A Soldier’s Grace
© 2011 Linda McKinney
All Rights Reserved
I
A soldier’s grace
Always resides
Inside his soul and faith.
In danger’s face
Or sorrow’s place
He stands upon one thing:
His fellow soldiers,
His spirit d’ corps,
His training, his confidence,
All reside
Inside his soul
And from it eternally spring.
His country relies
Upon his grace
To stand and take the call
To defend us all
And go to fall
If need requires it.
A soldier’s grace
Gives his call
A higher calling still.
And when in war
He’ll go before
Face the brunt of it.
Harm and loss
He faces,
Answer to the call
And some do fall
And others hurt
Our stead they give it all.
Let none deny
The soldier’s cry
“Freedom lives if I die.”
A soldier’s grace
always resides
inside his soul and faith.
II
A soldier bowed his head
To bless the MRE
He sighed and calmed
And quietly said these words to GOD:
“Dear Lord, I’m here
In this desert place.
I came to defend my country,
to keep my family safe.
I pray you watch o’er them,
Keep Jenny and Brandon brave,
Keep my beloved wife
Having faith in me
Don’t let them want
For any little thing.
Keep them all healthy,
Lord, keep them healthy,
So I can return
And see them all.
Don’t let them hurt,
Don’t let them fear,
Don’t let them cry
From things idiots say
About their dad serving
To keep terrorists at bay.
Lord, bless them, keep them,
In your loving arms,
And keep my buddies,
Here, Lord, safe from desert harm.
If I have to fall, Lord,
Pray let it be to serve,
Those who are here with me,
As well as those who “don’t deserve”
Who say that I am wrong, Lord,
For being here in answer
To my country’s call
To protect them from those
Who would see freedom fall.
Lord, I pray for my president,
Let him see Your path, Lord,
To do as You would have him,
And if not guided by
Your loving arms and sight,
Let our president do no harm
To those who fight for what’s right.
Lord, guide me, also,
And don’t let me do wrong.
If I wander near it, Lord,
Stop me, make me strong.
Lord, bless this food now,
Bless this MRE.
Make it nourish me,
Make me grateful,
Remind me that others have less,
And with it I am truly blessed.
GOD I bless and thank You,
For all You say and do,
Your guidance, Lord,
Is what I crave,
Your wisdom, I desire, too.
Let me please You, Lord.
Let me make You proud
Of having a son, Lord,
A humble son like me.
I ask all this in Jesus’ name,
And for Him I thank you more,
Than anything I can think of
His book has my name.
So, thank you, Lord,
For this food,
And for my buddies, too,
Who help me through this desert place,
And who thank You, too.”
With these words,
And another sigh,
Soldier raised his head.
Upward looking,
Soldier smiled
and whispered, “Amen”.
III
“Excuse me, Ma’am,” the grieving widow heard,
“It’s about your husband, Bird.”
The widow said, “What is it?” her heart beat out her fears.
The blonde soldier in Class As wiped away a tear.
“I want to tell you that I loved him,” she covered her mouth in dismay,
“No, not like that! I’m sorry, Ma’am. I meant a different way.”
“You see, he was my sergeant, but he was more as well:
My friend, my shoulder, my rely-upon, my laughter when life was hell.
He kept an eye out for me, he lifted my spirits tall.
He made my two years over there into my life’s call.
He told me to remember why we served in sand.
To keep in mind my loved ones: my sis, my mom, my dad.
He showed me pictures of his kids, of you and Bucky, too,
And told me of the reason he lives: it all went back to you.
He told me that you brought him to the Lord when he was twenty-two,
And that he was always thankful for the Lord giving him to you.
He loved you very much, you see, and with that love his eyes shone
And with your memory he said that he was never alone.
He saw you as his shining star that led him from afar
His thoughts of you kept his head high and took him from the war.
He loved to talk about you, his children and his dog;
But mostly you, Ma’am. You made him all agog.”
Blonde soldier held out her hand, within it a letter, tattered, torn,
“He asked me to give this to you, if he should never make it home.”
Soldier’s widow tried to smile, a small “Thank you” was all she said,
A quick salute, blonde soldier left her, at the grave of husband dead.
The letter, tattered, torn, was dated a year or so ago,
And as she read it, her tears fell softly upon its indigo.
“My dearest Catherine I love you.” the letter started there,
The words took her away; of others she was not aware.
Blonde soldier made it to the car, collapsed inside,
Pain’s burden weighed her down, but from loss blonde soldier cried.
She wished her friend had survived to return to those he loved.
She knew he died to save others and herself, to safety she was shoved.
Blonde soldier finally sat upright, and wiped the tears away,
And, looking at the sight where her best friend’s body lay,
She said aloud, “I promise you I’ll ne’er forget the lessons you taught me, Sir.
Nor will I ever go back to what I once was, because you’ve made me better.”
She nodded to the friend who had brought her to the grave,
And hoped she had handled things with poise and with some grace.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, July 4, 2011
July 4, 2011: Independence Day Redux
This is the day we celebrate our independence from King George III; his tyranny, taxes, arbitrary rules and fickle finger of fate. We celebrate our sovereignty, our opportunity, our liberties – or do we?
In 1776 it was a dream, a plan, a yearning, beating within the hearts of men in a land that offered the choice of freedom or continued servitude. In 1776 the monarch of England had done so much wrong that the Colonists had had enough. They wanted out. They could no longer take the king’s control – distant though it was – and wanted to rule their own destinies and find out what their own decisions could do for them: for their futures, their opportunities, their children’s futures. They wanted to see if they could truly make it on their own without the help nor interference of a distant ruler. Their heartbeats kept time to the drums of liberty beating deep inside and getting louder within their breasts with every passing day, each usurpation, each arbitrary breaking of the king’s previous agreements and decisions. It was freedom that called them, spurred them on, fought to be heard, to be dreamed of, aspired to, worked toward, planned for. Liberty beckoned to them like a far off voice and they had to listen. It was this drumbeat, this sweet, sweet voice that made them act, and – thankfully -- made America. It was to this call, sweet and lusty, that the Founding Fathers answered and answer to still.
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among them the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” – U.S. Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
The Founding Fathers said, “You’ve given us enough cause.” They were fed up. They’d had enough. They were tired of the games, the whims and fancies of a fickle king and they would no longer tolerate it. Not only were they tired of King George’s fancies, but they declared that GOD Himself was tired of King G’s fickleness: “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them… [my italics]” They were saying that GOD says they are entitled to be free, to be self-ruling, to have the liberties they delineated in their Declaration of Independence. They were not only fed up with King G., they were basically saying that GOD was fed up with King G., as well. They were saying that they were ready to answer not only to GOD but to posterity as well; they’d answer to us, to their future and their progeny.
They answer still today; although, to a different set of questions. While yesterday’s questions were things like, “How may I get to America and – with hard work and perseverance – make a lot of money and make my own and my grandchildren’s futures bright?” or “When I make enough money to open my own shop, will I be able to build that house and bring Momma over, too?” Or sometimes the questions were more esoteric: “Why in America and nowhere else in the whole world can I work hard and make a lot of money and live like a rich person when elsewhere in the world it’s always prevented?” Where is it written that the Founding Fathers no longer answer to those who wished for a brighter future in 1776, instead of just us?
The Founding Fathers would be appalled at today’s questions, “When does the government check come for this month’s groceries and when does the check come for the rent, car payment, and the medical care?” Oh, and if you’re paying attention, “Why did America’s Founding Fathers make such a mistake as to make America a Representative Republic instead of a Communist country?” or “Why is America such a horrible country, why is it so evil?”
These questions are being asked of the Founding Fathers by people who have been taught inside-out lies: right is wrong, death is life, prison is freedom, tyranny is good, want is plenty and servitude is the natural yearning of every human heart. It’s not that the Founding Fathers never foresaw the possibility of such a thing. I’m sure there were those in 1776 who were being told the same thing by those who wished to perpetuate King G’s reign and who would benefit from America being under his thumb for years to come. “The Federalist Papers” were written to cover just such attacks and idiocies, to educate the people in the truth, in the correctness of the journey to freedom, to help them hear the beating of the drum of freedom as did the Founding Fathers.
However, since “The Federalist Papers” are no longer taught in schools – public, private, nor home schools, for the most part – it is up to each of us individually, to look at the truth without the distortions that tell us that servitude is freedom and want is plenty. It is up to us to look at the truth, to read the Founding Fathers’ writings, to read their own words in individual correspondences, in public writings to find out the truth about our country’s founding and the Founders’ beliefs, desires for our country and their goals and satisfaction in setting up such a radical experiment.
If it is found that Jefferson wanted every person to be able to prosper off of their own work and not to have to hand over most of what they worked hard to earn to someone other than themselves (government or private individual), then that must be taken into consideration in the reader’s evaluation of our Founding. Whether Jefferson actually had slaves or no is not the question. The question is rather, “What is it he wanted for the country – for America, for her future – as a whole?” If the answer is that Jefferson wanted everyone to own slaves and thought that America as a whole would have been better off if everyone everywhere owned slaves, then so be it. If not, however – and there is no evidence to even suggest such a thing -- that must be taken into account when you look at the person. Yet, those who would teach us that America is bad – those with the inside-out “truth”: wrong is right, death is life, etc. -- would teach us that it was okay to consider one portion of Jefferson’s life and not the whole. That’s like saying a lasagna is just the noodles!
America is the greatest country on earth, but the liberals, progressives, Wrongies, wish to have America be labeled as a failure so that they can get it into the thought processes, beliefs and ideals of Americans that we are bad people who need -- nay, deserve --- to be punished. Whether they punish us via restricting our words (political correctness, anyone?), our deeds (airport security?), or our right to self-defense (gun control?), it is still a just and deserved punishment in their own minds. Remember, wrong is right, servitude is freedom: to people who believe that, our punishment is just strictly based upon the fact that we believe in the U.S. Constitution and we wish our lawmakers to abide by it.
The inside-out lies form the basis of a vast amount of our neighbors and those who are in places of power: george soros, obama, nancy pelosi, (I only cap the names of people I respect). Their lies are the foundation of our current dire circumstances. Their inside-out beliefs, twisted as they are, form the foundation of their actions, their votes, their speeches. They have nothing more to base their ideals on than a belief that they were somehow wronged by those who are not themselves. There is no evidence that they were somehow mistreated by others: obama was in an elite school in Hawaii instead of a school that had no running water, peeling leaded paint, and teachers who drank themselves into stupors during the third hour of the school day. Yet his inside-out lies lead him to believe that he was mistreated, somehow wronged, by those of another skin tone. Based upon what facts does he make this assumption, this enormous jump to fantasy land, is what I want to know. Read his two “autobiographies” and see if he was mistreated by the white man. Yet, it’s this kind of thing that he bases his hatred of America upon. Where did he learn to believe the inside-out lies? He learned it from a drugged up Communist/Marxist. He swallowed it all, hook, line and sinker: greedily drinking in the hatred, disdain, venom of his teacher and the inside-out lies became his. He owned them and he loved them. As a normal man’s heart loves freedom, obama’s heart now loved the hatred of America and Americans. It all went against what GOD had ordained, what the Founding Fathers established, fought and -- all or most – lost to establish, nurture, preserve.
This Independence Day, King G. would be dancing in his grave and grinning ear to ear because we are now a nation more foolish than wise, more mislead than informed, more inside-out than true to the truth. It is time for those of us who wish to change things for the better to make a choice and to contemplate that awful position to be in, “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among them the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” Is it time for us to do the same type of thing? Is it time for those of you in the Republican Party to leave that party in order to form a “more perfect union” and to align yourselves with a more important cause than political party – the “R” label after your name?
I propose a three point questionnaire for you to ask yourselves and your representatives in order for you to make an informed decision regarding leaving the Republican Party. Here are the questions:
1) Is the Republican Party leadership showing inside-out leadership – as in are their ideals, policies and practices along the same lines as the Founding Fathers would have them be, or are they somewhere else?
2) Are you happy with the direction the Republican leadership of America is trying to take the country, and if not, what is the political party you are affiliated with doing to prevent it from going in that direction?
3) Will your children’s futures be positively or negatively affected by the Republican leadership’s direction?
