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Fourth Sunday of Lent-March 15

14 Mar

Go the Second Mile-Jesus said, “And whosoever shall compel you to go a mile, go with him two.” The Romans had a law that a soldier could compel a bystander to carry a burden for him, but he was limited because he could only compel you to go a mile. Anyone would have go the mile or risk being arrested, so it is nothing beyond what is expected, but to go the second mile would be an act of kindness. By doing an act of kindness (going the second mile) you are showing God’s love for them and when they ask why you do it, you have the opportunity to tell them about how God loves them and died for them. In our increasingly secular society, it is becoming a matter of every man for himself. Those who look out for others with no thought of return are rare.

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Posted in Faith in practice, Lent

Sanctity of Life-GD-E

14 Mar

God has set before us life and death and asks us to choose life. We face a clash of two values today. One is the Christian view that America was founded on. The Declaration of Independence declares that it is 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. It declares that the right to life is given by God and no man has the right to take it. It does not state that it is given to you when you reach age 18 or even at birth, it declares that it is given to you. It does not say you lose it when you become critically ill or critically injured or when you reach retirement. It states that God gave it and does not include any provision that gives man the right to take it. It states that the government is institutes to secure that right for the citizens of this country and not to subsidize those who would take a life. However today there is a new view growing that our happiness is more important than life. They use it to justify abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide if that person’s life will deprive others of happiness. When a politician promises to make you healthy, wealthy, and wise, but supports abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide, he is echoing the words of Satan to Eve. He urged her to take the fruit and it would make her wise like God and told her she would not die. Liberal politicians today say they will provide for all your needs and then quietly slip provisions into the law allowing abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide so they can eliminate unwanted babies and those who are critically ill, critically injured, elderly, or simply depressed who are not producing wealth which they feel they are a drain on society.

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Posted in Politics, Sanctity of life

Gas prices

13 Mar

Many people are disturbed by rising gas prices. You can thank former Presidents Obama and Biden for that. President Obama shut down some of our oil production supposedly to save our environment but it still has to be pumped somewhere so it only shifts production away from American soil. It resulted in a shift of our oil purchases to Iran and Nicaragua and resulted in higher gas prices, reaching over $4.00 a gallon. Both countries are run by dictators who funnel a lot of the money to the government elite when many of the citizens are dirt poor and do not benefit from it. In addition, Iran has used the money to support terrorism against the United States and Israel. President Trump restored American oil production and made us self sufficient in only four years resulting in a drastic drop in gas prices, reaching only $1.50 a gallon in many places. He also approved the building of the pipeline from Canada to supplement our oil. It also created a lot of jobs and funneled the money back into the American economy. President Biden cancelled the pipeline from Canada and shutdown a lot of America’s oil production forcing the oil companies to get oil from Iran and Nicaragua. Nicaragua is rich in oil but was unable to develop it and had encouraged American oil companies to drill and extract the oil making Nicaragua a rich country. However the Socialist government that took over took over the oil production facilities and did not compensate the oil companies for all the expense of developing them. In addition, the ruling elite drained the money coming in from the oil and destroyed the countries economy leaving the people poor. Therefore President Biden was enriching the ruling elite in Iran and Nicaragua rather then the American people or the people of Nicaragua. In addition, it leaves us vulnerable to having our oil supply shut off or being charged high prices for oil. President Biden also drained our oil surplus supplies leaving us without a backup supply in case our oil supply was cut off by the those countries or we faced a natural disaster like the hurricane that hit Texas forcing the refineries to shut down. President Trump is working to restore America’s oil production but it takes time. When President Biden shut down the building of the pipeline from Canada, it not only deprived us of the oil from a friendly country, it forced Canada to build the pipeline to the Pacific coast and sell the oil to China so everyone benefited from President Biden’s oil policies but the United States. With our oil supply cut off from Iran, it is forcing gas prices up until American oil companies can resume full production.

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Posted in gas prices

Third Sunday in Lent-Mar 4

05 Mar

What will you give-Matt 13:44-46-When the merchant found the pearl, he sold all that he had and purchased it. Christ, through His death and resurrection has given us eternal life. That alone is priceless, but He has also given us far more, He has come to give us life and that more abundantly. He knows how we need to live to get the most out of life. If we walk with Him in this life, we can enjoy life far better than anything we can find on our own. Is that life worth giving up some of our earthly pleasures to obtain? Our earthly pleasures will give us pleasure for a short while, but they soon fade, but life with Christ will never fade. In addition, it promises eternal life with Christ. During Lent, we think of giving up momentary pleasures, but Christ asks us to turn away from all temporary pleasures to gain that which will last a lifetime and beyond.

