There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Presuppositional Apologetics – Pt. 02 – Worldviews, Presuppositions, Evidence – Pastor Patrick Hines Podcast
▶️Pastor Patrick Hines has recently had a brand new book published, called, “Earth’s Foundational History – Part 1: Genesis Chapters 1 Through 5.” (Paperback – May 4, 2023) https://cutt.ly/16RCeZ0
These two books are also available on Amazon. All proceeds go directly to Pastor Hines:
▶️Am I Right With God?: The Gospel, Justification, Saving Faith, Repentance, Assurance, & The New Birth https://cutt.ly/S6RCbuM
▶️Redrawing the Battle Lines: 23 Sermons on Critical Issues Facing the Church https://cutt.ly/m6RCTi0
We subscribe to the Westminster Standards as our doctrinal statement. It consists of the following documents:
The Westminster Confession of Faith
The Westminster Larger Catechism
The Westminster Shorter Catechism
We also believe that Christian Worship is to be regulated and defined by God’s Word, the Bible.
Our worship services are designed to please and honor the Triune God of the Bible. We place Scripture reading and the preaching of the word of God at the center of worship along with Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These are God’s gifts to His church and ought to always be at the center of Christian worship. We are a congregation that loves to sing God’s praises, recite His Word back to Him, and actively engage in hearing and learning from God’s Word.
We embrace and promote a comprehensive Christian world and life view.
There is no area of life which is not under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is to God and His law which all people, including governments and civil rulers, will answer. The Word of God embraces and informs the way we view marriage, the family, children, education, politics, worship, law, government, war, the church, missions, evangelism, and worship. In the world today there is a battle of opposing worldviews. There are basically only two positions: God’s Word and man’s ideas. We stand positively for Biblical truth and negatively against man’s ideas which are opposed to Biblical truth.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope for mankind.
Because all men fall short of obeying God’s law, all men everywhere are in need of divine grace and salvation from God. This salvation is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ who died for sinners, was buried, rose again, and is alive today seated at God the Father’s right hand.
We Worship God Together as Families.
We offer nursery during the morning worship service for newborns and infants but encourage people to keep as many of their children as they can with them for morning worship. The audio of the service is in the nursery via speakers. There is also a crying room with a video screen and audio of the sermon. We offer Sunday school classes for all ages, but worship together as families. We do not offer “children’s” church.
All who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and are members of an evangelical church are cordially invited to participate with us in the Lord’s Supper.
“Then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, “The thing comes from the LORD: We cannot speak to you either bad or good. Here is Rebekah before you; take her and go, and let her be your master’s son’s wife, as the LORD has spoken.”” – Genesis 24:50, 51
What should we pray for? When might our prayers be answered? Do we need to use exactly the right words for God to hear and answer our prayers? These and other questions and doubts impede what E.M. Bounds called “The Power of Prayer.” What we need to remember first about prayer is the amazing fact that God listens to us at all. I’m sure we’ll talk more about that another time. But it is clear in our reading that God did hear the prayer of Abraham’s servant.
Abraham told his servant to go take a wife from Abraham’s people. He was sending him on a ‘dangerous journey’. The servant wanted some wiggle room. What if she won’t come? The servant went anyway. Gloriously, when the servant arrived in Haran, he prayed. He asked God to be God. And God was indeed sovereign in this wife hunt. As Rebekah’s brother and father would soon say – this thing comes from the LORD.
One truth about prayer we learn later in life is that God moves us to pray about things He plans to answer. This way we learn to pray with more boldness. It is truly amazing that God answers our prayers, and His answer is always gracious help given to needy sinners. So, as James would say, we should ask in faith, with no doubting. Our God is gracious and will answer our prayers.
Suggestions for prayer
Ask God to cause you to pray about that major issue in your life.
Rev. Harold Miller graduated from Mid-America Reformed Seminary in 2001 and has served churches in Wellsburg, Iowa and Kansas City, Missouri before arriving at Oak Lawn, Illinois in 2020. Get this devotional delivered directly to your phone each day via our RP App. It is also available in print, for purchase, at NTGDevotional.com.
There are thousands of excellent books by wonderful Christian authors available today. But no Christian book rivals the most important one: the Bible! Dr. Robert Jeffress provides compelling evidence for why we can trust what God has written in His Word.
In the previous two devotions we highlighted some of the false systems, movements, thinkers, and freedoms that make up the dark side of our world. But as dark as they may be we are fortunate that there is still hope for all those who have found the one true light source in the universe – Jesus Christ.
For we read in (John 8:12): “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’” Jesus indeed is the Creator of wonderful possibilities, hope, beauty and meaning.
Before we examine this concept of Jesus being the light of the world let’s remember that this is only one of seven amazing “I am” statements about Jesus that can be found in the Gospel of John. The other six are:
“I am the bread of life.” (John 6:35). Just as physical bread satisfies and sustains our cravings and physical life so Jesus satisfies and sustains our spiritual life and supplies us with deep and abiding joy throughout life. Just as bread satisfies our hunger so Jesus, the true bread of life, satisfies our soul.
“I am the door of the sheep.” (John 10:7) This is a fabulous verse that basically says that we have entered into God’s people through the door of Jesus. And now that Jesus is our shepherd he protects us just as a shepherd protects their flocks from evil doers.
“I am the good shepherd.” (John 10:11). Jesus is such a good shepherd that we see in the second part of (John 10:11) that: “The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” Jesus loves us so much that He was willing to die for us that we could have life, and life more abundantly – not to mention eternal life! As our good shepherd Jesus is committed to loving, caring, and watching over us at all times.
“I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25). For those of us who know Jesus though we may die, we shall live. Death, which sounds so final, is not the final word for those of us in Christ. We one day will be resurrected from the grave to spend an eternity of joy and bliss with Jesus – what an awesome thought!
“I am the true vine.” (John 15:1). We all know that a branch can’t survive if it isn’t connected to the vine, nor can we survive spiritually if we are not connected to Jesus. If we are not connected to Jesus we will shrivel up spiritually. When Christ lives in us, His life flows in and through us. As a result, we are able to bear much good fruit and thus bring glory to God – what a marvelous privilege!
“I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (John 14:6). Jesus is the only source of real truth and meaning in the universe. He is the only way to the Father, to meaning, and to life. There is no true knowledge of God apart from Jesus. And when we know Jesus we can walk in the brilliant light that only He can provide.
And this brings us back to the statement that Jesus said: “I am the light of the world.” (John 8:12). Sadly, our world is lost in darkness. But the good news is that Jesus lights up the world with His unending love, incredible compassion, and His marvelous sacrifice at Calvary for you and me. (Psalm 119:105) tells us: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” And since Jesus is the Word, He guarantees us to be the light to our path on earth. Jesus also provides us with the spiritual light we need to avoid the sin and destruction so many people fall prey to. Instead, Jesus as He walks with us and in us, promises us joy and peace in abundance. When we face trials, Jesus feels our pain and supplies us His strength to get through them.
Our hopeless situations find hope in Jesus since His light can breakup even the darkest clouds of doubt and despair. His light can help us see beauty in tragedy and find meaning in even the darkest of circumstances. And praise God His light offers us hope when all seems lost. For even a terminal illness is only temporary in the eternal scheme of things to Jesus.
And don’t forget when we finally end our journey here on earth and God calls us to our eternal home all darkness will be forever banished for the light of Jesus will light up the sky for the lamb of God will become the lamp of God. For we read of that wonderful day when the sun will no longer be needed to supply light and night will be no more: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.” (Revelation 21:22-25).
Out of Jesus’ seven ‘I Am’ statements in the Gospel of John, His fourth – “I Am the Good Shepherd – is, in my estimation, the most precious and tender.
“I Am the Good Shepherd” is the one that ties together the other six. It stands out as the most significant for our salvation because it is in this statement that Jesus explains His death on our behalf. This passage in John 10 is, as Dr. Steven Lawson has noted, Jesus’ own commentary on His death and resurrection.
Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly identifies the heir to David’s throne – the promised Messiah, Yahweh in human flesh – as the shepherd of God’s people. It is no surprise when Jesus came, He declared His messianic credentials by asserting that He is the good shepherd. Jesus is the one promised by the Father in the Old Testament, who would come to bring salvation to God’s people.
What makes Jesus the good shepherd is not simply that He is compassionate, although He is. What makes Jesus the good shepherd in this context is that He gives His life for His sheep.
Through this statement, Jesus does not mean that He gives His life for His sheep merely as an example for them, or that His death was exclusively an act of love. Certainly Jesus’ death for us is an example, and it absolutely does demonstrate the love of Christ for His people, but for a very particular reason.
Jesus’ death is significant because it provided atonement for our sins. His sheep were in mortal danger – on the verge of death because of their sin against a holy God. Jesus, the good shepherd, comes and lays down His life to spare the lives of His sheep. He takes responsibility for our sin on the cross and gives His life to pay the penalty our sins deserved. Instead of our deaths, He dies; and through His sacrificial death, we are spared and receive eternal life.
These truths are the heart of the gospel: the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ for the sins of His people, that He truly bore our sins in His body on the cross. Our sins had to be paid for and our guilt punished; but instead of God punishing us, He punished Jesus, who died for us and laid down His life for His sheep.
The heart of this ‘I Am’ statement is this: ‘Why did Jesus lay down His life for His sheep?’ The answer to this question is what Jesus desires us to see where He calls Himself the ‘good shepherd.’ Jesus wants us to know what moved Him to die on our behalf, to give His life for our sins, and to bear the wrath of God in our place. So, Jesus gives us three motivations that motivated Him as our good shepherd to give up His life for our sake.
First, Jesus laid down His life for His sheep because He loves His sheep.
