Is Religion a Crutch?

As I observe people I recognize that many look upon the need for faith rather as a crutch, a thing to lean upon in a moment of weakness. I submit to you the vastly different way that I view God.

To me, God is a power source. Without him, I'm a bunch of wires and glass. With him, I am a lighted bulb, glowing bright. Can I make it work without power?

When I 'plugged in' to God it was the beginning of an entirely different journey of life than before. Each time I withdraw from him my life is diminished in joy, power & purpose. My light becomes dim.

I encourage you to not just have a belief about God: Believe God. Don't just pick up the Bible once in awhile: Drink it. And instead of searching for your meaning and purpose in the myriad of life, spend time seeking God. I guarantee it will be worth your effort. The more you intertwine your bulb with His power, the brighter you will become.

If you commit to staying plugged in to God your life will transform in ways you cannot imagine. And if you've never connected with him and made peace with his message of the Old and New Testaments, you owe yourself the journey.

Don't let what you think about 'religion' hinder you. Seek Him. Ephesians 1:17-19

What Makes a Person "Intelligent?"

How do you define intelligence? A great knowledge or intellect? A reservoir of fact and vocabulary? Since when did a breathing encyclopedia become a brilliant person?

No, the ability to think suggest intelligence – to reason, create, form new ideas. For it is through such people that all great ideas and philosophies were formed that you are busy reading about.

Indeed, I am confident that he who holds the key to God’s wisdom and knowledge will easily - even carelessly – outpace ever ‘intellectual’ who spent their entire life becoming brilliant. For it is said that “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength” (1 Corinthians 1:25). Truly “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

Out of the mouth of a simple person can fall the greatest wisdom when he is a vessel of God. Indeed, God would rather use a simple one, lest the greatness of his words be attributed to his own intelligence. Instead, he who remains humble will be used for God’s glory to insult the intellects of our time.

Let us seek wisdom – from the only source of true wisdom – the spirit and truth of God. Let us spill His wisdom wherever he chooses to the advantage of his perfect plan.

Remain humble, and always remember the source of the power and wisdom flowing through you. For without God, we would return to our former state of eating grass.* Reflect the glory up, and please God. He is the only one worth pleasing.

*Daniel 4

‘Joe the Plumber’ Concept Getting Clogged Up

‘Joe the Plumber’ represents the plight of small business owners. It’s not about him, and let’s stop skating around the issue and changing the subject. We are all disgusted with the vicious attacks of the media.

Obama told Joe that he planned to “spread the wealth.” Really, that says it all. This means hardworking small business people whose intention is to one day make more than $250k should know that it’s probably not worth the effort. Once you have supposedly arrived financially, we intend to collect a large portion of your hard earned profits to misuse and redistribute through the Federal Government. So, don’t bother! Don’t grow your business, don’t work hard to achieve your dreams, and whatever you do – don’t add jobs to the economy. After all, why should you risk your investment, pull a market share, expand your business and add jobs to your payroll if most of it will just be collected by Uncle Sam?

My husband and I run a small business. We know how hard it is to grow a business, especially when the economy is faltering. There are a thousand frustrating details associated with running a business that a typical employee has no awareness of. Sometimes it doesn’t seem worth it. But why do we keep doing it? The same reason anyone works for any goal - to achieve. To one day be free from financial pressure. To contribute to society, to add jobs to the economy, to produce.

We ought to be encouraging our small business owners. We need to give them incentives to grow their business and create jobs. These are some of the most hardworking and most underappreciated people in America. Let’s keep government out of their way and let them do what they do best.

If you want to see jobs created and our economy grow from the bottom up then stand with American Small Business owners and vote for the change that we believe in: John McCain.

Are You Angry?

I've never seen people so angry. There's a visceral type of anger that is seething beneath the surface right now that I've never seen so widespread.

We have many reasons to feel angry. We pay our bills, we haven't buried ourselves in debt. We've lived responsibly. And now we are paying the price for the irresponsible and the greedy.

We cried out against the bailout, and it was passed anyway. Still, we figured it would calm Wall Street, but instead the dow is in a free-fall. And now (after the fact) we're being told that the Federal government can nationalize banks if they want to. As if they will restrain themselves. Ha! I don't care which party is in charge, government always jumps at the chance to grow in size and power. Socialism here we come!

I know a women who's family is from Cuba. It didn't take long for her to communicate to me that she is confident socialism is NOT the way to go. Yes, that is our possible future. The government will take care of you and incentive is removed from society. Do you know that the more power you relinquish to the government the more freedom you surrender?

I know we're all angry. And it's easy to point the fingers. But without oversimplifying, I want to tell you a little story about good intentions and beautiful ideas.

