Archives: Episodes

Episode 235-The Issue of Joe Biden: Why He Is Not Being Prosecuted for Mishandling Classified Documents and Is He Fit To Be President?  Who else could run for the Democrats-Gretchen Whitmer? Gavin Newsome? Jared Polis? Michelle Obama?  Andy Beshear?  Could there be a President Kamala Harris?  Would Hillary Clinton be a good candidate?

LOVE IS THE GREATEST.
Even greater than faith, or hope, or any other thing.
We celebrate the love of Valentine’s Day and appropriately so. That loving celebration is fun, romantic, even emotional. It is a day set aside once to live love and to express our love to all, but especially so to someone special.
Love is a word difficult of definition. In fact, it has many component parts. Love is complex, defining itself, manifesting itself in so many different ways. But love is a force without which we can not live, or live right. It is the stuff of life, and without it, life is mere existence, sterile and harsh. Love is the force, the resource of God, an energy which produces the highest and best relationships with OTHERS, and, as we love ourselves, allows us to live life at its highest levels.
TO LOVE AND TO BE LOVED IS THE GREATEST HAPPINESS OF EXISTENCE. So said Sydnie Smith.
Love out and in is a daily process which produces the greatest happiness. It does indeed. Nothing feels better than to give love, share love, and experience love. NOTHING.
If you had no one to love, you would never be hurt. But, you would never grow. You would never venture outside your own self-centered needs and perceptions. Your heart would never be cracked open so that God could enter it. To love and love unconditionally is to take risks, and especially the risk of rejection. But nothing energizes and cleanses like love.
Profound words about love by a poet unknown. To love another, large or small, is the only real way that one can grow as a human being. The risk of loving produces the risk of hurt but even hurt toughens and matures love. The risk of loving another allows one to VENTURE OUTSIDE and to experience. Doing that allows your very own heart to be CRACKED OPEN so that love in its purest sense could enter, that is God Himself. Loving is always risky, and especially the risk of rejection. Rejection hurts but it is part of the loving process. The risk of love is worth it because nothing energizes like love, and nothing cleanses like love, NOTHING.
Charles Dickens said that a loving heart is the truest wisdom. Knowing life at its best, the most real and the truest wisdom can only be produced by a loving heart, a heart cracked open and wanting more love.
Robert Schuller said that in the presence of love, miracles happen. Love itself is a
miracle and the loving miracle produces other miracles. Miracles can and should
happen more often and they can and will happen when:
LOVE IS AT WORK
True love allows us insight, real insight into the character and persona of another:
“BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, I CATCH GLIMPSES OF THE YOU GOD CREATED, THE
TRUE YOU. I SEE YOUR IMPERFECTIONS AND FAILURES, BUT I CHOOSE TO SEE
PAST THEM TO THE REAL YOU. LOVE CREATES A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE FREE
TO BECOME YOUR COMPLETE SELF.”
What a marvelous statement. Perhaps we can only really know another not completely
but only with glimpses and those glimpses made possible only because of love.
We are all riddled with imperfections and failures, are we not? We can see past things
in our desire to find the real person, the real you. Love breaks down those barriers
and produces eyes that truly see.
Benjamin Disraeli the great English Prime Minister said that:
“WE ARE ALL BORN TO LOVE. IT IS THE PRINCIPLE OF ITS EXISTENCE AND ITS
ONLY END.”
Born to love, genetic, all that we really are, the very highest principle itself of existence.
And, its only end, like the highest and greatest spiritual commandment that we should
love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbor
as ourselves. In fact, we are known as Christians, followers of the Christ:
IF YOU HAVE LOVE ONE FOR ANOTHER
Love said another is tough, practical, and active. Love is washing the kitchen floor
over and over again. Love is scrubbing the toilet and doing the laundry. Love is taking
out the garbage and cleaning the refrigerator. Love is smiling when you are tired,
finding reasons to laugh even when you are angry, volunteering for a dirty job, working
hard, and making the world a better place.
Powerful and profound. Indeed, love is practical. Love is very much in the scrubbing
of the toilet. Love is there from the one who takes out the garbage. Love indeed
delights in the dirty jobs for when you do for the least of these, you do it unto HIM.
And yet more insight into the God of all love:
GOD SAYS TO US, IN LOVE, I HOLD YOU IN MY MIND. I REMEMBER YOU. I HOLD
ALL OF THE PIECES OF YOU. THE PAST WOUNDS AND THE PRESENT. AND IN
LOVE, I KNIT THEM TOGETHER INTO THE PERSON I LOVE, THE PERSON I
CREATED TO GIVE ME JOY:
YOU.
