Obama on Abortion

Here is Relevant magazine being relevant:

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life_article.php?id=7591

Obama says:

I have repeatedly said that I think it’s entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother. Now, I don’t think that “mental distress” qualifies as the health of the mother.

and

The other email rumor that’s been floating around is that somehow I’m unwilling to see doctors offer life-saving care to children who were born as a result of an induced abortion. That’s just false… It defies common sense to think that a hospital wouldn’t provide life-saving treatment to an infant that was alive and had a chance of survival.

Let’s continue to pray that brother Obama will embrace God’s view for the sanctity of life of the unborn!

DVD Review: An Uncommon Union:The Life and Love of Sarah and Jonathan Edwards

If Sarah Edwards had only been able to adopt and homeschool her recently orphaned grandson Aaron Burr perhaps he would not have shot and killed Alexander Hamilton! Instead she died on the way to pick him up. Her heart was busted after Mr. Edwards (1703-1758) died after having a bad reaction to the new smallpox vaccination.

The acting is not that great but the script is wonderful. It is about Sarah reminiscing about her husband’s life. You do get a lot of insights into her life at the same time- her meloncholy,and her ecstatic joy that made people think she was crazy. The script, adapted from a one-actress play,  sounds like it is using many primary sources.  Sarah Edwards is a hero of the Great Awakening along were her husband. Perhaps we will see such a great spiritual awakening in our day. Recommended – 4 stars.

(this DVD is available on Netflix)

Oragami birds at Broad Street Ministries in Philadelphia

This took my breath away this morning! The oragami birds are an art installation at Broad Street Ministries in Philadelphia.

It consists of 600 oragami swallows suspended by invisible thread. Each swallow represents a prayer by people who are homeless or struggling or sick. Prayers “not for handouts, but for jobs.”

The windmills are another art installation. They are unexpected in the church.  They are not moving, as if frozen in a moment of “longing, tense” expectation waiting for “wind and fire” at the eve of Pentecost.

Jesus For President #5

The Trailer

Sam has a job!

The job is in New York City in Soho. It is programming and writing for a local news website. So the news is good! Sam (my oldest son) and Katie (his fiance) are hoping to live in Brooklyn. They are getting married on August 9th. They have entertaining website and podcast called skinc, so that is the best place to go for Sam and Katie news!

Josh is working two jobs – Blockbusters and telemarketing. Hannah is at the Dollar Store, and Ben is selling Magic card on Ebay.

Jesus For President #4

I found the Jesus For President Blog, which gives a day-by-day report on the Jesus for President book tour.  Here is the funniest entry I found – about crossing the Canadian border

The tour comes to Philadephia  tomorrow evening, July 26, 2008.

The slaves of the Great Great Grandfather of John McCain

A puzzle: I am interested in the Original John McCain (John McCain’s III great grandfather, the son of the slave owner). Was he never in the military? Did he live in Carroll County, Mississippi his entire life? Apparently he was sherriff and the owner of a plantation of sharecroppers. John must have been 12 when his father died in the civil war. His son and his grandson became admirals and his great grandson is running for president! Why isn’t it John McCain III not John McCain IV? 

I was researching the ethnicity of John McCain (he is Scottish, Irish and English) and discovered that McCain’s great great grandfather, William Alexander McCain (1812-1863), was a slave owner

William died at the age of 51 in the war between the states. He was born in North Carolina in 1812. McCain married Mary Louisa McAllister in 1840. She was 18, he was 28. William was a farmer, and they had 6 children in 1860 – four girls and two boys, aged 17 to 5 months.

William also owned 52 slaves – 48 of them had the race of “B”, 4 of them had the race of “M”. 23 were female, 29 were male. The youngest was 6 months, the oldest was 62. Here is the age break down:

0-10 years of age: 13 children

11-19 years of age: 7 teenagers

20-55 years old: 25

55 years of age and older: 7

Here is the link:

http://www.wargs.com/political/mccain.htm

The great-great Grandfather of John McCain was William Alexander McCain (1812-1863). He had John McCain (1851-1934) who had Admiral John McCain (1884-1945) who had Admiral John McCain (1911-1981) who had John McCain (1936- ), the Republican Nominee who is running for president. It looks like John’s father, grandfather, and great grandfather were all named John so he should be known as John McCain IV.

Barach Obama’s religious faith and upbringing

I am getting most of this information from the snopes.com article which researches the urban legend that Obama is a Muslim. Of course, even if Obama was a Muslim or raised by Muslims, that would not necessarily make him a terrorist or anti-American.

