Memorial Day: Freedom is Not Free

What is G?

Stephen Colbert Giving the Gators Some Love!

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

A Really Good Book

Colbert at Christmas
Colbert Christmas DVD

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

Florida Gators: National Champions!

I told you so! I told you so! I told you so! Remember this post? http://kennyloehe.blogspot.com/2008/08/7-reasons-florida-gators-will-win-sec.html

Like all Gator fans, I have been basking in the glory of a second national championship in three years and the third straight national championship for the SEC. What else can be said about this Gator squad and their fearless leader Tim Tebow? Maybe just . . . amazing.

The Florida Gators went into the National Championship game to face what many said was the most prolific offense in the history of college football, an offense that averaged 54 points per game, over 60 points in 5 straight games, a Heisman trophy winner in Sam Bradford who had passed for nearly 4,500 yards, 48 TD's and only 6 INT, and the Florida Gator defense shut them down holding them to a season low 14 points.

The Sooner offense moved the ball inside the Gator 10 yard line twice and were shut down both times coming away with a turnover on downs the first time and an INT the second time with only 3 seconds left in the first half. And what was up with that "no-huddle" offense? That was about the stoopidest (pun intended) thing I've ever seen. The purpose of a no-huddle offense is to pick up the tempo and not give the defense a chance to get set. But what difference does it make if the offense hurries up, but then the QB takes another 30 seconds to get the play from the sideline before the snap? Hey coach Stoops that is not a no-huddle, that is not huddling. Stoops looked like an amateur out there!

And what about little Sammy Bradford? He didn't exactly look like a Heisman trophy winner. But of course he had never had to play against a defense before and, as most predicted, as soon as the Gator D hit him just a couple of times, Sammy crumbled like a house a cards. Brandon Spikes pretty much summed it up when he said of the O-who offense, "the defenses they play against are kind of like our scout team.” Ouch!

And what about the Gator offense? Anyone who watched the game could see that they were less than perfect, scoring only 7 points in the first half, a season low. But like real champs the Gators went into halftime, made adjustments and then let Tim Tebow go Tebow on the Sooner D and like the Sooner offense, they crumbled. Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin put on one of the most impressive ground assaults that we have seen all season, netting 250 yards on the ground! And then if that wasn't enough, Tebow and company finished it all off by punking the Sooner D with the famous "jump pass." Congrats Gators, on another championship. And Sooners, nice try, better luck next time! And I told you so!

Here's a very cool video highlight of the game:

Tim Tebow: Highlight Videos on the Gridiron and on the Mission Field

I put this video up on my football blog just before the He15man trophy was awarded to the wrong guy. I love this video. It starts right after Tebow and the Gators lost to Ole Miss in a heart breaker. Right after the game at the press conference Tim Tebow essentially promised Gator fans that he would never lose again. He kept his promise and gave the Florida Gators their 3rd National Championship. Tim Tebow is a great football player, but he is an even greater person. He's an missionary's kid and devoted follower of Christ. Tell me what you think of the video.

This is a video story they did on Tebow and his off the field activities. This is really what makes him tick.

iMarriage: Understanding Your Spouse

We have moving through a new series in our church entitled iMarriage. And the big idea is, the key to a successful marriage is taking the "i" out and putting understanding my spouse in. It's been pretty good for me personally as I've tried to locate those areas of my actions and attitudes where I just don't actively seek to understand the needs that my wife has.

One of the proverbs that the women have been meditating on has been from Prov. 14:1, "The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish woman tears it down with her own hands." And we've been kind of developing that from 1 Peter 3 and how a woman can easily tear down her husband with her words (words that Peter says don't work anyway). I wonder how many wives really take the time to think about the fact that their husbands have been designed by God to be leaders of their home and the damage that their words can have on their husband's confidence to lead.

But the same goes for men. What men fail to understand is that our wives are amazingly gifted people, designed by God to be helpers to us, which is why Peter says that we should understand their needs and honor them for everything they are to us. I found this really funny video that we will be showing this Sunday that underscores how little husbands understand their wives.

Why men don't listen and women can't read maps

Here is a sampling of things that men and women will never see eye to eye on.

RELATIONSHIPS
First of all, a man does not call it a relationship. He refers to it as romance, or a period of dating, or going out, or just marriage. When a relationship ends, a woman will cry, and pour her heart out to her girlfriends, and she will write a poem titled “All Men are Idiots.” Then she will get on with her life.

A man has a little more trouble letting go. For six months, his ex may not hear from him, but then, at three on Saturday night/Sunday morning, he will call and say, “I just wanted to let you know you ruined my life, and I'll never forgive you, and I hate you. But I want to let you know there's always a chance for us.”

HANDWRITING
To their credit, men do not decorate their penmanship. They just chicken scratch. Women use scented, colored stationary, and they dot their "i's" with circles and hearts. Women use ridiculously large loops in their "p's" and "g's." It is a royal pain to read a note from a woman. Even when she's dumping you, she'll put a smiley face at the end of the note.

