Snapchat! Wait - That Was Our Money!

Bitcoins, or Bitter coins? A dollar just doesn't go as far as it used to.

The Good Book has several passages about finances. In it, we find among other things that, going after it is futile since holding on to it can be a challenge also. Consider Proverbs 23:4-5 (NASB). Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.

The harsh reality though, given the current monetary policy we are on, is that money will not even have a chance to fly. The money won't get very high, but perhaps the policy makers are stoned. A crash and burn is the more likely scenario, post munchies, of course.

The monetary policy is very simple to understand, even without academic credentials from an hoity-toity Ivy League School of higher learning. More highs. Is Wacky Tobacky everywhere now? So here is the policy - print-print-print-print-again, I say, print!

Now, here is what you may not know:
We begin with history. A not too distant history, really. The history of Nazi Germany. When you compare what is happening in the United States as we breathe, with events leading up to Nazi control of Germany, we see some serious and frightening similarities. The fate of money was of one of those that we can compare.

Hyper-inflation raged in Germany in the early 1920's. Micro-wealth concentration due to certain banking policies, a poor taxation plan, and unrealistic war reparations, were among the causes. Inflation reached incredible highs (yup) such that, as of, "...November 1923, the German mark reached the dizzy figure of 4,200,000,000 to the dollar."* The policy was to print-print-print-print, and print. Presses were rolling 24-hours a day to try and keep up with the demand for the paper money. The net result was chaos, starvation, and the destruction of the lower and middle classes of Germany. Freedoms were taken away and the path to Fascism was laid wide open.

What of the U.S.? Well, there is Obamacare. Many citizens of our nation are seeing health insurance increases of 40-50%, or more, with, Oh wow man, higher deductibles. With those numbers, often comes higher than Ridgemont High, deductibles.

Couple this drama with a stock market that has bubble written all over it, because, you guessed it - it is getting too high, too fast. In addition, there is an ominous chasm of value within.

Thus, here is the scenario:
The lower and middle classes get crushed under Obamacare, Extreme wealth concentration protects the few over the many. What follows next is a massive stock-market blow-out. The currency gets devalued in a desperate attempt to get the markets back to some order. It fails. The knock-out game is replaced with much greater brutality as chaos reigns in the streets. Israel must strike nuclear sites in Iran and war breaks out in the Middle East due to our flawed peace deal with the Persians. Gas rockets to $250.00 per barrel. The rank and file make a mad scramble for commodities, but there are just too many dollars chasing too few goods. Demands sinks supply. Then the hyper-inflation monster rears its ugly, green head. The dollar collapses. Martial law is ushered in, and welcomed. A Dictator who refuses to entertain dissent leads out. Freedom, as we know it, becomes a memory, and then a Pollyanna myth in the ash-heap of history.

Lesson:
The money we print today, will be the wall-paper of tomorrow. It might even be good for rolling papers.

What to do:
We cannot put our hope, nor our trust in any one man, or any one system. Our hope has to be in the Lord and His promises. What follows is not a likely scenario. This is coming to a theater near you.
2 Peter 3:10-13
¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
¹¹ Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, ¹² looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! ¹³ But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

Heaven. Hmmmmm. A place where righteousness dwells. You can't get any higher than that.


* Koppel S. Pinson quoted in The Rise of Nazi Germany, p.55.

 

ObamaScare and the Spreading of Infectious Ideology

 

Ripe for the season of Zombies we have the roll-out for the ObamaScare Dancing Medicine Show, or what I call the OBSDMS.

The first thing to do is to take a pulse on the program. I believe a good doctor asks the right questions. So what do we hear?

Echoing across the land we hear medically incorrect questions. Questions like, ‘What did we know?’ and ‘When did we know it?’ Sound familiar? These questions, and more like them, are now being asked because the OBSDMS roll-out has become a fold-up. The patient is flat-lining. How could this happen? Who did it? Thus the Capitol Hill hearings go on in search for the truth.

