Good News (I think)

It appears that the last minute marriage amendment petitions sent to Florida4Marriage.org are sufficient to make up the deficit that was declared after an unprecedented audit a few weeks ago. We now must see if the supervisors of elections will count the petitions in the three full business days they now have before the legal ballot certification deadline, which is Friday. Hopefully, we will have the opportunity to vote for defining marriage as between one man and one woman in November.

Here is the press release...


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

67 COUNTY SUPERVISORS OF ELECTIONS
TO NOW DETERMINE IF THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
WILL BE HEARD ON MARRIAGE AMENDMENT

(Orlando, FL) Wednesday, January 30, 2008. The final boxes of Florida Marriage Protection Amendment petitions received will be submitted today via overnight mail and hand delivery to the 67 County Supervisors of Elections offices and will be received on Thursday morning, January 31, 2008.

Orlando lawyer, John Stemberger, who heads the Florida4Marriage.org campaign stated, "On behalf of the more than three-quarters of a million voters who have signed the marriage petitions, I want to publicly thank each Supervisor of Elections for their hard work. We ask them now to do whatever it takes to process the outstanding petitions and avoid disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters in their counties."

Florida4Marriage.org, the official sponsoring committee, estimates they have received possibly as many as three times as many petitions as are required for certification. "They were pouring in almost faster than we could process them," said Stemberger. Overnight mail delivery of boxes of petitions was also sent out statewide on Monday the 28th and Tuesday the 29th. The real question, however, is whether supervisors of elections will act in good faith and count the petitions in the three full business days they now have after the primary election and before the legal ballot certification deadline. That deadline is February 1, 2008, at 5:00pm EST.
The state Division of Elections took the position that the statutory deadline for citizen's initiatives to submit petitions was December 31, 2007. On this date, according to the state Division of Elections website, the marriage effort had met and exceeded the required goal of 611,009 petitions by more than 8,000. After an unprecedented audit of the petitions, on Monday afternoon January 14, 2008, Florida4Marriage.org was notified by the Division of Elections that the effort was deficient by 30,000 less petitions. This deficiency was caused by 27,000 petitions being counted twice in Miami Dade County.

Campaign leaders, recognizing the immense effort it will take to count the petitions have offered the help of hundreds of people who could volunteer, be deputized or be hired to help process all the petitions in their county offices. This offer was made in a certified letter to all 67 county officials.

Stemberger said, "We are at the mercy of the professionalism of these public officials who are in a real sense the guardians of democracy. We pray they will do their job with all due diligence."

SPECIAL NOTICE TO MEDIA AND SUPPORTERS: According to the Division of Elections, it is their goal to have the final results announced on this Saturday February 2, 2008 at noon. In the alternative, the results will be announced on Monday February 4, 2008.

"Old and Alone" by Al Mohler

Al Mohler wote a great article this week on the affects of divorce upon children. Check it out.

Not My Letter

Years ago I read an interesting letter from a remorseful father written to columnist Ann Landers. I was not a father at the time, but I made up my mind that when I became one, I would never have to write this letter. It's pretty "heavy" stuff, but if it encourages someone to spend more time with their kids, here it is...

"Dear Ann,

I remember talking to my friend a number of years ago about our children. Mine were five and seven then, just the ages when their daddy means everything to them. I wish I could have spent more time with my kids but I was too busy working. After all, I wanted to give them all the things I never had when I was growing up. I loved the idea of coming home and having them sit on my lap and tell me about their day. Unfortunately, most days I came home so late I was only able to kiss them goodnight after they had gone to sleep. It is amazing how fast kids grow. Before I knew it, they were nine and eleven. I missed seeing them in school plays. Everyone said they were terrific, but the plays always seemed to go on when I was traveling for business or tied up in a special conference. The kids never complained, but I could see the disappointment in their eyes. I kept promising them I would have more time next year. But the higher up the corporate ladder I climbed, the less time there seemed to be. Suddenly, they were no longer nine and eleven, tyey were fourteen and sixteen, teenagers. I didn’t see my daughter when she went on her first date or my son’s championship basketball game. Mom made excuses and I managed to telephone and talk to them before they left the house, but I could hear the disappointment in their voices. But I explained as best I could. Don’t ask me where the years have gone. I can’t believe it. My job is less demanding now and I finally have time, but they are grown and have their own interests and they have little time for me. To be perfectly honest, I’m a little hurt. It seems like yesterday they were five and seven. I’d give anything to live those years over now. You can bet I’d do it differently, but they are gone now and so is my chance to be a real daddy."

