Compromise and Deception

Question: Who said these famous words, "Compromise, Hell NO!" How can you compromise with freedom and liberty? (answer below)

Today at the Capital, a bunch of republican governors showed up to receive an olive branch of compromise from the leader of the free nation, Mr. President. In his speech, he proposed this bright idea: Within his health care prison in which the states are the prisoners, that those inside of the compound be allowed to live in the prison removed of any bars on the cells and be free to walk around as they please. A clear improvement of course from being constrained to living within one cell, making life much nicer inside this prison. Never mind the fact that we were all living out in the pasture before this law was passed, but nevertheless, we should feel better thanks to this olive branch.

Obama: Flexibility OK, but health care law remains

WASHINGTON – Anxious to ease deepening political tensions with the states, President Barack Obama on Monday told governors he wants to speed up their ability to enforce his signature health care law on their own terms. But his concession goes only so far: He warned he won't allow states to weaken the law.

He also told them not to vilify their own states' public workers while struggling with spending cuts.

Hosting governors of both parties on his own turf, Obama offered them what they often request: more flexibility as they cope with painful budget dilemmas. Declaring that he would "go to bat for whatever works," Obama supported letting states propose their own health care plans by 2014 — three years faster than the current law allows.

Yet this would be no change to the fundamental requirements of a federal law that has divided the nation and prompted about half the states to try to overturn it through lawsuits. To gain new powers, states would first have to convince Washington that their plans would cover as many people, provide equally affordable and comprehensive care and not add to the federal deficit.

Compromise

In dealing with compromise, pastor, preacher, martyr, and spy Dietrich Bonhoeffer got it. He faced a similar situation in the time of the Third Reich in dealing with the German church and how that German church should stand up to Hilter's theology.

Bohnhoeffer spent much of his life trying to confront a church that was eagerly trying to compromise with the official German church that was taken over by Hitler's theology upon his arrival in office. The official National church, once run by Hitler, imposed all sorts of doctrines such as the Arayan Paragraph which basically outlawed Jewish membership from the church, cessation of publishing the Bible in Germany, and instituting Mein Kampf as the greatest of all documents to be read upon the church alter. The clergy of Germany's response was not though of resistance, but of compromise. Bohnhoeffer consistently made the point to fellow pastors in Germany that this National state run church in power was not the real church. Bohnhoeffer kept having to battle them, making the point that the question at hand was not how to unify the church but how to secede from it.

Bohnhoeffer got it, and got it right away. He recognized the evil present in these doctrines as incompatible to the truth of God's word. Thus, he refused to compromise on any points.

Have we not already seen enough from this administration to know this administration is not committed to the principles of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and the other founding fathers of our country? This health care law is the antithesis of freedom, forcing one to either buy insurance or be fined. Bailouts, corruption, rejection of the constitution and the rule of law, etc. have been a staple of everything that has gone on over the last two years within this administration. We don't need to unify this president's vision for America with what conservative America wants, we need to secede from this vision. Trying to reconcile his health care law with some sort of state autonomy is not honorable, it is blasphemy in the face of liberty and freedom. Instead of these governors attending in mass to listen to this man, they should be unified in opposition, refusing to discuss the law until it is first repealed. Having a backbone and standing for the Truth is the most honorable of endeavors, and the governors of this land would be wise to stand up and be counted.

Deception

Deception has taken many forms and has been mastered by many different tyannical leaders throughout history. Bonhoeffer saw this first hand during his time living among Germans during the time of the Third Reich. The Nazis deceived the church, using the German Christians when it was convenient, giving them a chance to do what was likely impossible--unifying the church's belief with Hitler's theology.

Hitlers methods could be best described as prudent pragmatism. Here are some of the examples of the deception that Hitler used on the church:

• In 1933 Hitler announced that church elections would be held to create an illusion of choice. Hitler was a member of the Catholic church through his lifetime.
• Hitler victoriously announced that a Concordat had been forged between the German Reich and the Vatican. The text of the Concordat began and the first article stated, "The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and public practice of the Catholic religion. It acknowledges the right of the Catholic Church, within the framework of the law valid for all, to manage and regulate its own affairs independently, and, within the framework of its own competence, to issue binding laws and ordinances for its members.
• Hitler had a record of pro-Christian statements that reached back to the first days of his political life. In a 1922 speech, he called Jesus "our greatest Aryan hero."