Held are we in the mind of God, remembering us even as we remember Him, all of our
various pieces, wounds, wrongs, and problems no matter. God knits them together
and all become the mosaic, the person God loves, the individual and special you.
Love frees us of the weight and pain of life! True love always lightens life’s heaviest
burdens. True love is a force far more powerful than the weapons of any enemy.
Life is a flower of which love is the honey, so said Victor Hugo. Love is knit into the
very cells of our bodies. It is written into our DNA. It is encoded in the chemicals that
make plants green. It is that which makes the sky blue, the substance of the song of
the birds in summer, the whisper of the wind in the trees, the silence of the snow as it
falls. Love is the voice of God calling to us endlessly and passionately through all HIS
marvelous creation.
There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear. The more one loves, the less there
is of which to be afraid. Love secures and drives our insecurity. Love at work is the
most powerful force and energy of all.
Take away love, said Robert Browning, and our earth is a tomb. Without love, life is
like dead, lifeless, even meaningless. And, if you wish to be loved, LOVE. Any time
that is not spent on love is time wasted.
True love is a durable fire in the mind ever-burning, never sick, never old, never dead,
from itself never turning, so said Sir Walter Raleigh. The durable fire of love burns
unquenchable, always alive, always energizing.
The great artist Vincent Van Gogh said:
“THE HEART THAT LOVES IS ALWAYS YOUNG. LOVE IS A MARVELOUS
BEAUTIFIER. LOVE IS ART AT WORK. I ALWAYS THINK THAT THE BEST WAY TO
KNOW GOD IS TO LOVE MANY THINGS.”
Indeed, all of art is love at work and there really can be no great art without love. It
beautifies and brings out the best in everything.
Here, the words of Thomas Merton:
“THE BEGINNING OF LOVE IS TO LET THOSE WHO LOVE BE PERFECTLY
THEMSELVES, AND NOT TO TWIST THEM TO FIT OUR OWN IMAGE. OTHERWISE,
WE LOVE ONLY THE REFLECTION OF OURSELVES WE FIND IN THEM.”
The more we are perfectly ourselves, living to our highest and best, the more and
better of us there is.
Love cures people, the ones who give it and the ones who receive it. Love conquers all
things, so said the ancient poet, Virgil.
Love allows us to believe so fully and firmly in God even when He is silent!
The great thinker-theologian Soren Kierkegaard profoundly stated that when one has
once fully entered the realm of love, the world, no matter how imperfect becomes rich
and beautiful. It consists solely of opportunities for love.
It is love, said Thomas Mann, not reason that is stronger than death. And that love,
stronger than and which conquers death is the love of the Christ on the cross and the
resurrection which followed.
To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others, said Francois Mauriac. Life is
replete with invisible miracles which can only be revealed by love at work.
If you love somebody, tell them, so said Rod McKuen. The telling unleashes the energy
and the power of love.
The heart has its reasons which reason alone can not understand, so said the thinker
Blaise Pascal. Love is a dimension in life different from and beyond reason itself. The
more the mind the less the heart and consequently the less love. Reason no matter
how wise can never understand love.
The great theologian Paul Tillich said that the first beauty of love is to listen. One who
loves wants to listen more than talk, listen to every word, every expression of thought
and emotion which comes from the one loved. Listening, really listening in a caring
way, may very well be the highest attribute of true love.
For those who love, time is eternity. Love is God’s finger on man’s shoulder. Love is
like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To wake at dawn with a
winged heart and to give thanks for another day of loving. Love is a symbol of eternity.
It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an
end.
Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson said:
“TIS BETTER TO HAVE LOVED AND LOST THAN NEVER TO HAVE LOVED AT ALL.”
Love indeed is risky, the risk of rejection but a life lived without true love is a life never
really lived at all.
I love you, says Anna Corbin, as you are, not as you wish to be. I love you for the real
person you are, not the imaginary perhaps I fantasize you could be. I love the real,
amazing, utterly unique YOU.
Love in the ultimate, unconditional, love so REAL.
If you love until it hurts, really hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love said
the wonderfully loving Mother Teresa. True love at work drives away the hurt.
Looking back, said one, I have this to regret. That too often when I loved, I did not say
so. Love uncommunicated is love aborted. It is there but never shared. More time is
spent judging people which leaves less time to love them.
Zelda Fitzgerald said that nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much love
the heart can hold. There is no limit to love, none whatsoever. Love is there, always
and love takes up when knowledge leaves off. In fact, love is the supreme knowledge,
superior to all else.
