You must be the change you wish to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead⌠Thomas Jefferson Remember, we learn nothing by speaking. St. Francis of Asissi I thought I would pull up three inspirational quotes from some of my heroes for this inspiration Sunday. Gandhi was a man of simplicity. He … Continue reading We Learn Nothing By Speaking…..
October 2009 — This is one of my favorite barn pictures and I have over a thousand of them. It was taken in central Wisconsin Continue reading Favorite Barn Picture….
For what good is graceâthis unconditional love of Godâif it is not extended to those who deserve it the least but need it the most? God is love. Holiness and justice are not competing commitments. God has not chosen to turn his back on us or to punish us as our sins deserve. God has chosen to redeem us. Nothing requires God to condemn us, … Continue reading To Those Who Need It The Most…..
I have been thinking about all the partisanship and our legislative process lately. Â We seem to be in a gridlocked pattern that is almost impossible to break. Washington is completely out of step with the rest of the country. Â Poll after pole tells us that we the people want them to get off their butts and do something. Doing nothing in the U.S. Senate feeds … Continue reading Feeding the Cynicism….
Source: Are you getting overcharged by your hospital? Time to become a Smart patient | VentureBeat. If youâre a patient represented by Medicare or Medicaid, youâre well served because these programs have significant market muscle: They negotiate prices below what it costs to treat patients. …..With few exceptions, private insurers tend to be relatively weak when bargaining with hospitals, so that hospitals can extract from them prices substantially … Continue reading Overcharged By Your Hospital?
Source:Â Republicans Win Congress as Democrats Get Most Votes – Bloomberg. The 2010 elections, in which Republicans won the House majority and gained more than 700 state legislative seats across the nation, gave the party the upper-hand in the process of redistricting, the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional seats. The advantage helped them design safer partisan districts and maintain their House majority in 2012 — even as … Continue reading About Gerrymandering….
In the decades since a jury convicted him of murder, nearly every piece of evidence in this case has fallen away. A key witness told The New York Times that a detective instructed him to select Mr. Ranta in the lineup. A convicted rapist told the district attorney that he falsely implicated Mr. Ranta in hopes of cutting a deal for himself. A woman has … Continue reading Wrongly Convicted….
We canât have it both ways. We canât honor the words of the men and women of the Bible while ignoring their example. They trusted their experiences with God more than the words of those who preceded them. They believed in a God of fresh words. How can we canonize their words but ignore their radical obedience to the voice of a living God? We … Continue reading Having It Both Ways…
The state has been scarred by some of the deadliest incidents of mass gun violence in recent U.S. history, including the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School and the Aurora movie theater shooting that killed 12 last July. The stateâs gun control bills have gained national attention since they were first proposed, drawing the ire of those who oppose any new restrictions on gun … Continue reading Colorado Gov. Hickenlooper signs landmark gun-control bills – U.S. News
Source: Â Thinking outside the box – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Thinking outside the box (also thinking out of the box or thinking beyond the box) is a metaphor that means to think differently, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. This phrase often refers to novel or creative thinking. The term is thought to derive from management consultants in the 1970s and 1980s challenging their … Continue reading Thinking outside the box….
Source:Â China’s real estate bubble – CBS News. China has been nothing short of a financial miracle. In just 30 years, this state-controlled economy became the world’s second largest, deftly managed by government policies and decrees. One sector the authorities concentrated on was real estate and construction. But that may have created the largest housing bubble in human history. If you go to China, it’s easy … Continue reading China’s real estate bubble
Just as after Vietnam, politicians can vow never to fight another long and unpopular war against insurgents. But Perkins said that would be exactly the wrong lesson for the military to learn from Iraq. “We can never be in a position to say, you know what, we don’t do that anymore,” Perkins said. The great lesson of Iraq — that the American military must be … Continue reading Why Not????
This is an ongoing post about the book “If Grace Is True” by Philip Gulley and James Mulholland. Â Here are the words for today. Many people are suspicious of experiences with God. The believers in Jerusalem were suspicious of Peterâs experience. You may be suspicious of mine. Some argue that such experiences arenât trustworthy, that infallible Scripture is the only safe guide in our search … Continue reading Suspicious of Experiences With God…..
Victor said she was “shocked” when she heard what Scalia said about the Voting Rights Act during the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on a key provision of the law last month. “I thought you must not know whatâs happening in this country,” Victor wrote. “After learning more this year from the civil rights group, Advancement Project, I know that just as there were for me, … Continue reading Equal Voice At The Ballot Box….
There is only one battle worth fighting: spend every second of your life searching for the spark that makes you feel alive. Thereâs no other fight quite like it. You fail, and it doesnât matter. The entire world thinks youâre pathologically unstable, and it doesnât matter. You receive 200 rejection letters from agents, you keep on writing. Reach for the stars and donât whine … Continue reading Success. Fear. And stuff…..
I got to thinking the other day about how I am different than I was ten years ago and especially twenty years ago. Â Although much is the same a lot has also changed in my life in those years. Â I have a friend at the soup kitchen where I volunteer who proudly wears a T-shirt that says “Thank God, I am not the man I … Continue reading On The Path….
Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours. -Swedish proverb I don’t know many Swedes I guess so I don’t know if any of them actually live by this proverb. I briefly had a Norwegian roommate in college and he definitely liked to party with his … Continue reading Whine Less, Breathe More…….
