To Our Troops and Veterans

Thank you!!!

The Nine Principles

http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/21018/

1. America is good. 

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life. 

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday. 

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government. 

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it. 

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results. 

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable. 

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion. 

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me. 

Dependence on Electric

During a good windstorm last night our power went out.  Upon waking this morning, still no power. While trying to get my son ready for school, it's amazing how dependent on electric we truly are.  How long could we survive without electric.  I suspect I really don't want to know the true answer to that.

Taking a Short Break

I'm taking a short break from this blog to write some code.  I've got some ideas for some projects  that I need to write some code for.  So I'm turning off twitter, blogging and a few other things to try and stay focused on them in my free (non-client) time.  

I'll be back when I'm back.  Could be short it, could be long.  I'll keep all one or two of my readers in suspense.  I'll still check comments of posts and will try to respond in a timely manner, but no guarentees.  :)

Interesting Quotes from Founding Fathers and Presidents

• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.  John Adams (The Works of John Adams, ed. C. F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown Co., 1851, 4:31)
  
  
• If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.  Samuel Adams
  
  
• Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.  Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence
  
  
• Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master.  Dwight D. Eisenhower
  
  
• Man will ultimately be governed by God or by tyrants.  Benjamin Franklin
  
  
• The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.  Patrick Henry
  
  
• It is when people forget God that tyrants forge their chains.  Patrick Henry
  
  
• It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.  Patrick Henry
  
  
• We the People are the rightful masters of both Congress and the Courts--not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.  Abraham Lincoln
  
  
• It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.  Thomas Paine
  
  
• Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does NOT mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country.  Theodore Roosevelt
  
  
• The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His apostles, which enjoins humility, piety, and benevolence; which acknowledges in every person a brother, or a sister, and a citizen with equal rights. This is genuine Christianity, and to this we owe our free Constitutions of Government.  Noah Webster
  

End a War

Only way to end a war is for one side to lose.  Artificial cease-fires only allow for the losing side to rearm and restart the war at a later date.  

Experience God this Christmas

I've been reading through Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby the last few weeks and one of the things that you learn is the seven realities of experiencing God.  Number 3 on that list is, "God invites you to become involved with Him in His work."  Looking back over the Christmas story, we find that God was at work in a small manager in Bethlehem 2000 years ago to give us the greatest Christmas gift of all.  We see that the wise men were invited by God to become involved in that work.  The shephards were invited to become involved in His work.  In fact, Mary and Joseph were invited to become involved in His work.  This Christmas season, as I search for places in my own life that God is working, I realize that God has invited us all to become involved in His work started 2000 years ago under that star.  The work he started 2000 years ago continues on to this day and we all can take part in this work.  This Christmas season we have the opportunity to take part in perhaps God's greatest work since creation, the salvation that he provides us through Jesus Christ.  The angels spread the news 2000 years ago that a savior was born.  Today I can share that news with anyone who reads this and can continue working with God in the great work he invited everyone one of us to join in on.  God bless you all this fine Christmas day!