Friday, October 30, 2020

Thoughts on Today's Verse

 "The righteous will never be uprooted, but the wicked will not remain in the land." Proverbs 10:30

Thoughts on Today's Verse by Phil Ware
This promise is even truer for those of us who live on this side of Calvary and the empty tomb! As Paul said it, "our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:20-21).
The righteous will never be uprooted from their true homeland for no one and no power can steal it, corrupt it, destroy it, or take it away!
My Prayer...
Father, thank you for declaring me righteous by the atoning death of Jesus. Please transform me more and more each day to be righteous in all I say, think, and do. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen.

Voter Fraud

 Voter Fraud by Bill Wilson

This presidential election is a set up for voter fraud, and the US Supreme Court is part of the reason. As reported widely, SCOTUS voted 5-3 to allow late-arriving North Carolina mail-in ballots so long as they were post marked by election day and in a separate action allowed for counting late-arriving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
These are two swing states are important to determining the overall electoral college. In North Carolina, ballots may arrive as late as November 12 and still be counted. The counting deadline for Pennsylvania is November 6. Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr., and Justice Brett Kavanaugh voted with the liberals on the court. The longer after the election that votes count, the higher the chance for election fraud.
Then there is the idea that in some states, a citizen can actually change their vote if they cast it early by voting by mail or by absentee ballot. That may appear on the surface to be a good option, especially in light of the recent revelations that Presidential candidate Joe Biden is compromised because of China, Russia, and Ukraine business deals using his position as Vice President to enrich his family in selling influence. Think of the 70-plus million people who did early voting and how they may be regretting the box they checked. No worries for some of them. In New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Minnesota, folks can change their vote.
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are all states that are on the bubble regarding which way they will land in the electoral college. Michigan voters can change their votes by submitting a signed request to have their votes nullified by October 30. Minnesota voters had until October 20 to request a new ballot. Wisconsin voters had until October 29 to request a new ballot.
In New York and Pennsylvania, you can just show up on election day and cast your vote and your early vote will be nullified. All these examples allow for voter fraud in that ballots can be counted twice if election officials don’t pay attention or have nefarious designs in mind.
The idea that this nation should have a long lead time for early voting or mail-in voting that is allowed to be counted days after the election is an assault on America’s voting integrity. Voting is a right afforded all citizens 18 years or older. And every eligible citizen should exercise that right. Appeasing political parties and oiling up party machines that seek ways to steal elections only undermines our Constitutional Republic. It broadens the field for voter fraud and makes America like a third world country that disputes elections for weeks or months.
This is a slippery slope on which we are sliding. And it has no good end because as it states in 2 Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
Because of the potential for voter fraud, we may never know the true winner of this presidential election. We do know, it won’t likely be honest voters.

Quote from Andrew Napolitano

 "If exercising the right to vote were truly effective, the government would not so eagerly promote it." Andrew Napolitano

