Repost - Regarding Your Children!

As I'm away from my family...missing them deeply, I think about them nonstop. My wife Helen consumes my thoughts as I try and support my family with work that takes me here and far. I count every minute until I get home. I physically labor at my work and mentally work at strategizing how I will spend my time with Aiden my son. Planning, scheming, and praying is my internal work. My fire was fueled by the following post on the Ligonier Blog:

Time is the currency

by Richard Phillips

This is my simple agenda to ensure I am actively and intimately involved in the lives of my children: Read, Pray, Work, Play. I must read God's Word to and with my children regularly. We must bear each others' burdens in prayer and worship the Lord together at his throne of grace. My children need my positive, encouraging involvement in their work (and they need an invitation into some of mine). And we need to bind our hearts with laughter and joy in shared play, both one-on-one and as a complete family. This all requires time, for time is the currency with which I purchase the right to say, "My son, my daughter, give me your heart."
*****
p. 103 from The Masculine Mandate (Reformation Trust, 2010)

Don't Ask Don't Tell - Inevitably Here To Stay

Douglas Wilson always has something interesting to say regarding ever changing/never changing political ethos. His recent post titled Political Kabuki is no different. Wilson writes of the inevitability of the military's don't ask don't tell policy on homosexuals. Though someday overturned don't ask don't tell will be applied to someone, he writes this:

The issue before the house is not whether or not to repeal "don't ask, don't tell." This whole thing is one of those pesky inescapable concepts, and this means that the debate before us is this -- to which group will we apply "don't ask, don't tell"? It is not whether, but which. The homosexuals or the evangelicals?...Somebody will be disciplined inevitably, and we are talking about which group it will be.

Wilson goes on to make the point that the question isn't about the soldier-to-soldier relationships, it goes deeper than that. He goes on to write this:

I am asking if the serviceman who is evangelical will be permitted to witness to his fellow serviceman, who is now out of the closet. Will he be allowed to believe that homosexuality is a sin that God will judge at the last day? Sure. Don't ask. Will he be allowed to call his fellow serviceman to repentance? Surely not. Don't tell.

These questions should be the first and foremost questions on minds of Americans as well as the troops rooted in the Christian faith, not to mention Chaplains. Can they preach out of the whole bible...what about Romans? He sums up his point here:

Don't tell me that this is about whether homosexuals should be able to come out of the closet. It is whether evangelicals will be permitted to extend the love of Christ to them when they do. Everybody is acting as though the question concerns whether open homosexuals can serve in the military. The real question is whether open evangelicals will be allowed to do so.

from Blog and Mablog by dougwils@christkirk.com (Douglas Wilson)

Political Kabuki

The Sieve 2/3/10

THE MOHLER REVERB
Al Mohler's recent post regarding pornography and it's current availability...very good post. I've been trudging my way through the most recent Family Research Council's Research Synthesis on the effects of pornography on marriages, individuals, families, and communities. Mohler's post goes well with it. I'll link to both.

Hijacking the Brain — How Pornography Works

EN-VIRAL-MENTAL-ISTS
The recent post by The Foundary works through a new paper published by the journal Environmental Science & Technology regarding the consumer choices being effected by environmental policies. The specific choice covered in the article is regarding schools.

School Choice Bad for the Environment?

FUNDITUS PRAVUS
Ray Ortlund's quick post this morning is excellent regarding our perspective of others. Must Read!

Companions in a common misery

REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Obama is in serious trouble; stuck between the Pro-Life people foaming mad that his agenda pushed for healthcare reform that would force them to pay for abortions via tax money and the Reproductive Rights people foaming mad he didn't get it done. I could give you examples of seathing articles from both sides but I like this one the best. It's from the Pro-choice side of the isle.

""He can't make eye contact with abortion," an observation those of us in the reproductive justice movement can't help but agree with. His failure to stand up for the human rights of women -- and to trust us -- began to make me wonder about his commitment to those of us who were his core constituents and helped elect him. He's like the prom date I had last night who can't remember my name this morning." 
from RHRealityCheck.org by Loretta Ross

Read the rest:

(VIDEO) Obama Can’t Make Eye Contact With Abortion Rights

POLITICS
This is a good article from The Foundary regarding the fight for Obama's health care reform. It maps out the procedural strategies and tactics of the Republicans and Democrats very well. It's a back and forth battle from super-majority (democrats) to filibuster (republicans) to nuclear option (democrats) to unlimited amendments (republicans). This outlines the progression!

Fighting the Nuclear Option

BEST ARTICLE TITLE OF THE DAY
I thought this was the best title I've seen in a while...you can also read the article too. It's by the Family Research Council.

Obama's HOPE Is That He Gets All of Your CHANGE

GOOD OL ARTICLE
I'll through this short one in...very good by Douglas Wilson!

Nostalgia Is Not An Eschatology