Who will stand in the gap?

 

 

 

"I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one..."

Ezekiel 22:30

Standing in the gap has very biblical roots. It has also developed into a modern day motto which speaks to dependability, character and value. I think of this verse quite a bit today as it relates to what is happening in our society, our country, our world.

Back when I was younger, the stereotype difference between Republicans and Democrats was very simple - Democrats were the "tax and spend" party which were always looking for more revenue, and Republicans were the party of "fiscal constraint" which were constantly looking to "right size" a bloated government. However, that was the old days.

What I have been hearing more and more from friends on the right is this - what in the world has happened to the Republican Party? It is true they don't spend as much as Democrats when they are in power, but they still spend. Now I am a fan of President Bush (43). I find him to be a good and honorable man. That being said, President Bush also ran up our national debt while he was in office. True, we did have the terror attack which led to a very expensive response. However, how we funded Medicare Part "D" was way beyond the pale. 

The people in the country who pay the bills are searching high and low for a person of fiscal and conservative principals to save the day. They are looking for a person of conviction who will do the following:

• Establish a balanced budget which allows for a zero dollar deficit each year. It is time to stop the bleeding. During the fiscal year, should emergency funding be needed, a corresponding offset in another part of the budget would be used.
• Do a annual "health check" on ALL existing programs which require yearly funding. The way things are now, we promulgate programs and they continue into infinity. This is fiscal madness. We have many programs which are outdated, redundant or just plain stupid.
• Besides having a zero dollar deficit every year, establish and begin a plan to slowly (without killing the economy) starts to reduce our debt. What any debt counselor will tell you is this - it takes a long time to get into a financial mess, and it will take a long time to get out of one. However, you must start TODAY, or it will never happen.

Who do we have that will stand in the gap to fight the debt monster. Is there not one among us who has the same Reagan type of courage and conviction? To know we have found the right  person, I believe he or she must have some core principals. First, we need someone of integrity and truth that can tell the masses we all have a drug problem - that is a debt problem. As with any addiction, the first step towards recovery is problem recognition. We need to admit we have a debt problem and ignoring it will only make it worse. No more "kicking the can down the street" - the battle starts today. 

Next, we need strength. We need a strong leader who will fight the uphill battle and never tire. We need someone who will once again remind us it is "morning in America", and we are the "shining city on the hill" for all to see. We do have American Exceptionalism. We don't need apologists and Nay-Sayers. We tried that, and it did not work. 

Our republic is at stake. Is it too late? Possibly, but I sure hope not. However, we have very little time. A clarion call needs to go out from all who care - is there not one amongst us that will stand in the gap? If the answer comes back "no", our gap will become a chasm which will never be bridged.

The Winter of Our Discontent

“Intention, good or bad, is not enough.”

 

The Winter of Our Discontent

John Steinbeck 

Here we sit halfway through a brutal December as the New Year looms on the horizon. As encouraging as it is to know we have less than 90 days left of meteorological winter, and less than 60 days until pitchers and catchers report to spring training, we still have a butt load of cold, ugly winter left.

So I started thinking what was in the offing once we finished Christmas and started 2014. Here goes:

• With the passage of the two year "deal" (don't worry, the Senate will pass it also) we have "green lighted" the spendaholics to go wild once again. Print, borrow, spend - print, borrow, spend. Party on, Dude!
• President "Selfie" is getting ready to leave for 17 days in the Aloha State. Not to worry - we will hear again from the press that all Presidents need a vacation. The problem is this - while many Americans are hanging on for dear life, the royal family will be pampered in pink again, complements of you and me. 
• The plight of the hungry and homeless in our country continues to escalate. As much as we are trying to keep this blight on our society hidden, the problem is now busting at the seams. The Left will continue to blame the upper crust, as the sluggish economy continues to produce more victims.
• Similar to the 16 year old lad who had his parents "lawyer him up" after driving drunk and killing 4 innocents, the guilty involved in Benghazi, Fast and Furious, NSA, IRS and so on are going to "skate". The Left has provided a cocoon of protection around the Administration perps. Look for many of the scandals to die a quiet death in 2014.
• The best for last - ObamaCare. The hits just keep on coming. This weekend we found out the head of MNsure, a lady with many names, decided to go on a Caribbean vacation while the MNsure web portal was in distress. No biggie - in the real world, someone she would have been fired for that - but we are not in the real world. The Feds portal is still going down, people who signed up are finding out they still are uninsured and someone forgot to put the sub-routine in the program which allows monies to go to the insurance companies. After the first of the year, our little "shop of horrors" will really get scary.