If the answer to all three is a negative answer, then either you are happy living in an inside-out world and look forward to fully joining the inside-out cause celeb of the moment, or you are on the wrong side – part of the problem and not the solution – and you need to change that. If the answer to two of three are negatives you are dangerously close to being in an inside-out world and you need to step away from the “lies are reality” fairy tale and avoid being sucked in completely If the answer is one of three, you are just on the edge of the easy slippery slope to the inside-out world and you should swallow hard and be sure that it won’t pull you back again. Yes, we need you in this fight out here, but we also need someone with a good enough head on their shoulders to recognize “inside-out world” when they see it.
America, look at where we are. Look at who our leadership is. Look at what your neighbors want and what they believe. Is this where, twenty years ago, you actually thought we would be? If not, turn off your inside-out glasses and look around. Who got us here? Who allowed it to happen (besides ourselves) and how can we fix what has already gone wrong? Is it fixable within the Republican Party, both parties, or is there another way to fix it? What options do we have to be able to make America the vision of the Founding Fathers as it should have been instead of leaving it the upside-down, inside-out world of obama’s lies?
Would not a good place to start be in a third party political candidate who would be the vision of the Founding Fathers and who sees America as it should be, and not twisted into an evil empire of the progressive left’s lies? Let us not pledge allegiance to a political party. Instead let us pledge allegiance to America – as she should be and can be once again.
God bless America today, tomorrow and forever with a people who will stand up for her, who will stand up for election, facing the arrows and rocks sure to be thrown as the inside-out lies are hurled at the candidate who will say, “Enough! America as the Founding Fathers envisioned her is our future, our basis, our greatest gift as a nation. Let us now go forward as a people who refuse to listen to the lies of our enemies – internal and external – and let us re-found America as the land our Founding Fathers intended. Let us work together to make America into the land of opportunity – a land of hard work and integrity leading to prosperity and a heritage for our children’s children’s children. Let us stop looking to progress into change, and instead regress into our biblical foundations, into our constitutional principles, into our Founders’ cry of freedom for our nation, our lives and our posterity!”
In 1776 it was a dream, a plan, a yearning, beating within the hearts of men in a land that offered the choice of freedom or continued servitude. In 1776 the monarch of England had done so much wrong that the Colonists had had enough. They wanted out. They could no longer take the king’s control – distant though it was – and wanted to rule their own destinies and find out what their own decisions could do for them: for their futures, their opportunities, their children’s futures. They wanted to see if they could truly make it on their own without the help nor interference of a distant ruler. Their heartbeats kept time to the drums of liberty beating deep inside and getting louder within their breasts with every passing day, each usurpation, each arbitrary breaking of the king’s previous agreements and decisions. It was freedom that called them, spurred them on, fought to be heard, to be dreamed of, aspired to, worked toward, planned for. Liberty beckoned to them like a far off voice and they had to listen. It was this drumbeat, this sweet, sweet voice that made them act, and – thankfully -- made America. It was to this call, sweet and lusty, that the Founding Fathers answered and answer to still.
“When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among them the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” – U.S. Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.
The Founding Fathers said, “You’ve given us enough cause.” They were fed up. They’d had enough. They were tired of the games, the whims and fancies of a fickle king and they would no longer tolerate it. Not only were they tired of King George’s fancies, but they declared that GOD Himself was tired of King G’s fickleness: “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them… [my italics]” They were saying that GOD says they are entitled to be free, to be self-ruling, to have the liberties they delineated in their Declaration of Independence. They were not only fed up with King G., they were basically saying that GOD was fed up with King G., as well. They were saying that they were ready to answer not only to GOD but to posterity as well; they’d answer to us, to their future and their progeny.
They answer still today; although, to a different set of questions. While yesterday’s questions were things like, “How may I get to America and – with hard work and perseverance – make a lot of money and make my own and my grandchildren’s futures bright?” or “When I make enough money to open my own shop, will I be able to build that house and bring Momma over, too?” Or sometimes the questions were more esoteric: “Why in America and nowhere else in the whole world can I work hard and make a lot of money and live like a rich person when elsewhere in the world it’s always prevented?” Where is it written that the Founding Fathers no longer answer to those who wished for a brighter future in 1776, instead of just us?
The Founding Fathers would be appalled at today’s questions, “When does the government check come for this month’s groceries and when does the check come for the rent, car payment, and the medical care?” Oh, and if you’re paying attention, “Why did America’s Founding Fathers make such a mistake as to make America a Representative Republic instead of a Communist country?” or “Why is America such a horrible country, why is it so evil?”
These questions are being asked of the Founding Fathers by people who have been taught inside-out lies: right is wrong, death is life, prison is freedom, tyranny is good, want is plenty and servitude is the natural yearning of every human heart. It’s not that the Founding Fathers never foresaw the possibility of such a thing. I’m sure there were those in 1776 who were being told the same thing by those who wished to perpetuate King G’s reign and who would benefit from America being under his thumb for years to come. “The Federalist Papers” were written to cover just such attacks and idiocies, to educate the people in the truth, in the correctness of the journey to freedom, to help them hear the beating of the drum of freedom as did the Founding Fathers.
However, since “The Federalist Papers” are no longer taught in schools – public, private, nor home schools, for the most part – it is up to each of us individually, to look at the truth without the distortions that tell us that servitude is freedom and want is plenty. It is up to us to look at the truth, to read the Founding Fathers’ writings, to read their own words in individual correspondences, in public writings to find out the truth about our country’s founding and the Founders’ beliefs, desires for our country and their goals and satisfaction in setting up such a radical experiment.
If it is found that Jefferson wanted every person to be able to prosper off of their own work and not to have to hand over most of what they worked hard to earn to someone other than themselves (government or private individual), then that must be taken into consideration in the reader’s evaluation of our Founding. Whether Jefferson actually had slaves or no is not the question. The question is rather, “What is it he wanted for the country – for America, for her future – as a whole?” If the answer is that Jefferson wanted everyone to own slaves and thought that America as a whole would have been better off if everyone everywhere owned slaves, then so be it. If not, however – and there is no evidence to even suggest such a thing -- that must be taken into account when you look at the person. Yet, those who would teach us that America is bad – those with the inside-out “truth”: wrong is right, death is life, etc. -- would teach us that it was okay to consider one portion of Jefferson’s life and not the whole. That’s like saying a lasagna is just the noodles!
America is the greatest country on earth, but the liberals, progressives, Wrongies, wish to have America be labeled as a failure so that they can get it into the thought processes, beliefs and ideals of Americans that we are bad people who need -- nay, deserve --- to be punished. Whether they punish us via restricting our words (political correctness, anyone?), our deeds (airport security?), or our right to self-defense (gun control?), it is still a just and deserved punishment in their own minds. Remember, wrong is right, servitude is freedom: to people who believe that, our punishment is just strictly based upon the fact that we believe in the U.S. Constitution and we wish our lawmakers to abide by it.
The inside-out lies form the basis of a vast amount of our neighbors and those who are in places of power: george soros, obama, nancy pelosi, (I only cap the names of people I respect). Their lies are the foundation of our current dire circumstances. Their inside-out beliefs, twisted as they are, form the foundation of their actions, their votes, their speeches. They have nothing more to base their ideals on than a belief that they were somehow wronged by those who are not themselves. There is no evidence that they were somehow mistreated by others: obama was in an elite school in Hawaii instead of a school that had no running water, peeling leaded paint, and teachers who drank themselves into stupors during the third hour of the school day. Yet his inside-out lies lead him to believe that he was mistreated, somehow wronged, by those of another skin tone. Based upon what facts does he make this assumption, this enormous jump to fantasy land, is what I want to know. Read his two “autobiographies” and see if he was mistreated by the white man. Yet, it’s this kind of thing that he bases his hatred of America upon. Where did he learn to believe the inside-out lies? He learned it from a drugged up Communist/Marxist. He swallowed it all, hook, line and sinker: greedily drinking in the hatred, disdain, venom of his teacher and the inside-out lies became his. He owned them and he loved them. As a normal man’s heart loves freedom, obama’s heart now loved the hatred of America and Americans. It all went against what GOD had ordained, what the Founding Fathers established, fought and -- all or most – lost to establish, nurture, preserve.
This Independence Day, King G. would be dancing in his grave and grinning ear to ear because we are now a nation more foolish than wise, more mislead than informed, more inside-out than true to the truth. It is time for those of us who wish to change things for the better to make a choice and to contemplate that awful position to be in, “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among them the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” Is it time for us to do the same type of thing? Is it time for those of you in the Republican Party to leave that party in order to form a “more perfect union” and to align yourselves with a more important cause than political party – the “R” label after your name?
I propose a three point questionnaire for you to ask yourselves and your representatives in order for you to make an informed decision regarding leaving the Republican Party. Here are the questions:
1) Is the Republican Party leadership showing inside-out leadership – as in are their ideals, policies and practices along the same lines as the Founding Fathers would have them be, or are they somewhere else?
2) Are you happy with the direction the Republican leadership of America is trying to take the country, and if not, what is the political party you are affiliated with doing to prevent it from going in that direction?
3) Will your children’s futures be positively or negatively affected by the Republican leadership’s direction?
If the answer to all three is a negative answer, then either you are happy living in an inside-out world and look forward to fully joining the inside-out cause celeb of the moment, or you are on the wrong side – part of the problem and not the solution – and you need to change that. If the answer to two of three are negatives you are dangerously close to being in an inside-out world and you need to step away from the “lies are reality” fairy tale and avoid being sucked in completely If the answer is one of three, you are just on the edge of the easy slippery slope to the inside-out world and you should swallow hard and be sure that it won’t pull you back again. Yes, we need you in this fight out here, but we also need someone with a good enough head on their shoulders to recognize “inside-out world” when they see it.
America, look at where we are. Look at who our leadership is. Look at what your neighbors want and what they believe. Is this where, twenty years ago, you actually thought we would be? If not, turn off your inside-out glasses and look around. Who got us here? Who allowed it to happen (besides ourselves) and how can we fix what has already gone wrong? Is it fixable within the Republican Party, both parties, or is there another way to fix it? What options do we have to be able to make America the vision of the Founding Fathers as it should have been instead of leaving it the upside-down, inside-out world of obama’s lies?
Would not a good place to start be in a third party political candidate who would be the vision of the Founding Fathers and who sees America as it should be, and not twisted into an evil empire of the progressive left’s lies? Let us not pledge allegiance to a political party. Instead let us pledge allegiance to America – as she should be and can be once again.
God bless America today, tomorrow and forever with a people who will stand up for her, who will stand up for election, facing the arrows and rocks sure to be thrown as the inside-out lies are hurled at the candidate who will say, “Enough! America as the Founding Fathers envisioned her is our future, our basis, our greatest gift as a nation. Let us now go forward as a people who refuse to listen to the lies of our enemies – internal and external – and let us re-found America as the land our Founding Fathers intended. Let us work together to make America into the land of opportunity – a land of hard work and integrity leading to prosperity and a heritage for our children’s children’s children. Let us stop looking to progress into change, and instead regress into our biblical foundations, into our constitutional principles, into our Founders’ cry of freedom for our nation, our lives and our posterity!”
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Soldier Dad & Soldier Son
It started with a calling; a simple, patriotic tug,
Inside a heart so willing; enlisting, a bit too young.
Through sweat, tears and struggles, first stripes hard efforts won.
When Sergeant, the call was given to go off to a war,
And when -- bags packed, gun cleaned, boots polished - the plane landed, shots fired: it had begun.
Three months of sleeping sparsely in dirt, sand and dust,
No pillow 'cept a helmet, no relief from summer sun,
No sweet, sweet smile from mom back home, or hugs from the "Hon".
And sometimes, when alone and tired, and no one was around,
It seemed - bags lost, gun old, boots sand-filled - that none at home remembered: forgetting had begun.
That day started no differently, than all the others there.
Awake, and go, perimeter control: but something stirred within the air.
An hour later, a sudden shock, searing pain and buzzing ears,
A cry, a look, confusion; no feeling in his legs,
Blood flowed - into sand, into sun, into blown apart gun - medic's frantic efforts, "Stay with us" the Corporal repeats, repeats, rep-e-a---t----s…
...
"It's for the Sergeant," the Corporal said, as he walked into the room.
"It's nothing much," Corporal blushed, "but maybe it will do."
"It's fine," said the Colonel, and patted Corporal's back,
As Corporal's crutches carried him to the casket; flag draped and ebony black.
