OREGON SCHOOL SHOOTING REVEALS AMERICA'S DEEPEST NEED

Umpqua Community College alumnus Donice Smith (L) is embraced after she said one of her former teachers was shot dead, near the site of a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, October 1, 2015. STEVE DIPAOLA/REUTERS

fROM THE wEB:  http://www.newsweek.com/active-shooter-reported-umpqua-community-college-oregon-378758 

I don't usually write a blog post, but yesterday's news is quite troubling for our nation, and I just can't keep quiet.  Look at all the pain, broken hearts, death, and destruction.  It all started long before that young hate-filled young man got a gun and went to the school.  But, like a volcanic eruption, everything poured out yesterday.  The details only show us the problem - if we'll look at it honestly.

Our president and many liberals are quick to declare an answer to these things - gun control.  Conservatives respond saying that's not the answer.  While it isn't the answer, the real answer is something that neither side is saying.  There IS an answer!  And this particular shooting reveals it as the news of what happened comes out.

Before I get to that answer, let me explain what happened (as I understand it).  The gunman came in and asked "Christians" to stand.  Those who did were killed!  That should tell us quite a bit.  There are a lot of people saying that this guy had a heart consumed with hate!  And that hate was and is directed toward Christians!  Yesterday's events reveal the hate in our hearts toward Christ and His followers.

That hate is EVIL.  Evil is the antithesis to Christianity.  What we need in this country is to return to Christianity.  We need to stop being atheistic, and start acknowledging the God of the Universe.  We need to stop being secular, and start being truthful.  We need to stop being arrogantly anti-Christian, and start examining the Bible for its truth again.  We need to stop avoiding prayer, and start spending time praying.  We need God in our hearts, not evil!  We need a love that runs deeper than anything WE can conjure on our own.  We need grace, not guns.  

Sin is destructive

I'm all for self-defense and the 2nd Amendment.  But if we, as a society, would embrace Christian values more and secular values less, there would be fewer people running around angry, hate-filled, and hurting.  Sin is destructive.  Sin filled the gunman's heart.  Sin fills the hearts of all who deny God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible.  Sin makes fools of man.  "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' "  (Psalm 14:1).  But the Bible also says that secularism (trusting in our OWN hearts) is sin (Proverbs 28:26).  The Bible teaches us to trust in God - that means to follow Him, seek Him, obey Him, and want what He wants for us.  We can't do this on our own - life, that is.  We can't turn our country back to the "good ole USA" on our own.  We need God's grace and help.  How can that happen if we won't even acknowledge that He is the answer or that HE even exists?

Our nation is plagued by selfishness  

That is sin as well.  We want sex when, where, and however we want it, and no one better say anything to the contrary.  We want infanticide to be a right.  We want to kill our cops, embrace our enemies, and treat our defenders as national enemy #1 when they leave the military.  We are a long way from being "one nation under God."  

Main Stream Media Hates Christians

Hating Christians is NOT being reported by the Main Stream Media.  They want guns gone, but they don't want knees bent, hearts changed, or God honored here in our nation.  They, and their elitist crowd of intellectual, power-broker cohorts, want a country where Christianity is destroyed.  They want all mention of God removed from the public eye.  They want kids taught in schools of secular thought.  They want parents removed from the process so these kids aren't "infected" with Christian truth.  Then we are flabbergasted that such children could possibly not know right from wrong and do such violent things.  Gun control isn't the answer - these kids can make bombs (just ask the teachers and administrators in Texas who thought that's what a kid had done!).

We NEED Christ

When our nation returns to Christ, we will find far fewer of these and similar crimes across our land.  Christ died to clean our hearts of sin.  When we share that truth with others, their hearts can be cleaned of the sin they hold. The ability to deal with sin will be renewed when that happens, because with the return to Christ, we'll understand what sin does to a person, and we'll work to stop it in them before it grows so great they explode in a wave of violence, death, and destruction such as happened yesterday.  Loving one another will be the norm, not defensiveness and hatred.  Hope and trust are found in the Lord, not in politics.  Where the Lord is, peace is.  Not in secularism and selfish humanism.  

The answer is something for all of us - individually - to consider.  "Will I follow the God of the Bible and trust His Son, Jesus Christ, to lead MY life?"  When enough of us say "YES" to that question, and begin to do it, the tide will turn in our nation.  Everything will change for the better.  Everything!  God will once again bless the USA!  He promises to do so in the Bible!

