AUTHENTIC HEALTHCARE REFORM

By James Wilson

             A close associate of mine got a 5% cost of living raise effective January 1.  The trouble is it will not be enough to cover the hike in her medical premium – not near enough.  The same story is repeating in multiple versions all over the country as the Obamacare disaster infects greater and greater multitudes.  We have heard about the now six million Americans cancelled by their insurance companies because their policies no longer meet government standards – and the standard official line that these cancellations are good for their victims because they are forced to buy new policies that include pregnancy care for men and gender adjustment treatment for the 99.5% of Americans who do not want it.  But this is only in the individually mandated market, where government is counting on massive purchases of unwanted insurance to pay for the treatments of those who need them.

            Anticipating the delayed coming of the business mandates companies have cut back large swaths of their workers to part-time status so their employers will not be forced to buy all or part of their insurance.  That means employees have less income to buy much more expensive insurance when government blithely tells them to just go to the exchanges – the ones that do not operate in the first place due to technical incompetence.  And when government legislates that fewer hours will now constitute full-time, the employers simply cut hours further to get under the lowered bar.

            What if we if insisted on authentic healthcare reform?

            The first awakening would be to the reality that authenticity in an American context requires freedom.  Even if we believed the inflated figure of thirty million Americans without health insurance – not healthcare, for free healthcare for the indigent and impoverished has been law on the books for decades – forcing the entire nation onto government-run exchanges to attempt to benefit less than 10% of us is madness.  Yet Obamacare depends for its survival on forcing enough healthy people to pay for the sick that we remain solvent on their backs.  A healthcare reform plan that reduces the freedom with which we have obtained healthcare in the past is not reform at all.

            The second wake-up call would remind us we built the best healthcare system in history through healthy competition between competent professionals.  In a free market economy incompetence is punished by failure and competence is rewarded with success.  Competition is what keeps the game honest and a level playing field is the guarantor of competition.  That would mean the insurance companies are not permitted to penalize people for the “sin” of having a pre-existing condition, as these things in no way harm the actuarial tables by which the companies live.  It would mean companies would be denied their own protected market territory because policies would be portable from one job to another and across state lines.  It would mean companies had to do business across state lines in order to stay in the game.  And it would mean tort reform to reduce the crippling weight of malpractice insurance.  Patients should be compensated fairly for a loss and doctors who repeatedly prove themselves incompetent or unethical should face permanent loss of their license.  When government knows its sole responsibility is promoting competition it can stop tinkering with the system – from which nothing but unintended consequences ever comes.    

            The third heads-up would be to those who say critics offer no alternatives to Obamacare.  That has always been hogwash.  Congressman Tom Price, for one, offered a promising alternative at the same time Obamacare was first advanced.  The Price Plan had all the advantages claimed by Obamacare – from competitive exchanges to eliminating penalties for pre-existing conditions – and none of the coercion.  Unfortunately Price belonged to the party of no power (2009) in either house and his plan was never considered by the very leadership that condemned his party as “the party of No.”  Is this problem too complex?  To the only nation that has landed on the moon?

            The Biblical Galatians declares Christ set us free for the sake of that freedom found only in Him.  I bring this up only because it seems freedom has been the primary object of the abundant life He brings from the beginning.  It is difficult to imagine a good gift that summarily cancels the best gift we’ve ever been given.  This might be a good time to pray our way back to the drawing board – democratically and legally displacing those blocking our path – and act on the fruit of that prayer.  I bring this up only because it seems not to have been tried.

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

Pour Me

In 1985, Sally Field won an Oscar.  In a cringing-worthy, but memorable acceptance speech, she excitedly said--”You LIKE me, You LIKE ME!”  The audience squirmed uncomfortably to see someone openly state what is virtually on everyone else’s heart.  It’s true…we all desire to be liked.  It seems popularity has become the Holy Grail not only for Hollywood narcissists but for glory-seeking Christians too.    

