Tag: America

Liberals Pushing “Moral Equivalency” Between American Christianity and Radical Islam

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics2 Comments

Islam cartoonRecently, I have heard and read from some of this “Me, First Generation” that there is not any difference between American Christianity and Radical Islam. Quite frankly, that’s like saying that there’s no difference between an in-ground swimming pool and a garden hose.

In Islam, the way to “walk with God and escape his judgement on that final day of judgment” is through ‘falah’, which means self-effort or positive achievement. The faithful must submit to God and follow all of his laws as found in the Koran. Judgment day in Islam involves some sort of measurement of what the believer has done wrong and what they have done right. And, even then, you might not be let into heaven if Allah decides you’re not good enough.

This is the direct opposite of Christianity.

According to the Bible, no man can ever be good enough to deserve God’s favor, to win God’s heaven, because from birth we have Free Will. This Free Will may cause us to reject God and live our lives our own way. That’s why it was necessary for Jesus Christ to die for our sins, covering us in His blood of the New Covenant.

God’s Word tells us that what we need is not ‘falah,’ but faith. To have faith in, to trust, to rely on Jesus and his death as as “the expiation for our sins”. Those who have been Saved by Jesus Christ can be sure that in the future God will welcome them into heaven with wide open arms, because they have been washed by His blood.

Obama,having attended school at an Indonesian Madrassa as a child, has been supportive of Muslims in America since his Presidency began.  In a speech he delivered to the Muslim world on June 4, 2009 at Cairo University, Obama said:

I know, too, that Islam has always been a part of America’s story. The first nation to recognize my country was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, our second President John Adams wrote, “The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims.”

Time out, Scooter.  US President John Adams  also said:

The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

Now, back to the Cairo Speech.

And since our founding, American Muslims have enriched the United States. They have fought in our wars, served in government, stood for civil rights, started businesses, taught at our Universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won Nobel Prizes, built our tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim-American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend our Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of our Founding Fathers – Thomas Jefferson – kept in his personal library.

However, what the Liberal Main Stream Media never reported, and Obama chose to ignore, was the fact that Thomas Jefferson kept a Koran in his library in order to gain a better insight into the way Muslims think, because of the War with the Barbary Pirates.

Obama and his minions are trying desperately to rewrite history , by trying to somehow subliminally imply that Muslims go all the way back in our nation to the Founding Fathers.  That is not the case.

From adherents.com:

There were 95 Senators and Representatives in the First Federal Congress. If one combines the total number of signatures on the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution with the non-signing Constitutional Convention delegates, and then adds to that sum the number of congressmen in the First Federal Congress, one obtains a total of 238 “slots” or “positions” in these groups which one can classify as “Founding Fathers” of the United States. Because 40 individuals had multiple roles (they signed multiple documents and/or also served in the First Federal Congress), there are 204 unique individuals in this group of “Founding Fathers.” These are the people who did one or more of the following:

– signed the Declaration of Independence
– signed the Articles of Confederation
– attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787
– signed the Constitution of the United States of America
– served as Senators in the First Federal Congress (1789-1791)
– served as U.S. Representatives in the First Federal Congress

The religious affiliations of these individuals are summarized below. Obviously this is a very restrictive set of names, and does not include everyone who could be considered an “American Founding Father.” But most of the major figures that people generally think of in this context are included using these criteria, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and more. 

<!–

–>

Religious Affiliation
of U.S. Founding Fathers		 # of
Founding
Fathers		 % of
Founding
Fathers
Episcopalian/Anglican 88 54.7%
Presbyterian 30 18.6%
Congregationalist 27 16.8%
Quaker 7 4.3%
Dutch Reformed/German Reformed 6 3.7%
Lutheran 5 3.1%
Catholic 3 1.9%
Huguenot 3 1.9%
Unitarian 3 1.9%
Methodist 2 1.2%
Calvinist 1 0.6%
unknown 43  %
TOTAL 204

Here are some quotes about God and Christianity from 3 Presidents of the United States whom you might recognize:

John Quincy Adams

My hopes of a future life are all founded upon the Gospel of Christ and I cannot cavil or quibble away [evade or object to]. . . . the whole tenor of His conduct by which He sometimes positively asserted and at others countenances [permits] His disciples in asserting that He was God.

The hope of a Christian is inseparable from his faith. Whoever believes in the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures must hope that the religion of Jesus shall prevail throughout the earth. Never since the foundation of the world have the prospects of mankind been more encouraging to that hope than they appear to be at the present time. And may the associated distribution of the Bible proceed and prosper till the Lord shall have made “bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” [Isaiah 52:10].

In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior. The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.

Thomas Jefferson

The doctrines of Jesus are simple, and tend all to the happiness of man.

The practice of morality being necessary for the well being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain. We all agree in the obligation of the moral principles of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.

I am a Christian in the only sense in which He wished anyone to be: sincerely attached to His doctrines in preference to all others.

I am a real Christian – that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus Christ.

George Washington

You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.

While we are zealously performing the duties of good citizens and soldiers, we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of religion. To the distinguished character of Patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.

The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary but especially so in times of public distress and danger. The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier, defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would… most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of the mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion.

Islam and Christianity present two very different Deities, who may share some similarities, but who have different identities and ultimately different standards. To pretend they are the same is not only to be clueless of the faith of 78% of the citizens of this nation, but, to be ignorant of an integral part of our American Heritage, the legacy of Christian Faith, which our Founding Fathers bequeathed us.

Now, I am not saying that every Muslim is on a jihad against “the infidels”.

However…

When Christians become “radicalized”, we want to share the testimony of what God has done for us through His love, with everyone we meet. We get involved in our local church and we become better fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and American citizens.

When Muslims become “radicalized”, they want to “kill the Infidels” in the name of “Allah the Merciful”.

In the case of the Chechen Muslim brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon, their immersion into Radical Islam led them to “kill the infidels” that horrendous day.

For Liberals to deny that, is disingenuous at best, and just plain out-and-out lying at worst.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Mother’s Day 2014: Thanks For Life, Mother

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

mothersdayOn this Mothers Day, the report comes out from a National Meeting in my Hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, that some members of the Grand Old Party don’t particularly care whether others have the opportunity to live or not.

The Washington Times reported Friday that

Gay marriage and abortion, divisive issues within the Republican party, have flared again at the RNC’s meeting here, with Nevada’s delegation firing back at criticism of its April decision to remove anti-abortion and anti-gay language from its state platform.

Angered by an email from Oklahoma Republican National Committee member Carolyn McLarty that questioned its loyalty to the national party, the Nevada delegation sent a stinging rebuke to the 168-member national committee.

“The removal of two social issues from our platform does not mean that ‘we’ as individual people are ‘for’ gay marriage or ‘for’ abortion,” the email said. “The removal of these planks recognizes the inappropriateness of the existence of these planks in our platform in the first place.”

