Sunday, Sports, and the Super Bowl: A Christian's Dilemma -- February 4, 2011

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Commentary Sunday, Sports, and the Super Bowl: A Christian's Dilemma Robert Wayne Millions of fans will watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. Thousands of kids will lace up their shoes for a day of competitve sport. Something else happens on Sunday, too. What's it called again? Oh yes, church. Read the full article here Reagan at 100: "The Crisis We Face is Spiritual" Michael Reagan My father's faith was inseparable from his political beliefs. He hated Communism not only because it oppressed people economically and politically, but also oppressed them spiritually. Read the full article here Don't Forget an Essential Part of Reagan's Bio Paul G. Kengor Retrospectives on Ronald Reagan as the nation marks the centennial of his birth will touch upon every imaginable aspect of the man. I suspect, however, that the thing most integral to the man, and most consistent throughout his life -- his religious faith -- might get pushed aside. Read the full article here Will Egypt be Autocratic, Theocratic, or Democratic? Tony Beam The unrest in Egypt has moved quickly from merely threatening Mubarak's iron-fisted regime to inevitable change. As sure as events in the Middle East can be, Egypt is surely headed for a new government. Thirty-one years of Mubarak's brutal police state has led to forty-two percent of the country living in extreme poverty. Read the full article here Entertainment James Cameron Produces, but Sanctum Still Sinks and Stinks Christian Hamaker Those excited to see James Cameron's name associated with Sanctum shouldn't be fooled. Although he produced, he didn't direct. That chore--and "chore" is the best word to describe actually watching it--was left to Alister Grierson, who has only one previous feature under his belt, Kokoda. Read the full article here Red Gets Louder and More Intense on Faces Glenn McCarty Red typically gets associated with anger in the entries on color symbolism, so it's not surprising that Until We Have Faces, the third album from modern rock band Red, is louder and more intense than the previous two offerings from the Dove Award-winning rockers. Read the full article here Young Hollywood Meets Cute in Stars Collide Kelley Mathews Stars Collide is an idealistic story of life in Hollywood for a small group of believers. Almost everything wraps up in a neat, tidy bow of happily-ever-after, but that is Janice Thompson's trademark. Some readers are going to love it, but others will want more than lighthearted and cute. Read the full article here Today's Devotional My Bodyguard (from "From His Heart, by Pastor Jeff Schreve") But the Lord is with me like a dread champion (Jer. 20:11). Sometimes we forget how much God loves us. Sometimes we fail to see the great heart He has for our protection and defense. Read the full article here   FEATURED VIDEOS The Alternative Love Worth Finding Day of Discovery Born to Succeed From His Heart Watch more Christian Video Sermons & Messages from Ministries on LightSource.com   •  Free Christian Book •  A degree will make a difference! •  The Christian Private Health Care Option •  Give Shoes to Orphans •  Publish Your Book Crosswalk.com is a member of the Salem Web Network of sites including: • OnePlace.com • LightSource.com • ChristianJobs.com • CrossCards.com • SermonSearch.com • Christianity.com

