Heads Up!

We cordially invite you to a couple of important Vital Signs Ministries events that are coming up soon. The first is the next Vital Signs letter-writing party. Well, actually there are two of them, each taking about 90 minutes. One is a morning brunch party on Tuesday, August 5th beginning at 10 o'clock with the evening event beginning at 7 on that same date. The location is at Denny & Claire’s home.

 As usual, we will provide recipient options, address sheets, stationery, and stamps as we write letters and cards to government officials, businesses, and Christian ministry leaders about such topics as the sanctity of life, religious freedom, family and moral values, and other biblically-centered concerns. And, of course, along with the opportunity to shine your light through letters, there will be stimulating fellowship with like-minded Christians and plenty of delicious treats to keep up your energy levels!

By the way, your RSVPs are very helpful.

And then the second event is something we did very successfully back in 2017 and that is a home showing on Saturday, August 23 of the outstanding, award-winning, one-man play, An Evening with C.S. Lewis starring David Payne. That DVD showing (informative, entertaining, inspirational) will take the place of Vital Signs Ministries’ quarterly Book Brunch and, though it too will take place at the Hartford home, will be at 7 in the evening with coffee, soft drinks, and desserts served during the intermission of the play. Again, RSVPs are quite important.

So, are you interested? We hope so. Give us a call, text, or email soon.

A Few Words from Sam (Sam Sorbo)

After hearing Kevin and Sam Sorbo speak the other night at a benefit for the pro-life outreach of Lincoln Pregnancy Center, Claire and I were not only impressed, we were inspired. Indeed, we've become fans and, from now on, we will be reading their books, checking out the movies produced by Sorbo Studios, and listening in to Sam Sorbo's podcast.

You might consider the same.

And, as a teaser, here are a few of the notes I jotted down as I listened to Sam's presentation. They are not necessarily direct quotes (I was writing down one line as I listened to the next!), but the ideas are nearly identical. 

* Lies bring death. And there are so many liars today with so few truth speakers. Do you know the truth? Then begin to share it! Share it boldly; share it often.

* Our culture denigrates the value of children. In our selfishness and hedonism (s well as our ZPG ideologies), we try to avoid them. If they show up, we murder them before they get a chance. We manipulate (and even surgically mutilate) children in the guise of “progressive sexuality.” We sell them to thugs to be abused in the most horrendous ways. And in our government school system, we make sure they remain ignorant intellectually, compliant to secular authority, and highly skeptical of religion.

* The Progressive State doesn’t want smart people. The Progressive State doesn’t want a free people.

* Instead of saying “pregnant,” let’s say the woman is “with child.” See the noble difference? (An example from her book Words for Warriors.)

* Don’t think of sacrificing for your kids as mere sacrifice, but as a noble, loving investment -- an investment in them and in the world.

* What do the government schools teach? Don’t ask. Don’t try. Don’t read. Don’t think. Therefore, don’t give your kids to the government schools.

Tim Tebow's Miracle Arrival

The following is the May 27 entry from the Mission Possible: One-Year Devotional by outspoken Christian champion Tim Tebow. Claire and I have been using this in our spiritual disciplines since back in November...and we have really blessed to have done so. Of course, I've been singing that tune since we began, but maybe reading posts like this one will be the spark for you to order your copy today.

At the very least, please pass this blog post on to your family and friends for it is a quick summary of a remarkable pro-life testimony.

Here it is:

Only God 

“Jesus said, ‘With people it is impossible, but not with God;
for all things are possible with God.’” (Mark 10:27)

In 1986, right before a certain missionary went onstage to preach before a crowd in a remote village on an island of the Philippines, he began to uncontrollably weep. He felt like God was putting it on his heart and in his head that babies all over the world were being aborted. And then God put it on his heart and in his head that he needed to have another baby. He already had four kids that were home on another island in another village with his wife, but he felt this need so strongly. 

He and his wife began to pray for the baby they hoped to have, and a while later, she became pregnant. They were so excited. When they saw the doctor, however, their excitement deflated. The doctor believed the baby wasn’t in fact a baby but a tumor. A bit later, more news: the tumor was, in fact, a baby, but the baby wasn’t healthy, and should the mother continue with the pregnancy, it could cost her life. The mother chose to trust in God and keep the baby. 

Her entire pregnancy was rough, filled with one ailment after another. But miraculously and much to the doctor’s amazement, the mother gave birth to a perfectly healthy boy. And she, too, survived. 