“We disagree with Committeewoman McLarty where she said ‘They are symptoms of the infiltration of the Republican Party by those who really want to destroy it,’ ” it said.

The delegation also took issue with Mrs. McLarty, an evangelical Protestant and staunch opponent of abortion, calling its action an “attack on God and family.”

“We are insulted by this accusation. Most of our delegates have deep spiritual beliefs,” the Nevada email said.

Grass-roots Republicans themselves are divided over whether abortion should be banned nationally by a constitutional amendment or whether it’s a matter of states’ discretion.

Some respected veteran RNC members were not pleased with the Nevada action on abortion – in part because there is widespread agreement among RNC members that the Democratic party is the party sympathetic to abortion and the GOP has differentiated itself as the “pro-life” party – and because many RNC members are dedicated opponents of what they regard as “murder of the unborn.”

“The Nevada RNC member reported to her fellow RNC western region committee members the platform was ‘shortened “to benefit voters and candidates,’” Arizona RNC member Bruce Ash told The Washington Times.

“I raise the question of whether the Nevada GOP was exercising wise judgment by doing so as well as why these were the best to select,” Mr. Ash said.

But many Republicans agree the GOP must preserve its coalition of voters with disparate views.

I was “reared” (as we say in Dixie) by a Mother and Daddy (Southern colloquialism for a Male Parental Unit) who were members of the Greatest Generation. In fact, I was born 3 days before my mother’s 40th brithday. To this day, I believe that they were going to name me “Oops”.

My mother, like many Middle Class Southern Ladies, after World War II, was ahead of her time. Both her and My Daddy worked 20 years for Sears and Roebuck. And yet, she still had time to cook our meals, and be a single parent to me on those nights when my Daddy worked the late shift and had to help close up, and those Saturdays, when he had to work.

My mother was born in Dyersburg, TN, one of 7 children of a barber (5 girls and two boys). She and my Daddy both lived through the Great Depression and worked hard to make sure that my sisters and I had a good life.

Mother was very strict on us, pushing us to excel. My late step-sister, the oldest, took piano lessons for several years, and played beautifully. My older sister also played piano, acted in school plays, and sang in choirs. She too has been a hard-working mother, working full-time and raising two wonderful children, who are now grown.

My Mother was a strict disciplinarian, always pushing me to do better. If I brought home a “B”, she would tell me I should have gotten a “A”. Because of her, I wound up graduating high school 30th in a class of 360, with a GPA of 3.54.

My view of the world around me was shaped and nurtured by her and my Daddy, a Christian American, and the finest man I’ve ever known, who served with an Army Engineering Unit, as a Master Sergeant, in World War II, and who jumped off of a perfectly good boat into a hail of gunfire to join his American Brothers in the tide-turning American Victory known as “D-Day”.

My Mother and Daddy taught me what it was to be a hard-working, Middle Class Christian American Conservative….and, to be proud of it.

Now, on Mothers day, as I look at this totally messed-up popular culture around me, brought to us by the “Me, First!” Generation, I thank God that my Mother gave me the Gift of Life and did not take the “easy way out” at 40 years of age.

If Liberals, on both sides of the aisle, (because you cannot claim Conservatism, if you want to kill babies) would only perform a self-assessment, and come to the realization that the life inside a human mother’s womb, is in fact, a HUMAN BEING, and not “a bunch of cells,”, “a parasitic life form”, or “an inconvenience”, then abortion would go the way of the rotary telephone.

Unfortunately, though, when you have a president whose first act, upon obtaining the office, was to authorize American Taxpayers’ money be sent to abortion clinics around the world, and who said,

Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at age 16, so it doesn’t make sense to not give them information,

that probably is not going to happen anytime soon.

However, we can still pray for our nation’s unborn. And, keep fighting the good fight!

In conclusion, I ask you to thank your mother , on this Mothers Day, for the very first, and most important gift, which she ever gave you:

The Gift of Life.

Until He Comes,

KJ

America is in Crisis? The Devil You Say.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

Satan StatueWithin the last week, two stories about the Lightbearer have been in the public eye.

No, I’m not talking about President Obama, I am talking about the original Lightbearer, the fallen angel Lucifer, better known as Satan, or, in colloquial terms, the Devil.

Here is story #1, as reported by foxnews.com:

A satanic group commissioned a statue of the devil, raising money to pay a sculptor who it won’t identify, as a way of protesting the Sooner State’s placement of a Ten Commandments monument on the Statehouse lawn in Oklahoma City. The statue, being sculpted in a New York studio, is nearly complete, according to Lucien Greaves, spokesman for the Satanic Temple.

“We’re really coming along fast,” said Greaves, whose group claims to have raised more than $20,000 for the project through an online crowd-funding site.

“There will never be a satanic monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol and the suggestion that there might be is absurd.”
– Alex Weintz, spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin
The statue of the Baphomet, or Sabbatic Goat, a figure that has been used to represent Satan for centuries, is to be made of bronze, poured over a clay mold. Images provided to FoxNews.com show the hideous figure on a throne, with smiling children at each knee. Greaves’ organization seeks to force Oklahoma to allow placement of their statue or demonstrate what it considers an unconstitutional double standard.

Oklahoma officials say there is no way in hell that a statue of Satan will ever assume a position at the Capitol.

“There will never be a satanic monument on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol and the suggestion that there might be is absurd,” Alex Weintz, spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin, said in a statement to FoxNews.com.

Pictures of the partially-completed monument were first posted on Vice.

The Satanic Temple hatched the plan last December after the Ten Commandments monument, presented as a gift from state Rep. Mike Ritze, was placed on the lawn. Because it was a donation, state officials declared that it was permissible to place it on state property. But that prompted Greaves and the Satanic Temple to say they could do the same with a monument of their own.

“When we reach out to them and told them of our intentions, the response we got was asking for the design sketches but we never heard back from them,” Greaves said. “As soon as we are ready, we will reach back out to them.”

And, here is story #2, also from foxnews.com:

A Harvard University student club set to host a satanic black mass reenactment to celebrate witchcraft and satanic worship announced on its website that it will not use a consecrated host during the event.

The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club has organized a May 12 black mass reenactment at the Queen’s Head Pub, which is on campus. The announcement has drawn criticism because these masses typically mock Catholic teachings, MyFoxBoston.com reported.

“Our purpose is not to denigrate any religion or faith, which would be repugnant to our educational purposes, but instead learn and experience the history of different cultural practices,” the club’s statement said. The statement went on to say that the mass will use a piece of bread but will “unequivocally” not use a consecrated host.

The performance will be conducted by The Satanic Temple, a group known to stir up controversy.

