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If you missed the GOP debate last night, click here to see a video of Ron Paul’s answers. A couple other notes:

• Ron Paul’s recently-released fiscal “PLAN TO RESTORE AMERICA” includes: cutting spending by $1 trillion in the first year; a balanced budget by year three; lowers the corporate tax rate to 15%, making America competitive in the global market; and eliminates 5 cabinet departments. Here’s the whole plan.

• Believe it or not, Rush Limbaugh endorsed Paul’s fiscal plan. Quote: “Ron Paul has a good idea… fooling around the margins isn’t going to get it done… genuine big spending cuts are the only thing that is going to bring us back”

• Political donors have to declare who they work for. The top three employers of Ron Paul contributors are: US Air Force, US Army, & US Navy.

• Pew Research has completed a study that shows that the biased mainstream media really has been blacking out coverage of Ron Paul’s campaign, despite his results in various straw polls.  My favorite headline: “Michelle Bachman wins Ames Straw Poll, Tim Pawlenty Finishes Third.” Politico (oops!) forgot to mention that Ron Paul came in second, nearly beating Bachman in her native state.

So why am I documenting all this? I promise I won’t bombard you with political stuff, but I believe that Ron Paul is the only candidate who truly supports a limited federal government and the constitution that’s supposed to limit it. I also believe that this election is the last one that could correct the course of our country. If it doesn’t happen now, it’s not going to happen.

And I have put my money where my mouth is. For the first time in my life, I changed my voter registration from independent to republican so I can vote in the primary next year. And I made a contribution, also for the first time, to Paul’s political campaign.

Here’s his campaign website.

Check it out. His positions on the issues are easy to find and clearly spelled out. You may discover that he’s not such a wacko after all. You might even want to contribute to his one-day campaign today to raise money.

Or not. I’m just sharing information, not twisting arms.

Jean

P.S. Feel free to share this.

There is an appointed time for everything
And there is a time for every event under heaven
Ecclesiastes 3:1

My time for blogging and twittering has come to a close.  The Lord is calling me in a different direction, and as much as I’ve enjoyed getting to know people in the blogging world, it has been a time-consuming  (and brain-consuming) process.  My time and limited brain-power are now needed for other things.

Because I can only see as far as the Lord shows me, I may be back, so I will not say goodbye.  I will only say Godspeed ’til we meet again.

Interesting concept, isn’t it?  Here’s the referenced op-ed piece.

We’re coming to the end of apple season here in upstate New York, and I am grateful. Yes, grateful.

The problem is that I love apple season.  From about January on, I can hardly wait for fresh, tart, juicy apples, instead of those tasteless, mealy things the grocery store has – some of which, I discovered this summer, come from New Zealand, probably on a very slow boat.

My all-time favorites are MacIntosh, and they have been especially large and juicy this year.  Then a couple years ago after the Mac’s were done for the season, my local orchard convinced me to try Crispins.  Ooh-hah!  They are very crisp and tasty, and they keep very well.

This year, my hubby got me two large bags of Macs and a very cool gizmo to peel them, core them, and slice them, making that process much easier for my achy hands.  This has resulted in apple pie and multiple batches of Apple Brown Betty, from an old friend’s excellent recipe.

So why am I glad apple season is almost over?  Because I made the mistake of reading this the other day:

Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24)

Like Eve, I think apples are among the best things that God put on this earth.  I certainly desire them almost all year, and I would have to admit that I’m passionate about them.  And I have definitely not crucified my flesh in this regard.  In fact, I feed this passion.  I cater to my hunger for all things apple.

Are apples sinful?  Of course not  (unless God has told you not to eat them, and we all know how that turned out for Eve.)

The sin is that I’m feeding my flesh instead of my soul.  I’m letting my fleshly desire and passion rule what I do, instead of crucifying that flesh.   It would appear that  a little discipline and self-control are in order.

I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
(1 Corinthians 9:23-27)

As always, Christian bloggers are invited to participate in the Word for Wednesday. See the WFW tab above for details.

I was following links this morning, and came across a story that the media largely ignored. Here’s part of a wire story from FoxBusiness posted in the Markets section:

Members of Ecuador’s national police and members of the air force on Thursday started protests and went on strike against the government of President Rafael Correa.

The heated protests started after the Correa administration went ahead with reforms that will cut benefits and affect decorations that increase remuneration for the police and military.

Police officials burned tires in the streets and protested against the government, while air force officials shut down the airport in Quito. The army has said it supports Correa.

Here are more details from a missionary in the area:

In a matter of hours Sept. 30, a nation of 14 million people found itself at the mercy of gangs and hoodlums, ransacking and looting at will.