That day, I got to meet my mom. That’s right. That “tumor” was me. God has the power to accomplish what we cannot. Choose to trust Him, even when where you’re standing seems impossible. 

What impossible prayers do you have to choose to trust God for?

Ronald Reagan's Simple Testimony

I was sitting in a room, and across from me, about ten feet away, was seated the then governor of California and soon-to-be president of the United States, Ronald Reagan.  I had the opportunity to ask him some questions.  I said, “Governor, I would like to ask you a very important spiritual question.  If something were to happen to you and you were to die and stand before almighty God, and He said to you, ‘Why should I let you into my heaven?’ what would you say?”

His response was surprising.  He doubled over, put his head down between his knees and stayed there some time.  Then, after about thirty seconds, he slowly straightened in his chair, looked me in the eye, and in a very sober tone said, “I don’t deserve to go to heaven.  The only thing I could say would be, ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him  should not perish, but have everlasting life.’”

(From  D. James Kennedy's Risen Indeed: Evidence for the Resurrection, Coral Ridge Ministries, 2005)

“In the Storms of Life” – A Few Charles Spurgeon Quotes

Fresh from the handout given to our Sunday afternoon Aksarben Village church service audience last Sunday afternoon are a few ever-timely observations from the great British preacher of the 19th Century, Charles Spurgeon.

* “The more the wind rages the more you feel that the anchor holds you.”

* “Storms help to make the sailors sturdy, and trials help to make Christians strong in faith.”

* “Child of God, you cost Christ too much for Him to forget you.” 

* “You always need divine protection and, believer in Christ, you shall always have it.”

*“Times of trouble send our hope deep down into fundamental truths.”

*“The sweetest prayers God ever hears are the groans and sighs of those who have no hope in anything but His love.”

* “I would sooner walk in the dark, and hold hard to a promise of my God, than trust in the light of the brightest day that ever dawned.”

* “When you go through a trial, the sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which you lay your head.”

* “I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me up against the Rock of Ages.”

* “No faith is so precious as that which lives and triumphs through adversity…You would never have believed your own weakness had you not needed to pass through trials. And you would never have known God’s strength had His strength not been needed to carry you through.”

* “Doubt not His grace because of thy tribulation, but believe that He loveth thee as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness.”

A British Isles Christmas?

Christmas time is, as I fondly remember Andy Williams singing, “the most wonderful time of the year.”  And, among the many ways that Claire and I celebrate the season, one of the most delightful is having friends over to our home for lunches, brunches, desserts, teas, and dinner parties.  

Well, this year we have decided to take a decidedly British direction in our at-home events which means that traditional Christmas items from England, Scotland, and Wales will be "the staples of our table." No, we're not abandoning our Paleo lifestyle (even for Christmas) but our guests will be enjoying such tasty (and decidedly non-Paleo) fare as roast beef, Yorkshire Puddings, turkey, Bubble and Squeak, Cawl Cennin, cranberry dressing, various vegetables, and so on.  For the mid-day meals, we will be serving such flavorful offerings as Ploughman’s Lunch, roast chicken, Cullen Skink, the cheeseboard, Kilted Soldiers, Tattie Drottle, morning rolls, and more.  

And for the brunches, teas, and desserts it will be Figgy Pudding, cyflaith, Yule Log, scones & clotted cream, nut roast, mince pies, Clootie Dumpling, trifle, Eton Mess, cranberry muffins, etc.  An interesting and fun approach to Christmas entertaining?  Certainly.  But of still greater interest and fun will be the fellowship we will enjoy with good friends, trusted and true.

Roy Rogers' Rules (for a Life Well-Lived)

Remember when Hollywood actually helped parents raise their children with high moral standards, social responsibility, and patriotism?

Roy Rogers’ Riders Rules

1) Be neat and clean

2) Be courteous and polite.

3) Always obey your parents.

4) Protect the weak and help them.

5) Be brave but never take chances.

6) Study hard and learn all you can.

7) Be kind to animals and take care of them.

8) Eat all your food and never waste any.

9) Love God, and go to Sunday School regularly.

10) Always respect our flag and our country.

Denny Talks to Dr. Paul Kengor About Ronald Reagan's Christianity

It's another "blast from the past" from Vital Signs Radio.  Denny Hartford interviews Dr. Paul Kengor about Paul's book GOD AND RONALD REAGAN

A Few Pro-Life Heroes

Will today's pro-life advocates be seen as tomorrow's heroes?

