Dodger Stadium Is Pleasant Again

Well I went to a Dodger game tonight and was pleasantly surprised with the security and generally friendly atmosphere. The amount of security personnel onsite was wonderful and the overall attitude was baseball again. I still feel ashamed when Dodger fans boooo their opponents but other than that I felt proud to be a Dodger fan again. I even saw fans with shirts from the Brewers (team they played tonight) who were enjoying themselves without fear of hospitalization. Even though we lost tonight I am proud to be a Dodger fan again. A big Thank you to the new owners.  BTW... there were even extra lights in the parking lot!

Back When They Had Great Cover Stories....

Another Good Post By Chuck Colson

Watch Your Tongue
Lessons from Rush

Chuck Colson

March 06, 2012

Radio host Rush Limbaugh had a bad week last week.

And thanks to his imprudent, unkind, and rude outburst against a female Georgetown University law student, so did the cause of religious freedom.

The student, Sandra Fluke, told democratic lawmakers that Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, did not provide insurance coverage for contraception. This, she said, meant that Georgetown law students would have to spend $3,000 of their own money for contraceptives over the course of their law-school tenure.

A reasonable response to Ms. Fluke’s statement would be to ask why a Catholic institution’s First Amendment rights should be overturned just because Ms. Fluke and her fellow law students want free contraception.

But Mr. Limbaugh’s response was anything but reasonable.

Instead, he called Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

And in so doing, he violated the rules of charity and civil discourse — and he gave the Obama Administration and the supporters of so-called “reproductive rights,” the ultimate political weapon: a symbol, a sympathetic victim, a martyr for the cause.

Well, when advertisers started withdrawing or threatening to withdraw from Limbaugh’s program, Limbaugh apologized. But the damage has been done.

The President didn’t miss his opportunity: He called Fluke and told her that her parents should be proud of her. The New York Timesran a front-page article about her. And you can bet we’ll be seeing plenty of her in the weeks and months to come.

The media, the Administration, and its allies now have the poster-child they need to keep framing the issue as being all about curtailing a woman’s access to contraception. As I said yesterday, that’s a red herring. Nobody is suggesting restricting access to contraception.

The issue here is religious freedom: whether religious institutions should be forced to violate the tenets of their faith by offering insurance that covers abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization. It will now be, I am sorry to say, an uphill climb to keep that issue in front of the public — a public that is driven more by images like that of a clean-cut young law student than it is by reason and constitutional issues like religious freedom.

So folks, what do we learn from this? First, we see just how coarsened our culture has become, the level to which public discourse has sunk — especially among the talking heads and some politicians. Ad hominem attacks, name-calling, outrageous statements designed to get attention . . . well, sadly we’ve come a long way since the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Second, we Christians should remember the words of Paul in Romans 12: We are to overcome evil with good; we are to love our enemies. So, when we engage in debate, we must do so civilly, with winsomeness and charity, with respect for those we are debating, as we did so carefully in the Manhattan Declaration. If we don’t do this, then not only do we sin against charity, we set back the cause of the Kingdom.

As Martin Luther King, Jr., liked to say, “Whom you would change, you must first love.”  Vital words to remember as we try to shed light in this increasingly dark culture.

Empty Buildings-Chuck Colson
NYC Kicks Churches Out of Schools 

February 17, 2012

It’s no secret that Christianity has been unwelcome in public schools for a long time. But recently New York City’s government took an unprecedented step by forcing around 60 churches to vacate sanctuaries they pay to use.

Why? Because Monday through Friday, those sanctuaries also happen to be classrooms.

This deadline was set back in December, when the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the 2nd Circuit’s decision upholding the City’s crass discrimination against communities of faith. New York at this time is the only major city in the nation to ban religious services in its school buildings. But this precedent does not bode well for what may happen in other cities.

The reasoning behind this decision was ludicrous. In his ruling, Circuit Judge Pierre Leval claimed that renting school property to churches implies “an unintended bias in favor of Christian religions,” that makes public schools look like “state-sponsored Christian churches…but not synagogues or mosques.”

