We are now in the ending "end-game" of the year-long healthcare debate and legislative brou-ha-ha. I think this time we really are getting near the end.

So, it's prediction time. Do you think that house will vote on the Senate version of healthcare reform this week? If so, will it pass? Finally do you think this will be a good or a bad thing?

Leave your predictions and opinions in the comments.

The foundations of the man-made global warming "consensus" have cracked even more this week:

More bad news today for the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as another of its extravagant ecopocalypse predictions, sourced from green campaigners, has been confirmed as bunk by scientists.

And that news comes on the heels of a report earlier in the week that nearly half of Americans now doubt man-made global warming.

What we appear to have is an inconvenient truth for man-made global warming believers. Yikes! It might not be real! Yikes! We can't force people to give up long-held liberties via the threat of "the day after tomorrow." Yikes! We can't silence the cow farting!

Tragic ends to young "stars". Funny we call them that, perhaps we should call them all "falling stars" - shining bright for a moment, before burning up and burning out.

Corey Haim died today.

Corey Haim, the former teen idol who rose to fame in 1980s classics 'The Lost Boys,' 'Lucas' and 'License to Drive,' died Wednesday morning of an apparent accidental drug overdose in Burbank, Calif., the LAPD has confirmed to several media outlets. He was 38. Local news station KTLA is reporting that Haim was found in an Oakwood apartment believed to belong to his mother, who was at home at the time and called emergency responders. TMZ is reporting that four prescription drug bottles were found nearby, and that he had been gripped by flu-like symptoms in recent days.

Coroner Lt. Cheryl MacWillie told reporters that Haim died at 2:15 a.m. at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. An autopsy to determine the cause of death is pending.

So sad. I always liked Corey. (His performance in "Lucas" was genius. In my opinion, his career path should have gone the way of DiCaprio's or even Jason Patric or Kiefer Sutherland.) But all that doesn't matter now in the face of eternity.

Andrew Koenig died last month. Here's Kirk Cameron's response.

“At a time like this, we are all reminded of the briefness of life and the importance of being ready for our eternal destination,” Cameron said in a statement. “My prayers will continue to be with Andrew’s family.”

The 41-year-old Koenig — most famous for playing the role of “Boner,” Cameron’s best friend on the ’80s sitcom — had been missing since mid-February. After an extensive search, the actor’s body was discovered Feb. 24 in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. His father, Walter Koenig (who played the original Chekov in multiple Star Trek projects) said his son, who had a history of depression, committed suicide.

How many of these current and past "stars" are depressed, lost and hopeless, looking for solace in every empty thing the world has to offer?

What was will be again,
what happened will happen again.
There's nothing new on this earth.
Year after year it's the same old thing.
Does someone call out, "Hey, this is new"?
Don't get excited—it's the same old story.
Nobody remembers what happened yesterday.
And the things that will happen tomorrow?
Nobody'll remember them either.
Don't count on being remembered.

Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 (The Message)

If you're heading to the Together 4 the Gospel 2010 Conference in Louisville, KY next month, I hope you will make room in your schedule to join the Band of Bloggers for their annual symposium and luncheon.

The panelists this year are Jon McIntosh, Justin Taylor, Trevin Wax, and myself, speaking on the subject of Internet Idolatry & Gospel Fidelity. A mere $25 gets you lunch, quality speaking, Q&A and discussion with the panel, and a stack of books. Quite a deal, I'd say. :-)

Details:

“Internet Idolatry and Gospel Fidelity”
2010 Band of Bloggers Fellowship
Tuesday, April 13, 2010 :: 11:00am
The Galt House, Downtown Louisville, KY
(in conjunction with Together for the Gospel)

Check out the Band of Bloggers website for more info and to register. Satisfaction guaranteed.*

(* This guarantee of satisfaction is not guaranteed.)

Madeira had a horrible disaster on Saturday and they are still suffering.

Madeira on Tuesday began burying its dead from the Portuguese island's worst natural disaster since the 19th century, even as emergency crews kept searching for 13 people who remained missing. On Tuesday, authorities said they found 19 survivors who had been listed as missing, but Saturday's storm, flooding and landslides killed at least 42 people and left 18 hospitalized. All the fatalities were Portuguese apart from one British tourist.

