Our Military Intervention is Too Costly?

     Some people complain that our current fiscal problems are the result of America fighting wars on two fronts (more than that if you consider the rest of the world and non-military action).  But frankly the cost of our military intervention world-wide is miniscule compared to the actions, and inactions, of our President and Congress.

     However, it is an historic ploy for leaders of nations in jeopardy to distract their citizens with a common enemy. Obama is unique in that he attempts to divide forces in America while praising our terrorist enemies and attempting to make each of us the enemy of another within our own borders. The election in 2012 must be a cease and desist order to the Democratic Party that has climbed in bed with this anti-American president in order to promote their own socialist agenda. In the end, Obama has disappointed even them, but they continue to support him in hopes, as Pres. Reagan once said, "the alligator won't eat them. But eat them he will."

Telling One Another 'Ghost Stories'

     For some time now there has been speculation and wild schemes batted about concerning martial law, detainee camps, black ops.  I guess what would really scare the people who are busy telling one another such "ghost stories" is that military members such as myself know by name hundreds whom we know we can trust, who know hundreds of others, who can be armed, who know how to contact and track one another, and who have sworn an allegiance for a lifetime to protect the Constitution of the United States and, as a brotherhood under arms, one another.  
It's the kind of networked organization that wouldn't be tracked.  
Not because they can't, but because the Feds wouldn't believe its potential, and the LEOs wouldn't, for the most part.  
Just ordinary guys and gals who believe in the spirit of freedom and American self-reliance.  In them and Almighty God I trust.  All others pay cash.

Top 10 Reasons Why the U.S. Marines in Okinawa Are Essential | The Heritage Foundation

Top 10 Reasons Why the U.S. Marines in Okinawa Are Essential | The Heritage Foundation

Called to Be World Changers, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20

28:16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
28:17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
28:20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Today is Trinity Sunday, so it is fitting that we begin at the new beginning for Christ’s disciples, following his death, burial and resurrection, where they received Christ’s instructions that involved the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We have come a very long way in the thousands of years since those fearful, frightening and yet exciting days. And yet, in some ways, not very far at all. Our feet are still stuck in the muddy sinfulness prevalent at the time of that new beginning for human beings.

There are two verses I would like to key on. Verse 17 and the last half of verse 20. Let’s begin with the last one first.

Verse 20 reads: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

So I must ask, if that’s true, that Jesus Christ is always with us even to the end of time yet to come, how is it that we are so mired in the sinful catastrophe that we now see taking place in this nation? What has happened? How did we get here?

On May 23-24 Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., began teaching children in grades kindergarten through fifth grade that there are more than two genders. The two day classes were entitled “Gender Spectrum Diversity Training.” In documents released by the school, students were taught “gender is not inherently nor solely connected to one’s physical anatomy.” Further, gender is a “complex interrelationship between [physical traits] and one’s internal sense of self as male, female, both or neither as well as one’s outward presentations and behaviors related to that perception.” Another document from the school advises parents: “When you discuss gender with your child, you may hear them exploring where they fit on the gender spectrum and why.” Of course, I don’t know too many kindergarteners through fifth graders who would understand what they are talking about. But that’s part of the problem, that age group is far too young to be exposing them to sexual issues they are not prepared to comprehend and deal with.

Seeing this story someone asked me, rhetorically, what that third gender might have been in the Garden of Eden? My answer was “snake.” For this kind of cultural misinformation to kindergartners comes from the same place Adam and Eve heard that God didn’t really mean what He said about what happens if you disobey Him. A lying snake told them that. God did mean it, and He still means it.

By now nearly everyone has heard of how a Congressional Representative from the state of New York resigned his seat after being caught sending electronic pornography of himself to several women, including a female teenager, only weeks after being newly married. One disturbing aspect is that the majority of his constituents in New York City urged him not to resign, and he did so only after being urged to by senior members of his own political party in Congress.

Also in California, in Ventura County’s city of Thousand Oaks, a woman attempting to make arrangements with Macy’s Department Store not to work on Sunday so she could go to church, was fired.

In Sacramento, Calif., a group of atheists and anti-religionists filed suit in the Ninth Circuit Court challenging the constitutionality of centuries-old tax exemptions for parsonages and other ministerial housing.