Ecuador, the South American nation I have served as a Southern Baptist missionary for 24 years, isn’t known for being politically stable. With eight presidents in the last 10 years, Ecuadorians have seen many uprisings, strikes, demonstrations and unrest. Trouble struck again Sept. 30.

That day, as we were going out to celebrate my wife’s birthday, we noticed people running down the streets. Traffic backed up along the side streets of our neighborhood. Within minutes, word spread: “The national police are striking. Go home immediately, lock your doors and stay there!”

Even as I rushed to get back to our house, businesses were locking up and people were jumping into their cars. When I stopped someone to ask what was going on, he shouted, “They’ve robbed the bank down the street! There is looting all along the shopping district a block away!”

With the threat of more than 40,000 national police walking off the job, chaos and terror soon reigned across the country.

Patriotic Christian Americans know, of course, that nothing like this could ever happen here. But just for a minute, I ask you to imagine that it could.  Just for a minute, think about a scenario that would leave our country at the mercy of looters and criminals.  Think about how our military would react.  Just think.

As you imagine this situation, try to figure out how you would react.  As this missionary did, I suspect that most of us would try to find safe haven for ourselves and our loved ones, but what would your next step be?  Would you dig out your ammo and clean your guns?  Would you set up barricades to harden your safe haven?  Would you venture out to get food and supplies to last through the storm … even if you had to turn into one of the looters to do it?

If you thought to pray, what would you pray?  Would you pray for safety for you and yours?  Would you pray for God to restore our country, to eliminate the fear and chaos?

A couple years ago I took a walk through the New Testament prayers.  Almost all of them are prayers for people’s souls.  They are prayers for Christians to walk as Christians, to know God, to share God.  Prayers for personal safety and earthly comforts are rare.  Here’s part of one of my favorites:

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. (Ephesians 1:18-19)

Here’s what that missionary and other Christians are doing in response to the chaotic events in Ecuador.  Would we do as well, or would we just want our creature comforts restored?

While this latest round of political unrest is tragic, we ask Christians around the world to pray that it will become the catalyst for a long-awaited harvest of souls here in Ecuador. On Oct. 10, all evangelical Christians in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, will unite in a citywide evangelistic effort. We will blanket the city’s schools, parks, media, homes, government offices and sports arenas in an attempt to reach the entire city of 3 million people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Pray that the tragic events of Sept. 30 will prepare people’s hearts to respond to the Gospel.

By GENE JOHNSON (AP) [emphasis added]

Those who have seen the photos say they are grisly: soldiers beside newly killed bodies, decaying corpses and severed fingers.

The dozens of photos, described in interviews and in e-mails and military documents obtained by The Associated Press, were seized by Army investigators and are a crucial part of the case against five soldiers accused of killing three Afghan civilians earlier this year.

Troops allegedly shared the photos by e-mail and thumb drive like electronic trading cards. Now 60 to 70 of them are being kept tightly shielded from the public and even defense attorneys because of fears they could wind up in the news media and provoke anti-American violence.

You can read the rest of the story here, but I’m frozen as I try to visualize the game that’s being played in Afghanistan, with Afghan bodies.

“Hey, Joe, I’ll give you a copy of me holding the head if you give me two fingers.”

“Two fingers! Forget it.  Not unless you throw in the one of Sam holding the head, too.”

Is this what has become of America?  Are these the “brave men and women” we’re supposed to support?

I do support them, though.  I support that they should be immediately brought home and put through intensive therapy to teach them the difference between video games and real life; therapy to gauge their understanding of civilian life and their role in it; therapy to see if they still have souls.

And here they are this October, with Sugar standing watch:

But one thing hasn’t changed.  They still understand that part of their job is to keep our laps warm.  The weather is getting nippy, but we still haven’t turned the heat on.  Think the cats are big enough to take the place of our furnace this year?

The social revolution is seriously compromised if it comes through a political revolution.

-Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

The religious revolution is seriously compromised if it comes through a political revolution.

akaGaGa

Hell is happy to provide us with vain philosophies and other mental futilities by which we are blinded, flattered, coarsened, and calloused until our damnation is complete; these must be rejected and left behind as we draw nearer to Him who loves us and will heal us from our wounds — self-inflicted and otherwise.

-Jim Wetzel, WFW 9/22

The statement above generated a rant in my heart that continues today, as I see person after person cling to error when God reveals the truth.  So consider last week’s rant this week’s Word for Wednesday:

Why is it that so many people refuse to reject the old when God is trying to show them the new? Christianity is supposed to change us from “glory to glory,” and yet so many cling to their understanding from decades ago, not acknowledging that God reveals Himself to us in bits and pieces as we are able to bear it.

I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. (John 16:12-13)

Out with the old man that causes us so many problems. In with the new, that looks more like Jesus every day.