America, Let Dead Men's Bones Speak To Our Hearts

Uh-oh… America is in trouble: B-I-G trouble.

Unfortunately, the average American is either “sleepwalking," doesn't care or doesn't understand what is happening to our nation.

Many Christians hardly ever study the events unfolding and, unfortunately, many are being deceived. Not only is time short prophetically, but also time is short for our liberties. If you examine the laws that have been passed in the 21st century, you will realize that our freedom to share the Word of God is about to be greatly hindered, if not made illegal.

Following is the “politically incorrect" prayer given by Pastor Joe Wright before the Kansas House of Representatives in 1996. When Pastor Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but, instead, received this:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done... We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and call it Pluralism. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!

The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on "The Rest of the Story" on the radio and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired.

Pastor Joe Wright's prayer describes the horrifying truth about America. The United States has deteriorated into a massive Sodom and Gomorrah!

Who would have thought that we'd see thousands of cameras being installed in cities across America to spy on its citizens. Who would have thought that such monstrosities as Patriot Acts I and II would ever become law (thus suspended our Bill of Rights)? Who would have thought that the government could force parents to drug their own children?

Should this be a surprise in a nation of moral debauchery?

Who would have thought that a day would come when two men could legally become "man and wife" and raise children? Who would have thought that innocent babies would be aborted/murdered by the millions in a nation that God has blessed so mightily? Our founding fathers must be “rolling in their graves" by the mess we've gotten ourselves into as a nation.

We have become a weakened, immoral nation.

Allow us to go back in history and heed the wisdom our founding fathers warned us about government tyranny:

"When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated."

–Thomas Jefferson

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing."

–Thomas Jefferson

"Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future and crimes from society."

–Benjamin Franklin

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

–Benjamin Franklin

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As I think of the events within our divided and confused nation, my mind focuses on a very moving speech given by an anonymous young lady from the F.I.R.E. School of Ministry at a national event in 2002:

Two and a half centuries ago, our forefathers landed upon the shores of this nation and made a covenant with God. They covenanted in the Mayflower Compact that they would be His people and this land would be a light to the nations. Today this ground that we stand upon is crying out to us. The covenants of our forefathers are crying out to us today to renew them!

In 1837, Jonathan Adams stood... Jonathan Quincy Adams stood here and he said, "Posterity, you will never know the price that my generation has paid for your freedom! I hope you will make good use of it!"

Today let dead men's bones speak to our hearts! The men and women who founded our nation are looking upon us right now to see how we will respond to their words. They're watching to see what we will do with the cause that they paid such a great price for. These men and women saw our generation when they signed away their lives and their fortunes and their sacred honor! Today we stand here because they cut covenant; we can be a covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; because of their sacrifice, to cut covenant with our God!

If we can't connect somehow with our forefathers, at least let us connect with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the Israelites who stood in a land under oppression and bondage and their cry arose to a God who remembered the covenant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! He remembered their covenant and delivered them! As a generation we stand here; May our cries of bondage, may the oppression that we've been under arise to God today and may He hear it, not because of us, but because of the covenant that our forefathers made on this land!

Society today has tried to tell our generation that we have no Christian heritage in this nation. But there is overwhelming evidence in our history that we are the heir to a great Christian heritage in America! If there is no Christian heritage in our nation, why then during the Great Awakening, did the motto of our nation become "One nation under God"? Why then during the Revolution did the cry arise "No King but King Jesus!" Why then?

I'm here to tell you that our generation has been under a subtle attack from the enemy to disconnect us from our past! Covenant ties us to our past and gives us hope for the future. Could it be that today, more than just our generation, that our nation's destiny stands in the balance? Could it be that by us renewing covenant today, that generations coming after us will walk in the land that has the blessing of God?

America, for the sake of our children and their future, "let dead men's bones speak to our hearts" and may God help us while doing so.

©2008 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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The following video, America Repent, courtesy of You Tube.

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28: GUEST AUTHOR, ROBERT MELACCIO, JR.

Greetings fellow bloggers!

Since I've intended this blog to be a "safe-haven" for all Christians to share "life as it happens," I am thrilled to step aside today for guest author, Robert Melaccio, Sr. If anyone else is interested to "guest author" on this blog, feel free to e-mail me at judi@judilake.com. Please be advised that all material is subject for approval.

In the meantime, following are Mr. Melaccio's thoughts for the day:

***

Why Do We Believe Democracy Started In Early Greece?

While certainly the foundations of democratic origins are strong within the Greek civilization and there is no doubt they formed many of the foundation concepts used in today’s democracies. Yet, how many actually realize that the roots of freedom and justice started with God and His written Word?

Now we don’t have to write a considerable amount of words to describe democracy, its intent, definition and objective. No, the facts are before us all. However, because of the false belief the bible is just myth or fable the credit for democracy has not been attributed to God. Thank God the belief in the bible as fable or myth has long since been proven false for those who understand archaeological finds. The written word does in fact establish Gods plan as freedom, justice and equality for all men. Certainly the foundation pieces that our very forefathers gleaned the Constitution come from a very definitive belief in God and His law.

The rights and expectations of all men are clearly defined in God’s Word. And if actually His followers were to do them, rather then just profess them, this world quite frankly would be a much better place then it is. We can certainly digress into a multitude of directions concerning that statement. Yet it is sufficient to say if one looks, interprets and understands the truth of God’s Word, one could not find fault with what I am stating. In fact I am just reiterating what many scholars have already stated.

So here is the assignment for those who profess:

Do we see Gods work at play in our government? In our laws? In the application of those laws? In their impact to others positively or negatively, such as the legalization of usury? Do those laws truly provide, justice, equally and to all in fairness without exception or not? Does our laws show compassion and mercy, tolerance and long-suffering patience to all? Do our laws and those who make and administer them show love of neighbor and of life above all things?