We have been told that, once again, our president was misinformed. You see, the buck can’t stop at the Oval Office if it never gets there. In the end, that’s probably a good thing since the buck is worth a whole lot less than it was back in the days of Harry Truman. Web Sites For Dummies is now all the rage. And to be honest, I really could use a copy of that book myself. P.S. Okay, Snowden, you can come back now.

Since we have a Dancing Medicine show in the OBSDMS we must ask, what is the dance of choice? Well, tap-dancing, of course. Our current performer is none other than Kathleen Sebelius. Will she make the final final of Dancing with the Stars? Maybe, but employment in the future may be difficult for her. The good news though, if she loses her job, she will be able to get health insurance…if she can get through on the website.

Sebelius joins a notable list of other tappers who have become the fall-guy, I mean fall-gal, for failed presidential leadership. Consider the following:

Nancy Pelosi – OBSDMS: “So, that’s why I was saying we have to pass a bill so we can see so that we can show you what it is and what it isn’t.” These few chilling words may say more about the extreme infirmity of our democratic republic than anything else.

Susan Rice – Benghazi: “This is a response to a hateful and offensive video that was widely disseminated throughout the Arab and Muslim world…” Two weeks after the attack she was clinging to this story. By that time, even my Blue Heeler dog knew the ‘film that nobody ever saw’ story was BALONEY.

Hillary Clinton – Benghazi: “What difference at this point does it make?!” Perhaps we should ask the families of four dead American soldiers what difference it makes. Meanwhile, justice weeps tears of blood.

Lois Lerner – IRS: “One of the basic functions of the 5th Amendment is to protect innocent individuals. And that is the protection I'm invoking today.” Translation: ‘I will hide behind what is left of the very document we have been shredding.’

Kathleen Sebelius – OBSDMS: “Yes, he is.” Her response when asked if the president was keeping his promise.

Tap-dancing, or just give me “Taps”?

I know that the rules of engagement in the 21^st century include women on the front lines. Clearly, not only is the president leading from behind, but he is hiding behind these women. But what is even more troubling is that they are covering the destroyer, so he can continue to destroy. In other words, they are promulgating a culture that would please the leader, and further the cause. You do remember the cause don’t you – “Change is coming to America.” You have to admit, that campaign promise has been kept.

World history has not been immune to this infection. We saw this behavior of promoting and anticipating the thought processes of an ideologue permeate Nazi Germany. For example, in John Toland’s classic book, The Last 100 Days, p. 74, Toland shares private letters between Hitler’s private secretary, Martin Bormann, and his wife, Gerda. It is near the end for Nazi Germany, yet they both hold out a false hope for Hitler’s Nationalist Socialist agenda. In one of those letters from Gerda to Martin, she writes, “…the Fuhrer has given our idea of the Reich, which has spread-and is secretly still spreading-throughout the world. The unbelievable sacrifices our people are making-sacrifices they are capable of making only because they are imbued and possessed with that idea-are proof of its strength and show to all the world how just and necessary our struggle is.

One day the Reich of our dreams will emerge. Shall we, I wonder, or our children, live to see it?...”

Back when president Clinton was ensnared in his Impeachment hearings, I was asked what I thought about the whole mess. My response should not surprise. Like so many other people, I was greatly saddened by events which led to the Impeachment trial. But I was concerned about a greater threat. I said that while we watch the circus, because that is exactly what that trial was, while we watch, our enemies are gathering against us. Recent history has shown us that is exactly what Al Qaeda was doing.

Well, folks, step right up. The circus is back in town. And we are distracted. Gerda's dream has become our nightmare. Our enemies, external and internal, are gathering. Women with a bully-pulpit are fodder for an idea that is imploding all around them. The rest of us, well,... we have become a nation of Zombies.

Mambo anyone?

 

Prayer Alters the Equation

 

In my devotional time today I read about how an angel set Peter free from prison in Acts 12. So Peter is free at last, and he goes to the disciples who are gathered together and are praying Acts 12:12. Yet they are amazed to see him as described in Acts 12:16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed.

Well then, what were they praying for? The devotional I read concluded with these words, “The most powerful position on earth is kneeling before the Lord of the universe.”

