Monday, October 28, 2013

MAY GOD GIVE US BACKBONE




I am currently attempting to walk slowly through the Psalms, learning more about the presence and power of God in our lives, as David and other Psalmists knew it.

As I started reading at Ps 11 and then into 12, I found myself thinking about the political situation we have in our country today.  Consider these excerpts:

The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. 
He observes the sons of men, his eyes examine them 11:4

…but the wicked… his soul hates.  11:5

For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice…. 11:7

“Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise”, says the LORD.  12:5

The Lord comes to this rescue at David’s pleading:

Help, Lord, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.  Everyone flatters his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.
12:1-2

Jumping back to Psalm 5:

Not a word from their mouth can be trusted, their heart if filled with destruction.  Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit. 5:9

And, going all the way back to Psalm 2, we find:

Why (how dare) the nations conspire and the people plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord.
2:1-2

The one enthroned in heaven laughs; and the Lord scoffs at them.
Then He rebukes them with his anger and terrifies them in his wrath… 2:4-5

Therefore, you kings, be wise, be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and trembling. 2:10

Then back to the beginning Psalm:

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. 1:1

He is like a tree, planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.  Whatever he does prospers. 1:2


So what am I seeing here?  I am seeing Psalm 12:8

The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.

Somewhere along the line, conservatives (the grass root Christians and others with common sense and values that mean something,) have allowed many things to pass right by us on the way to being comfortable and not making waves. We have given in to the pressures of the world and have compromised integrity to the point that it no longer means anything to those who need it badly as they rise up to lead in this country.

So what do we do next?  We search the Word of God for promises and prayerfully claim them in our distress.  We set ourselves up to pay attention and look for ways that changes can be made in turning the tide back, however slowly, to common sense and common values.  We elect people who speak with honor, if possible, or the next best thing, if not.  The next best thing?  Perhaps the one who lies the least or at least in the right direction? 

Sometimes it is just plain hard not to throw our votes away by voting for the one we know is righteous in our eyes but has no chance of winning.  This can, and often does assure the election of the most undesirable candidate.  This happened in 2010.  Many people refused to vote for Obama, but also refused to vote for the only man running who had the power to put him out of office. He was too middle.  He was too Mormon.  He was too distant. But he could have put Obama out of office. 

Sometimes we need to use our voice at the polls to put someone out of office, even if the one we vote for is not ideal to put into office.  He believed in common sense and common values and we picked him apart until he bled.  We are to blame for what is happening in this country because we did not vote Obama out of office when we had the chance. It was that close.

Then we need to keep each other updated and alert to ways available to sway this country back into common sense.  It is said that this idea may be hopeless; but nothing is hopeless with God.  We need to pray.  We need to pray a lot and we need to talk more and we need to speak up to those who continually put us, and common sense down.  We need to get some backbone and God is the only one I know who has any.  We need to turn to Him and listen to Him.  We need to practice common sense and push for common sense wherever we can.  And we need to be willing to vote the most evil out of office even when his opponent is questionable to us on some issues.

We need to prepare ourselves for the upcoming elections and strive to make sure that the one who replaces Obama is no one who worships at his feet or has the same goals that he has.  We must watch for every opportunity to set in motion that which will get him and his ilk out of office, even if we do not solidly support the opposition.  We must start there.  And we must do it by promoting common sense and common values, every chance we get. And we must stop taking pot-shots at the opponent and start taking positive shots at the one who can replace the one we need to replace.  We need to support change with our positive voices as well as our ballots.

May God give us strength, wisdom and backbone as we pray for and strive for a huge change to the better in this country. Amen.

Friday, September 27, 2013

CHEWING ON POLITICS CAN BRING ON TOOTHACHES





Trying to write what I am thinking these days about our political situation is like trying to pull all my teeth out at once, all by myself. In my 55 or so years of political involvement, I have never witnessed anything quite like this.  But tug-of-war tends to ignore the possibilities of falling off a cliff just to prove that you have made the whole thing hard for the enemy team to pull you down.  No one on either extreme seems to remember that there are hard-work ways to settle issues aside from bringing down the entire structure of our government.

Today the news is that Kerry signed a Nuclear power treaty that the Senate already voted down and that this country has been refusing to sign since it first came up in the U.N. decades ago.   In this article it is said:  The examples are piling up, and the conclusion is clear this is the most Imperial Presidency in over one-hundred years.  

My thinking is that Obama is the most imperialistic, but also, the most wimpy President of all time.  He has shamed us time after time in His inability to form a foreign policy, let alone stick to it.  He prefers to destroy the structure of this government here at home rather than deal with governments overseas.  He wants to be King of a broken country that will desperately need him to show the way and take care of all our pains.

