Let's Stay Rational in Spite of the Grief

A final round of funeral services was held yesterday for the last of the victims of last week's killing spree at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.

This attack was so heinous and senseless that it defies any rational explanation. What snaps inside a human being to bring him to perform such a depraved, evil act?  I doubt anyone can answer that question.

Twenty families were forced to live every parent's worst nightmare: receiving the news that their child had been murdered. Six adults at the school were also killed by the deranged gunman.

This is a senseless crime that forces each of us to take stock of our priorities. It reminds us that life is a fragile gift. It should cause us to hold our children a little closer, and to more earnestly appreciate the blessing of having our loved ones alive, healthy and near to us.
 
The people of Newtown need our prayers for healing, for comfort, and for the capacity to forgive and move on. The residents of this community have been emotionally shattered, and many of of them will never fully recover.

I cannot imagine how they must feel. I wish these wounded people could be left in peace to deal with the awful sorrow they must bear. I wish the liberal media would leave them alone, instead of using them as political pawns to advance another round of attacks on the Second Amendment.

American leftists are playing their usual game of "never wasting a crisis." They are callously exploiting the nation's grief over the Sandy Hook massacre to advance their anti-gun political agenda while people's emotions are raw.

It is important to remain logical and remember that it was a sick, evil person who killed those innocent victims.

It was a madman who murdered those children; a young man who was deeply mentally disturbed, and somehow failed to receive the psychiatric help he needed that might have prevented this awful tragedy.

Restricting the constitutional rights of law-abiding American citizens will not bring back the victims of Sandy Hook, nor will it prevent future madmen from committing terrible crimes.

Better processes for diagnosing and treating the mentally ill might have made a difference in this instance. A few trained and armed staff members at the school could have radically changed the outcome of this attack.

We live in a fallen world. There will always be evil people with evil intentions. We all need to take responsibility for preparing to defend ourselves against unexpected threats.

The police cannot be everywhere. As long as there are sinful people with murderous notions, there will be occasions when a law-abiding armed citizen may be all that stands between an innocent victim and a deranged attacker.

I wish this were not so. I wish we could just declare every public area a gun-free zone and know that our children would be safe. Unfortunately, this is a dangerous delusion that leaves law-abiding citizens defenseless against criminals who will always be armed.

A person intent on evil does not respect gun laws, or gun-free zones. All a gun-free zone does is advertise to criminals - "Come on in! We are defenseless here."

Again, I wish this were not so. I wish we lived in a kinder, gentler world. But we have to contend with the sad reality that there will always be evil perpetrators in this world, and they must be opposed with force. 

It is important that we understand and acknowledge hard truths, such as this simple fact recently declared by National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre: "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

My Birthday Trip to the Emergency Room

I've had better days...and way better birthdays...but all has ended well, and I am thankful for that!

A gut-wrenching pain on the left side of my abdomen had me feeling pretty queasy as I laid around the house on the Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving. Later that evening my mind finally opened the email that my body had been sending all day long: "Go to the hospital!"

Please allow me to share some observations I made during this experience.

1. ER personnel don't give you much respect when you show up with a tummy ache on the day after Thanksgiving.

2. Apparently the medical staff uses a tag-team approach to weed out bogus stories from patients who may be "faking it" to get pain medications.

3. If you can successfully give a consistent detailed account of your symptoms, and circumstances, to at least five different inquisitors, eventually someone will start to believe you might be legit and order some kind of test.

4. I'm not sure how all the staff at the ER gets to work every night, since few of them appeared old enough to hold a driver's license.

5. I do not understand how the stuff they make you drink for a CAT scan does any good since I truly believe I peed it out as fast as I drank it.

6. ALWAYS make sure you know where the bathroom is when they move you to a new location.

7. I wish everything in my life was as easy as getting a CAT scan.

8. After the doctor gets test results showing that your gall bladder is a hideous, oozing, swollen, infected time-bomb, you get a lot more street cred with the ER crowd. AND you finally get your pain meds!

9. Once you get your pain meds, life is beautiful.

10. You sure have to sign a lot of papers in the hospital.

11. My wife is going to have to jump through a lot of hoops at home to continue giving me the same level of TLC I received from the nursing staff. The challenge will be good for her.

12. I started to get concerned as I was being prepped for surgery, because every time they moved me to a new location nobody knew what was going on. They all kept asking me who I was and what I was there for. Shouldn't they know? 60 Minutes should investigate this.

13. Everybody wanted to know when my birthday was, but nobody bothered to get me a present or a piece of cake.
 
14. I could have enjoyed my nap after surgery more if nurses had stopped waking me up all the time.

15. Hospital food is a lot better these days, at least at St. Francis.

16. I want a set of those leg-squeezing massage things to take home.

17. I don't care how many cable channels there are, there is still nothing to watch at 3 a.m.

18. It is a lot more fun getting ready to go home if the doctor isn't telling you about something else that showed up on your CAT scan.

19. I suppose it really is good news that they happened to see a teeny spot in my bladder, since whatever it may be is small and easy to deal with.

20. When the doctor says, "They'll just slip a scope up your urinary tract and take care of that little problem," with a calm reassuring smile, it still makes me pucker up.

21. The colonoscopy they've been nagging me about for 8 years seems a lot less intimidating now.

22. The only way to truly keep yourself from lifting more than 15 pounds after surgery is to have your arms strapped to your side and walk around like a mummy for 14 days. You cannot make yourself remember not to pick things up. It is just too automatic.

23. While recuperating at home after gall bladder surgery, avoid watching old re-runs of "Everybody Loves Raymond" - especially if it is an episode you haven't seen before.

Feeling Empty Inside?

The meaning of life?

That question has kept philosophers busy for centuries. Lots of people think they have an answer. The world is full of religious ideas and "feel good" pop psychology.

Humanists will tell you that you're here to please yourself - that man is the ultimate authority - that there is no God to be bothered with.

You can hobnob with spiritualists who will  channel for you and introduce you to a "familiar spirit" who will guide you into supernatural knowledge.  (More about this in the next issue of Demonic Deceptions Monthly).

You can join the Hollywood elite in Transcendental Meditation and spend hours contemplating your "divine nature" while chanting something deep and enlightening like "om."

You can join a cult (take your pick) and have some con-man turn your mind to mush while he cleans out your 401k.

WHAT MOST OF US DO

Or you could do what most people in America do. Shrug the whole thing off as "unknowable" and muddle through your life without a clue. This is a sad and empty way to live. Trust me, I know. I did it for 25 years.

If you haven't found your way to God's acquaintance yet, then you know what that empty feeling is. That feeling of wondering why you are here. The nagging ache that reminds you, in quiet moments, that you don't really know where you belong. The longing for some peace and assurance that there is purpose and meaning in this existence.

