By Your Side

As you face this new year, what are your thoughts? Excitement, hope, expectations, maybe some doubt or cynicism... Whatever they may be (and I'm still figuring this one out myself in my own mind), I think gratefulness should be one of those thoughts. God has lead us all through another year, praise him!

My family has always made goal-setting a big part of the new year, so here goes! Some of my goals are:
(1) Practice my violin every single day!
(2) Save up lots of mula in my savings (rather than spending it); my goal is to have like $5,500 by next year
(3) [tentative!] become a realtor. Still seeking God's wisdom on that one...
(4) Curb my propensity to say what's on my mind to whoever is nearby *gulp* It's not always encouraging....

Well, that's some of them! I don't have many as I don't want to make too many promises to myself! That only makes me frustrated when I can't fulfill them...

As I open up this 2009, this song has been on my mind. I hope it speaks to you. Note the youtube link to see the music video and hear the song sung by this relatively new band, Tenth Avenue North. I just bought their CD and every song on it is either us talking directly to God, or God talking to us (in the case of this song). Rare...

"Why are you striving these days?
Why are you trying to earn grace?
Why are you crying?
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love?
Why are you still searching?
As if I'm not enough?
To where will you go child
Tell where will you run?
To where will you run?

(chorus)
I'll be by your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you fall
Please don't fight these hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life

(chorus)
Here are my side wherever I fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
Please don't fight these hands that are holding you

(bridge)
And I, I love you
And I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

By your side wherever you fall
In the dead of night whenever you call
Please don't fight these hands that are holding you

By my side, my hands are holding you
In the Dead of night, my hands are holding you..."

-By My Side by Tenth Avenue North (from their CD Over and Underneath)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J95rAr0gOFU

Wherever or whatever I go or do in this new year, He'll be by my side and that is so encouraging...

Afterwards

So you've opened up the gifts, eaten the treats from your stocking, now what? When I was younger, I remember feeling pretty empty after Christmas day had gone by in all its glory. My parents were always good about sensing this and explaining that there is so much more than the gifts and treats. Those will pass away and even when we've gotten so many good "things" there will still be an emptiness, an emptiness that only Jesus Christ can fill. I believe it is totally possible for even Christians to feel this void. And it doesn't only happen on Christmas! After some event we've waited a long time for is over, it's hard to not feel depressed--what do I have to look forward to NOW. I struggled with this for many years and still do, but I have learned a little bit, maybe, and that little bit I have learned is that things will never satisfy.

It's not an effortless activity to be filled with Christ. I personally must work towards that every day and not allow myself to be caught up in "life."

So how do you feel after this Christmas? Alive and filled with Christ and blessed beyond measure by the gifts given in his honor? Or empty and restless. I pray that everyone reading this would be filled with Christ either for the first time, or anew.

"Some still failed to understand it, so God spoke his final word; on a silent night in Judah's hills a baby's cry was heard..."

Love Has Come To Walk Among Us....

"In the space of the beginning
Was the living Word of Light
When this Word was clearly spoken
All that came to be was right

All creation had a language
Words to say what must be said
All day long the heavens whispered
Signing words in scarlet red

Some have failed to understand it
So God spoke His final Word
On a silent night in Judah's
Hills a baby's cry was heard

Glory!; sang the angel chorus
Glory!; echoed back the night
Love has come to walk among us
Christ the Lord is born this night

All creation sing His praises
Earth and heaven praise His name
All who live come join the chorus
Find the words His love proclaim

Find the words His love proclaim"

-Anthem for Christmas
Words: Gloria Gaither
Music: Michael W. Smith

We went to a Micheal W. Smith Christmas concert the other night and it was, to say the least, awesome. His piano playing is incredible, and his choice of music and putting instruments together is talented indeed... He's still got his touch, even is he is a grandfather now! Anyway, this is one of my favorite Christmas songs by him. He didn't play it at the concert, but it's good enough in his 1989 (the year I was born!) CD "Christmas." (Buy it if you don't already have it--no Christmas music collection is complete without it.)

The picture is sort of corny, but to hear this song, go to this link... Just close your eyes and listen...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk_LdUyTPC0

Merry Christmas!

My Friend is Gone :)

That would be: the trial (see below post). :)

We had the carpets cleaned as planned and so far so good! I still have minor reactions every now and then, but am overall much mucho better! Praise God... I was honored to have the men pray for me at church not last week but the week before. God is good.

