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• Catholic Hospital Counterthreat. Catholic hospitals threaten to shut down if Obama signs the Freedom of Choice Act.
• Keep Christ in Your Christmas Cards. Stand To Reason blog has posted some meaningful, Christian messages that you can copy, format, and print to glue in your Christmas cards.
• Casting Call for Dawn Treader. According to Hannah Montana Casting, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” will begin pre-production soon and the casting directors are accepting photos and resumes.
• Movies on YouTube. MGM will be posting full-length films as YouTube tries to compete with Hulu.
• Hubble Advent Calendar. The Big Picture will be unveiling a new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope for each of the 25 days leading up to Christmas.

Did you see it last night? I saw it here in Massachusetts, and it was stunningly beautiful — right after sunset, Jupiter and Venus hanging low over the horizon in the southwestern sky with the crescent moon hovering just above. Jupiter and Venus are in conjunction right now, just two degrees apart, and the moon is a waxing crescent. In Australia and other southern latitudes the three celestial objects formed a great big happy face in the heavens, but here in North America it was more of an upside-down frown. Either way, it was a pretty neat display in the sky.

And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. (Genesis 1:14-15)

Click here for more Space related posts.

Pastor Rick Warren presented President George W. Bush with the first “International Medal of PEACE” from the Global PEACE Coalition in recognition of his contribution to the fight against HIV/AIDS and other diseases during the Saddleback Civil Forum on Global Health, held in Washington, D.C. on World AIDS Day, Dec. 1.   World Magazine reports:

Since its inception five years ago, The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) has treated more than 2.1 million people living with the virus around the world, which exceeded the administration’s goal. Prior to the president’s HIV/AIDS program, only 50,000 people were receiving antiretroviral treatment for AIDS.

Foes and friends alike of President Bush showered praise on him for PEPFAR, which promotes antiretroviral treatments administered through local clinics and churches around the world, mainly in Africa. Former President Clinton sent his commendation in a letter, while others did so by video, including President-elect Barack Obama, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, and rock star Bono, an outspoken activist in the fight against AIDS. “You are a hero, sir,” the leader of the band U2 said in his message to the president.

But the president, in a sit-down conversation with Warren, deflected any credit for the program. “I don’t deserve an award,” he said. “The people who made this policy work deserve an award.”

Today is the first day of December and the second day of Advent, which means there is still plenty of time to get started on an Advent devotional for the season.

Christ the King Presbyterian Church has put together an excellent Advent devotional that is Biblically-based and Christ-centered. There are twenty individual devotionals in this booklet, five for each week of Advent. Each day’s devotion contains a passage of Scripture, a brief reflection on that passage, sample prayers for both children and adults, and a related hymn to sing together in praise.

This is the devotional I will be using with our family this year. You can download a free copy of the devotional here: 2008 Advent Devotional: Christ the King Presbyterian Church. (HT: JT)

Related post: What is Advent?
Click here for more Christmas related posts.

What is Advent? Mark Roberts explains in Part 1 of his series on Advent:

The Christian season of Christmas actually begins on Christmas Eve and lasts for twelve days, ending on January 6. (No, the twelve-day season of Christmas did not start with the song. It was the other way around.) The time before Christmas is Advent, a season of preparation for Christmas. Christians prepare for celebrating the birth of Jesus by remembering the longing of the Jews for a Messiah. In Advent we’re reminded of how much we also need a Savior, and we look forward to our Savior’s second coming even as we prepare to celebrate his first coming at Christmas. Indeed, the word Advent comes from the Latin word that means “coming” or “visit.” In the season with this name, we keep in mind both “advents” of Christ, the first in Bethlehem and the second yet to come.

Click here to read Mark’s entire Introduction to Advent series. You may also enjoy Mark’s Advent Wreath Devotional Guide.

Related post: Free Advent Devotional
Click here for more Christmas related posts.

This is Part Seven (the final post) in a series on The Sin of Prayerlessness. The excerpts come from the first chapter of the book The Prayer Life, by Andrew Murray. Click here for an introduction and links to the other posts in the series.

The Storm Center on the Battlefield:

Mention was made in conference of the expression “strategic position” used so often in reference to the great strife between the kingdom of heaven and the powers of darkness.

When a general chooses the place from which he intends to strike the enemy, he pays most attention to those points which he thinks most important in the fight. Thus there was on the battlefield of Waterloo a farmhouse which Wellington immediately saw was the key to the situation. He did not spare his troops in his endeavours to hold that point: the victory depended on it. So it actually happened. It is the same in the conflict between the believer and the powers of darkness. The inner chamber is the place where the decisive victory is obtained.

The enemy uses all his power to lead the Christian, and above all the minister, to neglect prayer. He knows that however admirable the sermon may be, however attractive the service, however faithful the pastoral visitation, none of these things can damage him or his kingdom if prayer is neglected. When the Church shuts herself up to the power of the inner chamber, and the soldiers of the Lord have received on their knees “power from on high,” then the powers of darkness will be shaken and souls will be delivered. In the Church, on the mission field, with the minister and his congregation, everything depends on the faithful exercise of the power of prayer.

