unending fame...

i read this today. i am still awed by it. i hope i always will be.


"Your name, LORD, endures forever, Your renown, LORD, through all generations."
Psalm 135:13
this is what it's all about. all of life. all of Scripture. this universe. it's all about that Name that goes on forever (no other name will do that). it's all about His renown - that unending fame - that generations will still be talking about in 700 years and in 7,000 years.
when i think about that it doesn't seem like other names are worth talking about. everything else we call famous... well, it's all relative.
(i originally wrote and posted this to renown in August of 2010.)

Obama's Class Warfare Has Failed

President Obama has spent quite a lot of this Presidential campaign attacking Mitt Romney as out of touch because he's so wealthy. (Apparently the President's $10 million personal net worth makes him the average citizen.) He's been playing the class warfare game as well...saying the phrase "pay their fair share" so many times that it makes me want to lose my lunch. There's no fiscal reason for this mentality, as some basic math shows that raising taxes 4-5% on the top tax bracket will be as useful to reducing the deficit as attempting to water your lawn using one cup of water.

The question one must ask is this: is it working? No, according to a Gallup Poll from early in the campaign. Of all voters polled, a full 75% said that Romney's wealth made absolutely no difference as to whether or not they intended to vote for him. None whatsoever. An additional 4% of voters said that Mitt's wealth made them MORE likely to vote for him. That was a few months ago, prior to the debates, prior to Governor Romney becoming likable and preferable to the electorate.

Depending on how you look at it, Romney's wealth, or rather how he obtained it (through his own hard work and rising in business) is a big plus. It means he actually has participated in the economy, run a business, and clearly has more of a clue when it comes to fiscal matters than President Obama, who believes that somehow you can take money out of the economy then put it back in and grow the economy.

Bottom line, the majority of the people who are going to complain about Mitt's wealth weren't going to vote for Romney anyway. They're part of Obama's base, specifically the whiney, self-indulgent people who believe society owes them everything their little hearts desire (no, that's not all of Obama's base, just some). The President has absolutely nothing new to say...so he's going right back to the same pages of the liberal playbook.

Unfortunately, the President's record is his own worst enemy. The problem is, as a famous politician said in 2008, "If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things." Who was that? Oh, right. President Obama, accepting the Democratic nomination in 2008.

Now that all the new metaphoric bullets in the political gun have been fired, the President is bringing back old ones. For example, did you know Mitt Romney worked at Bain Captial? (Shocking!) There's nothing left. The Election is six days away, and the President has absolutely nothing left. The class warfare has failed. Mitt Romney is about to be elected our nation's 45th President. Game on.

Benghazi Should Be a Huge Scandal (But Media has Covered it Up)

I've waited a few weeks to discuss in full detail what happened six weeks ago in Benghazi. Oh, I've mentioned in here and there, but due to a host of issues in my personal life I've waited until now. But I believe the time has come to talk about what has transpired over the last six weeks.

What we have seen, friends is both a complete and utter tale of lies from the Obama Administration and the most inept cover up in political history.  Yes, we all know what the President said the day after the attack...he used the word terrorism. Yes, we got that. But then what happened? He went on the View, he went on David Letterman, he sent various surrogates out on Sunday talk shows; and blamed a video.

They said it was spontaneous. They said it was just a protest that got out of hand. (People usually spontaneously protest with rocket propelled grenades and rocket launchers, right? Right? No?)

Then that story blew up in the President's face. So what did the Drive-By Media do? They've engaged in the cover up. It's the equivalent, as Rush Limbaugh has said over the past couple weeks, is the equivalent of "Woodward and Bernstein helping Nixon cover up Watergate."

The dominoes keep falling, by the way. The President claimed he didn't know about the attack. Except if he didn't know, that would make him the single most incompetent President in history.  Not mentioning the fact that, if the President did know and did nothing, he's also been the most UNCARING President (given that he has run on how much he cares, this is especially poignant) in history.

My friends, here's the reality that the Drive-By Media is scrambling to cover up: In my opinion, the Obama Campaign made a calculated decision that admitting that Benghazi was a coordinated terrorist attack affiliated with Al Qaeda (who, according to the Obama Campaign is supposedly dead, since we killed Osama Bin Laden) would be akin to losing the President's best argument for his Foreign Policy strength. So they covered it up. They pretended it wasn't real. They blamed a video.

This President, according to many people in the intelligence community, the military, and other individuals in the know, had the opportunity to send in fighter jets and scramble the crowd. Or they could have let the ambassador have United States Marines guarding him instead of local anybodies from Libya. (Heck, our Ambassador to France has Marines guarding him!)

The bottom line is this: President Obama has failed in his first duty; protecting Americans. It's yet another reason why we must elect a new President next week. Period.

a tribute to the greatest day ever

Today is the celebration of the greatest day ever.

the ____th anniversary of an epic moment.

a day that would radically change my life for the better + many others.

Crystal Lynn Pagels (maybe better known now as Crystal Mitchell) was born on this day a certain number of years ago. and today it's worth celebrating that occasion!

Crystal is the coolest & most fun person i know. i should know, i get to spend my life with her. i would do anything for her.

and, Crystal, this is always a fun day for me because for the next couple weeks we will actually be the same age :0
you will be just as old as me.

but then i will turn really old & you'll still be young.

and i know some people say that because your birthday is October 30 and Halloween is October 31 that you just barely squeaked by and you were only 1 day from being a witch!

but i think the opposite.

if October 31 is the day for the witch then you came all the way around the calendar, 364 days later. so, you couldn't be farther from a witch. :)

you're actually an angel.

that's what i think.

but for real, i don't know what i would do without Crystal. she has changed my life forever... for the WAY better.

and baby, i celebrate this day with such passion because this day is the greatest day ever to me. this is the most important day of my life. your birthday is even more important than my birthday...
because without you, my life wouldn't be complete.

thanks for being born.
thanks for being amazing.
thanks for being the one who "gets" me.
thanks for being so much fun.
thanks for loving me.
thanks for being born.

Happy Birthday, Crystal!
i love you so very much.

