21 Hours...19 Minutes!

         Usually, when I go four or five days without a new post it's because I have been down with something and such was the case again this time. There was a blessing though, as there also usually is, in that I could just lay there and listen to most of Senator Ted Cruz's 21 hour and 19 minute speech, or filibuster if you will, to Senate seats...and to America. It was not only American history being written, it was one of the great oratorical stands in our history, a history with the likes of Patrick Henry. I don't know if we have time to right this ship of state. If I were to guess it would be that we do not, that our presumption upon God's longsuffering with our rebellion has long since reached its limit, for His judgments upon us have already started, the greatest being that more often than not we cannot even distinguish good from evil nor right from wrong let alone choose between the two.
          If....God will have mercy upon us, then the last few days may have been a beginning in the political arena, for a great statesman, and a few other stalwarts,  have emerged out of a cesspool of ethical and intellectual delinquency...the United States Senate. If God's hand is indeed stayed then you may one day proudly look back upon what our House of Representatives and handful of Senators are attempting and say something such as "I remember those days....I was there!" To those of you outside of the United States, and there are quite a few who visit this blog, you are witnessing somewhat of a second American revolution, the rebels being.... freedom and liberty loving patriots with a reverential fear of Almighty God, needing only the heat of the cauldron turned up for the dross of our past sins to rise to the top leaving us dripping in the sweat of pure humility while seeking mercy and forgiveness. Whether we rise or fall, the hold of the Republican Establishment Class is broken and though when all is said and done that they may win here, there will someday be, should God will it, another crossing of the Delaware, and they and their political consultant class of mercenaries will lose that hold that stifles participation in our republic and fails to defend or even warn.
         Lastly, the censure, ridicule and recriminations towards Senator Cruz continue but the spell is broken. The more that they lambast good men and women, the louder and clearer they tell Americans that though they failed time and again over decades, though they long ago gave up trying, though they sold their birthright for a mess of pottage.... that they can cut the legs out from men like Ted Cruz but will find that he still towers over them on his knees and they can attempt to demoralize us but will find that a....plain, russet-coated Captain will not bow before the rostrum of elitism. I bring this older post back to explain the previous sentence:
        


plain, russet-coated Captains........Redux!

       .......A much more likely scenario for myself and others would be to work for principled true Republican conservatives for Congress and a third party candidate for the White House.  This pitched battle that is just commencing between Conservatives and Royalists is not a chance encounter. It has been brewing for many years and the Republican Establishment, or Royalists as I like to call them, have taken advantage of us, their base, time after time. They launched a volley this week announcing that 100 Republican donors, mostly gentlemen I presume, signed on to their cause. I gave this quote by Oliver Cromwell before but it seems extraordinarily apropos today: "I had rather have a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else." Here is the situation. As it stands now we could not win the presidency with a third party candidate but if America does not experience a reformation and a great awakening... then even winning both houses and the Oval Office would do nothing to stop the hemorrhaging. On the other hand should Americans return to the God who gave them their very existence, all the money in the king's purse could not help Karl Rove. Should God will it, the numbers will be there in abundance, both in 2014 and 2016! That is, should He will it that we even make it that far as a nation unscathed and unbroken.
 

.....in God's good time.....

 This from June 6, 2013

       I look back and wonder.....how did we come to this? What happened to the American people? How did a Marxist, if not an out and out Communist, become our President and then bring a crew of political hacks into leadership and administrative positions as our enemies licked their lips while planning our demise. I wonder... even though I know the answer. We are nothing...we never were anything...except that God used us for His purpose...to His glory. We once not only acknowledged His sovereignty, we bowed before Him and He responded by having mercy upon us in spite of our wanderings. He made us a great nation whose people were brave and courageous......and then we decided that we do not need Him. We were even ashamed of Him. We stood by as higher education ridiculed God. We turned our children over to the ideologues in charge of our educational system. We were seduced by television and more recently by the computer. God looks down upon us as we worship idols, the greatest of which may be our own Facebook image.
       The only bright spot is that Barack Obama's team has started his second term stumbling over the mounting lies, the deception and the outrageous vanity and arrogance characterized his first four years. Their scams are coming to light like decomposed bodies rising to the surface from shallow graves after a heavy rain. The momentum is changing and it would do us well to remember Winston Churchill's words to his country in their time of despair, June 4th, 1940. I'd like to use some of those words and paraphrase others and add a few of my own:         
 
