In a way it is almost humorous. The overreaching goal of totalitarianism is control - and of course, this goal most definitely applies to the approaching totalitarianism that we see every day now, whether it is coming from the U.S., the EU, China, Russia, Islamic countries, the entire Middle East (excluding Israel) - in fact almost everywhere in the world - and in the midst of this, we have to remember one huge fact.
They can't take our salvation. They can't take Jesus away. They can't take our faith. They can't take our eternal destiny. And these facts must be tremendously frustrating for those who wish to take our freedom and control every aspect of our life. Almost every form of communication in our society can be gathered, analyzed, and used against us, but there is one line of communication that remains completely private - our direct communication with God.
The Tribulation will usher in a period of false religion - a period which will result in forced worship of such or the threat of death. Still, even then, they can't remove our relationship with almighty God, and what ultimately matters - our faith in a risen Christ Jesus who offers the gift of salvation and eternal life in Paradise.
This article sums it up:
In a world where governments are gobbling the privacy of ordinary citizens, there is something owned by every human being that is completely immune to the interference of the NSA, FBI, IRS or any other earthly agency: a powerful and always available direct line of communication that cannot be tampered with and is impossible to break.
It’s a direct line of communication with your Creator and nobody or no thing can take it away from you should you put it to use.
This direct line of communication can be tapped into from anywhere, at any time. You don’t have to wait for a Sunday to use it because the cathedral of the human heart, where it originates, can be put into use, 24-7.
That direct line to the Creator is precious, not least of all because it is the only private one left in a world that continues to rob citizens of privacy and peace of mind.
Having the prayers of others is always a Godsend. While the prayers of others can keep you buoyed up and even feeling safer in an increasingly hostile and secular world, organized prayer, or Breakfast
Prayer meetings are not the only means to get in good with God.
Western governments of the day are proving they can take everything away from you—the privacy you assumed you had, your job, your family’s food, the roof over your head, your very peace of mind.
Prayer meetings are not the only means to get in good with God.
Western governments of the day are proving they can take everything away from you—the privacy you assumed you had, your job, your family’s food, the roof over your head, your very peace of mind.
Prayers said on the darkest nights even when you are cringing beneath the bed covers, go directly to God’s ears. He knows, without your even saying so, that you are worried about what might lie ahead.
The prayers that can be used in the direct line of communication you have with your Creator need not be complicated. “Forgive me my sins”, “Jesus Christ is the True Prince of Peace” are powerful prayers.
No technology, including lap computers, iPads and not even the email can best the direct line of communication built into the human heart.
No technology, including lap computers, iPads and not even the email can best the direct line of communication built into the human heart.
In times of trouble, the direct line of communication with your Creator is an SOS. “God help me!” is an SOS sent to the Heavens by the billions.
The answer to a prayer is not always something that can be seen. The first line of the beautiful Nicene Creed teaches us that not all that matters can be readily seen: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of all that is seen and unseen.”
The answer to a prayer is not always something that can be seen. The first line of the beautiful Nicene Creed teaches us that not all that matters can be readily seen: “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, Maker of all that is seen and unseen.”
The Bible teaches that you don’t have to be a Saint with a litany of prayers to call the Lord’s attention.
Take heart in knowing that It is the things that remain unseen that endure.
Also in the news (speaking of totalitarianism):
A now-viral photo showing a long line of Connecticut residents waiting to register their guns and ammo is circulating across the Internet — and it’s sending chills down the backs of some gun owners.
Connecticut gun owners are rushing to register certain firearms and ammunition that will be considered illegal contraband in the new year.
Under a wide-ranging gun control law passed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, they have until Tuesday to submit the paperwork with the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection.
“Holy crap. Looks like Weimar Germany,” Twitter user @votermom said of the photo.
“Another disgusting picture from Connecticut . . .men waiting in line to register guns with the government,” user @chipwoods commented.
“First, they came for the guns,” @PaulRReyes added.
“Life is too short to live in a state that does this to its residents,” Twitter user @lancemfisherdeclared.
And there are plenty more comments where that came from.
State police say they’ve had people lining up early in the morning to turn in applications to keep high-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and guns considered assault weapons under the new law.
A mere two decades after Arlo Guthrie began singing about being arrested on Thanksgiving for littering by Officer Obie; John Pozsgai was sentenced to three years in jail for “discharging pollutants into waters of the United States” for the crime of adding topsoil to his land.
And you can be sure that the evidence for the legal case which went on in varying forms for twenty years consisted of a lot more than a mere twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with a paragraph of text on the back.
There’s a folk song in there, but it’s not one that Arlo Guthrie would sing or that any liberal would listen to because every progressive who grins when hearing Arlo joke about a federal case being made out of throwing some garbage off a cliff would want to hang him in real life.
