Americans should make law for America!!

       "The American War for Independence was fought on a very simple premise:  Americans should make law for America.  There were two basic reasons our Founding Fathers believed this to be true.  First, they believed that under the natural law of God, self-government was a basic human right.  And second, they believed that it was their right under the British constitutional system to continue the century and a half of British practice of American self-government.

However, there are now key leaders in America who promote the adoption of a series of United Nation treaties that aim to exert control over the domestic policies of every nation, including the United States." - Michael Farris, Constitutional Literacy

Because of our Supremacy Clause found in our Constitution, if any treaty is signed it automatically becomes "The Law of the Land."  Any federal and state laws that do not line up with the guidelines stated in the treaties are immediately overruled.  Our courts and legislatures are required to treat the treaties as supreme over any other laws.  These treaties take away our right of self-government in the United States.  Something that our founding fathers fought and died for.

Just something to think about when you hear people talking about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, etc.

We are the voices in this country and our world....what are you/we doing to make a difference....

I was studying International Law today and just felt like I needed to get this out there for all of you to read!  If any of you have been following me over the past few years, then you know how I have blogged about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as well as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities here and here.

Please, be the voice this generation needs to protect future generations in the United States of America!

A Glimpse Into My Journal...

Hello All!

I was writing in my prayer journal this morning and the Lord just impressed upon my heart to share what He has been teaching me.  I'm so thankful for Shannon and Abigail (fellow bloggers) and the way they have always been open with their readers and talked about the things they struggle with.  That is a gift to be able to do that and one that I have been trying to cultivate in my life.   So I'm just throwing a "thank you" out there to the two of them!  They have been an encouragement and blessing in my life because of their openness with their readers!

I can't say that I like to admit to failures in my life...yes I have a lot of them and will willingly admit to my physical failures, but the nitty gritty ones about how I view myself or my fears (about so many things) are not usually out there for people to see.  I only allow people so far and then (imagine whatever sound you want that brings forward images of a brick wall being built) a wall comes up.  Yeah, I don't like to be vulnerable, open and yet I know that is what God is calling me to do.  How can we minister to the hearts of other people and expect them to open up to us, if we never allow them to see within us?

I sat down and started thanking God for the ways he has worked in my life over the last year. I thanked Him for the many, uncountable times He has helped me through a situation (oh, if only I had asked for help from Him sooner, rather then later), opened my eyes to the spiritual battle that is swirling around us and my need to renounce Satan through Christ's power.  He has taught me so many things in the past 12 months that in many ways I am a very different person from who I was 1 year ago.

I thanked Him for the little things that were making me smile as I continued to write..things like warm, sunny rays that warmed me on the outside but that seemed to continue right through and touch my heart.  Things like my sister's dog, curling up against my legs as I got some extra sleep this morning...Things like genuine laughter with friends & family.... I thanked Him for mentors and the people in my life who truly want the best for me and have taught me so much...people who have made me feel safe enough to open up to them, people who I know love me for who I am - with all my faults - and accept me where I am at.  No judgment, because they know that we are all on a journey and none of us are perfect.

Can you tell I started getting deeper in my conversation as I went along? :)

I thanked Him for specific people like, Eric Ludy, Adrianne & John Shales, Paul & Jenny Speed (All people who I have impacted my life through their messages)...People who open up their hearts and lives to Christ, fully surrendered, OPEN about their sin, BROKEN over it and living in FREEDOM.  They trust Him with their future, past, dreams, failures, heartaches, joys...life...and then are vulnerable and humble enough to stand before other people and share their stories!

I thought of one of my instructors and how he can stand before our class and pretty much say "this is who I am, take me or leave me."  If someone doesn't like him, then it is their loss, he knows who and what he is and is comfortable with it - His confidence isn't shaken if someone doesn't like or approve of him.

It hit me...How much more should I, who know God as my Savior, Creator, Commander & Guide be unmovable in my beliefs and not care what others think of me, because I know who I am in Christ.  I know what the end goal of my life is.  I have the most powerful battle partner on my side and I know who will win the battle in the end.