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UpWords with Max Lucado

UpWords with Max Lucado

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Week of February 4 When Death Becomes Birth by Max Lucado You, as all God's children, live one final breath from your own funeral. Which, from God's perspective, is nothing to grieve. He responds to these grave facts with this great news: "The day you die is better than the day you are born" (Eccles. 7:1). Now there is a twist. Heaven enjoys a maternity-ward reaction to funerals. Angels watch body burials the same way grandparents monitor delivery-room doors. "He'll be coming through any minute!" They can't wait to see the new arrival. While we're driving hearses and wearing black, they're hanging pink and blue streamers and passing out cigars. We don't grieve when babies enter the world. The hosts of heaven don't weep when we leave it. Oh, but many of us weep at the thought of death. Do you? Do you dread your death? Is your fear of dying robbing your joy of living? Jesus came to "deliver those who have lived all their lives as slaves to the fear of dying" (Heb. 2:15). If Scripture boasted a list of the famous dead, Lazarus would be near the top. He lived in Bethany, a sleepy hamlet that sat a short walk from Jerusalem. Jesus spent a lot of time there. Maybe he liked the kitchen of Martha or the devotion of Mary. One thing is for sure: he considered Lazarus a friend. News of Lazarus's death prompts Jesus to say, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up" (John 11:11). And now, four days after the funeral, Jesus has come calling. Literally calling, "Lazarus, come out!" Can we try to picture Lazarus as he hears those words? Heaven-sent Lazarus. Heaven-happy Lazarus. Four days into his measureless days. By now he's forming fast friendships with other saints. King David shows him the harps. Moses invites him over for tea and manna. Elijah and Elisha take him for a spin in the fiery chariot. Daniel has promised him a lion of a Bible story. He's on his way to hear it when a voice booms through the celestial city. "Lazarus, come out!" Everybody knows that voice. No one wonders, Who was that?Angels stop. Hosts of holy-city dwellers turn toward the boy from Bethany, and someone says, "Looks like you're going back for another tour of duty." Lazarus doesn't question the call. Perfect understanding comes with a heavenly passport. He doesn't object. But had he done so, who could have faulted him? His heavenly body knows no fever. His future no fear. He indwells a city that is void of padlocks, prisons, and Prozac. With sin and death nonexistent, preachers, doctors, and lawyers are free to worship. Would anyone blame Lazarus for saying, "Do I have to go back?" But he doesn't second-guess the command. Nor does anyone else. Return trips have been frequent of late. The daughter of the synagogue ruler. The boy from Nain. Now Lazarus from Bethany. Lazarus turns toward the rarely used exit door. The very one, I suppose, Jesus used some thirty earth years earlier. With a wave and within a wink, he's reunited with his body and waking up on a cold slab in a wall-hewn grave. The rock to the entrance has been moved, and Lazarus attempts to do the same. Mummy-wrapped, he stiffly sits up and walks out of the tomb with the grace of Frankenstein's monster. People stare and wonder. We read and may ask, "Why did Jesus let him die only to call him back?" To show who runs the show. To trump the cemetery card. To display the unsquashable strength of the One who danced the Watusi on the neck of the devil, who stood face to clammy face with death and declared, "You call that a dead end? I call it an escalator." "Lazarus, come out!" Those words, incidentally, were only a warmup for the big day. He's preparing a worldwide grave evacuation. "Joe, come out!" "Maria, come out!" "Giuseppe, come out!" "Jacob, come out!" Grave after grave will empty. What happened to Lazarus will happen to us. Only our spirit-body reunion will occur in heaven, not Bethany Memorial Cemetery. When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true: "Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"  (1 Cor. 15:54-55) With Christ as your friend and heaven as your home, the day of death becomes sweeter than the day of birth. From Come Thirsty Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2004) Max Lucado Online Bible Study Tools Read through the Bible and other Bible study resources: biblestudy.crosswalk.com •  Free Christian Book •  A degree will make a difference! •  The Christian Private Health Care Option •  Orphans need your help! •  Free Publishing Guide Crosswalk.com is a member of the Salem Web Network of sites including: • Oneplace.com • LightSource.com • ChristianJobs.com • CrossCards.com • SermonSearch.com • Christianity.com

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TH Daily - February 04 - Michelle Malkin, Brent Bozell, Jonah Goldberg, David Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt and More