And in southern California atheists sued to have an ancient cross removed from a federal cemetery of military veterans. When the federal court ruled against them, the cross disappeared overnight and has not been found.

Our government is allowing Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru to file a federal class action suit against the state of Georgia because they passed a state law to curb illegal immigration stating the federal government has failed to secure the nation’s borders. Illegal immigrants, say supporters of Georgia’s new law, are burdening the state’s taxpayer-funded resources, including public schools, jails and hospitals.

A Congressional Representative from Texas announced that there needs to be an investigation regarding “Christian militants” who might destroy America.

Our federal government sent thousands of guns across the Mexican border in some sort of misguided and botched investigation of foreign drug cartels. Several of these guns were later used to kill American border guards.

Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, mud slides, fires kill thousands across America.

Lack of jobs, unemployment, and high medical, food and fuel costs are causing thousands of Americans to lose their homes.

Naturalistic materialism rules academia today, and the grace of God lies lightly on the church in America.

Depraved individuals dance lewdly through the streets, celebrating their sinfulness, while churches who claim Christ appoint them to positions of authority within the church.

What is happening to our nation? Where have ethics, morality and integrity gone? What has happened to our commitment to the Christ? To the inspired word of God?

Has Joshua 24:15 been forgotten? “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” The ancient Israelites knew, and we should be wise enough to know today, that serving anyone except the Lord God carries with it a price no one really wants to pay.

Still God is snubbed, forgotten, and mocked across the land. Pastors of liberal churches advise their congregants that the Muslim name “Allah” is merely another name for God, even as Islam refuses to recognize the deity of the Son of God, calls the Bible a perversion of God’s word, and denigrates the female half of the human race.

I turn now to that other verse I said was key in today’s scripture, verse 17, which says of the disciples, after they had arrive at Galilee as Jesus had instructed them, “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him, but some doubted.”

Think about that for a moment, they saw Him, and yet some doubted. What did they need to convince them of the reality of the risen Christ? Did they, like Thomas, need to put their fingers into the holes in His crucified hands? Did they need to put their hands into the sword wound in His side? How could they see Him, and not know?

There is an old, old gospel song that says when I see my Savior I will know Him by the holes in His hands. And yet, having had His love come so near to me all these years, having had Him open doors for me, protect me in truly deadly and frightening situations on the field of battle, having experienced His healing of diagnosed glaucoma, having known His nearness in moments of prayer and praise, how should I see Him and not know my Savior? Nail holes in His hands, the sword wound in His side, if I see none of it, I am confident I shall know my Savior’s presence should He come within 100 yards of me. I will know Him by the love that comes so near. How could they not?

And yet, there we have our answer to the question, how did we get here. What has happened to us?

He urges us to pray and not faint, to be led of the Holy Spirit, to love God. And as we realize the impact of the Holy Spirit in our lives, He tells us in Galatians 5:22-23 that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

With the fruit of the Spirit working in us, how could any of the incidents I have listed above, how could any of that transpire in the presence of the Holy Spirit? It could not. We would not do it. We would not allow it under His guidance.

Dr. Os Guiness, Christian critic, international speaker and author, spoke recently at Lausanne III in Cape Town about the condition of the church and the Christian in today’s world. He said, in part, “There is a social tension required by the Way of Jesus, as his followers are called to be ‘in’ the world but not ‘of’ the world (social dualism) or ‘not conformed’ but ‘transformed.’ When Christians truly live like that, rather than going to one extreme or another, it gives the church an unmatched leverage in culture – not just ‘faithful presence’ but ‘transforming engagement.’ Culture, after all, is simply ‘a way of life lived in common,’ so when Jesus called His followers to ‘live His way,’ it was natural that Christians together created a decisively Christian culture as the by-product of their faithfulness to the way of Jesus.

“Our central problem,” he said, “does not come from secularists, post-modernists, Islamists, gay activists, or any other purported threat from the fear-mongering machines. It comes from our own evangelical worldliness and our signal failure to live the way of Jesus.”

