The Real McCain is Back.

For a while I thought the John McCain that drove Conservatives nuts and called evangelical Christians agents of intolerance had taken captive and replaced with a John McCain that would finally go after Democrats and make efforts to reach out to the people of his own party.

Well, the party is over and he keeps missing chance after chance to hit Obama hard.

He could go after Obama on his horrible judgement on who he associates with including Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and others. It seems that everyone he hangs around with hates America and blames us for all the troubles around the world.

He could go after Obama’s radical view on abortion that includes an unwillingness to vote for a bill that would guarantee medical attention to a “fetus” who survived an abortion because it could be used to weaken a woman’s “right to choose”. Obama favors partial birth abortion and opposes parental notification laws.

He could go after Obama and the Democrats for their huge role in the current mess with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Much of this mess was created by those who pressured mortgage brokers into providing subprime loans to minorities and “working class” people so everyone could exercise their “right” to home ownership.

He could go after Obama on his constant reaction to bash his own country both at home and abroad. He answered a question about the existence of evil by talking about America while failing to mention the global Islamic threat we are at war with.

He could go after Obama for his support of homosexual marriage, though he denies it, and his willingness to destroy a societal tradition that has been around for thousands of years.

Instead of doing any of these things, he talks about earmarks and the greed of Wall Street. Those things are bad but come on, nobody is going to get passionate about them. McCain needs to convince as many people to not vote for Obama while giving those in his party something to vote for with him.

Just when I thought McCain was going to do this, the old John McCain that we all became greatly annoyed with came back.

If McCain blows it and Obama can find a way to “win” this election, we are in very big trouble. A party that is devoid of character and integrity will control the House, the Senate, the White House and the Courts and they will have the media nicely packaging their insanity for everyone on the nightly “news”.

Americans, and John McCain, better wake up. The cancer that is festering in California will soon spread to the rest of the nation. We will be a nation ruled by courts. Businesses will be taxed out of existence or forced to leave the country in order to remain competitive and profitable. The will of the people will be rendered meaningless like it was in California with their decision to limit marriage to a man and a woman. Free speech will be in danger with the “Fairness Doctrine”. Pastors will be in danger of hate crimes for teaching Biblical doctrines. The list goes on and on what will happen if all of those one’s are given unrestrained power.

Obama’s Friends

Obama likes to say that this is just a guy who lives in his neighborhood. Obama served on a committee for a foundation that Ayers founded. He worked as a “community organizer” to help advance Ayers’ “educational reform” that had the purpose of indoctrinating children to grow up and hate America.

He went to a church for 20 years and listened to a “Pastor” spew hatred about America and white Americans.

Sarah Palin is right, Barack Obama is not fit to be President. I hope America wakes up and realizes this before November 4th.

Tuesday

McCain better start going after Obama hard and let people know about his ties to radicals such as Bill Ayers and corrupt people like Rezko.

This is Frightening

Great Video on Mortgage Crisis

This video was removed because of a claim by Warner Music. My hunch is that Google didn’t want this on Youtube because they are in the Obama camp.

This sums it up nicely in 10 minutes on who is responsible for the problem we are in and why I am greatly concerned about who is “fixing” the problem.

I wonder why they would want to take this down. Watch it for yourself.

I can’t believe what these people have done and what they continue to do to our country while having the audacity to blame the Republicans for everything and act as though they are trying to save us.

These people, led by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama and the rest are depraved, sick human beings who have no amount of character or integrity whatsoever.

My Take on the Debate

I actually heard the post debate discussion before watching the debate and heard a lot of people say that McCain won, Obama won and that they tied. After watching the debate re-run, I think a few things are very clear to anyone who has actually been following this entire campaign from the very beginning what seems like forever ago and even further back when Barack Obama gave his speech 4 years ago at John Kerry’s convention.

The first part of the debate was basically left up to what your ideology is on economics. If you believe that government spends too much and needs to cut back on spending and wasteful earmarks as well as cutting the tax burden on individuals and businesses, then John McCain was the clear winner.

Barack Obama was the clear winner If you believe that it is the government’s responsibility to provide tax payer health insurance for everyone, or that the government should be responsible for and should be paying for “early childhood education” rather than the parent taking that responsibility.

There was no real winner other than whom people perceived to be the winner on this one. There was a clear difference for voters though. John McCain believes in lessening the tax burden on Americans while cutting wasteful government spending. He has a record of doing just that and can back it up with achievements and sponsored bills.

Barack Obama has no record of doing anything he says he is going to do but he has proposed almost a trillion dollars of new spending on social programs that would greatly expand government involvement in almost every aspect of our lives while heavily taxing the very people that drive our economy and actually create jobs for Americans.

The foreign policy part of the debate had a very clear winner. Barack Obama has no clue what he is talking about and John McCain made that very apparent in each response to Obama’s foolish naivety. He clearly rehearsed for this debate and spouted memorized talking points that often conflicted with his previous positions. He claimed tonight that he never suggested Presidential meetings with terrorist leaders without precondition but that is not true. He continues to fail in his recognition of the threat that Russian and China pose in suggesting that they would be our ally in preventing Iran from attaining nuclear weapons. Russia is actively assisting Iran in their quest to develop nuclear weapons. He also “misstated” his original position on the Russian/Georgian conflict by claiming that he initially condemned Russia’s advancement into Georgia. In fact, he condemned both sides and said that they both needed to stop aggression. On his third try, he changed his position to that which John McCain had immediately stated.

Obama was also clueless on the history North Korea. The Clinton administration engaged in talk with NK and was assured that they were not seeking to develop nukes, all the while secretly developing them under our noses. This should be a clear indication that terrorist leaders lie when you talk to them but Obama wants to continue talking and asking Russia and China for backup.

The most disastrous portion of the debate for Obama came in the discussion of Iraq. He had no clue what General Petraeus said on the issue claiming that Afghanistan was the central front on the “War on Terror” though Petraeus has clearly stated that Iraq is the central front, a point that McCain made sure he pointed out. He also said that our troops performed greatly giving them credit for the success of the surge though just a few months ago gave all the credit to the Iraqi’s. He passed off the presence of our troops as coincidental to the change of events and the decrease in attacks that took place in Iraq.

McCain took two opportunities to strongly go after Obama in order to expose how clueless he is on the security of our country. As a military man, he jumped on Obama for calling the surge a tactic rather than a strategy. His more damaging remark, and one of the few times that he looked annoyed and ticked off at Obama, came when he rhetorically asked if we would tell Iran, during meeting with no preconditions, “No you’re not!” when they tell us that they are going to “Wipe Israel off the map.”

There is no question who is better suited and ready for this job. The sad thing is that, while McCain clearly understands the economic and national security issues better, people will think Obama did a good job because he sounded good while giving his inconsistent rehearsed debate talking points.

Imagine an America where the leaders are Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. They would be the top four people running our country and the leaders of a party that are largely responsible for the mortgage crisis we are in. These morons helped create this mess and now they are the ones we are asking to fix it. My fear is that, while trying to pass a plan that helps the “poor victims” who purchased homes they had no business buying in order to create “fairness” in home ownership among low income and minorities, they will destroy our economy.

How in the world did these people get elected to lead our country?

News Flash to the Obama Team.

Sarah Palin is not running to be the President. She was selected to be the Vice President by the real Republican Presidential nominee, John McCain. We don’t need to know what Palin’s plan for the country is because she will not be running the country.

It really cracks me up, yet bugs me at the same time, that they keep comparing Obama to Palin. That is quite telling when it comes to the quality of the Democratic nominee. He is so weak that he does not even attempt to compare his qualifications to McCain but to his running mate. I have not heard one interview with Joe Biden to see what his view for the country is should something happen to Barack Obama since he also is a heartbeat away from the Presidency.

