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This was a fun podcast for me, as all are actually. I love Steve McQueen and its truly in his words. Hundreds of quotes with never before seen photos of the cool dude Steve. Marshall has written a couple books on Steve but this gets you right into Steve's head. His rough childhood, becoming an actor, loving riding his motorcycles and racing. He was a self admitted chauvinist and we get a peak into his three marriages. WE also see Steve in his final battle against cancer, after he was told nothing could be done, he went to Mexico to try the controversial treatment of laetrile. Steve died in a little filthy looking room in Mexico seventeen hours after a massive surgery. It is an emotional look at Steve. He was no saint. He was a living breathing cool cat and remains an  iconic dude today.. Join us on a journey into Steves life in his own words.  Thanks so much to Marshall. He was fab and so easy to talk to. I love the book.    You can see Marshall and all his other books on https://www.daltonwatson.com/Author-biography-of-Marshall-Terrill-s/1854.htm   Also on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Marshall-Terrill/e/B001JOWK86?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2&qid=1606313644&sr=1-2   Mostly, Thanks to you all that listen. I am so Thankful for all of you.  Happy Thanksgiving and much love, Grace xoxo   Please be safe... You can find me at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, Spreaker, Castbox, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Twitter, Instagram, Wordpress Also on facebook www.facebook.com/truestoriesoftinseltown www.facebook.com/truestoriesoftinseltowngroup   I'm on Pinterest, Tumblr, twitter and instagram.              COPYRIGHT 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PODCAST POWERED BY PODBEAN      

I waded into a discussion on abortion on Facebook and got slammed. I was called a ‘republican troll’ a misogynist, a Neanderthal, and worse. What was my sin? Was I promoting abortion’s abolition? Was I spouting pseudo-scientific apocrypha that women who are raped secrete a special chemical that prevents pregnancy? No, I was speaking honestly about my unease with late-term abortions. Between thrown insults, one young woman said: my decision whether and when to have an abortion is between me and my doctor, period. It is not society’s business. I will fight to the death to keep that right unabridged. I asked: what if you decided to have an abortion on the date you were due? Would that be OK? I was accused of hyperbole, and of course, I was speaking hyperbolically, to make the point: there is not some magical ‘state change’ that takes place between a baby about to be delivered and one already born, so… when does that change take place, and why are abortion rights advocates so reluctant to define that line? I was essentially asking people in the discussion to ask themselves: when does late become too late, for you, and why? What internal measures do you use to determine that for yourself? If we can all agree that infanticide is wrong, and that killing an unborn baby at term is wrong, at what point backwards in gestation does it cease being wrong to those of use who support abortion rights? And why? I am not bothering with those who are completely opposed to abortion, often with no exceptions, even if the life of the woman is in jeopardy – as if, somehow, an unborn child is worth more than a grown woman, a moral calculus I find impenetrably immoral and viscerally repugnant. There is a divide there that I will not attempt to bridge. I asked questions in this discussion like, could we possibly judge when a fetus’s brain wave patterns start to resemble a newborns? When they start to dream, to experience REM sleep etc? Note that I did not ask when the fetus’s brain starts firing off electrical impulses, which is supposedly at about 2 months – this “brain wave” issue is a canard that abortion foes tout – as if a few neurons firing is equivalent to thinking. Of course the animals that many of these abortion foes eat have far, far more complex and cohesive brain activity than a 2-month-old fetus. These animals think, dream, feel fear and pleasure, and yet, these people slaughter and eat them without giving any thought to morality. I was speaking to fellow pro-choicers, and I was trying to have a civil, logical discussion regarding how we decide when late is too late for an abortion. Everything I said to this group of liberal women was met with a level of vitriol that astounded me. It was as nasty and personal as anything I’ve seen from the Tea Partiers. It was, most sadly, utterly devoid of reasonable discourse. In my mind, the biggest mistake of the abortion rights movement is that it has insisted on a ‘slippery slope’ argument against the abridgement of any abortion rights. This turns a blind eye to any moral evaluation, and, frankly, weakens the argument. I understand it, of course: any abridgement can lead to abolition, a strategy that anti-abortion forces are utilizing with great success across the country right now. However, drawing a scientifically valid line would buttress the abortion rights position for thinking people, and remove a lot of the squeamishness that many feel with the no holds barred approach that most abortion rights advocates seem to support as a default, often unspoken given. Supporters of late-term abortions complain that the increasingly-restricted access to all women’s health services, the result largely of right-wing Republican efforts, actually force more women into late-term abortions. I say, we as a society have to help them get their abortions earlier then, not wait until we too feel that what is happening is, at best, in a moral gray area. Just supporting late term abortions because abortions are hard to get in some places is not logically acceptable. The very angry young feminist notwithstanding, I also think that we as a society do have some say in the matter, though this position seems to enrage most of the feminists I know. I actually supported the pro-choice ‘no slippery slope’, no exceptions, party line myself until quite recently. But it has started to haunt me. Though it may be unfortunate, a woman carrying a late-term fetus may be seen as carrying a thinking, feeling human not unlike a newborn baby – that inconvenient truth forces us, as a society, to enforce some kind of moral code, as a society does against murder, rape, and many other taboos. I would much prefer some kind of biologically logical model for abortion rights. This model would not be based on viability: because I have no doubt that eventually we will have technology that allows a 1 month old fetus to survive, ex-utero. Viability is not the issue, humanity is. If this fetus is actively thinking, feeling and dreaming in a way that is biologically hard to distinguish from an at-term baby, does it deserve more moral scrutiny than, say, a cat being put to sleep, or a cow being led to slaughter? My approach may be flawed, I’m not saying it’s the right solution. Rather, I’m saying that the pro-choice movement would do itself a great service by owning up to the moral unease that exists somewhere within almost all pro-choice supporters, and then by coming up with a rigorous, intellectually-cohesive set of rules for when late is too late for an abortion – excluding, always, issues of the health of the woman, including incest, and rape. This is not about controlling women’s bodies – what I was accused of in true knee-jerk fashion. It’s about we, as humans, evolving standards of what is humane, and what is right and wrong; and it is to be human. Podcast Powered By Podbean All Content Worldwide Copyright - Samuel McKenney Claiborne

