Waiting for George

Today, rather this evening, I watched the Glenn Beck program and his topic was about George Washington.  I have heard Glenn speak about this many times and maybe you have too.  The issues and problems going on in our country today are to say the least, distressing.  It seems more and more, week by week, sometimes day by day we are introduced to a new level of stripping of our constitutional liberties and freedoms.  President Obama continues to wax on about how he is turning the economy of this country around, that soon if we give him more power through new laws soon he will put this country back on track.  My question for this is, what track is that and toward what kind of destination?

I look in the news paper and view the local political stories and I wonder who will be the county commissioner, the mayor, the governor that will lead with strength and with conviction.  Rubio, Crist, who will be our next Senator.  When I look to the gubernatorial race I see McCollum and I see Rick Scott, which one will be the conservative leader that will lead our state out of this recession (depression)?  We are all looking out to the horizon line wondering where we as a society are headed.  China owns us up to our neck, Greece is erupting each and every day because their economical system has become overloaded with giving out too many benefits such as state wide retirement at age 52 with at least 80% of your salary coming back to you monthly for the remainder of your days. 

North Korea or Iran would very much like to lob a small nuclear missile our way and detonate it in our atmosphere to create an Electro Magnetic Pulse which would ONLY disrupt the electrical grid for at least half of the continental United States and throw us back into the horse and buggy age overnight.  Biological warfare is now being looked at for the next decade and leaving nuclear weaponry behind.  Nuclear weapons, yeah, we don’t want to blow up buildings and make holes in the earth, let’s create bacteria and disease that were not natural to the creation of the earth.  Let’s create something and spread it around and no one but God alone will be able to destroy it.

Glenn Beck looks for another George Washington, someone who has principals and courage.  A person who has conviction and yet humbles himself to bend a knee to the Lord our God, the God of the Hebrews; someone who is open to the leading of the Holy Spirit someone who is willing to forego bribes and power grabbing.  We want a knight in shining armor, George rode upon a white horse and he was never ever wounded in battle yet his clothing sustained multiple bullet holes.  We are looking for a knight of a different sort today one that will charge after the cheats in finance and beat them at their own game buy shutting down the laws that allow them to manipulate our money to suit their financial benefit.  We hunger for a person who will speak to us in everyday language and will tell us the way things are.  As a society we say we want the truth when in fact, taking a quote from a movie,”truth, you want the truth?  You can’t handle the truth!”  What are we to do then, how can we move forward and regain what the socialists have so patiently and lawfully taken away from us, that is what really burns us up inside isn’t it?  That they did it legally and right out in the open and the country as a whole stood by and stated that none of those socialist/communist things could happen here in America.

If they had acted as a mugger and robbed our country from us in the dark of night using a weapon of some sort then we would have full license to hate them, to want them deported from our country’s boundaries and to never be heard from again.  Yes it would be easy and even convenient if not downright made for a t.v. movie.  But that is not the truth and it is not reality and waiting for a hero to come and save us is also not true reality.  In the movie of Spiderman II was a song sung by Nickleback called Hero.  The lyrics of the song say that we are in trouble and that we need a hero to save us, “but I’m not going to stand here and wait,” and that is exactly what we must do, we must not wait for a hero we must become the hero.  Good leaders are not born, they are made and that is a fact.  George Washington was a terrible leader in his early years and it was only after he had lost men under his command and had tasted humiliation and defeat that he dug deep inside of his soul and prayed for God to pull out what was inside, what would help him and his men and his country.  That is what each and every one of us must do.  We must ask God to reach inside us and pull up what He knows will help Him and this country.  George was a man who in the end realized that he did not command his destiny as the television commercials tell us.  If you want to believe that then you may want to ask God to help you see if that is really true.

As for me God has shown me that I can lead my life in my own ways and that is what free will is about.  God has also shown me that if I want to lead others in ways of truth and goodness, in ways of healing and of justice then I need to pay attention to His ways because He –God created healing and justice, He created truth and goodness, He is truth and goodness and all of the ways and behavior that are what mankind agrees are virtues and attributes worthy of all humanity to take notice.  When truth speaks the heart knows and the spirit of a person is moved internally, there is a harmonic vibration that resonates with truth.  Why do we need to wait for a George Washington?  We must become George Washington; we must become Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King Jr.  If we desire people of principle then we must become what we desire because to wait for someone else to be that for us only puts power into that person’s hands and that could prove to be dangerous.  It worked well for George because no one was looking for him; no one said from the day of his birth that he would be a man of greatness and that he would be the first president of the greatest symbol of freedom and liberty on the face of the earth.  The only country where Jesus is openly worshiped and where people of all faiths, color, backgrounds and economic level can be equal because as Americans we all place our hand on our heart and pledge our allegiance to this great Republic and to the people of this great nation.  We are it; we are the outpost of freedom in this world.  Without us, without America in this world darkness will pervade, it will act as a blanket and smother those looking for liberty and justice, for freedom from fear.  Darkness will have won.

