Search This Blog

Monday, April 26, 2010

Thinking about Freedom

When you think of freedom what do you think of? The basic essential of freedom is the ability to choose. I am free to choose how I worship, what I say, what I do and where I will spend my money. When I was a child my mother told me where and how I worshipped, what was the right things to say and do and when I did not say or do the right things she demonstrated to me the consequences of being wrong, usually with a belt across the back side.

My freedom is dependent upon doing the right thing. I can say or do what I want but not so that I inflict harm on someone else. That part is called responsibility. In this country we had freedom because everyone basically knew the difference of right and wrong. When the United States was founded we were about 95% Christian and our culture, the beliefs we held about right and wrong were the same.

We now are in a culture where the lines of right and wrong have been washed away. The freedom to speak out is limited by intimidation of the government and the media. The freedom as to how and where I will spend my money is being replaced by the government limiting me making these decisions for me, just like my mother. And now there is even punishment if I try to make my own decisions. The government is going to choose my insurance, the kind of car I drive, the foods I eat all in the name of protecting me. That is what my mother use to tell me, “This is for your own good”. But I’m not a child anymore and I want my freedom to choose and suffer the consequences. I want my freedom to make a good decision and enjoy the rewards and learn from the bad ones.

What people in the government are saying to you and me is that we are not grown up enough to make our own decisions. We need some one in the government to make these decisions for. In other words our freedoms are gone. Our freedoms have been taken away and like the proverbial frog in a frying pan we are now cooked. The last freedom they will take away will be the freedom of religion and speech. They have had this one cooking for a while now. The government will decide if your religion is good for you. Of course you can imagine how a godless government will choose for you. No religion is good for you.

We are at a major turning point in our country. Either we return to a godly constitutional form of government or we take a nosedive to a socialist form of government, of which there will be no recovery.

Our capitalist, free market system has for many years supported and protect the economies of other countries. If we dissolve our economic system into a socialist style economy the other countries economies will crumble. Even communist China, that has embraced a limited free market system, is almost totally depends on the United States to buy their goods and keep their people working and producing. If we quit buying “made in China” products, China’s economy would also fail.

We need a revolution for freedom again. A peaceful, nonviolent but a very loud revolution to return this country to the Christian, freedom inspired, free market, constitutional government that we were in the beginning. The bible tells of the Israelites coming to a juncture where God gave them a choice. The decision was not real complicated. He told them they could choose life or death.

The United States is at a juncture also. The choice is very similar. We can choose freedom like we once had or bondage to a godless government that wants to rule over ever aspect of our lives. Choosing freedom is like choosing life because choosing socialist bondage will be a living death.

Nubby






Thursday, April 15, 2010

Virtue - Why We Must Have It

The great patriot Benjamin Rush of Pennsylvania wrote, “All its [Christian revelation] doctrines and precepts are calculated to promote the happiness of society, and the safety and well being of civil government. The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”
Virtue: 1. moral excellence; goodness; righteousness. 2. conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness.

Why are God and Christianity so important to the United States and its freedoms? Without God and the biblical teachings of the Judeo Christian culture there are no morals or ethical principles on which to base our virtues and there would be no freedom. Freedom requires responsibility. Freedom expects people to behave in accordance with certain standards and not require someone to be looking over your shoulder watching your every move.

As a parent didn’t we allow our children more freedom to do things when they showed us they were responsible enough to do the right thing? The older they became the more we granted trust to them and allowed them more freedom. At some point we believed they were at a place that we could give them total freedom and make all their own choices.

The same thing applies to our country. We allow each other freedom because we believe that the other person will choose to do the right thing. As a Christian country we believe that people will follow the virtues we have set according to biblical standards. Therefore we don’t need a plethora of laws and regulations to dictate every word or deed. We simply trust each other. Our freedom is built on trust. To be free means I can trust you and you can trust me. I can trust you because I know you have the same morals and principles.

Thus religion and virtue were expected to be taught in the early American schools. It was written into the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that "Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." Notice the order of the words. Religion first, Morality second and then knowledge. Knowledge is of no good value without morality and you cannot have morality without [Christian] religion.

When godless people are in charge they have no basis for virtue. Their lives are not built on any moral or ethical principles so in their mind we need rules and plenty of them. They require laws to be enforced and plenty of people to enforce those laws. Right or wrong is what they feel right or wrong means to them. Rules are based on their feelings at the moment.

Our country is at a massive turning point in government. It is no longer a choice of how will we implement the principles given to us from the bible like we have done for nearly two hundred years but whether we follow the principles of the bible at all. If we follow the rules of godless men we will no longer have morals and principles to follow, we will have no standards and we will no longer be able to trust men, especially the men in charge of making the rules.

The progressives in this country want us to change. Progress is what they call it, but is moving away from God progress? Is moving away from virtue progress? Can you call it progress when you can no longer trust people around you because they have no standard to believe in? Is moving away from our foundation for freedom progress? Is moving away from being a responsible person and becoming dependent on government progress? No, it is the child like behavior of an immature adult who has not yet grasped reality and these people are running our country. God help us.

We need to restore Christian virtues back to our country. We need a revival. First in the chruches, then in our neighborhoods, then our cities, our states and our federal government. We need a revival from the bottom up. It cannot be a revival of just church attenders. It must be a revival of a people deeply hungry for God, hungry for the presense of God in their lives 24 hours a day, every day for the rest of their lives. You can't have freedom without God. If freedom is worth dying for it certainly must be worth living for. Living for God is much better than dying for nothing.



Nubby

Monday, April 5, 2010

Revival

I was just reading on a news website about Alabama planning to legalize video bingo. In the back of my mind I can immediately hear the sound of gasps and oh no’s in the traditional churches. How could we have come so far to allow this in our state? Oh the horror of it, legalized gambling.


Jesus didn’t say go ye into all the world and make a bunch of laws against everything you think is bad for you. Jesus was not a control freak. In fact he even gave a free will to choose. Why would he gave you that ability and then not allow you to use it? He wants you to choose. He wants you to choose to believe He is God and that He came to save you from your sins. You could make all the laws you want but that is not going to save you from sin nor will it make you holy. That was part of the original problem. God gave us a perfect set of laws but we couldn't keep them. We need His help to do what He wants us to do.


Jesus did say to the disciples "go into all the world and make disciples, teaching them the things I have taught you", things such as faith, love, hope and internal holiness. Jesus’ plan was to change people from the inside out, not make a bunch of laws.


I’m often reminded of the Welch Revival in the early 1900’s. From the Welch Revival website:


“People were changed in so many ways. The crime rate dropped, drunkards were reformed, pubs reported losses in trade. Bad language disappeared and never returned to the lips of many – it was reported that the pit ponies failed to understand their born again colliers who seemed to speak the new language of Zion – without curse and blasphemy – even football and rugby became uninteresting in the light of new joy and direction received by the Converts.”
When real revival comes there is no need for laws against gambling, drinking or cursing. Men change inwardly and the behavior is changed outwardly. Bars will close, gambling establishments will lose money and crime rates will go down. Real revival comes with the power of God. In all true revivals there was a demonstration of God's power that draws men to Him. There is a hunger for that power. People want to change. People want change in their lives. They just don't have the power to do it. God has the power. You just have to want Him to show up.


America needs to do several things: Get a real hunger for God and a hunger for revival. Be willing to accept whatever God does and how He does it. Then obey the last thing Jesus ever said on earth. Go, baptized and teach. Go with the fire of revival. Baptize all who will believe and teach everyone about the wonders of God. Forget the law thing. It all about the heart thing.




Nubby