Luke 7:36-50 -- God’s grace is favor we didn't earn. The more we realize our sin, the more we appreciate God's grace. In truth, God's grace was bigger than you thought. When Jesus Christ died on the cross April 3, AD 33 He took all of your sins upon Himself-- all-- not most, not just the ones you confess, not just the ones that are socially acceptable, but all of your sins. The more you appreciate God's grace, the more love you show to God.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

John 13:1-17 The basis for unselfishness toward those whom you are around, those with whom you serve, and those with whom you live—all stem from Jesus’ example of serving when He had nothing to gain from it. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Band Aids for Machine Gun Wounds There has been widespread outrage in response to a video showing US Marines urinating on the corpses of their dead Taliban adversaries. I’m not sure how much of the indignation is genuine and how much is pro-forma, but it’s all hypocrisy. Don’t misunderstand: I do not find the desecration of the dead to be a trivial affair. I just feel the irony of the canard that war can be inherently civilized to be nauseating. I could point out that the Taliban, who were among those outraged, have engaged in beheadings, torture, and other appalling acts – but that would mean that I’m justifying this behavior by comparing it to our enemy’s – a moral dead end if there ever was one. I am not justifying this behavior; I am attempting to put it into perspective. The sad, shameful truth is, American military and intelligence personnel have not only practiced torture, but our government has actually taught it to generations of Latin American military men at the infamous ‘School of the Americas’. So, is urinating on a dead body really more reprehensible than institutionalized torture? Another point of perspective: Our men and women in uniform are shot at by snipers and blown up by IEDS. Their dead bodies have been dragged through streets and hung from bridges. They are inculcated into a warrior culture that glorifies violence and dehumanizes the enemy. It is absurd to think that some abstract concept of ‘honor’ will always rule the day in this stewpot of violence and desensitization. These abuses have happened throughout our history. I’ve seen photographs from 1900 of US Marines gleefully waving the severed heads of Filipinos like Al Queda terrorists. Look up a timeline of the United States Military Operations on Wikipedia – this country has been in wars and skirmishes almost non-stop since its inception. Our soldiers have engaged in bloody, murderous campaigns, mostly to subdue freedom fighters, around the globe, from the Philippines to Guatemala to China to Russia. We epitomize a society of violence, not, as pro-lifers like to say, ‘a culture of life’. We are taught that we should recoil in horror at war’s excesses, like the My Lai Massacre and Abu Gharaib torture, but to accept war itself as honorable and gallant. I’m sorry, but it’s all excessive, all morally reprehensible. I recoil at the sight of the severed limbs of dead children scattered in the streets after one of our drone strikes. The mayhem unleashed by these drones, flown from armchairs via joysticks, is once-removed, displayed on a small screen, a silent movie as seen from the air – not down on the ground with the smell of blood, feces, and urine and the screams of the dying and the maimed. The combatant is spared the visceral, first-hand knowledge of what they have done. Their killing becomes partially abstracted, sanitized, and therefore easier to perpetrate. What could be more obscene? There is a wonderfully telling scene in the movie Apocalypse Now when a solder panics and he and his compatriots machinegun an entire family in a sampan. One woman survives, though she is grievously wounded. The main protagonist, who had not fired a shot, remorselessly shoots her, much to the shock of the rest of the solders – who had just massacred her entire family. He laments about the hypocrisy of war, the barbaric cruelty combined with moralistic hand-wringing, saying “We’d cut them in half with a machine gun and give them a Band-Aid. It was a lie.” It is a lie. It’s a lie to think that war can be moral or honorable. Making it cleaner or more antiseptic for some of its participants through technology only makes it easier, not harder for them to partake in the most bestial carnage. And those involved on the ground are desensitized by the things they see and do in a different, more time-honored way. We wonder when some vet kills his family or a park ranger – what made them snap? It’s obvious: a system that turns a human being into a killing machine, that glorifies violence, is inhumane and inherently uncivilized. And participants in that system almost inevitably become less humane, less civilized themselves. You worry about urine on a dead body? What about the child who still lives, though he is burned beyond recognition and limbless? What about the father who has lost his entire family? The wedding party shredded by aircraft fire? The girl gang-raped by our soldiers? You think that war in the 21st century is materially different from what it was in the 12th? The obscenity is not only that this is not so, but that we pretend it is, and we shield ourselves, through media self-censorship and euphemism, from the truth. We do not see the photos of American bloodshed of civilians that the rest of the world sees. And NPR still calls American waterboarding an ‘Enhanced Interrogation Technique’ even though we actually executed Japanese soldiers as war criminals for the very same practice. There is no hesitation when speaking of Iranian or Taliban torture, but we insist on pretending that we never stoop to such inhumanity. The fact is, the retail torture practiced all over the world, though truly horrific, is not any more morally reprehensible than the wholesale death America metes out on a daily basis – it is merely more personalized. Instead of going on a witch hunt after a few grunts who vented their fury at their enemies, we should aim our indignation at our entire war-economy society. Even now, we hear of defense cuts promoted by Obama. But this is a lie too: Obama is not talking about cutting military expenditures, oh no! Our vastly bloated, economically untenable military budget still grows under Obama. He is merely talking about cutting some of its growth – slowing its monstrous expansion. Yet it is already larger than all other militaries on earth combined. Recoil in shock and horror from that, for it truly obscene... Podcast Powered By Podbean All Content Worldwide Copyright - Samuel McKenney Claiborne

