On the Road Again!

It's been some time since I have posted  here.  Shame on me!  I am back on the road again and will be posting some stuff from time to time.  Right now I am in Cottageville, SC.  I am staying at Grace Chapel a member of The Fishermen Ministry.  Paul Muller is the Pastor and has been a great host.

My wife Ann and my friend Robin Atherton traveled together to Robin's son's house in Elberton, Ga.  I left and met up with them there and had a good visit with James and Rose.  Then we packed up our campers and we came back to Cottageville.

We will be having a service in the chapel tonight and it will be live on The Eagle Radio Network.  ( www.eagle-radio.com )

Next time I might tell you about my new Banjo.

I  will try to keep you posted.

Drowning In A Sea of Stupid!

I was going to name this Blog:  Stuck in a Sea of Stupid!  But after thinking about it for a while, I think the one I chose is better.
When I think of where this Country started and where it is now, I can only think that most people have just lost their minds and the ability to know or have any common sense.
I read about the French Armada in 1746 standing off the coast of Boston and the Mayor of the town calling the people to prayer and fasting for their deliverance.  Thomas Prince, minister of the Old South Church in Boston prayed that God would send His tempest.  As he was praying the wind began to blow and all of the church bells in Boston started to ring.  Then how a storm comes and destroys the Armada and the people of Boston are saved.  With that kind of testimony can anyone question that God moved in a mighty way to save His people?  Can you even imagine what would happen if that took place today?   I think you will agree with me that the results would be different.  For one thing, you would never hear the Mayor or the Governor or even our President, for that matter, to call for praying and fasting, beseeching God for His Mercy and Help.
I live in West Texas near the border of Mexico.  There have been more people killed in Juarez, Mexico each year than in Afghanistan.  If you look into the laws there on gun control, you will find that they are exactly what our government wants here.  If they get their way, the only people with guns will be the government and it’s minions and criminals.  The rest of us can kiss our proverbial butts goodbye!
Jesus told His disciples:  Mark 8:15   And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
It is a very simple thing that Jesus is telling His disciples here.  “Be watchful and careful when you deal with the religious leaders and the government.  They will tell you lies that will cause you to take your eyes off of Me and My Word.”  How do you know if a thing is ‘leaven’?  Simple!  Compare it to the Word of God.  If it doesn’t agree, then count it as leaven.
The leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod is all about making you ‘feel good’.  It builds up your ‘self-esteem’ and Pride.  It also takes away your accountability for what you do and how you do it.
It turns you to look to the government for your needs and not to our Heavenly Father and His Christ.
It is just getting worse by the hour and nobody seems to care.  Back in the 70’s I preached that this was coming and nobody wanted to believe it then.  Well, now it is here, at our doorstep and we are drowning in a “Sea of Stupid”!

Where Have I Been?

Just a quick post to let you know that I am still around.  But some of you, maybe two of you? Might have been wondering where I have been.  Well, I have been real busy with the Ranch (Grace Ranch) and also was traveling and forgot where my Blog was.  No excuse!

One of the things that I have been doing is setting up The Eagle Radio Network.  Check it out: 
www.eagle-radio.com where you can listen to some of our live programs and chat in our chat room.

We hope to be doing a lot of new things out at the Ranch this summer and I will be writing about that as well. 

I will be back and putting some stuff up here that I just know you really want to hear. (lol)

Be back soon,
Rick

Holiday set by Courts for Atheists!

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews & observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day.  The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed."  The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur & Hanukkah. Yet my client & all other atheists have no such holidays."  The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do, counsel, your client is woefully ignorant." The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."  The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is 'April Fools Day.' Psalm 14:1 states 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned."     I LOVE IT!!!

Republic or Democracy?

My purpose in writing this is not to give a great in-depth dissertation on the workings of our Government, but rather to spark a little ‘thought’ in folks to think about where we are and where we are going as a Country and what it might mean to us. So without further ado, on to the question:

The question is: Are we, that is The United States of America, a Republic or a Democracy? If you ask the average person, they will probably say a Democracy and they would be right, its sad to say. But we didn’t start out that way. This country started out as a Republic. Actually to be more accurate, a Democratic Republic. Now, lets see what the Dictionary has to say:

de·moc·ra·cy (dĭ-mŏk'rə-sē)
n. pl. de·moc·ra·cies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through
elected representatives.

2. A political or social unit that has such a government.

5. 5.The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within
   a community.
   

(I took the liberty to underline certain words in the definition.)

re·pub·lic (rĭ-pŭb'lĭk)

n.

1. a. A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in
modern times is usually a president.

b. A nation that has such a political order.

c. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of
citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives
responsible to them.

d. A nation that has such a political order.

2. a. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of
citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives
responsible to them.

b. A nation that has such a political order.

3. often Republic A specific republican government of a nation: the
Fourth Republic of France.

4. An autonomous or partially autonomous political and territorial
unit belonging to a sovereign federation.

5. A group of people working as equals in the same sphere or field:
the republic of letters.

Which one would you want to belong to?