Once upon a time there was a politician with a great idea. Help people have the American Dream. Help them get into a home of their own. So he helped develop a little organization, a for-profit company, to offer mortgages to higher risk individuals. If they incur a loss, the government will step in and cover them. If they gain a profit, they get to keep it. Well, if you know anything about business, you'd have to agree this is an ideal situation. You're lending money to brand new market with no risk! They had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Left unchecked, this eventually grew to be the driving force behind the dominoes falling before our eyes.

You want to spout talking points at me, go ahead. But please read this before you do to get the unbiased story (the unsimplified version).
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/who_caused_the_economic_crisis.html

It's true, as a republican I'm tired of our party getting all the blame. But I can see that both parties had a hand in this, certainly the democrats did, and there was much to be gained by taking campaign contributions from Freddie & Fannie and ignoring the problem. Frankly, it matters little to me what caused the problem, except that we shouldn't repeat it. What really boils my blood is that they - all of Washington- could SEE it coming and didn't act decisively.

So we're angry. Just be careful where you direct your anger. Don't let your anger blind you. Don't let the politicians do all the talking while you do all the following. Don't let the talking heads interpret what you see and hear. Think for yourself! Question! Debate. Research. Follow the clues. Weigh the options before you carefully and make an informed and sound decision.

We will get through this time of crisis if we do not lose our cool. America is made up of strong people with a strong resolve. We are not wimps. We may be walking through a valley, but we will not take up residence there. We will come through this as a stronger nation. Believe in the hope of the future.

"Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men who cannot save" (Psalm 146:3) Instead,
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." (Proverbs 3:5)

Learning to Live Loved

I attended a fundraising dinner for a ministry here in Vero called Crosslife tonight. The speaker, Steve Pettit. He was engaging and listening to him felt like drinking from a firehose. Despite my notes, which are lengthy, I'm sure I'll do a poor job trying to sum up his message here.

So much of our focus on religion is how much we can worship God, prove to him our goodness or obedience, try to make ourselves worthy of the sacrifice Jesus made for our lives. I know we don't HAVE to, but I think believers do this, knowing full well that we don't deserve the unmerited grace God has given us through His plan. Truly we love God and want Him to know the depth of our gratitude.

Having said that, I wonder how often any of us have thought about how much God loves us? Obviously he much have loved us dearly to coordinate such a plan, foreshadowing the message as early in the Bible as Abraham, who was asked to slay his long-awaited son Isaiac to prove his trust in God... which remarkably Abraham was willing to do! The Old Testament lays the foundation of law, revealing sin in our lives, and the ultimate need for a sacrifice to reconcile man with God. And the New Testament reveals the prophecy of the old, The love of Christ, his ultimate gift and the best thing you can do as a believer is 1)Love God with all your heart and 2)Love others as yourselves.

Truly the message of Christ is powerful. It is a message of love. But do you REALIZE just how much God loves YOU? And do you realize that everyone else is a "being loved" child of God too?

All of us were born with something lost, and we spend our lives trying to fill it. "The Goods" (career, family, stuff) never quite reach the need, leaving us all still searching for our purpose in life. Have you found yours? I submit to you it isn't a purpose you seek, but an acceptance. You want to be loved. And no can love you my friend - NO ONE can love you like God can. Everyone else can and will disappoint you, but His love is perfect. He wrote the book on love and you are unbelievably dear to Him. Look no further, God wants to cradle you, he wants to love you, he wants to sing over you.

Give Him the chance to show you why you were created. Will you pray to Him today?

Discover Him!

I am SO excited about God. He is absolutely AMAZING! The more you pursue a relationship with Him, the more he reveals.

Stop trying to do it all in your own strength. It's like trying to move yourself across the ocean with a paddle in a rowboat. No, you're missing it. Ride the waves and discover the power of God and how you can be used to do great things. DISCOVER HIM today.

McCain on Financial Markets

Those of you dead set on voting for Obama- and you know I love all of you - I know you are reluctant to change your mind and the more I attempt to hail the wonder of John McCain the more you will hold fast to your convictions. BUT-I feel so strongly that Obama would be an economic mistake for our country (to put it softly), that I implore you to educate yourself thoroughly before voting on idealistic passion. How much more abuse can our economy take? Here's McCain's plan - just educate yourself.
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/9a604256-0519-46e6-a1ce-e70798b39ec2.htm

I want you to consider that because Obama is inexperienced, he will rely heavily on his advisors to help him make important decisions. And who will his advisors be? Well, so far Jim Johnson, the former CEO of Fannie Mae (great choice) advised him to select Joe Biden. Now, was that a good decision? It very well may have been his campaign's fatal mistake. We can expect more stellar decisions such as this one if he is elected. And more brilliant advisors such as Johnson, who was partially responsible for running Fannie Mae into the ground, whose resulting bail out has started a snowball of economic consequences.

Just think about it.