Sunday, August 13, 2017

Odd, I know. Two posts in a day. I just had to get this off my chest.
My pastor said something last Wednesday that stirred this up and continued to challenge me today.

Too many people aren't real. Too many people have public personas, all polished up and sanitized, yet at work they are nothing like their home or church personality, or their church personality is different that their personality away from church. I gravititate toward those that are the same in all areas, so that I can know them for real.

Be open. Be who you are. People who put on a face for church or for work or for guests in the home bother me. I can't tell if they are sincere or not. I don't want to have to read your mind to know if you are being who you are, or who you think I want you to be. Don't be plastic. Be you, flaws and all. God made you and as long as you aren't trying to be something you're not, I'm good. I know my strengths and my weaknesses. If I stink at doing something, I'm ok with saying it. If I don't have experience in an area, I'm glad to ask. If I am an expert in something, I'm glad to lend a hand or teach someone.

Be joyful because you're a Christian, but don't over sell it. Don't be someone you aren't. Just be yielded to God and your true joy will shine through.

What has happened in Charlottesville, Virginia over the past several days has given me pause. I see some people on the political Right siding with the people protesting the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue. Both sides are making mountains out of mole hills in the situation. If the group protesting the removal had not engaged in Nazi symbolism and claimed Ku Klux Klan lineage, I could see their point. Once they became about race and "White Nationalism", they lost the argument. They are no different than the Black Lives Matter or Antifa(anti fascist) groups opposing them.

Here is where I draw the line. Once a group starts using race and identity in their political argument, I'm done. I don't think the speech rights of either side should be compromised, but once their speech goes kinetic, so to speak, their rights end. Driving a car into a group of people you disagree with is terrorism, the same as if a some jihadi nut from ISIS had done it.

Both sides in this mess are essentially two sides of the same vile group of people. They both seek to have the government right perceived wrongs. As much as I disagree with government white washing history, we risk becoming idolatrous if we place the importance of a statue over that of a human life.

Here is the solution. Elect different people. If you don't want your local reps doing away with a statue you see as honoring your heritage, elect different people. If the majority of voters in a town want to elect people who would remove these monuments, let them. As long as the Federal government isn't dictating what statue goes where and what is OK, I have no issue with it. Use the Constitutional tools at your disposal. Don't act like the voters aren't the ones who are truly responsible.

All sides in this mess are seeking government to right perceived wrongs. Stop depending on government. There is the real solution. Talk to your neighbors. Go to church. Seek God and seek His will. Stop putting government where God should be in your life. Government is not an end all, be all. The White Nationalist/Nazi bigots and the BLM/Antifa statists are all really the same, in the end. They seek to have government impose their will on others. I'm out.

Some will ask, "Well, if you are OK with the removal of these monuments, then you are OK with government saying a baker must bake a cake, etc". Nothing could be further from the truth. What individuals do in the carrying out of commerce is none of the business of government. The maintenance of public areas is the business of government. If a duly elected council or legislature removes a statue, that's on the voters. The government telling a person what to do in their personal lives is unconstitutional. The government pulling down a statue is not unconstitutional. It may be in bad taste, but it isn't illegal. Find new leaders who won't pull down the monuments.

This all comes back to people not reigning in government. All of it. We must move past expecting government to save us or prop us up. Our focus must be on producing citizens who love liberty. Fix the culture of government dependence and all of this will end. This is on all of us who allow it to continue. I pray for revival of the true Church and that the message of the Gospel will be proclaimed. If you trust in God and on His only begotten Son, your need of a nanny state government to do your bidding goes away.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Politics has worn thin with me. The more I see the administration in Washington, DC work, the less good I see in the GOP. Until a viable new party can dispose the GOP, nothing good will happen politically. The same can be said for the Republican party in Iowa. I just reviewed the list of county chairs for the new Reynolds campaign, and with exception of 4-5 names on the list, the other 1000 names are a veritable who’s who of the crony corporatist, big government, big agriculture cabal that has run Iowa for many years.

