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on: July 22, 2018, 04:36:08 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society
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For Questions Or Comments: berean@execpc.com
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The Water Of Life
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
For almost twenty-four hours, recently, Chicagoans had to boil their drinking water! Millions of small fish had jammed the water intakes far out in Lake Michigan, and had died there. It was, of course, a major operation to clear them all away and to make sure that Chicago’s drinking water was uncontaminated.
It is of the utmost importance, always, that the water we drink is pure and fresh, and this is no less so where spiritual matters are concerned. The Bible has much to say about stagnant water, and foul water, and poisoned water, but the water which God would give to us is called in Scripture, “the pure water of life,” doubtless because it is so wholesome and refreshing.
Perhaps the reader will recall the picture our Lord drew for that fallen Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar. John 4:10-14 tells how he and this woman had discussed Jacob’s well. Somehow she seemed to sense that He was contrasting her vain pursuit of pleasure with eternal life, when He said:
“Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a [fountain] of water, springing up into everlasting life” (Vers. 13,14).
How true this is! The pleasures of this world do not satisfy. Men go on “pursuing pleasure” to keep from being bored, but the everlasting life that God gives to those who trust in Christ is a never-ending source of refreshment and joy. Also, it provides the greatest incentive to serve Him. Those who possess the joy of sins forgiven and of peace with God naturally long to serve and please Him, and God desires no service except that which springs from genuine gratitude and love.
“We love Him because He first loved us” (I John 4:19). |
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on: July 22, 2018, 04:31:44 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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From Grace Gems - Free and Public Domain:
Very Old - But Beautiful and Timeless Treasures.
http://www.gracegems.org/19/literature.htm
FREE E-mail Subscription:
http://www.gracegems.org/
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The way to escape from the power of sin!
(Charles Spurgeon, "The Way" #942)
The great object of a penitent soul is to get away from the tyranny and slavery of evil habits and of corrupt desires.
The saints in glory overcame through the blood of the Lamb--and there is no other way of overcoming. The precious blood of atonement wherever sprinkled, kills sin; and he who lives in the full belief of it will be purified from sinful habits.
It is living under a sense of divine love as manifest in Christ; it is living with the full conviction of pardon through the blood, which brings to us freedom from the reigning power of sin.
There is no way to get the likeness of Christ, except by learning of His love. You imitate Christ, and so become like Him. You commune with Christ--and as you talk with Him, His character sacredly operates upon yourself, and you are changed from glory to glory, as by the image of the Lord.
Christ is the way to escape from the power of sin! The moment we forget Christ, and then seek after personal sanctification--we are trying to get to our journey's end by declining to tread the road to it.
It is impossible to grow in grace, except by abiding evermore at the foot of the cross. |
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3
on: July 22, 2018, 08:18:23 AM
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Started by Soldier4Christ - Last post by Soldier4Christ
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The Sin of the Devil
“Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods: for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.” (Exodus 18:11)
This is the first mention in the Bible of the sin of pride, and it appropriately refers to the primeval sin of the “gods”—that is, the supposed deities of the heathen.
Led by Lucifer, a great host of the created angels had rebelled against their Creator, seeking also to be “gods” like Him. Lucifer, later to be called Satan (i.e., “adversary”), thought he could become the highest of all. “O Lucifer . . . thou hast said in thine heart, I will . . . exalt my throne above the stars of God: . . . I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell” (Isaiah 14:12-15).
Satan’s sin—and that of the other self-proclaimed “gods”—was that of “being lifted up with pride . . . the condemnation of the devil” (1 Timothy 3:6). But they shall all, with him, eventually “be brought down to hell” and the “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).
This was also the sin of Adam and Eve, for Satan had seduced them with the promise “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5).
It is also the sin of all humanists and evolutionary pantheists, from Adam’s day to our day, for they seek to do away with God and make “gods” out of “corruptible man.” They have “worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (Romans 1:23, 25).
