Our local radio station, WNOI 104 radio in Flora, has morning devotional thoughts each day provided by different ministers from the area. This past week (8/10/09 - 8/14/09) I provided devotions. I recorded them in our building, saved them onto a CD, and took the CD to the station for the station manager to play each morning.
I have been experiencing a rebirth in political awareness lately, so I decided to go with a theme of praying for our leaders.
Just click on the links below to listen to them in your media player. You can also right click on them, select "Save Target As" and then save them to your computer to listen. If you have a slower connection or they hesitate a lot as they play, this is your best option. NOTE: If you hear something dumb, that is not because of your internet connection!
Monday (8/10)
Tuesday (8/11)
Wednesday (8/12)
Thursday (8/13)
Friday (8/14)
As always, I invite you to give them a listen and let me know what you think!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Who needs the First Ammendment Anyway?
I was amused by a story I read on AOL News earlier today. The headline read: "Obama 'Joker' Picture Pops Up In Los Angeles and Across the Internet." Now, as a political conservative and someone who has questioned many things that our president has done, I found that intriguing. So, I clicked on the link and read the short story.It seems someone has depicted President Obama as The Joker (a la Heath Ledger) with the word "socialism" at the bottom and posted it around Los Angeles and on the internet. Predictably, liberals are in an uproar over the image, with many calling for an investigation as to the identity of the "mystery" artist. (Just a suggestion, I'd look for that guy who got sued over the "Hope" image....)
The writer of the AOL article, Christopher Weber from PoliticsDaily.com, correctly pointed out that the same liberals were noticably silent when someone posted a picture depicting then-president George W. Bush as Satan.
Upon further investigation on the web, I have found many outspoken liberals (in chat rooms and blog posts everywhere) who are calling for the image to be banned from the internet and the artist to be punished. Our Constitution is an interesting double-edged sword. We cannot apply the first ammendment only when we like the message that is being presented.
Several years ago an artist placed a picture of a crucifix into a bottle of urine, took a photiograph of it, and called it art (actually, he called it "Piss Christ"). It was even subsidized by our federally funded "National Endowment for the Arts." Conservatives and Christians all across the nation were outraged and wanted the artwork banned, even though the artist claimed it depicted what we as a society have done to Jesus. It was the artist's first ammendment right to produce such artwork (although I don't believe it's the kind of artwork the NEA should be paying to help produce), even though it was disgusting, disturbing and insulting to many Americans.
The first ammendment can be a pesky thing: either ALL speech is protected, or none of it is. We conservatives got really tired of hearing the character of President and Laura Bush attacked by lilberals on the web and in public. But no one I personally know called for censorship of the internet because of the negative and often vitriolic language. Unfortunately, now liberals are going to have to put up with the same kind of stuff.
Personally, I believe it's in bad taste either way. I think we should be able to question our leaders and even expose their actions in public. We can write and blog and cry "foul" from the rooftops if that is what we deem necessary. I would prefer the attacks to be kept in the political arena and steer clear of a politician's family and private life. But just because I don't like what is being said, I can't call for it to be hidden or the "offenders" to be arrested or fined or both. That's what our first ammendment guarantees: the right to say what we want about our nation's leadership without fearing arrest or retribution from the government.
I think that liberals are going to have to thicken their collective skin for the next three and a half years. There are going to be PLENTY more attacks against President Obama where this one came from. It's going to be a LOOOOOONG time until the next presidential election, and I don't think things are going to get more "civil" between now and then....
References:
PoliticsDaily article on Obama/Joker Poster
DailyMail (UK) article on Obama/Joker Poster
LA Weekly article on Obama/Joker Poster
Piss Christ artwork
Friday, July 31, 2009
Vacation 2009: Walkin' in Memphis!
I’m going to post this blog now, even though I’m going to put part of it in the Flora Christian next week. I had a really good time on my family vacation, and I wanted to put some reflections about it here before I forget everything.
We went to Memphis, Tennessee. We stayed just north of Memphis in Meeman-Shelby State Park. We got a cabin there which slept six people (2 BR, 1 bath) and had a full kitchen and nice, large living room. There was a TV, but since it only got 3 or 4 channels, and these were in digital and the TV reception was “hit-and-miss,” we pretty much did without TV for the week. We were back in the woods, overlooking a lake. It was really nice and very relaxing. We also didn’t get cell phone coverage there and there was no internet. Hannah about DIED! But it was nice to be pretty much “unplugged” for the week.
We left Flora on Saturday, July 25 at about 10:30 am. Our intention was to drive down to Sikeston, MO, and take the kids to eat at Lambert’s Café (home of the world famous “Throwed Rolls”). We thought we’d get there about 3:00 and miss the rush. We got there pretty much on schedule, and there was a 2 hour wait. We kept driving. We got to our cabin before dark, unloaded the van, and headed back to Millington, TN to Walmart to get our food and supplies for the week. We then went back to the cabin and settled in for some serious relaxation. I have to mention that the drive from our cabin to Millington was about 6 miles. It took 20-25 minutes. The roads were winding and narrow, and without a GPS to guide us (Thanks Lane & Brian!) we would NEVER have made it! We got dinner at a Krystal hamburger joint, which the kids did NOT care for but I liked because they were like White Castles. When we got back to the cabin, we watched Veggie Tales movies on DVD (this would become a nightly theme).