And that's the answer, As I See It.

I welcome your respectful comments.  Please share this and pass it on!

INVERTING RIGHT AND WRONG

I know it's been quite a while since my last post.  I've been extremely busy taking care of family - vacations, projects, and many other things.  I've also been helping our church with our Vacation Bible School - by leading it.  I am Bi-vocational - at least I have another part-time job as well to supplement our income - and have also been busy during "down-times" with that.  I'm back today, taking time out of other needed things to post this.  I only hope it makes someone think about their position.  Nevertheless, things have gotten to the point that I need to "vent" on some things, and so I must post this - As I See It.

Morality in America is inverted, and it has been for quite some time.  People are posting the craziest things on Facebook, the MSM (Main Stream Media) reports from the most inverted value system I've ever seen, and our governmental leaders are more out of touch with reality than ever before.  Today, I just want to publish a bullet list of these inversions.

• A marine defends himself and others under fire by returning fire on a Muslim extremist seeking to kill them.  He is under investigation and threatened with imprisonment for firing a weapon on a military installation. He is a field grade officer charged with leading and caring for his men and women.
• A protected lion is killed and the world wants his killer caught, extradited, and punished while an entire business is thriving based on the murder, dismemberment, and sale of body parts is protected by MSM and liberal congressional representatives.
• The police are encouraged and honored for their "undercover sting operations" against organized crime mobs, drug rings, etc., while a citizen's group is denigrated as "biased" for conducting its own "undercover sting operation" revealing indisputable proof that criminal conduct is taking place daily in a taxpayer-funded business that sells baby body parts for profit.  
• Police officers who, in the line of duty, have to physically take down a criminal that will not submit are considered racist if the criminal is black and the cop is white.  
• Police officers who, in the line of duty, must use deadly force to apprehend a criminal that is black, are called "killer cops," while nothing is said in the MSM when a "cop killer" uses deadly force to resist apprehension.
• License and Liberty are now synonymous, meaning that freedom (liberty) guaranteed by the Constitution offers complete legal, social, and governmental protection to all who seek an immoral lifestyle (license) regardless of who it may offend, and that protection will include the removal of all who protest for any reason.  This is done through the IRS, FBI, MSM, SCOTUS, POTUS, HSA, BATF, and politically correct liberal professors throughout our land.  
• Criminals have guns, politicos have people with guns to protect them from criminals, and citizens may not defend themselves from neither - the criminal or the overpowering politico.

And the list goes on.  Those in favor of these inversions are also in favor of these perversions.  Our very nation's foundation, the Constitution, is threatened by the ideologies that are behind these inversions.  That, in itself, is the most dangerous of inversions today, with one exception.

• The Bible-believing Christian is now considered as dangerous to our nation as a Muslim Extremist, if not more so - a belief held by those who support the inversions mentioned above.  Why?
• Because the Bible-believer has a moral foundation not found in the immoral, godless, inverted beliefs of others.
• Because the Bible-believer will vote and stand for right and wrong, constitutionally based policies, and demand justice in the case of these inversions.  This threatens the agenda of these liberal, godless, immoral power-hungry people.
• Because the Bible-believer offers a real remedy through peaceful means as the gospel demands.  This is effective beyond the wildest imaginations of the power-hungry, immoral liberals.  Therefore, they must be ostracized, outlawed, and outcast before they actually can influence the masses under the control and sway of the liberal MSM, politicos, and educators.

Ronald Regan's Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork, is quoted as saying, "A society deadened by a smothering network of laws while finding release in moral chaos is not likely to be either happy or stable."  He has hit the nail on the head, and explains what is happening in America today.  He also hints at the answer.

I was asked the other day what I thought was wrong with America.  I was asked by someone who is very conservative - but NOT a Bible-believer.  My answer was simple: We have removed God from the American Marketplace.  Too many people no longer trust the Bible, God, or Jesus Christ.  Instead, each does what is right in his own eyes, thinking that freedom is license to serve self at all costs.  But God says, "Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a reproach to any people." Proverbs 14:34 (NKJV)  If we will not acknowledge the righteousness set forth by God, we will become a nation that sins in the sight of God - and we will be come a reproach to all people.  That is why "our enemies no longer fear us and our friends no longer trust us."  We have left the God who has blessed us, and we expect Him to continue to bless us for leaving Him.  "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" (Psalms 14:1; 53:1).  