This all directs me to the deception and destruction of abortion. Our weekly prayer vigil remnant is coming upon our third year at the Urbandale, Iowa, Planned Parenthood location. It is a place, on a hill, where we pray for the insanity of abortion to cease, and we pray for all the people who are involved.

Days turn into weeks, weeks become months, months turn into years, and all of it gives you cause to wonder. Are we having an impact? And now, of course, the thermometer is reminding us that winter is already lurking…

Yet, there is cause for celebration.  There have been some pro-life victories here and there around the country. And in our corner, God has provided a few more prayer warriors over time. Slowly yes, but they are coming.  All of which has inspired me to relay the solution I believe is a game changer for the cause of pro-life.

It’s a simple answer, and one you may recognize immediately. Adoption – but not what first comes to mind when you hear that word. This plan is adoption in two phases.

Phase 1: You – not someone else – but you – adopt an abortion clinic. Don’t burden yourself with all of the abortion locations. Rather, select one. Make a long-time pledge with the Lord to pray for the workers there; to pray for the people who go in for services; and to pray for that location to close down. Go to your adopted location and pray. Be consistent. Be persistent. Go inside and bring the workers coffee and donuts. Also, take the advice of the apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done in love.

Phase 2: Pray. Prayer alters the equation because it alters us initially. Now we may be ready to take the word abort, and change the b to a d, and the r to a p, and we come up with adopt. The same works if you take abortion and turn it into adoption. Two phases and two letters, and we just might see a spiritual earthquake.

I don’t know about you, but I am very thankful that my parents were pro-lifers right about the time the Lord had me scheduled for the ride of a lifetime through the birth canal. So prayers of thanksgiving are appropriate too.

None of us when we die, and stand before our Creator, will say, “Ya know, I spent way too much of my earthly life in prayer!” Prayer and adoption – that’s the ticket. And when we pray, let’s pray with more expectation than amazement.

The IRS are Coming! The IRS are Coming!

From the Declaration of Independence:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

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.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Despotism: noun

1. the rule of a despot; the exercise of absolute authority.

2. absolute power or control; tyranny.

3. an absolute or autocratic government.

4. a country ruled by a despot.                        Dictionary.com

 The Founding Fathers, among many things, were visionary men. They were a people who could peer through the thick dark fog of future events, and craft the King’s English accordingly. One has to wonder if, back when the symphony of words we know as the Declaration were penned and embraced, they were able to have a glimpse of 2013 America.

 What if today was the day they saw? What of the ‘Big Three – the Unalienables - Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?

 How about Life?

 God created the womb to be the safest place on earth for a baby to be nurtured and to grow. As we look at the stunning pictures of babies in the womb which available to us now through technology, we see all of the gentle and magnificent handiwork of God underway. Life however, is not safe in the womb. In fact, since 1973, 1/3^rd of our population has seen the womb become their tomb. 4,000 human beings per day are denied Life. The ideals and promises of Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness don’t mean a whole lot to them now do they?

 We press on for the survivors. So, what of Liberty?

 While things are real bad for the unalienables, it seems the alienables have it legit.  They are allowed to hold a rally on closed, shut-down, slimmed-down, parcel of government property. And actually, they are quite popular currently, as they have been able to attract political animals to their event. There was a time when a party like this would have been a sting operation and illegals would have been hauled away. But not these days. The alienables have it totally legit.

 Not too far from the alien illegals Liberty gala, the Veteran’s climb out of their wheelchairs, and ferociously attack the barbed-wire barrycades that menacingly confront them. They have experience cutting through barbed-wire, only they do much better when there is gun-fire and bombs exploding all around them. Was this what they fought for they wonder…? Meanwhile, we discover that there are very many Park Rangers that may actually qualify for the TSA. Liberty we have learned, is a slippery eel.

 O for two. That happens. How about the pursuit of Happiness?

 O for three. O-bamaScare. It is very difficult to run after something when there is a millstone around your neck. Consider: in an economy where you are unemployed, or underemployed, do you buy food for your family? Or, do you purchase your free medical insurance, death panels and all, in hopes of avoiding a fine, and or prison time?