Meanwhile, the Tea-Party is not doing us any favors either.  They are digging in their heels with demands that all changes must be now, and huge, or there can be no change at all.  These children are playing a game that is costing us our reputation, our dignity, and MONEY, lots of money.  Their fear mongering is costing us our very position as a country that others look up to and want to come to, or to become.  (Perhaps this is their way to discourage immigration?)

Are we, or are we not, fed up with his interference in our personal lives; his P.C. policies that take away our most basic rights to free speech and how we do business; the ever expanding government; and his careless commanding that everything will be done his way or no way?  Will we or will we not stop hurting the Conservative side with whiny side shows?  Will we ever get down to business and work our way out of the hole we have dug for ourselves. 

The way things are going, I am picturing us with “What does it matter” Hilary as our next President just because we cannot bring ourselves to be civil in the way we do business.  We have not given people any reason to vote for us; we are just hoping that people will see how bad things are, blame the democrats, then put us in office.  There is no way that that is going to work.

And it is way too late to defund Obama Care.  We have allowed it to become entrenched already:  Businesses are canceling insurance for their employees and are probably breathing a sign of relief.  People are already seeking out exchange programs and signing up with the private ones that are already in effect.  The uninsured, who are part of both sides of the political spectrum, are eagerly looking forward to having some kind of health insurance available to them.

To the Republicans (Tea Party or not) I say get over your tantrums and start making a name for yourselves as hard working members of our political system.  Men and women who are working toward real goals and doing it by grit and sweat, not by demanding the impossible immediate elimination of everything you do not like about our government. Change really is needed or we can count ourselves out.

Help me to not have to select someone other than a Conservative as President, or I will be writing in my own name next year when I vote.  I will not vote for the other side, but neither will I vote for this side, as it stands.  I just won’t do it anymore.

And, by the way, be prepared for Obama and his followers to find a way to go around the declared law of only two terms.  Be alert.  He makes up his own laws and trying to go for another term would not be wholly unlikely. Maybe that is just one of my nightmares, but it is a very scary thought.  Never forget what the duly elected president of Egypt did, once he was fully in power. Just saying…

Let’s get our eyes on God again and work things out firmly but amicably even if change comes slowly. Slow change is far greater than no change.

Monday, August 19, 2013

TOTALLY ILLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS ON ABORTION




Essentially, it does not matter what you believe about when life begins – at conception, at birth, after birth or somewhere in between – it is totally illogical to believe that what is happening is anything other than the development of a human being.  God gave all creatures the ability to reproduce and proclaimed that this reproducing would be “after their own kind.”

When a cow and a bull get together, they reproduce themselves in the form of a calf.  When cats or dogs get together, they reproduce cats or dogs.  Even when chickens lay eggs and they are fertilized, the chicks will be chickens, not ducks or geese.  This has always been true and recognized without argument through the centuries. 

But suddenly, it was decided – for the sake of hapless women – that when the sperm of a human man fertilizes the egg of a human woman, the result is not a human being:  It is just a growing piece of indefinable flesh.  And that brings on the irrelevant argument about “when does life actually begin?” Somehow that seems a far fetched type of question that stretches the truth to satisfy the need for an excuse to do the inexcusable. 

Any woman who has been pregnant and lost that pregnancy at any stage of the pregnancy, knows that what she lost is a child; a human child conceived by the meeting of human sperm and human egg.  It rips her heart out to know that she was growing life and that life stopped within her.  She lost a child and the crazy thing is that her friends who believe in abortion will be sympathetic to her because they, too, realize that she has lost a child, even in the early stages.  Illogical?  You bet it is.

Then there are the Pro-Choice women who scream about the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy using their own mothers as examples of women who should have had abortion available to them.  Wow.  These women must have had pretty miserable lives full of hardship and failure to make a statement like that.  “I wish my mother had had an abortion?”  Wow. Logic gets thrown right out the window on that one. 

Then I watch as humans strive heartily to preserve the lives of animal babies, even the unborn babies, and will stress and struggle though agonizing hours making sure that each and every animal baby gets a chance to live, but they support the aborting of live birth human babies who may, or may not be handicapped in some way and will make the mothers life difficult.  That one is so illogical that it pains me to even think about it.

And, just for reassurance of the truth that this is a human being, consider DNA.  Science has studied the DNA of caterpillars and has proven that they have the DNA of butterflies.  They hatch as caterpillars but they eat, and grow until it is time to cocoon and then they manifest themselves as the beautiful creatures they really already are by DNA.

