Man in a Manger

So.... first, let me say, Merry Christmas!

We all know of the picture painted in our minds of the nativity of our Lord Jesus, a baby in a manger.

We see Mary, seemingly non-exhausted, sitting by a manger. Joseph stands in the background, a small smile on his stoic countenance. The manger is well lit by a warm glow. The shepherds kneel in awe at the baby in the cradle, and a small line of lambs stumble behind them on thin legs. A donkey peers over Joseph's shoulder; you could swear that he's grinning.

It is a nice picture, but it is NOT the point of Christmas. Christmas isn't about Christ's birth, it's about a Savior coming to earth to save us. The awe in the shepherd's eyes isn't due to the fact that there is a baby in a manger- they have seen many babies in their lifetimes. Their wonder is at the Savior, God come to earth to save them.

We are all guilty of making Christmas about the baby- it is much more fun to tell of a special baby than to tell of His now grown body hanging on a cross in our place. We all have heard the first part of Handel's "Messiah", but few have heard the second half, dealing with the death and resurrection of Christ.
We celebrate Christmas with a month of fun- we decorate our entire house, bake cookies, host and attend parties, put up trees in our living rooms, carol in our neighborhoods...
But we are lucky to even give Easter more than a passing thought, maybe attending the sunrise service at church, or spend a day off.

But it is not the baby in a manger that is our salvation- it is the man on the cross. They are the same, Christ, but the fact that a baby is born will not save us. That the Son of God would die a horrible and agonizing death in our place WILL.
The baby is special because of His mission on earth. The Christmas story is not about a baby. It is the first chapter in the story that culminates on Easter Sunday, when Christ rises from the dead, taking it's pain for us, and enabling us to enjoy eternal life.

It is no simple baby in the manger. It is a Man. The Son of God. The Savior of the World. Our King and Lord.

We need to remember that Christmas is not the climax of the story- it is merely the beginning.
We celebrate Christmas not because of Christ's birth, but because he came to earth to save us.

A beast.... Vanquished

I have reason to celebrate!

I have Vanquished the Monster of NaNoWriMo (that's a fancy phrase for: "I OOOWWWNNNEED").

National Novel Writing Month, shortened to NaNoWriMo, is a challenge to write fifty thousand words of fiction in the month of November.

I clocked in at 8:52 AM, on November 30th, with 50,002 words. Immediately, I felt relieved, and glad to be done, but by that afternoon, I was wishing that it was still going on. I had time to do stuff without feeling guilty about my wordcount. wow. But I felt REALLY bored.

I'm glad to have taken this challenge head on, and won, and I plan to finish the current draft of my novel, Found, by late January.

I'd like to give a shout-out to my friends who also won, and a bigger one to my friends who tried, and did not finish. It is better to have tried, and failed than to have not tried at all.

I'd especially like to praise my older brother, who also writes on this blog. He just began writing fiction in September, and participated in NaNo. His AP classes and extra homework made it extremely difficult to write, but he still posted upwards of 15k, and never gave up. you've been a great help to me; having another writer of fiction in the house to talk to. Next year is yours to conquer!

And I would like to thank above all, my family, who understood that I wasn't going to be doing much other than writing, my parents, who went out of their way to encourage me and give me extra time to write, and my God, without whom this wouldn't have ever been possible.

Protection is important

So.... I saw the highlights from Green Bay's NFL win over the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving. Late in the first quarter, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers threw a 68 yard pass to Donald Driver, setting up a touchdown.

watch highlights here: (the play is at 00:24)

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-game-highlights/09000d5d81484e1f/Packers-vs-Lions-highlights

I noticed that Aaron Rodgers had ages of time to pass. To me, it seemed that he had enough time to drop back, eat a sandwich, grab a bottle of water, and then throw. Any quarterback can make a big play if they are given enough time. I replayed it, and counted, and A-Rod had eight entire seconds before the first Lions defender came close to him. In my opinion, that long pass belonged to the Packers offensive linemen as much as to the other members of the team.
(sidenote, I DO realize that the Lion's defense kinda stinks, and that the Packers offensive line has been less than stellar this season, but it was a good example.)