Matthew 7:1-5 Our culture's favorite statement of Jesus is, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." This is not an excuse for tolerance, but it is an indictment against hypocrisy. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

John 11:1-44 God’s ways of working in our lives are often confusing. But in the end, we see that His confusing paths were the best after all. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

John 7:1-9 Waiting on God is one of the hardest parts of life. But it’s in the waiting that we are being prepared for a future only God can see. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Matthew 3; 11:2-11 Doubt often seems to betray our faith. But in reality, doubt can be a catalyst for spiritual growth. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

- Malachi 4 - The last word of the English Old Testament is “curse.” What began with a blessing in Genesis ends with a curse in Malachi. But before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes, God promised to send a messenger, an Elijah, who would turn the hearts of people to God. When John the Baptist came, he pointed to Jesus Christ. The central question that ends Malachi’s book remains the question Jesus asked when He came: “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8).Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Matthew 14:14-21 Relying on our own strength yields nothing but failure. But through Jesus, we have the strength and adequacy necessary to live lives that both honor God and help others. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

John 4:1-29 Sometimes it seems we seek to find fulfillment in every place except the person who created us to find satisfaction in Him. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Revelation 21-22 -- What will Heaven be like? In the rush of our lives we can forget that there is a hope that extends beyond this life.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean   (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

The tenth anniversary of 9-11 passed, and again I mourned. I mourned the thousands killed in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington that day, but I mourned for much, much more.I mourned the thousands of American and allied troops who’ve paid with their lives, fighting not to make America more safe, certainly not more free, but to secure Western hegemony.I mourned the hundreds of thousands innocent men, women and children who’ve been left homeless and destitute, been tortured, terrified, traumatized, bombed, shot and killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq since 9-11.Rational people recoil in horror when shopkeepers on the West Bank hand out sweets after terrorist bombings. And the joy in the camps of Al Queda after every successful bloodletting is equally abhorrent. Yet there were all night kegger parties when Osama Bin Laden was killed. A loud, vile, xenophobic, and implicitly racist joy was voiced by many Americans, and the final irony came to pass: We were acting just like our enemies; an apparently unarmed man was shot dead in his home without benefit of trial or council, and Americans reacted with unmitigated joy, pumping fists and bellowing ‘USA, #1!’ in that fascistic chant that always gives me the creeps.As a country, we are less tolerant than ever before in my lifetime. Hate crimes against Muslims now comprise 10% of the total every year, yet Muslims account for only a little over 1% of the population.We are more paranoid, more frightened, more willing to give up the freedom and tolerance that made this country special than we are willing to face down our fears, and our culpability and find a way out of endless war.All of the things I hated about America, its provincial xenophobia, it’s propensity to shoot first and ask questions later, its role as world policeman (AKA world bully) have been exacerbated by 9-11. Bin Laden and company have remade us in their image. We have lost something irretrievable, something graceful, if we ever had it – a level of tolerance, a love of liberty, a reverence for privacy and individual rights and expression, and courage. Driven towards each other by terror, an American mob-rule group think has arisen. It considers Christians, especially perhaps white Christians, the ‘true’ Americans, and all others as second-rate citizens. It promotes the idea that the projection of unbridled American military might is a natural right of this country, no matter what immoral mayhem it causes to innocents.Most simplistically and dangerously, this mindset presupposes that we are the victims. There is simply no room for the idea that maybe 9-11 was even partially fomented by our country’s meddling foreign policy, that it was blowback, and that, although it was unjustified, it was inspired directly by the bombings and destruction wrought by us and by our proxies, using our weapons. ‘They hate us for our values’ George Bush and many others proclaimed. No. They hate us because we give the Israelis and various dictators white phosphorus and cluster bombs, F-16 fighters and A-10 warplanes, Abrams tanks and cruise missiles. They hate us because we maintain military bases in their most holy places. They hate us because we have supported one corrupt brutal regime after another in the Middle East, Asia, South America, and Africa.The people who died in the air and on the ground on 9-11 were victims, but we as a country are not. We were attacked due to decades of provocation on our part. Bin Laden himself said he was inspired to make the towers fall by watching Israelis bomb apartment buildings with jets and bombs made in America and essentially given to Israel carte blanche. We were attacked because our policies enslave people, because our proxies bomb and torture people, because we are the largest weapons dealer on earth, because we refuse to sign an international land mine treaty, because we pollute more, take more, demand more, than any other country on earth; Because we are an Empire. And like every other empire before us, we are starting to rot within while we are whittled away from without. Bin Laden’s masterstroke was to vastly accelerate this process; He read the braggadocio insecurity of George Bush perfectly and our Mad Cowboy president followed his script to the letter, transmuting the sympathy of the world into disgust and distrust in record time, and that too, was foreseen and even written about by Bin Laden. All he had to do was wave the red flag, and we proceeded headlong to our own goring.America self-immolated, her freedoms and values burnt for a sense of false security and for vengeance. I mourn this loss most of all. Podcast Powered By Podbean All Content Worldwide Copyright - Samuel McKenney Claiborne