I think it’s interesting that the concept has also spread to our Social Media.  We gauge our worth by how many “Likes” we have on FaceBook. 

Even Pope Francis and Obama have gotten into the act. 

In the 2012 election, Obama was consistently viewed as more “likable” than Romney in poll after poll.  He was the person most Americans would choose to invite over for a beer or their Holiday dinner party.  Apparently, this “likability” translated into low-information voters selecting the next American Idol.

Pope Francis has been recently described as the “Rock Star Pope.”  Undeniably, people LIKE Pope Francis and he seems to be encouraging this adulation.  He was just named Time’s “Person of the Year.”  His recent quote:  “Who am I to judge” has become the inclusiveness and diversity mantra for Human Secularists and LGBT activists alike.

 Yet, here’s what the Bible says:

Do you not know that we will judge angels? 
~1 Corinthians 6:3

Is there anyone else out there who finds it utterly incredulous that the POPE, the chosen leader of 1.2 BILLION Christians worldwide, seems incapable of simply telling his flock what is right and wrong according to the Word of God?  If HE can’t quote basic scripture (which is extremely clear on the issue of sexual sin and PARTICULARLY clear on the homosexual issue)…then may I suggest he is woefully unqualified for his job!

Even Pro-Abortion, Pro-Gay Marriage and Anti-Christian Obama praised Pope Francis’ comments.   Don’t you find this weird?…I guess he “likes” him. 

So should followers of Jesus expect to be LIKED? …

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
~John 15:18

You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

~Matthew 10:22

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

~James 4:4

4= four corners of the earth

44=Worldwide (exponentially)

Coincidentally, Obama is the 44^th President.  Hmmm…exponential enemy of God?  Just sayin’…

If the Bible prophets, disciples and apostles were stoned, burned at the stake, thrown into the lion’s den, cast into the fiery furnace, torn limb from limb and crucified….How in the world (pardon the pun) did popularity become a modern day measure of goodness?

Obama and the Pope also have something else in common.  They both claim that they want to eradicate poverty.  They believe they can alleviate everyone’s misery on the planet if they can just be put in charge of the purse strings.  Doesn’t that sound so nice?  I mean…who can possibly be opposed to removing poverty from the planet? 

Interestingly, JUDAS was the ONLY disciple who ever expressed concern about redistributing wealth to the poor: 

Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.”  He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
~John 12: 5-6

So, on one hand we have the Pope and Obama saying we can eradicate poverty in our lifetime, and we have Jesus saying “the poor you will always have with you.”  Hmmmm….Whom should we believe?  I think that another modern day translation of this scripture could easily begin with….DUH!

Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar.
 ~Romans 3:4

For even your brothers and the household of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you, Even they have cried aloud after you.  Do not believe them, although they may say nice things to you. 

~Jeremiah 12:6

What Obama and the Pope don’t seem to understand is that POVERTY is a state of mind, body and spirit that we all MUST attain in order to approach the throne of God.  It is a SHADOW PICTURE of humility.  This is the same reason why nuns and priests take a VOW OF POVERTY in order to better serve the Lord. 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
~Matthew 5:3

Obama and the Pope want to be popular…thus they feel the compelling inner need to eradicate “poorness” or HUMBLENESS in order to obtain this goal.    

I can almost hear the gnashing of teeth that will accompany this unpopular position!

Compassionate Christians need to be more like Paul the Apostle:

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
~Galatians 1:10

I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.

~1 Corinthians 4:3

Basically, the Apostle Paul was saying:  “I couldn’t care less what you think about me.”

However, the ultimate arbiter in all matters is our Lord and Savior.  What did he say? 

 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

~John 2:24-25

but made Himself of no reputation

~Philippians 2:7a

Socialist government enslaves and impoverishes people.  This is a plain and simple Truth.  It does the EXACT OPPOSITE of what it purports to do.  It does not offer compassion for those least among us.  In fact, the VERY FIRST people to feel the effects of a wicked Marxist/Socialist government are the poor, weak and vulnerable in society.  

