Good morning,

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Friday, July 17, 2020
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• If you missed day one of the Republican Party of Texas' virtual convention...well, you didn't really miss anything. After nearly nine hours of technical delays, as credentials were not able to processed for delegates, Chairman James Dickey adjourned the body and they will now reconvene at noon today.
   
• Though the vast majority of the day was filled with a screen telling delegates to stand at ease, there were a few short video addresses from statewide officials. The first of those came from Gov. Greg Abbott.
   
• In his address, Abbott acknowledged frustration from conservatives over his string of unilateral executive orders in response to the coronavirus, and defended his actions. 
   
• "I know that many of you all are frustrated. So am I. I know that many of you do not like the mask requirement. I don’t either. It is the last thing that I wanted to do. Actually, the next to last. The last thing that any of us want is to lock Texas back down again.” –Gov. Greg Abbott
   
• Abbott also took time to defend the constitutionality of his orders, saying, "I will never abandon the Constitution, and I haven’t here."

• Texas public health officials acknowledged yesterday they have been over-reporting Chinese coronavirus cases for at least one county, due to local officials including thousands of “probable” cases in their reports to the state. 
   
• The state's reporting dashboard was updated with this note: “Prior to July 14, San Antonio Metro Health District (SAMHD) was not fully separating probable from confirmed case counts. On July 15, DSHS updated Bexar County and statewide totals to remove 3,484 probable cases.”Erin Anderson has the details. 

• On Wednesday evening, State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood) hosted a Facebook conversation with six Texas medical doctors, who all described the success they are having in early intervention medical treatments for COVID-19 patients.
   
• Hall asked questions that challenged the underlying assumptions being made by federal and state officials that existing drugs are not safe or effective, and the doctors he hosted debunked many of those assumptions.
   
• "It greatly concerns me that Texas has maintained a defensive-only strategy based not on facts, but fear. We are continuing to use tactics that don’t recognize what we have learned over the past months from doctors who are successfully treating this disease." –State Sen. Bob Hall

Please join me and the entire Empower Texans team in wishing our own Gabbie Shafer a very happy birthday!

Friday Reflection

by  Michael Quinn Sullivan

Along the Jordan River, between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, are the plains of Jericho – the mound of the ancient city and its ruins are visible for all to see.

But for today I don’t want to look at Jericho; we can discuss that place another time. Instead, I invite you to look west from Jericho across the plains to the Jordan River and Gilgal. Not much to see out there.

First, a little background. You might recall the story of Moses and the Israelite slaves leaving Egypt. As the Egyptian army was approaching, the Israelites were pressed against the Red Sea with seemingly nowhere safe to go. Moses was instructed by God to raise his staff, and the sea parted for the people to pass – with the waters then drowning their foes.

After that amazing display of God’s power, the people of Israel stumbled – they were afraid to take the final step and enter the land promised to their forefather. As punishment for their faithlessness and timidity, they had to wander the desert as nomads for a generation.

Some forty years later the Israelites were finally allowed to enter their promised land. Yet this time the raging waters of the Jordan separated them from their potential adversaries – the closest of whom are behind the strong walls of Jericho, a city they could literally see from the swollen river banks.

At Gilgal the Israelites were told to do, in essence, the opposite of what they did fleeing Egypt. They were told God would turn the raging river into dry land so they could cross into the enemy’s stronghold... but only if they got their feet wet in the dangerous river.

It’s one thing to have faith when we see the waters part, providing an easy walk to safety. It’s something else to have faith when crossing a raging river in order to advance into the reach of a stronger, entrenched enemy.

So it was at Gilgal where the men carrying the Ark of the Covenant stepped into the raging waters... and God then dried up the river for the people to pass. Leaving the comfortable scarcity of the wilderness, they stepped out in faith toward the certain fight of claiming the long-promised land of Israel.

Do we have faith to leave our safe places and fight the fights ahead? Rather than flee to safety, do we have the faith to rush into the enemy’s grasp?

Just as the Israelites did at Gilgal, we must with bold faith daily step forward despite our fears.