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A person’s own folly leads to their ruin,
yet their heart rages against the Lord. - Psalm 19:3 (NIV)
Do you know people who are always complaining?
No matter how much they try, things always seem to go wrong? Do they whine about how unfair life is? If it weren’t for bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck at all?
It is amazing how often people with this attitude will blame their troubles on God. They say things like, "I don't know why God is punishing me this way,” or, "If God is supposed to be so good and loving, where is he? Why is my life so messed up?"
The people who say these kinds of things are missing an important point: You cannot blame God for the condition of your life if you have never allowed him to be in charge of it.
If your life is a train-wreck, you need to ask yourself, “Who has been running the locomotive for all these years?”
Have you honestly been seeking God’s direction for your life? Have you been reading your Bible to see what God has to say to you? Have you been living in obedience to him? Have you bothered to drag your lazy butt out of bed on Sunday morning and pay your respects to the Lord at a Bible-believing church?
If your honest answer to the above questions is “No,” then you have no one but yourself to blame for whatever condition your life is in. If you insist on running your own life, God is under no obligation to bless you.
If you ignore God, reject his instructions, and then your life sucks - how can you blame God? If you had listened to him in the first place, you wouldn't be stuck where you are now.
If you are tired of the dead-end, hopeless road you are traveling, why don't you consider the possibility of making a change in management? Face the facts, buster -- you're not doing such a hot job of doing things your own way.
“My hand has made both earth and skies, and they are mine. Yet I will look with pity on the man who has a humble and a contrite heart, who trembles at my word." But those who choose their own ways, delighting in their sins, are cursed. God will not accept their offerings.
Isaiah 66:2-3 (Living Bible)
Let go of your stubborn pride, and ask God to take control of your life. He wants you to offer your life to him — and let’s face it, without the grace of God, you wouldn’t be able to draw your next breath anyway. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
God has reached out to you with the ultimate act of love: the sacrifice of Jesus’ life on a cross, a sacrifice given so that you could have an opportunity to join God’s family. All God really wants you to do is surrender to him.
“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (Living Bible)
A simple prayer like this is all you need to begin your new life:
“Dear Jesus, I am asking you into my life right now. I have lived my life without you for long enough. Please forgive me for all the wrong things I’ve done. Help me to live a life that pleases you. I want to put you in charge of my life from now on. Lord, help me to trust you. Help me to follow you. Thank you for dying for me, and thank you for saving me in answer to this prayer today.”
Once you have given your life
to God, through faith in Jesus Christ, you will need to find
companionship with other believers who can help you grow in faith and
understanding. As a baby Christian, freshly born again, you will have a
lot to learn.
The Lord is good and glad to teach the proper path to all who have gone astray; he will teach the ways that are right and best to those who humbly turn to him.
Psalm 25:8-9 (Living Bible)
Please don’t let anyone mislead you. You will still face problems and trials. But you will be heading in the right direction. Jesus will correct you when you stray off course, and he will guide you to your destiny. When you follow God, he ensures your ultimate success.
The Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: "I am the Lord your God, who punishes you for your own good and leads you along the paths that you should follow."
Isaiah 48:17 (Living Bible)
Remember the promises President Obama made about his "affordable" health care reform?
Remember how he said we would all save $2500 per year on our premiums? Obama also promised, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.”
Our president scores four noses on the Pinocchio scale in just that one paragraph!
Michelle Malkin posted a column recently (Obama Lied, My Health Plan Died)
detailing the loss of her family's personal health insurance coverage.
She also gives a few examples of the many tweets being posted around the
country by people who have shared her experience:
Linda Deright posted her letter from Regency of Washington state: “63 percent jump, old policy of 15 yrs. cancelled.” Karen J. Dugan wrote: “Received same notice from Blue Shield CA for our small business. Driven into exchange and no info since online site is down.” Chris Birk wrote: “Got notice from BCBS that my current health plan is not ACA compliant. New plan 2x as costly for worse coverage.” Small-business owner Villi Wilson posted his letter from HMSA Blue Cross Blue Shield canceling his individual plan and added: “I thought Obama said if I like my health care plan I can keep my health care plan.”
