What am I thankful for?

WordPress asks: What are you thankful for?

The peace that surpasses all understanding!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” – Phil. 4:6,7

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

PS Thanks WordPress for a great blog home!!!

The Scrooge Report Tracking…

No church pew for you! TheScroogeReport is following stories including an order to stop churches from providing beds for homeless in New York, college evangelism as a possible crime, and confusion in Hollywood over Prop 8 proponents among them.

NYC Churches Ordered Not To Shelter Homeless

NEW YORK (CBS) ― City officials have ordered 22 New York churches to stop providing beds to homeless people.

With temperatures well below freezing early Saturday, the churches must obey a city rule requiring faith-based shelters to be open at least five days a week — or not at all.

Arnold Cohen, president of the Partnership for the Homeless, a nonprofit that serves as a link with the city, said he had to tell the churches they no longer qualify.

He said hundreds of people now won’t have a place to sleep… more

Court to decide whether campus evangelism a crime

MARYSVILLE, Calif. (OneNewsNow.com) – The “free-speech code” of Yuba Community College District is under federal court scrutiny.

California student, Ryan Dozier, decided to spend some time on campus sharing his faith and handing out tracts to fellow students, generating conversations about Christianity. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Heather Hacker comments on the situation.

“A campus police officer came over and told him that if he continued to do so without a permit that he would be possibly expelled or arrested, and so Ryan stopped immediately,” she explains.

Hacker says Dozier thought the case was closed, but he was apparently mistaken. “Three weeks later he got a certified letter from the president of the college stating that his actions were the subject of a campus crime report,” she adds. “Last time I checked, sharing your faith on a public college campus was not a crime.”

But the letter informed him he could face expulsion if he shared his faith on campus again. ADF filed suit, and a federal judge has ordered the college to suspend enforcement of its highly restricted free speech policies until the lawsuit is resolved.

Liberal Hollywood ponders next step in fight for same-sex marriage

HOLLYWOOD (Los Angeles Times) – After the passage of Proposition 8, some are calling for boycotts and firings. Others worry about free speech rights being trampled.

Should there be boycotts, blacklists, firings or de facto shunning of those who supported Proposition 8?

That’s the issue consuming many in liberal Hollywood who fought to defeat the initiative banning same-sex marriage and are now reeling with recrimination and dismay. Meanwhile, activists continue to comb donor lists and employ the Internet to expose those who donated money to support the ban.

Already out is Scott Eckern, director of the nonprofit California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, who resigned after a flurry of complaints from prominent theater artists, including “Hairspray” composer Marc Shaiman, when word of his contribution to the Yes on 8 campaign surfaced… more

JFK Inaugural Speech: ‘From the Hand of God’

A great resource for not only specific prayer for our president and president-elect, but for finding the wise words of past U.S. presidents and government officials is The Presidential Prayer Team site. Whether you choose to pray by the recommendations of this online ministry or not, you’ll find a tremendous wealth of quotables here. You’ll also get a heads-up on daily and weekly itinerary for government officials.

I thought this quote found at The Presidential Prayer Team site was especially timely and encouraging.

We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom – symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning – signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three quarters ago.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe – the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

—John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Speech, January 20, 1961

DIGG!

Scrooge Alert: ‘Why Believe in a God?’ Ad Campaign Launches

When saying ‘bah-humbug’ is not enough! American Humanist Association plays negative attention game with anti-Christmas message.

SCROOGE ALERT LEVEL: HIGH

This from AP:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.

Ads proclaiming, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,” will appear on Washington, D.C., buses starting next week and running through December. The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.

In lifting lyrics from “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.

“We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you,” said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group. “Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of non-theists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion.”

Full Story/AP

Stay tuned!

Story/Blog Opinions

“Rational thought”?? So as with almost all atheists, these elitist see religious people as irrational (or crazy as the case may be). If they were truly interested in just collecting like minded people together for Christmas, they would have titled their advertisement “So You Don’t Believe in God? Us Too” not “Why Believe in God?” – Jesus is Lord blog
_______________

“It is the ultimate ‘grinch’ to suggest there is no God during a holiday where millions of people around the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is insensitive and mean,” remarked Mathew D. Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a conservative Christian legal group that has defended the rights of cities and schools to display nativity scenes and Christmas decorations.

“Christmas is a time of joy and hope, not a time for hate,” added Staver. “Why believe in God? – Because Santa is not the only one coming to town.” – The Christian Post
_______________

But American Family Association President Tim Wildmon is calling the ad “stupid”: “How do we define ‘good’ if we don’t believe in God? God in his word, the Bible, tells us what’s good and bad and right and wrong. If we are each ourselves defining what’s good, it’s going to be a crazy world.” – WORLDmag.com
_______________

Humanists’ ad ignites thoughts of God
…But Ray Comfort, founder of Living Waters Ministries and co host of The Way of the Master television show, says Christians can use the ad’s admonition to “be good” to explain how everyone falls short when compared with God’s perfect law.

“Good in [the Bible] means moral perfection in thought, word, and deed — and only God is good,” Comfort points out.

But everyone has their own idea of what good is, says the evangelist. “You ask anybody if they think they’re a good person and they’re going to come back and say — as the Bible says they will — ‘I’m a good person,’” Comfort comments.

“I guarantee you if we had Adolf Hitler on the phone and we [asked], “Adolf? Are you a good person?’ — he would say, ‘Yes. I cleaned up Germany, provided full employment, and got rid of riff raff.’ He’d think he’s a good person because he measured himself by his own standards.

“What we’ve got to do on Judgment Day is stand before the moral perfection of God’s Holy Law — and that’s why we each need a Savior,” he concludes.

According to Comfort, the ad campaign is backfiring for the humanist group because it is making more people think about God. – OneNewsNow.com
_______________

Goodness has no meaning without religion
People mistakenly think (as these AHA ads assume) that goodness is pursued by frightened Christians seeking to pacify a capricious and angry God. But goodness is not pursued to earn God’s love. The pursuit of goodness is the appreciative response to the love of God who sent his son to die for sinners. In a healthy parent-child relationship, the child doesn’t do chores to win his parent’s love but in response to his parent’s love. – dailybreeze.com
_______________

Their goal is ”to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people’s minds.” This assumes we haven’t done that already, of course. Countless Christians have been asking tough questions and thinking carefully for millennia. – Eternity Matters
_______________

DIGG!

WSJ: The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace

George Bush’s crown is no longer in question. Sarah Palin is back in Wasilla, Alaska, still fielding gotchya hate…and she will soon be mocked only occasionaly. Her challenge of Bush’s crown is over…

…and Bush remains the most mocked politician ever.

This from the Wall Street Journal:

Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president.

The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace – What must our enemies be thinking?