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The Habit of Recognizing God’s Provision " . . . you may be partakers of the divine nature . . ." —2 Peter 1:4 We are made "partakers of the divine nature," receiving and sharing God’s own nature through His promises. Then we have to work that divine nature into our human nature by developing godly habits. The first habit to develop is the habit of recognizing God’s provision for us. We say, however, "Oh, I can’t afford it." One of the worst lies is wrapped up in that statement. We talk as if our heavenly Father has cut...

After 18 years of a law practice devoted to counseling landowners, home builders and commercial interests affected by the long arm and severe penalties of the Endangered Species Act, I am used to incredulous looks and outraged oaths from clients coming to grips with the Act's incredible burdens on impacted private citizens. "Are you telling me I can't build my Burger King because a Delhi Sands flower-loving fly that has never been seen and is above ground only a few days a year might be near-by?" "I can't build a connector road because the noise from construction might damage the...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Boeing said on Sunday the Federal Aviation Administration has not informed the company of a certification delay of its Dreamliner jet after a report in German magazine Focus that the project could be pushed back by another three to six months. Focus, which said it obtained the information from within the regulatory body, reported that the first orders will now be delivered at the end of 2009 or the start of 2010.

At yesterday's markup of the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee committed an outrageous act of disrespect for our men and women in uniform and to the citizens of this country by adopting an amendment by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that gives amnesty to illegal-alien agricultural workers. The copy of the amendment obtained by NumbersUSA indicates a maximum of 1.35 million illegal aliens, plus their families, could obtain "emergency agricultural worker status" for a five-year period. However, the amendment also provides for an adjustment of status, which paves the way for permanent legalization. The committee also adopted other...

In 2006, I wrote about Fordson High School a/k/a "Hezbollah High." The Dearborn high school is the first majority Muslim public high school in America. And it foreshadows what's to come in America's future as we allow more and more Muslims to immigrate here and refuse to absorb into America.

In Thursday's 4-3 decision legalizing same-sex marriage, the California Supreme Court stripped children of the right to be raised by a mother and a father. Most of the media coverage of the California Supreme Court's decision has focused on the court's declaration that there is a right to same-sex marriage. The ruling invalidated California's Proposition 22, a state ballot initiative that passed with 61 percent of the vote in 2000, and which banned same-sex marriage in the state. But the California Supreme Court decision goes beyond simply giving same-sex couples the right to call their unions a "marriage." It also...

I must admit that I had just about given up on the notion that a Republican could win the White House this year. With an unpopular war in its sixth year and an economy heading into a recession, the political landscape had all the earmarks (excuse the expression) of a country that was ready to put another party in power. Additionally, with the history-making candidacies of the first woman and the first African-American with a serious chance to become the nation’s Chief Executive, it looked like curtains for the GOP. Add to that scenario the fact that conservative groups were...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- There's no question about it, a new breed of speculator is pouring money into the oil market and helping drive prices to record levels. What's less certain is if this new money is essential to a healthy market. Many blame record prices on Wall Street investors new to the oil market, saying they're bidding up gas prices to artificially high levels - and soaking drivers. As oil nears $130 a barrel, some say $10 to $70 of that price is due to Wall Street speculation. A slippery debate But that's not the whole story. Nearly everyone...

You know "Sean" and "David" a/k/a Pradeep and Srinivasan? They're the ones you get on the phone when you call to complain about problems with that new printer or fax machine or some other call center function outsourced to India. Well, say good-bye to "Sean" and "David" a/k/a Pradeep and Srinivasan, and hello to "Sean" and "David" a/k/a Mohammed and Yasser. As I told you previously, despite our worsening economy and $4 per gallon gas, President Bush decided to bail out the Palestinians with a $250 million business development investment arm to fund Palestinian small businesses and a $500 Palestinian...

A bullied office worker has been awarded £5,000 after her boss raised his right buttock from his chair and broke wind in her direction. Humiliated mother-of-three Theresa Bailey, 43, was the only woman on a sales team where "laddish" behaviour made her life a misery, and continued despite complains to senior managers.

