Christie, Mulvaney, and the Compromise of Compromise

“This is what compromise looks like. Sometimes it’s quiet, sometimes it’s loud.” – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

“That’s not compromise!” – South Carolina Rep Mick Mulvaney

Compromise means that the two bargaining sides do not give up on their principles, but each side will never end up getting everything that they want.

That definition, by the way, comes from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who was defending 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney during a warm yet heated roundtable discussion with MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough. Christie wisely articulated that in compromise, two sides bring their views and their values, but because they need to persuade different groups within a legislature or throughout a state to support a policy, both sides give something to gain something else.

Compromise works when negotiators do not sell out their values, and more importantly do not ignore the rules of the game in the process, like overarching rules and regulations already in place. Federal law exists to protect the integrity of the United States, from all enemies both foreign and domestic. Immigration is a boon for every country, yet becomes a bane when the rule of law is ignored, and results in a ban on able labor when state and federal leaders ignore the law of the land.

Compromise cannot occur when both sides insist on ignoring essential verities, like legislation which requires that immigrants pay certain fees, take tests, and follow the outlined procedures to receive legal status. Governor Christie claims that he compromised by permitting undocumented immigrants to attend state universities at in-state tuition levels, yet refuses to permit them to receive financial aid in order to enroll.

This is not compromise. This is lawlessness, an unrepentant decision to ignore the rule of law and strike a bargain for political points, or to pander to political pressures. In the same way that two greed uncles spend the inheritance of a ward under their charge.

In the past month, however, Christie has compromised the very notion of compromise by promoting a DREAM Act-lite provision for New Jersey immigrants who were brought to the United States as babies, yet their illegal status has not changed. Christie has signed legislation which will permit undocumented youth who have attended New Jersey high schools for three years to enroll in state universities and pay in-state tuition.

Rewind back to the candidate Christie in 2009, and the former US Attorney is explaining to the prospective voters why he opposes DREAM act legislation:

“They do not pay into the state subsidy.”

An economic reason, free of emotion or political pandering, Christie recognized that extending in-state tuition grants to illegal immigrants is too costly, and that the legal residents will end up paying the bill. That’s not fair.

Four years and double-digit reelection results later, Christie has waffled, hiding behind the slogan “tuition equality” to justify enabling illegal immigration and granting the “DREAM” of illegal immigrants and amnesty advocates.

This is not compromise. This is naked abuse of power in the name of state-sponsored humanitarianism. This agreement to foster a “DREAM Act is compromise the way that two thieves evenly divide the loot which they pilfered from an unguarded home.

Not just with Christie’s caving in to immigration pressures, but with Congressman Paul Ryan’s decision to support cuts to military pensions, and more importantly President Obama’s passage of the Affordable Care Act, which as rendered health insurance unaffordable while raising taxes on the middle class, compromise as a political art form has become compromised.

Another example delineating the comprehensive failure of true, problem-solving bipartisanship emerged in a CNN discussion following the last-minute fiscal cliff deal in 2012. Rep Mick Mulvaney voted against the hasty, late-night deal, arguing that the “compromise” would increase spending and taxes without cutting the spending. Willing to negotiate on revenue increases, Mulvaney would never agree to any plan which ignored rising debt. Then the CNN moderator cited complaints that Tea Party Republicans in the House refused to compromise.

Mulvaney balked, then criticized that mentality pervasive among the Beltway media classes. “I wish that I could show them what we are trying to do in Washington,” Mulvaney continued. He then illustrated: “Imagine if someone came to you and offered to buy your home for one dollar. I mean, you would slam the door in his face. That’s not compromise!”

Exactly. When one side is giving everything, and the other side gets most of what they want, you have acquiescence, especially when the side giving everything abdicates its responsibilities. In the same manner, Christie compromised not only with the Democratically-controlled legislature in Trenton, he compromised his own values, or at least the views of his party, and furthermore he compromised his office, as every Governor must uphold and defend the United States Constitution.

The DREAM Act will be a nightmare for the rule of law in Trenton and throughout the country, as well as compromising Christie’s chances for higher political office. Now more than ever, voters need leaders who fulfill the spirit as well as letter of compromise, upholding their vows will respecting the views and values of the other side.