The island's sketchy public records indicate the storm was the deadliest natural disaster on the island since at least the late 1800s. Bodies are being held in a makeshift morgue at Funchal airport. Families have so far taken 27 bodies from there, broadcaster S.I.C. reported.

Conceicao Estudante, the regional head of tourism and transport, told a televised news conference in Funchal that the 19 found Tuesday had been located in outlying areas cut off by damaged roads or in temporary shelters. Almost 500 people are living in shelters after mud and rock slides crashed down the Atlantic island's steep hillsides, wrecking homes and sweeping vehicles into rivers and the sea.

Rescue teams with sniffer dogs and heavy machinery were engaged in the search for the 13 still missing on the island, which is just over 300 miles (480 kilometers) off the northwest coast of Africa.

Lt. Joao Neves Simoes, a public affairs officer on the Portuguese navy frigate Corte Real which was sent to Funchal, said marines and divers off the ship were searching for bodies in the bay where two rivers flowed into the Atlantic. Marines are also looking in drains, inside collapsed buildings and in partly buried vehicles. "We are essentially searching ... anywhere where there might be bodies," he told The Associated Press by phone.

In the capital's muddy streets, front-loaders and trucks continued to clear away tons of debris. The landslides sent boulders, snapped trees and sludge crashing into coastal communities. Authorities are eager to repair the damage to avoid hurting the tourist business which is the island's economic mainstay.

"Where?", you say. And I wouldn't blame you. Except for it's personal connection to me, I wouldn't know anything about it either.

Madeira is a Portuguese Island off the coast of Africa. It has belonged to Portugal since it was discovered in the 1400's. It is a member of the European Union. From Wikipedia -

When the Portuguese discovered the island of Madeira in 1419, it was completely uninhabited by humans, with no aboriginal population at all. The island was settled by Portuguese people, especially farmers from the Minho region, meaning that Madeirans, as they are called, are ethnic Portuguese, though they have developed their own distinct regional identity and cultural traits.

Their main industries are tourism and wine. (Check the wine-list the next time you are at a nice restaurant. Chances are you'll see wine from Madeira.) Madeira is a popular vacation destination for Europeans.

My personal connection? It's my heritage. My mother's family emigrated from Madeira before she was born. My mom is in touch with some of my 3rd and 4th cousins over there. Cool, huh?

In the meantime, pray for the good hard-working people of Madeira as they recover. Here's the island's official website so you can follow them on twitter or keep up with the recovery and clean-up.

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. Now her fascinating life, with all its challenges and successes is being brought to the screen. HBO has produced the full-length film Temple Grandin, which premieres on Saturday, February 6th on HBO. She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio), major television programs, such as the BBC special "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow", ABC's Primetime Live, The Today Show, Larry King Live, 48 Hours and 20/20, and has been written about in many national publications, such as Time magazine, People magazine, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and New York Times. Among numerous other recognitions by media, Bravo Cable did a half-hour show on her life, and she was featured in the best-selling book, Anthropologist from Mars.

Dr. Grandin didn't talk until she was three and a half years old, communicating her frustration instead by screaming, peeping, and humming. In 1950, she was diagnosed with autism and her parents were told she should be institutionalized. She tells her story of "groping her way from the far side of darkness" in her book Emergence: Labeled Autistic, a book which stunned the world because, until its publication, most professionals and parents assumed that an autism diagnosis was virtually a death sentence to achievement or productivity in life.

Dr. Grandin has become a prominent author and speaker on the subject of autism because "I have read enough to know that there are still many parents, and yes, professionals too, who believe that 'once autistic, always autistic.' This dictum has meant sad and sorry lives for many children diagnosed, as I was in early life, as autistic. To these people, it is incomprehensible that the characteristics of autism can be modified and controlled. However, I feel strongly that I am living proof that they can" (from Emergence: Labeled Autistic).

Even though she was considered "weird" in her young school years, she eventually found a mentor, who recognized her interests and abilities. Dr. Grandin later developed her talents into a successful career as a livestock-handling equipment designer, one of very few in the world. She has now designed the facilities in which half the cattle are handled in the United States, consulting for firms such as Burger King, McDonald's, Swift, and others.

