A Promise

The Pledge of Allegiance

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America

and to the Republic for which it stands,

 one Nation under God, indivisible,

 with liberty and justice for all.

Happy Independence Day.  God bless America.

Marriage and Family 2020

The most difficult thing I have ever done in my life is to be married and raise a family.  Starting from a working class background, I was a small unit commander in the military, earned an advanced degree, directed county and state level programs, managed retail stores, and helped my wife start and operate a successful solely owned proprietorship.  So, I was not without challenges in life.  I had to start over from scratch many times.  Having a successful marriage and family has, however, eclipsed them all.

Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I love each other, and we were blessed with good children who grew up to be useful and productive people.  Nevertheless, we made a lot of mistakes.  Fortunately, the Lord caused all things to work out for the best. (Romans 8:28)

I believe that outside influences can be a source of serious problems for marriages and families.  Drugs and alcohol, outside romantic attractions, overwork, continuing education, friends who are critical of a spouse or children, in-laws, and ex-spouses are a few of many things that can be sources of disruption.  Therefore, we must consider carefully whether the actions of government are a help or a hinderance to the marriages and families of our citizens.

Whether we support the traditional marriage and family, or we want them to be altered to reflect recent social changes, people look to government to back their point of view.  The idea that government should be involved at all may need closer examination.  It seems, however, that expecting government to solve all our problems has become fixed in people’s minds.

One thing that appears to come out of the “conversation” about marriage and family is general agreement that they are foundational to the health of society.  Before November, we need to look at all of each candidate’s positions on the issues that are important to us.  I think it is better not to be a "one issue" voter.  There are, however, issues that are deal breakers.  These are issues that will tip the scales when all other considerations are equal, or will cause us to choose a candidate because we believe they occupy the moral high ground.  Marriage and family issues may weigh very heavily on how we vote.

I ask that we all recognize that changes in the law and governmental policy always compel everyone to comply, whether they agree or not.  In such cases, the point of view that prevails is always “forcing” its values on those who disagree.  Therefore, the accusation of bigotry is a knife that cuts both ways.  That is the truth, given in love.

Where do you stand?  How much influence should the government, especially the federal government, have on marriage and the family?  If you want social change to be reflected in government policy regarding marriage and family issues, I may disagree with you, but I would give my life for your freedom to advocate for your position, and I urge you to vote accordingly.

Lamp in a Corner is a blog that is written from a Christian point of view.  Therefore, I support traditional values regarding marriage and the family.

I think it would be best if the government’s role is restricted to providing a safety net for the poor, public education that is free from bias, and protecting children from abuse and neglect.  Further, I ask everyone to remember that any powers not explicitly given to the federal government by the constitution belong to the states.

A Plea for Forgiveness

Psalm 51

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight;

so you are right in your verdict

and justified when you judge.

Surely I was sinful at birth,

sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;

you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

you who are God my Savior,

and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

Open my lips, Lord,

and my mouth will declare your praise.

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart

you, God, will not despise.

May it please you to prosper Zion,

to build up the walls of Jerusalem.

Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,

in burnt offerings offered whole;

then bulls will be offered on your altar. (Psalm 51:1-19 NIV) *

I am a sinner, too.  I will not name them here.  There are too many, and it would take too long.  Also, I do not want to take your attention away from Jesus Christ by calling attention to myself.  I only confess that I have fallen short, just like everyone else.  Along with the Apostle Paul, I just say:

            Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: 

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners,

 Christ Jesus might display his immense patience

 as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God,

be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1Timothy 1:15-17 NIV) **

Paul tells us:

            for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
(Romans 3:23-26 NIV) ***

John the Apostle shows us what to do:

            If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins

and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1John 1:8-9 NIV) ****

Want to be freed from slavery to sin and death?  Pray.  You can use Psalm 51, or just say it in your own words.  Tell God you are sorry for your sins, and you want to be free from them.  Ask Him to forgive you.  Tell Him that you believe that Jesus paid the price for your sins on the cross, and that you accept the free gift of salvation He provided for you.  Ask Jesus to be in you and to let you be in Him.  Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and lead you.  Commit to serve the Lord the rest of your life.  Then, read the Bible and pray every day, and attend a Bible believing church.  God bless you.

