Stand for your beliefs

Getting a summer job between school years was life blood of the next school year: No job, no money, no school. 

One job I held for two summers in a row was working as an intern for Farmers Home Administration. The first day was a normal, meet and greet thing, until the assistant administrator came from his office. The man filled up the door frame, hair just brushing the top jam.

Bob Robertson is a big man, retired pro-football player, a hometown farm boy, and he is a giant. Bob sent this article to others like me, and I am posting it here.  

Ted Tebow

Some Folks Have Come to Despise the NFL...

For fans who follow the sport, most of this will be a simple reminder of things you already know. For the rest, it's a wake-up call:

In 2012 the NFL had an issue with Tim Tebow kneeling before each game to pray, they also had an issue with Tebow wearing John 3:16 as part of his eye-black to avoid glare, and made him take it off.

In 2013 the NFL fined Brandon Marshall for wearing green cleats to raise awareness for people with mental health disorders.

In 2014 Robert Griffin III (RG3) entered a post-game press conference wearing a shirt that said "Know Jesus Know Peace" but was forced to turn it inside out by an NFL uniform inspector before speaking at the podium.

In 2015 DeAngelo Williams was fined for wearing "Find the Cure "eye black for breast cancer awareness.

  

In 2015 William Gay was fined for wearing purple cleats to raise awareness for domestic violence. (Not that the NFL has a domestic violence problem..).

In 2016 the NFL prevented the Dallas Cowboys from wearing a decal on their helmet in honor of 5 Dallas Police officers killed in the line of duty.

In 2016 the NFL threatened to fine players who wanted to wear cleats to commemorate the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

So tell me again how the NFL supports free speech and expression. It seems quite clear based on these facts that the NFL has taken a position against any action by NFL players demonstrating RESPECT for any issue:

God, social causes such as mental health, cancer, domestic violence, for cops killed arbitrarily, for being cops, or for the Memory of 9/11...

BUT they will allow demonstrations of DISRESPECT for our National Flag, our National Anthem, for America, and for the American People, if it will help mollify a particular Group and its supporters. 

That is who and what the NFL now has shown itself to be.

It takes big men who stand up for their country, and bow in prayer to God. Bob Robertson is one of those big men with a big heart for his beliefs.

My computer literally gave up,  still on warranty. So the tablet is all I have. Maybe tomorrow? 

I will wait upon the Lord.

Soar on wings of an eagle

Chris had never been known to be a “waiter”; instead he always threw himself headlong into many diverse adventures…here, there, here...He loved the adrenalin rush, the way it drove him. After that rush came his pride and carelessness.

Who and what Chris was then changed radically when he became a man whose greatest desire in life was to wait upon the Lord.  

Be intense, diligent… …taking on the most mundane of tasks.  Wait upon the Lord…were the words running through his mind when the alarm bell rang.

“Take it, Chris!” cried out a fellow fireman.  At the clunk sound of hose thrown to him, adrenaline surged. Gripping the heavy hose tightly, Chris reminded himself ”Time to serve!”  as he raced into the blazing house.  

YouTube from movie "Fireproof". Video is about 4 min. long.

These underlined words above were provided by Delores every Wednesday as challenge to  bloggers who enjoy writing flash fiction, poems, prose, vignettes... Words are now being tossed at us by Elephant's Child  and River

The is a repost from May 15, 2015

Job, Job. Do you know?

The struggles of Job from the Old Testament are legendary. He had been a man whose love for God shone brightly.  His obedience was absolute, without question.

So what happened? Satan asked God who, of all His people, was the most faithful and holy.  God showed this man, Job, to Satan.  He challenged God that Job would reject God. God allowed Satan to destroy Job's obedience, if such could be done.

Job, as a prosperous man with a large family, was reduced to nothing when all was taken from him.

His good friends visited him as he cowered by a fire. Job was covered with boils and ash, and about as miserable as a man could possibly be. His good friends recommended that Job curse God and die. 

But Job held fast, despite abandonment from friends and seemingly from God.  Job cried out to God and questioned His plan.  God replied this:

Job 38: 1-18

Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge?

Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me if you understand.

Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!

Who stretched a measuring line across it?

On what were its footing set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, 

when I said, “This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt”?

Have you ever given orders to the morning, or show the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment.

The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken.

Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been shown to you?

Have you see the gates of the depest darkness?

Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?

Tell me, if you know all this.

 What happened then?

Job remained true. All that he had lost--including his entire family, his wealth--could not be returned to him.  However, God renewed Job's losses with greater wealth, gifted him another wife and children. 

Mourning turned to sunlight, held back seas of agony, 

and settled Job down safely on the garment of God's creation.

What would I do? Would I stand the test? What would you do? Could you stand this test?  

I just don't know.

Blow Out Candles

source

October 7th was Vladimir Putin's 65th birthday and many wishes of health and happiness to him. May God gift him with all that he deserves.

May God gift him, indeed, since Putin is a man with a variety of interesting qualities.

Patriarch Krill of the Russian Orthodox church endorsed Putin's election.  He stated that Putin's terms were a "miracle of God" during the election of 2012.  Since collapse of USSR and lifted oppression of faithful believers, Patriarch Krill has joined an alliance with state.

Wikipedia

The Church even supported Putin's decision to move into Crimea and Ukraine.

Putin is apparently a believer with his religious awakening occurring after serious life-threatening event in his personal life in 1990s. In his early years, his mother had baptized him secretly when a baby and took him to services (held in secret). 

His mother gave him his baptismal cross before a trip to Israel, and asked him to have it blessed.  "I did as she said and then put the cross around my neck.  I have never taken it off since."

Happy trails

Putin's confessor (according to rumors) is Russian Orthodox Bishop Tikhoshevkunov.

Putin is also actively involved in protection of rare species as Chairman of Russian Geographical Society Board of Trustees.

Assad and his supporter Putin

Forget about Syria!  

Forget about Crimea and Ukraine!

Forget about Iran and his support of their nuclear program!

Greeting Iran's leader

Forget about his past as head of the KGB!

KGB leader

Forget about all his choices! He wears a crucifix and has Russian Orthodox Church support after all!

Yes, may God show him the Christian way, whether or not he follows.  May God grant him deserved fruits of his labor. May God provide Putin with an appropriate reward for his many many works.

If Vladimir Putin lived in USA, he would now qualify for Medicare.