We Are Living The End Times

A student at a university in Florida was suspended for refusing to follow the directions in a class where the professor was trying to teach about "different perspectives on religion" where the professor had students write the name of Jesus on a piece of paper, lay it on the floor and stomp on it. The student refused to do so and put the paper back on his desk and reported the "lesson" to university officials. He was suspended for his efforts and his refusal to stomp the name of Jesus.

A group of students faced opposition for having Bible scriptures on the banner the football team burst through to begin their weekly football games. The case went to court.

A cross which stood in the desert Southwest for decades was recently required to be removed by state law.

A student gunman burst into a high school and opened fire on students gathered together to pray at the beginning of their school day.

A young girl was shot to death because she refused to deny the name of Jesus in a high school lunchroom massacre.

What do all these things point to? The end of times as described and prophesied by Jesus Christ, Himself. We were warned many times about facing adversity for our belief in Christ Jesus as the Messiah and His return as late as 2,000 years ago but as early as 6,000 years ago, so why is that we're astonished, surprised and even appalled at the treatment we receive from the world for being believers? I truly wonder how anyone could be surprised or even annoyed at the prospect of being discriminated against or worse for believing in Jesus. Of course, many Christians today feel that it's only those in foreign countries that should have to deal with these issues because the United States of America is a "Christian country" and should therefore be exempt from hardships associated with being a believer. What a load of craziness that is.

Father will be against son; mother will be against daughter; daughter-in-law will be against mother-in-law. And people we don't know will be against people they don't know, all because of belief in Jesus Christ. We were forewarned and foretold of these things happening, and believe me when I say it's only going to get worse before Jesus splits the Eastern skies and takes us home.

What Would Jesus Do or Say?

While the mainstream media, and many religious broadcasters, as well, have flooded our airwaves, print media and internet news feeds with stories about the new pope, one headline did catch my eye. The headline said, "Unpredictable Pope Worries Security Team" (AP News, 20 March 2013). As I read the article detailing how the pope's recent activities have included stepping into the crowd and riding in private cars or in the pope mobile without the bullet-proof bubble, I wondered, again, how God feels about Christians who so desperately try to protect themselves.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe we, as humans and Christians, are allowed to take precautions with our safety, but I wonder what He felt when a protestant preacher recently began wearing his pistol in a holster on his hip, even while in the pulpit preaching? Jesus was quite clear that we are not to retaliate, physically, when someone strikes us. He told us that we should turn the other cheek to someone who has struck us on the face; He did not say we are to tackle them, strike them in return and He definitely didn't say anything about using a firearm to shoot them! And, of course, we have the story in the 7th chapter of Acts on Stephen's martyrdom as an example of how we're to respond to a crowd attacking us. Stephen didn't fight back, he took what they offered, all the while praying for them.

I know the world today has gotten crazier, and there are always threats to our physical well being, but I believe Jesus meant what He said to Peter on the night He was arrested in Gethsemane, when Peter used a sword to strike a Roman guard who was trying to arrest the Lord. Put your swords (weapons) away! If you live by weapons, you will die by weapons.

After all, where would we be if Jesus had responded to threats the way we do, today? We would have no salvation because He would never have been crucified; and without the crucifixion, there would have been no resurrection!

Commandments Have Reasons

I am so grateful that I live in this present age, because I live under the grace and mercy of God not under the Law of Moses. Had I been born before the first century AD, I would have had to convert to Judaism and followed the Law perfectly in order to assure my place in heaven, as I am a Gentile. But because I was born after Jesus’ death and resurrection, I am no longer under the law; not bound by the plethora of rules about behavior, dress, assemblage, planting, sacrifices, etc. In the words of Peter, I would have lived under rules that no mortal man could bear.

But, if you go back and really look at the laws God gave Moses, there was always a really good reason for the things He told His people not to do. Take the commandment “thou shalt not covet”, for example. While there are plenty of ways that this commandment could be used to show why we should be grateful and satisfied with what we have, another reason for this command is because you cannot truly see what’s behind the thing you covet.

For example, I’ve known couples who have projected an aura of a perfect marriage to those in their churches, at work, even among their families. And I’ve heard people comment, “I wish I had a marriage like they do.” The truth of the matter is, however, that those marriages may not be all they seem to the outside world. I know of two marriages where people on the outside thought they were perfect; that the couples were so in love with one another even decades into their marriage. Yet, the truth of the matter is, in one of those marriages, the wife was completely miserable, and didn’t even like her husband. At home, they rarely spoke to one another, and the husband had at least one affair while everyone was gushing over the wonderful, beautiful, “perfect” marriage this couple had.