I've no doubt that they will. At least, they'll be noted as such in the only history books that really count; namely, those that stored for safe-keeping in the heavenly library.

But please know that defenders of the sanctity of human life are already enshrined in history, even as they continue to make history every day. For instance, did you know that among the list of men who have stood against abortion and infanticide are the names of the following?

Theodore Roosevelt, J. Hudson Taylor, G. K. Chesterton, Dave Dravecky, Franklin Graham, John Calvin, St. Ambrose, Yehuda Levin, Roy Rogers, Rosey Grier, Peter Marshall, Gordon Humphrey, Phil Simms, Samuel Alito, Dr. David Livingston, St. Basil, Tony Evans, Sean Hannity, Rosie Grier, Lech Walesa...

Ronald Reagan, Mike Ditka, Alan Keyes, Frank Peretti, Pat Boone, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, Fr. Val Peter, Zig Ziglar, St. Jerome, Don Feder, Tim LaHaye, William Rehnquist, E.V. Hill, Marco Rubio, Nat Hentoff, Orel Hershiser, Justinian, J.C. Watts, John Elefante, Philip Rivers, Pete Ricketts, Charlton Heston...

Alexander Solzenitsyn, Norm Geisler, Rush Limbaugh, D. James Kennedy, Meadowlark Lemon, Henry Hyde, Mark Bavaro, James Caviezel, Jerry Falwell, Ignatius Loyola, Jesse Helms, Carman, Clement of Alexandria, Mel Gibson, Charles Colson, William Carey, Phil Robertson, Nick Cannon...

Pope John Paul II, Reggie White, Tom Selleck, Larry Burkett, Don Francisco, St. Vincent de Paul, Pat Buchanan, Wellington Boone, Augustus St. Clair, Kelsey Grammer, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John MacArthur, Tim Burke, Casting Crowns, Rick Perry, John Whitehead, Ben Stein, Steve Largent, Joe Scheidler, Kenny Chesney...

Francis Schaeffer, Martin Luther, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Monte Coleman, Andrea Bocelli, Keith Green, William F. Buckley Jr., Tony Evans, Scott Wesley Brown, Byron White, Chris Godfrey, Charles Swindoll, Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Pete Metzelaars, Edward Zorinsky, Jack Willke, Fulton Sheen, Tim Tebow...

Clarence Thomas, John Cardinal O'Connor, Josh McDowell, William Bentley Ball, Adrian Rogers, Chris Smith, Fr. John Powell, Phil Simms, Gary Bauer, Frank Wolf, Matt Birk, Kirk Cameron, Dr. Jerome Lejune, Dan Reeves, Benjamin Watson, Jon Voight, Dr. James Dobson, Dick Gregory, Chuck Norris...

Charlie Daniels, Bill McCartney, Cal Thomas, Earnest Byner, Joseph Sobran, Ed Cole, Phil Keaggy, Ray Bohlin, Tom Herr, David Limbaugh, Steve Taylor, Bill Armstrong, Anthony Scalia, Robert Dornan, David Alton, Joe Gibbs, Bill Bright, A. C. Green, Malcolm Muggeridge, Tom Selleck...and on and on.

Pretty impressive group? You bet. But, it's a list that only has full significance to you...if your name can also be included there.

So, how about it, fellas? Are you among this noble company?

For Your Weekend To Do List

Among the things you might like to get to this weekend? 1) Play some Christmas music. 2) Go to church. 3) Saunter over to Divine Truth bookstore (84th & Harrison) from 12-2 on Saturday afternoon where I will be signing copies of my novel "The Christmas Room." And 4) Find time to read these very enlightening articles.

* “A Humble Pre-Christmas Effort to Share My Enthusiasm for the Bible” (David Limbaugh, Town Hall)

* “3 Ways to Guard Your Christmas Witness” (Josh Manley, The Gospel Coalition)

* “7 Reasons To Worry About Our Millennial-Run Future” (Andrew Stiles, Acculturated)

* “Trump Doesn't Represent The Conservative Base” (Jonah Goldberg, Town Hall)

* “America’s Most Dangerous Demagogue Lives in the White House” (David French, National Review)

* “How The Senate Just Changed The Obamacare Debate Forever” (Nicholas Horton, Town Hall)

* “‘We are at war with militant Islam!’ A rookie senator notes what many fear to say” (Andrew Malcom, IBD)

* “Hillary Clinton’s most repugnant lie” (New York Post Editorial Board)

* “Tim Tebow Wins Without Scoring” (Mark Tapson, Acculturated)

Want To Do Better In Your New Year's Resolutions?

