Kingdom Quotes - Henri Nouwen on Hearing The Father's Voice

Home is the center of my being where I can hear the voice that says: “You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests”— the same voice that gave life to the first Adam and spoke to Jesus, the second Adam; the same voice that speaks to all the children of God and sets them free to live in the midst of a dark world while remaining in the light. I have heard that voice. It has spoken to me in the past and continues to speak to me now. It is the never- interrupted voice of love speaking from eternity and giving life and love whenever it is heard. When I hear that voice, I know that I am home with God and have nothing to fear. As the Beloved of my heavenly Father, “I can walk in the valley of darkness: no evil would I fear.” As the Beloved, I can “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils.” Having “received without charge,” I can “give without charge.” As the Beloved, I can confront, console, admonish, and encourage without fear of rejection or need for affirmation. As the Beloved, I can suffer persecution without desire for revenge and receive praise without using it as a proof of my goodness. As the Beloved, I can be tortured and killed without ever having to doubt that the love that is given to me is stronger than death. As the Beloved, I am free to live and give life, free also to die while giving life. (from The Return Of The Prodigal Son)

Lost Things - The Story of Our Failed Moral Infrastructure - #1 - Lost Dogs?

Lost Dogs? Have you lost your mind? No, I haven't, but WE have. We have lost our minds, our souls, our freedom, our integrity and a lot more than that. 

Oh yeah, back to dogs. You've seen them in your neighborhood and on the bulletin board at your local grocer. That sad picture of a poor little pooch that has been lost and is being sought out by a distraught owner or master. (Wow, what terrible language to use of a creature that's just as valuable as you are, right? Are we the master of the animals and they our slaves? I'll let you sort that on your own, for now, unless you let PETA do your thinking for you.- P.C. Brain) Perhaps you've seen that cartoon, the one with the rather portly lady, the beleaguered owner of the lost pet, placing her lost dog sign up on the local public spot. But you notice that the sad thing  is unfortunatley placed directly between both of her rather plump hind quarters. Poor pup!     

She was not aware what she had lost, all the while still diligently seeking for it.

I really get the sense that the entire world has gone insane, or have I? If I were really going crazy is there someone who could actually tell me how to get back to reality? Or would my fellow travelers just say something like, “Hey, this is just a new view in your life experience, and who am I to judge you about that? Perhaps you are evolving?” Is it all relative? Really?

We’ll start with a cute little story from last month about the eighteen year old girl who got a call from a friend who was in the process of ending his life by asphixiating himself in his truck at a K-Mart parking lot. He had rigged a gizmo to emit gas into the cabin of his truck, but got out before he finished the deed and contacted his “friend.” who promptly texted him to “get back in.” He did, and that was that. She probably will go to jail for this, for a long time, I hope, but I’m mentioning this story just now to bring out something that’s missing  and not just what was done, or not done. 

What was missing? There were actually many possibilities in this scenario, but the one thing I was thinking of was a value for human life. Now I could go on and on about slippery slopes and various horns of all kinds of dilemmas, but this is just plain out good old fashioned evil. People have insisted on a right to choose and screaming for the freedom to act any way they wish, but there just might be a limit to these so-called rights. But I believe that what you see in this scenario is the logical conclusion of our cultural presuppositions. When we teach our young people that you can, in certain circumstances, elliminate a human life then they will take you seriously and  promptly act out on what they have been told. 

As they say, one generation’s ceiling is another’s floor. Where the crusaders for the death of “fetuses” succeeded in getting their “rights,” and could therefore engage in any sexual escapades without consequence, eventually someone was going to see this as license to devalue all forms of life, except the ones we deem worth living. "I thought that people weren't suffering anymore. So, in a sense, I thought I was helping.’” That’s a quote from Charles Cullen, who murdered at the least 40 people with injections as a health care worker. Charles was just helping these folks out, doing what the the government will eventually have to do, right? You know, as a form of cost control in health care, like Obamacare. “But that’s not a death panel, it’s a quality of life panel, right?” Right. (The death panel thing’s a joke, right?…maybe.) 

And So It Begins... The Race Of 2016 Has Begun

March 23, 2015 - Texas Senator Ted Cruz Announces Bid For White House

So if you have been visiting another planet lately and haven’t heard, the presidential race for 2016 has truly begun with the first entrant being one Senator Ted Cruz from the fabulous state of Texas. 

He announced his candidacy at Liberty University, that most sacred of all places both Christian and Conservative. Somewhere, probably heaven, Jerry Falwell was smiling approvingly as his school was used to be not only a starting place for a presidential campaign, but a symbol of what the candidate wanted to communicate as his core values of faith and liberty. 

But of course there was that earlier pre-campaign release of the masterpiece of country music videography know as “Stand Up With Hillary,” in which we learned that she is “a daughter and a mother,” as well as all of the other things that Hillary Clinton has in common with most country music fans, like the fact that she is “a daughter and a mother.” And by that I must insist that it is meant in the purely biological sense. 

So here we are, at the beginning of the end of the dark time we must affectionatley call the Obam-ocalypse, or if you prefer, the Great Regression, or the time of community organizing run amok.  Whatever you can call a time of stagnating wages, eroding morals and ethics, and a near total loss of respect around the world, absolute breakdown of trust between races, and a new level of general malaise brought about by a complete loss of confidence in any kind of leadership, then call it that if you want. My word for it in the english language is C-R-A-P. But I digress, having given in to the temptation to say what is on my mind, instead of going to the good news. 

Yes, the good news. Which is that we will get a new leader in a scant, short twenty or so months. Enjoy your time on Airforce One, Barack, because your ticket has an expiration date, and that’s a good thing. (Cue theme music, "Leavin' On A Jet Plane.")