 Is it just me? Are we journeying rapidly to ‘a perfect storm’?

If George Washington could see 2013 America he might think it was Amerika. Then he would turn to his rag-tag, weary and faithful soldiers, men who had stayed the course against all odds and a multitude of deprivations, he would turn to them, and General Washington would say, “Forget it men, throw down your arms and go home to your farms. It’s not going to be worth it. There is a generation out there that just doesn’t care.”

The Greatest Generation cared. Too bad, we don’t. The truth hurts. It hurts so much the IRS will probably be giving me a call soon.

Oh Where Have All the Peeps Gone, Oh Where?

Do you remember those Chicago Bulls and their incredible Championship run in the 1990's? I lived in the Windy City during those dream years. Even a hockey/football fan like myself had to appreciate Round Ball at its finest. Air Jordan really could fly. Once, we had free tickets to a Bulls games for seats in the row behind the Bull's bench, and we didn't go. What were we thinking?

Dennis Rodman was a part of that basketball lore then, even though he could not make a basket. Maybe he couldn't stop thinking about Madonna. Still, orange hair and all, Rodman almost always got the rebound.

Fast-forward. Jordan stayed close to the game all these years. Sure, there was a baseball stint in there for him. Too bad Jordan went with the Sox instead of the Cubs. Things might have been different. Throw in some tee times out on the golf course and life has been good. On the other hand, Dennis Rodman has been chasing after friendship in all the wrong places. He claims now to be a number one palomino with Kim Jong Un. Lil' Kim is the brutal dictator of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Prison.

Kim comes from an impressive stock of Kim's. Grandpa Kim il-sung led the attack against South Korea and thus gave us the Korean War, err, a, ...conflict,...I mean...police action. Papa Kim Jong-il also carved out a name for himself in the litany of repressive regimes. So there is the progeny.

You know the line - those who do not read history are destined to repeat it. Rodman would do well to look back at the psychedelic 60's Asian tour that Jane Fonda went on in Vietnam. She has spent the rest of her life apologizing for it, and no doubt has had a few sleepless nights over it.

Now, if Kim is such a great free-throw pal, perhaps Rodman would like to move to that paradise of free-speech and opportunity in North Korea. The timing might be just right. NBCNEWS.com is reporting that there are about 22,000 souls that are unaccounted for at Camp 22 at Heangyong in the northeastern part of North Korea.

 How about a large parcel of property, with several unoccupied out-buildings for a brand new crib? There would be plenty of room for basketball camps. Maybe camps isn't the best word to use here.

What happened to all those people? With the blood-letting track record of the Kim Dynasty, the answer cannot be good. We know bits and pieces of the horrible conditions that people live and die under in North Korea, but we don't have the whole picture.

So we look to history and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's, The Gulag Archipelago for gulag goulash. The G. A. is probably one of the most powerful books you will ever read, other than the Holy Bible - if you dare. Don't worry, if you say it, you can read it.  Honestly, you haven't really lived, unless you have read how other people lived and died, in 20th century Russian gulags.

Here is one example of existence in the Lubyanka gulag as told by Solzhenitsyn, p. 208, "The prison doctor was the interrogator's and executioner's right-hand man. The beaten prisoner would come to on the floor only to hear the doctor's voice: "You can continue, the pulse is normal." After a prisoner's five days and nights in a punishment cell the doctor inspects the frozen, naked body and says: "You can continue." If a prisoner is beaten to death, he signs the death certificate: "Cirrhosis of the liver" or "Coronary occlusion." He gets an urgent call to a dying prisoner in a cell and he takes his time. And whoever behaves differently is not kept on in the prison."

That is just a very small sampling of the horrors from behind a dictator's walls of hopelessness.

The Game Plan for Dennis Rodman: I suggest Proverbs 23:1-3 (NASB) When you sit down to dine with a ruler, Consider carefully what is before you, 2And put a knife to your throat If you are a man of great appetite. 3Do not desire his delicacies, For it is deceptive food.

