Another Brick In The Wall

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Indpendence Day Prayer

O God, by Your creating mankind in Your own image You did bestow on all people certain, unalienable rights. We come today in rich gratitude for these God-given liberties which are assumed in the Declaration of Independence, described in the U.S. Constitution & longed for world over. Thank You, Father, for Your directing providence & gift of courage that guided our forbearers to stand against tyranny & to fight for true liberty. Please protect our soldiers, sailors, airmen & marines today who face numerous dangers & depravations to defend these liberties. Shield our police officers & firefighters who risk much to keep us safe. Guide our national leaders, our legislators, governors & judiciary that they will be firmly steered by our founding principles, protecting & promoting liberty & justice for all – born & unborn. Prosper all honest industry, our farmers, our educators, public servants, the self-employed, the medical & helping professions, & others; that our country may flourish. Deliver us from all natural catastrophes, plagues, famines, pestilence, drought, war, & rebellion. May the religious always be safe to live their faith in this nation. May the citizens of this land always strive for a godly moral & ethical excellence in every situation. & now, Lord, we joyfully commend these United States of America into Your safe keeping, & implore You for Jesus Christ's sake to hear our prayers. Amen

______________
As delivered by Pastor Michael Philliber, Providence Presbyterian Church (PCA), Midland, Texas, 4 July 2008 to the city at the Independence Day Parade.

ALGERIA: CHRISTIANS SENTENCED FOR SPREADING FAITH

from Compass Direct News

Converts from Islam report discrimination following convictions.

ISTANBUL, July 3 (Compass Direct News) – A court in western Algeria convicted two Muslim converts to Christianity yesterday for illegally spreading their faith.

The court in Tissemsilt, 110 miles southwest of Algiers, handed Rachid Muhammad Essaghir, 37, and Djallal Dhamani six-month suspended sentences and 100,000-dinar (US$1,660) fines. The men were found guilty of "distributing documents to shake the faith of Muslims."

"Once they get the written sentence, they will appeal straight away," a close friend of Essaghir told Compass following the trial.

The case has received both local and international publicity following a wave of trials this year against Algerian Christians for evangelism and illegally practicing their faith.

In most cases the Christians have been charged under a presidential decree from February 2006 that restricts religious worship to government approved buildings. The decree, known as Ordinance 06-03, also outlaws any attempt to convert Muslims to another faith.

Though no Christian has yet served jail time on religious charges, several still on trial or appealing their convictions have said that negative publicity has damaged their businesses and family life.

Habiba Kouider, facing a three-year sentence after police stopped her while she was carrying several Christian books, has been kicked out of her family's home. Kouider's brothers learned about her conversion to Christianity after her case sparked national and international media attention.

"When her brother found out she was a Christian, he commanded her to leave the house without worrying about what would happen to her," an assistant to defense lawyer Khelloudja Khalfoun wrote in an e-mail last month. The convert to Christianity is temporarily staying with another sister while searching for more permanent accommodations.

Chaban Beikel, a pastry maker, was fired after his boss discovered that he was one of four Protestants convicted of evangelism in Tiaret city last month, the same source said.

Third Conviction

For Essaghir, yesterday's ruling is his third conviction for illegal religious activity this year.

Police had stopped Essaghir and Dahmani in the vicinity of Tissemsilt in June 2007 while transporting a box of Christian literature in one of their cars. Unknown to them, the two men were convicted in absentia in November 2007 and each given two-year sentences and 5,000-euro fines.

After discovering the court ruling in May 2008, the Protestants requested a retrial, their right under Algerian law.

At a hearing in Tissemsilt last week, the state prosecutor backed down from the initial jail sentence and fine, not requesting any punishment for the men. The move gave defense lawyer Khalfoun hope that her clients would be acquitted.

"It could have possibly been an order from someone above him," Khalfoun's assistant wrote, speculating on the prosecutor's retreat from the previous verdict.

Essaghir was also previously convicted with Beikel in June on charges of evangelism and handed a six-month suspended sentence and a 200,000-dinar (US$3,282) fine.

In February Essaghir and two other Christians were charged with "blaspheming the name of the Prophet [Muhammad] and Allah" and threatening the life of a convert to Christianity who later returned to Islam.

In a written verdict published on May 28, the three men were handed three-year suspended sentences and 500-euro fines. The Christians' appeal is due to be heard on July 15.

'God Is In Control'

Essaghir has now moved from Tiaret to the coastal city of Oran with his wife and 1-year-old daughter after police shut down his Internet café in April.

Officials closed the business for failure to obtain necessary written permission from local police. But Essaghir said that this was just an excuse to harass him for his work as an evangelist, as many Internet cafés in Algeria function without such permission.

"Essaghir is doing very well, it's a miracle," said his close friend, who spoke with the Christian following yesterday's trial. Despite his numerous convictions, the friend said, "he doesn't care anymore; God is in control."

Algerian government officials claim that Christians are not discriminated against in the North African country. In recent months several officials have made statements that the aim of certain evangelical missionaries in Algeria is to politically destabilize the country.

He died before the attainment of victory...

reposted from 7/3/2006

National Park Service - Signers of the Declaration (John Hart)

JOHN HART - New Jersey

Signing the Declaration represented John Hart's one significant act during an ephemeral tour in the Continental Congress, his only role in national politics. Yet, like most of the signers, he was dominant in community and State affairs. And he and his family directly experienced the tragedy of the war. Unfortunately, he died before the attainment of victory.