So...

Why do I fear rejection, persecution, judgment & criticism?  Why do I hate the thought of being

unaccepted and different?  Because my focus is on the world and it's expectations and not on HIS!

God chose me before the foundations of the world were formed.   He loved me, accepted me, forgave me so much that He killed His Son that I might spend eternity with Him.  I need only to ask Him for help, strength, courage, you name it, and He is there, helping me conquer the lies and fears Satan is hurling at me.

I know that my confidence, courage, peace, joy, strength and validation should all come from HIM ALONE!   Not my abilities, not others words or treatment of me, but the knowledge of all the truths listed above should keep me in perfect peace.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee."  Isaiah 26:3

"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation."  Isaiah 12:2

One of the biggest lessons I'm learning, is to being ok with who and how God has made me.  It is so easy to get caught up in what other Christians expect of me, what the world expects of me, even what my family expects of me and try to fulfill those expectations allowing those people to validate me in stead of my Heavenly Father...  I realize that my focus needs to wholly on Him, my reasons for doing something must be for Him and the way I do those things must be for Him.


These were just some of my thoughts this morning!  May God Bless All of You!

"We The People"

    "'We the people.' These are the first words of the United States Constitution.  'We the people'...do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States of America."  Those aren't just pretty words.   They are a clear statement of the origin of all authority and power in this country.  This government by the people derives it's power from the people -- power flows from the bottom up, not from the top down. 
    The Constitution is not a document whereby an all-powerful government grants certain rights and privileges to its citizens.  No, it's the other way around.  The Constitution is a document whereby the citizens of the United States grant certain authorities and powers to the government.  'We the people' aren't passive recipients of rights granted in the Constitution; "We the people" are the actors, the initiators in this exchange.
    At least, we're supposed to be.  The truth is, 'We the people' have grown quite passive when it comes to our relationship to the government that we empower.  As a nation, we have grown quite ignorant of how and why our government works.  And in our ignorance and passivity, we have surrendered too many rights and freedoms to our government.

How Precious Is His Blood?

Our Pastor went on vacation a few weeks ago and one of the men in our church stepped up and took his place on Sunday while Pastor was away.  He gave an allegory that really made me think about how precious the blood of Christ is, and I wanted to share it with you all.

I think we all know how special a wedding dress is to a bride. Whether you have been a bride or have been around one while she is looking for "the" dress, you know how important the dress is.  Once the dress is bought, it is placed in a very safe area until the day of the wedding - unless fittings are needed on the dress, in which case every safety precaution is used to ensure the safety of the dress :)  I think you get my point, the dress is IMPORTANT....

Imagine two days before the wedding the bride goes to look at her dress and finds a huge stain on the front of the dress.  What would be her number one priority at that point?  Finding a type of solution that would remove the stain from the dress right??  Once the solution is found, how valuable would that solution be to the bride?  Extremely, right?

Well, how valuable and precious are our souls?  The souls of the whole world?  Our hearts and souls have been blackened by the presence of sin in our lives and the penalty for that sin is death.  We are destined to spend eternity in hell without Christ because nothing we can do can ever cleanse us from the filth of sin...
However, the Son of God came, a perfect human being without sin, paid our debt, our penalty.  He spilled his precious blood in order to cover our sins and wash us white as snow.  His blood cleanses us.  How precious, how powerful is that?
He laid down his life and spilled his blood in order that we might now have a choice.  A choice to accept his free gift of salvation.  Salvation from eternity in hell and eternal separation from our Creator and God.  OR  To reject the gift so freely given and continue down the path we have been destined to follow.

Don't you think the precious blood of Christ that wipes away our filthy, dirty sin from our lives is incredibly valuable?  Even more valuable than a solution that will remove a stain from a bride's wedding dress?

Truth....