The Game Plan for the global community: Turn away from Syria, where all sides want to kill us, and consider the people that are left in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Prison. They are a defenseless people in need of liberation.

We have seen many instances of God seeking to move His people to assist those in dire need. As in Zechariah 7:8-11 Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Zechariah 9"Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother, 10 and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. 11"But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing."

So Israel had a stubborn shoulder. President Obama, like Michael Jordan, can be distracted by golf. No need for a red-line at this point. It has already been drawn. It is a red-line drawn in human blood. And then the United Nations is, well,...the United Nations. Thus, this call to human decency may fall on deaf ears. But who knows, maybe it's still not too late for Dennis Rodman to learn to shoot a basket.

Syria-ous, and A Great Fall

The image is stark. Secretary of State John Kerry, the Hawk, pleading for muscle in Syria. Contrast a much younger John Kerry the Dove, seated with Jane Fonda, speaking against force in Vietnam. It is not uncommon for the political views of people to do a 180 from their season of youth to their more 'mature' years. Perhaps Ralph Kramden understood it all best when he said that it's really too bad youth has to be wasted on young people.

Or how about Senator Barbara Boxer in the forum this afternoon? Waxing eloquently. She said it's a good thing we have seen the terrible videos of dead women and children who were gassed to death. As horrific as those images are she noted, they certainly will cause us to act to stop the slaughter. However, we will not watch an abortion video and count the 4,000 dead, here in America, yesterday, today, and scheduled for tomorrow. After all, we will allow innocent women and children to be displaced, starved, to be gunned down, and or, be hacked to death - but chemicalocide is not permissible. Unless of course they are used internally, to stop a beating heart inside the womb.

Senator Rand Paul seemed to ruffle some feathers. Ah, the search for truth. Pilate was interested in truth. In John 18:38 (KJV) in a sensational moment of good and evil in private conversation, Pilate asked Jesus directly, "What is truth?" Pilate never figured it out.

Rome burned, Nero fiddled, and Senator John McCain played video games during the antebellum, Senate Hearing speeches. And once again, our nation, that is our leadership, seems to be caught up in the aura of war. I remember a few years back when Colin Powell warned president Bush that if he broke Iraq, he would own it. How many Dinars does an acre cost in Iraq these days?

That was then. What of now? Could a 'we're not going to put boots on the ground missile attack' on Syria break things in the Middle East? While you ponder that query, you might also think about why it is called the Middle East. It is quite possible the damage which could result from our liberal, egocentric-tinkering type intervention, could resurrect the story of Humpty Dumpty. Remember fence-riding HD? He had a great fall.

One particular section of the Old Testament calls our attention at such a time as this. It is Isaiah 17:1-3 The Burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap. 2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for the flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. 3The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.

There are some who will say this one doesn't count. They will point to 732 B.C. when Damascus was ravaged by the Assyrians (See 2 Kings 15:19-29; 16:7-9). The Assyrians went on to see their fortunes fade in 612 B.C. Yet, they are believed to be the first country to have become a Christian nation.

Those who hold the position that Damascus has her bad hair day many centuries ago do so at their own peril. They fail to recognize that the biblical story has many instances of partial fulfillment, with the same episode to be repeated in the future. Clearly, Damascus survived to fight another day. In addition, the rabid spirit of anti-Israelism in the world will cause many to miss the Hand of God at work.

Now I am not claiming this is necessarily, the Damascus moment of fulfillment. Only the Lord knows when that is slated for historical fact. However, events in that region of the world could spiral out of control very quickly. Especially when the president leads from behind, and the Merry Men follow along. Jesus had some harsh words for flawed leaders who rejected wisdom and the truth. He said in Matthew 15:14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. I must confess, it is difficult to leave them alone. One thing I do know, if we done broke it, there won't be anybody who can put poor Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Your Worst Nightmare

Everyone has in their mind a worse case scenario. One that would evolve into what might be called 'your worst nightmare'. Such an event would be when everything seems to be rapidly going in the same, wrong direction. Then these occurrences swoosh coterminously, causing a perfect storm for your life.

