Battle Preparations

The long road of life often leads me into unexpected places and doing unexpected things.  This story begins September 6, 1999.  But before I begin this story, I want to just say that being trained by the Lord for service in His Kingdom as a soldier in the  “army of God” is an ongoing and continuous thing.  In my recent web logs, I have related my concern over our new President and the kind of change he is going to be bring.

There are really two moral issues and positions that President Obama has that go against the natural order.  When I say natural order, I mean nature and its operation as created by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And I do believe what the bible teaches that God created all things and that creation occurred just as the Bible outlines–God created the world in six days and he created man and woman and instituted marriage defined as one man joined with one woman.  And both of these positions can be easily read and understood from the first chapters of Genesis.

President Obama has a different position on these two issues.  They are the transposing of the priority of life  with freedom.  The choice of uncreating rather than building, destroying.  He choices to support individual freedom over life in his position on abortion and perverting (polluting) marriage to include homosexual unions.  Both are two things that our current President is going to push for.  He may couch them in friendly terms like the Freedom of Choice Act (the actual name) and the Equality of Marriage Act (made up name).  He does not call it marriage, but a union, just a word to mask the scope of this union which is equal to marriage.  But make no mistake they are about legalizing abomination and perversion.

I will do what I can to fight against these two positions.  My fight is not against President Obama or any other person that supports and is active in pushing these agendas.  The fight is against darkness, and the enemy of God.  I was fighting in this battle before I even knew I had enlisted in it.  Back to the story that begins on September 6, 1999.

One last thing before I relate the details, in fighting these battles against legalizing abomination (passing laws to maintain current practice of killing pre-born babies that has been going on since 5 Judges decided it was a constitutional right for a mother to kill her unborn child 36 years and some 40 million deaths) and perversion (polluting) of marriage–I chose to fight them by encouraging the positive rather than destroying the negative.  What I mean by that is.  Rather than focusing on the evil of killing unborn babies and distortion of same sex coupling–I want to focus on building up positive things for supporting mothers and their “unwanted” babies and in building up God ordained marriage of one man and one woman in a life-long partnership.  Being what Jesus has called us to be a light.   Showing the way.

The story:  On September 6, 1999, after two weeks of starting classes at Utah State University my work study job was scheduled to begin.  I was assigned to do some work for the housing department, I did not know what kind of work I would be doing or where I was suppose to go.  And I ended up in the wrong place and doing the wrong job–well at least according to what I was suppose to do.  But looking back I think God had His hand in tweaking the details for His purposes.  This work study job did provide a steady source of income for me and my family while I went to school, It was an immediate answer to pray–but there is more behind it.  It would take nine years to see the fruit of that “tweaking” by God’s hand.

What was the job, well it was painting.  I was painting and learning as an “apprentice” or assistant to a full-time painter to help him finish his work load.  By the way the original job had something to do with janitorial or custodial work.  So I began learning about painting while I went to school and for a total of five years gaining some skill as a painter.  Another thing, this work study job was suppose to last for 4 months, not the five years I spent.  Another detail that God arraigned that was not part of the original plan.

Anyway, through the course of working at housing for five years as a painter I became moderately skillful at the craft.  It was not a glamorous position;  One of my favorite shows on Television is called dirty jobs.  Some would call it a dirty job.   Fast forward to the late summer or fall of 2008.  It has been four years since I have painted very much and since graduating from Utah State University in 2003, I have begun my professional career in geography.  But in 2008 an opportunity came to my attention (actually to my wife’s attention) about doing a little painting for this new ministry that was going to be starting up and it had something to do with care net, whatever that was.

In my original commitment I had thought I was going to be assisting someone else with doing a little work here or there.  Again I emphasis that I thought I was going to be assisting, well that is not how it turned out.  In the end, I was “in charge” of the painting and the “expert”.  I did not do all the painting alone others joined and helped, but much of the work I did alone.  In the quietness of brushing paint on the walls on one of the last days,  I heard a small whisper from the LORD, it was not even audible to my physical ears, but within my heart and mind, I could hear the LORD clearly tell me, all my years of working and learning how to paint was for this purpose on this day.  God had placed me as a small piece to the puzzle in finishing His work nine years ago and had prepared me for this small task.  I often freeze in wonder when I look at the purposes of God and have a been given another little insight into the truth he revealed nearly 2700 years ago to another servant, the prophet Isaiah, it is recorded in the 55th chapter. “my ways are not your ways”.  Indeed they are not.