When asked how Christians were failing to live the way of Christ, Dr. Os answered, “Sadly, when we look at many movements within evangelicalism today, the world and the spirit of the age are dominant. I feel this very deeply as one trained in the social sciences. When I wrote ‘The Gravedigger File’ nearly 30 years ago, very few evangelicals knew much about sociology. It was considered a ‘dangerous’ field, along with psychology. Now it is cited almost universally, especially in the constant quoting of the latest statistics. I have heard megachurch sermons in which ‘Gallup or Barna says’ far out-stripped ‘God or the Bible says.’ But whereas sociology was once unused, it is now used uncritically. One of the key places where sociology should be used is in analyzing ‘the world’ of our times, so that we can be more discerning. To resist the dangers of the world you have to recognize the distortions and seductions of the world. I have revised and updated my book under a new title ‘The Last Christian on Earth,’ but understanding the world through cultural criticism is unfashionable. Rather than use sociology that way, most pastors use it in a way that leads to adapting to the world, and they are encouraged to do so by half-baked versions of ‘seeker-sensitive’ mission, and so on.

“So we have to ask a question of the church at any moment: Is the Word decisive in the church, or is the world? Is the Spirit of God decisive, or the spirit of the hour?”

Today many are pessimistic about the ability of the Christian church to have a positive, changing impact on the world around us. But Dr. Os Guinness believes the Christian faith has changed the world in the past and can change it again, but only through a new Christian renaissance.

“What we need today is a new renaissance,” Guinness explains, “a fresh flowering of our faithfulness to Jesus, issuing in a fresh flowering of our enterprises in culture that are inspired by faith in Jesus.

“After a century in which evangelicals have swung between the extremes of an overly privatized faith and an overly politicized faith, this would be a better way forward, a way that is both faithful and influential at once.

Guinness advises, “The story of Christian reformation, revival, and renaissance underscores that the darkest hour is often just before the dawn, so we should always be people of hope and prayer, not gloom and defeatism. God the Holy Spirit can turn the situation around in five minutes. As G. K. Chesterton once remarked, five times the church has “gone to the dogs,” but each time “it was the dog that died.”

Reformation, renaissance, revival, call it what you will, but Guinness’ belief is in keeping with the word of God that He has given us. In 2^nd Corinthians 6:17, God tells us “Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord.” The life lived in Christ is the life others outside of Christ seek, and it will be used of the Holy Spirit to draw others to Christ.

The church – and we are the church, the body of Christ spoken of in 1^st Corinthians and Ephesians -- has a mission yet to be completed, as set forth in the fourth and fifth verses of today’s scripture, Matthew 28:19-20a, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

How did we get into this ethical and moral hole in which we find society today? Where the well of the future is being poisoned and evil runs about rampant and unchecked? By ignoring God.

How do we get out of it? By obeying God, allowing Jesus to work through us through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We often say that we love God, but John 15:10-15 says that to love God is to obey Him.

God has made it simple for us. Just obey Him, and change the world. Amen.

Wanna Know What's Going on in Libya? Ask Al Qaeda. They Know. We Don't.

By Pastor Ed Evans

Dr. Peter Waldron, head of Advancing American Freedom, asks the question, "Who are the rebels in Libya? Obama did not identify who the rebels are.

"According to a report in the British media, a key rebel leader is Abdel-Hakim al-Hasidi. Hasidi left Libya to fight against "the foreign invasion" of Afghanistan in 2002. In other words, he left his homeland and joined Al Qaeda to wage jihad against U.S. forces.

"The president of Chad, on Libya's southern border, is warning that Al Qaeda forces in Libya have pillaged Libyan military arsenals and seized major weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. Al Qaeda is promising to impose its version of Islam on the country once Qadhafi is gone. If that happens it helps the Islamists achieve their goal of a Middle East caliphate."

It's pretty clear the U.S. is not in control of what is happening in Libya, and entered into that fray with nothing more than military goals in mind. When it is over, we will not be in control, but it seems pretty clear Al Qaeda will be. And that helps the American position in the Middle East how?

We entered into this following after the French, without consulting the U.S. Congress, without working through the multiple possible consequences, and now we are asking NATO to take the responsibility for this fight off our hands. That we could do what we did militarily was never in question. In fact, we could have done a great more. But there is a lingering question of what our goal is and who is in charge.

For example, on a Sunday morning CBS News show, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, said explicitly there were no U.S. ground troops in Libya. He said that even though the news media days before had announced the explicit presence of U.S. Army Special Forces personnel inside Libya. He explicitly lied. Or he just didn't know what was going on. Either possibility should be disturbing enough to launch at least a Congressional inquiry into what we know, when we knew it, and who the heck knows!