Dr. Grandin presently works as a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. She also speaks around the world on both autism and cattle handling. At every Future Horizons conference on autism, the audience rates her presentation as 10+.

I watched a bit of the film Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes, tonight. Fascinating and moving stuff. I've never thought much of Danes as an actress, but that changed tonight.

The Google-naut is coming...

Since Google is using its new Buzz social network in an attempt to take down Facebook, the #1 social network should return the favor: Facebook should tell Google to buzz-off. Permanently.

To protect itself from Google, Facebook content must never appear in any form as part of any Google product. Not ever, and Facebook should make the announcement today.

Here's why: If Google Buzz is ever connected to Facebook, it will be the beginning of the end for today's #1 social network.

As a Facebook user, the last thing I need in my life is another social networking service. I have lots of friends--business and personal--on Facebook. It plays an important role in my home and work life. What I don't need is for my friends to start dividing themselves into Facebook users and Buzz users.

I want all my friends on just one service.

Just as Google, Amazon, and eBay have become dominant in their markets, almost to the exclusion of all competitors, Facebook has become America's social network. We do not need another one and Google will someday regret trying.

Google is simply too late to the game and given its failed history in social networks--Orkut, anyone?--there is little reason to predict success beyond the power of Google's name.

For Buzz to succeed, it needs Facebook content. By denying it, Facebook can help secure its future and help wall off Google.

Given Google's modus operandi, Buzz will manage to somehow strip revenue from any social network that it allows it to connect. Eventually there will be just Google. Don't believe me? Sit back and watch.

Facebook must act now to stop this. It should never allow Buzz to aggregate Facebook content or send updates to Facebook users. If Facebook does this today, nobody will notice and not much of a stink will be raised.

There is no demand, at the moment, from Buzz users to connect to Facebook. Over time, however, demand will develop if Facebook doesn't take steps now to prevent it.

Facebook does not need Gmail as a client to attract and support users. And I don't need an e-mail service to divide my friends into Gmail users and everyone else.

So, if you are looking for me, I'll make it easy: I'll be on Facebook and not on Google Buzz. You'll thank me for not complicating your life.

So what do you think? Agree or disagree?

Oh, by the way, here's some irony for you...I saw this article on my igoogle homepage.

Ask me if I care.

Well, I guess you don't have to ask now, since that was just an expression.

Pre-game show is on, and there was just some big to-do about "The Who" having done everything in 40 years of music...except this. And oh, what a challenge it was condensing 40 years of music into 12 minutes... blah, blah, blah.

Then I heard the CSI theme song and decided that will probably be the most well-known song.

Comments and thoughts on the half-time show, go here...

Disclaimer: this is not a political post. It is just the lament of a bona-fide Apollo moon mission geek and all-around space-exploration nerd.

Planned NASA missions to the moon dropped from U.S. Budget

[The president's] 2011 budget, to be submitted to Congress on Monday, will propose abandoning a program to return US astronauts to the Moon, two Florida newspapers said.

Citing administration and NASA officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the reports said the White House would call on the space agency to focus on other programs, including the development of commercial services to ferry US astronauts to the International Space Station.

Florida Today and the Orlando Sentinel, two papers based in the area around the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, said [the president] would seek to boost NASA's budget by six billion dollars over five years, despite a pledge to freeze most discretionary spending.

But the boost will fall far short of the money NASA needs to finance the Constellation program launched in 2004 by [the former president] after the space shuttle Columbia crash in 2003 effectively brought the shuttle program to a close.

I know, I know. We're in a financial crisis. There are bigger fish to fry. We can't be blowing money to visit a lifeless rock 250,000 miles from us.

But I still grieve. The moon missions of the late 1960s enchant me. The Apollo program was perhaps the greatest feat of human engineering and exploration in history.

It's enlightening to note that the views of the future presented in movies of the late sixties (such as 1968's 2001 A Space Odyssey) were not whimsical. People then just assumed that, of course, we would be visiting the outer planets in person by the beginning of the next millennium. Instead, we've been stuck in low earth orbit since Apollo 17 lifted off from the moon in late 1972.

