dailybeacon

John 15:26, 27 “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.  And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.” (NIV) 

   On the day of Pentecost, Jesus kept His promise and sent the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, from God the Father to His disciples and to me (you too).  The “Spirit of truth.” arrived.  Why?  Because the Holy Spirit’s arrival was the final confirmation that Jesus was who He said he was.  I’m like Thomas.Don’t tell me, show me, then I’ll believe.  I should live in
Missouri, I guess. God’s entire kingdom was hinging on a rag tag (to the world) band of average men.  If they didn’t testify to the world what they had witnessed for themselves, Jesus’ life on earth was for naught.  When Peter, a fisherman, stood before a crowd of thousands, risking having the same crucifixion fate that Jesus had experienced just forty days before, and confidently proclaimed the risen Christ with such conviction that three thousand men believed and accepted Christ as their Savior, history was changed forever.  Two thousand years later, over a billion people living today have made the same profession of faith with thousands more being added around the world every day.  The call continues to go out to you and me, “And you must testify”.  And so I am.

John 15:20-22 “Remember the words that I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’  If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.  If they obeyed my teaching , they will obey yours also.  They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin.  Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.” 

   This is a reminder to His disciples and to me, reading His words twenty centuries later, that His followers are going to experience the same things that He did.  It doesn’t mean that I may die because of my faith, as His disciples did, although given the disposition of the majority of the world it could happen, but it definitely does mean that I shouldn’t expect to be received any better than He was by the majority.  Those who listen to His teaching will receive me, those who don’t will reject me, even verbally persecute me.  And the reason is simple; He sets a standard that doesn’t allow for the rationalization of sin. 

   I’ve had people literally change their demeanor in mid sentence when I have been identified as a Christian.  For example, suddenly they watched their language without me saying anything about it.  Who knows what was said behind my back but a chill was suddenly in the air.  I didn’t change or comment on any of their language during conversation, it was just assumed.  Their frame of reference was that the language was not appropriate around me but not sinful until in the presence of a practicing Christian.  This is a small example but still a demonstration of the fact that without Christ setting a standard and others becoming aware of His standard of behavior of any kind, nothing would be sin. My sin only occurs when I willfully do something that I know to be unacceptable to Him.   People react to followers of Christ “for they do not know the One who sent me.”  People who do not know the Father will reject those who follow His Son.  Again, is eternity worth it to me?  Again I say Amen (so be it).

 John 15:1-7 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. (NIV)

   There can be little confusion by what Jesus meant when he uttered these words.  We are called by God to bear fruit but we can’t do it on our own.  Even if we are bearing fruit for His kingdom, we are going to continue to be “pruned” so that we can bear even more fruit. 

   Pruning has never had a positive connotation for me because I’ve done it to rose bushes, raspberry bushes and even lilacs.  It means cutting, removing that which is dead or leads to death, to allow new life.  The end result is positive, the process not so much.  But as with anything worthwhile, if we keep our focus on the prize, the process loses its impact.  No Olympic champion has ever said in the post event interview, “all I can think about now is the pain I went through to get here,” rather the most common comment is, “no mater what I had to go through, it was all worth it!”  If we remain in Christ, our journey of faith will have the same elation at its completion for us

   Perhaps no decision to date more clearly defines an award for words over substance than the remarkable decision to award President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize.  The question that begs to be asked is “For What?”  He was sworn in for President two months before the selection process began, so he did more for peace in two months than anyone else in the world?  I am not saying that with time his efforts might warrant such recognition, not at all.  I am just saying not yet.  Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt are the only two other sitting Presidents to be awarded the prize.  Does anyone really put Obama in the same category yet?  I certainly hope not.   Can’t it at least be fairly said that the jury is still out?

   Conflicts with North Korea, Iran, Pakistan, Israel and the Palestinians are all issues on the verge of explosion, despite the President’s efforts.  None are anywhere near being resolved.  If they were, the award would have been given on merit.  Given the current status of things, as a local talk show host observed, “Shouldn’t his teleprompter gotten recognised too?”

A reader interprets my comments as saying there is no racism in the U.S.  That is so far from what I said, it’s not even in this galaxy.  I said that someone can disagree with the President without being racist, unless it is racist when a black man disagrees with a white President.  However, the media and others can’t seem to get past the fact that Obama is black.  He’s a man to me, noting more, nothing less, but he is a misguided man and obviously misinformed if one is to believe his interview with Stephanopolis yesterday.  He knows about “Skippy” Gibbs and Kanye West but doesn’t know that Acorn is getting millions of dollars of tax money because he doesn’t have time to pay attention…to fraud.  But he will root out fraud in Medicare just not in his pet organization which he is suddenly distanced from since becoming President.  The Democratic Congress is calling for an immediate investigation but he is unwilling to state that funding will be cut off to this group?  Oh, and by the way Mr. President, if you would read your own stimulus bill which has funding in it for Acorn, you would know that they are receiving Federal dollars.   In the words of Harry Truman, Mr President, “The buck stops here!”  Apparently you conveniently don’t have the time for the less important things like fraudulent activity, even when it is caught on tape.

