Sunday, April 20, 2014

Sun Apr 20th Todays News

Today is the birthday of Miranda Kerr (1983), Shemar Moore (1970) and George Takei (1937). On this day in 1818, an old law was applied in the British murder case Ashford vs Thornton. Mary Ashford had gone home from a dance with Abraham Thornton. The next day she was found dead, having drowned in a pit with little signs of violence. Thornton was cleared of rape or murder, but Ashford's brother laid a civil suit against Thornton. So Thornton applied an old defence .. trial by battle. It was legal, but Mr Ashford declined to fight, and so Thornton was freed, emigrating to the US and dying in 1860. The trial by battle statute was abolished in 1819. in 1926, sound was introduced to movies, allowing the production of the Jazz Singer. 

On the same day in 1939, completely independent of each other, Billie Holiday recorded Strange Fruit while Adolph Hitler celebrated his 50th birthday. Billie did not know she had had a hit, but Hitler knew he needed incentives to celebrate, and declared a public holiday. Six years later, in another parallel, Hitler left his bunker for the last time, pinning medals on his youth movement, while twenty Jewish children used in medical experiments at Neuengamme were killed in the basement of the Bullenhuser Damm school. Strange fruit. In 1961, the Bay of Pigs invasion failed. In 1968, English politician Enoch Powell makes his controversial Rivers of Blood speech. Enoch had a formidable intelligence, evenly matched with a latter day Pauline Hanson (perhaps I should explain .. he was a dolt). His populist view on migration, being without merit, is still recalled by racist bigots everywhere around the world. But it was too late, Pharaoh had already let the people go. 

For twenty two years I have been responsibly addressing an issue, and I cannot carry on. I am petitioning the Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott to remedy my distress. I leave it up to him if he chooses to address the issue. Regardless of your opinion of conservative government, the issue is pressing. Please sign my petition at https://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/tony-abbott-remedy-the-persecution-of-dd-ball
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Hatches
Happy birthday and many happy returns for Malyka, little Zee, Dallas BeaufortAdrian Kuswendi and Langley Bui. Born on the same day, across the years. That day, in 1939, Billie Holliday recorded Strange fruit. May your compassion and love be bountiful.
Matches
Despatches
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“Conscience is a man's compass”
 Vincent van Gogh

"Blame is just a lazy person's way of making sense of chaos."
Doug Coupland

"Man is the only trained animal who expects his reward before he does his trick."
Robert Brault

"A man may fall many times but he won't be a failure until he says someone pushed him."
Elmer G. Letterman

"In order to properly understand the big picture, everyone should fear becoming mentally clouded and obsessed with one small section of truth."
Xun Zi

“Be around the people you want to be like, because you will be like the people you are around.”
Sean Reichle

“Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.”
Max Ehrmann

"The burden of originality is one that most people don't want to accept. They'd rather sit in front of the TV and let that tell them what they're supposed to like, what they're supposed to buy, and what they're supposed to laugh at."
Marilyn Manson

"Maturity is achieved when a person postpones immediate pleasures for long-term values."
Joshua L. Liebman

"A family in harmony will prosper in everything."
 Chinese Proverb

"I think togetherness is a very important ingredient to family life."
Barbara Bush

“There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained”
Winston Churchill

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony."
Thomas Merton

"Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better."
George Santayana

"There are some people who have trouble recognizing a mess."
Bill Cosby

"Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people - your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way." 
Barbara Bush

"People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, …but they will always remember how you made them feel."
Maya Angelou

"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Mathew 5:48

"Certain flaws are necessary for the whole.  It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks."
Goethe

"Aggression only moves in one direction - it creates more aggression."
Margaret J. Wheatley

"He who helps the guilty, shares the crime."
Publilius Syrus

"Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits."
Hannah More

"When you forgive, you in noway change the past - but you sure do change the future."
Bernard Meltzer

“Living with integrity means: Not settling for less than what you know you deserve in your relationships. Asking for what you want and need from others. Speaking your truth, even though it might create conflict or tension. Behaving in ways that are in harmony with your personal values. Making choices based on what you believe, and not what others believe.”
Barbara De Angelis

"America does not want vulgarity and sexual exploitation to be our values and we do not want the world to think those are our standards. We want to be a better nation and a better people, with better standards."
Charles W. Pickering

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
Albert Einstein

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."
Aristotle

“It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without commonsense.”
Robert G. Ingersoll

