The Importance of Daily Reading of Scripture

Reading vs. Study

I am forever amazed and never impressed with the number of men who call themselves teachers of the word of God who incessantly boast about how they can spend an entire day, week, month, or year studying one single word in their bible. Having been born with the cursed ADHD syndrome (long before they had a clue what it was), I can only sit for about five minutes listening to men like this speak. I liken this mentality to the biologist who gets millions of dollars worth of grants to study the gnat. Absolutely sure he can find something in the gnat to help us better understand life, he labors rigorously for decades until finally, one day, he discovers one with an extra appendage. Concluding he has proven the theory of evolution, he writes a book, gets another few million dollars to continue his research, and dazzles great multitudes of dupes with his ability to speak for hours and say absolutely nothing of any meaningful consequence. Meanwhile a hundred million people are killed in one war, 55 million in another, 500 million in another, and this biologist doesn’t even know his country’s at war again. For decades I have considered finishing my masters and going on to get a PhD because it seems so many people hang of the words of those who know so much about so little. Then I came up with this definition describing them. A PhD is one who knows so much about so little.

I suppose it would be extremely narrow minded of me to think these freaks of society contribute very little to the overall scheme of things considering how much time they have spent focusing on the gnat. So, I will simply conclude it is a fact I can’t confirm one way or another. Is society better off because of people like Einstein, the guy who discovered nuclear fission. Let’s see, we killed over a hundred thousand people at Nagasaki and Hiroshima with just two bombs, in just two days. Wow! That’s something we should all be proud of. And now, with the current nuclear stockpiles around the world, we could make the earth completely uninhabitable in about fifteen minutes. I am a retired history teacher. I have read the books about the struggle by our President and his cabinet of advisors in deciding whether or not to use “the Bomb” to end WWII. I believe their conclusion that more Americans would have died needlessly if we hadn’t dropped that bomb was correct. All of those facts acknowledged, I still have to ask if society is better off with the millions of megatons of destructive power we now have in our nuclear arsenals, or if we would be better off without this technology altogether. I have a simple (not simplistic) answer to that question. Unless God was intervening in the affairs of man, preventing him from self annihilation, he would have totally destroyed himself and the planet within a millennium of his creation. So, the only reason we haven't completely destroyed ourselves with our "great learning" is that God isn't ready to allow that to happen. He is literally staying the hand of man until all of those whom He has chosen come into His kingdom. One must not conclude because someone is a genius he offers more to society. Many highly educated men, including theologians, have little to offer society, or in the case of theologians, the church, because they know so much about so little.

The human brain is an incredible phenomenon. Brain research indicates most people (of course there are always exceptions), learn best by moving from gathering general information and then drawing conclusions about that information by moving slowly to the specific. By extrapolation, using the gnat analogy, I humbly suggest the bible scholar who spends inordinate amounts of time dissecting tiny bits of godly wisdom, misses out on the massive amounts of wisdom found in the other 1200 chapters, 31,000 verses, and 775,000 words. Personally, I read massive amounts of information from the bible daily and then move slowly to particular parts of what I read for the purpose of better understanding the specifics. It has been suggested one can't ingest massive amounts of insight and wisdom from such reading. I can't speak for anyone else, but when I read I actually learn something. And after more than 37 years, when I read God's word I continue to absorb information like a sponge. And no matter how many times I have read a particular passage, each time I re-read it, I learn something more about God's nature and His purpose for us. I have never suggested, nor have I ever believed either reading or studying should be practiced exclusively by any serious theologian. What I have discovered is great multitudes of men who have graduated from some of the most reputable Cemetaries (sic) and bible colleges in the country who are incredibly ignorant of the overall picture the bible gives us about the plight of man and His solution to man's problem. Upon questioning many of them over the past thirty-eight years, I have been overwhelmed to learn few if any of them have any yearly plan of reading the bible from cover to cover even once. And the overwhelming majority of pastors with whom I have spoken for more than three decades find nothing wrong with the fact they haven’t read the bible from cover to cover once in their entire lives.

I can only conclude, from my personal observations, that few men who claim to be called of God to minister the word of God take James 3:1 seriously. Recently, one pastor actually suggested to me, on more than one occasion, how ignorant so many men standing in the pulpit are who believe in the phrase, “Sola Scriptura.” who never spend any time reading the writings of great men of the faith (though biblically, there are no great men) in the history of the church. First of all, I would like to humbly reply that no man called of God who prayerfully fills his heart, soul, and mind daily with massive amounts of His word being enlightened by His Holy Spirit could ever be classified by any truly intelligent person as ignorant. Second, I will readily admit there are great multitudes of men standing pulpits across this land who proclaim "Sola Scriptura" who don't read God's word any more than those who proclaim the need to read the great works of the great men who have proceeded us in the faith. I have, however, heard men who were obviously not formally educated, who could not masterfully speak the English language, preach powerful sermons, making it abundantly clear they spent massive amounts of their daily lives with Jesus in His word. I am not opposed to reading things by men like Spurgeon or Calvin. I have read dozens of books by such men over the past 37 years. I've also read contemporary "Christian" writers like McArthur, Piper, Driscoll, Adams, Begg, Swindoll, Warren, McClarin, Rutz, LaHaye, Jenkins, and Stanley; and yes, I'm quite aware some on this list are heretics, and some who are reputed to be pillars of the faith are pretty weak theologically. I find them interesting, but not particularly inspiring. I don’t believe I have ever received any insights from them I could not have gotten directly from God, had I spent the same period of time studying His word. What I have learned by reading some of their books is that there is nothing new under the sun. God tells his chosen men in every generation, who are willing to read and study His word, the same things. My wife chuckles when I share some profound insight one of them has written in one of his books, retorting, "You have been preaching that for decades."

I am disturbed by the growing trend toward universalism and reinterpreting scripture in light of today’s cultures. The good news is that this rise is one of the many signs that Christ return is imminent. He warned us false Christs and false prophets would rise and mislead many. And he warned us the multitudes, not the called, would follow their false teachings. Mega-church pastors, beware. “When so many love the message you speak, there is great danger, what you speak is not God’s word.” In closing I would like to suggest we need to concentrate on spiritual growth of Jesus’ disciples, not church growth (numbers alone). Many a pastor has been sorely disappointed to discover, upon close examination, the incredible growth of his church in numbers over a year did not translate into appropriate spiritual growth of those attending. By that I simply mean we need to be spending a great deal more time discipling those over whom we have charge than developing strategies for reaching those who are not the elect. Properly discipled children of God will draw the called, with whom they have to do daily, to the body of Christ; who can then be discipled to go into their world and preach the gospel.

Paul Washer

I was listening to a message by Paul Washer today. He is considered by most conservative, God loving, bible thumping, evangelicals to be a solid preacher of the word. I was shocked to hear him suggest we need to preach the gospel and not to get caught up teaching eschatology. I am forever amazed at the number of preachers who seem to think the gospel is only found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let's see, the gospel is, by definition, the good news about Jesus Christ. Uh, I think that good news begins in Genesis 1:1 and culminates in Revelation 22:21. The sixty-six books we have in our contemporary codexes are the gospel. One of the most significant prooftext of this point is written by Paul when he tells us in Galations 3:8, The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the nations will be blessed in you." And the final words of Revelation tell us, He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen, Come Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen. The Revelation is from chapter 1 and verse 1 to chapter 22 and verse 21 the record of the fulfillment of all the other sixty-five books prophesied was to come.

I was truly disappointed with Paul Washer, until I considered how young and inexperienced he is. What I found more disturbing this week were the comments by another pastor, R.W. Glenn. His suggestions had to do with whether or not a pastor should have a time set aside daily just for reading the Bible with the idea in mind of reading it in its entirety several times yearly. I find the fact that the question would arise rather disturbing. How can one accurately exegete scripture if he doesn't read it in its entirety several times a year. More importantly, how can a pastor convince those he is discipling they need to commit a significant amount of time daily in their own study of God's word, if he are not doing the same. My wife often asks me, when I am scheduled to preach or teach, if I am ready. My response is that God has been getting me ready for nearly thirty-eight years.

Maybe I'm exceptionally dense, but I find I have to read God's words over and over and over to get any sense of their true meaning. He is so incredibly omnipotent, omniscient, and immutable, that my finite brain just can't grasp it all without reading the words of His magnificent revelation to us in these 66 books until my eyes get sore and my brain can't absorb anymore information. And, I pray that won't happen until they lay me in the grave.

I find the disturbing trend that many of the "up and coming" young pastors today rely way too much on Spurgeon and way to little on Scripture. I would like to humbly suggest there is nothing wrong with reading Calvin, Spurgeon, Torrey, Lewis, Piper, or any of the other, so called, giants of the faith. But, there is everything wrong with reading them more than one reads God's word. When we get our theology from them, it tends to be top heavy with their own biases. I have read works by all of these men and many others whose reputation as pillars of the faith is indisputable. I have discovered at least one of them has received the exact same insights I have received directly from God about His word as I was reading it for myself. I pray that doesn't sound arrogant. I wouldn't suggest for a moment I am a theologian an par with any of these men. All I am suggesting is that preachers of God's word must first go to God and His word daily, reading, studying, examining, re-examining, cross referencing, and then reading some more before they lay it down and read what another preacher has or had to say about any given passage.