Jesus showed the whole world that He overcame death.  He got up and walked out of a cave after being dead three days and showed himself to his closest friends to allow us to see that there is nothing on this earth that is stronger than He.  He is love of the highest level and nothing can destroy love.  George had love, the special kind of love that burns in a person’s soul.  A love that can keep you awake at night because you are driven to succeed with your mission. 

Do you feel that burning?  Do you find yourself talking to the television and shouting things that you know are true and steam in your living room because the local politicians are following the steps of congress and the white house?  Well, do something about it.  Write to your congressman or your local politician and tell them what you believe is the answer.  Not everyone can think of everything.  Just because an answer seems so apparent to you doesn’t make it so apparent to others.  You are the spokesperson for truth, you are the one, you are burning with a message and you have legal ways and means to deliver that message.  You will eventually know more about politics than most people in City Hall and you will be all the better for it.  Who will explain the truth to the young, if not you then it will be the communists.

Do not take for granted that others in Washington fight for the same causes you do and do not willfully give over your hopes and dreams to someone who seems like a new George Washington.  God only made one of those and for good reason.  He was a man whose life was meant for a lifetime of a country and we can learn from his experiences.  Only Jesus of Nazareth is the person who we are to put all our hope and faith into and He will not disappoint; all others are only creations of God who carry in them a spirit of Christ Jesus and it is that spirit that our spirit longs for.  As a moth to a flame, so are our spirits drawn to the Spirit of Christ Jesus and when we encounter a person who radiates a glimpse of the Spirit of Jesus we believe them to be our savior, our hero, our knight in shining armor coming to our rescue.  Do not be fooled and do not give away your hope so cheaply and easily.  You too can obtain the Spirit of Christ Jesus inside of you but you have to ask Jesus for it and you must give over your ambitions and desires for His ambitions and desires and yes Christ Jesus has some but we will save that for another letter.

Be the hero, be the truth bearer and make your corner of the world stronger and greater by being a reflection of the one who is truth.  Be the leader that your family needs or your town needs, we must not stand and wait for someone to come and do it for us, that is not the way of Christ.  The way of Christ is to be a light bearer and bring His spirit forth into the world ourselves to show the power of God.  To show that we do not have to be rich or powerful or persuasive, those ways are the ways of the world.  A true messenger of the truth is of common looks and plain upbringing.  God will use those whom the world calls foolish so that the Miracle of God can and will be seen by all.

Who's fight are you fighting

Is your social life a just one?

Jesus stated to some that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Some, He stated, were not far from the Kingdom. When we think of a kingdom we naturally think of a material, two dimensional places that we can drive to, walk to and live in. What if what Jesus was talking about and what we think are different? Wouldn’t be the first time, would it?

I bring this up because recently my attentions have been turned toward “Social Justice” and what that means. I will first state that I have no issues with offering tithes so that widows and orphans are taken care of. Next are the aged and infirmed and there are reasons existing as to why those people are not able to enter the work force to provide for themselves. After that, my compassion begins to wane as I look upon a full able bodied individual who is in possession of their mental and physical faculties but yet refuses to work. It is stated in scripture that if a person wants to eat they are to work (2 Thess 3:10-12). In Genesis our God is very clear that we are to sweat and toil for our existence (Gen 2:15). We can debate till the cows come home if it was about Adam and Eve’s sin, mankind’s sin, or sin in general. The fact remains that the God of creation deemed that we as His creation would toil for our existence until we are naught. So why then are we made to feel guilty if we hold back from giving our hard earned bread (money) to someone who has all reasonable means to make it themselves? (Eccl 2:24) I want to talk for a moment about something that smells like smoke, and I believe comes from the pit of hell, guilt. Not the kind of guilt we feel when we have done something offensive to God and to ourselves. This guilt is thrust upon us by society when they try to convince us that we are not being a good person (in their eyes). That society has created a standard possibly and most likely different from God’s standard (Jesus), and when they feel we have not measured up, we are chastised for it. This is what God tells us is not of His doing, but it is of the devil.

The devil, Satan, the lord of the air was allowed to roam this world while God has rule over the Kingdom of Heaven (Job 1:1-12, 1 Peter 5:8, James 4:7). Going along with scripture and taking it at face value because if we do not then we run the risk of devaluing the sacrifice of Jesus himself and then where is our salvation; looking at scripture we see Satan is still God the Father’s worker, he is still toiling for his existence. He is in this world and it is not Heaven. Jesus states that He saw Lucifer fall from Heaven, so that shows us they are separate places and wherever Lucifer is, it is not Heaven, Jesus told us so.