I was really looking forward to going back to the moon. At this point, I'm betting we don't go back in my lifetime, if ever. And I think that's a loss for our country.

Most people I know are losing their minds over the iPad already. Gotta have something that didn't even exist ten minutes ago.

I haven't checked into the iPad much yet, but my guess is that my take would be a lot like Challies: iPad: The Greatest Disappointment in Human History

Yesterday I sat and watched liveblog coverage of the long-awaited announcement from Apple. To no one’s great surprise, they unveiled their newest device, the iPad. While everyone knew this tablet device was coming, everyone had wondered exactly what it would be. Apple has high standards when it comes to devices like this one and I, for one, was prepared to be amazed. Alas, I was disappointed. iDisappointed, even. I’m ready to declare that the iPad is the greatest disappointment in all of human history (at least since The Phantom Menace).

[Hat Tip: The Fantabulous BIF]

Finally, someone understood that.

Two News Teams dug out a little girl in Haiti.

He is the only Australian TV cameraman ever to win the Gold Walkley for journalism but when Richard Moran heard the soft, desperate cry of a baby girl beneath the rubble in Haiti, he put down his camera and started to dig.

"He was up to his waist, lifting out pieces of concrete," says Nine Network reporter Robert Penfold, who was with him.

"And then, out of the ruins came this little girl, and I will never forget it. She did not cry. She looked astonished, almost as if she was seeing the world for the first time".

Confusing local viewers, however, was that both Nine and its rival, Seven, were saying they helped bring the little girl out, and the footage seen around the world was indeed of Seven's Mike Amor, standing above the hole in the ground.

He reaches forward to take the dusty little girl, pours water over her head to clear away dust, and then gives her something to drink.

Nine doesn't have that footage, and its team was yesterday feeling a bit of the kick in the guts that good journalists get when rivals have exclusive footage of something so marvellous but, as Amor himself said: "That moment, it was beyond news.

"The focus of everybody on that hill was the little girl, and as any of us will tell you, it was Deiby who went into that hole, and dug, and dug, until he got that little girl out. He's the hero."

Deiby Celestino is the Nine Network's fixer (interpreter, and sometime security guy).

He had gone "up the hill" (meaning, to an area outside Port-au-Prince, where many homes were destroyed) with the Nine team, because Save the Children promised to make an Australian aid worker available for interviews. Seven was there, too. While they were waiting, locals told them they could hear a baby crying under the rubble. "We walked perhaps 3m across this hillside of completely collapsed homes," says Penfold. "We had to walk over sheets of tin, and then climb up over concrete, and then jump down, on to another slab of concrete, to where four men were standing, pointing, and you could hear crying, from somewhere underneath."

Moran, who won the highest award for journalism, the Gold Walkley, in 2003 for his coverage of the Canberra bushfires, put his camera with a microphone attached into a cavity, and Penfold said: "It was gut-wrenching. "There were slabs of concrete all around, and we couldn't see what we could do, and at the same time, we couldn't walk away."

He said Deiby, "who is this short, wiry, muscly guy", said "I think I can get in there" and down he went. Mr Celestino told The Australian: "I could hear her . . . I had to keep going." He called out in Creole "Come to me?" and then, out of the darkness, the 18-month-old's face emerged.

Of seeing the toddler emerge from the rubble, Amor said: "I haven't seen anything so remarkable since the birth of my own child. "The emotion for all of us has been incredible."

If I understood correctly, two rival newsteams teamed up momentarily to help rescue this girl. But only one got footage, the other cared more about the girl.

When it says that the camera was put into a cavity, does that mean they pointed it so they could see down there where the girl was, not for the purpose of getting news footage, but for the purpose of trying to rescue the girl? That's how I understood it. Channel Nine used its camera to find the girl, and Channel Seven used its camera to capture the whole event while men from both teams helped to rescue her. Am I understanding the event correctly?

I thought this post by Mike Potemra on Scott Brown (Senator-elect from Massachusetts) was pretty interesting.