But “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Our Lord of creation is “above all gods,” even in that “thing wherein they dealt proudly.” The sin of pride was the very first sin and is still the most difficult sin to overcome, but “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (1 Peter 5:5). HMM
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4
on: July 21, 2018, 05:55:02 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society
Free Email Subscription
For Questions Or Comments: berean@execpc.com
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Hidden Treasure
by Pastor Ricky Kurth
“In Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3).
Everyone knows that when God told Solomon He would give him whatever he asked (II Chron. 1:7), Israel’s king asked for “wisdom and knowledge” (v. 10). However, in the parallel passage in I Kings 3, this account says that Solomon asked God for “an understanding heart to judge Thy people” (v. 9). Far from a contradiction, the variance in these parallel accounts is God’s way of giving us a fuller understanding of that for which Solomon asked, and a definition of wisdom and knowledge. Anyone possessing these two virtues would by definition have an understanding heart to judge or rule God’s people. When Solomon was given this, he became a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, “in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” i.e., an understanding heart rich in its ability to judge God’s people.
But those who acknowledge the Mystery that Paul mentions in the previous verse (Col. 2:2) know that God has an earthly people (Israel) and a heavenly people (the Body of Christ). It was “the glory of God” that He was able to “conceal” the Mystery for 4,000 years (Prov. 25:2) in the “unsearchable” heart of the King of kings, “the heaven for height, and the earth for depth” (v. 3). Thus Paul speaks of “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God,” and declares “how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Rom. 11:33) when he says he wants us to understand the mystery of Israel’s blindness (v. 25), and how God’s plan to rule His earthly people would undergo a postponement that has now lasted 2,000 years. But when he speaks of the Mystery in Ephesians 3, he prays that we might understand the “depth and height” of it (v. 18). That is, he is praying that we might also understand that God has a plan to rule His heavenly people, the Body of Christ (v. 1-17), in “the heaven for height.”
Thus in God’s plan to rule His people Israel on earth we find some of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and in His plan to rule His heavenly people, the Body of Christ, in the heavens, we also find some of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, but unless we acknowledge both we do not understand “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” that are hid in the Lord Jesus Christ. |
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on: July 21, 2018, 09:20:45 AM
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Started by Soldier4Christ - Last post by Soldier4Christ
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Why Did Christ Die?
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
This passage is often considered the defining passage of the gospel, stating the great truth that Christ died for our sins, then was buried (thus stressing that His resurrection was a physical resurrection, not just spiritual), and then rose again. As such, it is interesting that verse 1 which introduces it (“I declare unto you the gospel”) contains the central mention of the more than 100 times the Greek word for “gospel” occurs in the New Testament.
However, it does not say why Christ died for our sins. It was not just to pay for our salvation and make us happy. There are, in fact, numerous references to His substitutionary death that do give us further insight into just why Christ died for us and our salvation.
For example, “he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15). And consider Galatians 1:4, in which Paul tells us that Christ “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.”
Peter’s testimony and explanation was that the Lord Jesus “his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). John said: “[God] loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11).
There are many other verses to the same affect. Christ did not die merely to save our souls but to empower us to live in a way that would glorify God right here on Earth. HMM
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6
on: July 20, 2018, 04:48:14 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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_______________________________________________
Two Minutes With The Bible
From The Berean Bible Society
Free Email Subscription
For Questions Or Comments: berean@execpc.com
_______________________________________________
St. Paul And The Resurrection
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
The Apostle Paul, in discussing the resurrection of the dead, came to the simple and valid conclusion: “If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen” (1 Cor. 15:13).
But the Apostle does not stop here. Hear him as he presses a further argument home: “And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (Ver. 14). And this leads to yet another conclusion: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (Vers. 17,18).
These are frank words about stern realities. If there is no such thing as the bodily resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised from the dead, and if such is the case we have no living Savior.
But granting all this, can we believe in what is palpably impossible? Ah, but is resurrection palpably impossible? Paul answers this question quite simply in this same discussion, in I Corinthians 15:
“But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” (Ver. 35).