Because America has inverted its allegiance to the One True God and Savior of Mankind, America can no longer help but invert its understanding of right and wrong.  Each person will do what is right in his own eyes, having no understanding of the consequences.  Unless we return to the foundation of justice, mercy, Truth, and eternity found in the Bible, we will only drift further from sanity.  That's America As I See It.

WHAT HAPPENED TO INDEPENDENCE DAY?

Today is "Independence Day."  Did you know that?  Social media, TV media, and print media have re-named the day to "Fourth of July."  No longer do we say "Happy Independence Day; now we say "Happy Fourth of July."  Is there any significance to that?  

As I See It, there is. 

Before you go too far, my son called me a "pessimist" last night, so I will be cautious about being "pessimistic" and try harder to be "realistic" - which is what I would describe myself.  

Back to the significance of the holiday name change.  

Where We Came From
It was the desire for independence from governmental and religious tyranny that sent our settlers this way from Europe.  In a single document signed by men who would sacrifice their lives, fortunes, and families to ensure freedom to govern themselves according to the ways they saw fit, these men declared independence from England's rule.  That document started a war!  The men who signed it and their supporters won.  A new constitution resulted - but could not be ratified until the first five amendments were in place.  Our new nation was born to protect free speech, religious liberty, and the right to keep and bear arms.

Where We Are
Our society JUST celebrated a flawed move by our Supreme Court to declare same-sex marriage to be legal and recognized by all 50 states based on a twisted reading of the 14th Amendment of our Constitution.  In that decision, faith groups will now be required to face consequences - social or financial - for disagreeing with this decision and refusing to recognize or perform same-sex marriages.  Businesses can not take a stand on the issue without being declared bigoted and be forced to pay huge fines that would put them out of business.  Bottom line - the religious liberty and freedom of speech promised by the first amendment are no longer in effect.  They have effectively removed the 1st amendment from protecting anyone.  Our ability to lay open the sins of our government and make them accountable is dwindling because the government can now silence speech.  The recipe is there, and more will be forthcoming, As I See It.  (I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic.  it is the trend.)

In addition, there is a growing challenge by the government to persuade the citizenry to give up their guns.  An effort to have the 2nd amendment (promising the right to keep and bear arms) overthrown is afoot among us as well.  It was this very right that enabled our nation to become a nation in the first place.  And a growing number of Americans still want that freedom today!  

And so we are subtly, year-by-year, renaming our holiday that should celebrate our nation's birth.  We no longer mention much our foundations - for our media, government, and increasing numbers in our country want a nation with a different foundation.  

• We want to remove the ability of our citizens to protect themselves from armed attackers. 
• We want to remove the mention of "God" from the public square.  (Even our President Obama wants to "help us overcome our religious views.")
• We want to remove the ability of the press and the citizenry to speak their mind and tell the truth if the government wants the people to hear a lie.
• We want to remove our historical "flags" when it is convenient to take the conversation off the real issue.  (The effort to "ban" the confederate flag across the land.)
• We want to take away the police' ability to enforce the law by declaring them to be the bad guys when they do so firmly (and sometimes resulting in the death of a criminal citizen). 
• We want to re-write history and put our founding fathers in a bad light. (As if this one doesn't best explain our re-naming of our holiday!)  

America seems to be trying to shun its heritage in order to turn her path toward a failed future.  Cultures and countries that have already gone where we are heading, embraced the values we are embracing, forsaking the morals we are forsaking are all in decline.  Our president doesn't even want America to be the greatest nation in the world anymore.  He wants to apologize for being that in the past.  And too many of my countrymen are willing to endorse this!  

In the process of changing directions, we have ...

• Forsaken the blood of those who died to keep our country strong
• Forsaken the blood of Christ who died to enable our country to exist
• Forsaken the faith of those who gave so much to make our country in the first place
• Forsaken the faith of those who went before us to make us "one nation under God."

As Ronald Reagan is credited with saying, "A nation that is not under God is a nation that has gone under."

As I See It, America needs to return to some things if we hope to make any REAL progress.  We need our freedoms again.  We need our "Independence Day" again.  And we need to get rid of "the Fourth of July."  We might celebrate on 7/4, but we must never forget why!  As I See It, this is INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Your comments are always welcome!  Happy Independence Day!