That which is living in a human mother’s womb is just as surely a human being as a caterpillar is a butterfly.  Human DNA from two human beings join up to become one very special human being who has DNA from both but is now a separate being growing in that womb.  The DNA does not change as the baby develops.  It remains exactly the same as it was at conception.

The DNA signature has been established at conception and it is a very particularly structured human being that is growing in the womb.  Therefore, abortion kills a human being.  Anything else is illogical.

As for me, I believe that life begins before we are born.  God knows us even before we are conceived. Consider the case of Cyrus the Great, King of the Medes and Persians who was appointed by God to release His people from the stranglehold of the Babylonians.  This appointment was declared at least years before his parents even knew each other and maybe before they were even born.  God knows who each child will be and He reaches out for every single one in the hope that they will accept His love and follow Him.

The point is that my political opinion of abortion is that it is cruel and unusual punishment for unborn children, that they should be murdered just because they are not wanted.  That is a terribly cruel assumption, especially when many of these same activists also fight diligently to keep murderers and rapists alive because they feel that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment.  Totally illogical thinking once again.

May we be on our toes when this subject comes up and may we gently point the way to truth.  God bless those who seek to save the little children and to stop the slaughter of babies though abortion. Let us rely on Him for sharing His love to those who do not choose to understand.  May God bless each of you with wisdom and courage in this battle.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

THE KEY TO HISTORY




I shall begin my political blogging with this quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis:

That is the key to history.  Terrific energy is expended—civilizations are built up—excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong.  Some fatal flaw brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it all slides back into misery and ruin.

We can see some semblance of this happening in our country right now.  If only one line separated the two major Parties in this country if it might just this:  Who are these cruel people?  One party thinks it is the rich Republicans and the other sees the Government itself as the abuser of riches.

Personally, I see them both as guilty.  So now I will share some thoughts I have about the so called greedy rich Republicans—my own party.  You know what they say, “Start at home when you start analyzing what is going on around you”

But let me be clear here—I am not talking about just Republicans here, I am talking about the greedy rich period—what ever their party of choice.

In the last 30 years we have seen greed at it’s most selfish on both sides of the isle.  The government thought that making sure that everyone could buy a home was a good idea.  The greedy rich jumped on the band wagon and destroyed the housing market in this country because the people thought that was a good idea, too.  And they walked right into the trap, eyes wide open. 

The rich and greedy utilized these new rules with glee and excitement.  The not so rich enjoyed the greedy need to own the biggest house they could possibly get in the best neighborhood available, even though the mortgage would be hugely more than the recommended 30% of income.  No one on either side even considered the fact that 20% or 25% of income would be plenty enough to pay and still have an actual life to live in their new home. No!  That would be wrong in just too many ways.  So… well, you know what happened.  The rich got richer without any consequences while the poor got poorer and ended up homeless all over the country.  The point is that this was a collaboration between the greedy government and the rich and greedy corporations.

Meanwhile, each is blaming the other and I am blaming both.  Our Government has grown into a money hungry monster, eager to tax, tax, tax and then use those taxes to make themselves richer with higher and higher raises in income while pretending to shepherd the flock of poor and defenseless sheep that they see us as being. 

But the rich and greedy also crush the spirits of the poorer folk by continuing to make as much money as possible off of the suffering of those people   Unimaginable profits are posted year after year and raises and bonuses are taunted in our faces while wages stagger along at impossible levels for those who actually make these people rich.

Between the ever whining stock market; the speculators who bet on crop failures and oil shortages; and the major alphabet soup of corporation heads (who see only terrific profits for their own pockets and never consider reinvesting profits at the ground level0, they are destroying whatever soundness there ever was in our financial structure. 

Remember:  Some fatal flaw brings the selfish and cruel people to the top and it (the civilization) all slides back into misery and ruin.

This country has been sold out at every level:  Bribing our enemies to become our friends; encouraging those who hate us to be loved and honored more than those who are loyal and steadfast in favor of keeping this country strong;  Taking away our freedoms which are written as standards and laws in the constitution of this nation in order to pacify those who choose to be insulted by every move we make (even eating a ham sandwich in front of a Muslim at a table of “non-specified religious” co-workers);  Not to mention selling our country to our enemy while using the money we borrow to aid and abet other enemies.

The selfish and cruel are running this country and we are watching it all fall apart.  We must remain alert and we must speak up and vote when we have a chance.  But we must also refrain from slander and rumor mongering if we are to obey God’s command to be submissive to our leaders:  We know that in fact our leaders are chosen by God for whatever purpose He has in mind for the building up or tearing down of this civilization. 

