Are We as A Nation in Decline

Did not our God warn us long ago, when a nation devalues His precepts, distorts His principles, and denies His path bloodshed will follow bloodshed?

The prophet Hosea said, “Listen to the word of the LORD, O sons of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore, the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes” (Hosea 4:1-3).

Today, are we not beginning to languish as a nation, wither away as a culture, waste away as a people? Is it not time we turn back to God? Why not return to Jehovah God, observe His magnanimity and righteousness? I contend as others before me, primordial force, hostility, riotous actions, needless racial divisiveness, political turmoil, fake news is the result of turning away from God. Sovereignty and liberty are His response when we turn back to Him.

Tides of Tyranny: When Reality Becomes Transparent Truth Prevails

Tides of Tyranny: When Reality Becomes Transparent Truth Prevails: Why is it that hooligans are often seen marauding footlocker stores during times of strife and natural catastrophes? When professional s...

When Reality Becomes Transparent Truth Prevails

Why is it that hooligans are often seen marauding footlocker stores during times of strife and natural catastrophes? When professional stock car race driver David Ragan saw a video on social media last week that depicted miscreant type shoe aficionados while looting the previously mentioned shoe store during Hurricane Irma, he perceptively proposed that perhaps they should consider pillaging another type of store instead. “They need to stop by the clothing store and steal some belts to hold up their pants next.”

Unless we are asleep at the wheel, we have a pretty good idea who Ragan is referring to by his comment suggesting they are all thieves. Does that make an observer, in this case Ragan or others like myself who saw the same things unfolding on MSM and admittedly had similar thoughts to his, make him, me or us racists?  Absolutely not!

To label one a racist who recognizes what is obvious makes no sense. Everyone captured on tape was/is in fact a thief. And Ragan never mentioned their ethnic group -- he only mentioned their sagging pants and, by the implication, their repulsing hind ends. 

Unfortunately, the attitude of many liberals, both hardened and novice is nothing new. The ethnic/cultural grievance peddlers among the left have long maintained that any disparagement of sure conducts thought to be inherently tied to the black community constitutes a form of xenophobia (racism) known as respectability politics or politics of respectability. In short, it’s generally defined as what happens when minorities and/or marginalized groups are told that to receive better treatment, they must behave better. Furthermore, problems that exist within the black community stem from within, and that by adopting a certain lifestyle, blacks in general can inoculate themselves from discrimination.

The counter argument; this brand of politics is often used to rationalize racism, sexism, bigotry, hate, and violence. As it relates to subject at hand, there’s nothing xenophobic, racists, prejudiced or vile about reprimanding grown men and women for sauntering about with their pants hanging off their rears. Moreover, attempts to stop people from encouraging others to do the right thing like upright, mature adults are tantamount to the lax bigotry of low expectations -- the belief that minorities are too boorish to conduct themselves properly. The fact is that no grown man or woman should allow his or her pants to “hang 10” , regardless of race. And frankly, if you disagree with this opinion, you’re likely a liberal lemming dupe willing to discard traditional values for the sake of personal gain at others expense.

9/11, A Day of Awakening and Recognition

Few Americans of sound mind, patriotic heart and a soul will ever forget 9/11/2001. Though the legacy of September 11, 2001 attacks may not be fully known for years to come. For hundreds of thousands of Americans, to include myself, that fateful day changed everything. The day changed all of us. It changed America. And it changed the world.  

But I ask the reader if he/she recalls what happened on September 11, 2012? Allow me to refresh your memory. A planned assault occurred on the Benghazi Consulate, which was being monitored in real time by U.S. intelligence as the terrorists were allegedly using U.S. mobile phones. Hours into the attack, Hillary Clinton spoke via secure landline with President Obama and no attempt was made to rescue U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three CIA operatives. A few hours later, the administration blamed the attack on a video insulting Islam, produced by an obscure independent filmmaker who has since purported to have had links with the U.S. Justice Department.   

It is my understanding (from public source material) the next morning, Hillary Clinton’s State Department contacted various social media outlets requesting them to expurgate speech insulting the followers of Mohammedan. The administration began a concentrated campaign aimed at blue-penciling or censoring speech affronting Islam, as President Obama in a UN address, thirteen days later stated: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”   

Later reports surfaced that America had supplied guns to the terrorists overthrowing Gaddafi, Libya’s leader at the time, and that these guns were being moved through Benghazi to arm terrorists overthrowing Syria's leader, Bashar al Assad, and are now being used by ISIS terrorists to overthrow it’s adversaries. This begs the question; is this not part of a comprehensive Muslim Brotherhood goal of re-establishing Shariah Muslim nations under a supreme authority Muslim leader or caliph?   

It is my opinion, based on events since and prior to 911, establishment of Shariah Law, either within or outside a Muslim Caliphate is counterproductive to peace and individual freedoms in America, Europe, the Mideast, Muslims in general, and especially women living within/alongside Islamic cultures that adhere to Sharia Law. There is no future for those in the West who promote, encourage and support the institution of, or restoration of or re-establishment of Shariah Law or tenants contained therein. In summary, "the future must not belong to those who champion Shariah Law." 

The Church and Message Conveyance

I read a media post a couple weeks past arguing that if someone’s church didn't speak out against the murder in Charlottesville, Virginia, that this is evidence that they attend a white supremacist church. That might be true. Then, again, it might not. What happened in Charlottesville was appalling, and the culprit should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. The white supremacists traipsing for bigotry certainly do not represent anything like middle-of-the-road America. Following weeks of contemplation, I choose to now deal with the idea that if a church doesn't immediately preach on this, or any other select social issue, that church should be branded and rejected.

Is not the Church already addressing the problem in congregations across America every time it teaches people to love one another, who they can see? Or else, is not evidence that they do not love God who they cannot see? Does the Church not address the problem in congregations across America every time it teaches that to embrace anger against your brother or sister is synonymous to murdering them? In the same way, does not the Church address sexual deviancy, promiscuity, abortion and like issues by teaching about self-restraint and intrinsic human value? Does not the Church address environmental issues by teaching about stewardship? Does not the Church teach about prevailing over divisions by bringing to light the reconciliation available through the blood of Jesus Christ shed for the forgiveness of the source of every human evil? And it teaches about the alternative to sin every single time it emboldens its congregants to follow Jesus.

Like others who have on occasion filled-in for a pastor, I have in the past delivered pro-life, anti-discrimination and appropriate, to the occasion, messages and sermons on these and other present-day issues. If others don’t, does that make them or the Church, pro-abortion, racist, less patriotic? What’s wrong with incorporating the sanctity of human life, equality of all and patriotism into Church sermons when the Bible text links with the issue? I dare say, each advocate/activist in every area of life yearns for the opportunity to seize the pulpits/lecterns of America but addressing the human condition is always greater than any lone issue. If the Church in America were mandated to preach on abortion every time an individual outside the womb purposefully killed an innocent living being inside the womb, the church would preach on nothing else. It happens over 3,000 times every day.

The problem is not that media types declare or brand a church as this, that, or the other, if it did not deal with an issue they wanted addressed that Sunday. If your church conveys the established reliable, historical faith passed down through the ages, it is already addressing the derivation of the moral calamities that plague mankind.