Media Bias

"I don't even watch the news. They have it all wrong."

—a soldier currently serving in Iraq

Political cartoon taken from www.CoxAndForkum.com

I have stayed away from any opinions concerning the war in Iraq because I figured everyone knows where I stand. But Erin and I just had supper with our next door neighbor and her husband (who is on a two week leave of Iraq) and I thought his comments about the war were very interesting.

Let me start at the beginning.

Since we moved into our townhome back in December, we have slowly become pretty good friends with our next door neighbor Shannon. (Bella pretty much initiated the friendship since she loves playing with Shannon's rottweiler, Cooper.) Shannon has been married for 5 years and her husband Mike has been serving in the military for 6 years.

Mike is currently serving over in Baghdad and is home for two weeks before he has to go back. Luckily they have been able to keep in close contact with each other thanks to webcams and the internet. To celebrate Mike's return and for us to meet him, Shannon invited us to go out to eat with them.

We jumped into their Jimmy and headed for Chili's. Me being Mr. Inquisitive, and quite frankly, naive concerning anything military, was asking him a lot of questions. (I told him he could shut me up if I was prying too much.)

Eventually, our conversation turned to how the war was reported on the news. He just shook his head and smiled. "It's a joke." He also said the way the news reports or what they don't report is completely off based. Incidents that he has been involved with, then hears about on the news a week later, is no where close to being accurate. "They are able to put their own spin on things" he said. "I don't even watch the news. They have it all wrong."

So, being the media is already liberal, I'm going to take the word of someone who is currently serving there and has nothing to gain by lying. It also makes it a little more personal for me knowing someone who is currently serving over their and I have someone else to pray for.

Once more I have proof that the world doesn't revolve around mine.

—b


Wednesday, May 3rd, 2006/Acts chapter 2

GOD'S MESSAGE FOR ME TODAY
They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. —Acts 2:42

HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO MY LIFE?
This verse pretty much says it all when it comes to growing in Christ.

1. "continually devoting themselves" —> Emphasis on "continually". They didn't take their walk with Christ on a "when I get around to it" mentality but a constant one.
2. "the apostles' teaching" —> The new Christians learned from those who had been walking in Christ longer than they had. (ie. Pastors)
3. "fellowship" —> They established friendships with fellow believers in Christ. This is so easy because we have the most important thing in common, Jesus Christ. But being a friend in Christ means being open and realizing no one is perfect and not pretending we are.
4. "breaking of bread" —> Engaging in Communion observing what Jesus Christ had done for them on the cross.
5. "prayer" —> Talking (which includes being open and honest ) with our heavenly Father. More important that talking to Christ is listening to Christ.
   

Copyright 2006, City Vision / John A. Mayer
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BE IN PRAYER FOR:
THE UNREACHED PEOPLE IN THE TWIN CITIES

•• There are 626 cult/sect/occult "churches" in the Twin Cities with 106,000 followers.