of Love that we are more courteous to strangers than we are to our most beloved. Well, maybe. I grew up in a Christian home, and we were courteous to each other, but my sister and I could have some of the most violent fights. Oh, not where bruises were exchanged, but hair pulling, snarls, and damage to property did. (I'm so glad that I didn't have those kinds of losses of self-control later in life--until the monster Menopause came visit me.) However, let anyone ever take a poke either verbally or physically at my sister and that brought out the momma bear in me. Family members will trade verbal barbs and perhaps a few arrows, but rarely do bullets, knives or hatchets become physical weapons of choice.

In 2010 statistics released by the FBI Uniform Crime Reports show the victim/offender relationship was by far the highest in the form of acquaintance and friend. The lowest was sister to sister. The highest within the family was the husband murdering his wife. Of all the known to police murders of infants in 2010 (186) it was less than 1% (.0143) of all homicides. That means the likelihood a parent would murder his/her infant son or daughter is far less than it being committed by an acquaintance or friend. Bear in mind that accidents are not included here so we can't run the full equation to a definitive conclusion.

To me, this means that the assumption that a lot of police officers and officers of the court make that husband/wife, or any other familial relationship committing the murder is far less than 1% here in the U.S.

The fact this crime took more than two decades to be solved as an accident is so sad to me. So often people jump to conclusions, and assume things without gathering all the facts. Since the baby's coat was found next to a dingo's den and was mauled considerably which explains why the baby's other clothes were more pristine, why would it take so incredibly long for the truth of a fatal attack by a wild dog to be concluded?

Proverbs 3:7  Don't assume that you know it all. Run to GOD! Run from evil!

1 Corinthians 4:5  So don't get ahead of the Master and jump to conclusions with your judgments before all the evidence is in. When he comes, he will bring out in the open and place in evidence all kinds of things we never even dreamed of--inner motives and purposes and prayers. Only then will any one of us get to hear the "Well done!" of God.

Proverb 25:8  Don't jump to conclusions--there may be a perfectly good explanation for what you just saw.

I am not saying that circumstantial evidence should not be used or considered. After all, what would you conclude if you found cookie crumbs in your children's bed and they had chocolate smeared faces?

Men are happier people.

(from email 2-2-06)

What do you expect from such simple creatures?

Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Chocolate is just another snack. You can be President. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth.

The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another gas station restroom because this one is just too icky.

You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Same work, more pay.

Wrinkles add character.

Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100.

People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them.

The occasional well-rendered belch is practically expected.

New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat! You know stuff about tanks.

A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase--no extra case for cosmetics because you actually can use the shampoo the hotel offers. Any color goes with jeans. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.

If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.

You can play with toys all your life. Your belly usually hides your big hips.

One wallet and one pair of shoes one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can "do" your nails with a pocket knife.

You have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache.

You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25minutes.

No wonder men are happier.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

What can I say? Men are perfect and I love them. One in particular is my special favorite and I love Him more than all you other guys put together.

Venus swings in front of the sun

NASA photo

It is incredible to imagine this is Venus, second from the Sun. It's flying by right now and I saw it. It'll be another 105 years before it happens again... but, I'm praying Jesus will come before that.

With all the incredible sights we have seen in the heavenlies, how can anyone not know within their heart of hearts that God is?

I am so amazed at the works of His hands.

Psa 8:3  When I look upon Your heavens, the work of Your fingers: the moon and the stars which You have fixed;
Psa 8:4  what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You visit him?
Psa 8:5  For You have made him lack a little from God; and have crowned him with glory and honor.
Psa 8:6  You made him rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all under his feet:
Psa 8:7  all flocks and oxen, and also the animals of the field,
Psa 8:8  the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, all that pass through the sea.
Psa 8:9  O Jehovah, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
(Literal Translation)

Grapes or wine? The marriage principle

I have read about twenty translations of Song of Solomon 8:6. The paraphrases do not seem to get that this verse is from the Ketubah or the Marriage Contract. I have heard at least a hundred sermons on how our relationship with Jesus is as a betrothal between the groom and the bride, but I haven't heard much at all on the contents of the marriage contract, or the Ketubah. It comes from the Mishna.

It’s fascinating, in a word.

I cannot find the artist of this painting.

