Weary and worn?

Are you weary and worn in this storm tossed life? That question from the hymn runs through my mind a lot, especially when I'm doing something I do not like to do--housework comes to mind rather quickly. So often we get bogged down in doing things we think we should do instead of asking God what He would have us do. We get caught up in church work and civic work, never taking the time to be with the Refresher, and the carrier of our load. 


We have two promises that I can think of right off the bat, "The LORD lifts those who are heavy laden and those bent beneath their loads," Psalm 145; and "Come to Me you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest," Matt. 11:28


I wrote a post about talents and gifts and it was sort of a half post, I had more to say but now it has gone past the newsworthy phase. So, I've revised it into weary and worn because that seems to be hitting a nerve with Christians recently. 


I said in my post that the Master gave the talents according to the abilities, but did not give the abilities in that particular parable. The story Jesus was telling was not about abilities or what kind of abilities, but more about willingness to use the ability to increase what was given.


Obviously, the servant who received the most from the Master enjoyed using it to make even more. He wanted to make the Master proud. He obviously used it wisely because he doubled what he was given. In the exact same way, the Holy Spirit gives us motivations which spur us on to do God's work without becoming weary or heavy laden. We just need to know what our motivations are in order to operate in them to the fullest extent of our ability.


Take a moment and analyze what motivates you... What interests you the most, and how to you go about solving problems?


Let's take one example and look at how each of the Motivational Spiritual Gifts Paul outlines in Romans 12:6-8 would handle the situation. The gifts Paul lists are: Prophecy/Perception, Server/Minister, Teacher, Exhorter, Administrator, Giver, Compassion with Cheerfulness.


Let's say that in a neighborhood live all the gifts, please note that every Christian has all the gifts of motivation each in proportion to their abilities and in proportion to their faith (something most teachers of the Spiritual gifts forget to mention, but Paul does not).


One neighbor gets sick. Which of these reactions best suits your instinctive desire to help your sick neighbor?


__will take over meals, offer to do housework, run errands, mow the lawn.


__ will ask how she feels, empathize, hug, weep, stay by her bedside.


__ will find it hard to relate to her, but will take a good book and tapes, magazines, or read out loud.


__ will go right over and encourage her, share uplifting Scripture, make sure she is following doctor's orders.


__ will find out what she needs and organize the neighborhood to meet all the needs.


__ will bring food and other gifts, spend time talking and listening, or just sitting quietly.


__ will pray both privately and with her for healing, strength and endurance.


When you've figured out what your motivation is, then you will operate according to that gift and you won't burn out, get weary, or get worn. It is when we are doing things with a mistaken motivation of DUTY that we get overwhelmed. 


Have you decided yet which way you respond to a friend or loved one who is sick? 


1.  Server
2. Compassion/Mercy
3. Teacher
4. Exhorter
5. Administrator
6. Giver
7. Perceiver


Would you like to know more about these gifts? Go here

Video called Collateral Murder is a ‘soda straw’ view of war

I reported on April 6, 2010 the story that Wiki Leaks has posted a full version and a shorter version of a military operation in Iraq. They call it  Collateral Murder. The fact that they have editorialized the title is a good indication of the bias view of the subtitles and focus WikiLeaks has put on the leaked video. The video shows several men who are carrying weapons and two who carry cameras. The journalists carrying the cameras are from Reuters. You can click on the link and view the video for yourself. I recommend you study the thing hard because it gives only a slice of the real story.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates lambasts the posting of the video from Iraq in 2007 because it is a "soda straw" view of war in a Fox News article. I agree wholeheartedly.

There are so many who think that war is where everyone fights fair and plays fair, when any military person could tell you that is not the case. Just ask anyone who fought in Viet Nam. Wiki Leaks proclaims they have scientifically analyzed this video and declare that murder was committed. I watched the full version which is 39 minutes long, beginning with several men walking along carrying AK47s, and several others who are not armed, gathering together before they enter a building. It ends with the US Military finally blowing up the building.

I am proud to be an American, and proud of how our boys reacted to this clear and present danger. Perhaps there was a bit of callousness in the radio transmission, but after so many years of this kind of war, I have no problem with their judgment. What the military guys said was true. Once the weapons are spotted, permission is asked to engage, meaning to fire upon those with weapons. In a war zone, any person carrying a weapon, and is not a military friendly, is up to no good. The Rules of Engagement were followed to the T, every i is dotted and every t is crossed.

Common sense dictates that you do not bring your children toward a military engagement where shooting is happening, you would run the other way. War has been going on in Iraq for a very long time and people there know that the US military is not playing games. Our boys have suffered more from sniper fire, roadside bombs, car bombs, suicide bombers and the like. These fanatics are not playing games either as this jihad bears witness.  They did right to not hold back from engaging those with weapons who regularly hide behind women and children. A point which Gates points out saying, "Let's also face the reality that we are in a war and our adversaries ... use civilians. They purposely put civilians in harm's way."

They also did right by evacuating the little girl and getting her hospital care as soon as possible. They did right when they shot those who were trying to pick up the wounded because, if you watch closely, you see two from the van shooting missiles at the helicopter above. You can’t hear the hand-to-hand combat, or see it, but you hear it reported from the troops on the ground. War is nasty and there are casualties. Iraqis know by now, if there are military personnel around and there is someone armed close by, they need to run the other way… unless, of course, they are up to no good .