This is what a police state looks like.I am mad as hell. The images of police brutalizing peaceful demonstrators with batons, concussion grenades, teargas, and pepper spray has engendered an all-consuming rage within me. I detest bullies. I detest brutality. I detest the complacency that most Americans seem to feel when someone with whom they disagree with politically is deprived of their constitutional rights. For many, it goes beyond complacency – many actually approve of the brutalization and censorship of those of a different political persuasion. They seem to forget, or perhaps never knew, what America is supposed to stand for. But more than anything, I detest hypocrisy. I see tent cities on street corners for the consumer High Mass that is Black Friday tacitly supported by local authorities while the tents, books, and medical supplies of those who believe that the guilty who crashed the world economy should pay for their crimes, are torn up and thrown into dumpsters. I hear no soaring outrage from our president’s bully pulpit when an Iraq veteran is grievously wounded by highly-militarized police run amok. Or when a grandmother in her 80’s is basically tortured with pepper spray. Or when vindictive, abusive police wantonly assault peaceful women who are penned like cattle while trying to express their rights. Mr. Obama was quick to arrange a photo-op beer drinking session for a professor and a cop who had an altercation, but has done nothing about rogue cop Anthony Bologna, who indiscriminately pepper-sprayed peaceful protestors, nor about the Egyptian police style assault of protesters in Oakland, nor the similar assault in New York, which took place under cover of darkness with a total air and ground blockade of the media, a shockingly grievous violation of the Constitution.While the press, our legislators, and our president laud those who occupy places like Tahrir Square, they mostly turn a blind eye, or level an accusatory one, at those who use similar tactics to promote justice and challenge a corrupt system here at home. The president is MIA and the Republicans call the unarmed Occupy Wall Street crowd thugs and rapists while praising the armed to the teeth Tea Partiers, who have been known to spit on congressmen and carry not-so-subtle signs calling for bloodletting and revolution. Well, I support the Tea party’s right to demonstrate. I support the right of those odious ‘God hates Fags’ miscreants to demonstrate. I support your right to express yourself, and your right to free assembly, even if I hate your message. You may point out that the occupiers are doing one thing different from all of these other domestic groups: they are occupying public and semi-public spaces. It’s true. So are homeless people, and those Black Friday zealots. And I think it’s also true that this wouldn’t be happening all over the US had the Arab Spring not happened, and had the media not praised occupiers and demonstrators in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran, Syria and elsewhere. Occupy is a global flowering of the same consciousness, the same rebellion against a system of neo-serfdom that is built to insure the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many. In some countries, the iron hand is more overt – you have no right to speak, you are jailed and beaten for the most minor dissent, far from the freedom of speech we enjoy here in America. But, the difference is increasingly one of style, not substance, for here in America, we have an even wider income disparity than in China. Our elites (and I’m not talking Susan Sarandon here, but folks like the Koch brothers) already own us – they have sold us a hollow American Dream that has pacified and splintered us, and so do not have to resort to the iron hand that is ubiquitous in places like Egypt, Syria and China.But when a movement that challenges the relationship of serfs to lords in any meaningful way arises here, believe me, it will be crushed just as heavily, if need be, as anything you’ve seen in Tienamin or Tahrir Squares. If we, the people, ever truly challenge the status quo, we will be assaulted, beaten, tortured, killed. It’s already happening! You see the groundwork laid for it now: the virtual silence of our ostensibly liberal president and his Justice Department, the gradual numbing to brutality amongst the general populace as police violence is slowly ratcheted up in concert with a campaign of disparagement and dehumanization of the occupiers, who’ve even been called traitors, why I cannot fathom, except that those in power will tell any lie, make any threat, and break any person who threatens them. And they will also divide and conquer, artfully setting the tea partiers and the occupiers, who have much more in common than either camp appears to realize, against one another.The future is here, America, and freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose… Podcast Powered By Podbean All Content Worldwide Copyright - Samuel McKenney Claiborne

