Heart-Wrenching Video About Not Being a Victim: Resist Evil

I shared the following video link last year, sometime. Yet, it bears watching again. Remember to observe the guy’s ‘time machine watch’ in order to help understand the video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnBWa_xJz6A


The principle of defense that is shown in the video can help stop innocent people from becoming victims of violent criminals. We must stop apologizing to criminals. We must stop apologizing for criminals. Criminals are the ones who choose to fight against the rest of society. Criminals are the ones who need to be stopped.


It is NOT "the fault" of law-abiding citizens that we are alive and pursuing our lives. It is NOT law-abiding citizens who are the great abusers of firearms in our society.


Throwing blanket anti-citizen, anti-rights gun laws over society, cripples our ability to defend ourselves, while opening 'gun-free' zones in which criminals can readily operate their enterprises or engage their lusts with reduced risk of death or injury, because the criminals know that most law-abiding citizens will honor 'gun-free' zones. The moral, social, and political logic of 'gun-free' zones is weighted toward evildoers.


Furthermore, refusing to execute godly judgment on criminals, is NOT the answer to criminal violence. Here in Connecticut, the government took away the death penalty for a host of crimes, even though God has never removed the death penalty from His list, as anyone can read in the Bible.


Power brokers say that "the people" want gun control, when the people really want crime control. But, the politicians and the fearful hide behind unconstitutional laws that concentrate power in smaller and smaller groups without honoring the spirit of our founding documents that encourage everyone to RESPONSIBLY, LAWFULLY, stand up and be counted in the pursuit of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". However, as a case in point, Chicago, Illinois, has some of THE most oppressive firearm laws in our nation, when it comes to discussing constitutional rights, yet, Chicago is still one of the highest murder cities in our nation.


Ironically, years ago, out of the University of Chicago’s Economics Department came a study, and then a book by one of the authors of that study, showing that it is NOT anti-firearms laws that stop crime, but the attitude and willingness of citizens to stand up against evil and to be armed for the eventuality of conflict with evil. But, politicians and fearful people would rather hide behind false promises of ineffective laws (that criminals ignore), than to take responsibility for encouraging citizens to help resist evil by armed means, if necessary. Too many people are willing to blame police for crime, but there are not enough police in the world  to deal with every sin and crime that is committed. We cannot fix the sin part of human nature, on our own, except by personal "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ", BUT, we can prepare to defend ourselves against the violence that violent criminals would like to perpetrate against us.


Do NOT be a victim! The Bible says that we are to treat each other with love, respect, and protect each other from evil. Those are our God-given natural rights and obligations to each other. Our US Constitution, also, says that we have the “self-evident”, “unalienable right” to arm and defend ourselves.


Do NOT let politicians, or misinformed, or prejudiced people tell you that you cannot or should not arm yourself against violent criminals, whether you are in your home, on the street, or anywhere else in this world. If you happen to be a person who has a knee-jerk reaction against firearms and self-protection, no one is forcing you to arm yourself. But, ask yourself why politicians and rich people have such a heavy reliance on body guards, police, and arming themselves. They seem to desperately care about protecting their own lives and their families, but they seem to want YOU to be the scapegoat prey that distracts criminals away from them.


If you and I don’t care much about each other but happen to be out walking in the woods, and a very hungry bear comes along, I do not have to run faster than the bear, only faster than you. Escaping violent crime is no different, if we do not arm ourselves, or stick up for one another against the evils around us. Firearms in the hands of responsible, law-abiding citizens, help to level the fight for righteous living in a righteous society. But, our society seems to love sin and crime far more than godly living, for a long time, now.


To paraphrase a bumper sticker:

IF matches are the motivation and hand that set arson fires, then guns cause violence and pull their own triggers.

An Old Lesson for Modern Times

The lesson of these passages is borne out by human history, every time that cultures insist on and persist in forsaking the love, warnings, mandates, and care of the one true God who created us all.


1 Chronicles 5:25:
“And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them.”


Jeremiah 7:26:
“Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.”


Almighty God has provided us all with one and only one simple and singular solution, IF we will simply choose to accept His most gracious Gift to us.


