Dmitry Medvedev

Get to know this name, it is quite possibly the new President of Russia. Backed by Vladimir Putin, he is a sure thing for the thrown. The election will be held March 2, 2008. Here is some info on the man:

Born September 14, 1965 in Leningrad (St. Petersburg)

1987 - graduated from Leningrad State University law faculty; in 1990 received a Ph.D. in law, also from Leningrad State University, with a specialization in private law

1990-1999 - assistant professor at Leningrad State University 1990-1995 - served as adviser to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Council and expert consultant to the St. Petersburg Mayor's Committee for External Relations, which was headed by Vladimir Putin.

November 9, 1999 - January 2000 - deputy chief of staff of the Government of the Russian Federation

January 5, 2000 - June 2000 - deputy head of the Presidential Administration (under Head of the Presidential Administration Alexander Voloshin). In this position, Medvedev supervised the Presidential State Legal Department

January- March 2000 - head of Putin's presidential election campaign headquarters

June 4, 2000-October 2003 - first deputy head the Presidential Administration

October 30, 2003 - appointed by Putin to be head of the Presidential Administration.

July 2002 - reappointed chairman of the board of directors of Gazprom. (He had been chairman 2000-2001, then deputy chairman 2001-July 2002).

November 2005 - Appointed First Deputy Prime Minister, a position created specifically for him, and given the task of overseeing the Council on National Projects.

He is married and has one son. (article here)

He is currently telling the top Russian business men to go on a global buying spree of foreign firms to boost the country's economic clout. (story here)

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On another note, Iran has received its final shipment of uranium from Russia (article here)

“With the arrival of the final shipment, all 82 tons of initial fuel needed for the power plant, together with peripheral equipment, has been shipped from Russia to Iran,” the Iranian state news said.

When the Tides Turn

I remember as a kid swimming out on some lake. This was not by any means new to me. I grew up spending a lot of time camping or sailing, and thus I have become a pretty good swimmer. While I never joined any swim team, because of the shaving legs issue, I have won swim races before. I only tell you that to help you better understand my upcoming story. :)

So there I was, swimming out at some lake to which I cannot recall where I was. I remember many of us kids out swimming in the water, even though the water was rough that day. We all decided to swim out to the buoys to see who would get there first. I got their first, and shortly realized that it wasn't the greatest idea. A few more joined me, and we clung to that buoy for support, while we caught our breath. Tide was going out, and I couldn't touch the bottom, so I knew it would be harder to get back to shore.

We all decided to go at the same time, but this time, I was far from the lead. I was in the back, and I wasn't getting very far from the buoy, before I was clinging on to it again. However this time it wasn't just support, its so I didnt get pulled out by the tide.

Its amazing that I remembered that story this morning, God seems to have placed it on my heart to mull over. There are times it seems God shows more favour to His people than in other times. (2 Sam. 5:24) God tells David to wait, because God will go before him to smite his enemies.

Learning to swim back to shore is much like learning to wait upon God. I had to learn when to swim, and when to save energy, likewise, God wants us to learn to fight, and learn when to allow Him to battle. It is when God fights first, that we should be saving our strength, building our knowledge, increase our communication via prayer, so that we know when the tides will turn.

Giuliani Go Home.

Thats right, not that it would help Huckabee out a whole lot, most of his supporters would probably go to McCain or Romney, but at this point in tonights primary, your will be lucky if you hold onto third place.

It is my opinion that Rudy needs to cut the crap and go home. With Hillary out of town, maybe you could actually win a senate seat.

And dont hang around for the Wed. night GOP debate in Cali, it will do you no good. At least if Rudy was gone, there is a better chance that Huckabee will get more airtime, however I am sure it will still be mostly split between Romney and McCain.

Ron Paul... its not going to happen... Take the heart broken Rudy with yah. Huckabee, there is still hope, but that light at the end of the tunnel is growing fairly dim. Make a move, or it could be too late for you too.

Still Learning

I came to my dad's place today. It almost feels like mom is just outta town for a little while. I mean, I understand and believe that God has taken her, but it takes a while I guess to fully understand it. Well anyway, I went upstairs to my old bedroom, which is now the spare bedroom, and as I got ready for bed, I found something.

What I found was never mine, nor had I ever saw it before, at least I have never acknowledged it. Without seeing the upstairs to my parents house, it would be hard to describe the "new" layout. Well anyway, there is now a part of the wall that is covered with bookshelves and books (crazy idea, I know right?). Anyway, they are mostly kids books as it was where my mom wanted to have a special place for Anna, my niece. I can almost see the vision she had for the room, my mother was a very creative and decorative person, so if she wanted a certain "look" she was able to create it.