I’m pledging right now to not vote for Kim Reynolds in 2018. I will either vote for a small party or unaffiliated candidate or I’ll leave my ballot for governor blank. I’ll work on electing Federalist Party candidates to lower level offices in the state in order to lessen the GOP’s grip on small government rhetoric, backed up by big government results. Sure, some decent things happened in 2017, like the collective bargaining reform, but spending reforms and cuts didn’t actually take place. Taxes in Iowa are still the highest of any Republican controlled state. There are blue states with lower per capita tax burdens. That is unacceptable.

The time is now to punt the GOP and work on taking the right of the individual to keep what they earn and do with their own resources as they see fit.

I think we let things go between believers too often. We let issues fester amongst friends and fellow church members. We need to be more open with what an issue that may, if left to fester, would likely divide people. Rather than couching things in patronizing tones or glossing over issues, I think we need to do what the verses in Matthew say and, with love and through prayer, take our issues to the person we have the issue with. We need to forgive, but in order for us to grow, we need to be upfront with each other. Too often, Christians choose to bury their issues with one another and there continues to be an underlying issue that our enemy uses to divide friends and churches.

This is just a hypothetical example, but hear me out. Away from church, fellow believers have a business issue that is causing strife, whether it be a business and customer conflict or an employee and employer conflict. Rather than concealing our thoughts and trying to tight rope on what we think the other person wants hear, we need to be more open so issues don't remain. We must always seek wise counsel before doing so, but letting a problem simmer just below the surface is unhealthy for all parties involved. I know that if a friend of mine has an issue with me, rather than just talking to others about it, I'd rather be hit square between the eyes with the issue they have with me. I don't like reading between the lines. If someone has an issue with me, I want to work on it. The issue should be brought out in the open between the two parties and then everything possible should be done to make sure there is no strife left in the relationship. I've seen friendships harmed and worse yet, whole churches harmed because people just couldn't be upfront and open with one another.

This could also apply to politcs. If we took our issues up with the source of them, I think we'd find much more satisfaction in achieving a satisfactory result. I, for one, am not afraid to call a state or national representative or Senator and bring the issues I have to someone who may be able to do something about them.

So many times, we don't seek wise counsel on issues of great magnitude before we make the mistake of saying something of great consequence. I've been guilty of this many times. Even the Bible says this in Proverbs 12: 15 The way of a fool [is] right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth unto counsel [is] wise.

If we can't take wise counsel on a given issue, we need not be involved with what ever we are trying to do until we come to a place where we are willing to heed the counsel of those who've dealt with the issue or problem before. Rather than thinking we have the whole thing figured out because we've read some book(other than the Bible) or we've studied a lot, there is still no substitute for asking for help from those who've been there before. Pride may get in the way of us coming to the realization we need help, but we must not let that happen. Pray, seek wise counsel and then, and only then, step out by faith that what you are doing is what you should do. If it is biblical, we'll see our efforts blessed by God.

There is no substitute for experience. I am always seeking to learn from people older than me. I also seek people with different backgrounds to learn from. If I am entering a new business, I ask the person who's done it for a long time. When I was new at my church, I sought out a few people that had been there for a long time. If I have an isssue that I don't know much about, I learn about if before diving in. I seek counsel. I ddin't always do this and I bear the scars from those stupid decisions. I think if people, myself included, would seek out each person's strong points and help lift those up, we'd see fewer conflicts in churches and between friends.

Even marriages break up because people don't seek wise counsel and because the two parties can't be upfront with one another. As humans, we're no good at mind reading. We must be more upfront with one another. Rather than taking offense to someone bringing an issue to our attention, we should thank them for helping us get better. I've learned to yearn for bluntness. I pray more people find this trait for their lives. I'm not talking about insulting one anther. I'm talking about when someone sees an issue, whether of your own doing or not, and brings it to your attention, you step back and see the big picture. Your choice involves many more people than just yourself, no matter how insignificant you see that choice being.

I think the root of all interpersonal conflicts boils down to two things. Pride (my biggest fault) and doing things out of a sense of duty instead of doing things out of a sense of godly love for one another. If we can't get past our own pride and humble ourselves, we'll have a hard time moving forward for God. Period. If we do things, whether they be at church, at home or in our public lives, with a sense of true Christian love and we do things out of a sense of duty, the task or ministry will falter and fail. It will grow stale and eventually wither and die on the vine. I know I've struggled with both of these issues. I pray and seek counsel to overcome both.