IMPORTANT ALERT!

Florida4Marriage.org has learned today that the Division of Elections, after a statewide unprecedented "audit", has revised the total number of petitions on file and we are now 21,989 petitions short of the 611,009 required. We must immediately make up the difference prior to the February 1st deadline. If you have not signed a petition to place on the ballot a proposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, please do so now. Click HERE for the forms. Florida4Marriage.org needs the petitons in their possession by January 29th to process them before the February 1st deadline.

High Impact Church Conference

I attended a "High Impact Church Conference" today at Urban Impact Ministries in Hialeah. Special thanks to Al Fernandez who works hard to help equip churches and train pastors in South Florida. Al is an example of cooperative program dollars working well. Here are some random reflections and actual quotes from the conference. Most of these speak just to pastors, but maybe this will give you some insight into what a pastor's life is like.

"Preaching weekly is like delivering a baby every Sunday and then finding out on Monday that you are pregnant again."

“Once you open the floodgates, you can’t tell the water where to run.” (Speaking of moral relativism in our society)

"If you ask lost people, 'What do Christians stand for?' you’ll have to go through one hundred people citing different political issues before hearing someone say 'Jesus Christ is Lord.'"

“If truth is what we decide it is or what a majority of people say it is, then we are a ship without a rudder.”

"Discipline is not working long and hard. Lots of lazy people work very hard. Discipline is doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done.”

“Dear God, give me a holy disregard for what people think.”

“The moment I’m preaching and I care whether people like me is the moment I’m no longer concerned with what God is saying.”

When preaching is good, people will say “I like him.” When preaching is great, they’ll say “He loves me.”

What Put Huck Over the Top

CNN entrance poll results from Iowa reveal that a whopping 3% of Iowans were influenced by the endorsement of Brenda and Jesse Harden. When told about their impact on the Huckabee victory, Brenda replied "I want a cookie." Her Daddy gave her one.

The Cost of Christmas

Below is the transcript of the Christmas Eve message I brought at FBCH.

What is the cost of Christmas? That cost varies depending on who you ask. For example, to the US economy, the cost of Christmas is $435 billion dollars, because this is what Americans are expected to put into the economy this Christmas season. For Christmas tree growers, the cost of Christmas is $506 million, because that is what they hope we will have spent on Christmas trees. To the average American, the cost of Christmas is $859 dollars, because this is the amount that the average American will spend on Christmas presents. If we could ask your scale at home, what is the cost of Christmas, it would answer about seven pounds, because this is how much weight the average American will gain. There is even an organization that determines the price of the 12 days of Christmas. The PNC Financial Services Group calculates the total price of all of the items included in that well known song as a means of measuring inflation. This year, you would start with the cost to book various musicians and stage performers like twelve percussionists, eleven pipers, ten lords a’ leaping, and nine female dancers. Then you would add in the minimum wage of eight milking maids (not including the price of the actual cows). Then you would add the actual purchase price of seven swans (pool not included), six geese, five golden rings (carats not specified), four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, 1 partridge and 1 pear tree, you final tab would be $19,507.

But I want to propose to you that the cost of Christmas, the real cost of Christmas, is much, much more. In fact, if you want to know how much Christmas costs, you must go back to the very first Christmas and read from the Word of God.

"In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." Luke 2:1-7

If you think Christmas is expensive now, that doesn’t compare to the very first Christmas.

Interestingly enough, the Christmas story in Luke’s gospel begins with an expensive tax. Ceasar Augustus, the ruler of the Roman Empire, issued a decree that a census be taken. Everyone had to return to the city of their heritage. We know from history that this was the first census of its kind ever taken. The purpose was to tax the people in order to fund the expansion of the ever growing Roman Empire.

Swept up in this census were Joseph and Mary, and it could not have come at a worse time. Christmas cost them a long and hard journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the city of Joseph’s ancestors. Mary being with child, it’s not likely that they were able to travel more than ten miles per day, if that. The easiest parts of the journey were hilly and the hardest parts of the journey were mountainous. Being poor, their diet was likely bread and water and their transportation a donkey. The temperatures were likely freezing at night and possibly during the day. Christmas was very costly.

