Just A Friendly Reminder

As we seem to be in the midst of turmoil econopoliticmedicinally, I thought a friendly review of a signpost we passed by a while ago may help us to recapture some context:
"It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”
Chief Justice John Roberts
Chief Justice Roberts was absolutely right.
If the Supreme Court had vetoed a law passed by the Legislative and signed by the Executive, it would have acted illegally. The Court is to uphold laws, not break them.
Whether the law had merit, whether it had been pushed through with political tricks...didn't matter. I'm proud to say that Roberts did the right thing.
Elections have consequences, and we elected both the President and the Congress. 
If we don't like what we have...well, it turns out that actions have consequences, too, and the actions taken by this present political leadership may make it hard for incumbents of BOTH Parties to be re-elected.
We've been through "Throw the bums out!" a few times before and guess what?
More bums. The names and faces may be different, but the same old same old takes root in their hearts and all of a sudden we're in another mess.
Until the Lord returns and makes all politicians redundant, I suggest the same band-aid that I've promoted for years: Term Limits. Keep them honest (for a politician) by taking away the possibility of staying in power. 
Knowing that after four or so years they will have to go out and live under the laws they make might just temper their grandiosity. 
May God have Mercy on the United States of America.
 

Blame Me-Feel Free!

I don't think it falls outside the purdom of 'being subject peaceably to the authorities' under which we swelter and strive if I offer a bit of constructive every now and again. I still am peaceable(!), and you won't find me raging against the political machine which is grinding us into bits of unhappy dust. Nope~not here will you find any whiff of disloyalty!
But please, feel free to blame me and my compatriots if our country has fallen further into entropic chaos.
May perhaps it {be} is true that all blame can laid at our dirty shoes.
We certainly must seem untrustworthy-we who (yes, I'm going to say it!) vote Republican and/or trust in an invisible God-how can we go on with this charade all of our lives?
You might imagine that we only break away from our main, punishing the poor for being poor and building our empires on the backs of the helpless-to sham pray just enough to impress each other...then back to whipping (figuratively, most of the time) OUR oppressed for not working hard and fast enough
Please, go ahead-fault me. I'm part of the problem, and am unaware of any solution.
I'm the reason your life has gotten so much harder lately.
I'm to blame for all of everything that is wrong.
I did it.
Me.

Walking A Fine Punchline

From a Breitbart article, a comment from President Barack Obama:
"“I’m asking you to be part of Team Obamacare… I’m asking you to help tell you friends, families, coworkers, classmates, neighbors and anyone else what the Affordable Care Act can mean for them,” he said."
I've been doing my part, Mr President, spreading the word about Obamacare and what it will mean for my
friends, family, coworkers etc. 
Here, I yump up on my FDW soapbox and declare to (both of) my readers:
"HANG ON, DEAR FRIENDS! OBAMACARE MAY YET FAIL. IF YOU CAN PAY YOUR INSURANCE PREMIUMS, WELL AND GOOD! IF YOUR INSURANCE HAS BEEN CANCELLED, HANG ON AND HOPE THAT YOU REMAIN HEALTHY! 
THE VERY LAST RESORT MAY BE SIGNING UP FOR OBAMACARE; DO WHAT YOU MUST AND PRAY THAT GOD WILL HAVE MERCY NOT ONLY ON YOU, BUT ON OUR COUNTRY!"

Charismatics~Strange Fire Or Friendly Fire?

So, along with all the rest of the chaos clinging to the sides of the planet, right now some small fuss and furor
is happenin' amongst the Charismatics because of Dr. MacArthur's "Strange Fire" conference.
I say 'small fuss and furor' because I assume that most Charismatics have never heard of Dr MacArthur.
You won't find his books in their bookstores, and the few that know of him are certain that he is wrong about Pentecostalism. So why would they pay any attention to a false teacher?
{shrugs}
I don't often do this, and the link may not work, but:
http://www.tmstrangefire.org/
Here's the here's, friends. Whatever we know now about God and the world we exist in we know as through a glass, darkly.
Meaning that we all can spend our lifetimes studying God's Word and still, no matter how much we learn, we have limited knowledge on this side of the veil.
And on the other side of that same veil, we will know completely what and who is right about the stuff we differ on now.
Why are there Charismatics and non-Charismatics in the body of Christ, the Church? I have no idea.
God knows. And we will find out.