"For you, Sarge," Corporal balanced and struggled to salute, "You saved my life and lost your own, and I will not forget…
"In Memory, in Honor, in deepest Thanks," he laid Purple Heart on Sergeant's flag, "because I think that you served best,
"The day you sat and reminded me
"'Twas not just courage that set me free,
"But the history of the men before,
"Who served our country's military lore,
"Who fought and died, are nevermore,
"On dessert sands, or Iwo Jima's shores.
"We build upon their bravery,
"And through their foundation, we've been kept free."
"So, Sarge, I thank you, for all you've done.
"Before your final battle had begun,
"You won the war within my soul
"And kept me there when leaving was my goal,
"From dishonoring my unit, my mom, myself,
"And taught me how to face my fears…"
And here he wiped away his tears,
"You taught me, Sarge, to remember more
"Than what my service there stood for,
"And that - with all who've gone before -
"It's what we do instead.
"Instead of running, we stand still,
"Instead of hiding, we climb the hill,
"Instead of ducking, we rise and go,
"Instead of leaving, we all should know,
"It's not a matter of no fear at all,
"It's just a matter of answering their call.
"The call of those who served before,
"They call unto us:
'Forward now, forward go,
'For we are with you and we all know,
'That fear is hard, but shared with all,
'So stand you now on shoulders tall.
'You're more than just a single one,
'You're on their shoulders,
'You're their Soldier Son.'
"Sarge" said Corporal, "I must admit
"From that day I wanted only to make you glad,
"That you, Sarge, were my Soldier Dad."
Corporal again balanced, and snapped salute,
Then turned and thanked Sarge's Mom.
He thanked his Dad and his wife,
He shook the hand of the Sarge's son.
His left leg gone above the knee,
His right leg dragged behind,
He used one eye to see the seat,
One hand to straighten his tie.
Corporal's heart was breaking hard,
But in his chest still swelled,
That message of his Soldier Dad,
Of shoulders' of soldiers' felled.
As the others left the grave,
Corporal lagged behind,
"Your shoulders, Sarge, are rather large,
"And many shall stand upon,
"The shoulders you brought to the field,
"You'll be Dad of Soldier Sons!"
© 2011 Linda McKinney All Rights Reserved
Inside a heart so willing; enlisting, a bit too young.
Through sweat, tears and struggles, first stripes hard efforts won.
When Sergeant, the call was given to go off to a war,
And when -- bags packed, gun cleaned, boots polished - the plane landed, shots fired: it had begun.
Three months of sleeping sparsely in dirt, sand and dust,
No pillow 'cept a helmet, no relief from summer sun,
No sweet, sweet smile from mom back home, or hugs from the "Hon".
And sometimes, when alone and tired, and no one was around,
It seemed - bags lost, gun old, boots sand-filled - that none at home remembered: forgetting had begun.
That day started no differently, than all the others there.
Awake, and go, perimeter control: but something stirred within the air.
An hour later, a sudden shock, searing pain and buzzing ears,
A cry, a look, confusion; no feeling in his legs,
Blood flowed - into sand, into sun, into blown apart gun - medic's frantic efforts, "Stay with us" the Corporal repeats, repeats, rep-e-a---t----s…
...
"It's for the Sergeant," the Corporal said, as he walked into the room.
"It's nothing much," Corporal blushed, "but maybe it will do."
"It's fine," said the Colonel, and patted Corporal's back,
As Corporal's crutches carried him to the casket; flag draped and ebony black.
"For you, Sarge," Corporal balanced and struggled to salute, "You saved my life and lost your own, and I will not forget…
"In Memory, in Honor, in deepest Thanks," he laid Purple Heart on Sergeant's flag, "because I think that you served best,
"The day you sat and reminded me
"'Twas not just courage that set me free,
"But the history of the men before,
"Who served our country's military lore,
"Who fought and died, are nevermore,
"On dessert sands, or Iwo Jima's shores.
"We build upon their bravery,
"And through their foundation, we've been kept free."
"So, Sarge, I thank you, for all you've done.
"Before your final battle had begun,
"You won the war within my soul
"And kept me there when leaving was my goal,
"From dishonoring my unit, my mom, myself,
"And taught me how to face my fears…"
And here he wiped away his tears,
"You taught me, Sarge, to remember more
"Than what my service there stood for,
"And that - with all who've gone before -
"It's what we do instead.
"Instead of running, we stand still,
"Instead of hiding, we climb the hill,
"Instead of ducking, we rise and go,
"Instead of leaving, we all should know,
"It's not a matter of no fear at all,
"It's just a matter of answering their call.
"The call of those who served before,
"They call unto us:
'Forward now, forward go,
'For we are with you and we all know,
'That fear is hard, but shared with all,
'So stand you now on shoulders tall.
'You're more than just a single one,
'You're on their shoulders,
'You're their Soldier Son.'
"Sarge" said Corporal, "I must admit
"From that day I wanted only to make you glad,
"That you, Sarge, were my Soldier Dad."
Corporal again balanced, and snapped salute,
Then turned and thanked Sarge's Mom.
He thanked his Dad and his wife,
He shook the hand of the Sarge's son.
His left leg gone above the knee,
His right leg dragged behind,
He used one eye to see the seat,
One hand to straighten his tie.
Corporal's heart was breaking hard,
But in his chest still swelled,
That message of his Soldier Dad,
Of shoulders' of soldiers' felled.
As the others left the grave,
Corporal lagged behind,
"Your shoulders, Sarge, are rather large,
"And many shall stand upon,
"The shoulders you brought to the field,
"You'll be Dad of Soldier Sons!"
© 2011 Linda McKinney All Rights Reserved
Saturday, April 2, 2011
America, HYK!
When I was a child and learning about the U.S. Constitution and the Founding Fathers, I also watched my Dad go off to work in Air Force blues, in those awful green fatigues that I learned very early to starch so stiff that they almost stood up by themselves. I knew other kids whose dads also went to work for our country: day or night, “scrambled” out to make sure that the airplanes the Air Force needed were ready to go. He worked on the bombers, mostly, and they were his babies. I have been all over a B-52 – top, bottom, pilot’s seat to tail gunner’s, bombardier to navigator. I was rolled around in a B-52’s tires and I thought it was wonderful that the nation I grew up in and loved had such wonderful things to protect itself.
That was before I ever realized that anyone who could be elected President of the United States of America could actually hate America at the same time as taking advantage of our capitalist system, our civil rights and our election process. I never dreamed back then that the United States would have to fight for our own survival due to forces from within. On top of those B-52’s I always thought attacks would be from forces outside of America. If anything would bring us to the brink of destruction, it would be the Soviet Union, or China, or the Communists who hated America and all we stand for, but lived elsewhere.
Today, we have an economy that is tanking, putting America on the ledge of a financial cliff made of debt, profligate spending and ridiculous compromises made by the party that is supposed to be more Conservative – supposed to pull us back from the brink with their strength and principalled leadership.
Today, we have forces from within our own country – unions, George Soros (evil incarnate), progressives, power brokers – who are doing all they can to create chaos, disorder, hatred: make neighbor hate neighbor. While it’s apparent why they are doing this, it’s not apparent why they hate America – the country that made it possible for them to have all they have and still, they hate her.
Today, we have a President (I hate calling him that) who refuses to be transparent about anything except what he likes to eat, who hates America more than anything else in the world, who kowtows to enemies foreign and has none domestic except honest, hard working, conservatives who love the country that is paying for his lifestyle in the White House and his vacations, transportation, security, health care, children’s protection and his wife’s whims. All the while, in other countries they complain and moan about how bad America is, how rotten she is, how evil her people – some of them at least – are.
Today, we have a Federal Reserve that is working with the current administration to try to destroy America, again the land that blessed him with his position of authority, his wealth, his opportunities. Our Congresses and Senates – U.S. and States – are battling over the direction our country and our states should go. Some wish to go totally, progressively, toward Communism: everyone has everything that anyone else has at the expense of those who will work and those who don’t work get all the same things as those who do – at the working person’s expense, of course. Want food, health care, housing, a car, a big screen 3D television, a designer wardrobe, and the latest cell phone, iPod and computer? No worries. Those who work will be forced to pay for them for you. You sit down and relax; no need for those who will vote for us to do anything to earn their own way except vote for us, progressive Communist Congressmen and Senators say.
Today, the backs and patience of those who are willing to earn their own way, pay for their own houses, cars, televisions, are being broken under the burden of higher taxes, more regulations, more paperwork from every layer of government – city, township, county, state, federal – they all have to have their reasons for employing more of those constituents who want to work, but don’t want to work unless they have a union supporting their desires for an easier life, benefits and pensions guaranteed due to the threat of striking and the power of the unions. It’s not that the union wants to actually help those workers, it is that they want to keep their power, so they placate the worker to keep the unions getting the votes – and to keep their members voting for the political candidates who will support the unions’ power.
Today, regulation and “global warming” are the name of the game. We must buy certain kinds of toilets, washing machines, light bulbs (I refuse) and our children are being taught the lie of “global warming” as gospel and worshipping “Mother Earth” is the only religion allowed in public schools and some religious schools have picked it up as well. Families are “guilted” into recycling, driving less, or driving a “green” car so that the child in the back seat won’t feel guilty about driving those eight long hours to get to grandma’s house because her family is polluting the planet and causing more greenhouse gasses as they travel. Heaven forbid the teachers tell the truth and teach the child that there is no such thing as “global warming” and man’s impact upon the earth is never as devastating as the earth’s impact upon man.
Today, we have to sit back and be silent as the PC Police will shut us up if we say anything they disagree with. We are not allowed to voice opposition to “gay marriage” because it may upset someone; heaven forbid we talk about faith in any god besides their secular humanism. If we wish to mention the real GOD, we are mocked, laughed at and their superiority for not believing in Him is thrown in our faces. Disallowed to be taught in schools until a lawsuit is brought to make it happen, the PC Police try their best to keep GOD out of schools, the public square, even out of our hearts if they could. GOD is anathema to them: they don’t wish to understand Him, want to hear about Him, get to know Him, or anything else to do with a good, loving, holy GOD. If they did acknowledge Him, they’d also have to acknowledge that He sets the rules of right and wrong and they have broken so many of them and will have to answer to Him one day, therefore they must disavow any knowledge of or acknowledgement of GOD, good and holy.
Today, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachman and any Conservatives are the enemy because we wish to restore America to what our Founding Fathers – enemies also – designed America to be, wrote our Constitution to keep her, and fought to make her. We shall never return to the Republic our Founding Fathers gave us, based upon godly principals and values. Heaven forbid we look to GOD for guidance and to the Founding Documents for our compass, true north. That is all verboten, disallowed and evil: even the mention of it causes those on the left – progressives, liberals, Democrats, Wrongies -- great anguish and heart ache.
Today, that will all start to change. America, HIT YOUR KNEES! (HYK!) Let’s make the year 2011 the year of the greatest spiritual awakening the world has ever seen. Let’s do what they cannot and will not stop. Take back our country through faith in GOD and prayer to Him. It says in the Bible, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Today, your prayers can “availeth much” because this is something they cannot prevent and have no way to fight. GOD is bigger, mightier, more capable than any of their plans, any of their schemers (even George Soros and Obama), any of their power hungry, money grabbing, Communist Manifesto toting, Rules for Radicals following, connected, enabled, high and mighty minions and they have no way to prevent us, stop us, or to stop GOD.
Today, we can start the America’s turn around, start a change in direction and we can make America the country she was supposed to be; Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington prayed she’d be. Today, all it takes is a little extra effort, a little extra time, a little energy to push yourself up from that kneeling position to make the difference. America’s 180 turn can begin today if you will start taking five minutes to pray for her in the morning when you get up. Take five minutes to pray for her at lunch time. Take five minutes to pray for her at bedtime. Put a pillow under your knees if you must (I do), but drop to your knees, go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to protect America from those who will do evil to her, those who scheme against her, those who will tax the children who have not yet been born by spending way beyond our current means and borrowing away our futures.
Today, just in a few minutes, you can make a difference if you will, whenever you think of it, however you wish to do it, PRAY FOR AMERICA. Pray that GOD will turn us back from the direction our country has been going, that He will open eyes around the nation so that there will be no denying GOD and that He will bless our country with strong conservative leadership; leadership that will understand the Founding Fathers and all they believed, what they intended, and how much they must have loved America because they put such restraints upon the government and those who would undo what they did. Although, that has all been ignored for so long and we have been lied to and litigated into other ways of doing things for so long that most of us have forgotten the truth. Pray that GOD will touch hearts, give courage, and strengthen His people to stand and to make America AMERICA again!