AN AUSTRIAN man who lost a six-figure sum in bad investments has admitted killing five family members with an axe to spare them the "disgrace" of financial ruin. The 39-year-old public relations consultant, identified only as Reinhard S, walked into a Vienna police station at 3.20am yesterday, and told the duty officer: "In my apartment are my dead wife and my dead child." The man said that, after killing the two, he drove two hours to Linz, where he killed his father-in-law and his parents. After trying and failing to hang himself, he turned himself in. Vienna police confirmed the...

Dynamic Equivalence The theory of translation that seeks to represent the original text by translating in a thought-for-thought paradigm, rather than a word-for-word paradigm. Dynamic Equivalence translations would include, among others, the NIV, NLT, NJB, and GNB. And from May 15, 2008 Eisegesis [ahy’-suh-jee‘-sis] (Greek eis-, “into” + Greek hegeisthai, “to guide”) The interpretive fallacy of reading into (eis-) the text of Scripture a preconceived theology in order to make it fit with what those presumptions require. Eisegesis is to be contrasted with exegesis which involves the arrival of meaning from or out of (ex-) the biblical text, without the...

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services erroneously labeled 3,051 innocent people as child abusers by placing them on the state's official list. According to a Belleville News-Democrat investigation, 11,473 people have appealed to strike their names from the state record. The list has a 27 percent error rate of parents falsely accused of abuse. Once on the list, people are required to remain there for a minimum of five years. "They're not all bad, there are good ones," Nick Brunstein reportedly said of state child abuse investigators, "but the bad ones have the power of God, and with...

The big story this morning is President Bush's remarks to the Israeli Knesset invoking the example of Hitler to warn against the appeasement of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In the opening segment, from Mika Brzezinski [subbing for Joe Scarborough and seen in file photo] to Willie Geist to Pat Buchanan to Mike Barnicle to David Shuster, nary a word in defense of Bush was heard, with Shuster twice referring to Bush's remarks as "grotesque." The only slight straying from Bush-bashing orthodoxy was Barnicle's observation that when he first heard of the remarks, he took them as aimed at Jimmy Carter, not Barack...

Check out the site and video...searched it didnt see it up B4

Those seeking signs that the 2008 presidential race has begun in earnest need only consult this weekend’s New York Times Magazine. Coincident with Barack Obama’s emergence as the Democratic nominee in all but name, the magazine features an 8,000-plus word article by national political reporter Matt Bai that crystallizes what will surely be the Democrats’ preferred line of attack against John McCain leading up to November’s election. Framed as an evolutionary study of McCain’s foreign-policy thinking, it is in fact a straightforward attempt to implicate the Arizona senator in the failures – real, distorted and flat-out fabricated – of the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sorry, Sen. Clinton. Michigan and Florida can't save your campaign. Interviews with those considering how to handle the two states' banished convention delegates found little interest in the former first lady's best-case scenario. Her position, part of a formidable comeback challenge, is that all the delegates be seated in accordance with their disputed primaries. And even if they were, it wouldn't erase Barack Obama's growing lead in delegates over Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Democratic Party's Rules and Bylaws Committee, a 30-member panel charged with interpreting and enforcing party rules, is scheduled to meet May 31 to consider...

The video shows the arrest of a girl in Tehran for not wearing appropriate islamic clothing. The girl resists arrest and the Gasht Ershad, the special branch of the Iranian police that monitors the nation's strict dresscode, beat her up.

