Peggy Noonan on William F. Buckley

Peggy Noonan on Bill Buckley:

I thought it beautiful and inspiring that he was open to, eager for, friendships from all sides, that even though he cared passionately about political questions, politics was not all, cannot be all, that people can be liked for their essence, for their humor and good nature and intelligence, for their attitude toward life itself.

March 3, 2008 | Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment 

Another Toastmasters Speech

I’ve uploaded a speech I gave last week for Toastmasters at work.

March 2, 2008 | Filed Under Speeches | Leave a Comment 

How did y’all score?

I guess living in northern Virginia has corrupted me. I scored “58% (Dixie). Barely into the Dixie category”.

February 9, 2008 | Filed Under Culture | Leave a Comment 

A Reminder to Pray for Persecutors

Chuck Colson, of Prison Fellowship Ministries, writes today of the persecution of Christians in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge dictator Pol Pot and how more than 2,000 of his followers have since converted to Christianity, many after hearing stories from those who survived persecution and torture. Colson tells of one former Khmer Rouge official:

One of the major Cambodian officials cited for crimes against humanity is named Duch. He directed the “notorious S21 prison, where some 14,000 people are thought to have been tortured before being sent to their deaths in the killing fields outside Phnom Penh.” Unlike other former Cambodian leaders, Duch has actually admitted his part in the killings of nearly one-quarter of Cambodia’s population. He has spent the last eight years in a military prison.

“I have done very bad things in my life,” Duch told Religion Today back in 1999. “Now it is time to bear the consequences for my actions.” You see, before Duch surrendered to authorities, he surrendered to Christ. And he was not alone.

Ninety percent of Cambodia’s Christians may have been slaughtered during the reign of Pol Pot, but as human rights advocate Kristin Wright reported, more than 2,000 Khmer Rouge who once followed Pol Pot now follow Christ! Many of them converted after encountering the faith of those they murdered.

“It is a testimony,” says Wright, “to the courageous lives of Christians like [one Cambodian named] Haim, who used their final words to witness to Khmer Rouge soldiers before being dumped in a mass grave.” And now, years after nearly being exterminated, Christianity is growing in Cambodia, despite the new government’s clamp-down on non-Buddhist religious activities.

Jesus commands us to pray for our enemies. In Matthew 5:43-45, He tells us,

43 You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Paul, echoing Christ, reminds us in Romans 12:14 to “[b]less those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” In Romans 12:20-21, he counsels us to repay evil with kindness:

20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

How can we possibly do this, in response to those who trangress daily against us, let alone in the face of the evil that the world is capable of? How many times have I repaid someone’s unkindness towards me in kind, rather than with love and kindness? And how many times have I rejected the kindness offered to me by someone I have treated unjustly?

John Piper, in a sermon on Palm Sunday in 2005, says that Paul is following Christ:

Paul’s call to us Christians to love our enemies (in Romans 12:20) and to overcome evil with good (in Romans 12:21) is based on what Christ did for us. Christ loved his enemies, and (in that way) he overcame evil with good. Not one of us would be a Christian if Christ had not loved his enemies and overcome our evil—our insubordination and willfulness and self-centeredness—with his great good—his death and resurrection.

So we are to love our enemies because Christ loved and loves us, who were and are at enmity with God; who were and are, indeed, enemies of God. And we are not to despair when our enemies fail to see the love of Christ in our love for them. Again, Piper:

This is the way God’s love works for his enemies, and it is the way our love works for our enemies. Our desire is that they would repent and come to a knowledge of the truth. But if they don’t, the very love that we are showing increases the weight of wrath on their head. The more of God’s mercy that people reject, the more wrath they heap up upon themselves.

It is likely that Duch, the former Khmer official, has repented and turned to Christ in part in response to the love of Christ he saw in his captives.

October 25, 2007 | Filed Under Christianity | 1 Comment 

Another Stott quote

Another quote by John Stott, this one on God’s love and His wrath:

God’s wrath is not incompatible with his love. The contrast between verses 3 and 4 of Ephesians 2 is notable: “we were by nature children of wrath … But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us . . . ” Thus Paul moves from the wrath of God to the mercy and love of God without any sense of embarrassment or anomaly. He is able to hold them together in his mind because he believed that they were held together in God’s character.