It is very pathetic that Obama’s main reason for people to vote for him is that he is more qualified to be President (which is a stretch in its own right) than McCain’s VP.

This interview by Charlie Gibson is so pathetic and continues to magnify the absurdity of the MSM and their blatant bias.

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Did He Really Just Say That?

Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice-president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), told the Globe and Mail yesterday, “Palin’s decision to keep her baby, knowing he would be born with the condition, may inadvertently influence other women who may lack the necessary emotional and financial support to do the same.”

So, women who decided to give birth to their baby rather than kill their baby because he or she has Down Syndrome is a bad thing and will be blamed on Sarah Palin?

Unbelievable.

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Huh?

Keep talking Joe Biden because the more you talk, the more you will reveal how insanely irrational and hypocritical your views are.

Biden said in an interview with Tom Brokaw:

No, what I voted against curtailing the right, criminalizing abortion. I voted against telling everyone else in the country that they have to accept my religiously based view that it’s a moment of conception. There is a debate in our church, as Cardinal Egan would acknowledge, that’s existed. Back in “Summa Theologia,” when Thomas Aquinas wrote “Summa Theologia,” he said there was no – it didn’t occur until quickening, 40 days after conception. How am I going out and tell you, if you or anyone else that you must insist upon my view that is based on a matter of faith? And that’s the reason I haven’t. But then again, I also don’t support a lot of other things. I don’t support public, public funding. I don’t, because that flips the burden. That’s then telling me I have to accept a different view. This is a matter between a person’s God, however they believe in God, their doctor and themselves in what is always a – and what we’re going to be spending our time doing is making sure that we reduce considerably the amount of abortions that take place by providing the care, the assistance and the encouragement for people to be able to carry to term and to raise their children.

Biden says that life begins at different times depending on who is deciding and which god that person believes in. As a Catholic, shouldn’t believe, Joe, that there is only one True and Living God or do you not believe that either? If you don’t believe that the God of the Bible is the only real God, then are we really supposed to believe you when you say that you believe that life begins at conception? I believe that you are saying that you believe this because you saw what happened to Nancy Pelosi when she said the Church never made such a claim.

Even Tom Brokaw pointed out the hypocritical inconsistency of Biden’s answer by asking him how he could say life begins at conception and vote to support abortion rights. How can someone who believes that life begins at conception vote to protect a persons right to destroy that life? Biden is either lying about his belief on when life begins or he believes that people have the right to murder unborn babies. He can’t have it both ways.

My guess is that Biden is lying and he doesn’t believe life begins at conception therefore doesn’t really believe in the Catholic faith and is identifying himself as a Catholic to appear “religious”. Catholics aren’t stupid Joe and answers like that make you sound really bad. Keep talking.

I can’t wait until he gets to debate the Barracuda.

Confused About Which Side God Was On

Last weekend, Michael Moore and some other Liberal loons were quick to say that God was on their side because he was sending a hurricane to possible kill more people in New Orleans and destroy their property in order to spite Republicans who were holding their convention in Minnesota.

As it turns out, the hurricane seems to have played to the Republican’s favor since it allowed them to hold a convention without the physical presence of George Bush allowing John McCain to further distance himself from the incumbent President.  It also showed the leadership abilities of the current Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.  Hmm.

Does that mean that God was actually on the Republican’s side by bringing this hurricane in as a chance for the Republicans to redeem themselves after Katrina?  Probably not.  Most likely it was just a hurricane that happened to hit shore on the first day of the convention because it is hurricane season and storms happen.

It does make for fun conversation though when nutballs like Michael Moore put their feet in their mouths and say dumb things like that.

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Foreign Policy Experience

This is a very good article by Thomas Sowell about Sarah Palin’s apparent lack of foreign policy experience and Joe Biden’s apparent abundance of foreign policy experience.  It is a good read.

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell0904408.php3

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Obama is in Deep Trouble

I find it quite timely that Obama appeared on O’Reilly the night after Palin gave her speech to 37 million Americans. He is in complete panic mode now and was forced to go on The Factor. He is in such a downward spiral right now that he actually had to say to O’Reilly that the surge seceded, something that even Katie Couric pleaded with him to admit while on his Eurepean Magic Mystery Tour (as Michael Medved calls it).

Now that his mystic has run out and his magic has waned, he goes crawling to Fox News, something he never would have done had John McCain not selected Sarah Palin.

McCain’s speech tonight was not one that will be recorded among the greatest of campaign acceptance speeches. It never flowed well because of several left wing nutcase protesters who decided it was their duty to interrupt this great American who has done more that most people could dream of to protect the free speech rights that they use to display their absolute stupidity. He has faced the evil that he is calling on our young men and women to fight against. It was, however, genuine, from the heart, and filled with what he has done and what he will do if elected to the highest office in the land.

This speech did one thing, and that was to show America the stark contrast between our choices. John McCain is a great American who was completely broken as a young man. He had his pride and youthful arrogance literally beaten out of him and was remade in a Vietnamese prison cell. His campaign motto, Country First, was born in that cell because that is all he had. he had to put his country first and withstand the torture he faced and not give in to the pain and suffering to provide information to the enemy that would be used to hurt his country and fellow Americans. He took this with him into the Senate and has demonstrated this by aggravating fellow Republicans time and again.

Barack Obama has faced nothing like this in his life. He is young, he is good looking, he has been a politician practically his entire career. He doesn’t know what it is like to struggle in the face of great adversity like John McCain does. He has not stared the evil threat we face as a nation as John McCain has.

Barack Obama, in his youthful arrogance, believes Americans need a savior. He believes that he can heal the world and bring peace to all nations simply by his words. We don’t need a savior. As one Congresswoman stated, we already have a Savior who died for us 2000 years ago. Americans need a leader. One who will not force us to live the life Obama believes is best, but one who will keep government out of our way as much as possible so we can pursue the life we believe is best for us. John McCain had that youthful arrogance that believes he knows what is best for us taken away from him. McCain may not be the best candidate we could have nominated but he is a great man and he has earned the right to lead this country.

The speech wasn’t great, but the choice is clear.

Wow

Rush Limbaugh made comment today that was revealed tonight to be more true than he probably even knew. Rush said that Barack Obama is half the man that Sarah Palin is. He did not say or mean this in a sexist way. He was making a point that Obama is a lightweight. He is all talk. He sounds good but has nothing while Sarah Palin is tough and has actions to back it up.

Barack Obama gave a speech last week that sounded really good. He tried to sound really tough by drawing the line in the sand and challenging John McCain. Little did he realize at the time that McCain was getting ready to name the man he thought was the best fit to be his VP. That man turned out to be a woman named Sarah Palin.

She gave a speech tonight that responded to Obama’s empty talk and less than intimidating challenge and all I can say is, WOW! She was calm. She looked very comfortable. She sounded great and looked even better. She introduced America to her family and spoke very highly about her running mate. Then she rolled up her sleeves and punched back. She did not hold back and hit Obama on issues in ways I never thought a politician would dare to speak. She was sometimes mocking in her attacks on Obama, though her mocking tone was quite appropriate.

She mocked his claim to be able to control sea levels. She laughed at his Greek-like columns and his mock Presidential Seal. She hit hard by saying that his job as a Community Organizer was very similar to her job as Mayor, only she had actual responsibilities. She made it a point to mention that he has written two autobiographies but has not one significant piece of legislation to his name from either the Illinois State Senate or the US Senate. While she was making decision running the entire state of Alaska, he voted “present” rather than taking a stand on issues.