1 Peter 4:7-11 -- When many people think about serving God, they compare it to eating vegetables—something you do because you’re supposed to. But many have never discovered an area of passion or giftedness, and so each experience has been miserable. However, many also have discovered what every Christian can—that God has gifted each believer to make a unique contribution to eternity like no one else can.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean  (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Matthew 6:24; Ephesians 5:15-17-- A lot of our worries are solved by admitting that we are more than recipients of God's gifts; we are stewards of them. Regarding our time and our money, God owns the rights and we have the responsibilities to use them for Him.Listen  now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Romans 12:1-2; Mark 12:28-31-- In an immediate situation, what can you do instead of react? What happens in the gap between the stimulus and the response? God defines love as obedience to His revealed will—in fact, obedience is an act of worship.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Psalm 1-- We face two roads in this life. One is well-worn, common, and cozy. But it ends like flying off the end of the freeway. The other requires a machete and a tour guide but promises blessing in the end --and even along the way. The path to blessing begins through memorizing and meditating on Scripture.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Deuteronomy 32:44-47; James 1:22-25 -- The Bible is meant to be more than coffee table décor or a museum relic. God meant for you to read and apply it to your life.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

1 Timothy 4:6-16 -- Spiritual disciplines sounds like an oxymoron—or legalism at best. But the path to godliness comes through faithful application of basic disciplines God has laid out in His Word.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

What about the so-called “lost” books of the Bible? How do we know that the Bibles we have are all that God wanted us to read? Is the Apocrypha part of Scripture? Why should we even care? Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Where did the devil come from? Is he real? How could God create him evil—or did He? Understanding Satan’s strategy against you equips you to be victorious in the battle, for you are in it.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Who are angels—or what? Contemporary novels and blockbuster movies depict angelic beings as everything from glorified superhumans to wimpy old men trying to earn their wings. Fortunately, God’s Word tells us plenty about angels—and what difference they make in our everyday lives.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Exodus 20:8-11; Mark 2:27; 6:31-- God rested. What does that mean? Even Jesus made it a priority to take some down time. What a needed message to our busy lives.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Ephesians 6:5-9; 1 Thessalonians 3:6-15-- Is your job secular or spiritual? Whether you’re a preacher or a plumber, a biblical view of work understands it as an essential element of life support and a platform for influence.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Is God bi-partisan? An odd question, perhaps, but it puts a lot in perspective. Consider the idea that, at its root, abortion is not a political issue. Is the question the right to choose, or is the issue when does life begin?Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 49:29-50:26 -- The death of believers provides an incomparable opportunity to demonstrate faith in the unfulfilled promises of God. Not even death can separate us from the love of God in Christ, because the promises of God extend beyond this life.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 49:1-28 -- Decisions we make have lasting effects on the lives of our children. Jacob's prophecies of his sons' descendants directly connected with his sons' actions. How essential it is that we be careful what we did.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 47:28-48:22 -- God's ways are not always our ways. In fact, He sometimes does the opposite of human conventions! As Jacob was dying, he blessed Joseph's sons by crossing his hands, putting the younger above the older—in spite of the protest of Joseph.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 46:31-47:27 -- Using wisdom in dealing with those in authority leads to a greater freedom for believers. Joseph wisely used his influence in and knowledge of Egyptian culture so as to both benefit the believing community and not to offend the one in authority.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 45:16-46:30 -- Only the power of God can bring resolution to an absolute hopeless situation. We may be reassured to follow God's leading, even when it removes us from our perceived security, trusting that His leading brings more satisfaction in the end.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 45:1-15 -- You’ve been wronged. Forgiving feels impossible. How was Joseph able to reconcile with his undeserving brothers? Forgiveness begins by recognizing God's sovereignty.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

A loyalty first to self once led Joseph's brothers to rid themselves of him. Joseph now provides the opportunity to once again abandon a favored son, thus testing their loyalty. God may test our willingness to put others first if in the past we failed to demonstrate this. A repentant heart will choose the right path given the second chance. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

In episode 6, Jordan, Taylor and Ben attend a Ring Of Honor wrestling show, and spend the rest of the night partying with TNA wrestler "The Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels. Chaos, wrestling injuries, and mounds and mounds of sushi ensue. Do a back flip off of the top ropes and then take a listen!!! Podcast Powered By Podbean

