I guess I should start a book of the week club or some such thing.  I have another “must read” for you.  This is one that should be read by anyone Jr. High on up.  Especially our Jr. and Sr. High kids.  I guess I am going to have to invest a lot in books this year as well.  Not only do I want to give away many copies of “Family Driven Faith” by Voddie Baucham this year, I also want to give out copies of this (new to me) one, “The Law” by Frederic Bastiat.  This French author writing in the 1800’s has hit the nail on the head for what ails America as we race towards Socialism.  According to Bastiat we are already there.  At $4 or $5 a copy this is one that needs to go in the hands of every legislator, from the Federal Level all the way down to the City Council and School Board.  We need to change our thinking.  Here are a couple of quotes from Bastiat to whet your appitite….

“You say: “There are persons who have no money,” and you turn to the law.  But the law is not a breast that fills itself with milk.  Nor are the lacteal veins of the law supplied with milk from a source outside the society.  Nothing can enter the public treasury for the benefit of one citizen or one class unless other citizens and other classes have been forced to send it in.  If every person draws from the treasury the amount that he has put in it, it is true that the law then plunders nobody.  But this procedure does nothing for the persons who have no money.  It does not promote equality of income.  The law can be an instrument of equalization only as it takes from some persons and gives to other persons.  When the law does this, it is an instrument of plunder.  With this in mind, examine the protective tariffs, subsidies, guaranteed profits, guaranteed jobs, relief and welfare schemes, public education, progressive taxation, free credit, and public works.  You will find they are always based on legal plunder, organized injustice.”

“Have the people ever been known to rise against the Court of Appeals, or mob a Justice of the Peace, in order to get higher wages, free credit, tools of production, favorable tariffs, or government-created jobs?  Everyone knows perfectly well that such matters are not within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals or a Justice of the Peace.  And if government were limited to its proper functions, everyone would soon learn that these matters are not within the jurisdiction of the law itself.”

Wow, maybe if we got back to the Laws of God and realize that Government’s jurisdiction ends with the Biblical admonition to Protect the Innocent and Punish the Evildoer then we wouldn’t have all this “legalized plunder”.  When did we stop viewing most everything Government does today as what it really is — theft!  Legalized plunder is still plunder.  Taking from another person by force what belongs to them and giving it to others is theft.  That makes Social Security, Welfare, Public Education, Minimum Wage Laws, etc. theft.  The sad thing is we have gotten so far away from this truth of legalized plunder that most reading this are thinking I am the one who is off my rocker and by writing this I am inciting radicalism.

After reading Bastiat I am able to form the reasons why I have been opposed to the 1 cent sales tax proposals that have come and gone in Fremont County in the ten years I have been here.  The last one that passed the ballot was for some good projects, to fund Hospice and an expansion on the Lander Library.  Both great and worthwhile projects.  Both were probably needed.  But in voting in a tax increase to fund them we entered into “legalized plunder” again.  Taking from one person by force to give to another.  They should have been privately funded.  Those who wanted to contribute could have and should have.  I probably would have felt a lot better about making a donation to one of both of these projects if I were not forced to give every time I went to the store.  The last election we faced several different proposals to add the 1 cent sales tax back on.  Many were good projects, but none of them should come to pass by “forced plunder”.

I think you get the idea.  And I also want to pass on wisdom from another wise man, my father, Terry Smith who says, “The man who votes himself a tax increase is an idiot.”  How true, how true!

For the last several months I have been toying with an idea of writing a book.  In fact, I do this every couple of years.  I think of a good title or idea and then don’t take the time to really flesh it out and work on it diligently.  This new idea I thought would be great.  My title was, “I Pledge Allegiance To Myself:  The Fatal Flaw of the American Church”.  I even had a subtitle:  “Church in America will either make you better or bitter.”  Actually it was probably two books.  One focusing on our selfishness as we bounce around from Church to Church never putting down roots.  (This probably was taught to congregation by their leaders as we have developed Pastors in America that have an average stay at a Church of less than 3 years.  What the leaders do the flock will do at well.)  We don’t see this type of activity in other countries like America.  America is all about “me”.  So I thought I’d write this book on our (myself included) selfishness.  I thought I had pinpointed the problem.  I was wrong.