      We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in the courts, we shall fight in the Congress, we shall fight on the airwaves, with growing confidence and growing strength in our schools and universities,  we shall defend our Constitution and should God first induce us to seek his mercy and forgiveness, and then endue us with fortitude and wisdom, then empower us to do his bidding and to rebuild His church, and should he will it to withhold His judgment, only then might we pass liberty and freedom on to our children, only then...in God's good time... might we be used once again.....for His purpose....and to His glory!

Defunding Obamacare

       I'm bringing this post back after only a few weeks because of reported developments in the House of Representatives today on the defunding of Obamacare. In a change of heart, House leaders will bring a "continuing resolution that defunds Obamacare" up for a vote. This is a necessary first step in the defunding process and very good news but as Jim DeMint wrote today..."the hard work is just beginning." There is a very real possibility that this monstrosity of Obamacare will be shelved, and if it is, with a head of steam, it may only be the beginning of Congress saying no to the politics of tyranny!
              
............................................................................................................................................................

August 30, 2013

DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP

        "We have met the enemy, and he is us," was the comic strip character Pogo's comment on the frailties of humankind. Walt Kelly, the creator of Pogo, borrowed a phrase from history and changed it a little bit for his main character.
         It's just about two hundred years since the Battle Of Lake Erie. As a matter of fact the Bicentennial celebration is about to begin at Put-In-Bay, Ohio on the lake. My wife and I were there this past weekend for a little getaway. We parked our car at the dock and took the ferry across to South Bass Island, stayed two nights at a bed and breakfast and rented a golf cart, the highlight being visiting the 352 foot Doric column victory monument to Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry who commanded the American naval forces in the battle that would have a dramatic influence on the outcome of the War of 1812.
         Let me give you a little perspective on the battle. Control of the Great Lakes was vital to both sides, the Americans and the British. There were not many ships involved but the victorious side would indeed control the lakes.  Perry's flag ship was the Lawrence which was named after naval Captain James Lawrence, a friend of Oliver Hazard Perry who had died in battle and reportedly uttered Don't give up the ship as his last words. Blue flags with these words, DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP, are  literally everywhere on the island and particularly the little community of Put-In-Bay on the north end.
      The Lawrence was incessantly battered early in the battle and four fifths of its crew were either killed or wounded. The ship was expected to surrender but Perry and its remaining able bodied men boarded a skiff and rowed a half a mile through cannon fire to the Niagara. Perry then continued the battle and by the Almighty's blessing, as he worded it in his report, brought victory to the American forces. He wrote the following words, which would be etched in American history, in pencil on the back of an envelop and sent it to then General William Henry Harrison, "We have met the enemy and he is ours."
         I was in the back of a crowded hall last night in Pittsburgh, it was standing room only, and listening to former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint in his Heritage Action For America tour to defund Obamacare, and afterwards the actions of Commodore Perry came to my mind as I thought they relate to Jim DeMint who was himself battered in the United States Senate and who when his time there had achieved all that it could, he, like Perry in his skiff, took command of another vessel, The Heritage Foundation, to continue the fight. I have written a lot on Jim DeMint throughout this blog. I wanted him to run for President and think that he would have won, and I've written that he is not  only another Reagan but a better than Reagan! Unfortunately, as I have witnessed, there are far too many who talk a good game on opposing Barack Obama but don't show up..... and I sometimes see evidence of Pogo's lament.....we have met the enemy...and he is us.