Today, HYK! for your children’s futures, for the good of the nation, for the defeat of communism/liberalism/progressivism in America. HYK! so that you can ask GOD to change America, turn her back and bless her with a revival as no one has ever seen before. Then, “will [He] hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” GOD says. And when He says something, whether any human believes it or not, GOD is correct and it is the truth. HYK! to heal our land.
Today, Obama, Soros, Andy Stern, et al, can be defeated with your simple act of obedience. Wouldn’t that be something worth the five minutes here and there?
Today, give Soros and Obama a kick in the pants. Hit Your Knees and pray.
That was before I ever realized that anyone who could be elected President of the United States of America could actually hate America at the same time as taking advantage of our capitalist system, our civil rights and our election process. I never dreamed back then that the United States would have to fight for our own survival due to forces from within. On top of those B-52’s I always thought attacks would be from forces outside of America. If anything would bring us to the brink of destruction, it would be the Soviet Union, or China, or the Communists who hated America and all we stand for, but lived elsewhere.
Today, we have an economy that is tanking, putting America on the ledge of a financial cliff made of debt, profligate spending and ridiculous compromises made by the party that is supposed to be more Conservative – supposed to pull us back from the brink with their strength and principalled leadership.
Today, we have forces from within our own country – unions, George Soros (evil incarnate), progressives, power brokers – who are doing all they can to create chaos, disorder, hatred: make neighbor hate neighbor. While it’s apparent why they are doing this, it’s not apparent why they hate America – the country that made it possible for them to have all they have and still, they hate her.
Today, we have a President (I hate calling him that) who refuses to be transparent about anything except what he likes to eat, who hates America more than anything else in the world, who kowtows to enemies foreign and has none domestic except honest, hard working, conservatives who love the country that is paying for his lifestyle in the White House and his vacations, transportation, security, health care, children’s protection and his wife’s whims. All the while, in other countries they complain and moan about how bad America is, how rotten she is, how evil her people – some of them at least – are.
Today, we have a Federal Reserve that is working with the current administration to try to destroy America, again the land that blessed him with his position of authority, his wealth, his opportunities. Our Congresses and Senates – U.S. and States – are battling over the direction our country and our states should go. Some wish to go totally, progressively, toward Communism: everyone has everything that anyone else has at the expense of those who will work and those who don’t work get all the same things as those who do – at the working person’s expense, of course. Want food, health care, housing, a car, a big screen 3D television, a designer wardrobe, and the latest cell phone, iPod and computer? No worries. Those who work will be forced to pay for them for you. You sit down and relax; no need for those who will vote for us to do anything to earn their own way except vote for us, progressive Communist Congressmen and Senators say.
Today, the backs and patience of those who are willing to earn their own way, pay for their own houses, cars, televisions, are being broken under the burden of higher taxes, more regulations, more paperwork from every layer of government – city, township, county, state, federal – they all have to have their reasons for employing more of those constituents who want to work, but don’t want to work unless they have a union supporting their desires for an easier life, benefits and pensions guaranteed due to the threat of striking and the power of the unions. It’s not that the union wants to actually help those workers, it is that they want to keep their power, so they placate the worker to keep the unions getting the votes – and to keep their members voting for the political candidates who will support the unions’ power.
Today, regulation and “global warming” are the name of the game. We must buy certain kinds of toilets, washing machines, light bulbs (I refuse) and our children are being taught the lie of “global warming” as gospel and worshipping “Mother Earth” is the only religion allowed in public schools and some religious schools have picked it up as well. Families are “guilted” into recycling, driving less, or driving a “green” car so that the child in the back seat won’t feel guilty about driving those eight long hours to get to grandma’s house because her family is polluting the planet and causing more greenhouse gasses as they travel. Heaven forbid the teachers tell the truth and teach the child that there is no such thing as “global warming” and man’s impact upon the earth is never as devastating as the earth’s impact upon man.
Today, we have to sit back and be silent as the PC Police will shut us up if we say anything they disagree with. We are not allowed to voice opposition to “gay marriage” because it may upset someone; heaven forbid we talk about faith in any god besides their secular humanism. If we wish to mention the real GOD, we are mocked, laughed at and their superiority for not believing in Him is thrown in our faces. Disallowed to be taught in schools until a lawsuit is brought to make it happen, the PC Police try their best to keep GOD out of schools, the public square, even out of our hearts if they could. GOD is anathema to them: they don’t wish to understand Him, want to hear about Him, get to know Him, or anything else to do with a good, loving, holy GOD. If they did acknowledge Him, they’d also have to acknowledge that He sets the rules of right and wrong and they have broken so many of them and will have to answer to Him one day, therefore they must disavow any knowledge of or acknowledgement of GOD, good and holy.
Today, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Michele Bachman and any Conservatives are the enemy because we wish to restore America to what our Founding Fathers – enemies also – designed America to be, wrote our Constitution to keep her, and fought to make her. We shall never return to the Republic our Founding Fathers gave us, based upon godly principals and values. Heaven forbid we look to GOD for guidance and to the Founding Documents for our compass, true north. That is all verboten, disallowed and evil: even the mention of it causes those on the left – progressives, liberals, Democrats, Wrongies -- great anguish and heart ache.
Today, that will all start to change. America, HIT YOUR KNEES! (HYK!) Let’s make the year 2011 the year of the greatest spiritual awakening the world has ever seen. Let’s do what they cannot and will not stop. Take back our country through faith in GOD and prayer to Him. It says in the Bible, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)
Today, your prayers can “availeth much” because this is something they cannot prevent and have no way to fight. GOD is bigger, mightier, more capable than any of their plans, any of their schemers (even George Soros and Obama), any of their power hungry, money grabbing, Communist Manifesto toting, Rules for Radicals following, connected, enabled, high and mighty minions and they have no way to prevent us, stop us, or to stop GOD.
Today, we can start the America’s turn around, start a change in direction and we can make America the country she was supposed to be; Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and George Washington prayed she’d be. Today, all it takes is a little extra effort, a little extra time, a little energy to push yourself up from that kneeling position to make the difference. America’s 180 turn can begin today if you will start taking five minutes to pray for her in the morning when you get up. Take five minutes to pray for her at lunch time. Take five minutes to pray for her at bedtime. Put a pillow under your knees if you must (I do), but drop to your knees, go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to protect America from those who will do evil to her, those who scheme against her, those who will tax the children who have not yet been born by spending way beyond our current means and borrowing away our futures.
Today, just in a few minutes, you can make a difference if you will, whenever you think of it, however you wish to do it, PRAY FOR AMERICA. Pray that GOD will turn us back from the direction our country has been going, that He will open eyes around the nation so that there will be no denying GOD and that He will bless our country with strong conservative leadership; leadership that will understand the Founding Fathers and all they believed, what they intended, and how much they must have loved America because they put such restraints upon the government and those who would undo what they did. Although, that has all been ignored for so long and we have been lied to and litigated into other ways of doing things for so long that most of us have forgotten the truth. Pray that GOD will touch hearts, give courage, and strengthen His people to stand and to make America AMERICA again!
Today, HYK! for your children’s futures, for the good of the nation, for the defeat of communism/liberalism/progressivism in America. HYK! so that you can ask GOD to change America, turn her back and bless her with a revival as no one has ever seen before. Then, “will [He] hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” GOD says. And when He says something, whether any human believes it or not, GOD is correct and it is the truth. HYK! to heal our land.
Today, Obama, Soros, Andy Stern, et al, can be defeated with your simple act of obedience. Wouldn’t that be something worth the five minutes here and there?
Today, give Soros and Obama a kick in the pants. Hit Your Knees and pray.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Glenn Beck Blows It on a Personal Level
(NOTE: Since I don't know how to do superscripts with this blog system, I put my footnotes in parenthesis at the appropriate spots: (#). Okay?)
Normally speaking, I trust Glenn Beck to be an accurate and reliable person when it comes to relating history, putting the pieces together (George Soros, Open Society, et al), and the dollars and dates. He’s very good at that and he’s almost always – 99% of the time – correct. He’s nearly infallible when it comes to that.
In personal matters, he is not necessarily so.
While reading Glenn Beck & Dr. Keith Ablow’s new book, “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life(1)”, on my Kindle, I came across Locations 1572-1585. This Section relates the story of Glenn going to a Mormon church for the first time. He wound up in a class with other students (some new, some not so new), and he wanted out of there. He found out that questions could be asked and he decided to ask one he thought would get him out of there; one that wouldn’t fit his personal beliefs and give him a reason to leave. So, he asked, “Where’s Gandhi?” (as in is he in heaven, hell or somewhere else?).
To paraphrase the response a student gave (and the teacher did not refute), the answer went something like this:
A dad loves his son and wants him to be a good man. The son graduated high school and his dad told him to go to college. With no colleges in the area, the son applied at colleges outside of the area and no colleges would accept him – “he wasn’t the right ‘sort’”. The explanation went that a loving father would not condemn nor disown the son for not going to college.
When Glenn asked about Jesus being the only way to the Father (to GOD), the answer was, “Yes, that is true,” replied the student, “but…” The answerer expounds upon the subject by asking if it would be fair to condemn someone who never got the chance or opportunity to accept Christ? Would it be fair to send that person to hell?
That’s the first place in the book where Glenn – and the question answerer – blows it.
There are several problems with that answer. First, how can the answer be both “Yes” and “No”? It can’t be both: Jesus is the only way and Jesus isn’t the only way. One has to choose because Jesus can’t be both.
Second, GOD sets the rules, not man. GOD said Jesus is the only way. Man cannot change the standard GOD set.
Third, If GOD is a Holy GOD then He must have certain rules that are intractable. Remember how unfair you thought it was when your parent would set a rule for you and have another rule – or just break the rule – for one of your siblings? Remember how you automatically knew that it wasn’t right? Should GOD treat people who get into heaven in such a manner: one rule for some people and another rule for others? No. He is Holy and He must keep the same rules for everyone. Otherwise, why have rules in the first place?
Fourth, is the source of the answer. This answer is based on – as far as I can figure – a purely Mormon belief and practice: the Baptism for the Dead. In this practice, baptismal services are held for those who are already dead using a stand-in for the dead person. For instance, your great-grandma died in 1942. Mormon doctrine would have her genealogy done, her kin listed and they would baptize your great-grandma and her spouse(s) into their Church and into their heaven without your consent, without the consent of great-grandma and – according to their beliefs – great-grandma would then be in their heaven worshiping their god. This is done even for people who wanted nothing to do with the Mormon Church, who do not believe in their religion, who do not wish to have their own chosen religion “negated” by strangers. This doctrine, a construct of Joseph Smith, was first publicly pronounced at the funeral of Seymour Brunson in Naouvoo in August 1840(2).
This doctrine is supposedly based on I Corinthians 15:29 where it asks “Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?(3)” Commentary suggests that a word translation is at fault. Taken in context, the word “for” should instead be “concerning”; since baptism does not save us, and if we do not rise again then any baptism is unnecessary(4).
“The Encyclopedia of Mormonism”, a five volume set of books that contains “The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”, quotes I Peter 4:6 as another source for the belief: “For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."(5) However that was Jesus Christ in “paradise” during the three days he was “dead” after his crucifixion and prior to his rising again. Jesus is the only person in the Bible mentioned as “preaching to” the dead. I must mention this because nowhere in the Mormon doctrine does it state that the dead shall be offered the gospel message prior to being baptized. In fact, in the Doctrines and Covenants (D&C), 128 inclusive(6), nowhere does it say that the dead should be given the choice of being baptized into the Mormon Church, but instead, they are baptized into the Church under the guise of, Matthew 16:19 and 18:18, “whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”(7). In other words, the dead have no say in the matter, which negates Glenn’s whole point of having a free will, a “gut feeling”, the opportunity to choose for ourselves which way to go: even with God. Even though that’s what his whole book is based upon, going with your gut feeling, yet he negates it in the ninth chapter of his book, “Isn’t There Anyone to Hate?” by believing in something that takes away the dead’s right to have chosen what their "gut feeling" told them.
