Responsibilities of Citizenship

” For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matt 6:21 ESV)

Where is your treasure?  If we delight ourselves in the Lord, do we still want the same treasures the world values?  Do we not, instead, draw toward the riches found only in the kingdom of heaven?

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Ps 37:4 ESV)

If the Lord is our delight, would we not find deep satisfaction and, yes, even joy in doing the work He has set before us as Christians? Would we not turn away from the treasures of the world so completely that if Our Father in Heaven put worldly treasures in our hands, they would sift through our fingers like so much sand?

There is no formula, God sees the truth that lies deep within our hearts. So if you’re just going through the motions, there your heart is also. But if your heart is full and overflowing with the greatest treasure, the love of Jesus, could the treasures of this world hold any sway?

Now, as a citizen of The United States of America you have to ask, what sway does the lure of money and power have over the people we elect to represent us in Washington?  These men are pulled many directions by the other insiders, lobbyists and the pet cause de jour.  Many who hold these offices end up with connections to great wealth and opportunity that ordinary citizens don’t have access to.  The very people who sent them to Washington, entrusted with the future of this nation, are now relegated to We The little People.

There is no greater responsibility that We The People have as citizens than to exercise our right to vote with great care.  Men who are of this world don’t have the same moral compass that a man who delights in the Lord. If the lure of riches and power hold no value, We The People can trust them to exercise the power he holds with great care.

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matt 6:24 ESV)

If an elected official serves God, he, like our Founding Fathers, will consider what’s best for our nation, not just what will get them re-elected.

God Bless America!

Further reading:

Deitrich Bonhoeffer

Founded on the Rock

The Liturgical Year By Joan Chittister

The Liturgical Year is a glimpse into an institutionalized relationship with Jesus. The author seems genuinely moved by each of the feasts and celebrations that are described with fawning prose.  I will qualify my remarks with the following: I am part of a non-denominational faith and therefore have a fundamentally different view of the individual’s relationship with Jesus.  What I hoped to gain was an understanding of the different feasts and celebrations that occur throughout the year. What I found was steeped in the long traditions firmly rooted in the very things that were originally intended to bring one closer to God; but in my opinion have lost much in becoming part of the rote actions of the believers.  Followers of Christ would know Him better through a thorough study of the Bible.

I found this book disappointing in that it glorifies each rote act that allows the individual to be a part of the greater church, yet remain completely separate from a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior.  Our faith in action out in the world, obedient to his will, will do more for the cause of Christ than wallowing in traditions far enough removed to have become the surrogate relationship with Christ instead.

See Also:

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Phophet, Spy

Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was, as the title so aptly describes, Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.  Eric Metaxas uses Bonhoeffer’s own words, through letters and the recollections of those around him, to share the depth of Bonhoeffer’s faith and what that would ultimately require of him.  By guiding the reader through Bonhoeffer’s life, Metaxas helps the reader understand that to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his faith and his political actions were bound together so tightly, it was impossible to separate the two. When his faith required action against the evil sanctioned by the Third Reich, he did not falter or complain, Bonhoeffer simply obeyed the will of God unto death.

The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts.  For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil. ~Deitrich Bonhoeffer (Metaxas pg 446)

I highly recommend this book to all Americans as we watch the opening salvos in the Middle East of another attack on the Jew’s right to exist.  Knowing the history of the resistance to the Holocaust during WWII by Christians within Germany may help We The People  avoid complicity through inaction in the American political system.

…the longer the German people tolerate the Nazi regime the greater becomes their responsibility for the crimes which that regime is committing in their name.  ~ Anthony Eden (Metaxas pg 404)

Any Christian who reads this well written biography will be inspired to examine the question, “what do you really believe?”

God Bless America!

Also see:

The UnPatriot Act

Founded On The Rock

The UnPatriot Act

It’s time to re-assert America’s fundamental principle to not to have their Constitutional right to privacy completely obliterated by forcing a real debate and vote on the re-authorization of the Patriot Act.