In the week of conference I found the following in The Christian:

Two persons quarrel over a certain point. We call them Christian and Apollyon. Apollyon notices that Christian has a certain weapon which would give him a sure victory. They meet in deadly strife, and Apollyon resolves to take away the weapon from his opponent and destroy it. For the moment the main cause of the strife has become subordinate; the great point now is who shall get possession of the weapon on which everything depends? It is of vital importance to get hold of that.

So it is in the conflict between Satan and the believer. God’s child can conquer everything by prayer. Is it any wonder that Satan does his utmost to snatch that weapon from the Christian, or to hinder him in the use of it?

How now does Satan hinder prayer? By temptation to postpone or curtail it, by bringing in wandering thoughts and all sorts of distractions; through unbelief and hopelessness. Happy is the prayer hero who, through it all, takes care to hold fast and use his weapon. Like our Lord in Gethsemane, the more violently the enemy attacked the more earnestly he prayed and ceased not till he had obtained the victory. After all the other parts of the armor had been named, Paul adds: “With all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Eph. 6.18). Without prayer, the helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit which is God’s word, have no power. All depends on prayer. God teach us to believe and hold this fast!

Thoughts: We cannot fight the good fight of faith without prayer. Prayer is the place where the decisive victory is obtained. I hope this series has been helpful to you in our own prayer life. If you enjoyed these excerpts from the first chapter, I would encourage you to buy the book. Here are a couple links:

• Amazon.com – The Prayer Life
• Christianbook.com – Living a Prayerful Life

Click here for more posts on Prayer.
Click here to read the message Called to Pray.

Now I just need to find a picture of a pig holding an “Eat turkey!” sign.

Related post: Another Garfield Monday – November
Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

I found this letter of thanksgiving from a Methodist minister particularly encouraging. I pray you find it encouraging, too! (The letter was actually written several weeks ago, but it is very appropriate for today.)

What a Great Day This Is! This morning, as I was driving to work, I heard that the market had gone down another 500 points. It has now dropped from a high of over 14,000 to 9,000. This is not good news. It has messed with my retirement plan and made my net worth go from pride to hide. It has turned easy street into a mean street. The bottom line is that I do not have nearly as much money or assets as I had just a short while ago. Let me share with you what I also discovered this morning:

1. I was breathing and, in general, feeling pretty healthy.
2. My wife gave me a kiss and told me she loved me.
3. I was driving to WORK! I have a job.
4. All of my children have jobs and are safe and well.
5. My two grandchildren still light up my life and give wonderful hugs and sugars.
6. I am a citizen of the greatest nation on the face of the earth and I will get to vote soon on how to make it better.
7. A good friend called and wants to go out to dinner and a show. (I have a friend.)
8. I am still a United Methodist minister.
9. My home is safe, warm, secure and nearly paid for.
10. I got an e-mail that told me my new book was changing their church for the better (someone is reading it).
11. I ate breakfast and lunch and will have dinner later. (Many won’t get three meals today.)
12. I am actually sitting down in a building I own, at a desk I bought, typing on a $2,000 machine I can barely use.
13. I have a big huge bottle of wonderful fresh clean water right down the hall or I could choose to drink right from the tap all I can hold.
14. I am wearing clean clothes today, and tomorrow I will wear something different. In fact, I could wear something different every day this month if I wanted to.
15. I HAVE A SAVIOR WHO WILL NEVER LEAVE ME.

It is a shame that it took losing so much money for me to realize how rich I really am! This week may be one of the best weeks of my life.

Click here for more Thanksgiving related posts.

This is Part Six in a series on The Sin of Prayerlessness. The excerpts come from the first chapter of the book The Prayer Life, by Andrew Murray. Click here for an introduction and links to the other posts in the series.

The Cause of Prayerlessness:

In an elder’s prayer meeting, a brother put the question: “What, then, is the cause of so much prayerlessness? Is it not unbelief?”

The answer was: “Certainly; but then comes the question what is the cause of that unbelief?” When the disciples asked the Lord Jesus: “Why could not we cast the devil out?’ His answer was: “Because of your unbelief.” He went further and said: “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17.19-21). If the life is not one of self-denial — of fasting — that is, letting the world go; of prayer — that is, laying hold of heaven, faith cannot be exercised. A life lived according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit — it is in this that we find the origin of the prayerlessness of which we complain. As we came out of the meeting a brother said to me: “That is the whole difficulty; we wish to pray in the Spirit and at the same time walk after the flesh, and this is impossible.” …

Scripture teaches us that there are but two conditions possible for the Christian. One is a walk according to the Spirit, the other a walk according to ‘the flesh.’ These two powers are in irreconcilable conflict with each other … ‘The flesh’ cannot be improved or sanctified. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Rom. 8.7). There is no means of dealing with ‘the flesh’ save as Christ dealt with it, bearing it to the cross. “Our old man is crucified with him” (Rom. 6.6); so we by faith also crucify it, and regard and treat it daily as an accursed thing that finds its rightful place on the accursed cross.

