YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK

[Soldier4Christ]

Scouts sue after Philly demands rent or new policy

A Boy Scouts chapter engaged in a long fight over gay rights has sued the city of Philadelphia to try to avoid paying $200,000 a year in rent to stay in the city-owned space that has been its headquarters for 80 years.

The Cradle of Liberty Council currently pays $1 annually for the space, but the city has given it until Saturday to open their membership to gays or start being charged fair-market rent.

The federal suit filed Friday accuses the city of censorship for targeting the Scouts but maintaining free or nominal leases with other groups that limit membership, such as Baptist and Roman Catholic church groups and The Colonial Dames of America.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to bar gays. But the policy has had consequences, with municipalities, charities and donors withholding support.

"We will not allow discrimination in providing services on city property," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said Tuesday.

A 1982 city ordinance bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and other grounds.

"We're not punishing them for not admitting homosexuals," City Solicitor Shelley Smith said. "But they can't get free rent and violate our policy."

Smith said the city was unaware of any discrimination by other groups with city-subsidized space, but that it would investigate any complaints.

The Cradle of Liberty Council oversees about 300 troops in Philadelphia and suburban Delaware and Montgomery counties. It serves about 70,000 children, including 50,000 in the city, the suit said.

The Scouts say the higher rent would force them to cut programs, and represents the cost of sending about 800 needy children to summer camp.

"They're providing a tremendous public benefit. They're giving back a whole lot more than what they get from the city," said lawyer Jason Gosselin, who represents the Cradle of Liberty Council.

The group adopted an explicit nondiscrimination policy in 2003 after negotiations with the city. But it was forced to rescind it when the Boy Scouts of America said Philadelphia Scout officials could not deviate from national rules barring participation by anyone who is openly gay.

The Cradle of Liberty Council then negotiated compromise language that barred "unlawful discrimination."

"It was a non-issue once the 2004 agreement was reached, and then sort of out of the blue it's being brought up again," Gosselin said.

Smith said the city fears that the language does not go far enough—and provides the Scouts wiggle room to ban gays by citing the Supreme Court ruling.

"I think they think that their First Amendment right trumps our local ordinance," Smith said.

The city owns the Beaux Arts headquarters constructed by the Scouts in 1928 and the land beneath it. The Scouts have spent about $60,000 a year to maintain the building, and another $1.5 million for renovations in 1994, the suit said.

The building would be far from the first loss associated with the Boy Scouts' policy on homosexuals.

Film director Steven Spielberg resigned from the national group's advisory board. The city of Berkeley, Calif., stopped lending its marina for free to the Berkeley Sea Scouts. United Way chapters stopped funding programs, and the Defense Department stopped sponsoring troops.

[Soldier4Christ]

Voters to decide whether unborn 'persons'
Nation's 1st statewide initiative seen by some as threat to Roe v. Wade

Colorado voters in November will become the first statewide electorate in the nation to decide whether the unborn should be granted "personhood" under the law, pro-life advocates announced today.

Officials with Colorado for Equal Rights, which is sponsoring the proposed state constitutional amendment, confirmed state officials notified them enough valid signatures had been verified to place the issue on the election ballot.

The Colorado secretary of state's office confirmed 103,377 valid signatures, far surpassing the 76,047 required for the amendment, the group said. Officials with Colorado for Equal Rights said it will be the first time in U.S. history the issue of personhood will be decided in a statewide election.

"The people of Colorado have spoken, the secretary of state's office has certified our signatures and our equal rights amendment will be on November's ballot," said Kristi Burton, a spokeswoman for the organization.

"All humans should be protected by love and by law, and this amendment is a historic effort to ensure equal rights for every person," she said.

The group earlier turned in more than 131,000 signatures, officials said. The voters now are being asked to extend the U.S. Constitution's protections to the unborn, something supporters say the U.S. founders intended all along.

In a campaign that opponents fret is a direct challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the Consitution grants a right to abortion, the Colorado personhood amendment is a simple proposal.

"This proposed constitutional amendment will define a person in Colorado as a human being from the moment of fertilization, the moment when life begins," according to a statement at Colorado for Equal Rights.

"This amendment will establish a cornerstone for protecting human life in our society … and we all know this is the right thing to do," the statement said. "This campaign is not about the power of money – it is about the power of truth.

