FALLING IN LOVE WITH LIMITS

By James Wilson

           

             On our Monday conference calls with the California Governors Prayer Team we always ask the Lord to cause our elected and appointed leaders to fall in love with the limitations placed on them in law and constitution.  Clearly we have not prayed enough.  The lawlessness of government itself becomes more brazen and more frequent with every passing month.  It may even be that we need to pray for ordinary citizens to fall in love with the limitations placed on our freedom.  By that I mean citizens need to re-discover the price of freedom – which is not just vigilance, but action to maintain and reclaim it.

            In local matters a candidate for office in Escondido, California, placed a campaign sign in his own yard and was ordered by officials to remove it.  He claimed his right to free speech was violated but liberal and conservative leaders alike told him he must obey the rules of the city even if they were unconstitutional.  In the meantime the music group Live Nation planned a concert in Los Angeles and – after they arranged the venue – were told by city officials they could hold their concert only if it were deemed a “good fit” for the neighborhood in which they would hold it.  Since when are Americans required to pass a culture test administered by bureaucrats before we can play music?  And where does it say in law or constitution we should obey rules that violate that constitution?  Is it not the responsibility of lawmakers to make their laws consistent with the constitution and the responsibility of citizens to defy laws that are not?

            The 2010 Citizens United decision of the US Supreme Court held that arbitrary limits on campaign contributions by corporations begged the question that corporations are governed and funded by US citizens covered by the First Amendment.  In the follow-up McCutcheon case – decided this year – the court said restricting citizens to $2600.00 in total campaign contributions – per the McCain-Feingold Act – is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech.  Yet that same court was perfectly comfortable saying a citizen may contribute a maximum $2600.00 each to as many candidates as they like.  Can only dissenting Justice Thomas see this is still an unconstitutional restriction of free speech?

             Now Californians are denied our right to a referendum on unjust laws – a right enshrined in the California Constitution.  The legislature passed AB 1266 in late 2013 – the so-called Bathroom Bill – to mandate boys using girls’ restroom and shower facilities and vice versa.  Outraged parents and citizens mounted an effort to place this issue on the November ballot, something we have a right to do in California, and vote it down if they could.  When the petition drive began Secretary of State Debra Bowen falsely claimed the law was in effect during the drive – state law states clearly that it is not.  She refused to accept signatures from at least two counties until ordered by a judge to do so.  She then asserted the petitions were 130,000 valid signatures short.  When Pacific Justice Institute attempted to do an independent count – as is their right under state law – Bowen refused to turn the petitions over because – as she put it – there were privacy concerns for the signers of the petitions.

            The Institute sued in state court and the judge ignored the law to find in favor of the secretary of state.  Left unanswered is the question of how a person signing a political petition – the very essence of public speech – retains a right to privacy, especially when the people wishing to review the signatures are the very people the signers are attempting to help.  But a more important question is answered by implication.  Citizens do have a responsibility – an obligation – to assert our right to live under law rather than under the whims of powerful men and women.  When government consistently denies us that right we have an obligation to rise up – non-violently – and deny government.  We need to deny government in such a creative way that our political NO becomes a cosmic YES.  AB 1266 is a case in point.

              When this gross invasion of students’ right to bathe and use the toilet unmolested and un-oogled takes effect parents should – on a wholesale basis – keep their kids at home until the law is overturned.  Schools depend on your child being in school every day; funding is determined based on average daily attendance – ADA – and thousands of kids staying home hurts budgets.  Hopefully it hurts budgets enough that school boards, administrators, and teachers unions will join the clamor for this law’s repeal.  But it is not a creative YES to merely keep the kids at home. 

            We homeschooled our children for three years, as do thousands of families in California; it is perfectly legal to do so and nowhere near as time consuming as many seem to think.  Homeschooled children tend to do better on achievement tests than their public and private school counterparts; they cut through college entrance exams like butter.  They have been demonstrated to experience no loss in terms of socialization.  Any parents who want to consider this option can google the Home School Legal Defense Association.  However, parents should beware of one thing:  Even when the schools bow to the pressure and stop using our children as social science lab animals those parents who began to home school during this period may find they and their kids like it so much they won’t be going back.