President Jimmy Carter, the man most responsible for me not supporting the Democratic Party, after I voted for him and saw what I had done, continues to affirm that I was right.  To infer that attacks on President Obama’s healthcare and other agendas are because he’s black is rediculous unless blacks booing President Bush were also recially motivated.  I don’t believe they were not do they have to be in either case.  If anything, President Obama is green, not black, because he has spent more green than any President in history and can’t seem to stop.  I don’t care what color he is, nonfactor, I do care what he thinks and is trying to ram down America’s throat and that is all bad except his comments about Kanye West.  Bythe way, were his comments racist?

Yesterday in Green Bay, WI., President Obama restated what has been the theme of his brief Presidency.  If we don’t act now, in this case on health care, the world is coming to an end.  Do you remember he said the same thing to get the stimulus bill passed?  Our economy is going to collapse if we don’t act now.  Months later, with virtually no stimulus money in circulation, the economy is slowly beginning to recover on its own.  Get the money out the door, says the President, so I can credit for the recovery, even though the train has already left the station.  Government can not force a sustained recovery.  Too late Mr. President but of course the press won’t cover the truth when it comes to the One.  Our economy will recover without him because that’s the way a capitalist economy works, for those who know something about such things which he obviously doesn’t, reward people for ingenuity and effort and they are willing to risk to achieve it.  His socialistic approach to give things away to those who haven’t worked for it, has the reverse effect particularly when the giveaways always have the price of being beholden to the government and giving up just a little bit of freedom in the process.  A little bit at a time and the boiling frog of freedom will die a slow and painless death and the socialists can ruin yet another country.

    We have the best healthcare system in the world, which is why people from all over the world come here for care, even from countries where they can get it for “free” under their nationalized health care.  If it’s ours is not the best, why else do you suppose they do that?  If you reward people for their efforts, they tend ot work harder and better if the risk is worth it.  Is our system perfect, none is or can be.  We’re dealing with humans here.  Only one was perfect and we killed Him.  It’s not perfect and some adjustments need to be made but a nationalized healthcare system is not it and never will be.  But his plan will let us chose our own carrier if we want.  For how long?  Put it in writing and we can talk about it but that’s not going to happen because that is not the long term plan.  Government for the government, by the government is the long term plan.  You want that, keep voting for such junk.  That was not the intent of our constitution and for good reason.

   No freedom believing person could embrace government’s increasing penetration into private life and business but to some degree we have ourselves to blame.  Irresponsibility and greed have created a vacuum.  Once created, a vacuum has to be filled, if not by responsible, honest citizens seeking to run business fairly, then by something else.  In this case, unfortunately government.  The methods employed by the banking industry, car companies and the like have all contributed to the their own demise justifying government intrusion.  Is either right, no, but until society is willing to do it on its own, government is always an easy alternative to the tough battles to maintain morals and responsibility.  Parental apathy has created a vacuum allowing schools to assume parental responsibility and frankly, the list goes on and on.  “To whom much is given, much is required” but society and most individuals are less and less likely to do what is required, placing us all at risk.

President Obama’s decision to not release photos of interrogation techniques, even though correct, is none the less remarkable but most glaringly hypocritical.  Prior to January 20th, his cries for such were consistent.  I applaud him for the realization that the release of such information does not fall under the auspices of the “right to know”, as well as the fact that any publication of such would create the very real possibility of putting our troops in greater harms way.   The fact still remains that a majority of folks will accept his decision now, even though it was the same decision of the previous administration, only now because it is Obama it’s O.K.   Every administration makes mistakes.  Bush made many but this was not one of them.  To suggest that terrorists should have the same rights as non-terrorists is ludicrous.  To suggest that we should not do everything possible to gather information to protect ourselves should be only common sense but unfortunately it is not.  The very nature of terrorism should trump any rights short of execution, which by the way, is the interrogation limit of our enemies clearly displayed by video.   The left has NEVER demonstrated the same indignation to those executions as it does now to Gitmo or any other practices we use, all of which are far more humane than our enemies.  Other than with the Moveon.org crowd,  President Obama’s decision will hardly cause a ripple.  If any conservative had made the same, it would be editorial fodder for weeks.  No bias in the press though.