John 13:34

"Love one another. As I have loved you..." John 13:34

Quote from Thomas Jefferson

“I find as I grow older, I love those most, whom I loved first.” Thomas Jefferson

Open Letter to Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler, Schiff

To Ms Pelosi, Mr. Schumer, Mr. Nadler and Mr. Schiff,

I’m going to say to you what my mother used to say when people tried to snooker her. We have your number.

This impeachment has nothing to do with abuse of power or anything else. It has to do with the same thing the Mueller
investigation was supposed to do but failed.

It is all about the fact that you hate Donald Trump and want to oust him from office by hook or crook. That is the bottom line and if you think the people are falling for your spiel, you are truly deluded.

You don’t care about Ukraine, you don’t care about Biden. Your main concern is you have no confidence that you can beat Donald Trump at the polls in November with any of your candidates. So you are going to take it into your own hands no matter what it takes or what lies you have to tell or whose lives you have to ruin.

Just know--this impeachment trial will put the death knoll to your 2020 election chances. The snake you are using to bite Trump is turning around and will bite you.

Again, please know. WE HAVE YOUR NUMBER. This fiasco will not be forgotten. Mr. Schiff saying the public can not be trusted to elect the next president will certainly be his legacy and that is not a good thing for him or your party.

Susan Dudak
18 Plainview Drive
Coraopolis, PA 15108
412-264-4786

Today in History

Today in History
1950
Truman Announces Development of H-bomb

U.S. President Harry S. Truman publicly announced his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II.

Five months earlier, the United States had lost its nuclear supremacy when the Soviet Union successfully detonated an atomic bomb at their test site in Kazakhstan.

Then, several weeks after that, British and U.S. intelligence came to the staggering conclusion that German-born Klaus Fuchs, a top-ranking scientist in the U.S. nuclear program, was a spy for the Soviet Union.

These two events, and the fact that the Soviets now knew everything that the Americans did about how to build a hydrogen bomb, led Truman to approve massive funding for the superpower race to complete the world’s first “superbomb,” as he described it in his public announcement on January 31.

On November 1, 1952, the United States successfully detonated “Mike,” the world’s first hydrogen bomb, on the Elugelab Atoll in the Pacific Marshall Islands. The 10.4-megaton thermonuclear device, built upon the Teller-Ulam principles of staged radiation implosion, instantly vaporized an entire island and left behind a crater more than a mile wide.

The incredible explosive force of Mike was also apparent from the sheer magnitude of its mushroom cloud–within 90 seconds the mushroom cloud climbed to 57,000 feet and entered the stratosphere. One minute later, it reached 108,000 feet, eventually stabilizing at a ceiling of 120,000 feet.

Half an hour after the test, the mushroom stretched 60 miles across, with the base of the head joining the stem at 45,000 feet.

Three years later, on November 22, 1955, the Soviet Union detonated its first hydrogen bomb on the same principle of radiation implosion. Both superpowers were now in possession of the “hell bomb,” as it was known by many Americans, and the world lived under the threat of thermonuclear war for the first time in history.

The Christian Foundation of America

The Christian Foundation of America by Bill Federer

The first prayer delivered to the Continental Congress by the Rev. Jacob Duché on Sept. 7, 1774, provides an example of the faith in Christ of this nation's founders:

'Be Thou present O God of Wisdom and direct the counsel of this Honorable Assembly; enable them to settle all things on the best and surest foundations; that the scene of blood may be speedily closed;

that Order, Harmony, and Peace be effectually restored, and the Truth and Justice, Religion and Piety, prevail and flourish among the people.

Preserve the health of their bodies, and the vigor of their minds, shower down on them, and the millions they here represent, such temporal Blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting Glory in the world to come.

All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Saviour, Amen'.

Trust and Obey

Trust and Obey by Kurt Selles
Scripture Reading: Matthew 26:36-45
"I will always obey your law, for ever and ever." Psalm 119:44

Have you ever heard the term “earworm”? It describes how the words or the tune of a catchy song can keep running through our minds. One song that is still lodged in my head after all these years is “Trust and Obey.” At the end of this reflection on Psalm 119, this song is playing in my mind.

The writer of Psalm 119 often mentions trust. God’s Word is trustworthy, he says; so he trusts in God’s laws, precepts, commands, and decrees. Along with that, the psalmist eagerly commits to obeying God’s Word. He explicitly speaks of obedience again and again and again. Clearly, the call to “trust and obey” God’s Word is at the heart of this psalm.

There’s another theme worth mentioning as well. The psalmist is committed to trust and obey even in times of difficulty. When the psalmist cries for God’s rescue, he affirms his desire to trust and obey, no matter what.