She made veiled, but devastating, attacks on his unbelievable pro-abortion views and hit hard on his disdain for small town folks who “cling to religion”.

This was a devastating blow to Obama and the “media” who has become unveiled in their support for a candidate in a Presidential Election. They didn’t know what to say after the speech other than silly talking points about how George Bush is really unpopular. Really? He is still 3 times more popular than the Democrats in Congress.

This woman is so refreshing. She is genuine, she is tough, and she is like us. She is not an Ivy League educated, Beltway Elitist. She can relate to us, unlike Barack Obama and Joe Biden who have been career politicians. John McCain can relate to “real” Americans because he is not a career politician. He served in the military and has gone through more than most Americans can even imagine.

While I don’t always agree with John McCain and don’t know much about Sarah Palin, they are genuine and can give straight answers. They have accomplished great things in their lives and have both demonstrated an ability to lead. None of this is true about the Democratic ticket.

I have now been able to take part in 3 Presidential campaigns and the choice has never been more clear on who to vote for. John McCain is a patriotic American who loves his country. Barack Obama is a man who is embarrassed of his country, and yes I question his patriotism.

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The Left has Gone Completely Insane

I keep hearing from people about how this story somehow proves that abstinence only education is to blame for teenage girls getting pregnant. If anything, this girl’s pregnancy proves that abstinence does work and if she would have abstained from having sex, she would not be pregnant. Abstinence is 100% guaranteed to keep young girls from getting pregnant and STD free.

The problem is not abstinence only education, but that this young girl did not follow the tenants of that education.

With that said, nobody that supports abstinence education believes that simply by teaching abstinence only, kids will abstain. Teenagers are going to have sex, that is a fact. They will be more likely to have sex though if you teach them that there are alternative ways to avoid getting pregnant and make those ways readily available. Pregnancy is not the only consequence to sex at a young age before wedlock. There are emotional and other physical consequences to a pre-marital sexually active lifestyle that can be long term, especially when you decided to get married and have had many sexual partners.

In this specific case, this young 17 year old girl made poor decisions and got pregnant. That happens regardless of what the parents teach or believe in. The real story is what everyone involved does in response. Barack Obama said that if this happened to his daughter, he would not want her to be “punished” with a baby obviously meaning he would encourage her to abort the baby thus killing an innocent and voiceless human life.

Sarah and Bristol Palin have demonstrated accountability and integrity in how they are dealing with this. Sarah Palin did not try to hide it. She did not wait until the Enquirer found out and posted headlines. She told John McCain before hand. She responded by saying she would love and support her daughter and this unborn child. Bristol has taken responsibility. She has the legal option to get out of this situation by aborting the baby. The Left, especially Barack Obama, would encourage and fight for her right to do this but she is opting to keep this baby. She is also going to marry the father in order to provide this child with the best possible chance to have a normal lifestyle. She and the father are going to have to grow up fast and it will be hard. Their marriage may not last but they are going to give it a chance. They have just as much of a chance to have a long, loving marriage as anyone else if they are willing to work at it.

If anything, this story is a testament to the love and family values of the Right and a testament of the hypocrisy of the Left and the hatred that is in their hearts. Their instinct is to attack this family and say some of the most repulsive and nasty things about them. Family values and pro-life do not mean Conservatives and Christians are, or think they are perfect. Everyone is a sinner and falls short of the glory of God. Supporting family values and being pro-life is demonstrated in how Conservatives react to the consequences of sin.

We have heard how Barack Obama would deal with the “punishment” of a baby. Now we get to see how the Palin’s deal with it for a second time. We already got a first glimpse of how they dealt with the news of a child diagnosed with Downs Syndrome.

In the game of family values and sanctity of life.

Obama-0
Palin-2

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What a Great god.

Michael Moore has said that if Hurricane Gustav hits New Orleans on the first day of the GOP convention, it proves there is a god in heaven. Wow. What a great god Michael Moore serves. A god that would send a natural disaster to a city possible causing massive destruction just a few years after Katrina hit just to spite the GOP and their convention to officially nominate their candidate for President.

I love when Liberal idiots speak. They say things that they believe are intelligent and mainstream only to look stupid and hateful.

I didn’t think it could get any worse than Nancy Pelosi claiming that the Catholic Church has never come to a conclusion on when life begins and because we don’t, the best thing to do is to assume that the baby isn’t a life so we can rip it out and throw it away. These people are insane.

Vote McCain/Palin.

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Finally!

Like so many people today, I am extremely excited about John McCain’s pick for VP. Is it because she is a woman and I really want a woman in the White House? No. If that were the case, I would have voted for Hillary. I am not a Democrat so I don’t care about gender, race, ethnicity, etc. I care about character and who the person is.

I have not been overly excited about McCain since he won the nomination. He has, however, continued to surprise me with the campaign that he has run. He has constantly put Obama on the defensive, causing the Community Organizer and Junior Senator to react to each new ad. He has constantly been one step ahead of Obama as we saw with Obama’s speech last night and McCain’s announcement today. Obama gave a great sounding speech but it was full of lies and was nothing more than a reactionary attempt to prove to America that he loves his country, that he is not a radical Lefty, that he is different, that he is strong on defense and so on. None of these are true but he sure sounded good saying them.

Obama was the first black American to be nominated by a major political party delivering an important speech that was watched by 39 million people. Today though, nobody was talking about it. He was upstaged by McCain once again who was already planning his next move of announcing Sarah Palin as his VP. Is she the best person to be 2nd in line as President? Maybe, maybe not. She is young, hasn’t had a lot of experience and is uncertain. Would Mitt Romney have been a better pick to have as the backup? Possible. She was the perfect person to pick in response to Obama’s nomination. Did she get picked because she was a woman? That was part of it, but she happens to be strong in so many areas.

She is young which means she is not part of the Good Ole Boys club that sets up camp and never leaves such as Joe Biden. She is a reformer. She has only served two years as Governor of Alaska but she has accomplished quite a bit in getting rid of corruption and cleaning up the state. She is tough. She went after established members of her own party and got them out of there. She is strongly pro-life. She found out that she was pregnant with a baby who has Downs Syndrome and did not choose to “terminate” the pregnancy. She knew that this baby boy was a precious life and that it was not her “choice” to take that life away. She has a son in the military. She is pro-drilling and has first hand knowledge in the ANWR issue.

The attack by the Obama camp is that she has no experience. This is laughable and once again, McCain set Obama up and Obama stepped right into it. Does a man who has 140 days of Senatorial service under his belt and no significant legislation credited to his name really want to attack a woman who has run an entire state for two years and has served in one form or another for 13 years? She may be lacking in years of experience but she is far more experienced than Obama who did serve on a committee with a known domestic terrorist.

The thing that makes Sarah Palin such an exciting pick is that it shows us that McCain is listening to his base. The base so desperately seeks strong Conservative leadership and this time, the best man for McCain’s running mate is a woman. Republicans don’t care what race or gender a candidate is, they care about issues and character. Palin is seemingly perfect on both fronts. She sounds great when she speaks because she says what she means. She doesn’t need a teleprompter to deliver a rehearsed speech. She doesn’t stumble through answers with a lot of ums and uhs because she doesn’t have to think about what she is about to say and whether or not it will contradict what she said in a previous interview.

I can’t wait for the debates. Joe Biden is a blowhard moron who thinks he is smarter than everyone he talks to. He is going to come across as a bully but Sarah “Barracuda” will be able to handle him. Obama will sound great as long as he can “answer” the debate questions with canned answers but will sound pathetic if he has to come up with something on the spot. McCain will sound sincere and will give genuine answers.

