What Do You Want?

Not long ago The United States of America had an opportunity to shoot down a failing satellite that posed a potential radiation problem to the earth and its inhabitants.

Using a system dubbed by the press, "Star Wars," technology, which had been vilified and rediculed by many politicos, pundits, and scientists, we successfully shot it down.

Impossible. Could not happen. Never in a million years.

But it happened.

The press has chosen to ignore the event as though it either did not happen or was so insignificant that it does not matter.

Today, several countries have nuclear technology, a couple have the ability to put weapons in space and several are working at trying to put them there.

Combine nuclear techonology with the ability to put that technology in space, and you have a formidible potential for the destruction of other nations.

Now, some countries are reasonable and can be negotiated with. Others, however are not so reasonable.

One last point.

Our constitution charges our government with the responsibility of protecting us from an attack from other countries. It reads as follows: "...provide for the common defense..."

So let me ask you...what do you want?

Do you want a leader who will cut research into missile defense systems?

Do you want a leader who will refuse to put weapons in space, even if those who would like to destroy America are doing so?

Do you want a leader who will reduce the development of defensive combat systems?

Do you want a leader who will form a government board charged witht he responsibility of keeping our defense spending at a minimum?

Do you want a leader who will allow other countries to develop nuclear weapons, while dismantling our own and halting its development?

Do you want a leader who will ask untrustworthy nations to please stop producing nuclear devices?

Do you want a leader who will negotiate with people who have historically proven that they always negotiate in bad faith to take their Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles off alert?

Do you want a leader who will seek deep cuts in our defensive nuclear arsenal, while other countries continue to seek to increase theirs?

Well I have good news for you.

By his own words, which you can hear at

http://msunderestimated.com/2008/03/01/obamas-plans-for-our-military-video/

the leader you want is:

Barack Obama

GENESIS

The Book of Beginnings – written by Moses

Chapter 1

A. Creation

1. In the beginning

a. The Hebrew word is reshith

b. It assumes that there is an existence outside of time

c. The science of time

1) Time is relative

a) Time slows as the speed of light is approached

b) Sometimes time flies, sometimes it crawls

c) Time is about perception

2) God is not bound by time

a) What seems a long time to us is no time to Him

b) God’s timing is perfect because time does not exist

2. God

a. The Hebrew word is elohim (el means God; ohim is a plural ending)

1) a plural noun (more than one)

2) from the context of the rest of Scripture, we know it refers to only one God…yet as a plural it cannot refer to one God.

a) First hint of the triune God called the Trinity

b) Later we read "Let us make man in our own image…(Gen 1:26)

b. Scripture makes no attempt to prove God, it assumes God

c. Other Hebrew names for God: Yahweh (unpronounceable) ; elah (focus of worship) & tsur (rock)

3. Created

a. The Hebrew word is bara (to prepare, form or fashion)

1) Implies formation from nothing

a) "Big Bang" theory does not explain creation – what existed before the mass that exploded?

b) We can be creative in the sense of reorganizing things, but we can not make anything out of nothing

c) If a scientist "creates" life in the laboratory, that proves the necessity of intelligence (the scientist) to create life

Side Note: The current debate over intelligent design and evolution in our public schools is evidence of how important it has become to our society to keep God out of the equation of education.

4. The Heavens

a. The Hebrew word is shamayim (the heaved up things)

b. There are at least three heavens referred to in Scripture

1) The air we breathe (in the NT Greek: ouranothen [Acts 14:17 & 26: 13])

2) The Mid heaven (in the NT Greek: mesouraxema [Rev8:13; 14:6 & 19:17- referring to space, stars and heavenly bodies])

3) The dwelling place of eternity with God (NT Greek: epouranios [Matt. 18:35; Phil 2:10, etc.)

5. The Earth

a. The Hebrew word is erets (land)

1) This is a reference to the whole planet, but not as it exists now

a) It had no particular shape (without form and void)

b) It had no inhabitants

c) It had no atmosphere

d) It had no light

2) The shape of the earth is yet to come

6. The Spirit of God

a. was hovering over the waters

b. The Hebrew word is ruach (wind; breath)

c. This is what we now know as the Holy Spirit and should remind us of what we just studied in Acts 2 ("as a mighty rushing wind")

It is exciting to realize that the Bible contains 66 books, written over several thousand years by at least 40 different authors, most of whom had no contact
with the other writers or even access to their books, yet is constantly relating each of its parts to each of its other parts.

