#394 (12/22) - A Christian Addresses President Obama

PRAYER REQUEST: My long-time friend, Alex, hopes to have an opportunity to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas. PRAY that her heart would  be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.
NOTE: TODAY marks 32 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I am in the midst of a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust. 
PLEASE PRAY: 1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies.
2,  For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed.
3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars.
4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia.
5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.

My Take: No pressure, Mr. President  By Eric Metaxas, Special to CNN

December 10th, 2012, Note: Eric Metaxas is the author of "No Pressure, Mr. President! The Power Of True Belief In A Time Of Crisis: The National Prayer Breakfast Speech."

(CNN) [Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter] –Imagine that the president of the United States had to sit and listen to you for 30 minutes in a public setting. Imagine that he couldn't escape and had to endure whatever you said. If you disagreed with him politically, would you try to embarrass him? What would you say?

Well, this actually happened to me. A year ago I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, an event attended by the president, first lady, vice president, and 3,500 other dignitaries. No one was more shocked at the invitation than I. Previous speakers include Mother Teresa, Tony Blair and Bono. No pressure.

By the way, I disagree with the president in some important ways. But as a Christian, God commands me to love those with whom I disagree, to treat them with civility and respect, as creatures made in God's image. That's a command, not a request or a suggestion. Again, no pressure.

In my speech I spoke about my heroes, William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Wilberforce's faith led him to fight for the Africans being enslaved by the British; Bonhoeffer's faith led him to fight for the Jews being persecuted by the Nazis. I used them as examples of people who passionately lived out their faith by standing up for their fellow human beings when most around them merely gave it lip service.

I also joked around a lot, because as any of my friends will tell you, one of the ways I show love is by joking and teasing people. Who said prayer breakfasts had to be boring?  At one point I said that George W. Bush had read my Bonhoeffer book, and then I glanced at President Obama and said "No pressure."  I'm glad he laughed!

Later in my speech, I talked specifically about the idea of loving our enemies. I said this was the test of real faith. Speaking to my fellow pro-lifers, I said that those of us who believe the unborn to be human beings must love those on the other side of that issue. I also said that those of us with a traditionally biblical view of sexuality are sometimes demonized as bigots, but we must love even those who call us bigots. I cited Wilberforce and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as two men who took seriously God's command to love their enemies in the midst of the most serious political battles of their day. They honored God in how they fought, and he honored them.

At the end of the breakfast the president told me he would read my book on Bonhoeffer, and Vice President Biden took my picture with the president. No kidding. It was an extraordinary day and I'm not telling the half of it.

President Barack Obama holds up a book given to him by author Eric Metaxas

But the reason I'm writing now is that during the past election I was disappointed to see the president's campaign utterly abandoning these ideals of treating your opponents as you yourself would wish to be treated. Good people with principled and profound convictions about when life begins were cynically demonized as "enemies of women." Americans who had worked hard to build businesses, and who had given millions to charity and to the government, were denounced as fat-cats who weren't "paying their fair share" and whose wealth was ill-gotten gain. These scorched-earth tactics were not presidential, much less Christian, and because the president openly professes a Christian faith, I feel I must speak about this.

Of course many will dismiss campaign hardball rhetoric as "what works." This is to miss the point. What we say matters deeply, and how we say it matters deeply.  All of it has serious long-term consequences.  For all of us.

For one thing, our children are watching and listening. We tell them it's less important who wins or loses than how we play the game. Is there no truth to this at all? Do we not see that this behavior erodes faith in the very political process and in democracy itself? Do we not see that by doing this we encourage our opponents to do the same - and worse - the next time around?  Shouldn't we care about that?
Any victory won in an ugly way is somehow a tainted victory. In this case, the president has "won" a deeply divided nation, one that he - alas - has had a hand in dividing. Now what?

