My Thoughts

“Our country was founded ON a belief in God.”

That’s a statement that I hear so often in the debate/argument about growing efforts to silence Christians and render God ineffective in our country. It’s not, however, a statement that I myself make. While I do feel that there is some truth to the statement, the truth to it is within and not overt in the wording of the founding documents. Yes, God is mentioned, but not placed in a position as the foundation of our country. That is obvious to many by the things our society has deemed “okay”, “normal”, and “acceptable”.

“Our country was founded WITH a belief in God.”

This, I believe, is a much more accurate statement. You see, our country was clearly founded on the desire for freedom. Freedom from the ownership of a country on the other side of the Atlantic. A country that only wanted to profit from ownership of others. We wanted all sorts of freedom. Freedom from taxation. (That kind of seems like a joke these days.)  Freedom from religious oppression. Freedom to make our own place on the planet, in our own way.

The freedom from religious oppression is what seems to spark the debate/argument. I have heard many say that they are oppressed by Christians trying to make everyone else live by their beliefs. I don’t see it. People complained about God being in the schools. So they removed Him from the schools. School violence has been on the rise. The system quit focusing on abstinence and started handing out contraception. Legislation was even passed to keep the schools from informing parents that their teenage children were being given contraceptives.  There is an attempt to remove God from all our public places and even our currency. But who is offended by the public display of other beliefs? Or the the lack of belief?  Well, it seems that if the Christians are offended, that is okay. They are the ones who initially cried out for the freedom from religious oppression, yet more and more, they are the ones being oppressed. I don’t mock non-believers for their lack of faith. Nor do I insist that they believe as I do. I share the truth with them when given the chance, but I don’t force it on them. However, I do get mocked for my faith. That’s okay. I don’t hold any hard feelings toward those who mock me. It is their freedom to do so.

“We are a Christian nation.”

Another statement that I hear argued on a regular basis. I believe that Barack Obama made it clear that we are not! Our society has made it politically incorrect to be a Christian and certainly to be a Christian nation. I AM POLITICALLY INCORRECT. I wish that we were a Christian nation, but saying that we are does no more to make it true than saying that the sky is green makes that true. To be a Christian nation, we would have to believe as a nation.

In case you haven’t noticed, there really is an effort taking place to silence the Christian populous. There are those who wish to outlaw Christmas because offends them. They even try to hide what it is about by calling it “X-MAS”. The “X” is still a cross, and we all know happened at the cross. There was attempt at passing legislation to prevent clergy from teaching or preaching from certain parts of the Bible because is spoke against homosexuality. They wanted to call that a hate crime and enforce severe punishments for it. Many work places do not allow employees to speak about Jesus or their Christian faith. It might offend someone. Never mind that the Christian might be offended by not being allowed to speak. You may say that the work place is no place for a religious discussion, but everything else gets discussed there. Besides, I’m not talking about religion, I’m talking about relationship. Relationship, after all, is the foundation of everything we know.

Just my thoughts…

This will take us back about four years.

I was working on the road doing re-merchandising work at Lowe’s. I had been out for about sixteen weeks, away from my family. I was in southern Texas and they were here in North Georgia. The money was decent, but the cost was almost more than I could bear.

I didn’t realize that my marriage was falling apart. I was too busy making money and getting high. I didn’t realize it at the time, but those two things were all that I cared about. I mean, I was waking up to get high and getting high to go to sleep. Not to mention staying high in between. It became more than a lifestyle. It controlled my life.

This is Rita, the reason I left Texas when I did.

I started to notice that my wife didn’t really want to talk to me anymore. All we had was the phone, and we weren’t using it much. Katrina had passed before we got to Texas, and Rita was on the way. It came about that we had to leave town and fast!

The night before we left, I was sitting alone in my hotel room. I was miserable and mostly with my self. The realization had hit me that I had let everyone I know down in a major way! As I was sitting there in a fit of self pity, God got a hold of me. In a stern yet loving way He told me it was time to choose. Him or the life I was trying to live. He promised me He would get me through whatever came my way. He also reminded me that without Him, I had no protection from the world or the principalities in it. I chose quickly and got on my knees! I poured my heart to Jesus and I wept. I was so disappointed in myself and what I had become. I was ready for a change.

The next morning, my travel partner, Robert, and I got up early and joined the mass exodus leaving South Texas. It was a nightmare to try to travel in. We each out paychecks and per-diam checks, but nothing was open and we couldn’t get them cashed. We had about a quarter tank of gas and about twenty dollars between us with a thousand miles to go. As we crept along the interstate, we noticed that all of the gas stations were out of gas. We were getting dangerously close to running out of gas ourselves! Then we saw a gas station with several cars in line at the pumps. We pulled in with hope that we could get some gas. Robert took our money inside, he came out with a drink for each of us and gas paid for. I pumped the gas, it wasn’t much, or at least it didn’t seem like it at the time. The gas gauge showed about twice as much gas as we paid for! We started driving again. Things were looking bleak. It didn’t look like we were going to make it away from the approaching hurricane. I looked at Robert and,knowing what he had been through in jail and his encounter with Jesus there, I said “If you still believe in the power of prayer, now would be a good time…”. He replied, “I’ve been praying since we left…”. That little bit of gas took us several hundred miles and well into Louisiana! When we had to stop for gas again, we able to cash our checks and fill up the tank!