That’s because it really has only one author:

God.

In Memorium

This weekend we observe Memorial Day.

We remember those who have given their lives so we can:

1. Get up in the morning if we need to.

2. Have running water to bathe and shave in.

3. Have good smelling lotions to wear after we have cleaned up.

4. Have bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast.

5. Or if we prefer some other fare, to have it.

6. O not to eat breakfast at all if we don't want to.

7. To kiss our wives or husbands and drive our cars to work.

8. Or almost anywhere else we want to drive them.

9. To work at jobs we love, hate or just endure.

10. To change jobs if we want to.

11. To know that if we are willing to do what it takes to do what we want to do, we can do whatever we want to do...period.

12. Wanna be a doctor? Study to become a doctor.

13. Wanna be a mechanic? Study to become a mechanic.

14. Wanna be a radio announcer? Study to be a radio announcer.

15. You can be what you want to be, be it physicist or ditch digger, if you are willing to do what it takes to be what you want to be.

(I heard of a famous concert pianist who was approached by an audience member who said, "Oh, if I could play like you, I'd play all day long." To which he replied, "Madam, if you played all day long, you could play like I do.")

16. To stop at McDonalds on the way home and pick up a burger, or a large Coke, or a milk shake.

17. To greet your spouse with a kiss and eat a good dinner and watch the news.

18. To go bowling, or to the beach, or shopping.

19. To worship when, where and how you please.

20. Or not to worship at all, if that's your choice.

21. To own a home, or at least part of one.

22. To rent a home, if you prefer.

23. Any kind of home, any where you want a home.

24. To wear socks and even shoes.

25. To realize that, given world poverty, dictatorships, evil empires and the like, almost half of the world cannot do any of those things, even if they want to.

This country is, even with its faults, the best one in the world.

No?

Well, one of your freedoms is to leave it if you want to.

Or to help change it.

Frankly, I don't want to live like the French, or the Germains, or the Welch, or the Ugandans or the Britts, or the Canadians, or the Mexicans or the Panamanians, or the Chileans.

I love living like an American, a citizen of the United States of America.

Thank you to those who down the years have made it possible. We remember you with pride and gratitude.

Here is living proof that there are still those who make it their business to make it possible: http://www.warriorsthefilm.com/Movie.html

A Secular Government?...Part 1

If you believe that our forefathers set forth on this continent a secular government, you are either stupid, cannot read or are a blatant liar.

That includes, but is not restricted to, the likes of Larry King, Chris Matthews and a host of other "celebs" who espouse the secularity of our country.

You are fools...and that's the best that can be said of you.

Consider these quotes from Inaugural Addresses, farewell addresses and other addresses by our presidents:

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens." George Washington-in his farewell address.


"As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredation on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas--under these considerations it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants." John Adams

"Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people?" Thomas Jefferson

"In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future." James Madison

"Our free Government, founded on the interest and affections of the people, has gained and is daily gaining strength. Local jealousies are rapidly yielding to more generous, enlarged, and enlightened views of national policy. For advantages so numerous and highly important it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgements to that Omnipotent Being from whom they are derived, and in unceasing prayer that He will endow us with virtue and strength to maintain and hand them down in their utmost purity to our latest posterity." James Monroe


"Is there a possibility that the government of nations may fall into the hands of men who teach the most disconsolate of all creeds, that men are but fireflies, and that this all is without a father? Is this the way to make man, as man, an object of respect? Or is it to make murder itself as indifferent as shooting a plover, and the extermination of the Rohilla nation as innocent as the swallowing of mites on a morsel of cheese? If such a case should happen, would not one of these, the most credulous of all believers, have reason to pray to his eternal nature or his almighty chance (the more absurdity there is in this address the more in character) give us again the gods of the Greeks; give us again the more intelligible as well as more comfortable systems of Athanasius and Calvin; nay, give us again our popes and hierarchies, Benedictines and Jesuits, with all their superstition and fanaticism, impostures and tyranny." John Quincy Adams

"The same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction." Andrew Jackson

"So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances press themselves upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of duty did I not look for the generous aid of those who will be associated with me in the various and coordinate branches of the Government; did I not repose with unwavering reliance on the patriotism, the intelligence, and the kindness of a people who never yet deserted a public servant honestly laboring their cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly to hope for the sustaining support of an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence." Martin Van Buren

I will give you them all as future posts are prepared.