Tag: Freedom

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Freedom to Express Our Faith

In 1994 while working at a scientific laboratory, I was told to remove my Bible from the top of my desk and to refrain from praying on government property. I asked the question typical of a five-year-old: “Why?” The response was, “This is government property and we need to become a religion-free work-place.

You may imagine some thoughts that raced through my mind. I wouldn’t argue because I was on government time and I desired to honor my authorities. I did, however, realize that this was one side of a double-standard aimed against Christians. So, remembering a recent Laboratory-sponsored event, I said:

“Last week we observed Native American Heritage Week here in the laboratory’s main auditorium. Every day at 8:00 AM and again at 1:00 PM for a total of ten meetings, a different Native American group opened their meeting by reciting their tribal prayer. If the Lab supports or allows the Native Americans to pray to their gods on government property, I also claim that same privilege of praying to the Judeo-Christian God. And if there are any questions about that, you know my phone number.

That settled the issue. Why? Simply because I lived what I believed; supported my beliefs with fact and laboratory precedent; did not condemn or look down on others, and loved people. Did I confront people? Yes. But was I confrontational? No. Non-Christians and I do not have to agree with each other, but we all work well together because we do not intimidate each other, and we respect each other. 

A number of years ago while visiting my mother-in-law in a nursing facility, I was speaking with her husband, Charles, about trusting the Lord while knowing that Mom could die soon. A social-worker walking by stopped and rather sternly asked Charles, “Do you want to listen to this?”DSCN4637B

That took Charles off-guard and he was speechless, so, I said to the social-worker, “Charles is my step-dad, and we talk openly and freely together.” It was her turn to be dumb-founded, and she walked away. Mom passed away shortly thereafter, and Charles and I still love each other.

Zig Ziglar said in an interview with Michael Ireland on March 11, 2006, “The biggest lie Satan has ever told is that ‘it is okay to talk about your faith in church or at home, but otherwise, it is a personal matter.’ The reality is, everyone else has come out of the closet, and Christians need to come out and make it clear where they are coming from. Now, the life that they live will be totally believed if they live as Christ taught us to live. However, if you do not follow the Ten Commandments, if you do not have the Fruit of the Spirit, if you do not go out in the Full Armor of God, if you do not go out believing that the Golden Rule is a wonderful, working rule in your relationships with all people, then all of the conversations that you will have will fall on deaf ears. What you are speaks louder than what you say.”

 And to that I say a hearty Amen!

While we Christians are to respect people and obey our authorities, we should stand up for truth and righteousness. No one else will. We are to obey those in authority over us unless they demand that we disobey God and Holy Scripture. We are not to be argumentative, but freedom of speech applies to all sections of our society. So, let’s exercise that freedom. As Edmond Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Therefore, it is very important to vote into office godly people, then pray for them to stand for truth. Our leaders must retain our historical, inalienable/Constitutional right of freedom of speech and freedom of worship.

But many in the world live under a different historical and cultural setting. They don’t have the freedom of speech or freedom of religion built into their culture. What are they supposed to do? How are they supposed to live?

DSCN2701My answer ultimately applies to everyone in the world – living in the United States of America or anywhere else. We are to live according to the principles as found in Holy Scripture: the Bible. My reasoning is simple: if we live to please and honor Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, we will have a home in heaven forever even if we are killed here on earth for our faith. This life is so short anyway; why not prepare to live forever with God in heaven?

That way, we will have the freedom to express our faith as long as we live. No one can take that freedom from us.

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Problems Continue to Infect Us

What I will say today might be equally true for other nations, because many nations have turned away from the ideals of their founding fathers.

America’s convoluted concepts of preferential freedom of speech, inequitable freedom of religion, promotion of inverse morality, approval of re-written history, and the love affair of corrupted, degrading, murderous, and perverted entertainment are accomplishing within the United States of America what the Nazis, Communists, drug-lords, crime mafia, Taliban, Al Qaeda, et al, could not do. That is: degrade, demoralize, and desecrate our nation. Interestingly, our esteemed presidents and the US Congress – both parties – have been helping this to happen. What am I talking about?