April 2011 – Since I just got done with a series of posts about Jefferson I thought I would put a picture of his life size bronze from Monticello here. Continue reading Tom Jefferson…
When we start out trying to make everybody have Moral elections, why, it just dont look like we going to have Marines enough to go round.” – Will Rogers, 26 May 1928 After Mr. Bush discovered that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq he turned on a dime to say that he invaded Iraq so that the people would have moral elections. … Continue reading Moral Elections……
It was nice to see that Rand Paul’s standing filibuster bringing additional attention to the military drone issue in this country. Our country is based on check and balances and the current drone program has neither of those characteristics. The possibility of serious abuse scares me and should scare all of us. But, that is not what this post is going to be about. Instead … Continue reading The Pledge….
 â”Can you imagine our Savior dying for all of us, yet we have to argue over just whether he did die for us personally, and not for you. Sometimes you wonder if His lessons of sacrifice and devotion was pretty near lost on a lot of us.” – Will Rogers, 7 April 1935 Those who follow my at my other blog at RJs Corner … Continue reading Didn’t Die For Us Personally…
I want to do a followup of this morning post with a little more whimsical frame of mind. Â As I see it we are looking at two different world views when it come to our energy needs. One of our political parties theme seems to be “Drill Baby, Drill”. They want to extract absolutely every drop of oil out of our planet. They adamantly insist … Continue reading Two Scenarios….
Source:Â Obama’s $2 billion plan to wean US off foreign oil (+video) – CSMonitor.com. If the Obama administration has its way, $2 billion in new revenue from offshore oil drilling will fund research into how to wean American drivers off imported oil… âThe reason so many different people â from the private sector, the public sector, our military â support this idea is because it’s … Continue reading Putting a Man On The Moon And….
Dear R J, The Keystone XL pipeline is a giant straw that spews out some of the dirtiest oil on earth. Christians have advocated tirelessly to stop the pipeline. Despite this opposition, the State Department recently released a report that claims the pipeline is âunlikely to have a substantial impact.â Where did they get their data? The oil and gas industry. [1] Tell the State … Continue reading Keystone Pipeline Opposition Explained….
This is a continuation about Jefferson and religion. As stated before, there are many especially in evangelical circles that say that Jefferson meant for our country to be founded on Christian principles. My posts on the blog are to show that although Jefferson was a follower of Jesus Christ at one level he was by no means saying the U.S. should be a Christian nation. … Continue reading Jefferson And The Clergy….
I didnât consider this for many years. I actually thought my experiences rare. I was one of the chosen. I was special. Now I know the truth. God whispers his love in every ear. He isnât interested in declaring his love to a select few. He doesnât limit his presence to Vatican City, to the halls of seminaries, to the offices of preachers, or to … Continue reading If grace is true, it is true for everyone. – Part 4 If Grace Is True….
No slick lawyers, or income tax experts can get you out of a national sales tax. It’s so much on the dollar on every luxury you buy. Then, if you like to live in luxury, the poor fellow knows you are paying for it and he will even encourage you to buy more so it will help out the government. Â November 2, 1924 Â Will … Continue reading About Those Taxes…..
Taxation is about all there is to Government. You know, people don’t want their taxes lowered near as much as the politicians try to make you believe. People want just taxes more than they want lower taxes. Â — Â November 2, 1924 Â — Will Rogers It seems that much that drives my radical-right friends is the adamant conviction to prevent someone from getting something they … Continue reading Gaming The System At Both Ends….
Source:Â Paul Ran’s new Medicare plan could be tip of the iceberg (+video) – CSMonitor.com. A parallel factor is rising income. As a society grows richer, it tends to spend more of its income on health care. Add in demographics (an aging population) and a lack of competition among health-care providers in many markets, and you have a recipe for more people to consume more … Continue reading Paul Ryan’s new Medicare plan…
I am going to jump off the series of posts about God’s grace for a quick aside. It amazes me how God can have agape love for us humans. He puts no conditions on his love and he loves each and every one of us. Knowing that God’s love for me is not dependent on me is reassuring indeed. It also amazes me how we … Continue reading Putting Conditions On Accepting God’s Love…..
I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein When I came across this Einstein quote it almost made me shudder. Even though I have heard it before it struck me this time. Â We are advancing technologically at an astounding pace in recent years. Â Integrated circuits are in just … Continue reading World War IV…..
I wish I knew who originally penned these words. They are inspiring indeed. Continue reading Definite Words Of Wisdom….
Sept 2010 – Mackinac Island Continue reading Mackinac Island…
I was certain if I could preach the perfect sermon the altar would fill with people overcome by Godâs grace. Now I realize there are many hindrances to experiencing the fullness of Godâs graceâconfusion, fear, prejudice, ignorance, and pride, to name a few. The removal of these obstacles ought to be the primary purpose of the Church. Unfortunately, the Church has often erected more barriers … Continue reading The Fullness of God’s Grace….. (Part 3 – If Grace Is True)
Source:Â Will Fractured House Republicans Unite on Budget? – ABC News. âWhen youâre looking at a budget, youâve got a watch the gimmicks,â Ryan warned. Gimmicks indeed. Â One of the tools Mr. Ryan proposes to balance his so-called budget plan is the total repeal of Obamacare. Â Is he the only one to see that as impossible? Â As usual he wants severe cuts to the … Continue reading The Republican Budget….
Why does the U.S. have the biggest percentage of our population in prison? Â When I first heard this it somewhat surprised me. I thought surely those countries led by dictators would be higher. Â Given the reputation of the Gulags in Russia why are they not higher than us? I did a little digging and it seems the answer is really not clear. But there seems … Continue reading The Highest Incarceration Rate… Part 2
RJ's Corner 