In addition, the Bible states that deception should not surprise us:

"And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness?"

We know the Truth, and that is what we need to defend. We need to recognize evil and call it out by name. It is only after we have recognize that evil and stand up for truth that victory can be achieved.






Answer: Jesse Helms, Mr. Hell No Senator from the great state of North Carolina.

Comic Relief

Repeating History

Luke 17:26-27:

“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

The signs in Noah's day were wicked imaginations, violence on the earth, excessive eating, drinking, and marrying. Christ indicated that these signs would repeat before he returned again.

Historical events have often followed a similar time line, repetition in a sense. If you were to ask why though, the answer is quite clear and found in the very fabric of our being. We forget God and incline ourselves toward greater and greater degrees of sin. Is it any wonder that wars, financial and economic meltdowns, and man made disasters follow can be seen throughout history with such great frequency? I would say not. Christ warns us here to remember our sin nature and take notice as to the pattern of sin that will repeat itself as man once again forgets God and lives without fear of his justice.

In reading Genesis, some other parallels are present that will repeat itself in the end of time:

In the Beginning-----In the End

• The days of Noah-----Signs of the days of Noah
• The catching away of Enoch-----The catching away of the church
• Cain's sevenfold punishment-----The seven-year Tribulation
• Mark on Cain's head-----Mark of the Beast
• 70 times 7 judgment-----70 weeks of Daniel
• The defeat of the serpent-----The binding of Satan to the pit
• The perfection in the Garden-----The perfection of the millennial reign
• The perfection of earth-----New heaven and new earth.

For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.....

Earthquake Shakes up ChristChurch

Is it simply a coincidence that a city called 'ChristChurch' continues to be ravaged by earthquakes? Maybe there is a simple message from God to his church: Wake up! Very fitting that a city called ChristChurch is crumbling while the post-modern non evangelistic, good news grace only, sin free gospel only is being preached throughout the western world.

80 per cent of Christchurch without water

About 80 per cent of earthquake-ravaged Christchurch remains without water.

But Christchurch Civil Defence and Emergency Management (CDEM) has urged people to stay at home unless it's absolutely essential to leave.

All schools and many workplaces will remain closed until the weekend, CDEM said.

With 80 per cent of the city without a water supply on Wednesday night, authorities advised everyone to conserve it by not washing or flushing their toilets.

They were advised to collect water in buckets when it rained and boil all drinking water.

On Wednesday there were 14 locations across the city where people could get fresh water.

Boiled water will be available at another nine sites from 6am on Thursday.

Another 34 water tankers are due to arrive in the city on Thursday.

Power has been restored to a little over 60 per cent of the Christchurch area.

Meanwhile, welfare centres are providing people with blankets, food and sanitation.

By midday on Thursday, 220 search and rescue personnel will be deployed in the city and as many as 700 personnel could be deployed within the next 48 hours.

Business and building owners have been advised to stay away from the badly damaged CBD.

Weather events should cause us to remember that the God who created the world also controls the weather conditions and often uses weather as a method of judgment against sin. Plenty of examples are seen in the Scriptures: Worldwide Flood (Gen 6-9), Volcanoes burning down Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19), and Earthquakes and Plagues (Numbers 16). If the God of the Bible can control the wind and the waves (Mark 4:35-40), and will someday judge the world with Catastrophic world weather events including earthquakes and and comet showers (Revelation 6:12-17), earthquakes like these should cause us to take notice.

Some other examples in scripture include the use of drought, darkness, hail, and violent storms.

Last, but not least, don't forget the coming day in which God will judge the world in righteousness as "the heavens and earth now being preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (2 Peter 3:7).

Great Picture of God at Work: God parting the clouds. A picture that reportedly has been seen in multiple sites across the south over the past few months.



Revelation 21:4

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

The Collapse of the Family Unit

A Few links here from Heritage on the family decay rate, which has increased faster than the deficit under the most recent Obama budget proposal. If I were asked what the two biggest crises America faced right now, I would have to say the family and education. We may have an economy crumbling all around us, but something much deeper is changing in America besides loosing her once held glorious wealth and power in the world. We've changed as a culture from reliance on the Divine, Church, and Faith to guide us to that of a secular society that relies on materialism and possessions to define us.