The Archdiocese of Boston fired back with this response, “The Catholic community in the Archdiocese of Boston expresses its deep sadness and strong opposition to the plan to stage a black mass on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge.”

“In a recent statement, Pope Francis warned of the danger of being naïve about or underestimating the power of Satan, whose evil is too often tragically present in our midst. We call upon all believers and people of good will to join us in prayer for those who are involved in this event, that they may come to appreciate the gravity of their actions, and in asking Harvard to disassociate itself from this activity,” the statement said.

The Harvard Extension School says the school “Does not endorse the views or activities of any independent student organization. But we do support the rights of our students and faculty to speak and assemble freely.”

 

So, why are these stories concerning Satan of so much national interest.

The fact of the matter is that 77 percent of Americans proclaim Christ as their personal Savior. So, therefore, if you believe in Christ you also believe that Satan, the living persona of evil in the world, also exists.

The problem we face, in this “Me First! Era”, is the fact that self-adulation narcissism, believing that you, yourself, are your own Creator, leaves an open doorway for “Ol’ Scratch” to move right on in to your life.

Consider this Op Ed by Noah Guirney, published today on BostonGlobe.com:

Since 2012, a statue of the Ten Commandments has graced the lawn outside the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City. Now, it’s time for Satan to take his place, there too.

A group from New York called the Satanic Temple has raised more than $28,000 on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo to commission a bronze statue of Lucifer, the design of which has recently been released to the public. While many of the project’s backers are Satanists — as in, they worship Satan — the piece is actually intended to make a broader point: That a statue of the Ten Commandments on public property seems to violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which separates church and state. (This view is also held by the ACLU, which is challenging the Oklahoma government’s right to display the Ten Commandments.)

Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Satanic Temple, told ABC News that the Satanic piece of art — complete with pentagram and goat head — will “celebrate our progress as a pluralistic nation founded on secular law.”

In truth, the line separating the majority religion of the United States and the government has long been blurred. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court found that the town of Greece, New York could open its town meetings with prayers from guest preachers — the vast majority of whom were Christian, and often directly invoked Jesus Christ.

That’s precisely why this is such a brilliant idea, perhaps even moreso than your standard-issue civil liberties lawsuit. A statue of Satan displayed on public property would no doubt offend Christians. But in a country without a state religion, that shouldn’t matter, and Greaves and his ilk are right to point that out.

If Oklahoma’s Capitol Preservation Committee – which issues permits for statues on the Capitol ground – feels that a statue of the Ten Commandments on public grounds is compatible with a Constitution that protects the rights of all Americans, then the group shouldn’t have any issue with a statue of Satan, either. But if, as I suspect, the horned deity gives Oklahoma officials the heebie-jeebees, they should think about how their current statue looks to Satanists. Or, for that matter, to Buddhists, Hindus, atheists, or Christians who see the separation of church and state as a deeply important tenet of American democracy.

People like this idiot, who take the existence Satan lightly, eventually wind up in some sort of trouble, and those who worship Satan wind up in even greater trouble.

Back in the 1960s, the late, beautiful actress Jayne Mansfield posed for a series of publicity pictures with the Head Priest of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey. The pictures showing her with LaVey, included several shots of taking their version of Communion, simulating drinking blood from a goblet, offered by the priest. She even wore a pink and black medallion of Satan and the goat-headed Baphomet, simular to the Oklahoma statue, to the 1966 San Francisco Film Festival. Later, the beautiful actress died in a freak car accident in which she was decapitated.

Now, far be it for me the link one to the other. That is up for you to decide for yourself.

Now, how can I claim that all this upheaval our nation is facing is due to some sort of Satanic Influence attempting to tip the scales in the in the fight between Good and Evil, across our land?

Noah Webster (EVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER; JUDGE; LEGISLATOR; EDUCATOR; “SCHOOLMASTER TO AMERICA”), wrote

[T]he religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles… This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government.129

The moral principles and precepts found in the Scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws.

All the… evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.131

[O]ur citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.

[T]he Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children under a free government ought to be instructed. No truth is more evident than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

The Bible is the chief moral cause of all that is good and the best corrector of all that is evil in human society – the best book for regulating the temporal concerns of men.

[T]he Christian religion… is the basis, or rather the source, of all genuine freedom in government… I am persuaded that no civil government of a republican form can exist and be durable in which the principles of Christianity have not a controlling influence.

The reason that our nation is facing the difficulties we are is the belief by those who proclaim themselves to be the “smartest people in the room”, that they are above the old-fashioned, passe notions of morality and ethics, good and evil, and the Sovereignty of God.

They have made a grave mistake.

Evil exists and these fools opened the door to Satan in our society a long time ago.

When it all comes crashing down around them, what are they going to say?

The Devil made me do it?

Until He Comes,

KJ

The War Against Christianity: Is American Beyond Redemption?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics4 Comments

American FreedomHas the moral and ethical fiber of the greatest country on the face of God’s Green Earth, been irrevocably ripped apart? Should we all start preparing for another Biblical Flood, as in the days of Noah (the real one…not the politically-correct, ecological one)?

TheBlaze.com has the story…

Is mankind evolving into a more peaceful and prosperous people – or are we on a path toward ever-increasing moral depravity, social chaos and destruction?

Answering that dichotomy depends on one’s worldview, but Christian author Jeff Kinley is in the latter camp, telling TheBlaze that he sees human beings continuously and perilously cutting God out of society.

“I look around my world and I think, ‘Wow, we’ve written God out of our own story here,’” Kinley recently said in an interview. “We’re content in living in our own lives.”

The author, who believes Noah, the flood and the ark unfolded as the Bible recounts, draws parallels between contemporary culture and the “pandemic godlessness of the earth” during Noah’s in his new book “As It Was in the Days of Noah.”

Human behavior then and now, he posits, isn’t all that different.

“Humanity had forgotten God so literally every man just did what they thought was right in their own eyes,” Kinley said of the days of Noah.

As for the current conditions, the author described what he sees as “pandemic unrestrained immorality” and “a falling away of the purity of faith.”

Kinley proceeded to describe how society’s current treatment of God mirrors the Bible’s depiction of the “end times” – a time-frame in Christian theology that precedes the Earth’s end.

While he said it’s impossible to judge when the end times might unfold, Kinley described the current conditions as matching those presented in the Bible, citing Matthew 24, among other references.

“As we ramp up to the end times, there’s going to be, as Romans 1 describes, a simmering hostility against God, against biblical morality,” Kinley told TheBlaze.

Kinley repeatedly spoke against the removal of God from society, saying that it leaves mankind to his own devices, creating a horizontal rather than vertical morality – one in which there is a “sliding scale of morality.”

Citing gay marriage, which is now legal for the first time “perhaps since the days of Noah itself,” Kinley said that human beings are creating new ways of doing things based on shifting standards.