2014: The Year of Greater Glory

Jesus in Center Place -- Graces you and me
With Greater Glory!
(Source: Richard Croft)

Pastor Joseph Prince of New Creation Church spoke over the year 2013 a year of great provision and  victory. Citing unprecedented rain and snowfall in Israel, he declared a year of open doors for the Body of Christ.

In prior sermons, he shared that every Psalm speaks of a year, from Psalm One which corresponds to 1901.

Psalm 113 corresponds, then, with 2013.

In that Psalm, the singer speaks of the great graciousness and goodness of God, who takes the poor out of the dust, the needy out of the dunghill, to set them with princes, even the princes of His people.

This wonderful declaration speaks to every person who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, who takes us from dead in our trespasses to alive and seated in heavenly places.

To be seated with princes? We are seated with the King of Kings, Jesus Christ, our Prince of Peace!

The  last verse of Psalm  113 speaks of a barren woman keeping house, becoming a merry mother of children.

This wonderful miracle corresponds to these prophesied wonders:

"1Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD." (Isaiah 54: 1)

Paul references this wonderful promise to the Galatians:

"27For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

"28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. 29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now." (Galatians 4: 27-29)

 

When we realize the fullness of our new standing in Christ, that we receive His righteousness, that we receive His perfect standing before God the Father, we find that His grace can flow fully in our lives.

 

I submit that in my life, the year 2013 was the year of being established in righteousness, learning that my true identity is in Christ, with Christ, not with myself, and certainly having nothing to do with what I do or say or have. Everything that we have, we have because of Jesus.

 

When we know who we are, or rather whose we are, then we can look forward to Christ causing us to triumph in all things (2 Corinthians 2: 14), that in Christ we are more than conquerors in all things (Romans 8: 37), that concerning all things we can prosper and be in health (3 John 2).

 

We are Christ's, and Christ is God's (1 Corinthians 3: 23)

 

With this powerful revelation established for us, let us look to 2014, and the banner Psalm for this year of Greater Glory: Psalm 114!

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder: Republican RoboCop

RoboCop was a sci-fi shoot-em-up from the late 1980s. The sequel explored the damaging effects of the drug trade at length, but for the sake of comparison, the first film will suffice. The setting of the movie takes place in a future dystopia of Detroit, where gangs run rampant in a Detroit burned out and turned out. The background for the movie focused on a Detroit police officer, killed in the line of duty, who comes back to life, sort of, as a cyborg. Designed by a major computer company, where one of the leaders has entered into corrupt collusion with dirty cops and criminals, RoboCop takes on the scene to bring law and order back to a scandal-plagued city.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

The dystopia of the movie resembles all too closely the current economic and cultural malaise of Detroit, Michigan. Of course, a computerized police force does not patrol Motor City, although mechanized security may be the only way they city can maintain law and order without breaking the bank with lavish pensions and benefits. Newly-elected Mayor Duggan should consider the idea. RoboCop would never enter into collective bargaining, and he would follow orders without demanding pay raises, overgenerous benefits, or threatening work-actions.

However, a different RoboCop has made a comeback, but instead of taking on Detroit, this new RoboCop has moved to Lansing, Michigan. Instead of metal and machine, he has mettle and a mission. His name is Rick Snyder, a successful businessman, computer entrepreneur, and now model leader.

Unlike his predecessors, Snyder is standing up to the special interests in his state. Despite the storied origins of the labor movement in the Wolverine State, a new leader of the pack is stepping up and rallying Michiganders: pushing tax cuts and business credits, giving credit to businesses as the source of wealth, well-being, and welfare for all residents. The top RoboCop taking on population decline and economic malaise, Snyder instituted an innovative policy, emergency managers, who would supervise bankrupting cities and rearrange debts and spending. Since elected leaders, city councilmembers, mayors, school board members never make the hard decision, lest they lose their jobs. The most famous emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, has taken on Detroit, steering the bankrupted city which has kicked the can of unsustainable debt into dust.  Public sector unions, like rampaging gangs stealing from residents through collective bargaining, have met their match, and despite the creditor status of untold thousands, the union leadership has shot itself.

