Morning Reading: Titus 3.4-11 ESV

Titus 3:4-11 ESV

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.

Peanut Gallery- thank you for providing a framework for understanding what’s happening right in front of our very eyes.

Servus Fidelis ~ The Faithful Servant

It is rare that a respected segment of American life would become vilified and hated overnight. The usual transformation from respect to vilification goes in stages which grow in intensity. And hereby the Church, once a respected aspect of American life, along with the Protestant denominations has become increasingly marginalized and hated by many. It may help us to review these stages of persecution since it would seem that things are going to get more difficult for the Church in the years ahead. Generally there are distinguished five basic stages of persecution.

By way of giving due credit I want to say that these stages were recalled to me by Johnette Benkovic, of Women of Grace EWTN. She spoke at a recent fundraiser here in DC for WMET 1160 AM, Our Catholic Radio Station in the Guadalupe Radio Network. She gave a wonderful talk and a summons to courage. And…

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Peanut Gallery: Freedom of Religion (public,pervasive) vs Freedom of Worship (personal, private). Hobby Lobby and Chic-fil-a are the poster corporations of this debate. Religious Freedom- use it or lose it.

Two Heads are Better Than One

For most of this year, in post after post, we (along with about a million other folks, so we can’t take ALL the credit…) warned that the Obama Administration via Obamacare was coming after Religious Freedom, and was going to try to make it virtually impossible to both practice your faith AND operate your business.

Heck, that’s what that whole “contraception” battle really was. It wasn’t about access to condoms or the ‘pill’; it was about your faith being ruled out-of-bounds when it came to owning and operating your company.

And, yes, I of course heard that I was being “ridiculous”, …numerous times.

Yeah. SureI was.

Fast forward to the “Hobby Lobby” lawsuit that is STILL going on right now.

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Morning Reading: Titus 2.1-8 NLT

As for you… promote the kind of living that reflects wholesome teaching.

Teach the older men to exercise self-control, to be worthy of respect, and to live wisely. They must have sound faith and be filled with love and patience.

Similarly, teach the older women to live in a way that honors God. They must not slander others or be heavy drinkers. Instead, they should teach others what is good.

These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.

In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely. And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good works of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching.

Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.

Titus 2.1-8 NLT

The Optimistic Conservative

This post is an annual tradition on Veterans Day at The Optimistic Conservative.

Ninety-four years ago, in the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the armistice was proclaimed that ended the terrible fighting in World War I. A war that had erupted in large part because Europe’s political leaders, a century on from the Napoleonic conflicts, were accustomed to war remaining limited, produced some of the bloodiest battles ever fought. The six-month battle of the Somme in 1916 took the lives of an unimaginable 1.5 million French, German, and British soldiers – without either side achieving sustainable penetration of the line of confrontation, or any operational victory. WWI was the most tactically and politically frustrating of wars,

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