The author also mentioned Israel’s reemergence as a prophetic sign as well.

So, is America beyond Redemption?

It troubles me to no end that, even though I know, in my heart of hearts, that there are plenty of average Americans who are just as upset over the dilapidated moral and fiscal condition of “the shining city on a hill” as I am, there are times when I feel like the little Dutch boy, with his finger in the dike, desperately trying to hold back the flood waters, which are about to destroy everything in its path.

I know that civilizations come and go. I am a student of history, and I have read about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Their incredibly advanced governmental, military, and architectural legacy was eclipsed by situational ethics, immorality. and governmental corruption, caused by enemies foreign and domestic.

Sound familiar?

The United States of America has been one of the most noble undertakings in the history of mankind.

Our Founding Fathers came here to escape religious persecution. Not to get away from religion , as both Liberals, and their unwitting dupes, attempt to claim as truth.

John Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Second President of the United States said..

It is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue.

…We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, said…

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that “except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.” I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

Thomas Jefferson, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Third President of the United States, said…

Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly. Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, and exercise them whenever an opportunity arises, being assured that they will gain strength by exercise, as a limb of the body does, and that exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of the purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sublime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death.

So, how did we get to where we are?

Today 78% of Americans still believe that Jesus Christ is their personal Savior. You wouldn’t know that fact from exposure to our American Media, nor from following the anti-Christian actions of our present Administration.

The problem though, is the fact that man is a fallen creature. There was only one Perfect Man. We all fall short of the Glory of God.

There will be no escape for America from this downward spiral we find ourselves in, without Revival in the Land.

Just as addicts, going through the 12-step program, are told to reach out for spiritual help, so should we, as a sovereign nation, bought with the sweat and blood of our fallen, who fought for an ideal much greater than themselves, so that this Blessed Land, UNDER GOD, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, should not perish from the face of God’s green Earth, seek the help of the God of our Fathers, to reclaim The Promise that is America.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.- Ronald Reagan

Until He Comes,

KJ

High Schoolers in Colorado Recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic. Why it Matters.

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

pledgeofallegianceLast Monday, someone in the student-led Cultural Arms Club at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins, Colorado decided that it would be cool and appropriate, if they said the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic.

That’s right. Instead of saying “One Nation Under God”, these high school students in Colorado pledged that America was “One Nation Under Allah”… and evidently, did not think a thing about it.

Seriously?

Back in October, 2010, I posted a Blog titled “The Pledge and the Progressives”, about an incident of spontaneous patriotism that happened at the beginning of a candidates forum with 8th Congressional District candidates Joe Walsh, Melissa Bean and Bill Scheurer at Grayslake Central High School.

According to Illinois’ top League of Women Voters official, “phony patriotism” was driving criticism over a moderator’s reaction when she was asked if the Pledge of Allegiance would be recited before an 8th Congressional District debate.

Executive Director Jan Czarnik said what happened and the firestorm of criticism afterward, directed at moderator Kathy Tate-Bradish, was an attempt by supporters of Republican candidate Joe Walsh of McHenry and tea party members to bully the organization.

Czarnik said someone was not a better American just by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
This clueless woman said:

It’s a phony patriotism issue is what it is.  They must think it helps their campaign.

Brought in from the League of Women Voters Evanston branch because she didn’t live in the 8th Congressional District, Tate-Bradish handled the event at Grayslake Central High School that featured Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean of Barrington, the Green Party’s Bill Scheurer and Walsh.

As you heard in the video, Tate-Bradish was asked by a man in the audience whether the Pledge of Allegiance would be recited after she went over some ground rules and directed the candidates to make opening statements.

As Tate-Bradish condescendingly explained that the debate was not scheduled to start with the pledge, almost all in the crowd of more than 300 stood and enthusiastically recited it anyway.

Tate-Bradish, who joined in the pledge, issued a scolding, like a petulant schoolmarm, when the crowd finished.

Walsh campaign manager Nick Provenzano still does not understand why Tate-Bradish did not appear to welcome the Pledge of Allegiance suggestion. He said it was spontaneous and not orchestrated by Walsh’s campaign.

He said:

That neutral stance (by Tate-Bradish) toward the Pledge of Allegiance is troublesome.

Not just troublesome, sir.  Borderline treasonous.

Tate-Bradish stood by her unpatriotic actions and said she had been surprised by personal attacks directed toward her on the Internet since the forum, particularly posts stating she “hates America.” ( I’m shocked, I tell you.  Shocked.)  She claims that she ran the debate in the format established by some Grayslake High students and agreed to by all three candidates, none of whom asked for the pledge in advance.

She petulantly whined:

It’s pretty patriotic to run forums in election seasons where every candidate can be heard and they’re not stomped on.

Island Lake resident Joseph Ptak, a Walsh supporter, come forward later to admit that he asked for the pledge at the debate. Provenzano said he was not certain who made the request.

Ptak, 58, a U.S. Air Force veteran, said the pledge was a proper way to begin the event that was in a high school and had student participation. He said many veterans were in the audience, and he objects to Czarnik questioning the request’s sincerity.

Ptak said:

I’m a Joe Walsh supporter, but first and foremost I’m an American.

Bean spokesman Jonathan Lipman declined to comment.

Somehow, I don’t doubt that.

Progressives are only loyal to themselves.

Growing up in the Heartland of America, starting in elementary school, every student said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, facing the American Flag in the corner of our classroom with our hands placed firmly over our hearts.

And, I can tell you from first hand experience, that act of allegiance and reverence for our country still takes place every morning in schools across this country, including those here in Mississippi.

Why is this done?

Is it some sort of arcane ritual that has no meaning in this Modern America, where our Liberal politicians preach that diversity is what makes America strong and that the “Melting Pot” image of a unified America is no longer relevant?

Liberals, all over the Internet, have been asking what difference does it make that these kids decided to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic?

I’m glad you asked, Libs.

The Pledge of Allegiance is more than just words being said to an inanimate object.

Just as America’s Founding Fathers pledged “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” to one another, as they fought to secure our American Freedom from the forces of tyranny, every time Americans recite our Pledge of Allegiance, we are pledging our loyalty to each other as Americans, and to our country.

This is not a pledge to be taken lightly. This is not a pledge which was designed to be said in the language of our enemies.

This is a pledge which was meant to be said sincerely and said in a way that honors the flag of our country, a symbol which brave men have fought and died for in defense of our liberty.

As I have written before, my friend Johnny McDonald once wrote that “liberty is freedom with responsibility”. Our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance is a pledge of responsibility… a responsibility to keep America “The Shining City on a Hill”… a country where legal immigrants can begin their new lives as Americans…”one nation under God with liberty and justice for all”.