But the cost did not end there. For Mary, Christmas cost her her reputation. There is an interesting scene in the nativity Story in which Mary has a nightmare in which she is being stoned. As an unwed mother, she ran the risk of being rejected by Joseph and stoned religious zealots. No doubt, Mary endured countless judgmental glances. She was the object of scorn and ridicule and gossip.

Joseph paid a dear price that first Christmas. Joseph was forced to abandon whatever plans he had as a carpenter in exchange for life as an exile in Egypt. When he eventually returned, they had not forgotten about the rumors he’d left behind. Joseph was probably shunned by those with whom he did business. Joseph probably lost whatever standing he had within the community. We don’t know for sure, but it is very possible that Joseph lost any access he had to the synagogue. Joseph was insulted. He was looked upon as less than a man, when in reality he was a man’s man. The birth of Jesus represented a black eye that Joseph would wear for the rest of his life.

Of course, Christmas was costly for the baby that was born, Jesus. Could we even put a price upon the throne he left behind or the chorus of angels whose voice could no longer be heard? Could we put a price upon the glory that no longer shone?

If you want to know the cost of Christmas, ask yourself what it would be worth to you for your child to be born in a cold, exposed barn some winter night, surrounded by noisy cattle and the smell of dung and urine. What would it be worth to endure the humiliation of being stuck with an animal stall for the birthplace of your child? Is there even a price that someone could pay for you to agree to your child being born under these conditions?

The cost of Christmas, for Jesus, did not end the day he was born. The cost of Christmas followed him all the days of his life. The Bible tells us that in John 1, Jesus was referred to as the Son of Joseph. We know that Joseph had no part in the conception of Jesus, but this simply shows us that 30 years after Jesus was born, it was still assumed that Joseph was biological father. Three years later, we read in John 8 that the Pharisees, arguing with Jesus said, “WE are not illegitimate children.” You understand the insinuation, don’t you? What they are saying is “YOU ARE.” It was an insult, one that Jesus had heard way too many times before.

Do you understand that Jesus lived his entire earthly life followed by the rumor that he was an illegitimate child? He was mocked for this.

But the real cost of Christmas cannot be calculated until you reach the cross. You see, you cannot separate the birth of Jesus from the death of Jesus.

Never is this more evident that when you look at the name of the city in which Jesus was born. Bethlehem. In the known world at that time, there were three known continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, and God chose Asia. In Asia, there were many countries, but God chose Palestine. In Palestine, there were three regions, Judea, Samaria and Galilee, and God chose Judea. In Judea, there were many towns and villages, but God chose Bethlehem. God chose Bethlehem for two reasons. First, eight and a half centuries prior, God declared through the prophet Micah that Bethlehem would be the city of the Savior’s birth. Micah 5:2 says, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." With God, a prophesy is not a guess about what might happen, it is a declaration of what will happen.

But there is another reason why Bethlehem was chosen and the very name reveals it. Did you notice that Micah referred to the town not just as Bethlehem, but as Bethlehem Ephrathah? This is very significant. Bethlehem meant “House of Bread.” You see, the baby who would be born in Bethlehem would one day claim to be the bread of life. Jesus said in John 6:51, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."

But notice the second part of the name. Bethlehem Ephrathah. You see, Ephrathah comes from the Hebrew, meaning wine. This same Jesus would said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” At the last supper he said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

The bread, Jesus said, is a picture of his flesh which would be nailed to the cross for our sins. Wine represents his blood, which would be poured out. Bethlehem. Ephrathah. Bread. Wine. Body. Blood. God ordained that the very name of the town in which Jesus was born would point us to the cross.

Someone wrote a poem once that goes like this…

There was no room in Bethlehem, for him who left his throne.
To seek the lost at countless cost and make their griefs his own.
But there was room on Calvary, upon the cross of shame.
For Him to die, uplifted high, and bear the sinner’s blame.
There was no room in Bethlehem and in the world today
Men will not give him to live but bid him turn away.
But there is room at Calvary and there he stands to give
Welcome to all who heed his call and look to Him to live.
There was no room in Bethlehem for Christ, the prince of heaven.
Come down to earth in human birth that men might be forgiven.
But there is room at Calvary for sinners to abide.
And all who come may find a home in Jesus crucified.

That is the true cost of Christmas.