I for one believe that this Republic of the United States of America was intended to follow the laws of God as closely as any government could. Yes, with respect for religious and other differences, tolerance and freedom and justice for all. Is that not God’s attributes. Freedom of choice within His laws, tolerance and compassion for those who digress and wonder and help and compassion and mercy for those who need it?

Yes who can stand before God and say religion and politics do not mix? I fear for those who would take the rights, freedoms and protection from the unborn for their own beliefs, agenda, and doctrines. Liberty and justice for all, especially the innocent and those less fortunate, unable to defend or provide for themselves. Dependent of a free, just and compassionate society. What is God’s view of the defenseless, exploited, the poor and the needy? Does that view reflect in the works and deeds of we who profess?

No I judge no one, since God Himself has allowed freedom, called choice. It is everyone’s to make. I just point out the responsibility of all within Gods democratic system in consideration of all.


© 2008 Robert Melaccio Sr. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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The following video, We Need God in America Again, courtesy of You Tube.

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To Be Fully Human and Alive

After months of separation, my family is finally reunited in our new home. The past year has been exceptionally grueling but my spirit remains optimistic and grateful.

I am most grateful for the opportunity to move forward in “this we call life."

As I settle in my new Charleston surroundings, my first instinct is to “re-invent" myself. Then, as I attempt to unpack the many boxes I had recently just packed, I am reminded of who I am: a multi-dimensional woman who is resilient and passionate. Somehow, I’ve allowed “the burdens of life" to rob from me the woman I am and have forgotten “the art of being fully human and alive". In retrospect, this past year has reflected a robotic shell of who I am and of who God has intended me to be.

Once again, I freely embrace the “child within me" who is filled with wonder and hope. Once again, I rejoice at the possibilities I face instead of obstacles. Once again, I feel free to embrace life head on…

and, once again, I thank God for being alive.

In a society where many are “sleepwalking" through life, how do we teach ourselves, especially our children, the wonders of our own personal selves? How do we teach that life is sacred and should not wasted? How do we teach that we are our own gifts from God?

For me, it has nothing to do with us personally but has everything to do with God.

A reader all of my life, I recall being moved with a very poignant piece written by a school principal that was included in Haim Ginott’s last book:

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness. Gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by educated physicians. Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies shot and killed by high school and college graduates. So I’m suspicious of education. My request is: help your students to be human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, or educated Eichmanns. Reading and writing and spelling and history and arithmetic are only important if they serve to make our children human.

It is my belief that many of us have never “learned" the dignity of being a fully alive human being.

When I write an article, I am never certain of how many people will read my ramblings but I am certain of this: there isn’t one person reading this who hasn’t cried or experienced loneliness or despair. There are also many who have laughed and know joy. In these ways, each of us are connected and can relate to the same struggle toward being fully alive and human.

Every one of us has the right to live with dignity and know joy.

As I pen this, I think of a statement by Thoreau: “Oh, God, to have reached the point of death only to find that you have never lived at all." What a tragedy when life becomes a burden.

To be fully alive, I believe we need to get back into our own inner caves and learn to love ourselves. Too many people today want to be someone else! With all of our personal imperfections, we must be able to look at the reflection in the mirror and say to ourselves, “you ain’t so bad at that!"

Each of us is a “work in progress" but before we concentrate on helping others we need to concentrate on healing ourselves. In order to give you must first get and you can’t give what you don’t have in the first place.

Huh?

I am referring to honesty and self-acceptance. If I don’t have wisdom I can only teach my own ignorance. If I don’t have joy, I can only spread despair. If I don’t have inner freedom, I can only put children in cages. Everything I have, I can give away but I have to have something to give away in the first place. And so, through the Spirit of Christ, I have dedicated myself to be the best Judi Lynn Lake there is!

I believe that there is no limit to being fully human; we each have unlimited possibilities. We cannot follow others, we need to follow our own way and become the magical combination that will never again occur in history. And we must teach this to our children because they are our future.

Being 51, I am grateful to have an eight year-old little girl. Motherhood forces me to constantly embrace the child within me. I would highly recommend to every adult over forty to go back to the point in childhood where the world was a huge, wondrous mystery that “had" to be understood. Be curious again! Say to yourselves, “Yes, I want to touch and feel and taste everything and, since there isn’t time in life to do it all, I want to do it now!" Value your lives and live every moment as though it were your last. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross wrote that the people who scream the loudest on their deathbeds are those that never lived. They’ve sleepwalked through life and stood on the sideline.

It’s time we stop talking about living and start living life.

Don’t miss yourself! Forgive yourself for being less than perfect and celebrate yourself just as you are! Don’t envy anyone because the magic is in you! Remember, we are God’s gifts to each of us and what we do with our lives is our gift to back to Him.

©2008 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

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The following video, Don't Give Up, sung by Josh Groban courtesy of You Tube.





When No Explanation Is Possible

Life, with its glories, indignities, hopes and quiet dreams, is the subject of the beloved song, “But the World Goes Round," by John Kander and Fred Ebb.

Similar to the song, no matter how bleak life seems at the moment, life can change instantly. In my own short lifetime, I have experienced many ‘miracles’ that have always given me hope in my ‘darkest hour’.

These ‘miracles’ have also given me faith.

For me, 1990 was my ‘big year’. I was 32 years old and an Art Director within the Music Industry. Life was hectic, exciting and immersed with relentless deadlines. I was dedicated and adapted easily to catnaps, which is probably why, to this day, I continue ‘to burn the midnight oil’.

The 1990s Music Awards were to be spectacular. The swing in music was shifting and I was given complete carte blanche as its Creative Director. Each presentation submitted was approved with fervor and praise. We were a passionate group with a mission for excellence. Fully aware that ‘you are only as good as your team,’ I was grateful for my exceptionally talented art department.

This was going to be ‘the year’ for The Music Awards.

Midway into the project, the Vice President, Diane, called me aside. “Judi, are you feeling alright? You look white as a ghost!"