Maybe those High School Students in Colorado were never properly explained the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance?  As I take my leave today, America’s Clown Prince, Mr. Richard (Red) Skelton, will explain it, so that even they might understand.  God Bless America!

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

Obama’s Secretary of State, John Kerry, Says that Israel Will Become an “Apartheid State”, If They Don’t Give Half of Their Country to “The Palestinians”.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics1 Comment

americanisraelilapelpinYesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day on which to reflect upon the mass genocide of European Jews, carried out by the National Socialist Party, otherwise known as the NAZI Party, headed by German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.

On the very solemn day, it came out that United States Secretary of State John Kerry had recently made such a insensitive, racially-charged remark about the Jewish Homeland of Israel, that now American Leaders are calling for his “involuntary resignation”.

The Daily Beast reports that

If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday.

Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry’s use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

It wasn’t the only controversial comment on the Middle East that Kerry made during his remarks to the Trilateral Commission, a recording of which was obtained by The Daily Beast. Kerry also repeated his warning that a failure of Middle East peace talks could lead to a resumption of Palestinian violence against Israeli citizens. He suggested that a change in either the Israeli or Palestinian leadership could make achieving a peace deal more feasible. He lashed out against Israeli settlement-building. And Kerry said that both Israeli and Palestinian leaders share the blame for the current impasse in the talks.

Kerry also said that at some point, he might unveil his own peace deal and tell both sides to “take it or leave it.”

“A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second-class citizens—or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state,” Kerry told the group of senior officials and experts from the U.S., Western Europe, Russia, and Japan. “Once you put that frame in your mind, that reality, which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution, which both leaders, even yesterday, said they remain deeply committed to.”

According to the 1998 Rome Statute, the “crime of apartheid” is defined as “inhumane acts… committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.” The term is most often used in reference to the system of racial segregation and oppression that governed South Africa from 1948 until 1994.

Senator Ted Cruz responded to Secretary Kerry’s statement on his Facebook Page, yesterday:

Secretary Kerry has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to countenance a world where Israel is made a pariah because it will not sacrifice its security to his diplomatic initiatives.

It is my belief that Secretary Kerry has proven himself unsuitable for his position and that before any further harm is done to our alliance with Israel, he should offer President Obama his resignation, and the President should accept it.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen, Senator.

Kerry is simply doing the bidding of his President, Barack Hussein Obama.

They want Israel to give half of their country to the “Palestinians”, which would retun their nation to basically a strip of land, as it was before the Six Day War.

Who exactly are “The Palestinians”?

According to disoverthenetworks.org,

Since the Six Day War of 1967, the Arab world’s most powerful leaders — in Egypt, Libya, Arabia, Syria, and Iraq prior to Saddam Hussein’s demise — have waged a war of words against Israel. Having failed to defeat Israel by means of naked military aggression, these leaders and their advisors decided, sometime between the end of the war and the Khartoum Conference of August-September 1967, to bring about the destruction of Israel by means of a relentless terror war.

To justify to the world their ruthless murder of Israeli civilians and their undying hatred of the West, these leaders needed to invent a narrative depicting Israel as a racist, war-mongering, oppressive, apartheid state that was illegally occupying Arab land and carrying out the genocide of an indigenous people that had a stronger claim to the land of Israel than did Israel itself.

Thus the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), under the tutelage of the Soviet KGB, invented “The Palestinian People” who allegedly had been forced to wage a war of national liberation against imperialism.

To justify this notion, Yasser Arafat, shortly after taking over as leader of the PLO, sent his adjutant, Abu Jihad (later the leader of the PLO’s military operations), to North Vietnam to study the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare in the hopes that the PLO could emulate Ho Chi Minh’s success with left-wing sympathizers in the United States and Europe. Ho’s chief strategist, General Giap, offered advice that changed the PLO’s identity and future:

“Stop talking about annihilating Israel and instead turn your terror war into a struggle for human rights. Then you will have the American people eating out of your hand.”

Giap’s counsel was simple but profound: the PLO needed to work in a way that concealed its real goals, permitted strategic deception, and gave the appearance of moderation. And the key to all this was creating an image that would help Arafat manipulate the American and Western news media.

Arafat developed the images of the “illegal occupation” and “Palestinian national self-determination,” both of which lent his terrorism the mantle of a legitimate peoples’ resistance. After the Six Day War, Muhammad Yazid, who had been minister of information in two Algerian wartime governments (1958-1962), imparted to Arafat some wisdom that echoed the lessons he had learned in North Vietnam:

“Wipe out the argument that Israel is a small state whose existence is threatened by the Arab states, or the reduction of the Palestinian problem to a question of refugees; instead, present the Palestinian struggle as a struggle for liberation like the others. Wipe out the impression . . . that in the struggle between the Palestinians and the Zionists, the Zionist is the underdog. Now it is the Arab who is oppressed and victimized in his existence because he is not only facing the Zionists but also world imperialism.”

So, why would an American Administration and their fellow Liberals, including American Jews,  join with our nation’s sworn enemies in their Jihad against our staunchest ally, Israel?

In an  article, posted on June 2, 2011, on americanthinker.com, Why Does the Left Hate Israel?,  Richard Baehr attempts to answer that very question…

…I have been to several of the left wing Israel hate fests. They are scary. There is real passion in the air. There is something about Israel that gets the juices going. Anti—Semitism is a part of it. There are a lot of people who are envious of Jews, on the left as well as the right. Patrick Buchanan thinks Jews have hijacked the conservative movement. But on the left, particularly in the academy, and in journalism, I am certain there is professional envy of the many Jewish faces and what better way to get even, and get back for sometimes losing the competitive battle, than by picking on the Jewish state as a surrogate. Leftist Jews sometimes lead the assault against Israel in these venues, thereby giving the attacks, whatever their reason, greater moral authority. Few Jews will stand up for Israel in these environments, because of the great pressure on the left to conform to the group think in the institutions they control.

…The evidence I believe is clear today that Israel faces far greater threats from the left than the right. The left is reflexively anti—Israel and has established important beachheads in significant American institutions— academia, the media, and the old line Protestant ‘high’ churches, as well as in the very seats of government power in many Western European countries, and their intelligentsia. It is not surprising that Israel seems unable to get a fair shake from college professors, the BBC, Reuters, NPR, or liberal churches. Being anti—Israel has become part of their religion.

As a Christian American, I know who I support:  God’s Chosen People. 

You see, I’ve read The Book.  I know the ending.

Until He Comes,

KJ

What is Happening to the Soul of Our Nation?

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, PoliticsLeave a comment

WashingtonPrayingI am fed up with “Social Liberals”, whether they consider themselves “Fiscal Conservatives”, “l”ibertarians or full-blown Liberals, telling me that their irresponsibility is actually nobility. And, that their amorality is actually “True Conservatism”.

