Estella Warren attends a museum opening Thursday in Century City, Calif. “She needs to straighten herself out,” a friend says. | Frederick M. Brown~Getty Images
Friends of Estella Warren say they have been concerned for some time about the actress and former model’s drinking. “Maybe this will be a wake-up call,” said a Warren associate Tuesday — reacting to the “Planet of the Apes” star’s arrest on multiple charges Monday night.
Warren was being held on $100,000 bond after crashing her Prius into three parked cars, allegedly assaulting a police officer and briefly fleeing a Los Angeles police station while being booked on suspicion of DUI. She was quickly apprehended — and that attempted escape added to her growing list of felony charges.
The owner of one of the cars told Radar Online that he chased after Warren, and when he caught up with her (after she hit a third vehicle), she began slapping him.
All this occurred only one block from Warren’s home — so tracking her down (after she initially fled from the scene) “wasn’t exactly a tough thing for the police to figure out,” said my source.
† Reportedly, Warren has been unhappy with the less-than-stellar path her career has taken in recent years, which has mainly included occasional TV guest spots and a few forgettable film roles.
Once a synchronized swimming champion, the Canada native turned her early athletic achievements into a successful modeling career — first gaining fame for spreads in Sports Illustrated, Vogue and Maxim, where she was named “Hottest Woman” of 2000.
“She needs to straighten herself out, get help and focus,” added the friend. “Estella’s always been a little crazy, but this is really a mess. . . . She’s going to have to deal with all kinds of legal problems here.”
US preacher Harold Camping, who gained international fame with his prediction that the Rapture would come at 6 p.m. on May 21, apparently still stands by his theory and has unfolded a new doomsday date – October 21.
The independent Christian radio host, who resurfaced from seclusion following his failed prediction on Monday night, said that the apocalypse or the so-called global ‘Rapture’ will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted.
Camping said he felt so terrible when his doomsday prediction did not come true on Saturday that he left home and took refuge in a motel with his wife.
Rather than give his normal daily broadcast, Camping made a special statement Monday night before the press at the Oakland headquarters of the media empire that has broadcast his message. (ANI)
I love the Book of Daniel and have spent a lot of time studying it. Sorry to see it misinterpreted!
ANI reported yesterday: US preacher Harold Camping, who gained international fame with his prediction that the Rapture would come at 6 p.m. on May 21, apparently still stands by his theory and has unfolded a new doomsday date – October 21. The independent Christian radio host, who resurfaced from seclusion following his failed prediction […]
Harold Camping speaks to International Business Times (IBTimes) Harold Camping who predicted that on May 21, 2011, about 200 million people will Rapture and those left behind will die when the world gets completely destroyed on October 21, 2011, has told International Business Times (IBTimes) that “(He has) got to live with it (the […]
(Photo: Reuters/Reuters TV) Harold Camping, 89, the California evangelical broadcaster who predicts that Judgment Day will come on May 21, 2011, is seen in this still image from video during an interview at Family Stations Inc. offices in Oakland, California May 16, 2011. The U.S. evangelical Christian broadcaster predicting that Judgment Day will come on […]
I am a Christian and I do believe Jesus is coming back. In fact, at noon today in Little Rock, the skies got dark and it looked like it was midnight. I am sure the Harold Camping followers were expecting something like this. However, it is 2:53pm now and the skies are much brighter. […]
I love the Book of Daniel and have spent a lot of time studying it. I noticed a gentleman making a lot of copies of his notes on the Book of Daniel, and I asked what he was studying. That man was Edgar Whisenant and he began to tell me that he knew the […]
By Justin Berton | SFGate.com For about 10 years I knew a man by the name of Edgar C. Whisenant in Little Rock. He gave me some material to read and I told him that it was wrong to predict the exact date and time of Christ second coming and he got quite mad when I asserted […]
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver and family – “The Longest Yard” Los Angeles premiere, May 19, 2005
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life?
Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments:
“Like a lot of you I’m in transition: people come up to me all the time, asking, what are you doing next?” she said, adding: “It’s so stressful to not know what you are doing next when people ask what you are doing and they can’t believe you don’t know what you are doing.”
“I’d like to hear from other people who are in transition,” she said. “How did you find your transition: Personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, financial? How did you get through it?”
Mrs. Shriver has asked for spiritual input and I personally think that unless she gets the spiritual help that she needs then she will end up in the divorce court. I am starting a series on how a marriage can survive an infidelity. My first suggestion would be to attend a “Weekend to Remember” put on by the organization “Family Life” out of Little Rock, Arkansas. I actually posted this as a response to Mrs. Shriver’s request on you tube.
I got so much out of the article “He Led a Double Life,” by Mary May Larmoyeux that I had to share this. Below is the first portion:
Scott Jennings never dreamed he would cross the line. But somehow it happened.
He was unhappy at home. He loved Sherry, but … well, she was the boss at her work, and she acted like the boss at home. When things needed to be done, she would tell Scott what to do. And he got tired of it.
He wasn’t one to talk about his emotions. So he turned inward. He would escape to the fire station—where he was a volunteer fire fighter—and start drinking.
