ATTENTION: Please SCROLL DOWN this page to find the article titled on this post in LARGE BRIGHT BLUE CAPITAL LETTERS. Thank you.)
PRAYER MATTERS:"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and asking Him to accomplish His perfect and loving will." - Stan
S.C. Decision on Homosexual Marriage– NOTE: I cannot stress enough how we all need to be praying that the Church – ie, the individual believer and the institution itself - will respond appropriately and effectively. Despite what the mainstream media is reporting, the debate is NOT over! (42 years after the SC legalized abortion, that debate is also FAR from over!) The Court ruled wrongly BUT they do NOT speak the FINAL word; God’s Word (and GOD) does – and always will. Isaiah 40:8; Phil. 4:5-6.
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
"'We Can't Forget' Pastor Saeed's 1,000 Days in Prison" - By Abigail Robertson, June 24, 2015, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2015/June/We-Cant-Forget-Pastor-Saeeds-1000-Days-in-Prison/
"Pastor Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith for 1,000 days, June 23... 'We cannot move forward with an Iranian nuclear deal while Pastor Saeed sits in prison as well as three other Americans,' he said. Mahoney also called upon Christians around the world to come together in prayer.
'Pray for Saeed and his family, pray for safety for our brothers and sisters around the world, and also pray for our elected officials and President Obama that they would not be silent, ' Mahoney urged. 'We believe that as Christians pray around the world, we can see Pastor Saeed's release.' "
"DON'T LEAVE AMERICAN PASTOR SAEED BEHIND " - (5/2) - The Obama administration has stated that they would veto any Congressional action to tie the proposed nuclear deal with Pastor Saeed's release! (4/1/) - A nuclear deal with Iran could come at any time, any hour, any day. But will American Pastor Saeed be freed? His health is worsening. He continues to suffer grave threats in an Iranian prison where torture and executions are commonplace. President Obama assured Pastor Saeed’s wife that freedom for this wrongfully imprisoned U.S. citizen would be a “top priority.” Now is a critical time to continue to pressure the Obama Administration to not leave Pastor Saeed behind and urge Iran to show goodwill. Pastor Saeed is imprisoned merely because he is a Christian. He deserves to be home with his family. We continue fighting for his freedom – working in Congress, with the State Department, and with leaders across the globe. We must not forget Pastor Saeed. Sign the Petition: "Don’t Leave American Pastor Saeed Behind".; http://aclj.org/persecuted-church/dont-leave-am
Urgent Petition: Defend Christians - Defeat ISIS. - Go to http://aclj.org/jihad/say-no-to-a-third-term-of-president-obamas-failed-foreign-policy?view=donFrmB&utm_expid=7567081-8.vdNbXkfzQUyJhpww3WXtYQ.1&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign= "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted...
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"Absurdus Rex - THE COURT’S ATTACK ON LANGUAGE" - By: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.org: August 24, 2015;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/12/28036?spMailingID=12211307&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=601718454&spReportId=NjAxNzE4NDU0S0"
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” is a famous riddle from “Alice in Wonderland.” Here’s another: Why is a parking ticket like a revelation?
You might have missed this story. On June 22 the 12th District Court of Appeals in Ohio overturned a parking ticket. Andrea Cammelleri had been cited for parking her truck on a city street. She fought the citation, saying the ordinance only prohibited parking a “motor vehicle camper” on the street, not a simple motor vehicle. The trial court ruled against her, writing that “anybody reading [the ordinance] would understand that it is just missing a comma.” Well, Judge Robert A. Hendrickson disagreed. He explained that the rule of law demands using the “rules of grammar and employing the common sense meaning of terms.” He wrote, “If the village desires a different reading, it should amend the ordinance and insert a comma between the phrase “motor vehicle” and the word “camper.”
Now what does a simple parking violation have to do with the larger culture? My colleague Daniel Weiss teases this out in his recent article on BreakPoint.org. The parking ticket story might not mean so much, he writes, if not for the two misguided Supreme Court decisions handed down just days later.
Now I’ve already shared quite a bit about these decisions, but I think Weiss’ point is worth exploring. In their own ways, both Supreme Court decisions dealt severe blows to the common meaning of words. Beyond the immediate impact of the rulings, their attack on the function of language might be the most significant long-term threat.
In Burwell vs. King, the Court found that the clear, plain language of the law commonly known as Obamacare wasn’t adequate to make the law work. So rather than asking Congress to rework the law, as would be proper, the Court gave it new meaning based on nothing more than the justices’ own desire to see the law stand.
