Gary McCray sings "A Lady Like You"

Here is another song from Gary McCray, a real Country Music gentleman. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and will download it today.

Billy Keeble & Leona Williams sing "I'm So Afraid Of Losing You Again"

One of my all-time favourite singers is the great Billy Keeble, and I love this song in which he duets with Leona Williams. I hope you like it too, and will check out more of Billy Keeble's work on his website.

Two new titles from Sheer Joy Music on the SJM label

 Both of these titles are due for release during the first week of June, so watch out for them. The breathy and sultry tones of Lauralei purr out the question "What Did You Mean?"   What a fabulous young singer she is! Byron J Bryce gives us a helping of real Country Music with the song "Wild Horses (Beneath a Raging Moon)" which is a real country ballad relating the story of a 'shotgun wedding.'

Both of these tracks will be available shortly to download from all the major Digital Music sites.

Country Music makes me smile

"Praise Him!" : A chorus for the Sunday School.

Praise Him!      6565

TUNE: Praise Him

Praise Him for the flowers.

Praise Him for the trees,

Praise Him for your elbows,

Praise Him for your knees.

Praise Him for all creatures,

And for birds that sing,

Lift your hands to heaven,

Praise for everything!

 © 2009 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

This is a great little chorus for the children to sing in your Worship Service or at the School Assembly. Please feel free to share it and use it, but also report its use to CCLI in the usual way.

"Jehovah, Lord" : My choice for the 'Hymn for Today'

Jehovah, Lord   6666 D

TUNE: Fount of Purity

 Ours is a mighty God,

He’s the ruler of all;

He’ll always lead and guide,

And catch you when you fall.

He made the heav’ns and earth,

Sun, stars and moon above,

Then He made you and me,

And blessed us with His love.

He made the whole wide world,

And then each living thing;

He made the land and sea,

Now all praise be to Him.

He is the Living God,

The ancient of all days;

He’s our Jehovah, Lord,

Give to Him all your praise.

© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

"She's Not the Honky Tonk Kind" sung by Gary McCray

Who is Gary McCray? Read on to find out a little about him and then click on the link below to find out some more ...

"Gary McCray was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma to a Cherokee Indian mother and a fiddlin’ Irish father. His mother financed his first guitar, a Fender flat top, and he went to church to find someone who could teach him his first chords. The preacher at that church showed him a D chord, then a G, which he worked on till his fingers got so sore they were “glowing red”, Gary says. But, that didn’t stop him from learning. Gary took it all in and learned to play and sing those old gospel tunes at first, but it didn’t take him long to adapt his newly learned skills to those country songs he was hearing on the radio. ........"
http://garymccray.com/bio/

Beautiful places for a Hideaway Holiday.

Cabin in the Autumn Forest, Holland 

Lakeside Hideaway 

Canal Cottage in Holland 

Clifftop retreat in Meteora, Greece 

Domed Rondavel in the Serengeti National Park

 Golden Eye Hotel, St Mary, Jamaica

The perfect hideaway holiday! 

The Springs Resort & Spa at Arenal Fortuna, Costa Rica

Funeral poem: 'The Christian's Confidence'

The Christian’s Confidence
When I am gone, remember I’m with Jesus;
Then do not mourn because I’ve passed away.
Life holds so many griefs and disappointments,
And will you cry, because I did not stay?
‘Tis only for a while we must be parted,
Not many years on earth to us are given,

And when my Saviour tells me you are coming,
I’ll go with Him and welcome you to heaven.
Grieve not because the eyes that looked upon you
Shall never see your face on earth again;
Rejoice, because they look upon the Saviour,
Who gave His life to ransom sinful men.
Weep not because I walk no longer with you,
Remember I am walking streets of gold,
Weep for yourselves that you a while must tarry,
Before the blessed Lord you may behold.
Oh say, “He has arrived”
And not, "He’s passed away”
And think of him as now
In His eternal day.
Arrived - to see His face,
Arrived - to see His smile,
Arrived - to greet again
Those he lost awhile.
Arrived - no more to tread
The path where saints have trod;
Arrived - in perfect peace,
Through faith in Jesu's blood.

 - Author unknown

"Love is the Reason" : My Hymn Choice for Today --- #2

Love is the Reason    10.9.10.9 D

TUNE: American melody

 Love is the reason, love is the answer,

That is why Jesus came down to earth;

He came to free us now and forever,

Blesséd salvation, grace of new birth.