"We are giving Colorado voters an opportunity to vote their conscience and protect the most innocent and helpless ones among us. If life is protected from the very beginning, Colorado for Equal Rights believes that we can transform our nation from a culture of death into a culture of life," the group said.

The sponsors assembled more than 1,300 volunteer petition circulators.

"We at Colorado for Equal Rights are incredibly thankful for our many volunteers who worked so hard for each signature we delivered to the secretary of state's office and the churches who stood behind us and supported us," Burton continued. "This victory is the voice of the people and all credit goes our Creator."

Officials said the effort puts Colorado, where the nation's first state law allowing abortion was written by Dick Lamm, a former governor, at the front of efforts to protect life in the U.S.

"It gives us a foundation before we can make other pro-life laws," Burton said.

The same plan has been put forward in several state legislatures, but Colorado's campaign is the most advanced across the nation, she said.

Abortion industry leaders such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado are opposed to the plan.

But personhood arguments started gaining momentum after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the procedure known as partial-birth abortion can be restricted.

Groups, including Focus on the Family, noted it was the first court opinion in years that actually supported abortion restrictions and said it was a moral victory, while others, including the America Life League, countered that the court ruling actually would not prohibit a single abortion, just a way of doing them.

The Colorado plan targets a loophole U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun created when he wrote the original abortion opinion.

He concluded: "(If the) suggestion of personhood [of the preborn] is established, the [abortion rights] case, of course, collapses, for the fetus' right to life is then guaranteed specifically by the [14th] Amendment."

By defining the unborn as a person, supporters believe, voters can simply spread the covering of constitutional protection over them, too.

As WND reported, a recent Colorado case highlighted what supporters describe as the need for the change.

In the case, a Colorado judge dismissed some charges against a man who caused a fatal car crash, because the victim, at 8½ months of a pregnancy, had not yet been born.

"'Person' is a defined term for purposes of the homicide statutes," wrote Judge Richard Gurley in a March decision in the case involving the death of Lileigh Lehnen, the born-alive daughter of 26-year-old Shea Lehnen.

"The definition states that 'person,' when referring to the victim of a homicide, means a human being who had been born and was alive at the time of the homicidal act," the judge said.

Lileigh Lehnen was born during an emergency C-Section after the November 2007 accident that was triggered when Logan Lage, 24, apparently drove on the wrong side of the road and crashed his vehicle headon into Lehnen's car.

Lileigh Lehnen lived several hours and died of asphyxia, according to Mesa County Deputy Coroner Rob Kurtzman, who concluded the baby's death was a homicide and said the collision damaged the mother's placenta, limiting blood flow to the newborn.

Lage was facing a series of charges because of the baby's death, but his public defender, Will McNulty, challenged them on the grounds that the state law excluded the baby from the possibility of being a homicide victim.

The judge's order said Colorado law doesn't allow Lileigh Lehnen to be considered either a "person" or a "child" at the time of the crash.

"This outrageous ruling is a clear example of they hypocrisy of Colorado law," said Burton at the time. "If a child like Lileigh is not a person, what is she? There is no other answer."

Leslie Hanks, a longtime activist in the pro-life movement in Colorado, has said the affirmation that all "persons" have certain natural, essential and inalienable rights including the right to life is exactly what the nation's founders had in mind when they established the country.

"Colorado, which regrettably was in the forefront of the movement to deny the right to life to millions of the unborn, has now taken the first step to restore the right to life to all Americans, regardless of age, dependency, national origin or condition," said John Archibold, a founder of Colorado Right to Life as well as National Right to Life.

[Soldier4Christ]

Plan transforms doctors from healers to killers
State bill mandates physicians tell patients about assisted suicide

By the narrow margin of two votes, a bill has passed the California State Assembly that detractors are saying allows doctors to push patients toward medically assisted suicide.

The bill, AB 2747, would change the law by enabling doctors to first declare a patient as having less than a year to live, then requiring the doctor to provide the patient with a long list of end-of-life options, including a last-moments option that looks suspiciously like euthanasia.

Critics of the bill, which was advanced yesterday, point to a provision that adds "palliative sedation" and VSED (voluntary stopping of eating and drinking) to a patient's end-of-life options, extreme measures that have been previously reserved for patients within a few hours to a few days of death.