Why the push then to create Heaven here? I would say it is because that is where Jesus, God the Father and the Holy Spirit are, and there is light and love there. But I put to you this question, why do we think we can create Heaven in the midst of Lucifer’s world? People, we are being sold a bill of goods and it didn’t come from Jesus. Jesus stated to us what the Kingdom of God looks like through the Sermon on the Mount, the story of the protocol son, His examples of kindness, gentleness, acts of healing and words of Godly wisdom. All those are right and good and do make us feel so good, and we have our mountain top moments. And just like Peter, James and John we want to build tents and never leave (Matt 17: 3-5). We come away from those mountain top experiences and want to re-live it, recreate it, we want Jesus to be so close, and we want Him to call us good. So when we hear another “believer” call us something other than good, we start to worry about getting to Heaven.

So when looking at all of this with the mindset of “social justice”, it is not conscionable to believe we can create Heaven when we are in the devil’s kingdom. I am not saying that we should not help the poor and orphaned, the aged, and the challenged of our society, of course not. What I am saying is that while we are fixing a sandwich or dishing a bowl of soup for someone, clearing out our closets of unneeded clothing, there is someone in my church or yours who is telling us it is because the evil, mean and greedy farmers that those people are poor. It is because the laws of our society that those poor people exist. It is because of the consumer mentality of our society that we want and use these people for our own gain and do nothing to better their circumstances that is making us “bad” people.

This type of talk my friends is class warfare and it smells like smoke, and is from the pit of hell. The devil always has a way of taking what Jesus starts and puts a twist on it to distort it. That is what he does in this world, and it keeps us on our toes to discern God’s truth from the rest. We are not to hate or dislike someone else because of their house or boat or the fact that they have neither. We are to live the gospel, which is the message of good news that Jesus was born, is real, and made a way for us to be with Him and The Father for all eternity. That is the true message of love, and we are to carry that message in our hearts and share it with not only the poor of material wealth, but the poor of heart and spirit.

My issue is that there is bad theology being spread in our churches and has been for decades and it is false teaching. The concept that if all were given equal amounts of food, clothing, and money, that there would then no longer be starvation or poverty in this world. That to me is short sightedness and not of God (Mark 14:7). Whoever presupposes this is fooling his or her self into thinking that they can correct God’s creation. That somehow they can put mankind back on track after the incident in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden is proof that sinfulness lives in mankind’s heart even when surrounded by every good and perfect gift and is kept company by the One who is all love and all charity. True charity is sharing from the abundance of God’s blessings to you and offering it to others. Who are the poor? Are they always depicted by the type of car they drive or the type of house they live in? Jesus found true friends and believers in the house of Lazarus along with Martha and Mary his sisters. Scripture does not say they were wealthy in goods but I do believe Jesus saw their wealth in spirit. Zaccheus had goods of wealth but was humbly poor in spirit and revealed that to Jesus (Luke 19).

The next time you hear someone speak about the goodness of “social justice”; when you hear them depict that there are good players and bad players, good characters and bad characters think back to how Jesus taught. He did not set one group of people against another. He only pointed out their lack and what was needed to be done about it and from what source they would find the answer. He lives to point us toward our Father not an IRA, 401K or new Lexus. Jesus does not seek to show us how to harbor ill feelings toward those God our Father has blessed with the ability to create wealth. How those individuals divide up their spoils is between them and God, and they are answerable only to God just as we are answerable only to God about the gifts we have been endowed with (1 Cor : chapter 12). If a person gains through thievery, then they should answer to the law. If the laws are bad, then we need to work in our government to create better laws that are more in alignment with God’s law. It is not our place to sit in God’s seat and cast judgment over someone because of what we see on the outside. Thankfully God knows our heart and will judge us rightly and with compassion and mercy because He IS compassion and mercy.

Be careful my friends and look for Jesus in your heart and in Heaven. Do not look to create Heaven on earth because that is not God’s plan for us. Jesus will return one day and set foot on the Mount of Olives, and that is when the New Kingdom will be established, but not by human hands and not outside of God’s purview. A mindset that sets up good guys and bad guys is nothing other than the devil getting to our basic instinct to see ourselves in the place of those poor abused people, and we transfer ourselves into their shoes and it makes us want to fight back because we are healthy, fed and prosperous. The devil plays with us like pawns on a chess board, and he knows it. The devil is someone who knows your buttons and knows how to make you howl and bear your teeth. The devil is the lord of war in this world, and he brings death along with him (Rev 6:8 KJV).

Know whose fight you’re fighting.

Till we meet face to face or in God’s house,

I made those calls...did you?