Another problem with the teaching is that the Bible negates this teaching via Ecclesiastes 9:5-6: “For the living know that they will die: But the dead know nothing. And they have no more reward. For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished: Nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun.”(8)
The doctrine of “Baptism for the Dead” is negated by Mormonism’s own teachings as well. For instance:
1) In “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” book two, on page 741 included in the definition of the names of Christ, is the definition of one of His names, the name “Savior”: “Through agony and death suffered for others, Jesus is able to erase imperfections and bestow worthiness, on condition of repentance. Since imperfect beings cannot reside in God’s presence (D&C 1:31), Jesus saves believers from their imperfection, their sins, and their worst selves. [my italics](9)”
2) In the section on “Salvation” in book three of the set, beginning on page 1256, it states, “It is redemption from the bondage of sin and death, through the ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST. [caps in the original](10)”
3) Page 1257 of the third book delineates the steps taken to gain “Salvation” as found in the “gospel of Jesus Christ” these ordinances “must be followed to obtain a fullness of salvation. The first steps are FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM by immersion for the remission of sins, and the LAYONG ON OF HANDS by one who is in authority for the gift of the HOLY GHOST. Additional ordinances are administered in the TEMPLE. And finally, ‘he only is saved who endureth to the end’ (D&C 53:7) [caps in the original](11)”.
In the book, “Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young”, the section on Salvation starts in this book on page 49. On page 50, Brigham Young talks about free will (“agency” in Mormonism): “ ‘But,’ says the Father, ‘that will not answer at all. I give each and every individual his agency; all must use that in order to gain exaltation in my kingdom; inasmuch as they have the attributes which you see in me are in my children and they must use their agency. If you undertake to save all, you must save them in unrighteousness and corruption’ [see Abraham 3:23-28; Moses 4:1-4] (BDY, 54-54). [my italics]”(12) They must choose for themselves is what Brigham Young is saying, not those who are doing the baptizing for them choosing.
The “gut feeling” that “inner truth” that Glenn talks about throughout the book is negated by his personal religious beliefs, even though those beliefs are at the same time supported by his religious beliefs. Mormonism has people coming and going, but they don’t have their ducks in a row. They negate their own teachings, and see no conflict in it.
Another place Glenn blew it was in location 2273-2296 in which he gives an example of following your “inner truth” by illustrating it with the story of an imaginary investment banker who decides that instead of wanting to be an investment banker, he wants to follow his boyhood dream of being an architect. His wife did not like the idea and would not support him. She wants the investment banker to continue being an investment banker and to give up this dream. Glenn’s advice: “Then, my friend, you may have to leave. If you were to do so, you would have to do it responsibly with as much love for all concerned – including your wife – as humanly possible. But your love for self would have to be served.(13)”
Excuse me?! Leave your wife, your children, your life as you know it so that “your love for self” would “be served”? I think that’s called selfishness by most people, and most people don’t consider it a good thing. The only Biblical reason to leave your spouse is infidelity (adultery; extra-marital sexual relations). I see nothing in the Bible that says anything about leaving your spouse so that you can be selfish. How about the same excuse being used for a twenty-year-old blonde bombshell who makes you feel twenty-three again? Your attraction to her is an “inner truth”. Mustn’t you love your “inner truth”, honor your “gut feeling” that is your attraction to this Little Miss Muffit, also? Glenn says (location 2291-2296), “Are you surprised to hear me say that? Does that sound like violating a covenant? It isn’t."(14) Excuse me?! Did that man and woman not vow – covenant – before GOD and man to be together “until death do us part”? If that is not a covenant – the second covenant ever given (the first between GOD and Adam and Eve) – then what is a covenant? And who gives Glenn Beck the right to advise people that leaving a spouse is an acceptable thing to do if their career goals are changing? How selfish is that?
In Mark 10:2-9 Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees about divorce. When Christ asked them, “What did Moses command you?” they said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.” But Christ replied that it was from the “hardness of your heart” that it was permitted, but that GOD instituted marriage, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ‘and the two shall become one flesh’: so they can no longer be two but one flesh. Therefore what GOD has joined together let not man separate."(15) Jesus – GOD’s Son – said “No” to divorce.
Glenn’s religion supposedly obeys and follows Jesus (they’ve even got His name in their name), and yet Glenn is spouting new age, temporarily feel good, claptrapisms about “inner truths” and “gut feelings” and a covenant with yourself? After all, according to Glenn, “Covenants are, by their nature, sacred agreements between two or more parties. If you promised to stay married to someone who would love you forever, then realize you are not loved at all by that person, and that there is no reasonable hope that you ever will be, and that the example of your broken relationship is a burden to your children, then you must accept this reality: There is no covenant. There is only your truth. And in the end, the truth always wins.” Beck is totally ignoring the truth that “The way, the truth and the life(16)” (John 14: 6), Jesus Christ, spoke about divorce while spouting claptrap about TRUTH!
Glenn’s assertion that marriage has to be between two people who have promised to love each other “forever”, then no marriage is based on truth. All marriages have difficult times. All marriages have things they go through. It’s those who honor their covenants, their vows made before GOD and man who stay with their spouses and who spend the rest of their lives together because they wish to honor GOD by doing so. That is what the Bible teaches about marriage, not this new age, claptrap about “inner truths”.
Maybe because Beck was once divorced he feels comfortable espousing divorce to others in order to prevent “your spiritual destruction”(17). Maybe it’s something else. But any “religious person” supporting divorce is not a good thing. Your spiritual life does not depend on your spouse supporting or denying your change of career. Your spiritual life depends on what you do with your relationship with Christ. Going through a tough time in your marriage? Spend more time with your Bible and with GOD. Your spouse isn’t the one who decides what your spiritual position with GOD is. It’s your effort, your dedication, your time with GOD that determines whether “your spiritual destruction” is eminent; not your spouse’s approval or disapproval of your career change. If your spouse says, “No. Let’s not do this,” it’s up to you to make the best of things and to honor your commitment to your spouse because that is what GOD says for you to do. He never says that divorce is okay if your spouse disagrees with you. Has your spouse committed adultery? If so, divorce is okay. If not, then stick with it and work it out and your spiritual life will be blessed if you put the effort into your spiritual life and into your marriage that needs to be put toward both.
In location 2652-57, Beck says that, “When your instincts run counter to common wisdom, then doing God’s work requires patience and compassion and courage and one other essential quality that really deserves a book of its own: endurance.(18)” If ignoring the truth of the Bible that Jesus Christ, by whom “No man cometh unto the Father except through [Him]”, or getting a divorce in order to follow your “inner truth” even though Jesus Christ spoke against it, is “doing God’s work”, then Beck must be following a different GOD than the Bible speaks of, and than I follow.
As I said earlier, when it comes to putting the puzzle pieces together regarding politics and the influences of others on political issues, of political ties, of history and learning from it or repeating it, of watching the events around the world and watching the ties that are made prior to things falling apart, Beck has it all over others. Beck is right most of the time there. Would I follow his teachings there? You bet. Would I follow Beck’s teachings on GOD or my personal life? No way.
(NOTE: There was another thing I saw in the book that I wanted to comment on, but I cannot remember it right now. I’ll post that later, I suppose.)
FOOTNOTES:
1) “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life” Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow, Threshold Editions – Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., © 2011 Mercury Radio Arts, Inc., Kindle Version. ISBN 978-1-4516-2564-6 (ebook)
2) “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” Book 1, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, pp. 95-97, Macmillan Publishing Company, © 1992 Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN 0-02-904040-X
3) “The Holy Bible” English Standard Version, Good News Publishers, ©2003 Crossway Bibles, English Standard Version © 2001 Crossway Bibles, Crossway Bibles a division of Good News Publishers, ISBN 1-58134-436-8
4) “The Believer’s Study Bible” Edited by W.A. Criswell, Ph.D., pg. 1644, Thomas Nelson Publishers, © 1991 Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, The Holy Bible New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. (No ISBN, No Library of Congress Catalog Number), 606BG
5) Ibid, page 1770
6) “Book of Mormon: Doctrine and Covenants: Pearl of Great Price” Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun., Doctrine and Covenants pp. 231-236, Published 1941 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, © 1920 Heber J. Grant, Trustee-In-Trust, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, No Library of Congress Catalog Number, No ISBN
7) “The Believer’s Study Bible” Edited by W.A. Criswell, Ph.D., Thomas Nelson Publishers, © 1991 Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, The Holy Bible New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. (No ISBN, No Library of Congress Catalog Number), 606BG
8) Ibid, pg. 902
9) “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” Book 2, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, pg. 741, Macmillan Publishing Company, © 1992 Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN 0-02-904040-X
10) “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” Book 3, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, “Salvation, pg.1256, Macmillan Publishing Company, © 1992 Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN 0-02-904040-X
11) Ibid, pp. 1257,
12) “The Teachings of the Presidents: Brigham Young” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, © 1997 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (No ISBN No Library of Congress Catalog Number)
13) “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life” Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow, Threshold Editions – Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., © 2011 Mercury Radio Arts, Inc., Kindle Version. ISBN 978-1-4516-2564-6 (ebook)
14) Ibid, location 2291-2296
15) “The Believer’s Study Bible” Edited by W.A. Criswell, Ph.D., pg. 1413, Thomas Nelson Publishers, © 1991 Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, The Holy Bible New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. (No ISBN, No Library of Congress Catalog Number), 606BG
16) Ibid, pg. 1521
17) “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life” Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow, location 2296-2302, Threshold Editions – Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., © 2011 Mercury Radio Arts, Inc., Kindle Version. ISBN 978-1-4516-2564-6 (ebook)
18) Ibid, location 2652-57
Normally speaking, I trust Glenn Beck to be an accurate and reliable person when it comes to relating history, putting the pieces together (George Soros, Open Society, et al), and the dollars and dates. He’s very good at that and he’s almost always – 99% of the time – correct. He’s nearly infallible when it comes to that.
In personal matters, he is not necessarily so.
While reading Glenn Beck & Dr. Keith Ablow’s new book, “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life(1)”, on my Kindle, I came across Locations 1572-1585. This Section relates the story of Glenn going to a Mormon church for the first time. He wound up in a class with other students (some new, some not so new), and he wanted out of there. He found out that questions could be asked and he decided to ask one he thought would get him out of there; one that wouldn’t fit his personal beliefs and give him a reason to leave. So, he asked, “Where’s Gandhi?” (as in is he in heaven, hell or somewhere else?).
To paraphrase the response a student gave (and the teacher did not refute), the answer went something like this:
A dad loves his son and wants him to be a good man. The son graduated high school and his dad told him to go to college. With no colleges in the area, the son applied at colleges outside of the area and no colleges would accept him – “he wasn’t the right ‘sort’”. The explanation went that a loving father would not condemn nor disown the son for not going to college.
When Glenn asked about Jesus being the only way to the Father (to GOD), the answer was, “Yes, that is true,” replied the student, “but…” The answerer expounds upon the subject by asking if it would be fair to condemn someone who never got the chance or opportunity to accept Christ? Would it be fair to send that person to hell?
That’s the first place in the book where Glenn – and the question answerer – blows it.
There are several problems with that answer. First, how can the answer be both “Yes” and “No”? It can’t be both: Jesus is the only way and Jesus isn’t the only way. One has to choose because Jesus can’t be both.
Second, GOD sets the rules, not man. GOD said Jesus is the only way. Man cannot change the standard GOD set.
Third, If GOD is a Holy GOD then He must have certain rules that are intractable. Remember how unfair you thought it was when your parent would set a rule for you and have another rule – or just break the rule – for one of your siblings? Remember how you automatically knew that it wasn’t right? Should GOD treat people who get into heaven in such a manner: one rule for some people and another rule for others? No. He is Holy and He must keep the same rules for everyone. Otherwise, why have rules in the first place?
Fourth, is the source of the answer. This answer is based on – as far as I can figure – a purely Mormon belief and practice: the Baptism for the Dead. In this practice, baptismal services are held for those who are already dead using a stand-in for the dead person. For instance, your great-grandma died in 1942. Mormon doctrine would have her genealogy done, her kin listed and they would baptize your great-grandma and her spouse(s) into their Church and into their heaven without your consent, without the consent of great-grandma and – according to their beliefs – great-grandma would then be in their heaven worshiping their god. This is done even for people who wanted nothing to do with the Mormon Church, who do not believe in their religion, who do not wish to have their own chosen religion “negated” by strangers. This doctrine, a construct of Joseph Smith, was first publicly pronounced at the funeral of Seymour Brunson in Naouvoo in August 1840(2).
This doctrine is supposedly based on I Corinthians 15:29 where it asks “Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?(3)” Commentary suggests that a word translation is at fault. Taken in context, the word “for” should instead be “concerning”; since baptism does not save us, and if we do not rise again then any baptism is unnecessary(4).