If the bill becomes law, critics say, a doctor could pronounce a patient within a year of death, encourage him to consider complete (sometimes irreversible) sedation, then proceed with VSED until the patient, unconscious and unaware, starved and dehydrated to death – in effect, physician-assisted suicide for anyone deemed "within a year of death."

Assemblymember Patty Berg, who co-sponsored the bill, wrote in California's Capitol Weekly that AB 2747 merely "requires healthcare providers to give complete answers to their terminal patients."

The bill itself states that "lack of communication between health care providers and their terminally ill patients can cause problems" and that "those problems are complicated by social issues, such as cultural and religious pressures." Further, "a recent survey found that providers that object to certain practices are less likely than others to believe they have an obligation to present all of the options to patients and refer patients to other providers."

Randy Thomasson, president of president of Campaign for Children and Families, a California-based pro-life group, says, however, "This deceptive bill will cause death and shorten life, despite its claims."

Thomasson sees an imminent danger that unscrupulous or cost-driven doctors might use the bill's provisions for communication as license to tell patients their death is coming within the year and move them toward life-ending choices.

"Some people are told they have a year to live," he points out, "then go on to live healthily for 12."

He also points out that in a state where food and hydration are considered "extraordinary measures" in living wills, patients stunned by the news they have less than a year to live may opt for choices that lead directly to their death. Depressed or confused patients might agree to the sedation, then die through VSED.

"Drying up and shriveling to death through dehydration is a fate worse than lethal injection," says Thomasson. "By transforming palliative sedation into a vehicle for assisted suicide, AB 2747 would transform doctors and nurses from healers and comforters into killers."

AB 2747 marks the fourth time in four years that Berg has attempted to pass legislation regarding end-of-life circumstances. Her previous attempts were more clearly euthanasia-related, including a bill in 2007 that would have permitted death by lethal injection.

Berg insists AB 2747 is not of the same mold: "Unlike my previous end-of-life bill," she wrote, "my new bill doesn’t give anyone any new options…Some, however, are still fighting last year’s battle and are trying to convince the gullible that my new bill is a Trojan horse, designed somehow to legalize aid-in-dying."

Thomassom sees Berg's value on "knowing all the options" as misguided.

"People who are ill need support, spiritual care, and counseling," he says, not dire predictions of death and options for dying. "Just as the assisted-suicide bills of the last three years have been rejected, so should the California Legislature reject AB 2747. Assisted suicide by total sedation ignores the sanctity of human life and violates life-affirming medical ethics."

[HisDaughter]

Plan transforms doctors from healers to killers
State bill mandates physicians tell patients about assisted suicide

By the narrow margin of two votes, a bill has passed the California State Assembly that detractors are saying allows doctors to push patients toward medically assisted suicide.

I can just see where this could go.  If a patient refuses, is the "doctor" going to "help and/or push" him anyway?  Is this how the "new" govenment is going to keep health costs down?  What a crock.  Totally unbelievable!

[HisDaughter]

I feel like we are living in a nightmare.  I just can't imagine what it will be like for those that are left behind.  The sad part is that they don't even see it coming!  By the time they do....
Well, I'm glad I won't be here, but still, just to watch it developing is so heart breaking.

[Soldier4Christ]

It is difficult to believe that so many people would be that naive to such things but it is believeable that it is happening as we are told in scriptures that such will be.

Yes, my heart goes out to all that will be here during the coming hard times.

[nChrist]

I feel like we are living in a nightmare.  I just can't imagine what it will be like for those that are left behind.  The sad part is that they don't even see it coming!  By the time they do....
Well, I'm glad I won't be here, but still, just to watch it developing is so heart breaking.

Hello GrammyLuv,

Sister, I think about this all the time. It's extremely troubling that many Christians don't see it coming either. Sadly, I really think this is because many Christians these days spend very little time with their Bibles. Very SADLY, many Christians these days really are "drive-thru" or "microwave" Christians. In the meantime, GOD is still serving spiritual food we need for these difficult times, but we do have to stop long enough to take it and eat it. There are also many critical things that we need to be doing for our families, our friends, and the lost.

Think about this one:  What would the average Christian be doing if they knew this was the last day, week, or month?