Trust Not In Pastors

In my 30 plus years as a Christian, I have been on quite a journey. Love where I am, and how I got here.
If you think that you are guaranteed Heaven because someone else has told you so, you better get scared straight, sister.
Trust not in pastors or grandmothers or teachers or parents or anyone else who tells you that you are guaranteed Heaven apart from the Grace of God.
If God hasn't brought you to the point of Salvation, you aren't there yet. You are still on your way to hell.
Salvation without repentance is impossible.
But you can find a dozen preachers proclaiming that every Sunday on TV.
You are saved not when you FEEL something, but when God saves you and makes that salvation apparent to you.
I've said before that "God Loves everybody too much to send anyone to hell." is a lie and the basis for many
false ministries.
Trust not in pastors.
If you lack the discernment to know whether or not a pastor is speaking the truth, recognize that as a sign that you are in trouble. You can't test a pastor against your opinions or assumptions, as that would be like testing soap to see of it makes good windows.
You can only check a pastor against the Word of God. And again, not with your assumptions and opinions leading you. Ask God to open the Scriptures for you, to give you discernment regarding what you are reading.
May God keep after you until you are His.

Rock Steady

"Safe and secure from all alarms"
is the promise of God to His children, those brought into His family by His Grace.
Perturbulations may abound, countries may fall, life might shake like Greece...
but those who belong to Him are safe.
Safe in this world and when they exit, safe and secure in the next.
If you can read this, then it is not too late for you to seek God and ask Him
to make you secure. Not just for eternity, but for right now.
May God so Bless you today.

With All Due Respect...

I borrowed the graphic from the Drudge Report, though I had to modify it a bit. Still, with fair use, I note that it came from Drudge.
I got a 'survey' from the National Republican something or other t'other day and I dutifully filled it out.
They asked for money and I said No.
They asked for $15.00 to cover their processing of the survey they had sent me.
No.
They asked me to put a stamp on the return envelope to help save them postage.
Nyet, comrade. Nyet.
Though I am not nearly perfect, though I make mistakes with the skills honed from a lifetime of being human...I didn't make this mess. Politicians broke the country, not me.
In keeping with the earlier posting about not getting into other people's business, I am butting out.
I will pay my taxed like an adult.
I will honor this country, and remain patriotic.
But I will not support politicians until they get their act together, which will probably be never.
In a country of 200 million plus souls, I'm just a drop of water in the ocean-anything I do or don't do is merely a symbolic gesture-it doesn't matter to anyone else even a single little bit. But for the sake of my conscience, I am now a conscientious objector rather than a contentious one.  May change with time,
but that is where I am now.
That graphic up in the header? Surrender and all that? It really doesn't matter anymore. They can make me pay taxes, but they can't make me care.

Long View Is Better

This little guy 50 years ago was me. Right now I sit 5.50 miles from that crabapple tree. That works out to
approximately ten years per mile. Nobody calls me 'Swifty'.
Though this post is in part about what our country is going through right now with the Affordable Care thingie, with the government shut down, with most prominent Republicans getting fitted for "Washington Generals" jerseys...I'm not going to rip or riposte the current events. But I am going to talk about stuff.
In my private library (the one with a shower and sink and...stuff) I'm reading a biography of Will Rogers.
What we are going through now isn't that different from the muck and myre that he would satire on stage
between rope tricks. But everyone has their allotted time and that's it.
My time started approx 54.75 years ago, and will continue until I get to Heaven. Or until Heaven comes to Earth with Jesus Christ.
I have no idea how much time I have left on this sullen rock. But I'm cheered to think that most of my journey is behind me. segue
Right now I exist without 'health insurance'.
I'm not against having it; I enjoyed it for many years until my job went away. COBRA would have wiped out my savings and now, with insurance skying higher and higher, I can't even afford to get dizzy, let alone sick.
It all seems a mess, but even if things get dire...we will survive. I will survive. I trust in God's Providence, which cannot be taxed or taken from me.
May God Bless us all, no exceptions~