To help us better comprehend the love of Christ for us as His sheep, Jesus creates a contrast between Himself and a new character in the development of this image: the ‘hired hand.’ I think Jesus once again is contrasting Himself with the religious leaders of Israel. They were thieves and robbers in the previous context because their goal was to prevent people from finding life through Christ. In this passage, they are now hirelings because they use the sheep for their own enrichment without any genuine love for God’s people.
Jesus, then, stands in contrast to the hired hands because He, unlike the religious leaders, is concerned for the sheep. Jesus loves His sheep, and this explains why He gives His life for them. Jesus will never flee to save Himself at our expense (like the hireling) because Jesus truly is concerned for the wellbeing of His sheep.
Second, Jesus gave His life for His sheep because He knows His sheep.
At first glance, this seems to be a good reason for Jesus not to die for His sheep! Think about what sinners we are – with all our flaws, failures, and weaknesses. Charles Spurgeon once said, “If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him. For you are worse than he thinks you to be.” It is nothing less than astounding to think that one of the reasons the Savior died for His sheep is because He knows His sheep intimately.
Jesus knows us. He knows our names, and He knows us better than we know ourselves. With this understanding, He still died for us, knowing all our sinfulness, failures, weaknesses, and the ways we would deny Him.
Here’s something even more incredible: not only does Jesus know us, but we get to know Him. We know our good shepherd, which means that we are in a close, intimate, and personal relationship with Christ. To know Jesus is the heart of the Christian life. This was all that mattered to Paul, whose life was dominated by the desire to know Christ more. To know our good shepherd is the heartbeat of every believer.
All believers in Jesus Christ have the same shepherd and are part of the same flock. That unity should express itself in how we love and treat one another in the local body of Christ. If there is one thing the world should see from Christian congregations, it is that we love one another and are unified under the good shepherd. There are times when we will certainly disagree with one another about various issues, but we should always desire to glorify our good shepherd who laid His life for us. In fact, we should be so overwhelmed by the grace Christ has shown us in laying down His life for us while knowing everything about us, that we quickly act to forgive, to show mercy, to love, and to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the church.
Finally, the good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep because He obeys His Father.
Jesus died for us because He is perfectly obedient to the Father’s command. He has authority to lay down His life, and He has authority to take it up again. Jesus had this authority because the Father commanded Him to offer Himself up for our sins and rise from the dead. Understand, too, Jesus is not saying He went begrudgingly or His will was different than the Father’s. Jesus is simply stating a fact that He, the Son, has the authority to do the Father’s will.
As such, the Father loves the Son because the Son is infinitely lovable. Everything about Christ and who He is elicits the Father’s love. When the Father looks at the Son and sees who He is as the perfect image of the invisible God, as the exact representation of His nature, as His beloved Son – the Father rejoices in, delights in, and loves His Son because the Father sees that the Son is lovely.
The Father’s love of His Son is the exact opposite of us as sinners: the Father does not love us because we are lovely. We are worthy of nothing but divine contempt for all eternity because of our sin. Jesus, though, is worthy of nothing but divine love for all eternity because He is infinitely lovable. His loveliness and perfection expresses itself in His submission to the will of the Father. The Father does not love us because we are lovely. The Father loves us because of Christ. Because we are one with Christ, the Father will make us lovely by conforming us to the image of His beloved Son.
If the Father loves Christ because He is infinitely worthy of love, we should love Jesus with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Good Shepherd is infinitely worthy, beautiful, and lovely. Let us always make Jesus, the good shepherd, the chief object of our souls’ affections.
While tending to his flocks, Moses was awestruck by a bush that burned but was not consumed. Then he heard a voice from the midst of the flames. Today, R.C. Sproul draws us into this significant encounter in redemptive history.
Exodus 26 and 27 are some of the passages that start getting into the “technical details.” Visualizing what the tabernacle looked like with a virtual tour may help to give some understanding to the passage.
Matthew 25:10 — Perhaps you’ve been intrigued by the Bible and have joined us this year. If you know about the Bible but don’t personally know the Lord of the Bible, please call out to Him before the door is shut and it’s too late! Being a good person – is not good enough!
Matthew 25:21, 23, and 26 — God has entrusted talents to His servants. A few years ago, Vic Eliason, who led what became VCY America into broadcast ministry, entered his eternal reward. Vic used the talents that God had given Him, and I am confident he heard the Lord tell him “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Will we hear “Well done” or will we hear “Thou wicked and slothful servant”?
Psalm 31:5 — Where have you heard this verse before? Jesus quoted this verse and many other Old Testament passages. While we may struggle with studying the Old Testament, remember that Jesus thought it was valuable and quoted it while on earth.
Proverbs 8:10 — What is better than silver, gold, and rubies? Wisdom! Reject the path of the simple and the fool! Follow wisdom!
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370
Humble hearts seek grace, and therefore they get it. Humble hearts yield to the sweet influences of grace, and so it is bestowed on them more and more largely. Humble hearts lie in the valleys where streams of grace are flowing, and hence they drink of them. Humble hearts are grateful for grace and give the Lord the glory of it, and hence it is consistent with His honor to give it to them.
Come, dear reader, take a lowly place. Be little in thine own esteem, that the Lord may make much of thee. Perhaps the sigh breaks out, “I fear I am not humble.” It may be that this is the language of true humility. Some are proud of being humble, and this is one of the very worst sorts of pride. We are needy, helpless, undeserving, hell-deserving creatures, and if we are not humble we ought to be. Let us humble ourselves because of our sins against humility, and then the Lord will give us to taste of His favor. It is grace which makes us humble, and grace which finds in this humility an opportunity for pouring in more grace. Let us go down that we may rise. Let us be poor in spirit that God may make us rich. Let us be humble that we may not need to be humbled but may be exalted by the grace of God
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Who likes to heal slowly? That’s right, no one. We all want to be healed yesterday from whatever physical or mental ailment or troubled relationship we are experiencing at present. If you are a believer who is going through a slow healing process, it could be—and likely is the case—that God is using your circumstances to grow you for your good and his glory. While you may feel frustrated, disappointed, angry, disheartened, or all four combined with how long it’s taking for healing to happen, here are eight ways God may be using slow healing in your sanctification in Christ:
1. God may be using slow healing to humble you.
Perhaps you were born with certain natural talents, desirable physical attributes, or material blessings that the world puts on a pedestal. You love Jesus and know that God wants you to walk in humility and dependence on him, but it is tempting to trust in these good things God has given you instead of trusting in God himself. In 2 Kings 5 we read about Naaman, who was a “mighty man of valor” (2 Kings 5:1) with much wealth and an esteemed position in society. Naaman was afflicted with leprosy and heard that the prophet Elisha could heal him. Elisha told Naaman to go to the Jordan river and wash seven times in order to be made clean of his disease. Upon hearing this, the mighty man was angry that Elisha didn’t heal him immediately. Naaman thought he was too good to have to wash in the Jordan river at all, let alone seven times:
But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that [Elisha] would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. (2 Kings 5:11-12)
Naaman’s wealth and status couldn’t help him. Just as Naaman needed to humble himself before the God of Israel by obeying Elisha’s instructions in order to be rid of his leprosy, so also all people need to humble themselves before God to be rid of their guilt and sin. Slow healing helps us to recognize the foolishness of trusting in worldly things for happiness and self-worth and instead to turn to God, who alone can heal us body and soul.
2. Slow healing encourages believers to turn to the Lord for help.
It is often the case that Christians can become lackadaisical in their prayer life when things are going smoothly. They feel like they have things under control and easily lose their focus on their constant need and duty to go before the Lord in prayer. It may be that the Lord is allowing your healing process to proceed slowly to cause you to lean on him more than ever in prayer. Rapid healing might not bring you to persistently cast your burdens on God in the same way a slow healing process would. Here are just a few Bible passages that encourage us to continue to trust in God and pray to him in times of suffering:
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Rom. 5:3-5)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 4:6-7)
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:17-18)
3. Slow healing helps us to appreciate God’s common grace in everyday life.
There are people who think that God can heal them without using everyday resources such as doctors, medicine, or therapy. And while this is indeed true, God often works by his common grace through both Christians and non-Christians in his order of creation. Physical wounds normally don’t heal overnight; the healing process almost always requires time—possibly weeks or months or maybe even years. Similarly, a deep emotional or mental wound won’t normally heal fully from a quick-fix solution. Deep wounds especially require time and help from others who care about us.
In his common grace God provides us with professionals who have spent many years learning how to treat our physical and emotional wounds and diseases. If someone tells you that you don’t need outside help to treat your problem because God will heal you if you have enough faith, that person is not sharing biblical truth with you. We should praise God for the people who have taken the time to grow in knowledge and skill so they can help others. This is how God has designed the world, and such people are respected for their commitment to excellence in their pursuits:
Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men. (Prov. 22:29)
4. God may be using slow healing to grow the spiritual fruit of patience in you.
Every Christian wants to have the fruit of patience, but actually being patient is another thing entirely! This is especially true when it comes to the healing process. Just because we don’t see slow healing taking place doesn’t mean it’s not happening. The human body and mind are amazingly complex. We can see, hear, touch, and feel some of what is going on in our bodies but not everything:
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well. (Ps. 139:14)
Just as healing may be taking place in you that you cannot yet perceive, so also God is at work by his indwelling Spirit to conform his children to the image of Christ for his glory in ways they may not perceive at the moment. Joseph didn’t know that one day he would become second only to Pharaoh in ruling over Egypt and end up sustaining his family during the famine to come. Joseph’s faith, character, and leadership abilities all matured as he patiently endured years of unjust imprisoning. It may be that God is at work in the slow healing in your health and relationships for his good purposes in this world—both presently and in the future—even if the outworking of that reality is imperceptible right now. While it’s not easy to do, rejoice when God is growing the fruit of patience in you through slow healing:
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! (Ps. 37:7)
Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. (Eccles. 7:8)
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Rom. 12:12)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Gal. 5:22-23)
5. Slow healing allows compassion to grow in your heart for others who are also going through an extended healing process.