Love In Christ,
Tom

P.S. Please see the following two posts. I haven't posted them in some time, and I feel now is a perfect time.

[nChrist]

Matthew 24:23-31 NASB
"Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or 'There He is,' do not believe him. "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. "Behold, I have told you in advance. "So if they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness,' do not go out, or, 'Behold, He is in the inner rooms,' do not believe them. "For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. "Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. "But immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. "And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the SON OF MAN COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF THE SKY with power and great glory. "And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

Matthew 24:32-44 NASB
"Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. "Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. "Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming. "But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into. "For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

Revelation 11:1-13 NASB
Then there was given me a measuring rod like a staff; and someone said, "Get up and measure the temple of God and the altar, and those who worship in it. "Leave out the court which is outside the temple and do not measure it, for it has been given to the nations; and they will tread under foot the holy city for forty-two months. "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire flows out of their mouth and devours their enemies; so if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way. These have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell; seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Ezekiel 7:1-9 NASB
Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me saying, "And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel, 'An end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land. 'Now the end is upon you, and I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and bring all your abominations upon you. 'For My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will know that I am the LORD!' "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'A disaster, unique disaster, behold it is coming! 'An end is coming; the end has come! It has awakened against you; behold, it has come! 'Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come, the day is near--tumult rather than joyful shouting on the mountains. 'Now I will shortly pour out My wrath on you and spend My anger against you; judge you according to your ways and bring on you all your abominations. 'My eye will show no pity nor will I spare. I will repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the LORD, do the smiting.

Ezekiel 7:14-20 NASB
'They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all their multitude. 'The sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also consume those in the city. 'Even when their survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each over his own iniquity. 'All hands will hang limp and all knees will become like water. 'They will gird themselves with sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces and baldness on all their heads. 'They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling. 'They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.

Ezekiel 7:25-27 NASB
'When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. 'Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders. 'The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the LORD.'"

[nChrist]

Ezekiel 38:14-23 NASB
"Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On that day when My people Israel are living securely, will you not know it? "You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army; and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog." 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? "It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel," declares the Lord GOD, "that My fury will mount up in My anger. "In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. "The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; the mountains also will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse and every wall will fall to the ground. "I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains," declares the Lord GOD. "Every man's sword will be against his brother. "With pestilence and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone. "I will magnify Myself, sanctify Myself, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the LORD."'

Ezekiel 39:1-7 NASB
"And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal; and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. "I will strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand. "You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. "You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken," declares the Lord GOD. "And I will send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the LORD. "My holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

Ezekiel 39:17-22 NASB
"As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, "Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. "You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. "So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. "You will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war," declares the Lord GOD. "And I will set My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. "And the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God from that day onward.

Ezekiel 39:25-29 NASB
Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. "They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. "When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. "Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. "I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel," declares the Lord GOD.

Isaiah 2:1-5 NASB
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Isaiah 9:2-7 NASB
The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

Isaiah 65:17-25 NASB
"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind. "But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing And her people for gladness. "I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; And there will no longer be heard in her The voice of weeping and the sound of crying. "No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, Or an old man who does not live out his days; For the youth will die at the age of one hundred And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred Will be thought accursed. "They will build houses and inhabit them; They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. "They will not build and another inhabit, They will not plant and another eat; For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands. "They will not labor in vain, Or bear children for calamity; For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, And their descendants with them. "It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear. "The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD.

[nChrist]

Brothers and Sisters, there will be a literal RULE AND REIGN OF CHRIST! Israel will be restored, and these are the Promises of GOD to Israel! However, Israel is FORE-ORDAINED by GOD to endure much more suffering in the Tribulation Period before GOD will fulfill HIS Promise. Make no mistake - GOD will fulfill this promise, and it will be after THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST!

Isaiah 2:1-5 NASB
The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now it will come about that In the last days The mountain of the house of the LORD Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For the law will go forth from Zion And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war. Come, house of Jacob, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

Isaiah 9:2-7 NASB
The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.

[HisDaughter]

Think oil prices hurt now? Just wait

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2248967220080522?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10005

Sky-high oil prices are causing pain at the pump, but bills for air conditioning this summer and heating next winter -- combined with rising food costs -- promise to squeeze U.S. consumers even more.