The Interior Department's Culture of Contempt Michelle Malkin: Oops, they did it again. President Obama's grabby-handed environmental bureaucrats have earned yet another spanking from the federal judiciary over their "determined disregard" of the rule of law. ... more The Reagans vs. the Kennedys Brent Bozell: It seems rather ironic that Hollywood doesn't want to make movies about Ronald Reagan. Perhaps it's because virtually no one in the industry can stand his belief system. ... more Liberal Bouquets for Dead Conservatives Jonah Goldberg: Over the last decade or so, as the giants of the founding generation of modern American conservatism have died, each has been rehabilitated into a gentleman-statesman of a bygone era of conservative decency and open-mindedness. ... more Obama's Discriminatory Application of Laws Abounds David Limbaugh: Is there anything about the Obama administration that doesn't reek of discriminatory application and enforcement of laws and the arbitrary and capricious abuse of power? ... more Kwikset, Green Chemistry and Taxes: The Business Wasteland That Is California Hugh Hewitt: Many readers don't want to hear another horror story about doing business in California. ... more The American Way of Abandonment Pat Buchanan: Egypt's presdient not going to play the role assigned him in the White House script that has him resigning and fleeing Egypt in the face of mass demonstrations in Tahrir Square. ... more Does Jimmy Carter Deserve To Be Sued? Mona Charen: In a suit filed in federal court in New York, former president Jimmy Carter, along with his publisher, Simon & Schuster, is being sued by five readers. ... more Anatomy of a Scandal Michael Gerson: Digging in the garden of a health official in Mali, investigators discover more than 30 counterfeit "stamps" used to validate fraudulent invoices to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. ... more Happy Birthday, President Reagan Linda Chavez: Feb. 6 marks the centennial of Ronald Reagan's birth, but the day had meaning for me even before I went to work for President Reagan in 1983. ... more Good Writing Needs a Tiger Mom Suzanne Fields: We're moving swiftly into post-literate America, and more's the pity. Many of us can't write a coherent, straightforward, easy-to-read sentence. ... more To Fix Middle East, Obama Must Ignore "Experts" Joel Mowbray: Usually when chaos erupts in the Middle East, attention turns immediately to Israel and the Palestinians. Not so this time. ... more Obama Will Continue to Spend America Into the Ground Donald Lambro: Uncontrolled government spending is far worse than previously projected just a few months ago, driving the federal budget much more deeply into debt, which threatens our economy and our future standard of living. ... more No Reservations: The Case for Dismantling the Indian Bureaucracy Carl Horowitz: If ever a federal agency were a candidate for termination, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) would make for a good choice. The BIA combines patronage and ethnic separatism into a single package, wasting sizable tax dollars in the process. ... more Tennessee Proposes to Neuter Teachers Unions Kyle Olson: It looks like the leaders of the Tennessee Education Association are in for some sleepless nights. ... more Keys to President Reagan's Effectiveness Janice Shaw Crouse: Former President Ronald Reagan's centennial is just around the corner — February 6, the date of this year's Super Bowl Sunday. It is appropriate to review some of the reasons for his greatness. ... more Flood on the Nile: Of Great Events and Little Men Paul Greenberg: Something new is being heard along the Nile: the sound of freedom. ... more Their Freedom Is Not Our Freedom Diana West: Americans must learn two concepts to better understand the political earthquake the United States is now pushing as President Obama gives his nod to "the Arab street," predominantly organized, it seems, by the Muslim Brotherhood, to force out an ally, Hosni Mubarak. ... more Egyptology Cliff May: The upheaval in Egypt would be a dilemma for any American administration. But the policies President Obama has followed over the past two years have made his task more challenging in three ways. ... more		GOP targets health care law in Congress and out US general predicts Taliban `assassination teams' Dems choose Charlotte for 2012 convention In NH, Santorum hits Obama on health care 'hubris' Senate Dems reject call to cut Israel aid Does the White House Have a Coherent Plan to Deal With the Egyptian Crisis? Guy Benson OUT OF TOUCH AND DEFYING COMMON SENSE Michael Medved Embracing a the Wrong "Allies" Carol Platt Liebau Virginia Planned Parenthood Aids Pimp of Underage Sex Ring Progressives Call for Lynching Clarence Thomas Anderson Cooper Attacked in Egypt Planned Parenthood Spokesman Fumbles, Fails in Explanation Floored or Back to the Future? July 19 - Brunswick, Maine Good Company Where is the UN? Bomb explodes near Afghan police chief's house APNews Somali ax man gets 9 years for cartoonist attack APNews January jobs report forecast to show modest gains APNews Aetna's 4Q profit jumps 30 percent APNews Shooting breaks out on Thai-Cambodian border APNews US criticizes Somali legislators' extension vote APNews Europeans urge Egypt to protect journalists APNews Egypt to dominate Munich Security conference APNews Anti-Mubarak activists pour into Tahrir Square APNews Mass. church arson suspect wants confession tossed APNews Coulter: What Liberals Don't Know About Guns, Chapter 217 Barone: Obama's Antique Vision of Technological Progress Saunders: Do-Gooders Mobilize Against Free Speech Hewitt: Kwikset, Green Chemistry and Taxes Elder: Egypt Goldberg: Obama's Sputnik Analogy Doesn't Fly Malkin: A Christian Business in the Left's Crosshairs Olson: Unions to Taxpayers Olson: Golden Parachute for School Superintendent, Lead Balloon for Taxpayers Mackenzie: ObamaCare and the Islamist Movement
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