In closing, I want to make it clear I think Paul Washer is a man of God who speaks the words of God in his messages. I'm confident as he matures, he will realize some of the things he suggests in his messages, though certainly not heretical, are exegetically weak.

Open Letter

Below you will find an open letter to Barack Obama. I think it warrants reading, so I placed a link to in on my blog.

America is not a Democracy

It seems appropriate, since I was an American Government teacher for over sixteen years, to explain something about the founding principles of our country for those of you who did not listen when your high school government teacher explained them. First of all, These United States of America are not a democracy. In a democracy everyone gets to vote on all matters of economic, social, and political concern. Democracies only work in very small groups of people who all have basically the same belief system. America was established as a democratic republic. In this kind of government, citizens elect people to represent them as they deal with the needs of the country. The key point here is that these representatives are elected to represent their constituents, not their own selfish ideals. When our Constitution was written, a group called Anti-Federalists opposed it because it had no protection from big government. After several months of debate, the Federalists (those who favored big government, they would be today’s liberals) agreed to make a bill of rights a part of the first congressional sessions to get the Anti-Federalists (states rightist), to agree to ratify the proposed constitution. The Anti-Federalists position regarding government was very similar to the current conservative movement.

A second point is that there are constitutional governments and there are governments with constitutions. These United States of America were a constitutional government until Barack Obama became President. When the elected leader and those who write legislation (Congress) ignore the constitution and no one puts them in jail, a country is no longer a constitutional government. Barack Obama and his Democratic Congress have approved a spending budget that absolutely, unequivocally, and illegally taxes the rich to pay for the needs of the poor. The only reason Congress can constitutionally tax us is to pay for those things we cannot provide for ourselves. Highways and a standing military are simple examples of such things.

The original Bill of Rights had twelve amendments. We finally ended up with ten that I will summarize here. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and press. The Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms as a protection against tyranny in government. The Third Amendment guarantees protection from having soldiers stay in our homes in times of peace. The Fourth Amendment guarantees us protection from unreasonable search and seizure. The Fifth Amendment covers such things as due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, and eminent domain. One could write a dissertation on each of these points, but I will resist the temptation to elaborate for the sake of brevity here. Most have heard the statement, “I plead the fifth.” It simply means one does not have to answer any question he believes will incriminate him in any way in a criminal investigation. The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right to a trial by jury and rights of the accused; confrontation clause, speedy trial, public trial, and right to counsel. Two actual cases got the Supreme Court to rule that one has the right to counsel before answering any questions in an investigation where he is a suspect and legal counsel in court for free if he can’t afford it. The Seventh Amendment has to do with a civil trial by jury. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail. The Ninth Amendment and Tenth Amendments are crucial in helping us understand what is being done illegally by Barack Obama’s administration. I will quote each verbatim here, “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” And, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The ninth means that any rights not specifically explained does not mean the people do not have them. The tenth means those powers not specifically designated to the federal government nor prohibited to the states belong to the states. In other words, rights not specifically given to the federal government or denied to the states, belong to the states.

Next, I think it is important for us all to know the major differences between conservative (right wing) political theory and liberal (left wing) political theory. Conservatives (right wing politicians) believe in limited government, tax breaks for the top 5% if its citizens and corporations, trickle-down economics, and protecting helpless, unborn babies. Trickle-down economics simply means the wealthiest people in the country are the ones who start and expand businesses that employ people; so the government gives them tax breaks so they have more money to start new or expand established businesses. History has proven over and over again such tax breaks lead to more money being taken into the federal coffers because of the increasing numbers of people who pay taxes on earned income. Left wing liberals tend to tax the rich and famous to the max, which means they have less money to invest in expansion or starting new businesses, which means less people are employed, which means less products are produced. The only place where right wing politicians believe government should intervene in the lives of its citizens is to protect helpless unborn babies. Conservatives believe babies need adults to protect them from the selfish, innocuous desires of left wing radical ideologues who conclude the only way a woman can live a carefree life is to allow her to murder any results of her harlotry. Sorry, but there’s no other way to describe a woman who first gives herself to wanton pleasure and then kills the seed of that pleasure. She is a whore who needs no protection for her whoredom. Women who get abortions should be tried for murder. Doctors who abort babies should be tried for murder. That is the biblical view. And it is not up for debate. Finally, limited government means government must not do anything for citizens they are capable of doing for themselves. Liberal politicians believe citizens are too stupid to decide for themselves about such things as abortion or health care, so they don’t wish to hear what their constituents have to say on such matters. Unfortunately, most of their uninformed constituents don’t know the facts, so they are easily duped into believing their representatives will take care of them.

As a government teacher, I recall each year asking my students how many of them wanted free health care. Every single student, every single year, raised his/her hand. Then I asked them how many actually believed free health care was really free. Most got a dumb look on their face. Then I asked them who they thought paid for this so-called free health care. They hadn’t a clue. This course of questioning allowed me to explain the theory of robbing the rich to pay for the needs of the lazy. Upon completing my explanation, I asked them again, how may were for free health care. No one raised their hand. Those who knew already they were going to be the lazy who wanted free handouts didn’t have the nerve to identify themselves to the others yet. They knew instinctively, or because their parents were already living the carefree life of laziness on the coattails of those who were paying their welfare checks, they would not be popular if they divulged their future plans so early.

Universal health care is the epitome of the antithesis of limited government. There are so many things wrong on so many levels with Obama’s proposal for the public option that I don’t know where to start. His claim that private insurance companies need to have competition is categorically absurd. Government provided insurance is not competition. Government does not have to make a profit, so it can charge less than it cost to actually administer a program. It simply raises taxes to cover unaccounted for costs. To suggest such foolishness is competition suggests government thinks people are too stupid to recognize the idiocy of the claim. Obama has rejected every sensible recommendation made by conservatives on the issue. Allowing any company that desires to do so compete in each state to insure its residents is the simplest and most cost effective way to provide competition, but Obama’s administration has rejected this simple, proven method of reducing insurance costs. It seems clear his administration is determined to shove his plan down our throats no matter what we want. It seems he is determined to destroy capitalism as we know it and as our founding fathers intended it to function. To suggest every citizen and aliens who are here illegally in this country have the “right” to health care is utter foolishness. First of all, we already do care for anyone who has an emergency need in all of our hospitals. Insurance companies are already calculating such cost into our coverage. That is why illegal aliens go to emergency rooms to get examined for flu symptoms. We do not turn down anyone in our emergency rooms. So it is utterly ignorant to suggest anyone is denied health care in emergencies. It simply is not true. Second of all, there is nothing in our Constitution that suggests health care is a right. Third, to suggest it is free is even more absurd. Those who think the rich owe them something are really the only ones who fall for this foolishness. Those too lazy to do for themselves, want someone else to do for them. I am quite aware there are some truly downtrodden people who might be, for one reason or another, temporarily in need of assistance, but the overwhelming number of people today who want free handouts are quite simply and obviously lazy gluttons, drunks, and dopers who are just too lazy to get a job and provide for themselves and their families.

I’m weary of truly ignorant (not stupid, they just don’t have all the facts) people suggesting republicans haven’t provided any alternatives to the Obama plan. Competition has proven over and again a gazillion times that prices will go down when companies are allowed to compete. At the present time, it is mind boggling to realize insurance companies are so powerful they have gained monopoly control of insurance in any given state. There is no competition and they are not effectually regulated. Frivolous law suits are another reason health care costs are so incredibly out of control. People are allowed to sue for the most absurd reasons, and even when they lose, doctors pay for legal representation and court costs. We are all paying for these frivolous suits through increased medical care costs and increased insurance premiums. Every time a court grants a million dollars for a ten dollar mistake by a doctor, we all pay. Obama’s administration has flatly rejected every suggestion made by conservatives. He and his cronies have summarily refused to consider any plan suggested by anyone outside of his inner circle.

Another serious problem that increases medical costs is legal associations who have powerful lobbyists in Washington. A lobbyist is a person who is paid by a group of people with the same interests to wine and dine congressmen, convincing them to vote for legislation favorable to their client(s). They are those people Obama promised he would identify and eliminate when he got into office. Of course, like his promise of no new taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year, he has failed to diminish the power of lobbyists in Washington by one iota. Quite the contrary, he has jumped in bed with them faster than any President in the history of this country. His stimulus package Congress has spent more money in ten months than did George W. Bush in eight years. If you honestly think you are doing the right thing supporting this spendaholic, I truly feel sorry for your children and grandchildren, because they will be paying dearly for Obama’s complete lack of competency at dealing with the economic and health care needs of this country.

