Barbara Walters: "We thought Obama was the next Messiah"

If you missed the headline, Barbara Walters was quoted as saying that "We thought Obama was the next Messiah".  She clarified it in advance as a manner of speaking, but she was more honest and more true than she realized.

Honestly, Barbara was bearing her soul and that of many in her social strata.  The 2nd great depression was some scary shit.  Especially for people who have something. Poor folks not only got to sit back and grin a bit, we got food stamps rather quickly to keep money going into grocery stores, and to keep the demand for consumables high (gotta feed the beast).

It is not surprising that we would let Obama clean this mess. If you watch enough pro sports, you realize that it is not uncommon for the black guy to get the job when the franchise is at its lowest level.  He is also likely to get quick heat when the change is not fast enough, or when the job looks more desirable to people who did not want it before.  No matter how noble the gesture, the person who hired him is always holding the scissors to make sure they cut you off before they lose a job or credibility (is that you Barbara?).  This example is not given to assign blame or fault,  it is just a reality of our world right now. There is no blaming once we lock arms in a commitment to be better.  

Barack is no messiah.  However, he may be divinely favored for the task at hand.  Those of us who believe in divine favor understand that its power is manifested best in the storm. The beauty of the black American spirit is that we are not afraid of the impossible anymore.  In fact, we may even desire it in some sadistic way.

Still, I can't help but wonder what Barbara  was thinking with the Messiah reference.  You mean the man who was crucified on the cross for teaching  love for the needy.  The one that they called King  in order to get Herrod to kill him for treason?  Don't confuse how we love Jesus today for how he was treated when he lived.

Christian's should watch the Passion's of the Christ once a year to remember the way that we treated the Jesus we love so much.

Conservatives  might want to consider how much attacking King Obama will add to his legacy in the future.......SquareBiz.

For Believers Only: The Story of Mandela Reminds Me of Christmas

God is a good God and no matter how much you love Jesus, the Son always points The Way to the Father.

In fact, if we could have figured the way, he would not have come to show us.  His life was an example, his death was an acquittal and his resurrection was a relocation.  Christ declared to the pharisees that he did not come to destroy the law.  What they didn't quite realize is that he did come to give the church a new address.

The story of Nelson Mandela is a poignant one because it speaks to the enduring spirit of forgiveness and the power that it gives us over our enemy.  In fact, what we mostly discover from forgiveness is that you are your only enemy, and you capture or set yourself free by virtue of forgiveness.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.  Mandela knew this message because of the powerful relocation project of Christ called Emmanuel.

Emmanuel means God with us.  God with us is not just the promise of the comfort of his presence.  It is the dedication of God's new church address. You know,  the same one that Mandela attended while in prison.  God absolutely needed the church to save his people, so he place it in the heart of the believer so that no matter where you find yourself, there he is.

Next time you head off for Sunday fellowship, remember that God's church, Emmanuel, is inside of you.

Behave accordingly.

For Believer's Only: Was Man A Mistake of God?

While I believe God should be a part of everything we do, I don't always give the heavenly response to earthly problems that we discuss.

Hell, I don't even resist the temptation of  curse words from time to time, but I love God deeply.  Moreover, I thank him as often as I remember for his gift of Grace that we call Jesus Christ.  In fact, in light of this post being shared days away from Christmas, I encourage anyone who hasn't unwrapped the gift of Grace to take a moment, read John 3:16, forgive yourself for .....whatever, and join us back here when you are done......we'll wait for you.

You back?  (Thank the Lord for Jesus)

The headline is the question. Did God know that man would mess things up this bad or are we an experiment gone awry?  More specifically, lets explore the beginning of the Christian bible.  The story of Adam and Eve talks of the second sin or sin entering into the earth.  Eve could have finished that whole fruit and sin would not have had free reign.  Only when Adam disobeyed was sin set free.  Yet, this story begs a couple of obvious questions.

Why was the tree in the garden in the first place?  I hear the voices say, free will.  Well, yeah!  But why was the tree placed there if God did not expect that we would fail.

This goes even further.  Why was the serpent who tempted Eve given free reign near holy ground?  Was God oblivious to the whispering of this evil spirit?  This goes further still.  When did this spirit of evil arrive on earth?  Before Adam was created or after?  Either way, God sent the tempter or sent us to the tempter (I believe in the latter).

