Sat, May 27th - 5:42AM

HIGH SCHOOL REFLECTIONS

  This month I have twice been reminded of my past pre-Christian life. I found them to be somewhat depressing in one case and quite emotional in the other. It's funny, both had to do with high schoolers. On my birthday my wife and I went to the Outback Steakhouse for dinner. During the inevitable wait in line we observed several couples of obvious prom attendees. It triggered memories of my prom experience.I was not happy. I foolishly asked a girl I knew from a class, because I felt I "had" to attend the prom. I had asked a couple other girls I knew better, but they were unavalable. That was a yucky memory of a yucky time. Well I got to thinking how I felt during high school, and that was unpleasant, and on top of that I got to thinking how easily things could have been completely different. (like getting someone pregnant and having to marry the girl and go to work to support us.)  Of course I had to try to explain these thoughts to my wife during dinner. I just had to thank God that He kept me out of that kind of trouble in high school. The second time was last Sunday after the morning service. They had recognized 3 graduating high school seniors during the service, and I was talking with the father of one of the girls. I was telling him that his daugter had it 1000% better than I did in high school, since I wasn't a Christian then. I just choked up and got tears in my eyes right there in the fellowship hall. (I think Al understood.) I meant to write the 3 of them this past week, and tell them so. I can still do that. God can take a miserable high school experience and transform it into something much better.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Tue, May 23rd - 5:49AM

Morning Rhododendron

I took this photo of the rhododendron bush outside my front door one morning.

Wed, May 10th - 5:25AM

Starbucks promotes homosexual agenda with coffee cup

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=21387

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--After nearly a decade of lying low, Starbucks has reentered the homosexual rights movement in a few ways that have put at least one conservative watchdog group on alert.

The world’s most famous coffee shop chain has begun a program called “The Way I See It,” which is a collection of thoughts, opinions and expressions provided by notable figures that now appear on Starbucks coffee cups, according to the chain’s website.

But one particular quote -- #43 -- blatantly pushes the homosexual agenda. It’s by Armistead Maupin, who wrote “Tales of the City,” a bestseller-turned-PBS drama advocating the homosexual lifestyle, and it reads:

“My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don’t make that mistake yourself. Life’s too [expletive] short.”

Concerned Women for America, one of the nation’s leading conservative public policy organizations, is sounding the alarm about the cups after one of its employees received one when she purchased coffee from one of the stores.

Meghan Kleppinger, assistant to the national field director at CWA, wrote a column about Starbucks’ involvement in the homosexual movement which was posted by WorldNetDaily Aug. 10.

Kleppinger, who had been a frequent patron of Starbucks until recently vowing to stop, was put on notice about Starbucks earlier this summer when she received an e-mail from the California arm of CWA describing an annual “gay pride” parade in San Diego. The parade sounded like a typical event, she thought, until she read on.

“I read where there would be children’s gardens and basically in the midst of all of this sexual activity there would be events for children,” she said Aug. 8. “And then I read that two registered pedophiles were volunteers at this event. When I scrolled to the bottom I saw who the sponsors were, and the one that jumped out was Starbucks because that is a favorite company of mine. So it just frustrated me that a company was giving money to something like this where children would be exposed to this sort of thing.”

If Starbucks knowingly was sponsoring a parade that put children in danger, that would be “blatant irresponsibility,” Kleppinger wrote in her column. And if they were doing it unknowingly, they should have investigated before handing over the money, she said.

Full article here;

http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=21387