A few great quotes in my life the past couple of days:


"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size.  Government programs, once launched, never disappear.  Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!" ~Reagan

"...before a moral society can arrive at depravity, it must first travel through absurdity.  We are certainly at absurdity now." ~Michael Kasper

Charity, Economics, and the Bible

The following post is in collaboration with Mark Ross at The Original Republican.  Enjoy.  And comment below if you'd like.

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Being an American, and having grown up in our predominantly Capitalist country, I have never really had the occasion to ponder economics as it related to my faith. I had always worked, gone to church, and, for the most part, like millions of other Americans, have taken for granted the economic system that we have grown up with.

 It wasn't until a few years ago that I began hearing some fellow Americans citing Biblical verses in a manner that was tacitly, if not explicitly, promoting Socialism and Communism. For a Christian person, like myself, who has always cherished the freedoms we have had in this country, and felt blessed for the standard of living that we have had in this country, it is beyond disconcerting.

 Over the last year or so, I have had some informal conversations with some fellow Christian friends, in regards to this subject; but, for some reason, over the last few months, I have felt compelled to make an attempt to try to truly understand God's true intentions, as written in The Bible, in regards to how Christians should be conducting themselves, economically, charitably etc.

 Recently, I began discussing economics with my fellow Christian friend Kori, as it related to our faith. In the past, myself and Kori have collaborated on the subject of Christianity and Marriage, which, with her permission, ended up as an insightful post on this site; and, to which we were fortunate enough to have many great comments. Since she did such a wonderful job at researching Scripture, and Biblical history, in regards to that subject, I was inclined to ask her to collaborate, once again, with me, on this subject.

 With Kori's permission, I would like to share her recent e-mail correspondence to me:

Theme of our culture...withdraw yourself

Theme of our culture:

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from truth, and be turned aside to fables."  (2 Tim. 4:3-4)

False teachers beware:

"My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment." (James 3:1)

God does not take lightly the leading astray and deceiving of His own.

Matthew 18:6 - "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea."

We must wisely, carefully, and with all truth impart the Word of God.  ALL of it is true...or none of it is.  We can't pick and choose what we like to "tickle our itching ears" and make us feel good about our sin.  There are many churches that are more concerned with being "user friendly" than true.  "If anyone teaches otherwise...  From such withdraw yourself."  (1 Tim. 6:3-6)

Pray about the Prop 8 Supreme Court Ruling tomorrow

Hello Pray-ers,

Tomorrow is the very important decision on what kind of "marriage" is Constitutional according to the Supreme Court.

From CWA LAC:

"Make no mistake: YOU will be forced to choose between keeping your religious beliefs or supporting 'gay rights.'  TOMORROW the Supreme Court rules on constitutional marriage.  Please pray for the laws being made in our country.

Please be in fervent prayer today and tonight as this ruling is handed down.
And pray sincerely for marriages all over th world that reflect the marriage of the church to the eternal Bridegroom.  The mystery of marriage is that it is a picture of Christ and the church.
Join me in prayer!

"Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lam is come, and His wife has made herself ready.  Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb...these are the true sayings of God...worship God." (Rev. 19:7-10)

We are a selfish, disobedient, debased people.  Please, God, intervene in our laws and make things right.  Much more - intervene in our hearts and make things right.

God's kingdom will come to earth as it is in Heaven!  Come quickly, Lord Jesus!  Rescue us from these bodies of death.

"The founders of Harvard got it right when they crafted their 'Rules and Precepts' in the early 1640's: 'Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life...and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom, as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.'"

~Zan Tyler, home school pioneer

Really, nothing else in life is nearly as important as securing your eternal destiny. EVERYONE will live forever. Where will you spend it? 

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." ~Jesus (John 14:6)

A Man Called Peter

“I suggest to you that America needs a prophet today.  A prophet who will set before the nation the essential choices.  In the words of that great poet and the essayist J. B. Holland: ‘God give us men - men whom the lust of office does not kill, men whom the spoils of office can not buy, men who possess opinions and the will, men who have honor, men who will not lie, men who can stand before a demagogue and damn his treacherous flatteries without winking.  Tall men...who live above the fog in public duty and in private thinking.’

Millions of people in America live in moral fogs.   They move in a sort of spiritual twilight, modified immorality.  Modified dishonesty is the practice of millions more.  Surely the time has come for us to be honest about it.  If we have thrown away our national heritage... If we no longer believe that this nation was founded under God...  If, contrary to what is stamped upon our coins, our trust is not in God but in Baal...  Let us say so.  Let us, at least, not be hypocrites.  

Yes, like the ancient Hebrew nation, America needs a prophet like an Elijah... a prophet who will have the ear of America and will say to her now, ‘If the Lord be God then follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him, and go to hell!”  

~Dr. Peter Marshall

not really a p.c. sermon.  Preach it, Marshall!  and this was back in 1950-ish.  

The book, "A Man Called Peter" and movie by the same title are something to get your hands on.  The movie is available on Netflix. fyi.

Real Patriots in my heritage!

My recently-retired, darling Aunt Toby is taking on a new hobby: Ancestry research.

Apparently, my sixth great grandfather on my Grandpa McClain's side, John Drury Ledbetter, served in the 6th Virginia Regiment in the Revolutionary War.

This makes me (and all the women in my family) eligible to be a member of Daughters of the America Revolution.
Not sure that I will pursue that.  I am still researching it.  

Also, this fun find today:

"193 years before the Kori's birth, Colonel Arthur Forbis from Philladelphia, husband of 5th great grandmother Elizabeth Wiley (on the McClain side), was gravely wound during the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Guilford_Court_HouseHe died on March 15, 1781 [my birthday]
Elizabeth found him on the battleground. Upon his death, she applied for state aid was awarded 25 barrels of corn.She then married Arthur's brother Major John Forbis also a soldier in the Revolutionary War.
So that makes three patriots so far on Dad's side of the family."

Anyway, fun for me.  I feel like a revolutionary princess. :)  Very proud to have had family that served in securing the independence of this great nation.