In Memorial of Justin Lewis Glynn

Today at Biblical Conservatism I'm going to let the blog sit and not talk about politics or the election. The reason is because of this little fellow:



Little Justin is the dearly departed son of my best friend and fellow blogger, Martin the JC_Freak and his wife. You can read Martin's explanation of what happened to little Justin on his blog.

There's not much to say in a moment like this, except I ask for your prayers for my friends in this difficult time.

Justin, I'm sorry I didn't get to know you better down here, but I know I'll see you someday in Heaven. When I do, I'll show you how to throw a curve ball, just like I promised. Goodbye, my young friend. Dance with Jesus for a while for me, ok?

"... and you wanted me deported..."

(i originally wrote and posted this to renown on August 26, 2010. still a powerful & indicting paraphrase below.)

no doubt Jesus' words in Matthew 25:31-46 are pretty intense. i've talked about them a lot. Those words (and many others like them in Scripture) are changing the way we see everything.

To sum up - basically Jesus said that when we help the hungry, thirsty, foreigners, poor, and prisoners it's just like we're helping Jesus Himself. When we ignore them we're dissing Jesus. it's a very sobering talk from Jesus.

Yesterday i read about half of A Hole In Our Gospel by the President of World Vision, Richard Stearns. When he was talking about this passage his paraphrase almost knocked me down. i literally had to go and sit down and write some thoughts.

After reading the passage from Matthew he gave his contemporary paraphrase:


"I was hungry
while you had all you needed.
I was thristy
but you drank bottled water.
I was a stranger
and you wanted me deported.
I needed clothes
but you needed more clothes.
I was sick 
but you pointed out the behaviors that led to my sickness.
I was in prison
and you said I was getting what I deserved."
*is that us? we do that right? is that me? is that you?
i'm still just letting that sink in. i hope you'll do the same.

i wish i spoke double digit languages

i wish i spoke double digit languages. ya know, just like 10 or 11 or something like that. i think that would be really cool.

maybe that should get added to my bucket list. i meet people in Charlotte every day from a different country. i think it would be awesome to just break off speaking in their mother tongue fluently. i would dig that.

+ i would love to be able to go to those 10 places. do cool stuff there. already speak the language.

maybe one day?

i could get Rosetta Stone? although Rosetta stone probly don't carry the languages i would love to learn.

i seem to pick up on languages fairly quickly. after 2 days in Mexico i didn't speak any more English for a week, only Spanish.
i bought this app before Kenya to teach me Swahili & it worked pretty well. just vocab though, which memorizing vocab is the part that comes easy. my grammar & sentence structure sucked. people got what i was saying though.
i learned Bemba pretty well in college after i spent a summer in Botswana. grammar was a little better because i had a human teacher.
and i was 1 class short of a minor in Greek in college. i definitely was closest to mastering that one. but it was Koine Greek. a dead language. not spoken anymore. so that one wouldn't really count, EXCEPT i spoke it... and even urbanized it with logos ana kunarion, eireina ek, and petra aionion.

that would have been 4 right there + English, so i'd be halfway to my bucket list goal... BUT, i remember VERY LITTLE of any of those languages :(
i guess it's true what they say - don't use it & lose it.

but maybe one day i'll cross the double digit barrier and be fluent in 10 languages. just for fun.

RCP Avg Strikes Again with Misleading Polls - This Time in Ohio

According to the Real Clear Politics Average in Ohio, the President is leading Governor Romney by 1.7% in the so-called "poll of polls." As I've said before, I am willing to at least give RCP the benefit of the doubt, but still, this average includes four polls that either by accident or design use highly Democrat skewed polls:


RCP is using four polls with skewed samples:

Survey USA, uses a +7% Democrat sample to get Obama to +3%. If we unskew that data to a +3% Democrat Sample, using Survey USA's own internal data of how Republicans, Democrats and Independents are polling, we find Romney with a slight lead of 44.7% to Obama's 44.0%

CBS/Quinnipiac, uses a +9% Democrat Sample to get Obama to +5%. If we unskew that to a +3% Democrat sample, and using CBS/Quinnipiac's own data, we find Obama's lead has cut to one tenth of the poll's prediction to 0.5%: Obama 45.8% to Romney 45.3%

Gravis Marketing used a sample of +9% Democrat, and that showed a tie. If we unskew it to a +3% Democrat sample and use Gravis' own internal data,

The PPP and Fox News polls could not be accurately unskewed because they did not publish their internal data did not provide the necessary breakdowns of how Republicans, Democrats and Independents intended to vote.




So apparently Obama is in fact losing Ohio, very slightly. This makes a difference. Lets look at the RCP "No Tossup" Map, shall we? This is the map using the skewed Ohio sample:



Now let's look at the map using our new data that unskews the samples to +3% Democrat instead of +7-9% Democrat:







One other issue for the President is he's at an average of 46.3%. Well below 50%. Historically you see undecided voters this late (12 days before the election) swing hard to the challenger. I'll even be generous and call it 2:1 for Romney. When that happens it's 51.7% Romney, 48.3% Obama.

Bottom line, exactly what I've been telling you is true: the RCP average, when a Drive-By Media source throws a wrench into the mix and skews the average, it spoils the entire sample. Here in reality, Romney is winning. And that's all that matters.

Letter Bag: No, Incumbents Do Not Historically win Close Elections

It's time for another fun Letter Bag post! Today's response is directed at an anonymous poster, who we shall hereby refer to as Malakali the Rancor Keeper (look that up so you can see how clever I am).

Before having his comment deleted because he violated Biblical Conservatism's Rules for Commenting, Malakali claimed that in close elections the incumbent wins, historically.  Clearly the only history Malakali knows is 2004. Let me correct our dear rancor keeping friend:

Election 2000 there was no incumbent although incumbent VP Al Gore lost the election (he won the popular vote by .5% but lost in the Electoral College by 5 votes).

Election 1996 was a comfortable 9% victory for the incumbent Bill Clinton.

Election 1992 was a comfortable enough 5% victory for Clinton, but if we want to call 5% close, the incumbent lost.

Election 1988 had no incumbent, but the incumbent VP George Bush won by 8%.