It’s important to note that America is already a mixed economy. That means we have many socialists programs. Most countries are mixed economies. Even Communist China allows capitalistic economic activities to function with little government interference. Medicare, Social Security, welfare, Medicaid, and unions, are examples of socialists programs. Government allows some companies (water and power) to have monopolies on their products and then regulates how much they can charge for their products. These are socialistic in nature. However, by and large, we are a country that promotes free-trade and competition in the market place because we believe it stimulates economic growth. Government does not set prices on products, so the best product for the money is the one most people buy rewarding the company that was creative and well managed to prosper while those who do not produce a good product and are not well managed fail. When Bush decided to begin bailing out companies in the latter category, he was responsible for the downward spiral of economic gloom Obama is now continuing to fuel. Bush was a dismal failure and, in my personal opinion an incredible disappointment when it came to handling economic problems in this country. He handled Afghanistan and Iraq brilliantly, but his domestic policy left much to be desired. There is no company too big to fail, only leaders of governments to ignorant to allow them to do so. It is a hazard of the free market that when companies fail because of bad leadership, people loose gazillions of dollars. When let alone, some multi-millionaire genius steps in, buys up the failing company, reorganizes it (Lee Iacocca of Chrysler fame), and makes millions for himself and the company. Or, the company simply closes down its production, many people are temporarily unemployed, the economy experiences minor or major shifts, and a few months later, voila, the economy begins to revive because of the incredibly resilient spirit of the American people.

I will close this discussion with one final thought. When liberals suggest God would be a liberal, they simply demonstrate, once again, their complete lack of understanding of the facts. God would be neither a conservative nor a liberal, but His word teaches He agrees with conservative ideology most of the time. He would be disappointed with doctors who are more concerned with making as much as they can make with little concern for the well being of their clients. But, He would not provide free health care for people who are able to work and earn enough to pay for their own health care but choose to spend what they have on cable TV, cell phones, fancy clothes, booze, drugs, gambling, and/or other forms of entertainment. It is a given that we must come up with some kind of significant health care reform. But it is also a given that it must not have any grounds in allowing the government to get involved in it.

Finally, God has made it clear unborn children are to be protected with reckless abandon. Abortion is clearly and unarguably murder of the innocent; and anyone who supports it has no right to call himself a follower of Christ. God is opposed to welfare. His word insists those who do not work should not eat. The stranger, alien, downtrodden, and infirmed in Israel were allowed to glean the leftovers in the fields of the farmers of ancient times, but they were never given freebees for doing nothing. Welfare reform (a good thing) still goes way too far at supporting social misfits than it does to encourage them to get off their proverbial butts and go to work. Nowhere in scripture do we see any suggestion God would want government to intervene and force people to help others by involuntarily taking money from the rich to provide for the poor. Often, though not always, poor people are poor because they made bad choices when they were young. Often, though not always, they made those poor choices because they weighed the advantages and disadvantages of taking a more productive path (getting advanced schooling) and decided to take the easy path instead(dropping out).

I’m not sure why anyone, accept those who made bad choices, would conclude it is the responsibility of those who worked hard, got an advanced degree, and made sacrifices when they were young, to support, in any way, those who made bad choices. It seems the overriding stimulus for such ill conceived thinking is some kind of false sense of responsibility for failing to make it clear to those who made bad choices what the result of those bad choices would be. When the simple fact is that some people make bad choices because they want what they want and they want it now! In the final analysis, there are some people for whom we can do nothing when it comes to helping them to make good choices. They are determined, for more reasons on more levels than I could ever hope to address here, to become wards of the state simply because that option is open to them.

I could wax eloquently for days on end about the problems with the tack the current presidential administration is taking. It is so blatantly obvious there is only one explanation for its existence. God’s word teaches in the final hours of history as we know it, people will accumulate unto themselves teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, thus they will be unable to hear and/or understand the obvious truth. It seems we are in that period of history. Every time I write a letter to the editor trying to inform the uninformed, I get blasted by those who have been blinded by their own greed. That’s okay. I have no illusions about such people. They will never believe or understand the truth. Some of you, however are truly being duped by the incredibly inept argument posed by those left wing ideologues who would figuratively like to have you for lunch. I trust this blog has enlightened someone. If you have any comments to make, I invite you to do so. I invite open and civil dialogue on the important issues because that is what this country is all about. Please submit your questions or comments below and I will be happy to address them.

God Bless,
David L. Purkey

I have a need to blog! It's kind of pathetic that guys like me always have to be trying to say something important. I've been working fifty-five to sixty hours and hunting one morning a week (Saturdays). Sundays are filled from the time we wake to about 8:30 in the evening doing glorious things for the kingdom of God. Not complaining mind you. It's awesome to eat breakfast every Sunday morning with our brothers and sisters in Christ, to go from there to my fifth grade Sunday School boys, from there to church service, from there to lunch with a group of people who just decide each Sunday to have lunch together, from there to home to get ready for small groups at six when our small intimate group gets together for dinner and bible study, which usually ends at about 8:30. Sharon and I go to bed exhausted but renewed spiritually. The only problem is that it takes about two hours after such a revitalizing day to come down to earth, so we literally don't get to sleep until 10:30 or 11:00 P.M. Then we get up at 5:00 A.M. to begin a new week. We really do live a pampered life, compared to those who fight traffic and crime in big cities. But, sometimes we forget how blessed we are.

To begin with, I have a beautiful bride of 36 years who loves Jesus and me in that order. I serve in a church filled with dear men and women who love God. I have a good job, though I tried with all my heart to be unemployed until January when I will begin collecting medicare and social security. I only live ten miles from one of the finest hunting spots in the nation. I only live twenty miles from one of the finest fishing spots in America. My boss just gave me a newer truck that is comfortable, quiet, and easy to drive. I'm trying to find a down side to this, but no matter how hard I try, I can't. Life is good. Jesus is gooder, And, being his child is the goodest. I know my English sucks, but I'm quite sure you get the point.

When Sharon and I moved to Montana in '93, we had no idea what God had in mind for us. Things have always been better than they were in Arizona and Sourthern California. But, there were times we questioned the wisdom of coming 1600 miles with no job awaiting us. We struggled for a few years, but God kept us in His grace and made sure we got to where He wanted us. All I can do is praise Him for His wonderful grace. Now, at 64 years old, I am getting to retire from the work force. Of course, that doesn't mean we will quit working. It only means we will be working at those things we believe are of eternal significance. I have been praying for this time in our life for many years. It will be a time of rich and abundant fellowship and labor in God's vineyard. I am so looking forward to it that I sometimes forget He has things for me to do right now. I work with people every day who are lost and floundering through life looking for answers to the most basic of questions: Why am I here? I have to keep reminding myself there is not a moment in our lives when God hasn't a purpose for us. Please pray for us that we will speak boldly as we ought when the opportunity arises, that we will be sensitive to the eternal needs of those around us, that we will be pleasing to Him in all respects, and that we will love the Lord God with all or our heart, soul, and mind. God bless.

AHighlyIntellectualAccountofaWhitetailDeerHunt

Recently, as I sat in my blind one mornin’, durin’ the huntin’ season,
Ponderin’ the majesty of God’s somewhat indecipherable creation,
I saw a bunch of shootin’ stars dart across the early mornin’ sky
And then I saw somethin’ that was
A lot more than just a plain old shootin’ star,
Though, since I’m not a star expert—one of them astronomolies—
I don’t for sure know what it was,
Maybe it was a comet, or a asterisk, or some dang thing like that.

I also heard a Great Horny Owl, as well as a whole bunch of turkeys,
Makin’ a horrible racket some two hundred yards away.
Of course how far away they were is really anybody’s guess.
I just like to think I can judge sich things.
And I also heard the rattlin’ of antlers, maybe about seventy yards away,
It was one of them battles between two larger than life bucks—them’s men deer—
Vyin’ for the right to father the next generation of whitetails
That would re-populate this here particlar neck of the woods.
That battle demonstratin’ their superiority is repeated thousands,
Maybe even a gazillion times a year,
Throughout our part of this North American continent
We like call the good old U.S of A.

And I also heard the yelping of coyote pups
And the eerie howling of their progenators.
And, the, never to be mistaken for anything else, sound of honkin’ geese
As they passed over, journeyin’ to a warmer, more hospitable climate.
And to my disfrazelment, I heard the disgusting, annoying,
Seemingly entirely unnecessary sound of a big ole rooster pheasant,
Who apparently only makes that disgusting, annoying sound
For the very purpose of being disgusting and annoying.
Nah, there’s gotta be a reason for him to make such a godawful sound;
Though in my un-infinitesimal wisdom,
I haven’t the slightest idea what it might be.