Well, there it is in a nutshell. It is one thing to have the weather so brutal, it is quite another to have such a collection of hot messes going on in Washington. The ones in flyover country who pay the bills, marvel at the incompetency which permeates all levels of government. Soon, our debt will eclipse $20T and our once great nation will be teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

I have said this before - instead of planning for tomorrow and living for today, our new motto should be "smoke them if you have them". In other words, spend your money now. Donate more, and spend more on goods and services for your family. Soon our money will be as useless as the people who are making it that way.

Today's Church

"Christians are perceived better by the world when their faith is a verb as well as a noun..."

This article I write out of love. I am not anti-church - on the contrary, I love the church. It is a gift from God. It is the Bride of Christ. I have attended many churches, served in different churches, including lay ministry, and was paid staff for a while in a large church. I am not an expert on churches, but I do know a wee bit on the why and how they operate.

The church that I worked at was a different denomination than my home church. Oh, I was familiar with it - it was the denomination I was married in. I long ago gave up on religion. Most followers of Christ have. Paul put an end to religion and legalism. In addition, I have very little time for minor doctrinal differences between churches. Many times they can cause a rift in fellowship or a disruption in Koinonia, which is so important to so many churches.

The Pastor Emeritus at the church that I worked at, was a very good and wise man. He and I became fast friends. He knew I was from a different denomination, and it mattered not to him. Not so with much of the other staff. The Pastor Emeritus and I would get into deep and probing discussions on why both denominations were shrinking in membership. It was a bothersome trend for many reasons. The statistics that we were looking at did show a positive growth in cell churches and non-denominational churches. However many liturgical churches were in decline.

One of the things we both agreed on was this - for a church to grow and thrive, it must 1) stay Biblically sound and 2) be more than just a building that people come to an hour a week. The church is the body - not the building. The building is a place where people of faith come not only to worship, but also to become equipped on how live their faith. Live their faith in the hundreds of hours they are not in the church building. In other words, how to live and practice their faith, so people who are un-churched, or searching, would notice the difference.

I was asked a one time which church was better - a traditional, liturgical church, or a contemporary, non-liturgical church. My answer was both. I have worshiped in both and enjoy each. What I do tell people is this - if the church you are attending is not biblically based, leave. If you find the church you are attending to be "boring", you might want to visit other churches. If you feel you have to go to church rather than wanting to church, you might want to do some soul searching.

When we dropped off our Operation Christmas Child donations at a local church of a different denomination, I asked a few questions about the church. The lady we talked to gave me a very simple answer on how to describe her church. She said only one thing - "We are very mission-centric." That was enough for me. Churches that I have been involved in which are bible based, have a bold vision, as well as serving and sponsoring active missions, are the ones I find the most alive. 

The church remains the Bride of Christ. It is our gift, our tool used to practice the Great Commission. This morning, no matter what church you find yourself in, be grateful in your worship. In many areas of the world, going to a church is not an option. In fact, it can be deadly. Christians know that the "fields are many and the workers are few". There is joyous work left to be done for the sake of the Kingdom. Time to get busy.

Lunch Time

 

 

 

"In the land of plenty, how can some have so much, yet many end up with so little?"

Earlier this week, we took my Father-in-Law out to lunch to celebrate his 90th birthday. We went to a nicer restaurant, located not that far from his apartment. My wife and I ordered a sandwich, and my Father-in-Law ordered a half order of spare ribs. When our meals came, the portions were absolutely HUGE! Each of us could only eat a half of what we ordered. My wife and I had the rest of our lunch for supper that night when we got home.

Why do I bring this up? I have noticed more and more the portion size has increased in many restaurants. By the same token, the number of people who daily do not have enough to eat is also going up. What is wrong with this picture? In our land of plenty, the bread basket of the world, while we continue to dine on Gulliver size portions, others go to bed either hungry or malnourished.