Election 1984 was a landslide victory for the incumbent Ronald Reagan.

Election 1980 shortly before the election several polls had Carter winning by about 3-5% only a few weeks before the election. For example, on October 20, 1980, a New York Times Poll had Carter winning 45% to 43% (Remember there was a strong 3rd Party candidate, a Republican, John Anderson, who was at 10% in this poll). On October 27, 2008 the Times had the race at Carter 42%, Reagan 39% (Anderson 8%.) Reagan won.

Election 1976 Jimmy Carter won by 2% over incumbent Gerald Ford.

Election 1972 Richard Nixon won re-election in a landslide defeating George McGovern by 23% (which as a side note makes the Watergate Break-In one of the stupidest acts of cheating ever. It's like Major league ballplayers corking bats to play a junior college team.

Election 1968 there was no incumbent but Richard Nixon defeated the incumbent VP Hubert Humphrey by 1%.

Election 1964 Lyndon Johnson won handily with a 32% margin of victory.

Election 1960 there was no incumbent but John F. Kennedy beat the incumbent VP by less than 1% of the popular vote.

Election 1956 Dwight Eisenhower won by over 15% in landslide.

Election 1952 there was no incumbent nor did the incumbent Vice President run. For the record, Eisenhower won in a landslide.

So basically the incumbent lost in close elections in 1976 and 1980. The incumbent Vice President lost in close elections in 1960, 1968, and 2000. (In both 1960 and 2000, the incumbent Vice President lost in close elections as they attempted to succeed the highly popular term limited Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bill Clinton.)  Counting incumbent VPs with incumbent Presidents, that's five losses for incumbents in close elections to one win, and the 2004 Election wasn't as close as you'd like to believe (Bush won by 3%).


You see, Milakali, despite what the biased Drive-By Media is telling you, incumbents historically have LOST close elections. Especially when those incumbents are continually below 50% in the polls. Undecided voters this late do not break for the incumbent. That isn't history. The Left can keep talking about 2004 but I've just shown you FIFTY YEARS of history to argue your point. Even if we toss the incumbent VPs, that's still two losses for the incumbent to one win in close elections.

As Mitt Romney said in the 2008 Republican debates, quoting President John Adams, "Facts are stubborn things." And those facts just don't back what you desperately want to believe, Malakali. History has shown us that you will feel as crushed on Election Day as the original Malakali did when that gate crushed the Rancor.

more practices for my walking around life (part 2)

Read HERE to catch up on yesterday's post which was part 1.

below are 4 more of 7 "firsts" i am practicing to infuse my daily life - my "everyday, ordinary life".
They are "firsts" because they involve a first response to God in different areas. whereas my first response would normally go to someone/something else (namely myself), i want to discipline myself to give God the first in each of these.
with practice this has infused my life with an all the time and always sense of the presence of God.

here are the final practices...

4) Give God the 1stconsideration in your weekly schedule.
loving my wife the way she should be loved. loving and raising my daughter. gathered/corporate worship. community. looking out for the overlooked.  becoming a better leader. living on mission. accomplishing The mission. loving people. serving people.
i wonder what all else God might love to see in my weekly schedule/to do list?
when i set it up each week, i'd love to give Him the 1st consideration.

5) Make God the 1st supervisor or customer for all work.
"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving."
- Col. 3:23-24

do my work as if I’m doing it for God… He’s the recipient. we make our work sacred in this way. not because some types of work are sacred and others aren't. that's ludicrous. our work is sacred when we do whatever it is we do with God as our 1st supervisor/customer.

& i'm guessin that both our secondary supervisors and customers/clients will feel a difference!

6) Give God the 1st part of every paycheck.
Just 1 more way to worship God.
it's not an obligation, it's worship.
*in fact, if it feels like an obligation i would say DON'T GIVE IT. pretty sure that's what God would say. c'mon think about it - as if God needs your money.

but giving a generous portion of my paycheck straight to God is simply a way to worship. to put Him first. to say to God that He is more important than the groceries, the gas in the car, paying the bills, etc...

how much should you give? that's the wrong question i think.
how much do you want to give? that's a better question. & give that much. give however much you truly desire to give deep down in your heart.
oh, that would be too much, you say?
i don't think so.

7) Give God the joy of your creativity.
***“Let’s apologize less and create more. Let’s think of creating for the approval of others less, and for the pleasure of God more.” - Brian McLaren

that's beautiful.

because most of the time the last approval we're seeking in our creations is God's. we care more what our boss, spouse, friend, co-worker, competitor, enemy, or person we're trying to impress might think.

*Think about when you used to create little art projects in Kindergarten and take them home to your mom. you didn't care what your classmates thought or what your teacher thought of it. you only cared what Mom thought. and Mom loved it.

I want to practice with childlike abandon bringing pleasure to the One who gave me life through my creativity. That’s worship.
who are you creating for?
“God takes pleasure in us as we take pleasure in God. God joins us in joy, and we join in God’s joy.”

i think if we grab onto these 7 "firsts" and make them practices and slowly they become habits... and then fully natural parts of our days and weeks... our lives will look very different.
we'll be living lives infused with an all-the-time worship... lives lived in the presence of God.

Obama was Petulant, Romney was Presidential

Yes, I know, the Drive-By Media is repeating the meme that "Obama won on points" in last night's debate. However, it also seems to be the consensus by the Drive-By Media that Romney won the debate season.

Joe Trippi put it this way last night on Fox News: "Romney scored six runs in the first debate. In the second Obama scored one run. In the third, another one run. Final Score: Romney 6, Obama 2." (I am paraphrasing.)  Personally, I do not think Obama scored a run.

Rather, I think Obama was a pretentious jerk last night (which, by the way, comes naturally to him).  He acted like a small child who knows everything (even when he doesn't) and talked down to both Governor Romney and the American people. He's so much smarter than everyone, you see, so we should just tryst whatever drivel comes out of his mouth.

Governor Romney, on the other hand, was Presidential. He spoke like the President. He spoke like a leader. He sounded confident in himself. He didn't have to talk down to his opponent to make his points. He didn't have to act like he was smarter than everyone to be perceived as intelligent. He simply WAS intelligent. He passed the Commander-in-Chief test.