If he is to succeed in the tremendous challenges that lay ahead, he must repent of these tactics and must make amends with his opponents, if it's not too late. Or else he will face gridlock and more gridlock.  He also must show the door to those who cynically encouraged this "winning is the only thing" behavior. His legacy and America's future depend upon it. Many will be praying for him. No pressure.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

#393 (12/21) "Holiday Intimidation" -

PRAYER REQUEST: My long-time friend, Alex, hopes to have an opportunity to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas. PRAY that her heart would  be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.
NOTE:  TODAY marks 33 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I am in the midst of a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust. 
PLEASE PRAY: 1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies.
2,  For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed.
3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars.
4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia.
5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

AS I SEE IT: The increasingly hostile actions of atheists never fails to strike this time of year. The one referred to below particularly irks me because it happened in my home state AND it indirectly involved a church friends of mine attend.And yet, I am mostly saddened as God reminds me that those who call themselves 'atheists' are ignorant of and separated from the grace of God in Christ. PRAYER REQUEST: That those who are atheists will have someone in their circle of influence who will lovingly but boldly proclaimed the truths of Christ to them, especially before death keeps them separated from God forever.

- "The Grinches v. the First Amendment," - Eric Metaxas, Breakpoint.org, December 20, 2012;

For six years, the Moanalua High School orchestra in Hawaii has provided Christmas for poor African children. They hold a benefit concert that raises $30,000 each year for Mercy Ships, a fantastic Christian relief agency that provides life-saving, and life-enhancing surgery to the poor across the globe.

But this year, a local atheist attempted to steal Christmas for both the young musicians and African children by complaining to the state Department of Education. You see, volunteers from Hawaii's New Hope Church worked on sets for the concert, and sold tickets, including, horrifyingly, at their Sunday church services. So of course there MUST be a constitutional violation somewhere, somehow.

Worst of all, the state Department of Education agreed. And so—four days before the concert—the high school was ordered to cancel it. No Christmas concert, no $30,000 for suffering African children. In the words of that famous song, “You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.”

Of course, the high school was not even close to violating the Constitution. The concert was a school event, not a church event, and it was being put on by high school students and staff. So why do these Grinches get away with canceling Christmas in Hawaii and in other states every year? Well, as the Hawaii Reporter editorialized, this person “doesn't win in court so much as he gets his way by getting people in government to simply bend to his wishes through bullying and threats.” And as Hawaii radio talk show host Michael Perry notes, “There are all kinds of organizations that would be happy to take [this guy] on and win. But he wins because they quickly capitulate.”

In addition, as the Wall Street Journal's Bill McGurn points out, when it comes to church-state scrimmages, people in power seem unable “to distinguish between upholding religious pluralism and enforcing anti-religion.” Our country, he declares, is “ill-served by a government that reads 'no establishment of religion' as mandating official hostility toward even innocuous religious expressions of its citizenry.”

And McGurn points out that the Grinch who led another holiday fight—this one against nativity displays in Santa Monica—acknowledged that he did so, not because he and his cohorts wanted “an opportunity to express their own views but to ban those they disagreed with from expressing theirs.” Exactly!

When we see bullying tactics being employed during the holidays, we ought to direct the victims to religious rights groups like the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, or the Alliance Defending Freedom. They take on religious hostility cases with great gusto and, I might add, with great success.

We also need to demonstrate Christian love to these Grinches—and no, not by sending them Aunt Eulalie's fruitcake; we should also pray that their hearts—now two sizes too small—will expand to embrace those of different religious faiths, and that they’d stop their bullying ways.

By the way, you'll be happy to learn that—thanks to the Christmas controversy—Mercy  Ships is going to receive even more money than usual. New Hope Church invited Christian musicians called the Katinas to perform at their church to benefit Mercy Ships. Those who’d purchased tickets for the original concert could use them to see the Katinas. Plus, the church sold 200 additional tickets—and accepted a $2,000 donation from a non-Christian woman—non-Christian—who gave simply because “this is the right thing to do,” as she put it.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Grinch.

[Italics, underlined, and prayer request in yellow emhasis mine]

#392 (12/20) Over the "Cliff," Beware the ObamCare Tax Surprises!

PRAYER REQUEST: My long-time friend, Alex, hopes to have an opportunity to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas. PRAY that her heart would  be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.
NOTE:  TODAY marks 34 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I am in the midst of a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust. 