Brown is a member of a church affiliated with the Calvinist-rooted Christian Reformed Church in North America. If you go on the website of his congregation, New England Chapel in Franklin, Mass., you will read the following testimony from an attendee: “I have found a home, a family, friends, and most importantly, begun the journey to a REAL relationship with God. It is not one based on guilt or fear, but rather love, hope, and mercy.” The rest of the website has a similar tone. This is clearly not the Calvinism that lives on today chiefly in anti-Calvinist apologetics: the Calvinism of Salem and Hawthorne, that continues to haunt America’s dreams with a God who is best understood as a cruel despot. This new Calvinism is a development of the post-Great Awakening era, a religion that’s not afraid of sentimentality — yet it remains recognizably Calvinism, in its stress on the Bible and on the sovereignty of God.

And then one reads that Mr. Brown helped raise $5.5 million for the Cistercian nuns of Wrentham, who pray for him daily. (Brown himself is quoted: “When you have nuns praying for you three times a day and you’re not Catholic, anything that anybody can do or say about me, it’s Teflon. . . . It bounces right off.”) A couple of years ago, I happened to be in the Wrentham area shortly after having read about this abbey in a book by Thomas Merton, so I dropped by — and I can tell you that Mt. St. Mary’s is a genuine survival of faithful Catholicism, in a time and place generally considered less than hospitable to its values. A beautiful place and one that I long to visit again.

This is the America Scott Brown is from, a place where Calvinists are cheerful and conservative Cistercians pray for their Protestant benefactor. Some on the Internet are upset because Senator Brown is pro-choice, but most are wise enough to realize that he is a friend to life in many ways that will actually count over the next couple of years. Brown, like the rest of us, is what religious folk like to call a “work in progress” . . .

Let me lay my cards on the table:

1) If you put overturning Roe v. Wade to a popular vote, I'm in line early ready to vote in favor of protecting the near half a million unborn babies killed each year, and if you're a politician, the best way to lose my vote is to align with the pro-choice agenda.
2) Nevertheless, I don't believe laws -- or the protests and petitions and politicking that seek to achieve them -- are how we are going to eradicate abortion.

The emancipation of the slaves was necessary. But it didn't end racism.

I am not proposing an either/or. What I'm proposing is that evangelicals take the harder route, adopt the harder cause, that we aim for Spiritual change of hearts more than we aim for legal stay of hands.

Here are some thoughts on how we may do this:

1. Gospel-centered preaching. You knew I was going to go there. :-) Here's the thing: Pastors who preach culture war receive Amens from the already convinced and almost nothing from everybody else. At its worst a steady dose of this creates an unhealthy "us vs. them" mentality that has us thinking of our enemies in ways the Sermon on the Mount strictly forbids. But pastors who proclaim the freedom from sin and abundant life in Christ lay groundwork for zeal for life, not just for winning political battles. A gospel-driven pro-life agenda means hating abortion because we love women and we love the unborn. That sounds like a no-brainer but so many of our evangelical countrymen just sound like they hate abortion. And preaching isn't just for pastors. In general, more evangelicals need to talk Jesus more than they talk politics, or else we unintentionally communicate that our greatest treasure is "getting our country back" and that our chief message is political. We are great with the good news of the kingdom of the founding fathers. Let's return to the good news of the kingdom of God.

2. Reframing the abortion discussion. Lots of others have said this better than I can, but I think we've dropped the ball on how we frame the abortion issue. It is a matter of human rights, which is a perspective I first heard from my deeply pro-life friend who voted for Barack Obama. (I know, figure that one out.) But this is how we will best win in the political arena, I think. In many cases, this involves merely shifting from arguing against selfish moms (or whatever) and arguing for an appropriate definition of when life begins and becoming advocates for the voiceless unborn, exploited and commoditized. We can steer the discussion into the same rhetoric of the abolitionist and civil rights movements and end up stirring more hearts, I think.

