This is part of a great article by Greg Herrick from Bible.org.

“Sometimes, no matter how many clues we’re given to the contrary, we still persist in believing an error. In our culture today, no matter how many clues God gives us, we persist in believing He doesn’t exist. We’re absolutely convinced that we’re reading the “facts” correctly. But we’re not. And the problem is not that there’s a shortage of clues; the supply always exceeds the demand in God’s world.”

“The fact is, we live in an age characterized by information explosion, doubling, even tripling our clues in the blink of an eye. The half-life of any college degree now makes the paper it’s written on almost useless. But, people appear to be more confused than ever about life’s important questions. “What is happiness?” “What is meaning?” “Why am I so given to materialism?” And, most important of all, “Does God exist?” It’s like we’re building an automated world of which we will have no part since we, by our very nature, are not machines! And it seems that God has no part in this world either.”

Go read the whole thing now.

By Kenneth L. Pierpont

A summer day stands out in my memory. We were swimming at the community pool in Baltimore, Ohio where my sister Melony, brother-in-law Jim and their family lived at the time. Kyle was five that summer. His cousin Jeremiah was six. Jeremiah is nine months older than Kyle. Jeremiah was born in February. Kyle was born in October.

Remembering how many years it took me to work up the courage to jump off the high dive and how much fun it was once I did it, I decided that I would try to get Kyle to jump off at five. Not to bright, but the excuse I used at the time was my youth.

Kyle couldn’t swim yet but I promised that I would haul him out when he bobbed to the surface. He had a lot of questions but I answered them and assured him that I would be there to help him over to the side. With a little coaxing he climbed to the top of the dive and walked out to the edge of the board. That is where he froze. He could not move to jump or go back. He just stood and shivered skinny and white there with his toes curled over the end of the board. Eventually everyone in the pool stopped to see what would happen.

Lois was at the other end of the pool wading with the other children. I knew if she realized what I was doing that I was in trouble. Out of the corner of my eye I saw her coming and dreaded what she would say. The words that came out of her mouth surprised me.

“Come on, little buddy. You can do it!”

Nothing.

“Go ahead jump. Come on Kyle, you can do it!”

Still nothing.

“If you jump I’ll buy you a skateboard.”

Nothing we said could make him go. Finally I went up the ladder and helped him down.

As soon as I got down with Kyle, Jeremiah said, “I’ll go,” and without hesitation he climbed to the top of the dive strode out to the end of the board and fell face-first into the water below. He didn’t jump tentatively feet-first and he didn’t dive head-first. He just fell forward and when his body was horizontal to the water it hit with a sharp slap. Everyone sucked in their breath. We all watched to see if he would come to the surface. He did, churning the water. His nose was bleeding and he was shouting, “I did it! I did it!”

Jim grabbed his arm and helped him dog paddle over to the edge. He climbed the ladder out of the pool, wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand and said, “I’m going again,” as he ran back for the diving board. Over and over again he jumped into the water even though he didn’t know how to swim. He didn’t even stop to see if his dad was ready. That is just the way God wired Jeremiah.

That was about sixteen summers ago. Jeremiah has been on my heart a lot lately and I have prayed for him a number of times every day for the last few weeks because he has grown into a strapping man. He no longer plays with trucks and or rides trikes he was grown up and at this writing he is an Abrams tank commander in the First Marine fighting in Iraq. We follow the news with great interest and concern these days. I always pray that his name does not show up on a list of killed or wounded or captured. I wonder what horrors he has seen and what he has had to do. I wonder what effect the experience is having on him. I pray that he will be safe and that he will walk close to the Lord. I like to imagine us all together again and Jeremiah with stories to tell of things we can only imagine.

Kyle and I have followed the war closely thinking of Jeremiah and discussing where he might be and what he might be doing. We agree that Jeremiah is probably one of the reasons most of Saddam’s best surrendered without a fight. If you grew up with Jeremiah you would know why.

Should we really have left the inspectors to do their business and let Saddam “disarm” himself? Every story like this one that surfaces is one more reason the Iraqi people needed our help.