But that is not the end of the story, it is only the middle.  Right now I am still working and learning new things, how can I know what preparations I am making now?  And for what larger purpose they may be for? Recently another possibility as been glimpsed, a path I have thought about before, but only thought.  Perhaps I am in preparation for that purpose now?

Now to my glimpse into the larger scale battle between the light and the dark.  The battle as I see it is a battle between God and His creative works–including redemption and making each of us a new creature– that still continue and His enemy the destroyer, the apostle Peter called him a roaring lion on the rampage devouring whatever he can.  Yes God’s creative work is still underway.  From the Psalm, we know that God carefully and deliberately knits each life together in our mother’s womb.  Modern science has a small glimpse into knitting things together.  Consider DNA, two strands of coded information knitted together to form life.  Humans can only play with altering life, God still is the only One that can create it.

Two important things, one God can not lie and second His enemy will always lie.  If you consider a bucket of pure water as truth and a single drop of dust added a tiny lie.  The enemy of God would like everyone to drink the entire bucket with the single piece of dust, because that is enough to frustrate God’s truth in life for a single person.  Then next time the enemy will get you to drink a bucket with two or three pieces of dust, until finally you are drinking a bucket full of dirt convinced by the father of lies that it is water.  And you sincerely believe it is water, but it is not.

Well this is the lie.  Choice.  Freedom.  It is true that there is an element of truth that man was created as an independent agent with the ability to make choice.  This is greatly emphasized in culture, but what is not emphasized is and is the lie that has crept into culture.  The other side of the coin of freedom and choice is consequence.  The lie is that choice does not have consequence.  Consequence is not always negative, it is just what follows after a choice is made.  In my story above, I had a choice to continue with the painting job after the 4 month work study job was over and continued to work as a part time painter.  I could have chose something else and got another job, but I decided to stay on as a painter,  The consequence was that I learned more about painting.  I would call that a positive consequence (result).  Other choices I have made have not had positive consequences, they have been “negative”.  Too many to count here…

So in the battle of abortion, freedom of choice, as some have called it, and life, anti-choice, the new perspective of some;  I am not one of the foot soldiers, but one of the supporting soldiers in the battle.  In a sense I helped build one of the field hospital to help the wounded.  Not every soldier is on the front line or in the heat of combat, many of us are just in supporting roles.  That was my role.  But now I have been enlisted in the fight once again in another supporting position.  Giving positive encouragement to the front line soldiers (field medics) through prayer and in my case supporting my gifted wife in her ministry speak to the wounded women that walk through the doors in search of help.  It is hard for me to share my wife with the world.  I am selfish, but God is teaching me that although she is my wife and I love her dearly.  She is also His daughter and as much as I love her, the love that God has for her is far greater.

And that is the second part of fighting in another battle against perversion or polluting of marriage.  The battle against same sex coupling.  One of the main arguments for allowing two men or two women to marry is that, marriage is so broken now any way, why not let others give it try however they want to.  This is their way of fixing marriage.  It is like saying the car is broken so we need to break it more and that will fix it.  Does not make sense?  So instead of spending my energy fighting against the manufactured right of any adult being allowed to marry whoever they wish;  I focus my attention on keeping my marriage a priority and in trying my best to love my wife as Jesus loves the church (Ephesians 5).  It is hard work, but effort that is worth it.

This may ramble a bit, but the highlight is I am in the fight as a son of the light, trying to shine the light of Jesus into a dark and foggy world in unconventional ways like painting a Center for pregnancy choices or by conventional ways like being the husband God has called me to be.  By the way, the only way that either of those ways are possible is through my dependence on God and walking by faith.  I recently was reminded that being a big tree in the Kingdom of God, does not matter that much.  It is being a tree, and letting the fruit of God grow on you in abundance.  It is not the size of the tree that matters, it is the amount of fruit that the tree makes.  Of course without Sunlight and Water there would be no fruit.  And it just so happens that God through his Son, the Light of the World, and the Living Water has just what any tree needs to produce good fruit.  All the tree needs to do is tap into the never-ending abundant supply-and that source is Jesus.