For starters, we are told that if guns were banned less people would be murdered. That is foggy thinking because the criminal will steal or keep his own weapons and the mentally sick person will steal his, while the up-standing, law-abiding citizen will obey the law and be left defenseless.

Evil is in the heart and mind of man – not in the pistol, rifle, blow-gun, bow & arrow, poison, knife, rock, baseball bat, chemicals, abortion tools, brass knuckles, or the rest of the endless means of ending a person’s life. Banning implements used for killing people will never solve the problem because evil minds are very creative in forming new ways of killing.

Murder originates in the mind, not in an object. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22,250px-Chimp_Brain_in_a_jar “You have heard that it was said to our people long ago, ‘You must not murder anyone. Anyone who murders another will be judged.’ But I tell you, if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be judged.” (Several of the early Greek copies refer to “angry without a cause.”) The point is: murder does not happen – it is planned.

Also, we’re told we must be tolerant of other worldviews. What they mean by that is: we must deny our Christian worldview in order to show approval of opposing beliefs which want to overturn ours. It is interesting that our own government leaders are blind to what is taking place. This is absurd, because it is our heritage that created the very environment that allows the freedom for those people to try to shut us down.

Please think this through: When people didn’t like what was happening in Communist countries, they left if they could. Many were killed trying to leave. Millions who stayed were killed. When people didn’t like what was happening in Nazi Germany, they left if they could. Many were killed trying to leave. Millions who stayed were killed. And when the people did escape, they went to where they would be free.

Please listen: If those who would subvert our American heritage are successful, they would lose the freedoms they presently enjoy. Why don’t they just relocate to where their worldviews are already being propagated and experienced?

The answer: It isn’t their purpose to experience freedom. It is their purpose to subvert the United States of America.

Yoga, transcendental meditation, visualization, and a host of other New Age or Eastern forms of religion are taught in European and American schools under the guise of helping us become better people. And those systems or methods are parts of or extensions of religions. Yet teaching the basic religion on which our nation was founded – Christianity – is outlawed. That is insane. Or outright evil.

We do need to respect others. However, people have been voted into political offices whose purpose is to reduce the impact and effectiveness of Christianity and our form of government. And because America has agreed to the mindless absurdity that teaching Christian values tends to warp the minds of children and tends to be intolerant of other’s beliefs, we set Christianity aside. And instead of teaching the values which have made us a healthy and prosperous nation, we allow intolerant people to dominate us – in the name of tolerance, of course.HW

We allow Hollywood to brainwash us, propagandize us, and coach their celebrities to take the lead in fighting against truth and against good moral values. We, who have created a nation where even our enemies have the freedom of speech, are sinking to the depths of depriving our own citizens of our own freedoms. We have become blind to those who would deny us the rights secured by our own Constitution and Amendments.

The only hope for our nation is to prayerfully return to our historic roots: reverence for and worship of Almighty God, and respect for truth. The only hope for people world-wide is the same.

There is no proper way to end this Reflection because the problems continue to infect us. So I’ll just say: See you next time on a different topic.

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I Took a Short Break

What do you do when you’re tired? You are correct: you take a break; and that’s why you didn’t see my blogs for a week or so.

Carol and I returned from a 10-month trip around the good-ole USA, and enjoyed about 99% of the trip. We had been thinking about a trip like this for over 30 years, and it was time to fulfill the dream.

What about the 1%? Oh, just minor glitches in the plan, but no major disruptions. One of the glitches was when we reached Memphis, Tennessee on the way back home. We showed up at the RV park and they were filled up. When I told them about my reservation, they had deleted it. I couldn’t blame them; because with all the rain, the over-flowing Mississippi, Arkansas, and other rivers, and people fleeing the flooded RV parks, the non-flooded parks needed to make room for them.

Only a minor inconvenience. We found the empty side of a Wal-Mart parking lot right next to an IHOP restaurant and spent most the night.