PLEASE PRAY: 1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies.
2,  For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed.
3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars.
4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia.
5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PRAYER REQUEST: [Note: Unsure how the present negotiations in Congress will affect you? As you will read below, there are already things awaiting Americans in terms of taxes in the New Year no one is much talking about. And they are hidden in what the majority of Americans continue to want repealed - ObamaCare.] PRAY that in the New Year there will be enough members of Congress to in effect repeal this monstrous legislation that as time goes on only reveals more hidden costs to Americans.

ObamaCare’s New Year Tax “Surprises,” - By: John Hayward 12/11/2012  http://www.humanevents.com/2012/12/11/obamacares-new-year-tax-surprises/

As 2012 draws to a close, all sorts of stories are appearing about the shocked reaction of various constituencies to the massive tax increases built into ObamaCare. These aren’t “surprises” to lfew years.  But they’re coming as a series of jaw-dropping shocks to the people who were bamboozled by Democrat rhetoric about the program… including a number of Democrat politicians.ong-time critics of the legislation, whose every criticism has been richly vindicated over the past For example, Minnesota’s Democrat senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken, just noticed that ObamaCare’s taxes on medical devices are poised to kill off “thousands of high-paying jobs that device companies support in Minnesota, headquarters to such giant devicemakers as Medtronic and St. Jude Medical,” according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.  This has led them to agitate for a delay in the new taxes, which Klobuchar says “would give us the opportunity to repeal or reduce that tax.”

Such a repeal would knock another $28 billion out of the funding for the deficit-blasting ObamaCare, which was once hilariously advertised as “revenue-neutral” or even a cost-efficiency system that would actually reduce the deficit.  But as always with Democrat schemes, once the lollipop-dispensing vote-buying machinery is in place, it is no longer necessary to pretend that Big Government can actually pay for it.  We’ll pass the bills along to our children, and they’ll pass them on to their children, forever and ever.

The Star-Tribune article mentions that Klobuchar’s plea to lift the medical-device tax axe from the necks of her constitents is co-signed by Franken “and all the heavy hitters in the Senate Democratic leadership.”  Does that mean these ”heavy hitters” have finally figured out that tax increases kill jobs?  Are the planning to make a formal announcement of this dramatic revision to Party ideology any time soon?

Meanwhile, the Huffington Post gently warns its readers that “your medical plan is facing an unexpected expense, so you probably are, too. It’s a new, $63-per-head fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.”
What?  What the ... is that all about?  Why, we were promised ObamaCare would “bend the cost curve down.”  But it’s already had the opposite effect, and now we’re getting hit with another $63 surcharge?  Why weren’t we warned about this?  Well, it’s because the change was “buried in a recent regulation.”  It will take the form of “multi-million dollar assessments” that companies have little choice but to pass along to their employees.

Where’s all this money going?  Much of it will pour into “a fund administered by the Health and Human Services Department,” where it will “be used to cushion health insurance companies from the initial hard-to-predict costs of covering uninsured people with medical problems.”  $5 billion of it will vanish into the bleak void of the U.S. Treasury, “apparently to offset the cost of shoring up employer-sponsored coverage for early retirees?”  Apparently?

Of course, you were told Obama and his brilliant central planners could predict everything, and easily run the nation’s health care from Washington better than millions of Americans making their own decisions possibly could.  Then again, Nancy Pelosi did chirp that we would need to pass ObamaCare to find out what was in it.  Well, it turned out to be stuffed with tax increases.  Surprise!

And there are plenty more to come.  The $63 surcharge described by the Huffington Post is just one small part of “a bigger package of taxes and fees to finance Obama’s expansion of coverage to the uninsured.  It all comes to about $700 billion over 10 years, and includes higher Medicare taxes effective this Jan. 1 on individuals making more than $200,000 per year or couples making more than $250,000.  People above those threshold amounts also face an additional 3.8 percent tax on their investment income.” Whoa… you mean Barack Obama has already raised taxes on the people he wants to soak for “deficit reduction?”  You betcha!  And it’s an especially dishonest, economically damaging tax, as Bloomberg News explains:

"In the debate over the looming fiscal cliff, U.S. President Barack Obama often plays down any adverse economic impact from letting the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts expire for high-income Americans, claiming that the top tax rates would merely return to where they were during the Clinton years.Unfortunately, the president’s claim is incorrect because he ignores the impending arrival of the unearned income Medicare contribution tax, which will further raise tax rates on income from saving. Scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, the tax, which was adopted as part of the 2010 health-care law, is a 3.8 percent levy on interest, dividends, capital gains and passive business income received by taxpayers with incomes exceeding $200,000 (or $250,000 for couples). Because the new tax was added to the health-care law late in the process without congressional hearings, it received little attention at the time. With only a few weeks left before it takes effect, it remains largely unknown."