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Four More Years

 Four More Years by Paula White-Cain

I have had the opportunity and privilege to know President Trump for over 19 years, and to work with him and his family as a faith leader in their lives. I’ve seen him firsthand as a father, a husband, a leader, a businessman and now, as the President of the United States of America. Most people have secondhand information that mischaracterizes the man I know. Because I know him, I want to share ten reasons you should vote for President Trump to have four more years.
1. He has reset our courts for a generation. The president promised to appoint originalist judges to our Supreme Court who would protect our Constitutional freedoms and not legislate from the bench. He has now appointed more than 200 of them, including three Supreme Court justices. He has flipped three of the Circuit Courts and given us a super majority on the Supreme Court.
2, He has protected the unborn. Over sixty million children have been aborted in America yet President Trump is the first Republican president in our lifetime who hasn’t been timidly pro-life. On the contrary, President Trump has been “all in” on the pro-life agenda. He expanded the Mexico-City policy which has forbid over $9 billion dollars of tax-payer money from funding foreign abortions. He audited the entire federal government to ensure its policies promoted life, and he became the first President to ever address the March for Life. . . .
3. He has preserved religious freedom. Protecting religious freedom at home and abroad has been at the very heart of President Trump’s domestic and foreign policy. He signed executive orders mandating religious freedom training for all State Department employees and granted hundreds-of-millions of dollars to aid programs that specifically promote religious freedom, including in Iraq and in Syria. Even the historic Abraham Accords include “religious freedom.” At home, Trump mandated that all federal government departments protect conscience rights. . . .
4. He has an astonishing foreign policy record. President Trump moved our Israeli Embassy to Jerusalem, aggressively ended America’s foreign wars, and defeated ISIS while ending the reign of the arch-terrorists Soleimani and Al-Baghdadi. He negotiated the first Middle East peace agreement in thirty years, negotiated peace between Kosovo and Serbia and – just this week – announced a new agreement with Sudan bringing it into the modern world alongside its own peace with Israel. President Trump has challenged more human rights violators than any previous President, including more Russians, Chinese and Iranians. Biden made a deal with Iran that allowed them to engage in proxy wars across the middle east, took the pressure off of Cuba and Venezuela, while his own Defense Secretary, Bob Gates, wrote in his memoir that Biden had been wrong on virtually every foreign policy question for 40 years. . . .
5. He has rebuilt our economy. President Trump’s economic policies built the largest economy in American history, including by providing record home ownership and record low unemployment for women and people of color. His tax policies doubled the child tax credit resulting in 2019 alone a savings of $88 billion dollars to 40 million families. He renegotiated flawed trade deals such as NAFTA and created the USMCA which early on generated $68 billion dollars to the US economy and 176,000 new jobs. . . .
6. He has strengthened minority communities. Some politicians speak about helping minority communities, but it is President Trump who led the historic reform of our Criminal Justice System (through the First Act). As a result of this thousands of Americans have been released from prison and 90% of those who have had their sentences reduced are black Americans. He provided permanent funding for historically black colleges and universities. He signed legislation creating Opportunity Zones, providing investment in nearly 9,000 economically distressed communities with more than $75 billion in funds. In his next term, he promises to turn his support for school choice into law.
7. He has promoted social justice. I understand the religious left talks a big game when it comes to social justice. I’ve come to realize that it’s actually the right which gets the job done and the President has done more in this area than any other. Earlier this year, when the black Republican from South Carolina Senator Tim Scott proposed a second Criminal Justice Reform bill, focused on law enforcement, the President promised to sign it. The only issue was that Democrats wouldn’t even let it be debated on the Senate floor, despite that the original draft included over 80% of their demands to start the negotiation.
Why?
Because they didn’t want it to be signed by President Trump, of course. Over the last six months alone, the President’s “Farmers-to-Families” program has kept farmers in business (buying their produce) while feeding the hungry; giving out over 102 million food boxes, many through communities of faith. President Trump addressed our opioid and drug crisis, he went after the pharmaceutical companies who helped create the crisis, while also mandating lower costs for medication. The Trump administration has made record improvements in combatting human trafficking leading the charge on nine pieces of legislation, 5,000 arrests of wicked traffickers, and budgeting hundreds of millions of dollars to end human trafficking.
8. He has kept us safe. At home and abroad, President Trump has rebuilt our military with $2 trillion dollars, and given our troops a much needed 3.1% pay raise. He has helped our veterans get the help that was denied to them in the previous administration, and he has cherished American freedom and the life of America’s soldiers by disentangling America from foreign conflicts. At home he has strongly supported our law enforcement officers and their families.
9. He has reached across the aisle. The Democrats, who never accepted the 2016 election results chose to embrace an un-American strategy of “resistance,” but President Trump didn’t. He has significantly, regularly reached across the aisle with a problem solvers mentality. That’s why so many of the policies above aren’t traditional, Republican policies, and it’s why evangelicals have found in this President someone who promotes much more of what they support than those who came before.
10. He has never been ashamed of America. Of course, the president isn’t ashamed of America--though former occupants of the Oval Office and their family has declared! As I’ve heard him say thousands of times “I’m going to fight for you!”
He means that, and he means it for all Americans— even those who have opposed him every day. He believes America is still the brightest light on the global horizon and— despite our flaws— we should never reject our identity.
I know this family. They are good people who’ve sacrificed much to serve our nation. They do not deserve the way they have been treated. Yet, elections aren’t about personalities. They are about policies and policy is character when you do what you say you will and—especially—when those policies are righteous.
(Excerpt from "Christianity Today." Article by Pastor Paula White-Cain.)