The Constitution guarantees:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” ~ 4th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America

If the need to invade one’s privacy cannot stand up to the limitations and protections awarded by the Warrant process, perhaps it should not be invaded at all.  The Patriot Act was intended to protect Americans from the evil, faceless terrorists that threatened our peace and tranquility.  Because there is no accountability, it is difficult to believe that this broad power wasn’t abused and civil liberties abused needlessly.  My fear is that We The People descend quickly into the abyss of a totalitarian state, that this power granted for the purpose of keeping America secure will be used against We The People to secure the power of the political elite who seek to fundamentally change this country.

It’s important that pressure is applied to Congress to ensure that this unconstitutional bill is not re-authorized.  Fort Hood (TX) shows that even if they have the information, Americans aren’t any safer. At least if they have to go through the warrant process, there will be accountability if We The People are to be subjects of searches, surveillance or seizures.

CALL YOUR Representative immediately – a vote may get slipped in today.

God Bless America!

Related Posts:

Founded on the Rock

Don’t Shoot The Messenger

With growing momentum, the left has shouted the global warming message from the rooftops. While getting my bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, I had global warming spoon fed to me during a book report I had to do on Al Gore’s The Earth in the Balance. I rejected its message even before it was widely discussed.

That was then.  Since then we have heard the message morph into “Climate Change” and “Environmental Justice”, but it still has the same goal…to deprive American citizens of their freedom to think for themselves.  Written during WWII, F.A. Hayek, a member of the London School of Economics, saw this change in England, how much more do we see it now?

It is not difficult to deprive the great majority of independent thought.  But the minority who will retain an inclination to criticize must also be silenced. ~F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

We see people belittled and ridiculed for the audacity of merely disagreeing that Climate Change is a result of America’s prosperity.  Climate change supporters are deniers of their own inconvenient truth. There are periods of warming and cooling throughout the history of our planet that pre-date the industrialization of our society.

It is now difficult to discern who speaks truthfully and who has an agenda.  Dr. Landsea, a hurricane researcher warned that the IPCC’s agenda had become politicized back in 2005 in his Open Letter to the Community.

It is beyond me why my colleagues would utilize the media to push an unsupported agenda that recent hurricane activity has been due to global warming. ~ Dr. Landsea

I personally cannot in good faith continue to contribute to a process that I view as both being motivated by pre-conceived agendas and being scientifically unsound. ~ Dr. Landsea

The Chicago Climate Exchange, set up in 2003, stood to benefit from global warming alarm and subsequent carbon dioxide emission regulation from the EPA.  The question is why???  Why would then 2008 Presidential candidate Obama tell the nation our energy prices would necessarily skyrocket? How is that good for We The People?

Hayek’s concerns from a different time and place are just as true today. The common thread is the underlying reason why…

…every act of the government, must become sacrosanct and exempt from criticism.  If the people are to support the common effort without hesitation, they must be convinced that not only the end aimed at but also the means chosen are the right ones. The official creed, to which adherence must be enforced, will therefore comprise all the views about facts on which the plan is based. Public criticism or even expression of doubt must be suppressed because they tend to weaken public support. ~ F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

We The People must recognize that the continual erosion of our freedom as this fundamental transformation seeks to socialize this nation requires silence from the opposition.  Ridicule has been used to attempt to silence Americans who dare to disagree with the left.

Don’t lose hope.  Never be silent!

With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. ~Matthew 19:26 (ESV)

God Bless America!

Related Posts:

• Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals (If you can’t win, make fun of them)
• Founded on The Rock
• Glenn Beck’s The Overton Window

If You Can’t Win, Make Fun of Them

(Originally posted 07/09/2009)

Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals has been the left’s master playbook.  It’s not hard to see that these are the tactics that were used on Sarah Palin.  Her ability to rise above the fray every time makes the left nuts.  The blue lines were examples that came immediately to mind.  I’m sure if one were to dig deeper, there would be plenty of examples for the rest.

Rules for Radicals:

1. Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.
2. Never go outside the experience of your own people.
3. Whenever possible, go outside the experience of the enemy.  (Make them speechless).
4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. (The hypocrisy play)
5. Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. (Humor is the ultimate weapon!)
6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
8. Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose. (Timing is everything).
9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
10. A major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure on the opposition.
11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counter side.
12. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.  (Put up or shut up).
13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it (example, George Bush as the personification of evil).