"“I think Mitt Romney did something very important to his campaign tonight,” former presidential adviser David Gergen told CNN. “He passed the commander-in-chief test." (Newsmax: Pundits Proclaim: Romney Passes ‘Commander-in-Chief Test’)

Furthermore, even though Drive-By Journalists are saying, once again, that "Obama won on points," focus groups after the debate in swing states stated overwhelmingly they are voting for Romney after this debate. This was the case in the last debate as well.

Frankly, I'm fine with letting Obama win two debates on points, especially since as a whole Romney won debate season (as the Drive By Media is proclaiming). More importantly, I believe Governor Romney has established himself as a reasonable option for American voters. And given their lack of satisfaction with the President, I believe that's all it will take to convince them to vote.  

practicing in the moments of my walking around life

God is here.

He is present.

we just don't always know it.

excuse me, i just don't always know it (because i certainly can't speak for you). i'm not always aware.
but i want to be.
how?
been working on that for years. getting better at practicing His presence... at being here. but still working on it.

i love Eugene Peterson's working of Romans 12:1-2 in The Message...
"So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out."

that's the idea - place every moment of my life before God as an offering. even the sleeping, eating, going to work, walking around moments!

i believe there are rhythms and habits we can build into life to help us be more aware of God's presence and worship constantly.

***here are actually a 7 habits/disciplines/practices i've been trying suggested by Brian McLaren. i recommend giving them a go for a few weeks & see what you think.

1) Give God the 1stgreeting every morning.
Turn my attention to God before I even open my eyes. this is tough. but it accomplishes SO MANY things = keeps me humble, centers my attention on God at the beginning, reminds me what i'm living for, and infuses a worshipful and thankful attitude into my day from the very beginning. because usually i find myself saying - "Thanks, God. Thanks for another day. even though it's dark outside and my knees ache and i would rather go back to bed... thanks for this breath & the chance to live another day."

2) Give God the 1stthanks at every meal.
It reminds me of my "creatureliness" – like birds and animals, I’m dependent on God for my daily sustenance. and it makes me very thankful. i stopped "ritualistically" praying before meals in college. i pray for meals sometimes at beginning, middle, end, whenev the thankfulness genuinely hits me. Or a lot of times i simply raise my plate or bowl and say "to the King" - a little adaptation on this practice Crystal and i picked up at the Havilla Children's Home in Kenya.

3) Give God the 1stresponse to every pleasure.
This is a big one for me and one i'm really trying hard to implement at every opportunity!

here's the best way i can explain it:
do you know that feeling of seeing/witnessing something marvelous and awesome and wishing your spouse or a friend were there to see it with you? like an amazing sunset when i'm all by myself. it's the breathtaking kind. makes you say "wow" out loud. & then i think "i wish Crystal were here to see this with me."

Or like at Catalyst when 15,000 people had this app that started blinking neon colored lights on our phones synced with the blinking neon lights of the stage & choreographed with the Michael Jackson songs being played... it was amazing. but my wife was out of the room at the moment and i thought "man, i wish she were here to experience this moment with me, because i'll never be able to explain this..."

– i want to learn to share all those moments & all that joy with God who is actually there in those moments.
and really He’s sharing His joy with me as we experience it together.

it's worship for me to see the sunset and be amazed by it. but to share that pleasure with the Creator of it... that's euphoric.

and i'm talking everything. even the crazy app that made all our phones flash neon colors. even watching an amazing soccer game - i want to take a moment to share that pleasure with God. to be thankful for giving someone the creativity to invent such a beautiful game where such beauty and creativity can be expressed in the middle of a field. or even to have the ability to step out onto a soccer field on a beautiful day. that brings me such pleasure. and i want to share that pleasure with God.

or when i look into my baby daughter's eyes and she looks at me and laughs her splendidly beautiful laugh... i can't even begin to explain the pleasure that comes from her. i want to be conscious and share that pleasure with God. because He's there & He's taking pleasure in it too.

*Think about this for just 1 second (because any more & it will blow our little brains) -
God sees and experiences EVERY SINGLE one of these beautiful parts of creation ALL AT ONCE! billions of these all at the same time.
“Imagine, then, the joy of God, as God sees how wonderful these things are, and God savors their goodness, and God takes pleasure in them as artists take holy pride in their creations.” (McLaren helps our minds blow even further with that thought.)

so, in this kind of every day worship we take notice in the art & the Artist! we appreciate the art and therefore, the Artist. the creation and the Creator. In this way we share in God’s joy + add to it through our spontaneous worship.

“With practice, it becomes natural and instinctive to turn to God as our first response to all experiences of pleasure or beauty.”


we have a lot of practicing to do.

(the final 4 practices coming in tomorrow's post.)

If the Obama Campaign Isn't Worried, They Should Be

Sorry so late today, Biblical Conservatives! Had a personal issue that kept me on the shelf all morning, but here's today's dose of Biblical Conservatism!

Despite what a few Drive-By Media skewed polls are now showing, Obama had better start worrying.

Let's start with a few reasons:

- Florida is now clearly moving to Romney's territory. A Rasmussen Poll released on Friday shows Romney leading Obama by 5% and over 50%.

- North Carolina is now being considered by Real Clear Politics as no longer a tossup but in the Romney column.

- Virginia is becoming more and more clearly in the Romney camp. It's been two full weeks since a poll showed Obama leading in Virginia.

- The Real Clear Politics "No Tossup Map" now puts all three of these three states in the Romney camp.

- The Real Clear Politics Electoral Map shows Romney leading Obama (map does not include any tossup states).

- Except for one anomalous poll (same poll in both), Iowa and Wisconsin are within the margin of error.

- A new poll now has Romney winning Pennsylvania by 4%.


- So many voters remain undecided at this stage in the game, and historically, undecideds break hard for the challenger.

- One final note. Two weeks ago, the Real Clear Politics "No Tossup Map" looked like this:


Today it looks like this:


No amount of tiny poll fluctuations will change the fact that the President should be worried. VERY worried, because Mitt Romney is on the precipice of victory in 15 days.