Now if you look at the two definitions that I have put up, they came from the American Heritage Dictionary, you will find a couple of interesting points. I have underlined them to make them stand out.

The first thing that one notices is that in a Democracy, the people are ruled by the elected representatives. Once they have cast their vote, they don’t have anymore rights! Only privileges given them by the majority and that by the elected representatives.

Now in the Republic, the people never lose their rights. The government is responsible to them. The people are supreme, NOT the government!

So, we come back to the question: Are we in todays world a Republic or a Democracy?

The answer is simple, but not obvious. The Government today operates as a Republic within itself and its members. We the People have been relegated to a Democracy. It hasn’t always been that way.

Our Founding Fathers saw a need for a government that would be subject to the People and not the other way around. By setting up a Democratic Republic and giving the right to bear arms to the people they established a form of government Of, For and By the People. This all came to an end in 1886.

More at a later date...

Well I Can't Believe It! They Do Care!

Well, it looks like I might have to eat a little 'crow'! As I said in my last post, I emailed AdSense and told them about the address thing out here. They emailed me back and said after doing some checking (I don't know what they checked, nor do I care) they agreed to sign me up.

So, hats off to Google and AdSense, maybe they care after all.

Richard

Have You Noticed A New Form Of Discrimination?

Well, here I am again, sending my thoughts, opinions and comments out over the Internet, hoping that someone might see them and comment. But whether they do or don't, it does give us an opportunity to voice our opinions doesn't it?

Anyway, I have found a new form of Discrimination today that seems to hit a few of us. No, I am not talking about 'smoking', they have been discriminating against smokers for a long time now. I am talking about those of us who live in areas where there is no mail delivery. I could be wrong, probably am, but I believe that maybe, just maybe, Homeland Security might have something to do with it. Sure, I know that they are trying to do a good "job" and are "working" hard to "protect" us, (mainly from ourselves, I think, they think or something like that). But here is the thing: I have been running into a problem lately that I haven't had in the past, trying to do business on the internet. Doesn't matter whether I am seeking to purchase something or setting up an account or just getting information, everyone today insists on a physical address!

Now, what is the matter with that? You might ask? Nothing, I have one, don't mind giving it out, but just don't try to mail or ship anything to it! It will never arrive! You know those adds on TV where Mr. Brown (UPS) is going across the desert to deliver a package? Or going through the jungle? Well, forget that here! I live so far out in the desert that even the Vorizon (can you hear me now?) man won't come out here, because he knows that they won't hear him!

The other day, I tried to order a refrigerator from Sears over the Internet. No big deal right? Wrong! I knew that "home" delivery was out of the question, so I opted for in store pickup. I went to check out and they asked me for my credit card information. No Problem. Then they asked for the Billing Address on the Credit Card. Now you wouldn't think that would be a problem, would you? Well, it was! Of course the billing address on my credit card is a Post Office Box Number. It has been for around 10+ years! But they came back with a message that said, " We're sorry, but we can not ship to a Post Office Box" !!!!!!! WHAT DOES SHIPPING HAVE TO DO WITH A BILLING ADDRESS?!? I didn't want them to ship it to my Billing Address, I wanted to pick it up in the store! Well, of course, there was no way to fix the problem over the Internet, so I ended up having to call their main office and after about two hours on the phone, going through this menu and that menu and a couple of people, I finally got my refrigerator ordered. They just couldn't understand that there are some places in this country where there is no home delivery of mail! I have been running into this more and more lately.

Google is the latest one that I have had problems with. You would think that a company as big as they are and that supposedly deals with information, would be better equipped to deal with certain situations. But, it seems that they are not. (I will probably be kicked of of blogger.com when they read this.) I signed up for AdSense. That shouldn't be a problem right? Wrong! They asked me for my mailing address where they would send the checks for all of the money that I would earn, so I gave it to them. Simple right? Well, it would be for you or me, but not them! The sign up procedure just wouldn't work with a PO Box. So, I thought, well, maybe I can figure away around this problem, I will just leave out the PO in front of Box and it should go through. Well it did! Hallelujah! It went right through! So, I have been checking my email everyday, waiting for the reply that would say that I could start putting AdSense up on my website. Well, today I got an email telling me that I have been turned down because I gave a PO Box for a mailing address and that there was no way they could work with me except I give them a physical address for them to send (mail) the checks to me. So, I have to give them credit, they did see 'through' my little ruse!

Ok, I said, no problem, I will just give them a call and explain my situation and surely they can work everything out. Did you know that they do not have a phone number for anyone who can work out this kind of problem? That AdSense, doesn't (or so I was told) have a phone number where you can talk to anybody about a problem? I wonder how Google communicates with them? They told me that I would have to go to such and such an address (url) and look through their help information to find my answer to my problem. Well, maybe I am blind, but I couldn't find one. Do you think that Google never thought of such a problem?

So, I did the only thing left for me to do. I wrote them an email and now I am waiting to see what kind of response, if any that I get back.

I will let you know what they say...