What we do know about this tax is that even its name is a total fraud:

One problem with the unearned income Medicare contribution tax is the name Congress chose for it, which is a triple misnomer. The income that will be subject to the tax isn’t unearned — it is earned by savers who receive market rewards for delaying consumption and providing funds to finance business investment.
Also, because the proceeds will be paid into the general treasury, the tax will have no financial link to Medicare. And, of course, the tax will be a compulsory payment, not a voluntary contribution.

I’m sure we’ll find out more about it when hapless taxpayers get fined by the IRS for failure to comply with every paragraph of its hastily-written 42 pages of regulations.  The economic damage from a surtax on savings and investment will make themselves felt much sooner.  And just wait until anyone who tries to repeal this tax is pilloried for protecting the “unearned income” of those despicable fat-cat Scrooges by class warriors!

It’s insane that Republicans ever allowed themselves to get outmaneuvered on the issue of middle-class tax reduction by Barack Obama.  Here’s Step One for taking the issue back: propose a huge middle class tax reduction by demanding the full repeal of a debt-exploding program that polls have consistently shown they hate.  Repeal ObamaCare.

#391 (12/19) The Answer That Is Not Gun Control

PRAYER REQUEST: My long-time friend, Alex, hopes to have an opportunity to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas. PRAY that her heart would  be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.

PRAYER REQUESTS: The Connecticut Shootings - http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=978

For the families of those killed in Friday’s mass shootings

That God will use this tragedy to bring people to faith in Christ

For healing in the community of Newtown that has been devastated by this tragedy

NOTE:  TODAY marks 37 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I feel led to begin a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust. I will share more in a later post(s), for now, may I ask you to

PLEASE PRAY:   1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies.
2,  For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed.
3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars.
4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia.
5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "Goodwill to Men"- By: Erick Erickson, December 16th, http://www.redstate.com/2012/12/16/goodwill-to-men/   It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

On Friday in Connecticut, more than two dozen, mostly children, were gunned down in an act of evil.

I once read an account that young men killed on the beaches of Normandy, as they lay dying, called out for their mothers. I tear up at even the glancing thought of the cries of the children in Connecticut and dare not take the mental walk down that road.

Children cry out for their mommy and their daddy. Young men on the battlefield, as death comes over them, do the same. It is a natural instinct at life’s end for the young. Just the thought of the children crying out for their moms and dads as they died overwhelms the senses of those of us far removed from the tragedy. It is an instinct, though, that we should confront.

Instead, two days removed from the horror of Friday, we [began] again the debate and confrontations about gun control. It is a debate worth having and, whether we want to or not, we will have it. Much, if any, of what will be proposed would not have stopped the massacre. But though the proposals that will soon be most seriously considered would most likely not have prevented what happened, men and women of goodwill — and most are — will make the proposals because it lets them feel in control. People want to do something. People, acting corporately, want to legislate and regulate because it is, next to election of leaders, the most powerful act of a democracy. The efforts, even if they are successful, will not stop this cycle of violence.

Discussions of gun control are easier to have than discussions about mental health. But they too are easier to have than those about the collapse of the American family. History and multiple studies show that the most stable foundation of a society is a two parent nuclear household with multiple

children. In the past year we have talked more and more about the rise of singles in this country, following the rise of single parents. Because much of the question of what it means to be single involves the discussion of choices, we cannot have a conversation about the nuclear family. The only conclusion that would benefit our society would be a conclusion that renders too many of the choices made by twenty and thirty somethings in our society today invalid.