I read these two quotes today, in the book "The Coming Revolution" by Dr. Richard G. Lee.

As soon as I read them I jumped up from my bed and ran to my computer! So without further ado, here they are :}

"A nation or culture can not endure for very long unless it is undergirded by common values such as valor, public spiritedness, respect for others and for the law; it cannot stand unless it is populated by people who will act on motives superior to their own immediate interests." ~ Charles Colson

"The American ideals of freedom and individual rights, charity, duty, honesty, and love for others are, above all, religious beliefs.  Even though America is less visibly a religious nation today than it was a century ago, it is the depth and strength of the foundations laid down by our Christian forebears that have allowed us to thrive in the twentieth and twenty-first centruries.  And even with all our struggles and doubts, we are still living on the dividends of that investment." ~ Dr. Richard G. Lee

Genius....

Ray Comfort recently released another eye opening video, explaining to people that not one of us is a good person.  We have all broken the commands of Christ.  There was only one good person, and that was Jesus Christ. 

You see, each of us entered this world as sinners.  We were born that way, because the first man created , Adam, sinned. - He broke the one command God had given.  The punishment for breaking God's commands is death.  He had given Adam everything he needed and told him that there was only one tree that Adam could not eat from.  However, he gave Adam the ability to choose right or wrong - free choice.  He didn't want to force Adam to love and obey Him, but rather to choose to love and obey Him.  Adam chose to disobey and therefore we live with the consequences of sin. - Death.

Jesus came and lived a blameless, sinless life.  He is the only one that could pay our debt penalty for sin, because he is the only one that has not sinned.  When He died on the cross he took our penalty and gave us a choice, to either believe in Him and repent of our sins, accepting His gift of Salvation or choose to ignore it and continue our lives.  His gift of Salvation is an offer to spend eternity in heaven with Him. 

As I watched "Genius" I was saddened by the amount of people who have no idea where they are headed for eternity.  There are only two places we will spend eternity, whether you believe in them or not is irrelevant.  They are places and someday we will stand before God and will have to take the consequences of what we have done - the choices we have made. 

The morals of today are so low compared to what they used to be, because most people have no moral code to follow.  God gave us a moral law to follow and it is written on all our hearts.  For example we all believe murdering others is wrong.  However the people who do not believe in God have no reason to follow that moral law, because according to the evolutionary worldview, it is "survival of the fittest."They are looking out for No. 1 - themselves.  God did not make us to live this way, however He gave us the free choice to choose how we will live.

How will you live your life?  Who will you live it for?  Where will you spend eternity? 

How did all the animals fit on the ark?

        A common, controversial topic between Creationists and Evolutionists is the topic of Noah’s ark and how all the animals fit on it.
Let us start with the Bible and examine what God told Noah His design for the ark was in Genesis 6:14. "So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: the ark is to be four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark within eighteen inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks."
All right, starting with the beginning of the verse let us begin to pull it apart and try to figure out what God had in mind. "So make yourself an ark of cypress…" Why did God choose cypress as the wood to make the ark? Well, there are a couple reasons. First, "cypress wood produces an oil called cypressine which acts as a natural preservative within the wood. This inherent characteristic makes it durable and extremely resistant to harsh weather conditions, insects and fungus." (1) I would say, God chose a very good tree. This wood was going to be in the water for forty days and nights in hard weather conditions. This wood has its own natural preservative that will make it last for a very long time even under severe weather conditions. Also, insects always come with animals and food. This tree’s oil would help preserve itself against insects that would want to boor into it, possibly creating small leaks. Lastly, the issue of fungus, inevitably fungus is created when water is in close proximity with anything. Fungus grows very well in wet areas. This tree’s cypressine would have increased the arks protection from many things.
One of the other benefits of cypress is its lightweight. This made the ark easier for the men to build and made the ark lighter than using other kinds of wood.
 The next part in the verse says, "..make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out." "..make rooms in it." Obviously God wanted lots of places for the animals to be. Separating the small animals from large animals, shy, quiet ones from the loud and outgoing ones would make sense. Animals vary greatly in temperament and instincts. They are more content in different environments and if they are content then they are easier to take care of. Now, I am not saying that was why God wanted rooms, I just believe that these could have been some of the reasons. The second part of this section looks at the pitch. "..coat it with pitch inside and out." Pitch is a natural waterproofing agent that was often used in ancient times. To coat it on the inside and out made sure that the boat would stay watertight.