It is not just their callousness as to the responsibility that they have to those around them that bothers me. It is their obvious oblivious nature, and lack of regret, as to the consequences of their actions.

And, I am very afraid that this irresponsible callousness, with the help of those who would benefit from it, is spreading across our nation at a rapid rate.

While reading The Drudge Report yesterday afternoon, I almost cried and threw up, all the same time.

I was reading the following two reports, which are perfect examples of what I was just relating to you.

The first report is from lifesitenews.com:

The British Columbia Health Ministry has admitted that the remains of babies destroyed by abortion in B.C. facilities are ending up in a waste-to-power facility in the United States, providing electricity for residents of Oregon.

The province’s Health Ministry said in an email to the B.C. Catholic that “biomedical waste” shipped to the U.S. to be incinerated includes “human tissue, such as surgically removed cancerous tissue, amputated limbs, and fetal tissue.”

“The ministry understands that some is transferred to Oregon. There it is incinerated in a waste-to-energy plant,” the email stated.

The ministry said that contractors handling the province’s “biomedical waste” follow “health and safety protocols, as well as federal, provincial, and local regulations.”

Kristan Mitchell, executive director of the Oregon Refuse and Recycling Association, told the B.C. Catholic that the “biomedical waste” likely ends up at the Covanta Marion waste-to-energy facility in Oregon since it is the only facility that uses waste to power the grid. The facility confirmed that it still receives and incinerates B.C. medical waste.

The power facility, located in Brookes just off the I-5, burns waste in two massive boilers at a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat transfers into water tubes, which creates steam to drive turbines. The turbines generate electricity.

A 2007 article about the Marion waste-to-energy facility that appeared in the Willamette Live — ironically titled “Burn, Baby, Burn” — stated that at the time the incinerator burned about 800 tons (1,764,000 pounds) of medical waste per year.

“Medical waste is brought to the facility in sealed boxes and is carried to the furnace on a conveyor belt which layers it with the rest of the solid waste being processed,” the article states.

Locals at the time protested the “importation and burning of medical waste,” expressing concern about breathing “toxic emissions.”

The news comes one month after the remains of more than 15,000 aborted babies were found to have been incinerated, along with other “medical waste,” to heat and generate power for British hospitals.

The second report comes from abcnews.go.com:

Two Colorado fourth graders were busted for selling marijuana at their elementary school, prompting officials today to urge adults to keep their weed locked away from kids.

School officials said a 10-year-old fourth grade boy brought a small quantity of leafy marijuana to Monfort Elementary School in Greeley, Colorado, on Monday.

“He sold it to three other fourth graders on the school playground, which resulted in a profit to the young man of $11,” John Gates, director of safety and security for the Greeley-Evans School District, told ABC News.

The next day, Gates said one of the three young buyers brought a marijuana edible to school and gave it to the boy who sold the pot on Monday. That boy took a bite, but did not suffer any ill effects, Gates said.

Both boys apparently got the weed from relatives, according to Gates.

“Both of these kids took the marijuana without the consent of their grandparents,” said Gates.

Gates said the four students involved will be suspended for a “significant” number of days, but declined to say exactly how long the punishment would be. Initially police were called, but officials have determined the incident will not he handled as a criminal matter, he said.

“We hope to send a good message here without ruining anybody’s lives. The message we really want to get out here to the adults is, ‘for crying out loud, secure it,’” Gates said.

Adults 21 and older have been able to buy recreational marijuana legally in Colorado since Jan. 1.

In a letter sent home to parents, Monfort Elementary School Principal Jennifer Sheldon said no student was injured.

“We know that many adults have greater access to marijuana since the change in the drug’s legal status in Colorado,” Sheldon wrote. “We urge all parents, grandparents and anyone who cares for children to treat marijuana as you would prescription drugs, alcohol or even firearms. This drug is potentially lethal to children, and should always be kept under lock and key, away from young people.”

The side effects of edible marijuana – which can be far more potent than smoking a joint – have been raising new concerns after two recent deaths in Colorado. In one, a 19-year old college student died when he jumped off a hotel balcony after eating a marijuana-laced cookie. In the second, Richard Kirk, 47, was charged with shooting and killing his wife while she called 9-1-1, telling police her husband had consumed pot-infused candy.

What is happening to the soul of our nation?

Are the Liberal Pundits we see appearing on the Main Stream Media and the “push” polls they are presenting, correct?

Have the majority of Americans become so insensitive and so self- centered, that social issues like these, which are tearing at the very fabric of our society, really do not matter to them?

“Issues” like using the bodies of dead babies for heating fuel?

Has our nation become as uncaring as those “good” Germans, who watched as families of European Jews were loaded on the boxcars bound for the Concentration Camps?

Has Americans’ quest for personal gratification, i.e., the so-called “right” to smoke “harmless” marijuana, made them impervious to the fact that these were 4th graders, selling their parents’ dope to their classmates?

Forbid it, Almighty God.

This nation was founded by Christian men who came here to be able to practice their faith as they chose.

However, they knew that with their new freedom came responsibility.

A responsibility to each other.

That is why they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their Sacred Honor to one another and the Cause of Liberty.

Our American Freedom, which we now enjoy, was given to us by the Grace of God and by acts of courage by selfless men.

Our nation has never been a selfish one. Our people have never been self-centered.

And, those who believe that selfishness and irresponsibility are what America is all about, haven’t got a clue.

Until He Comes,

KJ

He is Risen!

On By kingsjesterIn ChristianityLeave a comment

Wow. It’s really been amazing around here since they crucified Jesus. Did you feel that earthquake? The veil of the temple was torn in half! And did you hear? A bunch of people that had died years ago, were seen walking around the city! But that’s not all. Don’t tell me you haven’t heard?

Listen to this: He has risen! He arose from the dead and was seen by several people. It’s true! I know it sounds unbelievable. I can scarcely take it in myself. Mary Magdalene and Mary, James and Salome’s mother, went to the tomb to perform the anointing of His body and it wasn’t there! On top of that, there was this young guy there, dressed in a white robe. They said he must have been 9 feet tall. He said, “You are seeking Jesus of Nazareth. Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. See the place where you laid him.” So they went and told the disciples. But you know how Peter is. He just had to go run up there and see for himself.

Jesus even approached two of them on the road to Emmaus. They didn’t recognize him. He even broke bread with them that night. They realized who He was and He disappeared! They ran to tell the disciples and as they were telling them, Jesus appeared right in front of them! They were all starting to panic. Jesus said, “Peace to you.” But they couldn’t believe it was him, especially Thomas. So he had him touch him in the hole in his hand where they drove the nail and where the spear pierced his side.

