"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not
ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each
generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known
freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again
"We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free." --Ronald Reagan
Webster defines this word as many different things but the first on their
list is this "1: the quality or state of being free."
I grew up as a kid of divorced parents. My Dad a marine who served in Vietnam and spent a lot of his time, before us kids were born, working for the Vietnam Veterans Association taking weapons away from Vietnam Veterans throughout LA. A scary and dangerous job he stopped when we were born... But my Dad didn't walk away from that war unscarred and untouched. Although for the most part a very normal guy, there were others that weren't so lucky. He has a big heart for military to say any less would be wrong. I am so very proud of my Dad, in fact if it weren't for the Hand of God protecting
him from that mortar... None of us kids would be here today. He witnessed the un-American behavior of spitting in his face, or when he returned he tried to get his hair to grow as fast as possible so that people wouldn't mis-treat him.
I so often think about the cost of our Freedom. The freedom's we enjoy to choose our Presidential candidate, and the freedom to say how we feel in blogs like these. I hear often from people against the war that we shouldn't be there. But at this point I don't care about people talking about the past anymore, what's done is done. I want to move forward and get to the end of this war just like everyone else. We will never get to the end of this war by sticking our tails between our legs and walking away and hope that it fixes itself. Should we have not done anything about the Berlin Wall? Should we have let the Japanese get away with bombing Pearl Harbor? I don't take for granted any life that has been taken during this war I believe their cause is noble because they say it is... but who are you or who am I to say that their cause wasn't or isn't noble? That isn't decided by you or I, but decided by that man or woman who is the one fighting for those freedoms we so easily enjoy. So before you decide to be the first one to cast that stone, think about the cost of Freedom. Don't just proclaim you support our troops, and then go protest in Washington... because our troops see those news reports and they don't need us to be protesting, they need to be supported and even if we don't agree with the reason why they are there- they are there so support them!
I love this quote... another one by Ronald Reagan "You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing is worth dying for, when did this begin...? ...Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots of Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world?"
I know this may have come off strong to some, but if God was able to create passion inside someone for something they believe it, it should be shared. Everyone is going to have their own beliefs on who should be the next President... that's why we live in America we are able to enjoy Freedom!
Showing posts with label Pointsto Ponder. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pointsto Ponder. Show all posts
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Taken from Andrew's sermon today
Really cool, and you can guess he wrote this himself:
"Imagine you are in a darkly lit room you don’t know how you got there or where you are at in fact you are not even sure if it is real it has the feeling of a dream where things or more vivid and colors are little off. Still a little confused you begin to become aware of a scratching sound light but constant. You turn to see a man at an old oak desk writing under a green glass reading lamp which happens to be the only light in the room. You cant quite make out his face but you can see the corner of his eyes are wrinkled not from stress or a hard life but from experience and understanding. As you start to walk towards him he makes what seems to be a final punctuation, closes a book and stands up he takes a few steps and fades into the darkness before you have time to say anything.
It is entirely too quiet now and you begin to notice that every step you take comes with a deafening creak not because it is loud but because it is that quiet. The room smells old and musty, older then any room you have ever been in before. You reach the old desk and can tell it has been well taken care of. The book the man was writing in was very thick and the cover was a rich and heavy leather the inscription read Jeremiah 29:11 and under that “the greatest story ever written”. You open the book and to your amazement the words “your life” stare back at you the pages written in the most beautiful calligraphy you have ever seen. As you read on you start to realize that this is a story about your life. You keep reading and notice that markings scribble’s words in the margin start to appear and in a different hand then the author much like a teacher grading an essay but some how familiar. How long you stayed there can not be certain but one thing was for sure you finished the book on the very last page was Proverbs 19:21. A loud noise pierces the room and as fast as you can blink you are in bed with your alarm clock going off. You sit up swing your feet around and sit at the side of the bed with your hands on your face. The scribbles underlining and writing in the margin was your hand and they were the changes you felt were needed in your life that you now know were mistakes. What will your next page look like?"