When we see someone struggling with a certain health condition or relationship issue, it’s easy to jump in with advice on how the person can get better, whether it is a suggestion regarding a certain product, online resource, doctor, exercise, therapy, habit, nutritionist, diet plan, or a myriad of other ideas. The list goes on and on. While such efforts may come from a sincere heart wanting to help, they can also send the message that the person who is trying to heal hasn’t considered those options.
Because you are personally going through the process of healing slowly and are well aware of how many avenues you have likely pursued to be whole again, you know how annoying such “helpful advice” can be. While we are called to help one another with advice and encouragement (Col. 3:16; 1 Thess. 5:14), your own slow healing experience will help you be compassionate toward others who are also on a long healing journey.
6. Slow healing can cause you to ponder the complicated nature of hurts that you may have passed over otherwise.
Sometimes we are sure we understand the nature of a wound, whether physical or spiritual, and then we find out later that we were wrong. We might have been told by someone that the answer to our problem is having a positive attitude, being grateful, letting go of the hurt, or some other “quick fix.” The truth, however, may be that the problem stems from a pervasive and complicated issue that occurred years ago or over a long period of time. A slow healing process can force us to examine various elements of past actions and circumstances and see their effects in retrospect more clearly. If we don’t know what the actual root of the wound is, along with any factors that exacerbated the problem, we may end up trying to fix the issue with an ineffective or possibly even harmful treatment. We should not hesitate to seek help from wise and experienced people who can help us in assessing these nuances.
Slow healing can help us to think more in-depth about how the wound occurred, what we could have done, if anything, to prevent it from happening, and how we can better focus on our health going forward to avoid incurring a similar wound in the future.
7. God may be using “slow healing” to get you to “slow down” in life in general.
As Christians seek to serve the Lord in all their various vocations, it’s easy to overcommit and attempt to do far more than is physically, emotionally, or spiritually healthy for us. Additionally, believers have more distractions and temptations than ever in our digital world. Being unable to do our normal activities can provide us with more time to reflect on what we are doing, why we are doing it, and if it’s really worth our time and effort from a kingdom perspective.
In her book Refresh: Embracing a Grace-Paced Life in a World of Endless Demands, British physician Shona Murray recounts how her experience with over-commitment contributed to a state of serious depression and burnout that could have been devastating for her and her family:
I seemed to think that I could push and exhaust the physical part of me, and the mental, emotional, and spiritual parts would be unaffected. I was not seeing myself as God had made me—a limited creature and a complex creature. I was not only underestimating my limitations but underestimating the impact of an exhausted body on my mind and my soul. (pp. 39-40)
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to reassess your lifestyle choices amid the challenges of slow healing. Take advantage of this time of waiting to commit to living a thoughtful and focused Christian life going forward. God knows we are frail and can only handle so much:
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust. (Ps. 103:13-14)
8. Persevering amid slow healing testifies to the power of Christ in you and your future hope.
The apostle Paul struggled with an infirmity that he asked God three times to remove from him, but God did not grant his petition. Paul writes:
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:7-10)
When healing goes very slowly, or even ceases at some point, we have the opportunity to testify that our strength doesn’t come from within but rather from the power of Christ in us. Suffering also helps us not to hold on too tightly to the things of this world and to remember that we belong to God. As the apostle Paul declares,
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (Rom. 8:18)
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9)
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Cor. 4:17)
Full healing is ultimately in God’s hands, not ours.
Even though we pray and seek out help, it may be the case that we won’t fully heal from an ailment or that a relationship won’t be restored to health. In such times, we must rest in God’s sovereign will and remind ourselves that he sees everything and knows everything. While we may desperately want complete healing to take place, we need to remind ourselves that our days are numbered by God and we don’t fully know how our life fits into God’s grand redemptive plan:
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. (Ps. 139:16)
But, as it is written,
“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor. 2:9)
While slow healing can tempt God’s children to lose hope, don’t let it discourage you or cause you to doubt God’s love and care for you in Christ:
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:29-30)
It’s okay to pray to God for quick healing; it’s okay to ask God to work a fast miracle. He wants us to come to him with all our anxieties and fears. Regardless of God’s answer to your prayers, always remember that you are God’s precious child and this world is passing away. Any scars that remain will one day be gone forever.
Don’t let the devil succeed in getting you to despair in the midst of slow healing. Trust that God will not waste one bit of your suffering; instead, believe God’s word that all things will work together for good through everything he allows in your life (Rom. 8:28). Like the people who saw Jesus perform miracles, one day we also will say, “He has done all things well” (Mark 7:37).
Take heart, dear saint, that one day you will have complete healing—physically, emotionally, and spiritually—and are at this very moment a co-heir with Christ. No one can snatch you out of Jesus’ loving hand, and you are safe and secure in Christ forevermore.
This article was originally published on September 22, 2022.
When it comes to giving, Marvin Kehler, a businessman and Christian leader, doesn’t think it is complicated.
“It all starts with God putting a desire in your heart. Once that happens, God begins to supply the means to fulfill it.”
Marvin and his wife Katherine have applied this simple philosophy throughout their personal and professional lives. God has honored their unconditional willingness to give of their time, talents, and resources by providing them with more opportunities to give than they ever could have imagined. Looking back on Marvin’s early years it’s easy to see why giving has become such a natural part of his and Katherine’s lives.
Planting the Desire There was not a lot of money around when Marvin was born in the small town of Altona, Manitoba in 1938. Like most Canadians, Marvin’s parents were still struggling through the midst of the Great Depression. Marvin’s father ran his own business but the family was still very poor.
Despite their poverty, Marvin began to note how other family members always seemed to depend on his parents for help. This included some of his parents’ siblings as well as Marvin’s grandfather, who was a teacher and lay pastor.
“When things fell apart for other family members, it was interesting how many of them ended up at our place,” Marvin says. “Strangely, there always seemed to be enough ‘extra’ to go around for those in need.”
When Marvin was in his teen years, his parents bought his grandparents’ chicken and raspberry farm and moved to Abbotsford, British Columbia. It was a tough go with little profit to be made, but Marvin’s parents stuck it out, even taking jobs off the farm to keep things going. Although Marvin didn’t realize it at the time, he later learned that his parents were giving 50 percent of the farm profits to Christian causes.
“That had a phenomenal impact on my life. I thought that was definitely the way to do it.”
Responding to the Call When Marvin and Katherine got married and started a new life on their own, they were determined to continue practicing the habits of generosity Marvin had picked up from his parents.
They told God they were willing to go anywhere, do anything, and give whatever he asked. They got very involved sharing the gospel with as many people as possible.
One of Marvin’s responsibilities was helping to raise money for a Christian ministry. But he found the task so difficult and time consuming that he decided to get into business for himself so he would have more of his own resources to give.
“At first, my goal was to make a lot of money. Then I realized that was relatively easy. It was also meaningless. But giving a lot of money, that’s a different story that helps our faith to increase.”
God rewarded Marvin and Katherine’s willingness to obey him by blessing his business with tremendous success. After reaching his financial goals at the young age of 32, Marvin went on to get involved in many more ministries and businesses, further increasing his wealth and his ability to give.
Multiplying the Means It was around this time that Marvin started to look at various Christian organizations in light of his business experience. What he discovered alarmed him and provided Marvin with an opportunity to put his ideas to the test by becoming involved in the Canadian branch of Campus Crusade for Christ. Marvin willingly took on the task of serving as president, and vowed to help create an organization that leveraged every dollar they raised to its maximum potential. He looked at an investment in Campus Crusade – or any Christian organization for that matter – just like any other type of investment; the goal being to get the maximum return on your dollar.
With God’s guidance, over Marvin’s 28-year tenure as president, he and the rest of the Crusade staff were able to help share with millions of people how they can personally have a relationship with Jesus. And God has rewarded their faithfulness by entrusting them with even greater resources, just as He promises in the Bible. (Matthew 25:14-30)
In 1976, Crusade’s budget was only $189,000 and it was costing them well over a dollar for every person with whom they shared the gospel. When he resigned from his presidency of CCC 28 years later, Canada, Crusade’s annual budget was upwards of $20 million, and, thanks to new strategies, new technology and strategic partnerships, sharing the gospel costs only pennies per person.
Lessons Learned
Along the way, Marvin and Katherine have learned some important principles about life and giving. Here are a few:
God Owns Everything – We Are Only Managers
“It’s okay to earn money,” Marvin says, “but you shouldn’t try to hold onto it. God has made us like a flow-through system, not a reservoir. Money is a lot like water – the tighter you hold onto it, the more it leaks out of your hands. The temptation to hold on is always there. But you are more blessed to allow the money you make to flow through to others.”
You Can Give Much More Than Your Money In addition to their financial resources, Marvin believes it’s just as important that people share their time, talents and influence.
He notes that many people respond to this by saying, “But I don’t have anything to give:” however, Marvin strongly disagrees.
“God gives us all twenty-four hours a day. We need to ask ourselves, ‘How am I using it? How am I using it to affect my sphere of influence? Am I truly being salt and light to my friends and associates? Is Jesus being lifted up? I believe we are going to be as accountable for our time, talents and influence as we are for our possessions.”
The Time to Give is Now Years back, a friend of Marvin’s who had lost a huge fortune told him, “You can only give it when you’ve got it.” That made a deep impression upon Marvin.
“I realized that you can only give your time when you have your health. The same goes for talent, money and influence. As the saying goes, ‘If you don’t use it, you lose it.’”
You Can Only Give What You Have Many times Marvin has heard people say something to the effect of, “Well, if I had money like that guy, I’d give it too!” But Marvin encourages people not to look to those who are wealthy but rather to look to their own situation.
