Guilded Age of Politics

by Andrea Graham

In Church yesterday, we joined a class studying from the Vander Laan series, which gave us a history lesson on guilds in ancient Rome, particularly in Asia minor. These “Trade unions” as the teacher watered them down to, each had a patron god or goddess, and if you wanted to practice a particular trade, for instance, carpentry, you would be pressured to join the Carpenter’s guild, and sacrifice (worship) the patron god of Carpentry. If you refused, the guild would use their collective muscle to ensure you did not make it as a Carpenter. If you attempted to go it alone, at the very least, no one would bring you business in fear of angering the Guild (or it’s god, but same difference to my thinking)

Think guilds are gone? By Heaven, no. We’ve even expanded them into the political arena. We have not one, but two politics guilds in this country. The name of one starts with a “D” and the other starts with an “R” And it seems they have four paths to membership:

Start small and work your way up. Run for state legislature, or better yet, precinct committeeman, excuse me, person.

Have a mother, father, or say, uncle who’s a senior member of the guild. In this case, you can enter the guild by running for, say, the House of Representatives, or even, say, Governor.

Be a senior member of another guild, such as Hollywood. Note the CEO and Investors guild doesn’t count unless you’re also a member of the Billionaire Guild.

Have already ascended Mount Olympus and been admitted as a member of the Gods (otherwise known as a national platform or name recognition)

What effect has the guild mentality had on modern politics? Adam has the story

Andrea the Sheepdog . . .

You’re a Collie!

No bones about it, you’re a loyal, nurturing Collie. A sensitive breed, you’re always approachable and very in tune with others’ feelings — just like Lassie! Because of your empathetic nature, you tend to be the group psychologist to your circle of friends. Your faithful, easygoing, steadfast personality makes you a wonderful confidant; people love to come to you with their troubles. Bottom line? You’re a star at interpersonal relationships and have a knack for making new friends and acquaintances wherever you go. After all, what’s a Collie without a flock to look after? Since you’re so giving, your buddies might not realize that you need them just as much as they need you, so make sure not to neglect yours truly. Everyone deserves some “me” time. Woof!
What Breed of Dog Are You?

Brought to you by Tickle

Your eyes say you’re Naturally Stunning

Fresh and laid-back, you take the same approach to your makeup as you do to life: Easy does it. We’d guess you’re a no-muss, no-fuss kind of gal who doesn’t like to spend too much time in front of the mirror. But that doesn’t mean you still don’t love to look great. You just do it in your own effortless way.

Truth be told, it’s your grounded nature and straightforward sensibilities that make you so attractive. When someone looks you in the eyes, they immediately sense your integrity and down-to-earth spirit. And what could be more beautiful than that?
What Do Your Eyes Reveal?

Brought to you by Tickle

And oddly enough:

You’re a ESTJ!

That means that based on the standard measure of personality traits, you have a quiet determination and sharp mind — you’re very focused and buckle down when it comes to work. You are the type of person one looks to in a crisis. While others may provide emotional support in a situation, your clear and logical thinking allows you to solve the problem at hand.

You may be firm, but your actions are generally fair. You believe in putting in the work and don’t expect favors to get ahead. Additionally, you want objective feedback to determine your success. You are a careful thinker and get all the details before making any decisions. You don’t jump to conclusions and stick with the facts provided. In other words, you’re the go-to person for the real story, not the spin or gossip. While others may sometimes see you as stubborn, they begrudgingly respect your ethics and straightforward approach.
Career Personality Test

Brought to you by Tickle
Usually, I test as an NF, but that sounds accurate in terms of work . . .

You’re a Visual/Spatial Intelligence!

Others may take their environments for granted but not you. Because of your visual/spatial intelligence you really see the world around you. This strength often helps you better appreciate the beauty and detail in everyday things. From shapes in nature to the structure of a fine automobile, a countless variety of things hold your interest.