Mark well, this is not an interested inquiry, but a challenge, meant to prove that resurrection is impossible, and the Apostle answers it as such:
“Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die” (Ver. 36).
What a devastating reply! We may point out all the reasons why resurrection is “impossible,” but after all is said and done we are still surrounded by overwhelming evidence that it is a fact. Every blade of grass, every ear of corn, every beautiful flower bears witness to the fact of resurrection from the dead.
Yes, Christ is alive from the dead, and “able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him…” (Heb. 7:25). |
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7
on: July 20, 2018, 04:46:06 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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__________________________________________
From Grace Gems - Free and Public Domain:
Very Old - But Beautiful and Timeless Treasures.
http://www.gracegems.org/19/literature.htm
FREE E-mail Subscription:
http://www.gracegems.org/
___________________________________________
Your Almighty Friend!
(Octavius Winslow, "Christ, the Mighty God")
"He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace!" Isaiah 9:6
Because Jesus is the almighty God, His people have an almighty burden-bearer.
We are a burdened people. Every believer carries a burden peculiar to himself.
What is your burden, O believer?
Is it indwelling sin?
Is it some natural infirmity of the body?
Is it a constitutional weakness?
Is it some domestic trial?
Is it a personal or relative trial?
Is it a state of poverty?
Is it the decay of health?
Is it soul anxiety?
Is it mental despondency?
It is well that you are sensible of the pressure, that you feel your weakness and insufficiency, and that you are brought to the end of all your own power. Now turn to your Almighty Friend, who is the Creator of the ends of the earth, even the everlasting God, who does not faint, neither is weary. Come, oppressed and burdened believer, ready to give up all and sink--behold Jesus, the Almighty God, omnipotent to transfer your burden to Himself, and give you rest!
How precious is the promise addressed to you! "He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint!" Isaiah 40:29-31
Oh, what strength there is in Jesus for the weak, and faint and drooping of His flock!
You are ready to succumb to your foes, and you think that the battle of faith is lost. Cheer up! Jesus, your Savior, friend, and brother, is "the Almighty God," and will perfect His strength in your weakness. He . . .
sustains our infirmities,
bears our burdens,
supplies our needs, and
encircles us with the shield of His Almightiness!
What a Divine spring of consolation and strength to the tired and afflicted saint, is the Almightiness of Jesus. Your sorrow is too deep, your affliction is too heavy, your difficulty is too great for any human to resolve. It distances in its intensity and magnitude, the sympathy and the power of man.
Come, you . . .
who are tempest-tossed and not comforted;
whose spirit is wounded,
whose heart is broken,
whose mind is bowed down to the dust--
and hide within Christ's sheltering Almightiness!
Jesus is equal to your condition.
His strength is almighty!
His love is almighty!
His grace is almighty!
His sympathy is almighty!
His arm is almighty!
His resources are infinite, fathomless, measureless!
Almighty to rescue, He is also your Brother and Friend to sympathize. And while His Divine arm encircles, upholds, and keeps you--His human soul, touched with the feeling of your infirmities, yearns over you with all the deep intensity of its compassionate tenderness. |
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8
on: July 20, 2018, 04:44:05 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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The Patriot Post Digest 7-20-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________
When Obama delivered the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in South Africa on July 17, he extolled the virtues of listening to the other side, reminisced about the great strides the world has taken to overcome discrimination, and called on people to embrace objective truth in politics.
We need to “get inside the reality of people who are different from us,” he said, “so we can understand their point of view. Maybe we can change their minds but maybe they’ll change ours.” He went on to say, “You can’t do it if you insist that those who aren’t like you, because they’re white or because they’re male, that somehow there’s no way they can understand what I’m feeling, that somehow they lack the standing to speak on certain matters.”
That’s rich advice coming from the man who once told a Latino audience that they need to “punish our enemies”; the man who once said at a campaign rally, “I want you to argue with [your friends and neighbors] and get in their face”; the man who once infamously advised his supporters, “If they bring a knife to a fight, we bring a gun.”