So back to what I found... On this shelf lay a small, brochure sized, bookmark thingy. Yah, a bookmark thingy is the best way to describe it. It looks like a simple way to remind a person to pray. There were actually a couple of these. The one on the top was titled "30 ways to pray for people in authority." These "thingy's" are made by praymag.com, and as I said, she had a couple.

The "Authority" one drew my attention in, but it was actually another one that kind hit me. It was titled "31 Biblical virtues to pray for your kids". Now throughout my entire life, my mother told me "Patience is a virtue", I may have told you this before. Well, there must be at least 32 virtues because patience is not on this list. :)

That beside the point, I perused the list to see what was on it. After a few I started to see which ones I had, and which I did not. I could see my mother praying through this list, praying that Layne learns kindness ( 1 Thess. 5:15) or that Jeremy learns something he needed. As I kept going through the list, more started to jump out that I needed, and I wondered if my mother hadn't prayed for them all.

Funny how that Holy Spirit comes at the right time and moment... Instead of focusing just on what I needed to work on, and before I started to feel bad about the ever-growing list, He catches my mind and tosses out the idea of a blog post. How amazing.

My mother surely prayed for me, and while she is not with me, she is still teaching me. Thanks Ma.

Serving

At the end of Luke 10, we read the story of Jesus in the home of a woman named Martha. Martha served the Lord, preparing food and cleaning and all those things that women used to do. She was upset that Mary was there, but was not serving. Mary was spending time with Christ.

Martha's fault here is found in verse 40. "But Martha was encumbered about much serving". Encumbered is known as "loaded to excess or impeded by a heavy load". The fault is that Martha was focused on the service, and not whom she served.

Many of us find it easy to serve the Lord. We are capable to do things at church, or work at a mission, or something in the Name of the Lord, but we must also look at Mary in this story. Mary knew the importance of communication, and adoration of Christ. We must strive to do both. We must have communication with God in our service, then we shall see the great bounty God can harvest in our lives.

Communication is vital for service, for how do we know where to serve, if Christ does not instruct us? We are designed by God to serve how He wants us to, not where we want to. When we hear from God where to serve, we must remain in communication. Often communication can be set on the back burner, and it becomes easy to grow weary of our service.

So I am left to ask how you serve God, and how you know that is where you are to serve. When you grow weary of your service, how do you refresh your heart?

Another devotion by Spurgeon

“We will remember thy love more than wine.”
- Son_1:4

Jesus will not let his people forget his love. If all the love they have enjoyed should be forgotten, he will visit them with fresh love. “Do you forget my cross?” says he, “I will cause you to remember it; for at my table I will manifest myself anew to you. Do you forget what I did for you in the council-chamber of eternity? I will remind you of it, for you shall need a counsellor, and shall find me ready at your call.” Mothers do not let their children forget them. If the boy has gone to Australia, and does not write home, his mother writes-”Has John forgotten his mother?” Then there comes back a sweet epistle, which proves that the gentle reminder was not in vain. So is it with Jesus, he says to us, “Remember me,” and our response is, “We will remember thy love.” We will remember thy love and its matchless history. It is ancient as the glory which thou hadst with the Father before the world was. We remember, O Jesus, thine eternal love when thou didst become our Surety, and espouse us as thy betrothed. We remember the love which suggested the sacrifice of thyself, the love which, until the fulness of time, mused over that sacrifice, and long for the hour whereof in the volume of the book it was written of thee, “Lo, I come.” We remember thy love, O Jesus as it was manifest to us in thy holy life, from the manger of Bethlehem to the garden of Gethsemane. We track thee from the cradle to the grave-for every word and deed of thine was love-and we rejoice in thy love, which death did not exhaust; thy love which shone resplendent in thy resurrection. We remember that burning fire of love which will never let thee hold thy peace until thy chosen ones be all safely housed, until Zion be glorified, and Jerusalem settled on her everlasting foundations of light and love in heaven.


My prayer these next couple days is that God will reveal His love again. I know He loves me, I do not doubt it, but sometimes its just good to feel it.

The Greatest Loss

I remember as a kid, having a favorite stuffed animal. My first favorite was a whale. It wasn't very big, but then, neither was I. We got the whale, Shamu, at Seaworld. I rarely think about it now, but a long time ago I had to take Shamu with me every where I went.