Things got worse after the Jennings’ son, Steven, was born in 1995. Sherry wanted to be supermom and Scott was happy to let her do it. Soon he avoided being around Sherry and Steven altogether. If Sherry went to bed early with Steven, Scott stayed up late and watched TV.
He often pretended that a call had come in from the volunteer fire department, but when he left the house he would head to a local bar instead. That’s where he became friends with people who seemed to really understand him.
Scott also turned to a woman at work for a listening ear. Eventually they went to a motel together. He never thought he would be the type of person to cheat on his wife. But he did.
He had stepped into a world of repeated lies, affairs, and deceit. Scott Jennings was living a double life.
An unfamiliar phone number
In 2002 Sherry grew tired of waiting up at nights for Scott. She was weary of the crying, the arguing, the making up, and then repeating the cycle again. She knew there was more to life than this. She started attending a local church and, at times, Scott reluctantly joined her.
Over the course of several months Sherry came to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She begged Him to heal her marriage.
For years Sherry had believed her husband’s lies about working late and answering alarms for the fire department. But in 2004 she could no longer avoid the truth. She knew something was terribly wrong in her marriage.
She found an unfamiliar phone number on her husband’s cell phone and drove to the local address that matched it. Sure enough, Scott’s truck was parked outside an apartment complex. With the remote to his truck in her hand, she set the horn off, which brought him outside to silence it.
And that’s when Scott’s double life fell apart.
When he saw Sherry, he claimed he was just visiting a friend before he came home. Sherry didn’t believe it. She knew that Scott was trying to cover up the fact that she had caught him with another woman. She told him that it was time to go, that she was his wife and they needed to talk.
Scott followed Sherry to their house. They talked in the backyard for about an hour. He told her that he was depressed. He had it all—a loving wife, child, and house—and yet he didn’t want it. He seemed confused and told Sherry that he felt trapped by her and their son, Steven. He said that he wanted his freedom.
Sherry decided to give her husband space. She hoped and prayed that things would somehow work out in their marriage. Scott, on the other hand, went on several trips with his girlfriend and spent large amounts of time drunk or under the influence of prescription drugs.
End of a marriage
One night, when Scott was leaving his girlfriend’s apartment, he discovered that his truck was gone. “I hoped that it had been towed or stolen,” Scott says, “but in my gut I knew that I had been caught again.”
His girlfriend drove him home, where he found the truck. As soon as he walked into the house, he says, “I started in on Sherry and was very verbally abusive and angry.” She told him he could no longer live in the house since he was not living as part of the family.
Scott was stunned by his wife’s words. He packed a bag and left in anger, tearing up part of the yard as he drove away from the house.
Sherry reluctantly filed for divorce and eventually followed through with it. The final divorce proceeding was on September 21, 2005—their fourteenth wedding anniversary.
Scott and Sherry drove to the courthouse together, and he played a CD with teachings about marriage. He hoped this might lead Sherry to change her mind, but it did not. “I angrily went through the proceedings and spent the rest of the day drunk and stoned,” Scott says. “I think I was in a state of shock.”
After the divorce
Two days later, when Scott called to say goodnight to his son, he also talked to Sherry.His girlfriend complained that he spent too much time on the phone with his ex-wife. Even he was surprised by his response. “The fact was that I still did love Sherry.”
Scott’s girlfriend was livid. She punched him in the eye and told him to leave. He gathered all of his belongings, meekly called Sherry, and asked if he could store them in the garage. When he arrived at the house after midnight with his meager belongings, he wanted to see Steven. Sherry refused, and Scott became belligerent. He threatened Sherry with a lawsuit and left.
With just a few items of clothing and a six-pack of beer, he checked into a cheap motel. As soon as he got into his room, he called Sherry and berated her. He didn’t know what to do or where to go. “Everything that I had held dear was gone,” he says.
“When he called me for the second or third time,” Sherry says, “I tried to honor him and not yell at him.” Finally, she contacted Scott’s sister, Nancy, a pastor’s wife, thinking she might be able to talk some sense into her brother.
Nancy convinced Scott to open the Gideon Bible in the room’s nightstand drawer. As she read from the book of Isaiah, he followed along. Tears filled his eyes when he recited Isaiah 55:7: “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, for He will freely pardon.”
A Weekend to Remember®
After Scott reached his mother’s house, his sister Nancy and brother-in-law Douglas (who lived nearby) came to see him. “I told them that I had come to accept Christ,” Scott says. He had started reading the Bible regularly, and they realized he was sincere.
_____________________________________
Weekend To Remember Conference Testimony
Here’s a couple who went to a FamilyLife Conference and how it made a difference in their marriage.
Conservative publisher Andrew Brietbart sat down for an extensive interview with CBSNews.com Friday in which he discussed his disdain for the mainstream media, offered his perspective on the Republican presidential field, said President Obama should have released a post-mortem photo of Osama bin Laden, and complained that men have been turned into eunuchs by political correctness.
Breitbart, author of “Righteous Indignation,” said reporters don’t respect the people they see as “middle Americans from flyover country.”
People in the mainstream media and Hollywood, he said, see such people as “heathens” who are “beneath contempt.”
