Dictator of the Month Club

With the beginning of the Arab Spring earlier this year, it almost seems as if America has become a leading participant in the Dictator Of The Month club.  The recent assassination of Osama bin Laden by Seal Team 6,  and the demise of Anwar al-Awlaki by Predator Drone,  seem to support my premise.  I find it ironic that President Obama ran on a platform of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet in the time since the beginning of the Arab Spring he has sent troops into Libya and, as of this past week, Uganda.  What are we becoming???  The NATO thugs?  When the President sent troops into Libya, he totally bypassed Congress in the process.  As a result of our presence there the latest Dictator to meet his untimely death is Libya's Muammar Qaddafi.  According to one report, his entourage was fired upon by Predator Drone, whereupon he exited his vehicle and ran to a drainage underpass.  He was shot in both legs.  Al Jazeera released video showing Qaddafi just minutes before he was shot in the head.  The video and pictures are graphic.  Below is just one such example.  WARNING:  Graphic!

It still puzzles me that pictures of bin Laden were not released.  I think I would have felt major validation and justification in viewing those pictures....much the same as I did when Saddam Hussein was hanged.  Qaddafi always reminded me of Scar from the Disney movie, The Lion King.  I'm not sure why, but maybe the EVIL persona had something to do with it.  While I feel little remorse on the death of this evil man, my concern is that someone of an even more vile nature will rise up to take his place.  Isn't that the usual way of things?  Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was ousted and he sought asylum elsewhere.  Probably a good thing he left the country or he would have met a similar fate to that of Qaddafi.  

The political game of foreign policy is skewered at best.  I mean, we spent millions of American taxpayer dollars to support these regimes back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's.  We provided them with our technology, military equipment, etc., and for what?  Just so we could kill them a few decades later, leaving the entire Middle East in upheaval and unrest, a plum ripe for the picking to the next, worst evil dictator to come along!  I can honestly say, "What's wrong with this picture?"

I  truly believe God is in control of all things; He is the master planner.  There is nothing that happens that surprises Him.  He isn't sitting in heaven, wringing his hands, with a worried brow.  It seems that all of this unrest in the Middle East, the resurgence of anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitic attitudes prevalent all over the world are leading up to the end time events described in Daniel, Ezekiel, and the book of Revelation.  I am not a prophet; have never claimed to be, but I can read.  Interestingly enough, is that lately I've been reading the Qur'an.  I have such a clear and concise concept of how those events are going to unfold.  My spiritual eyes have been opened.  Not that they were closed, but even with reading and understanding something is far different than in seeing or conceptualizing how those events come to pass.

Fact:  the three major mono-theistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all have their foundation in the person of Abraham and his sons Isaac and Ishmael.   Judaism and Christianity from Isaac; Islam from Ishmael and the sons of Keturah.  The center for all three religions is Jerusalem.  God promised to make both Isaac and Ishmael great nations.  But only Isaac was the son of promise, the line of the Messiah.  Ishmael was banished, along with his mother Hagar, and eventually married an Egyptian woman.  All of the ancient peoples of Edom, Moab, and Ammon are descendents of Ishmael. Abraham had other sons by his concubine Keturah. It is from her that the Arabs are descended. We know them today as Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Persia.  Isaac was the father of Esau and Jacob.  Jacob later became known as Israel and this is the line of modern day Israel.   In reading the end time events and those leading up to Daniel's 70th week, we are introduced to people who will play a major role as those prophetic events unfold.  Do I know who they are?  No.  Do I know the exact time when they will happen?  No.  Nut job Harold Camping has predicted the end of the world....again.  This time it's for tomorrow, October 21, 2011.  His previous prediction was in May of this year.  Yet, Mr. Camping will be proven a false prophet again, tomorrow.  The Bible is clear, without room for conjecture.  No one knows the day nor the hour; it will come as a thief in the night.  