Thanks for all of you praying! Pray now that I continue to get better and better with eventually no reactions at all!

Life is good. We are settling into our new house just fine. We had two lovely huge snows on last Friday and Sunday! Snow is one of the prettiest things God created, I think. I am already praying for a white Christmas *wink* We had one last year and it was so beautiful and such a huge blessing. God knew how to comfort me when I was homesick last year after moving from GA! Stifle me in beauty *laugh*

Have a wonderful week. "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" (sorry all you Florida peeps!)

Trials are Friends...

Well, I have a new friend.

We moved into our new lovely house on Saturday, but I wasn't unpacking long before I began to have an allergic reaction. At first I thought I was coming down with a cold, but it felt just like my allergies to cat dander. To make a long story short, I have not been able to sleep in my new home for the past two nights (the only two nights we've been there) and can't even stay inside long. Apparently the former renters had cats and the carpets, though spot-cleaned, must still have dander in them. Today we had the carpets professionally cleaned and hopefully I will be able to sleep in my own bed tonight! But God is sovereign.... Thank God for kind friends who allowed me to sleep at their house the past two nights...

I am wondering at this, God's new little "plan," but trust in him. James says to count trials as friends, and that's what I'm trying to do! Haven't done it perfectly, by any means, but trying... After all, I DO have a bed to sleep in! And a warm house to go to! I am by far very blessed indeed... Perspective is very important :)

Your prayers are appreciated and I will keep you posted! Have a great night.

A Year Tomorrow...

A year ago tomorrow we moved to CO from Jefferson, GA. Wow, amazing... And what's especially amazing is that tomorrow we are moving from where we've been living for the past year (with my dad's very generous friend, Mike) to our own home in Aurora (about 40 minutes south-east). So we are moving on the same exact day we did last year! November 22nd... It is a rental, but it'll be "home" for at least a year and, hey, about eight months ago I felt like this house we're leaving was home. For that reason I am a bit sad. I am the type of person to get very comfortable really wherever it is that I'm living my life, and it's hard to "uproot." But this is definitely easier than GA seeing as we're only moving 40 minutes away, as opposed to 27 hours away! (by car). And the thing about me is that in four months, this house in Aurora will be home to me and I'll never want to leave :) I just get familiar with things how they are and never want them to change... Yeah, call me weird.

Anyway, the house is beautiful and very large. Four bathrooms! We simply won't know what to do with ourselves :) We have lived with one shower for a year and it's been a lot easier than I at first thought--this should be absolute heaven *wink* I will post pictures on our family blog soon! I know I am so behind, but patience!

Have a wonderful weekend and God bless you.

A New Subject in the Lesson of Life...

That new subject is... Real estate! I am excited to say that two weeks ago I started a job in a real estate office doing administrative things. God totally brought this job to me--I was not actively seeking a job in the least. But, I was seeking to grow my knowledge of (1) accounting and (2) real estate in general. I bought a college level accounting book (actually used by our local community colleges) and have been teaching myself its contents. And three days a week I work at the Nelson Group office. My friend Melissa (who had a big hand in getting me the job and works there as well) is a great teacher and Don Nelson (my employer) is a Christian and a pleasure to work for. I think it's really neat that we pray before we start work in the morning...

Anyway, I just wanted to share this as a praise. The Lord saw my frustration and provided two answers at the same time to BOTH my thirsts for knowledge. And I observe that it was only when I gave up my efforts to FIND something that he brought these solutions... He does that a lot :)

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

Vote for Grumpy

At Disney the other day, I noticed a shirt. You may be like, Who cares. Well, this is a really big deal for me because I am usually horrible at noticing people's clothing (which can be a good thing these days). *wink* OK, so I noticed this shirt that said "Vote for Grumpy" with a big picture of Grumpy on the front. In little letters underneath Grumpy it said something along the lines of, "Dopey's cuter, Doc is funnier, etc etc" Basically naming how all the other dwarfs were so much better. That got me thinking...

I am sure that if all the seven dwarfs had an election campaign, Grumpy would be one of those to NOT win. It's obvious! But like I said, that shirt got me thinking about something I've been thinking a lot about anyway. When I start sending emails and newsletters in my support of Chuck Baldwin for president, I am in essence saying, "Vote for Grumpy." Now please don't think that I consider Baldwin and Grumpy alike in any way and am trying to make a joke. It just occurred to me that my support for Baldwin is similar to supporting someone as unpopular as Grumpy.