Love’s greatest gift is its ability to make everything it touches sacred. Love at work
produces the holiest of the holies. The great English statesman William E. Gladstone
said the following:
“WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE TIME WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE WILL REPLACE
THE LOVE OF POWER. THEN WILL OUR WORLD KNOW THE BLESSINGS OF
PEACE. POWER KILLS LOVE AND WITHOUT LOVE, THERE IS NO PEACE. THERE IS
NOTHING MORE POWERFUL BEFORE AND EVER AGAIN THAN LOVE.”
The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr said the following:
“WE ARE SAVED BY THE FINAL FORM OF LOVE, WHICH IS FORGIVENESS.
FORGIVING AND FORGETTING ARE THE HIGHEST ACTS OF LOVE RESULTING IN
OUR SALVATION. THERE WAS ONE, YEARS AGO, DRIVEN TO THE CROSS BY THE
LOVE OF MANKIND PROVIDING IN HIS DEATH THE LIFE AND THE LOVE WE LEAD.
THE CROSS WAS THE FINAL AND FORGIVING FORM OF LOVE.”
The crucifixion of the Christ on the cross was indeed the ultimate act of love.
The great writer C.S. Lewis said the following:
“TO LOVE AT ALL IS TO BE VULNERABLE. LOVE ANYTHING AND YOUR HEART
WILL CERTAINLY BE WRUNG AND POSSIBLY BROKEN. LOVE BREAKS DOWN ALL
BARRIERS, OPENS WIDE THE HEART, EXPOSES TRUE INNOCENCE AND RISKS THE
WRINGING AND THE BREAKING OF THIS MORE PRIZED POSSESSION. REAL LOVE
DEMANDS THIS, CONSTANTLY.”
Sir Arthur Pinero said that “those who love deeply never grow old. They may die of old
age, but they die young at heart.”
That deep love here and now is but a prelude to the perfect love there. In fact, they are
one love contiguous and continuous. Love is both earthly and eternal. Love never
dies. For there is only one real happiness in life and that is to love and to be loved.
The great writer Ralph Waldo Emerson said:
“NEVER SELF-POSSESSED OR PRUDENT, LOVE IS ALL ABANDONMENT.”
True love is pure risk, always. Love at work risks hurt to the self and rejection by
another. But the risk at work is what makes the word of love so special.
Vulnerability, openness, risk but so great reward.
Hear then the marvelous words of the great poet William Wordsworth:
“A PERSON CAN BE SO CHANGED BY LOVE AS TO BE UNRECOGNIZABLE AS THE
SAME PERSON. LOVE TRANSFORMS, REGENERATES. LOVE PRODUCES CHANGE,
EVERYWHERE AND IN EVERYONE. LOVE BETTERS WHAT IS BEST!”
The great philosopher Plato said that love is the best friend of human kind, the helper
and the healer of all ills that stand in the way of human happiness. In fact, love and
compassion are necessities, not luxuries and without them, humanity can not survive.
And for some real definition of the word love, hear the words of Saint Augustine:
“WHAT DOES LOVE LOOK LIKE? WHY, IT HAS HANDS TO HELP OTHERS. IT HAS
FEET TO HASTEN TO THE POOR AND NEEDY. IT HAS EYES TO SEE MISERY AND
WANT. IT HAS EARS TO HEAR THE SIGHS AND SORROWS OF HUMANKIND. THAT
IS WHAT LOVE LOOKS LIKE!”
Amen and amen. Hands and feet at work, eyes and ears to see and hear human need.
Love at work is what love really is.
Love comes supreme and most innocently from a child. A child’s love is pure,
uncomplicated, unconditional, fully trusting. Such innocence opens deep the world of
feeling and emotion and it is a return to that childlike love and that ability to love
which alone can make complete the adult version of that child. May we all be wise
enough to return to the innocent love of a little child.
And so my friends, my fellow Americans, we the Crawford Broadcasting Company wish
you all of the love possible on Valentine’s Day and during Valentine’s week. May love
in all its forms permeate your life and may you know the supreme love of the One who
laid down His life for you. Live love every day and know the real and true meaning of
life.
And finally, the profound words of poet Emily Dickenson:
“IF I CAN STOP ONE HEART FROM BREAKING
I SHALL NOT LIVE IN VAIN
IF I CAN EASE ONE LIFE THE ACHING
OR COOL ONE PAIN
OR HELP ONE FAINTING ROBIN
IN TO HIS NEST AGAIN
I SHALL NOT LIVE IN VAIN!”