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Hello and good morning, I am enjoying a day off from work and found this e-mail from Americans United for Life. I began Tuesday making phone calls to our Senators and Congressman pertaining to the health care reform bill. Today's e-mail message lists just another reason why this legislative monster is objectionable. However your beliefs pertaining to abortion this bill is the largest grab for control into our personal lives in U.S. history. At this point of the argument of the bill I will not debate on the issue of abortion as say whether or not this is an immoral act (for Lola and I it is). The bottom line is - should the United States government have the power to take your tax payer dollars and apply it to something that millions of Americans feel and believe an objection to on many levels? If a woman wants to abort a living, innocent, defenseless life living inside her womb that is between her and God and I am fine with allowing God to be God in that situation. What I do not feel is constitutional or legal is for the government to decide what is best to do with my money while disregarding my voice as a voter and tax payer.

Please watch the two minute video: http://blog.aulaction.org/2010/03/04/video-urgent-message-from-aul-action/

Please pass it along to others who feel the same way. Our voices need to be heard by our elected officials - even the President. The media presents the President as some sort of celebrity when in fact the office of President is a public servant position that is provided for by tax payer dollars and is issued public housing. The President is to be the decision maker in some cases but so is congress, there is to be a system of checks and balances to where one governing person or body does not diminish the other. As of this point as exemplified by the health care summit from last week even Chris Matthews of MSNBC commented that President Obama disrespected many of our Senators and Congress people by ignoring any points brought up that were in conflict to his agenda. In the end of the summit President Obama stated that the time for debate is over and that a decision must be made to move the bill forward. Dozens of political polls report every week the desire or interest in a public option health care plan is being rejected by the American people and the minority has now become the majority. We have something here that is larger than passing a public option health care bill, we have a President who ignores what you the American tax payer and legal citizen wants and is set on achieving his own agenda.

This is no longer the United States of America it is the United States of Obama. We are at the precipice where if we sit quietly and silently go along to get along our liberties will be stripped from us one by one. The President and F.B.I have already moved to extend conditions of the Patriot Act where they can (at will) choose who's cell phone they will monitor without the permission of a court order or warrant. While George Bush moved for this and initiated it and many objected, the Obama administration has chosen to keep it in tact and continue to violate the right to privacy when and where they so choose. It's about abortion and it is about so much more. This whole bill is constructed in such a way that the State gives the power and the privileges and the rights of the individual are ignored. Look at Govtrack.US under 3200 for the house version of the bill, the Senate version is only a few hundred pages smaller but has the same essential language. Taking away your individual rights and turning them over to the State government. It is not a boogie man scare tactic, it is reality. People ignore this because our society has become conditioned to believe only stuff like this happens in the movies, well, life is stranger than fiction and our government has gone a muck.

If you are opposed to abortion support Americans United for Life in what ever way you can. Make a telephone call to your Senators and tell them you are in objection to abortion being paid for with your tax dollars. Sitting by while knowingly allowing the government to use our money for this while we personally find it objectionable still makes us culpable because we know that it is going to happen and we sit and do nothing about it. At least if we protest and make telephone calls and write e-mails we are exercising our legal means to stop it. If those elected officials proceed against our wants and desires and can say in our prayer time to God that we have done all that we can do then the blood is literally on their hands and not ours.

We must raise the roof with our government and let them know they are not celebrities but elected officials who's jobs are paid for with tax payer dollars and they are in fact answerable to us (their employer) just as you are answerable to your boss whomever that may be. We accept a job position and understand that we are there for eight hours to serve them and not ourselves and they will pay us for our labor. Elected positions are the same, we vote them in but for the reason of being our elected agent with the authority to carry out our wants and desires, not their own. No one hires someone and pays them to just do whatever you want when you want and how you want. That makes absolutely no sense. Our employees are walking away from their job responsibilities and heading in essence to the break room or wherever they go to do what they want on our dime.

It is our responsibility as their employer to give them a corrective interview, to label out for them where they have not fulfilled their duties as an employee and list how we want them to correct the errors and misjudgments. If we are not doing this then the failure of our political and economic society cannot be held to them but to us. God has blessed this nation with opportunities for liberties that no other country on earth enjoys, not in the same ways we do. God has blessed us with the opportunity for self government and self elected leadership. To ignore this and allow it to go up in a ball of flame is like flicking God the bird and saying, "so what, who cares, it doesn't affect me in my life, I never asked for it and don't want it." Good stewardship also entails assuming and acting out in a responsible way and exercising our rights and privileges afforded to us by the people who fought and died to claim it as our own.

Stand with your neighbor and with me, let our elected public servants know they are missing the mark.

God's blessings to all of you,

Lou

May you have a Jesus filled day