A Cover Up?

Okay... A lot has been said about the Bush Administration ruining our economy, and no doubt excessive government spending for the last 16 years would likely be a portion of the problem. But, you cannot get away from the fact that the mortgage and housing finance crisis has left our banks, our stock market and our people hurting financially and our federal government feeling the need to hold the bag on all the economic issues we face today.

I hear the Democrats say - the middle class deserves to have everything given to them by the government. Tax breaks, education for their children, health care... and the rich (loosely defined as anyone making more than $250,000 per year - unless of course you are a professional politician in Washington D. C. then everything in your life is a tax right off, after all should we be taxing the taxes - their salary is after all our tax dollars at work) should pay for it. What? Is that really what the American Dream has been scaled down to?

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I and my family are admittedly the Middle Class - but if the Democratic party gains power there will be more of the same - the same as the last two years in our House and Senate chambers. Months and years of the Republicans and Independents seeking the help of the majority party to do something in favor of our country - in favor of our people - in favor of our future. And more of the name calling, "We didn't meet to talk about that," "Congratulations, Detroit Redwings on winning the Stanley Cup" kind of nonsense I have been watching on C-Span in recent months.

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I am not saying I agree with everything any one party is doing. I'm saying get informed about what is really going on. Watch your Federal Government at work and determine who you believe is really trying to do what is best and in keeping with the liberties and freedoms that the Founding Fathers wanted to ensure for the future generations of this nation. Do we want to leave our children an entitlement legacy or a legacy that says no matter where you start you can get to where you dream because our country is the freest, greatest, most beautiful nation in the entire world where the least to the greatest are empowered to ma$ke their own lives better with a dream, a spirit of determination and a goal to be all that you can be (and I'm not just talking in the army either).
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The very idea that someone enslaved by poverty as a child could be elevated to the top of a corporation or own their own company and build a better life than they started out with (there are none to few of these testimonies... right?) Not because someone gave it to them, but because someone empowered them to believe enough in the process of free enterprise, ingenuity and just plain hard work and determination. Add faith in God, a divine destiny and a powerful prayer life and you have the opportunity for explosion in this nation again.
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The entitlements that the Democrat party speak of are the notions of socialism and communism that cast us into social brackets and lock us into societal norms without the opportunity to grow ourselves or improve ourselves through our faith, our ambitions, our talents and our opportunities - a system of government that benefits the elitist governing body, not the people.

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Democratic candidates and office holders have for the large part clearly stated that the American people can neither think for themselves or manage their own lives and finances - Their policies say we need a huge government that gets richer off of our misery and sells us to anyone willing to buy our debt. They solve problems by growing the scope and reach and corruption of government by inactivity and pointing to themselves as the answer. It destroys our society at its foundations.
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The Republican's have advocated for the most part that our government's reach and participation in the individual life should be limited, that people should be empowered to live by their faith, think for themselves, and be empowered to act on their own behalf. That government should empower people not entitle them. Republicans by name represent the foundation for our legal system - rule by law. Let's look hard before voting.
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Independents seem to be split between the two. I believe liberty is the answer, truth is the answer, God is the answer, but not the gods who have set themselves up in Wahington believing the swing of a gavel garners them power and opportunity.
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The following video is available on Youtube and speaks to these very issues. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae's downfall was actually the advocated position of many democratic and lobbyist from the affirmative action sector. These advocates including members of the Clinton Administration have asked the housing industry to relax lending standards for the last 30 years when minorities and lower income families apply for loans for housing. The pressure was so great --- that it happened. People who could not afford to buy a home were empowered and credited with the ability to buy a home way beyond their means. Until the mortgage rate adjusted or the funding ran out. The real estate market fell flat and the housing values are sinking while banks and mortgage companies own homes that are empty, torn up and valued at less than the amount that is owed on them. People are suffering and feeling the shame and loss of foreclosure because they were sold a lie.
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See for yourself who is telling the truth. Who is being realistic in their concerns? Whose statements proved to hold true?

Our Pastor, Robert Morris, said this morning that the reason we are in a financial crisis is because our nation is in a spiritual crisis. Think of it, when Congress held church in the chambers before they opened each session, when God was at the center of our culture and our heritage - our nation prospered, won wars and experienced the greatest freedom this world has ever known. When He is asked to leave and forsaken... when He is denied and the people are caught up in their own reality... We fall apart. Why is that happening? We need the Lord - Pray for our nation.

