In the midst of persecution and trials the Hebrew believers were struggling to keep the faith. This encouraging letter reminds them that the holiest place of the temple has been opened by the blood of Jesus Christ. Now they can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith to fellowship with God Himself. Don’t give up, but rather, “let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (10:22-23)
90 Days: Occupying for Justice and Freedom’s Neighborhood
The opposition is not interested in curing global warming, universal national health care insurance, or any other massive program except in how they help their underlying agenda. Whatever you want to call it, the net effect is statism or centralizing power to a government. Any government. If not the United States Congress or the Supreme Court or the presidency then to the United Nations. Someone who will take all personal responsibility off of the individual. Someone to blame for everything. This is why the conservative arguments are not making headway. This is why the conservative agenda is not capable of getting traction in our society.
From the HotAir blog;
[We’ll never be foolish enough to allow a band of fanatics to use “peer review” to rule all dissenting opinion out-of-bounds, then declare themselves the proud owners of a mighty consensus. You global-warming fanatics underestimate how much youneeded those tactics to gain power. You’ll never have that kind of unchallenged authority again, because we will never stop demanding the raw data, and we’ll drown you in laughter when you mutter something about deleting it by accident. We will never forget that you began with a conclusion and sought to harvest data that supported it – the exact opposite of the scientific method.]
The majority of people everywhere now, do not want to be responsible and certainly do not want to be held responsible for the problems we face. Like little children they don't want to make sacrifices by their own will but would rather be told what they have to do or not do. Appealing to their reason simply will not have any effect on these desires unless and until you first address their emotionalism. They have no shame for the political tactics, the violence they instigate, the outright made up data they use to write studies and reports which support their arguments to get this agenda in place. The kiss of death to a conservative talking point is to base it on reason alone. You have to link it to the real and personal consequence involved for the individual you are trying to reach with your concerns. You don't even have to explain the reasons why you are concerned. Like a parent saying to a child, "Because I said so!" with its implied "-or else I'll spank you!" we simply have to rain consequences on the children for their own benefit. You have to be the grown-up to their irresponsible attitude and behavior the same way you'd be the grown up in the park when one unruly kid is behaving in a way that is dangerous to anyone else. You don't just tell 'em to knock it off, you ensure they knock it off. So must we be vigilant in correcting the childish agenda and liberal behavior. No longer can we afford to allow them to continue until the consequences of their arguments and policy fall on them because like children, they will continue until the damage is irreparable. "Stop swinging that stick, you're going to put someone's eye out!" "Stop increasing government and government spending, our economy is going to collapse. If you feel bad about the poor now, just imagine how you'll feel about the poor when you ARE homeless and hungry. If you feel bad about the uninsured now, just imagine how you'll feel when you can't get a needed operation because the waiting list is too long or they simply won't do it for you. If you feel bad about the damage done to the environment now, just imagine how you'll feel when there isn't any fuel to keep warm so your cherished trees are chopped down for firewood. If you're going to cause me to lose my job by your cap and trade bill, I'm coming to your house to find wood for my fire and food for my kids."
On the voter battleground, not usually in the halls of Congress, (though quite often this liberal disease is employed there as well especially with regard to the banking regulations) as evidenced by liberal talking points on Climategate, ACORN support, war support, and a slew of other damnable evidences, the liberal is not accountable to truth or shame. Regardless of climategate the peer reviewed studies are respected, regardless of ACORN's abuses they were a force for good in national policy, regardless of Democrat's congressional voter support for the war in Iraq it was an unnecessary war.
Some of the best conservative institutions are great at providing statistics and data we need for reason, but on the ground, out here in the battle for hearts and minds, reason is not the most effective weapon. Real or implied, immediate, and personal consequences are. Never leave a discussion on policy with anyone thinking a liberal policy is not immediately and personally consequential.
On the lighter side;
Smoke and mirrors matter to the magician. With them he can make you believe what is not.