      Love is the reason, love is the answer,

      That is why He hung on Calv’ry’s tree;

      Love is the reason, love is the answer,

      By grace He saved us and set us free.

Love is the reason, love is the answer,

He came to set the prisoner free;

He will transform you when you accept Him,

Make the lame walk, and make the blind see.

      Love is the reason, love is the answer ...

Love is the reason, love is the answer,

Jesus came down your sins to atone;

Redeemed the lost sheep, saved for the Father,

Saving through faith and by grace alone.

      Love is the reason, love is the answer ...

© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Please feel free to use this hymn in your Worship Service or School Assembly, but please also report its use to CCLI.

"Light of Heaven" : My 'Hymn Choice' for today.

Light of Heaven  65 65

TUNE: Kjellman

Light from Christ is shining,

Out across the earth;

Angels loud are singing

Of the Saviour’s birth.

Born in simple stable,

To a virgin birth;

Blesséd Lord and Saviour,

Greatest gift on earth.

Jesus came to save us,

Came to set us free;

Heavens day is dawning

Now on you and me.

He’s the light of heaven,

Stars and moon and sun,

Star-shine of the morning,

He’s God’s only Son.

© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

"Freedom" : Rev Colin's Hymn Choice for Today

Freedom  77 77

TUNE: Monkland

Freedom comes through Christ the Lord,

He’s the living, breathing Word;

Broken now the pow’r of sin,

Let the Light come flooding in.

When upon His name we call,

Grace and mercy comes to all;

He has beaten death and grave,

Jesus Christ came down to save.

Reconciled, redeemed, forgiv’n,

We will be with Him in Heav’n;

But, whilst here on earth we stay,

We must serve Him ev’ry day.

Precious freedom wrought with love,

Perfect gift from Christ above;

From the grip of sin set free,

We must always holy be.

Keep the straight and narrow way,

Walking with Him day by day.

Ev’ry moment serve the Lord,

As he teaches in His Word.

© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

Evolution & the Theory of Random Mutations

Evolution Depends On Mutations!

 By Thomas Heinze

Honest!

     I know it sounds stupid, but evolutionists really believe that your body and your brain were developed by a series of random, unplanned accidents passed on by inheritance from parents to children.

     They have faith that random accidents (called mutations) gradually changed the simple little brains of one celled animals into the wonderful brains inside their own skulls today!

     The evolutionists’ theory is that a first cell from who knows where gradually evolved to become you and me by random mutations. (accidental changes). Evolutionists believe that they now sit triumphantly enthroned at the top of a pile of increasingly complex forms of life created by unplanned, undirected random accidents.

     Imagine with me that Ford had to depend on accidents to design its new models: “They are paying us to design next years Ford, so let’s close our eyes and run the Ford we’re driving into that huge rock over there. That should be a big step in creating the design for next year’s Ford!”

     If you’re thinking, “No fool could be that stupid!” You’re almost right!

     Evolutionists, however really believe that their own bodies and brains got here by random accidental changes to earlier less evolved bodies and brains. They call those changes random mutations.

     In our experience, random changes to things that do what they were intelligently designed to do don’t make them do it better!

     Make a random change to a Ford or a bicycle, and it will make either one worse! Our bodies and brains function because they were made by the Master Designer. They are NOT the result of accidents. Accidental changes to things that were intelligently designed degrade them! Atheists get around this problem by believing that God never made anything so he couldn't have made living things. This leaves them stuck with the belief that living things must have been produced, or at least perfected by random mutations.

     Do you believe like the evolutionists that random changes make stuff better? Grab a hammer, put on a blindfold, and make some random changes to your car! Random changes to things that were intelligently designed mess them up! Random changes to cars make them worse whether they are caused by automobile accidents or your hammer. Even if your car is old and rusty you don’t want it to be in a wreck!

     Pity the poor atheists! They don’t trust in God the Creator because they have chosen not to believe in Him. When they ask themselves, “Where did we come from?” They limit their choices to a few really stupid alternatives. They end up believing that the very brain they are thinking with was built up by random accidents that happened to earlier brains that were worse. It’s like trying to account for the design of a Ford if you are absolutely convinced that Fords were built by accidents!

     It’s tough to be an atheist or one of their evolutionist followers. They have to try to believe that random accidents, which they call mutations, created the very brains they count on to do their thinking! So why trust their thinking?