Love is the greatest!

In this week's National Crawford Roundtable podcast the guys review the Mayorkas Impeachment Vote, the failed Border Bill, what to expect or not expect from this year's Superbowl Ads, and the shortcomings of the 'He Gets Us' ad campaign.  How did Alejandro Mayorkas survive an impeachment vote?  Why is the Border Bill a failure?  Will this year's Superbowl ads be 'woke'?  Does the 'He Gets Us' campaign support true Christianity, or is it a watered-down and woke version of Christianity?

The greatest of all things is LOVE.
The greatest, says the Apostle Paul, agreed upon by the world’s greatest thinkers, artists and poets is:
LOVE
Love is best.
The Bible book 1 Corinthians 13 is Paul’s finest expression of love by far. Read and read again those marvelous apostolic definitions of love. One of the meanings of this powerful force is spiritual devotion, a reasoning, intentional spiritual devotion such as is inspired by God’s love for and in us. To really know what love is, says Paul, can only occur as a result of a meaningful (loving) relationship with God Almighty. The longer, the deeper the relationship, the more the meaning of love becomes clear.
Love is good. In fact, good is defined by love. For no mere mortal can do good without love. One may intend to live right, perhaps following the Ten Commandments and other great moral precepts. But mere intention, the act of the will is not enough for it lacks the energy, the conviction, the power of LOVE.
There really is no definition of love, no simple one. Words like affection, attachment, emotion, even ultimate feelings are inadequate. So, Paul says let’s begin by defining love as PATIENT. Love is longsuffering because love is eternal. We live in a world fundamentally impatient, Type A, a world of pressure and intensity. Life as it is in the 20th Century and the people who live that life cause us to be impatient, frustrated, even angry. But if one loves and lives by the power of love, one says Paul is PATIENT. That is, no matter the circumstances, one is patient because patience is inherent, a spiritual genetic component of one who loves.
Love is kind, says the open-hearted Apostle Paul. Love is gentle, easy. It avoids meaningless confrontation and struggle. Love thinks on those things which are good in gentle ways, avoids strife and is slow to anger. Our world is hard, feisty and confrontational, so often without love. But love at work is the antidote to harsh things in life. That easy love soothes. It strokes. It forces its way into the heart and opens it. Love replaces the harsh with hugs. It cares about others first and about the things of God even more. There is no gentle or kind without love.
Love, God’s love in us, does not insist on its own rights or its own way. Love is not self-seeking. The natural man without love is selfish, self-centered, and egotistical. A loving person is giving, open, and caring. These standards are extremely high, and virtually impossible for any human being to accomplish without, says Paul, the love of God.
Love even allows us not to take account of the wrongs or evil done to us by others. Love allows us to forgive and forget. Love allows us to love an enemy rather than to seek vengeance. Love allows us to move past righting wrongs. We can lovingly forgive even as a loving God forgave us.
Love rejoices when right and truth prevail. Real love is straight, a kind of tough love structured by what is right and true. Love deals with problems in the present, and deals with them straightforwardly as truth would have it. Love can discipline and correct in truth without hurting. True love never compromises. How wonderful and joyful it is to lovingly live in truth at all times. For to know the truth of love is to be set free and allows us to live a life rejoicing and praising.
Love protects and defends. It guards the hearts and minds of the young. It trains up children in the way in which they should go. It shows them the way of the Lord, the path of righteousness. Love protects and defends home and family. Love guards against false prophets and the lie. Love tolerates no evil, only the good.
Love is loyal, says Paul. Love is trustworthy and trusting. Love makes character predictable, reliable, steady, and dependable. Love produces bonds unbroken, full trust unto death.
Real love, says Paul, always hopes for the best, especially the best in others. No matter the evil or inconsistencies in others, or the uncertainties in life, hope for the good is always love’s objective. Love, real love is contagious. In the presence of love, real love, others participate and share and begin to feel that real love themselves. Love at work creates the belief that all things will work together for good for those who love each other, and especially those who love God. That, says Paul, is an absolute truth for:
LOVE NEVER FAILS
It endures now and for all eternity. It overcomes the greatest evils in this world which combined, can never destroy love.
But the Apostle Paul in his great treatise 1 Corinthians 13 also tells us what love is NOT.
Paul tells us that love is not talk no matter how eloquent. Words are not love and may even have difficulty communicating or defining love. No matter how eloquent the tongue, even the language of angels, words are like sounding brass and tinkling symbols, hollow and meaningless. Even, says Paul, if words are those of the angels themselves, they are worthless without love.