This past week I finished reading Voddie Baucham Jr.’s book, “Family Driven Faith”.  I don’t need to write my book for the Church because this book has already been written.  It is now my new favorite book next to the Bible.  I believe that Baucham has hit the nail on the head of the great problem of the American Church.  We are not passing on our faith to the next generation.  And unlike the book I was going to write, Baucham’s book is the solution to the problem.  Mine would have been a complaint and nobody needs another complaint.  This is a book that every Christian should read.  If we were to begin to implement the thoughts in this book the Church in America could be transformed and once again be the powerful force in the culture it used to be.

To be continued…………………………………………….

There’s a headline you won’t read in the newspapers today or much of the Internet.  If it were actually put out there in those terms people would rise up and wonder who was murdered and why and what we could do about it.  Today marks the 37th Anniversary of Roe vs. Wade the legalization of the killing of unborn babies.

Let us not quibble with using the term abortion, although the word means to stop or to kill something.  Let’s not even use pro-choice or pro-life as if there is a choice to be had.  Basically we in America have legalized murder.  And because it is legal we are forced to consider it an option for people, a la choice.

I don’t think murder is an option that should be offered and I imagine most of you agree with me.  In the early years of the fight to save the innocents you had those who were willing to stand up and say this is wrong and even be thrown in jail for their beliefs.  (Remember Operation Rescue?)  But of course the “unbiased” media portrayed those folks willing to put their comfort and security on the line for defenseless babies as “kooks” or “mentally unstable” so we who felt it was wrong went along.

Today as worked up as we are willing to get over the slaughter of the innocents is to be vocal once in a while, but not too vocal lest we be “intolerant” or be labeled as “kooks” ourselves.  And we can try to vote in a candidate who may share our “dismay” at this loss of life.

Did I say “dismay”, I meant “horror” at the blatant disrespect of life that God gave to us.  That begins at conception and continues throughout eternity.  Almost 50 million of our citizens have been brutally murdered, slaughtered, disregarded and other than reading a “kooky” Pastor’s blog for a few minutes we’ll go back to thinking TGIF.  Can’t wait for the weekend?  Where will I go out to eat?  Which new movie is out?   And the killing continues every single day.

How ironic that those most liberal among us who believe that Government should provide for us all may end up bringing the downfall of that Government which was to provide.  Social Security is bankrupt.  Medicare is not far behind.  And really when we really think about it rationally no government can withstand 14 Trillion dollars in debt for very long before the whole house of cards crumbles.  50 millions extra citizens sure may have contributed financially to help sustain the illusion in wealth in America for a few more years but as the old saying goes, “your sin will find you out”.  Murder and corruption will not last forever, justice must be served!

I know some of you reading are not Wyoming Citizens, but most of you are.  Wyomingites, I want to ask you to join my family and I in Cheyenne on February 6th at 1:30PM for the first annual Legislative Prayer Rally.  We are going to Cheyenne to pray for our legislators at the Capitol Building before they start their session on Monday Feb. 8th.

With winter in Wyoming I know this is a sacrifice.  I am not asking you to drive through a blizzard but if the weather is nice please take the time to join us.  If you want to Caravan from Riverton we are leaving the Christian Church of Riverton at 7AM sharp.  We will then head toward Casper and down to Cheyenne.  We should arrive around noon and we are planning a sack lunch for our family (keeping costs down) so we can be there a little early.  The event lasts 1 to 1 1/2 hrs and then we should be on the road for home by 4PM at the latest  (another sack dinner for the way home) and then back in Riverton by 9 or 10PM.

I know that sounds like a long day.  Drive 10 hours for an hour event.  Yes people can pray from home but there is something about praying on site where decisions are made for all Wyoming citizens.  And wouldn’t it be great to see the Capitol lawn filled not with protestors but with Christians who are praying that God’s will be done.  May we be a part of the solution instead of adding to the problems in our world today.

Can’t you sacrifice a couple tanks of gas and some time to pray with us?  If you are planning on attending please leave a comment and let me know you’ll be there and what community you are from.  I have 14 from Riverton committed so far, it would be nice to have around 100.  Will you join me?

On Wednesday nights we have been studying Worldviews.  How different people view the world.  And most importantly how an unbeliever’s Worldview is inadequate to explain the life we live.  For example if you have an evolutionistic, athiest Worldview (you believe we came from apes and evolved and there is no God), then you cannot answer any questions regarding morality.  For you there can be no right or wrong just survival of the fittest.  For you there cannot be a discussion over beauty or something being good or bad.  If, and that’s a big if, we are just higher animals.