This helps us see another way in which Psalm 119 points us to Jesus: on the night before he died for our sins, Jesus faced one of the worst moments of anguish recorded in the Bible, an experience more challenging than any we will ever know. And yet Jesus said to the Father about the suffering that was before him, “Not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39).

Jesus trusted and obeyed.

What a blessing it is to know that “while we do his good will, he abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey”!

Help us, Lord, to live for you, in the assurance that you love us and will never leave or forsake us. Amen.

Your Thought Life

Your Thought Life by Dr. D. James Kennedy
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he . . .” Proverbs 23:7

Many people constantly dwell on negative thoughts. They dwell on their fears, hurts, and problems. They focus on the fly in the ointment, never seeing the ointment but only the fly. With their negativity and destructiveness, these people can ruin the lives of those who have the misfortune of living with them and around them. Most of all, these pessimistic people destroy their own bodies and souls with their negative thoughts. And so their lives shrivel.

What kind of thoughts do you dwell on?

Are you a positive thinker, or do you most often find yourself dwelling in the pit of despair?

Echoing a Biblical truth, Marcus Aurelius once said, “The most important things in life are the thoughts you choose to think.”

The Bible says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

Many people believe that they don’t choose their thoughts at all, that instead their thoughts choose them. Thoughts rush at them in a stream, like a rolling script going across a TV screen, and no one can control them. But this is not so.

We do choose our thoughts. We choose what we think, and what we choose to think impacts our lives.

Our thoughts determine what we say and how we say it.

They determine what we are and what we become.

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”

We are the outward embodiments, the incarnations, of our thoughts, and because of this, we need to choose well what we think.

Take notes from the apostle Paul. He was beaten and imprisoned for the Gospel’s sake. Because of all his trials, he could easily have had a gloomy outlook. Instead he chose to think good and positive thoughts, beginning with thoughts of the Lord.

We should heed Paul’s instruction: “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8).

Do you need to make a thought adjustment today?

Let me encourage you to counteract your negative thoughts with positive ones. And as you do this, watch how you and your life change for good.

“Every act of a man springs from the hidden seeds of thought.”    James Allen

World's Most Dangerous Tourist Attractions

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14 of the most dangerous attractions around the world that tourists keep flocking to

Thoughts on Today's Verse

"Since they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD ... they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes." Proverbs 1:29,31

Thoughts on Today's Verse by Phil Ware

Sometimes the natural consequence of rebellion is its own justice. Rebellion ultimately produces bad fruit, and wickedness is often its own worst punishment. In the face of such a generous God as we focused upon yesterday, how could we choose to follow any other path but his? It may seem harder in the short run, but in the long run there is simply no option that compares!

My Prayer...

Father of justice and mercy, thank you for saving me by your grace. Thank you for promising to judge the world with grace, mercy, and justice. In you, and you alone, do I find my sense of what is right and fair. I cry out to you, O God, for justice and deliverance for your people who are oppressed, ridiculed, and persecuted. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Today's Democrats Disdain FDR

Today's Democrats Disdain FDR by William Federer

Franklin D. Roosevelt held the following political offices:

New York State Senator, 1911-1912;
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913-1920;
Governor of New York, 1929-1932;
32nd U.S. President, elected in 1932.

He is considered one of the most powerful Democrat politicians in history, he won the:

1932 election with 57.41% of the popular vote;
1936 election with 60.80% of the popular vote;
1940 election with 54.74% of the popular vote;
1944 election with 53.39% of the popular vote.

Elected President an unprecedented four times, Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office longer than any other President, over 12 years, serving during the Great Depression and World War II. The 22nd Amendment, limiting future presidents to just two terms in office, passed with bipartisan support in Congress in 1947, and was ratified by the states in 1951.

It is interesting to ponder whether this highly popular Democrat President could have been nominated by the modern Democrat Party. Though considered a liberal 80 years ago, since then, both the Left and the Right have moved to the left politically, resulting in many of FDR's statements being such that even conservatives today would be attacked by the media for repeating them.

Here are some of those statements that would be considered controversial today:

"Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization. They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy."

"We guard against the forces of anti-Christian aggression, which may attack us from without."

"This great war effort must be carried through ... It shall not be imperiled by the handful of noisy traitors -- betrayers of America, betrayers of Christianity itself."

Roosevelt stated in his Labor Day Address, September 1, 1941:

"Preservation of these rights is vitally important now, not only to us who enjoy them, but to the whole future of Christian civilization."

"I saw Sevastopol and Yalta! And I know that there is not room enough on earth for both German militarism and Christian decency."

"The whole world is divided between ... pagan brutality and the Christian ideal. We choose human freedom which is the Christian ideal."

