Sunday, February 21, 2010

Commitment Is About You, Surrender Is About HIM!

When I bow my head
Are the words I've said
Alive or dead

Do I surrender
To all the splendor
That His love does render

When He does forgive
To Him will I give
And begin to live

Do I live for God
Or is beneath a façade
Hiding a fraud

Yet beneath this doubt
Within and without
My heart does shout

To my God above
Who is the perfection of
Holy grace and love

Through Him I win
From my depths within
Victory over sin


I often do a lot of introspection regarding my relationship with God. And I have recently learned a lesson that has hit me very, very hard. I hope I can adequately express this to you to help you further strengthen your relationship with God.

I have taken the word commitment for granted. This word is a modern era word. It is almost a PC word.

During one of my men's bible study, we were working together in "The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority" by Adrian Rogers. In his interviews with Romanian Evangelist Josef T'son, it is discussed that the word commitment didn't become regularly used until the 1960s. In fact, when a word becomes popular in society, it usually replaces and old word. Research shows that the word replaced by commitment is surrender.

What's the difference?

It's in the control and this has been where my personal conflict has been keenly focused in my past.

When you commit to something, great or small, you are still in control. You can very easily be committed to doing things. You can commit to praying, reading your bible, spending more time with your family, New Year's resolutions, etc. Being in control of them means that you can choose not to do them. YOU CAN CHOOSE! If you think about it, how many things that you commit to are actually fulfilled? Whether it's losing weight or giving more time, most people don't fully follow through on their commitments. And I am just as guilty.

Surrender is a very different thing! Think about things that you would be obligated to surrender to: a burglar holding a gun to your head or a knife to your throat, an airplane you are on that plummets from the sky, or a surgical procedure being performed on you. In those cases, you have absolutely no choice but to surrender to their particular circumstances.

When I really looked at this, I began to ache. Even though there are things I have unconditionally surrendered to God, I found myself in an almost panic about the things that I have only committed to God. Yes, they may have been very noble and worthwhile things, but by only committing them, I maintained the control. Who am I to think that I actually have the right to control? ESPECIALLY ABOUT THE THINGS OF GOD!!!! I even arrogantly thanked God for leading me to commit things to Him!

I began to take inventory of my physical and spiritual life to see what I should be surrendering to God. My prayer life is improving, my marriage is improving, my relationships with family and friends are improving. I find it much more satisfying to be in His Holy Word. My desire to follow Jesus grows deeper and deeper every day

I am still taking inventory, still aching, and yet still praising and thanking God because even through all of this, He loves me unconditionally. To Him be all the honor and glory. Amen.



(revised from a previously posted blog of 5/30/2008)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Didn’t They Get The Clue the First Time???

This will probably be one of the least politically biased blogs I will ever write. It’s just that there is something really grating my nerves lately.

Even BEFORE Indiana Senator Evan Bayh announced that he would not seek reelection, there have been a lot of former office holders on both sides of the aisle that have declared their intention to run for their former office.

Now while I take the conservative position that the Liberal/Progressive Democrats from Obama on down have taken this nation to new low, I think it is potentially disastrous for the Republicans who lost their office in a fair election are seeking that office back. They had their chance to make this nation and its people a serious priority…AND THEY BLEW IT!

There is a reason they lost their office and I absolutely think that their former constituents would be very disappointed, and even disenchanted to have them right back in the office where they couldn’t perform their duty well enough to be reelected.

There is a movement ever growing to replace ALL of the incumbents in Congress COMPLETELY with new personnel. While I do see and appreciate the initiative behind it, I am personally not in total agreement with that because I do think there are a few member of Congress who ARE fulfilling their responsibilities to their constituents AND who have only been in for one term.

One of the priorities of the new Congress should be to institute term limits on themselves that will lead to the Constitution officially being amended to officially confirm that into law. The era of big government will never begin to be over until we can eliminate PROFESSIONAL POLITICIANS! And yes, I do include conservatives in that as well. When the people of this nation make it clear that one should not seek public office as a career, maybe those that do seek it will actually be of strong character that the people will be the ones who determine whether they go on to new or higher office.

On a somewhat unrelated side note, since Congress required corporate executives to take a salary of ONE DOLLAR per year without bonuses, why is it unreasonable for the American people to demand the same of their elected officials until this nation gets out of debt? Financial advantage should NEVER be a reason for ANY American to ascend to public office. Congress has so many benefits that any employee in the public sector would seriously envy.

One of the reasons that we look at our Founders with admiration is that they willingly and responsibly stepped down for their positions of power when they could have remained virtually indefinitely.

My charge to all of you is that when you look at your upcoming ballots in your various state and congressional primaries, whether you are Democrat, Republican or other, DO NOT vote to reelect someone who has lost an election for the same office and certainly DO NOT vote for an incumbent who has served a total of twelve years or more. This will be a responsible start at getting Washington to WORK FOR US rather than to go there to gain power, money and fame and RULE over us!

Come on wannabe professional politicians, GET A CLUE, right now they are free and untaxable!