Divers in France have found the oldest known bust of Roman dictator Julius Caesar at the bottom of the River Rhone, officials have said. The marble bust was found near Arles, which was founded by Caesar. France's culture ministry said the bust was from 46BC, the date of the southern town's foundation. The ministry described the bust - which shows a lined face and a balding head - as typical of realist portraits of the Republican era. It said other items had been found at the same site, including a 1.8m (6ft) marble statue of Neptune from the first decade...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Lockheed Martin Corp. beat out Boeing Co. to win an Air Force contract worth up to $3.57 billion to build as many as 12 next-generation global positioning satellites, the Pentagon said Thursday. The deal is the first of three awards to supply a total of 32 satellites for the Pentagon's new GPS III system. As the manufacturer of the first block of satellites, Lockheed will be in a strong position to win the two follow-on contracts. Col. Dave Madden, commander of the Air Force's Global Positioning Systems Wing, said the Air Force hopes to work with the...

Day By Day By Grace Bob Hoekstra May 16 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Approach to Ministry We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2 Corinthians 4:2 God has made us His servants under the new covenant of grace. "God…made us…ministers of the new covenant" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6). Those who desire to serve the Lord by grace have a very distinctive approach to ministry. "We have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking...

Recently on a talk radio show, the guest, a Democrat, said there was little difference in policy between John McCain and the two Democrats running for President. Many of those calling in agreed. Considering McCain’s recent comments on global climate change and his position on some other issues I can understand why some might have that impression. If voters are convinced there would not be much difference in policy between a McCain and an Obama presidency, it is likely the majority will go for the young, charismatic candidate who would make history as the first black President. If they vote...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - May 16 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." - 1 Timothy 6:17 Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw his hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be stayed. He is a sun ever-shining; he is manna always falling round the camp; he is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from his smitten side; the rain of his grace is always dropping; the river of...

If you look a few posts below, you will find the text of President Bush’s powerful and moving speech to the Knesset today. In the course of it, he says something very general: Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this...

Before sending Lewis and Clark west, Thomas Jefferson dispatched Meriwether Lewis to Philadelphia to see Benjamin Rush. The eminent doctor prepared a series of scientific questions for the expedition to answer. Among them, writes Stephen Ambrose: “What Affinity between their [the Indians’] religious Ceremonies & those of the Jews?” Jefferson and Lewis, like many of their day and ours, were fascinated by the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and thought they might be out there on the Great Plains. They weren’t. They aren’t anywhere. Their disappearance into the mists of history since their exile from Israel in 722 B.C. is...

The controversy is over a T-shirt that read "puschin' it to the limit" and on the back it reads "Class of .08 Seniors."

The Democrats aren't the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they're finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They're busy being born. Terry Shoffner Clarke Reed The Republicans? Busy dying.

WASHINGTON - What is it about the word "appeasement" that got Barack Obama's ears ringing? Without once uttering the freshman anti-war senator's name, President Bush warned against negotiating with terrorists on the futile hope that a little more dialogue will turn these satanic beasts from their death pact to wipe Israel off the map and kill as many American men, women and children as possible. Obama, who has proposed meeting with the leaders of Iran, Syria and North Korea just as soon as he gets into the White House, heard his name somewhere in the president's speech and quickly issued...

The Reagan era in American politics is about to end, and we have George W. Bush to thank for its demise. In this respect, it doesn't matter who wins the Democratic nomination or even who wins the general election in the fall. I was going to try to write this column without using the word "paradigm," but already I've failed: Regardless of who takes the oath of office in January, the paradigm that reigned for nearly three decades -- the notion that government is useless, if not inherently evil -- is no longer operative. All three of the remaining presidential...

On the night of Apr 24, a group of 300 men and women, armed with bows and arrows and sickles and led by gun-wielding commanders, emerged swiftly and silently from the dense forest in India's Chhattisgarh state. The guerrillas descended on an iron ore processing plant owned by Essar Steel [Get Quote], one of India's biggest companies. There the attackers torched the heavy machinery on the site, plus 53 buses and trucks. Press reports say they also left a note: Stop shipping local resources out of the state - or else. The assault on the Essar facility was the work...

KARACHI: Defense Minister, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar has said that holding talks with Taliban was in the interest of the country; talks with the Taliban leaders were held earlier and were being held now also. Talking to newsmen at the PIA head office here, Defense Minister, Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar, who is PIA chairman also, said that if an agreement with Taliban gets materialized, then it would benefit the whole world and across the border actions could be controlled. As regards missile attack on Bajaur, defense minister said that the government was collecting facts and added that such attacks within Pakistan...

