Judge Sotomayor has made numerous comments in speeches that raise concerns about her judicial philosophy.  For instance, she stated that “the court of appeals is where policy is made” in 2005.  While on the board of the PRLDEF, the Fund argued that the right to abortion is a fundamental right and the courts should strike down common sense laws like parental notification, “women’s right to know” laws, and bans on taxpayer funding for abortions.

The court of appeals is where law should be appropriately and objectively interpreted and applied, not ignored and subsequently subverted for opinion. The killing of innocent children, born or unborn, goes against our constitution and the very fabric of our nation. Our people once stood firm and united, declaring “all men are created equal” with neither stipulation nor equivocation. We once held this truth to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

How can a murdered baby ever assume his or her right to such a pursuit? And how can a mother ever have the right to take that choice from her baby? The answer is that she doesn’t, that right solely belongs to the Creator of all life. A life is a life – in the womb, a school, a cubicle, a prison, a senate office, or the white house. I pray that one day we will turn to the Creator again and repent for all the lives we’ve allowed to be erased from the pages of history before their stories even began.

Help change the course of history by filling out this petition. I tell you the truth, the victims of abortion do have a story. It is a story that only God will know for he himself wrote it, just as he did ours.

Psalm 139:13-16 (NLT)

13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body

and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!

Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.

15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,

as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.

16 You saw me before I was born.

Every day of my life was recorded in your book.

Every moment was laid out

before a single day had passed.

Seems I’ll have to make this quick and expound later. Over the past 4 or 5 months I’ve stopped working at the church and decided to be a student there. In September I’ll be an official MTI student and once again will not have time for anything else.

I’ve spent the summer planning a trip to Uganda, then not being able to go because my contact got Malaria just as I was about to receive the final approval. I was disappointed, but it seems my preventive prayers were answered. I did, however, get a chance to fly to St. Louis for one of our sister church’s first youth camps. All I can say is that it was amazing and the Holy Spirit definitely lives in Missouri, even in Jellystone Park where we had the camp. Yes, I said Jellystone Park.

St. Louis was the second camp of the summer, as I had already been a counselor the week prior to our own GenCamp in Sky Mountain, which was also amazing. The biggest difference between the two was obviously the size of the camps – GenCamp being for our youth group of 300+ including our friends from Reno, and Youth Church. Camp having about 1/10 the amount of kids..

Lastly, and most importantly, I began a relationship with the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. Her name is Catherine, and we’ve now been courting for a little over three months. She’s smart, beautiful, and loves Jesus at a depth I rarely see in anyone else. Everyday I’m amazed by God’s grace and the fact that he has entrusted her to me. Blows my mind whenever I think about it.

Also, I’ve created another miniblog besides my twitter – sort of something in between this and that for smaller posts of some value to those who know or follow me. Check it out: avlamb.tumblr.com

In lieu of full-time work and other activities, blogging was placed on the backburner for a season. Good news, I’m back with nothing to do – for one more week at least. Soon I’ll be sharing all of my recent life adventures (if you can call them adventures), and inform the world of what God’s been doing in me over that past four months.

Illustration for TIME by Rob Day

Around 1730, while in his late 20s, Benjamin Franklin listed thirteen virtues that he felt were an important guide for living. These virtues consisted of temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. These can be divided into virtues related to personal behavior and those related to social character traits. Franklin tried to follow these guides in his life, although he often went astray. These thirteen virtues may be worthwhile to consider following in your own life.

Temperance

Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation

Silence

Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.

Order

Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

Resolution

Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

Frugality

Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.

Industry

Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.

Sincerity

Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.

Justice

Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

Moderation

Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

Cleanliness

Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

Tranquillity

Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.

Chastity

Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.

Humility

Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a specific theme to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in my life. He’s led me through such tangible levels of discipline, all of which prepared me to be on staff at a church – a long-time prayer. Not that I was seeking glory for myself, it’s not even the most glorious of positions, but I think that’s the point. I’ve known for the past year or so that I’m called to full-time ministry, and at some point in the future will plant churches on the east coast and nations abroad. Knowing this, I pretty much asked God to give me a job, any job, at TFH so I could be trained, equipped, and just get used to how a church runs so that when the time comes, I’ll be prepared when he sends me out to finally plant one. So as an answer to that prayer, my training in humility and servitude started mid-January this year when I became the dayshift janitor at TFH. I like to call myself a maintenance engineer, but I’m still working that out with my ego. (jk?)

