Graduation!

I have finally finished my Master of Arts in Biblical Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary! It has been quite a ride for the last 7 years. I started seminary a year after getting married, and my two kids (3 and almost 5) have never had a daddy who was not in school. For those reasons, and because I'm just plain tired, we're going to take a one year break before pursuing any kind of full-time ministry. My backpack has hung in the garage for seven years, and I need to teach my family how to camp!

I would appreciate your prayers for the Lord Jesus Christ to give us a restful year, and for Him to show us where He wants us when the time comes. My passions are for discipling new Christians and young leaders, and counseling the hurting.

Over the last seven years I have learned not just Bible and theology, but how to approach Biblical and theological issues in a way that produces fruitful change in me and the ones to whom I minister. I am grateful to my professors, the seminary, and mostly to the One who has called me onwards and upwards. To Christ be the glory.

Happy Patriot's Day!

April 19th, 1775, Old North Bridge, Concord, Massachusetts. The shot heard around the world began this nation's fight for independence. This day is a powerful reminder of many important beliefs I have. The first, and most important to me, is "No king but King Jesus!"

John Ashcroft was roundly criticized for his "No King but Jesus" speech at Bob Jones University, but he was only reminding us of our colonial and Revolutionary War heritage. In a 1774 report to King George, the Governor of Boston noted: "If you ask an American, who is his master? He will tell you he has none, nor any governor but Jesus Christ." The pre-war Colonial Committees of Correspondence soon made this the American motto: "No King but King Jesus." And this sentiment was carried over into the 1783 peace treaty with Great Britain ending that war, which begins "In the name of the most Holy and Undivided Trinity... ." (Catholic Education Resource Center)

(Is the United States a Christian nation? - No. Just read the news and anyone can see that it is not. Was it founded by mostly Christians based on Christian principles? - Yes!)

The second belief enshrined in that first gunshot is that free men have the God-given right to own and carry arms for self-defense and the preservation of liberty. The minutemen were massing arms (including cannons), ammunition and supplies for war, and the British were on their way to confiscate them. Before you can subjugate a populace, you have to disarm them. Adolph Hitler understood it. Josef Stalin understood it. King George understood it, and learned the hard way what happens when tyrants encounter free men with liberty in their hearts and guns in their hands.

The third idea I find in the hearts of the patriots is that of liberty - the desire to live a life of freedom. This is not libertine freedom - the freedom to do whatever we want, regardless of what happens to others. Government is given by God to "bear the sword" (Rom 13:4) and punish evildoers, but not to be a source of fear for the law-abiding citizen. Our freedom is the freedom to do what is right, loving God and loving each other without fear of a tyrant telling us what we will do, what we will believe, or what we will think.

Happy Patriot's Day! Wouldn't it be great if it was a national holiday?

No king but King Jesus!

Feedback for Walmart

I left the following feedback on the Walmart site today:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I was deeply disturbed to hear about the changes in Walmart's policies regarding the sale of firearms and related products. Because of your competitive prices, I have been purchasing all of my practice ammunition for both handgun and rifle at your stores as well as a number of shooting, fishing and camping accessories, and was strongly considering buying a hunting rifle from you next month as well.

Your new policy of videotaping all firearm sales as well as creating a computerized log of all firearm sales is an unnecessary invasion of my privacy. In order to purchase a firearm I already have to show a valid picture ID, fill out an extensive information form and submit myself to an instant background check. The measures you are taking will have a negligible effect on reducing the number of "straw purchases" of guns to be used by criminals - the buyers will simply shop somewhere else. All that these measures will accomplish is costing you the business of hundreds of thousands of law-abiding sportsmen.

I will not shop from your outdoors department again until you rescind these unnecessary policies that only serve to invade my privacy and drive away loyal customers. Any additional cost is well worth my privacy.