If things continue to go as they have been, this is going to be a blowout. America is not a far Left country and does not elect far Left candidates, especially when the Conservative base is excited. John McCain just did that with his VP pick.

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Heating Up

The Presidential campaign is starting to heat up with all of the new ads. The one thing that is really making angry on the Democratic site is their defense of Barack Obama’s position on this bill that would have protected babies who survived an attempted abortion.

The evidence is quite clear that he is lying about his claim that he would have supported the Bill if it were the same as the Federal version, but in fact, both Bills were identical and he still opposed it.

Now, his supporters are accusing the Republicans of claiming that Obama supports the killing of babies and infanticide because that sounds ridiculous. Nobody is accusing Obama of wanting to kill babies. Instead, people are pointing out that he did support protecting them and giving them medical attention. There is a big difference between wanting to kill them and refusing to help them but they are equally disturbing.

It is sort of like the Holocaust. There was a difference between Hitler and the Nazi’s who carried out the extermination of the Jewish people (and others) and those who stood by and said nothing and refused to admit that it was happening. There is one difference in this comparison though. The people who stood by and did nothing during the Holocaust were likely affraid. If they spoke out, they were likely to be killed themselves. Their sin of omission was brought on by fear.

In the case of this Bill, Obama has no excuse. I know that some peoople who read this may be outraged that I would compare the Holocaust to abortion but they are quite similar. The Jews were killed because the people were convinced that they were less than human. Hitler believed that they were harmful to the rest of the human race because they were inferior and in order for the species to survive, they had the exterminate those who would dilute the gene pool. If evolution were true, Hitler has an argument to make here and could justify his actions. He was trying to advance the species. Fortunatley, his assertion is absolutely wrong and there is more to our existance than an accidental string of fortunate events that brought about life.

Abortion uses similar assertions. The babies in the womb are not human. They are blobs of tissue and part of the mother’s body, similar to an appendix. If that mass of tissue because burdensome it can be removed. We have dehumanized forming babies in the name of convenience and choice. Abortion has killed more human beings than the Holocause times 10 yet people in this country have no problem with it. Barack Obama had an opportunity to weaken the injustice of abortion by passing this Bill but opposed it because he thought it could be used to weaken women’s “choice” instead. He is on tape saying that passing a law that requires another Doctor to come in and provide emergency care to a living, born alive baby creates an unnecessary burden on the mother and the Doctor who was trying to “terminate the pregnancy”.

That is an outrageous claim. He said that the law already provided for the reasonable care of these babies but do you really want the Doctor who just tried to kill the “fetus” to now be the one responsible for trying to help the baby?

Barack Obama does not want to kill children, but he made it clear that he has no desire to help them. He puts the choice to kill your baby above the inherent human right to life of an individual, no matter how small or young that individual may be.

This issue alone should be enough to disqualify him from being our leader.

Thank you Rick Warren

I think that the discussion from Saturday put the entire Presidential campaign into perspective and made the decision that our country faces as clear as it has ever been.

Saturday night was disastrous for Barack Obama and was a homerun for John McCain. America has never faced such a crucial Presidential decision in its history, and I say that in light of decisions that pitted George W. Bush against John Kerry and Al Gore, George H.W. Bush against Bill Clinton and Michael Dukakis, and Ronald Reagan against Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter.

I do not like everything about John McCain. He has made many decisions that make strong conservatives cringe but John McCain is a great American. He loves his country and he is a man of great character and integrity. He has opinions on issues and he tells you what those opinions are. He stands by his decisions and he does not change those positions with each crowd he speaks to. His performance in the discussion with Rick Warren was exactly what Americans needed to hear. He was clear on his positions. He was direct in his answers. He was able to articulate the greatest evil that America faces today in our fight against global jhihadists and Islamoterrorists. He took a position on when life begins and when human beings are first guaranteed basic human rights and protections. He gave a direct answer on homosexual marriage and had valid reasons behind why he chose the Supreme Court Justices that he would not have selected.

John McCain loves his country. He fought for his country and suffered through brutal torture for her. He came back to continue serving his country and has had many years as a public servant.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, is a man who has no character or integrity. He gives no direct answers to any questions, merely stating empty rhetoric and cliches. When asked when people attain protection of human rights, he dodged the question and said it was above his pay scale. Really Mr. Obama? You couldn’t even say that you believe that people are given rights when they are born? Oh wait, you couldn’t say that because you do not believe that is absolute. You voted against a bill that wold require “Doctors” to give medical assistance to babies who accidentally escaped an abortion alive because you thought such a bill would undermine a woman’s right to “choose”. According to you, that baby should be left for dead because the original intent was to “terminate” that “fetus’s” life. Oh wait, we can’t say life because it wasn’t alive yet. Unbelievable. You lied about the fact that you would have supported the Federal version of that bill because you opposed the exact bill in the Illinois State Senate. You also lied about your opposition to partial birth abortion. You said you opposed it as long as there was an exception for the health of the mother but you do not oppose partial birth abortion for any reason.

Obama also lied about his support for homosexual marriage. While he said that he does not support homosexual marriage, the record shows that he does support the efforts in California to make homosexual marriage legal. Why can’t you come out and tell the truth?

The most amazing answer he gave from Saturday night was that on evil. It was very bold of Obama to say that evil exists in the world. That is rather judgemental for someone who does not judge but then he went on to describe that evil. He did not mention Islamic terrorists as John McCain later would. Instead, he took another opportunity to talk about how America was evil. For a man who says he loves his country, he sure talks about how bad it is quite often and hangs out with a lot of people who do the same. He talked about how America had evil in it because mothers beat their children. He talked about how America does what it thinks is good but in fact may be unknowingly doing evil. Amazing! This man is the epitome of moral relativism. He is morally equating child abuse with strapping a bomb to young, mentally retarded girls, sending them into a supermarket and remotely blowing them up. Equating it to flying passenger planes into buildings and killing thousands. Equating it to brainwashing young children into believing the most noble thing they can be is a homicide bomber. Actually, domestic child abuse must be more evil because he didn’t even bother to mention any of those things.

This man is THE most pathetic candidate ever nominated for President. He stands for nothing and everything at the same time. He is not a flip-flopper, he simultaneously takes every position on every issue and then denies it while calling the person who challenges him too stupid to understand how nuanced position.

He endorsed an ad that said we are living in the darkest times in American history. That is absurd but not entirely false. We are not living in them now, but could be if this man is somehow elected. We have never had such a slimy, arrogant, egotistical, two-faced, double talking man this close to the White House, and that is taking Bill Clinton into account.

While John McCain may drive Conservatives nuts sometimes, he is a good man who would make a strong leader. He has character and integrity. You may not agree with him, but you will know where he stands.

Testing Flock

Testing to see how this works with Flock’s built in blog editor.

Perspective

I was having a bad day (or so I thought). Students at school were not overly concerned about their upcoming files. I had a headache and a cough left over from a sinus infection that I contracted 3 weeks ago, and my laptop with all my files decided that it was time to stop living life.

I wanted to wake up early that morning before school to read the Bible and pray but I have been very tired lately from the sinus infection and the various drugs used to combat it. I hit the snooze button too many times which frustrated me, especially since I had to take out the trash that morning which meant a rushed exit out the door to get to school on time after my 45 minute trip. This was my second to last week of the school year (and forever but more on that in the next post) and I have grown completely tired of making that long trip to the job that I have grown to hate going to.

