Adrian Peterson, the next Ray Rice?

Here is Goodell's chance to follow through. Peterson should be suspended indefinitely, just like Ray Rice. Does he have the backbone to do it? I sincerely doubt it however I can only hold out hope he is a man of integrity.

Where's my grace? I'm not in charge. For consistency's sake and personal integrity Goodell must sentence him the same way. Domestic violence is domestic violence.

I think America needs to get off the Politically Correct slope before it's too late. OOPS! It already is. There is a reason they are called slippery-slopes. You attempt to navigate them and you fall down.

Who's next? Me? You? I guess we will find out soon.

In Defense of Ray Rice

When you read the above title what was your first thought? Ask yourself why you reacted that way? Often people make judgements without all the facts. I find that the country at large is acting rashly and with emotions rather that using facts and logic in the case of Ray Rice. Throw away your outrage, anger and any other emotion that could cloud your view of the actual events. Look at the video clinically and disect it. Here is what I see in the video:

1. Rice and Palmer appear to be arguing based on Palmers body language prior to entering the elevator.

2. Rice does not appear to be angry.

3. After entering the elevator Rice leans towards Palmer as if to kiss her.

4. Palmer throws her left fore arm towards Rice's face.

5. Rice throws a punch/slap at Palmer. It appears to be with an open hand. It's hard to tell from the video.

6. Rice moves to the other side of the elevator.

7.Palmer agressively pursues him.

8. Rice's second punch knocks Palmer down and she strikes her head on the railing in the elevator. The punch appears to be with a closed fist.

Lets stop here for a moment. If Palmer had been a man Rice would still be in football. She attacked him first however she is a woman and deserves special treatment? Gloria Steinem would be appalled, unless she is a hypocrite.

What does America expect Rice and his now wife Palmer to do? He can't get a job based on America's logic. If all domestic offenders were fired from their place or employment then what do they do? Sponge off the rest of us? Do you want your employer to investigate you? It's already happening. Employers wanting to access Facebook accounts, Blogs, etc. If they don't like something you have said, you're fired.

Rice has not been charged as far as I know. He has not been arrested and I see no pending court case, yet he has been tried and convicted by public opinion.

I don't know Rice's background so I do not know what motivated him to punch Palmer. I learned from my father not to hit women. Where was Rice's father? His mother? What did they teach him? I have far too many questions to condemn Rice in a knee jerk fashion like the rest of America especially the media. Although since the majority of the media are not Christians (they don't act like it) I can understand why there is no grace in them. However there are millions of Christians in America that ought to be showing Christ's grace to Rice and get him some counseling. What he needs is help not condemnation,  

Scripture we all ought to Know

2 Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Psalm 14:1, 53:1 – “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.”

John 3:19-21 – “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”

Isaiah 6:9-10 – ‘He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” ‘

Isaiah 42:18 – “Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see!”

Matthew 15:13-14 – ‘He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” ‘

Revelation 3:17 – “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

John 12:34-46 – The crowd spoke up, “We have heard from the Law that the Messiah will remain forever, so how can you say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this ‘Son of Man’?” Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.” When he had finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them.

Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:

“Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.”

Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him. Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human praise more than praise from God.

Then Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

John 3:16-17 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

If two people love each other ...

The LGBT agenda contains the argument, "If two people love each other they should be aloud to be together." in different forms. On the surface this seems to be a legitimate argument. A heterosexual man loves a heterosexual woman has been accepted for millennia. Now the LGBT community wants this same definition to apply to homosexual men and women. It's happening now. Where will it lead? Well this argument allows for the following unions:

Brother and Brother
Sister and Sister

Nothing wrong with that is there? If they love each other then this is okay. There is no higher authority to say it's wrong. God? God was kicked out in the first paragraph of this blog. Man is supreme and can make his/her own rules. So what's next?

Brother and Sister
Mother and Son
Daughter and Father

Ever met a teenage girl in love before? So next we have:

13 year old girl 40 year old man
13 year old boy 37 year old woman

"If they love each other..." why should we stand in their way? Where do we draw the line and why? Harris and Dawkins should be all for the last one. The boy's sex drive matches the woman and the girl is at the beginning of her child bearing years.

The line is drawn by God. That's why some of these sound wrong to you.

To Serve or Not to Serve

That is the question or at least it is at church. How do you know if you are being called to serve? Does God have a cell phone or land line? Does he have e-mail or Facebook?  Believe it or not God will call you on any of those plus a whole lot more. Well, He actually has someone do it for Him. I really cannot picture God hunkered over a keyboard slapping on a smiley face to His latest tweet.

Moving right along … I was an Elder once many years ago. I always thought an Elder needed to be old, but someone put my name into the calling committee at church and I received a call from Pastor Bob. He asked me to pray fully consider serving God as an Elder. I told him I would think about it, even as my mind spun out of control with all the reasons this would be a bad idea. The more I thought about it the more reasons I came up with not accept the call. My first excuse was that I didn't have time. If I don’t have time I can’t really do a good job and others would suffer. Right? Would God want others to suffer because of me? Also, I don't know how to be an Elder. I'm a wiseguy not a wise guy. Wait a minute! I’m not worthy. That’s it. I am not a good person. I’m a sinner and I can’t even control my own house hold. That’s in scripture, isn't it?

Okay, so you get the idea. There are a lot of excuses. I then recalled a bible study that I had done recently for the high school youth. Keep this in mind the next time you have a great idea for a bible study. God always comes back to haunt you. Why do you think He's also called the Holy Ghost? Anyway in that study we looked at how much time we have in a week and how much we should give back to God. I had them start calculating hours in a week and what they did during those hours. There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep 8 hours a day that’s 56 hours. Another 63 to 70 hours are spent on work, school, homework, commuting, extra curricula activities, etc., and after eating and whatever else we thought of we still had about 20 or 30 hours left. We can fill that up pretty quickly with TV and internet. So how much time does that leave for God? Hey God? How about I give you a couple of hours on Sunday unless it’s hunting or football season? How about 16.8 hours? Yeah, that’s ten percent and I know that’s in scripture.