“Oh, Diane, you know how it is this time of the year; it’s crazy and I can’t remember the last time I actually had a full night’s sleep. Don’t worry, I’m fine."

“Well, I am worried. I never use rank with you, but as a mother, I am telling you to go home and rest. The art department has all of your comps and whatever need’s your approval can be done by fax."

“No, Diane, we are almost done! I promise, once everything is completed, I will take a few days off, but not now, pl-e-e-eaze…." My eyes pleaded with her to let me stay. Diane shook her head as she walked away from me. From the distance, I heard her mumble, “She has got to be the most stubborn person I have ever met!"

I laughed as I responded, “Yeah, yeah, Diane, and that’s why you pay me so well!"

Diane was perceptive because I was not well and I knew it. For the past month, I had been bleeding ceaselessly and was extremely weak. I was concerned but decided to take "the Scarlett O'Hara" approach and ‘worry about it tomorrow’. I could not afford to get sick and my only focus was on finishing this project.

God had other plans for me, however. Three days before the Music Award’s ceremony, I was found lying on the floor in my office and unconscious.

With a pounding headache and needles in my arms, I awoke in a bed at the Long Island Jewish Hospital. Focusing my eyes, the first person I saw was my mother. Once our eyes met, I knew the prognosis was not good.

I had cancer and the doctors wanted to perform an immediate hysterectomy on me. I was a ‘DES’ baby and cervical cancer is common with all DES females.

I was overwhelmed but would not give my consent for anything until I prayed with someone and, that someone had to be my dear friend, Fr. Bob.

Ironically, as Fr. Bob and I spoke, my concern was not with myself but, rather, with my mother. I loved my mother with all of my heart and didn't want her to suffer through my illness. As Fr. Bob administered Holy Communion to me, I instantly felt soothing warmth fill me from head to toe. I began to cry and was immediately conscious of the Lord’s presence. I felt His love and somehow, I knew I was cleansed and healed.

Without saying a word, both Fr. Bob and I were fully aware of what happened. I calmly told him that I would not need surgery and that I was all right. The Lord is mightier than man.

The doctors tried to persuade me for surgery, but my faith knew what man could not know. My faith also knew, contrary to what the doctors had told me, that, one day, I would indeed be a mother.

Ten years later, and cancer free, I gave birth to a healthy 8-1/2 pound healthy baby girl. Stubbornly, I packed my little angel in the car and drove to the hospital where I was diagnosed with cancer ten years previously.

As Dr. Berkowitz was holding ‘my miracle baby’, I calmly told him what I had heard many, many years ago as a child:

“For those who believe in God, no explanation is needed; for those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible."

©2007 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

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The following video, "Holy Is His Name", by John Michael Talbot courtesy of You Tube.

Our Father...

Reflecting on our nation's future, my mind wanders towards God's mercy and prayer. Discouraged and tired, I think of The Lord's Prayer; Jesus' own formula for how we should all pray.

True prayer should take us out of ourselves; out of the narrow confines of our self-conscious preoccupation with our own thoughts and feelings. Jesus' prayer immediately does that:

"Our Father who art in heaven." We are out of ourselves, addressing our Father, calling upon God Himself as our Father.

And this other centeredness continues:

"hallowed be Thy Name." God's name defines who He is and we pray that His name always be Holy with reverence, respect and adoration of whom we are daring to address.

"Thy Kingdome come," Praying for God's Kingdom to come is saying yes to all of salvation history and yes for all that is yet to come in the plan of God.

And then perhaps the hardest prayer of all:

"Thy Will be done." God's Will! To say yes to that is to accept the totality of what has happened, is happening and will yet come to pass as it is willed by the Father. And that means suffering and sorrow as well as happiness and joy.

This whole first part of The Lord's Prayer has been addressed to the Father and has been wishing for Him everything He wants from man:

That He be our Father,

that His Name be holy,

that His Kingdom come, and

His will be done.

And we pray for all of this not to My Father, but to Our Father because we are one with all mankind whose common Father is our personal Father as well.

Only then do we pray for ourselves and for all of mankind.

"Give us this day our daily bread." We trust in our Fathers loving providence to care for us from day to day. We live and pray in the present and God answers our present needs, not those future needs we imagine are coming.

"And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." No prayer is possible without forgiveness. We must forgive those who offend us if we are to expect God to forgive us our offenses. A heart that cannot forgive is a closed heart and God will not enter there.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." We acknowledge our fallen nature and our dependence on God. Only in Him can we be victorious over evil, and only a humble awareness of our need for Him will keep us from succumbing to temptation.

"For His is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen." As we began with praise, we end with praise; and everything in between flows from that praise.

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Father God, on behalf of our nation, have mercy on us; America needs you.

©2008 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

***

The following video, The Beatitudes/The Lord's Prayer, from Jesus of Nazareth courtesy of You Tube.

3537 Bainbridge Avenue

I walked out of the front door of 3537 Bainbridge Avenue a much stronger, faith-driven woman than when I had entered twenty-seven months prior. Discerning a call for the religious life, and to the shock of many, I was accepted into the Franciscan Sisters of Alleghany, NY, as a postulant within their community.

“We’ve never had anyone within our community who’s had your “spirit" before; you are very different from our other postulants, Judi, yet your devotion to the Lord is undoubted. I will miss you. Tell me dear, what are your plans now?"

“I intend to pursue art, Sister, but would also like to continue working with the kids. They need us and I don’t see where it makes a difference whether I am a nun or not to serve others."

Smiling, Sister Jean responds, “Spoken like a true Franciscan, Judi Lynn."

“That will never change, Sister, never."

In unison, we say a prayer and then affectionately embrace each other very tightly.

***

“Geez-louise, Judi! I can’t believe that there aren’t any cabs ‘round here and we’re late!"

Frustrated, I ask, “How much money you got?"

“Thirty dollars, why?"

“Good. Between the two of us we can rent a horse and buggy and make it down-town in time for the award ceremony."

