"Nah, couldn't be. He wouldn't do that."

Is our current president simply incompetent? 

Are there no active duty general staff officers willing to stand up to him?

How can the White House really not know how many native soldiers have been trained by our troops? Can the number really be as small as five? (which has been reported)

What in the world is going on?

Surely it couldn't be that Obama knew and knows that the furtherance of what he used to call "the junior varsity" ISIS activity - the beheadings, the burning alive, the other horrors - would result in thousands upon thousands of people fleeing that horror...and thus overwhelming borders with refugees?

Surely it couldn't be that he knew that eventually the good old USofA would throw open its doors and borders even more than they are already to allow large segments of these refugees to enter...

And thus create even a bigger Democrat voting base?

Nah.

Couldn't be.

Could it?

Nonnegotiables...

Was surprised recently when a response I posed to a question a friend asked generated a lot of heat...to the point of a pastor calling me a heretic because I posed a possibility he did not like.


I had expressed an "opinion" as opposed to "thus sayeth the Lord." This particular individual not only challenged me, but early on said that I was purposefully coloring my opinion so that it would benefit me. As a redeemed sinner I am fully capable of so doing, but it is the Spirit of God's job to reveal that; no one else knows the "thoughts and intentions" of my heart. Then, later, he set the stage to label my "opinion" heresy...which is the same thing as labeling me a heretic.


I was (and am, as some of it continues) surprised at the amount of slaps I took for this particular post.


And I'm such a thin-skinned dude!


But it did cause me to think about asking readers a question:


"What Are Your Non-negotiables?"


On what mountains are you willing to die? More vividly, on what mountains are you willing to let your family die? (I believe a preference is something you'll argue about; a conviction is something you'll die for; a Biblical conviction is something you'll let your family die for)


As I think and pray and observe, I may share my list later.


For now I'm looking for yours.


Care to contribute?


For example, I am non-negotiable on the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. I'm non-negotiable on the exclusivity of the gospel. Though I've no idea what it is, I'm non-negotiable on the reality of hell.


That's a sampling.


How about you?

The Gospel Truth....

As people are exposed by an affair-set-up site, as failures seem to trump the victors; as we are prone to think we are above-all-that...not sure from whom I stole this, but...

If you knew everything about me, there is no way you would listen to me...

...but that's okay...

If I knew everything about you...

There's no way I'd want to talk to you.

Steven Curtis Chapman gets this:

Important Reminder for Me..and For All Who Teach/Preach

Just started rereading Knowing God by J. I. Packer; one of the very few books I read again.

And again struck by a quote from C. S. Lewis that Packer included in his original preface (1972).

It is a sober and sobering reminder:

"Those like myself, whose imagination far exceeds their obedience are subject to a just penalty; we easily imagine conditions far higher than any we have really reached. If we describe what we have imagined we may make others, and make ourselves, believe that we have really been there." (The Four Loves