Why I think Obama is both right and wrong about amnesty

14 million illegals in America.  They aren't going home. There isn't any way to make them, nor should we.

The Bible says, "Do not oppress the alien nor deprive him of justice." Christians are to be hospitable for foreigners within our communities.  They are to be given justice, treated fairly, and respected.

I play soccer with many, I suspect, that are illegals.  They are my friends, have strong communities, and love America. They live and work beside us in our communities, and sending them home would not be the right thing to do. Plus, it's impossible. You would never be able to round up 14 million people and send them home.

I favor a path to citizenship.  On all of these things I agree with President Obama.

However, Obama is completely wrong about how he is doing it.

He has made no attempt to secure the border.  If we have a problem of illegal immigration, the first step is to make sure it doesn't get any worse.  If your pipes are leaking in your house, the first step is to stop the leak. THEN you clean up the water.  It does no good to clean up the water while the pipes are still leaking.

We have to secure the border.  A path to citizenship will not work with an open border.

Second, Obama is not a dictator or a king.  He is the president.  The president can only execute laws, not make them, according to the Constitution. He has no right to grant amnesty to anyone, no matter how right or wrong it is.

I am a citizen of Jessamine County. I cannot say, "All schoolchildren- school is called off for the week."  Why? I don't have the authority.  No matter how right or wrong the decision is- I don't have the authority.  Neither does the president when it comes to immigration.  What he is doing is a clear violation of the Constitution and is endangering our entire form of government and way of life.  The Constitution itself provides consequences for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that is impeachment and removal from office.  If this is not an impeachable offense, I don't know what is.

If Obama will not respect the Constitution, and therefore will not live within the limits of power provided by the Constitution, he should be impeached. By his choices and by his actions, he will have shown himself to unfit for the office of Presidency, no matter what your politics are.

Like I said before, I believe that amnesty in some form is the correct decision.  However, the way Obama is going about it is completely wrong.  It is so incredibly wrong that it could and should cost him the presidency.  We simply cannot afford to have someone in office who does not abide by the Constitution and the Constitutional limits on his power.  An overarching executive power is what caused the American Revolution in the first place, and our founding fathers set up government to specifically keep this from happening again.  Power was equally split up between the three branches of government- the legislative, the executive, and the judicial.  Obama is dangerously stepping over these bounds and is not respecting the Constitutional limits on his power.

When that happens, we will be a nation under tyranny.  We will be a nation with an out-of-balance executive branch, and by that token, we will no longer be a Constitutional society.  We will be a kingdom; a dictatorship.  I will not live under a king or a dictator.  We as a nation cannot and will not live under tyranny.  We have laws; we are a nation of laws.  The first person to follow those laws should be the President.  If he doesn't follow them, why should we?

I hope and pray that Congress will do its job- first, to pass a legal law that deals with the problem of illegal immigration and provides a pathway to citizenship for those here in this country.  I pray that they seal the border and cut off the flow of illegal immigrants, and then provide a sensible pathway to citizenship for those willing to live and work and raise families here along with us.  I also hope and pray that Congress will hold Obama accountable for his overreaching and unConstitutional actions and that there would be consequences, whatever they may be.  If Congress would have been doing its job, we wouldn't be here in the first place.

Obama is both right and wrong.  He is right that we have to do something.  He is wrong in the way he is going about it.  Badly wrong. We must have a sensible path to citizenship; we MUST NOT have a dictator in the White House who oversteps his constitutional authority. Join me in praying for this country.  I'm afraid it's going to get really ugly really fast.

Do you really want revival? I mean, do you REALLY?

Most of us would truly say no.

What do you mean, Dave? We all want churches packed with people.  We all want God's word being preached, people being saved, "Heaven full and Hell empty," right?

I think we would all like that end, but not at any cost.

I've been reading in the Old Testament about the twilight years of Israel and Judah.  God sent prophet after prophet to call His people back to Him.  He sent prophets to tell the Israelites of His love.  When that didn't work, He sent them to warn them of coming catastrophe.  When that didn't work, He pronounced judgement and brought in foreign nations to destroy the land, kill the people, enslave them, cart them off into captivity, and force them to live in exile.

After this, we read the books of Nehemiah and Ezra, which chronicle a huge revival.

Hmmm.  The path to revival can be painful.  In the Bible, the path to revival is mostly painful.  So, the question to American Christians is, "Do you really want revival if the path to revival is extremely painful?"