Speech and horrors matter to the politician. With them he can make you feel what is not.
Facts and data matter to the scientician. With them he can learn what is true and what is rot.
If he muddies the information, a magician certainly, a politician perhaps, a scientician he is not.
Smoke put in your eyes, Oh the discomfort and disabling of sight.
Smoke put in your arse, Oh the discomfort and disabling ensuing fight.
He who put smoke in my eyes has made me the fool.
He who put smoke in my arse is a fool to think I am fooled.
When I was in trouble, did he think to take advantage.
Now I'm awake, it would be no adage
my anger is unmeasured to recompense disadvantage
Oh look!, he's unconcious. We'd better employ his tobacco enema and resuscitate him.
This post is dedicated to Emmi.
My friend over at Liberty Pen has posted another great video on his YouTube channel. Milton Friedman is one of his major subjects and this video is an interview on TV from back in the early 60's. Friedman gives one of the best arguments against modern liberalism. Topics covered include Social Security, Minimum Wage, and The Great Depression. But the key statement was his comment on the adjectives we use as titles. He says, "I consider myself a liberal in the truest sense of the word, while those who call themselves liberal today are actually conservative. They are conservative in the truest sense of the word because they want to preserve the course this nation is on which is bigger government and moving toward socialism. They think of themselves as soft hearted but the softness has moved into their heads. You know, I want the poor to be helped and for the underemployed to make a living wage, but the laws and policies they want to implement don't get the results they are seeking. A worker with low skills doesn't get higher wages because the law forces the employer to avoid hiring him at all. People I would trust personally actively lie to the American public because they believe these policies are best for the public. For instance, with the Social Security program, the law states that the employee pays half and the employer pays half but the truth is the employee pays all of it. If the employer is able to afford (adjusting for the times) $15.00 per hour he subtracts the amount going out for taxes and benefits so that the employee is actually taking home $8.50 for each hour he works. The rest goes to the government to manage for him." Considering that is nearly half the employee's earning power, you've yet to figure in sales, property, estate, and a slew of other taxes. So if we figured the government's true cost, we can only conclude that the government's take is nearly 60% of our earning power with some 15% coming back in very limited benefits they should have no authority to purchase and dole out.
Today we are seeing how well the government has been managing our money and still many of the American people want the government to take even more for our health care management while countries that have been employing that system are working to get out of these obligations they cannot meet.
Please forgive any sloppiness in this post, I've only got an hour to punch this one out but I felt it too important to let pass unaddressed.
Huggable and unholy god
Judging gods.
Ruth sent me an e-mail that warned of a book being promoted in our state run schools through the Scholastic Readership Program and pushed by Oprah and a slew of other celebs who 'feel' their spirituality rather than "Know" their God. So this one is dangerous because it promotes Oprah's feel good, real good form of spirituality. Conversations with God, Book 1
by Neale Donald Walsch
(Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1997)
Book 2 has been on the best seller lists for 120 weeks and the secular and 'spiritual' people are loving it because it promotes all the anti-wisdom crap the unlearned in spiritual matters, love. Examples follow:
1. "On a blank sheet of paper, I would merely write a question. . . and no sooner was the question written than the answer would form in my head, as if Someone were whispering in my ear. I was taking dictation!"
(Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1997)
Walsch has employed a couple of really bad spiritual practices to write this book. The first is known as auto writing. The second is known as channeling. Look them up, these are practices which allow any dirty ol' spirit to 'inform' you.