Romans 6:23:
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

We Say We Believe, But Yet, We Doubt

Oh, how paltry our faith remains, and I admit that of my own faith in Christ Jesus. For, throughout the Bible, God repeatedly shows us that He and His ways are so much greater than our own ways and understanding. May He give me the grace to listen to the lessons that He wants to teach me. The first and greatest challenge to each of us is whether we are trusting His Savior AND His plan of salvation that are inseparably intertwined and that cannot exist as one without the other. Once we are saved by faith, alone, in the sinless blood and work of Christ, then the rest is about how we choose to walk with Him and allow Him to live through us.


Matthew 14:22-33:
²²  And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while he sent the multitudes away.
²³  And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.
²⁴  But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
²⁵  And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
²⁶  And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.
²⁷  But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.
²⁸  And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
²⁹  And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
³⁰  But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
³¹  And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
³²  And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.
³³  Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Why Call Evil Good? God Doesn't Do That

In these latter days or decades of human self-governance, we have all too frequently made excuses for sin, and we have pushed away God's truth, in which He defines sin and elaborates on the consequences of unrepented sin in our lives. Too many times people call sin good, excusing it. Those same confused or rebellious people also tend to call good things an abomination. It seems that they only want what they want, and they want nothing to do with the absolutes of which God speaks in His eternal Word, the Bible.


Please take a moment to seriously consider God's biblical reaction to our self-serving, self-justifying, "politically correct" lies about sin:


Malachi 2:17
¹⁷  Ye have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delighteth in them; or, Where is the God of judgment?


There is only one way to get ourselves right with God Almighty and that is by repentance and an active faith toward Him and His Christ.

For Those Who Hate Israel...

Throughout the Bible and history, God has repeatedly proven that He has chosen the Jewish people, Israel, and Jerusalem, as His chosen people, and His place for them, to live and worship Him. God has done this as an example for all peoples and nations of this world, that all humanity might learn to love and worship Him in Truth. Despite all of God's repeated warnings and encouragements about how we should relate to Him and to His chosen people, there repeatedly arise people and governments that abhor or hate Abraham's offspring and the nation of Israel. Yet, every nation has fallen, that ever despised God's Word, or that went up against the children of Abraham. In the Book of Zechariah God tells the whole world what will become of anyone who goes to fight against Israel in the last earthly battle that is yet to come, wherein the Christ of God shall personally destroy all the armies of the world that rise up against Israel.


Zechariah 14:12-15¹²  And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
¹³  And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.
¹⁴  And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold, and silver, and apparel, in great abundance.
¹⁵  And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.


God says that there is only One Way to make peace with God; only One Way to secure to yourself God's eternal life and peace.

Thanksgiving Day 2016, 11/24/2016: What is thanksgiving without God?

We all know at least a little something about the Pilgrims’ who had that first (now famous) sit down dinner of thanks with the locals, local natives who, by God’s mercy, had graciously helped the Pilgrims to survive the New England weather for over a year. At that dinner, that assembly of souls was not watching TV or playing on cell phones, nor were they talking football, commenting on secular and commercial parade floats, rising musicians, or movie stars. Instead, that gathered company of survivors counted the mercies that God had poured out to sustain them, despite half of them having died since they first landed on the edge of this land. God and His mercy was the focus of their thanks. Will He and His mercies to us, also, be the praise of our lips throughout our meal and day?

 

In our modern world, for the most part, we silence ourselves about Jesus Christ (our Creator) and His Word, in favor of those worldly things that titillate and amuse us. We are eager to fill our mouths at God's bountiful table, but we are reluctant to let our mouths openly and unashamedly give Him the real thanks and praise that is due to Him alone. How many quick ‘thanks for the grub’ prayers will be offered, and then God forgotten, this day? How many of us will allow Him to prompt us to tell others about even a few of His merciful loving works in our lives?

 

Bless God for His Word and His Christ, by which we can and must test and prove ourselves and all things. Let all thanks and glory be unto Him to whom we shall give answer for all that we do or neglect to do.