"Crime is naught but misdirected energy. So long as every institution of today, economic, political, social, and moral, conspires to misdirect human energy into wrong channels; so long as most people are out of place doing the things they hate to do, living alife they loathe to live, crime will be inevitable, and all the laws on the statutes can only increase, but never do away with, crime."
Emma Goldman

"The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny."
James Allen

"Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown."
Soren Kierkegaard

"Beauty is about perception, not about make-up. I think the beginning of all beauty is knowing and liking oneself. You can't put on make-up, or dress yourself, or do you hair with any sort of fun or joy if you're doing it from a position of correction."
Kevyn Aucoin

“Transcend political correctness and strive for human righteousness.”
 Anthony J. D'Angelo

"Positive feelings come from being honest about yourself and accepting your personality, and physical characteristics, warts and all and, from belonging to a family that accepts you without question" 
Willard Scott

"Aggression is inherently destructive of relationships. People and ideologies are pitted against each other, believing that in order to survive, they must destroy the opposition."
Margaret J. Wheatley

"No two people see the external world in exactly the same way. To every separate person a thing is what he thinks it is -- in other words, not a thing, but a think."
Penelope Fitzgerald

"Your opinion is your opinion, your perception is your perception- do not confuse them with "facts"or "truth". Wars have been fought and millions have been killed because of the inability of men to understand the idea that everybody has a different viewpoint."
John Moore

"Everyone who wants to do good to the human race always ends in universal bullying."
Aldous Huxley

"Make somebody happy today.  Mind your own business."
Ann Landers

"Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. "
Albert Einstein

"Every goal, every action, every thought, every feeling one experiences, whether it be consciously or unconsciously known, is an attempt to increase one's level of peace of mind."
Sydney Madwed
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=== Posts from last year ===
4 her, so she knows how I see her




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Title: Music
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let me go where'er I will,
I hear a sky-born music still:
It sounds from all things old,
It sounds from all things young,
From all that's fair, from all that's foul,
Peals out a cheerful song.

It is not only in the rose,
It is not only in the bird,
Not only where the rainbow glows,
Nor in the song of woman heard,
But in the darkest, meanest things
There always, always something sings.

'T is not in the high stars alone,
Nor in the cup of budding flowers,
Nor in the redbreast's mellow tone,
Nor in the bow that smiles in showers,
But in the mud and scum of things
There always, always something sings.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem: Music

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Just got off the phone with a friend who lives in Scotland.
She said that since early this morning the snow has been nearly waist high and is still falling. 
The temperature is dropping far below zero and the north wind is increasing to near gale force.
Her husband has done nothing but look through the kitchen window and just stare.
She says that if it gets much worse, she may have to let the drunken bastard in.
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From Larry Pickering
BOMBERS’ HERO IS AUSTRALIAN ISLAMIC IMAM

Dead student bomber, Tameran Tsarnaev, 26, idolised Australian Imam, Shirk Feiz (pictured). Fiez featured on Tameran’s facebook page and he had a large collection of his videos.

Fiez also featured on pickeringpost.com last year as a dangerous Islamist who lectures in radical Islam in both UK and Australian mosques. 

As with other Imams and Mullahs who promote terrorism in mosques around the World, Australia has done nothing to stem his activities. He is free to continue to radicalise those of the Islamic faith.

Of the two apparently normal students only Tameran converted to Islam. After a six-month overseas “holiday”, he began praying five times a day, while preparing to kill Bostonians.

His younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, now in custody in a critical condition, had been affected by his radicalised older brother to the extent that he participated in his atrocity.

The Boston bombers were symptomatic of all other terrorists, they stay long enough to meld unnoticed into the community. They attract no attention until they are summoned to act. Then they need to pray that all the virgins aren’t gone, prior to acting.

Home-grown terrorism is the insidious aftermath of US, UK and NATO involvement in foreign countries.

Al Queda has found fertile ground in recent rebel movements in Libya, Egypt, Iraq and Afghanistan.

It has now taken root in Syria where the West has wisely refused to get involved and it’s spreading like Patterson’s Curse in Africa, financed by Afghanistan’s insidious heroin trade.

President Bush declared war on Islam. Is not Islam to be expected to declare war on us?

Afghanistan’s Taliban just wants to be left alone to administer their decadent Sharia law... Al Queda and its hundreds of cells wants revenge.

Pakistan, nurtured as a lone but untrustworthy link to the West, is aligned with Afghanistan’s Al Queda.

Proof-positive of that was the Egyptian Bin Laden’s safe sanctuary... officially arranged adjacent to a Pakistani Military Base in Abbottabad.