Friday, February 5, 2010

Tim Tebow Could Have Been a "pedophile Rapist"...

And Joy Bejar could have just as easily been funny…

Check out this appalling piece of bloviating from The View’s most distorted and disturbed panelist:



If she doesn’t have a problem with the morality of murdering an unborn child, why should she have any moral authority to discuss the negativity of a “pedophile rapist?”

And if she is for killing babies BEFORE they have become pedophile rapists, is she for killing them after they become pedophile rapists?

Surely, being a Jew, she should understand how detestable genocide is. But I guess she isn’t a student of history, or truth for that matter.

The concept of abortion is not new. And, like it or not, the bible DOES speak of the evil that abortion is:

“Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.” – Psalm 127:3

Why would the “fruit of the womb” be potentially bad if God tells us to consider it a reward?

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” – Jeremiah 1:5

God is speaking to and of Jeremiah. But it isn’t meant to be only about him. This is how God thinks of everybody in His Creation.

“Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether.
Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?
Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?
You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit.” – Job 10:8-12

When Job has asked “Why was I born,” he is able to elaborate with magnificent language signifying that life does begin at conception.

“Did not he who made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in the womb?” – Job 31:15

Here, Job is reassuring those around him of his understanding of the value of life and Who creates that life.

“Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you” – Isaiah 44:2a

Here God is reaffirming His complete commitment to His people by telling them that His commitment STARTED long before they were in to womb.

“But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace” – Galatians 1:15

In this verse, Paul is explaining that it is by God’s initiative that created Paul and placed him to be an apostle. It was not by anything Paul did. Furthermore, it signifies that Paul was chosen By God even before he was born.

The point of all of this is that LIFE is so valuable to God, who created it, that He even cherishes it before birth.

Miss Bejar, and others of her ilk, seems to only place value on life based on what that life contributes or removes from society. This is progressivism at its core.

Talk a look at the following from one of history’s most cited Supreme Court Judges:

BUCK v. BELL, Superintendent of State Colony Epileptics and Feeble Minded, 274 U.S. 200 (1927).
Supreme Court of the United States. (No. 292.) Argued April 22, 1927. Decided May 2, 1927.



Mr. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

“…We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. ... Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Now, consider if it weren’t Justice Holmes, but Adolph Hitler writing about the Jews. Or Mao Tse Dung writing about political dissenters. Would your attitude be the same as saying that society is better off by killing potential drains on society? If it is, then you have some serious issues to deal with that should preclude you spending time of the web reading this blog.

Now consider that another hero of liberal feminists is Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. But I will bet that most, if not all of those female activists will not coincide or reconcile that FACT that Margaret Sanger was one of the biggest racists in American history. This hero of “pro-choice” women everywhere was not interested in looking out for the rights of women. She was looking out for the “well-being” of society. She wanted to eliminate the human life that would eventually put a drain on society. Specifically, Sanger wanted to eliminate the ”negro race” from creating the undesirable ills of society. Before you call me crazy, look up where the abortion clinics are in your town. Are they in the upper-class, gated residential neighborhoods, or in the middle of the financial districts?

NOPE

You will find virtually ALL Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion related services right in the inner city among those in or close to poverty. They were placed there by design to kill Black and Brown children under the guise of giving women a choice. The women under these living conditions will find it easy to make a “choice” to kill a child-to-be if it will save her, her family, and/or her community some hardships. Again, before you think I am crazy, ask yourself how many Pro-choice activists spend time among the wealthy to convince them that abortion is a choice?

Now, let’s take this back to Miss Bejar and her assertion that the argument FOR abortion is that a child can grow up to be a “pedophile rapist.”

One “choice” I am sure Joy is okay with is the choice that Ann Dunham made. After all, that choice led to a man becoming president.

But let’s look at choices. The following is from The Evidence Bible

An Interesting Quiz

How would you respond in these situations?
1. A preacher and his wife are very, very poor. They already have 14 kids. Now she finds out she’s pregnant with the 15th. They’re living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, would you consider recommending she get an abortion?

2. The father is sick with sniffles, the mother has TB. Of their four children, the first is blind, the second has died, the third is deaf, the fourth has TB. She finds she’s pregnant again. Given this extreme situation, would you consider recommending abortion?

3. A white man raped a 13-year-old black girl and she’s now pregnant. If you were her parents, would you consider recommending abortion?

4. A teenage girl is pregnant. She’s not married. Her fiancé is not the father of the baby, and he’s upset. Would you recommend abortion?

Based on these circumstances, Sanger, Holmes, and even Bejar would have advised abortion to prevent hardship and drain on society. But keep reading…

In the first case, you would have killed John Wesley, one of the great evangelists in the 19th century.
In the second case, you would have killed Ludwig van Beethoven.
In the third case, you would have killed Ethel Waters, the great black gospel, jazz and blues singer.
If you said yes to the fourth case, you would have declared the murder of Jesus Christ!

We do have a choice, Miss Bejar – The choice to murder innocents or not.