One overcast morning, way back in the day when I was a commodities trader sitting in the ivory towers of the CME in Chicago, I considered a trade in the platinum market. I was studying the charts on what we would now call an antique computer. A another trader came over and observed the buy/sell action lighting up the screen. "Looks good to me,'" he said. So we got on the phone and called in the trade to New York to buy some contracts. But before he even got done with the call, we watched in horror as the bottom fell out of that market. It was our worse nightmare. The price of platinum was in a free-fall, and we were holding unenviable long positions to buy. After the carnage settled, we discovered that at the very same moment we put in the buy orders, the Ford Motor Company announced that they would no longer be using platinum in their catalytic converters. Demand for that precious metal evaporated in an instant. Bad timing, bad news, bad trade, and we quickly found ourselves in financial Armageddon.

There can be a multitude of things which could materialize and become your worst nightmare. For instance, one scenario might be having Hillary 'What difference does it make?' Clinton, in the White House in 2016. As the drama unfolds, we see she has selected her husband by convenience to be VP. But he never seems to be around. Nancy Pelosi is chosen to write egalitarian legislation for all Facebook users to have at least five-hundred friends. She is currently putting the finishing touches on the ten-thousand page bill to be read after it is passed. Hanger-on Joe Biden leverages himself into position as White House spokesman. Geithner is preparing the Clinton taxes, and Holder decides to study law. Well, you get the Instagram.

Perhaps another scenario that might be your worst nightmare is me. On the surface, what you get is just a poor country preacher. Yet, upon closer examination, you find that in one hand I am holding a trophy to the 2nd Amen-dment, heat, a weapon of choice. In the other hand, a Holy Bible. This supernatural, historically correct book, is an incredible force as described in Hebrews 4:12 (KJV) For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

What is up with the poor country preacher and the tools from his toolbox? Is he simply planning an excursion to the mountains of Pennsylvania, or is there something much more ghastly afoot? Actually, neither.

To the 2nd Amen-dment, the right to bear arms. We need to understand why the first Ten Amendments came to be. At the nascent stages of our country's birth there was great opposition from several colonies to the ratification of our Constitution. They were concerned about the Federal Government having too much power. Sound familiar? Thus, in order to provide another firewall of protection from the Federal Government, the Ten Amendments were added. These Ten Amendments became our Bill of Rights.

The Founding Father's put it all on the line for you and for me. They placed their lives and their fortunes in the destiny of the Supreme Being, towards an experiment in representative government. That experiment was bathed in the Judeo-Christian principles of the Bible. The Founding Father's did so, in order that they, and their offspring to follow, might live in freedom. Just like the Christian story, the tale of America emerges out of much, toil, blood, and sacrifice.

So today, I conceal-carry a gun to honor the vision, the faith, the sacrifice, and the victory of those brave souls who came before me, and left a path of freedom and righteousness for me to follow. I also carry a gun to be able to protect others, in the event of encountering  someone with nefarious intentions to cause harm to others. The right to bear arms is a right that did not come easily, and it is a right that I will not give up.

In the other hand I carry the very word of God. It is our guidebook for this life and the eternal life to come. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

There is another reason that I carry the Holy Bible. Within it's binding it gives us the only way to avoid that which is truly our common worst nightmare. I submit to you, that your worst nightmare is to meet your date with death - to die, without being covered in the blood of Jesus.

One day, soon, God will judge sin in the world. Yet because He loves you so much, He provided a way for you to avoid due punishment altogether. That is what the gospel of John 3:16 means when it says, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

To die in your sins would be your worst nightmare. But the Good News is you do not have to. You just need to make a choice to ask Jesus to be your Savior. The funny thing about death, it stalks everyone, and eventually gets it mark. We can run be we cannot hide from our earthily mortality, Botox or not. Please don't delay. Turn to Jesus, and He will turn to you. Jesus wants to have a relationship with you right now.