In closing, I think we need to be more upfront and honest. We need to kick our sense of personal pride to the curb and we must seek wise counsel from people (including those outside our normal spheres of influence). If I want to learn to weld, I'm going to go find a welder to teach me. I'm not going to go to a restaurant owner asking how to weld and so on. Lastly, let's put the biblical princples on how to resolve conflict and seek counsel into practice. Our churches and our interpersonal relationships will be the better for it.

I'd love to open this up for discussion. Respond below and let's start the conversation.

Monday, May 1, 2017

With this latest budget battle being ceded to the left leaning establishment Republicans and the Democrats, the GOP has ceased to be of any use to conservatives. Why someone with a conservative view point, who holds fast to small government principles, would vote for a member of the GOP is beyond me.

Paul Ryan campaigned last year on the anti-establishment wave that swept through the party. Little did people who supported him and the shiny, combed over objection of cult affection know, but they were sold a bill of goods. This administration is fine doing things that only require executive action, but the administration of Donnie Smallhands has become a footstool for the establishment wing of the big government majority in the Republican party.

How can a party that controls every part of DC not pass a budget? If only voters had given the supposed small government party majorites in both houses of Congress and the White House...oh, wait, I guess voters did that very thing. The Constitution mandates that Congress send the President a budget, not a continuing resolution. We need to know where our tax money is going. We need to be able to call out the departments that need to be padlocked and scuttled. This nonsense of funding the whole Obama agenda is lunacy.

Planned Parenthood was not touched in the budget bill. Obamacare is fully funded. These two line items alone are totally unacceptable. I don't want to preached at by stupid people saying conservatives need to take control of the party and change it from within. The cancer is so widespread, if we excised the whole amount of the cancer from the party, the party would die. We are better off ditching this cancer ridden body and starting a new one.

I, for one, am totally on board with the new Federalist Party. I know the people involved. I trust the people involved and I look forward to doing work on the ground here in Iowa for this new party. It's time to start taking over city councils and county commisions. School boards and library boards. State House and State Senate races. We need to show the current two party duopoly that we mean business and if we start at the bottom, when we run a presidential candidate, it won't be a fool's errand.

I love what I've seen so far from this new party. There are different from other minority parties. Those other parties try to start at the top and run a presidential ticket and they always fail because they have no base and no ability to muster a massive nationwide ground game when the time is needed. The people in the Federalist Party are different. They realize that politics should be local. Once the local stuff is tended to, we can work to take back our state and federal governments from the big government forces in both parties. The Federalist Party knows that the 10th Amendment gives the states the power to do things the federal government should not be invovled in. Lets return to a federal government of defined and limited power.

Friday, April 28, 2017

I've been studying churches as of late. Something my pastor said a while back has stuck with me. Doctrine has been replaced with emotion. Truth has been replaced with efforts to soothe itching ears. Follow along.

The Apostle Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, exposed most churches in our culture today. He said this:

II Timothy 4:1-8I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure, afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

Paul was warning Timothy of what was to come. Paul's letters were to fellow believers, not to the lost people. He was telling the Body of Christ what to look out for. If only we'd heed his warning.

Does the mission of a church involve meeting the worldly emotional needs of people who seek to be comforted in their in sins or does it involve glorifying Jesus and imploring people to please God? Many churches default to the former rather than the latter. They strive for one of two things; people in pews or the lack of strife amongst its entrenched donor base. If a pastor and a church focuses on the Gospel, sometimes toes will be stepped on. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit will make people uncomfortable. That isn't a bad thing, contrary to popular belief. Preaching should lead to conviction and action. If it just scratches an itching ear, it is likely not Biblical and most likely, a load of garbage.

Hebrews 4:12For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
The ability of the Bible to be both and a tool for instruction and comfort is unique. A preacher of the word must be able to preach all parts of the Bible and, through prayer and study, help the people he pastors to be able to apply the Word to their lives. There are so many things in today's society, from media to government to public education to cultural rot, that seek to diminish the importance of the message of the Bible. It is up to Christians to put away the nonsense and do their best to hold fast to what God has preserved for us.

Here is an example of what I mean. In this passage, Jesus is telling his followers that those who have forsaken all worldly blessings for the cause of following Him will be blessed with everlasting life.