“The Encyclopedia of Mormonism”, a five volume set of books that contains “The History, Scripture, Doctrine, and Procedure of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”, quotes I Peter 4:6 as another source for the belief: “For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit."(5) However that was Jesus Christ in “paradise” during the three days he was “dead” after his crucifixion and prior to his rising again. Jesus is the only person in the Bible mentioned as “preaching to” the dead. I must mention this because nowhere in the Mormon doctrine does it state that the dead shall be offered the gospel message prior to being baptized. In fact, in the Doctrines and Covenants (D&C), 128 inclusive(6), nowhere does it say that the dead should be given the choice of being baptized into the Mormon Church, but instead, they are baptized into the Church under the guise of, Matthew 16:19 and 18:18, “whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”(7). In other words, the dead have no say in the matter, which negates Glenn’s whole point of having a free will, a “gut feeling”, the opportunity to choose for ourselves which way to go: even with God. Even though that’s what his whole book is based upon, going with your gut feeling, yet he negates it in the ninth chapter of his book, “Isn’t There Anyone to Hate?” by believing in something that takes away the dead’s right to have chosen what their "gut feeling" told them.
Another problem with the teaching is that the Bible negates this teaching via Ecclesiastes 9:5-6: “For the living know that they will die: But the dead know nothing. And they have no more reward. For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished: Nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun.”(8)
The doctrine of “Baptism for the Dead” is negated by Mormonism’s own teachings as well. For instance:
1) In “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” book two, on page 741 included in the definition of the names of Christ, is the definition of one of His names, the name “Savior”: “Through agony and death suffered for others, Jesus is able to erase imperfections and bestow worthiness, on condition of repentance. Since imperfect beings cannot reside in God’s presence (D&C 1:31), Jesus saves believers from their imperfection, their sins, and their worst selves. [my italics](9)”
2) In the section on “Salvation” in book three of the set, beginning on page 1256, it states, “It is redemption from the bondage of sin and death, through the ATONEMENT OF JESUS CHRIST. [caps in the original](10)”
3) Page 1257 of the third book delineates the steps taken to gain “Salvation” as found in the “gospel of Jesus Christ” these ordinances “must be followed to obtain a fullness of salvation. The first steps are FAITH in the Lord Jesus Christ, REPENTANCE, BAPTISM by immersion for the remission of sins, and the LAYONG ON OF HANDS by one who is in authority for the gift of the HOLY GHOST. Additional ordinances are administered in the TEMPLE. And finally, ‘he only is saved who endureth to the end’ (D&C 53:7) [caps in the original](11)”.
In the book, “Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young”, the section on Salvation starts in this book on page 49. On page 50, Brigham Young talks about free will (“agency” in Mormonism): “ ‘But,’ says the Father, ‘that will not answer at all. I give each and every individual his agency; all must use that in order to gain exaltation in my kingdom; inasmuch as they have the attributes which you see in me are in my children and they must use their agency. If you undertake to save all, you must save them in unrighteousness and corruption’ [see Abraham 3:23-28; Moses 4:1-4] (BDY, 54-54). [my italics]”(12) They must choose for themselves is what Brigham Young is saying, not those who are doing the baptizing for them choosing.
The “gut feeling” that “inner truth” that Glenn talks about throughout the book is negated by his personal religious beliefs, even though those beliefs are at the same time supported by his religious beliefs. Mormonism has people coming and going, but they don’t have their ducks in a row. They negate their own teachings, and see no conflict in it.
Another place Glenn blew it was in location 2273-2296 in which he gives an example of following your “inner truth” by illustrating it with the story of an imaginary investment banker who decides that instead of wanting to be an investment banker, he wants to follow his boyhood dream of being an architect. His wife did not like the idea and would not support him. She wants the investment banker to continue being an investment banker and to give up this dream. Glenn’s advice: “Then, my friend, you may have to leave. If you were to do so, you would have to do it responsibly with as much love for all concerned – including your wife – as humanly possible. But your love for self would have to be served.(13)”
Excuse me?! Leave your wife, your children, your life as you know it so that “your love for self” would “be served”? I think that’s called selfishness by most people, and most people don’t consider it a good thing. The only Biblical reason to leave your spouse is infidelity (adultery; extra-marital sexual relations). I see nothing in the Bible that says anything about leaving your spouse so that you can be selfish. How about the same excuse being used for a twenty-year-old blonde bombshell who makes you feel twenty-three again? Your attraction to her is an “inner truth”. Mustn’t you love your “inner truth”, honor your “gut feeling” that is your attraction to this Little Miss Muffit, also? Glenn says (location 2291-2296), “Are you surprised to hear me say that? Does that sound like violating a covenant? It isn’t."(14) Excuse me?! Did that man and woman not vow – covenant – before GOD and man to be together “until death do us part”? If that is not a covenant – the second covenant ever given (the first between GOD and Adam and Eve) – then what is a covenant? And who gives Glenn Beck the right to advise people that leaving a spouse is an acceptable thing to do if their career goals are changing? How selfish is that?
In Mark 10:2-9 Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees about divorce. When Christ asked them, “What did Moses command you?” they said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.” But Christ replied that it was from the “hardness of your heart” that it was permitted, but that GOD instituted marriage, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ‘and the two shall become one flesh’: so they can no longer be two but one flesh. Therefore what GOD has joined together let not man separate."(15) Jesus – GOD’s Son – said “No” to divorce.
Glenn’s religion supposedly obeys and follows Jesus (they’ve even got His name in their name), and yet Glenn is spouting new age, temporarily feel good, claptrapisms about “inner truths” and “gut feelings” and a covenant with yourself? After all, according to Glenn, “Covenants are, by their nature, sacred agreements between two or more parties. If you promised to stay married to someone who would love you forever, then realize you are not loved at all by that person, and that there is no reasonable hope that you ever will be, and that the example of your broken relationship is a burden to your children, then you must accept this reality: There is no covenant. There is only your truth. And in the end, the truth always wins.” Beck is totally ignoring the truth that “The way, the truth and the life(16)” (John 14: 6), Jesus Christ, spoke about divorce while spouting claptrap about TRUTH!
Glenn’s assertion that marriage has to be between two people who have promised to love each other “forever”, then no marriage is based on truth. All marriages have difficult times. All marriages have things they go through. It’s those who honor their covenants, their vows made before GOD and man who stay with their spouses and who spend the rest of their lives together because they wish to honor GOD by doing so. That is what the Bible teaches about marriage, not this new age, claptrap about “inner truths”.
Maybe because Beck was once divorced he feels comfortable espousing divorce to others in order to prevent “your spiritual destruction”(17). Maybe it’s something else. But any “religious person” supporting divorce is not a good thing. Your spiritual life does not depend on your spouse supporting or denying your change of career. Your spiritual life depends on what you do with your relationship with Christ. Going through a tough time in your marriage? Spend more time with your Bible and with GOD. Your spouse isn’t the one who decides what your spiritual position with GOD is. It’s your effort, your dedication, your time with GOD that determines whether “your spiritual destruction” is eminent; not your spouse’s approval or disapproval of your career change. If your spouse says, “No. Let’s not do this,” it’s up to you to make the best of things and to honor your commitment to your spouse because that is what GOD says for you to do. He never says that divorce is okay if your spouse disagrees with you. Has your spouse committed adultery? If so, divorce is okay. If not, then stick with it and work it out and your spiritual life will be blessed if you put the effort into your spiritual life and into your marriage that needs to be put toward both.
In location 2652-57, Beck says that, “When your instincts run counter to common wisdom, then doing God’s work requires patience and compassion and courage and one other essential quality that really deserves a book of its own: endurance.(18)” If ignoring the truth of the Bible that Jesus Christ, by whom “No man cometh unto the Father except through [Him]”, or getting a divorce in order to follow your “inner truth” even though Jesus Christ spoke against it, is “doing God’s work”, then Beck must be following a different GOD than the Bible speaks of, and than I follow.
As I said earlier, when it comes to putting the puzzle pieces together regarding politics and the influences of others on political issues, of political ties, of history and learning from it or repeating it, of watching the events around the world and watching the ties that are made prior to things falling apart, Beck has it all over others. Beck is right most of the time there. Would I follow his teachings there? You bet. Would I follow Beck’s teachings on GOD or my personal life? No way.
(NOTE: There was another thing I saw in the book that I wanted to comment on, but I cannot remember it right now. I’ll post that later, I suppose.)
FOOTNOTES:
1) “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life” Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow, Threshold Editions – Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., © 2011 Mercury Radio Arts, Inc., Kindle Version. ISBN 978-1-4516-2564-6 (ebook)
2) “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” Book 1, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, pp. 95-97, Macmillan Publishing Company, © 1992 Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN 0-02-904040-X
3) “The Holy Bible” English Standard Version, Good News Publishers, ©2003 Crossway Bibles, English Standard Version © 2001 Crossway Bibles, Crossway Bibles a division of Good News Publishers, ISBN 1-58134-436-8
4) “The Believer’s Study Bible” Edited by W.A. Criswell, Ph.D., pg. 1644, Thomas Nelson Publishers, © 1991 Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, The Holy Bible New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. (No ISBN, No Library of Congress Catalog Number), 606BG
5) Ibid, page 1770
6) “Book of Mormon: Doctrine and Covenants: Pearl of Great Price” Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun., Doctrine and Covenants pp. 231-236, Published 1941 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, © 1920 Heber J. Grant, Trustee-In-Trust, for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, No Library of Congress Catalog Number, No ISBN
7) “The Believer’s Study Bible” Edited by W.A. Criswell, Ph.D., Thomas Nelson Publishers, © 1991 Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, The Holy Bible New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. (No ISBN, No Library of Congress Catalog Number), 606BG
8) Ibid, pg. 902
9) “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” Book 2, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, pg. 741, Macmillan Publishing Company, © 1992 Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN 0-02-904040-X
10) “The Encyclopedia of Mormonism” Book 3, Edited by Daniel H. Ludlow, “Salvation, pg.1256, Macmillan Publishing Company, © 1992 Macmillan Publishing Company, ISBN 0-02-904040-X
11) Ibid, pp. 1257,
12) “The Teachings of the Presidents: Brigham Young” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, © 1997 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (No ISBN No Library of Congress Catalog Number)
13) “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life” Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow, Threshold Editions – Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., © 2011 Mercury Radio Arts, Inc., Kindle Version. ISBN 978-1-4516-2564-6 (ebook)
14) Ibid, location 2291-2296
15) “The Believer’s Study Bible” Edited by W.A. Criswell, Ph.D., pg. 1413, Thomas Nelson Publishers, © 1991 Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, The Holy Bible New King James Version © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc. (No ISBN, No Library of Congress Catalog Number), 606BG
16) Ibid, pg. 1521
17) “The 7 Wonders That Will Change Your Life” Glenn Beck and Dr. Keith Ablow, location 2296-2302, Threshold Editions – Mercury Radio Arts, A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., © 2011 Mercury Radio Arts, Inc., Kindle Version. ISBN 978-1-4516-2564-6 (ebook)
18) Ibid, location 2652-57
Saturday, February 12, 2011
No More Discrimination at Taxpayer Expense!
I found a .pdf file that led to a website (http://www.brevardcounty.us/csw/) the other day that promoted something that I hate. I hate discrimination at taxpayer expense. No, not that kind of discrimination. The kind that is PC. I hate it so much I wrote to the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners, to Rick Scott, and posted a blurb on my website about it. This is a copy of what Rick Scott received and what is on my website:
"February 11, 2011 I just sent this e-mail to the Brevard County Commissioners. I'm so irritated with this that I can hardly see straight:
"Commissioners,
"I found this astonishing brochure (http://citagibson.com/images/Woman_of_the_Year_Newsletter_April2009.pdf) (in .pdf format) on the internet and I was wondering: DO WE ACTUALLY SPEND TAXPAYER DOLLARS ON THIS CLAPTRAP?!!!! If so, DEFUND it. Save us some money. Let women make their own way if they want to really make it. After all, we are as strong, smart, creative, driven, resourceful and well educated as men. Why should we need TAXPAYER dollars to give us a hand? IF there are ANY TAXPAYER DOLLARS being spent on this stupidity, DEFUND this atrocity immediately. Women do not need a hand out, hand up, hand over, or any other "hand...." besides a handbag. If they do, let them be creative enough to find a way to get the money they need, the RECOGNITION they desire, the CONGRATULATIONS they crave all by themselves. To spend taxpayer dollars on this is UNCONSTITUTIONAL to say the least!"