That isn't to say that we can't be aware of events taking place at a rapid pace.  We can see those quite literally with our own two eyes.  All we have to do is turn on Fox News or CNN and run the current events through our prophetic scriptural eyes and we can SEE it happening right in front of us!  Prior to reading the Qur'an, I always wondered how such events would unfold.  How would so many people be deceived and believe a lie?  How would so many come to accept the Mark of the Beast in their foreheads and/or hands?  How would the nations of the world NOT recognize Christ as the Messiah when he returns?  All of those questions are answered in the Qur'an.  I know, weird!  Right?  The Qur'an is like a photographic negative to the Bible....similar but diametrically opposed.  The Qur'an speaks of the Madhi and recognizes him as their savior.  I find it astounding that this Madhi guy has many of the same characteristics as that of the Antichrist as depicted in the book of Revelation.  The Madhi comes in a time of worldwide chaos, and establishes a false peace with Israel; he causes people to receive a mark in their heads or hands to show that they are the *true* believers, and he beheads those who do not convert; he leads the armies of the world against the One who returns on a white horse and makes war with the One whom he calls the "false Jesus" when in reality, that One on the white horse is the TRUE Jesus! The religion of Islam is setting Muslims up to be the agents of the end time events and they will believe they are doing God's (or Allah's) will.  It's mind boggling when you begin comparing the two.  We now have the movement of Chrislam overtaking evangelical churches in America.  America will not be exempt from the judgment on the nations.  Chrislam is the tool that will facilitate the one world religion and be instrumental in the emergence of the Antichrist on the secular, political, and ecumenical scenes.  When you have Pastors such as Rick Warren and Robert Schuller embracing this false theology and then propagating it to their mega-congregations, you have to KNOW that this isn't going to end well for the sheep in their flock.  They are great examples of what Jesus called a "wolf in sheeps clothing."

In closing, of the three monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, only one recognized Jesus as the Messiah.  Only One claimed to be the Son of God and gave His life to prove He was who He said He was.  Only One claimed to be The Way, The Truth, and The Life.  There is no Plan B.  Jesus was either who He said He was, or He was the biggest fraud in the History of Mankind.  He either suffered and died as an atonement for us, the propitiation of our sin, or He suffered the most horrendous, horrific death imaginable as a Poser!  If you can believe Homer wrote the Odyssey, or that Plato wrote The Republic, why is it so hard to believe the account of Jesus, as told by eyewitnesses and first-hand accounts?  Primary sources we call them today.   These Primary Sources were holed up in the upper room following the crucifixion.  These scaredy-cats were afraid they were going to be next on the crucifix agenda!  Yet something happened within that first 72 hours that changed these cowards into Bold men of God who turned the known world upside down! Not only that, they too, died a martyrs death!  Why?  What happened to change them so?  They saw Someone, walked with Him, ate with Him, touched Him for 40 days!  Then went and told others what they had Seen and Heard!  So much so that the religious leaders of their day sought to kill them!   When Stephen is stoned, a man by the name of Saul stood and watched.  His mission to kill as many Christ-followers as possible!  Until he met Someone on the road, that is!  After meeting Jesus, Saul became Paul...a NEW creation in Christ.  God is a Seeker.  He sought Adam in the Garden; he left the 99 to seek the lost sheep; He sought Paul on the road to Damascus.  God loves for us to emulate Him and seek Him.  Real seeking always produces Real Finding!  If you aren't finding then it's time to re-evaluate your seeking.  He draws near to those who draw near to Him and He will always be found by those who Seek Him.  Don't delay.

Pondering,

Starr

Scarlett O'Hara on Occupy Wall Street

The Communist Party endorses OWS. The Nazi Party endorses OWS. Now, President Obama endorses OWS.

"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future." ~Bill Cosby

As history has shown, this never ends well for people. Consider these facts:

"That secularism is more dangerous to a society than any specific religious faith is statistically verifiable. For example, even though tens of millions of lives have been lost at the hands of numerous religious faiths over the past two thousand years (and most of those have indisputably been lost at the hand of Islam), the number of lives lost at the hands of secular governments in just the twentieth century alone is many times greater. For example, there were the 62 million killed by Soviet Communists; the 35 million by Chinese Communists; the 1.7 million by the Vietnamese Communists; the 1.6 million in the Polish Ethnic Cleansing; the 1 million in Yugoslavia; the 1.7 million in North Korea, etc.

