Come and Join Because of Rick Warren? Tickled Ears Indeed

Further proof that Rick Warren is out for this himself, not for the glory of God.

http://saddlebackfamily.com/blogs/newsandviews/index.html?contentID=2085

Seems more of a wanton pride for “more members” than a true desire to share the gospel of Christ when some of the top 8 reasons to come and join are because Rick Warren is there and you can meet him.

Forget the Banks! Fargo Needs a Bailout - Grab your Pail! (see last pic in post)

Wow—who needs FEMA when you have people that will work together to fight back the flood waters? God has surely blessed the Fargo area through this with some wise people, and people out to help not looking for any recognition whatsoever.

My wife was interviewed by a reporter from the AP yesterday and it ended up producing the below linked story--

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29962032/

It’s a little eerie around here, but encouraging at the same time. Most of the area is shut down, and the weather is just not cooperating.

I’ve included a few interesting pictures from the past week. Credit goes to The Forum newspaper and the AP.

Obama's Youth Brigade Forbids Church Attendance & Sharing the Gospel of Christ?

How's this for "change?" HR 1388, called the “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Bill" would require that any student in the brigade is not allowed to participate in “engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization."

Just what does this mean? It's quite simple actually--these youth, which it's reported that Obama hopes will number at least 1 million, will not be allowed to share the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

This is not in the headlines, it's not on TV much, it's barely reported at all... Obama and the rest of the government are taking away our Constitutional rights--this one, freedom of speech.

What is more alarming is that some are comparing this to the Nazi Youth of Hitler's Germany. I don't know about that, but the goal does seem to be similar--to get service out of as many people as you can and limiting their freedoms, by simply offering cash for "education."

Luckily, Christians are required to not obey the law of the land if it's not consistent with God's law. It's going to certainly get worse folks, but the good news is there is hope! God said things like this would happen. He said that knowledge would increase, people will travel to and fro, people will trade the truth for a lie because it satisfies their sinful desires! But in the end, if you read the Bible, God wins! If you're part of God's kingdom you'll be just fine! All we need to do is repent from our sin and accept Christ as Lord and Savior! Grace is all we need, indeed!

Maranatha, Lord Jesus! Maranatha!

Possessions Over Life...

A horrible story of families with expected and wanted pregnancies, terminating them because of their economic standing--

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-03-24-family-planning_N.htm?csp=34#SignOut

We are simply in a horrible state of affairs when people do things like this because they value money and posessions over life.

Badgers are Done Dancing

The ride is over for the Badgers now too… They played horribly in the second half against Xavier yesterday. But it kind of sums up the season. They just couldn’t finish games very well. It was nice to see them make it to “The Dance” and win their first one to arguably be one of the best 32 teams in the nation.

So, NDSU lost, Wisconsin lost, and Marquette lost, but Duke won. It’s also nice to see the Big Ten with two teams heading to the Sweet 16 and both with a very good chance of making the Final Four if they continue to play good ball.

I’m glad it’s only about 4 months to the start of spring training for the NFL!

The Dance is Over for NDSU... sniff, sniff...

Final score: # 14 seed NDSU Bison 74, # 3 seed Kansas Jayhawks 84. The Bison kept it close pretty much the whole game and if it wasn’t for a couple of bad turnovers the Herd might have pulled it out against the defending National Champions. Ben Woodside scored 37 and really took control for NDSU. Kansas likely won this game with their great defense against Brett Winkleman and really kept him pretty quiet for most of the day, even though he did have a double-double and with the rebounds he pulled down they made him the record holder for most rebounds in a career at NDSU. The KU Jayhawks, led by Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins in this game, were just too much for NDSU to overcome.

It sure has been fun to ride with these guys this season, and even though I’m a bigger Wisconsin Badger fan than I am an NDSU Bison fan, I have learned a new respect for the smaller Divison I schools that usually only get one team in the Big Dance through a conference tournament championship. These guys work just as hard, if not harder than the big basketball schools like Duke, UNC, and Kansas, and earn their spot just as well as the big guys do.

Final record for the Bison is 26-7 with a season of a LOT of firsts! Ben Woodside becomes career scoring leader at NDSU, ties Pistol Pete Maracich’s record for most free throw’s in a game at 30, scores 60 in a game; Ben Winkleman is career rebound leader at NDSU, as well as the number one Academic All-American Player of the Year for all of NCAA basketball; the team qualifies for the NCAA tournament in their first year of eligibility by winning the Summit Conference Tournament, as well as winning the conference outright. I know I’m missing others, but those are the ones that come to mind initially.

Even though it’s over—GO BISON!

Bison Men Going To The BIG DANCE!!!!!

Most everyone who knows me knows that I love watching college basketball and that it’s pretty closely tied with my enjoyment of football season.’

Well, aside from being a die-hard Wisconsin Badger fan, I’ve become quite the die-hard North Dakota State Bison fan since marrying an alumnus and living in Fargo over the past almost 7 years. Last night, the Bison made history—the first school to get an automatic bid to the NCAA Basketball Tournament in their first year of eligibility since 1970. The men’s team won the Summit Conference Tournament Championship behind their four star seniors last night, and the shooting of a sophomore. After being down most of the game, guard Ben Woodside hit a long, off-balanced jump shot from the top of the key to give them the lead by 2 points with 2 seconds left. Oakland U in-bounded the ball and missed the long three-pointer to win and pandemonium broke out. The students rushed the floor and it ended up being the highlight of the night last night on ESPN news.

It’s been the talk of the town today, on local radio, front page of the paper, and I even talked to my parents last night and their news from Madison even mentioned it since Bison head coach Saul Phillips used to be a player for Badger head coach Bo Ryan when Ryan coached at UW-Platteville. It’s quite the accomplishment since NDSU decided to make the move to Division 1 for sports 5 years ago.

Now, the question is, who do the Bison get to play and when? ESPN.com has them tentatively as a 13-seed, which is pretty good. It might put them in position to be a Cinderella of sorts. But one thing is for sure. I’m going to Scheels after work today to buy my championship t-shirt and I’ll be ready to root for them starting next week when they play their first round game!