Matthew 19:29And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands. for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

This message isn't popular in many prosperity preaching churches or in many so called seeker friendly churches. Too many churches preach that the Christian life is just all sunshine and lollipops. In reality, living a Christian life enables people to get through the tough stretches of life becasue we have a promise of something better. We know our eternal home is in heaven so we can have victory over life's struggles. In today's churches, when something bad happens, the people aren't equipped to overcome so they wash out and blame God, when in reality, it was likely their own flesh that caused their hardship. If they had been taught and led in the proper doctrine, they'd know that God is not the author of deception.

I Corinthians 14:33For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

II Peter 1:19We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

When we try to blame God when something bad happens, it just makes our faith weak. Our situation was most likely of our own making. That's been the case for much of my life. We must be willing to listen when the Holy Spirit steps on our fleshly toes. Praying for forgiveness and repenting is the most effective way to move forward in the Christian life. Leaving behind the baggage of the past is a must, but we must account for that baggage and then leave it behind. It won't help us get to where we need to go.

Lastly, if we acknowledge that doctrine is essential, once we come to the saving knowledge of Jesus, we must follow His commands. One part of the Bible frequently left out by modern churches is the last commandment He gave His disciples. The Great Commission must be our mission statement.

Matthew 28:18-20And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

If we won't endeavor to do what God has for us, we might be "believers", but we can't call ourselves Christians. To be a Christian means we must strive to be more Christ-like. This must be the mission of our churches, to make Christians and not just believers.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

I've hesitated to wade into this arena. I am, by no means, a foreign policy expert, but I am a student of history. Here goes...

Israel is the only country in the Middle East that I really care about(being blunt). There are certain minority populations in other countries, namely the Kurds in Northern Iraq, who need our concern and efforts to protect them. After more study though, I am coming to the point of saying we need to contain the spread of Islam to the west and actively work to evangelize the Middle East. As we know from history, politics follows culture. Without breaking the culture of Islamism, the Middle East will never advance any further. They will remain tied to their seventh century ideologies.

Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you that I'm a fervent follower of Jesus and I would be willing to die for my faith. I'm fine with people being fervent in what they believe. Their fervency crosses a line when it involves killing those who don't share their beliefs. I don't see any Baptists or Amish people killing in the name of God. I do see Muslims killing in the name of Mammon Allah. We have to be willing to call a spade, a spade. Islam is the problem.

Where Muslims are engaged in fighting other Muslims, I see no need for us to intervene. If they strike out at the US or any of our close allies, I believe we must stop using "surgical strikes" and "sending messages" and we should start leveling cities and whole countries. Wars must be entered into to be won. I am somewhat conflicted with the idea of killing civilians, but the Muslim world only respects strength. The 59 poorly placed Tomahawk cruise missiles aren't strength. The strike was a poor attempt at sabre rattling. The Islamic world needs to see whole cities leveled in order to respect the power we have they are laughing at the West and the US right now.

Regime change in the Middle East is a fool's errand, a folly. Deposing Saddam may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the result has been horrible. The same goes in Libya. As much as I want to see Syria's head of state assume room temperature, the result would be a huge vacuum of power. That void would be filled by one of two things. Either Iran and Russia would rush in and replace Assad with a similar leader or ISIS takes Syria and gains in power. Neither situation advances our interests, so, short of turning Syria into a glass parking lot, I see no reason to involve US assets in the region. Call me cold hearted, but when all results are bad, choosing to not get involved is prudent.

I am more convinced that a large scale war is not out of the question in the next 15 years. China, Russia and their North Korean red headed step child are all making noises. Iran wants to be the dominant Islamic power in the world and the forces of ISIS/al Qaeda/Wahhabism(all radical Sunni Muslim groups) want to do the same. With all of this, I don't see how a large scale hot war can be avoided forever. Something will cause these festering conflicts to go kinetic. I think the US would be well served to mind our own house and build our military up. The one area of the federal government I agree with is the military and its job to protect American interests.

I believe we broke the Soviet Union with our military strength and ability to out equip that backwards groups of commies. We must be willing to do the same to the ChiComs, Putin's Russia, the NorKs, Iran and ISIS, all while shrinking government here at home. Our military spending, while huge in comparison to most other nations, is a now small portion of the federal budget. If a real shooting war starts, we must no longer think about collateral damage and precision strikes. The time to return to strategic bombing and mass attacks to assure victory is at hand. War is terrible. We must want to shorten its duration and achieve total victory. World War 2 has to be the template. Achieve victory by completely breaking the will of your enemy to engage in battle and destroy the enemy's ability to make war by any and all means necessary.