The original purpose of the ketubah was to protect the wife and children in case something ever happened to the husband and papa. In ancient times, the family of the husband could just absorb the whole estate leaving the wife and children with nothing. In Jewish thought, this is tzedek, or justice. Ketubot, plural of ketubah, took the place of the mohar, the bride price as the young men desirous of marriage rarely had the money or possessions to pay the mohar so the priests made marriage possible by delaying the payment of the bride price.

The delay meant the couple could marry, but the husband promised to pay for his wife’s care in case he decided to divorce her. Genesis 34 illustrates the practice of paying a bride price. A Hivite, Shechem, saw Dinah the daughter of Jacob and desired her so much that he violated her. His father approached Jacob and his sons offering to pay what ever price they said so that Shechem could wed Dinah. Exodus 22:16-17 stipulates that any man who violates a virgin should pay the bride price and if her father refuses to give her to the man as wife, the man shall pay the virgin bride price anyway. 

The bride price was set high enough to pay all the woman’s living expenses for the rest of her life. If a woman was violated, any other man would not take her as a wife because she was tainted goods. (Even a widow were not married very often and became a burden unless she had sons to take care of her.) Her father must continue to take care of her far beyond the expected time so it was the responsibility of the man who violated her to pay for her care. It was also considered the responsibility of the husband to care for his discarded wife since she would have no place to go except back to her father’s tent. 

In the ketubah the bride and groom did not sign the document, but the two witnesses who were highly honored friends attested to the promises made by the groom who would speak the words out loud to the bride and then would drink from the goblet of wine, then offer it to her. The wine represented the groom’s blood and offering it to his betrothed was the symbolic gesture that he would give up his life for her. When she took the goblet and drank it, she was telling him, the witnesses, and all who were present that she accepted his life and his promises. Thus the betrothal was complete.

John the Baptist called Jesus the Bridegroom and that He who has the bride is the Bridegroom. As mentioned above the witnesses were friends of the bridegroom, and John rejoiced at this highest honor God had bestowed upon him to bear witness to the authenticity of Jesus being the Son of God (John 3:28-34). The church is often called the Bride of Christ, and references to this are sprinkled throughout scripture as in Isa. 62:5; Rev. 21:2, Rev. 21:9; Rev. 22:17; Eph. 5:26-27, Eph. 5:32; 2 Co. 11:2. Therefore the significance of the ketubah and the mohar is evident as a physical example of a spiritual truth. The monetary promise of the ketubah was a disincentive to divorce. If a man must pay an exorbitant bride price to the woman’s father because he was to give her a writ of divorcement or a get, it was hoped he would rethink the action as it would deplete his fortunes considerably.  

Jesus did not postpone the mohar but gave His life as the bride price just as the wine was His blood and the bread His body that we would remember what He had done. The wine is used when the betrothal is announced and everyone drinks to L’Chaim—To Life! It is the most common toast. Without blood there is no life. The sacrifices described in the Torah, were life given so that human life could continue. The correlation here is that God delayed pouring out His wrath upon the people.

Consider the day the Israelites persuaded Aaron to make the golden calf. God told Moses to get himself down the mountain because the people had done this evil thing; and God said His wrath would burn hot and He would consume them. Moses pleaded with God to consider Abraham, Isaac and Israel. So God nâcham. He took a deep breath and breathed out, easing His own anger and refrained from consuming the people. However, 3,000 men died that same day by a Levite sword. Blood was shed for the sin of the people.

Exodus 32:31 Then Moses returned to the LORD and said, "Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! 32 Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." 33 And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book. 34 Now therefore, go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, My Angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit for punishment, I will visit punishment upon them for their sin." 35 So the LORD plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made.

Wages of sin is death. But our Husband declared His love was so great that He gave His life, chaim, to redeem us. Moses offered himself for the people, but it was not a perfect sacrifice and God’s view is that each shall bear his own guilt unless he accept the atonement, or redemption payment, of Jesus’ blood.

What if young men were to make that kind of commitment for their brides today? What if wives would make that choice as well?

A man and woman can live as a married couple sharing everything, but still remain separate submerged within their own selfish desires, never caring beyond sacrifice for their beloved’s needs and pleasure. That is living as grapes on a vine. But, when grapes are crushed together, the flesh merges as one and the mingled juice becomes something more prized than water, as Jesus portrayed in Cana; that is the ultimate two becoming one flesh. That is how God intended marriage. The two people so blended, and so much a part of each other that it is impossible for anyone to divide them in twain.