New York City Department of Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg, agreed: “Public school space[s]… which are funded by taxpayers’ dollars…cannot and should not be used for worship services, especially because school space is not equally available to all faiths.”

Hogwash. The last I checked, Muslim and Jewish groups weren’t standing in line waiting for a room on a Saturday or Sunday morning.

But more than that, it’s out-of-touch, both with history and reality. Public schools and churches in this nation have always shared space, dating back to the early, single-teacher schools that met in church buildings on the frontier. And today around the nation, thousands of congregations meet every week in public schools. If that’s a government endorsement of Christianity, then what about the millions of Americans who will cast their ballots this November in church buildings?

In addition to their blatant discrimination, city officials are also shooting themselves in the fiscal foot and harming the community.

By renting space, New York churches help alleviate budget shortfalls — something which, according to Fernando Santos of The New York Times — has hit the city’s schools hard. Without religious tenants, schools will find themselves further in the hole and may have to lay off more employees, including teachers.

Tim Keller, my good friend and pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian, says, “Family stability, resources for those in need, and compassion for the marginalized are all positive influences that neighborhood churches provide.” He’s right. George Russ of the New York Metropolitan Baptist Association noted that some churches have “purchased furniture for the teacher's lounge; they've given video equipment to the schools. They've done so many thank-you kinds of projects."

But all this apparently means nothing to New York bureaucrats and the Circuit Court in their effort to expunge religion from public life.

Christians introduced the virtue or tolerance into Western civilization, and we cherish it to this day. But apparently our faith is too much for the New York City government to tolerate in its empty buildings — even long after the bell has rung.

"I AM TOO BUSY FOR CHURCH!"

Can we learn spiritual lessons from trees? Have you ever noticed how trees grow? Big strong healthy trees do not grow quickly. They take a long time to develop deep roots and strong branches. But once they become strong they survive difficult seasons of harsh circumstances and become even stronger. "Blessed are those who dwell in Your house..." (Psalm 84:4) In Psalm 84 we learn the importance of coming to worship God at the times He has called us to do so and the long-term spiritual growth that takes place as a result. Just like trees planted in good soil over time, Christians experience long-term healthy growth.

Many of us feel our lives are too busy for a consistent lifestyle of church participation. But just as a healthy tree grows big and strong while planted in good soil over many seasons, you and I must understand the value of coming to Worship collectively with God's people. In Psalm 84:7 we read, "They go from strength to strength". The nation of Israel was called to worship God on a regular basis. He put Himself on their calendar and they would make a regular pilgrimage for corporate gatherings. It was His requirement for their benefit. He knew they would be spiritually strong as a nation if they regularly gathered in His presence. After all, they were His people.

Often times parents see the need to take their children to church when they are growing up but forget about their own spiritual needs. Again in Psalm 84 in verse 10 we read "For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness." You see, the Psalmist understood the value of consistently showing up to Worship God.
 Just look at the practical benefits of gathering to worship with God's people: (1) The praise and worship team have dedicated their gifts in assisting you in drawing closer to The Lord. (2) The fellowship of believers you gather with is moving towards the heart of God and asking Him to minister to us. (3) The pastor has worked hard in preparing a sermon from Holy Scripture to fill you with wisdom and understanding and will exhort you to apply it to your life. (4) Personal prayer opportunities are available to you to get prayer for anything you need. (5) Rich and wonderful fellowship is aggressively offered that could develop into meaningful relationships for the rest of your life. (5) Practical opportunities are provided for us to use our talents and gifts to worship God through service.  (6) The church is Christ's body on earth, and your participation in it is your participation in Him. (I Cor. 12) (7) And most importantly, Jesus is worthy of all our worship and has called us to come together as a church and worship Him....(Hebrews 10:25). I think the obvious take home from this devotional is we can NEVER be too busy for church...What could be more important?