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We the People of Oklahoma, Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessing of Liberty; to secure just and rightful Government; to promote our mutual Welfare and Happiness, do establish this proclamation and call upon the people of the great State of Oklahoma, and our fellow Patriots in these United States of America who look to the Lord for guidance, to acknowledge the need for a national awakening of righteousness in our land.

WHEREAS, “It is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand” (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by Religion and Morality” (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, “Our Constitution was made only for a Moral and Religious people” (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government…but upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God” (James Madison); and

WHEREAS, “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God (Benjamin Franklin); and

WHEREAS, “God who gave us life gave us liberty and can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God” (Thomas Jefferson); and

WHEREAS, “Whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of Religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state” (Joseph Story); and

WHEREAS, “We hold sacred the rights of conscience, and promise to the people…the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion” (Roger Sherman); and

WHEREAS, “This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians” (Patrick Henry); and

WHEREAS, “When you…exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed upon your mind that God commands you to choose just men who will rule in the fear of God” (Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS, “The principles of genuine Liberty and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible” (Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS, the people of Oklahoma have a strong tradition of reliance upon the Creator of the Universe; and

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we the undersigned elected officials of the people of Oklahoma, religious leaders and citizens of the State of Oklahoma, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, solemnly declare that the HOPE of the great State of Oklahoma and of these United States, rests upon the Principles of Religion and Morality as put forth in the HOLY BIBLE; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, believers in the One True God and His only Son, call upon all to join with us in recognizing that “Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord,” and humbly implore all who love Truth and Virtue to live above reproach in the sight of God and man with a firm reliance on the leadership and protection of Almighty God; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, humbly call upon Holy God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer, to have mercy on this nation, to stay His hand of judgment, and grant a national awakening of righteousness and Christian renewal as we repent of our great sin.

Signed in the year of our Lord Christ Two Thousand and Nine.

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Here is her website if you’re interested — http://repsallykern.com/

4:20 pm – It’s Sunday. The power went off around 9 or 10 PM last night and it’s been off ever since. I wasn’t feeling well this morning and have been home all day, with the exception of finding some food to eat for breakfast/lunch. I’ve been fiddling with broken electronics to pass the time this afternoon and to keep my mind from locking in on the loneliness of this empty house. Without the sounds of the children playing inside and out – talking, laughing, asking questions, and giving me their advice – and without Carrie’s smile and warm presence, this house seems more like a tomb than a home. So I was taking apart a voltage stabilizer that blew up in order to scavenge useful parts. It’s amazing how many great little screws, nuts and bolts, switches, small lights, pieces of wire, and power plugs you can scavenge from something! After I finished with that, I moved on to modifying a cheap battery backup unit I bought in town last year to be able to use an old gigantic truck battery I found left over from the last tenant of this house.

Whilst turning screws, clipping wires, and getting very creative with electrical tape, I realized something. I realized that for some time now, over the somewhat muffled sound of the U.N. office’s enormous generator next door, I had been hearing an unusual noise. It’s strange when you hear something, but then realize that you’ve been hearing it for a while now without consciously recognizing it. So I tuned my conscious thoughts to the frequency of the sound and was able to make out what sounded like wailing, mixed with laughter, mixed with talking. The confusion of sounds either overwhelmed my conscious mind with too many mixed signals to know what exactly was going on, or it was just too lazy to care. Because shortly after pausing to listen, I turned my attention back to my electronic autopsy.

A short while later the sounds in the background once again forced their way into the part of my mind that actually cares and is also curious. So I stopped again and went to the opened front door and stood at the screen. I listened carefully and was sure that I was hearing wailing, but then also, and almost at the same time, laughter. It was the kind of laughter that people laugh when someone has done or said something funny and you’re laughing at them. Because the wailing was so diametrically different from any sound that you would here in conjunction with mocking laughter, I again decided that I was just not hearing things right and everything was okay. After all, there were many people laughing.