BATHROOMS
A man has 6 items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, toothpaste, shaving cream, a razor, a bar of soap and a towel. The average number of items in a typical woman's bathroom is 237. And a man would not be able to identify most of these items.

GOING OUT
When a man says he is ready to go out, it means he is ready to go out. When a woman says she is ready to go out, it means she will be ready, as soon as she makes one phone call and finds her other earring.

THE TELEPHONE
Men see the telephone as a communication tool. They use the telephone to send short messages to other people. A woman can visit her girlfriend for two weeks, and upon returning home, she will call the same friend and they will talk for three hours.

DIRECTIONS
If a woman is out driving, and she finds herself in unfamiliar surroundings, she will stop at a garage and ask for directions. Men consider this to be a sign of weakness. Men will never stop and ask for directions. Men will drive in a circle for hours, all the while saying things like, “Looks like I've found a new way to get there.” and, “I know I'm in the general neighbourhood. I recognize that Taco Bell.”

ADMITTING MISTAKES
Women will sometimes admit making a mistake, but they usually try make it look like it was the man’s fault. The last man who admitted he was wrong was General George Custer.

TOYS
Little girls love to play with toys. Then when they reach the age of 11 or 12, they lose interest. Men never grow out of their obsession with toys. As they get older, their toys simply become more expensive and silly and impractical. Examples of men's toys: little miniature TV's. Massive TV’s. Complicated juicers and blenders. Graphic equalizers. Small robots that serve drinks on command. Video games. Anything that blinks, beeps, and requires at least 6 "D" batteries to operate.

LAUNDRY
A man will wear every article of clothing he owns, including his surgical pants that were really hip about eight years ago, before he will do the laundry. When he is finally out of clothes, he will wear a dirty tracksuit inside out, rent a truck and take his mountain of dirty clothes to the Laundromat.

SOCKS
Men are sensible about socks. They wear argyle socks or standard white sweatsocks. Women wear strange socks. Socks with pictures of clouds on them. Socks that are cut way below their ankles. Socks that have little fuzzy balls on the back.

GARAGES
Women use garages to park their cars and store their lawnmowers. Men use garages for many things. They hang license plates in garages, and they watch TV in garages, and they build useless lopsided benches in garages.

Hope you enjoy our Family Movie! Stephanie made this all by herself : ) Please ignore the glitches and awful spelling error(s)!! This is in lieu of the Christmas newsletter we usually send out.

Also, it's not so easy to view on this little screen. So it would be much better to have a copy of the DVD for yourself so you can watch it on your TV screen. So, if you would like one, please let us know. Plus, we're not keeping this on here for very long.

God bless and Happy New Year!

my idea of good counseling

The Reckoning is Complete

Just wanted to share this very well made highlight video of my beloved Gators taking the the hated Georgia Bulldogs to the woodshed. I said this would happen here:

http://kennyloehe.blogspot.com/2008/08/november-1-2008-reckoning.html

Tell me what you think of the video.

Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel wrote, "Unlike Georgia last year, Florida's players didn't show much emotion during this game. Their victory was cold-blooded, calculating and ruthless. They dismantled one of the top teams in the country with all the stony-eyed sentiment of an assassin squeezing the trigger."

Are you a Demas?

Have you ever wondered about that dude named Demas? His name is one of those names that you don't see all the time, it sounds kind of cool, but you would never give it to your son. But who was Demas? The Bible doesn't tell us a lot about him. We do know from Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 24 that he served with Paul and Luke.

And from that we can conclude that Demas left everything to serve with Paul in spreading the gospel and suffering for the sake of Christ. He stuck it out with Paul when he was thrown into prison the first time. It's also reasonable to assume that Demas experienced many of the hardships and suffering that Paul experienced. I am sure that he felt the sting of a whip or the coldness of a chain. Few of us have given up as much as Demas gave up for the cause of Christ. And yet there is a startling verse in 2 Timothy 4:9-10 where Paul writing to Timothy says, "Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica" (italics mine).

In order to grasp the weight of this verse you really need to understand the context. The apostle Paul was in prison because of his passion for Christ and his commitment to the gospel. Paul's life was a catalogue of suffering for the sake of the gospel. There are few Christians who have suffered loss like Paul. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 11:24-28 he said of his himself:

"Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches."

And yet nothing could discourage Paul from pressing on to the goal. No amount of suffering and hardship could keep him from being faithful to his calling. And the reason Paul could do that is because His passion and love for Jesus Christ constrained him to be willing to loose everything to make Him known, to experience His love more fully. And yet here is Demas, a man who had evidenced immense faithfulness in the past, deserting Paul because he was "in love with this present world." Are you a Demas? I've been asking myself that question lately.

I would invite you to ask yourself that question. What relationships are you willing to lose to see Christ honored in your lifestyle choices? What indignities are you willing to suffer to see the gospel advanced? What hardships are you willing to experience to see the glory of Christ cover the earth like the waters cover the sea? What death are you willing to die to see the triumph of the cross in the lives of those for whom Christ died?