Ironic, since the world just honored the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which established the idea of Lex Rex, that the law is king. It was an important check on the abuse of great power. That idea seems to be lost on this particular Court. If the federal government doesn’t have to abide by its own laws, why should average citizens?
In their other ruling, Obergefell v. Hodges, the Court violated thousands of years of human history that understood marriage to be the conjugal union of a man and woman for the purpose of family, and it found in the Constitution something that was not there. Even after tens of millions had affirmed their support for marriage at the ballot box, five justices redefined our foundational social institution and silenced an essential public debate.
The absurdity of these rulings is mindboggling until you understand the ideas driving them. Weiss unearthed a clue from the self-absorbed ramblings of Alice in Wonderland’s Humpty Dumpty, who said, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” For Humpty, co-opting the meaning of words makes perfect sense, because his goal is not to communicate Truth, but to become the master. The recent court rulings—and many cultural disruptions over the past decades—are really about who will be master.
As Weiss indicates, there’s a long history detailing the manipulation of language for the purpose of social control. George Orwell described the process well in his book 1984. The language was forever being altered, “to make all other modes of thought impossible. … This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings….”
But this isn’t something only of science fiction. When Communists took over mainland China, they perpetrated a “Cultural Revolution” that disrupted family bonds, discouraged religious devotion, and dismantled the Chinese language. Simplified characters replaced five thousand years of meaning and culture.
Now, we have it here. Words like “husband” and “wife” are discriminatory, confining marriage to two people is hateful, and “religious freedom” is bigotry. And many in our society wish to make words mean just what they want them to mean. But we have something they don’t: the Truth. And our loyalties remain: to the Christ who Himself is that Truth.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - In the midst of a culture's assault on and manipulation of words and their meaning, there is an "ultimate meaning to which we might cling." And as Daniel Weiss points out, that meaning "does not come from the Supreme Court, [or] the Constitution. . . but only from the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us." [Note Daniel's article below]
RESOURCES
"Ohio judge tosses woman’s parking ticket over missing comma" - Rachelle Blidner | New York Daily News | July 4, 2015;http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ohio-judge-tosses-woman-parking-ticket-missing-comma-article-1.2281378
"The Death of Language: Sexual 'Freedom' Depends on the Remaking of Words " - Daniel Weiss | BreakPoint.org | August 12, 2015;http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/articles/entry/12/27987
PRAYER MATTERS:"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth; "Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and asking Him to accomplish His perfect and loving will." - Stan
PRAY FOR AMERICA: THANK GOD for His many blessings on America throughout it's history. May we then ask that AMERICA once again be a blessing TO GOD, by once again submitting to HIS will in our affairs - both personal and national - that He may truly "heal our land." (2 Chron. 7:14) Short of that, we should not be saying "God Bless America"but instead "God be merciful towards America!" - Rev. Franklin Graham delivered this insight to his Facebook friends: "I do know that the president defends Islam and chastises Christians, rebukes our allies and befriends our enemies, and fully supports gay marriages and abortion but denies the religious freedoms of those who don't agree. Our nation is ridiculed abroad and morally crumbling within. We are in trouble. We have turned our back on God.")
PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS: Let's be praying that the Congress and the the President will find a way to pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit America today and future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.
ABORTION AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Dear friend, As I was praying for the over 3,000 women every day who have scheduled appointments to abort their unborn child (as I do each morning), God encouraged me that possibly through these latest PP scandal many women are giving second thoughts to abortion. Hopefully the scandal (like the revelation of partial birth abortions 12 years ago) will serve to educate more people that abortion is not about discarding unwanted tissue but of destroying live human beings. Hopefully, it will be the cause of fewer and fewer considering abortion as a choice! Let's be praying that is already happening! - Stan]
PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS: Let's be praying that the Congress and the the President will find a way to pass legislation and enact policies that will benefit America today and future generations and NOT do any lasting harm.
ABORTION AND PLANNED PARENTHOOD: Dear friend, As I was praying for the over 3,000 women every day who have scheduled appointments to abort their unborn child (as I do each morning), God encouraged me that possibly through these latest PP scandal many women are giving second thoughts to abortion. Hopefully the scandal (like the revelation of partial birth abortions 12 years ago) will serve to educate more people that abortion is not about discarding unwanted tissue but of destroying live human beings. Hopefully, it will be the cause of fewer and fewer considering abortion as a choice! Let's be praying that is already happening! - Stan]
S.C. Decision on Homosexual Marriage– NOTE: I cannot stress enough how we all need to be praying that the Church – ie, the individual believer and the institution itself - will respond appropriately and effectively. Despite what the mainstream media is reporting, the debate is NOT over! (42 years after the SC legalized abortion, that debate is also FAR from over!) The Court ruled wrongly BUT they do NOT speak the FINAL word; God’s Word (and GOD) does – and always will. Isaiah 40:8; Phil. 4:5-6.
