For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity."
Lord, may I seek the wisdom and knowledge spoken of in these verses. Grant me the understanding and grace to be upright and to walk in integrity, so that you will be my shield.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
—Psalm 119:10
I find it so easy to fall into the muck of the world's passion for sin. Why am I drawn so desperately to what I know is wrong and repulsive to God? At times I think if I work harder at church-related things, I will have better fellowship with God. Sometimes I force myself to read the Bible (rather than simply enjoying and respecting it because it is God's Word). I do many things that I think will put me in a position of favor with God.
But I know that we can never earn favor with a holy God.
I think this verse in Psalm 119 gives a clue to what needs to be done to maintain a strong fellowship with God Almighty. The psalmist here appeals to God to let me not wander from your commandments. This is the part that so often I miss. Yes, I need to seek God with all my heart, but I must entreat him to grant obedience to me—a desperately sinful man.
For years we have heard the media claims that "anti-choice" advocates are dangerous, hostile, and violent toward women and clinic workers. In 25 years of pro-life advocacy, I have never seen any pro-lifers act violently and have never heard any pro-lifers advocate violence against anyone.
Image from Planned Parenthood cartoon
Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, has shown it's true colors with a new outrageous cartoon that depicts pro-lifers as "uninformed" crackpots and advocates killing (drowning, blowing up) peaceful demonstrators and those who would oppose Planned Parenthood's ideology.
The video, promoting the new Planned Parenthood catchphrase, "Safe is Sexy," was linked on the Planned Parenthood Golden Gate website on Tuesday morning, August 9, at approximately 9:00am. It was removed shortly thereafter, probably because it had attracted the attention of those who disagree with Planned Parenthood's agenda. Believe me, this is not a video Planned Parenthood wants the general public to see.
This is what REAL pro-life protestors look like. Do you see any violence? These defenders of the Innocents were protesting the Planned Parenthood Clinic in Pittsburgh when I visited that city this past Saturday. These are the people that the cartoon superhero wants to eliminate (kill).
Real Pro-lifers!
We just returned from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where my wife attended a conference run by the North American Council on Adoptable Children. The conference was great and the hotel was wonderful. But the thing that really impressed us was the city of Pittsburgh.
I've heard many people say that Pittsburgh is dirty and grimy. I think the people who said this may well have never visited Pittsburgh and are assuming that it would be dirty because it it's the "Steel Town."
But we found Pittsburgh to be a charming city with a wonderful mixture of new and extremely old architecture, helpful people, and outstanding restaurants. The streets are clean and seemingly very safe. I walked the streets during the morning rush hour and noticed that the people don't acknowledge one another as they pass on the street, which would indicate that they're not friendly. But anytime I had reason to speak to someone in the city, I found them extremely friendly, helpful, and considerate. I never once felt unsafe, even when we walked through the streets after dark.
Another thing I loved was the preponderance of bicyclers in the streets of Pittsburgh. There are steel bike racks in front of most of the buildings, allowing people who work there to lock up their bikes after commuting to work on the gasoline-free, health-improving bicycle. The cars and bicycles share the street without any apparent animosity from either group. In fact, I never once heard a car horn honk at a bicyclist even though there were bikes passing me every few seconds. We saw groups of at least 15 to 20 cyclists quite a few times.
I'm really hoping that we can return to Pittsburgh to visit again shortly. I'd love to have the time to just enjoy the city without having to worry about being at the various conference sessions at a certain time. Kudos to you, Pittsburgh! You're a great place to visit. And I bet you're a great place to live as well.
As reported in an August 9, 2005, heading on the Drudge Report, the Pool of Siloam mentioned by the apostle John has been unearthed by archeologists.
I recall hearing of these sorts of archeological verifications of scripture when I was a child. My father subscribed to Biblical Archeology Magazine and quite often pointed out that biblical places that had been derided as false by anti-bible scholars were discovered every generation or so, giving a new generation great proof of the validity and historicity of scripture. The new generation has now been given another one of these proofs.
Isn't it great to be on the side of fact and truth rather than on the side of fantasy and dishonesty?