In terms of leadership, morals, and ethics, it seems to be every man for himself. How long before America's enemies quit trying to figure out who is in charge, and decide to begin taking us in charge?

Which Reminds Me of a Story....

Ad Hominem Remarks
by Pastor ed evans

Women in the Military

There is a new initiative by Congress to put more women into the military and open up the combat arms fields to them. Proponents like to point out the success of women in the Israeli Army, such as in the American movie, "GI Jane."
However, there is a marked difference between the Israeli military culture and our own. First there have been remarkable performances by our own female soldiers, although what you hear most about from the sales-oriented news media are about the ones who get pregnant in the Army and the Navy. The one story that comes to mind is of the female Army Sergeant who took command of a convoy when it was attacked on the road in Iraq and led a successful counter-attack against the enemy. However, our own approach to the military is different, and never more evident than in a recent photograph of a group of Israeli female soldiers in a coffee shop, standing around the counter, rifles slung over their shoulders, magazines within easy reach. Contrast that with the U.S. Army middle east Major who was able to kill several innocent soldiers at will, on base, because our Army will not allow its soldiers, male or female, to go armed. Until we put our military off-limits to the social scientists, the politicians and the non-military lawyers, neither male or female military members will be allowed to be at their best.

The Second Coming; Delayed?

The following was written in response to Ray Walker's written thoughts on illegal immigration, the disappearance of American jobs, and the housing/mortgage disaster leading to America's financial disaster.
Ray, always enjoy your enlightened insights.
There is a great deal of hand-wringing going on along with cries of "Even so, come Lord Jesus!"
You and I do not subscribe to exactly the same reality, so it probably means little when I say I've read the book and I know how it ends. However, although you may think you understand what I mean by that, there may yet be a great misunderstanding.
I'm of the opinion we don't "get off that easy" by our God just cranking up His timetable and lifting us out of this mess we've stirred up. In fact, I think there are far too many looking for the Second Coming, and not nearly enough convinced of Jesus' continuing presence. We are called, I believe, to put into action his instructions from the Sermon on the Mount, be His hands and feet. As someone has said, it isn't that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, but has been wanted but not tried. We should read and reread Acts, chapter 2, very carefully and thereby become convinced that He is worth the wait. I remember fondly my reading the words of an old escaped slave, who said he prayed constantly for freedom, but he was never so successful in gaining freedom, "until I prayed with my legs!"

China and America

In the planning for WWII, the Japanese military decided they should not attack the American continent directly because every American was armed; there would be a weapon behind every bush. I believe the Chinese are biding their time -- they plan not by the year, but in the hundreds of years -- because they know behind the waves of Obama sheep stands a solid wall of patriots, armed with both weapons and knowledge, and dangerous. America will get through this, because Americans are resilient and committed, and we believe not just in our government, but in our God, and in ourselves. Against such no weapon stands.


Flat Tax

The "Entitlement Party" must be disabused of the notion that anyone owes anyone a living. America is the land of opportunity. You don't want to work for it, you don't get it. But we do need to work harder to ensure everyone has an opportunity. The idea of a flat tax counters the Orwellian idea that some people are more equal than others.
The current tax system pits underachievers against over achiever, which leads to some people seeing themselves as "victims" and demanding redress. Equal outcome without equal effort didn't work with Karl Marx, "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" and it won't work with the Progressive idea of "redistributive change."
We need a flat tax where everyone is invested in the outcome with their tax dollars. When you pay less tax than others, or in some cases no tax, "everything is affordable" since you aren't paying for it. And if your needs are being met, even though you are not working, then it pays you to stay home and not seek opportunities. Within many large cities across America, nearly all inner city minorities have cell phones, housing paid for, air conditioning, cable TV, and money for food; all paid for through public taxes. Everything is provided, paid for, without the stress of working for it. The stigma once associated with welfare has all but been eliminated by calling it "entitlement," which in itself sends the absolutely wrong signal.