Ultimately I asked them, “How much of your time does really God want?” They beat around the bush. They hemmed and hawed but didn’t want to give the obvious answer. “God wants all of your time”, I said.  They were not very receptive to that answer. What teenager would be? Then again what adult? Why does God want all out time? How can we give Him all of our time? I've got stuff to do and The Big Bang Theory is new this week. Sounds kind of whiny doesn't it? I'm betting that all of you have seen this passage many times:

Colossians 3:23-24: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

“What ever you do”, that includes work, school and even sleeping. When we sleep we sleep for God knowing that He knows we need rest. When we eat we eat for God because He knows we need food to survive. When we work or go to school we know that God will use what we learn or earn for His purpose. God gave us all the time we have here to do His work, not ours. To accomplish this God gives us gifts and abilities that we use every day. We use these in our jobs and personal lives all the time. Why then do we balk at using them for God? We all know the answer but we also have a hard time admitting it

So when that call or e-mail from God arrives don't make excuses but be honest with yourself. Just know that God will provide you with everything you need to serve Him. Remember, Jonah eventually went to Nineveh.

In response to Mr. James Smith, Judith Hayes and Raymond Smith:

Lets put this into perspective. In 100 AD 80% or more of the population were illiterate. There was no news service. There was no public media of any kind. It was spread by word of mouth or proclamations read in public squares. The Roman leaders were not fools. They controlled the masses by keeping them ignorant and illiterate. The literate population were the rich and powerful and they wanted to keep it that way. They ignored Christians simply because they either didn't know about them or they were too unimportant to even think about.

Lets examine the name Jesus. Which Jesus? We think of this name as uncommon or unique but in the first century it was a common name. This is why we refer to Jesus as “Jesus the Christ” or “Christ Jesus” which makes it distinct. Why? Read Acts 2:32, Acts 2:36, Acts 6:14 and Acts 17:3. I follow “this Jesus” not that one or that one or even that one. So is it Jesus of Galilee? Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus of Jerusalem? Jesus of Judea? Depends on what was written about “that Jesus” so you can determine if it was “this Jesus.” Everything needs context.

The Jews were expecting a Messiah. A King that would lead them. But as usual they were thinking in human terms and not spiritual. God does things His way not the way we normally think. So when a poor carpenter from Galilee claims to be the Messiah it's going to be viewed with some skepticism by the majority of Jews and especially those in charge. Why? Because His teachings along with those of John the Baptist undermined their man made authority.

As far as the majority of these authors, why would they write anything about an obscure religious fanatic from a back water place like Galilee? Are you saying all of them are less reasonable than you are? Of course not. If you were a Jew at that time and even heard of Jesus you would either believe in Him or not. If you believed then you would write about Him and His message. If you didn't then why give credence to His message? You would ignore it and hope that it would go away. See Acts 5:38-40. Either that or be like you and actively write against Him. Look up the literacy rate for the Roman Empire in 100 AD. The majority of the people below were from rich families and considered themselves better than the masses. These are the elite writers of their time. How many writers (no news or media) write about less than 1% of our population today?

I have a question for you: How many 3^rd or 4^th generation Americans (both parents in all generations were born in the USA) do you think have English as a second language?

San Francisco, California has a Chinese population of approximately 172,181. This is 21.4 of the cities population. The vast majority speak Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) as their primary language. I know this from personal experience as I lived 34 years in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Also using your argument, not one of the New Testament authors writes about any of these men below. Why is that? Did they really exist? Of the authors you gave me (40) two don't appear to exist. Cannot find them on the Web, so you either got them wrong or spelled them incorrectly. Some did not live during the period, i.e. were not contemporaries of Jesus and/or the Apostles. Some were not adults during Jesus life but based on the document only these men, who were adults, could have been in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus death (9): Apollonius of Tyana , Lucius, Petronius, Phaedrus, Philo-Judaeus, Quintius Curtius, Seneca, Valerius Flaccus and Valerius Maximus. I can find no proof that any of them were there between 30 AD and 33 AD which are the crucial dates in question. Please supply the proof and cite your sources.

Same Sex Marraige: The Slippery Slope...

Lets uppose we pass legislation to allow same sex marriage in the USA just for the sake of argument.

Now two brothers decide that they want to get married because they live together anyway and want to take advantage of the tax break. Why would that be wrong? They are not going to have sex just take advantage of the tax laws. They can always get a divorce if they find someone else.

So now brothers can get married. What about sisters? Same arguments apply so, okay lets let them do that too.

Here comes the problem child. Now that we let brothers and sisters have same sex marriages, what about brothers and sisters? Can't discriminate against them either. But wait they can't have children because that is incest. Hmmm, no problem we just rewrite the incest laws.

So now anyone can get married to anyone else, which is fair by mans standards. No discrimination for ANY reason.

So two friends decide to live together but they don't want to get married. After 10 years one of them decides to move to another state. The other one sues the first one because they live in a Common Law State and the statues say after 7 years they are married. Don't think that can't happen. It does already as there are laws on the books in common law states that protect women and since we have to be fair...BINGO.




I know what you are going to say, that law is a myth. Well check the law suits that have been filed in those states and you will see that they do happen. Some win some lose.

All the marriage laws would need to be examined. This is a can of worms without bring God into it. Do we really want to go down this path?