My Mother Sent Me This – Appalling if True

This one comes from my mother and if it’s true, I find it to be appalling!  What’s this country coming to?

HOORAH!!
ACLU vs. US Marines

 

If you look closely at the picture above, you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That’s because they’re praying. This incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. “These are federal employees,” says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU, “on federal property and on federal time.. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately.”
When asked about the ACLU’s charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), “Screw the ACLU.” GOD Bless Our Warriors. Send the ACLU to Afganistan!
Please send this to people you know so everyone will know how stupid the ACLU is getting in trying to remove GOD from everything and every place in America

 

May God Bless America , One Nation Under GOD!
What’s wrong with the picture? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING
GOD BLESS YOU FOR
PASSING IT ON! Let us pray

 

And I will add my AMEN to that!

 

Love and blessings to you all, Terri

Free Write Friday; Freedom Write

 

#FWF Free Write Friday; Freedom Write by kellieelmore

In Honor Of July 4th; via A Friend and Fellow Blogger

Freedom certainly isn’t free –  God Bless Our Military Men and Women Serving Our Country Under Very Difficult Circumstances! And God Bless America!

I HOPE THERE ISN’T ANYONE ON  MY E-MAIL LIST THAT WON’T KEEP THIS GOING. Happy 4th of  July!…. Let’ s get this started now, So it will be out there on the fourth!   I  PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ,AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH  IT STANDS, ONE NATION UNDER  GOD,   INDIVISIBLE,  WITH   LIBERTY AND JUSTICE  FOR ALL!  KEEP IT LIT!!   KEEP IT  LIT!  For  all of our other military personnel, where ever they may  be.  Please Support all of the troops  defending our Country.  And God  Bless our Military who are protecting our Country for our  Freedom. Thanks to them, and their sacrifices, we can celebrate  the 4th of July.   We must never  forget who gets the credit for the freedoms we  have,   of which we  should be eternally grateful. I watched the  flag pass by one day. It fluttered in the  breeze. A young Marine  saluted it, And then he stood at ease.  I  looked at him in uniform; so young, so tall, so proud. With hair cut square and eyes alert, he’d stand out in any  crowd.    I thought how many  men like him had fallen through the years. How many  died on foreign soil; how many mothers’ tears?   How many pilots’  planes shot down? How many died at sea? How many  foxholes were soldiers’ graves? No, freedom isn’t free.    I heard the sound  of Taps one night, when everything was still. I  listened to the bugler play And felt a sudden chill. I  wondered just how many times That Taps had meant  ‘Amen.’   When a  flag had draped a coffin of a brother or a friend. I thought of  all the children, of the mothers and the wives, of  fathers, sons and husbands With interrupted  lives. I thought about a  graveyard At the bottom of the sea.  Of unmarked graves in   Arlington . No, freedom isn’t free.   Enjoy Your  Freedom and   God Bless Our Troops.When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our  servicemen. Of all the gifts you could give  a U.S. Soldier, prayer is the very best  one. MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA AND MAY AMERICA BLESS GOD!!

Thank you Len for sending this to me, and yes I will keep it going!!  God bless you, America and her troops!!!

Military Honors For Memorial Day Weekend (Plus a Warning Via My Mother)

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–And a word from the Indiana State Attorney General via my mother:

Support the troops, not scammers this Memorial Day

Scammers may try to use the significance of Memorial Day to ramp up efforts to prey on members of the military, veterans and their supporters.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said while the holiday is a time for Americans to remember the men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice, fraudsters can prey on that sentiment in hopes of ripping you off.

If you would like to donate to a charity benefiting veterans or their families make sure your money will be well spent. Don’t wait on a call, email or visit from a solicitor, instead research reputable charities and contact the organization directly.

For example, you can visit the Internal Revenue Service’s website that maintains a list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions. Next, find out how much the charity spends on administrative expenses, fundraising, programs and services. Several independent organizations have compiled financial information on charities, especially those that conduct nationwide solicitation campaigns. For a list of these organizations you can also visit the “Charities and Donors” section of the Attorney General’s website.

If you are contacted or visited by a solicitor the Attorney General’s Office recommends following these guidelines:                                                      

• Ask the person for written information on the charitable organization, including the charity’s name, address, telephone number, mission and details on how your donation will be used;

• Watch out for charities with similar sounding names.Some unscrupulous charities use names that are very similar to those of respected organizations to scam consumers;

• Be suspicious if the solicitor or an invoice in the mail thanks you for making a pledge that you didn’t make. If you have any doubt about whether you made a pledge, check your records;

• Under Indiana law, you have the right to cancel a pledge prior to making a contribution; and

• Always make contributions by check and payable to the charitable organization, not to the solicitor.

