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posted by Michael on 07/1/08

There have been so many things going on here at the Staddon house that it has been impossible for me to get anything posted for a while. It seems too bad because those things would make great blog posts. We’ve been splitting bee hives, planting trees, harvesting honey, chipping branches, and all kinds of other interesting projects. I even had my first try at welding. It has been a lot of hard, sweat-dripping work. But what deserves a blog post the most is what our family read in Psalm 118 this morning, especially verses 19 through 23:

Verses 19-20: “Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and will praise the Lord: this gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter.” Question:Who is “the door of the sheep” through which they enter into the fold?

Verse 21: “I will praise Thee: for Thou has heard me, and art become my Salvation.” Question: Who is our Salvation?

Verses 22-23: “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” Question: Who is the Head that the builders rejected?

Verse 24: “This is the day that the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Key question: What is “this” Day that the Lord has made?

Read the verses again. Verse 24 is just a continuation of the other verses. The gate, the salvation, and the stone are speaking of Christ. The Day in verse 24 is not ultimately speaking of any 12-hour or 24-hour period! This is speaking of Christ, the Eternal Day in which I will rejoice, beginning the moment that I made peace with God through the sacrifice of His Son. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” 1 Jn. 5:12. The water Christ gives is a well of water springing up unto everlasting life (Jn. 4:14). “For God, Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” 2 Cor. 4:6. “The Lord is my light and my salvation” Ps. 27:1, “a light to lighten the gentiles” Luke 2:32, Is. 9:2, and Is. 49:6. According to Hebrews 4:8-10 this eternal day that lives within me is the Sabbath, the Day of rest. “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” Mt. 11:28. My temporal body may work and sweat, but how glorious it is to abide in the Rest of Jesus Christ forever! Woe to me if I attempt the labor of iniquity on this Day! Question: “And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not  profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest” Heb. 3:18 – 4:3a.

4 Comments » | posted in Politics, Recipes, The Bright Side, Tidbits

posted by James on 02/5/08

West Virginia was the first of 21 states to announce it’s choice for the Republican presidential nominee tonight. Can you guess who the winner was? Amazingly, Mike Huckabee took 1st place with 52% of the vote! Romney took 2nd with 47% while McCain, the national leader, took an extremely distant 3rd at 1%. With the winner-take-all system, Huckabee has gained West Virginia’s 18 delegates. The May 13 primary will decide the remaining 30 delegates.

Thousands of people across the nation are still voting. With all kinds of adverse weather conditions, it is great to read about the positive turnout all across the nation as well as seeing it here at Headquarters. The Staff Center here is being used as a voting station and as I write, downstairs there is a continuous flow of Illinois citizens coming to vote.

Huckabee still has a long way to go tonight. Go, Mike, Go!

4 Comments » | posted in Politics

posted by James on 02/5/08

Is it enough for a leader to have experience without character? Is it enough for him to have factual intelligence without Christian morality? Are his "private" beliefs inconsequential when contrasted with his public prowess? Many of our Founding Fathers stated very clearly how they answered these important questions. One of them was John Jay.

Elected President of the Continental Congress and appointed the first Chief-Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Jay was known for helping to secure favorable foreign relations in the early stages of the United States. He realized that the "wise or virtuous" qualities of a Christian leader were essential for maintaining good foreign relations with other nations:

"Real Christians will abstain from violating the rights of others, and therefore will not provoke war. Almost all nations have peace or war
at the will and pleasure of rulers whom they do not elect,
and who are not always wise or virtuous.
Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers,
and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation
to select and prefer Christians for their rulers."

In 1853, President Franklin Pierce also recognized in his inaugural address that our national security does not rest upon the brilliant policy of man’s wisdom:

"It must be felt that there is no national security
but in the nation’s humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence."

So what would be the consequences of subtle compromise in allowing one who does not fear God to hold a position of leadership? Matthias Burnett, the politically informed pastor of the First Church in Norwalk, eloquently declared during an election sermon:

"Look well to the characters and qualifications
of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust…
Think not that men who acknowledge not the providence of God
nor regard His laws will be uncorrupt in office,
firm in defense of the righteous cause against the oppressor,
or resolutely oppose the torrent of iniquity."

Patrick Henry boldly stated that the reason our nation espoused freedom of religion was because it was founded on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often
that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum prosperity, and freedom of worship here."