*       https://biblehub.com/niv/psalms/51.htm

**      https://biblehub.com/niv/1_timothy/1.htm

***     https://biblehub.com/niv/romans/3.htm

****    https://biblehub.com/niv/1_john/1.htm

Paul's Prayer and Appeal to Believers

Today, the city of Ephesus is a ruin located in Turkey.  In the First Century A.D. Ephesus was the capital of the Roman province of Asia.  It was also a major commercial center with a cosmopolitan culture.  The Apostle Paul spent considerable time in Ephesus evangelizing and discipling the body of believers.  The Letter to the Ephesians was written during one of several times that Paul was in prison, most likely in Rome. (1)

In Chapter 3, Paul tells of his calling to minister to the Gentiles and God’s plan for Gentile believers.  The chapter ends with a prayer, from which we all can receive a blessing:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

           (Ephesians 3:14-21 NASB) (2)

The first part of Chapter 4 continues with an appeal to the reader:

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:1-6 NASB) (3)

I pray that we will treat each other with patience and tolerance through the humility, gentleness and love that Christ gives us.  Peace be with you all.

(1) Falwell, Jerry, et al. Liberty Commentary on the New Testament. Thomas Nelson Inc., 1978.

(2) https://biblehub.com/nasb/ephesians/3.htm

(3) https://biblehub.com/nasb/ephesians/4.htm

Idiologues

When he was running for president in 2012, Mitt Romney reminded me of “Church Lady,” the Dana Carvey character from the TV show Saturday Night Live.  Every time someone would say something Mr. Romney did not like he would get a plastic smile on his face, and I found myself waiting for him to say, “Well, isn’t that spea-cial.”  He seldom disputed things he disagreed with.  He would just sit there with that lame smile on his face.

I did not like Mitt Romney’s record as a corporate raider.  I felt working Americans would see him as the guy who signed the pink slips.  He pointed to Romney Care as his greatest accomplishment as the Governor of Massachusetts, and as an example of how he got big things done while working with a legislature that was predominantly Democratic.  The point of this post is that our leaders must work together in the people’s best interest.  I thought, however, that Mr. Romney went too far with Romney Care.

I voted for Mitt Romney anyway.  Please, put away the rotten eggs, and spoiled vegetables.  Don’t throw them at me.  I feel bad enough already.

The truth is that my vote for Romney was really a vote against Barack Obama.  As with most of our presidential elections, I voted for the candidate I thought was the lesser of two evils.  Honestly, I would have voted for Mickey Mouse rather than Mr. Obama. I felt that way then, and I still feel that way.

Mitt Romney was a corporate weasel.  You could not tell for sure where he stood about anything.  Barack Obama, however, was a progressive, secular-humanist ideologue.  He strangled the economy with regulations, taxes, and give-away trade agreements.  He screwed up health care, and he paved the way for Iran to go nuclear.  He allowed the Bush tax cuts to expire.  He prosecuted employers and business people for their sincerely-held religious beliefs and turned political correctness into an art form.  He used the EPA like an attack dog to destroy mining, oil production, farming and ranching (to name a few).

In the interest of clarity, let’s define some terms as they are used in this post.  An ideologue is, “an often blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.” Synonyms include, “crusader, fanatic, militant, partisan, true believer, and zealot.” An ideology is, “the integrated assertions, theories and aims that constitute a sociopolitical program.” *

In 2020, I hope we can avoid electing a president who is so afraid of saying something controversial that he or she will not take a stand about anything.  We need a president, senators, and congressional representatives who know what they believe and are honest with us about it.  We need leaders with a strong sense of right and wrong, and who are willing to be criticized for advocating for what they believe.

Conversely, we must try to avoid electing ideologues.  We need to break the gridlock in Washington D.C.  The people’s business is not getting done.  We do not need leaders who are afraid of finding common ground because they might alienate their “base.”  This calls for flexibility on the part of the electorate, as well.

I pray that we all can learn to move toward one another, rather than against one another.  There are things that we cannot compromise on, but there are many things we can unite around.  If we keep on doing what we are doing, we are going to pull our house down on our heads.

* https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ideologue

Christ's Crucifiction was Predicted 1,000 years in Advance

King David ruled Judea and Israel circa 1010 to 970 B.C. (1)  He was a poet and a prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit to write at least 73 of the 150 Psalms. (2)  The Apostle Peter testified that the Holy Spirit inspired David. (Acts 1:16) (3)

In the 22^nd Psalm, David wrote the last words that Jesus Christ spoke from the cross.  He also gave a vivid and detailed description of the death Jesus would endure to pay the price for our sins; 1,000 years after Psalm 22 was written.

Psalm 22

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

All those who see Me ridicule Me;
They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
“He trusted in the Lord, let Him rescue Him;
Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!”

I am poured out like water,
And all My bones are out of joint;
My heart is like wax;
It has melted within Me.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And My tongue clings to My jaws;
You have brought Me to the dust of death.

For dogs have surrounded Me;
The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.
They pierced My hands and My feet;
I can count all My bones.
They look and stare at Me.
They divide My garments among them,
And for My clothing they cast lots.

(Psalm 22: 1,7-8,14-18 NKJV) (4)

Imagine pain so severe that one would feel like He could count His bones!  What a Savior we have in Christ our Lord.  He alone is great and worthy to be praised.

