Hi! How are you? I have to admit that when you first showed up that I did not like you. Now that you have been around for a while, I still do not like you. I know I am suppose to say that I appreciate you but much like unwanted house guest I really wish you would go visit someone else.

Sincerely,
Me

There seems to be a eternal war that the forces of evil wish to inflict upon the world at this time of the year. Many at this time of year feel hopeless. Many of the parents and family of the victims must be facing a deep ache right now that only the word hopeless can describe. They woke facing what they believed was another day. They now face bitter nights of mourning and the tragic thought they will not see their children again in this life. The Bible tells the story that while angels rejoiced at the coming of Christ that afterwards mothers and fathers mourned the loss of their innocent children caught in Herod’s evil plot of infanticide.

“A cry was heard in Ramah–weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.” ~Matthew 2:18, NLT

It is Christmas that we celebrate the birth of Christ as the hope of the world born as a baby in Bethlehem. It is in the Christmas story that we also learn of the great evil that reigned in the heart of men such as Herod. It was Herod that ordered the execution of every male child under the age of two after learning of the birth of Christ. Evil is at it’s core a twisted hope for power. Herod illustrates this in his twisted hopeless vanity that he could simply order the extermination of the infant Jesus just in his thirst to secure power. He did not care who got caught in the crossfires.

Many if not all of these parents in their lifetime never knew why their children were slaughtered. Yet, God in his mercy towards the dark hearts of humanity sent Christ to redeem even senseless tragedy.

In the incarnation their is hope. Hope of redemption. Hope of restoration. Hope of healing. God’s gift of hope is personified in Jesus.

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not quarrel or cry aloud,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory;
and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
(Quoting God in Matthew 12:18-21 ESV)

We who call ourselves Christians have a hope that should transform our thoughts in the face of tragedy. In the person of Christ there is great hope. We have been given a wider view of the human condition that many have yet to discover. God is love and he offers hope in Christ. In this season where hopelessness seeks to destroy us there is hope for all that begins with knowing one who was once a baby in a manger. It is he who brings light in to the darkness. It is he who brings justice to the hopeless.

We talked to our daughter about the evil done in that Connecticut. We prayed for the families effected. We told her that Jesus will bring justice from this tragedy and make everything right because he is just. Jesus will judge and slay evil. In him we have hope. He is the hope of the world and will bring peace on Earth and comfort those who mourn.

This is my comfort in my affliction,
that your promise gives me life. ~ Psalm 119:50

Subject: Immediate Response Requested GraceEPC.com and Grace210.com Websites

Customer Quote:
I need to know what is going on with the GraceEPC.com and Grace210.com websites. Your Ticket tool has no pertinent information. I spoke first with a Dotster employee Jose S who said that he could just renew both sites which I did even though I stated that I had received no warning emails and that I had set them up for auto-renewal. I gave him my credit info and he said he would get it done and up in a couple of hours. Then after a few hours I contacted Dotster again and spoke with a Paul B that said they could not be renewed without charging a 160 per site since they had lapsed and reverted to domain.com. I stated that I had both sites on auto-renew and trusted Dotster to renew them automatically since that is the purpose of auto-renew. He advised to pay the 160 so that Dotster would get moving on getting it up while your billing department would sort out crediting me since it was your company that failed to renew it properly twice. The only thing I have received from Dotser on Dec. 7 is a notice that you renewed the wrong domain willadair.com for five years that I did not authorize and will challenge if it is not fixed quickly!

What do I or you need to do get the GraceEPC.com and Grace210.com sites back up quickly? These are church promotional websites that needed to be up for a event on 12-8-12 and are now down. Any promotional material we sent out is going to look ridiculous and cost us critical clout when people try to visit a website that is down.

Dotster has truly failed me. I’ve been a customer for years and I am seriously contemplating moving my eight sites at the beginning of the week if this is not rectified immediately. I use to freelance webdesign and have pointed a few hundred people to your company. I am now no longer sure that Dotster can even be trusted. I hope you can provide the type of service that I expect from a company that has billed itself as leader in domain registration.

Thank you for your prompt support and response. PS, your Premium Support Subscription option does not even have a price on it and frankly seems to indicate you have two tiers of service. Normal being unimportant and Premium to get someone that knows what to do and has the authority to do it. I am incredibly disappointed with your service and I expect your company to make this right in a courteous and prompt manner.

Thank you.

Sincerely, Will Adair

President Obama believes that a certain group of people are not even worthy to be considered as second class citizens. They have no rights. They have no representation. This is an incredibly tragic moment that shows how sick is the soul of our nation. A infant in the womb is fully human and made in the image of God. The re-elected President of the United States fully supports the right to murder that innocent life. Pro-choice is pro-death. God help us that not only the President but millions of American including professing Christians do not see this as the greatest Civil Rights issue of the 21st century. It is also a great moral, social, and spiritual evil. May God have mercy on America for such a terrible blight on the soul of this nation. We chose again a President that promotes a Government given right to murder innocent children.

I have prayed and will continue to pray that God will open President Obama’s eyes on this issue. At the very least I hope he will promote his parties view that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” It certainly is not rare. It does not promote the culture of life that I believe is central to understanding God’s desire for humanity.

It saddens me that millions of us would vote for a candidate that is pro-death because he promises to give us jobs, health insurance, education, or promote our social agenda. Our culture is creating a noose that may well kill our culture. Jesus once said, “it is better for a person to tie a millstone around their neck and be thrown in to the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.” Societies generally crumble not from without but from within. Our culture has a millstone around it’s neck. The current President has not in four years done anything but promote making the stone bigger and I fear he will do nothing else but promote the seeds of our destruction for another four years.

I am a huge advocate for being gracious. Part of being gracious is calling sin out. It is not gracious to never expose sin in the hopes it will somehow go away or self correct. Real grace is finding repentance in the presence of Christ. This is something our nation and our churches desperately need. May God have mercy on America.

I voted early last week. I voted for Romney. I’m a Independent. My head is that of a social conservative and my heart is that of a bleeding heart liberal but not as the political aficionados define them. There is a tension between the two in our political world because neither side usually sees that both represents aspects of the Sovereign hand of a gracious God.

Let me be frank neither political candidate is perfect. I believe Romney is more ideal because he seems to value the dignity of human life. The Republicans and Democrats in the last eight years have disappointed me with their lack of a clear vision for a better America. They should be parodies on SNL but sadly are real. They are for the most part driven by ideological extremes. Cut taxes for all is the mantra of the establishment Republicans. Equality for all is the mantra of the establishment Democrats. One is state sanctioned economic idolatry, the other is state sanctioned licentious idolatry. Frankly, I’m sick of both.

I didn’t vote for Obama four years ago because I believed he was nothing but the establishment Democrat wrapped in 21st century clothing. I found then Candidate Obama’s callousness to the unborn atrocious sign he did not value the human dignity of unborn life. He said that answering the question to when life began was “above his pay grade.” Yet he has no problems supporting Planned Parenthood that predatorily and predominantly sets up in minority and economically depressed areas to literally profit from some the most vulnerable people in our society. Millions of children have been aborted due to unplanned motherhood as women faced a grim mixture of fear, uncertainty, and a false hope that not having the baby would solve their problems. I still remember vividly when he said he “wouldn’t want his daughter punished with a baby.” That is a callous view of life. A baby is never punishment. Obama says he is a Christian. Where is the grace of God in his equation about the sacredness and specialness of life? I know what some of my liberal friends are thinking. How is the Republican side much better. Honestly, at least a child is considered human and worthy of life in their party. God knows I wish conservatives and Republicans would value life outside the womb as much as that which is inside it. Yet stating that a baby in the womb is a person is a start though in the right direction. I want a President that believes every life is precious especially “the least of these” in society.