If you truly love God and are called to be a Truth-teller…you won’t care who “likes” you when you confront falsehoods.  You may get “unfriended” or “blocked”, or possibly even “reported.”  But in the end, like all the information posted on the Social Media…

The TRUTH will always be floating out there forever.

__________

 he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.

~Proverbs 28:19

And now my soul is poured out upon me; the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

~Job 30:16

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

~Benjamin Franklin

~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

DRUNK IN THE SPIRIT

            I wrote just days ago of the evils that issue from big players and small when they are drunk with power.  As Tolkien wrote so well in The Lord of the Rings, power manifests in a size and scope consistent with the grasp of the bearer, but it always devours the bearer as surely as it seeks to devour its victims.  The only alternative to eventual death for all concerned is to surrender the power to destruction – as Frodo did with the help of Sam and even Gollum.  It is actually true that – once we decide to obey rather than defy God – He works all things together for good as He promises in Romans 8:28.  Not always right away, but one way or another.

            Think of Israel.  How drunk with power must Secretary of State John Kerry be to convene talks on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, conclude an agreement, and exclude Israel?  The avowed purpose of Iranian foreign policy is the destruction of Israel first and the US thereafter.  Does Kerry actually believe Israel is going to say “Please and thank-you,” to the gathered might of the nations in these talks designed to seal her fate without so much as a howdy-do?  But, some would say, what can a nation of seven million do if we throw them under the bus?  The question should be, rather, how we will fare if we let Kerry lead us in his ignorance and his arrogance.  Israel is the only nation in the region already having a nuclear arsenal, and the only nation standing to have never lost a war.  She is the only nation banking on a promise from God Himself that He will never again tolerate injury to His first-born.  How drunk must we be to not get that? 

            Of course many will say it is blue-sky thinking to claim God has made – or will keep – such a promise. But it is a fact of history that no nation on earth has ever been resurrected after total destruction like that of Israel in the first century.  They have fought to victory in five wars against overwhelming odds.  They have made the desert bloom despite the poverty in which they arrived after World War II.  If there is a better explanation than God having their backs let someone share it.  Or we could decide God actually spoke the Bible – and the world – into existence with a particular plan and He is going to have His way.  We could become drunk in His Spirit.

            When we are drunk – on anything – we tend to discard our inhibitions, our judgment, and our ability to carry out our plans.  But when the intoxicant is power we tend to become full of conceit and when it is God’s Spirit we tend to fill ourselves with humility.  In His Spirit we tend to behave like He does.  That could mean engaging with Israelis as well as Iranians instead of deciding Israel’s fate and breaking it to them.  It could mean reforming healthcare along the lines of the Price Plan – advanced by Rep. Tom Price of Georgia – which provides all of the relief and none of the coercion of Obamacare.  It could even mean little things like observing the half century passed since the Kennedy assassination with all living former presidents attending, not just the Democrat ones.  (This is one of the crassest examples of official pettiness, rudeness, and vindictiveness I have ever seen.)  Being filled with God’s Spirit ultimately leads us to do right instead of what we want.  The fruit is better and a whole lot longer lived.

            Now in my own city of Redding the local government has engaged in talks with the McConnell Foundation – who leases land on the Sacramento Riverfront, which is owned by the Kutros family – on the future development of that land.  The owners have been excluded from the talks.  God has a few choice things to say about people who disregard the rights of landowners.  In Florence, Colorado, a school district is persecuting a group of high school girls because they and their parents object to a boy showering with them after the school board has made a policy permitting it.  God has something to say about arrogant authorities harming His little ones.  Officials in both cities appear drunk with power.  It might be Redding needs a better plan for these talks.  It might be Florence needs to come alongside its families instead of its social engineers.  It could even be we all need a whole new attitude about intoxication – are we after power or seeking the Spirit of the living God?