(1)  https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/king-david

(2)  Rydelnik, Michael, and Vanlaningham, Michael, et al. The Moody Bible Commentary, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 2014.

(3)  Ibid.

(4)  https://biblehub.com/nkjv/psalms/22.htm

The U.S. National Debt

According to the Treasury Department the United States’ national debt, as of May 27 , 2020, was $25,683,672,542,543.70. (1)  To put it in more readable terms, that is close to 26 trillion dollars.

People have a difficult time understanding how much money 26 trillion dollars really is.  I know I do.  I’m “retired and on a fixed income.”  I worry about spending more than five dollars for a bag of plastic fishing worms.

The Internet is replete with examples of how much a trillion dollars is: how much it would weigh, how long it would take to count it, how far the bills would stretch if placed end to end, and so on.  Put another way, the U.S. public debt is now over three times greater than the cost of all our wars combined. (2)  It helps me to put it in quantifiable terms.  In the United States, 1,000 times 1,000 is one million.  One billion equals one thousand million, and one trillion equals one thousand billion.

Apparently, our elected representatives in Washington D.C. don’t have a clue about how much money they are spending.  One would hope that if they understood the damage they are doing, they would quit doing it.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, wants to add trillions more onto the debt.  Coronavirus relief is a noble cause.  What we need is a spending bill that will meet the peoples’ urgent needs.  We do not need is a bill that adds Mrs. Pelosi’s pet social programs onto the Corona Virus relief.  Various Democrats are advocating for universal Medicare, free college tuition, and a guaranteed minimum income for everybody.  They cannot specifically say where they intend to get the money to pay for it.  They talk about raising taxes on the “rich” and raising corporate taxes.  Listen up, average American.  When they do that your jobs go to workers in other countries.

President Trump wants to build new airports, roads, bridges, and who knows what else. Republicans spend big on national defense.  We need a strong national defense, but we need some idea about how we are going to fund it.  The Republicans favor tax cuts to increase revenue by growing the economy.  They failed to anticipate the COVID-19 pandemic, which erased recent growth in our economy and the economies of many other nations.  Thus, we are left with the additional deficit created by the tax cuts, and the anticipated additional revenue has not materialized.

Basic money management rules say:

1.    Never borrow money unless you know you can repay it, and you have a sound plan for doing so.

2.    Never spend the money from an expected financial windfall until you have it in your pocket.

What does the federal government do when it runs out of money?  They borrow it.  When the federal government can’t pay for what they have borrowed, they just print more money.  Average American, when that happens your money is worth less, and it takes more of it to buy a loaf of bread, a package of plastic worms, a pair of shoes, or a gallon of gas.

The gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of the economic activity in a country, state, province, etc.  It is also referred to as the size of the economy.  The nominal GDP is the size of the economy before it is adjusted for inflation.  After adjustment for inflation, it is called the real GDP.  The following is stated in terms of the United States’  nominal GDP:

In 2018, our GDP was $20.58 trillion, and it was $21.44 trillion in 2019.  The source projects that the GDP of the United States will be $22.32 trillion in 2020. (3)  It is not known if the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was anticipated in the 2020 figure. The point is that our national debt now exceeds our GDP.  A lot of people worry about that.

Will the United States of America get to the point that we must default on our national debt?  Will we end up owing so much to foreign countries that they will be able to manipulate our government?  The currencies of the world are valued in relation to the U.S. dollar.  What happens if the dollar loses so much worth that it must be revalued?  Will we precipitate a world economic crisis?  Will there be a one-world currency?

Good luck finding candidates, Republican or Democrat, who care about or understand the long-term consequences of our obscene national debt.  Even if a candidate says they are for a balanced budget amendment to the constitution, things have gotten so bad that it would probably create an economic crisis if one were passed.  The way that new money is circulated into the U.S. economy is that the federal government and member banks (among others) borrow it from the Federal Reserve.  Some have called that a “debt based economy.”  The national debt is never going to go away as long as debt is the mechanism for adding new currency to the pool of money available.

The best we can hope for is that somebody will make the national debt an issue in the 2020 general election, and that good people will be elected who will work to get the debt back to less than a trillion dollars.  Inform yourself.  Then, write your senators, congressmen, and the president.  Write your candidates.  Call them on the phone.  Let somebody know you think this is important.

The Holy Bible says that, “the borrower is  servant to the lender.”  Who will America end up serving?  Pray it is not the Antichrist and a one-world economic system.  Look up!  Jesus is coming soon.


(1) https://treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/pd_debttothepenny.htm

(2)  https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/c/costs-major-us-wars.html

(3) https://www.investopedia.com/insights/worlds-top-economies/