www.heritage.org 
    

A Violent Culture

The following post is from April of this year:

         There were instances in the writings of the Old Testament prophets where God pronounced judgment on the people and the reason was because they had become, among other things, a violent people....yet there were no guns at the time. The precursor to the violence was the denying of the God who had rescued them from Egypt, guided them and delivered to them a land of milk an honey. The people had tired of God, therefore He had left them to themselves, and they became a violent people. So what is the analogy to today.....just about everything except the guns. We too are a violent culture that has rejected the God who had rescued us from tyranny and delivered to us a land of  milk and honey and liberty and freedom. If a pre-born baby is fortunate enough to escape abortion, and also fortunate enough to be born into a loving Christian family with both mother and father, they will still have to navigate a culture that evicted its creator, its protector and sustainer.
         We are a violent culture because we have no place for God. Many citizens turn to guns to protect themselves in this violent culture and are now faced with the possibility of being denied guns by those whose rejection of God invited the violence to begin with. We had a nation of laws that kept order but those same people who want no part of God, want no part of the constitutional republic that gave them their liberties and freedoms.
         So we don't want God or the order and precision that He enabled the Founders of this nation to write into our Constitution. These people just want to be able.... to do their thing....free of God and His Word...and if they run out of money they will want your money, and they want your guns so that you don't get any ideas of protecting your money or your liberties. And they use the violence that has overtaken our nation as a pretext to limit our guns and our liberties. They claim to be doing this for the children but had sat back and said nothing as the children were offered up on the altars of feminism, greed, narcissism and self-autonomy.
         There is little wisdom anywhere in America and little discernment. Evil is called good and good is called evil. We are indeed defenseless but there is One who is able to thwart the rebel and open the eyes of the prodigal. Should God will it we as a people will turn to Him. Should He not will to do so we will simply become one more nation on the ash heap of history.

Peace And Security

         I've relayed this story in past posts quite a few times; someone once asked Martin Luther what he would do if he knew for certain that Jesus was coming back the next day. Luther's answer was that he would "plant a tree." His intent is obvious. We are to continue on this pilgrimage of our Christian walk right up until that time of the Lord's return, whether it seems imminent or not. I believe that Luther's advice was sound.
         This past Saturday morning I took a little day trip to some outlets about an hour north of our home. I reached into the glove compartment to see what R. C. Sproul cd's (www.ligonier.org) I might have on hand. One of them was on the Old Testament book of Amos which my wife and I had listened to previously. That doesn't matter at all to me. I listened to it on the way up to the outlets........ listened to it again on the way back.....and was in the middle of a third playing when I arrived back home. Does that sound fanatical to you. Well, it's about as fanatical as breathing. I might add that without this type of "fanaticism" we far too often wind up being influenced by the world's pastimes.
         This post today is really on one thought...one verse from the New Testament book of 1 Thessalonians. I bring it up because I rarely hear these words emphasized and expounded upon and because it is important in God's last days timetable whether the Second Coming of our Lord is near...or even nearer still. The verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Paul is writing here about the "Day of the Lord," that time when God will step in to judge the world.  He writes..."While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them." (ESV)
         It's important that Christians know that a false peace and a false security precede the beginning of the climatic events. I know that this concept is never far from my mind. I would be more concerned if the world started celebrating peace and security if than if they started gearing up for war.  That's not to say that imminent wars are not times of great concern. My past two posts speak to that. Rather it's more to avoid concern... only...only... when things are unstable. The "thief in the night" terminology of this same book of 1 Thessalonians should not describe the Christian. When the world says in unison "peace and security," it should draw us even closer to God's Word, particularly His prophetic Word.

Who Should Lead the Attack?

