Agreement Matters

by Rich Farm

“The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. “ ~ Luke 6:45

“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” ~ John 8:44

“What you believe to be true will create emotional responses that result in physical actions.  When those beliefs are lies, your responses become actions of bondage.”     ~Bishop Mark David Shaw

Militants come swooping in to Israel shooting up innocent people and taking women and children hostages, and even murdering them.  These men viscously and brutally terrorized the entire region of Gaza.  We saw footage of babies being smashed on rocks and women being raped and murdered and even dismembered.  What would cause someone to have this much distain for another human being?  We have seen it before with various other groups from the native Americans who were deemed savages by the King’s colonists—bear in mind not all colonists or settlers were barbaric against the natives—to the millions of Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis; to the blacks who were slaves on plantations; to the millions of the unborn souls never even allowed to grace the land of the living.

It comes down to what we choose to believe.  We are free will creatures that are presented with information, it is up to us how we respond to this information.  There is no such thing as “the devil made me do it”.  As stated above in the quote from Bishop Shaw, what we believe to be true, will cause emotional responses that we then action upon.  Take for instance a scenario of a road rage incident, initially another person made a mistake or at worst deliberately did something that triggered an emotional response in us to act or speak something out.  However, that response begins with what we believe to be true about the situation.  We either presume they intentionally did that to harm us or upset us or we give the benefit of the doubt that it was an accident or they just weren’t paying attention and didn’t see us.  Both beliefs will generate different emotions there by generating different responses.  The former will produce anger with the presupposition that it was intentional the latter will likely generate a more gracious response of forgiveness or even just not letting it bother you.  Either way it all began with what we initially believe to be true of the situation.

However, before we get to that end though we have to back up even further.  Our presuppositions are based on what we allow ourselves to be filled with.  It is the teachings and beliefs that we come into agreement with that shape our core belief system, which ultimately causes us to act or react in a certain manner.  We have to realize that there are just universal truths that apply to all mankind, whether we want to believe it or not.  We all know 2 + 2 = 4, and water is wet and if you jump off a 10-story building it will not end well.  We have to realize that relativism does not work.  Relativism is the belief that one person can have a truth, and at the same time someone else can have a complete contrary belief to that one and still be true.  We have to understand that there is a base line of truth that everything in life is built upon.  So, what we believe to be true in any area of our life will shape our thinking which in turn puts us on a trajectory of choices or actions.

Therefore, if our actions are based on what we believe to be true, we have to ask ourselves where are we getting our information and knowledge from?  Are we feeding on the media and worldly philosophies, are we feeding on entertainment and social influencers?  Take the Gaza war for instance, massive amounts of students across our country came out in agreement with the main stream media, defending the attackers.  These people swooped in and brutally murdered innocent people unprovoked.  They come into agreement with this nonsense and then take on the hatred of the Jews themselves.  As a Christian, I view things through a Biblical lens.  There is an invisible spiritual battle between light and darkness, and since God originally gave dominion to Adam in the garden, both light and darkness are only able to accomplish their will through mankind.  This is where our thought processes are involved.  Each side is bringing a message for mankind to believe in order to have their kingdom expanded.

Why the hatred though for the Jewish people?  We need to look to how this war started.  Lucifer was an angelic being that rebelled against God (the creator of the universe) and was cast down.  He was then hell bent on deceiving and destroying creation, especially mankind.  He convinces Adam and Eve to question God’s words.  We still see that today.  People try to bring doubt into the word of God, that it was written by men or translated in error, and so on and so forth.  We see this also in the battle between Jesus and Satan during Jesus’s temptation in the desert.  Satan was twisting scripture trying to get Jesus to come into agreement with him, but each time Jesus countered with a right interpretation of scripture.  This is why as believers it is important to be firmly grounded in truth.  We are called to stand firm, and if we don’t stand on truth, we will fall for anything.  Jesus later said in John 10:10 that “the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy”. This may be an over simplification but if anyone is bent on stealing, killing, and destroying mankind, they have come into agreement with the enemy and have thereby taken on his nature.  They are not in agreement with God who is life and peace.