Jesus ate with them and performed other signs and miracles in front of them and they understood scripture as never before. He also came to them at the Sea of Tiberius. Peter took the disciples fishing and they weren’t catching anything. Jesus told them from the bank to cast the net down on the right side. They did, and they could hardly bring it in the boat! When they got back to land, Jesus already had a fire going and some fish and bread ready to eat. He asked Peter three times if he loved Him, and each time He told him “Feed my sheep’. Hey, isn’t that the same number of times Peter Denied Him?

Anyway, He taught them many things before He left. They watched as He was taken straight up into heaven. Can you imagine?

The disciples are making plans now to go out and starting spreading the Good News about Jesus’ Resurrection. They are talking about going out in pairs. Man. Nothing is ever going to be the same again.

For God so loved the word, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. – John 3:16

As you read this post today:

33% of the world’s population are  Christian.

The top 3 countries with the largest national Christian populations are :

USA – 224,457,000 (85%)

Brazil – 139,000,000 (93%)

Mexico – 86,120,000 (99%)

There are approximately 38,000 Christian denominations in the world. This statistic takes into consideration cultural distinctions of denominations in different countries.

Today, in the United States of America, about 78% (244, 140,000) of adults identify themselves as Christian. In comparison, the next largest religions in America are Islam and Judaism. Combined they represent only about one to two percent of the United States population.

There are more than 1500 different Christian faith groups in America.

All this and more, because of the sacrifice of the Son of God.
Within the editorial, Jesus, the Perfect Man, published on Christmas Day 1912, C.P.J. Mooney, Editor of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, wrote the following excerpt:

After the experience of 2,000 years no man can find a flaw in the governmental system outlined by Jesus.

Czar and kaiser, president and Socialist, give to its complete merit their admiration.

No man today, no matter whether he follows the doctrine of Mill, Marx or George as to property, can find a false principle in Jesus’ theory of property.

In the duty of a man to his fellow no sociologist has ever approximated the perfection of the doctrine laid down by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount.

Not all the investigations of chemists, not all the discoveries of explorers, not all the experiences of rulers, not all the historical facts that go to make up the sum of human knowledge on this day in 1912 are in contradiction to one word uttered or one principle laid down by Jesus.

The human experiences of 2,000 years show that Jesus never made a mistake. Jesus never uttered a doctrine that was true at that time and then became obsolete.

Jesus spoke the truth, and the truth is eternal.

History has no record of any other man leading a perfect life or doing everything in logical order. Jesus is the only person whose every action and whose every utterance strike a true note in the heart and mind of every man born of woman. He never said a foolish thing, never did a foolish act and never dissembled.

No poet, no dreamer, no philosopher loved humanity with all the love that Jesus bore toward all men.

WHO, THEN, was Jesus?

He could not have been merely a man, for there never was a man who had two consecutive thoughts absolute in truthful perfection.

Jesus must have been what Christendom proclaims Him to be — a divine being — or He could not have been what He was. No mind but an infinite mind could have left behind those things which Jesus gave the world as a heritage.

In this time in this nation, our faith as Christian Americans has been under attack as never before. Remember, that our fight is against “princes and principalities”.  And…

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace.

He is risen indeed!

Until He Comes,

KJ

America: The Day Before Resurrection Day 2014…the Darkness Before the Dawn

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

American FreedomThis morning, as I lay in bed, having spent the night alone, due to my bride going on an overnight trip with a friend and her two nieces, The Lord, as He usually does, had me thinking about Him.These thoughts were about what today, the day between Good Friday and Resurrection Day, must have been like.

Pretend for a moment, that you are an average citizen living at the time of Christ.

[For the past three years, you have seen this charismatic young man speak about the love and mercy of God, and how His Grace and Forgiveness is freely given, IF…

And, there’s the catch…

According to this carpenter’s son from Nazareth, you have to confess your sins, and ask the Great I am, for forgiveness.

Whoa! Wait a minute. Who is this guy? A radical? Ask Yahweh for forgiveness. And, what’s that he said? You will then have a personal relationship with His Father?

How can that be? This is the Great I am. This is the Deity of Vengeance who destroyed those escaped slaves from Egypt for throwing a party, while Moses was up on a mountain, and building and worshiping a Golden Calf.

And, remember what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar? Daniel interpreted a dream for him, explaining that his kingdom would be ruled over by Gentiles until God sent His King. Ol’ Nebby got mad, because he couldn’t rule over the Israelites and over the whole world unless God allowed him to do so. He forgot that, and became very proud. He tried to make the people think that he was very wonderful, and that they should worship him. He didn’t trust God as some of the kings of the Israelites did, but had the very foolish idea that he could be a wise and wonderful king without any help from God.

So, what do you suppose occurred?

Why, the king had another dream, and when he found out what it meant it was really terrible. In this dream God told him that he would lose his mind and would go out in the field and eat grass just like the cattle for seven years. And Nebuchadnezzar actually did this, too. Can you imagine a mighty king, as he thought himself to be, crawling around on the ground eating grass? The Bible tells us that his hair grew long and coarse and looked like bird feathers, and his fingernails became like the claws of animals.

Finally, though, Nebuchadnezzar’s reason returned to him, and when he found out what he had done he was very much ashamed of himself. However, he learned by this experience that he was not as wise and powerful as he had thought. Learning this, he gave praise to God for allowing him to be the ruler.

This is the God that the guy from Nazareth is telling us that we can have a personal relationship with?

Strange indeed.

I have noticed that while he is hanging there the guards and some of the townspeople there are mocking Jesus, telling him that if he is the Son of God, to”jump down off of that cross”. Meanwhile,  some of the centurions are casting lots over his robe.

All except this one centurion, who is just watching Him, as if he is waiting for something to happen…]

The despair being felt by the average citizens of Rome, at the time, is not unlike the situation which we, as average Christian Americans, find ourselves in today.

We, too, are in the darkness before the dawn.

Our American culture is crumbling before our very eyes, as sin, depravity, and personal irresponsibility are being lauded by “the smartest people in the room” as normal, and values to be embraced…a Golden Calf to be worshiped by those who have turned their backs of the Almighty, because He will not give them the worldly gratification they seek…and because they erroneously believe that they are smarter than God, and can interpret and ignore  His Holy Word to mean whatever they want to, in order to assuage their own consciousness, in an attempt to stifle that “Still Small Voice” within them, Who is reminding them of their sin and the consequences of it.

However, there is still HOPE FOR OUR NATION.

On April 2, 1983, United States President Ronald Wilson Reagan spoke the following words, as part of an Easter/Passover Address:

This week as American families draw together in worship, we join with millions upon millions of others around the world also celebrating the traditions of their faiths. During these days, at least, regardless of nationality, religion, or race, we are united by faith in God, and the barriers between us seem less significant.

Observing the rites of Passover and Easter, we’re linked in time to the ancient origins of our values and to the unborn generations who will still celebrate them long after we’re gone. As Paul explained in his Epistle to the Ephesians, “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. So then you were no longer strangers and aliens, but you were fellow citizens of God’s household.”