Human nature makes us pay attention to those who get glory; the quarterback, a star wide receiver, or the kicker who kicks a 53- yard field goal to win the game.
However, the glory belongs to every member of the team; the linemen and the fullback who blocked, the guy who snapped for the field goal.
I've heard it said that it's hard to throw a touchdown pass when you're lying on the ground with a three hundred pound defender on top of you, and I believe it.

A coach once said that the worst thing America has done to the game of football was to start putting the player's names on the back of their jerseys. On the field, it doesn't matter whether you're Peyton Manning, or his left guard. All that matters is that they're both Colts.

As my own Coach Provan has said many times, "It takes eleven men to win a football game. you won't win if one man isn't doing his job."

The application of this in our Christian walk? All parts of the ministry are important. For every Billy Graham, there are thousands of men who prepare for the crusade. Not all of us can be pastors, missionaries, or lead the worship at church. Those who watch the young children, pray for the missionaries, or prepare the fellowship meal are just as important.

There are no names on our jerseys, other than the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's get out on the field of battle, and win the world for him!

Rebellious Characters

At the moment, I am participating in NANOWRIMO, as I mentioned earlier.

Yesterday, I reached a point where I needed to write an action scene, but my characters didn't want to. As other writer's of fiction know, your characters will take on a life of their own, and sometimes, they just want to spend it doing nothing.
No, they do not want to leap off the couch and go rescue someone, they just want to sit around. And they won't even talk while they sit around. (which would at least help with the word count)

Anyway, as I sat and tried to write, my main character wouldn't cooperate. I had a plan for the novel, but he didn't want to help. I needed him to rescue a minor character from a painful death of torment, yet he wouldn't do anything.

In my frustration, a thought crossed my mind. maybe this is how our God feels. He created us, and breathed life into us, yet we refuse to obey, much less even talk to him.
I created my characters, without me, they would not even exist, yet they refuse to. I could destroy them with a stroke of my pen or a word typed on my laptop, but I don't. I love them so much that I don't delete my file and instantly kill them, I let them live on.
They rebel against me, and my plan for their lives, yet I let them live through my love.

Our God created and sustains us, yet we rebel against him. We disobey his commands, refuse to talk to him, and do not return the love he shows us. He could kill us all with a word, yet he continues to love us.

Let us not be rebellious characters in the Great Story God is writing. We need to listen to his instructions, follow his commands, and return the love he shows us by letting us live on.

~ The Two Young Men

(P.S, The original Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley is a great allegory with a similar theme. The creation rebels against the very hand that made him.)

Running to the Light

I apologize for the lack of recent posts. Things have been very busy here. With both of us participating in NANOWRIMO (National Novel Writing Month), where you have to write 50k words onto your novel during the month of November, we've been spending almost all our time writing novels, not blog posts.


Anyway, on occasion we listen to a band named Runrig. It is a six-piece Celtic Rock band, founded in 1973. It's music is typically rock oriented, while the lyrics are drawn from folk roots.

My favorite of their many songs is one called Running to the Light






The lyrics:

Running round the sacred mountain
The rushing stream
Feel the power
In everything
By the water. where the air is clear
Surrender everything

Old hearts grow younger again
They promise bring
The greenest. plants are tender
They're full of sap in spring
Empty the places of the mind
Running to the light
Running to the light

Those who stride too far too soon
Will not hold pace
Only the calm
Will win the race
Through the forest, the sea of mountain pine
Surrender everything

Only those who
Greatness see in little things
Worthy are the simple
They're happy in their ways
Self will wither out of sight
Running to the light
Running to the light

Arise soul
Soar above the singing river
Go lying down
Into the ground
Quickened by the stream
When all is said and done
The race moves on

Running, running



To me, the song speaks of the last moments before someone's death. When a dear family friend died in an accident, this song meant a lot. Though death is the end of our life on earth, to those of us who believe, it is merely the beginning of a new life, in which there will be no pain, no sorrow, no suffering, and no death.