What if the only way for America to turn back to God is for a foreign army to invade, kill most of us, enslave the rest of us, destroy our comforts, destroy our homes, destroy our idols of sports stadiums, and so on and so forth?  What if the only way for America to take God seriously again would be the crashing of the economy, 80% of Americans being thrown out of work, losing power and running water, dollars turned to worthless pieces of paper overnight, all investments and retirement and all savings reduced to nothing?

CS Lewis says that God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain.  If the path to revival was painful, would you pray for it? Would you, as an American Christian, be willing to endure the temporary pain of the loss of your home, investments, comforts, job, community, etc in order for there to be a nationwide revival that leads to eternal blessings of joy?

The period of suffering and exile lasted seventy years in Biblical times.  Would you be willing to endure hardship for seventy years if that meant your beloved homeland once again turned to God, asked His forgiveness, turned from its wicked ways, and began to call on Him as Lord and Savior?

What if God said to you, "I will bring revival to America.  I will heal the land of every ill, every sin, every scourge.  Drug addiction will be gone, persecution will be gone, all the problems of society will be gone.  However, the only way America will turn to me is if I completely destroy her way of life. The economy will collapse, stock market will vanish along with all investments, electricity will be gone, running water will be gone, food will be scarce, people will die by the hundreds of thousands, jobs will be gone, and you will live in extreme poverty until America repents and turns back to Me, then I will restore you once again." Would you pray for that to happen?

Would you be willing to endure seventy years of poverty and despair if that meant America experienced a revival that rid us of abortion clinics, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, gangs, drug addiction, radical Islam, militant atheist organizations, human trafficking, and political corruption? Would you endure seventy years of complete and utter loss if that meant churches were packed with believers, baptisms happening at a record rate, churches planted everywhere you looked, fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) everywhere, divorce rates plummeting, Bibles sold out of bookstores, communities restored, and God lifted up and worshiped as only the Supreme God of the Universe should be?

That's the kind of stuff that happens in a revival; in a nationwide revival.

Most of us, if not all of us, have prayed for revival. But have any of us said, "Lord, we want revival so badly that if it takes tremendous suffering, loss, and despair in this country, do it. Lord, we want revival so badly that if it takes a foreign army coming in here, conquering our country, taking away our rights, enslavement and brutality to accomplish it, do it.  Lord we want revival so badly that if it takes this entire country the loss of our comforts, the loss of our jobs, the loss of our money, homes, cars, running water, electricity, etc, do it."

Not many pray that way. What if that was the only set of circumstances that would wake up America to the power and majesty of God? What if those circumstances were the only way to shake America out of its sin-induced slumber?  Would you still want it?

I would.

We are here for such a temporary time. Comforts come and go, homes come and go, money comes and goes; but what happens for eternity lasts forever.  I would rather spend seventy devastating years in abject poverty and slavery with the guarantee of heaven than seventy years of comfort seeing the moral and spiritual degradation of America sending hundreds of millions of people to hell.  How about you?

In light of eternity, what we experience on this earth is nothing.  A drop in the bucket. But what we experience in heaven, or hell, is forever. Are you willing to trade temporary pain for eternal joy?

When we pray for revival, let's consider the fact that the path to revival may be very painful. Would we still want it if it costs us dearly?  The Christian would say yes. What would you say?

You can always tell the importance of something by how much you are willing to sacrifice for it.  Are you, as an American Christian, willing to sacrifice to see revival happen? Until we are, we most likely won't see it. That's why the sad, sad answer to the question, "Do you really want revival?" is an overwhelming, terrible, soul-killing "no."

It's time that the Church starts preaching this once again . . .

"The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."- Psalm 111:10

I have never been taught to fear God.

I have been taught to fear heights, snakes, and dangerous people.  I've been taught to fear change, different ideas, and strangers. I've been taught to fear the future, bad eating habits, going into debt, and a multitude of other things.

But I've never been taught to fear God.

I remember when I was a kid, hearing the words, "Fear God." Almost without pause, the person who said that hastily explained, "Now, what that means is RESPECT. We need to have a healthy respect for God. God really doesn't want us to FEAR Him," and on and on the explanation went.

It's almost as if the Church was trying to apologize for something the Bible said. It was as if the Church was embarrassed about those words in the Bible- as if somehow the Biblical writers (who got it all RIGHT when it comes to love and forgiveness and grace and all that) got it wrong when they wrote about fearing God.

So I never learned to fear God.

And that was awful, because like the Bible says, "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom."

