In God We Trust

"Every one has heard people quarrelling. Sometimes it sounds funny and sometimes it sounds merely unpleasant; but however it sounds, I believe we can learn something very important from listening to the kind of things they say. They say things like this: "How'd you like it if anyone did the same to you?" - "That's my seat, I was there first!" - "Leave him alone, he isn't doing you any harm" - "Why should you shove in first?" - "Give me a bit of your orange, I gave you a bit of mine" - "Come on, you promised!". People say things like that every day, educated people as well as uneducated, and children as well as grown-ups.

It looks very much as if both parties has in mind some kind of Law or Rule of fair play or decent behavior or morality or whatever you like to call it, about which they really agreed. And they have. If they had not, they might, of course, fight like animals, but they could not quarrel in the human sense of the word. Quarrelling means trying to show that the other man is in the wrong. And there would be no sense in trying to do that unless you and he has some sort of agreement as to what Right and Wrong are" -Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis.

This letter is not about Republicans and Democrates. It's not about liberals nor conservatives. It's about Right and Wrong.

I wholeheartedly believe this to be true...
...NOBODY CAN SPEND THEY'RE WAY OUT OF DEBT!

Do we agree? Do you agree? If we can not agree with this most basic of principles then I would like to suggest that you read no further and go back to believing "Barack Obama is not a socialist, he is not a communist, and he is not spending us into a black hole". As for the rest of you, please continue.

Some of you have attended Tea Parties. Some of you are watching the news and wondering what is going on. The rest, well, they are probably not reading this. Ya know, Michael Jackson died. No disrespect but there are life changing events happening in the world. It's time to focus.

And what should that focus be? Cap & Trade? Universal Healthcare? Hate Speech? How about giving the Federal Reserve even more power?

Those are some very disturbing things to be greatly concerned about indeed and I disagree with all of them. I believe we should all stand up and speak out against these things but these things are not where our focus should be.

Our focus should be on God!

There is right and wrong! Why? It's like gravity. It's a law! Right and wrong can not be subjective. Right is right, wrong is wrong, like on or off, black or white.

The problem with America and the world is people are not looking to God. Here is what happened to Isreal when they stopped looking to God.

1 Samuel chapter 8 begining at verse 11, (brackets are mine)


11 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
(Not that the goverment has this authority by their office, but that such as reign in God's wrath would usurp this over their brethren, contrary to truths that are "self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certian unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" -The Declaration of Independence)

12 And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
(This speaks of hard labor and war. There is no choice in this.)

13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
(Women will not be exempt from the toil. This too is not by choice.)

14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
("By fraud or force, as Ahab did from Naboth. He will not only take the fruits of your lands for his own use, but will take away your possessions to give to his servants" -Wesley. No property rights means no private property. Can you say wealth redistribution? How about being told where you will live?)

15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
(Could this be taxes for bailouts and lobbyist friends impossed upon the people?)

16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.
(Do I need to explain this?)

17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.
(Still taking your property and labor away. "That is, he will use you like slaves, and deprive you of that liberty which now you enjoy" -Wesley)

18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.
(We must repent! Repentance is the answer!)

When America removes God from every public place and Christians sit silently this is what we can expect from our goverment. When we deconstruct books and progressively push ethical relativism denying that anything has any real meaning other than what one makes of it, we deny God.

Everyone knows, even those who deny, right from wrong. It's the "work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness" (Romans 2:15).

If America will not have God rule then we will "find the yoke exceedingly heavy. Those that submit to the government of the world and the flesh, are told plainly, what hard masters they are, and what tyranny the dominion of sin is. The law of God and the manner of men widely differ from each other; the former should be our rule in the several relations of life; the latter should be the measure of our expectations from others. These would be their grievances, and, when they complained to God, he would not hear them. When we bring ourselves into distress by our own wrong desires and projects, we justly forfeit the comfort of prayer, and the benefit of Divine aid. The people were obstinate and urgent in their demand. Sudden resolves and hasty desires make work for long and leisurely repentance. Our wisdom is, to be thankful for the advantages, and patient under the disadvantages of the government we may live under; and to pray continually for our rulers, that they may govern us in the fear of God, and that we may live under them in all godliness and honesty. And it is a hopeful symptom when our desires of worldly objects can brook delay; and when we can refer the time and manner of their being granted to God's providence." -Matthew Henry’s Commentary

The American motto is, "In God We Trust".

It is time to repent and "seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matthew 6:33). Then perhaps the Lord will tarry His soon return, "can ye not discern the signs of the times?" (Matthew 16:3), but I digress.

... One Year Later

If anyone has ever checked in on this here old blog of mine in the past year they would have saw a couple post about me making music and asking for your support.

I have deleted those post and thus the last post is over a year old now.

Much has happened in the past year. None of it has helped my walk with the Lord. Most of it has helped me walk away. If you would like to pray about that I would appreciate it.