3. Creating cultures of adoption and rescue. Human trafficking is the emerging danger. It's been going for a long time, but the Church is recently (and awesomely) stepping up efforts to combat it, even here in America. My friend Justin Holcomb and his wife lead efforts of Mars Hill Church in Seattle to rescue sex workers, sex abuse victims, and runaways in their city. Others are working hard to rescue young girls from the sex trade. On the other front, the Church is exponentially embracing the beauty of adoption. It has become a bona fide movement, thank God. The reactive culture of rhetoric and protests must give way to these proactive missionary movements. We will begin changing hearts and minds on these matters of life and death as we create cultures of adoption and rescue. But only communities can create cultures, so churches have to buy in corporately. More families adopting, more families serving and taking in pregnant teens, more churches helping families do those things, more churches loving families and kids, more churches finding ways to minister to the exploited and marginalized and to support missions and organizations that already are . . . these are the pro-active, missional steps to creating truly pro-life cultures.

4. Prophets, not pundits. I don't know how else to put this. We need an MLK for the pro-life movement, a unifying and prophetic voice. We need intellectually strong but charming, powerful, winsome statesmen. We need people who aren't just jockeying for time on FoxNews. I don't even know if this is possible today, given the nature of media exposure and the divide between political parties -- whites and blacks, Democrats and Republicans marched with King; I wonder if we haven't so aligned the pro-life cause with conservative Republicanism that that kind of unity would be impossible for our cause -- but we need a peacemaker with a powerful voice. The only guy I can think of who has access to black, white, right, left, Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, Christian and non, U.S., European, and everywhere else -- and has the respect and listening ear of them all -- is Bono. And I think he's probably pro-choice.

5. Technology, technology, technology. Do you know why the abortion rate is going down? I think it's the increasing advances in technology, particularly ultrasound technology. Women are seeing their babies. Technology is catching up with abortion. Smart churches will support their local crisis pregnancy centers, which are often frontlines on the struggle for the unborn, and help them get ultrasound equipment. No, they're not cheap. But life isn't either.

6. Love. I'm coming full circle, here, but if we were to outlaw abortion tomorrow, we'd still have 500,000 women a year who didn't want their babies. You have probably already had unwed teenage girls get pregnant in your church, and if you haven't you probably will at some point, and besides all that, there are plenty in your community and city. Before and in addition to removing abortion as a legal option for them, we have to love them, welcome them, teach them, serve them. Only the love of God can change hearts. Let that be the ammunition of our war.

(Cross-posted at Gospel-Driven Church)

Hunting Tiger by C.J. Mahaney

Tiger Woods wants his privacy back.

He wants the media entourage to disappear from his life.

He wants to be left alone so he can manage his personal problems in private.

Not a chance.

...

Hunted by the Media

As expected, the allegations of adultery involving a public figure are attracting a media pile-on. This is a big story with a big audience and it’s a story that will not disappear soon. Tiger Woods is being hunted by the media.

But let us make sure we do not join the hunt. A Christian’s response to this story should be distinctly different. We should not be entertained by the news. We should not have a morbid interest in all the details. We should be saddened and sobered. We should pray for this man and even more for his wife.

And we can be sure that in the coming days we will be in conversations with friends and family where this topic will emerge. And when it does, we can avoid simply listening to the latest details and speculations, and avoid speaking self-righteously, but instead we can humbly draw attention to the grace of God in the gospel.

Hunted by Sin

But Tiger is being hunted by something more menacing than journalists. Tiger’s real enemy is his sin, and that’s an enemy much more difficult to discern and one that can’t be managed in our own strength. It’s an enemy that never sleeps.

Let me explain.

Sin Lies

The Bible in general, and the book of Proverbs in particular, reveals an unbreakable connection between our character, our conduct, and the consequences of our actions. These three are inseparable and woven by God into His created order.

Deception is part of sin’s DNA. Sin lies to us. It seeks to convince us that sin brings only pleasure, that it carries no consequences, and that no one will discover it. Sin works hard to make us forget that character, conduct, and consequences are interconnected. And when we neglect this relationship—when we think our sins will not be discovered—we ultimately mock God.

Sin Hunts

We’ve all experienced it: Sin lies to us. We take the bait. And then sin begins to hunt us.

One commentator on Proverbs articulated this truth like this: “The irony of a life of rebellion is that we begin by pursuing sin…and end up being pursued by it!….You can ‘be sure your sin will find you out’ (Num. 32:23…).”* In other words, sin comes back to hunt us.