“What are you doing with what you have now? Are you being faithful with what God has already given you? As you are faithful, he will bless you.”
On the flip side, if you feel God calling you to give but you don’t have the necessary resources right now, Marvin encourages you to keep the vision of the call anyway and believe that God will supply the means at the appropriate time.
Always Seek the Best Return on Your Giving Investment
“Choosing where to give is as critical as any other investment I’ve ever made,”Marvin says.
He recommends that you seek out organizations whose goal is to share God’s message of salvation with the greatest number of people possible so that none should perish (John 3:16) and who have the ability to do this as effectively and as efficiently as possible.
Written by Kevin Miller Used by permission
If you, like Marvin, are looking for the abundant, deeply satisfying relationship with God, I encourage you to pray by faith and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, God has given you His Holy Spirit to help you live life according to His perfect plan. Why not pray this simple prayer and by faith invite Him to fill you with His Spirit:
Dear Father, I need you. I acknowledge that I have sinned against you by directing my own life. I thank You that You have forgiven my sins through Christ’s death on the cross for me. I now invite Christ to again take His place on the throne of my life. Fill me with the Holy Spirit as You commanded me to be filled, and as You promised in Your Word that You would do if I asked in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus. As an expression of my faith, I thank You for directing my life and for filling me with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
IDF close to dismantling last Hamas brigade in Khan Younis, estimates 1 week needed During operations in western Khan Younis, the IDF’s Givati Brigade raided the “Al-Qadsia” compound, which served as the main base of the Khan Younis Brigade. The base also housed the office of Mohammad Sinwar, the brother of Hamas’ military leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.
Four New Deep-Sea Octopus Species Discovered in Pacific Ocean “The impact of the R/V Falkor expeditions on understanding the deep Pacific waters of Costa Rica will last into the future and hopefully create awareness that evolves into policies to protect the deep sea of the country,” said Dr. Jorge Cortés, a researcher at the University of Costa Rica.
The Rain in California Is Mind-Boggling To say that it’s pouring rain in California is a vast understatement. The state is dealing with a weather phenomenon known as an atmospheric river for the second straight day—on the heels of an earlier one last week. Which might explain why the National Weather Service in Los Angeles is using red exclamation points to warn people in the Hollywood Hills of an “extremely dangerous situation unfolding.” Flooding, power outages, landslides, and rockslides are being reported.
Thousands Report Shaking from Oklahoma & New York Earthquakes Moderate to strong earthquakes have struck Oklahoma and New York in recent days, generating tens of thousands of reports to USGS, via their “Did you feel it?” online reporting website, of people feeling shaking or seeing things move or become knocked over. There have been no reports of injuries from these earthquakes at this time.
Nordic Response: Over 20 000 Soldiers From 13 Nations Will Practice Defending NATO’s Northern Flank Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish forces will practice defending allied territory in the High North – reinforced by allies from North America and south of Europe. Major military operations have been planned at sea, on land, and in the air. Russia has been informed about the exercise but has not been invited as an observer.
Thousands of reports of AI-generated child abuse content in US The US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) says that in 2023, it received 4,700 reports of content depicting child sexual exploitation generated by artificial intelligence (AI). The problem is expected to worsen with the advance of AI technology, NCMEC told Reuters. Child safety experts and researchers have expressed concerns about the risks posed by generative AI technology, which could increase online child exploitation.
Gallagher, Comer Sound Alarm on China’s Spying on Military Bases The United States must take more precautions to protect its military bases from spying by the Chinese Communist Party, two House chairmen told The Daily Signal on Monday. “The CCP continues to surveil and probe American defenses even here on U.S. soil,” Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told The Daily Signal in a written statement. “That’s why we need to take commonsense precautions like preventing CCP-linked entities from purchasing land near our military bases or other national security-related infrastructure,” Gallagher said.
New NYT Piece Could Signal Tide Is Turning Against Child Mutilation “Transgender activists have pushed their own ideological extremism,” reads a new op-ed from the New York Times. The multi-thousand word piece by opinion columnist Pamela Paul ran on Friday, sounding the alarm on the irreparable damage done to children — and to the credibility of the medical establishment — in the name of gender ideology.
PsyOps: The Historical, Modern, And Spiritual Warfare Tactics Used To Manipulate The Mind At its core, PsyOps uses information to manipulate how adversaries, allies, and neutral parties perceive a scenario or enact decision-making processes in response to a particular scenario. These strategies seek out well-defined objectives such as:New NYT Piece Could Signal That The Tide Is Turning Against Child Mutilation
Hamas religious scholars: Jewish men, women, children – everyone is fair game IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee posted on Monday photos of a booklet of religious rulings by Hamas-affiliated clerics found by IDF soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis which justifies the killing of all Jews – men, women and children. The booklet, issued by the Shura Council, the institution advising the Islamist terrorist organization on religious matters, was signed by Ahmad Bahar, the chairman of the council …
Britain’s King Charles diagnosed with cancer, receiving treatment He has begun to receive treatment for the cancer, according to the palace. Charles, 75, had spent three nights in hospital last month after undergoing a corrective procedure for an enlarged prostate, when a separate issue of concern was noted. The palace said that tests had identified a form of cancer.
NPR Whitewashes Palestinian Terrorists in Coverage of Israel-Hamas War If National Public Radio (NPR) were the sole source of news on the Israel-Hamas war, listeners would unlikely be able to accurately describe the Jewish state’s enemy in Gaza or the West Bank. Instead, they would be under the impression that Israeli troops are fighting against innocent Palestinian civilians, not barbaric terrorists.
Christians beware: Hatred of the Jews and Israel serves Satan In view of the hatred flaring up around the world, not only against Israel, but in principle against all Jews, humanity is increasingly divided into two camps. Needless to say, those nations or people who appear to be neutral are automatically on the wrong side.
The fountain of youth is … a T cell? Scientists have found a way to reprogram T cells to fight aging. After using them to eliminate specific cells in mice, the scientists discovered they lived healthier lives and didn’t develop aging-associated conditions like obesity and diabetes. Just one dose provided young mice with lifelong benefits and rejuvenated older mice. Amor Vegas and colleagues turned to a “living” drug called CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells.
Egypt warns: Gazan refugees fleeing to Sinai will mean end of peace agreement Egypt has sent messages to Israel warning that an influx of refugees from Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula will endanger the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. Israel Hayom quoted one source as warning that Egypt’s message was that “if even a single Palestinian refugee crosses – the peace agreement will be canceled.”
Netanyahu: ‘War cannot end before we kill Hamas’ leaders’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Likud faction meeting today (Monday) on the continuation of the war against the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu stated, “Our goal is total victory over Hamas. We will kill the leadership of Hamas, therefore we must continue to operate in all areas in the Gaza Strip. We must not end the war before then. It will take time – months, not years.”
Powerful atmospheric river triggers state of emergency in Southern California, rare Level 4 of 4 risk of excessive rainfall An intense atmospheric river event hit California on Sunday, February 4, 2024, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency in eight counties due to the potential for “life-threatening” flooding, mudslides, and widespread power outages. The National Weather Service warns of significant rainfall, powerful winds, and heavy snowfall continuing over the next few days.
Historic snowstorm paralyzes central and eastern Nova Scotia, Canada A dangerous winter snowstorm brought Nova Scotia to a standstill over the weekend, with record snowfall exceeding 80 cm (31 inches) in many areas, leading to local emergency declarations and widespread travel disruptions.
12 Absolutely Insane Examples That Show Just How Far The U.S. Has Fallen …We tend to blame our problems on our politicians, but the truth is that the rot that is rapidly spreading throughout our society runs a lot deeper than that. Millions upon millions of us have completely rejected the values that this nation was founded upon, and so now we have a giant mess on our hands. The following are 12 absolutely insane examples that show just how far the U.S. has fallen…
How to Fake Pandemics – Part 2. I Do Not Believe Science, and Neither Should You “How to Fake Pandemics – Part 2. – I Do Not Believe Science, and Neither Should You” is part two of the article republished yesterday here in the Expose. If you haven’t read it, it can be found here titled “How to Fake Pandemics in 4 Easy Steps. A masterclass by the DOD showman, James Giordano.” written by Sasha Latypova. In part 2 Sasha, a former pharma and medical device R&D executive, reviews historical fake news stories and concludes that fake pandemics and falsified scientific research have always been part of the plan.
UK’s “Online Safety Act” OFFICIALLY Grants MSM Permission to Publish Lies Welcome to the UK, where it’s now official government policy that you CAN’T publish “misinformation,” but The Guardian, the BBC, Disney, and Netflix CAN, say Off Guardian. As we reported in September 2023, the Bill is a piece of legislation that comes under the guise of being predominantly for the safety of children in an attempt to protect them from online grooming and abuse and also to limit the reach of terrorist propaganda.
“If it be asked, What is the most sacred duty and the greatest source of our security in a Republic? The answer would be, An inviolable respect for the Constitution and Laws — the first growing out of the last. … A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.” —Alexander Hamilton (1794)
Fellow Patriots, on this day in 1911, Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois. In 1981, he took office as our nation’s 40th president, the greatest of the 20th century. Our motivation in our humble shop can be summed up in the final lines of Reagan’s Farewell Address: “We did it. We weren’t just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands.” —Mark Alexander
After weeks of secretive haggling, the Senate’s so-called “bipartisan border deal” is nothing of the sort.
Douglas Andrews
The bill is as bad as we thought — every bit, and then some.
Details of the highly secretive “Bipartisan Border Deal,” as the National Review headline calls it, finally became public Sunday evening, but since when is a bill whose expenditure on border security is only one-sixth of its total price tag called a “border deal”? What “security” is there when Senator Chris Murphy admits, “The border never closes”?