Breitbart said the United States should move toward a British model in which mainstream media outlets acknowledge that “of course we have a liberal bent, everybody knows that.” He said the objectivity claimed by mainstream media outlets does not exist.
News consumers, he said, should “know where the person’s coming from.” He said he comes from “a more free-market, Libertarian orientation.”
“Take the facts that I’m giving you, and understand that I’m coming from that point of view,” said Breitbart.
Breitbart said his dream 2012 Republican presidential ticket includes two African-Americans, Herman Cain and Allen West, suggesting they would draw out those who “believe everybody that disagrees with the Democratic Party is a racist.”
He said Tea Party crowds in the South are extremely supportive when such an “authentic” ticket is brought up.
“That ticket would blow up the death star of political correctness that the left uses against the right,” he said.
Breitbart also said President Obama should have released post-mortem photographs of Osama bin Laden, saying it is necessary for “closure.”
“Without closure, it’s going to be a pregnancy that causes much pain for too many people in this world,” he said.
He lauded the president for making the risky decision to go after bin Laden in the raid, calling it a “grand slam” and the highlight of the Obama presidency. But he said “he’s trying to turn this into a political thing,” arguing that Mr. Obama should “just let it be.”
The “Big Government” publisher also said the Tea Party is “run by women.”
“Because their husbands are afraid, they’re eunuchs,” he said. “They’re afraid of being called a racist, they’re afraid of being accused of sexual harassment in the workplace for even looking the wrong way, they live in a politically correct world where they’ve been turned into eunuchs.”
Women and minorities, he said, have had to step into the breach.
“Strong black conservatives and strong female conservatives, as represented by Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio, and Allen West and Herman Cain, are the threat to what I call in the book the Democrat-media complex,” he added.
Estella Warren. (Kevin Winter – Getty Images) Actress Estella Warren has been arrested for allegedly hitting three cars in Los Angeles while driving under the influence, then resisting arrest and attempting to escape the police station Monday night into Tuesday morning.
TMZ is reporting that Warren, best known for the film “The Plant of the Apes,” hit three parked cars while driving a Toyota Prius. Police attempted to arrest her for driving under the influence, but the actress reportedly resisted arrest and kicked an officer. She then allegedly attempted to escape the police station but was caught.
According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Web site, Warren has been booked on a felony escape charge and is being held on $100,000 bail. As Vulture pointed out, the birth date on the document would make Warren 40, rather than 32, the age listed on her IMDB and Wikipedia.
We’ve called Warren’s management and will update with the response.
The former pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. Robert G. Lee used to say: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, Sin will keep you longer than you want to stay, Sin will cost you more than you want to pay. Alcohol has a way of biting like a loose snake.
Do you think that Estella Warren had thought out her actions?
My friend Rev Sherwood Haisty Jr. is a minister in California and he is currently working on finishing up his masters degree from the Masters Seminary. Here are some of his thoughts:
Look over the verses and be sure to look closely at verse 31.
Proverbs 23:29-35 (29) Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? (30) They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. (31) Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. (32) At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. (33) Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. (34) Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. (35) They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
The end resultes of drinking “yayin” that is fermented are listed in verses 32-34 as well as back in verse 29. These results come from tarrying long at the wine as verse 30 indicates. Yet the prohibition in verse 31 is not moderation but total abstinence. If one stays away from this type of “yayin” or “onios” they won’t have to worry about getting drunk anyway. This is what Proberbs 23 is stating. It is a matter of wisdom.
I don’t see Jesus as being unwise or violating the principles of Proverbs 23:29-35. That is why I believe that the “onios” that Jesus made was mere grape juice as the Greek term clearly allows for.
That is my honest view on it. I know that there may be many who will disagree with me here on facebook and that is okay. I could write much more to defend it and perhaps will in a note one day.
_________________________
If a person rejects all the linguistic arguments that Sherwood has given (I agree with all of them though) there is still the scriptures in Romans and I Corinthians concerning not causing a weaker brother to stumble.
Romans 14:21: It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.
I Corinthians 8:13: Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
It is consistent with the ethic of love for believers and unbelievers alike. Because I am an example to others, I will make certain no one ever walks the road of sorrow called alcoholism because they saw me take a drink and assumed, “if it is alright for Everette Hatcher, it is alright for me.” No, I will choose to set an uncompromising example of abstinence because I love them. The fact is that 1 of every 6 drinkers in the USA are problem drinkers.
Billy Sunday has a great sermon story that illustrates this principle:
I feel like an old fellow in Tennessee who made his living by catching rattlesnakes. He caught one with fourteen rattles and put it in a box with a glass top. One day when he was sawing wood his little five-year old boy;
Jim, took the lid off and the rattler wriggled out and struck him in the cheek. He ran to his father and said, “The rattler has bit me.” The father ran and chopped the rattler to pieces, and with his jackknife he cut a chunk from the boy’s cheek and then sucked and sucked at the wound to draw out the poison. -He looked at little Jim, watched the pupils of his eyes dilate and watched him swell to three times his normal size, watched his lips become parched and cracked, and eyes roll, and little Jim gasped and died.
The father took him in his arms, carried him over by the side of the rattler, got on his knees and said, “God, I would not give little Jim for all the rattlers that ever crawled over the Blue Ridge mountains.”
