Riches

We Americans have more individual freedom than the citizens of most other countries.  We have a higher standard of living than many people in other parts of the world.  Most people in the poorer countries would consider even the poorest of us wealthy.  There is nothing new in saying this, and most of us would agree to it.

President Trump says that he wants to, “Make America great again.”  Certainly, there is still a lot of room for improvement in our circumstances; especially after eight years of Progressive government under President Obama.  We all hope that “The high tide raises all boats.” and that all Americans will benefit from a better economy.

However, we will not be saved by wealth; as individuals or as a nation.  We need a strong military, but even then we are still vulnerable.  Only God can preserve our country and continue our existence as a free and prosperous people.  Fellow Americans, please place your trust in God, and not in earthly things.

Jesus gave us the following teaching:

Watch out!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. (Luke 12:15 NIV)

The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do?  I have no place to store my crops.’

     Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do.  I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.  And I’ll say to myself, 'You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy; eat, drink, and be merry.'

     But God said to him, ‘You fool!  This very night your life will be demanded of you.  Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself.’ (Luke 12:16-20 NIV)

And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.  For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your father knows that you need them.  But seek his kingdom, and all these things will be given to you as well.
(Luke 12:29-31 NIV)

No servant can serve two masters.  Either he will love one and hate the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and money. (Luke 16:13 NIV)

Paul instructed Timothy:

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. (1Timothy 6:17 NIV)

Travel Restrictions

In the United States, we are very sheltered.  Excepting those who have actually been to the Middle East, it is very difficult for many Americans to understand what things are like there.  One of the most challenging things for people is to understand something that is totally outside their life experience.

I have not personally been to the Middle East or to East Asia.  I have friends and relatives who have served there.  When I was in the Army in Europe (early 1970’s), I had the opportunity to supervise civilian workers on a small military base who were from North Africa.  I read and listen to news broadcasts to stay informed about current events.  I monitor the opinions of informed persons that I respect.  My religious beliefs originated in the Middle East, and I have become somewhat familiar with the History of the area.

Clearly, I am not an expert.  However, I think I have done what a reasonable person would consider to be enough inquiry and observation to have informed opinions.  I will leave it to the reader to decide whether the conclusions I have drawn from the available information are correct.

To touch on a couple of perceptions, I think that in some parts of The Middle East and East Asia human life is not held in the same high regard that it is in the Western Democracies.  We need to do better, especially in our inner cities, but at least (for the last few centuries) we do not cut peoples’ heads off if they do not worship the way we do.  Unlike much of the Middle East, we do not regard women as the chattel property of their husbands and fathers.  Women can vote, drive cars, work, get educated, marry whom they choose, travel independently, hold elected office, own property, choose the clothes they wear, occupy positions of authority over men, and so on.  Please pay attention, ladies, before you advocate that transformational influences from primitive cultures be introduced into our country.

Recently, there has been a lot of controversy about President Trump’s executive order temporarily restricting aliens from certain countries in the Middle east and North Africa from entering the United States.  The matter is before the courts, but most of those who know the law agree that he had the legal authority to issue the order.  Even the preliminary opinions from the courts seem to be concerned with the fundamental fairness of President Trump’s actions, rather than their legality.

I do not think that fundamental fairness is appropriate grounds for a Federal Judge to intervene, and to temporarily restrain the legal actions of a sitting President of the United States regarding matters of national security.  There is no evidence that the constitutional rights of any U.S. citizens have been directly violated; nor have the constitutional rights of any aliens on U.S. soil.  Therefore, with respect, I say that the court should rule on existing law rather than try to manufacture new law.

Large crowds of demonstrators at home and abroad have taken to the streets to oppose President Trump’s travel restrictions.  If they are nonviolent, do not interfere with the rights of others, and do not destroy property I support their right to freedom of expression.

However, I would remind the reader that for every demonstrator, paid or unpaid, that they see on television throwing a temper tantrum, there are more ordinary Americans who agree with President Trump’s executive order; or even believe it does not go far enough.  They are too busy earning a living, raising children, and paying taxes to go to the streets … but they are very real.  Their voice was heard at the ballot box last November throughout the heartland.

I am glad that President Trump is trying to keep the terrorists out of our country.  One only needs to look to what is happening in Europe to see what happens when terrorists infiltrate refugee populations and can enter countries that do not use appropriate security measures.  I was very distressed when President Obama kept admitting more and more “refugees” into the United States from the Middle East and Northern Africa.  I am relieved that we are taking a different direction now.  I am not without compassion for the innocent victims of war who are trying to get out of harm’s way.  I support public and private humanitarian aid to relieve their suffering … where they are.

To the demonstrators, I say go home and inform yourself before you show your ignorance in public.  President Trump is trying to keep the Radical Islamists out to stop them from killing you.  You ought to thank God for protecting you from your own folly. 

Open Letter on Health Care Insurance

To the President, the U.S. Senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives:

I support the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care).  I believe that the American public would be best served if the private sector can provide health insurance to our citizens in a free market environment; subject to the following:

1)    Tort law reform to lower liability risk, and therefore insurance costs, to health care providers.

2)    Interstate sale of health insurance plans to lower the cost of health insurance premiums for individuals and groups.