Since tonight is the final Presidential debate, tomorrow's article will go up about 1 pm EST. Thanks for reading!

10 people at my man cave party

(finishing off this repost series today about 10 people i would hang out with in the man cave. originally wrote & posted this one July 31, 2010.)

Catch up on these parties i'm throwing in my "man cave" HERE.

We're winding these parties down and i've had a fun time with the 10 dead people i would love to hang out with HERE and the 10 fictional people HERE. Now, today are my 10 living, breathing people i would love to hang out with in my man cave for a day. This list only includes people i've never had the privilege to hang out with before:

bono - he has to be tops on the list. too much in his favor. The front man for one of my favorite band of all time who wrote some of the best songs ever + he's Irish (as are my ancestors) + he's freaking awesome as he fights for social justice for the poor in Africa. everybody loves this guy. i would love to hang out with him.


louie giglio - this guy and bono are pretty close. Louie is like my spiritual hero. he has been one of the most influential spiritual "mentors" in my life! i've actually been able to meet Louie a couple times, but never hang out. i'd love to talk with this guy because he is one of my favorite visionaries ever. my heart resonates with most everything he says and his view of God captivates me every time.

chris rock - this is more left over from my child hood. he was the funniest man alive. i used to memorize his monologues. (probably not the best things to memorize.) you have to have a hilarious guy like Chris at every party!
derek jeter - the Yankees captain. and i love the Yankees and always have. Derek has been my favorite baseball player ever since the last Yankees captain retired, Don Mattingly (who owned the title of my fav player from the time i was born to around 13.) He will always be a Yankee and he has led us to so many World Championships. he's the face of this dynasty.
dave ramsey - this guy's simple philosophy changed our lives. So, i'd love to host him in my man cave. i would let him beat me in pool because we owe him our financial livelihood. i've had the privilege to meet him and tell him thanks before. i'd love to hear him telling all these other guys what to do with their money.

brain mclaren - one of my favorite authors. i love this guy and i think he knows the future we're heading into better than most anyone. i would LOVE to sit with this guy and ask him questions for a few hours. + he & dave ramsey could almost be twins!

alan shearer - the greatest player ever for my favorite soccer team ever = Newcastle United. Shearer was the man during the Magpies' glory days (at least in my lifetime.) he was my 1st ever favorite soccer player when i first fell in love with the beautiful game. He was Newcastle's captain and England's captain. too bad he didn't work out as the Magpies manager.

john piper - another of my favorite authors who has really shaped my view of God. i owe my view of the Greatness and Glory of God to Piper who opened my eyes to how amazing and BIG God is. i would love to have a conversation with him!

matt morginsky - the front man for my #1 band when i was in high school and even into college. The O.C. Supertones! (who are actually making a comeback.) this guy wrote the best stuff and he could flow for sure. saw them front row several times. he could just rock for us during the party in the man cave.

Bishop Desmond Tutu - i guarantee this guy has got some stories from some crazy times in South Africa! i would love to hear about how he resolved to continue to show love even though there was so much unspeakable hate all around him.
that's my 10 i would love to hang out with.

10 FICTIONAL people i would hang out with

the saga continues.
Catch up on these parties i'm throwing in my "man cave" HERE.

if i could hang out with any 10 FICTIONAL people for a day, here's who i would invite:
Jack Bauer - Listen, Jack Bauer is the freaking man. He is the biggest pimp of all time. He is 1 of only 3 people i've ever wanted to "be". and the other 2 are the next 2 names below. (i wrote about that once HERE.) he is the hero of all heroes. i'm sticking with Jack. no doubt. (we even named our dog after him.)

John McClane - this is who i wanted to be as a little kid while growing up watching the Die Hard movies with my dad. John is like Jack Bauer from 20 years ago. a lot more "make shift". a lot more rough around the edges. it's never pretty. he's always covered in blood. John McClane is the man! i wouldn't mind seeing him & Jack Bauer go at it.

Chandler Bing - Chandler Bing would have to be like the funniest guy to hang out with. non-stop laughing. This is the guy i wanted to be when i was like 13. If you're not a Friends fan then you may not know who Chandler is. "Look at me, I'm Chandler... could i BE wearing any more clothes?"

Cal Lightman - i'm pretty sure this guy is based on a real person i read about in Blink. Cal Lightman in the TV show Lie to Meis THE MAN! he is amazing. his British accent just makes him that much cooler. his personality makes me love him. OH! and did i mention he can read your micro-expressions on your face and tell exactly what anyone is thinking at any given time! he is amazing and would be crazy at the man cave party.
Maverick (Pete Mitchell) - This is the guy i idolized as a really little kid. i memorized Top Gun line for line. Maverick was so cool. the haircut, the flying suit, the sunglasses... i started drinking ice water as a 6 year old because that was Maverick's drink. (now that's all i drink out of habit.) he was the epitome of "cool".

Danny Ocean & Rusty Ryan - These 2 are the leaders of "Ocean's Eleven". what an awesome crew. these guys are awesome leaders. in my college years these guys were really the "epitome of cool!" i remember saying MANY times that if these guys came to my house and recruited me that i would be IN in a heart beat. even though they're criminals! that's crazy i know. (but i've even said it a few times since i gave my life to Jesus and became a pastor! Don't tell anyone that.)

Harry Potter - i said FICTIONAL people remember. c'mon, Harry is cool. i hope he would bring his broom and wand to the man cave. i say "Voldemort" too, Harry.

Michael Scofield - There are some REALLY smart people in this group = Doctors, Wizards, and the smartest con man of all time (danny ocean) BUT Scofield is the smartest and most genius of them all. after breaking out of the toughest prisons in the world i would want him helping me plan everything.

Jack Shephard - with all these guys above, we'll have to have a doctor in the house! because you can pretty much guarantee that someone will get hurt. and what better doctor to do surgery with a poker chip, a ping pong paddle, and thread from pool table felt than Jack Shephard himself. The hero from the greatest ever written TV show.

Can you imagine this mix hanging out in the "man cave"? it would be straight up crazy!
That's my 10 i would invite.