When I got home, there were still issues to deal with. You see, just because I surrendered to God, didn’t mean that everything would be instantly fixed. Of course, I didn’t understand that at the time and I was quite surprised to find my wife still distant and apprehensive. We only fought for about two days before days she left with the kids. Now understand that she had just given birth to our youngest son, Nathan about three months earlier. I don’t want to mislead anyone. She had valid reasons for her actions at that time. I brought the situation on us with my disobedience to God, and I understood that when she left.

It was only a day or two before she let me that she had a restraining order against me and I couldn’t see her or the kids without fear of being arrested. About a day after she got the restraining order, I went an hour north of where we lived to talk to someone at the church that I had grown up in during the summers that I spent there. That seemed to be a waste of time. All they could tell me was that although God didn’t want divorce, I couldn’t stop her from doing it and that I should accept it and move on. As I was walking out of the church, my phone rang. It was my wife. She said that I could come over and talk and get some of my stuff. I was VERY excited! You should also know that I had gotten rid of all the things associated with my drug habit, and I was free from that whole mess!

As made the drive back to the house to talk to my wife, I prayed like I never had before. I prayed openly, honestly, and boldly. I told God, “Whatever it takes, just do it. My family is worth it!”. Well, you know God! He did just that! When I came down our street, I noticed a sheriff’s car parked in our driveway.
Thinking I had nothing to fear, I walked up to him saying “I didn’t expect to see you guys here. What’s going on?”. I was offering a hand shake at the same time. Well, he took my hand, spun me around, cuffed me and read me rights! I know what you’re thinking, but the restraining order had nothing to do with it. He mentioned that there was one as a side note, but that I was going to jail on a warrant for non payment of fines. This was the beginning of this amazing journey that I am on….

Well, I have kept my mouth shut for awhile now, but I just can’t do it anymore! I’m back at the keyboard and probably going to offend someone! OH WELL!!!

I’m back on soapbox about Obama. This time, as you know, he has won the Nobel Peace Prize. And for what? Was it the record high budget deficit we hit this year of $1.4 trillion? Was it because he still hasn’t closed Guantanamo Bay? Was it because he still hasn’t brought our troops home from Iraq? Was it because he spent $787 billion on bailouts and stimulus packages that most of us never saw any results from? Was it his lack of support for Israel and his insistence that they give up Jerusalem? No, I don’t think so. I believe that all of this and more was overlooked! I believe it was simply because he made some speeches that sounded good with a lot of great promises that he still hasn’t kept! I also believe that it was because he is “black”, the first “black” president of the United States of America!

Go ahead, call me a racist! You won’t be the first! But let me assure you that I am no racist! Unlike the majority that elected this guy, I don’t see color as a problem or a validation. None of us chose what color we were going to be, so what does it matter what color someone is? It doesn’t. A person’s color doesn’t make them any better or any worse than another person. What they believe in and stand for is what makes the person. I don’t see that Obama believes in or stands for anything but himself!

I read some comments on a popular social network today. I just want to share them with you. I find some of this to be really troubling:

“Can you people be proud for once that we have a great leader? He is not perfect, nobody is, but  for god’s sake he is rebuilding what Bush ruined, and Bush ruined A LOT.”

A great leader? Really? Where has he lead us? What has he done?

“We are finally doing things we can be proud of, yet the American people have tried everything in the book against him: he’s a commy, a muslim, or a fascist. He wasn’t born here. He is hiding his grades from school. He is a liar. Did I miss anything?”

What have we done that we can be proud of? Have we never done anything else that we can be proud of?

“I think Obama becoming president is a great thing to have happened for americans”

“Congratulations Obama!!! He is a messiah !”

This one really bothers me! There is only one messiah! His name is Jesus!

“Congrats to the American people for having this great leader as their President”

“I must live in an alternative reality.  What exactly has President Obama done to receive a  Nobel Peace Prize?

What conflict did he end?  For what historic issue has his leadership provided a breakthrough?

Congratulations to him, but I thought prizes of this significance were awarded for high achievements.  His presidency has promise & potential, but at this early juncture, I fail to see any milestone to justify this honor.

If talking nice & playing well with others is what now constitutes the criteria for a Nobel Peace Prize, then I  nominate Big Bird or Burt & Ernie.”

They call him messiah, but will he die for your sins?

Yes, these people are serious. Some of them are not even from the U.S.! I hope you all get the point that I am trying to make. Obama cannot be the messiah! But, he can be something else. Remember this, he is also the same one that said that the Bible was just not appropriate to try to live by in this day and time. I cannot support anyone that holds this view. The Bible is the most appropriate thing to try to live by today or any other day! If you don’t believe in it that’s your choice. Realize that just because you don’t believe in something, doesn’t mean it isn’t real. When Colombus sailed around the world for the first, no one believed it was round. Their disbelief didn’t change what was real.

I hope that I have not offended anyone, but if I did, then you probably needed to be offended!

Just my thoughts…