I think the Church should unapologetically rediscover and preach the fear of God. Not only is it completely and totally true- a mere mortal made of recyclable elements whose days are numbered SHOULD fear an eternal, uncreated, all-powerful, all-loving God- but fearing God brings us to where we become the best sort of human being around.  I will explain:

Every month, people in my church give me sponsorship money for their orphans in the Catalyst orphanage in India.  Some give me cash, some give me checks.  I take the money they give me to the bank, cash the checks, get the largest bills possible, then drive over to Western Union and send it. This is a very efficient system, but it also leaves the door wide open for temptation. What if I were to pocket a hundred or two hundred bucks each month? I send anywhere from $1300 to $1500 a month.  Who would notice?

I'll tell you Who would notice- GOD. I fear God. I believe that one day I will stand before Him, and all the people in my church that trusted me and listened to me teach and looked up to me as their pastor will be there. They will be thinking to themselves, "There is my pastor. That's the one who baptized me, who sat with me when I had surgery, who prayed with me when I lost my parents, whose messages uplifted me and encouraged me, etc."

Then all of a sudden God will start listing the times I embezzled. He won't have to make anything up- they will be true. Not only will He state that I stole money from children who needed it; He will say something even worse- "David, you stole money from ME." Then Matthew 25 will come back to mind, "For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink,"- I was an orphan child and you stole money from ME. You used money that was to feed ME and you used it to make yourself more comfortable, buying things you didn't need. You did this all without shame, without guilt, flaunting yourself as a Christian leader and deceiving the people who trusted you."

I will glance over at the people that trusted me, looked up to me, thought I was a great moral man; and I will see the look of disgust and betrayal on their faces. Do you think I want to see that? Do you think I want to stand before God and be judged on that?

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Therefore, I don't steal. I don't embezzle. I don't do anything dishonest because I fear God.

We all hear stories of ministers especially who have fallen- those who have taken money from people, committed adultery, etc. Why did this happen?  One, they were human.  Obviously we are all tempted.  But the second reason is one thing that people never mention- they lost their fear of God.  Somewhere along the line, they stopped thinking that they would be held accountable by God.  So they became terrible versions of themselves.  The fear of God definitely makes you behave differently.

Now, my question is- does the fear of God make me a better or worse person?

Better.

People who know they will be held accountable for actions act much differently than people who believe there is no accountability at all.

How do people who think they are above the law act?  Are they wonderful citizens, caring, giving, respectful?  Nope. They are self-centered, manipulative, look-out-for-number-one, egotistical, dishonest brats.  They act as if the rules don't apply to them, and they become the very worst versions of themselves.

How do people in charge of budgets, expense accounts, and other financial assets act when they believe they can get away with everything?  We all know the answer to that. We see it every day. When there is no fear of God, you become a very terrible person.

And that's where we are as a society.  Why do husbands and wives spend time looking at porn instead of engaging with their spouse? They don't have any fear of God. Why do people use the name of the Lord in vain, sleep in Sunday mornings instead of worshiping, disobey the commands to tithe, commit fraud, lie, steal, and do other dishonest things that they know are wrong?

They have no fear of God.

Maybe, like me, they were taught that you really shouldn't FEAR God. Just respect Him. But don't really FEAR Him. Don't spend time thinking about judgment and hell and the justice of God.  Just respect Him.

What has that gotten us as a church and as a society?

How different would you be if you knew that every act and every word out of your mouth was going to be called to account?  Probably a lot different.  Bad news (or Good news) is- they will.  Jesus said it Himself, "But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken." Matthew 12:36

Would knowing that every careless word you speak- every promise, every insult, every complaint, every curse- would the fact that those words would be brought into judgment change the way you speak?  Most likely.  Now, the question is- would this make your speech better or worse?  Better.

This is why the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. By knowing you will be held accountable, it forces you to choose your words and actions wisely. Knowing that you will be held accountable for all your words and actions turns you into a very decent sort of human being.

Knowing that you will be held accountable for your words makes you use words to build up instead of tear down.  Knowing that your dishonest actions will have eternal consequences makes you into a person who doesn't do dishonest things. Knowing that everything you do in secret really isn't secret makes you into a very wise person- choosing wise paths and carefully selecting words.

Fearing God turns you into the best version of yourself.

The Church needs to start preaching the fear of God. We need to understand ourselves as people under accountability.  We need to know that every word, every act, every thought, every failure to act will be brought to light and judged by a holy, awesome God. When we begin to once again see ourselves in this way, we will be very, very different people.

Very, very, different BETTER people.