Josh Brage

Israel makes a fairly easily understood demonstration of their abilities to defend themselves. Foxnews – Warplanes Buzzed Syrian President’s Home Forbes – Israelis Put Heat on Palestinians, Assad

Also, Israel is making progress in their march on the Gaza Strip in an effort to get back their captured soldier. We wish them the best! Cnn – Syria Chases Israeli Jets Out of Airspace

This is just a simple post. I was in Saint Joseph, Missouri this past weekend for a good friend’s wedding. And I was fortunate enough to be able to be a part of the final night of the Uprising 2006 Youth Conference by Millennium Youth Church at Word of Life Church. This event was held in their brand new Millennium Youth Center.

This building is a complete thing of beauty and class. Expansive and capable of holding large events with both seating and tables if necessary, but also very appealing to the eye. This will be a nice facility for not only the church, but for that community for many years to come.

Congratulations to Pastor Brian Zahnd, Pastor Shea Strickland and all of the Word of Life team!

I will blog more about this past weekend soon, as well as some thoughts on an absolutely inspiring movie that I watched this past week. Soon!

I have had two fairly interesting conversations in the past two days.

One was with one of my very good friend, who when we ventured onto the subject of current events, promptly decided to proudly proclaim that, “Bush is an idiot.” Now she is a very good friend of mine, so I didn’t “rip her a new one,” but I began to ask her why she said that. She, admittedly, didn’t necessarily have a reason or any facts to say why she thinks that, but here is what she said, “I don’t really know why, but it just seems like he is.”

When pushed just a little harder she managed to come up with a couple of basic, weak, liberal catchphrases that she had picked up somewhere. You know, Bush is a liar, oil-monger, etc … unnecessary war. And that is where I had to stop her. I intervened and kind of mobile-blogged her right there. We went through why we went there in the first place and why we, obviously, can’t ‘cut-and-run.’ She didn’t leave loving Bush, but she will probably think again before spurting out some things, that she doesn’t really have the back-up for.

My main point from that is that her overall perception of Bush was negative. She called him an idiot. But she didn’t know why. She just felt that way. In a nutshell, that is what a liberal wants you to do. 1. Say what we say. 2. Don’t think about it, just feel that way. She is not an avid news/blog reader. She doesn’t particularily care. But that was the perception that she gleaned from catching sound bites and other such ‘drive-by media’ pieces over the past couple of years. Well, she isn’t a raving, uncontrollable liberal and she isn’t going to become one, if I can do anything about it.

The other conversation was with a random guy in some well-established recreation and refreshment facility. He was a marine. Or had been. He got hurt in Iraq and has been discharged. We didn’t have a thorough conversation, however I asked him what he thought of Iraq and the war. And he told me, “I miss it. I would go right back over in a heartbeat. What we are doing over there is working and I loved being a part of it.” I thought that was succinctly and nicely put. He didn’t strike me as a person who was attempting to use a platform that he had just gained to throw out some political perspective or agenda. He was just a genuine, well-refreshed young man. I thanked him for his service and we moved on with our evenings.

Two different conversations. Two very different perceptions. Drive-by media versus a guy who went over, got hurt and wants to go back over again. I guess it just matters what you want to hear.

This is a great article by the brilliant Mark D. Roberts on multimedia and communicating the gospel.

Mark D. Roberts on Multimedia

This is an interesting discussion. For all of the power of these communications mediums are we better off? I blog, obviously. But is this instantaneous system of global communication a good thing for our society? I wrote an article or two on this subject about a year ago while I was in a social humanities class. I will dig them up and post some excerpts later this evening.

RESOLUTION

Declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.

