Memorial Day

Almighty God, you have given us this good land for our heritage. We humbly ask you that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of your favor and glad to do your will. Bless our land with honorable endeavor, sound learning and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.
Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitude brought here out of many nations and tongues. Endow with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in your name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to your law we may show forth your praise among the nations on earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble do not allow our trust in you to fail. Amen.

Thomas Jefferson

We began with an awareness of our need for God's help in maintaining the goodness of America.


We have been recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these things were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

Abraham Lincoln

Years later we recognized that we were straying from God's ways in spite of all God had given us.

O Merciful God, we cry to Thee for pardon and for mercy. We are "an unbelieving and perverse generation." We are disobedient, disloyal and ungrateful to Thee. We have excluded Thee from our homes, our schools, our business places. We are no longer worthy to be called Thy
children. But Merciful God, spare America! Forgive us! Save us from the scourge which we have
deserved. Teach us Thy Law, and move our wills to serve Thee, henceforth. Merciful God, please
spare America.
Apostles of the Holy Spirit

In these times we have strayed far, far away from our Creator. If we fail to return, God will once and for all turn His back on America. On this Memorial Day when we remember the many who gave their lives to preserve our liberty, pray that we may once again become the people God once blessed in the founding of America.

Israel

More and more I am truly concerned about the Arab/Muslim/Palestinian attitude toward Israel. When they are teaching even their children to hate Jews and to kill them, it can't end well. What Glenn Beck said last night is true. The Palestinians are provoking Israel in every way but when Israel responds, then Palestine will cry to the world, "Aggressor!" This is being created as a Catch-22 situation for Israel. No matter how you feel about Israel, it can't be a good thing that this plan is being put in place. No matter what Israel does, the Arab/Muslim/Palestinians will never cease wanting to wipe them off the face of the earth. And when or if they succeed, then they will come for the United States. Don't think they won't!

With Egypt re-forming the Nazi party openly, what we said would never happen again is being planned. We said we would never forget, but have we? It is sad to think that some of the people who fought in that war or were victims of the Holocaust are still alive but some countries are planning the very same thing again. Don't stick your head in the sand or blindly refuse to see what is happening. It will certainly not stop with Israel! All that is needed for evil to triumph is that good men and women do nothing. Do something!

Take it to the end

I have not seen anywhere a blog or an article of any kind which discusses what the final result of the Obama energy policies would be.

For a couple of years now I have been plagued by a vision of economic disaster, complete collapse. I see the streets empty, no cars, no people. I see the malls empty, stores closed. I see gangs preying on the few people who have money for gas, taking by force whatever they have in their cars. In the more urban areas, gangs will come to houses and apartments and take what they want.  I see travel being near impossible because airfare will be out of sight, travel by car dangerous and perhaps impossible with the high prices of gas and perhaps the general unavailability of gas. The depression of the 1930s will look good by comparison because then the country still had a Christian world-view while today individualism and moral relativism reign.

I am getting freaked out that under Obama, this vision seems to be coming closer and closer. He was duly elected but he has put many bureaucrats in who now control regulations for just about everything. While Congress sleeps, Obama has taken control. Before the end of his term of office, I think that he may have completed the fundamental change, that he desired. The election of 2012 may be a moot point.

He has said that he wants energy prices to rise and Obama has curtailed drilling of our own oil. Unlike what he says he wants, he is actually forcing the United States to be more dependent on foreign oil. The effects of skyrocketing oil/gas prices are far reaching. First, people will not be able to afford to drive. Getting to work will be a challenge as few live near where they work. In many instances, public transportation is not even an option. So people won't buy cars when they can't afford gas, or maybe even afford the car if they can't get to work. Second, what about those who heat their homes with oil or propane or kerosene? Will they be able to afford to heat their homes? During the winter, will people die because they can't heat their homes? Third, everything we buy is delivered by trucks/trains/planes. If they can't get fuel or if they have to pay 3 or 4 times more than they pay now, the cost of goods will necessarily rise to the point where people won't be able to afford them. Oil products are also essential for the manufacturing of many products: waxes, sealants, distillates; basic costs of many items will rise. Food prices will rise not only from increased delivery costs but from manufacturing and petrochemical feedstock price increases. Fourth, infrastructure will slowly crumble as tar, pitch and asphalt are all oil products. How will roads be repaired or new roads be built? 

So now what about electricity? Coal plants providing electricity are being closed and nuclear plants may be the next to go after the earthquake in Japan. Together, coal and nukes provide 65% of our electricity. What will this do to electric rates? Who will be able to afford to pay rates that might be at the least 65% more as we will have 65% less electricity available? This presumes that electricity would still be available to all. I doubt that it will. We are an all electric country from our light bulbs to our refrigeration, to our computers, to our phones, to our small appliances. How long can you live without electricity? Currently electric cars are being pushed as green but who can afford to charge them if rates are astronomical? The government has been forcing us to use fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent because they use less electricity but the difference is not that great and moot if there is no electricity anyway.

Less people will make Obama's policies more workable for the government. Abortion, euthanasia, death panels via refusing to pay for care are essential parts of making Obama's policies sustainable in the long run. The government just can't afford to pay the expensive Social Security and Medicare; I believe they will do everything they can to reduce costs.

These are only two parts of what is going on under Obama but carried to their logical conclusion, America will indeed be fundamentally transformed. The voters had no idea what Obama was really saying when he talked about change. So how do you like this change and where it may end?

Prayers

Cleaning out some shelves, I came upon some prayers I had written down. The first one must have been copied from someone else but the second one is a rewording of the Our Father we were asked to do on a retreat.