And most tragically, you could be one of the many people who come to the end of life, frightened and alone, and regretting the waste of it. How many people die without the assurance of heaven, and pass unto death fearful (and rightly so) of the unknown destiny that awaits them? How many people die without ever really knowing why they lived?

SOMETHING IS MISSING

Yet even in our spiritual darkness, we sense that something is missing. We observe the wonders of nature. We experience the passions of love. We marvel at the birth of a child. Experiences like these hint to us that there is more to life than this purely physical dimension. Most of us intuitively realize that there is a force beyond our understanding; a designer who holds the universe in order.

And this force, this designer, is the Almighty God who loves us! He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the creator of all that is. And he has been planning since the beginning of time to bring each one of us into his eternal family. He has a purpose for every human life he created.

Even yours.

The Bible teaches us that we are God's special creation, made in his image. But because of  Adam's rebellion, spiritual death came upon the human race. As a result, we are born spiritually blind.  We are too selfish to live peacefully in this life; we are totally unfit for paradise. We cannot know God or comprehend his goodness and power.

That is why Jesus came. That is why he had to die. As God, he could offer the perfect sacrifice that would open the gates of heaven for us. His death paid the penalty for our sin. His later resurrection is our proof that he has the power to grant eternal life to all who will follow him.

As a man, he could show us how to live in the power of God's spirit. His life has introduced us to the living God whom we are too blind too see.

Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God's love. From his actions we can clearly see how much God loves us. From his teachings, we can begin to understand what God wants from us.

WHAT GOD REALLY WANTS

All God really wants you to do is give up. As in surrender. Give up your stubborn pride and admit that God is bigger than you. Admit that he ultimately is in control of all you have. Give up your life to him. Ask him to come into your heart and show you how to live. Admit that you have sinned against him (as have we all) and ask him to forgive you.

When you do this, wonderful things begin to happen. You are born again. God's spirit comes to live inside of  you, and that aching emptiness disappears. You will have passed from spiritual death to eternal life!

If you're honest enough to look inside of yourself and admit that you need God, then you can ask him into your life right now with a prayer like this:

"God, I have my doubts. Please heal my unbelief. I know I don't deserve your mercy, and I've spent my life sinning against you. Dear Jesus, I ask you to forgive me, cleanse me and make me whole. I want to know your love and your friendship. I want your love to fill the emptiness in my soul. I give you my life today, Lord, and I ask you to take me into your family. I want to live my life doing what you created me to do. I want to know that I am destined for heaven."

If you have given your heart to Jesus just now, you are a brand new creation, a new citizen of God's kingdom, and you have begun a wonderful new journey into eternal life. You need to find a friend who knows the Lord. He or she will be glad to help you understand the awesome gift you have just received. 

Your friend will help introduce you to the Bible and help you discover the friendship of fellow believers in a good church. Welcome to God's family!

Comic of the Week

What was the Price for Your Vote?

The old joke goes something like this: One evening at the country club, a wealthy old codger propositions a sweet young thing sitting at the bar.

He asks, "Would you sleep with me tonight for a million dollars?"

"Okay," replies the sweet young thing, "where would you like to go?"

"I'm not sure," he answers. "First I have to ask -- how about sleeping with me tonight for a hundred dollars?"

"Absolutely not!" she retorts in a huff. "Just what kind of girl do you think I am?"

The old man smiled. "We've already established that, my dear. Now we are just negotiating the price."

In recent political conversations with a number of liberal acquaintances, I have noticed a disturbing pattern. None of them cares to discuss the facts or the figures concerning the budget woes our country faces.

What they want to talk about is what the government owes them. They rail against the stingy Republicans who want to cut back on the entitlements promised to them by the generous, compassionate Democrats. (Of course, they never stop to consider how easy it is for the Democrats to spend someone else's money.)

One young man flatly stated that he supported Obama because of the Obamacare mandate that young adults could stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26. That was an important benefit for him.

I asked him at what age people should be expected to grow up and fend for themselves. Why not extend the age limit to 30? Why not 40? Why not stay on your parents' insurance until they keel over?

He had no answer. All he knew is that he wanted whatever he could get, and Obama was the one who would give it to him.

Another friend told me he didn't care about the deficit, he just wanted what he had coming to him in government benefits.

When you talk to people on the dole (or those who hope to be) there is no political issue, other than entitlements, that concerns them. They don't care about our military readiness, the defense of our borders, the disintegration of American family life, or the threat to our individual liberties from the ever-expanding control of our government.

All they care about is that the Democrats promise to keep the gravy train rolling, and they want to be sure they are at the station when it arrives.

From conversations like these, one might reasonably conclude that Democrats expand their political power by their willingness to confiscate money from people who work, and then use those funds to buy votes from the people who want to collect benefits.

How can we ever put a stop to this madness? How do you win an election against Santa Claus?

We are now in a situation where almost 50% of the voting-age population pays no federal income tax. Even worse, over 50% of the population receives some form of government hand-out.

Every pitch the Democrats make is a give-away to some special interest group. To the Latinos, they promise amnesty and welfare. To the gays, they promise same-sex marriage with all of the attached tax benefits. To low-income groups, they promise increasing unemployment benefits and food stamps. To women they promise government-sponsored abortion and contraceptive services. To government union employees, they promise continued exorbitant pension plans.

And who can forget the video of that whacked-out protester screeching about her Obama-phone? 

Never mind the detrimental consequences of these promises. Never mind that we cannot afford all of this. Never mind that we are now borrowing 40 cents of every dollar the government spends. Never mind that we are condemning our children to national bankruptcy.

None of that mattered to the liberal voters in 2012.

The Democrats have successfully created an electoral majority of moochers who have traded their liberty for the promise of a government hand-out. The "fundamental transformation" of America has begun. Our democratic republic is fast becoming a socialist nanny-state.

And that (along with the support of a lapdog media that covered his butt at every turn) is how President Barack Obama got himself re-elected.

Take the Test: You Might Be a Conservative!

One thing the Democratic Party is wildly successful at is demonizing the opposition. Conservatives like me are routinely portrayed by the media as heartless extremists who want to starve school-children, keep women barefoot and pregnant, and push little old ladies over a cliff.

Why otherwise intelligent people believe this mystifies me. But we are creatures of habit, and if a big lie is repeated often enough, it becomes believable.

Sometimes we even vote out of habit. After several recent conversations with life-long Democrat friends, I have come to the conclusion that there are a lot of them who automatically vote for Democrats in every election without ever giving it a second thought. 

Does this describe you? Don't worry, there is hope! Take the following simple quiz to find out what kind of American you are. You may discover that you really do have a choice.