     Feel free to use this article as you wish! Copy it in your publication; post it on your website. Forward it to your friends or enemies. Whatever!

Tom Heinze

heinze@hevanet.com

Fort Hood Islamic Terrorist continues to receive US Army pay, despite having killed or injured 45

Awaiting Trial, Maj. Nidal Hasan Paid $278,000
By SCOTT FRIEDMAN
NBCDFW.com
updated 5/20/2013 11:16:42 PM ET
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51947575
The Department of Defense confirms to NBC 5 Investigates that accused Fort Hood shooter Major Nidal Hasan has now been paid more than $278,000 since the Nov. 5, 2009 shooting that left 13 dead 32 injured. The Army said under the Military Code of Justice, Hasan’s salary cannot be suspended unless he is proven guilty.

If Hasan had been a civilian defense department employee, NBC 5 Investigates has learned, the Army could have suspended his pay after just seven days.

Personnel rules for most civilian government workers allow for "indefinite suspensions" in cases "when the agency has reasonable cause to believe that the employee has committed a crime for which a sentence of imprisonment may be imposed."

Meanwhile, more than three years later soldiers wounded in the mass shooting are fighting to receive the same pay and medical benefits given to those wounded in combat.

Retired Army Spc. Logan Burnett, a reservist who, in 2009, was soon to be deployed to Iraq, was shot three times when a gunman opened fire inside the Army Deployment Center.

“I honestly thought I was going to die in that building,” said Burnett. “Just blood everywhere and then the thought of -- that's my blood everywhere.”

Burnett nearly died. He's had more than a dozen surgeries since the shooting, and says post-traumatic stress still keeps him up at night.

Burnett is now fighting a new battle; only this one is against the U.S. Army.

The Army has not classified the wounds of the Ft. Hood victims as “combat related” and declines to label the shooting a “terrorist attack”,

The “combat related” designation is an important one, for without it Burnett and other shooting victims are not given combat-related pay, they are not eligible for Purple Heart retirement or medical benefits given to other soldiers wounded either at war or during the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon.

As a result, Burnett, his wife Torey, and the families of other Fort Hood victims miss out on thousands of dollars of potential benefits and pay every year.

To Burnett the shooting felt like combat.

“You take three rounds and lose five good friends and watch seven other people get killed in front of you. Do you have another term that we can classify that as?” asked Burnett.

The Army has categorized the shooting as a case of “workplace violence.”

“Sickens me. Absolutely sickens me. Workplace violence? I don't even know if I have the words to say,” said Burnett.

"They don't need to be treated like this. They don't need to sit and fight every day for this benefit or that,” said Torey Burnett.

As that fight continues, Burnett was stunned to see a letter detailing the more $278,000 Hasan has been paid since his arrest. NBC 5 Investigates received the letter from the Department of Defense in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

"There have been times when my wife and I cannot afford groceries. We cannot afford gas in our car,” Burnett said. “Literally, times where we ate Ramen noodles for weeks on end. This [that Hasan is still earning a paycheck] makes me sick to my stomach,” said Burnett.

Burnett isn’t alone in his outrage.

“We're giving the defendant in this case every benefit of the doubt. But yet we're not giving the benefits to the victims,” said Rep. Thomas Rooney (R) Florida Rooney, a former prosecutor at Fort Hood, recently signed a bi-partisan letter urging defense secretary Chuck Hagel to "...reclassify the victims' deaths and injuries as 'combat related'..."

The letter said the current situation has "...resulted in an embarrassing lack of care and treatment for the victims and their families."

“What happened here is not a case of workplace violence. What happened here was an attack on our military by a terrorist element specifically targeting our military, which just so happened to be in the United States of America,” said Rooney.

[Continue reading full article here]

Obama's Government promotes Radical Islam as being the true "Moderates"

U.S. Gov't: Radical Muslims Approved, Moderates Shunned
Counterterrorism trainers are told that U.S. Brotherhood groups' are not tied to terrorism. Yet the federal gov't has proved they are.
By Ryan Maurohttp://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/us-govt-radical-muslims-approved-moderates-shunned

Hassan Shibly, Nihad Awad, Zair Shakir, Kifah Mustafa and Siraj Wahhaj (clock-wise from left). All are radical Islamists who have been associated with CAIR.

Shockingly, the advisory committee that likely influenced these guidelines includes numerous individuals affiliated with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood.