So it comes down to the facts of my heart. Why vote for someone who will probably not win? Because of my last post: conscience. How can I vote out of fear for someone whom I don't think God would want leading his people (and that goes for McCain AND Palin)? And why would God bless that? God is not going to bless something just because it's better than something else. He's going to bless something that honors and glorifies him and his ways.

So, I'm voting for "Grumpy" :) And maybe now you understand why...

You know, now that I think of it, McCain DOES remind me of Dopey... *wink*

Vote your Conscience--It's NOT a waste!

A Wasted Vote

by Chuck Baldwin
October 10, 2008

When asked why they will not vote for a third party candidate, many people will respond by saying something like, "He cannot win." Or, "I don't want to waste my vote." It is true: America has not elected a third party candidate since 1860. Does that automatically mean, however, that every vote cast for one of the two major party candidates is not a wasted vote? I don't think so.

In the first place, a wasted vote is a vote for someone you know does not represent your own beliefs and principles. A wasted vote is a vote for someone you know will not lead the country in the way it should go. A wasted vote is a vote for the "lesser of two evils." Or, in the case of John McCain and Barack Obama, what we have is a choice between the "evil of two lessers."

Albert Einstein is credited with saying that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result. For years now, Republicans and Democrats have been leading the country in the same basic direction: toward bigger and bigger government; more and more socialism, globalism, corporatism, and foreign interventionism; and the dismantling of constitutional liberties. Yet, voters continue to think that they are voting for "change" when they vote for a Republican or Democrat. This is truly insane!

Take a look at the recent $700 billion Wall Street bailout: both John McCain and Barack Obama endorsed and lobbied for it. Both McCain and Obama will continue to bail out these international banksters on the backs of the American taxpayers. Both McCain and Obama support giving illegal aliens amnesty and a path to citizenship. In the debate this past Tuesday night, both McCain and Obama expressed support for sending U.S. forces around the world for "peacekeeping" purposes. They also expressed support for sending combat forces against foreign countries even if those countries do not pose a threat to the United States. Neither Obama nor McCain will do anything to stem the tide of a burgeoning police state or a mushrooming New World Order. Both Obama and McCain support NAFTA and similar "free trade" deals. Neither candidate will do anything to rid America of the Federal Reserve, or work to eliminate the personal income tax, or disband the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Both Obama and McCain support the United Nations. So, pray tell, how is a vote for either McCain or Obama not a wasted vote?

But, back to the "he cannot win" argument: to vote for John McCain is to vote for a man who cannot win. Yes, I am saying it here and now: John McCain cannot win this election. The handwriting is on the wall. The Fat Lady is singing. It is all over. Finished. John McCain cannot win.

With only three weeks before the election, Barack Obama is pulling away. McCain has already pulled his campaign out of Michigan. In other key battleground states, McCain is slipping fast. He was ahead in Missouri; now it is a toss-up or leaning to Obama. A couple of weeks ago, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida were all leaning towards McCain, or at least toss-up states. Now, they are all leaning to Obama. Even the longtime GOP bellwether state of Indiana is moving toward Obama. In addition, new voter registrations are at an all-time high, and few of them are registering as Republicans. In fact, the Republican Party now claims only around 25% of the electorate, and Independents are increasingly leaning toward Obama.

Ladies and gentlemen, Barack Obama is headed for an electoral landslide victory over John McCain. John McCain can no more beat Barack Obama than Bob Dole could beat Bill Clinton.

I ask, therefore, Are not conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain guilty of the same thing that they accuse people who vote for third party candidates of doing? Are they not voting for someone who cannot win? Indeed, they are. In fact, conservatives and Christians who vote for John McCain are not only voting for a man who cannot win, they are voting for a man who does not share their own beliefs and principles. If this is not insanity, nothing is!

