TED CRUZ

Times are rough when the ballistic Harry Reid says:  "I'm not going to bend to these Tea Party anarchists".  Whoa there, Senator Reid.  Take a breath.

People opposed to the President's agenda find themselves characterized as circus freaks who want to "hurt the people".  But Senator Reid, there's room for another opinion besides yours, right?  After all, the Congressional phone lines melted this afternoon after the filibuster, so not everyone is in favor of Obamacare.

WHO'S WHO in this fight, anyway?

On one side is Senator Ted Cruz who stood for twenty-one hours in opposition to Obamacare.  On the other side, Democrats and Rhinos are "going along to get along" and supporting Obamacare.  

O'Reilly, a normally conservative voice, is saying "Get over it!  It's the law and you're not going to change it."  Then there's my hero Krauthammer...who freaks me out by saying "Leave room when the opposition is committing suicide."

But you know what?  A pox on all their houses because DAMAGE is being done to our country.

All the polls say no one wants Obamacare.  So far it breaks every promise made without even kicking in.  HARD NUMBERS OUT TODAY  from HHS say insurance premiums will increase 99% for men and 62% for women.  Heck, even the unions are squealing for exemptions.  EVERYONE wants an exemption and political friends "got theirs".  You don't have to worry if you are a political ally, a big business corporation, or Congress.  Everyone else, line up.

But when a period of time passes and we look back, I'm betting the Rhinos who "signed onto the inevitable" will wish they had stood on the conviction of Ted Cruz.

"Oh, but Cruz is just a showboat in search of a spotlight!"  Really?  How do you know that?  "Well, he doesn't consult the other Republicans but just goes and does his own thing."  And that's bad?  That's GOOD.  They had a chance to stand up and they didn't.  Those old "establishment" Republicans have given us nothing but losers.  The last time we had a true conservative to get excited about...was Ronaldus Maximus.

When you overlay Ted Cruz's life over his record, you see him running in Texas and promising opposition to Obamacare.  You see Texans demanding that.  So he's keeping his promise.  Isn't that the way representation is supposed to work?

The opposition has made Cruz out to be a buffoon; that's what they do to people that make them quake.  They act like he's a hick from a cowboy state.  Well, he was a debate champion at Princeton (cum laude) and then got his law degree @Harvard (magna cum laude), where Professor Alan Dershowitz said "Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant."  Only a fool would try to make him out to be dimwitted.

In 1996 Ted Cruz was the first Hispanic to clerk for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, then was Solicitor General (the state lawyer) for Texas.  He has been named as one of "Fifty Best Litigators Under 45 in America".  And he's worked in private practice.  But Cruz knew his purpose early in life...

When Ted Cruz was in junior high, he was reading Milton Friedman and the Federalist Papers and memorizing the entire Constitution...and by the time he was out of high school, he had given 80 speeches across Texas about limited government and free enterprise.  I don't know any teenagers like that, do you?

If you wonder where the fire in Ted Cruz' belly came from..JUST WATCH A FEW MINUTES OF HIS FATHER'S STORY.  Today the senior Cruz is a pastor in a Dallas suburb.  But when he was fourteen, Rafael Cruz joined a freedom fighter named Castro to fight in the revolution in Cuba.  He was captured and tortured by the Batista regime and later came to the United States to work as a dishwasher and learn English.  Mr. Cruz has taught Ted to appreciate liberty in the finest country in the world.

I may be wrong, but this man doesn't look like the kind who is looking to build his resume.  And he could care less about being part of the establishment's kabuki theatre.  Senator Cruz wants his country back.  We have been searching for a voice to communicate conservatism; perhaps we've found him.

The Cruz daughters listen to Daddy read them their bedtime story
from the floor of the Senate during his twenty-one hour filibuster.

ETHIOPIA/KENYA

Last week Mike and I were praying for our sweet neighbor because instead of being across the street, she was across the world in Africa on a medical mission trip.

When we first heard about the terror attack in Nairobi on Saturday, it was startling until we remembered she had gone to Ethiopia.  (Note: Ethiopia and Kenya share a border.)

Staci is a young mom and part-time nurse at a pediatric clinic with a particularly welcoming glow about her.  While she went to do medicine, her prayer request had been that she could love well and be able to present Jesus clearly.  That seemed to us a superfluous prayer since she comes by loving so easily.

We have loved her posts and delightful pictures as she found common ground
teaching "Rock, Paper, Scissors".  Some things are universally understood.