Unless our culture shifts back toward recognizing the need for stable families with multiple children, the situation will only get worse. Coupled with that comes difficult conversations about equality and the roles young men in society must grow up to fit into. None of these horrific incidents have been committed by girls or women, but by disturbed young men — some, to be sure, in the very nuclear families most likely to help reduce these senseless acts. Nuclear families will not cure the problem and, in fact, mass incidents like this have declined over time though the 6 worst school shootings have been in the past decade. But we look at the tragedy in Connecticut and ignore the daily killings and life destroying acts across the nation. We focus on Connecticut, but not inner-cities or impoverished communities of broken homes.

When pointing out that two parent households of multiple children provide the greatest stability in a society, many deny the fact. Many demand data or more studies then try to discredit the studies. It says more about the denial of responsibility for the choices the deniers have made than it does about the studies or the facts. This is, however, why we will not change. But as government tries to spread its caring hands even further and replace or supplement the need for family, no child will ever in terror cry out for Uncle Sam, just for mom or dad.

Turning its back on the nuclear family, our society has concurrently turned its back on discussing evil. Evil, like God, is mythology to many in our country even when confronted with it at the barrel of a gun.

We have become accustomed in our vernacular to treat evil as the opposite of good or the opposite of God. Evil is not just a word and not the opposite of good or God, but the absence of God taking on a life of its own. The act in Connecticut may have been committed by a mentally disturbed individual, but the act was evil. The person, at the time committing the act, was evil.

God and good exist. The devil and evil do as well — the incarnation of the absolute void left in the absence of God. Colossians 1:15 states, ‘[Christ] is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” As our society drifts further and further from Christ, our society holds itself together less and less. The rise of secularism coincides with the decline of family and the rise of societal chaos.

In our society, it is impolite to say this. Many who reject this mock Christians. They wonder why God or Jesus were not in that school room protecting those children. Liberal gay-rights activist Dan Savage on Friday was openly ridiculing Christians and mocking God. Liberal pundits were retweeting him.They choose not to understand. They have chosen the very society that generates the heinous act we saw on Friday — a society replacing ourselves and our standards with those of God. It is a society St. Paul described quite accurately in Romans 1.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. . . . They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator . . . . Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Romans 1:21, 25, 28-31

On Friday in Connecticut, an evil creature entered a classroom and gunned down children in our ever increasing Romans 1 society.

At this Christmas season we should remember the part of the Christmas story we often do not dwell on. Two thousand years ago, King Herod sent his soldiers to Bethlehem where they slaughtered all the boys age 2 and under. The coming of the Risen Lord was answered by this world with the loss of the innocents.

The world is full of sin. It is easy for the non-Christian to look at what happened and rationalize away that the person was mentally ill, we need gun control, etc. It is harder, especially at this time of year, for those who do believe in God to find comfort in him instead of demanding “why?” But God does not spare us the effects of sin in the world, nor does he spare the little children.

But we know by faith that “Jesus wept.” He weeps now. He welcomes home the little children and calls for us to persevere and, if we will, to turn back toward him and bring our society with us. But our society must be prepared to have larger conversations than whether or not we should regulate guns or bullets.

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”  

[bold and italics emphasis mine] 

#390 (12/18) - Questionable Add-Ons to Disaster Relief Bill

PRAYER REQUEST: My long-time friend, Alex, hopes to have an opportunity to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas. PRAY that her heart would  be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.

PRAYER REQUEST: Re: the Connecticut Shootings - http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=978

For the families of those killed in Friday’s mass shootings

That God will use this tragedy to bring people to faith in Christ

For healing in the community of Newtown that has been devastated by this tragedy

NOTE:  TODAY marks 37 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I feel led to begin a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust. I will share more in a later post(s), for now, may I ask you to

PLEASE PRAY:   1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies.
2,  For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed.
3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars.
4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia.
5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.

''Rebuilding Communities'' -  By Amy Payne On December 17, 2012

Many Americans will find it difficult to return to their daily routines today. The massacre at a Connecticut elementary school Friday, in which 26 people were murdered in an act of senseless violence, including 20 small children, has left the country shocked. The Heritage Foundation expresses its condolences to the families and friends of the victims and grieves along with them.

