Selfless Sacrifice

At times he might appear to be too black and white or unmerciful or hard to those looking in from the outside. He is matter of fact about criminals, those who choose to hurt others for their own gain; be that gain financial or out of some sort of warped emotional need for satisfaction.


He is strong in his convictions, yet he shows mercy and grace to those most of us would be too scared or repulsed by to give the time of day. Every day he willing aids the unlovely, untouchable, the unwanted. He protects those who otherwise can't protect themselves, making sure the needy and the wealthy are both given equal and fair treatment. He gives counseling to the single mom and the domestic abuser, alike. He safeguards the “home” of the homeless, making sure the small portion of pavement they claim is out of harm's way. He ensures that the injured are given care and that the mentally ill are not beaten up on the parking lot of some abandoned warehouse.
He willingly lays down his life (and by doing so the lives of his family) even when he is not on duty. He is ever vigilant. While others go about their daily lives, he is watching, like an angel with human skin. The Lord equips him with selfless, quiet strength.

He does not ask those he protects who they are, or if they deserve his sacrifice. He does not discriminate, loving others not with his words, but instead with his actions. He does not ask those he serves if they are his neighbor nor his friend, but freely gives to all.

A man has no greater love than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Like Everyone Else: Health Care

In the health care debate, over and over again those that propose government intervention have pointed to other countries as examples of what we in the United States should adopt. They argue that other industrialized nations guarantee health care for everyone. Those who desire more government control look down at our system and cry out for single payer or universal health insurance, like everyone else in the industrialized world.

Another people once cried out for a governmental system like everyone else. They were upset that all the other nations around them had a king and they did not. They were a free people, with no ruler over them, but instead representatives from each tribe led them. They had leaders who directed their steps, but they rejected the freedom they had as one unified nation under God, and cried out for an absolute monarchy, like the governmental system of all the other nations around them.

They traded freedom for "security", and within three generations, they found that they were like the other nations, no longer one united nation under God, but instead, a broken nation with no ability to defend itself from the nations they so desperately wanted to imitate.

When they asked for their king, they were warned, told that their sons would not be free to live out life as they had, instead they would be forced to serve the king and his government. They would not be allowed to simply work their land, but instead would be forced to work the land of the king. Their daughters would not be allowed to live out their lives in peace as their mothers had, but instead would be forced to work as cooks and bakers in the king’s service. The best of the land, of the produce, of their labor would go first to the king, and the rest left to them. They would be taxed, a tenth of all they produced would be taken and they themselves would become the king’s slaves. They were even warned that the Lord would no longer hear their cries, yet they ignored the warning, no doubt dismissing it as fear mongering and demagoguery.

Israel rejected God, not trusting Him to lead them as He had always led them. From the land of Egypt, across the Red Sea and the Jordan, into the promise land of Canaan, He had faithfully protected them, but His guidance was not enough. They wanted what everyone else had and they got it.

So too, we as Americans have freedoms the rest of the world has never known. That is why our nation has been such a magnet for people from all over the world. The human heart desires freedom, but sadly once it has known freedom and only freedom, it begins to reject it, along with the only One who can provide it. Instead, those who have enjoyed its riches discard it for "security", and they start to look around at other nations and desire something that will only bring them bondage.

Governmental health insurance is not going to set people free, it instead will cause them to become dependent on a system that will never be able to meet their need. Our sons and daughters will have to work their whole lives in service to it. Taxes will increase to sustain it, and it will never be satisfied no matter how much money is thrown at it. We only have to look at the monstrosities of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to understand that the government has NO ability to keep costs down. Yet, we work to maintain these programs, paying 2.5 percent of our pensionable income to the federal government. Those who receive them become so dependent on them that they fear their loss and are paralyzed at the thought that they might not receive their check.

When a nation looks to their government to save them, they find themselves in bondage. Those nations that have universal health care may look appealing to some, but the lack of patient choice, the loss of doctor driven decisions, and the dominance of bureaucratic red tape leave those who most need help waiting and in some cases dying as they look to the government for help, we only have to look to the UK and Canada to understand this.

When a free people look to other nations, who have less freedom, to find a governmental system, they will find themselves servants to the state instead of citizens in a free land. When they cry out to be like everyone else, they might just get what they are asking for.

Pledge Allegiance to Obama?

Pledge to Barack Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51kAw4OTlA0


Never before has our nation been led in a “pledge” to one man. Our founders feared such a pledge, protected against it through a Constitution, which placed limits on any one man gaining power over the whole. We the people did not appoint a man, but in order to form a more perfect union, ordained a Constitution that placed checks and balances on every man, so that one would not rise up above the rest. The Founders understood what the rule of one man looked like, what a “Sovereign” could and would do with absolute power.

They wrote a declaration of independence not from a nation they were rebelling against, but from a King. Thomas Jefferson did not address the wrongs of the parliament of England as the reason for the decision of the colonies to reject the rule of Great Britain, but instead he wrote of the wrong one man had done to the people of the colonies.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an
absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a
candid world. Declaration of Independence

Jefferson pointed out these facts and addressed the ‘injuries and usurpations” carried out by the King of Great Britain. Jefferson used the pronoun HE over and over again in the body of the Declaration, revealing the Founders deep dissatisfaction with the rule of one man. They formed separate and independent states, in order to ensure that no one man, nor one group of men had absolute power over the whole.

Yet, the social aristocracy of our day seems to have determined that we need to once again fall under the rule of one man. We are now called on to pledge allegiance to President Barack Obama. Never before in the HISTROY of the UNITED STATES have we sworn allegiance to any one man, as a nation. Yes, we have supported our presidents in times of war, in times of national crisis, and in times of national service, but never before has a man, a president been place on such a pedestal of political dominance and superiority as to deserve a pledge.

Our Founders understood that power corrupts, and placed a balance of power upon all branches of the government, understanding that absolute tyranny can come in many shapes and sizes. They understood far better than we do the ills of one-man rule. They also knew that no one man is of any greater value than any other. An idea that was foreign in their day yet seems to be lost up our own, that “All men are created equal.” President Obama should reject the idea of national allegiance to him.

This new pledge, created by those in Hollywood, divides our national loyalty; it is based upon individual choice and opinion. It calls on all of us to pledge to stand up for something we believe in, but would never allow those of us with differing beliefs to add our list of concerns to theirs. Their opinions are somehow more enlightened, but even those are subjugated to the overall allegiance to one man.

Our nation already has a pledge that brings unity to our people, without raising a single man above the nation as a whole. It allows for differences but does not highlight those differences as values higher than those set forth by our Founders. It is singular in focus, to bring allegiance to an ideal not a person. An ideal founded upon the principle that the people form the most perfect union, and have certain rights that no one can take from them; the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That pledge is:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the
Republic for which it stands. One Nation, under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all.

Pledge what you like, join the social aristocracy of Hollywood in bringing about “a change we can believe in” by swearing allegiance to a man, but I will choose the “change” our nation was built upon 200 years ago. I will align myself with the people who form our republic, so “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”