I have changed jobs and that had much to do with everything. I slowly started dropping the things I love the most. I quit going to night seminary. I couldn't accept my pastor paying for the classes anymore when I wasn't doing my part anymore at church and had become discontent completely with the church I attend (yes, I still go there, not often enough).

I stopped making music. I stopped reading my bible. I stopped praying.

As of this writing most of these things are still current.

I'm going to go over this blog and fix any broken links and whatnot.

I'm thinking maybe I'll start posting again. I'm thinking I miss the challenge of the study it takes to write the Deeper Truth. I know I miss being in the Word and have been picking it up lately, just picking it up, not opening it, yep, I suck.

I'm thinking I miss making music but I won't be trying to bring that into this blog anymore.

I looked over some of the writings here. The Lord really has blessed me hasn't He? I should do something more with it. That sorta seems to be a thing with me through out the writings here. A head full of Deeper Truth and me stumbling and bumbling through my life.

"Sometimes I feel I am lost in darkness. Sometimes I tarry a little too far behind my Shepherd.

He understands. He holds up, He whispers to His flock to remain still for a moment, while He turns to coax me back into the light." from Curious Servant's Art

Wonder if anyone will even know I wrote something .... One Year Later

Ecclesiastes 2:16-20

"For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.
And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.
Therefore I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labor which I took under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:16-20).

People often say that money can not buy happiness. You may not agree but it seems to me that the people who tell me that the most, have money. People without usually will add, "but I would like to try". I think Solomon was telling us as part of the over all message in Ecclesiastes that money does not bring happiness. I must confess as I believe I have done before that as I study Ecclesiastes I am always thinking, "but I would like to try".

Why though? Why would I like to try? Well, because I don't have faith like I thought I did. When faced with all the financial problems that I posted about recently I didn't turn to God. I sat down to write another Ecclesiastes post and read "Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit" (Ecclesiastes 2:17) and thought.....EXACTLY! Have you ever done that? I think it is something I have done numerous times and I have a feeling I will do it again. I suppose that is how God grows our faith.

Solomon does something in these verses I often see people with money do. They take all the credit. Do you suppose Solomon really did any of the labor? I think not. Do you suppose Solomon went out and told the workers that success was vanity and vexation of spirit? I bet he did.

Here's something you should never do if you own your own company. You should never ever complain about money to your employees. It makes them feel like their job is not good enough. It is even worse in Solomons case....... You should never complain about money while it is obvious that your doing well and your employees are struggling. This inspires bitter feelings.

Solomon was the richest man ever and to take the credit for their labor and say he wasn't happy with it while the labors saw how he prospered...... doesn't exactly inspire anyone to follow God and it obviously brought Solomon nothing but misery.

I see Christians today who have plenty but give nothing or if they do give, they give to some foreign country, charity, and/or anything other than those around them. I see Christians in charge of others who tell them to "tighten up" while they are buying new cars, trucks, motor homes, and taking trips. I bet Solomon told his labors to work harder and they looked at the life he was leading and thought .......why?

So money doesn't buy happiness, what then? Maybe it's the idea that it brings security. I certainly only saw nothing but doom in my recent financial trouble. I wanted the security that money brings. I wanted the peace the security would bring. Awwwww......but look at Solomon. Money and security did not bring peace. He broke fellowship with God and Ecclesiastes is the result. I broke fellowship with God and the previous few post are the results.

There is no peace outside Jesus. It's a lesson I must learn again and again. It's a lesson I offer to you to learn yet again. Without Jesus as my focus I see nothing but people prospering while I struggle. With Jesus as my focus I see nothing but Him. What else is there?

Ecclesiastes 2:16

"For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool forever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool" (Ecclesiastes 2:16).

Today we had communion at church. It caused me to reflect, to prove myself, to examine, to reevaluate......it got me praying. I felt unworthy to take communion and thus I zoned out on the preaching and turned my attention to God and found that I have been floundering. Floundering has an interesting definition. It is, "To make clumsy attempts to move or regain one's balance. To move or act clumsily and in confusion". This is and has been me.

I wonder if Solomon was floundering when he wrote the above line. obviously he did not think it would be remembered. I wonder what I'm doing for God that will be remembered. I want to do something.

I decided today that I am a hot coal. I smolder and make a lot of smoke and every now and then I flame up but I'm finding that I can't seem to catch anything on fire. It's hard to smolder. I miss my seminary extension classes and can't wait for them to start up again but I'm drifting off topic.

There was a man who drove through the fields one day picking up teenagers who were doing their chores. He spotted a boy bailing hay and asked if he would like to join the others on his old flatbed truck and come to a revival. That boy accepted. We know him as Billy Graham. We don't remember the man driving the truck but I wonder if he was smoldering until the day God used him to catch Billy Graham on fire.

I hope that I can catch something on fire here. I hope I can make a difference. I hope that God will use me to put something here worthy of remembering and I hope it's not me getting in the way of starting a fire. I hope I am done floundering.