 

This year I am grateful that God has sustained me through many trials, of all sorts. Some trials, I failed, because I neglected to do things His way. Yet, I bless the Lord Jesus Christ for His Word by which I have been able to see where I have erred, that I might repent and grow in what is good in His mind. I bless Him that He has sustained me, including through recurrences of post-shingles discomforts and war wounds acting up. I bless Him that he has helped me to keep reading His Word. I thank God that He continually reminds me to stay focused on Him instead of on earthly things. I thank Him that I’m still healing from the reflux lung damage that occurred late last winter. I bless God that He is still teaching me about His ways. I bless Him that I’m still learning fiscal and social skills and responsibility. I bless God that He helps me keep moving and reaching out to other people, despite all the aches and pains that come with this aging body, and despite the struggles of forgetfulness. I bless God for my huge family and vast number of friends and acquaintances, and that I’m still learning how to interact with people. I praise God for His mission of sharing Jesus Christ with others. I especially thank Him for His promise of eternal hope, peace, and life with Him in Christ Jesus, and that that is God's greatest gift of all to me and to all humanity. I thank God that, as the song says, “this world is not my home, I’m just passing through”, as I learn, trust, obey, repent, and put into practice what His Holy Spirit and Word would have me learn and do. This life is not about me and what I want, but about God and my relationship with Him, on His terms.

 

May God bless you and keep you in all that is good in His heart, mind, and Word. May this Thanksgiving Day 2016, be truly a day of thanks and gathering to God's glory and to His praise, in all our words and deeds.

Seasonal Giving or Seasonal Getting?

Anyone who wants to know what God means by the word "give", and how important that is to Him, can find that answer in her/his Bible. Here is an online Bible's cover to cover list that includes over 1,500 words using the letters "giv", which includes give, giving, giveth, given, giver, and probably numerous other variations pertaining to the concept of giving. To be honest, though I have read the Bible through, I have not read that specific list of 1,548 words. Obviously, the concept of giving is important to God, but, do we know what giving really is?


With all the frantic buying and selling of a myriad of goods and services, is 'seasonal giving' really giving, or not? Just because we buy things and pass them along to someone else does not necessarily mean that we are giving gifts. Is the practice of developing a wishful recipient "gift list" really in the spirit of giving, or is it in the spirit of asking and expecting to receive for having asked? In Matthew 7 and Luke 11, Jesus speaks of asking, giving, and receiving, in relation to real life needs, not in terms of self-indulgence.


As potential givers, are we asking ourselves honestly what other people really need, and what is best for them? Or, as potential recipients, are we asking for things we really need, or for more stuff? Are we asking ourselves whether our superficial wants or urges might better be satisfied by directing our efforts and desires toward fulfilling the real and urgent needs of those who do not have the bounty that we have?


For many years, I have not made "Christmas" or "birthday" lists. Oh, my flesh is still my flesh, and I can think of things that I may desire, in fleshly terms, but for me to ask for those things seems vain and self-centered, especially at a time when we are supposed to be celebrating God's purest Gift to us, that Gift for which we did not ask. Therefore, I choose to leave gifting to the giver’s discretion, since Christmas and giving are not about what I want, but about what the giver wants to offer/give as a gift. It is NOT about me being worthy of a gift for I was not nor ever can be worthy of God's greatest Gift, yet He gave Himself, in Christ, for my salvation.


If something is gifted, in the modern sense, in some sort of prearranged negotiation or 'wish list', is that really a gift? I have been repeatedly drawn to that question, as a seasonal conundrum, for God, in Christ, offered himself as our Redeemer, before He ever created the world or us. I bless God for His perfect example of gifting, and His call to us to receive that which we neither asked for nor deserved, and I have to admit that I’m far from being a holy giver as He is.


Want a reality check and a test of godly character during the 'holiday seasons' or your birthday? Join me in asking yourself, Am I willing to receive as true gifts and in true gratitude (without me soliciting specific items or services), anything and everything that others might offer to give to me? If I cannot accept what others might offer to freely give me then I need to ask myself why I am not willing to receive in truth, instead of being self-ish. Self-ishness may have a list, but it doesn't need one to trouble our spirits. Let's put aside self, replace self with thanksgiving to God. Let's be truthful givers, sharing God's bounty, instead of being acquisitive. If we spent more time and effort in thankful giving we would be far less concerned with 'getting'; far more at peace with ourselves, with God, and with others. God bless you!