"'We Can't Forget' Pastor Saeed's 1,000 Days in Prison" - By Abigail Robertson, June 24, 2015, http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2015/June/We-Cant-Forget-Pastor-Saeeds-1000-Days-in-Prison/
"Pastor Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran for his Christian faith for 1,000 days, June 23... 'We cannot move forward with an Iranian nuclear deal while Pastor Saeed sits in prison as well as three other Americans,' he said. Mahoney also called upon Christians around the world to come together in prayer.
'Pray for Saeed and his family, pray for safety for our brothers and sisters around the world, and also pray for our elected officials and President Obama that they would not be silent, ' Mahoney urged. 'We believe that as Christians pray around the world, we can see Pastor Saeed's release.' "
"DON'T LEAVE AMERICAN PASTOR SAEED BEHIND " - (5/2) - The Obama administration has stated that they would veto any Congressional action to tie the proposed nuclear deal with Pastor Saeed's release! (4/1/) - A nuclear deal with Iran could come at any time, any hour, any day. But will American Pastor Saeed be freed? His health is worsening. He continues to suffer grave threats in an Iranian prison where torture and executions are commonplace. President Obama assured Pastor Saeed’s wife that freedom for this wrongfully imprisoned U.S. citizen would be a “top priority.” Now is a critical time to continue to pressure the Obama Administration to not leave Pastor Saeed behind and urge Iran to show goodwill. Pastor Saeed is imprisoned merely because he is a Christian. He deserves to be home with his family. We continue fighting for his freedom – working in Congress, with the State Department, and with leaders across the globe. We must not forget Pastor Saeed. Sign the Petition: "Don’t Leave American Pastor Saeed Behind".; http://aclj.org/persecuted-church/dont-leave-am
4/18/2015"Recant or Else: Saeed Faces New Psychological Torture" - By George Thomas, April 18, 2015; http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2015/April/Iranian-Prison-Guards-Torment-American-Pastor/ "Naghmeh [his wife] says recent prisoner executions have also taken their toll on her husband. Despite the hardships, she writes that he continues to remain strong in the faith.'He wants you all to know that the Lord continues to move in that prison and lives are being transformed!' his wife wrote on Facebook. 'That they had a great Easter in prison,' she continued. 'Saeed desperately 'missed being with our family on Easter, but new Easter traditions were created in prison!' 'Over the years this journey has truly become more difficult and painful for Saeed and for the kids and I,' she wrote. 'Our family appreciates your continued prayers.'We need to continue to pray for Pastor Saeed - that his health will improve and that he will be re-united with his wife and two young children who live in the United States.
Urgent Petition: Defend Christians - Defeat ISIS. - Go to http://aclj.org/jihad/say-no-to-a-third-term-of-president-obamas-failed-foreign-policy?view=donFrmB&utm_expid=7567081-8.vdNbXkfzQUyJhpww3WXtYQ.1&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=ExactTarget&utm_campaign= "..An estimated 76 percent of the world's population live in countries where religious freedom is restricted...
7/24 - ASIA BIBI CONVICTION OVERTURNED! PRAY THAT SHE (IN VERY POOR HEALTH) MIGHT BE RELEASED WHEN HER CASE IS REVIEWED SOON. - A Christian mom had been sentenced to death in Pakistan for her faith. Asia Bibi was falsely accused of “blasphemy” – speaking against the prophet Muhammad. Now this wife and mother of five will hang for her Christian faith.She would be the first woman executed under Pakistan’s Shariah blasphemy law.This is the ultimate human rights violation. We’re mobilizing our international affiliate – the European Centre for Law and Justice – and its partner in Pakistan to stop this atrocity. Go to http://aclj.org/persecuted-church/breaking-pakistans-supreme-court-accepts-petition-to-hear-asia-bibis-appeal;please add your signature to over 300,000 others AND continue to pray for Asia Bibi.
PRAY FOR THE CRISIS HAPPENING NOW IN IRAQ (see post #907) Pray that allied forces will be able to drive the group ISIS back (see post #964)
/PRAYER ALERT- UKRAINE: As the Lord leads, please pray:
*For God to suppress President Putin’s ambitions to "restore" the Soviet empire.