I said it was a 10-month trip, and that’s correct. But before we started it, we had taken a 5-week trip up to the northeast part of the country. So in the past 14 months, 11 of those months was on the road in a 20-foot pull-behind trailer.

Before we left, one of my friends asked, “You’re going to spend 10 months in a small trailer?”

I responded, “We think of it as spending only 1 day at a time. It’s easier that way.”

We drove 26,267 miles, and traveled through 27 states which included the four corners of the country. When we returned home, another friend asked what it was like being cooped up in a small trailer with my wife for almost a year.

“I wasn’t cooped up with her,” I responded. “It was a joy to be with her every mile of the way. We’ve been married for almost 53 years now and we still enjoy traveling together.”

That’s why I took a break from blogging. But you’ll just have to put up with me again, because I’m home.

Have a great weekend.

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The Caterpillar and the Butterfly

Monarch CaterpillarThe caterpillar emerged from its egg and opened its twelve eyes. It didn’t know what to expect; all it did was to crawl out on its leaf and see what the world was all about. But the leaf turned over, and the caterpillar lost its footing and fell onto the grass. “Wow! That was fun!” it said.

The caterpillar has sixteen legs, but only six of them are true legs. The others assist in holding onto twigs and leaves.

The worm was starving, so it began eating the green things it fell on.  He liked grass, but he also ate some big flat things that fell off the trees. Leaves were stiffer and tasted better.

The little guy spent most of its waking hours eating. Over the next week, he crawled all around the yard to experience life, eating every step of the way. Then it discovered a bush – the one he fell from, but didn’t know it. “Wow! If I can get up there, I could see EVERYTHING.”

So it spent the next half hour climbing up the intertwining twigs of that three-foot bush. When it reached the summit, it looked out over the yard. “Wow! I didn’t know I could see the whole world. This is great!”

The little worm had hatched on this bush that was planted in a small enclosure that served as a safe play lot for the four-year-old human. To the worm, this was a huge world; but to an adult human, the 15’ x 15’ play lot surrounded by a six-foot wooden fence was very small.

The caterpillar looked over the world often, and was amazed at the size of it.

After several days it began thinking, “I wonder what’s on the other side of the world?” So it climbed off the bush and began climbing up the six-foot wooden fence to take a look. In a few hours it reached the top. “Wow! There are more worlds to see.”

Then something orange and black floated above its head. Monarch

“What are you doing down there?” asked the orange thing.

“I am trying to see other worlds. I’ve been searching my world and ….” The worm suddenly realized that the orange thing was flying.

“Hey! How do you do that? How did you get up there?”

“I am a monarch butterfly, just like you will be in a few days. After you crawl for the last time and wrap yourself in a blanket, you will die. But, don’t worry, you will come back alive. It will be difficult climbing out of the blanket because it gets real hard after you die. But when you come back alive, you will look different – like me. The world you know now is only a tiny part of the bigger world. You will fly like I am, and you will like it! Well, I have to go now. I am flying with hundreds of my friends to a far-away place. Don’t forget what I said. Bye.”

 “Wow! I didn’t know any of that. How did she figure it out? Well, I will think about that later because I am starving!”

About five days later, the caterpillar began feeling sick. Then it thought, “Maybe what the butterfly said is happening. I better go to the bush and start making a blanket.”

So it did. It was in the pupa stage, or chrysalis, for ten to twelve days. And it had a difficult time breaking out of its hard blanket – like the butterfly said. But that terrible ordeal was planned by God in order to make its wings strong, and able to fly.

We’re like caterpillars. We crawl around, viewing life like the worm does, thinking this DSCN0402.Bphysical life is all there is. We’re oblivious to the reality “beyond the fence.” But our world is very small, and God wants us to see “the bigger world” from his perspective – more like the butterfly.

The secret to understanding reality is to die to ourselves. Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (NKJV).

Dying to ourselves means we learn to know God and put his desires ahead of our own, and do what he wants us to do. Then we begin to see and understand from his perspective. And at the end of life, we fly to the bigger world: God’s home in heaven.