Needless to say, some folks aren’t buying Obama’s recent change of heart. That’s because he was really lecturing the Right, not the Left.
Steve Berman rightly suggests27, “It’s so easy now for Obama to be a uniter and a truth-speaker when he no longer bears the responsibility of it.” Berman adds, “Some of the things Mr. Obama uttered are positively shocking given where the Democratic Party has gone — straight into the looney dumpster fire of conspiracy, socialism, and identity politics. If they’d only be sane and listen to him (but they won’t).”
Indeed, the fact that Obama’s remarks in South Africa seem sensible and moderate shows just how deranged so many Democrats have become. It’s doubtful that Socialist phenom Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has any interest in understanding the hopes and dreams of small-town Americans. It’s not likely that Democrats who were once considered mainstream and moderate will stop accusing President Donald Trump of being a Russian agent or drawing parallels between the president’s press conference in Helsinki with that of — we’re not making this up28 — Pearl Harbor or Kristallnacht.
Democrats aren’t interested in Obama’s high-minded call to civility. They’re interested in destroying all who dare to stand in the way of a universal basic income, a cradle-to-grave nanny state, a country with no borders, and a society where the “wrong” kinds of opinions are met with political violence.
And how did they get there? By following Barack Obama.
It was Obama who played identity politics at every turn, dividing Americans by race, gender, sexuality, and class. Democrats are at best suspicious of white males, and that’s largely due to eight years of Obama making them suspect the worst of those “bitter clingers” holding on to their guns and Bibles.
It was Obama who changed the culture of the Left to one in which any opposing view on any issue is reflexively dismissed, derided, and demagogued.
Jim Geraghty writes29 at National Review that if “identity politics, cynicism, tolerance of corruption, hardline partisanship, shameless dishonesty, a shallow obsession with celebrities, an appetite for utopian slogans instead of serious and realistic proposals, demagoguery … if all of these forces play bigger roles in American politics in 2018 than they did in 2008, whose fault is that?”
Obama gave some good advice in his South African address, but Democrats aren’t inclined to follow it. Perhaps that’s because they know his words weren’t meant for them. Ultimately, its impact will be negligible.
Barack Obama helped to create the very monster that he now warns us about. And rather than reaching out and trying to understand the “deplorables” on the Right, Democrats remain keen on demonizing the current president, shutting down free speech, and sewing incivility.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57245-obama-the-sanctimonious-lecturer-returns
MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST
EU Protectionism: Five Billion Reasons to Worry30 — The $5 billion fine against Google is exactly why Trump says relations are unfair.
‘Worst States to Live In’: Correcting the Record31 — “There are ways to objectively measure quality of life, and some states do not measure up.”
One Giant Leap32 — A look back at the Apollo 11 moon landing, 49 years after America’s great triumph.
Video: 77 Times Barack Obama Was Totally Wrong33 — “Unfortunately, too much of politics today seems to reject the very concept of objective truth.”
OPINION IN BRIEF
Gary Bauer: “I was on Capitol Hill this week, and I had a fascinating conversation with Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas. As you may know, he aggressively confronted renegade FBI operative Peter Strzok, who was once chief of the FBI’s Counterespionage Section. There were several significant revelations from that hearing, which the media largely ignored. Rep. Gohmert filled me in on some of the details of his exchange with Strzok, and this is something that really can’t be ignored. Strzok told the committee that he was concerned about foreign influence in the 2016 election. Rep. Gohmert asked how serious his concern really was because key officials in the intelligence community had briefed Strzok about an ‘anomaly’ they found on Hillary Clinton’s email server, and he did nothing. They discovered during a forensic analysis that essentially everything Hillary sent on her server had been redirected to a hostile foreign power that was not Russia. Strzok told Gohmert that he could not recall this briefing. Really? He could not recall being told that 30,000 emails from the secretary of state had been contemporaneously redirected to an enemy? It seems that the Obama administration was compromised by a foreign enemy because of the stupidity of the secretary of state and the malfeasance of the FBI’s counterespionage division, which was distracted by its efforts to take down the Republican presidential nominee. In what world is this not a HUGE story? If we had a truly nonpartisan, unbiased free press, this would be banner headlines. But the entire media complex is instead talking about the Trump/Putin press conference.”
