elkahna's Blog

I was reading a blog entry by a person in the "Faith" segment of the blogs. This reading was really a blessing and inspired this blog entry. It is from a writing that I did some time ago and contains its essence.

In reading letters to the editor in the recent past and seeing Christian beliefs and the Bible itself either mocked or scriptures taken out of context in most every instance ESPECIALLY in the areas concerning controversial subjects and actions of this day. I am going to give a very simplistic but hopefully sobering view.

 God loves every human being on the face of the earth equally.(So much that He gave His only Son for us) He does not desire that any should perish but that all should come to a saving knowledge of His son Jesus Christ. He hates sin. (Not People) In the simplest of terms, however, there is no middle ground or area of political correctness in the scriptures of the Bible. You either believe it is the absolute, inspired Word of God or you don't. You either believe what it says or you don't. Jesus Christ IS the Son of God and Lord of All or He is not lord at all.  You either trust Him for His complete work of salvation or you don't. If you believe the Bible IS the absolute, inspired Word of God (AND IT IS!!) then it is clear on areas concerning marriage, homosexuality and the sinful condition of man. (See I Corinthians Chap. 6 vs 9 thru 20 as one example). We cannot pick and choose the portions of the Word we like and discard the ones we don't agree with or we find politically incorrect for this day and time. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. There is no shadow of turning in Him. Either read it and believe it or reject it and discard it. Your decision will have eternal consequences. The question of, "What will I do with this man, Jesus?" is a question that will be answered by every living human soul. You can answer it in accepting Him by faith unto eternal life or answer it in the negative to eternal separation from God. Refusing to answer is the same as rejecting so we all will have to answer this question in one form or another. Do not be deceived by the current wave of "tolerance" and many ways unto salvation. Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no man comes to the Father except by Him.

Now after this I hope the messenger doesn't get stoned. I did not write the book, I'm simply telling you what it says. The God and Savior of the Bible is all inclusive of everyone. He loves all and has made a Way for all (SEE John 3:16) but He hasn't made a way for many "gods" or ways. He will not force Himself on anyone nor will He require us to die for Him for salvation (He has already done that for us!!) I hope and pray all who will, will read it and believe it, repent, accept and inherit a place in God's Kingdom through the free gift of His Son. As I said in the beginning He is either Lord of All or not at all.

Be Blessed

elkahna <><

Recently there are many articles appearing in our local papers and on TV and it has become evident that in the quest for votes the candidates and some other elected officials AKA "Politicians" have decided that its OK to pander to the populace offering "Fuel Tax Holidays" or suspensions of the state and federal gas taxes. This so called "help" to the masses is nothing more than cheap politics at the least and ill-thought at at the worst. These type of efforts have been tried in the past and will save you nothing. At best the savings per week will be in the single digit dollars. As soon as the taxes are lifted, "unforseen" market forces will occur that will cause the retail price of the fuels to magically rise to fill the gap the tax relief created (AKA  profiteering) and THEN when the tax is reapplied we will be paying more for fuel than we did  before the taxes were removed. Never mind that the fuel taxes are one of the major sources of funding for road projects, repair and improvement. 

I do not have a crystal ball, and do not claim to have all the answers in this ever expanding fuel crisis. Smart thinking would hopefully lend a thinking person to surmise a few standard issues.

1. Conservation and changing of our fuel usage habits is a must. 

2. Research, exploration and extracting the vast underground fuel resources of the USA is paramount. We must produce more fuels in our homeland to reduce dependance on foreign sources.

3. We must preserve our environment and be as careful as possible not to pollute and destroy it while extracting these vast resources, IE the Gulf of Mexico, FL Straits, and yes ANWR. The hands off approach is not working and tapping into our strategic oil reserves is a mistake. They are designated "STRATEGIC OIL RESERVES" for a reason.

4. Give Big Oil a reason to produce more domestic fuels and delve into exploration and extraction of resources and building refineries. They are not motivated at this point in history to do these things as long as the obscene profits continue to roll in at the expense of the American consumer and household.