Going Forward A Beautiful Day

Repurpose, Reuse, Recycle-both of these have been up before. Today is a beautiful day, and I'm about to go out for a walk.
I have to keep walking-my family is prone to diabetes, and I want to put it off for as long as possible.
That's my Dad up there, standing in front of a haunted house. I might tell that story closer to Halloween.
He had dementia the last five years of his life, and my mother and I had to do all of his injections and medications.
My Dad radar was pinging the other night while watching Boris Karloff in "The Comedy of Terrors"-
Boris was quite old, and his character was feeble and forgetful...as I said, pinging Dad radar.
But also, as I said above, it is a beautiful day. Go enjoy it.

“ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος·”

15But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. 1 Pet 4:15 KJV

15Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; 
1 Pet 4:15NASB

15If you suffer, however, it must not be for murder, stealing, making trouble, or prying into other people’s affairs. 1 Pet 4:15 NLT

15for let none of you suffer as a murderer, or thief, or evil-doer, or as an inspector into other men’s matters; 1 Pet 4:15 Young’s Literal Translation

15 μὴ γάρ τις ὑμῶν πασχέτω ὡς φονεὺς ἢ κλέπτης ἢ κακοποιὸς ἢ ὡς ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος·1 Pet 4:15 Greek New Testament

I threw the Greek in there not just for fun, but also to highlight this: “ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος·”
Point one is that I am not a Bible scholar, and Greek is, well, Greek to me. But I was listening to Dr. John MacArthur, who IS a scholar, and what he said and has written about
this verse and that word has been kicking around in my head.

The word “ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος·” is similar to one used elsewhere to describe a church elder, an “Overseer”-in this case one who negatively looks over or into other peoples business.
I’ll come right out and say that the other people in this regard are non-Christians.
If Dr MacArthur is correct, in simple, though we Christians are to live quiet lives obeying
God in the culture in which we find ourselves, we are not to be rabble-rousers against the
Government under which we suffer, nor are we to bring dishonor to the name of Christ by
Getting into other peoples business.
We can speak of how WE live, but we shouldn’t try to tell non-Christians how they should live. We shouldn’t get bent out of shape because pagans are living pagan lives, as if that were remarkable.
Naturally, this is unnatural for us. We are used to speaking out, exercising our right to Free Speech.
MacArthur’s point is that though the speech may be free, though we may have freedom to do all sorts of ungodly things according to the laws of the land…we live under God’s Law, and must restrain ourselves from many sinful actions. Including, according to this verse, telling unGodly people how they should live.
I’ve been guilty of this many times here at FDW, and have railed against the Government. It never occurred to me that such actions were not fitting for a Christian.  I am a Christian first and an American second. If the meaning of this verse is as Dr MacArthur has stated, I need to keep that in mind.

No Shutdown Here, Pal!

Yah, you think you've seen it before-one of my faves for Fall, which I have past-posted.
But this time I mixed it larger up a bit.
sigh
Rather than attempting to punditry something about the situ we are in {now}, I will
assumerate about what will happen a few nexts from now:
the medical thing will be unpopular.
Party in power loses elections.
Other party is no better.
the end.
post script: If it takes pain and suffering for people to seek God, possibly that may in part
explain why Man continually causes trouble, pain and suffering. That's how God got
my attention, and I am ever thankful for those troubles. May God put in you the faith
to believe.