Straight paths through crooked roads

The Hippies were too late: the old faithfuls have survived and young faithfuls have arisen.

I'm older than the hippies.  I was already a young adult with a world view before they arrived in the mid to late 1960's.  Hippiedom was much more than style and music. It was a fundamental change in world view philosophy.  Since then the hippies have grown up and become our educators, politicians, business people, and mass media moguls.  They have largely replaced the previous world view with theirs and done this so completely that their perceptions seem to be reality.  But, they were too late to change my world view.  I remember quite clearly what it was like before they came.

Before the advent of American Hippiedom, the prevailing world view of American society was a judeo-christian view. The standards and the principles found in the Bible were the accepted standards by which society operated.  To be certain, there were many exceptions because society had many facets.  There were always a few and sometimes notable scoffers like the athiest Mark Twain.  There were always those who chose to ignore the standards for their own benefit, like greedy businessmen and corrupt politicians or power hungry bureaucrats.  However, society generally saw these as rebels against the established standards. 

The judeo-christian standards of the Ten Commandments, of love thy neighbor, of compassion for the needy were easily found in the court system, in the public schools, in the marriage vows.  That is not to say that these standards were kept with consistant integrity.  As a matter of fact, the scoffers grew in number in our colleges, in our legal system, in our mass media to challenge the standards because they were not consistently met. 

In the 1950's there came a number of people known as "Beatniks".  They had an agnostic philosophy contrary to the judeo-christian view that was not simply a negative scoffing but had something of an integrity to it that performed as an alternative way of thinking.  These general ideas were picked up and added to existentialist philosophy in which the person becomes the center of reality rather than God being the center of reality.

This philosophy was incorporated into the general thinking of the young generation during the 1960's.  This was done through literature, music, and theater.  This way of emphasizing the individual's rights to be free from interference went beyond the previously accepted limits of judeo-christian principles.  Now, people were to be free to do harm to themselves in use of drugs, pre-marital sex, etc. because the impacts of these were perceived to be primarily on the individual and not upon others. 

While the use of drugs is now seen to have definite impact upon others, so that drug use is not necessarily accepted, neither is it socially reprehensible.  That is because drug use is not seen as a moral failure but rather as an "illness".  This individual issue is a symptom of a much larger change in how our society views right and wrong.

The change of view from drug use from being a moral imperative to being a health issue indicates a change that reduces guilt while retaining a reason to deal with the problem.  This is one bit of evidence that Hippiedom became shaped into a new world view. 

This new world view attempts to maintain self-esteem above all else while trying to be socially viable.  That is to say, the cultural leaders in the universities, in the media, in politics who were of the Hippie culture, came to the conclusion that they needed institutions guided by the alternative to judeo-christian principles.  This was needed in their view because they no longer wished to be accountable to an almighty Creator God.  They wished to be tbe captian of their own soul, the master of their own fate.  The judeo-christian standards had denied them the right to be such.  Now, they were in positions of authority where they could institute changes in culture.  Now they could establish their own standards, their own "values." 

So, to have a society without guilt, they made the subjective feelings of the individual the center of the philosophy but rationalized how the individual could be responsible to oneself first and then to others.  They erased all obvious evidence of the judeo-christian culture from public schools, from the courts, from marriage vows, etc.  They promoted the view that judeo-christian "values" were obsolete, uneducated, and perhaps quaint. 

The agnostic philosophy has largely been successfully institutionalized by the old hippies.  But, they do have a few problems.  These are the youth that are connecting with the genuine power of God found in the Scriptures.  These young faithfuls are connecting with old faithfuls like myself.  They are finding that the Holy Spirit is ageless and not subject to distruction by people or ideas. 

So, you see, the Hippies were too late to influence us old faithfuls away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And we have every intention of passing the presence of the Holy Spirit to the young faithfuls.

Father's Day should mean a day for dad to remember to be a real dad.

Father can mean simply a biological mate but we always hope it means more than that.  My own dad once told me that he always thought that children just raised themselves.  His dad was a pastor and the feeling of that generation was that a church minister would sacrifice his own family for the benefit of his congregation.  So, my dad said that he, his brothers and his sister would cry as they would watch their dad drive right by their house on his way to visit the home of a member of his congregation. 