This service is provided to you at no charge by the State of Indiana.

STAY CONNECTED:

 

Rights Of Freedom

Mom Forwarded This E-Mail to Me; Fabulous! : Marine stuns crowd at tea party…….a must see!

Subject: Marine stuns crowd at tea party…….a must see!

You will love this.  Look at the reaction of the crowd and the guy holding the microphone.  Bet this man gets asked to sing the Anthem at some event in the near future…he was better than most “professional” singers Ive heard sing it. Politics be damned.  Listen to this ex-marine sing the 2nd stanza to the National Anthem, which is seldom played, sung or heard. Since the words to the National Anthem were written in 1814, I have a hard time understanding why today’s Washingtonians say that “In God We Trust” should be taken off our money, etc. Could it be that they are just plain ignorant of history and a whole lot more? Watch this crowd.  In the beginning when he started to sing, they were not even aware he was singing the national anthem. This is awesome!!!! I know you are going to pass this on. WATCH: Marine Stuns Crowd at Tea Party | The FOX Nation — Wrinkled was not one of the things I wanted to be when I grew up…….

A Good Candidate Is Hard to Find – NY Times Headline

A good candidate
is hard to find

By New York Times
was today headlined

Which has been found
by me as true

Who’s saying America,
God bless you?

Everyone that reads me
knows just I feel

How God from the Country
 some are trying to steal

And although there’s many
who do not agree

This blog right here
belongs only to me

So you will find
it’s my point of view 

Dictating what I say
and think or do

And though there are none
in the debates I see

That have all that much
made an impression on me

The votes that are counted
with the coming election day

Will choose the right one
is what I hope and pray!

Teresa Marie  1/22/12 © 

Poetry Picnic Week 23: New York Times Headline Topics

I Have A Question, What Do You Think?

(image source: google.com/images)

 

I wondered what you would think of this situation and what my first reaction was, right or wrong?

A local young man in his mid-twenties was reported to be a “very nice guy” by all of his neighbors.  You know, the kind who would give you the shirt off of his back.  And that’s what got him killed.

(We will call him Jim, real name withheld in respect for his loved ones.)

Jim met a young lady who was “reportedly” going through rehab and had no place to stay.  In his generosity, he allowed her to come and live at his house.

After a short period of time, this woman brought two other “friends” needing help into Jim’s house.

Once these two men got their hooks into this woman, Jim told her they had to get out.  They refused to leave his house.  A couple of altercations broke out and the police were called repeatedly.

They told the men to leave, which they did for about a minute and then came right back.

Subsequently, these three people took this poor young man, divorced father of two small boys and beat him severely with ball bats, and hand tools.  Then they took him out in the country (not far from where I live at all) and continued to beat him to death, at some point using a pick axe on him!!  Then they tried to bury him in a ditch but didn’t do a very good job of it because he was discovered a few days later.

These three people were found within a week and arrested for his murder.  A short time later, it was discovered that the suspected leader of the assault had just been released from prison a year earlier than he should have been due to a “technical” error on the part of the prison.

Of course, the family is suing the prison for wrongful death resulting from their error.  Which I think is the right thing to do.  I do not advocate lawsuits in the general but I do when it is something of this magnitude and there’s no question of who is at fault.

Now, here is where my question comes in.  The noon news report was on while I was typing my last poem and I heard something that made me jump up and go see what they were talking about.

This “ringleader” died last night in prison.  It was reported that he was found in his cell and taken to the hospital with a collapsed lung and pronounced dead on arrival.  My first reaction was “yeah, you got what you deserved didn’t you?!”  Then I started to feel guilty that I had said that.

Mark called me not long after that and I told him about the news and he said that he had seen that report before he left for work this morning.  Then he said, “yeah, he got what he deserved!  Somebody in prison collapsed his lung for him, you can bet on it!!”

That got me to thinking, is that the Christian way for us to think?  I know it’s only human to do so but should we be above that?  Or, was that God exacting his judgement on this man for this heinous act that they committed.  In all honesty, I didn’t go into depth with the details because it was just to gruesome to me to have to repeat them.

What do you think?  Would you have reacted the same way?  I have family members who knew this young man in H.S. and said that he was genuinely a very nice kid even back them and how nice his whole family was.  He was trying to do the Christian thing in helping this woman out and it got him viciously, brutally, beaten to death.  They were without mercy but I know that I’m not supposed to act in kind.  There is the human dilemma, huh?

Confused,
Terri

 

 

Passing On A Message From My Mother – Winds Of Change

Winds of Change….

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed

around.

_*Congressional Reform Act of 2011*_

1. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no

pay when they’re out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social

Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the

Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into

the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the

American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all

Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.

Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and

participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the

American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void

effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this

contract with Congressmen/women.

Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in

Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers

envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their

term(s), then go home and back to work.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

This Week’s Sermon From The Ranch – A Spirit of Generosity

(This Day’s Thought is pleased to bring you an excerpt from Eric Elder’s upcoming Christmas book, “Saint Nicholas: The Believer”)

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A Spirit Of Generosity

Featuring a chapter from an upcoming Christmas book called, “Saint Nicholas: The Believer”

By Eric Elder
The Ranch

 

Some people believe in Santa Claus; some people don’t. But I don’t think the original Saint Nicholas–the one who was the inspiration for our modern-day Santa Claus–would care so much if you believed in him so long as you believed in the one in whom he believed: Jesus Christ.

For you see Saint Nicholas, the one who lived back in the 3rd century A.D, was a believer. The word “saint” means “believer,” so Saint Nicholas was “The Believer Nicholas.”

The word “saint” has been translated into many languages over the years, and “santa” is simply the Latin variation, hence the names of some of our cities here in the U.S., like Santa Anna, Santa Barbara and Santa Clara, each one of which were named after various believers, or saints: the believer Anna, the believer Barbara, the believer Clara, and so on.

When the Dutch came to America, they brought with them their variation of Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, from which we got the name Santa Claus.

I say all of this to introduce you to a special Christmas story that my wife and I are writing about the life of the real-life Saint Nicholas, the one who lived back in the 3rd century.

He was not only a man of great faith, but also a man of great generosity. So as Christmas approaches, the season we celebrate the greatest Gift of all, I thought I’d share with you a chapter from our story-in-progress to prepare you for this great time of giving and receiving.

The story picks up as Nicholas arrives by boat on the shores of the Holy Land to see with his own eyes the places where Jesus lived and died and performed so many miracles. Without further ado, here is chapter 7 of our upcoming book, “Saint Nicholas: The Believer”…

Nicholas’s arrival on the far shores of the Great Sea came sooner than he could have imagined. For so long he had wondered what it would be like to walk where Jesus walked, and now he was finally there.

Finding a boat to get there had been no problem, for his hometown was one of the main stopovers for ships traveling from Egypt to Rome. They carried people and cargo alike. Booking passage was as simple as showing that you had the money to pay, which Nicholas did.

But now that he had arrived, where would he go first? He wanted to see everything at once, but that was impossible. A tug at his sleeve provided the answer.

“You a Christian?” the small voice asked.

Nicholas looked down to see a boy not more than ten looking up at him. Two other children giggled nearby. To ask this question so directly, when it was dangerous in general to do so, showed that the boy was either a sincere follower of Christ, looking for a fellow believer, or it showed that he had ulterior motives in mind. From the giggles of his little friends nearby, a boy and a girl just a bit younger than the one who had spoken, Nicholas knew it was probably the latter.

“You a Christian?” the boy asked again. “I show you holy places?”

Ah, that’s it, thought Nicholas. Enough pilgrims had obviously come here over the years that even the youngest inhabitants knew the pilgrims would need a guide when they arrived. Looking over the three children again, Nicholas felt they would suit him just fine. Nicholas had a trusting heart, and while he wasn’t naive enough to think that trouble wouldn’t find him here, he also trusted that the God who had led him here would also provide the help he needed once he arrived. Even if these children were doing it just for the money, that was all right with Nicholas. Money he had. A map he didn’t. He would gladly hire them as his living maps to the holy places.

“Yes, and yes,” Nicholas answered. “I am indeed a Christian, and if you would like to take me, I would be very interested to see the holy places. I would love for your friends to come along with us, too. That way, if we meet any trouble, they can defend us all!”

The boy’s mouth dropped open and his friends giggled again. It wasn’t the answer he had expected at all, at least not so fast and not without a great deal of pestering on his part. Pilgrims who arrived were usually much more skeptical when they stepped off their boats, shooing away anyone who approached them– at least until they got their land legs back and their bearings straight. But the boy quickly recovered from his shock and immediately extended his right hand in front of him, palm upraised, with a slight bow of his head. It gave Nicholas the subtle impression as if to say that the boy was at Nicholas’s service–and a not so subtle impression that the boy was ready for something to be deposited in the open hand. Nicholas, seeing an opportunity to throw the boy off guard yet again, happily obliged.

He placed three of his smallest, but shiniest coins into the boy’s upraised palm and said, “My name is Nicholas. And I can see you’re a wise man. And if you’re able to keep your palm open even after I set these coins in it, you’ll be even wiser still. For he who clenches his fist tightly around what he receives will find it hard to receive more. But he who opens his hand freely to heaven–freely giving as he has freely received–will find that his Father in heaven will never hold back on giving him more.”

