I have seen a lot about freedom lately. And the general idea is that you can do what you want. But that isn’t what freedom is about. If you give freedom to one person, you have to take it from another one. We have basic freedoms here in the United States that most people don’t have in the rest of the world. How do we have those freedoms? We are basically a people based upon English law. The England pride themselves on their system of laws. It started with the Magna Carta, which is still in effect today. The English have built a system of laws to protect their freedoms. As English subjects, we Americans demanded the same rights as our brethren in England. That is when war was declared against us by England and of course you know the outcome. It was the single biggest mistake the English have ever made. We have built our country on laws to protect our freedoms. We made sure that our freedoms were just and right. We were all in this together. Which has been an ongoing process. Our freedoms where not meant to take away other people’s freedom. Our laws are there to preserve all of our freedoms. America has more freedoms that most people because we are willing to fight to preserve them. As the old cliché says, freedom isn’t free. It has been preserved with many lives of Americans. When America was settled by the English colonists, England not unable to station troops everywhere, stationed an arsenal in most major communities to be able to protect ourselves. That is why we have the freedom to bear arms for our protection. Freedom always has come with responsibility. To be able to have freedoms, there are things that we must do. One is to obey the laws we have set up to rule us. Obeying is part and partial to being free. As the bible says, for whom the Lord has set free, is free indeed.
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With all that is going on in this world, how safe are you? I use to want to travel all over the world. But lately I think it is much wiser to travel in the USA. I like to travel and see new things and people. Between people being kidnapped and shot and terrorized anywhere in the world, well local travel seems the best choice. When 9/11 happened, it shook the US to the core. People didn’t know what to do. Even people who knew better were undone. That is when the President asked for and got by congress the Patriot Act. And America went into war time mode. Once America started catching bad guys the country went back to sleep. After 9/11, there was the Japanese earthquake that caused a nuclear reactor to melt down. Then there was the tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Then there was Hurricane Katrina. Then the wild fires in western USA. Then there was a drought that last for 5 years in the western USA. Then there was earthquakes in diver’s places and a bridge that collapse killing many. Let alone the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And there was not one man that could stop any of it. No matter how important it was to try and stop it. You know what is sad is that the American people are still asleep. How safe do you feel? Have you figured out what to do with all of this? In the 1950’s, when the cold war was raging, people built bomb shelters to try and survive a nuclear bomb. After 9/11, there were people offering to build bomb shelters. Again how safe are you in this world? It doesn’t matter if I am vaporized by nuclear bomb, or drowned by the rising sea levels or die from some plague. This world isn’t my home. This world is just temporary. The calamities that plague this world aren’t bigger than my assurance of my life in Christ. I have hope and faith in the one person who made this world in the first place, God Himself. My safety is in Him alone.
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Remember your heart is who you are. Your heart is your mind, will and intellect. This is the part of you that is eternal. This is what most people call your spirit. Everything you have ever learn is stored in your spirit. All the good things, bad things, everyday experiences are there for you to recall. This shapes what you believe and who you are. So the attitudes of your heart are important part of your life. Each of us are basically the same. We each have parents and came into the world the same way. This is where we differ. According to where we were born and taught as a child determined what we became when we grew up. I like just about most foods. You can tell that by the size of my belly. I like to cook also. My latest thing is jams and jellies. I will taste them to get the consistency right but I can’t eat them because of the diabetes. I don’t want it or need it, but it is there because of my life style or because of what my parents had. Yet I am not going to quite just because I am being tested. I am determined and persistent. It is an attitude that I developed when I was a child. So might say I am stubborn. But I am not stupid about what I will or will not do. I have a positive attitude that everything will work out like it is supposed to do. And no matter what happens every morning is new and ready for me to begin my life anew. I didn’t always think like this. It took a force of nature to change me into the person I am today. That force had to move heaven and earth for me to believe and trust that I had hope for the future. I have only found that hope in one person, God’s own son, Jesus.