1. The answer for every problem in American society is to create another government agency and borrow more money from China to pay for it.  T  F

2. The United States will be safer from threats by Communist dictatorships and rogue terrorist states if we slash our military defense budget and unilaterally cut our nuclear missile defense by 90%.  T  F

3. The best way to build a strong economy is for the government to gain more control over private businesses, and to keep printing billions and billions more dollars of paper money.   T   F

4. The Constitution is old-fashioned and out of date, and it prevents our government officials from creating the regulations needed to control us.   T   F

5. The best way to create strong, stable families is to promote homosexual marriage and provide government-funded abortions to teenage girls without their parents' consent.   T   F

6. Individual liberty is over-rated. We should learn to behave as we are instructed, and allow unelected government bureaucrats to decide what is best for us.   T   F

7. The best way to conduct honest elections is to let anybody who shows up at a polling place cast a ballot without having to prove who they are, which also allows them to vote at as many polling places as possible on election day.   T   F

8. Rich people are evil. Anyone who is successful must have stolen it from someone else, so the government should be encouraged to confiscate as much of their wealth as possible.   T   F

9. There is no God. The state is our ultimate authority. The only rights we have as citizens are whatever privileges the state decides to grant to us.   T   F

10. No one is responsible for themselves. The government should provide young women with contraceptives; food stamp recipients with cell phones; and those out of work with 2 years of unemployment benefits.   T   F

11. Congress is too powerful. If the President cannot ram his unpopular agenda through Congress, he has the right to simply issue an executive order and bypass the legislative branch of government.   T   F

12. It doesn't matter if our country goes bankrupt, as long as we get all we can. The future is our kids' problem.   T   F

Now check your answers:

9 or more TRUE answers: You must be a Democrat. You are just the kind of voter that welfare-state politicians drool over. You have my sympathy.
 
5 to 9 TRUE answers: You are either lost in the '60s, or you are just too young to know better.

1 to 5 TRUE answers: You are getting closer to the light. There is hope for you.

0 TRUE answers: Congratulations! You are a responsible conservative citizen with your head screwed on straight. And if you answered FALSE to all these questions, why would you even think about voting for Barack Obama?

Using the Poor as Political Pawns

Once again my favorite pundit, Thomas Sowell, pokes holes in some political myths about the poor. READ MORE

Comic of the Week

With Friends Like Us...

In case you haven't noticed, Israel lives in a pretty tough neighborhood.

Egypt lies to the west, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the east, Lebanon and Syria to the north. Geography is not her friend.

Fewer than 8 million Israelis cling to a little sliver of land on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean, surrounded by hundreds of millions of hostile Muslims.

At the end of World War II, after more than 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis, most of the civilized world was shocked by the horrors of the Holocaust. World opinion was shamed into a brief period of sympathy for the Jewish survivors, who soon began emigrating from Europe to Israel.

By the time Israel declared itself a nation in 1948, there were over a million Jews living there, and Democrat President Harry Truman immediately established diplomatic relations with the new Jewish state.

We have had a special relationship with Israel ever since. Israel glistens as an oasis of democracy in a mid-eastern desert of tyranny. Israel was our staunchest ally throughout the Cold War, and more recently, the war on terror.

For reasons only he knows, our president disdains the nation of Israel. Soon after his election, Obama made a bee-line for Egypt so that he could grovel before the Muslims during his "world-apology" tour. But he didn't have time to visit Israel.

Obama has had time to host lavish state dinners for the Communist Chinese. He has invited groups of imams over for several Ramadan dinners at the White House. But the first time Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu came to visit, Obama made a point of publicly snubbing him.

No state dinner for Netanyahu. No dinner at all, for that matter.

When the president finally agreed to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister and his aides in March 2010, Obama gave them an earful about making concessions to Arab demands. Then he excused himself to go upstairs and have dinner with Michelle and the kids, leaving the Israelis to stew by themselves in the Roosevelt room. 

Later that evening, Netanyahu was unceremoniously shooed out the side door of the White House.  NBC report of Obama/Netanyahu meeting

I suppose we should be thankful that Obama stopped short of offering him a ham sandwich and poking him in the eye with a stick.

Fast forward to today: With Iran on the brink of possessing nuclear weapons, Israel is understandably alarmed. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has publicly declared for years that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

The Jews will soon be threatened with annihilation. There is a tiny window of time left for Israel to decide how to neutralize the grave threat posed by Iranian nukes. Prime Minister Netanyahu is coming to Washington later this month to attend the U.N. General Assembly, and he has asked for a meeting with President Obama, presumably to discuss this dire situation.

But our president does not have time to meet with the Prime Minster. The Israelis were told, "The president's schedule will not permit that."

Obama has time to do the Letterman show. He has time to play golf. He has time to do celebrity campaign fund-raisers with Jay-Z and Beyonce. 

But time for a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, our only democratic ally in a middle east on the brink of war? Not so much.
  

               *Also see When Israel Draws a Line in the Sand

The Day the Liberals Booed God

Pat Buchanan gives a sober and disturbing assessment of a Democratic Party that has lost it's way.  READ MORE

If It Looks Like a Duck, Quacks Like a Duck...

Out of curiosity, I occasionally visit the website of the Communist Party USA to see what the wackos are up to.

It amazes me that the Communist Party still exists. After almost a century of abysmal failure, one might hope that people would have figured out Communism is not the way to go.

Just consider the awful barbaric history of Communism: the millions of Russians murdered by Lenin and starved by Stalin, the tens of millions who perished in the slave labor camps of the Soviet gulags, the tens of millions who suffered and died in the inhuman conditions of Communist prisons in China, Cuba, North Korea and eastern Europe.

With such a track record of cruelty and human misery, you might think that the Communist brand would be out of favor. Unfortunately, you would be wrong.

Human beings have an amazing capacity to keep repeating the same stupid mistakes while hoping for entirely new outcomes. I cannot explain this. I can only observe that it is so.

So this morning when I visited the website of the Communist Party USA, I was not surprised to see the same tired old Socialist drivel being featured on the home page.

There were links to articles about: The War on Women -- The Dangers of Paul Ryan's Tax Cuts --  Recalling Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker -- Supporting the Occupy Movement -- Fighting Against Voter ID Laws.

I clicked a link to a page with this headline: 
Save the nation! Tax corporations! Tax the rich!

I read the usual boiler-plate indictment of the evil rich Capitalists and how they were destroying the lives of the poor downtrodden masses. At the end of the article, there was a bullet-pointed list of action items that I found interesting. I will quote this list below:

• End the Bush-era tax giveaways to banks, corporations and wealthy individuals.

• Close corporate tax loopholes, especially billions in tax subsidies for the oil companies.

• Raise new revenues by restoring 70% tax rate on incomes over $1 million.

• Raise $150 billion a year by imposing a financial transaction tax on Wall Street speculation.

• Cut the military budget by half. Bring troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq.

• Create jobs in a major public works program to repair our nation’s infrastructure and to make our nation number one in “green industry.” 

