More Support for Huckabee ... A Bit Late, Though

Paul Weyrich, a founder of the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the Council for National Policy, said recently, "Friends, before all of you and before almighty God, I want to say I was wrong."

In a quiet, brief, but passionate speech, Weyrich essentially confessed that he and the other leaders should have backed Huckabee, a candidate who shared their values more fully than any other candidate in a generation. He agreed with Farris that many conservative leaders had blown it. By chasing other candidates with greater visibility, they failed to see what many of their supporters in the trenches saw clearly: Huckabee was their guy.

Click here to read the entire article.

Conservative Taking on Levin for US Senate

You can access information about Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, who has been a representative in the state of Michigan since 2003 by clicking here or on the banner over to the right. He comes recommended by a couple Michigan bloggers whose opinions I have grown to trust: One Mom and Forty Four. I look forward to learning more about Mr. Hoogendyk and sharing that with you between now and Election Day.

Clinton Caught Lying Again

I'm not talking about former President Bill Clinton, I am talking about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

• At one time, she claimed that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, first man to climb Mt. Everest ... but that story had to be changed when it was discovered that he accomplished that feat five years after she was born.
• Last August, Hillary pledged not to "campaign or participate" in the Michigan or Florida primaries. However, she kept her name on the Michigan ballot, while Obama and others withdrew their names. She actually did some campaigning in Florida. Now she wants those primary delegates to be awarded to her.
  
• Hillary Clinton has claimed that she brought peace to Northern Ireland, that she was instrumental in bringing about the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), that she was sent on dangerous missions as first lady that were far too dangerous for the President himself, that she will release her 2006 taxes, and that she is working on getting her records released from her time as first lady. (see article)
• "She's the most unbelievable actress I have ever met," said a woman who worked on Hillary's Senate campaign. "I remember one time at a Women's Leadership Forum event in New York, thirty of us sat around Hillary, talking about politics. And she said, 'You know, I love this organization, not just because we sit around and talk about politics, but because of the bonds of friendship forming around us.' The way she said it, people were riveted by her performance. But I had gotten to know her, and I could tell she didn't mean it. She has this unbelievable ability to be a liar. She is soulless." -- Edward Klein

CBS News has exposed Hillary in another lie about her trip to Bosnia. You can watch the news clip below:

Record Snowfall

Global warming is continuing to hit us hard here in Michigan. It has been reported that this winter has set a record for snowfall since 1880, when they started keeping track of such things. We've had 85 inches of the white stuff so far. Another inch of snow is being predicted tonight and tomorrow, a chance of snow on Saturday, and the month of April averages 2.5 inches of snowfall. We may approach 90 inches by Mother's Day!

I was informed by the librarian today that all the snow was my fault, because I had checked out a book on snow last week, that was on my daughter's book list for school. As I turned it back in today, I told her I would check out a book on Spring if it would help.

Here's a picture of the snow falling last Friday evening.

Sunday Has come!

The video that I posted on Good Friday stopped too soon. I found the conclusion to Dr. Lockridge's sermon ... here is the rest of the story:

And on that horrible day 2000 years ago, Jesus the Christ, the Lord of glory, the only begotten Son of God, the only perfect man died on the cross of Calvary. Satan thought that he had won the victory. Surely he had destroyed the Son of God. Finally he had disproved the prophecy God had uttered in the Garden and the one who was to crush his head had been destroyed. But that was Friday.

Now it's Sunday. And just about dawn on that first day of the week, there was a great earthquake. But that wasn't the only thing that was shaking because now it's Sunday. And the angel of the Lord is coming down out of heaven and rolling the stone away from the door of the tomb. Yes, it's Sunday, and the angel of the Lord is sitting on that stone and the guards posted at the tomb to keep the body from disappearing were shaking in their boots because it's Sunday, and the lamb that was silent before the slaughter is now the resurrected lion from the tribe of Judah, for He is not here, the angel says. He is risen indeed.

It's Sunday, and the crucified and resurrected Christ has defeated death, hell, sin and the grave. It's Sunday. And now everything has changed. It's the age of grace, God's grace poured out on all who would look to that crucified lamb of Calvary. Grace freely given to all who would believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary was buried and rose again. All because it's Sunday.

It's Friday! But Sunday's a Coming!

It's Friday, But Sunday's Comin'

As a child, I remember my pastor, Rev. Gary Brugger, sharing a portion of a sermon called "It's Friday, But Sunday's Comin'." Thanks to Google and You Tube, I have found the sermon by Rev. S. M. Lockridge, later popularized by Tony Campolo. We can surely be thankful for Sunday!

Good Friday Meditations

I just wanted to share some thoughts on Good Friday that I shared a few years during a Good Friday service.

Who Killed Jesus?