Whereas the United States and its allies are engaged in a Global War on Terror, a long and demanding struggle against an adversary that is driven by hatred of American values and that is committed to imposing, by the use of terror, its repressive ideology throughout the world;

Whereas for the past two decades, terrorists have used violence in a futile attempt to intimidate the United States;

Whereas it is essential to the security of the American people and to world security that the United States, together with its allies, take the battle to the terrorists and to those who provide them assistance;

Whereas the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other terrorists failed to stop free elections in Afghanistan and the first popularly-elected President in that nation’s history has taken office;

Whereas the continued determination of Afghanistan, the United States, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will be required to sustain a sovereign, free, and secure Afghanistan;

Whereas the steadfast resolve of the United States and its partners since September 11, 2001, helped persuade the government of Libya to surrender its weapons of mass destruction;

Whereas by early 2003 Saddam Hussein and his criminal, Ba’athist regime in Iraq, which had supported terrorists, constituted a threat against global peace and security and was in violation of mandatory United Nations Security Council Resolutions;

Whereas the mission of the United States and its Coalition partners, having removed Saddam Hussein and his regime from power, is to establish a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq at peace with its neighbors;

Whereas the terrorists have declared Iraq to be the central front in their war against all who oppose their ideology;

Whereas the Iraqi people, with the help of the United States and other Coalition partners, have formed a permanent, representative government under a newly ratified constitution;

Whereas the terrorists seek to destroy the new unity government because it threatens the terrorists’ aspirations for Iraq and the broader Middle East;

Whereas United States Armed Forces, in coordination with Iraqi security forces and Coalition and other friendly forces, have scored impressive victories in Iraq including finding and killing the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi;

Whereas Iraqi security forces are, over time, taking over from United States and Coalition forces a growing proportion of independent operations and increasingly lead the fight to secure Iraq;

Whereas the United States and Coalition servicemembers and civilians and the members of the Iraqi security forces and those assisting them who have made the ultimate sacrifice or been wounded in Iraq have done so nobly, in the cause of freedom; and

Whereas the United States and its Coalition partners will continue to support Iraq as part of the Global War on Terror: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives–
(1) honors all those Americans who have taken an active part in the Global War on Terror, whether as first responders protecting the homeland, as servicemembers overseas, as diplomats and intelligence officers, or in other roles;
(2) honors the sacrifices of the United States Armed Forces and of partners in the Coalition, and of the Iraqis and Afghans who fight alongside them, especially those who have fallen or been wounded in the struggle, and honors as well the sacrifices of their families and of others who risk their lives to help defend freedom;
(3) declares that it is not in the national security interest of the United States to set an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq;
(4) declares that the United States is committed to the completion of the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq;
(5) congratulates Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and the Iraqi people on the courage they have shown by participating, in increasing millions, in the elections of 2005 and on the formation of the first government under Iraq’s new constitution;
(6) calls upon the nations of the world to promote global peace and security by standing with the United States and other Coalition partners to support the efforts of the Iraqi and Afghan people to live in freedom; and
(7) declares that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the noble struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.

This is the resolution that the House of Representatives passed today. The resolution passed with a vote of 256 to 153. Just so you know 149 of the 191 House Democrats voted against this resolution. Yes, they voted against celebrating our victorious efforts, honoring our fallen soldiers and renewing our resolution to win this War on Terror.

This is why the Democrats will not have much success in November. They are not willing to stand up and tell the American people that they will (let alone could) keep us safe. That is the bottom line right now. This is a post-9/11 world and we want to be safe. The Democrats are not willing to give us that. The people who are willing to lead us and protect us will be the people that we vote for consistently and continually. Right now, that is the Republican party.

This is a funny pic sent to me by a good friend at work. Enjoy.

This is cool. Read More

This is a fantastic victory for the American troops fighting for freedom in Iraq. Last night two of our F-16 Fighting Falcons dropped significant bombs on a site where Zarqawi, Iraq’s top most wanted man, and some of his aides were, you know, hanging out.

No matter what anyone says, this is a great victory for this war. He was a big deal and a huge enemy and we got him. We are fighting a war and don’t forget, even though it is taking longer than we expected, we are winning this war handily.

Sources:
Foxnews.com
Hugh Hewitt
Instapundit
Cnn.com

Yesterday, I communicated with a friend of mine why I didn’t have an Ipod Video yet. I simply told him that I was waiting for the next release of the video, becuase I knew that it was going to be awesome. Oh my goodness, I was right.

Apple has rereleased the U2 Ipod, now with video capability. This will be in my possession very very soon. And then watch out! For shizzle.