A bigger problem, however, is not unbeliever’s Worldviews but the Worldview ofthose who claim to be Christians.  For far too long Christians have lived compartmentalized lives and haven’t understood a complete Biblical Worldview.  It’s easy for Christians in America to be “Sunday Christians” and consider all other issues as “secular”.

C.S. Lewis said, “There is no neutral ground in the universe.  Every inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by satan.”   We as Christians have falsely thought and believed that there is neutral ground in our world today.  That isn’t so.  If this truly is our Father’s World and He created it everything is sacred and we need to have Christian Worldview for everything.

That means that Christians view mathematics different than non-Christians and Science and Art and Law and Politics and The Environment and Animals and Work and Education and Entertainment and … I think you get the point.   Instead we label some parts of life as “Church things” and everything else as “secular things”.  We need to start thinking how does a Christian view these things differently than a non-Christian.  Only by doing that will we be consistent in our faith and witness.

I just finished reading, “Homeschooling from a Biblical Worldview” by Israel Wayne.  He was a speaker at our state Homeschool Convention two years ago.  If you want a great challenging read and want to start thinking about Education from a Christian Worldview this would be a place to start.  But even if you don’t pick up this book do something this week to challenge your thinking in an area that you have always considered “secular” instead of “sacred”.

Holy and Hell are two words we don’t usually put into the same sentence.  In fact, we don’t even like to think about Hell if we don’t have to it’s not pleasant to think about.

I recently read one of the best books on Hell I have ever read (OK I haven’t read a lot of books on Hell).  I recommend this book for any Bible Student.  It was fantastic.  “Hell on Trial: The Case for Eternal Punishment” by Robert A. Peterson.  This is book 5 by the way on my 52 book reading for the year so I am ahead of the game a little (pray for me however because I am reading “Of Fire and Sword” right now and it is 827 pages.  It is one of the books my older kids read for the Gen J. bookclub.  Good but long.  OK, I’m starting to get like Doug in the movie UP — squirrel!)

Last year around April I was dealing with a person who was embracing Universalism or more specifically Universal Reconciliation.  The idea where all people will eventually be saved.  Even after death there is opportunity to turn to Christ and he will eventually win everyone to himself.  This is not a Biblical doctrine and is heretical thinking.

Because we don’t think enough about Hell we get wrong ideas about what the Bible really says.  We think of the myths of Satan all red with horns and a tail.  We think that he rules hell and rules over his demons there.  We give him power and influence that Scripture never does.

Instead we need to remember that Hell was created for the devil and his fallen angels as a punishment.  It is righteous and it is holy in the sense that it is a just punishment for Satan and his followers.  God is the ruler of Hell, not Satan.  We often think of Hell being the absence of God’s presence.  But because God is omnipresent He is not there in mercy and grace but He is there in wrath.  His eternal just wrath is what someone faces when they turn away from His grace and mercy.

May the Church not avoid this doctrine because it is unpleasant but may we understand truly the consequences of rejecting God’s grace.  And may a study of Hell help us to be more concerned for the lost.  We ought to labor til our dying breath that none we know go there.

Can you believe that our nation’s debt is over 12 trillion dollars, that’s trillion with a T?  To see the U.S. Debt clock running crazy click here.  I don’t think the average person can fathom the national debt and what it really means.  I know I can’t.  I pray for our nation daily.  I pray that our leaders would seek the face of God and humble themselves before Him and follow His wisdom.  And I also pray if they don’t that God would remove them from office and replace them with Godly leaders.  Many people today are worried not only about their own finances but also the nations.  We keep printing money and spending it like we have it but deep inside we all know it is a sham.  Perhaps it would even been better for America to go bankrupt.  Not that I wish ill for our nation but maybe dealing with real financial hardship will help us as a nation turn away from the love of money and possessions that obsess us.

Many of you probably heard of Rick Warren’s appeal to his Church members last week.  I was amazed at how the story hit all the major media.  It seems that Saddleback Chuch was short $900,000 for the year as needs were up and giving, because of the economy was down.  I haven’t heard if the Church rallied and made up the shortfall but I sure hope the Church was not following in the steps of our Congress and spending money it didn’t have.  If it spent money in savings and wanted to replace it, that’s one thing but spending what you don’t have is another thing altogether.

Saddleback and Rick Warren have done a lot of good in California and around the world in spreading the Gospel and helping change lives so I am not attacking them by making appeals to their members.  I’ve had to share from the pulpit a time or two when giving was down and we were not making our budget that we all needed to give more.  But how easy it is to get into the habit of spending what you don’t have.