Response to email discussions concerning funding denied Marines for equipment, weapons and programs at the Pentagon, at Department of Navy, and at meetings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. January 12, 2010
As insightful as this thread is, adding details many of us have suspected over the years, it also brings to light a question of dereliction of duty. It appears our military is beset by either inept amateurs, covetous scoundrels, or both, and it really doesn't matter which, the resulting national disaster of botched, under-equipped, and fouled missions is the same.
Just that much will put you on notice that many who are involved in this thread are not going to like the way I see this. Nevertheless, as now a minister of the Gospel I am used to dealing with inconvenient truths, and as a retired enlisted Marine I am steeped in such historic advice as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" and "C'mon you sonsuvbitches, you want to live forever?"
So let me get right get right to it. Are the high-priced officers who have earned their way to senior rank and assignment, who go to battle with those in the Dept. of the Navy, with green-eye-shaded civilians, with other members of the Joint Staff, are they putting their lives and their careers on the line the way rank and file Marines do when they go into battle? What blood is spilled there in the conference rooms? Because there are no compromises when in combat the bullets fly and the blood flows. It is kill or be killed. No one should misunderstand that. But those in that situation must rely upon those with rank on their collars verses on their sleeves, who go to battle for Marine Corps battle priorities in terms of weapons, flying and tracked equipment, as well as bullets, beans and bandages. And if those senior members of the Marine Corps are not willing to lay down their life and their career for that Marine in the field, that Marine in the field will surely lay down his under circumstances that should have been avoided.
And no one should bother telling me that I just don't understand the complexity of the situation. I spent 27 years in the Marine Corps, was in Vietnam twice and Beirut once, and while a federal civilian with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers saw duty under fire in Iraq at age 65. So I know, keenly, what it is like to do without, and what it is like to have everything you need. That Marine in the field deserves better. Put me in, Coach, I'll fall on that Naval officer's sword before I let him steal from my Marines. Nobody says he has to like me.


My Testimony

After six decades on this earth, I stand today in the armor of Ephesians and say to the enemies of Almighty God, "I am bought with the blood of Jesus Christ. Though He slay me, yet will I serve Him."
I first came to know Christ in 1958 at an old U.S. Army Reserve encampment known as Camp Casey, near Seattle, Washington, where the Free Methodist Church near my home was hosting a teen retreat. It was December 28th and the wind came whipping off a nearby lake. We slept in cold, drafty old wooden barracks, ate meals in an old Army mess hall, and worshiped in the old chapel. The retreat was three days long, and it was on the last night, in the last moments of our singing "Just As I Am," that I was overwhelmed with an urging to come forward and give my life to Christ. And I did. I don't remember what I expected, but I remember thinking as I returned to my seat, with other teens slapping me on the back and shaking my hand, that I didn't feel any different. Then I walked outside.
It was cold, so everyone stayed inside the chapel to sit and talk, some playing the piano and singing. I walked outside, and was stunned. It was a night of the full moon, and everything looked as though it had a layer of gold over it. The lake was molten gold, with golden waves lapping along the shoreline. The trees, the grass, the path, the barracks, all gold, and I looked back at the door to see if I had suddenly passed into heaven. That has been my life with Christ, blessed. I am alive and still preaching Christ by the grace of God.
By the way, none of the other teens reported seeing what I saw that night, God's night of gold. Mine is an individual experience. So will yours be. He's crazy about you.


Why Get Upset?

Once while riding in a bus in Japan driven by an elderly Christian missionary, I remarked about the heedless drivers weaving in and out much too close to the bus. Didn't it upset him sometimes. No, he smiled, it was just part of driving in Japan. I learned so much from Pastor Marty Shaw, Sr., about Christ, about life, about myself. It's all just part of where my God and Savior want me to be. Life isn't what happens to me. Life is my reaction to it.


Christianity and Islam

I have observed that those who equate the Christ with Mohammed, Christianity with Islam, know about the Christ, but do not know the Christ. They are stuck in learning about religions and equating human good with divine intentions. They do not recognize that Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ, a living, breathing relationship, minute by minute, as we have with any other living person. If they knew the Christ, the sheer inhumanity of Islam extremism would not permit their conscience to excuse the brutality of this man-made religion. But they, like we, are human, and we are advised by Christ to forgive them. They have chosen their own way

Close the Borders; Ethics in Government

It is fundamentally wrong, maybe not ethically wrong but organizationally inept, to expect American people to deny others, American citizens or not, educational, medical, social benefits. Most Americans will not say no to hungry children, homeless aliens, etc. The only answer is to keep them out of America; close the borders to illegal aliens, drugs, weapons, everything except what is eyeballed and found legal. The purpose of organized government is to perform services for the citizenry what they cannot perform for themselves, such as organizing military protection, border protection, justice systems, and such. When the government does not meet these expectations, the people have every right to rise up and change those in charge of the government. That time has come. While we can still do it legally through justice and electoral processes, the government leadership must be replaced. The election of 2012 may be our last opportunity to put integrity, ethics and morality back into government, and remove those who are intent on serving themselves and their political agendas, and not the people of the United States of America. On that we must focus, and concentrate every effort.

