The Blog of Rob Board – Author, speaker, pastor

Archive for June, 2012

The Lord Is Your Refuge

Psalm 91:1–2 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.”

 

Every day, we are bombarded with news of conflicts, natural disasters, diseases and new strains of drug-resistant viruses. We also hear of people losing their loved ones in freak accidents. And we ask ourselves, “Is there a place where I can take refuge from a world gone mad?”
 

 

Yes, there is! God foresaw all these things and He has promised in His Word protection from every evil known to man. There is no trap set by the devil that our Father cannot deliver us from, if we trust in Him and take Him as our refuge. That is His promise in Psalm 91.
 

 

Whether it is an earthquake at midnight, a crazy sniper, an unknown virus or a terrorist attack, God says, “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.” (Psalm 91:5–6)
 

 

Because you have made Him your dwelling place, angels are watching over you right now. (Psalm 91:9–11) They give heed to the voice of God’s Word, so you should give voice to God’s Word. This means that you should agree with and speak what God’s Word says about His preserving and protecting you. Then, angels are sent to minister for you. (Hebrews 1:14)
 

 

My friend, don’t say, “If it can happen to them, it can also happen to me!” Say, “A thousand may fall at my side and 10,000 at my right hand, but it will not come near me!” (Psalm 91:7) The world says that you cannot but expect danger all around. God says, “You are in this world but not of this world. You have My protection because you are of Me and in Me.” (John 17:14–23)
 

 

You have access by faith into the secret place of the Most High where no evil can touch you. There is no need to fear living in the end times because the Lord is your refuge and fortress. His Word says so. And those who trust His Word completely find His Word completely true!
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The Easiest Lifestyle There Is

The entire Christian life boils down to two words:  Hear and Obey.  Hear what God is instructing us to do inside of us by His Holy Spirit or by His Word and then DO IT.  The act of doing it is our faith in action.  Jesus taught us in the model prayer He gave His disciples “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven”.

We don’t have to learn or gain a lot of information about Christianity, we simply need to learn how to hear His voice inside of us then obey them.  This is the real secret of the new covenant lifestyle.

Jesus said to the people in Matthew 11:30(BCL) —  “Keep company with Me and you’ll learn how to live freely and lightly.” 

I know I want to learn to live “lightly”, or without any heavy loads to carry.  How about you?

 

God’s Free Gifts to Enjoy

This morning as I was in the backyard with my dog I saw a robin, a red cardinal, a large red-headed woodpecker, 3 squirrels, and several other little birds. As I stood there I thanked God for the beauty of His creation with the animals, the trees, the beautiful sky, the flowers, and smells on the breeze. He has made all of this and given it to us freely to simply enjoy. He told us that whatever is lovely, whatever is pure, whatever is good, etc. to think on these things. Set our mind on the good things He has made and done. Enjoy the things He has given us freely to enjoy. Don’t always focus on the chaos, the problems, the stress and pressures on this world. God is saying have a wonderful day and enjoy what I have given you because He loves us.

The 10 Planks of Marxism

The Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto
1848 by Karl Heinrich Marx
How “Marxist” Has the United States Become?

This is the main platform that the progressives – the socialists – the marxists – and the democrats are working toward.  IS THIS WHAT YOU REALLY WANT?  A vote for the democrats is a vote move closer and closer to what this manifesto states.

Although Marx advocated the use of any means, especially including violent revolution, to bring about socialist dictatorship, he suggested ten political goals for developed countries such as the United States. How far has the United States — traditionally the bastion of freedom, free markets, and private property — gone down the Marxist road to fulfill these socialist aims? You be the judge. The following are Marx’s ten planks from his Communist Manifesto.

1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rent to public purpose.
The courts have interpreted the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (1868) to give the government far more “eminent domain” power than was originally intended, Under the rubric of “eminent domain” and various zoning regulations, land use regulations by the Bureau of Land Management property taxes, and “environmental” excuses, private property rights have become very diluted and private property in land, vehicles, and other forms are seized almost every day in this country under the “forfeiture” provisions of the RICO statutes and the so-called War on Drugs..
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
The 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, 1913 (which some scholars maintain was never properly ratified), and various State income taxes, established this major Marxist coup in the United States many decades ago. These taxes continue to drain the lifeblood out of the American economy and greatly reduce the accumulation of desperately needed capital for future growth, business starts, job creation, and salary increases.

3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance
Another Marxian attack on private property rights is in the form of Federal & State estate taxes and other inheritance taxes, which have abolished or at least greatly diluted the right of private property owners to determine the disposition and distribution of their estates upon their death. Instead, government bureaucrats get their greedy hands involved .

