The Georgian Gazette

Today we could look back over the year just passed to see all that has happened. Many years ago, an elderly friend encouraged me to take a few days at the end of the year to think back over the events of the year that was passing. He urged that only a little amount of time should to be set aside for the exercise of looking back. He then said, “Once you have reflected upon that year, let it go.” Over the years since receiving that advice, I have taken time at the end of each year to think back over the year. Following that reflection, he suggested that I should set before me the blank calendar of the New Year. As that was done, then he suggested setting goals to determine the direction I wanted to see my life go in the New Year. I was a young man when that advice was given. I have followed each year since taking the time to look back quickly and then to look ahead toward the New Year. This New Year gives great promise of change that will take place in our county, state and nation. In th...

With all the hurried preparations for Christmas that is in a couple of days, there is always that last minute gift for a special person on our list. Christmas is a great time for family. It is also a time of great stress for many people because they fear they will give the wrong gift or have uncertainty as to the right gift to give to a friend, family member, or co-worker. There is also added stress with the office Christmas party and what might or might not happen when the boss appears for what should be a very festive event. With various issues to deal with regarding Christmas today, I want to think with you for a few minutes about that first Christmas. Has there ever been a greater gift for mankind than the fact that God gave us His best when He allowed His only Son to come to earth to live among us? I try to imagine what it must have been like for the angels when they got word in Heaven that Jesus was leaving Heaven and going to earth. I can only imagine the conversation among the ...

December, 2006, following my 62nd birthday in September, I was told that the biopsy showed I had cancer. As a pastor I had stood with many people in hospitals when the news was revealed that they or a beloved family member had cancer. I had watched as cancer had taken my Dad at age 62. The decision was easy to make as to the treatments that I would undergo to rid my body of cancer. These last five years have been challenging, to say the least. The great news that through all of the treatments and rehab that was necessary, today I am cancer free. One of my doctors had said that we would know within five years if the treatments were successful. I am sharing this personal journey with you today because Thursday night of last week, one of the most infamous, pugnacious, and proud atheist in modern times, Christopher Hitchens, died at age 62 of cancer. Many have written about and reacted to the death of the world renowned intellectual since the announcement of his death. As an ethicist, a...

In less than a month our General Assembly will be back in session for another term. As the gavel signals the beginning of this session it will be the beginning of my ninth year under the Gold Dome as an advocate for moral issues. The former eight years have been interesting, allowing me to learn much about the way our government functions. I have gotten to know many people who have more years in service than I do. It is interesting to watch groups of lobbyists as they gather outside the chambers and walk up and down in the corridors of the Capitol. A conversation with friends can come to an abrupt end as an elected official walks nearby and one in the group leaves to talk with the lawmaker. News media folks can be the most interesting to watch as they want to be sure to not miss a quote, or find that a story they are working on for a deadline has faded like mist in the wind. When one is trying not to listen to other conversations, the sounds have a way of traveling in the echoing hard ...

An estimated 87,700. According to an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution , that’s how many jobs have been lost in Georgia during the past decade because of the trade deficit with China. That makes Georgia the 10th hardest hit state in the country. What does this really mean? Not only do you have more unemployed workers, but you also have a trickle-down effect where people are pumping less money into the local economy because a) they have less money to spend due to unemployment or under-employment and b) there are fewer American-made products to buy (and American-based companies and/or workers to support). However, if foreign products are produced at a lower cost and result in cost-savings for the average American family, does the economy as a whole still suffer? Are lost manufacturing jobs being adequately replaced by other types of employment? What do you think?

Sunday is a Holy day not a holiday Exodus 20: 8-11 is the middle of the Ten Commandments and clearly gives our Lord’s command concerning a certain day in the week. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (KJV) During the many centuries since this commandment was given to Moses from God concerning a special day in the week, major changes have been made to this commandment by the attitude of the people. The first most notable change is that today the commandment about the day is mostly ignored. As this commandment has been changed, the transfer of...

From another era there was a newsman named Paul Harvey, who often talked of sharing the news of the day from outside the tall buildings and news empire housed in New York. He kept his daily news and commentary headquarters in Chicago during the entire time of his award winning career. As Paul Harvey was in demand as a speaker across the country, he often talked of seeing the news from the perspective of Middle America rather than from behind the ivory palaces of Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and Broadway. He felt he could see the events of time with a better view as he kept in mind the heartbeat of the nation from the working man’s point-of-view. His message resonated with the people of America. I am privileged to be invited to speak to various size groups of people beyond the perimeter in our state. As I travel across the state of Georgia, I am reminded of the vastness of our land mass and the beauty of the surroundings in our cities and towns that make up this state we call home. I am...

