A Warrior for GOD ~ Convicted Watergate Figure-Turned-Evangelical Leader Chuck Colson Dies at 80

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Via World Magazine:

Evangelical Christianity lost one of its most eloquent and influential voices today with the death of Charles W. “Chuck” Colson. The Prison Fellowship and Colson Center for Christian Worldview founder died at 3:12 p.m. on Saturday from complications resulting from a brain hemorrhage. Colson was 80.

A Watergate figure who emerged from the country’s worst political scandal, a vocal Christian leader and a champion for prison ministry, Colson spent the last years of his life in the dual role of leading Prison Fellowship, the world’s largest outreach to prisoners, ex-prisoners and their families, and the Colson Center, a teaching and training center focused on Christian worldview thought and application.

Chuck’s life is a testimony to God’s power to forgive, redeem, and transform

Pastor Tom Givens, Past Pastor of Grace Baptist, Has Gone to be with the Lord

From RPT:

I loved pastor Tom! I remember once in a college group class we were in the throws of a great conversation about prayer and the Bible, and I couldn’t find a verse. In between services Pastor Tom walked over to the college group, found the verse I described to him, and taught us on the spot (quickly), and then boogied back for his next service. He had a shepherds heart. One of my best home Bible study experiences was way back then as well. Bible, talking about the sermon from Sunday, fellowship, and WWF on Nintendo 64. He will be missed but the lives he touched through Grace is amazing.

Some of his podcasts can be found here at PodBean. His family has kept a site up where I think you can leave some messages to encourage the family. Pastor Hegg took the pulpit over for Pastor Tom after a long, congressional style search. Pastor Hegg took the reigns over well, I might add. While I consider another church my home, I will always have fond memories of Grace and thank them for being there as a good, Bible teaching church when needing a place to go for a solid sermon.

BREAKING NEWS: Andrew Breitbart ~ DEAD! WOW!

Matt Drudge RIP
DEAR READER: In the first decade of the DRUDGEREPORT Andrew Breitbart was a constant source of energy, passion and commitment. We shared a love of headlines, a love of the news, an excitement about what’s happening. I don’t think there was a single day during that time when we did not flash each other or laugh with each other, or challenge each other. I still see him in my mind’s eye in Venice Beach, the sunny day I met him. He was in his mid 20’s. It was all there. He had a wonderful, loving family and we all feel great sadness for them today… MDRUDGE

(Via Gateway Pundit!) He was 43. Andrew collapsed last night after leaving a restaurant. He was rushed to the hospital and was pronounced dead early this morning. Andrew was a conservative hero and true American patriot. He was generous with his time. He was a devoted friend. He was the definition of raw courage.

(Via BigGovernment!) With a terrible feeling of pain and loss we announce the passing of Andrew Breitbart.

Andrew passed away unexpectedly from natural causes shortly after midnight this morning in Los Angeles.

We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior.

Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love.

Andrew recently wrote a new conclusion to his book, Righteous Indignation:

I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and—famously—I enjoy making enemies.

Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I’ve lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I’ve gained hundreds, thousands—who knows?—of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.

Andrew is at rest, yet the happy warrior lives on, in each of us.

Whitney Houston ~ Dead (Whitney Singing the National Anthem on January 1991)

Whitney Houston’s family was told by L.A. County Coroner officials … the singer did not die from drowning, but rather from what appears to be a combination of Xanax and other prescription drugs  mixed with alcohol … this according to family sources.

No illegal drugs have been found in the hotel room where Whitney Houston died — at least not yet — but prescription drugs were present, and it’s possible the singer drowned in the bathtub … TMZ has learned.

Some DAILY FIX updates:

Update #5: Fox TV celebrity journalist Flo Anthony says it was Houston’s brother Michael who found her dead in the bathtub and not Ray J.

Update #4: The Beverly Hilton Hotel Staff has told TMZ that Whitney “partied heavily” last night at the hotel with a group of friends. Apparently Whitney and her friends were in the bar for a long time and the group was drinking and very loud.

Update #3: The video [below] shows Whitney Houston’s last performance. She performed briefly with R&B singer Kelly Price on Thursday night at a Grammy party at Tru Hollywood.