I’ll let you judge for yourself, but from what I observed, our boys were fired upon and met that fire with considerable patience. It was a military operation, carried out with military precision. I find no fault here, and I definitely am considerably ticked that anyone has the effrontery to call it murder.

You just knew it was from God?

            Numerous times God has spoken to me or given me a delight for encouragement. Oh, not out loud, but in such a way I knew it was Him talking to me.

            I was on my teeth-grinding drive home from Arizona after my second husband decided he didn’t want to be married anymore. I was devastated and yearned to turn back, yet God kept nudging me forward. Finally, the whole western sky was a brilliant orange and I heard plain as day, “I’ve got your back.” That night as I lay in a hard, motel bed, I was sobbing my eyes out and crying out to God, “Why?” “What is so terribly wrong with me?” I felt Him press me into the mattress, covering me with His hands, and I heard, “You are acceptable to me, beloved. You need only worry about what I say.” The next day, my heart was lighter but I was still angry.

            Along about Albuquerque, I was enjoying the sun on the snow. I’m a Southern Magnolia; and we don’t see much snow. It comes only often enough to know what it is when we see it. For miles and miles the pristine snow stretched out on both sides of the Interstate. A thought flashed through my mind.

            Why not bring some of that snow back to sweltering Louisiana? I didn’t have a thermos or ice chest, but I did have a plastic bag, and I decided to stop. At the next exit, I drove down the ramp and pulled to the side of the road.

            Angling from the Northeast, across the road through the ditch and around the maintenance building were some deer tracks. A jack rabbit had hopped right over those tracks. What a find! I scooped up those deer tracks and rabbit tracks into the bag, and tossed it into the seat next to me.

            Back on the road, I chuckled and then laughed out loud. God is so funny. Only God could have directed the timing of those animals and the timing of my arrival to the exact point of intersection on that day at that hour. All I had to do was glance in the seat beside me at that melted snow and I would grin. The lighter mood lasted the rest of the way home.

            I stopped in Amarillo for the night. It was freezing cold and it must have snowed after I laid my head down because I had to scrape a goodly portion of ice and snow from the windshield. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I set out early the next morning. The first flush of dawn was just a thought in the back of God’s mind because He had done a spectacular job on the stars. When I hit Wichita Falls and turned south, the sky was His crystal footstool.

            I remembered something about a green flash that happened right at the nanosecond the sun touched the horizon. This phenomenon happens because the atmosphere has a prism effect, or so I had read. Not many people get to see this because conditions must be exactly right. I believe God reminded me of it so I’d watch for it.

            The first rays splashed across that crystal sky so beautiful it took my breath away. I glanced back at the road with a sigh because the green flash had not happened for me that morning. I sipped my coffee and thanked God for the morning. Then the sky, right at the horizon, turned this deep, brilliant emerald green and the color flashed across the sky from east to west. I was stunned. It was one of the most spectacular things I had ever seen and it happened so quickly I could have missed it if I’d blinked.

            I pondered the wonder of that as I drove through Dallas and somehow the stress of other drivers packed around me going 80 miles an hour melted away. God reached down to me to give me a delight to lift my sore heart. That trip was best thing I could have done to start the painful process of healing. It was just me and God on the road. I learned a lot about myself and about God. He absolutely does care deeply about each of us and what happens to us. He’s right there every second, in total control… like with the deer and rabbit tracks.

            I brought those deer tracks home to my Daddy. What a hoot that was!

            “What’s this?” Dad cleared his throat as he peered through the water in the bag.

            “Deer tracks and rabbit tracks,” I tossed at him dragging my suitcase from the back seat.

            “Whaaaa--deer tracks!”

            I told him what I’d done and where I’d scooped up the snow. He started laughing then and chuckled every little while then he told Mom, “I’m bringing that to church tomorrow.” She just laughed, fully aware of the “Top this!” game that he and someone at church were constantly playing. They would each bring something back from a trip... some gag gift or novelty toy and give it to the other just to watch the grins and hear the chuckles from everyone. Whatever it was, it would cause a stir in folks as they tried to figure out what it was.

            On Sunday, after I got my coffee at church, I passed a clump of people peering into that bag of water and one fellow was saying, “Yeah... I think I see it. What was it again?”

            It’s a God thing.

            Blessed are ye who weep now, for ye shall laugh Luke 6:21b

LiveAsIf.org - Refreshment in Refuge - The art of prayer

LiveAsIf.org - Refreshment in Refuge - The art of prayer

Okay, I'm playing around with the Share This button on my column at Live As If...

Posted using ShareThis

Steven Seagal's dilemma

I was watching the news last night and was surprised when the anchor on WDSU said that Steven Seagal was being sued for sexual harassment. 


Truly, Seagal is weird. I've heard some of his beliefs and have they are a bit "out there around Pluto". But, I've seen him in action and some of his causes, and I find it very difficult to believe the story. So I looked it up on TMZ and while I was there, Megan Kelly on Kelly's Court had a couple of attorneys talking about the very story on her show on Fox News.


If you click on the title link, I caution you that this court-filed suit reads like a very bad romance novel (something Megan pointed out). It is explicit and I find it all extremely bizarre. 