         The chaos in Washington D. C. these days has surpassed any other time in our history. There have been many times that we as a nation did not seek God's wisdom before going to war but never before have we contemplated war when much of our leadership could qualify as atheists if not God haters. Our enemies not only smell blood... they sense fear. Not the fear to attack Syria for this administration is perfectly willing to do that, but fear that if we do not appease radical Islam...by attacking Syria...that they will become even more emboldened.
         There's a story in the 19th and 20th chapters of the Old Testament book of Judges that we in America might want to consider. It records disastrous events in Israel revolving around.... an outrageous crime.... a coalition army..... and civil war. It is also very reminiscent of the Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
          The crime was a murderous rape of a traveler's concubine by a mob of men, a mob that first demanded that the traveler himself come out to them to be sexually assaulted. The men of this mob were from the tribe of Benjamin  The coalition is the remaining eleven tribes of Israel that form an army to bring the guilty men to justice. The tribe of Benjamin refuses to give the men over and a civil war erupts within Israel.
         Israel apparently did not first seek out God's wisdom in the matter! Their own council would suffice! Instead they only asked God which tribe should lead the attack.  God gave them the answer that they wanted...it was Judah, but Israel's much larger army of 400,000 men was then routed by the 26,000 men of the tribe of Benjamin! It was only on the third attack did God say that he would give victory to Israel who had already paid dearly in the loss of life while the tribe of Benjamin was eventually so devastated that from that time on they were known as the smallest of the tribes.


...........................................................................................................................................................


 The following post is from earlier this year:

The New York State School Prayer

             It was a little over fifty years ago that Regents of the educational system of New York put in place this short prayer to be read in classrooms: Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon Thee and we beg Thy blessings upon us, our teachers and our country. Some objected to this and the ensuing case went to the Supreme Court in Engel vs. Vitale where a six to one decision was rendered in favor of the plaintiff. Potter Stewart was the only Justice in dissent. This was a landmark decision that led to other court decisions that evicted Almighty God from the classroom. We have utterly collapsed as a nation since then as we have had assassinations, a war that was lost from within as was a war on drugs, a recently politicized and politically correct national defense, economic suicide through the bailout and stimulus, rampant narcissism culminating in the monstrosity of a Facebook culture, tens of millions of legal abortions and whole professions that have utterly failed their callings; plus we have a Manchurian President put in office by others who hate America...its traditions... its belief in God and its individualism and finally marriage between a man and a woman may be co-opted by those raised in an educational system that has officially ignored if not ridiculed... God. Would it be a good idea for Christians to resurrect that prayer, to start our day with it, to close our eyes at night with it on our lips, to recite it as we read of the latest horror story in the news and to meditate upon it each and every time that we see our flag flying in front of those schools, those court houses and post offices? I think that it would, only I would add we beg thy forgiveness and mercy to "blessings."