Found on Answers in Genesis



Now that we have gone over the materials needed to make the ark, let us look at the size of it. "This is how you are to build it: the ark is to be four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet high." The size of this ark is incredible. An average American football field is only three hundred and sixty feet long. We are talking another ninety feet to equal the ark! The largest state capital building in the Country is the Louisiana State Capital which stands four hundred and fifty feet high. This building has thirty-four floors. Thirty-four floors! Imagine this building on its side and it would equal the ark. Imagine how many rooms each floor on the ark could have! The height of the ark was forty-five feet. Imagine a house that was forty-five feet high. You would have enough room to make four, ten foot high floors and still have five feet left over. There was plenty of headroom for even the tallest animals; a full grown, male giraffe only stands sixteen to twenty feet high. The largest land animal in today’s world is the African Elephant which stands somewhere around ten feet.

Now the next big question; what about the dinosaurs? Well, first of all the "largest animals were probably represented by ‘teenage’ or even younger specimens." (2) Noah was only taking two of each kind of animal. God new that the animals who would be on the ark would be the original animals and all others in the future would be descendents of them. So it would make sense to take younger ones that would live longer on the new earth and be able to produce more offspring. As far as the dinosaurs go, "the eggs of the largest dinosaurs were no bigger than a football, so all young dinosaurs were quite small." (3)
Again you have to remember that God said to take two of each "kind". A "kind" is another word for species except not as broad as the word species. For example, the horse, zebra and donkey are all in the same species category. Noah however, only required two equine, two of its kind, so that all the different equines to come would be descendents of them.
To put the size of the ark into perspective it was the "equivalent volume of five hundred and twenty-two standard railroad cars, each of which can hold two hundred and forty sheep." (4) This ark was massive!
How did they store all the food and water needed for all the animals though? The most likely conclusion is that they used dried, compressed or concentrated foods or grains. This would take up much less room than fresh food. The water supply would not have had to been gathered and stored on the ark before the flood if Noah and his sons had put pipes that would collect the fresh water from the rain outside the ark day after day. Again more room is made if water did not have to be stored. Another way they could have made more space is the stacking of cages on top of each other. The cages themselves having plenty of room but putting another on top would save space for storing food for the animals in different places all over the ark.
In conclusion, this ark could easily store enough food for the animals and keep all the animals comfortable for the amount of time God kept them in the ark. I had never really studied the ark, but had accepted it as a truth because the Bible said so. However, how all the animals had fit on there sometimes raised questions. God truly did create an ark that was perfect for the animals and the people. The wood chosen was right because of its natural oil and light weight. The pitch made it waterproof. The immense size gave ample room for every living creature and the room needed to store the food. Even if they had to store water on the ark instead of collecting it each day, there still would be enough room.
I have learned a lot and found it very interesting. God’s Word always comes through strong and firm after it has past through a test. No matter how hard it is pressed to squeeze out some inaccuracy or contradiction, it always comes through solid and truthful.
　
　
　
　For those of you don't know, a real, to scale, Noah's Ark is being built in Kentucky, USA!!!!!  If you would like to check out the "Ark Encounter" and see what you can do to help click here.  It will be an amazing park to visit when they are done and an incredible impact on the community, country and the world!