2. ORIGINAL SIN
This alleged state of imperfection in which you are said to come into this world is what your religionists have the gall to call original sin. . . Some of your religions have built up whole theologies around this misconception. . . Yet, in order to justify the idea of a punitive God, your religions needed to create something for me to be angry about.. . . Sop you’d better do something about all of this… or you’ll go straight to hell. This, in the end, may do nothing to mollify a weird, vindictive, angry God, but it does give life to weird, vindictive, angry religions. (119-120. See also 136)
Only humans are judgmental, and because you are, you assume that I must be. Yet I am not…. (183)
The ability to discern truth is not our natural state. We are a fallen people, ie. programmed to love self destruction. a.k.a. sin. It is only through the study of truth, especially in spiritual matters, that we can overcome this love of self destruction. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (Colossians 2:6-8)
Walsch's sole authority is a blank piece of paper and his imagination. Oh yeah, and your willingness to accept what you want to believe about God.
3REINCARNATION
NDW: Is there such a thing as reincarnation?
God: You have had 647 past lives, since you insist on being exact. This is your 648th. You were everything in them. A king, a queen, a serf…. No, there is not such thing as karmic debt – not in the sense that you mean… You are not obligated to do anything. (204)
PSYCHIC POWER
Using psychic ability is nothing more than using your sixth sense. Obviously, this is not "trafficking with the devil," or I would not have given this sense to you. And, of course, there is no devil with whom to traffic. (205)
SEX
NDW: Is sex okay?
God: Of course sex is "okay." … Play with sex. Play with it! It’s wonderful fun. (205)
Sex is sacred, too… But joy and sacredness do mix (they are in fact the same thing)… You have repressed sex, even as you have repressed life, rather than fully Self expressing with abandon and joy. You have shamed sex, even as you have shamed life, calling it evil and wicked, rather than the highest gift and the greatest pleasure. 207
The energy that which underscores sex is the energy which underscores life… 207
Walsch bought and sells the idea that there is no limitation on your behavior or desires. There is no devil, there is no harm, there is no cost or consequence. If the physical realm teaches us anything, it teaches us that there is danger in ignorance and undisciplined living. The same is true in the spiritual realm. There are dangers that God is constantly telling us about, has given us oracles and the Bible to inform us about.
Please watch what your kids are being given to read and encouraged to follow. Don't allow the state run schools to be your kids' spiritual guides. Don't allow Walsch and Oprah and Tom Cruz to be your spiritual guides. Test every spirit and know whether they are your enemy or your friend. Be wise in the knowledge of what makes an enemy an enemy and a friend a friend. Teaching you to follow habits and practices that will lead to your own destruction or reinforcing the beliefs you want to hold is the work of an enemy. A friend will tell you when you are heading into a fun self destruction and will tell you off loudly and persistently until you straighten up and walk the way of real life and benefit.
Quote of the day:
Embrace the detours.
~Kevin Charbonneau
A month later....I figured I blog all year long so there will be no Christmas letter
in the Christmas cards this year. Oh that's right last year there wasn't even
Christmas cards....oooops sorry!!! I got so busy with having 4 children I didn't have
much time for anything extra. This year I'm trying to change that. And I do not have
to buy cards-I still have all of last years!!! LOL
Here is a link to the boy's school pictures::::::: School Pictures
Here is the updates:::::::
- Brandon and Daniel are playing basket ball this season. They love it and I love that they are sleeping so good on those nights. They wake up grouchy but they sleep through the night.
- Brady and Jaden will have surgery on the 7th of December. Brady will have his tonsils and adenoids out and Jaden will have tubes put in his ears.
- We are trying to get ready for the newest baby of them all. I put in a request that if the new baby (due around January) is placed into foster care that we would like to keep the siblings together. So we're getting ready JUST IN CASE.