The document says it is a list of “tips for federal, state and local government and law enforcement officials organizing CVE [Countering Violent Extremism], cultural awareness, counter-radicalization, or counterterrorism training.” It was produced by the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in cooperation with the National Counterterrorism Center.

The DHS suggestions in the document include:

"Don’t use training premised on theories with little or no evidence to support them. Examples (from the report “Manufacturing the Muslim Menace”) of unsubstantiated theories include:

a. Many mainstream Muslim organizations have terrorist ties.

b. Mainstream Muslim organizations are fronts for Islamic political organizations whose true desire is to establish Sharia law in America. Muslim Americans are using democratic processes, like litigation and free speech, to subvert democracy and install Sharia law."

The “Manufacturing the Muslim Menace” report cited depicts concerns about the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as the fabrications of anti-Muslim bigots. Moreover, it defends the Brotherhood, saying it is a moderate group that wouldn’t use front groups in America.

The Federal Government Itself Provides Evidence to the Contrary

In reality, solid evidence exists to the contrary – evidence ironically from the federal government’s own determinations as well as documents from the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood itself including a 1991 U.S. Muslim Brotherhood explanatory memorandum that explicitly states: “[O]ur work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within.”

The Brotherhood memorandum lists “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.” The list includes “mainstream” Muslim-American groups—the very same groups which appear to have influenced these very same Department of Homeland Security guidelines (see below).

Specifically, the federal government designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) as unindicted co-conspirators in the trial of the Holy Land Foundation for financing Hamas. Federal prosecutors labeled these three mainstream groups as U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entities in 2007. In 2009, the designations were upheld by District Court Judge Solis because of “ample” evidence linking them to Hamas.

The Clarion Project has broken numerous stories about other Islamist groups doing exactly what the DHS dismisses in the current training document as “unsubstantiated theories.”

For example, a Pennsylvania-based group, Sankore Institute of Islamic-African Studies International (SIIASI), tells Muslims to engage in "litigation jihad" to advance Sharia law in America.

A California-based group, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA), which issues authoritative fatwas, or religious declarations, said in a 2007 Arabic paper presented at one of its conferences it recommends that Muslims become judges and use deception to implement sharia law to the best of their ability. To call their rulings unsettling would be a gross understatement.

These are important facts but the DHS guidelines would leave law enforcement personnel ignorant of them.

[CONTINUE READING FULL ARTICLE HERE] 

"Some Day Street" - An Alcoholic's story

This is an Alcoholic's story. The author is unknown. I have edited it and made one or two alterations to make it scan better. It certainly tells it like it is.

Some Day Street
Some Day Street is a one way street that leads to the Gates of Hell;
It's littered with broken bottles; it reeks with a stale wine smell.
It's the street of human derelict, the place of forgotten Men,
Who stagger and sway along the way, and are never seen again.

Some Day Street is a sunless Street, where the days and nights are one;
And each tomorrow brings pain and sorrow, till life of Man is done.
It's a fearful Street, a hidden Street, that lives in each drunken brain;
That screams and cries, and tries and tries to find some day again.

Some Day Street is a lonely Street; it's always dark and drear,
Where the eyes of men are dull and tired and forever filled with fear.
There's not a smile on that cruel mile, but death in every block:
And the Devil smiles and the Devil beguiles the souls he has in Hock.

Some Day Street is a Hellish Street; it's full of broken dreams.
It smells of broken bodies, and laughs at their drunken screams.
It's a timeless Street, a faceless Street; its Men are faceless too;
There they stay, till they’re laid away, in a box six foot by two.

Some Day Street is a lonely Street, it claims, it maims, it slays.
Men toss and turn, and sob and yearn for the memories of other days.
The days before they hit the Street, when life was good and new,
When each day and night was clean and bright, in a world where dreams come true.

Some Day Street is a jealous Street that takes its victims breath;
Each step you make, each drink you take, lead you on to Death.
It's a dim-lit Street, a lying Street, that fools each seeking heart;
It shades each one and when it's done, it tears each one apart.

Some Day Street is a One-Way Street that lets few people go.
I've lived on Some Day Street myself and that is how I know.
The Wino, the Dinoh, the Hypo, the Big Shot and the Bum,
The Mackaroo too, I've swilled their wine and run.

I know the lying garish lights, I know the Hellish dreams,
I know the Alley and the Dives and Jails, I know the cries and screams.
I know the filth of Some Day Street, I know the cry of shame,
because I came from Some Day Street, with all its Hell and Pain.