Furthermore, the number of deaths perpetrated by individual secular leaders is enormous. For example, Joseph Stalin was responsible for the murder of 42.7 million; Mao Tse-tung, 37.8 million; Hitler, 20.9 million; Vladimir Lenin, 4 million; Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge, 2.4 million; Yahya Khan, 1.5 million; and numerous others could be listed. Significantly, secularism killed more in one century than did all religions combined in the previous twenty."  ~Courtesy of David Barton, Wall Builders

In light of the above horrifying statistics, these 20-somethings that Stalin would have labeled "Useful Idiots" (google it!) will be eaten alive!  These are the kids who have had everything they've ever wanted handed to them on the proverbial silver platter or were born with the proverbial golden spoon in their mouths.  They are protesting their student loans to Ivy League colleges that cost more than what my humble abode is worth!  Where is the justification in that?  If anything, they should be protesting outside those hallowed halls of liberal learning instead of the banks who gave them the student loans in the first place!  After all, the banks didn't MAKE them take out those loans...it was their own personal choice.  Education is not a RIGHT, it is a privilege.

They keep trying to compare the OWS protests to Tahirir Square in Egypt.  There is no such comparison.  These kids have never lived under the oppressive rule of a dictator.....yet!  They have never missed a meal, whereas the Egyptian people were starving!  There was no food in Egypt!  They couldn't run out to the local convenience store on the corner to buy a loaf of bread or gallon of milk.  What do these kids think is going to happen if/when the system collapses?  What will they do when they can't get to their ATM's?  Let's not forget that these are the same kids who grew up with Participation Trophies and the 10-run rule in Little League baseball.  So maybe they're all about getting a Participation Trophy now?  I don't know about that, but some are getting 20 pts extra credit from their institutions of higher learning for attending an OWS protest.  When life is lived in the herd mentality, exceptionalism and ingenuity die a slow and painful death.  

When socialist, communist principles become the law of the land, the quality of life and standard of living is always lower for the people as a general rule.  In this homogenous, pasteurized world no one in school will make A's, B's, D's, or F's.  The A's give their extra points to the F's and the B's to the D's and the result is a bunch of mediocre C's!  These people are going to open their eyes to a rude awakening!  In all of the interviews I've seen of the OWS, one of the most ironic is the one where the reporter is asking all these people to tell why they are protesting.  One hippy chick says we should go back to the hunter/gatherer lifestyle.  Really?  These kids will starve!  The reporter then asks, "oh, is that an iPhone you're using?"  Funny, huh?  Yeah, these people have the same love affair that I have with my iPhone and iPod (the new iPhone 4S sales hit 4 million in 3 days of it's release) yet they are protesting the Capitalist system that made that technology and ingenuity possible.  Unbelievable! 

What these people don't seem to realize is that if/when our system collapses, it's going to be THOSE people who are eliminated first.  I have always said, somewhat tongue in cheek, that I am "American by birth, Southern by the Grace of God!"  In light of recent events, I affirm that statement with every breath I take and every bone in my body!  For the same reasons that the South lost the War Between The States, the South will be one of the few places where we know how to survive what is seemingly looming on the horizon.  We've already lived thru Reconstruction.  Scarlett O'Hara taught us that in the Deep South, women learn at a young age that when the world is falling apart around you, it's time to tear down the drapes and make a new dress!  Our agrarian culture will be to our benefit.  We still grow our food, our Mama's taught us canning and how to dehydrate for food storage. We can sew, crochet, and knit. Our men still hunt & fish.  We know how to survive!  Do you really think that those people on OWS would still be there if there weren't others who were doling out food for them?  If they were having to go hungry, do you think they'd really still be 3 weeks into protest?  No!  Not to mention that the Working Families Party (just one of the unions supporting this) is paying $650/week to people to protest!  That's more than what many people make in a week doing an honest days' work!  Sad, but true!

 

They spit on our troops, thereby trampling underfoot the blood spilled by those same soldiers who died to give them the right to protest in the first place!  In my opinion, these people should renounce their American citizenship and get  the hell out of Dodge!  They should live in Russia, Cuba, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, N. Korea, or China for a while.  Perhaps then they would have a greater appreciation for what our men and women of the armed forces have lived and died for in our country's 235 years.  Perhaps they would not take their freedom for granted.  Then again, with the Zombie mentality they have exhibited so far, maybe not. 

Later dayz,

~Starr