A while later, after growing weary of the “no electricity” situation, I decided to drive into town to get some fuel and parts to try and get the old little “knock-off” generator we have to work (I’m still working on getting a new one and hope to have it by the end of the month). As I pulled away, I noticed some people at a nearby house talking and laughing and realized that this must have been the talking and laughing I had been hearing. Then I thought, “But why did I think there was wailing? Have I lost my mind?” As I continued down the dirt road another 100 meters, turned right at the bend and continued another 100 meters, and then turned left onto the main road and continued another 200 meters, suddenly there it was the again! Wailing! It was a woman. It was coming from my left and it was louder than I had heard it all day. It was incessant. It was deep and sorrowful and heartfelt. It was actually painful to listen to, causing an automatic sympathetic sickness in my gut. It was coming from Maweni hospital, which is situated due north of my house, about 500 meters!

For a couple of hours I had been hearing the neighbors, just one door down, outside of their home talking and laughing. But mixed in with the familial, familiar, and joyful sounds of Sunday afternoon banter, was the horrid howl of a family suffering bitter loss, and that coming from a quarter of a mile away! To feel the pain of loss so deeply and completely that it cannot be contained and can be heard such a long distance away for so long a time… I could only imagine that it was a mother and her family mourning the loss of a child. Probably another case of malaria, TB, meningitis, or AIDS.

I don’t want to know that pain – the pain of losing a child – but I feel that today my soul was penetrated by sound, and for the second time in my life I tasted of it, just a little.

I was supposed to give a “Good Friday” message last week, but I was too sick to do so. “Good Friday” is typically when we remember the crucifixion in preparation for remembering the resurrection on “Easter Sunday”. In thinking about the message ahead of time, I began to contemplate a couple of different verses regarding the crucifixion.

The verses I was thinking about were both quotes from God. One is a quote from God the Father, while the other is a quote from God the Son. Both are quotes about the crucifixion, and both say something similarly dark and complex, difficult and curious.

In Isaiah 53, as we read the famous prophetic words of God the Father about the substitutionary death of His Son, we come to verse 10. Here we read that it PLEASED the LORD (Yahweh) to CRUSH Him (Jesus). It was God’s will, and therefore it pleased Him, to CRUSH His one and only Son. Have you ever in your life thought of relating the act of CRUSHING the innocent with PLEASURE. This is a difficult juxtaposition of action and emotion: CRUSH and PLEASURE. We’re not talking about a mean little kid who thinks it’s fun to crush a bug under his boot! We’re talking about a perfect, holy, loving, righteous God who was PLEASED TO CRUSH HIS ONE AND ONLY SON!

In Hebrews 12:2 we read a famous verse about the passion of Christ. It says that Jesus endured the torture and shame of the cross FOR THE JOY that was set before Him. The joy? Again, the precarious placement of the unobvious is thrust before us! Enduring the torture and shame of the cross is equal to JOY! How can this be?

How can it be that our Heavenly Father was PLEASED to CRUSH His one and only Son? How can it be that Holy Son of God could count the PAIN and SHAME of the cross as JOY? While the two personages of the Godhead are in agreement over their mutual emotion regarding the crucifixion, we are left to look upon it with horror and grief and wonderment and pain, wondering, “How is this PLEASING? How is this a JOY?”

When we look upon the cross with honest eyes and tender hearts we can literally feel the weight of the hammer in our hands. Our elbows ache and our hands cramp with pain from swinging the death blows that forced the nail through the flesh and bone of our Saviour. We see the torture and pain for what it is, because we were the perpetrators of the crime who deserved the punishment that was carried out upon this innocent man in our own place.

And yet… HE TAKES PLEASURE… HE COUNTS IT AS JOY. With all the irony Heaven can bring to bear, with all the might of God’s righteousness, with all the might of God’s love, with all the pain of sin, and all the power of grace, as we each grasped that hammer and struck the nails, our Heavenly Father and His Holy Son were pleased and joyed TO REMOVE THE GUILT THAT WAS KILLING US AND ALLOW US TO KILL HIM INSTEAD. BY DOING THIS HE EXTENDS HIS WOUNDED ARMS AND INVITES US TO JOIN HIM IN HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION. HE HAS BORNE THE TORTURE AND PUNISHMENT THAT WAS DUE TO US SO THAT WE CAN DIE TO WHO WE USED TO BE – SOULS BOUND BY SIN AND DEATH – AND RISE AGAIN WITH HIM INTO A NEW AND ETERNAL LIFE, EMPOWERED AND LEAD BY HIS SPIRIT.