Unfortunately Australia is an active junior ally of US, NATO and UK involvement in these ill-conceived wars and to suggest we aren’t a yummy target is blind foolishness.

Why do we expect to be able to kill thousands in the homelands of these rogue states and not expect some sort of retaliation?

The ALP’s politically correct open border policy is a dangerous threat to Australia. Handing out thousands of E Bridging visas to Islamic ‘unknowns’ is about as negligent as any government could get.

Our ‘Welcome pack’ may as well include suicide vests and bomb construction instructions.

No other developed Western or Eastern country would even consider allowing illegal, unprocessed, Islamic immigrants loose in their country.

They are too busy trying to deport them. Many have banned further Islamic immigration, others have always banned it.

Ok, so we can’t deport them, we are too beholdin’ to a corrupt Islamic-dominated UN to do that and anyway 10% of our carbon tax has been promised to them. Now that wouldn’t make sense would it?

But surely Australia’s mosques should not be allowed the luxury of promoting and inflicting terrorism on their hosts. Surely the ‘freedom of religion’ ethic has gone too far?

Mosques with their evil mullahs and imams are nurseries for terrorist activities yet are no-go areas for authorities. Why?

Do we need to suffer the disgusting attitudes of Islamists in the US, UK and France, do we need to suffer the similar murder of Boston’s sports patrons before we act?

Guess we do.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-news-michelle-obama-visited-saudi-national-hospital-155429954.html

Follow Silence is Consent
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Go home sign, YOU are drunk
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Finish sewing my prototype Gumnut Design cushion with an invisible zip closure Kirsten Katz
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April 20Easter (Christianity, 2014); Ridván begins at sunset (Bahá'í Faith); 4/20 (cannabis culture)
Fernando Lugo
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Events[edit]

Births[edit]

Deaths[edit]

Holidays and observances[edit]

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“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” -1 Corinthians 15:20-22
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

"Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom."
Matthew 27:51
No mean miracle was wrought in the rending of so strong and thick a veil; but it was not intended merely as a display of power--many lessons were herein taught us. The old law of ordinances was put away, and like a worn-out vesture, rent and laid aside. When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished, because all fulfilled in him, and therefore the place of their presentation was marked with an evident token of decay. That rent also revealed all the hidden things of the old dispensation: the mercy-seat could now be seen, and the glory of God gleamed forth above it. By the death of our Lord Jesus we have a clear revelation of God, for he was "not as Moses, who put a veil over his face." Life and immortality are now brought to light, and things which have been hidden since the foundation of the world are manifest in him. The annual ceremony of atonement was thus abolished. The atoning blood which was once every year sprinkled within the veil, was now offered once for all by the great High Priest, and therefore the place of the symbolical rite was broken up. No blood of bullocks or of lambs is needed now, for Jesus has entered within the veil with his own blood. Hence access to God is now permitted, and is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus. There is no small space laid open through which we may peer at the mercy-seat, but the rent reaches from the top to the bottom. We may come with boldness to the throne of the heavenly grace. Shall we err if we say that the opening of the Holy of Holies in this marvellous manner by our Lord's expiring cry was the type of the opening of the gates of paradise to all the saints by virtue of the Passion? Our bleeding Lord hath the key of heaven; he openeth and no man shutteth; let us enter in with him into the heavenly places, and sit with him there till our common enemies shall be made his footstool.