It’s tough when someone gets what we want. As jealousy had once enraged Joseph's brothers against him, he now tests their character again by favoring Benjamin above them. We shouldn't let jealousy mar our rejoicing in God's undeserved grace to us. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 42- For Joseph's brothers, the oppressors became the oppressed, and the imprisoners became the imprisoned. God may use ironic reversals in our lives to convict ignored or unresolved guilt -- to test our willingness to come clean before God and man.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 41 -  Even when Joseph's dreams begin to come true, as he is elevated to leadership in Egypt, he still remains faithful-- now in spite of success-- by giving his children Hebrew names. Success should drive us to greater faithfulness, seeing that with promotion comes greater responsibility.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 40 - Feel like giving up? God tested Joseph to see if he had given up hope on his dreams by giving him two more dreams to interpret. Joseph interprets them correctly, thus God encourages him that his own dreams will come true in spite of his present circumstances. We too can find encouragement from God regarding our future-- in spite of today.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Recently I attended a very touching world-prayer service at a church in Woodstock. Representatives of all of the major faiths spoke and prayed. Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Native Americans prayed together for peace, and for the healing of the earth, especially the Gulf of Mexico.I was very touched by the earnest and forthright prayers from all of those present, but one presentation, though equally well intentioned, stuck in my craw nonetheless.A women who is actually from England but part of a local Native American community got up to speak. The first thing she said was that indigenous peoples the world over have always had reverence for the environment and for human dignity. This is a patently absurd statement. Entire indigenous cultures have imploded due to overuse and misuse of resources. And, of course, there is the egregious example of the Northwest American tribes Potlatch ceremonies. These ceremonies sometimes devolved from simple giving away of goods and food (and, I might add, slaves) to the actual destruction of food – a sort of keep up with the joneses frenzy wherein two tribes tried to outdo each other in the wanton destruction of foodstuffs to prove that they were the most prosperous and powerful. Oprah Winfrey seems very proud of her Zulu roots, though the Zulus were famous for raping and pillaging their enemies, and zealously practicing impalement and other forms of torture. Other tribes viewed them as human locusts.The obvious truth, if one looks past a sort of paternalistic ‘Noble Savage’ reductionism that reveres anyone non-white as implicitly wiser, kinder and gentler, is that white people have no lock on evil deeds in this world, and people of color have no lock on grace, decency or environmental sensitivity. To me, such idealizations of any ethnic group are at their most benign the product of simplistic thinking, and at their most malignant, the bases for prejudice, war, and terror. There seems to be a self-hating aspect to many white people. They see how their race’s dominance on the planet, economically and technologically, has decimated the world’s species, and caused untold human suffering and death. Yet to implicitly blame this on the color of the perpetrators skin by putting all non-whites on a sort of pedestal not only flies in the face of the historic record, but indulges in the same style of racist thinking that these same people would find reprehensible in an unreconstructed Klansman or Nazi.Blacks seeking reparations only seem intent on getting them from the white countries involved in slaving, never from the African countries that of course made the entire slave trade possible through their collusion with whites. A white researcher in the southwest is virtually pilloried for proving that the ancestors of the Navajo practiced cannibalism against the Anasazi. Yet all he did was find the evidence, not fabricate it; And one has only to visit places like Mesa Verde and Canyon de Chelly to see the evidence of a people under siege, living not on the open plain, but clinging instead to high cliff faces, walled into houses with tiny windows. And all was not peace and love among the bloodthirsty Incans and Mayans either. The truth is that all humanity shares linked proclivities for evil as well as for good. None are immune from the violence and hierarchical nature we’ve inherited from our primate forbears, just as we all share a divine spark capable of the most exquisite love, creativity, and caring for all living creatures. The reductionist Politically Correct thinking that denies this universal human duality has been the cause of much suffering, whether used in the service of supporting slavery in the nascent United States, or in drumming out white farmers in Zimbabwe, which turned that country into a famine-wracked ruin.As a Taoist I find it odd that people seem to focus on only one side of things. Some see humankind – or some subset thereof - as inherently evil, some as inherently good. I see a duality well reflected in nature itself. Look to the lioness, tenderly playing with her cubs , and ruthlessly ripping out the throat of the zebra, to see the duality of all creation manifest all around us. Podcast Powered By PodbeanAll Content Worldwide Copyright - Samuel McKenney Claiborne

Genesis 39 - How can a person stay sexually pure in a world that cares nothing  for purity? Joseph shows us.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 37 - Even though God revealed to Joseph His will for the future, God didn't reveal how that will was to be accomplished. Joseph had to transfer his confidence away from understanding his circumstances to a confidence in the God of all circumstances. So it is with us.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

2 Corinthians 3 -- What good is it if we attend a bunch of Bible studies but never grow in maturity, or if we hear a thousand sermons but never improve our marriages and families? Knowledge alone isn't enough. Value transformation, not just information, as the basis of a successful ministry. It all comes down to life change. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 -- Usually when we think of excellence we think of giftedness; and partly this is true. But our attitude says as much about the quality of our work as our skills do, for it is the attitude God will judge. Excellence in ministry honors God and inspires people.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Genesis 1-2 -- The more predictable we are the less of an impact we have; and this is nowhere more true than in our current culture. We need to look no further than the first chapters of the Bible to see that the most creative Person in the universe is God: from nothing He created everything. Creativity is an effective way to express sound doctrine.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Titus 2:11-15 -- Should we obey God in order to get His favor? No. Believers obey the Lord because they already have His favor. God's grace in giving Jesus Christ provides the safe haven for learning to obey. Grace is the context in which God's standards are to be taught.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