With gas at $4.00 a gallon, households already have less to spend on a new grill at Home Depot; a vacation at Walt Disney's Disney World; a new TV from Best Buy Co; or a new "hog" from Harley-Davidson Co.

And there are no signs things will get better soon for the consumer, long the driving force of U.S. economic growth.

"For the areas of the economy that rely on heating oil, high fuel prices are going to be another blow to the consumer this winter," said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the LA County Economic Development Corp.

"The hotter states will feel the pinch during the summer months but in the mid-America states where you get hot summers and cold winters, it's going to be very uncomfortable," he said.

"This is going to eat into the disposable income of American consumers -- supposing they have any left."

Oil prices, now $130 a barrel, have risen six-fold since 2002. On Wednesday, heating oil reached a record high above $3.90 a gallon and the price is expected to stay high.

Heating oil, which cost $3.29 a gallon in January, will likely cost $3.83 in December, according to the government's Energy Information Administration.

Those costs come at a time of rising food prices, forcing people to spend more on basics as wages fail to keep up. The effects on the economy could be profound.

"The American consumer will continue to pay for fuel, food and heat," said University of Maryland economist Peter Morici.

"But they will give everything else up," he said. "That's going to make it harder to sell the average consumer a television, a suit, or even a meal at a restaurant."

HARD TIMES

This could become an especially depressing reality in July and August, when back-to-school shopping starts, and in November, when holiday shopping gets under way.

Without strong sales during both of those shopping seasons, retailers including Wal-Mart, Target, J.C. Penney and Sears could post bleak results for the last two quarters of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

For many years, the consumer has been the engine of U.S. growth, accounting for around 70 percent of the economy.

But much recent spending has been done on credit, leaving Americans with a negative savings rate.

Now that consumers have been hit by the double-whammy of a weak economy and higher costs, the question is how much damage the engine has sustained and how long it will take to fix it.

Peter Schiff, president of money manager Euro Pacific Capital, warns that after years of profligate spending, the "chickens are finally coming home to roost".

"Our whole phony standard of living is imploding," he said. "We have borrowed and spent ourselves into oblivion."

"It's amazing that people can't figure out that America is broke."

WINTER OF DISCONTENT

Diane Swonk, chief economist of Mesirow Financial, says one of her biggest concerns for the short term is that the Bush administration's tax rebates, which were designed to stimulate the economy, will be used by consumers to fill their tanks and use air conditioning as usual rather than cutting back.

Many retailers, like Wal-Mart and Sears and supermarkets Kroger and Supervalu, have offered customers incentives to spend their rebate checks with them.

President George W. Bush signed into law a $152 billion fiscal stimulus package earlier this year to provide tax rebates to 130 million Americans. Some $107 billion of the total was allocated for households.

"The tax rebate is going to be a double-edged sword for consumers," Swonk said. "When the heating bills start coming in the fall things will not look so good."

"That should contribute to a contraction in consumer spending in the fourth quarter," she added.

Swonk said that among the industries that will continue to feel the pinch is the auto industry, a major employer.

That likely means that Thursday's announcement by Ford Motor Co that it was abandoning its long-touted goal of returning to profitability by 2009 will be followed by more bad news from Detroit.

With Ford and General Motors shares getting a battering on Thursday, investors were asking if the long-term prognosis of the Detroit automakers was becoming even bleaker.

"The economic circumstances are not good for Ford and they are not good for any of the automakers really; this isn't anything that is a Ford exclusive," said Erich Merkle, director of forecasting for consulting firm IRN Inc.

Edward Leamer, head of the UCLA Anderson Forecast Center, said that thanks to the combination of high spending in recent years and rocketing fuel costs, the consumer-engine of U.S. economic growth is close to failing.

"The global markets are telling us we are not as wealthy as we think we are and that we have spent beyond our means," he said. But Leamer said while the engine may be broken, the U.S. economic model is not: it just needs a new engine.

Thanks to the "rosy spot" of exports helped by a weak dollar, plus strength in commodities like coal and grains, the UCLA Anderson Forecast Center predicts the U.S. economy will suffer only a mild recession this year.

But without that retail engine of growth, "our long-term prospect is for sluggish U.S. economic growth," Leamer said.

"Unfortunately, there is nothing on the horizon in the U.S. economy that will take over from the consumer."