There are two issues I feel passionate about that touch our culture every day. The first one is the right-to-life that all of us have. I am an activist and an advocate for life issues. Life begins at conception and is to continue until the giver of life determines the natural end. In 1987, a small pro-life ministry based 45 miles north of Sacramento, California, held the first Life Chain observance as they built America’s first chain through the towns of Yuba City and Marysville, California, according to their website. Last Sunday, across the country there were people who stood for one hour in silent prayer standing up for the unborn in communities throughout North America. Life is valuable and vital, and should be treated with dignity and respect. Being an advocate for life also causes me to share another passion of my belief system. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Over these many years in my profession, having sat on my side of the desk and listened to stories of spous...

Many articles are being written concerning the downfall of the church and religious worship in our country. There are people who are comparing our nation with Europe and the few who attend church on a regular basis there. Questions continue to be debated about the style of worship and the dress of the attendees to church worship events. There is a style of worship that has come to be attached to what is known as the Emerging Church. The worship style that stands out from those churches could only be described as different from traditional. Being different is not necessarily wrong, it is just different. The difference can be seen immediately in the dress of the people who gather for worship, rather than the traditional suit and tie, or what has come to be known as Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes. The dress is much different, with men and women wearing jeans, flip flops, and even in some cases very relaxed with both males and females wearing shorts inside the worship center. The music can b...

Walking a tightrope is a dangerous profession. I watched once, as a tight rope walker moved cautiously across the wire to the other side and I noticed several things. He was aware of his mission early on and knew he had to stay focused on his assignment. His mission was not just to get to the other side but was to not let anything grab his attention so that he would begin to fall. A tightrope walker will never make it to the other side of the ledge if they loose focus of their first and most important mission. You could be asking me why I have taken such space to state this truth several times. The simple issue at hand should be to focus on policy rather than on personalities. To expand this idea even more, I can say that a tightrope walker should learn from the airplane wing walker’s manual of survival. To be a successful airplane wing walker, there is only one rule that must be followed. That rule is: “Never turn loose of something until you have something else to hold on to.” As ...

Flag Day was Tuesday and Father’s Day is this Sunday. Two different days, but both have a link in that we are to respect them both. Memories linger as to the first time I ever stood at attention in my school and said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. We were taught to stand still and look at the flag placing our right hand over our heart as we said the words we had been taught; "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." Every day, one student was picked from our class to stand in front of the room and lead the class in pledging to the flag. As the years passed we were taught not only to pledge to the flag, but that the flag should never touch the ground, or be mistreated in any way. Our teachers took the time to tell the class what a blessed country we are and how we should always stand, remaining silent until the leader wou...

President Obama is pledging billions of dollars of our money to assist other nations as they develop plans for jobs for their citizens. Millions of Americans are unemployed. Many people have given up on their search for a job. In a television news interview recently, I was challenged to offer a solution to the joblessness in our state. A promise of millions of dollars going into the treasury of our state and new jobs by the hundreds was made by a proponent of expanded gambling outlets in the interview. As is always the case, this was a dream offer that seemed to be the best possible solution to joblessness in the state of Georgia. When asked what my plan would be to bring jobs to Georgia, my response was that we need to ease up on the regulation of small businesses, cut their taxes, and allow them the opportunity to risk their personal investment in order to expand their business. Neither of the proponents of the other plan had a reply at that point. History documents that the success...

  My parents were not blessed with much formal education, but both of them were wise in dealing with the issues of life. Mother and Daddy insisted that their children receive as much formal education as could be attained.   Daddy called it, “book learning.” My sister, brother, and I continued our training in the formal levels of education beyond college graduate degrees. It did not matter that we had surpassed our parent’s levels of formal training; in my opinion, we never reached their level of wisdom. My mother understood the basic principle of economics to be that one must never spend more than they have available. She believed in being frugal in her budget goals for our family. Daddy understood the political world like no one I have even known. He always looked at the character of a person when determining how he was going to cast his vote. With very high moral standards, Daddy held those who represented him to those same standards. As children, we often heard our parents...