            Jesus says He came to set the captives free.  But He never said freedom was free.  He told the man in Mark 2 to rise and walk, not be lifted up and floated away, after healing him of his paralysis.  He says the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force in Matthew 11 – not the force of violence but of the rising assumption of responsibility.  That is falling in love with our limitations as citizens.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

SCORE ONE FOR FREEDOM BUT OBAMA'S WAR CONTINUES

By James Wilson

             The Supreme Court has decked Barack Obama in recent days.  They decided by a 5-4 majority that requiring Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Products to provide abortion services – clearly violating their faith – defies the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment.  They likewise declared states and localities may not bar free speech from public walkways in front of abortion clinics – or anywhere.  Leftist talk show hosts mock the decision they say permits citizens to nullify federal law.  Truth is the decision forbids government to nullify State and Federal Constitutions.  Others claim an American launching a business must play by the rules and not by his conscience.  Truth is the First Amendment prohibits rules that trump religious conscience.  These decisions are a big home run for freedom of faith, albeit decided in a very narrow context; the Hobby Lobby decision applies to “closely held” or – in English – family owned corporations. 

            This is not a bad thing.  Courts traditionally limit their decisions to matters and interests actually brought before them.  Future decisions in subsequent cases should follow the line of thinking in the Citizens United case – decided in 2010 – so eventually no company will be forced to violate the faith of founders and owners to satisfy a law attacking the Bill of Rights.

            The Court uanimously rolled back the Obama appointments to the Federal Labor Relations Board absent senate approval, another score for freedom.  The separation of powers doctrine forbids one branch of government to ride roughshod over another; that riding is how dictatorships, monarchies, and caliphates are established.  But the president, in a dizzying display of arrogance, simply announces his next bypass of Congress and dares the rest of us to stop him.  His war against the nation that gave him all he has continues.

            The man who would be king announces if Congress will not enact the immigration reform he wants it he will continue to bypass them.  In other words, although the Supreme Court has told him he is not the supreme law of the land, he declares he will continue to act as though he is.  He refers to a range of actions/inactions from declaring amnesty for illegals here long enough to suit him to assassination of American citizens abroad declining to rescue American citizens being abused in foreign lands.  (Marines Armando Torres and Andrew Tahmoressi are held prisoner in Mexico and one of the murdered Israeli teens was an American citizen.)  He dared Congress to sue him while speaking in the Rose Garden.

            The subtext of this presidential bullying is the notion that if no one else will do the right thing he will.  His attitude pre-supposes he is right and he alone is authorized to decide the right.  He depends on the reality that challenges to his arrogance take years to percolate through the courts.  In a nation of laws none of this will wash; in a culture of entitlement that worships at the altar of feel-good it does.  Both left and right have periodically worshipped at that altar; today it is all from the left.  What do we do?

            Dinesh D’Souza says in his new film, America, we do not have a Washington, Lincoln, or Reagan at this time; but we do have us.  I would add to that, “We Americans have always had us and we have always had the Lord Jesus Christ, His Abba, and His Spirit – when we acknowledge them.  They made Washington, Lincoln and Reagan the heroes they became; they will make us the men and women we are called to become.”           

                       

            Jesus Christ Himself says if His people acknowledge Him He will acknowledge – uphold – them.  This implies a continuing commitment to play by the legitimate rules – to not become the travesty we oppose.  If this looks like an exercise in futility, I remember an exercise in personal futility some time ago.  I was called by God to protest the consecration of an apostate bishop.  I knew I would be alone and ridiculed.  The rules gave me right and responsibility to read a statement; the rule keepers denied me that right.  I left the building wondering why God insisted I make such a wasted gesture.  I wondered until my statement – unspoken during the service – went virile and rounded the globe on the internet.  People still approach me respectfully, saying, “So you’re the guy who…”

            We are called by our God to stay in this game for the long haul.  It is a marathon and not a sprint.  And our God says He will never leave us.  Do we believe Him?  Is there anyone or anything else worth believing?