Barack Obama and the Freedom of Choice Act

Barack Obama on January 22, 2009:

On the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, we are reminded that this decision not only protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: that government should not intrude on our most private family matters. I remain committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose.

While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make. To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services.

On this anniversary, we must also recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights and opportunities as our sons: the chance to attain a world-class education; to have fulfilling careers in any industry; to be treated fairly and paid equally for their work; and to have no limits on their dreams. That is what I want for women everywhere.

“The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act.  That’s the first thing that I’d do.”  – Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007

on January 22, 2008, One Year ago, Senator Barack Obama released the following statement:

“Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, it’s never been more important to protect a woman’s right to choose. Last year, the Supreme Court decided by a vote of 5-4 to uphold the Federal Abortion Ban, and in doing so undermined an important principle of Roe v. Wade: that we must always protect women’s health. With one more vacancy on the Supreme Court, we could be looking at a majority hostile to a women’s fundamental right to choose for the first time since Roe v. Wade. The next president may be asked to nominate that Supreme Court justice. That is what is at stake in this election.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been a consistent and strong supporter of reproductive justice, and have consistently had a 100% pro-choice rating with Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America.

“When South Dakota passed a law banning all abortions in a direct effort to have Roe overruled, I was the only candidate for President to raise money to help the citizens of South Dakota repeal that law. When anti-choice protesters blocked the opening of an Illinois Planned Parenthood clinic in a community where affordable health care is in short supply, I was the only candidate for President who spoke out against it. And I will continue to defend this right by passing the Freedom of Choice Act as president.

“Moreover, I believe in and have supported common-sense solutions like increasing access to affordable birth control to help prevent unintended pregnancies. In the Illinois state Senate, when Congress failed to require insurance plans to cover FDA-approved contraceptives, I made sure those contraceptives were covered for women in Illinois. In the U.S. Senate, I’ve worked with Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) on a bill that would make birth control more affordable for low-income and college women, and introduced the Senate version of Representative Hilda Solis’ bill to reduce unintended pregnancies in communities of color. As President, I will improve access to affordable health care and work to ensure that our teens are getting the information and services they need to stay safe and healthy.

“But we also know that Roe v. Wade is about more than a woman’s right to choose; it’s about equality. It’s about whether our daughters are going to have the same opportunities as our sons. And so to truly honor that decision, we need to update the social contract so that women can free themselves, and their children, from violent relationships; so that a mom can stay home with a sick child without getting a pink slip; so that she can go to work knowing that there’s affordable, quality childcare for her children; and so that the American dream is within reach for every family in this country. This anniversary reminds us that it’s not enough to protect the gains of the past – we have to build a future that’s filled with hope and possibility for all Americans.”

A New Pledge

Warning this post contains my political opinion and may be harmful for my progressive American friends…

With the inauguration of President Obama and the election of a majority of progressive Politicians to both houses of Congress, there is little doubt that the policies and direction of America will take a hard turn to the “left”.  I don’t want to discuss the details of what they may or may not look like, but want to point to a great danger.

The danger of silencing the opposition.  It is easy to compromise and form consensus without any opposing voices (voices that were silenced). It has come to my attention that both President Obama and the congress would like to reintroduce the fairness doctrine to the public airways requiring all points of view to be voiced through all media.  This is a mistake.  It is one of the many actions I expected from my progressive friends.  Regardless of what the intention of the law might be, the reality is the silencing the voices from their opponents by removing one of their primary venues to discuss and disperse their point of view.  A media that their point of view can not break into.

The irony of my position in protecting AM radio is that I voluntarily stopped listening to AM talk radio several years ago.  It was a personal decision.  I find more truth, peace, and joy from learning about my Creator, so  I replaced it with Christian talk radio and music.  I know that once AM radio falls the next target may be Christian radio and then beyond.  Silencing the voices of all opposition.  This censorship only demonstrates the fear and weakness of your position.  If you can not stand debate, and just want to silence opposing views.  What kind of debate and compromise can be offered if there is only one point of view?

Silencing the voices is only the beginning of try to controlling the body and actions of another. The loss of freedom of speech or control of speech is the beginning of the loss of other freedoms.