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels
We call it government seizures, tax liens, “forfeiture” Public “law” 99-570 (1986); Executive order 11490, sections 1205, 2002 which gives private land to the Department of Urban Development; the imprisonment of “terrorists” and those who speak out or write against the “government” (1997 Crime/Terrorist Bill); or the IRS confiscation of property without due process.

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.

The Federal Reserve System, created by the Federal Reserve Act of Congress in 1913, is indeed such a “national bank” and it politically manipulates interest rates and holds a monopoly on legal counterfeiting in the United States. This is exactly what Marx had in mind and completely fulfills this plank, another major socialist objective. Yet, most Americans naively believe the U.S. of A. is far from a Marxist or socialist nation.

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the State
In the U.S., communication and transportation are controlled and regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established by the Communications Act of 1934 and the Department of Transportation and the Interstate Commerce Commission (established by Congress in 1887), and the Federal Aviation Administration as well as Executive orders 11490, 10999 — not to mention various state bureaucracies and regulations. There is also the federal postal monopoly, AMTRAK and CONRAIL — outright socialist (government-owned) enterprises. Instead of free-market private enterprise in these important industries, these fields in America are semi-cartelized through the government’s regulatory-industrial complex.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
We call it corporate capacity, The Desert Entry Act and The Department of Agriculture. As well as the Department of Commerce and Labor, Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Mines, National Park Service, and the IRS control of business through corporate regulations.

8. Equal liablity of all to labor. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
We call it the Social Security Administration and The Department of Labor. The National debt and inflation caused by the communal bank has caused the need for a two “income” family. Woman in the workplace since the 1920’s, the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, assorted Socialist Unions, affirmative action, the Federal Public Works Program and of course Executive order 11000. And I almost forgot…The Equal Rights Amendment means that women should do all work that men do including the military and since passage it would make women subject to the draft.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
We call it the Planning Reorganization Act of 1949 , zoning (Title 17 1910-1990) and Super Corporate Farms, as well as Executive orders 11647, 11731 (ten regions) and Public “law” 89-136.

10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc. etc.
People are being taxed to support what we call ‘public’ schools, which train the young to work for the communal debt system. We also call it the Department of Education, the NEA and Outcome Based “Education”.

 

So, is the U.S. a “free country” today? Hardly! Not compared to what it once was. Yet, very few Americans today challenge these Marxist institutions, and there are virtually no politicians calling for their repeal or even gradual phase-out. While the United States of America may still have more freedoms than most other countries, we have nonetheless lost many crucial liberties and have accepted the major socialist attacks on freedom and private property as normal parts of our way of life. The nation, whose founders included such individualists as Thomas Jefferson, George Mason, James Madison, John Adams and Patrick Henry, has gradually turned away from the principles of individual rights, limited constitutional government, private property, and free markets and instead we increasingly have embraced the failed ideas and nostrums of socialism and fascism. We should hang our heads in shame for having allowed this to happen.
But, it is not too late to reverse these pernicious burdens and instead enact pro-freedom reforms to put our nation back on track again. It can be done.
In some ways the Left has a head start over us on the pro-freedom Right. The enemies of American freedom do admittedly dominate the entertainment industry, television news media, and academia — but we have the tremendous strategic advantage that reality (including man’s nature) is on our side; so, unlike the socialists and “liberals” (welfare-state fascists), we are not in the position of having to advocate a system which constantly tries to “make water to go uphill” — or force human beings into a rigid utopian stait-jacket based on the whims of some clique of central planning bureaucrats. We know that individual freedom for peaceful people within a constitutional republic works in practice; our country’s history demonstrates that. The piecemeal abandonment of those principles and institutions which once made America great has proved to be a dead-end road to failure. That is why I tend to be a long-term optimist even though things often look pretty glum in the meantime. Just as Prohibition was eventually repealed, I feel encouraged that such key statist achievements as the income tax, government schools, fiat money/central banking (the Federal Reserve), “environmentalist” regulations, property forfeiture laws, and other Marxist planks and leftist institutions can be rolled back and repealed altogether, although it may take several decades.
Those who would carry forward the ideas and principles of self-ownership, private property, free markets, laissez faire, the rule of law, and constitutionalism which informed America’s founders must become more active on the key ideological battle fronts. We need more influence not just in politics, but in areas of entertainment, academia, journalism, think tanks, churches, literature, art, and other venues of expression and activism.
Marxism and socialism have proved to be colossal failures all over the world. As Frederic Bastiat wrote in his classic The Law just prior to his death, “let us now try liberty”!