Straight From The Hart

Here's a fairly recent one, written just a year ago. I definitely seem to favor the Fall season as a poetry theme when you look through my whole portfolio. The Painter of The Leaves He’s the God of all Creation He’s the maker of the rain His voice resounds like thunder His touch relieves our pain. His strength renews us daily He clothes us with His love The seasons are HIs wardrobe From heaven’s closets above His music created by songbirds The pattern of life He weaves But most of all He's an artist The Painter of the leaves. He chooses HIs colors carefully And from HIs palette retrieves The reds and golds of autumn He’s the Painter of the leaves When October turns into November And the doubter wants to believe It always helps to remember That He’s the Painter of the leaves. And should we ever wander And our spirit starts to grieve When life has lost its color He’s still the Painter of the leaves. Written by Joan Rowden Hart October 31, 2014

Here is a poem I wrote 8 years ago and it turned out to be rather prescient. At the time I was a pastor and wrote this poem for my people. Now I am rarely able even to go to church and I hope others have me on their prayer list. THE CHURCH'S PRAYER LIST I see your name each Sunday on the prayer list; I know your pain seems more than you can bear; I wonder if you know how much we miss you; How very much we wish you could be there. I tuck the Sunday prayer list in my Bible. I check it every day before I pray. It’s hard sometimes to understand God’s workings Especially when things don’t go our way. But He is in control, He never leaves us; He’s promised to sustain us all our days; And as you’ve testified, He keeps His promise And in the midst of pain you sing His praise. So as I pray for you MY faith grows stronger; It’s in God’s plan that we should bring your need Into the throne room of His gracious presence As at His feet we bow and humbly plead. That we woul...

My opinion column as published in today's newspaper. CELEBRATE ABORTION? In 1956 pro-abortion activist and feminist Gloria Steinem had an abortion. It was a decision she celebrated at the time and continues to celebrate. On April 19, 2012, T-shirts were on sale at the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a picture of a smiling Steinem wearing a shirt with the words “I had an abortion. Do you really need to inconvenience yourself for the next 18 years?” Several years ago in Humboldt County, California, Planned Parenthood held a 40 day prayer vigil for abortion. They used a prayer guide found on Planned Parenthood.org which encourages pro-abortion supporters to offer prayers of thanks for abortion providers and the “sacred care” they provide. Each day, Planned Parenthood suggested a prayer, for example: “We give thanks for the doctors who provide quality abortion care. We pray for a cloud of gentleness to surround every abortion facility. We pray for all the staff at ab...

My column which appeared in today's paper, a day late due to not feeling well Tuesday. KERRY'S FAMILY TREE When Secretary of State John Kerry was photographed in November 2013 in Geneva shaking hands with his Iranian counterpart Mohammed Javed Zarif at the beginning of the Iranian nuclear negotiations only a handful of people in the entire world knew that this was not the first time these two men had met. They were introduced in 2004 by George Soros, a billionaire and political king-maker who has bankrolled many liberal politicians and causes over the years. Soros had invested thousands of dollars in Kerry’s failed presidential bid in 2004, and was looking for a way to recoup at least some of that money by using Kerry to work with Zarif to resolve outstanding issues between the U.S. and Iran in the making since 2003 under the name “Grand Bargain”. At the time he introduced the two men, Zarif was the Ambassador to the United Nations from the Islamic Republic of Iran, and S...

If you are a gun owner who receives a Social Security disability check from the U.S. Treasury but you have chosen, for whatever reason, to have someone help you manage your finances, whether you are just forgetful or not good at keeping your checkbook balanced, and have asked for help from a family member or another fiduciary, the Obama administration has a plan in the works to take your guns away from you. The Executive Order is part of the President’s plan to strengthen gun control after the shooting incident at Sandy Hook elementary school in 2012, when twenty school children were massacred by a young man from the community. The plan, which is among 23 executive orders issued by the President to the Department of Justice, could affect millions whose disability payments are handled by others in an effort to bring the Social Security Administration into line with laws that prevent gun sales to felons, drug addicts, illegal immigrants and others. It is consistent with Surgeon G...

My column from today's paper. I know I complain sometimes about LDR but that's only because I want it to be good. But aside from that I am such a believer in small town newspapers, I think they are very important.**************** Some people, it is said, are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. That was not me. But I had something better. I was born with a pen in one hand and a newspaper in the other. I cannot remember when I have not loved newspapers. Once I had mastered a few words from “Dick and Jane” in the first grade reading books at the country school in Washington District where I began my education under the able tutelage of Mrs. Ruth Garrett, I knew I had found my calling to become a lifelong reader. I found an old newspaper in the farmhouse where I lived. I don’t remember much about those early days of my life but I remember that newspaper and I”m sure it was the first one I ever saw. It was a rarity in our home, and books were not readily available either....

My column from today's LDR: President Obama admitted this week that he has no strategy for dealing with ISIS. That means he never has had a strategy for dealing with them, he’s just been leading us on. In the meantime, the membership of ISIS continues to grow, crushing everything that gets in their way, whether it be cities or historic monuments or people. The number of fighters in the ranks of ISIS as of this time is all over the place, ranging from the CIA’s estimate of 31,500 to Kurdish president Massoud Barzani’s estimate of 200,000. Obama keeps passing the buck to the Pentagon, but Pentagon spokesmen say they are waiting on the president. And rightly so. I guess it’s my Bible study training from my years as a pastor, but I always go back to the origins of words to get an accurate meaning. “Strategy” in the Greek language means “the art of being a troop leader; the office of general or commander, and refers to a high level plan of achieving one or more goals under conditions...