- Hubby has decided with all his free time to work on the upstairs. I'm so happy because they are building my room first. They got the sheet rock up yesterday. It is going to be nice. What I'm really going to do with it I don't know but it will be nice for all the overflow stuff like winter jackets in the summer, all the extra clothes I keep around the house for when we have foster children or for when the boys need new sizes, all the extra baby stuff for if we have a new baby (wink, wink), my craft stuff. Hubby also mentioned it will be nice enough to have my support group meet up there too. If you go to this link My new room in the last picture...you will see the little window above the front door. That is where it will be. He is also finishing up the main floor with trimming it out, putting in new doors, and painting the living room. It sucks it is right before Christmas but I'm glad he's not sitting around being all depressed and crappy to us all. LOL Plus I benefit....we know how it ALL has to be about ME!!!!! HEE HEE HEE
- Daniel turns 9 on the 17th. I can not believe he is that old. I love the little boy he is becoming. It ended up being a good decision changing therapist.....it is going really well and he is making amazing progress. He has been so affectionate to me lately. That has never happened -ever!!! I am waiting to find out today where he rates on the autism spectrum. No matter what if he is or isn't we have been treating him with things that work for autistic children and that is where we are seeing the most progress. He is even making eye contact with some people now....he is still uncomfortable with it but he is doing it!!!! Hurray for him.
- Brady is doing well in school....the bus on the other hand is a different matter....I think he will be just fine when he stops taking off his boots throwing them at the other kid's heads. LOL Last week he just took them off...we're making progress. What do they expect....he's 3 1/2!!!!!!!
- The big boys are doing well in school. Brandon is having a harder time in Math but he's not behind. It just doesn't click in his head yet.
- The big boys are still in cub scouts. They have been doing artscape lately.
- Mum and I have our crafts at a gallery in town. We actually sold some things. We can't do any craft shows this year because of my work but we're going this weekend to check out the biggest one in our county. Next year we will.
- I may be teaching tap dancing classes through our local theater this winter after Christmas. I am super excited about that!!!!
- I got kind of a promotion at work. I am now the tri-county foster parent recruiter. Not just for my county. It triples my client load. Which is good. It is giving me good experience especially since I have been out of work for so long. I'm in the process of planning our Holiday Support Group Party. It is turning out awesome! I just hope it goes the way I plan. I love getting out of the house to meetings. I feel like me and not just a mom. It has been all about the children and foster children for so long now I'm beginning to feel like me again!!! Because of this position I was asked to be on a consulting committe for out County children. I'm loving feeling valued! Like -my opinion matters. That's a whole 'nother blog post for the future.
I'm loving and missing you all! Have a wonderful holiday season!!!
KEEP THE FAITH
Read Hebrews 10: 1-25
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22 NKJV
* * *
* * *
Perhaps these Christians found themselves irritated with their fellow believers in the presence of all the outside pressure. Maybe they were tempted just like we are, to just drop out for awhile and blend in with the culture. Why put ourselves with a group of people who sometimes don’t even get along?
* * *
Help us Lord, to remain faithful to you and to our fellow believers. Give us the motivation to follow this admonition in Hebrews:
* * *
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25
I'm thankful President Obama's ideals are being exposed for the damaging policies they entail.
I'm thankful ACORN is relegated to the trash heap of insignificance which it so richly deserves.
I'm thankful the 'Global Warming Hoax' has been exposed for the money soaking big business scam it is.
I'm thankful most of all that God almighty is still willing to talk to me.
I'm thankful God concerns Himself with me.
I'm thankful that even the youth are waking to the facts of political ramifications to 'feel good' voting habits.
I'm thankful I still have a job in these hard economic times.
I'm thankful for our company's new managing consultant.
I'm thankful for a sound mind and a still mobile, agile body.
I'm thankful for the relative peace I experience everyday.
I'm thankful for the friends, neighbors, family and the team of co-workers I relate with every day.
I'm thankful for the sources of information at my hands now.
I'm thankful for the discovery of, and ability to recognize vessels of rich wisdom through those sources.
I'm thankful I'll be with my family this holiday.
I'm thankful opportunities are open to me.
I'm thankful God is always calling to each one of us to come into relationship with Him.
I'm thankful God is God and I'm not and you're not.
I'm thankful God's plan and behavior is perfectly consistent and constant.
I'm thankful happiness is attainable.
