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We think of our work lives as secular.
However or job environment is our ministry.
Everyday, every hour and every minute belongs to God.
Do everything for the glory of God, even the secular.
The secular is sacred if used to glorify God.
Culture is secular because is sin and man-made.
Meet sinners were they are.
Meet people where they are.
Engage culture through God.
Love culture through the Christ Jesus.
Rehabilitate culture through the Holy Spirit.

California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi directed more than a billion dollars in subsidies to a light rail project that benefitted a company her husband is a major investor in. ‘Salesforce’ paid $278 million for 14 acres in Mission Bay in 2010, from Alexandria Real Estate Equities.

Pelosi’s husband Paul’s holdings in ‘Salesforce’ amount to between $500,000 and $1 million.

Pelosi first purchased the stock in 2000. When it debuted on the market in 2004, it was worth $3.75 per share; this week, it was trading at just under $53.

But this isn’t the first time her congressional dealings have been called into question.

In March 2008 she sponsored a bill allowing HIV-positive patients who do not have AIDS to qualify for Medicaid. Her husband owns $250,000 worth of stocks in ‘Amgen,’ which makes the only AIDS drug covered, thus benefitting her husband.

She is as crooked as her face is surgically altered.

The death of Robin Williams surprised millions. The fact that he died at his own hand came as shock to thousands who have lived through such deaths of a loved one.

I am one of those and through Williams’ death I have found a cathartic healing and am suddenly able to see my brother’s problems in life in a better light.

You see, Adam had the cards stacked against him when he was a youngster. While it would be years before it was called ‘Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,’ or ADHD, Adam was labeled as hyper and medicated as a result.

This forever changed my brother’s personality. Not only did he become more aggressive as the years progressed, he was also open to experimenting with drugs and alcohol, where I wasn’t.

It was while serving in the Army in South Korea, Adam would find a drug, that I imagine replaced the medicated feelings of his youth. Heroin would rule a majority of his adult life until his death from a self-inflicted methadone patch overdose.

For the four years between his death and Robin Williams’ passing I’ve been angry in one form or another at my younger brother. I see now though, that my anger isn’t the answer – rather its my forgiveness.

Adam was brilliant, an intellectual and gifted human with a grand capacity to empathize with others. Perhaps that empathic quality is what got the better of him and thus he sought refuge from the immense pressure and pain this gift gave him.

I can only speculate on this now – and that would be a waste of time.

But what I can do is forgive him for turning off his light long before it was due to burn out. I can also forgive myself for not being the loving brother and understanding how difficult his life had been since early childhood.

And thank you Robin Williams, you brought an understanding to me far beyond any of the laughter you’ve left behind.

Doctor Ernest Fine bought one of the first automobiles in Del Norte County in 1905. It was a bright red single-seat Ford Roadster powered by a four-cylinder engine.

It’s the beginning of the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes where King Solomon notes: “Everything is meaningless.” This is not a happy statement.

First off, ‘Ecclesiastes,’ roughly translates as ‘teacher.’ And ‘meaningless,’ is more or less translated as ‘completely temporary.’

The Book of Ecclesiastes suggests that human wisdom has its limits. The King goes even further to list what he finds meaninglessness in: wisdom, pleasure, folly, toil and advancement.

In some ways it is encouraging to know that people of the tenth century before Christ were asking themselves questions like ‘Why am I here?” It’s a question much of society is still asking all these centuries later and with no clear answer still found.

Unfortunately, we tend to try to answer this question with stuff — money, vehicles, friends, lovers, power and position. The unfortunate part of this is that none of it is ever enough.

So if King Solomon found ‘everything under the sun’ ‘like chasing the wind,’ and ‘meaningless,’ I am not surprised to drawn the same conclusion. After all we each meet that same ending, which is physical death and no one truly knows if it is Heaven or Hell were he’ll repose.

I think best to devote everything to God and in the end he’ll give me meaning.

Stop running from your problems, instead face them head on.
There is no person in the world capable of handling every thing thrown at them.
We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems. That’s not how we’re made.
In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall.
Because that’s the whole purpose of living — to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time.
This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become.
And no, it won’t be easy.

A U.S. State Department diplomat suspected of killing his wife, mother and three sons in 1976 is now on the FBI’s list of “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives,” bringing new attention to the case.

William Bradford “Brad” Bishop Jr., is accused of beating his family to death in their home in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, and then drove to a wooded area in North Carolina, where authorities say he dumped their bodies in a shallow grave and burned them. They weren’t identified until a week later, giving Bishop ample time to plot a getaway.

Investigators say its possible Bishop, who would now be 77 years old, fled to Europe and is living there under a false name. A Yale graduate who later earned a master’s degree in Italian, is fluent in five languages.

While there is no evidence to show Bishop’s whereabouts, investigators are enhancing publicity efforts in the Western United States. Bishop, who was born in Pasadena, California, still has associations in that area, was also known to hike throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.

There hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of Bishop since 1976, in Jacksonville, North Carolina, although three people who knew him have reported spotting him in Europe over the years, most recently in 1994.

There is a reward of up to $100,000 being offered by the FBI for information leading to the capture of Bishop.

The news left me so stunned that I literally heard myself gasp. I look around the room as Mary and at Kay, they too had their mouths open in shock.

The newscaster had jus’ announced that Robin Williams’ had committed suicide. It felt like a ton of bricks had fallen on me.

Reporting of his death instantly transported me back to 1981 and the overdose death of John Belushi. His much-lauded death stunned me too.

It also caused me to recall the fact that twice in 2002 I tried to off myself as well. The first time was alcohol-fueled and the second simply because I felt I couldn’t go on any longer.

Both attempts were foiled by people who should never have been able to find me. In the first I was amidst a nighttime cow-field, the next while swimming away form the Lake Tahoe shoreline under the cover darkness.

In my case I’ve concluded that God isn’t finished with me yet therefore Angels graced me by guiding people to stop me. As for Robin Williams, maybe God said, “Okay, that’s enough, time for you to come home.”

While taking a few photographs of a double rainbow in Spanish Springs, Nevada, I captured several unidentified objects in one frame. And by the next click of the shutter, they were gone.

They’re unidentified because I don’t know what they are and there isn’t any others like them in any of the other pictures I took. The best I can do is describe them as white spherical-shaped light that appear to be moving upward and to the right as you look at it.

Kind of interesting, huh?

Soon I should be suffering from withdrawals if I’m truly addicted to Facebook. I draw this conclusion based on the fact that I recently closed my account.

Facebook for me has been a way to get back and stay in touch with people I have known over the years — from grade school, through my time in the military right on through my years working in broadcasting. But after sitting in the dark, talking to God, it came upon my heart to disconnect myself from the Internet as much as possible for the time being.

For the last several years I’ve worked hard to find fame through my writing abilities. But it has yet to turn out as I’ve planned.

There in lays the problem — MY plan. None of this should be my mine, but rather God’s plan.

So to return to where I should be, I’ve left my online life behind for a while. I am now searching to fulfill what it is Christ has planned for me.