Here are some words of affirmation which were shared this week. Our final assignment for the year is to try to put into practice “hearing heart responses.”

Examples of Affirmations

MJ For Melly—"Your excitement and vitality of life is contagious, you encourage others and with just a smile you communicate the pure love of Christ."

MJ for Tim— "It is so humbling to have a brother who cherishes his sisters so much that he will do the little things for us everyday. You value us so much that you are willing to suffer so we don't have to."

Levi for Tim—I am so proud of you for becoming the man you were created to be. You are an encourager, a fierce, trustworthy, reliable man with the heart of a son who is learning the heart of a father. You have stewarded your relationships well. You have remained constant in your dedication to God, and you have adopted His convictions.

Levi for MJ—You were vulnerable, and even when you felt unsteady or unsure of what was happening, you poured out your heart and what the Lord was doing in it, and it has helped to grow not only your classmates, but it has had an impact on all of us.

Laurie For Ryan—You are proactive, you see a problem and go and fix it.

Hannah for Laura-“You are a great example to me of what it means to “push through” and find joy in every circumstance.”

Laura for MJ—"Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong." -Leo Buscaglia

Laurie for Melly -"He knew I needed someone who loves to laugh, someone who cherishes relationships, isn't afraid to be goofy, a fearless leader, and a beautiful women of God."

Melly for Levi— "I respect the man of God that you have become these last two years, I respect the way you love and put others before yourself, I respect your desire and heart for reaching out to boys around you, I respect your willingness to get outside of your comfort zone and do whatever is asked of you in any situation."

Laura for Mel-"You constantly keep me laughing and in a world where laughter can be fake and people can be characters. I love to see you express yourself is in worship, whether you are singing or dancing, you give your whole heart to your audience of One.

Tim to Laura-"Hearing your perspective and your heart to not be taken out of the pain until the Lord was finished doing his work in you definitely taught me a lesson, one that I hope I have courage enough to repeat should the Lord require something similar of me."

Laurie to MJ -”Vulnerability takes strength.”

Tim to Levi - "Whether pulling, pushing, encouraging or exhorting you have been a huge part of the process of me reaching the finish line. I am thankful and have been given an example worthy of following."

Laura to Hannah- “You are a trooper, a warrior and I’m honored to be on your side. The gift you have for words is awesome but it’s the genuine spirit you have behind them that rock peoples hearts and bring truth into their lives.”

Personal and National Stewardship Issues:

The rich rules over the borrower and the borrower
becomes slave to the lender. Pro 22:7

What is my purpose investing: to provide for my household and increase my ability to give for God’s kingdom? Four ways to be a good financial steward: 1. Honor God by giving first to Him. 2. Deal with debt 3. Save, beginning with emergency fund. 4. Invest surplus 5. Diversify for safety.

Every spending decision is an investing decision.

What is the intent and the fruit of our government’s policies regarding debt and individual stewardship, including life? Compare your personal beliefs and values to US Government.

The Congressional Budget Office projects unprecedented trajectory of the debt compared to the scope of our national debt in the past: The debt will be larger than our entire economy in just a decade (a level we have experienced only once, very briefly, in the immediate wake of World War II).

Do you trust the government to be good stewards of life?

One of the main causes of increasing government spending is ObamaCare Health Law. Much controversy over the unclarity in this law toward possible funding of abortions and the possible “rationing of health care” to elderly and very ill.

IPAB (Independent Advisory Board) is a panel of 15 government-appointed "experts" to be set up to monitor/set the amounts that Medicare can reimburse doctors/hospitals for various services/procedures. Which may lead to fewer doctors accepting Medicare patients and thus longer wait times. In effect, medical services will be rationed.

Which do you prefer: Top-down, heavy-handed approach to medical care reform OR turning more of the decision-making over to individuals choices in a competitive private market?

-PD

When I Say I Am a Christian

John Milton as an exercise in describing simply who he is challenged us to write that down in three statements about ourselves beginning with "I am..."


He wrote:
I am a Christian
I am an Englishman
I am a poet.


Who are you?


Something to remember as we pray for our nation, our leaders and our friends and neighbors.... adapted by Tim McCoy from anonymous

When I Say I Am A Christian:
When I say, "I am a Christian,"
I'm not shouting, "I am saved!"
I'm whispering, "I get lost;
That is why I chose this way."

When I say, "I am a Christian,"
I don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
And need Someone to be my Guide.

When I say, "I am a Christian,"
I'm not bragging I am strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak,
And pray for strength to carry on.

When I say, "I am a Christian,"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
And cannot ever pay the debt.

When I say, "I am a Christian,"
I'm not claiming to be perfect.
My flaws are all too visible,
But God believes I'm worth it.

When I say, "I am a Christian,"
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches,
Which is why I cry his name.

When I say, "I am a Christian,"
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority; I only know I'm loved.

Practicing Solitude (Alone-ness with God)

Richard Lineberry

Many, if not most, Christians are ruled by the tyranny of the urgent and become activity ruled. We are often asked, “What are we DOING for God?” We neglect quiet times where activity ceases and our attention becomes centered on BEING rather than DOING. It was a big shock in my life when I realized God didn’t need me, He wanted me and wanted me to spend time with Him.