10 dead people i would hang out with

Today is Keira's 1st birthday party. read the final 3 in my list below... i would LOVE for those 3 to get to hang out with Keira and me today at her birthday party. read on & you'll see why.

*you can catch up on this whole idea in yesterday's post HERE.
i hope starting with this one doesn't seem creepy... like i'll have a basement full of ghosts. i think after you get into it you'll see how awesome it would be!

OK, here's my invite list/ wish list:


George Muller - i'm reading his biography this year. this guy was awesome. i want to start orphanages the rest of my life just like he did, so i would love to talk with him about that. + i would hope that in 1 night in the man cave his unbelievable faith would rub off on me at least a little.

William Wallace - you know... Braveheart! this guy was the coolest. everybody wants to be like William Wallace, right? well, at least i always have. i just want to hang out with a guy as passionate as he was. maybe he could pass out some blue face paint to everyone?
Jim Elliot - he was the missionary to the Auca people who were unreached with the gospel. Later he and his team were martyred by those people that God had called them to love and spread His fame to. For me Jim is representative of the probably millions of missionary martyrs throughout history. i've read a few biographies on Jim and also his journal. what an amazing guy... yet he was just this normal college kid at Wheaton. God just did amazing stuff in his heart. pretty cool.

Harriet Tubman - there is such a HATRED inside of me for racism. sometimes it makes me wish i was alive 100 and 200 years ago so i could FIGHT IT when it was even more outrageous. Harriet fought it hard core and helped to beat it through her "underground railroad." She had such courage and saved the lives of so many slaves. if i would have been alive in the 1800s i hope that i would have found her and helped her cause. and now i'd just love to hang out with this lady.
Paul (not really sure his last name or if he had one... but they also called him Saul.) - you know, the Apostle who wrote half the New Testament. supposedly the 1st foreign/ cross-cultural missionary of the Church. That's what i want to do, so who better to hang out with than the very 1st one who really paved the way. Plus, you know this guy has some pimp stories to tell!

Mother Teresa - how could you not have her on the list? what a selfless servant. one of the greatest examples of loving and serving Jesus via the "least of these" in the modern era. plus i think she and my grandma would get along :)

David Livingstone - the famous pioneer missionary to Africa. he was like the 1st Westerner to land on the continent & go into the interior! he was also a Doctor. i really want to talk to this guy. he's remembered as such a famous missionary who pioneered the way for God's fame to be spread to the people of Africa... but he only saw 1 convert in his life time! wow. can you imagine giving your life to God's cause and only seeing that "little fruit". but now look at the continent and the legacy he left behind. i'm down with God using me like that.

(*These final 3 are my grandparents who all passed away when i was a child. i would LOVE for them to be here today to hang out with their ONLY great granddaughter at her birthday party.)

Robert Hennessee - This was my mom's dad who died when i was 6 or 7. All of my family say i am most like him. they say i look a little like him, act like him, talk like him, and my personality is most like his. i'm honored because he was a great man. i hear he was a great storyteller. (plus his grandfather - Patrick O'Hennessey - came over from Ireland. I'd love to hear some passed down stories from the crazy Irishman i was named after.) i regret that i didn't get to know him better.

Estelle Hennessee - this lady had a heart of gold. i used to stay with her all the time in the summers toward the mountains of NC after her husband (Robert above) had died. She was just full of love... for everyone really. She definitely loved Jesus. She came to live with us after lung cancer started to take over her body. looking back, i'm really thankful for those months i got to spend with her day after day in our home.

Louis Mitchell - This was my dad's Dad. He died when i was 10. if i had to describe him in 1 word i would say "FUN".
i really wish my wife Crystal could have met him and i really wish he could meet her. i think he would just constantly be having fun with us! i think he and i might get along the best. we got along great when i knew him as a younger kid. his personality was infectious. he was all about positive thinking and i remember him passing that down to me when i was around. he would be a lot of fun in the man cave.

(OK, now i'm tearing up a little after thinking and writing about those last 3, so i better step out of this Starbucks i'm writing in.)


sitting around with these 10 people, can you imagine the STORIES that would be told in 1 evening? it would be awesome.

*That inspires me to live a life worth telling stories about.

Tomorrow will no doubt be the "FUNNEST" list of 10 people!

10 people i would like to hang out with

This was a lot of fun to think and write about --> 10 people i would hang out with in my man cave if i could. i wrote this and the 3 posts that follow the week of July 26, 2010. BUT i think all of them are still my top 10 picks. ENJOY!

i had this thought a couple years ago =  

"if i could go out to dinner and invite any 10 people, who would i invite?"

great question, huh?

That's what i'm going to be writing about the next few days here on renown. Except, dinner is kind of boring and with 11 people around big a table eating food it might be a little hard to "hang out" with and talk to everyone.
SO, instead of dinner i would probably just invite them to hang out in the "man cave" for a day. my "man cave" is simply my big basement with lots of "man toys" like a pool table, ping pong table, foosball table, poker table, couches, TV, dartboard, etc... That would be a much better environment to talk with all 10 people throughout the evening. i can envision great conversations around the poker table, watching a game together on TV and having some fun...

And it's not just 1 group of 10 people anymore. I've split it into 3 groups:
10 Dead people
10 Fictional people
10 living breathing people

so, check out renown the next 3 days to see the 10 people i would want to hang out with!

Romney Nearly Tied with Women in Swing States

Barack Obama's leads are evaporating with key demographics, at least if you believe the polls. (I for one believe that the polls are now beginning to reflect reality after months of cooked polls.)  According to a USA Today/Gallup Poll published earlier this week, Mitt Romney leads the President 50 to 46% in the Swing States. (Nationally, Gallup's 7-Day Tracking Poll has Romney leading the President by 7%).

But there are some further key demographic details where Romney is really setting himself up for victory.

- Romney maintains his solid lead with male voters in the Swing States, ahead of the President 52% to 44% (that's a 8% lead for those of you from Palm Beach County, FL).

- Romney is now within 1 point of the President with female voters, trailing the President by merely 49% to 48%.