Children and a few adults are waiting patiently for treatment.   There was also
head washing (for 70) with a bucket of dirty water and lice so big...
Staci said she could swear one winked at her.

There are always favorites and this little boy named Obama fit under her arm nicely.
She shared a Luna bar with him and then broke off a bite of her tuna sandwich.
He gagged at the tuna and did not ask for more food.  

This malnourished little girl received a toy that Staci's daughter (pic on table)
 had sent.  Staci told the girl that her daughter was praying for  her. 

The children of Ethiopia are sweet-natured
and very compliant.

Now contrast that to Nairobi, Kenya.

The mayhem is horrific as we hear of terrorists lining people up and demanding they pray a Muslim prayer as a pop-test to delineate between Muslims and the others.  Then they executed non-Muslims.

Terrorists killed at will... bombed... and set fires.  They do not believe people they call infidels have a right to live.

The Bible says the enemy comes to steal and kill.  On Saturday he destroyed property and stole peace of mind from hundreds before he took 62 lives and wounded 200 more.

Why?  That's what the enemy does.

There is a growing movement in contemporary America to remove all religion from the public arena.

It is thought that Christianity should be restrained along with all other faiths and then the problem would be cured.

But when Christianity is withdrawn, the Holy Spirit (who is the restrainer of evil) is also withdrawn.  We are tasting that fruit.

When our neighbor went to Ethiopia,
she didn't go to destroy but to restore and serve.

Some might have listened to her tell of Jesus and some did not.  She surely did not have a bullet for the ones who didn't listen; the Lord told us it would be that way.

Big difference.

"I have set before you life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other."  Deuteronomy 30:15

Choose life!

THE AUTUMNAL EQUINOX

Today the sun crossed directly over the Earth's equator, moving us from one season to another.  For the next three months (from now until December 21st)...we get to enjoy Fall.

In the Fall, the Creator shows out, painting riotous colors as He decorates the globe.

The completed picture is as if He'd held His camera out to take a selfie...because there are ways He and Fall are alike.

THE LORD IS REFRESHMENT.
Earth gets a temperature reprieve and we summer refugees feel invigorated by Fall's crisp air.

From the Twenty-Third Psalm..."He takes me to lush pastures, He leads me to refreshing water.  He restores my strength."

God is in the business of refreshing our souls.

THE LORD IS MANIFOLD BEAUTY.
Fall in NW AR is wonderful; we wait anxiously for the maples to turn so we can do a leaf-peeping tour and take in that blaze of glory.  One day believers will fall on their faces before the One who made the maples...and He will outshine their dazzle.

We agree with the seraphs when they said "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord...His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!"

THE LORD IS A SIGNPOST.
Fall makes us up look up to consider creation and wonder about her Maker.

"From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and the sky and all that God made.  They can clearly see his invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature.  So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God."  Romans 1:20

God leaves fingerprints all over Fall's adornment.

THE LORD IS SHELTER.
Fall is "fair warning" that winter is coming.  The Lord warns that our lives are temporary and fleeting; we should make provision.  The squirrels are giving thought to tomorrow and we should, too.

Jesus began the beatitudes with "blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them."  We gain heaven when we recognize our  spiritual poverty and, as the next beatitude says, mourn.  That's another way to say "repent".

In all the peoples of the world, there are really only two kinds...the humble and the proud.  The humble have found shelter.

THE LORD IS LORD OF THE HARVEST.
Harp's was first to get the Cinderella pumpkins this fall in Fayetteville.  I glistened the day I loaded up this fine one (and several others) for our porches.   They are worth it; they're a faith pledge that cooler weather is on the way.

My season of life is on the outer edge of fall, moving toward winter.  And the time given to mankind has a seasonal timeframe.  But the Lord of the Harvest is outside of time, waiting as each soul makes their choice.

In Revelation, it talks about the final harvest and speaks of an angel swinging his sickle over the earth and gathering the "grapes" from the vineyard of the earth, then tossing them into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

That is not the preferred option.

God is good to refresh us, show us the beauty of His glory, point us upward, shelter us, and tell us how the story comes out.  Our part is to choose Him.

SECRETS

You might think that the NSA would have all the security in the world since they're the keeper of the secrets.

But one skinny little low-level guy gave out all their cookies.

Then Director Clapper was questioned about whether the NSA spied on Americans.  He did the St. Vidas Dance, fidgeting and squirming and putting his hand over his face while answering.

The Director then gave a paragraph "no" answer and it didn't take a body language expert to smell a whopper.












Which brings us to why Americans are developing a trust issue.