"I think you should also write to the BOCC and send the same message. We are women; not invalids. Whatever happened to the old Helen Reddy song, "I am woman, hear me roar"? Nowadays, if a woman roars, it's because she needs a handout or special recognition from a special board/panel/commission? I don't think so! If this is feminism, who wants it? Lilly-livered idiots and wimps it makes of women. Whatever happened to that frontier spirit? The spirit of WWII where women hung up their dresses and took off their heels and became welders, machinery operators, "Rosie the Riveter" is now gone. (My Great Aunt was in the Women's Air Corp, flying newly finished airplanes from the factory to the airfields.) Now women have to be coddled and have "special" treatment that men don't get because of what's between their legs? Come on! We are WOMEN! We are stronger than men (Ever see a man with a cold? I rest my case!), we have more stamina than men (they go to bed earlier than we and sleep in later than we on the weekends), and we are more determined than men. To have to have a stupid "Commission on the Status of Women" is patently absurd and ridiculous. Women across America should be outraged."
Gov. Scott, ANY taxpayer dollars being spent on this is Unconstitutional because if it can't benefit ALL taxpayers, you are playing favorites and discriminating against someone due to their gender. I call on you to stop this discrimination and to stop any funding that goes to a specific gender, race, creed, or nationality. If you do not, you are breaking the Constitution you swore to uphold. Defund all discriminatory Commissions, Panels, Boards, etc. or break the law. It's your choice and I'm holding you accountable."
I some of you will agree with me and contact both the BOCC and Gov. Scott and tell them to defund all discriminatory items that taxpayers pay for. It is unconstitutional and it is wrong.
Linda McKinney
"February 11, 2011 I just sent this e-mail to the Brevard County Commissioners. I'm so irritated with this that I can hardly see straight:
"Commissioners,
"I found this astonishing brochure (http://citagibson.com/images/Woman_of_the_Year_Newsletter_April2009.pdf) (in .pdf format) on the internet and I was wondering: DO WE ACTUALLY SPEND TAXPAYER DOLLARS ON THIS CLAPTRAP?!!!! If so, DEFUND it. Save us some money. Let women make their own way if they want to really make it. After all, we are as strong, smart, creative, driven, resourceful and well educated as men. Why should we need TAXPAYER dollars to give us a hand? IF there are ANY TAXPAYER DOLLARS being spent on this stupidity, DEFUND this atrocity immediately. Women do not need a hand out, hand up, hand over, or any other "hand...." besides a handbag. If they do, let them be creative enough to find a way to get the money they need, the RECOGNITION they desire, the CONGRATULATIONS they crave all by themselves. To spend taxpayer dollars on this is UNCONSTITUTIONAL to say the least!"
"I think you should also write to the BOCC and send the same message. We are women; not invalids. Whatever happened to the old Helen Reddy song, "I am woman, hear me roar"? Nowadays, if a woman roars, it's because she needs a handout or special recognition from a special board/panel/commission? I don't think so! If this is feminism, who wants it? Lilly-livered idiots and wimps it makes of women. Whatever happened to that frontier spirit? The spirit of WWII where women hung up their dresses and took off their heels and became welders, machinery operators, "Rosie the Riveter" is now gone. (My Great Aunt was in the Women's Air Corp, flying newly finished airplanes from the factory to the airfields.) Now women have to be coddled and have "special" treatment that men don't get because of what's between their legs? Come on! We are WOMEN! We are stronger than men (Ever see a man with a cold? I rest my case!), we have more stamina than men (they go to bed earlier than we and sleep in later than we on the weekends), and we are more determined than men. To have to have a stupid "Commission on the Status of Women" is patently absurd and ridiculous. Women across America should be outraged."
Gov. Scott, ANY taxpayer dollars being spent on this is Unconstitutional because if it can't benefit ALL taxpayers, you are playing favorites and discriminating against someone due to their gender. I call on you to stop this discrimination and to stop any funding that goes to a specific gender, race, creed, or nationality. If you do not, you are breaking the Constitution you swore to uphold. Defund all discriminatory Commissions, Panels, Boards, etc. or break the law. It's your choice and I'm holding you accountable."
I some of you will agree with me and contact both the BOCC and Gov. Scott and tell them to defund all discriminatory items that taxpayers pay for. It is unconstitutional and it is wrong.
Linda McKinney
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Don't Put Your Christianity Away
Today I started taking down my Christmas decorations (well, besides the live Christmas tree: we took it down already); usually, a two day process. I have a difficult time taking my Christmas decorations down. It’s a sad thing to me. I really don’t enjoy it. I have a lot of Christmas decorations and putting them up takes about three or four days on average. This year, with my health problems, it took longer. We didn’t get everything done that I wanted done this year until Christmas Eve. Now I am taking it all down.
All the decorated garlands, the ceramics I made over the years, the wooden decorations I made years ago, the table decorations, the Santa decorations, the ribbon of vintage to antique ornaments I hang down the hall and back annually: all coming down. It is the saddest day of the year for me.
As I started the process today, for whatever reason, I started remembering the times in my life when people have asked me to put my Christianity away. Those aren’t the words they have actually said, but it’s the same thing.
While I had my own desktop publishing business, I had a client who wanted me to produce and print his resume and to put info into it that was a lie. I refused to do so. He kept trying to cajole me into lying for him, but I refused and resigned. He was shocked, flabbergasted even. He couldn’t believe that I refused to lie for him. He even went so far as to say, "Huh. And you're a Christian." He thought – for whatever reason, after whatever contact he had with other Christians he knew – that I would cave. He thought that because I was a Christian I had to be compliant. I had to be nice and do whatever he wanted me to do because Christians are that way. They’re sweet and goody-two-shoes. They do as anyone wishes. They’re pushovers and they don’t argue with anyone. If someone demands something, that’s what the Christian shall do because God tells them to be nice. They're candy-coated Christians and will melt at the touch of anyone's hand.
The multiple attempts of a local Brit to get me to sit down, shut up and let her do as she wished without opposition because she was attacking my Christianity and Christians are not supposed to put up opposition to anything is another example. Christians are not supposed to state the facts, even though they can be verified and links are given to them. Christians are not supposed to worry about -- or be involved in -- politics. Christians are supposed to stay out of politics because they’re supposed to “render unto Caesar” and all of that. Christianity is not Caesar’s: and politics, well, that’s not God’s (or that’s what they think). So we are supposed to keep out of politics and make that a “no go zone” because it’s not within our purview. When the Brit writes, she writes to attack my Christianity. She tries to make me “stand down” by implying that because I am involved in politics and I am a strong opponent, unafraid to call her on anything she says, I must not be a Christian. Christians are supposed to be compliant and wimpy. I’m too mean to be a Christian.
The latest person to think that “Christian” equals “cave in” and “compliant” was a teenage boy who came around door to door to sell me some magazines I did not need, and even though I have a “No Soliciting” sign on my screen porch door. I talked to him and his female companion for a while, got them something cold to drink (it was a warmer November day) and then said “No” to their sales pitch. I didn’t want to buy any magazines for over-inflated prices, didn’t want to help them get money to start their own business (I need money for my family’s futures, not their future). I wanted them to understand what “No Soliciting” means and if they didn’t (public schooled, I’m sure), then they were going to spend some time here and not get a dime. When I told him “No” he asked how he was supposed to get money for his business. I said, “Work harder”. As they left, he said, “I thought you said you were a Christian.”
So, according to the people I have encountered in my life –- and apparently the Christians they had previously encountered in their lives -- Christians are supposed to be willing to let lies stand; even help a liar. Christians are supposed to be willing to let politician-want-to-bes say and do whatever they want to say and do, but not stand against it. Christians are supposed to be pushovers, spending whatever it takes to help anyone who comes to the door for whatever purpose. Christians are supposed to be sickly sweet and stand for nothing, fall for anything and be willing to do whatever it takes to make people love them. We have no moral code, no commandments from God, no delineation of right and wrong that we live by, according to what these people have apparently seen of other Christians.
I don’t know about those other Christians, those who roll over and want to be liked and will do whatever it takes for someone to have a good opinion of them; let a lie stand, stay out of politics in order to be liked, be unwise with the money God has given us. I only know about myself. I shall never want to be liked by people more than I shall want to be liked by God. That’s what the Christians who roll over are doing; wanting to be liked by humans more than they want to be liked by God. It’s the old “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24) thing. Christians who wish to be liked by people more than liked by God are trying to serve two masters: God and man. It’s not going to work (read all of Matthew 6:24), because people will not like you after they use you, chew you up and spit you out. God loves you all the time, even when you disobey Him.
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” the Bible states in Joshua 24:15 and that is what I do, I shall do, and what I will never cease doing. When I read the Bible, I see Christ as a strong man, both in spirit and in obedience. Since Jesus Christ is our model of what we should be like, I see no problem in being like Him. (How strong was He to go to the cross although He was sweating drops of blood while asking if He could avoid it, "Yet not my will but thine."? [Luke 22:42]) Standing strong and standing my ground is what I am supposed to do. I am supposed to be “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13) and if I lose my flavor, how shall the earth have any flavor? That’s the thing. How is it supposed to help the earth – the people of the earth – if Christians roll over and cave in just to be “liked” by people? What good will it be to anyone – other people, other Christians, the whole earth – if Christians stop acting like the Christians God intends us to be?
Answer: It won’t do anyone any good. It also won’t please God.
Any time a Christian decides to roll over, to play “Christianity dead” in order to be liked by others, you do God a disservice. You displease Him and you make Him ashamed of you. God expects you to stand tall for Him, to be strong, to focus on pleasing Him, not them. Yet, Christians all over the world roll over and do whatever it takes to be liked by people. Christians play at Christianity, talking the talk, but not walking the walk. They want to be liked, to be well thought of, to be considered “in”, part of “the gang”, one of “them.” It’s not that Christians intend to do so; they just like fitting in. They don’t want to be considered a hard-liner, hard-nosed, “more religious than thou” type. So they fit in. They work at being liked. They do what needs to be done in order to make people like them.
“Huh. And you’re a Christian” is what my ex-client said to me when I wouldn’t agree to allow him to lie to potential employers on the resume I was designing for him. To have people surprised by a Christian who takes a stand and won’t do the wrong thing that the non-Christian wishes to do tells you about the state of Christianity in the world today. A “one of” among Christians: someone telling the truth, taking a stand, not giving money away foolishly. The world apparently has so very little experience with that. Why?
When was the last time you, as a Christian, took a stand and didn’t give in – not to friends, relatives, coworkers, strangers – to their pressure, their requests, their whining? When was the last time you, as a Christian, made it a point to stand strong and not give in, not roll over? When was the last time you, as a Christian, didn’t kowtow to the demands of a non-Christian (or, yes, even a Christian) in order to be liked? If you did so, if you made it a point to do so, today, tomorrow, or this week sometime, would the world end? Would your friend, relative, coworker, the stranger on the street or at your door, hate you forever? What if they did? Would it hurt? What if it does? “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) means that you can handle the pain, the embarrassment, the shunning. You can handle it because He is with you, “The Lord is with me” (Psalm 118:6 & 7, etc.) and He will help you get through it. Besides, when God is pleased with you, who cares if people are unhappy with you? Don’t you think His pleasure is so much better, so much more, than having some person angry, disappointed, upset with you?
Christians need to be strong, adamant, belligerent even in order to please God, the One who has their eternity in hand. Pleasing people and not God – making God angry at you, ashamed of you – is so much easier here on earth, but it isn’t going to bode well for your future. God loves you more than those people who want to compromise your Christianity in order to please them and not have them angry at you. God’s love for you is endless, boundless, tireless, but that doesn’t mean that He cannot be disappointed in you. When you have taken the easy way out and you have made man happy, what does it do to your soul, your relationship with God, your self-respect?
Have you ever noticed that the word “compromise” is not in the Bible? The word doesn’t exist in the Bible because God does not compromise. God says it’s His way or damnation. Compromise is not to be made in order to have man’s pleasure. God’s Word is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and I think that the truth is what God wishes. God does not wish Christians to compromise on the truth. God does not want Christians to lose their way. God does not wish Christians to lose their life because they choose not to follow Him.
God loves all of us: everyone ever conceived (even those aborted), God loves. He wants all of us to follow Him, to love Him, to serve Him. The “salt” comes in when we show others that our “salt” flavor is a good flavor. We cannot share that flavor when it is gone because it’s more important to have them happy with our answer, our compromise, our kowtowing. We can no more witness Christ when we do those things than we can tell them about God having a set of rules for people to follow if we compromise on those rules to start with.
