Defending yourself

Read this, and then I have some thoughts at the end:

BLUE MOUND, Texas — When two gunmen smashed through the glass front door of her suburban Fort Worth home, Kellie Hoehn didn't think twice.

The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital.

"I wasn't going to let them get to my babies," she said, recalling the moment when she pushed up the muzzle of the shotgun, pointing it away from her children's rooms.

Although the intruders told her to keep quiet, she screamed for her husband. She told her 12-year-old son, who was awakened by the sound of the shattering glass front door, to get his 5-year-old sister and hide.

"It was like a horror movie," her husband, 32-year-old Keith Hoehn, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "I thought I was a dead man. We're fighting for our lives."

With Kellie Hoehn clinging to the weapon's muzzle, her husband tackled the man who held the shotgun. She knocked the intruder in the head with a jar candle, giving her husband a chance to wrest the shotgun.

By then the tussle had spilled out onto the front lawn. Keith Hoehn shot one of the men who had a pistol, police said. Wounded, that man ran away.

Then the intruder who initially had the shotgun charged Keith Hoehn.

Kellie Hoehn told The Dallas Morning News that she screamed at her husband, "Shoot him, shoot him, shoot him."

Her husband fired the shotgun and the man fell to the ground. Then the shot man lunged a second time.

"Well, I shot him again, and I guess that was it," Keith Hoehn said.

Dakota Scott Benoit, 20, of Richland Hills, was pronounced dead at a hospital. John Garland Pierson, 25, of Haltom City, was in critical condition and in police custody at the hospital.

"I am not happy that someone is dead," Kellie Hoehn said. "But I am glad that my family is alive."

Police said Pierson was shot in the left arm and the bullet pierced his diaphragm and other organs but his condition was improving. He will face charges of burglary of habitation with intent to commit another felony, police said.

Investigators say the couple were just defending their family and probably won't be charged.

Three thoughts:

1. Probably won't be charged? For defending their family? They should definitely not be charged. And the DA should buy them lunch, since they saved the county the cost of trial, incarceration, and appeal.

2. Isn't this family fortunate they at least knew how to handle weapons? All of us should know how to adequately and safely use all three general types of firearm: shotgun, pistol, rifle.

3. I'll never fuss about jar candles again. Although, all things being equal, I'd rather get a handgun than have to rely on my Home Interior Consultant for home defense.

David Wells quote

The Courage to Be Protestant by David F. Wells | Ligonier Ministries

Everywhere in the marketing approach theology and Bible knowledge are downplayed, and then we are dumbfounded when commitment evaporates and ignorance reigns!" (p. 45).



This is a book that I want to read. This is one of the first quotes from it, and it just looks great!

But we're a little church!

I received my November prayer update from www.reachukraine.org and found this little story in it:


A couple of weeks ago we were a part of a church
dedication service for one of our key partner churches
here, in a city named Volnogorsk. Although this church
only has about 100 members, they have been involved
in planting 5 daughter churches, as well as helping to
conduct many evangelism events in their region. We
have partnered with them many times. The two photos
at top from right were taken during the dedication
service. Pray for God’s blessings on the church in
Volnogorsk and for their pastor, Sasha Romanyuk.


I want to challenge all of you who think that you are part of a church that is too small to do anything about reaching the world for Christ: GET OVER IT!!!! This church runs 100 people, and they have been a part of starting 5 additional churches to reach others. Please, let's stop making excuses, and start making disciples!

The final authority

I'd like you to take a look at this quote from EY Mullins.

"For all Christians there should be one authoritative source of religious truth and knowledge. To that source they should look in all matters relating to doctrine, to polity, to the ordinances, to worship, and to Christian living -- That source is the Bible."

I would ask you today, what is your authoritative source? An authoritative source is the source you will hold on to, believe in, even when other sources may contradict. What is yours? Is it the Bible? Or something else?

Without the Bible, we have no idea what lays ahead, because it is truly from the One who has been there, and still is, and ever more will be there. Cherish the Word of God.

Moving toward the Horizon,

Doug

Immunized

I have now been immunized against the flu this year! I'm so happy. I got a flu shot this morning, and they pumped a needle full of dead flu into me, so that I won't get live flu. It's a very exciting concept.

Well, it's exciting for people that want to avoid the flu. Unfortunately, we are tending to observe this same practice in our Christian life today in America.

We go to church, blah-blah through Sunday School, muddle through the songs, doodle through the sermon, and go home. Then we wonder why no one wants what we have. It's because we're showing them a Christian devoid of life, devoid of passion. And we are immunizing them against the real thing.

Don't be a shot against real, live passionate Christianity.

Moving toward the Horizon,

Doug

Second Amendment

The 2nd Amendment reads:
"A Well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." (Since different versions of the original Bill of Rights capitalize that differently, I left it all down).

I hold that this establishes an individual right of firearm ownership. However, and my life-member of the NRA father might disagree, I recognize several needs to regulate:
1. Felons: people that have shown a willingness to violate the law by committing felonies should forfeit certain rights. It's odd that some people want felons free to own guns, but not free to vote. The right to vote should only be suspended during incarceration, and forfeited for crimes directly against the governing of the US. Firearms ownership should be lost to all violent felons, and to embezzling CEOs, just because.
2. Certain types of weaponry: There is very little demonstrable need for the average person to own a fully-automatic machine gun. Or a rocket launcher.
3. Minors: we should not allow people we don't trust with cars to carry firearms.
4. I also support mandatory firearm safety classes in schools. Beginning in elementary school. (hey, California 1st Graders are learning about sex and homosexuality) At that age, children should be taught that firearms are tools that have one purpose, and that purpose is to kill either animals or people. Children should be taught to leave firearms alone, and to call 911 if they see a gun just laying around. Police should respond, take the weapon, and then, if the owner comes to claim it, require a safety training before they give it back. Kids will encounter guns, we need to teach them responsibility. (and for those of you freaking out about that, realize that most school sex-ed classes are based on the same principle. Do you object to those? It amazes me that people who object to abstinence-only sex-ed assume that ignore-the-gun is the best plan.)
5. I support mandatory safety training for concealed-carry permits. States may set their own standards, and the federal government can set a standard for a national permit.
6. In conjunction with CC permits, fingerprints of the carrier, ballistic testing of the primary weapon should be taken. This will deter criminal application.

I also believe in the responsibility of communities to maintain community-based militia/security arrangements. This should include weaponry denied to everyday citizens, and is more than just the National Guard. Don't forget that the National Guard can be placed under Federal command with a stroke of a pen. We forget that Lexington and Concord were essentially battles fought over weapons ownership. The British tyrants knew that armed colonists were a threat, and that people without guns were easier to abuse. Throughout history, we see that enslaved and oppressed peoples are first and always denied the right to arms. The Framers and Founders recognized that to keep America free, to prevent the government from becoming a tyranny, the people needed to be able to fight for themselves. Otherwise, you have neither a free state or a secure one.

Freeness of Grace

"I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, 'You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.' My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will."

--Charles Spurgeon

Our hope comes from the freeness of His grace, not from our own choices of the will. May you carry the love of God to all today, and present to them the truth, that the Master will lay hold of them. As we do so, let us not shrink back from the task, though none respond. Our obedience to the Master is our reward, and His hand the hand that makes success.

Moving toward the Horizon,

Doug