WITHOUT CHANGE, YOU ARE PART OF THE DECLINE OF AMERICA – AND SO AM I

It is happening right in front of us.  You are watching it happen.  You may even be a part of the process.  I’m talking about the fall of a nation.  Gumby used to say, “I have found the enemy, and he is us.”  We are all willing and unwilling participants in the fall of the United States of America.  And that has been the plan for our nation for some time now.

The first part of the fall of the USA is when the nation was truly divided.  We were no longer the United States of America.  We went to war over issues that divided us.  I’m not pro-slavery in any fashion.  But I AM a patriot, and I want our nation to remain UNITED.  To remain united, we need to deal with some deeply divisive issues.  We can’t do that by disrespecting one another, ostracizing one another, or marginalizing one another.  Those things divide, they do not unite.  Disagreements can best be handled by “agreeing to disagree” and pressing forward together.

However, in a nation, it is a bit more complicated than that.  Agreeing to disagree takes a great deal of help when two parties, states, or regions of the country have world-views that are polar opposites.  It is very hard to do when two parties, states, or regions cannot even agree about what the problem is, much less the solution.  Let me give you an example.  The Christian believes that there is a God, He sent His Son to die to save man from his sin, and he rose again from the grave to return again in glory.  The Atheist, agnostic, Gnostic, alternative religion, and the humanist all disagree with this perspective.  The Christian sees the division problem as stemming from Satan, who is the spirit-leader opposing God and His plans.  All others deny Satan’s existence and so his methods as surely as they deny God and His ways.  These beliefs go to the core of those who hold them.  Agreeing to disagree does not help us move any closer to solutions agreeable to both parties.  The Christian solution is offensive to the others; and vice versa, the others offend the Christian.  Both hold their views as TRUTH.  And they are willing to die for it.  That does not bring unity.

So unity in our country needs something else.  We have a Constitution born out of compromise and conviction.  Before ratification, it was amended five times.  We call those amendments the “Bill of Rights.”  Now, our nation stands on the brink of destroying those “rights,” rejecting our Constitution.  If our nation’s highest court does so, it will pull the yarn of our nation apart, unraveling our unity by destroying our foundation, like a knitted sweater, row by row, coming apart and leaving a ball of string without form or usefulness.

And we all play a part of this destruction. We are politically correct, and so afraid to “offend anyone” except those who we have socially deemed worthy of offending (Christians, conservatives, and constitutionalists).  We are trusting our biased media to tell us the truth, allowing our ideologies to be shaped by their twisted truth rather than insisting we hear both sides before coming to conclusions.  We are voting for politicians who will promise things to benefit our pockets knowing that for every dollar they put in, they take two more as a means of providing the one for everyone.  We are easily distracted from the truth by knee-jerk reactions rather than measured analysis of crises.  We have lost our will to succeed, work hard, and thrive.  Instead, we have gotten lazy and expect others to do for us, to live off the government dole.  We hate the word “discipline.”  It means we choose what to do without: entertainments, excitements, etc.  Discipline means saying “NO” to ourselves as we choose the best over the good.  Our education policies reflect a “dumbing down” rather than a disciplined approach to learning that served our fore-fathers very well.  Our reliance on technology to do what we used to do the “old-fashioned way” will cripple us if our energy sources ever dry up.  We destroy our families by redefining marriage, aborting our children, euthanizing our parents, and legalizing drugs.  We have forgotten the heart of man and fight among ourselves over flags after a senseless, racist massacre by one man in one town, in a single church.  We are outraged over any harm done to animals while we destroy one another in bitterness, anger, and hatred or we butcher our babies in the womb for no reason at all.  When we disagree with these things, we turn a blind eye to them and go on as though they don’t happen.  But we all contribute at some point or another. 

When one side stands and declares “these things ought not to be,” the other side tries to ostracize, criticize, demoralize, belittle, denigrate and destroy them for calling them out.  Taking sides based on popularity rather than common sense only exacerbates the problem.  We are divided.  And Divided we fall!  We cannot stand unless we stand together.  Clearly, we are NOT doing that.  And so we will, as a nation, fall.  We all are watching it happen.  And we all are contributing – unless we start working together to deal with our problems as a nation, as states, as communities, and as citizens.  Let’s return to statesmanship, respect, and integrity in every aspect of our lives.  And let’s not wait until our neighbor does it.  Let us EACH choose NOW to be the time we do it ourselves.  I, Greg Yount, commit to being this kind of American.  Will you, too?