After working a few food drives for the Anoka County Food Shelf, the subject of community hunger has become crystal clear to me. It is a big and growing problem. As bad as it is, the problem of world hunger is much, much worse. Thoughts of the 4,000+ children (mostly in Africa) who die daily from drinking tainted drinking water or starvation, haunts my mealtimes. Here I sat at that restaurant, with a portion big enough to feed two or three people, while there are many in the world who have never seen that much eatable food.

What to do? For a start, Minnesota is home base to an organization called Feed My Starving Children. This is an amazing group of people who have dedicated their lives to collecting enough basic food items just to keep some children alive for a day. Many of the food items are donated by kind and generous food manufacturers and then packaged into individual servings by volunteers from the community. The food is then sent overseas to places which absolutely need it the most. Once there it is mixed with water to constitute a meal nutritious enough to sustain life for one child, for one day.

What my wife and I have recently realized is this - potable water is critical to the equation. Many impoverished areas this much needed food goes in to, do not have adequate supplies of potable water. That is the bad news. The good news is this problem is now becoming much more known and addressed. Organizations of good repute are collecting monies to dig wells, buy water purification systems and so on. For Christmas this year, my wife and I are buying a portion of a deep well that will serve a community with good, clean water for years to come.

Hunger is a problem that will not go away any time soon in either our community or our world. However, it is a problem we can do something about. My advice is simply this - if you are not already involved, give it a try. It will make your next oversized meal out much easier to swallow.

Income Inequality

"Get ready America - the King is now going to come after your wallet..."

 

Well kids, the cat is now out of the bag. I have not yet figured out if the cat was let out accidentally or on purpose. Starting in January, with the State of the Union Address, our President/King will make his next push to transform our country, once again. This time he is going after the dreaded "One Percent" types - the Robber Barons. The income inequality in this great nation has gotten too far out of control, and by gummy, this is going to be fixed for once and for all!

As if he did not need any more urging, the new Socialist mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, is going to travel to the Emerald City today to meet with the President. The main topic - income equality. We have a long way baby since the days of Ronald Wilson Reagan. He also was deeply concerned about income inequality. The difference was, he wanted less poor people by moving them up into the middle, upper middle and upper classes. As a true "free trader", President Reagan was convinced that a "rising tide will lift all boats".

This President by contrast, believes just the opposite. Those who have money did not get it by risk or hard work - they got it because American is a "zero sum" society. In other words, those who accumulate additional wealth, do so only because someone else had to relinquish some of theirs. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Of course, the growing income gap in this country has NOTHING to do with the most tepid recovery since the Great Depression. But, this is what happens when a nation elects a President (twice) who was short on experience and long on ideology.

If you sniff the air, you can pick up the scent of what is in the offing.

• First - The top tier is not paying enough. We need to be more like France. So what if the people in France almost revolted. We need a confiscatory tax that will level the playing field.
• Second - What is up with all this hidden wealth? We need a "wealth tax". We will have some community organizing bureaucrat come in to assess your property and holdings. Then besides the grossly unfair income tax you will be paying, Uncle Sam will tax you an additional ten percent or so on your wealth.
• Finally - All your benefits will be "means tested". Regardless of how much you paid in for them, if the Administration adjudicates that you have enough money, you won't receive them.

I know, I know. This sounds like the script to a horror flick or another dystopian novel. It is neither. Each and every scenario I have mentioned has been talked about by someone on the Left. They believe since all else has failed, we as a society will take your money and give it to others. Even out the playing field. It is only fair you know. In fact, even though it is pure Socialism bordering on Communism, we will still call it free market Capitalism. They are just words after all.

So take if from the old bird - if you have some money, enjoy it fast. The handwriting is on the wall that soon the yours, mine and ours will be reduced down to just "ours". Those that wanted real fundamental change in this country are now seeing what it looks like. In the near future, it will look like poverty for all of us.

 

 

 

The Alpha Experience

"It is a program for the un-churched, the under-churched, and even the over-churched. It is a 10 week course designed to let all get to know the real Jesus..."