Despite the slight setbacks of 2012, Republican Robocop Synder’s party controls all statewide offices and both houses of the state legislature. Taking cues from the brave examples of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (comprehensive reforms to collective bargaining rights for public employees) and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels (tax cuts, privatized roads, and budget surpluses despite the Great Recession), Snyder stopped standing to the side and moved for bolder reforms for his state.

“Workplace fairness and equity” became the watch-word mantra, yet Snyder was slyly dressing up in progressive language a comprehensive legislative change for his state: a right to work law. Right to work in Michigan? Michigan has one of the largest labor presences in the United States, the home of the unionized auto industry.

Making his case to the Michigan populace, and by extension the national polity, Snyder asserted that instead of forcing workers to join a union and pay dues to keep their jobs, every union should earn the respect and financing of every member. Opportunities for work should not mean forcing workers to associate against their will (and in violation of the First Amendment), let alone lose funding into a political compact which supports candidates and causes contrary to the individual views and values of the employee (a further violation of a worker’s rights).

The union bullies which had swarmed the state capital in Wisconsin harnessed their efforts all the more in Lansing. Union thugs attacked Conservative reporters, and national media affiliates recorded as violent labor rebels tore down tents which protected and promote the supporters of Synder’s right work legislation. Labor unions were facing lower numbers and lesser influence, yet their dystopian behavior in the name of protest cemented the inherent immorality of force and fiat which defines the modern labor movement

Taking advantage of the final weeks of the 2012 legislative session, Republican RoboCop Snyder and his fellow Republicans passed RTW, and businesses began moving to Michigan once again. A state which suffered population decline for decades, the Great Lakes state is now shoring up opportunities for the first time in a long time.

In leadership with his fellow enforcers of financial prudence, Synder has taken laser-like aim on cutting medical costs, reforming statewide financing, bringing down the costs of doing business, and demonstrating that pragmatic focus on proving one’s mettle and accomplishing the mission of restoring law and order, prosperity in perpetuity, can be done once again in the Midwest, in the face of globalization and the radicalization of the modern labor movement.

Republican RoboCop Snyder is the model for every American Governor: serve, protect, provide, enforce, and subdue every obstacle to economic growth and individual liberty.

Hollow Rumblings on Georgia’s 2014 US Senate Race

Saxby Cahambliss

Georgia will have a contentious US Senate race in 2014, made more contentious by nonstop blogging.

Two-term incumbent Saxby Chambliss will not seek reelection, perhaps fearing a contentious primary challenge, although he had admitted to the press that the partisan gridlock had worn on him.

Chambliss was an outstanding candidate of sorts. A unprecedented outsider who took down incumbent Democrat (and handicapped veteran) Max Cleland in 2002, Chambliss was also one of few Republican incumbents to survive the 2008 Republican shellacking eight years of compassionate Big Government conservatism under George W. Bush.

Never much of an outstanding legislator during his tenure, followed by infrequent appearances on Monday morning talk shows, Chambliss elicited a Tea Party firestorm when he offered to ease away from his Grover Norquist “No Taxes” pledge following the 2012 election disappointment and the years-end fiscal cliff.

Old-school legislators like Chambliss relied on horse-trading for years, yet the unsustainable debt and unfunded entitlements have pushed a growing coalition of citizens to demand that Washington D.C. stop the spending spree and work toward real solutions which agree on how to cut spending, rather than whether to cut spending or not.

Chambliss has represented a red state going redder for the past decade, and Democratic Congressmen considered likely challengers for the 2014 race have politely declined to run. The last Democratic Senator, Zell Miller, even attended the 2004 Republican National Convention, solidifying his conservative credentials as well as affirming a long-standing trend of Dixiecrats bolting from the Democratic fold once and for all.

The other prior Democratic US Senator, Sam Nunn, withdrew from politics on the Washington DC front, yet his daughter Michelle Nunn has emerged as the Democratic front-runner in the Georgia US Senate race.