SHORT CUTS
Upright: “By the left’s definition, we could impeach and try for treason any president that even dared to talk to someone who was unfriendly with us. But, really, the left knows this. They choose to ignore it, because by screaming ‘traitor, traitor, traitor’ now, they’ve ratcheted up the hate quotient of their base for Trump. That’s what they want. Imagine if someone had called President Trump a ‘traitor’ for talking to the Castro regime. The squealing by the left would be loud and long.” —Investor’s Business Daily
Cue media outrage: “The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media.” —Donald Trump
Broken clock: “Let me commend President Trump for having gotten $14 billion of more investment in their national defense in our collective security by NATO members by pressing them harder than before.” —Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE)
Friendly fire: “Once an election is over and you win, why are you still angry? I think it’s a lack of maturity on [Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s] part, and a lack of political acumen, for her to be that petty.” —Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO)
Braying Jenny: “When people are working at minimum-wage jobs that won’t support them, or they’re working two, three, or four jobs to try to pay the rent and keep food on the table, then simply saying the unemployment figures have gone down just doesn’t get you there.” —Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) (Democrats can’t win in November unless voters believe our good economy is actually bad.)
Belly laugh of the week: “I believe in markets. I believe in markets right down to my toes.” —Elizabeth Warren
Non Compos Mentis: “Labor, which is a regular person, cannot travel back and forth across the border. And so corporations, certain people who get certain rights, can go back and forth across the border seeking out the lowest wages, but people, regular people, cannot go back and forth across the border seeking out the highest wages. So what it creates is an imbalance. It creates an injustice.” —Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)
And last… “Society has the tendency to try to solve a problem by swinging in the opposite direction. Male sexism ‘solved’ by female sexism. Legalism ‘solved’ by moral relativism. Offensive stereotyping ‘solved’ by pretending no group characteristics exist. Doesn’t seem to be working.” —Allie Beth Stuckey
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57244-friday-short-cuts
Join our editors and staff in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. We also humbly ask prayer for your Patriot team, that our mission would seed and encourage the spirit of Liberty in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Nate Jackson, Managing Editor
Mark Alexander, Publisher |
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9
on: July 20, 2018, 04:42:22 PM
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Started by nChrist - Last post by nChrist
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The Patriot Post Digest 7-20-2018
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
_______________________________
The Patriot Post® · Mid-Day Digest
Jul. 20, 2018 · https://patriotpost.us/digests/57250-mid-day-digest
THE FOUNDATION
“Liberty is a word which, according as it is used, comprehends the most good and the most evil of any in the world. Justly understood it is sacred next to those which we appropriate in divine adoration; but in the mouths of some it means anything, which enervate a necessary government; excite a jealousy of the rulers who are our own choice, and keep society in confusion for want of a power sufficiently concentered to promote good.” —Oliver Ellsworth (1787)
IN TODAY’S EDITION
Democrats say they’re “For the People,” but that’s the BIG Lie.
Tax cuts benefit America, so naturally, Democrats are suing to stop them.
It’s time to have more civil political discourse, says hypocrite Barack Obama.
Are these Republican-run states really the “worst states to live in”?
EU protectionism manifests in the $5B Google fine.
One giant leap — a look back at the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Memes, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.
IN BRIEF
Who’s Really ‘For the People’?1
Thomas Gallatin
House Democrats this week revealed their latest campaign slogan for the midterms. And it is (drum roll…) “For the People.” With the overly generic motto, Democrat leaders stated, “We basically put it all on paper to say here are our top issues — they’re simple, they’re easy to understand.” That raises two questions: First, just what are the Dems’ top issues that demonstrate they are “for the people”? Second, and more salient given Democrat identity politics, which people are they for? Let’s look at a few key issues (by no means an exhaustive list):
Illegal immigration: Democrats advocate open borders and sanctuary cities. Clearly, they stand with illegal aliens over and against American citizens by rejecting the enforcement of America’s borders and our nation’s laws.