I war does come, the only good to come from that war would be the ability of Christian missionaries to go into the conquered areas and help rebuild and win souls for Christ so that the conquered nation could then be placed on the right path.

Political correctness and identity politics have no place in the business of war.

This is just a short take. As I continue to research this issue, I'll wade into the deep end of this cesspool.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

We were going to win. We were going to be tired of winning. That's what we were told. If you believe that nonsense, I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale(sight unseen, of course).

Over the past several weeks, we've been treated to a supposed Republican administration in Washington that has shown itself to be incompetent. Starting with the twice written immigration order that they won't go to court to defend and leading to a healthcare bill proposed by establishment squishes and sold by our new President. That bill was such a disaster, it was pulled by the Speaker of the House before anyone could actually vote yea or nay on the disaster. The fact that the bill was a rewritten version of Obamacare that served to shift the responsibility to the GOP didn't seem to matter to a President who told us he was going to win...and win all the time.

It is quite apparent that the conservatives who sold out to support this man bought a bill of goods. I know some were, and still are, trying to balance needing Trumpcultists' votes next year in the midterm while trying to not seem like insane sycophants, but the time has come for people in and out of government who care about the small government, divided power system of federalism, to speak up and make themselves heard. Our administration has done some good in the area of reigning in onerous business and environmental regulations, but they have done nothing in the area of protecting religious liberty, truly reforming healthcare, or welfare/wealth transfer reform. Last I checked, Planned Parenthood was still being funded. The establishment squish promoted healthcare bill only defunded Planned Murderhood for one lousy year, at which point the taxpayer funding of the murder of babies was set to resume. Can you see this Congress tackling reform of the IRS or the tax code? If you can, you may want to see if someone spiked your coffee with Irish whiskey.

The most accurate thing said about our president was uttered by Ted Cruz on the last day of his campaign. I know he prostrated himself to support the man later in the general election campaign, but he was correct in his initial assessment.

Possibly the worst part of this whole mess is the large number of Christians who have decided to put away everything the Bible teaches about leadership to roll over on their bellies for a man who is the antithesis of what a Christian leader should be. The President is a petty man, who is prone to fits of insanity driven rage. In addition, he stupidly uses social media in the way a 22 year old college student might, subtweeting and making fun of people he sees as an impediment to his warped visions. The man in consumed with short term victory. He doesn't see past the end of the week. He has a television ratings style of leadership. While the electoral map for Senators stacks up fairly well in 2018, the House could get hammered because of the blatant lack of anything approaching a cohesive plan and agenda on the part of the administration.

The Bible tells us how to pick civil leaders. Starting in Exodus 18 21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:
I've had so many Trump sycophants tell me that this was given only to Moses and it no longer applies, but Paul tells us that all scripture is valuable. 2 Timothy 3 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Our current President seems to fall under the warning of the Apostle Paul, when he told Timothy this in his second letter to his friend. 4 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

We, as Christians, need to focus on the Gospel. We must practice discernment in matters of civil government and our dealings with the lost. We also can't sell our ability to be good examples for a what amounts to a bowl of beans, like Esau did. Politics is downstream of culture. We have to go to work on the lost and dying world before our politics will ever change for the better. Electing a godly Christian would have shown the culture that we could do it. We didn't, so many are content to lash out at political enemies rather than drill down on saving the souls of the lost in a culture bent on sending as many people to hell as possible.

When we elect people, like our previous President and our current President, who are clearly in opposition to what the Bible says about the type of men to choose to lead other men, we are being disobedient. Of course, we should pray for our leaders. I, especially, pray for the soul of our President. Even baby Christians exhibit more change than he has since supposedly coming to Jesus. It's between God and him as to whether he has the issue of his faith settled, but the lack of spiritual discernment is quite clear in our new President. Our nation is in severe need of repentance. Rather than choosing a braggart, we should have chosen a somber and humble servant to be a leader, as the Bible teaches. Victory, when it costs you your testimony, is empty. I pray for the soul of a nation divided, adrift in a sea of false doctrine.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Would you consider yourself pro life? What does being pro life mean? Can you be pro life and vote for a bill that would allow abortions to be performed as long as a doctor says an arbitrary gestation deadline has not passed? I'd like to explore these questions just a little. Follow along.