Here then we have the deep root of evil as the cause of a prayerless life. ‘The flesh’ can say prayers well enough, calling itself religious for so doing and thus satisfying conscience. But ‘the flesh’ has no desire or strength for the prayer that strives after an intimate knowledge of God; that rejoices in fellowship with him; and that continues to lay hold of his strength. So, finally, it comes to this, ‘the flesh’ must be denied and crucified …

O my brethren, do not seek to find in circumstances the explanation of this prayerlessness over which we mourn; seek it where God’s word declares it to be, in the hidden aversion of the heart to a holy God.

When a Christian does not yield entirely to the leading of the Spirit — and this is certainly the will of God and the work of his grace — he lives, without knowing it, under the power of ‘the flesh’ … I pray you take time and give an answer to the question: Have I not found here the cause of my prayerlessness, of my powerlessness to effect any change in the matter? I live in the Spirit, I have been born again, but I do not walk after the Spirit — ‘the flesh’ lords it over me. The carnal life cannot possibly pray in the spirit and power. God forgive me. The carnal life is evidently the cause of my sad and shameful prayerlessness.

Thoughts: This is a long excerpt but a good one. The takeaway line for me comes right near the beginning: “We wish to pray in the Spirit and at the same time walk after the flesh, and this is impossible.” Our prayer life is integrally connected with the rest of our life. How we live affects how we pray and vice versa. As someone once said, “Prayer will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from prayer.” How will you live differently this week knowing that walking according to the flesh rather than the Spirit is the cause of prayerlessness?

Next post in series:  The Storm Center on the Battlefield

Attention all Monk fans! A special, all-new holiday episode of Monk premieres this Friday night on USA. This will be the only new episode of Monk until January 2009 when the second half of season seven begins.

Detective Adrian Monk believes in such things as hand sanitizer, disinfectant spray and color-coordinated jelly beans. But does Mr. Monk believe in miracles? Find out as a special episode of Monk arrives just in time for the holidays. Catch the premiere of “Mr. Monk and The Miracle” Friday, November 28 at 9/8C only on USA Network.

In other news, USA Network has announced that Monk’s eighth and final season will debut in summer of 2009. This will be a sixteen-episode season which will bring the whole series to a close.

“We want to build to a spectacular conclusion for this wonderful show,” USA Network’s executive vice president of original programming, Jeff Wachtel, said in making the announcement. ” By many measures, Monk is the most successful series in the history of basic cable…. Our fans have been extremely dedicated, and Season 8 should prove to be a very satisfying reward.”

This is a great show, and I will be sorry to see it end, but I am glad they are at least planning for it, so that they can work towards bringing the story arc to a satisfying conclusion.

Click for related post: The Best Monk Review Ever

The online dating service eHarmony will provide same-sex matches as part of a settlement from a lawsuit complaining that the company discriminated against same-sex singles.

The settlement is the result of a complaint New Jersey resident Eric McKinley filed against the online matchmaker in 2005. McKinley, 46, said he was shocked when he tried to sign up for the dating site but couldn’t get past the first screen because there was no option for men seeking men …

Neither the company nor its founder, Neil Clark Warren, acknowledged any liability. Under the settlement, eHarmony will pay New Jersey state division $50,000 to cover administrative costs and will pay McKinley $5,000 … Pasadena, Calif.-based eHarmony said it plans to launch its new service, called Compatible Partners, on March 31 …

Theodore B. Olson, an attorney for eHarmony, said that even though the company believed McKinley’s complaint was “an unfair characterization of our business,” it chose to settle because of the unpredictable nature of litigation.

I don’t see why this is discrimination. If a person walks into McDonald’s, orders a hamburger and is denied service because he is gay, that is discrimination. But if the same person is turned away because he orders steak, that is not discrimination. It is simply not on the menu. The same conditions apply to every person who walks through the door.

eHarmony is a private company offering a specific service: the matching of compatible men and women for relationships based on years of research on male/female relationships. As long as they provide this service to all men and women equally, it is not discrimination. Mr. McKinley was not turned down because he was gay. He was turned down because he asked for a service that eHarmony did not provide. eHarmony also does not provide compatible matches for nannies, nurses and college roommates. Should their company be sued for that?

I don’t understand why a private company like eHarmony which provides a specific service of matching compatible men and women should be required to expand their service to match same-sex couples. Surely there are other online dating companies that provide this service. And of course it works the other way. A dating company that caters to same-sex couples should not be forced to expand their services to include male/female matches. I think this whole case sets a dangerous precedent.

So, what do you think of all this? Is this a case of discrimination? Should eHarmony be required to provide same-sex matches?

Related post: Statistics on Living Together Before Marriage
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