On Sunday, we slept in and got up when Joni made us a fantastic breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, juice and milk! I need to backtrack here and talk about worship. We don’t know anyone in the Memphis area, so we weren’t sure about finding a place to worship. So, we took the family to Mt. Vernon, IL, on Friday to Central Christian Church’s Friday night worship experience. We had a great time and even met some FCC friends while we were there (Paul, Alicia, Matt, Bethany & London). Anyway, back to Sunday—we spent the morning relaxing in and around the cabin, and then went to the pool in the park for the afternoon. I’m not one to lay around “tanning,” but it was nice to park in a deck chair and not worry about cell phones, websites, or email for the afternoon. Everyone needs time occasionally to simply “unwind,” and I got mine there beside the pool while the kids swam and Joni relaxed in a chair beside me. We went back to the cabin and I grilled the meat for dinner (pork steaks, chicken breasts, hamburgers and hot dogs) while Joni fixed the rest of the meal. After dinner we watched another Veggie Tales movie—“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.”
On Monday, we got up and after breakfast decided to go on one of the walking trails in the park. (Breakfast, by the way, was Dad’s biscuits & gravy.) The trail was rated as “moderate,” which was only the terrain. The rating did not cover the hoards of mosquitoes or the mud. Holden also did not warn us that his sock had a hole in it (on his heel, of course) and didn’t tell us about the blister on his heel until we were about a mile into the hike. This caused us to turn around and walk the trail in reverse to get back to our van quicker. Joni carried him about a quarter of a mile and I carried him about a half a mile, and then he said he felt better and walked the rest of the way himself. It was hot and VERY humid, so we went back and took showers and still had half the day left. Joni made a Mexican lunch (tacos, nachos & cheese, and some Mexican soda—Barrilitos) before we headed in to take a driving tour of Memphis. We drove by the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, and then decided to walk some of downtown. We went down Beale Street, heard some live Blues (several bands, actually), went in the Hard Rock Café so Hunter could buy a t-shirt, walked past the FedEx Forum (where the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team plays), and went to the Gibson Guitar Factory. We didn’t do the factory tour, but Hunter and I went in the factory store and saw more $5000 guitars in one location than I had seen in a while! After that we drove to Sun Record Studio (where Elvis Presley first recorded) and took some pictures. Then we drove to Mississippi so Hannah could say she had been in 5 states on vacation (IL, MO, AR, TN & MS). After some shopping at a mall, we went back to the cabin and watched another movie—this time “The Hunt for Red October—before going to bed.
Tuesday was Graceland day. First, we went to the Peabody Hotel and saw the marching of the “World Famous Peabody Ducks.” I won’t take time to tell the tale here if you don’t know it—just visit their website. Then it was off to Graceland, where we took the mansion tour, went through the airplanes, went to the car museum, and visited each and every one of the 14 gift shops on the premises. Holden is a HUGE Elvis fan, and he enjoyed the tours (especially the mansion) as much as anyone. After Graceland we went back downtown and went to the Mud Island Riverpark. They have a scaled down version of the Mississippi River which you can wade that dumps into the scaled down Gulf of Mexico. The kids had a great time doing that and visiting the true scale version of a river paddleboat in the Mud Island museum. Of course, we rode the hanging monorail that goes from downtown Memphis to the island. It was a REALLY long day, and after we went home and had leftovers from all of the fantastic meals Joni had cooked, we packed up to leave and went to sleep without even watching a movie!
We left and came home on Wednesday morning. We got to Sikeston at about 2:30, and this time waited about 10 minutes before getting a table at Lambert’s. The kids liked the food, but LOVED the rolls being tossed all around. They each caught at least one and buttered them up and ate them. For those of you who have never been to Lambert’s but HAVE gone to the Beef House in Covington, IN, the rolls are about the same (I know your mouth is watering by now!). The restaurant is a fun experience, especially with kids along. But we were tired and ready to be home, so we got back in the car and made it back to “the farm “ around 6:30.
As always, I learned something while on this family vacation. At the risk of a lawsuit from CBS or Worldwide Pants, here are the Top 10 Things I Learned on my Memphis Family Vacation:
You can see my pics from the vacation on my Facebook page by clicking HERE.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Godliness
This past Sunday, July 5, I preached the morning message at our church. I have always been a little uncomfortable preaching "patriotic" messages. Not because I am unpatriotic, but for other reasons. I talk about it at the beginning of the message, so I'll just let you listen to it.
Before the message, I played a video which featured audio clips of Presidents F. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, and George W. Bush, and Billy Graham. Here's a link where you can watch the video: America.
Click on the link below to open up the message in your audio player, or right click and select "Save Target As..." to save it to your computer.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Godliness- Rob Clifton (7-5-2009)
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