The Old Rugged Cross

This is one of my favorite, if not my favorite, hymns. "The Old Rugged Cross" has always been a song that fills my heart with emotions of love, joy, and nostalgia. It's a very spiritually moving song, and for me it is the epitome of Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to The Lord.

The Old Rugged Cross

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

The emblem of suffering and shame;

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,

Has a wondrous attraction for me;

For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above

To bear it to dark Calvary.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,

A wondrous beauty I see,

For 'twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,

To pardon and sanctify me.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;

Its shame and reproach gladly bear;

Then He'll call me some day to my home far away,

Where His glory forever I'll share.

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross,

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

This popular Christian song was written in 1912 by George Bennard, an evangelist and song-leader. Though a native of Youngstown (Ohio), Bennard was reared in Iowa. He retired to Reed City, Michigan, and the town had honored him by maintaining a dedicated museum relating to his life and ministry. As a Methodist evangelist, Bennard wrote the first verse of the hymn in Albion, Michigan, in the fall of 1912. He was helped by Charles H. Gabriel, a well-known gospel-song composer with the harmonies and it was published in 1915. The song was popularized during Billy Sunday evangelistic campaigns by Homer Rodeheaver and Virginia Asher (members of his campaign staff). The hymn tells about the writer experienced as a Christian rather than his adoration of God.

Moment of Zen: Morning Kiss

TGIF

Thank Goodness It's Friday...I fell asleep while writing this.

Twitter Censorship

Several pictures I've posted recently have been deemed sensitive material on my Twitter account. Each post I write is simultaneously published on twitter as well with the picture. However, yesterday's picture and Monday's picture were deemed too sensitive, or I guess racy, for Twitter. I don't get it. Today's will probably meet the same fate, the difference being that in today's picture the guy is completely nude whereas the other two had on briefs. Not even their butts were showing. There was no untoward nudity in the pictures at all, so why were they censored by Twitter. I guess it's like the number of kicks it takes to get to the center of the Tootsie Pop. The world may never know.

Politics, Ugh!

I could have written on a number of political things today. I could have written about the CNN debate between Bernie Sanders and the slithering lying fuckwad Ted Cruz over healthcare that aired last night. Or I could have written about the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education when she knows nothing about the public education system in America or the upcoming conformation of racist homophobic Jeff Sessions as Attorney General and thus the protector of civil rights. Or how Neil Gorsuch is a step backward for our country as a Supreme Court Justice. Or the Muslim ban which the Trump administration says is not a ban, but you know it is a ban because that's what they originally called it. There were any number of things I could have written about, but I am sick of politics. I'm sick and tired of hearing about what new fuck-up Trump has accomplished today. Because let's face it, he fucks something up every day he's in office. Will we even recognize our country after he is done?

Love

Love

By Rupert Brooke

Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate,

    Where that comes in that shall not go again;

Love sells the proud heart’s citadel to Fate.

    They have known shame, who love unloved. Even then,

When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking,

    And agony’s forgot, and hushed the crying

Of credulous hearts, in heaven—such are but taking

    Their own poor dreams within their arms, and lying

Each in his lonely night, each with a ghost.

    Some share that night. But they know love grows colder,

Grows false and dull, that was sweet lies at most.

    Astonishment is no more in hand or shoulder,

But darkens, and dies out from kiss to kiss.

All this is love; and all love is but this.

In the poem entitled Love, the speaker views love as a dangerous force, destructive enough to require a wall to block it. The diction the author uses implies love is a security threat. Using the word breach gives the impression of an uncontrolled threat to ones being. The speaker points out the vulnerability one feels when allowing themselves to love, They have known shame, who love unloved. He expresses the feeling of loving someone who doesn't love back, the pain and shame that is felt.

Super Bowl

It was an exciting game. Overtime is always exciting, but damn I wish Atlanta had just kept their lead. I'd rather see a straight out win than an exciting game. Exciting games tend to mean that my team loses, which is what happened last night. I may live in New England but it doesn't mean I'm going to pull for them. I'm a southern boy at heart, and I wanted Atlanta to win. Oh well, that's the way the cookie crumbles.

The Power of Prayer

“Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” - Matthew 21:22 

We can never underestimate the power of prayer. When we are praying according to God's will, our prayers are unstoppable. Jesus made this promise: "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." (John 15:7).

First John 5:14–15 says, "And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him."

Therefore, we should never give up or back down. We need to keep praying. That is why Jesus said, " Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8). 

Jesus is very clear that prayer is very powerful, but it's not for just when we want something for ourselves.  It can also be for guidance or wanting something for others. Often we pray because something bad has happened.  Hardships and tragedies are a constant reminder to keep connected to God through prayer, reading, and reflection. It's important to keep our hearts open so we may reach out to others who may be in that same kind of situation we found ourselves. In helping them, we provide someone in need with the remedy that will soothe their broken spirit.

To maintain God's peace, we must give up the need to be right, along with the need to control. We must humble ourselves and give it all to God, trusting that we will be shown the way to whatever it is we need to know, as well as Who is in control. God always answers our prayers, but it might just be “no” on occasion.  The most important thing though is that it is always God’s will.

Moment of Zen: Bug

Neil Gorsuch

Twelve days into his unquestionably chaotic tenure, President Donald Trump sparked the ire of liberal voters once again by nominating Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. 

Though Trump touted Gorsuch for having “earned bipartisan support,” much of the Democratic pushback so far has stemmed from the fact that Republicans refused to consider Merrick Garland, who was former President Barack Obama’s pick for the seat of the late Antonin Scalia, for nearly a year. 

Trump’s choice of Gorsuch, a conservative federal appeals judge in Colorado, received a chilly response from LGBTQ groups in particular. Though his background on queer issues is limited, Gorsuch famously sided with the conservative Christian owners of Hobby Lobby, who sued the federal government in 2013 after seeking an exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, citing their religious faith. He’s also been an outspoken admirer of Scalia, who was staunchly opposed to same-sex marriage and other LGBTQ rights.

A number of advocacy groups, including GLAAD and PFLAG, decried the judge’s nomination almost immediately. The president’s choice of Gorsuch, officials wrote, re-affirmed their doubts regarding his views on the LGBTQ community as a whole. 

“Numerous times in the last 11 days we have shared our concern that civil rights―for the LGBTQ community, for women, for immigrants, for people of color, for all marginalized communities―would erode under this administration,” Interim Executive Director Elizabeth Kohm wrote in a statement on PFLAG’s website. “Now, with his nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch for a lifetime appointment to the United States Supreme Court, it is clear our concerns were more than justified.” Added American Civil Liberties Union’s Executive Director Anthony D. Romero, “Gorsuch’s record, including his decision in the Hobby Lobby case, raises questions about whether he would allow businesses and individuals to opt out of nondiscrimination laws based on religious objections.”