Why the Jews though?  Why is there so much hatred for them?  I believe it was because this is the nation that God chose to bring the Messiah and savior of the world.  This savior is ultimately a direct threat to the enemy’s maniacal plans. His goal was to stop the fulfillment of the prophecy of the coming Messiah, and he failed.  Now his only weapon is deception.  He has already been made a public spectacle according to Colossians 1, but if he can convince humans to do his bidding, he will take as many as he can down before the end of the age.  We can also see that hatred for others is rooted in pride.  It’s saying I’m better than that group, even to the point of dehumanizing them, as with the instance of Hitler and the Jews or the unborn.  We try to make them less than human to justify our actions.  So, the question stands, what are you coming into agreement with that is shaping your thoughts and yielding the fruit you yield?  If you are one to take a stance against Israel or mankind in general maybe it’s time to reevaluate your belief system.  You will emulate what you believe.

States’ Rights

…and the federal governments’ “extremity of action”

by Susan Snelling

The Framers of the Constitution gave the majority of power to the states. They designed the American government with a small federal government with limited powers. The power is with the people through their elected officials, and the state through consent of the people is to exercise the power that the Constitution specifies. James Madison wrote in The Federalist paper No. 45: “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.”

The powers of the federal government are not many and what there are, are well defined, they are specifically laid out. The rest of the powers are with the state government. Notice those powers are “numerous and indefinite.” That is the balance the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution. James Madison also wrote in The Federalist paper No. 45: “The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.”

When there is a powerful and unlimited centralized government, the result is always tyranny. It may be a soft tyranny or soft despotism, which is bad enough, but what is there to keep it from progressing further? Given human nature and the corruption inherent in power and money, the slide is toward barbarous and vicious acts of a tyrannical dictator. World history is replete with examples of what happens with an unlimited centralized government. The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they delegated the majority of the power to the states.

And what is the state but the people?! The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution in the Bill of Rights says: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

If people in one state do not like the laws that are passed there or how things are done, then they are free to relocate to another state. This was supposed to be easy to do. A federal government out of its bounds constricts the freedom of people. When there is a powerful federal government every state becomes affected. That is why when a state or states determine to act within the massive amount of power that is delegated to them in the Constitution, they are acting in accordance with what the Founding Fathers determined for America.

In The Federalist Paper No. 46, James Madison wrote: “But ambitious encroachments of the federal government, on the authority of the State governments, would not excite the opposition of a single State, or of a few States only. They would be signals of general alarm… But what degree of madness could ever drive the federal government to such an extremity.”

According to James Madison, a federal government encroaching on the authority of state governments, would not be opposed by just one or a few states only but by a multitude of states. It should not be just one state that takes a stand against such behavior by the federal government, it should be all the states or the majority of them. This encroachment by the federal government would be “signals of general alarm.” The people need to take notice! What is your state doing about this overreach and unconstitutional actions by the federal government? Is your state doing its job to defend the Constitution? What are your elected officials doing? Are they keeping their oath to defend the Constitution? Who are they in agreement with?

Madison went on to question “what degree of madness” to behave in what he called “such an extremity.” Notice, this is an extreme of action on part of the federal government to infringe on states’ rights. And Madison calls it madness! Look at the border issue in the State of Texas. The federal government under the Biden administration refuses to secure our borders and attempts to stop Texans from protecting their own state. It signaled alarm throughout many other states. So far 25 states are standing with Texas, all Republican led.They agree that the federal government has gone beyond the Constitution. It should have alarmed all 50 states as this affects not just Texas but the entire nation. When one states’ rights are violated it affects all the states. We are watching the concerns of the Framers regarding federal encroachment played out today and this should energize the people to take a stand.

Let us get back to states’ rights and the Constitution!