I also got to see another wondrous, once in a lifetime sight the other mornin’.
About a hour before sunrise, while the moon was still ashinnin’ bright,
I seen, with the aid of my trusty Nikon by-noclars,
A magnificent whitetail man deer—that’s a buck—
Standing right smack dab in the middle of a lea
(an’ for you city folk, a lea is an open field surrounded by a bunch of trees)
Anyways, that big old buck was standing right smack dab in the middle of that lea
Just snortin’ up a storm,
Apparently—and I say apparently ‘cause I couldn’t see her at first—
Apparently that buck was attempting to attract a lady deer—that’s a doe—
Though I’m not so sure she really was a lady, the way she was actin’;
‘Cause pretty soon she come runnin’ outta them trees near the edge of that field
Straight at that ole buck an’ began doin’ her part of the matin’ ritual.
Now that ritual’s been going on for a bazillion years, maybe even longer.
But it was the first time I ever seen it live, up close, and personal,
And I gotta tell ya, I was impressed.

Anyways, in less time than it takes Clint Eastwood’s orangetang Clyde to sneeze,
She was standing right next to that big old buck—that’s a man deer.
Why, she was so close I wasn’t even sure at first there was two of ‘em;
That was, of course until they began circlin’ one another.
And I gotta tell ya, that was a sight. 0000 doggie! It was just like they was dancing.
For every move he made, she’d make an equal and opposite counter move,
Just like one of them physicasts formulas; you know what I mean;
For every action, there’s some equal and oppositional reaction, or something like that.
Well, let me tell ya, the physicalness there, ‘twixt them two was somethin’ to behold.
And, just ‘cause I was there that early, crisp, November mornin’,
I got to see ‘em in all their glory—a buck and a doe courtin’ one another.
Man-a-live!, National Geographic’s got nothin’ on me no more!

And then, by golly, as if that weren’t enough, just a day or so later,
One more’n half a dozen of them loud, obnoxious goblin gobblers
I had heard in the distance just a few days before
Come a struttin’ out of the bushes, not more than 40 feet from where I was sittin’.
And they never even suspected I was in the neighborhood.
I knowed that to be true ‘cause they didn’t fret none, not even a skosh;
They just meandered off across just about 70 foot of open field
An’ disappeared into the brush on the other side.
And then somethin’ did spook ‘em cause they all took ta flight,
Gobble gobbling up a storm, like you never in one lifetime ever did hear,
Like someone was a pinching their funny bones or somethin’,
Like they was really scared. I mean, I never saw turkeys fly so quick
And make so much noise in such a short space of time.

And as if that weren’t enough, I got ta see a huge, and I mean real huge owl.
I don’t know what brand or model he was, ‘cause I’m no horticulturist.
Don’t misconstrue me; we all know the world needs them hi-tech biological gurus,
Just as much as it needs them that favors the intellectual side like me.
Anyways, I saw that old owl swoop down from a tree and nab somethin’—
pro’bly a field mouse—and fly right off outta sight, back into them woods,
Pro’bly back onto a distant tree limb.
And I can tell you, that tree limb would have ta be a big one to hold that big old owl.
I mean he had to of weighed thirty, possible even forty pounds.
And I ain’t exaggeratin’ none neither, leastways not on purpose.
He was indespicably the biggest hooter I ever did see.

Yeah, the opportunities are seemless, sittin’ in the woods in a huntin’ blind,
Waitin’ for that big buck—that’s a man deer—ta pop outta the woods
During the daylight hours so’s you can shoot ‘im and take ‘im home,
And brag about him to your friends and neighbors.
And maybe, just maybe have ‘im mounted so’s you can just gaze on him
Those days when you can’t go out and sit in that blind,
And watch all them adventurous animals romp and revel
In the beauteous out of doors in the wondrous wooded forests of eastern Montana.

Yeah, I knew there was a reason, in June of '93, on that hot summer afternoon
While we was roastin’ in the afternoon sun in Arizona, an’ I mean roastin’.
It was a hundred and twenty-four degrees in the shade and there weren’t no shade.
Anyways, I knowed there was a reason I and my better’n average half
Come ta this high plains country.
Now all I gotta do is convince her it was the right thing ta do.
Of course, with my immeasurable intellect,
That shoots right off the other end of that there richter scale,
That shouldn’t be too difficult a task.

by D.L. Purkey

This is an email I received a few day ago. I think it is worth your time to read, so I have posted it here. It addresses Barbara Boxer's stupit comments to a general in the United States Army.

Babs:

You were so right on when you scolded the general on TV for using the term, "ma'am," instead of "Senator". After all, in the military, "ma'am" is a term of respect when addressing a female of superior rank or position. The general was totally wrong. You are not a person of superior rank or position. You are a member of one of the world's most corrupt organizations, the U.S. Senate, equaled only by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Congress is a cesspool of liars, thieves, inside traders, traitors, drunks (one who killed a staffer, yet is still revered), criminals, and other low level swine who, as individuals (not all, but many), will do anything to enhance their lives, fortunes and power, all at the expense of the People of the United States and its Constitution, in order to be continually re-elected.

Many democrats even want American troops killed by releasing photographs. How many of you could honestly say, "We pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor"? None? One? Two?

Your reaction to the general shows several things. First is your abysmal ignorance of all things military. Your treatment of the general shows you to be an elitist of the worst kind. When the general entered the military (as most of us who served) he wrote the government a blank check, offering his life to protect your derriere, now safely and comfortably ensconced in a 20 thousand dollar leather chair, paid for by the general's taxes. You repaid him for this by humiliating him in front of millions.

Second is your puerile character, lack of sophistication, and arrogance which borders on the hubristic. This display of brattish behavior shows you to be a virago, termagant, harridan, nag, scold or shrew, unfit for your position, regardless of the support of the unwashed, uneducated masses who have made California into the laughing stock of the nation.

What I am writing, are the same thoughts countless millions of Americans have toward Congress, but who lack the energy, ability or time to convey them. Regardless of their thoughts, most realize that politicians are pretty much the same, and will vote for the one who will bring home the most bacon, even if they do consider how corrupt that person is. Lord Acton (1834 - 1902) so aptly charged, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Unbeknownst to you and your colleagues, "Mr. Power" has had his way with all of you, and we are all the worse for it.

Finally Senator, I, too, have a title. It is "Right Wing Extremist Potential Terrorist Threat." It is not of my choosing, but was given to me by your Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. And you were offended by "ma'am"? Have a fine day. Cheers!

Jim Hill
16808 - 103rd Avenue Court
East South Hill, WA 98374

Hunter Gets Attacked

The following is a parody of a true event that occurred recently in Montana. Only the names were changed to protect the guilty. It is intended to provide a little humor to our otherwise dull and difficult lives.

Hunter Reports Getting Assaulted by a Giant Masked Creature,
Dateline, Sidney, Mt. Sept. 5, 2009: Hunter Jordina Hallman called the Montana Fish and Game warden yesterday morning reporting that a giant, masked creature had just attacked him as he was on his way to his tree stand to hunt whitetail deer. He described the event as harrowing and unnerving. As he was walking in the early morning hours, about an hour before sun up, a giant, furry animal, wearing a mask jumped out of the brush and began hissing at him in a threatening manner. Jordina says he then grabbed a big stick from off the ground and began beating the animal to no avail. The animal knocked him into a ravine about ten feet deep, filled with water. The water destroyed both his cell phone and his brand new used distance locater. He fought off the assailant valiantly and climbed out of the ravine only to discover he had a badly sprained ankle. He bravely continued on to his tree stand where he climbed up twenty feet before he could finally sit down and rest. He had the opportunity to shoot a few small deer, but decided the perilous beginning to his day necessitated he only settle for a big buck or a good sized doe. When he arrived home to tell his wife Mindy about the incident, she seemed unconcerned. That evening, while having dinner at a friend’s house, that friend’s wife (whose name will be withheld to protect her innocence), bandaged his swollen ankle and put ice on it. Jordina commented to his wife that she should watch and see how a wife is supposed to take care of her mighty hunter when he returns home injured from the dangerous consequences of a hunt. She laughed hysterically.
Jordina said the assailant left the scene in a red Mustang convertible. Police are currently searching for it. If you have any information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of this villain, please call the Montana Fish and Game office or your local law enforcement center. A $5.00 reward is being offered by the Jordina Hallman estate.

Ignorance is Not Bliss

I guess I can't help myself. I read two articles in our local paper that clearly demonstrate why this country is in such dire straits. The first writer uses the most obvious reason to have no gun control by quoting an old statistic about how many people get confronted by a bad guy with a gun, suggesting that more gun control might mean that bad guy wouldn't have a gun. Can anyone over eight years old be so incredibly naive. Since when did criminals obey laws. That's why we call them criminals. They ignore the laws good citizens do their best to obey. Disarm the good buys and the bad guys will own the streets. Obviously, someone caught her next real humdinger. In the printed version of the paper she argued that she understood those who wanted to argue about their Fourth Amendment right to bear arms. Of course, "everyone knows," she meant the Second Amendment. Then she proceeds that bad guys don't get guns legally anyway, so gun laws are not working. Finally, as if she hadn't shown sufficient ignorance of the facts, she wrote about how much she appreciated Michael Moore's movie on violence in America, (Bowling for Combine)as if she thought his work would be an accurate, definitive presentation on the topic. How airheaded can one brown haired female reporter act. She closed her article by stating, ". . .if it was (sic) up to me there would definitely be heavy restrictions."
I rest my case.