I've found a way to live each day and not go back again;
Found a way to carry on, and leave behind the pain.
Friends who live on Some Day Street said that there was a way,
To leave the Hell of Some Day Street and that was through AA.

I've not been back to Some Day Street, in weeks, in months, in years.
I fear the Hellish Street no more, its blackouts and its fears.
Those Friends of mine showed me a path that I gladly trod.
Out of the depths of Some Day Street, on to the path of God.
Anonymous

"King of Kings" narrated by Rev Colin

One of the tracks on Rev Colin's meditation CD "In Praise of Him" which contains 33 tracks of meditations as well as this bonus track, all of which are available to download from iTunes, Amazon & CD Baby. 

Rod Williams sings "A Fencer From the Outback"

Australian Country singer Rod Williams is known as "Australia's Country Music Gentleman" and this song gives you a good idea of why. His voice is easy to listen to as he sings real country ballads. Check him out on Youtube, and download his songs from iTunes.

Flawed White House Guidelines on Terror Training

Jihad experts decry White House terror training guidelines
http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/20/jihad-experts-decry-white-house-terror-training-guidelines/#ixzz2Tw0RrW9D
2:19 AM 05/20/2013

Neil Munro
White House Correspondent
Experts on Islam and terrorism are decrying the Department of Homeland Security’s recently revealed anti-terrorism training guidelines, which pressure cops to ignore Islamic beliefs when investigating terror crimes.

The Boston bombings demonstrated the impact of such training, Andrew McCarthy, a former New York prosecutor, told The Daily Caller.

“The Boston Marathon was bombed by a jihadist who had been investigated by the FBI … [and was confirmed in 2011 to be] an Islamist, which would have been hard not to do since he does not appear to have made any secret of it,” said McCarthy, who persuaded a New York jury in 1995 to convict “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman for his use of Islamic teaching to spur jihad attacks, including the 1993 attack against the Twin Towers.

But before the bombing, “the FBI closed its file [on Tamerlan Tsarnaev] because it found this did not constitute ‘derogatory information,’” McCarthy said.

McCarthy and other security experts, and even members of the American Islamic community, indicate that a culture of excessive concern for the sensibilities of Muslims supremacists is preventing law enforcement agencies from pursuing jihadists.

The 2011 guidelines unveiled Thursday by The Daily Caller are part of this pattern of deferring to Islamist chauvinism. (Related: Homeland Security guidelines advise deference to pro-Shariah Muslim supremacists)

Under the federal guidelines, “agents are admonished to discount the possibility that an Islamist’s constitutionally protected abhorrence of the United States might possibly lead to violence,” McCarthy told TheDC.

Even if FBI officials had learned about Tsarnaev’s 2012 trip to a part of southern Russia that is embroiled in a jihadi war, they would not have restarted their 2011 investigation, a government official told the Washington Post in April.

“The FBI investigation into the individual in question had been closed six months prior to his departure from the United States and more than a year before his return. …Since there was no derogatory information, there was no reason to suggest that additional action was warranted,” the official said in April.

On his six-month trip, starting in January 2012, Tsarnaev visited several militant Islamic leaders and mosques in Dagestan, where jihadis are fighting the Russian government, according to several U.S. and Russian media sources.

“The fiasco regarding Boston is a prime example” of how bad training degrades security, said Robert Spencer, an authority on Islamic doctrine who is heavily criticized by Islamic groups in the United States. He noted that even though FBI agents had interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the FBI was unable to identify Tsarnaev in crowd photographs taken before and after the bomb strike.

After the attack, FBI officials also did not ask the main mosque in Boston for help in identifying the suspects, said Nichole Mossalam, a spokeswoman for the Islamic Society of Boston.

“We were the ones who reached out to them … on Friday” once the picture were released, Mossalam told TheDC.

Because of the guidelines, it would be “a ‘profiling’ scandal to show the pictures at the mosque just because it was a bombing with … no other evidence of connection to Muslims,” he said.

The guidelines, titled “Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Training Do’s and Don’ts,” don’t merely promote respect for free expression but actively promote extremist views by telling officials to sideline experts who “venture too deep into the weeds of [Islamic] religious doctrines and history. … [T]hese topics are not necessary in order to understand the [Muslim] community.”