Having this particular kind of heightened awareness can allow you to form accurate mental images of existing places and objects. In extreme cases, one might call this strength a photographic memory. Being visually/spatially intelligent also means that you likely have a vivid imagination that can be put to use in a variety of creative or professional endeavors.
The Multiple Intelligences Test

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You’re an Advisor!

Whether you know it or not, this is the role that is most in tune with who you are at your core. As an advisor, you are a quiet and reserved person who loves to help others achieve their potential through interpersonal connections. Others value you for your wisdom, integrity, and sound advice, as well as your genuine concern for people’s welfare. You are a thoughtful person, trust your gut feeling about things, and have extremely acute intuition. You are somewhat of a poet in your way of thinking, finding beauty and meaning in simple things. Because of your sensitivity and soft-spoken ways, you may experience mood swings and the inability to get out of bad situation from time to time. Just be aware of that and you will get stuck in fewer unsatisfying ruts.
What’s Your Destiny?

Brought to you by Tickle

From Andrea’s Reading List: Fathers and Daughters

Cross-posted fr

om: Ask Andrea

Lately, I’ve been reading the book Elysse Barrett assisted her father David in writing, Fathers & Daughters: raising polished cornerstones. I would suggest, besides being a beautiful portrait in which their own relationship is offered up as a model of what a biblical father-daughter relationship ought to look like, more than an excellent bible study examining the biblical models, and negative examples, of father-daughter relationships, more than a parenting book that even fathers of sons and future parents should consider, this is a model of how ordinary Christians can take back their culture by changing the way we parent.

My own background both makes clear why this book is needed. Indeed, at twenty-one and single, Elysse’s relationship with her father has left her far better prepared to fulfill her biblical role as a wife someday, than I was, and indeed, reading her book, I still feel like I’m playing catch up to where she is on this issue yet.

On the other hand, my background also makes me fear, in the wrong hands, the model up held could be twisted into something ugly, something, since I’ve had the opportunity to work with and get to know Elysse, I know the Barretts never, ever intended. I’m thinking primarily of those who would attempt to use these teachings to excuse the inexcusable, and those who would use such people to slander the Barretts as well as all who attempt to raise up their children in a biblical pattern. As illustrated by this book quite nicely, though, sometimes, the difference between abuse and good parenting is a matter of degrees—and love.

So let me just reassure anyone reading this book that comes from a dysfunctional, or ultra-feminist, background: they are not at all saying parents have the right to abuse their children. The model this book lays out for us to follow only works with a “godly authority,” a term used in the book, and in context referenced the fact married women are under their husband’s headship and not their father’s, an issue not dealt with specifically, as the book is aimed at Christian Fathers and the daughters still under their headship. Respect is a must with any parent, but this kind of narrowing and authority must, as Mr. Barrett stresses, be laid on a foundation of love.

Indeed, the first task of their model is a father winning his daughter’s heart. A daughter must have the comfort of knowing her father does what he does out of love, with her own interests and protection in mind, not out of his selfish ambition or desires for control, something the Barretts come across as well aware of, it’s simply not the focal point of the book. I especially liked, in acknowledging that not every daughter has been as blessed as she, Elysse offers the hope that God has been known to bring a godly father-figure into a girl’s life where she can’t have that with her own father, and if all else fails, God will gladly fill this role in her life. I can testify it is certainly true. I have many teachers, but only one spiritual father—the Lord himself.

Still, for Christian parents that want their children to grow up with their values, who wish to protect their children from negative influences, but have been scared into exposing their children by accusations of abuse and warnings that being too strict will cause children to rebel (to which the senior Barretts offer up their children as living proof that strict rules combined with love actually reduces the tendency to rebel) and for even young Christian couples laying the foundation to build their family on, for all those who would like to play a part in restoring our nation to it’s Christian foundation, the Barretts have much wisdom to offer–and far more meat than bones.

