Healthcare bill passes - Why? And what does this mean to us?

Since the vote for government funded healthcare is the topic of the day, and I was drawn into a friendly debate on Facebook, I wanted to make what I hope is a succinct argument regarding why I do not support government healthcare and why things are breaking apart. Our healthcare situation is better than most, much better, but I do not purport to believe that it doesn't have its problems. Costs are out of control, and if you self-pay, it can get very expensive, but we are in this situation because of our sin in general, not because government isn't fulfilling its proper role. However, health care is not a right. It is a business, but greed rules these days, and when a nation is not righteous, everyone suffers. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. (Psalm 33:12), and therefore, suffering is the nation whose God is not the Lord.


During my Facebook debate, I read the comment: "Thank God it is happening."  And this was my reply.

"I cannot thank God that it is happening, because it is happening the wrong way and could very well bankrupt our nation. When healthcare quality drops and much of what we enjoy now is no longer readlily available, even those who could have paid for it will not be able to get it. Sadly, ill advised avenues are not justified by a perceived noble outcome.

Our constitution does in no way provide for the government to be the provider of its citizens' health care needs. The very framework of our nation provides the freedom for people to be able to provide for themselves. However, things are breaking apart. That is because we are fulfilling the prophetic words of our second president, John Adams: 'Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'"

I am not looking forward to the changes we are now going to see. I am not saying that I am unhappy that people will get "free" healthcare, but we will soon see that nothing is free. The burden upon businesses will close many business' doors. Availability of current American-quality healthcare will drop. Get ready for waiting in line, as is done with all government programs. If you've ever received government benefits, you know about the wait times. And  now, it is your surgery that you will be waiting weeks or months for. That is, if you are eligible. Rules will eventually have to be enacted to regulate the vast demand (after all, the largest group of elderly in our nation's history, the baby-boomers, are entering their later years right now) and some, most likely the elderly, will be ruled ineligible in order to free the funds for the younger, "productive" group.

As I said a few days ago, this opens a can of worms that no American who understands history wants to see. And therein lies our problem. We have fulfilled John Adam's declaration. Let us pray.

This is my prayer:

"Father, in Jesus name, as a nation, we are no longer a moral and religious people. Our constitution is being challenged because as an immoral and unreligious people, we no longer find it adequate. We do not want to serve You, believe You for our needs to be met, or obey Your commandments for life and liberty, and therefore, we cannot prosper and be in health as our soul prospers. Our collective soul is not prospering. Lord, we need two things. We need revival among Your people. We need American Christians who will once again seek righteousness. Lord, your people are well versed in seeking their dreams, but we are no longer exhorted to first seek You  and your righteousness. Lord God, revive Your people, and revive Your pulpits. Revive the proclamation of truth. Secondly, we need Your mercy. We ask for ungodly leaders to be removed from office, and we ask for God-fearing men who will stand for the unborn, for the protection of Your definition of marriage, between one man and one woman, and for preservation of our true historical values. We pray that our children will be taught the truth concerning our history and our founding fathers, that our heritage would be restored and preserved. Lord, perhaps there is only a remnant of people who will agree with You and Your word. If so, we ask that you protect, empower and make those who believe and speak truth to be a force to win others to You."

Thomas Sowell has some thoughts I believe you need to read. Please find them here:
Thomas Sowell on Health Care

Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty

It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.
       --JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN, “Election of Lord Mayor of Dublin,” speech before the Privy Council, July 10, 1790.—The Speeches of the Right Honorable John Philpot Curran, ed. Thomas Davis, pp. 94–95 (1847).

OBAMACARE!


How is it that our nation could be willing to accept nationalized, shall we say socialized, health care when the idea of the government providing our personal needs was absolutely anathema from the perspective of our founding fathers? A little insight from the book of Judges might help us see:

Judges 2:10 (King James Version)

10 And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

It was shocking, but God's people had actually forgotten all the astonishing miracles He had done for them in acquiring their freedom from the 400-year tour in bondage country. How could this have happened? It happened as a result of His people shirking their responsibilities in training their children in the truth and ordinances of God. He had commanded that they teach them diligently to their children, but they had-- obviously-- not done so. 