That is the question that must be answered by everyone no matter what their religious beliefs: Would Jesus have violated Romans and I Corinthians? Should we?
______________________________
One of my favorite movies includes Estella. Here is a clip of Kangaroo Jack:
(BB, Ho, LL, V, S, N, AA, D, M) Generally moral worldview about standing up for good, fighting evil, taking one’s rightful place, and choosing to do right, despite one’s background and circumstances; light homosexual innuendoes, mostly anti-homosexual humor; about seven light obscenities, 15 light profanities and some scatological humor, including flatulence jokes; light slapstick violence including mob threats, car chases, etc., but no guts or gore; no sex scenes but man accidentally touches woman’s breast and other oblique references to sexuality in dialogue; upper male nudity and woman in revealing top and wet clothes; some drunkenness shown in humorous light; smoking; and, miscellaneous content includes the portrayal of the grief of children with abandoning fathers. GENRE: Comedy BB Ho LL V S N AA D M
Summary:
In KANGAROO JACK, two childhood friends, a New York hairstylist and a would-be-entrepreneur, are forced by the mob to deliver a package to Australia, but things go haywire when the money is lost to a wild kangaroo. KANGAROO JACK is recommended only for older children and teenagers, but with caution because of mob violence, slight homosexual humor, plenty of light foul language and portrayals of drunkenness, along with some scatological and heterosexual humor.
Review:
KANGAROO JACK is a goofy comedy designed for family audiences. It is more appropriate, however, for older children and teenagers.
Charlie Carbone has a beautiful mother (Dyan Cannon), but has been abandoned by his real father, leaving a vacuum for an attentive mobster (Christopher Walken) to sweep in and marry his mother. As Charlie plays on the beach one day, a chubby black child, Louis, tries to engage him in a metal-detecting business, but Charlie blows him off. Another boy, Frankie, throws a football to him, but it goes into the ocean. As Charlie tries to go after it, he almost drowns, but Louis saves him. Louis now insists that Charlie will be forever indebted to him.
As time passes, Walken sets up the now-grown Charlie in a hair studio, from which he gleans a hefty 80% of the profits. Walken also believes Charlie is gay, which is false. The grown-up Frankie collects the money for the mob. The grown-up Louis, who saved Charlie, is still on the scene, and he is still calling Charlie on the fact that he saved his life. Louis asks Charlie to help him deliver TVs to a warehouse, but Louis does something wacky in traffic and gets pulled over by the police. Louis outruns the police, though, and drives straight to the warehouse, which he doesn’t realize is being run by the mob, and by Charlie’s step-dad, Christopher Walken!
The bad guys get arrested, but Louis and Charlie escape, sliding down a garbage shoot. Later, Walken calls in Charlie and Louis to give them a lecture. He offers to give them a chore, though, to redeem themselves. They must deliver a package to a man in Australia, but promise not to open the package.
On the plane, Charlie looks at a pretty girl and flirts with her a bit. Soon Louis and Charlie decide to look inside the bag, so they go back to the bathroom together. They find $100,000 in cash. They scream, “Wow! It’s so big!” They are talking about the bag and the money inside, but it sounds like homosexual talk. When they come out, the flirting girl is no longer interested in Charlie.
In Australia, the guys begin looking for the hand-off man, getting a rental car. In the rental car, the guys hit a kangaroo, and it apparently dies. Charlie wants to bury it, but Louis props it up, puts sunglasses and a jacket on it and takes pictures with it. To their shock, the kangaroo suddenly hops away – with the money in its jacket! Now the guys must find a kangaroo tracker. They find a researcher lady who has a tranquilizer gun, and they hire a drunk guy with pilot’s license who finally agrees to fly overhead and track the wounded roo.
The trio zooms past the hurt kangaroo. In his haste, Louis ends up shooting the pilot in the neck and crashing the plane. They call the hand-off guy and tell him they’ll give the money to him soon. He comes to find them but finds the pilot, takes him hostage, and starts bullying everyone.
The guys locate the researcher again and promise to give her $4,800 toward research if she will help them, but the Aussie mobster takes the researcher hostage and threatens to kill her, Louis and Charlie. Then, Charlie’s stepfather sends another mobster, and Charlie realizes that, unless he stands up to the mob and uses his brain to come up with a clever escape, he and the others will die.
KANGAROO JACK is a moral movie that espouses standing up for truth and life. There is a clear delineation of right and wrong, but there is homosexual humor, body humor, heterosexual humor, and plenty of light foul language. The movie also has some light violence – including threats and mob violence with American and Aussie mobs, but no blood and guts. There is also a car chase with the police and portrayals of drunkenness. The movie portrays the pattern of a boy’s masculinity stripped when a father abandons him, but it also shows the glorious gift of the ability to chose whether or not to be a man, and chose right. Jerry O’Connell and Anthony Anderson make a good comic team, but some of the jokes may elicit a groan from many viewers.
Although KANGAROO JACK is aimed at older children and teenagers, caution should be exercised because of the problematic content cited above.