CHICAGO (AP) -- Perhaps no one took greater comfort in the Republican Party's third straight loss of a long-held House seat this week than Barack Obama, who says the results point to clear limits in the effectiveness of attack ads he expects this fall. The Democratic presidential candidate played a prominent role in all three special elections to fill vacant GOP seats, and he landed on the winning side each time. In recent contests in Louisiana and Mississippi, Republicans or their allies ran TV ads linking the Democratic House nominees to Obama, warning that a vote for them was a...

In another blow to Boeing Co.'s battered defense business, the U.S. Air Force on Thursday tapped rival Lockheed Martin Corp. for a contract potentially worth more than $3.5 billion to build a new generation of global positioning satellites. Chicago-based Boeing, which has a huge workforce in Southern California, would have made the satellites in El Segundo. The loss of the contract, known as Global Positioning System IIIA, was Boeing's third high-profile defeat in as many months. The company lost a $35-billion contest to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force in February and a $3.74-billion award to build unmanned...

Excerpt - DUBAI, May 16 (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape marking Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations to continue the fight against the Jewish state and its allies and not give up an inch of Palestinian land. "We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on earth," the al Qaeda leader said in the tape posted on an Islamist website on Friday. Bin Laden said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was at the heart of...

Fritzl's incest kids give thanks Friday, May 16, 2008 The Sun By STAFF REPORTER THIS poster is a public show of thanks to the people of Amstetten in Austria created by the children who were locked in evil Fritzl's dungeon lair. The youngsters wanted to thank locals for their public shows of support since they were rescued from the cellar along with their mother - Fritzl's daughter - Elisabeth last month. The main picture shows 18-year-old Stefan's palm prints and a message saying that he misses his sister Kerstin, 19, and that he is happy about his new-found "freedom...

Senior U.S. and Pakistani officials tell NBC News that Wednesday’s Predator attack on a village in northwest Pakistan was not insignificant, that a “high-value target … an Arab” was among those killed. U.S. officials believe the unnamed target was planning attacks outside Pakistan, “so we nailed him,” in the words of one.

An 8-year-old boy reportedly stole an idling car Thursday night and crashed into another car on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Pontiac, police said. Pontiac police said due to protocol, they notified Child Protective Service, but it's unlikely they will face any charges.

DETROIT -- Whenever it rains, crews at Northwest Activities Center in Detroit have to climb on the flat roof with squeegees to try to prevent water from leaking inside. Inside, buckets are lined up to catch whatever the crews could not scrape off the top. This is the situation after, not before, the city spent $16 million to renovate the center.

We have been told for as long as we can remember that voting is a god given right in this country. To be politically incorrect “One man, one vote” is what we are told. How could anyone disagree? What a wonderful world we live in with our wonderful democracy here in the U.S. Well I, the WhiteDevil, will now disagree. We already put some limitations on voting. We may not vote until we are 18. Not all people living in America can vote such as legal or illegal immigrants. Felons cannot vote in most places. A judge can remove the...

Spending some time on the campaign trail has confirmed a couple of thoughts I've had before I entered the Republican primary race. First, conservatism is alive and well in America; don't let anyone tell you differently. And by conservatism, I don't mean the warmed-over "raise your hand if you believe ..." kind of conservatism we see blooming every election cycle. No, I'm speaking of the conservatism grounded in principles based upon enduring truths: an understanding of the importance of human nature in the affairs of individuals and nations. Respect for the lessons of history, the importance of faith and tradition....

It had to be one of the single dumbest questions ever asked in the history of network television. Diane Sawyer was chatting up James Carville, the irascible Clinton loyalist, about the West Virginia Democrat primary. She turned to Mr. Carville and, with a glint in her eye, asked something that almost caused him to fall flat out of his cushy 'Good Morning America' chair. At least I know I certainly would have keeled over had I been asked the same thing. Referring to the much-reported exit polling in West Virginia that suggested that one out of five Clinton voters said...