And Paul says that even the gift of prophecy, knowing the future, discerning the divine will and purpose without love means nothing. Even moving mountains with all power and energy means nothing without love.
One can not even give to the poor without love. One can not even be willing to die, offer a body to be burned, or lay down a life for another without love, for all such acts no matter how charitable are meaningless without love.
Love is not envious. Love is not jealous of others, what they are or what they have. Love desires the best for everyone. Love rejoices when the best things happen to other people. Love never craves or lusts. It is content no matter the circumstances.
Love is not controlling, says Paul. It lets go. It never holds on. Love never demands and always reasons with an open heart. Love is never possessive. Love is always ready to share, give and understand.
And love never boasts or brags. Love is not proud or puffed up. Love has no ego. Love cares little for power, fame or possessions. Love is in the doing for by their loving fruits we shall know them. Love wishes to be known and loved by God and not man. Love reminds that it is not about me but about HIM.
Love does not behave unseemly. Love allows one to live modestly, humbly and joyfully. Love builds and sustains character. Love has its own rules and standards, instinctive even genetic, which controls and directs behavior instinctively. By their fruits, by their actions, it is easy to know one who loves.
Love is not easily angered says Paul. Not that one never gets angry, but that anger is slow to wrath. No tempers, no rages. Life can not be lived on the defense. Love calls for rational and reasonable responses and reactions, for a fiery tongue does nothing but damage. When one is possessed, and consumed by love, that loving person can not be easily provoked. Anger, even righteous anger does very little good.
Perhaps so very importantly Paul reminds us that love does not keep any record of wrongs. We, the humans, have such long memories when things go wrong, when we are wronged. We may in some sense forgive, but it is so very difficult to forget. But love, says Paul, keeps no record of these wrongs, love has no balance sheet, no list of spiritual assets and liabilities. Love is owed nothing for all it gives, even for major acts of forgiveness. It requires no payback or retribution for any harm done, no matter the wrong. Love truly forgets and presses on for only the good things in life. Love holds no grudges, none whatsoever. There is no get-even, no aggression, nothing defensive about real love at work. Real love allows anyone to love an enemy, the worst of them no matter the wrongs, so says Paul. Love allows us to do good to those who persecute us, defame us, slander and abuse us. That is real love. Easy it is to throw up one's hands and say impossible, all of it just plain impossible. And perhaps all such things are impossible at the human level only, that is without the love of God at work in any life. We are told that God is love and the more of the love of God in our lives and hearts, the more we can live by love and in love. We now see imperfectly, we now understand love imperfectly, as Paul says, but we will know when we see the source of all love FACE TO FACE. Then we shall know that perfect love which passes all understanding. To stand in the HOLY PRESENCE, the source of all love is to know completely. Love is a process as is learning to love, here and now. But love will be fully completed in the dawn of that eternal day.
And finally, Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 13 that there are three great things, the very best of all things in this life, namely:
FAITH
HOPE
LOVE
No matter how important faith is, and it surely is, that is the conviction and belief with respect to man’s relationship to God and divine things, love is greater. And no matter how strong the force of hope, the joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation, as important as that is, love is greater.
The greatest of all things is LOVE, that is, true affection for God and man, affection growing out of God’s love for and in us.
The greatest of all things is love because LOVE NEVER FAILS!

In Part 1 of this episode of the National Crawford Roundtable the guys talk about the recent Alistair Begg conundrum and the Church's involvement with Cancel Culture.  In Part 2 they discuss how to demonstrate God's love in ungodly situations, such as homosexuality.

SHOW YOURSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD.
Those are the words of the Apostle Paul, inspired by the God for whom we should study, to his brother, his son Timothy.
And to you and to me and to all.
Once the heart is redeemed, cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, then comes the mind, the ability to think and to reason in a Godly way, on Godly Christ-like things and to learn how to train up that mind, make it fully effective, and use it to the best of your ability:
FOR ALL THINGS GODLY AND CHRISTIAN.
Many of us fail to do that. To train the mind, to really STUDY is difficult, time-consuming, a matter of real priority and commitment, difficult at first, especially when we begin to run the mental race and fight the mental fight of faith, which God requires.
But there is no substitute for the study of scripture, none whatsoever. We cannot simply digest THE VERSE FOR THE DAY, or read a chapter a day as though it were enough. Daily devotionals may help but they seldom rise to the level of the scripture demand, the Godly demand, of real and true:
STUDY.
