ACTS OF GOD

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteouness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them,..... although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God." Romans 1:18-21

Hurricane Irene is approaching the eastern seaboard of the United States. May God have mercy on the folks who live in its path. Yes, God have mercy because Mother Nature cannot. She is a figment of mans' rebellious imagination. She is a lie that has been told over and over again since the beginning of time. She is a lie that suppresses the truth of God's sovereignty in Creation. God made the world as we know it. He also manages all the elements of the work of His hands. The tempest is as much the activity of God as the rising and setting of the sun. He always has and always will control the weather everyday and everywhere. The hurricane Irene is not an independent act of nature. Irene is being directed by God. And for all of us in California, so are earthquakes. And for those in other parts of the country and the world, so are droughts that bring famines. Gods controls the rainfall too!

Why would I pray that God have mercy? Mercy is the act of not holding someone strictly accountable for their guilty actions. It is the suspension of justice. It is withholding of punishment deserved. It is the quelling of wrath.

Any serious study of God's dealings with the human race recorded in the Bible make it abundantly clear that He uses floods, droughts, and hurricanes as expressions of His wrath. I do believe this revelation is one of the main reasons that the reading and preaching of the Old Testament histories is so neglected by Christians and rejected by the general public. We just refuse to believe that God acts in such a manner. That He is directing forces of such devastating destruction upon the world of men, women, children and animals. Afterall, how could we possibly deserve such treatment!

I repeat. May God have mercy on us all!

"Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works of the Lord,and His wonders in the deep. For He commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths; their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end." Psalm 107:23-27

"He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." John 3:36

The Sword and the Trowel

When the children of Israel returned to Jerusalem from their 70 years of exile and captivity in order to rebuild the Temple and the city walls; and by such efforts to reestablish their covenant culture. They were not received by the "local authorities" with great joy. They were perceived to be an economic and political threat to those who had entrenched themselves in the postitions of power and influence during their absence.  The strategies of their enemies where as follows: to ridicule their vision, efforts and accomplishments; to discredit their leaders; to falsely accuse them of plotting rebellion against the established authority; to conspire to attack and to cause confusion and eventually to plan vioence in an effort to disrupt the work.

The Jews, under the leadership of Nehemiah, responded to the enemies of their cause by: reminding themselves that their covenant God was on their side; by refusing to live in fear; by continuing to rebuild what had been lost; by working day and night in the effort; by setting up a warning system to alert themselves of the strategies of their enemies and by arming themselves. They actually built the wall with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other!

Despite all efforts to the contrary, THEY COMPLETED THE WALL.

I believe that that those of us who identify with the vision of the Tea Party Movement can learn much from studying the record of the successes of Nehemiah and the Jews.

Politics of Greed and Envy

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife; and you shall not desire your neighbor's house, his field, his male servant, his female servant, his ox, his donkey, or ANYTHING that IS your neighbors. Deuteronomy 5:21

Social Justice, Shared Sacrifice and Balanced Approached to Taxation are an unholy Trinity of political concepts that form the most recent basis for a politics of greed and envy that are dominating our discussion of how we will live together under law. That we have now arrived at a point in our national history where almost half the population of our country receive "benefits" from our national Treasury is testimony to the sordid victory of those in the political class who have gained their positions of power by bribing half of our population to vote for them by the promise of a "free lunch." A "lunch" that comes from  menu choices of welfare, medical care, a cushy government job or a college education. The bribe is paid from the national treasury. The funds produced from tax money taken by law from those who are the producers of wealth,  by the printing and distribution of funny money by the Federal Reserve and the continued borrowing of money by the Federal Government.  All these activities of legalized theft are justified by an appeal to the idea of fairness. These appeals are the double speak that weave the fabric of a cloak for instiable coveteousness. The influence of our current political class is established on a methodology that is itself a violation of the law of God. It cannot end well!

There  is no "free lunch!"

"There is no wisdom, understanding or counsel against the Lord." Proverbs 21:30