Russia, Rebirth, Repentance, and A Moment in Time

Girlie men in Russia? Over the last several years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been photographed in a multitude of rugged actions shots. Apparently, Putin wants to convey to his countrymen that there ain’t no mountain high enough that he cannot scale. Yet, all of that manly notoriety came to a screeching halt recently, as President Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were recently depicted in a painting wearing women’s undergarments. The fall-out from one man’s interpretation of leadership has been swift. The art museum, called The Museum of Power, no longer has any power.  It has been shut down. The artist is in hiding, and is facing a possible one – year jail term. Makes you kind of question why Edward Snowden would want to seek asylum in such a bastion of free speech. I hope it wasn’t an affinity for art. No doubt, Snowden is enjoying his accommodations at the Water Board Inn. If that doesn’t upset him maybe the winter months will. However, I must confess, the white birch forests in that vast and mysterious country are definitely worth a holiday there, as are the good people of Mother Russia.

Another, literally earth-shattering event happened in Russia back in February of this year.  That was when a blinding meteor streaked across the icy Russian sky and exploded over the Ural Mountains located in central Russia. Over 1000 people were injured as the blast sent shockwaves reeling through the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, which is slightly over 900 miles east of Moscow. The USA Today reported the massive power in that blast, “While NASA estimated the meteor was only about the size of a bus and weighed an estimated 7,000 tons, it exploded with the force of 20 atomic bombs.”¹ This was the most powerful meteor to strike humble earth since 1908. At that time, a meteor hit in the Siberian forest. Like I said, Russia is a vast country.
 

These are just a few of the cataclysmic events that have happened in our world as of late. We hear about them, we know about them, and we talk about them. They are reported on extensively – sometimes ad nauseam. Maybe I am guilty of that here.

Back in the mid-20th century there was an event which shook the destiny of time and history. To many, it is simply a footnote in history. But to the core of human events, this episode continues to reverberate in the annals of the spiritual world.

I am talking about what took place on 14 May, in the year of our Lord, 1948. In that epic moment of modern history, one of the most significant biblical prophecies of all was fulfilled. That was the day the scattered Jewish people were brought back together. It was when they became the nation of Israel again.

Before we unpack the impact of this occurrence, let us briefly look at biblical prophecy. Approximately 1/3 of the Bible is prophecy. There are two main topics of those prophecies. One of those is Jesus. There are nearly 330 biblical prophecies about Jesus, which were fulfilled in His thirty-three years among us on earth. That fact alone should make even the most rebellious skeptic look up, and take notice. The second main topic of biblical prophecy is Israel.

Here is a major prophecy on the re-gathering of Israel from the prophet Ezekiel 37:1-14; 21-23 (KJV)

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, ² And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. ³ And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. ⁴ Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. ⁵ Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: ⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

⁷ So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. ⁸ And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. ¹⁰ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

¹¹ Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. ¹² Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. ¹³ And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, ¹⁴ And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.

²¹ And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: ²² And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. ²³ Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

Here is a segment of the declaration from Israel’s rebirth as a nation:

                          The Declaration Of The Establishment Of The State Of Israel

May 14, 1948

ERETZ-ISRAEL (the Land of Israel) was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.

After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.

After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.

Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim (immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation) and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.

In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country…

The official language of Israel today, is biblical Hebrew. That means, for the first time in world history, a ‘dead language’ has been resurrected. The desert there is now alive. The contributions to the global community from the Israeli peoples since 1948, has been tremendous. For instance, count the number of Nobel Peace Prize winners they have had, and the reasons they were awarded the prize.

What still shall be fulfilled from the re-gathering prophecy is the spirit to be put in them. Look at Romans 11:26-27 ²⁶ And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁷ For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.

Israel has been re-gathered. It is now a nation again as foretold, a long time ago, in the Holy Bible. While this event does not dominate our current news, it is universe shattering because it is a major sign of the return of Jesus Christ. We read in His Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24:31 ³¹ And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Are you ready for the return of Jesus? What if He were to come today, in this moment? Are you ready to meet Him? Jesus made it easy for us. He gave us a simple invitation in the gospel of Mark 1:14-15 ¹⁴ Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,¹⁵ And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

If you haven’t accepted this invitation I urge you to do so now. Consider that the Bible has never been wrong. So, when it says Jesus is coming back it’s gonna’ happen. Girlie men, or no Girlie men, it’s gonna’ happen. Are you ready?