More than 100 children held in a prison celebrated their freedom as US marines rolled into northeast Baghdad amid chaotic scenes which saw civilians loot weapons from an army compound, a US officer said.

Around 150 children spilled out of the jail after the gates were opened as a US military Humvee vehicle approached, Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla told an AFP correspondent travelling with the Marines 5th Regiment.

“Hundreds of kids were swarming us and kissing us,” Padilla said.

“There were parents running up, so happy to have their kids back.”

Read the whole story.

By: Maynard H. Belt — Reprinted with permission

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be!

Here’s my heart–O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

Have you ever wondered if you were backsliding? Now, isn’t that a rather strange question to ask of those who are on the front lines of service for the Lord? Maybe not. Even as you walk through the corridors of faith found in Hebrews chapter eleven, if you carefully track the lives of those found there, many also had in their lives of service for the Lord a “wandering” experience. Even Peter, one of the Lord’s “up-front” disciples lied under pressure, a sure sign of backsliding. Why? Because at that particular time the Scriptures tell us that “he followed afar off.” Peter, as the songwriter wrote, was “prone to wander.” Of all the prophets in the Old Testament we read where Isaiah, Joel and Micah prophesied; Daniel wept; Ezekiel preached; Daniel prayed; Hosea endured pain; Amos, Obadiah, Nahum, Habbakkuk, Zephaniah and Malachi warned against sin; Haggai and Zechariah encouraged; but Jonah ran from God while confessing to be fearful of Him (Jonah 1:11)! Ever so often, there is one among the many faithful who backslides, who wanders away, who slips from fellowship, who may even try to serve while scurrying away. As with the disciples in the Upper Room, we too must respond to the words of the Lord that one would betray Him, with the soul-searching question, “Lord, is it I?”

—Read the Rest of the Entry…

Here’s a bit from a piece Neil Cavuto shared on the air today at the end of his show on Fox News.

Some people love to complain and do. But it’s the ones who could really complain and don’t that speak volumes, sometimes, by not speaking at all.

Now you must go read the rest for yourself.

What do April snow showers bring? A few weeks ago we were basking in the 50 and 60 degree temperatures of early spring. Today it’s back to winter for us here in northern Michigan with ice, sleet and snow. I love Michigan.

[click the image for a larger version]

Conservative journalist and Washington Post writer Michael Kelly is one of the latest casualties of the war. He and an American Soldier were killed in an accident involving their humvee. “Michael Kelly in Iraq” is his latest article contributed to Townhall.com on April 3rd. [via C-Log]

This from the Washington Post article;

Kelly, the first American journalist killed in the war, had also served as editor of the New Republic and National Journal. But his decision to join up with U.S. forces marked a return to his reporting roots, since he covered the first Persian Gulf War as a magazine freelancer and turned his observations into a book, “Martyrs’ Day.” While one Australian and two British journalists have been killed covering the war, Kelly’s death is the first among the 600 correspondents participating in the Pentagon’s embedding program.

That title sounds a bit sinister doesn’t it? It makes it sound like crafty, Michigan homeshoolers are deceiving the state. Thanks to Isabel Lyman I found this article at the DetNews.com a little interesting. It notes true enough that many homeschooled students in Michigan go unaccounted for. This quote from the article may seem like an idea that’s harmless enough but the “registering” is merely where the state will begin to assert it’s control over how families educate their children.

Plank and Tara Donahue, the other author of the report, said the law should be amended to require that parents register, either with the state or their local intermediate school district, their child’s name and the fact they are being home schooled.

Isabel notes that she’s “adding the Wolverine State to [her] ‘great places to homeschool’ list. Let’s keep it one of those “great places to homeschool.”

Update: You can view a PDF of the full report here.

This article at the Marine Corps web site proves we may need to change our opinion about lawyers. According to the article a lawyer from city of An Nasiryah was instrumental in providing the information ncessasary to rescue U.S. Army Private First Class Jessica Lynch.

I just had to share this bit from Ben Domenech today;

The news that Jessica Lynch kept firing until her ammo ran out despite being surrounded and wounded when ambushed by the Iraqis reinforces my opinion that nothing scares an Iraqi soldier like a West Virginia girl with a loaded gun.