• Target the jobs to hard-hit inner city communities and the rural poor.

• Fully fund a national health care program and drastically increase federal aid to education, Pell Grants, and other vital human needs programs.
  

• Remove the cap on the Social Security payroll tax, so that CEOs and hedge fund managers pay the same rate as the rest of us.

Then it dawned on me: Everything written on this Communist Party website could have been reprinted verbatim on the Democratic Party website. There was not a single idea advanced by the Communists that I had not heard before from Democrats.

In fact, this action list sounds a lot like the Democratic Party platform.

So, I have a question for all my Democrat friends. Does it bother you at all that your party is completely in lock-step with the policy goals of the Communist Party USA?

And if not, why not?

Cartoon of the Week

Ruling by Presidential Decree

I had considered writing a post about President Obama's shameless unconstitutional abuses of power, but Thomas Sowell beat me to it and, of course, has said it much better than I could have. This is a "must read" before you vote!  READ MORE

Joy Comes in the Morning, Grandson Style

Sometimes God just gives you things.

Our two grandsons spent the night with us one evening this week. Zeke, the 5-year-old, slept in our guest room. Malachi, the 2-year-old (aka "El Destructo") slept in his playpen/bed in our bedroom.

So when the lady of the house woke up at 5:30 to get ready for work (much too early for me!) she did her best to quietly sneak out of the room without waking up little El Destructo. Of course, that didn't work. He was up in a flash and wanted out of that playpen.

I thought I would be a nice guy and try to keep him corralled for a while in the bedroom so that he didn't wake up his parents, who were asleep in our living room. So Peggy picked Malachi up from his playpen and deposited him into my arms as I laid in bed.

I am not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I have observed over the years that kids are usually more cuddly and snuggly when they first wake up. Malachi is such a ball of fire all day long that he hardly ever can stay still long enough to snuggle. The only chance for this kind of bonding is first thing in the morning.

So I took full advantage of the opportunity. At first he laid down, his head on the pillow next to mine, with his feet pointed away from me at a 90-degree angle. He babbled on and kept talking about something. I could only understand about every tenth word, but I was able to figure out he was talking about some game he had played with his brother Zeke.

Then he started getting restless and rolling around on the bed. He started playing tickle-belly, attacking my navel with everything he had. Of course I got him back.

After a good round of tickle-belly it was time to play tug-of-war with his blue blankie, which eventually evolved into a wrestling match that I finally let him win.

Then I tossed him into the air a few times and let him land on the bed next to me. He tried to jump on my belly and pin me down. We did this for a while until we both got tired, then he laid his head on the pillow again and started telling me another story that I could barely understand.

It was still dark in the room, and as I became fully awake, still listening to little Malachi babbling on about whatever it was, I was overwhelmed by a deep, warm, satisfying joy. I realized what a gift it was to be a "papaw" to this sweet little guy.

What a moment. What a treasure. What a blessing from God to experience the tender innocent love of a toddler grand-child.

Then God quietly spoke to me. He reminded me of how long it had been since I just laid down next to Him and babbled for a while. How long it had been since He and I just relaxed together and shared the love of a father and child.

I realized that the joy Malachi had given me, just by being there and playing around, was the same joy that I could give to God if I would make time to sit still with Him for a while and snuggle.
 
Things don't always have to be heavy. There is so much more to knowing God than doctrine and theology. Sometimes He just wants us to spend some time relaxing with Him. I believe that the God who created us enjoys having fun with His children.

It is an amazing thing to realize how much He loves us, and how much we can bless Him, if only we would just love on Him the way that grateful children should.

Can't I Even Dream About Sleeping In?

Some things just don't mix: oil and water, Tom and Jerry, grandchildren and sleep.

I love my grandchildren. They are sweet and lovable and endlessly entertaining. But I also love my sleep, so there are inevitable conflicts.

Miranda is eight, Zeke is five, Malachi is two. When we have them all at the same time it is like a three-ring circus over here. All we're missing is the clown car and the smell of elephant poop. (Though, on second thought, Malachi is a pretty dependable source of poop smells.)

It doesn't matter how much we ignore their parents' instructions, and keep those kids up past their bedtimes: They will still be up and bouncing off the walls at the crack of dawn, demanding breakfast and a trip to the playground.

At least when we are at home, we don't have to worry about them disturbing the neighbors, since the grand-kids' ruckus-raising can't be heard outside of our walls. But when we go camping, there are problems.

If you have ever been camping at a state park, you understand that there are rules such as: no fireworks, dogs must be on a leash, don't pick the flowers. One of my favorite rules is "Quiet-time hours are from 11 PM to 7 AM."

That is a good rule. After a long day of swimming or hiking or whatever, I am tired, and I need my rest. You can safely assume that your camping neighbors also want to enjoy their peaceful night of sleep.

Just try explaining that to a two-year-old.

On our last camping trip to Brown County, I was soundly sawing logs at 6:00 in the morning. Then I was mercilessly roused from slumber by a persistent noise that kept orbiting around the camper, like when a fly keeps zipping around your head and you get that disconcerting 360 degree "surround-sound" buzz.

As I groggily entered consciousness, I realized what was happening. Little Malachi was outside, running laps around the camper while chanting repeatedly, "Papaw...papaw...papaw...papaw..."

He apparently had decided that it was time for papaw to get up and play. Didn't he know it wasn't 7:00 yet?

I remember three years ago, before Malachi was around, when we camped at Salamonie Reservoir. Zeke was two years old then. His parents were sleeping in their tent, but Zeke wanted to sleep in the camper with us, which was fine -- until came the break of dawn.

All was quiet inside the camper. The prompting of my nearly-bursting bladder awoke me from a sound sleep. I laid there as still as possible, considering my options.

If I got up to relieve myself, I would probably awaken Zeke, and then I could forget about getting that last wonderful hour of sleep. On the other hand, if I stayed put, I probably only had another 30 uncomfortable minutes before I wet the bed.

While I laid there debating these issues, I decided to carefully, quietly, slowly turn my head 45 degrees to the left and take a peek at Zeke to see if he was still sleeping soundly. Maybe I could stealthily tippy-toe out to the comfort station and resolve this dilemma.

So I carefully, quietly, slowly turned my head 45 degrees to the left. I opened my eyes ever so gently so I could just barely peek through my eyelashes. And what did I see?

Zeke was standing on his bed, with his little arms crossed and resting on the counter-top, and his chin resting on his arms, staring at me like a cat watching a bird.

"Good morning, Grandpa! Can I have some oatmeal for breakfast?"

I have no idea how long he had been standing there, but I had to give him credit for at least waiting until I moved before he made me get up.

"Yes, Zeke, you can have some oatmeal, but first let's go to the bathroom."

A Breath of Fresh Air

I attended a very unusual wedding this afternoon.