Thoughts on John 15:4-5

 Thoughts on John 15:4-5 by John W. Ritenbaugh

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." Psalm 59:9-10
Supporting Verses:
"I will wait for You, O You his Strength; For God is my defense.
My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies."
"But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble. To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; For God is my defense, My God of mercy."
Jesus Christ is our Mediator (I Timothy 2:5), the connection, the bridge, between God and mankind. Spiritual enablement flows from God through Jesus to us.
God's power and God's faithfulness are the issues that are of supreme importance in these critical times. Are we constantly cognizant of the fact that our salvation lies in His hands? He has the power to save!
Notice how David expressed this in a psalm written during a time of serious trouble for him: "For look, they lie in wait for my life; the mighty gather against me, not for my transgression nor for my sin, O LORD" (Psalm 59:3).
David feared the threat of murder in a situation in which he was innocent. Verses 9-10 carry his thoughts further: "I will wait for You, O You his Strength; for God is my defense. My God of mercy shall come to meet me; God shall let me see my desire on my enemies." Here, David's confidence rises because he believes in God's awareness and strength -- which is strong enough to put down nations, let alone a small band of enemies. He also recalls God's mercy toward those who serve Him.
Verses 16-17 show that his thoughts extend one step further: "But I will sing of Your power; yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; for You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; for God is my defense, the God of my mercy."
These final two verses summarize why he trusts God, and conclude in a strong affirmation of David's faith. He trusts God because of the combination of God's strengths, His power, combined with His mercy and His will to use them in behalf of those who trust Him.

Weighed in the Balance,,,,,

 Weighed in the Balance,,,,,

Today in History

Today in History 1998 John Glenn returns to space


Nearly four decades after he became the first American to orbit the Earth, Senator John Hershel Glenn, Jr. was launched into space again as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77 years of age, Glenn was the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

Glenn, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, was among the seven men chosen by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1959 to become America’s first astronauts.

A decorated pilot, he had flown nearly 150 combat missions during World War II and the Korean War. In 1957, he made the first nonstop supersonic flight across the United States, flying from Los Angeles to New York in three hours and 23 minutes.

In April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft, Vostok I, made a full orbit before returning to Earth.

Less than one month later, American Alan B. Shepard, Jr., became the first American in space when his Freedom 7 spacecraft was launched on a suborbital flight.

American “Gus” Grissom made another suborbital flight in July, and in August Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov spent more than 25 hours in space aboard Vostok 2, making 17 orbits.

As a technological power, the United States was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.

On February 20, 1962, NASA and Colonel John Glenn accomplished this feat with the flight of Friendship 7, a spacecraft that made three orbits of the Earth in five hours. Glenn was hailed as a national hero, and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. Glenn later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded the “Clean Marine” in the years after his historic flight. Frustrated with this uncharacteristic lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and in 1964 announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate from his home state of Ohio and formally left NASA. Later that year, however, he withdrew his Senate bid after seriously injuring his inner ear in a fall from a horse.

In 1970, following a stint as a Royal Crown Cola executive, he ran for the Senate again but lost the Democratic nomination to Howard Metzenbaum. Four years later, he defeated Metzenbaum, won the general election, and went on to win reelection three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president.

In 1998, Glenn attracted considerable media attention when he returned to space aboard the space shuttle Discovery. In 1999, he retired from his U.S. Senate seat after four consecutive terms in office, a record for the state of Ohio. Glenn died on December 8, 2016, at age 95.