They Want to Run Your Life!

We have exactly one week to be moved out of our rental. Life is crazy. One thing I had to do was give a copy of my social security card to the lender in order to get our loan. Just one small problem... apparently we already packed it! Last night I got on the Social Security Administrations website and you will not believe what I saw. First look at this screen shot of the website and no I did not make this up!

Look closely at the center of the page near the bottom. Yes, you are reading that correctly "Special Instructions for Users Who Are Blind."

So I needed to locate the closest office to me. So I entered my zip cope and clicked that little locate button and this is what popped up:

Yes you are reading that correctly! The web service that tells you where the closest office takes time off too!
So after finally getting the web server to come back to work I found my local office in Manteca, California. I made my way down there. When I got there I got my number and sat down in a crowded room. There were three windows and only two of them had people working at them. My number was A119 and they were currently servicing A116. The wait can't be too long - I thought. While sitting there I listened to one guy scream to another about high gas prices. I also watch a lady slap a girl across the face, a boy spill a milk shake, middle age ladies without teeth complain about the government not taking care of them, and a lady let her kid play with the log in computer which messed up the entire system. It was exciting let me tell you. After an hour and half I finally made my way to the counter. In an hour and a half I watched them only help six people. Six people in an hour and a half!
Yes, this is what happens when you allow a government agency to take over your retirement system. In fact, this is what happens when government takes over anything. As Ronald Reagan said, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" How true is that?
This little exercise was a shaking reminder of the devastation that is sure to take place if members of congress get their way. They want to take over the oil refinaries (which they have blocked from allowing companies to build for thirty years). As the congressman from California says in this clip below, they want to socialize oil.

If you think $4.50 a gallon for gas is expensive it will look like a liquidation close out deal when the governement takes over the oil industry. Back to packing.

Caleb

Politics and/or Religion

It’s that time again – elections! It is confession time… I am a politics junky. Don’t blame me; I inherited it from my dad. Two things I’m passionate about and they are the things you are never supposed to talk about, and to add insult to injury you are never supposed to mix the two. So where does that leave me - lonely?

This little article is not going to be what you think it might be (about taking into consideration social issues we hold dear such as abortion and marriage between a man and a woman). There is actually a strong movement within the “Evangelical” and conservative “Christian” movements to have their members vote in such a way as to empower the government to be more involved in rectifying “social injustices” (i.e. poverty, curing diseases, et. al.).

The case is made that Jesus commanded “love thy neighbor as thyself” just as much as he did “thou shall not murder.” Therefore, we should vote for people that will empower the government to take money from the people and spend it on curing diseases and ending poverty. That sounds biblical; the only problem is that it is not.

The error in this whole equation is that the fundamental basis has not been examined. The primary question should be this, “From a biblical perspective, what is the role of government?” You know the Bible is not as silent on this as you may think. The book of Daniel teaches that God alone is Sovereign and that authorities on earth are ultimately going to be held accountable to Him. Paul speaks of the role of Government in Romans 13 and expounds about its role. Space does not allow for a full explanation here, however the outcome is that Governments role is bear the sword and bring the evil to justice. No place does the Bible speak of the role of Government being the taking care of the sick and helping those in poverty. The Bible, does however, place that responsibility on you and I as a church, and as individuals.

So much more could be said about these matters but I just remembered I’m not supposed to talk about religion and/or politics, and I’m especially not supposed to mix them. My parting thought to you is this: do you really want to empower the government to force a religion on the nation? A government with enough power to force a religion has enough power to take it away. Or do you want a government that properly understands it's role and freely allows you to worship God? The profound nature of this wonderful country we live in is that our rights come from the Creator and not government, that it begins with “we the people,” not “the government.” We are in a unique position in that “we the people” hold the key to our destiny as a nation. But I digress… speaking of politics and/or religion.