I know what you are all saying and understand you positions.    I for once agree with President George Bush on his policies concerning the illegal aliens. 
There's always more to an issue than whats on the surface.   For the most part there is never a clear black and white answer.   Not everyone always
see's eye to eye and that's one reason we have democrates and republicans, to hash things out.
Gods peace be with us all.

IN GOD WE TRUST
IN MONEY WE RUST

or:

IN GOD WE TRUST
ALL OTHERS MUST PAY HOMAGE


It appears that many Christians are being lead by the leaders of their churches and not by the spirit of God, or by the Word of God. For instance, I recently received an email about the great fear of Christmas pageants and Christmas carols being taken out of the public schools, or the fear of "in God we trust" being taken off of our currency, or the fear that someone is going to take a large stone out of a court house because it has the "10 commandments" written on it.

How many have actually prayed to God or Christ for guidance on this issue?

Well, I prayed about it. Prayer that involved the study of the Bible.

Asking the question "Are these pressing issues for God or should we be focused on other issues?"

Concerning the 10 commandments; We are to hide them in our hearts.
They are to be written on our hearts not on tables of stone. Jesus said that they will know we are His by our love. I couldn't find any where that Jesus fought to keep Judaism in the government of Rome but I did find where He fought to keep Roman government out of Judaism. When the government comes in to our churches and tells us what we can and cannot do or read then we will have a persecution at which time we will then have something to resist. That hasn't happened.

God doesn't care if the 10 commandments are displayed in some government building. What He wants is for His word to be in our hearts
and we act in such a way that we feed the hungry, clothe the naked etc...

We Christians also have been boasting that the Law of the land or the
constitution of the U.S. is based on Christianity. The problem with that statement is that I don't see the name of Jesus Christ in any of those 
documents. Hence it would actually be based on the Hebrew scriptures.

If we want Christmas pageants in the public schools then we should also
have the Muslim holidays, the Jewish holidays and a Buddhist appreciation day.

The Public schools are a place where an education is given to people so that they can think for themselves. It's a place where they can meet people of all different faiths, races, genders and learn to work along side one another.  It's a place to learn academics.

Now, for the "IN GOD WE TRUST" issue. When I read and prayed about this, God basically said that He didn't want His name on our money.

Think about it. Jesus said that "the love of money is the root of all evil." People steal for it, they become addicted to gambling for it, go into debt with it, even kill for it. People lose sight of what is important in life in the pursuit of it.

Trusting in God is an inside thing. Something done with the mind which is then played out in ones actions. In one sense having "in God we trust"  written on our money is a rather arrogant, boastful statement to parade around on our banners of money. Evidently people can't see we are Christian's by our love so we have to write it on our money and bumper stickers.

God wasn't satisfied with a thousand Rams or ten thousand rivers of oil,  but was satisfied with loving mercy. Do justice and walk humbly with your God. I don't see anything about having something written on coins or currency. I did read that Jesus wants us to be frugal with our money.
To invest it wisely. To pay our taxes. etc....

Whose image is on our currency? Our Presidents, Secretary's, our States. Much like Rome in the times of Jesus who had their Caesars’, their Kings stamped on their coins. {which stated that they were divine} Are our Presidents then our God? Is money then our God? Do we pay Homage to it?

If " the love of money is the root of all evil" and "you can't serve both God and mammon" and if "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven", then having "in God we trust" written on our money is a slap in the face of Jesus. God's answer to my prayer - "Take MY name off of your currency. Is money your god? Do you trust in money or in Me? Money doesn't meet all your needs, God does. Money is a means of exchange, not a religious symbol."

I think having "in God we trust" printed on our money is our way of saying Yes, we can serve both God and mammon."

Doesn't God tell us to set our affections on things above and not on things of this earth? Are we afraid that if we remove "in God we trust" from our money that God will turn his back on us?

Many people have said that conflict and persecution bring groups closer together. That it makes them stronger as a whole. I can't help but wonder that all these Leaders of the churches fabricate all these pseudo- persecutions to hype-up the congregations in order to bring them together under false pretenses. It does seem to get people all fired up. And they feel like their on a Holy Crusade fighting those evil liberals or atheists. A holy cause to fight would be against discrimination or oppression.

We as Christians need to get back to loving mercy, doing justice and walking humbly with our God. We certainly don’t need a persecution complex.

Christian Leaders should be spending our money on more Godly  things . Lets ask them to give all their money (or should I say our money) away to the poor. Isn't that what Jesus asked of the rich man? Lets give it ALL away to the hurricane victims, or those soldiers coming back from Iraq who now need psychiatric care, or to the homeless. How about to habitat for humanity. These are all more worthy causes. I’m curious, what would they would say?

The peace of Christ be with you.

Cain I. Thirsty

Many Christian Conservatives are confusing me lately. Earlier last month
I received E-mails reminding me that America was founded on Christian
principles. They were fighting to keep a rock that had the 10 commandments engraved on it in a court room. They were also fighting to keep "In God We Trust" written on our money. I know some of the Christian principles that Jesus taught were that we should "feed the hungry", "clothe the naked" and champion the cause of the oppressed. "Do unto others..." (the golden rule.)

Now this is where I start to have problems. Their willing to fight to keep a ROCK in a courtroom and to lobby to keep a saying on our money but then it comes to helping people, "illegal immigrants" to be specific we turn our backs and shout "Go back home" or "get out of our country you don't belong here."

What's up with this? Here they've been working their butts off so we can
have fruits, tobacco (etc…) and all kinds of other services for minimum wage just so that maybe their families can have a better life here in America. Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. Is this how we treat them? Some have been here for 2, 5, 10, 25 years or more. (Contrary to popular belief they are not terrorists.)

Can you see the dichotomy here? They'll fight for a rock but will throw people back into a deeper poverty than they are now. Go Figure.

Anyway, here is a Parable from Jesus which might provide a renewed perspective.

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
For I was hungry, and you gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and you gave
me no drink: I was a stranger, and you took me not in: naked, and you clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and you visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto you?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as you
did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal."

How did we get to this land we call America? Did we not come over here from across the ocean and kick the *#@#…I mean slaughter the Indians? Thieves stole the land from Native Americans (Indians), then they kept on going west killing off anyone who got in their way. This progressed until we owned the whole U.S. of A. Yeah they, (Most of our Ancestors) knocked off quite a few Mexicans too.  This should have been the first real case of ‘illegal immigration’?  Were those early acts of terrorism? Who really found America first?  Who should of had the right to possess the land? The first settlers, or those who took control of it?

Are these the Christian principles that we are talking about? Survival of the fittest? The Winner has the true and most powerful God? Must be?

Lets keep in prayer for divine understanding of what the bible says
about the different religious and political issues that arise. Lets pray
that our country can be an example of Gods love for us and for all the
people of the world. Isn’t it time we ‘acted’ like Christians?

In His service

Cain I. Thirsty