Megan Kelly showed a clip from Kayden Nguyen (the plaintiff) in which Nguyen claims she can "trick any man to do" what she wants and that she can "get any girl she wants." 


There are allegations that Seagal has had other harassment charges. Where there is smoke and all that. It would seem that Seagal did not learn his lesson from the previous allegations which, according to Kelly, came to nothing. 


The 32 page complaint has a great deal of detail which actually turns my stomach. I couldn't read all the way through it. It sounds to me like someone started telling a tale and got really caught up in the story telling. 


First of all, when a crime has been committed against your person, you go to the police. If you don't trust the police in the area where the crime was committed, then you go to the police where the company is based and that is in Los Angeles. For me it is truly suspect that she did not run the other way when her new boss said that his wife wouldn't mind if she became his lover. That is a tell which is made of neon, and no woman should ever play the "wait and see" if words like that are actually said to an employee.  


Take a lesson kiddies... don't set yourself up for a fall. Make sure you keep far away from the appearance of evil, check people out before you "fall in" with them. References are good, then most likely you won't have problems. Still, you can't be too careful. 


Most people will abide by the Walls a person puts up. If you act like a sex fiend, then you'll be treated like a sex fiend. If you dress like a floozy, then you'll be treated like a floozy. I have such a sick place in my heart caused by the way some women dress, act, and talk. We were not designed to be that way. We were designed to be treasures, for a good woman's value is far above rubies. We should take this as a directive from God and strive for it.


One of Peter Marshall's sermons derided the movement of women to become like men. I agree with him. We are softer, made that way on purpose. We are made to nurture and to have babies while men were made to hunt and defend. We've gotten our purposes mixed up. 


No wonder women on the prowl are called cougars and men are actually puppies in cheap fur coats. However, to turn a phrase from a Mark Twain quote, "What would men (or women) be without the other gender? Scarce, sir .. mighty scarce." -- Mark Twain

Study Reveals Religious Differences Can Seriously Impact Work Environment | Everyday Christian

Study Reveals Religious Differences Can Seriously Impact Work Environment | Everyday Christian

Posted using ShareThis

Isn't it strange that we must have some social psychologist or social scientist somewhere do a study that we already know is fact?

Texas A&M diversity in sports director, George Cunningham, speaks out on how our religious differences make us "not fit in" and how when we work with people who have the same faith and beliefs we have, how we like our job more, like the people we work with more, and in general are happier workers.

So what do we do with this "new" knowledge? Does it give us more freedom to hire "like-minded" people when the new laws being pushed by our president are soon to make it more difficult to hire whom we like without facing incredibly risks of expensive law suits, especially when the LGBT or ACLU funds are thrown at lawyers to fight for the boy-dressed-as-a-girl to work in your day care center.

Whether Americans want to admit it or not, back in George Washington's day, people had the same beliefs in the same God, pantheists were unheard of, and this social acceptance helped put the United States on the map. They did not all go to the same church, but for heaven's sake, Thomas Jefferson held church services in the White House! It was the One True God our forefathers worshiped. It is high time the pursuit of Truth was literally endowed along with the right to the pursuit of happiness. Without Truth, there is no happiness because the lies that some are trying to choke our children with are leading down the road to destruction.

Talents and gifts

Is there a difference between a God-given talent and a God-given spiritual gift?


Yes, I believe there is. Doing a word search/study on Talents, we first notice that this was a measure of money back in Bible days. I think it is such a word play when we look at the servants of the harsh master. The Master gave each servant according to his abilities. To one, he gave five talents, to another he gave two talents and to the last he gave one talent. Noticing that each received according to his abilities is important. (Matthew 25)


The Hebrew word translated talent means round as in a round tract of land or a large, round coin. We say today that if a person is well-rounded, then he or she has sufficient skills and abilities to maneuver within a wide range of situations and/or problems with reasonable success potential. In Israel, a talent of gold weighed approximately 200 pounds. At today's prices, that would be about $3.2 million dollars for one talent (since gold prices fluctuate so much on a daily basis we'll call it $1,000 per ounce).


The Master did not give abilities, he gave the talents according to abilities. I find that so interesting. Paul tells us that he would not have us ignorant concerning the gifts so he describes them as Spiritual gifts in Romans 12 and in 1 Corinthians 12 which is followed closely by the Love Chapter 1 Corinthians 13.  That wasn't by mere chance. 



Romans 12:4  For even as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, 5  so we the many are one body in Christ, and each one members of one another, 6  but having different gifts according to the grace given to us...


The gifts are given so that we may actively participate in God's works through our functions.


In 1 Corinthians 12:21-26, Paul explains that each organ of the body has its own contribution to the body whether it is an "unseemly" part or a "seemly" part that needs no adorning, God has combined the various parts of the body, giving special honor to the humbler parts so that there might be no sense of division in the body but all organs might feel the same concern for one another. 


A finger cannot see the myriad colors of a calico kitten's fur as the eye can see. An eye cannot feel the soft fur of that cuddly kitten. Neither the finger nor the eye can hear the soft contented purr of that kitten, but the ear can. Put the organs together and the joy of the experience is not quite complete. We must have a hand to cradle the kitten and we need the cheek to ruffle the fur and the shoulder for the kitten to lay upon. Not once did the tongue have to do anything in that particular scenario. 