Community has been shattered, in large due to what Heritage points out--that 41% of children are born outside of wedlock in America including an astounding 75% of black children. (at least they will all vote democrat! How that continues still befuddles me.) The negative social and economic effects are tremendous. We may be able to sustain an unemployment rate of 10%, at least for a while, but I'm not sure we can sustain a culture with so many social ills. History is showing us as we speak the dangers of such a cultural decline. One only needs to look at Europe to see where we'll be in a few years as we continue down this path.

Heritage Morning Bell: The Benefits of Marriage

As millions of rose bouquets grace kitchen tables and office desks across America and dozens of chocolate delicacies are savored after candlelight dinners, card companies, jewelry stores and candy makers will be singing the praises of St. Valentine and raising their own glass of champagne to love.

But the economic benefits of celebrating lifelong love are not simply for card stores and florist shops once a year. Marriage not only pays emotional dividends as men and women commit themselves to each other, focus on their children, and face the challenges of life together. The institution that forges unique personalities and lives together in the hearth of loving commitment can also provide notable economic benefits. Married couples tend to have a higher average income, more assets, and a greater likelihood of owning their own home than families led by single adults.

Men and women aren’t the only ones to benefit from lifelong, married love. Children raised in families headed by a married couple have a greater chance of experiencing economic stability, high academic performance, and emotional maturity. Children living under the promise of marital commitment are six times less likely to experience poverty and can display the positive social effects of having both parents in the home, potentially avoiding the many hindrances to social mobility that tend to plague children raised in single-parent households.

Unfortunately, the personal joy and socioeconomic advantages of marriage are often lost on those who arguably need those benefits the most. With the national unwed birth rate reaching 41 percent in 2009 and almost three-quarters of African-American children alone born outside of marriage, millions of children are at risk of experiencing the financial difficulties and social challenges of living in single-parent households. The same children (and their parents) are also more likely to need government financial assistance. Of the nearly $400 billion in annual welfare funding spent on low-income families, three-quarters goes to those led by single parents.

Financial assistance alone will not help needy families avoid poverty and long-term dependence. Demonstrating the personal fulfillment of healthy relationships, which no government check can provide, and the economic benefits of marriage to low-income communities can increase the chance of self-dependency and more stable families.

Just as the greatest Valentine will not be the most expensive diamond or the richest three-course meal, the greatest gift of compassion and justice for poor families is not more money and federal handouts. It is the opportunity to learn about the emotional, social, and economic advantages of marriage and potentially share in the promises of lifelong, married love. Rather than continue a cycle of dependence with streams of anonymous government checks, policymakers can take steps to remove disincentives to marriage and demonstrate how healthy marital relationships can lead to self-sufficiency.

For example, lawmakers could remove penalties on marriage imposed by Obamacare by repealing the legislation once and for all. Obamacare could cost certain married couples upwards of $10,000 a year. Congress must immediately reduce or eliminate the welfare marriage penalties that punish low-income recipients who choose to marry. And they can work to ensure federal programs adequately explain the economic and social benefits of marriage to communities who have a high risk of having children out of wedlock.

If they do so—and President Obama’s budget released later today will offer some initial clues to the tenor of this year’s debate—our nation can experience a springtime of marriage. More personal happiness and smaller government will make a very attractive couple.

Making Federal Policy Marriage Friendly

The institution of marriage draws mothers and fathers together in the smallest of communities, reinforcing bonds with their children and cementing ties across generations. Marriage is the necessary foundation of the family and therefore essential for societal existence and well-being. The erosion of marriage thus affects communities both small and large, reducing human happiness, weakening civil society, producing negative social consequences, and imposing vast new costs on taxpayers. Federal tax, health, and welfare policy has often undervalued the benefits of forming married families and keeping them together.

THE FACTS:

Marriage Decline Is Due to Many Factors. Over the past 40 years, out-of-wedlock births have gone from 10 percent of all births to 40.6 percent in 2008. No-fault divorce, changes in social attitudes and religiosity, family-destructive welfare policies, and radical political movements have all contributed to the incremental weakening of marriage.

The Social Cost of Marriage Decline Is Enormous. Children raised in married households do better on every significant measurement of personal well-being and attainment. They perform better in school, commit fewer crimes, engage in fewer risky behaviors, experience less poverty, and have fewer marital problems as adults. The annual cost of means-tested welfare alone for single parents is $300 billion.

Divorce Rates Are Stabilizing but Still High. The U.S. divorce rate fell in 2009 for the first time in years, but the weakening economy puts more long-term stress on married households. Lower-income families and their children are hit harder by higher rates of marital breakdown and have fewer resources to cope with the effects of father absence.