The second article was by a guy who began by suggesting conservatives had a bad week. I'm really curious what kind of kool-ade he's drinking. He applauds Bill Clinton for doing his wife's job by going to North Korea and rescuing two people who were taken captive by North Korean troops who should never have been where they were to begin with. Of course this was a political ploy by the North Koreans, and they worked it to perfection. Now, our other enemies like Iran, have learned how easy it is to make us look stupid worldwide. The good news is that conservatives in this two horsepower town where I live ate this radical left wing ideologue alive. The comments made to both of these extreme liberal writers about their miss informed rantings were just more evidence conservatives in America are rising up in force to turn this foolishness Obama's adminstration is attempting to perpetrate on free citizens of a heretofore free country around. God bless America and those citizens in it who are, once again, on the move.

Ten Reasons I Believe the Church is Failing to Fulfill Its Mission

The church in America is sputtering around rather impotent and listless. I would like to humbly suggest there are at least ten reasons for this lackluster presentation it is making to a lost world.

1. It is filled with luke warm people. I suggest it’s not appropriate to call these people disciples of Christ (aka true believers) because it seems Revelation 3:14-16 makes it clear God does not tolerate a lukewarm attitude when it comes to the things of the kingdom.

2. It is filled with people whose lives are out of balance. I have discovered in my 37 years as a Christian that most people’s lives are completely out of whack. People like Arnold S. spend way too much time lifting weights so their body becomes their idol. Actors spend enormous segments of time pretending to be something they are not, so they end up with an inability to deal with real life. Industrial moguls work twenty hours a day, so they have no private or family life. Entire families regularly miss bible studies and other important church activities when their children are involved in local sporting activities. Many professing believers get overly involved in non church activities so they stop growing spiritually. There’s nothing inherently wrong with lifting weights and exercising, being an actor, working hard at one’s job, or having a child in sports, but when any of those activities replace bible studies, worship times, personal devotional time, prayer time, church services, or congregational meetings, someone is too busy doing the wrong things.

3. Churches do not make it a condition of membership to be actively involved in ministry. There is no such thing as a born-again believer who doesn’t have a gift or several gifts. Thus, it is incongruous to allow members to be fed without working for their feed. Following Christ is work and the church that doesn’t teach and require its members to work in ministry is not being faithful to the clear teaching of scripture.

4. Churches tolerate known sin in their midst. I am currently working in a church that addresses this problem, but I believe we sometimes fail to follow through correctly. The lesson to Ai as recorded in Joshua 7 should cause us to sit up and take notice. Thirty-six people died unnecessarily because of the sin of one family in Israel. That incident teaches us the sin of one can drag any associated with that one into the consequences of that sin. That’s why it is critically important to promote ministries like small groups where brothers and sisters in Christ can be intimately acquainted with each other's needs and help when one or two get temporarily off track.

5. Pulpits across America are being filled by men and women who don’t have a clue what the bible says and they know even less about what it means. Some of the teaching I have heard spewed from these unregenerated heathen claiming to be Christians is almost unbelievable. The most significant example of utter foolishness I have ever heard came from two pastors who taught one can fast from such things as their favorite television program or their favorite dessert. Of course one can fast, in principle, from anything I suppose. Those two preachers just failed to point out that such fasts have absolutely no connection to the biblical reason for, or act of fasting.

6. There is no accountability. The church I currently attend has about 100 people attending each Sunday. Less than ten attend the midweek refresher bible study. There are four or five who attend my Monday night study off and on. When we have things like back yard bible clubs less than ten volunteers show up to help. The senior pastor mows the lawn because no one else is willing to take on the task.

7. Few preachers preach that one who is really saved will, because his spirit has been regenerated, produce fruit. In other words, if one’s life is fruitless, he is dead in his trespasses and sins; and unless he repents, he’ll spend eternity in hell.

8. Preaching is to often unsound biblically regarding Christian stewardship. I have written an entire book on this topic, so all I will say in a few words here is that tithing is an Old Testament practice intended for a nation that used the tithe to pay for its entire legal, medical, and religious operations. For Christians living in the church age, the bar is much higher. There is so little understanding about Christian stewardship today I’m amazed Churches function at all. Most of what must be done for the kingdom requires two things: 1. people committed to ministry; and 2. money for that ministry. In most churches one or the other, or both are scarce.

9. Ordaining of ungifted pastor/teachers is both a cause and an effect. Bible colleges and seminaries are graduating and ordaining thousands every year who have neither the gift nor the call to be pastor/teachers. The implications of this one are so far reaching it is impossible to calculate their impact.

10. The final and most significant problem with today’s churches is that they are spending millions of dollars on programs that are doing little to further the kingdom of God. Most churches in America are only interested in filling pews with tithers so they can make the church bigger so they can seat more tithers. The health, wealth, and prosperity preachers tell us if we give sacrificially to whatever it is they are doing, God will give us more things, keep us well, and make us happy as little bunny rabbits. "Buy a prayer cloth and you will be blessed." In contrast, the bible teaches one must carry his cross daily, expect to be persecuted and most often poor, our joy comes from a deep, personal commitment and relationship with our Lord, and that we are to rejoice when persecuted for our faith. "Whoopy ding!" you say. "I attend a church where 5,000 attend each Sunday morning and there are bible classes for every age group." God bless you brother. The next time you want to tell the world how holy your church is, check the statistics for the crime rate in your neighborhood. That just might wake you up to the possibility that the doors of your church aren’t open to the poor, orphans, widows, and aliens who are residing in your own community.

This list is certainly not exhaustive. I just picked the number ten because it’s a significant number and makes the point. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there weren’t ten righteous people in it. Some estimate it had about 120,000 residents. By extrapolation, one can surmise that America has about 330,000,000 citizens. If there aren’t at least 39, 600,000 born-again, bible thumping, turned on, God lovin’, sacrificial, cross bearing followers of Christ He may destroy these currently Un-United States like He did Sodom and Gomorrah. I think we would do well to ask if there are 40 million born-again disciples of Christ, would they be sitting around, letting this country sink into the dregs of the sin in which it currently resides? Sodom and Gomorrah’s sin pales when placed along side the sin of this country. We murder babies, promote freedom of speech and religion, hire aberrant sexual deviants to teach our children in the public school system, preach that drunks have an incurable sickness, grant licenses to strip clubs, gambling casinos, and businesses that serve nothing but alcohol whose sole reason for existence is to get people drunk and make a few bucks in the process. Murderers and rapists walk the streets, or spend their entire lives in prisons that are often more luxurious than many homes in America because we are fearful we might improperly convict one person out of a million. For decades we spent millions of dollars yearly taking illegal aliens back to Mexico while farmers, ranchers, and sweatshops spent millions bringing them back.

I fear if we don’t get the message soon, it will be too late. Nine-Eleven, Hurricane Katrina, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, mines collapsing, volcanoes erupting, Iraq, Afghanistan, and rising, out of control, crime rate are all signs meant to call us to repentance; and so far they aren’t working. God’s patience is not endless. The land of Canaan (Gen. 15:16; Joshua), Pharaoh of Egypt (Ex. 7-14), and Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen.19) learned that lesson the hard way.

Thus says the Lord,
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.

Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.

Indeed, I will cast her on into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to you according to your works.

Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent.

Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

It's been quite some time since I have entered notes on this blog. A lot of things have been going on that have prevented me from taking the time to do this. At 64 years of age I have been trying to slow down my life so I can do those things I believe are much more important than making money to pay bills. I have been admonished, quite gently, by both Jordan and Mike to quit my job and be what God has called me to be, a pastor in His local church. I am honored to think that two godly men have come to the same conclusion about my gift or, more specifically, my calling. I believe He has called me to be a pastor/teacher, caretaker of His local church here in Sidney, Mt., so I may be turning in my resignation soon. Sharon and I have had the incredible privilege this week of counseling two dear young believers in Christ about how to make a "Christian" marriage work. Wow! What an unbelievable privilege and opportunity to put 37 years of communion in marriage t0 work helping others. Sharon is an unbelievable specimen of a godly woman. She has stood by my side through good and questionable leadership I have provided for all of those years. She has bitten her tongue trying so desperately to let God's Holy Spirit speak to me without the her input so many times that I'm fairly confident her tongue is raw.

Through all of this, all I can say is, "Thank you Lord Jesus, for knowing what woman I needed to be my helpmate through the trials and tribulations of this life." She left me f0r eighteen days this summer to visit her family in Southern California. The last time she did that was three years ago and it was only for two weeks. That was too much, but it was significantly less than the 18 days she left for this year. I trust you are all getting the point. The older I get, the more I need her at my side, arguing, questioning, challenging, and discovering our purpose in this life. I truly must say, "I don't know how pagan men do it. How do they manage the daily problems life brings to a marriage?" Having a godly woman at my side makes it all so incredibly bearable.

