President Biden has claimed he is concerned about the border crisis and has been attacking those who say he isn’t doing anything about it. In fact, he has been doing a lot about the border crisis, however he has not helped the situation. He stripped away all the money set aside for building the border wall, and in spite of his claims, he has not built any new wall. The governor and legislature of Texas got tired of waiting for him to do something about it and has begun building a wall on their own. In return, President Biden has ordered the border patrol to cut holes in the barbed wire to allow illegal immigrants to get through. He has also gone to court to stop Texas from building a wall and deploying buoys to prevent migrants from swimming the river. Everything he has done has been to hinder the efforts of border States to stop the inflow of illegal immigrants. He has also attacked those who claim that it allows drugs and terrorists to cross the border, yet many immigrants are being financed by drug dealers who enlist them to transport drugs into the U.S. in exchange for assistance in reaching the United States. In addition, an increasing number of Mid Eastern terrorists have been intercepted at the border trying to slip in among the immigrants while border patrol agents are busy chasing other immigrants. In addition, he attacks those who say they take jobs from Americans and result in increased crime. Many immigrants are hired by companies and paid low wages knowing they cannot complain without risking being deported for being in the U.S. illegally. In addition, they are virtually invisible because their I no record of their presence and are forced to steal to survive since they can’t get legal jobs.
Second Sunday of Epiphany-Jan 14
Many elderly worry about what would happen if they fell and there was no one to help them. Many get no visits except for those that come to deliver groceries or pick up and deliver laundry. They might lie for days before someone came. Others able to get out might become sick suddenly. A couple years ago, an elderly man in lower Michigan became sick and could not get out to the post office. The checks to pay his utility bill lay on his table but he could not get out to mail them. The utility company sent a shutoff notice when they didn’t get any payments and eventually shut off the utilities. The man froze to death without heat. There was a great uproar about how the utility company should have tried to contact him. Yet, it all could have been prevented if someone had called or visited him and mailed his letters for him. Calling and visiting the elderly regularly can prevent such tragedies and ease their minds. I once visited an elderly lady who told me how thankful she was that God was watching over her. She lived alone and her only outside contact was a young woman who visited her every Thursday and washed her clothes. There was a bad winter storm on that Monday and the young woman felt God urging her to check on the elderly lady. She resisted at first because the roads were bad and it was ten miles away, but she finally decided to go. She knocked on the front door but got no answer so she went around back to knock on the back door in case the elderly lady was in the back part of the house. She found the elderly lady laying on the walk outside the house. The lady had gone out just before the young woman arrived (she didn’t remember why) and had fallen on the ice. Had the young woman not arrived when she did, the elderly lady would have quickly frozen to death. God had told the young woman to go even before the elderly lady went outside. Had the young woman ignored the call, the elderly lady would have died, because no one knew she was there.
Values-D
The fourth lie is the one that says everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It is a lie because they obviously don’t believe it, not because it isn’t true. They say everyone should be free to believe what they want. They feel differently and feel they should be able to hold their opinion regardless of what others believe. They claim they should not be punished for going against the majority. While there is basically nothing wrong with that, the problem is that they feel society should accommodate their beliefs. They use it to justify their actions which violate the rights of the majority of people. Transexual men feel they should be able to use the women’s bathroom or play in women’s sports because they feel they are a woman and feel society should allow them to. If they want to believe they are a woman, that is their right, but they violate what they say they believe when they try to force society to accommodate them. According to what they claim, society should be free to believe what it believes just as they claim the right to believe what they believe. If they want to go to a deserted island and practice what they believe, nobody will stop them, but they should not force their beliefs on society.
Values-C
Another lie is just as serious. They say that it doesn’t matter what you believe. You are free to believe whatever you want and it won’t affect your life. Decisions are based on the problem you face and not on any pre-set feelings about right and wrong. It is often referred to as situation ethics. That is closely related to the belief that there won’t be any consequences. It releases the person from the need to figure out how that belief will affect their life. Someone can change their beliefs whenever they want and not have to analyze whether it is good or bad because it won’t make any difference. It allows people to do things that create all kinds of problems and dismiss them as not their fault. It allows people to claim that telling women to kill their unborn baby because it will get in the way of their happiness is not responsible for someone shooting his boss and coworkers because they stand in the way of his happiness. They claim that the problem stems from the fact he had access to a gun. If he didn’t have a gun, he wouldn’t have done it. The problem is that they have to ignore when someone uses a knife or a bomb because it can’t be blamed on the fact that they had access to a gun.