I decided that, while in my not very good mood, that I needed to take five to ten minutes and give them to the Lord. I wanted to give Him more but that is what I had left myself with to offer. I said a quick prayer and asked Him to give me something that I could use to get me through the rest of the day. Psalm 23 popped into my head. Everyone knows this Psalm. I turned to the page where it was, or so I thought, and my eyes must have played tricks on me. I started reading and thought to myself, “This doesn’t sound like Psalm 23?” I kept reading and realized that I started reading Psalm 22. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Psalm 22, it is possible the amazing of all the Psalms. It was written by David but contains the prophetic words and thoughts of Jesus as He was hanging on the Cross.

So, here I was, having my “terrible day” in a “horrible mood” because of all the stuff that was going wrong reading a Psalm about our perfect and innocent Savior hanging on a cross waiting to die. As I finished the Psalm, I started laughing to myself and a smile broke out on my face.

Huh, you might ask? How could you laugh and smile about the Psalm where Jesus was crucified? I laughed because the Lord, the one who hung on the cross that day, gave me a little dose of perspective. No matter how bad I thought things were going for me at that point, things were much worse for Him on His worst day. He did nothing wrong, was nailed to a piece of wood after being whipped, and was executed in the most horrific way yet prayed for those who were doing this to Him as He hung there. He did it willfully and did it without getting angry.

If He could do that, I can deal with a sinus infection, a broken laptop, and a less than ideal job. I really had nothing to complain about or to be upset about. He also showed me that He does not need an hour at the beginning of my day to give me what He needs. He just needs me to slow down, give Him the first part of my day, and seek Him before I go out. If I hadn’t given Him those five to ten minutes I would have gone out the rest of the day angry and frustrated. Instead, I left the house with a smile on my face and worry free about my laptop.

Do We See Levi or Matthew?

Today was another very good message at Church. Our Pastor spoke about the calling of Matthew to follow after Jesus and compared Matthew 9:9-12 to Luke 5:27-31 which contain some seemingly small yet very significant differences.

The events as told in the book of Matthew are told from his own perspective. In this version of the story, Jesus was passing by and it says that He saw a man named Matthew (Matthew means a gift from God). Jesus simply says to Matthew, “Follow Me.” and Matthew arose and followed Him.

We get a better understanding of what actually transpired from Luke’s perspective. According to Luke, Matthew’s name was actually Levi, a name that would remind him of the tribe that was not permitted to be part of the Lord’s inheritance for the 12 sons of Israel. They lost their right to the inheritance by their disobedience to the Lord. We also learn from Luke that Levi was a tax collector. The fact that Levi was a tax collector would mean that he would be hated by the Jewish people. He was probably wealthy since the tax collectors of that time overcharged the people and kept the difference after they gave their required amount to the Romans. Luke shares one more piece of information that Matthew left out in his gospel. Levi left all that he had to follow after Jesus.

We have two slightly different accounts yet they are very significant to those who “follow” after Christ. Matthew’s gospel includes one small line that Luke leaves out when Jesus responds to the Pharisees who question Him at Matthew’s feast for Him. He adds:

Matt 9:13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice’.”

Jesus was quoting from Hosea 6:6. This is important because Matthew’s gospel gives us Jesus’ perspective of how He viewed Matthew. The way Jesus viewed Matthew was merciful. He was a Jewish man who was not living as he should. He was considered a huge sinner by the people and was hated, yet Jesus names him “gift from God”. Jesus saw him as a man, not a tax collector. There is no mention of the fact that he left all he had to follow after Jesus. We see the merciful side of Jesus, not the sacrifice from Matthew.

Luke gives us the perspective on how the world viewed Matthew. They saw him as Levi, a tax collector, a hated figure. We see the focus on the sacrifice he made by giving up all that he had to follow Jesus but Jesus tells us He desires mercy, not sacrifice.

Our Pastor brought this a little closer to home by asking us how we view “sinners”. Do we see non-Christians as men and “gifts from God” or do we see them as tax collectors who need to give up all they have to go after Jesus?

Often, Christians (and I am as guilty of this as anyone) forget that we are nothing more than big huge sinners ourselves who just happened to have accepted God’s free gift of salvation. It is nothing that we have done or by any sacrifice we have made. Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith and not of our own works. We cannot boast about our salvation because we did not do anything to deserve it. Jesus is the one who made the ultimate sacrifice by taking our place on the cross and taking God’s wrath for us though we deserved it.

It is easy to become like the Pharisees and give thanks that we are not like the horrible sinners in the world who do not know Jesus when in reality, it was the Pharisees to whom Jesus spoke the harshest words.

When questioned by the Pharisees about eating with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus said that he did not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance. He ate with them, he associated Himself with them. However, He was not change by them and did not become like them but they became like Him. They turned from their sinful ways and followed after Him. What are we like when we hang around “sinners”? Do we start acting like them or do we bring them to Jesus as Matthew did?

As Christians, we need to be careful to remember where our salvation comes from. It is all about Him and not about us.

Do Not Compromise

Today was a very good teaching to hear at Church. We read the story from Matthew 8:28-34 when Jesus crossed over the Jordan to the land of the Gadarenes. If you don’t know the story, these were the descendants of the tribe of Gad who did not cross over the Jordan to settle in the land where the Lord provided but decided to stay on the East Bank. Because of their compromise, we find them in the time of Jesus raising pigs and dealing with large numbers of demons.

Also, because of their compromise, we read their reaction to Jesus in verse 34:

And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.

Jesus just removed hundreds of demons from their midst. However, because they had made compromises and were so used to living contrary to God’s plan for their lives they wanted nothing to do with Jesus and told Him to get out as fast as possible.

The same can be true in our lives as Christians. Do we want Jesus around when we do the things we do? Do we tell Him to go away because we know we are doing things He would want us to avoid or cut out of our lives? So many Christians do this today, and I have been guilty of this myself. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 59:2:

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

They can also keep you from wanting the Lord around when He tries to clean you up as was the case with the Gadarenes. Jesus was with them, He was casting out demons, He was ridding them of their herds of swine yet they told Him to get out.

When we are walking in a way contrary to God’s will in our lives, do we tell Jesus to get lost when He tries to clean us up?

The best thing to do is never to make those compromises. I have found that the best times in my life are those where I made the tougher decision to make no compromise and follow after the Lord. The initial decision was more difficult to make but the path that it took me down was much more joyful, fulfilling, and blessed.

One area that comes to mind right away in my life is drugs and alcohol. I can say that the Lord protected me and gave me the strength to make no compromise in these areas. I have never smoked a cigarette, never smoked a joint, never taken any drugs, never been drunk. (Other than a sip of beer from my dad, I didn’t consume a full glass of alcohol until I turned 21 and had only one drink.) As a high school teacher, kids laugh at me when I tell them this and most do not believe me. Nearly all their other teachers have done some or all of these things and many smoke pot and get drunk to this day.

Then, and this is what blows me away and saddens me greatly, they go on to tell stories of how their dad is an alcoholic, or how their mom’s boyfriend was passed out in throw-up from the night before, or how drunk they got at a party. All I hear from their stories is grossness and tragedy. The Lord saved me from any of this stuff. I have never experienced any of this because I made no compromise and the Lord gave me the strength to follow through and my life is so much better because of it.

That does not mean I have been perfect in every area of my life. I have made compromises before and it made things much harder. It cause a period in my life where I was not close to the Lord and my prayers were not being heard. Luckily for me, I was not like the Gadarenes and when the Lord wanted to clean me up I ran back to Him with a repentant heart.