As my dad grew up in small town Indiana he saw the high regard others held for his father.  But his father did not have the day to day close relationship needed to bond closely enough with his children in order to earn the emotional right to discipline them.  As a result, most of his children rebelled against the religion of their father.  There were five of them:  one girl, the oldest whose name was Bernice, then the rest were all boys.  The oldest of these was Gerald.  These two became Christians in their own right.  The youngest three all rebelled against Christ.

As I raised my own family, I tried to raise them as Christians.  Only one has returned to walk the testimony of a Christian.  The others have chosen ways other than Christ.  As my children grew up, I travelled 50 to 100 nights a year as a salesman.  I do believe that had I been home every night by having another profession, I would have had a better chance to keep more of them close to Christ.

My own dad was a functioning alcoholic.  He would deny that but he could not go without drinking for any 24 hour period.  Sometimes he would be gone several nights without coming home, not because of business, but because of unfaithfulness to mom. 

How did I then become a Christian?  The prayers of my grandmother, her witnessing to me, the faith she helped instill in me when my mom and I lived in her home from time to time.  How did my one child come to walk with Christ after rebelling and going into deep sin?  Prayer and fasting for God to invade her life.  He did just that.

The bottom line is this.  To be a biological father is one thing.  To be a provider of food, shelter, clothing, education and even companionship is a much better thing.  To be a spiritual father takes prayer and care.  To be a spiritual father, a dad should take father's day as a day to remember both the obligations and rewards of being one.

The Holy Spirit and Grace and Grace and Grace

There once was this couple who were struggling with each other so much that neither one could see any way out of their misery but to get a divorce.  They argued so often and so harshly that even their children, who were teenagers, told them that they should divorce.  They had a dilemma though, they were both Christian.  Because the Bible said that the only grounds for divorce was unfaithfulness, and since neither of them were, and since they both wanted to be true to their relationship with Christ, neither one was willing to actually begin divorce proceedings.

Finally, the husband thought, this is silly.  If we just cannot get along, there is no use going down this road any further.  So, he decided to go downtown the next day to the county court building and get the divorce paper work.  That evening, as his wife lay sleeping on the couch and he was watching TV, he looked over at her and watched her sleep.  He felt a warm love in his heart.  But he also felt the fresh pain of an earlier argument when her words and harsh voice seem to feel like claws ripping his heart.  He knew he had also said things that he knew would set her anger aflame.  He knew that they both were just defending their own feelings and justifying their own priorities in each other's face.  But he did not know any way out of this unending struggle except to end the struggle.

The next day, the husband found himself in line at the divorce papers desk in the county building.  When he got to the front of the line he found himself asking the clerk, "If I divorce my wife, can I somehow make sure that she still get's the medical coverage from my company's plan?"  The clerk looked up in surprise as if to say, "Why ask such a question?  Aren't you divorcing her?" What the clerk actually said was, "I suppose so."  When he left with the papers, he found himself asking himself the same question that the clerk seemed to ask with his facial expression.  "Why did I ask such a question if I intend to divorce her?  I must still love her enough to take care of her."  The husband eventually threw the divorce papers away.

Some time later, the husband and wife were saying goodbye.  He was going on a sales trip from their home in Fresno, California, to San Bernardino.  The wife looked up from the dining table with a sad face.  She expressed a love and yet a concern about their future together.  He said his goodbye and got into his station wagon loaded with the textbooks he sold.

All along the way down route 99 to Bakersfield the husband was again fighting himself with mixed emotions of love and anger toward his wife.  He was sometimes hoping that she would divorce him.  He was sometimes thinking that he had to divorce her.  He made the turn off of route 99 to go east on route 58.  He was driving past a small town called Weedpatch.  Then a sudden impression struck him.  This was not his conscience.  He knew how that felt in his senses.  This was the Holy Spirit speaking to his spirit.

The Holy Spirit simply said, "If you divorce her, you divorce me."  Wow!  The husband took the next exit off of the freeway.  He found a public phone at a convenience store and called his wife. 

She answered and in a firm voice simply said, "What is it?"  The husband replied, "I'm not leaving no matter what."  She said, "How are we ever going to make it?"  He said, "Grace and grace and grace." That ended the phone call.

They finally found a moment in time where the husband stood up for his wife in such a manner that she never again questioned his love for her.  That matter is so private that it remains a secret today.  However, it is no secret that today they are both in love with each other more than ever in their married life of just about 40 years.

