The Greatest Question Ever Asked – What Child Is This?

My favorite Christmas song is “What Child Is This“.  I’ve always been touched by the words and music.  Today, sitting in church, I heard coming from another room what seemed to be a choir of angels singing this song.  As my mind drifted into their music, I pondered upon the question “What child is this?”

I considered this to be the most important question ever asked…. “What child is this?” or “Who is this child?”  Asking the question leads us to search for the answer… and the answer is life changing.

What child is this?  This child, whose birth we celebrate, is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world.  I have answered this question for myself and know the it to be true.

I invite everyone to discover the answer to “What Child Is This?” for yourself.  All that you seek for in life, and all of the other questions you may have, can be found in the answer to What Child Is This?

Quietly Doing our Duty

As we celebrate the Christmas season, I am reminded of that the “First Noel” was to shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock.  Who were these men to be so privileged?  We know almost nothing about them.  Yet, the angels did not herald the birth of Christ to the mighty and the powerful – the popular and the privileged.  The angels came to men who were simply and quietly doing their duty.

A sense of duty has always stirred within my soul.  I believe I have a duty to my God, my family, those around me, and to my country.  Duty is often what drives me on those days when I just don’t feel like it.  But duty is a term with seemingly less significance these days.  Duty is often set aside when it becomes too difficult, unappealing, or our efforts unrecognized.

This Christmas season, those simple shepherds have reminded me of the importance of duty and I wonder when Jesus Christ returns if he won’t first visit those who are simply and quietly just doing their duty.

(Check out this amazing video of the Angelic visitation to the shepherds, http://lds.org/bible-videos/videos/shepherds-learn-of-the-birth-of-christ?lang=eng#gallery=)

City on the Hill

There’s a Christian band called Casting Crowns and their music really speaks to me.  I’ve posted some of their videos on this blog, but last night I came across one of their new songs called City on the Hill on iTunes and I don’t know if a song has ever reached me the way this one does.

It explains why we’re all different and how it takes all of us to make it work.  I’ve never been much of a “team player”.  There’s a line in the song that says “the soldiers thought the poets were weak” and really explains my attitude for much of my life.  I’ve mainly just wanted people to stay out of my way and I’d do whatever I needed done…. and I expect other people to do the same…  Just take care of themselves.  You’ve heard the line “Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way.“  Well, I just want people to get out of my way – and I don’t want them following me because I don’t want to deal with their problems.  Not very Christian of me is it!

I’m thankful for this song, because I think maybe for the first time I’m starting to get that we all need each other.  Below is a short video of Casting Crowns lead singer talking about the song.  I hope this song does as much for you as it has for me.

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

BOB from Jacob Frey on Vimeo.  Make sure you watch this all the way through the credits!

Judging People

People are hard to judge… Until they open their mouth and then it becomes easy!  Stupid people look like the rest of us. It’s when they open their mouths that they prove their lack of intelligence.

As a Man Thinketh…

A few years ago I was awakened out of a dead sleep to the words, “As a man thinketh…”.  It wasn’t really a voice as much as a voice in my head.  It was so powerful that I got up to find out more.  I knew it was part of a Bible verse, but I wasn’t sure which one.  I went to Google (where else do you go answers these days) and immediately pulled up the verse from Proverbs 23:7, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”

In addition, the search brought up a little book by the same title written by James Allen over 100 years ago.  You can read it for free at http://www.asamanthinketh.net or buy for a few bucks from Barnes and Noble or Amazon.  I recommend it to everyone.  Buy a copy and read it often.  It’s a short little book that you could read cover to cover in a couple hours.

I wish I could say I’ve applied all of its teachings since I discovered it those years ago… but I have not fully mastered it.  Still working on it though!

I thought I’d post some of my favorite points here.  My hope is that you’ll read the book and begin the journey of transforming your life by transforming your thoughts.

“Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state.”

“Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow, he then becomes the rightful master of himself.”

“The soul attracts that which it secretly harbours; that which it loves, and also that which it fears; it reaches the height of its cherished aspirations; it falls to the level of its unchastened desires,-and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.”

“Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”

“Not what a man wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns.  His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.”

“In the light of this truth, what, then is the meaning of “fighting against circumstances?”  It means that a man is continually revolting against an effect without, while all the time he is nourishing and preserving its cause in his heart.”

“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves.”

“Let a man radically alter his thoughts, and he will be astonished at the rapid transformation it will effect in the material conditions of his life.”

“Victories attained by right thought can only be maintained by watchfulness.  Many give way when success is assured, and rapidly fall back into failure.”