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I am looking at my cat and she is snoozing away. Her feet are in the air and not a care in the world. I haven’t slept like that in years. I can remember that I use to be able to drink coffee and go right to sleep all night. You look at children and they don’t have a care in the world. They can sleep like a log. My oldest son use to sleep for 8 hours at a time. That boy could sleep more than anyone I have ever seen. As you grow older it seems that sleep eludes you. That restful and peaceful kind of sleep that we all enjoyed when we were younger. What has changed? Why don’t we have a good night’s sleep anymore? I know people that use alcohol to get a night’s sleep. And even worst to use drugs. The things of this world can’t bring you peace. And peace is the only thing that give you a good night’s sleep. So where did the peace go? Why don’t we have peace like we did when we were young? Do you remember the first time you lied to get your way? And how bad you felt afterward. And the lack of peace in your life. How often have we done that so we could get ahead? And what did it cost us to get there? In 1983, Gallup poll took a survey across America. They ask what was the 3 most important things in your life. Surprise, Surprise, #3’s answer was peace or the lack of it in their lives. It hasn’t changed. The answer is still the same. We need peace in our lives to live on this earth. And I know of only one place to get peace in our lives. And that place or person to ask for peace is God Himself. There is no one else that can give us peace in our lives. And you know how to do that is just to ask God Himself for the peace to live your life.
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Did you ever wonder why God allows persecution in our lives? It would be so nice if everything went smoothly. If there would be no turmoil in our lives, we would call ourselves blessed of God. But that isn’t how it works. Why not? I would love to have no drama or chaos. When I work at a large retain store, I was in charge of 250 women. They were cashiers. There was so much drama, that I was going to change my name tag from Assistant Manager to Drama Coach. Their lives were so up and down, it was hard for them to see strait. Persecution is necessary for reach us to reach our goals. It sounds strange but it is true. If we weren’t challenged in our lives, it would be hard to accomplish things. Persecution has a real meaning in our lives. Without it we wouldn’t find out what is inside of us. Do you remember your little brother or sister pestering you to do something? Then you would take it until you had enough and you turn on them to fuss or fight. You found out what was in your heart. It is the same as an adult. When pressure comes against you, you will do what is in your heart. There was a young women who would insult me every time I went to church. It was so bad that the pastor had to talk to her about. I had become angry with her. But what happen was that I found out what was in my heart. I had to change my attitude about her. With God’s help, I changed and she became a blessing to me. She still would insult me every time she saw me. But it didn’t bother me anymore. And that is the real reason for persecution in your lives. It is so that we can see what is hidden in our heart. Then finding what is there, to be able to change with God’s help into the person we are supposed to be.
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I am so tired of listening to political rhetoric from both side. I am tired of listening to who is the worst person that could be elected. Or I am better than him because he does this or that. I am still looking for a person that can unify the nation. So we can trust that they won’t screw us when our backs are turned. There are very few people running for president of the United States that are worth our vote. Our newly elected governor said that if the legislature doesn’t do what he says, then he would cut off funding to our best and favorite university football team. It would be political suicide if he did. It is true that our country is in a political crisis. I would rate our current president a little lower than Ulysses S. Grant, who stayed drunk in office for the first 4 years of his presidency. What is needed is a person who will look out for the American people. Someone without selfish motions and do what is necessary for the country. I know I am asking a lot of politicians. What is the old joke about politicians? How can you tell if a politician is lying? His lips are moving. While the press reports the circus, our country is beginning to flounder. When we need leadership and we get political stupidity. How can you tell if a person is worth voting for? I truly think that it isn’t what he has to say. Because most of them are lying any way. I believe that it is what he does when no one is looking. How did they vote on crucial bills? Or how do they spend their free time? The bible talks about how to judge a person. It says that if a person is faithful in the small things, they will be faithful in the larger ones.
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I hear people talk about the real deal. It is something that they suppose is authentic. Or let’s get real is another saying. What they are talking about is reality. So many people have adjusted their reality to make it what they want. You have to ask yourself what is reality? How to you define real? Well I know that the earth is real. The sun, moon and the stars are real. Then if they are real, then all of creation is real. Yet the bible says that the earth and stars will disappear just like a curtain being rolled up. This earth and all on it are temporary. Then what is real? What is truly real? You have to ask yourself what will not disappear at the end of the earth. Then you have to believe that someone or something is in control of our future. I don’t believe it is a rock or crystal or someone doped up and chanting. Your perspective is what you believe is the right and real way, almost. What we believe does alter our destiny, but it doesn’t change the outcome of the world. The real plan has been put into play and we can’t change it. All we can do is believe and follow along. We aren’t smarter or stronger than God Himself. We can’t change His plan in any way or aspect. The only thing we can do is to accept or deject His offer of eternal life. We are eternal being and will live forever. But where you live is up to you. When you die there are only 2 places to go, heaven or hell. And if you don’t live God’s way here on this earth, you will not live in heaven with God. It is a very simple choice to make. And all you have to do is ask God and help will arrive.