Tax cuts and the economy: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi infamously described Republican tax reform as both “Armageddon” and “crumbs.” Yet the GOP significantly cut taxes for the vast majority of Americans, and it’s proving to jump-start an eight-year-long stagnant economy. Yet Pelosi promises to roll back the tax legislation, which not a single Democrat voted for, once again reinforcing the fact that Democrats simply don’t trust Americans to spend their own money as they best see fit. Evidently, Democrats see record-low unemployment levels, especially within minority communities, as a problem “for the people” rather than a benefit. That’s why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez2 and Elizabeth Warren3 are running around telling lies about the unemployment rate to talk down a good economy. Democrats can’t win if the economy is good.
Abortion: Democrats advocate for the “right” to end lives before birth, under the dubious notion of supporting women. They’re hyperventilating over the possibility of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick overturning4 Roe v. Wade. Meanwhile, a millionaire Democrat candidate for Congress in Pennsylvania has spent millions5 supporting groups that advocate population control; groups that have called for taxing parents who have more than two children “to the hilt” and see abortion as “a highly effective weapon” to combat overpopulation. That rhetoric sounds like the policies of communist China. For the people, indeed. More like for the people’s republic.
Speaking of the people’s republic, Democrats are fast embracing the anti-capitalist ethic of Karl Marx. Look no further than the Democrats’ latest star, Ocasio-Cortez, an avowed socialist who seeks to sell her ideology by advocating free college and free health care, while blaming capitalism for our problems. She recently opined, “Capitalism has not always existed in the world and it will not always exist in the world.”
When it comes down to it, Democrats love to talk about how much they are for the people, but their policies are clearly opposed to the American ideals of individual freedom, limited government, and Rule of Law. When stacked up against the policies and accomplishments of President Donald Trump and Republicans, it becomes quite clear which party is truly for the American people and which party isn’t.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57246-whos-really-for-the-people
Dems Sue Trump Over Tax Cuts6
Several Democrat-run states joined forces this week in suing the federal government over last year’s Republican tax cut legislation. Led by New York, the states of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland allege that the GOP’s tax overhaul was a purely politically motivated measure designed to interfere with how states manage their finances. New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo charged that the tax bill “was a political attempt to hurt Democratic states.” Fair weather federalists, these folks.
The crux of the issue is this: Under the new tax law, federal tax deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) are capped at $10,000. That means residents in these high-tax states will feel those taxes more acutely, making it politically more difficult for these state governments to maintain their high taxation policies. The Wall Street Journal reports7, “In 2015, the states with the highest percentage of tax filers who claimed deductions for state and local taxes above $10,000 were blue states, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.” That’s not surprising.
Cuomo’s coalition of high-tax states is asking the courts to declare the Republican tax law unconstitutional. Joseph Bishop-Henchman, executive vice president of the Tax Foundation, noted, “The concern that high state taxes might harm the competitiveness or attractiveness of a state like New York or Connecticut is a valid one, but the solution lays with revisiting those state tax rates rather than meritless litigation.” In other words, these spendthrift Democrats are suing because the new law removes the SALT cover that shielded them from the consequences of their tax-and-spend policies.
The Democrats’ complaints here are a bit ironic, given that they’re constantly calling for the rich to be taxed more, and given that their states’ high earners (mostly wealthy Democrats) will be paying more as things stand. In New York, 8.3% of these residents will be affected; in Connecticut, it’s 8.4%. Nationally, 6.3% will pay more. Scott Shackford at Reason also notes the Democrats’ hypocrisy, writing8, “These SALT deductions are not claimed equally across the population. They disproportionately benefit the wealthiest citizens who itemize their taxes. New York calculates that New Yorkers will see a $14.3 billion tax hike without the SALT deductions. But that doesn’t mean the hike will be spread across all the citizens of the state. It’s those who earn more than $100,000 a year who claim 81 percent of SALT deductions.”