Our job is to remain alert and pray over all of these unbelievable twists and turns That this country is going through and to encourage individuals we know to seek Christ and His love and comfort as all is crashing down around us.  It is not the nation that can repent and be saved; it is individuals.  And it is up to us to spread the Gospel and the Light of God among the down trodden and the rich and the powerful.  Only prayer and vigilance will make any difference in this mess we are in, no matter which party is in power.

May God grant us wisdom as to where we can speak up and make a difference in our towns and states and federally, but keep us from embarrassing Him with outbursts of slander and hate.  May we see the evil and pray for those who try to lead us down the wrong paths.  The path of this nation is in the hands of God and so is the punishment for those who lead us in the wrong direction.  May we pray for their souls and for their eyes to be opened to what they are doing.  And may we ask God to make us a blessing to someone everyday.  Amen.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

MY PERSONAL POLITICAL AGENDA




Returning America to Judeo-Christian Ethics


Some say our nation is not a Christian nation.  I have to agree with that.  It was not established to be a Christian Nation.  That was possibly the furthest thing from our founders minds.  A one church nation is not what they wanted at all.  But, those founders, who signed the Declaration of Independence, were highly aware of a need for following a Judeo-Christian ethic in our government and in our homes. 


They had come from a country that claimed to be Christian by law and that country was a mess.  The rich were encouraged to abuse the poor and the government and the churches ground the rich and the poor into powder every chance they got.  Any people or any organization that disagreed with the lawful creed of faith, were hunted down and imprisoned or otherwise eliminated.  The church of the land was the rule and even the government and royalty had to bow to the leaders of the church.  The citizens, rich and poor, had to live their lives to please the lawful church.  People fled to this country to get out of that situation.  So, no, this country is not lawfully, by statute, a Christian nation.  Thank you, God, for that.


But those who encouraged breaking away from England’s rule were, by and large, men with a great belief in, or respect for, Judeo-Christian guides for living.  The vast majority of those who signed the Declaration of Independence were actually Christians of various Christ-centered faiths.  They were neither Evangelicals nor Main-line believers.  They were just believers who saw the cruelty of being controlled by a country like the one they came here to escape.  And the politics of that country played right into the uneasy spirits of these people:  Thus the Boston Tea Party.


With much debate, these founders came to agreement on the most important legal and moral issues that had to be addressed.  They argued, they swore, they pounded their fists, but they discussed it all and came to a common conclusion:  The Declaration of Independence, followed by the Constitution (which was based on Judeo-Christian truth and ethics,) and the very specific Amendments to the Constitution which clarified many of their fears about governmental rule.


My claim to the right to write this blog is that I have lived under the leadership of 13 presidents, some twice.  I have seen prosperity and success and I have seen despair and hopelessness and, worse, treachery.  I have seen this country proud and I have seen this country ashamed.  I have never questioned the bravery of any man or woman who went into the military and did the job they were given to do, even if they went against their will. I have been ashamed of how some veterans were treated when coming home from war: now and in the past.  I am proud to say that I am an Army brat and I am proud of the 21 years my dad spent in the Army rising from PFC to Captain, just because he could. He was military through and through.


And now I have to sit and watch as our current President prostitutes this country over and over again; throwing money at our enemies to keep them on our side; borrowing money from sworn enemies so we can keep on throwing it away to other enemies who hate us. Not to mention going around apologizing for our freedom of speech and opinion and our willingness to take advantage of that freedom.


I am 100% in favor of law and order, as described long, long ago in the well known 10 Commandments; and in the summation of those Commandments by Jesus Christ a couple of thousand years later: Love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul and mind and love one another as you love yourselves.  I believe in personal freedom and the right of families to be families and to teach what they believe to their families, even if I disagree, or even hate what they teach.  I believe in the sanctity of home-schooling regardless of the reason for wanting to teach at home. 


I do not believe that the government should be telling us what we can say and what we cannot say on a Politically Correct basis.  I do not believe in abortion and I will say so, and say why, in this blog.


I believe that we have the right to love and I believe that we have the right to hate.  But I also believe that some hateful activities should be curtailed and even outlawed, but that free speech can be handled many different ways than slamming people into jail or forcing them, by proxy to the media, to be thrown out of their jobs and banned from society.


I have many disagreements about how this country is presently run, as I also have had in the past.  That is my right as an American citizen.  I will take what I am thinking and write it here so that I can be calmer and less agitated in my daily life about the political tactics happening around me.


But, most of all, I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior and what I write in this blog will definitely be skewed to that belief.  I am not ashamed of Him and I pray that He will not be ashamed of me as we write these thoughts together.  I just hope that my thoughts will help others clear their own minds or bring up things they can think about for themselves.  May we all celebrate freedom of speech even here as we meet in this blog.