Nicholas motioned with his hand that he intended for the boy to share what he had received with his friends, who had come closer at the appearance of the coins. The boy obviously was the spokesman for the three, but still he faltered for a moment as to what to do. This man was so different from anyone else the boy had ever approached. With others, the boy was always trying, usually without success, to coax even one such coin from their pockets, but here he had been given three in his very first attempt! The fact that the coins weren’t given grudgingly, but happily, did indeed throw him off balance. He had never heard such a thought as the one about keeping his hands open like that. His instinct would have been to instantly clench his fist tight around the coins, not letting go until he got to the safest place he could find, and only then could he carefully inspect them and let their glimmers shine in his eyes. Yet he stood stock still, with his hand still outstretched and his palm facing upward. Almost against his own self-will, he found himself turning slightly and extending his hand to his friends.

Seizing the moment, the two others each quickly plucked a coin from his hand. Within an instant of realizing that they, too, were about to clench their firsts around the newly acquired treasure, they slowly opened their fingers as well, looking up at the newly arrived pilgrim with a sense of bewilderment. They were bewildered not just that he had given them the coins, but that they were still standing there with their palms open, surprising even themselves that they were willing to follow this man’s peculiar advice.

The sight of it all made Nicholas burst out in a gracious laugh. He was delighted by their response and he quickly deposited two more of his smallest coins into each of their hands, now tripling their astonishment. It wasn’t the amount of the gifts that had astonished them, for they had seen bigger tips from wealthier pilgrims, but it was the generous and cheerful spirit that accompanied the gifts that gave them such a surprise.

The whole incident took place in less than a minute, but it set Nicholas and his new friends into such a state that each of them looked forward to the journey ahead.

“Now, you’d better close your hands again, because a wise man–or woman–” he nodded to the little girl, “also takes care of what they have been given so that it doesn’t get lost or stolen.”

Then, turning to walk toward the city, Nicholas said, “How about you let me get some rest tonight, and then, first thing in the morning, you can start showing me those holy places?”

In the magical moments that had just taken place, it seemed to the three children, and even to Nicholas himself, as if they had already found their first “holy place.”

(To be continued…next week!)

My friends, as Christmas approaches, I want to pray with you that your hands would be open to both give and receive all that God has for you in the days ahead. There is so much blessing that God wants to pour out on you. Yet if your heart and your hands are closed off to Him, or closed so tight around what you’ve already been given, it will be hard to receive any more.

I also want to encourage you to let the “spirit of generosity” flow through you into the lives of others this Christmas season. God has been speaking for generations about being “openhanded,” saying to the Israelites way back in Deuteronomy:

“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land” (Deuteronomy 15:11).

Jesus continued with this theme of openhandedness, sending His disciples out on their mission of preaching and teaching and healing with the words:

“Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8b).

As you go into the world this Christmas, remember that so many people are like “dead men walking.” They’re breathing, but not really living. They need the breathe of God to resurrect their dying lives so they can live the abundant life that God wants them to live.

If you’ve received God’s gift of abundant and eternal life, please consider sharing that gift with others this holiday season. People don’t need Jesus just because they might die tomorrow. They need Jesus because they might live tomorrow!

Next week, I’ll share another chapter with you from our new story about Saint Nicholas. In the mean time, keep your hands–and your hearts–open to all that God has in store for you!

Will you pray with me?

Father, thank You for giving us Your life so freely, and with it, so many other gifts as well. Help us to remember to use those gifts to bless others, breathing Your life into theirs. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

P.S. I’m starting a new prayer team this month for our ministry for anyone interested in praying for our ministry here at The Ranch in the days ahead. I’ve posted this month’s prayer letter on our website and would love for you to read it and pray with us. If you’d like to join our prayer team and receive these updates every month or so in the future, just send me an email at eric@theranch.org and I’d be glad to add you to the list. Your prayers really do make a difference, and know that we deeply appreciate it.
Read Our December Prayer Letter

P.P.S. For those who would like to make a special year-end donation to our ministry, I’d love to send you a new CD we’ve just finished producing called, “Tenderly.” It features the soft and soothing sounds of the grand piano, played “tenderly” by Marilyn Byrnes. The music is sure to lift your spirits, not just at Christmastime, but throughout the year. Songs include: The Prayer, Greensleeves, What’s New, Tenderly, Over the Rainbow, The Wind Beneath My Wings, Get Here, I Can Read Your Mind (the Love Theme from Superman), I’ll Only Love You, Canon de Noel, The Way We Were, Somewhere (from West Side Story), and Faithful. Again, I’d be glad to send you a copy of the music, either on CD or as downloadable MP3’s, for a donation of any size to our ministry.
Make a Donation and Get a CD

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Invite your friends! We’d love to have them study along with us—and you! Just forward this email and encourage them to sign up for themselves at the link below.

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