(From http://mcfan.org/rulesforradicals.aspx)

None of the attacks on Sarah from the left have been anything but an attempt to neutralize what they see as a very real threat.  When they couldn’t ridicule her into submission, they turned to unprecedented attacks using her family and the ethics bill she championed as weapons against her.  Before Sarah, G.W. Bush had the same treatment going into his last election cycle in order to neutralize and demoralize the GOP.  The left portrayed President Bush as not only an enemy of the world, they attacked him on the home front as well.  It was effective too.  For the GOP, the election was lost before it ever began.

The list above was taken from a post appropriately titled “Know Thy Enemy”.  If the grassroots conservative movement wants to have the stamina to beat back the socialist tide, we have to truly know thy enemy.  Understanding what their tactics are will help us not to buy into their game.  Instead, we need to engage them in a debate of our choosing.  No more compromise to get along in the true spirit of bipartisanship.  They have fully demonstrated with their grotesque display of power in Washington, the liberals have no intention of engaging the right.  Our own concept of fair play has been used as a weapon against us.

Now is the time for We The People to stop listening to the talking heads on TV and use our own God-given brains to decide what is best for America.  It’s time to stop being paralyzed in our apathy and stand up for the Freedom that was bought with the precious blood of our Founding Fathers.  If there was ever a time to pay attention, its right now as we watch our Constitutional rights evaporate before our very eyes.

There is NO person or government that deserves the fruits of your own labor more than you do.  As a free people, we have a responsibility to take care of our own needs and not to look to the government to take care of us.  There was a time in this country when if you didn’t work, you wouldn’t eat.

Related Articles:

• The Death of American Exceptionalism
• Founded on The Rock
• Socialist Attack on the Constitution

Cross-posted: DirtyRottenScoundrels (July 2009)

Founded On The Rock

The left and the right have different approaches to the question of what is our responsibility to the poor.  Both sides agree that sometimes we need to help our neighbors. What we can’t agree on how is that should be accomplished.

The left would create an ever-expanding welfare state that will help the poor and redistribute the wealth.  The right believes that charity should come from the individual.  In both cases, wealth changes hands, the difference lies in the freedom of choice in making that sacrifice.  Sacrifice only has moral value when we alone are free to make that choice.  So, if government takes and gives to the poor, the choice to honor God with our substance is limited more and more as taxes turn into theft as the tax rate steadily increases.

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. -Proverbs 19:17 (ESV)

When charity becomes an entitlement, the government not only enslaves the taxpayer through the wealth redistribution schemes, but also the recipient as they join others on the governmental plantation.

It is no wonder that America is steadily losing ground on the world stage. The welfare state dependent mentality sucks all creativity out of the community as it’s grip tightens to maintain control of the sheep.  We The Sheeple have been led down the road toward a collectivist state, waiting to be told what to think and what to do so that we don’t disturb the security bought through compliance.

We The People are so much more than sheep. We built this nation on a foundation of rock, not of sand.

46 “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? 47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. [3] 49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:46-49 (ESV)

The ruin of the house that is America will indeed be great if We The People don’t heed the words of the Lord and of our Founders.  Our nation was built by men of great faith and principles. They honored God in their words and deeds.  They knew that it was only with the hand Divine Providence that would allow them to prevail against the odds.  We The People must turn again to Divine Providence for guidance to help us find our way back from the brink of self-destruction.

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. – The Declaration of Independence

It’s time to return to our foundation on the rock and trust that Divine Providence can rebuild our unity so that once again we are un-hyphenated Americans joining together to repair that crumbling foundation lest it disintegrate into sand…

God Bless America!

Related Articles:

1. The Death of American Exceptionalism
2. Lower Taxes to Increase Revenue
3. Hey Dude, Where’s My Melting Pot?
4. The Overton Window

Hey Dude, Where’s My Melting Pot?