1. The Jewish Leaders
• There were the chief priests, called Annas and Caiaphas, who thoroughly disliked what Jesus was doing and who were delighted to get their hands on him and make up some accusations against him.
• When Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, He angered the Pharisees and they sought to kill Him. John chapter 7 is riddled with talk of the Jews intentions to seize and kill Jesus (Jn. 7:1,19, 30, 32, 44).
• Over and over in the story of Jesus, the Jews make known their desire to put Him to death, culminating in their stirring up the crowd at His trial, and declaring, “His blood shall be on us and on our children.” Peter also places blame on the Jews in the first sermon on Pentecost (Acts 2:36).
• Clearly, the Jewish leaders are responsible for the death of Jesus, but it does not end there.
2. Judas
• Judas betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver. He gave Jesus away to the temple guards so they could arrest him. He made plans, “the one I kiss” he said, “is Jesus”.
• Surely, Judas was responsible for Jesus being killed.
3. Pilate
• He saw no good reason to put Jesus to death but still gave in to the shouts of the crowd.
• Pilate would argue his innocence, for he washed his hands and declared, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.”
• But Pilate was one person with the power to release Jesus or to crucify Him. That Pilate was so spineless as to let the crowd sway his decision does not excuse him for his part in the death of Jesus.
4. The Roman Soldiers
• They were the ones who mocked Jesus and beat Him and finally nailed him to the cross.
• The Roman executioners have never denied blame in the death of Jesus. That was their job. They killed people, and the gospels detail the physical pain and indignities suffered by Jesus at the hands of Roman soldiers.
• Pilate and the Romans were the governing authorities of the day, and as such were the only ones with the right to execute, so their guilt in crucifying Jesus is obvious.
5. The Crowd
• They shouted that they wanted a known criminal called Barabbas set free, not Jesus; and they shouted for Jesus to be crucified.
• They convinced Pilate to turn him over. They shouted time and time again, “Crucify Him.” They even accepted the guilt by saying, “let His blood be on us and on our children.”
• But it’s not good enough for us to blame these people who lived over 2,000 years ago. The Jews, Pilate and the Romans are merely instruments in the death of Jesus. The people who really killed Jesus include us. It was because of sin that Jesus had to die, and that means that, ultimately it is sinners who are responsible for the death of Jesus.
• However, it is easy to state that sinners are the ones who killed Jesus, while thinking of “really bad sinners,” like murderers, rapists and child molesters. In other words, it is easy to blame particularly heinous criminals and deny our own guilt in the death of Jesus.
• The fact is that if the death of Jesus is going to mean anything in my life, then a search for His killers must culminate in a good, hard look in the mirror.
• Listen to Isaiah 53:4-6 -- I will be subsitituting personal pronouns for the collective ones to make it more personal. Listen to as if you were reading it as well … Surely he took up MY infirmities and carried MY sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for MY transgressions, he was crushed for MY iniquities; the punishment that brought ME peace was upon him, and by his wounds I AM healed. I, like sheep, have gone astray, I have turned to MY own way; and the Lord has laid on him MY iniquity.
• These verses make it pretty clear that Jesus would have had to die for me, no matter what the rest of the world was like.

Who killed Jesus? I did. You did. We all had a part in it. And so we want to tell Jesus three things:

1. we want to tell him how sorry we are for our sins;
2. we want to tell him how much we love him and are thankful for his death on the cross;
3. and we want to tell him that we want to follow him from now on.
   

Sleeping In Church Began When?

March Madness

Today begins an exciting few weeks for all college basketball fans. How many of you have filled out a bracket? Who do you have going to the Final Four? Did you choose with your head or your heart? I filled out two brackets ... one with what I want to happen ... WV Mountaineers going winning the championship, and one with what I think will more likely to happen, WV going the Elite 8. It is incredible that WV has done so well this year. Last year they won the NIT Championship, and their coach, John Belein, moved to Michigan. Bob Huggins, whose coaching style is the opposite of Belien's has taken this team to a new level. Picked to finish 10th in the Big East, WVU finished 5th. Look for the Mountaineers to surprise a few people with a deep run in this year's tournament.

If you haven't filled out a bracket yet, Yahoo! has an easy to use bracket available. If you are a pastor, Jon Earls has started a group for you. There's not much time left, so you'd better hurry if you want to join. Here's the link to his blog.

Let's Gooooooo ... Mountaineers!

Theological Worldview Quiz

I took a theology quiz a few days ago, I tested out as an "Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan." Seeing as how I pastor in conservative holiness church whose denomination's mission statement is to "spread scriptural holiness across the land," I am glad I didn't score in the "Modern Liberal" category, or else I may have been excommunicated!

Why don't you take the quiz yourself, to see where your theological worldview falls. Come back and leave a comment, and let me know how you scored.

Here are my results:

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavly by John Wesley and the Methodists. Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 96% Fundamentalist 93% Reformed Evangelical 75% Neo orthodox 71% Emergent/Postmodern 57% Roman Catholic 54% Charismatic/Pentecostal 39% Classical Liberal 36% Modern Liberal 14%

Welcome To Another Perspective

During the last several months, I have been using our family blog, Hilling Highlights, to discuss several non-family issues, namely politics. The time has come to branch out and start a new blog for the discussion of politics, sports, news, and other interests I have such as pastoring.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.