These are just a few of my favorite passages from the book.  Read it and do your best at putting it into practice.  Everything begins with a thought.  Control and direct your thoughts and you will control and direct your circumstances.

A really smart marketing and advertising firm, Y2 Marketing, talks about the “Inside Reality” vs. the “Outside Perception” of businesses.  It’s the same in people.  We spend a lot of time working on our “Outside Perception” or what we look like to other people, yet spend little time on the “Inside Reality”.  When we take care of the Inside Reality, our Outside Perception immediately improves.  Focus on fixing your inside reality and you’ll see your life transform for the better before your eyes.

Inconvenient Facts About Lincoln & The Civil War

This post will be outside the norm of my regular writings, but I’m doing it in preparation of a lecture I will be attending tonight.  The lecture is entitled “How Lincoln Saved the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence”.  I’m attending to see how the lecturer can twist the truth as I believe, and the facts show, that Lincoln ignored the Constitution and trampled upon the Declaration of Independence.

What you will read below will come as a shock to many of you.  It’s not the version of history you were taught in school.  I ask you to set aside, only for a moment, what you believe about Lincoln and examine some of the most overlooked facts in American history.  I will present this as a series of questions and all I ask is that you consider each question and the points which follow.  Answer each question in your mind and consider the answer.  Here we go….

1. Was secession from the Union illegal in 1860?

No, it was not.  First of all, the United States of America was founded upon the fundamental right of instituting new Government.  In the Declaration of Independence, the colonies stated, “To secure these rights [Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness], Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed… Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government.”

In fact, when Thomas Jefferson was President, a number of New England States threatened to leave the Union.  Jefferson believed secession was the inherent right of any State.  He later wrote, “if any state in the Union will declare that it prefers separation… I have no hesitation in saying, ‘let us separate’” (Letter to W. Crawford, June 20, 1816)

Even Abraham Lincoln stated, “Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.  This is a most valuable, a most sacred right-” (January 12, 1848)  I guess he forgot that thirteen years later when he forcefully prevented such action by the southern States.

Furthermore, nothing in the Constitution prohibited a State from leaving the Union.  The States formed the Union voluntarily and nothing prohibited them from voluntarily leaving it.   The States did not give up their sovereignty by accepting the Constitution.  The 10th amendment of the Constitution reserves all powers of the State not specifically delegated to the Federal government and you will find nothing in the Constitution preventing a State from leaving.

Here’s a thought experiment to help define this premise… Imagine a man and a woman falling in love.  They decide to enter into the union of marriage.  Each voluntarily enters the marriage.  They are still separate and distinct individuals with the same rights they possessed prior to marriage.  The purpose of the marriage is not to give up rights, but to enhance and build up their lives together.  A few years later, the wife feels her rights are being trampled upon and decides to leave the marriage.  She wants out and leaves.  Her husband gets a gun, comes and finds her, beats her to within an inch of her life, and drags her back into their marriage.  Once that little “uproar” is over, the husband welcomes her back home by stating he has “malice toward none; with charity for all.”

In this little parable above, who was right?  The husband or the wife?

2. Was the Civil War fought to free the slaves?

No, it was not.  The Civil War was not fought to free the slaves.  Freeing the slaves did not become a war aim until The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on January 1, 1863 well after the secession of South Carolina and the Fort Sumter incident in the Spring of 1861.  Additionally, the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves “within the rebellious states”.  Any slaves within States loyal to the Union were not freed by this document.  So no, the Civil War was not fought to free the slaves.

3. What legal authority did Lincoln have for the invasion of the South?

None.  The Civil War was the result of an illegal action by the President of the United States – Abraham Lincoln.  The purpose of the Executive Branch of government, namely the President, is enforcing the laws, but there was no law to enforce in this case.  South Carolina, and the other States which seceded, had not broken any law.  Lincoln’s actions were unjustified by law.

I do not have time here to go into the “long train of abuses and usurpations” carried out by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.  It’s the same abuse of civil rights carried out by many third world dictators around the globe today.

But the above questions stand clearly.  Revisionist historians can dodge and weave around them as they please, but the facts stand.  The Civil War never should have happened.  It was the illegal action of an out of control American President.  States had the right to leave the Union.  Lincoln trampled upon these rights with brute force.  He might have saved the Union, but he forever weakened the Constitution and crushed the Declaration of Independence.

Courageous Music Video

Let’s make a difference!

Courageous – Honor Begins At Home

Here is the “must see” movie for everyone who believes in the importance of family.  Find where it’s playing in your area and go see it.  It opened this week in limited theaters across the nation.  The closest theater to me playing this movie is about an hour away, but I’ll be taking my family to see it and I recommend it to everyone.

