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| Now, what exactly is "justifiable homicide"?
So, if any of you have been following the news lately, you've seen that
Eric Rudolph was just convicted for bombing an abortion clinic back in
'98. Though totally wrong in his methods, his motive was to bring
attention to the murder that takes place every day in abortion
clinics across America. During the course of his trial, Rudolph
penned a manifesto decrying this slaughter of children and
calling others to follow in his footsteps, taking whatever means
necessary to stop abortion. Here is a response from Vicki
Saporta, head of the National Abortion Federation (a.k.a. Satan's favorite hangout):
"When one of these extremists puts out a call to action, oftentimes,
others do try to follow in their footsteps. He clearly is speaking to the extremists who believe in justifiable homicide."
So, Vicki, who, exactly are the "extremists who belive in justifiable
homicide"? Who are the killers, the murderers, the destroyers of
life? Eric Rudolph will get life in prison for the death of fewer
than five people, but you, Vicki, oversee and support the murder of
thousands of people every week! PEOPLE, people just like the ones
Eric Rudolph so wrongly murdered. People that you murder just as
he did with the same sickeningly twisted "logic" that suggests you are
doing something good.
Satan, you are a crafty devil. How you scew our culture, leading
the "innocent" citizen to give a rousing hand to mass homicide.
You blind people so much to their own evil that they will decry
murderers while the blood of thousands is still dripping from their
hands. Lord, give me... give US the strength to fight the good
fight, to run without growing weary, to finish strong. I do not
wish to be discouraged, Lord. Bind Satan from my thoughts and
help me to do the part you have ordained for me.
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| A few people have asked me about the gas missions thing we did, and here's a little bit about it: The gas thing was my pastor's idea (he's sooo
awesome!!). We had one lady who is on the verge of bankrupcy and, as she came
into the station, was thinking about that fact that she really couldn't afford
to buy gas, and she was nearly in tears just to fill up. Then we came along and
told her we were buying it for her, and she nearly died :) She sent the church
a wonderful card detailing her story. Don't know if she's a Christian or not,
but a life-long mark has been left. She never left a return address or name or
anything, so we couldn't really follow up. A lot of people were just floored
because you always think of the church trying to GET money, even though our
primary goal should be to GIVE. So us being there from a church and giving
without any catches whatsoever was completely counter-cultural. We do a car
wash every year, and our next one is coming up in a few weeks. It's also
completely free, and we refuse donations. FREE car washes are never really free
these days. They're always just fund raisers. But ours is completely free. A
true service to the community. It is sooooo fun and fulfilling!!! Anywho,
that's the story! :) | | |
| Ah, in case you didn't get enough of my bulk email, here it is again!!!!! BWA, HA, HA!!!!!
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Good Night!!!!! I don't think I've ever gone this
long without sending out a grand bulk email. Shambles. Well, bear with me
because, if you can imagine that such a thing is possible, I'm going to have to
make this an abridged update lest you be reading 'till bed time.
So, my first semester at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary was excellent, and the next one is getting ready to start
in just a few weeks. I will be loading up on the conducting classes and taking
two choirs (maybe three), and that will be grand. On the docket for this fall
is Verdi's Requiem and Messiah, both with the Ft. Worth Symphony. Good
times.
BUT, that's coming up, and there's more than enough
to say about what has already come and gone. First of all, Sarah and I
celebrated our 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY ON SUNDAY!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOO!!!! And for the
at least two sets of newlyweds that are receiving this, as well as for many of
you others who are engaged plus all others who will someday be married, I would
like to encourage you to take with a grain of salt the old adage that the first
year of marriage is disastrous. I would just like to say that it doesn't have
to be!!! Sarah and I have had an incredible time together this year, and we
didn't experience any of the woes that are supposedly part of the picture in the
first year. We'll see how this next year goes! :) I really can't believe that
a year has gone by already. This year has flown faster than any other year I
can remember. Graduated, got married, moved to Texas, got a job, went to
seminary...... sheesh, a lot has happened in the last 390 days (yes, I know,
that's more than a year)!
So, since my last Blog (concerning which I've been
horribly inconsistent), there have been some exciting times in the Johnston
household. We got season passes to Six Flags Over Texas which is right across
the street... literally, and we try to mosey over at least once a week. It's
really quite awesome.