In order for the kitten to have a complete experience, however, the hand and fingers and cheek cuddle and stroke, but the soft voice gives great comfort as well as assurance that all is well for the kitten.
To say that a person must speak in tongues in order to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit is actually limiting the Spirit's usage of the whole body for a complete ministry of God's work.


We must not only know what to do, we must know how to do it. The Bible gives us that instruction, and it takes the whole body to absorb it to the fullest. Paul explains it thus:



1Corinthians 12:4  And there are differences of gifts, but the same Spirit; 
5  and there are differences of ministries, yet the same Lord. 
6  And there are differences of workings, but the same God is working all things in all. 
7  And to each one is given the showing forth of the Spirit to our profit. 

Differences but all of the same Spirit, given by the same Spirit for the same useful purpose which is the edifying of the body and the winning of lost souls to Christ.  Unity in purpose, but not uniformity in how we perform or function within that purpose. 

The only way to be perfect...

A difficult saying is found in Matthew 5:48: Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

How can we possibly be perfect?

Τέλειος teleios (tel'-i-os) complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter completeness: - of full age, man, perfect.

I like that "complete" part. Jesus makes me complete. No man, mom, dad or sibling, husband or wife can make a person complete. Oh... how long it took me to understand that.

Why depend upon anyone for my (your) happiness? Humans are fallable and will always fall down somewhere along the line.  But, Jesus never will.

Paul laments: Phi 3:12 Not that I already received or already have been perfected, but I press on, if I also may lay hold, inasmuch as I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. 13 Brothers, I do not count myself to have laid hold, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind, and stretching forward to those things before, 14  I press on after a mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Okay, so we're not perfect. But, wait!

Peter says: 1Pe 1:15 but according to the Holy One who has called you, you also become holy in all conduct; 16 because it has been written, "Be holy," "because I am holy." (Lev. 19:2)

Huh?

How? I'm willing, but how? Then I find:

Deu 18:13 You shall be perfect with Jehovah your God. Ah HA!

I get it. I cannot be perfect when I'm trying all on my own. I can only be perfect because of God, through God and with God. But, we are not perfect here. That is because of this human frailty and physical body and the sinful nature that Adam passed down to us. Jesus came and Jesus conquered and Jesus lives within and Jesus perfects.

The catch is that we must let go and submit to Jesus. That means let Him have rule over every corner of our heart, hold nothing back. That's a huge thing.

Being holy in all conduct... That means letting the Holy Spirit's fruit love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. (Gal 5:22-23) take root in our hearts. Easier said than done, I say. Which is why Paul assures us that God will continue to perfect His work that He began in us. That's a promise that we can treasure. 

The Amish way of forgiveness

I watched the movie Amish Grace last night. I hope you caught it, too. It was an astounding account of the way the Amish embraced an extremely troubled, yet ruthless man who was angry at God and wanted to offend Him by killing little girls of the Amish faith.

Sometimes, we see the tragedy and cannot fathom how God can make something good come from something evil. We blame Him, a good and perfect God, for all the evil that He allows. We step closer to the picture rather than backing away to get a better and more perfect view of the framework in which God works. After all He holds the universe in His palm. Who are we to rail at Him for choices another has made, or that we have made which results in consequences which suddenly surprise us? 

This story could have been just another hostage/massacre story which the news media glorifies for the space of a few days without much impact upon the lives of those who hear the story or read it in a newspaper. Yet, God put in place the people, the situation, the wherewithal for a troubled man who was otherwise a wonderful husband and father to murder five little girls and put five more in the hospital. 

Evil transpired that October morning. Evil pervaded the homes of those Amish people and filled the home of a woman who thought she had a rock-solid faith. When her world was rocked, she crumbled. When the Amish world was rocked, they took each hour minute by minute to offer up to our Almighty LORD the anger and pain and grief. The testimony that these people raised up to God, the glory that they brought Him touched the lives of everyone who heard or read about the immediate visit in the aftermath of tragedy they paid the broken widow of Charles Roberts. There are several quotes that are freshly poignant today as they were back when all this happened. An Amish  father noted, "He had a mother and a wife and a soul and now he's standing before a just God."*

And in another report, Amish community members visited and comforted Roberts' widow, parents, and parents-in-law. One Amish man held Roberts' sobbing father in his arms, reportedly for as long as an hour, to comfort him.**

People around the world were astounded by the Amish reaction. Christians marveled. Yet, this is precisely what God told us to do. In fact, Jesus told His disciples that we are to forgive period. If we do not forgive, then the Father in Heaven will not forgive us. 

That does not mean that we lose our salvation, as I have heard some use this verse in Mark 11:26 But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive your deviations.

It means that when we confess our sins as David did in Psalm 51, crying out to God to forgive his transgression, God creates in us a clean heart and He renews a right spirit within us. When we have not confessed our sin, when we do not acknowledge that we have sinned, then our spirit withers and our bones are troubled, Psalm 32:3  When I kept silence, then my bones became old, through my howling all day. And when we wallow in our sin, when we deliberately choose the path of anger and hatred, Psalm 38:3  There is no soundness in my flesh because of Your anger; nor peace in my bones because of my sin. 