SUMMARY: In KANGAROO JACK, two childhood friends, a New York hairstylist and a would-be-entrepreneur, are forced by the mob to deliver a package to Australia, but things go haywire when the money is lost to a wild kangaroo. KANGAROO JACK is recommended only for older children and teenagers, but with caution because of mob violence, slight homosexual humor, plenty of light foul language and portrayals of drunkenness, along with some scatological and heterosexual humor.
Maria Shriver leaked the revelations about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s love child to the media and has now hired a private investigator to find out whether her estranged husband fathered more children in secret.
Shriver’s friends had to persuade the “hysterical” former TV journalist not to hold a news conference when she found out in late April or early May that Schwarzenegger had fathered a son with the family’s housekeeper, TMZ reported Tuesday.
She agreed to keep quiet until a week after the couple announced the end of their 25-year marriage — and then tipped off the LA Times that the “True Lies” star had a 13-year-old son with Mildred Baena.
Shriver, 55, also hired a private detective to scope out whether the former California governor committed any other infidelities while they were married, as well as explore his finances, RadarOnline claimed Tuesday.
“Maria is leaving no stone unturned and she has authorized a private detective to gather personal and business information about Arnold,” an insider said.
“The investigator will likely look into the claims that he fathered multiple children, outside their marriage. Maria has heard the rumors and she wants to find out one way or another, if those claims are true,” the source added.
The money trail from Schwarzenegger to Baena, 50, will also be examined by the investigator.
Shriver and Schwarzenegger’s joint worth has been assessed at between $200 million and $400 million, meaning their divorce could be one of the costliest celebrity splits ever.
The pair is believed to have a pre-nuptial agreement, but after 25 years of marriage and Schwarzenegger’s infidelity, it may not stand.
In this series “Will Maria Shriver’s marriage survive Arnold Schwarzenegger’s admission of infidelity? I hope so,” there has been a great reaction to it by the public. I have included articles from “Family Life” of Little Rock, Arkansas about how to recover from an infidelity. I have also included info on how to take part in a “Weekend to Remember,” where you can hear “Family Life” speakers with your spouse. The only hope for Maria’s marriage will come from the power of Christ in her life to forgive. “A Family Life Conference” would be a great first step. Below is some info on that:
In just one November weekend, for example, more than 6,200 people attended 10 Weekend to Remember® marriage getaways around the country. Here are a couple quotes from those who went:
We are moving from a place of being ready to divorce to looking forward to growing together through Christ. This has given us important tools to do so.
We’ve been walking separate roads for many years. Infidelity was the final straw leading us to divorce. I was filling out the papers two days before we came to this event. Over the course of the weekend we found each other, wrote love letters that will be kept as reminders of our true love for each other. I granted forgiveness that my husband really needed. We are going to burn the divorce papers when we get home!
In today’s culture, the issues of marriage and family are open doors for the gospel–the Good News of Christ. Because people want their marriages and families to succeed.
The video i took while at Fastrip on east 20th street. We huddled in the back of the store until the glass got sucked out , then ran into the walk in storage fridge. Sorry for the lack of visuals but the audio is pretty telling of how intense the storm was. The tornado hits at around 1:20 seconds.
_____________________________
It is hollywood’s view that in times of crisis and natural disasters then people will curse over and over. Take a look at the video above. What did the people do? They cried out to Jesus over and over for help.
Now that the storms have come and taken lives with them, we hear about the blame that God deserves for allowing the storms. I hope to address that issue in today’s post.
JOPLIN, Mo (Reuters) – The death toll from a monster tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, rose to 125 on Wednesday after an overnight search turned up more bodies but no new survivors, authorities said.
Search teams pressed on through a harsh night of more stormy weather following the monster tornado that devastated the town of 50,000 on Sunday.
Using cadaver dogs and heavy equipment, they sought both the living and the dead amid the wreckage of homes, business, schools and churches.
About 1,500 people have been reported missing and some 750 people were injured, according to authorities.
A fresh line of tornadoes and thunderstorms rumbled through the Midwest again Tuesday night, bringing more death and destruction to the region, though sparing Joplin.
The storms killed at least seven people and injured many more as tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma, Kansas and into Arkansas.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam; Editing by Jerry Norton)Many have asked during this tough time: How can a good God allow evil and suffering?