The DHS also actively discourages engagement with moderate Muslims. “Don’t use trainers … who are self-professed ‘Muslim reformers’ … [or who] equate radical thought [or] religious expressions … with criminal activity,” say the training guidelines.

The guidelines also advise cops, “Don’t use a trainer or training that has received repeated external negative feedback … don’t use training that treats the American Muslim community as a problem rather than as a partner … don’t use training that relies on fear [for example, by citing convictions that show] mainstream Muslim organizations have terrorist ties.”

The training guidelines go so far as to urge federal officials to rely on a political report by the Muslim Public Affairs Committee (MPAC), a Los Angeles, California-based Islamic advocacy group with extensive ties to jihadists and Islamist groups, including the Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood.

[CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE HERE]

Rod Williams sings "Holdin' the White Line"

Rod Williams, 'Australia's Country Music Gentleman' sings his great new song on this video. Why not share it with all of your friends by pointing them to it on Youtube, and then buy the download it from Amazon.

A Hymn for Pentecost: "The Spirit's Fire"

This Sunday is Pentecost and so I'm sharing this Pentecost Hymn with you today. Please feel free to share it with your church and your friends. If you use it in your worship service then please acknowledge its use to CCLI in the usual way.

The Spirit’s Fire  7676
TUNE: Cara

A mighty wind around us,
Is rushing through this place;
God ‘s Spirit full surrounds us,
Defeating time and space.

The Spirit’s fire consuming,
We burn with faith’s desire;
God’s mighty pow’r upon us,
We blaze with holy fire.

Christ calls on us to serve Him,
To witness to His love;
To love and serve our neighbour,
And praise our God above.

Let’s all proclaim His message,
And be His hands and feet;
When we serve Christ our Saviour,
Our lives are made complete.
© 2011 : Colin Gordon-Farleigh

What God says about Marriage

In attempting to redefine marriage the UK Coalition Government is being expressly defiant towards God, as though they know best and God should learn to do what they tell Him rather than doing what He tells them. How arrogant can you get!

If marriage is redefined to incorporate same-sex unions then it weakens the whole institution of marriage as laid down in Scripture, and at the same time it devalues it. This is a time to be telling your political leaders that they should leave things as they are. The electorate are, by and large, extremely angered by the proposals, and this anger will be reflected in the Ballot Box ultimately if this ill-thought out attempt at winning a few extra votes is carried through.

We must remember that God is sovereign, not man. The answer will lie in prayer. The following passage of Scripture says it all:

Matthew Chapter 19: verses 3-5
Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” (4) And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, (5) and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?

Coalition in UK Determined to Destroy the Sanctity of Marriage by Redefining it

Marriage Devastation 

Here in the UK, the House of Commons may be on the verge of devastating marriage by 'redefining it' - a move that would have huge consequences for future generations and change the shape of society.

Now is the time to speak and to pray. In God's grace the Bill could still be defeated.

Next Monday and Tuesday will see the critical Report Stage and Third Reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. If voted through it is expected to go to the House of Lords in early June. We face a crucial six weeks.

Please contact your MP (even if you have done so before) urging them to vote no next week and / or to back a referendum on marriage. When MPs hear from their constituents it can make a real difference. If this issue will affect how you vote at the next general election, please say so (especially if it means you won't vote for them).

Here are some points you can use in urging them to vote against the Bill:

• Referendum: People have never been given the opportunity to vote on this. It has big social and constitutional consequences yet it wasn't in any of the major parties' manifestos or the coalition agreement and the consultation was a sham. MPs should back a referendum if there is to be any possibility of change in this area. 

• Deafness: The Government has ignored the many concerns raised by MPs during the Second Reading and Committee stages of the Bill, failing to introduce appropriate amendments or abandon the Bill.

• Hostility: This Bill would destroy a common understanding of marriage and set up two rival understandings of marriage. It's the beginning of hostility rather than the end because people will be penalised despite the protections that the Government claims. 

• Honesty: This Bill pretends that homosexual and heterosexual relationships are the same when they are not. The problems with trying to define consummation and adultery for same sex couples in the Bill demonstrate this.

• Children: This Bill breaks the link with children (not all married couples have children but all children have a biological mother and father - marriage reflects this reality). God's pattern for marriage and family is the best for adults, children and society.

• Unpopular: A recent ComRes poll shows that this policy is unpopular. Amongst those eligible to vote in this month's local elections, it made: 
• 23% of people less likely to vote Conservative; only 7% of people more likely 
• 17% of people less likely to vote Labour; only 6% of people more likely 
• 23% of people less likely to vote Liberal Democrat; only 4% of people more likely

North Yorkshire Moors Railway : Fabulous!