“Are you crazy, Judi?"

“No, we’re late! C’mon!"

While waiting for our “ride," Maureen shyly asks, “Judi, I don’t get it. Weren’t you studying for the nunnery, or something, years ago?"

Startled, I reply, “What? Yeah, years ago – and it’s not the nunnery, Maureen; I was considering becoming a nun."

“Yeah, well, whatever. Anyway, I don’t get it. Here you are this big art director workin’ with all these famous musicians. How—“

Intuitively, I interrupt, “Ah-hah! You’re wondering if I’ve lost my faith, aren't you?"

“Well, yeah, sorta kinda. You’re making good money and have this great job…"

“So when is it wrong to make money and love Jesus? My heart hasn’t changed, Maureen, I just wasn’t meant to live the cloistered life."

“You mean it’s okay to believe in God and make money too?"

Laughing, I hug her firmly and reassuredly reply, “Yes, Maureen, it’s okay. I don’t believe that success is evil unless you let it become so."

***

I personally believe that all Christians are called to live a humble life filled with deep inner peace and joy. It is within our human selves, however, that many of us struggle with (un)worthiness and success.

While some are called to a life of poverty and ministry, others are drawn towards success and attainment of dreams. For a Christian, is it wrong to “think big"? Are such aspirations in opposition to the spiritual life?

I think not.

Since each of us is made in the image of our Maker, I believe it is an insult to God if we don’t strive to become the very best we can be.

It is my humble opinion that the world and success are evil only when you become its slave. The world, in which God freely and lovingly gave us, has a lot to offer each one of us as long as we don’t feel bound to obey it.

The greatest struggle with many, in my opinion, is not to leaving the world and rejecting all ambitions and aspirations, or to despise money, prestige, and/or success, but it is to claim our spiritual truth and to live in the world as someone who does not belong to it.

I believe that the Lord rejoices when His children are successful. It is exciting and fulfilling to win competitions; it is interesting to meet influential people; it is inspiring to listen to good music and be with good friends. And since when is it wrong to eat good food and dress well?

All the beauty of the world is ours to cherish and enjoy in the truth that we are truly children of the King. Such truth sets each one of us free to receive the beauty of this world in gratitude as a sign of our love for Him. The knowledge that we belong to our Maker allows us to let go of the confusing distractions that can jeopardize the Spirit within us.

Spiritually, as believers in Christ, we do not belong to the world. Faith tells us that each one of us has been sent to this world already loved and cherished by Him. As long as we yield to the enormous pressures of life trying to prove our worthiness to others, and ourselves we will loose. We simply can’t look to world itself as our source of life.

On a spiritual level, this we call “life" is a God-given opportunity for all of us to become who we are meant to be, to understand our own spiritual nature, to claim our truth and integrate the reality of being loved by God.

For me, the spiritual life is having countless chances of saying “yes" to the Christ while understanding my own inner truth. Every portion of my own journey; whether it be joyful or painful, becomes bold expressions of my own love for my God.

At every point of our journey, there is always a choice to say “yes" and “no."

For me, I choose to say "yes."

©2008 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

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Below video, Breathe On Me - Shout To The Lord, by Darlene Zschech courtesy of You Tube.

GUEST AUTHOR: ROBERT MELACCIO, SR

Greetings fellow bloggers!

Since I've intended this blog to be a "safe-haven" for all Christians to share "life as it happens," I am thrilled to step aside today for guest author, Robert Melaccio, Sr. If anyone else is interested to "guest author" on this blog, feel free to e-mail me at judi@judilake.com. Please be advised that all material is subject for approval.

In the meantime, following are Mr. Melaccio's thoughts for the day:

***

The Simplicity of God

What do I mean by the simplicity of God? Well one must go back to the very simplest of thinking to grasp this. First let us offer up these three things to see if you agree or not? Basically God in my opinion is saying we should Love Him. That is the primary command and with our whole heart and soul. No he did not say a fraction, a percentage, he said whole, 100%. Next God said, not me now, we should honor Him. How do we do that? Well we praise Him; we worship Him; we respect Him. We also do that by being a doer of His Word. That is in thought, word and get this deed. Finally we come to Obey Him. That is summed up in Luke “Why do you _____ call me Lord, When you _________do NOT follow my commands? A very direct question to those who, get this, “profess” to be believers in Him.

Now I’m no priest or religious zealot; I’m just an average person who professes a belief in Jesus Christ as my Lord, My Savior, MY God. I suspect many of you are the same or at least thinking about it. Those who reject outright, well that is their choice. You see everyone is given a choice that they may come “freely” to Him. Certainly when Christ was before pilot and I’ll out this into my words, Pilot said “Don’t you know I hold the power of life and death over you.” Now one can just see Jesus standing there humbly, thinking, “please, give me a break, do you really believe that?” Jesus replied: “you have nothing [nada, zilch, zero] except that which His Father allowed Pilot to have.”

So if we believe or I should say we profess to believe then why do we, try to say what God has said to suit our own ideologies and beliefs? One could write a book but it will never match God’s. Ok, one needs an example. Let us take the main topic from this site “Abortion.” You will certainly hear everything from disdain, to conflict, to anger, to rejection, to belief and certainly that one word, choice followed by I. A very significant I. Yes what you believe, your doctrine, your ideology, your opinion, your perspective. It really is simple, yours.

So if we say, once again say, we believe in God, then why do we dare and I do mean dare challenge Him, His teachings, His Word? He did not say here is my Word go and correct it, use it as you see fit, change it as necessary. No He said this is His Word. Well once again we hear the argument God wants us to read and understand His Word and apply it in our life. Ok, no argument.