Anyway, after reading such books as “9 Things You Simply Must Do” and “7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” I’ve reviewed my life in comparison to the proverbs and adages quoted and penned by Cloud and Covey, and have formulated what I feel is a reasonable plan to incorporate all of them, a few at a  time, into my life. More to come…

If you don’t know Mark Driscoll, get to know him. He’s the straight-talking pastor of a not-so-little emergent church in Seattle, WA called Mars Hill. With 7 campuses and over 8,000 in attendance on any given Sunday, his regard for the word and his accurate, yet lovingly blunt teachings are a refreshing and much needed touch from God, meant to shake any and everyone, especially the lukewarm believer, out of his or her filthy sin and into the righteousness that is a life purposed solely for the glory of Christ.
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Here, Driscoll offers a much needed re-examination of the essence of evangelism.

 

Fifteen percent of everything Christ said relates to the topic of money – more than His teachings on heaven and hell combined – but most people want to believe that tithing originated under the Law of Moses, which was broken when Jesus died for us.

The problem with this doctrine is that tithing started over four hundred years before the time of Moses. In Genesis 14:17-20, Abraham meets Melchizedek after returning from rescuing Lot and defeating his enemies. Abraham gave Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God, a tithe of all of the goods he obtained in battle. It wasn’t demanded of him, just as it isn’t demanded of us now; it was a matter of faith, not biblical law. Isaac and Jacob also offered a tenth of all that they received to the Lord (See Gen. 28:22).

Tithing continues throughout the New Testament, too. Abraham is the father of many nations, and as his descendants, we are to follow in his footsteps (See Romans 4:12). He is to be an example unto us.

Churches that disagree with tithing today often use Galations 3:10 as their argument, quoting, ”All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law’.”

These same Christians, however, fail to state how Mosaic Law differs from the promise of God. Galations 3:15-29 reveals this difference:

The Law and the Promise
15Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but ”and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. 17What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. 18For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. 19What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. 20A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. 21Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. 23Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. 25Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.

We Are Sons of God
26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

^That right there says it all.

Habit 1:  Be Proactive

Change starts from within, and highly effective people make the decision to improve their lives through the things that they can influence rather than by simply reacting to external forces.

Habit 2:  Begin with the End in Mind

Develop a principle-centered personal mission statement. Extend the mission statement into long-term goals based on personal principles.

Habit 3:  Put First Things First

Spend time doing what fits into your personal mission, observing the proper balance between production and building production capacity. Identify the key roles that you take on in life, and make time for each of them.

Habit 4:  Think Win/Win

Seek agreements and relationships that are mutually beneficial. In cases where a “win/win” deal cannot be achieved, accept the fact that agreeing to make “no deal” may be the best alternative. In developing an organizational culture, be sure to reward win/win behavior among employees and avoid inadvertantly rewarding win/lose behavior.

Habit 5:  Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood

First seek to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Stephen Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of interpersonal relations. Effective listening is not simply echoing what the other person has said through the lens of one’s own experience. Rather, it is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person, listening empathically for both feeling and meaning.

Habit 6:  Synergize

Through trustful communication, find ways to leverage individual differences to create a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. Through mutual trust and understanding, one often can solve conflicts and find a better solution than would have been obtained through either person’s own solution.

Habit 7:  Sharpen the Saw

Take time out from production to build production capacity through personal renewal of the physical, mental, social/emotional, and spiritual dimensions. Maintain a balance among these dimensions.

The Seven Habits – An Overview

Mind Map

Our character is a collection of our habits, and habits have a powerful role in our lives. Habits consist of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows us to know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it.

The Seven Habits move us through the following stages:

1. Dependence: the paradigm under which we are born, relying upon others to take care of us.
2. Independence: the paradigm under which we can make our own decisions and take care of ourselves.
3. Interdependence: the paradigm under which we cooperate to achieve something that cannot be achieved independently.

Much of the success literature today tends to value independence, encouraging people to become liberated and do their own thing. The reality is that we are interdependent, and the independent model is not optimal for use in an interdependent environment that requires leaders and team players.

To make the choice to become interdependent, one first must be independent, since dependent people have not yet developed the character for interdependence. Therefore, the first three habits focus on self-mastery, that is, achieving the private victories required to move from dependence to independence. The first three habits are:

• Habit 1: Be Proactive
• Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
• Habit 3: Put First Things First

Habits 4, 5, and 6 then address interdependence:

• Habit 4: Think Win/Win
• Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
• Habit 6: Synergize

Finally, the seventh habit is one of renewal and continual improvement, that is, of building one’s personal production capability. To be effective, one must find the proper balance between actually producing and improving one’s capability to produce.