At this point you have to either see the glory of the Lord at work or you will reconsider Atheism.  Some people that I have posed these questions to choose to assume that God messed up and did not expect us to fail as we did. When you are mad at God, this is an easy view to take.  I've come to believe otherwise.

God did not make a mistake on us and he knew very well that we would fail and sin would be given free reign on earth through the hearts and behaviors of man.  In fact, that was the only way sin ever could have entered  the earth. Through the prophecy of Isaiah we learn that Lucifer, who was one of God's beloved angels, was cast to the "darkness that was upon the face of the deep" and then God brings the light and the rest of the creation story.


At this point, this debate usually begins to remind me of a line from Lauren Hill and the Fugee's.  You might win some, but you just lost one; so I will close on this thought.  We are considered the bride of Christ because our relationship represents the completion of God's army against sin.   We carry a dual role in the sin game because we are the one's who set it loose, the one's who give it life, and the one's sent to destroy it. We should always remember that Lucifer committed and thus created the first sin in heaven, which is why he
is the father of sin.  However, we should also remember that Christ came to join YOU, to complete God's army and finish the war against sin.

When you think about humanity and you start to lose hope, keep in mind that sin is not our mess, it is simply our mission.

Only One Answer To Duck Dynasty Debate: Switch Networks

The forces of profit have no integrity.  They move to sustain themselves.   Period.

Unfortunately, a world without integrity is only surviving, not working.
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Here is the biggest problem I have with this whole Duck Dynasty stuff.  Nobody is wrong, which means no one can be right.  

Phil Robertson was reading from the same bible that we all read from....until he wasn't.  Yet, even in his out of bounds, red necked rant, he didn't say anything wrong.  The spirit of those black folks in the fields would make any non-black person think, "these people can find joy in jail".  Yes we can (we love you Nelson Mandela)!  

He said what every heterosexual male who loves women has said, either in their mind or out loud.  He said what every insensitive, self righteous Christian  has said about homosexuality.  If you are old enough you remember Archie Bunker and some of the stuff he said.  We usually shook our heads in agreeable disdain.  I have plenty of well intention'd family who struggle with mastery over the English language and mastery over anger at the same time sometimes.

I can't argue with the people who say that A&E had the right to suspend the show's star.  I really can't argue with those who say, what did you think you were employing, scripted actors?  This is a reality show, and they are paid to show their reality. 

Then I ran across this post below about Cracker Barrel who took down these Duck Dynasty figures and then hurried to put them back on the shelf when they took some criticism (lost profit) for the decision.  

Is there anybody who thinks that Phil won't be back sooner or later.  The suspension is probably a ratings boom for the network.  The question of the day is whether or not Duck Dynasty will remain a reality show, or will it be a muted reality show in the future.

If I was the Robertson family, I would not work with a muzzle.  It's time to switch networks or shut it down.For integrity sake.

Kelly Rittenbach originally shared to The Conservative Union (Open Discussion):

Cracker Barrel putting Duck Dynasty back on the shelves.

Cracker Barrel: Oops! We're Putting Duck Dynasty Products Back On Our Shelves!

http://www.forbes.com/site 

What Is A Conservative Socialist Liberal Republican?....I hate labels

Socialism is both necessary and dangerous. If I were Monarch Obama, I would add to ObamaCare free, or highly subsidized education in exchange for the GRADUAL dismantling of the inefficient systems of reactionary socialism that we call welfare. Frankly, healthy and educated people are typically strong contributors to a society, and the mere existence of our current system of welfare is shameful and a blight on America- one we should work to make it go away.

I used to believe that to be educated and healthy made us self sufficient.  The truth is, no one is self sufficient.  Even the ones who think they are tend to take their welfare from the government in April and not each month like medicaid/food stamp/welfare recipients. I have come to realize that being a strong contributor does not make any of us "self sufficient" because on some level or another, we will always need the positive collective programs socialism provides(i.e. roads,military, schools, emergency response, a government option in healthcare and in banking to competitively regulate both industries better). We wouldn't be the United States of America if unity was not a necessary part of the equation, however, sitting on the shadowy side of unity is the demonic reality of what we are all up against.


Do you know why it is so hard to stay married? Because marriage and family are so vital to the future of humanity. If you aren't spiritual and do not believe that evil forces are at work to divide marriages, and thus families, then I will not be able to convince you that evil has a vested interest in dividing America, the worlds beacon of hope. A divided and polarized (code word for labeled) America threatens the entire worlds existence. Our labels are only helping evil out.