Obama’s Birthdate: August 4, 1961 (which makes him my age and means his birthday is coming up)

Biological Father: Barack Hussein Obama Sr., who was born in Kenya.

Mother: Ann Dunham, who was born in Wichita KS. They were attending the University of Hawaii.

Religion of father – Raised Muslim but became an athiest/agnostic

Religion of mother – religion should be respected with detachment.

When Obama was 2 years old, his parents got a divorce. When he was 6, his mother remarried Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian.

Religion of stepfather: Nominal Muslim

The family moved to Jakarta, Indonesia where Obama attended both Catholic and Muslim schools. The ‘Muslim’ school that Obama attended was a public school, and was Muslim because most of the students there were Muslims. There was a few hours of religious instruction a week, but not religious instruction that encouraged terrorism. It was not a Madrassa, did not focus on religion, and was not radical Wahabbist.

Obama’s mother then divorced again, and Obama went back to the US to be raised by his maternal grandmother.

Obama’s Religion: Christian

In the mid 1980s Obama went down the aisle of Chicago’s Trinity United Church in response to an altar call by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright where he became an active member. Obama did not get elected into public office until 1996 so this predates his political career.

His step sister, who is ten years younger, is a Buddhist.

update 7/24/2008:

Obama on the Abortion Issue

…and yes, he has inhaled Marijuana but believes that was a mistake. He believes that marijuana should be kept illegal, but possibly prescribed by doctors under strict guidelines in the same way morphine and other pain killers are. Obama is in favor of the war on drugs. 

http://hempsavetheworld.wordpress.com/2008/01/14/marijuana-laws-ron-paul-vs-barack-obama/

A vision of heaven

I have been asking God for a vision of heaven but, in my dream, I found myself in a place that looked exactly like earth. I was walking down a country road. The grass was green and wet. I could feel the pebbles in my sandals. It was raining slightly and the air smelled of life and oxygen – no smog out here in the country. The sky was mostly overcast. Everything looked familiar. I was not on another planet. I told God that this did not look like heaven. It looked like earth.

I saw a house with a Bed and Breakfast sign. It was a white farm house. Nothing fancy.  The yard was spectacular however – beautiful flowers, a rose bush, very well kept. I knocked on the door, and an old lady answered. “Come in”, she said, “we have been expecting you, Mark.”

There was her husband sitting at the Kitchen table. He was old as well. “You think”, he said, “that you are on plan G, and that plan A failed, plan B failed, plan C failed and so on and so on! Well that’s not true!! This is plan A!!”

I had no idea what he was talking about. I always assumed I was on “Plan Z” by now. This was not your normal Bed and Breakfast!

The woman brought out some milk and chocolate chip cookies”How long have you lived in this house?”.  “A long time” one of them said.  I removed my knapsack and a New Testament fell out. “Do you read very much of that book?” the old man said. He picked up the book and flipped to Romans 6:5 which he read to me:

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. (TNIV)

“We used to lived in this house and then we died in this house and now we live again in this house.” the man said.  I could see tears of joy well up in the woman’s eyes.  These people suddenly looked very religious.

“What are your names?” I asked.

My name is Adam. Her name is Eve.

“Like in the Bible?” I asked.

“I told you, you stubborn person. God has restored His paradise on earth with us in charge. It is His plan. He always carries out his purposes! There is no plans B, or Plans C, or Plans D.” and then he said things about Israel that I did not understand.

I was about to ask them about why they were wearing clothes but then I woke up.

10 facts that proves that Jesus loves you

Somebody just emailed me wanting to know how they could know that Jesus loved them. Here is ten of many reasons that I thought of immediately:

10. He made you and He doesn’t make junk. He only makes beautiful very good things.
9.    God, the Father, commanded him to. It is the next to the greatest commandment to love people and Jesus follows all the commandments
8.    There is nothing you can do or that can be done to you that will stop Jesus from loving you

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
   “For your sake we face death all day long;
      we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[l] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[m] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

7.    Jesus loves sinner and hates pharisees. He came to heal the sick, not those who do not think they need a doctor.
6.    If you are a believer – he will marry you some day.  You don’t marry somebody that you don’t love.
5.    This is how we know what love is – Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16)
4.   Jesus is God and God is love (1 John 4:16)
3.   His love endures forever  Psalm 136
2.   Jesus died in your place, to forgive your sins. Do you believe this?
1.  Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so.