Forget all the stuff about Vietnam. Both Kerry and Bush were in some regards idiots the best I can tell. Both were little rich kids with agendas. Neither man should be basing a political campaign on events from 35 years ago anyway. Let the American people note be confused. This election is about major issues.

Here are some thoughts that were brought to light on the YS boards and my “not so politically correct answers.” For the record, though I am not a card carrying republican, it just so happens that they get most of my votes.

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I am voting for Kerry but I still feel that I am voting for lesser evils than the right choice. I hate that! Does anyone else fee the way I feel?

I always feel that way. So I error on the side of being conservative.I know how you feel. I’m not in love with Bush, but John Kerry is the wrong man. If they had John Edwards as the front-runner they would have a chance… but I digress.For me, there is a single issue that dictates my vote. Abortion. I cannot justify voting for anyone who is OK with killing babies. This dictates my vote from local elections on up. Sad, but true.But I will disagree with the stuff about Kerry caring for the middle class. Under Bush I have been freed up tax wise in unprecedented ways. I expect that if Kerry wins I will be paying 2-3 times more taxes within 4 years. His plan will put less money in my pocket, which I don’t like. The health care has nothing to do with Bush. Here’s a little history lesson that Bush would be wise to start looking at. (I used to work for a monster health insurer, I know why these increases are happening.) In 1993 Bill Clinton inacted HIPPA. Now, on the outset HIPPA was a good thing. It ensured that insured people could take their coverage with them anywhere in the country. So, being insured in MI I would get covered if I got hurt while vacationing in FL. This part of HIPPA went into effect in 1998 for all of the BCBS plans and barely raised rates an inch. However, the vast majority of health care cost increases come from HIPPA’s dirty little secret. Hidden inside the bill were privacy laws that have literally ground hospitals and insurers to a hault. Besides the billions of dollars of HIPPA training the federal government forced insurers and providers to pay for (Who do you really think paid for this?) each company had to re-write how they do business. (Who do you think they passed this cost off to?) Now, under these new privacy laws insurers cannot use any personal information as identifiers. (Who do you think pays for this?) If you call about a bill, under HIPPA the hospital may not be able to tell you things about your bill without your doctors permission. (Who do you think pays for this?) HIPPA requires that everything containing medical information not be sent to landfills but be shredded and burned? (Who do you think pays for this?) I could go on and on. All of these privacy laws are bad. Not a single one of them prevents anyone from hacking into computer databases and stealing personal information. But they all prevent insurers from doing their jobs effeciently and cheaply, taking full advantage of technology. They all slow down claims, which raises rates! (Who do you think pays for that!) You may be wondering how a bill that was signed into law in 1993 didn’t effect health insurance rates until Bush’s term. Well, the darned thing was so nasty to understand and train for that no one was ready when it was supposed to go into effect, plus we had to deal with the Y2K fraud, that the federal government delayed inacting the privacy parts of the law until 11/1/00. Long story short, don’t blame Bush for increased health insurance rates. This has everything to do with the Clinton administration… by the way… HIPPA has been good for some people. Computer programmers, document shredders, white collar administrators for hospitals/health insurers. But all of those new facets to the business add another layer of cost to you as the consumer.

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QUOTE (Theresa @ Sep 9 2004, 08:45 AM)

It may be more urgent to get someone into office before the country goes bankrupt. Since the United States economy controls all of the rest of the worlds economy… I don’t think we have to worry about this. I think the tally has gotten to a couple trillion dollars in the early 90s. Besides, who would the federal government file for chapter 11 with? France?PA

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I would like to point out that a huge reason for rising health care costs in our country are trial lawyers like John Edwards who sue and sue and sue, often times in situations where the wrong people are sued for the wrong reasons etc…don’t have time to go into it, but look into that before you’re quick to criticize Bush/Cheney for healthcare costs.

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QUOTE (estall @ Sep 9 2004, 08:58 AM)

No, I do not blame Bush for healthcare. I do blame him for what is happening in Iraq. Therefore, I think he needs to be fired.Ed I think it’s a little funny that you are contradicting yourself. The United States has taken a stand on terrorism. The United States has taken issue with a rogue nation that refused to live under United Nations rulings as they agreed to do. Bottom line is that Sadaam Hussein broke 1441 with the ramifications being his removal of power. Under the Geneva convention, when a nation does this they are responsible for rebuilding the nation… which is what we are doing. So you think it’s wrong that the president took a stand against a man who slaughtered and gassed his own people? Yet at the same time, the bottom of your post says the exact opposite.