People think that religion is something that you cling to when you are sad or when times are bad but they don’t get it. Religion (True, Christ centered religion) is something we need to cling to when times are good. When everything is going well, we need Jesus the most because He is the reason for those good times. That is the true sign of the sincerity of our faith in Christ. Fortunately for us, however, Christ will be right there waiting for us if we forget about Him during those good times and call on Him when things go bad.

I look out into this world and get so sad when I see how many people have rejected Jesus. Our Father in Heaven loves us so much that even though we have sinned against Him, rejected His plan for our lives, and try to make it on our own, He came down to us in the form of a man so that He could live a perfect life in our place, take the wrath that we deserve, and die on a cross for our sins. He did all the work so that we could live with Him for all eternity. Our God is a God of love, a God of hope, and a God of eternal peace yet people want to do things their own way. Hell was not made for people but our loving God is also perfectly just and will let anyone go there who wants to do things their own way.

Sin cannot be in the presence of the Lord so we have a choice when He comes in to clean us up. We can run to Him and give Him a big hug, fall down in repentance, and worship Him. Or, we can do what the Gadarenes did and tell Him to go away.

HUH?

As I go through my daily life living up here in the beautiful, yet completely insane Pacific Northwest, I have to scratch my head and wonder what is wrong with the world.

Today, my family and I went to the outlet mall and as we were walking around, we saw something that is becoming more and more prevalent. A woman had a baby stroller with her as she was walking around. It is always fun and heartwarming to look at little babies but what we saw brought a chuckle instead. We saw that she had given birth to a fuzzy little non-dog. We have seen this several times around the Portland. People treat their little yipper non-dogs like kids and stroll them around market places and parks. I could be closed minded and dead wrong, but I think dogs like to walk around and they don’t get lower self-esteem when you put a collar around their necks. When our dog sees her collar she starts jumping up and down in excitement as she gets ready for a WALK.

The freeway is another place where the devolution of society is ever present. I was driving home from work yesterday and Friday traffic was getting thick. I decided to exit the freeway and take a back road home so I started looking for an opening in the right lane that I could squeeze into. There were some breaks but I couldn’t speed up enough to get in front of the car next to me and I would have needed to slam on my breaks in order to get behind him. I was finally able to speed up enough to get into position to merge. I looked in my mirror, looked back, turned on my signal, looked in the mirror again and started to merge. It was a little tight but I had plenty of room to get over. Well, apparently that really ticked off the person driving the Land Cruiser. He decided that instead of letting me complete my merge, he would hit the gas and nearly rear end me or distract me enough so I would rear end the person in front of me while looking in my rear view mirror trying to figure out what on Earth he was doing. I was able to avoid hitting the car in front of me while staring him down in my mirror and at the last second he decided that breaking was a better idea than rear ending. It is amazing how many people do this on the freeway because they are too mocho to let anyone in front of them. “UG, I A MANLY MAN, NO ONE GET IN FRONT OF ME!”

Then, there is what goes on in school. I have the honor of sitting in on the School Intervention Committee’s. The first thing they did is create a 30 minute detention period for kids who are failing. That was fine but they called it ASP (Academic Support Period). When you say it the long way it is fine but when you abbreviate and call it ASP Period, (ASP being pronounced as its own word and not A-S-P Period) it makes people laugh. Especially teenagers. Then, to make things better, the committee was trying to figure out a way to solve the problem with students coming to school late due to missing the bus. They came up with the idea of running a “late” bus. The idea here is that kids would have a second chance to get to school. What they didn’t understand (and these are people who deal with kids every day) is that if a “late” bus was available to take you to school for missing the bus, every kid would “miss” the bus turning the “late” bus into the bus and the bus into the “early” bus. I almost started laughing at that idea. Then they came up with another idea that blew me away. Two years ago the gave each student a planner. They were charged $5 on their registration fees but to the kids, this planner was free. The students didn’t care about the planners so after about a week, only a handful of them still had their planner. Because the kids were unorganized and the planners were not working, the committee suggested that, rather than buying planners, we buy two 3-ring binders for each student. Again, I almost started laughing. Why is it the school’s responsibility to buy everyone binders? Again, they have no idea how kids operate yet they work with them every day for 9 months. If a kid wants a binder, they already buy them. If a kid doesn’t want a binder, they will not use a “free” binder given to them by the school. How about we say that they are required to keep a binder. Send a note home that the parents need to head down to Target, or the Dollar Tree, or Staples, and buy them a binder. If they don’t get a binder, they lose points and will ultimately fail if they don’t do what they are required to do.

I really don’t get some people.

When Smart People Go Extinct

I saw a movie that is very funny if you realize what it’s intended purpose was. Idiocracy, by Mike Judge the creator of Beavis and Butthead, gives us a glimpse of what the future would be like if all the smart people in the world went extinct and morons ruled the country.

The basic plot of the movie is that smart people didn’t reproduce at the same rate as the dumb people (sometimes, as we see, they didn’t reproduce at all for various reasons). Dumb people took over by sheer numbers and by the year 2505, everyone was a complete idiot and the country was in the toilette. The crops were dead, garbage was everywhere, and Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator had taken water’s place in all areas of life.

Thanks to an Army experiment, average Joe had been in hibernation for 500 years and woke up to this new reality to find that he was now the smartest man on Earth. They anointed Joe as their solution to all their problems but as you can see in the following clip, Joe was not going to have an easy time with his fellow citizens.

Now, I include this because the conversation Joe has with the rest of the Presidential Cabinet members is not too far off from the conversations I have in my math classes on a daily basis. Now, granted that I am talking to high school students and not adults, many of our high schoolers are growing up to use this same form of circular reasoning (how do you think the Democratic candidates and nominees get so many votes?). I had a conversation with a student a couple of years ago why he hated George Bush. The response went something like this: “I hate him because he is stupid!”. “Why is he stupid?” “Because he is an idiot!” “Why is he an idiot?” “Because I hate him!”

So, this student hated George Bush because he was stupid, and he was stupid because he was an idiot, and he was an idiot because he hated him???

Another student said that he liked Barack Obama. I asked why and he responded, “Because he is black!” I was taken back, then asked if he liked OJ Simpson since OJ to is black. He said no so I had convinced him that being black does not mean you would be a good President. Then I asked again, why he likes Obama. He said this time, “He is a great speaker” I asked if he liked Adolf Hitler since Hitler too was a good speaker. He again said no so I had again convinced him that being a good speaker does not make a good President.

I asked a third time and he said that Obama is great and he liked everything about him. I asked him to name one but he couldn’t think of anything.

This generation is being trained not to think about anything and then they grow up to produce such wonderful things like Jackass, Jackass 2, countless videos of them doing stupid things on Youtube and so on.

We are well on our way to making Idiocracy a reality. In Idiocracy, the number one movie in the land was called “Ass” where they stared at a guys naked butt for 90 minutes while he farted causing everyone in the theater to go, huh huh huh. The number one television show was “Ow! My Balls” where a guy gets kicked and hit in the crotch the whole time bring more huh huh huh.

The English language, as it is explained in the movie, was reduced to a mixture of hillbillie, vallygirl, and inner city slang and they made fun of Joe because he spoke in a normal way. Every sentence contained explitives every other word. If you listen to high schoolers talk, they are not much different. All anyone thought about was sex and money.

While this movie was extremely exaggerated, it wasn’t too far off from our society today. I see what we are producing out of our schools and what they are producing on television and movies and who we are electing as leaders of this country and we are really bad shape.

I hope and pray that the Lord comes back soon because things could get very bad very soon.

In the meantime, if you want a good laugh and don’t mind satiracle cussing, watch Idiocracy. It is funny when it is on a movie.