Among people heading back to work will be lawmakers, who will do their best to carry on as they return to Washington to confront a number of pressing challenges, including a disaster relief bill for Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Sandy left more than 100 people dead and destroyed about 400,000 homes and other buildings.
Today, the Senate will begin debating a bill that was supposed to be disaster recovery funds for those devastated by the storm. But so many special-interest projects were added on that the $60.4 billion request has turned into a farce. Roughly $28 billion of the request is marked for future disaster-mitigation projects.
It includes:

• $200 million for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to be used freely at the discretion of the Secretary ^[1];
• Money for salmon fisheries in Alaska ^[2]; and
• $2 million for roof repairs at the Smithsonian ^[1].

The bill also seeks federal funding for things that are provided on a state and local level, or by nonprofits and communities, such as food for food banks.

As Heritage visiting fellow Matt Mayer explains ^[3], “[S]etting aside whether these projects have merit, a supplemental spending request to deal with a current crisis is not the appropriate vehicle to propose new spending projects.” Items have been tacked onto the bill that should be debated for the regular federal budget, not disaster funding.

The way the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responds to disasters—and the type of disasters that it responds to ^[4]—are issues that need serious consideration. Hurricane Sandy is the type of disaster that FEMA should be responsible for, but using a legitimate disaster funding request as an opportunity for piling on all kinds of unrelated money is irresponsible and insulting to the victims of the disaster.

Adding injury to taxpayers, the Administration did not propose any ways to pay for ^[1] the $60.4 billion cost of the bill. In the dire budget situation, when Congress and the President are already tasked with averting the fiscal cliff ^[5], coming up with any extra money isn’t an easy request—and only necessary funds should qualify for immediate disaster relief. Mayer estimates ^[3] that “Removing unnecessary items from the Administration’s request yields a reduced request of $12.8 billion in supplemental funds. These funds should be provided only after being offset by spending reductions.”

Americans believe in coming to the aid of those who are hurting. Whether in Connecticut or New York, a devastated school community or a hurricane-ravaged neighborhood, we will rebuild. We must help meet the immediate needs of these communities while we carefully consider longer-term solutions.

[bold and italics emphasis mine]

---

Article printed from The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation: http://blog.heritage.org; URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/12/17/morning-bell-rebuilding-communities/

URLs in this post:

[1] to be used freely at the discretion of the Secretary: http://blog.heritage.org/2012/12/14/hurricane-sandy-and-fema-abuse/

[2] salmon fisheries in Alaska: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/16/porked-up-sandy-relief-bill-storms-into-senate/

[3] explains: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/12/hurricane-sandy-disaster-aid-request-too-big

[4] type of disasters that it responds to: http://www.heritage.org/multimedia/infographic/2012/10/fema-declarations-by-year-and-by-presidential-administration

[5] fiscal cliff: http://www.heritage.org/issues/economy/fiscal-cliff

Copyright © 2011 The Heritage Foundation. All rights reserved. 

#389 (12/17) ''The Moral Cliff''

PRAYER REQUEST: My long-time friend, Alex, hopes to have an opportunity to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas. PRAY that her heart would  be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.

PRAYER REQUEST: Re: the Connecticut Shootings
from http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/Prayerwatch?pw=978

For the families of those killed in Friday’s mass shootings

That God will use this tragedy to bring people to faith in Christ

For healing in the community of Newtown that has been devastated by this tragedy

NOTE:  TODAY marks 37 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. I feel led to begin a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust. I will share more in a later post(s), for now, may I ask you to

PLEASE PRAY: 
 1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies.
2,  For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed.
3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars.
4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia.
5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "The Moral Cliff." - By: Gary Bauer ,12/10/2012 http://www.humanevents.com/2012/12/10/gary-bauer-the-moral-cliff/

As everyone knows, we’re fast approaching the fiscal cliff, the combination of steep tax increases and mandatory spending cuts that will take place if Congress doesn’t act by the end of the year. But America is also quickly approaching a moral cliff, and it’s something that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.

Recent data provide a bleak forecast for the moral future of our country. In November, the Pew Research Center released the findings of a study on marriage. It found “no reversal in the decline of marriage.” In 2011, 4.2 million adults were newly married, about the same number as in 2010 and significantly fewer than the 4.5 million newlyweds estimated in 2008. Today roughly half of adults are married, compared with nearly three-quarters of adults in 1960. It’s not the highly educated and well-off who are eschewing marriage, but rather the poor and less educated. Pew found a 14 percent decrease in marriages among adults without a high school degree just since 2008.