I know I must resolve two agonizing questions in the next few days, weeks, or months; and I would greatly appreciate your prayers for me to administer God's wisdom in the process: 1. Should I immediately quit my current employment? and 2. Should I return to graduate school and get a MA in Divinity or take Cross Cultural Studies for missions. Some may think, Whoa dude, who cares? But I assure you, this is a decision I have wrestled with for decades. I desire to spend my waning years doing all I can to further the kingdom of God. I falter daily because I haven't the energy to do all each day's needs brings. I try to rise at 3 AM to read God's word because my current job does not allow me to read in between assignments like my last one did. But, my current job gives me all weekends off, so I can always be at church on Sundays. But, there is so much more to do at Fellowship Church where I currently attend. I know I could work twelve hours a day doing things for the kingdom of God and still fall far short of all that needs to be done.

Please pray for me to be faithful to implement God's will for Sharon's and my life.

Thanks and God Bless,
Brother Dave

Stand Up and Walk

“Therefore, confess ( the original tense is in the present participle;
which would have better been translated ‘be confessing’)
your sins to one another, and pray for one another,
so that you may be healed.
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:16

I am forever amazed how often we saints of God live in physical and spiritual defeat. All of us realize, and most of us glory in the inheritance we know we will be receiving when our Lord returns and takes us unto Himself for all eternity. What amazes me, however, is that most of us don’t realize the inheritance we have now. We are the righteousness of God, not because of our deeds, but because Jesus made us such when He gave His blood for our sins at Calvary.

I’m relatively sure we’re all familiar with the verses in Ephesians 6 that admonish us to take on the full armor or God so we can stand strong in the battle against evil. But, I suspect most of us forget Jesus’ admonition to his disciples in Matthew 16 when he tells Peter the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. It appears the church (God’s congregation of warriors) in America thinks we should be living in a defensive posture, vainly trying to hold what little ground we have taken. We are living as paupers and a defeated army because we have forgotten we are children of the King. God tells us the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. That means we are supposed to be on the offensive, not the defensive.

Most of us apparently don’t believe God wants to heal both our physical and spiritual infirmities. Most of us seem to think God wants to bring glory to his name by strengthening us spiritually in the midst of our physically infirmities, so we can testify to those around us how joyful in Christ we are in spite of those physical problems we are patiently enduring. James 5:15 does not say, and the prayer offered in faith will enable the one who is sick be joyful in the midst of his sickness. It does say, “. . . and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” Consider this, it’s impossible for a soldier to march forward into the strongholds of the enemy while he is lying on his back. And, I am abundantly aware God does not heal everyone of every disease every time prayer is offered seeking that end. And critical to the context of James 5 is the church and it's godly leadership known as Elders. I was asked the other day if Elders have some special kind of dispensation, to which I immediately replied, "Absolutely!" Of course that special dispensation only applies to elders who meet the biblical instruction for their selection as provided in I Timothy 3, Titus 1, and Eph 4.

I suggest however that God doesn’t respond to most of our prayers asking that a brother be healed of an infirmity because He knows full well that brother isn’t living like a soldier to begin with (James 4:3). He knows that brother only wants to be healed so he can continue living the self-indulgent, impotent, ineffective, unfruitful life he lived before the sickness. God wants to heal us for service not to ease our pain and discomfort. He wants to heal us because it brings glory and honor to His Name. He wants to heal us because He loves us. He wants to heal us because healed soldiers make the best warriors. He wants to heal us because we are the saints of righteousness fighting a battle with demons from the kingdom of hell. If you’re too old and worn out to be of any use as a soldier any longer, just pray God will ease your pain and He may do that, especially if you lived like a soldier when you were well.

If, on the other hand, you are ready to get back into the battle fighting for the lives of those lost souls who surround you every day of your life, call for the elders of the church, let them pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. The immutable God of the universe, through His inerrant word, says He will restore you and raise you up (James 5:14, 15). The only thing you have to decide is whether or not you believe Him?

Living in Christ’s Love,
Brother Dave

Make Sure Your Treasure is Fireproof
“Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” (I Cor. 10:14)

At first glance, one might be tempted to say, we don’t worship idols in America. That’s done in pagan countries. And I suppose in a sense that’s true. Most of us don’t set up a figurine before us and bow down to it. I think it is important however for all of us to consider that most of us do have something(s) in our life to which we are so attached that it keeps us from being used effectively by God to minister to the needs of others. Jeff Foxworthy speaks about how one can tell if he might be a redneck. I frequently ask myself if I might not be an idolater, if I believe others will be more impressed with my personal testimony because I drive a Cadillac rather than a Ford, if I tell God I’d be happy to go the mission field, but I have too many responsibilities right now, if I think I’d have a lot more time to witness if I were financially independent; and the list goes on, if I want a bigger, fancier boat so I can take more people out fishing, if I want more, more, more, when I already have so many “things” I could sell them and live comfortably for the rest of my life in most countries without ever working again.

Most contemporary westerners have an incredibly distorted concept of how to measure success, and I’m relatively certain it all began with my generation. We are goal driven to be sure; and that wouldn’t be so bad except that for most of us, those goals are to acquire things like huge houses, several fancy cars, big boats, ATVs, SUVs, 60 “ plasma screen TVs, 1000 watt surround sound stereo systems, Rolex watches, 3 karat diamond rings, and mounds of gold jewelry. To say that our society is obsessed with declaring ourselves accomplished is to grossly minimize the problem.

I am convinced the main reason so many of us fail to speak out against ungodliness when we have the chance to do so is our desire to make sure we do nothing that will jeopardize the important and comfortable position to which we have risen in this earthly life. It is often more important to us to maintain the status quo and not to upset the proverbial apple cart than to model godliness to those around us. I am likewise convinced that is our twenty-first century, All-American version, of idolatry. I am not suggesting there is anything ungodly about modest possessions. I am suggesting that most of us in America have forgotten, or never knew, the wondrous joy of leading a lost soul to the saving knowledge of Jesus, because we’re too busy maintaining those possessions we believe convince our friends and neighbors we are so successful. God, speaking to us through the apostle Paul, makes it abundantly clear not one physical thing we own will enter with us into eternity. It will all burn up in the fire. However, every lost soul help find his way into the kingdom of God, by our lives and our words, will be jewels in the crown we will wear for eternity.

A dear friend and brother in Christ just recently took a solid biblical principle (an example of twentieth century idolatry) and applied it to his life. He realized his family was more important than his job. He decided the tears of his daughter that came because he had missed an important event in her life, were enough to cause him to tell his boss he wasn't going to continue missing out on his children's lives for his job. Of course, all of us who need jobs to pay our bills have to find the godly path He would have us take. We can't just up and quit a job because it is an inconvenience. But if we have our priorities in line with God's word, we can discern when our job is making it impossible to be the godly father and husband we must be to be pleasing to Him.

In closing, I leave you with this one last thought taken from Mark 8:36, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” I think it's also crucial to ask ourselves, “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and not help others enter into the kingdom of God?” If you're not bearing fruit, it may be because you're too busy making sure you and your family have all those great things that will burn up in the fire (I Cor. 3:13-15; Jude 23; II Pet. 3:7).

Love in Jesus,
Brother Dave

Choosing A Spouse

Sermons, and I suppose books, have been or could be written about the incident in Genesis where we read that Abraham sent his servant Eliezar to Haran to get a wife for Isaac. Over and again, in the Old Testament, we see arranged marriages that worked incredibly well. They were based on things like cultural background, financial status, breeding (another term for family values), and religious preference. Such thinking is not necessarily prejudice, but it is discriminatory. I believe such discrimination is both wise and godly. I humbly suggest the fact that we, in this country, allow our young, teenage children to choose their own lifetime mate is evidence enough that such a system doesn’t work. Our national divorce statistics alone amply support such a conclusion. While I’m not suggesting we’ll ever be able, in western culture, to insist that a daughter has no say about whom she marries, I am suggesting parents should be playing a major role in assisting their children in finding a marriage partner.

One of the most disgusting traditions in the history of mankind is practiced openly and by nearly all western cultures. I have recently heard it called recreational dating, and that description is incredibly insightful. Actually, it is a rather recent occurrence that arrived on the scene with two, turn of the century phenomenon, the car and the woman’s liberation movement. Prior to the arrival of these two things onto the scene in western culture, courting was the norm. A single man and woman of good reputation were never allowed to be alone together. A man had to get permission from a woman's parents to court her. The only purpose of courting was to find a wife. And parents had the final say as to whether or not their daughter was allowed to marry the man courting her. Neither time nor space permit me to expand on the manifold problems that came with the auto and the infamous woman's liberation movement. At least one book could be written about the long term dastardly impact each has had on the family in America. I have written more extensively about the problem in my book titled Raising Godly Children in a Pagan Society. I will only point out here that recreational dating has devastated American families, probably more than any other single factor. It is in direct contradiction to everything the bible has to say on the topic. It is the breeding ground for the “Try it to see if you like it,” mentality that is directly linked to the divorce rate in this country. If you are raising children in this culture, you need to read my book on Raising Godly Children in a Pagan Society, and you need to keep your children out of the public school system. I do not give such advice lightly. I was a public school teacher filling various assignments for over twenty-eight years, so I know about what I speak. Do not swallow the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on true followers of Christ for many decades that your child will be a light shining in the darkness. Please trust me when I tell you, he or she will be squashed like any one of those millions of bugs that get sacrificed on the windshields and grills of cars yearly if you place him under the authority of public school demagogues.