Walking on Water

The Lord is doing huge works in my life right now starting with those two amazing weeks in February. Throughout all of this, the main message has been clear: Have faith in the Lord, trust in His ways, follow all of His commands and He will take care of us and provide all that we need.

Right now He has me in a spot familiar to Peter. In Matthew 14:22-33 we see the story of Peter and Jesus walking on water. Peter gets a bad rap because Jesus says to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” when Peter started panicking and sinking as he saw the waves. However, what people forget about, is that Peter WALKED ON WATER! If Peter lacked faith, what about the rest of the disciples? They didn’t even get out of the boat. Peter had the faith to trust Jesus enough to step out of the boat and onto the water.

That is where I am now. I have been in the boat, floating and drifting and Jesus called me out of the boat and onto the water. At the beginning of the story, Jesus tells to the disciples to get into the boat and go before Him to the other side of the sea. Seven years ago, the Lord told me to go into teaching. This was my boat. Teaching is comfortable and safe. There is great job security and you can get a job anywhere. Once you are in, you are pretty secure, especially as a math teacher.

While the disciples were in the boat, they felt the wind and the waves but they were still safe and secure in the boat. The same was true for me. Teaching can be draining when you have to deal with teenagers all day and it can be financially hard because you don’t get paid a ton but it is safe. Our plan was to sell our house and move into something smaller, closer, and more affordable so I could continue to teach.

This is where Jesus told me to get out of the boat. In the process of selling our house and moving closer to my work, everything changed. We had been hearing for years about our need to trust the Lord and tithe consistently and our need to wake up early together and seek Him first before we started our day. We finally did those things which set off those two indescribable weeks. That is when the Lord called us. Jesus was in the middle of the sea when Peter saw Him and said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” The Lord did and Peter stepped out and actually walked on the water.

Peter’s problem was that he took his eyes off of Jesus and focused on the waves. While I have been in teaching, Jesus has been planning something else. He is calling me to something different and He is calling me to walk out to meet Him out in the waves. There are times when I am like Peter and I start looking at the waves rising and crashing around me. I am ready to give up and get back in the boat but I know that is not where He wants me. I must force myself to keep walking out to Him even thought I feel like I am ready to sink. It is not comfortable where I am at because I am not in control. It is scary and it is not secure because I am not in charge. In the boat, I made the decisions, I knew that I wouldn’t sink but now, I am out. I could start to sink if I stop focusing on the Lord. The only security I have right now is that I know He will put me back in the boat if I start to sink.

My wife recently bought the new book by Lee Strobel called “God’s Outrageous Claims” and one of the claims is playing it safe is a dangerous way to live. God calls us to take risks. Without taking risks, we cannot have faith, and without faith, we cannot follow God’s path for our lives. Playing it safe is staying in the boat but God wants me out of the boat.

Are Your Prayers Hindered?

As I was praying today, I told God about several things that my heart is desiring lately which include a possible career change and the desire for us to stay in our current home. Right now I teach 45 minutes away from where we live and our house is for sale. The house is probably more than we can afford living on a single teaching salary so our attempt to move is two fold: To get closer to work and to get into a more affordable house.

Over those two weeks that I have written about recently and the weeks following, the Lord has done many things in our lives to get us back on the right path and has done some changing to our heart’s desires. While I love teaching, it can be a very frustrating career, especially at the high school level where kids have no hesitation to tell you how much they hate you and how stupid they think you are. I have tried to get a job closer to our current home but it has not worked out. After the last unsuccessful attempt (and the most promising), I decided that I was content with my current job and would finally put our house on the market and move closer. Uh oh, contentment is usually the last thing before God decides to change things up. That happened to us in a major way before. My wife and I decided that we were content with living in Arizona and the Lord had us living in Oregon a couple months later. Now that I had finally reached a point where I as content working at my current school, God has done some things to lead us to believe that things are about to change drastically.

Over those two weeks, the Lord did some work on us to get things straightened out. Today, He had me read 1 John 5 after I was finished praying which says:

1Jn 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1Jn 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
1Jn 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

It seems like every time I pray now and ask Him to show me a word of encouragement or direction, I get the same thing no matter where I read. Wait on the Lord, follow His commandments, and anything I ask of the desires of my heart according to His will, He will hear and grant.

I followed reading 1 John 5 by looking at Jon Courson’s commentary. He gave several verses including Psalm 66:18, 1 Peter 3:7, Matthew 5:23, 24, and John 15:7 which talk about things that we can do to prevent God from hearing our prayers. He narrows it down to sin that we have been harboring, problems with our marriage, relationships that need repair, and the neglecting of the Word. I was doing all of these things. I had sin that I was hiding and keeping hidden in the closet, there were issues with our marriage, and we were severely neglecting the Word. It was no wonder that few of our prayers were being heard and answered. First of all, we didn’t know what to pray for because we were not in God’s Word daily. We had hidden sin that kept us at a distance from God. Both of these were leading to problems in our marriage.

It all came down to my wife not submitting to me as unto the Lord and me not loving my wife as Christ loves His church.

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.
Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

We were both blowing it but the Lord did a great work and changed all that. On one amazing Sunday, my wife submitted to me and I loved her as Christ loves the church as we are called to do. I started tithing a full 10% as He instructs us to do and we spent quality time in the Word all throughout the day. We were finally giving God the first fruits of our lives and our “closets” were cleaned. Since then, our prayers have been much more in line and in tune to God’s will for us. We have received many of the desires of our hearts already and He has revealed many more to us that He wants to give us. We now know what to pray for and how to pray and can be sure that we will receive them. We also know that if we do not receive them, they were not in line with what the Lord wanted for us in our lives.

I am excited about what He has in store for us in the coming months, years, and decades. My main prayer for us is that we will continue to remain steadfast in His commandments and wait on Him so that ALL of the desires of our hearts will be given to us.

My prayer for anyone reading this blog is that you will do what we did (if you haven’t already done so) and give up those areas that you are trying to hold onto and control.

1Co 2:5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Thy Word have I Hid in Mine Heart

Psalm 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Since our amazing two week experience, my wife and I cannot read enough of the Bible. We used to fill our free time with worthless things like TV shows, mindless surfing on the internet, or going out to places like the mall or bookstores for no real reason. Now, our main desire is to spend as much time in God’s Word as possible and it has truly become living, powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword. We have always believed that God’s Word was these things but it was usually based more on faith rather than real experience.

Over those two weeks, we lived God’s Word and it all became very living and real to us. Now, we will have a book or chapter of the Bible that will pop into our heads and it will be the exact thing that we were praying about or the exact thing that we needed to hear to give us encouragement about. Often times, I will read something in the morning and will come home after school to hear my wife share something that she read or something that happened to her and it will have to do with the exact passage that I read that morning.

One of the main things that God has been telling us lately is that He will grant us the desires of our hearts if we wait on Him and continue in His ways. That does not mean we can be like the “Name it and Claim it” preachers on TBN. We will get all the desires of our hearts when our hearts are aligned with God’s will for our lives. Lately, our hearts have been in line with His will for us because spending so much time in the Word makes it clear what He wants for us. When our desires become His desires, He tells us that we will get everything we want and everything we ask for.

Fortunately for us, when our desires were not His desires, He did not always give us what we asked for. Looking back, our lives would not be as good if He had given everything we had asked for. Looking forward, I cannot wait to see what He has in store for our family as we continue to get closer and closer to Him and the path that He has laid out for us.