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I have lived in many parts of this nation. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful. I lived in a little town called Golden, Colo. It is a suburb of Denver. There was only several million people in Denver. But the attitude of the people was of a small town. My cousins lived up the mountain in a town called Evergreen. Now that was a small town of only a few thousand. Then I lived in Indianapolis, Ind. You would think that it is one big city. But it isn’t at all. Indianapolis is made up of over 200 towns each individual and distinct. They claim to fame when I lived there was that there was a bank robbery every week. Indianapolis is bisected by no less than 7 interstate highways. The people would come home at 5, change their clothes and go out until 2 or 3am. They did this all the time. It like to drove me crazy. I couldn’t stand living in that kind of life style. I have lived in Houston and San Antonio. I always liked traveling around the country. My parents would take us on vacations all over. The only states I haven’t been to are New England and the pacific coast. My cousins in Pierre, SD., have a 80,000 acre wheat farm. They fly airplanes to check the crops. Life is different everywhere. So are the people who live there. Discovering who those people are has become one of the most important things in my life. There is a real diamond mine in Murfreesboro, Ark. I love to talk to strangers. My wife gets embarrassed when I do. But you never know what you going to find when you do. I guess it goes back to me being shy when I was young. And wanting to meet people freely. Mark Twain said that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” I don’t travel as often as I would like, but I still want to.
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Why does honor and integrity cost us everything? There is nothing more precious to us than our life. Yet we become willing to risk it all for honor. These human values are most precious and valued above all things. We see it in the animal kingdom, where a mother will defend her children to the death. Where the parents give all that they have for their offspring. Honor, courage, and integrity are strong values in our lives. People who don’t follow them consider themselves worthless. What is it about those values that would make us want to do whatever is necessary? How many people do you know that follow that way of life? Probably just a few people come to mind. One of the most honorable person I know was an uneducated woman from south Louisiana. She spoke fluent French. She was a maid and very poor. She saw a need in Haiti and went an opened an orphanage. For 20 years, she worked with the poor people and helped young people get an education. She didn’t asked for things for herself. Every so often she would come back to raise money for the orphanage. She worked in Haiti until she couldn’t physically do it anymore. This woman had honor and integrity far above most people I know. What is your life about? Is it just to a acquire things in this world? Or do you have a purpose or plan to accomplish something honorable in this life? Honorable doesn’t mean that you have to go to Africa or have to give everything you have to the poor. It means being true to yourself and God. There are many wrongs that need to be righted here just outside your door. All you need is to open your eyes and see what needs are around you. There is no greater love than this, to lay down your life for another.
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St. Valentine’s Day is February 14th in the United States. It is a day of expressing your love for your girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, grandma, grandpa or any other person you particularly are fond of. I can remember in grade school where teachers had us to prepare cards to give to other students. The practice of card and flower giving started in England in with a poem, Parlement of Foules by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1382. Then it spread to Europe and then to the rest of the world. There is hardly a country in the world that doesn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. Even hard-hearted jerk that I am sent my wife flowers. And as a bonus I wrote about her on my blog called the Black Swan. The story of St. Valentine goes by to the 4th century in Rome. Valentine was a priest who was helping people to live their lives. Unfortunately he went against the government and they killed him. The day before he was killed, he sent a card with a poem. On the card was written to my valentine. He gave his life in what he believed. I guess that is what this is all about is giving a piece of yourself to someone else. Whether it is for personal reasons or because you love the person. It is not always easy but it is always rewarding. Send someone a card or take them to lunch and see what happens. You will never know what can be unless you give of yourself to someone else. As the bible says, no getting love is this than you give your life for another. Happy Valentine’s Day.
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