I will always remain as one of the uncompromising voices tugging on that rope to the side of smaller government, lower taxes paid by all, less intrusion of personal liberty, and a guardian of the helpless.  America is a republic and not a democracy.  All that means to me is that minorities have rights and privileges that are safeguarded.  It is government’s responsibility to protect those rights.

New rights may need to be discovered, but many are all ready known and have been enumerated in the Bill of Rights and other amendments to the Constitution.  If new rights exist out there they must be added in the proper way–not by Judges revealing them from their seats,  IT should take more than 5 judges to manufacture rights.  They need to discovered by thousands of voters, representatives, and senators amending the Constitution.  That is the beauty of that document that binds us together.  If you discover one of these rights we can add it.  When the Constitution was first written women could not vote and blacks were considered property.  But those in justices have been undone, through the proper channels.  The debate and struggle to get those rights enumerated and added to the Constitution and the high bar that must be reached ensure that it is in fact a right and not some ones private view or ideal.  But truly a right of the people.

I will be the conservative whisper, the voice of the right tugging against the popular and majority ideas of change.  When the country is being pulled to the left.  I can play the role of the demon on the right.  The punching bag or the object of wrath for the far left.  Burn me in effigue if you want.  Spew yourr venom and bitterness on me.  Let your hatred for conservative ideals be personified in me.  Ideals of the free market (not the economy that produced the greed and theivery of giant corporations who are all products of a regulated market place), of the freedom of speech to cry foul at the socialist policies, of the freedom of religion even if that religion believes that homosexuals are living in sin and the every child in the womb has the God-given right to be born, and of the right to own a tank if you want–as long as you do no harm with it.  I will not waver in those stands.

Others can be noble and honorable and forge compromises to get things done.  Since they believe that getting things done is the measure of success.  I do not.  To get things done for the sake of action is not always the right.  Sometimes inaction is the best way to handle current crisis or events.  I do not like emotionalism to drive action.  Measure self-control is a better course.

The main reason I did not vote for Republicans in the election in 2008 –among other things–was their approval of the $700 Billion bailout plan.  When President Bush and even Senator McCain signed off on it.  I could no longer support the party.  The party betrayed one of its main anchors–the free market.  The marketplace is not perfect but when a company makes a decision to operate in a particular way, it must bear the responsibility of its decision.  It may find great reward in its method or it may sink.  It is not the role of government to bail out failing business–banks, mortgage companies, newspapers, car companies.  They have made their decisions.

To put it another way, Why do I have to suffer in their loss when I do not benefit from their gain?  In my opinion the bailout can be seen as the setting sail of the Titanic.  Everyone is excited and marvel at the grandness of it.  All can pat themselves on the back for saving the important bedrock companies that support the American Economy.  But ultimately those choices lead to more bailouts and the need for more money.  Where does that money come from?  It comes from the hard earned dollars and credit of the responsible Americans.

To continue with the Titanic analogy it tell everyone on board to ignore the rescue boats we are all in this together, whether you want to be or not.  Further government action will only lead to the eventual vote of throwing the lifeboats over the side and forcing everyone into coming to the aid of these wayward companies.  It is getting rid of the lifeboats when the first glimpse of a single iceberg is spotted.  With little thought to the seas ahead that will be temming with hundreds more.  But there will be no lifeboats.  We will all sink or drown together.  That is loss of freedom at its greatest–placing all hope and trust in the federal institution that may be the author of the original problem.

In my opinion this loss of freedom is one of the final steps in the death of the American Republic and the birth of the American Empire.

My final thought is this: Rome was a republic before it was an empire, is that were America is headed to?  The more the people let government take away and make themselves dependent on it, the closer the nation gets to Empire.  Welcome to the American Empire.

The pledge of the American Empire:

“We pledge allegiance to the flag of the Unified State of America and the empire it sits upon, one nation its own god, bound, with safeguards and fairness for all.”

not the pledge of the American Republic:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The Downhill and The Valley

Back to my Life’s Journey

Before I can take the next uphill step of my life’s journey, I had to first go downhill and through the valley.  For me the downhill march is more painful than the uphill.  This could be that I have bad knees and walking downhill is painful.  That is life though.  Sometimes the steps I must take are painful.  It is a struggle to take each step, but to reach the final destination of the journey each step must be taken regardless of the pain in may cause and whether the step is uphill to victory or downhill toward a trial or troubled time ahead.  Each foot must take the step for the final destination to be reached.