Back to Real Life

Well, the crazy two weeks are over and it is a relief in one sense and a huge disappointment in another. Those two weeks were the best two weeks of my life because the Lord basically showed me what it was like to experience His true power. What I learned is that the Lord is real, He is powerful, and He is perfect love.

I am not sure how to describe it to anyone who hasn’t experienced first hand what I went through but is was amazing. I truly believed that God could do anything, I knew that His desire was to bless us and that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. I did things over those two weeks that I never would have done on my own. I was more bold. I wanted nothing more than to share the Lord with everyone. I sought the Lord through His Word all throughout the day and really did pray without ceasing. All my thoughts for two weeks were of Him and about Him. He showed me the desires of my heart and that He would grant the desires of my heart if I waited on Him, followed His ways, and delighted in Him.

My life was changed over those two weeks but it scares me when I realize how quick and easy it is to come out of such intimacy with the Lord and start reverting right back to my old ways. The Lord removed huge weights and strongholds from my life and I realized I have the power through Him to resist those things and seek after Him, buy the sin nature within me is stubborn and weak and I have to fight it every day of my life.

The love of Christ is real, His desire to bless us is real, and the power we have through Him is real, now I just need to follow after Him every day of my life, wait on Him and delight in His ways and the desires of my heart that He revealed to me over those two weeks will be given to me.

God Knows what He Needs

I realized now why I had to go through what I went through the past nine years in my walk with the Lord and in my marriage. This morning, the Lord gave me Psalm 27:

Psa 27:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psa 27:2 When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Psa 27:3 Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
Psa 27:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.
Psa 27:5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
Psa 27:6 And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
Psa 27:7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
Psa 27:8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
Psa 27:9 Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Psa 27:10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
Psa 27:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
Psa 27:12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
Psa 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Psa 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

I had an easy life growing up and now I realized that God literally hid me in the secret pavilion and set me up up on a rock. I was moved out into a tiny central Arizona town with a population of about 700. Most of what we did took place in a larger town 30 minutes away but when you drove home, the large Yarnell Mountain poked up out of the flat desert to the south. He place me up on that rock in the middle of nowhere to hide me and protect me from the enemy while He was preparing my wife for me. He needed me to be pure sexually and free from substance addiction in order to be used for what He has set before me today.

Because I grew up isolated from a lot of the temptations and troubles found in larger cities, I grew confident of my own merits. I gave myself credit for all I did and all I accomplished. I was a very good football player, baseball player, soccer player, and finished Valedictorian of my High School class. I grew overconfident in my own abilities to do well in everything I did and everything I abstained from doing but it was never me, it was Him all the time.

I just now found that out. The past nine years of my life have been great and awesome but they were also very burdensome and very tiring, both physically and emotionally. There were issues that my wife and I had for various reasons (my wife lived the opposite life from me)but the Lord had us together for a purpose. This purpose has become painstakingly clear over the past two weeks.

During the past nine years of my marriage, I have felt like a heavy weight was on my shoulders. I was tired beyond belief and up until just recently, I had no motivation or drive to do anything. I couldn’t control what I was eating. I had no motivation to work out or keep things orderly. I wanted to serve in Church but couldn’t ever bring myself to do so. All this time, however, the Lord was teaching me something.

Because He protected me and gave me a very easy childhood, I grew confident in my own abilities. He needed to break that attitude in me so He let me shoulder the load during my last nine years of marriage. I was carrying the weight, I was trying to do things myself, I was trying to lead on my own abilities, I was trying to teach on my own ideas and philosophies and so on. The weight was too heavy to bear. After nine years, I couldn’t take it anymore. I was about to collapse, give up, throw in the towel. When He finally lifted that burden off of me, I learned something. I couldn’t do it. I was not strong enough on my own to do any of this. During that time though, He was giving me verses, Bible stories, great teaching, and all the tools I needed to be ready for what lies ahead. He was just waiting for the right moment to use those tools.

On February 10th, He removed that weight from my shoulders. The weight that was ready to crush me was now being carried by Him. I had finally submitted all to Him and did what He told me to do, tithe a full 10% of what I made. He had given me a night school job for $400 per month so at the right moment, when He called me, I could write a $40 check and put it in the offering basket. That was all it took. That was all He needed to see that my heart was finally in the right place.

I am now ready to be used for great things by our Great and Awesome Lord. I have been crushed by the Rock but not destroyed. He broke me down so He can now build me back up in the way that He needs me in order to use me. I had a day yesterday where I knew what it was like to be Jesus. I wasn’t Jesus but I was like Jesus. Everything I did and said was perfect for the person that I spoke it to. I caused everyone that I came in contact with to smile with a huge ear-to-ear smile. They got excited with every little thing that I gave them because it was perfect and from the Lord. I explained everything perfectly for them to understand and left every room that I was using in perfect order. The thing is though, none of it was me. The entire time, I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink. When I was finished with school, I was starving and thirstier than I had ever been. It didn’t matter though because everyone I had contact that day left their time with me full of joy. That is what people must have felt like every day with Jesus. With me it lasted from 7:40am to 2:38pm. This day made me realized what a huge sinner I am and how bad of a job I have done over the past nine years of my life as a husband and five years as a teacher. I saw these kids as Jesus saw them and not as I had been seeing them.

I have finally submitted all to the Lord and now I am ready to be used in the way that I was made. I have been transformed and can now be used by Him to bring Him glory and praise.

Hearing Clearly

It is amazing how clearly I can hear God now that I am following all the things I need to be doing. Those things mainly consist of tithing faithfully and seeking Him first. I have always known that He says to test Him on the tithe to see if we can out-give Him and the few times that I did test, He did out-give. He didn’t out-give by much but it was always more. He did out-give in different ways though, and none more awesome then when He answered my prayer for snow on Christmas Day. I didn’t actually pray directly for snow, all I said is, “Man, Christmas would just fell more like Christmas if it snowed!”

Well, on a day that the weathermen gave a zero percent chance of snow, the Lord gave me a white Christmas for the first time in my life. It was awesome. My kids and I put on our snow clothes as soon as possible and had a great time. I was able to take some great pictures with our new camera and all was good.

I also started listening to Him after 30 years and I started getting up early (this morning I got out of bed at 4:00 am) and sought Him first. He wants the first part of our day just like He wants the first part of our finances. He wants this, not because He is jealous or needs the cash, but because He wants us to have the right heart so He can bless us. Tithing and rising up early is about our attitudes and our heart towards Him. Do we expect to be blessed by Him? If so, why wouldn’t we listen to Him telling us what we need to do to get those blessings.

His heart is that He pours out His blessing in a way that our storehouses will be overflowing. He cannot do that though if we are not ready to receive them. By tithing, we are acknowledging that all that we have comes from Him. He is just asking us to give back 10% of what is already His. Waking up early not only tells Him that He is first in our lives, it is the best part of the day to hear Him most clearly.

The first moments after we wake up are the least distracted in our day. We have not had a chance to watch TV, go online, read the paper, have conversations, or deal with traffic. He can get us while our minds are fresh and rested and distraction free.

This past week, He grabbed my attention and showed me a verse that is one that I will hold onto for the rest of my life. 1 Corinthians 2:5 says, “put not your faith in the wisdom of men but rather, in the power of God.” God is powerful. He created the universe and holds it in the palm of His hand. He formed man out of dust and breathed life into us. He parted the Red Sea and made the Sun stand still. Think of what He can do in each of our lives if we just give Him what little He asks of us.

I have a feeling that He is going to open up the flood gates and pour out His blessings on me and my family. The reason for this is the power that I have realized He is capable of. I am ready to test Him and see if I can out-give Him. I think I can do it. I am sure He will prove me wrong though.