December 22, 2012Allen Frederick 1 Comment

The income tax was not always a staple of America, But lately it would appear that the only reason anyone works is to pay taxes, at least that is the way our politicians make it sound. They seem to think that the money we earn somehow belongs to ‘the collective’ and must be redistributed by them in order for society to be ‘fair’. So much for the inalienable right to the PURSUIT or HAPPINESS.

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Are Democrats Smarter than a 6th grader on economics?

December 22, 2012December 22, 2012Allen Frederick 3 Comments

Dr. Jay Richards tells a great story about his sixth grade teacher’s explanation of economics. One day the teacher came into class and gave each student a small toy…a silly putty egg, a whiffle ball, a set of Barbi trading cards, and so on. (This was back in the day when 6^th graders were still kids, not the mini adults parents send to school today.) The teacher said, “Each of you look at your toy and the ones around you. Then I want you to mark on a piece of paper how much you like the toy on a 1 to 10 scale. A 10 means you love it and you wouldn’t trade for anything you see. A 1 means you hate it and would trade for anything else. Everything else means you are somewhere in the middle.” Each child submitted a number. The teacher added them up, and wrote the sum on the board.

“Now,” said the teacher, “you are sitting in five rows of five desks each. You may trade freely with any student in your row, but you don’t have to trade if you don’t want to.”

After a few minutes some of the students had traded toys, and the teacher once again asked them to write a number representing how much they liked their toy. Amazingly (if you are a zero sum believer) the sum of the numbers was higher. The toys were the same, but free trade had made the children collectively much happier.

The teacher then told the class they could now trade with anyone in the room as many times as they liked. There was pandemonium for a few minutes as the kids moved around trading, re-trading, laughing, and enjoying the exercise. At the end, the teacher added up their submitted numbers. As someone who believes in a free economy would expect, the last sum was much higher than the earlier ones.

One notable thing from this elementary school exercise is that there was nothing new added to the equation…no new wealth, in other words. The kids made themselves happier by creating an exchange on their own terms, without strict rules (government regulations), without intervention by the teacher or school board (bureaucracy), without someone taking away their toys (taxation) and giving them to someone else (redistribution). Imagine what the result might have been if, like in a free economy, new and better toys (new wealth) had been added to the exchange. Eventually, newer and better toys would have allowed every child in the room to mark his or her toy as a “10.”

Zero sum? Don’t believe it! Zero sum economics is one of the many canards invented by Marxists and adopted by Democrats whose main desire is to control all the wealth generated by the working people of America. Free trade coupled with invention will create more wealth and greater contentment for all.

Obama and the Democrats are wrong. American ingenuity and businesses do not steal dollars from the poor; quite the contrary, those once-lauded elements of the American experience actually create new wealth, which creates new jobs and opportunities for all citizens, which creates even more wealth!

Proving that they are not smarter than a 6th grader.

This is a view from the nest. What say you?

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness. _{Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)}

Along for the journey

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It’s The End of the World As We Know It

December 20, 2012Allen Frederick 2 Comments

Well not so much. For it is written:

“No one knows when that day or hour will come. Even the angels in heaven and the Son don’t know. Only the Father knows. “When the Son of Man comes again, it will be exactly like the days of Noah. In the days before the flood, people were eating, drinking, and getting married until the day that Noah went into the ship. They were not aware of what was happening until the flood came and swept all of them away. That is how it will be when the Son of Man comes again. Matthew 24:36-39 (GW)

According to the Mayan calendar December 21st 2012 is supposed to be the end of the world. This is not the first time the end of the world was predicted. All the earlier predictions were wrong and I am certain this prediction will be wrong as well. Had the Mayans had some sort of special knowledge of what was going to happen in the future they would not have suffered the loss of their own kingdom.

But be certain of this, that if the master of the house had knowledge of the time when the thief was coming, he would have been watching, and would not have let his house be broken into. Luke 12:39 (BBE)

If the Mayan’s were unable to predict their own end how could it be said that they possessed a certain knowledge of things to come concerning the end of the world? Like others who have predicted the end of the world before, this too will be proven to be a false prophecy.

