Pretty sure.
This is a photo from June of 2008 and was somehow marked "private" on the blog. I was walking on the mountain and this guy was laying in the middle of the trail. He let me get really close before he even twitched.
Here is an official photo from Californiaherps.com
DEARBORN, Mich. -- Four Christian missionaries who were arrested at Dearborn's Arab American Festival were arraigned Monday on misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace.
Charged were Negeen Mayel, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla and David Wood Mayel, all members of a group called "Acts 17 Apologetics."
Negeen Mayel faces an additional charge of disobeying an officer.
They all pleaded not guilty.
The four were arrested on June 18 while handing out Christian literature and videotaping themselves.
The group said they were arrested over religion, but police insist that it's not true, and continue to stand behind their arrest. Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly defends his police department's arrest, saying he saw the video police confiscated from them and he believes the missionaries came into town to cause trouble.
Dearborn, MI has one of the largest Muslim populations in the United States...and (like most of the country) and these days it seems like if there is a question between Christians and "anybody else", the Christians are going to lose.
BUT...
I'm not sure if this is the case here. There are certainly different accounts.
The four who were arrested were not the only Christians at the festival.
Groups were to get a permit and have a booth...most Christian groups did that.
These four evidently did not get a booth, but they did get a video camera.
There are quotes of them saying things like they had been threatened the year before, so they brought along the video camera...they were there expecting excitement. This is not what missionaries should be after.
Here is a video from 2009:
I see aggression on both sides, I see the Christians being inflammatory. I think that perhaps the arrest was justified, if they were breaking the rules.
Let the courts figure it out.
~~~
On the other hand, here is a t-shirt that was confiscated from Arab students at a Dearborn high school
blog update...as of 10:00 AM Sunday morning, I'm down to 983 uncategorized posts.
~~~
On "The Private War in The Mind" from Reformation Theology
Yet there is a reality to spiritual warfare and it is something God certainly wants us to know about, or else He would not have revealed it to us in His Word. If we just stay with the Scripture, we will be on safe and sure ground. God wants us to understand the warfare, know our enemy and live a life free from his clutches.
~~~
~~~
Hillbuzz on waking up Americans:
this paragraph is talking about why the Republicans don't seem to be all that interested in winning:
Maybe these men truly don’t know how to do that…but we think it’s more like the Washington Generals knowing they have a pretty good racket losing basketball games to the Globetrotters, so why start working harder and winning when the script their all following says they need to lose in the end (if they want to keep their cushy existence as the lovable losers).
~~~
A good article on gay marriage by "The Gay Patriot"
If you feel a victim because the state doesn’t call your union what you want to call it, well, then you have really politicized your psyche.
He says that gay marriage (the union of 2 people) already exists, what they lack is state recognition. If they went for the recognition of the union (without calling it "marriage"), they would have the rights of the state recognition of the union.
A commenter said,
Even for straights, a State marriage license is a thing created by State legislation (which I call a privilege); not a thing which morally precedes the State and exists apart from it (which I call a fundamental right).
Which is why, in certain circumstances, I would decline piece of paper that tells me that the state has given me permission to marry.
That's God's job, not the state's.
~~~
oooohhhh...Dark Chocolate...raspberries...red wine.
I vote "yes"...I will be buying this again.
A while ago I wrote this, remembering ancient history.
Today, the song still resonates.
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone!
Because I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives!
An Amazon widget...or two.
One of them, if you click on a link to a product here, and buy it there, I get a credit for it.
For instance, if I review a book like "A Biblical Case For an Old Earth" (it's a good book, I'll get around to it...) and you buy it through the link...that's a good thing...for me. You can see the little icon next to the book title - it shows you the book cover and a little blurb.
The other is WAY at the bottom of the sidebar and is my "wish list"...if you buy ME something...I may not get credit...but I get the "something" (for my family's info)
~~~
I finally got around to ordering a new battery for my computer. At least I'll be able to sit on my porch and have a beverage while I categorize old blog posts 😉 I stopped by the battery store and they wanted $119...uh...no. They want $40 on Amazon (including shipping).
