The Influential

Phew!  The end of 2011 is here!  It’s been a pretty good year for us – for the most part.

 

The media is full of end of year thoughts, end of year review, end of year news stories, and on and on.  I’m a bit of a news junkie, so I like all of it.  I like the reviews that give a memorial to those that have died this past year.  I may have not heard about some of those, or I may have forgotten some. Plus, I think it is a nice tribute to those that will no longer be with us. It causes me to think about the life they have led, whether it be good or whether it be evil; either way there is a bit of sadness.

 

This morning in my email in-box was my newsletter from Cornerstone.  I love these newsletters as they keep me informed about things that are taking place nationally as well as state-wide.  This morning, Cornerstone included an article entitled Top Five Most Influential Pro-Life Celebrities of 2011.  Because of my interest in end-of-year reviews, this article immediately caught my attention.  So as I started reading, I quickly saw they started from number five and worked their way to the number one most influential pro-life person. I won’t comment too much on all of them; a couple I have never even heard of.

 

#5 Ray Comfort for his documentary 180 Movie released by Living Waters.  I had not heard about this movie, but wow, it sounds like I missed a good one.  180 Movie, mostly a You-Tube video that received 2 million hits, was also distributed in DVD across college campuses. It reveals the lives lost by abortion today, are in fact, a new Holocaust.

 

#4 Kathy Ireland, former super model, was cited for her commitment to help defund Planned Parenthood of tax payer dollars.

 

#3 Eduardo Verástegui, I hate to admit, I had never heard of, but he made the list due to his pro-life movie, Bella and for his non-profit, pro-life charity, The Mantle of Guadalupe.

 

#2 Justin Bieber What!  Justin Bieber!!?  Ok, this was the one that was the big surprise to me. I never would have expected this from the 17 year old super star - (super star, at least in some circles). Anyway, he drew fire from pro-choice feminists, even to the point of being called the “Anti-choice Poster Boy”.  You go, Justin!!  Yeah, I like him now.  ;-)

 

#1 TIM TEBOW!!  Yes!  My personal favorite and Cornerstone’s favorite too, it seems. I love this young man for his solid steadfast commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ.  Tim’s very presence is controversial, it seems.  He came into this life that way, when his mom refused to get an abortion after being advised to do so by her doctors. Last year, Tim created quite a stir for a commercial he and his mom made for the Super Bowl.  It was a very simple, but beautiful, non-threatening message about life; but oh brother, it was causing controversy even before it aired. Since then, he has become the first string quarterback for the Denver Broncos, leading them to victories this season, no one thought possible. 

 

He gained some notoriety during his college career for writing Bible Scriptures under his eyes with his eye protection paint.  At one point after a football game 94 million people had googled John 3:16.  Tim’s comment during an interview when he had heard that statistic? “I didn’t know there were that many people that didn’t know what John 3:16 said.”

 

Now, he is receiving a lot of flack for praying with his teammates; giving praise to God for his successes; acknowledging God on the field when he completes a pass, or makes a touchdown; and bowing on the field in grateful prayer, which has become known as “Tebowing”.  Yeah, that’s controversial.  Players can dance around, pat themselves on the back, and create all kinds of commotion when they score, but if Tim quietly bows in a quick silent prayer on the sidelines, it’s controversial!  Yep, Tim Tebow, is my favorite!

So!  There’s our pro-life list of individuals that I will be proud to support in 2012!

On Watch

Most people don't enjoy talking politics. I do.  I always have. I remember my dad talking politics often, when I was little. He lectured, really.  One summer afternoon, I had a friend over to the house for a visit; we were sitting outside on the porch and we could hear my dad talking to my mom as they sat in the living room. "Wow!" my friend commented, "He sounds like a news commentator."

He did, I guess; and he knew his stuff.  The funny thing was, I listened.  I listened to every word my dad said. And I learned. I also found myself understanding and I found myself agreeing.  So began my interest in politics.

But what my dad knew at that time - and what I knew, too - was that politics were only important because of our faith. And that was the main reason for our interest.

I will explain that belief in this blog a bit later.  You may have the same belief; or you may be diametrically opposed to such a thought. That's one thing that is so nice about these new-fangled things called blogs. One can express ones opinion, and it can create dialogue, or maybe just food for thought. I hope this blog will do both.  But most of all, what I hope this blog will do is spark an interest for someone like my dad's lectures did for me.

Without being disrespectful in anyway, I purposely chose the title of my blog from Jeremiah 33: 6-7.
"But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet and the people be not warned..."

It continues, but I won't quote it all. Some may believe I am taking this verse out of context. But my thought is that this verse points to responsibility, doesn't it? If we see and do not warn, we have not acted responsibly. By saying I don't want to be disrespectful, I mean I do not want to take these verses out of context, and I am certainly not saying that I am any kind of prophet, but I firmly believe we have a duty in our lives to be watchmen.  We need to be watchmen over our own lives; we need to be watchmen for our own families; we need to be watchmen for our nation; and I believe we need to be watchmen over Israel.

Yes, we need to do that with prayer, but we also, I believe, need to do that with action...that's where politics comes in to play and I will explain that belief more fully later, too.

While we spend our time as watchmen of protection, willing and diligent in sounding alarms that in this day and age certainly often need to be sounded, we also watch for the return of One that makes everything fall into place - The One that will make everything right. We watch in hopes that we might bring others to safety.

So the purpose of this blog:  To watch; to share; to alert; to compile...to watch. I watch in hopes of bringing others along.

So therein lays my interest in politics. To work actively, to ensure our freedoms are preserved so that we might continually share our faith..."till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."   Isaiah 62: 6-7