Unlike so many of the weddings I have been invited to over the past 30 years, the bride was not pregnant.

It was a first marriage for both bride and groom. There were no past abortions; no fatherless children from past relationships; no STDs to be concerned with.

I have known the bride since she was a young teenager at my church. Amy has always impressed me as a beautiful young woman with a gracious spirit, who puts the needs of others ahead of her own. She is held in high esteem by everyone who knows her.

Soon after graduating college, she accepted a position at an English-language school in Guatemala, teaching first grade students of missionary parents. During her time in Guatemala she met, and fell in love with, a handsome young man named Daniel, a native Guatemalan who worked as a youth pastor and helped his father in ministry.

Their love story had the usual twists and turns of doubt, angst, and separation. Ultimately, however, they could not stay away from each other. When Daniel proposed in December of 2011, Amy said, "Yes!"

And so, today, I attended their very unusual wedding.

It was heartwarming to see the two of them as they exchanged vows. It was refreshing to see a young couple who honored God and kept themselves set apart until they were married. It was nice, for a change, to see two young people do it the right way -- the way God intended it to be.

In today's world, a majority of people will laugh at the idea of purity, of faithfulness, of saving yourself for marriage. Come to think of it, the kids I knew back in the day were laughing at these "old-fashioned" notions 40 years ago.

But when I look around at the decay in our culture, I cannot help but wonder how much better off our society would be if there were more people like Daniel and Amy.

Since we Americans are so hell-bent on throwing off the "shackles" of religion, and so busy mocking any suggestion that God might have an opinion about our behavior, should we be surprised at the results?

"Look out any window," goes the Bruce Hornsby song.

When I look out my window I see a community filled with fatherless children. I see welfare moms with 4 or 5 kids from 4 or 5 different "baby-daddies" buying junk food with their food stamps. I see young women having multiple convenience abortions. 

I see broken-hearted men and women going through their third or fourth divorce. I see splintered families, where the parents are so enmeshed in their own self-centered dramas that they don't have anything left of themselves to invest into their children's emotional needs.

I see young people hooked on crack, stealing from their own parents' homes so they can afford their next high. I see withered lost souls hoisting their cardboard signs at the interstate ramps, hoping to pick up enough spare change for the next bottle of cheap wine.

Ever since American society decided to flip God the bird, things haven't been so good around here. Yet nobody seems to make the connection: When a nation walks away from God, there is nowhere to go but down.

A day like today lifts my spirits, and gives me new hope. Watching Daniel and Amy begin their covenant journey reminds me of how beautiful life can be when people choose to walk in obedience to God.

It's a shame that is so unusual today.

So Now I'm a Terrorist?

Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security has re-defined "terrorist" to mean an American who engages in thought crimes like loving liberty and distrusting the federal government.  READ MORE

Judicial Betrayal

Thomas Sowell once again gets right to the heart of the matter: John Roberts has betrayed his oath to uphold the Constitution. 
READ MORE

Cartoon of the Week

The Fix That Has to Come

According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) expenditures for Social Security will begin exceeding revenues sometime in 2018 or 2019.

The insolvency of Social Security is a can that has been kicked down the road for too long now. There are a lot of partisan issues that Democrats and Republicans can lock horns on, but Social Security is a major commitment made to the senior generations of America that has to be upheld.

Three things are going to have to happen. Various interest groups will howl and moan, but in the end, the realities of the situation will demand a compromise that will include these adjustments:

1) Benefits must be reduced. Accountants can fuss over the details, but I would guess that something like a 10% to 20% reduction in benefits will be necessary.

2) Revenues must be enhanced. Again, the devil is in the details, but a raise in Social Security withholding in the vicinity of another 1% might be in order.

3) Eligibility age must be raised. Full benefits used to be available at age 65. That threshold has been raised to age 66 for some of us, and up to 67 for the youngest of us now. The full eligibility age may have to be raised again to 69 or 70. We are living longer now. That's just a plain hard fact.

From the standpoint of someone preparing to retire, none of these changes are welcome. Unfortunately, they are necessary.

We can behave like adults, look at the situation realistically, and deal with it...or, we can stick our heads in the sand while the whole unsustainable system crashes down around us.

We Americans can be pretty partisan and bellicose when we dig our heels in and decide to fight for our convictions.

But above all, I believe we are a pragmatic and practical bunch. It is in the interest of us all to save the Social Security system and put it on a sustainable financial path.

Just like death and taxes, old age will come to us all. We all share a common self-interest in compromising on a practical solution to fix Social Security.

Cartoon of the Week

A Father's Story

This is an updated version of a short essay I wrote many years ago. If you're a dad, you'll get it. 

My life changed forever on August 29, 1979, when my wife Peggy delivered a baby girl and turned me into a father. As I held that helpless babe, with her cute little pudgy nose and wrinkled face, I was overwhelmed by an awesome sense of responsibility. 

I knew I was not cut out for this. Patience? Nurturing? Setting an example? This poor kid had no clue what I had gotten her into. But I sure did love that little girl, so I resolved to do my best as a father, however inadequate that might be.

Eighteen months later, Peggy blessed me again, this time with a son. Now there were two young minds full of mush, depending upon us for wisdom, guidance and encouragement! The stakes were getting higher all the time, and I really wasn't feeling any wiser or more patient or confident.

I failed a lot. Too often, I was impatient with my children. There were too many times that I was so wrapped up in something else that I didn't give my kids the attention they deserved. Sometimes I was so tired at the end of a long day that all they got was a quick kiss and a hug before bed, instead of a proper dose of fatherly TLC. I knew I should be doing better, and I prayed frequently that God would help me improve.

Yet in spite of my paternal shortcomings, we had some great times together. We spent many long summer afternoons at the beach. We camped all over the state of Indiana. We had balloon fights and flew kites and shot off fireworks and sometimes we had long, long talks at bedtime. (I knew they were just stalling because they didn't want to go to sleep, but I didn't care.)

We played baseball and Frisbee and made popcorn and chased the dog and sang silly kids' songs and caught lightning bugs and lit sparklers and blew bubbles and jumped in leaf piles and made snow forts. They used to love to dance for me in the living room while we listened to my old Beatles' albums. Those kids were a lot of fun.


So even though I failed at times, there were many times that things were okay. And somewhere along the way I realized that my children would survive the ordeal of living with their imperfect and sometimes grumpy dad, because they knew that I loved them and they knew I did the best that I could.
 
As the years rolled by I actually started to think that I was getting the hang of this father biz. And darned if those two little munchkins didn't grow up on me! My kids have been out on their own for years now, and it's been quite a while since we've blown bubbles or sang silly songs together at bedtime. But I've got memories enough to last me a lifetime, and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Thanks to my kids I now have a grand-daughter and two grand-sons, and I get to re-live the past with my grandchildren. They are young enough to still enjoy blowing bubbles, singing silly songs and jumping in leaf piles. I am absolutely convinced that a grandchild is God's consolation prize for getting old.