Unwed Birth Rates Signals the Collapse of Marriage

It's hard to imagine the unemployment rate rising steeply for decades without public outcry. But that's exactly what's happened in the case of another significant indicator: the unwed birth rate.

Hardly anyone noticed this month when new data showed 40 percent of all births are to unmarried mothers. That's way up from 7 percent in the mid-1960s, when a young White House appointee named Daniel Patrick Moynihan tried to sound the alarm.

Moynihan, then an assistant Labor secretary in the Johnson administration, issued a report in 1965 warning that disintegration of the black family in America threatened Johnson's War on Poverty.

"(D)ollars of income, standards of living, and years of education deceive. ... The fundamental problem is that of family structure. (The black) family in the urban ghettos is crumbling. So long as this situation persists, the cycle of poverty and disadvantage will continue to repeat itself."

Regrettably, history proved Moynihan - the future Democratic senator from New York - to be correct. When the Moynihan Report was released, one out of four black children was born to an unwed mother. Now, a staggering three out of four black children are born outside marriage.

That fact will cast a long shadow down the course of a child's life. As one prominent black author wrote....

Magnetic Poles Shifting

Is the shifting of the magnetic poles a sign that more rough weather could be ahead?

From Fox:

Will the wandering magnetic North Pole create crazy superstorms?

A sensational article at Salem-News.com notes that the Earth's magnetic poles are moving more rapidly than ever before, and argues that this may increase the likelihood of devastating superstorms and tubocharged tsunamis -- and in general cause life-threatening havoc with the world's weather.

"When the field shifts, when it fluctuates, when it goes into flux and begins to become unstable anything can happen. And what normally happens is that all hell breaks loose," the article claims.

The signs from the heavens. Matt 24.

Taking the Path of Most Resistence

Where was the church during Hitler's rise to power? Was this not the country of Luther and the foundation of the protestant church?

The church has been instituted among men by God to serve a divine purpose of calling individuals together in community to worship, but also to unite as a bulwark of righteousness and truth in a world full of evil. The church in Hitler's day saw him rising to power, but didn't say a thing. They didn't speak out. Instead, they were more concerned about whether or not they should allow the Jews to belong in the church at all.

In Dietrich Bonhoeffer's biography, succinctly put: "The German church was in turmoil. Some church leaders felt the church should make peace with the Nazis, who were strongly opposed to communism and 'godlessness.' They believed the church should conform to the Nazi racial laws and the Fuhrer Principle."

The year is 1933. No one in the world saw Hitler leading to the slaughter of 6 million innocent Jews and an attempt to take over the world. Yet, there were warning signs for the attentive observer. The preaching of the 'Fuhrer' principle by Nazi leadership, boycotts all through 1933 by Nazi leadership of Jewish communities and businesses, the midnight 'clensing' via the burning of western books and literature, and the takeover of the press by the Nazi's were just a few examples. Signs were everywhere in 1933. The rise to power by the Nazi party may have been swift, but not swift enough for someone looking to miss the smoke before the fire began.

The rise of power in the state was happening, yet the church was nowhere to be found. Many didn't want to speak out for fear or reprisal. Some thought that the state could bring the church together, as after all, Hilter and co were using Christian overtones in many of their speeches.

Bonhoeffer wrote a call to action for the church and in it defined the major three roles of the church as follows in relation to the state:

1. The church must question the state
2. The church must help the state's victims
3. The church must work against the state if necessary to protect its existence

This call to action ultimately rang on deft ears and proved too much for anyone to swallow.

Should the state anywhere, anytime rise to a level of power that infringes upon the rights of the people, let us learn a lesson from history and take a stand. The church is the bulwark to defend the world from tyranny and proclaim the freedom that comes from knowing Christ.

This guy gets it. The church should take notice. Part of tonight's State of the Union rebuttal speech by Paul Ryan is below:

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT: “We believe government’s role is both vital and limited – to defend the nation from attack and provide for the common defense … to secure our borders… to protect innocent life… to uphold our laws and Constitutional rights … to ensure domestic tranquility and equal opportunity … and to help provide a safety net for those who cannot provide for themselves. We believe that the government has an important role to create the conditions that promote entrepreneurship, upward mobility, and individual responsibility. We believe, as our founders did, that ‘the pursuit of happiness’ depends upon individual liberty; and individual liberty requires limited government. Limited government also means effective government. When government takes on too many tasks, it usually doesn’t do any of them very well. It’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high.”