[HisDaughter]

Ezekiel 7:14-20 NASB
'They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all their multitude. 'The sword is outside and the plague and the famine are within. He who is in the field will die by the sword; famine and the plague will also consume those in the city. 'Even when their survivors escape, they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each over his own iniquity. 'All hands will hang limp and all knees will become like water. 'They will gird themselves with sackcloth and shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces and baldness on all their heads. 'They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy their appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling. 'They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.

Ezekiel 7:25-27 NASB
'When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there will be none. 'Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but the law will be lost from the priest and counsel from the elders. 'The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. According to their conduct I will deal with them, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the LORD.'"

Seems to me that this is where we are.

[nChrist]

Seems to me that this is where we are.

Hello GrammyLuv,

Sister Yvette, there are portions of the Holy Bible that give very harsh and graphic descriptions. I still think that we're only close. I think we could multiply what we're seeing now by 100 and be there. I think the times will become so bad that many skeptics will start taking another look at the HOLY BIBLE. I think that the harsh and graphic descriptions will match perfectly at GOD'S Appointed time, and there will be little doubt for someone who can read a BIBLE. However, we are told that many will be deceived. As an individual, I don't believe that Christians will be here, but this is simply a matter of opinion on my part. I think that much depends on how one defines "WRATH". The CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST was not formed for WRATH - rather RESCUE AND SALVATION. Regardless of opinion, the times of the Tribulation Period may be rapidly approaching. Daniel called it a time "DETERMINED AGAINST ISRAEL", and the last half of the Tribulation period is known as "JACOB'S TROUBLE". The last 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation Period is much worse, and this is why many people feel that the CHURCH will be RAPTURED "Mid-Tribulation". Others believe the RAPTURE is "Post-Tribulation". Regardless, it will be a horrible time. Daniel and other Old Testament Prophets knew NOTHING about the CHURCH WHICH IS THE BODY OF CHRIST. In fact, nobody knew about it until it was revealed to the Apostle Paul. THE TWELVE knew nothing about it until Paul taught them and convinced them. This is still causing great confusion today.

Israel is still waiting for her KING and MESSIAH. As Christians, we already have HIM, and HE rescued us from the curse of sin and death. In other words, Israel is waiting for an EARTHLY KING AND KINGDOM. As Christians, we have already been given a HEAVENLY KING AND KINGDOM. There's another interesting way to put this:  1) Israel is still waiting for a promised EARTHLY HOME and rescue by a promised KING and MESSIAH;  2) As Christians, we've already been rescued and have a HEAVENLY HOME with JESUS CHRIST. We're waiting to go HOME.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable GIFT, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour Forever!

[Soldier4Christ]

Prop. 13 property taxes in the voters' hands

Thirty years ago today, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 13 as a way to keep seniors from losing their homes to skyrocketing property taxes. But the 1978 vote also ignited a revolution that dramatically changed the way people across America look at government and taxes.

The grassroots initiative has saved California property owners billions of dollars since it was passed, but the shackles Prop. 13 put on the ability of state and local governments to increase taxes could turn out to be its most important legacy. Even today, with the state facing a $17 billion budget shortfall, tax increases face certain opposition from many legislators and voters.

"Clearly, the Prop. 13 movement had the general attitude ... that government and its ability to tax people isn't to be trusted," said Mark Baldassare, head of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. "That's very much the theme that Ronald Reagan picked up when he ran for president in 1980, and it's had a dramatic impact on national politics, particularly on the Republican side."

When GOP Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia put together his "Contract with America" in 1994 as part of the successful Republican effort to take control of Congress, his call for requiring a three-fifths majority vote on tax increases was straight out of Prop. 13. And when liberal Democratic Illinois Sen. Barack Obama says that, as president, he would reverse President Bush's tax cuts only for the wealthiest Americans, he recognizes the same middle-class antipathy to taxes that Prop. 13's backers saw three decades ago.
A distrust of officials

Both Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann, the public faces of Prop. 13, disliked government almost as much as they despised taxes, and neither was willing to trust elected officials to do the right thing with the public's money.

That's one reason the measure not only put tight limits on property taxes but also required a two-thirds vote of the Legislature for state tax increases and a two-thirds vote of the people for most local tax boosts.