And now, thank God, I am a mellower version of young Dave. My son Steven once asked, while I was patiently enduring some crazy thing my grand-kids were doing, "Where was this guy when I was growing up?"

Well, that guy was (and is) still under construction. God had an extra 25 years to wear me down before the grand-kids came along.

Watching my kids grow up was one of the great blessings of my life. They taught me things I could never have learned from anyone else. They filled my heart with a love I had never known before. God used (and still uses) them to touch me in a special way.

Now that I've had my shot at child-rearing, I realize that none of us are truly up to the task. We each carry our own hang-ups and misconceptions into the job, and we all stumble through parenthood doing the best we can. What else can we do?

Many times while I was growing up, I butted heads with my father. He was often insensitive and overly critical. On countless occasions I was sure that he was wrong and I was right. He once made me so angry that I didn't speak to him for over a year.

But looking back now, who was right or wrong doesn't seem to matter as much. I don't agree with everything my father did, but I know that he loved me, and I know that he did the best he could.

So, allow me a moment here to give him some overdue posthumous credit: Dad, thanks for raising me and loving me. Thanks for working two jobs and keeping me fed. Thanks for doing the best you could.

Now I understand how tough that can be.

Economics and the Bible

Rabbi Aryeh Spero wrote a great column in the Wall Street Journal earlier this year about what the Bible says concerning economics, and not surprisingly, free market capitalism seems to be the closest thing on earth to the biblical model of fair commerce.  READ MORE

80 Men Who Made History

This article about the 70th reunion of Doolittle's Raiders appeared recently in the Washington Times. It is a great story to read on Memorial Day, and it gives us a snapshot of the kind of extraordinary people who serve in our military.  READ MORE

The Happiest Day of My Life

For years, I was hesitant to share my testimony with people because it was so unusual, and because it was such a precious memory for me. I did not want to have to put up with people making fun of it.  Also, it was a long, messy and complicated story. 

Then last year my son talked me into joining a week-long missions trip to Guatemala. One of my assignments during this trip was to share my testimony with several groups of elementary school children. This forced me to prayerfully condense my first meeting with God down into a four minute presentation that was suitably G-rated and simple enough for young children to understand.

So I invite you to pretend that you are a Guatemalan third-grader, and join me on this very compact trip down memory lane. I warn you, this story sounds strange. But I swear this is just the way it happened.

When I was growing up, I often wondered about God. How could anybody really KNOW if God was real? How could you KNOW if He heard your prayers? I could not imagine how it was possible to know such things.

I got married when I was 18 years old. My wife and I were too young and immature. We argued all the time.

We tried to get along, but it was not a happy marriage. After being married for seven years, we had our first baby. She was a cute little girl who we named Stephanie.

After Stephanie was born, my wife and I argued even more. When Stephanie was 8 months old, I finally decided to move out. I did not know what else to do. I did not want to spend my whole life arguing all the time.

I went to live with a friend of mine named Dennis. I was very upset. I felt so guilty about leaving my baby girl. I felt like my life was a failure.

On Good Friday on April 4, 1980, I was trying to go to sleep. I kept thinking about all the problems in my life. I was afraid that God would never forgive me for the sin of divorce.

I did not know if God was real, or if He even heard my prayers. But I cried out to Him in my despair. I was tired of living. I asked God to please just kill me and get my life over with.

Suddenly I felt these huge fists pounding all over my chest and stomach. It felt like some big strong man was beating me up. I thought, “God really is going to kill me!”  I was terrified.  I did not understand this at all.  I thought that maybe I was losing my mind and imagining things.

This beating lasted for about a minute. When it stopped, I was afraid to move. Finally I looked over at the clock by the bed. The time was midnight on Good Friday. I thought, “That is strange.” Then I fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning I was in a daze. I wondered what had happened to me. Was it just a bad dream? I just felt dead inside my heart. I do not remember very much about that Saturday.

I went to bed that night and quickly fell asleep. Then early on Easter Sunday morning, about 4:00 a.m., the telephone rang and woke me up. The telephone call was about a friend of mine who was in big trouble. He needed my help right away.

I could hardly believe this was happening. I already had so many problems on my mind. Now I had to get up and go take care of my friend. I got dressed and went outside to leave.

As I sat down in my pick-up truck, I felt like the most miserable man on earth. I laid my head on the steering wheel and cried out in despair, “God, I just can’t take it anymore! I give up!”

Suddenly the love of God just flooded over me. A wonderful ecstatic joy filled my heart. I felt a warm tingling vibration throughout my whole body. I felt like God was hugging me!

 All of my anxiety was gone! All of my fears just disappeared! God had instantly washed away the shame of all my sins. My heart was at peace, and my mind was clear. I had never felt so alive before.

Instantly I knew that God was with me. I knew that He loved me. I heard His comforting voice speak deep down into my heart. He quietly said, “It’s all okay.”

After dreading God’s judgment for so long, it felt so wonderful to know that He was not mad at me. I had actually met God! And He was being nice to me!

All of this was such a surprise to me. I probably was acting a little crazy. I did not really understand what had just happened, but I sure was happy!

The next morning I went to my job. I worked with a kind woman there who was a Christian. I told her about everything that had happened to me over the weekend. She was very happy for me. She explained to me from the Bible that I had been saved. She explained to me that when I gave up to God, He came into my heart and I was born again.

She explained that being saved is more than just believing things ABOUT God. She said you must SURRENDER your heart to God to be born again. When I had told God that “I give up” He was merciful enough to accept that as my surrender.

It amazed me that God had such a sense of humor. He beat me up on Good Friday and then saved me on Easter Sunday. I thought that was pretty funny. I have seen God do a lot of other funny things since then. 

For example, He got me a good job as a mechanic even though I am very clumsy. When I was younger, I did not like children. Now I help teach a Sunday school class for 2-year-old children and I love it. God is full of funny surprises.

Since that day back in 1980, God has been so good to me. He brought me back home to my wife. He healed our marriage and gave us a good life together. He blessed us with another baby, a little boy named Steve.

And now God has blessed us with an extended family. When she grew up, my daughter Stephanie married a good man named Ken, and they gave us a beautiful grand-daughter named Miranda. God has also blessed us with a wonderful daughter-in-law, Andrea, who has given us two sweet grandsons named Zeke and Malachi. I love my family very much.

Jesus has guided me and blessed me for over thirty years now. I have made many mistakes along the way.  Many times God has had to discipline me to teach me a lesson.

But His love never fails. He always forgives me when I come to my senses and repent. I would never want to go back to the life I had before I knew the grace and mercy of God.

The day that you come to Jesus will be the happiest day of your life. He is kind. He is nice. He loves you. In fact, He loves you so much that he died for you.  He is waiting for you to give up your life to Him.