This is a time of hope and peace, when our spirits are filled and lifted. It’s a time when we give thanks for our blessings-chief among them, freedom, peace, and the promise of eternal life.

This week Jewish families and friends have been celebrating Passover, a tradition rich in symbolism and meaning. Its observance reminds all of us that the struggle for freedom and the battle against oppression waged by Jews since ancient times is one shared by people everywhere. And Christians have been commemorating the last momentous days leading to the crucifixion of Jesus 1,950 years ago. Tomorrow, as morning spreads around the planet, we’ll celebrate the triumph of life over death, the Resurrection of Jesus. Both observances tell of sacrifice and pain but also of hope and triumph.

As we look around us today, we still find human pain and suffering, but we also see it answered with individual courage and spirit, strengthened by faith. For example, the brave Polish people, despite the oppression of a godless tyranny, still cling to their faith and their belief in freedom. Shortly after Palm Sunday Mass this week, Lech Walesa faced a cheering crowd of workers outside a Gdansk church. He held his hand up in a sign of victory and predicted, “The time will come when we will win.”

This great AMERICAN PRESIDENT also once said,

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

Fellow Christian Americans….my message to you on this day before Resurrection Day 2014 is

DO NOT GIVE UP ON GOD. DON’T NOT GIVE UP ON THE FOUNDING FATHERS’ HOPE, WHICH BECAME AMERICA.

As the old country Preacher’s wife always told him,

Hold on to your fork, Hon. Dessert is on it’s way.

The final chapter of the amazing story of our Blessed Land has not been written  yet. It is up to each and every one of us to write it, strengthened by the Grace of God.

Until He Comes,

KJ

 

 

A Sunday Morning Reflection on God, Family, and Country

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics1 Comment

nationaldayofprayerAs I sit here on an American Sunday morning, my bride sound asleep, here in the quiet of my stately mansion, presently, a bottom floor two-bedroom apartment on a golf course, I find myself thinking about my niece by marriage:  a 43 year old Christian Wife, Mother, and Prayer Warrior, whose memorial service I held onto my grieving wife through, on Friday Morning, after my niece lost her battle with cancer on Tuesday morning.

It’s not that we were grieving for her, we were grieving for ourselves, who must carry on without her and for her devoted husband and 3 teenagers, whom she left behind.

You see, all the attendees in that small NW Mississippi sanctuary, knew where she was. She was in the presence our Savior, Jesus Christ.

That got me to thinking, in the past couple of days since, about those individuals whom I run into, both in “real life”. and on the Internet Chat Boards, who constantly want to deny our nation’s Christian Heritage, and who vainly continue to wage a cultural war against Someone Whom they claim not to believe in, in the first place.

I recall an attack I received from a Liberal, who was hanging out on Senator Ted Cruz’s Facebook Page, simply to contribute to the massive effort, by Liberals and the Republican Establishment, to “Palinize” Cruz, a straight-talking Conservative Leader.

This Liberal, or, “Troll”, as one who engages in what he was doing on the Internet  is called, posted numerous quotes, from Thomas Jefferson, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and anybody else he could think of, in an attempt to prove that America was not founded by Christians, and that our Country’s Founding Documents were not based on Judeo-Christian Principles, so, therefore, Christian Principles  have no place in the governance of the United States of America.

Catching flack for sticking to my Christian American Conservative Principles in nothing new for me.

My posts, concerning American Christianity, seem to “touch a nerve” in both Liberals and Atheists, alike. (But, I repeat myself.)

Their reaction has hardly been unexpected.

Of course, those Liberals and Atheists who responded, over the years, immediately denied that our Founding Fathers were Christians and that our country was founded on a Judeo-Christian belief system.

Evidently, they had never read anything, except what their like-minded, non-believing soothsayers, allowed them to.  Or else, they would have read historical documents like President George Washington’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, written on November 1, 1777, and found at wallbuilders.com:

The committee appointed to prepare a recommendation to the several states, to set apart a day of public thanksgiving, brought in a report; which was taken into consideration, and agreed to as follows:

Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success:

It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor; and that together with their sincere acknowledgments and offerings, they may join the penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to afford his blessings on the governments of these states respectively, and prosper the public council of the whole; to inspire our commanders both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings, independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion.

One of the first reactions to my posts, by the Liberal/Atheist responders continued to deny Jefferson’s Christianity.

Atheists like to bring up the fact that he wrote a version of the Bible which left out Christ’s miracles.  What they are reluctant to do, though, is explain why he wrote his book that way.  David Barton explains on wallbuilders.com:

The reader [of a newspaper article which Barton is replying to], as do many others, claimed that Jefferson omitted all miraculous events of Jesus from his “Bible.” Rarely do those who make this claim let Jefferson speak for himself. Jefferson’s own words explain that his intent for that book was not for it to be a “Bible,” but rather for it to be a primer for the Indians on the teachings of Christ (which is why Jefferson titled that work, “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth”). What Jefferson did was to take the “red letter” portions of the New Testament and publish these teachings in order to introduce the Indians to Christian morality. And as President of the United States, Jefferson signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe wherein he provided—at the government’s expense—Christian missionaries to the Indians. In fact, Jefferson himself declared, “I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus.” While many might question this claim, the fact remains that Jefferson called himself a Christian, not a deist.

Finally, the Eight Per Centers who replied to my blogs insisted that Crosses and other Christian symbols have no place in the Public Square.  They wish for Christians to remain unseen and unheard from, worshiping in private.

Well,  y’all can wish for a unicorn to magically appear in your backyard…but that ain’t gonna happen, either.

As a free nation, all you who are non-believers have every right to exercise your faith.

However, as Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin of the Jewish Policy Center clearly explains:

[I] understand that I live . . . in a Christian nation, albeit one where I can follow my faith as long as it doesn’t conflict with the nation’s principles. The same option is open to all Americans and will be available only as long as this nation’s Christian roots are acknowledged and honored.

…Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the west is doomed. Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah, and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in. God help Jews if America ever becomes a post-Christian society! Just think of Europe!

Is the Rabbi prophetic? I pray that he isn’t. 

I have, however, noticed in the last few years, a propensity among those who have not been raised in a Christian home, to be intolerant toward those who have….starting with the individual who sits at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

Americans’ Christian Faith, of which 78% of us, according to Gallup, still anchor our lives around, has been the Solid Rock upon which our nation was built. To deny that, is to deny reality, to re-write history, and, to, quite frankly, endanger “the Shining City on a Hill”.

As President Ronald Reagan said, 

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under. 

As for my niece, I will always love her…and I will see her again.

I thank God for His Blessed Assurance, through his Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Until He Comes,

KJ