QUOTE

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie WieselPretty contradictory… don’t you think?John Kerry has promised to “work with other nations” on solving the problem of Iraq. Who? Germany, France and Russia. Three nations that only exist because of American presidents taking a strong stand against oppressors and living up to the statement of Elie Wiesel. Pretty cute.

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I just thought these opinions were worth sharing elsewhere. We shall see how bad I get flamed!

As promised, the trip to Grosse Pointe sucked. Our students played well and it seems as though they have held out for the victory, but it still hangs in the balance. Believe it or not, 24 hours later we are not the official winner. There was a discrepancy with one of the groups on the final hole. As it turns out, their coach initiated a ruling after the foursome had already decided on what to do.

Now that this is in the open we should be declared the winner by a score of 165-166. Let me say this again, I hate going down there.

We look forward to a home match with Ford II tomorrow. This should be an easy victory for the Bulldogs and put us back into our rightful 1st place in the MAC Red.

Note: This is the first talk for the Light Force year. For those Sonlife addicts, this is our official launching point into season two: Equipping. Along those lines we will be concentrating very heavily on peer share skills training as part of our Wednesday evenings. While I am still teaching from Daniel/Revelation this fall, the primary hardcore Bible teaching is happening in our home bible studies.

Between now and Christmas, we are going to be taking a very close look at the books of Daniel and Revelation. It’s is my assumption that as we get into this study that you will see how clearly these two often misused and misinterpreted books of God’s word are tied together.

Some introductions

The book of Daniel covers a time period that is unique in Jewish history and the history of the world. In some regards, it is a narrative of what life was like for the Jews when they were under Babylonian rule. And in other regards, it is a glimpse into our future.

This book was written in about 530 BC. (2500 years ago!) Israel was captured and taken to Babylon in 580 BC, and Daniel wrote this book as they neared the end of their exile from God’s land.

Where is the setting? Almost the entire book takes place in Babylon. This is in present day Iraq.

Why was Israel in exile? Simply put, they had disobeyed God’s commands. If you’ll remember from last years study God repeatedly told the Jewish people that they could remain in the land conditionally. If they disobeyed God’s commands, they would be removed. In this case they were removed for 70 years as repayment for skipping the Sabbath Year command to allow the land to rest every 7th year for one year.

A quick summary of chapters 1-2

Þ Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar

Þ Daniel and three friends were chosen to be in the kings service

Þ Daniel and his friends began an intense 3 years of training

Þ While in training, Daniel refused to eat the kings choice food

Þ Daniel convinced the guard to allow them to try eating veggies only

Þ The young men passed the test and were allowed to skip eating the meat

Þ During the 2nd year of training, Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream

Þ Later, they passed the kings test and entered into service.

[Detail dream interpretation]

Before we move on, I think it’s really important that we take a few minutes to look at this how Daniel interpreted the dream… it will give you a good glimpse into what kind of guy Daniel is.

Read Daniel 2: 12-13

Þ Then, Daniel convinces Arioch to let him interpret the kings dream. [To save his hide and that of his friends!]

Þ Daniel goes to the king and this is what happens.

Read Daniel 2: 37-45

OK, now look at the diagram and let’s define some things about the past.

Head= Babylon

Chest/arms= Persia

Belly/thighs= Greece

Legs= Rome

Feet= Christ’s church

Þ The king believes Daniel’s interpretation

Þ He gives Daniel and his friends very high positions in the kings service.

Let’s change gears right here. We need to take a minute to explain something bigger that is going on… I want you to see exactly how examining Daniel’s life is going to help you in your walk with God.

Þ For the past 15 months Light Force has been on a mission to get to this point.

Þ Almost everything we’ve done over the past year has been done with the idea of building our group to feel like a family.

§ I think we’ve accomplished this goal. LF does feel like family.

§ We’ve taken tons of road trips together, spent time like a family spends time

§ We done all-nighters, high ropes courses, mission trips, tailgating, movie nights, service projects—on and on!