Found on Ark Encounter

　
　
　

　
　
Footnotes:
1. www.cedarwoodfurniture.com/cedarfacts.html
2. The Revised & Expanded Answers Book
3. Ibid
4. Ibid

Scripture usage is from the King James Version

A few years ago I had to do some research on this topic and then write a  report for one of my apologetics classes.  It was a subject that was fascinating to research and I thought some of you may enjoy it. =)

Five Books Every Christian Should Have On Their Bookshelf

In the school years of 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 I took classes through Apologia Academy.  They were some of the best classes I ever took!  Apologia Academy offers classes in Science, Bible, Worldview & Apologetics.  The classes I took were 1. Apologetics Introduction, 2. Advanced Apologetics, 3. Introduction to Worldviews, 4. Advanced Worldviews and 5. The Life of Christ.  They were amazing classes and I learned so much.  My teacher, Mr. Larry Blythe, was phenominal and his love for Christ and teaching came across into the class every time.

This video, is Mr. Blythe's opinion of what he thinks are "The Five Books Every Christian and Homeschool Family Should Own."  I've only read the first book he mentions, "I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist" and learned SO much from that book.  Mr. Blythe had us read at least three books each semester for the classes we were taking and there wasn't one that I didn't enjoy. All of them were by credible authors and were very well written for teenagers and adults.  If Mr. Blythe recommends it, his word is good enough for me. All of the books he talks about in the video look really good.

If there was one thing that I walked away with from the classes that I took, it was that God commands us in 1 Peter 3:15 to "be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear."  God wants us to prepare ourselves and He has given us some fantastic resources.  There are some pros and cons to living in this century, but the amount of information that we have and the ability we have to search out truth is amazing and definitely one of the pros!

When I saw this video, I thought it would be a great one to share with all of you, so I hope you all enjoy it!

Seeking Your Forgiveness....

Dear Readers,

I have to ask your forgiveness about a few of the posts that I have recently posted.  I can not tell you how sorry I am.

This past January I heard about a book called "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp.  I had seen her book in the Christian bookstores but as our family is very skeptical of every book that hits the shelves because of the amount of unbiblical writings out there, I hadn't even looked at it.  However, in January I read a review on it that looked really good.  It talked about how we need to view everything in this world as gifts from God - even those things that don't seem good, because God allows everything for our greater good. I am sorry to say I was going through a time where I was really struggling and was looking for something that would help pull me out and help me to refocus.  I hoped that this would be a book that was written in a unique and personal way and that it would remind me of the things that I was having a hard time focusing on (the blessings I am surrounded by).
I admit that reading "One Thousand Gifts: A Dare To Live Fully Right Where You Are" was a struggle for me.

"Written entirely in the present tense, using an approach to the English language that takes numerous liberties for the sake of creating poetic feeling (like using adjectives when the rules of grammar demand an adverb and consistently having adjectives follow rather than precede the nouns they modify), Voskamp weaves a tale of discovering devotion to God through encounters with nature and art. In her experience, Voskamp found the secret to joy through what she calls eucharisteo ("giving thanks" transliterated from the Greek)."[1]

I didn't understand everything she was saying because of the way she wrote it and I didn't think too deeply about everything because I was looking through the "glasses" of my worldview, searching for things I could understand that would help bring me out of this struggle I was in.

I just finished reading chapter seven this morning and to be honest, I have gotten some very meaningful things out of her book.  However, because I didn't understand everything she was saying, I was picking out specific things I could understand and applying them.  For example, I saw her desire to see God in everything, not as a pantheistic view, but rather as Gifts that my heavenly Father had given me.  He isn't actually in them, nor they in Him, but He made them and I need to see the blessings and positive things He has given me.

Last evening, as I was checking my "Reading List" on my Blogger dashboard, I saw that Melinda at "Radiant Purity and True Beauty" had written a post titled "Pantheism and False Doctrine."  My love for apologetics caused me to find this title interesting as I had taken some classes on "Worldviews vs The Christian Worldview."  Needless to say I was shocked to see what she had written.