Millions of Americans are losing their coverage. Millions more have experienced the sticker shock of 50% to 100% increases in their premium rates.
However, the steepest hikes to our insurance costs have been slipped in under the radar. In preparation for the sky-rocketing expense of Obamacare, health insurance companies have been ratcheting up the out-of-pocket expenses to policy-holders.
In addition to a steep rise in the deductible threshold, most health insurance policies have DOUBLED the out-of-pocket maximum limits in the past year.
Last year it cost me $6,000 to hit the max on my out-of-pocket expenses. In 2013 I maxed out again, but this time it cost me $12,000.
In just one year, I am $6,000 poorer because of Barack Obama.
I am not alone. Millions of Americans are already suffering because of the so-called Affordable Care Act. I am personally
acquainted with several people who are paying $10,000 to $12,000 in
out-of-pocket expenses for medical bills this year.
It used to be that people held community fund-raisers if they had no insurance and needed help to pay their medical bills. Now people WITH insurance are fund-raising because they cannot afford their maximum out-of-pocket expenses.
I have to wonder: How many of the people struggling with their medical bills this year supported Barack Obama in 2012? I would really like to know, because a vote for Obama in 2012 was essentially a vote for Obamacare.
I hate to sound so snarky, but if you helped to elect this Socialist President of ours, I will have a hard time ginning up any sympathy for you when you can't pay your medical bills. Elections have consequences, and you are getting exactly what you voted for.
The media crucified Ted Cruz and Tea Party Republicans for their recent efforts to de-fund Obamacare and pull the plug on this disaster. The de-fund effort failed, and now we can all see the results.
Every catastrophic prediction made about Obamacare is coming true right before our eyes.
So how is that "hope and change" thing working for you now?
While visiting with a friend recently, I happened to catch an episode of Deadly Women that he was watching on cable TV.
During the course of the program, there were several different crime stories about women who had committed horrible murders and were later caught and imprisoned.
The last segment of the show told the story of a psychotic young woman who had destroyed two innocent lives. One night, during a burglary and home invasion, she and her boyfriend burst into the bedroom of an elderly married couple and murdered them with a pick-axe. A detective who was interviewed on the program described it as the most gruesome murder scene he had ever encountered.
Police investigators later got a break in the case thanks to the female killer's cold-blooded bragging. Sometime shortly after the murders, she was at a local bar, getting drunk and desiring to impress her companions. She wanted them to know how tough she was, so she told them about how she had used a pick-axe to impale a couple who was sleeping in bed. Someone in the group tipped off the police, and psycho-killer-girl was soon arrested.
The woman was convicted and sentenced to death. No surprise there. But something truly incredible happened while she was in prison awaiting her execution. Psycho-killer-girl met merciful-loving-God.
On death row, with plenty of time on her hands, the former drug addict and prostitute started reading the Bible. One lonely dark night, her heart broken with remorse, she humbly surrendered her life to Jesus Christ and asked him to forgive her.
In response to that invitation, Jesus introduced himself to that miserable repentant sinner and gave her what he offers to every one of us: the unmerited gift of forgiveness and eternal life. In that moment, she was redeemed. She became a new creation. She was born again as a child of God
Several employees at the prison were interviewed for the program, and all of them testified to the dramatic turn-around in this young woman's life. Practically overnight, she went from being a dangerous, confrontational inmate to behaving like a model prisoner.
Everyone who knew her was amazed at the transformation. It got to the point where other prisoners on death-row were allowed to meet with her to attend Bible study. Even the guards came to regard her with genuine affection. Some of them admitted to crying on the day she was executed.
After her conversion, this redeemed convict admitted to her crimes, and apologized to the court and the victims' family. She accepted her death sentence as just. She testified to anyone who would listen about the boundless grace and love that Jesus Christ had extended to her. She was ready to die.