I'm thankful for the knowledge that "Thanksgiving" is the most important key to happiness. That's what makes this holiday one of the most important in our culture.
A PERFECT MEDIATOR
Read Hebrews 7 – 8
...He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 NKJV
* * *
These Hebrew Christians were familiar with the sacrificial system and the priesthood. They were also aware that their priests were sinful human servants who had to offer a sacrifice for their own sins before they could approach God for the sins of the people. They were appointed as imperfect mediators between God and men.
Jesus in contrast, is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. (7:26a-27)
As the ultimate, sinless sacrifice, Jesus became the perfect mediator for all who would believe in Him. On the basis of the cross of Jesus Christ, our sin debt is settled “once for all.” We are sealed with the Holy Spirit unto everlasting life, and when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
Jesus in contrast, is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. (7:26a-27)
As the ultimate, sinless sacrifice, Jesus became the perfect mediator for all who would believe in Him. On the basis of the cross of Jesus Christ, our sin debt is settled “once for all.” We are sealed with the Holy Spirit unto everlasting life, and when we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
* * *
Lord, how can I express my thankfulness to You for being available every day to intercede for me. Help me to live for You, for I am no longer my own, I have been bought at a price. Help me to glorify You.
* * *
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:20 NKJV
FAITH AND PATIENCE
Read Hebrews 5 - 6
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. Hebrews 5:12 NKJV
* * *
In the midst of persecution both physical and spiritual, these Hebrew believers need assurance. Some doubted their salvation, perhaps because of the areas where they felt so weak. This letter is an assurance that they have a high priest in Jesus Christ who already paid the price for their sins. Those who continue to go back to the beginning and renew their salvation “crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” Hebrews 6:6 NKJV
Instead, they (and we) must press on in patience toward spiritual maturity. “But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.”(6:9) We should not be discouraged because “God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (6:10)
* * *
Lord, I pray that you will help me and the members of my family and church as we grow toward maturity in the things that matter. Help our spirit of apathy when things become difficult and keep us true to Your Word.
* * *
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12
DISCERNER OF THE HEART
Read Hebrews 3 - 4
...exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:13 NKJV
* * *
Writing to his audience of Jewish Christians, the author of Hebrews reminds them of the penalty of unbelief. The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they did not believe God. “For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest.
(4:2-3a)
The rest that comes to the children of God in our day is through faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In our struggle against sin, He is the one who gives us rest. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15-16
* * *
Lord, I come to you today bowing before your throne to find grace to help in my time of need.
* * *
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 NKJV
Quote of the day:
What God wants of you all is that you should live each day as it comes, like a
bird in the trees, without worrying about tomorrow. Be at peace and trust in
divine Providence and the Blessed Virgin, and do not seek anything else but to
please God and love Him.
~ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
French
missionary, 18th century
I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed lately. They took Daniel off one of his meds so he isn't sleeping at night like he should and now we have to start at square one again in that department. And of course there is always so much more with him then we all talk about. Brandon didn't pass his eye test again so we're back to the doctors and new glasses for him (That he won't wear anyways but I still have to get them for him). Brady needs his tonsils and adnoids out. Itty needs some brain stem test to possibly figure out why he isn't talking yet. Boyce keeps talking about going to Alaska to work. I don't feel like I'm worrying about tomorrow like the quote of the day says not to, it just feels like it is all too much to process in this very second. I wish I was playing bunco with Tina tonight! Or having a really stiff drink with Joanna. Or a cup of coffee with Patricia. Or rolling down a hill with friend Dan. Or tap dancing in the warf with Joy. Or watching a movie with my mummy. Or shopping with my Memere. Or eating dinner with Crystal. Or swimming with Jennifer. Or talking on the phone with Evie. Or running around Cogshall with my old friends from highschool. Or reading a good book with myself. I know that none of these things seem tragic or anything but all together it is a bit much! I'm feeling paralized.
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