I enjoy being a rebel against the god (small g) of this world.

It's fun to be rebellious, especially when you get away with it.  The problem is that if you are rebelling against the God of the Bible, you will be doing genuine evil and evil is self destructive.  But, if you are rebelling against the god of this world (Satan), then you will find reward that is lasting with minimum if any sorrow added to it. 

I have about 160 students, ages 16 and 17, in my history classes.  They enjoy sneaking a look at their portable play stations, listening to their ipods, texting on their cell phones, when they think that I'm not looking.  But, to a large extent, that is self-destructive.  Not only are they cutting back on their achievement in class, they are creating a habit of escape. 

I asked them if they agreed to the following idea. Lots of students are playing with their electronic gadgets rather than doing the assignment well.  They are therefore escaping rather than first achieving and then using their gadgets as a reward for a job well done.  So, what is happening is that kids are not doing for themselves what they need to do.  Often, they ask for help from a friend for the answers.  They become dependent upon their friends rather than indpendent thinkers and achievers.  They then lose confidence in themselves not because they can not do a task, but because they have no proof that they actually do achieve the task.  This is a cause of some anxiety about facing new tasks.  So, they escape once more into their electronic devices, deepening the problem for them.  This creates personal weakness.  My students agreed by a large majority that this is true. 

Did the understanding of the students help them overcome this habit of escape?  Not at all.  They are as involved with this escape as much as ever.  This is not surprising, however.  The nature of evil is that it creates a taste for self-destruction.  The carnal nature within us humans needs redemption and overcoming only available through Jesus Christ.  We are incapable of overcoming it by ourselves.  We can reform some habits but we cannot overcome our own natures that lead us in a variety of rebellious behaviors.

No, I'm not saying that I am perfect.  I suffer from my own weaknesses just like anyone else.  But, I do have the Holy Spirit to help me.  He leads me to repentence.  He enables me to overcome temptations.  He provides motivation from His nature to replace and overcome the motivations that my own carnal nature would have used to drive my actions.  He is the Friend of my soul.

The Holy Spirit also helps me to enjoy a moment when I have overcome a temptation.  In that moment I have just rebelled against the god of this world, Satan.  The Holy Spirit motivates me to not hold grudges, not try to get even, not throw people away.  Then, I watch over the months of the school year as a  few of my students show changes in attitude from being rebellious against me to becoming cooperative and even supportive of me in the class environment.  Once again, I have evidence of a successful raid on the evil god of this world.  What fun!

How about you?  Do you have a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit?  The only way to have one is by genuinely accepting responsibility for your sins, to ask Jesus Christ to forgive you, to ask Him to be the king of your life, to trust Him with your soul, and to believe that He will do what He has said, that is, send the Holy Spirit to be your companion.  If you do, everything will change. 

What you love will change.  What you want will change.  What seems important will change.  And, everthing bad you have done your whole life long will have been forgiven.  You will find that you somehow actually love God.  You will find a peace when it comes to your eternal future. You will find a source of hope for your future in this life.  You will find a new confidence in facing your tasks.  You wil find an ability to love others with a love that God gives you to share with others. 

When you pursue this new life, you will be ruining the future Satan had for you.  Isn't that a kick in the pants? 

Conversations with a teenage girl

As a high school teacher, I have had a number of conversations with teens.  I especially enjoy talking with girls even though I am now considered elderly.  I am fascinated with how they mature as compared to how boys mature.  Girls sure are more  complicated.  Boys are relatively simple.  (Aren't they, girls?)

I did not understand female humans very well in spite of being related to my mother and having a younger sister.  After all, they weren't really girls, you know? 

Having been married gets you up close and personal with the opposite sex.  As I studied my wife, I fell in love with not just her as an individual, but with her femininity.  When we had a daughter, I felt a special father-daughter bond that I have never lost.  (Amy is 31 years old right now.)

Well, just the other day my history class was about over and three of my female students started asking me about my years as a teenager.  They wanted to know about what decade it was:  the 1970's ?, the 1960's?, the 1950's?, the 1850's?

They wanted to know if I had enjoyed such artists as Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Sex Pistols, etc....I assured them that I knew of all of these but that I was not that familiar with their music.  These girls did not understand how I could be so naive, so culturally unaware, so disconnected with reality. 