Values-B
When I was young, the church was actively teaching God’s values and they were open about them in public so most people accepted them, even if they had no church connection. There was a clear understanding of what was right and what was wrong. Our society had its ups and downs but overall, it ran fairly smoothly. Over the last fifty years, liberal media and politicians have been pushing another set of values. Those values are relative and subject to individual interpretation. They are based on four primary lies. Two of them have been around for a long time and were the ones that Satan offered to Eve. The first is that laws are relative. God said not to touch the tree but Satan tried to confuse Eve about what God had really said. He implied that God was withholding something good. We see this on our highway where the speed limit says fifty-five, but it is a clear day and an open road so people feel that they can do seventy. Its more fun and you can get there faster. However, without a set speed, the faster drivers are constantly weaving in and out of traffic, passing the slower vehicles which increases the danger of accidents. The second backs it up. You can enjoy it and there won’t be any consequences. We see this in abortion. They push you to enjoy free sex and not worry about consequences. If you have an accidental pregnancy, you can always abort it and take care of the problem. Unfortunately, saying there won’t be a problem, does not make it so. Abortion may take care of one problem but opens up others. We are seeing the consequences of a relative set of values today. Once you allow people to make up their own rules, nobody is sure what the rules are, and some will choose rules that cause more harm than good. We are reaping the consequences of a relative set of values.
First Sunday of Epiphany-Jan 7
Loneliness-Jesus came to bring Light into a world filled with darkness. You can bring light into the life of an elderly person. Several years ago, my parents were severely beaten by thieves that broke into their home. After that, they were not able to get out much, yet no one came to visit them. My two brothers and I called and visited when we could, but we lived too far away to visit regularly. There are many elderly people like them that can not get out much and who do not have anyone close to them to call or visit them. They may have workers who come in to clean or the fix their meals and help them bathe but the workers rarely have time to stay and visit. Many elderly who are homebound would welcome regular calls or visits from Christian neighbors. Do you know of any elderly people living on your street? In addition, there are many in nursing homes who do not get visits from anyone and would also welcome regular visits. You may feel it would be difficult visiting because you have children, but if they are well behaved, the elderly person might welcome them. Many have grandchildren they have never seen and would love to have children to spend time with. When all you have to think about is getting old, it is depressing but seeing children lightens the day. Check first, but they will probably welcome the visits of children.
Immigration-VI-Q
It is interesting to watch Democrats deal with migrants who enter their cities and States. They encourage the migrants to come and prevent any attempt to stop them, knowing that the Republican border States are going to bear the burden of taking care of them. They stick their heads in the sand and ignore the problems they are creating because it does not affect them. Now the border States have gotten smart and have begun shipping a few of them into Democrat controlled cities and States. The number being shipped is only a very small fraction of those pouring into Texas and Arizona every day, but it is enough to give them a taste of the problems they are creating for the border States. All of a sudden, Democrats are having to face the problems they are creating and they don’t want to deal with them. They are trying to prevent the migrants from being shipped to them and are even threatening to send them back to the border. They want the migrants to come to the United States as long as they don’t have to deal with them, so they are trying to prevent them from coming to their cities and States. They want to destroy the economies of the Republican States that are prospering due to low taxes and few business regulations to make their cities and States look good, even though they are struggling under failing economies due to the high taxes, uncontrolled government spending, and heavy government regulation of business forced on them by their leadership of Democrats who are anything but Democratic.
Immigration-VI-P
While President Biden continues to complain about the influx of illegal immigrants, he has done nothing to stop them. In fact, by pushing for them to stay once they get here, he is encouraging them to come. He ended President Trump’s policy of sending them back if they crossed illegally and instead releases them into the country where they disappear and never show up for their hearings. Unfortunately, the huge influx of illegal immigrants is overtaxing immigration authorities and preventing them from protecting our borders from other threats. Over a million pills laced with Fentanyl were intercepted in California coming in from Mexico in a recent drug bust. Fentanyl is the number one cause of death in those age 18-45. It is not known how many pills have slipped past border agents busy rounding up illegal immigrants. Border agents have also spotted an increased number of terrorists slipping over the border. Our President is responsible for protecting us from foreign threats and this certainly qualifies as a foreign threat. President Trump built large segments of the border in spite of opposition from liberals but President Biden put an end to it and striped it of the funding that was allocated under President Trump. Now he complains he can’t do anything because he can’t get the funding from Congress. We need a president like President Trump that will deal with the problem and not encourage it and then bellyache about it.
Environment-M
M-We are continuing to see the folly of depending on wind and solar power. Texas endured a long period without electricity over most of the State because they got an unexpected snow storm. It is extremely rare but a major problem if it occurs. Their solar panels got covered with snow and the wind turbines froze. They had not kept their regular power stations on standby to cover the interim because it is so rare. As a result, a lot of people suffered from their neglect. We need to keep regular power plants to back up and support solar and wind power. In addition, we need to realize the limitations of electric vehicles. Many northern States are finding that their electric powered buses do not run well in the cold weather. In addition, we can’t just suddenly switch to all electric because we need to prepare the power grid and a lot of people don’t have the money to get them, not to mention that a lot of good gas powered vehicles would end up in the junk yards creating a tremendous waste of resources. While protecting the environment is important, it should not be pushed to the extreme where it does more harm than good.