- Romney is leading Obama 46% to 36% with Independents according to the other most recent swing state poll, POLITICO/George Washington University Battleground Poll (since the USA Today/Gallup poll did not give this particular breakdown). Just to give you a rough idea, the President would need to win 83% of the undecided Independents to win Independents (and that by 1%). That's simply not going to happen. (Remember, historically undecided voters this late break hard for the challenger).

Remember when women were Obama's victory firewall? Yeah, about that. The President is ostensibly tied with Governor Romney. He's also losing men by 8% and Independents by 10%. This is bad, bad news for the President.

I will go on record right now: If the President only wins women by 1%, loses men by 8% and loses Independents by 10%, do you know what we'll be calling Mitt Romney come November 7th? Mr. President-Elect.

don't be surprised

for years i have thought that many of us who call ourselves "Christians" or "Jesus followers" or whatev, have MISSED out on a lot of what God is up to.

i feel like there are beautiful things going on in the world all the time that have God's activity written all over them... but we don't see it that way.

is it because our eyes are closed? because we're too busy? or simply because we don't think God concerns Himself with stuff like that because it doesn't have a "Christian" label on it?

as he often does, Brian McLaren magnificently puts into words what i've been feeling. in fact he finds words to express these feelings that are much better than the jumbled mess inside my head.

“Whenever people encounter justice, joy, peace, creativity, comfort, liberation, holiness, beauty, love, or any other good thing, they are in some way encountering the Spirit, or at least the signature or aftermath of the Spirit."

that is a beautiful way to put it. so beautiful.

in other words, God introduced these things into creation. so when it occurs... it stemmed from God. it stemmed from the Holy Spirit moving in the world like He was doing over the waters back in the Genesis poem.
When these things (justice, joy, peace, etc...) happen - it's a little piece of the Kingdom of God breaking through and the Spirit is orchestrating that. doesn't matter what "realm" of the world it occurred in. [AS IF there are different realms of life & of the world.] 

or it's at least "the signature or aftermath" of the Spirit. i love that.

Brian goes on to write that...
"The Spirit, then, is bigger than any particular religion or religion in general. Nobody has a monopoly on Spirit."

YES! thanks for saying it that way. that's what many of us feel but haven't been able to articulate... The Spirit & the Holy Spirit's movement in this world is BIGGER than any movement or religion or Christianity or really any thing or category we have created. no "category" [as if] could have a monopoly on the Spirit.

THEREFORE, we see the Spirit's activity across all boundaries and outside all boxes we have set up!

So, don't be surprised next time you see something happen outside of the artificial "the-Holy-Spirit-can-only-work-like-this" boundaries we have set up. don't be surprised. "we" (whoever your "we" is) can't have a monopoly on the Spirit's activity. and i'm thankful for that.
So, stop being surprised when things happen in unlikely places and through unlikely people who you may even think of as your enemies. don't be surprised... celebrate. The Kingdom is breaking through. The Spirit is up to something.

"Get that straight and a thousand other things begin to fall into place.”

ABC/WaPo Poll Should Be Ashamed of Themselves

On Monday, the Washington Post and ABC published a poll that claimed Barack Obama was up 3% over Mitt Romney in their latest poll. There's just one problem: They used a sample of +9% Democrat. (A full 2% above the +7% Democrat record turnout in 2008.)

Do you want to know what makes this publish so preposterous? Directly from the Washington Post's article reporting this story:

Partisan identification fluctuates from poll to poll as basic orientations shift and with the sampling variability that accompanies each randomly selected sample of voters. In the current poll, Democrats outnumber Republicans by nine percentage points among likely voters; the previous three Post-ABC polls had three-, six- and five-percentage-point edges for Democrats. The presidential contest would now be neck and neck nationally with any of these margins.

Friends, the Washington Post ADMITTED IT! They admitted this was a bad poll! So why, pray tell, did they publish it? Let's make pretend it was an accident. Lets pretend this was a sampling anomaly (just to be charitable). Why would they publish this poll? It was clearly misleading.
Now I can see you thinking "what would the numbers have been if they used a real believable sample? Let's give you some quick numbers, shall we?

With a +3% Democrat Sample, Romney is leading by 1%, 48% to 47%.

With a flat even sample, by the way (which I believe is very likely given the 2010 election turnout) it becomes a Romney lead of 49% to 46%. It's a complete switch.

Some might ask why this matters. Well, aside from the fact that the Washington Post stated that the poll had a misleading sample IN THEIR ARTICLE, let's look at our old friend the Real Clear Politics average. Since I have an established propensity to not publish posts until a few days later, lets show you what the RCP average was on Monday, October 15th (when I wrote this post):


Notice that the polls other than this anomalous ABC/Washington Post poll have Obama at best at +1% to Romney at +2%, giving an RCP average of Romney +0.1%. Now, let's remove the Washington Post poll entirely. Just throw it right out. That moves the average from Romney plus 0.1% to Romney +0.6%. Now when you unskew it to a +3% Democrat sample (and giving Romney a +2% lead) we get to an RCP average of Romney 47.9%, Obama 46.8% to give Romney a +1.1% lead.

So I say, as I said in the title, shame on ABC and the Washington Post. How dare they publish this admittedly biased poll. They could have weighted the poll to a more reasonable sample easily (as most polls do) if the problem was really just the sample. That's easy to do, gang. They could have done it with just a modicum of honesty.

Instead, the Washington Post chose to publish this poll, they published this link on Real Clear Politics.. If you went to the Washington Post politics page, you could find this article.  In the third paragraph, it said "Obama 49%, Romney 46%." It's not until the 8th paragraph do we see "you really can't trust this poll because the sample is silly."  Most people won't read to the 8th paragraph of a story. Some of us did.

The truth is the Washington Post should be ashamed of themselves for publishing this poll. That's the truth they won't tell you. This poll is at best a horrible mistake. At worst, it's a willful lie.

Rumors of an Obama Debate Win Have been Greatly Exagerated

Rush Limbaugh said it on his show yesterday (October 16, 2012):

If Obama shows up tonight and successfully breathes, he's going to be declared the winner tomorrow.