John 4 - Our world offers drinks of water that never satisfy. Instead, we end up with a mouthful of gravel. God, on the other hand, offers living water. And God seeks from us the only thing we can truly offer. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Please take a moment and rate this podcast in iTunes (only if you like it!).Luke 11:1-13 - In any relationship, communication is essential. In our relationship with God, He communicates to us through His Word—and we communicate to Him through prayer. But what about when He doesn’t answer? Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Mark 6:35-52 - God’s shaping of people into leaders puts them in places that require them to trust Him. That develops character. Although never on our resumes, character ranks most important in what makes quality leaders. Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Acts 2:42 -- If we’re honest, we have to admit that we guard our privacy and isolation. We withdraw from transparency in relationships. What lethal commitments to the spiritual life! The example of Jesus and the early church was to live in relation—not isolation. To grow to full potential, every believer needs real relationships on levels beyond the surface.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Apsartame, better known as Nutrasweet, or AminoSweet, and its new cousin, Neotame, a much larger, much sweeter, and potentially even more toxic update of the Aspartame molecule, are all over the place. Virtually everything you put in your mouth labeled ‘sugarless’ or ‘diet’ contains these pernicious, toxic substances.Nutrasweet’s original manufacturer was Searle corp. They tried to get Nutrasweet declared safe for consumption, but the body of evidence against it was too strong. In the lab, it caused the following forms of cancer tumors in cellular cultures: brain, pancreatic, breast and uterine. In more recent tests, leukemia, lymphoma and kidney cancers were discovered.If one examines the structure of the Aspartame molecule itself, it’s easy to see why it could be so deadly. The molecule mates what is essentially a precursor to wood alcohol, the type of alcohol that causes blindness and seizures, to two amino acids, so that your body readily recognizes it as a nutrient. During digestion, this deadly methanol and also formaldehyde form from these precursor chemicals.I happen to know a researcher who worked in Cornell’s neurochemistry program when Searle came calling with their new product. They asked the chairman of the department what percentage of people would be adversely affected by ingesting their new sweetener. When he replied that he thought that 15% could suffer ‘irreversible neurological damage’, the Searle people actually smiled. 15% was a reasonable number to these people, given that the Cyclamate artificial sweeteners had just been pulled from the market, and there was pressure to do the same with saccharine. There was just too much money to be made to let the health of a few million people get in the way.Since those early studies were not encouraging, (and in fact the FDA was set to rule against them), Searle started paying for their own studies, and to increase their chances of getting to market even more, they hired consummate Washington insider Donald Rumsfeld as CEO. The day after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration, the FDA (with the hasty addition of a 6th voting member) abruptly reversed course, and legalized Nutrasweet.Nutrasweet, Neotame and the venerable Monosodium Glutamate are all classified as Excitotoxins, toxic compounds mated to amino acids in such a way that the body sees them as nutrients and absorbs them readily. It’s like some kind of diabolical Trojan Horse, ushering in the most potent poisons masquerading as nutrients.Many people know of the MSG headache, or the fuzziness that can accompany a Nutrasweet binge, but are unaware what these warning signs really attest too. They portend potential cellular changes, neurological destruction, endocrine imbalances, and immune system chaos.There is striking evidence that Nutrasweet can also cause or help cause Macular Degeneration, Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease (it’s been shown to produce pinholes in the brains of rats), Graves Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and several other neurological and autoimmune conditions, as well as the numerous, aforementioned cancers.Both Searle, and their later parent purchaser, Monsanto, vociferously fought any attempts to get this highly-toxic substance off the market. Their only concern is shareholder equity; Profits, growth and dividends trump any moral qualms.If the FDA really cared about you and I, every cow would be tested for mad Cow disease, factory farms would be forced to deal with their huge waste lagoons, cruelty to animals, and antibiotic and steroid use. Nutrasweet, Neotame, and a host of other dangerous chemicals including trans fats, Olestra, and genetically-modified crops would be illegal. Instead, we have all become unwitting lab rats, with a stew of biochemical experiments and genetically modified substances combining and recombining in completely un-knowable ways in our guts, our bloodstreams, our nerves, and in our brains.There was a hoax on the Internet that Neotame would be allowed, unlabeled, in Organic foods. I’m very relieved to know that this is not true. But beware: Monsanto, and all of the big agribusiness companies are constantly working to weaken the USDA Organic standard to the point that it’s as utterly meaningless as the word ‘natural’ has become on food labels.Rid yourself of these toxins. Grow your own food and get involved with your local organic food growers and purveyors, and petition the federal government to maintain and enhance the integrity of the USDA organic standard, and to return the FDA to its mandate: serving and protecting the people, instead of furthering corporate interests at the people’s expense. Podcast Powered By Podbean All Content Worldwide Copyright - Samuel McKenney Claiborne

Matthew 28:18-20-- Finding God's will for your life often seems perplexing. However, God has made it clear to what every believer should devote himself or herself. Listen now: Podcast Powered By PodbeanVisit Wayne's Blog.(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