"The disaster of the moment was that people were being taxed out of their homes," said Joel Fox, past president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. "But Howard Jarvis and others behind the initiative were determined that they were going to control the tax monster."
More than property tax relief

The heated discussions backers of Prop. 13 had when they were putting the initiative together make it clear they were looking for more than property tax relief, said Ted Costa, who runs the People's Advocate, an organization founded by Gann.

"The overwhelming opinion was that the purpose of Prop. 13 was to limit the size of government," he said. "By the month before the election, it was clear that blue-collar voters and homeowners everywhere were using Prop. 13 to send a message to government."

It's a message that even many opponents of the initiative admit was needed.

For decades before 1978, property tax in California was based on a percentage of the assessed value of a home. Every two or three years, the county assessor would look at the sales prices of homes in a neighborhood and set a new and generally higher assessment, which generally meant higher property taxes.

But this low-key process went haywire in the runaway inflation of the 1970s, which sent home prices - and assessments - soaring. Homeowners paying $500 a year in property taxes in 1972 found themselves looking at a $2,000 tax bill in 1978. Between 1974 and 1978, the average value of a California home jumped from $34,000 to $85,000, and property taxes rose with it.

Homeowners, many of them seniors on fixed incomes, couldn't come up with the cash for their dramatically higher property tax bills and faced the terrifying prospect of losing the houses they had lived in for decades.

In one of the great grassroots political efforts in California history, Jarvis and Gann, joined by an army of angry and anxious homeowners, collected more than twice as many signatures as needed to get the initiative on the ballot. On election day, Prop. 13 passed with 65 percent of the vote.

But those angry voters didn't just celebrate and go home. After tasting the political power of ballot-box democracy, they quickly went back for more.

A year later, Gann wrote an initiative to limit government spending that passed with 74 percent of the vote. In 1982, Proposition 7, which prevented state income tax from rising with inflation, passed. Proposition 218, a 1996 initiative, required a public vote on many local assessment increases.
Tightening the screws

Each new measure tightened the screws on state and local government, either limiting revenues or making it tougher to raise money through taxes.

"Because of Prop. 13, taxpayers felt they needed to be in control because government wasn't giving them a fair shake," said Teresa Casazza, president of the nonpartisan California Taxpayers Association. "Taxpayers have a real skeptical view of how the government is taking care of the money it's receiving."

Requiring a two-thirds vote for any type of statewide tax increase has tied the Legislature in knots because Republicans, who make up more than a third of both the Assembly and the state Senate, have adamantly opposed any tax hikes.

California voters don't see the restrictions as a bad thing. In a Field Poll released today, 72 percent of those surveyed disapproved of changing Prop. 13 to allow the Legislature to raise taxes by a simple majority vote. When they were reminded that the state faces a multibillion-dollar deficit, the numbers barely moved.

"The huge deficit and state debt don't make a difference," said Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll. "Voters want to set a fairly high bar for increases in taxes and want to see bipartisan support."
Bureaucrats unhappy

Complaints about Prop. 13 come mainly from government officials and bureaucrats unhappy with the way the initiative transferred the power of the purse to the people paying taxes, said Fox, who worked closely with Jarvis.

"What was revolutionary is that under Prop. 13, certainty goes to the taxpayer," he said. "Before 1978, the certainty belonged to the tax collector."

Reagan, both as governor of California and as president, took the view that government was more the problem than the solution. But with the passage of Prop. 13, conservative voters saw a solution, a way to shrink government by starving it of revenue.

Costa, who took over People's Advocate after Gann died in 1989, has involved the organization not only in tax battles but also in ballot fights on such issues as term limits, victim's rights, legislative reform and the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis. He's talking about a ballot initiative that would define taxes to include several of the government charges and fees that don't now fall under Prop. 13's rules.

"We want to reduce the size of government," he said. "Our ballot measures don't say it in so many words, but that's understood to be on the top of any initiative we put out."

Prop. 13 conference

A conference on the 30th anniversary of Proposition 13 will be held today at UC Berkeley. The event, which is free and open to the public, examines the political, economic and fiscal impacts of the tax-limiting initiative. The conference begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Lipman Room on the eighth floor of Barrows Hall.

[Soldier4Christ]

A distrust of officials

A situation that is well earned by our politicians of today. We can see many of these reasons in our current congress and in those running for the office of President.