So, the scriptures tell us clearly that if we do not learn how to study those 66 books, our way, with the special and individual intellect which God has given us, each of us so very different, we will not be approved by God as worthy disciples functioning for HIM with all of our might, and to the best of our abilities. It is our Christian duty to learn how to think, to use the mind, to reason, to testify, to tell all what we believe, not as someone would, not as anyone else would, but the very best of us, you and me.
We cannot be compared to another. Most of us are not scholars, theologians, biblical analysts, or teachers of the Word. We are lay people, saved by grace, therefore fully desirous of serving our Lord but only to the best of our individual talents, capabilities, and intellect. We are not the Apostle Paul, nor Billy Graham, nor the Pope, nor Charles Spurgeon. We are different. We have our own mission, our own priorities, our own abilities as God has given them. We study to show ourselves approved unto God in
terms of the abilities He has given us to do just that. THAT AND THAT ONLY, NO MORE!
But we need to constantly learn how to THINK. Scripture tells us that it is our Christian duty to think on the good things in life, the good things offered to us by our Lord, the blessings, the positive, and to grow intellectually and spiritually, grow every day, to improve the mind, the brain, the ability to reason, which God has given us. So that, when the right opportunity arises for us, for you and me, we are ready, READY to give an answer, to explain who we are, what we believe, and why, and how we have been transformed. That, for most of us, is not standing behind a pulpit or on a street corner, or even necessarily talking to strangers. We can do all those things through Christ who strengthens us if that is the right thing for us to do, but that might not be our gift, our talent, and the way our mind, redeemed by the blood of Christ, requires us to live, and grow, and learn, and become fortified as better Christians mentally in every way.
We should be what God intends us to be and not what any man or woman wants us to be or thinks we should be. We should be ready to give a reason for what we believe, what God has laid on our mind and heart, and how with aggressive, committed, prioritized study, we learn and grow in THE WORD OF GOD.
Alone, by ourselves, the study we do is only partial. We need, in fact, we must have the guidance, the inspiration, the explanation of:
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Therefore, before we enter the Word of God, before we STUDY, we must through prayer invoke the intercession, the intellectual partnership of the Holy Spirit. We must ask that the Spirit awaken us, stabilize our focus, make every inspired word of God meaningful, and know that every word in those 66 precious inspired books is the words, THE WORDS, of eternal life. They are indeed precious, unique, the words of the living God, and it is those very words that we must study, constantly study, so that our mind can be trained up in the way in which it should go, and when the wiles of evil and the culture of this world try to bring us down, plant doubt, or guilt, or spread diabolical disinformation, we know and only have believed, that knowledge dominates our mind and we will not go astray, mentally or spiritually. The mind, the brain, the intellect, firm in the Lord, cannot be changed by the forces, the evil of this world. It stands on the rock and any such attack only strengthens belief, and to the extent we are intellectually capable, our mind is totally infused, injected, energized with the Word of God and intellectually:
WE WILL NOT BE MOVED!
So then, we can come together and reason, the mind at work in the things of the Lord:
COME NOW, LET US REASON TOGETHER.
So that, whenever we are with one or more, whether in the household, among friends, in study groups, at church, anywhere and everywhere, if the opportunity arises, we are ready to reason together and offer a reason which God has given us, which the Holy Spirit has given us, to explain who we are (Christian) and what we believe, the truth of scripture and our Lord Jesus Christ.
You matter. You are endowed with the ability to think. You can, no matter who you are or what education you have had, learn how to STUDY TO SHOW YOURSELF APPROVED! But that takes work, commitment, time, and energy. Will you put the work in that is necessary to train your mind and really STUDY? Will you today allow the Holy Spirit to show you how?

Episode 232- Part 1: Football and Primaries, Part 2: Is abortion a "Losing Issue" for the Republicans this election?  The guys start with some lighthearted football banter, especially about the upcoming Detroit-San Francisco game, and talk of the Primaries, then, with the Roe v. Wade anniversary this past Monday, the guys move on to discuss if abortion is a losing issue for the GOP.  Biden and the Democrats are making it an issue.  How should the Republicans respond?

We who believe live in a day and age of so-called:
PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY.
Progressive means that Christians today are subject to new interpretations of scripture, a redefinition of what Christianity is all about, a resetting of Christian values, morals, and priorities, and most of all, a battle with a foreign and antagonistic culture like never before. The Bible, always presumed to be the inspired word of God, becomes more of a moral guide rather than statement of absolute truth. The Bible is subject to mankind’s interpretation and even an individual’s sense of right and wrong, rather than the infallible standards of scripture. Christian believers have, now more than ever, ITCHY EARS, a far greater propensity to compromise and accommodate the current culture, rather than standing up for scripture, our Lord, and the absolute truths of the Bible.