Fewer children grow up with both biological parents in America than in any other affluent country in the world. Out-of-wedlock births are at an all-time high. In 2009, 41 percent of births occurred outside of marriage.

Obviously, marriage is not a synonym for morality. But stable marriages and families do encourage moral behavior.

Here’s a troubling fact: the U.S. crime rate increased last year for the first time in nearly two decades. According to the U.S. Justice Department, last year saw a 22 percent rise in assaults, which pushed the overall violent crime rate up for the first time since 1993. It’s not surprising that crime increased at a time when families are more fragmented.

America used to have a strong “moral safety net” for its people. Today that net is badly frayed, not only because families are disintegrating but also because the church doesn’t play the same role that it once did in many Americans’ lives.  A December Gallup survey found that the share of Americans who do not identify with a specific religions denomination has increased, while the share who identify with some traditional churches has declined.

In a related study, Gallup found that Americans’ confidence in organized religion is at a low point. Eleven years ago, 60 percent of Americans had a “great deal” or “quite a bit” of confidence in “church or organized religion.” Now just 44 percent of Americans have that confidence. “This follows a long-term decline in Americans’ confidence in religion since the 1970s,” according to Gallup.

Americans are no longer as engaged with their communities, their churches or their families. Recent studies find that more and more people spend less and less time at home with their families. It’s not that their not at home, it’s that family time is being replaced by time alone and online.

The antidotes are well known if hard to apply. Being engaged and involved with your community and family matters most. A 2011 study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found that teenagers from families that eat together at least five to seven times a week are four times less likely to use drugs or alcohol. Reliable standards of right and wrong also matter. Actions that were once stigmatized are now commonly accepted, encouraged and even celebrated. A 2010 Gallup survey found that unmarried sex, out-of-wedlock birth, gambling and divorce are all seen as morally acceptable by majorities of Americans.

I’m glad women who get pregnant outside of marriage are no longer hidden from view or sent out of town so as not to shame their families, and I’m glad we no longer have laws that make it difficult for women to dissolve abusive marriages. But the stigma that was once attached to things society deemed unhealthy served the purpose of making them undesirable. With the stigma gone, many people see little reason not to do whatever feels good at the moment.

More and more, government tries to stand in to take care of people where civil society used to provide support and guidance. But no government program can make up for the breakdown of the family.

Guided by nothing but pop culture values, many children no longer learn how to think about morality and virtue, or to think of them at all. They grow up with no shared moral framework, believing that the highest values are diversity, tolerance and non-judgmentalism.
These can be important virtues, but they cannot replace the reliable standards of right and wrong at the heart of the Judeo-Christian value system.

The fiscal cliff looms, and the country’s leaders are working hard to avoid it. It’s time to give as much attention to the fast-approaching moral cliff. The future of the American experiment depends on a virtuous people at least as much as it depends on a balanced budget.

[bold, italics, and underline emphasis mine]

#388 (12/16) SUNDAY SPECIAL - ''To Defeat the Devil''

PRAYER REQUEST: My long-time friend, Alex, hopes to have an opportunity to share the gospel with his Mom this Christmas season. PRAY that her heart would  be open and that she might respond to the invitation to trust in Christ.

NOTE:  TODAY marks 38 days before the 40th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision that spearheaded the legalizaion of the abortion of the unborn in America. (I felt led to begin a 40 day period of prayer and (limited) fasting to honor the memory of the almost 60 million ! unborn that have been murdered and the 10s of millions of their mothers, fathers, and siblings who have been victimized by this great American Holocaust. I will share more in a later post(s).

PLEASE PRAY:
 1. For the girls/women each day contemplating an abortion; the abortionists and their staff; the crisis pregnancy centers seeking to serve the women facing unplanned pregnancies.
2,  For the passage of even more state laws that will effectively help to limit the number of abortions being performed.
3. The defunding of Planned Parenthood that performs over 300,000 abortions (about 1/3 the toal) for profit and still receives almost 1/2 billion dollars in federal tax dollars.
4. That one day America might finally pass a constitutional amendment promoting the Sanctity of Every Human Life - in effect oulawing both abortion and euthanasia.
5. For churches/Christians being pro-life- not just claiming to be but demonstrating it conclusively by their actiions.