This incredible free gift is indescribable! It’s overwhelming! It’s truly awesome! But lingering in my mind now is still this reality: the one that sent His only Son, and the only Son that was sent, both saw this torturous, crushing pain AS A GOOD THING. And knowing who I was without Christ – what manner of person I was and would be – it is abundantly clear that IT WAS A GOOD THING; for me and millions of others who would drown in darkness and death and be eternally separated from our Blessed Creator!

But a greater lesson still remains for those of us who have truly GIVEN OUR LIVES BACK TO Him as “living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service.” The lesson of suffering still remains. The lesson of learning how crushing pain and shame are part of a plan of pleasure and joy! I don’t claim to completely understand it, but I am confident that the more I know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering (Philippians 3:10), the better I will understand what real pleasure and joy are, and how they often involve crushing pain and shame. I have a sneaking suspicion that true pleasure and joy have very little to do with our everyday, American definitions, and very little to do with anything in our own will. Rather, when we begin to grasp the heart of the Father and gain the vision of the Son, we will see what TRUE pleasure and joy are, and what is required of us to attain them.

What are my thoughts? Funny. Sad, of course, but still funny.

Score another one for the “glam culture” of Hollywood / Broadway / Nashville. Sorry LeAnn.

So here’s my question after reading the above linked article… what if the embryo doesn’t pass the test? Then what? What do they do after purposefully fertilizing an egg with a statistically predisposed propensity for chromosomal abnormality and then find that their work has, in fact, resulted in an embryo with the anticipated abnormalities? Throw it out? And what is “it” (the embryo)? Is it life?

Let me answer myself with further questions!

How is a 60-year old man considered to be “life” in a purely biological sense? Is it not because he is an amazing amalgamation of living cells and mind boggling biochemical processes? Were those cells and processes any less present when he was 55? In fact, because of the second law of thermodynamics, those cells and processes were even more amazing when he was 55. And even more so when he was 45, or 30, or 15! If we follow this fact back to his first birthday, what do we find? A spectacularly complex creature comprised of millions of living cells, each operating as their own “life factories” in cooperation with one another and each comprised of various molecules, which are themselves comprised of various atoms, which are themselves comprised of various sub-atomic particles, which are themselves comprised of who knows what!

So what differentiates this 1-year old from a child of 364 days? Maybe a few more cells. And what about a child of 200 days? Or 100 days? Or 10 days? Or 1 day? How do they differ. Only in the number of these “life factories”. “Certainly, then, these cells could not have been the centers of “life” previous to birth!” (This is called sarcasm). “They must only have been lifeless masses of nothing, like a benign tumor!” Is this the case? No! In English, we use the term “fetus” to describe that state of life previous to exiting the safety of the growth chamber. A “fetus” is just a name for a 1-day old baby the day before that baby moves out! It is made of the same “life factories” as a 1-day old baby, or a 100-day old baby, or a 100-year old baby. The only differences being in the quantity of cells (less in the younger) and quality of the cells (greater in the younger).

So if a “fetus” is the same life as a “person”, just a different name, what was it before it was a fetus? Well in English we call that an “embryo”. What is an embryo exactly? It’s just the name we give to the developing cooperation of “life factories” before we can distinguish with our eyes the characteristics of whichever species the life form belongs to — i.e., legs, arms, hands, feet, tail, body, wings, etc. Same cells, same biochemical processes, same life. Just a different name based on what we observe with our eyes.

So… if an embryo is simply a smaller, less developed version of a fetus, which is just a smaller, less developed version of a newborn baby, which is just a smaller, less developed version of a child, which is just a smaller, less developed version of a youth, which is just a smaller, less developed version of and adult… then I ask my second question again. What is “it” (the embryo)?

It is life. Life in miniature.

So now I’ve worked my way back to my original question again. What happens if this life does not pass the test? Do we end it? Do we simply throw it out because it’s small and hasn’t been allowed the time to develop the familiar characteristics which our eyes — and consciences — tell us is recognizably human life? Is it that simple? Do we simply claim ignorance? “Well I can’t see any arms or legs or a face yet, so TOSS IT!” What if we applied the EXACT SAME PROCESS OF LOGIC to other areas of life. “Gee, I don’t see any teeth in this baby of mine. It must not be a real life yet because human life always has teeth. TOSS IT!” “What? No hair? TOSS IT!” “No wrinkles yet? TOSS IT!” Is that who we are now? Purposefully ignorant so we can avoid being conscious of our conscience? I know that for many they simply cannot accept that these examples are accurate representations of the identical logic applied in varying circumstances because it hurts what little conscience they have left to do so. But they are the same. That’s why it hurts so much to admit it.

