we are really moving this week…….

I have gained some thoughtful insight that I do not yet have time to share…

–big houses vs. small house living. 

–just how much junk one can collect? and is it so necessary to clutter our lives with so much stuff!?! 

–coming face to face with my lack of patience as trials try the character. 

more to come as soon as the dust literally settles and the paint dries and I find my computer ;-) 

Clarion Ledger Lies Again
By Flip BenhamRegarding Jackson police overtime up $26K for rally
by Kelli Esters, August 23, 2006:

Regarding August 23, 2006

Peyton Prospere, director of Jackson’s administration department

Here is yet another example of the Clarion Ledger, the local newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, bringing forth as fact, a bold faced lie.  Never in its history has Operation Rescue or Operation Save America ever been tied to a violent crime - not ONE!  In the over 57,000 arrests that have taken place at Operation Rescue sponsored events since 1986, there has not been one convicted act of violence anywhere in America, or on the face of this globe. 

Why?  Because Christians are constrained and restrained by the Gospel of Christ.  Those who oppose us are restrained by nothing.  They call themselves anarchists for a reason.  It was the anarchists who slashed tires, clashed with Christians, smashed cars, and reported a “fetus” being disposed of in a downtown building.  Kelli Esters simply forgot to mention that.

As for the expenditure of money by the city of Jackson to protect its lone child-killing center from Christians - what utter foolishness!  The city not only paid $24,420 in overtime for officers, but paid thousands more to install state of the art surveillance equipment on city telephone poles on Fondren Street and on State Street.  We were there and observed city employees installing these cameras at the mill.  What other business do you know that can get the city to install surveillance cameras at tax-payer expense?

The city of Denver was the site of our national event last year.  The total expenditure by the Denver Police Department to deal with gentle Christians storming the gates of hell?  $00.00.  What was the difference between the two cities?  The city of Jackson believed the lie.  It chose to allow sweet little Susan Hill and abortionist Booker to rip apart children in the peace and tranquility of their abortion mill.  It chose the “politically correct” path of pandering to the abortion industry.  It chose to criminalize Christians who were giving mothers a real choice.  It chose to ignore the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.  It chose death over life - the devil over Jesus.

This is never a good idea.

On a recent trip to look for some farm land for the family we scared the local wild life.  The deer and turkey where on the move across the field like the wildebeest in Lion King.  It was an amazing site as we drove down one dirt road and then doubled back on the next one up.  All the animals we scared on the first road, crossed in front of us when we doubled back.  It was amazing to watch the turkeys follow the deer, looking like they were in hot pursuit!

But by far the winner with the children was the owl who flew along side us and then stopped to give us a good once over as we returned the favor.  He looked big enough to carry off one of the small children (ok a very small one), but in the end he left us as we watched him fly off.

It seems we have had a rash of wild animal sightings recently.  Moving into our new house (see home remodel for that story) we recently spotted a hawk.  We heard it in the woods across the street and he actually responded to my call and flew over to this tall oak next to our driveway. 

The photo is not as clear as the owl, but it was a nice adventure.  The boys enjoyed it, and it’s always a good feeling to impress your kids.  Of course the next question that comes to mind, is do we go ahead with the purchase of our new chickens with a hawk roaming the area? 

I fear between the dogs and the hawks we may have some trouble ahead of us.  Keep an eye out for updates about the house move and our adventures in farm life.

10 loaves of bread - .78 cents each

4 jugs of mott’s natural apple juice - .70 cents each

10 jars of peanut butter - .44 cents each

2 boxes of zip lock bags - .29 cents each

4 bottles of salad dressing - .29 cents each

8 boxes of cereal - $1 each

8 cans of pillsbury flaky biscuits - .69 cents each

5 cans of pillsbury breadstick dough - .07 cents each –Seven Cents!

6 jars of relish (sweet and dill) - Free — actually I was credited a penny back on each jar.The breadsticks were normally $2.15 but because of the sale and double coupons, I paid .07 cents for them. The peanut butter was normally $1.99, because of the sale and my coupons, I paid .44 cents. Ziplock bags were $2.19 normally– a deal at .29 cents! And the relish– normally $1.59, on sale for .99 cents, was better than free with a .50 cent coupon at a store that doubles to $1!