*For the people of Ukrainen [esp. for the church 'to be THE church'] as they wait to see if the Russian troops will advance.
*That President Obama would use wisdom in crafting our foreign policy, and wisdom for his advisers.
"Absurdus Rex - THE COURT’S ATTACK ON LANGUAGE" - By: John Stonestreet| Breakpoint.org: August 24, 2015;
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/12/28036?spMailingID=12211307&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=601718454&spReportId=NjAxNzE4NDU0S0"
“Why is a raven like a writing desk?” is a famous riddle from “Alice in Wonderland.” Here’s another: Why is a parking ticket like a revelation?
You might have missed this story. On June 22 the 12th District Court of Appeals in Ohio overturned a parking ticket. Andrea Cammelleri had been cited for parking her truck on a city street. She fought the citation, saying the ordinance only prohibited parking a “motor vehicle camper” on the street, not a simple motor vehicle. The trial court ruled against her, writing that “anybody reading [the ordinance] would understand that it is just missing a comma.” Well, Judge Robert A. Hendrickson disagreed. He explained that the rule of law demands using the “rules of grammar and employing the common sense meaning of terms.” He wrote, “If the village desires a different reading, it should amend the ordinance and insert a comma between the phrase “motor vehicle” and the word “camper.”
Now what does a simple parking violation have to do with the larger culture? My colleague Daniel Weiss teases this out in his recent article on BreakPoint.org. The parking ticket story might not mean so much, he writes, if not for the two misguided Supreme Court decisions handed down just days later.
Now I’ve already shared quite a bit about these decisions, but I think Weiss’ point is worth exploring. In their own ways, both Supreme Court decisions dealt severe blows to the common meaning of words. Beyond the immediate impact of the rulings, their attack on the function of language might be the most significant long-term threat.
In Burwell vs. King, the Court found that the clear, plain language of the law commonly known as Obamacare wasn’t adequate to make the law work. So rather than asking Congress to rework the law, as would be proper, the Court gave it new meaning based on nothing more than the justices’ own desire to see the law stand.
Ironic, since the world just honored the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, which established the idea of Lex Rex, that the law is king. It was an important check on the abuse of great power. That idea seems to be lost on this particular Court. If the federal government doesn’t have to abide by its own laws, why should average citizens?
In their other ruling, Obergefell v. Hodges, the Court violated thousands of years of human history that understood marriage to be the conjugal union of a man and woman for the purpose of family, and it found in the Constitution something that was not there. Even after tens of millions had affirmed their support for marriage at the ballot box, five justices redefined our foundational social institution and silenced an essential public debate.
The absurdity of these rulings is mindboggling until you understand the ideas driving them. Weiss unearthed a clue from the self-absorbed ramblings of Alice in Wonderland’s Humpty Dumpty, who said, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” For Humpty, co-opting the meaning of words makes perfect sense, because his goal is not to communicate Truth, but to become the master. The recent court rulings—and many cultural disruptions over the past decades—are really about who will be master.
As Weiss indicates, there’s a long history detailing the manipulation of language for the purpose of social control. George Orwell described the process well in his book 1984. The language was forever being altered, “to make all other modes of thought impossible. … This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings….”
But this isn’t something only of science fiction. When Communists took over mainland China, they perpetrated a “Cultural Revolution” that disrupted family bonds, discouraged religious devotion, and dismantled the Chinese language. Simplified characters replaced five thousand years of meaning and culture.
Now, we have it here. Words like “husband” and “wife” are discriminatory, confining marriage to two people is hateful, and “religious freedom” is bigotry. And many in our society wish to make words mean just what they want them to mean. But we have something they don’t: the Truth. And our loyalties remain: to the Christ who Himself is that Truth.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
FURTHER READING AND INFORMATION - In the midst of a culture's assault on and manipulation of words and their meaning, there is an "ultimate meaning to which we might cling." And as Daniel Weiss points out, that meaning "does not come from the Supreme Court, [or] the Constitution. . . but only from the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us." [Note Daniel's article below]
RESOURCES
"Ohio judge tosses woman’s parking ticket over missing comma" - Rachelle Blidner | New York Daily News | July 4, 2015;http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ohio-judge-tosses-woman-parking-ticket-missing-comma-article-1.2281378
"The Death of Language: Sexual 'Freedom' Depends on the Remaking of Words " - Daniel Weiss | BreakPoint.org | August 12, 2015;http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/articles/entry/12/27987
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