It’s called a “border deal” because poll after poll after poll shows that the border is the one issue that the American people care about overwhelmingly. But what this bill is, if we’re bound by truth in advertising, is a Ukraine and Israel and Palestinian deal with a bit of border security sprinkled in just to placate the rubes.
The $118.3 billion legislation, which checks in at 370 pages and which could also be called The Joe Biden Reelection Lifeline bill, is as full of holes as we’d been warned about. Among the bill’s ingredients: $20 billion for border security, the end of Biden’s disastrous “catch and release” policy, an expansion of detention capacity for families, a raising of asylum standards and fast-tracking of asylum claims, 50,000 new visas over five years, and a measly $650 million to expand the border wall. Oh, and $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, and $10 billion for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. We can’t make this stuff up.
James Lankford, whose motives we’ve been wondering about, and who ostensibly led Republican efforts to craft the bill but who talks about it as if he’s the subject of a hostage video, tried to pitch the bill on Fox News yesterday. “Some people are thinking that this is somehow like counting 5,000 people in every day and releasing them,” he said of the bill’s most objectionable components. “That’s absurd. We changed the asylum laws, we increased detention beds, we doubled the deportation flights, we added ankle monitors. … There’s all the things that we build into this to make this a much stronger system.”
Uh-huh. Of course, all of this assumes that the Biden administration will actually live up to its end of the bargain on border enforcement. And if history is any guide, it won’t. Just ask Ronald Reagan how Democrats abide by their immigration deals.
Lankford refers to “5,000 people” because the bill has a trigger mechanism that activates once a seven-day average of 5,000 “encounters” with border crossers is reached. But as Andrew McCarthy explains, “Encounter is the euphemism the Department of Homeland Security uses for apprehensions of illegal aliens at ports of entry and elsewhere — it doesn’t say apprehension or arrest because that would imply detention, which is not happening in most cases.” That would certainly continue under Biden, bolstered by legislation that codifies releasing migrants.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill tomorrow, but it’ll likely be an exercise in futility. Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly backing away from it.
So is House Speaker Mike Johnson. “I’ve seen enough,” said Johnson on Sunday night. “This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. … If this bill reaches the House, it will be dead on arrival.” On top of all this, a House impeachment vote on Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is scheduled for this evening.
In case Johnson’s remarks left any doubt, his fellow Louisianan, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, said, “Let me be clear: The Senate Border Bill will NOT receive a vote in the House.”
Townhall’s Katie Pavlich lists five reasons why the bill is DOA: “President Biden doesn’t need legislation to fix the border catastrophe he started; The bill provides more funding for Ukraine’s borders than the U.S. southern border with Mexico; The bill forces taxpayers to pay for attorneys to represent illegal immigrants breaking the law; The bill provides paltry funding [less than 1% of the price tag] for additional border wall construction; The legislation allows for thousands of illegal crossings to continue.” Stopping illegal crossings was supposed to be the whole point of things, right?
Former Trump policy adviser Stephen Miller has dug deeply into the weeds of the bill, and he points to some of its most insidious aspects:
The Asylum Court at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services within the Department of Homeland Security is the radical Left of the radical Left. That is the deep state of DHS. This gives them the power to rapidly grant newly arriving illegal aliens full asylum benefits. So in other words, Mayorkas is the unilateral decider of who gets asylum. What does that mean? If you get asylum, you get instantaneous access to federal welfare — such as food stamps, public housing, free healthcare. A year later, you have a green card, and four years after that, you can be a full-voting American citizen with access to chain migration and everything else American citizens get. And you certainly are not ever going to be deported.
Miller went on to warn that this legislation would completely exempt unaccompanied minors from immigration enforcement — meaning that anyone 17 or under can’t be turned away at the border, which creates an avenue into the U.S. for the gangs, the cartels, the drug smuggling, the human trafficking, and all the other lawless activity associated with unaccompanied teens.
“We need a frank discussion about what the incentive is here,” said Tennessee Republican Senator Bill Hagerty, “They’re going to continue to do this because we know how congressional seats and electoral votes are allocated. They’re allocated based on the number of people in a given state — not the number of citizens, but the number of people. The more illegals that go there, the more political power they get because the more congressional seats they get.”
Another Tennessean, Republican Congressman Chuck Fleischmann, put it this way: “I’ll never support a so-called ‘border security deal’ that increases illegal immigration, normalizes Biden’s Border Crisis, and allows thousands of illegal aliens to continue flooding into our country. The American People want border security — not fake deals that won’t secure the border.”
On Sunday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott welcomed 13 other Republican governors to Eagle Pass, which is ground zero for Joe Biden’s intentional illegal immigration disaster. “Texas is the only state in the history of the United States of America to build our own border wall,” he said. “All that we want is to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.”
As Georgia Governor Brian Kemp pithily put it there at Eagle Pass, “If our border is not secure, our country is not secure.”
In the end, we find ourselves looking at a 370-page legislative abomination with all sorts of twists and turns and cleverly engineered loopholes. But the Republican Party could’ve avoided all this by driving a very simple bargain: They could’ve demanded that Joe Biden enforce the laws that we have on the books and exercise his existing authority to close the border.
Indeed, as McCarthy notes, “Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (codified at Title 8, United States Code, §1182(f)) clearly states in pertinent part: Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants.”
What on earth does funding for Ukraine and Israel have to do with our southern border crisis and our national sovereignty?
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador denies he’s in cahoots with the cartels, but there’s plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Michael Swartz
Nearly six years ago, this author surmised that the then-incoming president of Mexico was on the take. “Obrador is a socialist who proposes income redistribution to students and seniors, government picking winners and losers in the energy sector, and possible amnesty for some drug criminals. He’s backed by the drug cartels, you see.”
While the assertion may have come across as a fairly educated guess, the truth is that our government had been investigating a tie between the cartels and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (better known by the initials AMLO) for over a decade, beginning with a probe into his unsuccessful 2006 campaign, which he lost by a whisker, and which led to supporters crying fraud and months-long mass protests and demands for a recount. (Honestly, they made Donald Trump and the J6 crowd look like pikers.)
Interestingly enough, two separate yet fairly complementary investigative pieces on AMLO have come out in the last few days as he enters the final few months of his single term. In his piece, Tim Golden of ProPublica asserts:
Years before Andrés Manuel López Obrador was elected as Mexico’s leader in 2018, U.S. drug-enforcement agents uncovered what they believed was substantial evidence that major cocaine traffickers had funneled some $2 million to his first presidential campaign.
According to more than a dozen interviews with U.S. and Mexican officials and government documents reviewed by ProPublica, the money was provided to campaign aides in 2006 in return for a promise that a López Obrador administration would facilitate the traffickers’ criminal operations.
The investigation did not establish whether López Obrador sanctioned or even knew of the traffickers’ reported donations. But officials said the inquiry — which was built on the extensive cooperation of a former campaign operative and a key drug informant — did produce evidence that one of López Obrador’s closest aides had agreed to the proposed arrangement.
For his part, writing for the website InSight Crime, investigator Steven Dudley revealed what was called “Operation Polanco”:
The DEA agents believed that during the 2006 presidential election, (Mauricio Soto Caballero) had worked as a political coordinator for AMLO and, among other tasks, had channeled millions of dollars from a Mexican drug trafficking organization to the AMLO campaign. Nab Soto, they thought, and they would take a step closer to finding out if AMLO knew his campaign had received drug money.
It was a bold criminal case and not one that agents typically tackle, given the challenges and potential political pitfalls of going after a would-be president. Investigations like this illustrate how organized crime seeks to get its hooks into politicians at the highest levels, but they are incredibly complicated. Money is moved in cash, so there is typically no paper trail. Witnesses are often criminals, making juries and fellow law enforcement alike reluctant to rely on their word. Going after high-level political targets can undermine an agent’s career and upend diplomatic relations.
While we’ve talked at length about the U.S.-Mexican border over the past several months, the media hasn’t delved as deeply into some of what the Biden administration loves to call the “root causes” of the influx of illegal immigrants.
Most average Mexicans live a hardscrabble life, which makes them desirous of a place where they can make an honest living and not have to sleep with one eye open because of constant criminal threats. Unfortunately, as our since-retired Arnold Ahlert assessed back in 2019 after an incident in which an outmanned and outgunned Mexican military surrendered two prisoners to cartel members, “Mexico has officially become a narco-state.”
So it seems like the only ways to make a life in Mexico are either to leave by making a deal with the cartels and crossing the border as an illegal immigrant, or stay home and do one of two things: finagling a job with the government, or starting at the bottom with the cartels, doing simple tasks and earning the trust of the local kingpin. Then again, these investigations seem to show that both those options are becoming one and the same, as the cartels and government meld together with the drug families’ influence extending to the very top of Mexican politics.
As one would expect, AMLO is denying he’s on the take, even demanding an apology from Joe Biden. But as National Review’s Jim Geraghty observes: “If you are accused of being in the pocket of a drug cartel and not really being committed to stopping cross-border drug trafficking, I don’t think you bolster your reputation by threatening to curtail bilateral cooperation on stopping cross-border drug trafficking. Note that this is not the first time López Obrador has made public comments indicating he’s much more interested in denouncing U.S. DEA agents than in denouncing any of the cartels terrorizing his country.”
And we haven’t even looked at the fentanyl pipeline that runs between labs in China that make the ingredients and the cartel-operated facilities that create the finished product being carted across the border by desperate Mexican mules. If this is part of the “strong partnership” the Biden administration claims to have with AMLO, we have a real problem on our hands.
Just like in America, 2024 happens to be an election year in Mexico. While AMLO can’t run for a second six-year term, the wide lead in polls for former Mexico City Head of Government Claudia Sheinbaum — whose path to the presidency would be the same as AMLO’s, up to and including the same Mexico City leadership position and party affiliation — suggests that we may have more of the same lack of cooperation for the next six years.