"Early Christians challenged the pagan ethics of Greece and of Rome; We are wholly ready to challenge the pagan ethics ... of our boasted modern civilization."

"The world is too small ... for both Hitler and God ... Nazis have now announced their plan for enforcing their ... pagan religion all over the world -- a plan by which the Holy Bible and the Cross of Mercy would be displaced by Mein Kampf and the swastika and the naked sword."

"We face one of the great choices of history ... the continuance of civilization as we know it versus the ultimate destruction of all that we have held dear -- religion against godlessness."

"On this 28th birthday of the Boy Scouts of America we should be especially thankful for a youth movement which seeks merely to preserve such simple fundamentals as physical strength, mental alertness and moral straightness."

"I hope that you have re-read the Constitution of the United States ... Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again."

"We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic ... Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity."

"Our enemies are guided by ... unholy contempt for the human race. We are inspired by a faith that goes back ... to the Book of Genesis: 'God created man in His own image.'"

"I can't talk about my opponent the way I would like to, because I am a Christian....some day I will go to Heaven, and I don't believe there is anything to be gained in saying dreadful things about other people."

"I doubt if there is any problem in the world ... that would not find happy solution if approached in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount ... in conformity with the teaching of Him who is the Way, the Light and the Truth."

"An ordering of society which relegates the Christian religion ... to the background can find no place within it for the ideals of the Prince of Peace. The United States rejects such an ordering, and retains its ancient faith."

"There has been definite progress towards a spiritual reawakening ... I receive evidences of this from all our Protestant Churches; I get it from Catholic priests and from Jewish rabbis as well."

"Churches and government ... can work hand in hand … Government guarantees to the churches -- Gentile and Jewish -- the right to worship God in their own way ... State and Church are rightly united in a common aim."

"Democracy is the birthright of every citizen, the white and the colored; the Protestant, the Catholic, the Jew."

"Your government is working ... with representatives of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths. Without these three, all three of them ... things would not be as ... easy."

"With confidence in our armed forces -- with the unbounding determination of our people -- we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God."

From Analytical Grammar Planet

Be Careful

Evil is always at work....

Cammie Jane

January 26 at 7:23 PM

Ladies be careful, when in doubt drive away quickly to the nearest police station.

A Call To Worship

A Call To Worship
From: Today God Is First by Os Hillman
January 30, 2020

"...but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage." Exodus 6:9

It is very difficult to lead when those you are leading believe they have been mistreated and have lost all hope. Such was the case when God called Moses to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. They had lived under many years of oppression and slavery. Yet God heard their cry.

He sent someone to bring them out of slavery "so that they might worship God" (see Exodus 8:1). Interesting that God didn't say, "to serve Him." Above all else, God desires our worship. A person cannot enter into true worship of God while still in slavery and bondage to sin.

In Proverbs, the writer tells us "hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Proverbs. 13:12). There is a place in life where life becomes so discouraging and hopeless that we lose all hope, and it can actually make us sick. I have been at this place; it is a scary condition. It brings you to the edge of despair.

The people would not listen to Moses. Yet God did not deliver immediately. In fact, it would be many plagues later before ultimate deliverance would take place.

Why does God withhold deliverance at times?

It is in order to bring greater glory from the situation.

It isn't because He doesn't care. It is because His plan for mankind is resting in these events. It is a finely tuned plan that involves many people and situations - all operating at the same time. It can seem cruel at times. But God knows that His children cannot worship Him if they are in bondage and lose all hope.

He won't allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear, so He has a plan of deliverance for each of us. This plan is not always the kind of deliverance we might think is best. It sometimes has pain surrounding the deliverance.

When a mother gives birth, that child is delivered into this world through much pain. But after that pain comes great joy. Every mother will say the pain was worth it because of the exceeding joy that child brought.

What are you in bondage to today?
What keeps you from entering true worship?

Ask God to show you the areas of bondage that you are living in so you may turn from them and worship Him.

Temps Alarm Scientists

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Temperatures at a Florida-Size Glacier in Antarctica Alarm Scientists

Today in History

Today in History
1956
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Home Bombed

On January 30, 1956, an unidentified terrorist bombed the Montgomery home of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. No one was harmed, but the explosion outraged the community and was a major test of King’s steadfast commitment to non-violence.

King was relatively new to Montgomery, Alabama but had quickly involved himself in the civil rights struggle there. He was a leading organizer of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began in December of 1955 after activist Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated city bus to a white passenger.

The boycott brought King national recognition, but also made him a target of violence. He was speaking at a nearby church on the evening of January 30 when a man pulled up in a car, walked up to King’s house, and tossed an explosive onto the porch. The bomb went off, damaging the house, but did not harm King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, who was inside with the couple’s seven-month-old daughter Yolanda.