And that’s America, As I See It.  Your comments are welcome, appreciated, and invited.  

On "Tolerance"

I know I haven't posted in quite some time. This blog has been a burden (not in a Christian sense, but in the hardship sense) to me. What I mean is that the topics of the news are VERY discouraging, and for a while I lost focus.

Having said that, I want to speak on the topic of "Tolerance."

I taught school yesterday, and one of the classes was Middle School Health. It was a challenge and a passion. They were discussing social health, and the textbook addressed "tolerance - to accept and allow all types of behaviors and beliefs" or some similar definition. I take a strong stand against such teaching as it relates to our current social trends in America.

Tolerance means "to put up with" ... NOT to accept all forms of beliefs and behaviors as equal. They are not equal, nor are they all equally true. Certain behaviors are better left untolerated; certain beliefs as well. Remember that our behavior is based on our beliefs. Therefore, real tolerance means that I will put up with your beliefs and behaviors as long as they do not force themselves on me. We can discuss them, and we can allow them - but don't ask me to embrace them, or to salute them.

I will never rejoice, tolerate, or embrace behaviors or the underlying beliefs such as abortion, homosexuality, shacking up (living together, pre- or extra-marital sex), euthanasia, child abuse, spouse abuse, lying, cheating, stealing, racism, murder, or the like. These things are wrong, and in every case, someone is hurt. This is the reason there are laws against these things. To believe what it takes to practice these things is a blight on society and evidence of spiritual dishonesty at best, blindness at least.

I find it a shame and a reproach to America that we have gone so far down the road of ignorance and stupidity as to think these things are OK - and we put those in office who support these things. We allow special "gay pride" parades, defend the women's "right" to commit murder of her unborn (and unprotected) child. This is not tolerance, it's downright stupid.

But, the good news is that those who recognize this, those who follow the Lord, those who believe that God can heal our land can see that happen... If....

If we repent ourselves, and come to the Lord, and pray. We are the answer, and not our votes. WE BELIEVERS must live holy lives, repenting of our own sins, and God promises to heal our land.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV)

Missouri Leads the Nation in a Positive Direction

Mo. schools expel Planned Parenthood

Posted on Oct 11, 2007 by Jennifer Thurman

WASHINGTON (BP)--A new law has made Missouri the first state to ban Planned Parenthood from teaching sex education classes in public schools.
The legislation's enactment gave permanent status to the Missouri Alternatives to Abortion Services Program, allowing schools to emphasize abstinence during sex education classes. The law also prevents any personnel affiliated with abortion clinics from teaching sex education classes.

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This new law is not new - it passed in July 2007 - but it is wonderful. I am glad to see that Missouri, which broke my heart at the election that made it legal to do embryonic stem cell research, has decided to take a positive step toward decency and break the conflict of interest that is destroying our nation's youth. Read the article, and you'll learn a ton of great things about this bill.

My only regret is more with the article than with the bill. The article says that Missouri wants to leave sex ed to educators. What about parents? I believe that parents are best fitted for this duty than any other adult in the life of a child.

While not a regret, it is a concern. The Bible clearly states that unborn babies are people, too. Abortion is killing a person. If we elect Hillary Clinton or Barak Obama, all laws like this one in Missouri will be reversed and the wanton murder of the next generation will be resumed unhindered. We must back a pro-life candidate now, and the leading one is Mike Huckabee. The cost of not electing someone who is pro-life may be that our nation falls to enemies both foreign and domestic.

Do Loving Teens Have Strong Enough Faith to Become a Psychologist/Psychiatrist?

Study says religious tensions persist between psychiatrists, doctors

A new study published in the journal Psychiatric Services finds a continuation of tensions between religion and psychiatry. The findings are in the current issue of the journal Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

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I wonder (smile) why it is that psychiatrists deny the faith and the Scriptures? It is for this reason I am very concerned when young people in the church head off to college with visions of grandeur and a heart to help others choose the field of psychology and psychiatry. There faith must be VERY strong (and many think it is) to withstand the attacks it will face under the tutelage of faithless professors. The statistics, however prove that these young people do not have the VERY strong faith they believe themselves to have - for it is gone when the emerge from the coursework and enter into the practice.