Yea, though we walk through that valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil because the LORD is with us, because He is always in control, because He causes good to come from something Satan meant for evil. Good always comes to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. It may not be today or tomorrow, but it will come. We may not see it because we focus on the evil rather that the potential for good. Why do we do this? Our human nature seems to be perpetually negative focused rather than giving it to the only One Who can fix the problem.

We cannot please God without faith. Without faith we cannot cut loose from anger and hate. But when we offer that anger to God, then those pleasant words are a balm to our sore souls. Proverbs 16:24  Pleasant words are an overflowing of honey, sweetness to the soul and healing to the bones. 

How incredibly pleasant are the words of forgiveness to a trouble soul. It is like pouring oil on troubled waters, it is like Jesus saying, "Peace, be still."

*^ "Amish Search for Healing, Forgiveness After 'The Amish 9/11' Religion News Service. 2006-10-05. Retrieved 2008-01-17.

 ** ^a b Carey, Art (2007-10-01). "Among the Amish, a grace that endures". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 2008-01-17.

 

Christian college remove "Our Lord" from diploma?

I have heard some hugely asinine things in the past two weeks, but this tops the cake with burning candles...


A Christian university--Trinity University--in Texas is being asked by students to remove "In the year of our Lord" from their diplomas. 


Let's see... what part of Christian University is not understood? What part of Christian leaves out Jesus? 


Naturally it would be a Muslim student who considers it right and proper to even ask that the words be removed from the diploma all because "not every one believes in Jesus". I'm thinking that this person isn't Christian. So what possessed him (or her, I'm not sure what gender) to go to the university in the first place?


Get this...

The school's student government association and a commencement committee already has thrown their support behind the proposal. 

I must wonder if any of those students have ever read 2 Tim 1:8  Then do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner. But suffer hardship with the gospel, according to the power of God...


Or did they ever read 2 Tim 1:12  For which cause I also suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard my deposit until that Day. 


They want to "proudly display (their) diploma", which is a virtual admission that if the words "year of our Lord" are on it, they won't be proud to display it. How incredibly sad. 


It leads me to question the intelligence of the student, the student government association and the commencement committee. I understand there are some reasons a non-believer would go to a Christian school. Perhaps, it has the best reputation for certain curricula, but if one goes to Rome, one does not ask the Emperor to change clothes.


Asking an institution to change what is close to the heart of more than one hundred years of Christian identity just because "we want to be proud to display our diploma and not everyone believes in Jesus" is beyond the pale of indignity; it is down right blushing.

What is Social Justice?

I asked this question on Mike Duran's blog at deCompose (see the link on the left). The fact is, there is no definition of it, although the term first appeared in The Federalist Papers and, here's a cougher, in The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbons. 


The emperors of the Roman Empire should know. I found that out when I wrote a paper on it back in 2005. The economy was adjusted to placate the masses which resulted in an economic nightmare. Social justice was just an oxymoron. Here's an excerpt...

Growth, plenty, economic boom and the State had copious revenue, so much so that Augustus began huge public works programs when he “repaired all the roads of Italy and Rome, restored the temples and built many new ones, and built many aqueducts, baths and other public buildings. Tiberius, however, cut back on the building program and hoarded large sums of cash. This led to a financial crisis in 33 A.D. in which there was a severe shortage of money. This shortage may have been triggered by a usury law which had not been applied for some years but was again enforced by the courts at this time” (Frank, T. "The Financial Crisis of 33 A.D." American Journal of Philology, 1935 56(4): 336-41).  “The shortage of money and the curtailment of state expenditures led to a sharp downturn in economic activity which was only relieved when the state made large loans at zero interest in order to provide liquidity” (Thornton, M.K., and Thornton, R.L. (1990) "The Financial Crisis of A.D. 33: A Keynesian Depression?" Journal of Economic History 50(3): 655-62).

 Here we have a perfect example of the “invisible hand of the marketplace” being held by big government.  The time frame between the boom of Augustus and flop of Tiberius was just a year or two.  Did Augustus actually practice hands off policy?  Not really, not when there was an abundance of public works underway, and not when the taxes were lowered.  In the traditional Keynes philosophy, public works and lower taxes are government tactics used to give the economy a burst of energy.  In other words, government induced economic growth.  Augustus employed Keynes theory before Keynes was a twinkle in his daddy’s eye.

 

Did the depression happen because Tiberius hoarded large sums of cash (the economy was based on a cash flow system and credit was not widely used).  Was the zero percent interest a shot in the arm in Keynesian style?  In contrast to the laissez faire classical macroeconomic theorist point of view, yes.  Since the government was not keeping a hands off attitude but was digging deep into public revenues it was the beginning of the fall.  The emperors of Rome began to degrade the amount of gold and silver in coins.  This debasement of coinage caused inflation which led to the population hoarding the more valuable coins and paying taxes with the less valuable coins.  This led to a greater need for revenue by the government so taxes were raised and this resulted in the privately wealthy to be slowly robbed of their wealth.  The natural inclination of the patricians to hide their wealth came in the form of tax evasion. The sights of the government were then turned to the middle class.  These employed the tactics of the rich by tax evasion in various forms mostly by appearing to be poor or by outright selling themselves as slaves to the larger land owners.  (Slaves didn’t have to pay taxes.)  The constant drain on the empire’s coffers by the military caused a greater and greater need for more revenue.  The emperors put less and less gold and silver in the coinage.  It was an economic nightmare. Emphasis because it jumps out at me. It happened 2000 years ago, but could be today's headlines!