Will her loyalty be to the Mexican people or to the cartels? Given what we’re learning about the incumbent, that’s a fair question.
Trump is not immune, Biden’s fake border urgency, government interference over vaccines, and more.
Douglas Andrews, Thomas Gallatin, & Jordan Candler
Cross-Examination
Trump is not immune: The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this morning that Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution on charges that he tried to illegally overturn the 2020 election. The former president claimed that his alleged criminal actions on January 6, 2021, were protected by presidential immunity, but the court disagreed. “For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant,” the panel of three judges wrote. “But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.” The defeat was expected for Trump, though he plans to appeal to the entire DC Circuit and then the Supreme Court. Special Counsel Jack Smith had asked for an expedited ruling as he hopes to have Trump in the courtroom by March over charges of “insurrection,” one of the four indictments against Trump that constitute Democrat lawfare against him.
Joe Biden’s fake border urgency: When your left-leaning friend tries to blame Republicans for our current border mess, don’t let him get away with it. When he says Joe Biden needs border legislation in order to act, be sure to remind him that Donald Trump didn’t need special legislation to protect our border. Indeed, as Andrew McCarthy notes, “Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (codified at Title 8, United States Code, §1182(f)) clearly states in pertinent part: Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants. What part of that don’t Joe Biden and his open-borders apologists understand? In fact, columnist Tristan Justice has collected 65 examples of Biden willfully failing to enforce the law. Asked about the risk of torpedoing the current “border” bill rather than granting Biden his phony legislative mandate, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott pointed out: “President Biden undid the successful measures that Trump put in place. If you can undo them, you can put them back in place. So President Biden does not need legislative action to secure our border. That is simply a lie to the American people. What President Biden needs is intestinal fortitude to go ahead and do his job right now.”
Biden stands against standalone Israel aid bill: On Monday, the White House warned that Joe Biden would veto a standalone bill that provided aid solely to Israel. The warning was issued as the House will soon take up a vote on the $17.6 billion Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act. Biden is once again playing politics. He wants Congress to pass a Senate-proposed $118 billion “border” bill that he disingenuously claims he needs in order to secure the border. House Republicans have warned that the bill, which includes $60 billion in aid for Ukraine and $14 billion in aid for Israel, would be dead on arrival. Republicans blasted the border package deal for failing “in every policy area needed to secure our border and would actually incentivize more illegal immigration.” The White House then disingenuously claimed that it was Republicans who were guilty of playing politics: “The security of Israel should be sacred, not a political game.” If that was indeed the case, then why is Biden rejecting standalone legislation to grant aid to Israel? Evidently, Biden is only willing to stand with Israel if it comes with a whole litany of unrelated policy items that serve his own political agenda.
Gov’t interference over vaccines: Remember who is actually responsible for first politicizing the COVID vaccine? It wasn’t Donald Trump or “MAGA Republicans.” It was Joe Biden’s VP pick, Kamala Harris, who back in the fall of 2020 said that she “would not trust Donald Trump” regarding any vaccine. When pressed if she would get the vaccine, she added, “I will not take his word for it.” Fast-forward a few months later, and the Biden administration not only changed its tune on the vaccine but sought to force as many Americans as possible into getting it. Now, the House Judiciary Committee has obtained emails that show the degree of the pressure campaign waged by the White House on Big Tech companies including Amazon to suppress any opposition to the vaccine. Feeling the pressure back in March 2021, Amazon employees sought a meeting with the White House to clarify if the Biden administration wanted the company to remove “anti-vax books” from its retail catalog. “Is the [a]dmin asking us to remove books, or are they more concerned about search results/order (or both)?” was a question from one Amazon employee. Andrew Slavitt, then senior adviser to Biden on his COVID response, was communicating with Amazon about “the high levels of propaganda and misinformation and disinformation [on] Amazon.” In several emails from Slavitt to Amazon, he pressured the company over “concerning” material on its site related to vaccines. What becomes clear is a pattern of the White House pushing Amazon to effectively censor any material that didn’t further its policy objectives regarding the COVID vaccine.
U.S. on “unsustainable” fiscal path: In a recent interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell admitted what many conservatives have long been warning about — that the U.S. government is spending too much money. Powell pointed to the ballooning national debt and noted: “In the long run, the U.S. is on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy.” He then warned: “Effectively we’re borrowing from future generations. It’s time for us to get back to putting a priority on fiscal sustainability and sooner is better than later.” Welcome to the party. The trouble is that there are still not enough lawmakers in Congress who are willing to truly put the brakes on the federal government’s spending.
The media bloodbath continues: From the “Hate to See It” Files comes this latest tale of woe from CNN, The Most Trusted Name in News™, which on Monday scuttled one of its morning shows in the wake of the network’s worst viewership numbers since before the political rise of Donald Trump. Alas, when it comes to the Leftmedia, Trump giveth and Trump taketh away. “We will no longer produce morning programming in New York and will be disbanding the team that currently produces ‘CNN This Morning’ in that city,” said CEO Mark Thompson to staffers on Monday. In an effort to assuage the network’s dozens of loyal viewers, Thompson added, “Our New York-based primetime and weekend programming will continue.” As our Nate Jackson noted recently: “CNN, NBC News, CBS News, NPR, TIME magazine, National Geographic, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Business Insider, Vice, Vox Media, The Verge, and a long list of other media outlets have all cut jobs in recent months or plan to in the near future. Even our old pals at BuzzFeed shut down their entire news division last year. Pity. Far be it from us to revel in the misery of others, but this couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.”
Most assailants use handguns, not rifles, in “mass shootings”: A new study from the Crime Prevention Research Center that looks at the data from public mass shootings over the last 25 years has confirmed what many Second Amendment advocates have long known — the most common firearms used in so-called “mass shootings” are handguns, not rifles. The study also noted that most shootings took place in supposed “gun-free zones” and would not have been prevented by a law requiring universal background checks. The study’s author and founder of the center, John Lott Jr., pointed out that one of the biggest problems is with the term “mass shooting,” observing: “The big thing that irritates me is you have somebody like [President] Biden go and say, ‘We have Uvalde, and we’ve had 600 more attacks like this.’ That’s simply false because they’re just putting apples and oranges together.” The anti-Second Amendment lobby loves to target the AR-15, erroneously dubbing it an “assault rifle,” as if that type of firearm is the problem and responsible for most mass shootings. But the facts don’t come close to backing up the narrative. Irrespective of the firearm used in these crimes, every one of these attacks is committed by individuals with criminal intent to break the law.
Renato Moicano lives, Toby Keith dies: In an age when illegal alien thugs brutally attack our cops and then fire off a double-bird to the rest of us when they’re released from jail, we remind ourselves that not everyone hates America. One case in point comes to us from Brazil, the home country of UCF fighter Renato Moicano, who emerged from a tough win over Drew Dober Saturday night with an impassioned message of love for the United States, as well as an admonition: “I love f***ing America, you know? … I’m not an American … but in two years, I will be an American. And after I am done with fighting, I will serve [as a] police officer. I want to be [on] a SWAT team, and I want to kill the bad guys. Make no mistake, there is right, and there is f***ing wrong! … That’s why I want more kids, I want people to go to their church, I want people to respect the f***ing law. Otherwise, this [greatest] country in the world is gonna be a third-world country!” Elsewhere among patriots, country music star Toby Keith, 62, whose “Should Have Been a Cowboy” was the most-played country music song of the 1990s, died peacefully yesterday after a two-year battle with stomach cancer — a battle he says he was better equipped to fight because of his Christian faith. Keith, a former rodeo hand and semi-pro football player who famously defended then-President George W. Bush against the vile comments of fellow country stars The Dixie Chicks, wrote or co-wrote 20 number one hits and sold more than 40 million albums worldwide. Keith’s greatest songwriting legacy, though, must be his stirring “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” also known as “The Angry American,” which he wrote in response to 9/11 and the death of his dad earlier that year, and which inspired an entire generation of American warriors. Rest in peace, Big Dog Daddy.
Woke NHL books pro-Hamas National Anthem singer: What is it with the woke NHL? In a sport defined by speed, grit, toughness, and determination, it confounds us to see such sorry leftism. Perhaps the league’s management hasn’t gottenthe message. If it had, it certainly wouldn’t have invited 26-year-old singer Kiana Lede to perform the American national anthem at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. Instead, there was Lede, wearing pro-Hamas attire and causing the league some much-deserved heartburn. As The Daily Caller reports: “Lede wore a cardigan resembling a keffiyeh — something that has been gaining popularity with Palestinian supporters. The pro-Palestinian crowd uses the keffiyeh, black and white checkered, as a symbol of unity — the same symbol that Lede was wearing.” It’s not as if Lede’s behavior surprised the NHL brass — or at least it shouldn’t have. Her anti-Israel proclivities have been well known ever since the Jewish state began to defend itself against the murdering terrorists of Hamas. But in a world full of wonderful singers, this is the best the NHL could do?
Headlines
Biden and Haley are on the ballot, but not Trump, as Nevada holds presidential primaries (Fox News)
Several migrants accused in beating of New York City police officers arrested in Phoenix (Fox News)
Chinese migrants are the fastest-growing group crossing from Mexico into U.S. at southern border (CBS News)
New York governor relaxes requirements for illegals to get government jobs (Daily Wire)
Biden blasted for claiming abortion for “three trimesters” is not “on demand” (Fox News)
Medical journal retracts major studies critical of abortion pill ahead of Supreme Court clash (Daily Wire)
It’s not just Taylor Swift “nudes”: Millions of teen girls victimized as classmates turn them into deepfake porn (New York Post)
Satire: New Senate anti-murder bill caps murders at 5,000 per day (Babylon Bee)
It’s only temporary, however, because the mentally ill are still the next vulnerable party the government wishes to exploit.