That is why the Apostle Paul in II Timothy says that even then, some 2000 years ago, the ITCHY EARS of believers have wandered into myths, forming a religion based upon THEIR TRUTH, not that of God Almighty. If such a trend prevails and those progressive, woke changes continue to occur, that will indeed portend the very end of Christianity itself.
There is strife in the church. Denominations compromise and individual churches move on, especially when woke prevails. Christian fracturing becomes every day a more serious problem. When any church or Christians therein bow to the world’s standards and interpretations, true believers come apart and are separate from them refusing to bow to woke in any way.
The bottom line for woke is that there is no such thing as absolute truth. Wokers thrive on the penance of this so-called age of POST TRUTH, compromise, the religion of the individual, and changing standards of morality and truth as individuals define them. The Apostle Paul clearly indicates this is dead wrong and, in fact even more so, a critical sign of the END TIMES.
An essential question, says Joseph Backholm, of the CENTER FOR BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW, is the following:
“The Question seems to be whether or not God actually wants us to repent or mostly just wants us to be happy and comfortable.
In short, the new and progressive approach to Christianity attacks the concept of sin, the very reason itself for repentance, and wishes to do away with sin and the need for repentance, and instead of a redeemed mankind, one which is merely happy and comfortable. These woke changers simply do not believe that sin exists, but rather that the concepts of right and wrong are in flux and constantly changing. They have forgotten the Biblical admonition:
BE SURE YOUR SINS WILL FIND YOU OUT!
So, says our Lord, and the Apostle Paul, Christian believers, true believers, are obligated, indeed have the duty to stand up to the evil of woke and progressive Christianity and defend the faith, our Lord, and His scripture. It is, says Christian author Eric Metaxas, this new form of evil that must be confronted. We cannot compromise, accept, or be silent. We must speak out against it. Metaxas says the following:
SILENCE IN THE FACE OF EVIL IS EVIL ITSELF!
Indeed, it is. Not standing up, not speaking out, is a form of compromise, and in essence, is condoning, accepting, and not confronting the evil as it is. As Paul says in Ephesians, we the church are called to stand against the culture as we engage in the spiritual fight regarding the principalities and powers of this world. That is our duty, His command, and if we do not stand and confront the evil of woke, we disrespect HIM and we fail to do our duty as Christians.
Any denomination or church which changes or modifies in any way spiritual beliefs, Biblical beliefs, and postures themselves as politically correct, and with the times, seeing itself as loving and not confronting, cannot change the non-changing and absolute truth of scripture, and the eternal truth of God’s word. That word, those principles will never change, and:
“ANY CHURCH THAT CHANGES THE MESSAGE TO FIT THE TIMES, IS PREACHING A FALSE GOSPEL.”
So, my fellow Christians, man or woman, remember the words in the book of James:
“BLESSED IS THE MAN OR WOMAN WHO REMAINS STEADFAST UNDER TRIAL.”
Never giving up, never compromising, willing to lay all on the altar, believing without woke interpretation the true and absolute truth of scripture, never deviating from that and always ready, willing, and able to defend that. What a joy, what a privilege, what insight into eternal truth is ours to be a Christian, a true follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a joy to abide in Him and as 1 John 2 states:
“WALK IN THE SAME WAY IN WHICH HE WALKED.”
More than ever, HE asks you to do that so that you can be salt and light to this world, emphatically resisting the progressive, woke, secular culture of the times and standing for Him.
As Joseph Backholm further states:
“WE HAVE TO DECIDE WHETHER WE ARE TRYING TO SHAPE OUR MINDS AROUND GOD’S WORD OR WHETHER WE ARE TRYING TO SHAPE GOD’S WORD AROUND OUR MINDS.”
The former produces actual Christianity, the latter produces so-called progressive Christianity.
I pray that you stand for actual, real, biblical Christianity, which now more than ever is what the world needs.

After a brief look at the Iowa Caucus, The National Crawford Roundtable defines "what is a cult?"  What do cults do?  How can you avoid being caught up in an organization that acts like one?  Trumpers and Never Trumpers: how are they like a cult?  Or are they like a cult?  Why is there a fixation on him?  Why do Cult followers always defend their leader?  Is it because they are defending themselves?  Is it fair to say that MAGA is not about "America first" but "Trump first"?  Does MAGA love the Republican party or just Trump and Trump candidates?