Does this sound familiar? Will we never learn???


Russia and other countries found out that there is no way to even or spread the wealth. Jesus said the same thing when He told his disciples when they became angry at the usage of some valuable perfume and an alabaster jar that the poor would always be with us. 


Glenn Beck gave his definition of social justice: Here's my definition of social justice: Forced redistribution of wealth with a hostility toward individual property rights, under the guise of charity and/or justice. 


That's how the Romans defined it, lived and breathed it. So how did that work for them? Not well at all. That kind of thinking brought a 10 centuries old empire to its knees and then flat on its face in the mud. Ours isn't half that old, but we will fall just as hard, and the impact to the world will be just as devastating.

Ex-gays get dissed by Disney

For the longest time I have known that the "tolerant" people are not really tolerant, only belligerent about their agendas. As long as we agree with them and accept them, then we're okay. But, when we diverge from the path, oh my! What a tangled web is uncovered when we open our eyes to truth.

Now we have one of the most militant in promoting homosexual "rights" saying that ex-homosexuals do not have any rights within their company.

Disney did not add ex-gays to the non-discrimination list of people who are not to be discriminated against. Of course this is a very serious matter because it is truly crucial to understand there are thousands who make a conscious decision to turn from their homosexual lifestyle. But, "they" [being that group of people whose opinion matters somehow even though they only make up about 4% of the population] don't want that statistic widely known, for how could anyone possibly turn away from such a "normal" lifestyle as homosexuality? [Please note the tongue in cheek!]

I am thinking, why do we even need a list for non-discrimination? Should we have a list for discrimination? It would most likely be shorter, or should be at any rate.

Then again... Why isn't Micky Mouse and Mini Mouse discriminated against? They never got married, did they? I don't recall... but, it should go down as the two individuals who could never commit.
Shouldn't Goofy be on the non-discrimination list? After all, he is one sandwich short of a picnic...
Donald Duck can't pronounce all his words correctly. He's got to be on there somewhere...
Pluto! With a name like that, how can he be normal?

It just doesn't seem right some how.

Praise report

I have been going through the process of applying to New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to earn my Master's degree. I've been wondering if this is really what God wants me to do because I had not gotten that epiphany or the Light on the road to Damascus that I was indeed treading down God's chosen path for me. A couple of days ago, I filled out the last of the paperwork and noticed for the first time that the insurance question was for hospitalization not  for car insurance.


Well...


I don't have that. So I thought, as I sealed the envelope with my $25 app fee, this is the road block that I was expecting. Nothing ventured, though. This just makes God's job a bit harder if this is the direction I am to go. So, I prayed, "Lord God Almighty, nothing is too difficult for you. If you really do want me at NOBTS, then you will have to provide hospitalization for me and as you know it has to be affordable... or you could give me a beautiful job that would pay and I could take courses off and on...


Yesterday, I received two letters. I opened the most important one first and there in my hand was a very affordable hospitalization plan with the first 2 months paid for me! I said, "Well, Lord, this is my answer. I believe you want me to go to NOBTS!" Then I opened the second letter and there was another plan, not as good as the first one, but that doesn't matter because it was God's 2 witnesses thing going on. I'm not just on the right track, but I am absolutely on the right track, plus this is God's promise that He will provide. Jehovah Jireh, amen. God had answered my prayer a long time ago. He made sure that those two offers which originated in different parts of the country, weeks if not months ago, to arrive in answer to my prayer the next day. In the fullness of time, all according to His perfect timing.

Israel and the U.S.-- problems, problems

I usually follow anything that is happening in the Middle East, more especially in Israel, because it actually is the Center of the Earth in a manner of speaking. God designed it that way when He blessed Abraham, and made Israel and all his progeny the Chosen People.


Now Joe Biden has come down with foot-in-mouth disease again, although it probably isn't his fault this time, bless his heart.


But let's put this into perspective. Pres. Obama has been showing more patience with Iran than I believe is safe. He's been saying, "Let's sit down and talk about it." After all they have all the makings for the nuclear bomb--the same thing that flattened two huge Japanese cities and ended WW2. Iran is not known for its diplomacy or for its calm dealings within the region, plus Ahmadinejad recently accused the U.S. of playing a "double game" in the war against terror in Afghanistan. 


But toward the one democratic nation in all of the Middle East, Biden "goes ballistic" at Israel for starting a housing project in a region that was never on the bargaining table with the Palestinians anyway. Here's a quote from One News Now...

Gary Bauer, president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, recently returned from a trip to Israel that happened to coincide with the Vice President's visit. He reports that the neighborhood in question had never been on the negotiating table.

"The Palestinians have never demanded that it be given up," he comments. "What we're seeing here is that Iran is building nuclear weapons and the administration has infinite patience. Israel tries to build homes for its citizens, and the Obama administration goes ballistic."

Of course there won't be any true peace in the Middle East until Jesus comes again. However, there isn't any need to antagonize our one solid friend there, especially when God has promised to bless every nation that befriends Israel. This is not shaping up to be a pretty picture.

Protecting children...

The United Nations has a program of sexuality education that is being promoted globally, which I talk about here. On George Barna's blog, I see him asking questions about how churches protect our children, comparing the British law,  Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act of 2006, to what many of us face when we volunteer to work in children's ministry in our churches. We rarely have to do anything, we rarely have to even fill out a form or submit to a back ground check.