If you truly consider yourself pro life, you realize that the moment an egg is fertilized in the womb, a new life is formed. The DNA in that fertized egg is all that is needed for a human life to spring forth, therefore, that fertilized egg is a life. The Bible, in Jeremiah 1:5 says this: Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. If God knew Jeremiah to be a prophet, He surely knows each one of us before we ever descend through the birth canal to take our first breath of air. Life is life is life. All innocent life is precious in His eyes. Each soul has the potential to know Jesus as their Savior. Each soul has the potential to do great things for the cause of Christ in this world. Conversely, if that new life is ended before it even had a chance, we've basically told God that we know better than He does. That is awfully thin ice. God will not be mocked.

If you truly consider yourself pro life, no legislation that allows abortion should pass your smell test. If a bill states that abortion after an arbitrary time, like 20 weeks, of gestation is passed abortion is bad, but before that, it's a crime, you are practicing an awful form of moral equivalency. This type of situational ethics is a major reason our nation is in the state that it is in from a moral standpoint. Look at this way, if I say I believe in life at conception and when the opportunity is presented to define, in legal terms, that life begins when it begins, but I don't because I might have to expend political capital to do so, and instead, I support a bill to tell doctors that a 20 week old baby in the womb is more equal than a 19 week old baby in the womb, I would be a hypocrite of epic proportions.

Certain things in life are true. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Two plus two equals four. The Bible is the word of God. Jesus is the only way to heaven. Life begins at concpetion.

I urge all of you reading this in Iowa to make sure your Iowa Senators and Representatives know of your thoughts on this issue. Let them know that this will be felt at the ballot box and in the court of public opinion. They must realize that it is harder to do the wrong thing than it is to do the right thing. Iowa protected individual rights with the collective bargaining bill, the only issue is, those rights don't amount to a hill of beans if we aren't alive to be allowed to exercise our rights.

I will admit, some regulatory improvement have been made, but that is small potatoes compared to the large items, like Obamacare, Social Security, the tax code, Medicare and cleaning up agencies like the IRS and the VA. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, just this week, that tax issues won't be taken up for the foreseable future. The new Dear Leader is silent on the issue, after being bullish on the tax reform issue during the campaign and transition period. Sounds a lot like the last Dear Leader. The only thing different is the jersey and demographic makeup of the cheering section.
Now, we have Donaldus Smallhandus saying he'll support primary challenges to conservatives in Congress who don't support the rebranding of Obamacare. I don't like being right so much, but I TOLD YOU SO! This was in the cards. When the establishment GOP got behind Trump, it was because they saw him as maleable. His maleability is on full display right now.

Donald J. Trump is now a Washington DC hack. No more no less. I urge conservatives to fight back. Short of a viable 3rd party, we must begin to organize a primary challenge to Donald Trump.

Squishy members of the House must be primaried. I will assist in anyway I can. One such member here in Iowa is Congressman Dave Young. He needs to be deposed and left on the ash heap of political history. The man is a rubber stamp for GOP leadership and is useless as a legislator. He needs to go. There are many like him across the country.

I'm also for lousy GOP Senators being thrown to the curb. Orrin Hatch, Deb Fischer, Bob Corker and Jeff Flake all need to go. Look them up. I'd also be in favor of State Senator Chris McDaniels running for the special election seat held by Luther Strange in Alabama. Orrin Hatch is the epitome of all that is wrong with Washington, DC. Right now, there are only 3 decent Senators and about 35-40 decent House Reps. Find races you can impact and go at it. Politicians are like stinky diapers, they need to be changed frequently and usually for the same reason.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

The Obamacare "replacement" bill the House leadership put forth yesterday is one of the biggest piles of manure this side of an Iowa hog house I've ever seen. It addresses none of the market issues Obamacare created and rebrands most of the other parts with nasty GOP slime. House and Senate Small Government types are floating their own bill, but I am sure the preponderance of GOP members will support the bill put forth by leadership.