The two party divide is so intense in America that we have a version of it growing within one party. As a Christian, I get it. True conservative doctrine, as defined by President Limbaugh, does not allow for compromise with liberal air space, much less liberal ideology. If you even smell of liberal air(sorry Chris Christie.....their rules, not mine) you shall be battered and bludgeoned in favor of a properly labeled conservative........who probably can't win a general election.

To all who follow HIS spirit be warned. Religion has become a conservative crutch for intolerance. The word denomination is code for disagreements that spawned another church. Sarah Palin calling the Pope "somewhat liberal" is all the proof you need that conservatives have claimed religion so much as their own, they can't relate to the liberality of Grace. Why do we need so many Christian labels? Did Christ really come to have several thousand interpretations of the simple Gospel of Grace? (another blog...another day)

Labels are the tool of division and serve only to allow us all to retreat to our corner of righteous indignation. Humans are just as flawed as the political and religious ideologies we dream up. The notion that any one of them is purely right and righteous enough for us to impose on each other is arrogant and dangerous.

While Obama's liberalism did not stop him from using a conservative plan to create ObamaCare, conservative disdain for government does not stop them from taking government tax credits or using loopholes in the code every year around April, although some are claiming that they won't take a healthcare subsidy. If I claim to be a socialist but wish God wasn't kicked out of our schools so that we could have an LGBT club instead, is there a label for me? Are there no LGBT Christians? I hate labels......All of them!

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There Are Scorers and There Are Winners: Which one is Wilson Chandler?

We have seen Wilson Chandler do some really impressive things on the court.  It seems that his exile to China added a little euro-flair to his game to go along with a solid jump shot and some steady defense.

He comes out in most games and shows some solid signs of an NBA All star caliber player.  Her could put up 20 and 10 every night if he wants to, but until recently he didn't even realize that he needs to shoot with a green light.  If my brother Troy was given that same green light he would shoot 20 shots a half.  No, really.

Chandler is struggling to put up 15 shots a game.  Worse than that, he rarely shoots and scores in the waning moments of the game.  As a lifelong coach I have to remind all of my players that it matters little who starts each game.  The most important players on the floor are evidenced by their presence on the floor when the game is on the line.  Wilson Chandler is on the floor, but you would hardly know it.

What he does at the start of the game is soften you up with a deep 3.  Later, he will ball fake you and drive past you.  When you figure that out, he takes one dribble and pulls up inside of the 3-point line.  If they spread the court and leave  you by yourself he will drive at you, euro-step and lay a floater in the hole before you can get off of your feet.

When the game is on the line he will shoot 3's.  That's it. He will pass too, but since the team is looking for points and he has been instructed to shoot, he does.  If he adds the Michael Jordan, drive to the free throw line, pull up jump shot, he will dominate this league.  That spread legged, long range, wish it would fall, 3 point shot late in games could get him on the trade block soon.

Wilson Chandler is a high level scorer in the NBA.  Whether or not he is a winner is under jury deliberation.

Nuggets Coach Brian Shaw Say's: My Fault Fellas. (I thought you were better than that)

Can Chandler score late?

Somewhere into the middle of a 21 point lead I put that Suns game in the bag.  The Nuggets players bagged the game too, and paid for it.

Tonight's  game against the Clippers, the Nuggets get to take the value of a lot of lesson's and put them together.  The first lesson came when they returned from a long, but succesful road trip to get blasted at home by the Jazz.  The second was playing blow for blow with a big time contender in OKC, and shrinking in the end.  Jordan Hamilton had a deeper lesson about going blow for blow as he took a couple of stiff hip checks from Adams of OKC and retaliated with a swing that cost him a game.  He didn't even get his money worth with the love tap he laid on Adams.  Lesson: Get your revenge in the flow of the game, or shut up.

Last night's lesson was, 'don't look ahead'.  Coach told them to put this team to bed and save some energy for the Clippers and they came out to do just as he asked.  He told them that everyone would play and he did just that.  The problem with that formula is that it only works when it works.  If you don't win the game when you coast, you have to judge how liberal you should have been with the lineup. Yet, a good coach has to rebound from this type of loss. So what message does he give to his team in response?

My fault fellas.  I thought you guys were good enough to call off the dogs.

Brilliant coach.  Brilliant.

Watch out Clippers.