Their thinking is that either God is not powerful enough to prevent evil or else God is not good. He is often blamed for tragedy. “Where was God when I went through this, or when that happened.” God is blamed for natural disasters, Even my insurance company describes them as “acts of God.” How to handle this one- (O.N.E.) a. Origin of evil— man’s choice- God created a perfect world… b. Nature of God—He forgives, I John 1:9—He uses tragedy to bring us to Himself, C.S. Lewis, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to arouse a deaf world.” c. End of it all—Bible teaches that God will one day put an end to all evil, and pain and death. “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).As Christians we have this hope of Heaven and eternity. Share how it has made a tremendous difference in your life and that you know for sure that when you die you are going to spend eternity in Heaven. Ask the person, “May I ask you a question? Do you have this hope? Do you know for certain that when you die you are going to Heaven, or is that something you would say you’re still working on?”How could a loving God send people to Hell? (O.N.E.) a. Origin of hell—never intended for people. Created for Satan and his demons. Jesus said, “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt 25:41). Man chooses to sin and ignore God. The penalty is death (eternal separation from God) and, yes, Hell. But God doesn’t send anyone to Hell, we choose it by refusing or ignoring God in attitude and action. b. Nature of God—“ God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He is so loving that He sent His own Son to die and pay the penalty for our sin so that we could avoid Hell and have the assurance of Heaven. No one in Hell will be able to blame God. He doesn’t send people there, it’s our own choice. We must choose to repent, to stop ignoring God in attitude and action, accepting His salvation and yielding to His leadership.c. End of it all—Bible teaches that God will one day put an end to all evil, pain, death, and penalty of Hell. “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).As Christians , we need not worry about Hell. The Bible says, “these things have been written . . . so that you may know you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). I have complete confidence that when I die, I’m going to Heaven. May I ask you a question?___________________________-
Answers the problem of evil and a good God… puts the issue squarely in the lap of the skeptic asking the question (where it belongs).
The problem of evil is a significant moral issue in the atheist’s arsenal. We talk about a God of goodness, but what we see around us is suffering, and a lot of it apparently unjustifiable. Stephanie said, “Disbelief in a personal, loving God as an explanation of the way the world works is reasonable–especially when one considers natural disasters that can’t be blamed on free will and sin.”{17}
One response to the problem of evil is that God sees our freedom to choose as a higher value than protecting people from harm; this is the freewill defense. Stephanie said, however, that natural disasters can’t be blamed on free will and sin. What about this? Is it true that natural disasters can’t be blamed on sin? I replied that they did come into existence because of sin (Genesis 3). We’re told in Romans 8 that creation will one day “be set free from its slavery to corruption,” that it “groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” The Fall caused the problem, and, in the consummation of the ages, the problem will be fixed.
Second, I noted that on a naturalistic basis, it’s hard to even know what evil is. But the reality of God explains it. As theologian Henri Blocher said,
The sense of evil requires the God of the Bible. In a novel by Joseph Heller, “While rejecting belief in God, the characters in the story find themselves compelled to postulate his existence in order to have an adequate object for their moral indignation.” . . . When you raise this standard objection against God, to whom do you say it, other than this God? Without this God who is sovereign and good, what is the rationale of our complaints? Can we even tell what is evil? Perhaps the late John Lennon understood: “God is a concept by which we measure our pain,” he sang. Might we be coming to the point where the sense of evil is a proof of the existence of God?{18}
So,… if there is no God, there really is no problem of evil. Does the atheist ever find herself shaking her fist at the sky after some catastrophe and demanding an explanation? If there is no God, no one is listening.
Destructive Joplin Missouri Torando On May 22, 2011 a destructive and sadly a deadly tornado tore through the town of Joplin, MO. Here is video of the tornado entering the southwest side of town. Filmed by TornadoVideos.net Basehunters Colt Forney, Isaac Pato, Kevin Rolfs, and Scott Peake. Good Morning America: Joplin, Missouri Tornado Video: Storm […]
Destroyed helicopter lies on its side A destroyed helicopter lies on its side in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornadomoved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses Emergency personnel walk Emergency personnel walk through […]
The last video listed does not have very good pictures but you hear when the tornado hits a building where people inside are filming. The sounds are just horrible and a cold feeling went through my body just listening to it. Joplin, Missouri tornado damage from the air Tornado damage of Joplin, Missouri. Aerial coverage […]
Volunteer firefighters William Jackson Volunteer firefighters William Jackson, left, and Ashley Martin, center, from Oklahoma, and Johnny Ward of Joplin look through the wreckage of a home whereit was feared a pregnant woman as feared to be trapped following a tornado in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through […]
Fox News reported today: Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars Monday in a search for victims of a half-mile-wide tornado that blasted much of this Missouri town off the map and slammed straight into its hospital. At least 116 people died, making it the nation’s deadliest single tornado in nearly […]
Governor Schwarzenegger goes to cast his vote on election day with his wife Maria Shriver and their daughters Christina and Katherine (her first time voting), at the Kenter Canyon elementary school in Brentwood.
Maria Shriver Asks – How Do You Handle Transitions in Your Life?
Arnold Schwarzenegger admitted to his wife several months ago that he had fathered a child about 10 years ago with a member of their household staff. Maria moved out, but has not filed for divorce. In the you tube clip above she comments:
“Like a lot of you I’m in transition: people come up to me all the time, asking, what are you doing next?” she said, adding: “It’s so stressful to not know what you are doing next when people ask what you are doing and they can’t believe you don’t know what you are doing.”
“I’d like to hear from other people who are in transition,” she said. “How did you find your transition: Personal, professional, emotional, spiritual, financial? How did you get through it?”
Mrs. Shriver has asked for spiritual input and I personally think that unless she gets the spiritual help that she needs then she will end up in the divorce court. I am starting a series on how a marriage can survive an infidelity. My first suggestion would be to attend a “Weekend to Remember” put on by the organization “Family Life” out of Little Rock, Arkansas. I actually posted this as a response to Mrs. Shriver’s request on you tube.