E Pluribus Unum…out of many one.  These words were placed on the National Seal by our Founders with great wisdom.  Immigrants once brought their hopes and dreams to our shores to become Americans. We The People are made up of many richly diverse backgrounds, which at one time, added flavor to the great melting pot that was the American culture. Now, through hyphenation and multi-culturalism We The People are losing our American identity that made us one people and don’t know who we are any more.

If we are Asian-American, Mexican-American or African-American out of political correctness, when does an individual become simply American? When does their loyalty lie with America first by joining together, arm in arm, to face both our problems and the world in unity?  It’s heartbreaking to see a Mexican, or other Latin American Country’s flag here in Texas flying over a small business owned by someone who has chosen to live in this country and reap the benefits.

We The People, if we are to survive as a nation, must again be E Pluribus Unum.

The Death of American Exceptionalism

Why on earth would anyone be ashamed to be an American? Perhaps the world wide apology tour that President Obama had a little something to do with that. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that We The People’s memory of our Founders fades with every text book and documentary that tears them down into obscurity. Or could it be part of the socialization of America? Perhaps, it is all of the above.

F. A. Hayek, a member of the London School of Economics, wrote about similar concerns during World War II.

“How far in the last twenty years England has traveled on the German path is brought home to one with extraordinary vividness if one now reads of the more serious discussions of the differences between British and German views on political and moral issues which appeared in England during the last war.” F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

How is it that something that once seemed impossible due to the national character of that nation now seemed inevitable? Looking back from the perspective of decades, Hayek’s concerns were valid.  Today, the British face socialized healthcare and student riots due to tuition increases. In his writings, Hayek was concerned about the loss of the national identity.

“…but while the people of England were then proud of their distinctive tradition, there are few of the political views then regarded as characteristically English of which the majority of her people do not now seem half-ashamed, if they do not positively repudiate them.”  F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

The American historical landscape has change significantly since Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson made their lasting mark on our nation.  America now is facing a crisis of identity for We The People and the world. Are we the America that won an impossible fight and freed ourselves from the British, invented the light bulb and created the best quality health care in the world? Or are We The People evil because America dared to prosper?

This shift in national pride happened in England when the British people began to embrace collectivist ideas. The same shift has occurred here in America as evidenced by the election of a President who doesn’t believe We The People individually have a right to succeed.  We The People can’t be trusted to care for our neighbors voluntarily, or determine for ourselves how exactly we’ll spread that wealth around.

“It’s not that I want to punish your success; I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you that they’ve got a chance to success, too. I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” Barak Obama 2008 Presidential Campaign

How far We The People have strayed from the Founder’s intent:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” The Declaration of Independence

What is charity, when one has the right to choose, becomes theft when the government gets involved. Each of us has a right to pursue the American Dream. No one has the right to take the fruit of another man’s labor.

God Bless America!

Read it for yourself: The Road To Serfdom.

Out Live Your Life by Max Lucado

Outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make A Difference

Max Lucado, in is usual down to earth style, has  challenged believers to Out Live Your Life.

We are given a choice…an opportunity to make a big difference during a difficult time. What if we did? What if we rocked the world with hope?

He uses inspiring stories to bring us to the understanding that regular people, like you and me, can be used by God for his purpose.

God doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies the called.

Max Lucado peppers each chapter with biblical examples and scripture to help the reader grasp the reality that God can and will do extraordinary things through ordinary people.

Each of us has a built in set of assumption that we use to view the world we live in.  Lucado makes the reader face head-on their prejudices with pointed examples and more scripture.

And us? We are still pondering … “God has shown me that He doesn’t think anyone is unclean or unfit.”

This was particularly stinging for me. Even though I try never to judge a book by its cover, we all find ourselves making assumptions about people because of their labels: biker, divorced, fat or homeless. How often are we wrong?

Labels relieve us of responsibility. Pigeonholing permits us to wash our hands and leave.

You will not be able to sit comfortably by after reading Out Live Your Life if you have allowed any part of this book to soak in.

I recommend this book for anyone who has ever wondered “Why am I here?”. For those who are interested, it even has a discussion and action guide at the end.

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