I was able to get other things as well, but spent a little over $50 for a load of groceries saving $90.80 in store sales combined with coupons.

I have been finding the best deals at two stores. One doubles up to .99 cents. The other one doubles up to .55 cents. LOVE those double coupons with buy one, get on free sales!

The grocery checkout lady wasn’t very impressed at first. As she was scanning my stack of coupons she got about half way through and said, “You can’t do this. You can’t use this many coupons. The computer is going to reject them any minute now.”

I asked her “Why, does the store have a limit on the amount of coupons you can use in one transaction.” (some stores limit how many coupons you can use in one transaction–but I knew this store did not.)

She said, “No we don’t have a limit….. but you can’t do this.”

I asked again, “Hmm…Is there a reason why?”

She kept scanning the coupons waiting for the computer to beep. But it never did. I was very careful to match my coupons up exactly with the products to insure that I didn’t have any problems.

After the computer totaled my bill, she said she couldn’t believe it. She eventually said, “Wow, Have a nice day.”

And I did.

On our recent trip to visit family, my mother and I stayed up very late one evening going through old pictures and papers.  I learned many interesting bits of information about my own heritage, but one piece of information especially inspired me.  My mother handed me a stack of papers and said that it was a story that my great grandfather wrote.   It is the true story of his life.  I took the stack of papers and started thumbing through it.  I was amazed.  Here I held a incredible piece of family history in the form of a small unedited book.  As I read, sights and sounds of the past came bursting off the pages.  My great grandfather was born in 1886 and in his writings, he tells of a life that resembles something like a Little House on the Prairie story.  He tells of his life on a family farm and later of his adventures out west - hard work, stories about Indians, farm life, traveling in a covered wagon and camping under the moon in the middle of the unsettled west, homesteading 160 acres of land.   It is a piece of history that I have been inspired to edit and one day publish for my own children.

Here is Great Grandfather Smith wearing a Sioux Indian headdress given to him by an Indian Chief.

While this his story is inspiring to me, it has also challenged me to continue on in the legacy of multi-generational thinking. Ps. 78
While I knew my great grandfather, my children only know of him through the stories I tell about him.  I wonder if he ever thought that he would have 7 great, great grandchildren who would one day hear his stories read to them and be captivated by the wild west over 100 years after the fact?  I am grateful for a great grandfather who took to the pen and personally told his future generations about the past.

(1) Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.  

(2) I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

(3) Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

(4) We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

(5) For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

(6) That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

(7) That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

(8) And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

(9) The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

(10) They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;

(11) And forgat his works, and his wonders that he had shewed them.

Continue Reading »

The Supreme Court of Idaho ruled that the citizens of Boise have the right to vote on returning the 10 commandments to their original location at the court house.

Against the will of the people, the Boise City Council moved a Ten Commandments monument from a public park to a local church to avoid a lawsuit from extremist groups. Brandi Swindell with Keep the Commandments Coalition says residents refused to take the ruling sitting down.

Apparently the citizens of Boise have more political backbone than the Mayor of the city and the citizens of San Diego.  Mayor David Bieter is quoted on the official Boise city web site as saying this is a perfect compromise.  While the “Keep the Commandments Coalition” are willing to stand for the liberty and religious heritage their forefathers bequeathed to them without compromising the foundation for either of them.

“This case serves as a wake-up call to a lot of communities; the people have a lot of power. They just need to rise up and say that they are not going to allow these government officials to wash away their religious heritage.”

In the case of the Mt. Soledad Cross, the citizens of San Diego have conceded the notion of the rights of the community and they are arguing their case from their enemies presuppositions.  Like the mayor of Boise they are looking for a compromised political solution instead of standing on principles.  Therefore the solution, even if they win the right to keep the cross on the land, is a loss for the foundational principle of liberty. 

It is a loss because their actions declare that the federal government has more right to display a cross than the local community does.  This stands the idea of liberty on it’s head.  It is not the federal government that grants freedom.  It is the federal government who is suppose to protect freedom given by God and protected by our constitution.  If our federal court were reigned in to a constitutional level there would be no need for this debate.

The citizens in Idaho however, are operating from a biblical and liberty preserving presupposition.  Namely that the people in a community have a right to make decision based on their own beliefs.  They don’t want a compromise and they are not looking for a fight.  It appears they simply understand the principles of liberty and are willing to stand in defense of those principles.