Now we are being told that all our
confidential information will be SAFE in a monumental info cache over at the healthcare office.

Navigators will be hired to explain Obamacare to us.  These per-hour people (some of which haven't been hired yet) are to receive 20-30 hours of training.  Some of these guys have been background checked because a few states spoke up and demanded they be checked in their state.

We are asked to believe the navigators will hold our incidentals close to the vest.  Info including your medical records, SS numbers and financial information (not to mention your address) will be available to these new hires.  Isn't that all stuff we've always been taught to guard?  What an identity theft bonanza.

We've already heard about faux navigators coming to people's doors to shop for advantage, bringing new meaning to "free-lancers".  California's insurance commissioner is a Democrat and strong supported of Obamacare, but he spoke of these navigators putting consumers at risk for scams...saying "we can have a real disaster on our hands".

This is fast becoming a national game of "Who Do You Trust?".  Nothing about this healthcare system is what it was touted to be. 

It was only a couple of weeks ago that the Montana Democratic Senator Max Baucus said Obamacare was an oncoming train wreck.  Our potential exposure in just that information mining could be a huge unintended consequence snafu.  And that's not counting the back-breaking expense to the nation...or the death panels that Governor Palin was right about.  Call me crazy, but someone hired to control cost has no business deciding what medical procedures should be ordered.



Perhaps this is the dawning of the transparency that we were promised.  It's just not the kind we ever imagined.

These days call for a solid Rock.  It brings to mind the words of an old song..."My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness.  I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.  On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand."

EXCEPTIONALISM

EXCEPTIONALISM is the new buzz word.

Our President weighed in on the subject early in his presidency when he said "We are exceptional like the Brits think they are exceptional, the Swiss think they're exceptional, and the French (etc etc)".  Really?

This week the New York Times GAVE PUTIN OP-ED SPACE and he lectures us about how God created us all equal... therefore none are exceptional.  It's a bit galling to take God-advice from a KGB head, a supplier of chemical weapons, and a dictator whose hero is Stalin, the  killer of 20 million people.  Besides, the Russians are getting on my nerves about this subject.  Today after the shooting in the D.C. Navy yard, some Russian official mocks us by tweeting "a clear confirmation of American exceptionalism".

So how DO we define exceptionalism?   Imaginative, productive citizens?  That doesn't ring completely fair to the third world countries.  Is exceptionalism like cheering for your team/country to the exclusion of others?  That seems rather like an arrogant puffer billy.  If you believe in exceptionalism, are you saying God favors one country over another?  That wouldn't be biblical since God doesn't show favorites.

SO WHAT IS EXCEPTIONALISM?

The best explanation I have read is one by Rush Limbaugh.  HERE'S RUSHBO'S TAKE on the subject, but if you don't have time to read the whole piece...here's the essence of his description of exceptionalism:

"So what is exceptionalism?  Well, if you know the history of the world... Read your Bible, read whatever historical account of humanity you hold dear, and what you'll read about is human tyranny.  You'll read of bondage. You'll read of slavery.  The vast majority of the people, the vast majority of the human beings who have lived and breathed and walked this planet have lived under the tyranny of despots...the vast majority. 

It isn't even close. 

The vast majority of the people of this world since the beginning of time have never known the kind of liberty and freedom that's taken for granted every day in this country.  Most people have lived in abject fear of their leaders. Most people have lived in abject fear of whoever held power over them.  Most people in the world have not had plentiful access to food and clean water.  It was a major daily undertaking for most people to come up with just those two basic things.

Just surviving was the primary occupation of most people in the world.  The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, subjugation, whatever you want to call it of populations -- and then along came the United States of America.  Pilgrims were the first to come here seeking freedom from all of that.  They were oppressed because of their religion.  They were told they had to believe in the king and his god, whatever it was, or they would be imprisoned.

They led an exodus from Europe to this country, people of the same mind-set.  They simply wanted to escape the tyranny of their ordinary lives.  This country was founded that way. For the first time in human history, a government and country was founded on the belief that leaders serve the population.  This country was the first in history, the EXCEPTION -- e-x-c-e-p-t, except. The exception to the rule is what American exceptionalism is.

It is because of this liberty and freedom that our country exists, because the founders recognized it comes from God. It's part of the natural yearning of the human spirit. It is not granted by a government. It's not granted by Putin. It's not granted by Obama or any other human being.  We are created with the natural yearning to be free, and it is other men and leaders throughout human history who have suppressed that and imprisoned people for seeking it. 