Tuesday's In Other Words: Do Justice, Love Mercy

“A pharisee is hard on others and easy on himself,

but a spiritual man is easy on others and hard on himself.”

by A.W.Tozer

I am growing to LOVE A. W. Tozer and his concise, rich writings and teachings on the Christian journey. This reminds me of a song that Big Daddy Weave sings called Pharisee. I guess maybe this hit a cord in me because I am dealing with laying down judgmental attitudes that I developed over the years. Not judgments against others so much... God really has shown me that people in glass houses should NEVER. THROW. STONES. Because, of course, you never know when you might get it back.

I wrote a devotion for my curriculum about Embracing Grace that often times I will hear Christian leadership be critical of others and in so doing they are really sinning themselves by passing judgment on the circumstance of another. It doesn't prompt me to boycott their program, it prompts me to pray for their heart. To ask God why they are doing what they do, and how it is that people devoted to His Word could get so tied up in "doing" the law they miss the grace of God that is at its heart. The point I made in the devotion is that God set at work in the law His grace, not just by offering His Son in final atonement... But also in the fact that the observance of the law exemplified the grace of God at work in our own lives. Think of it - the first four commandments are the mark of devotion and love for God and the last six express His heart for mankind. Grace at work in the Law. We don't live under separate covenants - it is all one covenant with two parts. We don't live under grace and exclude the law anymore than we are to live under the law and exclude grace. They are not mutually exclusive, but were always purposed together to express the heart of God toward His people.

Now... I guess at this point I should say this - the reason for keeping the law is to keep ourselves lined up with God both in priniciple and deed.

Micah 6 tells us we are to "DO" justice and "LOVE" mercy. I think this pretty much sums it up for me. Doing justice means I do what is right, but loving mercy means that I extend grace to others.

Does this mean that I condone sin? NO! But, it doesn't mean I can willy nilly go around policing the lives of others based on my understanding of the Word of God. If someone has not given me permission to speak into their life, am I truly honoring God by beating them down with His Word?

Truth. I must carefully weigh the value. Case in point. My brothers and I were raised by honorable, Christian parents. I do not wish to dishonor them in any way. They were no more flawed or perfect than anyone else's parents both having backgrounds steeped in good moral values and skewed perceptions of the church and its role in the Christian walk. I spent much of my life passing judgment on their parenting by rebelling against it while my brother a year younger towed the line, did as much as he could to please them and seldom took up offenses on behalf of either of my parents.

After I began attending church in my late 20s I discovered that I had been pious, self-righteous and indignant toward my mother whom I blamed for nearly every trouble I had. I had to forgive her, accept her limitations and surrender her to God in prayer in order to find peace. Laying down any wound I felt was her responsibility and living with her in Paul's words, "As far as it depends on me, live at peace with all men."

Only more recently have I let go of the heavy wounds that I held against my father. Not because he was less deserving, but because those wounds did not add the strain to our relationship that the mother wounds had left in my relationship with my mom.

A few years back, my brother went through Christian counseling where he apparently was encouraged to confess any bitterness he harbored against others, especially in his family. He did so with my mother and me. It seemed that neither mother nor I anticipated, expected nor understood what he was trying to accomplish because the offenses he confessed did little more than insight hurt feelings and more offenses because we did not know what the point of the confession was. I totally missed he was asking for forgiveness and felt very judged and I am guessing my mother felt the same. Not... To dishonor my brother - he was only working through his own brand of misery and difficulties... It just turned into a big mess. One I would gather he did not intend to create.

The truth is, we all live in this human condition and have skewed motives and value systems based on a fallen existence. However, when rightly submitted to God - we have the power to forgive, to grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and extend kindness and grace to others even when we ourselves feel they do nto deserve it. Why?

Because Jesus Himself did the very same thing on our behalf more than 2,000 years ago and to not do so would be denying His sacrifice, His love and His grace at work in our own lives.

Do Justice and Love Mercy... Perhaps I talked all around it this morning and missed the point of my own post. Or perhaps somewhere in this jumbled mess of thoughts and feelings is a message about God's heart that I have been learning and walking through the last 10 years. Either way I pray you are blessed and able to gleen from the mumblings of this humble servant. Be Blessed.

AMY at In Pursuit of Proverbs 31 is hosting this morning. Please stop on by and check out what others are saying "In OTHER Words." And, thanks Amy for a great quote!