But why would God make a man and a woman? Why did he say go forth and multiply and have dominion over all the earth? What is emphatic since then is a man and woman are to join in marriage and conceive and bear children. Please correct me but I don’t recall God saying let two men or woman go forth, marry and bear children? In fact God is emphatic about Homosexuality as an abomination. Now certainly man will change that to suit their own version, doctrine, belief but why would anyone challenge what God said who is a believer? Now in keeping with the theme of this site, to procreate requires a man and a woman. “The fact that God formed us in, get this, our mothers womb speaks to the method that life enters this world. NO not in a test tube. A union between two people, brought about by love for the purpose of life.

Now when does that life take form, shape and become life? Well sperm, active, living components of a man and a woman join together and I believe at that moment life begins. Two living things giving life to another living thing. From then on that new life grows as a unique creation. Are you going to tell me that sperm is not life? Then I ask you are cells alive, living and part of us? Do they not live and die and multiply each day. Sop sperm cannot be alive? I think not but once again only my belief based on, get this, my belief or should say as a professed believer in Jesus Christ. I do not doubt God, nor God’s intent. It is that simple.

So if we study the transformation from one living cell to a unique individual we see that life was always there. It didn’t just start but an individual being started through once again the union of two as God ordained.

Now if you profess why do you not believe? Well it is simple once again and we must examine our very selves. How does anyone profess to be a believer but not do the works of a follower. How is it that mercy, compassion, love, consideration is not the fruits of your work? How can we go through life coveting, wanting, doing or not that which harms others. In this case the death of life, innocence, dependent on its mother, parents for survival.

No in my opinion we should not kid ourselves that we profess we are followers when we do not do His works. When we do not follow His commands. When we choose the doctrines of men and our own over His.

So if I have struck any cord at all I say praise God. For it is not I reaching out to you. I am a mere sinner unworthy to speak for God. For who is like unto God that one should dare speak for Him? No he has placed His Word before us and therein lies the answer. If you follow Him you know and do His Word. Rhetorically, could this be the time of separation? Is now the time to Look up? Perhaps yes, perhaps no but once again as a follower, a believer, one who professes He said, not I or any church or denomination “believers would know when my coming was even at the door”.

Is abortion a sign, are the doctrines of men a sign, is Peace and Security a sign one only has to ask, do you believe?

©2008 Robert Melaccio, Sr.

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Robert Melaccio Sr. is 63 and has worked in the computer industry for 44 years in diversified business and managerial environments. These positions involved Computer Operations, Project Management, Technical and End User Support, Networking and Communications, Documentation and Training and Consulting, along with Disaster Contingency and Recovery Planning. Mr. Melaccio is also President and owner of C.O.P.P.S Continuance Operation Planning Protection and Security, which assists small business and individuals with establishing a functional continuation recovery plan. He enjoys freelance writing for Searchwarp and in between assignments he is a highly sought after Part Time Substitute Teacher, grades K-12. Along with his Youth Ministry he does seminars for young adults and pre teen groups as well as being an accomplished poet with numerous awards and published poetry. He is married and has three children and two grandchildren.

***

Below video, The Potter's Hand, by Darlene Zschech courtesy of You Tube.

Let It Begin With Me

Immersed within a complicated deadline, I absent-mindedly change the CD that I am listening to. I have always worked best with background music and today is no exception.

Suddenly, as the music permeates my office, I am overcome with enormous emotion. I know the woman behind ‘the big voice’; I know her very well. It is my friend, Yolanda... Yolanda Dowling.

Yolanda was a gifted opera singer that I genuinely respected and admired. Yolanda was also one of the 2996 casualties of the World Trade Center attack on September 11, 2001.

Unable to concentrate further on work, I become paralyzed with the heinous memories of that week. As though I am hypnotized, I turn away from my work and begin reading the scribbles within my journal.

Following are some unedited notes that I had jotted down the week of 9-11:

Tuesday, September 11, 2001:

While I am watching the morning news, the television screen suddenly changes to images of utter terror: A plane has just struck The World Trade Center! At first, I assume it is a preview for a movie but it doesn’t take long for my senses to accept that this is the real thing. Terror and despair grip everyone.

Then, about 20 minutes later, a second plane crashes into The World Trade Center’s South Tower. As the entire world witnesses the collapse of both towers, it is clear that this is an act of terrorism and this is reality, not fiction.

While transfixed in front of the television, the World Trade Center becomes a horrifying image of dense smoke and carnage right before my eyes. Terrified, I witness my beloved New York in flames and under attack. Within a short time, New York has become vulnerable and shattered. I sit in shock feeling helpless and frightened.

With no entrance into Manhattan for those of us waiting, the only thing to do is to watch and pray. Along with millions of others, my heart aches for every person in and near the towers as well as for their families and friends. Are they safe? Are they alive?

Piece by piece, information is relayed to us about friends and associates. A very good friend who works at Kemper Insurance on the 34th floor is relaying information from her cell phone to her husband who in turn calls each of us.

Friday, September 14, 2001:

As days pass, all eyes and ears are glued to TV’s and radios. Having no phone service. I begin feeling very isolated and pensive. On the forth day after the attack, I am anxious and know I need to see the ruins for myself. I call two friends, who are visiting from Kentucky, pack my 2-year-old daughter into the car and head for Manhattan. My friends accompanying me are under the assumption that I am taking them sightseeing, but I know better….

As I approach Manhattan, I shutter as I sight the financial district in a mass of smoke. I will forever remember the eerie feeling of seeing lower Manhattan in a smoky glow. My friends suddenly realize that this will be a tour of New York that they will never forget.

Somehow, someway, we manage to get right into lower Manhattan without being stopped or questioned. Fortunately, in this case, the familiar saying, ‘ignorance is bliss’ applies; I am on a mission and I drive blindly.

As we approach SoHo, we witness parts of the Trade Center already being carried away by vehicles. The city, which normally resounds with energy and vibrancy, is so quiet that you could literally hear a pin drop. Finally finding a parking space, we get out of the car. I grab the baby stroller and we walk in a complete daze.