The problem with these false prophecies of doom is that they embolden the skeptics to mock and ridicule God and his holy people. There is coming a doomsday that has been prophesied by Holy Scripture, but with all these phony prophesies coming forth every few decades or so it makes it easy for unbelievers to become skeptics, which is exactly what will happen before the real doomsday prophesied by scripture takes place.

First, you must understand this: In the last days people who follow their own desires will appear. These disrespectful people will ridicule {God’s promise} by saying, “What’s happened to his promise to return? Ever since our ancestors died, everything continues as it did from the beginning of the world.”

They are deliberately ignoring one fact: Because of God’s word, heaven and earth existed a long time ago. The earth {appeared} out of water and was kept alive by water.

Water also flooded and destroyed that world. By God’s word, the present heaven and earth are designated to be burned. They are being kept until the day ungodly people will be judged and destroyed.

Dear friends, don’t ignore this fact: One day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord isn’t slow to do what he promised, as some people think. Rather, he is patient for your sake. He doesn’t want to destroy anyone but wants all people to have an opportunity to turn to him and change the way they think and act.

The day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that day heaven will pass away with a roaring sound. Everything that makes up the universe will burn and be destroyed. The earth and everything that people have done on it will be exposed. 2 Peter 3:3-10 (GW)

And remember Jesus said that no man knows the day or the hour of his coming. This is information that God himself retains. Only God knows when He has had enough of our sinfulness.

Like I said before had the Mayan’s had some sort of insight into future events they would have not suffered the destruction of their own kingdom.

Most of us do not even know when our last day on earth is going to be, and yet we seem to fall for these end of the world prophesies over and over again. Do not be alarmed nor distracted by all this talk about the end of the world. Heed what Jesus said to his disciples about those days.

but give attention to yourselves, for fear that your hearts become over-full of the pleasures of food and wine, and the cares of this life, and that day may come on you suddenly, and take you as in a net: For so it will come on all those who are living on the face of all the earth. But keep watch at all times with prayer, that you may be strong enough to come through all these things and take your place before the Son of man. Luke 21:34-36 (BBE)

So what will you be doing tomorrow? Will you be found enjoying the pleasures of this world? Will you be doing last-minute Christmas shopping? Will you be wining and dining at a holiday party or two? Or will you be seeking Christ in the midst of all this Christmas glitter and end of the world clamor? Will you be found searching His word for answers to life’s problems? Are you watching for and expecting the eventual return of our Lord and Savior?

So whether you fell for the end of the world prophesy of the Mayan calendar or not, know this; tomorrow we will be one day closer to the real return of the Lord Jesus, and the eventual end of the world as we know it.

Until then Carpe Diem.

This is a view from the nest. What say you?

Along for the journey

Deliver Us From Evil

December 16, 2012December 16, 2012Allen Frederick 13 Comments

21/365: Deliver Us From Evil (Photo credit: The Cleveland Kid)

Perhaps one of the best known biblical passages is the Lord’s prayer, often recited by rote by many who perhaps do not even know they are reciting scripture. In this famous prayer we read these words: deliver us from evil…

The horrible massacre of December 14th at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut will always be remembered as a tragic and heartbreaking act that forever altered the lives of hundreds of families and sent shock waves throughout the nation. At the very least it was a despicable act of evil targeting the innocent in our society, and our hearts and prayers are directed to the loved ones of each victim.

At this moment psychiatrists, counselors, politicians, journalists, law enforcement and many other professionals everywhere are scrambling to reason out the cause of such a heinous act by looking for some mental disorder which may have precipitated this violent act when the answer is a clear and obvious indictment against the moral condition of our very culture..a culture of death.

Everywhere we look in our society we see a wall of self appeasement, godless rebellion and disrespect for human life. Hollywood cranks out movies of ever-increasing gore and prolific bloodshed. Video games center around killing and destruction without conscience or thought. But the single most egregious part and centerpiece to all of this is the “shedding of innocent blood”, the killing of the defenseless for personal convenience.The blood of the innocent cries out as a witness against us. The many innocent children who lost their lives at the hands of a mad gunman although heinous pales in comparison to the millions of children who lost their lives at the hands of an abortionists. Although nameless and faceless they too are known and loved by God. Their lives are just as precious as the ones lost in Connecticut.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, Deuteronomy 30:19 (HCSB)

We continually excuse evil and attempt to rehabilitate violent offenders by trying to understand the mindset of an evil person but completely ignore the heart-set of the same. Any attempts to alter the mind without regard to reshaping the heart attitude of an individual will only lead to failure. Altering the human heart can not be accomplished on a couch in some therapist’s office. Changing the very nature of an individual can not be regulated or legislated. No law is able to alter the human condition, only God can permanently transform a human heart and cause it to turn from the culture of death.