 

Michelle Nunn

On the Republican side, a slew of candidates have filed papers to run. Who can blame them? Georgia the reliably conservative and Republican stronghold, one of the first states to project GOP wins for Presidential candidates, should see very little drama.

Yet form the moment that conservative Congressman Paul Broun filed papers, to other conservative candidates who have suggested that low-income students receive paid lunches should sweep their school floors, hollow rumblings in the Peach State and across the country are starting to worry that another Todd-Akin like GOP candidate will sinking an easy win and give the Dems one seat to offset their massive challenges. These concerns are valid. Given that the 2012 US Senate filed should have been a win for the GOP, recurrent trends of poorly-trained candidates not thinking through their message should alarm anyone.

Yes, Congressman Broun once called Evolution a doctrine from the pit of hell, and he believes that the earth is only 6,000 years old. So what? Another potential US Senate candidate had claimed that there was some truth to 2012 Missouri candidate Todd Akin’s assertion that the female body can prevent a pregnancy. He weathered the fallout slightly better, but such loose commentary, now more than ever, cannot go unnoticed in the never-ending media obsession with every poll, every pol, and every pull by voters and pundits to make hourly headlines.

Still, such instantaneous rumblings are hollow at best, at this time, regarding the 2014 US Senate race in Georgia.

From the moment that political pundits on the right as well as the left let fly their shaking in their boots, one has to wonder if the blogosphere is merely obsessed with creating conflict on the right and within GOP primaries just to have something exciting to write about.

Consider one again that Georgia is a reliably conservative state. Consider also that more than ten Republicans have thrown their hats into the political ring to run for the seat. Consider also that two years have passed since the unprecedented setbacks of 2012. Most of all, the US Senate elections of 2014 will be divorced from national concerns about Presidential contenders, whether weak front-runners or wealthy incumbents.



Paul Broun

Last of all, the residents of Georgia will be deciding who will represent them, not the national press, not conservative PACs, and certainly not the blogs and polliwogs on the left or the right who are looking at minute-to-minute microdramas to fill up their reportings on events then and now, and what is to come. The US Senate primary takes place May 20, 2014, with a run-off July 22. Such a mechanism might have come in handy in Missouri, since well-financed as well as articulate candidates will more likely succeed winning two primary elections.

Politics used to be a lot of fun, to the extent that men and women followed the trends and trials of local politicians and policy forays with nuance and discernment. Now it appears that minute-media is taking any slight deviation out of proportion and fomenting doubts about future political bouts. Even Breitbart has jumped into the Georgia-based tempests in a teapot, posting that Republican-connected PACs are donating money to Michelle Nunn. How are these revelations constructive, let alone informative?

The Peach State gets to decide its state of affairs, locally and nationally. All this upsetting, impolitic predictions may cause more upset than the Republican candidates themselves.

Disbar and Deport the Illegal Legal

Supreme Court Ignore Supreme Law of Law (Source: Jamison Wieser)

California resident Sergio Garcia went to law school, passed the California State Bar exam, celebrated his remarkable achievement with friends and family, then two weeks later received a notice from the state bar association.

“Your status is in error.”

What was the error?

Sergio Garcia is not an American citizen. He has lived in the United States for the past twenty years, and eight years prior, his parents had brought him to the United States as a seventeen-month old baby,  but he lives in this country as an undocumented immigrant. To be frank, he is an illegal immigrant.

He was born in Mexico, and while his father ultimately received permanent resident status, his son Sergio (and by extension his family) did not receive the same legal standing. After nineteen years waiting for his green card, Sergio still has not achieved citizenship.

The backlog for Mexican nationals seeking American citizenship is enormous, and despite the efforts of Congress to speed up enrollment for foreign nationals with graduate degrees to expedite their immigration status,

Following lengthy appeals, with tears in his eyes and sporadic comments on “somos todos Sergio” on his Facebook page, Garcia received his law practice per a recent ruling from the California Supreme Court.

To be blunt, the Court’s decision to permit Mr. Garcia to practice law is not just offensive, but a dysfunctional sign of the times in our state, where the rule of law has given way to the rule by feelings and sentiments.