And so, similarly, there has arisen another generation in our nation which knows not the price paid for the freedom Americans enjoy. The quarts, the gallons of men's blood shed to ensure our liberty. The viewpoints of those who remember how precious it is to have freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and freedom to elect a national governing body are disappearing, indeed, they have all but disappeared.


Eternal vigilance? We now know not what we would be eternally vigilant for. Our eyes turned inward we moan, "Government, help me." The arisen generation sees the role of government quite differently than did our ancestors. The stories haven't been passed on. The viewpoints, the knowledge and the world-view have neither been imparted nor deeply etched into the now arisen generation; We lost those when we turned our children over to the state.


By sending our children to the state to be discipled (we call it "education" today), the state has steadily groomed our children, raking off the fallen leaves of knowledge which preserve the soil of our heritage. God have mercy on us. Parents, may your eyes be opened and may you bring your children home from the discipleship of the state. God commissioned parents to train, educate and shape the world-view of their children. We alone can impress the vital importance of eternal vigilance to the next generation. Let the remnant be trained, and may God grant us mercy to continue in freedom.

They Will Be What You Are

I was listening to Tim Tebow field questions from reporters after their decisive victory at the Sugar Bowl on New Year's Day. He made it very clear that he is a follower of Christ, a Godly young man, and I found myself thinking, "I hope I can raise a Godly young man, a true follower of Christ." We are Pastors, and the last thing I would want is to raise children who know how to play the church game but who do not really know Jesus in their hearts.

I needed to think this through. That meant pray. My thinking and my praying are often one and the same. Soon, some thoughts from the Lord began to course through my mind, one of them being a quote I had read from William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, many years ago. He said that you must come to the conclusion that you yourself are what you want your children to become. Eventually, your children will do and say and be what you truly are. Don't expect your children to put the things of God first in their lives if you do not, and this means both parents, as the children will often excuse their own sinfulness by comparing themselves to the less obedient parent. It is most important that your walk with God and obedience to Him be  sincere, complete, and withholding nothing.

Do your children see you reading your Bible? Do they hear you singing worship songs to the Lord? Do they hear you telling white lies over a phone conversation? Or do they see genuine faith and obedience in you?

Don't expect your youth pastor to get your children saved. It is your job to lead them to Christ. It is Father and Mother's job to train them in and teach to them the things of God, with Father leading the way. Feel inadequate? Good! You can rely on the grace of God, and most importantly, you can allow your children to see that you yourself are being diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

Read a children's story bible with them. Ask questions about the story. Probe their hearts, and yours. Be genuine in your walk with Jesus. Let them see you read, pray, and repent.

Be sure that what you hide, they will see, and if they see any hypocrisy in you, they will despise the Lord you are hoping they will serve. You are their key. Make sure you open the door and walk in with them.

Two good story bibles that my husband and I have learned much from as we have read with our children:
Egermeier's Bible Story Book, Standard Edition with Bible Study Questions, The Warner Press. We purchased at sonlight.com. Especially good for the younger children, but we are enjoying it immensely!
The Child's Story Bible, Catherine F. Vos, Eerdmans Publishing. We purchased at veritaspress.com
who says about this book: "Originally published in 1943, this is a classic story Bible. Mrs. Vos' husband was a professor of theology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. After years of telling these stories to her children, as they were told to her while a child, she decided to write them down. This is the most accurate children's story Bible you will find." We found it appealing for middle school and even high school age as it avoids cutesy wording and gets right to the spiritual point of things.

The Secret of Happiness

I love New Year's Day. It's like getting free money. You wake up and POOF!, a fresh new year just waiting for you to fill it. A new day to hear the voice of the Father God, leading you to fulfill His marvelous will. Just knowing God has good things planned is enough for me. (Jeremiah 29:11) To be able to walk with the Holy Spirit, to have the wonderful opportunity of obeying His leading and seeing what beautiful results occur is a joy beyond words. God makes my life worthy. Fulfilling. Joyous....I am grateful.

Just A Bit of Slime On The Planet

Well, children are back in school now, ready for a fresh dose of evolution in their science classes. It's just the norm in many minds today that we exist because of a cosmic accident, a big bang that just happened at one point in time. There actually could have been a big bang, but Christian believers know that the bang would have been caused by the creator of all things, including big bangs.