The questions asked are simple, but quite frightening to me. Should we take a leaf from British law? 


It terrifies me how much our government has torn from our hands in the education department. We parents, obviously, can't teach our children properly about proliferation. We don't know how to teach about sexual conduct or the sex act, so government in the form of public schools must teach this. 


It is so scary that the president has embraced a person who has an agenda to make everyone in the U.S. accept that homosexuality is a normal lifestyle, and has made him the Education Czar with all the appropriate power to exercise his agenda.


I was incensed that the U.N. is pushing the idea that children as young as five years old should be introduced to sex education and that children should be assured that touching themselves, inappropriately in my opinion, is normal and natural. That just makes me sick at my stomach.


Slowly and insidiously our government is getting too big for its britches. Even now it is changing pants that have bigger and deeper pockets and is looking to fill them with our hard earned money. Big Government is not content with just our money, its long arm is reaching into the future to our grand children and our great-grandchildren. That gives me flu-like symptoms! Are we going to sit silently by and let it happen? Are we like blind Timaeus? Or will we be more like his son, Bartimaeus, who sits by the side of the road shouting for Jesus and asking for his sight?


We can't do anything within our own power, but we most certainly can ask God for help, and for the wisdom to do what He would have us do. 

Opposing Views... atheism rare in prisons

I read an article about atheists and agnostics rare in prisons making up less than 1/3 of a percent of the prison population. You can click on the title of this post to go to the article.

The conclusion of the study which prompted the article was that since there are so few atheists and agnostics in prison, they must live the most moral lives, shunning any criminal acts. The clincher quote is this:

In "The New Criminology", Max D. Schlapp and Edward E. Smith say that two generations of statisticians found that the ratio of convicts without religious training is about 1/10 of 1%. W. T. Root, professor of psychology at the Univ. of Pittsburgh, examined 1,916 prisoners and said "Indifference to religion, due to thought, strengthens character," adding that Unitarians, Agnostics, Atheists and Free-Thinkers are absent from penitentiariers or nearly so.

I think what was disregarded is that when a person is faced with a dead end, when he/she is at the lowest part of the gutter, they only place to look is up. There is an extraordinary number of prisoners who finally meet Jesus. There are also numerous people in the U.S. who profess Jesus but truly do not possess Him.

Another fact that was disregarded, or rather twisted, is that religion does not equal Christianity. I was born a Baptist, but didn't actually meet Jesus and take Him into my heart until I was six years old. Others go to church regularly but never have asked Jesus into their hearts. They are content to set on pews never hatching anything.

It is an erroneous conclusion to some interesting facts.

be still

I get to the screaming point. I want to shout out the truth, but to no avail.
I work and work at trying to be what God wants me to be and I always fail.

Help me, Lord.
Carry me over the fjord.
The chasm is deep and
I weep.

Dry my tears.
Release me from my fears.
Carry the truth to those ears
that refuse to hear
the truth.

Put back that hair that I have pulled out.
Rub the steel bands that are supposed to be my shoulders
for I am done with things as they are, to no longer look back and pout.
Whisper my name, cause me to be still.

Tomorrow I shall go forward,
leaving behind the crumbs and the rust
of broken things.
Tonight I shall snuggle under Your wings
for it is only You that I trust.

Great waste of taxpayer money!

This is an update to yesterday's post... I calmed down a bit and did some research.


I could still go into a diatribe about the stimulus money used to see the effect cocaine has on monkey brains, which was a brilliant idea of one college professor. It has something to do with how addiction works on brains. I am thinking that there are how many rehab centers? How many people who are addicts that would jump at the chance to participate in a study? Why do we need to get a bunch of monkeys high on crack and what how their brains react to the addiction? Give me the grant money. I already know the results. Crack Cocaine is addictive. The addict will do anything to get more to feed the habit. It takes a deliberate decision to want  to quit before breaking the addiction can begin and even then it might not happen. Okay? Where's my money?


However it was brilliant because he wrote a grant and it was awarded. The Stimulus Money is supposed to create jobs. How many did this one create? ZERO. Oh, but it saved one professor's job. Any bets on it was the grant writer's job that was saved? But, that isn't what I'm writing about...


I received my letter from the U.S. Census today. It said that I would receive my 2010 form in about a week and that I should fill it out and return it promptly. It was postage paid by the U.S. Census Bureau. Bulk mail that would be about $.26 each or maybe $.24 each for non-profit status I am not sure how much the government rate is for bulk mail, plus the printing, folding, envelope stuffing, plus the cost of paper, cost of envelope, cost of black ink. Let's just say that it went out to about 115 million households to "Resident".


What are they thinking??? 


Why do I need a letter to tell me I'll be receiving another letter in about a week which will include the form and I should respond promptly???


Are we idiots? Oh, yes, of course we are. We can't think for ourselves... even though we have seen what the effect that crippling debt will have on our own incomes not to mention our great-grandchildren's incomes. We have told our Congressmen that we do not want this health bill to PLEASE start over and do it right! We saw that there were lots of senators bribed, placated, coerced and bullied into passing the present senate bill. But, no one is listening. Obviously. This latest political gaff which has wasted tax payers money is a huge clue that Big Government which H.G. Wells named Big Brother is muscling in on our pay checks so the huge gorilla sitting on our check books can have fun getting high on cocaine. What exactly would a drug crazed monkey do? Oh, sure! Use the political hammer and mash this huge square peg into the tiny round hole of our empty pockets.


