Quest4Arete

I don’t seriously think I am electable, but I think I could do a better job of representing the truly conservative roots of our country better than any of the jokers that were available in the last go round. I am a Okie that clings to my guns and my religion, just like the founders thought I should.

Here are my qualifications and positions:
-I run a number of small businesses that focus on providing solutions that fall within the operating bounds of the client.
-I am fiscally conservative. We are currently working on getting completely out of debt. I have made the same mistakes that many Americans have made in using credit where I really shouldn’t and living beyond my means. It is now time to correct that.

Conservatism
-I believe in limited government intervention. There is nothing to be gained by having a big, fat, ungainly government in the way of progress.
-I have busted my rear to get where I am at, I share from my own pocket to provide charity to those who need it. I don’t believe that the government should be robbing me to fund “programs”.
-I support revoking direct election of the Senate and returning that power to the state legislatures.. We are NOT a DEMOCRACY or a SOCIALIST society, we are a REPUBLIC of federated States.
-I am not politically correct. I don’t care what your ethnicity or color is. If you are a legal citizen of this country, you are an American.
-The office of the President can do very little to positively affect the economy, mostly, it can only cause harm.

-I am pro-life. Every year science and medicine advances the age at which we can consider an unborn child to be “viable”. Eventually this will reach to the second of fertilization, thus they must be considered alive entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
-Due to the crap that Congress likes to do, it is NECESSARY that the president have a line item Veto or that Congress realize that NO will always be the answer to ANY bill that attempts to extend powers or programs beyond the scope provided by the constitution.

International
-I believe in walking softly with a big stick.. I am not here to turn the other cheek or to prosecute a war in an ineffective manner. There are no “rules” in war except to win.
-If you break into my house, I WILL terminate you with extreme prejudice. The same goes for those who would break the laws of our country and/or cause us harm.
-On international policy.. Lead, Follow or Get the Hell out of my way. There can be no pussy footing around countries that will only run their mouths instead of taking action or when dealing with tyrannical rule

Domestic Policy
-Ditch all federal “programs” and departments not explicitly listed in the Constitution as those are to be handled by the individual states.
-It is not the governments job to bail you or your company out if you have made bad choices. Life sucks, Darwin was right on one account. Survival of the Fittest. If you apply this to business and the populace, you get back to a high growth society that is taking care of business.
-I believe in a strong energy policy.. That doesn’t mean that I subsidize research or spend taxpayer money on pet projects. It means that I make sure that we do provide a tax break to companies that are developing low cost, domestic energy sources. The tax break will NEVER be a credit.
-The graduated income tax should be revoked. FairTax is better.. The government should NEVER be the largest employer and the tax code should fit inside of 20 pages, not tens of thousands.

These are the notes I used for the message God delivered to a group of 30 or so people today.

Have you ever wondered if this is all there is?
Do you dream about being Maximus in Gladiator, Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings, or Don Quixote fighting in a battle for a purpose bigger than yourself?

There’s more to life than day to day. More than just being nice.

Jesus has come to heal and forgive you and to invite you to join him in a lifelong adventure.

Luke 4: 16 - 19
16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18″The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[e]

You are in a daily battle against Satan.
He is constantly barraging you with darts to make you think that you are less than you truly are. Satan is more than happy to keep you on the sidelines of the battle that is raging around you by letting you be a nice guy.

John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Addictions to substances, pornography or other vices are the results of broken places in your heart where Satan has established an outpost. Jesus is willing to come in and take them back and fix your heart. It’s not always easy and it’s not always painless. But you have the Lord of Hosts willing to battle and take back your heart. To heal the brokeness that keeps you from being all he wants you to be.

Satan is scared to death that you will live life to the full. He is scared to death that you will allow Christ to heal your heart and to guide you on a daily basis. Satan is scared to death that you will join with the Jesus Christ described in Rev. 19.

11I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

If you have accepted the Lord into your heart, I challenge you to renew your comittment to him and ask him into your heart to find the wounds Satan has perpetrated. Allow him to heal them and lead you into the daily adventure of his love and the battle for righteousness. Join him by taking up your cross, sacrificing the desires of the flesh and thus battling the evil that the prince of this world employs as his weapons.

If you don’t know Jesus personally and have not accepted him as the Lord of your life, I would encourage you to do so. Seek out and talk with those who are here to minister to you. Pick up a Bible and read the stories of the Old testament to know that God is there waiting for you, no matter how bad you may have been and then read about his amazing plan to save us in the new testament. His promises are faithful and God awaits you with open arms.

I have been bad about posting. My apologies.. Next weekend I will be going into the wilderness with a friend and a group of guys from his church to help guide them through the WAH material. The journey we intend to take is to lead into a deeper understanding and truly begin the process of understanding the Gospel as it truly is. I will be sharing my story with them and the experience of recieving my name, that is what God intends for me to be, with them.

I ask for your prayers over the next week as I and the other leader prepare and undertake this mission.

David
Waker of the dead, Harbinger of Reconning, a Ransomed child of the King

Just something that I was thinking about for no particular reason today. One of the things mentioned in the beliefs of the Grace Bible Church has to do with the elect. The basic premise being that God already knows who he has chosen and that there are those whom he is allowing to perish. So here’s my thoughts.. Your input is valued.

While God may know who will never become his child, we can’t. So, we have to treat everyone as they will someday come to know God.

Does God give up on people? I don’t think so. I think he wants everyone to come to him, so he hasn’t given up on those, they make their own decision and God will not impose his will on them.