Say Goodnight, Dick

As a life-long resident of Indianapolis, I have voted for Dick Lugar on numerous occasions.

He was our mayor for two terms, from 1968 to 1976. He helped put Indianapolis on solid financial footing by working to push Unigov through the the state legislature.

In 1976 he was elected to his first term as a Senator from Indiana. He distinguished himself in the Senate, and won re-election handily for the next 30 years.

Lugar did a fine job of representing us during his first three or four terms. He had organized an efficient staff. Constituent letters were always answered promptly (in noticeable contrast to Evan Bayh, whose staff never replied to any of my correspondence).

In years past, Senator Lugar gained a reputation for expertise in foreign affairs, and he did a lot of good work serving on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

He was a Center-Right Republican, and established a reasonably conservative voting record. His overall rating with the American Conservative Union was 64%, which was a bit tepid for an Indiana Republican, but he enjoyed a 75% rating from the National Right to Life Committee for his generally strong pro-life voting record.

Unfortunately, Senator Lugar stayed in Washington two terms too long, and morphed into a RINO (Republican in name only).

As so often happens to politicians, the extended stay in Washington gave Senator Lugar just too much time to drink the Kool-Aid, and he began to behave more like a Washington insider than a representative of "we the people" back home in Indiana.

My misgivings about Dick Lugar began in earnest years ago when he supported the new START treaty with Russia, and they intensified while observing his dogged determination to keep pushing the long-debated Law of the Sea treaty. Both of these concoctions are viewed with alarm by most conservatives as unnecessary give-aways of our present strategic advantages and our sovereignty.

Finally, Senator Lugar pushed us conservatives over the edge in 2009 with his vote to approve Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's first wacko leftist appointment to the Supreme Court.

He rubbed our noses in it again in 2010 when he supported the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kegan, arguably an even more radical leftist than Sotomayer.

So when Indiana State Treasurer and local Tea Party hero Richard Mourdock (the man who stood up to Obama's plan to rip-off the state pension funds that had invested in Chrysler bonds, and who took it all the way to the Supreme Court in spite of tremendous political and media opposition) announced that he was running against Lugar in the primary, my conservative heart leapt with joy.

Finally, we had a real alternative to Senator Lugar. We had a conservative with backbone who could represent us in the Senate. For most Indiana conservatives, the decision was a no-brainer.

Apparently, many Hoosier Republicans felt the same way, and Mourdock defeated the six-term incumbent in a landslide -- 69% to 31%.

The hand-wringing of the mainstream media began immediately. Liberal politicians gave interviews bemoaning the departure of Senator Lugar and his "bi-partisan philosophy" which made him so easy for liberal senators to work with. The Senate would now become even more polarized by crazy conservative ideologues.

When your political defeat is mourned by the likes of John Kerry and Harry Reid, what does that tell you? It tells me that you are one big kahuna of a RINO.

After his concession speech, Senator Lugar took a parting shot at Mr. Mourdock by releasing a written statement to the press castigating Mourdock's uncompromising adherence to conservative principles. One of the more pungent of those sour grapes was this excerpt:

"If Mr. Mourdock is elected, I want him to be a good Senator. But that will require him to revise his stated goal of bringing more partisanship to Washington. He and I share many positions, but his embrace of an unrelenting partisan mindset is irreconcilable with my philosophy of governance and my experience of what brings results for Hoosiers in the Senate."

Well, I'm sorry, Senator Lugar. We didn't elect Richard Mourdock to do what you did. Doing what you did is why you lost. We elected Richard Mourdock to help turn our wayward Senate back towards long-established Constitutional principles of limited government. 

The fact that you don't get that perfectly illustrates your problem.

We didn't leave you, Senator Lugar. You left us.

Cartoon of the Week

Photo of the Week

Sign outside the new Jack in the Box in Greenwood

 Wouldn't it be easier to say, "WE NEVER CLOSE?"

Comic of the Week

An Atheist Visits the Art Musem

He went to the museum late one afternoon.

He saw a beautiful oil painting.

It was a sunset beach scene in vivid colors:

gorgeous pastels of pink, orange and lavender.

He stood before the painting in awe.

He marveled at how many weeks

the artist must have toiled

over the details of this masterpiece.

With every stroke of brush on canvas

the artist had labored purposefully

to fulfill his vision.

How could anyone fail to appreciate

the magnificent craftsmanship

of such a creative endeavor?

Truly incredible.

Later, as he was leaving the museum,

he noticed the sun setting in the west.

Thin scattered clouds were aflame in crimson.

A flock of geese flew into the glaring horizon.

A whispering breeze caressed his face.

He stopped to admire the scene.

He marveled at how many billions of years

it must have taken for the universe

to randomly form itself into such beauty.

Truly incredible.

Then he walked on home,

as foolish and ignorant

as the day he was born.

Poster of the Week

Grand Mufti Orders Church Eradication

Another outrageous story that we won't hear about from our blind guides in the liberal media -- a call for the total destruction of all churches on the Saudi Arabian peninsula. Why am I not surprised? READ MORE

Who Crumbled the Girl Scout Cookies?

Indiana State Representative Bob Morris caught a lot of flak this past week after he decided not to endorse a resolution from the Indiana House honoring the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts.

His fellow Republicans immediately threw him under the bus. He was ridiculed on local radio stations and in the Indianapolis Star. The story quickly went viral. He was lampooned in the national press and even got slammed by Dave Letterman.

It's awfully easy to jump on the bandwagon and poke fun at a man who disses the Girl Scouts.

It takes a little bit of thought and effort to examine the facts and get some perspective on the reasons for his decision.

Like most Americans, I have always held the Girls Scouts in high esteem. I was a sucker for all those annual Girl Scout fundraisers. How could you turn down a sales pitch by one of those cute little cookie-pushers?

What could be more American, more wholesome, more unassailable than the Girl Scouts?

There are millions of American women who cherish fond memories of the scouting days of their youth; women who are proud of their association with the Girl Scouts, and rightly so.

So I decided to poke around and check out some of the anti-Girl Scout sites on the web. I regret to report that there seems to be a huge difference between the Girl Scouts of yesterday and the Girl Scouts of today.

Before you tolerant liberals start sending me nasty hate mail, please indulge me in two requests for objectivity and rationality.

1) Don't go off like the morons who have posted sarcastic comments about "commie pinko leftist" Girl Scouts selling cookies at the mall. My dispute is with the agenda of the national leadership, and certainly not with any of the local Girl Scouts who are being exploited.

2) Do a little research. The most persuasive site I visited is hosted by two teen-age girls who spent eight years together in the same local scout troop. They became uneasy with some of the aspects of their scouting experience, so they made the difficult decision to resign from the Girl Scouts.