The U.S. is the first time in the history of the world where a government was organized with a Constitution laying out the rules, that the individual was supreme and dominant, and that is what led to the US becoming the greatest country ever because it unleashed people to be the best they could be. Nothing like it had ever happened.  That's American exceptionalism.  Putin doesn't know what it is, Obama doesn't know what it is, and it just got trashed in the New York Times.  It's just unacceptable."

When I read those words above, something clicked; the words spoke to something I've been unable to verbalize.  Rush is right.  We are exceptional because we have chosen to implement God's principles WHICH WORK.  We live in the shadow of His favor...not because we are favorable people...but because His principles are true and right.  And they enable us to be the exception to the rule of mankind's tyranny.  

With such an amazing opportunity, shame on us for chucking those principles to embrace our own demise.  God HAS shed His grace on us...just as He would any nation on earth who employs truth.  

And as stewards of such great grace, let's identify with these Americans...

Mark Twain, who in 1890 said:  "We are called the nation of inventors and we are.  We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we invented, which was human liberty."

Ronald Reagan, on freedom:  "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same." 

And finally, President Abraham Lincoln calls America the last best hope of earth:  “Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves... The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth.”

DAMASCUS ROAD

Life can be full of ironic twists because life has a way of "coming back around".  God never changes; we do.

Now the Vietnam warrior/dove Kerry has become a hawk.  Now the winner of the 2009 Nobel peace prize is deciding to lob a few Cruise missiles into a country who has not attacked us.  Now Dems who are characteristically critical of war are lining up to support the President.

Those poor Syrians.  Their own government counts them expendable and now in order to help them, our plan is to bomb them.

But we need to send a message, right?  Shouldn't we make good on the president's words (which yesterday in Sweden were parsed very carefully).  Sorry, Mr. President, but in fact you DID draw a line.  That old international line drawn in the 1920's evidently dissipated because  NO ONE is stepping up to help us carry the fight.  So you may not like to have your name on anything...but you can't vote "present" this time.

BHO's learning curve is particularly steep these days.  It must have looked easier when Candidate Obama looked on and criticized the earlier resident of the White House.  That president built a coalition of 46 countries, plus got authorization from Congress AND the UN.  It takes a pile of chutzpah to excoriate Bush when you can't match his action with even ONE ally.  Such is the state of Obama foreign policy.

Of course there's the charge that Bush lied about the weapons of mass destruction.  That charge flies over a mass of evidence and testimony that the WHOLE WORLD believed at the time.  When the buck stopped and Bush acted, it was later "proven" to be a false assumption by the lack of evidence. If BHO acts in Syria and later we find out this "evidence" was staged, then he will be up the same salt creek.

Besides, who leaks information about your own attack plan and duration?  (Dennis Miller:  "We have GOT to be the only country that sends out "Save the Date" attack cards.")  Doesn't that allow Assad time to distribute his weapons cache into populated areas?  That's exactly what Assad did.  Now how do we inflict enough damage to do damage...without hitting civilians or some Russian instructors who man Syrian armaments?

By not acting, some might criticize America for lack of concern.  We care about the Syrians, but we remember rescuing Bosnian Muslims in the 90's and that wasn't received well.  We cared a year ago when Assad first gassed his people...and have cared in the interim as nothing was done while he killed thousands.

Now we wince at the pictures of dead children, but there's no clear path to the guys in the white hats.  Would we rather have Shittes backing the murderer Assad or Sunni radical Islamists?  We are afraid to trust our politicians who say there are good rebels.  At least the dictators of old (Assad in Syria, Mubarek in Egypt, and Ghadafi in Libya) kept a modicum of order and didn't torch the Christians.

Perhaps you've noted that this region of the world is scarce on white hats.  LINK

We have dithered while Syria is now full of foreign fighters who poured in after the first gas attack, funded by Iran.  We know that when we (seen as "infidels") wade in, these cousins will become brothers and turn on us.  And Israel.

Let's pray together that the President is bathing his plan in prayer.

It's been a long time since Paul saw the light on the road to Damascus.  Now the Damascus road is lit with volatility.

Believers know all of God's prophecies will come to pass.  We take God at His word as we read Isaiah 17:1.  We know Damascus to be the oldest continually inhabited city in the world...and there is no ancient history of it ever being fully destroyed.  That gives pause.  No one can predict God's timeline, but we also cannot ignore His warnings.  You might want to read the whole 17th chapter of Isaiah, but here is just the first verse:

"Here is a message about Damascus:

'Look, Damascus is no longer a city,

it is a heap of ruins!'..."

Isaiah 17:1