My only description would be similar to walking on Holy Ground. Familiar sites are now covered in dust and ash. Destruction is everywhere, and there before us is the shattered Twin Towers in ruins. Red Cross tables are lined up everywhere, and familiar storefronts belied the fact that they are now temporary morgues.

As we walk and pray, yes, pray, we are a people united, a people who mourn together and are on a mission to find every missing person who is trapped within the Trade Center.

I can’t recall how long we stayed there but it was a very long, dark day. It is one thing reading about something but it is truly another thing being an eyewitness to the mass destruction.

As weeks pass, the pain never ceases as the death toll mounts, and many people I know are added to that list. An extremely painful loss is my dear friend Fran and her family and then there is Yolanda Dowling; Yolanda will never again sing on Christmas Eve at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

In every way our lives will now never be the same….

***

Since that tragic day, my prayers have never ceased for our country and our world. I no longer recognize the world we live in, but I believe that if we are to see any changes in our world, it must begin within each of us, individually, and through God.

In closing, I think of Jill Jackson Miller's song, “Let There Be Peace On Earth, And Let It Begin With Me," May her lyrics touch everyone, one person at a time.

© 2007 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

###

Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

***

The following video, Let There Be Peace On Earth, courtesy of You Tube.

A Light To A Dying World

I don’t blame non-believers for being “turned off" by Christianity; not one bit. Sometimes we become so obsessed about “winning" that we lose the substance of “the message." We want to win souls for Jesus, period. In the process, we let ourselves become the focus and all witness to the Lord disappears.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and I submit, He weeps over what He sees of Christianity today. Because some of us [Christians] almost by definition see ourselves as “on a personal mission from God," we unknowingly act smugly and condescendingly towards others and each other.

Recently a young woman shared, “As a Christian, I am most often hurt, attacked, put down and disregarded by other Christians. Christians in the workplace are the worst. I love The Lord but Christians hurt me terribly…."

Why do some Christians hurt others?

Interestingly, Mark Twain once said, "If Christ were here, there is one thing He would not be — a Christian."

Is he correct?

When asked about Christianity, Mohandas Gandhi replied, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Gandhi also said that what passes as Christianity these days is a negation of the Sermon on the Mount.

I think he was right.

Not everyone who claims to be a Christian is actually part of the Body of Christ. And just because someone is in the Body, doesn't make them perfect.

Why do we as Christians sometime allow our egos to get in the way of the Holy Spirit?

Ahhh…because we hold our beliefs and our words to be the ones most pleasing to God. At best others are less good or less pleasing.

We continue in the original sin and eat of that tree. For most, the fruit seems sweet but it is bitter.

We continue to fall from grace when we judge others. When we judge others we take another bite of that apple and satan smiles.

Outwardly, Gandhi lived according to the teachings of Jesus. He lived a life of service and sacrifice. Did he have the indwelling spirit of Christ? He certainly unveiled it to a great degree.

Robert McCracken was a gifted preacher at the Riverside Church in Manhattan. In one of his books, Questions People Ask (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951), he wrote:

Do you recall the ground on which Gandhi criticized organized Christianity? His complaint was not directed at the Christian ideal-for the Sermon on the Mount he professed admiration again and again-but at the failure of Christians to put it into operation and at their refusal to take it seriously. Stanley Jones once said to him: "Mahatma Gandhi, I am very anxious to see Christianity nationalized in India, so that it shall no longer be a foreign thing identified with a foreign people and a foreign government, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power to India's uplift and redemption. What would you suggest that we do to make that possible?" This was the reply: "I would suggest, first, that all of you Christians must begin to live more like Jesus Christ. Second, I would suggest that you must practice your religion without adulterating or toning it down. Third, I would suggest that you must put your emphasis upon love, for love is the centre and soul of Christianity.

Christian’s are not called to win but to serve. I think Jesus cares more about what we “do" instead of what we “preach."

So how are Christians to act? Jesus plainly told us when He taught The Sermon on the Mount. It begins with the utterance of "moving lyrical strains of the Beatitudes." They constitute the string of pearls which adorns the crowning of Christian ethics. The Beatitudes are independent exhortations of blessedness to mold the character of the Christian believer:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. — Matthew 5: 3-12

So who enters the kingdom first? Those, who profess Jesus or those living the Christ?

Here is a hint:

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." — Mathew 7

For those of us who profess to be Christian, may God guide us to live in the true Spirit of the Christ so that we can be salt and light to a dying world.

©2008 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in Charleston, South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

***

The following video, "Jesus of Nazareth-best scenes-"Blessed are They," from the movie, Jesus of Nazareth, courtesy of You Tube.

Who Kissed The Boo-Boo’s of Jesus

Mommy, do you think Mary had to change Jesus’ diapers when He was a little boy?"

“I don’t think diapers were as we know them to be today, baby girl, but whatever they used, I think so. He came into this world as a little baby and I think He grew into His knowledge of being God as He got older."

“Mommy, do you think Jesus got boo-boos when He was little?"

“I think so, Laura. I think He may have gotten many and I think that when He did, He cried, just like you do. I also think that Mary and Joseph kissed His boo-boos and hugged Him like Daddy and I do to you to make them all better."

“Mommy, did Jesus call Mary ‘mommy’?"

“I’m not sure, sweetie. I don’t understand the language they spoke, but I’m sure it was something close."

“You know how you feel bad when I’m hurt or sad, Mommy?"

“Yes, I do, baby girl, why?"

“Well, when Mary saw her son die on the cross, I bet she must have cried so hard, don’t you think, Mommy?"

“I do, baby girl, I do."

***

Satisfied and with no more questions (for now, at least), Laura went outside to play. As I watched her from my dining room window, I began to wonder myself. We know what the Bible says about Jesus, but since He did come into this world as Man, surely He must have felt all the things that humans do.

We know that He wept for Lazarus and righteously got angry in the Temple but what was His family life like? Did they laugh together? Did Mary and Joseph teach and protect their child still knowing that He was God? Did Joseph ‘have to teach’ his son carpentry? Did Mary stay up all night to nurse her son when He was sick? Did Mary weep for her son?