"When I first heard of Ann Voskamp's, One Thousand Gifts, I thought it sounded great. After all, we all see we need more gratitude and simplicity in our lives. So I bought it. But I returned it. It's full of false doctrine.  And scary doctrine.  Packaged in an appealing, dramatic writing form that attracts women, young and old, by swarms.  It's not good, folks.  Don't take it at face value...evaluate it with God's Word.  For that matter, never, ever, ever take anything for face value. Evaluate it closely with God's Word. Don't be deceived."[2]

I've been following Melinda's blog for almost two years now and I feel that we are on the same page on most things.  So if she felt led to write something that was a warning to other Christians I felt that there was some credibility to the warning.  She left a link to another blog that was doing a review on "One Thousand Gifts" and I followed it and again was hit with mixed emotions.  (Here is the link to those reviews)

I wanted to believe that the review was wrong.  How could a book that had brought such joy to my heart have so much false doctrine in it?  How could I have missed that false doctrine?  But I ultimately wanted to find the truth.  If this book had false doctrine in it, I needed to make an informed decision and do some research.  The relationship I have with God is not dependent upon my emotions or what a book says.  As a Christian, I need to be ready to "give an answer to every man that asketh you (me) a reason of the hope that is in you (me)." ~I Peter 3:15 

When I started taking classes in apologetics & worldviews a few years ago, I realized how important it is to search out the truth, compare what I read to Scripture, and be ready to give an answer. 

So, I started researching.  Here are a few links I found.  I need to say right up front that I am not endorsing the blogs, websites or the people that are writing them.  However the reviews I read on them helped me to understand why this book is unbiblical.  (Warning: Some of the content in Ann's book is graphic and in order to make their point some of the blogs used quotes that you will want to be careful when reading.)

*Romantic Panentheism,  a Review of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp

By Bob DeWaay found on the blog "By Grace Alone"

*One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp: A Book Review Series - This is the first review I read. The one that Melinda sent her readers to, "Echoes In The Wind".

*One Thousand Gifts - A Gift or Bad Fruit? - This blog ("No Ordinary Faith")has two posts that I felt were really good.

Just to help prepare you as you go to read the above articles:

Pantheism: A belief that identifies the forces/energy of nature with god; god is everything and everything is god.[3]

"This ancient concept (pantheism) forms the theological foundation of the New Age movement." "Everything has divine power in it,' says Roman Catholic New Ager Matthew Fox, and this divine force is what gives the planet its 'sacredness."[4] "An example of pantheistic theology occurs in a New Age children's book entitled What Is God?: 'There are manyways to talk about God.  Does that mean that everything that everybody says about God is right?  Does that mean is everything? Yes! God is great and small!  God is everything far away and near!  God is everything bright and dark!  And God is everything in between!" [5]

This battle between the many different worldviews must be confronted and we must be ready to "give an answer."  It is a battle for the hearts and minds of the current generation as well as the ones to come.

"As believers in and followers of Jesus Christ, we need to consider how our commitment to Him affects...the way we think and act about theology, philospohy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, econmics and history.  This collection of convictions is what we call a worldview.  And it is in the arena of worldviews that one of the greatest battles of our time is now being waged 24/7 in each of the ten areas listed above."[6]

"As Christians, our worldview should be based on the Bible and constructed around the person of Jesus Christ.  What would Jesus think?  What would Jesus do?" [7]

Please understand that I bring this up out of a sincere desire to rectify something that I allowed to happen on my blog and I am truly sorry.  As you read the other blogs, please read them with discernment, ask God to help you understand so that you can rightly divide what is truth and what is not.

Prayerfully Seeking Him,

Footnotes 1. http://www.bygracealone.net/2011/05/romantic-panentheism.html

                2. http://radiantpurityandbeauty.blogspot.com/2012/03/pantheism-and-false-doctrine.html
            3. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 74
                4.  ibid as well as Matthew Fox, in an interview with Laura Hagar, "The Sounds of Silence," New
                    Age Journal (March/April 1989)
               5. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 74
               6. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 2
               7. Understanding The Times by David Noebel page 3