Abortion Is Murder

Wrong is wrong, murder is murder, and pointing fingers will not stop it. We must concentrate our strengths, our energies and our prayers on stopping the killing of children. We must be strong, courageous, not weak, and not drawn off. Focus on stopping the killing of children.
We can work to determine who are the thieves, the scammers, the serial killers and such. But unlike such crimes, it is no mystery who is committing abortions, who they are committed upon, who are the accomplices. Identities are known. That doesn't stop abortions. We can waste our time and energies marching against them, holding up signs against them, pointing our fingers at them ... to no avail. It's been done. It has not stopped abortion. Our purpose must be to STOP the murder of children. Period.

Foreign Aid

Foreign aid, though a small percentage of our budget, pays huge dividends in providing food to the hungry, shelter to the homeless, healing to the ill and hope to those with AIDS, and all in the name of the People of the United States of America. It also aids the American economy and builds in a future for American business and workers. Finally, as it fulfills the admonitions of the Sermon on the Mount, it also puts a new face on the "Ugly American," some of whom are still crying "me first" in a land of plenty over lands of destitution.

America Supports 'Bogus Imperialistic Corporate Profiteering Wars'

Response to a young American man who decried the ‎"...bogus imperialistic corporate profiteering wars..."? I served twice in Vietnam, once in Beirut and once in Iraq. I saw men, women and children freed from tyranny, torture and murderous dictators. I could write a book about the personal thanks we received from these people; fathers grateful their daughters were no longer abducted, raped and murdered by those in charge; young men who could finally get a job and plan on a future with a wife and family; mothers whose children were no longer treated as sexual toys by sadistic thugs. Welcome to the real world. You have no idea what you are talking about.

It's the Entry to WWII All Over Again, Led by Evil Geniuses

I lived through those times. It wasn't that simple or that clear-cut. I agree that Obama is ignorant of history, of business management and leadership techniques, and inept as a financial manager, but evil genius he is not. The bugaboo of capitalism is that greed and envy sometimes lead ordinary citizens in sensitive positions to act as selfish and consummate flaming asses, putting the rest of us in danger. Until we can make the resurgence of integrity, ethics and morals the de rigur of government and business activities, we will continue to suffer.

Answer to "New World Order" Conspiracy Theorists

From Dr. Peter Waldron: " HE LAUGHS IN HEAVEN: My God, the Living God of the Jews and Christians is in charge, in control, and involved in a global revivial. Why do the heathen rage? Why do they conspire against my God? He roars with laughter at their machinations and manipulations. NWO, corporate elitists, secret organizations will collapse from their vanity. Our God, the Awesome God, reigns supreme over all that is seen and unseen."

Prepared for Socialism

Why does America seem asleep in the face of the threat of socialism now confronting it? It began in high school and college. Those who never met a payroll, never heard a shot fired in anger, never knew the true price of freedom, fed an impressionable generation on dreams and pie in the sky, denigrating heroes to make themselves seem more important. We have our work cut out for us, for reality is a hard taskmaster.
Whatever Happened to Real Men?
This question occurred to me as I read about the death of the last World War I veteran, Frank Buckles, on February 28, 2011, in Los Angeles, California. My grandfather, William Leroy Kelley, was a World War I veteran who died in the 1970s, what I would term a real man.
I am 70 years old, and just the other day asked the question of my wife, "What has happened to real men? Where has the old-fashioned, rugged, American individualism gone among men of America? It appears most of the "men" today have become what are best known as "wusses", self-absorbed, me-first. I have begun many an argument over foul language in a public restaurant in the presence of my wife. She is content with the fact I will never change. Basic civility and good manners are no longer practiced on television and so, everyone seems to think it's okay to "act out" in public. It is not. And those who quietly endure it only ensure it continues. My God has taught me I belong to Him, and I own the ground I stand on. Real men love Jesus Christ, or they don't know how to be real men.