I remember my mom and brother and I going to the bank, and walking from the car, across the parking lot, I carried him along with me. I recall dropping him in the middle of the parking lot, and stopping to pick him up. My mother got pretty mad at me because I didn't look for cars before I stopped to grab him.

Sometime later I recall losing Shamu, must have been a week or two before I found him. I was so upset and sad that my mom actually bought me a new stuffed whale. It wasn't the same though, Shamu had been used so much as a pillow it was formed perfectly for my head. One flipper would lie down, the other would stick up. I did eventually find him, oh man was I happy! I had mistakenly put him away in a toy barn that I had.

Tonight as I jumped online to check my email and blog, without thinking I thought, "I had better check mom's email, she may have something new in there, better check her blog too." The thought alone brought back that lonesome feeling I had when I had lost Shamu, this time it was much stronger.

I cant imagine what it would be like to lose my wife. My mother was my greatest listener before Amy. Last night I realized that mom knew Amy was right for me because Amy, like mom, can sit and listen to me. Amy still struggles at times when my mind starts to day dream, Amy has a way of bringing it back to reality. Mom seemed to dream right along with me.

I remember times my mom and I would just sit and talk about our futures. How many acres we would live on, the cars we may have, how we would always have rooms for our family. I miss that. I miss being able to call home and talk to her, even if she couldn't say much back.

Lately its been tough to sit in front of a computer. The constant urge to see who has visited her site, who stopped by to say hello, were thinking about you, and things like that. I am sure that it will slowly pass, time is supposed to heal all things. I just have this ache in my heart that says I wish I had more time to sit with her, I wish I could spend more time. I wish I would have taken her out driving more, or this or that. My heart breaks, more than ever. I wait for Gods healing, but I cant help wonder why He took her now, what is His plan?

I am thankful she is without pain, and I know she wouldn't have had the same impact on people if He didn't allow her to carry that burden, I just wish I could catch a glimpse of His plan sometimes.

For my regular readers, I will probably be using this blog to vent and write my frustrations as God heals me through this process. Thanks for bearing with me.

Funeral & Visitation

Today we set the dates and times for my mothers funeral and visitation.

Visitation will be on Sunday, January 20, 2008, at Gorsline Runciman Funeral Home. There will be two visit times: the first will be from 2:00 - 4:00 pm and the second from 6:00 - 8:00 pm. It will be held at 900 E Michigan Avenue, Lansing, MI 48912.

The funeral will be held on Monday, January 21, 2008 at 10:00 am, at Trinity Church, 3355 Dunckel rd. Lansing, Michigan 48911.

We would also like to inform mom's readers that there will be donation envelopes at Trinity Church if you would like to help the family monetarily, which would be much appreciated.

Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts, memories, and the food you have brought over.

Rest

Hebrews 4:9 "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”

How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here! Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness, but in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his Master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal: his constant cry is, “Help me to serve thee, O my God.” If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labour; not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, “I am not wearied of the labour, but I am wearied in it.” Ah! Christian, the hot day of weariness lasts not for ever; the sun is nearing the horizon; it shall rise again with a brighter day than thou hast ever seen upon a land where they serve God day and night, and yet rest from their labours. Here, rest is but partial, there, it is perfect. Here, the Christian is always unsettled; he feels that he has not yet attained. There, all are at rest; they have attained the summit of the mountain; they have ascended to the bosom of their God. Higher they cannot go. Ah, toil-worn labourer, only think when thou shalt rest for ever! Canst thou conceive it? It is a rest eternal; a rest that “remaineth.” Here, my best joys bear “mortal” on their brow; my fair flowers fade; my dainty cups are drained to dregs; my sweetest birds fall before Death’s arrows; my most pleasant days are shadowed into nights; and the flood-tides of my bliss subside into ebbs of sorrow; but there, everything is immortal; the harp abides unrusted, the crown unwithered, the eye undimmed, the voice unfaltering, the heart unwavering, and the immortal being is wholly absorbed in infinite delight. Happy day! happy! when mortality shall be swallowed up of life, and the Eternal Sabbath shall begin.

-Spurgeon

GO VOTE!

In The Garden

I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known

I'd stay in the garden with Him
'Tho the night around me is falling
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known

Sung by Alan Jackson from the album Precious Memories.

Speaking on God's Behalf

Job 36:2: "Suffer me a little, and I will shew thee that I have yet to speak on God's behalf."