Apple.com

Today is D-Day. The 62nd anniversary of that “Longest Day”.

We must remember the sacrifice of these men and why they did it for us. Here are some resources:

Wikipedia: D-Day
Encyclopedia Brittanica: D-Day
National D-Day Memorial
D-Day Museum Website *Awesome!

Here is an excerpt from President Reagan’s historic 40th anniversary speech.
This speech is epic. Thank you to Laura Ingraham for bringing this to my attention. I am 21 and I had never heard this speech. This is one of the most moving speeches given by a president that I have ever heard. Please take some time and go listen to it at American Rhetoric.com it is well worth your time. Oh, God, let us have inspiring leaders once again!

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

A lot of time had been spent by many people talking and preaching about a culture war. I had a brief conversation with someone this past week about it and it inspired me to think about it once again.

I have excerpted a blog from a good friend of mine, Nathan Gann, dealing with this ‘culture war.’

In America, Christians are no longer moral because they love God or their fellow man, but they do so for the sake of superiority, for the sake of building a better nation here on earth, to protect our schools, or to be able to identify who is in our group and who isnt.
Take for example the culture war. Somehow Im so supposed to believe that those in Hollywood, the professional athletes, or politicians have an immoral agenda that I should be threatened by? But in all the rhetoric from Christians I never hear about Jesus love, or grace or forgiveness. It sounds like anger and bitterness about our morality, our culture, our schools, which are being taken over by people who ignore our morality. Seriously, none of it has anything to do with God.

Today we have only two issues that Christians seem to care about: homosexuality and abortion. But the NT seems full of moral ideas like loving your enemies, being at peace, taking care of your own junk before you worry about others, forgiving because we have been forgiven, loving our neighbors, etc. Morality becomes the glue not the divider for our communities because of Jesus and his love to a confused culture, his calm to all the loudness, his life in a world of routine, his kindness in a world of self-hatred.

So how has a man who hung out with prostitutes and the detestable, healing the sick, turning the other cheek, changing water into wine, become the poster boy for a Western agenda with a morality of rules or financial gain through this dividing war rhetoric? Satan is crafty.

Maybe you think I am a theological liberal. But my take is that if someone can focus on what other Christians drink while ignoring the wedding at Cana or rant on about gay marriage and abortion as the two main sins while ignoring the othersthis person should never be called conservative. I think the theological liberal is the one who defines morality by these two issues while ignoring loving those neighbors, ignoring the environment, world trade, or feeding the poor.

Really, we should stop showing off and telling people how much more moral we are. Any feelings of anger you have towards the culture are not from God, but rather a soul ready to throw stones at the women caught in adultery. If Jesus were here today I dont think he would react any different than he did to the moralists of his day. I know I screw up and need grace and love from Jesus, so Christians (myself included) should be the ones befriending our culture.

Are we in a culture war? Is this country at a “crossroads”? If we are, what’s right and what’s not? Is a war for the culture of America a good thing for America? For Christianity? Is it necessary? “Be in the world, not of it.” What does that mean? At what point does my Christianity and my American Patriotism collide? What happens when they do?

There are a lot of questions about this culture war? Maybe we just should listen to Peter with his first salvation altar call – “Be saved from this wicked and perverse generation.”

You can find more blogs by Nathan at his myspace. Naked Corbu

This came to my desk at work. I think is possibly the most boring catalog that I have EVER seen in my entire life. I can’t think of anything more boring than the annual edition of “Mailboxes and Lockers.” Wow.

My good friend and intellectual compadre, MYCBrad has begun a new project.

Church Inverted

This is the beginning of what should become an interesting project. This blog will involve conversations on this emerging post-modern church and church experiences. Brad will be doing the majority of content contribution. JP, the Battle-Axe himself from Fort Lauderdale, Florida will be contributing as his time allows. And I will be participating in these discussions, from time to time.

This will be an interesting blog, it will include podcasts and other multimedia events as they come our way. Please enjoy.

Foxnews

The investigation “found no reason to probe further.”

I wonder when the public apologies will be issued to the Marine Corp? Senator Murtha – step up to the mic!