  My parents were not blessed with much formal education, but both of them were wise in dealing with the issues of life. Mother and Daddy insisted that their children receive as much formal education as could be attained.   Daddy called it, “book learning.” My sister, brother, and I continued our training in the formal levels of education beyond college graduate degrees. It did not matter that we had surpassed our parent’s levels of formal training; in my opinion, we never reached their level of wisdom. My mother understood the basic principle of economics to be that one must never spend more than they have available. She believed in being frugal in her budget goals for our family. Daddy understood the political world like no one I have even known. He always looked at the character of a person when determining how he was going to cast his vote. With very high moral standards, Daddy held those who represented him to those same standards. As children, we often heard our parents...

Three of the gospel witnesses, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, record almost verbatim the last words of Jesus from the cross on the day we call “Good Friday.” Matthew’s account is found in chapter 27 verse 50, “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (KJV) Around the world today, Christians will celebrate this day as the day that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of all people. This brings to a brief halt the observance of Holy Week for Christians when observances will be conducted in churches to commemorate Jesus’ death. The day became known as “Good Friday,” because as Christ-followers think back, they realize that Jesus took on himself the sins of all the people of the world on that day, and did for them what they could not do. Jesus Christ’s death atoned for the sins of all people everywhere. All we need to do is to receive that truth by faith and our sins are atoned by the blood of Jesus and His death on the cross that day. The exciting news is that t...

The definition of the word conviction is: “A fixed or firm belief.” I have a deeply held conviction regarding life. My conviction that is unmovable and firmly implanted in my innermost being is; that life begins at conception, no matter how life was conceived. A further development of my firmly held conviction is that life, once conceived, should be allowed to live until the giver of life determines the natural end to that life. I can discuss with any person my belief system that is rooted in my worldview. This matter should not have to be debated and would not be debated had the Supreme Court not injected their secular worldview upon the moral issue of life with their ruling known as Roe v. Wade. From that ruling forward, our nation has been involved in the taking of life under the guise of choice and some vague concept of personal rights of the living, but not the personal rights of the unborn. When I express my conviction regarding life, I am quickly dismissed by some people as cl...

As our culture continues to push and strive toward a completely secular lifestyle with no restraints or rules, the people of Japan are quickly turning from secular thinking to spiritual. When disaster strikes we hunt for the address of the church, or the phone number of the local pastor. Until that time comes, however, we want the church and all its old fogey ideas to stay the heck out of our lives and let us make our own decisions as to what we will do, where we will go, and what we will ingest into our bodies. The thinking of what happens in Las Vegas (known as sin city), stays in Las Vegas has made its way into mainstream thinking today and is certainly alive and well in Georgia . This week, I listened to the debate on the Senate floor before the vote on the bill that calls for local communities to hold elections for the selling of alcohol during specific times on Sunday. Georgia is pretty much a wet state allowing for alcohol sales to be licensed by the state and regulated by...

Each of us has several things in common. We each have a past, present, and future. While it is true that the contents of those three segments of life are different, we must admit it is true that all of us have a past, we are living in the present, and there is a future ahead of us. In the business and professional world there are people making mega dollars by helping leaders of industry plan the course toward the future.   One of the great temptations to which many fall prey is to become so focused upon what is going on in the present day they ignore making plans for the future. Joel Barker, the world famous scholar and futurist, dedicated his adult life to helping people develop a vision for the future. Barker is known for challenging the giants of industry and business with quotes such as this: “You can and should shape your own future; because if you don’t someone else surely will.” In this fast paced world that is changing faster each second, it is hard just to keep up with th...

Spring is my favorite time of the year. Many people have been talking about having spring fever. Spring is that time of the year when the sunshine seems to be brighter and brings needed warmth after the long, dark, and cold days of winter. There is no more beautiful sight than the warm sunshine hitting upon the earth in the early days of spring when all the trees are budding and flowers begin to bloom again. Contrast that picture with the cold, dark, dreary days of winter when the earth is turned at an angle away from the sun and one cannot feel the warmth of its rays. In winter, it seems dark and cold all the time and in spring, when the days are longer, the sunshine makes more daylight by which to enjoy outdoor activities. When I heard that the elected officials in Wisconsin were hiding from their elected duties, I became disturbed about their childish activity and thankful it was a long way from Georgia . However, recently, I learned that we actually have politicians in Georgia w...