3)    “Health care insurance” should include coverage for vision and dental treatment and for prescriptions.

4)    No preexisting health conditions should bar the purchase of health care plans or increase their cost.

5)    No lifetime limits on claims.

6)    Continuance of Medicare and Medicaid programs in their present form; except the “spend down” of resources for long term care under Medicaid.

7)    Provision of a mandatory long-term care program payroll contribution for a “single payer” long term care insurance program for all citizens.

8)    Prohibition of the provision of health care services to indigent non-citizens who are in the United States illegally.

9)    Persons 18 years of age and older should be responsible to purchase their own health care insurance.  They should be allowed to remain insured by their parents if they remain in college or trade school after graduation from high school, or unless they are eligible for Medicare or Medicaid.

10)  All U.S. Citizens should be required to carry health care insurance.

Thank you for considering my suggestions.  Please work toward accessible and affordable health care or all U.S. citizens.

Goodbye

Our best wishes to you, President Obama.  Thank you for trying to do what you thought was right for the country.  We believe that you did the best you could with the light that you have.  However, your presidency proved, that as Ronald Reagan said, “The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.”

May God, grant you happiness and success as you return to private life.  Please do us all a favor and stay out of public life from now on.  We are not sure how much more of your help the country can stand.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Oscar Wilde

Concealed Carry

A couple of days ago, Rep. Richard Hudson (R) of North Carolina re-introduced a bill now named The Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.  It provides that all states must recognize a concealed carry permit or license issued by any other state; in much the same way that each state recognizes the others’ driver’s licenses.  Among other advantages, this legislation takes away the possibility of prosecution for unlawful carry from persons traveling interstate who mistakenly carry a concealed weapon in a state that does not have a reciprocity agreement with their home state.

I urge everyone who agrees with national concealed carry reciprocity to write their senators and congressmen in support of this legislation.  Too many otherwise law abiding citizens have been prosecuted for the “crime” of believing their carry permit was valid in a place where it was not.

There is no need to justify carrying a concealed weapon.  The Second Amendment plainly states that the right of the citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.  The only valid limitation on that right is that the citizen should not have a criminal record.  The bulk of our law recognizes no other reason for limiting an American’s constitutional rights.

In the United States, possibility exists everywhere that we may need to defend ourselves from criminals, lunatics, or terrorists.  There is no place, urban or rural, where you are completely safe from robbery, burglary, gang/drug motivated crime, murder, rape, home intrusion, carjacking, or being shot by someone because they don’t like your skin color or the god you worship.  Anyone who denies that fact has their head buried in the sand.

If you are elderly, disabled, or female, you are at greater risk of victimization.  Therefore, you, especially, need to be able to extend the distance and level of force with which you can engage a threat.  In other words, you need to get a gun and become proficient with it.  Following that, you must learn to:

• ·         Be alert.
• ·         Be aware of your surroundings.
• ·         Be armed at all times where it is legal.
• ·         Be willing to act to defend your life and the lives of others.

The ability of our public officials to stop “the bad guys” before they harm us is limited. Please help Rep. Hudson to help us protect ourselves. 

January 7, 2017:  I am not comfortable with leaving this post the way it is without telling you that there is an additional reason to get a concealed carry licence or permit that I did not mention.  Personally, I carry concealed, in part, because Michael  Bloomberg, Barack Obama, John Kerry, the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, and "Chucky" Schumer want to tell me that I can't.

Hanukkah

Hanukkah is an eight-day Jewish holiday that celebrates the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem following the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.  The temple had been desecrated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

Also known as the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with special foods and the ceremonial lighting of the menorah; a kind of candle stick containing nine candles.  The timing of the holiday occurs according to the Hebrew calendar, but it often falls around the same time as Christmas.

This year, I think that Hanukkah ended at sundown today.  To all our Jewish friends, I hope you had a wonderful holiday and that God will bless you in a mighty way in 2017.

I would also like to sincerely apologize to Israel for the shameful way that she was treated by the Obama Administration at the United Nations; especially at this time of year.  I believe that the West Bank is part of the ancestral lands that God gave to Israel, and I support the Israeli settlements there.  I think that the entire city Jerusalem is the rightful capital of Israel, and that it belongs to the Jewish people.

          I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you (Abraham) and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.  The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.

Genesis 17:7-8

I will make you (Abram) into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 12:2-3

America: if we want to continue to enjoy God’s blessings, we need to get on the right side of this one.  We must be on the side of Israel.

Merry Christmas

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

(John 1:1-5 NIV)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

(John 1:14 NIV)

He was in the world, and though the world was made by him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God …

(John 1:10-12 NIV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible …

(Colossians 1:15-16 NIV)

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

(Colossians 1:17 NIV)

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him …

(Colossians 1:19 NIV)

Jesus was not a demi-god.  He was 100 percent God, and 100 percent man.  The man was born in Bethlehem, but he was the Second Person of the Trinity from the beginning.

It fills me with awe to think that he gave up his glorious throne in heaven to become a man; born in a stable because there was no room for him anywhere else.  He came to redeem you and me, that we might be with him forever.  What a gift!

Merry Christmas.