I have a family member who was a professing Christian raised by Christian parents in a small town. Upon graduation this family member moved out of her parents’ house and moved in with a male without being married to him. On that day, she lost her Christian witness within that town. Whether the relationship was completely platonic or not, her Christian witness was totally worthless in that town, amongst those who knew her, among those who knew of her. The assumption was that sexual relations were happening, whether they were happening or not. After that, she lived with at least two other guys without the benefit of wedlock (although she married the last one). Christians do not do that sort of thing. That’s not something God would condone. Therefore, her Christian witness was worth as much as a wooden half-penny and she could no longer tell someone that being a Christian meant turning away from sin and toward God. No one would believe her while she was in that town and everyone knew of her lifestyle.
That’s what happens when Christians compromise on what God tells us to do, to be, to say. We are not supposed to help someone lie (nor lie ourselves) to be accepted, kowtow in order to be liked, nor waste our money in order to please someone. We are supposed to be like Christ, all aspects of Christ (driving out the money-changers to telling his own disciples that they shall not be great in heaven unless they are least [Mark 10:41-45]), not just the “sweet” part of Him.
Yes, He did forgive sins, heal the sick, raise the dead and prevent a woman being stoned. However, as we all know, He was strong, determined, obedient, acted upon His convictions (as does His Father) and He never, ever compromised. As Christians, if we are truly following Him, we should be willing and able to do the same.
As for me, I shall never compromise. I shall never put my Christianity away from me: not to be liked by someone, to fit in, to make life easier for someone else. I refuse to put my Christianity into a box, put it away and hide it from others so that their lives will be a little more comfortable. I won’t allow them to make me change my standards and accept theirs when theirs are lower than my own. My standards are those God has convicted me to set and I refuse to lower them for anyone. For a client, politician-want-to-be, or kid trying to get money out of me to expect me to change my standards (my principles) to make their lives easier is like expecting to see Hitler in heaven. It’s not going to happen.
How about you? As a Christian are you willing to compromise with man in order to be liked by him, accepted, to please them, even if they are family, friend, or coworker? Or is Christ your standard and you live to please Him? When was the last time you put your Christianity away as you do your Christmas decorations? I sincerely hope the answer is, "Never!"
All the decorated garlands, the ceramics I made over the years, the wooden decorations I made years ago, the table decorations, the Santa decorations, the ribbon of vintage to antique ornaments I hang down the hall and back annually: all coming down. It is the saddest day of the year for me.
As I started the process today, for whatever reason, I started remembering the times in my life when people have asked me to put my Christianity away. Those aren’t the words they have actually said, but it’s the same thing.
While I had my own desktop publishing business, I had a client who wanted me to produce and print his resume and to put info into it that was a lie. I refused to do so. He kept trying to cajole me into lying for him, but I refused and resigned. He was shocked, flabbergasted even. He couldn’t believe that I refused to lie for him. He even went so far as to say, "Huh. And you're a Christian." He thought – for whatever reason, after whatever contact he had with other Christians he knew – that I would cave. He thought that because I was a Christian I had to be compliant. I had to be nice and do whatever he wanted me to do because Christians are that way. They’re sweet and goody-two-shoes. They do as anyone wishes. They’re pushovers and they don’t argue with anyone. If someone demands something, that’s what the Christian shall do because God tells them to be nice. They're candy-coated Christians and will melt at the touch of anyone's hand.
The multiple attempts of a local Brit to get me to sit down, shut up and let her do as she wished without opposition because she was attacking my Christianity and Christians are not supposed to put up opposition to anything is another example. Christians are not supposed to state the facts, even though they can be verified and links are given to them. Christians are not supposed to worry about -- or be involved in -- politics. Christians are supposed to stay out of politics because they’re supposed to “render unto Caesar” and all of that. Christianity is not Caesar’s: and politics, well, that’s not God’s (or that’s what they think). So we are supposed to keep out of politics and make that a “no go zone” because it’s not within our purview. When the Brit writes, she writes to attack my Christianity. She tries to make me “stand down” by implying that because I am involved in politics and I am a strong opponent, unafraid to call her on anything she says, I must not be a Christian. Christians are supposed to be compliant and wimpy. I’m too mean to be a Christian.
The latest person to think that “Christian” equals “cave in” and “compliant” was a teenage boy who came around door to door to sell me some magazines I did not need, and even though I have a “No Soliciting” sign on my screen porch door. I talked to him and his female companion for a while, got them something cold to drink (it was a warmer November day) and then said “No” to their sales pitch. I didn’t want to buy any magazines for over-inflated prices, didn’t want to help them get money to start their own business (I need money for my family’s futures, not their future). I wanted them to understand what “No Soliciting” means and if they didn’t (public schooled, I’m sure), then they were going to spend some time here and not get a dime. When I told him “No” he asked how he was supposed to get money for his business. I said, “Work harder”. As they left, he said, “I thought you said you were a Christian.”
So, according to the people I have encountered in my life –- and apparently the Christians they had previously encountered in their lives -- Christians are supposed to be willing to let lies stand; even help a liar. Christians are supposed to be willing to let politician-want-to-bes say and do whatever they want to say and do, but not stand against it. Christians are supposed to be pushovers, spending whatever it takes to help anyone who comes to the door for whatever purpose. Christians are supposed to be sickly sweet and stand for nothing, fall for anything and be willing to do whatever it takes to make people love them. We have no moral code, no commandments from God, no delineation of right and wrong that we live by, according to what these people have apparently seen of other Christians.
I don’t know about those other Christians, those who roll over and want to be liked and will do whatever it takes for someone to have a good opinion of them; let a lie stand, stay out of politics in order to be liked, be unwise with the money God has given us. I only know about myself. I shall never want to be liked by people more than I shall want to be liked by God. That’s what the Christians who roll over are doing; wanting to be liked by humans more than they want to be liked by God. It’s the old “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24) thing. Christians who wish to be liked by people more than liked by God are trying to serve two masters: God and man. It’s not going to work (read all of Matthew 6:24), because people will not like you after they use you, chew you up and spit you out. God loves you all the time, even when you disobey Him.
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” the Bible states in Joshua 24:15 and that is what I do, I shall do, and what I will never cease doing. When I read the Bible, I see Christ as a strong man, both in spirit and in obedience. Since Jesus Christ is our model of what we should be like, I see no problem in being like Him. (How strong was He to go to the cross although He was sweating drops of blood while asking if He could avoid it, "Yet not my will but thine."? [Luke 22:42]) Standing strong and standing my ground is what I am supposed to do. I am supposed to be “the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13) and if I lose my flavor, how shall the earth have any flavor? That’s the thing. How is it supposed to help the earth – the people of the earth – if Christians roll over and cave in just to be “liked” by people? What good will it be to anyone – other people, other Christians, the whole earth – if Christians stop acting like the Christians God intends us to be?
Answer: It won’t do anyone any good. It also won’t please God.
Any time a Christian decides to roll over, to play “Christianity dead” in order to be liked by others, you do God a disservice. You displease Him and you make Him ashamed of you. God expects you to stand tall for Him, to be strong, to focus on pleasing Him, not them. Yet, Christians all over the world roll over and do whatever it takes to be liked by people. Christians play at Christianity, talking the talk, but not walking the walk. They want to be liked, to be well thought of, to be considered “in”, part of “the gang”, one of “them.” It’s not that Christians intend to do so; they just like fitting in. They don’t want to be considered a hard-liner, hard-nosed, “more religious than thou” type. So they fit in. They work at being liked. They do what needs to be done in order to make people like them.
“Huh. And you’re a Christian” is what my ex-client said to me when I wouldn’t agree to allow him to lie to potential employers on the resume I was designing for him. To have people surprised by a Christian who takes a stand and won’t do the wrong thing that the non-Christian wishes to do tells you about the state of Christianity in the world today. A “one of” among Christians: someone telling the truth, taking a stand, not giving money away foolishly. The world apparently has so very little experience with that. Why?
When was the last time you, as a Christian, took a stand and didn’t give in – not to friends, relatives, coworkers, strangers – to their pressure, their requests, their whining? When was the last time you, as a Christian, made it a point to stand strong and not give in, not roll over? When was the last time you, as a Christian, didn’t kowtow to the demands of a non-Christian (or, yes, even a Christian) in order to be liked? If you did so, if you made it a point to do so, today, tomorrow, or this week sometime, would the world end? Would your friend, relative, coworker, the stranger on the street or at your door, hate you forever? What if they did? Would it hurt? What if it does? “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) means that you can handle the pain, the embarrassment, the shunning. You can handle it because He is with you, “The Lord is with me” (Psalm 118:6 & 7, etc.) and He will help you get through it. Besides, when God is pleased with you, who cares if people are unhappy with you? Don’t you think His pleasure is so much better, so much more, than having some person angry, disappointed, upset with you?
Christians need to be strong, adamant, belligerent even in order to please God, the One who has their eternity in hand. Pleasing people and not God – making God angry at you, ashamed of you – is so much easier here on earth, but it isn’t going to bode well for your future. God loves you more than those people who want to compromise your Christianity in order to please them and not have them angry at you. God’s love for you is endless, boundless, tireless, but that doesn’t mean that He cannot be disappointed in you. When you have taken the easy way out and you have made man happy, what does it do to your soul, your relationship with God, your self-respect?
Have you ever noticed that the word “compromise” is not in the Bible? The word doesn’t exist in the Bible because God does not compromise. God says it’s His way or damnation. Compromise is not to be made in order to have man’s pleasure. God’s Word is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6), and I think that the truth is what God wishes. God does not wish Christians to compromise on the truth. God does not want Christians to lose their way. God does not wish Christians to lose their life because they choose not to follow Him.
God loves all of us: everyone ever conceived (even those aborted), God loves. He wants all of us to follow Him, to love Him, to serve Him. The “salt” comes in when we show others that our “salt” flavor is a good flavor. We cannot share that flavor when it is gone because it’s more important to have them happy with our answer, our compromise, our kowtowing. We can no more witness Christ when we do those things than we can tell them about God having a set of rules for people to follow if we compromise on those rules to start with.
I have a family member who was a professing Christian raised by Christian parents in a small town. Upon graduation this family member moved out of her parents’ house and moved in with a male without being married to him. On that day, she lost her Christian witness within that town. Whether the relationship was completely platonic or not, her Christian witness was totally worthless in that town, amongst those who knew her, among those who knew of her. The assumption was that sexual relations were happening, whether they were happening or not. After that, she lived with at least two other guys without the benefit of wedlock (although she married the last one). Christians do not do that sort of thing. That’s not something God would condone. Therefore, her Christian witness was worth as much as a wooden half-penny and she could no longer tell someone that being a Christian meant turning away from sin and toward God. No one would believe her while she was in that town and everyone knew of her lifestyle.
That’s what happens when Christians compromise on what God tells us to do, to be, to say. We are not supposed to help someone lie (nor lie ourselves) to be accepted, kowtow in order to be liked, nor waste our money in order to please someone. We are supposed to be like Christ, all aspects of Christ (driving out the money-changers to telling his own disciples that they shall not be great in heaven unless they are least [Mark 10:41-45]), not just the “sweet” part of Him.
Yes, He did forgive sins, heal the sick, raise the dead and prevent a woman being stoned. However, as we all know, He was strong, determined, obedient, acted upon His convictions (as does His Father) and He never, ever compromised. As Christians, if we are truly following Him, we should be willing and able to do the same.
As for me, I shall never compromise. I shall never put my Christianity away from me: not to be liked by someone, to fit in, to make life easier for someone else. I refuse to put my Christianity into a box, put it away and hide it from others so that their lives will be a little more comfortable. I won’t allow them to make me change my standards and accept theirs when theirs are lower than my own. My standards are those God has convicted me to set and I refuse to lower them for anyone. For a client, politician-want-to-be, or kid trying to get money out of me to expect me to change my standards (my principles) to make their lives easier is like expecting to see Hitler in heaven. It’s not going to happen.
How about you? As a Christian are you willing to compromise with man in order to be liked by him, accepted, to please them, even if they are family, friend, or coworker? Or is Christ your standard and you live to please Him? When was the last time you put your Christianity away as you do your Christmas decorations? I sincerely hope the answer is, "Never!"
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