–From “The Message of Ephesians” (The Bible Speaks Today series: Leicester: IVP, 1979), p. 75.

September 18, 2007 | Filed Under Stott, Christianity | Leave a Comment 

Lauren McCain’s Testimony

Lauren McCain was one of 32 people murdered at Virginia Tech on April 16th. Judy Nelson, writing at Common Grounds Online, describes a meeting she had with Lauren’s parents, in which she learned how God has comforted the McCains in the wake of Lauren’s death. Nelson also writes of a video interview for Campus Crusade for Christ in which Lauren presented her testimony. I highly recommend viewing the video and reflecting on this young woman’s love for Jesus.

September 10, 2007 | Filed Under Christianity | Leave a Comment 

Register to win free books!

Tim Challies is holding a contest to give away free copies of the Reformed Expository Commentary series, care of Monergism Books. If you sign up, like I did, please use my referral number, 12672, or just click through the following banner:

which will give me another chance to win. Hint: You can do the same once you register! (H/T: Rebecca Writes)

September 8, 2007 | Filed Under Christianity | Leave a Comment 

I Don’t Understand Barack Obama

At least he keeps us on our toes. But does he really think our troops haven’t been engaging the Taliban and Al Qaeda on the ground in Afghanistan?

“Now you have narco drug lords who are helping to finance the Taliban, so we’ve got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous problems there,” Obama said.

Campaign spokesman Reid Cherlin said Obama was not endorsing the current Bush policy, which consists solely of air raids and bombing of civilians.

Maybe Mr. Cherlin takes the credit for that opinion on current Bush policy. Or maybe it’s the author’s opinion; it’s hard to tell. Regardless, I’m sure there are a lot of brave U.S. servicemen and women with boots on Afghani soil who would beg to differ, like Major Dan at AfghaniDan or B at Going Down Range.

And one more thing: Why is he always making a big deal about being a black man?

“Look, I am already doing battle with the old guard. I can tell you they didn’t see me coming. They are just saying, ‘Who is this guy, Barack Obama, 46-year-old, black guy? We didn’t plan on him,’’’ Obama said.

Please don’t label me a racist for asking. After all, his mother is white; not that that matters, nor does it matter to me that he’s black. I suppose I understand that someone who’s of mixed race would choose to identify with one race over the other(s). (I have to say “suppose” because that’s not the case for me, so I can’t honestly say I understand.) My wife is from India; at some point, our children might choose to identify with one race over the other. So be it. Read more

August 14, 2007 | Filed Under Politics | 3 Comments 

Some childrens’ books

Meghan Cox Gurdon reviews five childrens’ books that she recommends be read aloud. I found only one, Just William, on audio CD; might be a good choice for a long car trip.

August 12, 2007 | Filed Under Book Reviews | Leave a Comment 

Thelma’s Is No More

Thelma’s is no more. Leveled by a bulldozer, the former general store and ice cream shop on Colvin Run Road in Great Falls, Virginia stood for years as a reminder of what northern Virginia must have looked like before everyone arrived.

I only went in maybe three times for ice cream with my girls, the last time in May after a trip to the park. But walking through the front door, after passing by where the gas pumps must have once serviced a ‘40 Ford or a ‘57 Chevy, you felt like you were walking back into a time and place long gone. It reminded me of my grandfather’s store in Mechanicsville, where my cousins and I would sneak behind the counter and steal candy while he dozed in the chair.

While I can’t claim to have been a regular customer, I liked going to Thelma’s when I did go, because it leveled me, like the bulldozer leveled it, to the ground, where Tyson’s Corner seemed a world away and you could hear the squeak of the wooden door behind you as you made your way across the wooden floor to the counter. The lady behind the counter was so nice, patiently waiting for my four year old to figure out what she wanted. As she handed her the cone, it seemed like her only desire at that moment was make my daughter happy.

The property’s owner plans to build a new store and reopen the ice cream shop. I’ll go there, and hope that girls who never knew my grandfather and his store will remember a spring afternoon at Thelma’s.

August 11, 2007 | Filed Under Great Falls | Leave a Comment 

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