Soliloquies of a Natural Blonde

“The middle class is the economic engine. It’s fair. They deserve the tax breaks, not the super wealthy who are doing pretty well. They don’t need any more tax breaks.”–Joe Biden

I’m working the same number of hours and earning less than a business owner because the demands on his skills are higher than the demands on mine, so that means, according to the laws of “fairness,” that his wealth should be redistributed to me. I have less than he does, therefore, I need what he has. My rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness need to be upheld even at the expense of his own. Economic equality must be achieved among the masses.

Unfortunately, though, this is far from being a watertight plan, as Bret points out, since all wealth will eventually dry up when you continue to spread it around by giving tax breaks to those who have less, and taxing those who have more. The incentive to work has been removed by the equalization imposed by the government on those who have more capital.

Ludwig Von Mises points out that, “Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what the thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build; it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing; it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created… each step leading toward Socialism must exhaust itself in the destruction of what really exists.” (quote taken from David Chilton’s Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulation, p. 174)

God has lovingly designed this earth so that we reap what we sow, physically and metaphysically. Yes, God blesses us with gifts in abundance, but the gifts that He bestows on a lazy man and a diligent man, a wise man and a fool, differ radically. Yet socialists and Christians alike ignore the fact that “God makes both poor and rich.” (1 Samuel 2:7) If men desire to improve their economic conditions they must “submit themselves to Him, work hard, and call upon Him for blessing.” (David Chilton’s Productive Christians, p. 173)

“Thou shalt not steal,” and “Thou shalt not covet” apply to the collective will of individuals called government, too. Federal government is not above God’s law, God’s law is above it.

I have experienced complexity, and it’s perplexing. That which was aesthetically beautiful grew morbid to my eyes and through sin became ugly as sin, and that which was not beauty to behold was elevated by grace, kindness, and truth to be enthroned far above materialistic proprieties.

A beautiful girl, charming speech, a spotless campaign website, and golden promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness dance like sugarplum visions before my eyes. Every one of these things is pleasant to the eyes so it must be good. Beauty turns my judgment into partiality. Doling out my pennies, time, and life, I pay for a piece of that ethereal goodness, but, the first bite of luscious cake turns to dust in my mouth, the honey chokes me, the sweet turns sour. Time tells all things.

1 Timothy 5:21 reads, “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality.”

In the face of this economic crisis it’s time to pull back and honestly evaluate the difference between necessity and luxury. Over the past 15 years Americans have spent, and spent, and spent; spent like they were millionaires, when in reality, they were spending borrowed money and digging their graves with credit cards. Do we even realize the difference anymore between these two words, necessity and luxury? Or do we now treat them as synonymous? Here’s a list of a few things, only a few mind you, of the luxuries and necessities that I have been lumping together:

Necessities and Luxuries:

Luxury: Coffee
Luxury: Brand new clothes
Luxury: Carefree trips out shopping or to the movies
Luxury: Shower every day
Luxury: Bible study once a week
Luxury: Driving to see firefighter Ben at his station every few days
Luxury: Use of computer and TV
Luxury: Trips and vacations 3-4 times a year

Necessity: Paying bills and taxes
Necessity: Small, but efficient wardrobe
Necessity: Shower every 2 days
Necessity: Coffee 2-3 times a week
Necessity: Trips every 3-4 weeks for groceries
Necessity: Trip to church every Sunday
Necessity: Pursuing education through books this Fall
Necessity: Family time doing creative things without traveling far.

Do the lines I draw seem extreme? In a few more months maybe you’ll think again.

Anna

People during the Great Depression knew how to save money and use it only where it counted. Do we?

The Greater Depression and What You Should Do About It

Anna

Reading this morning from Charles Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening:

After that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.- I Peter 5:10

Quoting from Charles Spurgeon: Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no ‘baseless fabric of vision,’ but may it be builded of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desires earnest. May your whole life be so settled and established, that all the blasts of hell, and all the storms of the earth shall never be able to remove you.

One of the most common fallacies of man that is parroted by so many people, even Christians today, is, “follow your heart”, “respect yourself”, and “be at peace with yourself.” On the surface this sounds like good advice; follow the dictates of your conscience and you can’t go wrong. Listen to the little voice in your head, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit, and drive in the direction He tells you. Before making a choice, weigh the balances on the scales of your heart and discern what you should do from whichever way it tips. The only problem is, Jeremiah 17:9 gives us a little insight into the heart:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?

The lesson that many of us learn (especially, parents, teachers, and elders) as we grow and mature, is that our temptations aren’t always presented to us in the form of shiny poison apples, held out by a devil with horns. Or a snake with legs. Or a garish prostitute. In our pietistic lives, we can get so wrapped up in the obvious that we neglect to guard against the fount of all temptations, our own heart.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way. Who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.– Psalm 119:1-2

It would be utterly useless to seek God with our whole heart, and walk in the law, if we were not first anchored steadfastly in Christ Jesus and established in peace by Him. Any security and peace found apart from God’s word, especially in our own hearts, is a false peace. We cannot look within ourselves to be certain of the things we are doing. Most sinners feel a false certainty of peace when sinning, and most righteous men never felt more at war with themselves than when struggling against the lusts of the flesh.

Turning our hearts toward God, and seeking Him wholly, is a conscious act, the Bible says, and in it we struggle deeply against our natural state as we turn towards His grace and law with our whole hearts.

Anna

Here I go again, isn’t this fun? I started my first blog when I was 15 and have been blogging on and off for the past 4 years ever since. My main blog, Irish Hills, is in the blogroll and and readers can browse my archives there if they want to get more of a flavor for my writing. 

What bits and pieces of information are necessary for you to possess about me? My favorite color is blue. My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla. My hair color is blonde. Oh, you already know that one? Well, I thought that fact was pretty important to get out in the open first thing so you can excuse (or blame) anything you read on it. My hair color comes in pretty useful that way.

Okay, cutting to the chase. 

I’m a Reformed Presbyterian, postmillennial, single girl who lives and works at home, and whose passions include theology, reading, writing, good conversations, and enjoying the bountiful gifts of God. I strive to live all of my life as an act of worship and scoff at the notion of God’s kingdom being diced up into the realms of sacred of secular. 

The posts that appear here will be mostly from a theological or Christian slant, though, they will be interspersed with the occasional whimsical and random because life is unbearable when it’s lived from a constant serious viewpoint. I mean, look what happened to Hamlet!

So, stick around.

Anna