Emmy Griffin
Canada has an assisted suicide program called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). When the ban against assisted suicide was initially lifted in 2015, this program was for the terminally ill or elderly who wanted to bypass the potential suffering of the end stages of something like terminal cancer.
This is despicable in and of itself. It gets darker, however. MAID opened up its criteria for eligible applicants to the poor. The government was, in essence, convincing its people that they were a burden on society simply because they could not afford to live in Canada, which has as much to do with poor governance as it does with life circumstances that put people in cycles of poverty.
Canada was already killing its sick and its poor — but then took it a step further. The government subsequently decided it was also going to kill the mentally ill, and children as young as 12 qualify. Officials justify this by saying the sufferer’s mental illness must be irreversible.
So it is with a sigh of some relief that Canada has announced a pause on the MAID program for the mentally ill. What exactly was the reason? Had government death panelists come to realize just how evil this program was not only as a concept but also for their sickening society?
No.
They simply don’t have enough doctors to meet demand.
Apparently, the demand for MAID’s “services” jumped by 30% between 2021 and 2022. Last year, more than 4% of Canada’s deaths occurred through this barbaric practice. The mental illness demand for suicide is so high that provinces were given more time to organize and hire doctors, specifically psychiatrists, to handle the workload.
Not the Bee points out this bitter irony: “But there’s something funny about the Canadian socialized healthcare system being at such a gross level of incompetence that they can’t effectively execute their death panel program.”
Sadly, this is only a temporary pause.
Conservative Party MP Ed Fast asked: “Have we gone too far and too fast with Canada’s assisted suicide program? Will we evolve into a culture of death as the preferred option for those who suffer from mental illness or will we choose life?”
Canada is already in the throes of that culture of death. The mentally ill are merely the next vulnerable party the government wishes to exploit.
Life is a gift. We do not choose to be born, but we do get to choose how we use the gift of life. Squandering what time you have left by wallowing in the victimhood of poor health or poverty is believing the lie that circumstances determine your life’s value.
The Biden administration’s failed foreign policy decisions continue to make the world worse.
Thomas Gallatin
It recently came to light that at least 12 employees with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees had participated in the murderous October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas (backed by Iran) on Israel. That revelation shone a bright light on an organization that has painted itself as a humanitarian relief organization but in reality is little other than a jihadi terror-sponsoring outfit.
Roughly 10% of UNRWA’s total staff in Gaza are believed to be members of Hamas. That’s 1,200 out of 12,000 UNRWA staff.
This revelation has led to several UN member nations suspending their funding of the agency, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The U.S. has also paused its funding, stopping a mere $300,000 of more than $1 billion in American taxpayer dollars doled out by the Biden administration since January 2021. Donald Trump rightly ended UNRWA funding in 2018 when he recognized that the organization was not a “humanitarian relief” agency but a jihadist front group.
The Biden administration should have immediately and permanently ended all funding to this terrorist organization. Instead, Team Biden simply hit pause, apparently waiting for the outrage to blow over, to then quietly restart funding as if nothing happened.
This, of course, has everything to do with Joe Biden seeking to appease the radical anti-Semitic faction of the Democrat Party. This is further demonstrated by the Biden administration’s reportedly looking at a policy change that would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) blasted the notion of the White House endorsing a unilateral two-state solution as “the worst betrayal of our strongest ally in the Middle East, a reversal on decades-long U.S. policy, and a reward to Hamas terrorists who committed the most barbaric attacks against the Jewish community since the Holocaust.”
Once again, we see Biden’s foreign policy weaknesses and failings in sharp relief. At the same time, we see a region of the world where Trump’s progress in bringing peace and stability through American strength and leadership has been almost entirely reversed.
This is what happens when party politics trump genuine consideration for putting the nation first. Biden administration players have continuously vilified every accomplishment of the Trump administration because they fear that giving Trump credit for anything would prevent people from seeing him as a supposed existential threat to democracy.
Yet all it has done is expose Biden’s feckless leadership in the face of genuine evil. Republican congressional leaders and candidates need to hold the Democrats’ feet to the fire on UNRWA. As former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy argues, “Congressional Republicans should demand that the Biden administration designate UNRWA as a terrorist organization,” which “would make it politically untenable for the United States government to provide one more dime of American taxpayer funding to UNRWA, and to provide funding to any entity, including the U.N., that supports it.”
Indeed, revelations like these cause one to question the value of the United Nations writ large. U.S. taxpayers pony up more than $12 billion annually to the UN. And for what?
E Pluribus Unum is dead. For the Left, another touchdown.
Dennis Prager
This coming Sunday, at the most widely viewed sporting event in America, the Super Bowl, the National Football League will feature the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the song first known as the “Negro national anthem” and now known as the “black national anthem.”
In order to ensure that those present at the game and the more than 100 million people watching on television cannot avoid hearing it, the “black national anthem” will, according to the schedule I have seen, be played after the actual national anthem of the United States. If that is the case, this will presumably be done in order to also ensure that everyone is still standing when it is sung. The NFL probably fears that some of those attending the game — specifically, those who possess two increasingly rare traits: love of America and courage — might not rise for the “black national anthem.” But if they were already standing for the national anthem, few will sit when the “black national anthem” is then sung. The NFL doesn’t want a repeat of what occurred at last year’s Super Bowl in Arizona, when, as ABC News reported, “Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake went viral in 2023 for remaining seated during a performance of the song at Super Bowl LVII.” Last year, the “black national anthem” was played prior to the national anthem.
How destructive a decision performing the “black national anthem” at sporting events is — whether before or after the national anthem — can be summarized this way: Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, is among the few Americans of whom it will one day be said that he seriously damaged America. In 2021, the Washington Times noted, “Under Roger Goodell, the NFL has gone far beyond the kneeling; it’s doubling down on ‘social justice.’ In addition to painting more slogans in the end zones and on players’ helmets, the League will be donating $250 million to Black Lives Matter and other activist groups to ‘combat systemic racism and support the battle against the ongoing and historical injustices faced by African-Americans.’”
(Also in 2021, the NFL released a 30-second video titled “Football Is Gay.”)
Last week, the “black national anthem” was sung before the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Detroit Lions playoff game.
The National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball are competing with the NFL to see which organization can inject more divisive left-wing politics into sports. For example, before the 2023 NBA All-Star Game, played in Salt Lake City, black singer Jully Black changed an opening word of the Canadian national anthem from “O Canada! Our home and native land!” to “O Canada! Our home on native land!” — emphasizing the word “on.”
During the 2023 baseball season, the Los Angeles Dodgers honored — yes, honored, not merely featured — an LGBT activist group, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, composed of men dressed as nuns mocking Catholic nuns.
Meanwhile, the NFL continues to paint “anti-racist” slogans in end zones and play the “black national anthem” before important games.
Not to be outdone by the NFL, NBA or MLB, the U.S. Open men’s and women’s tennis singles finals did not even feature the U.S. national anthem. Instead, the “black national anthem” and “America the Beautiful” were sung. The latter is indeed a beautiful and patriotic song, but the fact is that one “national anthem” was played — and it wasn’t America’s. As former ESPN anchor Sage Steele wrote on X: “Ahhh… the irony of refusing to allow our national anthem … at the US Open. I remain hopeful that we can get back to truly appreciating the greatness of America, but man…this is sad.”
Two big lessons here.
The first is that the Left seeks to destroy America as we have known it. Playing two “national anthems” has no other goal than disuniting Americans. The message of singing the “black national anthem” is as clear as day: There is a black America and there is the rest of America. That many Americans, especially blacks, welcome this is nothing less than a national tragedy.
The second is the most important: The Left destroys everything it touches. High schools, elementary schools, universities, journalism, the nuclear family, young Americans’ mental health, male-female relations, religion, our borders, love of country, medicine, and medical schools — the list includes every noble institution and ideal in our country.
And sports.
In 2001, following 9/11, the great black Chicago Cubs player Sammy Sosa hit a home run and ran around the bases waving a small American flag. Fifteen years later, Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the playing of the national anthem. The Left, led by Barack Obama, Joe Biden, the Democratic Party, the media, the schools and universities, had done their damage. So, now we play two “national anthems.”
E Pluribus Unum is dead. For the Left, another touchdown.
Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
‘Biden Refuses to Secure the Border’ — Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) slams President Biden’s open-border policies, observing that Biden currently has all the resources and authority needed to secure the border.
Biden Keeps Lying About Jobs and Wages — Biden did not create 15 million “brand-new jobs.” Rather, it was people returning to the workforce after being forced out of work by government-mandated lockdowns.
Our Woke Justice System Is Backwards — Brett Cooper dives into one of the most concerning parts of the Biden administration: the justice system.
The Rockefeller-Funded Curriculum Headed to Your Church — The Rockefellers’ interest in bankrolling Bible studies is a red flag, including the fact that among the other initiatives funded are organizations that are pro-LGBTQ and pro-abortion.
Satire: Biden’s Greatest Accomplishments From 2023 — It’s an election year, and America will have to make a choice between two old geezers again. The Babylon Bee is here to help anyone who needs convincing.