Unscriptural Preaching

At the invitation of a Facebook friend, I have just gone to an unnamed Preacher's blog, and read his "Lies Told to the Church," which asserts that the Holy Spirit does not convict us of sin. Okay, so what do we do with John 16:8, which speaks of the Holy Spirit, saying, "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;"?
That great saint, Oswald Chambers, who never preached anything not based in scripture, said of this subject, "Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses the conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God."
We would do well to remember the advice of Ephesians 5:11 ... "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." Misunderstanding scripture through ignorance or lack of training is one thing, but deliberately preaching against what scripture says is deadly. Stay away from it.
I suggest you get hold of two books: The Interlinear Bible, and Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible.
The first shows verses in Hebrew, Greek and English, and each word is numbered. You can look those words up in the Strong's and see what the word meant at the time it was written. There is no confusion in the Bible, and we don't need the minds of men to re-interpret it for us. Let the Holy Spirit guide you; prayer will accomplish that.

We need to recognize that in this age, as in those before us, there is a battle underway about the validity of the inspired Word of God. This is about the validity of scripture. John 16:8 is clear, not confusing. So rather than a lot of personal testaments to what a decent person this or that Preacher is, and I have no doubt they are decent individuals, what about John 16:8, and the fact that someone says this verse in scripture, the inspired word of God, is wrong? Just for example. So let's not talk about these preachers by name, or their great education, or how large their following is, let's talk about the word of God as described in Hebrews 4:12. Is the law of the Lord perfect, as it says in Psalms 19:7? Yes, it is, since the One who made it is perfect. He is perfect, His words are perfect, and you can go to the original language in the Interlinear Bible, supplemented by Strong's Concordance, and check it for yourself. These are the words of Jesus we're talking about. I'll stand with the idea that He meant what He said. If someone wants to say that what He said is not true, their problem, and the problem of all those who buy into that, is not with me, but with the One who said those words. It's not about me, it's not about any one person, it is about the validity, the truth, of the inspired word of God.

The Relevance of Judaism

Responding to a Facebook thread concerning whether or not Judaism was a "dead" religion, since they reject their own Messiah, Jesus Christ, I pointed out that the Book of Revelation says only 144,000 Jews will survive, and that is because they believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of Almighty God. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything the Jews believed in in what we call the Old Testament, and they call the Talmud. If you take several generations to build a spaceship to Mars, and then leave it sitting on the launching pad, waiting for another one to miraculously appear, that doesn't make any sense by anyone's standards. The Old Testament is about Jesus, and without Him, there is no Judaism.

As I have noted elsewhere about a similar issue, we live in an age when every man seems to be his own advisor and counselor, and personal opinion wears the mantle of fact. But it isn't. 2nd Peter 1:20 says that nothing came into holy scriptures by personal interpretation. It is the inspired word of God. If Jesus were not the culmination of the Old Testament, if He were not our salvation through His shed blood, God is perfectly capable of doing it differently.
I am personally very sad as I look about and knowing God is going to take some of us home over the next few years, His people who live and speak the truth of holy scripture, am sad to see so many gathering great audiences to them by tickling their ears with twisted scripture and out and out falsehoods. These are great men of God who apparently for the sake of hero worship and funding have taken this verse and that and run off out into "Jones County" with it, teaching things such verses do not say. More and more I appreciate my brothers and sisters who hold to the inspired word of God. May God bless you, each one.

Public Support of Labor Unions

Across America states and cities are attempting to bring their budgets under control, and for many that means cutting of public financial support of labor unions. There is great social media input from members of labor unions justifying the existence of those unions. But that is a false flag. The issue is whether I, as a non-union member, should have my tax money go to support public employee -- state and municipal employees, teachers, fire fighters, police, first responders -- labor unions.

Where legal action did not exist, we needed the input of organized labor unions. Employees now have legal protection, and unions have grown into something akin to bullies in society. If unions are to survive, those who wish to belong and organize must metamorphose them into something meaningful for employees without being harmful to those who don't belong. Right now I belong to no union, but the unions want public monies -- read my money -- to support them. That entitlement mentality is the death knell of unions.