If you put Christmas on a credit card in the hopes of paying it back later you tried to give something you didn’t have.  If you don’t physically have something how can it be a gift?  (Thanks to Todd Friel for those thoughts)  And yet how come our elected officials don’t see that?  Shouldn’t common sense dictate that every time a bill goes through Congress, whether it’s a bailout or healthcare or congressional raises, etc., that they look at U.S Treasury and see if the money is there?  I have to balance my checkbook each month and spend only what I have.

Yet common sense we know is not in vogue today.  Level-headedness has left the building.  We all know the jokes about politicians drinking the swamp water in Washington, D.C.  May we pray that this disease of fiscal recklessness is not too contagious and that it doesn’t go down to the people in the pew.

Joel Belz wrote an article in the Dec. 19th World Magazine titled, “Up, Up and Up”.   He ends with these great words of wisdom.  “Yet even in the context of all that, let me tell you how God is still good. The cost of His mercy and grace hasn’t gone up a penny in recent years. And the cost of tithing, I’m told, has also been remarkably stable.”

I hope you are all busy setting goals for the New Year.  I know that most or many of our New Year’s Resolutions don’t usually work out so well but where would we be if we hadn’t tried in the first place.

Last year one of the goals I set was to read 52 books by the end of 2009.  With three days to go I have finished 43.  I don’t know if I’ll get another one finished or not but I’m not going to stress about it.  Setting that goal caused me to read a lot more than I have in years past and helped me to be looking for good things to read to feed my mind and bolster my faith.  For me the journey was well worth it even if I didn’t get 52 done.  In fact that will be one of the goals I set again for 2010.

I’m already gearing up for the big weight loss goal again as many of you will undoubtedly undertake.  This is often the place that many give up on early on but that doesn’t mean that we can’t or shouldn’t give it a try.  With the help of God and our friends and family we can do many things and accomplish much.

Setting goals isn’t easy.  They don’t always work out but I guess I figure the journey is worth it.  Goals will help you get further down the road then you would get if you didn’t set them.

Here are some ideas for 2010:

Spiritual Goals:  1.  Read the Bible through in a year.  Do it as a family.  2.  Memorize Scripture.  3.  Volunteer to serve in your Church (your Pastor will love this guaranteed!)  4.  Pray for opportunities to share your faith.  5.  Make a God’s most wanted list of people who are not yet Christians and pray for them.

Personal/Family Goals:  1.  Read some good books.  2.  Work on your family relationships (be a better parent, spouse, sibling).  3.  Spend time with the people you love.  4.  Take a class.  5.  Vocation: work as if working for the Lord not for men (your boss will love this one!)

Those are some ideas to get you started.  Get your own list.  Make it personal and dare to dream about what God can do with you and through you this year.

Our family is really enjoying the Generation Joshua book club again this year.  Last year the focus was apologetics.  This year it is literature.  For any family with kids 11-18 this is a great thing to get them involved in.  This year they have two tracks so there are two books per month and daily readings of My Utmost for His Highest devotional by Oswald Chambers.

In Sept. two of our kids and mom and dad read:  To Kill a Mockingbird and Starship Troopers.  In Oct. we read: God’s Smuggler and Animal Farm.

The rest of the year looks like some good reading as well.  Not only do we get to have some good discussions but I enjoy being pushed into literature because that isn’t where I tend to focus my reading.  I read Theology or boring (to most people) textbook type of stuff for my fun reading.

God’s Smuggler is the story of Brother Andrew and his smuggling of Bibles into communist countries.  If you are familiar with the ministry Open Doors today that is the ministry he started.  I found myself fascinated by this man who lived a life of complete faith in God.  Trusting him for every penny and every need.  Never taking any money for himself that was not designated for his family.  Always praying that God provide the right amount at the right time to get him through everything.  He kind of reminds me of the stories I have read of George Muller in England or even when we used to get David Wilkerson’s letters from the Times Square Church several years back.  These men never had an income they could count on, just prayed it in.  Just relied upon God completely.

While these biographies are fun to read, I find myself looking at these men and wondering where my faith is.  I want to know I have a set income.  I want to make sure I know what is coming next.  And then I feel guilty that I don’t live enough by faith.  Whatever happened to the faith of these types of men?  And can we get back to that kind of faith today? Partly I look at my faith and get discouraged, but then I realize that we can all grow in our faith and I get encouraged to see what God can do!