I have shared many times before: the immigration process should be as simple as enter the country, present your papers, pass a health screening and a background check, and be free to live and thrive through your own will and intrepid spirit. However, the massive growth of the welfare state, with public assistance available to so many, yet paid by so few, and fewer year by year, a system of free immigration to welfare is unfeasible and unsustainable.

At this time, especially with the current laws in place, legal immigration is a process which must be respected.

Despite the arguments from liberal activists, which contend that opponents of amnesty or a pathway to citizenship are racist or bigoted for their views, both sides of the political spectrum do recognize the importance of health, efficient, and effective immigration system. Racism, xenophobia are not the roots of resistance. Instead, the concerns about the financial drain on our health and education facilities, coupled with the overgenerous public benefits programs in the state of California, are worrying many residents.

But most of all, the question of the rule of law cannot be ignored. For individuals to skirt the legal process, however protracted, and assume many of the privileges of citizenship, including a driver’s license or a law license for that matter, represents an unjust slap in the face to the millions of legal immigrants who paid the fees, passed the tests, and obeyed all the laws to become legal residents of the United States.

The rule of law issue has a deeper, more complex element, magnified by the reinstated membership of Sergio Garcia to the state bar. As an illegal immigrant, what moral standing can Garcia offer? Let that troubling irony sink in: how can a lawbreaker by a lawful representative for anyone? How dare he presume to advise anyone in the state of California regarding any matter, when he by his very presence is breaking the law?

The Chief Justice of the CA Supreme Court, rendered the following indefensible justification for Garcia’s illegal legal certification:

 Under these circumstances, we conclude that the fact that an undocumented immigrant's presence in this country violates federal statutes is not itself a sufficient or persuasive basis for denying undocumented immigrants, as a class, admission to the State Bar.”

If the federal laws have no bearing, then why have lawyers? If a state Supreme Court can ignore by judicial fiat to enforce certain laws at the expense of others, then what the hell are we paying them for? Why have any lawyers if the law is not serious enough to be taken seriously? By extension, rampant illegal immigration ultimately undermines the very purpose of those immigrating: a nation with the rule of law, where public safety and the enforcement of statue and contract remain intact.

Further questions which we must ask go beyond, and further back besides the arrogant rulings from the California State Supreme Court. Why was Garcia permitted to enroll in law school in the first place? Or in any public school to attain the necessary credentials to apply to a law school?

The arguments from state legislators, humanitarians, and special interests pressing amnesty at all costs, suggest that young illegals such as Garcia had no choice regarding their status. While such circumstances are unfortunate, the collapse of the rule of law, represented by granting a legal practice to an illegal immigrant, is not a justified response for rectifying the situation. Rewarding lawbreakers, based on status or action, will foment disturbing outcomes.

Garcia should be disbarred and deported, and a real dialogue on immigration reform, free of emotional race-baiting, must ensue.

A Lown-Down Run-Down on CA's New Laws for 2014

New laws abound in California, and we can thank our hard-working (or hard-headed) legislators for putting in the extra effort for the residents of the state of California.

Except, not really.

With the defeat of comprehensive school choice bills in 2013l (SB 451 and SB 452), the Democratic supermajority effectively signaled their sympathies with public sector unions and bureaucracies instead of students, parents, and schools. Pension reforms are under attack already, and Governor Brown’s “balanced budget” is anything but. Yet state senator Ted Lieu (D-Redondo Beach) still claims that there is a surplus, and our schools will get more money. I attended a seminar from Torrance Unified administrative staff. I assure you that the leaders in our schools are not pleased with the revenue sources. District leaders will not know their funding levels until the end of 2014, and in spite of Governor Brown’s “pledge” to restore 2007-level funding by 2020, such speculations assume nothing but overly optimistic expectations, as though the average of five businesses a day, and thousands of residents with them, are not leaving California with their tax dollars.

Some thoughts on the new laws:

Broken Parking Meters

If you park by a broken meter, you won’t get a ticket. I have a better idea. Since the entire state is broke, and Californians are having a hard time paying their own bills, why not give all us a break from the taxes and fees?