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

              

           

DRUNK WITH POWER

            Toronto Mayor Bob Ford is an alcoholic whose addiction is ruining his career.  (He admits he smoked crack during “one of my drunken stupors.”)  But alcohol is not the only thing on which to get drunk.  Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner got drunk on his power and was forced from office.  In the case of Barack Obama we find a whole administration drunk with power.  His attorney general first covers up an arms debacle that costs American lives, then blames a previous president, and finally just stonewalls a congressional committee.  His secretary of Health and Human Services tells American citizens she does not work for them.  His IRS leadership lies repeatedly about agency persecution of political opponents and the illegal release of confidential materials.  And the president himself lies about murder in Benghazi, spying on American citizens, his own involvement in the IRS scandal, and what Obamacare will do to citizens who already have health insurance.  If that is not enough, he routinely re-writes legislation such as his signature healthcare law in blatant defiance of the Constitution as cooly as he deliberately mis-quotes the Gettysburg Address to remove references to God.  This president is so drunk with power that when the House of Representatives adopts – legally – a bill doing the same things the president illegally decreed to correct his own insurance cancellation nightmare, he threatens to veto the legislation.

            No good thing ever comes from drunken-ness and nothing ever will.  But the greatest damage comes from being drunk with power. 

            Intoxification with power – and the vindictiveness that accompanies it – spreads to lower officials and civilians as well.  Recently fake blood was spattered on peaceful life advocates in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by so-called pro-choicers.  I say “so-called” because these people have no interest in the freedom to choose in – say – an election.  AG Eric Holder has no problem with voter intimidation by gangsters in Philadelphia at the same time he accuses legitimate poll watchers of suppressing the vote in that same city, demonstrating his soul brotherhood with the gangsters.  (In a city in which multiple precincts cast zero votes for the president’s opponent whom would a reasonable person expect to be guilty of vote suppression?)  A man was recently arrested for murder after shooting an armed man who broke down his door at 2 AM and charged him.  In Washington DC the insurance commissioner was fired by Mayor Vincent Gray for agreeing with a proposal to ask insurance companies to restore cancelled policies, and a low level Obamacare employee named Elaine was fired for answering the questions she is charged with answering when the questioner happened to be talk show host Sean Hannity.  Right here in Redding it turns out our own Mercy Hospital helped write the protocols for Obamacare; I learned this because my radio program was sponsored by Mercy.  When I blogged against Obamacare Mercy summarily dropped my program with that explanation.  It is about intimidating – not debating – opponents.

            The Bible has a wonderful passage addressed as Ephesians 5:18.  It instructs readers not to become drunk with spirits – including the spirit of power – but rather be filled (drunk, if you will) with the Holy Spirit.  Becoming intoxicated – filled – with God is how we come to authentic sobriety.  Confirmation occurs as people change behavior – and the fruit of it – sometimes over time but sometimes quite rapidly.  The recently concluded 40 Days for Life campaign reports forty-five abortion clinics have closed since 2007 as they prayed and blessed outside clinics with appointment cancellations as high as 75% when they are praying; these drunk in the spirit types do nothing more aggressive than prayer. The Rev. Martin Luther King led a civil rights movement for fourteen years – until his martyrdom – fueled by nothing but the Holy Spirit, according to King himself.    Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, asked how he remained at peace through seven years of trumped up indictments on perfectly legal behavior, criminal conviction, and eventual acquittal-on-appeal of felony charges, said he went to Congress not knowing his Lord and became filled with Him while there; he had no other explanation. Like former power broker Chuck Colson, DeLay now knows real power.

            The Bible also says His strength is perfected (2 Corinthians 12:9) in our weakness.  The Christians who took down autocratic governments in the Philippines and throughout Eastern Europe had no resources other than prayer and forgiveness without giving up their convictions.  I don’t say our present government does or doesn’t need taking down.  But like King, Colson, and DeLay, I recommend being drunk in God’s Spirit.  It is the only authentic sobriety, and the only real power.

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