''TRUTH  THAT TRANSFORMS" - For those in Orlando, as always each week, I urge you to tune in to the broadcast at 5 pm, ch. 55.1, and on Monday at 7 pm, ch. 52.2. Along with a great message, there is a special video presentation that follows. For just viewing the message, you can find it at: www.truthinaction.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"To Defeat the Devil"(study #6 from "Why God Became Man'' (19 page study for download )
http://www.colsoncenter.org/images/content/wilberforce/ViewPointStudies/VPGodMan.pd

- By T. M. Moore| December 08, 2012

"The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8

Beginning and ending
Christmas, every believer knows, is the celebration of a new beginning, the beginning of our redemption. In Jesus Christ God became a Man in order that He might destroy death, take away our sins, open to us the path of righteousness, and bring us into the happiness which knowing God affords for all who believe in Jesus Christ. Christmas marks the beginning of a Kingdom without end and everlasting life with God.

But Christmas also marks an ending – the end of the reign of Satan. When the devil tempted Adam and Eve, and humankind fell into sin, a great insult was done by man against the honor of God. Human beings handed the devil a victory which he indulged for thousands of years – but which could not last forever. Anselm [former Archbishop of Canterbury] explained ..., “Man being made holy was placed in paradise, as it were in the place of God, between God and the devil, to conquer the devil by not yielding to his temptation, and so to vindicate the honor of God and put the devil to shame, because that man, though weaker and dwelling upon earth, should not sin though tempted by the devil, while the devil, though stronger and in heaven, sinned without any to tempt him. And when man could easily have effected this, he, without compulsion and of his own accord, allowed himself to be brought over to the will of the devil, contrary to the will and honor of God.”

A Man’s victory
This treachery could not be allowed to stand, Anselm insisted: “Decide for yourself if it be not contrary to the honor of God for man to be reconciled to Him, with this calumnious reproach still heaped upon God; unless man first shall have honored God by overcoming the devil, as he dishonored him in yielding to the devil.” How could the redemptive work of Christ ever be secure and certain apart from the utter defeat of the one who had made that work necessary by his rebellion against God and treachery against the human race?

Further, this had to be a victory achieved by a man, since defeat had come at the hands of men in the first place. Anselm: “Now the victory ought to be of this kind, that, as in strength and immortal vigor, he freely yielded to the devil to sin, and on this account justly incurred the penalty of death; so, in his weakness and mortality, which he had brought upon himself, he should conquer the devil by the pain of death, while wholly avoiding sin.” God Himself was in no need of coming down from heaven to conquer the devil. He had already done that, expelling the devil from heaven and consigning him to eternal separation from divine happiness and bliss. Rather, Anselm explained, “God demanded that man should conquer the devil, so that he who had offended by sin should atone by holiness. As God owed nothing to the devil but punishment, so man must only make amends by conquering the devil as man had already been conquered by him.” Such a victory could not be achieved by just any man, Anselm explained; it had to be achieved by a God-Man, the Son of God come to earth in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth.

 Total victory!
This is what John meant when he wrote that Jesus Christ appeared at Christmas to destroy the works of the devil. Those works had been introduced by men; they could only be erased by a Man – but not just any man, only the God-Man. At His temptation in the wilderness Jesus bound the devil (Matt. 4:1-11; 12:22-29). On the cross He put the devil to public shame and sent Him scurrying (Col. 2:15). Out of the tomb Jesus overcame the devil’s greatest weapon, the fear of death. Now He reigns in glory, and is putting the devil and all His enemies under His feet, until the time when He, the God-Man, shall return in power finally and completely to destroy the devil and His works.

This Christmas rejoice in the new beginning we have in Jesus, but rejoice as well in the victory over the devil which Jesus in His Incarnation achieved for us.

[Action Point] Ask a few of your Christian friends the question, "Why did God become a Man?"

[bold and italics  emphasis (mostely) mine]