Teen Texting While Driving

Teens cannot text and drive. Good. How many teens can afford a car? How many teens will be able to get a license? One mother shared with me that her teen has no interest in driving. Perhaps she can’t afford the interest on the auto loan (or the student loans, for that matter).

HOV Lanes

If you drive an electric car, you can drive alone in the carpool lanes on California highways, except Interstates 10 and 110. Aside from the fact that electric cars are not sizzling hot sellers to begin with, the commuters along those excluded interstates need the most relief. At least electric companies have to report the number of times that blackouts black out the South Bay.

Bicycle Safety

Sacramento in Better Days (1908!) Source: M. Steffen

With the "Three Feet for Safety Act", cyclists can expect some protective space from motorists moving in the same direction. How about six degrees of separation from my money, Sacramento?!

Paparazzi Protection

The Paparazzi aggressively pursue celebrity children. Shame on them, and they should pay for infringing their privacy. And speaking of protecting our children and their privacy. .  .

Transgender Rights

By George, Boy George would have liked this law. Whether parents and students do, is another matter that will come and not go away. A national first (or worst), this law will permit transgendered students to use school facilities and join sports "consistent with his or her gender identity". Boys will be boys, but may pretend to be girls to be with the girls, perhaps?

Driver’s Licenses

Taking effect before Jan. 1, 2015, this law will allow undocumented immigrants to earn a driver’s license. In effect, they can obtain a legal document, even though they reside in California illegally. Someone should go to court to block this illegal law. Then again, the state Supreme Court just ruled in favor of an illegal immigrant to obtain a license to practice law, too. Illegal immigrants who drive legally will now be able to obtain illegal legal representation, too. So much for the United States Constitution’s Supremacy clause. . .

Minimum Wage Hike

California’s minimum wage will increase to $9 this year, and then to $10 in 2016. Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) supported the increase, provided that the pay raise was not tied to inflation. Small businesses rejected the hike before and hate it still. They will likely turn away willing applicants and diminish the number of viable entry level workers. What’s the point of raising the minimum wage when the prices of goods and services rise to offset the increase?  Economics was never Sacramento’s strong suit.

Hit-and-Run Drivers

The statute of limitations for hit-and-run incidents has increased to six years. I wonder how many of those illegal legal drivers will cause those accidents?

State Disability Insurance

Starting July 1, the state disability insurance program expands to allow workers six weeks paid leave to care for ill relatives. What happened to Covered California? Californians not feeling covered?

Mountain Lions

“Relocate first, shoot them later” is the new law of the land for mountain lions. I wonder if State Senator Lieu was behind this statute. He cares about the puppies and the bears (no more hunting bears with dogs, you know). Now the mountain lions can breathe easy, and hunt more easily, since the California Department of Fish and Wildlife wardens cannot kill the ferocious felines unless they pose an immediate threat to the community.

When mountain lions enter inhabited regions, they immediately pose a threat! Unless they’ve gone vegan, or transgendered, or wander into Sacramento to scare off micromanaging politicians.

Yes, 2014 is an election year, but some of us cannot wait for these politicians to leave office.

He Makes Us Perfect

"48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5: 48)

"Be perfect, even as Your Father in heaven."

Meditate on this verse from the Sermon on the Mount one more time.

"Be perfect, complete, without defect."

We human beings are fallen because of Adam. Where does anyone get the idea that we can be perfect, let alone make ourselves perfect, through our own efforts?

We cannot.

Once again, Jesus was bringing the Old Covenant law back to its pristine and humanly impossible fullness, so that Israelites whom He was witnessing to would understand that they cannot earn or attain God's righteousness, and moreover they would despair of viewing Jesus as an example to follow and thus receive Him as a Savior to receive from.

Consider that when Jesus died on the Cross, He declared the following glad tidings:

"[B]ut go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20: 17)

Notice that Jesus did not say "My disciples", but "my brethren."

He intimated very clearly that they were now adopted children with Him.

When Jesus saw them, He gave them the Holy Spirit:

"22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." (John 20: 22)

Just as God breathed into Adam to make him a living soul, so Jesus breathed in His disciples, now made brethren, to make them one with Him.