So, why not (for once in your life, perhaps) cast a vote purely for principle! Vote for someone who is truly pro-life. Someone who would quickly secure our nation's borders, and end the invasion of our country by illegal aliens. Someone who would, on his first day in office, release Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean and fire U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. Someone who would immediately, upon assuming office, begin leading the charge to dismantle the Federal Reserve, overturn the 16th Amendment, expunge the IRS, and return America to sound money principles. Someone who would get the US out of the UN. Someone who would stop spending billions and trillions of dollars for foreign aid. Someone who would prosecute the Wall Street bankers who defrauded the American people out of billions of dollars. Someone who would work to repeal NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, the WTO, and stop the NAFTA superhighway. Someone who would say a resounding "No" to the New World Order. Someone who would stop using our brave men and women in uniform as global cops for the United Nations. Someone who would stop America's global adventurism and interventionism. Someone who would steadfastly support and defend the right of the people to keep and bear arms.

"Who is this person?" you ask. Go here to find out:

BALDWIN '08

As John Quincy Adams said, "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."

The Trouble on Wall Street Began with Congress sticking its nose where it wasn't belonged (again!)

'THE PRIVATE SECTOR got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it."

That's Barney Frank's story, and he's sticking to it. As the Massachusetts Democrat has explained it in recent days, the current financial crisis is the spawn of the free market run amok, with the political class guilty only of failing to rein the capitalists in. The Wall Street meltdown was caused by "bad decisions that were made by people in the private sector," Frank said; the country is in dire straits today "thanks to a conservative philosophy that says the market knows best." And that philosophy goes "back to Ronald Reagan, when at his inauguration he said, 'Government is not the answer to our problems; government is the problem.' "

In fact, that isn't what Reagan said. His actual words were: "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." Were he president today, he would be saying much the same thing.

Because while the mortgage crisis convulsing Wall Street has its share of private-sector culprits -- many of whom have been learning lately just how pitiless the private sector's discipline can be -- they weren't the ones who "got us into this mess." Barney Frank's talking points notwithstanding, mortgage lenders didn't wake up one fine day deciding to junk long-held standards of creditworthiness in order to make ill-advised loans to unqualified borrowers. It would be closer to the truth to say they woke up to find the government twisting their arms and demanding that they do so - or else.

The roots of this crisis go back to the Carter administration. That was when government officials, egged on by left-wing activists, began accusing mortgage lenders of racism and "redlining" because urban blacks were being denied mortgages at a higher rate than suburban whites.

The pressure to make more loans to minorities (read: to borrowers with weak credit histories) became relentless. Congress passed the Community Reinvestment Act, empowering regulators to punish banks that failed to "meet the credit needs" of "low-income, minority, and distressed neighborhoods." Lenders responded by loosening their underwriting standards and making increasingly shoddy loans. The two government-chartered mortgage finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraged this "subprime" lending by authorizing ever more "flexible" criteria by which high-risk borrowers could be qualified for home loans, and then buying up the questionable mortgages that ensued.

All this was justified as a means of increasing homeownership among minorities and the poor. Affirmative-action policies trumped sound business practices. A manual issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston advised mortgage lenders to disregard financial common sense. "Lack of credit history should not be seen as a negative factor," the Fed's guidelines instructed. Lenders were directed to accept welfare payments and unemployment benefits as "valid income sources" to qualify for a mortgage. Failure to comply could mean a lawsuit.

As long as housing prices kept rising, the illusion that all this was good public policy could be sustained. But it didn't take a financial whiz to recognize that a day of reckoning would come. "What does it mean when Boston banks start making many more loans to minorities?" I asked in this space in 1995. "Most likely, that they are knowingly approving risky loans in order to get the feds and the activists off their backs . . . When the coming wave of foreclosures rolls through the inner city, which of today's self-congratulating bankers, politicians, and regulators plans to take the credit?"

Frank doesn't. But his fingerprints are all over this fiasco. Time and time again, Frank insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in good shape. Five years ago, for example, when the Bush administration proposed much tighter regulation of the two companies, Frank was adamant that "these two entities, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are not facing any kind of financial crisis." When the White House warned of "systemic risk for our financial system" unless the mortgage giants were curbed, Frank complained that the administration was more concerned about financial safety than about housing.

Now that the bubble has burst and the "systemic risk" is apparent to all, Frank blithely declares: "The private sector got us into this mess." Well, give the congressman points for gall. Wall Street and private lenders have plenty to answer for, but it was Washington and the political class that derailed this train. If Frank is looking for a culprit to blame, he can find one suspect in the nearest mirror.