I wanted to share the article “He Had Two Affairs in 18 Months,” by Mary May Larmoyeux. I found it very helpful on this subject. Here is the first portion:
…Angela was about six months pregnant when Michael finally confessed his second affair in two years. It had been going on for about four months. Angela tried not to hyperventilate. She thought, This doesn’t happen to people like me.
He said, again, that he wanted a divorce. He said she should go live with her mom and dad.
The marriage conference
A month or so after Angela and Michael separated for the second time, Angela’s mother heard a radio advertisement for a Weekend to Remember®, a marriage getaway put on by FamilyLife. The ad promised help for struggling marriages, so she offered to send Michael and Angela to it.
At first Michael said he didn’t want to attend the conference. Divorce papers had already been completed. He just wasn’t interested.
Angela had an ultrasound and learned that she would have a little girl. After showing her husband the ultrasound pictures, she again asked if he would attend the marriage conference. He agreed to give it a try.
At the conference, “the walls came down” for Michael. He had allowed pent-up resentment to form a barrier between himself and his wife. “I didn’t understand a lot of what God’s purpose was for my life,” he says, “and I definitely couldn’t understand what His love meant.” When the speakers discussed the difference that Christ can make, “for the first time I decided to trust Jesus with my life and marriage.”
On the Saturday night of the conference weekend, Michael called Angela’s parents and apologized for the poor decisions he had made and for what he had put them through. As he talked, Angela thought about how much she did not want to be a single mom. “I wanted our daughter to have her dad,” she says. “And I wanted to be with him.”
Rebuilding a marriage
After the life-changing weekend, the tough work of marriage rebuilding began. Angela had to learn to trust Michael, and that was extremely difficult. “I told him for this [marriage] to really work, I was going to need to see that he wanted to change and that we weren’t going to go through this every year.”
Angela needed reassurance that Michael truly wanted to be married to her. Before the conference he would generally work late whenever asked to. Afterwards, that started to change. He showed his wife that spending time with her was a priority.
“That was huge to me,” Angela says.
Angela and Michael joined a church where they both grew spiritually and connected with other believers. As Michael got to know the men in his small group, he realized that many of his struggles (such as pornography and lust) were very common.
When their child was born, Michael and Angela were more committed than ever to make their marriage work. They continued to apply the principles they learned at the Weekend to Remember. Michael realized that he is supposed to come alongside his wife “in the better days and the worse days, like we said in our marriage vows,” and that Angela is his helpmate during both good and bad times.
Describing herself as an emotional person, Angela says the Weekend to Remember was an eye-opener. She realized her need to share feelings without using accusatory statements. “I remember being able to talk with each other more,” she says. At the end of the conference, the young couple signed a marriage covenant that was witnessed by one of the speakers. Angela felt that Michael was truly committed to rebuilding their marriage for the long haul.
Several months later they renewed their wedding vows with new rings. This time, when Angela pledged her commitment, she had experienced loving her husband for better and for worse. When Michael promised his lifelong faithfulness to his wife, he really meant it.
Today Michael and Angela are the proud parents of two daughters. “It brings me back to earth sometimes,” Michael says, “when I think about what could have happened with us not being together as a family.”
Angela says that she and Michael are much closer today than they might have been without their trials. “I love him so much,” she says, “and I am so glad that he decided to stick with me.”
When Michael recalls the sense of utter desperation he felt years ago when he parked in the middle of the bridge, he doesn’t know why he didn’t follow through with his original plan and jump.
“The only thing that I can say to explain it is that God had a bigger purpose and I’m still here today.”
Weekend To Remember Conference Testimony
Here’s a couple who went to a FamilyLife Conference and how it made a difference in their marriage.
Harold Camping speaks to International Business Times (IBTimes)
Harold Camping who predicted that on May 21, 2011, about 200 million people will Rapture and those left behind will die when the world gets completely destroyed on October 21, 2011, has told International Business Times (IBTimes) that “(He has) got to live with it (the fact that his prediction has failed)”.
To read more about Harold Camping, visit http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com
It’s hard to feel bad for someone whose doomsday predictions caused so much anxiety, but 89-year-old Harold Camping’s recent admission that he’s “flabbergasted” the world didn’t end last weekend sounds somewhat pitiful.
Camping’s PR aide, Tom Evans, told the LA Times that the group is “disappointed” that 200,000 true believers weren’t lifted up to heaven on Saturday while everyone else suffered and eventually died as a series of earthquakes and famine destroyed the Earth. “You can imagine we’re pretty disappointed, but the word of God is still true,” Evans said. “We obviously went too far, and that’s something we need to learn from.” The group posted 2,000 billboards around the country warning of the Rapture, while Camping–an uncertified fundamentalist minister–spread the word on his radio show.
Camping’s Family Radio, which airs on 66 U.S. stations, has apparently rebranded itself quickly. Business Insider notes that the station’s web site has scrubbed all mentions of the Judgment Day. The site previously featured a countdown clock to the May 21 Rapture on its homepage.
But the false prediction might not be so easily effaced from the lives of Camping’s followers. The LATimes writes that Keith Bauer, a 38-year-old tractor trailer driver, took a road trip with his family to see the world’s sights before it ended.