Bill Ellen, a Vietnam veteran and conservationist who ran a shelter for injured wildlife, spent six months in jail for making duck ponds based on a 1989 reinterpretation of environmental law which stated that land which had water on it for seven days was considered Federally protected wetlands.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane F. Barrett called it “a premeditated environmental crime” and declared victory even though Ellen was only sentenced to six months in jail instead of three years.
“It might be true that five years ago Ellen wouldn’t have to go to jail. But we’re living in a different world now,” she admitted.
And that different world is the world that progressives have made. They have made America into a nightmarish place where you don’t just go to jail for trashing public property, but for cleaning up your own.
The different world that U.S. Attorney Jane F. Barrett gleefully inhabits where a man may be sent to jail for a duck pond wasn’t made by Officer Obie, but by Arlo Guthrie and his listeners. If the laws of the culture made sense but were guilty of overreach, the laws of the counterculture are all overreach with no sense.
US aviation regulators on Monday released the names of sites picked to test civilian drones whose slated 2015 debut over American skies has sparked privacy concerns.
Testing of the unmanned aircraft is due to start within three months and could continue until February 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.
The FAA has said some 7,500 small unmanned aircraft can be expected in US airspace in the next five years — provided regulations are in place to handle them.
December 30 was a traumatic day for Israel as authorities released another batch of Palestinian terrorist killers -- 26 in all. They comprised the latest installment in an Israeli promise to free more than 100 Palestinian murderers -- a step reluctantly taken under pressure from President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, purportedly to advance the peace process and lure Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiating table. Yet, so far, Israel's concession has been fruitless. Abbas' Palestinian Authority continues to disseminate vile anti-Semitic incitement in PA schools and media, while promoting an agenda for a single Arab state that would swallow all of Israel.
Given this context, release of Palestinian prisoners became a bitter pill to swallow for Israeli families of terror victims and, for that matter, for all of Israeli society. There were many up-close and personal accounts of the vicious brutality of these killers and, compounding the pain, jubilation on the Palestinian side, with Abbas hailing such murderers as heroes worthy of emulation.
All these developments cried out for media coverage of contrasting Israeli hurt and Palestinian gleeful satisfaction.
But that's not the way the New York Times saw fit to report what happened. Instead, Times correspondents Jodi Rudoren and Isabel Kershner used, or rather misused, the freeing of Palestinian killers as a pretext to advance their own agenda -- outright overkill in bashing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. In an 18-paragraph story, they used no fewer than nine paragraph to savage Bibi, including the first four paragraphs -- with a lead that reads that Netanyahu faced "sharp criticism from all corners, including conservative members of his own coalition." The latter reportedly took umbrage at Netanyahu for seeking to lessen the pain by twinning prisoners' release with plans to build 1,400 new housing units in East Jerusalem and close-in settlements -- all on land that Israel would keep under any peace agreement. ("Israel's Pairing Prisoner Release and Settlements Angers Many" Dec. 31 edition, page A4).
There's no question that Times readers needed to know about criticism of the prime minister for letting killers loose to return to their murderous ways, along with objections to tie their release to additional Jewish construction in East Jerusalem and nearby settlements. But, as they say in the trade, these were secondary developments. Release of Palestinian prisoners, heart-wrenching Israeli reactions, twinned with Palestinian elation -- these were compelling topics that deserved top coverage.
Instead, Rudoren and Kershner -- who usually give higher priority to Palestinian suffering than to Israeli pain -- fed Times readers with an all too familiar Bibi-bashing dispatch. Their piece cites more than half a dozen Israelis -- from politics, media, and think tanks -- all slamming Bibi. That's pure overkill by Timesreporters, so obsessed with twisting the knife into Bibi that more important and compelling developments get back-of-the-bustreatment. We have here a perfect example of a totally unbalanced piece of writing.
Rudoren and Kershner quote Eitan Haber, a veteran Israeli commentator; Lizi Hameiri, a volunteer of the Israeli victims' group; Isaac Herzog, head of the opposition Labor Party; Yaakov Peri, a centrist minister, Orit Struk, a member of a right-wing party; David Weinberg of the Begin-Sadat Center of Bar-Ilan University, and Shim Shifter, a columnist for the Israeli daily Yediot Aharanot, which is fiercely anti-Netanyahu. Without exception, they all slam Bibi. And can be safely relied on to feed the Times' own agenda.
While the prime minister is a proper target for criticism, the Times' account is way over the top. Can anyone imagine that the Times would ever unleash a blast of similar bile and magnitude against Mahmoud Abbas? I rest my case.
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