Vengeance is Mine

Deuteronomy 32:35-36, “Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; because the day of their calamity is at hand, their doom comes swiftly. Indeed the LORD will vindicate his people, have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, neither bond nor free remaining.”

One of the great challenges in life is to not take vengeance. In 1782, Pierre Ambroise Francios Choderios de Laclos wrote, “Revenge [vengeance] is a dish best served cold.” He didn’t attend to what God said that revenge [vengeance] belongs to God alone. Often we want to get even or even up the score or regain wholeness; and our method in doing so is exacting revenge [vengeance] on those who hurt us. If it is justice that we seek, then seek justice and let God serve the revenge [vengeance], else our souls will be in mortal danger.

Prayer: Father, thank You for today and for Jesus Christ who came to save us and to be our judge. Help us get into Your Way and desire for us. Let revenge and vengeance alone be Your province. In Jesus’ Name we pray. AMEN

Current Rage

The current rage in politics is Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Why? I believe the answer to why he is the current rage is the current rage of the American electorate. Americans are angry at elected officials who choose to ignore us and not do what we asked them to do. America is not Europe. While many of our ancestors came from Europe the reason many left Europe to begin with was to get away from Europe. Some of our ancestors are from Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Every one of our ancestors came here to get away from the status quo of Euro-imperialism and bigotry. The exceptions are those who came as indentured servants and slaves. America came to its being through a harsh struggle at times tearing itself apart to remake itself. But here we are in 2010 where a black man is the sitting president and the nation is angry not because the president is black but because he and the rest of the political elitists and statists have decided that we aren’t intelligent enough to know what is good for us so they are going to ram what’s good for us down our throats and we get to like it.

Guess what? The most liberal and Democrat state in the union, Massachusetts, just elected a conservative Republican as the new senator to fill the seat held by the most liberal senator on the floor. Scott Brown is every man, woman and child in this nation who seeks her or his own way through self-determination not governmental central planning in its nanniest of states. He made an interesting comment that he is the 41st vote but so is every other Senator who chooses liberty over tyranny. CINCO (comrade-in-chief-Obama) said that Scott Brown was swept into office for the same reason that he was. That’s a lie! CINCO has spent so much time believing all the god-terms associated with his candidacy and qualifications that he suddenly believes that every man, woman and child thinks as he does.

This is rage against your Chicago-style politics as usual CINCO. Get over your self-indulgent, self flattery and land the ship of state in reality. You have failed miserably in every endeavor that you and the Demokrat party have taken this Nation.

Congratulations Massachusetts for having the presence of mind and conscience to say no to this political recklessness and to show America that there is still a tree of Liberty in your hearts.

First Fruit

Leviticus 23:9-11, “The LORD spoke to Moses: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall raise the sheaf before the LORD, that you may find acceptance; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall raise it.”

What is our first fruit? It is our salary, income, receipts for services, proceeds from the sale of an item or property and it represents the pre-tax amount or gross sale. The tithe is part of the first fruit and it is one-tenth. This long ago was given to Moses by God to remind us of the source of our abundance. Some in ministry abuse the giving practice and have at heart a monument building intent. These individuals are no different from those in Jerusalem whose intent was strengthening their coffers for the purposes of riches and power. God’s intent for the first fruit offering is a reminder of the source of mercy and an honor to God. Let us remember what God has done and let us honor God by keeping this ordinance.

Prayer: Father we thank You for all that we have received in Your mercy. Forgive us we pray when we fail to remember and help us to become better stewards and more faithful in our attention to Your ordinances. In Jesus’ Name we pray. AMEN.

Holy Days and Holy Ways

Leviticus 23:1-8, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: These are the appointed festivals of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations, my appointed festivals. Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a Sabbath to the LORD throughout your settlements. These are the appointed festivals of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall celebrate at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight, there shall be a Passover offering to the LORD, and on the fifteenth day of the same month is the festival of unleavened bread to the LORD; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not work at your occupations. For seven days you shall present the LORD’S offerings by fire; on the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation: you shall not work at your occupations.”

After bringing the people of the House of Jacob (Israel) out of Egypt and into the wilderness God spoke to Moses to have the people set apart celebrations and remembrances of God’s acts in redemption of Israel. So holy were these times of remembrance that no work could be done. These celebrations and worship of God were held in the same regard as the Sabbath. Over time the House of Jacob would turn these days into such perfunctory performances that the worship of God was driven out replaced with ‘duty and obligation.’ What God did for Israel should have been held in the deepest of reverence and love yet the people of Israel had a way of corrupting the holiest of days into duty when what God wanted was worship and love and honor. How do we honor God today? Do we make others work so we won’t have to? Or do we set aside the Holy days of god for God worship?

Prayer: Eternal and loving God thank You for the day that wasn’t promised. Turn our thoughts, words and deeds back to you. Help us live Your expectation of us. In Jesus’ Name we pray. AMEN.

"Why I am Not a Communist" by Betrand Russell

"Why I am Not a Communist"

by Betrand Russell

"I am completely at a loss to understand how it came about that some people who are both humane and intelligent could find something to admire in the vast slave camp produced by Stalin."

In relation to any political doctrine there are two questions to be asked: (1) Are its theoretical tenets true? (2) Is its practical policy likely to increase human happiness? For my part, I think the theoretical tenets of Communism are false, and I think its practical maxims are such as to produce an immeasurable increase of human misery.

The theoretical doctrines of Communism are for the most part derived from Marx. My objections to Marx are of two sorts: one, that he was muddle-headed; and the other, that his thinking was almost entirely inspired by hatred. The doctrine of surplus value, which is supposed to demonstrate the exploitation of wage-earners under capitalism, is arrived at: (a) by surreptitiously accepting Malthus's doctrine of population, which Marx and all his disciples explicitly repudiate; (b) by applying Ricardo's theory of value to wages, but not to the prices of manufactured articles. He is entirely satisfied with the result, not because it is in accordance with the facts or because it is logically coherent, but because it is calculated to rouse fury in wage-earners. Marx's doctrine that all historical events have been motivated by class conflicts is a rash and untrue extension to world history of certain features prominent in England and France a hundred years ago. His belief that there is a cosmic force called Dialectical Materialism which governs human history independently of human volitions, is mere mythology. His theoretical errors, however, would not have mattered so much but for the fact that, like Tertullian and Carlyle, his chief desire was to see his enemies punished, and he cared little what happened to his friends in the process.

Marx's doctrine was bad enough, but the developments which it underwent under Lenin and Stalin made it much worse. Marx had taught that there would be a revolutionary transitional period following the victory of the proletariat in a civil war and that during this period the proletariat, in accordance with the usual practice after a civil war, would deprive its vanquished enemies of political power. This period was to be that of the dictatorship of the proletariat. It should not be forgotten that in Marx's prophetic vision the victory of the proletariat was to come after it had grown to be the vast majority of the population. The dictatorship of the proletariat therefore as conceived by Marx was not essentially anti-democratic. In the Russia of 1917, however, the proletariat was a small percentage of the population, the great majority being peasants. it was decreed that the Bolshevik party was the class-conscious part of the proletariat, and that a small committee of its leaders was the class-conscious part of the Bolshevik party. The dictatorship of the proletariat thus came to be the dictatorship of a small committee, and ultimately of one man - Stalin. As the sole class-conscious proletarian, Stalin condemned millions of peasants to death by starvation and millions of others to forced labour in concentration camps. He even went so far as to decree that the laws of heredity are henceforth to be different from what they used to be, and that the germ-plasm is to obey Soviet decrees but that that reactionary priest Mendel. I am completely at a loss to understand how it came about that some people who are both humane and intelligent could find something to admire in the vast slave camp produced by Stalin.

I have always disagreed with Marx. My first hostile criticism of him was published in 1896. But my objections to modern Communism go deeper than my objections to Marx. It is the abandonment of democracy that I find particularly disastrous. A minority resting its powers upon the activities of secret police is bound to be cruel, oppressive and obscurantist. The dangers of the irresponsible power cane to be generally recognized during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but those who have forgotten all that was painfully learnt during the days of absolute monarchy, and have gone back to what was worst in the middle ages under the curious delusion that they were in the vanguard of progress.

There are signs that in course of time the Russian régime will become more liberal. But, although this is possible, it is very far from certain. In the meantime, all those who value not only art and science but a sufficiency of bread and freedom from the fear that a careless word by their children to a schoolteacher may condemn them to forced labour in a Siberian wilderness, must do what lies in their power to preserve in their own countries a less servile and more prosperous manner of life.

There are those who, oppressed by the evils of Communism, are led to the conclusion that the only effective way to combat these evils is by means of a world war. I think this a mistake. At one time such a policy might have been possible, but now war has become so terrible and Communism has become so powerful that no one can tell what would be left after a world war, and whatever might be left would probably be at least as bad as present -day Communism. This forecast does not depend upon the inevitable effects of mass destruction by means of hydrogen and cobalt bombs and perhaps of ingeniously propagated plagues. The way to combat Communism is not war. What is needed in addition to such armaments as will deter Communists from attacking the West, is a diminution of the grounds for discontent in the less prosperous parts of the non-communist world. In most of the countries of Asia, there is abject poverty which the West ought to alleviate as far as it lies in its power to do so. There is also a great bitterness which was caused by the centuries of European insolent domination in Asia. This ought to be dealt with by a combination of patient tact with dramatic announcements renouncing such relics of white domination as survive in Asia. Communism is a doctrine bred of poverty, hatred and strife. Its spread can only be arrested by diminishing the area of poverty and hatred.

from Portraits from Memory published in 1956

While Russell was a philosopher and logician (aka dreamer) he was practical.  He was a socialist and I thought that reading his thoughts on a nanny/totalitarian state under the guise of socialism might be helpful.  Dr. Russell's opinions are not mine - we share intersections in thought.

Socialism/communism

I felt that it is necessary to review again the tenets of socialism/communism:

Marx described three necessary phases toward achieving his ideal state (Summarized from the communist manifesto).

Phase 1: A revolution must take place in order to overthrow the existing government. Marx emphasized the nee¬d for total destruction of the existing system in order to move on to Phase 2.

Phase 2: A dictator or elite leader (or leaders) must gain absolute control over the proletariat. During this phase, the new government exerts absolute control over the common citizen's personal choices -- including his or her education, religion, employment and even marriage. Collectivization of property and wealth must also take place.

Phase 3: Achievement of utopia. This phase has never been attained because it requires that all non-communists be destroyed in order for the Communist Party to achieve supreme equality. In a Marxist utopia, everyone would happily share property and wealth, free from the restrictions that class-based systems require. The government would control all means of production so that the one-class system would remain constant, with no possibility of any middle class citizens rising back to the top.

Marx also detailed the 10 essential tenets of communism:

• Central banking system

• Government controlled education

• Government controlled labor

• Government ownership of transportation and communication vehicles

• Government ownership of agricultural means and factories

• Total abolition of private property

• Property rights confiscation

• Heavy income tax on everyone

• Elimination of rights of inheritance

• Regional planning

Use this as a checklist with Congress, the Senate and CINCO.

Away

Hello my sisters and brothers in Christ!

I have been swamped with other duties and have not been writing.  Please forgive my interruption.  So much has happened that we must stay current.  I look forward to hearing from you in 2010.  My earnest prayer is that 2010 will be a memorable year for all the right reasons. 

May God bless you and fill you with the desire to speak your heart in Christ, in truth, and with integrity.