It was not that long after we joined our former church. We kept hearing about this program they offered called Alpha. We were asked if we would like to be a part of the next class. At first we said no - we thought it was for mostly unbelievers. After all, I had just got off the church council at the church we had left. We really did not need it - so we thought.

A few months had gone by, and the church hired a young teaching pastor. He was very familiar with the Alpha Program, had taught it, and wholeheartedly endorsed it. We had instant chemistry with this new pastor, and rapidly became friends. It was not that long before he asked us if we would take the Alpha class. We agreed, and signed up for the next session offered.

Alpha is a program developed by "Nicky" Gumbel, an ordained Anglican priest from the United Kingdom. He is the developer of the Alpha Course, which is a basic introduction to Christianity. It is supported by many churches from many Christian denominations. For some churches, it caught on like wild fire - for others, not so much. In our church, it was much the former of the two.

We took the course with tepid expectations. After all, we had gone to church for most of our adult lives, so what could this possibly teach us that we did not already know. Turns out, quite a bit. The formula for the course was the same for whatever church it was taught in. Gather together for some social time and a supper, have worship time, and then hear a teaching lesson. After the lesson, break into small groups to engage in some pro-forma discussion points. Towards the end of the 10 week course, there is an entire weekend devoted to learning about, and experiencing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It was the highlight of the course for many.

After the course, we were hooked. My wife and I were small group leaders for three more classes, and I was the Alpha Director for one more. When I left for a while to work at another church, I started an Alpha Program there. When I left to come back to my home church, the course ran for at least four more sessions at the church I worked at. That is how the Alpha Program grew - organically. Someone would take it to another church, train them, and then they were off and running.

Although the Alpha experience is now somewhat distant in our past, we will never forget it. We still see some who were with us in our small groups. In the program, we experienced minor and major miracles of transformation. We saw the broken hearted healed, the bitter become better, and many who were sad or mad become joyful. Without a doubt, the time we spent in Alpha was some of the best we had in our adult lives. 

At our Nicky Gumbel Alpha training session, Alpha was defined as follows: "It is a program for the un-churched, the under-churched, and even the over-churched. It is a 10 week course designed to let all get to know the real Jesus..." If you ever have the opportunity to take Alpha at your church or a neighboring one, I highly recommend it. It is a life changer for some, a wonderful experience for all.

The Tale of the American Chicken

 

 

 

"I knew this deal would be bad, but this outcome is no better than kissing you sister..."

 

A couple of weeks ago, the hometown team played the villains from across the border to a tie in a football game. Nobody on either side was happy - a tie meant nothing - nothing was settled. One of the sportscasters said, "Playing to a tie is like kissing your sister." Well the deal that was reached yesterday on the debt, debt limit and CR is worst than playing for a tie. It is once again, kicking the can down the street.

Not only will this deal not reduce the debt, it is going to add another $60B back into it by relieving some of the sequester cuts. Really? As much as many crabbed about the sequester cuts, they were the only real cuts that have been made for a long, long time. So the chattering class is patting themselves on the backs, and the band will play on. The fact the President likes it should be the number one warning flag to all fiscal conservatives.

The only humor in this entire issue was when Paul Ryan was on Fox yesterday describing the deal. His words - "This will now give us the time to work on the tough issues of entitlement reform and a new tax code." To that I say "Crap!" That will never happen. Unless there is a cliff ahead or a gun to the head, these overpaid, under worked civil serants will do nothing. Let me say that again - NOTHING.

The President is still focused on taking back the House and putting Ms. Nancy back as Speaker. ALL the pundits of honesty are now saying the House will remain in Republican hands and the Senate might flip. So until the 2014 election, there will be no cooperation between the House, Senate or the Administration. The debt will continue to climb, the ACA will continue to crumble, and the phony numbers on Wall Street will continue to set records. In other words, the band will play on, and on, and on.

Am I surprised by this outcome? Actually, I am. Although I knew it would be a "nothing burger", I did not think it would be this bad. I truly expected more of Paul Ryan. The fear of another government shutdown has caused leaders of conviction to act like the American Chicken. After Thanksgiving, we don't need anymore poultry for a while.