Alabama Students # 50 in the Nation at the Very Bottom!

If the leadership in a business dragged it's sales down to the bottom among its' competitors, we can be certain those responsible would be fired immediately!  And they only are dealing with money losses.  But when the Common Core advocates in Alabama education plunge our children's educational achievements from 25th in the nation to number 50 at the very bottom, they are not canned, they are allowed to remain to conduct other harmful experiments on our children.  After all, they're only children and are helpless to change anything.  It's only their lives and their futures we're talking about.  Does this make sense?  Has everybody lost their minds?  These are children, not laboratory rats!  Children learn what they are taught and the scores reflect what they've been taught. Our children have unlimited untapped potential for greatness because they were created by God in His own image and likeness but Common Core is keeping a lid on it or snuffing it out!


Is the political leadership off the hook?  Oh, no they are not!  The people of Alabama have written, called, held meetings and rallies, and begged our legislators to support a bill to stop Common Core and return to traditional education, which was used to improve our test scores to 25th in the nation! Did they do it? No. Their campaign contributions would dry up from the leadership in the Business Council of Alabama.  The BCA wants a docile and trained workforce!  But parents want their children to live up to their God-given potential so that His plan and will for them can be fulfilled.


We still have a Stop Common Core bill which will be introduced in the House by Representative Barry Moore this session.  It is our last chance to stop Common Core in Alabama this year.  Please contact him and give him your support if you don't want our children to stay # 50th in the nation.  

Miracle in March!

 

The true and living God of the Bible has been mighty on our behalf throughout our country’s history!  “Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord!”  I hope you enjoy one of our many miracle stories!

By the winter of 1776 the British forces were firmly entrenched in Boston, and General George Washington was just as firmly determined to dislodge them and drive them out!  After Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain “Boys” captured Fort Ticonderoga without a single shot fired, and “in the Name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress,” General Washington sent Henry Knox to retrieve the heavy artillery there.  He did so by building sleds to carry the cannons over snow and ice down to Boston.  General Washington believed that God was leading him to fortify the heights on the Dorchester Peninsula, from which Boston could be bombarded with the heavy guns.  The daunting obstacles the patriots faced led Washington’s advisors to unanimously oppose the plan but the General disregarded them, proceeding on with his plan, believing that God would supply what was needed to accomplish it. February in Boston meant hard frozen ground, which made it impossible to dig fortifications and without which the Americans could easily be blown off the hills.  Among the officers was a young amateur engineer by the name of Rufus Putnam who “just happened” to stop by the headquarters of Brigadier General Heath where he spied a book on field engineering.  Within the pages, he found a diagram and description of a “chandelier”, a piece of wooden French equipment that could be built and preassembled in sections to connect and provide a barrier as effective as a trench!  General Washington ordered the construction of hundreds of these sections and on the night of March 4^th, 800 men labored to place the preassembled defenses into position, working hour after hour.  But wait!  Wouldn’t they be seen in the moonlight and heard by the British? No!  God supplied their need and brought a fog to roll in and cover their operations at the base of the hill and even a breeze to carry away the noise!  Praise God!                

 At dawn on March 5^th (the anniversary of the Boston Massacre), the British were stunned at the sight of massive fortifications on Dorchester Heights that had appeared like magic!  General Howe exclaimed, “The rebels have done more in one night than my whole army would have done in months!” Boston was turned over to the Americans without the loss of a single life on either side!

Let’s Pray:  Our God and Father, we come before Your throne of grace and mercy in the Name of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, praising You for working wonders among us since our founding!  Thank You for all the miracles that You’ve performed on our behalf! Thank You that You’re not finished but continue to bless us, O God!  We are grateful that You are the same yesterday, today, and forever.  These wonderful stories of Your blessing help build our faith and help us realize who You have called us to be – Your people – Your family - shining Your light for all the world to see and embrace!  How we love You, precious Lord!  In Jesus lovely name we pray, amen.     

  

Freedom Must Be Defended!