Public schools in communities across the country have failed to educate students.
Have they ever, with very few exceptions.
Public schools have failed and are continuing to fail to educate students. The worst part about all of this is that there really is no solution in sight. It really seems as though public education will only get worse.
Years ago, parents and taxpayers lost control. Perhaps that loss was gradual. Perhaps parents were in default, indifferent, and many others feeling simply helpless. They lost control, these parents did, to what Matthew Hennessey, Wall Street Journal Deputy Editorial Editor, called:
THE EDUCATION BLOG.
The blog was a quasipublic syndicate of teachers unions, government bureaucracies, brand-name credentialed institutions, and the woke and progressive media. They were determined to keep control of education and, of course, to get as much money to do that as they possibly could.
In one sense, there was a public-parental awakening. That occurred in 2020, the year of Covid, and in the year of lock-downs and lock-outs. Schools were closed, education occurred online and virtually, and parents, perhaps many of them for the very first time, were forced to pay attention to what education in those public schools was really like. Millions did not like what they saw. What they saw, in so many ways, was:
WASTED TIME
WOKE-INFUSED CURRICULA
POOR INSTRUCTION
among others and so many of them, by the millions, decided change was in order, rather necessary. They decided they liked the freedom and convenience of homeschooling. They liked it so much, these parents did, they saw the benefits and they kept homeschooling alive even after the lockdowns and the virtuality ended.
But, the progressives, the wokers woke up. They saw what was happening, real education, good education, quality education, and they realized the real threat to the public education they were committed to foist upon the American public. They saw the end to their control, these wokers did, and their money, and the threat of taxpayer's dollars being utilized elsewhere, and as wokers do when their backs are to the wall, they attacked. So many of these radicals preached the message that education wasn’t about helping young people reach their full potential, but rather:
TO SOCIALIZE CHILDREN INTO RESPONSIBLE CITIZENSHIP.
In other words, to WOKE them, change them, do away with so many traditional American values, and of course, water down individual freedom, family, and most importantly:
FAITH.
Millions of parents fought back.
Hear the words of MSNBC personality Melissa Harris-Perry, who said the following:
“SOCIETY HAS TO SHAKE OFF THE ANTIQUATED NOTION THAT PARENTS HAVE SOME SPECIAL CLAIM ON THEIR CHILDREN. INSTEAD, WE HAVE TO RECOGNIZE THAT KIDS BELONG TO WHOLE COMMUNITIES.”
Can you believe that? Parents have no claim, no rights, and no ability to instruct, mold, or teach the very children they bear and bring into this world. Can you believe that? That really represents the views, opinions, and the values, the radically changing values, of the progressive educational wokers of today. That did nothing but give added impetus to the homeschooling movement.
And more. Teachers’ union member Randi Weingarten said the following:
“THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH PUBLIC EDUCATION THAT MORE MONEY WOULDN’T CURE.”
More money for more woke education, anti-American, anti-faith, anti-Christian, anti-classics, anti-fundamentals (reading-writing-Arithmetic) among others? More money to foster all of that?
Said Matthew Hennessey of The Wall Street Journal:
“THE EDUCATION BLOB AND MEDIA PROGRESSIVES SEE THE GROWING POPULARITY OF HOMESCHOOLING AS A SOCIAL PROBLEM THAT URGENTLY NEEDS TO BE SOLVED.”
These radicals are simply unwilling to give up their control of public education, the molding of the young American mind, and of course, the money, always the money to some extent.
Homeschooling is a great remedy for the ills of public education. It is the answer to the biblical admonition to:
TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE OR SHE SHOULD GO AND WHEN THEY ARE OLD, THEY WILL NOT DEPART THEREFROM.
Children when born are the responsibility, the privilege, and the duty of the parents who brought them into this world. That, says scripture, cannot be delegated, especially to woke-radical public education.
We, the Crawford Broadcasting Co., and our charitable entities believe in and support the homeschooling effort. We are proud sponsors and benefactors of:
HOME SCHOOLING LEGAL DEFENSE ASSOCIATION
HSLDA
That is one good work, determined to fight any attempt of big unions or progressive education, to take away, eliminate, or water down homeschooling. We urge you to know more about this good organization, and more importantly, HOMESCHOOLING ITSELF. Whether or not you do it, or know others who do, it is a movement worthy of your time, attention, and financial support, for real American education can occur, and so can faith-based training, and the morals, values, and standards of Christianity. If public education cannot be reformed, then homeschooling, especially by Christian parents, is a viable, worthy alternative, and perhaps in some cases:
THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE.