Obama's Supreme Court Justice!

Justice John Paul Stevens to retire - Obama to select 2nd justice to Supreme Court - "short list" of possible replacements -- --- Flood of news releases from the media - April 9, 2010

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has announced his impending retirement. He is infamous as the court's "liberal" and has served as though he has been there forever and a day!

President Obama will be selecting someone to replace Stevens and already the media is in a feeding frenzy on this as to who the person will be. While the identity of the president's choice is not yet known, there are certain things we can be sure of in regard to the incoming justice's view of things.

The new justice will be an extension of the warped philosophy possessed by the president himself, no matter the fancy rhetoric employed by the president on this issue. This means:

• Almighty God is not to be considered the ultimate Authority when it comes to human behavior, relationships, and the affairs of nations and their leaders. At the very best God is to be simply ignored in spite of the fact that the Ten Commandments are inscribed on certain surfaces within the U. S. Supreme Court building!
  
  
• The U. S. Constitution is not to be taken seriously -- and if it is considered at all, it is regarded as a flawed document subject to being changed in any way we see fit to alter it, or to be interpreted in ways that the founding fathers never intended.
  
  
• The U. S. government must enlarge itself and increase control over every facet of the lives of the citizens -- the goal is fulfillment of the objective that the government exists to literally take care of us from "the womb to the tomb!" Behind this perverted view is the belief that those who sit in controlling positions at the federal level are smarter than the citizens they claim to "serve" and the citizens are too ignorant to know what is best for their well being!
  
  
• Most serious of all is the fact that Stevens' replacement will hold to the president's very low view of human life -- that is, by law we declare that certain humans are unworthy of being born and given the opportunity to live. The new justice will fully support the president's view that murdering unborn children is not only acceptable, but quite necessary! It is the U. S. version of "holocaust" and a twist to the WW II Nazi logic which said that a number of individuals did not deserve to live because of certain circumstances! In the Nazi way of doing things the government defined the "circumstances" that resulted in millions being put to death! Since the insane 1973 interpretation of the U. S. Constitution that a female has the "right" to have her unborn child destroyed, the tally is moving up toward 52 million victims!
  

So, after all the debate and discussion have taken place over the next few months there will be an individual who will occupy the chair now occupied on the Supreme Court by John Paul Stevens. In reality, that person will simply be an extension of the perverted views held by the president of the United States!

For some time we have long since passed beyond the question, "Will Almighty God pour out His wrath on the United States?" The question now is, "How soon will God's judgment be poured out upon us?"

At least one significant decision by the Supreme Court and widely supported by elected officials and citizens will be a critical factor in inviting the wrath of God to be poured out upon us! Perhaps that decision would not have been made if each justice would have remembered that the time would come when he will not be sitting in the judge's chair to issue a ruling but standing before the mighty Creator of the universe to be judged on basis of righteousness and truth as defined by that same Creator!

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nations." --- Jeremiah 4,5

".....therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.'" Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD. --- 2 Kings 21:12-16

Imagine No Malaria -- Are We Limiting Our Imagination?

Western PA UM Churches Plan to Change the World! --- Headline on front page of W PA UMC InterLink, April 2, 2010 issue

Lots of activity is about to take place in a number of United Methodist Churches in western Pennsylvania. There will be an event known as "Change the World." There will also be the observing of World Malaria Day on April 25 with the continuing emphasis on fighting malaria. Youth will be involved in many of the activities and helping to raise awareness of the "Imagine No Malaria" campaign.

Certainly such efforts are commendable. My wife and I have financially supported the Nothing But Nets effort in the past within the Western PA Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

But there is a legitimate question to be raised -- why such heavy hitting on this issue and total neglect on one that is even more critical than the malaria issue. Bishop Thomas Bickerton has been at the center of pushing, appealing, and zealously campaigning on getting funds to fight malaria in Africa. At one point his appeal included mention of the fact that 1 million children die from malaria each year in Africa.

But neither he nor any other bishop nor the collective group of UM bishops will engage in a high profile campaign protesting the destruction of over 1 million unborn children each year by mutilation and murder while they are still in the womb in a republic which claims to be a nation "under God!"

Should those youth that are involved in the "Imagine No Malaria" campaign be informed that there are a million youth or more for each age of those youth who are NOT around because they were intentionally murdered before they were born -- and further, that malaria is not the only thing that is hazardous to the health and well being of the very young!

Would it help if another slogan were added to the "Change the World" event which would read "Imagine No Abortions!" -- one has to admit that it would be nothing short of a miracle if such a change were to take place in the United States where the present president is adamantly supportive of the practice of destroying unborn children as are many members of the U. S. Congress and certain members of the U. S. Supreme Court!

Also, that all active UM bishops would have this slogan boldly on display in their offices and in the churches of their conferences. Who knows what might happen if this sudden and rather dramatic shift took place?

A thought to think about -- the United Methodist Church has been in steady decline for decades. But it would have more members than it actually has now if the over 51 million victims of the United States' version of "holocaust" had not been murdered before birth!

Some of those 51 million persons would have become members of the United Methodist Church. None of us, including the bishops, is capable of estimating what contribution this group would have made in the life and ministry of the United Methodist Church. The oldest of this group would have been over 37 years of age!

So give your brain a bit of a workout -- "Imagine No Abortions!"

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in these lying words, saying, 'The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.' For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever." --- Jeremiah 7:3-7

My God My God Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" --- Mark 15:33, 34

The above quote is considered the "fourth word" spoken by Jesus as He hung on the cross during His crucifixion 2,000 years ago.

It was this word on which I was asked to speak during the Good Friday Community Service held at First Christian Church in Ebensburg PA USA starting at 12 noon on April 2, 2010.

The word "forsaken" in the original New Testament Greek literally means to abandon or desert -- that is, when it comes to persons, one totally abandons another and leaves the abandoned one to be absolutely alone with no other person present.

In order to try to grasp a bit the frantic plea of Jesus at this point in the crucifixion of being abandoned by God the Father, I drew on the experience of a man as revealed by Jesus earlier in His ministry. The details are given in Luke 16.

There was a rich man and a beggar by the name of Lazarus laid outside the rich man's gate hoping for something to eat from time to time. He also had sores on his body which the dogs would lick. Death came to Lazarus and he was carried by the angels to a paradise where Abraham lived.

The rich man died, was buried, and we are told that in Hell he looked around, being in torment. He spotted Lazarus and Abraham a ways off beyond a great chasm which separated him and the other two.

The rich man's experience in Hell helps us to see a bit more clearly the anguish of Jesus as He frantically cried out that He had been abandoned by the heavenly Father.

Notice that the rich man:

• had unrestricted vision -- he could clearly see a paradise where Abraham and Lazarus were living, but was not able to experience it for himself -- he was in Hell! Torment was intensified in knowing some were in a trouble-free environment, but he was not!
  
  
• had unsatisfied desires -- part of his plea was that Lazarus come over and place at least a drop of water on his tongue, but Abraham denied that request and so the agony of a thirst never being quenched continued and continues even today!
  
  
• witnessed an uncrossable chasm -- it was like a bottomless pit which separated the rich man on one side in all his misery and Abraham and Lazarus on the other in their paradise on the opposite side. There was no bridge -- no way to cross over into the trouble-free, pain-free, sorrow-free and disease-free environment Abraham and Lazarus were enjoying!
  
  
• had unclouded memory -- Abraham at one point in the conversation told the rich man to remember how it was in the former life -- the memory was crystal clear -- he had enjoyed many things in the former life, but obviously, by implication he had made wrong choices which resulted in his being in Hell -- part of the torment would be the memory of missed opportunities -- the times he could have made a choice in which he too would have ended up in Paradise instead of Hell!
  
  
• experienced unanswered prayer -- the rich man appealed to Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn his brothers about this place of torment -- if someone went to them from the dead, he reasoned, they would listen. Abraham's rebuttal was that they already had sufficient information through Moses and the prophets and if they did not listen to those sources, they would not listen to one who had come back from the dead! So the prayer was unheeded.
  
  
• experienced unrelieved torment, no matter in what form that torment existed -- the rich man's total being was in torment and never so much as one second of relief was available to him. This would be his constant experience as eternity rolled on and on and on and on.....!
  
  

What was happening to Jesus when He uttered that frantic question about being forsakened by the Father? It was in that moment that He was literally experiencing Hell on behalf of every single human being -- He was bearing the punishment we all deserve to receive because of our sins against a holy God! He stepped in and became our substitute -- satisfied the demands of God's justice against all sin in order that we could be forgiven and restored to righteousness -- and as a result, we are accepted in God's sight as though we had never sinned one time!

Now there is a condition here -- that is, we must repent and express to God that we are sorry for the wrong we have done, ask His mercy and forgiveness, receive Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives, and seek by His help not to continue to sin as we were used to doing in the past!

Jesus endured the torment and agony of Hell, the abandonment of God, and separation from God in order that we would not have to experience it ourselves! When was the last time you thanked Him for being willing to go through all that for you?

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. --- 2 Corinthians 5:21

Politics Takes Priority Over Good Friday!

Obama Making A Good Friday Trip to North Carolina to Talk Jobs --- AP Internet Headline on Friday AM April 2, 2010

The president continues in "campaign mode" as he has always done since taking office in January of 2009. This trip on a day that is very high profile in Christianity is taking him to North Carolina as he attempts to further persuade the American people that he is the "savior" rather than the One Who died on a cross 2,000 years ago for all the sins of the entire human race!

His attention given to Good Friday and its significance is ample proof that politics is more important than anything else. Good Friday is just another day as the Obama administration continues to pursue its takeover and control of every facet of the lives of United States citizens.

As he piles up more and more high milage on Air Force One he further deceives himself into thinking that he's highly popular with the American people. Every one of those "campaign" stops is flooded with people who cheer him on and never cease giving forth praise that he indeed is that "savior" who will lead us to the "promised land!"

The polls say otherwise, however, though the temptation is there to attribute any negativity in the polls as being rigged by those right-wing extremist "nuts" and they comprise only a very tiny insignificant number of persons who worship at the altar of Fox News!

Ah, but hold on to hope for the future, folks, and if you are one who believes in and practices the discipline of prayer, then pray that God will bring the Obama clan down in His way and time. History is strewn with the wreckage of past "rulers" and 2-bit "dictators" who thought they could ignore the claims and call of Almighty God and get away with their antics of abusing power and privilege.

Obama will discover the hard way that he is no exception to this pattern! Let him ignore Good Friday and all else that is sacred to our faith while he has a short time to do so, for the day is coming when this Jesus, Who was nailed to a Roman cross and Who came back from the dead 3 days later, will return to this planet which He created in the first place and take full control of it. The Obamas of the world at that time who try to control nations will be thrown out of office. You can say "Amen!" to that if you want - it is most appropriate because it's really going to happen -- if you don't believe it, just ask Jesus Christ!

For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed. --- Isaiah 9:16

Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" --- Revelation 11:15