Sincerely,


Jeff Odegard
Colorado Springs, CO

Barack Hussein Obama, running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States said last Friday in Pennsylvania:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them... And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

So, in his thinking, religious beliefs and second amendment support are on the same level as bigotry and hatred for immigrants. Faith is nothing more than a crutch for poor, embittered small-town hicks.* The right to keep and bear arms is an anachronism clung to by backwoods peasants. (In 1996 Obama supported a ban on the sale and transfer of all handguns or any semi-automatic weapons. He opposes concealed carry and the right to self-defense.)

How anyone could support such a pompous, condescending communist, I will never know. I sincerely hope Hillary wins the Democratic primary, dividing and destroying the Democrat party in the process, and that McCain can choose a true conservative as a running mate who can lead the party back to its roots.

* For the record, I grew up in a town of about 2,000 people in Montana.

Dancing Bears

While checking out the news this morning, I stumbled on this bear video on LiveScience.com. I showed the kids and they thought it was hilarious. So enjoy!

Concealed Handguns Increase in Colorado

According to a report released this week, the number of concealed handgun permit (CHP) applications in Colorado jumped by over 50% last year, and in El Paso County (the Colorado Springs area) went up 87%. (I personally contributed to that number last August!) There are now about 8,400 active concealed handgun permits in El Paso County, about 1.46% of the population, or 1 in every 68 people.

A graph of the monthly application statistics showed spikes in applications immediately following the February 2007 Utah mall shooting, the April Virginia Tech massacre, and the December New Life Church shooting. A Monument (just North of Colorado Springs) area politician also said that the increased number of CHP applications was due to encroachments on 2nd Amendment rights.

Why did I get a permit? Was I scared by the news? Was I upset about my rights eroding before my eyes? Was I on some kind of mid-life crisis, macho paramilitary kick? No, no, and no. (I'm not yet old enough for a mid-life crisis!) I have a family. If something happens, I have the responsibility to protect them. The news has taught me that by the time the police usually show up, it's already over. As an outdoorsman, I enjoy shooting. I'm a hunter. I treasure my constitutional rights. But beyond all that, I know that this world can be an incredibly dangerous place, and I have a wife and little ones to protect. I also have a larger responsibility to my community - not as some sort of vigilante who goes looking for trouble - but as someone who does not hesitate to defend the weak and needy and make our community a safer place. It's also a Biblical responsibility - see Proverbs 31:9; Isaiah 1:17; Luke 11:21 and others. (Don't get on me about the context of the verse from Luke. I know what it is, but the statement of fact still stands!)

All states except Illinois, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia allow their law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns if they jump through the necessary hoops of training, background checks and application fees. (Vermont is unique in that any law-abiding citizen may carry concealed - no permit required!) Everywhere that concealed carry has passed, crime rates have dropped. Criminals have to wonder, "is this guy one of the 1 in 68 here with a permit?" (Or one of those unnumbered libertarian souls who believe the 2nd Amendment is their concealed carry permit!) Is the owner of this home or business armed? It makes them think twice and the crime rate drops.

Concealed carry is a good thing! If you don't already, look into it!

Another Campus Shooting...

There was another campus shooting - in Jerusalem. An armed terrorist attacked Jewish seminary students killing 8 and wounding 9, 3 seriously. The terrorist was shot - by a student with a handgun. (The original reports said he used a rifle.)

One of the students, Yitzhak Dadon, said he shot the attacker twice in the head. "I laid on the roof of the study hall, cocked my gun and waited for him. He came out of the library spraying automatic fire," he said. (source: FoxNews.com)

Apparently the terrorist was finished off by an Israeli Defense Force member who lives nearby.

I don't know, but it sounds like guns on campus can make a difference for the better.

Pray for the victims and their families. Pray for students and faculties of American universities to be allowed to defend themselves.

Updates: 8 Mar 08

Several outlets are reporting on the fact that the mainstream media is downplaying the fact that a student with a gun played a role in stopping the terrorist.

See the CCRKBA and the WorldNetDaily pieces.

Add Yitzhak Dadon to the list of CHL/CCW heroes that includes Jeanne Assam (heroine of the New Life Church shooting) and many other unsung heroes.