Good Morning Lord

Today is September 3, 2015

http://www.compass.org/communications/good-morning-lord/

 

Verse of the Day -- Ephesians 6:12

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers . . . powers . . . world forces of this darkness . . . spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

When someone does something sinful, be upset with the sin, not the sinner.

MINI BIBLE STUDY FOR THE DAY

Satan will be thrown out of the "heavenlies" one day, but until that time, he is still:

• The "prince of the power of the air."

in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. —Ephesians 2:2

• And the "God of this world."

in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. —

2 Corinthians 4:4

He has two main objectives:

• Keeping the lost lost.

I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. —Matthew 16:18

• Robbing believers of spiritual blessings.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ —Ephesians 1:3

So it's not surprising that everything sinful that we deal with each day is rooted in Satan's realm. The poor souls he uses to do his deeds have no clue they are working for Satan, their "father."

You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. —John 8:44

It's always good to remember that if it weren't for God, we'd still be there too!

Such were some of you, but you were washed, . . . sanctified, . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . —1 Corinthians 6:11

Gender-Neutral Foolishness in Tennessee

As a result of viewing the video posted @ https://youtu.be/-OBct3NBi3w, I sent the following note via email to the University of Tennessee Alumni Association:

To Whom It May Concern, UT Alumni Association:

Please remove my name and address (both postal and email) from all your mailing lists until such time as the University of Tennessee hopefully sees fit to abandon its current "politically correct" foolishness with regard to gender-neutral pronouns. The English language has only one such pronoun: "it" and the possessive declension "its." 

I am now ashamed to be known as a UT alumna!

God created male and female--period. One's sex/gender is determined by one's DNA. Cosmetic surgery, hormone treatments, and/or political correctness cannot actually alter God's creation.

With much disappointment and disgust,

Cheryl Juanita Rutledge, B.M., magna cum laude, University of Chattanooga, 1968

Cheryl J. Rutledge, Ph.D.

Musician, Retired Educator, Editor

www.AcademicEnglishEditing-DrRutledge.com

Now, I can almost hear a linguist breathing down my back with a “gotcha” correction: The 3^rd-person plural pronouns “they/them/theirs” are also gender-neutral.

But let’s more closely consider how the various 3^rd-person pronouns are customarily used. As for the 3^rd-person singular pronouns (as I frequently had to explain to my tertiary-level students in Taiwan, 1986-2010), “he/him/his” designates only a male (whether human or animal); “she/her/hers,” a female; “it,” an impersonal, inanimate thing. However, the 3^rd-person plural has broader usage: (1) a group consisting of two or more males-only; (2) two or more females-only; (3) a mixed group, both male and female; or (4) a group of impersonal, inanimate things, for which the possessive case has very limited usage.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported on Fri/Sept 4:

University of Tennessee President Joe DiPietro informed UT Board of Trustees Friday that a university news letter article advocating the use of "gender neutral" pronouns such as "ze" for "he" and "she" for some gay students will be removed from UT-Knoxville's Office for Diversity and Inclusion's website. [http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/sep/04/flap-over-gender-neutral-pronouns-ut-spurs-new-official-news-letter-policy-campus/323566/ ]

That politically-correct posting (diversity.utk.edu/2015/08/pronouns/) stirred up a hornet’s nest in the State Legislature, which controls the purse strings. The gender-pronoun fiasco was added to the agendas of the Senate Education Committee and Higher Education Subcommittee for hearings already scheduled for Oct 14 and 15. TN Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (R-Blountville) urged the UT administrators to resolve the issue quickly; otherwise, "the legislature will most certainly weigh in when we return in January" [http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/sep/04/senate-panel-review-gender-neutral-pronoun-po/323436/ ].

So, was I a little too hasty in shooting from the hip? Maybe, but I’m guessing that at least a few other alumni also complained. After all, some alumni have a little more clout after receiving our/their sheepskins. J

Cheryl J. Rutledge