1 Corinthians 9:24 says "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it." (NKJV).

Our life is a competition, a battle, and Paul describes it as a race. We cannot let death halt us. Though we die, the race goes on. "Quickened by the stream // When all is said and done // The race goes on"

A note: Laurel Clark, an astronaut on the US Space Shuttle Columbia was a great fan of Runrig, and brought two CDs to space with her, including "The Stamping Ground". Running to the Light was used as the wake up call for the seven astronauts who would later die in a tragic accident on re-entry over Texas.


So, brothers and sisters, let us run our race in a manner that we may obtain the prize

~The Two Young Men

Morning Coffee

It is a source of wonder to me that the day can be brightened by a cup of roasted bean wash water, known more commonly as Coffee. I am further amazed that people would pay the exorbitant prices charged by Starbucks. Is this another example of America;s apathy and laziness? Or did Starbucks find that there was a niche market for a company to sell coffee products at high prices? I think that is probably a combination of the two. But if some one does not want to go to Starbucks and pay that much for a cup of joe, what other actions does he have? There are amazingly few options. There is the ubiquitous convenience store coffee which can be any thing from freshly made to the far extreme. I have had some good experiences with coffee from truck stops, probably due to the fact that they almost always have refill the machine on a hourly basis. If you wish for breakfast at the same time then your best bet is to go to a drive through like Hardee's or Mcdonald's. The main problem with the drive through coffee is that the workers making the coffee are interested only in making a large amount of hot liquid. They usually end up with too hot bitter coffee that barely deserves the title of coffee. So what is the verdict? Maybe Starbucks has a good business plan. Now if they would just lower their prices......

Watch it now

C-Span recorded the General Session this morning and is replaying that recording right now.

Three Important Words

This a.m. Dallas Woodhouse, North Carolina Director for AFP spoke to the Summit, "You are the embodyment of three of the most important words ever put together in the English language, and no, North Carolina, it is not 'Start your engines.'" It is "We the People."

A Good One

Larry Kudlow says his mantra is "If you tax more, you get less. If you tax less, you get more."

Kudlow, after having dinner with them president-elect Obama in January of this year says, "He's charming, good sense of humor, an attractive young man (I'm 62, so I can say he's a young man.), but he did not know a bloody thing about the way our economy works."

One of Us

The spokeswoman for Patients United Now is a stay-at-home mother homeschooling five children.

A Challenge

John Fund, of the Wall Street Journal:

"I have good news.I am one of the few speakers standing between you and lunch."

"This bill won't take effect for four years. Why must it be voted on in the next seven weeks."

"Your parents, or maybe yourselves, beat back liberalism and Jimmy Carter in 1977. You and your predecessors beat back liberalism and Bill Clinton in 1993... I say we have won the first two rounds, let's win the third!.

Six Things to Do

Hugh Hewitt:

"I would like to thank Tim Phillips for putting me on after Newt Gingrich, Jim DeMint, Herman Cain and Dallas Woodhouse. I am here on behalf of a great defender of freedom, Rush Limbaugh...

Hewitt went on to give us a list of six things we need to do:

1-Support the conservatives in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey;

2-Minimize the damage of people helping health care;

3-Educate people on our broken legal system;

4-Relentlessly expose the left wing (Kudos to Andrew Breitbart and the crew against ACORN at BigGovernment.com);

5-Credential young people, support youth politics, make them a project to get them ready for the future; and

6-Stay with Israel, our only ally in the Middle East.