We are now paying $57,500,000 if each letter only cost $.50 to print, fold, stuff, mail and the manpower to do it all, and the cost of gasoline to bring the mail to the post office (do you think the mail carrier could carry all that mail?) just to let me know to check my mailbox in one week.

Dictatorship in America

Is it just me or does anyone else get the feeling that our way of life is slipping away, and we are being indoctrinated with a One World System of government and socialistic brainwashing.

Why is it so important to repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" of the military? Why are our children being force fed the ideas that capitalism is a bad thing and a person who has worked for his wealth is not entitled to enjoy that wealth, but must "spread it around" at the dictates of the federal government? Why is the ObamaCare thing being rammed down our throats when we've been very clear about how we feel about it? This is not going to create more jobs. No one will truly get excellent care--all we need to do is study England's socialist health care to understand that it is mediocre at best.

I read an extremely good book by A.J. Cronin called The Citadel, which was about the beginnings of organized medical care in England. The subscription cards of workers were held by their preferred physician and the physician was paid by the company, not the patients. Doing research and going outside the accepted, or rather the traditional, way of treatment was not only frowned upon but was punishable by removal of the practicing certificate. If a doctor wanted to practice in a particular geographical area, he must either work for a pittance for the physician who currently held that geographical area, or wait until that physician retired and purchase the practice from him. Free enterprise was unheard of and if it was whispered, then the physician ranks were closed and the interloper was basically run out of town. There was no room for out-of-the-box thinking for the most part.

I kept thinking as I read, how awful that a person had no real choice in who treated his illness nor was prevention promoted. If we are forced down this path of medical mire, then it won't be long until this top heavy government topples America. Since the boxes of tea were tossed into Boston Harbor, we've known as a nation that heavy taxation cripples the economic growth of our pocketbooks as well as our nation. If we add to that a national regulation beyond Medicare to the medical treatment of every person, making it individually and corporately mandatory, then we are allowing Big Brother to take even more of our freedom of choice.

Our founding fathers were ever mindful that our national government not become a Big Daddy...

Though social policies sometimes governed the course of tax policy even in the early days of the Republic, the nature of these policies did not extend either to the collection of taxes so as to equalize incomes and wealth, or for the purpose of redistributing income or wealth. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote regarding the "general Welfare" clause:

"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his father has acquired too much, in order to spare to others who (or whose fathers) have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, "to guarantee to everyone a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." More...

When I was in college back in 1972, my personal part of the national debt was $18,600. Today, my personal part of the national debt is more than $40,000. That is only $563 per year... but wait! In 2005 my personal debt was $34,000+ which means that the government spending increased at least $1,200 per person per year since 2005. If the growth rate never increases again--don't hold your breath on this--then the burden of debt will increase per person more than $9,000 every five years.

The American people are shouting, Washington D.C., please listen up. No more taxes, we've been taxed enough already. American people, please don't stop shouting, even when our throats are sore and our bodies are tired. Our children are worth the effort and this country is worth it, too!

The OT saints that walked after Jesus rose from the dead

Were the OT saints that came out of their graves when Jesus died on the cross in glorified bodies or were they visible spiritual bodies? Look at Matt 27:52-53

If they were spiritual, then how could there have been witnesses to their "bodies being raised"? There is only one recorded account of a Spiritual body being raised and that is Samuel called by Saul through the witch at Endor. Samuel prophesied what would happen to Saul and admonished him for disobeying the Lord and seeking out the witch and trying to communicate with the dead. This is highly unusual because look at the witch's reaction! She screeches like a banshee! Nope. These OT Saints are not in Spiritual Bodies because that is exactly what God forbids and calls abhorrent.

If they were glorified, then humans could see them. Matthew is careful to record they came out of their graves after Jesus was resurrected from the dead.

They had to be glorified bodies and that means there are at least 2 First Resurrections. Jesus was firstfruits, then the OT saints, next will be the dead in Christ at the Rapture. Paul talks about that twice, I think. First in Corinthians then again in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

As I understand it, at death our souls leave our body and Jesus meets us or perhaps angels escort us (Luke 16) to heaven. Then when it's Time and God says, "Go get Your Bride, Son." All the souls will accompany Jesus. Re: 1 Thess 4:14 -- "even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus." In a piece of time that cannot be divided, the bodies of the souls will rise and be changed into incorruptible bodies -- New Temples, if you will, for the souls to inhabit. And in another piece of time that cannot be divided, the human Christians alive in Christ will be changed into their glorified bodies and we will meet Him in the air and will always be with the Lord.

Then next will be those that died during the Great Tribulation. Recall, the souls under the altar that cry out for vengence from God because of their beheadings... "How long, oh Lord? Then they were given white robes and told a little while longer."

According to my count, we have 3 resurrections of the First Resurrection kind or type of resurrection.

If you look at it any other way, those OT saints walking around Jerusalem in front of countless witnesses that recognized them for who they were, sort of sits out there around Pluto with no organized explanation and certainly not Biblical. Unless you have a better explanation?