On her final day, as she was being strapped down to the table to receive her lethal injections, she was praying, praising God, and singing hymns. She had no fear of death, because she knew that she belonged to the Good Shepherd who had conquered death on the cross of Calvary.
Stories like this are a reminder to us all that God is no respecter of persons. Jesus died for sinners. That includes you and me and everybody else.
No sin is so great, no pit is so deep, no life is so lost, that the love of Jesus cannot rescue. If you have ever swallowed the devil's lie that you are so wicked as to be beyond the mercy of God, you have been deceived.
"But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:21-24 NIV)
President Obama is fond of comparing himself to great men in history, such as Lincoln, FDR, and on more than one occasion, Ronald Reagan.
Obama has stated that he would like to go down in history as a transformative leader like Reagan. A noble aspiration, to be sure, but Obama has forgotten that last portion of his oath of office where he swore to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Among his many admirable attributes, President Reagan had a profound respect for our Constitution and the rule of law. When Reagan wanted to accomplish a policy goal, he cajoled, negotiated and pressured Congress to work with him to make it happen. If, as was often the case, too many Democrats in Congress opposed his initiative, Reagan would simply go over their heads and appeal directly to the American people.
Reagan trusted the people to understand the worthiness of his ideas, and to apply sufficient pressure to their representatives to help push his agenda through Congress.
And it worked. That's why they called it the "Reagan Revolution." Reagan presented his ideas to the American people, and he persuaded them to support his agenda.
Reagan was dubbed "the great communicator" and rightfully so. Reagan used his bully pulpit to do what presidents are supposed to do, which is lead by persuasion.
President Obama is working on a revolution of a different kind. Unlike Reagan, Obama has repeatedly demonstrated his disdain for the Constitution and contempt for the rule of law.
President Obama prefers to rule by executive fiat. He weaves and dodges around the Constitution every chance he gets. Obama cherry-picks the laws he wants to enforce, and ignores the laws that "get in his way."
After cramming Obamacare down our throats, over the objections of a majority of voters, President Obama began granting waivers to selected union supporters and companies owned by dependable Democratic campaign contributors. There was no authorization in the law for waivers to anyone. Obama just did it, and he got away with it.
Recently, Obama decided to unilaterally waive Obamacare’s cap on annual out-of-pocket expenses for another year. This exemption for selected health insurers is not allowed for in the law as written, but again, our current president just makes it up as he goes - and gets away with it again.
Obama's favorite play is the "end-run-around-Congress" and so far it is working out well for him. (For the rest of us, not so much.)
Can't get Congress to pass a carbon tax that will shut down coal-fired power plants and cause electricity rates to skyrocket? Instruct the EPA to classify carbon-dioxide as a hazardous waste and regulate it without the approval of Congress.
Can't get Congress to pass the DREAM act? No problem, simply order the Justice Department to ignore enforcement of immigration laws. When your name is Barack Obama, the rules don't apply to you!
Obama's contempt for the rule of law is well documented. Unfortunately, you won't read about it in most of the national media outlets, since they are only interested in scandals that involve conservatives or Republicans. Can you imagine the outcry if the NSA snooping scandal or the Benghazi cover-up had occurred during President Bush's term?
My fear is that President Obama's real legacy will survive to haunt us for many generations to come.
He has established a dangerous precedent, at least for future liberal Democrats elected to the Presidency: You are above the law. Make the rules up as you go. Congress will not constrain your lust for power. The media will not hold you accountable. You don't need no stinkin' Constitution.
Since the limits on power specified by the Constitution are pretty much the only things that prevent a president from becoming a dictator, shouldn't we common folks be a little more motivated towards protecting our Constitution from abuse?
Barack Obama will never be another Ronald Reagan. To the contrary, he is the closest thing to a tyrant we have ever had.
He has become our first lawless president.