Our 1^st 100 Days under President Trump’s administration are incredibly exciting as we watch him keep his promises to the American people!  Included is our President’s firm commitment to the “great rebuilding of our American military!”  He knows that the bullies of the world prey on the weak but don’t pick on the strong.  His philosophy echoes that of Ronald Reagan in “peace through strength” and “we win, they lose!”  President Trump’s policy also agrees with George Washington, who said that,”To be prepared for war is the most effectual means of preserving peace,” which we all desire.  The dome on our Capitol building in Washington D.C. is topped by a colossal sized bronze statue which reflects this wisdom.  Today she is known as “FREEDOM”, but her original and correct name is, “ARMED FREEDOM”!  In her right hand she holds a sword as she “stands at the ready”, while her left holds a laurel wreath of victory.  The sword of Armed Freedom is sheathed, indicating that she prefers peace but is prepared for war.  The God who gives us life, also gives us the right to defend that life. 

Let’s pray:  Thank you, Father, that your desire is for innocent lives to be protected and defended.  We see in your Word that it is the proper role of government to “execute wrath upon evildoers” who would take away our God-given rights to life, liberty and property.  Lord, we too, desire peace and we pray for peace and harmony within our borders and throughout the world.  Thank you that we’ve lived long enough to see bold and good leadership in our country once again.  We pray for all those in authority that they be just, governing in the fear of you, Lord.  May they always walk in integrity, doing what is right in your sight. Protect them from evil and keep us all in the palm of your hand to do your will and good pleasure, in Jesus lovely name we pray, amen.       

 

 

Devotion and Prayer for President Trump

Forever to be remembered is the miracle of mercy God bestowed upon America in the past presidential election! Many Americans believed that the 2016 election was the last opportunity to save our country and so we prayed, worked, and voted like never before.  And here we are with a brilliant and bold president with the vision and plan to make America great again!  Praise God!  We love President Trump’s courage and drive to go forward with right policies regardless of the opposition!  Surrounding himself with exceptional advisors, he’s got his pedal to the metal and is not slowing down to placate the nay-sayers.  He is a man of his word who keeps his promises.  President Trump’s sincere love for America and the American people shines through and we love it!

Let’s pray together:  Our gracious and merciful Father, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for raising up Donald Trump to be our president during this crucial time.  We appreciate his passion and enthusiasm to take on difficult tasks.  We thank you for gifting him with an understanding of the times like the sons of Issachar in the Bible, and the knowledge and wisdom to accomplish his goals for our nation.  Thank you that your favor rests upon him.  We pray a hedge of protection round about him, his family, and our beloved country.   We thank you once again, Lord, that you didn’t leave us to ourselves but you have heard and answered the prayers of your people.  Please help us to do what is right in your sight as individuals and as a nation, in Jesus precious name, we pray, Amen.      

 

Now, Just How Do We Elect A U.S. President Again?

The Electoral College by Barbara Moore

 

When examining an important concept whose effects have far-reaching consequences to our lives, it seems sensible to regard who brought into being, what it actually is, and why it was established.

It was said of the men who gave us our unique plan of government, our matchless constitution, that “we will never have seen, an assembly (of men) more respectable for the talents, knowledge, lack of self-interest, and patriotism of those who compose it.”  James Madison said “that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively… devoted to the object committed to them.”  John Adams called it “the greatest single effort of national deliberation the world has ever seen and the greatest exertion   of human understanding.” I would say that those illustrious statesmen were the most virtuous, brilliant, scholarly, and practical ever gathered together throughout all of history.

The method of electing the President of the United States is an indirect process conceived by the 55 delegates to the 1787 Constitution Convention in Philadelphia and subsequently authorized by the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme law of the land, as stated in Article 6 of that document. A number of methods were suggested and discussed, but few delegates actually favored the president being directly elected by the people.  That idea was not really on the table.  It was understood that the entire populace would not likely be adequately informed about the potential candidates. “It was also peculiarly desirable, to afford as little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder,” wrote Alexander Hamilton in # 68 of the Federalist Papers. Direct election by the people would also be unfair, favoring the heavily populated states with large urban centers and disfavoring the rural agricultural states and smaller states with fewer people.  (And today, the “Heartland of America and the “Bible Belt” would not have a voice in a popular vote election.) Indeed, one of the reasons that James Madison opposed the popular election of the president was that “the people would prefer a citizen of their own state, thereby subjecting the small states to a disadvantage.”