Here’s the bottom line: Prior to this tax reform, these high-tax blue states were being subsidized by low-tax (and more often than not Republican-run) states like Tennessee, which has no state income tax. Essentially, Cuomo is twisting the principles of federalism in an attempt to keep the lower-tax, fiscally sound states on the hook for helping to foot the blue states’ bills.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57228-dems-sue-trump-over-tax-cuts
Top Headlines9
Gallup: record percentage say immigration top problem for USA (CNS News10)
People hate what Obama and Hillary did on Russia — when they’re told Trump did it (The Daily Caller11)
Trump invites Putin to White House; says he can be Putin’s “worst enemy” (The Daily Wire12)
White House rebuffs Russia bid to question U.S. officials (Fox News13)
FBI director warns China is America’s most significant intelligence threat (The Washington Free Beacon14)
Texas to become world’s No. 3 oil producer, passing Iran (Hot Air15)
Maxine Waters is becoming less keen on the idea of mobs publicly confronting political opponents (Washington Examiner16)
Cue leftists howling at the moon: Trump administration introduces proposal to roll back Endangered Species Act protections (The Hill17)
NFL suspends ban on national anthem protests amid talks with players’ union (Washington Examiner18)
Humor: Trump: “The point of a trade war isn’t who wins or loses — it’s having a good time.” (The Babylon Bee19)
Policy: State-run retirement plans are the wrong way to protect the poor (American Enterprise Institute20)
Policy: Geographic-area waivers undermine food stamp work requirements (The Heritage Foundation21)
For more of today’s news, visit Patriot Headline Report22.
https://patriotpost.us/articles/57247-friday-top-headlines
FEATURED ANALYSIS
Obama the Sanctimonious Lecturer Returns26
Brian Mark Weber
Seems like the world of politics has never been more dysfunctional. While it’s always been a brutal affair, nothing today is off limits. Rather than merely pointing out where they differ with their political opponents, partisans from both sides now resort to name-calling, exaggeration, and blatant lying to make their case. There’s more shouting than listening, and many Americans are too quick to judge others and make assumptions about their beliefs. In short, we often bring out the worst in one another.
Now more than ever, we need our political leaders and elder statesmen to step up and remind us of the need for civility in our discourse — just like Barack Obama did earlier this week in South Africa. As so often is the case with our previous president, however, his words rang hollow. |
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on: July 20, 2018, 08:51:03 AM
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Started by Soldier4Christ - Last post by Soldier4Christ
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Fellowship with the Father
“. . . and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3)
One marvelous reason for which God has adopted us (Ephesians 1:5), indeed part of the very “calling” to become God’s children, is to fellowship (1 Corinthians 1:9) with the great God of creation!
Jesus prayed (John 17) that His chosen disciples might have the same kind of relationship with the heavenly Father that Jesus Himself had throughout eternity. Our minds may not totally grasp that wonder down here—except as we try to understand something of the key of walking “in the light” (1 John 1:7).
The nature of light in our universe gives us clues:
Light is unchangeable; one cannot make light dark.
Light exposes everything (reveals and brings clarity).
Light is the sustainer of all life as we know it.
The nature of darkness is also very instructive:
Darkness is driven away by the smallest spark.
Darkness covers everything (hides and obscures).
Darkness will kill all life as we know it.
“The path of the just is as the shining light. . . . The way of the wicked is as darkness” (Proverbs 4:18-19). The promise of fellowship with God is that He “will lead them in paths that they have not known” and that He “will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight” (Isaiah 42:16).
Therefore, “let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation” (1 Thessalonians 5:8). Since we were “sometimes darkness” (Ephesians 5:8) but have been delivered from “the power of darkness” (Colossians 1:13), we should no longer “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). HMM III
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