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

CORPORATE BULLYING AND A SCORCHED EARTH

By James Wilson

             I have written about bullying in this space many times – from citing a right of self defense for school students to exhorting the people to stand up to government bullies by non-cooperation on the one hand and advancing a positive alternative on the other.  But governmental tyrants and depraved individuals are not the only bullies on the landscape.  There are corporate bullies out there, and some of them can operate only with the subsidy of the courts.  Take – for example – the Episcopal Church.

            When the Church began ordaining practicing homosexual people to the office of priest and bishop in 2003 hundreds of congregations and many thousands of people saw this as the last slide in an escalating cascade of defiance of the Word of God – the Bible – which is the intellectual foundation stone of any Christian Body.  These communities allied themselves with other legitimate jurisdictions within the worldwide Anglican Communion and sought to go their way, worshipping God as they understood Him and seeking no harm to anyone.  But the Episcopal Church – like an Egyptian Pharoah before them – would not let these people go.

            They invoked a canon – a fancy term for church law – known as the Dennis Canon.  This rule was adopted in 1979 and declares every congregation holds its property in trust for the diocese to which it belongs.  (A diocese would be the church equivalent of a state among states.)  Using this canon as authority the Episcopal Church took church after church to court, demanding surrender of their property to their dioceses, and funding each diocese as it brought the lawsuits.  The Dennis Canon claims authority retroactively, a stunt that would not pass constitutional muster – there is that pesky “full faith and credit clause” – if it were a dog house at stake.  Churches that purchased their property decades before the diocese existed – let alone the Dennis Canon – and all the rest who spent their own money and bought property prior to 1979 were all sued and many lost in courts that refused to make judgment on so-called neutral principles of law.  They reduced the issues to a contest between siding with the establishment or the émigrés – based on which party the judge liked best.  Most of the time the establishment won.

            The Episcopal Church summarily stripped departing priests and deacons of ecclesiastical credentials on the nonsensical charge of “abandoning the communion.”  There is such a basis for this stripping, but it applies only to clergy who leave the Anglican Communion; in nearly every case these clergy simply transferred to another branch of the Communion, a routine administrative function. 

The good news is that few of the clergy stopped performing their duties, but the action of deposition was every bit as much a bit of corporate bullying as the half dozen or so bishops who forbade me to read a protest at the consecration of one of their apostate buddies despite the rules and regs that clearly gave me the right and even the responsibility to do so.  They said my two minute statement was “too long” despite the fact one could only search in vain for a “too long” rule and even though one of their bishop buddies spoke three times as long while protesting another consecration of which this gang did not approve.

            A half dozen priests in the Connecticut diocese were summoned to New York City where national church authorities demanded they recant their public statements of resistance to the Episcopal Church.  We Anglican clergy swear an oath to obey the legitimate orders of our bishops; we owe no such loyalty to national church authorities under our Church’s constitution and canons – not even the obligation to show up for star chamber meetings in New York.  The Connecticut Six told the bullies to shove it.  But the beat goes on.

            Now the Episcopal Church is suing whole dioceses that have seceded, and they have prevailed in their first lawsuit against the Diocese of San Joaquin in California.  They claimed their constitution mandates the same conditional ownership of diocesan property as the Dennis Canon places on congregational properties.  The judge apparently failed to read the Church Constitution and canons; no such language occurs in them.  The case is being appealed – with many others – and the good news is (according to me) that those loyal to our founding documents – the Bible – will win either way.  If we prevail in court we strike a blow for justice and constitutional principles – both church and American constitutions.  If we fail in court we are left “lean and mean” to pursue the mandate Jesus gave the apostles two thousand years ago to go into all the world proclaiming the Kingdom of God unencumbered by material goods.

            But would God have a more direct benefit available to His people who stand against corporate bullying – whether from the Episcopal Church or some secular outfit that wants to destroy the free market through monopoly tactics?  He surely would.