In public school I am legally bound to not share my Christian testimony.  I could not tell them that these artists did not share my principles and values.  I could not tell them about the miracles of prayer in Christ's name for the healing of my wife and children, about the saving of our marriage, about the overwhelming fulfillment of a daily life in connection with the Holy Spirit, about the peace of mind about having peace with God.

No, I could not legally express that.  And, I can only hope that I give to my students enough evidence to convict me of being a genuine Christian.

Would our society today choose Barabbas over Christ?

Unfortunately, the world prefers self-destruction due to the consequences of evil choices over the humbling of self before the God Who loves them.

There He is, standing beside Pilate at the top of the steps in the Praetorium.  Christ is bloody from the beating he has recieved at the hands of the Romans.  This scourging is the first step in the sacrifice Jesus makes for you, me, and the rest of the human race.  Pilate wishes to release Christ but offers the crowd before him a choice to either receive Jesus who loves them sacrificially, or to receive Barabbas, one who is a convicted murderer and is most certainly going to harm others if released to them.  The crowd chooses Barabbas.

If we have studied the Biblical account found in Mark chapter 15, we know that the leadership of the Jewish priesthood wanted Christ crucified so as to end His threat to their position in that society.  But, why would the crowd agree with them?  Why would they accept a convicted murderer to be released from captivity into their midst where he is certain to kill again? 

What did the priesthood have to offer the crowd for accepting a killer?  My conclusion is that the crowd chose Barabbas because essentially they agreed with the Jewish priesthood on this principle:  they preferred the consequences of their own self willed decisions to humbling themselves before the God Who loves them. 

The world today still prefers self-destruction from the consequences of their own evil decisions rather than choosing to place their faith in the principles of truth in God's Word that would redeem their lives.  People today say that if they have nothing but a garden of weeds, at least it is still their own weeds.  They choose to be the captian of their own souls, the masters of their own fate, even if it is a garden of weeds and thorns.  If only they would trust the eternal Husbandman who cares for His garden, they would find fulfillment and peace, health and prosperity without such sorrow. 

It is the blessing of our God that He gives benefit to us and He adds no sorrow to it.  His blood that was shed in the scourging and on the cross of Calvary is His supreme blessing to us.  That gift has purchased our salvation from eternal destruction:  redemption of our souls from what should have been the fate of our evil choices.  Instead, He gives us the fellowship of the Holy Spirit to guide us through life to an eternal home of love and peace.

The world may choose Barabbas today.  I choose Christ today.  What is your response?

Christ is risen indeed-and is rising again in the new generation.

In a much earlier post, I mentioned the concept of the Christ life.  That is, the focus of understanding about the work of the Holy Spirit. He becomes the companion of the Christian and is indeed our Friend.  He brings the nature of Christ's character and motivation into our lives.  As we read the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit translates them into the language of our spirit.  The nature of our relationship to Christ is that the Holy Spirit is the living connection between the Christian and the Christ. Our walk with Christ changes from our striving to be good into a relaxation on the power of the Holy Spirit to be our Motivator in each daily situation.

So, when we speak at Easter of the importance of the resurrection of Christ, we speak again and again of how Christ is alive!  But, more precisely, He is alive in us by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  We need to commit the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John and the eighth chapter of Romans to memory so that we can ponder the depth of the meaning of this vital relationship.

The miracle of an Easter Sunday service is to see one generation after another all testifying to the power of the work of God in their lives to transform them from failure to progress and hope.  The children, the teens, the young marrieds, the middle aged, the grandparents, all demonstrate the presence of the same Holy Spirit alive in them by their individual new births by faith in Christ.

You can see a little girl in all sincerity give her heart to Jesus.  You can see an aged person smile at the mention of Christ.  You can see the former party girl mature into a loving mother and devoted wife.  You can see the former "player" mature into the caring husband and father and provider for his family.  None of this can occur without the moving power of the Holy Spirit Who is one and the same to each of these.

It was after a remarkably wonderful Sunday worship service.  The visiting speaker did not depart with the pastor to some Sunday brunch.  He remained after the service to greet and to give hugs to members of the congregation who were lingering to chat with one another.  The speaker would approach one person after another with the same warm question and answer.  "Do you love Jesus?", he would ask.  The person would respond with a "yes." "Well then," he would say.  "You love the Jesus in me.  Give me a hug!"