That is the marriage principle. That is how it is with Jesus and His bride. We have no need of a ketubah. 

(Inspired by this video:  http://www.aish.com/f/m/Jewish_Weddings_and_Wine.html) This is a reprint from this week's column at LiveAsIf.org.

Kosher Chocolate Chips --the cookie crumbles

Photo Freedigitalphoto.net

On the Wall Street Journal's website, there is an article about Trader Joe's chocolate chips not being kosher for meat and dairy. There is a hullabaloo and chocolate chip run occurring as we speak.

What's all the fuss, you ask.

According to Jewish law, meat and dairy cannot be served together, or cooked together at all. Jews could not eat Oreo cookies before 1997 because the goody was made with lard, not vegetable shortening. (No wonder they were so good!) So... this raises a question that I've been pondering for more than a decade.

Where did today's Jewish dietary laws come from?
When did Jewish dietary laws actually divert from the Torah?

Okay, that's 2 questions. Any one have an answer?

Law suit against Obama: Media censored reporting

I have warned about this several times in the past. Because a certain story (or type of story) isn't convenient or isn't conducive to popular trends in the public sphere, certain news agencies will omit reporting the story or slightly twist the reporting to make the news slant toward a political bent. Remember how a certain agency edited the 911 call of Zimmerman?

Brent Bozell, president of Media Research Center is appalled by: 

the worst bias by omission I have seen in the quarter century history of the Media Research Center, tantamount to the Chinese communists withholding news for 20 years that we landed on the moon, because it reflected poorly on the government. Our US media today are no different. They are now withholding news from the American people if it is harmful to the re-election of Barack Obama.

 ABC's World News and NBC's Nightly News completely failed to report this historic event! CBS Evening News only dedicated a brief 19 seconds to the story and framed it as a birth control debate. By contrast, ABC led their evening broadcast with the sentencing of the Rutgers student who spied on his gay roommate with a web camera. That story received three minutes and 30 seconds of coverage at the top of the newscast.

This is not a mistake or an editorial oversight by the broadcast networks. This is a deliberate and insidious withholding of national news to protect the 'Chosen One' who ABC, CBS and NBC have worked so hard to elect and are now abusing their journalistic influence to reelect. Even when a network like CBS mentions the suit ever-so-briefly, they botch the issue by framing it as a contraception lawsuit instead of what they know it to be: a religious freedom issue. It's bogus, dishonest ‒ a flat out lie.

The fact is that the Catholic Church has unleashed legal Armageddon on the administration, promising 'we will not comply' with a health law that strips Catholics of their religious liberty. If this isn't 'news' then there's no such thing as news. This should be leading newscasts and the subject of special, in-depth reports. Instead, these networks are sending a clear message to all Americans that the networks will go to any lengths ‒ even censoring from the public an event of this historic magnitude ‒ to prevent the release of any information that will hurt Obama's chances of re-election.

 I have to wonder why. What is it that is driving the news media, a once objective reporting industry to so abandon high ethical standards for a moral deteriorating agenda? Why is it so necessary to strip naked the moral majority of religious freedoms and conscious-driven policies? How far will it go?

Don't die in the wilderness

Psalm 78:12  He did wonders before their fathers in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan. 13  He divided the sea and passed them through; and He caused the waters to stand in a heap. 14  And He led them by a cloud in the day, and all the night with a light of fire. 15  He split the rocks in the wilderness and made them drink, as from great floods. 16  And He brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to go down like rivers. 17  Yet they sinned still more against Him, to provoke the Most High in the desert. 18  And they tested God in their heart, by asking food for their souls. 19  And they spoke against God, saying, Shall God be able to set a table in the wilderness? 20  Behold! He struck the rock and the waters gushed out, and the torrents were overflowing. Can He also give bread? Will He provide flesh for His people? 21  So Jehovah heard and He passed over, and a fire was kindled against Jacob, and also anger went up against Israel, 22  because they did not believe in God and trusted not in His salvation. 