            It is pretty clear if we read Matthew 10, Mark 13, or Luke 21 that part of serving God in His Son is to be persecuted.  These chapters assure believers they will be given what they are to say and do when they need the gifts.  That assurance is for any time or place – not just churchy disputes – but the catch is the promise being only for those who have sold out to Jesus.  We live in a time of more identifiable interventions by God in human affairs (in English – miracles) and decisions to follow Christ than at any previous time in history.  Jesus Christ promised this outpouring of grace when the end draws near.  We also live in a time of unprecedented evil from bullies of all kinds.  Jesus predicted this too when He said there would be war, men calling evil good and good evil, and hatred against His people simply because we are His people.  This confluence is to be wholesale and worldwide, as the end draws closer.  Do I have any idea when He returns to rule?  No way.  But I do know He said when we see these things – the good and the bad and the ugly – to lift our heads because He is on His horse and on His way.  And a little bit – or a large bit – of court subsidized bullying is supposed to ruin my day?  Not. 

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

Perfect Mess

We hear this phrase often:  “no one is perfect.”  This is true.  Perfectly true.  However, our Holy God demands perfection because He is perfect. 

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

~Matthew 5:48

I often wonder why Christians seem to be losing the Culture War.  We should be winning handily as we are on the side of Truth and Righteousness.  God Himself is on this side—the most powerful Omnipotent force in the universe.  This week the answer fully crystallized in my mind.  As his battle warriors, we are lacking purity of message.  Several news events occurred this week which brought this to the forefront.

This week, Democrats floated legislation to do away with all 266 recent laws that have sought to restrict abortion. 

While it is admirable that a resurgence of Pro-Life concerns have recently resulted in enacting an enormous amount of restrictions on the heinous practice of abortion, I am concerned that ultimately, this lack of “purpose purity” will lead us down a bad path.   These laws are deemed “common sense” laws, but we need God’s laws in order to succeed. 

Refuting the Democrats, here is Republican Senator Charles Grassley’s explanation on why these 266 laws are necessary:

“Americans stand behind sensible measures like abortion waiting periods, fetal pain bills, hospital admitting privileges, mandatory ultrasounds, safety standards -- and, in a minor’s case, getting a mom or dad’s okay.”

Senator Grassley went on to explain that if this bill to remove the restrictions became law:

“it would send a message to state governments that it’s useless to enact laws aimed at protecting health and welfare.” It would lead, he went on, “to inhumane, unsanitary, heinous, dangerous, shocking, and unsafe abortions. 

Gee…Aren’t abortions already “inhumane, heinous, dangerous, shocking and unsafe?”  Just how are abortions made “safe” through more health laws?  Safe for whom?  The term “Safe abortions” is the ultimate oxymoron.  Women are scarred both mentally and physically for life.  The precious babies end up dismembered and

D-E-A-D.

I find it is really helpful to juxtapose this abortion argument using the Nazi death camp analogy.  It is perfectly (pardon the pun) analogous and allows us to see heinous behavior through the clear crystallized lens of history.  Let’s paraphrase Senator Grassley’s comments below as a make-believe public official during WWII:

“Germans stand behind sensible measures like longer waiting periods and less crowding when herding people to the gas chamber.  Also, if Mengele’s experiments are done with more anesthesia, cleaner instruments and better hospital surgical conditions, we can all agree that these are practical safety improvements.  When minor children are rounded up for these camps, let’s bring the parents along with them.  Then we can have more effective and more humane work camps for all.”    

SAY WHAT???

Another Christian organization recently suggested this advice: It was proposed that a bakery should put this sign in their window:    

This is a Christian-owned business, and while the government may force us to participate in a same-sex wedding or other activity that violates the teachings of scripture, we will not profit from it. All profit derived from forced transactions involving same-sex weddings will be donated to ministries that help individuals overcome same-sex attractions.

Remember…no one can “force” you to sin.  You must COMPLY with sin even if the pressure is intense.  Right now in America the pressure appears to be only monetary in nature.  I am sure it will ramp up to legal penalties such as jail and eventually death like all other times in history.  I know we refuse to believe this can happen here in the good ole U.S. of A but look how far we have fallen already.  