I think so.

I believe that Mary, as with all woman, delighted in the development of the child growing within her womb. I believe that with every inward kick she felt, she rejoiced and was filled with anticipation. I believe that once He was born, she counted all ten of His little toes and fingers.

I believe she loved her child deeply with the knowledge of His Mission. I believe, also, as the years progressed, that Mary held many wounds deep within her heart.

Whenever I hug my little girl, I wonder how Mary felt while hugging her own son. Whenever Laura does something that amazes me, which is often, I wonder about Mary’s own amazement with her son. I wonder how Mary and Joseph felt when their Son made His first chair. More so, I wonder the excitement Jesus must have felt showing it to them and seeing their joy.

Whenever I feel a little hand reach out for mine, or feel a little body crawl beside me in the middle of the night, I wonder if Mary cuddled with her Son as I do with my daughter. I believe she did, and I believe she stroked her Son gently to sleep. I believe that Mary lovingly kissed her Son’s forehead and loved her Him with all of her heart. And I believe, that Mary suffered with her Son as no mother ever had.

As a mother, I have doctored many of Laura’s ‘boo-boos’ and calm her when she is upset or scared. I also know the feelings of a Tigress and would go to any length to protect my child yet, once Jesus, Mary’s ‘little baby boy', entered public life, Mary could no longer protect her child. The time had come for her to unselfishly accept His Mission and associate herself with the sufferings of her child, the Son of God, deep within her heart.

Once her Son, Jesus, entered His public life, it is said, that Mary sustained herself with her enormous God given faith. Yet, as a mother, I mourn for her as she silently endured the cruelty and arrogance of people towards her Son and the tragic events of Calvary. I cry for her as she stood at the foot of the cross and witnessed her child’s suffering. My heart shutters as I think of what Jesus thought seeing His mamma at the foot of the cross He was dying on for all of mankind. I cannot imagine her grief as her Son’s body was taken off the cross and she held Him in her arms.

She was still human and she was still His mother.

Interestingly, motherhood has strengthened and personalized my relationship with a God I freely call ‘Daddy’. Motherhood has shown me the most insatiable love there is therefore enabling me to identify with Mary’s role more deeply. A parent’s love for their child is inexhaustible and unconditional. Mother’s have the capacity of ‘knowing’ their children and I believe that Mary not only knew her Son but also kissed every boo-boo He ever had, even the most intense ones once they reunited in Paradise. And I believe that with every kiss Jesus was comforted immensely.

©2007 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

***

Following video, “Mary Did You Know,” courtesy of You Tube.

God’s Search For You

How often do we say that something is “in God’s hands" and want to believe it?

For me, one of the most difficult aspects of prayer is that it demands so much faith and trust in God.

Do we really believe that He is listening to us? Isn’t it easier to do things ourselves than to put it in His hands? Sometimes, it seems hard enough just to stop working or worrying long enough to spend time with God in prayer, let alone having the trust to turn over our lives to Him and let Him handle our worries.

Our life with God is supposed to be an intimate relationship that works much the same as the relationships we have with others. If we feel as though we have to do everything ourselves, we find ourselves not only doing everything alone but after awhile, are very much alone. Because we lack the trust to ask for help, eventually, we become isolated and it becomes difficult to talk or listen to others.

If, however, we work with others and let them share with us, we grow in an awareness of our essential communion with other people; and because we have shared responsibilities and play, sorrow and joy, we find it much easier to communicate verbally and non-verbally as well.

From this very human fact of our experience, we should learn something about our relationship with God. Because He is the most important relationship in our lives, we should trust Him and let Him into the practical, day-to-day side or our lives. We should let God act and not shut Him out. If we do allow Him in, our relationship takes on all kinds of new dimensions. We have much to talk to Him about because He has been sharing the whole day with us. Since He’s been there with us, we can also be silent together in the day’s failures and/or successes.

In order to reach this stage, however, we have to be able to put some things in God’s hands and trust Him. For most of us, this is easier said than done.

The person who can put things in God’s hands and trust Him grows daily in the knowledge that for him who loves God, all things work together unto good. Out of the great sorrows and pain of my life come goodness, beauty and insight I never had before. French novelist, Leon Bloy (1846-1917) once said that there are places in the human heart which do not yet exist, and into the heart comes suffering, that they might have existence. Out of such a heart prayer rises naturally as thanksgiving for the wholeness of everything that is, as a hymn to God who draws good even out of what was thought as evil.

Most of our own anxieties about communing with God, I believe, come from what preachers, authors and acquaintances say they experience. The constant “high" that many share, is usually very different from the darkness and emptiness we often feel. In truth, God comes to each one of us in His own way and time and in the manner best suited to each person. He doesn’t come according to a manual or primer of prayer, but according to our need and readiness for Him.

Even when faith is low, many of us keep praying because contrary to what many “pray-ers" proclaim, common sense tells us that God is more loving and aware of who we are and what we need that those advisers in the spiritual life who are more like Job’s accusers than wise men of the Spirit. God loves each and every one of us. If only we could hold to that above everything else. We long to believe it but others sometimes make us doubt it because they don’t seem to care. And, of course, what we can see and hear and touch affects us more that what we believe. It is only when belief conquers experience that we are truly men and women of faith.

The search for God ends up in the end to be God’s search for you. You take so many wrong turns just where you might have met Him at some corner of your life. But in the end, He surprises you by finding you looking for Him in the wrong direction. God comes your way, no matter how far afield you are. That is the story of God; He goes out of His way for his children. You are that important; that is the story of man.

©2008 Judi Lynn Lake. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

###

Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

***

Below video, “God Alone Is Enough” courtesy of You Tube. Written and performed by John Michael Talbot.





America, Which Jesus Do We Follow?