News of the bombing spread quickly, and an angry crowd soon gathered outside King’s home. A matter of minutes after his home had been bombed, standing feet away from the site of the explosion, King preached non-violence.

“I want you to love our enemies,” he told his supporters. “Be good to them, love them, and let them know you love them.”

It was a prime example of King’s deeply-held belief in nonviolence, as what could have been a riot instead became a powerful display of the highest ideals of the Civil Rights Movement.

King added that “if I am stopped this movement will not stop,” a sentiment he repeated throughout his life. Later that same year, while the boycott was still in effect, someone fired a shotgun at the Kings’ home, and they continued to receive death threats and intimidation—including a threatening letter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation—until King was assassinated in 1968.

The bombing was only one chapter in a long history of violence against Civil Rights leaders and African Americans. Bombings, shootings and arson at African American churches as well as non-black churches remain shockingly common.

A massacre committed at a church in Charleston, South Carolina claimed nine lives in 2015, and in 2019 the son of a local sheriff’s deputy was arrested and charged with a string of arson attacks on churches in Louisiana.

God's Word tells us that when man is crying, "Peace and safety," sudden destruction will come, so it behooves us to continue to pursue freedom and justice for everyone but to be aware that those precious things cannot fully come until Christ returns in His glory.

The Purifying Power of God's Word

The Purifying Power of God's Word by Kurt Selles
Scripture Reading: John 17:13-19
"How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word." Psalm 119:9

Years ago, when parents told their children to wash their dirty faces, they might have said, “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” That saying is not in the Bible, but it may have come from some ancient Jewish teachers. The Bible equates god­liness not with scrubbed skin but with pure hearts.

The author of Psalm 119 asks, “How can a young person stay on the path of purity?” And his answer is the core teaching of this psalm: “By living according to [God’s] Word.” But, honestly, how can we do that?

As most people will admit, having a pure heart is a difficult challenge.

In fact, the Bible says this is out of reach for us.

Our hearts are deceitful, self-absorbed, and disobedient.

We need help.

In his mercy, God sent his Son, Jesus, so that he could forgive us our sins and create pure hearts in us. In John 17, Jesus prays that his followers will be “sanctified” (purified) through himself and through the truth of God’s Word. And the Holy Spirit of God will provide us understanding and power to endure in this purifying process.

So, as both Jesus and the psalmist affirm, purity of the heart is strengthened and encouraged by the truth found in God’s Word.

The purifying process begins with knowing Jesus, and it continues daily as we grow in knowledge and grace.

Continue this process today as you reflect on God’s Word.
Help us to long for your Word, Lord. Preserve our lives in your righteousness. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

Thoughts on Romans 2:1-3

Thoughts on Romans 2:1-3 by Martin Collins

"Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. (2) But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. (3) And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things, and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?"

We can often see our faults more clearly in other people, yet we usually fail to apply them to ourselves. Because our reaction is so often to criticize negatively, we usually do not see that we are guilty of the same things.

If we find a certain type of behavior especially irritating in others, we may have the same problem!

To illustrate this blindness to our own sins, recall David's sin, recorded for all the world to see in II Samuel 12:1-5, when God sent Nathan to show David his sin with Bathsheba. Nathan told of a case in which a rich man who owned many sheep had stolen a poor man's pet lamb and killed it to eat for dinner.

King David was outraged that anyone would be so greedy and selfish, so he pronounced the death penalty on this man. Then Nathan quietly pointed out that David had done the exact same thing when he stole Uriah's wife and sent Uriah to his death.

David was a man who, when he recognized his sin, would deeply repent. So how far his heart fell at that time, we can only imagine. He must have been devastated.

What angers us about others in God's church?

"For you who judge practice the same things."

Consider this carefully, since in the answer may be a clue to our secret sins.

History of the Super Bowl

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Thoughts on Today's Verse

"...you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:30-31

Thoughts on Today's Verse by Phil Ware

Jesus is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Let's unpack those church words.

Righteousness — the ability to stand before God and be declared free from guilt.

Holiness — the character and nature that reflect the glory and sanctity of heaven.

Redemption — the gift of freedom bought at great expense.

They say that Christians aren't perfect.

Hmmm! We know this is true. But, because of Jesus' loving sacrifice, we also know that in God's eyes we're righteous, holy, and redeemed. That, dear friend of Jesus, is what we call amazing grace!

My Prayer...

How can I thank you, wise and merciful Father, for the gift of Jesus? Your love in formulating the plan to send him, your sacrifice in having him become mortal, your agony when your own creations murdered him are too wonderful for understanding. But in my heart I do know that you did these things because of your loving grace and I want to thank you and praise you forever. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.