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Posted in Faith in practice, Lent

Study course-Value of the Rule of Law-promo

05 Mar

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Posted in Politics, promos, Study Courses, Videos, violence and social strife

Violence and Social Strife-2-AM

04 Mar

There are two basic concepts of the rule of law today which are competing for dominance. There are those who support traditional views and believe that we need a police force to maintain order, support the right to own guns to protect themselves since the police cannot be everywhere at once, and the need to protect our borders from those who do not share our values and want to impose their values on us. They also believe in a just rule of law that applies equally to everyone and that there should be strong penalties to deter criminals from breaking the law. However, there is a growing belief in America that the violence we see is caused by the fact there are too many guns easily available and people should not be allowed to own guns. They also believe that our police force is racist and should be withdrawn from Black areas, though they don’t say how they will maintain order without a police force or how the average citizen can protect themselves from criminals if they don’t have guns or a police force. The fact is that hundreds more Blacks are killed by other Blacks than by police. Cutting police department budgets to force them to withdraw from Black areas has resulted in criminals taking over those areas resulting in more attacks against Blacks by other Blacks. They also believe that justice should be administered by the courts based on the judge’s prejudices. They feel that criminals are less likely to commit more crimes if you are lenient and aren’t too hard on them and that harsh penalties drive criminals to retaliate against society. However it has been shown that criminals don’t commit as many crimes in areas with strong penalties and commit more crimes in areas where they know they will not get a harsh sentence. A few days in jail or none at all are a small price to pay for what they get from the crimes.

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Posted in Politics, violence and social strife

Voting-2-A-D

04 Mar

Voters today often vote for the man and what he promises to give them and ignore the issues that effect their everyday lives. One of those issues is the issue of law and order. There are three views towards law and order that candidates are pushing today. The first two assume that law and order is necessary for the preservation of an orderly society. The first and traditional American view is that our rights are given by God and He has given us laws that benefit everyone. Our Constitution included those rights and our government was designed in such a way that there were checks and balances to prevent the government from violating those rights. The most important right is the right to elect officials and replace them if they don’t represent the views that the voters support. They founded the Republican party and fought to abolish slavery and fight for the rights of minorities and women, particularly the right to vote. The second is a growing belief that feels that either God doesn’t exist or that He is not involved in our everyday life but feel those values are common sense and should be respected. They respect the Constitution but see it as a man-made document subject to change as circumstances change. They are easily swayed by media rhetoric and deceitful politicians who pretend to support those values but work to undermine them. They tend to switch parties based on their impression of the persons running for office. The third involves those who seek to control others for their own benefit and a growing number of supporters who believe that the leaders are smarter than the average person and know what is best for everyone, whether the people agree or not. It grew out of the Southern aristocrats who supported the subjection of Black slaves and poor Whites who they felt were unable to govern themselves. They founded the Democrat party to protect slavery and maintain their control. While they proclaim to care about the average person and make big public displays of helping people, their actions often do more harm then good.

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Posted in Politics, Voting

02 Mar

From time to time people want to access old files without going back through all the postings. As a result, I placed a link at the bottom of each posting with a link to previous postings on that topic. Simply click on the link to access past postings on that topic. To access topics I have not dealt with recently, I posted a series of twelve postings under “Previous Posts”. Each lists several topics and has links to those topics. This posting has a link to those posts so you can view the whole list. Simply view the list, select a topic, and click on the link at the bottom of that post to access previous posts on that topic.
I will post periodic links to the “previous posts” series like this one for your convenience.

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Posted in Previous Posts

Second Sunday of Lent-March 1

26 Feb

You Can’t Serve Two Masters. Jesus said, you can’t serve two masters. You must love one and hate the other. (Matt. 6:24) That is especially true of God and Satan. They are exact opposites. You must choose between them or be torn apart. Lent is a time to focus on who we are serving and make sure we are following God and not Satan. Liberal philosophy is so deceiving because they use words we understand but with a different meaning. No Christian would be against two people loving each other but love to them means sex solely for selfish pleasure, not true love and concern for each other. True love can be really satisfying for two people, but the love the world promotes is very destructive. We have to know what they mean by what they say or we will end up supporting things which go against God. Satan goes around like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. He seeks to deceive even the people of God. Therefore it important to study the Word of God so you will not be deceived. Choose one of the four Gospels and read a chapter a day between now and Easter and see what Jesus says about living a life pleasing to God. If we truly love God, we will want to obey Him. We can please Him by doing what He wants us to do (obeying His Commandments). God set down His commandments as guidelines to show us how to live a life that is pleasing to Him and that would bring us peace and fulfillment. He knows what is best for us and did not give us the Commandments to spoil our fun but to help us avoid that which creates strife and dissension among us. When we ignore His commandments, we throw away that peace and fulfillment and stray into things that create strife and dissension.

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Posted in Faith in practice, holidays, Lent

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