And they will come there, and take away all the hated and disgusting things from it. And I will give them a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in them; and I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh: So that they may be guided by my rules and keep my orders and do them: and they will be to me a people, and I will be to them a God. But as for those whose heart goes after their hated and disgusting things, I will send on their heads the punishment of their ways, says the Lord. Ezekiel 11:18-21 (BBE)

The is the real power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in it lies the power of God to transform a life, to change an evil heart into a loving heart. Yes we can debate and discuss and try to get into the head of the madman who gunned down the innocents in Connecticut, but what is needed is to get to the heart of the man and change it. There is no law capable of changing the intents of a man’s heart; to do that we need more of Christ in the world, not more laws.

As repulsive and heartbreaking as the tragedy in Connecticut was, if we continue to embrace the culture of death and continually cheapen human life things will not get better but get progressively worse.

There is an answer and a cure for this evil, it can be found in the Biblical words of: 2 Chronicles 7:14.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

We need to get back to godly morality instead of trying to cut God from our culture. We need to repent of turning our collective backs on God and instead invite Him to change America’s heart. We need to repent of our culture of death and embrace life and love which comes from following after God.

We need to seek Him while there is yet time

For I am conscious of my thoughts about you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you hope at the end. And you will go on crying to me and making prayer to me, and I will give ear to you. And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13 (BBE)

Yes America there is evil in the world, pray with me as many have prayed for many years:

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 6:9-13 (KJV)

This is a view from the nest. What say you?

But those who are waiting for the Lord will have new strength; they will get wings like eagles: running, they will not be tired, and walking, they will have no weariness.

_{Isaiah 40:31 (BBE)}

Along for the journey

Powerless

November 30, 2012November 30, 2012Allen Frederick 2 Comments

Psalm 27:14 Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!

The resulting power outage caused by Hurricane Sandy caused teenagers for the first time in their lifetime to live without any electricity, and (can you even imagine) – without a cell phone! For the first time in their lives they enjoyed the privilege of experiencing what life was like decades ago. Forced to slow down, unable to text or “Facebook”, everyone who lost power entered a “moment” of technological communication silence, and they waited anxiously for the powers that be to restore their normal life patterns. How many actually enjoyed this, or found a relief from the tyranny of communication technology, I wonder? How many actually took any time out to “wait on the Lord”? I have to wonder if the Almighty had much more company than He was used to during this time.

How much, really, do we depend on earthly power? And how much on the power of God?

The past election was another power outage that affected the loosing party in particular. After their lose the excuses started to pile up one on top of another. Every possible reason for their political power being shut-off was addressed with one glaring exception. There was no mention of lawlessness, or rebellion against God.

It would seem even from the electorate that there is no longer any interest in Godliness, but rather we are attempting to work out our own salvation. We are attempting to work in our own limited strength and not tapping into the source of all power-God. This is idolatry at its worst. To think that we mere humans are capable of addressing life’s storms apart from God is foolhardy. Trying to power-up our own lives while separated from the true ‘power grid‘ is about as useful as the teens toys during the Hurricane Sandy power outage. No amount of complaining or arguing is going to restore this lost power until the power lines are reconnected.

Perhaps there are those who have generators as back-up power sources and there maybe others who have the ability to recharge batteries using solar power. But in every case there must be a source of power to generate power.

For the East Coast effected by Hurricane Sandy the restoration of electrical power rests in the hands of the power company‘s ability to repair service lines and restore damaged generating stations. For inner strength and the power to overcome defeats and set-backs there is a different source of power. That source is the Lord! If we truly want to gain power in this world then we need to get access to the greatest power source in the entire universe.

It is far better to be working with God rather than against Him don’t you think?

Wait I say on the Lord!

This is a view from the nest. What say you?