You say, "Well I'm not sure" . . . "in love with this present world." This really convicts me, because I really want to see my daughters grow up and graduate and get married (well I don't really want to see that). And I want to see the game this weekend, or I want to get married to that special person. I really want to finish the addition on the house, I want to buy that dream home, or I want to be able to enjoy some retirement . . . "in love with this present world."

Where is your ultimate passion in life? What is the object of your supreme love? Whatever it is you will be willing to lose everything to have it. Demas loved this present world and he was willing to lose Christ to have it and so he spared himself from suffering with Paul.
You say, "Well I've done a lot for the church, I've given a lot my money, I've served tirelessly for the sake of the gospel."

Demas did too. And what we learn from Demas is it's not how you start or what you've accomplished in the past that proves where your ultimate passion and supreme love rests, it's in how you finish. I have found in my own life that you can fake it for a while. You can stand losing a few relationships, you can suffer indignities for a time, you can tolerate a season of hardship and even entertain the possibility of martyrdom. But can you go all the way to the end? I think that that's why Paul said to Timothy:

"As for you [Timothy], always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." And then Paul says of Himself, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing" (2 Tim. 4:5-8).

Straight-Up Conference

We just got back from this year's Straight-Up Conference in Chicago at Harvest Bible Chapel. It was great. Great worship, great preaching, great fellowship. But I wanted to tell you about one message in particular. C. J. Mahaney from Sovereign Grace Ministries (formally senior pastor of Covenant Life Church) preached from 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 on recognizing the evidences of grace in the lives of other believers. It was one of those messages that leave you bruised and bloody, but encouraged and inspired. Isn't that a mark of good preaching?

Here's the thrust of it: When you see another believer who is in sin what is the first thing you see? His or her failure or the evidences of God's grace in his or her life? Well I could on and on about it or I could let you listen to it yourself. Enjoy

http://www.harvestbiblefellowship.org/BlogEntry.aspx?site_id=10295&entry_id=111524

I have a new SEC Football Blog

Hey everybody! I set up a new blog that is devoted exclusively to SEC Football. Stephanie has been after me for a while to do it. So take a look and tell me what you think. www.secrant.blogspot.com The link is also in the blogroll on the left side.

Gators watch out, Randy Shannon is really mad now

Not sure if anyone else heard about Randy Shannon, the head coach of Thug U, whining about the Gators hanging another 3 points on them late in the 4th quarter. But the amazing thing about it is that was one week after Coach Shannon and "the U" went for it on 4 and 3 against division 1-AA powerhouse Charleston Southern to tack on another touchdown to their 45-7 lead with only 2 minutes left in the game. Wow 52-7 against Charleston Southern. Way to dominate Miami!

This "U" is very much like "the U" of yesteryear. They still talk trash and still have multiple aggravated assault and armed robbery convictions. But there is one very big difference between this "U" team and "the U" of yesteryear, "the U" of Michael Irvin, Bernie Cosar and Warren Sapp never, ever whined. And when they talked trash, they could actually back it up. Here's the thing Coach Shannon: if you don't want your opponent to score on you late, then do something about it! It's called man up and play some defense!

Well here's what happens to this "U" when they actually have to play a division 1-A opponent (you might want to turn the volume down).




I found this really cool burn from Jim Rome, my sentiments exactly. Keep up the good work Rome.

Rocky Top, you'll always be an easy win for me, Good ol' Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee!

This is a great picture of the Gators running onto their home away from home. Most teams in the NCAA wish they had as many victories on their home fields as the Gators have in Neyland Stadium. Ouch I bet that hurt!

I have to say that I am not like most Gator fans in that I don't hate Tennessee. I pity them, but I don't hate them. I mean if you stop and think about it how could a Gator really hate Tennessee? They have given the Gators so many victories and so many trips into the SEC championship game! Really the Gators should actually love Tennessee! 59-20 last year and 30-6 this year, and 4 straight wins, wow, we love UT!

And so in honor of my new friends in Knoxville I will sing my special rendition of Rocky Top. Maestro! Rocky Top, you'll always be an easy win for me, Good ol' Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee! Rocky Top Tennessee!

By the way did you see this?

In case you didn't that is Brandon James returning a punt for 78 yards and a touchdown. And that was right after he returned the opening kickoff for 52 yards. Special teams at Florida is where it's at. In fact, I have a feeling that the offense will have pretty low numbers this year largely because of the Gator's special teams. Sorry Tebow no big numbers this year for you, you'll just have to settle for the SEC and National championships!

But one of the biggest surprises this year has been the Gator defense. Here's a stat for you, in 3 games they have given up a total of 2 touchdowns and 19 points. And this defense is a pretty young squad. And yet in spite of their youth, they absolutely smothered the Thug U offense 2 weeks ago, giving up only 3 points and letting them cross the 50 only twice in the whole game.

Ever since Miami made that new rule that their football players were only allowed one felony conviction per semester, a lot of their talent has been kept off the field. Well need to go for now. Man, I'm sure glad football season is here!