I also want what Pope John Paul II called a culture of life. Regardless of your view of Palin as a politician, the lady genuinely seemed to love her son Trig with his Down Syndrome. I wish that every candidate had such a view that all life is precious. Obama since becoming President has showed his view of life by pushing contraceptive mandates, abortifacients, and making insurance companies cover abortion on demand. It is morally apprehensible.

Also I am so incredibly dis-hearted with Obama’s reauthorization of the patriot act, desire to give the president authority to control speech, and the use of predator drones that kill innocent and the guilty alike in unsanctioned military operations in countries that are allies such as Afganistan and Pakistan. Imagine Canada doing that here in the US. Outrageous thought is it not?

I am also disappointed at his attempt to push progressive values disguised in the language of the Civil Rights. His purposeful mixing of the genuine Civil Rights issues with advocating LGBT as a minority status is morally wrong. LGBT should not be punished by the government nor protected or treated any differently than anyone else in the USA. I do not believe that any government has the right to meddle in personal affairs or pick any group as more equal in the eyes of the law. I am a advocate for overhauling civil contracts laws granting individuals more freedoms in insurance, property, and familial affairs regardless of their sexual preferences. I’m actually for the government getting out of marriages and families entirely! What Obama has done though is mire the social waters and set up precedent for the government later punishing those that dissent from the new public virtues of licentious liberties.

As a whole Obama’s presidency has been a disaster on all fronts. I do not believe Mitt Romney is the perfect candidate. I do believe that he is better than the alternative. That is why I voted for him. God is sovereign and either way Romney or Obama will hopefully be decided President by the end of the day. I voted for Romney because I hope he can offer the nation a fresh start and offer my three kids a better future by getting the national debt under control. I also believe he is a pragmatist that likely will work with both parties.

As we get closer to knowing the outcome of the election I am left pondering the words of Reagan. I must admit he is my favorite modern politician. “All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” What I hope to instill in my children around the dinner table is why their dad has a head that is conservative (wanting to keep the best of what God intended for humanity) and a heart that is liberal (open to personally offering grace and seeking to live in a way countercultural to our disposable me focused society). I believe that God is the ultimate conservative and the ultimate liberal as seen in the person of Jesus. He transcends parties and nations. He is building a Kingdom. It is at the dinner table where elections, sovereignty, and my three kids meet as we discuss life in a world that ultimately is not our home. We are sojourners. Our legacy is to point them to the King and pray that God makes them living legacies of his amazing grace.

The woman who was the lab tech tried for the first few minutes to get a scan of his heart. Baby A (our nickname while waiting on discovering the gender) kept moving around and around. Baby A’s body was upside down and they kept moving all around much to our consternation. The tech was determined to follow that baby to see what she needed to see!

After the first thirty minutes and no clear pictures were shown we began to wonder if we where going to find out the gender of Baby A. Baby A kept spinning around and around. Around the 40 minute mark the intercom beeps code 99 to let the technician know the next patient was waiting. The tech keeps looking. After twenty more minutes the intercom beeps code 99 again. Ten more minutes go by and it beeps code 99 again. The tech was determined to see all four chambers. She even goes to ask the doctor if he wants to have a go at looking. He declines after hearing that the baby was moving so much. My wife and I pray that Baby A would slow down and let the lab tech see the gender while the tech was out of the room. Ignoring code 99 she gives it one more go after telling us that the baby’s heart is fine but he was moving to much to get a clear picture of all four chambers. She gave it one more try to find out the gender identity of Baby A. First she said it was a she, then she said it was a he. It took over a hour to definitively find out that this Baby A is a he. God bless that ultrasound tech. He did spins for almost a hour straight and would not stay still long enough to give a clear shot of his heart or other parts until at the very last moment.

What a day. I woke up with the knowledge that I was the Dad to three awesome blessings. Now I know that it is one terrific daughter, one wonderful son, and a blessing of a little boy that I’ve yet to meet.

Our verse for this boy is a modification of Psalm 139:13-16.

“For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”

Our addition is “God you knew me always but I gave that lab technician the workout of her career and kept Mom and Dad guessing till the very end.”