Syria Questions

         Dick Van Dyke has always been a favorite of my mine and often my wife and I sit in front of the television set for a MeTV's rerun of the Dick van Dyke show. I saw a clip of the 87 year old Van Dyke on Breitbart today. News reporters were following him as he strolled into a local art show. One of the questions that they asked him was about Syria. He turned serious and talked about being very concerned about what will happen if the United States attacks. I think that most reasonable citizens feel the same way but right now they are being fed a line.
         There are questions that I would like to be entered into this debate on Syria. Why is it that Christians are routinely murdered by Muslim mobs with hardly a word coming from our government but we are willing to risk a Middle-East war in outrage over Syria? Why do we ignore Iran and threaten its puppet?  Why are we always defending the radical Islamist? Have we forgotten who was responsible for 9/11, for passenger planes flying into the World Trade Center and people leaping out of those buildings to avoid the heat? Did the heroes of Flight 93 die at the hands of an organization that our government is trying to prop up?
         The United States military, or "my military" as Barack Obama has recently, and astonishingly....even sickeningly described them, has said that they are prepared for all possible contingencies. Really? Or were they pressured into making these statements? Let's take the time to get the full story.
         With Benghazi, the NSA and other issues that are closing in on this administration, and immigration reform and defunding Obamacare  seriously jeopardizing Barack Obama's agenda, the Syria situation seems to be a convenient diversion.
          In 1994 the Clinton Administration failed to step in to stop the genocide in Rwanda where estimates of 500,000 to one million people were killed. President Clinton said that he "regretted" that failure. A Wikipedia article on Susan Rice gives these clues on how she, as the National Security Advisor, might act today on Syria. As a then part of the National Security Council team in the Clinton administration she is quoted as saying at the time "If we use the word 'Genocide,' and are seen as doing nothing, what will be the effect on the November election?" In the aftermath of the Rwanda genocide she is quoted again, "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required." I would like her to be questioned as how much politics is playing in the Syria situation and also would she expound on her "going down in flames" comment? Particularly...does just she go down in flames....or do we all?
         The situation that we find ourselves in right now is that we have an assortment of people that chance could not have put together, who are extraordinary in their total lack of wisdom, untrustworthiness and history of political underhandedness, who are making a decision for war. Barack Obama's allegiances are in doubt along with that of a number of people he has brought to government, John Kerry is about the last person one should consult on any matters of national security, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and John Boehner are using this in an attempt to reestablish their fading leadership in the party. We as a nation have never been as bereft of wisdom in that leadership as we are today.
         One last thought is on Israel. It has no greater friend in the world than the Conservatives in America. Hezbollah is Israel's enemy and their biggest imminent threat. We understand that. Do not draw us into war on false premises. Do no join into Barack Obama's schemes for he will never voluntarily support you and you may lose much of your support in America.

Thomas Sowell

         Thomas Sowell's 2009 book Intellectuals And Society was, in my estimation, so profound that I wrote chapter reports rather than a book report and the following is the first one. His book has proved as prescient as well as profound and we can see the debris strewn far and wide of a community activist-Manchurian candidate with little to no paper trail who has been handed the reigns of our economy, our families, our national defense and our future. A Revised and Expanded edition was released late last year.

January 2010

         Thomas Sowell is a scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and author of numerous books. He's an economist whose works were very influential and a social philosopher who has the admiration of people such as Rush Limbaugh and historian Paul Johnson. His syndicated columns appear in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Fortune and numerous other media outlets. By his own admission, he was a Marxist in his 20s. He is Black and was born to a poor family in the South. A high school dropout due to financial reasons, he went on to graduate magna cum laude from Harvard and received a Doctor of Philosophy in economics from the University of Chicago. It is his latest book, Intellectuals and Society that I would like to write about piecemeal because of the importance of each chapter.
         According to Sowell, this is an age like no other in being influenced by intellectuals, who he describes as those who deal with ideas where there is generally no external test to determine whether those ideas are right or wrong. He stresses that intellect itself is not wisdom, pointing out the obviously incorrect belief by Marx that labor...is the source of wealth. He quotes George Orwell in "Some ideas are so foolish only an intellectual could believe them." What is needed to go along with the intellect, according to Sowell, is knowledge, experience and judgment. His answer to his own question of whether a financial genius would be considered an intellectual is a resounding No because they, along with engineers and even football coaches, are held to external standards.
          He points out that intellectuals, generally, do not administer the programs their ideas lead to. Thus the importance of this book, for the essence of many of the ideas that we struggle with in American politics, ideas that would restructure America and jettison its heritage, have originated with intellectuals, who according to Sowell, are unaccountable to the outside world. The author also points out that many of these ideas garner excitement in this culture and need validation only from those who tend to have these beliefs in the first place! An example might be (my thought here) the Cap and Trade, Global Warming initiative that is generally accepted only by those who might benefit from it intellectually or financially, and this in spite of evidence that its research was faulty at best and falsified at worst.
         Sowell concludes the first chapter of his book with examples of intellectuals whose theories were proven wrong, yet their reputations were enhanced! Lest one thinks that this book is simply an anti-intellectual diatribe, it is the opposite...for Sowell himself is one of those intellectuals, but one who has other attributes, all of which culminate in wisdom, of which he uses in his own realm of expertise.