Paul writes at length what Jesus did for us at the Cross:

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5: 21)

We are now the righteousness of God.

"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17)

Read on these wonderful passages:

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 6)

And if these verses are not clear enough, consider this beautiful promise:

"For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." (Hebrews 10: 14)

We are now perfected in Christ, and we are now perfect, as our Father in Heaven, because:

"As He [Christ] is, so are we in this world!" (1 John 4: 17)

Right Believing, Not RightThinking!

"The just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2: 4)

The just shall live by faith, not by right thinking.

Faith is about resting, not doing.

It's about knowing, yes, but also believing in His love for us:

Here's the full definition of God's love:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10)

Now John invites us to know and believe on that love:

"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.' (1 John 4: 16)

We have known and believe this love.

How can we know, yet not believe?

We may receive the word of God, and we accept what has been shared with us,  but if we still feel that what Jesus did at the Cross is not enough, that we have to add something, whether in our thoughts or deeds or even in our feelings, then we are admitting by those same actions that we do not believe, or rather rest in the Finished Work of all that Jesus did for us at the Cross, and which He does on our behalf to this day.

We are not saved by right doing or even right thinking, as though our active thinking and pondering keeps in right standing before God.

We are saved when we believe in our heart and confess out of our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and that He was raised from the dead for our justification.

For me, I kept thinking that I had to think or feel a certain way in order to be "right with God".

Yet we are not saved by what we think. We are saved by believing that Christ did it all.

The warfare which rages in some men's minds can bring such bondage, as it did for me, and still does for  many in the body of Christ.

Rest in this truth -- we are saved by grace, which we receive by faith.

We are saved by believing the truth, that in Christ we are pardoned from all sins, and through Him we receive life and that more abundantly!

Letter to ProJo

I have been following Rhode Island politics for the past year, starting with the landmark pension reforms pushed by General Treasurer Gina Raimondo. I also read about the consequences when cities refuse to reform: Central Falls, Rhode Island. I will never forget the lament of one retired fire-fighter, who commented about his pension "haircut" from the emergency manager instead of a "beheading".

"It was a scalping!" he retorted.

From Detroit to Rhode Island and even to my home state of California, where a fifth city will be declaring bankruptcy because of unsustainable public sector pension obligations, taxpayers, city residents, and anyone else who believes in the public compact of our local leaders are all getting scalped by public sector union thuggery, which demands too much yet offers nothing.

Liberal (and some would argue progressive) Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt warned about granting collective bargaining rights to public sector employees, and now these unjust associations are tying up statehouses across the country and forcing leaders to cancel major services or go bust.

After reading about the protests at Roger Williams Casino Park, I have learned that Rhode Island’s public sector unions are fomenting a boycott, with politicians’ assistance, to oust a conservative radio host, one of their harshest critics.

Now unions are attacking the media? These undemocratic activists must be stopped. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Michigan’s Rick Snyder fought back against public sector unionism. When will Governor Chafee, Speaker Fox, and the members of the General Assembly do the same?

Live In Praise -- Rest in the Prince

The next verse for the Psalm of the year, Psalm 114, tells us where we live.

היתה יהודה לקדשו ישראל ממשלותיו׃

"Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion." (Psalm 114: 2)

Even before the nation of Israel left Egypt, God promised to these people through Abraham a land flowing with milk and honey:

"13And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; 14And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. 15And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. 16But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." (Genesis 15: 13-16)

When God revealed the Promised Land to Abraham, He also told them that the Israelites would be prisoners for four hundred years, but would leave the land with great substance:

"And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they spoiled the Egyptians." (Exodus 12: 36)

Without shedding any blood or sweat and tears, the Israelites got all the back pay and more for the slavery they had endured

היתה יהודה לקדשו ישראל ממשלותיו׃

God wants us to live in Praise -- the meaning of Judah, for He inhabits our praises, and we raise our awareness to our Perfect King, who reigns in us, with us, and for us in all things.

Israel means "prince with God", and today we are princes with Christ Jesus, for we reign in life with Him:

'"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5: 17)

and also

"4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: " (Ephesians 2: 4-6)
We live in praise, and we rest in the Prince of Peace!