Þ In the meantime, we as leaders have been concentrating on building you up in your relationship with Christ. You should have a pretty good idea of who you are in Christ, what your personal mission in life is, who we are as a group and what it means to be Light Force. Hopefully, you’ve also learned what value you get out of all of this.

Þ You as a group and as individuals have grown tremendously in the last 15 months. It has been amazing to watch.

Þ But I want to draw your attention to a fact. Have you noticed something that we haven’t done that a lot of other youth groups do?

§ Pushed you to bring friends here to hear the gospel.

Þ I want you to know that we haven’t done that for a reason.

§ We as a group weren’t ready.

§ You, for the most part, as followers of Christ have not been ready to lead your friends to Christ.

§ Before we could do that, we needed to grow up a lot as a group. It has been healthy and good to wait until we were ready.

Þ So, you’re probably wondering what my point is?

§ Am I asking you to start brining all kinds of lost friends to LF?

Þ NO!

Þ But, as of this moment, we are going to start giving you some skills so that you can start brining your friends to Jesus. See the difference?

Þ And the first thing you need to know is that bringing someone to Jesus is a process, not an event. It’s something that takes time.

Þ So let me ask you, do you feel ready to start learning some skills? Here’s some indicators… which prove to me that I know you all are ready to move from building our group to equipping you to do peer-to-peer ministry.

§ Ask yourself some questions.

Þ Is God’s love real to you?

o If it is, then you will know because you’ll want others to know God’s love too.

Þ Do you have a relationship with God that will last forever?

o If you do, then you’ll know that your lost friends need that relationship too.

Here’s your first skill. Lesson number one!

With this first challenge, I’m not even really asking you to do anything hard. I’m not asking you to go out and do anything… but I am asking you to start searching inside yourself.

What you are going to do next is hook up with one of the leaders and work on the back side of our sheet. First, you are going to each open up your Bible’s and start searching for the people that Daniel was looking to lead to God. I want you to see that Daniel did this ON PURPOSE and that time and again he looked for ways to plant the idea of God’s love in non-believers hearts.

After that, you are going to identify 3 people in your lives that you will eventually be sharing Jesus with. Again, you don’t have to do anything now except identify who these people are. I know you don’t know what to do next… OK? The last thing you are going to do is literally tell your leaders who these people are. Your leader is going to write them down and the two of you will start praying for those people. We’re not going to call them or send them a letter. All we are going to do is pray for them. Got it?

PRAY

Because of the holiday yesterday, this is a short week. I remember back a few years ago I loved short weeks. I lived for them. It meant less work for me and a great outlook on life for everyone else. Now, times are different. All a short week means now is that I have a weeks worth of work to do in 3 days instead of 4.

Put that together with an already hectic schedule and I’m in a world of hurt time-wise.

Tuesday– HBS at 6:15 AM. Office work, talk prep until 1:00 PM. Golf match at Grosse Pointe North from 1:30-6:30 PM. HBS at 6:15 PM.

Wednesday- LF prep until 2 PM. Golf practice from 2-6 PM. LF from 6:30-9:30 PM

Thursday- Office work in the AM. Lunch with students at RHS from 10:30-12:30 PM. Golf match at Romeo from 2-6 PM.

Friday- Off (yeah right, I still have to prepare for Sunday school and Sunday nights prayer & praise time.) RHS football game at 7 PM



I also am in desperate straits to read my assigned reading for grad school next week. Holy cow. There is lots to do.

Today is the last day of the Romeo Peach Festival. On some levels I am glad it’s over since it’s a bit of a hassle getting around town. But on another level, I will miss all the great times that the festival brings to town.

Today is parade central. Last night we enjoyed the car sow and Mummers parade. Essentially the Mummers parade is just a mockery of the regular parade. In other words, it’s a lot of fun. This morning we had the Children’s parade which Kristen and I enjoyed but Megan just kind of crapped out on us on. About half way through it she realized that she could get candy simply by sitting on the curb. So, the very end of it she was a happy kid. Later today is the big Peach parade. This is a great little parade with the only problem being the massive amounts of Shriner’s. Everyone is town hates that they come here. There must be 250 Shriner’s that drive the stupid little cars all over the place and the grand puba comes and it’s all a big joke. As if anyone cared.