To me, this is pretty closely related to "the U" - election. If we (humans) get to pick, then the grace is resistible. If God picks, the He is sovereign and His will be done, always.
On April 6, 1856, Charles Spurgeon gave a sermon on the "Effectual Calling" (Irresistible Grace)
Can I not remember when God told me to come down? One of the first steps I had totake was to go right down from my good works. And oh, what a fall was that! Then I stood upon my own self-sufficiency and Christ said, “Come down! I have pulled you down from your good works and now I will pull you down from yourself-sufficiency.”
Well, I had another fall and I felt sure I had gained the bottom, but Christ said “Come down!” And He made me come down till I fell on some point at which I felt I was not savable. “Down, Sir! come down, yet.” And down I cameuntil I had to let go of every branch of the tree of my hopes in despair.
Then I said, “I can do nothing. I am ruined.” The waters were wrapped round my head and I was shut out from the light of day and thought myself a stranger from the commonwealth of Israel.“Come down lower yet, Sir! You have too much pride to be saved.”
Then I was brought down to see my corruption,my wickedness, my filthiness.
“Come down,” says God, when He means to save. Now, proud Sinners, it is of no use foryou to be proud, to stick yourselves up in the trees—Christ will have you down. Oh, you that dwell with the eagle on the craggy rock, you shall come down from your elevation—you shall fall by grace, or you shall fall with a vengeance one day. He “has cast down the mighty from their seat and has exalted the humble and meek.”
When God "means to save" -
What I know is this...there is nothing - NOTHING - special about me. I didn't turn to Christ because I'm smarter, or holier, or more spiritual...
It is only by the work of the Spirit that I can claim to trust.
And trust is a challenge sometimes, but I can no more turn away, than I could stop being...the core of who I am.
Thoughts on "Forgotten God" (Francis Chan), Chapter 2 - "What Are You Afraid Of?"
There are a lot of thoughts that are rather meaningful right now.
What AM I afraid of?
What I know is that a life of following Christ requires me to relinquish my fears. Pursue truth and...be prepared to be wrong.
Chan asks, What if God doesn't "come through?" Do we ask for less, believe less, trust less - because we're "covering" for God, just in case He doesn't come through if we ask for something bigger?
Do I ask for a stone, because I don't trust Him to provide bread?
Do I ask, trusting, for what Christ promised that the Father would deliver - the gift of the Holy Spirit? What would that gift look like, and am I willing to have it look like THAT? (whatever "that" might look like?)
And am I willing to take a closer look at the difference between what God has promised vs. what I want to be true?
DO I WANT THIS?
Giving up control? Trusting the Holy Spirit to mold me, stripping away selfishness, fear, distrust?
Do I want this?
How am I willing to respond (change) if my beliefs about the Holy Spirit change? Do I desire truth over acceptance?
How do I (not so much "if I") allow the perceptions of others to affect my relationship with Christ? How do I allow them to affect how I view the Holy Spirit?
With only 2 weeks before trying to ride 100 miles in a day, I've only been on the bike once this week. What I don't want to do is put myself at risk for not being able to make it...even slowly.
With packing, etc., I'm going to ride, enjoy and go for a metric century (or more) in the fall when the weather is cooler.
From a "Christ the Center" podcast - a rough quote:
Our expectations of a pastor stems from our ecclesiology - our thoughts about what a church is.
If our understanding about church is that our priority is social justice, our pastor will be our chief social worker.
If we believe our goal is to affect political change, our pastor will be our community organizer.
If "church" is about our friends and family - a neighborhood clique, there will be little outreach.
If we know that our church exists to proclaim the person of Jesus Christ and His work on the cross - and to equip the saints to do that - we will expect that the Gospel be preached from the pulpit each and every week.