They now host a website called Speak Now Girl Scouts that exposes the broad influence of left-wing advocacy groups, including Planned Parenthood and NARAL, with today's national Girl Scout leadership.

I'd ask you to visit a couple of other sites established by former Girl Scout supporters. Keep in mind when you visit these sites that they are hosted by young women who felt compelled to leave the local Girl Scout troops that they loved because they felt their convictions were being betrayed. Check out Honest Girl Scouts and 100 Questions for the Girl Scouts.

And if you are the parent of a teen-age girl, download the Happy, Healthy and Hot brochure that Planned Parenthood produced for teens and then tell me if this is the kind of message you want inculcated into your daughter's impressionable young mind. Did you really sign her up for the Girl Scouts so that she could learn more about homosexuality, masturbation and condoms?

(*These discussion topics don't seem to square with the stated purposes in the national charter of Girl Scouts of America, as foot-noted at the end of this blog.)

Now there are many fine local Girl Scout chapters that would never intentionally support this kind of garbage. However, they DO unintentionally support this agenda by retaining their affiliation with the national Girls Scouts organization -- and 50 cents of every box of cookies they sell goes to the national headquarters.

That's right, headquarters gets a bigger slice of the pie than the local chapter, which only gets to keep 10%.

The Girl Scouts have historically enjoyed great support from church groups. For decades, many Christians have been involved with scouting because it re-affirmed the traditional moral values that parents taught at home. Sadly, that no longer seems to be the case.

I've got to stand with Bob Morris on this one. I admire what the Girl Scouts of America used to be. I am disgusted over what the national leadership has done to undermine it's founding principles.

So instead of being angry at Bob Morris for having the courage of his convictions, why aren't more people angry at the sleazy left-wingers who have hi-jacked what was once a great organization and turned it into just another avenue for indoctrinating young girls into a sexualized, amoral, humanist world-view?

This is a perfect example of well-worn radical-left strategy: Gain control of a reputable organization; politicize it with your agenda; and if anyone dares to object, then you ridicule your opponents and accuse them of playing politics.

So far, that con-game is working flawlessly.

Just ask Bob Morris, the man who had the temerity to refuse to endorse the defilement of an iconic American tradition.

[*Footnote -- from the "Purpose" section of the Girl Scouts' National Charter]

-CITE-
36 USC Sec. 80302 01/07/2011

-EXPCITE-
TITLE 36 - PATRIOTIC AND NATIONAL OBSERVANCES, CEREMONIES, AND
ORGANIZATIONS
Subtitle II - Patriotic and National Organizations
Part B - Organizations
CHAPTER 803 - GIRL SCOUTS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

-HEAD-
Sec. 80302. Purposes

-STATUTE-
The purposes of the corporation are -
(1) to promote the qualities of truth, loyalty, helpfulness,
friendliness, courtesy, purity, kindness, obedience,
cheerfulness, thriftiness, and kindred virtues among girls, as a
preparation for their responsibilities in the home and for
service to the community;
(2) to direct and coordinate the Girl Scout movement in the
United States and territories and possessions of the United
States; and
(3) to fix and maintain standards for the movement that will
inspire the rising generation with the highest ideals of
character, patriotism, conduct, and attainment.

Looking for a Friendly God?

At one time or another, we’ve all heard preachers who make God sound like Attilla the Hun.

Fire and brimstone, judgment and damnation, death and destruction all await the poor soul who doesn’t measure up to this cruel God’s standards.

Admittedly, the Bible is full of instances where the wrath of God is stirred and he lowers the boom on wicked men and nations. But is it fair to type-cast God as a cosmic thunderer looking for an excuse to hammer somebody?

The judgment of God comes because of gross, unrepentant transgression. God has always reached out in mercy and sent prophets to warn a people who were falling into sin and setting themselves up for judgment. Only after people have time and again rejected God’s warnings has he, as a last resort, brought judgment upon them.

God takes no delight in the death of the wicked. He desires that all people would turn to him and be saved. Micah 7:20 declares: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”

He is indeed a God of judgment when his efforts to turn people back to him have failed. But judgment is not what God desires. He desires repentance. God wants us to wake up and realize that without his guidance and blessing we are wasting our lives and spoiling his creation.

Many people have difficulty comprehending the love of God. He seems so far away and beyond our reach. In all of this vast creation, some wonder, how much could God care about any one person’s life?

One of the many reasons that Jesus had for coming to this earth was to give us a living, human example of God’s personality. He told the disciple Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)

Jesus spent a great deal of time ministering to people one on one. He cared deeply about his personal relationships. He told his disciples, “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my father I have made known to you.” (John 15:14-15)

The heart of the Gospel is this: Jesus Christ, our God and creator, came to our sinful world to live among us, teach us, and most importantly, to die as a sacrifice for our sins. To seal the deal, and to prove His claims, He rose from the grave and returned to heaven 40 days later.

Jesus is still there today. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and He calls to you daily through the Holy Spirit. The only thing keeping you from a loving, secure relationship with God Almighty is your stubborn heart.

I'll be the first person to admit that this whole Gospel story sounds pretty far-fetched. Why would God choose to work in such strange and hard-to-imagine ways? I cannot answer that, but I can tell you that once you place your trust in him, and Jesus introduces himself to you, you will know the joy of being on the good side of the God who created you.

Once you have met the eternal God who cannot lie, you can rest in the knowledge that He understands more than you can ever comprehend, and that is okay. You can't figure it all out, and you don't need to; all you really need to know is that you belong to him.

And with knowing him will come the richness of his blessings. Knowing him means you can find your purpose in life. It means you can enjoy an inner peace that you cannot now imagine. It means that you have God’s guarantee of an eternal citizenship in heaven.

Your alternative? Keep doing what you’ve been doing. Live your life apart from God, restless and insecure. Worry about your uncertain future. Squander your few years upon this earth living without a purpose. And when you die...well, you won’t be spending eternity with God in heaven. The only other option is hell, and you will have all of eternity to regret having sent yourself there.

Don’t be afraid of God. He is the kindest person you will ever meet. Like the father waiting for the prodigal son, his arms are open wide. He wants you to come home. He wants you to join his family. A prayer like this one can bring you to peace with God right now:

“God, I have my doubts. Please heal my unbelief. I know I don’t deserve your mercy, and I’ve spent my life sinning against you. Jesus, I give up! I ask you to forgive me, cleanse me and heal my heart. I want to know your love and your friendship. I give you my life today, Lord, and I ask you to bring me into your family. I want to live my life doing what you created me to do.”

Once you’ve given your heart to God, you need to find companionship in a good local church where other believers can help you grow in faith and understanding. You will a baby Christian, freshly born again, and you will have a lot to learn.

Babies are ignorant and messy, but they sure are cute and lovable! Come to Jesus now and He will love on you just like a proud father with a new-born infant.