The overwhelming number of administrators, teachers, and service personnel in that system are atheists, left wing radical socialists, fascists, dictators whose number one goal in life is to indoctrinate those under their care into their ideological cult; and they call it education. These freaks of nature are godless, lifeless spirits who drink too much, smoke too much, gamble too much, party too hardy, lack any sense of godly morality, engage in the sexual exploitation of our children, and a huge contingency of them live with multiple sex partners, both hetero and homo sexually. I humbly suggest if you commit your, less than adult, children to being a light shining in that dungeon of depravity, you are, though possibly quite unintentionally, sacrificing them on the altar of Baal. Children of men and women who call themselves followers of Christ have a right to expect more from their parents.

Finally, choosing one's spouse, as practiced in western culture, is kind of like a crap shoot. Place your bet, roll the dice, cross your fingers, and hope you don't crap out. Unfortunately, approximately 54% of marriages in America do just that. If that number alone doesn't sufficiently frighten you parents of little children, I suggest you have no right to have them. It is not a pithy little saying that today's children are tomorrows leaders. It is a fact to which we had best pay closer attention. It is a fact that should cause us to take a serious look at that boy or girl who has plans to spend time with the child for whom God has given us the responsibility to raise. Ethics and morality in America is spiraling downward at an alarming pace. the God of creation is not pleased with America; and He is our only hope. True followers of Christ, kneeling at His altar, seeking His face, and confessing their sin, are the one last chance this country has to stand firm on His promises and reap the benefits of His blessing (Jer. 18:7-10)

God Bless,
Brother Dave

The Doctrine of Election
Ephesians 1:4

Ephesians 1:4 reads, ”. . . just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” Four key thoughts stand out in this short verse:

1. God chose us before the foundation of the world. You see, our security rests on the fact, not that we accidentally came across a believer at just the right time to hear the gospel and get saved, but on the fact that God chose us before the foundation of the world. He then used a faithful believer who would speak the words of salvation to which we would respond. And the glorious truth is that He will use each of us for that same purpose if we will be obedient to speak those words of salvation when God brings one he has chosen to us to hear the gospel.

2. We should be holy. God’s purpose for saving us is that we should be holy. There are lots of reasons we should be holy. One of the most significant is that our being holy is the magnet that draws others to us. Being holy is the same as being a light in the darkness.

3. We should be without blame. Of course when God sees us through Jesus’ shed blood on the cross, He sees us without blame. But this admonition is important because just like the previous admonition to be holy, being without blame, causes others to look at us and see something they don’t see in the multitude of lost souls of this world around us. Thus, those who were chosen before the foundation of the world are drawn to us because they want what they see we have when we live a life of integrity.

4. We walk before Him in love. This admonition seems as if it might be the easiest one of all to follow; yet, I suspect it is the most difficult. Sadly, most of us in western society have a convoluted idea of this word love. We’re told by our Greek scholars there are three words in the Greek that we translate into the word love; I think we miss the point when we begin delving into such distinctions. I think, in one sense, it’s a lot simpler than all that. I suspect God only had one thing in mind when He commanded us to love one another and that’s defined as well as it can be defined in I Corinthians 13. What we discover there is that God’s love is a choice, not an emotion. Godly emotions are the natural overflow of all right choices. When one leads with his emotions he usually gets belted on the chin.

Devine love is a test of the character of the one administering it. It has nothing to do with the character of the one being loved. Devine love is where the rubber meets the road in Christian theology. It doesn’t exist when there is no overt positive action on the part of the one loving. And that’s our thought for the day.

In Christ,
Brother Dave

Top of the morning to all of you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Our focus today is on Luke 10:20. In this account, Jesus had sent out seventy of his disciples to on a missionary journey in verse 1. He gives them several instructions among which is this one found in verse 9, “And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near to you.’” They return in verse 17 rejoicing because even the demons were subject to them. Jesus concedes that point, but He responds, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” Hallelujah, praise God almighty in the name of Jesus! Can anyone imagine a more glorious truth than that? Our names are written in heaven! Dwell on that the next time the trials in this life get you down.

Listen

Mark 4:24 says, "Take care what you listen to." It seems listening is a lost art in America. I can't begin to tell you the number of times I have been talking to someone, almost on a daily basis, who interrupted me in the middle of a point and began talking as if he hadn't heard a word I said. I especially notice this trait in others because I still struggle with it myself. (to be continued this evening)

Relent Concerning the Calamity

We had small groups last evening, and I desire to praise our heavenly Father and His Son, our Lord Jesus for the incredible learning and fellowship we enjoyed. It was the quintessential example of what desiring God does for the body of Christ. I have to go to work this morning, so I will finish this blog when I get home, but I wanted to begin this day with praise, so I pray all of the other groups of our humble fellowship enjoyed similar or better joy as they met together. I was reading Jeremiah this morning in my studies and was especially blessed with 18:7-10. In those verses, God promises to change his plan to destroy any nation that repents and turns to Him, even though they were evil in the past. Specifically the NAS reads, "I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it." I would like to humbly suggest followers of Jesus need to get down on their knees and beseech the God of the universe to move mightily in His body to get them into the streets to preach the gospel including this message He gave to Jeremiah some 2,700 years ago.

I suspect, as I have often stated publicly, God's wrath is about to be poured out on America for its continued apathetic reaction to His truths. The very fact that an unregenerated mndless airhead like Barak Obama could get elected to the Presidency of this country is a clear indication of the spiritual vacuum that exists in "Christian" circles in this country. And for those of you who think those words are inappropriate to use when talking about our President, I would remind you of two things. First, I am quiet aware BHO has more than air in his head. And I'm quite aware he has a mind, though I haven't seen him use it much so far. I use these terms to describe him using a writing style called hyperbole. I exaggerate on purpose to make a point. Second, I do not claim him as my President. I truly believe he is the most despicable man to ever fill the position, and I find it unbearable to acknowledge he actually got elected. I know that is a problem I have to work out, though I pray daily his entire entourage will somehow be booted out of office for ethics violations or something like that. Of course I know that's not going to happen, but it keeps me sane just considering the possibility.

Back to revival in America, I pray daily those who actually follow Jesus will follow His lead and go into the streets proclaiming the gospel to any who will listen. It's time to wake up and smell the burning souls bound for eternity in hell, (they need to hear the gospel too), and bring the elect into the sheepfold. I suspect the way the world is going, the judgment of Revelation 6-9 is soon coming upon the world.

I still pray God will bless America

They are Stupid Children

"For My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children and have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know." (Jer. 4:22)

"To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? behold their ears are closed and they cannot listen. Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them; they have no delight in it. But I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary with holding it in. Pour it out on the children in the street and on the gathering of young men together; for both husband and wife shall be taken , the aged and the very old." (Jer. 5:10-11)

My dear brother Jordan Hall, senior pastor of Fellowship Church, has been attempting to get the attention of members of this community for several months with his overwhelming humor, and powerful satire. He has been maligned time and again for his unabashed, straightforward, no holds barred, preaching about the evils that lurk in every corner of our little town here on the eastern side of Montana. People who call themselves "christian" but who are obviously not, accuse him of perverting the clear teachings of God's word. Before he came, I thought I was the only one in Sidney who believed God has more traits and characteristics to His nature than love. I had three local pastors basically suggest I take my doctrine and find some place that appreciated it. Of course I immediately advised them if my doctrine was indeed mine, it had no place in God's church. I then invited them to show me where I was wrong. Not one was interested. "God is love!" He doesn't hate anyone!" they insisted. Quite contrary to what God's word tells us (Mal. 1:3; Ps. 11:5; Rom. 9:13). "You can't be filled with the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues," cried another. An easily disproved doctrine for any willing to listen to what God's word has to say on the topic. One actually wrote to members of his congregation and told them, "This guy's (referring to me) not a real brother in Christ."
I pray for these false brethren daily. I pray God will open their eyes and help them understand true disciples of Jesus are in an all out war against the forces of darkness here in Sidney, as are Christians all over the world. Warriors get bloody. I am incredibly blessed to be fellowshipping with an army of warriors who call themselves Fellowship Church. Some of us use language that is too strong for some of you who may indeed agree with much of what we are trying to convey, so Jordan and I have agreed to try toning down our rhetoric for the sake of those who have thin skin.
That said, I'm quite sure Jordan will not cease to communicate the truth of God's word without wavering. I certainly have no intention to cease and desist declaring the immutable, irreversible, eternal truths of God's word to appease those determined to perpetrate evil on the citizens of our community.
The gambling halls and most of the bars in Sidney are apparently run by greedy, self-righteous, fools whose only interest is in making all they can from those whose lives are shattered because of their inability to control their addictions to these ungodly pursuits. If these merchants sleep well at nights, its only because their conscience has been seared by years of ignoring it. Owning a business that sells alcoholic beverages is not inherently evil. Owning such an establishment and taking advantage of those who haven't the ability to take care of themselves do to their addiction makes one the lowest of the low. If such people sleep well now, trust God's word when it tells us unless these unregenerated heathen repent of their evil ways, they will spend eternity in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, aka hell, aka Gehenna. (Rev. 20:11-14; 22:14-15)