Oxford (U.K.) Professor Peter Atkins said, "We are just a bit of slime on the planet." And so here we are, created by a chance mixture of non-living things. Life arising out of the proverbial primordial soup. Life that is created by none, and therefore responsible to none.

There are Christians today who have been well steeped in this new "enlightened" thought paradigm, and many find it not difficult at all to believe that the Bible is a good book but not divinely inspired. If the Bible is merely the words of fallible man, then all of us are free to invent our own ideas about God (which we are accomplishing at an astounding rate) rather than submitting to the Word of God, the Bible. The evolutionary thought process effectively removes any real source of authority in our lives. If there is no Creator, then to whom or what do we look for morality or for any semblance of meaning to life? We become "just a bit of slime," and in this century, we are living out quite well the curse of this definition on our lives.

Alone and unbridled, man is sinking in the sludge. It is simply the evolution of the primordial soup. Only now we can see---as with all things--- instead of improving, mankind is deteriorating and falling very far away from our Creator's intent.

The Apostle Paul left us an example to follow in countering arguments that stand against the knowledge of God  (2 Corinthians 10:5)  and in the commandment of Jesus that we have a duty to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. (Matthew 22:37)

We must figure out what we believe and think it through until we understand it well if we are to be faithful to the Word of God, particularly the example of the Apostle Paul when he asked that the believers pray for him that he would speak boldly in sharing the Gospel, refuting arguments that stand against the knowledge of God. Winning friends to Christ and restoring the knowledge that we are created by God in His holy image is our mandate. Each person is planned and valuable to the Creator. So much more than just a bit of slime on the planet.

The Great Debate or "Are We Allowed to Disagree with the President and still be Christlike?"

I love a great debate. Through no effort of my own, I seem to hide that fact well. I also take my faith seriously. It affects all I am and all I do. I've been praying much lately. Praying for my family, for our friends, and for our nation. Change is here, to be sure. And I'm not liking what I see. Most believers know that we should pray for our leaders, whether we agree with them or not. I hope every Christian is praying for our President and other leaders, right down to the local level, as the scripture exhorts us to in I Timothy 2:1-2. I hope that every Christian obeys the law (Romans 13:1-7), so long as it does not usurp the law of God, revealed in the Holy Bible.

What is meant by this? Well, for example, if the law of the land allowed only one child per family, would you agree to abort your second, third, or any following children? Of course not, and you, then would be in disobedience to the law of the land. However, in such cases it should be obvious that we are ultimately responsible to God in all things. We cannot in good conscience disobey the Word while obeying the law of the land.

And what about praying for our leaders? I would urge you to pray for them, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. And where does this leave us in the national debate? Does the command to pray for our President, Senators, Congressmen, judges and others preclude us from voicing our thoughts concerning public policy or even concerning the behavior and political inclinations of the leaders themselves? I would say not.

For instance, if you are of a "liberal" persuasion, should you have kept quiet about your opposition to the policies of the Bush administration? No one would have expected you to do that. If you think certain sexual practices outside of the bonds of marriage are reprehensible, should you have kept your opinions of our 42nd President to yourself? What if your child or a teenager you know asked you about those news reports and wondered if said President was wrong for doing such a thing? What about speaking publicly concerning your ideas about our leaders and/or their policies? Is it wrong to try to convince others to agree with you in your convictions? Current cultural thought police might want you to believe so, but nothing in scripture would condemn you for it. The Bible encourages us to "speak the truth in love." The whole of Ephesians chapter 4 is a study in public opinion making.

So, can I pray for President Obama and other leaders and still voice how thoroughly I disagree with the direction in which he is leading our beloved nation? Most assuredly. Being holy does not mean keeping quiet in fear of offending those who disagree with you. You are allowed by God to win people to Christ, and you have permission to persuade people to agree with your point of view with a great debate motivated by love.

My High Calling

Voila. The inaugural post. Was inspired and about to write when hubby called. Did I want to take children to their uncle's to jump on trampoline, swing and play with dogs? What? Take children to do -- just -- fun? When I have an all-important blog to inaugurate? Huh.

Thankfully, my wiser half kicked in. The one led by the Holy Ghost.

Ahhh, afternoon perfection. Sunshine. Balmy weather. Happy children jumping and playing. "Come on Mom! Jump with us!" "Watch THIS!!"
My high calling called. And I answered, "Yes." Feels good. The important things always do.