Recently there has been a clamoring to do away with the indirect presidential voting through the Electoral College, particularly by democrats and progressives. Unfortunately great numbers of people have been wrongly taught that the United States is a democracy rather than a Constitutional Federal Republic.  A democracy allows the voters to directly vote on every issue.  It’s impractical, cumbersome, and ineffective.   The wise Founding Fathers identified a democracy as a “mob-ocracy”and Constitution signer John Adams wrote, “Remember, democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.  There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”  A democracy is “majority rule” with no objective standards, but based on the popular feelings of the people at any particular time. The source of the authority is just the temporary feelings of the voters, which can be quite easily manipulated.  Constitution architect James Madison wrote, “Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”   

A Constitutional Federal Republic requires adherence to the Rule of Law, protecting the life, liberty, and property of every American individual, with representation of the states and the people, and that not of the people directly except in the case of directly voting for district candidates for the House of Representatives, or “The Peoples’ House”.  Every part of our constitutional system was designed to slow, deliberate, balanced, orderly, complex and structured, based upon immutable principles of right and wrong, not on the fleeting feelings of a majority of people at any given time.   

In 1787 some favored the U.S. Congress electing the president but that was dismissed because of the superb doctrine of Separation of Powers with high walls between the three branches of government.  There was much discussion about the fear of an aristocracy and a tyranny being created if the U.S. Senate had the authority to elect the president, and thankfully that idea was rejected.  They were very concerned about corruption in presidential elections.  In the Federalist Paper # 68 Alexander Hamilton, signer of the Constitution, wrote, “Nothing was more to be desired, than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue and corruption. He said, “It was desirable, that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided.  This end will be answered by committing the right of making it, not to any pre-established body, but to men chosen by the people for the special purpose, and at a particular conjuncture.”

What is the actual plan for electing the President of the United States?  Article II, Section I says, “Each State shall appoint, in such manner as to which the state may be entitled in the Congress, but no Senator or Representative, or Person Holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector…The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote…make a list of all the Persons voted for and number of votes…sign and certify, and transmit sealed…to the President of the Senate… (who shall) in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open and count…” Now, if there is no majority, the House of Representatives elect the President, with each State having one vote.  Article II also states that, “The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.”  (That day is the Tuesday, following the 1^st Monday in November in even numbered years, every four years)

The voters of every state choose the electors which are pledged to a particular political candidate. With the advent of political parties, their chosen candidates from the primary elections will have electors on the ballot in the general elections.  When the votes are counted within the state, the electors of the majority candidate with the popular vote get all the electoral votes.  So the popular vote counts within each state.  It is “Winner Take All” system.  In Alabama we have 7 congressional districts so 7 representatives plus 2 senators gives us 9 electoral votes.  When the less populated states in the “Heartland of America” along with the “Bible Belt” vote the same way there are a good number of electoral votes although not as many as the heavily urban states.  Any presidential candidate would have to also win a “battleground” state with lots of electoral votes.  But it has been done, as in the Bush victory with the Florida votes.

Alexander Hamilton concluded that, “If the manner be not perfect, it is at least excellent.”

Thursday, September 6, 1787

“A visible sigh of relief swept over the delegates today when 10 of the 11 States approved a modified plan for electing a President, thus ending one of the most hard-fought, frustrating, and fatiguing decisions of this Convention…today’s actions create a three-tiered government, rendering the President independent of Congress…One observer points out that an American President chosen by an Electoral College system has only two foreign historical precedents: the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Vatican and the Holy Roman Empire.  The Maryland State Senate is the immediate domestic model for the delegates.”    

 

 

Sources Used

 

Constitutional Journal by Jeffrey St. John

Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen

Original Intent by David Barton

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

1787 The Grand Convention by Clinton Rossiter

United States Constitution

GIFTS OF LIFE!