For those of you who have been duped into believing you are going to spend eternity in the kingdom of God because you prayed a prayer some time in your past, listen to what the word of the Lord has to say. Paul made it clear in II Cor. 13:5 there are things that accompany the life of the one who is truly born-again. These things are called fruit. Galatians 5:22-23 describes the fruit of the Spirit, and that is part of the equation. But, there are at least 16 other things called fruit God's word declares will manifest themselves in the life of the one who has indeed been born-again. Repentance (turning away from sin), love for the brethren, love for God, obedience to the revealed will of God, a burning desire to know God's word, a burning desire to fellowship with the brethren in congregation for worship and learning, a significant prayer life, regular witnessing to the lost, being filled with the Spirit, hatred of evil, proclaiming the gospel without compromise, and caring for the poor, downtrodden, lame, and sick of society are the ones most people who call themselves followers of Jesus ignore. Doing these things doesn't save anyone, but one who is saved does these things because the Holy Spirit of the living God resides within him and overwhelms him with the burning desire to honor Jesus in all he does.
We are save by faith and faith alone. We are sanctified by faith and faith alone. Salvation is from beginning to end a work of faith (Eph. 2:8, 9); but James makes it clear faith that is not accompanied by works is useless (James 2:26). One bright saint asked this question, "If you were on trial for following Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Study God's word intensely and you'll discover, to your utter dismay, most of what is being spewed from pulpits in this town came from the traditions of man not God's word. It is being preached by ignorant, self-righteous, unlearned, ungifted men, most of whom haven't read the bible form cover to cover once in their entire lifetime. If these men were called of God to the task they are attempting to fulfill, I will humbly confess I know nothing about what God's word has to say on the topic. I won't bore you with some of the incredibly unbiblical things about which I have heard them preach. If you want to hear God's word proclaimed without apology or compromise, go to our web site: http://www.fbcsidney.com/, hover over media, then sermons, and select any one for a starter. If you're one of those who like the feminized gospel that has been spewed from pulpits across America for over three decades, don't bother listening to the messages on our site. You won't like them. If you're tired of having your ears tickled, get ready for a real treat; if you like what you hear, feel free to join us as we fight the good fight against the forces of darkness.

Finally, as the title of this blog warns, don't be a stupid child.

Hate is Important
While studying Matthew 14 this morning, I read the account where Jesus was telling His disciples that anyone who comes to Him must hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, if he wants to be His disciple. This is one of those paradox's of God's word that requires careful analysis and interpretation if one is to understand it within it's context. Romans 12:14 tells us to bless those who persecute us. Matthew 5:44 tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Luke 6:27 tells us to love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us. It is one of the most profound things about a true follower of Christ that he can look into the face of one who wants to kill him and tell him God will forgive him and grant him a place in His kingdom for eternity if he will repent, forsake his sin, and follow Jesus.
Knowing these things, we must wrestle with what He means when He says we must hate those close to us if we are to be His disciple. One could easily write a book explaining this problem. Actually, I wrote that book. I called it Conversion verses Discipleship, so I'll refrain from waxing too eloquent here. Suffice it to say, this is a statement of monumental contrasts. What Jesus wants us to realize is that when we compare our love for Him with our love for those close to us in this life, they must be relegated to the level of hate. That is to say, our love for anyone of His creatures should appear as hate when contrasted with the all consumming love we must have for Him. The rigorous life of the disciple does not grant him the luxury of wallowing in the muck and mire of daily living. I believe I love my wife as much as any human is capable of loving another human. That said, she knows such love is only possible because of the all consumming love I have for my Lord Jesus. She is the second love of my life, whom I believe I would gladly sacrifice my own life to save if that need ever presented itself. But the fact remains that she is the "second love" of my life. And I believe it nears blasphemy to suggest my love for her anywhere nears the love I have for God. I counseled a parolee once who had gone to prison for assaulting his wife and abusing his children. Interestingly enough, he claimed to love both more than he loved God.
Jesus uses similar reasoning when He declares it would be better to enter the kingdom of God without an arm and an eye than to be cast into hell whole. Certainly, the statement is true; but cutting off one's arm or plucking out his eye completely misses the point. It is man's heart that needs healing, not his eye nor his arm. The eye and arm are only instruments of the heart. So, while the statement is true, there will be plenty of people enter into eternity in kingdom of hell without arms or eyes.
God's word is filled with many paradox's, so it behooves us to study it carefully so we don't end up in some cult doing stupid things in His name. There are too many such cults to count. Some of them have gained incredible respectability, in some cases even identifying themselves as Christians, so be careful beloved. Don't be sucked into a cult by placing too much emphasis on your feelings. Godly emotions are the natural overflow of pursuing Jesus above all else. Be a Berean. Always make sure your emotions don't ignore the warnings and insights He provides us in the revealed will of God as given to us in His word.

"For unless one's heart is made soft by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit of the living God, eternal life after physical death will consist of eternal torment, agonizing thirst, and unbearable heat." (copyright D.L. Purkey 2009)

I woke this morning at 4 A.M. with an unknown concern on my heart. I remembered that my 80 year old brother-in-law had sent me an email recently I had not taken the time to read. Normally, I read about three lines of mass mailings and delete them. I hate those things. I began reading this one and decided it needs to be distributed to anyone who will read it. I have placed it on my blog praying many people will read it there. What Pam says needs to be heard.

Pamela "Atlas" Geller began her publishing career at The New York Daily News and subsequently took over operation of The New York Observer as Associate Publisher. She left The Observer after the birth of her fourth child, but remained involved in various projects including American Associates, Ben Gurion University, and being Senior Vice-President Strategic Planning and Performance Evaluation at The Brandeis School.


After 9/11, "Atlas" had the veil of oblivion violently lifted from her consciousness and immersed herself in the education and understanding of geopolitics, Islam, terror, foreign affairs and imminent threats the mainstream media and the government wouldn't cover or discuss. To wit: I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books in six languages, and have studied history all my life. I think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is just a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes, these exist but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus. Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about 10 - 15 years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.
We demanded and then codified into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people whom we knew could never pay back? Why? We learned recently that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has "loaned" two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the ?terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 B we all argued about so strenuously just this past September.
Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us? Who asked for it? Who authorized it? I thought this was a government of "We the People," who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not. We ?have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy. Why? We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving.
Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity. Why? We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (now violently in California over a proposition that is so controversial that it wants marriage to remain between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago? We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?
Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, Social Security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and know precisely what I am talking about.) The list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth. It is potentially 1929 x 10. And we are at war with an enemy we cannot name for fear of offending people of the same religion who cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.
And now we have elected a man no one knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla, Alaska. All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders. No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe is more important. Mr. Obama's winning platform can be boiled down to one word: Change...radical change. Why?
I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now. This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life. In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure. Change is indeed coming. And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again. And that is only the beginning. I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they did know was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory and promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his "brown shirts" would bully them into submission.
And then he was duly elected to office with a full-throttled economic crisis at hand [the Great Depression]. Slowly but surely he seized the controls of government power, department by department, person by person, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The kids joined a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught what to think. How did he get the people on his side? He did it promising jobs to the jobless, money to the moneyless, and goodies for the military-industrial complex. He ?did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world.
He did it with a compliant media. Did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and...change. And the people surely got what they voted for. (Look it up if you think I am exaggerating.) Read your history books. Many people objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and made fun of. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in England (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though.?
Don't forget that Germany was the most educated, cultured country in Europe. It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And in less than six years - a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency - it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors. All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.
As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust); I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong, close my eyes, have another latte and ignore what is transpiring around me.
Some people scoff at me; others laugh or think I am foolish, naive, or both. Perhaps I am. But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe - and why I believe it. I pray I am wrong. But, I do not think I am. Since many of you enjoy senior citizen status or will sometime in the not too distant future, I thought you might be interested in this information.

IN GOD WE TRUST?

Everybody who is on this mailing list is either a senior citizen, is getting close, or knows somebody who is. Most of you know by now that the Senate version (at least) of the "stimulus" bill includes provisions for extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens. The author of this part of the bill, former senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle, was credited today by Bloomberg with the following statement.
Bloomberg: "Daschle says health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them."
If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives and are not subject to this new law if it passes. Please use the power of the Internet to get this message out. Talk it up at the grassroots level. We have an election coming up in one year and nine months. We have the ability to address and reverse the dangerous direction the Obama administration and its allies have begun and in the interim, we can make our voices heard! Let's do it!
If you disagree, don't do anything!