Where I am

Not that anyone cares much about Andrea around here, but this is where I am. Standing in the rain (or at least I was last night) and singing a Casting Crowns Song:

Praise You in This Storm

words by Mark Hall/music by Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I was sure by now, God You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it’s still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,

“I’m with you”
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus:
And I’ll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are

no matter where I am
and every tear I’ve cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I remember when I stumbled in the wind
You heard my cry to You

and raised me up again
my strength is almost gone how can I carry on
if I can’t find You
and as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain
“I’m with you”
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away

Chorus

I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

Chorus

As the Lord reminded me lately, He is still Sovereign, and He has reminded the GOP He alone sits upon the throne no one can cast down. If the conservatives and the GOP don’t take lessons learned to heart and change tracks, America may learn that painful lesson as well. I praise Him, that His throne is forever, and I praise Him, for this Republic. From the beginning, he has given to the people the rulers of their own choosing. Heaven may be a theocracy, but there is no purer form of government on this earth than our democratic republic. We must remember the Rock our Fathers founded our nation on, lest we learn the lesson earthquake victims can attest: a house that forsakes it’s foundation shall crumble.

The Lord’s Call to His Own (Isaiah 51 and 52)

The word spoken in ancient times, He now cries out to His Church in America

“Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,

And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
Look to Abraham your father,
And to Sarah who bore you;
For I called him alone,
And blessed him and increased him.”
For the LORD will comfort Zion,

He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
“ Listen to Me, My people;

And give ear to Me, O My nation:
For law will proceed from Me,
And I will make My justice rest
As a light of the peoples.
My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,

And My arms will judge the peoples;
The coastlands will wait upon Me,
And on My arm they will trust.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
And look on the earth beneath.
For the heavens will vanish away like smoke,

The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness will not be abolished.
“ Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
You people in whose heart is My law:

Do not fear the reproach of men,
Nor be afraid of their insults.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
And the worm will eat them like wool;
But My righteousness will be forever,
And My salvation from generation to generation.”

Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the LORD!
Awake as in the ancient days,
In the generations of old.
Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart,
And wounded the serpent?

Are You not the One who dried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
That made the depths of the sea a road
For the redeemed to cross over?
So the ransomed of the LORD shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,

With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness;
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
“ I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid
Of a man who will die,

And of the son of a man who will be made like grass?
And you forget the LORD your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth;
You have feared continually every day
Because of the fury of the oppressor,

When he has prepared to destroy.
And where is the fury of the oppressor?
The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed,
That he should not die in the pit,
And that his bread should not fail.
But I am the LORD your God,

Who divided the sea whose waves roared—
The LORD of hosts is His name.
And I have put My words in your mouth;
I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
That I may plant the heavens,
Lay the foundations of the earth,

And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

Awake, awake!
Stand up, O Jerusalem,
You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD
The cup of His fury;

You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling,
And drained it out.
There is no one to guide her
Among all the sons she has brought forth;
Nor is there any who takes her by the hand
Among all the sons she has brought up.

These two things have come to you;
Who will be sorry for you?—
Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—
By whom will I comfort you?
Your sons have fainted,
They lie at the head of all the streets,

Like an antelope in a net;
They are full of the fury of the LORD,
The rebuke of your God.
Therefore please hear this, you afflicted,
And drunk but not with wine.
Thus says your Lord,

The LORD and your God,
Who pleads the cause of His people:

“ See, I have taken out of your hand
The cup of trembling,
The dregs of the cup of My fury;

You shall no longer drink it.
But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
Who have said to you,

‘ Lie down, that we may walk over you.’
And you have laid your body like the ground,

And as the street, for those who walk over.”

Awake, awake!
Put on your strength, O Zion;
Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city!
For the uncircumcised and the unclean

Shall no longer come to you.
Shake yourself from the dust, arise;
Sit down, O Jerusalem!
Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion!

For thus says the LORD:

“ You have sold yourselves for nothing,
And you shall be redeemed without money.”