In response to a recent “Mad As Hell" article I had recently posted, the following e-mail arrived in my mailbox:

… We are being assaulted from every direction between terrorism, hurricanes, global warming, abortions, drug addiction, violence- you name it and we got it. We are clearly in spiritual warfare and the demonic is in the chaos. This is just not some pious fundamentalist platitude—it is the real world of the Spirit.

Luke expresses it well in the words of the Lord: Jesus said to the people,"When you see a cloud coming up from the west, at once you say, it is going to rain, and it does. And when you feel the south wind blowing, you say it is going to get hot, and it does. You hypocrites! You can look at the earth and the sky and know what it means, why then don't you know the meaning of this present time?" Luke 12 vs, 54-56.

I feel that Jesus is speaking to us right now and how many are really listening?

—Keep Loving and Praying, RM, SJ

***

Yes, as the e-mail suggests, I also believe that our Lord is speaking to us right now. What more has to happen for our eyes to be opened? Saddened with our nation’s collapse, I temporarily retreat into my “silent cave” to be alone with God and then happen upon an article by William Staneski, “The Drumbeat,” which should make every American of faith to stop, think and realize that our America is in a spiritual battle for its very soul….

“The drumbeat. It’s always there. Day and night. Rain or shine. Winter or Summer. Sunday or Monday. It comes at you from every direction. It comes over the TV, the radio, at work, at school, in music, in the newspapers, from the politicians, in conversation with others, even in church. It wears you down. It robs you of the will to resist its message. Even short-lived victories, which stop it briefly, leave you with the knowledge that it will return; each minor victory bound to be lost to the redoubled efforts of this patient and persistent force. You can’t escape it. It never stops. It never gives up. It never ends. It rains upon you from every possible angle, from every possible source.

It’s the drumbeat of the left. It is political, philosophical, theological, and social. It pervades every activity. It is post-structural, post-modern, post-everything in the parlance of the day. It is tolerant, diverse, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, egalitarian, politically correct, multicultural, globalist, and collectivist. It insists that there are no rights and wrongs, no moral absolutes. It turns everything upside down in its looking glass world.

It denies the correctness of all that produced what our culture revered before the deconstruction of the world in accordance with the tenets of cultural Marxism. It denies God, human exceptionalism, and the soul. We are reduced to Darwinian animals floundering in an amoral sea of meaninglessness. It is a product of the nihilistic, existentialist philosophical movement, which went hand in hand with modern art, atonal music, scientific materialism and modern physics, and the generally discordant nature of the twentieth century.

It is said that a fish is not aware of the water in which it swims since it is totally immersed in it. This is the way cultural Marxism is taking over our world in its inexorable Gramscian march. We swim in it. It enters every pore of our existence. It is everywhere. We can’t escape it. Many people accept this world without even realizing it, just as the fish accepts the water in which it swims. They don’t realize it as the left creates new conventional wisdom and new intuitions about truth.

The cultural Marxists convince us that the truth is that there is no truth. And even though this unresolvable paradox lies at the very center of all this, the constant drumbeat keeps the masses in line, anesthetized enough to not make an issue of it.
Fed a constant diet of sex, drugs, poisonous pop culture, materialistic trinkets, and unkeepable promises of security provided by huge leftist government, ever more globalist in nature, the masses are diverted from realizing, as they are told there is no truth, that this claim itself is subject to the same test. It is logically impossible for the leftist drumbeat to be true by its own axioms.

The principles upon which Western culture rests and upon which America was built are under attack by these slow acting but deadly forces. The drumbeat is grinding down the will of the West to maintain itself. The ideas of individual sovereignty and responsibility, natural rights, and objective truth have been derided by the left to the point that many of our young people reject them, if, indeed, they are even aware of them as the basis for our culture. All that ensures that a culture will pass its ideas down from one generation to the next is its cultural memory. The drumbeat is slowly but surely replacing our cultural memory….

…If you believe that all this is a paranoid overreaction, you have plenty of company. Those of us who can still see the water and hear the drumbeat are subject to attempts to make us sound evil and foolish. To believe in traditional Western cultural values, American Exceptionalism, God, and moral truth is to be branded as old fashioned and foolish, even by the best assessments of those who have bought into the cultural Marxist’s message….

…In truth, and in direct opposition to the drumbeat, each human being must be accorded his or her natural rights, individual sovereignty, and self-responsibility to be in harmony with human nature. Each of us must have the freedom to succeed or to fail. Western culture, culminating in the great American experiment, has been perverted. Due to these perversions, many failures have already occurred, which have then, ironically, been used to justify further perversions of the same sort as those which caused the problems to begin with.

Generally, these perversions are manifested in bigger government, more laws, more bureaucracy, more regulations, more taxes, and government controlled redistribution of wealth, more collectivism, less individualism, and less freedom. We all hear it constantly from leftist politicians as they add their part to the drumbeat: government must do more to ensure Americans avoid the consequences of their choices. We all know the song, sung to the cheers of the unthinking throngs who would give up their very humanity for the promise of a free lunch. These are the joys of cultural Marxism. And the drumbeat goes on."

***

It is my opinion that America’s healing can only occur if we repent and completely surrender our land back to our Lord. A complete surrender makes sense for all Christians’; otherwise we are not really followers of Jesus, whose whole life was a handing Himself over to the Father… “Not My Will but Thine be done… Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit….I come to do the Will of Him who sent Me.”

America, which Jesus do we follow?

©2008 Judi Lynn Lake.

###

Judi Lynn Lake has kept up with leading edge business trends throughout her varied and successful career. She had already had her "15 minutes of fame" over and over again before starting her family. Judi and her family now reside in South Carolina, but, having been born and raised on Long Island, NY, it is clearly evident that she will always be a "New Yorker." Today, she successfully runs her own advertising agency which handles everything from logos, branding and package design while she continues to work closely with self-published authors from design to promotion. For more information, visit judilake.com

***

The following video, My Jesus, courtesy of You Tube with song and lyrics written by Todd Agnew.