Like Miriam Ibrahim…will you say NO when asked to deny Christ?  We don’t get the option of “Yes…if you pay me to deny Him I will, and then I will donate the money.”    

This is how we will lose the battle.  Please re-write this imaginary business window sign and INSERT any of the sins that God prohibits and you will see the flaw in this type of thinking:

“Baking a cake” seems so innocuous…so innocent, right?  May I suggest we insert the words “celebrating perversion” instead?  Does that clarify it a bit more? 

Where does this type of impure reasoning stop? 

By going along with the same sex "wedding" celebration we are sending the message that we are somehow OK with this sanctification of perversion and OK with going against Jesus Christ’s clear definition of marriage in scripture.  But participating in it sullies us with the sin. Even worse, it suggests that we take the proceeds from this perversion and drop it on the altar of our Holy God, who already owns all the cattle on the hills and has no need of tainted money derived from sinful activity.

Like Nazi Germany, we are rapidly reaching the critical juncture where we are being asked to "put the Jew in the oven."  This is the point at which we must say NO.  We may get “fed to the lions”, but I prefer to face God Almighty with a clear conscience instead of comply with evil.  

According to the Risen Christ, cowards are the first group singled out in Revelation 21:8 who will not make it into heaven but instead will be sent to the lake burning with fire and brimstone.

One last news example.  This week we got to see the results of the recent Galloway v. Greece decision as "invocations" were made in the name of "man's wisdom" at the next public meeting following the ruling.  

Why do you think atheists, progressives and human secularists spend so much time INSISTING that we are NOT a Christian nation?  The devil knows that once we concede this point, we have lost the battle.

In the Galloway v. Greece decision (which very TELLINGLY was supported by Obama), the United States basically agreed with this paraphrased premise:

We are no longer just a Christian nation.  We openly invite all other religions and gods to take a seat of authority in our public meetings, and government.  We will “invoke” their names and their powers so that they can become involved in our political process.  We also arrogantly expect that Almighty God will “scoot over” and let these gods pull up a throne next to His so He can share with them in the name of tolerance and inclusiveness.

Again…SAY WHAT???

Thus, we now have a flood of Wiccan priestesses and Atheists saying “invocations” before town meetings.  Dear God help us (the ONE AND ONLY True God).  Just what are we invoking down upon our heads?    

When we don’t have purity of thought, purity of action and purity of message we become a mixed up, ineffective mess. 

That’s exactly what the devil is counting on…gratuitous action that makes us feel self-righteous and better about ourselves but has zero effect on changing our society for the better.

The only way we will win this war is with PURITY and complete trust in God.  If we start playing on the devil's battlefields with the devil's rules, we will end up as a footnote in history.  

The antidote that is necessary to counter evil is unadulterated PURITY.  When we have muddled messages, the devil keeps right on moving “Forward.”   

Without CHRISTIAN PURITY, he’s able to deliver his uncut message right to our doorstep of…

PURE POISON.

_______________________________

All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

~1 John 3:3

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

~Matthew 5:8

“Quit your worship charades.
    I can’t stand your trivial religious games:
Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings—
    meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more!
Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!
    You’ve worn me out!
I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion,
    while you go right on sinning.
When you put on your next prayer-performance,
    I’ll be looking the other way.
No matter how long or loud or often you pray,
    I’ll not be listening.
And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing
    people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.
Go home and wash up.
    Clean up your act.
Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings
    so I don’t have to look at them any longer.
Say no to wrong.
    Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
    Help the down-and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
    Go to bat for the defenseless.

~Isaiah 1: 13-17 (The Message)


~Posted by permission of Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly

Pastor Jeffrey N. Daly is the author of Repentance—God’s Strategy to Bless a Nation and Zeal to Repent!—A Key to Personal and National Restoration 

–Both are available for FREE at The National Day of Repentance website: www.dayofrepentance.org

or by emailing him at

jdalylaw@aol.com