In other words, Patrick Henry is saying that freedom of religion is a Christian idea. If our nation were to leave the Christian beliefs that established freedom of religion, would that freedom remain?

The Christian religion is the basis of a moral society. George Washington said, "And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

According to Washington, morality in turn is an indispensable support of political prosperity. "It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."

6 Comments » | posted in Historical Glimpses, Politics

posted by Robert on 02/5/08

From CBS News:

"If a tree falls in the forest and no one’s there to hear it, does that mean that it didn’t make a sound?" This was Mike Huckabee’s response when a reporter noted that a state newspaper had endorsed John McCain, calling Huckabee’s foreign policy experience unsettling. "The fact that they are not aware of, maybe, the experience that I  do have traveling to 41 countries, visiting with several prime ministers, having many trade missions and dealing with policy they may not be aware of, it doesn’t mean it did not happen, it may just mean they may not be aware of it," Huckabee continued.

"I also would remind people that what you would look for in a president is judgment. You look for the capacity to make decisions, and if you’ve been a governor, you’ve had more experience in actually making decisions and doing that across the broader battlefield than simply in the legislative body. Being able to pick an issue or two, focus on it, specialize in it, but maybe never have had the experience of looking at all of those issues and how they integrate together. In the executive branch, you don’t have the luxury of isolating issues, you have to integrate those issues and how they all function together."

Does Mike Huckabee have the experience to lead?

Mike Huckabee has as much experience as any other Governor who ever ran for President. Mike Huckabee has the leadership experience that comes with being an executive and has shown he can make tough executive decisions. He knows how to surround himself with good people, listen to advice, and make the best decision. He seems to be the only candidate with a clear grasp on the nature of this war as a radical religious mission of extermination and tyranny on the part of the terrorists. He believes in the Powell-Schwartzkopf doctrine of overwhelming engaging force, and fully stresses that military decision-making should be delegated to our commanders with "the blood on their boots and the medals on their chests." This doesn’t sound much like a Jimmy Carter, but more like Theodore Roosevelt. "Speak softly, but carry a big stick." (source)

Executive experience is considerably more
important  than foreign policy experience.
Mike Huckabee has that experience .

3 Comments » | posted in Politics

posted by Robert on 02/4/08

Many people have heard the whopping statistic from Huckabee opponents that there was a "47 percent increase in state tax burden" while Mike Huckabee was Governor of Arkansas. Few, however, get the rest of the story.

"During Huckabee’s years in office, total state tax burden — all 50 states combined — rose by twice as much: 98 percent, increasing from $743 billion in 1993 to $1.47 trillion in 2005."

But in Arkansas, Huckabee was standing as a fiscal convervative:

"In Arkansas, the income tax when he took office was 1 percent for the poorest taxpayers and 7 percent for the richest, exactly where it stood when he left the statehouse 11 years later. But, in the interim, he doubled the standard deduction and the child care credit, repealed capital gains taxes for home sales, lowered the capital gains rate, expanded the homestead exemption and set up tax-free savings accounts for medical care and college tuition. Most impressively, when he had to pass an income tax surcharge amid the drop in revenues after Sept. 11, 2001, he repealed it three years later when he didn’t need it any longer. He raised the sales tax one cent in 11 years and did that only after the courts ordered him to do so."

Pretty impressive, eh? It must be, because Arkansas businessman really like him. Then, to top it all off:

"When Governor Huckabee left office last January, he had turned the $200 million state budget shortfall left by his Democrat predecessor into an $844 million surplus allowing his successor to follow Governor Huckabee’s lead to begin the elimination of the state sales tax on food."

And what are his fiscal goals as President? Huckabee is the the only presidential candidate calling for genuine permanent tax reform through the elimination of the IRS and supporting the "FairTax." This well-researched and proven method of taxation "abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities."

The Professor of Economics at Boston University reports that the FairTax "is more efficient than the current income tax system and these efficiency gains will redound to all Americans." It is designed to make "American goods 12-25% more competitive, boosting economic growth, increasing our exports, and securing American jobs. It also prevents criminals or illegal aliens from avoiding taxes, and makes the taxes we all pay 100% transparent."

By the way, did you know that Mike Huckabee signed the No-Tax Pledge?

So don’t be swayed by the politics. Learn what Mike Huckabee really stands for.

3 Comments » | posted in Politics