Your thoughts?

I had an excellent discussion this week with a man I respect quite a bit. We were discussing the WAH material and some thoughts on it. One of the things we discussed was how easily some men seem to get sidetracked by the adventure part and totally miss the complete message. That message is that we ARE called to an adventure with God, but it is not to fish your life away, or leave your family in a lurch, it is to go forth with God and pursue his will. As far as I can find in the scriptures, his will never included shirking responsibility or abandonment.

I think this is a symptom of Satan’s grip on the hearts of men. He manages to get a new artificial adventure setup in front of them that seems to be approved of by Eldridge, when it is in fact not the case. Another item that concerns me is that so many who have gone through WAH seem to think that they have license to curse in their freedom. To me, this is merely more evidence of the fact that they are ensnared by Satan. The Holy Scripture makes it very clear that we are to get rid of all coarse language and impurity from our lips. This seems totally opposite of what I have so often seen.

The short of it is that while Eldridge has given us men a clearer view of what the gospel is and who we are to be than we have ever had, it is merely the beginning. There is so much more. We are to be warriors, fathers, sons, husbands, followers, worshipers and students, all at the same time. This great feat is only made possible through the Holy Spirit. So do yourself a favor, when you feel pulled to do something life changing or are convinced that something you now “know” is truth, test it against the whole example of the Gospel and the life of Jesus. This is the only real measure we have to know it for real. The other thought, make sure that you are not being side tracked by one of Satan’s false adventures instead of pursuing the real thing.

How’s that song go?
There’s nothing like the real thing baby, there’s nothing like the real thing..

Amen

From here at Cocoa Beach, FL I have a few notes.

1. The ocean is a great reminder of God’s awesome power.. nothing really seems to bother it, nothing can stop it.
2. It’s a good thing I don’t live by the beach, I would become a surfer guy (I haven’t tried it yet, but did successfully ride some waves on a boogie board and it rocks!).
3. It is always good to have your family with you on a business trip.

Earlier this week (Monday) we got to catch the edge of Hurricane Wilma. That was full of excitement as well.

Tonight, as I sat eating grilled alligator at Boutin’s Cajun in Baton Rouge, LA I had the pleasure of listening to some down home Bayou (Zydeco) music. After the music had been started for a few minutes an older (and I do mean older, like in the late 70’s) couple got up and started dancing together. You could tell from their body language and smiles how much they enjoyed the company of each other. Their marriage is definitely one built on love and a long term habit of cherishing each other. This did a few things for me.

1. It REALLY made me want to learn how to dance with Michelle (more than the Texas 2 step that I can sort of do) so that we can one day be that old couple dancing around relishing the opportunity to do so.
2. It REALY made me miss my wife on this working weekend.
3. It made me think that this is the kind of relationship that God really wants to have with us. He desires for us to get to know him intimately and to cherish the time that we spend together, each day delving deeper and more completely into his love for us.

It wasn’t long after the old couple danced around for the second time that a man got up and started dancing with his 3 daughters. The joy on his and his girls faces left me seriously missing my girls. In fact it almost made me cry, why, because I am missing my kids today? Partially, and partially because that is how I feel about my girls. I don’t always express it as good as I ought to, but I delight in my children. They are the most amazing creatures that God could have ever placed into my life. It makes me more understand how he could keep chasing the children of Isreal and the rest of us, even though we seem to keep turning our backs and running away. If the father’s joy I saw tonight is even the tiniest fraction of the joy that the Father experiences when we stop running away in just delight in his love for us it all makes perfect sense. I know that I would die for my kids. He knew that too, and did it.

David B.

Yet another good lesson at GBC today. We covered Luke 23: 1- 16. There are 2 parts of this set of verses.
1. Trial by Pilate
2. Trial by Herod

One of the points made today was that the Sanheidran took a lot of chances with Jesus’s trial. They tailored their arguments to Pilate to appeal to the Roman concerns and laws, but when Pilate proclaimed the innocence of Jesus (Luke makes a point of doing this), they persisted. Normally, when Pilate made a decision, that was the end of it, but the Sanheidran continued to insist. Pilate tried shifting the buck to Herod, because he knew that Jesus was innocent. Even the most vile of governors found Jesus to be innocent (again, Luke is emphasizing the point of Jesus innocence) and sent him back to Pilate. Again, Pilate proclaimed the innocence of our Lord, but the Jewish leadership persisted.

Items of note.
Pilate’s visciousness is noted in Luke 13:1 where it discusses Pilate’s murder of other Galileans. Pilate’s was made to be weaker in this instance to fulfill God’s plan. It is likely that under normal circumstances that the Sanheidran would have experienced retribution for being so aggressive with their arguments to Pilate.

While we note at the first that Jesus is mocked by the temple guards and the Roman soldiers, how often do we think of whether some off our actions could be regarded as mocking our Lord?

Credit for this post is due to the Holy Spirit by way of Dennis Gunderson

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Well, I am at it again. I have put myself in direct competition with another friend of mine and we are going to see who can lose the highest percentage of body weight over the next several months. Starting on Monday, I will be doing my best to work out at least 3 times each week with some form of weight training and I will be making every effort to throw in some aerobic exercise as well. The other advantage to the working out is that it gives me time to focus and pray and because I usually do it in the morning, I can make a few extra minutes to crack open the Bible and spend some quality time with God. I would ask for all of your prayers in keeping on track with the Bible reading and prayer and consequently the exercise program. God wants me to be healthier than I am, but more importantly, he wants to hear from me and speak to me even more often.