Politically Correct

I don't have an issue with immigrants.

I just don't care for illegal immigrants. There is a big difference.

It was funny recently when many of the Dallas area latinos decided to leave their free government education to go march for immigrant rights. Some of the students were interviewed on TV and didn't have a clue what they were marching for. An embarrassed teacher from that school decided to have a meeting the next week to discuss the issues that are actually being discussed in Washington. While hundreds of students from his school protest, he had 23 people show up (most were reporters with cameras to document this failure).

Too many people are saying we should drop the 'illegal' from illegal immigrant. Why?

There are legal ways to enter our country. There are illegal ways to enter our country. The so called rights for each should be different. Just as the rights of actual citizens should be different.

The headlines next week again will be about immigrant rights. The people jumping the river are not immigrants. They are illegals, trespassers, intruders, gate crashers, and imposters.

I do not blame them for wanting to come to the U.S. for better opportunity. The opportunity and life in Mexico is limited at best. However, there are processes in place to allow for immigration, and we actually have a very liberal immigration policy in this country. We are a nation of immigrants (a nation of legal immigrants). However we are being taken advantage of by our neighbors to the south.

This is not an issue about jobs. This issue is about submitting to authority. We need to continue to call it what it is...illegal. We need to enforce current laws and strengthen them, not loosen.

May 1, when many supporters of the trespassers will be taking a day off of work, I guess I'll fill my own hot sauce bowl and iced tea glass. I'll sit back and watch these men and women protest and teach their children that authority and respect hold very little value.

Decisions, Decisions

Decisions are often easy for me to make since I see the world mostly in black and white (according to my own prejudices of course). When I come across one that falls in that gray area I take my time, and I have just this morning made my decision.

This decision making process has actually taken a few years. It has not been easy. It is a family decision that we have been able to make together. These types of decisions take a lot of prayer, discussions, and observations.

This particular decision was not one that we wanted to make. But more of a response to a situation we found ourselves in.

We have decided to give up something we care a lot about, our church. The church is on the right track, but our family needs more from a church than it can give right now. We have spent over 30 years at this one congregation, so it is has been very difficult.

I have to still deal with the feelings I have towards the people that put us in this situation. Especially since many of them were once our friends. We were abandoned, but stayed because we believe in the work. I feel this decision was forced upon me by others, but I am confident that it is the right one to make.

There is great relief after making a careful deliberate decision. God has comforted us. We will move on and do more. We luckily live in an area where we have options. I am sure that God will lead us to the right one.

Wow

I saw God yesterday.

Yesterday I spent a few moments doing one of the things I have liked doing most of my life. sitting under a tree while laying on the ground and looking up at the sky.

This has to be done in the morning or evening to keep the sun out of your eyes. A squint can ruin the effect.

I saw God in the tree that was rising over my head. I saw God in the green leaves of the oak tree. God was beyond the tree and in the infinite sky. God was in the ground beneath my back.

I saw God becaue he is all around me every day. I just took a minute to look.

Reform?

Do we really need immigration reform?

Maybe instead of Reform we just need enforcement.

We live in a blessed country and we are a generous people. Our country is being invaded, and our generocity taken advantage of. Justice and Charity are different things. Christians should be compassionate, but not suckers.

May 1 is a date the hispanic community is wanting to be a 'day without a mexican' by staying at home. Will this include those that are planning their invasions across our boarders on that date? What would a day without caucasians look like?

They claim to want to be part of the melting pot of the United States. The USA hasn't been a melting pot since the culture wars began. People stopped melting a long time ago.

Mexico won't change and become a land of opportunity until people demand opportunity there. The pressure to reform should be on the southern side of the border. Enforcement should be the stance on the northern side.

It can be solved easy enough.
1. Children of illegals born in this country should not be given automatic citizenship
2. Public education and healthcare should require state issued identification
3. Sending money out of the country should require state issued identification
4. State issued identification should require a birth certificate, or a passport and documentation of legal entry.
5. Government provided services to illegals should be left to individual states to decide. (if Ted Kennedy wants to offer services to illegals in his state, let him). These services are not transferrable to another state.

Passover

Today is a great day.

Are you feeling Passed Over today? Today the Passover sedar is taking place in homes around the world. The story of the Passover is also the story of Christ.

Just as the final Egyptian pleague spared those that obeyed the will of God, we are also saved. Our sin is deserving of punishment, but we are given an opportunity for redemption. We have been bought for a price, and we owe our loyalties to our owner.

Romans 6:23 tells us "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

It is great to be passed over. It is wonderful to be bought and owned.

Misleading Title

This week ABC is airing a new version of "The Ten Commandments" movie. It is kind of interesting to see this adaptation compared to the 1956 edition starring Charlton Heston.

However I still do not really understand why either of these movies are called "The Ten Commandments". The actual commandments don't make but a very short appearance in either version.

Why not just "Moses", or "Exodus"? I guess it would be hard to fill 4 hours of programing on just the commandments

In case you need a refresher: The Ten Commandments

Run, Don't Walk

Below are a list of links I encourae every man to visit and enroll. It's an important step in protecting your marriage. A healthy marriage is the most important gift you can give your children.

These sites encourage not only internet filtering, but also accountability. Have your spouse sent an email of the sites requested from your computer.

C'mon, step up, be a man.

www.internetaccountability.com
www.integrity.com
www.safeeyes.com
www.besafeonline.com

Protect your marriage, protect yourself, protect your children.

Tidbits on Christian Music

I found these little tidbits about instrumental music in the church.

"I have no objection to instruments of music in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen" - John Wesley, founder of Methodism

"Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitiable than the burning of incense, the lighting of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law." - John Calvin, founder of Presbyterianism

"What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical preettiness of a quartert, the refined niceties of a choir, or the blowing off of wind for inanimate bellows and pipes! We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it." - Charles Spurgeon, esteemed Baptist preacher

Talk about forgetting your roots.

Gospel of Judas? Think again

Here we go again.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,190826,00.html

The linked story above references a manuscript found that some scholars believe to be a Gospel of Judas. I assume they think this find will shake the foundation that Christianity stands on. At least that is what they hope.

By the time of the Muratorian Fragment, we know the 'canon' of scripture was already pretty much put together by the middle of the second century.

We know from Eusebius that the universally accepted books were the four Gospels, Acts, 14 letters of Paul, 1 John, 1 Peter and Revelation. The remainder of the books (James, Jude, 2 Peter, and 2&3 John were disputed, but "recognized by the majority". Disputed not because of different teaching but because of their limited circulation.

This new manuscript doesn't stand up to the same historical standard found in the existing scriptures, and contains teachings contrary to what we find in the inspired Word. Is this one manuscript supposed to supercede all of the others?

Not every manuscript written 50-500 AD should be taken as scripture. There are books mentioned in the early church that were read in the churches, but they were specifically identified as non-inspired.(ie. Wisdom of Solomon & Apocolypse of Peter)

6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:6 (ESV)

Another non-story. The inspired word is everlasting. Where are the stories of the re-writes of catholocism, mormanism etc.?

Did Ya Know?

Early this Wednesday morning will be 01:02:03 04/05/06. Be sure to set your spouse's alarm.