5. Come to the realization that OPEC is not our friend. They know that their end is in sight and are extracting as much profit as they can before that defining moment when we break free, and we will break free of fossil fuels. They have few other exports and most cant even grow enough food to feed their populace. We need to stop kowtowing to these tyrants and let them eat their oil.

6 Corn is not the answer. Its use as fuel simply drives up the cost of everything else.

All this to simply say, WAKE UP AMERICA! Take control of the situation. Our politicians and elected officials are not listening to us. The very people who put them there. If we speak with our wallet as consumers, business will listen as the almighty dollar and their bottom line is all they understand. I realize that we have to have fuel to get to work and other necessary places. That said, if our fuel consumption is drastically reduced, and our spending controlled, as fuel producers feel the same pinch that you are feeling and business realizes that the customer is a necessity and not a pain for their existence, the change you seek may begin to peek in as fuel backs up at depos. We cannot continue to send our jobs out of the counrtry, and hiring cheap and sometimes illegal labor. We are reaping the consequences of some of that now.

(Please excuse any typos, an editor I'm not :-)

elkahna

Hello All

I would like to take a few moments to place my take on food, fuel and interest rates. A special thanks to WTVT for their participation in this endeavor. I am a 30 year fan of FOX 13.

Ladies and Gentlemen, incase you haven't noticed, gas is up to $3.60 a gallon and diesel up over $4.00 a gallon. In case you havent been to the grocery store there is a 15 to 34%+ in increase of food prices. To top all this off the powers that are in our federal financial realms continue to cut interest rates trying to bouy the stock market and credit markets (unnaturally I might add) and by the continual lowering of interest rates, strapping fixed income and long time savers who are now earning less than 3.05% on CD deposits and hovering around 1% on most passbook savings.

As fuel goes, so will continue to go food and all other products that we buy. These price run ups are called "inflation" but no one seems to want to use this word or the very bad "R" word RECESSION! With inflation and recession, in place, wages are absolutely not keeping up with current inflation and as people have little or no disposable income anymore, they will begin to tighten the belt as the ability to buy fuel and food becomes increasingly difficult.

Small business owners, this is a warning to you. I cannot afford to patronize your businesses, because it is taking all I can muster to buy fuel, food, insurance (health & home & life) and pay taxes on the small property I own on I might add a FIXED income. I havent had a raise in 5 years now. Now add in monthly medicine costs and DR visits and you see where this is going. More and more businesses will find it impossible to make their bottom lines and will simply disappear as the populace stays home because we cant afford to go anywhere or do anything.

I read an article from an economist that no one is hearing for the moment and he is warning on $10.00 a gallon gas within 3 years. Well me buccos, if he is correct, you know where everything else will be as the price of everything you use is influenced by the fuel cost it takes to get to the store shelves (That is the stores that are left)

I want to tell you also that if you are pinning your hopes on a presidential candidate being the savior of the country and bringing about all this "change " you keep hearing about you are absolutely deceived. The branches of government aren't separated by unbreakable walls for nothing. The president cannot legislate, the congress cant seem to legislate and the judicial branch has decided that it is more convenient to just make law than to simply apply the law that the founding fathers intended. Our answerto everything is "There ought to be a law..."  Be careful what you ask for, there might be. Every new law chisels away another bit of freedom.

I might as well get into real trouble and put this out there. How many people will you let break into your house before you decide you need to make some of those that broke in and were not invited and didn't knock, leave?  Just a thought.

Well, I'll stop for now but I hope this is sufficient to at least get some folks thinking and realize that government is not going to save us. We created this mess mostly being greedy with instant gratification now, and worry about paying later and if we mess up the "government" will bail us out. Well partners.........you ARE the government. The money that is used to bail out stupidity in loans and every bad financial issue now on our plates comes out of YOUR pocket.  Anyway, I hope I'm not alone out there. If I am, just grab on to your back pockets and wake up your traveling companion because its going to be the dog gondest wreck you are ever going to see.

Thanks for the space to opine  (excuse any errors, an editor im not :-)

elkahna