For thus says the Lord GOD:

“ My people went down at first

Into Egypt to dwell there;
Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
Now therefore, what have I here,” says the LORD,

“ That My people are taken away for nothing?
Those who rule over them

Make them wail,” says the LORD,

“ And My name is blasphemed continually every day.
Therefore My people shall know My name;
Therefore they shall know in that day
That I am He who speaks:

‘ Behold, it is I.’”
How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,

Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,

“ Your God reigns!”
Your watchmen shall lift up their voices,
With their voices they shall sing together;

For they shall see eye to eye
When the LORD brings back Zion.
Break forth into joy, sing together,
You waste places of Jerusalem!
For the LORD has comforted His people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem.

The LORD has made bare His holy arm
In the eyes of all the nations;
And all the ends of the earth shall see
The salvation of our God.
Depart! Depart! Go out from there,
Touch no unclean thing;

Go out from the midst of her,
Be clean,
You who bear the vessels of the LORD.
For you shall not go out with haste,
Nor go by flight;
For the LORD will go before you,

And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Joybell Gets Creative

I forgot to feed my cat again this morning, so she stole my new back scratcher off the kitchen table, dragged it across the room, overturned her food bowl, and dropped my scratcher in the lower compartment.

And I rewarded her by picking up my back scratcher and feeding the cat.

Supreme Court Breaks Up Godhood Monopoly

by Andrea Graham

Today, the United States Supreme Court ruled the monopoly on Godhood held by YHWH Sabaoth, AKA Lord Almighty, unconstitutional. The Court has ordered Sabaoth to break up his holdings into smaller theodoms (not to be confused with the ever-loathed theocracy.) These new theodoms will be governed by disenfranchised deities Saboath’s court-appointed lawyer attempted to argue were mere angels.

The plaintif, Lucifer Diablo, represented by the ACLU, requested the planet Earth be included in his theodom. The court generously left how Sabaoth’s monopoly, which encompases the whole universe, is broken up to his discretion. In addition, they decided, as Earth is the only planet known to have life on it, it must be divided between the new theodoms.

The defense argued Sabaoth is not subject to the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction, but the Court pointed out previous judgments against Sabaoth have set sufficient precedent to also apply Anti-Trust laws to the defendant, who refused to show up for the hearings and has hitherto remained silent.

The courts gave Sabaoth thirty days to break up his monopoly on the universe, or they would break it up for him. They also ordered him to make public his secret forumla for godhood and ordered him to uphold the inalienable rights of all American citizens, regardless of lifestyle or creed, to hold dual citizenship in the controversial Kingdom of Heaven.

Your Turn: Write the headlines and newsreports covering the aftermath of this fictional case before the United States Supreme Court.

Linked to TMH Bacon Bits

Announcing Ask Andrea (warning: shameless self-promotion)

Your beloved and rarely heard from Andrea has her own Free Christian Advice Collumn up, hosted on your favorite blogger’s domain. Yes she is talking about herself in third person. This is because she’s an aspiring novelist and eccentricity is a job requirement.

If you need advice from a biblical perspective on anything from what the soul is to martial difficulties, swing on over to Ask Andrea. To get featured on her collumn, just drop her a line

If you’re a publisher, author, or know one, Andrea is also introducing book reviews to her blog. Follow the link for more information and pass it along to the appropriate individuals. Thanks!

Friday Meme: Seven Years Ago I Was…

Friday Meme: Seven Years Ago I Was…

Looking forward to my eighteenth birthday on September 7th
Looking forward to starting my first year of college
Looking forward to making new friends
Probably hunched over a keyboard working on a manuscript Ms. Perfection is just now putting to market since she’s spent the last seven years honing her craft.

Thinking people the age I am now are old, a cool old if they deigned to be my friend, but old nonetheless.

What were you doing seven years ago?