Over Memorial Day, Sarah and I got to take a
week-long trip back to Colorado, a treat we never expected to get. My Uncle had
gotten some free airline tickets that had to be used by June 12, and he wasn't
going to be able to use them, so he gave them to us so we could visit home. It
was wonderful! We hadn't been back to CO since moving in September, so it was
great to be back in the mountains. Needless to say, Texas is.... well.... f
l a t, and really quite ugly. So, it was nice to see some of God's more
beautiful territory :)
Our other trip as a couple this summer was a
so-crazy-only-a-fresh-out-of-college-student-would-do-it trip to see Dan Bailey
and Katie Eades' wedding in Missouri!!!!!! Wow!!!!! What an awesome time! It
was on a Saturday, and since Sarah had to work on Friday and I had church duties
on Sunday, we left after work on Friday, drove about 9 hours, slept at Katie's
house for a few hours, got up and went to the wedding and reception, left at
6:00pm, drove home 9 hours and then had to be at church just a few hours later
:) It was soooooooooooo worth it!!!! Dad and Katie, I love you and I can't
wait to hear all about your honeymoon. You must send me pictures (selected
judiciously of course, hehehehehe). It was a splendid wedding, and we got see
quite a few of our Wheaton friends!!! It was really worth every second.
Church has been going just incredibly. A
few weeks ago we did a ministry where we went to a gas station with about $700
and paid for people's gas until the money ran out. We would accept nothing in
return, only the opportunity to share the gospel. Basically, we related the
gift we were giving to the free gift of Grace that God gives, that there's
nothing we could do to deserve it, and the only thing we have to do is accept
it. It was incredible. We got an enormous response, letters, the whole nine
yards. Just an amazing ministry. The other big ministry I got to be a part of
was a mission trip we took to Montana July 9-16. We had just finished up VBS at
our church, and we went to a tiny town in the middle of Nowhere to put on the
same VBS for a bunch of the kids in the area. It was truly a blessed time. We
had 14 kids make decisions to follow Christ, and I again got to spend some
wonderful time in my beloved mountains. Sarah couldn't get time off, so she
didn't get to come :( and that was only downside of the trip. Next year we're
planning on doing a week-long children's camp that ministers specifically to the
Native Americans. There are about 60,000 Native Americans in Montana, and only
a few hundred are saved. So, it's a HUGE mission field.
Other than all that, I've been spending my work
days working on our family's Bed and Breakfast directory. I'm pretty sure that
I will reach my goal of finishing before school starts again, so that's very
exciting. It's still in development, but if any of you want to see it, it's http://coloradobnb.web.aplus.net.
We're already considering expanding the business into Texas, but we will have to
see.
Well, I think that's all for now! Sorry, I didn't
put in as many little Ryanisms as I usually do, but I wanted to try to get in as
much good stuff as possible without it being 30 pages long :) You know me, I'm
a man of few words! hehehehe. If any of you have email addresses that will be
changing soon, please let me know so that I don't lose contact with you!!! That
would be a tragedy!
Blessings to all of you and your
mothers,
| | |
| Married life is beautiful!!!!
But I can't say, that in ALLLL my years of college, sleeping in a room
with several other guys, that I ever had to sleep with ear plugs on.
This last week Sarah has had what I'd like to call an über cough, and
after trying unsucessfully to sleep through it, I discovered that the
only way to experience fitful sleep was to don the ear plugs.
But, happily, it seems that she has pulled out of it, and last night
was a dramatic improvement. I actually fell asleep! And I didn't
wake up until 3am when the wind came whooshing into the window I'd left
open and was about to freeze my toes off. Other than that, things
were greatly improved.
Blessed relief.
| | |
| A few simple questions to establish one's level of manliness:
1) Have you ever been camping? (Boy)
2) Have you ever been camping in a tent? (Big Boy)
3) Have you ever been camping in a tent in a storm? (Hip teenager)
4) Have you ever been camping in a tent in a storm that prompted tornado watches? (Young Man)
5) Have you ever been camping in a tent in a Tornado-worthy storm and
had to pretend the whole time that you weren't freaked out at all so
that your wife didn't pee her pants? (A Man)
6) Did you successfeully accomplish number 5? (A MANLY MAN)
I would just like to say, that I am only A Man.
Ha! J/K. Actually, Sarah didn't pee her pants, but we had
quite a camping experience this weekend. I've got some pictures
coming (not of the storm, unfortunately), and I'll tell more when there
are photos to go with the tale. Oh, but it was an......
experience.
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