Here’s the trailer:

Find theaters playing this movie at, http://www.courageousthemovie.com/tickets

 

Stand Where You Are

Note:  This post is not my own.  It was submitted by a good friend of mine. 

I spent the better part of 10 years teaching ground combat and close quarter battle to young warriors heading off to parts unknown.  Now I raise a family, volunteer a lot and live a quieter life.  Plenty of interesting stories, as you would guess, but I want to focus myopically on a single interesting detail.  One part of training was a simulated battle scenario projected on a screen with young troops presented overwhelming masses of “bad guys” flooding towards them.  With close study, we learned a lot.  Watching the faces, you would see them pointing the rifle frantically from one movement to the next, often with eyes way ahead of the sights.  Hits were minimal and scores deplorable.

Faced with overwhelming odds and a mass of moving parts, few maintained the ability to focus on a single important objective at a time.  A simple experiment delved into human psychology a bit.  If I asked, “just shoot one”.  They could comply, even if faced with a thousand.  With that done, in the next scenario they were asked to, “just engage five”.  They would comply and so on up to dozens of targets.  The learning was to focus on one single most important element, handle it, and only then move to the next.  No one can engage more than one challenge at a time with a single set of sites.  If there were two targets, or ten thousand, you could only point at one target at a time.  The NUMBER of targets is irrelevant.  It is likewise impossible to carry enough ammunition to single handedly stop an opposing army.  You certainly do eventually become overwhelmed with insurmountable odds, however, that is why we work in teams.

Fast-forward to modern day.

This past weekend, as a Cub/Boy Scout leader I took a group camping with some other parents.  Within that group was one young boy about 6, I will call John.  He was quite shy and stayed close to mom for most of the first day, regardless of encouragement.  Later, I was “overwhelmed” with rudimentary tasks.  Build the dinner fire, finish lunch clean up, plan the fishing group, unpack the remaining equipment, help set up the final tents, watching my own three kids, and so on.  A typical day of camping with a few dozen boys from 6-12 years of age.

I looked back and John was still there, watching all the other kids play, with a look of longing.  It was odd and something just wasn’t right.  On a hunch, I just walked away from all the trivial “important” tasks, asking someone else to handle it for a bit,  and asked if he would like to go.  He looked a little scared, and shrank a bit to mom’s side.  I asked again if he would like to go if I promise to stand right next to the playground and not move, no matter what.  He immediately got up and started that way.  I then stood, and did absolutely nothing for the next hour.  Nothing.

He would play and look over every few seconds to see if I was there.  I didn’t sit down, didn’t look away, didn’t change my posture.  I just stood with arms crossed and watched him, doing my best imitation of what a Spartan Secret Service agent for King Leonidas may have looked like.  His mom approached me in a bit and started a conversation.  I still just looked at John.  She told me he had lost his father this past November and she could not BELIEVE that he had left her side.  He had not since then, 10 months prior.  I was not aware of this, as he was new to our group, not one of “my” boys, just a boy with which something did not look right.  Later that night we all walked, as a group, over to the amphitheater for a movie.  It was about ¾ of a mile down an unlit trail.  As I walked out front, I felt a small presence next to me.  He asked if I had a flashlight.  I answered that I did, but that the moon was quite bright and I preferred to enjoy that soft light and listen.  He said he was a little scared and asked if he could hold my hand up front.  I looked back at his mom (child protection guidelines don’t allow such contact, and I would never break those rules).  She was right there with a small nod.  So we walked with the group over to the theater.  John played the rest of the weekend, always with myself, or one of the other leaders just standing there, doing nothing at all…..just standing.

With the seeming chaos and uncertainty of current events and times, politics, disasters and the fact that I broke a shoelace yesterday all “overwhelming” us each, it’s pretty easy to wonder, “What can I really do against it all?”  Sometimes that answer is easy, the hordes of humanity, entire armies and Herculean tasks be damned, just focus on one thing, one very and utmost important thing, and sometimes all that is required is to stand and do absolutely nothing.  You stand for your one thing knowing that I am standing for my one important thing.  There are thousands of thousands of us, each just STANDING for our one thing today, and one thing tomorrow.  Let’s see an entire army make it through that line.  You don’t have to hold the entire line, nor be the entire chain, just hold your ground and be your own link.  It’s sometimes tough to feel like your small thing makes a difference when there are ten thousand bad things happening. However, now you know.  I stood for one thing today, and so did you.  That’s two of us, with two per day, and ten thousand more beyond us two.  That’s what it means to focus, that’s all it takes to stand, that’s how we will change everything, and how YOU can/do make a difference.