Evening

"The Amen."
Revelation 3:14
The word Amen solemnly confirms that which went before; and Jesus is the great Confirmer; immutable, forever is "the Amen" in all his promises. Sinner, I would comfort thee with this reflection. Jesus Christ said, "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If you come to him, he will say "Amen" in your soul; his promise shall be true to you. He said in the days of his flesh, "The bruised reed I will not break." O thou poor, broken, bruised heart, if thou comest to him, he will say "Amen" to thee, and that shall be true in thy soul as in hundreds of cases in bygone years. Christian, is not this very comforting to thee also, that there is not a word which has gone out of the Saviour's lips which he has ever retracted? The words of Jesus shall stand when heaven and earth shall pass away. If thou gettest a hold of but half a promise, thou shalt find it true. Beware of him who is called "Clip-promise," who will destroy much of the comfort of God's word.
Jesus is Yea and Amen in all his offices. He was a Priest to pardon and cleanse once, he is Amen as Priest still. He was a King to rule and reign for his people, and to defend them with his mighty arm, he is an Amen King, the same still. He was a Prophet of old, to foretell good things to come, his lips are most sweet, and drop with honey still--he is an Amen Prophet. He is Amen as to the merit of his blood; he is Amen as to his righteousness. That sacred robe shall remain most fair and glorious when nature shall decay. He is Amen in every single title which he bears; your Husband, never seeking a divorce; your Friend, sticking closer than a brother; your Shepherd, with you in death's dark vale; your Help and your Deliverer; your Castle and your High Tower; the Horn of your strength, your confidence, your joy, your all in all, and your Yea and Amen in all.
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Adaiah 
[Ăd-aī'ah] - jehovah hath adorned or pleasing to jehovah.
1. A man of Boscath and father of Josiah's mother (2 Kings 22:1).
2. A Levite descended from Gershom (1 Chron. 6:41-43).
3. A son of Shimhi the Benjamite (1 Chron. 8:12-21).
4. A Levite of the family of Aaron, and head of a family living in Jerusalem (1 Chron. 9:10-12).
5. The father of Captain Masseiah who helped Jehoiada put Joash on the throne of Judah (2 Chron. 23:1).
6. A son of Bani who married a foreign wife during the exile (Ezra 10:29).
7. Another of a different Bani family who did the same thing (Ezra 10:34, 39).
8. A descendant of Judah by Perez (Neh. 11:5).
9. A Levite of the family of Aaron. Most likely the same person as No. 4 (Neh. 11:12).
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Today's reading: 2 Samuel 6-8, Luke 15:1-10 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: 2 Samuel 6-8

The Ark Brought to Jerusalem
David again brought together all the able young men of Israel--thirty thousand. 2 He and all his men went to Baalah in Judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim on the ark.3 They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart 4 with the ark of God on it, and Ahio was walking in front of it. 5 David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with castanets, harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals....

Today's New Testament reading: Luke 15:1-10

The Parable of the Lost Sheep
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent....
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Lent=Devotions-Header
Today's Old Testament Reading: Psalm 71:1-12

1 In you, LORD, I have taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
2 In your righteousness, rescue me and deliver me;
turn your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my rock of refuge,
to which I can always go;
give the command to save me,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the grasp of those who are evil and cruel.
5 For you have been my hope, Sovereign LORD,
my confidence since my youth.
6 From birth I have relied on you;
you brought me forth from my mother's womb.
I will ever praise you.
7 I have become a sign to many;
you are my strong refuge.
8 My mouth is filled with your praise,
declaring your splendor all day long.
Do not cast me away when I am old;
do not forsake me when my strength is gone.
10 For my enemies speak against me;
those who wait to kill me conspire together.
11 They say, "God has forsaken him;
pursue him and seize him,
for no one will rescue him."
12 Do not be far from me, my God;
come quickly, God, to help me.
New Testament Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are,29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.31 Therefore, as it is written: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."
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Today's Lent reading: John 15-16 (NIV)

View today's Lent reading on Bible Gateway
The Vine and the Branches
1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples....
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Knowing Him - An Easter Devotional

FOOT WASHING

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. ( John 13:1-5)
The final drama was drawing near. The disciples went to the upper room where they would have the Passover meal and Jesus would teach them about things to come. Jesus “knew that the time had come.” He knew that “the Father had put all things under his power” and that he was returning to God. Satan had already entered the heart of the betrayer, Judas Iscariot. With the stage thus set, Jesus chose to do a most peculiar thing. He removed his outer garment, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water in a basin, and began to wash his disciples’ feet.
Foot washing was not unusual in that world of dusty paths and dry air. What was unusual was for the master to do this for all his followers at this moment when everything held in the balance.
“Do you understand what I have done for you?” Jesus asked. I am Lord. I am Master. Yet if I serve you in this way, surely you can serve each other. And if you do, you will be blessed.
Love each other. Care for each other. Serve each other. Do the dirty work for each other. Humble yourself before each other. Expend yourself for each other.
One more time Jesus showed the disciples what it means to be a disciple. And he also knew that only on the other side of the cross, when they would see just how far Jesus’ service would go, would they understand it all.
Ponder This: What would your reaction have been if Jesus approached you in order to wash your feet?
WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Resources

About The Author - Mel Lawrenz serves as minister at large for Elmbrook Church and leads The Brook Network. Having been in pastoral ministry for thirty years, the last decade as senior pastor of Elmbrook, Mel seeks to help Christian leaders engage with each other. Mel is the author of eleven books, the most recent for church leaders, Whole Church: Leading from Fragmentation to Engagement.

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