¹www.usatoday/2013/02/15/russiameteorite/192199100.

Obama's War (Again)

Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. (KJV)
Our Nobel Peace Prize winning president is gearing up for yet, another war. This time around, Syria is in the Oval Office crosshairs. There is no doubt about it, Assad, like the late Saddam Hussein, is a wicked monster who deserves eternal justice sooner than later. But rather than planning methodically by considering history, and building a coalition of nations with a strategic plan, we are riding the emotion train. We have been on this train wreck before with other presidential administrations. For example - one word - Iraq.

The Obama "redline" has been crossed. This would be the second time that this happened, but apparently those WMD deaths from that first event didn't amount to enough human toll. Now we have concrete evidence that chemical weapons have been used against a civilian population. Thus war ships from Britain and the United States are trolling the waters of the Mediterranean. (Thankfully, family members of mine who were just there are now home safely.) Bellicose rhetoric, jittery trigger fingers, and a nonexistent, and incoherent Middle East policy, are leading the charge. The result will be more deaths and another war that we cannot afford. Our enemies will be more emboldened against us and our greatest friend in the region, Israel, will be thrown under the bus as they bear the brunt of retaliation. It is quite amazing how we treat our friends isn't it?

So what of the concrete evidence? James R. Corsi is reporting that it is actually the Syrian rebels who have used the chemical weapons on the innocent civilians. No doubt they would be trying to discredit the Assad regime and pull the United Sates and others into the fray.

Assisting the rebels? Get rid of one monster and what do you have left? We get some help to these questions from Jesus as He was addressing some scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 12:43-45 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when his is come, he findeth empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. This same principle applies to inhumane despots. We need to know who will take the throne. When the United Sates and our allies defeated Japan, General MacArthur had a plan for the new Japanese government.

Assisting the rebels? Why do we continue to aid false 'religious' fanatics who hunt down Christians and burn churches? We have given F-16's and borrowed money to them. So let's consider that investment. How many Christians dwell in Iraq today? What's it like to be a Christian in Egypt? How about Christian life in Libya? And the list goes on.

What to do. I agree with former UN Ambassador John Bolton that the problem is Iran. I would add to that equation Saudi Arabia. The Saudi's want Assad gone and so that's it - he is a marked man and a lost soul. Do you remember, where the bulk of 9-11 hijackers came from?

We need to plan methodically. This begins with the lessons of history. Back when Muammer Gaddafi was the Middle East Bad-Boy, president Reagan sent in a serious bombing raid into Libya. Muammer got the message so we didn't need boots on the ground. In fact, Gaddafi went on to assist the West in the 'former War on Terror'. Too bad for Muammer that the Saudi's wanted him gone also. Carefully planned, strategic strikes with brutal force can prevent boots on the ground. Strategy must include goals and exit plans. We just never seem to have any goals and exit strategy that can be communicated.

And then the most important factor of all - the God factor. In 2nd Chronicles chapters 13-16 in the Old Testament, we are reminded of poor King Asa of Judah. He had the example of his father King Abijah in trusting in God for direction before going into battle. The king also had the voice of prophets reminding him that God would not turn away from him if, he, King Asa would not turn from God and would trust in God. In the end, it was Asa not looking to God, and get this - turning to none other than Damascus for help. The result was he and his people were plagued with wars for the rest of his life. Psalm 127:1 Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, that watchman waketh but in vain. We need to seek out our Creator for guidance, or we are doomed from the get go. Human folly never ends well going all the way back to the Garden.

We are being led into another war by a president who has no real grasp of the political complexities of Isalm, the region, and the fate our very fragile economy. More importantly, he does not understand the true spiritual. Therefore, wars and the rumors of wars will continue. People will die horrible deaths. The stock market will go down, crude oil along with gold and silver will rise. And our standing as the leader of the free world will continue to decline. How tragic. How unnecessary.