“With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief,” the paper writes.
But Bauer is not angry at Camping for his false prediction. “Worst-case scenario for me, I got to see the country,” he told the paper. “If I should be angry at anybody, it should be me.”
Robert Fitzpatrick, who spent $140,000 of his life savings to advertise the Rapture in New York, said he was dumbfounded when life went on as usual Saturday.
“I do not understand why …,” he told Reuters while awaiting the event in Times Square. “I do not understand why nothing has happened.”
An NPR reporter talked to two Camping followers on Sunday. “One man, his voice quavering, said he was still holding out hope that they were one day off. Another believer asserted that their prayers worked: God delayed judgment so that more people could be saved, but the end is ‘imminent,’ ” she reported.
Evans, Camping’s PR aide, told NPR he hopes Family Radio will reimburse followers who spent their savings in anticipation of the Rapture, but that he can’t guarantee it.
Protesters gathered outside Camping’s radio headquarters to mock the false prophecy over the weekend. Some of them set aloft a toy cow with balloons to lampoon the idea that a select elite would ascend to heaven. Meanwhile, other religious groups tried to recruit disappointed Camping followers.
I love the Book of Daniel and have spent a lot of time studying it. Sorry to see it misinterpreted!
_______________________________________
Here are the other posts I had on this same subject:
Yahoo News reported this morning: It’s hard to feel bad for someone whose doomsday predictions caused so much anxiety, but 89-year-old Harold Camping’s recent admission that he’s “flabbergasted” the world didn’t end last weekend sounds somewhat pitiful. “It has been a really tough weekend,” Camping said Sunday, after emerging from his Alameda, California home […]
(Photo: Reuters/Reuters TV) Harold Camping, 89, the California evangelical broadcaster who predicts that Judgment Day will come on May 21, 2011, is seen in this still image from video during an interview at Family Stations Inc. offices in Oakland, California May 16, 2011. The U.S. evangelical Christian broadcaster predicting that Judgment Day will come on […]
I am a Christian and I do believe Jesus is coming back. In fact, at noon today in Little Rock, the skies got dark and it looked like it was midnight. I am sure the Harold Camping followers were expecting something like this. However, it is 2:53pm now and the skies are much brighter. […]
I love the Book of Daniel and have spent a lot of time studying it. I noticed a gentleman making a lot of copies of his notes on the Book of Daniel, and I asked what he was studying. That man was Edgar Whisenant and he began to tell me that he knew the […]
By Justin Berton | SFGate.com For about 10 years I knew a man by the name of Edgar C. Whisenant in Little Rock. He gave me some material to read and I told him that it was wrong to predict the exact date and time of Christ second coming and he got quite mad when I asserted […]
On May 22, 2011 a destructive and sadly a deadly tornado tore through the town of Joplin, MO. Here is video of the tornado entering the southwest side of town. Filmed by TornadoVideos.net Basehunters Colt Forney, Isaac Pato, Kevin Rolfs, and Scott Peake.
Missouri tornado filmed by storm chasers
At least 89 people have been killed after a tornado tore through the city of Joplin in the US state of Missouri, officials have said.
The tornado cut a path nearly six miles (10km) long through the city centre, destroying businesses and homes.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and warned more storms are on the way.
A team of storm chasers filmed the tornado as it hit the city
Joplin, MO-5-22-11-SeanWilson.wmv
We were chasing this storm and were right behind it when it dropped the tornado in Joplin. The tragedy is horrible. We stopped the camera after we picked up our first injured victim. We picked up many more and worked as an ambulance for many hours, shuttling people to the hospital. We will never forget the people we met, or the things we saw. We pray they all made it . So sad. This is exactly WHY we chase. We are praying for you Joplin.
Destructive Joplin Missouri Torando On May 22, 2011 a destructive and sadly a deadly tornado tore through the town of Joplin, MO. Here is video of the tornado entering the southwest side of town. Filmed by TornadoVideos.net Basehunters Colt Forney, Isaac Pato, Kevin Rolfs, and Scott Peake. Good Morning America: Joplin, Missouri Tornado Video: Storm […]
Destroyed helicopter lies on its side A destroyed helicopter lies on its side in the parking lot of the Joplin Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornadomoved through much of the city, damaging the hospital and hundreds of homes and businesses Emergency personnel walk Emergency personnel walk through […]
The last video listed does not have very good pictures but you hear when the tornado hits a building where people inside are filming. The sounds are just horrible and a cold feeling went through my body just listening to it. Joplin, Missouri tornado damage from the air Tornado damage of Joplin, Missouri. Aerial coverage […]
Volunteer firefighters William Jackson Volunteer firefighters William Jackson, left, and Ashley Martin, center, from Oklahoma, and Johnny Ward of Joplin look through the wreckage of a home whereit was feared a pregnant woman as feared to be trapped following a tornado in Joplin, Mo., Sunday, May 22, 2011. A large tornado moved through […]
Fox News reported today: Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars Monday in a search for victims of a half-mile-wide tornado that blasted much of this Missouri town off the map and slammed straight into its hospital. At least 116 people died, making it the nation’s deadliest single tornado in nearly […]