How often can you say you speak on God's behalf? I don't know that I could ever proclaim such an honor. I mean, it is quite frequent we speak on our own behalf, share our ideas and thoughts with each other, but to say something that really speaks from the mouth of God, what kind of glory and honor that would carry with it.

Often we read about prophets in the Old Testament that speak to the people, sharing what God wants, but how often do we truly see it as speaking FOR the Almighty?

Timm recently wrote a post about a man who killed his wife because God "told him to". In our culture, how often can we take seriously a person that says something like that. God told me to build an ark, God told me to ______. I mean, that carries a huge amount of power and responsibility with it.

To speak for God will be refreshing to ourselves, cheering to saints, useful to sinners, and honoring to the Saviour.

Michigan Republican Primary Poll

Important stuff first:
This telephone survey of 424 Likely GOP Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on December 4, 2007. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Rasmussen Reports poll is for the Michigan Republican Primary, the results:

Huckabee 21%
Romney 20%
Giuliani 19%


Take into account that 5% and we have a BIG race on our hands. Also keep in mind that many democrats may be voting for the republican race because their candidates wont get any delegates. There is already a group in Detroit that is trying to get the Dems to vote for Huckabee. That being said, we may see a surge in Ron Paul's campaign too.

Trailing the Michigan front-runners are Fred Thompson at 9%, John McCain at 8% and Ron Paul at 7%. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter split 2% while 15% are not sure how they will vote. Michigan’s primary is scheduled for January 15.

This poll was taken back at the beginning of December, before the Huckabee surge, so hopefully that will help his campaign here also, we shall see.

Article here

Running Partners

So as this battle for president gets closer to super Tuesday, I am curious what you think about candidates and who would make a good VP.

Who do you think would make a good team?

Ron Paul's response on the Jay Leno show, as to who he would choose as a running mate was "The one that agrees with me on all the issues, but they don't seem very agreeable right now."

What about Huckabee or McCain? I dont want to get into the democrats side too much, because I couldn't tell you that much about who might be selected outside of Harry Reid or 3rd tier candidates.

As far as for the red team, I am sure to hear Newt Gingrich come up, maybe even Condi Rice. Who do you think would be best? Would Ron Paul or Tom Tancredo be a good VP?

Sorry I am late

Hey everyone, I have had a lot going on lately so I apologize for not posting /commenting on this site or yours.

I hope to post more in the future, but it might take a little bit. Please keep my family in your prayers.

Thanks,

-Layne

Its a Huck-A-Boom!!

Congratulations Mike Huckabee on a victory in Iowa! I hope and pray that with this win you will be able to pull in more volunteers and contributions for your campaign in New Hampshire and South Carolina, proving your not a one man show.

I will also extend a congratulations to Barrack Hussein Obama for winning in the Democrat Party. While you have little to no experience, you may be better than the track record of you rival Hillary Clinton, or your socialist opponent John Edwards.

Big victories that I pray will continue through 49 more states! I will forecast it for everyone right now, Huckabee vs. Obama in 2008.

Voting

This post is a rant, ye be warned...

In my opinion, and the opinion of this blog, apathy kills our nation. I cant stand to hear people complain about our nation, and then tell me that they only vote in a primary presidential election. They may come back and tell me they vote in the gubernatorial races too. WOW! You have done your part!

I vote in most all votes for my township, county, state and of course, nation. The biggest impact a person can have on government is to vote in local elections. The next big thing is to keep in contact with the people in your government. I dont think "We the People" put enough pressure on our elected officials. They should be informed by us so much they need a call center to route the phone calls. Maybe then I wouldn't have to press one for English!

With the presidential primaries in the Great (and greatest) State of Michigan, I implore you to register to vote, and then vote in the caucus! Inform the party of your choice who you want to see run for president! More than likely the caucus will be held at the same place you already go to vote, if you vote. If not, I have the perfect solution... Click Here

That link takes you to the Secretary of States website, where it will tell you, not only if you are registered, but where you go to vote! (it even has a map!)

So go! Register to vote, and when the primary in Michigan comes up, go vote for Mike Huckabee! haha, okay, but really, you need to know this: If you are going to vote in the caucus, you can only vote for one party. Whether it is the Republican party, Democrat party, or some third party, you can only notch one name, otherwise it will not count.

(Remember, a third party candidate will never win, they will only take away vote from the party they should have run with. This is why Al Gore really lost the election in 2008, it wasn't the counting, it was Nader, who took Gore's votes away)