They Pulled Me Back...

It was a little modular building that was being used for a Police station. Just a little trailer.

I was 17 years old and I'd been caught stealing from a vending machine. I was 17 years old and mad as hell at the whole world. My folks had moved our family across the nation at the beginning of my Junior year of High School, which just poured buckets of gasoline on an already raging teenage fire.

To add insult to injury I'd been suspended from school for a week because of the theft and it just happened to be the day before my Grandparents (that I worshipped) arrived from driving across the country to visit. My grandfather was a retired State Policeman and Prison Warden. I'd been stealing from that machine for six months, but they had to catch me then. The shame was too much.

And now it's Saturday morning and my parents and I are sitting in a meeting with the Chief of Police to discuss "what we're going to do about..." ...me.

I looked at my parents. They'd been so angry when I told them what I'd done. I'd been making their life hell to the very best of my ability for a long time and now I'd shamed my father in front of his whole family. They were listening to the Police Chief.

Police Chief Terry Ringey was talking about the options I faced and the implications for age and criminal records and so on. I looked at my Dad, "the enforcer". He was strict, proud, tough and demanding. I'd never been able to measure up to what he wanted from me. Now I was dragging him down into the mud with me. I knew this wasn't going to go well.

Chief Ringey turned to me and asked me if I understood the gravity of what I had done. I told him that I did and that what I had done was wrong and that I was sorry. Yes, I would take whatever punishment would be needed to set things right...

Then the Chief turned to my parents and what came has left me stunned to this very day. My Mom and Dad had tears in their eyes.

Then they were explaining to Chief Ringey how they were standing behind me and that they'd help to make things right as Chief Ringey saw fit.

I don't know what was said next. I just remember sitting there stunned, watching my parents mouths move and being dumbfounded at the realization, "They still love me. They haven't given up on me."

I shoplifted one time after that, but afterwords I considered the thought of my folks learning about it and that I'd let them down. I took the item back to the store, told them what I'd done and I apologized to the owner. Thank you God, that he didn't press charges anyway.

People never knew that my life was saved that day in a little trailer being used as a Police station. If God had given me lesser parents, I would have been lost.

And I would have been lost, but God gave me parent's like Him.

Oh Happy Day!

The year is 2013.

The 2008 Elections and the social/athiest agenda in the first year of the Obama administration finally pushed Christians over the line. People had enough and it finally coalesced into action.

No longer pacified by vague promises Christians united and organized on a scale heretofor unseen in American politics. The congressional midterm elections of 2010 were a triumph as social and economic conservatives swept office after office in a mass elevation of values-motivated candidates.

And not just being elected, but really leading! The 2010 congressional session was one of the most contentious, bitterly fought sessions as laws were overturned and sweeping new statutes were passed. When the dust settled, the following legislation had been enacted and Christians woke up to a new day in a shining America!

• Tough new laws banned pornography and strengthened safeguards so that youth would not be exposed to indecency.


• The "Family Hour" was reinstated in broadcasting and obscenity and indecency were brought under strict control during key viewing periods.


• Abortion was banned in all cases except when the pregnancy would endanger the life, the actual physical life, of the mother.


• Corporate prayer was readmitted to public schools.


• School curricula were redesigned to include creationism and intelligent design alongside evolution and to exclude sex education and the distribution of contraceptives.


• Homosexuality was no longer treated as a protected civil right with special protections for it's practitioners.


• Courts and public buildings could freely display the ten commandments, nativity scenes, holiday decorations and the word "Christmas" was restored to public spaces.


• And so much, much more!

2013 is a time when America has been restored to Americans! Yea!!!

And during the 5 years the church spent organizing, funding and promoting this extrememly important political agenda, millions of beloved people died and went straight to a sinner's Hell because they never heard the gospel in their hour of need. We were so busy working on public policy that we didn't have the time spread the Gospel Message of "God's Love for the Lost."

“Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”

- Romans 13:1-7 NIV

Politics operates like a pendulum... ...Hell is forever.

We Have An Enemy...

I’ve always been a little leery of the way many Christians handle the topic of Satan. Sometimes I see an overt focus on Satan which distracts us from keeping our eyes upon Jesus and other times I see people treating the topic, (or even the enemy!) with disrespect. With Satan, I've felt that humility, caution and faith are the only way to go on this topic.

The Bible says that for this time, (this earthly time of our lives,) we are less than angels, though we will be made higher than them through our adoption as God’s children through Christ. The book of Jude indicates that insubordination of our betters is an issue that matters to God:

”In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings. 9 But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10 Yet these men speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; and what things they do understand by instinct, like unreasoning animals—these are the very things that destroy them.

- Jude 1:8-10

I take Satan very seriously. And I do so by invoking Christ and seeking His intervention to address Satan’s schemes. Because the Bible also promises that our enemy is coming for us!

“I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

- John 10:7-13

How often do we condemn those who have been taken captive for the symptoms of their captivity? And yet Christ promised Peter that when he turned back there would be a role for Peter in serving Jesus.

“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

- Luke 22:25

By the Grace of God alone, we stand.