`It is our common fate` Christopher Hitchens, R.I.P. (1949-2011)

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I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.

All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened. And yourself, in a dark hour, may will [a grumbling] mood, embrace it. Ye can repent and come out of it again. But there may come a day when you can do that no longer. Then there will be no you left to criticize the mood…

—excerpted from The Problem of Pain and The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), included in The Quotable Lewis, 1989 Tyndale

In a sense, the concept of hell gives meaning to our lives. It tells us that the moral choices we make day by day have eternal significance, that our behavior has consequences lasting to eternity, that God Himself takes our choices seriously.

The doctrine of hell is not just some dusty theological holdover from the Middle Ages. It has significant social consequences. Without a conviction of ultimate justice, people’s sense of moral obligation dissolves, and social bonds are broke.

Of course, these considerations are not the most important reason to believe in hell. Jesus repeatedly issued warnings that if we turn away from God in this life, we will be alienated from God eternally.

And yet, although “the wages of sin is death,” Paul also says that “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). While breath remains, it is never too late to turn to God in repentance, and when we ask for forgiveness, God eagerly grants it.

—excerpted from Answers to Your Kids’ Questions, by Chuck Colson, 2000 Prison Fellowship Ministries.

We may rest assured that no one will suffer in hell who could by any means have been won to Christ in this life. God leaves no stone unturned to rescue all who would respond to the convicting and wooing of the Holy Spirit.

As for the fate of [the damned] being eternal, it could not be otherwise. Death is not the cessation of existence but the continuation of the eternal being with which God lovingly endowed man–but now in painful separation from God and all else in utter darkness and loneliness.

—excerpted from In Defense of the Faith, by Dave Hunt, 1996 Harvest House Publishers

The Bible says that God prepared hell for the devil and his demonic cohorts (Matthew 25:41), that He is “…not wishing for any [person] to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (II Peter 3:9), and that He has done everything possible to save us from that terrible, terrible place. Yet in the end God will not violate or overrule the deliberate choice of those who consciously and willfully turn away from Him.

—Daryl E. Witmer of AIIA Institute

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil.”

—Jesus Christ, John 3:16-19, NASV Bible

Marco `Super Sic` Simoncelli Dead at 24

Nicknamed “Super Sic” and sporting a mop of curly hair, Simoncelli was predicted by many to be a future MotoGP world champion. He died a week after two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was killed in a 15-car accident in the Izod IndyCar Series finale at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Simoncelli lost control of his Honda at Turn 11 four minutes into the Malaysian MotoGP. After regaining partial grip, Simoncelli’s bike swerved across the track — and into the path of American Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi of Italy.

…Read More…

Gary Coleman’s Living Will

The DailyFix h/t — now saved at CNN:

Gary Coleman’s living will called for the actor to be kept alive unless he was in an irreversible coma for at least 15 days, according to a court document.

Coleman’s ex-wife Shannon Price ordered his doctor to disconnect life support just a day after he fell into a coma last month, according to the Utah Valley Regional Medical center.

Coleman divorced Price in 2008, but they were living together in Santaquin, Utah, when he suffered a fall at home last month and died two days later of a brain hemorrhage at the Provo, Utah, hospital.

“Decisions to terminate life support for patients are not made by physicians,” a spokeswoman for the hospital said Monday. “They are made by family members or legal representatives of patients in consultation with health care providers.”

Coleman’s “advanced medical directive” signed in October 2006 named Price, 24, as his agent to make medical decisions for him.

“If I am unable to give informed consent to medical treatment, I want my agent to give or withhold such consent for me based upon any treatment choices that I have expressed while competent, whether under this Power of Attorney or otherwise,” the living will said. “If my agent cannot determine the treatment choice I would make under the particular circumstances, then my agent should make the choice based on what my agent believes to be in my best interest.”

The document, which was attached to a petition Price filed in probate court, included guidelines Coleman wanted followed.

See more at ABC NEWS on the issues surrounding Coleman’s death: “Child actor’s estranged parents want to know what caused their son’s death.”