Hat Tip: LaShawn Barber

A Word For America’s Faithful

“Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the LORD:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
Look to Abraham your father, And to Sarah who bore you;
For I called him alone, And blessed him and increased him.”
For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
Joy and gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
“ Listen to Me, My people; And give ear to Me, O My nation:
For law will proceed from Me, And I will make My justice rest
As a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples;
The coastlands will wait upon Me, And on My arm they will trust.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath.
For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness will not be abolished.
“ Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law:
Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.
For the moth will eat them up like a garment, And the worm will eat them like wool;
But My righteousness will be forever, And My salvation from generation to generation.”
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD!
Awake as in the ancient days, In the generations of old.
Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, And wounded the serpent?
Are You not the One who dried up the sea, The waters of the great deep;
That made the depths of the sea a road For the redeemed to cross over?
So the ransomed of the LORD shall return, And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness;
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. “ I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid Of a man who will die,
And of the son of a man who will be made like grass? And you forget the LORD your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens And laid the foundations of the earth;
You have feared continually every day Because of the fury of the oppressor,
When he has prepared to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?
The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed, That he should not die in the pit,
And that his bread should not fail. But I am the LORD your God,
Who divided the sea whose waves roared— The LORD of hosts is His name.
And I have put My words in your mouth; I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth,
And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem,
You who have drunk at the hand of the LORD
The cup of His fury; You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling,
And drained it out. There is no one to guide her
Among all the sons she has brought forth; Nor is there any who takes her by the hand
Among all the sons she has brought up. These two things have come to you;
Who will be sorry for you?— Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—
By whom will I comfort you? Your sons have fainted,
They lie at the head of all the streets, Like an antelope in a net;
They are full of the fury of the LORD, The rebuke of your God.
Therefore please hear this, you afflicted, And drunk but not with wine.
Thus says your Lord, The LORD and your God,
Who pleads the cause of His people:

“ See, I have taken out of your hand The cup of trembling,
The dregs of the cup of My fury; You shall no longer drink it.
But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you,
Who have said to you, ‘ Lie down, that we may walk over you.’
And you have laid your body like the ground, And as the street, for those who walk over.”

–Isaiah 51 (New King James Version

The Letter Game

here are the rules: leave me a comment here and I’ll give you a letter. Then you’ll post the results (and these instructions) in your blog. You use the letter you are given and make 10 THINGS from it. It can be anything doesnt really have to be about yourself can be about anything just random 10 words that B is for… or the letter i give you!!!!

This one’s from my sister. She gave me the letter T. And here’s the random answers I got. Guess since it’s the National Day of Prayer….

1 teacher: We have turned from the master and gone after false teachers
2 testimony: We have invalidated our testimony with our fornicating
3 tanack: We have forsaken the word of our fathers* to seek after the gods of this world
4 toddy: We have drunk their toddy and forsaken the cup of our Lord yet partake in it.
5 Tethered: Therefore we are tethered and our children scattered
6 Talon: and the talon of the eagle shall rend his own
7 Teeth: until the land is filled with wailing and gnashing of teeth.
8 Ticket: Yet if we turn our hearts unto him, he shall give us the ticket to life.
9 Toga: And cover our nakedness with a toga of righteousness
10 Tender: And turn from his wrath and salve us with his tender mercies

*the tanack is the hebrew bible

To the Accusers of the Brethren

The God of our Fathers loves you. Take heed and turn from your folly:

Why do the heathen rage, and the people devise a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying,
“Let us break Their bonds asunder, and cast away Their cords from us.”
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the LORD shall hold them in derision Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.
Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little.Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.

–Psalm 2:1-5,12(KJ 21)

If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

–2 Corinthians 5:13-20(NIV)

Reality Check: Illegals have no rights

The rights protected in the constitution are for American citizens, not illegal aliens.* They have no right to ditch class to march through the streets in protest of being denied rights that they don’t have a right to. The only right they have is to not let the door hit them on the way out. Round up all those protestors, and if they can’t prove they’re here legally, say, “Adios!”