Imagine a woman in their church, seeing their marriage from the outside and proclaiming, “I want that kind of marriage!” How disappointed would she be to be given that kind of marriage, to wake up one morning and totally dislike her husband, to no longer have conversations with him and then discover that he’s cheating on her? I’m sure she would want to go back to her ho-hum, average marriage!

In the other marriage, the wife was a virtual prisoner. All her friends and co-workers thought she had the perfect marriage, yet her husband would not allow her to have any contact with her family. She was even forced to stop speaking to her mother because the husband was afraid her family would give her support and a place to stay in order for her to divorce him. He was so terrified of her divorcing him that he drove her to the point of suicide. They had not shared a bed in more than a decade when the wife died. The husband had her cremated and placed her ashes in a cardboard box on a shelf in the laundry room and didn’t notify her family of her death.

As is the case with so many of the old, cliché sayings, the one about being careful what you wish for is based squarely on Biblical teaching, specifically the command to not covet what your neighbor has.

Letters To Congress & President

Today, I wrote this letter to all 3 of my Congressmen and the President of the United States. Maybe if more people would write about this issue, we could see some real change in D.C. for a change!

28 February 2013

I keep hearing about cuts we have to make to Social Security, to Medicare, to Education, to transportation, to Defense, to rebuilding infrastructure. All I hear out of Washington is “CUTS, CUTS, CUTS”, to domestic programs; then I read in the paper this morning that we’re INCREASING spending by $60 Million dollars to Syrian rebels? Has Washington gone completely mad?

Before you start cutting programs that benefit the citizens of these United States whose taxes have kept this country going all these years, cut the spending we’re sending to nations around the world! Especially those nations that hate us and are constantly saying how much they do and how they’re going to destroy us, etc. Namely: Pakistan.

It is the greatest stupidity to cut programs for hardworking Americans who spent their lives and their health to support this nation while increasing spending for countries who despise us.

Shame On America

A friend of mine wrote in her book, "Paws to Reflect: 365 Devotions For the Animal Lover's Soul" (Devon O'Day and Kim McLean, ©2012 Abingdon Press) about the importance of consistency in keeping your word to your pets for the devotion of 25 February. It reminded me of some comments I've received when I tell people I've promised my dogs certain things, and I won't go back on my word; they act as if giving my word to a dog is somehow something that is of no consequence. I'm the type of man who believes giving my word means something, whether that's to a friend, a stranger, a dog, God -- my word is important and it's my highest priority to always keep it if at all possible.

Unfortunately there are many in this country who have no clue what it means to keep their word. They give their pledge to do something, or not to do something, and think absolutely nothing of failing to follow through. Often without explanation of why they didn't keep their word, yet these are the same people who create the most chaos if someone doesn't keep their word to them. When I think of those who keep their word the least, politicians, of course, top the list. Every election they're up for, they give us their word they're going to do this or that, but once they're continued place in Washington is assured for another 2, 4 or 6 years, they pretend they never said anything to us that remotely resembled a pledge. Of course, as soon as the election cycle gets close for us to decide whether to send them packing or leave them in D.C., they are once again giving us the word. How, and why, do we continue to believe them?

The saddest situation in this country is that we make sport about how politicians don't keep their word. How could we joke about the veracity of politicians then turn around and re-elect them, time and time again? Almost every person I spoke to before the election of 2012 agreed with me that we should send every incumbent home and start from scratch, and yet incumbents won more than 90% of seats up for re-election. If a couple were to experience the number of failed promises in four years that we the people experience from politicians, that couple would file for divorce in a fever of anger for the constant lies and broken promises; yet they continue to vote for those who promise to represent us in Washington and then represent only themselves and their big corporate donors.

And then there are those who stand on God's promises, constantly reminding Him that He promised, so therefore they aren't moving until God proves good on His word, all the while they make promises and pledges daily that they toss out as soon as it's not convenient for them to keep their word to Him. Don't get me wrong, I understand that we're all imperfect people who make mistakes and fall short or outright rebel against God's will, yet we expect God to keep His word to us, regardless while ignoring and forgiving us for not keeping ours. I just cannot imagine how much our hypocrisy hurts the very heart of God, and I for one am recommitting myself to work harder to keep every pledge I make, whether large or small.

WHEN?!?!?

When will we begin demanding that our leaders actually lead? That our representatives actually represent? When will demand that those in control of the corporations we do business with and the politicians we have elected get around to telling us the truth? How much longer until we put our collective foot down and require those in government actually govern? When will we, the people, demand that right is right and refuse to accept anything less?