It is as St. Paul said.  In Colossians 1:26 he writes that it is Christ IN us that is the hope of glory.  That is to say, the hope of revealing the nature of Who Christ is in wisdom, in compassion, in faithfulness to those whose lives we touch. 

Christ is risen indeed in us.  This is not an arrogant assumption.  It is a miracle of faith placed by humility at Christ's empty tomb.

Where is Obama taking our country?

The effect of what President Obama has done is to over run the objections of anyone who opposes his liberal agenda.  OK, but all politicians try to use power to do that.  However, President Obama and his friends in Congress have used a deceptive process that pressed the "stimulus package" through without allowing members of Congress time to read the legislation. This process hid the details of the legislation from those who voted for it.   President Obama is now asking that his Secretary of the Treasury be allowed to control companies that did not even receive money from that "stimulus package".  This process would allow his administration to carry out orders before the public or Congress could be aware of them.  The process hides the agenda from view until it is too late to prevent its implementation.  Again, this is deceptive.

Thus, the President of our country is asking for dictatorial control by the use of deception over the ability of our country to create wealth for those who work to earn it.  What could motivate the President to do this? 

President Obama could be motivated by the desire to transform the United States into the country he always wished it had been - the country which he candidly revealed in his conversation with "Joe the Plumber" during the Presidential campaign.  He wishes a government that distributes the wealth that productive people create to those who seem to be entitled (in the President's view) to it. 

Or, the President could simply be a very convincing Pied Piper leading the nation of blind mice on his path to dictatorial power.  The Speaker of the House, Ms. Pelosi, is, for now, actually more powerful than the President in terms of shaping the agenda.  However, the President has the power of his office plus his great public charisma which he is exploiting on TV especially.  Eventually, he will be able to overshadow the Speaker in power and she will have been a willing pawn in his hands.  The majority leader in the Senate, Mr. Reed, is merely a willing accomplice who has hitched his wagon to Obama's star. 

Christ said that those who do evil love the dark so that their deeds will not be exposed.  He also said that the righteous seek the light so that their deeds can be demonstrated to be good. 

Mr. Obama's use of a process that hides from view the exact nature of what he is leading us into is in fact making his motives very obvious:  he is leading us into a loss of personal and financial freedom sacrificed to his thirst for power.

There is a paradigm used in politics that helps to understand what motivates people in power.  First, you look at the effects of what they did.  Second, you look at the process by which they did it.  Third, from these two pieces of information you determine the motivational direction from which they came.  These motivations are likely to continue to guide the political leader in the future. 

It is exactly this paradigm which we have used in this essay.  Therefore, no matter what the issue may be, you and I will see a process of deception used by this President in his quest to amass power unto himself.  The economy is not the issue for him.  The economic difficulty is simply the tool he will use to reshape the American government into his personal footstool.

As tyranny grows in Washington, the Kingdom of God must grow in us.

The definition of tyranny is that one source of unquestioned political power rules a country.  The definition of power is the ability of person A to get person B to do something they would not otherwise do.  President Obama is using the necessary power of the executive office to shape policy that will effectively steal the charity of Americans and remove it to the conrol and distribution by the federal government acccording to the philosophy of the state.

The theft freedom and money occurs by discouragement of donors to charity by limiting tax deductions for charitable giving.  Then, the taxes generated to the government can then be disbursed by government programs to those who can be depended upon to support the President's political party. 

The growth of tyranny occurs by reducing the spirit of volunteerism that results in charitable giving and moving the money to government control for redistribution of stolen wealth to a political base. 

The Christian basis of economics is founded first upon the fact that there was such a thing as private ownership of property which was then voluntarily given to charity for distribution to those in need.  (See the fourth chapter of Acts).  The distortion by socialists such as those who support President Obama would be that the community of Christians in Jerusalem shared their wealth.  But, they did not give their wealth to the Romans to distribute, but to the church and on the basis of voluntary charity, not force. 

The transfer of wealth to the government is more than a shift of money, it is a transfer of power to direct that weath to cause a different effect.  The effect will be to gain the dependence of those who receive the benefits of the government to look to government for sustainance rather than to individuals who create a bond of personal compassion.  The effect will be that benefits will the the result of the power of those who wield it rather than the result of the compassion of those who willingly give it. 

This is evil.  The substitution of what is selfish for that which is unselfish is evil.  The taking away of money that would have been contributed and directing it instead to the power of government is theft.  The policy that applies to millions of people is massive theft.  To do so without the ability of people to resist it is tyranny. 