Every time I hear something else that makes me churn with uneasiness like our economy, or that I don't have a job, or that our country's security is compromised by the loose lips of our president or secretary of state... God reminds me of His mighty works. Not just in the Bible, but I see a glorious day, a breath-catching sunset, a baby's smile and I am immediately soothed with assurance that He is in control. He gives us our needs before we think to ask. He lights our path so that we do not stumble. It is only when we disobey or head out into uncharted territory (read that away from the lighted path) that we acquire bloody noses and scraped knees and elbows. 

It is imperative that we believe Him and trust Him. It is not for our salvation that we do this, but for our own comfort. To believe and trust Him is to eliminate the Worry Factor. Worrying is the harbinger of  hearts full of disbelief and distrust. 

Take a lesson from the Children of Israel and do not die in the wilderness. Rest on the Strong Arm of the Lord. He will save you now.

A grandmother's pride

Year's ago when I was working for the Picayune Item my phone rang...

"I just want to know why you haven't put my granddaughter's picture in the paper," came the gravelly voice over the phone.

"Well, I... uh, what's your granddaughter's name?"

She told me and the name didn't ring one single bell. I'm pretty good at remembering names and putting names with faces. Don't test me, because I'll fail if you ask me to tell you who I met today and what their names are. I've got retroactive memory. Forget short term, that's gone forever, I think.
I took down all the information and all the while that gravelly voice was talking.

"My granddaughter won such and such award and I think that is way more news worthy than graduating basic training. Just about anybody can do that, but not everybody in the military gets such and such award. You need to find that picture and if you can't I'll scrounge around the family and get one, then I'd like to see her story in the paper as soon as possible. I've been waiting months for her picture to get in the paper..."

Whew. I asked around and of course no one remembered getting a military picture. It wasn't in the computer banks anywhere and not in any of the folders in the files. I scoured the internet hoping to find a military picture of this young woman. Surely, someone would be bragging on her if the award was such a big deal.

I turned up one photo of her. She was in New Orleans, handing out candy to Katrina victims with the biggest smile on her face, like she was having the grandest time of her life. The kids were grinning, too. They were having a party. In the background were a couple of helicopters, blades twirling, and soldiers were lifting stretchers out of the helicopters and the tarmac had several stretchers lined up.
She gave those kids a lighter memory than the pure trauma they had endured. That's a real hero. I'll never forget her face, but her name escapes me at the moment. But, her name isn't as important as what she did.

I couldn't find a "proper" picture to go with the award story. It was time to go home any way, it was past 7 o'clock and I was hungry.

Next morning, the picture was on my chair with a note scrawled across a paper clipped piece of paper, 'okay to rerun.' Hmm, I didn't know it ran the first time.

I scanned the photo and wrote the story. It ran in the next edition. And the grandmother was right. It was really a big deal and a great award. The young woman deserved the recognition. But, I'm thinking in the back of my mind, that the real story was the grins on those kids' faces. Mighty Mouse, Tom Terrific, Superman... those are two dimensional heroes. This woman was a real life hero in those kids' eyes. You just can't beat that with a stick.

Ten commandments to lose the first 4?

The ACLU has attacked the Ten Commandments once again, and this time a judge, Michael F. Urbanski, has recommended that the first four commands be removed to make the document more palatable to the ACLU. The case has been ordered into mediation. In June, the school board not only voted to take down the 10 Commandments at the high school, but also in ever other school in Giles County, Virginia. Then, after the "agreement", the school board was ordered to pay the ACLU more than $6,000 in their out-of-pocket expenses, all while the student and parents' identity remain secret.

There are framed documents depicting American law and government of which one is the ten commandments. Whether they can see it or not, whether they like it or not, there is no changing the fact that the ten commandments played a major roll in the development of United States law. 

Our forefathers are rolling in their graves, so to speak, at what America puts first. Our nation was built on Biblical principles by Christian men and women. One has only to do a bit of reading of historical speeches and writings of John Hancock, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and many others to know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Matthew, Mark, Paul and John was also the God of our forefathers. Nonetheless, today the battle cry is not “A Bible in every house” (Ben Franklin). It is “King size it” and “I’ll have it my way” for “If it feels good, do it” and “Just do it” because “I deserve a break today.” Regardless of lessons from times past, Americans have not learned how to let history be a teacher.