Rush was correct. Obama showed up and didn't flounder. He at least managed his talking points. He even had a few good rhetorical decisions. (The one that made me say "SONOFA!" was waiting to bring up the 47% non-story until Romney couldn't respond, using his final statement in the debate.)


What Obama didn't do was he didn't successfully present Romney as a a bad candidate or, more importantly, himself as a good one. At all. He told more tales about "increasing oil production," but Governor Romney pointed out (and Obama ducked the question) that it was entirely on private lands, which the government has zero say over.  He lied about the Libya crisis and refused to answer the direct question asked by a voter of what happened. He just blamed Romney for giving a statement.

The Drive-By Media is predictably hammering Romney's strength in the debate. Their spin is "Romney was a bully" or he was "disrespectful." These are the same people who glossed over Joe Biden being a legitimate bully a week ago, by the way. If you doubt media bias, pay attention to the difference between how Biden's legitimate bullying was presented vs. Romney refusing to let Obama lie. They are telling you what you saw, but let's stop and think about what we ACTUALLY saw, shall we?

What we actually saw was President Obama having to lie to cover his tracks or just ignore questions. For example, why is he telling a college student who has asked about his job prospects after college about increased manufacturing jobs. (Please tell me the President realizes that the goal of a college degree is not to be a knob turner at a factory.) He also refused to answer Governor Romney's point about his "increased drilling" coming not from public lands but private lands.

I also still heard stammering and stuttering from the President in a lot of the debate. He wasn't quite as bad as last time. But he still was searching for the truth throughout the debate. The only thing is he seemed LESS ridiculously incompetent, so he looked better by comparison. Like Rush said, it's all about exceeding expectations.

So what precisely happened, in terms of this debate? Well, I'll tell you. I watched a Frank Lunz focus group from Nevada after the debate.  The lion's share of the people in the group were Obama voters in 2008. The lion's share of those same people said they had now decided to vote for Mitt Romney.

Friends, here's what really happened at the debate: Obama couldn't answer legitimate questions. He couldn't answer Governor Romney's legitimate questions. The Drive-By Media is telling us that Obama "won on points." Let's make pretend that it matters if someone "wins on points" in a debate. Debates are not reflected on points. This isn't high school Debate Team. This is a Presidential Election.

Obama did not move the meter. Even if the Drive-By Media brings out skewed polls that claim it did, trust me, it won't matter on Election Day.  Mitt Romney is about to win the Presidency in three weeks. And that's what really matters.

Happy Birthday Keira!!!

Happy Birthday to our amazing daughter, Keira!

it's crazy to me that it's been a year since she was born. a whole year old! wow.

a year ago right now we were chillin' at the hospital after Crystal's water broke at 1:17 AM.

**a year ago right now we didn't even know if Keira was going to be a boy or a girl! we hadn't even settled on the name Keira.
in fact, we had only settled on a boy name because we were pretty darn sure our baby was going to be a boy.

i went to bed the night before with a long to-do list of things to prep for our baby's arrival. and i still had a whole month! but by 1:17 AM when that water broke, i realized my month had vanished.

i think Crystal and i would both say that in many ways this has been the best year of our lives.

i've never known anyone like Keira. her love for life is infectious.

looking into her eyes makes me excited and thankful to be a live.

i love experiencing "firsts" with her. i love watching her eyes as she experiences some aspect of life for the 1st time.

and today is her 1st birthday. she'll get spoiled all day long. (ok, so probably not very different than every other day...)
but i'm excited to experience this 1st birthday with her.

because she is perfect. and she's ours.

today i'll write the first of 18 letters to Keira. i decided when she was born that i would write her a letter every year on her birthday and then give them all to her when she turns 18 or some time around there. that's what i'll be writing next.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEIRA! i hope your first year with us was as awesome for you as it has been for us!

annoying

had 5-6 blogs spilling out of my brain and heart to write today.

but the internet is out at my house. that's really really really annoying.

for so many reasons.

lots to write about.

coming soon i guess...

Scenarios for a Romney Electoral College Win


 The above image is the Real Clear Politics "No Tossups" Map as of Monday, October 15th.  (The only adjustment that has been made is a color change to Nevada, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and New Hampshire as they are officially "tossups.")  What I did last week on the Biblical Conservatism Facebook Page is show a few scenarios to show Mitt Romney's path to victory.

       
Scenario One: Romney wins a few small states plus Virginia. While the RCP average has Obama still winning in Virginia but it includes a Quinnipiac poll that includes a +3% Democrat sample in a state with a +3% Republican registration advantage and a PPP Poll that uses a +6% Democrat sample. Throw those two polls out you get Romney winning by 2% in Virginia. Combine that with the fact that Suffolk University has decided VA is over and expects Romney to win, we'll call Virginia safe for Romney. Combine that with three small statesL Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada (all three of which the Obama lead is within the margin for error) and Romney wins.

In this scenario, Mitt wins Virgina (which we've established already is likely) and Ohio. That's all he would need to win the Electoral College. Anything else is gravy that helps build a mandate. 

What if Mitt Romney doesn't win Ohio? Then what? Some are continually reminding us, no Republican in recent memory has won the White House without Ohio. However, there is a simple scenario where Romney can win without Ohio. Simply put, if Mitt wins Virginia (which we've established is likely) and then wins Wisconsin (or Michigan, or Pennsylvania) and either Nevada or Iowa.


































Now we look at a very likely scenario. Many voters remain undecided a mere three weeks from Election Day.  History has shown that undecided voters break for the challenger and break hard. The above scenario involves a 3:1 break in Romney's favor. The result is a huge win for Governor Romney.  It's not an unrealistic scenario, friends. In fact it's a highly realistic scenario. In these states the Real Clear Politics average has only one of these states with Obama at 50%, and that's Wisconsin (he's at exactly 50% by the way, and there's a margin for error.) In this case, Mitt gains Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia by winning 75% of undecided voters.

Even using the Real Clear Politics average (which we've discussed is not exactly the most reliable way to judge the race) it becomes clear Mitt Romney has a path to victory that is easy to see. President Obama has less options. Despite the narrative being attempted bythe Left recently, the Romney path to victory is clear.