It seems to me that in the process of trying to “enhance” life — by giving a woman a chance to have a “life” (a child) that she otherwise would not have been able to have — one “life” will be destroyed for the sake of another — as is true with an abortion. In fact, this process is worse in the sense that doctors are purposefully creating an embryo that is statistically predisposed to FAIL THE TEST in the hopes that it might be the exception and produce an embryo which is chromosomally acceptable. But this means, according to the numbers reported, that 75% of the embryos created for women 39 and older, and 50% of the embryos created for younger women will be destroyed. And in case you have already desensitized yourself to the factual reality of what this destroyed embryo is… IT’S A BABY BABY!

Is there no limit and no end to humanity’s God-complex?

I have to admit that while I maintained a stance of Christians abstinence from alcohol for many other reasons, I often, even if secretly in my mind, made excuses for Christians in nations like the U.K. I would sympathetically give credence to the “cultural” argument — if it’s part of the culture and not outside the bounds of Scripture (meaning the believer is not inebriated) then leave them be. I wouldn’t apply the many other Scriptural principles to the situation because I didn’t know for sure that they fit, i.e. not causing another to stumble, living above reproach, etc.

Well, I’m done making excuses for the Britons in this area. The facts are in. I’ve read in MANY places from various sources including the BBC itself, that the U.K. is one of the WORST nations in regards to the abuse of alcohol. In one article, which was actually about the rise in “binge drinking” amongst the youth of Italy, the comparison was actually made that though it was worsening in Italy it still wasn’t as bad as “Finland, Denmark, and the U.K.” In yet another recent article, the BBC reported on an international survey that concludes, “Young teenagers in the UK are more likely to get drunk than anywhere else in the industrial world.”

I will no longer accept at face value the comments made by British believers that they know how to handle their alcohol and don’t drink to excess. Even if that were true and they had some sort of special breeding that resulted in their ability to drink more than others with no unbiblical results (drunkenness), they can no longer support the argument that they aren’t causing anybody else to stumble (no pun intended). They are actively participating in a culture that is now known as ONE OF THE WORST in this regard, and, in my opinion, should recognize it and be part of the solution rather than continuing to make excuses for why they should be able to enjoy the freedom in Christ to drink alcohol.

As Paul said, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor 6:12). Elsewhere he says, “It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles” (Rom 14:21). Again he says, “Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble” (1 Cor 8:13).

So I encourage our brethren from abroad to take the tact that many other Christians have and love the youth of your country enough to be a light to them in this area. Is it possible to drink and not be drunk? Absolutely, I’ve done it many a time in the past. Is it “lawful”? Of course. But the real question is this… is it “profitable”? Does it bring a benefit or a detriment to the people that God has placed about you and for whom you are responsible to be a minister of reconciliation amongst?

If you live in a culture that abuses alcohol, please consider that your freedom from the law is inextricably bound to your freedom from sin, and causing another to stumble is sin.

While I appreciate the availability of medicine for necessary situations and the tremendous wisdom of some doctors when needed, having a baby really isn’t that “tricky”. It hurts. Bad. Ask any mother. It’s messy. Bloody. Gooey. It can even be dangerous with certain women and at certain ages, necessitating the use of specially skilled people (doctors and mid-wives) and special medicines. But the overuse and abuse of these ‘birth drugs’ astounds me. There is no way to know with 100% surety that a drug will not have a side effect like the one described in this story. So let’s quit handing out the drugs to every Tonya, Diane, and Harriett and save them for the more risky and needful times (along with their side effects).

More great pics of these fascinating creatures here.

“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” -Romans 11:33

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.” 21 God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.” – Genesis 1:1,20-23

“All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.” – John 1:3

“For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” – Colossians 1:16

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” – Romans 1:20

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.” – Revelation 4:11

“Let them praise the name of the Lord, For He commanded and they were created.” – Psalm 148:5

“You alone are the Lord. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.” – Nehemiah 9:6