But, Christian, take comfort.  It is the evil of those who do evil that will destroy them.  The very nature of evil is self-destructive. 

Let those who have worked to create their own wealth, be it great or small, rise up as adversaries to this theft, to this evil.  Let us join forces in votes and organization to stem this tide at the very next election in 2010.  Let there be no more transfer of wealth from those who create it to those in government who dissapate it. 

Let those who may have voted for this party take notice of what has been done with the power they give it with their votes.  It may be that they had no indication that such horrible advantage would be taken of them.  It may be that they had no idea of the overwhelming financial cost that would be exacted from America to pay for the extreme views of President Obama's programs.

Furthermore, let those who name the name of Christ as their Redeemer take direction not from anger but from the motivation of the Holy Spirit.  Let the Christian who has the presence of the Holy Spirit living within him or her take direction and spiritual life from the Word of God.  Let the Christian direct their efforts from the wisdom of the truth of God, the compassion of Christ, the faith and faithfulness enabled by the Holy Spirit. 

Such efforts will become the fruit of the Spirit.  These will be the antidote to tyranny.  Christian, rise up and join others to reverse this misuse of power, this theft, this evil, this growth of tyranny.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do for America?

What foudations are destroyed? Who are the righteous?  What needs to be done?  How can this be accomplished?  How do we measure success?  How does this apply to me?  Why would it matter for the whole of America? 

The foundations of America are based upon what we as a people believe to be our "rights".  What is a right?  It is the valid claim of one person on the duty of another.  Rights  must have an origin in order to be valid.  Therefore, they are based either upon the will of God the Creator or it is based upon the will of humans. 

Some might say that the concept of valid claims of one person on the duty of another is based upon the laws given by God in the scripture, such as "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."  And, Christ had said that this was the second great commandment that was like the greatest. The greatest cmmandment was that "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...."  Thus, belief in God is the basis for understanding the nature of rights.

Thomas Jefferson is not known to be a devout Christian but history reveals that he believed firmly that religion was essential for a moral government.  He wrote the words in the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain, unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happpiness."

That document, the Declaration of Independence, is vital as a foundation for America because it is the document that established, along with the sacrifices of patriots during the Revolutionary War, the very sovereignty of the United States of America.  Without sovereignty, there is no government supremely able to direct a nation and to create laws that define what rights are and how they are to be used.

Today, the foundations of what people believe their rights to be are greatly distorted.  Children in school are taught that Thomas Jefferson believed that religion should be separated from government and yet he wrote those great words in the Declaration of Independence.  Children are taught that the founders of our country were greatly influenced by the French "enlightenment" which was a way of thinking based upon agnostic, godless attitudes.  The French philosopher Rousseau wrote that Christianity was a belief that made people the willing servants of tyranny. 

And yet, the American colonies were populated with self proclaimed Christians that quoted Psalm 35 in which ancient David tells the giant Goliath that he confronts him in the name of the Lord.  Most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were devout Christians.  They signed that document knowing that it was a letter to the King of England who would command the world's greatest military force to kill them. 

In fact, the Great Awakening was a much greater influence.  The Great Awakening was a fervant Christian revival of faith among the colonists beginning in the mid 1700's decades before the Revolution. It spread among the general population of the colonies and upon the leaders who forged the Revolution and the government that would follow and become the America we love today.

The beginning of the American understanding of rights was that God was their origin.  That is the foundation being assaulted in the laws and courts, in the institutions of learning and governance of our land.  What can the righteous do about this?

Who are the righteous?  Those in right relationship to God.  For the purpose of this writing, let us simply say that the righteous are those who rightly understand and act upon the concept that God is the source of rights.  There is much more to say on this subject of righteousness and relationship to God.  Those have been addressed in previous posts to which you, dear reader, are referred.

The righteous who understand that God is the source of rights must find God as their resource to stand for what is right.  They can and must be salt and light in this confused American society. 

What exactly needs to be done?  How can this be accomplished?  How do we measure success?  How does this apply to me?  Why would it matter for the whole of America? 

These specifics must be applied in future posts.  For this day, take these thoughts above and see if they do not find validity in your own experience and thinking and faith.  If you agree with this writing, take comfort that you and I are not alone in our concerns.  I welcome your comments.