The year after Hart's birth in 1711 at Stonington, Conn., his parents emigrated to New Jersey and settled on a farm in the Hopewell vicinity. Hart was to live there and till the soil all his life. In 1740 he married and began raising a family of 13. In time, while gaining the sobriquet "Honest John," he acquired considerable property, including grist, saw, and fulling mills, and emerged as a civic leader. From the 1750's until the outbreak of the War for Independence in 1775, despite a paucity of education, he worked his way up the political ladder in Hunterdon County and the State. He held the offices of justice of the peace, county judge, colonial legislator (1761-71), and judge of the New Jersey court of common pleas. In the legislature's dispute with the Royal Governor, Hart opposed parliamentary taxation and the stationing of British troops in the colony. During the years 1774-76, he attended the New Jersey provincial congresses, where he achieved the vice-presidency, and won appointment to the council of safety and the committee of correspondence. In June 1776 he and four other Delegates were chosen to replace the incumbent conservatives in the Continental Congress. The new delegation arrived at Philadelphia just a few days before the votes for independence on July 1 and 2 and cast affirmative ballots.

In August 1776, just after Hart signed the Declaration, he departed to accept the speakership in the lower house of the New Jersey legislature. That winter, during the British invasion of the province, the redcoats wreaked havoc on his farm and mills and drove him into hiding among the hills surrounding the Sourland Mountains. When he ended his exile in the wake of the American victories at Princeton and Trenton, he discovered that his wife, ill at the time of the attack, had died and his family scattered. In 1777-78 he sat again on the council of safety, but failing health forced his retirement. He died the next year, at the age of 69, on his Hopewell farm. He is buried in the yard of the First Baptist Church at Hopewell.

Son Stephen, Aug 2007, at cemetery in Hopewell, NJ

The Tenth Amendment and the Tenth Commandment

Seems the Oklahoma legislators actually got some gumption, or something:

http://www.ok-safe.com/files/documents/1/HJR1089_int.pdf

Uh-huh. Does that mean that we'll forswear any more participation in and receipt of monies from any Federal program or activity that is not specifically enumerated or delineated in said Federal Constitution?

(sfx: "feet shuffling, crickets chirping")

I thought so.

Unless we step-up to the plate and act the part, we'll never be a free people.

Outside.in

Looking over Outside.in and their location based info system. Should be good

[where: 73505]

Opening Prayer at General Assembly Worship Service, Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Prayer of Petition and Adoration

• Magnificent, Triune God! You are glorious in majesty, abounding in lovingkindness and truth! You are the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. In You We live and move and have our being.
  
• Who is like You, Oh God? Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers? Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in? Who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing? It is You, Oh Lord! 
• You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. We worship and adore You, our Creator and Sustainer.
• Oh Sovereign Lord Jesus, worthy are You, You Who are the express image and likeness of the Father, Who is that One to Whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that you are LORD. Oh Lamb, because you were slain, and with your blood You purchased people for God, We worship and Adore You, our Great High Priest.
• O gracious Spirit, Who leads us into all Truth, Who cries out on our behalf with groanings which cannot be uttered, We worship and Adore You, our Counselor and Guide.
• Father, Son & Holy Spirit, inhabit the praises of your people this night. Help us to worship You in Spirit and Truth.
• O send out Your light and Your truth, let them lead us; let them bring us to Your holy hill, and to Your dwelling places.
  
• May (we) be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that (we) may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
  
• We ask it in the Name of our Savior Jesus, Who taught us to pray, saying,

Our Father, Who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done,

On earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.

Your Word Is Truth

The rule is: Listen and allow the Word to make the beginning; then the knowing will nicely follow. If, however, you do not listen, you will never know anything. For it is decreed: God will not be seen, known, or comprehended except through His Word alone… He did not want us to let it lie there in neglect, as if He were speaking with mice under the bench or with flies on the pulpit. We are to read it, to think and speak about it, and to study it, certain that He Himself (not an angel or a creature) is speaking with us in it.

Luther [Works, vol. 48, p. 148]

aa.com: $15 for first checked bag

Thanks, American! What's next? Pay toilets on flights under two hours' duration? $1 per cocktail napkin fee? Seat belt usage reimbursement? 50 cent beverage glass disposal fee when the flight attendant moves about the cabin? You want ice with that lukewarm ginger ale? That will be a quarter per cube, please.

I used to have American Airlines as my favorite carrier. No longer.

Playing the "What If?"

Last night I was toying with a mapping tool that I sometimes use to scope out bike routes. It is based on the Google Maps API, and has features that allow small line segment drawing for routes and also a graph for elevation changes along the entirety of the route.

The thought ran through my head -- what if we have hugely expensive oil / $7-8/gal gasoline prices. How would that affect my pastoral ministry -- especially making calls on the flock? How would that affect the ability of our far-flung membership to make it to mid-week activities? To worship services on the Lord's Day? How would that affect the fellowship of the saints, how we interact with one another?

Some of our families live 18-50 miles from the church's facilities (farthest reaches, from north to south=70 miles; east-west=68 miles). If things got really bad, my guess is that our elders would probably think that real oversight of these families would be impractical and recommend that they look seriously at 1) relocating their membership to an evangelical congregation in their immediate environs; or, 2) physically relocate to the neighborhood surrounding the church's facilities (some are already either doing that or planning to do that in the near to middle future).

Another possibility is to "circuit ride" in making pastoral visits (both in town and out of town) (have Schwinn, will travel). I envisioned a scenario where I'd ride out to visit a family out in the boonies, spend the night with them, and then ride to the next family. I've already done a couple of pastoral visits in-town using my bike, as well as going to appointments to check up on folks, drink coffee, etc.

Mid-week prayer meetings might be shifted to include online participation. We'd probably shift more to a truly parish-type ministry.