Enlarge ImageYounger than it looks. Astronomers compared radio (left, blue) and x-ray images (red) of this supernova remnant to determine that the explosion had occurred only 100 years before.Credit: NRAO (radio)/Chandra (x-ray) U.S. and British astronomers have located the youngest known remnant of an exploding star in the Milky Way. The discovery might help researchers understand why our galaxy seems to have so few supernovas and where the raw materials of planets and life came from. The Milky Way is a perfectly ordinary spiral galaxy, except for a shortage of supernova activity. These titanic explosions, which mark the deaths...

Pity Party Big picture, May 2008: The Democrats aren't the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead. For all their fractious fighting, they're finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They're busy being born. The Republicans? Busy dying. The brightest of them see no immediate light. They're frozen, not like a deer in the headlights but a deer in the darkness, his ears stiff at...

Veteran Democrat David Carlin knows what he’s going to do if Illinois Sen. Barack Obama becomes his party’s presidential nominee He’s going to vote for the presumptive Republican nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. “Any Catholic who takes the abortion issue seriously will not vote for Obama,” said Carlin, who served as majority leader of the Rhode Island Senate in 1989-90. Pro-life leaders describe Obama — who is now the heavy favorite to defeat New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination — as the most pro-abortion presidential candidate in American history. “Based on his record he appears to...

If you're facing foreclosure, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson wants to help. "If someone is willing to make a call to reach out," says Paulson, "there's a chance we can save their homes." But Paulson can't save these homes because the homes are not endangered in the first place. They stand to change hands, not to vanish. There cannot be more homeowners than there are homes, and if one home becomes vacant, then there can be one new homeowner. Call it the Law of Conservation of Homes. None of these foreclosed houses is going to disappear. After a foreclosure, one family...

Sen. Barack Obama, the leading Democratic candidate for his party's nomination, is very fond of telling receptive audiences the story about how last May he walked right into the automotive lion's den of Detroit and told those industrialists they were going to have to shape up, change the way they do things and start making more fuel-efficient vehicles to protect our environment. "And I have to say," the straight-talking Obama tells his chuckling followers, "that when I delivered that speech, the room got really quiet. [Laughter] Nobody clapped." Well, in honor of Obama's return campaign visit back to Michigan this...

The Clintons lied in 1992 (about Bill's affairs and their phony plans for middle class tax cuts), 1995 (about Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress), 1998 (about Monica Lewinsky), 2000 (again about the need for tax cuts in light of an upcoming recession), and 2001 (about Bill's pardons of some criminals). Each time after those lies, terrorist attacks against the US or Americans occurred, killing people -- the Twin Towers were bombed, five servicemen died in Riyadh, two African embassies were bombed, the USS Cole was attacked, and the Twin Towers were destroyed while the Pentagon was attacked. Thus, it...

Dutch cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot was arrested when his house was raided by ten police men. He spent a night in a police cell and was then released. It is unclear if Nekschot is to be prosecuted. The raid apparently happened because of complaints by fundamentalist imam van de Ven, a Dutch Islam convert who once said that he'd like to see critics of Islam like Geert Wilders to be dead. Nekschot is a controversial cartoonist who criticizes multi cultural society and religions. Although his work is not exactly an example of fine taste sometimes his arrest raised protests. The raid...

After modeling a seeker-sensitive approach to church growth for three decades, Willow Creek Community Church now plans to gear its weekend services toward mature believers seeking to grow in their faith. cut Since 1975, Willow Creek has avoided conventional church approaches, using its Sunday services to reach the unchurched through polished music, multimedia, and sermons referencing popular culture and other familiar themes. cut .....surveyed congregants at Willow Creek and six other churches, suggested that evangelistic impact was greater from those who self-reported as "close to Christ" or "Christ-centered" than from new church attendees. In addition, a quarter of the "close...