“…for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.” Isaiah 37:3

If that promise from God hasn’t been fulfilled yet, don’t panic, instead:

Stay On the Main Road

Psalm 16:11 says, “You will show me the path of life…” In John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”, clear instruction was given to “stay on the road.” Why? Lions were along the pathway, but they were chained just far enough away from the path that if you stayed on the road they could not reach you. Leave the road just a little and you were a meal.

Once, my mailman almost got devoured by a neighbor’s vicious dog. The dog’s teeth were about to go into his arm when a man came out of the house and called the canine off. The dog should have been on a chain. To the obedient Christian, satan is on a chain. The devil is roaming about“seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus is the path (see John 14:6). Every town has a Main Street, every Christian has one also…stay on it. Many look for shortcuts.

Avoid “Sightseeing”

Someone said, “You can look, but don’t touch.” This is bad advice. There is much visual distraction today. It’s easy to be lured away into worldly thinking (see 1 John 2:15) and be deceived by the enemy by (continually) looking at something that is beneath a Christian’s dignity. What you allow yourself to see will dictate what you think (see Job 31:1).

Many of us know the Scripture that says, “For as he thinketh in his heart…” (Proverbs 23:7). But the verse right before it says “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye…”

What are you looking at? You’ve heard, “If you hang out at the Barber Shop long enough you are going to get a haircut.” If you allow your eyes to see things they shouldn’t, you will eventually wind up doing it. Satan gives a very bad haircut, and in the long run it will turn out to be an expensive one (see Proverbs 13:15; Judges 2:13-15). Don’t have a bad hair day.

Don’t Look Down

Never once in Scripture are we told to look down. We are always told to look up (see Luke 21:27). When troubles come upon us, we often do not want to look up (see Psalm 40:12). Some are so wrapped up in self-pity, it causes them to exaggerate how bad the problem really is and hinders them from seeing the door of escape (see 1 Corinthians 10:13). Dwelling on the bad, they focus on the current trial and not the ultimate good as the Scriptures tell us to do (seePhilippians 4:8).

You may be experiencing a temporary trial now, but it’s nothing compared to what He has for you in the future (see 1 Corinthians 2:9). Many Believers miss God because of negativity…don’t join them. The Father is looking from above…turn your gaze toward Him, not your problem.

Proof that you’re looking up? Thankfulness to God (see 1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Live in the Garden of Purity and Desperation

Too flippantly some mumble, “Jesus died for my sins,” and then go about committing sin. This is the reason some promises do not come to pass (see John 5:14; 8:11). God can bring solutions to our problems, but He does so by first solving a deeper problem – sin. Some seem to forget the sinfulness of sin (see Isaiah 3:9). Resisting sin is not always easy, but it is possible (see James 1:12-16). Stay pure (see 1 John 3:3). Personal purity brings God’s blessings (seePsalm 18:20-21).

Jesus cried out, ”My heart is ready to break with grief” (Mark 14:34 NEB). The next verse says“He threw Himself on the ground and prayed.” The last prayer Jesus prayed before going to the Cross – He prayed while flat on His face. Often, the fulfillment of God’s promise in your life comes only after you’ve thrown yourself down before God and prayed in utter desperation.

Are you desperate for God? Hezekiah was desperate (see Isaiah 38:3-5) and his life was extended. “God is faithful…” (1 Corinthians 1:9a)…so remember:

God’s Delays are Not Denials…Hold On, the Promise Will Come

Paul said it in 1 Thessalonians 5:24, “Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it.” If God gave you a genuine promise, He will fulfill it – but keep in mind He rarely takes the shortcut to get us to the next destination (or the scenic route). Sometimes God leads us into the wilderness on the way to blessings. When we face trials we need to bow down before the Master (seeIsaiah 66:1-2), and He will strengthen us to keep going on until the promise “is ready to be fulfilled.”

God’s timing is always perfect (see 2 Samuel 22:31), but you must keep feeding and nurturing His promise with the Word, prayer, and thanksgiving no matter what comes your way and no matter how long it takes. Be patient and wait on Him. If He has carried you this far, He is not about to stop now.

Some prophetic words may not fully come to pass because (as preposterous as it sounds) people get impatient and try to help God out. They get antsy and want to give God a hand. God doesn’t need your help; He needs your faithfulness (see 1 Corinthians 4:2). Yes, we do work with God, but we must remember that He is the One who promotes and demotes along with opening doors and closing them (see Psalm 75:6-7).

Bottom line: If you want His word fulfilled, stay on the main road, avoid sightseeing, look up and stay pure with your faith focused on Him.

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” Psalm 27:14

-Al Thomas
Celebrating His Life Ministries