And that’s only the beginning!

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Freedom to Express Our Faith

In 1994 while working at a scientific laboratory, I was told that I needed to remove my Bible from the top of my desk – it was in public view – and to refrain from praying on government property. I asked the question typical of a five-year-old: “Why?” The response was, “This is government property and we need to observe separation of church and state by becoming a religion-free work place.

Now, you may imagine many of the thoughts that raced through my mind. I didn’t want to argue the matter because I was on government time, my supervisor was giving the order, and I desired to honor my authorities. I did, however, realize that this was one side of a double-standard that was aimed against Jews and Christians. So remembering a recent Laboratory-sponsored event, I said:

DSCN0691B“Last week we observed Native American Heritage Week here in the laboratory’s main auditorium. Every day at 8:00 AM and again at 1:00 PM for a total of ten meetings, a different Native American group opened the meeting by reciting their tribal prayer. Now, if the Lab supports or allows the Native Americans to pray to their gods on government property, then I also claim that same privilege of praying to the Judeo-Christian God. And if there are any questions about that, you know my phone number.”

That settled the issue. I was never challenged at the lab again. Amazingly, I was asked to write weekly articles based on good integrity, ethics, and character for our division, and send them out by e-mail. Why? Simply because I lived what I believed; supported my beliefs with the Bible, fact, and recent history; did not condemn or look down on others, and loved people. Did I confront people? Yes. But was I “confrontational?” No. Non-Christians and I do not have to agree with each other, but we all work well together because we do not intimidate each other, and we respect each other. 

A number of years ago while visiting my mother-in-law in a nursing facility, I was speaking with her husband, Charles, about trusting the Lord while knowing that Mom could die soon. A social-worker walking by stopped and rather sternly askedDSCN4637B Charles, “Do you want to listen to this?!”

That took Charles off-guard and he looked at me with a blank face; so I said to the social-worker, “Charles is my step-dad, and he doesn’t have a choice.” It was her turn to be dumb-founded, and she walked away. (Charles and I love each other. He laughed, and we continued our discussion about life with Jesus Christ.)

Zig Ziglar said in an interview with Michael Ireland on March 11, 2006, “The biggest lie Satan has ever told is that ‘it is okay to talk about your faith in church or at home, but otherwise, it is a personal matter.’ The reality is, everyone else has come out of the closet, and Christians need to come out and make it clear where they are coming from. Now, the life that they live will be totally believed if they live as Christ taught us to live. However, if you do not follow the ten commandments, if you do not have the Fruit of the Spirit, if you do not go out in the Full Armor of God, if you do not go out believing that the Golden Rule is a wonderful, working rule in your relationships with all people, then all of the conversations that you will have will fall on deaf ears. What you are speaks louder than what you say.”

 And to that I say a hearty “Amen!

While we, as Christians, are to respect people and obey our authorities, we should stand up for truth and righteousness. No one else will. (Note: We are to obey those in authority over us UNLESS they demand that we disobey God and Holy Scripture.) We are not to be argumentative but freedom of speech applies to all sections of our society. So let’s exercise that freedom. As Edmond Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Therefore, the only time we will lose the right to pray or speak openly is when we vote into office ungodly – or fearful – people, then cooperate with them when they attempt to deny us our inalienable/Constitutional right of freedom of speech and freedom of worship.

If we want to retain our freedoms, we must vote into office people who also want us to have those freedoms.

But many in the world live under a different historical and cultural setting. They do not have the freedom of speech or freedom of religion built into their culture. What are they supposed to do? How are they supposed to live?

My answer ultimately applies to everyone living in the United States of IMG_2639America and everywhere else. We are to live according to the principles as found in Holy Scripture – the Bible. My reasoning is simple: if I live to please and honor Almighty God, the Creator of the universe, I will have a home in heaven forever even if I am killed here on earth for my faith. This life is so short anyway – why not prepare to live forever with God in heaven?

That way, I will always have the freedom to express my faith as long as I live. No one can ever take that freedom from me.