I played golf with some folks from the church this morning. Let’s just say they were good company. I enjoyed hanging out with them. As for myself, it was fun. I played just OK at 4 over for the front 9 on the North course. Had I been alone I could have played all 18 in the time it took them to trudge through 9. One of the funniest things ever happened. One of my students from the church who was playing with me actually fell in the creek. He caught a little mud and then WHAM there he went. It was great. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer student!

With all kinds of craziness going on in the world, it’s almost hard to sleep lately. Hurricane’s in Florida. Bomb threats at LAX. Bill Clinton in the hospital. Kerry-Heinz in the hospital. Lots going on.

Put that together with the first big day of college football and the massive elephant ear I had about 10 PM and I didn’t get to bed until 2 AM last night. Bad news was that Notre Dame couldn’t come back in the end. Even worse news was that Oregon State couldn’t pull the upset.

This week is the beloved and hated Romeo Peach Festival.

Being new to the community I have a hard time with folks who do not embrace this exciting time in our community. People from all over the area flock to Romeo to shop and drop off their hard earned American dollars. What more could you ask for as a community? On the flip side, there are an equal amount of folks who simply flee to somewhere else. Many from the church go camping to “escape the busyness.” It ain’t that bad.

We live only a matter of feet from the worst part of it, the carnival, and it doesn’t bother us. As a matter of fact we can barely hear it.

I suppose that part of our enjoyment of the festival is that we’ve never lived someplace that had anything like it. Certainly, in Chicago there were many festivals. But that hardly counts. And in Horrorville, CA we had the county fair… but that was so nasty that no one really wanted to go, we literally went out of boredom!

I am greatly looking forward to the parades tonight and Monday. Hopefully I can post some pics later.

The golf t team was defeated in varsity play last night. With nearly impossible greens at Gowanie Golf Club, our players missed tons of 2 putts. Our number one player had 21 putts and 20 ball strikes. Our number two player lipped out 6 times. We lost 157-165. We are now 1-2 (1-1 in conference play)

On the junior varsity side, the younger men finished on top with a score of 179-182. Our low man on the totem pole pulled out the second best round of the day for the Bulldogs with a 41. (Yes, the 12th man tied the 1st man!) I told him on the first tee that we were going to need to count his score and he pulled through perfectly. Way to go!

Next week, we come off the long weekend with another trip down to Grosse Pointe to play North at Lochmoor CC. This is the site of last years fiasco. More on that to come.

Those people who know me realize that I am not a person who enjoys many rules in life. The cliche` “rules are made to be broken” is a phrase that I like to use.

But in ministry, I chose to keep boundaries in tact. There are many little rules [official and unofficial] that I am unwilling to give up on. My biggest fear is that one day my ministry will end because of an allegation of sexual misconduct. Ministry tends to be intensely personal, and when a person seeks to destroy you, they tend to go for the jugular. For that reason, I have clearly drawn lines that I won’t cross in regards to the opposite sex. (I’m not so worried about same sex since everyone knows what a homophobe I am!)

But every once in a while a student will push those boundaries. She will want me to cross a line that I am unwilling to cross. And, just like this week, I’ve had to draw the boundary clearly. So, the role I hate, an enforcer, I have to become in order to protect something I love as much as anything else in the world.

So, to anyone who cares. You need to know that I am a man who has boundaries. I don’t always like them… But they are there and I will not cross them.

For years now, my cell phone carrier has been a pain to deal with. The offer good service and this is without question. I get all my calls, I get good features. But their customer service just plain sucks.

Last month, we decided it would be better money-wise if Kristen and I each had cell phones and we cancelled some services on our home phone. Long story short. They haven’t been able to pull this off yet. My first attempt was thwarted by an incompetent customer service person. This ended with me talking to the FCC about their lack of compliance with federal laws. The second attempt using their online system. After a week of monkeying around it got cancelled. So today, I called and tried to do this over the phone. After a 45 minute phone call… it seems to be all taken care of.

Some problems that were on the account. They were still billing us in California. We’ve lived in Romeo for 15 months! Their computers couldn’t figure out where our new address is in Michigan. They had us on the wrong rate plan. They have Kristen listed as the owner. Of course, the biggest problem is that no one there has a brain!