Does the cartoon on the left illustrate how your New Year's resolutions have worked out over the years? Even so, you shouldn't give up. Indeed, you can find new levels of success in your personal improvement goals by looking at them in a whole new way.

My sermon at Faith Bible Church yesterday was the last in a 5-week series on gifts: God's gifts to us of physical and spiritual life; various other gifts God graces us with (righteousness, the Holy Spirit, the fellowship of the church, trials to prove our faith, etc.); the gifts given by the Magi to Jesus; the gift of Christmas itself (being a careful description of the Bethlehem scene); and yesterday's subject, Our Christmas Gifts to God.

That's the first step in overhauling your ideas about New Year's resolutions. Don't make them a matter of self-improvement, targets that you're aiming at in your own wisdom and planning to keep through your own willpower. Take the 12 Days of Christmas (December 25 until Epiphany) and use them for meditation, prayer, and perhaps discussion with loved ones in order to come up with the changes the Lord most wants you to pursue. And then make those your Christmas gifts to Him.

Now I know some Christians are critical of the practice of making New Year's resolutions.  Some because they believe resolutions reflect more reliance upon one's own willpower than upon God's grace to effect change in one's life. Others dismiss resolutions simply because they've failed so many times in the past and have thus grown weary and jaded.

But making resolutions isn't really optional for the Christian. Think for a moment about the Scripture's use of exhortational verbs like "dedicate," "reckon," "count it," "establish," "consider," "purpose," "consecrate," "prove," "remember," "put aside," and many more. All refer to the prayerful making (and keeping) of resolutions to live godly. So, why not use the Twelve Days to go deeper than usual in one's spiritual analysis in order to better serve the Savior in the year to come?

Yesterday's sermon will be up on the Vital Signs Ministries web site in a few days and I encourage those of you who truly desire a higher grade this year with your resolutions to give it a hearing. But here's a few of the basic points for you to consider until then:

* God is a God of grace and, through the cross of Jesus, He is always ready to forgive sin and failure. And He's ready to empower His disciples  to begin again and again. His mercies are new every morning.

* The Latin word behind resolution (i.e. resolve) means to untie. And an awful lot of our obstacles to spiritual growth involve un-tying the knots of bad thinking and bad habits. To untie these knots, we need patience (and other virtues given by the Holy Spirit), better information (Bible study), higher goals (investments in eternity), and better influences (effective fellowship).

* Resolutions are not enemies.We need to embrace the benefits of spiritual growth -- liberation, peace, joy, greater effectiveness in ministry, and so on. We need to see beyond the work to the prize.

Okay, that's enough for now. Like I said, the whole sermon (involving several Scriptures) will be on the website soon. But in the meantime, go ahead and start asking the Lord to show you what Christmas gifts He most wants from you in 2013.

Wednesday Tea Break -- December 1967

For your tea break today (yes, it's a day late), I'm offering the three songs at the very top of the charts in December 1967. That would be the December of my junior year at Bear Creek High School in Morrison Colorado.

If I recall, it was a great Christmas that year.

Who am I kidding? I don't remember a thing about it. Too much "incense and peppermints" in my cocoa. But let's not go there. Let's go instead to three groovy tea break songs. You dig, baby?

Number Three -- Incense and Peppermints by Strawberry Alarm Clock. (That's their photo at top left.)



Number Two -- The Rain, the Park and Other Things (The Flower Girl) by The Cowsills.



And Number One on this date in 1967 -- Daydream Believer by The Monkees.

Back to the Blog

After those cataclysmic, highly distressing, but not quite unexpected election results, I took a week's leave from both the blog and Facebook. It was a needed respite from the political maelstrom -- a break in which to rest a bit, to ponder and pray, and to create the November LifeSharer letter which would respond to the election.

It was also a time to plan on action steps relevant to what the election revealed about America...and about the church.

That LifeSharer letter just went in the mail this morning.

If you'd like to receive Vital Signs' monthly letter (at various times a newsletter, action alert, religious essay, or often a combination of all of those) but you're not on the VSM mailing list, just sens us a request via e-mail or FB message. Plus, the LifeSharer letter is always posted on the Vital Signs Ministries website. This one will be there on Friday.

The break from the blog didn't mean I could break from other things, however. So, it's been a full enough week: writing that LifeSharer; creating a new "When Swing Was King" volume; doing a couple of "When Swing Was King" presentations; sidewalk counseling; sermon and Sunday school preparation; planning for this weekend's bed and breakfast stay with our literary club; and a lot of evening reading.