In light of this fact, sin is an enemy Tiger can’t manage. He can’t shape this story like he does a long iron on a par 5. Tiger doesn’t need a publicity facelift; Tiger needs a Savior. Just like me. And just like you. And if by God’s grace he repents and trusts in the person and work of Christ, Tiger will experience the fruit of God’s promise that “whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

Conclusion

Tiger cannot intimidate this enemy like he can Pebble Beach or any of the field of professional golfers. And there is no privacy he can claim from this enemy, regardless of his resolve, his silence, or the name painted on his yacht. It’s likely Tiger only perceives the press hunting him out of a vain “curiosity about public figures.” But Tiger is being hunted and hounded by a far greater foe: the consequences of his sin.

And this story should humble and sober us. It should make us ask: Are there any so-called “secret sins” in my life? Is there anything I have done that I hope nobody discovers? Is there anything right now in my life that I should confess to God and the appropriate individuals?

And this should leave us more amazed by grace because there, but for the grace of God, go I.

Amen. This post reminds me of one of my favorite verses. "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." God was warning Cain about the sin he was harboring in his heart. (Genesis 4:7)Sin is a hungry beast that just waiting for the opportunity to gobble us alive! It's dangerous to feed it.

You don't need me to rehearse the devastation. Haiti is, for all intents and purposes, destroyed.

We have some in our church who have done mission work over the years in Haiti. A nurse who has done medical missions there was recalling large swaths of land void of trees. The poverty is so deep there, they have gone through the vegetation for fuel. The hunger is so desperate there, they have eaten all the birds.

She said there are no songbirds in Haiti, because they've cut down all the trees and eaten all the birds. That is as vivid a picture of the poverty in Haiti as I've heard.

It is materially true, but it is a threat of spiritual truth. Where is the hope in Haiti? How can the trees cry out if there are none? Who will speak into the hopelessness? Who will be the light in the darkness?

The Church will. As she always has. And as she always will. The Church was in Haiti before the earthquake, and the Church will still be there, long after Haiti has dropped off CNN's radar, long after it has conversationally dried up around the international water cooler.

The Church is still in Indonesia, rebuilding after the tsunami. The Church is still in Louisiana and Mississippi, rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. The Church is still in El Salvador after their earthquake. Still in Texas after Hurricane Ike. Still in the furthest reaches of the world.

The Church will be there because the omnipresent God is the one true God and his Son Jesus stands over the earth.

The people of God's missional Church will be the songbirds of Haiti, singing with hearts and hands of love the glory of God into and over that land.

Regardless of your political persuasion . . . you have to wonder at the strange times we live in.

Who would have thought that a Republican would win the Senate seat long held by Teddy Kennedy, in bluest of blue Massachusetts.

This MLK day please take some time to pray for LIFE!



Prayer makes a difference.

Pat Robertson says the earthquake in Haiti is just one more link on a chain begun when Haiti signed a pact with the devil to be free of the French. And he didn't mean "the devil" figuratively. He meant they literally signed a pact with Satan himself.
Not only is this untrue, it's silly.

But most of us have tuned Robertson out and did so long ago.

But I bet we still have plenty of Rush Limbaugh listeners. I don't mean to knock political radio or talk shows or what-have-you. But I do mean to knock Rush Limbaugh.

On his radio show yesterday Limbaugh said the earthquake in Haiti will play right into Obama's hands by allowing him to play up his "compassionate" and "humanitarian" credentials, and that the President will use this crisis to "boost his credibility with the black community."

As if that weren't enough, Limbaugh also pivoted off a caller who complained about Obama directing the public to the White House website to find charitable organizations operating in Haiti to promote a conspiracy theory that finding these charities via the White House website puts your money at risk of not reaching Haitians.

Limbaugh also seems to feel we've done enough already for Haiti: "We've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax."

In terms of our attention, can we throw this guy under the bus yet?

Why? . . .

I don't know.

Mike Potemra offers this critique of those who think they do.

Wisdom:

I remarked upon this to a colleague here at NR, who reminded me of a better approach: “Those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:4-5).