Great Speakers

The Caffeinated Conservatives have been attending a General Session at the Defending the American Dream Summit with a star-studded list of speakers. Those addressing us include:

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House
Senator Jim DeMint, of South Carolina
Larry Kudlow, of CNBC and CEO of Kudlow and Company
Hugh Hewitt, radio host and best-selling author
Steven Moore, Wall Street Journal
John Fund, Wall Street Journal
Herman Cain, radio host and Fox News contributor
Ed Morrissey, HotAir.com
Tracy Walsh, breast cancer survivor, Patients United Now
David H. Koch, Chairman, Americans for Prosperity
Tim Phillips, President, Americans for Prosperity
Phil Kerpen, Director of Policy, AFP
Shauna Holmes, Canadian citizen and brain tumor survivor

A Funny

Herman Cain, radio host and Fox news contributor said, "I've been involved with AFP from the beginning and I've since found out I'm a nasty, war-mongering, unfair zealot and a racist! I've had enough with telling people I have a perfect tan." Herman Cain is an African-American.

Great Quotes Heard Today at Defending The Dream

Jackie Cushman wrote:

People voted for a change they can believe in. They got someone who wanted to change what they believe in. [emphasis added]

Talking about the defeat of socialism in Europe, Newt Gingrich said:

In the past several days, the German socialist party has been handed the worst election results since World War II, with a vote of only 23%. In Italy, the socialist government has been defeated in the past few years. In France, Sarkowsky is a conservative president who defeated a socialist government [audience applause]. Hasn't the world changed when we cheer a French government?

A few minutes ago Newt Gingrich said:

Ronald Reagan was not just a great communicator, he was a great educator.

Gingrich had a bit of humor in his speech, too:

I met a man who at the age of thirteen during the Carter administration gas rationing was told by his father every morning to switch the license plates so which ever car needed gas would have the right plates. Here's a little quick conservatism test: If you're a conservative and you hear about a government program that is so flawed that thirteen-year-olds are taught to get around it, you work to repeal it. If you're a liberal, you want to hire license plate police.

Reagan Memorial Dinner

Over supper we were treated to a line up of speakers ranging from Laura Ingraham to the president of Americans for Prosperity to Congressmen Mike Pence from Indiana.

Laura Ingraham was very well received and garnered several standing ovations. In talking about the news of the day, Ingraham said, "My three favorite letters today are R. I. O." alluding to the smackdown the Olympic Committee gave the president after his trip to Copenhagen to beg for the Olympics to come to Chicago. She said Oprah was furious and wanted her cards to be returned.

But while Laura Ingraham's speak was attentively listened to and very sound conservatively, no speech was better received than Mike Pence's. Earlier this evening, Ingraham said that Reagan was the Great Communicator and that Obama was not. I would affirm that Mike Pence is a worthy successor to the title, though.

During Congressman Pence's speech, he exhorted the conservatives here today to keep fighting and encouraged us that he felt sure of a conservative victory in 2010 that would be a milestone in the history of conservatism.

Time and time again, the crowd rose to its feet, cheering what the Congressman said. Several times he had to wait for the applause to die down to continue his speech. The Congressman talked about how this group was the start of a new movement - a turning point in conservatism. He said, "I think the Republican Party has lost its way, but I think now we are finding our way back."

I thank God for men like Mike Pence who are not afraid to stand for what is right.

At the Reagan Memorial Dinner

Listening to Laura Ingraham

Really wish I'd brought some copies of Raising Real Men - the folks here would really like it.

Government in Person

After attending a rally along with 450 North Carolina conservatives, the caffeinated conservatives climbed six floors in the Senate Office Building to personally place on Kay Hagan's desk a two inch stack of about 25,000 signatures against the health care bill. As I dictate this, I am sitting at the elevator bank looking down the hall at a group of about 150 people waiting in line to tell Senator Hagan they don't want socialized health care.

After seeing a massive turn out of conservatives from those below voting age all the way to retirees who would be most affected by the heath care bill, the caffeinated conservatives are convinced that America does not want socialized medicine.

The over 450 North Carolinians are the most active group at the summit against the bill. For info on the summit google Americans for Prosperity. Signing off, the Caffeinated Conservatives

Defending the Dream

We are in route toward Washington, DC on our way to the Defending the American Dream Summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity. Starting at 2pm we will be participating in a national townhall meeting and rally. Further updates as events warrant.