Thank You Idaho for being willing to stand in the gap and defend our rights as a free people!

Here are other counties around our nation where this battle has taken place and where we have suffered from the tyranny of the minority.

Ten Commandments Monuments & Displays
Removed from Public Property

I found a great review of several of the different sessions that Matt Chancy blogged during the week.  I hope to discuss more of the principles discussed at the conference and a few rabbit trail topics after we return home.  But for now I hope that you will enjoy these post from Matt.

http://mattchancey.blogspot.com/

What do you get when the American Idol and the first-ever Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Christian Families converge on the same city on the same weekend?  A Clash of Cultures! 

That is what happened in San Antonio, TX this week.  At the Alamo Dome contestants were vying for position to become the next great American Idol…,

…while across the street at the Henry B. Gonzales Convention center.  Christians were wrestling with how to honor Christ and expand his Kingdom upon the Earth through entrepreneurial endeavors at the Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for Christian Families.

Joal Salatin of Polyface Farms shares agrarian wisdom in an after session Q and A time. 

I’ll post more on the conference as I’m able, but it was a great experience.  Vision Forum did a great job hosting it and putting together a Christ honoring line up of men who were able to address every topic from a Biblical focus.

Some of the Vaughn Boys met the Hopkins boys for the first time.

One of the best things about conferences like this one is the great opportunity to meet new friends and renew old friendships! 

Also during the trip we notice a different outworking of the clash of the culture in our own family.  It seems that our three year old is able to point out a portrait of General Stonewall Jackson in a magazine but he doesn’t know who Kermit the Frog is!  Go figure, homeschooling apparently has sheltered him from the deranged humor of a puppet frog and his mistress pig.

Oh happy day!

Reading a recent article about the ACLJ and the Mt. Soledad Cross reminds me a lot of my last post about the National Right To Life. 

Why is it that a good organization becomes “big” and turns lukewarm?  I remember back in the day when Jay Sekulow would represent various pro-life leaders when they were harassed during national events.  I had great respect for him because it seemed that he was standing on principle.

Men and women were going to jail and being abused by police departments around the nation and he was standing up for them in court.  Gradually he transitioned from representing them in “rescue” cases to only representing them when they did not commit “civil disobedience”.  Now it seems he is more interested in representing congressmen.

It is one thing for a man’s career and business to change focus, as long as the principles he operates on do not change.  It is another to change the principles and focus to increase your bottom line.  Jay gave evidence that he was changing in the later years of the pro-life movement.  But more recently he not only refused to stand up for Judge Roy Moore when the federal court stepped into a state matter in Alabama, he spoke publicly against the judge.  Why would he do this to a brother in Christ?  By Jay’s own words he is “a member of the court”. 

He is in the good graces of the Supreme Court and he can stand before their bar and argue all kinds of none relevant ideas.  Ideas like the 10 commandment should be displayed in context with other documents because they are historic.  It seems to any casual observer that these type arguments defeat the purpose of the case.  The issue is not the display of the 10 commandments, that can be accomplished many ways.  The issue is whether a local or state government in agreement with the people it represents can display those commandments as an acknowledgement of the living God.

To clarify, the issue is whether the people have enough freedom and liberty to order their local government and it’s policies in such a manner as represents their interests, their beliefs, and their wishes.  Or, must they bow to the national thought leaders in Washington?

What good does it do to display the 10 Commandments with a group of other historical documents if the people of that community only wants to acknowledge the God of the Bible?

Jay’s enslavement to the fundraising campaigns and his name being spoken before the supreme bench has darkened his vision and his calling before God.  The same principle of liberty is in play with the Mt. Soledad Cross.  The issue is not whether Jay and others can get the federal politicians to pull some quick maneuver to “save the cross”.  The issue is does California, and specifically the city of San Diego have the freedom and liberty to decide for themselves what they want on their own hill top, or do they give in to the tyranny of the minority.  The move to federalize the land doesn’t solve the issue.  In fact San Diego has lost this case, she has lost her cross and her rights of self determination by giving the cross away.

In a ironic spin of poetic justice, she lost her liberty by giving away her cross.  May we cling to the cross of Christ and may we vigilantly defend the liberties that cross brings to every area of life!  And may Jay Sekulow recall once again the grace that brought him to that cross and return to being a true defender of it.