High on my special list of pathologically destructive corporations is Monsanto. Though their sins are legion, I’m going to focus on perhaps their most evil activity of all – their attempt to control virtually all farmers and all crop seeds, and to force those same farmers to use their genetically altered crops and toxic agri-chemicals.Although this is hard to believe, farmers have been successfully sued by Monsanto when Monsanto’s genetically-modified soybean and canola plants have shown up in their fields, carried there by birds and the wind. One Canadian farmer, who had been selectively breeding his own canola plants with his wife for decades, was sued when some of these Monsanto plants were found growing in a ditch alongside his property. This is where the entire affair, which is not unique to this one farmer, becomes positively Kafkaesque. Monsanto contended that this man had essentially stolen their seeds. They asked the court to levy a hefty fine, take all of the profits from his current canola crop, and most insidiously, they also asked the court to seize the man’s own proprietary canola breeds, the product of 50 years of careful selective breeding. Because of a few plants found in a ditch, Monsanto not only wanted to bankrupt this farmer, they wanted to steal his intellectual property as well.As utterly bizarre as it seems , the court upheld Monsanto’s claims in full. But this was no ordinary farmer. He appealed to Canada’s Saskatchewan appellate court, where the 3 justice panel again upheld Monsanto’s position. He appealed once more, this time to Canada’s Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. Somewhere along the line, Monsanto must have felt the winds of change, because they suddenly agreed to an out-of-court settlement. Not only will this brave farmer keep his seeds, and not pay any fines, but Monsanto will be legally liable for eliminating any of their contaminating GMO canola that finds its way onto his land. He has won, but thousands like him are daily being bullied, stolen from, and often bankrupted by this giant company that literally seeks control over the world’s seed supply. Monsanto’s contracts, signed by any farmer who wants to use their seed, say it all:The farmer cannot use his own seeds at all; he must only buy seeds from MonsantoThe farmer can only use Monsanto chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides.Monsanto’s private investigative force, mostly composed of highly-coercive ex-law-enforcement officers is permitted to search their land whenever they want, without notice, for 3 years after they stop using Monsanto seed.Most incredibly: The farmer can never sue Monsanto. He must waive all rights to future lawsuits for any reason.When Monsanto and the other big GMO companies first started pushing their ‘Frankenfood’ products, they claimed that they would never interbreed with other strains, and would never ‘escape into the wild’. Just the opposite is true: all over Canada and the USA, their GMO canola can be found, spreading like an invasive weed. It’s in ditches everywhere, and it’s crowding out other strains. Indeed, it looks as if it’s now virtually impossible to grow completely non-GMO soy or canola anywhere on this continent.And just what are their seeds genetically modified to do? In the case of their canola, it’s called ‘Roundup Ready’, which means that the plants have been genetically modified to be highly resistant to Monsanto’s toxic Roundup herbicide. This allows canola farmers to blitz their fields with heretofore unheard of levels of toxic herbicides, a sort of slow-motion agent-oranging of the entire American and Canadian heartland.The creation of plants that will allow even more poisoning of the land, even more toxic residues in our foodstuffs, even more depletion of bees, butterflies and other natural pollinators is doubly, triply evil. The Europeans have been way ahead of us on this, banning GMO foods. A small band of Organic farmers is currently suing Monsanto for destroying their plant strains and infecting their fields. Not only do we need to support this David and Goliath struggle, but it’s time we revisit the entire GMO question. It’s time to ban all new GMO crops, and not just from commercial use, but from research plots too. GMO wheat is growing in small plots all over the US and Canada. Wheat is, of course, a relative of grass, and spreads just as readily. The fallacy that GMO plants can be segregated has been proven over and over. It’s time to take action and petition the Obama administration to follow Europe’s lead and ban GMO crops and crop research. Podcast Powered By Podbean All Content Worldwide Copyright - Samuel McKenney Claiborne

Mark 12:28-31; 1 John 3:13-18 -- Do you value love for God and people, expressed not only in word but also in deed? When someone asked Jesus to recite the greatest commandment, He spoke of love-- love for God and love for people. Love at its essence is a verb.Listen now: Podcast Powered By PodbeanVisit Wayne's Blog.(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

2 Samuel 15:23; Psalm 63 - God sometimes leads us through periods of confusion, sorrow, and struggle. King David illustrates how to let the worst bring out our best: he sought his satisfaction only in God. While other Psalms may match David's devotion, few surpass this one he sang in the wilderness.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

2 Samuel 11-12; Psalm 51 - Times of vulnerability can allow secret sin to penetrate our hearts. A song burst forth from David's blackest moment of self-realization. Thankfully, it explores not only the depths of guilt but also the depths of God's forgiveness. David's discovery remains our opportunity for forgiveness. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

1 Samuel 22:1-2; Psalms 57 and 142 -  In our lowest points of life, God calls us to pray to Him. Desperate for refuge, David cried out to God: "There is no one who regards me; There is no escape for me; No one cares for my soul." All alone—and with him, other desperate loners—David clings to God as the One who loves him and meets his every need. Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-edf0096518bf67befe27e60753e34bc4}(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

2 Samuel 16; Psalm 3- How can we respond to criticism that’s unfair and even abusive? When it happened to David, his friend suggested striking back. But David's response was to place the critic in God's hands, a model from which we may learn. David sang in Psalm 3: "But Thou, O Lord, are a shield about me…" As it turned out, God vindicated David through providential circumstances and condemned the critic through the same.Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean(c) 2008 Wayne Stiles

Revelation 2:1-7 - When what was once a passion becomes a project, it's time to look at motives. Why do you stay so busy? Is it all about your own fulfillment or about your love for Jesus Christ? How can we reignite our first love for God?Listen now: Podcast Powered By Podbean (c) 2008 Wayne Stiles