“The only long-term answer to peace in the region, to Israel’s security in the region, is a two-state solution. … I think since October 7th the need to work on that has only increased.” —National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan
Faux Pas
“This idea that somehow striking on Friday as opposed to Wednesday as opposed to Thursday makes any strategic difference has no basis in reality. … When you select a military target, timing matters.” —Jake Sullivan
The BIG Lies
“Whether it’s milk, eggs, used cars, airfares, we’ve actually seen cost reductions in some key consumer areas.” —Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein
“We have the best economy in the world. Inflation is coming down. … A little bit of corporate greed going on too.” —Joe Biden
“We’ve created a record 15 million new jobs.” —Joe Biden
“We have created more than fourteen and a half million new jobs [and] increased wages for tens of millions of Americans.” —Kamala Harris
Non Compos Mentis
“I love how Trump is now saying Biden is for abortion on demand. That’s not true. That’s not what Roe v. Wade said. It said the three trimesters.” —Joe Biden
Delusions of Grandeur
“As we enter into the campaign season, the American people are beginning to focus on President Biden’s incredible track record of results.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY)
“The people who know my work are incredibly supportive.” —Kamala Harris
For the Record
“I’ll never support a so-called ‘border security deal’ that increases illegal immigration, normalizes Biden’s Border Crisis, and allows thousands of illegal aliens to continue flooding into our country. The American People want border security — not fake deals that won’t secure the border.” —Congressman Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)
“President Joe Biden tells a lot of tall tales about the border crisis, but his claim that he needs the reckless bipartisan immigration bill being negotiated in the Senate to give him the authority to ‘shut down the border’ and he ‘would use it the day’ he signs the bill into law to end the crisis is one of his tallest tales yet.” —Hans von Spakovsky
“Biden’s claim of powerlessness is a crock. … He could clamp down right now if he wanted. Indeed, he could demonstrate seriousness on the issue of border control by reversing the executive orders that promoted the migration in the first place.” —Matthew Continetti
Political Futures
“Biden isn’t worried about losing black and Hispanic voters concerned about illegal migration and border security. He’s worried about losing the college-educated liberal professionals who exercise undue influence in his administration and who have been radicalized into believing that unchecked migration is a human right. His dependence on these college liberals constrains his actions and weakens the country.” —Matthew Continetti
And Last…
“A country that turns [Daniel] Penny into a criminal and lets this thug [Jhoan Boada] walk free, beat up police officers and go back on the streets before the sun goes down is a country on the verge of disintegration.” —Gary Bauer
Keen observers over more than two centuries credit America’s greatness to its adherence to the moral law and Christian principles, with Justice David J. Brewer stating that Christianity “has so largely shaped and molded” the United States that “today of all the nations in the world it is the most justly called a Christian nation.”
On February 29, 1892, the Supreme Court declared in its ruling in Holy Trinity v. United States: “The historical record of America overwhelmingly demonstrated that the United States is a Christian nation.”
Despite this, lower court and state judges have in recent years ruled and argued against the historical role of Christianity in American life, claiming inaccurately that the Establishment Clause forbids Christianity from having any place in American life outside of private beliefs.
Ironically, these judges did not begin issuing these anti-religious rulings until the late 20th century, suggesting that these rulings are not driven by law but by culture and that they are reflective of an activist judicial philosophy seeking to establish a new foundation for American law on a subjective, inconsistent basis.
This approach ignores centuries of legal precedent that did establish an important role for Christianity not only in terms of private exercise but also in the public square.
On examining the First Amendment, we can see that the Establishment Clause merely says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” while the following Free Exercise Clause states, “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Together, these clauses were intended to promote religious freedom by declaring that America can’t legally enshrine a national religion and also by preventing any legal limits on the ability of Americans to freely exercise their religion, not just privately but publicly as well.
Stanford University’s Michael McConnell, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, as well as a former judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, argues in his new book Agreeing to Disagree that the framers crafted both clauses to “enhance freedom of conscience at an individual level because there would be less likelihood of government coercion, but also that it would bring about more civic peace and harmony than if we are constantly engaged in trying to make sure ‘our side’ wins these conflicts. To put it plainly, we are supposed to agree to disagree.”
In other words, both clauses exist in tension but still ensure the peaceful exercise of religious freedom in America.
The arguments presented by McConnell are backed by decades, if not centuries, of prior American legal and constitutional interpretation. U.S. Supreme Court Justice John McClean, one of the few to serve in all three branches of federal government, once wrote that “our mission of freedom is not carried out by brute force, by canon law, or any other law except the moral law and those Christian principles that are found in the Scriptures.”
In Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, penned in 1833, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story observed that “every American colony, from its foundation down to the revolution…did openly, by the course of its laws and institutions, support and sustain in some form, the Christian religion; and almost invariably gave a peculiar sanction to some of its fundamental doctrines.”
On March 30, 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation that designated and set apart “a day for National prayer and humiliation,” wherein he “devoutly” recognized “the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations.”
In what was an equally, if not even more significant, statement, America’s first president, George Washington, recognized the role of the Christian faith in his 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation, stating:
“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor…”
In his 1905 book, The United States: A Christian Nation, Supreme Court Justice David J. Brewer detailed how even though the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids the establishment of an official religion, the United States is still a Christian nation.
Specifically, Brewer argues that America is Christian in its identity not because it is the state’s established religion or because individuals residing within the country are compelled to support it or because Christianity is a requirement to hold public office, perform public service, or is essential to political or social recognition.
Rather, he stated, America is a Christian nation because the foundational truths of the Christian religion were a “principal cause” of the settlement of the American colonies and has been “identified with the growth and development of those settlements into the United States of America.” Moreover, he stated, because Christianity has “so largely shaped and molded” the American nation “that of all the nations in the world today, it is most justly called a Christian nation.”
According to Brewer, America’s identity as a Christian nation fits firmly within the constitutional limits imposed by the Establishment Clause, as well as the Free Exercise Clause.
Furthermore, Stephen Colwell, an American businessman and philanthropist, argues in his 1854 book, The Position of Christianity in the United States, that
“it was in the very spirit of true Christianity that the hospitality and blessings of the United States were offered to all the world… the Christian men of that day did not intend to lessen their own privileges or religious freedom by yielding those rights to others, nor to diminish the proper authority of Christianity in the land; they intended that the nation should continue to be a Christian nation, that Christian morality should still pervade its legislation and social system, and that Christianity should continue to have a home here during the life of the nation.”
And Justice Story writes in A Familiar Exposition of the Constitution of the United States, published in 1840, that “it is difficult to conceive how any civilized society can exist without … promulgations of the great doctrines of religion, the being, attributes, and providence of one Almighty God, the responsibility to Him for all our actions, founded upon moral accountability; a future state of rewards and punishment, and the cultivation of personal, social, and benevolent virtues.”
Perhaps most importantly, Story concludes that it is “impossible for those who believe in the truth of Christianity to doubt that it is the special duty of government to foster and encourage it among all of its citizens, (and) this is a point wholly distinct from the right of private judgement in matters of religion and of the freedom of public worship, according to the dictates of one’s conscience.”
In conclusion, the historical precedent is clear that America was both founded and intended to exist as a Christian nation. This is true not in the sense that Christianity was to be the official religion of the land, which the Establishment Clause expressly forbids, but in the sense that the nation was founded and shaped by the values and principles associated with biblical Christianity — and those same values do not change with time.
With this in mind, the status of America as a Christian nation is not in conflict with either of the First Amendment clauses. The conclusions of the aforementioned authors only add to that of so many other keen observers that the role of the Christian faith in the life of the country is a completely separate matter from the constitutional mandate that prohibits it from being the established state religion.
The historical record is inescapable. It is the activist judges and secular influencers of today declaring that America is not a Christian nation who are on the wrong side of history — not the millions of Americans with deeply held Judeo-Christian values who want to return it to what the Founders intended. America was founded to be a Christian nation, one that recognizes the sovereignty and grace of a merciful God and one that benefits from the Christian doctrines of free will, the moral law, selfless service to others, and redemption.
Interested in pursuing a fully accredited biblically-based education? Liberty University has been training students to serve as “Champions for Christ” in their respective professions across the industry spectrum for over 50 years. With over 350 residential academic concentrations, 20 NCAA Division 1 athletic programs, opportunities to serve domestically and abroad, and an unapologetic Christian worldview, your experience at Liberty University will provide an education that roots you in truth and allows you to learn, grow, and impact the culture for Christ. Apply now!
Americans are ignorant about Ukraine because their media have lied, the X host has said
The Ukraine conflict has reshaped the military and economic balance of power around the world but most Americans have no idea because their media has fawned over Vladimir Zelensky and refused to talk to his Russian counterpart, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on Tuesday.
But it hasn’t worked. And it won’t work. As Doug Macgregor writes in the American Conservative, Biden’s bombing is “pointless…virtue signaling.” Also today: Senate border bill is DOA in the House. Speaker Johnson moves to fund Israel in a standalone bill.
Although not always reported in the media, Israel has won major victories against Hamas; Prime Minister Netanyahu says the military has defeated more than half of Hamas fighters in Gaza, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is on the run – but the Jewish state also faces the growing possibility of a war with Hezbollah; CBN’s Chris Mitchell talks about Israel’s military wins against Hamas and their next move against the Hamas stronghold in the city of Rafah, why Yahya Sinwar is so important, a potential war with Hezbollah, and if UNRWA will keep operating in Israel; even amid the war, Christians are visiting Israel to show their support for the Jewish state and its people; Senate border compromise bill likely to fail as it faces stiff opposition from Republicans and some Democrats; new survey reveals the various reasons why Christians switch churches; and the first three episodes of the fourth season of “The Chosen” open to big box office success in theaters.
Today’s 20-min top headline news brief includes:
[2:00] -Rob Schmitt’s exclusive interview with former President Donald Trump from Mar-a-Lago. [Rob Schmitt Tonight]
[11:28] -House Reps Jim Jordan and Kelly Armstrong discuss the Democrats’ true border plan. [Eric Bolling The Balance]
[15:18] -Newsmax’s Bob Brooks breaks down the contents of the “border bill”. [American Agenda]
[18:40] -Former DHS advisor Charles Marino says, “Politicians that support sanctuary cities are a complete embarrassment.” [Newsline]
[21:00] -Greta Van Susteren: Why is President Biden ghosting the American people? [The Record with Greta Van Susteren]
An Israeli intelligence report has concluded more than a fifth of the remaining 136 hostages held by Hamas are dead, and those 32 hostage families have been informed of their loved one’s death, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
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