Ready or Not

Spiritual watchfulness is not just to have your eye on the sky; it is having an eye on your heart. It means to read your Bible and the newspaper with a longing for Christ to come not only so you can "get out of this mess" but also because you long to be near the one who cleaned up the mess in your heart.



Take watch over your own soul!

A Reasoned Mind

Critical thinking is the skill of deconstructing an idea, stripping it down to the essence of what it is, removing the false premises to identify the truth embedded in the argument. The process requires the removal of emotion from the discussion and reliance on sound judgment and logic from the beginning of the argument to the end. This skill is largely removed from the public discussion of any issue of importance. We don't ask in depth questions or demand substantive answers from our leaders.

On these lines, German pastor during Hitler's rise, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had this reputation.

Bonhoeffer openly thought things through and taught his students to do the same. They followed lines of reasoning to their thoroughness, so that nothing depended on mere emotion. He accorded theological ideas the same respect that his father accorded scientific ideas, or his brother accorded ideas of jurisprudence. Questions about the Bible and ethics and theology must be treated with the same rigorousness, and all the cant "phraseology" must be identified,exposed and cut away with and discarded." Students found Bonhoeffer extremely open-minded and patient, reserved, ready to consider every fresh problem put to him, taking even the remotest ideas into account." The students learned how to take the time to think things through to the end. His conservative nature, his scholarly eduation and his thoroughness prevented any quick result.

Isaiah 55 stated that Israel would fail for lack of knowledge. Some recent polls have close to 50% of America's youth seeing nothing wrong with socialism. If this was a free response question instead of a multiple choice version, would those who answered even have enough understanding to give a response based in fact? America has likewise succumbed to to materialistic passivity, failing to educate her youth and moving from critical thinking to ambivalent ignorance.

Animal Deaths Prophetic?

Yet another intriguing occurance in regard to the deaths of animals around this country. Now add the cow to the growing list of mass animal deaths which alreadly included the fish, bird, and crab.

From local CBS media cover the story:

WFRV)--A Portage County farm has been hit hard by a cattle disease.More than
two-hundred dead cattle were found in a field at an Amherst farm this past
weekend.The cause of the mysterious deaths appears to be from a form of
pneumonia.The dead cows had to be removed with semi-trucks. The rest of the
farm has not been quarantined, and officials say no threat is
posed toward anyone else.

One person's take:

On New Year`s Eve thousands of black birds fell from the sky in Beebe --
Arkansa, not a particularly cheery omen for the new year. The next day thousands
of fish were found dead in the Arkansas River, and almost every day since there
have been mass deaths of animals all over the world. Now it`s hundreds of cows
have been discovered dead on a farm field in Wisconsin:

The death of cows, birds and fish in particular seems to follow the
prophecy set out by the Bible in the Book of Hosea, and are said to result when
man turns his back on God. "By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing,
and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood," the prophecy
goes. "Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall
languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the
fishes of the sea also shall be taken away."Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/18/does-the-death-of-200-cows-in-wisconsin-confirm-biblical-prophecy/#ixzz1BhX9Oj5C

Observation from the Times:

The death of cows, birds and fish in particular seems to follow the prophecy
set out by the Bible in the Book of Hosea, and are said to result when man turns
his back on God. "By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and
committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood," the prophecy
goes. "Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall
languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the
fishes of the sea also shall be taken away."Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/18/does-the-death-of-200-cows-in-wisconsin-confirm-biblical-prophecy/#ixzz1BhX9Oj5C

Regardless of the outcome of those necropsies, plenty of people find the
herd's mysterious death somewhat apocalyptic, especially in the wake of events
that claimed the lives of thousands of birds and fish in Arkansas, and hundreds of birds in Sweden, Louisiana and Kentucky.
Some Christians, including
online theologian Paul Begley in Indiana, believe the animal deaths were divined
from above as a sign the end of days is approaching.Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/01/18/does-the-death-of-200-cows-in-wisconsin-confirm-biblical-prophecy/#ixzz1BhciXCeB

Could this be a sign of the times? Luke 21 states that, "There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven." Whether or not a few cows, birds and fish drop dead could be considered questionable. But, when they all happen at once? It's certainly an indication if anything else that all is not well with the world as we know it.