Take, O Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. Whatever I have or hold, Thou hast given me; I restore it all to Thee and surrender it wholly to be governed by Thy will. Give me only Thy love and Thy grace, and I am rich enough and ask nothing more.

Our true Father in Heaven
Your name is the holiest.
May Your kingdom be established here,
And Your ways followed here on earth as they are joyfully in Heaven.
Take care of our daily needs,
And hold not our sins against us
As we hold sins not against our brothers.
Let us not be lead near tempting,
But be our strength against the evil one,
For all is Yours here,
Your strength, and Your glory beyond the end of time. Amen

Why don't you try creating your own version of the Our Father and share it with me?

Good versus Evil

 Which list describes what I want or should choose?
Order               Hate
Love                 Anger
Peace               Chaos
Honor              Cheat
Truth                Lie
Do right           Steal
Compassion    Revenge

 In the future, maybe soon, maybe in a few years, there will come a time when evil will seem to triumph. There will be much done against the godly and it may seem to them that they are helping God by bringing down these good folks. I want to be counted among the godly and I hope you do too because Psalm 52 is pretty clear about what happens to the evil people:

 Psalm 52: 1-5
Why do you boast, O mighty man, of mischief done against the godly?
All the day you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. 
You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
But God will break you down for ever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. 

But I say also, in that time, it will seem very tempting to be among these powerful people because they will be prospering while most folks are barely getting by or are in fact dying of starvation. They will not care for the poor, they will care only for increasing their power and wealth.

Jeremiah 5: 26-28
For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.
Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

But I say we must not be like these wicked people. No matter how little we may have, like the loaves and fishes in Christ's hands, it will be enough for our needs and enough to share with our friends and neighbors. You must show compassion and mercy, remembering that we are to be holy as God is holy.

Deuteronomy 15:7-8, 11
If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. ....For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.

Soon you must choose: will you walk with the wicked or delight in the Lord? More and more the words of the Old Testament and New Testament seem as if they are written for today. They are being fulfilled in this age and we, as much as the early Christians, must choose whom we will serve.

Psalm 1: 1-2
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

So I say we have our work cut out for us. Today's culture more and more is one of entitlement and receiving without putting in. And now that we are very close to having no money at any government level to pay and pay and pay, people are getting angry and others are telling people to get angry and be violent in protest, to seek to take what others have. But that is not to be your way. You must seek peace and pursue it.

1 Thessalonians 5: 13b - 15
Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.

Look up! This earth is not our home. It is only a place of journeying, a way-station - not our eternal home.

Colossians 3: 1-2, 12-14
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 

I am really working on being aware of what is going on and making decisions about whether or not I want to do what everyone else is doing. I do not want to be rioting. I do not want to be destroying property. I do not want to be coveting what my neighbors have to the point of grabbing it from them. As in the early days of the Church, Christians may have to give everything, including their lives to be numbered among God's holy people. I want to be willing to give it all, do you?

Angry Words

With the union argument going on in Madison, Wisconsin, there has been quite a bit of angry language and threats mostly coming from the pro-union side of the table. After the shooting in Arizona, there was much talk by those same folks about civility in the public arena. Why are they not listening to the words coming out of their own mouths? 


This morning I was reading in James 1 and came to these verses:
Know this my beloved brethren, let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, show no anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. (James 1:19-20) And just a few verses later: If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. (James 1:26) I think it is pretty clear that a Christian listens first and then speaks but always with a controlled tongue.


Times may come soon when anger will pour out of people who have been living on the government when the government finally acknowledges that it is out of money, out of credit and in huge debt. And many organizers will encourage the people to be angry, to get angry and to take their anger out on others who seem to be better off. There is nothing like entitlement to make people feel that they have a "right" to be taken care of in the way they would like. Poverty in this country is for the most part hardly the poverty of other countries. People can do more for themselves than they have been in the habit of doing. There are many resources here and in the past there were good folks here who looked out for one another. Those who have lived without worry will now have to worry. They will have to work more to take care of themselves and their families but that is a good thing, not a bad thing. Together, sharing of our own free will, we will make it.


The first reaction to change is anger. But American's must get over that anger quickly. It isn't going to help and it will most certainly hurt if it goes unchecked. We are going to find out if the America that was brought into existence by the founders is still the America of today. I do hope so.

The Lord is telling some people...

 I got an email today from a woman who has a group who gather to speak in tongues and then to say what they feel the message was. One of them said this:


 "Kept hearing repentance, not relying on Lord enough, saw big circles over US.  Big circles were where prayer was not going up, many of them in Midwest.  He said my people are so busy they are not relying on me.  Then saw the White House and the white was pealing off, then saw slaves crying out for prayer (don’t understand the slaves part).  Message is that we are not praying enough, specifically for our president and our Holy Father, protection for him.  Betty confirmed that this morning she received at Mass to pray for Holy Father.  Need more prayer and less criticism."

 I can see that certainly, with all that is going on in Wisconsin, there is likely not enough prayer about that explosive situation where many are bringing anger and violence instead of civil discussion. I also see very well that the White House is in decay because Obama and his administration are not honoring God in any way. Certainly there will be many slaves, slaves to many different things: wealth, power, Islam, debt and many will cry out for prayers for themselves when things go south. We need to pray for President Obama. He needs the Lord's wisdom and guidance.

I believe that the Holy Father absolutely needs prayers too. I have been praying for him for a while now. We must all focus on the truth of our faith and try to live that out. That is what Pope Benedict XVI is asking us to do.