All of us want to grow in our relationship with God. But growth in any relationship takes time. A friendship starts out with trivial conversation like, “Hi, how are you?” The next phase is characterized by sharing more information with our new friend like where we work, family status, etc. Gradually we feel free enough to talk about personal opinions and even sharing about our problems and weaknesses. But peak communication in a friendship takes place when in the presence of a trusted friend, little oral communication may take place at all. We are served by just being in the presence of the other person.

Most people live out their relationship with God at a “low level.” But wouldn’t it be great to experience such intimacy with God that prolonged periods in His presence would energize you for all that is happening in your life?

Jesus withdrew from people frequently to spend time with His Father. Moses was called away from the people to spend time with God. God told Ezekiel to “Get up, go out to the plain and there I will speak to you,” (Ez 3:22b). Practicing the presence of God requires discipline. It’s a matter of giving Him quiet time where we let the “daily humdrum” take a back seat to our attention while letting the Holy Spirit take charge and set the agenda of what He wants to say or do. Daily solitude may be for a few minutes or be practiced in a withdrawal for a while from everything just to hear the Lord.

Getting alone with God may seem like something radical and new for you. Although human companionship is needful, and a part of God’s plan is our fellowship with others, there must be a time to renew and “stoke the coals” of our divine connection. If we are too busy for God, then we’re just too busy!

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.
Psalm 37:7a

Seven Men who took their own counsel

instead of God’s and though dead
are still influencing America.

“have no other God’s before Me.” Ex 20:3 (hundreds of x). “
The mind justifies what the heart has chosen” D. Peacocke
A nation can not rise above it’s gods, or it’s mental constructs.

How can a man though dead still “rule” men’s minds? By the veneration we give them whether their ideas are Godly counsel or not. The thoughts we allow to strongly influence our thinking become like gods exerting control our lives and whole nations. They are unassailable by reason, truth and revelation. The Humanistic worldview makes us all gods: “Everyone is entitled to their own ideas, especially if they work for them.”

38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life. John 5:38-40 NIV

QUIZ: Can you name the seven men “ruling from their graves?”

1. This anthropologist believed that there is no Creator-Designer-Ruler-God but only an impersonal force and chance therefore man can become and produce a better world? Man descended from animals so is little better than one.
2. What German theologian undermined the belief that Scripture is God’s inspired and true Word and rule for our lives?
3. Who provided the basis for atheistic socialism and communism?
4. He professed Christianity with the idea that “this moment is the thing that matters.” Without covenant relationship as a member in spiritual family and self-denying vision to serve the purpose of Christ as part of his Body, his “Existentialism” produced a melancholic individualistic life.
5. He believed Jesus a myth and used bad science to promote his repeatedly faulty experiments in how to treat mental and social disorders using hypnosis and psychoanalysis based on an entirely skewed view of man.
6. Whose ideas influenced President Nixon to take us off the gold standard and cause increasingly mounting US debt?
7. Another of the intellectually gifted who had elitist mentality was the father of modern public education and promoted humanism and false optimism of man’s own power (like tower of Babel all over again).

Don’t be discouraged if you can’t match these men to the blanks below, but I want to help us discern roots of vain philosophies and how resistant our minds are to Godly counsel.

____A. John Maynard Keynes (Keynesian Economics-government can control inflation and debt will not hurt us.
____ B. Charles Darwin The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) theory of evolution.
____ C. Karl Marx in 1847 wrote the famous Communist Manifesto with Fredrich Engels. They were heavily influenced by Rousseau and the “Enlightenment.” Their works like Das Kapital overwhelmed other thinking with it's assault on personal ownership, capitalism and free market economies. Their plan was to take control of minds and people through education and college campuses. Communism is responsible for over 100 million sadistic and violent deaths.
____ D. Søren Kierkegaard was full of contradictions prefiguring post-modern feeling dominated irrationalism. His focus on “my subjective experience” sounds like just so much more humanistic and agnostic religion. Though professing faith in God he clearly sought his own mind and counsel and experience above revelation from God. It dominates college campuses and inspired youth rebellion, sexual immorality and anarchy.
____ E. Julius Wellhausen, religious liberal and rationalistic scholar, held that human reason was more dependable than the Bible.
____ F. John Dewey’s atheistic idealism was a dominant factor in the early years of the 20th century. Ironically many of his ideas were always changing—showing the “pop-wisdom” of relativistic thinking whereby every man becomes his own god with his own mind. His focus was on situationally determined values and their consequences, and what our thought processes produced experientially rather than beginning with the seeking of absolute truth and the service of God. This continues to undermine the basis of education and has pushed the deterioration of learning in science, history, and ethics.
____ G. Sigmund Freud’s twisted view of man (Id, ego, super-ego, life and death instinct, and being ruled by libido-sexual fixations) contradicts Biblical body, soul, spirit of man, created in God’s image, fallen but being restored in Christ.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

-PD