Here in Iowa, members of the GOP killed a bill to recognize life at conception. I am no longer surprised when the GOP goes against everything they say they support and believe in.

The purpose of this post is to encourage people to leave a Republican Party that has decided they want to try to be all things to all people. This party is no place for anyone with any sort of principles aimed toward liberty or constitutional small government. They won't even protect the border. Donald Trump won the White House on this issue, more than any other(never mind he stole the issue from Ted Cruz).

Do not give money to or support candidates from this party. If I can never vote again because there are no decent candidates outside of the current two party system, that will be OK. I refuse to support anyone tied to this iteration of the Republican Party.

I will work to see a viable small government party come about. The Federalist Party is my vehicle of choice. I know the people involved and I trust they have many of the same concerns I do. We must work to make this party work. It won't be easy and it won't be fast, but it must be done. He those of us seeking to make a home for principled people outside of the broken two party system. My call is this. Euthanize the GOP!

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Philippians 2:13

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

King James Version (KJV)

Somethings have become quite clear to me over the past several months. The main lesson is this. Personal desires are worthless and should be shunned. The only desire a person should have is to do God's will. Following your heart is possibly the worst thing anyone can do. It leads to pain and general malaise. Don't follow your dreams. Don't follow the wishes of any mortal person. Don't try to please any mortal person just for the sake of gaining favor with them. These are all false premises and lead to a person wasting their life. I've been there. All of these things have become crystal clear to me over the past few months.

Mankind's purpose is to do God's will. Mankind's purpose is to please God. Even if something seems good and isn't specifically against anything in the Bible, if God isn't leading you, purge the desire from your life. The desire will bring nothing but pain. Your prayer should always be to have God lead you to do what pleases Him. If that isn't your prayer, stop wanting what you think is good for you and just continue to serve Him.

I've come to these conclusions after years of learning and seeking. The desires of my own heart have led to nothing but emptiness and waywardness. Only when I am doing God's will and serving other people in His name, have I been able to find freedom from the oppression of my own worthless desires. It is quite clear that I am not worthy of His love, yet the fact that Jesus came to save me shows that His love knows no bounds. Putting aside my desires has allowed me to focus on serving people for His glory. Rather than desiring any earthly outcome, just desire to do God's will. You will be tested, but shrug off the desires that creep in if they conflict with your service of others. To serve yourself, even if not specifically against any rule or commandment set forth in the Bible, will end in emptiness. No good comes from serving yourself. The only good that can come from our mortal lives is to serve as His ambassadors while we live.

Don't be afraid to invite someone to church, but make sure that you are inviting that person for their sake and not your own. Don't be afraid to pass out a Gospel tract for the sake of the other person's soul, not your own glory. Don't be afraid to be of service to someone in need, but only for their sake. Don't do anything that may result in your self being elevated at the expense of anyone else. I'm done caring for what happens to me in the future. As long as I focus on staying in His will, my future will be just fine. I desire God's will, not my own.

James 1:5King James Version (KJV)

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

I don't believe in accidents. I truly believe that God places people in the lives of people who need an influence or need a life line. I know this to be true, and because I know this to be true, I won't give up on what he has placed before me. In praying to seek His truth in all matters, nothing about what He has laid on my heart has changed. I will work toward what I believe to be His will for my life. I will fight for what I know to be right. I will no longer back down in the face of adversity.

When a door is closed, I will not just leave. I will knock on the back door. I will throw pebbles at the window. I will continue to seek His will in all things. I will not quit. I cannot quit. If I quit, I am turning my back on Him and I will not do any such thing. Someone said that turning your back on something that is biblical and not sinful, when you know it to be the will of God in your life, is a sin in its self. You are denying a faith in the God who sent His only Son to save you. I will not deny Him.

In order for me to have peace and joy, I need to heed His calling into my life. I have ran from sincere convictions too many times. I won't allow people to downgrade what He has placed in front of me. What he has placed in front of me is much too important. I won't stop until He tells me to stop. He will change my heart if He thinks I need to go in a different direction. Unless He does that, I will follow His lead. I owe it to Him to not quit. This goes for every area of my life. Personal, professional, church related. Every area. I'm done backing down when a road block is put in my way. I don't believe in accidents or chance encounters.