The painful downhill steps can be bearable.  Not by my strength, ability, or even power, but in the power and strength of the One that lives in and through me.  (Philippians 4:13) Often I see the downhill as regressing or moving away from my journey’s destination and toward an awful or terrible thing.  Everyone likes to be the king of the hill on the mountaintop looking down from the heights, soaking in the glory often forgetting how we reached the top or that we did not get there alone.  But from the heights sometimes I have to take the downhill steps that seem to be going the wrong way according to my nearsighted point of view.  When I want get to highest peak in my farsighted view,  I have to take a few steps downhill and even through the valley.

These low places are best described by the great poets of the past.  Among them King David who had many low points in his own life when he expressed the depths of his soul in the famous 23rd Psalm.  The lowest point of  “Walking through the valley of the shadow of death.”  What could be lower than the valley?  By definition it is the bottom, the lowest point.  Some of the last words of the Lord, Jesus, found in John 16:33 warn us that we will face tribulation or hard times.  Jesus faced the lowest point in history, when all the pain and suffering that this sin-filled world was poured into him and he spoke from the cross “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”.  (Matthew 27:46)  Those low places in life that bring me and others so low that we feel like we are starring up at Death.  And death looks like it is at a higher point than what we are facing, I am not talking about suicide but that death would be merciful compared to the deep pain we are walking through.

The famous poem footsteps even paints the picture that there are even times when we are not even able to walk and the Lord carries us through the most difficult times.  The image of the two sets of footprints through the good times, when we are walking beside the Lord; But when we look back at the most painful struggles of our lives there is only one set of footprints; and at first we become angry and feel like the Lord has abandoned us but then we hear the reassuring words of the Lord that in those times we were being carried in his arms.

I am reminded in this winter season and living in a high mountain valley that there are times when being in the valley especially in the winter that the air can become stagnant from an inversion.  The air holds all the pollution and grim.  Sometimes, in my own life I hold on to the pollution and grim of my life mostly selfish ambition and putting me ahead of everything else.  This pollution hangs around me in a cloud of smog that makes it hard to breathe or live.  It is in standing still or not moving forward that the air or life around us can grow stale.

It takes a great wind or storm to clean the air. Enter my bad knees again.  The same knees that hold the pain of walking the downhill slopes are an early warning for me that a storm is on the way when I am dragging my feet through the valley bottom.  Often before a great storm is coming, my knees will get a dull ache that tells the rest of my body to prepare for the coming storm.  The storms or the trials of our faith or life can be one way to blow the grim and smog from the air we breathe away.  The things we choke on and hold us back or slow us down.  So in listening to the words of Scripture “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4, ESV) I find encouragement that in the downhill march and each trial or valley I must journey through that when I have passed through to the other side I am made perfect and complete and lack nothing.  It is only through my faith in the Lord, Jesus, that I am able pass through those trials and not be consumed by them.

Finally,  when standing in the bottom of the valley there are only two ways to go.  The first is not even a way but it is to stop moving and give up, but the second is up.  When the next step you take will take you up and away and closer to the end of your journey.  Last night one of those steps was taken for me, in helping our new teaching pastor and his family move in to their home; It is a signal that the Lord has greater things coming and it was a milestone for me personally; that the two years spent searching for God’s will both the uphill and the downhill sides of that journey and the numerous trials that the search involved–it was a walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

But that is behind and the next step out of that valley is glorious and the uphill climb begins.  For me it does not bring the pain of the downhill in my knees, yet from time to time rest is need to reach the top. “So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2:3) If God can rest then maybe I should rest from time to time also.  My life’s journey at least the uphill part is best summarized by leaps and bounds followed by pauses for rest.  And the climb is not easy, but there is no pain in each step, just the anticipation of reaching the top, even if in the end or the top of the hill in front of me is not the highest point or final mountaintop to climb it is part of the final victory of my life’s journey of reaching the snow covered highlands.  Our finally victory even over death that casts that long shadow over all the valleys of our lives, comes from the Resurrected Redeemer who ascended to the highest of heights to His throne–that should be our destination to be in His presence before His throne with joyful worship.