"Imagine you are in a darkly lit room you don’t know how you got there or where you are at in fact you are not even sure if it is real it has the feeling of a dream where things or more vivid and colors are little off. Still a little confused you begin to become aware of a scratching sound light but constant. You turn to see a man at an old oak desk writing under a green glass reading lamp which happens to be the only light in the room. You cant quite make out his face but you can see the corner of his eyes are wrinkled not from stress or a hard life but from experience and understanding. As you start to walk towards him he makes what seems to be a final punctuation, closes a book and stands up he takes a few steps and fades into the darkness before you have time to say anything.
It is entirely too quiet now and you begin to notice that every step you take comes with a deafening creak not because it is loud but because it is that quiet. The room smells old and musty, older then any room you have ever been in before. You reach the old desk and can tell it has been well taken care of. The book the man was writing in was very thick and the cover was a rich and heavy leather the inscription read Jeremiah 29:11 and under that “the greatest story ever written”. You open the book and to your amazement the words “your life” stare back at you the pages written in the most beautiful calligraphy you have ever seen. As you read on you start to realize that this is a story about your life. You keep reading and notice that markings scribble’s words in the margin start to appear and in a different hand then the author much like a teacher grading an essay but some how familiar. How long you stayed there can not be certain but one thing was for sure you finished the book on the very last page was Proverbs 19:21. A loud noise pierces the room and as fast as you can blink you are in bed with your alarm clock going off. You sit up swing your feet around and sit at the side of the bed with your hands on your face. The scribbles underlining and writing in the margin was your hand and they were the changes you felt were needed in your life that you now know were mistakes. What will your next page look like?"
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Reminding me of my own love story!
So every time I hear or watch that video (Taylor Swift- Love Story) I can't help but think about my own life and what a cool love story God has written for us. I can say that our love story began when we both fell in love with the Lord first and was serving Him. And somehow, he blessed us enough for Andrew and I to start our own love story. We hung out, laughed a lot, fell in love, and ended up getting married on April 30th, 2005. And this love story just continued on in our lives when Hezekiah was born. A regular, everyday love story that began in our hearts with love for Jesus. We've had our bumps, sure, and having Hezekiah was NO fairy tale... but now that he's here is such a joy. Sometimes, I think it's good to look at our life in some ethereal way, because when thinking about how EVERYTHING works out... it has absolutely nothing to do with us. But, it has more to do with how Christ has allowed our lives to work together in such a beautiful way. Besides, what fairy tale doesn't have some bumps along the road with a happy ending? We are not yet at the happy ending but working towards the best ending of all... Heaven!
This picture was taken on our unofficial "first date" Man, Look how skinny I was!!!!
This picture was taken on our unofficial "first date" Man, Look how skinny I was!!!!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The color of your heart
What is the color of your heart? Is it stained and dirty or is it white as snow?I really like the pastor's message this morning, he was discussing purity in what ways we can stay pure and he gave us an illustration that really stuck with me!
This is a picture of an Ermine.
It is normally found in the northern parts of the US, the more cold regions. And what makes this animal so unique is the fact that during the spring/summer it stays brown with a white underbelly and then during the winter it is completely white to blend with the snow. It's fur is so unique that it was often hunted and during the middle ages was used to make clothing out of. The Ermine is so protective about it's pure white fur that it would stay away from anything or anyone that would dirty it's pure white fur. Hunters would go to their dens and make the whole entrance dirty because they knew that the Ermine would not enter it's den because it would not risk dirting it's white fur. It would rather sacrifice his life to the hunter than ruin it's purity!
Think about that! If we as Christians acted like the Ermine, that we were so concerned about our own purity that we would rather sacrifice our own lives than compromise our purity then we would be such a powerful servant for Christ.
This is a picture of an Ermine.
It is normally found in the northern parts of the US, the more cold regions. And what makes this animal so unique is the fact that during the spring/summer it stays brown with a white underbelly and then during the winter it is completely white to blend with the snow. It's fur is so unique that it was often hunted and during the middle ages was used to make clothing out of. The Ermine is so protective about it's pure white fur that it would stay away from anything or anyone that would dirty it's pure white fur. Hunters would go to their dens and make the whole entrance dirty because they knew that the Ermine would not enter it's den because it would not risk dirting it's white fur. It would rather sacrifice his life to the hunter than ruin it's purity!
Think about that! If we as Christians acted like the Ermine, that we were so concerned about our own purity that we would rather sacrifice our own lives than compromise our purity then we would be such a powerful servant for Christ.
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