I remember as a child when I first learned that the go-cart we had was limited to run below a certain speed by a governor; I learned the word govern meant to hold in check or limit/restrain. How is that those we send to Washington, DC cannot seem to hold themselves in check or limit themselves? They can't seem to restrain themselves from spending monies they don't have or fawning over special interest groups who have the money to pamper them with gifts and freebies. When will we wake up and demand what President Abraham Lincoln said: "Government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth." Right now, the government of the United States is not acting like it is "of the people", it's certainly not working as if it's "by the people" and I can't recall the last time it was "for the people". We, the people, have come close to letting that style of government "perish" from the shores of this great nation.

Why do we allow the federal government of the United States of America to tell us that they have to cut domestic programs like defense while allowing them to not only send billions of our dollars to countries around the world, like Egypt, Syria and others, but to increase the amount of monies they're giving to people who hate us? Why do we continue to allow them to borrow 40¢ of every dollar that's spent to pay our national bills while they're giving away billions upon billions every year to nations that have declared themselves to be enemies of the United States?

Is it really the leaders of the government who have gone mad or is it truly we the people who have?

Gun Control, Gun Tragedies & Rhetoric

I know about the very first school shooting in this country in which multiple people were killed. It was 1 August 1966 and it ushered in this insane era of what is now known as campus shootings. I remember the shooting at an elementary school in Southern California where a sniper from across the street murdered teachers and students alike. I remember the mass murder of patrons of McDonald's and the chaos that was the scene of the mass murder of dozens at the Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas on 16 October 1991. Many people, however, believe this current era of tragedy began at Columbine High School on 20 April 1999, even though that rampage occurred more than a generation after the era began. There were other school shootings before Columbine, but that one seemed to really shatter the illusion that our kids are safe at school.

It may be, however, that Columbine was the one that the anti-gun crowd seized on to try to strip away the 2nd Amendment rights of all Americans, despite the fact that if you take the number of those who have used firearms to commit these mass murders and total them up to compare against the total number of people in this country who own firearms, the percentage would be less than one-fifth of one percent (0.2%). Yes, there are far too many murders where just one or two people are killed where the murderer uses a firearm, but just as many murders are committed using knives, poison, blunt force trauma, strangulation, beatings, cars, and other means. I'm not a murderer so I truly can't think of all the devious ways people can think of to kill another person. But the fact remains that 99.8% of Americans who own firearms are law-abiding citizens who simply would not even think of killing someone using a firearm or by any other means.

Then, of course there are those who claim that even if the owner of the weapons wouldn't use them for murder, other people will steal those weapons in order to commit murder. While this is true, someone who is intent on murdering someone else will murder them in whatever means they can, even if they cannot get their hands on a firearm; they'll use a knife, a hatchet or whatever tool/weapon they can find. I'm using many words to convey the same message in the old cliché: guns don't kill people, people kill people.

Someone recently said to me that gun control advocates and 2nd Amendment advocates speak different languages, which is what makes coming to a compromise so very difficult. Those who want to ban all firearms simply do not understand the things said by 2nd Amendment people and vice versa. Personally, because I understand and can see both sides, I understand both side's languages, but that doesn't help me make it easier for one side to see the other side's point of view. And part of that problem is that neither side really wants to see the other side's point of view. Even if something makes sense to them about their opponents argument, they will refuse to allow themselves to understand or admit their understanding because then they would have to concede the other side has a valid argument, as well.

I, personally, take heat from both sides because I believe in points from both sides. While I believe in the 2nd Amendment and refuse to allow anyone to take away my 9 mm Luger, my .38 revolver or my .30-.30 rifle, I agree with the gun control crowd that there is absolutely no legitimate use for an AK-47, AR-15 or any other assault/military style firearm in the hands of the regular citizen. Those weapons are for one purpose and one purpose only: the killing of human beings. They were created for use by armies, not by hunters, etc. Same with these clips/magazines that hold 100 rounds. I do believe banning any magazine that holds more than 10 rounds is a bit extreme, but those that hold 50 or more rounds are used by the military for a reason: they're to kill as many of the enemy as possible before having to reload.

So, what is the answer? I wish I could convince both sides that allowing private ownership of handguns, shotguns and rifles is our fundamental right enshrined by the Constitution, but there is no valid purpose for private ownership of military style assault weapons or magazines for any firearm that holds 50 or more rounds of ammunition. It would require compromise on both sides of the issue to achieve that solution, and unfortunately, neither side is willing to compromise. Each side wants their own way and truly believe in their heart of hearts that they are right and the opposition is wrong.

Even using Britain as an example doesn't sway either side: Britain has banned all private ownership of firearms yet they still have murders. The death toll in the United States of America won't really be impacted by the banning of firearms, because just like in Britain those intent on using a firearm as a weapon of murder will still find a way to get their hands on one and use it. The difference will be that no one will be able to defend themselves or their loved ones, so maybe the death toll by firearms would actually increase by taking away the firearms of law-abiding citizens.