Thought For the Day: As For Me and My Household, We Will Serve the Lord

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” – Joshua 24:15 (New International Version)

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Back In ’81

Club Sways - Rocky TooCool
Back In '81
by Michael Doyle

Do you remember
Back in '81
It had all been done
Lighting our boots
With low grade gasoline
To ignite the spark
And let it burn

The show is the show
With jagged rhythms
And the leads that flow
We didn't know
Didn't know
Got to let it roll
Let it roll, let it roll

Jet black, Marshall stack
The plan of the attack
Not a note, did we lack
Not a regret to take back
The solid wall of sound
Came crashing down
Like a thunderclap wearing a jester's crown

Gotta slow the tempo
But hey, what did we know
We were punching it hard
Not to be the Strip's discard
Playing it full throttle
From bottle to bottle
Let's trust in one more good time

But I was a different man
Believing my own truth
Doing what it was, I think I can
Youth gone wild
A bit defiled
I was coming on strong
Playing for keeps even when I was wrong

Do you remember
Back in '81
The I said that I was done
Left the band, brother I was hurting
Thinking my soul was deserting
Leaving me one of the living dead
Guess that really was, something that I said

(c) February 2, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Supernatural Island - Saturday Night Dread Life

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First Principles: To Render Us Again One People Acting As One Nation Should Be the Object of Every Man Really A Patriot

“To render us again one people acting as one nation should be the object of every man really a patriot.” – Thomas Jefferson (1801)

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Thought For the Day: Too Often We Enjoy the Comfort of Opinion Without the Discomfort of Thought

“Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.” – John F. Kennedy

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Thought For the Day: Conscience Asks the Question, Is It Right?…There Comes A Time When One Must Take A Position That Is Neither Safe, Nor Politic, Nor Popular

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First Principles: To Prevent Crimes, Is the Noblest End and Aim of Criminal Jurisprudence. To Punish Them, Is One of the Means Necessary For the Accomplishment

” To prevent crimes, is the noblest end and aim of criminal jurisprudence. To punish them, is one of the means necessary for the accomplishment of this noble end and aim.” – James Wilson (1790)

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Interiorly Designed

Lighthouse Imagination - Barn Owl In Flight
Interiorly Designed
by Michael Doyle

The things that come along to discern this
That God places use where we can learn goodness
How then can we make the most of it and embrace
Where God has put us in our time and space

To make the most of heart, soul, and mind
To work out the best of what we might find
Most of our challenges are fought from the inside
And projected outward where these cannot hide

In the design of what makes up our minds
We find the patterns that too often bind
Are found in a world of changing conversation
We never truly bridge toward our destination

Edge to ledge forced forward to the brink
It is what we choose that brings us to think
Like Paul on a path of the untraveled road
From adversary to advocate of the Gospel told

Damascus is calling in his prideful persecution
Until in a pivot of grace, he is saved from destruction
In thinking, too often convinced that we do right
We are blinded before receiving the wisdom by light

By humility and gentleness comes the best appeal
To all that all that is good and holy to reveal
We are best off to approach the truth with kindness
Learning to turn abrasive to persuasive in our blindness

Perhaps a little less blindness in the face-to-face
It's better to be tactful in truths we embrace
Perhaps moving past being too overly oblivious
And resolving the problems that are obvious

Though we live in this world in need of His light
We do not fight the world through dark of night
We instead need to provide the light of love's power
To demolish the arguments captive in this hour

There is a need for gentleness not circumspection
With a need for grace in its full contemplation
Obedient in Christ and in our every single thought
To bring about the peace needed and always sought

The resolution to problems comes in different thinking
Not in the same process continuously linking
Where then are the life stealing tensions
And how might we best these through right intentions

Changing our thinking to change what it is we see
Our strongest thoughts giving way to possibility
What comes out in the traces of our minds
Comes out in our lives, so it is that we find

What is allowed in and then allowed to root
Becomes the basis of all we ever contribute
We give power to what is most paid our attention
This is why we must wisely live with intention

As we think in our hearts so then are we
Be careful then of what we take as authority
The Bible's lessons make the radical difference
And should be held in much accord and reverence

God's world is worn as our badges of signification
To be worn gently despite the glory's magnification
God's Word gives us the thrust of our authority
As students of this Word, we must share our legacy

(c) January 31, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Hidden Bottle - Rusty Lighthouse of the Imagination

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Thought For the Day: Tyranny Seldom Announces Itself….A Whole Government, Even A Democratically Elected One, May Be Tyrannical

“Tyranny seldom announces itself. … In fact, a tyranny may exist without an individual tyrant. A whole government, even a democratically elected one, may be tyrannical.” – Joseph Sobran (1946-2010)

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First Principles: The Best and Only Safe Road To Honor, Glory, and True Dignity Is Justice

“The best and only safe road to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice.” – George Washington (1779)

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First Principles: I Place Economy Among the First and Most Important of Republican Virtues, and Public Debt As the Greatest of the Dangers To Be Feared

“I … place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.” – Thomas Jefferson (1816)

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