But for now, we're off for another "When Swing Was King" show.

Back on the blog tomorrow.

The Latest LifeSharer Is Ready

The latest LifeSharer letter is up on the Vital Signs Ministries website.

Check it out.

The Real St. Patrick

St. Patrick's Day is over but there's still a green mist lingering in the early morning air. It's a perfect atmosphere in which to read this essay, one I wrote several years ago for a "Weekend Vital Signs" radio program.

You can find "The Real St. Patrick" over here on our Russian-language website. And, yes, it's available in English too.

Wanna' Line Up With Tim Tebow?

Okay, you've now been entertained, and maybe even inspired, by the enthusiasm, humility, faith, work ethic and talent of Heisman Trophy winner and now Denver Bronco quarterback Tim Tebow.

So isn't about time you check out the remarkable impact he is having off the football field?

Indeed, the Tim Tebow Foundation is involved in a lot of profoundly important missions -- missions that are spreading faith, giving help and hope, and saving lives. The foundation's work is happening in Gainesville, Florida; Denver, Colorado; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta, Georgia; and the countries of the Philippines, Bangladesh and Haiti.

Claire and I have decided to join the team. How about coming along for the ride?

The Tim Tebow Foundation's website is right here. And over here is the Foundation's Facebook site.

Clint Walker Talks with Mark Levin

Calling all baby boomers!

I have a hunch you're going to enjoy listening to this radio conversation between Mark Levin and the rugged Western TV and movie star, Clint Walker. I certainly did.

Fun stuff.

Jane Russell, Christian Pro-Life Advocate and Champion of Adoption

What was generally not reported in the MSM obituaries of Hollywood superstar Jane Russell is that she was an aborted woman who deeply regretted her action, believed it was probably the reason she was unable to bear other children and, after returning to Christianity, became a vocal pro-life advocate.

Jane Russell adopted three children and founded the World Adoption International Agency which has now connected over 40,000 children from overseas to adoptive parents in the U.S. She also began a weekly Bible study at her home for believers in the film industry.

In lieu of flowers at her funeral, her family asked donations be made in her name to either the Care Net Pregnancy and Resource Center of Santa Maria or the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Barbara County.

Here's more from the Boston Globe and from LifeSiteNews. 

A Champion Dad Moment

In a post the morning after the Super Bowl I showed you this photo along with this comment: "The camera lingering on a teary-eyed Drew Brees holding his infant son while the colored confetti floated in the background was about the best thing I've seen on TV in a long, long time. Beautiful and compelling."

Not surprisingly, I wasn't the only one touched.

‘Don’t you live for that moment right there?”

That was former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason’s take on the final scene of Super Bowl XLIV: The Most Valuable Player, Saints quarterback Drew Brees, was holding his young son in his arms while his wife, young Baylen’s mother, looked on with a face full of joy — a loving family sharing a momentous personal, cultural, and historic moment.

It’s an image America needed. “Given that about one in four American boys are living apart from their dads at any one point in time, it is great to see a Super Bowl champion with his wife and son, and to see that this win is all the bigger for him for being shared with his son,” Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project and associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, tells me...

“The physical familiarity got my attention because it suggested the father actually knows his son, and the son his father, and that only happens from real time spent together,” Marquardt explained, “when mom and dad are sharing a home and a life. Even a busy football-hero dad is able to snuggle with and be there for his young son because they’re one family.”

“Even in a football stadium of screaming fans the toddler boy didn’t look anxious. He knew he was safe. He was with dad.”

Be sure to read the rest of Kathryn Jean Lopez' terrific column over at National Review. It's provocative and really well done.

Darwin vs Dickens

Gina Dalfonzo has an enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable essay here on the Breakpoint website contrasting the widely disparate ideas of two famous writers who both have celebrated anniversaries this past year, Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin. It is really a great read -- and one that doesn't necessarily require you to be "into" biology, literature or philosophy to appreciate.

If you are, all the better.

Gina is an accomplished freelance author but who, among other tasks, also serves as the Writer/Editor of The Point (Charles Colson's Breakpoint blog) and her own Dickensblog.

So go ahead and check out Gina Dalfonzo's "A Tale of Two Worldviews: The Dual Anniversary of Dickens and Darwin." You may want (as I did) to copy it to your notepad, print it off and put in your file drawer for later use. It's that good.