Kudos to the minutemen for their efforts to errect a fence along the border.

*that goes for all illegal aliens regardless of race, creed, nationality, gender, age, or even sexual orientation.

The Bible on: Sleep

Bet somewhere between 25-75% of you didn’t even know the bible covers sleep!The word itself is used 89 times in the 21st Century King James.
Let’s get the tongue in cheek out of the way first:

Bible suggestion number one on getting a good night’s sleep: Get Married.

Genesis 2:21, 22
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman and brought her unto the man.

Okay, onto a more serious note.

Here are some good verses on getting a good night’s rest (and causes for the lack there of):

Esther 6:1
On that night the king could not sleep; and he commanded to bring the book of records of the chronicles, and they were read before the king.

Psalm 4:8
I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep; for Thou LORD only, makest me dwell in safety.

Psalm 76:5-7
The stouthearted are despoiled; they have slept their sleep, and none of the men of might have found their hands.At Thy rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.Thou, Thou alone, art to be feared; and who may stand in Thy sight when once Thou art angry?

Psalm 127:2
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He giveth His beloved sleep.

Proverbs 6:9-11How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep” So shall thy poverty come as a marauder, and thy want as an armed man.

(There are several proverbs along this vein)

Proverbs 3:24
when thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid; yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet.

Proverbs 4:16
For they sleep not unless they have done mischief, and their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall.

Ecclesiastes 5:12
The sleep of the laboring man is sweet whether he eat little or much, but the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.

Related:

Job 33:14-16

14For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

15In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed,

16then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction

Psalm 44:23
Awake! Why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off for ever.

Psalm 78:64-66

Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
Then the LORD awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.And He smote His enemies in the hinder parts, and laid upon them a perpetual reproach.

Now That I’ve Cooled Off–Close America’s Borders!

Now, if anyone appreciates ethinic diversity, it’s me. Growing up, I went to schools that were 80-90% minorities. Even the asian and hispanic students outnumbered the whites and for the most part everyone got along fine. My paternal grandmother was half native American (other half Irish) and my grandfather’s maternal grandparents immigrated here from Germany in the 19th century. I’ve always believed in the Great Melting Pot.

But, stories like the following from Washington Times collumnist Phil Kent make my blood boil:

The Mexican government promotes reconquista in the Southwest. Isn’t it obvious in many areas that Mexicans are pushing out Americans, refusing to speak English and establishing de facto Mexican enclaves? A growing number of Mexicans despise their northern neighbor. American soccer fans, to cite just one example, have repeatedly witnessed the outrageous behavior of Mexican crowds during the playing of “The Star Spangled Banner,” including cheers of “Osama, Osama”– a reference to the murder of 3,000 Americans on September 11….

A Zogby International poll in 2003 found 57 percent of Mexicans believe they have the right to enter the United States without permission. And 58 percent said the southwestern states properly belong to Mexico. In light of such sentiments, no wonder the Mexican government printed and openly distributed a comic book-style “guide” to “migrants” instructing them where to cross the northern border, melt into U.S. society and how to take advantage of medical, educational and other services.

So, we have streams of people crossing our borders that have no respect for our laws and have no interest in becoming Americans, but are only interested in subversion and otherwise taking advantage of us. Instead of debating whether *illegal* immigrants have rights, we should, as a country, whether you put a “african-” an “italian-” or even a, “latino-” before your “American,” be tossing these reconquistadores out faster than you can say, “Adios!” Any american citizen who supports promotes aids these efforts is guilty of treason and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. At the very least, we should toss them out of public office.

Furthermore, our borders must be secured so they can’t get in and Mexico sanctioned. If Mexico fails to respond favorably, I also humbly suggest we recall our troops that are out fighting every other country’s battle and deal with our enemy south of the border. If we wish to remain a free nation, we also need to get down on our knees and pray to the God of our Fathers, because we’ve never won a war without Him.