     "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God...the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
     When did God become flesh?  At conception?  At birth?  If Jesus Christ had been aborted during Mary's pregnancy, would it have been just a blob of tissue destroyed or the Son of God?
     After the angel revealed God's plan for man's redemption to the virgin Mary, she responded, "Be it done unto me according to Thy word."  The Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowed her.  The virgin was with child and the babe within her womb was the Son of God!  Emmanuel! God with us!
     Unto Joseph, Mary's espoused husband, the angel of the Lord said, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary...for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit."
     "That which is conceived" leaves no room for doubt or question.  Human life begins at conception, not birth.  And each human life is valuable in the sight of God; no exceptions.  God created man in His own image and likeness.  God breathed His very life into man's nostrils.  Man is sacred to God, different and set apart from all other forms of life.  God has a plan and purpose for each one of us.  No one is disposable.  Not one is a "throw away."  And we (all of mankind) need each gift of life that God gives.  Each death is our loss.
     This Christmas season as we're celebrating the birth of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, and thanking God for the gift of eternal life through Him, let's remember the deaths of all the little babies who were gifts of life sent from God, valuable and precious in His sight, and must be in ours. 

America the Beautiful - Like a Flower Being Pulled Up by its' Roots

This morning while in prayer for a "Great Awakening" and Revival in this land and throughout the world, I saw a beautiful flower being pulled up by the roots.  The flower was dazzling in its' beauty and continued to look lovely even while being pulled this way and that, uprooted from where it had been receiving what was necessary for its' healthy thriving and indeed its' survival.  

I began to think about this and the way it relates to our country.  We've continued to look pretty good - we still have some freedom, opportunities, justice and prosperity.  Some people are still jumping the fences to get into this land of hope, although there are others entering to destroy it.  But it continues to be a place with a higher standard of living than many others.  It still looks good.

We wave our flag and talk about "the land of the free and the home of the brave," the way we should, and yet underneath it all the ground is moving, and more and more we find ourselves unsettled and off-balance.  We recognize that this is not the country we grew up in, the one we know and love.  Significant changes have taken place and though life goes on and on and on, the changes are taking place with increasing speed.

The enemies of America, foreign and domestic, have been quite sly and cunning in their attacks on our constitutional republic. They've gone for the "roots" and pulled little by little. The destruction of Constitutional Federalism has been the goal for the transformation of America. It was hard going at first, but a strange and foreign philosophy was introduced called progressivism and injected in small doses (pull - pull) so that America would eventually succumb to the disease of progressivism-socialism-communism.  There were many incremental steps taken and I won't list them all.  But at the beginning of the 20th century the progressive "reforms" were evident.  The creation of the Federal Reserve Board, effectively removing control of our economy from the people via the congress, to a private board of international bankers with no allegiance to the United States of America.  The 16th Amendment allowing the communist graduated tax on incomes and regulatory agencies followed.  The 17th Amendment stealing power away from the states helped to increase the power of the national government over the lives of the people. Mandatory public schools guaranteed the progressive philosophy of the government would ensure a progressive view of the world and a gradual acceptance of it .

The foundation (the roots) of the constitutional federal republic protecting the God-given godly freedom of the people was being uprooted bit by bit.  The usurpation of the congress by the U.S. Supreme Court with illegal decisions tore away at the Biblical, historical roots, such as those removing prayer, Bible reading, posting of the Ten Commandments in public places, legalization of abortion with the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, U.S. Flag burning and pornography, the "Lemon" test, and numerous others. Basically those many decisions by a progressive Supreme Court pulled hard at our roots and the beautiful flower has been slowly wilting for lack of the nourishment it requires. The more that God has been declared an "outlaw" and exiled from our public life and law instead of the foundation for law, the faster our liberty under law was eroded.

Our country has turned away from the Fount of life, truth and righteousness, and have sought broken cisterns that are empty and leave us empty. Only when "God's people which are called by His Name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek His Face and turn from our wicked ways, will God hear from heaven, forgive our sins, and heal our land." This is our foundation, these are our roots, the planting of the Lord.  Oh, God, help us in Jesus Name, we pray, so that our nation will once again honor and glorify You and help all mankind, amen.