     

     Last week we spent the week on vacation enjoying the fabulous scenery of North Yorkshire and the National Park and Moors. I'm old enough to have travelled regularly on steam trains in my youth, and I was delighted when we discovered the North Yorkshire Moors Railway went past the Cottage where we were staying. Not only that, but last weekend was a Steam Gala, and so there were trains going by regularly throughout the day, and the sound of the whistle quickly became a notable part of our lives.
     Levisham Station, which featured in one of the Harry Potter movies and also in 'Brideshead Revisited', was a five-minute walk away, and we spent several hours enjoying the hustle and bustle of a busy 1912-design railway station during the course of the week.

We stayed in a beautiful detached cottage on the edge of the Forest which was aptly named 'The Hideaway'.  Why not check it out for yourself by going to this website.

The flaw in American Policy under the Obama Administration

Last year Act for America put out a series of emails describing the purge of any references to radical Islam in federal government counter-terrorism materials.

This didn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of a conscious and deliberate policy decision at the highest levels of the Obama administration.

Please view the short video below, put out by our friends at EMET.

We now know that Russian authorities wire tapped a phone call between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother, in which they discussed “jihad.” This phone call was part of the reason the Russians alerted the FBI about Tsarnaev.

Had John Brennan, now our CIA director, listened in on this phone call, he almost certainly would have dismissed any concerns about Tsarnaev.

Why? Because Brennan has stated publicly he believes the notion that “jihad” is connected to terrorism is false. Brennan believes “jihad” is a “holy tenet” of Islam, because he claims it refers only to personal improvement.

Or what our friend Dr. Walid Phares calls “Islamic yoga.”

This administration refuses to acknowledge any jihadist ideology behind Islamic terrorism. The short video below is a must-see in this regard.

We can only speculate what might have happened when the FBI investigated Tamerlan Tsarnaev if our counterterrorism strategy included identifying jihadist ideology as a prime motivator of jihadist attacks.

But since the FBI can’t consider jihadist ideology when it does such investigations, it’s no wonder it dropped its investigation of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

'Hymn for Today': "He Is Always With Me"

For my choice of the 'Hymn for Today' I am sharing one of the hymns that I have entered for the Hymn-writing Competition. This hymn was recorded by the Tallahassee-based Charlotte Kerce on her album "He is Always With Me."  The album is available from the Sheer Joy Music online store or the tracks can be individually downloaded from iTunes, Amazon and CD Baby. I hope you enjoy singing it. Please feel free to share it as much as you wish, but please report its use in Church Services or School Assemblies to CCLI in the usual way. The lyrics are by Colin Gordon-Farleigh and the music is by Greg Scheer.

He Is Always With Me
TUNE: God’s Spirit

I can feel God's Spirit
stirring in my soul;
I can feel him moving
since Jesus made me whole.
I can feel God's Spirit
stirring in my soul;
since Jesus made me whole.
He is always with me,
each moment of the day;
He is always with me,
and He's teaching me the way.
He is always, always with me.
He is always with me.

He will lead and help me
follow Christ, the Way;
help me in my witness,
and guide me when I pray.
He will lead and help me
follow Christ, the Way;
and guide me when I pray.
He is always with me . . .

I will be a witness,
I will serve my Lord;
I will promise always
to live life by His Word.
I will be a witness,
I will serve my Lord;
to live life by His Word.
He is always with me . . .
© 2007 :  Colin Gordon-Farleigh

A new 'Hymn for Today' : "Heaven's Dawn Breaks"

Heaven’s Dawn Breaks  87 87

TUNE: Brocklesby

Hear the sound of angel’s singing,

Filling up the skies with song;

Now from earth the saints are winging,

Joining with the heav’nly throng.

For the dawn of heav’n is breaking,

Jesus, Saviour, now has come;

He’s returned to earth in glory,

Sound the trumpet, beat the drum!

In a moment, in a twinkling,

He will harvest all that’s sown;

See the brightest dawn a’breaking,

Jesus calls out to His own.

Praising, praising, Christ the Saviour,

He is King and Lord of all;

Join the throng of angels singing,

Heav’n’s dawn breaks, now heed the call.

© 2011 :  Colin Gordon-Farleigh